South Africa
Comtest and its service partner, RMS (Repair Metrology Services), have moved to 10 Enterprise Close, Linbro Park. Their new postal address is Box 1210, Linbro Business Park, 2066 and their new contact details are +27 (0)11 608 8520 (tel.) and +27 (0)11 608 2705 (fax). They have also added a new Maxicall number 0861 COM 111. All e-mail addresses and cellphone numbers remain the same.
For the second consecutive year, Altron has been accredited with a AAA rating and a gold certificate by Corporate Governance Accreditation (CGA) for the implementation of best practice corporate governance policies and procedures. This rating is based on an assessment that measures the extent to which a company has implemented the King II codes and guidelines.
Overseas
Business
International Rectifier announced financial results for the second quarter (ended 27 December 2009) of its fiscal year 2010. Revenue was $210,2 million, a 17,2% increase from $179,4 million in the first quarter and a 10,8% increase from $189,7 million in the second quarter of fiscal year 2009. Net income was $28,3 million, or $0,39 per fully diluted share for the second quarter of 2010, compared with a net loss of $16,9 million, or $0,24 per share, in the prior quarter, and a net loss of $189,8 million, or $2,61 per share in the second quarter of 2009.
Microchip reported net revenue for the third quarter of fiscal year 2010 of $250,1 million, up 10,3% sequentially from $226,7 million and up approximately 30,1% from net revenue of $192,2 million in the prior year’s third fiscal quarter. GAAP net income for the third quarter of fiscal year 2010 was $69,4 million, or 37 cents per diluted share, up 56,0% from GAAP net income of $44,5 million, or 24 cents per diluted share, in the immediately preceding quarter, and down 4,1% from GAAP net income of $72,4 million, or 39 cents per diluted share, in the prior year’s third fiscal quarter.
TSMC announced unconsolidated net sales of approximately NT$29,16 billion for January 2010, a decrease of 4,3% from December 2009 and an increase of 134,4% over January 2009. On a consolidated basis, net sales were approximately NT$30,14 billion, a decrease of 4,5% from December 2009 and an increase of 129,6% over January 2009.
Silicon Laboratories reported record fourth quarter 2009 revenue of $127,2 million, which far exceeds the company’s pre-recession peak and represented a 28% increase over the same period in 2008. Revenue for the year totalled $441 million, a 6% increase over 2008. Fully diluted earnings per share was 84 cents for the fourth quarter and $1,57 for the full year, up dramatically from 14 cents and 67 cents, respectively, in 2008.
Reporting financial results for the fourth quarter of its 2009 fiscal year, Cypress Semiconductor announced revenue of $194,0 million, up 8,5% from $178,7 million for the prior quarter, and up 17,5% from $165,1 million for the year-ago period. The company recorded GAAP net income of $2,9 million in the 2009 fourth quarter, or diluted earnings per share of $0,02. This compares with last quarter’s diluted net loss per share of $0,13 and a diluted net loss per share in the year-ago fourth quarter of $2,88. The company’s CEO attributed the positive results to strong growth in its PSoC-based touchscreen products and strength in its high-performance SRAM business.
Agilent reported revenues of $1,21 billion for the first fiscal quarter ended 31 January 2010, 4% above one year ago. First quarter GAAP net income was $79 million, or $0,22 per diluted share. Last year’s first quarter GAAP net income was $64 million, or $0,18 per share. Revenues for the electronic measurement product group were down 2% from one year ago, but orders were up 8%, with solid demand from industrial, computer and semiconductor sectors.
United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) announced unconsolidated operating results for the fourth quarter of 2009. Revenue increased 1,2% from the previous quarter to NT$27,75 billion, and was approximately 50% higher than the similar quarter in 2008. Net income was NT$4,40 billion and earnings per ordinary share were NT$0,35.
Companies
u-blox has purchased 15 patents and patent applications from UK-based Air Semiconductor. The patents expand the company’s technology portfolio of low-power GPS solutions designed to capture location instantly.
Microchip has acquired Silicon Storage Technology (SST) for $2,85 per share in cash. This price represents an approximate 35,7% premium to the amount that the holders of SST common stock would have received under the previously announced merger agreement between SST and Technology Resources Holdings (TRH), and an approximate 53,2% premium to the closing price per share of SST’s stock on 12 November 2009, the last day of trading prior to the announcement of the execution of the definitive merger agreement with TRH. SST announced that it had terminated its previously announced merger agreement prior to entering into this definitive agreement with Microchip.
Micron and Numonyx have signed a definitive agreement under which Micron has agreed to acquire privately held Numonyx in an all-stock transaction valuing Numonyx at approximately $1,27 billion. Under the terms of the agreement, Micron will issue 140 million Micron common shares to Numonyx shareholders, Intel, STMicroelectronics, N.V. and Francisco Partners. The transaction strengthens Micron’s position as one of the world’s leading memory companies, with a broad portfolio of DRAM, NAND and NOR memory products and strong expertise in developing and supporting memory system solutions. Micron will also gain increased manufacturing scale globally and access to Numonyx’s customer base, providing opportunities to increase multi-chip offerings in the embedded and mobile markets.
Exar has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Neterion, a privately held Californian company which develops advanced 10 Gigabit compute server and mass storage I/O solutions. The transaction is expected to close during the current quarter ending in March, for a purchase price estimated to be between $10 million and $11 million dollars net of cash received. No other terms of the agreement were disclosed.
Dialog Semiconductor has purchased power management technology through an asset transaction from Diodes Zetex. As part of this transaction, Dialog has also acquired specific Diodes intellectual property rights and an employee team located in Munich, Germany. The deal has been closed, but financial details were not revealed.
Industry
Applied Materials, a supplier of manufacturing systems and related services to the global semiconductor industry, has seen two of its employees indicted on the charge of passing secrets relating to Samsung Electronics’ memory production technology on to Hynix Semiconductor. The case has resulted in a further 10 Applied employees being booked but not jailed, while a Samsung director and a Hynix executive were also arrested.
According to Juniper Research, the number of mobile connected M2M and embedded devices will rise to almost 412 million globally by 2014, with several distinct markets accounting for the increase in their number. The markets include utility metering, mobile connected buildings, consumer and commercial telematics, and retail and banking connections. These areas will all show substantial growth in both device numbers and in the service revenues they represent, while healthcare monitoring applications will begin to reach the commercial rollout stage from 2012.
Technology
IMEC has developed a unique microchip with microscopic nail structures that enable close communication between the electronics and biological cells. The new chip is a mass-producible, easy-to-use tool in electrophysiology research, for example for fundamental research on the functioning and dysfunctioning of the brain. Each micronail structure serves as a close contact-point for one cell, and contains an electrode that can very accurately record and trigger in realtime the electrical activity of an individual electrogenic cell in a network. The electrodes in IMEC’s micronail chip are downsized to the size of cells and even smaller. They consist of tiny nail structures made of a metal stem covered with an oxide layer, and a conductive tip. When cells are applied on the chip surface, their cell membrane strongly engulfs the nail structures, thereby realising an intimate contact with the electrode. This very close contact improves the signal-to-interference ratio, enabling precise recording of electrical signals and electrical stimulation of single cells.
Intel and Micron announced the world’s first 25 nm NAND technology, which provides a cost-effective path for increasing storage capacity in such popular consumer gadgets as smartphones, personal music and media players (PMPs), as well as the new high-performance class of solid-state drives (SSDs). Not only is the 25 nm process the smallest NAND technology, it is also the smallest semiconductor technology in the world. Manufactured by IM Flash Technologies (IMFT), Intel and Micron’s NAND flash joint venture, the process produces 8 GB of storage in a single NAND device measuring just 167 mm² – small enough to fit through the hole in the middle of a compact disk, yet packs more than 10 times the data capacity of that CD.
Cree announced another industry-best reported efficacy record of 208 lumens per Watt for a white power LED. Cree’s tests confirmed these results at a correlated colour temperature of 4579 K. The tests were conducted under standard LED test conditions at a drive current of 350 mA at room temperature. This level of performance is, however, not yet available in Cree’s production LEDs.
Nujira and RF Micro Devices recently demonstrated the world’s most efficient broadband power amplifier (PA) design for 4G base stations at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The design integrates the new RFMD RFG1M family of high performance gallium nitride (GaN) amplifiers with Nujira’s Coolteq.h envelope tracking power modulators. Using just one RFG1M device with a Coolteq.h module, the RFMD Nujira RF front end transmits over a 728–960 MHz band with over 50% efficiency, covering seven of the frequency bands defined for LTE by 3GPP. Using future GaN devices currently in development at RFMD, the two companies expect to cover the full range of the cellular frequency band from 700–2600 MHz with just three broadband PAs, allowing wireless infrastructure vendors to develop a single, highly-efficient multimode, broadband RF front end that can be deployed to meet various transmission standards anywhere in the world.
QD Laser, in collaboration with the University of Tokyo, has developed a green laser intended for use in mobile projectors that could be readily mounted on laptop computers and mobile phones. Although red and blue lasers – the other elements necessary for a mobile projector – are already in existence, this is the first time a green laser has been developed that uses cost-effective manufacturing techniques. The laser light comes in a 5,6 mm package and operates at 2 V d.c.. Furthermore, it can be operated to a maximum temperature of 60°C, without having to be cooled at regular intervals. Hence, the laser meets both power-consumption as well as dimensional requirements of a compact mobile projector. Also, it is capable of displaying HDTV-class images, while enabling high-speed video modulation on the order of 500 MHz.
IBM researchers have demonstrated an RF graphene transistor with the highest cut-off frequency achieved so far for any graphene device – 100 GHz. The high frequency record was achieved using wafer-scale, epitaxially grown graphene using processing technology compatible to that used in advanced silicon device fabrication. Graphene is a single atom-thick layer of carbon atoms bonded in a hexagonal honeycomb-like arrangement. This two-dimensional form of carbon has unique electrical, optical, mechanical and thermal properties and its technological applications are being explored intensely. It is noteworthy that the frequency performance of the graphene device already exceeds the cut-off frequency of state-of-the-art silicon transistors of the same gate length (approximately 40 GHz).
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