In brief: GCS, Cree, Avanex and Lumileds
New chief at GCS
Global Communication Semiconductors (GCS), the pure-play compound semiconductor foundry based in Torrance, CA, has appointed Jerry Curtis as its new CEO.
Curtis, who succeeds Sam Lee in the CEO's office, was president and chief operating officer at GaAs chip manufacturer EiC Corporation before taking on the GCS role.
Curtis is also a veteran of Motorola's Semiconductor Products Sector, which was spun off last year under the Freescale banner.
Lee, who has retired as president and CEO at GCS, had been in charge of the foundry company for the past two-and-a half years.
Cree awarded $12 million project
US-based SiC specialist Cree has won a $12.1 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to develop high-voltage switches and diodes.
Under the Office of Naval Research award, Cree will work on the prototype devices between now and November 2006.
Avanex appoints new exec
Yves LeMaitre is the new VP and general manager of Avanex's optical components business unit.
The newly-formed unit, which was formed as a result of the photonic chipmaker's recent restructuring, combines the former active and passive discrete components group with the transmission modules unit.
LeMaitre was previously at Lightconnect, a Californian MEMS component maker. Before that, he worked for Alcatel, the French company that sold its optical components business to Avanex.
Lumileds bags backlight award
High-brightness LED chip and module manufacturer Lumileds won a silver medal for its LCD television backlight product at the recent Display of the Year Awards.
The award was made at the Society for Information Display (SID) event held in Boston last week.