Microsemi Working on New LED Chip
Irvine Sensors Corp., the 21-year-old Costa Mesa electronics maker, has been busy trying to secure more government funding for its year-old bid to develop a new “super-router.”
The company says it wants additional government money to develop a new device that can handle many times the Internet traffic that present-day routers do. It also sees the super-router handling bandwidth-chewing applications such as video.
Any new funding would be in addition to the $3 million grant Irvine Sensors received from the government when the effort for the new router was unveiled nearly a year ago.
While a prototype for the new product won’t be available for at least a year, the company says it is in talks with several networking gear makers,including Cisco Systems Inc.,to ensure the commercial viability of a new router.
Irvine Sensors hopes to reap the benefits if and when orders come in for the new router.
The company also has brought in a new executive to manage one of its subsidiaries.
The company recently brought in William Patton, a former Unisys Corp. official, to take over the company’s floundering Silicon Film Technologies Inc. unit, which makes a type of film that allows digital photos to be taken with a traditional camera.
A source close to Irvine Sensors says Silicon Film didn’t have the leadership it needed and Patton, an executive noted for his turn-around work, would provide it.
“Mr. Patton is a computer industry executive with many years of senior executive and management experience in high-technology companies. Most recently he has concentrated on serving on the boards of such companies that are in the ‘turn-around’ mode, or otherwise are in need of directors with senior management experience,” the company said in a statement.
Microsemi Teams for LED
Irvine chipmaker Microsemi Corp. recently joined with Raleigh, N.C.-based Nitronex Corp. to make a new type of light-emitting diode chip.
An LED is a type of display chip that lights up when an electrical charge passes through it. LED displays usually are red and commonly are used in alarm clocks, car stereos and other electronics.
The display on the device being made by Microsemi and Nitronex is blue and ultraviolet and is expected to reduce the power used in battery-operated mobile phones, handheld computers and other appliances.
“As our customers in mobile phones and (personal digital assistants) are in pursuit of new lighting methods, we developed a strategy to once again be ready to provide them with a complete system engineered approach. We streamline their design time and bring about optimized battery power consumption,” said Manuel Lynch, vice president for business development at Microsemi.
Executives at Microsemi and Nitronex expect samples of the first blue flip-chip hermetic glass LED to be available near the end of the year. Initial pricing will be comparable to the present competition, the companies said.
Softbank, Rainbow in Venture
Irvine-based Rainbow Technologies Inc. and Softbank EC Holdings Corp., a unit of Japan’s Softbank Corp., said they are linking to offer computer security products.
The new company, Rainbow Technologies-K.K, is set to be based in Tokyo and plans to market Rainbow’s products in Asia.
Under the pact, Rainbow Technologies-K.K. also plans to provide Rainbow’s hardware-based Internet security products through Softbank’s distribution channels.
“As increasing numbers of Japanese companies conduct business transactions over the Internet, the need for authenticating users, companies and transactions across international borders will become a significant requirement for these organizations,” said Ken Miyauchi, chief executive of Softbank EC Holdings.
New Page for Printronix
Just after printer maker Printronix Inc. pulled the cover off what it calls the world’s fastest industrial printer, the Irvine-based company announced it posted a profit for the quarter ended June 29.
The company reported net income of $519,000 on revenue of $39.6 million for the three months. Compared to a year ago, revenue was flat while net income came in at $113,000. Printronix chalks up the improved profit to spending controls.
Earlier this month, Printronix released its P5220 industrial printer, which the company says cranks out 2,000 lines per minute.
Cometisys Opens Up
Irvine-based Competisys Corp., which installs fiber wiring into homes and manages residential utilities, opened its first home in the Bay area with integrated broadband, telephone and video. The connection is about 1,000 times as fast as most basic broadband connections now.
The company had been working to bring the home online since last November, when the company said it had struck a deal with the Northern California city of American Canyon to install and manage residential utilities,all the way from telephone and Internet to electricity and gas.
