Fox Group announces its new family of 350nm Ultraviolet LEDs
June 28, 2006The Fox Group Inc. Signs 2nd License for its Silicon Carbide patents
July 14, 2008Monday, 12 May 2008 22:00
The Fox Group Inc. Licenses Out its Silicon Carbide patents
Montréal, CANADA, May 9, 2008 — The Fox Group Inc. is pleased to announce the signing of a nonexclusive license agreement with a European company for certain Fox Group patents related to silicon carbide and bulk growth of compound semiconductor crystals.
“With our focus on UV LEDs, Fox Group has discontinued product development in silicon carbide and has recently decided to offer rights to our silicon carbide-related patents,” said Mr. Barney O’Meara, President and CEO of Fox Group. “Our scientists made significant R&D breakthroughs in the late 1990s that resulted in silicon carbide with no micropipes and very low defect density. Fox Group owns key patents covering low-defect single crystal silicon carbide material having less than a specific level of defects, that is, patents for the material itself, regardless of the method of manufacture or of the equipment used.”
Dr. Heikki Helava, Fox Group’s CTO, added, “The silicon carbide industry has steadily improved the quality of commercially-available wafers so that the best silicon carbide now being sold appears to fall within the scope of these patents, as determined by independent testing.”
O’Meara continued, “We cannot divulge details of the license agreement, except to say that it is nonexclusive and includes sales-based royalties. We have been in contact with most silicon carbide manufacturers worldwide, and have met and discussed terms with more than half a dozen
companies. Several of them have inquired about an exclusive license or outright purchase of this patent portfolio. We expect to conclude further patent rights agreements in the near future.”
Low defect density silicon carbide is starting to be used in the production of top-performance power semiconductor devices, such as MOSFETs, HEMTs, JFETs, BJTs, and Schottky barrier and PIN diodes for applications such as power control and correction (inverters, converters, etc.). While the RF, optoelectronics, and detector markets can currently make do with higher defect levels, all silicon carbide manufacturers are working to produce better and better material.
O’Meara added “By the time the silicon carbide-based device market reaches $1 Billion annually – which is expected to occur within five years, for all applications combined – we believe that virtually all silicon carbide will be low defect and fall within the claims of our patents.”
About The Fox Group Inc.
Founded in 1999, Fox Group is a privately held US corporation with a wholly owned subsidiary in Montreal, Canada, devoted to production of FoxUV™ LEDs having peak wavelengths of 350-365nm, to replace mercury-containing UV lamps and to enable numerous new applications.
For further press information, please contact:
The Fox Group Inc.
Mr. Barney O’Meara, President & CEO
Tel: (540) 987-8271
bomeara@thefoxgroupinc.com
www.thefoxgroupinc.com or www.uvleds.com
Last updated Tuesday, 28 April 2009 07:58