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O2Micro(R) International Limited today introduced the patent pending OZ2083 3-Way LED Bulb Driver Controller with Power Factor Correction.

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Three-way desk, table and floor lamps are ubiquitous in the United States, providing consumers with the convenience of high, medium and low brightness in a single bulb. However, today’s 3-way lamps are based on energy inefficient incandescent bulbs. Furthermore, the filaments in 3-way incandescent bulbs burn out at different rates, creating reliability problems and a poor consumer experience.

LED-based, 3-way bulbs provide significant efficiency improvements versus their incandescent counterparts. In addition, they provide much longer operating life, eliminating the reliability problems that plague 3-way incandescent bulbs. But until now, there has been no easy and cost effective way to design the complex driver circuitry required for a 3-way LED bulb. O2Micro’s OZ2083 solves this problem.

The OZ2083 3-Way LED Bulb Driver Controller with Power Factor Correction is a Buck converter controller utilizing quasi-resonant technology. The device provides two detection inputs based on proprietary technology to support 3-way, 2-circuit sockets used within 3-way desk, table, and floor lamps to produce three levels of LED brightness in a low-medium-high configuration. Using the OZ2083, manufacturers can easily and rapidly develop drop-in LED bulb replacements for today’s 3-way incandescent bulbs.

The OZ2083 is a highly optimized controller for non-isolated Buck converter off-line applications. The device features the highest level of integration, reducing the system level driver bill of material (BOM) cost and component count to industry-leading levels. An external MOSFET provides the flexibility to support a range of application requirements.

The OZ2083 supports universal 85V to 265V operation, enabling one LED bulb to address the global marketplace. Integrated power factor correction enables high power factor and low Total Harmonic Distortion

(THD) over a wide input voltage range to meet both residential and commercial requirements, further helping OEMs meet global regulatory requirements.

High efficiency greater than 88% reduces energy consumption and thermal management complexity. Integrated over-temperature, over-voltage, cycle-by-cycle current limiting, LED open circuit and LED short circuit protection and maximum gate drive output clamp provide safe and reliable operation. Excellent LED current regulation ensures consistent lumen output, regardless of varying line input conditions.

 

Anapass, Inc, a display SoC solution provider, today announced that it has successfully completed development of a leading-edge panel controller system on chip “SoC” for UHD TV applications and has recently started mass production. As a result of the successful commercialization of a competitive panel controller SoC for UHD TV, Anapass will be well positioned as a leading panel controller provider for the rapidly growing next generation world-wide TV market, UHD TV.

According to a market research report produced by SNE Research in May 2013, the number of worldwide TV shipments forecasted for this year is 235.1M, 2.6M units of which are expected to be UHD TVs. This year is the first to show significant emergence of UHD TVs as the next generation TV. According to the report, between this year and 2016, the UHD TV market is expected to rapidly grow with 191 percent of CAGR, therefore nearly doubling every year.

The rapid growth of the UHD TV market is reflecting the recent market situation in which the world’s leading flat panel TV makers are aggressively expanding their UHD TV line up from premium high-end TVs down to high volume, smaller panel size TVs ranging from 50 to 60 inch. As such, the UHD TV market is expected to have very aggressive growth. In addition, the swift evolution of the UHD (3840 x 2160) video content eco-system, which provides four times higher resolution than FHD (1920×1080) is strongly supporting the emergence of the UHD TV market era.

Anapass said it intends to leverage its technical know-how and experience in developing and launching panel controller products for flat panel TVs for leading the commercialization of next generation panel controller products optimized for the rapidly growing UHD TV market. Anapass said it is expecting that this will significantly contribute to continuous growth of its core panel controller business.

They’re not exactly the peanut butter and jelly of semiconductors, but when you put them together, something magical happens.

Alone, neither lanthanum aluminate nor strontium titanate exhibit any particularly notable properties. But when they are layered together, they become not only conductive, but also magnetic.

In the current online edition of Nature Physics, researchers at The Ohio State University report the first-ever theoretical explanation to be offered for this phenomenon since it was discovered in 2004.

Understanding how these two semiconductors interact at their interface could someday lead to a different kind of material—one that provides a single platform for computation and data storage, said Mohit Randeria, co-author of the paper and professor of physics at Ohio State.

"The whole question is, how can you take two materials which do not conduct electricity and do not have magnetic properties, make a sandwich out of them and—lo and behold—at the interface tween them, charge begins to flow and interesting magnetic effects happen?" he said.

"It’s like taking two pieces of bread and putting them together and having the sandwich filling magically appear."

By making calculations and modeling the basic physical properties of both materials, Randeria’s team has hit upon an explanation for the behavior that seems ironic: the interface between two non-magnetic materials exhibits magnetism.

The team showed how the elemental units of magnetism, called "local moments," are formed at the interface of the two materials. They then showed how these moments interact with the conducting electrons to give rise to a magnetic state in which the moments are arranged in an unusual spiral pattern.

If the physicists’ explanation is correct, then perhaps someday, electronic devices could be constructed that exploit the interface between two oxides. Theoretically, such devices would combine the computational abilities of a silicon chip with the magnetic data storage abilities of permanent magnets like iron.

"If you had conduction and magnetism available in the same platform, it could be possible to integrate computer memory with data processing. Maybe different kinds of computation would be possible," Randeria said.

But those applications are a long way off. Right now, the physicists hope that their theoretical explanation for the strange magnetic behavior will enable other researchers to perform experiments and confirm it.

Randeria’s coauthors included Ohio State postdoctoral researcher Sumilan Banerjee and former doctoral student Onur Erten, who graduated this summer and is about to begin a postdoctoral fellowship at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.

MTPV received the Top Pitch award for its breakthrough technology for converting heat to electricity using semiconductor chips as judged by several industry professionals, strategic partners and investors at SEMICON West’s Silicon Innovation Summit held in July of this year. Following a selective application process, MTPV and several other companies were selected to present their innovative technologies at the Summit.

MTPV creates semiconductor chips that covert heat directly into electricity. Much like a solar panel will convert sunlight into electricity, MTPV chips are able to convert any source of heat into electricity with breakthrough efficiency and power.

MTPV’s previous awards include "Best Venture" from the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory Industry Growth Forum, the Platinum award and top honors from the WBT Innovation Technology Forum, and a National Innovation award from the National Innovation Summit & Showcase and National SBIR conference.

MTPV has also been named a finalist by the Department of Energy’s ARPA-e division and was awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation.

"We are happy to see MTPV’s continued recognition for its outstanding technology," said Annie Theriault, Vice President at Northwater Capital one of MTPV’s investors. "We are excited about the promise of MTPV’s award-winning, patented technology and its ability to provide a significant return on our investment."

SEMICON West is the flagship annual event for the global microelectronics industry. It is the premier event for the display of new products and technologies for microelectronics design and manufacturing, featuring technologies from across the microelectronics supply chain – from electronic design automation, to device fabrication (wafer processing), to final manufacturing (assembly, packaging, and test).

Infinite Graphics (IGI), a supplier of service and software products for the Medium Area Mask (MAM) market, has added new capability in the form of new and upgraded equipment. IGI added a Heidelberg Volume Pattern Generator (VPG), a large area lithography system.  The technology offers substrates up to 800 x 800mm, structures down to 0.8µm and an address grid down to 20nm.  The company also upgraded two direct write laser imaging systems bringing the total to four imaging systems in Minneapolis and two in Singapore.

“To offer quicker turn with smaller features, smaller defects and cleaner masks, we also purchased two additional Automatic Optical Inspection (AOI) systems giving us a total of five inspection systems in Minneapolis and another semiconductor quality MAM cleaner,” said Clifford Stritch, Infinite Graphics Incorporated’s CEO.  “These new systems will find sub-micron defects on masks to 14” and one micron defects on larger masks to 24” x 32”.  The AOI can inspect to CAD data, compare die to die or inspect to design rules.”

Design and manufacturing solutions provided by IGI include precision imaging on film, glass and custom flat or curved substrates, 3D microstructures, industry renowned data clean-up, phototooling software and custom turnkey systems.  IGI targets electronics, biological and MOEMs markets.

M/A-COM Technology Solutions Holdings, Inc., a supplier of high performance RF, microwave, and millimeter wave products, today announced it has filed suit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California against GigOptix, Inc. (NYSE MKT:GIG) for patent infringement.

The complaint alleges that GigOptix makes, uses, imports, offers to sell, and/or sells in the United States electro-optics polymers containing chromophores that infringe two MACOM patents, including certain GigOptix Mach-Zehnder modulator products that GigOptix markets or promotes as containing "Thin Film Polymer on Silicon (‘TFPS(TM)’)" technology. MACOM is seeking injunctive relief barring the infringement, as well as monetary damages, including treble damages based on allegedly willful infringement by GigOptix, attorney’s fees and costs of suit.

"MACOM has built a substantial patent portfolio through investment in innovation, and will defend that investment vigorously when required," said Ray Moroney, Optoelectronics Product Line Manager for MACOM. "We look forward to a just resolution of this matter through the legal process."

(Reuters) – SunEdison Inc said it would spin off its semiconductor business in an initial public offering and use the proceeds to build solar farms.

Shares of the company, formerly known as MEMC Electronic Materials, jumped 23 percent in morning trade on Thursday, their steepest rise in one year. SunEdison said it plans to sell a minority stake in the newly formed SunEdison Semiconductor to the public in the offering, which is scheduled for early 2014. A SunEdison spokeswoman declined to comment on what the IPO might raise, but re-iterated the company’s commitment to its solar business, which designs, installs and maintains solar power plants.

"We’ve been very clear that we see solar as a strong growth opportunity," said Dawn Brister.

"SunEdison is justified in narrowing its focus to the solar industry given the strong spurt in demand, particularly in terms of installed capacity," RBC Capital Markets analyst Mahesh Sanganeria said.

Several solar companies, such as SunPower Corp and First Solar Inc, have moved into the higher margin business of developing solar farms as solar panel prices continue to remain weak.

Global installations are expected grow at a double-digit rate to 35 gigawatt (GW) in 2013, according to business information provider IHS.

SunEdison ended the second quarter with a project pipeline of 2.9 GW, up 218 megawatt from the first quarter. The company, which changed its name from MEMC Electronic Materials in May, reports results under two units: semiconductor materials and solar energy.

The semiconductor materials business, which makes wafers used in chips for computers, mobile phones and cars, accounted for a third of second-quarter revenue of $401 million. SunEdison earlier this month reported a wider-than-expected quarterly loss and said its semiconductor business would remain weak due to a slump in the wafer market.

A bulk of the company’s revenue comes from its solar energy business, SunEdison expects to file a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission in the third quarter of 2013, the company said on Thursday.

(Reporting by Swetha Gopinath in Bangalore; Editing by Kirti Pandey and Saumyadeb Chakrabarty

One of the most promising types of solar cells has a few drawbacks. A scientist at Michigan Technological University may have overcome one of them.

Dye-sensitized solar cells are thin, flexible, easy to make and very good at turning sunshine into electricity. However, a key ingredient is one of the most expensive metals on the planet: platinum. While only small amounts are needed, at $1,500 an ounce, the cost of the silvery metal is still significant.

Yun Hang Hu, the Charles and Carroll McArthur Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, has developed a new, inexpensive material that could replace the platinum in solar cells without degrading their efficiency: 3D graphene.

Read more: Graphene nanoscrolls are formed by decoration of magnetic nanoparticles

Regular graphene is a famously two-dimensional form of carbon just a molecule or so thick. Hu and his team invented a novel approach to synthesize a unique 3D version with a honeycomb-like structure. To do so, they combined lithium oxide with carbon monoxide in a chemical reaction that forms lithium carbonate (Li2CO3) and the honeycomb graphene. The Li2CO3 helps shape the graphene sheets and isolates them from each other, preventing the formation of garden-variety graphite.  Furthermore, the Li2CO3 particles can be easily removed from 3D honeycomb-structured graphene by an acid.

The researchers determined that the 3D honeycomb graphene had excellent conductivity and high catalytic activity, raising the possibility that it could be used for energy storage and conversion. So they replaced the platinum counter electrode in a dye-sensitized solar cell with one made of the 3D honeycomb graphene. Then they put the solar cell in the sunshine and measured its output.

The cell with the 3D graphene counter electrode converted 7.8 percent of the sun’s energy into electricity, nearly as much as the conventional solar cell using costly platinum (8 percent).

Synthesizing the 3D honeycomb graphene is neither expensive nor difficult, said Hu, and making it into a counter electrode posed no special challenges.

The research has been funded by the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund (PRF-51799-ND10) and the National Science Foundation (NSF-CBET-0931587). The article describing the work, “3D Honeycomb-Like Structured Graphene and Its High Efficiency as a Counter-Electrode Catalyst for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells,” coauthored by Hu, Michigan Tech graduate student Hui Wang, Franklin Tao of the University of Notre Dame, Dario J. Stacchiola of Brookhaven National Laboratory and Kai Sun of the University of Michigan, was published online July 29 in the journal Angewandte Chemie, International Edition.

Printed electronics refers to a process in which printing technology is used to produce various kinds of electronics goods, such as electronic circuits, sensors and devices. Printed electronics is emerging as a technology that will replace traditional photolithography, which requires costly materials, complex processes and expensive equipment, for the production of simple circuits or electronics components. In addition, printing technology allows patterning a desired substance on a specific location without complex processes. 

According to the “Emerging Displays Report – Printed Electronics Technology – 2013” report, published by IHS, the applied market for printed electronics is forecast to gradually grow after 2015. The total applied market created by printed electronics technology is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 47 percent to $24.3 billion by 2020 from $3.3 billion in 2013.

The global printed electronics market is expected to grow in sync with the opening of the flexible display market. Currently, the technology is commercially applied to touch panel sensors and FPCBs, which have relatively low entry barriers. With partial application to RFIDs, smart tags, LCDs and OLEDs, the technology will gradually expand its application to the fabrication of flexible displays and thin film photovoltaics.

Whereas the current display industry has developed its technology and products centered on scaling-up to large sizes and realizing high-resolution images, the future industry development direction is expected to focus on flexible displays. Compared to the conventional glass substrate, flexible displays are thinner, lighter, and less prone to break. With such properties, it is expected that flexible electronic devices will be able to replace the existing market as well as create new ones.

The flexible (thin glass, metal thin film, plastic) substrate is gaining importance as a key component that determines the processability, performance, reliability, and price of flexible displays. To this end, IHS Electronics & Media publishes a Flexible Display Substrate Technology report to analyze the technology development, industrial conditions, and R&D trends of flexible substrates.

According to the report, the flexible substrate market is forecast to grow to $506.7 million by 2020 from a $2.5 million in 2013. The OLED display, another market that can be created by applying the flexible substrate technology, is expected to make up 91 percent of the overall market.