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Electronics News Digest

28 July 2021 News

South Africa

A multi-million rand programme to fund research and innovation initiatives in Africa was launched under the Horizon Europe programme during a virtual event held be the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) and the European Union (EU). Horizon Europe, the successor to the H2020 initiative, is the EU’s research and innovation framework programme for 2021-2027. It has a budget of 95,5 billion Euros over the period, making it the most ambitious research and innovation programme in the world. As a strategic partner, the EU seeks to enhance co-operation with Africa to promote actions targeted at finding locally adapted solutions to challenges that are global in nature, but often hit Africa the hardest.

In response to the acts of public violence, arson and looting perpetrated around the country in mid-July, ICASA issued a condemnation of the disruption of communication services, closure of some community radio stations and vandalism of network facilities. “Such wanton destruction of the broadcasting infrastructure and facilities represents a direct attack on the constitutional right of individuals and communities to access news and information that is accurate, unbiased and up-to-date about the current crisis,” the statement said. It further pointed out that in the Cape Town Regional Court last year, a man charged with theft and vandalism of telecommunications infrastructure was found guilty of 25 counts of theft and sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment for each, collectively amounting to 500 years of direct imprisonment.

Overseas

Business

Analog Devices has published its 2020 Green Bond Report, which provides an update on the full allocation of the proceeds from its inaugural green bond offering. The company allocated nearly $400 million: $288 million to develop eco-efficient technologies across 4G and 5G communications, data centres, green vehicles and battery management systems; $102 million to green buildings, helping to construct over 20 900 square metres of green building space in its corporate headquarters; and $5 million to renewable energy, including over 3100 solar panels generating about 1,5 million kWh of electricity per year.

Companies

Infineon Technologies and Amber Solutions announced an alliance on a range of silicon opportunities anchored around Amber’s breakthrough digital control of electricity with embedded intelligence. Amber’s technology advancement in the digital control of electricity in a fully silicon-based architecture dramatically enhances the reliability, performance, power delivery capabilities, and embedded intelligence possibilities in circuit breakers, wall plugs, switches and other electrical products.

Industry

As per a Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) announcement, global semiconductor industry sales in the month of May 2021 were $43,6 billion, an increase of 26,2% over the May 2020 total of $34,6 billion and 4,1% more than the April 2021 total of $41,9 billion. Regionally, year-to-year sales increased in Europe (31,2%), Asia Pacific/All Other (30,9%), China (26,1%), the Americas (20,9%) and Japan (20,4%). Month-to-month sales increased in the Americas (5,9%), China (5,4%), Japan (3,1%), Asia Pacific/All Other (2,6%) and Europe (1,1%).

The next wave of Internet of Things (IoT) analytics development will fully converge with the ‘Big Data’ domain. Simultaneously, the value in the technology stack is shifting beyond the hardware and middleware to analytics and value-added services, such as machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI). According to global tech market advisory firm ABI Research, ML and AI services are estimated to grow within the IoT domain at a compound annual growth rate of nearly 40%, reaching $3,6 billion in 2026.

As of December 2020, Taiwan led the world with 21,4% of global semiconductor wafer capacity installed in that country, says a new report by IC Insights. In second place was South Korea, which accounted for 20,4% of global capacity. Taiwan was the capacity leader on 200 mm wafers, while for 300 mm wafers South Korea was at the forefront, followed closely by Taiwan. The share of capacity in North America is projected to decline through 2025 as the region’s large fabless supplier industry continues to rely on foundries, primarily those based in Taiwan. Europe’s share of capacity is also expected to slowly continue shrinking.


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