Semiconductor acquisitions regain momentum in 2019 20th September 2019

After slowing in the past couple years, semiconductor merger and acquisition activity strengthened in the first eight months of 2019 with the combined value of about 20 M&A agreement announcements reaching $28.0bn for the purchase of chip companies, business units, product lines, intellectual property (IP), and wafer fabs between January and the end of August. 

As exclusive manufacturer and distributor of the BBC micro:bit, Farnell is working with governments, re-sellers and strategic partnerships to support product-led educational initiatives globally. Programmes supported by Farnell aim to create fun and interactive learning environments for students to develop an understanding of electronics at a young age, and build a pathway into a range of engineering and technology-driven careers.

Farnell has launched its second, annual IoT Survey. The survey is an opportunity for engineers designing IoT and IIoT projects to give latest insights on the market and help shape the product range and technical resources offered by Farnell to support this continually expanding and diversifying technology.

Signify is playing a key role in the build up to the 2019 Rugby World Cup, after installing LED lighting in Kobe Misaki stadium, Japan, one of the stadiums being used for the tournament which takes place from 20th September 20 to 2nd November.

Texas Instruments has introduced an ultra-low-power Low-Dropout (LDO) linear voltage regulator with the lowest quiescent current (IQ) of sub-25nA - one-tenth that of competing ultra-small devices. The new regulator features low IQ control at light loads even in dropout conditions, allowing engineers to at least double the battery life of their applications. In addition, it provides transient response for faster wake-up, improving application response times and dynamic performance.

Trying to read the runes of the semiconductor market is no easy task right now. Malcolm Penn, CEO of research company Future Horizons isn’t shirking the challenge. Despite a rocky 2019, Penn emphasises the industry fundamentals are fine, which should speed recovery once economic confidence returns.  

STMicroelectronics has extended support for STM32G4 microcontrollers, delivering digital-power and motor-control Discovery Kits and adding new firmware examples in the latest STM32CubeG4 software package (v 1.1.0) to help users explore control of digital power supplies and motors for applications such as race drones, prosumer drones, and small electric vehicles.

CUI’s Motion Group have announced the addition of a new series to its innovative AMT incremental encoder family to support larger motor shaft sizes from nine to 15.875 mm. The AMT13 series, based on CUI’s proprietary capacitive ASIC technology, brings the same high levels of durability, accuracy, and immunity to environmental particulates as current AMT encoder models.