Jul

3

Singapore solar industry soars with oil price

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On one hand, the soaring oil price produces many challenges to the world such as higher inflation, slower economy and more political turmoils due to oil price hike. On the other hand, it also creates many opportunities for a number of emerging markets and technology such as energy-efficient chips, solar cell, hybrid car, green architecture, green lifestyle and other alternative forms of energy. Take for instance hybrid cars, the demand of hybrid cars has increased rapidly in recent months (Ref).

Few days ago, Toyota alleged that to meet the strong demand of hybrid cars, it will double the number of hybrid car output by early 2010s (Ref). Ironically, few years ago, people were still mocking at hybrid cars as something non-practical and non-cost effective. However, people are now embracing hybrid cars as a savior of world energy crisis. Who knows hybrid cars may one day become the mainstream if the oil price keeps increasing in the current rate.

Besides hybrid cars are riding on the current wave of energy crisis, the solar industry is also getting a big push from the recent spate of oil price hikes. Norway’s Renewable Energy Corp (REC) has recently announced it will invest close to 13 billion Norwegian crowns ($2.51 billion) in the first phase of a production complex in Singapore. The plant is scheduled to commence production in the first quarter 2010 and ramp-up from Q2’10 and Q4’10, and reach full capacity of 740 (megawatts) of wafers, 550 MW of cells and 590 MW of modules before 2012 (Ref). Singapore is almost certain to become the world’s largest production of solar wafers, thanks to the soaring oil price.

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May

5

TSMC jumps on MEMS foundry bandwagon

Filed Under Foundry, Related Industry, Video Gallery | 1 Comment

The world largest contract chip manufacturer, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC), has announced that it will provide MEMS foundry services (Ref). The news come amid a exploding MEMS market. The MEMS ecosystem is maturing and the industry is starting to take off in a big way.

In 2007, the MEMS market was estimated to be approximately US$6 billion and it is expected to exceed US$10.771 billion in 2011. The average annual growth rate between 2007 and 2011 is expected to be 13%. It is expected that new MEMS IDMs and foundries will be emerging similar to the semiconductor industry.

The applications of MEMS are expanding furiously. In the past, MEMS technology was largely limited to automotive market. However, in recent years, it has expanded to other markets such as consumer electronics. For example, MEMS will be used as an accelerometer in Apple’s iPhone and Nintendo Wii to detect motion and changes in orientation. Hewlett-Packard also uses MEMS technology for its inkjet print-head that combines integrated electronics with microfluidic channels to control ink droplets when printing. MEMS oscillators are also replacing quartz crystals at a 120 percent annual growth rate, according to an industry forecast. According to Wicht Technologie Consulting, the current $2.5 million market for MEMS oscillators will grow to $140 million by 2012. A number of MEMS startups are getting noteworthy funding from investors, for example Invensense, a startup specializing in single-chip devices based on MEMS technology for motion sensing applications, has secured $19 million in a Series C round of financing (Ref).

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