Mark Downing, vice-president of strategy and business development with Silicon Laboratories, supplier of mixed-signal ICs for consumer, industrial and communications markets, tells Electronics Weekly how mixed-signal semiconductor technology can reinvent itself.
What is the biggest opportunity in terms of technology and/or markets in 2011?
The latest advances in semiconductor technology are enabling cost-effective, easy-to-deploy low-power IC solutions for home and building automation (in-home energy monitoring systems, connected appliances, lighting control and security systems) and green energy systems such as smart meters and power inverters for photovoltaic arrays and wind turbines.
In addition, the ability to harvest energy from sustainable sources is also creating the ability to deploy ultra-low-power wireless sensor nodes widely and cost-effectively in homes, factories, agriculture and infrastructure.
In addition to these green energy initiatives, many manufacturers are endeavouring to simplify their supply chains by consolidating their suppliers. This trend toward vendor consolidation is creating opportunities for semiconductor technology that is flexible and programmable and offers short lead-times.
Consider, for example, timing devices (clock ICs and oscillators), which are used in virtually all electronics systems.
Telecoms equipment makers are moving from discrete and fixed-frequency clock generators to integrated, single-chip, programmable devices that are available in two-week lead times or less.
The availability of highly configurable timing devices that can be delivered in a couple weeks instead of months helps reduce development costs and time to market while simplifying system design.
What challenges in global markets are keeping you busy at the moment?
Over the past decade, we have observed a rebalancing taking place in the global economy. Growth has been shifting from developed nations to developing nations.
Emerging economies have moved to the forefront of driving positive economic activity. 2011 has proved to be no exception. China, for example, has become the world’s second largest economy, and its GDP continues to grow at a much faster pace than in developed nations.
Despite the robust growth of emerging economies, the latest macroeconomic data has been decidedly negative, with growth rate forecasts being lowered around the globe.
Portfolio diversity has helped us weather the economic storms in the recent past, and I am confident this diversity will enable us grow in the future.
Product development cycles driven by new use cases, technology innovations and lower costs will enable diversified companies to endure and even thrive despite the stresses of current macro events.
To this end, we continue to focus product development on emerging markets that show strong growth potential, such as human interface technology and broadcast video. For example, we have made strong inroads in Asia with our next-generation silicon TV tuner portfolio, including a new tuner product optimised for the rapidly growing China TV market. And our capacitive touch-sensor technology is poised to do quite well in the handset market in Asia. So despite the current gloomy macroeconomic situation, we still see encouraging pockets of growth in emerging economies.
If you had to name one design technology with the largest commercial potential this year, what would it be?
New human interface technologies are fundamentally changing the way we interact with electronics. While smartphones and tablets are leading the way in interface innovation, it is clear that the ability to sense a user’s presence and respond to a simple, intuitive touch rather than the press of a button will affect all electronics, from home appliances to industrial control systems to automotive infotainment.
The ability to make advanced human interface technology easy and cost-effective to deploy, power efficient, small in form factor and yet high performance remains an ongoing challenge in a market where sophisticated consumers expect more from these new interfaces.
As pacesetters like Apple and Samsung know all too well, consumers are ever eager for the next generation of even the most advanced smart phone, media player or tablet on the market.
So while smartphones and tablets are leading the charge with touch technology, we expect the pervasive adoption of touch-controlled consumer electronics products will accelerate the integration of similar human interface technology in systems we interact with every day in our homes, offices and cars.
Semiconductor companies that are able to deliver best-in-class touch sensors, proximity sensors and ultra-low-power microcontrollers will reap the benefits of today’s rapidly growing human interface market.
Where is mixed-signal technology reinventing itself?
I’m surprised by how many mixed-signal problems continue to go unsolved in system designs. These design challenges may be related to power management, EMI, jitter, power consumption, and wireless range and sensitivity.
In the absence of innovation, system designers often are left with discrete solutions that take up valuable board real estate, add cost and complexity, slow time to market and create reliability issues.
I have seen that applying mixed-signal know-how and disruptive innovation to system-level problems can help designers solve current design challenges.
An example of disruptive mixed-signal innovation involves the RF front end for TVs. For decades zTV makers relied on CAN modules filled with more than a hundred discrete components hand-tuned to optimize reception and sensitivity.
Designers can now replace the discrete-based CAN module with a cost-effective, all-silicon TV tuner that performs as well as a traditional CAN module.
Another example: consider the wheel-tuned AM/FM radio manufactured in China, still popular with untold millions of users. Wheel-tuned radios typically require dozens of discrete components as well as significant rework and manual tuning during manufacturing.
Today it is possible to have a “radio on a chip” receiver IC offering a full AM/FM/SW radio from antenna input to audio output in a single device.
