Here are my collection of trends and predictions for electronics industry for 2015:
The computer market, once the IC growth driver per se, apparently is approaching saturation status. Communications industry is still growing (6.8%.). Automotive V2X, LED lighting and smart domestic objects are set to drive semiconductor market growth through the year 2020, according to market analysis firm Gartner.
Car electronics will be hot in 2015. New cars will have more security features, smart infotainment and connectivity in them. It is an are where smart phone companies are pushing to. Automotive Industry Drives Chip Demand article says that until 2018, the IC demand from automotive customers is expected to exhibit the strongest average annual growth — 10.8% on average. This is significantly higher than the communications industry, at second place with 6.8%. Demand drivers include safety features that increasingly are becoming mandatory, such as backup cameras or eCall. But driver-assistance systems are also becoming ubiquitous. Future drivers will include connectivity, such as vehicle-to-vehicle communications, as well as sensors and controllers necessary for various degrees of autonomous driving.
Power electronics is a $90 billion-per-year market. The market for discrete power electronics is predicted to grow to $23 billion by 2024 from $13 billion today. Silicon rules power electronics industry, but new materials are pushing to headlines quickly. In the power electronics community, compound semiconductors such as gallium nitride (GaN) are drawing more attention as they try to displace silicon based power devices, which have been doing the heavy lifting for the past 30 years or so. While silicon-based devices are predicted to remain predominant with an 87% share of the market, it is expected that SiC- and GaN-based components to grow at annual rates of 30% and 32%, respectively. There’s no denying the cost advantages that silicon possesses.
Chip designs that enable everything from a 6 Gbit/s smartphone interface to the world’s smallest SRAM cell will be described at the International Solid State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) in February 2015. Intel will describe a Xeon processor packing 5.56 billion transistors, and AMD will disclose an integrated processor sporting a new x86 core, according to a just-released preview of the event. The annual ISSCC covers the waterfront of chip designs that enable faster speeds, longer battery life, more performance, more memory, and interesting new capabilities. There will be many presentations on first designs made in 16 and 14 nm FinFET processes at IBM, Samsung, and TSMC.
There is push to go to even smaller processes, and it seems that next generation of lithography equipment are started to being used. Earlier expectation was for chipmakers to use traditional immersion lithography for production of 10 nm chip, but it seems that extreme ultraviolet (EUV) scanners that allows allow scaling to 10 nm or even smaller is being used. TSMC to Use EUV for 7nm, Says ASML. Intel and TSMC have been injecting money in ASML to push process technology.
2015 promises to see initial FPGA product releases and (no doubt) a deluge of marketing claims and counter-claims. One thing is certain: 2015 will not be boring. There will be FPGA products that use processes beyond 20nm, for example Altera and Xilinx have committed to use the TSMC 16nm FinFET technology. There is publicized (and rumored) race to get to production at 14nm has seen time frames for initial samples move into 2015. However, with both FPGA companies reporting gross margins of close to 70 percent, it would be possible for either company to take an initial hit on margin to gain key socket wins.
It seems that the hardware becomes hot again as Wearables make hardware the new software. Apple invest its time when it released the Apple Watch last quarter, going up against the likes of Google’s Android Wear and others in the burgeoning wearables area of design. Once Apple’s bitten into a market, it’s somewhat a given that there’s good growth ahead and that the market is, indeed, stable enough. As we turn to 2015 and beyond wearables becomes an explosive hardware design opportunity — one that is closely tied to both consumer and healthcare markets. It could pick up steam in the way software did during the smartphone app explosion.
There will be more start-up activity within hardware sector. For recent years, the software has been on the main focus on the start-ups, and the hardware sector activity has been lower. Hardware sector has seem some start-up activity with many easy to use open hardware platforms became available (make development of complex devices easier and reachable for smaller companies). The group financing (Kickstarter, Indiegogo, etc.) have made it possible to test of new hardware ideas are market-worthy and get finance to get them to production.
EEs embrace hackathons aand accelerators. Design 2.0 is bubbling up in the engineering community, injecting new energy into the profession. In many ways, it’s the new Moore’s Law. Easy to use open hardware development platforms have made it possible to design working hardware device prototypes within hackathons.
Silicon Startups Get Incubator article tells that there will be new IC start-up activity as semiconductor veterans announced plans for an incubator dedicated to helping chip startups design their first prototypes. Keysight, Synopsys, and TSMC have signed exclusive deals to provide tools and services to the incubator. Silicon Catalyst aims to select its first batch of about 10 chip startups before April.
MEMS mics are taking over. Almost every mobile device has ditched its old-fashioned electret microphone invented way back in 1962 at Bell Labs. Expect new piezoelectric MEMS microphones, which promise unheard of signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) of up to 80 dB (versus 65 dB in the best current capacitive microphones) in 2015. MEMS microphones are growing like gangbusters.Also engineers have found a whole bunch of applications that can use MEMS microphone as a substitute for more specialized sensors starting in 2015.
There will be advancements in eco-design. There will be activity within Europe’s Ecodesign directive. The EC’s Ecodesign Working Plan for 2015-2017 is currently in its final study stages – the plan is expected to be completed by January 2015. The chargers will be designed for lower zero load power consumption in 2015, as on February 2016, after the 5-watt chargers are no longer at no load connected consume more than 0.1 watts of power. Socket for power supplies values are defined in the new Energy Star standard VI.
LED light market growing in 2015. Strategies Unlimited estimates that in 2014 the LED lamps were sold $ 7 billion, or about 5.7 billion euros. In 2019 the LED lamps will already sold just over 12 billion euros. LED technology will replace other lighting technologies quickly. For those who do not go to the LED Strategies Unlimited permission difficult times – all other lamp technologies, the market will shrink 14 percent per year. The current lighting market growth is based on LED proliferation of all the different application areas.
IoT market is growing fast in 2015. Gartner is predicting a 30 percent compound annual growth rate for the IoT chip market for the period 2013 to 2020. The move to create billions of smart, autonomously communicating objects known as the Internet of Things (IoT) is driving the need for low-power sensors, processors and communications chips. Gartner expects chips for IoT market to grow 36% in 2015 (IoT IC marker value in 2014 was from $3.9 billion to $9 billion depending how you calculate it). The sales generated by the connectivity and sensor subsystems to enabled this IoT will amount $48.3 billion in 2014 and grow 19 percent in 2015 to $57.7 billion. IC Insights forecasts that web-connected things will account for 85 percent of 29.5 billion Internet connections worldwide by 2020.
With the increased use of IoT, the security is becoming more and more important to embedded systems and chip designers. Embedded systems face ongoing threats of penetration by persistent individuals and organizations armed with increasingly sophisticated tools. There is push for IC makers to add on-chip security features to serve as fundamental enablers for secure systems, but it is just one part of the IoT security puzzle. The trend toward enterprise-level security lifecycle management emerges as the most promising solution for hardened security in embedded systems underlying the explosive growth of interconnected applications. The trend continues in 2015 for inclusion of even more comprehensive hardware support for security: More and more MCUs and specialized processors now include on-chip hardware accelerators for crypto operations.
Electronics is getting smaller and smaller. Component manufacturers are continually developing new and smaller packages for components that are mere fractions of a millimeter and have board to component clearances of less than a mil. Components are placed extremely close together. No-lead solder is a relatively recent legislated fact of life that necessitated new solder, new fluxes, higher temperatures, and new solder processing equipment. Tin whisker problems also increased dramatically. You should Improve device reliability via PCB cleanliness, especially if you are designing something that should last more then few years.
Photonics will get to the circuit board levels. Progress in computer technology (and the continuation of Moore’s Law) is becoming increasingly dependent on faster data transfer between and within microchips. We keep hearing that copper has reached its speed limit, and that optics will replace copper for high-speed signals. Photonics now can run through cables, ICs, backplanes, and circuit boards. Silicon chips can now have some optical components in them using silicon photonics technologies. For more than 10 years, “silicon photonics” has attracted significant research efforts due to the potential benefits of optoelectronics integration. Using silicon as an optical medium and complementary metal-oxide semiconductor fabrication processing technology, silicon photonics allows tighter monolithic integration of many optical functions within a single device.
Enter electro-optical printed circuits, which combine copper and optical paths on the same board. Electro-optical PCBs use copper for distributing power and low-speed data, and optical paths for high-speed signals. Optical backplane connectors have been developed, as well as a technique to align the small waveguides to transceivers on the board. The next challenge is to develop waveguides on to boards where the tight bends don’t degrade performance to unacceptable levels.
3D printing will bring structural electronics. With 3D printing hot in the news, and conformable, flexible, or even printed electronics fitting any shape, it is only a matter of time before electronic circuits can be laid-out as part of the 3D-printing process, the electronic framework becoming an integral supporting part of any object’s mechanical structure. For example “structural batteries” have already been implemented in electric cars, in racing-car aerofoils, and in the Tesla pure electric car.
Superconductors are heating up again. Superconductivity will be talked again in 2015 as there were some advancements in the end of 2014. A group of international scientists working with the National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park, Calif., have discovered lasers that can create conditions for superconductivity at temperatures as high at 140°F. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has discovered a law governing thin-film superconductors, eliminating much of the trial and error for companies that manufacture superconducting photodetector. With MIT’s new mathematical law, new superconducting chips can be designed with the correct parameters determined ahead of time.
Frost and Sullivan forecast that “PXI to disrupt automated test” between 2015 and 2018. They predict PXI to achieve $1.75B in annual sales by 2020, up from $563M in 2013. That’s an aggregate growth rate of over 17%. Not bad for an industry that has an overall secular growth rate of 3 percent.
1,206 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
New Magnetic Semiconductor
http://hackaday.com/2015/11/23/new-magnetic-semiconductor/
When you think of South Dakota you generally think of Mount Rushmore and, maybe, nuclear missiles. However, [Simeon Gilbert] will make you think of semiconductors. [Simeon], a student at South Dakota State University, won first place at the annual Sigma Xi national conference because of his work on a novel magnetic semiconductor.
The material, developed in collaboration with researchers from the nano-magnetic group at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, is a mix of cobalt, iron, chromium, and aluminum. However, some of the aluminum is replaced with silicon.
Although many magnetic materials (like magnetite) are also semiconductors, their properties are not generally comparable to traditional semiconductors like silicon. This has led to more research on combining magnetic materials and semiconductors to produce semiconductors that also exhibit ferromagnetism.
Testing New Magnetic Semiconductor Material
South Dakota State University physics student wins national research award
http://www.newswise.com/articles/testing-new-magnetic-semiconductor-material
Tomi Engdahl says:
The semiconductor industry this year can already appoint a real crazy year. The various acquisitions has been used for much more than a hundred billion dollars.
Now sold went to one of Silicon Valley’s semiconductor industry of the pioneers: ON Semiconductor to buy Fairchild Semiconductor’s $ 2.4 billion in cash trading. At the same time generated the highest power semiconductor company, whose annual turnover will reach about five billion dollars.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3627:jattikaupat-jatkuvat-nyt-palaa-2-4-miljardia&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Samsung on Intel’s Heels in Chip Vendor Ranking
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328312&
Samsung is set to make in-roads into Intel’s lead as the world’s largest chip manufacturer in 2015, according to a list of chip companies ranked by forecast chip revenues from market research firm IC Insights.
Intel continues to suffer from its dependence on the weak personal computer market and its inability to break into the mobile phone market and will see its semiconductor sales shrink by 2 percent in 2015 to just above $50 billion while Samsung will grow chip revenue by 10 percent to lie only $6 billion behind.
Notable losers in the ranking include Micron Technology and Qualcomm, Renesas and Toshiba. In the case of the two Japanese companies their sales declines—of 22 and 12 percent respectively—were made worse by the weakness of the yen against the dollar.
The US dollar has strengthened against almost all other currencies used for electronics in 2015 and this currency deflation has presented in the form of lower average selling prices (ASPs), which are forecast to register a 3 percent decline. It is also one of the reasons IC Insights recently reduced its forecast for the global semiconductor market from a 1 percent growth to a 1 percent decline.
Companies that are set to prosper, partly due to acquisitions, include Infineon, up 16 percent after its acquisition of International Rectifier at the beginning of the year and Globalfoundries, a foundry, which jumps three places and increases sales by 15 percent partly due to its acquisition of IBM semiconductor sales in the second half of 2015.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Digi-Key Partners With Accelerated Designs
http://www.eeweb.com/company-news/digikey/digi-key-partners-with-accelerated-designs/
Digi-Key Electronics announces an exclusive, global agreement to distribute software and design data from Accelerated Designs. Accelerated Designs focuses on providing engineers and electronics manufacturers EDA-tool-neutral software and data that improves efficiency of adding and managing new parts when designing circuits and printed circuit boards.
The flagship product of Accelerated Designs is Ultra Librarian, which is used to create and export symbols and footprints in a format that is compatible with nearly any EDA tool depending on one’s license. This enables organizations or teams to maintain a central repository of common components or approved parts lists/libraries (APLs) and allow individual engineers to use nearly any EDA tool they want to create their designs.
“Digi-Key is extremely pleased to sign Accelerated Designs as a supplier.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
8-bit isn’t dying, it’s growing
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/embedded-insights/4440832/8-bit-isn-t-dying–it-s-growing?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20151119&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20151119&elq=2d59f80aeb7f4cce931297371e0ff3bb&elqCampaignId=25800&elqaid=29395&elqat=1&elqTrackId=71232eb8f81c4357a41ce2ce5c1b1171
Mark Twain once quipped, “Reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated.” The same can probably be said of the often expressed idea that 8-bit microcontrollers are in decline. The reality appears to be that despite the competition from low-cost, low-power 32-bit MCUs, 8-bit MCUs are not only holding their own in the embedded market race, they are getting their second wind.
It’s easy to see why one might think that 8-bit MCUs are a dying breed. The pace of technology advance has conditioned us to believe that anything more than a half-decade old has been rendered obsolete and that in a few more years will become unavailable as vendors turn their production resources over to newer products. Further, 32-bit processors have been dropping in price and have become available in sizes that rival that of 8-bit MCUs, reducing those former 8-bit advantages. We thus expect 8-bit processing to fade away.
There is data to support this expectation.
But as has been pointed out to me by Microchip and other champions of 8-bit processing, these ideas and expectations miss a key point: embedded designs are not always based on a single processor. There are many benefits to splitting off some kinds of functionality into smaller, autonomous processors to simplify the design and operation of applications programs
These 8-bit champions make a good point. While 32-bit use is on the rise, so is multiple processor design, and 8-bit use there may not be getting the recognition it deserves. Even the UBM survey would miss 8-bit use. The survey question asks “What was the main processor you used in your most recent design?” (emphasis added). This completely ignores the question of what secondary processors a design may contain. It has also been pointed out to me that 8-bit designs tend to be completed more quickly than 32-bit designs, and the question only asks about the most recent project, not how many projects they completed this year.
There have also been a couple of things that show me 8-bit design is in growth mode rather than decline. As I reported from Embedded World in Germany this spring in my article 8-bit MCUs stake a claim in the IoT, Spansion has put forth a new line of 8-bit products targeting what promises to be the largest market embedded developers have ever seen – the Internet of Things (IoT).
And as I reported in my article 8-bit fights back with autonomous peripherals
Tomi Engdahl says:
Keysight power analyzer goes to four channels
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/rowe-s-and-columns/4440835/Keysight-power-analyzer-goes-to-four-channels?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20151118&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20151118&elq=f6b5852849114a0db8202485557cac71&elqCampaignId=25778&elqaid=29360&elqat=1&elqTrackId=5f9faf4546d54b6a9ab6d47c648b5e14
When Keysight Technologies first introduced its IntegraVision PA 2201A Power Analyzer in January 2015, it was clear that the two-channel instrument was going to get a four-channel sibling. The sibling has arrived and it’s called the IntegraVision PA2203A.
The two-channel version already had the space for four input modules so it was just a matter of time before the four-channel version arrived. Having four channels lets you digitize and analyze signals for three-phase electrical networks.
In addition to having four channels, the PA2230A provides a wiring wizard that shows you how to connect its inputs to three-phase wye and delta configurations.
Its 16-bit resolution and 5 msample/s capture rate lets you measure small increments in voltage and current from which you can calculate power. You can use the PA2230A to calculate power consumption from a device that uses power in bursts.
Price: $31,500. Deliveries to begin January 2016.
Download a backgrounder Managing the Challenges of Three-Phase Power and Energy Measurements.
http://about.keysight.com/en/newsroom/backgrounders/IntegraVision/
Tomi Engdahl says:
NI Low-Cost Data Acquisition Family
http://www.ni.com/low-cost-daq/?cid=Advertising-701i0000001KXrMAAW-United_States-PID14276870
Tomi Engdahl says:
CES Unveiled NY: What consumer electronics will 2016 bring?
http://www.edn.com/design/consumer/4440815/CES-Unveiled-NY–What-consumer-electronics-will-2016-bring-?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20151118&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20151118&elq=f6b5852849114a0db8202485557cac71&elqCampaignId=25778&elqaid=29360&elqat=1&elqTrackId=00964421fb164c16a0f63e67f592e307
CES Unveiled in New York City allowed many exhibitors to display their newest innovations leading up to next year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES). From fitness to music to medical, there was something for all ages and interests. It was a wonderful experience meeting so many different people and getting a sneak peek at just some of the new gadgets and devices to be shown at CES in Las Vegas, taking place January 6-9, 2016.
Here are some of the up-and-coming consumer electronics that were on display CES Unveiled.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Design trade-offs of using SAR and sigma delta converters for multiplexed data acquisition systems
http://www.edn.com/design/analog/4440855/Design-trade-offs-of-using-SAR-and-sigma-delta-converters-for-multiplexed-data-acquisition-systems?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20151119&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20151119&elq=f8ebab6a70e94f4c974c37779107cd8d&elqCampaignId=25795&elqaid=29390&elqat=1&elqTrackId=39e0d6b10af54028bc3a416d85ea07ed
Multiplexed data acquisition systems (DAS) utilized in industrial process control, portable medical devices and optical transceivers need increased channel density, where the user wants to measure the signals from multiple sensors and monitor and scan many input channels in to a single or several ADCs. The overall benefit of multiplexing is fewer number of ADCs per channel required, saving print circuit board (PCB) space, power and cost. Some systems in automated test equipment and power-line monitoring applications demand dedicated track and hold amplifier and ADC on per channel basis for simultaneously sampling the inputs to obtain increased sampling rate per channel and to preserve the phase information at the expense of additional PCB area and power.
System designers make trade-offs based on performance, power, space, and cost requirements in their end application. They select one of the converter architectures and topologies and implement their signal chain using either discrete or integrated components available in the market.
A small voltage glitch or kickback occurs at the multiplexer input when it switches channels.
The internal comparator noise and DAC linearity determines the accuracy of SAR ADC conversion, whereas the settling time (switching) of the integrator in the modulator determines the accuracy of the Σ-Δ ADC conversion. One of the challenges with the SAR ADC is that the driver amplifier needs to settle switching transient currents injected on its analog input during the acquisition time between the end of one conversion and the start of the next conversion.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fuseholders
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/living-analog/4440859/Fuseholders?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20151119&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20151119&elq=f8ebab6a70e94f4c974c37779107cd8d&elqCampaignId=25795&elqaid=29390&elqat=1&elqTrackId=f51f3e41d405441d9ab9eb2f3548f3d2
There are all sorts of safety standards you must follow in designing this or that product and of course, you and your company will follow them. At your lab bench however, inadvertent safety hazards may arise with test fixtures that you or an assistant may whip up due to some safety measures either not being taken by dint of careless oversight or, as I once saw, by dint of sheer stupidity with “safety standards” being foolishly tossed out the proverbial window.
As an example, consider the lowly fuseholder
The danger with this arrangement is that the AC line voltage can appear at the fuse contact that comes real close to your finger tips when you are inserting or replacing a fuse. This is dangerous. There is a very real shock hazard.
“The surprising thing about young fools is how many survive to become old fools.” – Doug Larson
Comment:
The method of wiring is dependent on the design of the fuseholder
Tomi Engdahl says:
Review: Tekbox Near-Field Probes
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/the-emc-blog/4440825/Review–Tekbox-Near-Field-Probes?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20151119&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20151119&&elq=f8ebab6a70e94f4c974c37779107cd8d&elqCampaignId=25795&elqaid=29390&elqat=1&elqTrackId=d18f3448bd554271809158e026cd12d9
A set of near-field probes is an essential tool for troubleshooting EMI issues. Tekbox Digital Solutions has recently introduced a kit containing a set of three H-field, one E-field probe, and either a 20 or 40 dB gain broadband preamplifier. All this is included in a laser-engraved wooden box – a very nice touch. The probes may also be ordered without the preamplifier. I had a chance to try them out and compare with some similar probes.
What’s In The Box?
The kit includes three H-field probes (0.5, 1, and 2 cm in diameter), and one E-field probe with a 0.5 cm long probe (Figure 1). All appear to be built around a multi-layer PC board and are covered with a rubberized coating for insulation. All include a rather large rubber handle and are connected via an SMB coaxial connector. This type connector seems to be the norm for most of the newest near-field probes I’ve seen
The kit also includes either a 20 or 40 dB gain broadband preamplifier that covers 3 to 3000 MHz and can take up to +10 dBm input safely. This would be useful for boosting the signal level from the probes – especially for the smaller-diameter probes, which are not as sensitive.
The review kit also included the TBWA2 20 dB gain preamplifier, which I felt would be more useful that the 40 dB gain model.
While I’m going to have to get used to the large handles, the probes work well and seem about as sensitive as competitive products. The flat form factor allows the probe to reach into tight spaces.
The set of four probes alone is $199. The probes and either 20 or 40 dB gain preamplifier set is $329.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intel’s Bill Holt Sets Standard for Leadership in Semiconductor Technology
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=189&doc_id=1328346&
Never has there been a more critical time to shine a light on the importance of U.S. leadership in semiconductor technology.
For more than four decades, Bill Holt has been a semiconductor industry trailblazer, helping Intel introduce revolutionary chip technologies that have moved the company and our industry forward.
Next week, at our annual SIA Award Dinner in San Jose, Bill will receive the semiconductor industry’s highest honor, the Robert N. Noyce Award, in recognition of his outstanding achievements and leadership on behalf of our industry.
Tomi Engdahl says:
SiLabs Debuts MCU, Builds Smart Structures
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328341&
Silicon Labs introduced a new microcontroller family with high analog performance and peripheral integration in the 8-bit market. The EFM8LB1 Laser Bee MCUs will target performance-intensive applications such as optical modules, test and measurement instrumentation, industrial control equipment, and smart sensors.
“Optical module applications require small-form-factor MCUs offering exceptional analog performance and integration,” SiLabs wrote. “Analog integration helps eliminate the need for external analog components, reducing the overall system bill of materials cost and printed circuit board space while enhancing performance.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
MEMS Market: Ups and Upstarts
Novel & HD vs. mature commodity
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328333&
Bosch and Texas Instruments are likely to maintain the top two positions in the microelectromechanical system (MEMS) markets in 2015, but Avago is predicted to jump from fifth to third in preliminary tallies, knocking STMicroelectronics and Hewlett Packard down a notch from their 2014 positions, announced market research firm IHS Inc. at this month’s MEMS Executive Congress (Napa, Calif.).
By past accounts, the MEMS market should have entered the mature phase by now, where its products become commoditized–like DRAM–making price the primary buyer’s incentive and setting off round after round of price cutting, mergers and acquisitions (M&As). The fact that this has not yet happened indicates that something is preventing the market from maturing
“The accelerometer and gyroscope markets are leveling out, but there is still strong growth in microphones–which can charge a premium price for the most-wanted high signal-to-noise ratio varieties,” Bouchaud told EE Times. “And there is also strong growth in new types of MEMS devices such as BAWs [bulk acoustic wave filters].”
As a result, IHS has boosted its overall growth in the market from 10.5 billion in 2018–up from $9.4 billion in 2014–to $13 billion in 2018–up from $9.6 in 2014. The fastest growing market segments remain the consumer electronics and mobile spaces, where growth has been spurred to a 13.4 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) out to 2019, compared with an overall CAGR rate of 7.6 percent for the entire MEMS market over the same period.
The fastest growing device type are BAW filters, of which 22 are used in the new iPhone-6s and -6s+, followed by microphones, bolstered by smartphone original equipment manufacturers (OEMs adding more and more of the most expensive, high definition with high signal-to-ratios to their products.)
For instance, the iPhone-4s used just two 59 dB signal-to-noise ration mics, the iPhone-5, -5s and 6 bumped that up to three 62-to-63 dB mic models and the latest iPhone-6s and -6s+ now use four 64-to-66 dB signal-to-noise ratio mics, according to IHS.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsemi Sees off Skyworks to Win PMC-Sierra
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328347&
Microsemi Corp. (Aliso Viejo, Calif.) has entered into an agreement to acquire PMC-Sierra Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.), a maker of chips for optical storage and communications.
Previous bidder Skyworks Solutions Inc. (Woburn, Mass.) has announced that its agreement to acquire PMC-Sierra has been terminated and that it is entitled to an $88.5 million termination fee from PMC.
Mixed-signal chip company Microsemi said it will acquire PMC for approximately $2.5 billion in a deal that is a mix of cash and shares.
Tomi Engdahl says:
MediaTek Sees Gains Against Qualcomm Slowing Next Year
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328337&
MediaTek, which eroded Qualcomm’s market share in smartphones this year, said its gains may slow in 2016 as its larger rival rolls out new products for the high-end segment.
In the past 12 months, MediaTek’s share of China’s smartphone market, the world’s largest, nearly doubled as it launched new octa-core products to compete with Qualcomm’s 600-800 Snapdragon SoCs. Now the going is a bit tougher.
“We may not see the 90-point progress that we had this year, but 70 points is still possible,” said Jeffrey Ju, MediaTek’s newly appointed chief operating officer, in an interview with EE Times Taiwan. “We have not yet entered the high-end flagship market. The mistakes our competitor made with the Snapdragon 810 haven’t provided a direct opportunity to increase our share. So, there’s still a lot of opportunity for us.”
Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810, reportedly plagued by power-consumption problems, will soon be refreshed by the Snapdragon 820, which some analysts see as a comeback chip. For its part, MediaTek will launch the Helio x30 for high-end smartphones next year, made on the 16nm FinFET+ process of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), and supporting low-power DDR4 (LPDDR4) memory, universal flash storage (UFS) and 4,000 pixel (4K) display, Ju said.
Slowing momentum
Qualcomm and MediaTek may need to sharpen their competitive edge as the overall market appears to be losing momentum. Smartphone market growth is expected to slow to 10.4 percent this year from 27.5 percent in 2014, according to market research firm IDC.
“The mobile phone industry is indeed in the midst of winter, and after the winter, spring may not be as splendid as before,”
The two smartphone chip leaders in the meantime will be facing stronger competition at the low end.
China’s Spreadtrum is planning to compete in the higher tier against MediaTek’s Helio family with a 16nm octa-core chipset called Whale 2 built on TSMC’s 16nm process for launch in the second quarter of 2016, according to Credit Suisse analyst Abrams.
“The chipset would be timed closely to MediaTek’s Helio x30 chipset also coming out on 16nm around the 2016 Mobile World Congress (February 22-25),”
Tomi Engdahl says:
ams bought CMOS circuits manufacturer CMOSIS for approximately EUR 220 million
The CMOS sensors used in a variety of machine vision applications. Medical-area devices have been the main application circuits.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3657:ams-osti-cmos-kuvapiirien-valmistajan&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to get 500W in an eighth-brick converter with GaN, part 1
http://www.edn.com/design/power-management/4440901/How-to-get-500W-in-an-eighth-brick-converter-with-GaN–part-1?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_weekly_20151126&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_weekly_20151126&elq=7975c4f26d424104b5734022364c0c05&elqCampaignId=25905&elqaid=29521&elqat=1&elqTrackId=3f8515c0dd714df5b0b14b0795e57528
DC-DC “brick” converters are familiar to many engineers, and have wide usage in telecommunications, networking, data centers, and many other applications. This is due in large part to adoption of a common footprint defined by the Distributed-power Open Standards Alliance (DOSA) and generally accepted input/output voltage ranges [1]. These converters provide isolation and voltage step-down, and have become increasingly sophisticated, with features that enable advanced system optimization and control. They often reside on motherboards where they drive point-of-load converters for processors and memory.
Power processing is considered a cost, and information processing a source of profit. Hence, there is continuous pressure to increase power density. However, as the technology has matured, improvements in basic power conversion capability, that is, power density and efficiency, have slowed down to a crawl.
All is not lost, however, as GaN power semiconductors give basic power converter technology a much-needed shot in the arm. GaN transistors already show large improvements over similarly rated silicon devices
This converter can deliver more than 500 W using a conventional transformer-isolated, hard-switched, PWM regulated design. It represents a new starting point that can be achieved with GaN – and with room to grow.
This article will appear in two parts. Part 1 covers brick technology, a comparison of eGaN FETs to silicon MOSFETS, a basic overview of the GaN-based eighth-brick design, and experimental results. Part 2 gives a detailed design overview to show how to get the most out of eGaN FETs, along with a number of ways that the design could be improved.
At the 100 W to 1 kW level, quarter-brick (Q-brick) and eighth-brick (E-brick) DOSA-compliant converters are commonly used to convert a nominal 48V backplane to a nominal 12V motherboard distribution bus. The main trend has been towards higher power density.
Typical E-brick converters are used as integrated bus converters which convert a nominal input voltage range of 36-75V to an output voltage in the range of approximately 9.6V to 13V. The standard footprint and pinout mean that these converters have been widely adopted for telecom and data center applications.
The eGaN FET-based E-brick converter was developed with the following design goals:
500W output at 12V (42 A output)
48V to 60V input range (52V nominal)
Fully regulated
Isolated
> 96% efficient at full load
DOSA-compliant footprint
Off-the-shelf parts
eGaN FETs have many benefits over silicon MOSFETs that make them particularly well suited to E-brick applications. These include small size, reduced gate charge, lower parasitic capacitances and inductances, lower gate drive voltage, zero reverse recovery, lower specific RDS(on), and faster switching
Tomi Engdahl says:
NTU smart chip tells you how healthy your battery is
http://media.ntu.edu.sg/NewsReleases/Pages/newsdetail.aspx?news=a8083f41-9389-4de4-95ed-d76011b1c1ec
Scientists from Nanyang Technological University (NTU Singapore) have developed a smart chip which can tell you how healthy is your battery and if it is safe for use.
If the battery in your smartphone or electric vehicle is faulty and is at risk of catching fire, this smart chip will warn you. Current warning systems only alert users when the battery is already overheating which may be too late for any remedial action.
Developed by Professor Rachid Yazami of the Energy Research Institute @ NTU (ERI@N), this smart chip is small enough to be embedded in almost all batteries, from the small batteries in mobile devices to the huge power packs found in electric vehicles and advanced aeroplanes.
“Although the risk of a battery failing and catching fire is very low, with the billions of lithium-ion batteries being produced yearly, even a one-in-a-million chance would mean over a thousand failures,” explained Prof Yazami, who holds more than 50 patents and has authored more than 200 scientific papers, book chapters and reports on batteries.
“This poses a serious risk for electric vehicles and even in advanced aeroplanes as usually big battery packs have hundreds of cells or more bundled together to power the vehicle or aircraft. If there is a chemical fire caused by a single failed battery, it could cause fires in nearby batteries, leading to an explosion.”
Patented technology
Embedded in the smart chip is a proprietary algorithm developed by Prof Yazami that is based on electrochemical thermodynamics measurements (ETM technology).
Current lithium-ion batteries have a chip in them which only shows voltage and temperature readings. Today’s battery chips are unable to detect symptoms of a malfunction and can also show only the estimated amount of charge the battery is holding.
In comparison, Prof Yazami’s patented algorithm is able to analyse both the state of health and the state of charge through a 3-dimensional chart. On a monitor screen, it looks similar to a ski route down a mountain.
Drawing on the analogy of a fingerprint, he said: “The ‘ski route’ of a brand new battery looks different from those of a degraded or faulty battery – just like how two fingerprints will look quite different.”
On track for commercialisation
Tomi Engdahl says:
The use of sodium batteries emerged in the 1980s. At that time, Li rose to the number one material, but now it may be that the sodium in one term captures the market. Performance is compared to the lithium at the same level and the price of the raw material is considerably lower.
French researchers have RS2E research projects by natriumioniakun developed prototype, the energy density and the number of cycles of load are very promising.
Proton was chosen as the format industry, particularly in light fixtures popular with 18650 battery (1.8 x 6.5 cm), which is slightly larger than an AA battery. Prototype battery energy density is recognized in their opening 90 Wh / kg. The reading is extremely high, given that the natriumpariston can be re-downloaded up to 2,000 times. In addition, the energy density is the same level as the first lithium-ion batteries when they enter the market.
Sodium huge advantage over lithium is it’s reserves are compared to lithium of about a thousand times bigger.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3673:natriumpariston-proto-yltaa-litiumionin-tasolle&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
New Type of ‘Flow Battery’ Can Store 10 Times the Energy of the Next Best Device
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/15/11/29/1441216/new-type-of-flow-battery-can-store-10-times-the-energy-of-the-next-best-device
Industrial-scale batteries, known as flow batteries, could one day usher in widespread use of renewable energy—but only if the devices can store large amounts of energy cheaply and feed it to the grid when the sun isn’t shining and the winds are calm. That’s something conventional flow batteries can’t do.
New type of ‘flow battery’ can store 10 times the energy of the next best device
http://news.sciencemag.org/chemistry/2015/11/new-type-flow-battery-can-store-10-times-energy-next-best-device
Industrial-scale batteries, known as flow batteries, could one day usher in widespread use of renewable energy—but only if the devices can store large amounts of energy cheaply and feed it to the grid when the sun isn’t shining and the winds are calm. That’s something conventional flow batteries can’t do. Now, researchers report that they’ve created a novel type of flow battery that uses lithium ion technology—the sort used to power laptops—to store about 10 times as much energy as the most common flow batteries on the market. With a few improvements, the new batteries could make a major impact on the way we store and deliver energy.
Flow batteries aren’t much different from the rechargeables we’re all used to, aside from their massive size. In conventional rechargeables, electrical charges are stored in an electrode called an anode. When discharged, electrons are pulled off the anode, fed through an external circuit where they do work, and returned to a second electrode called a cathode.
But in flow batteries, the charges are stored in liquid electrolytes that sit in external tanks. The charge-carrying electrolytes are then pumped through an electrode assembly, known as a stack, containing two electrodes separated by an ion-conducting membrane. This setup allows large volumes of the electrolytes to be stored in the tanks. Because those tanks have no size limit, the storage capacity of a flow battery can be scaled up as needed. That makes them ideal for storing large amounts of power for the grid.
Today, the most advanced flow batteries are known as vanadium redox batteries (VRBs), which store charges in electrolytes that contain vanadium ions dissolved in a water-based solution.
Lithium ion batteries have a far higher energy density than VRBs. But it’s been difficult to incorporate their technology into flow batteries.
To address this problem, researchers led by Qing Wang, a materials scientist at the National University of Singapore, came up with a bit of a hybrid solution.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D-printed PCBs and more
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/all-aboard-/4440905/3D-printed-PCBs-and-more?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_pcbdesigncenter_20151130&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_pcbdesigncenter_20151130&elq=89e127d101ae443d83b293b8defda113&elqCampaignId=25918&elqaid=29534&elqat=1&elqTrackId=034788bd689e4757b446ccb62eafe54a
Two companies showed 3D printers that can spit out small printed circuit boards and others including Qualcomm showed advances putting electronics on plastic substrates at the annual IDTechEx conference in Santa Clara.
“We see 3D printing contributing to the vision of a trillion-sensor world,” said James Stasiak, a distinguished technologist in printing technology at Hewlett Packard Inc.
A combination of traditional electronics with 3D printing of nanomaterials on new kinds of substrates will enable ten-cent transistors needed for the future Internet of Things, Stasiak said in a keynote. He pointed to the room-sized YieldJet inkjet printer from Kateeva Inc. (Newark, Calif.) that printed OLEDs as well as research printing with DNA and other biological materials.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tower Buys Maxim’s Texas Wafer Fab
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328357&
Foundry Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (Migdal Haemek, Israel) is set to buy an 8-inch wafer fab in San Antonio, Texas, from Maxim Integrated Products Inc. (San Jose, Calif.) for $40 million in Tower stock.
Maxim is an analog and mixed-signal chip company that is believed to be in talks with Analog Devices Inc. about a possible takeover bid. There has also been a report that Maxim has been approached by Texas Instruments
Tower has been a manufacturer of silicon-germanium products for Maxim for a number of years and the acquisition of the wafer fab includes a long-term agreement to supply Maxim from the facility. All of the site’s 500 employee will be retained. The facility is capable of advanced analog platforms down to 130nm and Tower, which trades as TowerJazz, plans to also install its radio frequency silicon-on-insulator (RF-SOI).
Tomi Engdahl says:
Toshiba Considers Listing or Partial Sale of Chip Business
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328359&
Toshiba Corp. said Friday (Nov. 27) that it was considering splitting off its semiconductor business with listing it as a means of raising capital or it could sell off part of its chip business.
Observers say there is a deal to be done between Toshiba and China’s state-controlled Tsinghua Unigroup, which has made an unsuccessful informal bid of $23 billion to buy US memory maker Micron Technology, and reportedly was rejected by South Korea’s SK Hynix after offering to buy a 20 percent stake in the company for about $5.3 billion
Toshiba CEO Masashi Muromachi said at a news conference that it while it was examining assets sales would keep control of semiconductor operations, as it is a core business for Toshiba, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
A Reuters report of the press conference said the core business remark applied to the NAND flash memory business and inferred that the digital logic business, called system LSI in Japan, and discrete chips as being, potentially, up for sale.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Like Micron, SK Hynix Rejects Chinese Advances
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328353&
Korean memory chip company SK Hynix has rejected an investment offer from China’s state-backed Tsinghua Unigroup, according to local reports.
According to Taiwanese local media reports Tsinghua Unigroup offered to buy 20 percent of SK Hynix for about $5.3 billion on condition that the company built a wafer fab in China to make NAND flash memory.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Delayed Roadmap Set for Debut at TSensors Summit
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328358&
The MEMS and Sensors Industry Group has announced that it will release the outline of the TSensors (Trillion Sensors) Roadmap on December 9 at the 2015 TSensors Summit, being held in Celebration, Florida.
Only a roadmap outline is scheduled for disclosure in December but it will be accompanied with a plan for completion of the roadmap in 2016, the trade association said.
The purpose of the roadmap is to highlight ultra-high volume applications for sensors in 2025 and to help develop sensor platforms to meet them and thereby contribute to an acceleration towards a state of “abundance” where the world has neither hunger nor pollution and medical care and clean energy can be provided for all.
The TSensors program was established by Bryzek as a response to the book Abundance authored by Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler. This book looks at exponentially advancing technologies and their markets and argues that the judicious use of technology will make it possible to meet the basic needs of every man, woman, and child on the planet.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Quarter-brick converters sport digital or analog interface
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/other/4440915/Quarter-brick-converters-sport-digital-or-analog-interface?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_productsandtools_20151130&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_productsandtools_20151130&elq=4072ffe490124c44843d2e15f3b17184&elqCampaignId=25931&elqaid=29553&elqat=1&elqTrackId=221f6b91596040008d155d1eebf72898
Isolated DC/DC converters in the ADQ500 series from Artesyn deliver 500 W of power for telecom-network and data-center equipment. The quarter-brick devices come in versions that allow digital or analog control and occupy industry-standard DOSA footprints.
Digital-interface converters use the PMBus command protocol for control and monitoring of voltage, current, temperature, and fault reporting. Standard analog control functions include output-voltage trim, output-voltage sense compensation, and remote enable.
The ADQ500 series has an input voltage range of 36 V to 75 V.
ADQ500 Series
500W Quarter Brick
https://www.artesyn.com/power/power-supplies/websheet/575/adq500-series
They have an input voltage range of 36 to 75 V and are primarily designed for use with standard 48 V supplies in computing and server applications, as well as regulated 48V supplies in communications equipment.
ADQ500 series converters have an ultra high efficiency of typically 95.5% at full load and can operate over an ambient temperature range of -40 to 85˚C, making them an ideal choice for the isolated converter in a distributed power architecture supplying power to non-isolated converters. Their open-frame design is optimized for forced air or conduction cooling and an aluminium baseplate option is available for enhanced thermal performance. The conversion technology employs 175 kHz fixed frequency switching to help minimize external EMI filtering requirements.
Standard features protection features are input undervoltage, overvoltage lockout, output overvoltage, output overcurrent and overtemperature conditions.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Foil resistors take the heat
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/other/4440914/Foil-resistors-take-the-heat?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_productsandtools_20151130&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_productsandtools_20151130&elq=4072ffe490124c44843d2e15f3b17184&elqCampaignId=25931&elqaid=29553&elqat=1&elqTrackId=4d429242a32344169bc716dfce4827e2
Precision foil wraparound chip resistors in the FRSG series from VPG Foil Resistors operate in harsh environments with temperatures of up to +225°C. The surface-mount devices have gold-plated terminals and provide a temperature coefficient of resistance of ±2.5 ppm/°C from -55°C to200°C, +25°C ref.
Optimized for avionics, military, and space applications, as well as down-hole drilling and oil/gas exploration, the parts cover a resistance range of 10 Ω to 125 kΩ, with any conceivable ohmic value within this range (to six digits) available at no additional cost or lead time.
http://www.vishaypg.com/foil-resistors/list/product-63263/
Tomi Engdahl says:
1U open-frame supplies furnish 250 W
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/other/4440888/1U-open-frame-supplies-furnish-250-W?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_productsandtools_20151130&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_productsandtools_20151130&elq=4072ffe490124c44843d2e15f3b17184&elqCampaignId=25931&elqaid=29553&elqat=1&elqTrackId=c2b603501c8449e7a3d0bedf99f7cc8e
Convection-cooled AC/DC supplies in the CHD250 series from XP Power carry international safety approvals for industrial and medical use. The open-frame, single-output units deliver 250 W, while occupying a 3×5-in. industry-standard footprint that fits within a 1U height.
Comprising five models, the CHD250 series accepts an input of 80 VAC to 300 VAC and provides DC output voltages of 12 V, 15 V, 24 V, 28 V, and 48 V. Output voltage is adjustable by +5/-4%.
The power supplies offer no-load power consumption of less than 0.5 W. With an almost flat efficiency curve over the entire load range, the CHD250 series achieves efficiency of between 93% and 94% typical at 230 VAC and full load.
http://www.xppower.com/EN/100733/CHD250-Series
Tomi Engdahl says:
Time to embrace plastic ARMs?
http://www.analog-eetimes.com/en/time-to-embrace-plastic-arms.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=222907866&vID=35&
It is arguable that ARM is the most successful semiconductor company ever produced by Europe. This may not be so (yet) in terms of aggregate profits but it is surely true in terms of global influence and it certainly is in terms of current market capitalization.
And in part ARM achieved that by a strict focus on matters related to processor cores and the software processing stack and reaching down to the gate and transistor architectures/structures that the software runs on.
What ARM didn’t do was spend a lot of money on flights of R&D fancy or on funding startups, although technophile journalists might have wished they would.
CTO Mike Muller, are taking on more of the industry responsibility for, at least, thinking about where semiconductor R&D should be going.
So when Muller starts illustrating how plastic implementations of Cortex-M0 processor cores are at least comparable with where ARM was in its earliest days with the ARM-1, we should take note
We should also take note that ARM has invested in at least one startpup focused on plastic logic, Pragmatic Printing Ltd.
Of course the progress of plastic cores will not take the same path as those implemented in silicon. There is not the same Moore’s Law driving up the density of plastic circuits as there was for silicon. And plastic electronic performance is not good for the same things as silicon; but possibly it is good for some applications in the Internet of Things.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Small Footprint SMDs
http://www.eeweb.com/company-news/ixys/small-footprint-smds-for-improved-efficiency
The D2-Pak (TO-263) and D2-Pak (TO-268) are packages that offered the smallest footprint surface mount package for 1.2 kV to 1.8 kV power semiconductors by IXYS. It offers higher ‘creepage’ spacing, which enables high voltage power semiconductors to be used in surface mount devices (SMD).
“The market demands smaller footprint solutions for 1.2 kV to 1.8 kV power semiconductors. The main reason for this is the higher power demands which are realized by higher voltages instead of higher current. By using a higher voltage the conduction losses in copper wires are less for power control circuits; therefore, thinner copper conductors or traces on PCB circuits can be used. These SMDs improve energy efficiency, reduce cost, reduce size and reduce weight when used in power electronics,” commented Mr. Jeroen van Zeeland, head of marketing at IXYS Germany.
SMDs are preferred for lower cost alternatives to modules and to other bulkier discrete components in integrated power designs. Until now there was no such solution for applications higher than 1.2 kV.
Tomi Engdahl says:
2.5 A High Noise Immunity Gate Drive Optocoupler
http://www.eeweb.com/company-news/ixys/2.5a-high-noise-immunity-gate-drive-optocoupler
The IX320 is a high noise immunity optocouper with driver that combines Clare’s OptoMOS product line expertise with the newly introduced 600 series of high current gate drivers. The input signal is provided by a light emitting diode (LED), which is optically coupled to an integrated circuit that contains a high performance, high speed CMOS power output stage. This combination provides isolated driver capabilities without the use of isolation transformers, enabling smaller footprint and lower cost solutions.
“Optically isolated gate drivers are ideal for power switching and control applications where designers have bridge configurations of Power MOSFET, IGBTs or Thyristors, or any combination of them. The IX3120 solves the need to provide input-to-output isolation with the ease of driving the high-side devices in half-bridge, full-bridge configurations and in multilevel inverter power stages,”
The IX3120 is well suited for applications that use switching power MOSFETs or IGBTs, such as DC/DC converters, industrial inverters, switched-mode power supplies (SMPS), AC and brushless motor drives, solar inverters, and uninterruptible power supplies.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to Avoid PCB Re-spins when IC’s Change or are Obsoleted
https://event.webcasts.com/starthere.jsp?ei=1073382
Working with printed circuit boards (PCBs) for sophisticated military, aerospace, or medical systems can be a frustrating – and expensive – exercise, particularly when the customer requests “a simple upgrade” or modification after the boards have been made or after deployment. Thanks to Murphy’s Law, these “simple upgrades” are never as simple as they should be, Aries has developed a unique solution that can save you from having to re-spin your PCB due to IC obsolescence or package change.
The Aries Correct-A-Chip™ adaptor will take the new (or updated) IC and/or package and TRANSFORM (i.e. adapt) it to the existing PCB footprint design.
Tomi Engdahl says:
‘Invisible’ Wires Improve Solar-Cell Efficiency
http://www.techbriefs.com/component/content/article/1198-ntb/news/news/23506
Scientists from Stanford University have discovered how to make the electrical wiring on top of solar cells nearly invisible to incoming light. The new design, which uses silicon nanopillars to hide the wires, could dramatically boost solar-cell efficiency.
In most solar cells, the upper contact consists of a metal wire grid that carries electricity to or from the device. The wires, however, also act like a mirror and prevent sunlight from reaching the semiconductor, which is usually made of silicon.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Startup Wants to be the ARM of Neuromorphic Cores
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328382&
A recently formed startup company BrainChip Inc. (Aliso Viejo, Calif.) wants to bring the advantages of hardware-based neuromorphic processing—mainly low power consumption – to market by partnering with chip companies in such areas as mobile phones and the Internet of Things.
The company has told EE Times Europe that it has developed its first core, the SNAP-64 processor, and plans to follow an “ARM-like” business model. In other words it will license its technology and circuit designs for use by semiconductor companies and will receive a royalty typically a percentage of the chip price on each chip sold that includes its intellectual property.
The company’s technology, based on spiking neural networks, has been in development for many years although the company was founded in December 2013. It is largely the result of several years work by Peter Van Der Made, chief technology officer and interim CEO. Spiking neural networks are modelled much more closely on human brain activity that conventional weighted neural networks in that they transmit information by a series of pulses from neuron to neuron.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The power supply manufacturer XP Power has opened a new assembly center in Reading England. The company promises that the beginning of next year Reading by leaves displayed a tailor-made power supply to the customer already “the next day”.
The promise is hard. XP says the promise of a comprehensive configurable fleXPower-, MP and LP series of PSUs in different power classes 250 watts up to 2.5 kW. Different combinations of the output voltage can be up to 20 tracks.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3691:teholahteen-naytteen-saa-pian-seuraavana-paivana&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Prototype Sodium Ion Batteries in 18650 Cells
http://hackaday.com/2015/12/02/prototype-sodium-ion-batteries-in-18650-cells/
French researchers have announced a prototype of an 18650 sodium-ion battery prototype. If you’ve bought a powerful LED flashlight, a rechargeable battery pack, or a–ahem–stronger than usual LASER pointer, you’ve probably run into 18650 batteries. You often find these inside laptop batteries and –famously– the Tesla electric vehicle runs on a few thousand of these cells. The number might seem like a strange choice, but it maps to the cell size (18 mm in diameter and 65 mm long).
A Battery Revolution in Motion
https://news.cnrs.fr/articles/a-battery-revolution-in-motion
The first prototype of a sodium-ion battery has just been revealed by the RS2E, a French network bringing together researchers and industrial actors. This technology, inspired by the lithium-ion batteries already used in portable computers and electric vehicles, could lead to the mass storage of intermittent renewable energy sources.
The information may not sound exciting to non-specialists… Yet scientists across the globe, including the US, Japan, the UK, and Israel, are working on this technology—which today is considered the most serious alternative to the lithium-ion batteries that equip practically all portable electronic devices (portable computers, tablets, smartphones…)—and are beginning to take a serious look at electric vehicles. The battery used for Tesla cars, for example, is nothing more than the combination of several thousand “18650″ lithium-ion batteries.
“The sodium-ion battery unveiled today is directly inspired by lithium-ion technology,”
For the moment, its creators have not disclosed the composition of the materials wrapped around the two electrodes of their sodium-ion battery—a trade secret. However, the performance of the prototype presented today is better known. With 90 watt-hours/kilogram, “its energy density (the quantity of energy that can be stored per kilo of battery) is comparable to certain lithium-ion batteries, such as the Li-ion iron/phosphate battery,”
Considered desirable objects today, sodium batteries have nevertheless come a long way. In the late 1980s, this technology had in fact been set aside in favor of lithium, whose superiority seemed obvious to all: thanks to a voltage of 3.5 V, lithium in theory provides the most energy.
“When the electric vehicle market began to develop, we feared a surge in lithium prices, and sodium thus entered the race again,” Tarascon recalls. True enough, it has the significant advantage of being abundant (2.6% sodium can be found in the Earth’s crust, compared with barely 0.06% lithium), and widely accessible, notably in seawater in the form of sodium chloride (NaCl).
In 2012, the French researcher decided to take the bull by the horns and make the most of France’s know-how in sodium batteries. “For lithium, all fundamental research had been conducted in Europe, especially in France,”
A global market worth $80 billion
The commercial possibilities are indeed immense. The global market for batteries should reach 80 billion dollars in 2020, twice that of today. Too large for the time being to equip portable electronic devices, sodium-ion batteries could secure a privileged position in the electric vehicle market, as well as in the storage of intermittent renewable energies, such as wind or solar power.
“The 18650 format enables us to provide proof of concept , and compare the performance of our batteries with those of similar format that are already available on the market. However, other formats will need to be designed to meet new requirements,”
Time is of the essence, as Toyota are working relentlessly on a prototype of a sodium-ion car battery, while the British startup Faradion, in association with Oxford University, made a first demonstration this year of an electric bicycle powered by a sodium-ion battery.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Home> Community > Blogs > IC Designer’s Corner
Analog IP verification guidelines
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/ic-designer-s-corner/4440868/Analog-IP-verification-guidelines-?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20151203&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20151203&elq=4b3c138ee9734971b6d4dbaed65d2ca6&elqCampaignId=25986&elqaid=29632&elqat=1&elqTrackId=f708e53a67f7451591cfa87847232a92
Most bugs in analog circuits can be avoided by defining the optimal design margins, following strict verification procedures, and adhering to commonsense guidelines. Finding the right trade-off is a moving target that changes with technology and market priorities. However, the increasing mask costs of advanced nodes make thorough verification a greater necessity than ever.
Tomi Engdahl says:
IC Merger Mania Hits Fever Pitch
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1328395&
With the announcement that Microsemi outbid Skyworks for PMC-Sierra, the total value of semiconductor industry acquisitions announced in 2015 eclipsed the $100 billion mark.
The wave of consolidation that has run rampant in the semiconductor industry for more than a year has reached new heights as buyers scramble to land a shrinking number of potential acquisition targets.
Case in point: Microsemi Corp.’s agreement last week to acquire mixed-signal storage IC house PMC-Sierra Inc. for $2.5 billion in cash and stock. The purchase price is a full 25% higher than the $2 billion that Skyworks Solutions Inc. agreed to pay for PMC less than two months earlier. It is also 77% higher than the closing price of PMC’s stock on Sept. 30, a few days before the Skyworks deal was announced.
Mergers and acquisitions have been part of the semiconductor industry’s DNA from the get go. But, even in and acquisition-happy industry, 2015 has been an extraordinary year by any measure. The total value of semiconductor industry acquisitions announced this year now stands at a little over $102 billion, more than eight times the average annual value of acquisitions by semiconductor companies over the past five years, according to market research firm IC Insights Inc.
Faced with an industry that is growing far too slowly to satisfy Wall Street, chip companies have no choice but to dig deep to fund acquisitions as a way to grow revenue and scale.
“It all comes back to the pressure these companies are facing in trying to grow their sales faster than the [semiconductor] market is growing,” said Rob Lineback, a senior market research analyst at IC Insights.
Tomi Engdahl says:
‘Father of Robotics’ Joseph Engelberger Dies
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328396&
Joseph F. Engelberger, an engineer credited with creating the first industrial robot, died Tuesday (Dec. 1) at his home in Newton, Conn. He was 90.
Engelberger, often referred to as “the father of robotics,” is also credited with pioneering modern industrial and automotive manufacturing processes and establishing robotics in human services.
Joseph F. Engelberger (Source: Robotics.org)
Joseph F. Engelberger
(Source: Robotics.org)
“Joe made some of the most important contributions to technological advancement in the history of the world,” said Jeff Burnstein, president of the Robotic Industries Association (RIA), in a statement. Engelberger played a key role in establishing the RIA in 1974.
Burnstein said Engelberger was instrumental in making robotics into a global industry. “He was years ahead of his time, envisioning robots based on insects and birds decades ago—developments that we’re finally seeing today. His question, ‘Do you think a robot could do that?’ inspired researchers to answer ‘yes’ and develop the amazing robotics applications found worldwide today.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Advanced CMOS Converter Technology
http://www.eeweb.com/company-blog/socionext/advanced-cmos-converter-technology
Socionext’s advanced CMOS converter technology which power today’s internet and enable terabit networks. Among other leading products are the industry’s first 4-channel 56GSa/s ADC based on a vertically integrated 65nm CMOS process, and a 4-channel 65Gbp/s DAC.
Socionext has developed a fully integrated, single-wavelength, 100 Gbps CMOS coherent transceiver.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Home> Community > Blogs > All_Aboard
3D-printed PCBs and more
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/all-aboard-/4440905/3D-printed-PCBs-and-more?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20151203&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20151203&elq=4b697e8f81414fa18216f5c1321baca5&elqCampaignId=25993&elqaid=29639&elqat=1&elqTrackId=b10613e1c0e049f7bb96f0ccfddea224
Two companies showed 3D printers that can spit out small printed circuit boards and others including Qualcomm showed advances putting electronics on plastic substrates at the annual IDTechEx conference in Santa Clara.
“We see 3D printing contributing to the vision of a trillion-sensor world,” said James Stasiak, a distinguished technologist in printing technology at Hewlett Packard Inc.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wall Street Journal:
Qualcomm signs patent-licensing deal with Xiaomi, quieting fears about China and causing stock to jump 5.6%
Qualcomm Inks License Deal With China’s Xiaomi
Deal quiets fears that chip maker’s woes in the Asian country would linger
http://www.wsj.com/article_email/qualcomm-inks-license-deal-with-chinas-xiaomi-1449073395-lMyQjAxMTI1MDA0MjMwMjIxWj
Qualcomm Inc. said it reached a patent-licensing deal with Xiaomi Corp., one of China’s largest smartphone makers, a sign of progress in easing the chip maker’s struggles in the country.
The San Diego-based company’s stock jumped 5.6% to $52.03 in afternoon trading on Wednesday in response to the announcement.
Qualcomm gets more than half its profit from licensing patents, and customers in China accounted for more than half of total revenue during the fiscal year ended in September.
The deal with Xiaomi follows announcements of agreements with China’s Huawei Technologies Co., TCL Communication Technology Holdings Ltd and ZTE Corp. Qualcomm was in negotiations with Lenovo Group Ltd. as recently as last month, people familiar with the matter said.
Qualcomm’s licensing business generated $6.6 billion in profit last year, compared with $3.8 billion for its chip business.
A pioneer in cellular technology, the company has long charged handset makers royalties to use patents associated with the third-generation cellular technology dubbed 3G. It also licenses patents on 4G technology
Tomi Engdahl says:
IoT, Web Reshape Design
Flexibility, partners help delight users
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328408&
he rise of the Internet of Things and Web services is driving new design principles, said a consultant in a keynote at the Designers of Things event here (Thursday, Dec. 3). The new goal is to delight customers with experiences that evolve in flexible ways that show you understand their needs, said Nandini Nayak, global managing director for design strategy at Fjord, a division of Accenture.
“When you think about the value your product provides in a human context, you may change the way you provide that value,” Nayak told attendees. “It’s not just about the sensors, but what they enable and how they are applied,” she said.
Customers have been taught to have what she called “liquid expectations” that transcend the boundaries of any particular company or industry. For example, they have become used to letting payment services from Apple, Google and PayPal supplement what banks offer.
In addition, Web services from companies such as Amazon, Facebook and Uber are setting new standards for user experiences
“People are expecting rich experiences, fun and social interactions… this generation gets bored easily so you need to understand all the dimensions of how to delight them,” Nayak said. “Experiences need to be emotionally correct and speak in the language of your target audience,” she added.
Some brands and services can help automate boring tasks that involve secondary brands.
Designers should think about building their products so they can learn more about their users and be flexible in creating new ways to satisfy them. “Supporting open APIs that connect with various services is good,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jamie Condliffe / Gizmodo:
Sony Has Bought Toshiba’s Image Sensor Division for $155 Million — Following a series of negotiations, Sony has announced that it’s buying Toshiba’s image sensor business for 19 billion yen—which is about $155 million. — The deal, rumored in October, will see Sony take over Toshiba’s …
Sony Has Bought Toshiba’s Image Sensor Division for $155 Million
http://gizmodo.com/sony-has-bought-toshibas-image-sensor-division-for-155-1746148853
Following a series of negotiations, Sony has announced that it’s buying Toshiba’s image sensor business for 19 billion yen—which is about $155 million.
The deal, rumored in October, will see Sony take over Toshiba’s fabrication plants, equipment and employee contracts in Oita, Japan. In fact, they’ll be operated by Sony’s recently announced independent image sensor business. The deal will be completed by the end of this financial year.
Image sensors are important for Sony. Last year, for example, it made around 40 percent of all new image sensors in the market, and every iPhone 6 and Samsung Galaxy S6 that was shipped likely had two Sony image sensors packed inside. The new purchase will see it grow further dominance in the area.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Takashi Mochizuki / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Toshiba considering spinning off unprofitable PC business alongside Fujitsu, others — Toshiba Looks to Spin Off PC Business — The proposed spinoff would be Toshiba’s latest effort to strip out unprofitable units — TOKYO—Toshiba Corp. is looking to spin off …
Toshiba Looks to Spin Off PC Business
The proposed spinoff would be Toshiba’s latest effort to strip out unprofitable units
http://www.wsj.com/article_email/toshiba-looks-to-spin-off-pc-business-1449196629-lMyQjAxMTA1MjAyNDMwMjQyWj
Toshiba Corp. is looking to spin off its personal-computer business and merge it with the PC business of others in the electronics industry, two people familiar with the situation said Friday.
The proposed spinoff would represent the latest effort by Toshiba to strip out unprofitable units after an accounting scandal earlier this year forced top management to resign and led to large write-downs.
The Japanese electronics conglomerate admitted it had been inappropriately inflating reported profits at several business units for years. Toshiba already has said it plans to sell part of its semiconductor unit to Sony Corp. and is considering selling a stake in the remainder of that unit.
Japanese electronics companies have largely exited the PC market, once a big moneymaker for them. Hitachi Ltd. and Sharp Corp. quit the business, while NEC Corp. has a minority stake in its joint company with Lenovo Group., Panasonic Corp., meanwhile, has been focusing on enterprise customers with its laptop offerings.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Paper Thin Conductors
http://hackaday.com/2015/12/06/paper-thin-conductors/
Swedish scientists have created something they call power paper by using nanocellulose and a conductive polymer. The paper is highly conductive and has applications in supercapacitor technology and printed electronics.
The paper, technically called NFC-PEDOT paper, combines high conductivity and compatibility with conventional paper handling machines that could lead to less expensive manufacturing. The team used the material to create supercapacitors (up to 2F) as well as FET-like transistors known as OECTs (Organic Electrochemical Transistors).
An Organic Mixed Ion–Electron Conductor for Power Electronics
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/advs.201500305/full
In the coming decades, a large amount of extra electrical power must be produced to cover the increasing energy requirements of our society. Various intermittent energy sources are used to produce electricity. However, because they do not fit the pattern of human activity, there is an urgent need for materials capable of storing and manipulating huge amounts of electrical energy. Electrical storage could take place in large volume electrochemical cells (batteries or supercapacitors) whose discharges are controlled through high power transistor circuits. One limitation today is identified as the absence of bulk materials with both a high electronic and ionic conduction, i.e., mixed ionic-electronic conductor (MIEC) bulk systems.
In summary, we developed a scalable, “true bulk,” flexible yet robust mixed ionic-electronic conductor paper with an outstanding combination of electronic and ionic conductivities. This enables organic and paper electronics to transcend the domain of thin films and move into the third dimension, a crucial step for mass storage applications and enabling power electronics with organic materials. The ratio between the electronic-to-ionic conductivity could be optimized as electrodes or semiconductors for various applications ranging from fuel-cells, transistors and sensors, supercapacitors to batteries.
Tomi Engdahl says:
X-Pessimism: A Realistic Approach is Needed
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1328439&
A gate-level simulator is pessimistic when a signal does not resolve to a known logic value (0 or 1), a sign something is off. The fix can mean months of work. How can pessimism be fixed without getting too depressing?
Today’s digital designs are coded using RTL descriptions for fast simulation and then are synthesized to a gate-level description. Ideally, gate-level simulations match the behavior seen at the RTL stage. Unfortunately, X-pessimism happens in gate-level simulations and causes mismatches with RTL simulation. Resolving these differences has been a chronic problem for digital designers for more than 20 years.
A gate-level simulator is pessimistic in that it shows that a signal does not resolve to a known logic value (0 or 1), but in the real hardware a signal will always resolve to a known value.
This pessimism requires the engineer to trace back the signal to find the functional error that causes the simulation to differ from the RTL behavior. Resolving the issue can be very time-consuming and is largely a manual process. Correcting this pessimism is also error-prone.
At the gate-level, pessimism is fixed by forcing the signal to a known value, but forcing just any X-value in the design would be incorrect. Only those signals that arise from pessimism should be forced to a known value.
In doing manual traceback of X-signals, SoC design teams have found that months of time are needed to fix their gate-level simulations to match their RTL simulations.
There are workarounds that design teams use, but risks are involved.
The use of simulation add-ons that correct pessimism is one effective approach when done in conjunction with a static analysis. Static analysis prior to simulation identifies the potential pessimism points in the design. Doing so removes the burden of having to monitor every signal node.
Tomi Engdahl says:
What Freescale-NXP Merger Can Teach Us
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328411&
As a new NXP, conceived in a merger with Freescale Semiconductor, approaches its day of birth — Monday, Dec. 7 — the crucial issue posed by a combined entity worth as much as $10 billion in revenue is its impact on the competitive landscape in the semiconductor market.
Actors in other mega mergers announced in 2015 are also looking for teachable moments from the NXP and Freescale deal — the first two entities to consummate the marriage.
“We are in a historic period of M&A for the entire semiconductor industry,” said Rob Lineback, a senior analyst at IC Insights. He estimated that by the start of December, semiconductor acquisition agreements had reached more than $102 billion. However, Lineback quickly added, “Not all of the major acquisitions will succeed. We might not know which ones were successful and which were not until 2017.”
Starts from the top
Sorting and blending product roadmaps and technology development programs pursued previously by two separate entities will require a lot of discipline, good planning and a methodical approach.
But the biggest challenge in these mega-mergers is “creating merging cultures or–better yet–creating new ones,” said Lineback.
“A merger’s success will depend on how well management blends the two organizations together and not just the product portfolios,” he said. Sales, marketing, and product development need to be coordinated. “The different efforts in IoT, digital networking, automotive, etc. need to establish a common strategy and pursue it. This is a strategy that starts at the top and is communicated down through the organization.”
Of other big mergers
Lineback believes that of the big acquisitions announced this year, the Avago-Broadcom merger might be the most difficult one — in the context of “cultural fit.”
He explained that Avago–with roots going way back to HP–is based in Singapore, but has major operations in Silicon Valley. Broadcom is headquartered in Southern California (Irvine) and is a 1990s startup with a lot of industry innovations in communications ICs.
“Broadcom has been a high-flying company, at times, while Avago has succeeded by flying under the radar in less glamorous chip segments, like MEMS-based RF filters, analog ICs, opto products, and compound semiconductors,” said Lineback.
Looking back, there are plenty of M&As that have gone wrong.
One of the biggest disasters of all is probably Renesas Electronics. Renesas Technology was, in many ways, forced to merge with NEC Electronics to become Renesas Electronics in 2010 — in the name of saving the Japanese semiconductor industry.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Qualcomm Is Accused of Violating Antitrust Rules in Europe
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/09/technology/qualcomm-is-accused-of-violating-antitrust-rules-in-europe.html
The European Commission on Tuesday filed antitrust charges against the chip maker Qualcomm, the latest in a growing number of competition investigations targeting American technology companies.
Europe’s antitrust officials in Brussels said that Qualcomm, one of the world’s largest makers of chips, had abused its dominant market position in the region by offering financial incentives to smartphone and tablet manufacturers that agreed to buy equipment solely from Qualcomm.
Qualcomm was also accused of unfairly setting prices below manufacturing costs to force competitors from the market. The company’s chips are widely used in smartphones and other mobile devices that have become central to many people’s daily lives.