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A Year to Remember -- 3 Cheers for a Bright New Year
by Paul O'Shea

This was the year of exciting times, the first in nearly a decade that you could pick up any magazine or paper and be inundated by reports of layoffs, loss of earnings, negative trends, and in general - contraction of business. It was a tough financial year for many of us and a painful year for all of us when events helped crystallize in our collective minds just what was important. It was also a very confusing time - a great ball of confusion (with apologies to the Temptations):

Companies movin in, Companies movin out.
Why, because of the color of their ink (at the bottom line).
...
Politicians say more taxes will solve everything.
...
And the band played on.
...
So around and around we go
Where the world's headed, nobody knows.
Oh, great googalooga, can't you hear me talking to you.
Just a ball of confusion.
Oh yeah, that's what the world is today.
Woo, hey, hey.

Preliminary Top 10 Worldwide Semiconductor Vendors by Revenue Estimates (Millions of U.S. Dollars)

Company	2001 Revenue	2001 Market Share (%)	2000 Revenue	2000 Market Share (%)	2000-2001 Growth (%)
Intel	23,499	15.5	30,298	13.3	-22.4
Toshiba	7,136	4.7	10,864	4.8	-34.3
STMicroelectronics	6,360	4.2	7,890	3.5	-19.4
Samsung	6,320	4.2	10,585	4.7	-40.3
Texas Instruments	6,000	3.9	9,202	4.1	-34.8
NEC	5,389	3.5	10,643	4.7	-49.4
Motorola	5,000	3.3	7,678	3.4	-34.9
Hitachi	4,724	3.1	7,286	3.2	-35.2
Infineon Technologies	4,538	3.0	6,711	3.0	-32.4
Philips Semiconductor	4,440	2.9	6,275	2.8	-29.2
Total Market	152,000	100.0	227,000	100.0	-33.0

However, I like to think about these tough times in much the same way that Jack Welch, former CEO of GE, saw it: "There are more opportunities out there today in tough times than there are in good times. There are more companies to acquire, to grab. When there is change, there is opportunity."

This year of the negative market masks the bright spots that happened in the trenches of innovation. The industry events and the product introductions that we at Analog Avenue saw were many, and very worthy of review. Let's take a look at some significant company events like mergers and follow that with the important product introductions that will help shape the analog landscape in the near-term.

Mergers and Acquisitions and Just Plain Helping Each Other

In no particular order, here's a review some of the more important events where one company bought another, or teamed up with one to complement a product or even create a new one. Some pundits have observed that alliances and partnerships are becoming more popular than mergers and acquisitions for improving productivity. These partnerships also allow companies to acquire new core competencies to make it easy to enter new markets.

For starters, let's look at Texas Instruments, who followed up last year's gargantuan acquisition of Burr-Brown with a much smaller but still significant purchase, in April, of Graychip, Inc. Graychip is a supplier of reconfigurable digital down converters and digital up converters used in communications applications. This is important because digital converters provide a link between the DSP and data converters used in communications equipment. The converters shape and filter signals, reduce noise and interference and increase the efficiency and bandwidth of a system. Graychip's technology figured prominently in the recent introduction of its 400 MSPS DAC5675, aimed at the wireless and wideband CDMA applications.

Analog Devices and Tellium, a provider of in-service intelligent optical switches, agreed to develop a series of Micro-Electro-Mechanical-System (MEMS) chips. Analog Devices is pushing their optical networking ICs development into high gear to meet the expected demand for these products.

Infineon Technologies made the news when its planned merger with Toshiba fell through in December. Now, the company is talking with three Taiwanese manufacturers about cooperating in memory chip ventures.

Wireless chip makers Conexant Systems and Alpha Industries announced a deal to merge, on December 17. They will focus on RF semiconductor systems and software for next-generation 2.5G and 3G wireless networks based on CDMA and GSM technologies.

Microtune acquired Transilica, a developer of chips based on Bluetooth technology. This enables Microtune to jump into the Bluetooth-chip market and to build on its core RF silicon and systems technologies. STMicroelectronics and Microtune agreed to jointly develop cable set-top box reference designs that feature their complementary digital and RF silicon technologies.

Microchip Technology formed a separate analog IC division that will help the company's recent push into DSPs. Microchip combined its analog product development with the technology of TelCom Semiconductor Inc., which it acquired in January 2001.

Maxim Integrated Products Inc., bought Dallas Semiconductor in April 2001.

Vishay Intertechnology Inc., acquired the infrared components business of Germany's Infineon Technologies AG in June, 2001.

Vitesse Semiconductor Corp., acquired Versatile Optical Networks, Inc. Versatile designs and manufactures optical and opto-electronic modules to create integrated system and subsystems for data and communications networks.

TriQuint Semiconductor, Inc bought Sawtek, Inc. a supplier of surface acoustic wave devices.

Micrel Inc. acquired Kendin Communications, Inc. providing Micrel entry into the physical-layer (PHY) IC and switch-chip markets for Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, and 10 Gigabit Ethernet networks.

Intersil partnered with PowerSmart, Inc. It should strengthen Intersil's position in the market for smart-battery ICs. Intersil provides programmable high-current regulators for PC motherboards. Intersil also entered into an agreement with Integrated Device Technology to develop voice access products for telecommunications applications. In another deal, Intersil made a strategic investment in Primarion Corp. The companies will co-develop power management solutions for high-end desktop PCs, servers and notebook computers.

Anadigics acquired Telecom Devices Corp., a photodiode manufacturer. This could enhance its indium phosphide strategy. Anadigics and Vitesse Semiconductor have indicated that they will use indium phosphide (InP) for their 40-Gbit/s components, even though other companies like IBM are leaning toward silicon germanium.

Vitesse Semiconductor Corp, acquired Exbit Technology. Exbit, located in Denmark, develops high-speed chip-sets and IP cores for the communications and networking industry.

Fairchild Semiconductor International acquired the discrete power business of Intersil Corp. The acquisition makes Fairchild the second-largest supplier of power MOSFETs, giving them an estimated 20 percent of this market.

National Semiconductor and Motorola Energy Systems Group, agreed to jointly design and develop new methods of protection and energy management for lithium-ion and lithium-ion polymer energy systems used in portable electronics. The two companies have filed over 15 patent applications for this technology. National Semi and Digital Interactive Streams, Inc. (DiStream) announced a partnership to bring streaming video to the television over low bit-rate pipes. DiStream's DiVET software has been ported to National's Geode SP1SC10 set-top box reference platform for video-on-demand applications.

Matsushita Electronic Components Co., parent company of Panasonic, announced a strategic partnership agreement with SiGe Semiconductor. The agreement formalized the earlier memorandum of understanding to develop a high performance single chip tuner for the broadband and cable telephony market.

The companies making the news - Important Introductions -

We technology editors at ChipCenter spend countless hours combing through products that come across our computer screens. We don't claim to have special powers to prognosticate what products will be market leaders but we do admit to being astute followers of our respective industries. I thought about opening up this review to you, our keen-eyed engineering community, but after discussion with the other ChipCenter editors we decided that a poll for the top products in several categories would be too hard to control and ascertain the validity of the results. We also would have no way to prevent ballot stuffing. So, we decided an alphabetical review of some of the significant products and companies that have graced the pages of Analog Avenue would be more helpful.

Alpha Industries designs, develops, manufactures and markets proprietary radio frequency, microwave frequency and millimeter wave frequency integrated circuits and discrete semiconductors for wireless voice and data communications. Alpha introduced the AM028S1-A2, a broadband millimeter wave mixer in a surface mount package that is compatible with high volume solder installations. This is important because millimeter wave components require careful mounting for the best performance. This single balanced down converter mixer is designed for use in millimeter wave communication and sensor systems such as point-to-point, and point-to-multipoint wireless communications systems.

Analog Devices is always in the spot light with important products. The Gartner Dataquest analog and mixed-signal IC market report states that ADI is the world's number one data converter IC supplier with 36 percent market share, up from 33 percent in 1999. ADI is the world's number one amplifier IC supplier in 2000 with 18 percent market share, up from 14 percent in 1999. Analog Devices has focused on the $1 billion ADC market and zeroed in on the successive approximation register (SAR) architecture because it is the sweet spot in ADC market. Why so popular? Simple, SARs have no latency, can be multiplexed, offer accuracy, and speed not provided in combination by the sigma delta, pipeline or flash type ADCs. The SAR architecture is a good match for the data acquisition and optical fiber applications. These are the apps that have a control loop that require some form of adjustment during operation.

Some of the highlights from Analog include: the AD9857 14-bit digital upconverter; the AD9888, an integrated 205 MHz analog interface chip for capturing red, green, blue analog graphics signals from computers and converting them to digital data for display on LCD monitors; the AD975x family, which is the industry’s first offering of CMOS low-power DACs for high-speed broadband communications applications; the first 1 MSPS, 16-bit SAR ADC; the AD7484 the fastest 14-bit SAR ADC available offers a parallel interface with throughput rates up to 3 MSPS; the ADV-JP2000, which provides the necessary hardware acceleration required for JPEG 2000 image compression in a low-power, low-cost package; the AD8302 a dual log amp system on the same die with frequency range available out to 3 GHz; the 1 MSPS AD7671, which is appropriate for the data acquisition and optical fiber applications can replace two 500 kSPS converters; the AD9218 and AD9235 data converters are good for communications, and wired and wireless broadband applications; the AD1981 SoundMAX CODEC has an integrated phase-locked loop, power regulator and microphone pre-amp; and the AD7490 which helps meet the requirement for increased channels by offering 16 channels.

Conexant introduced the single-chip CX24943 cable modem supporting Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS™) and EuroDOCSIS 1.0 and 1.1 standards. Product applications supported include Ethernet and USB cable modems, Peripheral Component Interconnect modems, Computer Controlled Cable Modems, multifunction home-networking products, set-top box solutions, Small Office/Home Office equipment, and Internet Protocol telephony products. Another introduction is the new CX77113 WCDMA power amplifier that uses the company's SystemSmart platform to meet the stringent efficiency and spectral linearity requirements of WCDMA. It uses information received from the base station to determine how much power is necessary to complete a call, and adjusts the power level accordingly.

More than two-thirds of Cypress Semiconductor's sales come from the fast-growing communications market. There has been an especially healthy growth rate of custom clocks and programmable clocks over the last five years. The Cypress CY223xx products are basically PLL-type devices that provide clocks. These products are a good fit for manufacturers of set top boxes that need to have many versions of the set top box in production at the same time. Cypress decided that instead of making one device for each clock requirements they would use one device that can be customized many different ways. By late next year the company intends to enable it on the Web. When that happens a person could perform the programming of the product on the web and determine the performance of their device right there.

Dallas Semiconductor/Maxim designs, manufactures, and markets data converters, interface circuits, microprocessor supervisors, operational amplifiers, power supplies, multiplexers, switches, battery chargers, battery management circuits, RF wireless circuits, fiber optic transceivers, sensors, and voltage references. The company introduced the DS1680 Portable System Controller for touch screen applications. It integrates a clock/calendar, power monitor, watchdog circuit, NV RAM control, and touch screen control circuits on one chip. The DS1680 will be widely accepted in portable touch-screen applications, challenging many of the current solutions that are being employed now. Dallas Semi/Maxim also introduced the DS21600 series of clock rate adapters, integrated circuits for converting signal frequencies between E- and T-carrier clock rates without external components. These are simple parts with an analog PLL and feedback driven by the clock of one standard (E, or T) producing two locked clock outputs in the other standard, one of which can be a higher multiple.

Infineon Technologies introduced the IVAX chipset family. This chipset integrates voice and full rate ADSL services on a single line card, eliminating the need for splitters on the network side. This is a really nice jump, enabling both ADSL and POTS services to be provided on the same line card. For qualified lines it will mean that the provider will not have to replace or add to a switching system -- just enable the ADSL service on the existing one.

In August 1999, Harris Corporation sold its semiconductor operations in order to focus on communications end equipment, and Intersil Corporation was born as an independent company. Intersil became a public company in February 2000. This year the company introduced two linear power system controllers that are sure to be dead-on for designers because they integrate power sequencing functions. It means that you don't need to add parts for the power control and protection on DC converters. The ISL6523 and ISL6524 offer power control and protection for four output voltages in microprocessor and computer applications. The IC integrates one PWM controller and three linear controllers.

M/A Com develops and manufactures RF and microwave semiconductors, components and IP networks solutions. They introduced a family of digital attenuators with integral TTL/CMOS ASIC drivers. The AT90 series of attenuators improve insertion loss and attenuation accuracy in systems that require a low-profile, high-density multi-chip module solution. This family from M/A-Com is based on GaAs MMIC attenuators with on-package silicon ASIC drivers.

Micrel is a manufacturer of high-performance analog, mixed-signal and digital ICs. They introduced two high speed op amps -- the MIC918 and MIC919. These parts are ideal for video driving long coaxial cable lengths, as general line drivers, and because of the low current consumption they will find a home in a lot of portable equipment. An important feature of both the MIC918 and MIC919 products are their ability to be stable even when driving high capacitance, which is just what you need for driving long coaxial cables or other high-capacitance loads.

STMicroelectronics and Microtune have developed a comprehensive cable set-top box platform for the high-volume markets of Europe and Asia. It is based on ST's STV0297 QAM demodulator and STi5518 single-chip set-top box decoder in combination with Microtune's MT2040 single-chip tuner and MT1230 intermediate frequency amplifier. Microtune also introduced the VideoCaster upconverter that comes at a time when suppliers are struggling to get video on demand costs under control. It reduces the 19" rack-mount sized upconverter box down to three SiGe chips. Microtune didn't stop there - they incorporated four of the chip sets onto a micromodule, which neatly replaces four rack-mount upconverters. Microtune also figured out how to make these highly technical modules easily accessible by cable operators. They combined with nCube to provide an end-user product, the n4 video server. I would think that just the space and power savings would be enough to win over some cable operators looking to get into the digital video market. The company also brought to market the MicroTuner MT2111, the first member of its MT2100 family. It is a silicon tuner for STBs. This silicon tuner replaces the tin can tuners that have been around for the last 30 to 50 years. The MT2111 is a dual-conversion tuner that exceeds the RF blueprint requirements of the CableLabs OpenCable specification, the industry standard for interoperable STBs.

Multilink Technology continues to target the needs of the high speed fiber optic transmission market by introducing with its latest chipset, the MTC1233 Multiplexer with integrated Clock Multiplier Unit (MUXCMU) and MTC1234 Demultiplexer with integrated clock and data recovery (CDRDMUX). This chipset offers a significantly increased level of integration by directly supporting the generation and recovery of Return-to-Zero (RZ) format data signals. Another introduction for the company was the Multilink Limiting Modulator Driver. The primary target market for the Limiting Modulator Driver, the MTC5527, is for RZ transmission, but it is also applicable for NRZ.

National Semiconductor introduced three high-speed ADCs that address the demands of communications applications such as high bandwidth, signal-to-noise ratio and spurious free dynamic range (SFDR). These products are optimized for applications in cellular base stations, wireless modems, set-top boxes and ultrasound imaging equipment. National Semi also introduced the LP2992, a 250 mA low dropout (LDO) regulator that increases operating time for wireless, laptop and personal digital assistant (PDA) applications. An addition to the extensive National Boomer family is the LM4811, which offers features such as the anti-click and pop circuitry, and now has digital volume control. Additional members to the Boomer family introduced this year include the LM 4894 and 4895. These are differential on the input and the output. National chose the differential design because the chipsets used in cell phones typically have differential audio output on baseband ASICs. The LM2698 is a general-purpose pulse-width modulator boost converter that uses current-mode control and notably, doesn't need a sense resistor. The company designed a very nice innovation, the Simple Switcher® feature that offers a pin selectable switching frequency of either 600kHz or 1.25MHz. This provides flexibility in component selection and filtering techniques.

Non-Volatile Electronics is an electronics component manufacturer specializing in the combination of magnetically-sensitive materials with integrated circuits. This new solid-state magnetic technology is characterized by high sensitivity to magnetic fields coupled with small size and low power. NVE introduced the IL485 IsoLoop isolated RS-485 transceiver. The IL485 is a high-speed surface mount alternative to opto-isolated transceivers. The IL485 is appropriate for PROFIBUS manufacturing automation applications. Profibus is a polled protocol with a layered architecture designed specifically for industrial control networks.

ON Semiconductor is a supplier of broadband and power management integrated circuits. The NCP500 is the latest in their line of CMOS LDO regulators to present designers with an efficient and cost-effective way to maximize battery life in consumer portable products. This product demonstrates the company's commitment to address the rapidly growing consumer demand for higher performance portable electronics. The MC33501 and MC33503 op amps use a pair of depletion-mode nMOS devices at the input forming a differential amplifier with an input current of 40 fA.

As a result of recent progress in information and communications technologies, many semiconductor-related businesses like Rohm, have begun to develop next-generation LSI chips. Consequently, there is an increasing demand for services to fabricate prototypes of LSI chips designed by ventures and other small organizations. Rohm has carved out a nice slice of business with ASIC blocks dedicated to various areas of video and audio. These ICs, further examples of that, have carefully controlled filter characteristics with detailed corrections for group delay errors created by the filters themselves, but using filter technology to do so.

Seiko Instruments adapted the proprietary CMOS technology used in watches to create a broad range of low power ICs for many applications. Low operating voltage and ultra-low current consumption result in longer battery life for your equipment. The S-818 Series is a positive voltage regulator developed using CMOS technology and features low dropout voltage, high output voltage accuracy and low current consumption. A built-in low on-resistance transistor provides low dropout voltage and large output current. Applications include a power source for battery-powered devices, personal communication devices, and home electronic appliances.

Silicon Germanium Semiconductor is a fabless semiconductor company that serves companies in wireless and broadband markets. It is a spinout from the National Research Council of Canada and was incorporated in 1996. Industry researcher iSupply projected that the digital tuner IC market would experience 175 per cent annual growth over the next four years, totaling $211 million US by 2005. The time is right for the StreamCharger tuner IC for cable and set-top box. The StreamCharger reduces the bill of materials for a typical tuner module from 300 to less than 30 components, and it consumes 500mW from a 3.3V supply line. It integrates all the major RF components including the LNA, mixer, IF amplifiers, crystal oscillators, phased locked loops, and IC interfaces.

Sirenza Microdevices is a supplier of RF integrated circuits for the wireless and wireline telecommunications markets. Sirenza's component products include power amplifiers, low-noise amplifiers, high-linearity gain blocks, high-performance transistors, modulators, switches, mixers, upconverters and downconverters, and high-performance multicomponent modules for transmit and receive applications. Sirenza introduced the SPA family of amplifiers, which is manufactured using a patented GaAs Heterojunction Bipolar Transistor technology and is fabricated using Molecular Beam Epitaxy technology. This chip will do well because it uses a single +5V supply voltage with a much desired on-chip active bias circuit. The active bias circuit will provide consistent performance over temperature.

Texas Instruments Incorporated has come a long way since the days when I worked for them in the early 80s. Those were the heady days when the PC was in its infancy and IBM and TI were going head-to-head for bragging rights as dominant PC manufacturer. It was a roller coaster ride. It also demonstrated that just because you had the superior product didn't mean you would own the market, as TI quickly found out. It wasn't until the introduction of the DSP that TI really found its market (okay, I know this is a debatable point but go with me on this). When you think of TI you probably think of DSPs, and well you should because the company continues to improve on its existing dominance in this market. Evolving and segmenting their DSP offerings. TI is also an 800 pound gorilla in other markets. The company is a major player in power management, amplifiers, and interface products. They continue to make sound business decisions with acquisitions of complementary companies. Last year it was definitely the purchase of Burr-Brown and this year it's looking like Graychip is a winner. They have already used Graychip's expertise in digital upconverters as a key element in the 14-bit D/A converter the DAC5675, which maintains performance at output frequencies up to 400 MSPS. I could go on with several other notable products but you get the point, TI is a solid engineering company making sound business decisions.

Vitesse helps engineers designing the optical infrastructure of today's telecommunications and data communications networks, and for enterprises that need Gigabit connectivity. The communications IC market is growing at a rate of 30 to 50 percent per year, which is where Vitesse lives, and comfortably. Vitesse products are manufactured in several different technologies, including GaAs, CMOS, and SiGe. The company's next generation of high-speed devices for the OC-768 marketplace are being designed in Indium Phosphide (InP). Vitesse introduced a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) with 40+Gb/s capability. The VCO was developed using Vitesse's proprietary Indium Phosphide (InP) process technology. The VCO is a critical component in the development of an OC-768 chipset. The VSC81xx family of transceivers are targeting SONET Systems, Metro DWDM systems, ATM Switches, Fibre Channel Equipment, 2.5 Gbs Transponders, and 10 Gbs Parallel Transponders.

Xemics is a fabless semiconductor company which develops and delivers ultra low-power, short-range wireless connectivity solutions. The recently introduced XE3000 series is not a high-fidelity stereo codec; it is a very practical well-specified codec for voice quality and its specifications make it ideal for portable devices using Bluetooth technology. The voice-/audio-operated automatic power up will be of enormous help in extending the battery life in such products.

With this rear view peak we say good-bye to one of the toughest years on record and prepare for the challenges of next year.

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