In brief: Sirenza, Rochester, WJ and GCS
US-based chip maker Sirenza Microdevices has raised its first fiscal quarter 2006 sales guidance from $17.5-19 million to $20-21 million.
"Our updated revenue range represents sequential revenue growth of up to 8% over our fourth quarter 2005 record results and a potential quarterly revenue increase of up to 73% year-over-year," remarked company CEO Robert Van Buskirk.
Buskirk added that Sirenza is experiencing broad-based customer demand for a wide range of RF components.
Solar project invests in quantum dotsRyne Raffaelle and co-workers at the NanoPower Research Labs at Rochester Institute of Technology have won a contract for $0.85 million from the US Department of Defense to develop high-efficiency solar cells containing quantum dots.
The dots will be added to the central GaAs-based layer of triple junction solar cells, and produce an enhancement in short-circuit current and an increase in overall efficiency.
"The use of quantum confinement offered by nanostructured materials provides us with a new means of breaking out of the normal design constraints associated with ordinary crystalline device growth," said Raffaelle.
WJ teams up with GCSUS-based Global Communication Semiconductors (GCS) has agreed to act as a second wafer source for radio-frequency chip maker WJ Communications.
"We're pleased to add GCS as a foundry for InGaP HBT and GaAs technology; this advantage provides our customers with two qualified sources, thereby ensuring a steady supply of wafers," remarked Mark Knoch, vice president of WJ's operations.