Life on the Silicon Frontier in the 60s was pretty wild as Phil Ferguson, co-founder of MOS pioneer General Microelectronics, told National CEO Charlie Sporck, recounted in Sporck’s book SPINOFF: “There was a lot of partying. there was a party one time we had with people who shall remain nameless. A bunch of them flew ...
Read full article: Party-Time On The Silicon Frontier
Foxconn has ten ‘lights out’ fully automated production lines at its Chinese factories and is increasing automation levels on other lines by deploying 10,000 new robots a year, reports Digitimes. Foxconn makes its own robots which it calls Foxbots. It has already installed 40,000 at its Factories. Foxconn’s eventual aim is to automate entire factories ...
Read full article: Foxconn automating its production lines
Although the semiconductor industry was flat in terms of revenues, the Philadelphia SOX is up 34% on the year from 88 in January to 124 yesterday. The SOX has been driven by continued M&A, continued growth in data centres and increasing demand for automotive ICs as cars get increasingly automated and connected. Other potential drivers ...
Read full article: SOX up 34% in a no-growth year
Scientists at Stanford University and the US Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have discovered a way to use diamondoids to make electrical wires which are three atoms thick. “What we have shown here is that we can make tiny, conductive wires of the smallest possible size that essentially assemble themselves,” says Stanford’s Hao ...
Read full article: Stanford researchers make nanowires three atoms thick
Automation will kill off 15 million jobs in the next 20 years says a report from the indtitute for Public Policy Research (IPPR). The report says that 2 million jobs in retail will disappear by 2020, and 600,000 will go in manufacturing. Robot-owners will get rich and displaced workers will get poorer – much like ...
Read full article: Automation to kill 15m jobs in 20 years
It’s been a turbulent year and, like all turbulent times, it has been been very revealing about the truth of how things are. Brexit revealed that the Euro-elite are ideologues who think it more important to keep the four freedoms intact than to ensure the prosperity and safety of Europeans. The US election campaign revealed ...
Read full article: Revelations
This is a belated Christmas gift for SEPAM though I expect he’s seen it already – the Amazon patent for a flying warehouse unearthed by Zoe of CB Insights. The airship-borne warehouse flies at up to 45,000 feet and drones go back and forth delivering stuff to and from it. Filed in 2014, the patent ...
Read full article: Amazon’s Flying Fulfilment Ventre
There was once a Auschwitz prisoner who was liberated by the US army who then enlisted as a soldier and applied himself to mechanical repair work. Later he started a machine repair business which morphed into a typewriter sales business, then into adding machines, calculators and, finally, computers. He based his computers on the 6502 ...
Read full article: Fable: An Inspiration
What a week for Toshiba shares – down 12% on Tuesday, 20% on Wednesday and 17% today. 40% down since the 26th. However Toshiba shares did very well in 2016 riding 70% in the year up to Dec 26. But Toshiba’ solvency is now being questioned and banks which have lent to Toshiba are seeing ...
Read full article: Toshiba hammered
At the end of 2016, there are 183 unicorns in the world ‘worth’ a collective $652 billion, reports CB Insights. Here is the list. Those joining the unicorn herd in December are: Huochebsng China. Global Switch UK Careen Networks UAE JetSmarter USA Procore Technologies USA Companies which are predicted by CB Insights to join the ...
Read full article: Growing Unicorn Herd
Forecasts for the 2017 semiconductor market are beginning to trickle in and, on the whole, they are much more positive than in the last three years. The last two years have shown no growth at all. Mike Cowan predicts 4.7% growth for 2017; WSTS predicts 3.3%; Bill McLean’s IC Insights predicts 4%; Bill Jewell’s Semiconductor ...
Read full article: Semi forecasts bullish
As forecast, there has been a hike in wafer prices across the board. The Taiwan newspaper Commercial Times reports that contract prices for 12 inch wafers have been negotiated 10% higher for Q1 2017. The suppliers named are: GlobalWafers, Formosa Sumco Technology, distributor Topco Scientific, Shin-Etsu Handotai, Sumco and distributor Topco Scientific. The 10% hike ...
Read full article: 10% hike for Q1 wafer prices
Electronics Weekly talks to Daniel Cooley, general manager of the IoT products business at Silicon Labs. I know you have IP for low power processors and sensor networks; what do you see as the big potential applications for these IoT technologies? Daniel Cooley: The range of Internet of Things end-node applications is virtually unlimited, extending ...
Read full article: The IoT interview: Silicon Labs v-p Dan Cooley
I love the story of the farmer’s wife in Cumbria who found her internet cut off so she installed her own fibre network and, what’s more, FTTH. It is in the good old tradition of country people who do stuff themselves rather than endure the often inordinately long wait for the regular suppliers to show ...
Read full article: The Farmer’s Wife
There are two main worries about the effect of Brexit on UK start-ups – will the UK still be able to attract and epretsin the best twlent and will the EIF refuce its start-up investment. This is the conclusion of a report by CB Insights. At the moment the UK is the best place in ...
Read full article: Talent Poaching, EIF Strategy, Threaten UK Start-Ups Post-Brexit
Yesterday, China’s National Space Administration announced an ambitious programme designed to make China one of the Big Three space powers alongside the USA and Russia. China aims to launch an unmanned Mars probe in 2020, and accomplish soft moon landings in 2017 and 2018, of which the second will be on the far side of ...
Read full article: China plans ambitious space programme
Korea has fined Qualcomm $854 million for abuse of a dominant market position. Korea says Qualcomm used its position to impose excessive licensing fees on Korean smartphone makers. Korea fined Qualcomm $200 million in 2009 for the same offence. Last year Qualcomm paid China $975 million for the same thing. Qualcomm is also a facing ...
Read full article: Qualcomm slapped with $854 million fine by Korea
Tencent, the Chinese internet investment company, NavInfo, the Chinese digital mapping company and GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, have bought 10% of HERE, the digital mapping company which Nokia sold to Audi, BMW and Daimler-Benz for $3 billion last year. The price is not disclosed. The three German car makers will reduce their stakes equally ...
Read full article: Audi/BMW/Daimler sell 10% stake in HERE to China and Singapore
92% of UK engineers are men and 94% are white, says a report by the Royal Academy of Engineering. In a startling report the RAEng finds that, despite the need to double the number of engineering graduates, hardly any are women or from ethnic minorities. While 71% of white engineering graduates were in full-time jobs ...
Read full article: 92% of UK engineers are men and 94% are white.
Half of the semiconductor executives surveyed by KPMG in its 2017 Outlook Report, expect revenue to grow and R&D spending to increase over the next three years, which is less than last year when the vast majority predicted revenue growth and R&D spending increases in the three-year outlook. “These are signs of a maturing industry, ...
Read full article: Fewer semi execs expect revenue and R&D growth in next three years. KPMG survey,
Here they are – the ten best semiconductor CEOs of 2016: Jen-Hsun Huang Ming-Kai Tsai Syed Ali Moshe Gavrielov Jalal Bagherli Sanjay Jha Reinhard Ploss Oh-Hyun Kwon Po Wen Yen Leo Li
Read full article: Ten Best Chip CEOs 2016
Lovotics has come up with a device it calls Kissenger which can transmit a kiss via your mobile phone. ‘Kissenger provides a novel way of transferring a kiss through interactive digital media. It provides a physical interface enabling kiss communication for several applications facilitating intimate human tele-presence with the real and virtual worlds,’ says the ...
Read full article: A Kiss Is Just A Kiss
MICROWAVE BATTLE IN USA Operators and equipment makers take sides. This, 56 years ago, was a headline in Electronics Weekly’s edition of October 12th 1960. The story opens. The US Federal Communications Commission has confirmed its 1959 decision to license any private group to operate microwave systems in the frequency band above 890 Mc/s. The ...
Read full article: Network Operators vs. Equipment Makers
Here’s a video going the rounds – Intel’s boss is told his modem is a screw-up: Wishing everyone many more laughs over the holidays and a Very Merry Christmas
Read full article: A Laugh For Christmas
Tom Watson senior, founder of IBM, wasn’t initially keen on the notion of electronic computing – it was Tom Watson junior who pushed that – but the old boy knew how to sell it. He put the machine, called the Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator (SSEC), in the lobby of IBM’s HQ at 590 Madison Ave ...
Read full article: How Tom Watson Popularised Electronic Computing
ARM licensee Silicon Labs is confident that the change of ownership at the Cambridge-based processor firm earlier this year will not be a problem. In fact, ARM’s role in embedded low power microcontroller applications could become even stronger. Daniel Cooley, general manager of the IoT business at Silicon Labs expects the change of ownership at ARM to have a ...
Read full article: SoftBank will make ARM more important for IoT, says Silicon Labs
Samsung and TSMC have been hit by poor yields on their 10nm processes, reports Digitimes. With TSMC scheduled to begin 10nm production for Apple in Q1, this could be a problem for the Apple A10 and A11 processors processors required, respectively, for the new iPad generation an the iPhone 8. Production of the A11 is ...
Read full article: Samsung, TSMC hit by poor 10nm yields
Honda is talking to Google about teaming up with Google’s autonomous car unit, Waymo. Google put its autonomous car operation in a separate unit earlier this year after deciding not to pursue the development of its own autonomous car but continue with the development of driverless car technologies. In that respect it is hoping to ...
Read full article: Honda and Waymo looking at autonomous car alliance
Imec has joined the Google Cloud Platform for Startups programme which provides financial support for the coaching and training of entrepreneurs establishing tech businesses. Joining the Google programme expands the support the imec.istart program is able to provide to its startups and will further stimulate early stage startups to develop and market their innovative applications ...
Read full article: Imec joins Google cloud for start-ups
The USA has 98 Unicorns which have raised a combined $67 billion and are worth a collective $372 billion, says CB Insights. Nine of the Unicorns are worth over $10 billion. The most valuable are Uber ($68 billion ), Airbnb ($30 billion), and Palantir ($20 billion), and all of them are located in California, the ...
Read full article: USA Has 98 Unicorns Worth $372bn
There was once a semiconductor CEO who had a great idea while sitting on a plane. Luckily, sitting next to him, was the guy who could deliver it – his company’s star engineer. The idea was a pocket radio which. The engineer built the radio and the CEO told his marketing guy “to contact every ...
Read full article: Fable: The CEO Who Seeded A Market
5G mobile technologies and the impact they are expected to have on the connected world of billions of IoT devices will be a big theme at CES 2017, which takes place in Las Vegas next month. Gary Shapiro, president and CEO, CTA, which organises the exhibition, writes: “From the Internet of Things, to virtual reality to self-driving ...
Read full article: CES: Ericsson, 20th Century Fox and BMW talk 5G
Is it possible, a smart watch that is powered by body heat? Wearable healthcare and fitness monitors are expected to be important IoT applications. But manufacturers are just scratching the surface of what wearables can do, and often compromise one consumer demand for another. So one interesting announcement at CES 2017 exhibition next month will come ...
Read full article: CES: Super-low power processor takes battery out of smartwatch
Hynix is capitalising on the shortage and rising ASPs of memory by investing $2.7 billion in NAND fabs in Korea and China. “In order to grow further, it is important to secure production facilities in advance to deal with NAND Flash market growth to be led by 3D NAND solutions,” says Hynix. $1.8 billion will ...
Read full article: Hynix making $2.7bn bet on NAND market
Antenova, the Hatfield antenna specialist, is launching a series of tools and resources to help product designers successfully integrate antennas onto new PCB designs, with the aim of making antenna integration simpler and faster for all designers. From today, the company is offering a free Antenna Transmission Line Calculator tool to help designers calculate the ...
Read full article: Antenova puts design tools on-line
Valencell, a biometric data sensor technology developer, and ST have launched a kit for biometric wearables that includes ST’s SensorTile multi-sensor module integrated with Valencell’s Benchmark biometric sensor system. SensorTile is an IoT module, measuring 13.5 square millimeters, which incorporates an STM32L4 microcontroller, a Bluetooth Low Energy chipset, accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, pressure sensor, temperature sensor, ...
Read full article: ST and Valencell produce biometric wearables development kit
Infineon is shipping volume quantities of its first radiation hardened MOSFETs based on the proprietary N-channel R9 technology platform. Compared to previous technologies it is offering size, weight and power improvements. This is significant in systems such as high-throughput satellites, where the cost-per-bit-ratio can be significantly reduced. The 100 V, 35 A MOSFETs are ideally ...
Read full article: Infineon shipping rad-hard Mosfets
The semiconductor market will grow at 8% next year, says Semiconductor Intelligence. After 11.6% growth in Q3, companies are expecting a flattish Q4. For 2016 the outlook is flat, just as it was in 2015. Q4 looks weak based on the guidance from the above companies. Six companies projected declines in Q4 revenue based on ...
Read full article: IC market to grow 8% next year, says Semiconductor Intelligence
The Uber financials are the strangest ever seen. Of course no one outside Uber has seen them but that hasn’t stopped a leak tsunami. In the first half Uber was reported to have lost $1.4 billion, losing $580 million in Q1, well over $800 million in Q2 and $800 million in Q3. The expectation is ...
Read full article: Scuba Uber
At this week’s International Congress on Love and Sex with Robots at Goldsmith’s, University of London, the Japanese Geminoid F robot was voted the world’s sexiest humanoid. Here she is: Congressional delegates were told that robots might take over supplying most of the sex in future with human engagements confined to special occasions. There were ...
Read full article: The World’s Sexiest Robot
Intel will step up its offensive to become a force in all areas of the consumer electronics market at the CES 2017 exhibition in Las Vegas next month. In an attempt to offset its continuing dominate of the computing market – both consumer and enterprise – the processor firm will present its views on applications ...
Read full article: CES: Intel says server healthcare is vital for reliable IoT
The memory msrket will grow 10% next year, says IC Insights, and will be worth $85.3 billion as a result of ASP rises in DRAM and NAND. After increasing by more than 20% in both 2013 and 2014, the memory market fell upon difficult times in 2015, saysvIC Insights. Conditions that would normally be seen ...
Read full article: Memory market to grow 10%, says IC Insights
element14 has launched a new Design Challenge for designers and engineers called ‘Safe and Sound’, sponsored by TI. element14 will challenge 15 community members to design a personal safety-oriented wearable device or solution that protects a person from personal and environmental risks, monitors personal health or protects personal property from theft. The application areas for ...
Read full article: Element14 and TI launch wearables challenge.
The government is expected to tighten up on drone use with criminal offences created for people flying drones in no-fly areas. “Some are not aware of the rules or choose to break them putting public safety, privacy and security at risk,” says Avistion Minister Lord Ahmad. A crime of drone misuse could be created. Already, ...
Read full article: Government to tighten up drone laws
AR and VR headsets unit shipments will grow enjoy 108% CAGR between 2015 and 2020, says IDC. The 2020 market is expected to have 76 million unit sales with VR shipping units than AR because it’s cheaper at the moment. More competition and cheaper technology is expected to change that. IDC looks at three headset ...
Read full article: 108% growth for AR/VR headsets
Toshiba has launched JEDEC eMMC Version 5.1 compliant embedded NAND flash memory products supporting AEC-Q100 Grade2 requirements. The line-up offers densities of 8GB, 16GB, 32GB and 64GB. Sample shipments start from today with mass production scheduled for Q2 2017. The products integrate NAND chips fabricated with 15nm process technology with a controller to manage basic ...
Read full article: Toshiba sampling eMMC embedded auto NAND
Thanks to IDC for this one, the ten biggest cloud infrastructure suppliers in Q2: $ ODM direct 1.5bn HP 1.3bn Dell 1bn Cisco 846m EMC 534m Lenovo 258m NetApo 251m IBM 229m Huawei. 226m Inspur 196m
Read full article: Top Ten Cloud Infrastructure Suppliers
Infineon has issued a statement that it’s lawsuit with Macom is not settled as some Macom statements might suggest. The court has made no decision on the merits, says a Infineon, Macom has neither won the case nor is settlement imminent. The lawsuit should determine whether Macom continues to be licensed to certain Infineon Americas ...
Read full article: Infineon clarifies Macom lawsuit situation
With China supposed to be about to flood the world with NAND, this looks like an extraordnarily bad time to invest in a NAND fab. But this is what Seagate is said to be about to do. Apparently encouraged by the example of its storage rival Western Digital, which bought SanDisk to secure NAND supplies ...
Read full article: Why invest In NAND?
At the CES 2017 exhibition in Las Vegas next month, German printed electronics firm Heliatek is presenting its HeliaFilm technology for building integrated organic photovoltaic cells for widespread urban installations. The significance of HeliaFilm is that it integrates the PV panels as part of the building. In this way the energy generation can be distributed around industrial and commercial buildings which will be smartly connected with ...
Read full article: CES: Solar cells integrated into IoT-connected buildings
Nearly 3 million VR devices will be shipped this year and 5 million next year, says TrendForce. Biggest seller is Play Station VR followed by Facebook’s Oculus Rift and HTC’s Vie. All three devices have been hit by low production yields and component shortages, says TrendForce which estimates that 2.91 million units will ship this ...
Read full article: 2.9m VR units shipped in 2016, says TrendForce
Qualcomm has joined them thee Xen Project which promotes ARM-based server technologies. “Qualcomm Technologies is committed to supporting many open source communities that power the foundation of hyperscale cloud computing, including Xen Project,” says Qualcomm’s Elsie Wahlig, “as an advisory board member and through our code contributions, we are working to continue to make the ...
Read full article: Qualcomm joins Xen Project
Indigo Diabetes, a spin-off from Ghent University (UGent) and Imec, has raised a €7 million series-A financing round. The funding is provided by an international investment syndicate led by Thuja Capital Healthcare Fund II (The Netherlands) and PMV (Belgium), and includes Sensinnovat, Parana Management Corp, Qbic Arkiv Fund, Fidimec, SOFI, Manuardeo and Capricorn ICT Arkiv ...
Read full article: Imec diabetes spin-off raises €7m.
The worldwide semiconductor market is forecasted to be $335 billion in 2016 – virtually unchanged from 2015 – and to grow 3% in 2017 and 2% in 2018 to reach $354 billion in 2018, reports WSTS. For 2016, growth in Discretes (4.2%), Sensors (22.6%), Analog (4.8%) and Microprocessors is expected to be offset by declines ...
Read full article: Flat 2016, growth in 2017 and 2018, says WSTS
The worldwide semiconductor market is forecasted to be $335 billion in 2016 – virtually unchanged from 2015 – and to grow 3% in 2017 and 2% in 2018 to reach $354 billion in 2018, reports WSTS. For 2016, growth in Discretes (4.2%), Sensors (22.6%), Analog (4.8%) and Microprocessors is expected to be offset by declines ...
Read full article: Flat 2016, growth in 2017 and 2018, says WSTS
EEV CLAIM ‘FIRST’ FOR HIGH-POWER KLYSTRON. This, 56 years ago, was the headline of a story in Electronics Weekly’s edition of September 28th 1960. The story continues: A HIGH-POWER klystron claimed to be the first of its kind designed specifically for commercial radar is now being ordered for 50-cm radar equipments in Denmark , Great ...
Read full article: EEV’s Klystron The First Of Its Kind
The ‘Brexit Referendum’ has had a positive effect on the component distribution market. Despite the uncertainty created by the referendum vote in the summer, the distribution market in the UK is likely to show a better than expected 3% growth in 2016, according to the Electronic Components Supply Network (ECSN). Aubrey Dunford, market analyst at the ...
Read full article: Brexit is not all bad, says UK manufacturing market
Lockheed Martin has bought a stake in 12 year-old, ADC specialist IQ-Analog of San Diego. Last March DARPA gave IQ-Analog a $4.5 million contract to develop an ADC architecture based on “Traveling Pulse Wave Quantization” which is said to increase conversion rates at less than half the power. The technology is expected to deliver an ...
Read full article: Lockheed Invests In Revolutionary ADC Tech
A technology that could enhance both the electrical and thermal conductivity of conventional composite materials has been developed thanks to a collaboration between the University of Surrey, University of Bristol and the aerospace company Bombardier. Carbon fibre composites, composed of reinforcing carbon fibres within a plastic, have revolutionised industries that demand strong, yet light materials. ...
Read full article: Surrey University enhances conductivity of composites
10% of design engineers are still relying purely on physical prototyping rather than a combination of prototyping and simulation, says a report from 6SigmaET. This could, says 6SigmaET, add significant, unnecessary costs to their designs. The findings come from a survey of over 350 engineers working in industrial, consumer and mass-produced electronics. Rather than running ...
Read full article: Engineers rely on prototyping rather than simulation
The evolving IoT market offers product companies tremendous opportunities but presents development teams with an inevitable conflict between product complexity and project timescales, writes Stefan Ingenhaag The IoT market expects that each new product generation extends the previous generation with an innovative set of exciting new features and capabilities. However, the lifetime of each product generation has ...
Read full article: IoT sets new design rules for firms
112.3 million smartphones were sold in China in Q3, reports Digitimes Research, and 118.4 million are expected to be sold in Q4. The Q3 figure represents 30.9% of all smartphones sold in the world. Foreign companie sold 17.1 million units – 15.2% of the shipments which represented decreases of 2.8% on the quarter and 36.7% ...
Read full article: China firms extend smartphone market share
The CBI has radically changed tack from nine months ago when it predicted that the UK would lose 950,00 jobs between 2016 and 2020 as a result of Brexit. Now it is saying that two in five UK companies plan to recruit more staff in 2017. The CBI-Pertemps Network Group Employment Trends Survey found that ...
Read full article: CBI changes tack on Brexit
I’m beginning to get the hang of this governing thing, Ed confides to his diary, even a Cabinet Minister doesn’t have much direct power but I do have peripheral power – being able to put things on the government agenda and knocking things off the agenda. For instance, I seem to have scuppered the Civil ...
Read full article: Ed Looks To Boost Manufacturing Industry
Qualcomm’s first 10nm server processor is also ARM’s first 10nm server processor and an indication that at last the mobile processor specialist is being taken seriously in the server processor market. In 2017 and ARM executive in the CPU business told me the server business will become important for the processor IP firm within two years. ...
Read full article: Qualcomm makes ARM servers “a reality” at 10nm
Bo Lojek in his History of Semiconductor Engineering tells the hilarious tale of how Fairchild eventually got the revolutionary 702 op amp designed by the industry’s greatest-ever designer to the market. Bob Widlar and Dave Talbert had designed the circuit ‘semi-illegally’ i.e. without company funding or management knowledge. When management showed it to customers, customers ...
Read full article: How The 702 Got To Market
Ambiq Micro, the firm developing sub-threshold transistor-based ARM Cortex-M series processors, has come up with an IoT device with a power consumption of under 10µA/MHz. Called Apollo 2, the firm claims the chip has the potential to double the battery life in wearable devices. Scott Hanson, founder and CTO, Ambiq Micro, writes: “Our sub-threshold technology will bring a similar pace ...
Read full article: Ambiq Micro intros first sub-threshold ARM IoT chip
Hot on the wheels of the IBM/BMW announcement on cognitive computing, connected car technology is expected to be a major attraction at the CES 2017 consumer electronics exhibition in Las Vegas next month. Hardware and software companies see the connected vehicle as perhaps the most lucrative IoT application, but they know it will be a ...
Read full article: CES: Connected cars drive into Las Vegas
IBM and BMW are to investigate how cognitive computing in cars to make driver assistance systems more intuitive and personalised for each driver. It is planned to transfer machine learning techniques used in computers and mobile handsets to vehicles with driver assistance systems learning the habits of their drivers. The system will also incorporate external data such as weather conditions, route, traffic and ...
Read full article: IBM + BMW + IoT = learning cars
There are twice as many 200mm IC manufacturers as 300mm manufacturers, reports IC Insights, while the outlook for 450mm wafers is fading. Rankings of IC manufacturers by installed capacity for each of the wafer sizes are shown in Figure 1. The chart also compares the amounts of capacity held by the top 10 leaders. Figure ...
Read full article: 2x more 200mm IC makers than 300mm.
The SEMI book-to-bill ratio stayed negative for the second month in a row as November turned in a ratio of 0.96. The ratio turned negative in November at 0.91 after being 1.05 in September, 1.03 in August, 1.05 in July and 1.0 in June. November bookings were $1.55 billion – 4% up on October’s $1.49 ...
Read full article: SEMI b-to-b stays negative
GloFo has added eight new partners to its growing FD-SOI FDXcelerator Program, including Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE), Amkor, Infosys, Mentor, Rambus, Sasken, Sonics, and QuickLogic. The new partners join Synopsys, Cadence, INVECAS, VeriSilicon, CEA Leti, Dreamchip, and Encore Semi to provide a suite of services that will enable GloFo customers to implement FD-SOI SoC designs ...
Read full article: GloFo adds FD-SOI partners
ARM has acquired Allinea Software which specialises in development and performance analysis tools that maximize the efficiency of software for high performance computing (HPC) systems. Currently, 80% of the world’s top 25 supercomputers use Allinea’s tools, with key customers including the US Department of Energy, NASA, a range of supercomputing national labs and universities, and ...
Read full article: ARM buys Allinea
Analog Devices is collaborating with the China Electric Power Research Institute (CEPRI) to develop smart electrical grid technologies. The joint research programme will investigate technologies that will improve the reliability of electricity substations in a smart power grid. It will aim to identify specific reliability issues, jointly create innovative solutions, hold technical workshops, and draft international standards. Rick Hess, executive vice president, Analog ...
Read full article: ADI works with China institute on smart grid standards
Omron Electronic Components is addressing the potential need to shut-down solar panels quickly in the event of an emergency incident. This DC relay is designed to be capable of rapidly interrupting 25A at 1,000Vdc in the event of an emergency. “Rapid photovoltaic (PV) shut-down is moving from being highly desirable to mandatory in some markets ...
Read full article: Fast solar cell shut-down will be mandatory, says relay firm
We tend to think of the Yanks as being a bit more po-faced about smut than us – at least in public that is. So it was refreshing to see a pic of this sign parked outside a Boston conference hall: Maybe it’s a precursor to the robust new non-PC world of locker room banter ...
Read full article: Smut & Tech
Teledyne Technologies has agreed a £620m takeover of Essex-based image sensor and space component specialist e2v technologies. As well as being a world-leading manufacturer of CCD imagers, e2v also supplies radio devices and semiconductors for healthcare and high-reliability industrial and defense applications. “Every business within e2v is highly complementary to Teledyne. As important, there is minimal product overlap,” said ...
Read full article: US-based Teledyne agrees £620m takeover of UK space chip firm
Melexis has announced a new generation of single-chip solutions for automotive ambient lighting applications. The new configurable LIN (local interconnect network) slave LED driver ICs deliver the precise control of RGB lighting needed to personalize cabin interiors, improve driver attention and enhance the overall driving experience. Fully LIN 2.x and SAE J2602 compliant, the single-channel ...
Read full article: Melexis single-chip auto lighting ICs
ON Semiconductor has picked up two consumer semiconductor awards in the run up to CES 2017 which takes place in Las Vegas next month. The Consumer Technology Association (CTA) recognised On Semiconductor’s Ezairo 7150 SL audio processor for hearing aids along with its Smart Passive Sensor (SPS). Ezairo 7150 SL is described as “an open-programmable digital signal processing (DSP)-based hybrid, which enables ...
Read full article: CES: ON Semi saluted for Bluetooth hearing aid device
There was once a Silicon Valley guy who said of himself: I’m an engineer by training, a marketing man by background and an entrepreneur by circumstance.” When he worked as a salesman for Motorola, Fairchild noticed that their sales were lower in his territory than elsewhere because of his wine-and-dine strategy. So Fairchild bagged him ...
Read full article: Fable: The CEO Who Was Different
Cambridge Wireless has been selected by the Digital Catapult to deliver IoTUK Boost, a Government-funded programme of support to help SMEs developing internet of things (IoT) enabled services and applications using a LoRa wireless network in Cambridge. The programme aims to address barriers to entry into the IoT marketplace across the country, with the selected partners spanning from Bristol to Yorkshire. As one of six partners ...
Read full article: Cambridge to be IoT testbed using LoRa wireless network
Educational approaches to IoT security aren’t working, according to a new user survey, and there is a call for the IoT industry to do more to address device security issues. Most UK consumers are vulnerable to cyber-attackes because they do perform vital firmware updates on their PCs and connected devices. An IoT security survey from software provider Canonical ...
Read full article: Consumers not taking IoT security seriously
French research centre Leti will demonstrate a bicycle-pedal power meter costing less than $100 at CES 2017, the consumer electronics exhibition in Las Vegas next month. Dubbed Push, the pedal measures both strength applied on the pedal and pedaling cadence, and then combines them to deliver the cyclist’s power output in real time. There is also embedded ...
Read full article: CES: Pedal power meter costs $100
The outlook of the photovoltaic (PV) cell market next year is far from promising. Market watcher EnergyTrend estimates that demand growth will be flat and expects falling prices across the supply chain in the second half due to the severity of the oversupply situation. This follows a good 2016 for the PV market when a rush to ...
Read full article: Photovoltaic market dims in 2017
Renesas Electronics has added more microcontrollers to its low-end automotive MCUs in the RH850/P1L-C family. These devices are designed for use in chassis and safety systems, such as anti-lock brake and airbag systems. With the threat from vehicle hacking in mind, Renesas says these MCUs must conform to in-vehicle security specifications such as EVITA and the ISO 26262 ...
Read full article: Renesas adds low-end MCUs for ASIL-D automotive designs
Yesterday the EU agreed to to co-ordinate the timing of the release of the 694-790MHz spectrum band for 5G deployment. The agreement is that 700MHz will be available EU-wide by 2020. “The coordinated release of the 700 MHz band is major leap forward on the Union’s path to 5G,” says Guenther Oettinger, European Commissioner for ...
Read full article: EU agrees to co-ordinate release of 700MHz spectrum for 5G
The International Electro-Technical Commission (IEC) is enabling a smart charging solution that allows chargers to be re-used for many different consumer portable devices. The IEC has published new International Charging Interoperability Standards that open the way for a new generation of smart and eco-friendly charging solutions that can be used in every country in the ...
Read full article: IEC seeks to standardise chargers
Linear Tech has introduced the LTC2320-16, a 16-bit 1.5Msps per channel, no latency successive approximation register (SAR) ADC with eight simultaneously sampling channels supporting a rail-to-rail input common mode range. The LTC2320-16 features a flexible analogue front end that accepts fully differential, unipolar or bipolar analogue input signals, as well as arbitrary input signals, and ...
Read full article: LTC ADC samples up to Nyquist frequency
The transition to 3D NAND is causing supply problems in both 3D and planar NAND. The result of shortages is that Q4 NAND prices are at the highest they’ve been all year and are set to rise another 10% in Q1, reports DRAMeXchange, with even larger price rises for eMMC and UFS devices. Q4 NAND ...
Read full article: Planar-to-3D NAND Transition Causing Shortages
The US Department of Transportation’s (DOT) National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) today released an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) and a supporting comprehensive research report on vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications technology. The report will include analysis of the Department’s research findings in several key areas including technical feasibility, privacy and security, and preliminary estimates ...
Read full article: US Moves Closer To Mandatory V2V Comms
It was great to make a trip to Makerversity recently, the startup incubator based in historic Somerset House, in the heart of London right by the River Thames. I’d heard good things about the place and they were happy to show me around… I first learned of Makerversity at the Discover Blue event back in ...
Read full article: Makerversity grows the London startup scene
We all knew it but now it’s official – the UK has one of the shittiest mobile networks on the planet. The Government body the National Infrastructure Commission reports that the UK rates No. 54 in the worldwide ranking for mobile coverage behind Rumania, Albania, Panama and Peru. The joke is that the NIC was ...
Read full article: UK Mobile Network Worse Than Rumania
Silicon Labs is going big on IoT in the home with a couple of ZigBee wireless sensor node reference designs for home security and heating control systems. UL-pre-certified, the reference designs are based on the firm’s ZigBee home automation (HA 1.2) software stack and wireless Gecko system-on-chip devices. The firm is supplying all of the hardware, firmware and software tools. ...
Read full article: IoT design kit is ZigBee certified for the home
RS Components has signed a direct distribution agreement with switch manufacturer C&K. As part of the deal, the online distributor says it will double its C&K switch offering so that customers will have access to technical data on over 23,400 C&K switches through the RS Product Data Library. C&K manufactures tactile switches, pushbutton switches, toggle switches, rotary ...
Read full article: RS switches on more C&K lines
Ericsson has designed a 450W DC-DC converter module that is capable of delivering a regulated 12V output voltage at up to 37.5A. Offered in a 5-pin 1/8-brick footprint, compatible with the DOSA (Distributed-power Open Standards Alliance) standard, the PKB4413D bus converter has an input range from 36V to 60V. Specified power conversion efficiency is 96%, ...
Read full article: Ericsson delivers 37A from eighth brick power module
Regius Professor Christofer Toumazou has been recognised for his work saving and improving lives through leading edge medical research with the Elektra Lifetime Achievement Award. Professor Toumazou’s list of achievements includes cochlear implants for born-deaf children, an artificial pancreas for type 1 diabetics and a wireless heart monitor for personalised post-operative healthcare. He invented and commercialised ...
Read full article: Chris Toumazou honoured for life-saving research
A smartphone that measures gravity and a noise monitor for oceans are among the top university projects which Electronics Weekly has reported on in 2016.
Read full article: Volcano watching smartphone in research top 5
Element 14 has added MATLAB and Simulink Student Suite from MathWorks to its range of software tools available by instant e-delivery. e-delivery is available to customers via all channels – including online, call centres and field sales, meaning that engineers no longer need to wait to be able to benefit from their purchases. The MATLAB ...
Read full article: Element 14 adds to e-delivery portfolio
The value of European technology M&A deals more than doubled in 2016 to $127.2 billion, says M&A specialist Magister Advisors. The big deals were the takeovers of ARM, Supercell and NXP totalling $80 billion. There are currently around 20 Unicorns in Europe. Five years ago there were fewer than ten. Private tech companies in Europe ...
Read full article: European tech M&A deals double in 2016
62 new Front End facilities are expected to begin operation between 2017 and 2020, says SEMI. The 62 facilities and lines range from R&D to high-volume fabs. Most of the newly operating facilities will be volume fabs; only seven are R&Ds or Pilot facilities. Between 2017 and 2020, 26 facilities and lines begin operation in ...
Read full article: 62 new fabs coming on-line in 2017-20.
Globalfoundries has demonstrated long-reach 56Gbps SerDes performance in silicon on the company’s 14nm FinFET process. As a part of GLoFo’s high-performance ASIC offering, FX-14, the 56Gbps series is designed for customers seeking to improve power and performance efficiency while handling the most demanding long-reach high-performance applications. GF’s 56Gbps SerDes core supports both PAM4 and NRZ ...
Read full article: GloFo fabs 14nm 56Gb/S SERDES
Thanks to Semiconductor Intelligence for this – the top ten analogue companies for 2016:
Read full article: Top Ten Analogue Companies
We were very pleased to announce recently that Tony Fish - co-founder of FabLab London - was joining the selection panel for the EW BrightSparks programme.
Read full article: FabLab London’s Tony Fish looks for EW BrightSparks creativity
Globalfoundries says it has demonstrated 56Gbit/s SerDes performance in silicon on the semiconductor foundry’s 14nm FinFET process. This makes it able to fabricate Asics which will meet the emerging 50Gbit/s industry standards such as OIF CEI-56G-LR and IEEE 802.3cd. The SerDes core, designated FX-14, supports both PAM4 and NRZ signaling, with the capability to equalise over 35dB of ...
Read full article: Globalfoundries demoes finfet silicon running at 56Gbit/s
It looks as though the Lattice-China deal is going to get the bum’s rush from the US government. Last week a group of US legislators wrote to the US Committee on Foreign Investment in the US, suggesting that they block the deal. One of the legislators, Congressman Mo Brooks of Alabama, said: “In an alarming ...
Read full article: Lattice-China Deal Under US Political Scrutiny
Scientists from the Institute of Physics and Technology of the Russian Academy of Sciences and MIPT have let two electrons loose in a system of quantum dots to create a quantum computer memory cell of a higher dimension than a quantum bit, or qubit. The researchers claim this demonstrates for the first time how quantum ...
Read full article: Russian researchers make next step to quantum computing
At the recent NIDays in London it was interesting to see Lego exhibiting. They were promoting the IET-backed First Lego League (FFL).
Read full article: Mindstorms EV3 powers First Lego League
Adding a Wi-Fi interface to your IoT sensor node does not have to be a big deal, writes Tim Bonnett. There’s a pub in the remote valley of Wasdale, in England’s Lake District, serving fell-walkers, climbers and campers. In the bar there’s a blackboard listing the week’s guest beers, that day’s hot food specials, and the ...
Read full article: Design options to give your IoT node a Wi-Fi interface
Tech CEOs are living in fear of new ‘non-tech’ competitors. An interesting piece of pre-Christmas research seems to indicate that companies are still not that good at identifying the technologies that will have the largest impact on their business. According to business analyst KPMG, fewer than one-third of senior executives in technology companies believe they ...
Read full article: Tech CEOs feel the fear factor
Flex Logix, the two and a half year-old start-up specialising in embedded FPGA cores, completes the design of an IP core for TSMC 16FF+ and 16FFC.
Read full article: Flex Logix completes 16nm eFPGA core design
Imec and its Dutch off-spring Holst Centre dave developed a miniaturized sensor that simultaneously determines pH and chloride (Cl-)levels in fluid. This innovation is a must have for accurate long-term measurement of ion concentrations in applications such as environmental monitoring, precision agriculture and diagnostics for personalized healthcare. The sensor is an industry first and thanks ...
Read full article: Imec device senses pH and Cl simultaneously
Leti has a device which enables consumer brain-scanning. Normally the province of hospitals, the measurement of brain-activity – alpha waves – can now be put into the hands of consumers. Using electroencephalography (EEG) to record the brain’s alpha-wave activity, the lightweight headgear called RELAX measures the level of alert relaxation with an embedded electrode system ...
Read full article: Leti democratises brain-scans
Worldwide sales of new semiconductor manufacturing equipment are projected to increase 8.7% to $39.7 billion in 2016, according to SEMI. In 2017, another 9.3% growth is expected, resulting in a semiconductor equipment market totaling $43.4 billion. Wafer processing equipment, the largest product segment by dollar value, is anticipated to increase 8.2% in 2016 to total ...
Read full article: Chip manufacturing equipment market grows 8.7%
TDK, the Japanese components manufacturer, wants to buy MEMS specialist InvenSense which wants to be bought. In October, InvenSense hired a financial advisor to scout for interested parties. InvenSense gets 60% of its revenues from Apple which, it is alleged, has been squeezing it on price, reducing TDK’s margins The price being talked about is ...
Read full article: TDK talking M&A with InvenSense
TSMC has told Taiwan’s minister of science and technology that it needs 123 to 198 acres for its 3-5nm fab which is planned for 2022, reports Digitimes. The 2022 timeframe is set with the aim achieving semiconductor process technology leadership. TSMC is set on eclipsing Intel and TSMC by getting to the 3nm/5nm node before ...
Read full article: TSMC plans 3/5nm fab for 2022
CONFIDENCE IN WAVEGUIDE TRUNKING 250,000 channels over one line is PO hope. This, 56 years ago, was a headline in Electronics Weekly’s edition of September 28th 1960. The story opens: The Post Office Research Station at Dollis Hill are confident of the future possibilities of the trans- mission in waveguides of H01 waves over long ...
Read full article: Chaos In The Ether
Yokogawa Electric has developed a field wireless vibration sensor based on the ISA100.11a standard. This means it includes ISA100.11a-2011 communications, an application layer with process control industry standard objects, device descriptions and capabilities, a gateway interface, infrared provisioning, and a backbone router. Real-time vibration measurement is used for predictive maintenance of industrial equipment. Conventional methods for ...
Read full article: Yokogawa has first ISA100.11a wireless vibration sensor
Lattice Semiconductor has increased the specification of its iCE40 range of low power FPGAs for mobile applications such as wearables and drones. The new devices, dubbed UltraPlus, have more memory (1.1 Mbit RAM), twice the digital signal processors (8x DSPs), and improved I/Os over previous generations. Typically they are used for application specific processing offload in battery-powered systems. ...
Read full article: Lattice gives iCE40 more power, I/O and memory
Maria Marced, President of TSMC Europe and EMEA Chairperson of the GSA, has been appointed to the board of DSP licensing specialist CEVA, as an independent non-executive director, effective December 8, 2016. The appointment brings the total size of the board to eight members. “We are delighted to announce Maria’s appointment to our board and ...
Read full article: Maria Marced joins CEVA board
Maria Marced, president of TSMC Europe has been appointed to the board of directors of Ceva, the processor IP firm, as an independent non-executive director. Peter McManamon, chairman of the board of Ceva, believes Maria Marced will provide Ceva with a broad perspective on the semiconductor landscape and end market trends as the IP firm grows and ...
Read full article: Ceva appoints TSMC Europe president to board
People still like to sneer at the US President-Elect but he seems to be doing a good job of repairing the election discord. According to ReCode he’s got Larry Page, Tim Cook Sheryl Sandberg, Satya Nadella, Jeff Bezos (maybe), Chuck Robbins, Ginni Rometty, Brian Krzanich and Safra Catz turning up for a chin-wag at Trump ...
Read full article: Trump To Talk Tech
Robotics and machine learning are becoming the next big thing for embedded system hardware and software suppliers, writes Glenn Perry from Mentor Graphics. Embedded systems can be characterised by connectivity and the internet of things (IoT). Whether they are smart, low energy, edge devices, intermediate gateways or compute nodes, all based on multicore system-on-chip (SoC) architectures requiring performance, reliability and security. ...
Read full article: Robotics of things – the next big thing in embedded
Three power firms are bidding to re-define power supply design in software. Murata Power Solutions, CUI and Ericsson Power Modules explain the motivations and aims of the AMP project.
Read full article: Software defined power control saves energy, say power firms
Subaru quickly brings its first hybrid vehicle to market using PXI for HIL testing
Read full article: Subaru Saves 2000 Man Hours
Foxconn and Sharp are to set up a $6.95 billion LCD plant in China, reports the Nikkei. One site for it is Guangzho but Foxconn is said the be talking other cities in China to get the best deal. Foxconn owns, or has a controlling interest in, three LCD companies – Sharp, Innolux of Taiwan ...
Read full article: Foxconn-Sharp to build LCD plant in China
Samsung is to brick the Note 7 making it impossible to charge or use the exploding phablet. Only 7% of the 1.9 million units sold have still not been returned under Samsung’s exchange programme. Th bricking will be done by a mid-December software upgrade. The Note 7 was banned by so many airlines that Samsung ...
Read full article: Note 7 to be bricked
My My what a Hoo-Ha, Ed tells his diary, the Department For International Development is taking massive stick in Her Majesty’s Press for contracting out its overseas aid activities to middlemen who have been skimming off hundreds of millions of the aid budget into their own pockets. These middlemen seem to be chaps after my ...
Read full article: Ed Spots Opportunity In DFID Scams
Google releases stats for the latest split of Android platform share. Covering December 2016, it's based on active devices interacting with Google Play over the period of a week.
Read full article: Nougat barely nudges up in Android platform stats
The founder of Sprague Electric, Robert Sprague, had a brother, Julian, who was made vp of sales. Unlike his visionary, risk-taker brother who wanted to grow the company, Julian was a risk-averse, profit-oriented person. He hated his brother’s foray into semiconductors when Sprague licensed Bell’s point contact transistor in 1952. So Julian hired Arthur D ...
Read full article: Transistor-Making Best Left To Jewellers
UK regulators and mobile operators have been asked by small cell basestation firm ip.access to share radio spectrum to improve mobile coverage in rural areas and beyond. A group of MPs in the the British Infrastructure Group (BIG) have proposed in a report titled: “Mobile Coverage: A good call for Britain?” compulsory roaming on mobile operators, as a ...
Read full article: Compulsory roaming is not the best way to improve mobile coverage
Digi-Key is now offering a range of DoE Level VI and CoC Tier 2-compliant external AC-DC adapters from power firm CUI. The US Department of Energy’s revision to its EISA 2007 external power supply (EPS) efficiency standard, which came into effect this year, increased the minimum efficiency requirements as well as expanding the range of products applicable under ...
Read full article: Digi-Key offers DoE Level VI and CoC Tier 2 power supplies
3D-imaging sensor company Vayyar Imaging is launching a maker design contest with Hackster to create apps with its fully programmable 3D sensor, Walabot, used with Raspberry Pi. Open to participants in US, Europe and China, they can choose from 40 different applications on the Walabot App List — or start from scratch and build their own. The ...
Read full article: 3D imaging on Raspberry Pi – design competition
Despite a contraction in the number of early stage start-up deals in the US, some of the deals happening are large by historical standards, reports CB Insights. A few large deals are pulling up average sizes and there were five $30M+ Series A rounds in Q3’16. In 2016, early-stage US tech funding saw $6.9 billion ...
Read full article: Fewer But Bigger US Early- Stage VC Funding Deals
Nantero has raised $21 million bringing its total VC backing to $110m. Nantero currently has more than a dozen partners and customers in the consumer electronics, enterprise systems, and semiconductor industries actively working on CNT-based NRAM. The new funding will enable the company to support these partners in bringing multiple products into the market, while ...
Read full article: Nantero raises $21m for CNT memory production
Imec has demo-ed a silicon-passivated germanium nMOS gate stack with dramatically reduced interface defect density (DIT) reaching the same level as a Si gate stack and with high mobility and reduced positive bias temperature instability (PBTI). This paves the way to Ge-based finFETs and gate all-around devices, as promising options for 5nm and beyond logic ...
Read full article: Imec shows Si-passivated Ge NMOS gate stack
Cavium and China Unicom are to collaborate on the development of Virtualised BBU (base band unit from the base station) based on Cavium’s ThunderX data server ARM-based processors and provide a path for 5G adoption. Thecompanies will work together on new innovative fronthaul solutions, system architecture vBBU performance and deployment. This collaboration allows Cavium to ...
Read full article: Cavium joins China Unicom for vBBU developme
By trawling the Internet for activity data, InformationisBeautiful.net has come up with a map of what each country is best for:
Read full article: What Each Country Is Best At
Eight ways in which Raspberry Pi has surprised and inspired us this year. Audio amp blows a Raspberry This expansion board adds a CD quality audio and 44/48 bit stereo record and playback to the Raspberry Pi. Dubbed PiFi the add-on board has three audio outputs that include stereo headphones. There is a Sony/Phillips ...
Read full article: 8 Raspberry Pi designs to make your Christmas
Spudger? Check. Jimmy? Check. Suction Handle? Check. They're all here, in the iFixit Toolkit...
Read full article: iFixit Toolkit opens a green Christmas present
There were once two brothers who started a semiconductor company. They started off manufacturing in a converted bakery and later on in an old knitting mill. The company’s first product was a point contact germanium diode with a welded gold whisker suitable for the military because it could handle higher voltages than other diodes. The ...
Read full article: Fable: The Company That Was Down And Dirty
ARM has completed its physical IP platform for 7nm and it is now available to SoC designers for evaluation and licensing. The first licensee is Xilinx and the first tape-out on 7nm is expected to be a Xilinx design. “We expect the first tape-out as early as Q1, with H2 of 2017 for engineering samples, ...
Read full article: Xilinx is first licensee for ARM 7nm physical IP platform
TDK-Lambda has packaged a range of 15W DC-DC converters in a metal case designed for providing six-sided shielding for reduced radiated EMI. The CCG15 has the industry standard 1 x 1 inch footprint, and can operate over a 4:1 input range. The CCG series is available with 3.3, 5, 12 or 15Vdc output voltages and can ...
Read full article: TDK puts 15W converter in metal can to reduce EMI
Intel has launched a functional safety processor designed for use in safety-critical systems. It is the Intel Xeon processor D-1529 with industrial IEC 61508 certification. VxWorks, Wind River Linux and Wind River Simics are all supported by the Intel Xeon processor D-1529. Intel says it has already received a TÜV IEC 61508SIL 2 certification for this processor ...
Read full article: Intel certifies Xeon processor for safety-critical design with Wind River
Even in India, the market for what has become known as internet of things (IoT) applications is starting to grow. On the increase are the number of connected devices coupled with increasing internet penetration. But now significant growth in the IoT market is anticipated in the coming years due to launch of government projects – Smart ...
Read full article: India could be the next big IoT market
NI has joined up with IBM and SparkCognition to bring the capabilities of artificial intelligence (AI) and big data analysis to the maintenance of aging assets in heavy machinery, power generation and process manufacturing. The collection of raw data can be used for analysis and to improve operations, equipment and processes. The companies propose to use artificial intelligence-driven prognostics warn of component failures ...
Read full article: NI and IBM bring IoT analytics to heavy industry
Graham McBeth is the new president of Premier Farnell following the acquisition of the online and catalogue distributor by Avnet earlier this year. McBeth, who was president of Avnet Abacus, replaces Premier Farnell’s interim President Steven Webb, who will remain with the company until January 31, 2017, to assist in the leadership transition. “Since Avnet ...
Read full article: Avnet names McBeth Premier Farnell president
Imec has achieved the CMOS integration of vertically stacked gate-all-around (GAA) silicon nanowire MOSFETs. Key in the integration scheme is a dual-work-function metal gate enabling matched threshold voltages for the n- and p-type devices. Also, the impact of the new architecture on intrinsic ESD performance was studied, and an ESD protection diode is proposed. These ...
Read full article: Imec makes CMOS GAA nanowire MosFETs.
Leti has developed a new light-sensing device that integrates photodiodes below the buried oxide (BOX) of FDSOI transistors, making the transistors very sensitive to visible light. Photodiodes were co-integrated in the SOI substrate, replacing conventional FDSOI transistor backgate. This device architecture may lead not only to very small pixels with maximized fill factor, but also ...
Read full article: Leti integrates photodiodes below BOX of FD-SOI transistors
There’s going to be an under-supply of 12 inch wafers and a price hike of up to 20%, reports Digitimes. TSMC, UMC and Micron are said to have been informed by their wafer suppliers that the contract price will be 10-20% higher as from Q1. Wafer suppliers Shin-Etsu Chemical, Sumco and Siltronic have all said ...
Read full article: Wafer shortage will lead to price hikes, warn suppliers.
