Southern Africa
Trolley Scan has delivered the RFID component of a 1000 vehicle access control system to a partner in Bulgaria. The system will monitor and control 10 vehicle access points, it announced. The order for the system was placed after successful in-situ testing of the hardware and software development by the partner. The Trolley Scan equipment can identify windscreen mounted vehicle transponders at distances up to 12 metres. Through its use of narrowband low interference technology, many readers can operate in close proximity such as happens in access control situations in buildings with independent access lanes close to each other.
Rod Forrester, an executive director of Control Instruments and the CEO and managing director of CI-Shurlok for the past 17 years, has been appointed to head up the establishment of a European-based sales, engineering support and logistics business. The decision to establish this operation was taken as a result of the ongoing integration of local OEM automotive companies into the global supply chains and global manufacturing operations of their international parent companies. It is envisaged that the operation will be fully established by 31 July 2005.
NuVision Electronics has signed an exclusive distributor agreement with Navsync, a supplier of high sensitivity GPS receiver modules.
IT systems and communications distributor, Comztek, says it is the first Microsoft Finished Goods Distributor in South Africa to be certified under the Microsoft Partner Programme (MSPP). This move has formed an integral part of Comztek's strategy to offer more value-added services to channel partners. Comztek is currently working towards achieving the Licensing Solutions competency later this year.
Overseas
Business
National Semiconductor has reported earnings of $77,4m on sales of $449,2m in its third 2005 fiscal quarter, down from $93,1m on sales of $513,6m in the year-ago quarter. Q3 earnings included a $20m pre-tax charge for severance expenses related to a workforce reduction in January. Third quarter gross margin was 52,7%, compared to 50,6% in Q2, reflecting the company's increasing emphasis on higher-value analog products, said the company.
Premier Farnell has reported steady growth in most of its businesses with group sales for the year of £776,7m, up from £764,6m the previous year. In Q4, sales were £185,0m, up 4,7% year on year and 2,1% above those in Q3. The continued weakness of the US dollar against sterling impacted the Group's financial results and at constant exchange rates, the sales increase in the year was £47,6m and in the fourth quarter was £9,0m, said the group. E-commerce sales grew strongly during the year, rising 56% on the prior year.
Tektronix reported net sales of $256,3m and net earnings of $23,4m for its third quarter 2004. This compares with net sales of $243,5m, and net earnings of $43,9m for the same period last year.
Companies
JDS Uniphase has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Lightwave Electronics, a provider of solid-state lasers for materials processing, semiconductor fabrication, and biotech, for $65m.
Kontron has acquired Dolch Computer Systems for an undisclosed cash amount from Siegel-Robert. Dolch, a leading developer of ruggedised computers and flat panel displays for harsh environment applications, will assume the Kontron name and operate as a business unit of Kontron America.
Global electronics manufacturing company TT Electronics has acquired contract electronics manufacturer Dage Electronics Integrated Systems (DEIS), a division of Dage Holdings with sites in China and the UK. The acquisition will increase TT Electronics' contract manufacturing capacity in the UK and provide complementary technologies through the strength of DEIS' design and manufacture of backplanes.
Powerwave Technologies is to acquire certain product lines of Remec's Wireless Systems business in a transaction valued at approximately $118m. These specific product lines include RF conditioning products, filters, tower-mounted amplifiers, and RF power amplifiers.
Cambridge Silicon Radio (CSR) of the UK, has acquired Clarity Technologies, a US provider of software and services for improving the audio quality and performance of voice-based communications systems and products, for $17,1m. It brings to CSR both technology and a customer base of US automotive system manufacturers, which are seen as target markets for the firm's Bluetooth chips.
Mimix Broadband has announced it will acquire substantially all of Celeritek's assets relating to its gallium arsenide (GaAs) semiconductor components business for $2,8m in cash.
Entegris and Mykrolis, two leading suppliers to the global semiconductor and related industries, have signed an agreement to combine in a merger-of-equals transaction to create a combined company valued at around $1,3 bn. The combined company, which will be known as Entegris, will have combined trailing annual sales of more than $650m.
National Semiconductor has signed a definitive agreement to sell the company's PC Super I/O business to Winbond Electronics, of Taiwan. National said the sale is consistent with its ongoing programme to maximise resources and support for its analog businesses. Within National, this business is referred to as the Advanced PC division.
Labtech has purchased the assets of Filtronic Components' microwave components manufacturing facility in Milton Keynes, UK. The facility will be known as Labtech Microwave, and will offer a range of passive and active microwave components for the defence, satellite comms and telecoms markets.
Toumaz Technology and Advance Nanotech have formed a joint venture called Bio-Nano Sensium Technologies, to bridge the gap between nanosystems and the macroscopic world. The JV will use an intelligent, ultra-low-power sensor interface, incorporating wireless communication, to create bio-nano sensors that can be implanted within the body to diagnose and treat a wide variety of medical conditions, according to the companies.
Siemens Mobile Acceleration, a subsidiary of the Siemens Communications Group of Siemens AG, has changed its name and extended its investment from wireless technologies, to cover the entire communications sector. The new name, Siemens Acceleration in Communications, better reflects its new mandate, it said. It plans to invest $100m over the next five years in innovative start-ups in the communications field and is seeking opportunities in Europe, Israel, North America and Asia. Siemens Communications was formed in 2004 with the merger of the IC Mobile and IC Networks divisions.
Cadence Design Systems has renewed an agreement giving India-based Wipro Technologies access to its electronic design automation technologies.
Energizer, with its expertise in alkaline and lithium primary batteries, and Techtium, with its integrated chip and hybrid battery technology, have signed a joint cooperation agreement to pursue the development and marketing of hybrid battery solutions for power hungry devices. They will use their combined strengths to develop hybrid battery solutions capable of extended battery life and power by drawing on a device's existing rechargeable battery, as well as a secondary battery system, either primary or rechargeable. The companies hope to accelerate the design-in of economical power solutions for OEMs.
Siliconix has agreed to license to STMicroelectronics, its new power MOSFET packaging technology that provides superior thermal performance via top and bottom heat dissipation paths in systems using forced air cooling. Offered under the PolarPAK name, the package's leadframe and plastic encapsulation is similar to that used for most standard power MOSFET packages, but it more efficiently dissipates heat, allowing it to handle twice the current within the same footprint.
The WiMedia Alliance, which recently merged with the MultiBand OFDM Alliance Special Interest Group (MBOA-SIG), has announced that the FCC has granted the MBOA-SIG's request for waiver of certain measurement procedures for the multiband orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) standard for ultra wideband (UWB). The waiver paves the way for companies producing UWB devices compliant with the MBOA specifications to get FCC certification for shipment.
Infineon Technologies and Rambus have signed a broad patent licensing agreement, bringing to a halt the long running litigation between the two companies related to SDRAM and DDR DRAM technologies.
Industry
The Fabless Semiconductor Association, (FSA), has announced that 2004 fabless revenue totalled $33 bn, a 27% year-over-year growth. Geographically, US fabless companies represented 75% of 4Q 2004 revenue, followed by Taiwan at 20%, Europe with 3% and Japan at 2%.
According to Advanced Forecasting, the decline in the semiconductor industry, which began in the second half of 2004, possibly came to a halt in January. The research group said analysis of January's industry data shows a clear stagnation: worldwide IC revenues in January remained flat to December after declining for one month; the decline in worldwide IC unit sales has begun to slow, indicating it is approaching a minimum point; ASPs of ICs increased slightly in January after a slight decline in December - historical data shows this is a rare occurrence. The group said it stands by its original forecast of a near zero growth rate for the full year.
The global market for electromechanical (EMR) and solid-state (SSR) relays is expected to reach $4,2 bn by 2007, according to a study published by Venture Development Corporation. Although the majority of relays face commodity market pressures, there are several product and market categories that are experiencing rapid growth. The highest growth product categories include: RF/microwave EMR; MEMS-based switches - expected to displace GaAs FET solid state switches in some high-performance applications, where insertion loss is of primary importance; MOSFET-based solid state relays; solid-state relays above 30 A; electromechanical relays (PCB-mount, 10-30 A).
Strategy Analytics reckons 2005 is the year Bluetooth hits the mainstream. In a new forecast it states that volume shipments for automotive Bluetooth have started to build, doubling, and even quadrupling in some regions during 2005, as the technology finds its way into an increasing number of mainstream vehicles.
The West European electronics market, representing 16 countries, accounts for around 22% of the global market and 19% of global electronics production, on par with Japan, and despite increasing pressures, will remain a significant electronics market, maintaining a global market share of above 20% for the foreseeable future. This is according to Insights' new Yearbook of World Electronics Data, Vol. 1, for Western Europe. However, in terms of production, the region is expected to lose ground as companies migrate manufacturing to low cost countries, with China and East Europe the main beneficiaries.
RFID tags are poised to become the most far-reaching wireless technology since the cellphone, according to market researchers, In-Stat. Worldwide revenues from RFID tags will jump from $300m in 2004 to $2,8 bn in 2009. During this period, the technology will appear in many industries with significant impact on the efficiency of business processes. By far the biggest RFID segment in coming years will be cartons/supply chain, it states. The second-largest market, at least in the latter years of the forecast, is consumer products, even though this is one of the most privacy-sensitive areas. Widespread adoption will take a couple of years to really ramp up, as tags are still relatively expensive, ranging from a low of around $0,15, to a high of over $100.
According to a new Global Sources Market Intelligence report, four key China electronics industries will experience robust growth in 2005: production of GPS products is expected to grow 133%; power supply production to top 3,7 billion units in 2005; portable entertainment devices - particularly flash MP3 players; acoustic components - output to grow 20% in 2005.
Semico's inflection point indicator (IPI) is designed to forecast the semiconductor market 8 to 9 months in advance. If the latest trend continues, Semico says the IPI points to an upturn occurring in the late 3Q to early 4Q of the 2005 timeframe. At first glance, this appears to contradict SIA semiconductor sales data, which shows better than expected January sales. This could lead to the general perception that 2005 will experience modest growth. However, the Semico IPI is based on a much broader view of the market, and takes into account other data points - including hardware sales, inventory levels, and PCB bookings and billings, it says.
AdvancedTCA will make its mark in the steadily growing Open Standards Chassis (OSC) market over the next several years, according to In-Stat. The AdvancedTCA portion of the OSC market will grow steadily from $221m in 2004 to multiple billions of dollars in 2009, it forecasts. There are several drivers pushing along the AdvancedTCA and overall OSC markets. A recent driver is telecoms providers that are attracted to OSCs in networking equipment because of potential cost savings, it said. While the communications market is the first area of growth for the AdvancedTCA, it will also start penetrating into other markets, such as military, medical/industrial, and eventually, enterprise.
The most widely deployed satellite broadband standard, Internet protocol over satellite (IPoS) has now become the first global standard for the industry following the ETSI ratification of the IPoS air interface standard in February. IPoS was first ratified in early 2004 by the TIA. IPoS specifies a 'satellite independent service access point' (SI-SAP), which creates a well defined interface between the satellite dependent functions and the application layers, thereby enabling an open service delivery platform.
The US 'war on terrorism' will get a boost from some $11 bn in new technology grants introduced to Congress, according to a report from research firm, Input. The funding is to be spent on technology-focused initiatives to prevent terrorist attacks and address key security vulnerabilities. Current top priorities focus on increasing the dependency on highly technical solutions to protect the nation against terrorist threats at its borders, seaports, and within mass transportation systems, said the firm. More than 500 million people cross US borders annually - 330 million of them non-citizens.
Cambridge Display Technology has had a number of key, new patents allowed in the US, Europe and Canada, expanding its portfolio of intellectual property in the field of organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) used for display and lighting applications. Among them is a patent relating to OLEDs which comprise hole transport, electron transport and emissive components, using type-II interfaces, contained in the same molecule. This is believed to be of considerable importance in the context of the printing of OLED devices. The ability of manufacturers to print displays is seen as key to the ability to produce lower cost, ever-larger display sizes.
A new £5,4m SoC research centre has opened at Queen's University in Belfast. The International Centre for System-on-Chip and Advanced Microwireless (SoCaM) will develop high performance wireless orientated communication chips for use in advanced mobile applications such as phones, video streaming and vehicle sensors. The centre has already attracted more than 30 experts in high frequency electronics, microelectronics, DSP architectures and computer science who are working on a number of issues critical to the development of future highly complex electronic ICs.
TTAutomotive has joined the FlexRay consortium as a development member.
Xilinx has announced that its India development centre, operated by CMC in Hyderabad, has successfully created 12 IP cores in its first year of operation. IP cores are off-the-shelf, pre-defined hardware design modules that Xilinx customers can use to reduce their design efforts, lower costs and get to market faster. It said these IP cores are available for use by its worldwide customer base of over 7500 companies with several hundred thousand design engineers generating 50 000 design starts annually.
Nokia has announced that realtime television transmission to mobile phone handsets is being tested by 500 subscribers in Finland. Nokia noted that the test conforms with the DVB-H standard, which has been adopted by ETSI.
STMicroelectronics has named Pasquale Pistorio as 'honorary chairman' upon his retirement as president and CEO of the company. ST said Pistorio would act as an 'ambassador' of the company while continuing to make available to ST, as appropriate, his wealth of experience and insight into the semiconductor, electronics, and industrial worlds. Carlo Bozotti has been appointed as the new president and CEO of STMicroelectronics for a three-year term.
The Electronic Components, Assemblies & Materials Association (ECA) has announced that Dr Felix Zandman, the founder and chairman of Vishay, has had a new award named after him. The Dr Felix Zandman Award was first presented at the CARTS (Capacitor and Resistor Technology Symposium), USA, event in March.
The North American Components (NAC) division of Arrow Electronics has announced that it has received the Distributor of the Year award from Epcos, a leading supplier of passive electronic components. Arrow said it helped Epcos increase its sales by 93% in 2004 as a result of distributing the widest variety of EPCOS products to its customers.
At the first annual Ace Awards sponsored by EE Times, Intel co-founder Gordon Moore received a Lifetime Achievement Award as one of America's greatest technology innovators. John Santhoff, founder of Pulse-Link was named Innovator of The Year for his achievements in the development of ultrawideband communications. The IBM Research was named Design Team of the Year for its work on the BlueGene/L supercomputer. AMD CEO Hector Ruiz picked up two awards: large company of the year and executive of the year.
Technology
Permlight Products and Osram Opto Semiconductors introduced at ShoWest, a gathering of motion picture professionals and theatre owners in Las Vegas, a new LED system for stopping movie piracy. Permlight's anti-piracy product uses Osram's recently introduced thin-film infrared power LED technology to transmit a safe, harmless and human invisible signal into movie audiences to wash out any silicon CCD-based digital camcorders. The technology uses a randomly-generated pulsing algorithm that powers up to 100 infrared LEDs. Piraters videotape new releases and then mass-produce low cost DVDs which are sold on the black market.
DesignAdvance Systems claims it can reduce PCB design time by up to 50% with 'CircuitSpace', a PC-board synthesis tool that brings user-assisted automated component placement to PCB designers. DesignAdvance, a startup launched by Carnegie Mellon University, has formed an alpha test program with four partners. Current tools can only create initial configurations that require extensive manual effort for completion, it says. With CircuitSpace, designers specify and/or import relevant constraints, design rule checks (DRCs), and electrical rule checks (ERCs). Sophisticated algorithms then process the data, creating and solving an optimisation problem whose result is a board with components placed according to the design constraints, a faster time-to-market, and reduced costs.
Altera has unveiled what it claims to be industry's first FPGA-based, video-over-IP reference design. Altera developed the reference design using its Cyclone FPGA and the Nios II embedded processor. It is intended to accelerate development of video-over-IP systems involving broadcast infrastructure as well as Ethernet-based data transport. The design can accept a configurable number of MPEG-2 transport streams and encapsulate the data for transmission over Ethernet.
Agilent Technologies' Automated Lab-on-a-Chip Platform was awarded a 2005 iF Gold Award, a prestigious international award for industrial product design. The Agilent 5100 Automated Lab-on-a-Chip is the first fully automated, lab-on-a-chip system for life science research. The system enables unattended analysis of thousands of DNA and protein samples daily. The award was presented at the CeBIT trade show.
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