EFY REPORT

Microcontrollers
Leading the Way in Innovations
Intelligence and power efficiency are the key driving features of devices in which microcontrollers are used. India is one of the potential markets for microcontrollers, with high-volume requirement for application-specific microcontrollers

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emand for intelligent products and applications has given a big boost to the use of microcontrollers even in the smallest and the simplest application. Affordable pricing and high integration are catalysing the growth of microcontrollers in a variety of applications. Microcontrollers in India have seen consistent growth over last few years and hold great potential to fit inside the applications with newer functionalities. India is one of the strategic markets for many MCU (microcontroller unit) vendors, especially for application-specific products. Some of the leading vendors in the Indian market include Atmel, Freescale, Fujitsu,

Infineon, Microchip, NXP Semiconductors, Renesas Electronics, STMicroelectronics and Texas Instruments.

Market facts and figures

Databeans expects the global microcontroller market to reach $12.3 billion in 2010, up 14 per cent from 2009, and further to $18.5 billion in 2015. The MCU market continues to be driven primarily by the automotive and industrial segments, although communication application designs (latest cellphones and smartphones) too are now contributing significantly to the growth, according to Databeans. According to Technavio Insights research, the Asia Pacific region will witness the highest growth rate during the period 2009 to 2010. The report says that major drivers for the growth are smaller and lighter products like mobile phones and other portable gadgets, smart metering, LED lighting and touchscreen applications market. Growing preference for environment-friendly products like hybrid and electrical cars is also boosting this market. A report by market research firm Semicast Research shows that automotive and industrial (including medical) applications are expected to be the two key growth sectors, with

total revenues for ARM-based microcontrollers and embedded microprocessors set to increase at a CAGR of 21 per cent over the period 2007-13.

Key applications
The demand for microcontrollers has increased across most of the application segments. Consumer electronics, automotive and industrial manufacturers are focused on incorporating more features into products while reducing the total power consumption. Enhancements in the MCU technology and higher peripheral integration have also led to many new applications in medical, lighting, and sensor-based industrial and home automation. Energy. Microcontrollers are being used for smart energy management. Speaking of alternative energy systems, MCUs are being used in such applications as solar energy products (photovoltaic systems and DC-AC power inverters), wind turbines and heating systems. The worlds leading economies are looking at smart grids that address the challenge of efficient energy management and distribution, and record consumer usage in great detail. This enables greater control and power savings. Both LED street lightings and solar lightings need efficient usage of the existing power, which can be controlled through advanced microcontroller architectures. Microcontrollers are increasingly being used in automobiles for infotainment, engine
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Worldwide Microcontroller Revenue Share by Supplier
Company rank Renesas Technology Freescale Semiconductor NEC Fujitsu Infineon Technologies Microchip Technology STMicroelectronics Texas Instruments Atmel NXP Semiconductors Other Total Source: Databeans 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 2008 $ million 2770 1518 1330 1065 983 812 645 601 511 286 3229 13,749

control and safety features like airbags, ABS, electronic stability control (ESC) and advanced motor control. Luxury features like keyless entry, satellite radio and GPS-based navigation are also driving the use of microcontrollers in automobiles. There are 20-40 electronic control units (ECUs) in a car that uses MCU as the brain of the electronic circuit. Hybrid vehicles use emission control and fuel-efficiency control systems based on MCUs. MCUs today have media-oriented systems transport (MOST), FlexRay, controller area network (CAN) and many more automotive buses embedded for easy automotive electronics design, informs Desmond Tan, senior marketing manager, South Asia/India, Fujitsu. Medical electronics. The medical electronics industry is gaining momentum with increased longevity of the people. As health-care expenditure increases, there will be greater need for affordable medical care without compromising on quality. MCUs help bring down the size and cost of cumbersome medical equipment by enabling miniaturisation in medical devices. Portable healthcare devices using MCUslike blood pressure monitors, glucometers and handheld ultrasound systems have allowed healthcare at home, creating more value for consumers. Majority of the healthcare and fitness equipment

are microcontroller-based. Industrial automation. With shorter product lifecycles, there is increased need share for flexibility and agility in the industrial environment. 20.1% This has resulted in increased 11.0% use of automation. Micro9.7% controllers enable high-end 7.7% automation by supporting 7.2% complex feedback control sys5.9% tems, data acquisition systems 4.7% 4.4% and advanced sensors. 3.7% There are various indus2.1% trial applications of MCUs, 23.5% which include smart metering, HVAC and motor control. Smart metering systems help control energy usage in homes as well as in industrial applications by reporting energy levels wirelessly and prompting the users about the costs being incurred and energy being spent. When equipped with a microcontroller, a smart meter can be configured to monitor other factors such as power strength and quality. MCUs help increase the power efficiency of the motors that go into the appliances. These can cut the power consumption by a decent amount or reduce the motor size significantly. Consumer electronics and home appliances. Consumer electronics and home appliances have seen the most widespread use of microcontrollers. Everything that is attractive in consumer electronicslike touch screen, LED lighting or audio-video in your mobile phonecan be designed using microcontrollers. Home appliances and white goodslike washing machines, air-conditioners with energy saving mode, refrigerators with auto defrost and microwaves with various setting optionsare made intelligent and feature-rich by the control logic driven by the microcontroller.

Vendor profiles
Atmel
Atmel offers both 8-bit and 32-bit AVR flash microcontrollers and ARM microcontrollers and application processors in the Indian market. The Atmel AVR combines a codeefficient architecture for C and Assembly programming with the ability to tune system parameters throughout the entire life-cycle of products. The 32-bit AVR UC3 product family is built on the high-performance 32-bit AVR architecture and optimised for highly integrated applications. The 32-bit AVR CPU includes cutting-edge features such as integer- and fixed-point DSP arithmetic, single-cycle multiply-and-accumulate instructions and single-cycle SRAM access. The 8-bit/16-bit AVR XMEGA family delivers higher embedded performance combined with lower cost, smaller size and lower power. Apart from these, Atmel offers 8-bit megaAVR and 8-bit tinyAVR. The Atmel megaAVR family features self-programming flash for fast, secure, cost-effective field upgrades, while tinyAVR devices are optimised for a wide range of applications that require a small but powerful microcontroller. Atmel also offers MCUs based on ARM architecture.

Freescale
Freescales 8-bit MCUs provides a wide range of low-power, highly-functional solutions for industrial, consumer and automotive markets, while 16-bit S12 and S12X MCUs provide high-performance control for automotive and industrial applications. The S12X MCUs feature the innovative XGATE module, designed specifically to handle interrupt events without CPU intervention. As a result, the S12X controller has highperformance capabilities you would normally expect of a 32-bit controller. The 16-bit portfolio also includes a large family of digital signal controllers (DSCs), which combine microcontroller functionality with DSP performance. These are particularly suited for advanced motor control applications. The 32-bit ColdFire embedded controller offers a range of performance and peripheral options, including one of the lowest-power 32bit MCUs on the market. It is a cost-effective and easy-to-use 32-bit solution for your next consumer or industrial application. ripherals. Any development in these technologies leads to an innovation in MCU. Some of the major technological changes seen in the MCU market are the move from 16-bit to 32-bit, introduction of ARM Cortex M series,
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technology benchmarks and trends

A microcontroller can actually be seen as integration of many technologies such as processor, memory and pe-

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Microcontrollers Market: Revenue Forecasts (World), 2009 and 2013
18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0

2009 Source: Frost & Sullivan

Year

2013

evolution of Flash technologies, higher performance and higher integration. Since microcontrollers are, for the most part, a system-on-a-chip, the technology changes are typically incremental in the various peripherals. For example, there is an ever-increasing demand for connectivity options like USB, Ethernet, CAN and wireless. This connectivity requires not only hardware changes but also the associated software libraries and development tools to integrate it within an application. Move from 16-bit to 32-bit. Applications like industrial automation, medical equipment, point-of-sale terminals, digital weighing scales, printers, and motor control and display have migrated from 8-bit/16-bit MCUs to 32-bit platform as 32-bit MCUs are now available at the price of 8-bit MCUs. Some of the key advantages of 32-bit MCUs are high operating frequency, low active-power requirement, code reuse, code size reduction by 40-50 per cent, enhanced features for increasingly complex algorithms and availability of tools. ARM Cortex-M. The major market trend has been the use of more and more third-party embedded cores. Proprietary cores may start phasing out slowly or will not evolve further with the growing use of embedded cores like ARM-core, says Vinay Thapliyal, technical marketing manager, MCU division, STMicroelectronics. According to Semicast Research, ARM would become the leading 32-bit microcontroller architecture in 2011, ahead of Power Architecture and x86. ARM Cortex-M series, where M

stands for microcontrollers, has dominant share in 32-bit MCU offerings. The different variants like Cortex-M0, M3 and most recent M4 serve the speed range from 50 MHz up to 150 MHz. The ARM architecture continues to gain momentum in the MCU market, with vendors like Atmel, Texas Instruments, NXP Semiconductors and STMicroelectronics all demonstrating Cortex-M processor-based MCUs. On-chip memory. Evolution of integrated program memory from ROM to Flash has greatly influenced MCUs. Today, flash-based MCUs are widely used in real-time control applications. The biggest benefit of on-chip flash memories is that these significantly reduce the cost of production and expansion of real-time adaptive control applications, providing a cost/ value advantage. Acceptance of Flash as the standard for MCUs is one of the biggest technology trends, says Andreas Eieland, AVR product marketing manager, Atmel. Thapliyal informs, Today, we have devices up to 1 MB of Flash and more than 100 kB of SRAM to serve the increasing demand for software tools and applications that demand higher integration of the on-chip memory. Power efficiency. Fanie Duvenhage, director of applications, architecture and marketing security, microcontroller and technology development division, Microchip, says, Over the last few years, lower power consumption has become more important with the current drive towards energy efficiency leading to introduction of ultra-low-power microcontrollers and device power management solutions. Low-current sleep modes, low standby power and auto switching when idle are some of the common power management features seen in MCUs. One of the strongest technology trends is that many vendors are introducing products with multiple internal voltage domains to reduce active-mode

Vendor profiles
Fujitsu
Fujitsu microcontrollers are widely used in automobile, home, industrial and consumer applications. They include general-purpose 8-, 16-, 32-bit MCUs, and specialised ICs for peripheral control. A variety of development kits, in-circuit emulators, productivity-boosting tools, and comprehensive support help Fujitsus customers accelerate development of their software. Fujitsu microcontroller families include 8-bit-FMC/8FX, 16-bit-FMC-16LX and FMC-16FX and 32-bit- FR.

Revenues ($ billion)

Infineon
Infineons major focus areas are energy efficiency, mobility and security. To cover these energy-efficient markets, Infineon has a complete portfolio of 8-/16-/32-bit microcontrollers. Infineons 8-bit controller por tfolio features application-specific peripherals like CCU6, fast ADC, USIC (universal serial interface controller) and CAN (controller area network). These are completely scalable from 16-pin 2k flash to 64-pin 64k flash with complete code compatibility. In 16-bit MCUs, scalability is available from 64-pin 64k flash to 176-pin 1.76MB flash. For consumer market applications like washing machines, household fans and refrigerators, Infineons 8- or 16-bit portfolio products are suitable. For telecom, automotive and high-end industrial segments, Infineon has a very strong portfolio of 32-bit controllers that can range from 144-pin 1.5MB to 576-pin 5.6MB flash.

Microchip
Microchip Technology manufactures the popular PIC microcontrollers (MCUs), with more than 700 different products covering a broad range of 8-, 16- and 32-bit MCUs and digital signal controllers (DSCs). These cover the general-purpose MCU market, along with various specialty MCU peripherals to address such applications as motor control, touch sensing, graphics, USB and Ethernet switch-mode power supplies. All the microcontrollers are supported by Microchips MPLAB integrated development environment. power consumption. Eieland shares that vendors are providing several different solutions to overcome the challenge to maintain RAM retention and have a short wake-up time from sleep without too much leakage current. Low-power microcontrollers are in
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Relative Market Share of 8-, 16-, 32-bit Microcontrollers
100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0%

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 8-bit MCU 16-bit MCU 32-bit MCU

Source: iSuppli

demand because of an increasing focus on energy efficiency. The profusion of battery-powered applications is further driving the sales of low-power microcontrollers. Low power is no longer associated with low performance, thanks to the current crop of powerful processors in this segment. Robustness. Robustness, with electromagnetic interference and electromagnetic compatibility (EMI/EMC) shielding, is another enhancement seen in MCUs. Microcontrollers need to sustain harsh temperature conditions and have a long lifecycle so that they can be used in both automotive and high-performance industrial applications, shares Vivek Tyagi, country sales manager, Freescale. According to Duvenhage, the saying the more the things change, the more the things stay the same is also applicable in the microcontroller market, with customers still demanding 5V operation for robust operation in noisy environments, even though many electronic devices are moving toward lower voltages. Strong programming support. Tools and software ecosystem is another important differentiating factor for the MCUs. Thapliyal shares, Today, most of the application-specific software are available in near-product-ready form. It is much more than conventional free software peripheral libraries, flash programming utilities, etc. Its not uncommon now for customers to choose an MCU platform from so many alikeMCU-features vendors because a suite

of reference software is available for that MCU. On-chip debug and insystem programming, which were earlier considered as an expensive extra, are feature requirements for most of the users today, shares Eieland. The industry has seen a strong progress for the development tools and 2009 2010 tool-chains in past few years. Most MCU vendors today value the engineers time and do their utmost to ensure that the tools are easy to set-up and that engineers can start development fast and finish projects within their deadlines, making them successful in their jobs, Eieland adds. Being able to reuse code across multiple projects is an important part of this. Human-machine interfaces (HMI). Today, alphanumeric liquid-crystal displays (LCD) are being replaced with transistor LCDs as the latter offer a far superior user experience. Technological developments have opened completely new user interface options that are capable of a higher level of interaction and engagement with the user. As the display is a highly visible element of any electronic system, such a high-quality HMI offers many advantages over competing products using old-fashioned alphanumeric LCDs. MCU vendors are commissioning themselves to provide ready-to-use platforms for easy and fast development of HMIs. Flash-based MCUs provide almost zero boot time, making them more preferable for HMI solutions. As consumer electronics become more standards-driven, companies are looking for ways to differentiate their products, resulting in several emerging markets for various user interface solutions such as touch sensing and graphics, says Duvenhage. Vendors are working on providing innovative resistive-touch, capacitivetouch and multi-touch single-chip solutions.

Vendor profiles
NXP Semiconductors
NXP Semiconductors offers 8-, 16- and 32-bit MCUs and is focusing on 32-bit ARM architecture with five MCU cores to serve the full range of application requirements. Its leading ARM9/ARM7-based LPC3000 and LPC2000 families have numerous, sophisticated integrated peripherals available. The company also offers lowpower, cost-effective ARM Cortex-M3 and Cortex-M0 cores as part of its LPC1000 family, running at speeds of up to 100 MHz and offering best-in-class performance and peripheral support. ARM-based LH7A and LH7 families feature high-resolution integrated LCD controllers and provide system-on-chip capability, while LPC900, LPC700 and 80C51 microcontroller families deliver 80C51-based performance. NXPs ARM Cortex-M3 microcontroller (LPC1800) is optimised for low-power operation at very low frequencies all the way through to 150MHz maximum performance from either Flash or RAM.

Renesas Electronics
Renesas 8- and 16-bit MCUs, such as the R8C, M16C and H8S families, have been very well received in the market for their performance and electromagnetic compatibility. There has been a growing interest toward higher-MIP 32-bit MCUs, such as H8SX, R32C and SH2(A). Renesas has also created a new 32-bit core, named as Renesas eXtreme (RX), after a lot of market application analysis in terms of opcodes, architectures and power consumption to meet the market needs. This CPU core can achieve 200 MHz, 1.65 DMIPS/MHz and 0.03 mA/MHz. Renesas Electronics standardises all of the peripheral IPs in its MCUs to make them compatible to each of its CPU cores including the 78K, R8C, RX, SuperH and V850.

Motion sensing is another important feature of newer applications and products. The wide range of ultra-lowpower MCUs enables designers to easily differentiate portable devices such as smart phones, sports equipment, gaming equipment and bluetooth headsets with motion-sensing technology for gesture recognition, image stabilisation, etc. Multi-core. Multi-core MCUs
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are the product roadmap for many vendors. In automobiles where several ELUs are used for dedicated tasks, multi-core MCUs will be a suitable choice, shares Tan. Communication bus and integrated peripherals. Enabling fast computing through integration of Ethernet, CAN and USB has increased the use of MCUs in a variety of applications. Over the years, we have seen more and more integration of peripherals such as analogue-to-digital converters (ADCs), pulse-width modulators (PWMs), universal asynchronous receivers/transmitters (UARTs), USB, I2C and LCD drivers with the controllers and the MCU is becoming a system-ona-chip for key applications, informs Tyagi. Flexible and application-specific peripherals like CCU6 and universal serial interface controller (USIC) are now features of new MCU offerings, shares Ravi Kishore Ivaturi, head-automotive and MCU sales and marketing, Infineon. Cost-effectiveness. Electronic products are growing in features, while their prices are going down. Today, technology of 130 nm down to 90 nm is available with us to offer cost-effective devices, informs Thapliyal. On the other hand, research is under way for lowering the CMOS process nodes for cost-effectiveness. Tan shares, Integrating a combination of useful peripherals also helps in reducing the total bill of materials (BOM) of the product. Thakurdesai, business development manager (AEC), Texas Instruments. The Indian market has been focus of many vendors for the specific needs and high-volume applications of energy-efficient and low-cost solutions. Ivaturi says, In the Indian market, the usage of microcontrollers can be broadly classified into four main segments: consumer, industrial, automotive and telecom. Although India, with its current booming economy, increased awareness levels and improving infrastructure, presents significant potential for innovative devices, players will still have to scrutinise carefully and work on the challenges ahead. Thakurdesai adds, Unlike other markets, in order to extend our reach in the Indian market, we will have to come up with India-specific products that would not only be portable but also deliver high-quality healthcare at affordable prices. The increased market focus on energy efficiency is opening more uses for microcontrollers as manufacturers make devices that are smarter about how they consume power. Duvenhage says that this can manifest in the form of more efficient motor control algorithms or very simple implementations using the systems timers and switches to turn the device off. Thapliyal shares, As per iSuppli and WSTS reports, the revenue growth for MCUs in India from year 2008 to year 2009 was 45 per cent, reaching $125 million (excluding smart cards). The growth is expected to remain accelerated at 43 per cent for the year 2010. The main drivers for the increasing usage of MCUs in India are metering, inverters and UPS. Other growing segments are solar/lighting, POS terminals, security systems and automobiles (for power train, body electronics, comfort and convenience).

Vendor profiles
STMicroelectronics
STMicrocontrollers 8-bit MCU portfolio (STM8) consists of three families: STM8S, STM8L and STM8A. While STM8S devices are best suited for industrial applications, ultra-low-power STM8L devices are suitable for metering, small medical equipment and other portable applications. STM8A is dedicated for automotive applications like car window control, body control module and anti-pinch system. These families are core-compatible. In 32-bit MCU portfolio, the STM32 family is based on ARM Cortex-M core. It brings a complete 32-bit product range that combines high performance, low power and low-voltage operation. STM32F series addresses a wide range of applications from lowest price-sensitive designs to the computing-intensive, high-memory footprint. The recently launched STM32L is suitable for ultra-low-power applications like medical devices and portable players.

Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments (TI) has a versatile MCU portfolio that includes the ultra-low-power MSP430 family, C2000 family and Stellaris ARM Cortex M3 family of microcontrollers. TI has a variety of products that cater to metering applications, which is one of the primary focus areas in India. Some of the important product lines for metering applications include 16-bit MSP430 and 32bit ARM Cortex M3 microcontrollers. Most of these products come with ultra-lowpower capabilities, high-end performance levels, high accuracy with low error margins, and great degree of integration across interfaces. Apart from the silicon offering, TI offers fully certified software stacks for ZigBee implementation, DLMS, etc and basic metering software helping the user from a time-to-market perspective. MCUs are also used in conjunction with LED drivers, MOSFETs and PWM controllers to bring about higher efficiency and increased battery life. Texas Instruments 32-bit Piccolo series is used for precise multi-string LED control and Stellaris Cortex M3 MCUs for remote connectivity options. semiconductor companies offering different configurations and solutions, the success of every device in the family is put to question. The MCU market needs strong quality requirements and certifications for controlling the haywire launch of
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MCUs and Indian market

The electronics market in India is evolving at a fast pace, and the role played by microcontrollers (MCUs) in electronics design cannot be underestimated. With more application areas emerging, there has been a consistent pressure on semiconductor companies to come up with products that effectively counter the performance and efficiency challenges of traditionally available choices in 4-bit, 8-bit and 16-bit MCU designs, cites Shailash

Growth challenges
The biggest challenge for the microcontroller market is that its constantly evolving at a fast pace. With so many

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devices, says Thakurdesai. This will help embedded engineers to select a reliable device at an affordable price for their application. Re-programmability is one of the biggest benefits of flash-based MCUs. But, Eieland points out, We are approaching a flash challenge for smaller flash densities, as we get closer and closer to 45 and 90 nm for MCUs with less than 64 kB of flash. There are also potential issues with 5V support at a reasonable cost with these processes. The industry is working towards newer technologies to overcome this challenge. As the technology advances, the processes become more and more complex. Justifying this with an example, Duvenhage says, Smaller geometry manufacturing processes imply lower cost for digital and memory modules, but higher complexity and cost for achieving good analogue and lowpower performance. This implies that the overall cost reduction of the product depends very much on the type of product that is being developed or the potential markets that can be addressed with these products. The end result is more complex process technologies, more expensive development cycles and more specialised products that ultimately require larger markets to justify the investment required for their development. MCUs are also facing threats from the new entrants in programmable logic devices like CPLDs and FPGAs. Thapliyal says, Although programmable logic devices have their own limitations to take over larger MCU market share, these devices possess better input/output management than MCUs and thus can have shorter time to adapt to changing requirements of the projects. In a market with traditionally available choices in 4-bit, 8-bit and 16-bit designs, there is a growing demand to come up with efficient solutions that retain the ability for greater analogue integration and faster time-to-market. Thakurdesai feels that this need is also

MCU Manufacturing in India

India is rich in talented software engineers and has good R&D facilities, but it still has a long way to go before it becomes a semiconductor manufacturing hub, states an article titled Can India be a viable place for manufacturing semiconductors? published in Electronics Bazaar magazine. India has emerged as a destination for product manufacturing with several original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) setting up their manufacturing units in India. However, semiconductor manufacturing is quite capitalintensive and requires huge infrastructural support, states the analysis. India has great potential to grow its semiconductor manufacturing capabilities, but this requires investments in excess of $3-5 billion and a well-developed ecosystem and education. Fabs also need co-location of all the raw material suppliers in the same area near the manufacturing plant to be more efficient. Access to ports, uninterrupted electricity, abundant supply of clean water, waste management capability, warehousing, good road network and global air connectivity are critical for success. Thus it is advisable to boost the electronics design and manufacturing climate in India vis a vis fabs, promote product development, nurture startups and introduce a level-playing field at different points in the entire electronics ecosystem. being driven by emerging areas like LED lighting, smart metering, energy harvesting, consumer electronics and cutting-edge medical applications that emphasise on lower cost, smaller size and higher performance. He adds, The ultra-low-cost microcontroller market has traditionally been the domain of low-end 8-bit MCUs, while 16bit MCUs having better performance have been seen as too expensive. In recent times, there has been a need for increased performance in the growing low-end 8-bit market. Another major constraint and challenge today that we see is cost, which can be addressed only if Indias semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem gets developed, feels Ivaturi. more efficient and innovative solutions for touch-based applications shares Eieland. Peripheral enhancement and lowpower features are the main focus for many companies to enrich the generalpurpose MCU portfolio. Thapliyal says, Especially for applications like home/building automation, smart metering, healthcare and consumer electronics, MCUs are featured with interfaces like RF ZigBee. You may expect a lot of other integrated features for different RF standards to enhance the usability of MCUs and reduce time-to-market. Computing performance enhancement is another area that the companies are working on to further reduce the gap with digital signal processors (DSPs). Many emerging applications, such as medical electronics and handheld electronic gadgets, are being designed with communication capabilities to provide continuous data flow for recording and monitoring. Such applications demand advanced technologies that allow greater miniaturisation to further improve portability and functionality. Portability and miniaturisation will be a major step ahead in creating innovative solutions and helping medical electronics become more flexible, affordable and accessible, feels Thakurdesai.
The author is a senior technology journalist at EFY
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MCU next
Embedded systems are in need of more and more MCUs for a variety of existing and emerging applications. As indicated earlier, the MCUs are becoming more and more complex in terms of specific functionalities and performances. Semiconductor firms are continuously improving their product portfolio by increasing the performance and addressing the segmenttargeted needs, shares Thapliyal. Touch solutions is another highresearch area. Touch phones and tablets are a market with a growth rate we have never seen before. MCU vendors are working towards providing

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