IQE (Cardiff, England), supplier of advanced wafer products and wafer services to the semiconductor industry, announces that its wholly owned subsidiary, NanoGaN, has secured the purchase and assignment of a portfolio of patents from Taiwan-based Luxtaltek Corporation.
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The portfolio of 54 patents cover a range of technologies and applications based mainly on Quasi Photonic Crystals (QPCs). This advanced materials technology complements the Group's organic development of nanoimprint lithography (NIL), and broadens the potential application of NIL beyond IQE's current focus on advanced DFB lasers. Indeed, the patents acquired have applications in Optical components including VCSEL and edge emitting lasers, modulators, silicon photonics, fiber-optic systems, micro LED displays, image sensors including diffractive optical elements (DOEs) and biosensors.
NanoGan Limited has agreed a one-off payment of $500,000 for the purchase. The IQE Board believes that the Group is well positioned to commercialize this new technology thanks to its existing in-house NIL capability.
IQE chief executive Drew Nelson said, "Over the last few years, IQE has developed an exciting and strong IP portfolio, which, coupled with the expertise and manufacturing capability to commercialise these new materials technologies have uniquely positioned IQE as the clear global leader in providing advanced compound semiconductor technology solutions. This significant addition to our IP portfolio provides the Group with additional competitive advantages that will secure our entry and maintain our leadership across a range of new and emerging technology applications, and offer our customers access to a unique portfolio of materials expertise."
About the Author
Gail Overton
Senior Editor (2004-2020)
Gail has more than 30 years of engineering, marketing, product management, and editorial experience in the photonics and optical communications industry. Before joining the staff at Laser Focus World in 2004, she held many product management and product marketing roles in the fiber-optics industry, most notably at Hughes (El Segundo, CA), GTE Labs (Waltham, MA), Corning (Corning, NY), Photon Kinetics (Beaverton, OR), and Newport Corporation (Irvine, CA). During her marketing career, Gail published articles in WDM Solutions and Sensors magazine and traveled internationally to conduct product and sales training. Gail received her BS degree in physics, with an emphasis in optics, from San Diego State University in San Diego, CA in May 1986.