Electronics Weekly articles from May 2004

Electronics Weekly archives from May 2004

LaAl03: the dielectric of choice for deep CMOS?
May 5, 2004... Lanthanum aluminate (LaAlO3) could become the high-k dielectric of choice for very deep sub-micron CMOS, according to a UK academic. High-k materials under study around the world include strontium titanate (SrTiO3) and the hafnium oxides and...

Engineers get their hands on CE.NET 5.0.
May 5, 2004... Abacus Group is holding a free workshop to give embedded software development engineers hands-on experience of running the 5.0 release of Windows CE.NET on next generation processors. The 'Embedded Solutions: Technologies in Action' workshop...

Demystifying the practices of PCB EMC design.
May 5, 2004... Designing products to meet EMC requirements can often seem something best left to those familiar with the black arts of EMC design. But Dr Bruce Archambeault of IBM intends to strip away the mystique surrounding EMC with a look at how to design...

Particle accelerator technology preserves rare vinyl grooves.
May 5, 2004... The study of subatomic particles is leading to better ways to preserve audio libraries stored on vinyl, acetate and wax cylinders. Scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory are imaging the grooves in analogue recording media using a...

Zetex 'excited' by chip focus.
May 5, 2004... Zetex's chief executive Bob Conway (right) said the new focus on the semiconductor business by Telemetrix "is a very exciting development". Telemetrix shareholders agreed last week to change the name of the electronics firm to Zetex. The...

Speech recognition technology reaches 95% accuracy.
May 5, 2004... Speech recognition technology with a claimed accuracy rate of 95 per cent has been developed by researchers at Toshiba. The middleware, which also features a text-to-speech (TTS) engine, is available from Q3 this year and supports nine...

Mathematicians solve elliptic code.
May 5, 2004... LED inventor Nick Holonyak has won the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT prize for his work on semiconductors, in particular light emitting diodes and transistors. Holonyak was John Bardeen's first student, Bardeen having co-invented the bipolar transistor...

Single channel optocoupler shrinks into a BGA package.
May 5, 2004... Fairchild Semiconductor has dramatically reduced the size of its optocouplers with its first single-channel device with a transistor output housed in a BGA (ball grid array) package. The packaged device, which is less than a third of the size...

EU accession states show electronics prowess.
May 5, 2004... Of the ten accession countries joining the EU last Saturday, the most significant in electronics terms are Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. They are also the countries with the highest ambitions for the sector. The local...

Companies perpetuate horror stories to promote their own products, claims processor IP firm CEO.
May 5, 2004... Industry horror stories are being overworked to persuade customers into rash judgements for SoC designs, according to Tensilica's CEO Chris Rowen. "Everyone is talking up their angle," Rowen told EW, "the Asic guys are saying if you try and do...

Norwegian mobile software firm seeks Symbian skills with Cambridge centre.
May 5, 2004... A Norwegian mobile phone software firm is to open an office in Cambridge to support its development of smartphone technology based on the Symbian operating system. Birdstep Technology of Oslo aims to tap into the local skills base in wireless...

Taiwanese flash company signs 0.13[micro]m licence deal.
May 5, 2004... Macronix and Saifun have signed a licence deal for 0.13[micro]m flash technology. "With products to be introduced based on 0.13[micro]m multi-level cell flash technology in 2005, Macronix is targeting to gain significant share in the fast...

Prague chip forum talks scaling issues.
May 5, 2004... Uncertainty of the microelectronics industry's ability to derive traditional benefits of device geometry scaling dominated many papers at Future Horizons' International Electronics Forum 2004 in Prague this week. Bernard Meyerson, v-p at IBM's...

Altera starts shipping lead-free FPGA and CPLD families.
May 5, 2004... Altera has started shipping RoHS-compliant, lead-free versions of its FPGA and CPLD families. The devices include its Stratix, Stratix GX, Cyclone, MAX and configuration devices. They range from 8-pin SOICs to 1,508-ball flip-chip packages. The...

Welsh equipment maker to cut jobs following Q1 losses.
May 5, 2004... Chip fab equipment maker Trikon Technologies is planning another round of job cuts, as quarterly losses continue. The Welsh manufacturer announced its first quarter results, with revenues of $6.8m up 33 per cent on the same quarter in 2003, but...

Visa tests contactless style of credit cards.
May 5, 2004... Visa has begun a live test in Malaysia of a contactless smartcard version of its credit and debit cards. The firm is calling the card Visa Wave. The card need not even be presented to the shop assistant or cashier, just passed within 40mm of...

ClearSpeed wins DTI cash for 64-bit version of multi-threaded chip.
May 5, 2004... Bristol firm ClearSpeed has won a [pounds sterling]427,800 DTI grant to begin development of a 64-bit version of its multi-threaded parallel processor. The company launched its first device, containing 64 32-bit processing elements, last year....

Regulator reopens debate over plans to break up BT.
May 5, 2004... Communications regulator Ofcom has reopened an old debate about whether BT should be split up by asking the question in a consultation document. The consultation is the first of two being undertaken as part of Ofcom's strategic review of the UK...

Hynix sidesteps DRAM import tariffs in EU accession states.
May 5, 2004... Accession to the EU of ten new states last week will not affect the DRAM business of Korea's Hynix Semiconductor although its eastern European sales will now be subject to the EU's 34 per cent tariff on DRAM imported from Korea. "We have...

Electronics ; division has best year for Pressac.
May 5, 2004... The electronics division at components firm Pressac enjoyed its most successful year ever in 2003. Pressac said the division had won key contracts with OEMs and tier one suppliers and for electronics in cars and trucks. Automotive relays now...

Universities awarded [pounds sterling]57m for courses to meet industry needs.
May 5, 2004... Nine universities have been awarded [pounds sterling]57m by the government for science and technology courses tailored to meet industry needs. Professor John O'Reilly, chief executive of the Government's science funding council, said the scheme...

TSMC profits up.
May 5, 2004... After part of TSMC's Q1 results were accidentally uploaded to the Taiwan Stock Exchange earlier than planned, the foundry released its full results showing year-over-year gains. Net income of $561m showed a 331 per cent gain on the same quarter...

Scottish university wins DTI grant for research into polymer displays.
May 5, 2004... Paisley University has won a [pounds sterling]1.4m research grant from the DTI to develop polymer transistor backplanes, suitable for flexible displays and electronic paper. The Scottish University's Thin Film Centre will work with Plastic...

Brainboxes deal with Microsoft is 'significant'.
May 5, 2004... Brainboxes has seen its range of Bluetooth wireless adapters selected by developers at Microsoft as test hardware for its Windows CE platform builder. The Liverpool-based firm has been working with the development teams for Windows XP, Windows...

QinetiQ MEMS development advances through signing of French agreement.
May 5, 2004... QinetiQ and Tronic's Microsystems of Crolle, France are to collaborate in MEMS (micro-electromechanical system) technology. QinetiQ is to provide products and the French firm the manufacturing capability. "We don't do research - we usually...

Fibre optics arm sold by Infineon.
May 5, 2004... Infineon Technologies is selling its fibre optics business to US manufacturer Finisar in a share deal worth $263m. Thomas Seifert, CEO of Infineon's wireline comms business called the move: "An important step in the ongoing consolidation of the...

Manufacturing up despite high pound.
May 5, 2004... The UK's manufacturers are seeing a steady business recovery across the sector despite pressure on export sales from the high value of the pound. According to the CBI's Quarterly Industrial Trends survey in total orders are increasing at their...

BBC warns Government over digital TV rollout timescale.
May 5, 2004... Despite saying that the UK is the envy of the world over its progress on digital TV rollout, the BBC has warned there is work to do if the Government's 2010 total switchover target is to be met. A BBC report has said the Government must act to...

Asic firm has ARM core details.
May 5, 2004... Taiwan fabless Asic provider Faraday Technology has released details of its 500MHz FA626, the company's new ARM processor core, based on UMC's 0.13[micro]m process. The company said the core dissipates 0.6mW/MHz operating at 500MHz and...

UK needs foundry to exploit RF ICs.
May 5, 2004... A national silicon foundry for companies to prototype inventions quickly, in a commercially secure environment, is needed if the UK is to capture its share of the security imaging market, according to an influential Government report. The...

What effect will larger EU have?
May 5, 2004... This week the EU is larger by ten countries. Some, like Hungary and the Czech Republic, have flourishing electronics sectors. Others are less involved. Apart from Malta and Cyprus, the new members are all former members of the Communist bloc...

Microsystem firm wins [pounds sterling]250,000.
May 5, 2004... Herts-based microsystem design firm European Technology for Business (ETB) has secured an extra [pounds sterling]250,000 of backing to develop working prototypes of its piezoelectric solid-state gyro for customer trials. The funding, which...

Making a show of design.
May 12, 2004... Richard Wilson previews the semiconductor design papers being presented at this month's conference in Brighton On Wednesday May 26 semiconductor suppliers - Analog Devices, Fujitsu Microelectronics, Renesas Technology and Texas Instruments...

Irish display firm pulls in $9.5m.
May 12, 2004... Irish display firm NTera has pulled in $9.5m in funding. "The funds raised will be used to bolster the company's sales and marketing efforts internationally and facilitate the commercial production of displays at our facilities in Taiwan and...

Will the Government answer another call for a national facility?
May 12, 2004... Hot on the heels of the Government's rejection of a call for a centre for IP design a similar call has been made by the DTI Foresight Project, writes Melanie Reynolds he UK's need for a national facility where high-tech companies can...

Nepcon showcase for technology.
May 12, 2004... Nepcon Brighton's semiconductor conference will showcase product technology from Analog Devices, Fujitsu Microelectronics, National Semiconductor, Renesas Technology, Texas Instruments and Xicor. The exhibition and conference takes place at the...

Bookham confirms commitment: 'We are not shutting our UK sites'.
May 12, 2004... Bookham Technology has reaffirmed its commitment to UK manufacturing, despite poor results and plans to move its nominal headquarters and primary stock market listing to the US. "We are not shutting our UK sites," Bookham CEO Giorgio Anania...

Microchip dsPIC competition.
May 12, 2004... Microchip has launched a competition for designs based around its 16-bit dsPIC DSP-capable microcontroller - and has cut the price of a development board as an incentive to enter. The global winner gets $15,000 or a Harley-Davidson motor...

Forte converts System C into RTL code with tool.
May 12, 2004... A behavioural synthesis tool that converts SystemC descriptions of hardware into RTL code has been announced by Forte Design Systems. Called Cynthesizer, the tool takes high level models and produces fully timed RTL code, said the firm. The...

AlGaInP LED achieves up to 100lumen/W.
May 12, 2004... German firm Osram Opto Semiconductors is claiming to have achieved almost 100lumen/W efficiency from orange-red LEDs made using AlGaInP substrates. The company said the 618nm devices reached 96lm/W at 20mA, and capable of emitting more than...

Camera uses lens and DSP to zoom, tilt and pan through 360 degrees.
May 12, 2004... Sony has developed a compact, solid-state camera that uses an annular lens to give a panoramic image of its surroundings. Pan, tilt and zoom functions are all performed in software, and a DSP developed for the purpose handles rebuilding of the...

Which way now?
May 12, 2004... All the talk at this year's Future Horizons IEF 2004 conference was of what lies ahead for the semiconductor industry in terms of recovery, investment, and technologies. David Manners flew to Prague to find out who was saying what riumph...

'CMOS scaling is already dead' IBM chief technologist tells conference.
May 12, 2004... CMOS scaling is dead and the annual increase in clock frequency is going to halve, according to an IBM chief technologist. "Scaling is already dead and no one has noticed it's not breathing and the lips have turned blue," said Dr Bernard...

Mobile demo centre opens in Swindon.
May 12, 2004... Motorola's first European Innovation Centre, which demonstrates the company's mobile communications technologies to customers, has been opened at its site in Swindon. Technologies on display will include HSDPA (high speed downlink packet...

UK DECT system for 2.4GHz band.
May 12, 2004... Korean manufacturer TBK Electronics has introduced a quad-band DAB module which receives digital audio from both Band 3 and L-Band, and includes AM and FM receivers as well. Based on a Texas Instruments' TMS320DRE200 DSP, the quad-band module...

Wireless hotspot on a bike.
May 12, 2004... Magicbike is a mobile free-access WiFi hotspot from New York-based 'wireless and emerging-media' artist Yury Gitman. "Turning a common bicycle into a wireless hotspot, Magicbike explores new delivery and uses strategies for wireless networks...

Semiconductor forecasts rise with the times.
May 12, 2004... A strong first quarter from the semiconductor industry has sent the forecasters scurrying to increase their predictions for the year. Last week, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) and World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS)...

ANT marches on with funding win.
May 12, 2004... Software developer ANT has completed a round of funding worth [pounds sterling]3.39m. "Over the last three years since we last went to the venture market, ANT has become profitable and cash-generating," said Simon Woodward, the Cambridge-based...

Semiconductor transitions are raising verification issues for EDA industry.
May 12, 2004... The semiconductor industry's technical transitions from 200mm to 300mm production wafer sizes and from 0.18[micro]m to 0.13[micro]m process geometries have had severe effects on manufacturing yield levels which the EDA industry is struggling to...

TTPCom reports [pounds sterling]2.7m loss after first half 'hiccup'.
May 12, 2004... Mobile phone technology firm TTPCom slipped to a pre-tax loss of [pounds sterling]2.7m in 2003 compared to a profit of [pounds sterling]6.6m the year before. The year was marked by differing fortunes between first and second halves, with the...

University patterns on silicon goes to market.
May 12, 2004... Patented techniques for creating patterns on silicon that alter the polarisation of incident light are being developed into usable devices at Innos, the recently launched silicon technology centre at the University of Southampton. The periodic...

Wafer fab owners lord it over fabless rivals.
May 12, 2004... The fabless/foundry semiconductor business model is at risk of being swamped by the greater efficiency of their fab-owning rivals, the traditional semiconductor manufacturers. "For fabless companies - if they are not fully supported - it might...

Antenova wins million antenna contract with major handset maker.
May 12, 2004... Antenna developer Antenova has won a contract to supply more than one million of its compact quad-band dielectric antennas to a "top five" mobile handset OEM. The deal, struck in conjunction with its manufacturing partner Galtronics, is by...

University of Surrey gets endorsement from IEE.
May 12, 2004... The School of Electronics and Physical Sciences' short course programme at the University of Surrey has achieved endorsement from the professional body, the IEE. Endorsement by the IEE means the University has proved it has adequate quality...

Java rings cash tills for operators.
May 12, 2004... Java will earn phone operators $15.5bn by 2008, claims Mobile Application Platforms And Operating Systems 2003-2008, a report by market research company ARC Group. The Java market earned operators almost $1.4bn in 2003 - around three per cent...

Tao Group wins extra $7m funds.
May 12, 2004... Tao Group, maker of the Intent multimedia platform for mobile devices, has announced a further investment of more than $7m, taking total funding in the firm to over $45m. The additional funding coincides with a number of recent licence deals,...

Plea for R&D tax credits strikes chord in UK.
May 12, 2004... A plea for tax credits on R&D across Europe was made at a semiconductor conference in Prague last week echoing the successful campaign by industry body Intellect to get Chancellor Gordon Brown to introduce such credits in the UK. "Laws should...

Synopsys CEO estimates only ; 170 chips on 90nm processes.
May 12, 2004... Just 170 designs have been completed on 90nm process technology around the world despite claims that firms have had design rules for the technology for two years. According to the estimate of Aart de Geus, CEO of Synopsys, there have been 170...

CSR hopes Nokia contract opens door for mobile deals.
May 12, 2004... Cambridge Silicon Radio (CSR) expects to be able to capitalise on its Bluetooth design win with Nokia to gain further business with other major mobile phone manufacturers this year. "It brings its own attraction," said Richard Ord, v-p of the...

Rambus seeks $1bn in damages.
May 12, 2004... Rambus is seeking an additional $1bn in actual damages in its antitrust case against Hynix Semiconductor, Infineon Technologies, Micron Technology and Siemens. It is alleging that these companies conspired to block the success of Rambus' RDRAM...

Low level electromagnetic fields pose little health risk, says IEE committee.
May 12, 2004... Low level electromagnetic (EM) fields are a low risk, although more research should be conducted, according to the IEE. "After analysing the past two years of peer-reviewed literature on the topic, the group's conclusion is the same as that...

Symbian OS runs on 2.4 million mobiles.
May 12, 2004... Shipments of mobile phones using the Symbian operating system reached 2.4 million in the first quarter of 2004, more than double the 1.18 million achieved in the first quarter of 2003. This was accompanied by an increase in turnover at the...

Far East contract sees Picsel increase workforce.
May 12, 2004... Picsel Technologies is seeing an expansion of its mobile phone software business following the winning of a major contract in the Far East which will result in the company increasing its Scottish workforce by over 30 per cent. The Glasgow-based...

UK put to shame by Belgian investment in nanotechnology.
May 12, 2004... The UK Government's approach to nanotechnology has been put to shame by that of another much smaller European Government. The Flanders Government has invested $37.2m ([pounds sterling]25m) to help fund a nanotechnology laboratory at local R&D...

Nepcon showcase for technology.
May 12, 2004... Nepcon Brighton's semiconductor conference will showcase product technology from Analog Devices, Fujitsu Microelectronics, National Semiconductor, Renesas Technology, Texas Instruments and Xicor. The exhibition and conference takes place at the...

RF Engines in digitiser link.
May 12, 2004... Isle of Wight-based DSP firm RF Engines and Swiss data converter firm Acqiris have announced a digitiser and processing card. It is a 2Gsample/s compactPCI card with an on-board Virtex II Pro70 FPGA - for which RFEL supplies the real-time...

Wireless patients.
May 26, 2004... The drive to cut the costs of caring for an aging population has seen a rise in not only wireless technologies, but also lab-on-chip devices which mean patients can be cared for in the home instead of hospitals, writes Harry Yeates array...

0.13[micro]m transition pays off for Aspex as parallel processor is halved in size and clocks 300MHz.
May 26, 2004... A decision to move to 0.13[micro]m processing has paid off for Aspex Semiconductor, with dramatic improvements in speed, area and power. The 0.13[micro]m version of Linedancer, its parallel processor, is halved in size, claimed Ian Jalowiecki,...

Tiny radio with 2.5mm antenna sends signals.
May 26, 2004... University of Florida electrical engineers have installed a radio antenna less than 2.5mm long on a chip and used it to send and receive signals 5m across a room. "This project is about building very small radios that are very hard to detect,...

Implanting for a better life.
May 26, 2004... ealthy Aims is a European programme with $16m from the European Commission's Sixth Framework fund which is looking at using technology, particularly implanted devices, to improve health. "It aims to develop a range of implants and measurement...

When EMC is a safety issue...
May 26, 2004... The introduction of tighter EMC standard for medical equipment makes sense, says Melanie Reynolds isit any hospital nowadays and you will see the signs requesting that you turn off your mobile phone to prevent interference with electrical...

Sandia makes membrane for fuel cells that runs at 140[degrees]C.
May 26, 2004... Sandia Labs in New Mexico is developing a polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) for fuel cells. SPEA, Sandia Polymer Electrolyte Alternative, is a polyphenylene derivative which can operate as high as 140[degrees]C and produce a peak power of...

Philips' 13in. polymer TV at US show.
May 26, 2004... Philips is to demonstrate its first 13in. polymer LED TV prototype at the Society for Information Display's (SID's) International Symposium in Seattle this week. The device, which has a 576x324 resolution, is said by the firm to be a step on...

Building structures on a hair opens possibilities for optical fibre work.
May 26, 2004... Boston College, Massachusetts, has built structures on a hair to demonstrate its skill with multiphoton-absorption photo polymerisation (MAP). "We built the structure on top of the hair with a material that is akin to Plexiglas [Perspex]," said...

Radio hams and amateur rocketeers send telemetry package to 100km.
May 26, 2004... An avionics package sending telemetry to radio hams was launched, temporarily, into space last week by amateurs. The launch of the six metre rocket by the Civilian Space Exploration Team marks the first non-commercial rocket and radio system to...

Camera pipe dreams make winning ideas.
May 26, 2004... Our competition to win one of Sony's new solid state panoramic cameras (EW12/05/04) has inspired some intriguing ideas. The small size and solid state nature of the device was behind several people choosing it to replace heavier and more...

UK to see higher pricing as Europe struggles.
May 26, 2004... Distributor Abacus is expecting higher prices and longer lead times in the UK as the market continues to improve. "There has been some increase in commodity semiconductor pricing from some suppliers. There has been some expansion in lead times...

Doping helps with nanoscale models.
May 26, 2004... Zarlink Semiconductor is to supply RF transmitter chips for medical camera pills. The M2A pill from Given Imaging includes a chip camera, LEDs, Zarlink's transmitter, an ASIC, antennae and two silver-oxide batteries, and photographs the...

Flat-panel display opportunity for UK.
May 26, 2004... The UK has a unique opportunity to develop a flat-panel displays manufacturing industry, capitalising on "probably the best displays scientists in the world", the head of a major liquid crystal research initiative has told EW. Professor Harry...

Basestation ; power amp; efficiency up.
May 26, 2004... By modulating the drain voltage in RF transistors, Cambridge start-up Nujira has achieved efficiencies of 35 per cent in basestation power amplifiers. The efficiency is up to three times that of existing commercial devices. "Efficiency is the...

Funding specialist opens doors to EDA start-ups.
May 26, 2004... Bath-based finance firm Catalyst, which specialises in funding early-stage technology companies, is expanding its focus to cover EDA start-ups. Among other sources, the company is picking up businesses from the SETsquared network of incubators...

StarCore has V4 of its DSP architecture g.
May 26, 2004... Texas-based StarCore has unveiled version V4 of its processor/DSP architecture, claimed to offer 50 per cent more video processing capability, and improved operating system (RTOS) support compared with older versions, all at half the power...

Lead-free confusion in EU Directive; must be cleared up, says DTI report.
May 26, 2004... A report commissioned by the DTI has called for a clear definition of the term 'homogeneous material' in the RoHS Directive to avoid confusion in the industry. In the report by technology consultancy ERA Technology - to be presented at the next...

US motion control firm snaps up Primagraphics.
May 26, 2004... Image processing and display firm Primagraphics from Cambridgeshire has been bought for $21m by Curtiss-Wright, a US motion control firm. "Primagraphics' products broaden our market reach into radar, sonar and video applications," said Martin...