South Africa
• Global engineering firm Siemens has earned Level 2 broad-based black economic empowerment (B-BBEE) status in South Africa for the first time. The ranking was calculated by Empowerdex in accordance with the Department of Trade and Industry’s 2007 B-BBEE Codes of Good Practice. Siemens now has a total 30% black ownership in South Africa; historically disadvantaged people make up 56% of the company and more than 80% of trainees are black.
• Group CEO of Denel SOC, Riaz Saloojee, is taking aim at the South American market. Targeting growing opportunities for South African defence and security products in these markets, Denel stepped up its marketing efforts when it participated at the LAAD 2015 trade and exhibitions show in Rio de Janeiro. It used the event to profile its Rooivalk combat helicopter as a capable system for guerrilla warfare given its successful deployment in the suppression of armed conflict in Africa.
• April saw 140 unemployed youth from the Atlantis community in the Western Cape achieve their certificates in Foundational Learning Competence (FLC), thanks to a partnership between Tellumat and the Media, Information and Communication Technologies (MICT) SETA. The group of learners achieved an overall pass rate of 84% for the FLC and Work Readiness programmes that were run by Media Works, an adult basic education and training provider. Tellumat initiated the learnership programme in an effort to maintain its strong relationship with the Atlantis community following the loss of jobs resulting from the closing of its TV manufacturing plant in April 2014.
• Johannesburg’s electric utility, City Power, continued its rollout of smart meters last month as part of its ongoing efforts to mitigate load shedding. To date, more than 60 000 units have been installed in areas where domestic customers consume 1000 kilowatt hours and above a month, with the next target being 150 000 by the end of September 2015 at no cost to customers. It is estimated that the city could save us much as 775 MW if all the 335 000 households with smart meters were to apply the system.
Overseas
Business
• Revenue for Silicon Labs’ first quarter of fiscal 2015 exceeded the top end of guidance and established a new record for the company at $163,7 million, up from $162,0 million in the prior quarter; diluted earnings per share (EPS) were $0,15. On the back of its acquisition of Bluegiga Technologies in February, the company expects revenue in the second quarter to be in the range of $164 million to $169 million and anticipates another record in its Internet of Things (IoT) products.
• Sierra Wireless delivered record revenues for its first quarter of $150,4 million, a year-on-year increase of 24,1%. Net loss was $9,7 million, or $0,30 per diluted share, in the first quarter of 2015, compared to a net loss of $4,0 million, or $0,13 per diluted share, in the first quarter of 2014.
• Microchip Technology reported results for the three months and fiscal year ended 31 March 2015. Net sales for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2015 were $543,2 million, up 10,1% year-on-year; net income for the quarter was $99,4 million ($0,45 per diluted share), down 10,8% year-on-year. For the full year, net sales were $2,147 billion – an annual increase of 11,2% – while net income grew 6,6% to $369,0 million ($1,65 per diluted share).
• GaN Systems, a Canadian fabless startup developing gallium nitride (GaN) power switching semiconductors, has secured $20 million in Series C financing from a handful of venture capital firms. The company plans to use the funds to ramp up sales and marketing support for its growing international customer base and to continue manufacturing line expansion.
• ARM Holdings’ quarterly revenue for the first quarter of 2015 grew 22% year-on-year to reach £227,5 million. Earnings per share also increased (by 27%) to 7,1 pence. The company signed 30 processor licences in the first quarter of 2015, for a broad range of applications from sensors to smartphones to servers, and announced that 3,8 billion ARM-based chips were shipped during the period, up 31% year-on-year.
Companies
• Microchip Technology has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Micrel for $14,00 per share, representing a total equity value of about $839 million, and a total enterprise value of roughly $744 million. Micrel shareholders have been offered the choice of receiving the purchase price in either cash or shares of Microchip common stock.
• Sierra Wireless is expanding its managed connectivity services offering with the imminent acquisition of Accel Networks, which provides primary and backup connectivity services to more than 300 enterprise customers in sectors such as retail, finance, security, energy and hospitality. The deal was sealed with an offer of $9,3 million in cash, with the potential for an additional $1,5 million under a performance-based earnout formula.
• Molex announced the acquisition of certain assets of Soligie, a US company specialising in printed and flexible electronic solutions for applications in medical, military, industrial, lighting and consumer goods. Products include sensor systems, medical wearables, LED lighting, specialised RFID labels, and devices that enable the Internet of Things (IoT). Financial details were not disclosed.
Industry
• This year’s productronica trade fair, to be held in Munich from 10 to 13 November, will for the first time in its history honour the most innovative electronics manufacturing technologies on display with an array of awards. An independent panel of judges made up of industry experts will present awards to the most deserving exhibitors in five categories: PCB & EMS, SMT, Cables, Coils & Hybrids, Semiconductors and Future Markets.
• Stiff competition in sensors for high-volume design wins and a recovery in actuator growth shuffled the ranking of suppliers in the $9,2 billion market for sensors and actuators in 2014, according to IC Insights. The overall trend in sensors and actuators is for the largest suppliers to keep getting bigger, gaining market share because more high-volume applications – such as smartphones and the huge potential of the IoT – and automotive systems require well established track records for quality, long-term reliability, and on-time delivery of semiconductors. Market leader Bosch enjoyed 20% of worldwide sales in 2014 while STMicroelectronics fell from second to fourth place with a 19% drop in dollar volume.
• The prpl Foundation, a non-profit established by Imagination Technologies to support open-source software on the MIPS architecture, announced that global technology leaders Broadcom, Lantiq (an Intel company) and Qualcomm Atheros have appointed representatives to the foundation’s board of directors. In addition, it recently welcomed new members CUPP Computing, Elliptic Technologies, Imperas Software, Kernkonzept and Seltech.
• The US Department of Justice has charged six Chinese nationals with economic espionage and theft of trade secrets for the benefit of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The defendants, including a Tianjin University professor, are alleged to have pilfered FBAR (film bulk acoustic resonator) technology from Avago Technologies and Skyworks Solutions, before establishing an FBAR fabrication facility in the PRC. FBAR technology is primarily used in mobile devices to filter incoming and outgoing wireless signals.
• Amid growing concerns over the security risks posed by the proliferation of the Internet of Things (IoT), the NFC Forum published the Signature Record Type Definition (RTD) 2.0 technical specification for NFC (near-field communications) tags, which are nowadays being embedded into a host of products including smart posters, restaurant menus, event badges and interactive displays. Signature RTD 2.0 provides developers with a way for users to verify the authenticity and integrity of data within NFC Data Exchange Format (NDEF) messages, the means by which NFC devices and tags exchange information.
• Samsung has broken ground on what is being billed as the world’s most expensive semiconductor fabrication plant. Located on a 2,83 million square metre plot of land at the Godeok Industrial Complex in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, the facility is set to cost the company more than $14 billion, and is expected to employ 150 000 people. Samsung has not yet revealed what chips it plans to produce at the new plant, but its next-generation 10 nm FinFET production is likely to be based there. The facility is planned to go online immediately construction is finished during the second half of 2017.
Technology
• Osram demonstrated a new technology called OmniPoint at this year’s Lightfair in New York, for which it received the show’s top innovation award. OmniPoint is a complete lighting solution in the form of an LED downlight installed in the centre of a room. A tablet computer or smartphone can be used to wirelessly control the direction as well as the beam width of the illumination.
• Haptic technology – which provides feedback to recreate the sense of touch by applying forces, vibrations or motions to the user – is being taken to the next level by a company called Ultrahaptics. Based on technology originally developed at the University of Bristol in the UK, Ultrahaptics’ technology enables users to receive tactile feedback without needing to wear or touch anything. It uses ultrasound to project sensations through the air and directly onto the user, enabling them to ‘feel’ touchless buttons, get feedback for mid-air gestures or interact with virtual objects.
• Columbia University (New York) researchers have designed a new technique to create a single-molecule diode, claiming that it performs 50 times better than all prior designs. Representing the ultimate goal in functional miniaturisation that can be achieved for an electronic device, the diode has a high (>250) rectification and on-current of around 0,1 μA.
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