Japanese Manufacturers to Develop Next-generation Semiconductors

Published:2012/1/3 0:42:00 Author:Phyllis From:SeekIC

Japan’s major electronic IT manufacturers, Hitachi, Ltd., Fujitsu Ltd. and NEC Corp., will work together to develop next-generation semiconductors.

Next-generation semiconductors will consume only one-tenth of the power compared with present-day devices and allow the transfer of greater amounts of data. At the same time enable a reduction in the size of IT-equipment.

These next-generation semiconductors are expected to be available in 2019 and will be widely used at businesses including call centers that offer cloud computing services, as well as in products such as personal computers.

These devices will reduce the power consumption of servers at data centers by about 30 percent and minimize the power consumed by air-conditioning units as the semiconductors will suppress heat generation.

With less power consumption and extremely high data transfer speeds, these semiconductors enable manufacturers to equip smartphones with the same central processing units typically found in personal computers. Experts say it will also be possible to create smartphones with battery lives that last twice as long as those available in the marketplace.

Smaller and more efficient semiconductors are the key now. To achieve this, the wiring of lines on the circuit boards of these devices must be narrowed. The least width between these lines are 1 millimeters. Some companies, like Hitachi, are attempting to reduce the width to 0.1 millimeter by replacing the circuit board lines with optical interconnectivity typically found in products such as digital cameras. To reduce size, manufacturers can turn to optical technology.

The next-generation semiconductors are expected to reduce power consumption by 130 billion kilowatts per hour in 2030. This is about 13 percent of the electricity generated by 10 Japanese power companies in fiscal 2009, which was about 1 trillion kilowatts per hour.

Japanese companies plan to produce trial products by completing the required technological developments by fiscal 2019. They aim to utilize optical technology to revive the Japanese semiconductor industry, which has been faring badly against South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co.

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