Category Archives: LEDs

July 23, 2004 — Lumera Corp. (Nasdaq: LMRA, Web), a Bothell, Wash.-based developer of nano-enhanced polymer materials for a variety of industries, began trading at noon today and quickly slipped about 50 cents within the first hour of trading.

The company priced its 6 million-share offering at $6.95, according to a news release issued Thursday. The stock went up briefly after trading began, hitting $7.10 before sliding to $6.48 on volume of just over 1.1 million shares at 12:44 p.m.

The company upped its price estimate to between $6.50 and $7.50 per share. Originally, it had predicted a 5 million-share offering between $5 and $6 per share.

The underwriting syndicate is being led by Paulson Investment Company Inc. I-Bankers Securities Inc. is acting as co-manager.

July 14, 2004 — NanoGram Corp., a San Jose, Calif.-developer of nanostructure processing technology, announced it closed a $7 million secondary round of financing.

ATA Ventures led the round. Nth Power Technologies, Bay Partners, Harris & Harris Group, Rockport Capital Partners and SBV Venture Partners also participated.

The company also announced a new licensing program, AccessNano, to facilitate licensing to industrial partners. Nanogram’s technology is currently used by three different firms for use in making optical devices, solid oxide fuel cells and batteries for medical devices. In March, one of the licensees, spinout NanoGram Devices Corp., was bought by Wilson Greatbatch Technologies Inc.

Bryant Tong of Nth Power Technologies and Bob Williams of Bay Partners have joined the NanoGram board.

June 6, 2004 – Still-rising utilization rates and healthy economic growth in the US and China added up to another monthly boost in global semiconductor demand, according to data from the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA).

Worldwide chip sales (a three-month average) grew 2.1% in May to $17.32 billion, the highest monthly level since December 2000, and a 37% increase from May 2003. Year-on-year, sales growth climbed above 30% for the fourth straight month. Helping boost chip sales was a continued increase in utilization rates, up to 94% overall in 1Q04 and 99% for leading-edge manufacturers (0.16-micron and smaller process technologies).

Actual sales were $16.82 billion, up 39.1% from a year ago. For the first five months of the year, sales were $81.46 billion, up 35.2% from the same period a year ago.

Overall, most product segments held true to seasonal patterns, although the SIA noted particular demand for chips used in wireless communications (DSPs, optoelectronics devices, and ASSPs), reflecting strong sales of cellular phones incorporating display, imaging, and data capabilities. Geographically, all regions increased overall by 2.1%, once again led by the Asia-Pacific region (4.5%), with Europe the only region to show a decline (-1.2%). Year-on-year growth ranged from 25%-54%.

“Customers appear to be managing inventories prudently even in the face of supply-demand constraints,” said SIA president George Scalise. The industry fundamentals continue to look good, he noted, pointing to strong growth through the remainder of the year.

July 2, 2004 – AIXTRON AG, Aachen, Germany, and Genus Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, announced today that they are planning to merge, according to Genus. AIXTRON plans to acquire all outstanding Genus shares in a stock-for-stock transaction.

Following the completion of the transaction, AIXTRON’s shareholders will hold approximately 74 percent and Genus’ shareholders approximately 26 percent of the merged company.

The transaction has been approved by the management board and supervisory board of AIXTRON and the board of directors of Genus. The transaction is subject to approval by the shareholders of both companies and to any necessary regulatory clearance in the U.S., and is expected to close by year-end.

The two companies reported total 2003 revenues of approximately euro 142 million ($160 million), a combined gross profit of approximately euro 32 million ($36 million) and cash and cash equivalents of approximately euro 78 million ($99 million).

Paul Hyland will remain president and CEO of AIXTRON. William W. R. Elder, chairman and CEO of Genus, will join the AIXTRON management board.

AIXTRON and Genus employ over 550 employees worldwide.

AIXTRON supplies MOCVD (metal-organic chemical vapor deposition) products for the production of ultra-high brightness light emitting diodes, high frequency chips and lasers.

Genus supplies ALD (atomic layer deposition) technology, which is required in the production of advanced semiconductors and hard disk drives.

(June 30, 2004) San Francisco, Calif.&#8212Attendees of the 2004 SEMICON West exposition now have the option of attending a panel discussion about the migration to 65nm including IP ownership and new models of collaboration. The panel consists of top industry technologists such as Bill Rozich of IBM, Mendi Moussavi of LETI, LaMar Hill of Albany Nanotech, Mark Pinto of Applied Materials and Mark McClear of Dow Chemical.

(Business Wire, June 28, 2004) Buffalo, N.Y.&#8212NanoDynamics, Inc., a manufacturer of nanomaterials, today announced that Dr. Alan Rae has joined the company as vice president of market and business development. In this role, Dr. Rae will manage the ND innovations strategic business unit and will be responsible for developing business opportunities for commercial products.

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GERMANY, June 24, 2004 – If Dresden-based Novaled has its way, many of the displays of the future — highly efficient, extremely thin and even flexible — will have a “Made in Germany” label somewhere on them.

The company was spun off in 2001 from the Technical University of Dresden and Fraunhofer Institute of Photonic Microsystems (IPMS) to licence its OLED technology to display and lighting manufacturing.

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Novaled is now entering the final stages of getting its second-generation organic light emitting diode (OLED) technology ready for the market. By the middle of 2005, it plans on having its OLED display screens in PDAs or handhelds on store shelves.

The company eventually wants to set up a production site in Dresden for the OLED display market that promises to take-off in a big way over the next few years.

OLED technology, first developed by Eastman Kodak in the early 1980s, has many advantages over traditional liquid crystal displays (LCD) that many observers say could make them the technology of choice in a few years.

OLED displays are much clearer, brighter and have a higher contrast than traditional LCD screens, which give them a wider viewing angle. Since they do not need a backlight to function like LCDs do, but create their own light, they operate at a very low voltage. That makes them easier on batteries and cheaper to manufacture.

Uses for such screens, which can be made very small or potentially very large, range from mobile phone and stereo displays, which already exist, to advertising displays on everything from cereal boxes or billboards to lighting.

In the past, Canon has mentioned the potential for 500-inch polymer OLED display screens, printed very quickly using ink-jet technology on flexible surfaces. The talk has led to excited speculation about roll-up portable computer screens coming soon.

OLEDs are a series of carbon-based thin films sandwiched between two charged electrodes, one a metallic cathode and the other a transparent substance, usually glass. When voltage is applied to an OLED, the injected positive and negative charges recombine and produce light.

Novaled said it has set itself apart from the competition by developing OLED displays that use only half of the energy of those currently on the market. Through “doping” techniques, researchers apply certain molecules to transport materials, thereby increasing conductivity and decreasing operating voltage.

The around 20 Novaled scientists working on the project have a goal of further reducing operating voltage further, down to a fifth of current levels needed.

The company got a major boost last year when it secured 5.75 million euros ($7 million) in financing from international investors led by venture capital firms TechnoStart and TechFund Capital Europe. Other investors included Dresden Fonds and Thomson, the French media services and equipment group.

As soon as the PDA display is ready for market, Jan Blockwitz-Nimoth, Novaled’s technical director, said he wants to start generating the “first real profits” through the sale of licences.

After that, Blockwitz-Nimoth said the company is interested in creating a joint venture with a strong partner and has its eyes set on creating a production facility, likely in Dresden where it could take advantage of the region’s high-tech dynamic.

The market for OLED displays is growing rapidly. According to a study by the research firm iSuppli, the global market last year was around $250 million and is expected to grow to more than $3.1 billion in 2009 and $4 billion in 2010.  

Up to now, the Japanese have dominated that market, with players like Pioneer in Japan, Korea’s Samsung and RiT Display in Taiwan leading the pack. Samsung also is using OLED displays is some of its products.

This May in Tokyo, Seiko Epson presented a prototype of a big-screen color television using OLED technology, heating up the race considerably.

But the Germans are still in the running, besides Novaled, large German firms like Schott Glas and lighting industry giant Osram are conducting research.

Other high-tech companies and institutes here are hoping to secure the country’s place in the future OLED landscape by pooling their resources.

In 2003, several firms, including Novaled, the Fraunhofer IPMS institute, Deutsche Thomson Brandt, Applied Films and others formed a research association called OLEDFAB. Its goal is to set up a pilot production system of OLED displays in eastern Germany.

The German government believes the OLED outlook is good and provided the association with start-up funds of $3.9 million.

June 23, 2004 — Konarka Technologies Inc., a Lowell, Mass.-developer of nanoparticle-based photovoltaic energy generation products, announced it has raised $18 million in a third round of financing.

New investor New Enterprise Associates led the round. Other new investors include Vanguard Ventures, Partech International, Prime New Energy, SDL Ventures, Good Energies and Presidio Venture Partners. Existing investors Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Zero Stage Capital, ChevronTexaco Technology Ventures, Eastman Ventures, NGEN Partners and Ecole Polytechnique Federale De Lausanne also participated.

Konarka has now raised a total of more than $32 million. The company said the new funds would be used for capital equipment, operational expenses, ongoing research and development and for strategic investments connected with scaling up for production. It expects to deliver its first commercial products by end of the year.

Ardesta LLC, the parent company of Small Times Media, is an investor in Konarka Technologies.

June 18, 2004 – Evident Technologies is teaming up with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to develop white light-emitting diodes (LEDs) based on quantum dot nanomaterials.

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, created by the New York State Legislature to achieve energy cost savings and environmental benefits with new products, processes and services, has provided money for the project. The goal is to produce white LEDs with improved energy cost and environmental efficiencies over halogen or incandescent lights, according to a news release.

Troy, N.Y.-based Evident Technologies commercially launched quantum dot composites earlier this year.

June 17, 2004 – You’ll have to try this as a thought experiment if you’re not in Japan: Imagine you’re reading this on a handheld device the size of a paperback book. The device looks like an over-sized Palm handheld, except the screen doesn’t glow. Instead, it reflects the light around you, like paper.

Would you switch to a handheld electronic device?

Sony Corp. is betting you will say yes. It unveiled a new e-book device in April in Japan, a move that once again will test the e-book idea.

The consumer electronics industry asked readers what they thought of e-book devices previously. The late 1990s technology frenzy led to e-book devices from RCA and GEMStar, the publisher of TV Guide, as well as various startups.

The majority of those e-book products are no longer manufactured. Adding insult to injury, Barnes & Noble shelved its sales of e-books — the digital content displayed on the devices — last year.

Analysts point to various reasons earlier types of e-book devices didn’t catch on. They were power hogs. You couldn’t read them outside due to glare. They were expensive.

Compared with the refined, time-proven, inexpensive form of the entrenched technology — regular books printed on paper — e-book devices just couldn’t compete. Books are portable, cheap and easy on the eyes.

You only have to pay for them once and you can read them as often as you like, or even lend them to others. And if you lose or destroy one you’re not out much money.

The new generation of e-book devices rectifies some of the problems. Sony’s LIBRIe and others, like the Sigma eBook announced by Panasonic, use “bi-stable” displays. Unlike conventional liquid crystal displays (LCDs), bi-stable displays only use electricity when they change their content. Or to put it another way, you only drain the batteries when you change the page.

Bi-stable displays also differ from LCDs in that they are reflective rather than emissive; the page reflects the light around you. They don’t have lighting built into the back or sides of the display.

Drawback: You can’t read anything in the dark. Benefit: You can read everything, even in bright sunshine. The lack of backlighting also saves power.

Various technologies are incorporated. Sony’s LIBRIe uses a display from Philips with E Ink’s electronic ink inside. Panasonic’s Sigma eBook uses a display from Kent Displays.

However, while the new devices might have solved some problems, they’re still expensive. Sony’s new e-book costs $395.

“Another problem with these is that they’re rigid,” said Kimberly Allen, director of technology and strategic resources for iSuppli/Stanford Resources, an El Segundo, Calif.-based research and analysis firm. “That really wasn’t corrected.”

Ultimately, e-book manufacturers might be constraining themselves by focusing too closely on mimicking the form of a book, according to Allen. “There are things a book can’t do, like animated graphics,” she said. “Imagine the freedom you could have.”

She said other Japanese manufacturers are also working on similar products but “it’s still a technology push as far as I can tell.”

There is also the opposite view — that high tech will allow e-books to be more like regular books: cheap, rugged, simple. For that, e-books may have to wait until electronic ink displays are mated with flexible electronics.

A Philips subsidiary, Polymer Vision, announced just such a display prototype earlier this year. When it can get that product out the door at $20 a pop, good old-fashioned paper might finally have a worthy challenger.

June 16, 2004 – Memory firm Elpida Memory Inc. and the Japanese business of Micron Technology Inc. have petitioned the Japanese government to impose countervailing duties on imports of DRAM chips from Hynix, according to news reports.

The South Korean firm has long been accused of receiving government subsidies, a concern that led the US and European Union to impose similar duties last year of 45% and 35%, respectively.

The Japanese Ministry of Finance, along with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, could take up to two months to consider the chipmakers’ request, and possibly another year for an investigation, according to Reuters and the Nihon Keizai Shimbun.

Elpida, the joint venture between Hitachi and NEC, currently ranks sixth in the DRAM market with 4.3% share; Hynix is fourth with 14.7%.