Its warmer up north

Using MBE, a collaborative project between the Universities of Leeds and Harvard has recorded the highest operating temperature for a terahertz quantum cascade laser, albeit a chilly 178 K. Full details are in Optics Express Vol. 16, Issue 5, pp. 3242-3248. The challenge to the Leeds team, led by Professors Edmund Linfield and Giles Davies from the Faculty of Engineering, is to create a terahertz quantum cascade laser which will work at room temperature thus opening the way to exploiting terahertz technology with hand held devices. The availability of cheap, compact systems would lead to a wide range of opportunities in fields including industrial process monitoring, atmospheric science, and medicine.

Hits and misses

EE Times (www.eetimes.com) have been brave enough to revisit an article they ran over ten years ago predicting the forces that would shape the semiconductor industry. Whilst most of the "hits" are less surprising (Intel, the internet, GPS, MEMS) some of the "misses" are interesting with the benefit of ten years post event hindsight. For example: Scotland's Silicon Glen was seen as the IC place to be; optoelectronics was predicted to occupy a more dominant role is computing, on-chip interconnections and long distance communications. The new predictions to watch for drivers for creating the future include: Google, IMEC, bioelectronics, fuel cells and neuromorphic engineering.

RTA celebrates 3 k-Space awards in a row!

It is only four years since RTA Instruments Ltd became the exclusive European representative for k-Space Associates, Inc. Now, for third time in successive years we have won their Representative of the Year award. k-Space Sales and Marketing Manager, Eric Friedman comments, "RTA's sales success stems directly from the excellent support provided for the k-Space product lines. With their strong technical and applications expertise they have been able to provide convincing demonstrations and efficient installations of our products. We have also found RTA's expertise invaluable in supporting our new product developments. We are looking forward to RTA's continuing success in 2008 and beyond."

Sharply rising sun

Japanese Sharp Corporation (www.sharp.co.jp) has announced a major investment (72 billion Yen) in a thin-film silicon solar cell plant. The plant will be in Osaka Prefecture and is scheduled to be operating by 2010 producing 480MW of production capacity and contribute significantly to the company's projected global annual thin-film solar cell production of 1GW per year. Whilst not yet confirmed by either party, it is believed that Applied Materials (www.appliedmaterials.com) will supply, install and warranty the full line of turn-key solar cell manufacturing equipment. Sharp will use large-size (1000mm x 1400mm) glass substrates using technology jointly developed with Tokyo Electron Ltd (www.tel.com)

Interestingly, this month an MIT spin out, 1366 Technologies (1366tech.com), has started with the help of a $12.4 million grant. The company is building a plant to fabricate their first batch of solar cells. The cells currently have an efficiency of 19.5%, and cost about $1.65 per output watt. Most current commercial solar cells of today have about 15% efficiency and cost about $2.10 per watt. The company predicts that by 2012 such solar cells will be comparable in price with coal, which is about $1 per watt.

Is your nano thing the same size as mine?

At the recent SPIE Advanced Lithography Conference in San Jose a panel discussion took place on reference metrology that highlighted some of the hurdles increasingly facing device manufacturers in obtaining the metrology needed to calibrate various tools. As nanotechnology becomes more prevalent and joins the mainstream manufacturing processes, it is evident that for crucial measurements to continue providing reliable results, instrument calibration (i.e. reference metrology) acquires unprecedented importance. Whilst the Editor would not go as far as one of the speakers in saying that - "Good reference materials or instruments don't exist for nanotech and without nanometrology there's no nanotechnology" - it does highlight the advancement of the electronics industry and its embracing the use of nanotechnology. Without the equal advancement in traceable reference measurement standards the global exploitation of nanotechnology will be held back.

RFMD delays US expansion

RF Micro Devices Inc of Greensboro, NC (www.rfmd.com) has now fully completed its acquisition of Filtronic Compound Semiconductors Ltd including its 6-inch GaAs wafer fabrication facility in Newton Aycliffe, UK and its millimetre-wave RF semiconductor business. However, this month has seen the postponement by RFMD of its construction of a second 6" GaAs wafer fabrication plant in Greensboro and shifting the planned production and jobs to Newton Aycliffe. The plan to build the second fab was announced last September, to focus on high-volume HBT- and pHEMT-based products. Whilst not announcing the scrapping of the planned expansion, the acquisition of the Newton Aycliffe facilities gives both the capacity and manpower to meet RFMD's immediate manufacturing requirements. This makes sense in the current market uncertainties and difficulties. A recent report from Strategy Analytics. (www.strategyanalytics.net) examined the financial performance of nearly 50 suppliers of radio components for wireless applications noting the decline in profits due to maturing wireless markets, increasing component complexity and more rapid commoditization at the low end. Perhaps Greensboro's loss will be Newton Ayciffe's gain?

Dr Roy Clampitt (FRS)

It is with deep regret that we learnt that Roy Clampitt of Oxford Applied Research (OAR) died in February following his retirement in December 2007. He started OAR in 1978 and he made many scientific breakthroughs including liquid metal ion source, RF plasma and ion sources and piezo electric leak valves. Milestone achievements included instruments enabling the first demonstration of solid-state blue LEDs and advances in HTc superconductor oxides, for which OAR received the Queen's Award for Technological Achievement. Roy was one of the few truly entrepreneurial scientists, he will be missed.

Worth a look

www.groupivsemi.com/movie/GIVfinal.wmv Solid state silicon based light bulbs, the end for incandescent light bulbs and even LED lighting?

Conference news

UK Semiconductors 2008, University of Sheffield, UK, 2-3 July 2008 www.uksemiconductors.com
14th International Conference of Metalorganic Vapour Phase Epitaxy, Metze, France, 1-6 June 2008 www.movpe.umi2958.eu
MicroScience 2008, ExCel, London, UK, 23 - 26 June 2008 www.microscience2008.org.uk/ms08/show_link1.asp
34th International Conference on Micro- and Nano-Engineering, Athens, Greece, 15-18 Sept 2008 www.mne08.org
International Workshop on Nitride semiconductors (IWN2008), Montreux, Switzerland, 6 - 10 October 2008 iwn2008.epfl.ch/


Thoughts for the month

History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme.
Mark Twain (S.L. Clemens) US Author (1835 - 1910).

In the absence of a crystal ball, a history book is the next best thing.
Jim Slater UK Financier (1929 - )