Taiwan is building its fourth nuclear power plant. The main island of Taiwan is only 36,193 square kilometers and already houses three nuclear power plants - two of them in New Taipei City in northern Taiwan and one located in Pintung County in the south. Now, the government is eager to begin operating the fourth one, which is also located in New Taipei City, despite activists' grave concerns about its safety.If the fourth nuclear plant gets the green light to operate, it means there will be three running nuclear power plants in the city, the most densely pouplated on in Taiwan, where the population density is high.Just how small Taiwan's main island is? Taiwan has a land mass smaller than Bhutan and larger than Belgium. It is just a bit bigger than Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. Taiwan has a population of about 23 million, with almost half of them living in northern Taiwan.Recently, the parliament is reviewing a proposal for an additional NT$40 billion (US$134 million) budget for the new plant and this has reignited a debate over the necessity of a fourth nuclear power plant. The construction budget was originally set at around NT$169.7 billion but due to delays and other reasons, the spending will have to increase to NT$330 billion.Currently, the three nuclear power plants support 20% of total electricity need in Taiwan, according Global Post, a US-based news media.Taiwan's average electricity price is low, currently around NT$3.04/kWh, compared to many developed countries such as Denmark, Germany, and the US. Instead of developing renewable energy sources through strong policy support, the Taiwan government is keen to continue relying on nuclear power.Taiwan is a solar product producer country but the number of domestic solar PV installations is low. The solar firms in Taiwan do not have government support and have been struggling to expand into the international market and instead of helping the industry to build strong brands or provide generous subsidies to promote domestic installations to reduce the burden on burning coal or using nuclear to produce electricy, the government plans to invest more money into a fourth nuclear power plant.

When it comes to digital power, iWatt claims that it is the inventor of digital power control for AC/DC. The company notes that its technology allows its customers to eliminate BOM costs by reducing components while adding reliability and enabling smaller designs. Over the past few years, the company has been able to grow its sales 50% a year and it has shipped more than one billion chips since 2007.In the fourth quarter of 2012, Digitimes had the opportunity to speak with iWatt senior marketing VP Scott Brown about the value of digital in AC/DC power adapters, solid state lighting (SSL) and LED TV back lighting.Q: The power control business is a very competitive industry. How have you been able to succeed?A: We are competing with large competitors with large sales forces and large manufacturing capabilities. We win because of our core technology. And while you see a lot of great technologies in the semiconductor industry, the trick is being able to bring it to market. We have shown that we can ramp quickly by leveraging our partnerships. United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) is our exclusive foundry partner at the moment. We also use Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE) in Taiwan and Shanghai, and Unisem in Malaysia for backend services.So far we've been focused on 5-10W power and we've been very successful there. We believe we have about strong market share in this segment. We are now moving up to the 10-40W segment and we believe we can retain our share in those markets.Q: Can you tell us a bit about your core technology?A: Our core IP is called PrimeAccurate. Basically, our digital technology comes into play through an accurate way of controlling the primary side of an AC-DC power supply. It is unique and patented.If you look at an AC to DC system - AC on the input, DC on the output - historically, a controller on the secondary side of the transformer would feed back to the primary side via an opto-isolator. With our technology, we eliminate the need for the opto-isolator and the secondary side controller, as well as some other discrete components by digitally analyzing the waveform on the primary side of the transformer. In doing this we can accurately determine not only the voltage but also determine the current on the secondary side.This combination of primary side control and accurate regulation makes us unique. There are imitators out there but they are not able to achieve our combination of primary side control and accuracy. Some companies may offer primary side controllers. Other companies offer accurate regulation by using a secondary side regulator. We are the only company that can combine those two key attributes into one product, allowing us to offer reduced cost, increased reliability and increased density.Prime accurate technology is embedded in about 85% of the products that we ship.Q: Can you elaborate more on your value proposition?A: In our key areas, whether it is chargers, adapters, or solid state lighting, having an accurate voltage or an accurate current can enable smaller solutions because there is less heat sinking required if you know what your power is going to be. It can also enable faster charging in adapters and brings more reliability to our customers' products.Our technology also takes it one step further. Any time you can take a component off the board it helps improve reliability. But in particular, eliminating the need for an opto-isolator is a significant improvement. In general, opto-isolators tend to fail sooner than most components in a system. In systems that have to survive surge voltages or systems that are plugged in all the time - networking systems in particular - the weakest link in a surge voltage situation is typically the opto-isolator.Q: How does your primary side solution compare with competitors offering secondary side regulation? Basically, how good is your solution?A: Well, for example, looking at voltage out in a constant voltage mode of operation, our tests show we can achieve +/-3%. Even in constant current mode of operation we can achieve +/-5%. This is as good if not better than conventional systems employing secondary side regulation. In fact, particularly for constant current we believe primary side regulation is actually better that secondary side. And if you are willing to use higher precision resistors in a system, we have customers that have achieved +/-2%.Moreover, as I mentioned previously, we provide a strong value proposition in the networking space as well. We are designed into home gateways, networking equipment, and we have significant share in that market. In areas such as industrial, smart meters and set top boxes, we are looking to replicate that success.Q: You have also been able to achieve success in the solid state market. How did you extend your coverage to that market?A: Our value in the charging space is a small, low-cost solution. We noticed the SSL space has the exact set of requirements. They have an AC input, DC output and makers want something small because it has to fit inside a bulb. In the case of retrofit bulbs, you have a very small amount of space to jam everything inside. And like anywhere else, they want something that was low-cost. So the exact same attributes that made us successful in the adapter market were equally applicable in the lighting space.We initially got into the space by taking our adapter chips and putting them inside light bulb. Having established ourselves, our digital heritage continued to pay dividends. We noticed that it is very difficult for an LED bulb to work with a conventional wall dimmer.Dimmers weren't designed with an LED in mind; they were designed to be used with a tungsten filament. These dimmers use triac (Triode for Alternating Current) to hack out portions of that AC wave form. That works fine when you are trying to warm up a wire in a vacuum, not so well when you have an LED light.The main difference is that LEDs react very quickly. Whatever current you inject into an LED, you basically get that same light wave in the output. On the other hand, when you heat up a traditional filament, you can't make it instantaneously cool down. It inherently gives you a nice long time constant when cooling and thus you can smooth out any glitches in the system during the transition. By contrast, LEDs do the exact opposite. But because they react so quickly, LED solutions can enable flicker to make it through into the light spectrum. This can be a real issue. It can be annoying and even if the flicker cannot be noticed with the naked eye, the IEEE has shown that flicker can be produced at a frequency that can induce epileptic fits. Using a digital approach, we are able to digitally eliminate sources of flicker.Q: You also have an LED solution for TV backlights. Is this based on the same technology you focus on in the solid state lighting segment?A: The technology we use for LED TV backlights is totally different from our technologies used in other areas but we still leverage our digital heritage. We found that through a digital control mechanism, we can help to balance the voltage mismatch between the LED strings that make up an LED backlight. By balancing the voltage mismatch, we are able to dissipate less power and heat in the driver units themselves, meaning you can get more drivers in a package and that means saving system costs. However, this is a whole new area for us so our share is quite small.iWatt senior marketing VP Scott BrownPhoto: Michael McManus

Samsung Electronics has reported record profits for the fourth quarter of 2012 because of strong sales from its mobile communications products, but it's a big contrast - yet no surprise - to hear the Korean giant (it is a giant in major ICT sectors - smartophones, semiconductor and LCD panels) describe how its panel business "struggled, as demand for IT panels for notebooks and monitors remained slow."The may have found some solace in the fact that profitability in LCD panels for TVs and OLED panels for smartphones prevented wider losses.Indeed, all major LCD panel makers have been struggling. Samsung's peers in Taiwan, AU Optronics (AUO) and Innolux have yet to report their earnings for fourth-quarter 2012, but the results won't be significant to return them to profitability.Makers in the fast maturing LCD industry have been looking for ways to bail themselves out. They have been rolling out TV panels of new and bigger sizes, and at the same time shifting their focus to OLED. But it remains to be seen when they can return to profits, and until then, they will likely continue struggling.

GaAs solar material maker Alta Devices boasts solar cells with an efficiency of 28.8%, but perhaps even more astonishing is the fact it can produce GaAs cells that are only 1-micron thick, which opens up the possibility of a whole new field of lightweight, flexible, mobile solar applications. The efficiency combined with the super thin form factor means that anything that can be moved, carried, or worn can eventually incorporate the technology.Digitimes had the opportunity to meet with Alta Devices at the Euroasia event hosted by Globalpress in Silicon Valley and then had a chat with company VP Rich Kapusta during his recent visit to Asia.Q: You have an efficiency of 28.8% with your solar cells. Can you explain how you achieve this?A: The material we use gives us our efficiency. We start with gallium arsenide (GaAs), which is known to be the highest energy density material on the planet. This is the material used for panels used by the space program and has always been the best solar material possible for single junction applications. However, working with GaAs has always presented challenges. It is extremely expensive and cells have typically been produced on a wafer that is rigid and thick, meaning not very flexible.The innovation we've provided is to figure out a way to grow the cell in a form factor that is extremely thin, giving us plenty of flexibility and reducing the material costs. The end result is that our cells are only 1-micron thick.Q: How do you achieve such a thin form factor? Is it the materials or process?A: We grow the cells on a standard 4-inch square GaAs seed wafer, which we purchase from a traditional semiconductor technology company in China. The innovation is in the manufacturing process.The first thing we do is grow what we call a release layer on top of the wafer. This is a super thin layer of aluminum arsenide where the crystals are perfectly matched to the gallium arsenide. On top of that is where we grow our gallium arsenide solar cells. These cells are only about 1-micron thick, compared to about 600-650 microns for typical solar cells. We also place a coating of metal and a layer of PET (polyethylene terephthalate) to protect the back side of the solar cell.Another key innovation Alta has developed is a process where we go back to the release layer and etch away all the aluminum arsenide. Etching that layer away separates the 1-micron GaAs layer from the seed layer, allowing us to then reuse the wafer. This overall process is the reason we can achieve such low costs for a GaAs solar cell. A 1-micron thick solar cell uses so little of the material that we can simply keep reusing the original wafer.Q: What does it mean when you say you can achieve low costs? Are you competitive with rooftop silicon-based cells in terms of dollar per watt?A: We don't really disclose our cost numbers but I am referring to GaAs when I talk about low costs. GaAs cells used in space run about a couple of hundred dollars per watt. We are probably an order of magnitude less than that, meaning we are under US$20 now and we fully expect to be in the single digits in the near future. Our scale is still small but we do have models that show that as we continue to grow our manufacturing capability, we will eventually be competitive with traditional silicon solar, whose costs today are in the US$0.70 range.But this is beside the point because commodity solar is not our main market. Our value-added is the efficiency that allows for dense, compact designs and our form factor which is lightweight and has virtually no thickness. Combined, these two qualities provide incredible possibilities in the mobile markets – where there is strong demand. In addition, we have no competition because nobody else can do what we do. This will allow us to not only scale our business but to be profitable every step along the way.Right now we have a very small 2MW pilot line in Sunnyvale, which in the grand scheme of solar is nothing in terms of capacity. However, even with that small capacity we have enough material to go after some extremely high value markets.Q: Such as...A: Military applications are our initial focus, in areas such as the UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) market. For example, the US military has thousand if not tens of thousands of battery-powered UAVs. These UAVs are model-sized airplanes that are flown to basically set up a communications network or used in surveillance. Under the current system they fly for about an hour and then come back down to recharge. By applying our solar technology to the wing structure we've proven that we can essentially allow these UAVs to fly all day in the sun, changing the usage model from constantly recharging to launching one time in the morning and having soldiers going out to retrieve it in the evening.This is a huge value proposition for the military. You can set up more complex communication networks that are more consistent and reliable and can be sustained for a longer period of time if you are not constantly trying to manage it with planes going up or down. Also, the UAVs can be damaged when landing. However, the key value for the military is in battle zones, where reducing the number of landings/take offs can significantly reduce the risk of life, because it means fewer times are needed for solders to go out to retrieve the UAVs from the field.So this is a pretty decent sized market and we are the only one who can provide a solution.UAVs also can be applied for civilian use in farming applications, border patrol applications, pipeline management and even can be used by the news media. UAVs will eventually be used to address any problem that is currently done by sending someone out into the field or sending out a helicopter. We will be able to enable these UAVs to be out in the field for a much longer period of time.Q: Do you already have products deployed?A: We are currently in the testing stage, having the military validate that our technology works.Q: Do you have any other products being tested in the market?A: We are also working with the military on a charging mat. Soldiers out in the field can carry a mat that can be folded like a space blanket but can also provide 10W, 20W or 60W of power, depending on the size. This allows soldiers to carry less weight because they can use solar to recharge as opposed to having to carry additional batteries or to figure out how to carry a generator.Q: What about other market segments, like the consumer space?A: I believe the CE market is going to be a really big opportunity for us. For example, we have prototypes of phone covers that can be put on a typical smartphone. These covers can provide 1.3W of energy (literally) inside an office. With that amount of energy, a smartphone's battery life can be extended by about 10%. That doesn't sound like much but then again, think about how much R&D is being done in the semiconductor industry, display industry and battery industry to reduce power and extend the life of smartphones. We can do it simply by adding solar to the back of the phone and we can do it at a reasonably low cost. Moreover, this example is for someone who is inside the office all day. If you are spending more time outdoors, that number goes up dramatically for extending the battery life.For a typical tablet, the added surface area provides for about 10W of space, which is the same as plugging the device into a wall. Think about it, having the smartphone or tablet beside you while at lunch or at Starbucks would give you a charge for the rest of the day.We can uniquely enable these types of applications because of the thinness of our cells. We add basically no thickness to the phone itself because we can directly integrate into the case of the device. And there is no added weight because our solar cells probably weigh less than the plastic they are replacing. So with very little added cost and no change to the form factor, we can uniquely enable the ability to charge on the go.Then there are a whole range of mobile charging possibilities in developing nations where electricity for charging is much harder to come by than is coverage for mobile devices.These are examples of markets that people have tried to go after in the past but they never succeeded because the technology and prices points have never been that suitable.The other big opportunity for us is the automotive market. Think about solar embedded in car rooftops, which is something we expect will happen over the next five years. With our density we can get over 400W on top of a small car.Q: That's a lot of demand for a 2MW facility to take care of. What are your capacity expansion plans?A: We break ground on a new factory this year and that factory will be in production at the end of 2014. Capacity will initially be approximately 40MW but we will be able to scale it to about 200MW. When we get to that point, which is still not huge capacity, it will give us a cost structure that will allow us to go after these bigger markets. I expect related products to be available in the CE market first, simply because that market moves so quickly. The automotive market tends to be a little slower but we will be able to address all the markets we are targeting with capacity from our first factory.Q: I know you mentioned that you don't talk about costs per watt, but how much can we expect to pay for some of these consumer devices such as covers for a smartphone? A solar tablet cover would make a nice present, but not at US$200.A: We expect that these products will in the few dollars per watt range in terms of price – not cost but price. So, as a consumer you can expect to pay US$3-4 for the amount of solar you are putting on the smartphone.Q: So a US$50 iPad cover that eliminates the need for charging is not out of the question?A: It makes sense. And if someone were to integrate that into the tablet, it would be an interesting way to differentiate a product. Therefore we are currently talking to both OEMs and ODMs to gauge interest.Q: In terms of efficiency, what is your roadmap?A: We are currently at 29% for single junction cells but we have already demonstrated the ability to grow dual junction cells. We should be able to get to 33% this year with dual junction and when we scale our production facility, we fully expect that it will be dual junction cells that are mass produced.We also have the ability to grow triple junction cells and we expect those to be in the 38% range. They are a little more expensive to make and a little more complicated from a process standpoint. However, when we can produce them in quantity, it does open up the satellite market for us, if that's where we want to be. But we expect that dual cells at 33% will service the majority of our demand.Q: What are the origins of the company? You appear to be a solar company but a lot of your staff have a semiconductor background.A: The company is five years old. It was started by two professors who are very famous in the area of photonics and are well-known by everyone in the solar industry – Harry Atwater and Eli Yablonovitch. Eli has been doing what is called epitaxial lift-off (ELO) for years but he was doing it on postage stamp sized substrates. The challenge for the company was how to make it work on a 4-inch square wafer. So development and R&D has been focused around how to turn this concept into something that can be manufactured. That meant bringing in a lot of people involved with semiconductor equipment and manufacturing. So a lot of the know-how in the backend concerning how to make a factory that works reliably with good yields, that came from the semi worldQ: How much of the manufacturing equipment is custom?A: We have 16 steps in the manufacturing process and three of them are custom. So we do have a lot of off-the-shelf tools that you can find in either the semiconductor industry or in the solar industry. But the three steps that are unique to us are the ability to grow the cell quickly, the ability to etch the release layer reliably, and the ability to stitch the results together in sheets of any size or shape. These custom tools involve more than 77 patents on the related technologies. In addition, the volume of trade secrets makes it highly unlikely our process can be reverse engineered. We are talking about very high barriers to entry from a technology standpoint.Q: How about licensing the technology to someone who feels they have manufacturing expertise?A: We are looking at that but there are no official plans. If there are people out there who want to build a 10GW factory in China somewhere, we can certainly enable them to do that. But we are not going to do that right now. We are taking this one step at a time.Q: You mentioned being profitable on your way to growth, can you tell me a bit about your financial status?A: We are currently in the midst of (series) D-Round financing. We have already raised US$120 million over three previous rounds, and we are now looking to raise US$40 million more. Our current lineup of investors includes tier-one silicon valley VC firms such as KPCB, August Capital and Crosslink Capital, as well as a strong mix of corporate strategic investors. The interesting thing is that we plan to become cash-flow positive in 2014, so we expect that this round will be the last equity needed for the company, which is pretty incredible – breaking even on a US$160 million investment with only 2MW of capacity.Alta Devices VP Rich KapustaPhoto: CompanySolar charging matPhoto: CompanyFlexible solar cellPhoto: CompanySolar handset casePhoto: Companyepitaxial lift-off (ELO) toolPhoto: CompanySolar powered UAVPhoto: CompanySolar-powered tabletPhoto: Company

Vitesse Semiconductor has been a major player in the semiconductor industry for the past 28 years, from its role in the telecom area in the heyday of SONET/SDH to becoming involved in the Ethernet side of the business since the early 2000s. These two business units were then merged (the telecom unit, which is primarily SONET/SDH products and the SME business unit, which focuses on Ethernet), with the company going full tilt toward carrier Ethernet, with a focus on the IP edge.In the fourth quarter of 2012, Digitimes had the opportunity to attend the Euroasia event hosted by Globalpress in Silicon Valley, where we had the opportunity to be introduced to a number of leading technology companies, including Vitesse and company CTO Martin Nuss.Q: Can you tell us about the Vitesse product focus?A: We are very focused on the IP edge with low power ICs that can go into small cell base stations, femtocells and picocells in the wireless network. In 2013-2014, we expect the deployment of small cells in the network to bring us big opportunities. We thought the IP edge market was going to be a very large investment driver in the 2011-2015 timeframe so we went full in 2008 and we haven't looked back.Q: How about the products themselves?A: One of the key technologies we have been focusing on developing has been network timing, focusing on solutions based on the IEEE 1588 protocol (Precision Time Protocol), which provides frequency as well as time-of-day timing for wireless networks. We are currently on our fifth generation 1588 timing engine, which can meet TD-LTE and LTE Advanced timing requirements. This is currently a very important area because of the shift to packet switched networks (PSNs). What I mean is that timing used to be provided by the TDM network or GPS but both of those are not really viable options in an IP world.We also provide very sophisticated carrier Ethernet switch engines - with all the timing integrated. These solutions include strong feature integration such as for OEM operations, administration and maintenance. In terms of design wins, 2011 and 2012 were really good years for us primarily based on the 1588 timing capabilities in our ICs but also for the very low power switch engines for the mobile access base.Q: Obviously LTE is driving these opportunities. Can you tell us about the deployment scenario and investment profile you are seeing in the market, and the opportunities they are bringing Vitesse?A: The first step LTE service providers made was upgrading their macrocells to be multi-mode (2G/3G/4G) so they could accommodate getting decent coverage for users that have LTE compliant handsets, mobile devices and tablets. This has been going in the US, Japan and Korea in a very significant way. Europe is a little behind but is catching up. In China, China Mobile has said that it is going to roll out LTE in the late 2013 timeframe no matter what.In line with this trend, the key for us over the past few years has been our strength in 1588. The upgrade of the macro nodes to multi-mode has gone hand in hand with a transition from the traditional TDM backhaul connections to gigabit Internet and IP Internet connections. Now all of a sudden you don't have the timing provided by the TDM network. You need to provide timing either from GPS or from the network itself using the 1588 protocol. Our strength in 1588 has given us big opportunities in the upgrade of the entire mobile backhaul network, in areas such as cell site routers, aggregation routers and pre-aggregation routers as part of.In terms of timing, in new networks such as TD-LTE and LTE Advanced, we are talking about precision measured in parts per billion in frequency accuracy. They also need very accurate time of day and phase alignment between adjacent cells, as well as between macro cells and small cells, on the order of nanoseconds. The overall budget for LTE Advanced in terms of timing accuracy is about 500 nanoseconds, but you have to be able to maintain that over 20 or 21 network elements and you may have some network elements in between that are not timing aware. You might have DSL links at the last mile, or you may have microwave links at the last mile, that have issues with timing capabilities. And so those 500 nanoseconds are gone very quickly. So by providing highly precise 1588 timing in our switches and our PHYs we basically can guarantee that whatever our customers may do, the network elements that include our devices are not contributing significantly to any timing errors in the network.Q: Can you tell us what you expect moving into 2013?A: While the early LTE investment focus has been on coverage based on existing macro cells, these macro cells cannot provide the capacity needed for widespread LTE acceptance. As soon as you get enough LTE devices on the network you will need to start implementing small cells in addition to the macro cells in order to provide capacity in addition to coverage.As I mentioned previously, Vitesse is very focused on the IP edge with low power ICs that can go into small cell base stations, into femtocells and picocells in the wireless network. So the biggest opportunity for us in 2013-14 is the deployment of small cells in the network.For us it is important for two reasons - small cells require significant networking capabilities so it is not just point-to-point connectivity problem anymore because these small cells sit on lamp posts, or they sit on traffic signals, or they are placed in urban canyons. This means it is very hard to get them connected in a point-to-point fashion to some central aggregation point. So they are going to be connected primarily by microwave or millimeter wave technology. Research firm Infonetics recently forecast that almost 90% of small cells will be connected with microwave/millimeter wave technologies because those lamp posts and traffic signals don't have fiber or DSL connectivity.This has really changed the small cell backhaul problem from a point-to-point connectivity problem to a fairly sophisticated networking problem and we are the primary vendor for low-power networking switch engines that can be deployed with these small cells. We provide the backhaul IC chips that allow these small cells to be backhauled in a daisy chain or a partial mesh along the streets in urban corridors or urban canyons and then haul those back to a central aggregation point, but not in a point-to-point fashion.Q: Can you expand on your statement that you are the primary vendor for this segment?A: Most of these small cells have very tight power requirements, typically around 13 watts power over Ethernet power envelopes. Our competition can provide Carrier Ethernet switch chips with between 8-10 watts power and that would completely blow the 13 watt power envelope. We introduced switches in 2012 (called Serval) that are actually 1.5 watt chips that have all the timing capabilities, all the carrier Ethernet capabilities and are also MEF Carrier Ethernet 2.0 compliant at a 1.5 watt power envelope. We are really dominating today in the market for equipment for microwave/millimeter wave small cell backhaul.And because these cells are sort of daisy chained along the street level or there is a partial mesh, you need to provide more than connectivity. You also need to provide quality of service (QoS). You need to provide multiple classes of service for different traffic classes. You need to provide virtual Ethernet. You need to provide virtual connections to the different small cells along the way as they are being accumulated and aggregated from small cell to small cell.All of a sudden it has become a very complex networking problem where you need a sophisticated MEF CE 2.0 compliant switch. Traditionally these are on the order of 10 watts and you just don't have that in the small cell/small cell backhaul environment. Again, we provide a sophisticated switch engine optimized for this application at 1.5 watts.Q: You said the deployment of small cells in the network is important to Vitesse for two reasons. What is the other reason?A: It goes back to timing. I mentioned previously that network timing solutions could use GPS as a timing source. That may be OK in the United States and it may be OK in a macro station but it certainly is not OK for small cells, because they sit at the street level. GPS is well known, even in the US, to be susceptible to jamming and spoofing so you can change the time or jam the GPS signal and completely bring down the wireless backhaul network with cheap jammers that can be bought online.And that is a huge concern for mobile backhaul network providers. So IEEE 1588 is a much more reliable network-based timing technology and is becoming increasingly important. That is the other component that Vitesse provides. We are the leading 1588 timing provider in the industry.Q: Can you comment on what you see going on in China in terms of TD-LTE?A: China Mobile said it intends to deploy LTE in the 2013 time frame. As you said, China will use the TD-LTE flavor of LTE where the network timing requirements are much more stringent, this will be very beneficial for us. We are looking forward to the rollout.The other activities that we are involved in with China Mobile and its suppliers is cloud ran (C-RAN). A technology where instead of baseband processing being located at the cell side, it is done in a server that can be further down the network. The server does all the baseband processing and then the actual radio signals are being transported over fiber, or with our technology over microwave or millimeter wave, to what is called a remote radio head (RRH) or a remote radio head unit (RRHU). We are involved in R&D with China Mobile and its suppliers in this area. The timing requirements between the C-RAN servers and the remote radio heads are extremely stringent and we can supply precise timing to the remote radio heads.Martin Nuss, CTO VitessePhoto: Company

Panasonic is shutting down its only dedicated plasma TV manufacturing plant in Shanghai, China, marking the total defeat of the technology by the LCD competition in the consumer market.The two technologies were in a dog fight in the last decade, but somehow LCD got the upper hand. While LCD is now the dominant technology, TV industry players - including set vendors and panel suppliers - have been trying to sell users the idea that the age of the even more amazing OLED technology is forthcoming. The reason is obvious - to promote growth in a TV market where LCD growth is already slowing.Indisputably, OLED offers better picture quality than LCD. But isn't it also the case that plasma was touted as having better picture quality, such as true black, than LCD? So, obviously picture quality cannot be the sole winning factor in the TV race.In these days of bad economy, price seems to be a decisive factor though not the only one. The OLED TVs that Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics are launching are expected to carry prohibitive prices. OLED TV prices need to fall to levels comparable to LCD TVs before they can be a real compeition in the consumer market. Until then, LCD will continue dominating the market.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is expected to start making an integrated AP/GPU solution for Apple, using 20nm SoC process technology, according to Digitimes Research analyst Nobunaga Chai.Chai indicated that TSMC could now be working on engineering samples of Apple's chips at 28nm although the foundry's first chip orders from Apple are unlikely to happen in 2013.Previous reports cited various Chinese-language media outlets as saying that TSMC would secure orders from Apple later in the first quarter of 2013 to manufacture A6X processors using 28nm process technology. The new 28nm version of the existing A6X will power Apple's next-generation iPad and iPad mini devices, which will be launched around the middle of 2013.In addition, Chai noted that though TSMC with its 20nm SoC process will most likely secure its first chip orders from Apple, the foundry's 16nm FinFET process will play a key role in Apple's "breakthrough" product.TSMC's 20nm SoC process should be able to enter mass production between fourth-quarter 2013 and first-quarter 2014, followed by a newer 16nm FinFET node in less than one year, Chai said.

A recent Bloomberg report cited unnamed sources as saying that Apple and Qualcomm had been rebuffed in separate attempts to invest cash in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) in a bid to secure exclusive access to smartphone chips. Digitimes Research analyst Nobunaga Chai has commented saying that he sees no good reason why TSMC should accept the investment.TSMC will have no problem dedicating some production lines or even specific fabs to just one customer looking to secure enough capacity for their high-volume products, Chai noted. However, having some particular clients invest in TSMC could satisfy the foundry's short-term benefits, but will not be in line with its long-term sustainable interests, Chai said.If TSMC allows one particular client to pour cash into its operations, such strategic investment will put trade secrets at risk, for example, Chai indicated. TSMC, which serves customers in sections ranging from consumer mobile devices to industry and military grade products, should put more focus on its achievements over 30 years, not just the past three years, Chai said. Whether Apple can still lead the market in 30 years is really unpredictable, Chai added.During a Q&A session at TSMC's most-recent investors meeting, company chairman and CEO Morris Chang told investors that it makes complete sense to dedicate a whole fab, or two whole fabs, to just one customer.According to the Bloomberg report, Apple and Qualcomm hoped to separately invest more than US$1 billion in TSMC to set aside production dedicated to making chips exclusively for them.

For a country to begin and maintain industrialization, infrastructures such as railroad systems, highways, bridges, ports, buildings, roads, and most important of all, electricity, are necessary. India, one of the world's largest emerging countries has been growing at an average rate of 7.37% (from 2000-2012). This astonishing growth requires even faster electricity growth. Nevertheless, India continues to be an electricity-starved country.This week, when India should be celebrating the 1GW solar power milestone, half of the country has been suffering from power outage. According to PV Magazine, India's solar installation reached 1,030.66MW with most of the installations located in Gujarat.Coal, ignite and hydro-electric are the main source of power generation in India, according to BBC News. In addition, homes and farms consume more power than industries and businesses, said the news outlet. According to Brisbane Times, demand for electricity in India regularly exceeds supply by 10% during summer. This means India is no stranger to power outages.India has been seen as an emerging solar market with large potentials. Currently, there are still 300 million people without access to electricity. Charanka Solar Park, the world's largest solar power station and a cluster of 17 thin-film solar PV systems, is situated in Gujarat state. On April 19, 2012, 214MW of power was commissioned. When the construction of the park completes, it will host 500MW of solar PV installations. This figure might be small compared to the total installed electricity capacity of 170,000MW of the country, but it will help as per capita of electricity consumption in India has been low, around 107 watt per person (2011). India has lower per capita of electricity consumption than countries such as China, which is 389 watt per person, and the world average is 306 watt per person (2005-2012).The government has been proposing energy bills to promote the use of solar power. In addition, to protect the domestic solar industry, the government has begun anti-dumping investigations against China-based solar firms. Despite the efforts, India is still in need of more power. Some believe the problem is not about generating power but to reduce the power losses during transmission and distribution. BBC News noted that in India, "transmission and distribution losses have leapt from 22% in 1995-1996 to 25.6% in 2009-2010."For a country that hopes to continue growing at the current scale, a strong and powerful grid would certainly help.

Compared to countries in the same region, Poland seems promising. From the printed version of The Economist on June 9, Poland's latest GDP was 3.5%. This relatively high GDP only falls behind countries such as Russia, Turkey and Norway and it does not fall far behind. Nevertheless, the country also has a relatively high unemployment rate at 12.6%, just lower than two of the PIGS countries, Greece and Spain.There may be a solution for the high unemployment rate.According to the article "Renewable energy: Green electricity sector will grow faster when it gets head of wind" by The Financial Times on June 13, 10.4% of the country's electricity has been produced by renewable energy. But most of the renewable energy is produced by burning wood or straws at thermal power plants. The report said Poland is actually just utilizing 0.2% of its solar and wind potentials.Poland is a windy country, especially in the northern parts. The country knows that the potentials are there. The report noted that wind turbine installations in the country grew 20-fold in the past six years, and the Polish renewable energy growth has so far generated 25,000 jobs.The 25,000 jobs created do not seem too many for a country with a population of 38 million and an unemployment rate close to 13%. But if Poland can fully develop its renewable energy resources, it will create more jobs and ease its unemployment problem.It has the potentials, but the Poland government needs to come up with a clear policy for building its renewable energy sector.