Toshiba America Electronic Components bowed what it called the world’s smallest 13-megapixel CMOS image sensor for smartphones and tablets. The T4KB3 also reduces power consumption to 53 percent that of Toshiba's current 13-megapixel sensor, achieving 200 milliwatts or less of output at 30 frames per second. Toshiba used a “new design methodology” to engineer the T4KB3 and bring about the size and power-consumption improvements, it said. “This approach was developed to meet mobile product makers' continually increasing demand on chipmakers to produce CMOS sensors that can accommodate smaller form factors in tablets and smartphones,” it said. "Toshiba listened to, and worked closely with, customers to develop this latest breakthrough in CMOS image sensor design." The company said the T4KB3 sensor “was created to allow development of smaller, thinner camera modules that operate at low power while delivering the highest quality capture and playback of both still and video images.”

Toshiba America Electronic Components began sampling a new “system IC” that combines full Bluetooth 4.0 functionality with audio processing capabilities and supporting circuitry, the company said Friday. The TC35668IXBG device offers “a highly integrated solution for automotive hands-free and audio streaming subsystems,” it said. Suitable for integration by car OEMs and for aftermarket audio systems, the TC35668IXBG “can also form the basis of a subsystem,” such as for a wireless speaker, it said. “Consumer demand for the latest automotive technologies continues to grow, hand-in-hand with the need to make these capabilities as safe as possible,” Toshiba said. The TC35668IXBG “allows developers to build hands-free functionality at the system level,” it said. The device’s Bluetooth “core” combines a transceiver, antenna switch, balun, low-noise amplifier and power amplifier. It also integrates Bluetooth host controller interface hardware and software with a full software stack. That feature set “results in a very small bill of materials that can help companies minimize system size and cost, and allows a faster time-to-market due to proven embedded software,” Toshiba said.

Integrated Device Technology (IDT) bowed Thursday a wireless power chipset designed for tablets and large-screen smartphones that meets Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) magnetic induction charging specs for Qi-branded chargers. The P9240 transmitter and P9022A receiver operate together to deliver 10 watts of power, the company said. The receiver’s integrated microcontroller is said to allow the use of all WPC-compliant medium-power receiver coils in end applications. IDT CEO Gregory Waters said on a recent earnings call (see 1502030053) that the wireless charging market will start to grow “very nicely this year” industrywide, but the next two years will bring a “really robust adoption of wireless charging into most types of equipment.”

Silicon Labs announced a Bluetooth Smart portfolio including system-on-chip (SoC) devices, embedded modules, and a Bluegiga Bluetooth Smart software stack and software development kit. Called Blue Gecko, the items are targeted to the connected home, health and fitness, wearables, automotive, CE, audio and industrial automation markets, said the company Monday. Silicon Labs' recent acquisition of Bluegiga brought a scripting language and protocol stack said to facilitate bringing Bluetooth Smart connectivity to IoT applications. Samples of Bluegiga modules based on Blue Gecko SoCs are scheduled for late Q2 availability. Samples of Blue Gecko wireless SoCs are slated for early Q3 delivery. The Bluegiga SDK and Bluetooth Smart software stack will be available to Silicon Labs’ customers at no charge, the company said.

Texas Instruments announced availability of two Wi-Fi modules in its SimpleLink family, the company’s low-power platform for the Internet of Things. The CC3100 gives developers the flexibility to program apps using any microcontroller, TI said, while the CC3200 integrates a programmable ARM Cortex M4 microcontroller, allowing customers to run their own code on-chip. By using the modules, developers can benefit from lower development costs, reduced time to market, and simplified procurement and certification, the company said.

Shanghai chip maker Spreadtrum Communications successfully integrated the Tizen operating system into its WCDMA chipsets, the company said in a Friday announcement. The chipsets are embedded in Samsung’s first Tizen OS smartphone, the entry-level Z1, which was introduced in India, the company said. The Z1 runs the Tizen 2.3 OS Spreadtrum's SC7727S mobile chipset platform, which features a 1.2-GHz dual-core WCDMA processor, it said.

Micron Technology and Seagate Technology signed a multiyear agreement establishing a framework for combining the innovation and expertise of both companies, they announced. Micron and Seagate customers will benefit from a “focused approach” that lets the companies innovate faster and more effectively, they said. The companies will focus first on next-generation SAS solid-state drives and strategic NAND supply, they said, and then extend into future collaboration on enterprise storage solutions based on Micron NAND flash technology.

Toshiba signed a partnership agreement with South Korean chip maker SK Hynix to speed joint development of nano imprint lithography (NIL) as “one of the candidate technologies for advancing the migration to future generations of memory devices,” Toshiba said Thursday. Engineers from the two companies will start development of basic technologies for the NIL process at Toshiba’s Yokohama, Japan, plant in April, it said. “Practical use” of the NIL technologies is targeted for 2017, it said. Photolithography, the current “mainstream process technology,” uses a laser and photosensitive mask to etch circuits on a light-sensitive coating onto semiconductor wafers, Toshiba said. NIL transfers the circuit design directly, by impressing a patterned template onto the wafer, it said: “This has the potential to achieve finer designs.”

Dozens of performing arts organizations across the U.S. are asking the FCC to rethink a proposal that only performing arts entities that regularly use 50 or more wireless devices will be eligible to apply for a Part 74 license and have their mics protected in a database. The organizations said the rule would leave them without protection from TV broadband devices. The filings were in docket 14-165. “Thousands of performances are held by professional performing arts organizations each year and the use of wireless microphones is both essential to producing high-quality performances and also mitigates against significant public safety concerns,” the Baltimore Symphony said, in a representative filing. “Professional wireless capability, with successful interference protection, is essential to our sector.”

Qualcomm downgraded the second-half revenue outlook for its Qualcomm CDMA Technologies (QCT) by about $800 million, partly because its Snapdragon 810 processor “will not be in the upcoming design cycle of a large customer’s flagship device, impacting our outlook for both volume and content in that device,” CEO Steve Mollenkopf said Wednesday on an earnings call. Though Mollenkopf wouldn’t identify the customer, media reports said Samsung is the brand that snubbed using the Snapdragon 810 in its Galaxy S6 smartphone. Samsung didn’t comment. Despite the Snapdragon 810 setback with the unnamed large customer, “our design momentum for the Snapdragon 810 processor remains robust, with more than 60 products in the pipeline,” he said. “Snapdragon 810 is performing well and we look forward to a growing number of devices to be launched by our customers throughout the year.” In Q&A, Mollenkopf defended the Snapdragon 810 amid media reports that the device is prone to overheating. “Let me be very clear -- the device is working the way that we expected it to work and we have design traction that reflects that,” he said.