Category Archives: Semiconductors

Benefiting from its leadership position in AM/FM tuner and audio processing chips, NXP Semiconductors NV in 2012 retained its rank as the world’s top supplier of application-specific standard product (ASSP) semiconductors for the automotive infotainment market.

Netherlands-based NXP last year posted automotive infotainment ASSP revenue of $459 million, giving it a market share of 15 percent, according to insights from a forthcoming report from the IHS Automotive and Telematics Service from information and analytics provider IHS. The company’s market share remained unchanged compared to 2011.

top suppliers of ASSP semiconductors

“NXP is extremely well-positioned with its ASSP portfolio for the AM/FM tuner and audio processing segment, accounting nearly for half of all sales of these products in 2012,” said Luca DeAmbroggi, senior analyst for automotive infotainment at IHS. “While NXP’s market share held steady, the firm actually expanded is infotainment ASSP revenue by 2 percent, cementing its top-ranked status for the second year in a row. Like the other top infotainment ASSP suppliers, NXP achieved its leadership position by maintaining dominance in specific business lines.

French-Italian manufacturer STMicroelectronics was in second place with $389 million for a 13 percent share, separated by just $1 million from third-ranked Renesas Electronics of Japan with $388 million, also with a 13 percent portion of the market.

The rest of the Top 10 each had revenue ranging from $91 million to $280 million. Overall, the semiconductor market for automotive infotainment last year was worth $3.02 billion, up 2 percent from $2.96 billion in 2011.

STMicroelectronics dominated in the audio amplifier and digital/satellite radio tuner and decoder trades, with market share of 47 percent and 71 percent, respectively. However, STMicroelectronics suffered a 12 percent contraction in sales during the year, due to inventory reduction among its key customers as well as delays in the introduction of new devices and technologies.

With STM’s loss, Renesas has managed to narrow the gap between itself at No. 3 and the runner-up position after a 6 percent gain in revenue. Renesas is now a threat to STM after recovering from the 2011 Japan tsunami disaster.

Renesas is followed in fourth place by another Japanese supplier, Panasonic, with $280 million in revenue and a 9 percent share; and by British chipset maker CSR in fifth spot with $212 million or 7 percent share.

The rest of the Top 10 were, in descending order, Toshiba of Japan; Dallas-based Texas Instruments; Freescale Semiconductor, also from Texas; and Fujitsu Semiconductor and Rohm Semiconductor, both from Japan.

Other notable players in the space but outside of the Top 10 were Nvidia, Intel and Qualcomm, all from California; as well as Arizona-based Microchip Technology. In particular, Nvidia successfully imported its experience in multimedia and graphics processing from the consumer segment into automotive, mainly concentrating its initial efforts on infotainment premium brands. Less successful than Nvidia but likewise flexing its muscle was Intel, which is moving into the multimedia sector of car infotainment via the chipmaker’s Atom processor platform.

All the vendors reporting results for the year were tracked strictly by ASSP sales confined to the vehicle infotainment sector. Unlike general-purpose microcontrollers, memories or optical semiconductors, the ASSP silicon chips involved in this case are deployed to enable features such as AM/FM radio, digital terrestrial and satellite radio, audio amplifiers, GPS and navigation, multimedia logic and connectivity solutions like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and vehicle networking, to name a few.

Element Six today announced it has acquired the assets and intellectual property of Group4 Labs, Inc. (Group4), a semiconductor wafer materials company that manufactured gallium nitride (GaN) on-diamond semiconductor technology for RF and high-power devices. The asset acquisition will expand Element Six’s semiconductor portfolio for defense and commercial applications.  The assets were acquired through an assignment for the benefit of creditors from Group4 LLC.

Group4 developed the first commercially available composite semiconductor wafer that includes GaN and diamond. Designed for manufacturers of transistor-based circuits with high power, temperature and frequency characteristics, the first-ever GaN-on-diamond system enables rapid, efficient and cost-effective heat extraction. This process reduces the operating temperatures of packaged devices, addressing heat issues that account for more than 50 percent of all electronic failures. Synthetic diamond dissipates heat up to five times better than existing materials, such as copper and silicon carbide, enabling device manufacturers to produce smaller, faster and higher power electronic devices, with longer lifespans and improved reliability.

When implemented within power amplifiers, microwave and millimeter wave circuits, GaN-on-diamond systems pose numerous benefits and applications within the defense and commercial sectors. This includes deployment in cellular base stations, radar sensing equipment, weather and communications satellite equipment, and inverters and converters typically used in hybrid and electronic vehicles.

The Group4 GaN-on-diamond technology was a critical element of TriQuint Semiconductor’s device, which won the Compound Semiconductor Industry Award in March. TriQuint demonstrated its new GaN-on-diamond, high electron mobility transistors (HEMT) in conjunction with partners at the University of Bristol, Group4 and Lockheed Martin under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Near Junction Thermal Transport (NJTT) program. TriQuint has designed devices using this technology to achieve up to a three-fold improvement in heat dissipation, the primary NJTT goal, while preserving RF functionality. This would translate into a potential reduction of the power amplifier size or increasing output power by a factor of three.

“GaN-on-diamond wafers are poised to take a center seat in many of our customers technology roadmaps, as new developments demonstrate its ability to dramatically reduce device temperatures, while maintaining output performance,” said Adrian Wilson, head of technologies for Element Six. “With the acquisition of the GaN-on-diamond process developed by Group4, we plan to continue to support the market’s growth trajectory, ramping up manufacturing capabilities to deliver innovative synthetic diamond solutions to meet emerging market demands.”

Founded as a startup in 2003, Group4 has partnered with Element Six since 2008.

“The scaling up of GaN-on-diamond wafer manufacturing volumes will need the unique heft, skill, and synergy of Element Six to make it possible,” said Felix Ejeckam, Chairman and CEO of Group4.  “We believe that our customers will benefit enormously from this GaN-on-diamond process acquisition.”

Element Six’s Technologies division continues to experience strong market success, growing 20 percent per annum.

UPDATE: Intel has been revealed as the purchaser of the GNSS business unit of ST-Ericsson. The deal extends Intel’s position in the mobile chip business, an area that it is eager to penetrate.

PREVIOUSLY: ST-Ericsson, a joint venture of STMicroelectronics and Ericsson, today announced the signature of a definitive agreement to sell the assets and intellectual property rights associated with its mobile connectivity Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) business to a semiconductor company. At the time of release, ST had not released the name of the purchasing company.

The sale of these assets represents another step in the execution of Ericsson’s and ST’s announcement of March 18, 2013. In addition to the assets and IPR associated with this business, a team of 130 industry veterans located in Daventry (UK), Bangalore (India) and Singapore are anticipated to join the buyer at closing of the transaction.

The closing of the transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and standard conditions and is expected to be completed in August 2013. ST-Ericsson estimates the proceeds from the sale, combined with the avoidance of employee restructuring charges and other related restructuring costs, will reduce the joint venture’s cash needs by approximately $90 million.

"Today’s transaction validates the leading innovation developed by ST-Ericsson in mobile navigation systems and marks a further important step towards the execution of our shareholders’ decision to exit from ST-Ericsson" commented Carlo Ferro, president and CEO of ST-Ericsson. "I am pleased that this organization will continue to develop leading-edge technologies and delighted that the team found a new home at a leading player in the semiconductor industry."

ATIC logoThe Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC) and the Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) today launched the ATIC-SRC Center of Excellence for Energy Efficient Electronic Systems (ACE4S), to be hosted jointly in Abu Dhabi by Khalifa University of Science, Technology and Research, and Masdar Institute of Science and Technology. ATIC will dedicate over AED 17.5 million to the project over the next three years, which will be matched collectively by Masdar Institute and Khalifa University for a total budget of more than AED 35 million. This funding will drive innovation in next-generation electronic systems ranging in applications from smart phones and medical devices to the Internet of Things.

“This center is a significant research milestone for Abu Dhabi, the UAE and the region,” said Sami Issa, Executive Director at ATIC. “ACE4S is a critical building block of our ecosystem strategy to help enable the development of homegrown talent in key areas of science and technology. Such talent development is essential as Abu Dhabi transitions into an innovation-based society as per the 2030 vision.”

SRC logo“Over the past 30 years, SRC has successfully helped establish numerous university research centers and distributed more than $2 billion dollars in research funds in the United States; ACE4S role as our first international center reflects significantly on the quality of research we pursue,” said SRC President Larry Sumney. “The ACE4S Center has been established with valuable industry guidance from companies such as GLOBALFOUNDRIES, AMD, Applied Materials, Freescale, IBM, Intel, Mentor Graphics, Texas Instruments and Tokyo Electron (TEL) and will build on SRC-sponsored university research supporting 15 individual researchers in the UAE. Top semiconductor industry experts will oversee and serve as liaisons for each research task, and SRC will productively guide the overall research while also promoting strong student engagement—enabling us to identify areas of greatest need and foster the move of innovations from lab to market.”

The center will be overseen by a steering committee of high-level ATIC, SRC, Khalifa University and Masdar Institute representatives and will be directed jointly by Professors Mohammed Ismail of Khalifa University, and Ibrahim Elfadel of Masdar Institute. The directors will oversee research across five targeted areas and work closely with a Technology Advisory Board (TAB) of representatives from industry-leading companies.

GLOBALFOUNDRIES will serve a special role on the TAB, assigning Mohamed Lakehal as an Abu Dhabi-based industrial liaison to oversee design tape-outs to fabrication in GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ facilities worldwide. The liaison will also support design enablement, deploying design-for-manufacture tools and raising the level of local semiconductor expertise.

“As a research-oriented institution, we are proud to be part of the ACE4S leadership and offer our expertise and research capabilities,” said Dr. Fred Moavenzadeh, President, Masdar Institute. “Our faculty will aim to develop microelectronic technologies with healthcare applications individually and in collaboration with their peers within the initial period of the center’s operation. These innovative products will include biosensor applications, wearable devices and self-powered wireless body area networks (WBAN). We believe these applications will have a wide impact because of their energy efficiency and novel designs.”

“This partnership will transform the way we conduct research in nano-scale energy efficient systems-on-chips as it will help us educate and train a highly skilled workforce with relevant skills. This is a key element in driving innovation and entrepreneurship in the UAE’s semiconductor sector in line with the Abu Dhabi 2030 vision,” said Dr. Tod A. Larsen, President of Khalifa University. “The involvement of the SRC and its member companies in center development will help create a world-leading institution with a sustainable university/industry collaborative research environment conducive to high-tech job creation and direct local and foreign investment.”

The center will focus on energy efficient devices with research in energy harvesting, power management, sensor technologies and wireless communications networks. The research will be conducted primarily at Khalifa University and Masdar Institute but with important involvement from UAE University, American University of Sharjah and New York University, Abu Dhabi.  Within the first three years, ACE4S will seek to produce integrated prototypes with healthcare applications as well as knowledge and research relevant to safety and security, aerospace, water quality and the environment.

Supporting the transition of innovations to market, the center will develop an aggressive Intellectual Property Management Plan (IPMP). The IPMP will include early identification of interconnected families of innovation arising from technical themes, placing special emphasis on the integrated systems selected for demonstration at the end of year three.

ACE4S is a continuation of ATIC’s broader focus on cultivating a technology research ecosystem within Abu Dhabi. Additional programs supported in this vein include: the Twin-Labs research center, a collaboration between Masdar Institute and Technical University of Dresden with support from the State of Saxony, ATIC and GLOBALFOUNDRIES; the ATIC professorship chairs at UAEU and Khalifa University;  the Masters in Microsystems degree in collaboration with Masdar Institute; and ongoing MEES research grants in collaboration with the SRC.

Transparent electrodes refer to oxide degenerate semiconductor electrodes that possess a high level of light transmittance (more than 85 percent) in the visible light spectrum, and low resistivity (less than 1×10-3 Ω-㎝) at the same time. Transparent electrodes are key materials in the IT industry, used in flat displays, photovoltaics, touch panels, and transparent transistors, which need light transmission and current injection/output simultaneously. Up until now, sputtered ITOs (SnO2-doped In2O3) have been widely used.

Recently with the remarkable development in flexible photoelectronic technologies, such as flexible displays, photovoltaics and electric devices, more attention is being put on flexible transparent electrode technology, which can be produced on a flexible substrate rather than the conventional glass substrate. ITO tends to be vulnerable to the substrate’s bending, and thus CNT-, graphene-, and silver-based transparent electrodes as well as polymer transparent electrodes are suggested to replace the ITO.

The usage of transparent electrodes vary: they are used as electrode materials for LCDs, OLEDs, PDPs and transparent displays, while they are used as touch sensors for resistive and capacitive touch panels. They are also used as electrodes for a-Si, CIGS, CdTe, and DSSC photovoltaics.

Displaybank published the “Transparent Electrode Technology Trends and Market Forecast 2013” report. It covers the technological developments related to transparent electrodes and business activities as well as its market forecast up to 2020.

The overall transparent electrode market is forecast to grow to $5.1 billion by 2020, from $1.9 billion in 2012. By market size, display and touch sensor markets are deemed to be the largest. In the display segment, the flexible display will expand to make up 11 percent in 2019, thereby making way for transparent electrodes to replace the ITO and oxide transparent electrodes. In 2020, the oxide transparent electrode is forecast to make up 8 percent of the total market, and silver-based materials or carbon nanotubes will most likely be the strong candidates.

In terms of production cost, the touch sensor market is the best for the transparent electrode to enter, particularly compared to the display market. But the next generation transparent electrode applied to touch sensors will not reach 10 percent of the total market until 2020. It is because the alternative to the ITO must have the same level of properties as the ITO at low production cost. Strategic collaboration with major brands will be inevitably required. Currently, there is no next generation electrode that can perform on a similar level as the ITO and that is able to be mass produced. But if the flexible display market opens up earlier than expected, next generation transparent electrodes will likely replace ITOs at a faster rate.

Mentor Graphics Corp. today announced significant achievements in its continued collaboration with TSMC on 20nm physical verification kit optimizations. This joint effort has reduced Calibre nmDRC 20nm signoff runtimes by at least a factor of 3X and memory requirements by 60 percent compared to initial design kits released last year. In addition, Calibre PERC N20 design kits are now available to TSMC customers as part of the companies’ ongoing collaboration for IC reliability improvement. The collaboration will continue as mutual customer’s ramp their releases of N20 production designs, with the goal of maintaining rapid turnaround on full-chip signoff runs for the largest SoC designs in the industry.

The Calibre PERC kit for N20 includes new checks for latch-up prevention and IO-ESD protection, and a number of multiple power domain checks, which represent a significant step forward in automating procedures that previously had to be done manually. Moreover, by using both the Calibre PERC and Calibre nmDRC kits, customers are able to quickly identify and correct voltage-aware DRC violations, which is critical for today’s multi-voltage advanced process designs.

Other ongoing collaboration between TSMC and Mentor is focusing on optimizing the Calibre DFM product family, which incorporates TSMC’s unified DFM (UDFM) engine. Improvements are expected to result in runtime reduction in TSMC’s latest DDK release, and customers who use any DFM tools compliant with TSMC UDFM engine will benefit.

“Our work with TSMC demonstrates the advantage of close collaboration among the foundry, EDA vendor and lead customers to bring new process nodes to market more efficiently,” said Michael Buehler-Garcia, senior director of Calibre Design Solutions Marketing at Mentor Graphics. “Our efforts don’t stop when tools are qualified. We continue to work with TSMC to optimize the design kits as the process matures, resulting in overall shorter design cycle times.”

“The close working relationship between TSMC and Mentor has existed for many years and continues to result in new solutions and rapid performance optimization,” said Suk Lee, TSMC senior director, Design Infrastructure Marketing Division. “With N20 we have taken our efforts to the next level to deliver optimized Calibre DRC decks, which include multi-patterning, on an even faster timetable than for prior nodes. Building on this success we have already extended performance improvements to the first-release Calibre N16 decks.”

TSMC and Mentor will speak about their recent optimization efforts in a session titled “Best Practices for Verification at Advanced 20nm Process Nodes” at the Design Automation Conference (DAC), Austin, Texas, June 2-5.

ams AG, a provider of high performance analog ICs and sensors, today introduced the AS3721, a power management IC (PMIC) with an innovative remote-feedback circuit that helps reduce the thermal stress of applications processors in smartphones and tablets.

When paired with new AS3729 point-of-load regulators from ams, the highly-integrated AS3721 provides a complete power management system that offers a fast response to load transients for reliable processor performance, high efficiency, and flexible board layout.

The AS3721 and AS3729 are optimized for use with Tegra applications processors from Nvidia.

The AS3721 PMIC enables a compact remote feedback path from the processor to the IC’s integrated DC-DC controllers. Thanks to a patent-pending design innovation by ams, the feedback interface to the AS3721 only requires two wires (one control signal, one temperature signal) instead of the four or five wires typically required by other PMICs.

With fewer traces connecting the PMIC to the point-of-load power stages, the two devices can be placed far apart in the board layouts of space-constrained devices such as smartphones, tablets and notebooks. This dramatically reduces the size and intensity of the hotspot around the processor compared to conventional power architectures in which the processor and PMIC, both handling high currents simultaneously, must be located side-by-side.

The feedback loop carried over the AS3721’s two-wire interface also operates extremely fast, maintaining the processor it supports within its safe operating voltage even when supplying extremely fast-changing loads. Using an output capacitor of just 40µF and at an output voltage of 1.0V, the system’s voltage drop during a step up from 0.5A to 5A in burst mode is just 32mV (typical).

The AS3729 5A point-of-load power stages complement the AS3721 PMIC. The AS3729 contains NMOS and PMOS FETs for each of two phases, which can be controlled separately and can handle an output current of 2.5A. The PMIC can combine up to four devices in an eight-phase configuration that supplies a 20A maximum output. By choosing single- or multi-phase configurations, device manufacturers can optimize their design either for cost and board footprint (using fewer, larger inductors) or for low profile (using more, smaller inductors).

The AS3721 PMIC features four DC-DC step-down regulators supplying 4A, 2A and 1.5A; three DC-DC step-down controllers rated for 5A, 10A and 20A; 12 digital LDOs; a real-time clock; a supervisor circuit; GPIOs; a general-purpose ADC; and a one-time programmable boot sequence. The device’s 8mm x 8mm BGA package has a pitch of just 0.5mm.

The AS3729 power stage is in a chip-scale package measuring just 1.6mm x 1.6mm and with a 0.4mm pitch.

“Our patent-pending feedback interface technique provides for a huge improvement in the board layout of smartphones and tablets, and will allow device manufacturers to dramatically reduce the thermal stress on the processor and associated components,” Kambiz Dawoodi, vice-president and general manager of the power and wireless business unit at ams, said.

Rapidly increasing customer demand for NexPlanar’s advanced semiconductor CMP pads has necessitated a significant capacity expansion in both the U.S. and Asia.

Since NexPlanar opened its Hillsboro, Oregon operation two years ago, production has doubled each year. In response to this growth, NexPlanar will open a second pad manufacturing plant in Hillsboro in early 2014. In addition, the company will open a pad finishing facility in Taiwan to complement the Hillsboro operation. The Taiwan facility, which will include a quality control and analysis lab, will open in late 2013.

To fund this expansion, NexPlanar recently completed a $10 million round of funding to expand capacity in these two locations. A new strategic investor led the investment round with full participation by all existing investors.

"Reducing defects and improving yields," commented Jim LaCasse, CEO and President of NexPlanar, "has become the key focus of our customers as they move to more advanced semiconductor processing nodes. NexPlanar’s pad technology enables significant defect reduction in the polish process. As the demand for our CMP pads increased and our technology gained global acceptance, we saw a dramatic need for expanding manufacturing capacity both at a new, second facility in Hillsboro and also in Taiwan, close to a large segment of our customer base."

The diffusion of roll-to-roll technologies is expected to have a marked effect in lowering the unit prices of flexible devices. Consequently, while consumption in terms of volume is forecast to rise very rapidly, revenues will increase somewhat more moderately. As a result, the total market for roll-to-roll flexible devices is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 16.1 percent from 2012 to 2017, reaching global revenues of nearly $22.7 billion by 2017.

The global market for flexible devices manufactured by roll-to-roll technologies increased from $8.5 billion in 2010 to nearly $10 billion in 2011, and was valued at nearly $10.8 billion in 2012, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.3 percent during the two-year period.

Circuit devices currently account for a nearly 96.9 percent share of all revenues in 2012. Sales within this segment are primarily associated with flexible printed circuits.

Displays and other optoelectronic devices account for a 2.5 percent share of the roll-to-roll flexible devices market, with total 2012 revenues of $264 million, while solar cells, sensors, and other emerging applications currently represent a combined share of only 0.7 percent of the total.

There are several reasons why flexible devices are gaining increasing importance. First, flexible devices are being created with the same functionalities as traditional (rigid) integrated circuits, yet are produced with low-cost materials and processes with the intent to make them commercially available at lower unit prices than their rigid counterparts.

Printed circuit boards include rigid and flexible circuits. In recent years, flexible circuits have gained increased market share driven by their growing use in popular consumer electronics such as tablet PCs, notebooks, cell phones, and other wireless devices. Flexible circuits are also gaining acceptance for the fabrication of RFIDs and smart cards.

Flexible circuits offer several advantages compared to rigid circuits, including reduced package dimensions, reduced weight, and optimization of component real estate. Flexible circuits currently represent approximately one-fifth of the entire PCB market, but are forecast to continue growing at a faster pace than the overall PCB market during the next five years, with a CAGR of 8.4 percent.

As the flexible printed circuit (FPC) market continues to expand, driven by mass-market applications, the need will grow for high-volume, automated processes that maintain consistent quality (i.e., roll-to-roll technologies) to satisfy the increasing demand for these products.

Photonics societies across the United States today announced the launch of the National Photonics Initiative. These societies, comprised of the IEEE Photonics Society, the Laser Institute of America, Optical Society of America, SPIE and the American Physical Society, intend for this initiative to be a collaborative alliance that will unite industry, academia and government experts to identify and advance areas of photonics critical to maintaining US competitiveness and national security.

“Life without photonics is almost unimaginable. From the moment you wake up to the alarm on your smartphone, to swiping your credit card to pay for coffee, to logging into your computer and connecting with the world through the Internet, photonics makes it possible,” said OSA CEO Elizabeth Rogan. “The NPI will work to advance photonics in the areas that are most critical to the US, like improving the economy, creating jobs, saving lives and sparking innovation for future generations.”

Photonics generates, controls and detects light to advance manufacturing, robotics, medical imaging, next-generation displays, defense technologies, biometric security, image processing, communications, astronomy and much more. Photonics forms the backbone of the Internet, guides energy exploration and keeps men and women in uniform safe with night vision and physiological feedback on the battlefield.

In 1998, the National Research Council released a report, “Harnessing Light,” which presented a comprehensive overview of the potential impact of photonics on major industry sectors. In response, several worldwide economies moved to advance their already strong photonics industries. The United States, however, did not develop a cohesive strategy. As a result, the US lost its competitive advantage in a number of cutting-edge technologies as well as thousands of US jobs and companies to overseas markets.

“The EU, Germany, Korea, Taiwan and China all recognize the importance of photonics, and have taken action,” said SPIE CEO Eugene Arthurs. “The US Department of Defense, for example, has long supported photonics, but more photonics research is needed to maintain our national security in the face of non-traditional threats. The time is now for the US to make the right investments in the crucial capabilities of the future.”

In 2012, the National Research Council released “Optics and Photonics: Essential Technologies for our Nation” that called for a national photonics initiative to regain US leadership in key photonic-driven fields. In response to that call, the NPI was established to raise awareness about photonics and the impact of photonics on our everyday lives; increase collaboration and coordination among US industry, government and academia to advance photonics-driven fields; and drive US funding and investment in areas of photonics critical to maintaining US competitiveness and national security.

“The NPI offers an opportunity for us to show how critical it is for federally funded research to flourish in this country,” said Kate Kirby, executive officer of APS. “So many of the technologies that we use have come from the results of basic research funded by the federal government.”

As part of the NPI effort, more than 100 experts from industry, academia and government collaborated to draft a white paper detailing recommendations to guide funding and investment in five key photonics-driven fields: advanced manufacturing, communications and information technology, defense and national security, health and medicine and energy. New opportunities in these fields such as 3-D printing, more efficient solar power, improved nuclear threat identification, more accurate cancer detection and the growth of Internet speeds and capacity, offer the potential for even greater societal impact in the next few decades.

“There are thousands of companies that have sprung up in the last decade or so that produce the photonics devices and systems that we all depend on now, but there’s plenty of room for growth,” said Richard Linke, executive director of the IEEE Photonics Society.

In order to capitalize on new opportunities and regain global leadership and economic prosperity, the white paper also provides key recommendations to the United States government that apply across all five of the fields:

  • Drive funding and investment in areas of photonics critical to maintaining US competitiveness and national security—advanced manufacturing, defense, energy, health and medicine, information technology and communications; 
  • Develop federal programs that encourage greater collaboration between US industry and academia to better support the research and development of next-generation photonics technologies;
  • Increase investment in education and job training programs to reduce the shortage of technically skilled workers needed to fill the growing number of photonics-based positions;
  • Expand federal investments supporting university and industry collaborative research to develop new manufacturing methods that incorporate photonics such as additive manufacturing and ultra-short-pulse laser material processing; and
  • Collaborate with US industry to review international trade practices impeding free trade, and the current US criteria restricting the sale of certain photonic technologies overseas.

The NPI maintains that fulfillment of these recommendations will position the United States as a global leader in photonics research and development, and will grow the US economy and add jobs at home.

“Our objective is to direct funding intelligently to research, implementation and education and training, with the ultimate goal of restoring US competitiveness, thereby improving our security, our economy and our quality of life,” said LIA Executive Director Peter Baker.

CORRECTION: In a previous version of this article, the Optoelectronics Industry Development Association was listed in the first paragraph among the societies launching this initiative. This information was incorrect. Solid State Technology apologizes for the error.