Lightimes Online News and Resources for the LED and Solid State Lighting Industry and its Supply Chain

August 10, 2006...CompoundSemi (CS) and Solid State Lighting (SSL) people the world over are taking advantage of the last relatively quiet days of summer to plan for the busy fall season ahead. So here's a preview of what to expect in the next few McDonald Reports in the event these musings provide you a bit of an advantage (or at least something to talk about at lunch)... which, after all, is the underlying purpose of this column.

One topic that we'll explore is the possible shortage of gallium, the key ingredient used in creating GaAs and GaN. The subject of a potential shortage was raised by an old friend, MOCVD-guru, Norm Schumaker, the founder of Emcore and Molecular Imprints. Norm is consulting these days from his Austin, Texas headquarters, and in a recent conversation with him, he suggested the topic would make an interesting column. Since I know very little about the current situation, I turned immediately to a new friend, Terry Guckes, who has been consulting for a year now since his former post as a VP and corporate officer of GEO Specialty Chemicals. Before being acquired, GEO was ranked first in the world in gallium and gallium derivatives. Although Terry is now planning to move way up the product foodchain into an upper management position in SSL, he's a recognized expert on gallium and kindly consented to do a guest editorial addressing Norm's question. Stay tuned to what Terry has to say on the topic. In the meantime, if you have input for him, or would like to talk to Terry about his helping steer your section of the SSL bandwagon, Terry's telephone number in Ohio is: 440-247-1522 and his email is: terry.guckes.wh86@wharton.upenn.edu

Another promised guest editorial is slated from my good friend and legal counsel, Stephen C. Smith, who recently changed law firms in the Chicago/St. Louis area. Steve is our resident intellectual property (IP) expert, and now that he's with SimmonsCooper in East Alton, Illinois, he's on the litigation side of the IP fence. Whereas, he used to our favorite referral when requests came in for someone to write your patent, he's now the man to go to when someone's infringing on your patent. Steve, a former Emcore engineer before becoming an attorney (and not so coincidentally, one of the fine people who supervised Emcore's epiwafer foundry operation) knows his CS and SSL law. We look forward to Steve's upcoming guest editorial in this slot. If you need to reach him in the meantime, his new tel is: 618-259-2222 and email: ssmith@simmonscooper.com

Speaking of Emcore's epiwafer operation, which is about to be handed over to IQE, Ivan Eliashevich and Mike Herman from EMD called yesterday to set the record straight based on my speculation of their fate in last week's column. All 50+ of them, under the direction of Alex Ceruzzi, VP/GM of EMD, are truly jazzed about becoming part of IQE, which they say will be a done deal by mid-August. They'll give me the whole scoop then, which I'll detail in a subsequent column. For now, they wanted to be sure I knew the best part of all, which is that they'll not only keep the whole gang intact in Somerset (leaving only about a dozen people now at Emcore corporate), but they'll be a wholly-owned subsidiary of IQE and thus, officially a USA company. That entitles them to continue to be a dominant player in the USA's Department of Defense-related programs under the direction of the US government (ref: their most recent DOD breakthrough with GaN on Diamond with Group4 and AFRL). They'll also now be free to pursue many other epiwafer contracts with DOD and other government entities, like DOE that they couldn't pursue as Emcore. Operating as a wholly-owned USA subsidiary of IQE, former Emcore's EMD group will continue to have access to US government funding sources. "We are looking forward to leveraging government funding to support our advanced technology development efforts. DARPA's Wide-Bandgap RF and other programs have been instrumental in helping us to bring GaN-based epitaxial products to market," noted Ivan Eliashevich, who serves as EMD's Director of R&D.

With Ivan's outstanding work helping GELcore in the past and EMD's pioneering work in GaN epi when helping create the original SpectraBlue and GaNzilla MOCVD reactors, and beyond, they'll more than qualify now for some of these SSL funds from DOE. Plus, as a "pure play" epiwafer foundry (they will not be doing any devices), they'll no longer be under that "competing with their customers" mantle that has plagued Emcore in the past. We look forward to hearing those details and to what the new IQE Somerset wholly-owned "pure play" epiwafer subsidiary will be named. One final note on that... can't we think of a fresh phrase to substitute for "pure play" which is starting to sound a bit old fashioned? Incidently, because of EMD's going to IQE, I've decided to add IQE to my CS/SSL stock portfolio (this is my 30 day notice of said addition). With the addition of EMD, it just might indeed now be the biggest epiwafer foundry corporation in the world (about 300+ employees). IQE plc trades on the London exchange and can be viewed on Yahoo finance under the pink sheet symbol: "IQEPF.PK" although there's not much info listed as yet. More info is on their July 20 stock update on their corporate website.

Another topic we'll soon pursue will be Philips' upcoming pursuit of solid state lighting markets in the USA. The new USA business development manager for Solid State Lighting at Royal Philips Electronics is Howard Mastropiero who contacted me recently regarding my column, "Get It Right and They Shall Buy." This column picked up a theme begun by our news editor, Scott McMahan, who wrote a guest editorial the previous week titled "Where Are the LEDs?" Many of you may know Howard from his previous work in the compounds. He's done everything from marketing raw materials to the CS industry to selling conventional light bulbs. Howard's a bright, colorful and gung-ho guy whatever industry he represents and will surely bring a fresh and assuredly memorable approach to solid state lighting. He's just settling into his new post and can be reached in Pelham, New Hampshire at tel: 603-635-2446 or email: howard.mastropiero@philips.com

And regarding Scott McMahan's and my ongoing pursuit of commercially tangible LEDs as solid state light sources (ref: the above links to our relevant columns), we're amassing an incredible amount of fresh input as to where one can actually find these little critters in their neighborhood stores. Late last night, as I was about to make my final rounds resetting sprinklers on the ranch compound (which takes a bit of doing to keep green in the Texas heat, thereby requiring watering at night), my conventionally powered non-LED lantern suddenly died. No warning. Fortunately there was a full moon to guide me safely back to the bunkhouse. When I took the dead lantern indoors to my husband, Mr. Fix-it, he easily replaced the little bulb (having planned ahead with spares) and lamented... "If only we had an LED replacement for these (every ranch needs lots of lanterns), we'd never have this problem again!" Cost wasn't the issue. It was the inconvenience. I think that might be the worldwide lament for SSL for 2006 and beyond. "If only..." And looking closely at the tiny burned-out bulb I was also impressed with the fact that, sure enough, it's clearly a miniature of the classic old "Edison" bulb. Sometimes we forget just how old that relatively inexpensive, tried and true (but too-short lifetime and hot-to-the-touch) technology is. It's time we retired the old guy, don't you think?

Finally, I want to publicly thank Kevin Corcoran of Coast Cutlery doing his part to do just that. He not only reads this column and took time to comment, but he also kindly sent both Scott McMahan and me sets of Coast's new LED replacements for halogen bulbs for evaluation. Evidently Coast Cutlery's Leflector line is just getting on out on the market. As I told Kevin, the samples arrived safely but unfortunately I don't have any halogen lamps to try them in. Halogen always sounded too scary to actually buy. However, they look really cool in the boxes and I was impressed by the accompanying literature. My intent is to now take them to my nearby Home Depot, Walmart, Ace Hardware, etc. and try them out right there on the showroom floor, hopefully entrancing the sales staff (and anyone else wandering the aisles) with the wonders of LEDs as SSL replacements for halogens as well as incandescents. That should prove to be a very interesting eval. Scott McMahan, said he was able to try out the lights at one of several specialty lighting stores in Austin. He will write a feature about it soon.

If anyone out there wants me to try out their new SSL product and write about it, my direct mailing address is: Legacy Ranch, 105 PR 817, Rochelle, TX 76872.

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