On Saturday, March, 21, 2020 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave emergency authorization to Cepheid, a California company, to sell a new test for rapid detection of the pandemic coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19. Cepheid’s Xpert® Xpress SARS-CoV-2 test gives healthcare workers results in just 45 minutes, with less than a minute of hands-on time for sample preparation.
Editor’s Picks
Intel Allocates $6M to Coronavirus Relief
The Intel Foundation will provide $4 million to support coronavirus relief efforts in communities where the company has significant presence. The foundation will also offer a special match opportunity for every regular full-time and part-time employee and U.S. retiree to a total of $2 million for relief efforts around major Intel sites.
Medtronic Shares Ventilator Design Specifications
Medtronic is publicly sharing the design specifications for the Puritan Bennett™ 560 (PB 560) to enable participants across industries to evaluate options for rapid ventilator manufacturing.
100 IC Wafer Fabs Closed or Repurposed Since 2009
Hardest hit are ≤200mm wafer fabs; 70% of closures in Japan and North America.
U.S. IC Companies Maintain Global Marketshare Lead
Propelled by 51% share of IDM sales and 65% share of fabless sales, U.S. companies captured 55% of the total worldwide IC market in 2019.
“Black Swan” Event Triggers Revision to 2020 IC Market Forecast
The recent surge of the spread of the coronavirus (Covid-19) and its anticipated negative impact on the global economy and IC market definitely fits the definition of a Black Swan event.
Room-temperature Bonded Interface Improves Cooling of Gallium Nitride Devices
A room-temperature bonding technique for integrating wide bandgap materials such as gallium nitride (GaN) with thermally conducting materials such as diamond could boost the cooling effect on GaN devices and facilitate better performance through higher power levels, longer device lifetime, improved reliability, and reduced manufacturing costs.
The Need for IoT Security At the Chip Level
A critical element to successful IoT security chips is public key infrastructure (PKI). All IoT devices with these chips require a strong identity, which will then be used for secure authentication.
EUV Materials Small But Strategic Fraction of $1.6B IC Photoresists Market
The global market for Photoresists and Ancillary Materials declined in 2019 due to semiconductor fabrication market challenges.
Transistor Count Trends Continue to Track with Moore’s Law
Though growth rates in some product categories have slowed, doubling of transistors per chip every two years remains a guideline that the industry continues to follow.
