Semiconductor Outlook Lifted on Surging Memory Prices

SAN FRANCISCO—A prominent semiconductor industry watcher has more than doubled its forecast for industry growth in 2017 on surging average selling prices (ASPs) for DRAM and NAND flash memory.

IC Insights Inc. Wednesday (March 29) said it now expects IC revenue to increase by 11 percent this year due to a substantial upgrade to the forecasts for DRAM and NAND, which the market research firm now expects to grow by 39 percent and 25 percent, respectively. IC Insights had previously forecast that the chip market would grow 5 percent in 2017.
Market watchers generally agree that 2017 should be a year of moderate growth for the semiconductor market after the industry posted a surprise 1 percent increase in sales in 2016, but 11 percent is among the most aggressive predictions to date. The World Semiconductor Trade Statistics organization and market research firm Gartner Inc. are both calling for around 7 percent growth for the year.

The DRAM market growth is expected to be driven almost entirely by a 37 percent increase in ASPs compared with 2016, when DRAM ASPs declined by 12 percent, IC Insights said. NAND ASPs are projected to increase by 22 percent this year after falling 1 percent last year, the firm said.
IC Insights said DRAM ASPs increased from $2.41 in April 2016 to $3.60 in January of this year, a 49 percent jump. The spike was caused by a surge in demand from PC suppliers during the second half of 2016, the firm said.
Total DRAM bit volume demand is expected to increase by 30 percent this year while production capacity is expected to increase by just 20 percent, IC Insights said.
The DRAM market is projected to be worth $57.3 billion this year, by far the largest IC product category, according to IC Insights.
—Dylan McGrath covers the semiconductor industry and business news for EE Times.

http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1331537

Littelfuse Invests in Monolith Semiconductor

Global circuit protection provider Littelfuse, Inc. has made an incremental $15 million investment in Monolith Semiconductor Inc. Littlefuse now has a majority ownership position in Monolith, a Texas-based start-up company developing silicon carbide technology.

Silicon carbide is a rapidly emerging semiconductor material that enables power devices to operate at higher switching frequencies versus conventional silicon. This allows inverters and motor drives to operate with significantly improved energy efficiency and reduced system cost.






Under the terms of its agreement with Monolith Semiconductor, Littelfuse has committed to add to its investment once Monolith has achieved certain milestones. Littelfuse previously announced that its first quarter 2017 earnings per share guidance included $0.03 of expense to fund development activities with Monolith Semiconductor. This additional investment is expected to reduce earnings per share by $0.09 across the second through fourth quarters of 2017.

http://electronics360.globalspec.com/article/8337/littelfuse-invests-in-monolith-semiconductor

Counterfeiting and piracy: not just about fake watches

In February Frontier Economics produced a report detailing the economic problems associated with counterfeiting and piracy. WIPR spoke to Amar Breckenridge, a manager at the company, to discuss the report’s findings and why they are useful.

By 2022, international trade in counterfeit and pirated goods will total $991 billion. Digital piracy of movies, music and software will be worth between $384 and $856 billion. Legitimate economic activity valuing from $980 billion to $1.24 trillion will have been displaced.

These are just some of the forecasts in a report published by economics consultancy Frontier Economics in February. The study, “The economic impacts of counterfeiting and piracy”, was prepared for International Chamber of Commerce Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy and the International Trademark Association.

It examines the prevalence of counterfeiting and piracy as well as their economic and social impact.

In an interview with WIPR, Amar Breckenridge, a manager at Frontier Economics, notes that the first three sections analyse how big the problems are globally, while the final part says ‘so what?’—and assesses the wider effects.

Section one draws on data from the OECD and European Union Intellectual Property Office on the trade in international counterfeits. This “authoritative starting point” is followed by examining the domestic prevalence of counterfeiting, according to Breckenridge. Next is a focus on digital piracy (film, music, software, etc).

“We estimate that the value of internationally traded and domestically produced counterfeit and pirated goods in 2013 was $710 to $917 billion,” says the report. “We estimate that, in addition to this, the global value of digital piracy in movies, music and software in 2015 was $213 billion.”

Section four addresses the question of the wider social and economic costs. This is divided into two parts, the first asking to what extent counterfeiting and piracy displace legitimate activity. The second, using econometrics and regression analysis, focuses on the relationship between changes in the incidence of counterfeiting and piracy and the effects on economic growth.

“This looks at what bang you get for your buck, as it tells you how much worse off you are due to piracy and the benefits of working to reduce piracy,” Breckenridge says.

Asked how accurate the forecasts are, he notes that in some cases Frontier Economics presented ranges which can be “very broad”.

“By definition, fakes are hard to observe directly so you have to start with whatever you can observe.”

“If you’re a government serious about economic growth, it also pays to invest in reducing the incidence of piracy and enforcing IP.”

Discussing the potential challenges to the findings’ validity, Breckenridge says the main difficulty is “starting with what’s observed and then making inferences, which are guided by methodology”.

“When estimating the value of digital piracy and films, we have numbers on illegal file-sharing, but you need to construct a price and draw on data that reflect consumer spending habits and what they pay for film products.” 

He continues: “You could argue that the prices are too conservative, or could be too low, or could vary by geography more than we allow for. In those circumstances we have erred on the side of caution—our estimates on the digital side of things are probably lower than reality.”

Critics will say that some estimates on counterfeiting and piracy lack integrity because the figures assume that consumers would buy a legitimate product, which would in fact be unlikely.

However, Breckenridge says, such a notion is not particularly relevant to large parts of the report as the first three sections assess how big the problems are.

He adds that it might be more relevant to section four, “but the weakness of that notion is that it’s outdated”, he argues, as it applies mainly to goods such as luxury products.

“If you look at what is being counterfeited, luxury is a very small part (3–4%). Counterfeiting is more prevalent where consumers would be unlikely to buy fakes knowingly, eg, electrical equipment, fuels, and machinery.”

The main conclusion of the report is that counterfeiting and piracy are pervasive across the whole economy and, for example, that the issue is not just about, say, fake watches, says Breckenridge.

“It shows the payoff to government in taking action to reduce the incidence of counterfeiting and piracy. One of the most significant findings is that even if you control for other factors affecting economic performance, there still is an effect that comes from changes in the levels of piracy,” he adds.

“This tells us that if you’re a government serious about economic growth, it also pays to invest in reducing the incidence of piracy and enforcing IP.”

With the report complete, the next step is for others to do more regional analysis and detailed “field work” such as working out how to influence consumer behaviour, Breckenridge argues.

“Part of the difficulty is that consumers might be uninformed, eg, in the consumption of fake medicines or foodstuffs, or not sufficiently alert to the costs of fake goods.

“Research into the link between counterfeiting and criminality is an area where people will invest more money,” he adds.  

Amar Breckenridge, Frontier Economics, International Trademark Association, piracy, counterfeiting, trademark, film, software, report, EUIPO, OECD,

http://www.worldipreview.com/contributed-article/counterfeiting-and-piracy-not-just-about-fake-watches?utm_campaign=Social%20activity&utm_content=50872567&utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkedin

DFARS Webinar -Should Your Organization Be Concerned About DFARS 252.246.7008 and the Supply Chain Impact Regarding Obsolete and Counterfeit Components?

 Use the link below to register for a webinar that will help explain DFARS 252.246.7008.

Topics will include:

•The three tier supply chain model for sourcing electronic components
•Compliance to the DFAR regarding Inspection, Test, and Authentication (IT&A)
•Alternatives to redesign approaches with regards to improved sustainability
•Corporate flow down, liability, and business risk 

Global IC's own Lori LeRoy will be one of the panel speakers.

http://www.militaryaerospace.com/webcasts/2017/04/should-your-organization-be-concerned-about-dfars-252-246-7008-and-the-supply-chain-impact-regarding-obsolete-and-counterfeit-components.html

TowerJazz Rolls Out Silicon Photonics Process

SAN FRANCISCO—Specialty foundry TowerJazz Thursday (March 23) rolled out a silicon photonic (SiPho) process to complement its silicon-germanium (SiGe) BiCMOS process used for manufacturing optical transceiver electronics.

“We are excited to be entering the silicon photonics foundry space in order to provide solutions to a greater portion of the optical transceiver market for our customers,” said Marco Racanelli, senior vice president and general manager TowerJazz's RF & High Performance Analog business unit, in a statement.
Silicon photonics is a promising emerging technology for the production of photonic ICs, which transfer data using laser light in less time than conventional ICs.
The silicon photonic process, set to be available in the third quarter, is built to enable a range of optical fiber interconnect Tx and Rx front-end optical ICs, TowerJazz said. The process includes several versions of single-mode silicon waveguides, high speed germanium photodetectors, p-n junction modulators and enablement for edge and grating couplers, according to the company.
TowerJazz also announced it would collaborate with PhoeniX Software to provide process design kits for its customers developing optical networking and data center interconnects applications.

http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1331515

China pushes domestic chip development

BEIJING/SHANGHAI China's global acquisitions to fill technology gaps may have ground to a halt, but the country's quest to boost its semiconductor sector continues.
Chinese officials and tech executives agree that foreign regulators are increasingly wary of capital from the world's second largest economy, making it difficult to buy foreign chip providers. "We have to be prepared for more failures when it comes to overseas acquisitions," Sun Yuwang, a long-time industry veteran and president of China Fortune-Tech Capital, told the Semicon China conference in Shanghai on March 15. "The best time for us to buy good chip companies has already passed," he said.
Sun's investment fund is controlled by Semiconductor Manufacturing International Co., China's No. 1 contract chipmaker and smaller rival to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.
China's overseas shopping spree to strengthen its chip sector and slash reliance on products from Intel, Qualcomm, Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, Toshiba, TSMC and MediaTek has struggled to gain traction. Botched deals, including Beijing-backed Tsinghua Unigroup's failed bids for Micron, Western Digital and three Taiwanese chip assemblers -- Siliconware Precision Industries, Powertech Technology and ChipMOS Technologies -- highlight the country's woes.
The administration of former U.S. President Barack Obama also blocked China's acquisition of German semiconductor equipment supplier Aixtron in December, citing national security risks. Furthermore, a White House report released in January claimed that China's push to build its domestic chip industry could hurt U.S. makers and further heighten defense concerns.
Even Japan's embattled Toshiba is treading lightly as it considers bidders for its profitable manufacturer of NAND flash memory, which is used in electronics such as smartphones. In a move that was widely interpreted to discourage Chinese buyers, the company said it will not sell to certain companies in countries that have political differences with Japan.
As countries view chip technology as critical to their own industries and national security, Sun said that the U.S., Japan, South Korea and Taiwan are unlikely to greenlight acquisitions by Chinese entities. Sun added that any deals actually made will likely be of little value or importance. He suggested that China develop its own industry by sourcing overseas talent rather than relying on foreign acquisitions.
Ding Wenwu, president of the official China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund, shared similar views but did not rule out international partnerships. "We do see limits and obstacles in buying foreign technologies," said Ding. "Under the circumstances, we should never forget the importance of cultivating our own chip sector without relying on other countries' support."
An Peng, director of state-backed Beijing E-Town International Investment and Development, said China should pursue deals in regions and countries that are more receptive to Chinese funds, such as Europe and Israel, and target relatively new companies that are still growing in order to avoid unnecessary scrutiny.
Donald Lu, managing director of Goldman Sachs, said that Chinese bidders should prepare more thoroughly before approaching foreign companies. He cautioned that Chinese investors are now gaining a bad reputation in Silicon Valley.

Still, China continues to urge Taiwan, South Korea and Japan to welcome Chinese investments while downplaying its efforts to compete with U.S. chipmakers. "We hope Taiwan could be more open to Chinese companies," Miao Wei, China's minister of industry and information technology, said on March 11. "This would be beneficial to both sides and also support our goal to facilitate unification and achieve the aim of one China," he said.
The minister added that it is unfair that while many Taiwanese businesses have profited in China, the island does not allow Chinese entities to invest in local companies. Miao made the comments at a press conference on the sideline of the annual meeting of the National People's Congress.
China and Taiwan split amid a civil war in 1949, but Beijing continues to claim the self-ruling, democratic territory as its own and has not renounced the use of force as a possible means to achieve unification. Relations between Taipei and Beijing have cooled significantly since Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party took office last May.
Despite the rhetoric, the two sides share close economic ties with annual trade totaling about $200 billion.
Wu Ping, head of Summitview Capital and founder of China's top mobile chip designer Spreadtrum Communications, told the Nikkei Asian Review on March 15 that he does not think South Korea, Japan and Taiwan would close their doors to Chinese investment as their domestic markets are not big enough to support their own chip industries.
Chairman Zhou Zixue of SMIC, on the other hand, tried to gloss over any potential rivalry with big chip powers. He argued that Chinese manufacturers are still too small to compete with the top 20 global players so pose no threat to the U.S.
Worldwide resistance notwithstanding, the booming Chinese market has become the most attractive destination for global semiconductor suppliers, while the nation's drive to become self-sufficient continues to gather steam. There will be more new 12-inch chip plants coming online in China than anywhere else, according to Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International, a global industry association that hosts the Semicon China conference. Of the more than 60 advanced, 12-inch chip facilities being planned or constructed globally from now to 2020, 26 will be located in China. Some are domestically owned while others belong to foreign companies.
A number of high-profile projects include three new plants by SMIC, Huali Microelectronics and Taiwan's TSMC along with two memory chip factories by Tsinghua Unigroup. "It's inevitable that China will grow its chip sector as it aims to fulfill the massive market and fit its own needs," said Chu Lung, president of SEMI China.
At the end of 2016, there were around 100 advanced chip facilities across the globe with Chinese owning less than five. "Our Chinese customers' plans are very aggressive," President and Chief Executive Peter Wennink of ASML, the biggest European semiconductor equipment maker, told Nikkei Asian Review on March 14. "The growth rate in China is faster than the rest of the world."

In 2016, China's chip industry grew more than 20%, according to China Semiconductor Industry Association, while research firm Gartner said that globally the industry only grew about 1.5%. However, almost all Chinese local chip experts warned that some frenetic but irrational investment in the sector could lead to oversupply in the future.
"We are not worried about explosive capacity growth in the coming years as there is need and the Chinese market is very big," said Wei Shaojun, professor and director of the Institute of Microelectronics at China's Tsinghua University.
"However, we do have serious concertsns that some companies simply invest to build uncompetitive plants that could later lead to a supply glut," Wei said.
Wei said the nation should consolidate resources, attract more international specialists, and inject more funds into research and development in order to become competitive in the long term.

http://asia.nikkei.com/magazine/20170323/Business/China-pushes-domestic-chip-development?page=2

TMD material forms semiconducting nanowires

A material that, when heated to 450°C, transforms from a 2D sheet into an array of 1D nanowires has been discovered by a team from the University of Texas, Dallas.

Because the nanowires are semiconductors, they could be used as switching devices. "These nanowires are about 10 times smaller than the smallest silicon wires, and, if used in future technology, would result in powerful energy-efficient devices," Kim said.
Using a transmission electron microscope, the researchers started with atomically thin, 2D sheets of molybdenum ditelluride. The material belongs to a class called transition metal dichalcogenides, which show promise in replacing silicon in transistors.
"We wanted to understand the thermal stability of this particular material," Kim said. "We thought it was a good candidate for next-generation nanoelectronics. Out of curiosity, we set out to see whether it would be stable above room temperature."
When they increased the temperature to 450°C, the researchers saw the molybdenum ditelluride layers began to transform into six-pointed star shapes.
The material was transitioning into hexa-molybdenum hexa-telluride, a 1D wire-like structure. This structure consisted of six central atoms of molybdenum surrounded by six atoms of tellurium.
"Then, when we examined the material more closely, we found that the transition we were seeing was not in any of the phase diagrams," Kim said. "Normally, when you heat up particular materials, you expect to see a different kind of material emerge as predicted by a phase diagram. But in this case, it formed a whole new phase."
"We would want to use the nanowires individually because we are pushing the size of a transistor as small as possible."
The researchers now have to determine how to separate out the nanowires and overcome technical challenges to manufacturing and mass production.

http://www.newelectronics.co.uk/electronics-news/tmd-material-creates-semiconducting-nanowires/152991/

Semicon China: Chipmakers talk about Moore's Law and China's fast-growing IC industry

At Semicon China 2017, executives at chip giant Intel, IC packager Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, equipment vendors ASML, Lam Research and Tokyo Electron (TEL), and nano-electronics research institute Imec talked about innovation to keep the Moore's Law relevant, and China's fast-growing homegrown semiconductor industry.

Intel VP Jun He and Imec CEO Luc Van den hove during their speeches focused on the importance of Moore's Law - the ability to cram more transistors on a single chip - in the IC industry development. He claimed Moore's Law is the cornerstone on which the semiconductor revolution has been based. Since ICs become an integral part of people's lives, from PCs and mobile phones to data storage devices and the automotive industry, the chipmaking industry's ability to extend the Moore's Law is critically needed, He said.

Van den hove pointed out that the industry "must" explore ways to keep the Moore's Law moving forward with innovations, as it is no longer about geometric scaling. FinFET transistor technology has extended the Moore's Law beyond 28nm, while extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) technology is set to be ready to enable a full 7nm node, Van den hove indicated.

The Moore's Law concept has been reshaped to some extent, Van den hove said. The complexity of semiconductor wafer designs is increasing, while transistors continue to shink in size. The trend toward 3D-chip manufacturing and design is already inevitable, Van den hove said.

TEL CTO Sekiguchi Akihisa remarked that the efficiency of EUV light sources has to be enhanced through collaboration between companies. An ecosystem should be established to motivate cross-industry collaboration, said Akihisa, who urged China- and Japan-based companies to work together to accelerate EUV.

Lam Research CEO Martin Anstice in his speech titled "Collaborating for Success" expressed optimism about chip demand for emerging technologies in the fields of Big Data, IoT, robotics, AI, AR and VR. Anstice also believes that the semiconductor market still has huge room for growth since chip demand has not reached its peak in the high performance computing and mass storage device fields.

In addition, the availability of EUV technology will further push forward the development of the semiconductor industry, according to Anstice. And through 96 layers to 128-layer 3D NAND, the IC industry development will continue to move forward.

Lam Research has stepped up its investment in China, said Anstice. The company now has more than 20 projects implemented at customer sites with 4,000 units of equipment already installed at fabs locally, Anstice indicated.

China will be the main driving force behind the world's chip industry growth over the next six years, according to ASE COO Tien Wu. China will expand its fabless IC design sector's global presence to account for 42% of the worldwide IC design industry output value in the foreseeable future, said Wu.

China is also looking to expand its homegrown IC foundry and IDM sectors, which will account for 25% and 20%, respectively, of the worldwide industry output value, Wu indicated. The booming IC industry in China will definitely benefit fab toolmakers and materials suppliers, Wu added.

ASML president and CEO Peter Wennink suggested that technology and talent remain key elements enabling China's IC industry to catch up with its bigger international peers. Wennink disclosed ASML is looking to work more closely with China-based companies with its R&D centers in Shenzhen and Beijing. ASML also has plans to help the country develop a talent pool with a local center for training and education.

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20170317PD201.html

Toshiba Attracts 10 Potential Bidders for Chips Business

Toshiba Corp.’s memory chips business is attracting more potential bidders ahead of an end-March deadline, including Japanese government-backed entities, people with knowledge of the matter said.
The Development Bank of Japan is considering a joint offer with U.S. financial bidders, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified discussing a private matter.
The electronics conglomerate is seeking a sale of the prized unit to make up for a multibillion-dollar writedown in its nuclear operations. The semiconductor business is Toshiba’s crown jewel and makes the memory chips that go into personal computers, smartphones and data centers. It accounted for about 25 percent of Toshiba’s 5.67 trillion yen in revenue during the latest fiscal year.
The shares of Toshiba rose 3.5 percent in Tokyo on Friday. The stock is down 33 percent this year after unveiling the potential losses in late December.
Late on Thursday, a Toshiba executive said he would welcome a bid from Innovation Network Corp. of Japan. INCJ and DBJ are considering a joint bid to take more than a 30 percent stake, the Yomiuri newspaper reported, but Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga immediately poured cold water on the speculations, telling reporters in Tokyo that Japan is not considering the use of public funds for Toshiba.
Kaori Hiraki, a spokeswoman for Toshiba, declined to comment on the progress of chip unit sale and possible bidders. Representatives for DBJ and INCJ declined to comment.
The number of interested parties, which already include semiconductor makers and investments funds, may increase beyond the current 10 and the company expects final bids by March 29, the executive said. Western Digital Corp., SK Hynix Inc., Foxconn Technology Group, Micron Technology Inc. and Kingston Technology Co. are among those interested, one of the people said. On March 2, Foxconn founder Terry Gou said he is “very serious” about making a bid for the memory chip business.
Representatives for Kingston, Western Digital and Micron declined to comment. Foxconn’s public relations department didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
The bids could range from 700 billion yen to 1.8 trillion yen ($6.2 billion-$15.9 billion), one of the persons said. Toshiba, which is willing to sell off a majority stake in the unit, is seeking bids that value the entire business at 1.5 trillion yen. Toshiba is struggling to regain its footing after disclosing an estimated loss of 712.5 billion yen in Westinghouse Electric. The Tokyo-based company has had to delay its earnings announcement twice, and has also floated the possibility of selling off the nuclear operations.
Financial bidders may be likely but they will probably submit offers closer to the deadline, the executive said. Among the financial bidders are Bain Capital, Silver Lake Partners and KKR & Co., people familiar with the matter have said.

The Toshiba executive declined to clarify whether the government-backed group is the Japanese company that is said to have expressed interested. INCJ was created in 2009 with majority government ownership and a mandate to promote the next generation of technologies and companies. The fund put money into Renesas Electronics Corp., which was formed in 2010 from the struggling semiconductor operations of several Japanese companies. INCJ later created Japan Display Inc. from the troubled screenmaking units of Toshiba, Sony Corp., and Hitachi Ltd.
Toshiba has said it aims to complete the sale of the chips business by March 2018. Its three main lenders have agreed to extend support to the company in the meantime, according to two people familiar with the matter. Toshiba met with the banks on Wednesday, asking for extension of its loans through April and offering equity and real estate as collateral, the people said.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-17/toshiba-said-to-attract-10-potential-bidders-for-chips-business

Mouser signs Renesas for Synergy

The Synergy MCUs Mouser will carry include four different series of software-, architecture-, and pin-compatible devices.
The S7 Series high-end MCUs operate at 240MHz, the S5 Series operating at 120MHz, the S3 Series at 48MHz, and the lowest power S1 Series at 32MHz.
The distributor’s website will also offer a selection of intuitive Synergy Kits based on S7G2 Group MCUs to simplify embedded software development.
This is an embedded development platform, which is built around ARM Coretx-M series microcontrollers but which also has a full software framework based on Express Logic X-Ware.
The DK-S7G2 development kit provides full access to all MCU pins and features for deeper evaluation and development.
The SK-S7G2 Starter Kit provides a low-cost entry point into the entire Synergy Platform with a touch-enabled colour QVGA TFT display.
There is also the PE-HMI1 Product Example kit provides a connected HMI panel with 7-inch WVGA colour display plus high-speed wired and wireless communications to serve as a baseline for end-product development

http://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/ew-mouser-signs-renesas-synergy-2017-03/

Chinese official pledges anti-counterfeit push

A senior Chinese official has promised to strengthen anti-counterfeit laws after a high-profile call to action from Alibaba chairman Jack Ma was echoed by other industry leaders.
The e-commerce giant says that Minister of State Administration for Industry and Commerce Zhang Mao acknowledged the comments made by Ma in an open letter published on the Twitter-like Weibo service, in which he called for tougher penalties for counterfeiters and asked the government to do more to help businesses fight the scourge.
Speaking last week at a press conference on the side-lines of a government plenary meeting in Beijing, Zhang said last week it was important to strengthen China's laws, according to Alibaba's Alizila news website, although there were few details available.
Zhang's comments are hardly going against the party line. Last year, Zhang Xiangchen, China's deputy international-trade representative, confessed during a trip to the US that intellectual property rights (IPR) is still a fairly new concept in China and there is considerable room for improvement in helping companies enforce those rights.
Ma's post was followed by similar exhortations from the China Entrepreneurs Club and its former chairman, Lenovo Group founder Liu Chuanzhi, which both issued their own statements asking the government to "increase the legal cost of counterfeiting" and strengthen the legal structure surrounding IPR protection.
This was followed by a series of comments from other influential Chinese businessmen. The founder of electronics company Xiaomi - Lei Jun - described fake goods as "a social cancer, a serious damage to the image of the country and consumer confidence," and said it was time to support efforts to get rid of them.
In similar vein, Lenovo president and chief executive Yang Yuanqing, said there is a pressing need to establish a "complete legal system against infringement" and also to make sure that counterfeiters "have to pay a price they can't afford and even bear criminal responsibility."
Yang sits on the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and has a record of advocacy for changes in China’s laws. In 2014, he championed a push for a legal framework to protect privacy and personal data on the web and personal devices.
Finally, Liu Yonghao, chairman of giant Chinese agribusiness New Hope said "fake and shoddy goods affect our industries, the orderly development of enterprises and also affect China’s international image." He said counterfeiting is a cancer to innovation and must be "resolutely resisted."
The tougher line being taken by China's industrial elite reflects the fact that Chinese companies are increasingly involved in new product development and the generation of IPR - and are being impacted by the same criminals who have been faking goods from foreign corporations for many years.

https://www.securingindustry.com/electronics-and-industrial/chinese-official-pledges-anti-counterfeit-push-/s105/a3700/#.WMlYb_KvKQd

China urges Taiwan to open itself to more mainland investment

BEIJING -- China's minister of industry and information technology on Saturday urged Taiwan to be more open to mainland investment. He said this would strengthen ties and put the two sides on a path toward unification.
"We are very open to investment from Taiwan, and many Taiwanese companies have made a lot of money here," Miao Wei said. "We hope that openness should be more two-sided instead of one-sided."
He made the comments during a press conference on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the National People's Congress, the country's parliament.
"We hope Taiwan could be more open to Chinese companies," Miao said. "This would be beneficial to both sides and also support our goal to facilitate unification and achieve the aim of one China."
China and Taiwan split amid a civil war in 1949, but Beijing continues to claim the self-ruling, democratic republic as its own. China has not renounced the use of force as a possible means to bring about unification.
Ties between Taipei and Beijing have cooled significantly since Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party took office last May. Chinese officials view her as leading the island away from Beijing's pull.
Miao was answering a question that touched on technology competition between China and Taiwan as well as on Beijing-backed Tsinghua Unigroup's recent unsuccessful bids to acquire 25% stakes in three Taiwanese chip assemblers -- Siliconware Precision Industries Co., Powertech Technology and ChipMOS Technologies.
Miao said his ministry will continue to encourage Taiwanese investment in the mainland. This includes the $3 billion that Taiwan Semiconductor Mfg. (TSMC) is pouring into an advanced chip facility in the southern Chinese city of Nanjing. In addition, United Microelectronics is involved in a project in the southern coastal province of Fujian.
TSMC is the world's No. 1 contract chipmaker; UMC is No. 3.

http://asia.nikkei.com/Politics-Economy/Policy-Politics/China-urges-Taiwan-to-open-itself-to-more-mainland-investment

Microsoft Microsoft Pledges to Use ARM Server Chips, Threatening Intel's Dominance

Microsoft Corp. is committing to use chips based on ARM Holdings Plc technology in the machines that run its cloud services, potentially imperiling Intel Corp.’s longtime dominance in the profitable market for data-center processors.

Microsoft has developed a version of its Windows operating system for servers using ARM processors, working with Qualcomm Inc. and Cavium Inc. The software maker is now testing these chips for tasks like search, storage, machine learning and big data, said Jason Zander, vice president of Microsoft's Azure cloud division. The company isn’t yet running the processors -- known for being more power-efficient and offering more choice in vendors -- in any customer-facing networks, and wouldn't specify how widespread they eventually will be.
"It's not deployed into production yet, but that is the next logical step," Zander said in an interview. "This is a significant commitment on behalf of Microsoft. We wouldn't even bring something to a conference if we didn't think this was a committed project and something that's part of our road map."
Microsoft is planning to incorporate the ARM chips as it develops a new cloud server design, which it will discuss Wednesday at the Open Compute Project Summit in Santa Clara, California. The company is announcing new partners and components for the design, first unveiled last year, as it moves closer to putting the machines into its own data centers later this year. Because the design is open-source, meaning it's freely available to be used and customized, other companies are also likely to use variations.
Both the server design, called Project Olympus, and Microsoft’s work with ARM-based processors reflect the software maker's push to use hardware innovations to cut costs, boost flexibility and stay competitive with Amazon.com Inc. and Alphabet Inc.'s Google, which also provide computing power, software and storage via the internet. While large cloud companies have moved toward greater use of unbranded servers, storage and networking gear, Intel chips have remained one of the sole big-name products widely in use. Microsoft’s work with ARM, in progress for several years, could pave the way for a real challenge to Intel, which controls more than 99 percent of the market for server chips.
While Intel is among companies making components to work with the Project Olympus design, ARM-chip makers such as Qualcomm and Cavium are also in the running, increasing the chance that other server customers will begin to use these processors. ARM, which licenses its chip designs to manufacturers, is owned by Japan's Softbank Group Corp.
Any challenge to Intel's dominance in server chips is a threat to its most profitable business and main revenue driver as demand for PC processors continues to shrink. The company's Data Center Group turned $17.2 billion of sales into $7.5 billion of operating profit in 2016, and Intel has been running ads that say,"98 percent of the cloud runs on Intel."
Microsoft's server spending decisions have the potential to impact suppliers' bottom lines -- its Azure service is No. 2 in cloud infrastructure behind Amazon, and it's one of the biggest server buyers. Last month, computer maker Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. reported disappointing quarterly revenue, citing "significantly lower demand" from a major customer. That client was Microsoft, people familiar with the matter said.
This isn't the first time ARM manufacturers have taken aim at the server market. Other chipmakers have promised computer components—based on the ARM technology that dominates in mobile phones -- that would loosen Intel's stranglehold, yet none have done so. That may be changing this year as Qualcomm, one of the few companies that can rival Intel's spending on research and design, begins offering its first server processor and as other chipmakers finally field long-promised chips that are capable of competing.
"This is a marathon, it’s not a sprint. I’m not starting to count the dollar bills any time soon," said Anand Chandrasekher, a former Intel executive who heads Qualcomm’s serverchip unit. "One day in a few years we will wake up and say ‘this is pretty cool when did that happen?"
Intel expressed confidence in the continued superiority of its Xeon server chips, in a statement.
"We operate in a highly competitive market and take all competitors seriously," the company said. "We are confident that Xeon processors will continue to deliver the highest performance and lowest total cost of ownership for our cloud customers. However, we understand the desire of our customers to evaluate other product offerings."

Microsoft will give an update on its work on Project Olympus today in a keynote speech by Kushagra Vaid, general manager of Azure Hardware Infrastructure at Microsoft, as part of a track of sessions on the Microsoft design at the conference. Partners including Qualcomm, Intel, Dell Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. are making chips, servers and components for use in the Microsoft design, said Vaid, who spent 11 years at Intel before joining Microsoft.

One of those planned components is an add-in box made by Microsoft and chipmaker Nvidia Corp. that plugs into the server to enable powerful processing for artificial intelligence tasks. The device, which runs Nvidia's graphics chips, lets Microsoft and other cloud providers more easily and cheaply host AI applications on their cloud networks. For customers, the product frees them from having to invest in the computing power needed to perform the complex training and analyzing needed for tasks like machine learning, Nvidia Chief Executive Officer Jen-Hsun Huang said.
"In order to use deep learning you need a supercomputer and a platform that runs any and all AI tools. Startups would rather use their money to hire people and do software development," he said. "Now there are AI supercomputers in the cloud and you pay as you go."
While the AI device announced today was developed with Nvidia, Microsoft said future updates could add products using Intel's Nervana chips.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-08/microsoft-pledges-to-use-arm-server-chips-threatening-intel-s-dominance

Samsung Electronics Q1 operating profit likely to jump 30 pct

SEOUL, March 8 (Yonhap) -- Samsung Electronics Co. is expected to report a 30-percent jump in its first-quarter operating profit as strong sales of semiconductors continue to drive earnings, market data showed Wednesday.
According to a survey of earnings forecasts by market tracker FnGuide, Samsung is likely to post an operating profit of 8.7 trillion won (US$7.5 billion) for the January-March quarter, up 30.6 percent from the same quarter last year.
January-March sales are likely to fall 0.3 percent on year to 49.6 trillion won.
With demand for high-performance data storage devices growing, the operating profit from the semiconductor division of Samsung is expected to surpass 5 trillion won for the three-month period, analysts said.
Samsung is the world's largest maker of computer memory chips and flash memory chips for smartphones and other mobile devices.
The prices of DRAM chips jumped 39 percent in January this year.
Samsung is still reeling from the global recall of the Galaxy Note 7 smartphone, which was discontinued in October last year over safety concerns.
But, analysts reckon that profits in Samsung's mobile division may recover in the first quarter.
Buoyed by the positive outlook, shares of Samsung Electronics ended at a fresh record high of 2,010,000 won on Tuesday.

http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/business/2017/03/08/86/0502000000AEN20170308002200320F.html

Lexmark patents magnetic anti-counterfeit particles

Printer giant Lexmark has been awarded a US patent on a means of uncovering counterfeit ink and toner products.
The Chinese-owned corporation – based in the US – says that counterfeit printer supplies such as toner bottles are a problem for consumers as they may perform poorly and damage printers, noting that printer manufacturers are already using authentication systems to deter the fakers.
The patent draws on a concept developed by cryptographers known as physical unclonable function (PUF) – pit simply a physical entity - embodied in a physical structure – that is easy to evaluate but hard to predict or replicate. In the case of this patent the PUF is created using a mixture of magnetic and non-magnetic particles, creating a motif that can be detected using a low-cost reader.
The abstract of the patent appears below:

Physical unclonable functions having magnetic and non-magnetic particles
Abstract: A physical unclonable function (PUF) having magnetic and non-magnetic particles is disclosed. Measuring both magnetic field and image view makes the PUF difficult to counterfeit. PUF may be incorporated into a user-replaceable supply item for an imaging device. A PUF reader may be incorporated into an imaging device to read the PUF. Other systems are disclosed.
US Patent No. 9,553,582

https://www.securingindustry.com/electronics-and-industrial/lexmark-patents-magnetic-anti-counterfeit-particles/s105/a3418/#.WL7dcPKvKQd

Toshiba opens bidding on semiconductor unit

TOKYO -- Toshiba has begun the bidding process for its memory chip business, The Nikkei learned Thursday, as the Japanese industrial giant struggles to get back on its feet following a massive loss at its U.S. nuclear operations.
Toshiba will take proposals from companies and investment funds through March 29 covering their desired ownership stake and payment offer, among other terms. Depending on the bids, Toshiba could sell up to 100% of the chip unit, in which case it could reap a profit of more than 1 trillion yen ($8.7 billion) from the sale.
The company will hold an extraordinary shareholders meeting March 30 to officially spin off its semiconductor business effective April 1. Toshiba aims to line up a buyer around June and conduct the sale by the end of March 2018 following antitrust probes and other necessary procedures.
The conglomerate initially planned to sell less than 20% of the chip spinoff, but has since decided to sell a majority stake. It hopes to attract higher prices from competitors and investment funds looking to take the lead on management decisions.
To allow interested parties to form coalitions, Toshiba has set a one-month bidding period. U.S.-based rivals Western Digital and Micron Technology as well as South Korea's SK Hynix have shown interest. Several investment funds also are said to be considering a deal, as is Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry, a key Apple supplier also known as Foxconn.
Toshiba demands that bidders value the chip unit at a minimum of 2 trillion yen ($17.4 billion). The company hopes to earn a profit of at least 1 trillion yen in order to make up for the loss suffered by its American nuclear business.

http://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Deals/Toshiba-opens-bidding-on-semiconductor-unit

New technique simplifies doping for organic semiconductors

A new solution-based method for introducing doping into organic semiconductor films could simplify the manufacture of efficient single-layer photovoltaic cells and move them closer to a commercial reality. Beyond solar cells, the doping technique could be more broadly used in other areas of organic electronics.
Developed by a team of researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta; www.gatech.edu), along with partners at three other institutions, the technique could expand the potential applications for this technology, such as wearable electronics and small-scale, distributed power generation.
The process involves immersing organic semiconductor films into nitromethane solutions of polyoxometalates, which are polyanions containing transition metals (tungsten or molybdenum atoms, in this case). When exposed to the solution for several minutes, the metal atoms diffuse into the organic film, leading to efficient p-type (electron hole) electrical doping to a depth of 10–20 nm from the surface of the film, the researchers say.
“The p-doped regions show increased electrical conductivity and high work function, reduced solubility in the processing solvent, and improved photo-oxidation stability in air,” says the Georgia Tech team.
Electrical doping of organic semiconductors is traditionally accomplished using vacuum-based techniques, which require costly equipment. This solution immersion method provides a simpler alternative to air-sensitive molybdenum oxide layers used in the most efficient polymer solar cells, the researchers say.
Sponsored by the Office of Naval Research (Arlington, Va.; www.onr.navy.mil), the work was reported in a recent issue of Nature Materials. The research also involved scientists from the University of California at Santa Barbara, Kyushu University (Japan), and the Eindhoven University of Technology (the Netherlands).

http://www.chemengonline.com/new-technique-simplifies-doping-for-organic-semiconductors-2/

Seagate to push SSD products; but will not forget HDD

Hard disk drive (HDD) players such as Seagate, have been pushing into the solid state drive (SSD) market via acquisitions or forming strategic alliances with SSD partners. Although demand for SSDs from the notebook market has been rising, Seagate senior vice president of global sales BS Teh believes that SSDs and HDDs will co-exist and develop together.

Teh expects nearly 90% of worldwide notebooks shipped to feature built-in SSDs within next five years. Demand for SSDs is likely to replace a large proportion of HDD demand, and Seagate will become more aggressive in its development of SSDs. However, the company will continue to put resources into HDD R&D as the larger storage capacity of HDDs will still allow the product line to enjoy market demand.

Seagate recently spent US$450 million to acquire the flash business of LSI, an affiliate of Avago, and has already shipped over 20 million SSDs. Seagate is planning to launch a 60TB SSD in 2017.

In addition to the PC market, Seagate has also been expanding in the surveillance, gaming, consumer electronics and datacenter markets. These non-PC businesses together already contribute over 40% of Seagate's revenues, and the company is looking to raise the percentage to 50% in the next three years.

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20170224PD215.html