EEWire

March 10, 2010

Winter Edition of Xcell Journal Magazine Available Now

Xilinx Inc. (Nasdaq: XLNX) today announced immediate availability of the latest edition of its quarterly Xcell Journal magazine at [Source: PRNewswire - Technology / 03-10]

Package Innovation from STMicroelectronics Unlocks Performance Boost for High-Frequency Power Devices

STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM), a leader in power applications, has announced innovative plastic air-cavity packages that enable high-power transistors for Radio-Frequency (RF) applications such as transceivers, broadcast equipment and MRI scanners to deliv [Source: PRNewswire - Technology / 03-10]

TI switch-mode standalone battery charge controllers provide faster, cooler charging for 5-V to 28-V applications

Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NYSE: TXN) today introduced three new switch-mode standalone battery charger ICs for lithium-based battery-powered applications with a 5-V to 28-V input. These devices provide highly accurate and efficient charging in a sma... [Source: PRNewswire - Technology / 03-10]

C-MAC recognises ceramics specialist NTK

NTK Technical Ceramics has received a supplier of the year award from the C-MAC MicroTechnology. It is the first company to receive this award which covers the business year to September 2009.... [Source: Parallel Lines / 03-10]

TierLogic Reduces Cost Of FPGA, ASIC, & FPGA-ASIC Conversion

It's good to see innovation taking place in programmables. This is a product area which has remained stuck in a $3 billion market niche for a decade. Silicon Valley start-up TierLogic today announces a route to bringing down programmables' costs which... [Source: David Manners / 03-10]

AN-1680 - LM49250 Evaluation Board User Guide

eeBulletin - National - App Notes [Source: EE Bulletin / 03-10]

LTC3890/-1: 60V Input Dual Output Synchronous Step-Down DC/DC Controller Draws Only 50uA in Battery-Powered Systems

eeBulletin - Linear Technology - The LTC3890-1 is a high performance dual step-down switching regulator DC/DC controller that drives all N-channel synchronous power MOSFET stages. A constant frequency current mode architecture allows a phase-lockable frequency... [Source: EE Bulletin / 03-10]

CalAmp Agrees to Lease Private 900 MHz Radio Spectrum From Space Data

eeBulletin - CalAmp - CalAmp to Incorporate Exclusive-Use, Licensed UHF Band in Machine Control and Communications Products for SmartGrid, Public Safety and Other Mission Critical Applications [Source: EE Bulletin / 03-10]

Leading the Evolution in Embedded Design

eeBulletin - Advantech - Advantech Embedded Design-in Forum Advances Business Success [Source: EE Bulletin / 03-10]

Analog Devices' Data Conversion Technology Enables MRI Systems to Provide Exceptional Image Quality

ElectronicsBuzz - ADI - Industry's most accurate monolithic digital-to-analog converter offers breakthrough levels of precision resulting in extremely clear diagnostic images for radiologists to detect illnesses at an early stage. [Source: ElectronicsBuzz.com / 03-10]

Nanometer Graphene Makes Novel OLEDs Display

Researchers at Stanford University have successfully developed brand new concept of organic lighting-emitting diodes (OLEDs) with a few nanometer of graphene as transparent conductor. This paved the way for inexpensive mass production of OLEDs on large-area lo... [Source: physorg.com / 03-10]

Xilinx Estimates on the Rise

Estimates for Xilinx have been revised upward by most analysts, following the issuance of strong guidance by management and a strong recovery in the semiconductor space. [Source: Zacks Analyst Blog / 03-10]

IC Insights ups ww IC market forecast to 27%

Electronics Digest - EDN - With a DRAM market expected to increase 74% this year, market researchers at IC Insights now believe that the worldwide IC market will jump 27% in 2010 to $253 billion - exceeding the previous high of $234 billion reached in 2007 - a... [Source: Electronics Digest / 03-10]

TSMC reports revenue growth for February 2010

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) saw revenues for February 2010 grow just 0.1% on month to NT$29.2 billion (US$919 million). The February results show a 153.8% jump from one year ago. [Source: DigiTimes (FEE) / 03-10]

Winbond to raise NOR flash prices

Winbond Electronics is looking to raise prices for NOR flash memory by 5% to reflect tight capacity, while Macronix International Company (MXIC) may also follow suit, according to industry sources. Escalating demand from the PC and consumer electronics sectors... [Source: DigiTimes (FEE) / 03-10]

Supply of passive components tightens

The supply-demand gap of some types of multi-layer ceramic-chip capacitors (MLCCs) and specialty polymer aluminum electrolytic capacitors (SP-Caps) has reached 10%, and the situation will continue into the second quarter due to limited capacities, according to... [Source: DigiTimes (FEE) / 03-10]

austriamicrosystems' New Single/Dual White LED Flash Driver Improves Picture Quality in Mobile Phones and Digital Still Cameras

The AS3645 is an ultra small white LED flash driver for 1x720 mA or 2x500 mA (single or double) flash LED configuration for cell phones and DSCs. [Source: Business Wire / 03-10]

GateRocket Expands EDA Expertise of Management Team

GateRocket(R) Inc. has significantly bolstered its technical, marketing, and sales acumen with the addition of two savvy and experienced chip design industry veterans. Jim Hogan, well-known EDA entrepreneur, investor, and executive has joined the GateRocket Ad... [Source: Business Wire / 03-10]

Renesas Technology Announces 100MHz 32-bit RX62T Flash MCUs, Enabling the Design of Control Systems for Electric Motors and Inverters That Are More Energy-Efficient

Renesas Technology America, Inc., today announced the release of the RX62T group of microcontrollers (MCU). The new devices have strong eco-features and deliver the environmental performance now in high demand for motor-control and inverter-control application... [Source: Business Wire / 03-10]

IXYS Introduces 600V, High-Side Gate Driver IC for Power MOSFETs and IGBTs

IXYS Corporation, and its wholly owned subsidiary, Clare, Inc. introduced the IX2127, a new high voltage gate driver IC. The IX2127 is a high-voltage, high speed power MOSFET and IGBT driver IC, designed and produced internally in the Clare fab. High-voltage l... [Source: Business Wire / 03-10]

Wind River Extends Reliable Carrier-Grade Linux to Growing Telecom Server Segment

Wind River today announced it has integrated support for HP BladeSystem carrier-grade and enterprise server blades into its industry-leading Carrier Grade Linux (CGL) operating system, tools and build system. Wind River Linux is the first registered CGL 4.0 so... [Source: Business Wire / 03-10]

IEEE P1901 Broadband over Power Line Standard Enters 30-Day Period of Sponsor Balloting

IEEE announced that sponsor balloting on the draft IEEE P1901 Broadband over Power Line (BPL) standard is open through April 8, 2010. [Source: Business Wire / 03-10]

Lighting and Display Industry Leaders Join Rambus

Rambus Inc. (NASDAQ: RMBS), one of the world's premier technology licensing companies, today announced that Dr. Kieran Drain and Mr. Marc McConnaughey have joined as vice presidents of the company's Lighting and Display Technology group. Dr. Drain will hold th... [Source: Business Wire / 03-10]

Tian Shui Hua Tian Technology Selects Teradyne J750Ex

Tian Shui Hua Tian Technology selects the Teradyne J750Ex for wafer sort and final test applications in the Consumer Audio/Video and Gigabit Ethernet application segments. [Source: Business Wire / 03-10]

Microsemi Extends Advanced Silicon Carbide Portfolio With 1,500 Watt RF Power Transistor for UHF Pulsed Radar

Microsemi Corporation (Nasdaq:MSCC), a leading manufacturer of high performance analog mixed signal integrated circuits and high reliability semiconductors, announced today the introduction of a new 1,500 watt RF power transistor for UHF pulsed radar applicati... [Source: Globe NewsWire / 03-10]

Mentor Graphics Adds AMBA 4 Verification IP to the Questa Multi-View Verification Components Library

Mentor Graphics Corporation (NASDAQ: MENT) today announced that the quickly-growing library of Questa(R) Multi-view Verification Components (MVCs) has been expanded to support phase one of the AMBA(R) 4 specification, recently announced by ARM. Phase one of th... [Source: Market Wire - Electronics / 03-10]

STMicroelectronics Introduces Optical Joystick Chip Enabling Low-Power Cost-Effective Navigation in Handheld Consumer Devices

STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM), a leading developer of semiconductors for mobile devices, has introduced an ultra-low-power IC containing all the functions necessary to control an Optical Finger Navigation (OFN) module or optical joystick. The VD5376 optical [Source: PRNewswire - Technology / 03-10]

OMRON to Donate JPY 2 Million for Relief Efforts in Chile

OMRON Corporation (TOKYO:6645)(ADR:OMRNY) has announced donation of JPY 2 million to support victims of the massive earthquake that struck Chile on February 27. The donation, which will be made through Japan Platform (JPF), will be used to support rescue effor... [Source: Business Wire / 03-10]

Testar Expands LED Chip Testing Services with Green Light on WI Harper Group Investment

Testar Electronics Corporation, specialists in testing and optimizing Light Emitting Diode (LED) chips and a subsidiary of Chroma ATE Inc. (TPE: 2360), today announced it has signed definitive agreements to become an independent entity and to receive an instit... [Source: Business Wire / 03-10]

Avago Technologies Announces Pair of Miniature High Linearity Wireless Data Power Amplifiers for WiMAX and WiFi Applications

Avago Announces Pair of Miniature High Linearity Wireless Data Power Amplifiers for WiMAX and WiFi Applications [Source: Business Wire / 03-10]

[Weekly info]DRAMeXchange: Outperformed DRAM demand in slow season, expected high level in 2Q10

According to DRAMeXchange, 1H'Mar. DRAM contract price still contain its momentum that most price quotation remains same. Some vendors mildly adjust up 2%-3% DDR3 price that out DDR3 2GB Low price and Average price consistently locates at US$41.5 and US$43 res... [Source: DRAMeXchange / 03-10]

DRAM Dynamics - Issue 8 - 2010- Memory Consolidation Continues - Elpida Purchases Spansion Assets

By Mike Howard Just a few weeks after Micron announced its purchase of NOR heavyweight Numonyx, Elpida announced it was buying a significant portion of Spansion's flash memory assets. The move is a clear effort by Elpida to secure its position in mobile memory... [Source: iSuppli Research / 03-10]

China Research Q1 2010 Topical Report - Power Management- Large Shift in Market Demand Under Way

By Vincent Gu China's total semiconductor consumption is forecast to decrease 6.8% to reach $68.18 billion in 2009, down from $73.13 billion in 2008. At the same time, China's power management IC (PMIC) market will shrink 6% to nearly $3.92 billion in 2009, fr... [Source: iSuppli Research / 03-10]

Synopsys Galaxy Custom Designer Accelerates Analog/Mixed-Signal Engineering Productivity with Built-in DRC Visualization and Correction

eeBulletin - Synopsys - New SmartDRD Technology Brings Automation to Custom Layout Design Rule Checking [Source: EE Bulletin / 03-10]

AN1209 - Iontophoresis Implementation Using a Low-Cost Microcontroller

eeBulletin - Microchip - App Notes - Iontophoresis Implementation Using a Low-Cost Microcontroller [Source: EE Bulletin / 03-10]

Wireless (English)

eeBulletin - Maxim - Design Guides - Wireless (English), Edition: 24 [Source: EE Bulletin / 03-10]

MAX16070, MAX16071: 12-/8-channel system monitors integrate current monitoring and nonvolatile fault registers

eeBulletin - Maxim - New Product - Maxim Integrated Products (NASDAQ: MXIM) introduces the MAX16070/MAX16071 , flash-configurable system monitors that supervise 12/8 voltages plus one current. Designed to simplify power-management s... [Source: EE Bulletin / 03-10]

7-Row MicroSpeed Family from ERNI Electronics

ElectronicsBuzz - ERNI - 7-Row MicroSpeed Family from ERNI Electronics High-speed connections for complex Mezzanine applications ERNI Electronics has expanded its 1.0mm MicroSpeed connector family to include 7-row vertical versions... [Source: ElectronicsBuzz.com / 03-10]

Dialight's DuroSite(tm) LED High Bay lighting helps Frontline International Meet Green Sustainability Goals

ElectronicsBuzz - Dialight - Click here to read the full case study As a company specializing in cooking oil management solutions, Frontline International is rapidly growing a green business in producing equipment for recycling oil as alternative renewable fue... [Source: ElectronicsBuzz.com / 03-10]

Fairchild Semiconductor Minimizes Power Losses in Multi-Stage Power Supplies

ElectronicsBuzz - Fairchild - To meet ENERGY STAR(R) regulations and reduce their carbon footprint, power-electronic design teams continue to push efficiency towards the 100 percent rating, bringing higher system efficiency to PCs, servers, industrial power su... [Source: ElectronicsBuzz.com / 03-10]

Actel Receives Supplier Award from Mitsubishi Electric Corporation

ElectronicsBuzz - Actel - Actel Corporation (NASDAQ: ACTL) today announced it received a coveted supplier award from Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, a prime contractor on many of Japan's most important space programs. This award validates Actel's commitment... [Source: ElectronicsBuzz.com / 03-10]

Revolutionizing medicine, one chip at a time

In the past several decades, microchips have transformed consumer electronics, enabling new products from digital watches and pocket-sized calculators to laptop computers and digital music players. [Source: physorg.com / 03-10]

Novel material paves the way for next-generation information technology

University of Queensland researchers have successfully demonstrated a futuristic semiconductor technology that will pave the way for the next generation of electrical and information technology systems. [Source: physorg.com / 03-10]

March 09, 2010

IC Insights 'Conservative' Forecast Is 27% Growth For ICs This Year

The worldwide IC market is expected to jump a conservatively estimated 27% in 2010 to $253bn and another 15% in 2011 to $290bn, according to US analysts... [Source: Electronics Weekly / 03-09]

Molex sets up mobile design facility in Beijing

Molex Inc. has opened a mobile product design facility located in Beijing, to provide front-end solution support for mobile antenna and connector designs. [Source: EE Times - Asia / 03-09]

UMC sees February 2010 revenues up on month

United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) has reported revenues of NT$8.63 billion (US$271 million) for February 2010, up 0.4% on month. On an annual basis, the sales jumped 174.7% from NT$3.14 billion in February 2009. [Source: DigiTimes (FEE) / 03-09]

Dialog Semiconductor ICs power Sharp's latest 3G Phones

Dialog Semiconductor plc (FWB: DLG), a leading provider of highly integrated innovative power management semiconductor solutions, has announced its power management ICs have been designed into a series of Sharp 3G cellphones. The first of which, the Sharp AQUO... [Source: Business Wire / 03-09]

Semtech Reports Grants of Inducement Awards

SEMTECH CORPORATION (NASDAQ: SMTC), a leading supplier of analog and mixed-signal semiconductors for high-end consumer, computing, communications and industrial equipment, today announced that as an inducement to enter into employment with Semtech, it has made... [Source: Business Wire / 03-09]

Mindspeed Debuts Optical Physical Media Device (PMD) Chipsets for 3G/4G Wireless Base Stations; Collaborates with EMCORE on Subsystems

Mindspeed Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: MSPD), a leading supplier of semiconductor solutions for network infrastructure applications, today announced a high-performance, low-power physical media device (PMD) chipset that includes all necessary components require... [Source: Business Wire / 03-09]

Silicon Labs Celebrates Ten Years as a Public Company

Silicon Laboratories Inc. (Nasdaq: SLAB), a leader in high-performance, analog-intensive, mixed-signal innovation, will celebrate ten years of solid financial performance as a public company with an opening bell ringing ceremony on the floor of the Nasdaq exch... [Source: Business Wire / 03-09]

Micrium Supports Actel SmartFusion Devices

Micrium, a leading provider of high-quality embedded software components, today announced that it has successfully ported its uC/OS-II(tm) and uC/OS-III(tm) kernels and uC/TCP-IP(tm) stack to Actel's new SmartFusion(tm) intelligent mixed-signal FPGA. Micrium's... [Source: Business Wire / 03-09]

QLogic Appoints Minoru Yasuda as General Manager of QLogic Japan

QLogic Corp. (Nasdaq:QLGC) today announced the appointment of Minoru Yasuda to general manager, QLogic Japan. Set to expand the company's operations and market share in Japan, Yasuda brings to QLogic a longstanding track record of developing highly successful ... [Source: Globe NewsWire / 03-09]

Maxwell Technologies CFO Kevin Royal to Present at Roth Capital Investor Conference in California

Kevin Royal, chief financial officer of Maxwell Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: MXWL) will present at the Roth Capital Partners Growth Stock Conference at 11:30 am PDT on March 16, 2010, at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Dana Point. The presentation will be webca [Source: PRNewswire - Technology / 03-09]

Belden Cancels Participation in Jefferies Global Technology Conference

Belden (NYSE: BDC), a leader in comprehensive cable, wireless signal, industrial networking and other transmission solutions, today announced that due to an unforeseen, minor medical issue, the management team will not participate in Jefferies Global Tech [Source: PRNewswire - Technology / 03-09]

STMicroelectronics Maximizes Power Savings and Reliability Benefits of Industry-Standard Memory Monitoring and Protection

STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM), a leader in analog ICs, has introduced the STTS2002, an integrated Serial Presence Detect (SPD) EEPROM memory and temperature-monitoring IC. The protection device meets the latest JEDEC TSE2002 standard for DDR3 DRAM modules f [Source: PRNewswire - Technology / 03-09]

Silicon Storage Technology Shareholders to Receive $3.05 Per Share in Cash Under Newly Amended Merger Agreement with Microchip

SST (Silicon Storage Technology, Inc.) (Nasdaq: SSTI), a leading memory and non-memory products provider for high-volume applications in the digital consumer, networking, wireless communications and Internet computing markets, today announced that [Source: PRNewswire - Technology / 03-09]

GLOBALFOUNDRIES Singapore Announces Early Results of Its Tender Offer and Consent Solicitation for Any and All of Its 5.75% Senior Notes Due 2010

GLOBALFOUNDRIES Singapore Pte. Ltd. (f.k.a. Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd. (UEN / Registration Number 198703584K)) (GLOBALFOUNDRIES Singapore) today announced that, in connection with its previously announced cash tender offer and consent solicitat... [Source: Business Wire / 03-09]

Applied Materials Announces Increased Cash Dividend and $2 Billion Share Repurchase Authorization

Applied Materials, Inc. announced a 17% increase in the company's quarterly cash dividend to $0.07 per share, and a new stock repurchase program authorizing up to $2 billion in repurchases. [Source: Business Wire / 03-09]

Diodes Incorporated to Webcast at Upcoming March Financial Conferences

Diodes Incorporated (Nasdaq: DIOD), a leading global manufacturer and supplier of high-quality application specific standard products within the broad discrete and analog semiconductor markets, today announced that Carl Wertz, Vice President of Finance and Inv... [Source: Business Wire / 03-09]

Analog Devices Introduces High Performance, Radio Frequency Circuit for Short-range Wireless Systems in Industrial, Science and Medical Applications

ADI's ADF7242 RF transceiver targets wireless systems in the global 2.4 GHz ISM band. Supports IEEE802.15.4, Zigbee(R) IPv6/6LowWPAN, ISA100.11a, Wireless HART, and FSK-based solutions up to 2 Mbps. [Source: Business Wire / 03-09]