ARLINGTON, VA – A new report from the Consumer Electronics Association finds that industry-wide unit sales of US products registered with EPEAT (Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool) grew 10% in 2009 to a total of 48.5 million products.
The CEA 2010 Sustainability Report, a compendium of 21 case studies from a variety of CE companies, also details noteworthy milestones in green design. One manufacturer conducted a comprehensive lifecycle analysis for every product it ships to determine where greenhouse gases are created. After discovering 97% of the emission derived from manufacturing and product use, the company focused on designing new products that use less material, smaller packaging, and are more energy-efficient and recyclable.
Also, many consumer electronics companies are switching to renewable materials, including bio-based plastics, or recyclable materials instead of clamshell packaging, and are looking to reduce the amount of packaging they use. For instance, one video service provider consolidated its shipments and decreased its use of cartons by more than one million in 2009, a 75% reduction from the previous year. In 2011, all of the providers’ products will be packed with 100% recyclable materials.
Furthermore, many manufacturers have set ambitious goals for reducing GHG at their facilities. Meanwhile, other companies have launched efforts to cut power consumption at their data centers.
According to the EPA, 27,000 CE product models currently meet Energy Star specifications. The average energy savings of Energy Star electronics devices range from 20% to 55%. One semiconductor design company created a chip that can reduce its GHG by up to 40% by combining the processing and graphics processing units and the Northbridge chipset onto a single chip.
The report also says the consumer electronics industry recycled 200 million lbs. in 2009, and industry supports more than 5,000 permanent collection sites nationwide. Some examples of these efforts include one CE retailer collecting 100 million lbs. at its 1,200 US locations and one computer manufacturer operating an eCycling program at more than 2,200 US Goodwill sites.
STAMFORD, CT – Worldwide IT spending is forecast to total $3.6 trillion in 2011, up 5.1% from 2010, says Gartner. In 2010, worldwide IT spending totaled $3.4 trillion, up 5.4% from 2009 levels.
EL SEGUNDO – DRAM pricing declined in December to its lowest point of the year, a leading research firm said.
TEMPE, AZ – Economic activity in the manufacturing sector expanded in December for the 17th consecutive month, with the PMI registering 57%, up 0.4 percentage points, says the Institute for Supply Management.
BEIJING – China's machinery and electronics exports will be up 30% year-over-year in 2010, pushing the country to the top of the world's export ranks, say published reports.
In the first 11 months of the year, China exported $842.7 billion worth of machinery and electronics products, up 32.7% year-over-year, according to the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products.
In that period, the total value of imports and exports of machinery and electronics products was $1.4 trillion, up 34.3% compared to the prior year period.
November exports set an all-time high, increasing 34.9% year-over-year to $153.3 billion, and imports rose 37.7% to $130.4 billion.
AUSTIN, TX – The adoption of flip chip and wafer level packaging continues to expand to a wide range of devices, says TechSearch International. The firm projects a compound annual growth rate of more than 15% for flip chip units. In unit volumes, WLPs are expected to see a 12.48% CAGR from 2009 to 2014.
The drivers for flip chip continue to be performance, on-chip power distribution, pad-limited designs, and form factor requirements. The use of FCIP is expanding for microprocessors, ASICs, field programmable gate arrays, DSPs, media devices, chipsets, and graphics chips. Driven by form factor, many wireless products are adopting flip chip interconnect. Solder bumped devices are found in applications such as automotive electronics, computers and peripherals, telecommunications, and consumer products. TechSearch projects strong growth for Cu pillar and 300 mm bumping.
The growth in WLPs is driven by increased demand for thinner, lighter-weight portable products, but WLPs are adopted for form factor, performance and cost-reduction reasons. The industry has seen an increase in shipments of analog devices such as power amplifiers, audio CODEC, integrated power management controllers, ring tones for mobile phones, MOSFETs, image sensors, wireless, and integrated passive devices.
WLPs have historically been used for low-pin-count (≤100 I/O) applications, but many companies plan to use WLPs for higher-pin-count applications with larger die sizes (7 mm x 7 mm or larger), according to the firm.
An increasing number of companies are interested in fan-out WLPs. Fan-out WLPs are a package option for devices with a large number of I/Os that cannot be accommodated by a fan-in design. The use of a fan-out solution provides the same low-profile advantage as the conventional WLP, says TechSearch.