Big Changes Rock Global Smartphone Market


BANGKOK — One of the many draws for Western travelers here in Thailand and throughout much of Asia, including China, is the availability of cheap consumer electronics. Unfortunately many of these electronic goods — little-known off-brands mimicking better-known counterparts, or white-label devices being passed off as name-brand products to unsuspecting consumers — typically are technologi... » read more

Japan: Latest Investment Activities


By Dan Tracy and Yoichiro Ando Restructuring and consolidation has led to a new focus for the semiconductor manufacturers in Japan. As a result, the semiconductor equipment market in Japan will experience double-digit growth in both 2013 and 2014, driven by higher spending for memory production and in spending increases planned for the manufacturing of power semiconductors and “More than Moo... » read more

450mm: Out Of Sync


By Mark LaPedus The IC industry has been talking about it for ages, but vendors are finally coming to terms with a monumental shift in the business. The vast changes involve a pending and critical juncture, where the 450mm wafer size transition, new device architectures and other technologies will likely converge at or near the same time. In one possible scenario, 450mm fabs are projected ... » read more

OLED Displacing LCD, But Not Affecting Industry Leaders


By Michael P.C. Watts One of the most common themes in high tech is how companies fail to deal with game-changing new products. Think about Kodak and digital cameras, Sony and the flash memory music player, Microsoft and the tablet, GE and Osram and the Light Emitting Diode (LED). The overwhelming conclusion seems to be that you have to be committed to making your own most valuable product red... » read more

Medical Drives Boom In MEMS


By Mark LaPedus At a recent event, an executive from a startup called Proteus Digital Health described the medical benefits of swallowing the company’s ingestible sensors or digital pills. First, a consumer would swallow Proteus Digital’s tiny ingestible sensor, along with one’s current medication. With no battery or antenna, the stomach fluid generates the power in the ingestible sen... » read more

The Week In Review: Feb. 25


By Mark LaPedus Is China set to bail out a U.S. government technology darling? Two Chinese automotive companies, Geely and Dongfeng Motor, are reported to have bid between $200 million and $350 million for a majority stake in Fisker, the maker of plug-in hybrid cars. If that happens Fisker—which has $192 million in U.S. federal government loan guarantees—could be headed to China, according... » read more

How To Make A Brain-On-A-Chip


By Mark LaPedus In October, Draper Laboratory and the University of South Florida (USF) disclosed an ambitious plan to develop a brain-on-a-chip. The idea is to devise a “micro-environment’’ that mimics the human brain. Researchers hope to study neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, strokes and concussions. The eventual goal is to study the effects of drugs and v... » read more

Power Forces Changes In Portable Audio Design


By Pallab Chatterjee Power is becoming an overriding issue in the analog world, and nowhere was this more apparent than at the recent NAMM show. The annual show, which is run by the National Association of Music Merchants, featured mostly iOS applications and higher-performance hardware plug-ins, although Android development is starting show up. The recent releases of Android support the ... » read more

Mobile Gaming: The Next Power-Saving Frontier


By Pallab Chatterjee Mobile and handheld gaming platforms are gaining lots of attention these days, and from a low-power engineering standpoint it poses a challenge that dwarfs any game played on the devices. Unlike mobile phones, these handheld platforms don’t have the luxury of trading off between multiple operating modes to extend battery life. Even worse, they have to perform at the ... » read more

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