Electronics Weekly articles from July 2006

Electronics Weekly archives from July 2006

News.
July 5, 2006... By Steve Bush steve.bush@rbi.co.uk RoHS enforcer NWML will immediately start to police the Directive which came into law in the UK on July 1. The NWML will start to police the RoHS regulations shortly after the July 1 deadline. According to...

C-MAC refocuses on chip packages.
July 5, 2006... By Richard Wilson richard.wilson@rbi.co.uk C-MAC is to start offering multi-chip package assembly services to semiconductor firms as part of a reorganisation of its hybrid manufacturing business. The Buckingham-based manufacturer is...

Processor cores use clockless interconnect for multimedia.
July 5, 2006... Silistix, the UK start-up which has developed an asynchronous, self-timed technique for interconnecting processor cores, is working with a US processor firm on a chip to demonstrate the technology. Tensilica will use the clockless...

Scientists oxidise silicon at room temperature.
July 5, 2006... UK scientists have found a way to oxidise silicon at room temperature. The technique, using UV excimer lamps, could introduce dielectric layers during chip manufacture, and enable chips to include components incompatible with high...

Products.
July 5, 2006... Amstrad? shares gained over 5 per cent to reach 190p in a week that saw the EW Index dip slightly. Amstrad recently took Conexant? DVB-S2/MPEG-4 satellite set-top box design for a HDTV satellite receiver. The box is being deployed by Sky Italia...

PC backlash rebuffs Intel's mobile move.
July 5, 2006... Were Intel on a hiding to nothing in their attempted diversification into the cellphone market? Many people think they were, which is why Intel sold the business to Marvell for $600m. ?The mere fact of Intel? domination of PC markets is why...

MARK BOWLES c0-FOUNDER STACCATO.
July 5, 2006... Mark Bowles is the co-founder of CMOS UWB chip firm Staccato Communications How will the regulatory situation evolve in Europe? European regulators are steadily moving forward on allocating unlicensed spectrum for UWB, and their resolution...

News.
July 5, 2006... GeoVector of the US has combined a GPS with an electronic compass to allow mobile phones to display on-screen information about an object at which the phone is pointed. The company is working with three Japanese companies to get the...

Near-field communications is set to offer safety link for kids.
July 5, 2006... By Steve Bush steve.bush@rbi.co.uk Near-field communications (NFC) is being proposed for systems providing security for children in the home. ?As a parent, I could pre-programme an NFC tag on the wall at home,? Heikki Huomo, CTO of UK...

Solar energy will not be ?truly cost competitive? until 2025.
July 5, 2006... Solar energy will only become truly cost competitive by 2025, according to UK academic Dr Darren Bagnall. Bagnall, from the University of Southampton? school of electronics and computer science, said photovoltaics is seeing ?staggering?...

Japan drops 65nm fab plan but aims for 45nm standard.
July 5, 2006... By David Manners david.manners@rbi.co.uk Japan? government-backed plan to build a joint 65nm wafer fab has been dropped, but the industry appears to be putting in place the pre-requisites for a joint 45nm fab. Last year Japan set up a firm...

News.
July 5, 2006... Automotive testing firm MIRA yesterday (tuesday) opened a heavy vehicle EMC chamber at its HQ in Nuneaton. Manufacturers will be able to use the chamber to assess the EMC performance of whole vehicles, rather than assuming the various RF...

LG regains top place in plasma display ranking.
July 5, 2006... LG Electronics has climbed back to the top of the market for plasma display panels, according to iSuppli. The saw its share of worldwide production of the panels rise to 31.1 per cent in the first quarter, one per cent above Matsushita of...

Molecular beam epitaxy threatens GaN blue laser.
July 5, 2006... The established technique for making blue laser diodes using the material gallium nitride (GaN) could soon be challenged by a more accurate alternative, according to Sharp. Molecular beam epitaxy is a means of growing complex semiconductor...

News.
July 5, 2006... July 24-28: Design Automation Conference, San Francisco. www.dac.com Aug 14-18: MPSoC06, Colorado, USA. http://tima.imag.fr/MPSOC Sept 6-7: Instrumentation Scotland, Aberdeen. www.instrumentation.co.uk Sep 25-27: Organic Electronics conference...

News.
July 5, 2006... By Richard Wilson richard.wilson@rbi.co.uk IBM has chosen ClearSpeed? processor acceleration technology to use in its high power computer systems. It is a big boost for ClearSpeed? embedded parallel processor which has already attracted the...

News.
July 5, 2006... By David Manners david.manners@rbi.co.uk There is a huge room for improvement in architecture design and software by microprocessor developers, according to the professor of computer science at the University of Bristol, David May. ?There...

News.
July 5, 2006... Contract design and manufacturer TES Electronic Solutions has acquired the assets and key employees of DAnalyse, giving the firm process and device characterisation businesses. The firm will integrate the DAnalyse business with its design...

News.
July 5, 2006... Passives die a different death to active components. Semiconductors are often tipped into obsolescence in the industry? continual game of technological leap-frog, with each new breakthrough consigning previous generations to obsolescence....

Automotive EMC course covers Directive changes.
July 5, 2006... EMC is always a hot topic and the legislation is changing. If you want to catch up, or get ahead, the University of York is offering a range of courses at various levels throughout this year. The next course on the schedule will be the...

Ask Dr RoHs: dr.rohs@electronicsweekly.com.
July 5, 2006... The European Commission has effectively short-circuited the decaBDE debate by issuing a letter discussing the scope of its exemption. The letter points out that the commercial grades of decaBDE used in plastics within the electronics...

UK lab uses modified polysilicon to put drivers and sensors on display.
July 5, 2006... By Harry Yeates harry.yeates@rbi.co.uk Sharp is developing techniques to simplify mobile devices by incorporating on the glass of the LCD functions that have traditionally required discrete chips, such as the display and audio drivers. The...

Processors for digital power supplies.
July 5, 2006... Microchip has introduced a processor range aimed at digital power supplies with no analogue signal processing in the feedback loop. Based around the firm? 16bit core with a 16x16bit MAC, the dsPIC30F1010, 2020 and 2023 include 1ns...

China builds chip fab for NAND flash.
July 12, 2006... A 300mm semiconductor wafer fab, called Wuhan Xinxin Semiconductor Manufacturing, is being built by a regional government in China and could be used to make NAND flash when it becomes operational in 2008. Backers of the fab include an...

CIP at crime scene with DNA analyser.
July 12, 2006... By Harry Yeates harry.yeates@rbi.co.uk Ipswich optical fibre and device expert the Centre for Integrated Photonics (CIP) is using its independence from previous owners to enter new markets and is participating in a UK project to develop a...

Tech firms lay out stalls at venture capital conference.
July 12, 2006... By David Manners david.manners@rbi.co.uk Technology and business initiatives were highlighted at Venturefest 2006 at the Said Business School in Oxford last week. Dr Simon Goodyear, CEO of Malvern-based Metrasens, a spin-out from Qinetiq,...

ARK converts military vehicles to remote control.
July 12, 2006... Qinetiq has produced a kit to convert military vehicles to a remotely controlled system. The applique robotic kit (ARK) can be used to operate military vehicles for use in dangerous situations up to 1km away. The portable command...

News.
July 12, 2006... Ohio State University is developing a radar employing noise-like signals. "Like traditional radar, the noise radar detects objects by bouncing a radio signal off them and detecting the rebound," said the University. "The difference is that...

Innovation the key, but is it affordable?
July 12, 2006... Is it possible for companies to innovate their way out of a downward spiral or is there a critical point where a lack of innovation has caused sales to fall and there is no money to put into innovation? Certainly there appears to be an...

Venture investor seeks analogue chip start-ups.
July 12, 2006... By David Manners david.manners@rbi.co.uk Parallaxis, a new venture investor for electronics and software companies, is looking for analogue semiconductor start-ups to follow its initial investment in fuel-cell start-up Bac2. "Parallaxis...

Goepel sees UK boundary scan market opportunity.
July 12, 2006... Boundary scan test system specialist Goepel Electronic has identified the UK as one of its most important European markets and has opened a UK subsidiary. "Technologically, the UK market is one of the most demanding in Europe and therefore...

University consortium goes atoms up at 10nm to develop usable devices and circuits for 22nm chips.
July 12, 2006... A UK University consortium is to model 10nm devices from the atoms up, aiming to develop usable devices and circuits for chips made with 22nm rules and beyond. At issue is the position and number of dopant atoms in devices which are too...

News.
July 12, 2006... The current UK science curriculum does not allow pupils to engage with science in a manner where they can "frame the questions, develop the methods, and uncover the answers at their own pace and for their own purposes", according to Research...

Main players 'will pick DVB-H' for personal TV, predicts Nokia.
July 12, 2006... By Melanie Reynolds reporting from Munich The mobile TV technology that finally becomes dominant will be based on open standards and a competitive market, according to Nokia. "The analogy here is GSM which made possible personal telephony...

News.
July 12, 2006... Last week the Royal Society's summer science exhibition featured facial expression recognition technology developed by Peter Robinson, professor of computer technology at the University of Cambridge. It has been designed for people with special...

Atomic scale microscope in exhibition debut.
July 12, 2006... This is SuperSTEM, the UK's most powerful microscope, which was demonstrated last week at the Royal Society's summer science exhibition. The scanning tunnelling electron microscope is based at Daresbury Laboratory in Cheshire, where, among...

US researchers develop porous germanium.
July 12, 2006... Two sets of scientists in the US have used a technique called surfactant templating to create porous germanium. The work is interesting because germanium is a semiconductor, and porous silicon has already been shown to have interesting optical...

German spin-outs contribute little to economy.
July 12, 2006... Spin-out companies from high profile German research centres are often founded with no clear product idea; or on a product concept that emerged from research but which is a long way to being market-ready; or even on an idea for which there is...

Design platform uses model approach to work through escalating complexity.
July 12, 2006... By Harry Yeates harry.yeates@rbi.co.uk Mentor Graphics has released Calibre nm, the latest version of its design platform, and Calibre nmDRC, a design rule checker aimed at handling escalating design complexity. At the latest process...

News.
July 12, 2006... Comet, the international manufacturer of x-ray inspection systems, has appointed Jochen Dietel as technical services team leader. He will provide applications support to the firm's global customer base. He has over 11 years of experience and...

News.
July 12, 2006... Lambda UK has named DT Electronics as its distributor of the year. Pictured ( to r) are: DT Electronics' power product manager, Martin Langmead and franchise manager, Mick Grahame-Dunn, with Lambda's UK distribution manager, Bryan Reid and UK...

Features.
July 12, 2006... The race to 65nm FPGA is underway, but the power/density ceiling imposed by the limitations of process technology are forcing the companies to adopt new architectural features involving trade-offs between speed and power. Xilinx has...

Features.
July 12, 2006... Software defined radio (SDR) offers a number of advantages to infrastructure and specialist terminal manufacturers. The flexibility of being able to change the function with a soft or firmware update means a new product can be released quickly...

News.
July 19, 2006... E2v Technologies has made a sound acquisition with last week's $140m deal for Atmel's facility in Grenoble, France, according to Keith Attwood, CEO of E2v. When asked if this was similar to the sort of deal that took Marconi into...

News.
July 19, 2006... Axiom Manufacturing is celebrating cracking the ?2m a month turnover barrier, helping the firm to reach a ?21.5m annual turnover for the first time. David Davies, senior commercial manager is pictured.

News.
July 19, 2006... Hitachi High-Technologies America is working with a number of integrated device manufacturers (IDMs) to develop new high-k gate dielectric and metal gate etch processes for memory and logic devices. HTA did not disclose what IDMs it was...

News.
July 19, 2006... July 24-28: Design Automation Conference, San Francisco. www.dac.com Aug 14-18: MPSoC06, Colorado, USA. http://tima.imag.fr/MPSOC Sept 6-7: Instrumentation Scotland, Aberdeen. www.instrumentation.co.uk Sep 19-21: China magnetics conference,...

65nm chip has low standby leakage.
July 19, 2006... By David Manners david.manners@rbi.co.uk ARM has produced a 65nm test chip at TSMC which is claimed to demonstrate dramatic improvements in dynamic power reduction and standby current leakage. "Low power techniques built into reference flow...

MRAM goes into volume production.
July 19, 2006... Freescale Semiconductor has moved its MRAM in to volume production. The first device is a 4Mbit MRAM product, seen as an important commercial milestone for the firm in its introduction of the higher speed non-volatile memory technology. ...

News.
July 19, 2006... Thermacore Europe has received a Queen's Award from the Lord Lieutenant of Northumberland. The firm was awarded with a cut glass crystal bowl to represent the Queen's Award for international trade. Pictured ( to r) are: Sir Peter Riddell, Lord...

UWB mitigation goes back to EU member consultation.
July 19, 2006... By Harry Yeates harry.yeates@rbi.co.uk European efforts to reach an agreement on whether to allow ultra wideband (UWB) devices to operate without interference mitigation for a limited period continue to drag on, with the latest move a...

Researchers make graphene at room temperature.
July 19, 2006... Belgian firm Keche Technologies claims to be making graphene at room-temperature. "We have deposited graphene. Our reactors work in a temperature- and pressure-independent way, so at room temperature and not at ?700?C like Glasgow and...

One-chip RFID tag has aerial.
July 19, 2006... Researchers at Hewlett Packard Labs have developed a one-chip RFID tag that includes an on-die aerial. Called Memory Spot, the CMOS devices are between 2 and 4mm2, include 256k to 4Mbit of memory, and transfer data at 10Mbit/s. "The chips...

Packaging and test industry ripe for consolidation, says C-MAC.
July 19, 2006... By David Manners david.manners@rbi.co.uk The packaging and test industry is fragmented and ripe for consolidation and UK-based hybrid IC manufacturer C-MAC Microtechnology is ready to take advantage. "It's a very fragmented industry and...

Magma design flow uses tools to handle 65nm processes.
July 19, 2006... Magma Design Automation has announced a design flow made up of tools that incorporate features to cope with increased variability in 65nm processes. The design-for-manufacturing (DFM) aware system includes three new products: SiliconSmart...

NXT in Chinese speaker deal.
July 19, 2006... NXT has entered into a strategic partnership with Chinese contract manufacturer Shinhint Acoustic Link, for the manufacture of NXT's radiator speakers. NXT's technology, called balanced mode radiator (BMR), allows flat panels to be used in...

UK aerospace industry sees 25% increase in turnover.
July 19, 2006... By James Lyons There was a 25 per cent increase in turnover for the aerospace industry in the UK last year, totalling ?22.67bn, according to the Society of British Aerospace Companies. "In 2005 turnover increased by 25 per cent to...

News.
July 19, 2006... Set-top box manufacturer Pace Micro Technology saw its shares climb almost 15 per cent to reach 42.75p. The EW Index fell by three points as telecoms equipment firms' shares were pulled down by Lucent. The firm warned of a fall in third-quarter...

News.
July 19, 2006... Rich Templeton is CEO of Texas Instruments Between 1960 and 1987 TI was the world's number one semiconductor company measured by revenues, a feat unsurpassed in the industry's history. Could TI be number one again? If yes, when? Our goal...

Dyson to fund engineering school.
July 19, 2006... A school to encourage the UK's next generation of engineers, designers, inventors and entrepreneurs is to open in Bath in September 2008 with funding from British inventor James Dyson. "As our need for good design and technology increases...

Reduced write MRAM for Asic embedding.
July 19, 2006... NEC has developed a version of MRAM which it claims is suitable for embedding in Asics. The cell has three elements; a 2T1MTJ (two transistors and one magnetoresistive tunnelling junction) cell structure to accelerate write mode cycle...

NPL bids to build greater confidence in X-ray RoHS compliance test technique.
July 19, 2006... By Steve Bush steve.bush@rbi.co.uk The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) is to study X-ray fluorescence (XRF) testing, the front line technique for testing for and spotting RoHS non-compliance. "The reason behind this is lack of...

DRAM firms face civil action for price-fixing.
July 19, 2006... After getting a $730m clobbering from the US Department of Justice in a criminal prosecution for price-fixing DRAM, memory manufacturers are facing a civil action brought by 34 US states for damages related to the same price-fixing allegations....

Regulatory body invites views about licence-exempt device power.
July 19, 2006... Ofcom has launched a consultation seeking views on its plans to increase the allowable power levels for some licence-exempt devices in certain geographical areas. The communications regulator is proposing three options. The first is to...

Fabless chip firm develops multi-band tuner with mobile TV market ambition.
July 19, 2006... By Richard Wilson richard.wilson@rbi.co.uk A fabless semiconductor start-up from Hampshire claims to have a wideband radio tuner device which will allow it to break into the mobile TV market. Mirics Semiconductor said its first configurable...

Boundary scan interest drives recruitment.
July 19, 2006... UK company XJTAG is recruiting staff in readiness for increasing interest in boundary scan testing, according to CEO Simon Payne. "We are just starting to see an increasing adoption of boundary scan," said Payne, who has been adding sales...

126nm deep UV light makes SiO2 on wafers at room temp.
July 19, 2006... Following last weeks revelation that University College London can produce SiO2 on wafers at room temperature, EW caught up with the process inventor to find out how. "Normally you put the wafer in a furnace with an oxygen atmosphere at...

News.
July 19, 2006... Handshake Solutions, the Philips spinout developing clockless IC technology, has released the fifth generation of its design environment. TiDE 5.0 features improved layout and testing, and support for Cadence, Synopsys and Magma and flows....

Silicon R&D firm improves 193nm using double exposure techniques.
July 19, 2006... Belgian silicon technology developer IMEC has extended its development programme for 193nm immersion lithography, by adding 'double-patterning' techniques. The organisation said the work was necessary "to meet the stringent scaling...

News.
July 19, 2006... Scientists in Canada have built a semiconductor device from the liquid phase they say performs better than lithographically patterned alternatives. The researchers, led by Professor Ted Sargent at the University of Toronto, spin-coated a...

Brain wave sensor opens prospect of movement for paralysis victims.
July 19, 2006... A tetraplegic man in the US has used a brain wave-based system to control a TV, open email and play a computer game. He used a device called BrainGate, which involves a surgically implanted sensor that can record and analyse in real-time...

Chip network mimics brain structure for robotic control.
July 19, 2006... By Harry Yeates harry.yeates@rbi.co.uk A chip that replicates the structure of the brain is to be built by a team from the University of Manchester, ARM and EDA start-up Silistix. The chip will be used to investigate the computational...

News.
July 19, 2006... A new player has emerged in the microprocessor business with a portfolio of patents to take on the industry, just as some of the earliest patents on Risc processors expire. The Moore Microprocessor Patent (MMP) portfolio is named after...

News.
July 19, 2006... Despite the hype about rising costs, Asic design and production has actually got cheaper for many projects over the last ten years. The key to economy in Asic design is choosing the appropriate fabrication process to take advantage of its...

News.
July 19, 2006... By Harry Yeates harry.yeates@rbi.co.uk The EDA industry is harming itself by handling standards in a "pathetic" manner, according to Rajeev Madhavan, CEO of Magma Design Automation. Instead of working hard to settle on common standards for...

News.
July 19, 2006... Debug specialist Novas Software has released a module for its Verdi tool that adds capabilities for debugging complex communication protocols using transactions. The SystemVerilog-based software, called nTX, allows users to describe their...

News.
July 19, 2006... Vast Systems Technology has released the latest version of its virtual system prototyping tool, and announced an initiative to make it easier to incorporate its virtual system prototypes (VSP) into design flows. The initiative, called...

Coffee spillers will be elated by washable keyboard and mouse.
July 19, 2006... By Steve Bush steve.bush@rbi.co.uk Newport-based Unotron has developed a washable PC keyboard and mouse with the look and feel of standard items. "Conventional ruggedised keyboards are very hard to type on," MD Dale Purcocks told EW....

Exploit UK's design skills, says report.
July 26, 2006... David Manners david.manners@rbi.co.uk The UK is responsible for 15 per cent of total worldwide Asic design starts, according to an investigation conducted by the National Microelectronics Institute (NMI). However, with foreign companies...

UK wafer firm IQE to buy US epitaxial specialist.
July 26, 2006... UK wafer firm IQE has agreed to acquire US company EMD, which specialises in epitaxial wafers for wireless products, in a deal worth $16m. "With both MOCVD and MBE wireless platforms, as well as a diverse range of MOCVD based optical...

Newnham Technology raises funding to expand worldwide.
July 26, 2006... Cambridge-based Newnham Technology has raised $13.25m in venture capital funding to expand its operations and target markets worldwide for its display networking technology. "The funds from this round will help us further expand our...

Better mobile signals for satellite navigation.
July 26, 2006... By Steve Bush steve.bush@rbi.co.uk A European consortium is to exploit network data to improve the performance of phone-based satellite navigation. "No satellite navigation system is going to work underground," project manager Graham Bell...

UK product engineer wins innovation in industry award.
July 26, 2006... Martin Birkett, a product engineer at Welwyn Components, has been awarded an Industrial Fellowship by The Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, which recognises innovation and creativity in British industry. "To be one of only six...

Lack of Government support threatens fuel cell technology.
July 26, 2006... By Melanie Reynolds melanie.reynolds@rbi.co.uk Fuel cell technology is being neglected with insufficient support from industry and Government according to a study funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). "Fuel cells are a...