| From: slacker711 | 11/27/2018 8:00:09 AM | | | | | | Good to know that there is some interest in private equity for a deal in lighting.
bloomberg.com
Bain Said to Explore Takeover Bid for Germany's Osram Licht
By Ruth David , Sarah Syed , and Eyk Henning
November 27, 2018, 3:28 AM CST Updated on November 27, 2018, 4:05 AM CST
Shares of Osram soar, taking market value to 3.9 billion euros
Other private equity firms are also eyeing the ex-Siemens unit
SIEMENS AG-REG
102.08EUR-0.74-0.72%
Bain Capital is exploring a takeover bid for German lighting-products manufacturer Osram Licht AG, which has a market value of almost 3.9 billion euros ($4.4 billion), according to people with knowledge of the matter.
The private equity firm is working with financial advisers in assessing the business, the people said, asking not to be identified because the deliberations are private. Other potential suitors including rival buyout firms are also eyeing the former Siemens AG unit, though the interest may not ultimately result in a deal, they said. Osram shares soared by the most in more than five years.
Representatives for Osram and Bain declined to comment.
Shares of the German manufacturer had plummeted more than 50 percent this year as a slowdown in the lighting business and dampened demand for headlights from global automakers triggered two profit warnings and a muted outlook for the next financial year. The company has signaled its interest in selling two underperforming units -- lighting fixtures and U.S. services -- as it seeks to reorganize operations and boost earnings.
Siemens exited the business a year ago, selling its remaining 17 percent stake in Osram for about 1.2 billion euros.
Osram shares climbed as much as 19.6 percent -- the most since July 2013 -- before trading up 18 percent to 39.82 euros as of 10:56 a.m. in Frankfurt trading.
— With assistance by Dinesh Nair |
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| From: slacker711 | 11/28/2018 7:11:21 AM | | | | | | Oak Ridge Inches Closer to 15-?Minute Wireless EV Charging
But the team must further scale their 120-kilowatt wireless charging system for electric vehicles in order to meet the U.S. Department of Energy’s goal
By Mark Anderson
spectrum.ieee.org
snip..............................................
To beam wireless power from a floor unit to a power receiver unit in an EV, separated by some six inches of open air, means rapidly oscillating the electric and magnetic fields in the coil, inducing similar behavior in the receiving coil in the EV. Practically speaking, Ozpineci says, that means pumping out 120 kilowatts through oscillating currents at some 22,000 cycles per second (i.e., 22 kilohertz).
“The problem is typically we have silicon devices, and when we go to higher power levels, you cannot run them at higher switching frequencies,” he says. “At 10 kW, you can switch at 20 kHz. But when you go up to 100 kW and beyond, you have to reduce your switching frequency—because of thermal issues, because of the device response, because of a number of things.”
But transferring higher power levels at high efficiency demands higher switching frequencies. So this effectively means both swapping out silicon for more robust (and more expensive) silicon carbide and strengthening the coils on both sending and receiving ends of the power exchange.
Tesla’s Model 3 also uses silicon carbide electronics, Ozpineci says. So the Oak Ridge technology’s reliance on the material is not unprecedented in EV systems. On the other hand, they admit their 100-pound (45-kilogram) coil needs some refining and optimizing before it could ever be scaled out into a production-quality design.
Then, they must produce three times more power from their design to reach the Energy Department’s 350- to 400-kW target. Ozpineci says it’s a work in progress, but he suspects there will have to be multiple power modules in any 350-kW or more wireless supercharger.
“We’re able to use single power modules,” he says of the current 120-kW unit. “We’re at the limit or almost at the limit of these power modules. When you go to anything beyond that, we’ll have to either parallel these modules, or we have to have two inverters in parallel. And when you do that, you have a lot more challenges of running these things in sync.” |
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| From: slacker711 | 11/29/2018 3:04:06 PM | | | | | | Macom thinks that the RF power market for 5G base stations will triple versus 4G . They are pushing GaN on silicon as the solution...interesting to hear a competitor say that the opportunity is much larger than can serviced by announced SiC fabs.
seekingalpha.com
Gallium nitride is acceptably a requirement for 5G base stations due to its superior efficiency and power density at the higher 5G frequency bands. Forecast from our top base station customers show a strong surge in RF power semiconductor content, both in dollars and especially in wafer consumption through 2023 for 5G. We're talking 3 times greater demand in 5G than the previous 4G LTE cycle. We therefore believe that the billion-dollar RF power market is poised to triple over the next few years on the back of GaN in 5G base stations.
Billion-dollar markets require high-volume semiconductor fabs. With the dramatic increase in wafer demand for 5G, it's imperative that the industry has high-volume sources for GaN production. Like STMicro's battery where we're sourcing GaN in Catania and Sicily. Catania is an order of magnitude greater in scale output than the world's largest compound semi fabs.
Upon entering the 5G cycle with ownership of the fundamental patents, we're now more excited than ever about this opportunity for the following reasons. First, we can see GaN on Silicon in existing high-volume silicon fabs to fulfill the 5G build-out. Even the most optimistic plans for GaN on Silicon Carbide factory expansion announced by silicon carbide leaders can service but a small fraction of that 5G demand. Second, the higher frequency bands or modest power requirements and targeted price points of 5G massive MIMO antennas line up ideally with the properties of GaN on Silicon substrates.
Third, this is a different class of product than the high-powered transistors that were used in 4G LTE. These are 5G MMICs that don't require the back-end operations infrastructure of incumbent LDMOS suppliers. So we're playing on home turf in 5G. MACOM's GaN on Silicon is fully proven, validated and qualified with our customer base and now enjoys executive level sponsorship for adoption. In some cases, we're already in production with initial programs. |
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| From: slacker711 | 11/30/2018 9:20:05 AM | | | | | | Analysts at JP Morgan downgraded Cree, Inc. (NASDAQ: CREE) from Neutral to Underweight.
Cree shares fell 0.28 percent to close at $45.96 on Thursday. |
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| From: slacker711 | 12/4/2018 7:35:29 AM | | | | | | These use GaN on silicon but it is still interesting to see. I wonder how many markets GaN on SiC can enter if prices come down.
theverge.com
RavPower’s tiny 45W gallium nitride charger almost sits flush with your wall
Here come the GaN chargers
By Sam Byford@345triangle Dec 4, 2018, 7:00am EST
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I did not expect wall chargers to be a hot tech topic as we close out 2018, but here we are. Gallium nitride (GaN) is a term you’re going to start hearing a lot more of; it’s spoken of by some as a replacement for silicon, although so far that is mostly manifesting itself in extremely small USB-C Power Delivery (PD) chargers. Which, well, are cool in their own way.
Anker was the first to get much attention in this field with its regular iPhone brick-sized 27W “Atom” GaN charger, with a larger two-port 60W charger set to come down the line. Now RavPower, a similar company to Anker in that it makes a wide range of affordable, well-regarded charging products, has entered the GaN arena with a 45W charger.
RavPower’s design takes a totally different approach to Anker’s. It’s a single-port charger that focuses on thinness above all else — it only protrudes about half an inch from the wall, and the USB-C port is on the edge, meaning you can easily run the cable behind furniture or tuck it out of the way. When the prongs are folded away, you’re left with a tiny brick that’s about the size of a tin of mints and no less pocketable.
ravpower
RavPower’s 45W GaN USB-C PD charger (top) alongside Apple’s 29W USB-C MacBook charger.
With 45 watts of power and USB-C PD, this is enough to charge a new MacBook Air or Nintendo Switch with ease, as well as fast-charging iPad Pros and newer iPhones. RavPower claims that it’ll charge a 12-inch MacBook in 2 hours, which I put to the test myself. I didn’t think the charger was going to make it at first, as the MacBook was only 18 percent full after half an hour, but speed picked up dramatically after that and the MacBook battery reached 60 percent after an hour then 100 percent in under 115 minutes. The macOS system report only stated that the charger was pulling 30W from the wall, however, in accordance with Apple’s guidance that higher-wattage power adapters don’t offer faster charging.
Overall, this is a great alternative to Apple’s own 29 or 30W MacBook chargers, which together with a USB-C-to-Lightning cable are also the only official iPhone fast-charging solution you can buy. The Ravpower’s footprint is a little bigger, but the design makes it easier to carry and less intrusive in actual use than Apple’s — and it delivers significantly more power to devices that need it.
Right now the RavPower 45W charger is selling for $51.99 at Amazon, $2 more than Apple’s 30W model. Meanwhile, Anker’s PowerPort Atom PD 1 is only $29.99 and will probably be the better option if you don’t need a slimline design or more than 27 watts. Unfortunately, it isn’t available just yet — it was supposed to go on sale in late November, but that doesn’t seem to have transpired.
In any case, the bottom line is this: gallium nitride technology is a game changer for wall chargers, and you can expect to see it become widespread over the next year or two. The days of chunky wall warts could soon be at an end. |
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| From: OldAIMGuy | 12/4/2018 11:26:34 AM | | | | | | Last month CREE dipped far enough to trigger a buy of some extra shares. Today, the rebound was enough
to trigger a sell of some of those shares. That generated nearly a 36% LIFO gain, if one's counting.
I now have more shares and more cash in reserve than four years ago when I started this holding. The first
three years were some low wattage but the last year has been "illuminating." |
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| From: slacker711 | 12/18/2018 8:49:04 AM | | | | | | Cree's LED head departs the company in latest management shakeup
bizjournals.com
Cree headquarters, Durham, N.C.
Enlarge
Cree headquarters, Durham, N.C.
By Lauren K. Ohnesorge – Senior Staff Writer, Triangle Business Journal
a day ago
Another management shuffle at Cree – and this time it’s the Durham semiconductor firm’s LED products division.
David Emerson, longtime executive vice president and general manager of the unit, “stepped down” effective Dec. 10, the company said in a securities filing Friday. In his stead, four-year Cree veteran Claude Demby has been appointed senior vice president and general manager of LED products. Demby was formerly senior vice president of strategy and corporate development. Prior to Cree, he was CEO of Noel Group.
Cree has gone through multiple leadership changes since CEO Gregg Lowe arrived at the company last year.
Top lighting executives – including Daniel Castillo, then-president of the lighting division – left in 2017. As did Frank Plastina, once head of the firm’s Wolfspeed subsidiary. Earlier this year, the company announced a new CFO in Neill Reynolds, replacing longtime CFO Mike McDevitt. And in October, the company named Darren Jackson as its new board chairman.
But the biggest change has been the strategy shift. Cree, whose previous CEO had envisioned it as a lighting-focused company, is putting more of a priority on Wolfspeed, its power and radio frequency device subsidiary. Lowe has said that Wolfspeed, the smallest of the firm’s three units, would soon surpass lighting and LED products in revenue.
Emerson moved into the role of vice president and general manager of LEDs back in 2013 under then-CEO Chuck Swoboda.
A Cree representative did not immediately return a request for more information on Emerson's departure.
Cree closed Friday at $43.52, down 3 percent. |
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