Category Archives: LEDs

August 27, 2004 – Tightening capacity utilization in 2Q04 led to double-digit growth in silicon revenues, according to the SEMI Silicon Manufacturers Group.

Worldwide silicon wafer area shipments increased 6% sequentially in 2Q04 and 27% from a year ago. Total silicon wafer area shipments were 1619 million sq. in. (MSI) during the most recent quarter, up from 1529 MSI in the previous quarter (revised slightly upward from earlier estimates).

Silicon revenues also experienced double-digit growth from 1Q04 and 2Q03 (up 11% and 24%, respectively) as a result of increased prices, greater 300mm sales, and overall strong demand. Robust growth also was shown by still-tightening capacity utilization, which topped 95% in 2Q04, according to John Kaufmann, chairman of SEMI SMG and VP of marketing for MEMC Electronic Materials Inc.

Kaufmann pointed to signs that the industry is making a concerted effort to rein in expenses and growth, in order to soften the inevitable pullback from the market upswing. “Currently, capital expenditures for the industry are running below 20%, as the industry balances incremental capacity increases with growing demand,” he said. Also, he added that productivity is stronger on a revenue/employee basis, as greater volumes and efficiencies are produced without significant increases in employee headcounts.

August 20–The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today announced that its Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) has appointed Leslye M. Fraser, S.M., J.D., as the Director of the Office of Regulations and Policy, effective September 5, 2004.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today announced that its Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) has appointed Leslye M. Fraser, S.M., J.D., as the Director of the Office of Regulations and Policy, effective September 5, 2004.

In this capacity, Ms. Fraser will provide leadership for FDA’s food and cosmetic regulations, guidance documents and policy development and will provide management oversight for international activities.

“In the short time that Leslye has been with the agency she has made a phenomenal impact at the FDA,” said Acting Commissioner Dr. Lester Crawford. “She has been instrumental in ensuring that the agency is on point in safeguarding the food supply through the development of food safety and defense regulations.”

Prior to acceptance of this appointment, Ms. Fraser served as CFSAN’s Associate Director for Regulations, Office of Regulations and Policy, since May 2001. Before joining FDA, Ms. Fraser was Assistant General Counsel for Regulatory Issues at the United States Environmental Protection Agency. There she provided legal counsel to senior Agency officials and led a group of staff attorneys who counseled all Agency program and regional offices on rulemaking requirements contained in regulatory statues and Presidential executive orders. She also worked at the international law firm Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher as an associate attorney and at a large aerospace company, TRW, as a research engineer and a section and project manager.

“Leslye has a broad background and outstanding career in federal law and rulemaking,” said Dr. Robert E. Brackett, Director of CFSAN. “Her experience and expertise have been crucial to the development and implementation of major food safety and food defense regulations, particularly with the major provisions of the Bioterrorism Act of 2002.”

As part of her numerous accomplishments, Ms. Fraser has published technical articles in national journals. She has also received a patent for elastomeric (rubber) material, which she co-invented for spacecraft hydraulic systems.

Ms. Fraser received her Bachelor and Master of Science Degrees in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and her Juris Doctor degree with honors from the University of California at Los Angeles School of Law. She is a member of the State Bar of California and the Bar of the District of Columbia.

Ms. Fraser replaces L. Robert Lake, Esq., who retires on September 3, 2004.

August 23, 2004 – Praxair Chemax Semiconductor Materials Co. Ltd., a joint venture between Praxair Inc. and China Petrochemical Development Corp., has been awarded a contract by LED manufacturer, Luxxon Technology Corp.

The contract will be fulfilled by Praxair Electronics, a division of Praxair based in Orangeburg, NY. Luxxon will use Praxair’s bulk specialty gas delivery systems for the first time at its new LED fab, expected to open later this year.

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Aug. 12, 2004 – Amory Lovins has been described as iconoclastic, idealistic and influential. But not ignored.

The author, consultant, physicist and chief executive of the Rocky Mountain Institute, a Colorado-based nonprofit research center, has advised numerous business, government and academic leaders over three decades on energy and other issues.

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Small Times’ Jeff Karoub spoke by phone with Lovins about developing hydrogen and other alternatives to oil, the role of nanotechnology in those efforts, and the emerging field’s risks and rewards. Lovins also reveals the missing link between carbon nanotubes and hummingbird spit.

Q: Tell me about your report, “Winning the Oil Endgame.” What is the main message to your audience?

“Winning the Oil Endgame” will describe how to get the United States off oil completely and profitably — even for oil companies. It suggests doing this (through) very efficient use of oil; substituting safe natural gas in applications where they’re changeable, like furnaces and boilers, biofuels and waste-derived fuels and optionally hydrogen.

Together these seem to be enough to provide all the services officially projected to be derived from oil in 2025, cheaper than buying the oil and without counting any avoided external costs of buying and using the oil.

Q: Will the report talk about a movement like this serving as a stabilizing geopolitical force?

Yes, or at least removing some of the major sources of instability and conflict in the world. Although we do argue that while oil is cheap, dependence on it is not, and especially if you count hidden costs it’s not at all cheap.

The basic case is a business more than a policy case. That is, we’re suggesting that the substitutes for oil are cheaper than the oil in private internal costs. Therefore, they’re profitable to adopt; therefore, the transition will be led by business.

Although we’ll suggest some innovative policy approaches to help that happen, it is primarily a business case. Certainly the daily headlines give us reason to think this is a very timely reminder that the oil problem is one we don’t need to have and it’s cheaper not to.

Q: A former ChevronTexaco executive told Small Times two years ago that the company is going to be a hydrogen energy company, whether pumping hydrogen into a car or selling the hydrogen fuel cell or batteries. Other hydrogen advocates believe it should create a new, decentralized form of energy generation and use. Do you recommend such a “top-down flow of energy” in a hydrogen-based economy?

We work with a lot of the oil majors — I have for 30-odd years. And I think they will be very important players in the hydrogen economy. But that doesn’t mean they or anyone else will make hydrogen in central plants and pipeline it all over.

The logical way to deliver hydrogen to vehicles is to make it from natural gas, typically, at the filling station. That appears to use less capital and probably less natural gas than business as usual would use.

That said, there are some central production opportunities that probably do make sense in particular situations.

The most obvious is that refineries, which now make about 7 megatons a year of hydrogen in the U.S., may turn into merchant hydrogen plants as they find there’s less need for that hydrogen to make high-octane gasoline and desulfurized diesel fuel because those have been displaced by efficient use and indeed by biofuels and hydrogen.

Q: Nanotechnology, specifically nanoscale materials and structures, is seen as playing a central role in storing hydrogen as well as catalysts to convert hydrogen to electricity. The oil industry already uses nanoscale technologies to refine petrochemicals. What role, if any, do you see this emerging field playing in a hydrogen economy?

Well, first I think I need to clarify what you mean by nano-based approaches. As far as I know all of the examples you gave are of materials crafted at molecular scale or in nanosize particles.

I prefer to use the term nanotechnology in Eric Drexler’s original sense of molecular assemblers, rather than applying it as a blanket term to everything of nanoscale, whether it’s anything to do with assemblers or not. Which sense do you mean it in?

Q: Hewlett-Packard nano researcher Stan Williams has separated the field’s applications into two categories: passive — nanocomposites and structures — and active — the so-called nanobots and their self-replicating kin.

It’s a useful distinction. I think it’s probably clearer between nanotechnology in the Drexlerian sense, and if you’re just talking about nanoscale materials, then just use that term.

Q: Would you then separate your concerns or issues related to nanotechnology versus nanoscale materials?

They both have important issues that need to be examined much more carefully than they have. But they’re different issues. The assembler-related, or as you would say, active technology issues have to do with malicious use.

I’m not quite so concerned about the gray-goo problem, but there is certainly a shadow side to the assembler technology and Eric, of course, has been concerned about that from the beginning.

In that sense, Drexlerian nanotechnology is yet another of several technologies we have, like nuclear fission and transgenics that someone said are suited for “wise, far-seeing and incorruptible people.”

The nanoscale materials, what you’re calling the passive uses, have a different set of issues, namely where do they go and what are their health and environmental effects? Because they can be absorbed or metabolized in very different ways than the materials of which we have evolutionary experience.

I have an unpleasant feeling that although these materials have some wonderful applications, they may also turn out to have medical or ecological side effects, which we never heard of.

So we really need to temper our technical enthusiasm, which I share with a lot of precaution in figuring out the biological implications before we use these materials widely.

Q: Understanding the distinction as you see it, what about the nanomaterials and structures playing a role in refining petrochemicals and in catalysts to convert hydrogen to electricity?

Subject to the caution I just gave, I think there are some technically very important applications in the areas you’ve mentioned and in others, including structural materials. Nanoscale materials have many and generally favorable implications for cost and efficiency throughout the hydrogen value chain.

But I have not assumed any of them in analyzing hydrogen systems. To the extent that these nanoscale materials innovations succeed technically and turn out to be safe to use, they will simply make hydrogen economics and practicality greater than my analysis suggests.

Q: You’ve talked before about approaches you prefer that don’t have the environmental risks often associated with nano-based approaches. I assume you put biomimicry in that category.

It’s not free of those issues of its own, but I think they’re a lot less scary, because by definition they use techniques that life has evolved and become comfortable with, rather than things of which we have no evolutionary experience.

Q: You’ve included examples in your “Twenty Hydrogen Myths” paper where the U.S. government seems to be moving forward with hydrogen initiatives, but some critics don’t believe it’s a genuine effort to move beyond oil.

Hydrogen seems closer or further away, depending on current fashion. At the moment, a number of, I think, rather poor reports are being published saying it’s very far away.

They reached that conclusion by assuming inefficient cars and disintegrated implementation. The market is not constrained by that perception, fortunately. The people who are developing the technologies are continuing to do so with very good results.

I think the current crop of pessimists will be surprised. On the other hand, if you go back a few years, there were a bunch of folks ready to charge into the market with technologies that weren’t ready yet.

Putting out unreliable fuel cells would have been a disaster, so I’m glad we didn’t do that.

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Aug. 11, 2004 – Nanotechnology might be a buzzword in many boardrooms or business plans, but some of its pioneering processes are old hat to the oil industry.

As those methods mature and others emerge, several petroleum players are exploring techniques to pump new life into their businesses.

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Big oil companies such as Chevron-Texaco Corp. and ConocoPhillips Co. have dedicated resources to researching and developing micro and nanoscale technologies for exploration, production or refining. Their efforts include investing in or collaborating with startups, and establishing in-house business units.

“The energy world … appears to be at the beginning of some kind of transition. Traditional resources are somewhat limited. We do concern ourselves with environmental impact, and looking at more efficient ways of delivering energy,” said Bharat Chahar, director for advanced technology at ConocoPhillips.

The company, he added, continues to “keep an eye out on the development of nanotech” to help overcome those challenges.

Keeping an eye on commercial possibilities in part led to the creation of SouthWest NanoTechnologies, a spinout of ConocoPhillips and Oklahoma University. Norman, Okla.-based SouthWest used money from ConocoPhillips to construct a pilot plant to manufacture single-wall carbon nanotubes.

SouthWest’s nanotubes take advantage of a mature method commonly used in chemical refining: catalysis, or acceleration of a chemical reaction by a substance. Expertise in catalytic methods led OU Professor Daniel Resasco and his research group to devise a way to produce high-quality nanotubes more rapidly and cheaply than other methods.

“People who are successful in tailoring (molecules) and not just making by chance a nanotube are those who know catalysis,” said Resasco, SouthWest’s chief scientific officer.

ConocoPhillips supports Resasco’s catalysis work, but it’s paying particular attention to SouthWest’s nanotube advancements.

“When we made the investment, it was for strategic reasons,” Chahar said. “We want to be able participate in carbon nanotubes’ business development through our partnership.”

Although SouthWest is marketing nanotubes to different industries, Chahar sees many potential applications within the oil industry. For instance, he said, nanotubes could be used to create lighter, stronger and more corrosion-resistant structural materials in platforms for offshore drilling.

Chahar said the focus on nanotubes also fits with his company’s background in carbon materials. He said ConocoPhillips is the world’s largest producer of carbon for electric arc furnace electrodes.

 “Our carbon nanotube interest may be different from other oil companies because of our interest in the specialty carbon business. We look at carbon as a material. We have a lot of core competency in trying to produce higher value carbons.”

ChevronTexaco also is no newcomer to nanoscale pursuits. The company, like many others in the industry, uses catalysts called zeolites — nanoporous crystalline materials — in the refining process to make fuels.

While catalysis has been part of the business for nearly a half century, advances in instrumentation have allowed scientists to image zeolites and understand interactions of the whole catalyst.

“You can look at them and try to perhaps adjust catalytic properties at the nanoscale using other components that go into these catalysts,” said Waqar Qureshi, who heads ChevronTexaco Technology Ventures’ business unit, MolecularDiamond Technologies.

“Using other components that go into these catalysts increases control because you can see and measure better what you’re doing.”

One of those components could be higher diamondoids, a new series of carbon nanostructures discovered by ChevronTexaco scientists that led to the creation of MolecularDiamond in 2002.

The researchers, inspecting blocked pipes in natural gas wells, identified the clogging culprit: lower diamondoids, the smallest form of diamond. In the process, one of them noticed the higher diamondoid, a slightly larger form believed to exist but never before seen.

Molecular-Diamond is looking at using the higher diamondoids, which could create larger pore sizes to let more materials in, such as petroleum molecules. They also could be useful in the development of lubricants, such as motor oil.

Qureshi expects commercial uses to emerge within two years in polymer-based materials. Long-term, potential industries include optoelectronics, microprocessors and pharmaceuticals.

“If you look at nanotech and what’s driven nanotech, to a great extent it’s been new materials,” Qureshi said. “What we’re looking at is another series. … These diamondoids could (bring) a significant return if we can develop a high-value application.”

Oil companies also are interested in microscale methods to boost their business. Texas-based Input/Output Inc. announced in May it had launched the next generation of VectorSeis System Four, a MEMS-based product that provides seismic data for gas and oil exploration drilling and field development.

The system, originally launched in 2002, employs MEMS accelerometers that detect ground vibrations.

Cara Kiger, an Input/Output geophysicist and VectorSeis specialist, said the sensors provide more accurate and rapid data in a lighter package than traditional geophones. To help spread the word in what the company considers a risk-averse industry, it signed an agreement last year with Apache Corp., a U.S.-based independent oil and gas company.

“I think the micromachines are going to be key to the future for bringing us new efficiencies,” Kiger said. “As a geophysicist, you tend to think of images and interpretations. … But one of the things you have to think about is a cost-effective way of getting new information. One of the things MEMS technology is going to do is give us better information … across the board.”

Brian Valentine, program manager for the U.S. Department of Energy’s office of industrial technologies, knows of several micro and nano-based approaches that could benefit the oil industry.

An agency-funded laboratory is developing a carbon nanotube-based drill pipe that is lighter, stronger and more flexible than steel. Valentine said researchers also are working on embedding an electrical wire and sensors in the carbon fiber resin.

New tools and technologies won’t offer immunity from the trying and tedious work of oil exploration, production and refining, he said. But it’s likely they will bring improvements to each step along the way.

“It will certainly enable the companies or technologies to operate more efficiently in a number of cases,” he said. “In each case, there are examples of where nanotech will play a role in making each step more efficient.”

(August 4, 2004) Upton, N.Y.&#8212A research group led by a scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory has discovered a simple relationship that mathematically links the properties of a class of high-temperature superconductors, materials that, below a certain temperature, conduct electricity with no resistance. This new, unexpected law applies to superconductors with very different structures and compositions, and may provide clues to understanding the mechanism of high-temperature superconductivity. It is discussed in the July 29, 2004 issue of Nature.

(August 5, 2004) Cambridge, Ontario&#8212ATS Automation Tooling Systems Inc. announced it has received a total of US $10.7 million in orders from one of the world’s largest manufacturers of self-use medical diagnostic systems. This brings the value of orders for automation systems ATS has won over the past year from this particular customer to more than US $21 million.

Aug. 4, 2004 — Advanced Diamond Technologies Inc. (ADT), a Champaign, Ill.-developer of nanocrystalline diamond, announced the first close of its Series A financing. The round is led by LaSalle Investments. An amount was not disclosed.

ADT licenses a portfolio of diamond synthesis and application patents from Argonne National Laboratory, according to a news release. It is currently evaluating its materials for use as a protective coating in frication and wear applications, in MEMS use and as a hermetic coating for biomedical implants.

ADT was recently awarded a $100,000 Phase I SBIR grant by the National Science Foundation to evaluate diamond coatings on mechanical pump seals.

August 3, 2004 – The first half of 2004 shows a continuous increasing growth in the European semiconductor market over the first half of 2003, according to Dow Jones and Company Inc. Worldwide year-on-year growth on a three-month moving average is now already higher than 40%.

On a regional basis, this growth is still led by the Asia-Pacific region with 61%. The other three regions show about half of this growth rate.

The market in the first half of 2004 was strong for all memory products – especially for DRAM, which grew 79% over first half last year; image sensors; display drivers; and application specific IC for use in communications. It seems now very likely that the growth for the total year 2004 will be around or even slightly above 30%, said Dow Jones.

European semiconductor sales in June 2004 amounted to $3.124 billion according to WSTS, down -2.0% vs. previous month. This corresponds to a +28.9% increase compared to the same month last year. On a year-to-date basis semiconductor sales increased by +26.6% vs. the same period in 2003.

The exchange rate of the Euro compared to the $US has still a significant impact on the growth data at this time. Measured in Euro, semiconductor sales in June were EURO 2.587 billion, a decrease of -1.6% vs. previous month and an increase of +21.5% vs. the same month a year ago. On a year-to-date basis semiconductor sales increased by +13.9% vs. the same period in 2003. On a Worldwide basis, semiconductor sales in June were US$ 17.815 billion, up +2.8% vs. previous month. This results to an increase of +40.3% vs. the same month in 2003 and on a year-to-date basis to a growth of +36.4%.1

July 23, 2004 – Shanghai-listed Jiangxi Lianchuang Optoelectronic Science and Technology Co., Ltd., one of four national semiconductor lighting bases in China, aims at building a complete LED industrial chain covering epitaxial wafer, chip manufacture and packaging.

Headquartered in Nanchang High-Tech Park, Jiangxi Province, the company has founded production bases in the province’s capital city of Nanchang and another city of Ji’an and in Xiamen of Fujian Province, according to Asia Pulse Pte Ltd.

The company’s product line covers LED optoelectronic elements, optotelecommunication device, optoelectronic coupler, relay, optoelectronic cable, electroacoustic device and opto-telecommunication system.

To date, the company is teaming up with Japanese partners in developing new LED epitaxial materials and LED lights, and a domestic university in LED automobile lights, said sources.

July 23, 2004 – Nanosphere Inc. has hired a life sciences industry veteran as its first full-time chief executive.

William Moffitt has joined the Northbrook, Ill.-developer of nanoparticle-based gene detection systems. He replaces Jeffrey Langan, who served as interim CEO.

Moffitt most recently served as president and CEO of i-STAT Corp., a pioneering lab-on-chip developer for point-of-care diagnostics. He led I-STAT through its initial public offering and $480 million acquisition by Abbott Laboratories last year.

He held previous executive positions with Baxter Healthcare Corp. and American Hospital Supply Corp., which Baxter acquired in 1985.