Overseas
Companies
Infineon Technologies has settled its patent infringement claim against Atmel, with the companies agreeing to seek dismissal of all pending patent infringement claims. Infineon initiated proceedings in April 2011 when it filed a complaint against Atmel related to microcontrollers. The companies have settled the dispute through a broad patent cross-licence agreement under which Atmel will pay Infineon an undisclosed sum.
Industry
According to research firm IHS, total inventory held by semiconductor suppliers declined significantly in the first quarter of 2013 as excess stockpiles created during the global economic malaise of 2012 were cleared away, in anticipation of a resurgence in consumer demand for electronic products expected by the second half of 2013. Semiconductor makers’ inventory in the first quarter declined to $37,6 billion, down 4,6% from the fourth quarter of 2012. The figure below presents the IHS estimate of inventory held by semiconductor suppliers in terms of revenue.
Intel has taken a seat on the board of directors of the Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP). Intel joins existing A4WP board member companies including Broadcom, Gill Industries, Integrated Device Technology (IDT), Qualcomm, Samsung Electronics and Samsung Electro-Mechanics. A4WP technology, which uses near-field magnetic resonance technology, enables the simultaneous charging of multiple devices and the flexible positioning of devices to be charged in multiple dimensions and at power levels and charging times that meet consumer expectations.
China has reclaimed the top spot from the US in the semi-annual ranking of the world’s fastest supercomputers. Tianhe-2 (Milky Way-2) boasts processing performance of 33,86 petaflops per second, almost double what the previous fastest supercomputer, Titan, could manage. It is powered by 3,12 million Intel Xeon and Xeon Phi cores.
More than 100 billion Gallium Nitride light-emitting diodes (GaN LED) will ship in 2013 – the equivalent of 15 for every person on the planet using this particular type of lighting device incorporating the GaN semiconductor material, according to an IMS Research forecast. With mobile phones typically containing five or ten LEDs and televisions incorporating LEDs numbering up to the hundreds, LED consumption is clearly accelerating. In particular, GaN LEDs account for 85% percent of total revenues in the LED industry, dominating key applications such as TVs and lighting. Revenue for GaN LEDs this year is expected to pass the $10 billion mark.
Technology
Researchers have turned to the increasingly popular technology of 3D printing to create lithium-ion microbatteries the size of a grain of sand. The team from Harvard University and the University of Illinois has managed to print precisely interlaced stacks of tiny battery electrodes, each less than the width of a human hair. It is believed this technique could be used to create power sources for future miniaturised devices and although no specifications have been published with regards to their energy output, the idea has been demonstrated as a proof of concept.
STMicroelectronics has developed a new technology which will enable it to increase the performance and reduce the size of the RF front-end of mobile devices. Dubbed H9SOI_FEM, the new silicon-on-insulator manufacturing process allows ST to produce complete integrated front-end modules to shrink solutions for applications such as LTE technology.
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