Europe is home to more than 278 production and R&D fabs that manufacture a diverse range of integrated circuits (ICs), MEMS, power devices, compound semiconductors and innovative packages. It accounts for an estimated 12 percent of global IC fab capacity and about 30 percent of the world production for power devices. Europe is home to three world-class semiconductor R&D centers of semiconductor excellence: Inter-university Micro Electronics Center (IMEC) in Belgium, Laboratory of Electronics and Information Technology (LETI) in France, and Fraunhofer Institute in Germany. With changing markets and emerging opportunities, several device companies and a number of equipment companies have increased their involvement in the area of Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) and Photovoltaics (PV) manufacturing.

In its just-released Five-Year Forecast, Technology Forecasters is projecting the average compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for the next five years at 11.9% for EMS providers and 11.4% for ODMs, with computer, communications, and medical posting the strongest growth rates.

Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. and Wipro Technologies, the global IT services arm of Wipro Limited have announced their strategic partnership in the area of design services for the semiconductor market. As part of this partnership, Wipro has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Oki Techno Centre Singapore Pte. Ltd.(OTCS) including its own Intellectual Property Rights in an all cash deal over a period of one year. Wipro will also establish a dedicated Development Centre for OKI.

Another new solar cell manufacturer has emerged in India. It is Solar Semiconductor Pvt. Ltd., which locates its module manufacturing center in Hyderabad, India. The company announced its cell purchase agreement with ersol Solar Energy AG of Germany in time for the "Solar Power 2007" solar cell-related event being held in the United States.

Intel Corporation, Nokia and Nokia Siemens Networks have announced to collaborate on global WiMax interoperability for devices, infrastructure equipment. Intel Corporation, Nokia and Nokia Siemens Networks to test interoperability across Intel’s forthcoming WiMax silicon for laptops and mobile Internet devices, Nokia WiMax devices and Nokia Siemens Networks WiMax infrastructure equipment.

Despite some inventory issues in the wireless market that occurred during the first half of 2007, this year's wireless revenue is working its way toward the $40 billion mark. Regions contributing most notably are China, with over 17 percent share of consumption, Europe with 19 percent share as a whole, and Japan with 15 percent share. The transition of the wireless industry into a maturing market has slowed the overall growth rate somewhat, but there are specific regions that are continuing to provide optimal results for suppliers. India stands to be the fastest growing region at present for wireless semiconductor revenue.

In India, as production facilities continue to ramp, this region is attracting organizations from Europe, America, and even China. Not only is lower manufacturing cost making this region desirable, but also the domestic demand for wireless products is prompting companies such as Huawei Technologies, Samsung, and Nokia to explore production opportunities here. Most of the demand is coming from low-cost GSM handsets, but there are growing opportunities in infrastructure and fixed wireless as well.

Databeans estimates that the market for wireless semiconductors in India will reach $618 million this year. Growing at an expected compound annual growth rate of 26 percent each year, well over the worldwide average of 15 percent, revenue for this region is expected to reach just under $2 billion by 2012. Several conditions in this region will continue to drive this growth including exponential growth in subscribers. India has a population approaching well over 1 billion, and while wireless telephony far outweighs land line subscribers, a majority of the population has been barely touched in terms of penetration. Several periodicals have reported that this country adds between 5 million and 6 million new mobile phone subscribers every month. Currently, the country boasts around 175 million wireless subscribers, which is less than 20 percent of the total population.

Nearly 84 percent of office workers who responded to a recent survey expressed their desire to enter the hi-tech industry, according to the survey results released Saturday. The survey, conducted by the online employment service provider 1111 Job Bank, found that the top reason why the hi-tech industry is such an attractive career choice is the good pay promised by the industry, mentioned by 46.87 percent of respondents. The other two most-mentioned reasons are good benefits (36.36 percent) and stable work environment (30.55 percent).

They weren't out to make history, the eight young engineers who met secretly with investor Arthur Rock 50 years ago to form Silicon Valley's ancestral chip company, Fairchild Semiconductor.

In an Interview with Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Infineon CEO demanded more subsidies for the European semiconductor industry. Otherwise, the industry would be forced to dislocate.

Strong demand for ASSPs, cellphone image sensors and microprocessors helped to lift sales in the European semiconductor market in August. The European Semiconductor Industry Association (ESIA) attributes the upturn to an improved inventory situation.

The crunch will come next year for the Japanese semiconductor industry when it has to decide what to do about 32nm manufacturing. "We have to make the decision next year," JJ Yamaguchi, executive vice-president and member of the board of NEC Electronics, told EW. "The choices are: Shall we have our own fab? Shall we go to foundry? Or shall we have a joint fab?"

Looking into their crystal balls, Japan's chip executives see a similar pattern forming in the IC industry: a flat market in 2007, followed by a double-digit upturn in 2008. Chip executives from three major companies — NEC Electronics Corp., Renesas Technology Corp. and Toshiba Corp. — separately forecasted 5 percent or less growth for the worldwide semiconductor market in 2007.

Synopsys Inc. has acquired Sandwork Design Inc., a provider of analog and mixed-signal verification solutions. With the deal, EDA giant Synopsys (Mountain View, Calif.), expands its portfolio. Sandwork's approach to verification enables engineers to analyze and debug complex systems-on-chips (SoCs).

Hynetic, an established distribution business headquartered in Bangalore, has operated as an authorised distributor for Farnell for over 7 years and, in that role, has developed the Farnell brand, strong customer relationships and a reputation for excellent service over that time. With established sales offices in 8 major electronics hubs throughout India Hynetic employs over 30 people in its 'Farnell' distribution business.

In commemoration of the 30 years of its Embedded and Communications Group (ECG), Intel Corporation today announced the launch of the Intel India Design House Program. The program plans to aid design houses develop platforms on the Intel embedded architecture.

The Indian government has received about 300 applications from about 30 companies vying to tap growth potential in the world's hottest wireless market, the telecoms minister said on Wednesday.

According to Indian Semiconductor Association (ISA), over the next two years, chip design services, which currently have around 12,000 engineers, will require additional 20,000 engineers. C hip design promises to be the next chapter in the unfolding saga of India’s global ascendance. It had earlier been a domain of big-players in semiconductors production, but the appearance of ‘Fabless’ model changed the industry permanently.

With the baby-boomer population in the US reaching retirement and the average age increasing in most of the western countries, global corporates are looking at India to get the right talent, experts say. Companies based in nations like the US, France and Germany believe that the south Asian country has a talent pool matching the global standards, they said. "India is topmost on the list of preferred destinations for countries facing an internal talent crunch situation," global management consultancy firm Boston Consulting Group (BCG) partner and director James V Abraham said.

There is bad news for suppliers of semiconductor equipment: 2008 appears to be a down year for the industry. And so are we headed for a downturn? Amid a slowdown in the IC industry, Gartner Inc. Wednesday (Oct. 3) slightly raised its capital equipment spending forecast for 2007, but lowered it for 2008.

Intel Corp., the world’s largest chipmaker, said it would provide local computer assemblers drawings, which use the company’s chipsets, to make billing systems for small retailers that are compact and dust proof. Intel said the company decided to provide reference designs in India for the point of sale (PoS) or billing systems, following surveys that showed demand by local kirana shops to automate as they brace for competition from big retail outlets. These terminals could also be used for inventory management.

The first-Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) to be held in India opened its doors here Thursday (Oct. 4) just as the semiconductor landscape in the country is changing dramatically.

More and more chip and embedded software designers are focusing on devices and platforms for products to be made for local and overseas markets, while spending on electronics domestically is increasing significantly.

Richard Wallace, Editorial Director of EE Times kicked off the proceedings by stating that the intention of bringing ESC — started 20 years ago in the U.S — to India was to replicate the same ambience as has been generated at U.S. events, enabling both informative and networking opportunities for attendees.

"India is rapidly emerging in the world of embedded systems as consumers, suppliers and designers and so this is the right time for ESC to be held here. Design engineers and system architects in India serving the communications, entertainment, industrial automation and medical services globally, can, by attending the ESC here, take advantage of the opportunities such a conference brought for participants in India in the world of embedded systems," said Wallace.

In a keynote, Poornima Shenoy, president, India Semiconductor Association, commented: "That we now have ESC India means India is well on the global stage (of the embedded systems industry) and this conference will do a lot of good for the chip, board design and embedded software industry in this country."

Just how vast the embedded industry in India is can be gauged by the fact that $3.7 billion of the total Indian semiconductor design revenues of $4.6 billion in 2006 came from embedded services. About 70 percent of the companies providing embedded design services in India are indigenous companies, noted Shenoy.

Stressing the design industry — regarded as part of the country's software development industry — is set to grow even more, M.N. Vidyashankar, secretary, information technology, government of Karnataka, said the regional government was planning a huge "Knowledge City" some 30 km away from Bengaluru.

Work on this project will start in a few months, and Vidyashankar urged companies in the chip design, embedded design and software development space to set up their centers in the facility.

Research in the applications space at the proposed $125 million nanotechnology center in Bengaluru is also expected to start soon, he said.

Debesh Das, minister for information technology, West Bengal and formerly a chip industry professional, said engineers need to apply their knowledge of chip and embedded system design to benefit society at large, especially the poor, and at application areas such as agriculture, flood control and medical services.

Das said the vast talent that India has in embedded systems must move ahead from merely finding applications in cars and mobile handsets, for instance, and be of use in the lives of common people.

ESC India is being held at a time when companies such as Intel Corp. and Texas Instruments Inc. and others have either launched or are launching programs aimed at helping Indian embedded design service houses ready reference designs and platforms to address the growing domestic electronics market as well go overseas with their products.

The event features about 25 exhibitors and topics covered include multi-core design, real-time systems, multi-threaded software, graphical programming for DSPs. It is planned to be held annually.

According to iSuppli the semiconductors market that are used in LCD-TVs will grow from $2 billion in 2006 to $7.4 billion in 2011.