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Technology Stocks : MRV Communications (MRVC) opinions? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: signist who wrote (9837)	8/3/1998 1:44:00 AM
From: signist	Respond to of 42804

more AXTI...If anyone is interested American Xtal Technology, Inc. uses a proprietary vertical gradient freeze ("VGF") technique to produce high-performance compound semiconductor base materials, or substrates, for use in a variety of electronic and opto-electronic applications. The Company primarily manufactures and sells compound semiconductor substrates composed of gallium arsenide ("GaAs"). Sales of GaAs substrates accounted for 94.9% and 78.3% of the Company's product revenues for the year ended December 31, 1997 and the three months ended March 31, 1998, respectively. The Company also manufactures and sells indium phosphide ("InP") and germanium ("Ge") substrates and is currently developing other high-performance compound substrates such as gallium phosphide ("GaP") and gallium nitride ("GaN"). The Company manufactures substrates from crystals grown using the Company's proprietary VGF technique and then slices the substrates into wafers. The Company's substrates are sold to semiconductor device manufacturers for use in applications such as wireless and fiber optic telecommunications, lasers, light-emitting diodes ("LEDs"), satellite solar cells and consumer electronics. The Company's customers include EMCORE Corporation ("EMCORE"), Hewlett Packard Company ("Hewlett Packard"), Motorola, Inc. ("Motorola"), NEC Kansai, Ltd. ("NEC"), Nortel, Siemens AG ("Siemens"), Sony Corporation ("Sony"), Spectrolab, Inc. (a Hughes Electronics Company) ("Spectrolab") and TRW, Inc. ("TRW"). In recent years, semiconductor device manufacturers have increasingly utilized substrates other than silicon to improve the performance of semiconductor devices or to enable new applications. These alternative substrates are composed of a single element such as Ge, or multiple elements which may include, among others, gallium, aluminum, indium, arsenic, phosphorus and nitrogen. Substrates that consist of more than one element are referred to as "compound substrates" and include GaAs, InP, GaP and GaN. GaAs is currently the most widely used compound substrate. Compound substrates have electrical properties which allow semiconductor devices to operate at much higher speeds than silicon-based devices or at the same speed with lower power consumption. For example, electrons move up to five times faster in GaAs than in silicon. Compound substrates also have better opto-electronic characteristics than silicon which enable them to convert energy into light and lasers, or to detect light and convert light into electrical energy. The Company believes that its proprietary VGF technique, which it has developed over the past 11 years, provides certain significant advantages over traditional manufacturing methods for growing crystals for the production of high-performance semiconductor substrates. The Company believes that its proprietary technique produces high-quality crystals which are characterized by greater physical and chemical uniformity and fewer defects than crystals grown by competing methods. This often results in substrates with lower breakage rates, which increases manufacturing yields and reduces manufacturing costs for the Company and its customers. The Company believes that it is currently the only high-volume supplier of GaAs substrates manufactured by using the VGF technique and is positioned to become a leading manufacturer and supplier of other high-performance substrates.

To: signist who wrote (9837)	8/3/1998 12:20:00 PM
From: Robert G. Harrell	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42804

John, I'm not at all technically gifted but I used to own VTSS, a big GaAs chip maker. I'm pretty sure Dan Spillane, one time guru of this thread and also a former VTSS owner, ascertained that MRVC uses GaAs chips made by VTSS. Galium arsenide chips are not a threat to MRVC. They are a product used by MRVC. Incidentally, one of the last topics Dan S. was excited about before he seemingly dropped out of sight, was a new medium for chips even faster than GaAs. I believe it is silicon germanium and ATML acquired the company that has the technology. I believe they already have products using this material ready for market. I'm watching ATML carefully because they might become the next VTSS, which I sold way too soon. Bob