Decline of DRAM production
DRAM wafer output, which peaked in 2008 at 16.4 million 300-millimeter-equivalent wafers, is expected to decline by 24% to 13 million this year, says IHS…
Business
ST enhances SOI process for LTE front ends
STMicroelectronics has an SOI process which can deliver RF front end modules supporting the 40 different frequency bands required for LTE…
Will graphene supercapacitors be the best?
Black magic has a new meaning. It is the sub-optimal way most supercapacitors rely on soot from burnt coconut shells and some homespun trickery.
The soot is deposited on something akin to cooking foil and that often has the 40 micron thickness of lithium-ion battery electrodes ten years…
Google floats Project Loon for balloon-based Internet access
Twenty kilometres up, slung under balloons from the same company that helped Felix Baumgartner jump from the edge of space last year, a payload of solar panels and wireless antennas is helping Google’s Project Loon bring wireless internet access to the most remote parts of the world. The ultimate…
Tablet ICs up; PC ICs down
This year there will be a 37% rise in the market for chips for tablets and a 2% fall in the market for chips for PCs, says IC Insights…
X-Fab enhances and reduces cost of process
X-Fab has enhanced its XP018 process with multiple options to lower chip costs for high-performance analog applications such as audio, sensor interface…
Rambus licenses ST's FD-SOI technology
Rambus and STMicroelectronics have signed a licensing agreement giving ST access to Rambus’ memory and interface technologies, and Rambus access to ST’s FD-SOI process technology…
Chinese good cheer
The China Post reports that local Taiwanese firms Richtek, Elan, TSMC and eGalax_eMPIA (EETI) all expect a good Q3.
Richtek’s deputy general manager Guo-Cheng reckons that the new Wintel combo of Win 8 and the latest Intel PC chips won’t stimulate demand in the PC market but…