Market Research

We take a look at ten chip firms well placed to make it big in 2015, from the NFC design-based platform AppNearMe to Melexis MEMS sensors…

Up to 2014, there was only limited interest in thermoelectric energy harvesting in general and its use in automotive applications in particular. For instance, BMW had worked on it for 20 years without bringing anything to market. The theoretical maximum attainable efficiency was known to be one half of that for photovoltaics and some other options and the actual achievement ...

Germany’s electronics market is holding up despite the weakness in the Euro Zone. The outlook is also positive with Germany still seen as an electronics manufacturing powerhouse, battling against the trend in off-shoring. According to Georg Steinberger, the chairman of the component distribution industry body, the FBDi: “The German market not only has its specialties such as a large share ...

Holograms will be used to step up the fight against counterfeiting in 2015. But while security applications remain the most valuable for the industry, 2015 is also expected to see substantial growth in the production of holographic optical elements (HOEs) for use in automotive displays and lighting, as well as for general lighting control, says Ian Lancaster, the general secretary ...

The SEMI book-to-bill went positive in November after a negative ratio in October and September.

SEMI projects that worldwide sales of new semiconductor manufacturing equipment will increase 19.3% to $38 billion in 2014.

Supercapacitor market leader Maxwell Technologies has faltered temporarily due to phasing of demand for supercapacitors on Chinese hybrid buses. One of the most formidable innovators it now sells large stacks for grid management and for energy harvesting in large construction vehicles. The recent IDTechEx Supercapacitors event in Santa Clara, California taught us more. Supercapacitor companies have been bought or closed ...

Market research indicates that fitness wearables in-use will almost treble by 2018, compared to an estimated 19 million in-use devices this year. A new report by Juniper Research predicts that fitness is to remain the dominant wearables segment until that time, driven by intuitive use cases and lower retail prices. However, the broader appeal of smart watches will mean that they ...

RF envelope tracking to reduce the power waste in the RF power amplifiers of LTE phones has taken off, claims envelope tracking firm Nujira.

Academics at UK universities have painted a gloomy view of the skills gap in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects. Academics questioned in a skills survey, carried by MathWorks, believed it will take more than 10 years to bridge the UK’s skills gap STEM subjects. And confidence among academics has fallen since the last STEM Skills Confidence survey in 2013. 2014 STEM ...