Texas Instruments unveiled details of a 45 nm semiconductor manufacturing process that leverages a "wet" lithography process to double the number of chips produced on each silicon wafer, increasing performance by 30 percent while reducing power consumption 40 percent.

publicité

TI's 45-nm process will be manufactured on 300-mm wafers in the DMOS6 facility in Dallas, Texas. The low-power ASIC design library will be available by the end of this year, with samples of the first SoC product delivered in 2007 and initial production in mid-2008.

Powerwave Technologies and Filtronic announced that they have signed a definitive agreement for Powerwave to acquire the majority of Filtronic's Wireless Infrastructure division business for a combination of 20.7 million newly issued shares of Powerwave common stock and $150 million in cash. The specific product lines included in this transaction comprise transmit/receive filters, integrated remote radio heads and power amplifier products, all for use in commercial wireless infrastructure base station equipment. The proposed acquisition does not include point to point radio backhaul equipment, as well as Filtronic's other divisions, of compound semiconductors and defence electronics. Immediately following the close, Filtronic will have an equity interest in Powerwave of approximately 13%. Filtronic's wireless infrastructure business had a 12-month revenue for the period ending November 30, 2005 of approximately $332.1 million. Powerwave believes that combined revenues for calendar year 2007 will easily exceed $1.4 billion.

A key part of the strategy for Filtronic is to achieve further substantial growth in value for compound semiconductors. This division is seeing strong long term market growth as the mobile handset industry continues to adopt switches based on GaAs pHEMT technology, with the expectation that they will be used in around 80% of handsets produced by 2008, says Filtronic. So, the British company plans to expand the semiconductor facility to increase the size of this business by up to three times in the coming two years, at an estimated cost of £45m over the next twelve months.

Analog Devices has named Frederic Boutaud to the distinguished position of ADI Fellow. The Fellows honor is awarded when an engineer has contributed significantly to ADI's business and demonstrated important qualities such as innovation, leadership, entrepreneurial ability, and consulting skills. A 25-year veteran of integrated circuit design and architecture work, Mr. Boutaud joined ADI in 1996. He holds 46 patents in programmable architectures and wireless communications circuit design. Mr. Boutaud is a graduate of the Ecole Centrale de Lyon of Ecully Cedex, France and is also a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

The worldwide market for microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) was $5.1 billion in 2005 and is set to grow to $6.0 billion in 2006 (+17,6%) and to $9.7 billion in 2010, according to Yole Developpement (Lyon, France). Due to MEMS growth now moving to consumer applications where there is low pricing, competition and price erosion, and the diminishing significance of industrial applications, the growth rate at 15% is lower than the previous years in term of revenue. However, with consumer electronics come large numbers and the MEMS market’s unit growth will be higher, close to 20 percent over the same period.

Yole says that all 50 of the top 50 semiconductor companies are now involved in MEMS manufacturing or development.

The largest application area at present is the inkjet print head which is already being rivaled by optical MEMS (MOEMS), used for optical multiplexing. Both sectors were worth over $1 billion in 2005 and while inkjet heads will enjoy steady growth to $2 billion in 2010, MOEMS will grow even faster to approach $3 billion in annual sales in 2010, according to Yole. RF MEMS and silicon microphones should enjoy strong growth, each getting close to $1 billion in annual market in 2010.

Manufacturers will begin shipping Ultrawideband (UWB) chipsets in 2H06 and shipments are expected to ramp up with a total of 289 million chipsets shipping in the year 2010, reports In-Stat. PCs will be the initial and largest volume market for UWB wireless chipsets, with PC vendors shipping over 125 million desktop and laptop PCs with UWB capability by 2010.

Created in 1996, Europe Technologies, a French company specialized in the design and sale of ARM based systems-on-chip (SoC) for dedicated customer applications, changes its name to become Scaleo chip. Scaleo chip's methodology in ARM based system-on-chip (SoC) technology allows to create a first functional chip for its clients in less than six months. Gilles Marsigné is appointed sales and marketing manager.

Soitec, French supplier of silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers, announces the conclusion of an agreement to acquire all the shares of TraciT Technologies, a company based in Grenoble, France. TraciT Technologies specializes in thin-film layer transfer technologies that leverage molecular adhesion and mechanical, as well as chemical, thinning processes for the production of micro-electro mechanical (MEMS) and power circuits. A spin-off from the CEA-Leti, TraciT Technologies was formed in 2003. Following an initial development phase, TraciT Technologies, with its confirmed potential growth, has to quickly move to production to satisfy the needs of its customers in Europe, North America and Asia.

Analog Devices has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held Integrant Technologies of Seoul, Korea. An innovator in the field of high-performance analog circuits designed for reconfigurable radio frequency (RF) signal processing, Integrant (78 employees) supplies low-power radio tuners that allow mobile communications, computer, and consumer devices to receive digital television (TV) and digital radio broadcasts. Integrant is best known for the low-power Digital Multimedia Broadcast (DMB) tuners it supplies to Korea's leading mobile phone manufacturers. ADI expects to pay approximately $127 million in cash at the closing in exchange for substantially all of the outstanding shares of Integrant. ADI may pay up to an additional $33 million upon the achievement of certain milestones.

National Semiconductor reported annual revenues of $2.16 billion compared to $1.91 billion in FY05 and $1.98 billion for FY04. For fiscal 2006, the company reported net income of $449.2 million. This compares to the $415.3 million net profit reported for FY2005 and the $282.8 million net profit reported for FY2004.

Mindspeed Technologies is establishing an engineering design center in Dubai for the development of communications ICs and software. The Mindspeed facility will be located at the DSOA Microelectronics Innovation Center. In addition to its facilities in the United States, Mindspeed operates design centers in China, India and the Ukraine.

The DSOA is a legal entity in Dubai defined by the Dubai Government. DSOA is developing an 'industrial city,' a technology center for leading international high-technology companies. The technology center comprises a Duty Free Zone, spanning over 7.2 million square meters, and is designed to include manufacturing, design, and development centers for microelectronics, photovoltaics and optoelectronics.

The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) released an updated forecast projecting worldwide sales of semiconductors will grow by 9.8 percent to $249.6 billion in 2006. The forecast was revised upward from the November forecast projecting an increase of 7.9 percent. The SIA attributed the upward revision to stronger than expected growth in key end markets for semiconductors, most notably cell phones. The SIA now believes approximately one billion cell phones will be sold worldwide in 2006. With an average semiconductor content of $41 per unit, this segment is now second only to personal computers in terms of total chip consumption.

The revised forecast also includes more optimistic projections for industry sales from 2006 through 2009. According to the SIA, the industry will grow by 11.0 percent in 2007, 12.0 percent in 2008, and 4.0 percent in 2009. If the latest forecast materializes, worldwide semiconductor sales will reach $323 billion in 2009. The new forecast projects an average compound annual growth rate of 9.2 percent from 2005 through 2009.

The new forecast projects that analog products will be one of the fastest-growing segments of the market in 2006, with growth driven by strong demand from wireless communications and industrial and medical equipment applications. The revised forecast projects growth of 17.3 percent to $37.4 billion. This segment is projected to grow to $48.6 billion by 2009, a CAGR of 11.1 percent.

Discrete products are projected to grow by 4.9 percent to $16.0 billion in 2006 and to $18.9 in 2009, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.5 percent.

Optoelectronic device sales are projected to grow by 11 percent to $16.5 billion in 2006 and to $21.9 billion in 2009, a CAGR of 10.1 percent.

Microprocessor sales are projected to grow by 4.3 percent to $36.4 billion in 2006 and to $46.0 billion in 2009, a CAGR of 7.1 percent.

Microcontroller sales are projected to grow by 1.9 percent to $12.3 billion in 2006 and to $15.4 billion in 2009, a CAGR of 6.3 percent.

Digital signal processors (DSPs) sales are projected to grow by 18.5 percent to $9.0 billion in 2006 and to $14.1 billion in 2009, a CAGR of 16.7 percent.

MOS logic device sales are projected to grow by 7.6 percent to $62.1 billion in 2006 and to $82.5 billion in 2009, a CAGR of 9.3 percent.

DRAM sales are projected to increase by 9.1 percent to $27.9 billion in 2006 and to $32.8 billion in 2009, a CAGR of 6.4 percent.

Flash memory sales are projected to grow by 20.0 percent to $22.3 billion in 2006 and to $31.1 billion in 2009, a CAGR of 13.7 percent..

The Asia-Pacific region will continue to be the fastest-growing market for chips, and is projected to reach 49 percent of a worldwide market in 2009. Europe will show the slowest growth during the period, growing from $40 billion last year to about $51 billion by 2009. In the same period, the U.S. market is expected to increase from $40.5 billion to about $58 billion, with the Asia Pacific region moving from $103 billion in 2005 to $158 billion in 2009. Japanese market is expected to reach $59 billion by 2009 from $42 million last year.

Fujitsu, NEC Electronics, Renesas Technology and Toshiba have agreed to seek to define a standard process technology that can be applied to the manufacture of advanced system LSIs at the 45 nm generation and beyond.
The joint program will define a basic standard for certain aspects of the process technology that will enable each company to have easier access to the intellectual property (IP) and libraries of the others, in consideration of possible shared use of one another's wafer fabs and potential integration of fabs in the future. Following technical studies, the companies will strive to define the standardized specifications by the end of this year.

Success in defining a basic standard has the potential to promote cross use of IP and libraries among the participants, improve fab operating rates, and facilitate large-scale capital investments among the companies. The framework is expected to boost the overall efficiency of the companies as well as the Japanese semiconductor industry.

In consideration of Advanced Process Semiconductor Foundry Planning Co. Ltd.'s recommendations emphasizing the importance of process technology standardization at the 45nm generation and beyond, the four companies will strive toward this end.

French based Altis Semiconductor, a joint-venture between IBM and Infineon, will have to find new customers to survive. Both IBM and Infineon want to exit from their common fab by 2009. Wolfgang Ziebart, Infineon CEO, August Franze, IBM Microelectronics vice-president, and Françoise Gri, IBM France CEO, met with the French representatives in Corbeil-Esssonnes in the beginning of June, to explain that they didn’t want to pass new orders after 2009. The best solution for Altis would be to become a pure foundry, but it means to invest in more advanced processes. At present, Altis is engaged in a restructuring plan concerning the layoff of 424 employees out of 1946 total workforce.

Crocus Technology, a French start-up focusing on Magnetic Random Access Memories (MRAM), announces the closing of its Series A round of funding totalling $17 million. The round's participants include San Francisco-based Sofinnova Ventures (lead investor), Paris-based firms Ventech, CDC Entreprises Innovation, AGF Private Equity and Sofinnova Partners, and NanoDimension. Crocus wants to become the world leader in the MRAM market.

Crocus was first incorporated in France in 2004 with an initial grant from CEA and CNRS, France's leading research organizations. Crocus is headquartered in Grenoble (France) with operations in the Paris area and in Silicon Valley (California). The MRAM technology that is the foundation on which Crocus is built was developed in the Grenoble-based SPINTEC research center. The related patents and know-how are being transferred to Crocus and will be continuously improved through formal joint development programs between the company, Spintec and other European laboratories.

MRAM memories uniquely combine several key features of other existing memory technologies. They are non-volatile, have a fast read and write speed, an SRAM like interface, an extended lifetime, and a low manufacturing cost.
The proceeds from this fund raising will allow Crocus to hire engineers and scientists in process engineering, test and design from all over Europe and the US. Crocus is also acquiring specialized equipment, which will enable the company to complete a first memory test vehicle in the next 12 months and its first commercial product shortly thereafter.

"This first round, quite unique in this technology area, is a defining moment for Crocus," commented Jean-Pierre Braun, CEO of Crocus. "We now have everything we need to be the first to bring to the marketplace a competitive MRAM memory that will fulfill the customers' expectations, in particular with regards to reliability, speed and capacity," Braun added.

There are many important applications for MRAM memory. They are an ideal fit for mobile phones, PDA's, smart cards, notebook computers, RFID tags, as well as automotive and military applications.

SCM Microsystems has completed the sale of its Digital TV solutions business to Kudelski for total consideration of $11 million. Under the terms of the transaction, SCM has sold to Kudelski substantially all of the assets that relate to its Digital TV solutions business, including its office building in France, certain inventory, contracts, trademarks and intellectual property. In addition, approximately 40 employees in Europe and Asia have joined Kudelski. The Kudelski Group (www.nagra.com) is a world leader in digital security. The Group is headquartered in Cheseaux-sur- Lausanne, Switzerland.

According to Global Sources, China and Taiwan are expected to export over 54 million broadband communication products in 2006 worth over US$2 billion -- up 55 percent year- on-year. Mainland China is expected to ship 22.3 million units in 2006, while Taiwan is projected to export 31.8 million units. In 2006, sales of broadband products are expected to reach about US$2.4 billion, with exports accounting for at least 85 percent, or more than US$2 billion.Despite growing demand, manufacturers say export prices will fall in 2006. Makers serve brands and customers worldwide including Dell, Fujitsu, Italy Telecom, LG, Linksys, Lucent, Siemens and Thomson.

According to IDC, factory revenue in the worldwide server market declined 1.9% year over year to $11.9 billion in the first quarter of 2006. Following ten successive quarters of year-over-year revenue growth, this was the second consecutive quarter of year-over-year revenue decline as quarterly compares become more difficult. Worldwide server unit shipments growth slowed modestly to 9.5% in 1Q06 when compared with 1Q05.

Microsoft Windows servers continued to show strong growth as revenues grew 5.9% and unit shipments grew 12.9% year over year. Significantly, quarterly factory revenue of $4.4 billion for Windows servers represented the largest single segment of the server market, comprising 37.1% of all server revenue in 1Q06.
Unix servers experienced a 7.1% decline in factory revenue year over year, while unit shipments declined 8.7% when compared with 1Q05. Worldwide Unix revenues of more than $3.9 billion for the quarter and represented 33.2% of overall quarterly factory revenue.

Linux servers posted their fifteenth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth, with year-over-year revenue growth of 17.0% and unit shipments up 14.4%. Linux servers now represent 12.2% of all server revenue.

Although the x86 server market continued to grow in 1Q06 with revenue of $6.1 billion worldwide, year-over-ear growth slowed to 6.3% in 1Q06 from 12.7% in 1Q05. Unit shipment growth also continued with a moderate gain of 12.1% to 1.7 million servers.

LCD TV shipments jumped 135% year-over-year (Y/Y) while falling 14% quarter-over-quarter (Q/Q) to 7.4M units. Due to gains by larger sizes, LCD TV revenues grew nearly as fast as LCD TV unit shipments, rising 114% Y/Y while falling 12% Q/Q to $8.8B. ASPs increased 2% Q/Q while falling just 9% Y/Y to $1195. Relative to other technologies, LCD TVs overtook CRT TVs at 30"-34" for the first time on a unit basis in Q1'06 and rose from 17% to 23% of the 40"-44" market with PDPs and MD RPTVs losing share. Europe's share rising from 44% to 46% on pre-World Cup demand.
Four brands dominate the LCD TV market accounting for a 50% share of units and a 54% share of revenues. As indicated in Tables 1 and 2, Philips was n°1 in units but n°4 in revenues while Sony was n°4 in units and n°1 in revenues.

The European semiconductor distribution industry is enjoying one of its most upbeat starts to a year for quite some time.

According to industry body, DMASS (Distributors’ and Manufacturers’ Association of Semiconductor Specialists), sales increased by just over 15% in the first three month’s of the year. This was the strongest growth since mid-2004.

The value of chip sales through distributors reached €1.38bn in the quarter, which is the highest sales number since 2001.


“The positive trend from end of last year continued into 2006. It seems that the overall positive outlook for the European economy echoed itself in the distribution customer base,” said Georg Steinberger, chairman of DMASS.

Steinberger said, however, there are similarities to 2004, when the business started strong in the first half but flattened out towards the end of the year.

“The strong development in the big four markets of UK, Germany, France and Italy suggests that the year 2006 may in fact have a good potential for distribution growth.” said Steinberger.

Germany steamed ahead with sales growth of 21% over Q1 last year, reaching a value of €439m.

The UK market grew by 8% to reach €149m. The surprise was Italy which grew by 12% to become the second largest European market for distributors with sales of €198m.

Inevitably there was strong sales growth in Czech, Russia, Sweden, Denmark, Iberia and Israel, between 69% and 22%.

The most active product areas for distributors were analogue, microprocessors, power and optoelectronics.

Avnet has appointed Rick Hamada its first chief operating officer in eight years to assist chairman and CEO Roy Vallee. Hamada, who assumes the new position July 2, will head Avnet’s two operating divisions and is expected to manage the day-to-day activities of the $14 billion revenue company while Vallee turns his attention fully to strategic operations, including business development and acquisition programs.
Hamada has been at Avnet since 1983 and, until his recent appointment, was group president of Avnet Technology Solutions.