November 12, 2004 – Dutch electronic giant Philips has opened its Consumers Business Innovation Centre (CBIC) in Shanghai last week. The center will create cutting-edge solutions in the consumer business domains of display solutions, television systems and connected multimedia solutions, said Financial Times Information Ltd.

Currently over 20 researchers have been recruited for the center, and 300 to 400 experienced engineers will be enrolled by the end of 2007, according to Gerd Scheller, general manager of CBIC. However, the company did not reveal the exact investment in the center.

In other news, the company’s researchers and the Kavli Institute of Nanotechnology are growing nanofilaments of indium phosphide (InP) and gallium phosphide (GaP) on germanium and silicon substrates.

GaP and InP are so-called III-V semiconductors, combinations of elements from the third and fifth main groups of the periodic table, and they are thought to have high frequency and opto-electronic applications. These crystalline semiconductors cannot be used on a silicon substrate because the difference in crystal structure is too great, so up until now they have been grown epitaxially, that is on a substrate of the same III-V material, which makes applications expensive. The researchers have solved this problem by only allowing the crystal to grow on those sites were they are needed. This is achieved by way of upright nanofilaments.