ChipCrunch.com

The other day I ran across an article on EETimes.com titled Which chip makers will rule in 2018? While the focus of the article is on the future, probably the most interesting piece of data that it contained was actually a table, depicted below, which showed the top 10 semiconductor supplier from 1978 to 2008 in ten year increments. It is surprising how much information can be gleamed from a simple table such as this one: rise and fall of companies, countries, results of mergers and acquisitions and so on.

Here are a few observations: For those like myself, that cannot call themselves industry veterans quite yet, it might comes as a surprise that in 1978 TI and Motorola where the two dominant companies. Noticeable as well is Intel’s 9th position in the ranking below National and Fairchild. As we all know, over the next few decades Intel would go on and climb the ranking to eventually claim the number one spot. National and Fairchild did not fare nearly as well. By the late 1970s Fairchild was very much past its glory days, and in 1979 it was acquired by Schlumberger Limited – an oil field services company. Not surprisingly, in 1987 Schlumberger sold Fairchild to National, however as can be seen from the table, by the time 1988 rolled around, the combined entity no longer made the top 10 list. The 1988 rankings show the ascend of Japanese suppliers: NEC, Toshiba, and Hitachi claimed the top three spots, respectively, and overall, Japanese companies claimed six of the top 10 spots. In 1998, the picture changed again, with Intel taking the number one spot and with Samsung’s ascend signaling the emergence of South Korea as a major player in the semiconductor field. Interestingly the table also places Infineon in the tenth spot. In actuality, the company still ought to be have been called Siemens at that point since Infineon did not spin out from Siemens until 1999.

The 2008 rankings also showed some major changes in part due to mergers and acquisitions: Renesas, a joint venture between Mitsubishi and Hitachi, joined the list. NEC, which spun out NEC Electronics in 2003, dropped off the list completely. Earlier this year though, Renesas and NEC Electronics announced plans to merge by 2010 and thus create the world’s third largest semiconductor supplier, at least on paper. Motorola and Philips, both of whom spun out their semiconductor divisions as Freescale Semiconductor and NXP Semiconductors, respectively, have failed to translate the spin-outs into sales, and as such both have dropped off the list. Hynix Semiconductor, a spin-out from Hyundai Electronic, joined Samsung as the second South Korean company on the top 10 list, continuing the ascend of Korean companies. The 2008 list also showed the emergence of fabless semiconductor companies, with Qualcomm joining the list in the 8th spot. Strictly going by name recognition and ignoring all the new ventures created through mergers and acquisitions only Intel and Toshiba have remained in the top 10 list over the last three decades. What will the next decade bring is an interesting question indeed, but we’ll have to wait till 2018 to find out.

Anyone who ever had to hook up a serious amount of electronic equipment knows that wiring everything together in a neat fashion is a major hassle and quite a time consuming task. Once hooked up, we are more likely to move everything else in a room to make the arrangement work, rather than dealing with the wiring again. Granted, over the last decade the number of wires needed for particular applications has been decreasing due to the utilization of wireless standards such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi and due to new interface such as HDMI. However, the pesky power cable that most appliances require, be it only for charging at times, has proven hard to get rid off. But there seems to be some hope on the horizon coming from a startup aptly named WiTricty. Founded in 2007 and based out of Watertown, MA, WiTricity was formed to commercialize technology for wireless electricity transfer that was developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) about two years prior. The actual technology behind this wireless feat is called resonant magnetic coupling, which enables devices to transfer energy through a magnetic filed over mid-range distances. The company demonstrated wirelessly powering a 60W light bulb in 2007 at a distance of 2 meters with a 40 percent efficiency. The picture below depicts WiTricity’s vision about how that company envisions the technology being implemented.

Although WiTricity claims that the magnetic fields generated will be harmless to humans, since magnetic fields interact weakly with biological organisms, I expect that many people will be rather uneasy about this technology initially. People still have many questions regarding the safety of cell phones and one would expect the same with this technology. A detailed discussion of several methods for wirelessly transferring energy can be found here. It should be noted that the fundamentals behind WiTricity’s technology are not really new. Back in the 19th century Nikola Tesla demonstrated the wireless illumination of phosphorescent lamps using a similar technique. This just shows you that what may seem new, might simply be a new implementation of an old idea. Nevertheless, if WiTricity can deliver a reliable solution at a descent price, and can convince OEMs to integrate it technology into upcoming products, there will clearly be a market for it. Now, what about preventing your next door neighbor from stealing your wireless electricity – is another set of authentication nightmares on the way?

We’ve written about Black Sand Technologies, a semiconductor startup focused on CMOS RF Power Amplifiers out of Austin, TX, on several occasions: We first profiled the company back in 2007, shortly after the company raised $8.2 Million in Series A funding. Last year, we briefly discussed Black Sand’s chief technologist Susanne Paul and her thoughts regarding silicon based power amplifiers. As yet another year rolls around; it is good to see that Black Sand Technologies has continued working hard on their products and has seemingly made some very good progress.

Earlier this week, the company announced that it has produced the world’s first 3G CMOS based RF Power Amplifier (PA). In addition, the company was also able to raise $10 Million in Series B funding from the same venture capital firms as last time, namely Austin Ventures and North Bridge Partners. This brings the total funding for the company to a respectable $18.2 Million. Most of the claims regarding the newly announced product seem to make sense at least on the surface: lower cost vs. Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) based amplifiers, more battery life do to programmability and compact integration, as well as better overall performance. We’ll see about better yields and call quality once products begin shipping with this new technology. Overall, the company seems to be very well positioned at this point. As mobile devices such as smart phones and netbooks gain in popularity, and adopt ever higher data transfer standards such as 3G, 4G, and beyond, it is fair to expect that the number of required PAs per device will increase. Since these devices are part of a highly price sensitive market, in which battery-life is of uttermost importance, it is only a question of when, not if, the IP developed by Black Sand Technologies will get integrated into ICs for the next must have mobile devices.

Traveling extensively around Europe the last couple of weeks I encountered an all too familiar problem: I was constantly running out of battery life be it for my shaver, cell phone, or laptop computer - there simply never was a power outlet available when needed. When it comes to electronic devices, one can either design a system that consumers less power or one can opt for a battery that can store more charge. The first one is being extensively done already, and in the shrinking world of electronic devices a larger battery is often times not an option. Further, with System on a Chip (SOC) designs integrating ever more functionality and components, any potential battery life gains due to low voltage operation are quickly cancelled out. To compound this problem, the current batch of rechargeable batteries looses significant capacity after only a few hundred recharge cycles. For the weary traveler what is needed are batteries with a higher density that loose less capacity over time. Luckily, there seems to be at least some hope on the horizon.

Earlier this year, we wrote about batteries that are to be composed entirely of liquids and for which the commercialization is expected within the next five years or so. On the exactly opposite side of the spectrum one can find a company called Seeo, a battery startup out of Berkeley, CA which is developing rechargeable lithium batteries utilizing a solid-state polymer electrolyte. Just a few days ago the company raised an additional $8.6 million in funding to bring the total funding to a little over $10 million. Seeo is being pretty stealthy regarding its technology and you won’t find anything but a simple messages on the company’s website informing you that the company is developing advanced materials that will revolutionize electricity storage and delivery. However, digging around the web yielded at little bit of information.

The technology Seeo is using was licensed by the company from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and is based on a nano-structured polymer electrolyte (NPE). Unlike current lithium-ion batteries the NPE based batteries being developed by Seeo have several advantages: They can be designed to resists dendrite growth which under certain circumstances can lead to shorts and potential explosions. They lack the highly flammable liquid electrolytes and are thus inherently safer than traditional lithium-ion batteries. NPE based batteries should also exhibit a significantly higher energy density over existing batteries. Finally, the batteries are expected to only loose about five percent of their capacity after a thousand cycles. On the downside, NPE batteries are expected to require a longer charge time than lithium-ion batteries. Even with this short coming there are likely to be plenty of products that will be able to take advantage of this new technology. And if nothing else, it is good to see that there is plenty of innovation happening on the battery front as well.