Compound Semiconductors

Osram holds the current lead in automotive LED sales but the emergence of LED headlamps could change the complexion of the market, says IMS Research. As automotive LED suppliers jockey for position in all-LED headlamps, GaN pioneer Nichia is looking to use its high brightness white LED expertise to dominate this market. The Japanese company's bid to make gains over Osram Opto Semiconductors and Philips Lumileds illustrates a key shift occurring in the automotive LED market recently documented by IMS Research. “At the moment most LEDs used in automotive, at least certainly in the exterior, are red and yellow, and Nichia doesn't produce many of those LEDs,” said IMS analyst Jamie Fox. “As we see more LEDs in front and interior lighting there will be more and more white nitride LEDs used, where Nichia is very strong.” The 2006 automotive LED market was worth $650 million, according to the IMS report “LEDs in Automotive Applications”. Osram OS was the largest supp...

The leading diode laser and consumer electronics manufacturer is hoping to push GaN lasers to longer wavelengths for color display applications. The field of non-polar GaN lasers, currently dominated by Rohm Corporation and the University of California, Santa Barbara, now has another big player in the shape of Sharp Corporation. This firm's researchers, like the other groups, have turned to this material to avoid built-in polarization fields found in conventional c -plane GaN. These fields reduce laser output efficiency and shorten emission wavelengths, in a blue-shift effect that worsens at higher injection currents. Sharp's 400nm blue laser Non-polar m -plane GaN doesn't have these fields, so substrates made of this material are promising candidates for fabricating blue lasers with longer wavelengths, nearer the green part of the spectrum (see related stories). Therefore, rather than the 400 nm laser diodes it makes using c -plane GaN for its Blu-ray pla...

If you asked somebody at random to name a semiconductor company, the chances are most people would say: "Intel". Now, there aren't really any compound semiconductor companies that make for household names (yet), but if you had to pick the "Intel" of the GaAs world, there's a fair chance that you'd say: "RF Micro Devices". These two firms are the kingpins in silicon and GaAs semiconductors. One thing that really characterizes them is their commitment to research and the development of new transistor technologies. It is, after all, Intel's Gordon Moore whose eponymous "law" is most closely associated with the forward march of semiconductor performance. Intel is not one for resting on its laurels. Months ahead of its rivals, it has just become the first to launch commercial designs based on the 45 nm technology "node". These designs are revolutionary transistors featuring metal gates and a high-k gate dielec...