Category Archives: Applications

Worldwide combined shipments of devices (PCs, tablets, ultramobiles and mobile phones) are expected to reach 2.4 billion units in 2016 , a 1.9 percent increase from 2015, according to Gartner, Inc. (see Table 1). End-user spending in constant U.S. dollars is expected to decline 0.5 percent for the first time.

The device market in 2016 will continue to be impacted by country-level economic conditions.

“It’s clear that vendors can no longer market their products with the mind of only targeting the mature and emerging markets,” said Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner. “Driven by economic variations the market is splitting into four categories: economically challenged mature markets, economically stable mature markets and the same for emerging markets. Russia and Brazil will fall into the category of economically challenged emerging markets while India will be stable, and Japan will belong to the economically challenged mature market.”

Table 1

Worldwide Devices Shipments by Device Type, 2015-2018 (Millions of Units)

Device Type

2015

2016

2017

2018
Traditional PCs (Desk-Based and Notebook)

246

232

226

219
Ultramobiles (Premium)

45

55

74

92
PC Market 

290

287

299

312
Ultramobiles (Basic and Utility)

196

195

196

198
Computing Devices Market

486

482

495

510
Mobile Phones

1,910

1,959

1,983

2,034
Total Devices Market

2,396

2,441

2,478

2,545

Note: The Ultramobile (Premium) category includes devices such as Microsoft’s Windows 8 Intel x86 products and Apple’s MacBook Air. The Ultramobile (Basic and Utility Tablets) category includes devices such as, iPad, iPad mini, Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5, Nexus 7 and Acer Iconia Tab 8.

Source: Gartner (January 2016)

Businesses Will Adopt Windows 10 Earlier and Boost the PC Market in 2017

The global PC shipment market is expected to total 287 million units in 2016, a decline of 1 percent year over year, but on pace to increase 4 percent in 2017.

“Ultramobile premium devices are expected to drive the PC market forward with the move to Windows 10 and PCs built around Intel’s Skylake architecture,” said Mr. Atwal. “We expect that businesses will deploy Windows 10 faster than with previous Windows upgrades.” Gartner’s global survey of 3,000 business respondents conducted in the fourth quarter of 2015 across six countries (Brazil, China, India, France, U.K. and U.S.), found that nearly 80 percent of businesses are expected to have completed the testing and evaluation of Windows 10 within 12 months and over 60 percent within nine months.

“Given the shorter testing and evaluation period, many businesses could start to migrate by the end of 2016,” said Mr. Atwal. “By the end of 2017, many business are looking to move as much as 40 percent of their installed base onto new Windows 10 devices, mainly driven by the appeal hybrid touch-screen 2-1. This will be the catalyst for growth in the PC market in 2017. 

Smartphone Market Moves to Basic Phones

Mobile phone shipments are on pace to increase 2.6 percent in 2016. “Constant end-user spending on mobile phones is expected to increase by 1.2 percent in 2016, but its growth will not be strong enough for overall end-user device spend to achieve growth in 2016,” said Roberta Cozza, research director at Gartner.

Smartphone shipments continued to drive growth, and Gartner estimates that, by the end of 2016, 82 percent of mobile phones will be smartphones, up 12 percent from 2015. “We are witnessing a shift to basic phones in the smartphone market,” Ms. Cozza said. “Users are also opting to replace within the basic smartphone category without necessarily moving to high-end smartphones, especially in China and some other emerging markets.”

Local and Chinese brands are delivering more capable basic smartphones with appealing features at a lower price, which means that there is less of a need for users to upgrade to a premium smartphone. Instead, these more advanced and attractive basic smartphones fulfil user’s needs at a lower cost.

“At MWC 2016, a number of Android vendors will, as usual, release the next generation of their smartphone flagships,” said Ms. Cozza. “We’ll hopefully see an increased focus on differentiation by enabling unique, but relevant experiences, expansion to new functionalities and better tie to key app and service ecosystems.”

More information is available to Gartner clients in the report “Forecast: PCs, Ultramobiles and Mobile Phones, Worldwide, 2012-2019, 4Q15 Update”.

Vesper, a developer of acoustic MEMS, announced today that it is collaborating with GLOBALFOUNDRIES, a provider of advanced semiconductor manufacturing technology, to deliver the world’s first commercially available piezoelectric MEMS microphones for smartphones, wearables, automobiles, Internet of Things (IoT) devices and other high-volume markets.

Vesper’s piezoelectric MEMS microphones are natively waterproof, dustproof and particle-resistant, enabling outstanding acoustic performance in almost any environment. Vesper’s ultra-high reliability also enables designers to build large stable arrays without ever suffering a breakdown. This makes them highly attractive to systems designers who cannot compromise on quality or performance.

“GLOBALFOUNDRIES, one of the world’s largest and most advanced semiconductor foundries, is a pioneer in piezoelectric MEMS manufacturing,” said Matt Crowley, CEO, Vesper. “Their piezoelectric process technology and manufacturing capability have proven their ability to deliver high-quality piezoelectric products. That’s why we selected them as a premier supply chain manufacturer for our microphones.”

”GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ proven manufacturing process for piezoelectric MEMS microphones is designed to ensure consistent quality at high volumes,” said Gregg Bartlett, senior vice president of the CMOS Platforms Business Unit at GLOBALFOUNDRIES. “Our collaboration with Vesper has enabled rapid time-to-market to deliver the first piezoelectric MEMS microphone. GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ high-volume MEMS manufacturing experience enabled Vesper to move from first wafers to full process validation in under twelve months, while using a new material and process. That’s unprecedented in the MEMS industry, where this process can easily take five years or more.”

Worldwide, more than four billion MEMS microphones will ship in 2016, and the market grows rapidly to exceed six billion units by 2019, according to IHS Technology.

Jérémie Bouchaud, director and senior principal analyst, MEMS & Sensors, IHS, commented, “Piezoelectric MEMS microphones are well positioned as higher-performance devices that can be built into arrays for smartphones, smart home devices and other products that use multiple microphones for noise cancellation and beamforming.”

More than half of major new business processes and systems will incorporate some element of the Internet of Things (IoT) by 2020, according to Gartner, Inc. The impact of the IoT on consumers’ lives and corporate business models is rapidly increasing as the cost of “instrumenting” physical things with sensors and connecting them to other things — devices, systems and people — continues to drop.

“Uses of the IoT that were previously impractical will increasingly become practical,” said W. Roy Schulte, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. “The IoT is relevant in virtually every industry, although not in every application. There will be no purely ‘IoT applications.’ Rather, there will be many applications that leverage the IoT in some small or large aspect of their work. As a result, business analysts and developers of information-centric processes need to have the expertise and the tools to implement IoT aspects that play a role in their systems.”

Gartner has made four more predictions for the IoT:

Through 2018, 75 percent of IoT projects will take up to twice as long as planned.

Gartner expects three out of four IoT projects to face schedule extensions of up to 100 percent with the consequent cost overruns. The more ambitious and complicated the project, the greater the schedule overruns. For some projects, compromises will be made to keep them on-schedule, leading to significant weaknesses in performance, security or integration into existing processes. In the mid-to-long term, these compromises will require that the IoT project be refactored and perhaps even recalled and redeployed.

“Product-centered enterprises will be the worst affected,” said Alfonso Velosa, research vice president at Gartner. “They will seek to launch smarter, connected products, although this will often be a reactive, tactical approach that seeks to address their competition’s IoT product. However, even for enterprises conducting internally centered projects that may focus on cost reductions, there will be people issues. Most of these issues will center on the normal introduction of a new technology model. It will be complicated by emerging business models that will require process and cultural change. Addressing both of these will lead to projects going over schedule.”

By 2020, a black market exceeding $5 billion will exist to sell fake sensor and video data for enabling criminal activity and protecting personal privacy.

The nature of IoT solutions, how they are deployed, and the types of data they generate and consume are giving rise to new security and privacy implications that organizations must begin to address. This is a rapidly escalating risk to the organization, bringing complexity unfamiliar to most IT and business leaders.

“The IoT has enormous potential to collect continuous data about our environment,” said Ted Friedman, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. “The integrity of this data will be important in making personal and business decisions, from medical diagnoses to environmental protection, from commands to modify actions of machinery to identification and authorization of physical access. A black market for fake or corrupted sensor and video data will mean that data can be compromised or substituted with inaccurate or deliberately manipulated data. This scenario will spur the growth of privacy products and services, resulting in an extensive public discussion regarding the future of privacy, the means to protect individual privacy, and the role of technology and government in privacy protection.”

By 2020, addressing compromises in IoT security will have increased security costs to 20 percent of annual security budgets, from less than one percent in 2015.

As use of IoT devices grows, however, the unique requirements of IoT architecture, design and implementation over multiple industry segments and scenarios will also grow. As a result, Gartner believes that the average security budget for IT, operational technology (OT) and IoT security requirements will respond to the growth of IoT devices across all business segments and scenarios, rising from less than one percent of annual security budgets in 2015 to 20 percent in 2020.

“Major cybersecurity vendors and service providers are already delivering roadmaps and architecture of IoT security, in anticipation of market opportunity,” said Earl Perkins, research vice president at Gartner. “Small startups delivering niche IoT security in areas such as network segmentation, device-to-device authentication and simple data encryption are offering first-generation products and services, including cloud-based solutions where applicable. Large security vendors have already begun acquiring some of these IoT startups to support their early roadmaps and fill niches in their portfolios.”

More detailed analysis is available in the report “Predicts 2016: Unexpected Implications Arising From the Internet of Things.” This research note is part of Gartner’s Special Report “Predicts 2016: Algorithms Take Digital Business to the Next Level” a compilation of 85 reports focused on the top predictions and actions that will enable organizations to shape their digital future.

Researchers from MIPT have found a solution to the problem of overheating of active plasmonic components. These components will be essential for high-speed data transfer within the optoelectronic microprocessors of the future, which will be able to function tens of thousands of times faster than the microprocessors currently in use today. In the paper published in ACS Photonics the researchers have demonstrated how to efficiently cool optoelectronic chips using industry-standard heatsinks in spite of high heat generation in active plasmonic components.

The speed of multicore and manycore microprocessors, which are already used in high-performance computer systems, depends not so much on the speed of an individual core, but rather on the time it takes for data to be transferred between the cores. The electrical copper interconnects used in microprocessors today are fundamentally limited in bandwidth, and they cannot be used to maintain the continuing growth of the processor performance. In other words, doubling the number of cores will not double the processing power.

Leading companies in the semiconductor industry, such as IBM, Oracle, Intel, and HP, see the only solution to this problem in switching from electronics to photonics, and they are currently investing billions of dollars into this. Replacing electrons with photons will mean that large amounts of data will be able to be transferred between processor cores almost instantly, which in turn will mean that the processor performance will be nearly proportional to the number of cores. However, due to diffraction, photonic components are not as easy to scale down as electronic components. Their dimensions cannot be smaller than the size approximately equal to the light wavelength (~ 1 micrometer or 1000 nanometers), but transistors will soon be as small as 10 nanometers. This fundamental problem can be solved by switching from bulk waves to surface waves, which are known as surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs). This will enable to confine light on the nanoscale. Along with the leading research centers of industrial companies and the laboratories of leading universities, Russian scientists from the Laboratory of Nanooptics and Plasmonics of MIPT’s Center of Nanoscale Optoelectronics are also making good progress in this field.

The main difficulty that scientists face is the fact that SPPs are absorbed by metal, which is a key material in plasmonics. This effect is similar to resistance in electronics, where the energy of electrons is lost and converted into heat when current passes through a resistor. The SPP loss can be compensated by pumping additional energy into the SPPs. However, this pumping will produce additional heat, which in turn will cause an increase in temperature not only in the plasmonic components, but also in the processor as a whole. The higher absorption in the metal, the greater the loss, and the stronger pumping will be required. This raises the temperature, which again causes a loss increase and makes it more difficult to create optical gain, which is required to compensate for the loss, and this means that more powerful pumping is required. A cycle is formed in which the temperature can rise to such an extent that a processor chip simply burns out. This is no surprise, since the heating power per surface unit of the active plasmonic waveguide with loss compensation exceeds 10 kW/cm2, which is twice as high as the intensity of solar radiation at the surface of the Sun!

Dmitry Fedyanin and Andrey Vyshnevyy, researchers at MIPT’s Laboratory of Nanooptics and Plasmonics, have found a solution to this problem. They have demonstrated that using high-performance thermal interfaces, i.e. layers of thermally conductive materials placed between the chip and the cooling system to ensure efficient heat removal from the chip, (thermal grease is a popular type of thermal interface, although it is not very efficient) high-performance optoelectronic chips can be cooled using conventional cooling systems.

Based on the results of numerical simulations, Fedyanin and Vyshnevyy concluded that if an optoelectronic chip with active plasmonic waveguides is placed in air, its temperature will increase by several hundred degrees Celsius, which will cause the device to malfunction. Multi-layered thermal interfaces of nano- and micrometer thickness combined with simple cooling systems can reduce the temperature of the chip from several hundred degrees to approximately ten degrees with respect to the ambient temperature. This opens the prospects for the implementation of high-performance optoelectronic microprocessors in a wide range of applications, ranging from supercomputers to compact electronic devices.

A team of neurosurgeons and engineers has developed wireless brain sensors that monitor intracranial pressure and temperature and then are absorbed by the body, negating the need for surgery to remove the devices.

Such implants, developed by scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and engineers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, potentially could be used to monitor patients with traumatic brain injuries, but the researchers believe they can build similar absorbable sensors to monitor activity in organ systems throughout the body. Their findings are published online Jan. 18 in the journal Nature.

“Electronic devices and their biomedical applications are advancing rapidly,” said co-first author Rory K. J. Murphy, MD, a neurosurgery resident at Washington University School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. “But a major hurdle has been that implants placed in the body often trigger an immune response, which can be problematic for patients. The benefit of these new devices is that they dissolve over time, so you don’t have something in the body for a long time period, increasing the risk of infection, chronic inflammation and even erosion through the skin or the organ in which it’s placed. Plus, using resorbable devices negates the need for surgery to retrieve them, which further lessens the risk of infection and further complications.”

Murphy is most interested in monitoring pressure and temperature in the brains of patients with traumatic brain injury.

About 50,000 people die of such injuries annually in the United States. When patients with such injuries arrive in the hospital, doctors must be able to accurately measure intracranial pressure in the brain and inside the skull because an increase in pressure can lead to further brain injury, and there is no way to reliably estimate pressure levels from brain scans or clinical features in patients.

“However, the devices commonly used today are based on technology from the 1980s,” Murphy explained. “They’re large, they’re unwieldy, and they have wires that connect to monitors in the intensive care unit. They give accurate readings, and they help, but there are ways to make them better.”

Murphy collaborated with engineers in the laboratory of John A. Rogers, PhD, a professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Illinois, to build new sensors. The devices are made mainly of polylactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA) and silicone, and they can transmit accurate pressure and temperature readings, as well as other information.

“With advanced materials and device designs, we demonstrated that it is possible to create electronic implants that offer high performance and clinically relevant operation in hardware that completely resorbs into the body after the relevant functions are no longer needed,” Rogers said. “This type of bio-electric medicine has great potential in many areas of clinical care.”

The researchers tested the sensors in baths of saline solution that caused them to dissolve after a few days. Next, they tested the devices in the brains of laboratory rats.

Having shown that the sensors are accurate and that they dissolve in the solution and in the brains of rats, the researchers now are planning to test the technology in patients.

“In terms of the major challenges involving size and scale, we’ve already crossed some key bridges,” said co-senior author Wilson Z. Ray, MD, assistant professor of neurological and orthopaedic surgery at Washington University.

In patients with traumatic brain injuries, neurosurgeons attempt to decrease the pressure inside the skull using medications. If pressure cannot be reduced sufficiently, patients often undergo surgery. The new devices could be placed into the brain at multiple locations during such operations.

“The ultimate strategy is to have a device that you can place in the brain — or in other organs in the body — that is entirely implanted, intimately connected with the organ you want to monitor and can transmit signals wirelessly to provide information on the health of that organ, allowing doctors to intervene if necessary to prevent bigger problems,” Murphy said. “And then after the critical period that you actually want to monitor, it will dissolve away and disappear.”

Autonomous driving is arguably the most exciting development in the industry today.

Indeed, according to the latest analysis from Yole Développement (Yole), entitled Sensors and Data Management for Autonomous Vehicles report 2015 (October 2015 edition), the automotive market segment is the next target of the consumer electronic players. Currently the most advanced commercial car with autonomous features embeds about 17 sensors with two main solutions: ultrasonic sensors and cameras for surround. And by 2030, Yole anticipates more than 29 sensors.

A majority of automotive industry players are currently developing sensor based solutions to increase vehicle safety in high and low speed zones. These systems, called ADAS use a combination of advanced sensors mixed with actuators, control units and integrating software. These systems enable the driver and his car to monitor and respond to their surroundings. Some ADAS are already available. It includes: lane-keeping and warning systems, adaptive cruise control, back-up alerts and parking assistance. And many others are still under development. Under this context, Yole’s analysts propose a comprehensive technology & market survey dedicated to the technologies for autonomous driving. According to Yole’s experts, autonomous driving has a long way to go.

“Sensors for ADAS are now rather mature, except LIDAR and dead reckoning, however, some of the technical blocks needed to achieve self-driving like ECU, software, data management are not mature enough to enter the current market,” commented Dr. Guillaume Girardin, Technology & Market Analyst at Yole. And he added: “The technology will quickly evolve and serve the autonomous vehicle trend.”

The autonomous vehicle report from Yole provides a deep understanding of sensors and data management for autonomous vehicles including market metrics, ASP analysis and expected evolution. The analysts describe the applications for key existing markets and promising emerging ones; they also analyzed the major technology trends, the value chain, its infrastructure and the players. What are the major drivers? What will the market look like in 2030? Who will be the winners? Yole’s report details the insight of the automotive driving industry.

autonomousvehicles

Sensor technologies are mature, but embedded data processing and management are still under construction, with emerging players like Mobileye, nVidia, and Kalray providing advanced ECU challenging the established players like Toshiba or Infineon. Yole’s analysts underline the related technical choices made by the companies, including ultrasonic sensors, short-range radar, long-range radar, LIDAR, and dead reckoning sensors, along with the associated data management.

Future cars will slowly evolve from traditional mechanical, fuel-powered, and high-powered electronic vehicles into electrical-powered, ultra-sensitive machines that can anticipate many critical situations. The overall goal is to replace the last remaining cause of driving errors: human beings.

The market value for sensors in autonomous vehicles is likely to grow rapidly, but a strong focus on computing and software is expected in the coming years, with more powerful ECUs and sensor fusion for improved reliability and efficiency. At Yole, analysts believe that sooner or later the value will flow from sensors to ECU and software, leading to the emergence of new specialized players who will take a slice of the pie. A detailed description of this report is available on i-micronews.com website, MEMS & Sensors reports section.

Researchers in the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin have solved a problem in micro- and nanofabrication — how to quickly, gently and precisely handle tiny particles — that will allow researchers to more easily build tiny machines, biomedical sensors, optical computers, solar panels and other devices.

They have developed a device and technique, called bubble-pen lithography, that can efficiently handle nanoparticles — the tiny pieces of gold, silicon and other materials used in nanomanufacturing. The new method relies on microbubbles to inscribe, or write, nanoparticles onto a surface.

Researchers’ interest in nanoparticles, which are between 1 and 100 nanometers in size, has grown rapidly because of their versatility and strength. Some nanoparticles have optical properties that are useful for electronics. Others have the ability to absorb solar energy. In biomedical applications, nanoparticles can serve as drug carriers or imaging agents.

But working with these particles while keeping their properties and functions intact can be difficult. And existing lithography methods, which are used to etch or pattern materials on a substrate, are not capable of fixing nanoparticles to a specific location with precise and arbitrary control.

A research team led by Texas Engineering assistant professor Yuebing Zheng has invented a way to handle these small particles and lock them into position without damaging them. Using microbubbles to gently transport the particles, the bubble-pen lithography technique can quickly arrange particles in various shapes, sizes, compositions and distances between nanostructures. This advanced control is key to harnessing their properties. The team, which includes Cockrell School associate professor Deji Akinwande and professor Andrew Dunn, describe their patented device and technique in a paper published in the Jan. 13 issue of Nano Letters.

Using their bubble-pen device, the researchers focus a laser underneath a sheet of gold nanoislands (nanoscale islands) to generate a hotspot that creates a microbubble out of vaporized water. The bubble attracts and captures a nanoparticle through a combination of gas pressure, thermal and surface tension, surface adhesion and convection. The laser then steers the microbubble to move the nanoparticle on a site on the surface. When the laser is turned off, the microbubble disappears, leaving the particle on the surface. If necessary, the researchers can expand or reduce the size of the microbubble by increasing or decreasing the laser beam’s power.

“The ability to control a single nanoparticle and fix it to a substrate without damaging it could open up great opportunities for the creation of new materials and devices,” Zheng said. “The capability of arranging the particles will help to advance a class of new materials, known as metamaterials, with properties and functions that do not exist in current natural materials.”

The technique could be especially helpful for science and medicine because researchers would be able to precisely control cells, biological material, bacteria or viruses for study and testing, Zheng added.

Moreover, bubble-pen lithography can leverage a design software program in the same way as a 3-D printer, so it can deposit nanoparticles in real time in a pre-programmed pattern or design. The researchers were able to write the UT Austin Longhorn symbol and create a dome shape out of nanoparticle beads.

In comparison to other existing lithography methods, bubble-pen lithography has several advantages, Zheng says. First, the technique can be used to test prototypes and ideas for devices and materials more quickly. Second, the technique has the potential for large-scale, low-cost manufacturing of nanomaterials and devices. Other lithography techniques require more resources and a clean room environment.

Zheng says he hopes to advance bubble-pen lithography by developing a multiple-beam processing technique for industrial-level production of nanomaterials and nanodevices. He is also planning to develop a portable version of the technique that works like a mobile phone for use in prototyping and disease diagnosis.

This research received funding from the Beckman Young Investigator Award.

Qualcomm Incorporated and TDK Corporation today announced an agreement to form a joint venture to enable delivery of RF front-end (RFFE) modules and RF filters into fully integrated systems for mobile devices and fast-growing business segments, such as Internet of Things (IoT), drones, robotics, automotive applications and more, under the name RF360 Holdings Singapore PTE. Ltd. (RF360 Holdings). The joint venture will draw upon TDK’s capabilities in micro-acoustic RF filtering, packaging and module integration technologies and Qualcomm’s expertise in advanced wireless technologies to serve customers with leading-edge RF solutions into fully integrated systems.

In addition to creating RF360 Holdings, Qualcomm and TDK will expand their collaboration around key technology fields, including sensors and wireless charging.

The agreement is subject to receipt of regulatory approvals and other closing conditions and is expected to close by early 2017.

“TDK is a leading electronic components manufacturer with cutting-edge expertise in RF filters and modules, and we are looking forward to deepening our collaboration and together accelerating innovation and better serving the ecosystem for next-generation mobile communications,” said Steve Mollenkopf, CEO of Qualcomm Incorporated. “The joint venture’s RF filters will bolster Qualcomm RF360 front-end solutions to enable Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. (QTI) to deliver a truly complete solution to the ecosystem. This will enable us to expand our growth opportunity by allowing us to accelerate our strategy to provide OEMs across our business segments with fully integrated systems that will enable them to deliver at scale and on an accelerated timeframe.”

“The joint venture with Qualcomm is a win for both companies, which complement each other ideally,” said Mr. Takehiro Kamigama, President and CEO of TDK. “Customers will benefit from our unique and comprehensive portfolio, which will further strengthen TDK’s position in key growth business segments and open new and exciting business opportunities. In this context, it was a major objective to ensure that our customers can continue to expect a seamless supply of discrete filters and duplexers, as well as modules.”

RF360 Holdings poised to meet challenging RF industry requirements

As one of the world’s most dynamic and fast-moving global industries, mobile communications is placing growing demands on all players. Current and future smartphones, for example, must support dozens of frequency bands for 2G, 3G and 4G LTE, while offering connectivity for wireless LAN, satellite navigation, Bluetooth, and more. In addition, the convergence of 4G mobile communications and the IoT means that manufacturers of wireless solutions for mobile IoT devices must achieve new levels of miniaturization, integration and performance, especially for the RFFE in these devices. Further, 5G will expand this complexity even more. Module solutions will be essential to supporting this increasing complexity in the RFFE.

Together with RF360 Holdings, QTI will be ideally positioned to design products from the modem/transceiver to the antenna in a fully integrated system.

RF360 Holdings will have a comprehensive set of filters and filter technologies, including surface acoustic wave (SAW), temperature-compensated surface acoustic wave (TC-SAW) and bulk acoustic wave (BAW) to support the wide range of frequency bands being deployed in networks across the globe. Moreover, RF360 Holdings will enable the delivery of RFFE modules that will include front-end components designed and developed by QTI. These components include CMOS, SOI and GaAS Power Amplifiers, a broad portfolio of Switches enhanced via a recent acquisition, Antenna Tuning and the industry’s leading Envelope Tracking solution.

RFFE is an $18 billion US dollar opportunity by 2020 — with filters acting as a key driver of this opportunity. The filter assets that will reside in RF360 Holdings currently are among the top 3 in the industry. TDK is currently shipping in excess of 25 million filter functions per day, and growing, and holds design wins at all major handset OEMs, including leading premium tier smartphones. TDK, and subsequently RF360 Holdings, are committed to investing in capacity increases to meet the growing industry demand. The business that will be transferred constitutes a part of the total TDK SAW Business Group activities and the current run rate is approaching $1 billion US dollars of sales per annum and approximately 4200 employees are involved in that business. RF360 Holdings will be a Singapore corporation and will have a global presence, with R&D, manufacturing and/or sales locations in the US, Europe and Asia and its headquarters function in Munich, Germany.

Deepening collaboration between Qualcomm and TDK

In addition to the joint venture, Qualcomm and TDK have agreed to deepen their technological cooperation to cover a wide range of cutting-edge technologies for next-generation mobile communications, IoT and automotive applications, including passive components, batteries, wireless charging, sensors, MEMS and more.

Worldwide PC shipments totaled 75.7 million units in the fourth quarter of 2015, a 8.3 percent decline from the fourth quarter of 2014, according to preliminary results by Gartner, Inc. For the year, 2015 PC shipments totaled 288.7 million units, an 8 percent decline from 2014.

“The fourth quarter of 2015 marked the fifth consecutive quarter of worldwide PC shipment decline,” said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner. “Holiday sales did not boost the overall PC shipments, hinting at changes to consumers’ PC purchase behavior. On the business side, Windows 10 generally received positive reviews, but as expected, Windows 10 migration was minor in the fourth quarter as many organizations were just starting their testing period.”

“All regions registered a decrease in shipments. Currency devaluation issues continued to impact EMEA, Latin America and Japan,” Ms. Kitagawa said. “Collectively EMEA, Japan and Latin America saw their markets reduced by nearly 10 percent in 2015.”

Gartner’s outlook for PC shipments in 2016 is for a decline of 1 percent compared with 2015, with the potential for a soft recovery in late 2016. Ms. Kitagawa said the PC market is still in the middle of structural change which will reduce the PC installed base in the next few years.

In the fourth quarter of 2015, Lenovo registered a worldwide PC shipment decline for the third consecutive quarter. However, Lenovo declined less than the industry average, and it extended its lead in the market. Lenovo accounted for 20.3 percent of worldwide PC shipments in the fourth quarter of 2015 (see Table 1). Lenovo did particularly well in North America to offset shipment declines in EMEA, Latin America and Japan.

Table 1
Preliminary Worldwide PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 4Q15 (Thousands of Units)

Company

4Q15 Shipments

4Q15 Market Share (%)

4Q14 Shipments

4Q14 Market Share (%)

4Q15-4Q14 Growth (%)

Lenovo

15,384

20.3

16,061

19.4

-4.2
HP

14,206

18.8

15,452

18.7

-8.1
Dell

10,236

13.5

10,783

13.1

-5.1
Asus

6,002

7.9

6,201

7.5

-3.2
Apple

5,675

7.5

5,519

6.7

2.8
Acer Group

5,277

7.0

5,939

7.2

-11.2
Others

18,940

25.0

22,635

27.4

-16.3
Total

75,720

100.0

82,590

100.0

-8.3

Notes: Data includes desk-based PCs, notebook PCs, and ultramobile premium. All data is estimated based on a preliminary study. Final estimates will be subject to change. The statistics are based on shipments selling into channels.
Source: Gartner (January 2016)

HP’s fourth quarter PC shipments declined in the worldwide market and across all regions. The decline in the regions were mostly the same or better than the regional average except for the U.S. market. The steep decline in the U.S. market was in part because of unusually high shipment volume in the fourth quarter of 2014, led by low-priced Bing notebooks targeting holiday sales.

Dell’s PC shipments declined across all regions except Japan where the company grew by single digits compared to the fourth quarter of 2014. Although Dell’s shipments declined in EMEA and the U.S., Dell declined less than the regional averages.

In the U.S., PC shipments totaled 16.9 million units in the fourth quarter of 2015, a 3.1 percent decline from the fourth quarter of 2014 (see Table 2). Despite an 8.4 percent decline in shipments, HP maintained the No. 1 position in the U.S., accounting for 27.1 percent of PC shipments in the fourth quarter of 2015. Dell continued to be the number 2 vendor in the U.S., as its shipments declined less than the industry average.

“Holiday sales had a limited impact on PC sales in the U.S. market,” Ms. Kitagawa said. “Notebooks were off the top wish list of holiday gifts. Unlike 2014 holiday sales, there were not many holiday mega deals for laptops, especially in value segments. At the same time, consumers’ interest shifted to other consumer electronics devices such as TV’s and wearables. “

Table 2
Preliminary U.S. PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 4Q15 (Thousands of Units)

Company

4Q15 Shipments

4Q15 Market Share (%)

4Q14 Shipments

4Q14 Market Share (%)

4Q15-4Q14 Growth (%)

HP

4,577

27.1

4,994

28.7

-8.4
Dell

4,132

24.5

4,193

24.1

-1.5
Apple

2,160

12.8

2,027

11.6

6.5
Lenovo

2,134

12.6

1,763

10.1

21.1
Asus

1,202

7.1

1,200

6.9

0.1
Others

2,691

15.9

3,252

18.7

-17.3
Total

16,895

100.0

17,430

100.0

-3.1

Notes: Data includes desk-based PCs, notebook PCs, and ultramobile premium. All data is estimated based on a preliminary study. Final estimates will be subject to change. The statistics are based on shipments selling into channels.
Source: Gartner (January 2016)

PC shipments in EMEA totaled 22.5 million units in the fourth quarter of 2015, a decline of 16 percent year-over-year. In Western Europe, some countries, such as the UK, showed solid Windows 10 promotions during the holiday season, and shipments in the French market remained good. Overall high inventory levels plagued Western Europe. In Eastern Europe, the PC market experienced modest growth in low-single digits, driven by consumer demand for new hybrid devices and PC replacements to move to Windows 10.

The Asia/Pacific PC market reached 26 million units in the fourth quarter of 2015, a 1.5 percent decline from the fourth quarter of 2014. Buyers did not rush to replace with newer PC models with Windows 10. PC vendors looked for profitability over shipment volume, focusing on segments such as gaming PCs; bundling of desktops with large monitor screens and ultramobile device models. Preliminary results indicate that the China PC market declined 4.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2015 compared with a year ago.

For the year, worldwide PC shipments declined for the fourth consecutive year, which started in 2012 with the launch of tablets. “In 2015, local currency devaluation also played a key role in the market conditions,” Ms. Kitagawa said. “EMEA, Latin America and Japan faced a major impact from the devaluation, showing double-digit declines in 2015. In contrast, the U.S. and Asia/Pacific experienced minor declines of almost flat to low single-digit declines as the currency issue did not affect these regions.”

The top six vendor accounted for more of the overall PC market in 2015. These vendors accounted for 73.1 percent of shipments in 2015, up from 70.4 percent of shipments in 2014 (see Table 3). Lenovo maintained the number one position, accounting for 19.8 percent of PC shipments, followed by HP with 18.2 percent market share. Dell rounded out the top three vendors, accounting for 13.6 percent of shipments.

Table 3
Preliminary Worldwide PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 2015 (Thousands of Units)

Company

2015 

Shipments

2015 Market 

Share (%)

2014 

Shipments

2014 Market Share (%)

2015-2014 Growth (%)

Lenovo

57,123

19.8

58,956

18.8

-3.1
HP

52,551

18.2

54,996

17.5

-4.4
Dell

39,159

13.6

40,499

12.9

-3.3
Asus

21,198

7.3

22,671

7.2

-6.5
Apple

20,741

7.2

19,598

6.2

5.8
Acer Group

20,340

7.0

24,015

7.7

-15.3
Others

77,624

26.9

92,945

29.6

19.7
Grand Total

288,735

100.0

313,681

100.0

-8.0

Notes: Data includes desk-based PCs, notebook PCs, and ultramobile premium. All data is estimated based on a preliminary study. Final estimates will be subject to change. The statistics are based on shipments selling into channels.
Source: Gartner (January 2016)

These results are preliminary. Final statistics will be available soon to clients of Gartner’s PC Quarterly Statistics Worldwide by Region program.

Worldwide semiconductor revenue totaled $333.7 billion in 2015, a 1.9 percent decrease from 2014 revenue of $340.3 billion, according to preliminary results by Gartner, Inc. The top 25 semiconductor vendors’ combined revenue increased 0.2 percent, which was more than the overall industry’s growth. The top 25 vendors accounted for 73.2 percent of total market revenue, up from 71.7 percent in 2014.

“Weakened demand for key electronic equipment, the continuing impact of the strong dollar in some regions and elevated inventory are to blame for the decline in the market in 2015,” said Sergis Mushell, research director at Gartner. “In contrast to 2014, which saw revenue growth in all key device categories, 2015 saw mixed performance with optoelectronics, nonoptical sensors, analog and ASIC all reporting revenue growth while the rest of the market saw declines. Strongest growth was from the ASIC segment with growth of 2.4 percent due to demand from Apple, followed by analog and nonoptical sensors with 1.9 percent and 1.6 percent growth, respectively. Memory, the most volatile segment of the semiconductor industry, saw revenue decline by 0.6 percent, with DRAM experiencing negative growth and NAND flash experiencing growth.”

Intel recorded a 1.2 percent revenue decline, due to falls in PC shipments (see Table 1). However, it retained the No. 1 market share position for the 24th year in a row with 15.5 percent market share. Samsung’s memory business helped drive growth of 11.8 percent in 2015, and the company maintained the No. 2 spot with 11.6 percent market share.

Table 1. Top 10 Semiconductor Vendors by Revenue, Worldwide, 2015 (Millions of Dollars)

Rank 2014

Rank 2015

Vendor

2014 Revenue 

2015 Estimated Revenue 

2014-2015 Growth (%)

2015 Market Share (%)

1

1

Intel

52,331

51,709

-1.2

15.5

2

2

Samsung Electronics

34,742

38,855

11.8

11.6

5

3

SK Hynix

15,997

16,494

3.1

4.9

3

4

Qualcomm

19,291

15,936

-17.4

4.8

4

5

Micron Technology

16,278

14,448

-11.2

4.3

6

6

Texas Instruments

11,538

11,533

0.0

3.5

7

7

Toshiba

10,665

9,622

-9.8

2.9

8

8

Broadcom

8,428

8,419

-0.1

2.5

9

9

STMicroelectronics

7,376

6,890

-6.6

2.1

12

10

Infineon Technologies

5,693

6,630

16.5

2.0

Others

157,992

153,182

-3.0

41.2

Total

340,331

333,718

-1.9

100

Source: Gartner (January 2016)

“The rise of the U.S. dollar against a number of different currencies significantly impacted the total semiconductor market in 2015,” said Mr. Mushell. “End equipment demand was weakened in regions where the local currency depreciated against the dollar. For example in the eurozone, the sales prices of mobile phones or PCs increased in local currency, as many of the components are priced in U.S. dollars. This resulted in buyers either delaying purchases or buying cheaper substitute products, resulting in lower semiconductor sales. Additionally, Gartner’s semiconductor revenue statistics are based on U.S. dollars; thus, sharp depreciation of the Japanese yen shrinks the revenue and the market share of the Japanese semiconductor vendors when measured in U.S. dollars.”

The NAND market continued to deteriorate throughout the year. As a result, revenue grew only 4.1 percent in 2015, fueled by elevated supply bit growth that resulted in an aggressive pricing environment. The tumultuous NAND pricing environment rippled through most of the NAND solutions, particularly solid-state drives (SSDs), which continue to encroach on hard-disk drives (HDDs). The ensuing price war in SSDs further pressured the profitability of the NAND flash makers amid the biggest technology transition in flash history — 3D NAND. While 3D NAND commercialization was modest, it was limited to only one vendor — Samsung. Modest revenue gains have not stopped investment in NAND flash and 3D technology, with all vendors continuing to spend aggressively in the technology and most with new fabs.

After 32.0 percent revenue growth in 2014, the DRAM market hit a downturn in 2015. An oversupply in the commodity portion of the market caused by weak PC demand led to severe declines in average selling prices (ASPs), and revenue contracted by 2.4 percent compared with 2014. The oversupply and the extent of ASP declines could have been significantly worse if Micron Technologies’ bit growth had performed in line with its South Korean rivals. Fortunately for the market, the company saw negative bit growth due to its transition to 20 nm, sparing the industry from an even more severe downturn.

Additional information is provided in the Gartner report “Market Share Analysis: Semiconductors, Worldwide, Preliminary 2015 Estimates.”