CSIRO develops electronics-grade graphene from soybeans

A team of scientists from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) has potentially removed a major roadblock in commercial graphene production, developing a low-cost soybean-based graphene material that can be used by electronics manufacturers.
In conjunction with researchers from The University of Sydney, University of Technology Sydney, and The Queensland University of Technology, CSIRO developed the novel "GraphAir" technology, which it said eliminates the need for a highly-controlled environment. Essentially, the technology grows graphene film in ambient air with a natural precursor, making its production faster and simpler.
Previously, graphene was purely grown in a highly-controlled environment with explosive compressed gases, requiring long hours of operation at high temperatures and extensive vacuum processing.
"This ambient-air process for graphene fabrication is fast, simple, safe, potentially scalable, and integration-friendly," CSIRO scientist Dr Zhao Jun Han said. "Our unique technology is expected to reduce the cost of graphene production and improve the uptake in new applications."
Graphene is a carbon material that is one atom thick. Its thin composition and high conductivity lends itself to a range of applications such as miniaturised electronics and biomedical devices.

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Its properties enable thinner wire connections, which the CSIRO said provides extensive benefits for the likes of computers, solar panels, and sensors. It may also see the batteries in smartphones last 25 percent longer.
According to the CSIRO, GraphAir transforms soybean oil into graphene films in one single step. Using heat, soybean oil breaks down into a range of carbon building units that are essential for the synthesis of graphene, the CSIRO explained.
"Our GraphAir technology results in good and transformable graphene properties, comparable to graphene made by conventional methods," CSIRO scientist Dr Dong Han Seo said.

In addition, the CSIRO team also transformed other types of renewable and waste oil, such as those leftover from barbecues or cooking, into graphene films, allowing its application beyond electronics and to techniques used for water filtration and purification, renewable energy, sensors, and medicine.
Researchers at MIT in the United States discovered last year that graphene could be used to slow light down below the speed of electrons to create an intense beam of light, paving the way for light-based circuits in ultra-compact computing devices.
The research team explained that using light instead of flowing electrons to move and store data could push operating speeds up to vastly higher levels than those achieved by today's chips.
Although still theoretical, the discovery increases graphene's potential in computing chips. Scientists at IBM Research have been exploring how graphene can be used to create new chips that exploit the way electrons move faster through graphene than through other semiconductor materials.
The CSIRO is now on the hunt for an industry partner to develop new use cases for graphene.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/csiro-develops-electronics-grade-graphene-from-soybeans/

Toshiba to sell part of chip business, puts overseas nuclear ops under review

Toshiba Corp (6502.T) said it will sell a minority stake in its memory chip business as it urgently seeks funds to offset an imminent multi-billion dollar writedown, adding that its overseas nuclear division - the cause of its woes - was now under review.
The drastic measures are set to be just some of the tough choices the Japanese conglomerate will have to take as proceeds from the sale are likely to only cover part of a charge that domestic media has put at $6 billion.
Still battered by a 2015 accounting scandal, Toshiba was plunged back into crisis when it emerged late last year that it had to account for huge cost overruns at a U.S. power plant construction business recently acquired by its Westinghouse division.

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Describing the nuclear division as no longer a central business focus for the firm, Chief Executive Satoshi Tsunakawa said Toshiba will review Westinghouse's role in new projects and whether it will embark on new power plant construction. The division will also now fall under direct CEO supervision.
Tsunakawa added Toshiba was looking to sell less than 20 percent of its memory chip business - the world's biggest NAND flash memory producer after Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) - which comprises the bulk of the conglomerate's operating profit.
The firm is rushing to complete the sale by the end of the financial year in March as failure to do so will likely mean that shareholder equity - just $3 billion in the wake of the accounting scandal - would be wiped out by the charge.
Sources have said Toshiba aims to raise more than 200 billion yen ($1.7 billion) from the sale and potential investors include private equity firms, business partner Western Digital Corp (WDC.O) and the government-backed Development Bank of Japan.
It is also selling other assets although it ruled out the sales of any of its infrastructure businesses - which include water treatment, railway and elevator firms.
"We've been raising funds through sales of stock holdings, real estate and other assets," Tsunakawa told a news conference without disclosing the amount, adding that various measures were being considered to boost the firm's capital base by March.
Toshiba also said it may eventually list the memory chip business.

Executives declined to comment on the size of the writedown, which will be announced on Feb.14 when Toshiba reports third-quarter results.
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Mark Newman, an analyst at Sanford Bernstein in Hong Kong, said a stake sale would likely only be a short-term band-aid.
"The NAND business is the only one with value, as it makes up all of the semi-conductor profits, which comprise 75 percent of the overall company's profit. I won't be surprised if they sell another 20 percent in a few years time and then another 20 percent."
Sources have said many private equity funds, including Silver Lake and Permira, have signed non-disclosure agreements with Toshiba. But it remains to be seen how well the sale will go given the end-March deadline and caution on the part of potential investors.
"Partnering with Toshiba could be risky due to uncertainties over its nuclear business," said an official at a global private equity firm.
"Chip businesses are highly cyclical and need massive capital investment. Funds are cautious because they have had their fingers burnt with chip investments in the past," said the official, who was not authorised to speak to media and declined to be identified.
Western Digital, which operates a NAND plant in Japan with Toshiba, may seem like a natural buyer of a large stake in the chip business, but a sale before March might be difficult as it would likely invite a review by anti-trust regulators.

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Toshiba estimates the value of its memory chip business at 1-1.5 trillion yen ($9-13 billion), a person with direct knowledge of the matter has told Reuters.
The business generated sales of 845 billion yen and operating profit of 110 billion yen in the past financial year.
Toshiba has also called on its main banks to support it and they have agreed to not call in some loans early for now even as recent downgrades of the firm's credit ratings violate some provisions in debt agreements, people with direct knowledge of the matter have said.
Business weekly Toyo Keizai reported that Taiwan's Foxconn, the world's largest contract manufacturer, is interested in either taking a stake in or buying some of Toshiba's businesses.
Foxconn founder Terry Gou wants to build up the company's advanced big-screen display business and the integration of chips, camera, storage, streaming will be key, said one person familiar with the company, adding he would "not be surprised" to see Foxconn start talks with industry players including Toshiba.
A representative for Foxconn, formally known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (2317.TW), had no immediate comment.
(Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki and Taiga Uranaka; Additional reporting by Umesh Desai in Hong Kong, Junko Fujita and Taro Fuse in Tokyo, JR Wu in Taipei; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)

http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-toshiba-accounting-idUKKBN15A2JV

Qualcomm misses revenue estimates, defends licensing model

Qualcomm Inc reported a lower-than-expected 3.9 percent rise in quarterly revenue on Wednesday, and defended its licensing model in the face of multiple legal challenges over its alleged "anticompetitive" tactics.
The company's shares were down 3.8 percent at $54.75 in aftermarket trading.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission and Apple Inc have sued Qualcomm accusing it of resorting to "anticompetitive" tactics to maintain a monopoly over chips used in smartphone.
Apple also filed a lawsuit against Qualcomm in Beijing on Wednesday, alleging that the chip supplier abused its clout and is seeking 1 billion yuan ($145.32 million) in damages.
Qualcomm executives firmly defended the company's licensing model on its quarterly conference call, and said its revenue forecast did not include any impact from the dispute with Apple.
"Apple's attack on Qualcomm's business model is not only an attack on Qualcomm, but also an attack on the smartphone competition that Qualcomm's business model enables," the company's president Derek Aberle said.
Qualcomm said it expects to continue to supply to Apple during the dispute, and that the company's contracts with the iPhone maker's suppliers were still valid.
South Korea's antitrust regulator, The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC), fined Qualcomm 1.03 trillion won in December for what it called unfair business practices in patent licensing and modem chip sales.
The company said on Wednesday the latest quarter included an $868 million charge related to the KFTC investigation.
The company's licensing business generates royalties earned through the licensing of wireless patents to the mobile industry.
Qualcomm is a major supplier to both Apple and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, with the two accounting for 40 percent of its 2016 annual revenue.
The San Diego-based company also forecast current-quarter adjusted profit of $1.15-$1.25 per share and revenue of $5.5 billion-$6.3 billion.
Analysts on average were expecting a profit of $1.20 per share and revenue of $5.90 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Net income attributable to the company more than halved to $682 million, or 46 cents per share, in the first quarter ended Dec. 25, due to the charge. (bit.ly/2jqEoha)
Revenue rose to $6 billion from $5.78 billion, but missed analysts' estimate of $6.12 billion.
Excluding items, Qualcomm earned $1.19 per share, slightly above analysts' estimates of $1.18.
Qualcomm's shares had risen nearly 20 percent in the past 12 months, compared with the 62.1 percent gain in the broader Philadelphia Semiconductor index.
(Reporting by Narottam Medhora in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Shounak Dasgupta)

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-qualcomm-results-idUSKBN1592P7

Texas Instruments quarterly revenue beats on automotive demand

Chipmaker Texas Instruments Inc (TXN.O) reported higher-than-expected quarterly revenue, helped by strong demand for its analog and embedded chip products from the automotive and industrial markets.
Shares of the company were marginally lower in after-hours trading on Tuesday.
Texas Instruments, which counts Apple Inc (AAPL.O) among its largest customers, also forecast current-quarter profit of 78-88 cents per share and revenue of $3.17 billion-$3.43 billion.
Analysts on average were expecting a profit of 75 cents per share and revenue of $3.21 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
"From all accounts, the automotive industry at the end of the year was robust and Texas Instruments' numbers seem to reflect that," Loop Capital analyst Betsy Van Hees said.
The company also named Brian Crutcher, who joined the company in 1996, as its chief operating officer. Crutcher will oversee Texas Instruments' global technology and manufacturing operations in addition to its sales operations.
The Dallas-based company's analog chips are used to gauge changes in sound and temperature, while its embedded chip unit manufactures microcontrollers used in Internet of Things and personal devices.
Sensors used in factories, cars, shops and offices to help them operate more smartly on the industrial internet — or so-called Internet of Things — is a rapidly growing market.
Texas Instruments, often considered a barometer for the semiconductor industry, said revenue from its analog unit rose 10.5 percent to $2.29 billion. The business accounts for more than two-thirds of its total revenue.
The company's net income rose to $1.05 billion, or $1.02 per share, in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, from $836 million, or 80 cents per share, a year earlier.
Analysts had expected a profit of 82 cents.

Revenue rose 7.1 percent to $3.41 billion, beating analysts' average estimate of $3.32 billion.
The company's shares have risen 53.2 percent in the last twelve months, slightly underperforming the 57.5 percent rise in the broader Philadelphia Semiconductor index .SOX.
(Reporting by Narottam Medhora in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-texas-instrument-results-idUSKBN1582TC

Fake cables present 'serious' fire safety risk

Counterfeit cables are an ever-present problem for the building sector, so how can contractors avoid inadvertently falling foul of the fakes?
Wire and cable industry body the IWCS held a webinar last week to highlight the problem, with speaker Dave Kiddoo - executive director of the Communications Cable & Connectivity Association (CCCA) noting that counterfeiting has created "the potential for catastrophic fire safety and critical performance consequences in building network infrastructure."
Some sources estimate that as much as 20 per cent of the cable for sale at any time may be unsafe, unapproved or counterfeit. A common scam is to pass off inferior riser cable as Low Smoke Zero Halogen (LSZH) cable, and it is also known that copper clad aluminium (CCA) cable has been mis-sold as 100 per cent copper plenum (CMP) cables (Cat5e/Cat6), which have fire retardant jackets and cannot actually cause fires.
Among the things to watch out for are cabling or packaging with unauthorised UL, ETL or third-party certification marks – or indeed no marks at all, according to the CCCA. Every box of UL-listed cable should carry a holographic label, and it is important to watch out for misleading and false claims such as CMP 'plenum-rated', CMP 'plenum approved' or CMP 'plenum cable'
Earlier CCCA testing of counterfeit CMP cabling failed peak smoke testing as well as the Average Smoke test. That's very important, as rapidly spreading and heavy smoke makes it difficult to evacuate and rescue occupants of a building.
Even packaging or cabling with authorised UL or ETL marks can be counterfeit and non-compliant, according to the webinar, so it is important to be mindful of other clues that all may not be above board, particularly pricing below market norms.
Other warning signals can include private-label, unfamiliar brands from offshore manufacturers, sometimes supplied only through a website or local store front distributors, and poor English on company websites.
Kiddo recommends buying known brands but - if purchasing an unknown brand is necessary - require written proof of listing or verification. It is advised to use the websites of the listing agencies to see if any public notices or recalls have been posted for that company name, but purchasers need to be aware that counterfeiters' details may not yet be in the database.
The CCCA has developed a smartphone app – called CableCheck – that can be used as a field screening tool to check UL holographic labels.

https://www.securingindustry.com/electronics-and-industrial/fake-cables-present-serious-fire-safety-risk/s105/a3133/#.WIeJZ32vKix

Low-power chip modulator has THz potential

A novel slot waveguide with tunable, two-dimensional electron gas could form the basis of a room temperature THz modulator, according to Massachusetts-based Tufts University.

Through lack of THz facilities, the researchers have created a lower frequency prototype, than can amplitude modulate a 250GHz carrier to 96% intensity with a 14GHz signal.
“This is a very promising device that can operate at terahertz frequencies, is miniaturised using mainstream semiconductor foundry, and is in the same form factor as current communication devices,” said Dr Sameer Sonkusale of the University’s Nano Lab. “It’s only one building block, but it could help to start filling the THz gap.”
According to the paper High speed terahertz modulator on the chip based on tunable terahertz slot waveguide in Scientific Reports, electromagnetic energy is confined in the waveguide formed in an InGaAs layer sandwiched between two AlGaAs layers.
The two dimensional electron gas forms in the InGaAs through differences between its bandgap and that of the surrounding AlGaAs.
At the carrier frequency, its carriers make the 2-D gas lossy causing the carrier to decrease as it passes through.
A negative bias reduces the electron density in the gas lowering attenuation, while a positive bias increases electron density and increases attenuation. The full mechanism is described in the paper, which is available free.
The prototype operates at with under 2V drive and consumes little power.

http://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/research-news/low-power-chip-modulator-thz-potential-2017-01/

DoD Policy Takes Aim at Counterfeit Electronics

In the military sector, counterfeit microelectronics components have the potential to put lives in danger. With that in mind, the Department of Defense (DoD) is trying to stop the problem at the source.

In the past, fake parts have been a measurable problem. For example, 2012 Senate Armed Services Committee investigation identified 1,800 cases of phony parts (implicating more than a million components). Components used in the Air Force’s largest cargo plane, in assemblies intended for Special Operations helicopters, and in a Navy surveillance plane were found to be bogus. Many of the suspect components came from China.

Late last summer, the DoD issued a new regulation that hopes to greatly reduce the number of counterfeit microelectronics entering the military supply chain. The Defense Acquisition Regulation Supplement final rule, posted and effective Aug. 2, puts new guidelines in place for a DoD procurement practices to limit the risk of counterfeit parts getting integrated into critical military systems.
Under the new rule, military contractors and subcontracts will be required to buy electronic parts from the original parts manufacturers or an authorized franchised distributor. Only if these sources fail to produce results, can purchasers consider using alternative sources that might introduce risk into the equation.  
The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) and semiconductor manufacturers think that a lot of thought went into this ruling, and the Department of Defense got it right,” Dustin Todd, director of government affairs for the SIA told EBN. “When you start with credible sources, you are much less likely to get counterfeit parts. Pentagon-wide, the lowest price, technically acceptable, but when you are buying semiconductors you don’t want the cheapest source, but rather the trusted source.”
The rule applies to both legacy and new systems. “Across the board, it creates a tiered buying approach for contractors,” said Todd. Tier one, of course, is the original parts manufacturer. Tier two includes authorized sources for the parts.
Further, once these sources are exhausted, procurement departments are encouraged to put safeguards in place, including testing and traceability of parts. “When you step down that chain, the requirements increase to make sure you are taking necessary steps to avoid problems,” said Todd. “Before, there were no rules about this at all.”
In addition to being more stringent, the rule also is being applied more broadly. Two years ago, the previous rule was applied only to large contractors. This new rule affects contractors of all size, including the prime contractor to subcontractors. It applies to contractors that are used only once.
Of course, time will tell how much impact these new directives may have. At the very least, it will take pressure off DoD procurement to defend using a more expensive source when necessary. “Most of the major contractors agree that this is best practice for avoiding buying counterfeits,” said Todd.
Currently, military/defense semiconductor buys account for a fraction of the total semiconductor market. The 2014 total global semiconductor market accounted for $336 billion in sales. Of that, military was just 1%, according to the SIA. Further, the largest market sectors (communications, computers, and consumer electronics) command lower margins and might be less able to accommodate the added cost of component testing. These factors may make it difficult to expand these guidelines outside of the military market.  However, automotive and industrial applications, which account for 21% of the total market, may be more able to foot the bill, and incentivized by a clear need for safety.
Do you think similar guidelines and regulations would benefit commercial electronics? Let us know in the comments section below.

http://www.ebnonline.com/author.asp?section_id=3219&doc_id=282356&

Toshiba eyes spinning off flash-memory business

Toshiba Corp. is considering spinning off its key flash-memory business as part of efforts to make up for expected losses in its U.S. nuclear unit, a source familiar with the plan said Tuesday.
Toshiba’s advanced NAND-type flash memory, which is used for devices such as smartphones, has a leading share of the global market with one financial institution estimating its total value at ¥2 trillion (about $17.7 billion).
Outside investments worth hundreds of billions of yen would absorb the loss at the U.S. nuclear business. Toshiba will keep a more than 50 percent stake in the spun-off unit, the source said.
Western Digital Corp. of the United States has invested in the production of flash memory and Toshiba will maintain the alliance even after it spins off the business, the source said.
Toshiba, which is struggling to emerge from an accounting fraud scandal, said last month it is facing a multibillion-dollar write-down at its U.S. nuclear division Westinghouse Electric Co.
The company will make a final decision about the spinning off of its flash-memory business after determining the total loss as soon as the end of this month, according to the source.
It would have to be relegated to the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s second section from the first section should it slip into negative net worth for the fiscal year ending March 31, hampering Toshiba’s efforts to get back on its feet.
Toshiba has been focusing on nuclear power operations but has been struggling to win orders for new power plants both at home and abroad, particularly after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. The company booked an impairment loss of about ¥250 billion in the U.S. nuclear business in the last fiscal year.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/01/18/business/corporate-business/toshiba-eyes-spinning-off-flash-memory-business/#.WH_AMH2vKiw

Automotive chipsets to support functional safety in LCDs

Chipsets from ROHM and LAPIS Semiconductor are designed to drive and control automotive LCDs, including larger high resolution monitors used for navigation and the instrument cluster.

The chipsets integrate a gamma correction IC, timing controller, source driver, and gate driver for driving HD/FHD class displays, along with a power management IC to ensure optimum drive operation.
Each IC is designed to share information as needed, achieving automotive-grade reliability. Compatibility with LCDs for side mirrors and speedometers is also provided.
In addition, chipset optimisation is said to allow ROHM to cover a range of specifications, while integrating a fail detection function in the timing controller to verify operation, making it possible to configure high resolution LCD panels.
Each IC configured in the chipset integrates a function for mutually selecting the expected failure mode. As a result, it is possible to complementarily detect panel failure and confirm and provide feedback on information such as input signals to the LCD as well as peeling/destruction of the LCD driver.
The power management IC includes a double register for detecting abnormalities and auto-refresh function to enable recovery during abnormal operation, ensuring high reliability against unexpected influences such as noise. The setting of each output can be changed by simply rewriting the internal register value.

http://www.newelectronics.co.uk/electronics/automotive-chipsets-to-support-functional-safety-in-displays/150204/

Alibaba files first lawsuit over counterfeit goods sold on e-commerce site

Alibaba says it has sued two vendors for selling fake Swarovski watches on its online platform Taobao, marking the first time the Chinese e-commerce giant has taken legal action over counterfeit goods.
A lawsuit was filed in the Shenzend Longgang People's district court against sellers Liu Huajun and Wang Shenyi, asking for 1.4 million yuan (US$201,613) for "violation of contract and goodwill", Alibaba said.

In building its case, the company said it tapped big data and "surreptitious purchases" of suspected counterfeit goods to identify such sale and the location of the sellers in Shenzhen. Its data analysis pointed to the e-store, which was registered on Taobao in November 2015, and Alibaba arranged for samples of the product to be examined by the brand owner for its authenticity. It added that Luohu District police in August 2016 confiscated 125 fake Swarovski watches and two Swarovski official seals, worth an estimated 200 million yuan (US$28.8 million).
Alibaba Group's chief platform government officer Jessie Zheng said: "Selling counterfeits not only violates our service agreement, it also infringes on the intellectual property rights of the brand owner, puts inferior products in the hands of consumers, and ruins the hard-earned trust and reputation Alibaba has with our customers."
Zheng added that the company planned to take further legal action against e-tailers peddling counterfeit goods on its e-commerce platform. She said Alibaba would apply litigation in the hope that jail sentences and financial penalties would be a deterrence against the sale of fake goods.
According to Alibaba, more than 2,000 of its employees were dedicated to fighting counterfeit sale and another 5,000 volunteers worked with the company to identify fake goods on its online platforms.
Its head of global intellectual property enforcement, Matthew Bassiur, said: "We take a holistic and technology-driven approach to IPR-enforcement. Big data analytics enhance our ability to identify and pursue counterfeiters and make it increasingly difficult for these illicit sellers to hide in the shadows."
The latest move had come amid mounting criticism the e-commerce operator was not doing enough to combat the sale of fake goods on its online platforms. Kering Group in 2015 sued Alibaba for allowing US shoppers to purchase counterfeits of its brands, which included Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent, from the Chinese e-commerce sites.

The US Trade Representative last month reinstated Taobao Marketplace to its blacklist of "notorious markets" known for hawking counterfeits, four years after it had removed the e-commerce site from the list. Describing the move as "disappointing" and politically motivated in a US election year, Alibaba said it had committed various efforts, including a 150 million yuan (US$21.6 million) investment in 2015, to stem out counterfeit sale on its shopping sites.
The company added that it helped authorities in Zhejiang Province shutter 417 production lines and arrest 332 suspects last year, seizing counterfeit goods worth 1.43 billion yuan (US$205.93 million).


http://www.zdnet.com/article/alibaba-files-first-lawsuit-over-counterfeit-goods-sold-on-e-commerce-site/

TSMC’s Profit Beats Estimates as Mobile Chip Demand Rises

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. posted better-than-projected quarterly earnings, fueled by increasing demand for high-end microchips from biggest customer Apple Inc. as well as up-and-coming Chinese smartphone makers.
The world’s largest contract chipmaker also forecast revenue slightly below analysts’ estimates for the current quarter. Chairman Morris Chang, addressing investors after the earnings release, voiced support for U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s effort to create American jobs, saying TSMC had done its share over past decades to support U.S. employment by providing chip-making to that country’s firms.
TSMC, which builds the processors for Apple and Qualcomm Inc. that end up in smartphones, has grown its share of the iPhone business and benefited from growing demand from Chinese companies such as Oppo and Xiaomi Corp. Resilient demand for premium devices and new applications within areas such as artificial intelligence, datacenters and high-performance computing boosted the company’s business in 2016.
“TSMC actually created hundreds of thousands of U.S. jobs in the past 20 or 30 years,” said Chang, who began his career in the U.S. TSMC will continue to work with so-called fabless companies, he said, referring to the designers and owners of microchip technology like Apple or Qualcomm.
The Taiwanese company reported a record net income of NT$100.2 billion ($3.15 billion) in the three months ended December, surpassing the NT$96.2 billion average of analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. It previously reported a bigger-than-expected 29 percent jump in revenue to NT$262.2 billion. But it forecast sales of NT$236 billion ($7.4 billion) to NT$239 billion this quarter, lagging the NT$240.9 billion that analysts anticipated.

Chang told investors he foresees revenue growth for TSMC of 5 to 10 percent in 2017 in dollar terms. Global smartphone shipments could rise 6 percent this year to about 1.5 billion units, bouncing back from last year’s near-flat performance but lagging by far the 24 percent growth of 2014, according to research firm Canalys. In that environment, high-end component makers will be better positioned in 2017.“The smartphone and PC market continues to see small growth and companies find it harder to differentiate,” said Nicole Peng, an analyst at Canalys.
TSMC’s shares climbed 1.4 percent Thursday, before results were released. They rose 27 percent in 2016, peaking in October just after the iPhone 7 went on sale.
See also: Not Even Mighty TSMC Can Escape This Tech Slowdown: Gadfly
The Taiwanese chip giant has been able to count on demand for Apple’s latest iPhone to fuel sales of the A10 processor it makes, helping it weather a slowdown in the global smartphone market. The advent of a 10th-anniversary edition of the device this year could again galvanize the business.
TSMC has also been spending to move toward 10-nanometer chipmaking, a smaller chip size that affords handset makers more room to add hardware features. Capital spending last year came to $10.2 billion. That move up the technology chain has been key to attracting higher-margin business.
IPhone-related sales will near 30 percent of TSMC’s overall revenue, Laura Chen, an analyst with BNP Paribas, wrote on Jan. 5. Other analysts have warned that its increasing reliance on one company may render TSMC vulnerable to swings in iPhone demand.
Chinese customers are another fast-growing slice of the pie. TSMC is building a 12-inch wafer manufacturing facility in the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing to better serve local customers.
But a rapid build-up in inventory may hurt demand up and down the supply chain in subsequent months, warns Ken Hui, an analyst at Huatai Securities Co. Aggressive Chinese brands had ramped up production in past months with an eye to dominating the key shopping season before the Lunar New Year, which in 2017 falls earlier than usual in January.
TSMC’s gross margin came to 52.3 percent in the quarter, beating projections for 51.4 percent. In the first quarter, margin is projected to rise to as much as 53.5 percent.
“We expect TSMC’s solid technology migration and strong execution to bolster its earnings growth,” Chen wrote.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-01-12/tsmc-profit-beats-estimates-as-mobile-chip-demand-strengthens

Intel fixes 10nm process, promises Cannon Lake this year

Intel has seemingly resolved its ongoing problems transitioning to a 10nm semiconductor manufacturing, promising to launch its eighth-generation Cannon Lake Core chips before the end of the year.

The move from 14nm to 10nm manufacturing nodes has not been smooth for Intel. The company's original roadmap called for the first 10nm chips to launch in 2015, but despite considerable investment the transition did not go well. By June 2015, rumours were spreading that Intel was going to miss the launch, while in July Intel's Brian Krzanich confirmed that the launch of the 10nm 'Cannon Lake' processors would have to be pushed back to some time in the second half of 2017.

The issues surrounding the 10nm transition - which were also felt during the development of the 14nm Broadwell parts, delayed to 2014 thanks to the increasingly complex physics surrounding ever-smaller components - have had a serious effect on Intel's development process. In March last year, Intel announced it was killing off the tick-tock development cycle it had rigorously adhered to earlier in the Moore's Law difficulty curve: Instead of releasing a revised architecture one year followed by the same architecture on a smaller process node the year after, Intel's new approach extends the life of each node by concentrating more on architectural improvements.

Now, though, Intel is confident that it has the 10nm issues resolved - so confident, in fact, that Intel's Brian Krzanich took to the stage at the Consumer Electronics show to promise that the first Cannon Lake parts would appear before the end of this year - despite having only just brought the 14nm Kaby Lake architecturally enhanced processor family to the open market.

The announcement brings Intel's semiconductor manufacturing technology back on a level playing field with the like of TSMC, but former AMD manufacturing arm GlobalFoundries is claiming to be skipping 10nm in favour of jumping to 7nm with the first chips due to enter production in 2018.

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2017/01/10/intel-cannon-lake-2017/1

Samsung, LG’s OLED dominance may last at least 5 years

The dominance of organic light-emitting diode panels by South Korean display makers Samsung Display and LG Display is expected to last for at least the next five years, despite aggressive investment by Chinese and Japanese firms, Korean analysts said Tuesday.

Amid growing demand for OLED panels from global smartphone makers -- including Apple, Huawei, Oppo and Vivo -- due to their flexible nature, Chinese and Japanese firms are making heavy investments in the market dominated by the two Korean firms.

China’s tech giant BOE plans to invest around 8 trillion won ($6.6 billion) to mass produce OLEDs by 2019 on the back of government support. Another Chinese firm Ever Display is also establishing an OLED plant with an investment of around 4.6 trillion won.

Taiwan-based Hon Hai and its subsidiary Sharp reportedly plan to invest 1.3 trillion won, with the aim of supplying OLEDs to Apple. Japan Display also recently acquired Japanese OLED maker JOELD for around 12 billion won.

Despite the aggressive push by the foreign firms, Korean experts predicted that the OLED dominance of Korean firms could last for a considerable period of time due to their technology advances.

“Korean display makers’ OLED dominance may last at least five years due to the technology gap with Chinese and Japanese firms,” said Lee Chang-hee, a professor researching OLED technologies at Seoul National University.

“This applies to flat and flexible OLEDs in both smartphones and televisions,” he added.
Kim Hyun-jae, a professor at Yonsei University’s electronics engineering, said, “Chinese OLED makers are expected to take off at least four years later due to technical issues. Japanese firms -- which make smaller investments compared to Korean and Chinese firms -- may not survive because of economies of scale.”

Samsung Display is currently the biggest beneficiary of the growing OLED demand, with more than 95 percent of share in the global OLED market for smartphones. It will reportedly supply OLED panels for around 100 million units of Apple’s new iPhone 8 to be unveiled this autumn.

Samsung’s Korean rival LG Display is also fast shifting its investment from liquid crystal displays to OLEDs for smartphone panels. The firm is building OLED production facilities in Gumi and Paju with a total investment of 3.5 trillion won. LG, which is expected to supply OLEDs to Apple from 2018, is also closely working with the iPhone maker to develop foldable panels.

“The OLED technology of Japanese and Chinese firms is at least three years behind Korean firms. Only Korean firms are expected to supply a meaningful amount of flexible OLED panels to Apple over the next three years,” said Kim Dong-won, an analyst at Hyundai Securities.

Still, the Korean firms are not in a position to be complacent with the current favorable market conditions, they said.

“It is true that the aggressive push by Chinese firms are becoming a threat in the mid-to-long term. We should make a leap forward with advanced technologies such as foldable panels to pull ahead of rivals,” said an anonymous official from Samsung Display.

By 2019, 42 percent of total smartphones in the global market will use OLED panels, market research firm IHS Markit predicted.

By Shin Ji-hye (shinjh@heraldcorp.com)

http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20170110000859

AMD’s leaders believe that hardware is hot again

AMD is taking a swing at Intel with its new Ryzen desktop processors, and it’s going after Nvidia with its new Radeon Instinct artificial intelligence processors. After playing catch-up for years, Sunnyvale, California-based AMD is back on the offensive.
Lisa Su, CEO of AMD, and Raja Koduri, senior vice president of AMD’s Radeon Technologies Group, hope that their efforts will reinvigorate competition in the computer industry. The Ryzen desktop computer chips, which use AMD’s Zen core designs, will debut in the first quarter. And the new Radeon Instinct machine intelligence chips will debut during the first half of 2017.
AMD says the Ryzen chips are 40 percent faster per clock cycle than the previous generation, and Su is confident that it will beat Intel’s fastest desktop processors on a variety of fronts. And she’s still confident that 2017 will bring great things for the company, and that “AMD is back.”

I sat down with Su and Koduri at an AMD event in Sonoma, California. Here’s an edited transcript of our interview.


Read full article here: http://venturebeat.com/2017/01/05/amds-leaders-believe-that-hardware-is-hot-again-in-2017/

Prices of computer memory chips expected to jump 30 pct in Q1

SEOUL, Jan. 5 (Yonhap) -- The prices of computer memory chips are expected to jump about 30 percent in the first quarter of the year, according to industry data on Thursday, providing a boon to South Korean chipmakers, such as Samsung Electronics Co. and SK hynix Inc.
According to market tracker DRAMeXchange and industry sources, the contract price of the benchmark 4-gigabit DDR3 recently surpassed US$25, up 39 percent from an average contract price in November last year.
DRAMeXchange expected an average contract price of DRAM chips for personal computers to jump 30 percent in the first quarter of this year.
Analysts have predicted that the prices of DRAM chips remain firm as chipmakers reduced DRAM output as they shifted their production lines to expand production of mobile DRAM for smartphones and other mobile devices.
Samsung accounted for half of the global DRAM market, while SK hynix held about 25 percent of the market.
Samsung, which is scheduled to release its guidance for earnings for the fourth quarter of last year, is said to post about 4.5 trillion won (US$3.7 billion) in fourth-quarter operating profit from its semiconductor business.
Brokerage firms predicted that SK hynix may post an operating profit of between 1.2 trillion won and 1.38 trillion won for the fourth quarter of last year.

http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/business/2017/01/05/46/0502000000AEN20170105004200320F.html

Qualcomm has already shipped more than a billion chips for the Internet of Things

Qualcomm has already shipped more than 1 billion chips for the Internet of Things, which is making everyday objects smart and connected.
The big mobile chip maker made the announcement at CES 2017, the giant tech trade show in Las Vegas this week.
Raj Talluri, senior vice president of product management at Qualcomm, said that mobile technology will drive the Internet of Things (IoT), partly because product cycles are so fast.
“We have scale,” he said. “We launch more than a billion mobile products annually.”
Talluri said the billion IoT chips are being used in connected devices of all kinds, from TVs to sensors. (He said Qualcomm doesn’t count tablets or smartphones as IoT devices.)
Talluri highlighted a few wearables that use Qualcomm chips. He said Snapdragon is used in more than 80 percent of Android Wear smartwatches. A new one coming is from Swarovski and will be at a show in the future, he said.
He noted that Osterhout Design Group (ODG) is using the new Snapdragon 835 processor for its latest ODG R-8 and R-9 augmented reality smartglasses.
He also said the chip is going into Mobi’s Mattel Aristotle, which is the equivalent of Amazon Echo, but for kids. You can do things like play music for the kids by using voice commands and tapping into the artificial intelligence in the cloud.
The company is also targeting the automotive industry with chips for self-driving cars and other electronic functions, such as car connectivity and environment sensing. Cars need advanced chip functions, like computer vision for sensing the environment and other vehicles.
Qualcomm said it will bring gigabit-class LTE wireless networking to connected vehicles, using the Qualcomm Snapdragon X16 LTE modem. Right now, Qualcomm has a reference platform with new chips that will make connecting in the car seamless.
Qualcomm is putting its Snapdragon 820A processor into cars right now. Volkswagen will use the 820A processor and the Snapdragon X12 and X5 LTE modems in its future vehicles. And Qualcomm, Ericsson, and others will field test the automobile connectivity technology this year.

http://venturebeat.com/2017/01/03/qualcomm-has-already-shipped-more-than-a-billion-chips-for-the-internet-of-things/

Govt invites bids: Study to ascertain reach of counterfeit electronic goods in domestic market

It added that the study to evaluate the availability of fake electronic products in the country would be conducted in eighteen state capitals and eighteen Tier-2/3 cities of other states.

The government has sought bids from agencies to conduct a study about the availability of fake, duplicate and counterfeit electronic goods in the domestic market and the impact of the Compulsory Registration Order, through which the sale of these products is restricted in the absence of a registration with the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).
“While the order applies equally to domestic and overseas produced products for sale into Indian markets, it is understood that Indian markets are also being fed with fake/duplicate/counterfeit electronic products either by misuse of the registration mark or by not complying to the order at all,” the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said in its Expression of Interest.

It added that the study to evaluate the availability of fake electronic products in the country would be conducted in eighteen state capitals and eighteen Tier-2/3 cities of other states.
“Survey may be scattered to cosmopolitan cities, rural areas & direct Sellers. However, samples be taken for products from a spectrum of MNCs, domestic manufacturers in large scale, MSME traders and market,” the bid document said.
Under the Electronics and Information Technology Goods (Requirement for Compulsory Registration) Order, 50 product categories such as mobile phones, laptops, microwaves, point-of-sale terminals, LED lamps, smart-card readers, inverters, power adapters, etc are included for which a self-declaration about compliance with the relevant standards is compulsory. As per the order, the sale of the notified electronic goods is restricted by the regulation to only safe goods duly registered by the BIS and displaying a standard mark to that effect.
The Expression of Interest document, which was floated earlier this week, has called for parameters such as missing BIS awarded registration number, standard mark, mobile phones without IMEI number, products without bills & traceability of supplier, missing model or serial number, significant difference in prices, etc to be considered while conducting the research.
In the study, for each of 50 product categories, three models or brands are to be included for each of the 36 locations, and the agency conducting the survey will submit its report to the IT ministry within 45 days of getting the tender.

http://indianexpress.com/article/business/economy/govt-invites-bids-study-to-ascertain-reach-of-counterfeit-electronic-goods-in-domestic-market-4442411/