Gyroscopes spin up in video games and cell phones

EL SEGUNDO, USA: When Nintendo Co. wanted to enhance the sensitivity of its motion-sensitive video-game controllers, it turned to 3-axis gyroscope technology in the form of its Wii Motionplus add-on.

Soon, a flood of other companies in the consumer electronics and cell phone markets also will turn to Microelectromechanical System (MEMS) gyroscopes due to technological developments that have made these parts more attractive for such applications, iSuppli Corp. predicts. This will cause gyroscope revenue in these areas to more than double by 2013.

The global market for gyroscopes used in consumer electronics and cell phones will expand to $347.2 million in 2013, up from $152.9 million in 2008, as presented in the figure.

iSuppli: Global Forecast of MEMS Gyroscopes for Use in Consumer Electronics and Wireless Applications (Revenue in Millions of US Dollars)Source: iSuppli, USA

“Gyroscopes have always been too big, too power hungry and too expensive for mobile and consumer applications,” said Richard Dixon, senior analyst for MEMS at iSuppli.

“However, recent progress on silicon and quartz gyroscopes has changed the game—literally. MEMS gyroscopes will penetrate gaming applications in much larger numbers later this year and in 2010. These sensors will also begin to make inroads into the mobile-phone market earlier than first anticipated—again beginning at the end 2009 or early in 2010—for image stabilization and user interfaces.”

Gyroscope suppliers gear up
A major driver behind the expansion of the gyroscope market is the flourishing number of offerings of multi-axis parts. Previously, there were just two major suppliers of 2-axis gyroscopes: Panasonic Corp. and InvenSense Inc.

However, this list grew in June when STMicroelectronics bolstered its portfolio by offering no less than 10 dual-axis gyroscopes. Tri-axis gyroscopes, a must for gaming, also are emerging.

While InvenSense already offers a two-package 3-axis gyroscope solution today, STMicroelectronics intends to introduce a monolithic solution in 2010.

iSuppli anticipates that revenue from shipments of multi-axis gyroscopes for consumer and wireless applications will overtake those single-axis devices by the end of the year and will account for 80 percent of the consumer gyroscope market by 2013.

“This represents a great opportunity for companies offering multi-axis gyroscopes and even parts combined with 3-axis accelerometers in low-cost inertial measurement units,” Dixon said. “On the other hand, this will put pressure on those companies that only have a single-axis technology on their shelves.”

Global semiconductor sales rise 17 percent QoQ

SAN JOSE, USA: Worldwide sales of semiconductors for the second quarter of 2009 were $51.7 billion, a 17 percent increase from the first quarter when sales were $44.2 billion, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) reported today.Source: SIA

Second-quarter sales declined by 20 percent from the $64.7 billion recorded in the like period of 2008. Worldwide sales in June were $17.2 billion, an increase of 3.7 percent from May when sales were $16.6 billion, but 20 percent lower than the $21.6 billion reported for June 2008.

Year-to-date sales of $95.9 billion were 25 percent below the first six months of 2008, when sales were $127.5 billion. All monthly sales numbers represent a three-month moving average of global semiconductor sales.

“The fourth-consecutive monthly increase in sales is one indicator the industry is returning to normal seasonal growth patterns,” said SIA President George Scalise.

Scalise said focused supply chain management by both producers and customers helped to moderate the impact of the global economic recession on the industry. “Inventories have been closely managed, encouraging us to believe that the sequential increase in quarterly sales represents a gradual recovery of demand.”

Scalise noted that industry analysts have recently become more optimistic in their forecasts for key demand drivers.

"Consensus estimates for unit sales of PCs are now in the range of minus 5 percent to flat compared to 2008, whereas earlier forecasts were projecting year-on-year unit declines of 9 to 12 percent. In cell phone handsets, analysts now believe the unit decline will be in the range of 7 to 9 percent compared to earlier forecasts of a decline of around 15 percent. PCs and cell phones account for nearly 60 percent of worldwide semiconductor consumption," said Scalise.

Economic stimulus programs in China, including incentives for purchasing consumer products and investment in 3G/TDSCDMA communications infrastructure, have helped drive semiconductor sales in the world’s largest chip market.

“The global macroeconomic environment remains the key factor in determining the timing and rate of recovery for the semiconductor industry,” Scalise concluded.

Tower's power management process selected by 3PEAKIC for energy saving LED driver ICs

SUZHOU, CHINA & MIGDAL HA EMEK, ISRAEL: 3PEAKIC Microelectronics Inc., a provider of high-end analog and mixed-signal electronic products, and Tower Semiconductor Ltd announced that Tower will manufacture 3PEAKIC’s energy saving LED driver ICs used for backlight LED panels in handheld devices such as cell phones, PDAs and personal navigation devices (PNDs).

LEDs present many advantages over traditional light sources including lower energy consumption, longer lifetime, and smaller size as well as faster switching, useful in communications technology.

According to Strategies Unlimited, the LED lighting market is forecast to exceed $5 billion in 2012, corresponding to a CAGR of 28 percent from 2008 to 2012. In addition, during 2009, iSuppli reports that the LED market revenue growth is expected to outshine the overall semiconductor market.

LED driver ICs need the current to be tightly controlled between channels which requires superior mixed-signal modeling and analog device characterization available from Tower’s power management process (TS18PM). Due to the large well-modeled passive device offerings in TS18PM, 3PEAKIC's LED Driver IC (3P3208) requires lower power and fewer components on the PCB.

Tower's TS18PM process includes 20v-60v scalable Rdson NLDMOS/PLDMOS devices as well as advanced 0.18-micron CMOS and bipolar NPN devices needed in today's complex power management chips. It also includes industry leading RF and Thermal modeling, predictive parasitic extraction switch, high voltage ESD solutions, and extremely dense 5v and 1.8v digital cell libraries for “digital intensive” designs.

The nearly released additional options of Deep Trench isolation, NBL and Ultra Low Rdson will push the offering over 100v while providing superior lateral and vertical isolation required for high power applications.

3PEAKIC’s LED driver IC is ideal for backlighting control in mobile devices. The 3P3208 features 16 programmable current levels with single wire pulse control, dual-mode 1X, 1.5X, charge pump for maximum efficiency and VF coverage, small application circuit, and no need for extra resistors for current settings.

In addition, it provides automatic LED detection to shut down open channels, built-in thermal protection, proprietary current regulation topology, no inductors, low noise operation, 1MHz constant switching frequency, and the smallest package size (2.85x3mm) available.

““We found Tower's power management process to be ideal for LED driver ICs as it includes an industry first scalable Rdson versus breakdown voltage design kit technology to reduce on-resistance and size of power cells,” said Dr. Zhixu Zhou, President of 3PEAKIC Microelectronics Inc. “Tower has been instrumental in offering excellent process technology and customer support in manufacturing our wafers and also working with us to develop and win the market.”

“3PEAKIC's choice to manufacture its devices at Tower's fab in Israel instead of a facility in closer proximity to China is a testament to our unparalleled design enablement capabilities and superior process technologies,” said Dr. Avi Strum, Vice President and General Manager of Tower's Specialty Business Unit at Tower Semiconductor.

“We seek to align our capabilities with customers that target the green energy sector and are pleased with the opportunity to produce energy saving devices such as 3PEAKIC’s LED driver ICs.”

Global market for embedded systems worth $112.5 billion in 2013

CANADA: ELECTRONICS.CA PUBLICATIONS, the electronics industry market research and knowledge network, announces the availability of a new report entitled "Embedded Systems: Technologies and Markets."

According to a new market research report, Embedded Systems: Technologies and Markets available at Electronics.ca Publications, the global market for embedded systems technologies was worth $92.0 billion in 2008. This will increase to $112.5 billion in 2013, for a CAGR of 4.1 percent.

The market is broken down into segments for embedded hardware and embedded software. Embedded hardware currently has the largest share of the market, worth $89.8 billion in 2008. This should increase at a CAGR of 4.1 percent to reach $109.6 billion in 2013.

The embedded software segment has the second largest share of the market, worth $2.2 billion in 2008. This segment is expected to generate $2.9 billion in 2013, for a CAGR of 5.6 percent.

The ease of developing and marketing embedded devices is increasing with the advance of technology and communication. Embedded devices are now starting to dominate nearly every aspect of human life. Many new devices are being introduced into the global market every day with innovative end applications.

From cell phones to digital TVs to MP3 players to refrigerators to washing machines, we are constantly using embedded devices for different purposes, often unaware of the underlying technology.

Embedded hardware and software are what make these embedded devices work. The success of the embedded devices is defined by how well designed and developed the device is, and if it is using right underlying hardware that meets cost constraints.

The rise of the open source software movement on the web, coupled with low cost engineering talent available via outsourcing, will ease the design and development of embedded devices. The embedded hardware market will continue to flourish over the long term as new applications emerge.

Semiconductor outlook 2008: EDA to grow 7.8pc; semicon 6-11pc

Forecasters at the panel discussion the 2008 Semiconductor Industry Forecast webcast presented by Semiconductor International were guarded in their predictions -- which were a mixed bag -- with the majority predicting semiconductor growth in the range of 6-11 percent during 2008.

However, some other panelists predicted 2008 to be flat year or a year of negative growth. There are fears of a possible recession in 2008, along with concerns surrounding consumer spend that could be hit by higher oil prices and the US mortgage crisis. Hence, the need for forecasters to be watchful with their predictions.

EDA playing catch-up; to grow 7.8pc
The EDA industry is said to be lagging behind the semiconductor industry at the moment, and is in the catch-up mode, according to Gary Smith, President, Gary Smith EDA, while commenting on the forecast for the EDA industry.

On the outlook for the EDA market, Smith said the EDA industry is in a lttile unusual position. He said: "The market's been flat for the past four years. Tools for 65nm, 45nm silicon dsign have also been delayed." The R&D was not put in because of the recession. "Right now, we are in a position of lag in the market," he added.

EDA tools cover two process generations. The industry is just starting to introduce 65nm and 45nm tools. That generation is being called the DFM generation tool. Smith said: "It is even more important to the semiconductor industry as we run into manufacturing problems that they are relying on design tools to solve, rather than on semiconductor equipment." That's a major shift in the market!

According to him, the industry is now now into a pretty good growth area. "We were 11 percent last year, 10.2 percent to come in this year. We will be a bit down next year at 7.8 percent," he forecast. This has been attributed mainly to the EDA industry's lag in the market. "Some are moving to 32nm. And certainly, a lot of work is being done in 45nm," he added.

Smith noted: "The EDA industry is in the catch-up mode. We will lag them. We're expecting the downturn to really hit us in 2009. However, we're not an industry that goes negative often. No matter what you guys do, you still have to design something. So, when you go into recession, typically, the way you get out of recession is you generally design yr way out!"

DFM, ESL, parallel computing EDA growth drivers
He said that DFM, parallel computing and ESL were the growth drivers. Among the drivers is the DFM issue, which is increasingly getting more complex. There is said to be a move to restrict the design rules that is in place now for 45nm. "We're going to see major changes in 32nm; that'll have impact on tools," he added.

The other issue is parallel computing that has become a major task for the EDA industry. "With signal threading, we can no longer handle designs over 100 million gates. Of course, at 45nm, you can do a 100mn gates. That rewriting process is another issue that is also slowing out down. That's a full three-year re-write," Smith said.

Further, EDA is also starting to move up into the ESL. The ESL is going to shift the EDA market more into the systems market, and serve less on its dependency on the semiconductor world.

As for the inhibitors, an issue hitting the EDA industry right now is that, in 2007, the cost of designing or developing the embededded software for an SoC actually passed the cost of desgining the SoC itself. "So, we're in the middle of a software crisis that's going to hit the entire electronics ind in the next five or six years," he added.

Next, the industry has been also going to muticore, multiprocessor architecture. That demands a completely new programming model. According to Smith, what was unthinkable six months ago, is now a major topic of discussion -- that is abandoning C as a programming language! That's going to be a major shift in the industry.

Tariff concerns in Europe
Earlier, in a discussion regarding concerns about tariffs in Europe, and how will it impact the industry, Anne Craib, Director of Market Research, International Affairs and Finance, Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), said: "We are working on a number of policy initiatives that we see as potential challenges in consumer sector." In Europe, there is an effort to re-classify goods that have business and consumer funtionalities, as consumer products not covered by tariff-free agreement.

As we see continued convergence, for example, the cell phone will be covered, so, there are questions as to whethe a cell phone has a cam or an MP3 player, and will that be considered as a consumer device or a business device. The result could be the imposition of fairly steep tariffs in the mid to high teens. "When you start to increasing your pricing to that level, it could potentially affect consumer demand. We havent seen that happen yet, but it's an issue that we are quite concerned," she added.

SIA is also concerned about some efforts in other parts of the world to put in place proprietary standards that could drive up the cost for manufacturers for accessing those markets -- by requiring to make devices that are specific to certain markets -- that wouldnt be interoperable. Most of them could affect the downstream products, but not semicon specifically. However, there are areas that the industry also needs to be aware of.

Stay tuned for full report later!