Electronics Supply Chain News & Analysis

Avago to Acquire Broadcom for $37 Billion

Deal, latest in a wave of semiconductor industry consolidation, would create a communications chip powerhouse that would be sixth largest chip company in the world.

Mentor Launches Power Analysis Methodology

EDA vendor says emulation software package enables power analysis of complex SoC designs at the system, RTL and gate level.

Retailers Test Visible Light Communications

Carrefour, the largest retailer in Europe, is experimenting with visible light communications for indoor positioning.

Researchers Develop IC Made of Wood

Biodegradable chips made from flexible material could have future role in wireless devices.

UMC Targets Automotive IC Vendors

Foundry offers portfolio of automotive technologies at various process technology nodes.

Fab Tool Sales Rise

North American semiconductor equipment suppliers reported higher bookings and billings in April 2015 as the industry’s book-to-bill ratio remained above parity for the fourth consecutive month, according to the SEMI trade group.

ISSI Expects to Meet with Cypress on Bid

Integrated Silicon Solution Inc. said it would likely participate in negotiations with Cypress Semiconductor over Cypress’s recent unsolicited bid to acquire ISSI for about $658 million.

Industrial Chip Growth to Slow in 2015

The industrial chip market was worth $40 billion in 2014 and exceeded expectations with year-on-year growth of 18%. It is set to settle back to 7% growth in 2015 and to average 6% annual growth through 2019.

Power Management Chips Set for More Growth

Demand in automotive and industrial applications helped sales of power management semiconductors in 2014 and will do so again in 2015, according to IHS Technology.

Freescale Rolls Out GaN Power Chip for Base Stations

Freescale believes the time is right for gallium nitride-based chips to move from being a niche market to mainstream.

ON Semi Backs Thread Networking Protocol

Firm says move is intended to keep it at the forefront of Internet of Things development as it relates to the digital home.

Standards Creation a Critical Component of EDA Landscape

The idea of fierce competitors sitting around a table to hammer out agreements on technology standards in electronic design automation can seem awkward at first glance, but this level of cooperation has has proven to be critical to the success of all major the players in the space.

JSR, IMEC to Form EUV Lithography Resist Venture

A joint venture between a Japanese chemical firm and a European research institute aims to manufacture extreme ultraviolet lithography photoresist materials on behalf of multiple companies in Belgium.

Acquisition Won’t Help OmniVision Corner the Market in China

Fear by some that acquisition by Chinese-backed consortium will give OmniVision an unfair advantage among Chinese customers unlikely to play out, according to IHS.

Synopsys, Broadcom Expand IP Agreement

New deal will allow Broadcom to use Synopsys’ ARC processor IP for multimedia and networking applications.

Intel, Altera Resume Acquisition Talks

Talks between chip vendors have resumed after breaking down several weeks ago.

Qorvo, Modelithics Expand GaN Model Partnership

Expanded collaboration will nearly double the number of jointly -developed gallium nitride transistor models available for Qorvo customers.

IBM Marks New Milestone in Silicon-optics ICs

Using standard CMOS technology, Big Blue demonstrated the ability to design and test a fully monolithic wavelength-multiplexed silicon photonics chip for 100 Gb/s optical transceivers.

TSMC Adding Near-threshold Voltage Operation at 16nm

Leading foundry striving to meet power consumption requirements of IoT and wearable applications with its ULP family of processes. A near-threshold voltage 16nm process is due to be available next year.