Electronics Supply Chain News & Analysis

IoT a Boon for MEMS

The market for MEMS used in the industrial equipment sector will grow to $120 million by 2018, up from $16 million in 2013 as the market gears up.

SMIC Makes Snapdragon, Opens Shenzhen Wafer Fab

It's all go at Chinese foundry SMIC as it starts making Snapdragon 410 processors on 28nm CMOS and opens a wafer fab in southern China for complementary ICs such as image sensors and PMICs

IDEs for the IoT

The complexity of devices and software for the IoT pose serious obstacles to companies seeking to shorten development cycles.

ON Semi Expands LED Lighting Component Portfolio

New power factor corrected offline AC-DC driver families intended for use in LED applications that require a higher amount of power.

AMS PMICs Address Nvidia’s Tegra K1

Austrian analog, sensor and power chip company AMS has extended its power management IC range to address the Tegra K1 quad core processor and other ARM-based multi-core processors.

Globalfoundries Licenses Amkor’s Wafer Bump Technology

The deal will give a license to the foundry to manufacture products based on its copper pillar wafer bump technology that is suited for the mobile device market.

Synopsys, IMEC Expand Technology Agreement

Agreement expands the relationship between the two companies to provide TCAD tools to chip makers developing 5nm products.

Corning Acquires Fiber-optic and Copper Vendor

The deal will strengthen Corning’s reach into the optical devices for communications portfolio as the company becomes a wholly-owned subsidiary of the parent.

Crossbar Edges Closer to ReRAM Debut

Startup Crossbar is presenting details of the selector device 'inherent' in its filamentary silver-based resistive RAM at the IEDM 2014 conference. The company claims the development will allow dense vertically-stacked ReRAM components but it now sees 2016 as the year its technology will become fully commercially available.

Qualcomm Invests $40M in Chinese Startups

The investment, part of the $150 million Qualcomm set aside in the summer for funding, will go to technology companies in the wireless communication market.

Fujitsu Targets Industrial Market with FRAM Chip

Memory device said to consume far less memory than other standard FRAM offerings for energy harvesting for rotary encoders, motor control and sensors.

Murata Completes Acquisition of Peregrine Semi

The closing of the acquisition that started in August has been finalized with Peregrine’s RF products being integrated into Murata’s own RF portfolio.

Cool Silicon Project Enhances Prospects For Scalable FRAM

Research into the ferroelectric effect in thin films of hafnium dioxide – and including Globalfoundries as a participant – is supporting the idea that FRAM could be an embedded non-volatile memory option at the 28nm node and beyond.

Microchip Unveils JukeBlox 4

Audio products platform can be used to create next-generation high quality listening devices such as AV receivers, wireless speakers, mini and micro systems and sound bars.

Semiconductor Incubator Gains Synopsys, TSMC Support

Silicon Catalyst is a mentoring and networking company formed earlier this year that plans to focus on the semiconductor startup sector. The organization is starting in Silicon Valley but intends to have a global remit.

STMicro Touts Experimental 3D Graphics Application

Using FPGAs and in partnership with Politecnico di Milano, the ray-tracing technology is part of the European Union’s FASTER initiative for research and development of next-generation technology.

Chip Gear Revenue Rose 15% in Q3

Fab tool sales up year-to-year but down compared with the second quarter of this year, trade group says.

Intel Rolls IoT Reference Model

Microprocessor giant’s Internet of Things platform will allow for better security and ease-of-use for developers making next generation connected devices and wearables.