news  review Apple & Samsung Standalone


THE good news is that the smartphone market grew by a decent 44.4% year over year in the last quarter, according to market research company Forward Concepts.


On the down side, the firm’s annual market research report, “Cellular Handset & Tablet Chip Markets ‘12,” says that smartphone Q1 2012 shipments also declined to only 6.9% over the previous quarter.


Global sales of mobile phones (budget, midrange, feature and smartphones) to end users reached 379 million units in the first quarter of 2012, a 9% decline from the first quarter of 2011.


High smartphone demand continued to drive mobile device market growth, reaching 139 million units in the first quarter of 2012, a hefty 37% of the global cell phone market.


And Apple and Samsung, raised their combined share in the smartphone market to 45.7%, up from 30% in the first quarter of 2011, widening their lead over Nokia , which saw its smartphone market share drop to a mere 8.6%.


In the first quarter of 2012, Apple iPADs achieved a 59.3% share of the media tablet market, including the sub-$199 Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble Nook.


Also, Apple’s multimode LTE “iPAD3” has enabled the company to offer the iPAD2 at lower prices, causing a decline in Android tablet shipments.


E-reader manufacturers shipped only 1.4 million units in the first quarter of 2012, down from 4.2 million units shipped in the final quarter of 2011.


According to the principal author of the report, Carter L. Horney, “Global sales of mobile devices declined in Q1 more than expected due to a slowdown in demand from the emerging regions. All vendors were impacted at different levels; however, Chinese white-box vendors suffered the most with bloated inventories.” Among the top 10 cellphone vendors, Nokia, Samsung and Apple topped 2011 unit shipments while Chinese suppliers Huawei, ZTE and TCL also moved into the top ten.


CMOS based process revealed


X-FAB SILICON FOUNDRIES has unveiled the XU035, a new CMOS-based process for ultra-high-voltage (UHV) consumer applications. These include AC LED lighting, chargers with no-load power consumption and other power conversion and control applications.


The new XU035 process provides low specific On-resistance for 700V power devices and is claimed to enable the most cost-effective solutions for consumer applications.


X-FAB says its cost-competitive process architecture and comprehensive design support enables first-time-right designs, enabling fast time to market. The new XU035 process includes multiple cost- effective features such as a single poly and single 5V gate oxide architecture, 8- inch bulk starting material, optional third routing and power metals and optional MIM capacitors. It also includes a depletion transistor and a high-resistive poly module. X-FAB says that depending on the process module combination chosen , the total mask count range of 13 to 18 is the foundry industry’s lowest.


Besides the 700V N&PMOS, DMOS and depletion transistors with RDSON as low as 15Ω mm2


and 20V and 40V devices


with floating high-side capabilities, XU035 process users can select from a wide spectrum of analogue passive devices . These include UHV resistors, MOS and MIM capacitors and protection diodes The


8 www.siliconsemiconductor.net Issue 2 2012


In terms of revenue, Apple led over Samsung and Nokia in the smartphone market. But Samsung beat Nokia in overall cell phone unit shipments in Q1/2012, with Apple taking 3rd place.


Although Baseband chips of several types constitute the largest non-memory cell phone chip market at $15.9 billion for 2011, there are other multi-billion-dollar cell phone chip markets. These include $5.5 billion for power management units, $3.7 billion for RF transceivers, $3.6 billion for RF power amplifiers, $2.9 billion for image sensors, $2.8 billion for standalone application processors, and $2.7 billion for touch-screen controllers.


XU035 platform comes with comprehensive X-FAB design support including PDKs for all major design environments, precise Spectre and H- Spice models, digital libraries and 2kV ESD support. Commenting on the XU035 process for mass-market applications, X- FAB’s Technical Marketing Manager Volker Herbig says, “Government regulation and increasing energy pricing mean that energy conservation is becoming an important aspect in the daily lives of people around the world.”


“Our new XU035 process enables our customers to compete effectively in energy-efficiency applications like LED lighting and phone chargers that require ultra-low standby power. It provides the most cost-effective process for targeting the vast high-volume consumer space, where price and time to market are primary considerations.”


The XU035 process will be available for tape-ins of prototypes and risk production in June 2012.


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