ST had an awful year in the analogue market, according to IC Insights, seeing its sales fall 13% in a market which grew 2%. The company lost its market No.2 slot to Infineon while being overtaken in the rankings by both Skyworks Solutions, which took the No.3 slot, and Analog Devices which was No.4. ST ...
ST Falls From No.2 To No.5 In Analogue Market
ST had a disatrous year in the anslogue market last yeear slipping from bring the No.2 player to No.5 as its sales slumped by 13%, according to IC Insights. Infineon moved up one place in the rankings from No.3 to No.2, displacing ST. Skyworks moved up to No. The 2015 analog market grew 2% to ...
ST slumps 13% in analogue losing three slots in market rankings
Thanks to Gartner for this one – the top 10 semiconductor companies last year:
Top Ten Semiconductor Companies – Gartner
C&K has introduced a three position push-button with a footprint of only 3.0 x 3.7mm (4.4 x 3.1mm including G-type terminations). Called KXT2, it is rated for 100,000 cycles. The manufacturer describes it as ‘double-action’ (see diagram): With no force, two of its four pins are shorted. Once 100g of force has been applied, three of its ...
Three-position switch shrinks to 3.7 x 3.0mm
I can add a new name to my list of heroines: Which now reads: Beryl Burton (cycling), Florence Nightingale (statistics), Dr James Barry (medicine) and Sarah Guppy (engineering). It transpires Sarah Guppy was an engineer in the early 1800s, having made contributions to bridge foundations that were used by Thomas Telford, amongst other stuff. From here, ...
Maxim has introduced battery energy measuring (‘gas gauging’) chips with SHA-256 anti-cloning authentication. The firm has developed its own gauging algorithm that does needs no host interaction. “ModelGauge m5 fuel gauges include an algorithm that converts raw measurements such as battery voltage, current, and temperature into accurate state-of-charge, absolute capacity in mAhr, time-to-empty, and time-to-full ...
Battery fuel gauge chips include anti-clone security
I was asked to have a look at a problem in a camper van this weekend. The van has a sink, and the tap on the sink combines a water valve plus a switch that turns on a remote electric pump to raise water up to the tap. The tap is made by Whale – ...
Camper van query has UK-made answer
Today, the Euros 62 million European research project SemI40 (“Power Semiconductor and Electronics Manufacturing 4.0”) – in which 37 partners from five countries will carry out research into developing autonomous factories – was launched. SemI40 will focus on “smart production” and “cyber-physical production systems” in the next three years with secure data traffic playing a ...
SemI40 kicks off to develop robot factories.
The Aerospace & Defence Forum 2016 hosted by National Instruments takes place on Tuesday 14th June at the Royal Berkshire Conference Centre, Madejski Stadium, Reading, UK. It is a free-to-attend conference presenting trends and technologies for aerospace, defence, security and space systems. The programme includes: Morning keynote address from Dr. Marco Lisi, manager and scientist, ...
NI runs free aerospace technology forum in Reading
It’s going to be a bit of fun seeing if this one flies. A driverless car start-up in California called Zoox wants to raise a quarter of a billion dollars. Are there enough mugs around to stump up? After hollow punts like Theranos you’d think no way Jose, but you never know in California. Zoox ...
The BBC micro:bit educational controller module is to be commercially available in the UK for £12.99. Distributor element14 has a 15 month contract to manufacture and distribute micro:bit in the UK. It also has plans to sell the product overseas at some stage. Element14 is announcing pre-order facilities for consumers and will be the exclusive ...
BBC micro:bit goes on sale today for £12.99
GloFo is to equip a 300mm fab in Chongqing, China as a jv with the local government. “China is the fastest growing semiconductor market, with more than half of the world’s semiconductor consumption and a growing ecosystem of fabless companies competing on a global scale,” said GloFo’s CEO Sanjay Jha, “we are pleased to partner ...
GloFo to equip 300mm fab in China
A METHOD for determining the cause of acute cardiac disorders by exploring the circulatory system was one of the examples of medical electronics given by Prof.’ R. F. Woolmer of the Royal College of Surgeons during his Kelvin Lecture to the IEE in London last week. Sop, 55 years ago, started a story in Electronics ...
Electronics Fights Heart Disease
It appears that Intel has been unable to flog off its VC investments. It was reported to have hired bankers UBS to handle the sale, it was said to have lined up buyers Coller Capital, HarbourVest Partners and Lexington Partners to take over the investments and it was reported to have set a $1 billion ...
Intel’s Disappearing Assets Sale
ARM has brought out Cortex and Mali processors to address upcoming smartphone features like augmented and virtual reality on 10nm processes. They will be in SoCs this year and in handsets in 2017. The Cortex processor – A73 – is the smallest 64-bit v8 core ARM has done – at under 0.65mm2 per core on ...
ARM launches cores for virtual and augmented reality.
Communication and computer systems will be two of the three largest system applications for IC sales this year, says IC Insights. Communications applications are expected to capture nearly 43% of IC sales in Asia-Pacific and 39% of the revenue in the Americas region this year. Communications and computer applications are forecast to tie as the ...
Auto IC Sales Only 7.4% Of Semi Market
Super-fast laser sensing has allowed UK researchers to study semiconductors without a magnetics lab. The work will feed into University of Cambridge research on AlGaN/GaN HEMTs (high electron mobility transistors). 30T magnetic coil at the heart of the system, developed by Professor Hiroyuki Nojiri at Tohoku University (see below) The test in question is cyclotron ...
UK universities replace magnetics lab with bench-top test
Said the University of Bristol in a statement: “Although it’s known that flowers communicate with pollinators by sending out electric signals, just how bees detects these fields has been a mystery – until now.” What? Flowers have electric fields? Apparently so. And bees detect them using hairs that deflect according to charge – said Bristol, ...
Bees have an electrostatic sense
Sony’s TR-55 transistor radio had a major effect in encouraging the Japanese electronics industry to focus on consumer goods, but it also had a transformative effect on the career of one of Japan’s most distinguished semiconductor men. In 1955, the same year as the launch of the TR-55, Tsugio Makimoto was in his first year ...
The Transformative Effects Of The Transistor Radio
Australian researchers have increased photon absorption in a semiconductor to almost 99%, according to the University of Sydney. The absorber is a sub-wavelength thin-film semiconductor, and no complex nano-structures, meta-materials, exotic materials or difficult-to-create metal-non-metal combinations have been used. Instead, there are simple slots. When light falls on a thin film etched with narrow grooves, ...
Surface absorbs 98% of photons
A source of loss in Perovskite solar cells could disappear following the decoding of a mechanism that heals defects in the crystal lattice. Organic-inorganic metal halide perovskite solar materials are rapidly catching silicon in efficiency, and are showing promise as a mass produceable large scale technology. However, a lot of issues remain to be solved, ...
Perovskite solar cells yield another secret
The SEMI book-to-bill for April was 1:10, down from March’s 1:15. April orders were $1.59 billion – 15.6% higher than March’s $1.38 billion, and 1.3% higher than April’s $1.57 billion. April billings were $1.46 billion – 21.5% higher than March’s $1.20 billion, and is 4% lower than April’s $1.52 billion. “Bookings reached their highest levels ...
SEMI book-to-bill continues positive
James Webb Space Telescope assembly passed a critical step as NASA hoisted in the instrument package – the cameras and spectrographs that will record light from the huge golden mirror. So critical was this part of construction – the load is heavy, delicate, and had to be lowered into a confined box – that prior to ...
NASA builds James Webb space telescope
Thanks to MOZO Travel for this one – the ten worst countries to visit: Somalia Guyana Bangladesh Afghanistan Tuvalu Russia Jamaica Syria N. Korea Thailand
Imec had a great success this week. Over a thousand delegates attended the Imec Technology Forum – ITF2016 – in Brussels. It is an acknowledgment, if one was needed, that Imec is the world’s pre-eminent nanoelectronics research centre. Imec, for instance, handles all the major companies’ DRAM development and is the world leader in a ...
Earlier today, the French unions showed a similar disdain for the 40% dividend cut set by ST, as was shown yesterday by France’s economics minister. “We demand a total suspension of the payment of dividends to devote all the resources of the company to a strong revival of investment in R & D and in ...
There was once an Intel engineer who did the start-up thing the nice way – he bought a licence to the technology he wanted to use from Intel. Then, with one of the ‘Traitorous Eight’ he started a company whose name bore a hidden reference to the fact that it had emanated from Intel. The ...
NASA has installed the instrument package into the James Webb Space Telescope. Consisting of cameras and spectrographs, it will record light from the telescope’s huge golden mirror, once it is in orbit. “This is a tremendous accomplishment for our worldwide team,” said project scientist John Mather. “There are vital instruments in this package from Europe ...
Successor to Hubble telescope is going well, says NASA
Excessive internet use contributes to the development of school burnout. School burnout, in turn, may lead to excessive internet use or digital addiction, according to research by the Academy of Finland. The findings show that, via school burnout, adolescents’ excessive internet use can ultimately lead to depression. Exposure to digital addiction is most likely to ...
Internet addiction and school burnout feed each other
Texas researchers have created a liquid catalyst for lithium-air batteries, perhaps bringing this weight-saving technology nearer, writes Steve Bush. “There’s huge promise in lithium-air batteries. However, despite the research being done by groups all over the world, those promises are not being delivered in real life,” said professor Kyeongjae Cho. “Our collaboration team has demonstrated ...
Liquid catalysts boost efficiency of lithium-air batteries
IoT devices come in all shapes and sizes, so this is wireless connected product design in 10 steps, writes David Griffin The internet of things (IoT) promises a huge range of possibilities from industrial asset tracking to agricultural monitoring, from home security to chronic disease monitoring. Some IoT products are complements to existing businesses, others ...
“Is this the end of the the semiconductor success story?” asked Infineon CEO Reinhard Ploss at ITF2016 in Brussels this week. “”As Moore’s Law is stalling an overall system optimisation is required to achieve further value-add,” argued Ploss. “The physical limits may be pushed further but commercial limits provide a hard ceiling,” said Ploss, adding ...
ITF2016: Infineon CEO looks to progressive integration
When I was in Brussels yesterday, I saw a dog driving a car. It was on a video shown by Audi. “If pets can drive that’s truly autonomous deriving,” cracked the Audi guy showing the vid and it made me wonder do I have a deficient sense of humour or should not Audi be showing ...
ST announced a quarterly dividend of 0.06 eurocents which was 40% down on the last quarterly divi of 0.10 eurocents. Recently the French unions criticised ST management for paying out too much in divis while depriving the company of necessary investment. The dividend policy is designed to keep the share price up. Today France’s Economics ...
French Economics Minister Slams ST Management
Check out the new BeagleBone Green Wireless from SeeedStudio. Increasingly, dev boards come with built-in RF connectivity and the BeagleBone is following this path.
DevBoard Watch: BeagleBone Green Wireless
Only one month to go until the first Electronics Weekly webinar – Combining the Power of Functional Test and Embedded System Access Electronics Weekly has joined forces with Goepel Electronics to discuss one of the most serious problems in the area of test, the continuous decline in physical access to the I/O pins of ICs. Across a ...
Webinar: Combining the Power of Functional Test and Embedded System Access
To my shame, when I read that Osram was binning its new Solariq S 13 lighting led to the CIE2015 10° colour space, I didn’t know what the last bit of that statement meant. It turns out I am not alone, and part of the reason Osram is making this particular led is to educate ...
What can 10° colour space do for you?
A pretty big shift could be about to happen in the semiconductor industry – IBM’s scientific prowess could be about to be unleashed on the market. GlobalFoundries is aiming to take industry process technology leadership at the 7nm node. For the first time, GloFo now reckons it can take industry process leadership using a proprietary, ...
GloFo Looks For 7nm Leadership
Pi 2 Design the developer behind the 503HTA, Hybrid Tube AMP/DAC is a small Hat size Raspberry Pi add-on has upgraded the design to add new features. It has added an analogue line in the 503HTA can be used to the quality of a tube amplifier more audio sources. Standard 3.5mm jack takes in up to ...
Raspberry Pi Hi-Fi tube amp just got better
Texas Instruments has unveiled a dc-dc topology, for which it is claiming industry’s highest current density: 50A/cm3, for a 12V 10A 10MHz converter. The target was to shrink a high-current dc-dc converter; and the best known path to small size is to increase switching frequency to reduce the need for large inductors and capacitors. However, ...
More on: TI’s unique 10MHz dc-dc topology
The Royal Society is commissioning a study to understand the challenges faced by teachers delivering computing and computer science and share best practice which can be adopted more widely. Professor Stephen Furber, from the School of Computer Science at the University of Manchester, will lead the research study which is part of a wider action ...
Teaching of computing in schools faces big changes
GlobalFoundries is aiming to take industry process technology leadership at the 7nm node. One step in that direction is a 60% shrink in the 14nm to 7nm transition, Gary Patton, the company’s CTO and svp for R&D, told EW. Asked by EW how this was achieved, Patton replied: “We’re shrinking the pitches pretty aggressively.” For ...
ITF2016: Globalfoundries goes for process leadership
The semiconductor learning curve is one of the most perfect curves ever devised, Mentor CEO Wally Rhines told this week’s ITF2016 in Brussels, and even if Moore’s Law ends, as it must one day, the learning curve will live on. Adjusted for inflation, the curve has been consistent for 40 years, said Rhines, and the ...
ITF2016: Learning curve goes on when Moore’s Law ends
Imec and its partner Solliance, presented today the first-ever semi-transparent perovskite PV-module, achieving power conversion efficiencies up to 12%. The technology enables for semi- transparent PV-windows which are a key towards Zero-Energy Buildings. Moreover, combining these semitransparent perovskite modules with Si solar cells, an unprecedented 20.2% in power conversion efficiency for a perovskite/Si stacked solar ...
ITF2016: Imec and Solliance present first semi-transparent perovskite PV-module
Imec, Holst Centre and Barco Silex are to collaborate to implement data security into sensors for wearables and IoT. Trust is key for a broad adoption. The smart society can only become a reality when the sensor technology is trusted by their users and the privacy of the users’ data is guaranteed at all time. ...
ITF2016: Imec, Barco Silex seek IoT security
Thanks to IHS for this one – the world’s top 25 semiconductor companies:
Top 25 Semiconductor Companies 2015
The eBike in question is made by FLUX. It's a Tesla battery bike in the sense that the 17A extended lithium battery, available as an option for the bike, is the same as those used in the Tesla model S.
Crowdfunding Watch: Tesla Model S battery powers the FLUX eBike
There is plenty of talk about IoT in general, but case studies of real-world implementations are less common. You may want to check out this free Intel whitepaper about Digital signage for transit systems.
Real world IoT implementations – Digital signage for transit systems
Gordon Moore was presented with Imec’s lifetime achievement award at ITF2016 in Brussels this morning. Imec CEO Luc van den Hove went over to Hawaii to talk to Moore and extracts of their conversation were shown to ITF delegates. Modest as always, Moore said Moore’s Law had little effect on the industry. He was observing ...
Luc van den Hove, CEO of Imec, opened ITF2016 in Brussels this morning on the theme of ‘daring to take a different view’. He instanced companies which have taken a different view e.g: The company which provides the most taxi rides in the world does not own any taxis; the company which rents more rooms ...
ITF2016: The Future Is Good, says Imec
This morning, in Brussels, at Imec’s ITF2016, Imec and Infineon announced a cooperation in CMOS sensor chip development. Infineon and Imec are working on highly integrated CMOS-based 79 GHz sensor chips for automotive radar applications. Imec contributes its advanced expertise in high- frequency system, circuit and antenna design for radar applications thus complementing Infineon’s radar ...
ITF2016: Imec, Infineon team for 79GHz CMOS auto radars
Imec and Holst Centre presented a wide-area (LPWA) multi-standard radio chip today at Imec’s annual technology forum in Brussels this morning. The new radio chip is a best-in-class product, which can operate with a lower level of power consumption than any other radio chip technology released to date for long range connectivity in sensor networks. ...
ITF2016: Imec presents sub-GHz LPWA radio chip
To specify Plessey loudspeakers is to ensure outstanding reliability. So, 55 years ago, ran an ad in Electronics Weekly’s edition of April 26th 1961. The ad continued: Careful design, up-to- date manufacturing methods and stringent tests together provide a service unsurpassed in the industry. Outstanding features of the latest types include a choice of motor ...
Laser sintered nylon 3D prints are porous – with a surface like Trebor mints according to 3Dprint-UK, unless they get treated in some way. Sealing them to stop them getting grubby or leaking water into one-off enclosures is not an exact science. 3D print firm Shapeways has a blog with a link to an interesting ...
A Hong Kong-based connector manufacturer says it has shipped ten millionth dual USB connectors for the Raspberry Pi. Global Connector Technology (GCT) dual, USB type A is used in the Raspberry Pi and the supplier says it has seen a big rise in sales from the multiple subcontractors handling Pi production. Two dual USB connectors ...
Raspberry Pi needs 10 million connectors
Texas Instruments has unveiled a new dc-dc topology, and with it is claiming industry’s highest current density for a 12V, 10A, 10MHz dc-dc converter at 50A/cm3. Similar to a two-phase buck converter, the added series capacitor allows the switching transistors to operate at half the input voltage, more than halving switching losses, TI energy systems ...
New topology gives TI 10MHz dc-dc converter
A German company called Seprotronic have designed uninterruptible power supplies for use with a Raspberry Pi. The supplies connect through the J8 connector on the Raspberry Pi and therefore uses a common voltage source, so no additional cabling or power supply should be needed. S.USV pi basic One is dubbed the S.USV pi basic, the power ...
Add uninterruptible power to your Raspberry Pi
The best description of T.J Rodgers, the founding CEO of Cypress, is that he’s “an engineer’s engineer’. An engineer’s curiosity took him into areas like optical networking and solar power, buying optical specialist HiBand Semiconductor in 2001 and investing $8 million in Sun Power in 2002. In 2005 Sun Power had an IPO in which ...
GloFo has enhanced its 130nm RF SiGe process to deliver 5G performance. The technology is optimized for customers who need improved performance solutions for automotive radar, satellite communications, 5G millimeter-wave base stations and other wireless and wireline communication network applications. GLoFo’s SiGe 8XP technology is the latest extension to the company’s 130nm high-performance SiGe family ...
GloFo enhances 130nm SiGe RF process
ARM, AMD, Huawei, IBM, Qualcomm, Mellanox and Xilinx have joined forces to bring a high-performance open acceleration framework to data centers. The companies are collaborating on the specification for the new Cache Coherent Interconnect for Accelerators (CCIX). For the first time in the industry, a single interconnect technology specification will ensure that processors using different ...
ARM, AMD, Huawei, IBM, Qualcomm, Mellanox and Xilinx team up on datacentre,
Socionext, the Panasonic-Fujitsu SoC jv, has introduced an evaluation package for its 360° Wrap-Around View (WAV) system. The package combines the hardware, software and support services necessary for initial evaluation and development of the WAV system. Customers lacking resources to evaluate the system themselves can now develop their own customized systems with this new solution. ...
Socionext evaluation kit for 360deg WAV system
Microchip has released LoRa wireless evaluation kits, claiming them to be the first on the market. They provide all the components needed to create a low-power 10 mile range network for North America (915MHz, kit DV164140-2) or for Europe (868MHz DV164140-1). Each kit includes two wireless sensors (‘motes’) based on Microchip’s RN2483 or RN2903 LoRa ...
LoRa eval kit aimed at metro area networks
Hellermann Tyton has released its new range of RFID Cable Ties immediately solving many identification problems and enable greater assembly information than available on traditional labels.
The partnership between Arrow and Indiegogo seems an inspired idea. What is the good of an idea if the originator doesn’t have the means to implement it? Arrow has both the design capabilities and the supply chain mastery to turn any idea into a product. And Indiegogo is a master generator of product ideas. So ...
According to the Albuquerque TV station KOAT there are rumours going around that Intel will close its Rio Rancho fab site in New Mexico. The rumours have arisen because, in the letters sent to some employees notifying them of their ‘involuntary separation’, it states that the reason being given is ‘site closure or consolidation’. When ...
Intel Lay-Off Letters Spark Rio Rancho Closure Rumour
Arrow is already supporting projects on the Indiegogo, as the crowd-funding website moves into the area of commercial product launches. Examples of the types of campaigns being supported include: · Solar Roadways, the project to turn roads into renewable energy sources, launched on Indiegogo and raised more than $2.2m in funding. With Arrow’s product support, ...
Indiegogo gets serious business model from Arrow
Indiegogo and Arrow Have created a crowdfund-to-production platform aimed at supporting technology entrepreneurs. Through this partnership, crowdfunded companies will be able to scale faster than ever before to bring their products to market. Arrow is already supporting some of the Indiegogo campaigns, such as : · Solar Roadways, the project to turn roads into renewable ...
Arrow and Indiegogo harness ideas and execution
Just found an interesting article comparing fly-back and SEPIC power supply topologies getting a particular job done – a dc-dc converter for cars. It is excellent, because both the supplies were built and tested. Even more excellent, if is from an Electronics Weekly article, written by a couple of TI guys, whe really know what ...
Check out these photos from a recent launch event for a BBC micro:bit Model Rocket Car Competition.
Picture Gallery: BBC micro:bit Model Rocket Car Competition
Scientists from MIPT explain how the giant magnetoelectric effect occurs in bismuth ferrite A team of scientists from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), the National Research University of Electronic Technology (MIET), and the Prokhorov General Physics Institute have proposed a theoretical model that explains the unexpectedly high values of the linear magnetoelectric ...
Moscow researchers explain very strong magnetoelectric effect in bismuth errite
Hans Snook, who founded Orange, got offered his first job in telecoms while back-packing in Hong Kong. It was with a local paging and computer company called Young Generation. “At the end of the year they convinced me to stay on one more year,” recalled Snook. As the second year came to its close, he ...
The latest Arduino board called Primo integrates Bluetooth low energy, NFC Touch-to-Pair, Wi-Fi, and an infrared interface, all without having to add extra shields to the base board. The Arduino Primo can act as a fully-functional TCP / IP Internet client and server over Wi-Fi. Federico Musto, CEO and president of Arduino, writes: “Makers, entrepreneurs, ...
Arduino Primo makes IoT simple reality for makers
A smart Bluetooth car charger has appeared on the IndieGoGo crowd-funding website. One of China’s biggest electronic product firms Xiaomi is using the crowd-funding website to launch the device called Roidmi. Although Bluetooth system is commonly available in new cars nowadays, most old cars do not have it. The aim of Roidmi is to upgrade ...
China giant Xiaomi makes crowding-funding debut with Bluetooth charger
Android Pay, for contactless payments with your smartphone, is now officially available for use in the UK. It follows on from its launch in the United State last year.
Android Pay gets underway in the UK
Electric vehicles will have electric suspension and other once mechanical systems which means a bigger market for power electronic devices, says market analyst IDTechEx. Electric vehicles are being designed with two motors per car not one now and that means many more motor controllers. Each vehicle has a charger and a battery management system on ...
Electric vehicles use electronics for more that motor control
MIT and Harvard scientists have found a way for tiny robots to cling to ceilings. They have created a 1.7cm2 ‘sucker’ is a flexible disc that works electrostatically. It has two concentric ring electrodes only 200nm thick, sandwiched between compliant plastic layers. When the robot need to temporarily grip underneath something, 1,000V is connected between ...
Moth-like robot can perch on the ceiling
ST and Arduino have agreed to bring STM32 microcontrollers and ST’s full portfolio of sensing, power, and connectivity technology, closer to the Arduino maker community. The first product of the STAR (ST and Arduino) programme is the STM32F469-based STAR Otto baseboard. Now, IoT developers and other makers can build high-performance graphics into their smart devices ...
ST and Arduino tie-up for makers
Semiconductor capex will rise 3% in 2016, says IC Insights, going from $64.8 billion in 2015 to $66.8 billion this year. “Intense rivalry in the foundry business will push capital spending in this semiconductor manufacturing segment to nearly $23 billion, which will break the previous record high level of $22.1 billion set in 2014,” says ...
Maybe the handset market isn’t as saturated as everyone thinks it is._ Digitimes Research reports that a surge in hand-set IC demand will see Taiwan chip design house revenues grow 6.7% in Q2 over Q1 to $4.35 billion. That’s 14.6% more than in Q2 2015. In March Chinese headset makers saw a pick-up in demand ...
Rohm has announced an multi-function power chip (PMIC) for NXP’s i.MX 7Solo and i.MX 7Dual processors. Called BD71815GW, it has five low-quiescent current buck regulators, seven LDOs, a JEITA-compliant 1S charger, a fuel gauge with Coulomb Counter, an LED driver and a real-time clock (RTC), alongside extensive monitoring and protection circuits. All possible processor power ...
Rohm feeds NXP MCUs with multi-output power chip
Google wants to see the Android OS embedded directly into the car and it is working with semiconductor firm Qualcomm to achieve this. The functions of a concept car were demonstrated at Google I/O in California today. They ran on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 automotive processor. The plan is to have a series of Automotive Development Platforms (ADP) ...
Google and Qualcomm demo Android embedded in a car
Infineon has launched a sensor pilot line in Dresden under the EU R&D project IoSense which is part of ECSEL. “With an increasingly networked world, the demand for such sensor solutions will see a dramatic rise,” says Infineon CEO Reinhard Ploss. IoSense is is designed to further strengthen Europe in the production of cost-effective sensors ...
Infineon launches sensor pilot plant
There was once an Intel engineer who quit the company to form a start-up based on a new kind of memory chip. Intel’s writ was delivered to his home in the middle of the night. Undaunted, the KP-backed company raised $50 million (plus another $18 million in an IPO). The engineer built a fab with ...
A group of enterprising engineering students in Poland have developed an educational robot for children which develops along with his owner. It is the idea of Marcin Joka, Michał Grześ, Krzysztof Dziemiańczuk, Michał Bogucki and Maciej Kopczyński; four students and one academic lecturer from the Bialystok University of Technology, Poland. The robot called Photon won ...
Students in Poland teach kids with learning robot
Always wanting to be even-handed, we have been searching the electronics industry for someone who has presented an argument for Brexit. Last week, we published the pro-EU arguments from the president of the IET, but I have yet to find someone within the industry presenting the case for a vote for Brexit in June. Surely, ...
Brexit: Will industry vote for stability?
TI is shipping a 14-bit, 3-GSPS ADC which simplifies direct RF sampling system architecture with the highest dynamic range, widest bandwidth and fastest 14-bit ADC The ADC32RF45, the industry’s enables direct RF signal conversion up to 4 GHz, giving engineers access to the highest dynamic range and input bandwidth. The first in a new data ...
First bids for Intel Capital’s VC assets are expected next month, reports Bloomberg. It is expected that one buyer will bag up the lot. They are valued at $1 billion. The reason for the sale, it it is being said, is to reduce Intel’s debt of $25 billion which is off-set by cash of $15 ...
Roll Up, Roll Up To Bid For Intel’s Investments
Autonomous vehicles are to be insured under normal policies in the UK. This was one of the government proposals announced in the Queen’s Speech. According to the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), this is an important step forward which will ultimately improve road safety and reduce congestion. But the IET warned the Government that ...
Autonomous cars get insurance boost in the UK
Digi-Key Electronics has expanded its distribution partnership with ARM to include all of Asia. In addition to expanding the reach of the partnership, ARM’s latest Keil MDK Version 5.20 software development kit for ARM Cortex-M microcontrollers is also available through Digi-Key. Keil MDK includes the µVision IDE, C/C++ compiler, debugger, Software Component management, and the CMSIS ...
Digi-Key circles the world with ARM’s processor tools
Imagination is working with the Debian Project to accelerate development of the open source Debian operating system for its 64-bit MIPS processors. As part of its work with the project, Imagination is providing the project several MIPS64 processor based platforms, its calls SDNA-7130, for development and evaluation purposes. The SDNA-7130 (Software Defined Network Appliance) platforms ...
Imagination goes with Debian OS for MIPS64 processors
ARM today announced the first multicore, 64-bit ARMv8-A processor test chip based on TSMC’s 10FinFET process technology. Simulation benchmarks show impressive power and efficiency gains relative to TSMC’s 16FinFET+ process technology, which is currently used to implement chips powering many of today’s leading premium smartphones. The successful validation of the test chip (tape out completed ...
ARM multi-core v8 test chip fabbed on TSMC 10nm finfet process
IRT Nanoelec in Grenoble has integrated a III-V/silicon laser and silicon Mach Zehnder modulator to transmit at 25Gbit/s down a single 10km optical fibre, claiming this to be a first. “This transmission rate usually is achieved using an external source, over a 10km single-mode fibre,” said the R&D organisation, which is predicting increased bandwidth and reliability ...
MEMS photonic integration opens door to 25Gbit/s
Exposing migraine sufferers to a narrow band of green light significantly reduces photophobia and can reduce headache severity, according to a report by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston US and published in Brain: Migraine photophobia originating in cone-driven retinal pathways. “Although photophobia is not usually as incapacitating as headache pain itself, the inability ...
Narrowband green is easier for migraine sufferers
Texas instruments is claiming the fastest 14bit ADC yet with one that works at 3Gsample/s, delivering “an instantaneous 1.5GHz-per-channel bandwidth, enabling engineers to implement wideband in-phase and quadrature-component receivers beyond 2.5 GHz”, said the firm. The dual-channel ADC32RF45 can be used for direct RF signal conversion up to 4GHz,” said TI. “The first in a new data ...
China is taking to heart the old maxim: If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. It has found another route into the DRAM business. UMC is to help China make DRAM in an agreement which has been approved by Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs. China has a problem with its huge trade deficit ...
If At First You Don’t Succeed . . . . .
IQE and imec have demonstrated 650V GaN-on-Si power diodes on 200 mm wafers GaN technology offers faster switching-power devices with higher breakdown voltage and lower on-resistance than silicon, making it an ideal material for advanced power electronic components. The partnership builds on promising results achieved in a recent project, in which imec and IQE collaborated ...
IQE ties up with Imec for GaN-on-Si
Thanks to IC Insights for this one – the top 20 semiconductor vendors in Q1:
Attempting to cut receiver power consumption in IoT sensor nodes, the University of Twente in The Netherlands is proposing a novel technique – effectively moving the Rx local oscillator to the transmitter. Not only that, but its team has found an interesting way to foil front-end amplifier saturation at the same time. Its engineers argue ...
Transmitted reference cuts Rx power in IoT radio scheme
ARM has acquired embedded vision specialist Apical for $350 million in cash, The acquisition supports ARM’s long term growth strategy by enabling new imaging products for next generation vehicles, security systems, robotics, mobile and any consumer, smart building, industrial or retail application where intelligent image processing is needed. Apical’s technology will complement the ARM® Mali™ ...
The CEA (Atomic Energy Commission) and Intel are boosting their collaboration through a new R & D agreement signed in Paris on Thursday 12 May. This collaboration, extended to several key areas in digital technology, will enable the two sides to develop a shared R&D programme and jointly submit research and innovation projects on a ...
Intel, CEA extend R&D agreement
Mobileye and ST are co-developing the 5th generation of Mobileye’s SoC, the EyeQ®5, to act as the central computer performing sensor fusion for Fully Autonomous Driving (FAD) vehicles starting in 2020. Engineering samples of EyeQ5 are expected to be available by first half of 2018. First development hardware with the full suite of applications and ...
Mobileye, ST to develop autonomous driving SoC
Cree has introduced the next generation of its XSP series of street lamps, increasing output as well as boosting lm/W by up to 25% over the standard XSP Series. Called XSP HO Series, up to 18,523 lm and 116 lm/W is available. The the lamps are intended to replace high-pressure sodium fixtures from 70W to ...
Cree boosts street lamp efficacy by 25%
Imagination Technologies has announced it's working with the Debian Project to help the development of the Debian operating system for the 64-bit MIPS architecture.
Imagination speeds Debian development for 64-bit MIPS
US researchers have created a powerful permanent magnet out of iron and nitrogen, two plentiful cheap materials, as part of a programme to cut the need for rare-earth metals. It is only a tiny sample, a film 500nm thick, but it is the real thing. “To the best of our knowledge, this could be the ...
Rare-earth-free magnet made from cheap materials
What is the internet but a standard? DARPA and the World Wide Web gave the world a common way of communicating and the world took to it like ducks to water. But when it comes to the IoT what do the idiots do? They set up up a plethora of non-interoperable standards which destroys the ...
Multiple Suitors Afflict Poor Wretched IoT
"This wearable doesn't measure your heartbeat, it won't track your position and we most definitely wont count any calories! The pin does one thing - it enhances your personality."
Just a reminder that some ROHS 2 exemptions will expire this year. 2(b)(2) – Expired on 13/4/2016 2(b)(1), 5(a) , 7(b), 17, 25, 30, 31,33, and 38 will all expire on 21st July 2016 – just two months away. If you have or use any parts claiming these exemption you will need to review their ...
STMicroelectronics has introduced the TSX7 series of precision 16V op amps which the supplier claims can eliminate the need for trimming or calibration in the assembled circuit due to their low input-offset voltage, common mode rejection ratio and temperature drift. The op amps are available with an automotive-grade temperature range from -40°C to 125°C. Using ...
16V op amps will require “no trimming”
Kiktronic is releasing MI:power for the BBC micro:bit, a new power board for the educational device. MI:power powers the BBC micro:bit via a 3V coin cell battery and is intended to make it easier for the BBC micro:bit to be used within wearable tech projects, such as designing a smart watch of pedometer. The Nottingham-based ...
Kiktronic powers BBC micro:bit with coin cell battery
CUI has added two open frame isolated DC-DC converters – the PRD15 and PRD25 series – with outputs of 15W and 25W respectively in one square inch of board space. The modules measure 27.90 x 24.40 x 8.10mm. The PRD15 series features a 4:1 input voltage range of 9-36 or 18-75Vdc, while the PRD25 series ...
Power converter puts 25W in square inch space
Randall Restle explains how an analysis of the internet some 10 years ago has had some important consequences for the nature of product design and marketing, Around 10 years ago, a group of observers of online trends wrote a series of manifestos that explored how the internet would change the nature of business. One of ...
It’s good to talk about embedded system design, says Digi-Key
ST has launched a set of SiC power devices aimed at accelerating automotive electrification. A complete set of devices allows full conversion of auto power modules to SiC for greater vehicle range, convenience, and reliability ST is moving its SiC production to 6-inch wafers and has an AEC-Q101 qualification program to complete in early 2017, ...
ST puts SiC auto ICs on six inch wafers
A UK student has won a prestigious award at International Science and Engineering competition in Phoenix, Arizona British student Brad Stalker, 17, of the Energy Coast UTC (University Technical College) in Workington, Cumbria won a prestigious Third Place Award at the Intel sponsored International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) last week, which this year was ...
Q1 silicon wafer area shipments increased compared to Q4, according to the SEMI Silicon Manufacturers Group (SMG). Total silicon wafer area shipments were 2,538 million square inches during the most recent quarter, a 1.3 percent increase from the 2,504 million square inches shipped during the previous quarter. However, new quarterly total area shipments are 3.8 ...
UltraSoC has announced the latest version of its semiconductor IP and software tools for SoC development, debug, optimisation and hardware security. The latest release in UltraSoC’s continuous development program includes extended support for data analytics and visualization, improved performance monitoring and system optimization capabilities, enhanced integration with third-party tool-chains, improved support for functional safety applications, ...
Problems, and how men have solved them, are always of great interest. So, 55 years ago, started a story in Electronics Weekly’s edition of April 26th 1961 The story continues: Last week I met Mr P.R.Chorley manager of Shell International Petroleum Co Ltd, St Swithin’s Training Centre. His problem was how to teach conversational Indonesian ...
Learn A Language In Four Weeks
The Whisper Node is based on the AVR ATMega328p, the same chip used on the Arduino.
DevBoard Watch: Whisper Node builds on a single AA battery
Lattice Semiconductor has addressed the issue of multiple image sensor and display interface protocols with an FPGA-based bridge chip. Essentially, the device, called CrossLink, is a video interface bridge with a fast MIPI D-PHY capability that delivers up to 4K ultra-HD resolution at 12Gbit/s bandwidth. Protocols supported include MIPI D-PHY, MIPI CSI-2, MIPI DSI, MIPI ...
Bridge IC brings mobile display interfaces to industrial apps
While Tsinghua was buying it’s 3% stake in Imagination earlier this month, it had already bagged up a stake in Marvell, a May 2nd SEC filing reveals. The size of the Marvell stake is not stated but It must be at least 5% which is the level required for disclosure under SEC rules. Last month ...
Tsinghua Adds Marvell Stake To Lattice and Imagination
There’s Brexit and Bremain, but what about Breform? Anyway, why am I talking about the European Union Referendum? Here on Electronics Weekly we would like to get a more nuanced view, oriented around the electronics industry, so we are running a survey to capture our readers’ views. Note: Please only take the survey if you currently work in the ...
Survey: Electronics and the European Union Referendum
Find out about a novel solution for tracking moving objects with WiFi signals
Tracking WiFi signals with USRP & LabVIEW
Qualcomm, Micron, and Hynix registered ≥25% drops, with total top-20 sales off by 6%, reports IC Insights. In total, the top-20 semiconductor companies’ sales declined by 6% in 1Q16/1Q15, 1% less than the total worldwide semiconductor industry decline of 7%. Although, in total, the top-20 1Q16 semiconductor companies registered a moderate 6% drop, there were ...
Thanks to IC Insights for this one – the top 20 semiconductor suppliers in Q1 2016:
The chip market will fall 2.3% in 2016, says IDC For the second year running IC revenues will see a decline, falling to $324 billion, says IDC. Revenues are forecast to log a CAGR of 1.9% from 2015-2020, reaching $364 billion in 2020. An economic pause in China and emerging markets, and a softening of ...
Second down year for semis, says IDC.
Is Apple really slipping? Things don’t look so rosy for the world’s most valuable company: Shares down 20% in 6 months. 10 million less iPhones sold in Q1 2016 than in Q1 2015 and a further decline expected in Q2 ahead of Q3’s expected iPhone 7 launch. TSMC and Dialog slashing H2 revenue projections suggesting ...
What Innovation Can Kick-Start iPhone Sales?
Infineon is shipping its CoolMOS C7 Gold 650 V in a TO-Leadless package. The C7 Gold CoolMOS technology comes with 4pin Kelvin Source capability and improved thermal properties of the TO-Leadless package. This enables a viable SMD solution for high current topologies such as Power Factor Correction (PFC) up to 3 kW. The Infineon C7 ...
Eight years ago, EW wrote: “According to semiconductor folk-lore this should be a very good year for the industry.” |”2008 is a US presidential election year, and that’s (nearly) always been a good year for the chip business.” “And 2008 is an Olympic year, which has also (nearly) always been a good year for the ...
Rohde & Schwarz claims its TS8980 RF conformance test system has been used in the first validation for both LTE-Advanced uplink carrier aggregation (UL CA) and LTE-Advanced Pro uplink 64QAM (UL 64QAM). According to the test firm, this is an important step for extending the bandwidth and features of LTE mobile networks. Carrier aggregation and ...
Rohde & Schwarz says LTE-Advanced uplinks ready for the network
Surrey Satellite Technology in Guildford has completed its batch of Galileo satellite deliveries for Europe’s answer to GPS. The 22nd Galileo navigation payload, the last under Galileo Full Operational Capability (FOC) works orders one and two to OHB System in Bremen, the prime contractor. SSTL made the original GIOVE-A Galileo test satellite. Then it won ...
SSTL completes Galileo satellite deliveries
Antenova, the Hatfield antenna manufacturer, of antennas and RF antfor M2M and the Intis announcing three brand new flexible printed circuit antennas to cover the 3G, 4G and LTE bands. These brand new products are the company’s first flexible antennas for 4G and LTE. Together, this set of three antennas offers options for all of ...
Antenova goes for flexible antennas
Japan’s corporate elite are falling like flies. Sharp falls to Foxconn, now Mitsubishi Motors, Japan’s 6th biggest car-maker, falls to French-controlled Renault-Nissan. The Renault-Nissan thing is a curious relationship in which Renault has 43.4% of Nissan’s shares – all fully voting, while Nissan has 15% of Renault’s shares – all non-voting. This gives the French ...
Mitsubishi Motors Falls To France
Arduino now has a standalone voice recognition and synthesiser, and apparently it doesn't require an internet connection or cloud-based processing.
Arduino shield goes all Siri-like
Raspberry Pi projects are always popular and the distributor RS Components has compiled a list of its Top 5 Raspberry Pi 3 project ideas.
Top 5 Raspberry Pi 3 Project Ideas
Having been hunting around for downlights, I have noticed that, quite rightly, fire ratings are now published in their data sheets. But where are the flicker or strobe ratings? And I don’t mean the sort of flicker that comes along with dimmer incompatibility. I mean the residual 50, 60, 100 or 120Hz that comes from ...
Where are the flicker ratings?
I have googled this without finding a satisfactory answer. How long does it take a well-magnetised Alnico magnet to loose magnetism once its keeper/armature is removed? The question arose from a discussion the wise Steve Kurt about removing the armatures from old permanent magnet generators – specifically old Sturmey Archer Dynao Hubs. I vaguely remembered ...
There was once a British Sapper who lit out to California to work for Fairchild and then became the first CEO of a start-up company working on an innovative chip idea which became a new semiconductor product category. He loved old cars and attended motoring events around the world where he could pick up old ...
Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Europe can apply for up to €150,000 to develop new products and components for cyber-physical systems under the latest call from the EuroCPS project. A cyber-physical system (CPS) effectively describes a control system combining embedded computing and analogue interfaces for control and sensing. Examples are factory automation, aerospace systems ...
EC funds SMEs to develop cyber-physical systems for robotics and industry
Farnell element14 is to start manufacturing the BeagleBone Black, open source embedded system design module. The BeagleBone Black will be manufactured by Premier Farnell’s subsidiary Embest Technology. This differs from the approach to the Raspberry Pi computing modules, which are manufactured by Sony UK Technology Centre in Wales for Farnell element14 and rival distributor RS Components. David ...
Farnell element14 to manufacture the BeagleBone Black
Falling ASPs offset the strong unit growth in the automotive IC market last year, resulting in a 3% decline in value, reports IC . On a worldwide basis, automotive electronics represented 8.9% of the $1.42 trillion total 2015 worldwide electronic systems market, a slight increase from 8.6% in 2014. Automotive’s share of global electronic system ...
Students from Haute Ecole ARC Ingénierie, Switzerland have won the Grand Final of the NXP Cup EMEA Challenge 2016.
Swiss students race off with NXP Cup EMEA
The new head of Sharp has been chosen – assuming that shareholders approve a share isuue to facilitate Foxconn’s takeover of the company. Sharp’s shareholders have to agree the share arrangements at a meeting at the end of June which will transfer to Foxconn a 66% stake in Sharp. If that meeting is accomplished successfully ...
The annual PCIM show covers power electronics, intelligent motion, renewable energy and energy management. It runs from 10 – 12 May in Nuremberg, this year. For our full coverage, simply bookmark: www.electronicsweekly.com/tag/pcim PCIM 2016 – Latest News 11 May 2016 PCIM: Toshiba super-junction mosfets cut resistance and noise Toshiba has announced its next generation of super-junction ...
PCIM 2015: Your Electronics Weekly guide
The 12,000 Intel employees being laid off will get at least eight weeks pay, some long-time employees will get a year’s pay, a proportion of of their bonuses plus at least six months health insurance, reports The Oregonian which has seen a copy of an internal Intel memo. However there is steel in Intel’s proposals ...
Intel Severance Terms Laid Out
Electro Rent UK will sell test equipment from Anritsu following the signing of a distribution agreement between the companies. Electro Rent already provides rental, lease, rent-purchase and rent-to-own services on Anritsu test systems. The Anritsu products the distributor will sell in the UK include a range of microwave, RF and mobile protocol cable, spectrum, and ...
Electro Rent will sell Anritsu comms testers
Nothing to do with leds, but just in case you wish to support Germany in the European Football Championships to the nth degree, or have another reason for loving the German flag, how about some custom car headlight bulbs from Osram. Available soon in H4 and H7 versions, they are the Light Champion Deutschland Edition in black, ...
Exiting the EU would be a risk to the UK’s engineering sector, warns Naomi Climer, president of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET). The UK’s main organisation representing 100,000 engineers believes that the interests of UK engineering would be best served by remaining in the EU. “Given the considerable challenges already facing UK engineering ...
Brexit threatens engineering sector, says head of the IET
Spirent Communications has styled itself as a design verification test firm for connected vehicles and it is working with Aston Martin Racing. The test systems supplier is working with Aston Martin Racing during testing to evaluate accuracy and performance of GPS receivers and interference monitoring on the 2016 V8 Vantage GTE race cars. These cars ...
Aston Martin Racing tests connected cars
Arduino is driving down the cost and complexity of embedded system development, and this means processing, sensing and communications all for €30, writes Mark Patrick. Open source hardware has been a major democratising factor in electronics design. Only a relatively short time ago, proprietary development tools were the order of the day. Trouble is, they ...
Intel, NXP and Microchip love Arduino
Sunnyvale-based Diamond Systems has announced a expanded PC/104 (102x102mm) single-board computer with a mid-range CPU – from DMP, standard PC I/O, and on-board data acquisition circuitry. “The Helix SBC is targeted for low price, low performance applications. It offers low to mid-range CPU performance, more than double that of the AMD LX800,” said Diamond. “With ...
Rugged PC/104 single-board computer gets added data acquisition
Researchers from the University of Surrey, led by Professor Alan Dalton and in collaboration with an Oxford touch-sensor manufacturer M-SOLV, looked to alternative materials to overcome the challenges of ITO, which is suffering from supply uncertainty. Alternative materials investigated as ITO replacements have included graphene, carbon nanotubes and random metal nanowire films. This study showed ...
Surrey researchers use silver as ITO replacement in nanowires
Conexant has announced two USB-C audio codecs for phone headsets and docking stations. Both CX20985 and CX20899 feature a built-in, four-conductor headset jack interface that supports headphone/headset auto detection, as well as auto-switching between OMTP and CTIA-style headsets without the need for external components. Featuring a stereo 24bit DAC and ADC for music and voice communication ...
USB-C audio codec handles connector switching
NXP is now the No.1 supplier of auto ICs, says Strategy Analytics, following its take-over of Freescale. NXP has 14.2% market share – 4% ahead of Infineon snd Renesas. Renesas, which was the No.1 auto IC player in 2014, is now in third place with 10.3% share. Infineon holds its No,2 slot with 10.4% share. ...
The Solliance R&D consortium for solar power development consisting of Imec, Holst Centre, ECN, TNO, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Delft University of Technology, Eindhoven University of Technology and the University of Hasselt has shown how to upscale perovskite PV modules Solliance has demonstrated a record 10% aperture area efficiency power conversion for its up-scaled perovskite thin-film photovoltaic ...
Solliance moves closer to upscaled perovskite PV module
