Mtekvision to Mass Produce MMP for DRM Music Phone
Cowon to Market Tiny Audio Player
Samsung Electro-Mechanics Mass Produces Flip Chip CSP Substrates
Samsung Electronics Hit Hard by Falling Semiconductor Prices
Samsung Electronics to Produce 3.2M Pixel CIS
Seiko Precision Develops Camera Module with AF Support
TDK Develops Compact Memory Disk
Seiko Epson Develops World's Thinnest Electronic Paper
NAND Flash Memory Price Decline Accelerates

Mtekvision of South Korea is going to begin volume production of a mobile multimedia platform (MMP), which supports DRM (Digital Rights Management) in music phones in October 2006, the company made an announcement on September 18, 2006. The MV8700 Maple series supports 3+ million-pixel cameras and various audio codec functions. TSMC of Taiwan is going to mass produce them using a 0.13 micron process rule. Its strength is that it supports both Microsoft's DRM and OMA (Open Mobile Alliance) DRM. It also received the PlayforSure 1.21 version certificate, which guarantees the performance of handsets having MMP components.

In addition, the series added a DB function, which organizes music files. A music phone with the processor will be able to sort and search for songs similarly to typical MP3 players. It supports an internal transmission interface to external memory such as SD card, allowing storage of up to 8GByte of music files. [M. Robertson, Portelligent]

Cowon of South Korea has announced a micro MP3 player, the iAudio F2, weighing 39g and supporting 22 hours of playback with a 3 hour charge. The unit supports video and photo viewing on its 1.3-inch color LCD display.

The supported file formats are WMA (with DRM 10), MP3, OGG (up to Q10) and FLAC (levels 0-8). The tiny unit also supports RM Radio, FM Radio recording and voice recording. The 512 MByte model, 1 GByte model, and 2 GByte model will retail for 119,000 won ($125.93 @ won 945/$SU 1), 149,000 won ($157.67) and 179,000 won ($189.42) respectively. [M. Robertson, Portelligent]

Samsung Electro-Mechanics has begun mass production of its flip chip CPS substrates, the company made an announcement on September 14, 2006. Flip chip substrates have bumps to bond with a semiconductor device instead of wire bonding. Use of such substrates reduces the degradation of electric signals and has a faster processing speed. They are often used for packaging of high performance devices such as CPU and chipsets.

The thickness of the substrate is 0.3 mm and it is a value-added product combining the best of CPS and flip chip BGA.

Samsung Electro-Mechanics began full fledged production in September 2006. It plans to become the world's top supplier in the field next year.

The company plans to concentrate its efforts on high value packaging substrates such as flip chip BGA and flip chip CSP. [M. Robertson, Portelligent]

Samsung Electronics announced its financial performance for the April-June period of 2006 on September 14, 2006. Its sales profit was 1,420 billion won ($1.50 billion @ won 945/$US 1), which was 14 percent less than that of the previous reporting period. Profits have declined two quarters in row. Samsung Electronics' sales for the period were 14,110 billion won ($14.93 billion), 4 percent more than that of the previous period. Although it increased the sales of its flagship products and achieved higher revenues, prices of its semiconductor memory, LCD panels and cellular phones kept falling.

Its sales profit exceeded analysts' estimate of 1,200-1,300 won ($1.27-$1.38 billion). The net profit was 1,510 billon won ($1.60 billion), which was down 11 percent from the previous reporting period. The net profit was higher than its sales profit because profits of overseas sales subsidiaries, who are recording high sales in flat TVs, were reflected. [M. Robertson, Portelligent]

Samsung Electronics of South Korea is going to begin volume production of 3.2-million pixel CMOS image sensors (CIS) as early as October 2006, Korean language tech news site, Digital Times reported on September 20, 2006.

The new CIS has 1/3-inch optics and a 2.25 micron x 2.25 micron pixel size. Samsung Electronics will start production as early as October 2006 on a 0.13-micron process rule and begin volume production at the end of 2006. The company plans to produce ¼-inch optic 1.75 x 1.75 pixel size sensors in 2007.

Samsung Electronics revealed that the company had started volume production of ¼-inch 2 million-pixel CIS with 2.25 micron x 2.25 micron pixel size in the second quarter 2006. The 0.13 micron processing rule was adopted for the production. Through those mass production efforts, the company plans to dominate the global mega-pixel CIS market. It began commercial production of 1.3-million pixel CIS on 0.18 micron process in 2004. [M. Robertson, Portelligent]

Seiko Precision of Japan has developed a camera module with auto focus support, the P0029, targeted primarily to cellular phones, although the company will entertain orders from other applications. The company will begin commercial production in March 2007. It is going to install a new production line with a capacity of 300,000 units a month in the company's manufacturing subsidiary in Thailand.

Seiko Precision adopted a 3.2 million-pixel 1/3.2-inch CMOS area sensor for the module. Its lens module consists of three plastic aspherical lenses. The F value is 3.5, and horizontal angle of view is 64°. The camera module dimensions are 11 mm x 6 mm x 20 mm. Through improvements in the linear motor unit, the company was able to achieve a low profile. [M. Robertson, Portelligent]

TDK of Japan has developed a semiconductor memory disk integrating NAND flash memories and began sample shipment to system manufacturers.

The new disk integrates sixteen 16Gbt NAND flash memories achieving 32GByte capacity. The dimensions are 79 mm x68.9 mm, about 80 percent of a 2.5-inch HDD. The module contains a NAND flash memory control IC, the GBDriver RA5, four super capacitors and an ATA interface for 2.5-inch HDD. The GBDriver supports UltraDMA Mode2, with a maximum data transfer speed of 33.3MBytes/second.

Amid rapid price decline of NAND flash memories, not only personal computer manufacturers but also POS (Point of Sales) and printer manufacturers are looking into solid state drives to replace HDDs. TDK is providing samples of the new module free of charge to system manufacturers. It is marketing control chips for NAND flash memories and technology solutions. [M. Robertson, Portelligent]

Seiko Epson of Japan has developed world's thinnest flexible electronic paper, Japan's largest financial daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported on September 20, 2006. The thickness of the paper is ¼ that of existing flexible electronic paper, making the thickness equivalent to ordinary copy paper. It is thin and light weight and is targeted to electronic book applications.

The paper features 0.096 mm thickness and 192 dpi resolution. The paper is 2.1-inch in size and at 0.44g in weight. [M. Robertson, Portelligent]

Prices of NAND flash memories came down dramatically over the past 12 months, Nikkei Electronics July 31, 2006 issue reported. A year ago, NAND flash OEM prices were at about 6,000 yen ($51.72 @ yen 116/$US1) per GByte. The prices came down to 2,000-2,200 yen (177.24-$18.97), a 65 percent decline since the last year. If the trend continues, OEM pricing of 1GByte NAND is likely to be cheaper than 1.8-inch HDD. In fact, HDD manufacturers have begun to show concern for the dramatic fall of NAND flash memory prices.

Nikkei Electronics analyzes that the initial trigger of the dramatic price drop is the commercialization of the iPod nano. Apple is said to have sourced NAND flash memory at a groundbreaking price of 3,000 yen ($25.64) per GByte from Samsung Electronics at the time of commercialization. The iPod nano became a sensation selling over 1 million units in 17 days and subsequently, the price of NAND flash memories took a dive. The example proves that if there is huge demand, prices of flash memory could fall significantly. Nikkei Electronics predicts that notebook PCs could be the next trigger for NAND flash demand to increase and prices to come down dramatically. Other industry analysts agree that the continued growth of NAND memory chips depends on the launch of new killer products based on NAND. It could be a multimedia player, digital video player, a high-end handset, or a new handheld gaming device.

Related to the story, Samsung Electronics' chip division head, Mr. Hwang Chang-gyu predicts that NAND flash memory prices will fall more than 60 percent in 2006. He is optimistic that the price drop will trigger explosive demand and foresees that the demand of global NAND flash memories will rise at least 22 percent over the last year to $13.5 billion.

Another factor for the potential price collapse is that competition among NAND flash suppliers. Samsung Electronics, Toshiba, Hynix Semiconductor, STMicroelectronics, Qimonda, and IM Flash Technologies are all competing fiercely. For survival, manufacturers have to claim a bigger piece of the NAND pie and for that they are boosting output capacity. As a result, if supply capacity exceeds demand, the prices could face a heavy fall, which will squeeze manufacturers' profit margins further, making it difficult for them to continue investing in NAND fabs. [M. Robertson, Portelligent]