- News
19 March 2018
IQE acquiring Translucent’s cREO technology and IP portfolio for $5m
© Semiconductor Today Magazine / Juno PublishiPicture: Disco’s DAL7440 KABRA laser saw.
Epiwafer foundry and substrate maker IQE plc of Cardiff, Wales, UK has exercised its exclusive option to acquire the ‘Rare Earth Oxide’ (cREO) technology and IP portfolio of Translucent Inc of Palo Alto, CA, USA (a subsidiary of Australian-listed company Silex Systems Ltd). IQE will pay $5m, from either its existing cash resources or new ordinary shares of 1 pence each issued to the vendor, within 6 months following the exercise of the option.
IQE announced in September 2015 that it had agreed an exclusive 30-month licence for the commercialization of Translucent’s unique cREO technology and an exclusive option (exercisable solely at IQE’s discretion) on the subsequent acquisition of the technology.
cREO technology is said to offer a unique approach to the manufacture of a wide range of compound semiconductor on silicon products, including gallium nitride on silicon (GaN-on-Si) for the burgeoning power switching and RF technology markets. The original cREO technology is protected by a wide-ranging IP patent portfolio. This portfolio has been further enhanced by IQE since September 2015, across a range of new application areas including RF filters and silicon photonic applications, and includes a number of new materials configurations.
“This type of materials innovation is at the core of IQEs disruptive semiconductor materials solution strategy, as we move from a bespoke, customer-specification-led business model to a more broad-based materials-innovation-led model which offers customers new opportunities to develop disruptive end-market products,” comments IQE’s president & CEO Dr Drew Nelson.
IQE transfers Translucent's cREO growth capability to North Carolina facility
IQE inks exclusive licence and option agreement to acquire Translucent's cREO technology
IQE Translucent GaN-on-Si templates