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February 20, 2012 — ElectroIQ recently spoke with Mariquita Gordon from Texas Instruments DLP’s Embedded division about the company’s micro electro mechanical system (MEMS) digital light processing (DLP) technology. DLP is traditionally associated with projectors, television displays, and pico projectors. In TI’s 4th generation embedded DLP evalution module, the LightCrafter, TI is opening up the applications space to bring DLP into new imaging markets, such as security, dentistry, and more.

DLP chips are MEMS designs with 400,000 micro moving mirrors. Texas Instruments has sold 33+ million units for a range of consumer and high-reliability applications. "We have test DLP mirrors in the TI labs that have been moving for 16 years," Gordon said, pointing to the reliability of the devices. Texas Instruments topped the IHS iSuppli 2010 MEMS supplier rankings, on the strength of its DLP chip sales.

Traditional imaging markets are saturated and price-pressured, and DLP products like projection TVs have felt the squeeze. These new imaging applications represent an area of growth for TI’s MEMS business. The LightCrafter Module came about from customer feedback on previous generations of evaluation kits.

The LightCrafter eval kit is designed to be small, lower-cost, and forgo cosmetic features like a coverplate over the chipset, making it easier to design right into a final product. Some users will prototype with the module, then modify it for final volume production. Others will integrate the module as-made into products, said Gordon. "We want users to come to TI with ideas for MEMS-based products that fall outside of our traditional end-market. There are many applications that we can think of for DLP chipsets, but there’s also a whole range that we haven’t thought of," Gordon explained. The more "plug-and-play" LightCrafter is, the more users will discover applications for it, she added.

Some of the non-traditional imaging applications TI’s seen DLP applied in include 3D measurement of teeth for dental crown designs. Here, MEMS can save significant time, human involvement, and costs in the crown’s modeling. Security applications, such as facial mapping, are also emerging. DLP-based systems can replace lab-based chemical analysis with fast, portable, handheld devices. MEMS technology enables one chipset to sense multiple chemicals. Learn more about bio applications from Lee Mather’s blog, DLP technology finds more application in bio from our sister publication BioOptics World.

LightCrafter is the first evaluation kit that Texas Instruments will sell through its online e-store, a strategy that TI plans to use for all kits going forward. There is also an entire eco-system of developers and technical specialists available to help bring new DLP-based products to market quickly, Gordon said.

More on the LightCrafter evaluation kit: The kit includes a DLP 0.3 WVGA chipset, DMD controller board, and more. Get all the specs at Texas Instruments (TI) debuts DLP evaluation module or visit www.ti.com/dlplightcrafter

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February 17, 2012 — At MM/MEMS/NANO Live USA, Professor Yogesh Gianchandani, director of the University of Michigan’s Wireless Integrated Microsystems and Sensors Center, will keynote the MEMS Commercialization: From Lab to Fab to the Market session, Thursday, March 8 in Rosemont, IL. The session will address micro electro mechanical system (MEMS) manufacturing, assembly and test issues.

Gianchandani will address novel manufacturing techniques with non-classical MEMS materials in "Manufacturing of Microsystems: Emerging Opportunities in Biomedical, Environmental and Wireless Applications."

Session chair Roger Grace will share results of a new market study, "MEMS 2011 Commercialization Report Card," grading the MEMS industry commercialization attempts. The study has annually graded the performance of the MEMS industry since 1998.

Tammy Pluym from Sandia National Laboratories will present their SUMMiT V process, enabling 3D micro miniature complex structures to be created using traditional MEMS processing.

Yongyao Cai of MEMSIC will discuss the company’s approach to high-volume assembly and test of MEMS accelerometer and electronic compass product lines.

Concluding the program, a panel session MEMS infrastructure experts will address “Barriers to the Commercialization of MEMS” from different perspectives. Grace will lead off with "MEMS Marketing: Oxymoron or Opportunity" followed by MaryAnn Maher of SoftMEMS speaking on software co-design. Rich Brossart of SVTC will discuss commercialization barriers from a MEMS foundry/service providers’ perspective. The panel discussion will conclude with Bob Mohondro of Plasma -Therm, examining barriers to commercialization from an equipment supplier’s perspective. 

MEMS beginners as well as those "well-versed in the technology" are invited to attend, including MEMS designers, people who create MEM-based systems, infrastructure suppliers, corporate management and members of the investment community.

The session is organized and chaired by Roger Grace, Roger Grace Associates. It will address MEMS manufacturing, assembly and test issues. All of the presentations and the exhibition at the two-day event are free of charge including the MEMS Commercialization session.

MM Live USA and new co-locating feature events MEMS Live USA and NANO Live USA will take place in the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, Rosemont, IL, March 7-8. Online: http://www.mmnliveusa.com.

Roger Grace Associates provides comprehensive strategic marketing consulting and marketing communications services to domestic and overseas high-technology clients. For more information please visit www.rgrace.com.

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February 16, 2012 — ALD equipment maker Picosun Oy announced record particle levels — 1-2 added particles (>70nm) per wafer — with its PICOSUN P-300B atomic layer deposition (ALD) batch tool installed at Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems (Fraunhofer IPMS). The tool also delivered reported records in process repeatability and film non-uniformity, down to 0.13 % 1σ for the best wafer.

"With its efficient wafer batch process Picosun meets our strict defect density requirements," states Dr. Tom Richter from Fraunhofer IPMS.

Fraunhofer IPMS focuses on developing technologies for micro electro mechanical system (MEMS) and micro optical mechanical systems (MOEMS) in its cleanrooms in Dresden, Germany. Services range from feasibility studies to the development of complete production technologies and pilot-fabrication, including characterization, qualification and foundry services for individual steps in the process or for technology modules.  

Picosun Oy manufactures ALD systems. Learn more at www.picosun.com.

Also read: Picosun launches plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition source

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February 16, 2012 – Marketwire — Integrated Sensing Systems Inc. (ISSYS), advanced micro electro mechanical system (MEMS) maker, and the University of Michigan (U-M) have received a $1.5M National Institute of Health (NIH) grant, "Novel Micro-Implant To Measure Intracardiac Pressure In Congenital Heart Patients," to develop wireless, implantable pressure sensors based on MEMS technology.

The University of Michigan has been working with ISSYS on the pressure sensor for patients with "complex forms" of congenital heart disease, explained Dr. Martin Bocks, a pediatric cardiologist at the University of Michigan and the project’s medical principal investigator. The implantable device could both improve patient care and increase medical understanding of their conditions.

The grant will fund work on wireless, battery-free, smart, and miniaturized technology, said Dr. Nader Najafi, ISSYS president and CEO and the project’s technical principal investigator. ISSYS operates a multi-million-dollar, state-of-the-art MEMS fabrication facility near Ann Arbor, MI. ISSYS’ quality system is certified to ISO 9001:2008 for industrial products, ISO13485:2003 for medical devices, and ISO13980:2002 for ATEX/IEC Ex approved intrinsically-safe products.

The grant will enable clinical studies in infants and children with complex congenital heart defects. The pediatric medical device field has stringent medical and form factor requirements that have been difficult to meet with traditional technologies. The technology developed under this grant could have "broader applications within the field of adult and pediatric cardiovascular medicine," added Najagi.

ISSYS makes advanced MEMS technologies for industrial and medical devices, microfluidic and scientific analytical sensing applications.  ISSYS is a vertically integrated company dedicated to developing and manufacturing system-level products based on MEMS technology. Please visit: http://www.mems-issys.com/

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February 15, 2012 — Microfluidics company Dolomite and genetic technology developer GigaGen are collaborating on a novel Droplet Merger Chip for massively parallel single cell genetic analysis. The 15 x 22.5mm glass microfluidic chip merges 2 droplet streams consistently and quickly.

The chip can be used for DNA amplification, biochemical analysis, single cell analysis and high-throughput experimentation, among other applications. It avoids high-voltage electronic instrumentation for droplet merger under electrostatic forces. The Droplet Merger Chip squeezes droplets together in a carefully designed merging chamber. Future versions could be disposable.

Figure. Droplet merging of two individual droplet streams in the new Droplet Merger Chip, Dolomite and GigaGen.

GigaGen Inc. filed a patent application describing the chip design and its applications in the field of genetic analysis of cells. As part of a license agreement with GigaGen Inc., Dolomite will be offering the technology starting in 2012 to research users in academia and commercial users in a range of application areas. Dolomite’s partnership with Sphere Fluidics opens up a range of available surfactants, noted Dr. Andrew Lovatt, CEO of Dolomite, to optimize droplet behavior and stability under various temperature and biological conditions.

Also read: Microfluidics: $4B in 2016, thanks to life sciences

Dolomite’s Microfluidic Application Centre helps turn microfluidic application concepts into commercial products. For further information on Dolomite, visit www.dolomite-microfluidics.com.

GigaGen provides technology to clinical researchers and physicians, unlocking personalized genetic data and guiding disease treatments from routine blood draws. GigaGen has developed a patent-pending core technology for high-throughput measurement of dozens of genetic loci in millions of single cells in parallel. The technology combines advanced microfluidics, next-generation sequencing, and bioinformatics to genetically analyze millions of single cells per hour. For further information, visit www.gigagen.com.

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February 14, 2012 – BUSINESS WIRE — In the company’s first use of micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS), Konica Minolta IJ Technologies Inc. developed the KM128SNG-MB high-precision inkjet printhead for manufacturing printed electronics.

KM128SNG-MB delivers 1 picoliter drop sizes. The use of MEMS technology enabled a 38mm-wide printhead with 128 nozzles in a row, as well as future nozzle integration by customer need. The ink path design, coupled with high-precision, semiconductor-style assembly technology, enable reportedly stable, high-precision printing with picoliter droplets, and ink resistance and optimization for low viscosity inks. It provides highly uniform thin film print thickness at the 100nm level. Konica Minolta’s proprietary DPN (Drive Per Nozzle) drive board and evaluation equipment are available.

KM128SNG-MB will be used to pattern organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays, deposit thin films for OLED lighting, and other industrial electronics manufacturing applications. It will be sold in sample quantities this spring.

Konica Minolta IJ Technologies, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Konica Minolta Holdings Inc. (TOKYO:4902), develops compact and high-performance inkjet printheads, high-value-added inks, complete inkjet print units and textile inkjet printers and peripheral equipments. For more information, please visit http://konicaminolta.com.

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February 13, 2012 — After 5 straight months of steep declines, prices for large-sized liquid crystal display (LCD) panels stabilized in December 2011, thanks to better-than expected sales and decreased production, according to an IHS iSuppli LCD PriceTrak report.

Global pricing for average large-sized LCD panels decreased by just 0.1% in December. This slight reduction indicates market pricing is steadying out compared to the 0.5% drop incurred in November and the runaway 3 or 4% contractions regularly seen during most of H2 2011.

The last time that panel pricing came close to December’s minimal level of decrease occurred during a two-month span during May and June 2011, when pricing retreated by 0.2% per month.

Figure. Large-size LCD panel prices.

December’s panel price also showed the smallest month-to-month change in all of the prior 12 months, as shown in the figure.

The overall pricing for large-sized LCD panels reflects the average taken among the three major markets for the panels, i.e., for televisions, monitors and notebooks. Large-sized panels are defined as those having a diagonal dimension of 10.4 to 55" and above.

Also read: Rapid LCD TV shift to 40"+ display panels signals production capacity boost

“The firming in panel prices in December can be attributed to lean inventories throughout the supply chain and to lower factory utilization rates, after suppliers were forced to cut production in order to control supply and stem financial losses,” said Sweta Dash, senior director for LCDs at IHS. “Sales also picked up in the United States and China, helping to further boost the market. Despite this, there will be little opportunity for suppliers to increase pricing even after the market has evened out, due to continuing uncertainties in the global economy. Chinese demand also is expected to decline after the Lunar New Year sales season in January, preventing prices from increasing.”

Large-sized LCD fab capacity utilization was running at 78% in December compared to 86% a year earlier. This reduced available supply, slowing the rate of price declines during the month.

Among the individual large-sized LCD applications, prices for television panels fell 0.2% in December compared to a 0.6% contraction in November. TV panel prices, however, are expected to remain flat in the first quarter of 2012.

Global television inventories in the worldwide retail channel reached a four-to five-week low in January after robust sales during the holidays in the United States and the Lunar New Year holiday in China. This development may cause some brands to build up inventory for future months as well as to stockpile supply for new model introductions. In particular, many new TV sizes — such as 39" and 50" panels — are expected to be introduced. Brands also are exploring 60-inch-and-larger sizes for the niche market, after the sizes proved successful during holiday sales.

Overall, TV panel inventories have declined to less than 25 days, compared to their usual 30-day average. Moving forward, LCD TV panel production will be lower in the first quarter because of the Lunar New Year holidays observed in the Asian manufacturing zones where the panels are made, as well as the shorter month in February.

In comparison to the TV space, panel pricing was down 0.1% in December for the monitor and notebook segments, which individually had fallen 0.2% the month before.

For the desktop PC monitor area, corporate demand remains weak because of prevailing economic caution in the business and enterprise world. Meanwhile, mobile products like tablets, ereaders and notebooks grabbed more sales among consumers than monitors did during the recent Christmas holiday sales. Overall growth in 2012 remains uncertain for the area.

In the notebook PC segment, the October flooding in Thailand is likely to impact production into early 2012, affecting panels being purchased for notebooks in the process. As a result, brands will continue to adjust inventory and pricing in channels, given the shaky outlook here for some time to come.

Increasingly, capacity for notebook and monitor panel production is being shared with that for TV.

Also, more large-sized LCD capacity is being shifted toward tablet applications due to the success of devices like Apple Inc.’s iPad, leading to adjustments in production throughout the chain.

Access the report, Large-LCD Panel Price Stabilized in December After Five Months of Decline, at http://www.isuppli.com/Display-Materials-and-Systems/Pages/Large-LCD-Panel-Price-Stabilized-in-December-After-Five-Months-of-Decline.aspx?PRX

Visit the new Displays Manufacturing Channel on ElectroIQ.com!

February 13, 2012 — Complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image sensors in 2011 continued to push charge coupled device (CCD) sensors into a smaller, isolated section of the market. CMOS image sensors are growing on use in mobile electronics and emerging applications, shows analyst firm IHS.

2011 CMOS sensor shipments accounted for 92% of all area image sensors, equaling 2.1 billion units, up 31% from 1.6 billion units in 2010, according to an IHS iSuppli Consumer Platforms topical report. CCD sensor shipments, the remaining 8% of the market, hit 180.3 million units shipped in 2011, dropping 2 percentage points from 2010.

By 2015, CMOS shipments will amount to 3.6 billion units or 97% market share, leaving just 95.2 million CCD shipments to make up the remaining 3% of the market (figure). The move to CMOS image sensors is prompted by cheaper manufacturing costs, greater efficiency, and faster data-throughput speeds, said Pamela Tufegdzic, analyst for consumer electronics at IHS.

Figure. Worldwide image sensor market share forecast. SOURCE: IHS.

Mobile handsets remain the dominant application for CMOS sensors, representing 79% of total CMOS shipments in 2011. Video conferencing is the second-biggest application market by shipments, due to the inclusion of cameras in notebook computers. CMOS sensors also found increasing use in the growing sectors of security through network video surveillance systems and automotive through the use of back-up cameras and lane-departure warnings, blind-spot detection, and infrared night vision.

Also read: CMOS image sensors see growth beyond cellphones

CCDs still find acceptance in the industrial markets and in digital still cameras. However, among high-end digital single lens reflex (DSLR) cameras, CCD use will shrink from 12% in 2011 to just 1% by 2014, and there are other areas of decline as well. With still camera purchases waning, and smartphone adoption growing, overall CCD use will decline further.

The introduction of backside illumination (BSI) technology was the break in camera technology that gave CMOS the edge over CCD, IHS asserts. Found in high-end compact cameras as well as the iPhone 4S from Apple Inc. and various Android phones, BSI helps to eliminate noise issues found in earlier frontside illumination (FSI) CMOS sensors, and also enables better picture quality in low-light conditions.

The higher cost of BSI technology (approximately 20% more than FSI in 2011) makes it comfortable in higher-end products, such as Apple’s iPhone 4 and many Android phones. BSI is projected to be in 56% of smartphones and higher-end feature handset camera phones during 2012, and in 92% of the same class of handsets by 2015. Controlling the cost of BSI is critical to mass adoption.

Among companies competing in the space, Sony Corp. was the top player for overall image sensors during the fourth quarter, followed by OmniVision Technologies, Aptina Imaging Corp., Sharp Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.

Sony’s next-generation BSI sensor in a stacked structure could pave the way for faster speeds and lower power consumption. Read about the technology: Sony stacks CMOS image sensor pixel structures and chips

Samsung announced a 16-megapixel CMOS sensor that will be making its way into smartphones and tablets later this year. The S5K2P1 sensor, Samsung says, will be good enough for use even in dedicated digital still cameras and camcorders where superior image quality is a prime consideration, due to the sensor’s excellent sensitivity and low-noise performance.

Access iSuppli’s report, BSI Success Drives the CMOS Image Sensor Segment, at http://www.isuppli.com/Home-and-Consumer-Electronics/Pages/BSI-Success-Drives-the-CMOS-Image-Sensor-Segment.aspx?PRX

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February 13, 2012 – PRNewswire — MagnaChip Semiconductor Corporation (NYSE:MX), analog and mixed-signal semiconductor designer and manufacturer, began ramping its 0.35µm mixed-signal foundry service process for micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS) accelerometers.

MagnaChip’s low noise and cost effective 0.35µm mixed-signal technology is used to ramp up production of MEMS accelerometers for motion sensing in mobile devices. The foundry service targets high accuracy and functionality in the MEMS devices.

The MEMS accelerometer 0.35µm mixed-signal foundry process is part of MagnaChip’s effort to develop highly differentiated mixed-signal technology products to meet application-specific needs.

MagnaChip is a Korea-based designer and manufacturer of analog and mixed-signal semiconductor products for high volume consumer applications. For more information, please visit www.magnachip.com.

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mPhase courts $2M+ investment


February 10, 2012

February 10, 2012 – Marketwire — mPhase Technologies Inc. (OTCBB:XDSL) is in negotiations with an undisclosed private equity group, which could invest at least $2 million in mPhase. The investment would come with a new board member, with a background in cost reduction and marketing.

mPhase expects the private investment to ease the requirement of "continuous financings in the public markets," and help accelerate the time to market for mPhase products. mPhase offers its SmartNanoBattery and other Smart Surface Technology products based on micro electro mechanical system (MEMS) technology for government applications, and is seeking a consumer market.

Also read: mPhase hints at new auto and marine energy product

mPhase Technologies’ Smart Surface technology combines nanotechnology, MEMS processing and microfluidics for applications in drug delivery, lab-on-a-chip analytics, self-cleaning systems, liquid and chemical sensor systems, and filtration systems. More information about the company can be found at http://www.mPhaseTech.com.

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