According to the latest IC Market Drivers report, global shipments of new cars are expected to rise almost 5% in 2011 to 55.8 million units. Meanwhile, sales of new cars in China outpaced new car shipments in the U.S. by 50% in 2010; a trend that is expected to continue through 2015.
The new demand on Automotive markets in China, emerging Southern America along with recovering U.S. These new Automobile shipments, increased on-board-electronics would boost automotive IC sales up to as much as 12% in 2011, to estimated $17 billion.
This follows a 45% increase in automotive IC Sales in 2010, which halted a two year slide in this IC sector.
Automobiles are a fertile environment to implement new and innovative electronic systems and ICs. Many of these systems are competitive selling points for automakers. Growth drivers for ICs over the next several years include active safety and telematics systems, communications and entertainment convergence, and "green" initiatives such as energy savings and reduced emissions. These technologies are increasingly available as standard equipment on new cars across all price ranges.
In the area of safety and telematics, systems such as self parking, active cruise control, lane departure warning systems, road tracking system, Gear tooth sensor, speed sensor, temperature sensor, air bag sensor, fuel injection control sensor, electronic stability control--ESC, etc…have been widely implemented in modern cars.
New trend for Luxury car would go for as many as 12 air bag and air belts that would incur a lot of additional electronics and control.
There is not much innovative changes in the basic engine design, the Hybrid car is still in very early stage of penetration, all it take at least 10 more years to see a reasonably number of cars running on road, starting in the congested cities of Asia, Europe and America. In fact, relatively stable gasoline prices led to a decline in hybrid vehicles sales in 2010. Recent Middle East event would force for a rise of Gasoline price. And urge for an early Hybrid Automotive market development. Shipments of hybrid and electric vehicles are forecast to increase a modest 5% in 2011.
However the electronics on board an automotive would becomes sophisticated. There are at least 350 LEDs as an average compact car. Full LED head lamps is not a sales gadget for Luxury car, but for a better outlook design, power saving, long life time, faster response. This involves a lot of associated electronics, control modules required including LED driving IC, dimming control IC, Switching mode control ICs for the power converter, and light control multiplex ICs.
Many of these systems will soon be required for all new cars sold in the U.S. An ESC system typically consists of three sensors--a gyroscope, an accelerometer, and a pressure sensor--all of which can be made using a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) process.
Automakers are testing systems that will allow smartphones to dock with a large display on the car's centre console allowing the driver to access the Internet, listen to his or her stored favourite music, and send text messages through a large, onboard touch-screen rather than using the phone itself, and essentially replacing radio/CD/nav systems on cars sold today. On board GPS is a standard accessory on a luxury car.
Through 2014, the automotive IC market is forecast to grow to $21 billion, representing an average annual increase of 14% per year from 2009 to 2014. That growth rate tops the IC growth rate in all other system markets including computer (12%), communications (8%), and consumer (10%) systems, and the total worldwide IC market (10%) over the same time frame.
In Short, the ICs demand for Automotive would increase 12% in 2011.
HK Snob
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Rare Earth and LED Phosphor Material
The 17 rare-earth elements comprise the lanthanide series in the periodic table (elements 57 through 71), plus scandium (Sc) and yttrium (Y). The most common LED phosphor is yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) doped with cerium (Ce), another rare earth, while TAG phosphor contains terbium (Tb). Silicate phosphors such as BOSE and nitride phosphors are commonly doped with Ce or europium (Eu).
The availability of these materials is currently causing some concern, particularly because of new export quotas introduced by China.
The LED industry uses a wide and growing range of phosphor materials to convert the light emission from LED chips into a different wavelength spectrum. LED makers rely on their supply of phosphor materials as a crucial aspect of the production process. The most common use is the combination of a blue LED chip with one or more phosphors to create a white LED. Many of the phosphors used in LEDs contain rare-earth elements.
I speculate the Phosphors material will become expensive in end of the year and onwards. Luckily There is juts one wire connecting the LED diode and normally they are quite short as the Gold price soars high, the LED assembly material price will not be dropped.. and hence the cost of a LED will not be able to drop. This will affect the penetration rate of LED for Lighting application. On the contrary, the assembly equipment price would like to drop 30% a year, plus the speed of the equipment will be increased at a speed of 20% a year .Thus these will overcome the rise of the phosphor and gold wire…
Hence as overall, the ASP of a LED will still be able to be reduced at a rate of 20% over the year.
HK Snob
The availability of these materials is currently causing some concern, particularly because of new export quotas introduced by China.
The LED industry uses a wide and growing range of phosphor materials to convert the light emission from LED chips into a different wavelength spectrum. LED makers rely on their supply of phosphor materials as a crucial aspect of the production process. The most common use is the combination of a blue LED chip with one or more phosphors to create a white LED. Many of the phosphors used in LEDs contain rare-earth elements.
I speculate the Phosphors material will become expensive in end of the year and onwards. Luckily There is juts one wire connecting the LED diode and normally they are quite short as the Gold price soars high, the LED assembly material price will not be dropped.. and hence the cost of a LED will not be able to drop. This will affect the penetration rate of LED for Lighting application. On the contrary, the assembly equipment price would like to drop 30% a year, plus the speed of the equipment will be increased at a speed of 20% a year .Thus these will overcome the rise of the phosphor and gold wire…
Hence as overall, the ASP of a LED will still be able to be reduced at a rate of 20% over the year.
HK Snob
Kazan, Russia reduces energy consumption by means of Ledel's efficient street lighting with Osram LEDs..
Reducing Russia’s primary energy consumption by 40 per cent by 2020 is one of the country’s policy.
The Republic of Tatarstan is tackling street lighting and has initiated a pilot project in its capital Kazan –around 25,000 households already benefits from the superior light quality of LED street lighting made by the LEDEL company. They have already installed 500 “Sveteco-48” luminaires with energy-efficient Golden Dragon Plus LEDs by OSRAM Opto Semiconductors.
According to the German-Russian Business Association the Republic of Tatarstan west of the Urals is currently among the most active regions in the Russian Federation when it comes to government-imposed energy-saving initiatives.
A project in ward 38 of the Novo-Savinsky district in Kazan, the million-strong city on the Volga, kicks off by replacing the out-dated 150W sodium halide lamps with new LED streetlamps produced by LEDEL with a power input of only 48W. This is a big Energy Saving! Though the installation base is very small, but it will be acting as demonstration show case to the government and the nearby cities.. We believe that this is the trend for Russia though they have a lot natural resources. But they do have to control the energy consumption.
The city’s 500 streetlamps use Golden Dragon Plus LEDs by OSRAM Opto Semiconductors – They enable brighter and more evenly spread lighting without scattered light or glare and with significantly lower power consumption.
It provides a natural colour impression and improves safety by outlining the surroundings more clearly. “Using LEDs is a sustainable solution for Kazan. With their long operating life and reduced maintenance costs compared with the previously installed sodium halide lamps the city is saving extra money and protecting the environment”, says LEDEL CEO Artur Kogdaning. The investment will have paid for itself in about three years.
Increasing demand for LED street lighting
From these positive results Kazan is already planning to convert two other city wards to energy-efficient LED street lighting. “OSRAM Opto Semiconductors LEDs are the first choice solution for this job – their years of experience and understanding of street lighting requirements characterize our longstanding association”, says Artur Kogdaning.
Street lighting with LED is not only in demand in Russia – increasing numbers of German cities and towns recognize the energy-saving potential of LED lighting solutions – especially as their quite often out-dated public lighting has imposed high costs on regional and local government in Germany. Street lighting based on LED technology is the ideal alternative to conventional solutions for the switch – no matter how far east or west of the Volga it is.
On the other side in the East, Dong Ying of Shan Dong, thousands of LED street lamps were built and they are also using Osram’s Golden Dragon.. The local LED company is working with the World Largest LED equipment supplier for building up new manufacturing lines with a low cost solution for LED manufacturing, thus to have a more cost effective supply for lower cost LED Street lamp. Now the street lamps is selling at about RMB 8,000.00 I think if they can reduce to RMB4,000 the installation will not only be double but Quadruple…in two years time..
Looking at a farther perspective, the Street Lamps installation is just at the beginning and I believe that rate of penetration will be at least three to five time of 2010 in 2011. This will push the whole LED street lamp food chain to a more price sensitive competition, and the price of LED will drop 2X in 2011 and The Light efficacy will be increase at past 25% accordingly.. The end customer will be the last beneficiate on these competitions.
LEDEL is Russian company and placed in Kazan city (it's center of Russia). They produce luminaires. Actually they didn't conduct LED manufacturing, they are buying LEDs from Cree, Lumileds, Osram and contractors produce to LED modules for them. LEDEL provides final assembling of luminaires. This company is one of the biggest LED luminaires manufacturing companies Russia.
HK Snob
The Republic of Tatarstan is tackling street lighting and has initiated a pilot project in its capital Kazan –around 25,000 households already benefits from the superior light quality of LED street lighting made by the LEDEL company. They have already installed 500 “Sveteco-48” luminaires with energy-efficient Golden Dragon Plus LEDs by OSRAM Opto Semiconductors.
According to the German-Russian Business Association the Republic of Tatarstan west of the Urals is currently among the most active regions in the Russian Federation when it comes to government-imposed energy-saving initiatives.
A project in ward 38 of the Novo-Savinsky district in Kazan, the million-strong city on the Volga, kicks off by replacing the out-dated 150W sodium halide lamps with new LED streetlamps produced by LEDEL with a power input of only 48W. This is a big Energy Saving! Though the installation base is very small, but it will be acting as demonstration show case to the government and the nearby cities.. We believe that this is the trend for Russia though they have a lot natural resources. But they do have to control the energy consumption.
The city’s 500 streetlamps use Golden Dragon Plus LEDs by OSRAM Opto Semiconductors – They enable brighter and more evenly spread lighting without scattered light or glare and with significantly lower power consumption.
It provides a natural colour impression and improves safety by outlining the surroundings more clearly. “Using LEDs is a sustainable solution for Kazan. With their long operating life and reduced maintenance costs compared with the previously installed sodium halide lamps the city is saving extra money and protecting the environment”, says LEDEL CEO Artur Kogdaning. The investment will have paid for itself in about three years.
Increasing demand for LED street lighting
From these positive results Kazan is already planning to convert two other city wards to energy-efficient LED street lighting. “OSRAM Opto Semiconductors LEDs are the first choice solution for this job – their years of experience and understanding of street lighting requirements characterize our longstanding association”, says Artur Kogdaning.
Street lighting with LED is not only in demand in Russia – increasing numbers of German cities and towns recognize the energy-saving potential of LED lighting solutions – especially as their quite often out-dated public lighting has imposed high costs on regional and local government in Germany. Street lighting based on LED technology is the ideal alternative to conventional solutions for the switch – no matter how far east or west of the Volga it is.
On the other side in the East, Dong Ying of Shan Dong, thousands of LED street lamps were built and they are also using Osram’s Golden Dragon.. The local LED company is working with the World Largest LED equipment supplier for building up new manufacturing lines with a low cost solution for LED manufacturing, thus to have a more cost effective supply for lower cost LED Street lamp. Now the street lamps is selling at about RMB 8,000.00 I think if they can reduce to RMB4,000 the installation will not only be double but Quadruple…in two years time..
Looking at a farther perspective, the Street Lamps installation is just at the beginning and I believe that rate of penetration will be at least three to five time of 2010 in 2011. This will push the whole LED street lamp food chain to a more price sensitive competition, and the price of LED will drop 2X in 2011 and The Light efficacy will be increase at past 25% accordingly.. The end customer will be the last beneficiate on these competitions.
LEDEL is Russian company and placed in Kazan city (it's center of Russia). They produce luminaires. Actually they didn't conduct LED manufacturing, they are buying LEDs from Cree, Lumileds, Osram and contractors produce to LED modules for them. LEDEL provides final assembling of luminaires. This company is one of the biggest LED luminaires manufacturing companies Russia.
HK Snob
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Apple New Iphone5 and Mini
There are so many rumour about the new product from Apple.
After almost 4 years, Apple shall launch a high end Iphone5 and Iphone Mini in July 2011.
Iphone5
4G
A new, sleeker body design, thin shiny glass back piece - 9.0 mm thick.
Face Recognition Security
Face Time (Video Chat) access on 3G AND 4G
Custom SMS tones
Custom E-mail alerts with ability to assign different tones to each email address
OLED Display to save more juice
Wireless sync with iTunes
32G and 64G of built in memory
14 hours talk time on 3G and 7 hours on 4G. Standby 500 hours.
Hi Definition audio.
Messaging indicator light.
True GPS built in.
Low Cost Iphone Mini
Apple hopes the low-cost device would help rival the success of Google Android, which as well as targeting the high-end smartphone market.
Mini will be around a two thirds of the size of the existing iPhone and does not feature a 'home' key. It is likely to cost around $199.00 in the US.
An "universal" SIM that allows users to switch between networks without having to remove on SIM and insert another.
16G memory
It is likely to be made available on a Pay As You Go (PAYG) basis rather than signing any contracts.
Exact Model name yet to released, no way to see the picture of the Phone design!
Let's wait for some one to lose the Prototype Iphone in a bar or restaurant!
HK Snob
After almost 4 years, Apple shall launch a high end Iphone5 and Iphone Mini in July 2011.
Iphone5
4G
A new, sleeker body design, thin shiny glass back piece - 9.0 mm thick.
Face Recognition Security
Face Time (Video Chat) access on 3G AND 4G
Custom SMS tones
Custom E-mail alerts with ability to assign different tones to each email address
OLED Display to save more juice
Wireless sync with iTunes
32G and 64G of built in memory
14 hours talk time on 3G and 7 hours on 4G. Standby 500 hours.
Hi Definition audio.
Messaging indicator light.
True GPS built in.
Low Cost Iphone Mini
Apple hopes the low-cost device would help rival the success of Google Android, which as well as targeting the high-end smartphone market.
Mini will be around a two thirds of the size of the existing iPhone and does not feature a 'home' key. It is likely to cost around $199.00 in the US.
An "universal" SIM that allows users to switch between networks without having to remove on SIM and insert another.
16G memory
It is likely to be made available on a Pay As You Go (PAYG) basis rather than signing any contracts.
Exact Model name yet to released, no way to see the picture of the Phone design!
Let's wait for some one to lose the Prototype Iphone in a bar or restaurant!
HK Snob
Friday, February 11, 2011
2011 Mercedes Benz CL500 goes LED Day Light Running lamps
Note the DRL Day Light Running lamp is all LED, looks smarter than ever. I guess that they are Osram LED!
HK Snob
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
LED decoration light for Chinese New Year in Tsuen Wan, Hong Kong
HK Snob
Monday, February 7, 2011
Bulova Computron LED watch
I think this watch was made and assembled in USA by some Semiconductor assembly house for the main board. The challenge was the LED display that was made with precision and using tiny gold wire of 1 mil diameter. Connecting the Cathode of the LED onto the gold plated PCB board, I believe that was done semi automatically.
The Quality was so good that after 30 years, this watch still works perfectly, I think that there are not so many good working samples left behind nowadays, the battery cells are still available, when you push the button, it will display the time and one more time for Date. The case is heavily gold plated to the thickness of more than 20 microns. It Tells time very accurately. I am sure it was very expensive by time they were introduced in the market in the 80’s.
It works perfectly at night. This watch may not be good to ask for time many times day as it will drain the battery fast, it may use up the battery power in just two weeks if you press the Button 5-10 times day!
HK Snob