In brief: Mitsubishi, Heptagon, RFMD and AXT
Mitsubishi licenses laser technology
Mitsubishi Electric has signed a license agreement with UK-based intellectual property (IP) company BTG. The license allows the Japanese company to manufacture electro-absorption modulator (EAM) and distributed feedback (DFB) lasers first developed by British Telecom (BT).
The laser technologies were developed at BT s former research and technology facility at Adastral Park. BTG acquired exclusive rights to commercialize the related patent portfolio in 1998 and has since licensed the technology to another Japanese company, NEC Compound Semiconductor Devices.
Heptagon appoints Chuck Milligan CEO
Finnish-Swiss optics company Heptagon has appointed Chuck Milligan, formerly of Bookham Technology, as its new CEO.
Heptagon specializes in diffractive micro-optical components that can be applied at the wafer level. For example, one application of the technology is in LED lighting, where the flat diffractive optic takes up less space than a conventional "dome-shaped" lens and also be used to shape the light beam produced by the chip.
Milligan was previously VP of industrial and defense solutions at Bookham, and was with Nortel Networks and JDS Uniphase before that.
RFMD ships Polaris 2 to Motorola
RF chip and subsystem manufacturer RF Micro Devices is shipping its Polaris 2 Total Radio subsystems to Motorola in volume for use in two of the US handset maker s new EDGE products.
The subsystem combines RFMD s PowerStar power amplifier (PA) module and the company s Polaris 2 EDGE transceiver. Motorola s new V551 and V547 phones use the technology.
"We believe we re on track to ship more than 1.5 million units of Polaris 2 transceivers in the December quarter," said Eric Creviston, VP of wireless products at RFMD.
According to RFMD, more than 40 million EDGE handsets will be shipped in 2004, with the figure set to rise to more than 140 million next year. The projected 2005 figure would represent around a quarter of total GSM handset production.
AXT and Sumitomo Electric finalize settlement
California-based substrate manufacturer AXT will pay its Japanese rival Sumitomo Electric $1.4 million by early next year.
The payment represents the final settlement of litigation between the two companies that resulted in a global cross-licensing agreement recently
