Magazine – October 2007
Silicon and compounds get intimate
With an Intel executive blogging about integrated III-V and CMOS functionality, and DARPA setting up a three-pronged attack on the same topic, it's time for compounds and silicon to get up close and personal. Michael Hatcher reports.
Mixing it in academia and industry
A novel method for making native GaN has paved the way for Wang Nang Wang's high-power emitters and launch of a spin-off company. Richard Stevenson visits the University of Bath researcher.
Light-emitting diodes hit the centenary milestone
Fred Schubert and Jong Kyu Kim guide us through 100 years of the LED, before predicting where our most promising light source will take us over the next decade.
Inverting the triple junction improves efficiency and flexibility
Inverted metamorphic designs can boost the efficiency of conventional triple-junction solar cells, cut their weight and offer compatibility with flexible substrates, say Paul Sharps and Arthur Cornfeld from cell producer Emcore and Mark Wanlass from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
Spectroscopy exposes trace-water contamination in process gases
A highly sensitive optical technique known as cavity ring-down spectroscopy can reveal minute levels of water contamination in MOCVD process gases such as arsine and can demonstrate the true benefit of point-of-use purification, say Jun Feng and Mark Raynor from Matheson Tri-Gas and Yu Chen from Tiger Optics.
Dilute nitrides fire up red LEDs
Red, orange and yellow LEDs based on a dilute nitride promise higher power and reduced temperature sensitivity, say Vladimir Odnoblyudov and Neil Senturia from UCSD spin-off Quanlight.