South Africa
Symmetricom</i> has appointed Comtest as its sole distributor in southern Africa, for Symmetricom’s time and frequency synchronisation solution division, effective immediately. For more than 30 years, Symmetricom has offered solutions for the needs of governments, corporations and industries such as metrology, utility, space, industrial, defence and aerospace.
Overseas
Business
Analog Devices announced financial results for its fiscal first quarter of 2010, which ended 30 January 2010. Revenue was $603 million, an increase of 5,5% from the immediately prior quarter and an increase of 26,5% from the same period one year ago. Operating income from continuing operations was $149 million, or 24,7% of revenue, which included approximately $16,5 million in restructuring charges. Diluted earnings per share (EPS) from continuing operations was $0,39, compared to $0,36 in the immediately prior quarter, and $0,08 in the same period a year ago.
Revenues in Melexis’ fourth quarter of 2009 were 42,3 million Euros, an increase of 26% compared to the fourth quarter of 2008. Net profit was 6 million Euros, from a 3 million Euros loss the same quarter last year. For the year 2009, revenues were 128,9 million Euros, a decrease of 31% compared to the previous year. Net loss was 4 million Euros.
NXP Semiconductors announced fourth quarter sales of $1,13 billion, a comparable increase of 8,0% over the third quarter of 2009 and a comparable increase of 12,6% over the fourth quarter of 2008. Adjusted EBITDA in the fourth quarter of 2009 was $171 million compared with $147 million in the third quarter and $41 million in the same period of 2008. Full year total sales amounted to $3,84 billion versus $5,44 billion in 2008. Sales in 2009 were lower by $792 million due to the divestment of NXP’s wireless activities in July 2008.
Avago Technologies reported financial results for its first quarter of fiscal year 2010, ended 31 January 2010. Net revenue was $456 million, an increase of 7% compared with the previous quarter, and up 24% from the same quarter last year. First quarter net income was $38 million, or $0,16 per diluted share. This compares with a net loss of $21 million, or $0,09 per diluted share last quarter, and net income of $6 million, or $0,03 per diluted share in the same quarter last year.
Companies
Mentor Graphics has acquired the Virtual Garage product line from Freescale. Virtual Garage is a software suite for the design and management of automotive electrical and electronic systems. Mentor sees the acquisition as expanding on its scope both upstream into product planning, where decisions about product configuration complexity significantly impact long term costs, and downstream into the key area of online service documentation for dealer networks. Mentor has acquired the relevant intellectual assets and the key architects of the solutions. Mentor also acquired one key commercial contract under the acquisition.
Connector and cable assembly manufacturer, FCI, has acquired the assets of MergeOptics, a manufacturer of active optical cables (AOCs) and optical transceivers. The acquired product range serves data centres and high performance computing applications that require that the data-rate performance per channel as defined by various standards be maintained over long lengths of cable.
The Jauch Quartz Group (Germany) and the Siward Crystal Technology Group (Taiwan) have signed a strategic alliance in order to intensify collaboration between the two companies. The move will give Jauch access to professional, high-performance product development in Siward’s Japanese development and technology centre. As a result, Jauch expects to be able to implement customer and application-specific solutions more flexibly and will make a new range of services available to its customers.
SELEX Galileo, a defence electronics manufacturer, and RFMD, a global leader in RF components, announced the extension of their collaboration to develop high-frequency GaAs MMIC solutions focused on SELEX’s next generation of electronically-scanned (E-SCAN) phased array radar systems. SELEX and RFMD have collaborated in GaAs MMICs since signing a strategic co-operation agreement in May 2008. In related news, RFMD has commenced production shipments to SELEX of GaAs MMIC chipsets for insertion into SELEX’s surveillance and fire control radar systems.
Infineon has filed a complaint with the US International Trade Commission against Elpida, asserting that Elpida has engaged in unfair trade practices by making for importation into the United States, and selling after importation, certain DRAM semiconductors and products that infringe on four of Infineon’s patents covering key inventions in semiconductor processing and device manufacturing. Infineon’s complaint seeks an exclusion order that operates to bar infringing DRAM semiconductors and products that are imported by or on behalf of Elpida from entry into the US.
Industry
Worldwide semiconductor revenue is forecast to reach $276 billion in 2010, a 19,9% increase from 2009 revenue of $231 billion, according to the latest outlook by Gartner. Gartner has closely tracked the balance of electronic system sales versus semiconductor sales and inventory in past downturns and the current one, and believes that a minor correction in semiconductor sales is needed in the near future to rebalance chip sales with system sales. The third quarter is generally the strongest quarter for semiconductor sales with sequential growth of 9% as system companies build product for back-to-school and the holiday season. Gartner’s new semiconductor forecast shows a 7% rise in third quarter sales, followed by a relatively flat fourth quarter, which will better align semiconductor sales with system sales.
According to iSuppli, installations of photovoltaic (PV) solar systems will soar in 2010, but a steep dive in the prices of solar components means industry competition will intensify. Global installed watts for PV systems will grow by 64% in 2010, reaching 8,3 Gigawatts. Despite the projected return in demand for this year, the tremendous price erosion that occurred in 2009 continues to squeeze profits. On average, crystalline module prices last year fell by 37,8%, solar wafer prices plunged by 50% and polysilicon prices crashed by 80%. This trend will continue in 2010, although at a slower rate. Crystalline module prices will drop by 20%, wafer prices will decline by 18,2% and polysilicon prices will fall by 56,3%. The PV space will also feature more players this year, led by South Korea’s Samsung and LG Electronics, as well as Taiwan’s TSMC foundry and US engineering giant Bechtel.
In order to pave the way for the continued development of intelligent energy delivery technology – the so-called ‘Smart Grid’ – the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) announced the formation of the Smart Energy Study Group. The team, made up of three sponsoring member companies including CSR, Broadcom and Emerson, will work together to address Smart Energy initiatives sponsored by governmental entities and other organisations interested in energy management throughout the world. With the recent adoption of Bluetooth low energy wireless technology, the SIG anticipates that manufacturers of in-home meters and monitors will be able to build wireless devices that run on button-cell batteries and still utilise all of the benefits Bluetooth technology has to offer.
Global shipments of short-range wireless ICs (Bluetooth, NFC, UWB, 802.15.4, Wi-Fi) are expected to surpass two billion units this year, increasing approximately 20% compared to 2009. Shipments are forecast to total five billion in 2014, according to new market data from ABI Research. Bluetooth ICs made up a significant part of total short range wireless ICs shipments, with more than 55%, following by Wi-Fi at around 35%; the rest of the shipments were made up of NFC, UWB and 802.15.4 ICs. Combination chips, integrating two or more short range wireless technologies to deliver further cost reduction and chip size decreases, are paving the way for another trend in short range wireless IC market development. The three major integration solutions — Bluetooth+FM radio, Bluetooth+Wi-Fi+FM, and Bluetooth+FM+GPS — are forecast to account for more than 30% of all Bluetooth combination chip shipments in 2010. The combination chip using BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) is expected to make up 50% of total Bluetooth combo IC shipments in 2014.
Technology
MIT researchers have developed a new technique for harvesting energy from small temperature differences. Although this concept (known as thermoelectrics) is not new, this development ramps up efficiency levels by employing a control circuit that optimises the match between the energy output from the thermoelectric material and the storage system connected to it, in this case a capacitor. This allows as much as 100 microwatts to be produced from temperature differences as small as 1°C. Related research, also conducted at MIT, seeks to harvest energy from vibrations, envisioning applications in such things as implantable medical diagnostic or treatment devices that could be powered indefinitely by the person’s own natural movements.
Mitsubishi Electric announced that it has set two world records for photoelectric conversion efficiency in polycrystalline silicon photovoltaic (PV) cells, achieved by reducing resistive loss in the cells. One of the records is a 19,3% efficiency rating for photoelectric conversion of a practically-sized cell measuring approximately 15 cm x 15 cm x 200 micrometres – 0,2 points higher than the company’s previous record of 19,1%. The second record, achieved with the same technologies, in an ultra-thin polycrystalline silicon PV cell measuring approximately 15 cm x 15 cm x 100 micrometres, is an efficiency rating of 18,1%, a 0,7 point improvement over the company’s previous record of 17,4%.
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