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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: J_K who wrote (33459)	12/9/1999 11:51:00 AM
From: Ian@SI	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

Industry Grp: Oct. Worldwide Semiconductor Sales $13.4B SAN JOSE -- The Semiconductor Industry Association said worldwide sales of semiconductors rose to a record $13.4 billion in October from $10.87 billion last year. The latest figure beat record sales of $13.19 billion in November 1995. In a press release Thursday, the industry group said the October sales continue a strong growth pattern that began in mid-1998 and outpace the group's recent forecast. The Semiconductor Industry Association said total semiconductor sales rose 5.6% in October to $13.4 billion from $12.7 billion in September. Referring to its recent 1999-2002 forecast, the group projected the worldwide semiconductor industry will grow 14.7% with sales of more than $144 billion this year. With October's global sales numbers, year-to-year date numbers outpaced the group's forecast at 15.6%. Semiconductor Industry Association said October semiconductor sales for the Americas rose 3.7% to $4.19 billion from $4.04 billion in September, while sales in Europe for the same peroid rose 6.9% to $2.85 billion from the month-ago sales of $2.67 billion. Japanese semiconductor sales rose 6% to $2.96 billion in October from $2.79 billion in September, while sales in Asia Pacific rose 6.4% to $3.41 billion from $3.2 billion in the month-ago period, the group said. Semiconductor Industry Association said October year-to-year semiconductor sales for the Americas rose 15.5% to $4.19 billion from $3.63 billion last year, while sales in Europe for the same period rose 10.4% to $2.85 billion from year-ago sales of $2.58 billion. Japanese semiconductor sales rose 37.7% to $2.96 billion in October from $2.15 billion last year, while sales in the Asia Pacific rose 35.6% to $3.41 billion from $2.51 billion a year ago, the group said. The Semiconductor Industry Association said its latest 1999-2002 forecast predicts the semiconductor industry will grow 21% with sales of $174 billion in 2000, with continued industry gains of 20% in 2001 on sales of $209 billion. The industry group also said it expects the worldwide semiconductor industry to show 12% industry growth on sales of $234 billion in 2002. The group said wired and wireless information appliances have driven the growth, along with Internet infrastructure products. Cellular phones will likely continue to serve as a major industry proponent, the group said.

To: J_K who wrote (33459)	12/9/1999 12:13:00 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 70976

Philips CCD rivals 35-mm quality By Peter Clarke EE Times (12/09/99, 12:07 p.m. EDT) WASHINGTON — Digital still cameras could rival the image quality of 35-mm film photography within a couple of years due to a charge coupled device (CCD) image sensor with over six million pixels developed by Philips Semiconductors (Eindhoven, Netherlands). Herman Peek, a senior scientist at the company, presented a paper on the prototype device at this week's International Electron Devices Meeting. "This is the largest number of pixels and the smallest pixel size for a digital still camera ever published in the world," Peek said during the presentation of his paper. Although the prototype sensor is monochrome, and the use of red, green and blue filters would reduce resolution to 2 million tricolor pixels, Peek said the small size of individual light sensing elements, 3-micron x 3-micron, would allow such a sensor to rival small format film photography. "We are approaching the grain size of film, which is about 2 microns diameter, but image quality is also determined by the quality of the lens. The same thing effects CCD." Images produced using the sensor and displayed by Peek, albeit through an overhead projector system, were indistinguishable from images obtained from film. Individual hairs could been seen on the heads of head-and-shoulder portraits, which prompted congratulations from the audience. Peek said he expects to see a similar high-resolution CCD sensor in production within about two years, although it might include fewer pixels. "I don't think we will go to more pixels," he said. "We are already asking, 'Is six million too much and are we adding cost unnecessarily?' Perhaps five million or four million is the right amount." For a 2/3-inch format, Peck showed that the pixel size was on the limit of lens resolution, although the device could also be used for lens-less applications. The Philips CCD is built using a 0.5-micron CCD process operating at 14 volts and has an active area of 2,048 active lines and 3,072 active measuring 9.11 mm x 6.07 mm. The sensor has a dark current of 800 picoamperes/centimeter2 and a dynamic range of 63 dB. In his paper, Peek also discussed how novel techniques had been used to overcome problems with dark current suppression. The development of a high-resolution sensor using CCD technology represents a fight back by the technology against a challenge it faces from lower cost CMOS image sensors, which also allow the possibility of including signal processing and logic circuits on the same die. "CCD will always be expensive in comparison with CMOS image sensors," Peek said. "CCD can't compete with CMOS on price but it can on quality, and image quality is very important to consumers."