Business News Holding

Tag: semi-conductor

  • Amimon Raises $10 Million on Back of Strong WHDI Performance


    Wireless HD chipmaker Amimon has raised USD $10 million in its latest round of funding.

    The Israeli company’s announcement as demand for HDTVs capable of wirelessly transferring HD video from one device in the home continues to grow.

    Led by Stata Venture Partners the funding round also includes previous backers Argonaut Private Equity, Cedar Fund, Evergreen Venture Partners, Walden Israel and Motorola Ventures.

    The company said it has developed six different chips to date with its prior funding, including a new chip based on the WHDI (Wireless Home Digital Interface) standard.

    Its first-generation product is performing well, both in consumer electronics devices and in medical imaging equipment.

    Customers include Sony, Sharp, Mitsubishi, Gefen, Belkin, Stryker (medical devices), IDX (Pro AV video cameras), Philips, and Hinsense.

    The second-generation WHDI chip set improves on the first in that it can transfer full HD video – defined as video in the 1080p format running at 60 frames per second.

    The previous chip set could only do 1080i video at slower speeds.

    The new chip set is compliant with the Wireless Home Digital Interface (WHDI) industry standard and is expected to ship in customer products in 2010.

    Rival SiBEAM uses a different technology, based on the 60-gigahertz band of the radio spectrum, with higher speeds but shorter ranges.

    Yoav Nissan-Cohen, chairman and CEO of AMIMON, said the company is experiencing "strong acceptance" of the newly introduced 1080p/60Hz chipset.

    "The additional funding will allow Amimon to seize this opportunity to solidify our leadership position," he said.

    "We will use this round of funding to enhance production and expand our worldwide operations to meet growing global demand for our technology in the consumer electronics market as well as the medical and professional video markets."

  • 2011 Peak For SD DTT STB semiconductors


    High-definition Digital Terrestrial TV (DTT) set top boxes (STBs) offer semiconductor makers a short term spike in opportunity.

    But standard definition (SD) DTT STBs will be a more sustainable market for manufacturers, according to In-Stat.

    The researchers forecast that the semiconductor opportunity in SD DTT boxes will peak at nearly USD $500 million by 2011.

    Gerry Kaufhold, In-Stat analyst, said the US analog shut off has driven a surge of HD converter boxes in 2008 and 2009.

    "However, this bubble will wane, while the SD DTT market continues to grow across a broader set of geographic markets," he said.

    Other findings from In-Stat include:

    • The European DTT STB Market Value will peak in 2011 at $1.6 billion.
    • On a European country basis, UK leads the market, followed by Spain, France, Germany, and then Italy.
    • Total DTT STB unit shipments will peak at 44 million in 2009.
    • Key component categories include the Demux/CPU/AV decoder and the MPEG-2 MP@HL/Graphics IC

  • Plastics breakthrough could help cut cost of Blu-ray players

    Scientists have moved a step closer to producing electrically-powered plastic laser diodes that could be used in Blu-ray players.
    Currently the laser diodes in such consumer optical storage devices are made out of inorganic semiconductors like gallium arsenide, gallium nitride and other semiconductor alloys related to them.
    Now, researchers at Imperial College in London have demonstrated a class of plastic semiconductor materials that may allow the low-cost manufacture of electrically-powered plastic laser diodes.
    As well as reducing the cost of devices such as Blu-ray players the development could allow plastic laser diodes to operate across a much more substantial wavelength range.
    Professor Donal Bradley, lead author of the new study and head of Imperial’s Department of Physics said the development was “a real breakthrough”.
    “In the past, designing polymers for electronic and optoelectronic devices often involved maximising one key property in a material at a time,” he said.
    “When people tried to develop plastic semiconductors for laser diode use, they found that optimising the material’s charge transporting properties had a detrimental effect on its ability to efficiently emit light, and vice versa.”
    The study’s co-author, Dr Paul Stavrinou, added: “The modifications made to the PFO structure have allowed us to convincingly overcome this perceived incompatibility and they suggest that plastic laser diodes might now be a realistic possibility.”
    One of the main stumbling blocks to using plastic semiconductor laser diodes is that, until now, no plastics had been found that could sustain a large enough current whilst also supporting the efficient light emission needed to produce a laser beam.
    Now the Imperial physicists have done just that. The plastics studied, synthesised by the Sumitomo Chemical Company in Japan, are closely related to PFO, an archetype blue-light emitting material.
    By making subtle changes in the plastic’s chemical structure the researchers produced a material that transports charges 200 times better than before, without compromising its ability to efficiently emit light – indeed the generation of laser light was actually improved.
    The research team argues that the future laser diodes made out of the material they have developed may generate light emissions covering the spectrum all the way from near ultraviolet to near infrared.