Industrial Electronics Semiconductor revenue finished 2012 down 2.8% on 2011 (which in turn had been up 9.7% on 2010). Some recovery is expected in 2013 though, and onwards through 2017

---

Geneva, Switzerland, and Malmö, Sweden, May 29, 2012 - Motion sensors and microcontrollers from STMicroelectronics, a global semiconductor leader serving customers across the spectrum of electronics applications, form the brain and senses of the airbag bicycle helmet invented by Hövding, a Swedish design house. The combination of innovative design and state-of-the-art electronics has produced market-unique safety equipment for cyclists in a novel form factor. Full press release at www.st.com

---

Unterpremstaetten, Austria (May 16, 2012) – A new name has appeared in the world of high-performance analog semiconductors and best-in-class sensor solutions with the announcement today by austriamicrosystems that “ams” will be its new company brand. The new brand name, “ams,” unites austriamicrosystems and the brand and identity of TAOS (Texas Advanced Optoelectronic Solutions, Inc.), the leading global supplier of intelligent light sensors, acquired in 2011

---

Positive news from Infineon with Second-quarter revenue ahead of forecast and 4 percent up on previous quarter to Euro 986 million

---

This article (http://bit.ly/aVr75j) from newelectronics features quotes from CEOs and other leading executives from four of the largest European semiconductor companies, ST Micro,NXP,Freescale and Infineon, during a debate at Electronica 2010. There was concensus that the industry is back to where it should be;a good sign of continuing optimism throughout the industry.

---

EEtimes Europe today reports (http://bit.ly/dcOjOt) that GlobalFoundries is expanding its MEMS efforts, in a bid to be the market leader by 2015. It joins all of the other major foundries in offering MEMS manufacturing capability. It's interesting to compare MEMS' rapid transition to the foundry manufacturing model with the much slower rate of transition experienced by semi wafer fabrication. Clearly, there are many influencing factors involved, but the economic sense in moving an established industry (with spiralling costs driven by endless dimension shrinkage) is perhaps less clear cut in the case of a relatively new and developing technology such as MEMS. The question is whether the move to foundries will stimulate manufacturing innovation, or stifle it?

---

Solar Power Portal reports (http://bit.ly/9Pn939) that British Gas is offering two innovative business models for solar panel usage that might well stimulate a real growth in the number of panel installations. The first is a straightforward 0% APR finance offering to spread the cost of purchase and installation, but allowing the owner to then take full advantage of the generous feed-in tariff (FiT) payments offered by the UK government. The second, more interesting, model, dubbed the "rent a roof" scheme, would see BG supply and install the panels for free. The user would benefit from the cost reductions resulting from the electricity they generate but BG would claim the FiT income themselves. This scheme is only available to a limited number of BG customers, but it sets a precedent for a scheme that might well stimulate other suppliers to offer similar deals to their customers, and thus potentially provide a massive boost to the industry. Coming soon to a rooftop near you?

---

EuroAsiaSemiconductor reports that the MEMS market has continued its steady growth throughout 2010, driven by demand for more sophisticated consumer products such as mobile phones and tablets. Accelerometers continue to account for roughly half the market revenue. Fab utilisation is also strong, according to ElectronicsWeekly. Foundry fab utilization hits 98.8% whilst overall industry fab utilisation is at 95.7%.

---

Finally we are starting to see some strength in the recovery from the most recent ‘dip’ in the market! It has been mentioned by iSuppli that not only will the global PV market continue to expand next year (http://bit.ly/a3LAVm) as falling prices make solar energy more attractive (despite government incentives), but that the UK has become the world’s fastest-growing solar market (http://bit.ly/dvW8cs).

---

2010 has certainly been full of eventful happenings for high-tech manufacturing industries. For some, it really has been a great year – Samsung’s continued huge growth (http://bit.ly/csrKpo) shows just how much demand there is for memory (which will continue until Android replaces Windows as the desktop OS of choice, perhaps?) and if TSMC gets any bigger (http://bit.ly/9SgbLM) they’ll need to start building their factories on floating platforms off the coast of Taiwan. Meanwhile, over in PV camp, Applied Materials has pulled the plug on their whole Sunfab line, which was something of a Ford Edsel only without the nice chrome bits. And a 500cc engine. See http://bit.ly/b4GIKh for an interesting summary of that and a link to some excellent analysis (http://bit.ly/dnXKF2) that makes for stark reading. All we need now to make 2010 high-tech’s most explosive year ever is for a MEMS manufacturer to come up with a means of embedding Marvin the Paranoid Android onto a Z80 die. Although, the market for shoehorning a brain the size of a planet into a netbook that can be left lying on a train is perhaps now somewhat less given the Ministry of Justice’s woes: http://bit.ly/dD5PWU. Perhaps we should send them some of our good vibes.

---

The semiconductor market is forecast to register the largest dollar volume increase in history, as reported in Electronics Weekly this week. The 2010 increase is expected to exceed the previous record high of $59bn, set in 2000, by 22%, and would equate to a growth rate of 30% over 2009. The driving force behind this growth is likely to be the extremely strong growth in the smartphone and PC sectors.
Read the full article here

---

: Savantech News : Industry News : Technology News : News feeds : Blogs : Mail List