WASHINGTON—Feb. 5, 2018—The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), representing U.S. leadership in semiconductor manufacturing, design, and research, today announced the global semiconductor industry posted sales totaling $412.2 billion in 2017, the industry’s highest-ever annual sales and an increase of 21.6 percent compared to the 2016 total. Global sales for the month of December 2017 reached $38.0 billion, an increase of 22.5 percent over the December 2016 total and 0.8 percent more than the previous month’s total. Fourth-quarter sales of $114.0 billion were 22.5 percent higher than the total from the fourth quarter of 2016 and 5.7 percent more than the third quarter of 2017. Global sales during the fourth quarter of 2017 and during December 2017 were the industry’s highest-ever quarterly and monthly sales, respectively. All monthly sales numbers are compiled by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization and represent a three-month moving average.

As closed “black box” components, batteries are challenging energy-storage systems to fully assess. It’s obviously easy to measure their terminal voltage and input/output current, and to estimate their internal temperature based on external readings and appropriate thermal models. However, measuring their impedance is difficult, especially when the battery is in use. Yet that last factor is needed to fully judge their health and condition in active use or during a maintenance cycle.

To address this issue, the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) has developed an impedance measurement box (IMB) that directly addresses the in-use characterization of this parameter (Fig. 1). (INL is a leading government laboratory in the U.S. for research, development, demonstration, and deployment related to nuclear and other types of energy.)

In the IMB system, an input signal composed of a wideband set of to about 25 to 30 sine waves is injected into the battery. Typical frequencies are between 0.1 and 1650 Hz (the typical limit used for lithium-ion batteries), but can go higher depending on the battery specifics and test objectives.

The battery’s response is captured and processed by a set of algorithms to provide results that characterize a single cell or cluster of cells

IMB procedure takes about 10 to 15 seconds to directly measure the wideband impedance spectrum during battery operation, and with no significant impact on service life.

The latest version of the IMB is a third-generation unit that can assess a 50-V system, needed for testing of large-scale battery assemblies that contain larger numbers of cells.

This system determines the impedance of batteries in just a few seconds, while the batteries are charging or discharging in their normal operating modes.

The newly ratified ANSI/VITA 48.8 standard looks to reduce the dependence on conduction cooling for 3U and 6U circuit cards with VPX connectors.

It’s not news that cooling and thermal management are never-ending issues for systems and their power supplies. Ironically, though, the emergence of smaller components with more processing capability while operating at much lower power has had the counterintuitive effect of actually increasing thermal density, with designers expected to pack even more functionality into ever-smaller spaces.

To accommodate this trend, a newly ratified industry standard encourages increased use of convection cooling and reduces the dependence on conduction cooling for designs using 3U and 6U circuit cards with VPX connectors. ANSI/VITA 48.8 is a mechanical form-factor standard that leverages air-flow-through (AFT) cooling, enabling designers to choose standard-compliant modules from a variety of vendors with the assurance they will be physically (and electrically) compatible.

This specification defines a framework for the design of plug-in modules with AFT cooling while retaining the VPX connector layout. It’s the first open-standard AFT technology that can accommodate small-form-factor 3U VPX modules. These are attractive to military and aerospace applications because they’re particularly sensitive to SWaP-C (size, weight, power, and cost) constraints typified by helicopters and unmanned vehicles.

Conduction vs. Convection

Most conduction-cooling approaches remove heat via a physical path from the hot components, through the circuit card, through the card wedgelocks, through the chassis walls, and out to ambient air. In contrast, AFT cooling uses a heat exchanger integrated into the structural frame of each circuit card. Unlike the use of cooling air impinged directly on the components and circuit boards, the AFT plug-in module employs a finned heat-exchanger frame located within the central section of the assembly to top-cool the primary circuit-board components as well as mezzanine-board components.

Formally known as ANSI/VITA 48.8-2017, “Mechanical Standard for Electronic VPX Plug-in Modules Using Air Flow Through Cooling” was developed and promoted by a working group sponsored by Lockheed Martin, Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions, and Abaco, and chaired by Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions

ANSI and VITA Ratify ANSI/VITA 48.8 Air-Flow-Through Cooling Standard for VPX
https://www.vita.com/resources/VITA_News/VITA-NR-2017-10%20VITA%2048.8%20Ratification.pdf

Mechanical
standard for e
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plug-in units provides
lower weight, reduced
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cooling technology.

2017 was a terrific year. Chip revenues closed at nearly $440B, an impressive 22 percent year-over-year growth. The equipment industry surpassed revenue levels last reached in the year 2000. Semiconductor equipment posted sales of nearly $56B and semiconductor materials $48B in 2017. For semiconductor equipment, this was a giant 36 percent year-over-year growth. Samsung, alone, invested $26B in semiconductor CapEx in 2017 – an incredible single year spend in an incredible year.

MEMS and sensors gained new growth in telecom and medical markets, adding to existing demand from automotive, industrial and consumer segments. MEMS is forecast to be a $19B industry in 2018.

It’s time to recognize the year’s top products, with EDN’s annual Hot 100 products!

The mood of semiconductor executives was upbeat at their annual gathering in this coastal town socked in with fog. The weather was an appropriate backdrop for the cautious optimism market watchers recommended here.

Semiconductors should have another good year in 2018, but growth is slowing. Further out, a downturn may be coming for the industry and the broader economy — but just when and why is still not clear, speakers said at the Industry Strategy Symposium here.

Gartner predicts after last year’s 22.2-percent revenue surge, the chip market will settle down to a still better-than-average 7.5-percent growth this year. It predicted the chip market will cool off in 2019 and 2020 with two basically flat years.

The EDA sector continues to exhibit solid growth, increasing 8% to $2.2262 billion in Q3, up from $2.0937 billion in the same period in 2016, according to the most recent stats from the ESD Alliance Market Statistics Service. The four-quarter moving average was up 11.5%, year over year.

While all of the numbers were up, two areas showed extraordinary growth. One involved Japan, which showed a 9.7 increase in Q3 2017, compared with the same period 8in 2016. CAE grew 15.2% in that period, while PCB/MCM was up 16.2% and IP was up 6%. Only IC physical design and verification and services revenue showed a decrease in that country.

The rising revenue enjoyed by automatic test equipment vendors in 2017 translated into soaring stock prices for some publicly held companies.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 25% for 2017.

Worldwide semiconductor revenue totalled $419.7 billion in 2017, a 22.2 percent increase from 2016, according to preliminary results by Gartner, Inc. Undersupply helped drive 64 percent revenue growth in the memory market, which accounted for 31 percent of total semiconductor revenue in 2017.

“The largest memory supplier, Samsung Electronics, gained the most market share and took the No. 1 position from Intel — the first time Intel has been toppled since 1992,” saidAndrew Norwood, research vice president at Gartner. “Memory accounted for more than two-thirds of all semiconductor revenue growth in 2017, and became the largest semiconductor category.”

The key driver behind the booming memory revenue was higher prices due to a supply shortage. NAND flash prices increased year over year for the first time ever, up 17 percent, while DRAM prices rose 44 percent.

Semiconductor sales grew by 22 percent to reach a record $419.7 billion — with memory chips leading the way — according to a preliminary estimate by market research firm Gartner.

Gartner (Stamford, Conn.) estimates that increased sales of memory chips due to shortages of NAND flash and DRAM accounted for about two-thirds of overall chip market growth in 2017. Memory also become the single largest semiconductor products category last year, according to the firm.

The estimated total sales for the year of $419.7 billion

As expected, South Korea’s Samsung Electronics — the top memory chip vendor — rose to No. 1 in overall semiconductor sales for the first time, displacing Intel, which had held the top spot in sales every year since 1992.