Electronics Weekly articles from August 2007

Electronics Weekly archives from August 2007

News.
August 1, 2007... By Richard Wilson Microdisplay company MicroEmissive Displays (MED) has stepped up its product marketing plans with the appointment of Silicon Design as its rep/stockist in Europe. The appointment comes as Edinburgh-based MED sees...

News.
August 1, 2007... By Melanie Reynolds melanie.reynolds@rbi.co.uk The war of the mobile TV technologies has claimed its first casualty as BT announced it will be ceasing operation next year of its Movio mobile TV service based on DAB-IP technology. ...

News.
August 1, 2007... By David Manners david.manners@rbi.co.uk Antenova, the Cambridge antenna specialist, is moving up the value chain by integrating RF front end functions with its antennas. "We decided to move up the value chain by adding the RF...

News.
August 1, 2007... Shares in Filtronic gained almost 17 per cent when the firm said it would return to profitability with the sale of its Newton Aycliffe GaAs fab. The firm said it was actively in discussions over the sale of the fab. At one stage the fab was to...

News.
August 1, 2007... Venture capital interest in the UK technology sector continued to grow in the first half of the year, according to Ascendant, the technology-focused UK investment house. "More money is being invested in a greater number of deals by a...

News.
August 1, 2007... By Melanie Reynolds melanie.reynolds@rbi.co.uk Mobile device manufacturers are increasingly facing more formalised network and service specific testing by the operators despite the devices having already received official...

News.
August 1, 2007... Emissions from mobile phone masts are not the cause of symptoms such as anxiety, tension and tiredness, according to a three-year study conducted by University of Essex researchers. The researchers tested 44 people who had previously...

News.
August 1, 2007... By Alex Mayhew-Smith alex.mayhew-smith@rbi.co.uk Mentor Graphics' start-up support company Cre8Ventures has donated [pounds sterling]2.5m of electronics design software to the Computer Architecture Research Group at Imperial College....

News.
August 1, 2007... MTL Instruments has acquired a Surrey-based specialist in supervisory control and data acquisition systems for the oil and gas industries. MTL has agreed to pay [pounds sterling]3m for Ocean Technical Systems and the deal ends a busy month...

News.
August 1, 2007... By Richard Wilson richard.wilson@rbi.co.uk Motorola is planning to design tiny display projectors in its mobile phones and has signed a deal with US-based Microvision to develop the miniature laser-based display systems. The...

News.
August 1, 2007... There is a wider ideal behind Adrian Bowyer's development of a desktop rapid prototyping system. Being able to produce anything that can be designed in a 3D CAD tool is useful - he has samples of a bearing with plastic ball bearings made in a...

News.
August 1, 2007... Harold Hughes is CEO of Rambus Does Rambus suffer from its litigious reputation? Well, I wouldn't say we suffer but we certainly have challenges we need to overcome in order to win in the marketplace. We have an obligation to defend...

News.
August 1, 2007... The frequency spectrum reserved exclusively for GSM mobile devices will be opened up for use by other technologies if a European Commission proposal is approved. The 900MHz and 1800MHz bands are currently protected by the GSM Directive. If...

News.
August 1, 2007... By Richard Wilson richard.wilson@rbi.co.uk Tough new RoHS rules in Norway will hit electronics suppliers with gallium arsenide (GaAs) likely to be on the restricted list. Norway intends to prohibit 18 substances from consumer goods...

News.
August 1, 2007... STMicroelectronics has joined the IBM technology alliance both as a common platform technology alliance partner and as a joint development partner in the bulk CMOS technology alliance. The partners in the common platform alliance are IBM,...

News.
August 1, 2007... Thales has completed trials to determine what extra capabilities can be provided to dismounted soldiers in its Future Infantry Soldier Technology (FIST) programme for the MoD. FIST is currently in its assessment phase and at this stage it...

News.
August 1, 2007... The EC has charged Intel with three anti-trust offences and has given the company ten weeks to respond. Following an oral hearing, a fine could be imposed on the company. The EC's charges, called a 'statement of objections' related to abuse of...

News.
August 1, 2007... Three million $100 laptops are set to be produced by Quanta of Shanghai by the end of October to be distributed among the world's poorest children. Called the XO, the laptop uses an AMD processor, the Sugar open source OS designed by Red Hat,...

News.
August 1, 2007... SMIC of Shanghai, the world's fourth largest silicon foundry, is about to enter NAND flash production and to beginning pilot production of 65nm process technology. "We are currently developing an 8Gb NAND flash product and the 2Gb NAND flash...

News.
August 1, 2007... A combined solar cell efficiency of 42.8 per cent from sunlight at standard terrestrial conditions has been achieved by researchers led by the University of Delaware. The solar cell uses a lateral optical concentrating system that splits solar...

News.
August 1, 2007... By David Manners david.manners@rbi.co.uk STMicroelectronics and Future Horizons halved their forecasts for the semiconductor market this year. ST cut its April forecast of 4-5 per cent growth to 'slightly less than 2 per cent' and...

News.
August 1, 2007... A researcher at the University of Bath has developed a self-replicating, low-cost rapid prototyping system that he plans to distribute under an open source model. Adrian Bowyer has developed the 'RepRap' to make items out of plastic at the...

News.
August 1, 2007... LED manufacturer Seoul Semiconductor has signed Silica for its European distribution. The signing reflects the growing interest among chip distributors in the LED lighting market. Silica already carries Osram's and Sharp's LED and...

News.
August 1, 2007... Swiss firm Sensirion has moved its MEMS gas flow and differential pressure sensors onto an 8in. process. Built on a standard CMOS process, the sensors can host complete intelligent sensor systems with built-in self-test algorithms....

News.
August 1, 2007... By Melanie Reynolds melanie.reynolds@rbi.co.uk The Engineering Diplomas for 14-19 year olds, to be introduced in September next year, must be backed by the Government with "adequate resources" if they are to succeed, according to the...

Features.
August 1, 2007... Compliance requirements and measurements are an area of particular concern for serial system designers. Not long ago, first-generation serial protocols like Serial ATA and PCI Express supplanted their parallel predecessors. Now a second...

Features.
August 1, 2007... Digital designers have long reached for an oscilloscope as the tool of choice for debug. As FPGAs have become the centrepiece of digital design, the need to quickly debug systems that include programmable logic is stronger than ever. ...

Features.
August 1, 2007... By Melanie Reynolds melanie.reynolds@rbi.co.uk The Institute for System Level Integration (ISLI) has hooked up with Silicon South West to provide continual professional development (CPD) training for engineers in the microelectronics...

Features.
August 1, 2007... Aug 15-16: PCB Layout with Altium Designer 6 - Hertfordshire www.eda.co.uk Aug 22-24: Low Noise Low Power Analogue IC Design - Livingston www.sli-institute.ac.uk Sep 5-6: Software Development for Safety Related Systems -...

News.
August 1, 2007... Texas Instruments has thrown a rock into the 3G mobile handset market with a strengthening of its technology partnership with Ericsson. The companies are to develop a combined hardware and software platform for 3G handsets based on open...

News.
August 1, 2007... By Richard Wilson richard.wilson@rbi.co.uk The move to multi-core processors began in PCs but is now also being felt in the embedded processor community. The attraction of a multi-core processor in a PC is the potential to...

News.
August 1, 2007... Polymertronics, a nanotechnology start-up in Banbury, is developing a technique which will allow digital inkjet printing and instant curing of flexible electronic components. Polymertronics has a patent pending on a technique which combines...

News.
August 1, 2007... By Richard Wilson richard.wilson@rbi.co.uk An optical chemical sensor developed at the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) at the University of Southampton can extend the sensitivity of optical fibre-based bio sensors to be able to...

News.
August 15, 2007... By Alex Mayhew-Smith alex.mayhew-smith@rbi.co.uk Laird Technologies is to set up corporate research laboratories in Europe and America in the next few years. Rick Rothenberger, technology vice-president of Laird Technologies, said...

News.
August 15, 2007... Electronics Weekly is taking votes for its Product Innovation of the Year - Readers Choice as part of this year's Elektra Awards. Everyone who casts a vote by email will be entered for a prize draw and the chance to win 2 VIP tickets to the...

News.
August 15, 2007... Engineers at Purdue University in Indiana can finely control the spectral properties of femtosecond light pulses. Fast laser pulse trains, dubbed 'femtosecond frequency combs', produce a comb-like frequency/amplitude graph. Engineers controlled...

News.
August 15, 2007... By Melanie Reynolds melanie.reynolds@rbi.co.uk The demise of BT Movio's DAB-IP based mobile TV service can be put down to the unattractive handset and the restriction of transmissions on the DAB digital radio multiplex, according to...

News.
August 15, 2007... The chief executive of the Welsh Electronics Forum Dr Christine Young has joined the UK Electronics Alliance as vice chair. She said: "Our focus now needs to be on rejuvenating the industry and putting key skills back into the workplace."...

News.
August 15, 2007... By Richard Wilson richard.wilson@rbi.co.uk National Instruments (NI) has targeted the design of embedded systems based on multi-core processors with its latest design and analysis software tool. Embedded hardware, such as FPGAs,...

News.
August 15, 2007... Materials firm Cookson saw its shares gain almost 11 per cent to reach 761p after the firm reported that its ceramics business pushed its interim pre-tax profit up to [pounds sterling]68.2m from [pounds sterling]61.9m in the same period a year...

News.
August 15, 2007... By David Manners david.manners@rbi.co.uk The memory and foundry firms are building bigger fabs while broadline semiconductor firms such as NXP, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments, Freescale and Infineon are on the way to becoming...

News.
August 15, 2007... Contract electronics manufacturer PartnerTech has been investing in its Cambridge-based new product introduction centre. The firm has introduced a dedicated, fast turnaround PCB prototyping and batch-build service. The centre also acts as a...

News.
August 15, 2007... Florida State University and SuperPower are claiming to have set a world record with a magnetic field of 26.8 Tesla, conducted by a superconducting magnet. The test coil of the magnet (pictured) was wound with a high-temperature superconductor,...

News.
August 15, 2007... By Richard Wilson richard.wilson@rbi.co.uk Motorola continues to throw its weight behind Linux as an open platform for the lower-cost development of mobile systems software. According to the handset supplier, in the next few years,...

News.
August 15, 2007... Sumitomo Chemical is to acquire Cambridge Display Technology in a deal which values the Cambridge firm at around $285m. The companies have been collaborating on polymer OLEDs for several years and have a joint venture called Sumation for...

News.
August 15, 2007... By David Manners david.manners@rbi.co.uk The Unite union is blaming the private equity owners for the situation at Freescale's East Kilbride wafer fab where the company has announced the fab will be sold but union representatives...

News.
August 15, 2007... W&W Communications, a developer of H.264 high definition video codecs, has signed Surrey-based Sabre Advanced Microelectronics as its manufacturing representative in the UK. According to market research firm iSupply, the global video...

News.
August 15, 2007... ClearSpeed, the Bristol computer accelerator fabless semiconductor company, has signed a license agreement with an unnamed US defence company which should be worth $1.5m over the next 18 months. ClearSpeed said its technology will be used in...

News.
August 15, 2007... Lumileds will move from liquid-deposited phosphors to bonded phosphorescent ceramics for LED car headlights next year. "This is a completely different way to apply phosphors," Lumileds marketing director Steve Landau told EW. "In is not unheard...

News.
August 15, 2007... Ultra-wideband (UWB) technology in the UK, operating in the 3.1GHz to 10.6GHz frequency band, no longer requires a spectrum licence following a rule change by the communications regulator Ofcom. The change follows a European Commission...

News.
August 15, 2007... Actors Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman had the help of a Nokia 6110 Navigator phone on their latest motorcycle escapade, dubbed the 'Long Way Down'. The pair used the A-GPS device to help navigate during their 24,000km, three month ride, from...

News.
August 15, 2007... NASA has developed a scanner to use on 40 year-old Lunar images at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. With the University of Arizona and scanner maker Leica Geosystems, the machine offers a 14bit grey-scale and a resolution of...

Features.
August 15, 2007... 15aug07DiamondPoint Military moves to solid state memory By John Vaines Whether subjected to extreme temperatures in a combat aircraft, or an unmanned aerial vehicle, or the severe shock and vibration of an armoured vehicle or...

Features.
August 15, 2007... According to some estimates, electrical power generation accounts for approximately 40 per cent of all carbon dioxide emissions. Therefore, if the demand for electricity could be cut, major progress could be made towards cutting this. A...

News.
August 15, 2007... Work has begun on a [pounds sterling]10m government-funded plastic electronics prototyping and research facility planned for NETPark, County Durham. Called PETeC, the centre will offer space for companies to research plastic electronics to the...

Features.
August 15, 2007... Experienced electronics designers and managers are a precious resource in the UK, which can only be good news for engineers looking to progress their careers this year. A skills survey by the IET (Institution of Engineering and Technology)...

Features.
August 15, 2007... The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) has announced that Hamish Bell and Dr N. F. Chin have been elected by ballot as vice-presidents to its board of trustees. Marguerite Fitzgerald and Andy Stringer have also been elected to the...

Features.
August 15, 2007... How to retain staff in growing global markets By Adam Walker In a growing market one of the great dilemmas for technology firms is staff retention and improving performance. How do we retain our most important asset, our people? If...

Features.
August 15, 2007... Contract electronics manufacturer Kingfield Electronics has decided to actively promote the electronics and engineering industry, and strengthen its links to the local community with a summer school initiative. Under the initiative, pupils...

Funding for UK university engineering students must rise by 50%.(Features)
August 15, 2007... Funding for university engineering students needs to increase by at least 50 per cent, otherwise there will be a severe shortage of high quality graduate engineers within ten years, according to the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE). The...

Technology.
August 15, 2007... By Steve Bush steve.bush@rbi.co.uk An international team has devised a structure that shows quantum mechanical effects over greater than usual distances. The work could lead to quantum computing bits (qubits) on chips made by...

Technology.
August 15, 2007... The technology editor is grateful for the various emails he received to his pop-pop boat question (EW 25/07/07). Surprisingly, there appears to be no simple momentum-based explanation of why pop-pop boats move forwards, and understanding...

Technology.
August 15, 2007... By Steve Bush steve.bush@rbi.co.uk Computer modelling at the US at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute suggests graphene - a one atom thick layer of graphite - could replace copper as interconnect in future chips. "Fundamentally, at...

News.
August 29, 2007... E2v Technologies is in a growth phase with its sites set on specialist semiconductor acquisitions. Company CEO Keith Attwood told Electronics Weekly that for much of the firm's history it has been locked into a "UK corporate" existence but...

News.
August 29, 2007... Mobile Linux is gaining support as a cellular operating system from the handset industry, according to market watcher IMS Research. The increased focus on Mobile Linux shows the high level of interest from all segments of the cellular...

News.
August 29, 2007... Nokia has requested the US International Trade Commission (ITC) to ban the import of products containing Qualcomm CDMA and WCDMA/GSM chips which it claims infringe five of its patents. The ITC has already implemented a similar ban against...

News.
August 29, 2007... Pacer is investing in its opto component and displays businesses as the component supplier and design firm sees an expansion of its US business. The company's MD Graham Rothon told Electronics Weekly that the Newbury-based company's...

News.
August 29, 2007... Silicon Labs has announced what it calls an Any Rate synthesiser. "A single device can generate any output frequency from 10MHz to 1.4GHz at jitter levels of 0.3psrms," said the firm. Controlled by an I2C bus, the 7x5mm devices use a...

News.
August 29, 2007... Researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology are studying the formation of metal oxide nanotubes which can be produced in water with a high degree of control over their diameter and length. The nanotubes are based on metal oxides in...

News.
August 29, 2007... Access to intellectual property rights (IPR) and patents is the biggest asset gained by Infineon Technologies with its acquisition of the former Agere Systems mobility products business from LSI Corporation, according to analyst firm Forward...

News.
August 29, 2007... By Richard Wilson RF Micro Devices is aiming to create a major RF semiconductor supplier with the $900m acquisition of US-based RF semiconductor specialist Sirenza Microdevices. According to Bob Bruggeworth, president and CEO of RFMD,...

News.
August 29, 2007... Abacus has signed a UK franchise agreement with Samsung Semiconductor Europe, giving Abacus five of the world's top seven semiconductor manufacturers on its line card. Samsung said it is seeing growing demand for its memory products in the...

News.
August 29, 2007... Dear Editor Further to Jeff Allen's letter on the title 'Engineer' [EW 15/8/2007], Jeff has evidently earned the right to be regarded as an engineer, especially given the advanced technology of Pulsar Process Measurement. I used to be...

News.
August 29, 2007... By David Manners david.manners@electronicsweekly.com The search for an alternative non-volatile memory technology to traditional floating gate flash has been boosted by an attempt to raise MRAM to the Gbit level. But the timescales for...

News.
August 29, 2007... The bumpy ride over recent weeks across stockmarkets around the world saw tech shares down. The EW Index saw a drop of around 5 per cent. E2v Technologies saw its shares fall almost 14 per cent to reach 301p. Oxford Instruments also lost...

News.
August 29, 2007... For the first time, a fabless company has entered the ranks of the semiconductor top ten, according to market watcher iSuppli. Qualcomm became the 9th largest semiconductor supplier in the world in Q2, said iSuppli, with revenues of $1.36bn...

News.
August 29, 2007... To paraphrase Mark Twain, news of the death of the IP business has been greatly exaggerated. The industry is seen to be struggling after high profile acquisitions such as Mosaid Technologies selling its IP assets to Synopsys (itself an IP...

News.
August 29, 2007... A worker at Freescale Semiconductor's East Kilbride facility, which the firm said it is selling Can you tell us what the mood is at the East Kilbride facility? I suppose you could describe the mood as full of uncertainty with workers...

News.
August 29, 2007... US chip developer Ageia has launched a version of its physics hardware engine for laptops that brings the power consumption down below 10W. The 100M chip (pictured), launched this week at a games fair in Leipzig, Germany, is used to...

News.
August 29, 2007... Cree has unveiled plans to triple capacity for making high-powered LEDs by expanding its COTCO subsidiary in HuiZhou China. "China is a critical growth market for LEDs in general illumination applications and represents an unmatched...

News.
August 29, 2007... By David Manners david.manners@electronicsweekly.com Samsung has been coming under pressure to reveal more details of the reason for the power outage which caused a production glitch at its semiconductor plant in Giheung earlier this...

News.
August 29, 2007... Mobiles are used more than twice as often as landlines in the UK, according to Ofcom's Communications Market Report 2007. In 2006, mobile connections accounted for 69.7 million connections versus 33.6 million landline connections. Nine per...

News.
August 29, 2007... West Lothian chip production equipment maker and refurbisher Point 35 Microstructures has sold off its Parabilis spares business to RTS Spares of Texas. "The manufacture of capital equipment is totally different than managing large volume...

News.
August 29, 2007... The European Commission has told Rambus that it believes it has infringed EC Treaty rules by claiming unreasonable royalties on DRAM patents. The claim relates to the semiconductor memory technology company's participation in JEDEC DRAM...