In brief: OptoGaN, Peregrine, Williams AM
OptoGaN bags €5 million
OptoGaN, an LED-focused start-up company based in Finland, has closed a €5 million ($6.8 million) round of funding led by the Nordic Venture Fund and Denmark-based Via Venture Partners.
The company, which has pilot line facilities available in Dortmund, Germany, is developing a way to reduce dislocation densities using a multi-step growth process.
OptoGaN CEO Bernd Meyer says that he is convinced that the company will become a leading manufacturer of LED chips.
Peregrine and Oki ramp UltraCMOS
Peregrine Semiconductor, the San Diego company that specializes in silicon-on-sapphire chip technology, is now shipping products in much larger volumes through its manufacturing partner Oki Electric Industries.
Collectively, Oki and Peregrine are now manufacturing 2.5 million so-called "UltraCMOS" devices per week and shipping to customers in the mobile handset, digital TV and communications infrastructure markets.
The pair are now set for a major expansion - Oki will support production of ten new UltraCMOS products this year, said the Japanese company.
Williams gets Bohemian
Specialty materials supplier Williams Advanced Materials has expanded its European operation with a new precision cleaning and reconditioning services facility in Louny, Czech Republic.
The new site signals the expansion of Williams physical vapor deposition (PVD) materials business in Europe, while the company is also in the process of opening a new PVD operations and services center near Shanghai in China.
