DoD Seeks $2.3B To Bolster US Chip Making

WASHINGTON: The Pentagon is seeking $2.3 billion to improve its ability to make specialized semiconductors for military use, as well as to fund next-generation chip innovation. Semiconductors, used in almost every advanced weapon, are especially critical to enabling a range of defense “disruptive technologies,” such as hypersonics, AI, and 5G — all of which receive significant funding in the proposed 2022 budget.

Source: DoD Seeks $2.3B To Bolster US Chip Making « Breaking Defense – Defense industry news, analysis and commentary

Will Arizona Become the Nation’s Semiconductor Hub?

As organizations worldwide continue to grapple with a critical shortage of semiconductors plus myriad other supply chain disruptions, Arizona is positioning itself as a high-tech manufacturing hotbed. “Arizona has rapidly become an epicenter for electric vehicle and self-driving tech,” CNBC reports, “and it’s now the site of three big new semiconductor factories as the U.S. struggles to increase production during the global chip shortage.”

Source: Will Arizona Become the Nation’s Semiconductor Hub? | Source Today

Top-15 Semi Companies Log Year-Over-Year Growth of 21% in 1Q21

IC Insights released its May Update to the 2021 McClean Report last week.  This Update included a discussion of the 1Q21 IC industry market results, an updated quarterly forecast for the remainder of this year, and a look at the top-25 1Q21 semiconductor suppliers. The top-15 1Q21 semiconductor suppliers are covered in this research bulletin.

The Next Wave of Gallium Nitride

At PCIM – this year in digital version – several companies are showing their latest innovations. The GaN power market doubled in 2020 according to Yole

Source: The Next Wave of Gallium Nitride – Power Electronics News

Semiconductor Chip Shortage Update: Relief in Sight? 

Pervasive and persistent, the global semiconductor chip shortage is impacting auto manufacturers, computer makers, mobile phone producers and pretty much any other industry that relies on chips to make its end products.

Source: Semiconductor Chip Shortage Update: Relief in Sight? | Source Today

The global chip shortage is going from bad to worse

London (CNN Business)In the market for a new car, smartphone or washing machine this year? A global shortage of computer chips could mean you have to wait a while and pay more.A growing number of manufacturers around the world are having trouble securing supplies of semiconductors, delaying the production and delivery of goods and threatening to push up the prices paid by consumers.

Source: The global chip shortage is going from bad to worse. Here’s why you should care – CNN

Panthronics demo kit enables NFC reader functionality on Synergy MCU platforms

Panthronics has announced an extension of the evaluation kit for its PTX100R NFC Reader IC helping to accelerate development of NFC applications on the Renesas Synergy family of 32-bit microcontrollers

Source: Panthronics demo kit enables NFC reader functionality on Synergy MCU platforms

Global Semiconductor Sales Up 14.7% YOY in February 

WASHINGTON—April 5, 2021—The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) today announced global semiconductor industry sales were $39.6 billion for the month of February 2021, an increase of 14.7% over the February 2020 total of $34.5 billion, but 1.0% less than the January 2021 total of $40.0 billion. Monthly sales are compiled by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization and represent a three-month moving average. SIA represents 98% of the U.S. semiconductor industry by revenue and nearly two-thirds of non-U.S. chip firms.

Source: Global Semiconductor Sales Up 14.7% Year-to-Year in February – Semiconductor Industry Association

Intel Drops a Bomb, Not the Ball 

Intel rewarded the patient this week as Pat Gelsinger made some very big announcements about the formation of a standalone foundry business, increased partnerships with TSMC for manufacturing of Intel processor products, and a huge promised investment in new manufacturing plants in Arizona. EETimes editor Brian Santo provided an excellent synposis and analysis of Gelsinger’s web presentation.

Source: Intel Drops a Bomb, Not the Ball | EE Times

Chiplets: A Short History 

In another “rabbit hole moment,” I lost myself in a bout of reminiscence on the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. A prehistoric SemiSerious blog post from 2009 attempted to provide updates from ISSCC 2009. TechInsights engineers Aaron Murray, James Bull, and Mohammad Ahmad provided the boots on the ground reports to HQ. I believe these three fine gentlemen all continue their yeoman’s work at the Ottawa company.

Source: Chiplets: A Short History | EE Times

SSDI Adds GaN FET with Enhanced Radiation Tolerance

La Mirada, CA – SSDI’s latest hermetic GaN FET device, SGR15E90M, utilizes a GaN FET in the place of a silicon MOSFET at the input stage to provide enhanced radiation tolerance. The SGR15E90M’s cascode device structure consists of a high voltage depletion mode GaN FET at the output stage and a low voltage enhancement mode GaN FET at the input stage. The GaN FET at the input stage offers a gate-source voltage of +6 to -4 V and since gallium nitride is inherently rad tolerant, it will improve radiation tolerance when compared to a silicon MOSFET.

Source: News 2021-02-15: SGR15E90M

Panthronics offers NFC Readers for POS & MPOS

The PTX100R marks a breakthrough in NFC system performance, power and size.The PTX100R is fully compliant with the specifications of the latest EMVCo 3.0 standard for contactless payments. It is supplied with an application-ready EMVCo 3.0 L1 interface. The Panthronics product includes a set of facilities which makes the integration of a third-party EMV L2 stack fast and easy. It also provides rich debugging capabilities allowing for rapid prototyping.

Source: Products – Panthronics