Here is my list of electronics industry trends and predictions for 2016:
There was a huge set of mega mergers in electronics industry announced in 2015. In 2016 we will see less mergers and how well the existing mergers went. Not all of the major acquisitions will succeed. Probably the the biggest challenge in these mega-mergers is “creating merging cultures or–better yet–creating new ones”.
Makers and open hardware will boost innovation in 2016. Open source has worked well in the software community, and it is coming more to hardware side. Maker culture encourages people be creators of technology rather than just consumers of it. A combination of the maker movement and robotics is preparing children for a future in which innovation and creativity will be more important than ever: robotics is an effective way for children as young as four years old to get experience in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering, mathematics as well as programming and computer science. The maker movement is inspiring children to tinker-to-learn. Popular DIY electronics platforms include Arduino, Lego Mindstorms, Raspberry Pi, Phiro and LittleBits. Some of those DIY electronics platforms like Arduino and Raspberry Pi are finding their ways into commercial products for example in 3D printing, industrial automation and Internet of Things application fields.
Open source processors core gains more traction in 2016. RISC-V is on the march as an open source alternative to ARM and Mips. Fifteen sponsors, including a handful of high tech giants, are queuing up to be the first members of its new trade group for RISC-V. Currently RISC-V runs Linux and NetBSD, but not Android, Windows or any major embedded RTOSes. Support for other operating systems is expected in 2016. For other open source processor designs, take a look at OpenCores.org, the world’s largest site/community for development of hardware IP cores as open source.
GaN will be more widely used and talked about in 2016. Gallium nitride (GaN) is a binary III/V direct bandgap semiconductor commonly used in bright light-emitting diodes since the 1990s. It has special properties for applications in optoelectronic, high-power and high-frequency devices. You will see more GaN power electronics components because GaN – in comparison to the best silicon alternative – will enable higher power density through the ability to switch at high frequencies. You can get GaN devices for example from GaN Systems, Infineon, Macom, and Texas Instruments. The emergence of GaN as the next leap forward in power transistors gives new life to Moore’s Law in power.
Power electronics is becoming more digital and connected in 2016. Software-defined power brings to bear critical need in modern power systems. Digital Power was the beginning of software-defined power using a microcontroller or a DSP. Software-defined power takes this to another level. Connectivity is the key to success for software-defined power and the PMBus will enable the efficient communication and connection between all power devices in computer systems. It seems that power architectures to become software defined, which will take advantage of digital power adaptability and introduce software control to manage the power continuously as operating conditions change. For example adaptive voltage scaling (AVS) is supported by the AVSBus is contained in the newest PMBus standard V 1.3. The use of power-optimization software algorithms and the concept of the Software Defined Power Architecture (SDPA) are all being seen as part of a brave new future for advanced board-power management.
Nanowires and new forms of memory like RRAM (resistive random access memory) and spintronics are also being researched, and could help scale down chips. Many “exotic” memory technologies are in the lab, and some are even in shipping product: Ferroelectric RAM (FRAM), Resistive RAM (ReRAM), Magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM), Nano-RAM (NRAM).
Nanotube research has been ongoing since 1991, but there has been long road to get practical nanotube transistor. It seems that we almost have the necessary parts of the puzzle in 2016. In 2015 IBM reported a successful auto-alligment method for placing them across the source and drain. Texas Instruments is now capable of growing wafer scale graphene and the Chinese have taken the lead in developing both graphene and nanotubes according to Lux Research.
While nanotubes provide the fastest channel material available today, III-V materials like gallium arsenide (GaAs) and indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs) are all being explored by IBM, Intel, Imec and Samsung as transistor channels on silicon substrates. Dozen of researchers worldwide are experimenting with black phosphorus as an alternative to nanotubes and graphene for the next generation of semiconductors. Black phosphorus has the advantage of having a bandgap and works well alongside silicon photonics device. 3-Molybdenum disulphide MoS2 is also a contender for the next generation of semiconductors, due to its novel stacking properties.
Graphene has many fantastic properties and there has been new finding in it. I think it would be a good idea to follow development around magnetized graphene. Researchers make graphene magnetic, clearing the way for faster everything. I don’t expect practical products in 2016, but maybe something in next few years.
Optical communications is integrating deep into chips finally. There are many new contenders on the horizon for the true “next-generation” of optical communications with promising technologies in development in labs and research departments around the world. Silicon photonics is the study and application of photonic systems which use silicon as an optical medium. Silicon photonic devices can be made using existing semiconductor fabrication. Now we start to have technology to build optoelectronic microprocessors built using existing chip manufacturing. Engineers demo first processor that uses light for ultrafast communications. Optical communication could also potentially reduce chips’ power consumption on inter-chip-links and enable easily longer very fast links between ICs where needed. Two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs), which may enable engineers to exceed the properties of silicon in terms of energy efficiency and speed, moving researchers toward 2D on-chip optoelectronics for high-performance applications in optical communications and computing. To build practical systems with those ICs, we need to figure out how make easily fiber-to-chip coupling or how to manufacture practical optical printed circuit board (O-PCB).
Look development at self-directed assembly.Researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and IBM have discovered a trenching capability that could be harnessed for building devices through self-directed assembly. The capability could potentially be used to integrate lasers, sensors, wave guides and other optical components into so called “lab-on-a-chip” devices.
Smaller chip geometries are come to mainstream in 2016. Chip advancements and cost savings slowed down with the current 14-nanometer process, which is used to make its latest PC, server and mobile chips. Other manufacturers are catching to 14 nm and beyond. GlobalFoundries start producing a central processing chip as well as a graphics processing chip using 14nm technology. After a lapse, Intel looks to catch up with Moore’s Law again with with upcoming 10-nanometer and 7-nm processes. Samsung revealed that it will soon begin production of a 10nm FinFET node, and that the chip will be in full production by the end of 2016. This is expected to be at around the same time as rival TSMC. TSMC 10nm process will require triple patterning. For mass marker products it seems that 10nm node, is still at least a year away. Intel delayed plans for 10nm processors while TSMC is stepping on the gas, hoping to attract business from the likes of Apple. The first Intel 10-nm chips, code-named Cannonlake, will ship in 2017.
Looks like Moore’s Law has some life in it yet, though for IBM creating a 7nm chip required exotic techniques and materials. IBM Research showed in 2015 a 7nm chip will hold 20 billion transistors manufactured by perfecting EUV lithography and using silicon-germanium channels for its finned field-effect transistors (FinFETs). Also Intel revealed that the end of the road for Silicon is nearing as alternative materials will be required for the 7nm node and beyond. Scaling Silicon transistors down has become increasingly difficult and expensive and at around 7nm it will prove to be downright impossible. IBM development partner Samsung is in a race to catch up with Intel by 2018 when the first 7nm products are expected. Expect Silicon Alternatives Coming By 2020. One very promising short-term Silicon alternative is III-V semiconductor based on two compounds: Indium gallium arsenide ( InGaAs ) and indium phosphide (InP). Intel’s future mobile chips may have some components based on gallium nitride (GaN), which is also an exotic III-V material.
Silicon and traditional technologies continue to be still pushed forward in 2016 successfully. It seems that the extension of 193nm immersion to 7nm and beyond is possible, yet it would require octuple patterning and other steps that would increase production costs. IBM Research earlier this year beat Intel to the 7nm node by perfecting EUV lithography and using silicon-germanium channels for its finned field-effect transistors (FinFETs). Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the world’s largest foundry, said it has started work on a 5nm process to push ahead its most advanced technology. TSMC’s initial development work at 5nm may be yet another indication that EUV has been set back as an eventual replacement for immersion lithography.
It seems that 2016 could be the year for mass-adoption of 3D ICs and 3D memory. For over a decade, the terms 3D ICs and 3D memory have been used to refer to various technologies. 2016 could see some real advances and traction in the field as some truly 3D products are already shipping and more are promised to come soon. The most popular 3D category is that of 3D NAND flash memory: Samsung, Toshiba, Sandisk, Intel and Micron have all announced or started shipping flash that uses 3D silicon structure (we are currently seeing 128Gb-384Gb parts). Micron’s Hybrid Memory Cube (HMC) uses stacked DRAM die and through-silicon vias (TSVs) to create a high-bandwidth RAM subsystem with an abstracted interface (think DRAM with PCIe). Intel and Micron have announced production of a 3D crosspoint architecture high-endurance (1,000× NAND flash) nonvolatile memory.
The success of Apple’s portable computers, smartphones and tablets will lead to the fact that the company will buy as much as 25 per cent of world production of mobile DRAMs in 2016. In 2015 Apple bought 16.5 per cent of mobile DRAM.
After COP21 climate change summit reaches deal in Paris environmental compliance 2016 will become stronger business driver. Increasingly, electronics OEMs are realizing that environmental compliance goes beyond being a good corporate citizen. On the agenda for these businesses: climate change, water safety, waste management, and environmental compliance. Keep in mindenvironmental compliance requirements that include the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive, Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive 2002/95/EC (RoHS 1), and Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH). It’s a legal situation: If you do not comply with regulatory aspects of business, you are out of business. Some companies are leading the parade toward environmental compliance or learning as they go.
Connectivity is proliferating everything from cars to homes, realigning diverse markets. It needs to be done easily for user, reliably, efficiently and securely.It is being reported that communications technologies are responsible for about 2-4% of all of carbon footprint generated by human activity. The needs for communications and faster speeds is increasing in this every day more and more connected world – penetration of smart devices there was a tremendous increase in the amount of mobile data traffic from 2010 to 2014.Wi-Fi has become so ubiquitous in homes in so many parts of the world that you can now really start tapping into that by having additional devices. When IoT is forecasted to be 50 billion connections by 2020, with the current technologies this would increase power consumption considerably. The coming explosion of the Internet of Things (IoT) will also need more efficient data centers that will be taxed to their limits.
The Internet of Things (IoT) is enabling increased automation on the factory floor and throughout the supply chain, 3D printing is changing how we think about making components, and the cloud and big data are enabling new applications that provide an end-to-end view from the factory floor to the retail store. With all of these technological options converging, it will be hard for CIOs, IT executives, and manufacturing leaders keep up. IoT will also be hard for R&D.Internet of Things (IoT) designs mesh together several design domains in order to successfully develop a product. Individually, these design domains are challenging. Bringing them all together to create an IoT product can place extreme pressure on design teams. It’s still pretty darn tedious to get all these things connected, and there’s all these standards battles coming on. The rise of the Internet of Things and Web services is driving new design principles as Web services from companies such as Amazon, Facebook and Uber are setting new standards for user experiences. 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 – but in such way that the user’s don’t feel that they are spied on what they do.
Subthreshold Transistors and MCUs will be hot in 2016 because Internet of Things will be hot in 2016 and it needs very low power chips. The technology is not new as cheap digital watches use FETs operating in the subthreshold region, but decades digital designers have ignored this operating region, because FETs are hard to characterize there. Now subthreshold has invaded the embedded space thanks to Ambiq’s new Apollo MCU. PsiKick Inc. has designed a proof-of-concept wireless sensor node system-chip using conventional EDA tools and a 130nm mixed-signal CMOS that operates with sub-threshold voltages and opening up the prospect of self-powering Internet of Things (IoT) systems. I expect also other sub-threshold designs to emerge. ARM Holdings plc (Cambridge, England) is also working at sub- and near-threshold operation of ICs. TSMC has developed a series of processes characterized down to near threshold voltages (ULP family for ultra low power are processes). Intel will focus on its IoT strategy and next-generation low voltage mobile processors.
FPGAs in various forms are coming to be more widely use use in 2016 in many applications. They are not no longer limited to high-end aerospace, defense, and high-end industrial applications. There are different ways people use FPGA. Barrier of entry to FPGA development have lowered so that even home makers can use easily FPGAs with cheap FPGA development boards, free tools and open IP cores. There was already lots of interest in 2015 for using FPGA for accelerating computations as the next step after GPU. Intel bought Altera in 2015 and plans in 2016 to begin selling products with a Xeon chip and an Altera FPGA in a single package – possibly available in early 2016. Examples of applications that would be well-suited for use of ARM-based FPGAs, including industrial robots, pumps for medical devices, electric motor controllers, imaging systems, and machine vision systems. Examples of ARM-based FPGAs are such as Xilinx’s Zynq-7000 and Altera’s Cyclone V intertwine. Some Internet of Things (IoT) application could start to test ARM-based field programmable gate array (FPGA) technology, enabling the hardware to be adaptable to market and consumer demands – software updates on such systems become hardware updates. Other potential benefits would be design re-use, code portability, and security.
The trend towards module consolidation is applicable in many industries as the complexity of communication, data rates, data exchanges and networks increases. Consolidating ECU in vehicles is has already been big trend for several years, but the concept in applicable to many markets including medical, industrial and aerospace.
It seems to be that AXIe nears the tipping point in 2016. AXIe is a modular instrument standard similar to PXI in many respects, but utilizing a larger board format that allows higher power instruments and greater rack density. It relies chiefly on the same PCI Express fabric for data communication as PXI. AXIe-1 is the uber high end modular standard and there is also compatible AXIe-0 that aims at being a low cost alternative. Popular measurement standard AXIe, IVI, LXI, PXI, and VXI have two things in common: They each manage standards for the test and measurement industry, and each of those standards is ruled by a private consortium. Why is this? Right or wrong, it comes down to speed of execution.
These days, a hardware emulator is a stylish, sleek box with fewer cables to manage. The “Big Three” EDA vendors offer hardware emulators in their product portfolios, each with a distinct architecture to give development teams more options. For some offerings emulation has become a datacenter resource through a transaction-based emulation mode or acceleration mode.
LED lighting is expected to become more intelligent, more beautiful, more affordable in 2016. Everyone agrees that the market for LED lighting will continue to enjoy dramatic year-on-year growth for at least the next few years. LED Lighting Market to Reach US$30.5 Billion in 2016 and Professional Lighting Markets to See Explosive Growth. Some companies will win on this growth, but there are also losers. Due currency fluctuations and price slide in 2015, end market demands in different countries have been much lower than expected, so smaller LED companies are facing financial loss pressures. The history of the solar industry to get a good sense of some of the challenges the LED industry will face. Next bankruptcy wave in the LED industry is possible. The LED incandescent replacement bulb market represents only a portion of a much larger market but, in many ways, it is the cutting edge of the industry, currently dealing with many of the challenges other market segments will have to face a few years from now. IoT features are coming to LED lighting, but it seem that one can only hope for interoperability
Other electronics trends articles to look:
Hot technologies: Looking ahead to 2016 (EDN)
CES Unveiled NY: What consumer electronics will 2016 bring?
Analysts Predict CES 2016 Trends
LEDinside: Top 10 LED Market Trends in 2016
961 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Is copper dead?
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/designcon-central-/4441191/Is-copper-dead-?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20160114&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20160114&elq=c6b0e310100242fb81f7a412e9bf3c16&elqCampaignId=26511&elqaid=30316&elqat=1&elqTrackId=af93009a3436474c81a5c44344bec463
“The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated,” could have just as well been said about the use of copper interconnects as Mark Twain said about himself, in a letter when he had been confused with someone else who had actually died.
For as long as I’ve been coming to a DesignCon—and I attended the first one—I have heard it said, “surely we can’t go that fast in copper, we have to switch to optical interconnects.” When we were at 1 Gbps, this was said about 2.5 Gbps. When we were at 2.5 Gbps, this was said about 5 Gbps and every other generation after.
Now we hear it being said about 56 Gbps. Is this another case of crying wolf, or have we really reached some fundamental limits to copper interconnect technology?
perspectives on the transition from copper to optical interconnects. Is it 28 Gbps, 56 Gbps or can we still do copper at 112 Gbps? Or beyond?
Taking a closer look at PCB traces
http://www.edn.com/design/analog/4441192/Taking-a-closer-look-at-PCB-traces?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20160114&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20160114&elq=c6b0e310100242fb81f7a412e9bf3c16&elqCampaignId=26511&elqaid=30316&elqat=1&elqTrackId=1b9fd03786534fc99a2de240a800b4ba
A frequently asked question during Printed Circuit Board (PCB) layout review meetings is, “Are 50-ohm traces being used for the digital signals in this PCB layout?” Often the answer to this question is “yes”. However when making decisions that balance cost, performance and manufacturability the correct answer can also be “no” or “not for all the digital signals.” Alternative approaches can include focusing on the “controlled impedance” of PCB transmission lines and/or using other trace-impedance values.
The 100-ohm differential-pair is usually determined prior to the single-ended and should be fitted in the routing channel (between the vias) without discontinuities because they are usually for higher speed digital signals. Once the trace width and spacing of the 100-ohm differential-pair have been designed, the trace width for 50-ohm or 60-ohm single-ended on the same layer is usually determined accordingly.
Reference designs are an essential part of making PCB design decisions. However it is important to have a deep understanding of the principles and limitations behind the techniques being applied in the reference designs. Only then can optimal design trade-off decisions be made.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Analyzing closed eyes: CRJ and CDJ
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/eye-on-standards/4441189/Analyzing-closed-eyes–CRJ-and-CDJ?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20160114&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20160114&elq=c6b0e310100242fb81f7a412e9bf3c16&elqCampaignId=26511&elqaid=30316&elqat=1&elqTrackId=7a6b4ff178174124943cf402f780e10e
ISI (inter-symbol interference) closes eye diagrams at high data rates. The skin effect and dispersion—the frequency dependence of the dielectric “constant”—combine to cause the messy low-pass nature of channels, or equivalently, in the time domain, to smear the pulse response across many bits. As data rates increase and higher frequency components are introduced, ISI gets worse.
The combination of one, two, or three types of equalization open the eyes enough for the decision circuit to identify symbols—FFE (feed forward equalization) at the transmitter, CTLE (continuous time equalization) at the receive, and/or DFE (decision feedback equalization) also at the receiver. For NRZ (non-return to zero) PAM2 (2-level pulse amplitude modulation) signals, there’s just the one eye with the baseband symbol for 1s high and 0s low. For PAM4 (4-level pulse amplitude modulation) there are three eyes, one separating each of the four symbol levels, since PAM4 encodes two bits in each symbol. In both cases, at high rates, the signal that enters the receiver has closed eyes.
Because ISI closes the eyes, the trick to analyzing them is a combination of “embedding” the receiver equalization scheme(s) and using carefully chosen test patterns. The test patterns are chosen to control ISI.
Emerging 56 Gbit/s specifications offer new approaches to gauging signal impairments independent of ISI.
Start with a square wave clock-like signal, 1010… for NRZ-PAM2 or (11)(00)(11)(00) for PAM4, and measure CRJrms (rms clock random jitter), and CDJpp (peak-to-peak clock deterministic jitter). Since there’s no signal on the data, no symbols to interfere, CRJrms and CDJpp measure RJ (random jitter) and DJ (deterministic jitter) independent of ISI, but retain the random noise and other uncorrelated impairments like crosstalk, PJ (periodic jitter), and any other EMI (electromagnetic interference). Apply the transmitter equalization scheme, if there is one, and embed the receiver CTLE and/or DFE as appropriate so that the square waveform also includes the equalized version of all the signal impairments that are left over.
The dual-Dirac model is usually used to estimate TJ(BER), the total jitter defined at a BER (bit-error ratio) or, equivalently, the eye width at a BER
Tomi Engdahl says:
Low-side drivers handle up to 1.7 A
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/other/4441204/Low-side-drivers-handle-up-to-1-7-A?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160114&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160114&elq=93d467ba1b5543629a7a9fcb21d3985d&elqCampaignId=26513&elqaid=30318&elqat=1&elqTrackId=597c32d3254c461790735e46c20165b5
Infineon has added three single-channel low-side drivers to its µHVIC family of high-voltage and low-voltage ICs used for common circuit elements in power electronics. The IR44252L, IR44272L, and IR44273L drivers come in small 5-lead SOT-23 packages and complement other µHVIC family members.
The µHVIC driver IC family comprises seven devices. Apart from the new low-side drivers, the family includes the 600-V IRS25752L, 200-V IRS20752L, and 100-V IRS10752L single-channel high-side drivers, as well as the 480-V IRS25751L high-voltage startup IC.
http://www.infineon.com/cms/en/product/promopages/microhvic-family/
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to prevent capacitor failures
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/designcon-central-/4441154/How-to-prevent-capacitor-failures?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_weekly_20160114&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_weekly_20160114&elq=a12e63c660c348d3be9ba85524867603&elqCampaignId=26520&elqaid=30326&elqat=1&elqTrackId=d92ff973fdf144c592145b39f8b80e1b
Tomi Engdahl says:
VTT printed transistors roll to roll
VTT’s leadership has printed electronics manufacturing and application areas developed over the years. Now, new research says company project, which has managed to further develop the electronic roll-to-roll printing methods. Printed electronics can also manufacture the transistors
Printable Piling 2 project was developed in the so-called. roll to roll
In practice, this means to press the wires, printed circuit board, and also, for example, the sensor membrane, after which the electronic components are loaded into the necessary placement machines and the supremacy of structural plastic.
- The results obtained show that the flexible membrane stacking of the components are easy to domination of sustainable products, says Project Manager Tapio Ritvonen VTT.
The project also developed printed and modeled transistor roll to roll printing process.
The project was also involved in manufacturing flexible LED light membrate Flexbright by the technology used was developed in collaboration in printed electronics research center PrintoCent and with VTT in Oulu unit.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3837:vtt-painoi-jo-transistoreja-rullalta-rullalle&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Elfa surprised: the product prices got big discounts
Elfa Distrelec belonging to the group clicked many jaws component trade. The company dropped the price by as much as 124 thousand product Agencies average of 18 per cent. Elfa Country Manager Juha Nyberg competitive prices sought growth in all European markets.
Nyberg says directly that ELF list prices have so far been less competitive than they would have liked. – The amendments is to serve our customers better and give them more value for their money.
Distrelec investment has been significant. The new central warehouse is 150 000 component, leaving the customer the same day period.
Nyberg admits that such an extensive reduction in prices eats margins, at least in the short term. In the longer term rates produce better margins, because through their customers will remain loyal.
The new central warehouse will lower freight costs and increase efficiency. – We are able to trade in the component at more competitive methods and to improve the availability of products, Nyberg says.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3839:elfa-yllatti-tuotehintoihin-isoja-alennuksia&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Interesting finding at http://www.edn.com/design/test-and-measurement/4441167/2/Chasing-wild-ghosts
Somehow the collector mounting flanges of the transistors were leaking through the mica insulators to the chassis. I had known there was a small crease where the insulators had been bent, but that should not have caused any problem even if the cracks did penetrate completely through the insulators because the thermal grease is non-conductive – the data sheet said so.
Took another look at the data sheet. The thermal grease is non-conductive if smeared on a pcb. It is intended for heat sinks attached to CPUs; our staff uses this grease when mounting heatsinks onto BGAs. In this use, even if it was conductive it would not matter.
But the data sheet says nothing about what happens when the grease is compressed under the much higher pressure of a screw holding a transistor flange to a heatsink. Remember the grease contains microscopic silver particles immersed in an oil base – were these silver particles coming in contact with each other when squeezed tightly? And if so, when squeezed into a crack that fully penetrates a mica insulator this grease could cause exactly the problem I was seeing.
I emailed the Arctic Silver company and received a phone call a couple hours later. Yes, they confirmed that their product would become electrically conductive when under pressure.
I then obtained two more intact mica insulators and some real thermal grease that did not contain silver particles – you know, that white stuff everyone refers to as bird-poop. No more problems after that.
Tomi Engdahl says:
AMD’s ARM SoC Seeks Sockets
Server chip lacks big design wins at debut
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328681&
Advanced Micro Devices is in production with its first ARM-based server SoC. So far, only three relatively small companies have publicly agreed to use the A1100, aka Seattle, mainly in storage and communications appliances, and one analyst said the chip will not compete directly with Intel’s Xeon server processors.
The 64-bit chip was among the early examples of a running ARM-based server processor from a major chip maker. AMD hopes the A1100 powers platforms for building out the software ecosystem for ARM servers.
The 32W chip runs at 2 GHz and uses eight ARM A57 cores, 4 Mbytes L2 cache, and supports DDR4 memory at up to 1,866 MHz as well as support for two Gbit Ethernet controllers. Since it was first announced more than a year ago rivals including Applied Micro, Broadcom, Cavium, Huawei and Qualcomm have raised their sights, announcing plans for ARM-based server processors in FinFET processes using dozens of cores.
“The 28nm Seattle is not a competitive server processor relative to Intel’s 22nm and 14nm offerings such as the Xeon E3 and Xeon D,” said David Kanter, an analyst with The Linley Group and Real World Technologies. “The power efficiency is relatively unimpressive at 4W/core for an A57 (this power includes memory controllers, I/O, etc.), probably due to the older process technology and the standard ARM core,” he said.
The A1100 will find sockets in networking and storage appliances as well as Web servers, said Scott Aylor, corporate vice president of AMD’s enterprise group.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D XPoint Steps Into the Light
Memory materials, fab issues discussed
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328682&
As 3D XPoint memory chips move out of research and into the fab, an IM Flash executive gave more details about the novel memory technology, its road map and how hard it is to make.
Intel and Micron announced in July they had defined 3D XPoint as a new memory architecture that fills a gap between DRAM and flash, delivering NAND like density at significantly higher performance and lower latency. “Chalcogenide material and an Ovonyx switch are magic parts of this technology with the original work starting back in the 1960’s,” said Guy Blalock, co-CEO of IM Flash an annual event for chip executives here.
It could take 12-18 months to get XPoint into mass production, Blalock said. He noted several challenges for making those chips as well as 3D NAND devices, both in the works at the joint venture’s Lehi, Utah fab.
“We are swimming through deep water to get to the future enabled by these new products,” Blalock said. Nevertheless he promised XPoint samples are “right around the corner… give the R&D guys a little more time to work out the kinks,” he said.
One downside of the new materials is their potential for cross contamination. To mitigate that threat “you proliferate a lot of process steps for layer over layer deposition with a lot of diffusion and CVD,” Blalock said, confirming speculation that emerged last year.
3D Xpoint uses as many as 100 new materials, raising supply chain issues.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Qualcomm, TDK Prep $3bn RF Joint Venture
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328683&
Qualcomm Inc. (San Diego, Calif.) and TDK Corp. (Tokyo, Japan) have agreed to form a joint venture—RF360 Holdings Singapore Pte. Ltd.—to deliver radio frequency modules and filters for multiple applications, including IoT, drones, robotics and automotive electronics.
TDK ships more than 25 million filters per day and RF360 Holdings will acquire part of the total TDK surface acoustic wave (SAW) business group with a run rate of about $1 billion annual sales and approximately 4,200 employees. RF360 Holdings will acquire the filter and module design and manufacturing assets, plus related patents, owned by TDK and its subsidiaries, with certain assets being acquired directly by Qualcomm affiliates. Qualcomm will provide general expertise in wireless technologies. In addition to creating RF360 Holdings, Qualcomm and TDK will increase collaboration in sensors and wireless charging.
The joint venture will initially be owned 51 percent by Qualcomm Global Trading PTE. Ltd. (QGT) and 49 percent by Epcos AG, a wholly-owned subsidiary of TDK (Epcos). QGT has an option to acquire the remaining interest in the joint venture 30 months after the closing of the deal, expected early in 2017.
Tomi Engdahl says:
All Aboard the Hardware Startup Train
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328676&
After years of software-based funding and tedious development, the crowdfunding tide is turning toward hardware. At International CES, held Jan. 6- 9, officials from Indiegogo said companies throughout the chip and gadget ecosystem are getting on board.
“Everyone from Foxconn to Qualcomm want to talk to entrepreneurs…and offer them all the resources so they can make great products. That’s a new thing,” Evan Cohen, Indiegogo’s senior director of design, technology and hardware, told EE Times. “The whole maker movement has matured into an entrepreneur movement at this point.”
More than 110 products at this year’s CES started on Indiegogo, CEO Slava Rubin said, adding that the company has raised over $800 million in campaigns. Rubin believes one out of six companies on the CES show floor received funding from an Indiegogo campaign.
Direct conversations with larger companies are leading to a serious advancement in developer tools for the Arduinos and Raspberry Pis commonly used by startups, Cohen said. Companies such as Brookstone and GE are also getting in on some of crowdfunding’s benefits—market validation of otherwise unknown products and a built-in audience—with a recently announced enterprise crowdfunding from Indiegogo.
“The higher-up enthusiasm toward the startup world is really exciting. There was a time where you were a maker and you were lucky to get in front of somebody,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
UPF 3.0 is Now Official
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1328690&
The new UPF 3.0 standard offers additional enhancements to address and describe power intent of complex systems on chip (SoCs).
The Unified Power Format (UPF) 3.0, officially known as IEEE Standard 1801-2015, was approved by the IEEE in December 2015 and will be ready for distribution early this year. Like its predecessors, the standard will be available free of charge through a grant from Accellera, the Electronic Design Automation (EDA) and semiconductor industry’s standards organization.
It’s been almost nine years since UPF 1.0 was introduced in 2007.
The new 3.0 standard offers additional enhancements to address and describe power intent of complex systems on chip (SoCs). Features include enhanced power state and transitions support, system-level power support, a new information model and programming interface, as well as bottom-up flow support. Eleven new UPF commands were introduced in this version.
UPF is a Tcl extension, and version 1.0 is comprised of 32 commands. UPF provides integrated circuit (IC) designers with an hardware design language (HDL)-independent way of annotating a design with power intent. More specifically, low-power requirements and constraints can be specified early in the very large scale integration (VLSI) design process — such as at the register transfer level (RTL) — allowing for electronic systems to be designed with power as a key consideration.
UPF is used to partition a design into power domains, where each power domain is powered by a supply network of supply ports, power switches, and supply nets. Various strategies can be applied to power domains to control logic values when the domains are being switched off and on.
Industry support for UPF
While not all EDA tools have embraced the latest UPF versions, some have from the outset. Verific Design Automation, for example, has a UPF front-end supporting UPF 1.0 through 3.0.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bugs Happen
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1328686&
Small problems that could be ignored in the past are now becoming critical for advanced designs using small nodes as cost and risk increase significantly.
The world of chip design and manufacturing is no different than any other: Bugs happen.
A bug could go through the top-level design undetected and travel all the way to the transistor level. In other instances, the top-level implementation and verification may be okay, and the bug may be generated during circuit design or physical implementation. That’s why using transistor-level verification to signoff the whole design before tapeout is so important.
Debugging chip designs should start early, though that’s often not possible. With a top-down design methodology, the architect at the top level of design usually establishes the specification or goal for the whole chip then sets targets for each block. In this stage, he or she usually considers ideal scenarios, using high-level languages such as SystemC.
Further downstream, circuit design and physical implementation add in plenty of non-ideal factors related to circuit topology, device performance, parasitics, interconnect, layout styles, and various process variation effects.
Many of these non-ideal factors will cause the final design to deviate from the original design goal, and can be significant. It’s no different than the inner workings of a big organization or even a government. From the top level, a goal was set then jobs were allocated to lower levels and, ultimately, to individuals.
However, in a real world, everyone’s different — each day, some of them are happy or unhappy, motivated or unmotivated, so outcomes and quality differ widely, sometimes daily. The interactions and linkage between them are factors also. Some of them are solid team players and some are not, so the end result could be very different. A series of checks and balances helps to keep the system running.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Neuromorphic Darwin processor
Artificial neural network (Artificial Neural Network, ANN) is an information system based on the replication of the biological brain principles. They are widely applied, for example, pattern recognition, automatic control engineering, signal processing and decision support systems and artificial intelligence activities. Zhejiang and Hangzhou Dianzi University, researchers in China have developed a spiking Neural Networks (SNN) based neuromorphi parallel processors. They have nominated taken to a processing unit (NPU) Darwin, and it is made of standard CMOS technology.
Darwin NPU provides hardware acceleration for intelligent algorithms, the object of application areas with limited resources, small ultra low power embedded devices. It supports a maximum of 2048 neurons, more than 4 million synapses, and 15 different possible synaptic delay. Its power consumption of 0.84 mW / MHz for a typical 1.8 volts.
It is highly configurable, supporting SNN topology and the number of neurons and synapses parameter reconfiguration. Its potential applications include intelligent equipment systems and robotics.
Source: http://www.nanobitteja.fi/uutiset.html?35731
Tomi Engdahl says:
A technical view into modern MIL/AERO RADAR systems
http://www.edn.com/design/analog/4441116/A-technical-view-into-modern-MIL-AERO-RADAR-systems?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20160107&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20160107&elq=8a734a52ed7a45208b9e9198b5fae04a&elqCampaignId=26370&elqaid=30141&elqat=1&elqTrackId=f3078510ddee4a1fb4a1f98eba2ee862
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wall Street Journal:
Qualcomm, Guizhou province to establish $280M server chip development company in China; Qualcomm will also license server chip technology, provide R&D processes
Qualcomm, Chinese Province Set Up Server-Chip Venture
China has taken steps to build a bigger domestic semiconductor industry
http://www.wsj.com/article_email/qualcomm-chinese-province-set-up-server-chip-venture-1453015371-lMyQjAxMTA2MzE2NzIxMjcxWj
Qualcomm Inc. has agreed to establish a joint venture with a Chinese province to develop chips for server systems, the latest step in the U.S. company’s high-stakes strategy to move beyond selling semiconductors for smartphones.
The alliance follows a series of steps by Chinese government officials and companies to build a bigger domestic semiconductor industry. The joint venture also plays into Chinese policy makers’ recent efforts to transform Guizhou—a south-central province of 35 million residents—into a high-tech hub for cloud computing as part of the country’s economic transformation.
Worries about the Chinese economy and technology demand have contributed to sharp drops in global stock markets. Qualcomm rival Intel Corp. on Thursday said caution about China factored into a projection for first quarter results that was lower than some analysts had expected.
But Intel said the worries were mainly focused on the personal computer market. Handel Jones, an analyst at International Business Strategies Inc. who tracks the Chinese technology market, on Friday said that Chinese plans to keep building data centers and buying servers have shown no sign of a slowdown.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sensors Slip Into the Brain, Then Dissolve When Their Job Is Done
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/16/01/18/1853219/sensors-slip-into-the-brain-then-dissolve-when-their-job-is-done
Silicon-based electronic circuits that operate flawlessly in the body for some number of days–soon weeks–and then harmlessly dissolve: they’re what University of Illinois professor John Rogers says is the next frontier of electronics. Today he released news of successful animal tests on such transient electronics designed for use in brain implants, but says they could be used just about anywhere in the body. As these devices move into larger animal and eventually human tests
Sensors Slip into the Brain, Then Dissolve When the Job Is Done
http://spectrum.ieee.org/view-from-the-valley/biomedical/devices/siliconbased-sensors-slip-into-the-brain-then-dissolve-when-their-jobs-are-done
Today, Rogers released news of his latest breakthrough in silicon biocompatible circuitry: pressure and temperature monitors, intended to be implanted in the brain, that completely dissolve within a few weeks. The news, published as a research letter in the journal Nature, described a demonstration of the devices in rats, using soluble wires to transmit the signals, as well as the demonstration of a wireless version, though the data transmission circuit, at this point, is not completely resorbable.
The technology, the Nature letter reports, can be adapted to sense fluid flow, motion, pH, and other parameters, and could be implanted in the heart, other organs, or in the skin.
The team at the University of Illinois built what are essentially microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) out of a membrane of polylactic-co-glycolic acid, a biodegradable polymer common in medical applications such as dissolvable stitches. This membrane sits on a substrate of nanoporous silicon or a metal foil.
The structure is stable for at least five days, but completely dissolves after three weeks in the body. Rogers expects the neurosurgeons at Washington University in St. Louis who are testing the device in rats to move into more extensive studies with larger animals; human trials could begin in perhaps five years.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hey, Intel and Micron: XPoint is phase-change memory, right? Or is it? Yes. No. Yes
People in (chalcogenide) glass houses shouldn’t throw stones
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/01/19/xpoint_intel_micron_phasechange/
So, is XPoint memory phase-change memory … or not? An IM Flash Technologies co-CEO just gave a strong signal it might be phase-change, but doubt remains as Intel and Micron have kept their secret process ingredient hidden.
On 12 January at Semi, a chip technology and manufacturing trade show at Half Moon Bay, California, Blalock talked about 3D XPoint memory, the Intel/Micron 1000-times-faster-than-NAND new non-volatile memory technology that is set to revolutionise servers and storage by functioning as persistent memory.
His session abstract said: “3D XPoint specifically offers a path to provide massive amounts of memory storage at a latency rate sufficient to place it in close proximity to the CPU.” That’s in keeping with all the messages put out by Intel and Micron.
Until now, the companies have refused to say what the XPoint non-volatile memory material is, affirming repeatedly that it is not phase-change memory, but that it is a bulk-change material, and digital information (binary 1 or 0) is carried by its resistance level, which is affected predictably by the bulk change.
Phase-change memory, to recap, is a chalcogenide (glass-like) material which changes its internal state from amorphous to crystalline and back again when the appropriate amount of electricity is applied to it. The state change has an associated resistance change, and reading the resistance level reveals the binary value of the resistance level.
Many suppliers have been trying to develop phase-change memory products to escape from the NAND scaling trap, whereby NAND ceases to function reliably if its cell size drops below 10nm.
When Intel and Micron announced their 3D XPoint memory in July last year it sounded fabulous: 1,000 times faster to access than flash, 1,000 times the endurance, scope for lithography shrinks, scope for adding layers to the existing two, and a cost less than DRAM.
So there was interest in what Blalock had to say but no expectation that he reveal the nature of the XPoint material. Yet he did. But get this: as reported in EE Times Blalock said that “chalcogenide material and an Ovonyx switch are magic parts of this technology with the original work starting back in the 1960s”.
Oh really, Mr. Micron man. Let’s recap:
Phase-change memory is a non-volatile, chalcogenide material exhibiting a bulk change in state with altered resistance levels
XPoint is not phase change memory, but
It is non-volatile
It uses a bulk-change effect
The bulk change affects its resistance level
The material is a chalcogenide
Black is not white but it’s spelt F, O, and G.
A comment by 3D Guy to the EE Times article said: “Rebranded phase-change memory with an OTS, as many of us knew … This 3D XPoint PR, where they tried to not brand it as PCM to get more interest, is a classic example of marketing teams going wild”.
Does this point matter?
“In the long run this argument matters very little to anyone who isn’t making the chips. What matters most, and what is the focus of our 3D XPoint report, is that Intel is creating a new layer in the memory hierarchy, and this has serious implications on both computing and the DRAM market,” said Handy.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Printable electronics has the potential to manufacture low-cost electronics on flexible or curved surfaces, but the current leading inks for poor performance, and on the other hand the high cost of limiting development of the sector.
Gold and silver inks are based on particles in this area are superior but expensive. Copper would likely also here but its problem is oxidation.
Now Toyohashi Tech University and Duke, researchers have found a way to produce copper nano-particles, which can be used as an ingredient in the main affordable conductive inks, which is achieved outstanding oxidation resistance.
Conductivity of about half of the normal conductivity of silver were obtained.
Source: http://www.nanobitteja.fi/uutiset.html?36607
Tomi Engdahl says:
Calcium can replace lithium batteries
The US Department of Energy’s Argonne underground research lab has been an innovation that could revolutionize the future of rechargeable batteries. Researchers have developed a battery, wherein the active element is lithium and calcium instead. However, the marketing technique to have been waiting for years to come.
Calcium magnesium is the preferred method, a widely available material with an energy density is clearly superior to lithium. Calcium is also available in all areas.
One of the challenges calcium-ion battery has been to find cathode material, which allows calcium ions to flow. Argonne researchers found such a material manganese haksasyaniferrate. The anode was pewter. Between the electrolyte was a dry, anhydrous calcium heksafluorofosfate.
The technique still needs years of development before a possible commercialization.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3855:kalsium-voi-korvata-litiumin-akuissa&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nottingham University physicists have developed a new type of memory, which promises to be up to 1,000 times faster than today’s memories. It is anti-ferromagnetic memory, which parts of the electrical power for the first time been able to manage.
The memory is also immune to magnetic fields or radiation, so it is particularly well suited for demanding specialty areas, such as electronics, satellites or aircraft.
By using a specific crystal structure, researchers showed that certain types of antiferromagneettisen the magnetic lines can be controlled by electrical pulses of the material
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3854:uusi-muisti-on-tuhat-kertaa-nykyisia-nopeampi&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
World’s first locking rewireable C13 IEC Connector
http://www.megaelectronics.com/iec-lock/
MEGA Electronics Inc introduces the new IEC C13 Lock Rewireable – the world’s first locking rewireable C13 IEC connector.
Designed to guard against accidental disconnection of computers, PDU’s servers and most network devices, the new IEC Lock adds additional flexibility and ease of use, as well as LSZH (low smoke zero halogen) compatibility, to its list of features.
The beautifully straightforward high-visibility locking mechanism is combined with a simple release mechanism which allows for disconnection from all sides. Ideal as a retrofit solution, it requires no other equipment or special inlets to secure it, simply plug it into an appliance as you would a standard IEC lead. The red cage release mechanism also marks the connector out from standard IEC leads to allow maintenance and other data centre staff to identify critical power sources.
Its slim design means it can easily be implemented in areas where access is limited and ease of removal is of paramount importance. Its LSZH attribute is crucial for critical applications in military, broadcast, transportation and data centers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wireless Pressure Sensor Using Radio Waves Has Many Biomedical Applications
http://www.techbriefs.tv/video/Wireless-Pressure-Sensor-Using
Stanford University engineers have invented a wireless pressure sensor that has already been used to measure brain pressure in lab mice with brain injuries. The underlying technology has such broad potential that it could one day be used to create skin-like materials that can sense pressure, leading to prosthetic devices with the electronic equivalent of a sense of touch.
The wireless sensor is made of a thin layer of rubber between two strips of copper. The copper strips act like radio antennas and the rubber serves as an insulator. The technology involves beaming radio waves at this simple antenna-and-rubber sandwich.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Leslie Picker / New York Times:
Microchip Technology to buy Atmel for $3.6B after Atmel ends buyout agreement with Dialog, citing higher cash per share for its investors in the Microchip deal
Microchip Technology to Buy Atmel for Nearly $3.6 Billion
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/20/business/dealbook/microchip-technology-to-buy-atmel-for-nearly-3-6-billion.html?_r=0
Miicrochip Technology agreed to acquire a fellow chipmaker, the Atmel Corporation, for about $3.6 billion, part of a wave of mergers and acquisitions within the semiconductor industry.
Chip makers have been combining to cut costs and build scale for their customers. Microchip agreed to acquire the 37-year-old chipmaker Micrel in May for about $839 million. Microchip purchased Supertex for $394 million in 2014, and the year before that, bought the closely held Brussels-based EqcoLogic for an undisclosed amount.
Microchip joins larger peers in this round of consolidation, including Avago Technologies, which agreed to acquire Broadcom for $37 billion, one of the biggest deals ever within the semiconductor industry.
“As the semiconductor industry consolidates, Microchip continues to execute a highly successful consolidation strategy with a string of acquisitions that have helped double our revenue growth compared to our organic revenue rate over the last few years,” said Steve Sanghi, president and chief executive of Microchip.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Rachel King / ZDNet:
AMD beats Q4 estimates with net loss of $102M on $958M in revenue, down 23% YoY, as PC slump hits processor sales; stock slides 6%
AMD beats Q4 estimates but losses continue amid PC slump
http://www.zdnet.com/article/amd-beats-q4-estimates-but-losses-continue-amid-pc-slump/
Wall Street was bracing for a loss of a dime per share on $954.74 million in revenue.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Samsung’s 14 nm LPE FinFET Transistors
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1328711&
As Samsung prepares to launch its 14 nm Low Power Plus (LPP) process used in the Exynos 8 SoC, TechInsights anticipates what changes we should expect.
Samsung’s Exynos 8 SoC is receiving some press buzz as the company prepares to launch its 14 nm Low Power Plus (LPP) process that is an update to its current Low Power Early (LPE) process used in its Exynos 7 SoC and the Apple A9 SoC.
There are now three foundries capable of making finFET transistors: Intel, Samsung and TSMC. We at TechInsights last looked at Samsung’s 14 nm low power early (LPE) finFET process used in Exynos 7420 SoC in May of 2015 (Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Smartphone). We were a little coy in our discussions of the process technology used to make the transistors; our business after all is to sell reports describing just this.
It is almost a year on now and there is talk of Samsung’s updated 14 nm LPP finFET process. We won’t know the details of this process until we get our hands on some samples of either Samsung’s Exynos 8890 SoC, or Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 SoC later this spring, but we can reveal more of the 14 nm LPE process technology used in the Exynos 7420.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intel Metamaterials Breakthrough
Sub-millimeter EMI Shunt Beats Shields
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328710&
A metamaterial breakthrough has been funded by Intel at the Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) Lab at National Taiwan University here. By folding a metamaterial up into the third dimension (3D), Intel has funded a breakthrough in noise suppression–specifically quelling electro-magnetic interference (EMI) thus enabling easier electro-magnetic compatibility (EMC) of next-generation high-speed interfaces.
The Intel/NTU’s breakthrough is a single sub-millimeter sized component that replaces bulky traditional shielding by suppressing noise at each source by 20dB, according to Professor Tzong-Lin Wu, an IEEE Fellow and Director of the Graduate Institute of Communication Engineering (GICE) at NTU.
“Along with the vigorous development of cloud computing, it is of vital importance to enhance the bandwidth and efficiency of data centers and their communication devices for next-generation communication,” Wu told EE Times in an exclusive interview. “New high-speed signal transmission design and high-frequency noise suppression technologies are key to enabling wider data bandwidth in cloud computing and other applications.”
The NTU EMC Lab claims to be the first to use the invention of planar electromagnetic band-gap (EBG) power planes to suppress switching noise of packaged circuits, and now has a new claim–the first use of metamaterial differential transmission lines to virtually eliminate common-mode noise in high-speed differential signals.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Foxconn offers $5.3B to take over Sharp, as Sharp reviews $2.56B offer from government-backed Innovation Network
Taiwan’s Foxconn Offers $5.3 Billion to Take Over Sharp
Innovation Network Corp. of Japan also has competing offer for electronics maker
http://www.wsj.com/article_email/taiwans-foxconn-offers-5-3-billion-to-take-over-sharp-1453348809-lMyQjAxMTA2MTI1MTIyMjEwWj
Foxconn, the Taiwanese company that assembles the bulk of the world’s iPhones, has offered about ¥625 billion ($5.3 billion) to take over troubled Japanese electronics maker Sharp Corp. , according to people familiar with the matter.
Sharp, which has been bailed out repeatedly by banks, is set to review a competing offer from Innovation Network Corp. of Japan, a government-backed investment fund.
Japanese officials have expressed concern about letting Sharp come under foreign control, citing the company’s technology in display panels. Innovation Network Corp. of Japan already owns a controlling stake in Japan Display Inc., another major display maker.
Foxconn, formally known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., is offering more money for Sharp and a willingness to shoulder all of its debt, people familiar with the offer said.
Sharp, which makes everything from televisions to solar panels to display panels for Apple Inc. ’s iPhones, turned to its two main banks in May 2015 for its second rescue in three years. In the fiscal year that ended March 2015, Sharp suffered a net loss of ¥222 billion.
Conditions have worsened since then. In its most recent half-year results, it posted an operating loss of ¥25.2 billion, citing deteriorating Chinese demand for smartphone displays.
Tomi Engdahl says:
White Paper: How to Design a Small Form Factor Embedded Computer….
The Right Way!
http://expando.se/wp-content/uploads/White-Paper_How-to-design-a-Small-Form-Factor-Embedded-Computer_8400-846.pdf
Customers have started to move away from the
traditional rackbased system (VME and cPCI) or
deployed applications and are looking for a modern
alternative. VPX is one approach, but for many
applications the capabilities of VPX are overkill or
just too expensive. Small Form Factor (SFF) boxes
are becoming an attractive alternative but quite
often lack the processing power, flexibility and
standardization that customers are used to seeing in
their old rackbased system.
A new breed of SFF products are now coming to market that offer
processing power, expandability,
and even customization that customers were used to with their o
lder systems, but at a fraction of
the cost.
ustomers. By combini
ng COM Express for the CPU,
PMC/XMC slots for specialized expansion such as FPGAs and Frame
Grabbers, and mini PCI Express
slots for lower cost I/O, these new SFF products offer customer
s the processing power, flexibility
and standardization they need for their deployed application.
Design
it
be
Rugged
SFF boxes have to be designed from the ground up to meet the ne
eds of deployed military system.
This requires that the package is designed to manage heat, shoc
k and vibration and EMI all while
maintaining a small package size. Once the design is complete,
extensive testing will be required to
prove that the design meets the needs of the customer.
A critical element to this is thermal design
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Quest for Quiet: Measuring 2nV/√Hz Noise and 120dB Supply Rejection in Linear Regulators, Part 1
http://www.edn.com/design/power-management/4441178/The-Quest-for-Quiet–Measuring-2nV-Hz-Noise-and-120dB-Supply-Rejection-in-Linear-Regulators–Part-1?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160120&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160120&elq=4543d67618c5450caaf2f712d8e03966&elqCampaignId=26590&elqaid=30402&elqat=1&elqTrackId=2a83c41d2db74a3ba1c72c4817f99bfb
A quiet, well regulated supply is important for optimum performance in a number of circuit applications. Voltage controlled oscillators (VCOs) and precision voltage controlled crystal oscillators (VCXOs) respond to small changes in their supply very quickly. Phase-locked loops (PLLs) require a stable supply, as signal on the supply translates directly to phase noise in the output. RF amplifiers require quiet supplies, as they lack the ability to reject supply variations, and regulator variation will appear as unwanted side bands and lower the signal-to-noise ratio.
Low noise amplifiers and analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) do not have infinite supply rejection and the cleaner the regulator output is, the higher their performance. These are just a few applications where linear regulators are required to provide quiet power supply rails, but how does one ensure that the regulator performs as specified?
Once fully built, one can determine if the supply has low enough noise for the application.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Is copper dead?
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/designcon-central-/4441191/Is-copper-dead-
“The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated,” could have just as well been said about the use of copper interconnects as Mark Twain said about himself, in a letter when he had been confused with someone else who had actually died.
For as long as I’ve been coming to a DesignCon—and I attended the first one—I have heard it said, “surely we can’t go that fast in copper, we have to switch to optical interconnects.” When we were at 1 Gbps, this was said about 2.5 Gbps. When we were at 2.5 Gbps, this was said about 5 Gbps and every other generation after.
Now we hear it being said about 56 Gbps. Is this another case of crying wolf, or have we really reached some fundamental limits to copper interconnect technology?
Rula Bakleh has pulled together a group of industry leading experts for the panel, Optics vs copper for in-chassis connections @ 56-112 Gbps: is Copper still a viable solution
http://www.designcon.com/santaclara/scheduler/session/optics-vs-copper-for-in-chassis-connections-56-112gbps-is-copper-still-a-viable-solution
In this panel we discuss where we currently are and where we perceive the industry to go with each technology. New innovations for short distances will take us to 112Gbps copper speeds, and we compare that with existing and upcoming optical industry capabilities and costs. We help you understand the differences, challenges and limitations proposed by each technology.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Report: Analog, TI Both Pass on Maxim Purchase
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328743&
Both Texas Instruments Inc. and Analog Devices Inc. have decided not to pursue an acquisition of Maxim Integrated Products Inc. according to a Bloomberg report that referenced unnamed sources.
Neither potential buyer could agree a price with Maxim (San Jose, Calif.), which was looking for a large premium, the report said.
Maxim, an analog and mixed-signal chip company, was conducting a strategic review of its business with a bank in October 2015 when it was approached by Analog Devices
Tomi Engdahl says:
China has a chip to fry with y’all: Wants its own chip smarts and fabs
Davos talk reveals Middle Kingdom plans to break Western tech hegemony
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/01/25/davos_china_semiconductor_moves/
China is making more moves as it tries to set up an indigenous and patent-protected semi-conductor chip capability.
Xu Jinghong, the chairman of Tsinghua Holdings, said in a Davos World Economic Forum interview that Tsinghua wanted to buy two semi-conductor manufacturing companies.
Analyst haus Stifel Nicolaus’ MD Aaron Rakers tells us “state-backed Tsinghua will look to invest 200 billion yuan (~$30bn) in merger and acquisitions activity in 2016” to do this.
Tsinghua, through its Tongfang Guoxin subsidiary, is already committed to spending some $12bn to build a NAND/NOR flash fab and, it appears, China is intent on becoming a major force in semi-conductor manufacturing and lessen reliance on foreign suppliers. Western Digital is taking in a $3.8bn investment from Unisplendour, which is owned by Tsignhua. That equates to a 15 per cent stake.
The fear is that China could go on a state cash-fuelled rampage through outside (American, European and Asian) semi-conductor businesses, using these regions’ business openness to gain a foothold whilst denying businesses in these regions similar unfettered access inside China. It’s the Wild East out there and the crown jewels – chip IP and businesses – are at stake.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Pico updates PC oscilloscope software
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/other/4441239/Pico-updates-PC-oscilloscope-software?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_productsandtools_20160125&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_productsandtools_20160125&elq=356eb3da29cb476ab096456b65f3af6f&elqCampaignId=26647&elqaid=30479&elqat=1&elqTrackId=e23931cc6a1f456d8d820956d66a2f2b
Release 6.11.7 of PicoScope software from Pico Technology for its line of PC-based oscilloscopes adds new mathematical waveform-processing tools, decoding of popular serial protocols, and improvements to FFT frequency-domain plotting. For use with touch screens, PicoScope now offers pinch and zoom, enabling easy panning and positioning of captured waveforms.
https://www.picotech.com/downloads
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mini sensor touts fast laser-assisted autofocus
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/other/4441223/Mini-sensor-touts-fast-laser-assisted-autofocus?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_productsandtools_20160125&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_productsandtools_20160125&elq=356eb3da29cb476ab096456b65f3af6f&elqCampaignId=26647&elqaid=30479&elqat=1&elqTrackId=5d2184a8dfaf4b2ab303fb3d1b30419e
STMicroelectronics’ FlightSense VL53L0 time-of-flight sensor brings improved autofocus to smart-phone cameras, robotic equipment, and IoT devices. This second-generation laser-ranging module can range faster over longer distances and more accurately than its predecessors. It measures absolute distances beyond 2 m, independent of target reflectance, in less than 30 ms.
Within a small 4.4×2.4×1-mm module, the VL53L0 integrates a 940-nm VCSEL (vertical cavity surface-emitting laser) light source that is totally invisible to the human eye, a SPAD (single-photon avalanche diode) detector, and a microcontroller to manage the complete ranging function. The use of light emitted at 940 nm, coupled with infrared filters, allows the VL53L0 to deliver higher immunity to ambient light, while embedded optical crosstalk compensation simplifies cover-glass selection.
Prices for the VL53L0 start at $1.75 each in lots of 5000 units.
VL53L0
World tiniest Time-of-Flight (ToF) ranging sensor
http://www.st.com/web/en/catalog/mmc/FM132/SC1934/PF261818?icmp=tt3204_gl_pron_jan2016
Tomi Engdahl says:
NI’s enhanced version of VirtualBench on display at DesignCon
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/anablog/4441252/NI-s-enhanced-version-of-VirtualBench-on-display-at-DesignCon-?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160125&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160125&elq=6ffce467ad80433180d65d235df5ea1d&elqCampaignId=26642&elqaid=30474&elqat=1&elqTrackId=5ab9c92245c64d72a66867dc2ee226b3
I just stopped by the National Instruments booth at DesignCon 2016, and saw their latest, high-performance model of VirtualBench. These developers have taken bench-top equipment to a whole new level. The software-based VirtualBench all-in-one instrument combines a mixed-signal oscilloscope, function generator, digital multimeter, programmable DC power supply, and digital I/O with 350 MHz of bandwidth, four analog channels, and Ethernet connectivity. In this new version of VirtualBench designers get increased functionality for characterizing and debugging new designs or automated test systems.
Users will still be able to interact with VirtualBench through free upgradable software applications that run on today’s PCs and iPads which gives the modern designer an easy, unified software experience for all five instruments.
The new version of VirtualBench is available worldwide for $5,999 USD.
Product Tryout: NI VirtualBench
http://www.edn.com/design/test-and-measurement/4431960/Product-Tryout–NI-VirtualBench
VirtualBench includes
Mixed signal 100-MHz oscilloscope with 2 analog and 34 logic inputs
5½-digit multimeter
Function generator
DC power supply, 6 V and ±25 V
8-channel digital I/O port
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sony acquires Israeli chip company Altair Semiconductor’s US $ 212 million, an increase of approximately EUR 195 million in the price. The electronics and entertainment giant aims to strengthen its position in the industrial services market.
Altair develop modern chip technology and software 4g lte around the standard. Sony hopes to be able to connect them to their respective technologies such as GNSS navigation system and image recognition.
The result could be a more intelligent, environment observing and recognizing devices.
LTE is considered as one of the most relevant industrial standards for the wireless Internet.
Source: http://www.tivi.fi/Kaikki_uutiset/sony-osti-siruyhtion-tahtaa-alykkaampiin-laitteisiin-6247887
Tomi Engdahl says:
Measure a video ADC’s differential gain and phase
http://www.edn.com/design/test-and-measurement/4441226/Measure-a-video-ADC-s-differential-gain-and-phase?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20160121&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20160121&elq=832e83d60cc9412aaf6d97c57c49f9f6&elqCampaignId=26600&elqaid=30420&elqat=1&elqTrackId=5f093fc46ac54af08e976383a402ad26
Tomi Engdahl says:
High frequency Helmholtz coils generate magnetic fields
http://www.edn.com/design/analog/4441240/High-Frequency-Helmholtz-Coils-Generate-Magnetic-Fields?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20160121&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20160121&elq=832e83d60cc9412aaf6d97c57c49f9f6&elqCampaignId=26600&elqaid=30420&elqat=1&elqTrackId=5baf0983f2ab435cb62749b059858a2f
High frequency Helmholtz coils are often used to generate uniform but time varying high frequency magnetic fields for a number of applications such as magnetic field susceptibility, calibration, and scientific experiment. A high frequency Helmholtz coil driver is needed to generate the required magnetic field. Because the magnetic field density is proportional to electrical current, to generate high magnetic field, high current is needed. However, at high frequency the coils impedance is also became high impedance.
For a given driver voltage amplitude, the coil current is inversely proportional to the coil impedance. Therefore the two opposing factors that affect magnetic field are current and frequency. Achieving high frequency magnetic field is very difficult. This article discussed three techniques to produce high magnetic field for high frequency Helmholtz coils.
Helmholtz coils, named after the German physicist Hermann von Helmholtz, is consisted of two identical electromagnetic coils place in parallel and aligned their centers in the same axis
When electrical current pass through the high frequency Helmholtz coils in the same direction, it creates a highly uniform magnetic field in a 3-dimension volume of space inside the coils. These Helmholtz coils are often used for cancel background (earth’s) magnetic field, measurements and calibration, and magnetic field for susceptibility testing of electronic equipment.
High frequency Helmholtz coils are constructed by two coils. Because the two magnetic coils are designed to be identical, uniform magnetic field is achieved when the coil radius is equal to the separation distance. The two coils are connected in series such that identical current feeding both of them creates two identical magnetic fields. The two added fields achieved uniform magnetic field in a cylindrical volume of space in the center between the two parallel coils.
This cylindrical-shaped volume space uniform field is approximately equal to 25% of coil radius (R) and a length equal to 50% of the spacing between the two coils
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Japanese semiconductor house have gone bad for a long time. Now Toshiba has made a state of their own conclusions. The company divests itself of all non-NAND flashien production.
For other IC manufacturing buyer is sought.
Toshiba’s other product portfolio includes analog circuits, micro-drivers and a wide range of application-specific system circuits. The net sales of the rest of the operation was about 200 billion yen el EUR half billion.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3891:toshibaan-jaa-vain-flash-muistit&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
More stringent requirements for power supplies into force
Both the US and the European market is now more stringent limits on how much power the charger must not consume without load.
CoC-configuration of the charger must be no load consumes less than 0,075 watts of power. This provision came into force at the beginning of the year. With effect from 10 February onwards charger power consumption to keep the United States without load remain below 0.1 watts.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3883:teholahteiden-tiukemmat-vaatimukset-voimaan&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Research did not increase
Semiconductor companies are forced to invest huge amounts of money to be able to sell more and faster and more powerful chips to equipment manufacturers increasingly lower prices. Almost every sixth euro earned should be placed in a new exploration. Last year on research firms grew by only half a per cent.
Growth remained very small. During the last 10 years, manufacturers have increased their research spending an average of four per cent per annum. Last year the enterprises invested in research totaled $ 54.1 billion, says IC Insights.
Most semiconductor house Intel used for research by far the most money. Last year, Intel developed new processes to 12.1 billion dollars, which is equivalent to 24 percent of its sales. The figure was also five percent higher than the previous year.
Second, most research focused on Qualcomm ($ 3.7 billion) and the third most Samsung (EUR 3.1 billion). Fourth, the most invested Broadcom
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3886:tutkimusmenot-eivat-juuri-kasvaneet&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Miniaturization of electronics is continuing to increase power densities at all packaging levels. Miniaturization arises from cost reduction, resulting in increasingly tighter design margins and less tolerance of over-design. This is particularly true in the physical design of the product, where over-design results in additional weight, volume, and in some cases manufacturing and assembly costs, increasing the cost of the final product.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Will Metallic Glue Replace Solder?
http://hackaday.com/2016/01/17/will-metallic-glue-replace-solder/
A video recently surfaced touting a new method of joining materials together. It’s called MesoGlue, and apparently, it could replace soldering or even welding in certain cases.
The basic premise is it uses nanorods of material — kind of like velcro — that once you push together, intertwine with each other, and become solid. They’re surrounded with a shell that liquefies, which solidifies the bond. This makes it able to withstand high heat, once bonded.
since it did appear in ASM’s international publication of Advanced Materials and Processes — this could be the real deal
Will This Fancy Metallic Glue Kill Soldering?
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/will-this-fancy-metallic-glue-kill-soldering
If you want to piss off an electrical engineer, tell them that future electronics might be built using a room-temperature metallic glue instead of conventional soldering techniques. Despite the tedium, burns, bad joins, and dangerous lead fumes, soldering is a prized and hard-fought skill. It’s also unavoidable: a technique central to absolutely everything to do with building and repairing electronics at all levels.
Materials scientists at Northeastern University in Boston are daring to suggest, however, that its days may be numbered. This is thanks to a recent creation dubbed MesoGlue: a “revolutionary joining solution that lets you attach items together with a metal bond, at room temperature.” Soldering without the heat, in other words. The new material is described in this month’s Advanced Materials and Processes.
The origins of soldering are usually put at around 5,000 BC. Metalworking had already been around then for 7,000 years or so, but the idea of using molten metal to join stuff together came later with the discovery of naturally occurring alloys featuring lower melting points. Earlier solders were made of gold and tin, with the tin-lead combination employed in contemporary electronics appearing some time during the Roman empire. In other words, soldering is old as hell.
MesoGlue is by contrast a relatively high-tech material, with its adhesive properties made possible thanks to engineered nanorods that act to “lock” together two surfaces in a similar way to two combs meshing together, but a lot more permanent.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Has Samsung Snagged Qualcomm Business with New Process?
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328705&
Samsung Electronics, which has been in a nip-and-tuck race with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) to win foundry orders with the world’s most advanced fabrication technology, may have grabbed all of Qualcomm’s business with a second-generation version of its 14nm FinFET process.
Samsung has launched commercial production of advanced logic using its 14nm Low-Power Plus (LPP) process, the latest generation of the 14nm process technology, the company said in a press statement.
Qualcomm, which accounted for about 20 percent of TSMC’s orders two years ago, has moved most of its business to Samsung at 10/14nm for 2017 and beyond, according to Warren Lau, an analyst with Maybank Kim Eng in Hong Kong.
“Samsung is the sole supplier for all Qualcomm future 14nm chipsets and modems,” Lau said in emailed comments to EE Times. “This is also the case at 10nm.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intel Reports Q4 FY 2015 Results: Record Revenue For Q4
by Brett Howse on January 14, 2016 10:00 PM EST
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9961/intel-reports-q4-fy-2015-results-record-revenue-for-q4
Intel announced their earnings for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2015. The year ended strong, with record revenues of $14.9 billion. This is up 1% of Q4 of 2014, and up 3% over last quarter. Intel’s margins did drop a 1.1%, but are still a healthy 64.3% for the quarter. Operating income for the last quarter of the year was $4.3 billion, and net income came in at $3.6 billion. These results are down 3$ and 1% respectively, compared to Q4 of 2014. Earnings per share was flat at $0.74 per share.
Tomi Engdahl says:
EEs & CSs Create Early-Stage Lung Cancer Detector
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328694&
Early detection of lung cancer may become the norm, if this inexpensive table-top detector is widely adopted by doctor’s offices. The trick is that it can detect the malady when it is only five millimeters in size–in plenty of time for an easier cure by surgery. The product will be spun-off from the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) department at National Taiwan University (NTU) to be licensed and manufactured by a third party such as Delta Electronics International (Singapore) Pte Ltd., according to Lab Director Wei-Cheng Tian.
“The portable micro-gas chromatography system can detect the volatile compounds that indicate a patient has lung cancer and how early a stage it is,” said NTU professor Tian (also Lab Director at Delta Electronics).
The micro-gas chromatography system allows a patient to blow into it–like a breathalyzer–so that it can detect the bio-marker chemicals typical of lung cancer. Since its detection capability is 5 parts per million (PPM) it can find cancer growths when they are still completely operable.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Home> Tools & Learning> Products> Product Brief
Mini sensor touts fast laser-assisted autofocus
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/other/4441223/Mini-sensor-touts-fast-laser-assisted-autofocus?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20160121&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20160121&elq=832e83d60cc9412aaf6d97c57c49f9f6&elqCampaignId=26600&elqaid=30420&elqat=1&elqTrackId=d71f14a6a223430c8aa16f819a245a32
Tomi Engdahl says:
The world’s first flexible biometric sensor
English FlexEnable is with the French developer of photodiodes with ISORGin manufactured the world’s largest flexible fingerprint sensor.
The sensor is made of an organic TFT film. It is only 0.3 millimeters thick, so bends widest array of hardware. Size of the sensor membrane is 8.6 x 8.6 centimeters.
Sensor resolution of the film is very accurate, because it separates the 1024 x 1024 pixels. Single pixel size is only 78 microns between the pixels.
In addition, the sensors read by visible light in addition to wavelengths of near infrared, ie up to 900 nanometers. As a result, the sensor sees fingerprints addition to the vessels of the fingers venues, which provides more accurate images, thus enhancing the protection of recognition.
Plastic film based sensor does not need lenses and can be installed almost everywhere.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3862:maailman-ensimmainen-taipuisa-biometrinen-anturi&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bloomberg Business:
Sony agrees to buy Israel’s Altair Semiconductor, maker of LTE communication chips for IoT, for $212M — Sony to Buy Chipmaker Altair in Internet of Things Push — Sony to pay $212 million, close deal in early February — Semiconductor firm makes chips for ‘Internet of things’
Sony to Buy Chipmaker Altair in Internet of Things Push
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-26/sony-agrees-to-buy-chipmaker-altair-in-internet-of-things-push
Sony Corp. agreed to buy Altair Semiconductor Ltd. for $212 million, acquiring technology to power the next generation of smart appliances as the firm looks for growth beyond chips for smartphone cameras.
Altair, with modem chips for fourth-generation cellular technology, will help the company make component devices featuring both sensing and communication capabilities, Sony said in a statement Tuesday.
Chief Executive Officer Kazuo Hirai is moving the Tokyo-based company away from consumer electronics to focus on growth in image sensors, video games and movies. It agreed to buy Toshiba Corp.’s image sensor operations last year to build up its chip business with growth in its devices unit contributing to the company’s return to profit.
“More and more ‘things’ are expected to be equipped with cellular chipsets, realizing a connected environment in which ‘things’ can reliably and securely access network services that leverage the power of cloud computing,” Sony said in the statement.
“Japanese companies are more active in looking for innovative and disruptive Israeli technology,”