News

6 September 2006

 

Principia Lightworks inks contract with Bandwidth Semiconductor for III-V and II-VI wafers

Bandwidth Semiconductor LLC of Bedford, Mass, USA, a subsidiary of Spire Corporation, has signed a five year agreement with California-based Principia Lightworks Inc to become the company’s exclusive supplier of III-V and II-VI semiconductor wafers. Principia will use the wafers to enter into high volume production of its patented electron beam pumped vertical cavity surface emitting laser (eVCSEL), which are used as a light source for rear-projection consumer television (RPTV) and other projection display applications. Bandwidth expects to start full production of the wafers for Principia around mid 2007.

In the first three years of the agreement alone, Bandwidth expects revenues from the contact to exceed $16m; this includes revenue from wafer production and certain nonrecurring engineering and facility access payments. To complete the contract, Bandwidth will scale-up its existing MOCVD facilities.

An up-front payment will be made by Principia for nonrecurring engineering and facility access costs. In addition Principia will make facility availability payments on a monthly basis for the five year term of the agreement. Bandwidth will be committing capital resources for the scale-up of its MOCVD facilities, but anticipates that Principia’s up-front payment and monthly payments will be sufficient to meet its capital requirements under the agreement, and that no net outlay of capital will be needed.

Don Klein, Principia’s executive VP of business development, said: "After evaluating a number of potential suppliers we chose Bandwidth because of their broad range of MOCVD and compound semiconductor device experience. Once in production, Principia will offer the projection display market the first truly high powered, low cost, red, green, and blue laser light source. The agreement with Bandwidth will allow us to meet the high volume demand from RPTV manufacturers."

Edward D. Gagnon, Bandwidth’s GM, added: "This is a big opportunity for us. We have invested heavily in bringing Bandwidth to this level of expertise needed to satisfy Principia's requirements. Our scale-up will meet Principia's production demands, as well as allow us to continue to satisfy our growing customer base."

Visit: Spire - Bandwidth Semiconductor