ST Sees Sales <span style='color:red'>Soar</span>
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ST Sees Sales Soar

Results coming in from several of the chip companies this week have shown a seasonal decline in demand from smartphones impacting revenue growth. STMicroelectronics announced strong first quarter results despite slowdown in sales for smartphones, while Austrian chipmaker ams expects a significant short-term impact from changes in its customers’ smartphone programs.STMicroelectronics’ announced net revenues of $2.23 billion in Q1 2018, up 22.2 percent year-over-year, but a sequential decrease from the previous quarter of 9.8 percent.ST President and CEO Carlo Bozotti, who is retiring May 31, said in a press statement that the company expects second quarter revenue to be up about 17.5 percent compared with the second quarter of last year, "despite the weak demand we are experiencing for smartphones in the first half of 2018."Bozotti said ST's projections for second quarter growth come from strong sales in automotive, industrial and IoT chips.First quarter sales declined sequentially due to a 25 percent decline in sales for ST's analog, MEMS and sensor group. The company said these was due to unfavorable seasonal dynamics for smartphone applications, negatively impacting the its imaging business.Meanwhile, Austrian chip maker ams, which provides high performance sensor solutions, warmed that it expects negative adjusted operating margins for its second quarter based on "a significant under-utilization of capacity."According to ams, the capacity underutilization is being driven by " product transitions and product changes in a major consumer program preventing a pre-production of parts." While ams did not specify the customer, most analysts pointed to Apple, which uses ams optical sensors for its facial recognition technology."At the same time, preparations for expected major ramp-ups in the second half 2018 are on track," ams added.The company reported first quarter sales of $452.7 million, up 147 percent from the year-ago quarter but down 22 percent from the previous quarter. The company said its consumer and communications business started the year on a positive but more balanced note as the market success of its solutions was moderated by noticeable customer volume effects in the smartphone market.
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Release time：2018-04-28 00:00 reading：1222 Continue reading>>
More price pressure on Lithium-ion batteries as cobalt prices soar
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More price pressure on Lithium-ion batteries as cobalt prices soar

　　Cobalt prices are continuing to rise in 2018, having increased by more than 20% in the first quarter, according to EnergyTrend.　　EnergyTrend points to short-term capital speculation and high supplier concentration as the main cause for the rise of raw material costs, and says this ‘concentrated industry structure’ may proceed to push prices in the long-term.　　The data reveals that the soaring costs of raw material will be reflected in prices of lithium batteries and new energy vehicles quarter by quarter. With such heavy reliance resting on cobalt, the battery industry will continue its search to find an alternative material.　　According to Duff Lu, senior research manager of EnergyTrend, the price of cobalt has been a focus of market. The use of cobalt provides battery makers with the easiest way to increase energy density before the new generation materials become matured.　　The price of cobalt metal has hits new highs, Lu adds, from $32/kg in early 2017 to $75/kg at the year end – an annual growth of 114%. In Q1 2018, the price went up by another 26% quarterly, reaching $95/kg. Lu continues that the rising price will bring more challenges to the development of the new energy vehicle industry.　　"The change in cobalt metal prices is mainly influenced by short-term speculation in the market", explains Lu. The prices are mainly decided by the supply side rather than based on supply and demand. Many second-tier makers of battery cells and battery anode material have also been hit hard by the fluctuation of raw material prices. Their cost in raw material purchase turned out to be higher than that of the first-tier manufacturers. Battery system makers and branded makers also rely on first-tier manufacturers for cost considerations, resulting in less diversified supply and less healthy competition in the market.　　However, EnergyTrend says in the battery cells of IT products, the proportion of cobalt is less than 5%, meaning the prices of cobalt will have limited impact on consumer electronics.　　To reduce cost pressure, battery makers are expected to lower the percentage of cobalt in current lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide (NMC) batteries, EnergyTrend reveals.　　Lu says that battery system makers and branded makers will accelerate the development of new generation material and alternatives to reduce the restriction brought by raw materials. Along with developing products with high ratio of nickel, Lu continues, battery makers will also accelerate the mass production of lithium-ion batteries that use silicon oxide as cathode materials.　　These two approaches focus on increasing energy density, while another solution based on blended polymer can effectively reduce costs, the report explains. In the blended polymer solution, NMC and lithium cobalt oxide (LCO) are blended in the anode materials of lithium-ion batteries. Although the energy density is lowered by approximately 20%, this, the data reveals, will still be the direction of development for companies, due to the low costs.　　Major battery cell suppliers like Samsung SDI, LG Chem, and Lishen have proposed blended polymer solutions in which the portion of NMC is higher than 20%. However, swelling of the cell remains a problem for the application of NMC materials in polymer batteries. Therefore, the industry has not yet accumulated complete research and development experience, EnergyTrend says.　　There will be a chance to see a small amount of blended polymer batteries in the market in the second half of 2018, it adds. But, if the cobalt price declines rapidly in the future, it will need further observation to find out whether the development of blended polymer solutions is valuable for the market.
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Release time：2018-04-16 00:00 reading：1391 Continue reading>>
As Rivals Tussle, Silicon Labs <span style='color:red'>Soar</span>s
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As Rivals Tussle, Silicon Labs Soars

　　Silicon Labs is riding high. The Austin, Texas-based chip vendor has taken a methodical approach in its pursuit of the IoT market, focused keenly on expanding its wireless portfolio and developing a multiprotocol environment among different wireless networks.　　These efforts, most recently, resulted in a record $100 million in revenue from the company’s IoT products in the third quarter of 2017.　　Silicon Labs CEO Tyson Tuttle, buttonholed at the Consumer Electronics Show, conceded that his company has benefited from turmoil among its rivals, who have been preoccupied with M&A upheavals.　　Tuttle explained that during the prolonged M&A fever, companies facing uncertainty about the future tend to start either canceling programs or losing talent. Instability breeds confusion and anxiety among both customers and employees. “People tend to think, ‘we’ll wait for what will happen,’” said Tuttle.　　Silicon Labs, on the other hand, has been able to snag a few stars who were formerly with Freescale or NXP Semiconductors. NXP’s acquisition by Qualcomm, originally scheduled to close at the end of 2017, is still pending. Meanwhile, Qualcomm might be acquired in a hostile takeover bid Broadcom launched late last year.　　Silicon Labs’s edge, for now, is that “our customers know that we are in the IoT business for the long haul,” the CEO said. Silicon Labs is expecting its IoT business to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 25 percent, Tuttle told us. Noting that a half of the company’s IoT revenue is generated from wireless products, he added, “Our wireless business is growing at a 40 percent (CAGR).”　　Focus on wireless　　Last month, Silicon Labs announced a plan to acquire Sigma Designs for $282 million in cash. The deal is designed to broaden Silicon Labs' IoT connectivity product portfolio to include Z-Wave, a wireless mesh technology using low-energy radio waves for IoT smart home devices.　　The acquisition has not closed yet, so Tuttle declined to detail plans for Z-Wave. However, the addition of Z-Wave would mark a crowning moment for Silicon Labs. It has spent several years steadily expanding its wireless portfolio — which now includes Bluetooth, Thread and Zigbee — and patiently developing multiprotocol solutions.　　According to the Z-Wave Alliance, more than 2,100 interoperable Z-Wave uses have been developed, and more than 70 million Z-Wave products sold since 2001.　　What about WAN?　　So, what’s next for Silicon Labs? Any plans to get into NB-IoT or any other low-power Wide Area Network technologies?　　Tuttle said, “Wide Area Network (WAN) is something we are monitoring,” but the company has no immediate plans in that market.　　Silicon Labs’ focus has always been on Personal Area Network (PAN) and Local Area Network (LAN), but not WAN. Tuttle remains skeptical of WAN, when [cellular] operators get involved in building IoT networks. The issue for IoT device vendors is, he asked, “How are you going to make money” if you have to shell out fees to cellular networks?　　Silicon Labs, thus far, has never had to build any relationships with [cellular] operators. For his company, Tuttle sees in WAN “market risks, time-to-market problems and uncertainty of overall development.”　　He noted that Silicon Labs is no Qualcomm, MediaTek, Huawei or Intel. “We find WAN a difficult landscape for us. Besides, we don’t want to jump in the market where we can’t become a leader.”　　Tuttle did mention last week’s announcement of a collaboration with Hager Group (Obernai, France). Hager is rolling out a new smart RF module incorporating Silicon Labs’ wireless Gecko SoC, combining 2.4GHz Bluetooth, sub-GHz KNX and Sigfox LWAN connectivity. The module is designed to enable “energy-efficient multiprotocol and multiband connectivity at 2.4 GHz, 868 MHz and 433 MHz,” according to the two companies.　　In contrast, MediaTek’s CFO David Ku, asked about his company’s IoT strategy, told us, “I think we were too late to get into the low-power wireless home networking technology like Zigbee.” MediaTek, instead, is opting to play to its strength by connecting IoT devices to gateways and the cloud. “Take a look at voice assistant devices like Amazon Echo. We essentially see it as a tablet without a screen,” Ku said.　　Asked about the company’s lack of wireless technologies such as Zigbee or Z-wave to connect lights in a building, Ku countered that IoT for consumer applications at home is already well established with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and 2G and 3G modules. He said, “I’m not sure if consumers need a daisy chain (network topology, like Zigbee.”　　Separately, MediaTek is probing the notion of installing a small AI SoC in every home-connected device, such as light switches. MediaTek’s low-power AI processor, able to recognize 20-30 key words, is designed to control connected devices by voice. “You can turn lights on and off at home” without using a smartphone or installing Amazon Echo in every room, he explained.　　Challenges of broad IoT market　　The biggest challenge facing Silicon Labs, as Tuttle sees it, is “how to make R&D more efficient.” The fragmentation of the IoT market has generated hundreds of IoT applications, with thousands of customers seeking different implementations.　　Silicon Labs needs to deliver a differentiated portfolio that responds to those needs across varying applications. Designing a separate product for each and every company, however, is inefficient and not scalable. “That’s why it’s so important for us to develop a common platform,” Tuttle said. The goal is to offer one piece of hardware supported by multiple protocols in software, which then aggregate many functions.　　This is where RAIL comes in, said Tuttle. The company developed a common RAdio Interface Layer, called RAIL, on which both Bluetooth and Zigbee stacks run. Notably, Silicon Labs acquired in 2016 real-time OS supplier Micrium. Silicon Labs’ engineering team has “bent its RTOS kernel for connected IoT applications,” as Daniel Cooley, senior vice president and general manager of IoT products at Silicon Labs, told us in a previous interview with EE Times.　　Silicon Labs designed a Radio Scheduler, which manages requests from the protocol to access the radio while the Micrium OS kernel resource-sharing between the stacks. In short, IoT device developers can use RAIL as a common API and interface to share the radio.　　Tuttle said that prioritizing projects and simplifying IoT designs for its customers is critical. Developing modules is also important. “Modules can help. In fact, 25 percent of our IoT revenue comes from our module business.”　　Tuttle sees Silicon Labs’ advantage today is that “our customers know that we’re committed to the IoT market. We are a one-stop shop for IoT, supporting everything from software to hardware, and all the way to modules.” That market confidence — the notion that Silicon Labs “will be always there with a complete IoT solution including the company’s own software” —can carry his company a long way into the future, Tuttle explained.
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Release time：2018-01-17 00:00 reading：1354 Continue reading>>
TSMC Expects 10nm Demand to <span style='color:red'>Soar</span>
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TSMC Expects 10nm Demand to Soar

　　Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) expects demand for its 10nm products to soar this year while its largest customer, Apple, ramps up production of the iPhone X.　　“We expect the N10 (TSMC’s designation for 10nm) to contribute about 10 percent of our full-year 2017 wafer revenue,” TSMC Co-CEO CC Wei said at an event in Taipei to announce the company’s third-quarter revenue. The outlook for the world’s biggest foundry has improved from three months ago, when the company said it expected 10nm sales to account for 10 percent of its second-half revenue.　　Based on the latest forecast, TSMC would log $3.2 billion from sales of 10nm chips in 2017. The company started 10nm production in the second quarter of this year, lagging its largest foundry rival, Samsung, by about four months. TSMC has become the sole supplier of Apple’s application processors after snatching the business away from Samsung.　　Some analysts had concerns about whether 10nm demand might plunge early next year, however.　　“For the fourth quarter, 10nm will be about 25 percent of your total revenue,” Citigroup analyst Roland Shu said to the TSMC executives at the Taipei event. “With this high figure for the fourth quarter, are you worried about the first quarter of next year?”　　Shu’s calculation “is quite close to the number we have,” Wei replied. “In smartphones, there is that seasonality. We don’t know the impact yet, but our customer is working on migration to the next node. That will ramp up in the second half of next year.”　　Exceeding Expectations　　TSMC said its annual sales growth should reach 8.8 percent in 2017, better than the company’s previous forecasts.　　TSMC is increasing its capital expenditure budget for this year to $10.8 billion from an earlier forecast of $10 billion as the company accelerates its buildup of 7nm capacity. The company expects a fast ramp of 7nm in 2018. For the next few years, TSMC forecast its annual capex budget to be about $10 billion.　　The company has transferred 7nm from R&D to manufacturing. The first 7nm chips to be made during the first half of 2018 will be high-end application processors and SoCs for high-performance computing, according to Co-CEO Wei. The company expects more than 50 tapeouts at that node by the end of 2018, he said.　　The company will also start risk production of its derivative N7+ during 2018. Compared with the earlier N7, the N7+ will have a 20 percent area reduction and a 10 percent speed improvement. The company will use EUV for production at the N7+ node, according to Wei.　　That shift to EUV may present some difficulties for customers migrating from N7 to N7+.　　“We are going to use a few layers of EUV in N7+,” Wei said. “If you are talking about the N7 product, customers will need to re-tapeout for the N7+ to get the benefits.”　　A lot of the same design rules will be used in the N7 and the N7+, so customers will not need to spend all of their resources designing for a new node, he said.　　The company said it is on track to start volume production of 5nm chips in 2020. Co-CEO Mark Liu pledged that the company’s 5nm products will have the best power efficiency in the industry.　　In the meantime, the company continues to defend its approximate 90 percent share in the legacy 28nm node. About 23 percent of TSMC’s third-quarter revenue came from 28nm products, and the company had its highest number of tapeouts at that node during the period, according to Wei.　　“We will continue to maintain our high market share in 28nm next year,” Wei predicted.　　Looking ahead to new business areas, TSMC said it expects to double its automotive business in the next five years from about $1.5 billion this year. The company also noted that it had about $400 million in revenue from a chainblock application for cryptocurrency mining. TSMC said the customer designed its own “powerful” chip. While the business is relatively small, the company noted that it has grown rapidly.
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Release time：2017-10-23 00:00 reading：1543 Continue reading>>
Chip Capex Expected to <span style='color:red'>Soar</span> 20%
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Chip Capex Expected to Soar 20%

　　Semiconductor industry capital spending will soar by 20 percent this year, largely driven by Samsung, according to market watcher IC Insights.　　The forecast for the industry is in line with an earlier estimation by semiconductor association SEMI for fab equipment sales to jump by 23 percent. The key driver behind strong growth this year has been the memory chip segment.　　Semiconductor industry spending rose by 48 percent in the first half of 2017 compared with the same period last year, IC Insights said in a report emailed to EE Times.  The increase in capital spending during the second half of 2017 will depend to a large extent on the level of Samsung’s outlays during the rest of this year, the report said. Samsung is the world’s largest memory chipmaker and has recently become the world’s largest chipmaker as well.　　“Not only has Samsung Semiconductor been on a tear with regard to its semiconductor sales, surging into the number-one ranking in the second quarter of 2017, but the company has also been on a tremendous capital spending spree for its semiconductor division this year,” the IC Insights report said.　　Samsung’s full-year 2017 capital expenditures could range from $15 billion to $22 billion, according to the report. If Samsung spends $22 billion this year, total semiconductor industry capex could reach $85.4 billion, representing a 27% increase over the $67.3 billion the industry spent in 2016, IC Insights said.　　Samsung spent $11 billion for its semiconductor group in the first half of 2017, more than three times what the company spent in the first half of 2016 and $300 million short of Samsung’s total expenditures in 2016, the report noted. Samsung’s first-half 2017 capex accounted for 25 percent of overall chip industry expenditures during the same period and 28 percent of total outlays in the second quarter of this year.　　While the company has publicly reported the $11 billion capex for its semiconductor division in the first half of this year, Samsung has been very secretive about its full-year 2017 budget for its semiconductor group, IC Insights said.　　Spending surges often precede severe slumps in the cyclical chip industry.  In 2012, the last time Samsung went on a spending spree, the company slashed its second-half capex by more than 50 percent from $8.5 billion in the first half of 2012 to $3.7 billion during the second half of the same year, IC Insights said.　　The other two of the top-three spenders, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) and Intel, are likely to move in opposite directions with their second-half 2017 capex plans, according to the report.　　TSMC spent about $6.8 billion in the first half of this year.  If the world’s largest foundry sticks to its $10 billion budget for this year, it would only spend about $3.2 billion in the second half of 2017.  By comparison, Intel invested only about $4.7 billion in the first half of this year, allowing the company to spend up to $7.3 billion in during the second half in order to reach its stated full-year 2017 spending budget of $12.0 billion, according to the report.
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Release time：2017-08-24 00:00 reading：1406 Continue reading>>

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