Electronics Weekly articles from June 2006

Electronics Weekly archives from June 2006

TTPCom IP stays open for license.
June 7, 2006... By Melanie Reynolds melanie.reynolds@rbi.co.uk The intellectual property (IP) portfolio of Cambridge-based TTP Communications will remain available to other companies to license following the acquisition of the firm by Motorola. ?They...

Basmati rice-sized motor served in camera phones.
June 7, 2006... Camera phones with zoom lenses is one application for a micro-motor which is about the size of a grain of basmati rice. US firm New Scale Technologies claims it is the world? smallest linear motor, measuring just 6mm long and delivering a...

Distributor forges on with European acquisition drive.
June 7, 2006... By Alex Mayhew-Smith alex.mayhew-smith@rbi.co.uk Distributor Abacus will continue to seek acquisitions to drive expansion in mainland Europe, according to chief executive Martin Kent. Abacus is currently bedding-in the Deltron and Axess...

Trade union backs campaign to recruit more women.
June 7, 2006... Private sector trade union Amicus is backing a campaign to promote the role of women in the electronics industry in a bid to improve the numbers working in the sector. ?The electronics sector is not attractive to women and the UK cannot...

News.
June 7, 2006... June 8-9: Workshop on Microelectronics Education, Stockholm, Sweden. www.imit.kth.se/EWME June 21-23: IEEE mixed signals testing workshop, Edinburgh. www.sli-institute.ac.uk/imstw06 June 21-22: IEE Conference on Access...

US military tests sensor technology.
June 7, 2006... The use of sensors and recorders attached to soldiers? uniforms is being investigated in the US in a bid to improve after-action mission reports. The tests are being conducted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) at...

Europe is hailed as best place for wireless design.
June 7, 2006... By David Manners david.manners@rbi.co.uk More people spend more time doing wireless design in Europe than anywhere else in the world, according to the chief economist of STMicroelectronics (ST) Jean-Philippe Dauvin. ?Thirty five per cent of...

Chip forecast heads to 20% as Q1 grows.
June 7, 2006... The chip market is soaring away with a much stronger first quarter than expected and the analysts are all increasing their forecasts towards 20 per cent growth for the year. ?Not everyone is enjoying the rebound, if your sales are not...

News.
June 7, 2006... Shares in E2v Technologies fell around 23 per cent to reach 201.5p in a week that saw a small recovery for the EW Index after the recent panic caused by fears about interest rates. E2v releases its full year results this week. In early April...

SIMON BIRCHAM BUSINESS MANAGER AT BSI.
June 7, 2006... Simon Bircham is the electrical & electronics product manager at the British Standards Institute? product services How can you police the RoHS Kitemark and who is responsible for this? As with all Kitemarks, the RoHS Trusted Kitemark...

Cloak of invisibility or Shroud of Turin?
June 7, 2006... Can technology truly boggle the mind? Well, when a group of scientists from universities in the UK and US suggest that they understand the theory behind making things invisible you are tempted to say yes. Are claims that it is...

Distributor?s profits fall after UK dip.
June 7, 2006... Distributor Electrocomponents has seen a fall in UK business that has contributed to a 35 per cent fall in full year pre-tax profit to ?65.1m Overall revenues were up seven per cent to ?828.5m, but UK sales dipped. ?Revenue in the UK...

News.
June 7, 2006... By David Manners david.manners@rbi.co.uk STMicroelectronics has a flash technology roadmap going all the way down to 32nm with phase change technology coming into the product line along with the traditional floating gate technology at the...

News.
June 7, 2006... Wolfson Microelectronics has been presented with the Queen? Award for Enterprise in the Innovation category, by the Rt Hon Lesley Hinds, Lord Lieutenant and Lord Provost of the City of Edinburgh. It was specifically for the Wolfson WM9713L, a...

ISLI signs professor for design distance learning.
June 7, 2006... The Institute for System Level Integration (ISLI) has signed an agreement with Professor Philip Allen (pictured right) from Atlanta? Georgia Institute of Technology as part of an initiative to provide Master Class distance learning courses....

Oxford includes mobile TV in this year?s course schedule.
June 7, 2006... By Melanie Reynolds melanie.reynolds@rbi.co.uk Oxford University is presenting several courses for the first time this year as well as the old favourite, High-Speed Digital Engineering Week. 3G/DVB-H Mobile TV, a one day course for TV...

Features.
June 7, 2006... Jun 19-23: VHDL Applications Workshop - Bracknell www.esperan.com Jun 21-23: International Mixed Signals Testing Workshop - Edinburgh www.sli-institute.ac.uk Jun 26-30: Essential High Speed PCB Design for Signal Integrity and...

CMOS imager firm expands UK team.
June 7, 2006... By Richard Wilson richard.wilson@rbi.co.uk Micron Technology is expanding its imaging technology design centre in Bracknell following its success designing a 3-megapixel CMOS imager which has been included in a European mobile handset....

Features.
June 7, 2006... New chip lines shape business at Azzurri, Anglia and DT A number of semiconductor distributors responded to changes in the market last year by snapping up some highly prized lines. Azzurri Technology signed up IDT, Actel and Cirrus Logic...

Features.
June 7, 2006... Gleichmann Electronics has emerged in the last 12 months as a significant distributor for NEC in the UK. This represents the core of its business, but it has other lines it is promoting and one area where it is seeing activity is in its battery...

Features.
June 7, 2006... NEw Story Solid State Supplies is one distributor which is always on the look-out for strategic acquisitions. According to managing director, Gary Marsh, who has already overseen the acquisition of Steatite, Wordsworth and ICP, he is...

Improvement in EMI with silicon oscillator.
June 7, 2006... One of the most difficult electronics design challenge is to track down and eliminate electromagnetic radiation (EMI). Switching regulators, a common source of EMI, continue growing in usage due to their space and efficiency advantages over...

IC designers are ?prized assets?
June 7, 2006... IC designers have become the most highly prized asset for many semiconductor firms. Some designers can be paid more than the CEO, with bonuses linked to the commercial success of the chips they design. For example, design bonuses for a top...

Scotland to benefit from data conversion growth at National.
June 7, 2006... By Richard Wilson richard.wilson@rbi.co.uk National Semiconductor is creating a new chip development team at its facility in Scotland to support the firm? growing interest in data conversion devices. ?Europe is one of the largest design...

Microprocessor competition hits chip market.
June 7, 2006... By David Manners david.manners@rbi.co.uk Increased competition at the top of the microprocessor market has had a ripple-down effect on the whole semiconductor market. Decreasing average selling prices on processors due to intensified...

AMD moves to expand capacity following Dell deal.
June 7, 2006... AMD is in a hurry to bring capacity online at its Dresden wafer fab following last month? processor deal with Dell. To cut down on building time, a 300mm fabrication facility will come online by transforming the company? existing 200mm Fab...

HEMT promises GaN power to exceed silicon.
June 7, 2006... Promising a type of gallium nitride (GaN) power device to push power efficiency beyond silicon limits, IMEC has demonstrated the growth of low-sheet-resistivity AlGaN/GaN high-electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) on 150mm silicon wafers. ...

?15m nanoscale open access facility boosts UK developers.
June 7, 2006... By Harry Yeates harry.yeates@rbi.co.uk Work on a ?15m facility for the fabrication of micro- and nano-scale systems at Fife-based Semefab will begin this month. The go-ahead for the fab is a boost for UK developers of devices combining...

Renesas signs TTRAM agreement.
June 7, 2006... Renesas Technology has signed a licence deal that could see its semiconductor memory technology based on capacitor-less twin transistor (TTRAM) being more widely used in mainstream embedded silicon-on-insulator CMOS devices. Offering a...

News.
June 7, 2006... 07jun06OLED-T_diag.jpg A material with 10 times the carrier mobility and three times the lifetime of existing electron transport layers used in organic light emitting diode (OLED) devices has been developed by UK start-up OLED-T. The...

News.
June 14, 2006... PicoChip looks to W-CDMA to support ?femto? demand Bath-based communications processor developer PicoChip is increasing its emphasis on W-CDMA systems to support demand for so-called ?femto? basestations for 3G. Femto basestations...

RoHS Directive turmoil as loophole stays open.
June 14, 2006... By Richard Wilson richard.wilson@rbi.co.uk The European Commission? attempts to plug the so-called ?control system loophole? in the RoHS Directive are not likely to come into effect before 2008 and could be delayed until 2010. This...

Spansion sees profit in NROM.
June 14, 2006... By David Manners david.manners@rbi.co.uk Spansion, the flash memory business, is hoping to be profitable by the end of the year when Mirrorbit, its NROM technology, will be accounting for 50 per cent of its output. ?In Q1 05 Mirrorbit...

News.
June 14, 2006... Glenrothes cabling firm Brand-Rex has launched a product for 10 Gigabit Ethernet featuring a triangular section. The shape of the 10GPlus cable is intended to minimise its diameter and reduce alien crosstalk.

Forum releases near field comms architecture and specifications.
June 14, 2006... The technology architecture and five specifications have been unveiled for near field communication (NFC) technology by industry association, the NFC Forum. The specifications, which will be available in Q3, are: data exchange format;...

News.
June 14, 2006... Shares in E2v Technologies climbed back over 15 per cent after falling for last few weeks. The bounce back was helped along by full year results and the prediction of further strong growth. The firm? order book is at its highest ever level and...

Qinetiq grows profit by ?8m as firm ?grows technology supply business?
June 14, 2006... By Harry Yeates harry.yeates@rbi.co.uk Qinetiq increased its operating profit by ?8m in the 12 months to the end of May, on turnover that improved from ?855m to ?1,050m. Turnover from US business increased dramatically to ?250m, from ?70m...

LCD flat panel dominance chokes off emerging display technology.
June 14, 2006... LCD flat panel displays are so pervasive in the market they limit the opportunities for emerging technologies in the display industry, according to market researcher iSuppli. According to Paul Semenza, v-p for displays at iSuppli, TFT-LCD...

Thin film has the human touch.
June 14, 2006... US researchers have developed a thin film device with touch sensitivity similar to human skin. It could help in future techniques for minimally invasive surgery. The film, developed by Vivek Maheshwari and Ravi Saraf, is made of layers...

WiMAX boosts analyser sales in UK market.
June 14, 2006... By Richard Wilson richard.wilson@rbi.co.uk Wireless technology developments for WiMAX and high speed data downloads (HSDPA) is driving business growth in the UK test and measurement market, particularly for spectrum analysers. Spectrum...

E2v plans property review to cash in on freehold value.
June 14, 2006... By Alex Mayhew-Smith alex.mayhew-smith@rbi.co.uk E2v Technologies has begun a review of its property and facilities with the intention of releasing capital through better use of its space. ?We have extensive freehold facilities, some of...

Amplicon is bullish in Spain.
June 14, 2006... Amplicon UK has signed a distribution agreement with Spanish computer company, Anacomp-SCSI. Anacomp-SCSI will offer a range of support packages for Amplicon? industrial PCs that are traditionally available only at the top end of the server...

Freeview digital TV signals its popularity.
June 14, 2006... Freeview digital terrestrial TV has overtaken traditional analogue as the favoured means of receiving television signals in the UK, according to the latest figures from comms regulator Ofcom. Nearly 7.1 million households have Freeview on...

News.
June 14, 2006... Over a decade ago Intel co-founder Andy Grove, then Intel? CEO, came to London and announced that Intel? mission statement had changed. Replacing Intel? then current mission of being the primary supplier of building blocks to the PC...

News.
June 14, 2006... Matt Schumann is a director at engineering and design company Cambridge Design Partnership How do small firms get their medical devices into the NHS? Like any product, start by convincing the potential user that there is a benefit in the...

PCB firm adds to plant capacity and reduces heatsink lead times.
June 14, 2006... The UK? biggest PCB firm Invotec is expanding its Tamworth facility and adding equipment at the site. The firm has added to its drill shop with two Klingelnberg 6 spindle drilling machines, a Kuttler hole blaster and an upgrade to the...

Single chip TV tuner heralds mobile phone design revolution.
June 14, 2006... Richard Wilson richard.wilson@rbi.co.uk A single chip TV tuner which supports a number of different mobile TV standards could revolutionise the design of mobile phones in the next 12 months. According to James Fontaine, CEO of TV tuner chip...

Scottish optoelectronics group awards technology initiatives.
June 14, 2006... Seven TTOM (Technology Transfer in Opto and Microelectronics) awards, which fund exploratory approaches to possible technology initiatives, have announced by the Scottish Optoelectronics Association. ?These grants allow us to do a bit of...

Bristol doctorate course will focus on companies? pre-competitive research.
June 14, 2006... By Harry Yeates harry.yeates@rbi.co.uk The University of Bristol is launching a four-year engineering doctorate course it says will enable the substantial local high-tech community to benefit from pre-competitive research in areas of...

News.
June 14, 2006... This is Turnover, the winning design in a competition run by Plastic Logic and Central St Martin? College of Art and Design to find novel product concepts using flexible displays. Turnover, designed by Timothy Yeoh, emulates a traditional book...

W-CDMA phone with mobile TV launched with DVB-H roll-out.
June 14, 2006... The world? first commercially available W-CDMA handset incorporating DVB-H mobile TV technology has been launched by LG Electronics to coincide with the roll-out of DVB-H services in Italy. The LG-U900 phone incorporates Renesas Technology?...

News.
June 14, 2006... Engineers at Swansea University are working on developing an ?intelligent? airport terminals. The project, named TINA (The INtelligent Airport), aims to create a single system to handle all communications. The multi-million pound project funded...

Platform cracks DaVinci design.
June 14, 2006... Texas Instruments has introduced a development kit it claims will help non-DSP specialists designing with its DaVinci video platform. The DSP platform incorporates an ARM CPU and the aim is to provide support for microprocessor system...

News.
June 14, 2006... The nature of consumer electronics means that consumers expect more capability every year for the same amount they paid the year before. Bluetooth has been incredibly successful but if it is to continue its healthy market growth then it must...

Features.
June 14, 2006... Optical-based interconnections for high data rates are well known to offer key advantages compared to electrical cabling. The prime motivator for optical interconnections is extended reach. For example, CX-4 electrical cabling, which...

Embedded wireless data systems get an EDGE.
June 14, 2006... The data rate enhancement technology EDGE is extending the capabilities of embedded GSM data systems. It builds on existing GSM/GPRS networks, enabling data rates of 48kbit/s to 69.2kbit/s per timeslot depending on radio condition, without...

News.
June 14, 2006... Cambridge Display Technology (CDT) claims to be moving closer to a technique for the production of high resolution polymer organic light emitting displays (P-OLED) through the development of an inkjet printing process with Litrex. The companies...

Brunel tells students: show off your research.
June 14, 2006... By Harry Yeates harry.yeates@rbi.co.uk The traditional route to publicising university research by publishing papers in academic journals is no longer effective, according to the head of design at Brunel University. Instead, Professor...

News.
June 21, 2006... With one week to go before the deadline, Dr RoHS asked two UK distributors for their best advice to firms who have yet to dot the last i and cross the last t. Richard - note www.rohs.info is a Farnell website. ...

They think it?s all over... well not quite.
June 21, 2006... By Mick Parker Companies generally fall into one of the following three groups, to which we give the following advice: Project complete Congratulations to everyone who are now fully compliant. Ensure that all documentation is up to...

Design engineers don?t panic... it is never too late to seek help.
June 21, 2006... By Gary Nevison It is clear that as the RoHS deadline rapidly approaches, the majority of design engineers are still not completely ready and are going to need a lot of support and hand holding in the run up to 1st July and beyond. The...

News.
June 21, 2006... Coventry-based DT Elec?tronics looks set to be bought by US distributor Nu Horizons Electronics in what appears to be a friendly takeover. The deal should give the US firm a more significant foothold in the European semiconductor market....

News.
June 21, 2006... By Richard Wilson richard.wilson@rbi.co.uk Phone operators are coming to the view that using mains power cabling as a communications network could be the most reliable way of transmitting real-time video, which has been downloaded off the...

News.
June 21, 2006... Specialists in holographic technology and art from all over the world will travel to North Wales next month for the International Symposium on Display Holography, chaired by Dr Hans Bjelkhagen. See News page 5

News.
June 21, 2006... Electronics Weekly in association with Analog Devices is offering you the chance to win two pairs of tickets to attend the final weekend of the Ryder Cup golf tournament at the K Club Kildare in Ireland on September 24. To enter the prize...

News.
June 21, 2006... Japanese researchers have come up with a device that can count individual electrons moving through it, which equates to detecting currents in the attoampere (10[super-18]) range. The device, which is made of two AlGaAs/GaAs quantum dots joined...

Nanoscale modelling improvements turn simulations into research tools.
June 21, 2006... Improvements in models of nanoscale systems, and in the computers used to run them, have transformed simulations into useful research tools that add to the information available from physical techniques such as atomic force microscopy (AFM)....

News.
June 21, 2006... 26jun06SumFunx.gif Three students from the Department of Electronics at the University of Kent have developed a series of web-based games to help young children improve their maths. The software, called Sum-Fun, is intended to help kids...

CMOS driver circuits make optical card-to-card datacomms practical.
June 21, 2006... By Harry Yeates harry.yeates@rbi.co.uk IBM is developing the means to use CMOS transmitter macros - typically employed for driving a 50O digital line - for directly modulating laser light sources in card-to-card optical links. The...

GaN HEMT technology set to roll.
June 21, 2006... RF Micro Devices claims it is time for very high power gallium nitride (GaN) HEMT (high electron mobility transistor) technology to make an impact in mobile phone infrastructure and WiMAX basestations. According to David Aichele, director...

News.
June 21, 2006... July 3-4: Venturefest 2006, conference for start-up firms and venture capitalists. www.venturefest.com July 3-7: CMOS analogue integrated circuit design course, Imperial College, London. www.imperial.ac.uk/cpd July 24-28: Design Automation...

US firm ?has CMOS lead? for handset RF front end.
June 21, 2006... By Melanie Reynolds reporting from San Francisco A small Californian chip firm believes it has a five-year start over other companies when it comes to implementing CMOS technology in the RF front end of mobile handsets. This is a bold claim...

CML builds up flash MCU sales to half of business.
June 21, 2006... By Alex Mayhew-Smith alex.mayhew-smith@rbi.co.uk CML Microsystems has seen its flash controller sales grow to 50 per cent of its entire business in the last year as the firm reported turnover growth of 12 per cent to ?26.22m for the year to...

OLED company builds $900k R&D facility.
June 21, 2006... OLED-T, the UK-based manufacturer of organic LED (OLED) materials, has invested $900,000 in an R&D facility on the Brunel University Science Park site, Uxbridge. The 2,000ft2 R&D facility is a chemistry laboratory to support the production...

News.
June 21, 2006... Pace Components has acquired the electronics division of CTP Wipac, an engineering unit situated close to its Buckingham offices. Adrian Sturgess, Pace Components MD (left) is seen signing the deal with Steve Rush, new technical director from...

News.
June 21, 2006... With stock markets everywhere under pressure it was inevitable that technology stocks could not escape the nervousness of investors. When a stock such as Intel feels the pressure then most companies know what to expect. Yet a few UK tech stocks...

Strained SoI cuts power consumption.
June 21, 2006... Freescale Semiconductor has shown a practical implementation of ?super-low? power CMOS technology that the company claims could reduce active power consumption in devices by 40 per cent. The technology uses strained silicon-on-insulator...

News.
June 21, 2006... Intel has demonstrated improved CMOS tri-gate transistors that make use of high-k gate dielectrics, metal gate electrodes and strained silicon - a combination that reduces leakage, thus improving power consumption. Intel is set to present...

Wet lithography gives TI edge on 45nm process.
June 21, 2006... By Richard Wilson richard.wilson@rbi.co.uk Texas Instruments says its 45nm semiconductor manufacturing process will double the number of chips produced on each silicon wafer. Presenting details of its 45nm process at last week? Symposium on...

OLIVER LEISTEN cTO OF SARANTEL.
June 21, 2006... Oliver Leisten is chief technology officer of antenna design and manufacturing firm, Sarantel 1) What are the fastest growing products using your antennas? Without a doubt, personal navigation devices. These are multi-function PDAs...

WiMAX poised for global domination.
June 21, 2006... WiMAX is threatening to replace GSM and even W-CDMA as the most interesting wireless comms technology for semiconductor companies The importance of the wireless broadband access technology to chip suppliers is increasing as new GSM mobile...

News.
June 21, 2006... IMEC has shown the potential of fully-silicided (FUSI) gates to meet the 45nm node ITRS specifications. ?A ring oscillator using low-power CMOS transistors with Ni-based FUSI gates on HfSiON achieved a record unloaded delay of 17ps at an...

News.
June 21, 2006... The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) has started the search for this year? leading young woman engineer. With only eight per cent of the UK? engineers being women, the IET said it is looking for someone who can be a great...

Post-directive competition drives down recycling costs.
June 21, 2006... By Steve Bush steve.bush@rbi.co.uk The cost of recycling electronic products is falling dramatically as companies start to comply with the WEEE Directive, according to waste consultancy Environ. ?Recyclers are reducing their prices per...