Toshiba's analog IC business is distinguished for its technology and ability to propose optimum solutions. We concentrate on three fields: analog, automotive and communications. In 2013 we aim to strengthen the provision of integrated solutions by enhancing products and entire line-ups in each of these fields.
Analog field: power management, motor drivers and other analog power ICs, microcontrollers for medical and industrial applications
System applications increasingly require a high withstand voltage, large current drive and wireless communication, along with high performance and high speed. By selecting the best choice for the customer's application from our extensive lines of microcontrollers and analog ICs, we are able to swiftly propose the optimum solution that cuts both the development lead time and total cost. Example applications of our analog ICs include power control ICs for wireless power charging, motor drivers for lens control of SLR cameras, motor drivers for smart refrigerators and microcontrollers embedded with analog functions for medical equipment.
Automotive field: analog ICs for automotive applications, microcontrollers for automotive applications, image display & recognition processors for automotive applications
The roles of semiconductors in automotive applications are diversifying and evolving rapidly. Alongside the growing popularity of hybrid vehicles (HEVs) and electric vehicles (EVs), there is also a trend toward greater reliance on advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) that offer enhanced safety and convenience. In addition to development of LSIs for numerous functions of conventional vehicles and to support safe driving, Toshiba is strengthening development of devices for HEVs and EVs and for ADAS.
Major products in 2013 will include the following:
The Vivace series and Presto series of motor control microcontrollers with ISO 26262 ASIL-D-compliant, the TB9141 series of battery monitor ICs for 16-cell Li-ion batteries, and the Visconti series of image recognition processor LSIs offering excellent human detection performance by the CoHOG* engine and simultaneous detection of various objects.
*CoHOG: Co-occurrence Histograms of Oriented Gradients
Communications field: Transceiver ICs for close-proximity and Short-range wireless communication
Machine-to-machine technologies will flourish and rapidly become mainstream, based on smartphone infrastructure. Toshiba's close-proximity and short-range wireless communication technologies have excellent features, including high-quality Bluetooth communication with mobile phones, processing of protocol errors, low power consumption, high receiving sensitivity and tamper resistance. We can offer integrated solutions encompassing hardware, software, modules and accessories, and our engineers are ready to provide development tools and technical support that minimizes the customer's burden in equipment development while shortening development lead times.
Our products for close-proximity wireless communication include NFC chipsets for smartphones, TransferJetTM-compliant ICs and modules for smartphones and tablet PCs, and TransferJetTM-compliant accessories. For short-range wireless communication, our plans call for commercialization by December 2013 of a Bluetooth V4.0 BLE, a BT/WiFi Combo, and an NFC Tag chipset for products with sensor nodes, such as healthcare equipment, fitness equipment, mobile audio systems, car audio systems, car navigation systems, industrial equipment, and surveillance cameras.
Mr. Takashi Arai, Senior Manager of Analog Devices Product Engineering Department, Analog and Imaging IC Division, comments: "Capitalizing on our technological capabilities covering development, cost, quality, and supply, cultivated through our longstanding commitment to the analog field, we will supply highly competitive products. For maximum customer convenience, we offer comprehensive solutions based on our 'MACS'—Microcontrollers, Analog ICs, Communication ICs, and CMOS Sensors, all of which are in the Analog and Imaging IC Division's product portfolio."
Source: http://www.toshiba.co.jp/