In brief: Bookham, Nichia, GaAs solar cells
Award-winning lasers
Christoph Harder from photonic component and subsystem manufacturer Bookham Technology, US, has won the 2004 Aron Kressel award for his contribution to laser technology.
The award, which was made at the IEEE/LEOS conference in Puerto Rico earlier this month, went to Harder, Volker Graf and Eberhard Latta for their pioneering work in developing 980 nm semiconductor lasers.
Harder is the director of research and development at Bookham s laser fabrication facility in Zurich, Switzerland. Bookham acquired the renowned Zurich facility in 2002 when it bought the optical components division of Nortel Networks. The fab had previously been owned by JDS Uniphase, and has been at the forefront of high-power GaAs laser production for over a decade.
The lasers have been widely used as pump sources for fiber-optic communications, while Bookham has also been targeting the industrial laser market for materials processing with the high-power devices.
Nichia s lawyers claim injunction win
GaN LED manufacturer Nichia says that it has won an injunction against the import of Taiwan-manufactured white LEDs destined for sale in Japan.
According to Nichia, Osaka Customs accepted the company s request to prohibit imports of devices by E&E Japan, the Japanese affiliate of Taiwan-based Everlight and Epistar.
In June this year, Nichia filed a request for an injunction order against E&E Japan claiming infringement of a Japanese patent relating to its white LEDs (see related story).
The current dispute is centered on a design patent that relates to a side-view type of LED that is used in LCD backlighting applications.
Triple-junction cells approach moon
Europe s first lunar probe, SMART-1, which features solar cells based on compound semiconductor materials, is in orbit around the moon.
The spacecraft will carry out an inventory of chemical elements and look for signs of water on the lunar surface when it moves into a stable orbit around the moon in February 2005.
