South Africa
Jaco Maritz recently became the 600th South African electronics professional to be trained by EDA Technologies. Maritz (pictured below, left) was congratulated by EDA Technologies’ Nechan Naicker.
Overseas
Business
Electronic components distributor Digi-Key announced that it experienced a substantial sales boost in the second quarter of this year when compared to revenue at that time in 2010. Total global sales increased by over 7%, driven in large part by a 22% increase in Europe. This comes shortly after the company ceased the distribution of its over 2900 page print catalogue and introduced several new online features to its global websites.
Analog Devices announced financial results for the second quarter of fiscal 2011, which ended 30 April. Revenue was $791 million, an increase of 9% from the immediately prior quarter and an increase of 18% from the same period one year ago. Diluted earnings per share (EPS) from continuing operations was $0,78, compared to $0,70 in the prior quarter and $0,55 in the same period last year. Inventory at the end of the latest quarter increased by $11 million, or 4%, compared to the immediately prior quarter.
Companies
Microsemi has acquired privately-held ASIC Advantage, a fabless semiconductor manufacturer of high-voltage and radiation hardened mixed-signal IC solutions for the aerospace, automotive, communications, industrial and medical markets. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
Royal Philips Electronics has entered into an agreement to acquire Indal, a leading Spanish luminaires company mainly focused on outdoor lighting solutions. Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed. Indal was established in 1950 as a lighting company and employs approximately 1000 people over 11 countries, with sales of 156 million Euros in 2010.
RS Components was recently named ‘Best High Service Distributor 2010’ by switch, joystick and LED indicator manufacturer APEM. The distributor has added a further 1000 products from APEM to its inventory over the past year, including mechanical and piezo switches, industrial joysticks, keypads and keyboards.
Avnet Kopp has become the beneficiary of an agreement to distribute Cymbet’s complete range of rechargeable solid state batteries, power management devices and evaluation kits. Cymbet’s EnerChip solid state batteries are used in power backup, embedded energy and energy harvesting applications in diverse industries.
Without revealing any specifics, Wi-LAN announced that it reached agreement with Texas Instruments to end litigation regarding Bluetooth technology. This follows an April statement by Wi-LAN that it had dropped litigation aimed at other companies, including Intel, as a result of securing agreements with them.
M/A-COM Technology Solutions recently named Mouser Electronics as an authorised global distributor. Mouser Electronics’ ‘EZ Buy’ online catalogue enables customers to buy online for efficient fulfilment of product orders for M/A-COM’s customers.
Industry
The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) announced the adoption of several new profiles – pieces of software that guide the use of Bluetooth technology in actual devices – for Bluetooth version 4.0. Two of those new profiles, Proximity and Find Me, will make it possible for devices to communicate with each other and perform functions automatically, such as a key fob communicating with a car to unlock the door and turn on the lights as the driver comes within range.
The general upwards trend in electronics production is being affirmed by the latest figures offered by the organisers of productronica, which at last count showed a 15% increase in exhibition space compared with productronica 2009, with the number of registered exhibitors increasing by an identical margin. In total, over 1200 companies are expected to take part in this year’s running of the trade fair.
Semiconductor inventory levels at chip suppliers worldwide are believed to have risen for the seventh consecutive month as the industry rebuilds depleted stockpiles and prepares for expected increases in demand, a new report by IHS iSuppli concludes. The total stockpile level for all semiconductor suppliers – excluding the volatile memory segment – is projected to rise to 81,5 days in the second quarter, up 1,5% from 80,3 days in the first quarter.
The EDA Consortium announced that the electronic design automation (EDA) industry’s global revenue increased 16% for the first quarter of this year to $1446,4 million, compared to $1247,0 million in the same period last year. Sequential EDA revenue for Q1 2011 decreased 4,1% compared to Q4 2010, while the four-quarters moving average, which compares the most recent four quarters to the prior four quarters, increased by 14,2%. Geographically, all regions realised increased revenue in Q1 2011 compared to Q1 2010, with the Americas, Japan, and Asia/Pacific regions posting double digit increases.
Databeans estimates that the current market for temperature sensing ICs is valued at $573 million, and it is growing at a compound annual rate of 5%, which should increase market size to $739 million by year 2016. There is a wide variety of applications for IC temperature sensors, including high volume and fast growing items such as computers, mobile phones, LCDs, and personal electronics such as cameras and MP3 players. Other applications include power supplies, white goods, and HVAC.
Technology
Altera has claimed an industry milestone in semiconductor technology by delivering the most transistors ever packed onto an integrated circuit. The company’s 28 nm Stratix V FPGAs are believed to be the semiconductor industry’s first devices to feature 3,9 billion transistors.
A new technology developed by a team of researchers at MIT and reported in the journal Advanced Materials, enables the printing of solar cells onto common surfaces such as cloth, plastic or paper. The resilient solar cells still function even when folded up into a paper aeroplane. In their paper, the MIT researchers also describe printing a solar cell on a sheet of PET plastic (a thinner version of the material used for soda bottles) and then folding and unfolding it 1000 times, with no significant loss of performance. By contrast, a commercially produced solar cell on the same material failed after a single folding. The researchers are optimistic that the efficiency of the technology can be improved above the current 1% level.
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