In brief: SiGen, Harvatek, Skyworks, Crystal IS
US-based silicon-on-insulator (SOI) process technology provider, Silicon Genesis (SiGen), has developed wafer-level strained substrates featuring uniaxial strain.
SiGen claims that its technology, coined "next-generation strain", avoids mobility degradation and high defect levels associated with current SiGe-based and strained SOI technologies that create a biaxial strain.
"This material can be directly integrated on silicon as an "epi-like" strained bulk wafer or on an insulator as strained SOI," said Francois Henley, SiGen s CEO.
Scott Thompson, former Intel Fellow and director of Intel s 90nm strained silicon program, added: "The availability of a global uniaxially strained substrate [will] substantially improve total transistor performance and has scaling advantages over local strain at the 45nm node and beyond."
Harvatek s LED shipments fallTaiwanese chip maker Harvatek has seen sales of its SMD (surface-mount device) LEDs decrease by 20-30 million units in July, according to the web-site DigiTimes. Decline was attributed to a fall in orders from its principal customer, Agilent.
Harvatek shipped 170 million SMD LEDs in July, with 130 million used in handsets. It predicts rising LED shipments from August to November, and then a fall in November due to seasonal effects.
Skyworks appoints Swearingen as "wireless" VPStan Swearingen has joined US-based RF semiconductor manufacturer Skyworks Solutions as VP of its cellular infrastructure and wireless data unit.
Swearingen s previous roles include VP of Agere Systems computing connectivity division, CEO of computing firm Quantex Microsystems, plus senior management positions at National Semiconductor, Cyrix and Digital Equipment.
Operations VP ushered in to Crystal ISUS-based aluminum nitride substrate manufacturer Crystal IS has made two appointments: David Usher fills the newly-created role of VP of operations, and Kathryn Good joins as financial controller.
