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SEMICONDUCTOR EVENING ARCHIVES AND DATABASE
March 6, Through July 18, 2005
THE SEMICONDUCTOR EVENING NEWS
July
18th, 2005
UCLA Researchers Usher in Molecular Electronics Age - Demonstrate Molecular Nano Valve –
Molecular Filter Based on Bistable Molecular Switch
Under funding from the National Science Foundation, researchers at the University of California
at Los Angeles have developed a nano valve that is capable of controlling the passage of molecules. A discussion of
the work is to be published in the July 19th issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. . According to
Jeffrey I. Zink, one of the researchers at the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA, "This paper demonstrates unequivocally
that the machine works. With the nano valve, we can trap and release molecules on demand. We are able to control molecules
at the nano scale." Professor Zink also indicated that the new device has the potential be used as a drug delivery system.
The device can be used to both trap and release molecules.
The lead author on the paper, Thoi Nguyen, described the nano valve’s
operation, "The valve is like a mechanical system that we can control like a water faucet. Trapping the molecule inside and
shutting the valve tightly was a challenge. The first valves we produced leaked slightly."
The nano valve uses switchable rotaxane molecules (redox-activated
bistable), which are described as moving parts that are similar in appearance to linear motors. The nano valve demonstrated
was attached to glass or porous silica, which measured 500 nanometers, and is punctuated with pores that are only a few nanometers.
Commenting on the pores, Zink said, "It's big enough to let molecules in and out, but small enough so that the switchable
rotaxane molecules can block the hole."
The nano valve is opened and shut with a power supply that is molecular
in nature itself. A single electron serves as the basis chemical energy that opens and closes the valve. A luminescent molecule
is used to indicate if a molecule has been captured.
California NanoSystems Institute director Fraser Stoddart characterized
the behavior of the nano valve in relation to silicon, "The fact that we can take a bistable molecule that behaves as a switch
in a silicon-based electronic device at the nanoscale level and fabricate it differently to work as part of a nano valve on
porous silica is something I find really satisfying about this piece of research. It shows that these little pieces of molecular
machinery are highly adaptable and resourceful, and means that we can move around in the nanoworld with the same molecular
tool kit and adapt it to different needs on demand."
Switchable rotaxanes, according to UCLA, have already been used
in molecular electronics, which the UCLA team under the direction of Stoddart, are being adapted for artificial molecular
machinery applications.
The integrated circuit age was also ushered in with a switch device,
the diode and transistor, which has formed the basis for the integrated circuit, a device which now days can easily contain
over a billion transistors connected together to form an advanced system. The same basic hierarchical technology used to design
integrated circuits, known as Electronic Design Automation (EDA), may also be fundamental to the design of molecular systems
that may one day also contain billions if not trillions of nano valves.
Offering similar characteristics as paper in terms of weight, dimensions
and flexibility, three of Fujitsu’s companies have jointly announced their film substrate-based bendable color electronic
paper. The new display technology features extremely low power, in part, because it only needs power when the screen is refreshed
with a new image. Fujitsu gives its power consumption rating in the range of the power of the radio waves used to drive contactless
IC cards.
Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd., Fujitsu Frontech Limited, and Fujitsu
Limited developed the technology, which is planned for commercialization for a wide range of different applications sometime
in Fujitsu’s corporate fiscal year between April 2006 and March 2007. One of the initial target applications is poster
advertisements in public places such as rail stations. The company did not indicate the cost of the color electronic paper
that can also be placed on curved surfaces such as poles and cylindrical support structures.
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. with its quarterly financials (for
the second quarter of its fiscal 2005 year) reported that its revenue from its semiconductor operations declined slightly
year-over-year to 4.17 trillion Korean won from 4.58 trillion Korean won a year ago. The 4.17 trillion won was also lower
than the 4.48 trillion won reported for Samsung’s first quarter of 2005. The year-over-year change represented a decline
in revenues of 9 percent and the quarter-over-quarter change represented a decline of 7 percent.
Although chip revenue declined, the company reported that margins
were still high in the order of 26 percent and that the company expects improvement in the second half of 2005 as a result
of stronger demand for PCs, and new MP3 players and digital cameras that will require NAND flash chips with higher data storage
capacity. Dr. Woosik Chu, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the IR team at Samsung emphasized the effect of anticipated
demand of IT products on the company’s semiconductor revenue, "With demand for IT products expected to return and steady
growth in our DRAM, NAND Flash, LCD and mobile phone businesses, Samsung Electronics anticipates improvements in both sales
and operating profits in the second half of 2005."
Samsung also reported memory sales for the second quarter of 2005.
These were 3.22 trillion won, compared to 3.57 trillion won for the second quarter of 2004 and 3.54 trillion won for the first
quarter of 2005. System LSI chips, the other major component of Samsung’s semiconductor sales were also down. For the
second quarter of 2005, sales of LSI chips were 0.45 trillion won compared to 0.62 trillion won for the same period a year
ago – representing a 28 percent drop. Sequentially, sales of LSI chips were flat. In the first quarter of 2005, sales
of LSI chips were also 0.45 trillion won.
In recent trading, the Korean won was quaoted at 1032.5 won
to the dollar.
Digi International Inc. (NASDAQ: DGII) reported revenue of $30.2
million for the third fiscal quarter of 2005 compared to $28.3 million in the third fiscal quarter of 2004, a 6.7% increase.
Digi also broke out revenue for Rabbit Semiconductor, Inc, which the company acquired in May of this year. For the latest
third quarter, Rabbit’s revenue was $2.9 million, which exceeded the company’s previous guidance of $2.0 million.
Digi’s Device Networking Solutions products, which includes
integrated circuit revenue from NetSilicon, another acquisition, and Rabbit was $12.5 million for the third quarter
of fiscal 2005 compared to $9.5 million in the same period of last year. The Device Networking Solutions group also
obtains revenue from the sale of modules and software based on the company’s integrated circuit chips.
Joe Dunsmore, Chairman, CEO of Digi detailed the overall financials,
"Company results for the quarter were mixed. On the positive side we grew revenues 6.7% over the third quarter of fiscal 2004
and achieved $0.11 earnings per diluted share, which was at the high end of the guidance range including Rabbit. We are particularly
pleased with the outstanding results of Rabbit, which is already a strong contributor. The Rabbit transaction represents the
latest step in our ongoing strategy to focus on growth product opportunities. Rabbit contributed $2.9 million in revenues,
and our other growth product lines showed significant growth year over year. These achievements, however, were offset by greater
than expected weakness from the mature product lines.
Looking into the future, Digi expects fourth fiscal quarter 2005
somewhere around $34 million to $37 million. Revenues for Rabbit are expected to rise significantly. Digi sees revenue from
Rabbit at over $7.0 million for the fourth fiscal quarter of 2005.
Fairchild Semiconductor International, Inc. (NYSE: FCS) reported
revenues for the three months ended June 26, 2005 at $346 million, down from $414.3 million for the same quarter a year ago
and also down sequentially from the $362.8 million for the three months ended March 27, 2005.
On the positive side, Mark Thompson, Fairchild's CEO noted that
the company’s handset product demand was up over 50 percent and switch bookings were up over 100 percent, "Order rates
were strongest in the consumer and handset markets," explained Thompson. "We saw particular strength for products supporting
the television end market as well as much stronger demand in the white goods segment where our Smart Power Module business
continues to win new designs. Demand for products supporting the handset market was up more than 50% over the last two quarters
in part driven by our strength in low power switches and our fast growing analog switch business, which recorded record bookings,
up more than 100% from the prior quarter. We're also seeing significant design-in activity for our new, proprietary uSerDes
products enabling handset manufacturers to better manage the signal flow in clamshell phones while reducing component count
and costs. Our most significant design win to date came this quarter when one of our largest customers selected our uSerDes
solution for use in their latest generation of handsets."
3M Electronics is scheduled to present its development efforts in
the area of microfluidics and microinterconnect technology at the American Association for Clinical Chemistry's (AACC's) 2005
Annual Meeting and Clinical Lab Exposition in Orlando, Florida. The meeting, scheduled for July 24 to July 28 2005 will take
place at the Orange County Convention Center. There, Nate P. Kreutter, advanced product development specialist at 3M Electronics
will present on the 26th, "Polymer microfluidic devices with integrated electrodes" at 8 a.m. One of the topics of the lecture
will be on the use of polymer patterning to create electrodes that can be integrated into microfluidic channels. Other related
subjects include electrochemical analysis, electrokinetic transport and capillary electrophoresis as related to microinterconnect
technology used in microfluidic systems.
THE SEMICONDUCTOR EVENING NEWS
July
15th, 20005
As part of a share exchange agreement, iCurie Lab Holdings Limited,
based in the United Kingdom, has become a wholly owned subsidiary of iCurie, Inc. (OTCBB: CMTD). It was also reported that
iCurie Inc., referred to as iCurie US closed a $17 million private placement just recently on July 11th, 2005.
Chief Technology Officer, Jeong Hyun Lee, Ph.D. on the announcement commented on the new business structure and the
company’s technology, "I'm pleased to have passed another important milestone with iCurie. From our research and development
center in South Korea, we have created an excellent portfolio of cooling devices based on nano thermofluid technology. This
restructuring and financing gives us the strength and stability to commercialize our great technology."
ICurie develops solutions that lower the temperature of devices used in the electronic industry. ICurie has patents
that are based on thermofluidic nanotechnology concepts.
AMD (NYSE:AMD) with its financial report for the second quarter
of its 2005 year reported that its microprocessor sales reached record levels. According to Robert J. Rivet, CFO at AMD, "Our
microprocessor business delivered another record quarter driven by increased demand for AMD server and mobile processors from
our largest global OEM customers. Once again we continued to gain momentum with microprocessor sales growth increasing 38
percent compared to the second quarter of 2004. The solid overall demand was enhanced by our newer processor offerings. Strong
Dual-Core AMD Opteron processor sales contributed to an 89 percent revenue increase in our server products from the prior
quarter. This demonstrates the acceptance of the AMD64 platform by enterprise customers. Likewise, the AMD Turion64 processor
captured more than 60 design wins and drove record mobile sales in the thin-and-light mobile PC category."
He also indicated that AMD’s overall memory and MirrorBit
flash memory sales also increased, "Memory Products Group sales increased slightly in the quarter, driven by record MirrorBit
Flash memory sales and overall higher unit demand." AMD reported also that MirrorBit Flash memory sales increased to over
20 percent of total Memory Products Group sales in the second quarter, driven by demand from the wireless market and 110 nanometer
MirrorBit chips. For the year-over-year period, however, AMD’s
Memory Products Group sales decreased. For the second quarter of 2005, memory sales were $462 million, a drop of 31 percent
when compared to the second quarter of 2004, but a 3 percent increase from $447 million posted in the first quarter of 2005.
Overall, total sales for the second quarter of 2005 were $1.260
billion, compared to $1.227 billion in the first quarter of 2004 and $1.262 billion in the second quarter of 2005.
Computation Product Group sales, which include AMD’s microprocessors,
were $767 million in the second quarter of 2005 compared to $750 million in the first quarter of 2005 and $558 million in
the second quarter of 2004. AMD expects that microprocessor sales’ growth will exceed normal seasonal patterns. The
company did not reflect on prospects for memory chips sales due to the SEC filing of Spansion, a joint venture of AMD and
Fujitsu.
Chipidea and TransDimensions (TDI), two IP core providers, have
joined forces to offer a high-speed USB intellectual property solution. The new solution includes Chipidea’s Physical
Layer IP core and TransDimension’s High Speed USB IP core and associated software.
The new solution is expected to offer designers a faster way to
construct a USB-based system on a chip (SoC). Business Development Manager at Chipidea, Milton Sousa, gave his synopsis of
the solution, "We are granting our customers a complete solution encompassing the PHY, controller and software that will strongly
reduce time to market and minimize risk. Our experience demonstrates that this complete solution can save months of design
time and eliminate a great deal of frustration when compared to integrating IP from different sources. Our solution with TDI
provides the most complete, integrated solution available in the market."
Addressing the digital camera and phone camera market, IBM has made
available a foundry service based on its 0.18 micron copper CMOS semiconductor process image sensor technology licensed from
Kodak. The design kit enables the integration of a 4-transistor, 3 micron pixel technology and components from IBM’s
image sensor design library. IBM indicates that the technology features dark current specifications that permit the design
of cameras that are able to operate well in low-light settings. Other technology features IBM points to include on-chip color
filters and microlens, angle response performance as well as a 2.5 micron copper stack, which is often incorporated to improve
light collection efficiency.
Tom Reeves, Vice President, Semiconductor Products for IBM Systems
& Technology Group also listed benefits of IBM technology for phone photo applications, "IBM is bringing its extensive
copper semiconductor process experience to bear on the CMOS image sensor market, offering clients what we believe is the best
foundry technology available today. Our innovative technology produces sensors with excellent color accuracy, low noise and
very competitive low-light performance that can help clients differentiate their products in this competitive and growing
consumer market."
Chris McNiffe, General Manager of Kodak's Image Sensor solutions
business, which also has its own line of image sensors, had this to say about the combination of Kodak and IBM technology,
"We are pleased to see Kodak's image sensor technology at the heart of IBM's new foundry offering. Our collaboration with
IBM has been extremely successful thus far, leveraging our respective strengths in imaging and semiconductor manufacturing."
Silicon Quest International (SQI has announced their new Materials
Engineering Department. The department offers technical consulting and business development services to semiconductor companies.
SQI indicated that the service has new companies in mind. Small fabless companies often need to be aware of critical materials
and process issues to implement MEMS and analog technology optimally.
SQI's new Vice President of Technology and Product Development,
Dr. Zbigniew Radzimski is heading up the company’s new department.
SQI supplies a complete range of silicon wafers, often used to test
semiconductor process technologies. Some of the company’s offerings are silicon-on-insulator (SOI) and solar wafers.
Rambus Inc. (NASDAQ:RMBS) reported record revenues with the announcement
of its latest financial report. For its second quarter ended June 30, 2005, the company had total revenues of $39.99 million
compared to $34.97 million for the same quarter a year ago. For the six months ended June 30, 2005, total revenues were $79.60
million compared to $67.51 million for the same period a year ago. For the first quarter ended March 31, 2005, total revenue
was $39.61 million.
Although total revenue rose from the first to the second quarter
in 2005, contract revenue declined from $6.60 million to $5.39 million. Royalty revenues however increased to $34.60 million
from $33.01 million over the same period.
Harold Hughes, Chief Executive Officer at Rambus commented on the
level of interest in the company’s products, "We have taken important and necessary actions to protect our intellectual
property while we work on patent license renewals. We are very encouraged by the growing interest we are seeing in our advanced
high-speed interface designs, particularly in our XDR memory interface as well as the momentum we are seeing with our PCI
Express solutions."
Rambus reported $471 million of cash, cash equivalents and marketable
securities for the end of its latest second quarter.
THE SEMICONDUCTOR EVENING NEWS
July
14th, 2005
Brillian Corp. (NASDAQ: BRLC), a producer of LCoS (Liquid Crystal
on Silicon) microdisplays and the rear-projection HDTVs that they are a part of, has issued $5 million of 4% convertible debentures
and $2.0 million of 9% convertible debentures.
The funds are expected to go towards volume manufacturing. According
to, Vincent F. Sollitto Jr., Brillian's CEO, "Our momentum continues to build with volume manufacturing and supply chain progress,
excellent product reviews, and an earlier than expected ability to reduce MSRP (Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price) on the
Brillian 720p HDTV monitor. Closing this financing round is another very positive step forward. The proceeds from this transaction
will strengthen our cash position and provide added funding for volume manufacturing of our light engines and HDTVs."
Shellcase Ltd., which estimates that its chip packages are used
in over 30 percent of all camera phone headsets, has continued its market leadership with a license for its wafer-level chip
size packaging from China WLSCP, a semiconductor packaging house based in Suzhou, China.
China WLSCP sees wide acceptance for the product in the optical
market. According to Wang Wei, CEO of China WLCSP, "We are thrilled to partner with Shellcase and bring this much needed miniaturization
technology to the Chinese market. I expect that WLCSP will soon become the packaging option of choice for optical device manufacturers
in China."
Shellcase recently introduced its latest package solution for optical
devices that include microlenses. Called the ShellUltraThin, the very thin clear package is designed to allow the camera to
process images through the package.
Shellcase offers packages for CMOS and CCD area array and linear
sensors, photodiodes, as well as RF-MEMS and mixed signal devices.
Through Corecess, Inc., Teknovus, a fabless semiconductor company
that has shipped over one million Ethernet Passive Optical Network (EPON) ports, has moved into position in the emerging EPON
market in Korea. Korea Telecom selected Corecess S5 scalable IP multi-service access platform and 3800 series ONT system
to implement Korea Telecom’s Fiber-to-the-Home service. The two systems are based on Teknovus’ TK3700-series EPON
chipset. The equipment will be used in the construction of a nationwide broadband network that will offer Korea’s residents
triple-play services for voice, data and television applications.
Noting the exclusivity of the agreement with Corecess and the large
Asian market was Dr. Rex Naden, CEO of Teknovus, "There is no question that fiber-based broadband access is growing rapidly
into a huge market for Asia and the rest of the word. It's an extremely competitive market, but Teknovus has a strong advantage
with the only EPON technology that enables triple-play services -- the key to future success for all service providers. We
are honored that Corecess and KT have recognized the unique price/performance value of the Teknovus EPON chipset solution,
and have selected us exclusively as partners."
Perfisans Networks Corporation (OTCBB:PFNH) has reported that Zhejiang
Orient FSP Communication Company Ltd.(FSP) is expected to purchase $2.5 million worth of its ENA5031 network accelerator board,
complete with Perfisan’s ENA1001 TCP/IP Offload Engine (TOE) network accelerator chips. The initial order is for $40,000.00
of the boards, with the remainder of the purchase expected to be completed over the next 12 months.
Hon Lam, President of Perfisans, emphasized that the selection of
his company’s product was based on extensive beta site testing, "FSP conducted intensive, long term functionality and
reliability tests with their beta customer. As a result of these tests, Perfisans has received its first complete board level
product order. This order was issued after FSP tested the board under their 802.16 WiMax Wireless Broadband platform for several
months and compared Perfisans' functionality performance against Intel products. It is very encouraging that FSP found significant
cost and performance advantages in using Perfisans' product as compared to similar boards at higher costs."
As a result of the successful evaluation and order, FSP plans to
focus on sales and the integration of Perfisan’s board into all of its network solutions.
eASIC Corporation has entered into a strategic partnership with
Fastrack Design to eliminate non-recurring engineering (NRE) costs as part of the ASIC design and manufacturing cost structure.
As part of the Design Services Representative (DSR) agreement with Fastrack, a turnkey design services company, the two companies
plan to reduce the design time for Structured ASICs and to eliminate the NRE fee. According to Salah Werfelli, eASIC Executive
Vice President of Strategic Business Worldwide, "Combining our award-winning configurable logic products with Fastrak's design
expertise and ASIC know-how, we deliver the industry's only NRE-free ASIC solution with complementing design services to a
broader customer base. eASIC's DSR program is aimed at establishing an extensive sales channel for our innovative programmable
ASIC products to help customers reduce costs, improve their time-to-market, and increase their overall competitiveness."
Moazzem Hossain, Fastrack President and CEO also commented on the
no NRE approach, "We are very excited about eASIC's unique programmable ASIC product line and are pleased to be part of the
DSR program. This partnership expands our service capability and provides us with a strategic weapon to compete for ASIC design
wins. Our customers are eager to have such low-cost, no NRE ASICs, which can be rapidly shipped in any volume. We intend to
aggressively pursue and support eASIC's Structured ASIC device family."
THE SEMICONDUCTOR EVENING NEWS
July
13th, 2005
Redfern Integrated Optics, Inc. (RIO), an optical chip and foundry services company, has secured $6.2 million in
financing from Advent International, Tallwood Venture Capital, TMT Ventures and Redfern Photonics Pty Ltd. The company plans
to continue its focus on the 10G market through its focus on low cost 40/80 kilometer Dense Wavelength-Division Multiplexing
(DWDM) XFP-compatible TOSAs (Transmitter Optical Sub-Assembly)." According to Radu Barsan, CEO of RIO, "In addition to the
customer validation that RIO has secured to date and the development of the 10G market, this financing puts us in an excellent
position to capitalize on our breakthrough platform technology. Such financial support represents a significant endorsement
of RIO's value proposition and will enable us to continue to meet the growing needs of our customers for high-performance,
low-cost 40/80km and DWDM XFP-compatible TOSAs.”
The company indicated also that the financing would be used to complete the development of its initial products,
increase its product line and bring production up to commercial levels.
The company’s External Cavity Laser (ECL) product is marketed as a low-cost alternative to the typical costly,
low yielding hybrid solution that is used to integrate modulated lasers (made with Indium Phosphide - InP) the Distributed
Feedback (DFB) laser and the Electro-Absorbtion (EA) modulator. The ECL product integrates together an InP gain chip, which
is a modified Fabry-Perot diode and a Photonic Lightwave Circuit (PLC). The company trademarks the solution as
“Telecom performance at Ethernet cost."
RIO also offers to its customers a silicon-based optical foundry
service for the development of photonic designs. Among the serviced provided include design, modeling, prototype, assembly
and test services.
XFP is the standard adopted by the XFP MSA group and refers to 10
Gbit Small Form Factor Pluggable. The goal of the group is to provide a low cost standard module design for the implementation
10 Gibabit per second data communications solutions. The group’s founding members include Broadcom, Brocade, Emulex
Corporation, Finisar, ICS (a Sumitomo Electric company), JDS Uniphase, Maxim Integrated Products, ONI Systems, Tyco Electronics
and Velio.
Zensys, a fabless semiconductor company and inventor of the Z-Wave
wireless mesh networking technology, has closed its third round of financing. The $16 million round was led by Bessemer Venture
Partners. Other investors included Palamon Capital Partners, and Vaekstfonden.
Zensys’ Z-Wave technology has become widely accepted for wireless
control applications. The technology, which allows for the control of home security systems, lighting and other home control
functions from anywhere on the planet, has already been designed into over 85 wireless home control and automation products
and has received the support of over 125 companies. These companies include Danfoss, Wayne Dalton, Intermatic, Leviton and
UEI Inc.
Bob Goodman, Managing Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners indicated
that one reason for his company’s investment was that Zensys produced more cost-effective chips, "We are investing in
Zensys based on its proven and widely accepted wireless home control technology, as well as its ability to secure support
throughout the industry and continually produce more efficient and more cost-effective Z-Wave chips. Zensys is clearly a company
poised for significant continued growth."
Zensys’ ZW0201 chip besides an 8051 microcontroller, also
integrates an RF transceiver, flash and SRAM memory and a variety of peripheral circuits.
At the SEMICON West Conference, one of the must-go-to events for
semiconductor companies wanting to find out the latest advances in semiconductor manufacturing technology, KT Ventures Group,
the investment arm of KLA-Tencor, one of the world’s semiconductor equipment leaders, announced that it will invest
in Aprio Technologies, a company that has been developing design-for-manufacturing (DFM) software.
According to Robert Lee, General Partner at KT Venture Group, a
major reason for the investment decision was that “Aprio's strategy dovetails very well with KLA- Tencor's view of the
DFM market. These facts formed the basis for our decision to invest in the company."
Alpha Imaging Technology Company (AIT), a fabless chip company based
in Taiwan has selected audio synthesizer technology from Sonic Network, Inc. for use in its camera phone multimedia chips.
Sonic’s EAS for embedded Audio Synthesis has been planned for Alpha Imaging’s next generation of chips intended
for mobile ringtone and game audio functions.
One of the reasons for the selection was that Sonic’s solution
required the least amount of memory and the best sound quality. According to Andy Tsai, Director of Product Planning of Alpha
Imaging, "Sonic Network's mature and complete solution is a natural complement to our multimedia IC's. Most important to us
was the quality and compactness of the solution. Based on our tests, Sonic Network provided the best sound quality and the
smallest memory and processor requirements, important features for competing in the increasingly aggressive cellular market."
Noting that the solution offered cost savings where it counts, to
wireless ODMs, was Jennifer Hruska, Sonic’s President, "Wireless ODMs are continuing to push multi-media IC manufactures
for greater functionality and larger feature sets. Since both AIT and Sonic offer the widest range of format support, our
technology is a natural complement that can offer tremendous value to a handset manufacturer. This is most important to ODMs
competing in the feature phone market, as the low memory requirements of our EAS allows substantial cost reductions over using
other software solutions as well as even greater savings over utilizing a dedicated hardware solution such as a melody chip."
AIT is well known in the cellular phone market. Its chip solutions
have been used by BenQ, Motorola, NEC, Philips, Siemens, and Panasonic.
ARTiSAN Software Tools, Inc., a provider of embedded system designer
software, is now an Associate Member of the Automotive Open Systems Architecture (AUTOSAR) partnership. That association,
considered an important part of any company’s automobile electronic product development effort, includes automobile
manufacturers, suppliers, software houses, tool manufacturers and semiconductor companies. These members’ common goal
is to establish an open standard for an automotive Electric/Electronics (E/E) architecture to manage the diverse array of
existing and emerging functions that are embedded into the automobile.
Further detailing the objectives of AUTOSAR was Jeremy Goulding,
ARTiSAN's President and CEO commented, "The AUTOSAR initiative works toward networking systems and sub-systems, and creating
a common technology interface both to and within the vehicle. As the leading vendor bringing the OMG's UML based Systems Modeling
Language (SysML) to embedded systems, we've been urged by the automotive industry to join AUTOSAR. Our goal is to understand
from the inside of this partnership exactly what users need most, and to provide first class tool support for that to build
on our position as a leading systems and software modeling tool partner for automotive electronics development."
Among the organization’s primary members are the leading automobile
and automobile component companies. These include BMW, Bosch, Continental, DaimlerChrysler, Ford, GM, PSA, Siemens VDO, Toyota
and Volkswagen. There are also a number of semiconductor companies listed as premium members. These include ARM, Freescale
Semiconductor, Renesas and STMicroelectronics. MathWorks, a provider of EDA and mathematical software is also listed.
Security concerns with PCs are now being addressed in hardware.
STMicroelectronics, a company noted for its smart card technology, (NYSE:STM) is filling the need. It reports it has delivered
over one million of its Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 1.2 devices to PC motherboard companies in the second quarter of 2005.
The module offers a preinstalled hardware solution to PC security, which allows the computer to lock general access and provide
secure storage areas. STMicroelectronics reports that Intel uses the module in its Desktop Boards, which are part of its Executive
Series.
Offering a history of STMicroelectronics TCG (Trusted Computing
Group) experience and market position was Alain Jarre, Director of the Consumer & IT Business Unit at STMicroelectronics'
Smartcard ICs Division "ST was the first company to release an integrated TCG 1.2 solution, implementing this latest and most
advanced TCG 1.2 specification. ST has more than 20 years experience in the design of highly secure silicon products; we are
a major supplier of secure microcontrollers to multiple smart card markets and other applications. We are happy that with
these first deliveries to major companies like Intel, ST's leading position in the trusted computing market is confirmed."
ST’s new solution, the ST19WP18, is a compatible with the
earlier TCG 1.1b specification, offers new functions such as Delegation, Transport Protection and Locality. The chip is based
on software stack licensed from NTRU Cryptosystems Inc., and TPM management and cryptographic support utilities from Wave
Systems Corp. Hardware inside the ST19WP18 includes an 8-bit microcomputer with an advanced 1088-bit cryptographic co-processor
with Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) support functions.
LNL Technologies, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was awarded
patent number 6,915,029 on July 5th, 2005 by the United States Patent Office. The two inventors were Kevin K. Lee and Desmond
R. Lim, also of Cambridge.
THE SEMICONDUCTOR EVENING NEWS
July 12th, 2005
Honeywell (NYSE:HON) has reported that it will invest over the next
five years at least $5 million in Albany NanoTech, a nanoelectronic research facility affiliated with the University at Albany
(SUNY).. The investment is intended to enhance Honeywell’s existing nanomaterials development work.
As part of the investment, Honeywell plans to add laboratory equipment
and its own researchers at Albany NanoTech’s research center. There it will work on nanomaterials for the further development
of semiconductor manufacturing processes. According to Dr. Saket Chadda, Chief Technology Officer at Honeywell Electronic
Materials, "Honeywell Electronic Materials has long been a leader in innovative materials which are the critical building
blocks for integrated circuit chip production. This investment will allow us to continue to develop new materials critical
to continuing the relentless pace of circuit miniaturization."
The facility at Albany NanoTech is 450,000 square feet and contains
a 200 mm / 300 mm wafer facility for the development of advanced integrated circuits, which include System-on-Chip, biochips,
photonic devices, sensors and high-speed communications devices. The fab is housed in a 65,000 square foot Class 1 clean room.
The Albany NanoTech facility is part of a $1.4 billion project by
the State of New York and a number of industrial partners to establish five Centers of Excellence for the further development
of nanoelectronics and other advanced technologies.
TeraVicta Technologies, as part of its appearance at the Semicon
West Exhibit in San Francisco this week, has announced that its single-pole double-throw (SPDT) reflective RF MEMS switch
is now available. The switch, called, the TT712-68CSP, comes complete with a developer’s kit, which includes an evaluation
board and application notes.
The company also released detailed electrical specifications of
the 3 Volt RF switch. These include a frequency range of DC to 7 GHz, isolation of 35 dB at 1 GHz, an insertion loss of 0.1
dB at 1 GHz, a power consumption of less than 10 microwatts at 68 Volts, a Peak RF power of 30 watts, and a switching speed
of less than 100 milliseconds. The MEMS device comes packaged in a very tiny 3.25mm x 4.5mm x 1.25mm (CSP-12) package. Reliability
is rated at 100 million cycles.
The device is intended for a broad range of RF switching applications
where high isolation, high linearity and low insertion loss are critical. Some typical applications include automated test
equipment, instrumentation, multi-band and multi-mode devices.
Tegal Corporation (NASDAQ:TGAL), a semiconductor equipment supplier
that provides equipment for the production of micromachine, magnetic memory and ferroelectric memory integrated circuit production
as well as wireless components has entered into a definitive agreement to sell $22.5 million of common stock and warrants
to investors. The offering is expected to take place in two phases. The first phase would raise $4.1 million and the second
$18.4 million. The offering needs final approval from shareholders, which is expected to occur at meeting scheduled for September
13, 2005.
Celoxica Ltd., an electronic system level EDA company, with Calsonic
Kansei Corp., a module designer and researchers at Keio University have reported on the development of a drive-by-wire automotive
system based on FPGAs. The announcement indicated that FPGAs and not a processor or ASIC based solution, was the only practical
choice for the project in order to meet power, heat, space, design time and custom needs for different automobile applications.
According to Mr. Masatoshi Arai, manager, Advanced Engineering Development Group at Calsonic Kansei Corp. "Applying recognition
processing into automobiles requires low to medium volume, low power and rapid design to support the wide variety of chip
types needed to meet the characteristics of different cars. To meet these requirements FPGAs are a better choice than ASIC
and the DK Design Suite provided a distinct advantage by helping us to quickly design and implement the different design parameters
needed by the project."
The system built is based on license plate recognition and calculates
the safe distance needed to avoid collisions from cars in front and in back of the automobile. Colin Mason, VP Asia Pacific
and General Manager at Celoxica Japan K.K. credited the company’s design software with unleashing the power of FPGAs
for automotive applications, "Our C-based design and synthesis technology is unlocking the potential of lower power, flexible
FPGAs for next generation automotive electronics. C-based design is now the de facto enabling technology for rapidly accelerating
complex custom algorithms in high performance silicon." The system produced relied on algorithm parallelization, which enabled,
once connected to a car camera, a processing time of only 10 milliseconds.
Chipnuts Technology, Inc, a Shanghai based integrated circuit company,
has selected the ZSP500 digital signal processor core from the ZSP Product Division of LSI Logic Corporation (NYSE:LSI). John
Yu, Chief Operating Officer, of Chipnuts Technology explained that the choice was made in part because of the core’s
low power consumption and LSI Logic’s road map, "Its combination of best-in-class code-density and outstanding balance
of performance and power consumption made the ZSP500 a good choice for Chipnuts, Additionally, LSI Logic's comprehensive roadmap
of software-compatible ZSP cores, commitment to local support and network of Solution Partners enables us to produce advanced
mobile multimedia solutions now while planning for future functionality and features."
The ZSP500 core, according to LSI Logic has been designed for power-critical
applications required for today’s consumer and wireless applications. George Liao, Managing Director of Asia Pacific,
ZSP Products Division of LSI Logic noted the ZSP core product line has been well accepted for specific wireless applications
and listed a number of China based companies that have adopted the technology, "The ZSP technology has achieved tremendous
momentum in 2G, 2.5G and 3G wireless applications where its combination of low power and high performance makes it uniquely
suitable for handling both the baseband processing and the application processor functions in handheld devices of today and
tomorrow. It is gratifying to see an emerging company like Chipnuts Technology join industry leaders such as Huawei, Datang,
UTStarcom, Chongyou Information Technology and others in China, in selecting the comprehensive solutions developed by the
ZSP Product Division."
Applied Wave Research, Inc. (AWR), a notable leader in the area
of high frequency wireless design tools, has entered into a technology and marketing agreement with Astra Microelectronics
Technology, Ltd., (AMTL) of Hyderabad, India. As part of the agreement AMTL will use AWR’s award winning Microwave Office
design tools for the design of integrated circuits and microwave components at both its new monolithic microwave integrated
circuit (MMIC) design center, known as Astra Microwave Products, Ltd. (AMPL), and at its parent company location. As part
of the joint marketing plan, AMTL and AWR will offer AMTL’ custom design services. These include radio frequency and
microwave designs for applications such as satellite communications.
Ramanan Ramamurti, AMTL's Chief Operating Officer on announcement
of the agreement indicated that AWR’s design software was easy to use, resulted in first pass design success and that
AWA was easy an easy company to work with, "We were attracted to AWR by the performance and ease-of-use of their design solutions.
When we began working with AWR support personnel, we were pleasantly surprised at the level of service and commitment to ensuring
Astra's success. We instantly recognized that this was the sort of 'win-win' situation that makes for a successful relationship
and wanted to broaden ours with AWR. We are already realizing first pass success in our IC designs."
AMTL was founded in 2004 as a subsidiary of Astra Microwave Products,
Ltd.
THE SEMICONDUCTOR EVENING NEWS
July
11th, 2005
Icron Technologies Corp. (TSX.V:IT) has reported on an underwritten
placement for $3.6 million that is expected to close around July 21st, 2005, subject to the approval of regulators and governing
bodies. Suresh Singh, CEO at Icron indicated that the financing would help Icron in its efforts to increase its market share
in the wireless semiconductor market, "Icron has continued to execute on its plan to be the leader in wireless USB connectivity
solutions. The recent licensing agreement with Freescale was a significant validation of this. This financing further assists
Icron in maintaining its market lead by strengthening our resources to be able to effectively provide our ExtremeUSB for wireless
technology to other semiconductor companies requiring wireless USB 2.0 functionality."
The agreement between Freescale Semiconductor, which Mr. Singh refers
to, was announced in June of 2005. In that agreement, Freescale licensed Icron’s ExtremeUSB to embed into its Ultra
Wide Band (UWB) chipsets. Revenues from royalties are expected to begin in the third quarter of this year.
Icron offers its ExtremeUSB technology, which extends the range
of USB connectivity from 5 meters to 2 kilometers over UTP Cat5, Fiber and most RF transmission technologies. The company
also offers technology to extend DVI up to 500 meters. The products are marketed in either license, modules or system formats.
As a strategic business move, Eastman Kodak Company, known for its
photography technology and cameras throughout the world, has licensed its CMOS image sensor technology to Taiwan Semiconductor
Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC) (NYSE:TSM)(TSE:2330). The Kodak technologies license includes four-transistor (4T) pixel
and pinned photo-diode pixel architectures, which are expected to be available through TSMC for other semiconductor companies
to base their CMOS image sensors designs on. According to TSMC’s Ken Chen, Director of Mainstream Technology Marketing,
"As the leading foundry for CMOS image sensors (CIS), TSMC is committed to providing the most advanced CIS technology for
our customers. This agreement with Kodak will allow TSMC to continue our leadership position in CIS by supporting manufacture
of the most advanced, state-of-the-art CIS designs, and to provide a licensed manufacturing platform to all CIS design companies
to meet the growing industry demands for image sensors used in digital camera and mobile imaging applications."
TSMC indicates that the license agreement is part of Kodak’s
plan to use its intellectual property as a way to further revenue from the growing mass consumer market, which is using CMOS
image sensors on items such as cellular phones. According to Chris McNiffe, General Manager of Kodak's Image Sensor
Solutions business, "This agreement further expands Kodak's ability to meet the exploding demand for CIS devices used in consumer
imaging applications. Our agreement with TSMC augments our existing manufacturing agreements, and again demonstrates Kodak's
commitment to execute its digital strategy. We are excited to be working with TSMC to support the manufacture of CIS designs
that utilize Kodak's core IP."
ILS Technology, which provides a secure e-manufacturing software
package for networks of multi-billion dollar semiconductor wafer fabrication facilities, announced several enhancements to
its e-manufacturing software package as part of its scheduled appearance at Semicon West. According to Bill Ramus, Senior
Vice president of Commercial Management at ILS Technology, "We have added some significant new features to eCentre based on
extensive feedback from fab equipment manufacturers (OEMs) operating at several different IC manufacturers (ICMs). The gist
of the new features is increased efficiency in monitoring and updating OEM tools, with access to knowledge and data from the
OEM's home site directly into the fab, and vice-versa. This is all done with the leading security capability for which ILS
is known. Now, OEMs can have all the information they need at their tools on the fab floor, and each new feature can be toggled
on or off as required by the hosting ICM's security team."
The list of new features for ILS products focuses on the establishment
of a sophisticated network infrastructure that can be used to tie all of an IC manufacturers wafer fabrication facilities
together down to the equipment level. For example, a manufacturer with several wafer fabrication lines located in widely separated
geographic regions could examine the yields at each manufacturing step at each factory in retail time. From the control panel,
adjustments of equipment could be made to increase the yield levels for specific equipment for specific manufacturing procedures.
As process technologies shrink the need to know the effect of designers’
high-level architectural decisions on yield become more important. This has generated a demand for engineers to fully understand
not only architectural level design but advanced semiconductor process technology. Helping bridge the gap between RTL coding,
process technology and design for yield are Semizone Inc and IMEC. IMEC, which is currently developing sub-45 nanometer processes
for the next-generation of ICs with a number of the world’s leading IC companies through the NANOCMOS program, has joined
with Semizone, a provider of online learning content for the semiconductor industry, to provide a range of courses that extend
from high level system design, through chip level design, down to the nanometer world of IC process technology. The courses
are designed for mainstream chip designers, as well as process engineers and process technicians – enabling both fabless
and IDM (Integrated Device Manufacturers) companies to maximize understanding throughout their entire organization.
Noting the value of having IMEC as a partner was Mehrdad Moslehi,
Ph.D., Chairman and CEO, Semizone, Inc., "We can't think of a more compelling joint development partnership in Europe than
an alliance with a premiere nanoelectronics research institute such as IMEC. Our business focuses on providing the latest
industry-relevant knowledge and technological developments to the semiconductor industry workforce through a global online
learning delivery platform. IMEC is a well-respected, internationally recognized research center, which jointly with Semizone,
is now providing leading-edge educational and training content to the industry. Our alliance with IMEC should further enhance
Semizone's online learning programs and methodology in Europe."
Professor Gilbert Declerck, President and CEO, IMEC, indicated that
the Semizone’s programs would be an excellent way to inform the semiconductor world of his company’s leading edge
research and as an educational tool for IMEC’s own workforce, "We are pleased to partner with Semizone to provide industry-relevant
and up-to-date online learning programs for the microelectronics industry through Semizone's proven online learning business.
In recent years, IMEC has invested substantially in e-learning. This also provides a comprehensive source of knowledge to
the IMEC workforce, available for access on demand. Through our partnership with Semizone, we are now able to deliver leading-edge
knowledge and IMEC-produced innovations to the global semiconductor industry through Semizone's global distribution and delivery
system."
Semizone presently has hundreds of programs and modules and thousands
of learning modules. These are all accessible through the company’s web-based learning management system.
The announcement out of UC Berkeley of the construction of a nanofluidic
transistor offers further evidence that the analysis of cells and their associated DNA will become more systematic in the
future. As well it also portends the coming of bioelectronic systems, which could integrate living cells, DNA and silicon
electronic technology to work together to form hybrid thinking machines, also referred to as molecular processors.
The nanofluidic transistor constructed, also referred to as unipolar
ionic field-effect transistor, similar in name to a semiconductor MOSFET(metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor),
shut off potassium ion flow through water - analogous to a MOSFET shutting off electron flow. The tiny device structure consisted
of a 35 nanometer high channel between two silicon dioxide plates. However, unlike present day MOSFETs, which can shut off
current flow with a 1 volt potential, it took a voltage of 75 volts to close the channel to the passage of the potassium ions
– a voltage that would make it difficult to integrate a dense system-on-a-chip of integrated nanotubes to enable the
mass-scale separation of negative and positive ions.
The system eventually has the potential to act as a virtual
valve, fundamental to a larger integrated system, which would screen for specific diseases. The Berkeley team visualizes
a disease screening device that is based on a nanotube coated with antigens. When antibodies that are specific to a
specific disease flow through the antigen lined nanotube, the antigen and antibody would attract, resulting in the blocking
the flow of liquid through the tube and changing the electrical current – indicating the presence of a specific disease.
The work at Berkeley has been supported by the National Cancer Institute
as a way to devise a test that can detect the presence of prostrate cancer. However it is also seen as the first step towards
integration of silicon with floating molecules, enabling a decisively different way to perform mathematically intensive computations.
QinetiQ has reported that new European Union legislation related
to vibration in vehicles called the “'Control of vibration at work regulations 2005 is scheduled to become law. The
law seeks to minimize the effect of vehicle vibration on back injuries. Specifically pointed out by QinetiQ was that military
off-road vehicles would be effected as well as construction, mining and agricultural vehicles. According to QinetiQ's Centre
for Human Sciences MD, Neville Salkeld, "Up until now, UK daily exposure to WBV levels in vehicles has been subject to guidelines
only, but from 6 July new legislation will introduce daily 'action' and 'limit' values to vibration exposure. The Health &
Safety Executive will police the new law and ensure that employers undertake risk assessments and take measures to eliminate
or minimise employees' daily exposure."
QinetiQ also points out that the new regulations will also apply
to workers who use vibration intensive tools. These include the obvious, such as chainsaws and power hammers. According to
QinetiQ, the overuse of these tools can lend themselves to a number of painful and unusual medical conditions, not to mention
the possibility of increased insurance costs and disability payments.
Superconductor technology has been in the wings a long time as a
potential way to reduce energy consumption, improve the speed of electronic circuits and enhance the quality of telecommunications
systems. Early signs from superconductive companies, which have come in slowly but surely, indicate that the technology may
soon become a mainstream commercial reality.
Superconductor Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:SCON) ("STI"), recent preliminary
financials are another sign that superconductors may be closer to an acceptable price point with an acceptable return on investment.
For the second quarter of 2005, which ended July 2, STI has estimated revenue to be about $8.5 million, compared to $4.4 million
in the first quarter of 2005 and $6.3 million in the second quarter of 2004. Net commercial product revenues show a slightly
higher increase. For the second quarter of 2005, the company estimates $7.6 million, which is a 100 percent increase over
the first quarter of 2005, which came in at $3.8 million and a 65 percent increase over the $4.6 million of the second quarter
in 2004.
Jeff Quiram, STI’s CEO expects positive results in the upcoming
quarters and in 2006, "I am very encouraged by the significant sequential increase in revenue over the first quarter. STI
is continuing to gain market acceptance for our solutions, especially in the next generation network deployments. We have
strengthened our sales team to better position STI as an exceptional business partner. We are proud of our progress selling
additional solutions to our existing customers and diversifying our customer base. The cumulative effect of these measures
is expected to have a continuing positive impact on our business for the second half of 2005 and into 2006."
STI’s SuperLink product is a cryogenic receiver front-end
that is intended to lower operation costs and improve performance of telecommunications networks.
THE SEMICONDUCTOR EVENING NEWS
July
8th, 2005
Soon, one may just put a pair of eyeglass- like devices on when
the cell phone rings. One will then be all set to play a lively video game with a far away friend or have a serious video
teleconference with a business partner. With Kopin’s nanotechnology based microdisplays, Orange’s video service,
MicroOptical’s Kopin-enabled eyewear and Samsung’s cell phone one may have all that one needs to both work and
play in the modern world.
In this scenario, of the not to distant future, one will be delivered
movies, TV, photos, web sites or perhaps games through Orange SA mobile video service, then see the results with virtual big-screen
eyewear provided by MicroOptical Corporation. The infrastructure is just about there. The recent order from MicroOptical for
Kopin’s CyberDisplay 230 K microdisplays will provide the necessary hardware component to get the production lines moving.
Orange SA, a unit of French Telecom, which already has 52 million
customers in 16 countries, will bundle together the complete package. That package will include MicroOptical binocular video
eyewear and Samsung’s SGH-D600 cell phone as the “Orange World” wireless multimedia service. The complete
system has already been demonstrated at the European Research and Innovation Exhibition in Paris and will be available to
Orange’s customers in October of 2005.
Will the product be a hit? One plus is the dual eye display, consisting
of quarter-inch diagonals provides a 12 inch big screen virtual image. Another plus is that the eyewear itself only weighs
2.5 ounces. Finally, the device does accept composite video input (NTSC or PAL), so the eyewear can be plugged into devices
such as DVD players, and even perhaps screenless portable laptops.
Future applications may include special eyeglasses to adjust for
even the most severe vision problems. MicroOptical also has a strategic alliance with Essilor International, a company with
over 25,000 employees, for ophthalmic eyewear devices. Essilor manufactured over 180 million lenses in 2004.
EZchip Technologies Ltd. (a subsidiary of LanOptics Ltd., NASDAQ:LNOP),
a fabless semiconductor offering 10 Gbps network processors, has secured $10 million in Series C funding. LanOptics maintained
a majority interest in the company through an investment of $6.9 million.
Potentia Semiconductor, a provider of configurable ASSP power management
controller chips, has received $8 million in a funding round that included investments from VenGrowth Private Equity Partners
of Toronto, Kodiak Venture Partners and Teachers' Private Capital, which is affiliated with the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan
Board.
Potentia Semiconductor's President and CEO, Danny Osadca indicated
that the company’s product meets the new demand for designers to produce power systems with reduced design cycle times,
"Power system designers are challenged to deliver more advanced system level power management functionality under ever-increasing
board size constraints. Designers face these challenges in a world of shortened design times and lean design teams and that's
why Potentia is offering a new and more effective way of designing and implementing power management solutions."
FemOne, Inc. (OTC:FEMO) (BULLETIN BOARD: FEMO) closed financing
of $1.5 million through the issue of 8% Callable Secured Convertible Notes. Ray W. Grimm, Jr., the CEO of FemOne, Inc., a
company that produces cell phone radiation protection chips and offers a clip-on chip to improve automotive fuel economy,
indicated that the funds will be used for the expansion of the BIOPRO Technology division, the division responsible for those
products. "The raising of equity financing gives us additional capital to focus on the continued growth of our business and
the global expansion of our BIOPRO Technology Division. There is a strong global interest in our products and we are dedicated
to taking advantage of these international opportunities in a focused and efficient manner. This is a very exciting time for
our company,"
The BioPro Technology division offers BIOPRO Econo Fuel Chips
and the BIOPRO Cell Chip. The Econo Fuel Chips have been shown to offer a 15 percent savings in automobile fuel consumption
and decrease the overall pollution of automobiles. The BIOPRO Cell Chip has been shown to eliminate potential health hazards
of cell phones. The company illustrates via a CAT scan that the use of regular cell phones result in a rise of temperature
of the human brain. The company's BIOPRO Cell Chip helps eliminate that problem for cell phone users.
As the lead partner of a regional consortium, the University of
Washington was awarded a $15.4 million grant to develop an advanced, portable medical diagnostic system that can be used to
quickly diagnose diseases anywhere a health worker can walk to. From the list of companies involved in the project, which
includes Nanogen, the silicon microarray company, Micronics, the lab-on-a-card company, and PATH, a non-profit health strategy
company, the road points to a device that combines the latest miniaturized microfluidic analysis and sampling technology with
the latest genetic clinical analysis technology.
Commenting on the group was Paul Yager, lead investigator on
the project and Vice Chair and Professor at the University of Washington’s Department of Bioengineering, "This is a
formidable group. Each partner brings vital skills and experience to the mix. I believe this combination is what led to our
being selected from such a wide range of applicants and it's what will make our efforts successful.”
The award is one of 43 research projects that have been funded through
the $436 million Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative. The initiative is specifically focused to improve health care
and provide treatment for the diseases of the poor, the majority of diseases. That market is considered under served because
of market dynamics and differences in cost of living in different geographic areas.
The target size for the final working system is expected to fit
in a pocket, or about the size of a handheld computer.
NeoPhotonics, which recently merged with Photon Technology Co.,
Ltd. has received an investment of $1 million from Harris & Harris Group, a company known for investments in micromachine
technology. Photon Technology is a vertically integrated manufacturer of optical components for use in the passive optical
network (PON) market. The company fabricates its laser diode and pin photodetector chips and then packages the chips into
components, such as transceivers and transceiver modules. The company integrates active and passive elements to produce what
it terms are "Optical Systems on a Chip".
With the merger between NeoPhotonics and Photon Technology, the
new company retains the name of NeoPhotonics Corp. The new NeoPhontonics has 1,200 employees and it sales are expected to
exceed $50 million in 2005.
Three more companies have agreed to join Power.org, an organization
dedicated to the electronic systems power reduction. These companies are involved in the semiconductor market and include
Denali Software, Inc., an Intellectual Property (IP) core and EDA company, HCL Technologies, also offering semiconductor IP
cores as well as general engineering services, and Xilinx, Inc., considered the market leader in the FPGA chip market. On
announcement of the agreement,
Mark Aaldering, Vice President of the IP and Embedded Processing
Divisions, Xilinx noted that the focal point of the organization centered around the PowerPC, a microprocessor architecture,
"The momentum and promotional benefits of the Power.org collaboration are important factors in advancing the adoption of PowerPCtechnology
as a standard in the industry. We see our participation as a means to continue expanding our PowerPC embedded solution."
THE SEMICONDUCTOR EVENING NEWS
July
7th, 2005
Enablis Entrepreneurial Network, a global Non-Profit Organization,
has reported that two of its affiliate organizations, Accenture Ltd. and Telesystem Ltd., will provide $5 Million (Canadian)
of contributed services over the next five years to further develop the technology infrastructure of Sub-Saharan Africa. One
of the main goals of Enablis, which was founded in 2002 by Accenture, Hewlett-Packard, Telesystem and the Canada Fund for
Africa, is to further advance the skills and finance early stage entrepreneurs in Africa with limited income sources,
but have technology know-how through the use of mentors and those that have experience in the building of technology
companies.
Enablis plans through its Global Development Trust I strategy to
raise $200 million (Canadian) from government, industry and socially oriented services to further expand Africa’s network
of entrepreneurs. Besides services and equipment provided in the past by Accenture, Hewlett-Packard and Telesystem, the fund
received initial donations of $10 million from the Canada Fund for Africa, and $15 million from a wide variety of donors and
investors, which in South Africa included Khula Enterprise Finance, First National Band and KPMG.
The organization reports that 50 member entrepreneurs have seen
their operations expand as a result of the program.
Magma Design Automation Inc. (NASDAQ:LAVA), one of the emerging
new leaders in the EDA industry, has entered into a long term agreement with IBM to license that company’s physical
synthesis and routing software. The software, which was developed by IBM and the Research Institute of Discrete Mathematics
at the University of Bonn, is expected to be the basis for new Magma design tools that are based on analytical formulated
routing instead of heuristic based algorithms. The end result is expected to be reduced via counts and increased chip yields.
The agreement, which expands on IBM’s and Magma’s existing
2004 EDA patent license agreement, will also attempt to further advance the development of lithography-aware routing. Kevin Carswell, Vice President of Product Technology Development in IBM's Systems
and Technology Group, indicated that the agreement would build on the innovative technology foundation that the University
of Bonn has laid down, "IBM sees this licensing agreement as an outstanding opportunity to expand the IBM relationship with
Magma and more broadly leverage the innovative work of the University of Bonn. We look forward to working with Magma to enable
the ongoing development of these advanced tools."
The University of Bonn is credited with the developing a significant
portion of IBM’s physical synthesis and routing technology. The relationship between IBM and the university is expected
to be expanded on with the Magma agreement. According to Professor Bernhard Korte of the University of Bonn's Research Institute
for Discrete Mathematics, "It has been great working with IBM and we look forward to continuing our application of discrete
mathematics with Magma and IBM."
Dialog Semiconductor Plc (NASDAQ:DLGS) reports that one of O2’s
approved handsets, incorporates its cellular music machine chip technology. The chip combines audio and power management functions,
and works in conjunction with Intel’s cellular processor. The two chips working together enable the phone with music
and video features and are fundamental to the over four hours of talk time the phone offers. According to Roland Pudelko,
CEO of Dialog Semiconductor, "The new phone features the ability to download music direct to a music player, run several different
applications at the same time, provide video and audio playback, and provide up to 200 hours standby and four hours talk time.
This is exactly the kind of consumer device that our technology addresses. The DA9011 is helping to manage this significant
demand on the battery using our specialist mixed signal design expertise, and it utilizes our advanced knowledge of integrating
in the same device high performance audio DACs for CD-quality music and audio playback."
Dialog’s chip, developed with Intel Corp. to work with Intel’s
PXA800F cellular processor, is called the DA9011 GSM/GPRS audio and power controller. The DA9011 is based on Dialog’s
Smart Mirror Technology, which minimizes quiescent current and optimizes power supply rejection (PSRR).
ARC International (LSE:ARK), a provider of microprocessor and digital
signal processing cores, has valued a recent license agreement with an undisclosed smart card customer at 900,000 British
Pounds. Derek Meyer, ARC International’s Vice President of Marketing, implied that the agreement was for a security
application, "In applications where data protection is of the utmost importance, our configurable technology offers licensees
the ability to create highly differentiated solutions. This new agreement underscores the growing adoption of ARC's solutions
for high-growth markets, and we are pleased that another industry leader has joined the list of more than one hundred ARC
licensees."
Besides inside music machines, another place were IC companies want
their products to be is inside headphones that music machines are attached to. CSR (LSE: CSR.L) has furthered itself in the
achievement of that goal with the announcement that its BlueCore silicon is now inside iPod compatible headphones from three
companies. Airlogic, iTech and WiGear have incorporated CSR Bluetooth technology into their Bluetooth stereo headphones and
plug-in adaptors. CSR also indicated that three of its existing customers, all tier-one cellular original equipment
manufacturers (OEMs), have also incorporated its BlueCore into their cellular headsets.
CSR notes that its headphone solution consumes only 95mW of power,
a figure it says is ideal for battery operated devices - and only half as much power as other competing solutions.
Beatnik, Inc., noted for its design win with Texas Instruments,
plans to further its efforts to address the needs of the semiconductor market. In that regard, the Beatnik Audio Engine
for will be central to attracting more wireless chipset companies. The chip-compatible embedded software from Beatnik
supports a number of advanced audio, multimedia messaging and other needed musical cell phone functions.
The technology is also said to lower the bill of materials cost
for the production of cell phones. Jeremy Copp, Chief Sales Officer at Beatnik highlighted the integration of its technology
into TI’s wireless chips in emphasizing the merits of Beatnik’s cost savings approach, "The technical, economic
and commercial benefits to handset manufacturers in using our audio technology as a proven component of a chipset reference
design are clear and well defined. Establishing the embedded trend with Texas Instruments has shown us that manufacturers
stand to gain from significant improvement in time to market as well as cost savings in the production of devices with the
now mandatory in-built audio capabilities, without having to compromise on quality. Instead of having to go to a variety of
different suppliers, they need only go to a single source for the best technology, integrated into a specially designed product."
Texas Instruments is considered one of the largest suppliers of
wireless chipsets in the world.
THE SEMICONDUCTOR EVENING NEWS
July
6th, 2005
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the United State’s oldest
technological university, has appointed Northern Trust as custodian for $1 billion in endowment, pension and other assets.
Wale Adeosun, Treasurer and Chief Investment Officer at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute had this to say about the selection,
"Northern Trust is a recognized leader in the asset services business. As the Institute expands, guided by The Rensselaer
Plan, the complexity of our investments grows. We look forward to working with Northern Trust's suite of on-line tools and
leveraging their experience with major endowments and complex portfolios."
Rensselaer is noted for its research in the areas of biotechnology,
nanotechnology, and information technology.
Vortis Technologies Ltd. indicated that as a result of an investment
incentive that allows the company to develop a stronger long-term equity position, it has refocused its operations away from
the Silicon Valley and into Scotland. According to James R. Johnson, co-founder of Vortis Technologies Inc, , a wireless antenna
technology company, "We are extremely excited to partner with Scottish Enterprise and to participate in the Global Entrepreneurs
Programme. The Silicon Valley financing model did not meet our needs. We have a strong intellectual property and technology
which will allow us to raise most of our capital from immediate sales and strategic customers. Traditional U.S. venture capital
financing would have diluted our company by forcing us to raise more money than we need. Instead, we were able to find U.K.
financiers who were willing to make a limited initial investment and create a stronger equity position for us long-term."
The agreement, which brought in $500,000 in financing, has resulted
in the formation of Scotland-based Vortis Technologies Limited, which is now the parent company to Myers Johnson
Inc. based in San Francisco. The seed round was led by Scottish Enterprise. Others that participated included the Bank of
Scotland and unnamed individual investors.
The Global Entrepreneurs Programme (GEP) is a new initiative
by the United Kingdom’s Trade & Investment. Andy McNab of the High-Growth Unit at Scottish Enterprise offered more
details about the Vortis deal, "This is a fantastic example of where the High-Growth Unit at Scottish Enterprise can add value
to a business and have an impact on the Scottish economy through our relationships with the Bank of Scotland and U.K. Trade
& Investment, in particular the Global Entrepreneurs Programme. The Vortis deal demonstrates the quality of deal flow
these organizations are able to provide. Scotland is well positioned for seed funding, has a fantastic talent base and great
facilities. We are delighted that Jim is relocating his business here and are proud of the role we have played in securing
him financial support, helping him with the IP transfer and recruiting an acting Chief Operating Officer for the company."
The Vortis MicroInterferometric Array Antenna is an attachable cell
phone antenna that is used to improve the signal strength and increase battery talk time of cellular phones. Of particular
interest to those with hearing aids, is that the antenna is designed to reduce cellular phone interference and signal loss,
which hearing aids are a source of.
As most semiconductor companies outsource wafer fabrication work
or move off-shore to save costs, On Semiconductor (NASDAQ: ONNN), has done the opposite. The company has said that it will
transfer its wafer fabrication facility in Seremban Malaysia to its Phoenix Arizona facility in an effort that is expected
to save $25 million to $30 million over the next five years. The closing of the fab is expected to eliminate 80 jobs. The
Phoenix wafer fab has 60,000 square feet of manufacturing space and is said to be able to increase its output without a significant
increase in employees or cost.
The company plans for new to keep its 281,000 square foot assembly
and test facility at Site 1 in Seremban, one of On’s largest manufacturing sites. However the company did indicate that
it is looking at integrating its other facilities into the Phoenix unit, which is the company’s center for its Lean
Six Sigma methodologies and also considered one of On’s most efficient manufacturing operations.
With news from Japan, that Sanyo has reclaimed valuable Calcium
Fluoride from semiconductor wafer processing waste water, it may be a time for semiconductor companies to start looking around
for profitable ways to clean up water adversely affected by semiconductor operations. It may be that those parts per millions
going down the drain could actually be dollars per million instead of potential environmental law suits.
Netcell Corporation, a fabless semiconductor company that places
disk arrays into the mainstream storage markets with its Storage Processor Unit (SPU) solution for accelerator cards, has
aligned with Diskeeper Corporation to protect data against disk drive failure and accidental deletion of critical data files.
According to Bobby Johnson, Vice President of Strategic Alliances for Diskeeper, "Netcell's Instant Drive Protection technology
can avert the catastrophe of a drive failure, but it cannot recover files that were manually deleted. By putting a version
of Diskeeper 9 and Undelete 5 in the Revolution Storage Kit bundle, we provide Netcell with advanced file recovery software
and a defragmentation engine that can actually increase array performance."
As part of the agreement, Diskeeper 9 and Undelete 5 will be included
in the Netcell Revolution Storage Software Kit (RSSK) – a complete kit for the development of accelerator cards for
parallel ATA and SATA storage architectures based on Netcell’s SPU chip.
Diskeeper is considered one of the leaders in the disk defragmentation
with over 16 million licenses sold. Netcell addresses the needs of next-generation of multiple disk drive based desktop, workstation
and media servers, with a focus on bandwidth intense entertainment PCs and graphics workstations.
ChipX has announced the CX6000 family of structured ASICs. Based
on a eight metal 0.13 micron technology, the family has been designed to expedite the development of USB based systems. In
order to accomplish that, the ASICs are available with a complete connected USB IP subsystem. According to Elie Massabki,
Vice President of Marketing at ChipX, "Normally, designers seeking to build USB capability into an ASIC must purchase a PHY,
a controller, and a processor, integrate them into their design, develop the software, then run the entire solution through
compliance testing. This process is arduous, time-consuming and full of risk, since the various IP blocks may not communicate
well. By providing our customers with a complete, compliance-capable solution, we can reduce their chip integration effort,
shorten their development cycle and maximize their chance of design success."
The CX6200 structured ASICs are available in versions from 140,000
to 1.8 million gates, with up to 1.2 Mbits of embedded SRAM. For synchronization solutions, the ASICs have four configurable,
low-jitter PLLs (Phase Locked Loops) that can be adjusted to have an output frequency from 10 MHz to 1 GHz. Pricing is under
$5.00 in unit volumes with production expected to commence in the fourth quarter of 2005.
The Semiconductor Evening News
July
5th, 2005
STMicroelectronics (NYSE:STM) has entered into an agreement with
McubeWorks, Inc. to license the company’s H.264 mobile decoder software for use in its Nomadik mobile multimedia application
processors. The combination of the processor and software is planned to enable cellular phones with a range of new applications
such as video-on- demand, digital multimedia broadcasting and video media. According to Patrice Meilland, Director of Marketing
for Application Processor and Portable Platforms Division at STMicroelectronics, "McubeWorks was one of the first mobile H.264
video decoders on the market and remains among the best. With video capability fast becoming the new feature of choice for
cell phones, ST's broad technology portfolio now gives product designers the best possible hardware and software combination
to rapidly move into the mobile video, camcorder, and videoconferencing markets."
Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. (TSE: 6703) announced plans to increase
its semiconductor sales three fold in the fiscal year ending March 2008. As part of that plan the company announced the opening
of Oki Semiconductor Singapore’s branch office in Bangalore, Karnataka, India.
The company reports that
sales of its LSIs for network equipment, LCD driver LSIs, in-vehicle LSIs and mobile phone tone ringer LSIs have grown rapidly
in India.
Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ:BRCM) has reported that it has shipped
over 50 million Wi-Fi chipsets, of which the majority have been the high-end 54g variety. The company also reported that over
200 million Wi-Fi products have been sold throughout the world.
According to Robert A. Rango, Senior Vice President & General
Manager of Broadcom's Mobile & Wireless Group, "Since Broadcom introduced 54g Wi-Fi chipsets in November 2002, the technology
has sold more than any other Wi-Fi solution on the market. We continue to drive the industry with innovations that enable
our partners to maintain their market leadership positions and address the emerging needs of home and business users. Our
SecureEasySetup software is a current example of Broadcom technology that will foster continued growth of Wi-Fi devices."
Current Broadcom Wi-Fi partners include Acer, Apple, Asus, Belkin,
Buffalo, Dell, Gateway/eMachines, Fujitsu-Siemens, HP, Linksys, Netgear and US Robotics.
AMD Japan has filed two claims against Intel K.K. apparently in
response to findings of the Japan Fair Trade Commission on March 8, 2005. The law suit, filed in the Tokyo High Court, seeks
estimated compensation in the order of $50 million.
AMD indicated that the findings of the Japan Fair Trade Commission concluded that Intel K.K. provided large amounts
of funds to five Japanese PC manufacturers so that they would not purchase AMD processors. As a result, AMD indicated that
it lost all of its sales to Toshiba, Sony and Hitachi, and sales to NEC and Fujitsu dropped significantly.
Passave, an Ethernet Passive Optical Network (EPON) chipset provider
and Tellion, a network systems company reported that Tellion’s EP 3120 OLT (optical line terminal) and EP 3204 residential-gateway
ONU (optical networking unit) passed benchmark testing by Korea Telecom (KT). Both the OLT and ONU are based on Passave’s
gigabit EPON chips. Tellion's EP 3204 4-port residential gateway ONU incorporates Passave’ PAS6201, an ONU/gateway device,
designed to make Fiber to the Home (FTTH) competitive in price with DSL. According to Kim Jae Guen, CEO at Tellion, "Our four-port
residential gateway offers carriers the advanced capabilities of the world's most highly integrated ONU chip, the Passave
PAS6201, along with demonstrated leading broadband performance -- while offering an unprecedented reduction in the bill of
materials with respect to the cost of other ONU solutions." The EP 3120 incorporates Passave’s PAS5001, a FTTH central-office
EPON device.
Commenting on the Passave’s recent record shipments in
Japan and Korea's market potential was Ariel Maislos, President of Passave, "At Passave we have a vision of gigabit FTTH transforming
communications throughout the world, as is currently happening in the Japan. Having shipped more than a million ONU devices
to Japan, we are pleased to see our third-generation ONU system-on-chip (SoC) qualify for deployment in Korea. The Korean
market has shown rapid adoption of broadband, and is likely to become a role model for acceptance and adoption of FTTH as
well."
Vativ Technologies, Inc. has added a 10Gbps stacking link IC to
its V10LAN product family. Called the VTV1115 chip, the transceiver permits the implementation of 10Gbps ring or mesh architecture
stacking links with CAT 5e cable with a standard RJ45 connector – considered to be much less expensive than existing
connectors and cables presently in use. Noting the potential to reduce costs was Sreen Raghavan, Vativ Technologies' CEO,
"This latest addition to our V10LAN family will further help drive down the cost of 10-Gigabit Ethernet in the data center.
It expands our leadership position in 10-Gigabit Ethernet UTP transceivers."
The chip, manufactured in 0.13 CMOS technology, is expected to lower
the cost for interconnecting stackable equipment. Pricing for the VTV1115 transceiver was given at $75 in quantities of 10,000.
Volume production has been scheduled for the fourth quarter, samples are available now.
The Semiconductor Evening News
July
1st, 2005
StreamShield Networks has selected Seaway Networks’ SW5000
Network Content Processor chip as the basis for its Content Security Gateway (CSG). In the gateway application, The SW5000
performs 5 Gbps TCP processing and packet-to-stream conversion, enabling the CSG to check for and ward off multiple security
threats in real-time. CSG, which permits the user to program in specific security features, can be programmed to scan and
block data streams for viruses, worms, phishing scams, malware, spam and other selectable content, all under user control.
StreamShield has the power to monitor over 250,000 web page requests per second and with the help of the SW5000 manage up
to 2 million simultaneous TCP connections.
The CTO for StreamShield Networks, Jon Curnyn, pointed out the
hard to find features found in Seaway’s processor, "Seaway's SW5000 Network Content Processor has enabled us to fulfill
our vision of building a new breed of content security product that stops Internet threats - even today's increasingly common
blended threats - before they can cause damage to the end user's computer or the enterprise network. It is the only processing
solution we found with the features that were critical to delivering our Content Security Gateway in its current form."
Blue7 Communications, founded in 2002, has demonstrated its all
CMOS UWB Windeo chipset. The demonstration provided for uninterrupted wireless MPEG Video Streaming at 106.7 Mbps over a distance
of 20 meters. In order to demonstrate the capability to transmit through common obstacles found in the home, the transmitter
and receiver were separated by two walls and a group of people. Applications for the company’s chip set includes DVD
players, Digital Cameras, HDTVs, PDAs and Set Top boxes.
SigmaTel Inc. (NASDAQ:SGTL), a primary provider of integrated circuits
for music players, forecasts that its revenue for the quarter ended June 30, 2005 would be in the range of $68 million to
$72 million – approximately 86 percent to 97 percent above the second quarter of 2004 and down 28 percent to 32 percent
sequentially from its first quarter in 2005.
In explaining the lowered guidance, the company noted the 30 percent
drop in pricing for NAND flash chips. According to Ron Edgerton, CEO at SigmaTel, "While we anticipated a reduction in revenues
from the first quarter, as previously guided, the pricing disruptions in the NAND flash market have had an unexpected impact
on our second quarter revenues. However, lower NAND flash pricing bodes well for market growth in the second half of 2005,
with the expectation that 1 GB flash players will retail for less than $100. SigmaTel continues to execute on its long-term
business strategy through market-leading products that have resulted in strong gross margins of greater than 55%. In an ongoing
effort to maintain our market-leading position, in the third quarter we expect to sample an FM tuner product which is uniquely
designed to offer the most cost-effective solution for the portable digital audio market. We expect to gain design wins in
the second half of 2005 that would positively impact our market position and revenues in 2006."
The company indicated that over the last three to four weeks
that NAND flash prices have dropped over 30% and projected that prices are expected to drop another 40 percent over the
next several months, which the company says impacted order patterns of customers.
Despite a 30 percent drop in memory prices from Micron’s second
quarter to its third, Micron Technology has reported year-over-year gains in its latest report. For the nine months ended
June 3, 2005, revenues were $3,622.4 million compared to $3,215.0 million over the nine months ended June 3, 2004. However,
for Micron’s third quarter ended June 2, 2005 it reported a significant sequential drop in revenue to $1,054.2 million
compared to $1,307.9 million for its second quarter ended March 3, 2005. For Micron’s third quarter ended June 3, 2004,
revenues were $1,116.8 million.
Micron indicated in its report that demand for memory for PC applications
was one of the primary reasons for the drop in revenue. However, the company also indicated that significant revenue gains
were seen in image sensors and specialty DRAMs, such as pseudo-static RAMs (PSRAMS). The company said that in the third quarter
DDR and DDR2 DRAMs represented about 60 percent of total sales.
Acacia Research Corporation (Nasdaq:ACTG) (NASDAQ:CBMX) reported
that it has received commitments from a select group of institutional investors to purchase $2.9 million of its Acacia Research-CombiMatrix
common stock. Dr. Amit Kumar, President and CEO of CombiMatrix, with the announcement, suggested that the funding would be
used for the company’s entry into the molecular diagnostic market and the further development of its CustomArray products.
"This financing further strengthens our balance sheet and provides additional capital to fund our entry into the molecular
diagnostics market, which began with our recent formation of CombiMatrix Molecular Diagnostics. The financing will also support
our long-term strategy of adding new innovative products for the research and development markets with our CustomArray(TM)
product line."
Cypress Semiconductor (NYSE:CY) reported that its WirelessUSB radio-system-on-a-chip
has been incorporated into Gyration Incorporated’s new wireless mouse and keyboard. The chip, combined with Gyration’s
on-board motion-sensing gyroscope, the MG1101 MicroGryo, permits the user to surf the web from a distance. Particularly useful
for those with large PC screens or projector screens, one can point and click or use one of 15 Internet/multimedia hot keys
to program which web site to view or where to place that soccer player.
According to Tom Quinn, Senior VP and General Manager of Gyration.
"Gyration products provide effortless remote cursor control that allows users to roam freely around the office or home. With
the powerful range of WirelessUSB, users can just sit back on the couch and surf the Internet or watch their favorite DVD.
WirelessUSB provides unparalleled interference immunity to assure uninterrupted performance in the presence of other 2.4-GHz
systems such as Bluetooth or cordless phones."
Cypress Semiconductor with the announcement, said that its
WirelessUSB radio-system-on-a-chip has had 88 design wins to date.
The Semiconductor Evening News
June
30th, 2005
Xceive Corporation, a company that offers multi-standard RF-to-baseband
transceiver chips for deployment in televisions, mobile phones, set top boxes and personal computers, has closed its Series
C funding round. Investors in the $13.5 million round included lead investor Sequoia Capital as well as Alliance Ventures,
BA Venture Partners and Ignite Group. The funds are planned for increased R&D, expanded production and to add staff at
strategically picked locations.
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has reported on the development
of nanobrushes. The new nanobrushes, according to the institute have applications in electronic, biomedical and environmental
areas. Primarily, the main application, as to date, would be to replace and significantly enhance existing cleaning technologies,
such as large brushes used to clean away foreign materials that result in short circuits on circuit boards.
The brushes, based on carbon nanotubes, have already been tested
for such applications as cleaning microscopic surfaces, as very tiny electrical contacts, for the removal of nanoparticles
in microscopic grooves, the internal coating of a 300 micrometer capillary tube, and as electromechanical switches in micromotors.
The carbon nanotube bristles, which conduct electricity, were grown onto brush handles made from silicon carbide fibers. The
technique used permitted the researchers to control the location where bristles were desired.
Pulickel Ajayan, the Henry Burlage Professor of Materials Science
and Engineering at Rensselaer also discussed medical and environmental applications. Such applications include the cleaning
of deposits in arteries, and the cleaning of metallic contaminated water. He indicated that toxic silver ions in a water based
solution were absorbed by the nanobrush. Also noted was the nanobrushes pliability, light weight and heat resistance, which
would enable them to replace a number of other current large scale brush applications.
Rensselaer's National Science Foundation -Nanoscale Science and
Engineering Center for Directed Assembly of Nanostructures, and the Interconnect Focus Center (IFC) funded the research.
STMicroelectronics’ and Acacia’s Microlaboratory Agreement Signals Chip Industry
's Advance Into the Forefront of Medical Technology
STMicroelectronics, which first introduced its genetic Polymerase
Chain Reaction (PCR) MEMS-based silicon chip in 2002, has furthered its involvement with the biotechnology market
through a co-development agreement with CombiMatrix Group, a unit of Acacia Research Corporation (NASDAQ: CBMX) (NASDAQ:ACTG).
The agreement, which will received financial support from STMicroelectronics, will seek to integrate CombiMatrix’s ElectroChemical
Detection Technology (ECD), with STMicroelectronics In-Check Lab-on-Chip platform for applications in the point-of-care diagnostics
market.
One of the goals of the project is to develop a feature rich and
more sensitive technology than current fluorescent/optical detection technology.
SMSC (NASDAQ: SMSC), as a result of increased sales and its acquisition
of OASIS SiliconSystems Holding AG, reported a 30 percent revenue increase for its first quarter ended May 31, 2005 over the
same quarter last year. Revenues increased to $68.8 million from $53.1 million. The company attributed an 18 percent increase
due to acquisition of OASIS and 12 percent from SMSC’s product lines.
Steven J. Bilodeau, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer gave a
more detailed analysis of the financial results, "Revenues for the first quarter were robust, driven by the addition of revenues
from OASIS and strong sales of our mobile PC, EMC and USB connectivity products. We realized higher profitability than anticipated
due to product mix coupled with lower operating expenses than previously projected. As sales increased, we also benefited
from positive leverage in our operating expenses, which improved operating profit margins by nearly 4% of sales." He also
noted OASIS place in the company, “This was also the first quarter of sales contribution from our recent OASIS acquisition,
which is now our new Automotive Infotainment Systems group, and we are pleased with the progress of the integration of this
business into SMSC."
SMSC also gave guidance on a pro forma basis for the second quarter.
The company estimated that revenues would be in the range of $73 million to $77 million, an increase of about 50 percent year-over-year.
Denali Software and Taracom Integrated Products announced the availability
of an integrated property solution for Serial ATA (SATA) applications. The solution includes Denali’s Databahn SATA
controller core and TaraCom’s TRC3002 SATA physical layer (PHY) core. For system performance verification, the solution
also includes Denali’s PureSpec verification IP.
Emphasizing that the new solution enables designers of disk drive
systems to meet time-to-market constraints was David Lin, Vice President at Denali "Design teams are increasingly looking
for best-in-class IP solutions for deploying complex interface standards such as SATA. By working with TaraCom, we will be
providing the additional value of a highly integrated solution that spans all the way from the PHY to the system interface,
including system-level verification. This is exactly what customers need to achieve a high-quality design under tremendous
time-to-market pressures."
Serial ATA has emerged as a replacement to parallel ATA hard
disk drive controllers. SATA controllers presently feature 1.5 Gbps transfer rates, with 3.0 Gbps expected to be arrive as
the next generation comes on the market. Another characteristic of SATA hard drive connectors, according to Denali, is that
they have smaller hard drive connector.
MOSAID Technologies Incorporated (TSX:MSD), a company with
operations in memory cores for the design of integrated circuits and memory test equipment, reported that revenues for its
fourth quarter ended April 30, 2005 were $16.5 million compared to $8.8 million for the same quarter a year ago. For its entire
fiscal year, MOSAID reported revenue of $49.7 million compared to $28.4 million for its previous fiscal year.
George Cwynar, President and Chief Executive Officer of MOSAID attributed
the revenue increase to patent license agreements related to its memory IP cores, "Fiscal year 2005 was a pivotal year for
MOSAID. As a result of signing patent licenses with Samsung and Hynix we have recorded our highest annual revenues in three
years, and we expect to have a growing and highly profitable IP business for the foreseeable future. With this change in our
financial position we are investing again to grow MOSAID's businesses, through both internal development and acquisition."
MOSAID also announced that it will begin dividend payments to its stockholders. The company indicated that its cash balance
and short-term marketable securities at the end of fiscal 2005 were $65.9 million.
MOSAID also projected that for its first quarter of fiscal year
2006, revenues would be in the range of $14.3 million to $14.7 million. For the year, the company has forecast that revenues
would be between $58 million and $62 million. Of the total 2006 revenue, the company anticipates that about 80 percent would
be from its Intellectual Property Division.
The Semiconductor Evening News
June
29th, 2005
Applied DNA Sciences, Inc. (OTC:APDN) (BULLETIN BOARD: APDN) and
Advanced Coding Systems Ltd. (ACS) have entered into an agreement to develop products based on ADPN’s DNA based counterfeit
protection technology and ACS’s magnetic signature microwire technology. The combination of the two technologies
is expected to result in low-cost counterfeit protection schemes and to find use in many RFID technologies. According
to Peter Brocklesby, President of Applied DNA, "We believe the combination of DNA security with its forensic authentication
capability and Amorphous Glass-Coated MicroWires, with their ability to transparently verify, track and trace products, will
represent a breakthrough in security technology. DNA-DMID Technology will allow Customs inspectors and brand security officers
to interrogate a product directly through containers, or on-shelf. The ability to validate the authenticity of products without
the need to open boxes, cartons and shipping containers speeds up the authentication process and allows the inspection of
a greater volume of materials. As a result, policing against counterfeiting becomes more efficient."
Yoav Dvir, Chief Executive Officer of ACS, emphasized the low-cost
of the resultant technology, "We are pleased to work with Applied DNA Sciences to incorporate the advantages of DNA into our
sophisticated Amorphous MicroWire products. DNA-DMID will provide an instant, low cost security technology for the global
anti-counterfeit and brand protection market. Our existing product lines AuthtiFiber authentication and DataFiber
track and trace products will now be enhanced by the forensic qualities provided by Applied DNA Sciences."
ACS’s microwires are in the order of 4 to 10 microns in diameter
and can be uniquely identified by the magnetic signature that is associated with the property of the microwire material. Microwires
can be embedded into most consumer goods, which include tags, paper and textiles. Applied DNA’s technology uses the
actual DNA of plants to uniquely identify an item. With Applied DNA's technology, the unique DNA signature of plants
can be embedded into solid and liquid-like materials. The company notes that the identifying DNA can be embedded into microchips,
paper and even ink, glue or paint.
ViASIC Inc. has reported that twelve chips have been taped out with
its ViaMask design software. ViASIC provides chip design software for structured ASIC designs, a one-mask type of
ASIC, which offers an alternative to the high NRE and mask costs associated with standard cell implementations without the
high performance penalties of FPGAs and gate arrays. The company indicates that ViaMask can help reduce the costs of chips
mask, a major cost of chip development, in the order of 30 fold and NRE costs by 90 percent. Structured ASICs also offer significant
savings in design time reduction and hence engineering costs.
According to TeraRecon, "TeraRecon was looking for technology to
streamline the hand-off of our designs to our silicon provider. After evaluating Silicon Dimensions' Chip2Nite platform, we
determined that it would not only streamline the hand-off, but also reduce costly iteration between ourselves and our silicon
provider. With Chip2Nite integrated into our design flow, we can save valuable time in our design schedule by detecting design
issues early and prevent the iterations with our vendor that would be caused by them."
TeraRecon's offers a line of 3D imaging ASICs and processors, which it also uses in its complete
line of 2D, 3D, and 4D medical imaging systems. These systems include ultrasonic imagers, X-Ray CT Systems, multi-gamma
cameras and image processing and visualization workstations and servers.
Innovative Silicon Inc. (ISi), a company that has developed a memory
cell technology that has the potential to greatly reduce the silicon area memory requirements for SoC designs, has secured
$16 million in Series B funding. Austin Ventures led the round, which also included investments from Highland Capital
Partners, Index Ventures and Auriga Partners.
ISi's technology, called Z-RAM for Zero Capacitor DRAM, is
based on the emerging Silicon on Insulator (SOI) process technology and according to the company can increase embedded SRAM
density in the order of five fold and double the density of embedded DRAM.
Z-RAM technology has received positive feedback from designers according
to Basil Horangic, General Partner at Austin Ventures, "The feedback we received on Z-RAM from SOC and microprocessor
designers and manufacturers was outstanding. Z-RAM is revolutionary in that it really turns what was a minor bug of SOI into
a major feature and achieves for the first time a true scalable single device memory. Embedded memory is now so important
to advanced designs that we expect the Z-RAM innovation to have a major effect on semiconductor economics and performance."
The minor bug Mr. Horangic refers to is the floating body effect
associated with the SOI process. The floating body effects permits the novel one transistor, capacitor-less cell structure
of the design. It should be noted that IBM and Advanced Micro Devices have already adopted the SOI process for their newer
microprocessors. One of the reasons for SOI’s popularity is that chip designs based on SOI have lower power
consumption ratings - a primary consideration for chips targeted at the laptop computer design. The laptop market has
emerged as the primary growth engine of the overall PC market.
Will Sutherland has been appointed Vice President of Engineering
at Artificial Muscle Inc., an applied materials company. There he will lead the company’s effort to develop actuator
technology based on the company’s electroactive polymer artificial muscle (EPAM) technology. That technology,
so named because of its history and the fact that it operates like a muscle, converting electrical field energy into mechanical
motion. The company indicates that devices based on the technology offer lighter weight and more efficient alternatives
to actuators, generators, small motors and speakers presently available on the market. The electrode based polymer technology
is said to have an energy and power density several times higher than that used presently to produce today's actuators. The
company plans to address a $4 billion market with the technology. EPAM’s target markets include the automotive,
aerospace, consumer, industrial and medical markets.
Suggesting the technology knowledge requirements for EPAM technology
were similar to semiconductors was Alex Beavers, CEO of AMI, "Will is an outstanding addition to the growing AMI management
team. With his extensive background in chemical and semiconductor processes, he is well equipped to lead both product and
process development at AMI as we move toward high volume manufacturing."
AMI was founded as a spin-off of SRI International, a long standing
research organization located in the San Francisco Bay Area.
OmniVision Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq:OVTI), considered one of the
largest providers of CMOS image sensors for the cellular digital camera market, reported increased revenues for its latest
fourth quarter and fiscal year. For its fiscal fourth quarter ended April 30, 2005, it reported revenues of $103.0 million
compared to $99.7 million for the same quarter a year ago. For its fiscal year ended April 30, 2005, it reported revenue of
$388.1 million compared to $318.1 million compared to the year ended April 30, 2004, a 22 percent increase.
Commenting on the financial report and events of the year was Shaw
Hong, OmniVision's President and CEO, "The company made significant progress in fiscal 2005, and we are optimistic about our
future. We are pleased to have successfully completed the transition of our product line to the new OmniPixel technology platform
and to have completed the acquisition of CDM Optics. We are also pleased to have been informed by the SEC staff that their
informal inquiry has been terminated without any recommendation for any enforcement action.”
Mr. Hong also gave a forecast for the company’s first quarter,
and prospects for the second quarter, "We currently expect that revenues for the first quarter of fiscal 2006, which ends
on July 31, will be in the range of $90 million to $100 million. However, design wins in recent months give us confidence
that we will see a resumption of top-line growth beginning in the second quarter of the new fiscal year.
He also noted the company’s cash position, "The strength of
our business is reflected in the fact that we ended the year with cash and short-term investments totaling almost $300 million.
Our confidence is underscored by the Board's decision authorizing the repurchase of up to an aggregate of $100 million of
our common stock."
Elpida Memory, Inc. has announced the development of a 2 Gigabit
DDR2 SDRAM device based on its 80 nanometer process technology. The development, which is a high water mark for DRAM
memory density, is expected to be in volume production by the end of Elpida’s fiscal year. Yukio Sakamoto, CEO
of Elpida Memory, commented on the development and its applications, "Elpida always remains focused on its ability to
deliver high-performance DRAM products that utilize advanced process technology. 2 Gigabit DDR2 SDRAM is the highest density
DRAM device available in the industry, and our ability to establish its development at 80 nm demonstrates our readiness to
support high-speed products, such as DDR2-800, that are required by the high-performance computing market."
The company noted that the chip will utilize the same operating
current as a 1 Gigabit DDR2 SDRAM, eliminating the concern to redesign power supplies for increased power consumption
levels. increase in power requirements.
The Semiconductor Evening News
June
28th, 2005
Global IP Sound (GIPS), a company that provides embedded voice processing
solutions to semiconductor, IP phone and gateway companies, has received $6.38 million in funding as a result of the issuance
of 3.5 million new shares. The company has grown with the VoIP market and reports that in 2004 it entered into over 30 new
license contracts and increased revenue over 267 percent.
Gary P. Hermansen, President and CEO of GIPS, with the funding announcement,
expressed an optimistic view point about 2005, "2005 will be our year of expansion. We are excited at the prospect of extending
the reach of GIPS technology in both products and markets. Our first goal is to support our product development efforts in
order to continue our tradition of product innovation and industry leadership. Meanwhile, we've set our sights on capturing
significant market share in the booming Asian market and on exploring new opportunities in the mobile and video markets."
GIPS lists its semiconductor customers as PMC-Sierra, Infineon,
and Texas Instruments, all with operations in the VoIP market. Other major customers the company notes include Logitech, Net2Phone,
Teleo, and WebEx.
ParkerVision, Inc. (NASDAQ NMS: PRKR) has announced plans to drop
its retail business and change its business model to that of a pure fabless semiconductor company. The company’s digital
power amplifier chips are considered a way to reduce power consumption in wireless devices such as cellular phones –
a critical concern as power hungry multimedia cellular phones enter the market.
Jeffrey L. Parker, CEO at ParkerVision, indicated that the company’s
semiconductor technology has been well received in the wireless markets, "Our new digital ultra-efficient power amplifiers,
which we call Direct-to-RF-Power (D2P), have been extremely well received by the OEM community. The interest from our OEM
prospects has reached a level where we believe it is clear that the greatest shareholder value can be achieved in the least
amount of time by exclusively pursuing OEM opportunities as aggressively as possible and becoming a significant component
supplier to OEMs that build high volume wireless products. Our initial D2P IC designs are applicable to battery powered, portable
wireless devices such as cellular phones, wireless networking devices, cordless phones and Bluetooth devices. The preliminary
success of our D2P initiative has also resulted in a renewal of interest by OEM prospects in our original D2D based ICs. We
believe our product development efforts for the retail market will ultimately be leveraged through our product offerings to
OEMs.”
BAE Systems has won a $12.5 million contract to increase the extreme
temperature performance capabilities of semiconductors used on space exploration vehicles. The contract from NASA, the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration, is expected to further enable NASA to gather data in the extreme environments of the
Moon and Mars. BAE plans to modify semiconductor processes to enable its ASIC chips to work at temperatures as low as 230
degrees (Centigrade) below zero. Key to the development is the goal to eliminate the need for expensive temperature protection
apparatus to protect the ASICs.
Datang Microelectronics Technologies Co Ltd (DMT) has selected Comsys'
GSM/GPRS software baseband IP (Intellectual Property) platform for incorporation into its COMIP chipset. That chipset is for
multi-standard cellular phone designs that support the TD-SCDMA, GSM and GPRS standards.
Yang Yanhui, the Vice President and CTO at DMT, gave some reasons
why Comsys’ intellectual property was chosen, "We chose Comsys and their IP for the completeness of the solution, as
well as the extensive breadth of experience and knowledge of their engineers. Comsys' team is very supportive of our project
and we anticipate an extremely productive working relationship."
DMT is most noted for its smartcard chips, which according to the
company, reached annual unit sales levels of 60 million units in 2003. The fabless semiconductor company has more recently
focused its efforts on cellular chipsets. DMT indicates that the GSM based network is the most popular in China, with a subscriber
base of over 300 million.
As a result of a sustained effort to produce China’s own chips
for electronic products manufactured in China, the HiSense Group announced that its HiView digital media processing chip has
passed the authoritative appraisal organized by the Ministry of Information Industry (MII). The chip is planned to be used
in the manufacture of digital high definition televisions. According to An Yongcheng, a senior electronics expert , ''The
birth and application of this chip will terminate the history that the core technique of producing color TV in China has long
been monopolized by foreign countries since China ever began producing color TVs. From now on, the nearly 75 million color
TVs produced each year by China will have their own homemade chips.''
According to the report, which referred to Lou Qinjian, MII Vice
Minister, there are 68 color TV manufacturers in China that have an annual production capacity of 86.6 million televisions.
Hisense is a broad based conglomerate. Its products include air
conditioners, computers, mobile communication devices, and televisions. The company reported 2004 revenue RMB27.300.000.000.
The Semiconductor Evening News
June
27th, 2005
FOCUS Enhancements, Inc. (NASDAQ: FCSE), through two separate arrangements
has obtained $4.2 million in commitments to assist the company in the development and marketing of its through-the-wall, wireless
home video transmission technology. The company secured $1.7 million through the private placement of 2.4 million new shares
of its common stock. The company also signed an eighteen month loan agreement valued at $2.5 million. That loan is an interest
only loan.
The company indicated that in addition to general use of the funds,
it also plans to expand the market for its FireStorm products and further develop its Ultra Wideband (UWB) chip technology.
According to Brett Moyer, CEO at FOCUS Enhancements, "These funding commitments complete our near-term financing goals and
provide added financial resources as we continue our solid progress on our strategic UWB initiative. Earlier this month we
announced the tape-out of the industry's first high-performance, 880 megabit per second (Mbps) wireless UWB chip, the first
of a two-part chipset solution, and the tape-out of the second chip is expected in September 2005. This financing allows FOCUS
Enhancements to invest further resources in providing a new generation of wireless-enabled, video-based consumer electronics
into the home, as well as further strengthening our Systems Business."
Moyer in his statements also projected revenue for the company’s
2005 year, "We are reiterating our previously stated financial outlook -- we currently expect full-year 2005 revenue to be
in the range of $25 million to $27 million, an increase of approximately 30 percent compared to the full-year 2004."
HelloSoft, noted as a supplier of VoIP technology to the integrated
circuit market, has closed an oversubscribed round of funding. The Series B round brought in $16 million from investors that
included TD Capital Ventures, which led the round, as well as Mitsui & Company Venture Partners, Entrepia Ventures, Venrock
Associates, Sofinnova Ventures and Jump Startup.
Krishna Yarlagadda, CEO of HelloSoft indicated that the funding
would be used to further the company’s entrance into the multi-mode handset market, "This latest round of funding demonstrates
investors' confidence in our management team, strategy and roadmap. The new investment will help HelloSoft accelerate its
development of CelluLAN for the burgeoning mobile multi-mode handset market. With its experienced team and an innovative technology
portfolio, HelloSoft will continue focusing on the world's most advanced low-cost and low-power solutions."
Noting HelloSoft’s wireless convergence strategy was Jim Goldinger,
Director and Investment Partner of TD Capital Ventures, “The convergence of Cellular, VoIP, and Wi-Fi technologies is
inevitable and happening at a rate faster than expected. HelloSoft's deep domain experience and expertise in each of these
technologies makes the company uniquely positioned to take advantage of this opportunity. HelloSoft's visionary solutions
will enable cost-efficient mass deployment of multi-mode mobile communications devices for the converged marketplace."
HelloSoft, which counts semiconductor tier one companies in
its client base, has a staff of over 100 digital signal processing (DSP) engineers in Hyderabad, India.
Through Canada’s Economic Development agency and the National
Research Council of Canada (NRC) has come news that the Government of Canada has invested $4.55 million in the Canadian Business
Alliance. The alliance with the NRC plans to use the funds to establish a nanoimprint lithography prototyping facility. The
nanofabrication centre has been planned for NRC's industrial materials research complex in Boucherville, Quebec Canada. The
facility is already home to an existing NanoImprint Lithography facility.
Dr. Pierre Coulombe, President of the National Research Council
of Canada, noted that nanotechnology was important to clean energy development in addition to electronic and biotechnology,
"The field of nanotechnology is having an enormous impact on the development of technologies as diverse as electronic and
photonic devices to biotechnology and clean energy production. This new complex will build upon NRC's expertise in this vital
field, and will support and accelerate the commercialization of leading-edge, Canadian nanotechnology research."
A round of funding valued at $24.5 million from the Government of
Canada and several other industry organizations is to be used for innovative automotive research projects. The funding,
to come through AUTO21, a network of research centers in Canada, is for 41 automobile research projects. The projects involve
almost every technology discipline from semiconductors, through fuel technology to nanotechnology and biomaterials. Older
drivers are also a focus of the projects. As the populations of the West ages, drivers to stay safely on the road could possibly
require everything from early warning collision systems to early warning driver medical alert systems. Such systems could
be mandated into law for medically challenged senior citizen.
Dr. Peter Frise, AUTO21 CEO. "This major investment is helping AUTO21
advance Canada's reputation as a leader in automotive research and development. The strong collaboration between government
and industry supporters and the Canadian research community is leading to new technologies and also a steady stream of highly
qualified student researchers who will lead the country's future automotive sector."
The 41 projects will involve over 230 researchers at 37 universities
throughout Canada. Specific projects mentioned include Safe Transportation for Seniors through Dr. M. Bedard, at Lakehead
University and Dr. J. Miller Polgar at the University of Western Ontario. Another entitled Enhanced Child Safety in Automobiles
will be through Dr. A. Howard, Hospital for Sick Children and Dr. A. Snowdon at the University of Windsor. Nanotechnology
projects, of which there are a number include new metal research for lighter and stronger automobiles and improved interior
design. Energy research extends across the spectrum of alternative fuels such as hydrogen and biodiesel as well as energy
generation through regenerative breaking. The Regenerative Braking Systems project is through Dr. S. Lambert, at the University
of Waterloo.
Reports coming out of India indicate that an opening ceremony at
the Rajiv Gandhi Nanotechnology Park for the largest based fabrication facility in India has occurred. The initial project
is expected to cost around $600 million, but indications are that plans are eventually to expand the project into the multi-billion
dollar range. Although IBM was initially thought to be a major investor in the facility, more recent reports indicate that
IBM’s entrance into India’s fabrication market may not be assured. Investors are expected to be announced over
the next two months. Surrounding the foundry were organization names such as Nano-Tech Silicon India Pvt. Ltd., Andhra Pradesh
Industrial Infrastructure Corporation, Intellect Inc. and India Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.
Fabs in the $1 billon dollar range in general have a capacity in
the order of 30,000 eight inch wafers per month and can take anywhere from 18 months to 36 months to bring on line.
THE SEMICONDUCTOR EVENING NEWS
June
24th, 2005
picoChip, a wireless semiconductor company, has obtained $20.5 million
in a third round of funding led by Scottish Equity Partners. Other investors included Rothschild, Intel Capital, Pond Venture
Partners and Atlas Venture.
Guillaume d'Eyssautier, President at picoChip, indicated the company
planned to further its efforts in WiMAX market with the funding, "The quality of our backers is an endorsement of our leading
position in WiMAX. We will use this funding to expand on picoChip's success in WiMAX and deliver products for WCDMA, TD-SCDMA
and other wireless markets."
Reflecting the trend to standardize and automated VLSI design and
IP SoC integration, is the growing acceptance of a Power Architecture standard that is being formalized by Power.org. The
organization has set its goal to reduce power consumption for electronic systems, integrated circuit, IP core and macro core
design. Centered on the original IBM Power Architecture, the organization has attracted nearly 30 members, with eleven more
members added in June. Among those that have recently joined include Fabless , Electronic Manufacturing Services, Electronic
Design Automation (EDA) and Supercomputer companies. New fabless members include AboveMicro Technologies Corp., Ankya Cayman
Corporation, Rapport Incorporated and TimeLab. Among the new Electronic Manufacturing members are Celestica Universal Scientific
Industrial and Venture Corporation Limited. From the EDA industry, the organization has added EDA DAFCA, and Forte Design
Automation. Others that hopped on the power train included Barcelona Supercomputing Center and Teak Technologies, Inc.
The new members join an existing membership base that international
market leaders in the IT, IC, and EDA markets. These include Cadence Design and Synopsys in the EDA market, Chartered Semiconductor
in the IC foundry market, as well as Bull, IBM, Novell, Red Hat and Sony in the general hardware segments of the IT and consumer
electronics market. Other fables and fab based semiconductor companies on the list include AMCC, Culturecom (producer of the
first 32-Bit Chinese microprocessor), Shanghai Belling and Tundra Semiconductor. Others on the list include Wistron and Jabil
Circuit , both electronic manufacturing services companies and Thales, a broad based electronic systems company.
Funding of $3.5 million for Neah Power Systems, Inc. has been included
in a federal appropriations bill for the development of a silicon based fuel cell technology. The new fuel cell technology
is expected to reduce the form factor of fuel cells. Weight reductions for batteries based on silicon technology may be in
the order of 50 percent. Final funding for the project is expected to be determined later in 2005.
Chipcon AS, a fabless RF chipset companies, has shipped over 1 million
ZigBee-ready, IEEE 802.15.4 RF chips. With the shipment milestone, the company also reported that over 1,000 companies have
ordered its CC2420 evaluation kits. Geir Fore, President and CEO of Chipcon AS commented on the possibility of increased levels
of shipments, "The fact that we have already reached 1 million units is a significant milestone not only for Chipcon, but
for the entire ZigBee 802.15.4 market. Our success has been based on our ability to reach the market early with a working
and compliant platform, and our ability to anticipate our end customers' systems needs. We expect even further market traction
in the second half of 2005, and it is now evident that the ZigBee standard is the clear winner in the wireless controls market.
" The company also noted in its 2004 Annual Report that it had
67 percent compound annual growth rate over the last four years.
Chipcon, which has focused its attention on the building automation,
automated meter reading, industrial monitoring and healthcare markets, also recently announced in cooperation with Amron Technologies,
Inc. and Figure 8 Wireless, the Amron M5 advanced metering platform. That platform is based on Chipcon's CC2420 802.15.4 RF
semiconductor and Figure 8 Wireless Z-Stack ZigBee-compliant wireless device networking stack. The platform permits wide area
meter coverage - over 2000 meters.
Mark Leach, CTO at Amron, discussed the role of utility communications
options in the platform selection process , "In order to maximize a utility's communications options within its advanced metering
infrastructure, flexibility has always been a top priority for our development team. That's why we decided to accelerate our
ZigBee plans and chose the 2.4GHz frequency band which provides for the largest number of selectable channels and provides
worldwide operability. Each M5 platform network based on the ZigBee-compliant network platform operates autonomously, supports
up to 2,048 client meters, and transfers data to our meter management software housed in a secure data center. This represents
a significant competitive advantage over less scalable solutions."
Poseidon Design Systems, which differentiates itself as an EDA and
Services company, won two major EDA accounts. Xilinx and Synplicity, two FPGA companies, selected Poseidon's Hardware Acceleration
Modules, known as the Triton Tool Suite for integration into their FPGA design flows.
Providing a description and features of Poseidon's design tools
was Dan Isaacs, Director of Embedded Processor Marketing, Advanced Products Division at Xilinx. "Poseidon's ESL tools focus
on extracting maximum performance from processor-based FPGA designs by identifying and alleviating system performance bottlenecks
with hardware accelerators early on in the development cycle. This is consistent with Xilinx vision of enabling embedded developers
to accelerate computational-intensive algorithmic routines by utilizing the Virtex-4 FX APU controller."
Noting the fundamental value of Poseidon's tools was Andrew Haines,
the Vice President of Marketing at Synplicity, "The fundamental value proposition of ESL (Electronic System-Level) design
tools is the speed with which they enable system architects and designers to make informed architectural changes to a system
to optimize its performance. Poseidon's Triton Tool suite places this power in the hands of FPGA and ASIC engineers, and we
are delighted that Poseidon has chosen to enable these customers to use of our synthesis tools in their design flows."
Poseidon, founded in 2002, has offices in Atlanta, GA, San Jose,
CA, and Bangalore, India.
In an effort to reduce cellular phone memory requirements, WindSpring
has aligned with Kyocera Wireless Corporation to further access the potential of WindSpring's Gazelle software. That code,
based on the company's patented Data Miniaturization Technology (DMT), transforms large files into the Micro Data Format,
a format that requires much less memory. The lossless memory format is said to enable faster file transmit, edit, seek and
search times for a number of applications, such as mobile GPS navigation.
One of the critical reasons the technology attracts the interest
of cellular manufacturers is that the technology provides an upgrade path without a hardware redesign of the cell phone. According
to Franz Elizondo, Director of Business Development for Kyocera Wireless Corp., "The increased use of data applications on
wireless phones requires us to improve functionality and data storage capacity on our devices without significantly increasing
costs per unit. We are excited about the potential for MDF to be the underlying capability that gives us a competitive edge
in achieving both of these goals as we bring new phones to market."
Photron Technologies Ltd. has demonstrated a new technology, known
as Ultra Spectral Modulation (USM) with an FPGA designed with AccelChip's FPGA design platform. The FPGA-based design, a digital
filter, is part of a solution that permits wireless transmission rates of 100 bps per Hertz. The high per Hertz rate technology
permits a 5 Mbps data transmission rate through a 50 KHz channel, which is reported as 25 times more than current technologies
permit.
Larry Garcia, Senior Technical and Operational Advisor for aeroTelesis,
the company that exclusively licenses USM had this to say about the chip design milestone, "The transition from MATLAB simulations
to FPGA devices is a monumental milestone and unequivocally brings us ever closer to the launch of a breakthrough technology
that will become a new standard for wireless communications." USM is expected to substantially reduce the cost and increase
the transmission speed of wireless communications.
THE SEMICONDUCTOR EVENING NEWS
June
22nd, 2005
The Life Sciences Greenhouse of Central Pennsylvania (LSGPA) has
made an investment of $250,000 for the development of biological and chemical sensors. Hanson Technologies Inc. received the
funding, which is expected to be matched by other investors. Ben Franklin Technology Partners recently approved over $129,00
in funding for Hanson to develop its sensor technology.
Hanson is involved in the development of tests for Mad Cow disease.
According to Chairman and CEO, William Hanson, "There is a growing sentiment among consumers and health officials that the
United States should test as many cattle as possible to allow unfettered access to export markets and that transition can
only occur when the next generation of BSE diagnostic equipment, like what we are developing, is introduced. We are very excited
about the investment by the Life Sciences Greenhouse and believe it will be critical to the refinement of our patented and
licensed technology." According to Hanson in 2004 alone there were over 11 million Mad Cow tests performed.
Hanson, which has developed a definitive test for the determination
of mad cow disease (BSE Prion Detection), also indicates that other applications for its sensor technology include milk antibiotics
testing and infectious disease testing.
SEMTECH CORPORATION (NASDAQ:SMTC) has entered into a definitive
agreement to acquire XEMICS SA, a fabless semiconductor based in Switzerland. The acquisition of XEMICS is expected to broaden
Semtech’s product line to include higher margin products. According to Jason Carlson, Semtech's President and Chief
Executive Officer, "We have established several expectations to come out of the XEMICS acquisition. First, we expect to generate
and promote 2 or 3 new product lines from their technology over the next three or so years. Second, these products should
contribute nicely to top line sales and net income growth, with gross margin forecasted above 55 percent. Third, XEMICS is
expected to give us immediate access to relatively new end-markets, such as automotive, home security, industrial and medical.
Finally, we should be able to double the content Semtech offers to existing portable and communications customers."
Semtech presently offers analog and mixed signal semiconductors,
where XEMICS is focused on low-power analog, radio frequency and digital chips. Its products include sensor interfaces, RISC
microcontrollers, RF transceivers and audio codecs. XEMICS has 77 employees. It was founded in 1997.
Celoxica Ltd. has entered into an agreement with Silicon Graphics
Inc. to develop a design platform specific to Silicon Graphics RASC environment. RASC. RASC for Reconfigurable Application-Specific
Computing, is used by SGI Graphics to refer to high performance computer systems based on an FPGA based design architecture.
According to Steve Miller, Chief Engineer, System Architecture,
at SGI, the new design methodology foregoes the need to code in HDL (hardware description languages), "For FPGA-based acceleration
in high-performance computing applications, having a software-based programming environment is extremely important. The Celoxica
tools give RASC customers an easy-to-use programming environment for accelerating their C software algorithms using the parallel
processing capabilities of FPGA without going through hardware description languages."
The FPGA computer architecture is considered an optimum fit for
such applications as data compression, decryption, genetic analysis and comparison, image recognition, and video format translation.
Such designs are reported to offer lower power consumption and heat than microprocessor based designs.
Lumera Corporation (NASDAQ:LMRA) announced that it has received
an order for its electro-optic modulators. Raytheon Company (NYSE:RTN) placed the order for the high-speed chips, which operate
in the 10-100 GHz range. According to Lumera’ Chief Executive Officer Tom Mino, "We are pleased to have received this
order from a company of Raytheon's caliber. Raytheon's selection of our product is further evidence of a growing interest
in the superior qualities and commercial viability of our polymer modulators. "The acceptance of our electro-optic products
in applications by commercial and government related engineering organizations validates Lumera's capabilities and could create
a significant revenue opportunity in these growing markets.”
With the announcement of the order Lumera also said that it has
been awarded its seventh United States patent. U.S. patent number 6,902,871 refers to the mass production of electro-optical
devices. The devices are based on waveguides that feature near 90-degree vertical walls and smoother surfaces for higher operating
speeds.
NEC Electronics through the MIRAI Project (Millennium Research for
Advanced Information Technology) has developed a new molecular based technique for the development of its 45-nanometer semiconductor
manufacturing process. According to the company, the new 45 nanometer process, when compared to 65 nanometer processes, enables
a doubling of the interconnect density, a 16 percent reduction in interconnect parasitics, which in turn improves the operational
speed and power consumption characteristics of chips based on the process.
NEC bases the new process on what it calls MPS technology. That
technology is based on silica molecules, which contain silicon and oxygen atoms, arranged in a circular chain structure that
envelops a pore. The technique is said to allow a tighter control of low k film characteristics. In this case, NEC was
able to obtain a dielectric constant less than the required 2.5, and improve the insulation between interconnects.
Molecular Imprints, Inc., a provider of nanoimprint systems with
feature capabilities in the order of 20 nanometers, has sold its
Imprio systems to three nanotechnology research organizations.
These include Lawrence Berkeley National Lab's Molecular Foundry, the Microelectronics Research Center at the University of
Texas at Austin, and the Pennsylvania State Nanofabrication Facility.
The tools are expected to be used to conduct material research relevant
to the development of biosensors, nanophotonics, and optoelectronics.
THE SEMICONDUCTOR EVENING NEWS
June
21st, 2005
Siemens through a signed agreement with Sensant Corporation
to acquire the company, will have available Sensant’s micromaching technology to develop Capacitive Microfabricated
Ultrasonic Transducers (CMUT) for use in medical imaging applications. These types of transducers are expected to enable what
Siemens calls 3D / 4D volumetric imaging systems.
Klaus Hambuechen, President and CEO of Siemens Medical Solutions
Ultrasound Division, mentioned that, "Not only should this technology enable higher frequency imaging, which will allow clinicians
to view the smallest details within the body, but the integrated circuit technology should also deliver superior quality control
and manufacturing processes. Additionally, it will be easier to tightly integrate the electronics of the transducer and the
ultrasound system. This improved integration is where the greatest possibilities for ultrasound imaging and manufacturing
advancements can be realized, especially in the area of volumetric (4D) imaging."
To discuss the capability of silicon ultrasound technology
to enable a better understanding of disease and lower medical care costs was Igal Ladabaum, CEO of Sensant Corporation, "We
believe the combination of technologies from Sensant Corp. and Siemens Ultrasound will position the company to streamline
advanced transducer development through the power of silicon ultrasound technology and allow the realization of cost-effective
two dimensional (2D) matrix array transducers capable of volumetric 4D imaging. As a result, complete detailed volume images
will enable a better understanding of disease in 3D and will simplify image acquisition and interpretation. By enabling clinicians
to reach a confident diagnosis faster and more easily, volumetric 4D imaging will improve patient care and reduce overall
costs to patients and the healthcare system."
The CMUT ultrasonic transducers look and operate like miniature
drums. Seven of the tiny drums, fit into the width of a hair will transmit and receive sounds. In order to develop complete
ultrasound subsystems, hundreds or even thousands of the drums are integrated into a chip or tiny ultrasound catheters –
to take precise ultrasonic pictures of very small internal forms.
Hambuechen emphasized the critical size, "The size of catheter transducers
is critical in diagnostic imaging and the CMUT technology should further enable the development of miniaturized catheter transducers,
enabling clinicians to better visualize functionality within the heart, for example, where plaque or obstructions could be
more easily detected."
Hambuechen also commented on the breaking of a new medical imaging
cost-performance barrier, "As a result, we anticipate quality to be increased and costs to be reduced, which would improve
access for clinicians and patients to advanced diagnostic technologies like the AcuNav catheter."
The technology however is not expected to be available for two to
three years. Plans are to integrate the technology into a complete line of ultrasound imaging systems.
MIPS Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:MIPS), through an agreement with
D2 Technologies, plans to further lower the cost of VoIP technology. As part of the agreement, D2 Technologies will implement
specific VoIP algorithms into its MIPS32 24KE cores, as part of MIP's VoIP EcoSystem license programs. D2’s VoIP technology,
called vPort, is an algorithm that has been tailored for RISC microprocessors, as opposed to traditional DSP architectures.
Functions that are provided in D2's RISC "DSP soft" software include network, signaling, and voice processing, ordinary implemented
on a DSP chip, now are part of a called DSP software, or soft DSP, routine.
Both companies perceived the combination of MIPS’ RISC core
and vPort technology, as a way to lower the costs of VoIP implementations and potentially give more software programmable
user options. According to Russ Bell, VP of Marketing for
MIPS Technologies, "The combination of D2's VoIP software solution and the performance and functionality of our 24KE processor
cores gives semiconductor companies and OEMs a real advantage in being able to reduce costs and accelerate their time to market."
David Wong, President of D2 noted that lower VoIP costs will translate
into more applications, "The cost-sensitive, rapidly evolving VoIP market offers significant growth opportunities, and we
believe that our customers will benefit greatly from high-performance, single-processor MIPS-Based VoIP solutions."
Microbridge Technologies Corp., known for its micro-electro-mechanical
Rejustor, an electronically adjustable resistor, has selected Intellisense Software Corporation's Intellisuite for the development
of the Rejustor.
According to Mike Foster, CEO of Microbridge, the tool will be a
versatile platform for many of the company's design needs, "IntelliSuite is an effective platform for communicating process
design, device and package design, physical layout, and analysis information. It allows our device, process, package and system
engineers to speak a common language and communicate effectively."
David Harris, VP of Strategic Sales at Intellisense, commented on
the tool's materials capability and how it has been designed to work with not only specific processes, but also with specific
fabrication machines, "Besides acting as a comprehensive simulation, modeling, analysis and synthesis tool for MEMS, IntelliSuite
is a very efficient communication platform, allowing different design and fabrication organizations world wide to communicate
design and process information within a common design and material property platform. IntelliSuite is designed around collaboration,
allowing the design team and the process team to work together to create MEMS Rejustor devices that can be prototyped and
manufactured with lower cost and faster time to market. IntelliSuite starts the design process not from device geometry but
from fabrication machine settings."
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Envri-Analytical
have selected EST’s zNose technology for applications in the agriculture and food quality sectors. The USDA plans to
use the company’s sensor to study bug infestation in plants. Enviro-Analytical will use the sensor to investigate the
quality of grain silage.
Describing the sensitivity of the sensor was Dr. Edward J. Staples,
Chief Scientist of EST, "We believe that the zNose is unique in its ability to separate and quantify the chemistry of any
fragrance, odor, or chemical vapor with part per-trillion sensitivity within 10 seconds. Unlike trace detection technology,
our electronic nose can be trained to recognize an unlimited number of single-chemical and multi-chemical compound odors involving
food quality."
Maxim Integrated Products (NASDAQ:MXIM)now offers a GPS solution
based on its GPS front-end receiver and Royal Philips Electronics’ Spot GPS software. The software is credited with
the elimination of the baseband IC needed for all-hardware design architectures. The software also permits a higher level
of user programmable features. Types of features the software adds include indoor or outdoor optimization functions. The software
allows GPS functionality to be imparted into different consumer products for different applications. End GPS consumer markets
includes cellular phones, digital cameras, DVD players, laptops, MP3 music machines and PDAs.
Emphasizing the breaking of the consumer cost barrier, power, and
size obstacles was Dr. Saeed Navid, Vice President at Maxim Integrated Products, "We are very excited about this breakthrough
technology. Until today, mass deployment of location technology in mobile devices was hindered by the high cost, power consumption,
and size of GPS implementation. By combining Maxim's expertise in RF IC design and manufacturing with Philips's innovative
software GPS technology, we are responding to the demanding market requirements for mobile and portable applications."
Mr. Hans Streng, CEO of Philips Software, high lighted the cost-performance
breakthrough, "We are extremely happy to be going to market with Maxim's high-performance front-end and excited about radically
redefining the price-performance benchmark for GPS."
The initial reference design for the joint GPS solution facilitates
GPS and UBS based laptops for such applications as gaming and industrial control applications.
The reference design includes Maxim's MAX2741 GPS receiver front-end
and Philips' Spot ANSI C software, which can be run on almost any processor. Ones that Maxim lists include ARM, Intel Xscale
or TI-OMAP processor.
In the search for the perfect wire, Hewlett-Packard indicates
that nanowires could replace current day aluminum and copper traces used to connect chip transistors. Traces, or interconnects,
can contribute to over 50 percent of the silicon area in today's chip design, and result in significantly slower
operating speeds and lower system clock frequencies.
One method Hewlett-Packard plans to use to overcome low yield problems
is to create redundant nanotube interconnects. Nanotubes are apparently small enough and contribute so little in terms of
propagation delay, and power consumption, a generous number of spare nanotube wires could be added to an integrated circuit
design. They could then be configured, on fault detect, to bypass broken open-circuited nano-tubes interconnects.
According to Stan Williams, HP Senior Fellow and Director, "By using
a crossbar architecture and adding 50 percent more wires as an 'insurance policy,' we believe it will be possible to fabricate
nano-electronic circuits with nearly perfect yields even though the probability of broken components will be high."
Sending 10 Ghz signals down integrated circuit wires is difficult
for today's CMOS integrated circuits. One reason is the delay induced by the interconnects. In order to solve that problem,
scientists at the University of California, Henry Samueli School of Engineering, have used nanotubes to determine the delay
properties of nanotube wires.
Peter Burke, Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer
Science, "Our prior research showed that nanotube transistors can operate at extremely high frequencies, but the connections
between the transistors were made out of somewhat slower copper, thus forming a bottleneck for the electrical signals," "In
this technology we show that nanotubes can also quickly route electronic signals from one transistor to another, thus removing
the bottleneck."
The next step Burke and his collaborators at the university’s
Integrated Nanosystems Research Facility are working on is the construction of a complete nanotube circuit. For that project
the researchers will put together both nanotube interconnect and nanotube transistors to form an electrical circuit
function.
The university also reports that the technology was presented in
the June 2005 issue of Nano Letters.
Ignious has made its entrance into the accelerated SoC Design
Tool Market with a focus on computer intensive, multi microprocessor core designs. The company demonstrated its technology,
called the SystemWeaver Multicore-Management, with a SoC that standardized and facilitated the integration of 32 ARC core
processors.
Noting that the multi-core processor technology has become more
popular was Karl Auker, Director of Strategic Alliances at ARC International, "An increasing number of ARC customers are implementing
multiple cores on SoCs targeted at compute-intensive applications. By working with partners such as Ignios, ARC's licensees
will have access to technologies that can ease the process of multicore software development and debug. We are pleased with
the work that Ignios has done in building this demonstration."
Ignios indicated that the Electronic System Level design tool has
been designed to eliminate source code recompilation for each of the processors in a multi-core design.
Psivida has announced the issuance of another patent. This patent,
a Korean patent, refers to the electronic based properties of BioSilicon, the company's silicon based tissue repair scaffolds.
BioSilicon scaffolds give a directed path for tissue to attach itself to and grow.
One of the applications Psivida refers to the use of Micro-electro-mechanical
devices to assist in the implant process and for hip and knee prostheses applications. One use of MEMS devices is to measure
bone strength and strain. Hip replacement operations require significant post-operative monitoring to ensure that the replacement
procedure doesn't result in complications.
pSivida Managing Director, Gavin Rezos summarized the market
briefly, "The global market for products enhancing bone growth and fusion is growing rapidly and this trend is likely to continue
as the requirement for specialist management of a variety of orthopedic conditions increases."
The patent was assigned Korean Patent Number 488643.
THE SEMICONDUCTOR EVENING NEWS
June 20th, 2005
Scientists Receive Award for Process That Spins Versatile Nanotube Yarns - Licenses to Be Available
Like out of the age-old fairly tale of Rumplestilsken, where the woman
spins golden yarn, scientists have now been able to spin multifunctional yarns from carbon nanofibers. Scientists at The University
of Texas at Dallas [UTD] NanoTech Institute and an Australian textile spinner expert were awarded the New Materials Innovation
Prize of the Avantex International Forum for Innovative Textiles. The scientists were awarded the prize for a process they
have developed that enables trillions of nanosize fibers to be spun into super-strength electronic conducting yarn. The yarn
has numerous applications in medicine, energy and electronics. In the medical area, artificial muscles was one application
noted.
The three that were awarded the prize were Dr. Mei Zhang and Dr. Ray
H. Baughman of the UTD NanoTech Institute and Dr. Ken Atkinson of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization
[CSIRO]. Dr. Atkinson is known as an expert in wool spinning technology at the Australian national laboratory.
The patent pending technology, which is co-owned by UTD and CSIRO,
indicate that the nanotube yarn spinning process can be applied to the production of a number of specific products. These
include building materials, conductive and protective textiles, displays, fuel cells, sensors, supercapacitors, and thermal
heat pipes.
The licenses for these patents are expected to be made available in
November.
Super Bright LED Technology Spins Additional $2 Million Investment - White Light Bulb Contender
Lamina Ceramics has obtained a $2 million investment from SpaceVest.
The round C financing was led by Granite Global, which contributed $6 million to the $9 million in financing. Others involved
in the round included Morgenthaler Ventures
Lamina with the financing announcement also reported that it has also
broke the bright LED record with its brightest ever LED array with a 28,000 lumen solid-state white light engine. The company’s
Ultra-high lumen LEDs technology are also another LED achievement. Devices based on this technology are capable of producing
16 million colors in an area smaller than a small sized coat button.
Lamina, founded in 2001, as a spin-off of Sarnoff Corporation, has
based its award winning ceramic on metal LED technology on over 12 years of research conducted at Sarnoff. Lamina received
the Best New LED Product and Technical Innovation Award at Lightfair International.
SemiSouth Closes Series A Round
SemiSouth Laboratories, Inc., a company focused on silicon carbide
electronics and materials used in high power and high temperature applications, has raised funding from Delta Capital and
the Southern Appalachian Fund, II-VI, Inc The amount, which remained undisclosed, is in addition to $2 million the company
received from II-VI Incorporated in April of 2005.
Jeff Casady, SemiSouth's President, indicated that the funds will
be used to expand capacity to meet customers needs, "We are selling to several customers who have asked us to expand our capacity
to meet their needs. This investment will allow us to accommodate their requests, and we are actively putting these resources
in place to help our customers grow."
Dow's Conductive Grease Reported to Improve Thermal Performance 10 to 15 %
Dow Corning Corporation with the announcement that AMD has approved
its thermally conductive grease ( TC-5022), for use with its microprocessors, also reported that customer testing of TC-5022
offered a 10 to 15 percent reduction in thermal resistance. The lower level of thermal resistance facilitates the transfer
of heat away from the integrated circuit package to the heat sink, which transfers the heat sink. With the resultant lower
package temperatures, designers have further flexibility in selecting lower cost packages.
Mike Eyman, member of Technical Staff at AMD confirmed the need for
the conductive grease, "Enhancing processor heat dissipation is an important industry focus, and AMD is committed to working
with market leaders such as Dow Corning to find innovative solutions to meet customers' needs. TC-5022 is an excellent product
that will enhance the cooling efficiency of AMD's server, workstation and desktop products."
Gradient Design Automation Announces Pre Tape Out Thermal Analysis Design Tool for Chips
Gradient Design Automation Inc. has introduced its FireBolt design
tool, an analysis program that takes into account thermal gradients to asses the reliability of integrated circuits in operation.
According to Rajit Chandra, CEO of Gradient, thermal analysis tools
are necessary to prevent design failures, "Design closure of modern semiconductor products can only be reached by using a
temperature-aware design methodology throughout the design flow. Thermal analysis and thermal repair create thermal integrity,
which is a necessary ingredient in nanometer chip designs. Our mission is to accurately compute all the temperatures on a
chip, provide the data so physical designers can analyze it, and repair thermal problems before they cause a chip to fail."
In substantiating a Design for Cost need for their tool, Gradient
pointed the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS). The company indicated that roadmap indicates that
because of a lack of thermal tools and thermal knowledge, designers will have to overdesign their chips for timing and power
in the order of 30 percent to 40 percent. Gradient also noted that actual measurements on designs indicate that large interchip
temperature gradients result in poor timing optimization and significant simulation-based timing errors.
Alberto Sangiovanni-Vincentelli, whose credentials are listed as a
holder of the Buttner Chair of the Department of EECS at the University of California at Berkeley, a founder of Cadence and
member of the Gradient Board of Directors left little doubt for the need to asses thermal chip gradients, "Gradient products
are essential for reaching thermal closure before tape-out and manufacturing of complex integrated circuits. Consequently,
they can save many chips from failing when tested or even after their deployment in the field. Heat is a serious problem at
small geometries, and it's never constant across a chip -- temperature and its variations impact everything from power consumption,
performance, and reliability, to the yield and manufacturability of today's ICs."
Analogic Reports Healthy Medical Sales in Quarterly Report
Analogic Corporation (NASDAQ: ALOG) with its fiscal third quarter
report, for the period ended April 30, 2005 indicated that sales of its advanced medical subsystems, which include Data Acquisition
Systems (DASs) for Computed Tomography (CT), and power systems for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), have continued to grow.
The company also reported strength in the sale of its system products, which include medical and security CT systems.
The company's President, John Wood, also commented on the direction
of its medical imaging focus as well as its component and integrated circuit product lines, "We are also confident of our
direction in medical imaging," Wood said. "During the quarter we generated considerable customer enthusiasm for the first
prototypes of a new generation of compact, modular, liquid-cooled radio frequency amplifiers for MRI. Subsequent to the quarter,
we also delivered the first prototypes of a compact, proprietary Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) for a new
generation of CT data acquisition systems. Our medical subsystems business is very strong and growing."
Mr. Wood also noted that some product sales were below expectations,
"The results from operations, excluding the effect of the asset writedowns, were a modest improvement over the prior year's
third quarter. As we had anticipated, sales of Camtronics cardiac information management equipment were below original expectations
as a result of its revenue recognition issues earlier in the year. Fortunately, those issues are being resolved and there
are clear indications that the new management at Camtronics is affecting a turnaround of the business. Sales of Digital Radiography
(DR) systems through our ANEXA subsidiary and DR subsystems through our Anrad subsidiary were also lower than originally expected.
In addition, shipments of patient monitors were less than expected due to an OEM customer's decision to discontinue marketing
one of the models that we developed and manufactured for them."
THE SEMICONDUCTOR EVENING NEWS
June
17th, 2005
Genoa Color Technologies has closed a $5 million round of financing
led by Vertex Venture Capital. The company will use the funds to further develop its award winning technology. The company's
ColorPeak Multi-Primary Color television display system was selected by Popular Science in 2004 as the best new home entertainment
technology. That system is based on the company's chips, which increase the color resolution and brightness of displays -
effectively increasing the number of visible colors that can be displayed.
Genoa plans to use the capital to further expand its market in Asia.
Yoram Oron, founder and managing partner of Vertex Venture Capital, commented on the investment and Genoa, "The production
of flat panel displays, especially LCD TVs, is one of the fastest growing industries. We believe that Genoa can become the
market leader in improving the viewing experience of consumers using the new displays. We were impressed by the technical
and commercial achievements of Genoa and its management team."
Crossbow Technology, known for its Smart Dust wireless sensors,
has rounded up $12 million in its latest round of financing. Besides investments from well known Intel Capital and Cisco Systems,
the company also received an investment from Paladin Capital Group.
Commenting on the investment and Crossbow's profitability was Crossbow's
President and CEO, Mike Horton, "Crossbow has been profitable since 2002, and this additional working capital will help us
expand both our international operations and the company's research and development programs. This is Paladin Capital Group
and Cisco Systems' first investment in Crossbow, and a follow-on investment for Intel Capital. "To have both the worldwide
leader in networking for the Internet and the world's largest chip maker invest in Crossbow puts us in a unique position.
In addition to the investments, Crossbow will have technology collaboration projects underway with Cisco and Intel."
The news of the funding follows closely with the news of the release
of Crossbow's new sensor device targeted at the industrial automation market. That device will enable a number of new and
interesting applications related to robotic miniature airplanes that could possible serve as point-to-point or as-the-crow
fly package delivery systems for large corporate campuses and industrial complexes.
Founded in 1995, Crossbow has shipped more than 500,000 of its advanced
sensors to over 1,000 customers. Its sensor technology is based on micromachine, otherwise known as micro-electro-mechanical
system (MEMS) technology.
LTX Corp. has been awarded a patent for a pin controller invention
to interface to a micromachine relay for automated test equipment applications. The patent number assigned by the United States
Patent Office was 6,903,562. The patent is entitled, “Integrated micromachine relay for automated test equipment applications.”
Sensor Platforms, Inc. with the introduction of its SSP1492 Sensor
Signal Processing Chip at the Sensor Expo show, has positioned the company as a major player in a number of high volume markets.
The device to date has been designed to work with sensors for applications that range from acceleration to temperature, making
it a potential candidate for both established markets, such as cellular phones, to new and emerging markets, such as wireless
enabled instruments for on-the-job and household applications.
Inside
the chip is a pipelined 8051 microcontroller core, three math engines (two hardware and one floating point software), a
serial data communication interface (SPI/I2C) , voltage regulator, EEPROM memory and on-chip RC oscillator. The device also
offers 15 sensor input channels, which allows the design to work with a wide variety of different sensors as well as the latest
MEMs devices.
In order to effectively address the diversity of the sensor market,
Sensor Platforms has dedicated itself to just sensor application development. According to George Hsu, President and Chief
Executive Officer "We're the only semiconductor company with the sole mission of enabling the development and commercialization
of sensor applications. Our unique technology has successfully worked with numerous sensors in areas as diverse as pressure,
temperature, acceleration, magnetism, tilt, gas, light, force, strain, position, and so forth. Our initial customers have
found our unique technology tremendously useful, especially in contemplating new applications. They no longer need to engage
in the costly and time consuming process of custom designing and producing an IC for a specific sensor or application."
Mr. Hsu also summarized the market potential for the chip, "I believe
that the sensor industry is at a crossroads in its development as the world goes increasingly digital and mobile. The opportunities
at this juncture are enormous. There were over 650 cell phones sold worldwide last year, not to mention countless laptops,
PDA's, GPS's and general consumer products. No one can predict where the next killer sensor application will surface. We can
only be prepared and ready when the next window appears."
The design is considered a low-cost alternative to ASIC based sensor
interface solutions. Mr. Hsu elaborated, "As sensor manufacturers and system integrators plan their application development
to address their customers' ever-changing requirements, the SSP1492 is a huge piece of the puzzle, providing an instant IC
solution meeting their cost, size, power consumption, and performance specifications. In offering the SSP1492, Sensor Platforms
has ensured that sensor manufacturers and system integrators are prepared to meet the challenges of tomorrow by having a unique
and powerful sensor signal processor chip available to them today. The bottom line is that we can provide the customer with
the best of both worlds ... ASIC performance at standard part prices and with immediate availability. More specifically, the
adoption of the SSP1492 solution can reduce application development time by up to 90%, eliminate costly non-recurring engineering,
and improve sensor performance with up to 24-bit resolution."
SSP1492, available now in either a 4.3mm x 4.3mm square bare die,
or in an 80-pin ball grid array (BGA), or 80 pin quad-flat package (QFP), is priced between $3.65 and $4.15 in quantities
of 10,000.
Fujitsu Limited (TSE: 6702) and Seiko Epson (TSE: 6724) have entered
into an agreement to develop the next generation of ferroelectric nonvolatile memory chips known as FRAMs. The companies indicated
that the new generation of chips, expected to be completed in the first half of 2006, will have a memory cell area about one-sixth
the size of present day memory cells. Currently, one of the largest ferroelectric memory chips on the market is a one Mbit
chip. This would indicate that the two companies may have a 4 Mbit or larger memory chip planned. Ferroelectric memory chips
are an alternative to DRAM and Flash chips, because they offer both high speed read and writes and non-volatility. Although
DRAM memory chips have fast read and write times, they lose data when power is turned off. Flash on the other hand are non-volatile,
but have very slow write turns. On the other hand, Flash offer memory capacities in the Gbit range.
Denso Corporation, a major automotive components company in Japan
with its own semiconductor research, design and manufacturing facilities, has allocated 17 billion yen to build a new eight
inch wafer fabrication facility. The facility to be built at Denso's Kota facility, located in the heart of Japan, will have
the capacity, once complete, to produce 10,000 eight inch wafers per month. The facility, which was scheduled for the construction
phase this month, is expected to be on line in June of 2006.
Details released about the new facility indicate that it will have
a total floor space of 26,000 square meters with a 4000 square foot clean room. The facility will not reach peak production
of 10,000 eight inch wafers per month until the year 2010. The facility will produce integrated circuits for automotive applications.
By contrast, Denso's current wafer fab has an area of 283,000 square
meters and a capacity of 23,000 six inch wafers per month. That facility employs 3,800 employees. Worldwide, Denso employs
104,000 in all of its operations.
Nallatech has achieved record growth with its FPGA development systems.
The growth of the company is indicative of a trend that points to FPGAs as the basis of a new and efficient computer architecture.
According to Allan Cantle, CEO of Nallatech, "Nallatech is proving the viability of FPGA-based high-powered computing, particularly
in North America, with our record growth there over the past year. During the past year we have booked our two largest contracts
to date, together totaling approximately $3 Million. We are looking forward to continued expansion throughout 2005 and 2006
as FPGA awareness and adoption spreads."
The company reported that its worldwide revenue growth increased
80% and in North America, 120% for the financial year ended, April 30, 2005.
Nallatech also pointed out that over 1,000 Nallatech development
kits are now in the hands of development engineers as a result of its agreement with Xilinx, considered the world's largest
FPGA chip company.
Trazar Corporation has entered into an exclusive licensing agreement
with the Communications Business Unit of Cubic Defense Applications, a division of Cubic Corporations (AMEX:CUB). The agreement
for RF generators, which relates to both manufacturing and marketing of the products, is part of Trazar’s plan
to enter the megasonic cleaning segment of the semiconductor wafer production and medical markets.
Rick Lober, Senior Vice president of Cubic's Communications Business
Unit commented about the need for the commercial sector to make use of the RF generators, "Cubic Defense Applications is focused
on its core defense business, but our RF generator product line clearly has broader applications. This relationship provides
commercial customers the best access and support for their RF generator requirements.
The RF generators produce frequencies in the range of 350 KHz to
2 MHz at operating power levels between 100 and 1600 Watts.
Following a trend, Moore's Law, which has guided semiconductor advances
over the last 40 years, Affymetrix Inc. (NASDAQ:AFFX) reports that its new GeneChip Scanner (GCS) 3000 7G is able to scan
microarrays with feature sizes which range from 2.5 micron to 0.51 micron. The ability to scan such small features gives the
scanner the ability to analyze 500 percent more data than past generations.
Chip Leveille, Vice President of Product Technologies Group at Affymetrix
summarized the achievement, "The GeneChip Scanner 3000 7G combines advanced design improvements with high-resolution scanning
to dramatically improve efficiency in genetic analysis for gene expression and DNA analysis applications. We designed the
original GCS 3000 to be forward-compatible, requiring only a simple upgrade to support the next-generation of high-density
microarrays that develop as GeneChip technology continues to advance."
In comparison, today's most advanced digital semiconductors are
built with process technologies with feature lengths in the order of 0.09 microns, about five times smaller than the feature
length of the current biochips.
THE SEMICONDUCTOR EVENING NEWS
June
15th, 2005
SiBEAM, Inc., a fabless semiconductor company founded just this
year, has secured $15 million in Series A funding from New Enterprise Associates, US Venture Partners, and Foundation Capital.
The company plans to used the funds for the development of wireless technology that permits data communication rates in the
gigabit range.
To develop the new high speed wireless technology, the company has
as its chairman, Dr. Bob Broderson, who also was affiliated with the founding of Atheros Communications, one of the fabless
market leaders in the WiFi wireless network chip space. Mr. Broderson has been a UC Berkeley professor for 33 years and co-director
of the Berkeley Wireless Research Center.
Pixim , Inc., a company that provides software and silicon for digital
cameras capture and process image applications has closed a $12 million investment round. The funding was made available through
Mohr Davidow Ventures, Mayfield, and Newbury Ventures, Honda Motor Company Ltd. and Atrium Venture Partners.
The funds are planned for the development of new interactive products
based on the company's Digital Pixel System technology. The company is already shipping its D2000 chipset, which includes
a digital image sensor and digital image processor, to over 15 camera manufacturers. The camera companies have based security
and surveillance camera systems on the D2000.
The company indicates that the technology incorporated into the
chipset enables images to be seen in either well or poorly lit environments. Pixim also suggests that cameras are expected
to become a part of most automobiles. To meet that emerging market trend, the company has found a partner in the automotive
market. According to Joe Montalbo, CEO, "We're pleased to continue to receive excellent support from our investors, and look
forward to working closely with Honda and Atrium."
Tharas Systems Inc has secured $5.5 million in venture capital funding
from El Dorado Ventures, NeoCarta Ventures; Alliance Venture Management, LLC; Andy Bechtolsheim, the co-founder of Sun Microsystems,
a member of Tharus boards, Dr. Prabhu Goel. The funding was led by El Dorado Ventures. Tharas, which provides the semiconductor
and embedded systems industry with hardware assisted verification solutions, plans to use the funds for the development of
its next-generation verification applications as well as expand its sales and technical support network.
According to Charles Beeler, General Partner at El Dorado Ventures,
Tharas revenues are in growth mode, "We are impressed with Tharas' consistent execution and the company's revenue growth in
the hardware-assisted verification segment of the EDA market. With last week's introduction of its new family of Hammer verification
appliances, we're confident that the company will continue to gain further traction and expand its presence in the verification
market."
Tharus addresses the time-intensive design verification market with
a hardware accelerated custom verification tools. The Hammer tools have been developed to shorten verification time and reduce
the engineering overhead associated with the growing functional density of SoCs and embedded system products.
Infineon Technologies AG (FSE: IFX) (NYSE: IFX) has introduced its
ViNAX chipset, considered by the company to be a complete DSL2/ADSL2+ end-to-end solution. The chipset , compliant to the
VDSL2/ G.993.2 (Very-High-Bit-Rate Digital Subscriber Line 2) standard, offers symmetric 100 Mbit/s over copper wires at distances
beyond 1150 feet. The new chip now makes it feasible for carriers to offer multi-channel HDTV, VoIP and high-speed Internet
connections without disrupting the upgrade path of consumers who use ADSL/2/2+ modems.
Christian Wolff, Vice President Communications Business Group and
General Manager Wireline Access Business Unit at Infineon on release of the chipset indicated that Infineon is no stranger
to the broadband arena, shipping over 6 million ports in 2004, "We are very proud to introduce the industry's first fully
standard compliant VDSL2 chipset. Full standard compliancy is a prerequisite for interoperability and, therefore, the key
enabling factor for mass deployment. Taking advantage of Infineon's expertise in ADSL2+ technology, with more than 6 million
ports shipped in 2004 alone, ViNAX assures highest ADSL2+ backwards compatibility and interoperability necessary for a smooth
VDSL2 deployment. ViNAX allows carriers to seamlessly upgrade their DSL networks by gradually changing line cards in the central
offices or street cabinets to VDSL2 while end users still use their ADSL/2/2+ modems at home."
To provide a VDSL2 solution for telecom customers VDSL2 needs, Infineon offers a VDSL2 single-chip solution called the ViNAX-CPE
(Customer Premise Equipment). The chip, like the central office chipset, is also compliant to the International Telecommunications
Union's standard.
Sonics, which has become known as the leader in the Accelerated
SoC Design Time market, through a technical collaboration agreement with TransEDA, a unit of Valiosys Group, has enabled TransEDA
to offer new versions of its Coverage and Coverability Analysis, and Automatic Protocol Verification tool. These new versions
have been optimized to support Open Core Protocol version 2.1 - a standard used for the integration of IP cores in SoC designs.
Jean-Luc Bouvresse, CEO of TransEDA. commented on the product development
benefits of its association with Sonics, "Tapping Sonics' vast system knowledge played an important role in our product development
to ensure that the new version of imPROVE-HPK linked to our unique Coverability Analysis technology, would meet the needs
of SoC developers. We were also excited to support Sonics in establishing a reference methodology for SoC design, and we will
continue to help make successful the methodology transformation that OCP is bringing to the industry."
Texas Instruments and RadioScape First to Offer DRM Technology
At the Digital Radio Show in London. Texas Instruments (NYSE:TXN) (TI) and its partner, RadioScape,
announced chips and modules for the Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) standard. The module from RadioScape is based on TI's DRM300
and DRM 350 chips. It supports both FM-RDS and AM in software. The RS500 module includes all the necessary hardware and software
for the construction of DRM, DAB, FM-RDS and AM receivers. A number of different types of mass market consumer companies are
potential end-markets for the multi-standard receiver modules. These include standard desktop radios, CD boom box, hi-fi and
tuner companies.
According to Peter Senger, Director of Distribution at Deutsche
Welle and Chairman of the DRM Consortium, "Although TI only joined the DRM Consortium last year, it already is the first company
to provide silicon for this standard. Backed by a complete module developed by RadioScape, we expect OEMs will be able to
provide DRM-capable receivers by the end of the year."
Prices for the DRM300 and DRM350 chips starts were given at $18
in sample quantities of 1,000. The DRM modules are expected to be available in 3Q05.
DRM is a new type of low-cost broadcast system, which enables the transmission of near FM quality
sound over short-wave, medium-wave and long-wave AM broadcast bands.
Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NYSE: CDN) (NASDAQ: CDN) and Oki Electric
Co., Ltd. (TSE:6703) after the development of 30 reusable analog intellectual property (IP) core blocks on a new analog design
flow, reported that design turn-around time resulted in a design turn around time reduction of five fold.
Central to the five-fold increase was Cadence's Virtuosa NeoCircuit
technology and Oki Electric's IP proprietary templates. According to Ichiro Yamamoto, Senior Manager, Design System Department
in the LSI Design Division of Oki Electric's Silicon Solutions Company, "Cadence's Virtuoso NeoCircuit technology has become
a key component of Oki's analog IP creation. We are proud to announce that we have established a new design culture based
on Virtuoso NeoCircuit with our proprietary IP templates. This Cadence technology allows us to compete more effectively with
other leading manufacturers in this market segment."
In addition to the improved design time, Oki also indicated that
its own internal quality control testing of the analog IP was much higher than hand crafted designs. Oki began using Cadence's
NeoCircuit in December 2003. Since then, Oki has used the tool to design analog circuits for its sound generation chips, DRAM,
FeRAM (ferroelectric non-volatile memory chips) and flat panel display drivers.
Teknovus has announced what it calls the world's first Quad EPON
OLT (Optical Line Terminal) chipset. The TK3722 Quad OLT, designed to minimize capital expenditures at the Central Office
(CO) equipment can be used to support one to four unique PON networks.
With the announcement of the chip, Teknovus also said that were
now over one million subscribers to the Ethernet Passive Optical Network (EPON). Dr. Rex Naden, CEO of Teknovus, summarized
the chip's benefits for its customers as follows, "With the TK3722 Quad OLT solution, we provide a scalable, robust and cost-effective
solution to our customers who want to get to market quickly with minimal capital expenditure. For these customers, the cost
advantages are immediate as the Quad OLT solution provides a 60% reduction in components on the OLT. Further, fewer parts
means increased reliability, lower total system power consumption, reduced cooling requirements, reduced board space, and
lower electro-magnetic interference (EMI)."
In the background of Agilent Technologies announcement that it has
shipped over 400 million optical mouse sensors, reports have circulated that Agilent Technologies has plans to sell its semiconductor
unit. It may be that Agilent Technologies sees a better future in its life science segment. In that business segment, Agilent
sells DNA microarray chips, which are used to study things like the genetics of real, living mice.
Almost concurrently with the announcement of 400 mouse sensor shipments,
Agilent also introduced its latest high resolution laser mouse technology. According to Ngoh Kee Hane, Vice President and
General Manager of the Navigation Products Division in Agilent's Semiconductor Products Group, the new laser mouse is another
mouse sensor breakthrough, "In 1999 we revolutionized the computing world with the first LED-based optical mouse sensor, and
we've done it again with our patented LaserStream technology. LaserStream uncovers microscopic detail, which enables mice
to track with incredible accuracy on more surfaces and with greater responsiveness than ever before. Due to lasers' superior
tracking ability and reduced power consumption, we expect this revolutionary LaserStream technology to ultimately replace
the LED-based optical mouse sensor in virtually every application."
Dubai Silicon Oasis, a semiconductor technology park based in Dubai,
has entered into an University Program Partnership Agreement with Synopsys. As part of the agreement, Synopsys will provide
four universities with EDA tools for the development of integrated circuits. The report from the Emirates News Agency indicated
that the agreement was signed by Dr Eesa Bastaki, Director, Technology & Development, at Dubai Silicon Oasis and Rich
Goldman, Vice President, Strategic Market Development at Synopsys, Inc.
THE SEMICONDUCTOR EVENING NEWS
June
14th, 2005
austriamicrosystems, a company that has delivered over 50 million
audio and power management chips in the last three years, has made available yet another chip. This time it is an analog front
end, the AS3517 for portable audio applications, such as MP3. The chip is available in a chipscale package that measures just
9x9 mm. Inside the small package are 11 voltage converters and regulators, a Lithium battery charger, CD quality audio codec
and 12 programmable amplifiers.
John Heugle, CEO of austriamicrosystems, emphasized that the product
reduced the size and bill of materials of current day portable music players, "The AS3517 is the most highly integrated solution
available today. It provides all of the audio and power management functionality that is required in products like music-enabled
mobile phones, MP3 music players, digital audio and video broadcast receivers, PDAs and other portable music devices while
simultaneously reducing the costs involved in manufacturing."
The new chip also includes Digital Rights Management circuitry according
to Alexander Harrer, Sr. VP and General Manager of the Communications Business Unit of austriamicrosystems, "The AS3517 includes
advanced functionalities designed to support the legitimate desire of rights holders to protect their intellectual property.
We have built-in hardware provisions for music Digital Rights Management, and numerous other functional blocks that can be
used to safeguard copyrighted material without compromising the listening experience of the end-user. "
The company has scheduled volume production for the summer, so that
the chip can be designed into presents for the Christmas season.
Cambridge Consultants now offers a software program called TurboDesigner
used in the design of wireless base stations and terminals. The tool has been developed to help select the best forward error
correction (FEC) code for a wireless design. . The software, which is available as part of the company's consultant services,
will generate test vectors for HDL simulations to assist in the development of ASICs and FPGAs.
The selection of the right code will have a significant effect on
the performance of a design, according to Monty Barlow, DSP Group Leader with Cambridge Consultants, "Our experience has taught
us that the right turbo coding implementation can double the coverage or data rate of a wireless system, or halve the amount
of transmission power required. The technology is extremely desirable - but the problem comes with real-world implementations
of decoders - especially those designed for high data rate applications like WiMAX. There are a large number of factors a
designer needs to tweak, each with its own subtle effect on performance and cost. This software produces accurate and quick
measurement of turbo code performance".
Mr. Barlow went on to say that "Shrinking silicon costs are now
enabling wider exploitation of the relatively new technology of turbo codes. For us, the first major focus has been for WiMAX
development work - where no suitable off-the-shelf cores exist and we need to design our own hardware - but we also expect
turbo codes to be a significant enabler for other emerging wireless systems such as digital broadcasting, and even UWB."
Spectra Licensing Group LLC, the worldwide licensing agent for France
Telecom's Turbo Code Licensing Program, has licensed France Telecom's Turbo Code patents to Freescale Semiconductor (NYSE:FSL)
for use in Freescale's 3G wireless communications products.
With the license agreement, announced in late May of 2005, Erik
Johnson, Director of Sales and Marketing at Spectra Licensing Group mentioned Spectra's ability to work with ASIC and DSP
companies, "We are pleased to license a leader in wireless communications such as Freescale," said "This agreement represents
a significant step in the evolution of the Turbo Code Licensing Program and our ability to work with manufacturers developing
Turbo Codes in DSP and ASIC solutions for the 3G market.."
Turbo Codes, a type of forward error correction code, are considered
a relatively new way to increase the data rate of CDMA based networks.
Raytheon, IBM Corp., the Georgia Institute of Technology and Mercury
Computer Systems Inc. are all a part of a project to develop commercial applications of a new type of programmable computing
system chip. The project, funded by the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, is referred to as the Morphable Networked
Micro-Architecture project, or Monarch. The chip is to be based on IBM's copper semiconductor technology, called Cu-08, a
90 nanometer process. Last month, as part of the development project, Raytheon Company was awarded a $27.6 million contract
to develop the technology, which according to reports should reduce the size of multi-board computational system to just a
single chip. Additionally, the new chip is intended to replace several processors and types of processors.
In late March of this year, Mercury Computer Systems announced a
family of FPGA design tools (the FDK 2.0) and IP that were specifically designed to expedite the development of FPGAs for
multiprocessor based computer designs. That technology allows the fast integration and interconnection of IP core blocks to
develop a wide range of signal processing solutions. At that time, Barry Isenstein, Vice President and General Manager of
Defense Electronics at Mercury said, "Many of our customers require signal processing solutions that use FPGA hardware. The
FDK 2.0 provides the tools and IP to rapidly prototype and develop FPGA-based applications. Integration with high- performance
switch fabrics provided by the RACE-on-Chip interconnect, and our bundled design support services, provide our customers with
a high-bandwidth interconnect while reducing project risks."
There is a current belief that the end of the microprocessor architectural
age is at hand. To replace it will be a new computer architecture based on FPGAs.
Conexant Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CNXT) has brought out its family
of VDSL and VDSL2 chips. Called the Accelity family, the chips are for central office (CO) and customer premise equipment
(CPE) applications. The chips, which are compliant with the VDSL2/G.993.2 International Telecommunications Union standard,
are for the next wave in Internet connectivity, triple-play broadband service.
According to Akram Atallah, Vice President and General Manager of
Conexant's Broadband Access Business, the company is a major provider of broadband solutions, having shipped over 130 million
DSL ports, "Our new VDSL chipset family builds on our proven track record in DSL innovation and digital signal processing
to raise the bar in terms of density, and lower overall system cost. Conexant has shipped more than 130 million DSL ports
to customers globally, and we will continue to develop standards-based products to further strengthen our industry-leading
position in broadband access semiconductor solutions."
Both CO and CPE chips come complete with reference design kits for
fast system development. Conexant also gave pricing for the chipset solutions. The CO Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) and
packet chipsets were quoted at $15.00 per port. The CPE ATM and packet chipsets were quoted at $17.00 per port. Prices were
given for quantities of 100,000. Conexant also said that the chipsets were now in production and shipping to customers worldwide.
Artimi Ltd. has announced that it has received its Ultra Wideband
(UWB) chip, the RTMI-100, from its foundry partner. The mixed signal chip, manufactured on a 0.18 micron SiGe BICMOS semiconductor
process, integrates a Low Noise Amplifier (LNA), power amplifier (PA), adaptive channel digital radio, a Media Access Controller
(MAC), a PCI 2.3 interface and RISC IO processor.
The chip, with an 800Mbps transport capability, error correction
and encryption is planned for use in a number of networked consumer applications that involve streaming audio and video. As
well, the technology is expected to be eventually integrated into Bluetooth based applications.
With the announcement of the delivery, Colin Macnab, CEO of Artimi
summarized the commitment to low cost, standards based designs, "Our single-chip UWB device demonstrates Artimi's commitment
to providing the lowest cost complete UWB solutions. Our active participation in standards and industry groups, such as the
IEEE and WiMedia Alliance, will ensure future compatibility and interoperability of our UWB devices. In addition, our flexible
architecture will enable us to deliver a single chip MBOA compliant solution when the standard is finalized."
The Center for Nanoelectronic Technology or more formally, the Fraunhofer-Center
Nanoelektronische Technologien CNT, is now open for business. The facility, located in Dresden, Germany, is run by the Fraunhofer
Society and two semiconductor manufactures, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and Infineon Technologies AG.
Industry partners and a number of research and economic development
organizations have planned to further fund the facility with over 700 million Euros in the coming years. The facility, which
was officially opened on May 31, 2005, is equipped with a clean room for the development of 50 nanometer semiconductor process
technologies.
Texas Instruments Incorporated (NYSE:TXN) (TI) has reported that
Samsung selected its OMPA-DM multimedia processor for several of its digital TV mobile phone models. The phones have been
designed to receive their signals from either satellites or terrestrial transmitters. The report indicated that Samsung plans
to market the phones in Korea, where digital TV mobile phones have received a warm reception. Presently, Samsung has the new
TI based phones on the market in Korea.
The design of the Digital TV mobile phone may very well represent
a breakthrough in power consumption and display technology. Most viewers want to watch their cell phone TVs for several hours
between a recharge, which requires a processor that has very low power consumption or a powerful cell phone battery. HunBae
Kim, Vice President of Samsung's Research and Development team however emphasized the display quality, "Samsung is committed
to digital innovation, including delivering mobile digital TV to consumers. By adopting TI's high-performance multimedia processor
technology, Samsung can also ensure it brings crystal clear television to the mobile phone for the best viewing experience
possible in the palm of your hand."
Self-Assembling Polymer Nanocomposites Reported
as Promising Solar Cell and Display Technology
The U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory reports that polymer nanocomposites
may have broad implications for the development of solar cells with higher efficiency ratings, displays that are thinner,
and biosensors.
Polymer nanocomposites, the laboratory notes, have the natural ability
to self-organize or self-assemble into building blocks that have dimensions in the order of a nanometer. According to Tom
Vogt, a physicist at Brookhaven, "Polymer nanocomposites have been attracting a lot of attention because of their potential
to improve many technologies. The polymer imparts unique mechanical properties, such as the ability to bend and stretch, and
both components are good electrical conductors." The polymer component referred to here is polyaniline. Specifically for the
case cited, the polymer component was combined with the metal vanadium to form vanadium oxide.
Stratcor, Inc. based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is a supplier
of high purity vanadium oxide. That company indicates that vanadium can be used to double the strength of steel.
THE SEMICONDUCTOR EVENING NEWS
June
13th, 2005
Bay Microsystems, with an announcement that it has reached profitability
on record revenue growth, also reported that it entered into a definitive agreement to purchase another fabless semiconductor
company, Parama Networks. In order to acquire the company, Bay Microsystems also reported it has raised $8.4 million in a
Series D funding round.
Bay and Parama chip technology is expected to result in expanded
product offering for its customers. Bay offers its Internetworking Processor line of chips for voice, video and data packet
processing applications and Parama offers its ADM-on-a-Chip for telecommunications applications.
Bay Microsystems, which has a partnering agreement with the United
States Government and several OEM customers, expects its high revenue growth to continue.
Manufacturers of healthcare products, through BioElectronics Corporation
(Pink sheets: BIEL), now have access to the company's ActiPatch, a drug-free patch used to reduce swelling. BioElectronics
foresees manufactures of orthotics, braces, splints and wraps embedded the ActiPatch within their products.
The company apparently has some major contracts in the works. According
to Andrew J. Whelan, President and CEO. "We have been working diligently on this design approach for months and we have our
existing products working well with a couple of well respected companies. We expect to be announcing some major deals in the
coming months, beginning with the European market. This approach will add greatly to our goal of making our breakthrough medical
products available for a broad array of soft tissue injuries."
ActiPatch is referred to be the company as z dermal patch. The dermal
patch contains a battery-powered microchip that delivers continuous pulsed therapy.
Based on an array of vertically aligned collector nanostructures
that include nanotubes, nanowires, nanofibers or nanoparticle chains, NanoHorizons has now made available a new photovoltaic
cell design through a license program. The company indicates that the technology permits the production of solar cells on
common materials that can be inexpensively produced with low cost roll or spray based manufacturing processes. The company
also noted that because the design lengthens the light absorption path, the efficiency of solar cells has been "dramatically"
increased. According to one of the co-inventors, Dr. Ali Kaan Kalkan, the design overcomes the inefficiencies of the traditional
layered design approach, "Layered designs face an inherent paradox. Thicker light-absorbing layers are needed to capture sufficient
light energy, but their thickness makes it difficult for electrons to reach collection layers. Thinner layers reduce loss,
but thin layers absorb too little light. What's been needed is a new approach that allows the light absorption path to be
optimally long, while simultaneously moving efficient collection much closer to the source of energized electrons."
Stephen Fonash, PhD., founder of NanoHorizons and another co-inventor
elaborated further, "Solar energy development has been held up by barriers inherent in cell design. These barriers have now
been broken. Our nanoscale approach can enable collection lengths as small as a few tens of nanometers, opening the door to
the use of inexpensive materials and fabrication processes, while simultaneously enabling a truly optimized absorption length.
This technology is poised to greatly stimulate growth in the solar energy and Organic LED sectors."
NanoHorizons also indicates that the integration of its vertical
nano-spike collectors into the absorption material permits energy collection at 90 degrees to the absorption process, which
permits according to the company, "an optimally thick absorption layer while dramatically shortening collection distance by
as much as 1000-fold (tens of nanometers vs. tens of microns in today's best two-layer cells). "
NanoHorizons also reported that it has received notice of allowance
from the United States Patent Office for the technology.
Carsem, one of the larger semiconductor test and package contractors
has made plans to double the size of its Malaysia manufacturing operations. According to Allan Calamoneri, Carsem's Vice President
of Test Business Development the expansion is related to the need for chip companies to reduce costs, "As a result of escalating
pressure to reduce cycle times and costs, we are seeing a tremendous increase in our customer's desire to outsource their
wafer probe and final test requirements. For example, due to several key customers' increasing demands, we recently added
50 wafer probe systems along with the associated testers and expect to add another 45 final test systems by the end of this
year."
Mr. David Comley, Carsem's Group Managing Director indicated that
the trend looks as though it will be sustained for some time to come, "The turnkey test services segment of our business is
growing at a significantly faster rate that any other segment and we see this trend continuing for quite some time. Carsem
is fully committed to providing our customers with the test infrastructure and engineering support services they require in
order for them to meet their competitive demands."
Carsem for its first phase expansion plans will increase the size
of its S-Site facility from 40,000 square feet to 66,000 square feet. By the end of 2005, the second phase expansion will
bring the total area to 96,000 square feet. After the expansion, the S-Site and M-Site, which is a 14,000 square foot test
operation, will bring the total area for semiconductor wafer probe and final test from 54,000 square feet to 110,000 square
feet.
Berkeley Design Automation Inc, (BDA) which started operations
in 2003, has introduced its first product, a PLL Noise Analyzer. The analog EDA tool, based on the company’s Stochasitc
Nonlinear Engine, is for the noise analysis of analog / RF integrated circuits that incorporate a phase-locked loop (PLL).
The tool, which performs PLL simulations at the transistor level, is used to simulate the nonlinear, time varying behavior
of the PLL loop and performs complete phase noise and jitter analysis as a result of random and deterministic noise sources.
One of the most important features of the new product is its capability
to reduce respins. According to Ravi Subramanian, CEO at Berkeley Design Automation. "Lack of accurate noise prediction is
one of the leading causes of respins and product delays for analog/RF integrated circuits. PLL Noise Analyzer is the only
tool today that provides accurate noise analysis and has been proven to reduce respins. We are pleased it has been adopted
by leading semiconductor companies and analog IP providers in their verification flow, enabling them to confidently make performance,
power, area, noise trade-offs."
Among the customers who have adopted BDA's product for designs
ranging from 0.25 micron down to 90 nanometers include Fujitsu and NEC Corporation. Both these companies indicated that
the capability to accurately simulate PLLs was a significant design challenge, which the new tool met. According to Kunio
Mori, General Manager of the Server System Division at NEC Corporation, "We design a wide variety of high-performance I/Os
at speeds up to and beyond 10 Gbits per second. Meeting phase noise and jitter targets is a significant design challenge.
PLL Noise Analyzer is an innovative tool that enables us to accurately analyze the noise of a full, transistor-level PLL before
tape-out. We have used PLL Noise Analyzer on our 90 nm SERDES and found the tool to be fast, accurate and easy to use."
Bill Walker, Vice President of Advanced LSI Technology Research
at Fujitsu Laboratories noted the accuracy of the tool, "We were an early adopter of Berkeley Design's technology. We use
PLL Noise Analyzer to analyze jitter in clock and data recovery (CDR) circuits. The tool produces accurate results and is
much faster and more reliable than our previous noise analysis methodology. Our engineers, who are fluent in HSPICE, were
able to master PLL Noise Analyzer in a matter of minutes."
Other customers for the PLL Noise Analyzer include Analog Bits,
a clocking macro IP core company and P.A. Semi a fabless microprocessor startup. Vincent von Kaenel, Director of Analog Design
at P.A. Semi. indicated that the design tool was critical in the analysis of cost / performance trade-offs, "Today's microprocessor-based
silicon solutions require leading-edge analog circuits for the core and I/O. Meeting stringent PLL noise and jitter specifications
is critical to the success of these designs. PLL Noise Analyzer is the only tool that can accurately analyze the noise of
a full PLL. With this tool, we can confidently make performance, noise, area, and power trade-offs during design."
Lattice Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ:LSCC), after a careful
selection, training and certification process has added 20 charter partner companies to its LEADER program. Under the LEADER
program, Lattices' chip customers are offered design services and support for their product development endeavors. According
to Steve Donovan, Lattice Corporate Vice President of Sales. "Our new LEADER program will create value through close relationships
among Lattice, our partners and, most importantly, our customers. In the past twelve months, Lattice has introduced our low-cost,
high-performance LatticeEC and LatticeECP FPGAs, and our revolutionary LatticeXP non-volatile FPGAs. These products are being
enthusiastically received in the global marketplace, and, consequently, the need for local design consultation continues to
grow rapidly. It's no coincidence that we've elected to launch our LEADER program at this time, to ensure our customers receive
superior design counsel and services."
Lattice listed the design partners as: ADI Engineering, Charlottesville,
VA; ADM Designs, Phoenix, AZ; AmDATA AS, Oslo, Norway; Astek Corporation, Colorado Springs, CO; Bit 7, Mundelein, IL; Creative
Electronics, Ft. Collins, CO; Eggert Engineering, Stow, MA; Encadis, Middletown, NJ; Falcon Electronics Inc., West Newbury,
MA; Logic Product Development, Minneapolis, MN; M.A.D.S., Bedford, NH; Mixed Mode GmbH, Munich, Germany; Modelware, Red Bank,
NJ; Northwest Logic, Beaverton, OR; Nuvation, San Jose, CA; Omnisys Corporation, Raleigh, NC; Paragon Innovations, Plano,
TX; Talijon Engineering, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; Zephyr Engineering, Tempe, AZ; Zeta Electronic Design, Inc., Hooksett, NH.
Rockwell Scientific Company (RSC) has selected StratEdge for the
packaging and assembly of its RTH050 track and hold integrated circuit. That chip is noted for its very high bandwidth and
operating speed. According to Rockwell, the RTH050 has a 15GHz bandwidth and a 1Giga samples per second dual track and hold
circuit.
Emphasizing that the selection was a direct result of StratEdge's
high frequency packaging technology was Casey Krawiec, Director of North American Sales at StratEdge, "This is a prime example
of a customer taking advantage of our high frequency packaging technology. The engineers at Rockwell Scientific recognized
the superior performance of our packages and our high frequency assembly expertise. They needed a package that could meet
all of their requirements including electrical, environmental, thermal, and next level assembly -- and we delivered."
M.J. Choe, Manager of RSC's Mixed-Signal Product Engineering department
also commented on StratEdge's technology, "The StratEdge package handles the high speed and frequencies of our chip while
providing a leaded package that can be easily assembled to our customers' boards."
Named after the famous Manhattan layout algorithm, Manhattan Routing
Inc., has announced another design tool. The new tool hierarchically optimizes integrated circuits. According to Mr. Tor Ekenberg,
President of Manhattan, "More and more chips are being designed hierarchically today. Designs are getting too large to handle
'flat,' and design teams are paying a penalty in performance when tools cannot optimize across physical hierarchical boundaries.
Furthermore, the integration of soft IP from multiple sources often dictates the need for independently implemented sub-blocks,
driven by a set of boundary constraints developed at the chip's top level, making the final integration at the chip level
difficult when optimizing for performance."
With the new tool, customers of Manhattan can now select the company's
flat or hierarchical optimization strategy for their chip designs. However, for many designs, especially large designs, hierarchical
optimization can reduce layout time significantly and improve silicon performance specifications. Manhattan, for instance,
had one customer that was able to create a "timing sensitized layout of a 12.5 million gate hierarchical design in less than
15 minutes using about 5GB of physical memory."
The hierarchical tool is priced at $36K for analysis and $84K for
optimization for a three year license.
The Fab Owners Association (FOA) reports that it has added three
more members. These include one of the largest flash memory chip producers, Spansion LLC, as well as two associate members,
National Semiconductor, one of the worlds largest analog chip companies and Applied Materials, a major player in the semiconductor
equipment market.
The addition of these two Integrated Device Manufacturers(IDMs),
brings the total wafer production capacity represented by the Fab Owners Association up to 600,000 eight inch equivalents
per month. In terms of semiconductor revenue, the members of the organization represent over $9.7 billion in annual revenue.
FOA's announced members that have been announced previously include
AMI Semiconductor, Cypress Semiconductor, Delphi Electronics, Fairchild Semiconductor, Intersil, Jazz Semiconductor, LSI Logic,
Micrel Semiconductor, ON Semiconductor, Spansion, and ZMD AG.
Ember has announced the EM250, which it billed as the world's first
ZigBee "system-on-a-chip." Raymarine, one of Ember's customers, will port its wireless autopilot system to the new Ember platform.
Kieran Breheny, Director of Engineering Development at Raymarine gave reasons for the selection of the new platform, "Ember
offered the speed and convenience of a fully integrated ZigBee platform solution - radio chips, networking software and development
environment - that enabled us to meet an aggressive product development cycle." Raymarine uses Ember's products for the development
of wireless boat navigation products.
The tiny chip, packaged in a thin 7mm x 7mm package, is to be available
in the summer of this year, priced at $4.00 in high volumes.
THE SEMICONDUCTOR EVENING NEWS
June
10th, 2005
Clear Shape Technologies Inc. has aligned with the financial
units of high profile semiconductor and semiconductor equipment manufacturers as part of the chip's industry's latest effort
to address the challenge of near atomic-scale semiconductor process technologies. In order to help achieve that goal, Clear
Shape Technologies received more than $5 million in venture capital commitments in its second round of financing, bringing
its total to over $10 million. Included in the latest round of funding for the design for manufacturing (DFM) company, was
Intel Capital, the venture capital arm of Intel Corporation, the world's largest semiconductor company, and KT Venture Group,
the investment partner for semiconductor equipment giant KLA-Tencor (NASDAQ:KLAC).
Clear Shape Technologies, Inc. with the funding is expected to further
advance its DFM software, designed to allow engineers to systematically detect design errors that lead to less than optimum
yield, design time, performance specifications and catastrophic manufacturing failures. According to Atul Sharan, Clear Shape
President and CEO, “Our mission is to deliver our patented technology to every design team in the world, so they can
design confidently for sub-90 nanometers with high yield, maximize the utilization of process technology, and accelerate time
to market.”
Indicating a direct link between KLA-Tencor's effort to solve the
yield problems and its investment in Clear Shape was Robert Lee, General Partner at KT Venture Group., “Clear Shape
has a substantial value proposition for their customers. Their approach is in alignment with KLA-Tencor’s strategy in
addressing the increasingly urgent manufacturing and yield issues that are now extremely design-dependent.”
Emphasizing the need to produce design software package that simplify
interrelated design-to-process manufacturing concepts into a tool engineers can readily use was Jim Hogan, General Partner
at Telos Ventures, one of the Series A investors, “In my 30-plus years in the semiconductor industry, rarely have I
seen a situation where there is so much angst as a result of such fundamental changes as are being currently witnessed in
the design to manufacturing chain. The problems associated with lithography, copper and an inadequate rule-based design tools
infrastructure are only getting worse. Clear Shape has a strong and talented technical team spanning both design and process
technology. They have a highly innovative approach to closing the critical gap in information and knowledge for the semiconductor
industry.”
Early investors in Clear Shape, through a Series A round in 2004,
included Venture Partners, Telos Ventures and AsiaTech Management. Clear Shape was founded in 2003.
S2C has announced its entrance into the accelerated SOC chip design
market with the introduction of its patent pending TAI IP (Testable, Analyzable, and Integratable) interconnect technology.
That technology, billed as a plug-and-play tool for the integration of pre-designed silicon IP (Intellectual Property) core
blocks, is credited with the capability to reduce SoC design time, the most complex chips, in the order of three to six months.
The prototype tool also has been designed to give software developers a working hardware prototype to test system software
at the initial stages of the design process.
Thomas Huang, CEO of S2C Inc. described in detail the company’s
approach to IP integration in SoC designs. "Electronic hardware innovation depends on architecture, components, ASSP, IP modules,
and SoCs, while software innovation depends on stable hardware and operating environments. Consequently, prototyping is a
must step in the development of any electronic product; it provides an early demo of the hardware innovation to customers
and provides an implementation platform for software developers prior to production. The step from concept to prototype hardware
must be repeated numerous times during the iterative design process. We targeted this step as a bottleneck to eliminate since
it is just a time-consuming mapping of one representation to another that is unrelated to innovation. To accelerate innovation,
the designer must be able to easily access IP and quickly assemble a prototype that enables hardware and software to work
together to demonstrate system functionality. TAI IP technology and our FPGA-based ESL design solution are the breakthroughs
that achieve this objective. Current beta partners who have applied our technology conservatively estimate a time savings
of 3 to 6 months."
The two products that S2C offers for accelerated SoC designs include
TAI Compiler Cration and the IP Porter System. The two tools provide for encrypted FPGA based IP modules and the development
of FPGA based prototypes of SoC designs. The company indicates that the tools are available now and can be previewed at the
upcoming DAC conference scheduled to begin June 13, 2005.
Optichron Inc. a fabless semiconductor company, which just this
March received $17 million in Series B venture capital funding, has introduced its first products that incorporate its advanced
nonlinear signal processing technology, called Turbolinear. The company states that Turbolinear reduces nonlinear distortion
by more than 90 percent in high-speed piplelined data converters.
The Turbolinear technology is now available in the company's analog
to digital converter modules for applications such as multi-channel / multi-mode receivers, base stations and medical imaging
equipment. Specifications for one of the modules, the M1400A-105 ADC module, which incorporates Optichron's Linearizer integrated
circuit along with an AD6645 ADC and AD8351 amplifier, include a Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) of 70 dB and a Spurious Free
Dynamic Range (SFDR) of 90 dB. Both specifications are based on an input frequency of 150 MHz. Volume production of the 105
is expected in the fourth quarter of 2005.
Roy Batruni, CEO of Optichron noted the cost significance of the
encapsulated achievement, "Optichron's Turbolinear technology is the first of its kind to transform nonlinear signal processing
from the realm of pure science into a practical engineering language uniquely suited to address the pervasive problem of nonlinear
distortion. Turbolinear technology allows engineers to utilize versatile filter architectures that eliminate nonlinear distortion
in a way that is both cost-effective and easy to implement in low-power semiconductor products."
As the integrated circuit industry becomes more complex and more
flexible, chip designers need to know which architectural proposal will result in the lowest costs. In order to answer that
question and more, Giga Scale Integration Corporation now offers its IC Economic Analysis Engine as an add-on option to its
InCyte architectural specification analysis tool.
The new Design for Cost option to InCyte allows for design engineer
to determine the final chip cost at the architectural stage of design, long before the intricate details of the chip are known.
Along with InCyte’s estimates of silicon area and power, the new option takes into account estimated yield, packaging,
test and assembly cost, mask costs, engineering, design tools and IP costs to determine a finalized cost for a proposed chip
architecture. Furthermore, the economic analysis engine performs calculations to determine the return on investment as related
to IP core and NRE expenses. According to Adam Traidman, President of Giga Scale IC, "For the first time, design teams can
fully and accurately estimate total chip cost at the architectural level in the design flow. Our Design for Cost methodology
lets design managers understand the economic as well as the technical consequences of early architectural decisions."
InCyte upgrades including the economic analysis engine are priced
at $2500 per month and up. The InCyte package, in order to ensure accurate estimates of specifications and costs, comes complete
with industry averaged IP core and foundry data and options for proprietary IP vendor and foundry vendor data.
With Tak Imaging's selection of Lumax International Corp. Ltd to
distribute its hardware and software solutions in Taiwan and China, Lumax, a diversified technology company with distribution
operations, gave one more vote of confidence for Tak's photo printer technology. According to Mr. C.K. Lin, CEO of Lumax International
Corp. Ltd., "TAK Imaging's solutions will bring a new level of competitiveness and energy to the photo printer market in this
region. In terms of performance and a design optimized for rapid time to market we don't anticipate seeing any comparable
solution available to region manufacturers for some time to come. We are very excited about our relationship."
Tak in 2004 started applying its laser printer controller technology
to photo printer applications, and next month plans to target the inkjet and dye sublimation (a high quality and flexible
printing process used to transfer ink in a gaseous state to a surface) segments of the photo-enabled printer market - of which
Lumax is part of the strategy. According to Doug Goodyear, CEO of TAK Imaging, "Lumax has the track record and all the capabilities
we were seeking in a partner to help us drive the growth and expansion of photo printing in this region. Together, we will
enable region manufacturers to address the increasing need for fast and affordable photo printing solutions."
So far Tak's low cost solution imaging solution is used in Konica
Minolta magicolor 2430 DL, a low cost color laser printer, which has won awards.
Pantech & Curitel, considered Korea’s third largest cellular
manufacturer, has aligned with Magnolia Broadband, Inc., a United States based fabless semiconductor company, to penetrate
the American market. The two companies have signed an agreement to jointly develop a cell phone based on Magnolia's DiversityPlus
chipset. According to Magnolia, Pantech & Curitel's CDMA2000 EV-DO phone will be delivered to United States based carriers
for testing in the third quarter of 2005.
The two antenna technology enables, according to Magnolia, increases
network capacity, and significantly improves area coverage and data rates. The two antenna design has the capability to eliminate
dead zones that are often characteristic of cellular phones based on just one antenna.
Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), a diversified research organization
with significant operations in energy generation and micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS), has developed a radial flow
gas turbine. The turbine was developed as an alternative to the over 50,000 technically complex industrial complex turbines
that are in use today. The traditional turbines to be replaced, the organization notes, in general, have over 1,000 moving
parts.
Dr. Klaus Brun, who was instrumental in the development of the design
at SwRI's Mechanical and Materials Engineering Division, highlighted the fundamental differences in the design and primary
commercialization features, "The fundamental difference between the SwRI centrifugal gas turbine and conventional gas turbines
is that the compressor and turbine section are installed on the same side of the rotating wheel, while the combustor and nozzle
are mounted on the stationary shroud. This is the most basic arrangement possible and allows the design to be extremely rugged,
simple and inexpensive to manufacture. The entire gas turbine assembly consists of only two relatively easy-to-manufacture
components. Because there is only one rotating part, costs of manufacture, maintenance, repair and replacement are low."
Two companies that have been the target of venture capital funding,
Konarka Technologies, Inc. and Solaris Nanosciences, have joined forces through a joint development agreement. As part of
that agreement, the two companies will evaluate solar cell technology that comes as a result of the combination of Konarka's
light activated power plastic and Solaris's nanoscale metallic light oriented structures.
Executives at both companies talked with interest about the combination
of the two company's technologies. Russell Gaudiana, Ph.D., Vice President of R&D at Konarka spoke about the company's
goal to bring solar technology to its zenith, "One of Konarka's goals is to push photovoltaic science as far and as fast as
possible, and exploring how well our materials work with Solaris' in a shared program is one way to make that happen. Konarka's
solutions are chemistry-agnostic. We believe in finding the best possible combination of materials to create power plastic
that meets the performance needed for a specific application, and this project with Solaris holds promise."
Robert Afzal, the Vice President of R&D at Solaris Nanosciences
talked about the concept of the solar antenna, "Through our proprietary nanotechnology, we uniquely design the optical properties
of our NanoAntenna materials. Our nano-antennas enhance the absorption of the solar spectrum much like a conventional antenna
enhances the reception of a radio receiver. This leads to high absorption in thinner structures with highly favorable electrical
properties possibly resulting in higher efficiencies."
The companies indicated that Solaris' nanoscale metallic structures
are to be used as an additive to Konarka's light sensitizing materials. The metallic structures are said to attract light
sensitive molecules - acting as nanoantennas. One inference is that the metallic nanostructures offer lower resistance to
light.
THE SEMICONDUCTOR EVENING NEWS
June
9th, 2005
IRI Ubiteq, a developer of integrated circuits and sensors for visually
impaired applications, will launch an IPO on June 14 on the Osaka Securities Exchange Hercules market. Approximately 280 million
yen is expected to be raised from the initial public offering. For the company's current fiscal year, the company projects
revenue of 4.43 billion yen. IRI Ubiteq employs about 100 people.
Tehuti Networks, a network traffic accelerator chip company, has
completed $4.2 million in Series A financing. The round was led by Alice Ventures and joined by its existing investors, Alice
Lab and ProSeed Venture Capital Fund.
Miki Granski, Chairman of the Board of Tehuti Networks, with the
funding announcement commented on the company's technology, "Tehuti Networks has developed a unique approach to solving the
TCP/IP processing problem that is becoming critical for many large enterprises. The company's unique value proposition combined
with the executive team's proven leadership and operational experience will enable Tehuti Networks to capitalize on a significant
market opportunity." Tehuti also claims that its current Network Traffic Accelerator chip technology improves system performance
up to five times.
Optosecurity, Inc., a company with luggage and cargo screening technology,
has closed a $2.4 million (Canadian) investment round. This first round was led by Business Development Bank of Canada Seed
Investment Group and included funding from Innovatech Quebec.
Eric Bergeron, President and CEO of Optosecurity, noted the initial
market response to its technology "Government regulators and screening equipment vendors from around the world immediately
recognized how unique and valuable Optosecurity products and technology can be -- we are actively in discussions with several
partners who appreciate the full impact of our technology and how it will revolutionize security screening."
Elaborating slightly on the nature of the technology was Jean-Guy
Paquet, President and CEO of INO, "We are delighted that Optosecurity has obtained financing which will allow this promising
company to break new grounds with the use of the Optical Computing technology. We are very happy to once again offer the private
sector INO's vast expertise developed over the years through our team of qualified researchers."
Optosecurity's product, which is used in the design of systems for
the detection of weapons or explosives is based on the Optical Correlator. The company obtained exclusive rights for the Optical
Correlator from the National Optics Institute (INO), which spun-off Optosecurity. INO is considered Canada's largest R&D
center in applied photonics. INO research operations are focused on microoptic technology based on micro-electro-mechanical
system (MEMS) optics. The organization uses software from ANSYS to simulate its microoptic based MEMS designs.
YOGITECH , has received funding of 1 million Euros from Toscana
Venture of SICI (Sviluppo Imprese Centro Italia). The company has plans to introduce a fault tolerant system on a chip platform
for electronic designs used in safety and repair diagnostic applications. The platform, due out in the second half of 2005,
is based on the IEC 61508 standard, an international standard for electronic systems that require high reliability because
they are used in critical safety applications like automobiles.
Power Integrations, Inc. (NASDAQ:POWI) has introduced a 3-watt charger
reference design that it estimates reduces no-load energy by 97 percent over linear transformer based designs. The company
says that the new design consumes less than 30 mW of no-load power. The design has been developed for portable applications
such as cell phones, cordless phones, MP3 players and PDAs.
The new design, DI-84, is a 5 V, 600 mA charger based on the company's
TinySwitch-II power conversion IC family. The DI-84 operates on AC voltages from 85 VAC to 265 VAC. The Y capacitor less solution
also meets CISPR-22 Class B conducted EMI limits. This feature, according to the company, assists in the development of low
component count and low cost solutions without undesirable "touch current" associated with metallic cell phones.
Doug Bailey, Vice President Marketing at Power Integrations
noted that the product’s energy reduction contribution to total world energy demands would be significant, "The sheer
number and ubiquity of products that use external chargers and adapters makes their overall contribution to energy waste significant.
The DI-84 low-power charger design will allow manufacturers to rapidly bring products to market that exceed all worldwide
mandatory and advisory efficiency and standby power consumption regulations." One of the markets Mr. Bailey refers to is
the cellular phone market. About 600 million cell phones a year are sold.
Nethra Imaging has made available its image processing engine chips
for digital still cell phone applications. The family of chips is named the NI-2070, NI-2080 and NI-2090. Inside the chips,
packaged in an 8 mm X 8 mm chip scale package are 32KB of SRAM, 64KB of Flash, SDRAM and an ARM core. The System on Chip (SOC)
designs also includes pulse width modulators, IO functions and peripheral interfaces. Both the 2080 and 2090 include integrated
SDRAM memory.
The company noted that the chips feature low power consumption and
can be used to produce photo images that are suitable for high quality print applications. The series of chip is currently
available for evaluation and software development. Production is scheduled for the third quarter of 2005.
Nethra Imaging, incorporated in 2003, is located in Cupertino California.
LeWiz Communications, a fabless semiconductor company, has reported
that it now supports enterprise class Linux OS and iSCSI storage stacks for its Magic2020 TCP/IP Offload Engine (TOE) HBA
. LeWiz offers a multi-port TCP/IP Offload Engine (TOE) chip and related board products used to address I/O bottlenecks in
SAN and NAS storage systems.
Future Waves now offers the Fenix digital audio broadcasting chip
based on RF technology it licensed from Toumaz Technology, based in the United Kingdom. Samples of that chip are expected
to be available this month.
Toumaz Technology recently formed a joint venture with Advance Nanotech
for the development of ultra low power wireless biosensors.
THE SEMICONDUCTOR EVENING NEWS
June
8th, 2005
u-Nav Microelectronics, whose investor and partner include Trimble
Navigation, a leading GPS systems company, has introduced its uN9018 chipset for low-power GPS receiver applications. The
uN9018 chipset includes the uN1008 CMOS RF Front-End chip and the uN8130 Baseband Processor chip. The chipset was designed
to be integrated with cellular phones and PDAs. The overall solution permits a GPS receiver to be packaged in a volume of
10x10x1.8mm.
Mr. Russ Garcia, CEO of u-Nav Microelectronics summed up the chipset
solution, "u-Nav continues to reduce the power requirements of our GPS devices, while offering performance enhancements, reducing
size and lowering the cost of our GPS solutions. Our advances in GPS semiconductor technology are enabling a new level of
mass-market, battery powered devices that are being designed into high volume consumer GPS applications."
Both an evaluation kit and chipsets are available in production
quantities.
Cygnus Communications, Inc, a fabless semiconductor company, has
completed the acquisition of SiWorks, Inc. SiWorks, based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, provides Wireless Semiconductor Intellectual
Property for a number of wireless standards. These include the IEEE-802.16d standard or the WiMAX standard, UWB-MBOA or the
Multiband-OFDM Alliance standard, and the IEEE-802.11a/b/g standard, otherwise known as the WiFi standard.
Kenneth Stanwood, Cygnus Communications' CEO commented on the acquisition,
"SiWorks IEEE-802.16d compliant SDR is a perfect complement to the Cygnus Communications ASIC development effort in support
of WiMAX compliant Fixed and Mobile Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks. The acquisition of SiWorks accelerates our entry
into the huge IEEE-802.16e market, and we're leveraging the success of the IEEE-802.16d development to be the first to introduce
802.16e compliant ASIC products."
ANSYS, Inc. (NASDAQ: ANSS), announced the latest revision of its
ANSYS multi-physics software package. Version 10 now includes a new size optimized modal port definition for high frequency
electromagnetic simulation of transmission lines. The modal is used for applications such as Radio Frequency Identification,
integrated circuit, Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) and general purpose Radio Frequency device simulation. The company
reported that the smaller size of the modal resulted in a reduction in solution time (simulation time) and memory requirements
in the range of 30 to 50 percent. Also thermoelastic damping was added to the software's structural thermal electric coupling
capabilities for the simulation of resonator beams found in MEMS devices.
On release of Version 10.0, Jim Cashman, ANSYS's CEO, indicated
that the company's development strategy was modified to meet convergence trends in the technology markets, "ANSYS 10.0 represents
the latest in integrated CAE capability, building upon the significant advances we delivered in ANSYS 9.0. We have continued
to increase the breadth and depth of the ANSYS simulation technology, while at the same time establishing an unprecedented
level of interoperability between all forms of simulation and analysis. Taking full advantage of the ANSYS Workbench infrastructure
for integrated CAE, we have created a more seamless approach for meshing and modeling, simulation and analysis, and post-processing.
Our world-class capabilities in each of the forms of analysis such as structural, thermal and fluids are all together as part
of ANSYS 10.0."
Future generations of MEMs designs as well as system level designs
are expected to further the need to combine the capability to co-simulate electronic circuits and micromechanical, microelectrical,
microoptical, and microfluidic devices. As well, new design demands will require engineers to determine the effects of different
nanomaterials, temperature variations and electromagnetic fields on microstructural performance.
The United States Patent Office has assigned Hewlett-Packard Development
Co. LP, Houston U.S. Patent No. 6,893,951 in May. The patent was entitled, “Vertical interconnection structure and methods.”
The patent referenced the use of antifuses within the vertical interconnects. The patent refers to interconnect structures
for integrated circuits that have cells in two different planes.
Inventors noted in the patent were Peter Fricke (Corvallis,
OR) and Andrew L. Van Brocklin (Corvallis, OR), indicating the work was probably done at HP's Corvallis Oregon division.
The patent goes into length on the exact definition of a vertical
interconnect, "Also, the term "pillar" referring to an interconnection and the term "vertical interconnection" are used interchangeably
to mean an interconnection communicating between different layers of an integrated circuit, regardless of the spatial orientation
of those different layers. Integrated circuits herein include not only monolithic integrated circuits, but also hybrid integrated
circuits and multi-layer or "stacked" modules.
Adecco Reports on Boston Job Market - Technical Demands
Noted
As one sign of an improving economy, Adecco reported in its “Where
the Jobs Are Report” a shifting trend from high demand for temporary workers to direct full-time employee request. Specifically
for the Boston area, Heather Rice, Adecco’s Vice President for Boston, noted "We are seeing a strong demand for mid-
to executive-level administrative assistants and customer service representatives with finance, insurance and medical backgrounds.
In addition, candidates with strong technical skills are in demand by the biotech, pharmaceutical, legal, insurance and finance
industries. The hot technical positions right now are software developers and testing engineers."
Adecco Staffing USA is one of the nations largest. The company has
over 70,000 clients a year and places 130,000 temporary's each week.
Infineon Technologies AG has divested its wearable electronics unit
through a management buy-out to a company called Interactive Wear. As part of the agreement, rights to the wearable technology's
patents and licenses have all been assigned to Interactive Wear.
Andreas Roepert, Interactive Wear's CEO, spoke positively about
the company's prospects, "We are delighted that the acquisition of Infineon's wearable electronics activities went so smoothly.
We will now concentrate our consulting, development, production, and sales efforts fully on one business - wearable electronics.
Thanks to the technological head start and network of partners that we acquired from Infineon, and to the extremely positive
market appraisal from various analysts, who anticipate a market volume of up to one billion US dollars for technical textiles
in 2008, we see excellent market opportunities and developmental potential for our company."
Interactive Wear, apparently already dressed for its bright future,
can be seen between June 7th and 9th, 2005 at the "Avantex 2005 - International Forum for Innovative Apparel Textiles."
Reports through the NeST Group, a provider of a wide range of engineering
development services, indicate that a wafer fabrication facility in Cochin, India, is to be built. The facility has been planned
for the manufacture of memory chips to be used in mobile handsets and other types of consumer products. The roadmap for the
facility is in three phases. The first phase is for a design center, which is to employ 200, the second phase a test facility
in 2007 and the third phase is a 12 inch foundry, to be built in 2008. The total project was estimated to cost $1 billion
and has reportedly investors from the Middle East and Japan involved. The exact nature of the specific function or involvement
that the NeST Group had in the project was not disclosed. However, the NeST Group has plans to further expand its already
diverse operations in other areas. One of those areas is planar lightwave circuits for broadband communication applications.
The NeST Group provides product development services through the
NeST R&D Centre.
IBM Engineering & Technology Services has put its advanced statistical
timing analysis tool, EinsTimer, on the market. The tool addresses the process variation problems that have become more of
an issue as process technologies drop below 90 nanometers. According to Dale Hoffman, Director of Business Development and
Chief Technical Officer at E&TS, "Variability in digital integrated circuits makes timing verification an extremely challenging
task. IBM's knowledge of deep submicron physics, chip manufacturing, lithography, design flows and EDA tools have been leveraged
to offer this comprehensive solution."
The timing tool supports both pre-layout and post-layout timing
analysis, features statistical timing incrementation for integration into physical design flows and also generates timing
yield curves based on variables such as temperature, voltage and four corner process points.
Xilinx, Inc. (NASDAQ:XLNX) has passed the 3.5 million unit milestone
with the shipment of if 3.5 million 90nm programmable logic devices. The company’s 90 nanometer devices include its
Virtex-4, Spartan-3E, Spartan-2L and Spartan-3 families. The company's 90 nanometer foundries include UMC and Toshiba.
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