The global IC foundry sector is forecast to increase almost 9% in output value in 2014, while output value for the overall semiconductor industry will grow by a smaller 5.2%, according to Digitimes Research. However, the anticipated rise in output value for the 2014 IC foundry industry shows a slowdown compared to growth of 15% in 2013 and 19.9% in 2012, said Digitimes Research. TSMC is set to move its 20nm SoC process to mass production in 2014, while new capacity at its 12-inch fabs will come online, Digitimes Research indicated. Rivals Globalfoundries and Samsung Electronics will also ramp up production of 20nm chips in the first half of 2014, Digitimes Research disclosed. Meanwhile, Samsung Electronics' foundry capacity utilization rate is likely to fall in 2014, due to the loss of Apple orders, Digitimes Research said. Buoyed by orders of application processors from Apple and strong IC demand for smartphones and tablets, TSMC's share of the global IC foundry market is expected to reach 50.3% in 2014 from 48.4% in 2012, Digitimes Research noted.

Global smartphone shipments are expected to top 1.24 billion units in 2014, with Samsung Electronics, Apple, LG Electronics, Sony Mobile Communications, Lenovo, Huawei, Microsoft, ZTE, Coolpad and TCL serving as top-10 vendors, according to Digitimes Research.Apple may see its shipments double in 2014 largely due to increased shipments to China and Japan as it will benefit from its cooperation with the largest telecom operators in the two countries, said Digitimes Research.The growth rate for Samsung will be limited in 2014 as its sales in the US, China and Japan will be depressed by growing popularity of iPhones.China-based Lenovo, Huawei and Coolpad are expected to step up their efforts to boost sales in overseas markets after being enlisted among the top-10 vendors due to higher shipment volumes in the home market in China.However, TCL and ZTE will continue to ship smartphones to overseas markets mainly, but will also strengthen sales in China, with domestic sales to account for less than 50% of their total shipments in 2014, commented Digitimes Research.

Sharp, Japan Display and LG Display are all expected to make breakthroughs in producing TFT LCD panels with in-cell touch technology in 2014. Previously, due to production constraints with the technology panel makers were only able to produce panels around 300ppi but that resolution is expected to jump in 2014, according to Digitimes Research.On-cell touch panels meanwhile can only achieve resolution around 200ppi on LCD applications. The technology is expected to be used mostly in entry-level to mid-range smartphones from China vendors in 2014, added Digitimes Research.

Mobile devices changed our life enormously. Mobile technology is essential for our lifestyle. A few years ago, a mobile phone was just a device used to make phone calls. However, time has gone by, nowadays most of us have a smartphone or tablet and use it just more like a computer. Today, those smart devices are equipped with GPS, accelerometer, cameras, proximity sensors, NFC technology, gyroscope....We cannot live without them. It's said that the 95% of us stay no more than 1 meter away from our cell phones. This means that we can answer calls, read messages, check mail anytime, anywhere. This phenomenon is driving a rapid increase in data traffic. It's expected to grow more than ten-fold over the next five years as smartphone adoption continues. This explosive increase is being driven by the seemingly insatiable consumer appetite for mobile broadband services to support Internet access, video streaming, content downloading, gaming and other high-bandwidth, data-intensive multimedia applications. The surging demand is straining the communications infrastructure. As a result, service providers around the world are upgrading their networks to ensure they have sufficient capacity and coverage to meet customer expectations.TriQuint, a leading provider of innovative RF solutions and foundry services, offers high-performance solutions for advanced approaches, leveraging strong integration expertise to pack more functionality into single modules that are considerably smaller than discrete solutions.The following is the interview during which TriQuint discussed the company's view and business opportunities in the mobile device and network infrastructure sectors, and the outlook for the industry.LTE Deployments AccelerateQ1: How is LTE technology affecting the wireless network infrastructure?A: LTE deployments give service providers more efficient ways to carry significantly more data traffic, driving much higher capacity requirements from the base station to the points across wireless networks; this capacity crunch also affects optical fiber networks used to backhaul data and connect mobile subscribers to internet hubs and international destinations. LTE enables better usage of available spectrum, faster data rates, reduced latency, lower per-gigabyte transport costs and simpler network architecture. In Figure 1, the statistics highlight LTE device growth of more than 3 times over the next four years.Fig 1: Projections of strong growth for LTE smartphonesWith more LTE devices arriving, it will boost infrastructure investments significantly. Operators worldwide have launched more than 200 LTE networks so far, with many more planned. The ramp to 4G is happening much faster than conversion to 3G services. In Asia Pacific, for example, LTE networks are expected to cover more than half of the population by 2018.Meanwhile, mobile carriers are easing the strain on their overstretched networks by offloading an increasing amount of data traffic onto Wi-Fi and small cell networks, such as micro-, pico- and femtocells. Small cell base stations will play a key role in heterogeneous networks (HetNets) as systems expand coverage in densely-populated urban areas. HetNets allow operators to optimize their spectrum portfolios and existing radio network assets, while delivering a better overall customer experience. The advent of small cells also has the potential to transform network economics by delivering service to rural areas, where their lower costs make deployment profitable even for low population densities.As wireless networks evolve to 4G and beyond, the bandwidth needed to each cell tower increases dramatically, so another challenge operators face is backhauling data from these miniature base stations. Optical networks are a logical solution, along with microwave radios. Optical networks provide higher capacity, better quality and reduced costs for new applications. The microwave / point-to-point radio alternative sees the greatest number of systems from 9 to 27 GHz, offering substantial bandwidth and range. While optical fiber can be readily upgraded from 10 to 40 to 100 Gb/s and beyond, microwave radio can reach areas where fiber deployment is too expensive or slow. TriQuint offers high-performance solutions for all these approaches, leveraging our integration expertise to pack more functionality into single modules that are considerably smaller than discrete solutions.Q2: How are LTE deployments impacting the smartphone market?A: The LTE build-out is escalating band counts within smartphones dramatically, creating new challenges for design engineers. Along with meeting more stringent performance requirements, designers must accommodate a rapidly increasing number of frequency bands within each mobile device. Next-gen smartphones must continue to support the primary 2G bands, 3G bands and new 4G, plus Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The five dedicated bands for 3G pale in comparison to the more than 20 4G LTE bands, and this number could rise to more than 40 in the future.Q3: What about the shift to high-performance filters as LTE continues to be deployed? How will that affect the market?A: Filters play a critical role in the RF front-end, because they selectively pass desired signals while rejecting unwanted noise. Unlike PAs, which can cover multiple bands, filters are band-specific, so growth in band counts leads directly to the growth in the number of filters or duplexers within each device. Though it's not practical to support all worldwide bands in a single smartphone, a feature-rich model for international use might need to filter transmit and receive paths for 2G, 3G and 4G in up to 15 bands, as well as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS. Such a phone might require as many as 30 to 40 filters. The situation is likely to become even more complex in the future: next-generation high-end smartphones could include 50 or more filters. Adding to the filtering requirements, smartphones need multiple filters for each FDD-LTE and TDD-LTE band - as many as three filters: a duplexer for the primary TX path, one for the RX path plus an additional filter for the secondary RX path. Depending on the band, a Wi-Fi coexistence filter is often needed, too.Q4: What kind of filter technology will be required to meet LTE performance specifications?A: As the number of required filters grows, so too do the performance requirements. Not only must all these bands within each device be isolated to avoid interference, but spectral crowding means that guard bands between adjacent bands are being reduced significantly or even eliminated entirely. High-performance filters are needed for mitigating the resulting interference issues. In some regions, bands are being re-farmed for LTE, which may also change the filtering requirements; narrow 5 MHz and 10 MHz 4G LTE bands require filters with sharper corners than 3G WCDMA, for example.TriQuint leverages its advanced technology portfolio, to solve the toughest filtering challenges. While our surface acoustic wave (SAW) and temperature-compensated SAW (TC-SAW) filters are well suited for up to about 1.5 GHz, TriQuint's bulk acoustic wave (BAW) filters deliver compelling performance advantages above this frequency.Figure 2: The overview of different LTE frequency by regions and filters.Our BAW technology offers the only way to meet requirements for some of the most challenging LTE bands. BAW filters deliver exceptionally precise performance including steep skirts and high rejection along with very little temperature drift - ideal for addressing the most vexing interference rejection problems between adjacent bands. BAW filter size also decreases with higher frequencies, which makes them ideal for the most demanding 3G and 4G applications where performance and size are crucial.Impact of Regional Band AllocationsQ5: What's the impact of regional differences in band allocations on phone design?A: Phone designers must grapple with significant differences in band allocations among regions and even between countries. The situation will become even more challenging as more LTE bands are allocated in the future. In Asia, for example, the LTE picture is a complex map of regional band assignments with several distinct local markets. China is a huge potential market with unique requirements; other countries also have distinct needs, notably Japan and Korea, which, like the U.S., are the two nations that are most rapidly moving to LTE.ChinaIn China, the predominant LTE technology is LTE-TDD, as opposed to the LTE-FDD primarily used in North America. Many of the LTE bands are at higher frequencies, including several that are adjacent to the Wi-Fi band. This situation creates a strong requirement for BAW Wi-Fi coexistence filters. For example, two of the LTE-TDD bands allocated are Bands 40 and 41, as shown in Figure 3.Fig 3: China Bands 40 and 41 LTE-TDD bands are adjacent to the Wi-Fi bandThe Wi-Fi frequencies are sandwiched between these two bands. There is absolutely no gap between Band 40 and the lower end of the Wi-Fi band, and only a minimal gap between Band 41 and the upper end of the Wi-Fi band.High-performance BAW coexistence filters will be needed; in addition, tradeoffs may be necessary depending on customer priorities. Supporting the full width of Band 40 may require giving up some of the lower Wi-Fi channels. Alternatively, manufacturers may choose to give up part of Band 40 if supporting the full Wi-Fi bandwidth is their top priority. The coexistence situation with Band 41 is slightly less challenging because of the minimal guard band between Band 41 and the Wi-Fi spectrum. Within China, there is some local variation; for example Bands 7 and 38 replace Band 41 in Hong Kong.KoreaKorea is particularly interesting because of its high smartphone use and rapid LTE adoption. About 26 million people-more than half the population--already have smartphones, and about 15 million of those are expected to be using LTE by the end of 2013. Korea is re-farming Bands 3 and 5 for LTE, and starting this year, every phone is expected to support Band 7. Band 26 has also been allocated and will require TC-SAW; though it overlaps with Band 5, Band 26 includes some frequencies that a Band 5 filter cannot cover. Bands 3 and 7 will require BAW filters; there is also a substantial need for Wi-Fi coexistence filters.JapanThe situation in Japan further adds to the regional complexity. Japan is unusual in its use of Bands 26, 11 and 21; Band 41 is also used, requiring a BAW Wi-Fi coexistence filter.Q6: What about issues concerning carrier aggregation?A: As capacity demands on mobile wireless networks increase at an explosive rate, the scarcity of radio frequency allocations has made spectrum one of the most valuable and rapidly appreciating commodities in modern history. That's what makes carrier aggregation, as enabled by LTE-Advanced capability, so attractive. It enables network operators to consolidate multiple fragmented slivers of spectrum into a single wider channel to enable higher data rates and increase capacity. LTE-Advanced will require high-performance filter technology, and TriQuint is collaborating closely with operators, chipset providers and other ecosystem partners to solve the toughest RF challenges. See Figure 4.Fig 4: Carrier aggregation enabled by LTE-Advanced capabilityTrend to Integration ContinuesQ7: With the market pushing toward integration, what are the unique qualities of TriQuint that can deliver continued success in such an environment?A: RF solutions are continuing to move to higher levels of integration. TriQuint is taking on this design challenge to simplify RF design and optimize performance by providing more capability in less space for our customers. We've made significant advancements in miniaturization, power efficiency and system performance. We're leveraging active and passive process technologies to integrate the growing number of puzzle pieces into a few tiny modules - while conserving precious battery life.TriQuint is seeing high demand for multi-band, multi-mode power amplifier modules (MMPA) so OEMs can support numerous cellular bands in less space. For example, our first MMPA combined a quad-band EDGE amplifier with two data bands. The second generation offered four data bands, and our third-generation will house as many as 10. These highly integrated modules in an ultra-small form factor shrink overall product footprints while reducing external component count, minimizing assembly costs, speeding time-to-market, and enabling industry leading performance. In addition, device manufacturers use this common RF footprint to limit the proliferation of regional phones and speed design time.TriQuint's ability to integrate our premium filters with our active components such as power amplifiers and switches into single, densely-packed modules that package more functionality into smaller footprints is a distinct competitive advantage. Our multi-band power amplifier-duplexer modules are a great example of this innovation. TriQuint's packaging technologies include our CuFlip flip-chip, which uses copper 'bumps' to replace wire bonds, along with wafer level packaging. Both integration techniques enable smaller RF solutions with reduced height for today's thin and light mobile devices.Q8: What is your product strategy in this area to ensure that you will have a unique product lineup moving forward?A: TriQuint is ideally positioned to capitalize on industry trends. We're laser-focused on developing differentiated products that deliver value and provide industry-leading performance in the world's smallest form factors. TriQuint's differentiated filter technology gives us a distinct competitive advantage for solving our customers' toughest interference challenges. TriQuint is uniquely positioned to provide high-performance BAW and TC-SAW filters in volume. In addition, with our strong RF integration capabilities we can combine our sought-after premium filters into integrated modules that pack more capabilities into smaller footprints.Q9: What's the strategy for the emerging LTE business opportunities in APAC market?A: The upcoming deployment of LTE in Asia will continue to have a significant impact. The number of subscribers who will switch to 4G over the next five years is staggering. Besides providing LTE products for mobile devices, TriQuint supplies RF solutions for the base station market. Our product revenue from the base station market is up primarily because of early support for China's upcoming TD-LTE build-out. More than 200,000 LTE base stations are currently being deployed.The rollouts of LTE and LTE-Advanced will spur demand for TriQuint's integrated, high-performance RF solutions, so we're making investments in capacity to keep pace. R&D continues to be a priority as we develop unique technology and packaging techniques to deliver RF solutions that improve performance and reduce size, thereby furthering our commitment to innovation by delivering real customer value.

Shinodo Plasma has ended production of Plasma Tube Array (PTA) display technology as of December 2013 due to capital-related issues. The technology allows screens to have curved features in addition to thin and energy-saving features, but was unable to make an impact in the market due to high pricing. Japan- and US-based vendors nevertheless were originally planning to use the technology to compete in the market.According to Digitimes Research, OLED TV panel technology is also currently facing issues with pricing, which comes as a result of low production yields. Despite this, the technology is still being pushed by Korea-based panel makers and TV vendors in the market but it still has a long road ahead before dropping in price and becoming more widely used in large-size applications such as TVs.

Facing the fact that the notebook industry is no longer enjoying strong growth, brand vendors have been trying to transform, or are searching for new business opportunities. Observing brand vendors' latest innovations at CES 2014, Digitimes Research believes 2-in-1 devices and Chromebooks will become star products that the vendors will focus on pushing in 2014.Digitimes Research expects 2-in-1 devices to be mainly promoted in the entry-level dual-OS product market with Intel providing resources such as reference platforms, marketing subsidies and discounts on CPU prices. Asustek Computer's Transformer Book TD300, showcased during CES 2014, is packed with performance and an attractive price, but is weak in terms of mobility, indicating that the device will mainly target the consumer group that is sensitive to cost.More brad vendors will release dual-OS 2-in-1 devices in the first half of 2014.With the release of Acer's new Chromebook, plus upcoming models from Toshiba, Dell and Asustek, shipments are estimated to enjoy an over 100% on-year growth to challenge a volume of four million units in 2014, expanding their presence from the education to the enterprise sector.

December average retail prices for LED light bulbs equivalent to 40W incandescent bulbs in the US, Europe, Japan and South Korea all decreased on month, according to Digitimes Research.December average retail prices for 40W- and 60W-equivalent LED light bulbs were: US$20 (down 2.9% on month) and US$22.10 (down 2.6%) in the US; EUR13.40 (US$18.30, down 11.8%) and EUR19.20 (up 12.3%) in Europe; JPY1,687 (US$16.20, down 3.4%) and JPY2,474 (up 0.9%) in Japan; KRW14,544 (US$13.70, down 3.2%) and KRW16,170 (down 0.6%) in South Korea, Digitimes Research indicated.In the China market particularly, December average retail prices for 7W and 9W LED light bulbs stood at CNY47.50 (US$7.80, up 12.8%) and CNY58.10 (up 1.0%) respectively.LG 40W-equivalent LED light bulbs for sale in the US market and Osram 60W-equivalent models for sale in South Korea had the highest lumen/price ratios of 79.0lm/US$ and 109.3lm/US$, respectively, in December. In terms of average luminous efficiency, Cree 40W-equivalent LED light bulbs for sale in the US market and Toshiba 60W-equivalent models available in Japan had the highest levels at 75.0lm/W and 96.5lm/W, respectively.

Among main lighting markets around the world , Japan will remain as the largest LED lighting market with a global share of 25.6% in 2014, down 3.4pp on year, according to Digitimes Research. North America will be the second-largest market accounting for 23.1% of global LED lighting in 2014, followed by Europe with 20.3% and China with 16%, Digitimes Research indicated. However, Japan will see the lowest on-year growth, at 22%, in LED lighting market value in 2014 because its LED penetration of lighting is expected to rise to 65.5% in the year, while the growth will be 46% for North America, 40% for Europe and 47% for China.

The digital home industry saw various trends continue to develop in December 2013, including Japan vendors increased focus in the southeast Asia market; the release of AllCast on Google Play; and Amazon's launch of online video services in Japan, according to Digitimes Research.Toshiba also announced that it will end production of LCD TVs at Dalian Toshiba Television (DLTV) and close down the plant by end of December 2013 as part of its measures to reform and return to profit its Visual Products business.Panasonic, Sharp and Sony all bumped up expanded services and TV development in the China market as well, found Digitimes Research.

With brand vendors aggressively investing in the second half of 2013, 8-inch tablets accounted for 15.2% of global tablet shipments in December, while Android-based tablets acquired a combined 53.2% shipment share in the month. Almost 50% of global tablets featured 2GB memory in December, helping the specification to become the mainstream for tablets.8-inch tablets saw their shipment share rise significantly from 5.9% in September 2013 to over 15% in December because of the entry of Windows-based 8-inch tablets. Intel's release of its Bay Trail-based processors have relieved Windows-based tablets from power-efficiency concerns, prompting first-tier PC brand vendors such as Lenovo, Acer and Dell to release related devices, Digitimes Research's figures showed.The increase in 8-inch models' shipment share was partly contributed by brand vendors diversifying their tablet businesses. Because the 7-inch segment has already been occupied by white-box and brand vendors' entry-level products, and only leading players such as Samsung Electronics, Google and Amazon are able to achieve product visibility, many vendors are now trying to expand into the 8-inch segment, hoping to achieve better gross margins.Samsung was one of the aggressive vendors during the year-end holiday sales and has recently cut its Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 price to US$149, and offered competitive prices for its Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 and 10.1.