Internet of Things - Technology focus

Digitization and new ways of working were meant to unleash productivity growth. What went wrong?   After the trials of the plague years, there was supposed to be a silver lining. The approval of covid-19 vaccines in 2020 - 2021, the jabs started working their magic, techno-optimism began to spread. People began to believe the hype that life-saving inoculations could be had in in months, but why couldn’t the world move out of its low-growth, low-productivity slumber? The solution touted, Embrace digitization; the shift to WFH could allow people, free of office gossip and time sink commutes, working more effectively. Governments promised to spend big on science; companies outlined juicy R&D forecasts and plans. Before the pandemic, the 1st World’s Growth Rate had drastically slowed. In the 2010s US labor productivity—output/hour of work—grew 1/2 as quickly as the prior 10 years. Societies have become poor at finding new ideas, and translating them into innovations and then promulgating these innovations. In early 2020 a paper in the American Economic Review, made the case that, even where there were ideas to be discovered, they were getting harder to find.  Hence the necessity for Problem Finding as a skill...Reading on will require a subscription.

Two South Korean companies have signed a $5.76 billion contract with Poland to export tanks and howitzers, Seoul's arms procurement agency said on Saturday, after Warsaw agreed to ramp up arms imports amid tensions with Russia. The parties have not announced the value of the entire deal, which South Korean media estimated ~$15 billion. Hyundai Rotem Co. will ship 180 K2 Black Panther Tanks, and Hanwha Defense, the Defence unit of Hanwha Corp, will send an unspecified number of K9 Self-Propelled Howitzers to Poland, and 48 FA-50 fighter jets under the deal. Friday's contract covers a 1st installment, DAPA (Defense Acquisition Program Administration) said, without elaborating on the numbers, with an agreement for the jets expected next month. The Ukraine Invasion, that Russia calls a "special military operation," has raised security fears among many countries. NATO member Poland has vowed to boost military spending to 3% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and +2X the size of the Polish Army to deter any attacks.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, who took office in May, has vowed to beef up security cooperation with European countries sharing the values of democracy and market economies, while boosting the country's defence industry amid North Korea's evolving nuclear and military threats. Yoon became the 1st South Korean leader to attend a NATO summit in Spain in June as an observer, warning of threats to those values.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said his state will follow California and prohibit the sale of new gas-powered vehicles by 2035. The specific regulations for Washington state are yet to be created and the public will have the chance to weigh in. Massachusetts also has already said it will follow California’s lead and more states are likely to. New York and Pennsylvania are among 17 states that have adopted some or all of California’s tailpipe emission standards that are stricter than federal rules. Nearly 20% of new vehicle registrations in Washington in July were either electric or hybrid, according the Department of Licensing. In total, 104,000 EVs — either fully battery electric or a plug-in hybrid electric — are registered in the state, about 2.5X the total from two years ago, there are ~4.7 million passenger class vehicles in Washington state. “This is a critical milestone in our climate fight. Washington set in law a goal for all new car sales to be zero emissions by 2030 and we’re ready to adopt California’s regs by end of this year,” Inslee said. Transportation-related emissions account for more than 40% of greenhouse gas emissions in Washington. A state council, previously set up by Inslee to plan for the future of EVs, held its 1st meeting in July, members discussed building a network of fast-charging stations on state highways, said Anna Lising, senior climate adviser to Inslee. The effort will be helped by $71 million from the US Federal government. The state Legislature also has budgeted $69 million to set up “community charging” stations for people who don’t live in a single-family home. 

Fiber connections provide users with very fast, reliable internet, only 43% of U.S. households have access to a fiber internet connection. “In some instances, particularly in rural areas and very challenging geographies, it can be prohibitively expensive to to deploy fiber and it can be very expensive for households to pay for it,” says Julija Jurkevic, a senior research analyst at S&P Global Market Intelligence.  The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (passed in Nov 2021) promises to bridge this digital divide, with $65 billion dedicated to expanding access to broadband internet to all Americans. Government support, along with a number of other factors, has caused a spike in the demand for fiber products. Fiber-based networks make up the majority of the internet’s backbone. Fiber-optic subsea cables spanning thousands of miles connect continents together, exchanging data at nearly the speed of light. Meanwhile, the massive data centers that host all of our cloud-based applications also rely on fiber connections. Increasingly, these fiber connections are making their way directly into peoples’ homes, providing them with fast, reliable internet.

NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), the world’s first mission to test technology for defending Earth against potential asteroid or comet hazards, will impact its target asteroid—which poses no threat to Earth—at 7:14 p.m. EDT on Monday, Sept. 26.

Among other activities, NASA will host a televised briefing beginning at 6 p.m. on Sept. 26 from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland. APL is the builder and manager of the DART spacecraft for NASA.  This test will show a spacecraft can autonomously navigate to a target asteroid and intentionally collide with it to change the asteroid’s motion in a way that can be measured using ground-based telescopes. DART will provide important data to help better prepare for an asteroid that might pose an impact hazard to Earth, should one ever be discovered.

The American economy contracted in the April-June quarter (Q2) but not as much as initially reported, as revised data showed stronger U.S. exports and spending, according to government data released Thursday. Q2 GDP fell 0.6%, annualized, less than the 0.9% drop the Commerce Department announced in the initial estimate last month.

Coming after the steep 1.6% contraction in Q1, the data still feeds concerns about a recession in the world's largest economy, which is often defined as two quarters of negative growth. Many economists have argued that definition does not apply to the current situation, given that the very strong labor market and resilient U.S. consumer mean the downturn is not widespread throughout the economy.

Ian Shepherdson of Pantheon Macroeconomics notes that incomes also increased in Q2, which bodes well for continued upward revisions to the data. "We are reasonably confident that when the comprehensive revisions are published in October, the declines in GDP in Q1 and Q2 will be revised away,".  The report said the upward revision in the most recent data "primarily reflected an upturn in exports and a smaller decrease in federal government spending," as well as higher consumer spending. "The increase in consumer spending reflected an increase in services (led by food services and accommodations),".

BitPath COO and auction analyst Sasha Javid said he wasn’t going to play “The Price is Right” game with the FCC's 2.5 GHz auction. But last week, he predicted that the auction would barely exceed $300 million in gross proceeds. That turned out to be wrong, as the FCC auction topped $400 million on Tuesday. There are two reasons for the sharp increase, according to Javid. 1st is the large number of inexpensive products – or licenses – in this auction that still have excess demand. 2nd is that it appears a bidder moved some of its “parked” demand back into some large counties in California late last week. There’s no way of knowing who that bidder is – the FCC keeps the identity of bidders a secret until after the auction action is over. But the entire event is generally seen as a way for T-Mobile to fill in coverage gaps for its 2.5 GHz mid-range spectrum layer for 5G. “This auction really wasn’t necessarily about generating money for the government. It was about cleaning up a band that T-Mobile really needed,” Javid said. But generating revenue isn’t the only mission of the government here; it’s to balance all of the stakeholders and come out with the best outcome, he added.

Manufacturability reaches sufficient level to compete with flip-chip BGA and 2.5D. so the industry is finding multiple ways to use fan out packaging to streamline packages and simplify processes. “We had a customer replace a 12-layer substrate with a 5-layer RDL, and at the same time the body size shrank by 20%,” said Deca’s Olson. “Fan out is currently more expensive than the substrate solutions, but if you’re able to reduce the layer count, it’s very cost-competitive.” Vardaman sees both chip first and chip last schemes being required going forward. “Everything is about picking the right package and the right structure for what you’re trying to do.”

A consortium of companies tasked with developing technology for the U.K.’s future Tempest fighter jet is working to develop a “mind-reading” helmet for pilots.  As part of the Future Combat Air System program currently underway in the U.K., a consortium — including BAE Systems, Rolls Royce, Leonardo and MBDA — is developing an AI system that can step in when a pilot is overwhelmed or not in control. The pilot’s helmet, according to its developers, will be outfitted with sensors that track the pilot’s brain signals and medical data during a flight. With each subsequent flight, the AI will cull more and more biometric and psychometric data and store it in a database that can be used to map out the pilot's distinctive characteristics. The developers of the technology envision that the AI would take over control of a flight in the event a pilot loses consciousness.

Retirements of mainline commercial air transport continue to lag as airlines keep older, cheap airframes on hand while wobbly trends such as traffic recovery and new aircraft delivery schedules stabilize, Aviation Week Network’s Fleet Discovery data suggests. Commercial transport retirements totaled 182 through July, Fleet Discovery data show. Pulling out regional aircraft, the figure drops to 157. The figures suggest an historically low retirement rate will continue. In 2021, 445 aircraft were retired, including just 341 mainline aircraft—lows not seen in 15 years.“We believe that retirements are likely to remain below expectations,” RBC Capital Markets analyst Ken Herbert wrote in a recent research note. “Supply chain disruptions imply that airlines will be cautious with inventory levels, and the uneven pace of the recovery implies that airlines are not always sure which aircraft will come back to service, and when.” Herbert pointed to the surprising reactivation of some Airbus A380s as an example. While keeping older airframes in service helps boost aftermarket demand, it also presents some challenges. One lingering issue from a lack of retirements is a corresponding shortage of used serviceable material.

“The lack of a material increase in retirements continues to create supply constraints on the availability of used serviceable material,” Herbert wrote. “Spare parts availability and lead times now appear to be a greater risk to the 2023 [aftermarket] growth, but this is one of the most important watch items” for the rest of this year, he added.

Top Biden administration officials tried dismissing talk of a  recession talk. and on Thursday, the Commerce Department reported that the economy shrank at an annual rate of 0.9% in the April-June quarter (Q2), marking the second consecutive quarter of negative GDP, or gross domestic product. A back-to-back drop in GDP is considered by many to be a barometer for a recession.  But not the Biden administration they think they can rewrite definitions in order to further the President's image. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen also avoided the R-word in a recent appearance on NBC's Meet the Press. Although 2 consecutive quarters of negative growth generally defines a recession, she said, "When you're creating almost 400,000 jobs a month, that is not a recession." (so she would like to get us all to think). The National Bureau of Economic Research says the traditional definition of a recession is "a significant decline in economic activity that is spread across the economy and that lasts more than a few months," a fact noted in a July 21 memo from the White House that cited the NBER as the "official recession scorekeeper."  However new Wikipedia users that made additions last week violated Wikipedia policies. The revisions set off an editing war that drove registered volunteer editors to repeatedly revert changes in order to comply with the site's policies — which, in this case, required proper citation and no political bias.  Those edits happened to conflict with top Biden officials' statements on the many markers of economic health. The Wikipedia policy for "edit warring" encourages editors engaged in a dispute to discuss the issue on a discussion page in order to reach a consensus. The crush of new editors didn't heed that best practice, instead continuing to push dubious edits that forced more experienced editors to shut down the ability to freely edit. New and unregistered users are no longer allowed to edit the page, which is currently "semi-protected" until Aug. 3, according to Wikipedia.

3D printing is a major asset for the energy industry. 4 years ago, light-weight, ultra-flexible, recyclable, and inexpensive solar panels came to light by Professor Dastoor and his team from the University of Newcastle was 1 of only 3 sites in the world testing printed solar, which used electronic inks to conduct electricity. "It's completely different from a traditional solar cell. They tend to be large, heavy, encased in glass -- 10s of mm's thick," Dastoor told Mashable. "We're printing them on plastic film that's less than 0.1 of a millimeter thick."

“No other renewal energy technology can be manufactured as quickly. The low cost and speed at which this technology can be deployed are exciting as we need to find solutions, and quickly,” said Professor Dastoor.  + 99% of the panels are made of PET, a recyclable material, giving it a distinct advantage over traditional silicon panels. “This is the 1st commercial uptake of printed solar in Australia, most likely the world,”. “It’s a historic step in the evolution of this technology and another example of private enterprise and community leading the charge in the adoption of renewables." Prof. Paul Dastoor claimed that printed solar technology could be developed shortly to fit almost any surface to power urban lighting, roadside water pumps, disaster shelters, caravans, and camping equipment, and be installed on anything from smart blinds for residential buildings to floating covers for dams and pools, greenhouse covers, or even yacht sails.

Small- and Medium-size Display Driver IC demand will likely rebound in Q4 2022, while large-size DDI demand outlook remains gloomy, according to industry sources. In terms of large-size DDIs, the industry continues to be downbeat about TV products. Brand vendors are also making significant adjustments to PC and notebook computer panel orders. Disruptions in the Chinese auto supply chain in Q2 2022 resulted in some delivery delays and corrections in Q3 for automotive DDIs. Electronic dashboards and center consoles are driving DDI use in vehicles.  If the situation gradually returns to normal, it is possible Q4 could see a surge in automotive-related shipments. Major DDI manufacturers plan to integrate timing controllers (TCON) and power management ICs (PMIC) into their long term plans, as they believe that the supply of automotive DDIs and Touch & Display Driver Integration (TDDI) will continue to be short going into 2023. Prices are expected to remain high but stable, which will help support profits. Automakers prefer highly integrated automotive TDDI modules. Himax Technologies, Novatek, Radium, Sitronix Technology, and FocalTech Systems are all players in this field. OLED DDI demand may see a small wave of demand in Q4 from mobile phone applications due to the increased use of AMOLED panels.

Condensed matter physics is the most active field of contemporary physics and has yielded some of the biggest breakthroughs of the past century. But as rapidly as technology has advanced, scientists have only scratched the surface. Now for the first time, Jie Shan and Fai Mak, a married couple of physicists at Cornell University, have figured out a way to create artificial atoms in the lab, opening the door to a new era in research.Read the full article at Quanta Magazine: https://www.quantamagazine.org/husband-and-wife-physicists-unlock-the-secrets-of-2d-crystals-20220816

The United States has added 7 China-related entities, mostly related to aerospace, to its export control list, citing national security and foreign policy concerns, according to a U.S. Commerce Department notice published online on Tuesday. The Commerce Dept. said the entities were added for "acquiring and attempting to acquire U.S.-origin items in support of China’s military modernization efforts." According to the notification, China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation 9th Academy 771 Research Institute, China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation 9th Academy 772 Research Institute, China Academy of Space Technology 502 Research Institute, China Academy of Space Technology 513 Research Institute, China Electronics Technology Group Corporation 43 Research Institute, China Electronics Technology Group Corporation 58 Research Institute, and Zhuhai Orbita Control Systems were added to the list, indicating suppliers of U.S. materials or services to these entities will need a license before shipping any goods. 

A surgical dressing synthesized by an international research team enhances photothermal therapy following a melanoma resection, destroys remaining cancer cells and simultaneously regenerates healthy cells within the resection site. The dressing combines graphene oxide as a photothermal agent, elastin and ethanol. The latter serves to chemically reduce the graphene oxide, making photothermal therapy more efficient and forming an antiseptic component within the dressing. The dressings described in Advanced Functional Materials only require 15 seconds of irradiation with near-infrared light every 48 hours to produce effective photothermal covering. The photothermal therapy efficiency of surgical dressing enables much smaller surgical resections compared to current procedures and eliminates residual melanoma cells.  Patients could even administer the light therapy, DIY at home. “These materials could be used as dressings for post-surgery treatment and healing of skin cancer, operating within a narrow temperature window where “bad” cells are killed and “good” cells are not,” explained the researchers. Scientists from University of Nottingham (U.K.), Shanghai Jiao Tong University (China), University of Trento (Italy), University of Strathclyde (U.K.), Imperial College London, University of Valladolid (Spain), Queen Mary University of London and Huazhong University of Science and Technology (China) contributed to this development.

“There’s been a sense of stagnancy across the board from the ongoing silicon shortage, which has definitely impacted IoT product creators' ability to meet demand in nearly every electronics vertical,” Georgoff told Fierce Electronics via email. “That being said, it has also forced all participants in the ecosystem to place their bets – to focus their limited materials, purchasing power, and strategic effort on the products and strategies they believe in most. We’re seeing what IoT applications have the strongest value propositions and long-term enduring demand. This type of ‘culling’ event is healthy in the long term, and will help the industry focus its capital and R&D investment in the places where it has the best ability to create impact for business and consumers alike.”  The passage of the CHIPS Act also will be a long-term plus for the IoT sector in a variety of ways. It helps grow the base of US-based companies and sites capable of producing high-density silicon wafers, that helps to augment global supply capacity and continue to drive down the costs involved in all kinds of computing. Leading into a virtuous cycle of increased innovation and competition at a time when chips have become increasingly ubiquitous in the IoT devices that are being placed in connected homes, manufacturing facilities, schools, and workplaces. 

Other IoT segments, such as “the Internet of Medical Things” (IoMT) also could open up with the help of funding from the CHIPS Act, adding “The Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) is saving lives today by enabling connected medical devices to track and report vital health data from the homes of people with chronic illnesses to their care teams.”

Power and RF will drive volume, with many new uses underway. Although GaN markets are tiny compared to silicon, they are strategic and very promising. IDMs and foundries are partnering with equipment manufacturers and designers to maximize energy efficiency and decrease costs. Through the end of the decade, there will be an enormous boom in GaN production for power and RF, and equipment suppliers are working with their customers to ensure optimal performance. Whether the industry extends that cooperation to the end of the decade to enable vertical GaN, or whether SiC and silicon will dominate the important high-voltage inverter niche, remains to be seen.

Predictions of a downturn in chip sales in coming months have Wall Street investors concerned, but long-time industry analyst Mario Morales believes the 5-year outlook is still bright. “I’m still optimistic where the semiconductor industry is 5 years from now after overcoming a year of pain in the market,” said Morales, IDC group VP for semiconductors, in an interview with Fierce Electronics. “After 30 years covering this industry, semiconductors consistently miss the timing when they introduce new capacity” as has happened during the pandemic. Part of the concern recently over a chip inventory correction by Wall Street analysts is based on their need to inform investors to reduce their holdings in chip companies and buy them back at the bottom for subsequent gains, several analysts said.

“You’ll see a lot of mixed messages from these chip companies,” Morales said. The recent IDC forecast shows global chip revenues increasing each year into 2026, going from an estimated $638 billion in 2022 to $745 billion in 2026. Even if the inventory correction hits bottom in 2023, the overall year is estimated to be up 6% from 2022, according to IDC.  Some analysts believe global revenues are on course to exceed $1 trillion in 2030.  In February 2021, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA.org) convened analysts and experts for an online discussion of the future of the chip industry which was in the early throes of significant chip shortages, especially for cars. At the time, Dale Ford at Electronic Components Industry Association, predicted chip sales would reach $750 billion by 2030 and $1 trillion in 2036.

One significant factor in a recovery will be China, which consumes almost one-third the globe’s semiconductors. Chinese officials are talking about stimulating the chip market going into 2023, which could have an impact globally, Morales said.