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21 Jan 2005
Including news from Corning, Powerlase, Universal Display Corporation, Gooch & Housego and more.
General company news:
• Corning has announced the commercial availability of generation 7 glass substrates for use in active-matrix LCDs. The Gen 7 substrates are being made by Samsung Corning Precision Glass at its facility in Cheonan in Korea. Each Gen 7 substrate measures 1.87 x 2.2 m and has nearly three times the surface area of Gen 5 substrates.
• Evergreen Solar, US, and Q-Cells, Germany, have formed a joint venture to construct a 30 MW solar cell manufacturing plant in Thalheim, Germany. Construction is expected to begin early 2005 and take around 12 months to complete. The total capital cost will be approximately $75 million. Evergreen will own 75.1% of the venture with the remaining 24.9% being held by Q-Cells.
• US-based Opto Diode Corporation has completed its new wafer fabrication facility in Newbury Park, California. A supplier of visible high power LEDs, the company says its class 1000 cleanroom and 6-inch wafer line is now in full production.
• UK-based Q-switch specialist Gooch & Housego is in talks to acquire a site on which to build a new factory. The firm hopes to end negotiations with the UK shoe-maker Clarks to acquire its 8-acre site in Ilminster in the near future.
• Alpine Research Optics (ARO) of the US claims its high-reflective coated optics have been tested and certified to withstand 47 J/cm2 at 1.06 microns with a pulse duration of 3.5 ns. The optics will be used in the National Ignition Facility (NIF), where the original specification was a damage threshold of 30 J/cm2.
Funding and contracts:
• Powerlase, the UK developer of high-power DPSS lasers, has received £7 million in its latest financing round. The company says its lasers combine high average output power and nanosecond pulses and feature energy conversion efficiencies up to double that of industry norms. The funding will allow Powerlase to expand its manufacturing operations and distribution team.
• Universal Display Corporation and the US Department of Energy (DOE) are ploughing $130 000 into developing a "smart window" based on OLEDs. The aim is to create a window which can switch rapidly between two mode: a highly-efficient white light source; and a transparent pane for efficient daylight transmission. The DOE estimates that if daylight can be efficiently captured and directed into buildings, it may be possible to reduce lighting loads by 25%.
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