News in brief from Endwave and Tegal
Shares in Endwave Corporation, a provider of RF subsystems for carrier-class, cellular backhaul and broadband wireless access networks, rose by over 60% on Wednesday July 9 after the company predicted that its second quarter revenues would be much higher than anticipated.
The company said that, based on preliminary results, total revenues for the second quarter ended June 30, 2003 will be in the range of $8.2 - 8.5 million, compared to prior projections of $6.5 - 7.5 million. As a result of the increased revenues, gross margin is also expected to exceed prior projections.
Based on these preliminary results, the company expects to report positive cash flow from operations for the second quarter.
The net decrease in cash and cash equivalents is expected to be less than $1 million for the second quarter after accounting for the previously announced Verticom asset acquisition and the early repayment of several equipment leases. Previously, the company had predicted net cash usage of $2 - 3 million.
The company’s final results will be announced on July 29, 2003.
"We are pleased with these very positive preliminary results, which demonstrate that Endwave is executing on its strategic plans and continues to make tangible progress toward achieving profitability," said Ed Keible, CEO and president of Endwave.
Tegal s sputter deposition processes improve LED performance
Tegal has announced a new set of process applications for the Endeavor-AT PVD cluster tool that, combined with new MF-RF and DC-RF coupled S-Guns, deliver high-quality reactive sputtering capability to a variety of challenging electronic applications.
The company says that its robust new processes have major benefits for manufacturers of LED and optoelectronic devices, power MOS makers, and for the MEMS, SAW, and EUVL photomask industries. These processes have been developed by Tegal s subsidiary Sputtered Films, which is based in Santa Barbara , CA.
Reactive sputter deposition of dielectric films has historically suffered from equipment and process anomalies that have been, until now, accepted sacrifices when depositing materials like silicon nitride, silicon dioxide, and aluminum-based insulating films.
The traditional challenge of reactive sputter deposition has been finding ways to eliminate chamber arcing that inevitably results from the dielectric properties of the deposited films themselves; while maintaining high deposition rates, tight process stability, and low cost of ownership.
Previous measures to address this challenge by other PVD tool suppliers have resulted in deposition rate reductions with degraded yield from thermal and electrical damage to devices during reactive sputter deposition. The new dual-cathode DC-RF and MF-RF coupled S-Guns reactive sputtering processes introduced today by Tegal give device makers access to the very best attributes of reactively sputtered dielectric films without compromise.
Reactive sputter deposited silicon nitride is preferred in LED encapsulation applications as it eliminates hydrogen contamination of the devices inherent in plasma-enhanced (PE) CVD of silicon nitride films.
The Endeavor-AT s DC-RF coupled S-Gun chamber eliminates electrical damage to the LED p-n junctions during silicon nitride deposition, ensures low substrate temperatures during deposition, and creates high-density nitride films with near-zero intrinsic stress and good optical properties.
