Finance

Sales of phones with 5 inch plus screens, so called “phablets”, will overtake tablet sales in 2015, reports IC Insights. Shipments of 5 inch plus phones will reach 252 million units in 2015, which is a 66% increase from the 152 million sold in 2014. Strong growth in large-screen smartphones is having a major impact on tablet unit sales, which ...

Avnet Abacus has signed a pan-European distribution agreement with Taiwan’s MechaTronix, the LED cooling specialist. From its roots as a designer and manufacturer of interconnection and packaging systems for a range of electronics applications, MechaTronix has become a supplier of thermal management products for solid-state lighting applications. Thermal management, now a critical factor in LED fixtures, has prompted MechaTronix to develop a range ...

IQD has introduced a high frequency, low jitter clock oscillator with low phase jitter of less than 0.5ps rms max (over 12kHz to 20MHz) irrespective of which output is specified. Housed in a hermetically sealed 2.5×2.0mm ceramic six-pad package, the new model is available in a wide frequency rang,e from 8MHz to an extremely high 1.5GHz. The IQXO-931 is primarily ...

The only device market (PCs, tablets, ultramobiles and mobile phones) that continues to show growth is the mobile phone market where prices continue to fall, says Gartner. For phones the emerging markets are driving the smartphone market upward, with China leading the way. Taking all these devices combined, 2.5 billion units will be sold in 2015, a 1.5% increase from ...

Toshiba has developed a flash memory embedded process based on 65nm logic process that uses less power than current mainstream technology, and a single-poly non-volatile memory (NVM) process based on 130nm logic and analogue power process. Applying the optimal process to diverse applications will allow Toshiba to expand its product line-up in such areas as microcontrollers, wireless communication ICs, motor ...

May semiconductor sales were 2% up on April snd 5% up on May 2014, reports the SIA. May sales were $28.2 billion. US sales were up 11.4% year-on-year. “The global semiconductor industry overcame lingering macroeconomic uncertainty to post solid year-to-year growth in May,” says SIA CEO John Neuffer. “Year-to-year sales have now increased for 25 straight months, month-to-month sales increased ...

Semiconductor industry capex will hit a record $68.7 billion this year – beating 2011’s previous record of $63.8 billion – and is up 9% on 2014, reports Semico Research. Samsung has taken a big lead – $15 billion in capex this year ahead of TSMC’s $10.8 billion and Intel’s $8.7 billion. After the Big Three come: GloFo on 4.7, Hynix ...

Intersil Has launched the ISL9120 buck-boost switching regulator for power management of system power supplies and peripherals such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, memory cards or LCD modules. Its adaptive current limit PFM architecture delivers efficiency up to 98%, says the company, with smooth transitions from buck-to-boost to prevent glitches in applications where light load efficiency and fast transient response are critical. The ...

Infineon, NXP and chip card security specialists Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) have developed technology for e-passports and ID cards which, as well as storing a users’s biometric data, can also record visa data and arrival and departure stamps. Called “NewP@ss”, the research project cost €30m, half of which was covered by business and industry partners and the other half by the governments ...

GlobalFoundaries (GloFo) has completed its acquisition of the IBM microelectronics business. “We have significantly enhanced our technology development capabilities and reinforce our long-term commitment to investing in R&D for technology leadership,” says GloFo CEO Sanjay Jha. “We have added world-class technologists and differentiated technologies, such as RF and Asic, to meet our customers’ needs.” GloFo says the deal ‘solidifies its ...