Solar-powered mobile phones
Within two years mobile phones could have miniature solar cells in their casing to provide a trickle charge to extend standby time to more than a week.
According to Uwe Mengelkamp from semiconductor firm Texas Instruments, European mobile firms have already approached the company about designing its chips in to handsets with solar cells.
See - Mobile phones to get solar panels
There is no question of a solar cell powering the handset alone, due to the size limitations, but according to Mengelkamp, it is feasible that a cell less up to 25cm sq in area could produce a charge current of 11mA which could be used in parallel with the battery cells to extend standby time of the handset.
The aim is to increase the standby time of the more power hungry multimedia phones to week.
“There is a lot of research going into this,” said Mengelkamp.
Very low power charger circuit design using TI’s recently introduced DC-DC boost converter will be the subject of an online webcast being held by TI and Avnet for designers entitled “New Design Concepts in a Power Stage for solar- or Fuel-cell Applications” on wednesday, April 11 at 1800 hours CET.
See - Solar cell design webcast from TI and Avent
Fab builders look East for fast growing chip markets
Evidence that the global centre for semiconductor manufacturing may be shifting eastwards was offered last week with announcements by Intel and Infineon Technologies that they will build their next wafer fabs in China and India respectively.
Infineon has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Hindustan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company to help create a ‘Fab City’ in India which will involve the building of ten fabs.
See - Infineon venture plans ten Indian semiconductor fabs
Intel surprised the chip industry with its decision to build a 300mm semiconductor wafer fab in China.
But a closer look at prospects for the global chip market goes a long way in convincing us that such decisions are far from surprising.
According to Ms. Poornima Shenoy, president of the India Semiconductor Association (ISA), the domestic market for electronics goods is expected to reach $363bn by 2015 and the domestic demand for semiconductors alone will be $36bn.
"We have a burgeoning market demand in the communications industry, automotives, security cards, defence, etc and this will help in meeting the needs of the market," said Shenoy.
The growing importance of India as a market for local manufacture of mobile phones and chips is indicated by the market's potential with a current mobile user penetration rate of around 13 per cent.
China’s IC industry saw positive developments in both production and sales in 2006, propelling one research firm to say that the industry has once again entered high-speed growth.
Market watcher CCID Consulting said recently that for the first time in 2006 sales revenues of the China's IC industry exceeded 100bn Yuan and added up to 100.61bn Yuan ($13bn), an increase of 43.3 per cent over 2005.
See - China chip market back on high growth curve
The expectation is that the number of ICs produced in China during the year reached 35.56 billion, an increase of 36.2 per cent over 2005.
According to Intel CEO Paul Otellini: “China is our fastest-growing major market and we believe it's critical that we invest in markets that will provide for future growth.”
Chip firm identifies high growth medical system market
Cost reduction is opening up opportunities for new entrants in the market for portable ultrasound systems used in medical diagnosis, according to chip supplier Analog Devices.
The relatively high cost of developing what can be specialist low volume medical systems the market has been traditionally dominated by a few large firms, such as GE, Philips and Siemens.
However, portable ultrasound systems are seen as new types of product which could have wider market appeal.
So the availability of new lower cost technology is creating the opportunity for new companies to enter what is expected to be a growth market for medical electronics systems.
See - Medical ultrasound market opens up
The US market for portable medical ultrasound will reach $330m within the next three years, growing at a compounded rate of 19.2 per cent, according to market researcher Frost & Sullivan.
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