Category Archives: Online Magazines

PNI Sensor Corporation and EM Microelectronic -Marin SA announce the introduction of the Sentral sensor fusion hub: a new, highly effective way to integrate complex motion sensors on mobile devices. The Sentral sensor fusion hub is the first hub designed specifically to manage sensor outputs on a low-power integrated circuit, making 9-axis motion sensing outputs both super-precise and practical to implement. Carrying top-of-the-line sensor fusion algorithms on an extremely low-power integrated circuit, Sentral eliminates the need for complex sensor configurations, calibrations and algorithm development. Further, it dramatically reduces power usage, offloading sensor fusion work from less efficient host CPUs or sensor CPUs onto an ultra-low-power IC tailor-made for sensor optimization.

This is welcome news for mobile device manufacturers, as Sentral makes the integration of 9-axis sensor systems faster and easier, and at the same time, improves the quality, reliability and utility of output from the accelerometers, gyroscope and geomagnetic sensors. Compatible with Android and Windows 8-based mobile products, Sentral delivers the most accurate (2º of heading accuracy), real-time motion-related data available.

Further, because it is designed and built specifically to meet the power needs of the mobile market, the Sentral IC is ultra-low-power and consumes less than 10% of the power used by other CPUs performing the task of sensor fusion. It maximizes battery life even for applications that need constant processing of sensor data.

Sentral makes sensor implementation more practical as well. It can support a wide variety of gyros, accels and magnetic sensors from multiple and changing vendors. This allows for separate placement of the sensors, and manufacturers are not tied to a single source or sensor type. Because it uses a mere 800mAmps of power in normal operation, it frees up valuable CPU power and battery life, and with a mere 1.6×1.6×0.5mm footprint, it takes up virtually no space.

Click here for more MEMS news

Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has developed an intelligent vital signs sensor module: Smart healthcare Intelligent Monitor Engine and Ecosystem with Silmee, that simultaneously senses information on key vital signs, Electric Cardio Gram, pulse, body temperature and movements, and that can deliver the data to smartphones and tablet PCs with wireless technology. Toshiba has fabricated a prototype of the sensor module that is small enough to wear, and will present and demonstrate it at the International Symposium on Medical ICT 2013, to be held at Meiji University, Tokyo, Japan on March 7.

Current healthcare cloud and services make use of already developed individual healthcare devices, such as sphygmomanometers or clinical thermometers. Such services face major challenges in achieving market penetration because the equipment is too big and handling a number of pieces of equipment it too complex.

The recently developed Silmee includes a Pseudo-SoC analog front end, a 32bit ARM processor chip and a dual mode Bluetooth bare chip in a 14.5mm x 14.5mm small package. Simply adding a few devices to the module, such as an antenna, battery and sensor heads, achieves a completely wearable vital signs sensor system. Among the chips included in the module, the flexible and compact Pseudo-SoC analog front end is a very effective approach to implementing vital signs sensors, and extends recent rapid progress in vital sign sensor technologies.

Toshiba will demonstrate a very compact prototype implementation of Silmee: a 25mm x 60mm and 10 gram patch-type able to monitor all vital signs. Toshiba will contribute to the promotion of smart personal healthcare services by deploying the module and prototype terminal in a wide variety of smart healthcare service development and field trials.

Toshiba is a diversified manufacturer, solutions provider and marketer of advanced electronic and electrical products and systems.

Cree, Inc. introduces a game-changing series of LED bulbs, with bulbs starting at a new low price of $9.97 for a 40-watt bulb. The new bulbs shine as brightly as comparable incandescents, while saving 84% of the energy compared to traditional bulbs.

“The Cree LED light bulb was designed to offer consumers a no-compromise lighting experience at a compelling price,” said Chuck Swoboda, Cree chairman and CEO. “Over the last couple of years we recognized that the consumer is instrumental in the adoption of LED lighting, but we needed to give them a reason to switch. We believe this breakthrough LED bulb will, for the first time, give consumers a reason to upgrade the billions of energy-wasting light bulbs. We could not think of a better way to get this bulb into consumers’ hands than through The Home Depot, a visionary partner who embraces innovation.”

The innovative bulb is illuminated by Cree LED Filament Tower Technology and provides a compact optically balanced light source within a real glass bulb to deliver consumers the warm light they love and want. With a shape that looks like a traditional light bulb, Cree LED bulbs can be placed in most lighting fixtures in the home. The new Cree LED bulb is designed to last 25,000 hours or 25 times longer than typical incandescent light bulbs – reducing the need to replace bulbs for years.

With a retail price of $9.97 for the warm white 40-watt replacement, $12.97 for the 60-watt warm white replacement and $13.97 for the 60-watt day light, the Cree LED bulbs save 84% of the energy compared to traditional incandescents.

The new LED bulbs turn on instantly and are free of the mercury that is found in CFL bulbs. Unlike many low-priced LED bulbs, Cree LED bulbs are easily dimmable with most standard incandescent dimmers.

The Cree LED light bulb (60-watt incandescent replacement) delivers 800 lumens and consumes only 9.5 watts and is available in warm white (2700K) and day light (5000K) color temperatures. The Cree LED light bulb (40-watt incandescent replacement) delivers 450 lumens and consumes only 6 watts and is available in 2700K color temperature.

The Cree LED bulbs are backed by a 10-year limited warranty and available exclusively at The Home Depot.

“As the leading retailer of energy-efficient LED lighting products, our customers look to us to provide them with the most advanced and most cost-effective lighting technologies available,” said Jeff Epstein, merchandising vice president, The Home Depot. “We diligently work with our manufacturing partners to offer consumers the most innovative alternatives that also help save money and energy. We are pleased to expand our relationship with Cree. It has enabled us to be the first in the market to offer a technologically advanced and affordable LED light bulb in the market today.”

Recently, as the importance of environmental protection grows, the method of saving energy of products and using eco-friendly materials is on the rise. Of these, since lighting accounts for about 20% of the overall power consumption, the efforts to replace with high-efficiency and eco-friendly products are being made actively. Accordingly, in terms of replacing conventional lightings such as low-efficiency incandescent lamps or fluorescent lamps using an environmentally hazardous substance like mercury with high-efficiency and eco-friendly products such as OLED or LED, the effect is expected to be very large.

In particular, OLED lighting is a surface style and can be manufactured in a transparent or flexible appearance, and has characteristics that realize excellent color rendering and a variety of colors. OLED lighting is drawing attention as a next-generation lighting to bring a new paradigm to the lighting industry since it can change even people’s way of living innovatively in the future through a variety of designs.

Global lighting manufacturers such as Osram or Philips have been prepared for the commercialization of OLED lighting, and began the sales of OLED lighting panels five years ago. After Osram released the world’s first OLED panel in 2008, the sales of the products with improved performance and reduced costs are increasing in recent years.

Based on such trend, IHS Displaybank is to assist in examining the status and the potential for development of the OLED lighting market by publishing a report of Lighting OLED Module Industry Analysis and Market Forecast 2012, which analyzes the general lighting OLED module industry and the market. In addition, the report also helps viewers predict the position of OLED industry in the lighting industry by including the overall light source market forecast for general lighting.

IHS Display forecasted that OLED will penetrate the lighting market gradually by its several optical excellence and the advantage of being transparent and flexible shape, despite the high selling price and limited application market formed in the initial period of the mass production. In particular, the competitiveness of OLED products is analyzed to be strengthened further in the lighting industry from year 2016-2018 when the improvement of efficiency, and the reduction of the cost ratio are significantly achieved.

Recently, considering the speed of the recent OLED lighting development, the efficiency of a 100x100mm2-sized OLED module is expected to exceed 200lm/W, and the net material costs are predicted to be reduced to less than $3.

wafer bonding and packagingEV Group (EVG), a supplier of wafer bonding and lithography equipment for the MEMS, nanotechnology and semiconductor markets, today announced that it is developing equipment and process technology to enable covalent bonds at room temperature. This technology will be available on a new equipment platform, called EVG580 ComBond, which will include process modules that are designed to perform surface preparation processes on both semiconductor materials and metals. EVG built on its decades of experience with plasma activated wafer bonding to create a novel process through which the treated surfaces form strong bonds at room temperature instantaneously without the need for annealing.

"In response to market needs for more sophisticated integration processes for combining materials with different coefficients of thermal expansion, we have developed a revolutionary process technology that enables the formation of bond interfaces between heterogeneous materials at room temperature," stated Markus Wimplinger, corporate technology development and IP director for EV Group. "Our expertise in wafer bonding process technology will allow us to provide different variants of the new process according to the requirements of different substrate materials and applications."

EV Group’s new process solutions will enable covalent combinations of compound semiconductors, other engineered substrates and heterogeneous materials integration for applications such as silicon photonics, high mobility transistors, high-performance/low-power logic devices and novel RF devices. The process technology and equipment that enables this room temperature covalent wafer bonding will be applied to EVG’s wafer bonding solutions for MEMS wafer-level packaging as well as to the integration of MEMS and CMOS devices.

Equipment systems based on a 200-mm modular platform, tailored for the specific needs of the new processes, will be available in 2013.

Peregrine Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ: PSMI), a fabless provider of high-performance radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs), yesterday announced plans to collaborate with Murata Manufacturing Company on a multisource arrangement for RF switches and other components based on Peregrine’s proprietary UltraCMOS technology. Under the proposed collaboration agreement, Murata would be granted a license to design and manufacture RF switches and other switch-related components utilizing Peregrine’s technology and intellectual property (IP). The parties expect this agreement to result in an expanded source of supply for these critical RF components, and to assure global OEMs broad access to RF CMOS products.

ultra cmos process for high performance RFThe UltraCMOS process is a patented Silicon-on-Sapphire technology (SOS). The UltraCMOS process is the industry’s first and only commercially qualified use of Ultra-Thin-Silicon (UTSi) on sapphire substrates, enabling the combination of high-performance RF, mixed-signal, passive elements, nonvolatile memory and digital functions on a single device. This integration provides significant performance advantages over other mixed-signal processes such as GaAs, SiGe, BiCMOS and bulk silicon CMOS in applications where RF performance, low power and integration are paramount.

Murata is a supplier of RF front-end modules for the global mobile wireless marketplace. RF front-end modules are products that incorporate RF switches and tuning devices with SAW filters, passive components, and advanced packaging techniques.

“Global OEM customers of both Peregrine and Murata have for some time requested that the companies implement an independent source of supply for the critical switching elements that are widely utilized in today’s smart phones and other wireless-communications products,” said Jim Cable, Peregrine’s President and CEO. “This agreement marks the first license of Peregrine’s core switch-based intellectual property to a third party and we look forward to entering into this collaborative arrangement with Murata.”

Regarding yesterday’s announcement, Norio Nakajima, Murata’s Vice President, Communication Business Unit, said, “Peregrine has fundamental IP in CMOS-based switches and tuning products with its UltraCMOS technology. This IP licensing arrangement solidifies our existing relationship and future collaboration with Peregrine. We believe that the combination of Murata’s filter and packaging technology with Peregrine’s UltraCMOS switch and tuning technology is a formidable RF front-end solution.”

ams AG (SIX: AMS), a designer and manufacturer of high-performance analog ICs for consumer and communications, industrial and medical and automotive applications, today introduced a new intelligent LED driver for mobile phone cameras that maximizes the brightness of the flash without causing the phone’s battery to fall below its minimum operating voltage.

The AS3649 LED driver uses an innovative “diagnostic pulse” – a burst of controlled high current lasting a few milliseconds – immediately before every flash operation. During this pulse the device measures the momentary voltage across the terminals of the phone’s battery. On the basis of this measurement, it reports a value for the highest flash drive current the battery can sustain, up to a maximum of 2.5A, without dropping below its minimum voltage and triggering the phone to reset itself during the main flash.

Drawing on analog sensing technology developed by ams, the AS3649 measures the battery voltage and current with high accuracy, enabling it to precisely calibrate the optimal LED drive current under any given conditions.

Mobile phones that use the AS3649 can therefore generate the brightest possible flash light, without the need for a bulky auxiliary power source such as a super-capacitor. Users can then benefit from higher image quality and higher resolution. When taking pictures of fast-moving objects, a brighter flash enables the use of faster shutter speeds for sharper, clearer pictures.

The introduction of the LED driver AS3649 also allows mobile phone manufacturers to markedly reduce the engineering and software development effort involved in flash LED implementation. Today, manufacturers exhaustively test the operation of each mobile phone model’s LED flash system under all possible operating conditions, and at all operating voltages. The results of these tests are encoded in a software look-up table stored on the phone. Whenever the camera calls for the flash to be operated, the phone’s processor must read from the look-up table an estimate for a safe drive current value.

The diagnostic pulse technique implemented by the AS3649 eliminates virtually all of this engineering effort, since it is able to measure the actual behavior of the battery at the time of use, instead of estimating it beforehand on the basis of sampled test results.

The AS3649 supplies up to 2.5A to a single LED or up to 1.25A each to two LEDs.  The device’s current-source architecture provides for thermal management, and an on-board NTC (temperature sensor) automatically reduces the current to the LED if it exceeds a programmable temperature threshold.

“Consumers look carefully at camera performance when choosing a mobile phone – it is a key differentiator,” said Ronald Tingl, senior marketing manager at ams. “By using the AS3649, handset manufacturers can achieve the best possible lighting for pictures taken in dark conditions, and at the same time benefit from eliminating the huge effort involved in qualifying all components stressed by high LED flash drive currents.”

Samsung Vice-President Kwon Oh-hyun released a statement today, apologizing for the fatal hydrofluoric acid spill that left one worker dead and four others injured. According to the Wall Street Journal, Kwon said that the company will “fundamentally change” its environmental safety system and investigate its processes to ensure that such an accident never happens again. Additionally, Samsung also plans to withdraw its application for the plant, located in Hwaseong, Korea, certified as “green,” with no intention of resubmitting the application for the next five years.  

The accident, which occurred in late January, has resulted in a fair amount of controversy for Samsung: after initially being investigated for covering up the leak, the Korean police denied Samsung’s statement that the accident that the leak was contained.

“We’ve always taken great pride in the high standards we set for our operations and the safety measures we have in place,” Samsung’s spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal. “In keeping with our commitment to operating high-quality facilities, we are committed to continually making enhancements to our protocols to ensure we are protecting the safety and well-being of our employees, partners and the local community.”

Hydroflouric acid, both in liquid and vapor forms, can cause severe burns, which may or may not be visible immediately after exposure. HF penetrates the skin, causing damage to the underlying tissues, including bones and organs, in severe cases. Inhalation of HF vapors can also cause burns in the mouth, esophagus and lungs. Click here to learn more about what your first response to an HF spill should be.

Are you prepared for cleanroom disaster?

Chances of a catastrophic cleanroom incident are typically slight, but even semiconductor giants like Samsung are not immune to the possibility. Bryan Swales is managing director of Relelectronic-Remech, which specializes in the recovery of technical equipment following contamination and damage events. He writes that developing an incident recovery plan pre-disaster is key to weathering both the immediate physical dangers and the public relations mess that can ensue after a cleanroom disaster. The plan, Swales said, should identify each type of disaster which could occur, and define how the organization will react to each.

“When properly developed and implemented, including ongoing training of all relevant personnel,” said Swales, “an incident recovery plan represents a pro-active, designed-in emergency response and management program unique to the organization and covering all ‘foreseeable’ disastrous events.”

200mm wafer processingDeposition Sciences, Inc. (DSI), manufacturer of highly durable thin film optical coatings, today introduced an enhanced capability to manufacture patterned optical filters. DSI has increased its capacity and resolution with the introduction of a new photolithography production line capable of patterning 200mm diameter wafers.

 “We are very excited to announce this enhanced capability,” said Michael Newell, director of sales and marketing.  “This new manufacturing line brings us better resolution, increased capacity, an ability to yield and coat more parts per wafer, and ultimately better pricing for our customers. And we are keeping pace with the semiconductor industry. Customers are looking to integrate their electronics with the optical filters. DSI can pattern populated wafers containing active devices, and semi-conductor fab houses are doing more and more at the 200mm wafer scale.”

The new patterning capability provides an enhanced view or enhanced detection in multi-spectral imaging tasks by fusing together information from different wavelength bands.  Other applications include satellite imaging, UAV overhead reconnaissance, machine vision, food and industrial inspection, automotive, biomedical sensing, color filter arrays for CCD and CMOS cameras, reticles, and more. 

For over 25 years, Deposition Sciences has produced optical thin film filter coatings.  DSI’s coating capability ranges from the ultraviolet (UV), through the visible and includes near-infrared (NIR), midwave-infrared (MWIR) and out to the longwave-infrared (LWIR). 

laser for wafer processingCoherent, Inc. (Nasdaq: COHR) has expanded its family of industrial ultrafast lasers with the new Talisker 1000 series. This new series of high power picosecond lasers is designed for high-throughput, precision materials processing applications in the semiconductor, solar (photovoltaics), medical devices, consumer electronics and automotive industries. The Talisker 1000 has three single wavelength versions available – near infrared (1064 nm), green (532 nm) and ultraviolet (355 nm) – all at 1000 kHz.  The near IR is ideal for scribing and engraving stainless steel and other metals.  The green wavelength delivers higher precision, perfect for several high value exotic metals.  The UV is optimal for processing glass and other transparent or brittle materials.  Specific examples include glass cutting for smartphone touchscreens; drilling injector nozzles for automotive and medical dispensing; processing plastic electronics such as OLEDs; engraving steel for printing fabrics and currency, or patterning metals on ceramic substrates for high power RF electronics.

Picosecond lasers enable precision materials process with superior spatial resolution and virtually no peripheral thermal effects. The new Talisker 1000 offers pulse repetition rates as high as 1 MHz, which helps enable higher throughput in many applications.  With average powers as high as 25 Watts, this new laser series is identical in form, fit and function to earlier lower power Talisker models, simplifying tool redesign cycles.

Founded in 1966, Coherent, Inc. provides photonics-based products to the commercial and scientific research markets, and is part of the Standard & Poor’s SmallCap 600 Index and the Russell 2000.