STMicroelectronics, a global semiconductor leader serving customers across the spectrum of electronics applications, today announced that it had earned six selections as finalist from the 2013 Annual Creativity in Electronics (ACE) Awards presented by EETimes and EDN, two of the most prominent trade-media sources in electronics.
In addition to recognizing a new technology and one of ST’s top executives, the editors of EETimes and EDN chose 4 ST products among the “Ultimate Product” finalists.
In the Energy Technology category, ST’s Fully Depleted-Silicon-on-Insulator (FD-SOI) process technology was recognized, in part, for its ability to reduce carbon emissions on two separate fronts. First, manufacturing FD-SOI requires 15% fewer process steps than equivalent bulk silicon technologies, providing directly measurable benefits in terms of less energy used per wafer produced. Then, more importantly, products manufactured with FD-SOI technology can show energy savings between 20 and 50%, depending on the balance customers choose between energy savings and greater performance.
In the Executive of the Year category, Benedetto Vigna, Executive Vice President and General Manager of ST’s Analog, MEMS & Sensors Group delivered outstanding results despite extremely challenging market conditions. While the semiconductor market shrank by 2%, Vigna’s combination of technical expertise (>150 patents), astute marketing vision, and management skills inspired his team to excellent growth that included opening the $1 billion MEMS sales club 1, expanding ST’s share in the MEMS mobile and handset market to almost 50% 2, and blasting past the 3 billion units shipped milestone.
ST also earned finalist status for the recognition of “Ultimate Products” for four of its products:
- In the Processors category, for the STM32F3 family of ARM® Cortex™ M microcontrollers optimized for efficient handling and processing of mixed signals in circuits such as three-phase motor controls, biometrics and industrial sensor outputs or audio filters;
- In the Development Kit category, for the M24LR Discovery Kit energy-harvesting development kit that contains everything to start designing battery-free electronic applications capable of exchanging data with NFC-enabled smartphones or RFID reader-writers;
- In the Sensors category, for the market’s first dual-core gyroscope capable of handling large-scale user-motion recognition and small-scale camera image stabilization;
- In the Interfaces category, for the “Mystique” high-speed active-protocol bi-directional converters for managing audio and video signals between DisplayPort and HDMI, the two most common digital-display interface technologies used in computer and consumer electronics.
The Winners will be announced by the editors of EETimes and EDN at an Awards Event taking place on Tuesday, April 23rd at 6:30p at The Sainte Claire Hotel during DESIGN West. For information on attending the awards event please visit http://ubm-ace.com/.