MediaTek R&D Center in Bangalore

MediaTek has launched its new Research and Development (R&D) centre in Bangalore, India.

The new R&D facility will focus on developing innovative and inclusive solutions for wireless communications and establish MediaTek's presence in other core segments such as connectivity and home entertainment devices, further enhancing the company's leadership in the Super-mid market.

Reinforcing MediaTek's focus on India's semiconductor industry, it has earmarked an investment of over $200 million into the country over the next few years. This new commitment underscores MediaTek's confidence in India's R&D environment, business landscape, and infrastructure as an area for enormous potential growth, and enables the continued development of high-quality, affordable solutions in the Super-mid market.

"The opening of our new Bengaluru centre will allow us to explore new and exciting opportunities across our broad spectrum of technologies, and put MediaTek solutions in the hands of billions of consumers," said Ching-Jiang Hsieh, President of MediaTek. "With this, we believe anyone can achieve something amazing, and realize their potential to become, what we call, an Everyday Genius."

Talking about the new R&D facility, Akshay Aggarwal, General Manager, MediaTek Bangalore, said, "We are delighted to be a part of the growing technology ecosystem in Bengaluru. By year-end, we plan to build a workforce of 100 professionals with a strong understanding of the thriving integrated circuit (IC) design industry, and aim to grow this number to over 500 over the next few years. The R&D centre will develop exciting new products and applications, enabling India to harness growth opportunities in emerging technologies, such as LTE."

With an objective of enhancing its global customer profile, including India, MediaTek is actively looking at diversifying its operations in the country beyond mobile communications, by enhancing its connectivity and home entertainment segments. The new centre will work in collaboration with other globally located R&D facilities of MediaTek to design solutions that combine hardware, software, and services to deliver a seamless cross-platform experience to consumers.

MediaTek already has a R&D facility situated in Noida, making the new Bangalore centre the company's second major facility in India.

ST Opens MEMS Lab in Taiwan

STMicroelectronics unveiled its MEMS Microphone Lab in Taiwan, which will take on all-level audio performance testing from components to modules and systems, including smartphones, tablets, notebooks, TVs, and remote controls, ensuring superior recording and sound quality, shorter debugging period, and faster time to market for end applications.

"With the increasing demand for advanced microphone applications in the Greater China region, it is imperative for ST to strengthen its local technology and application support," said Francois Guibert, EVP and president of ST's Greater China and South Asia Region. "Establishing a new advanced testing lab facility in Taiwan will allow us to work even more closely with our key customers and partners in the region to optimize the quality of their products at all levels and develop innovative applications with excellent audio performance."

Taiwan is home to a number of top-tier global ODMs (Original Design Manufacturer) and some of the world's largest EMS (Electronic Manufacturing Services) companies. It is also the world's second largest producer of IT products. With its comprehensive semiconductor-industry supply chain, from integrated-circuit (IC) design and manufacturing to packaging and testing, accounting for almost 70 per cent of the world's contract IC chip output and a quarter of the global IC design market, Taiwan has been selected as the ideal location for ST's advanced MEMS Microphone facility.

Equipped with the APx525 Family Audio Analyzer from Audio Precision, ST's MEMS Microphone Lab in Taiwan complies with the ISO 3744/3745 industrial acoustic standard and environmental noise regulation, as well as Intel's Speech and Voice Recognition Standard.

According to IHS' latest report, global MEMS microphone shipments rose by 37 per cent year-on-year from 1.9 billion in 2012 to 2.6 billion units in 2013. By 2017, the shipments are forecast to reach 5.4 billion units.

Celestica opens Microelectronics Laboratory and Cleanroom

Celestica Inc. has opened its new microelectronics laboratory at its headquarters in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The facility will enable start-ups, small and medium enterprises, and large original equipment manufacturers to quickly commercialize their latest ideas for miniaturizing electronics products through prototyping to volume production.

“Microelectronics is in demand for high-reliability markets such as healthcare, aerospace, defense, communications and renewable energy. As optics and photonics technologies permeate these high-reliability sectors, it is becoming increasingly more important to miniaturize and cost reduce,” says Shawn Blakney, Senior Director, Technology and Innovation, Celestica. “Smaller electronics provide the flexibility for lighter, portable and potentially more affordable devices, a trend that is already proven in the consumer market.”

The 1,100 ft2, ISO Class 6 cleanroom is a controlled environment for temperature, humidity, and airborne particles. The laboratory provides new miniaturization solutions using bare die packaging technologies.

“The new microelectronics laboratory complements our existing capabilities in Toronto including our materials laboratory and surface mount technology manufacturing,” says Blakney. “As we look to the future, microelectronics will play an increasing role in technology, and with this new capability, we can help our customers to keep up with the pace of change and stay competitive in their markets.”

Celestica delivers end-to-end product lifecycle solutions and provides design and engineering, electronics manufacturing, and supply chain management services.

Pritzker Nanofabrication Facility and Institute for Molecular Engineering

The University of Chicago’s Institute for Molecular Engineering will build a major new facility for nanoscale fabrication within the William Eckhardt Research Center, supported by a $15 million gift from the Pritzker Foundation. In recognition of the gift, the 12,000-square-foot facility in the heart of the Hyde Park campus will be named the Pritzker Nanofabrication Facility.

With an advanced toolset and enough space for a wide range of projects, the Pritzker Nanofabrication Facility will support work on new applications in computing, health care, communications, smart materials and more. Products could include advanced computer processors, quantum-bit processors, sensors, detectors, lasers, micromechanical systems and bionano devices.

Institute for Molecular Engineering “The Pritzker Nanofabrication Facility will put highly sophisticated tools in the hands of researchers, providing critical support to the work of faculty in our Institute for Molecular Engineering, as well as offering new opportunities for inquiry in related areas,” said President Robert J. Zimmer. “I am deeply grateful to the Pritzkers, whose generosity will benefit the Institute for Molecular Engineering and the University, and enhance Chicago as a hub for discovery and innovation.” “We believe the new nanofabrication facility holds great promise for breakthroughs that can transform fields of study and improve human life,” said Thomas J. Pritzker, on behalf of the Pritzker Foundation. “We understand that this kind of project can’t be done piecemeal. It takes a significant investment, and we believe this facility will be an important contribution to greater Chicago’s innovation ecosystem.”

The gift brings the total Pritzker Foundation contribution in support of the Institute for Molecular Engineering to $25 million, including a 2011 gift recognized with the naming of the Institute’s directorship. 'regional and national resource' The William Eckhardt Research Center, a major new home for the physical sciences and molecular engineering located on Ellis Avenue, is scheduled to open in early 2015. It will house the Institute for Molecular Engineering, along with other faculty offices and laboratories for the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, and the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics. The building was specially engineered to account for the particular needs of a large clean room.

The creation of the Pritzker Nanofabrication Facility will fulfill the vision for a multidisciplinary, state-of-the-art facility that will provide distinct advantages. “In size, in the variety of work it can support and in the technology of the toolset, the Pritzker Nanofabrication Facility will be a regional and national resource the day its doors open,” said Matthew Tirrell, the Pritzker Director of the Institute for Molecular Engineering. “Having a facility like this at the center of campus makes a powerful statement about the University’s commitment to these emerging fields of discovery.” The Institute for Molecular Engineering will manage the facility, which it also will make available to researchers across the University, as well as to external users, including other institutions and industry.

The Pritzker Nanofabrication Facility will house a suite of tools that can fabricate complex, integrated electronic, mechanical and fluidic structures. Work at the facility is expected to bridge the gap between academia and industry, leading to the creation of new nanotechnology applications. The scale of these applications can be as small as a few atoms. One example of such an application would be a tiny, ultra-low power device that combines computation, communication and storage capabilities. To do that, scientists will go beyond conventional electronics that move charges in electrical circuits to multifunctional quantum devices that manipulate the spins of electrons.

Another potential application of nanofabrication would be a device that can detect and count virus particles in blood. “Having a world-class nanofabrication facility on campus will dramatically enhance the capacity of the Institute for Molecular Engineering and change the dynamics of interactions with numerous departments, Argonne National Laboratory and researchers at Northwestern University, the University of Illinois and startup companies in Chicago,” said David Awschalom, the Liew Family Professor in Molecular Engineering. “The cleanroom will serve as a common meeting ground for students in engineering, materials science, biology, physics and chemistry; they will all work in the same facility, exploiting advanced fabrication capabilities to prototype new devices and technology concepts,” Awschalom added. “Sharing tools and exchanging ideas among students and faculty within a multiuser facility will catalyze research projects, and help develop solutions to problems in their respective fields. This infrastructure will be extremely important to our experimental efforts in atomic-scale electronics, and its presence will drive new directions in quantum engineering.” growing research infrastructure.

The Pritzker Nanofabrication Facility adds another key piece of infrastructure to a growing set of programs and venues that support scientists working at the intersection of basic scientific research and the innovation of new technologies. University officials said that the new facility will complement the nanoscale research infrastructure already in place at Argonne National Laboratory. The new facility also will provide another key resource for scientists and entrepreneurs seeking to bring new discoveries to practical application through the recently opened Chicago Innovation Exchange. The Institute for Molecular Engineering was created at the University of Chicago in 2011, in partnership with Argonne National Laboratory. The Institute is designed to explore fundamental societal challenges such as safe drinking water, cancer prevention and efficient energy storage, through advances in nanoscale manipulation and molecular design. Since its founding, the Institute has recruited eight scientists of international stature on the way to a projected faculty of at least 24, as well as launching a PhD program and an undergraduate curriculum.

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