Qualcomm to Roll Out DBDM Chip in South Korea
Samsung Electronics Markets Micro Multi Phone
Samsung SDI Develops 3D Display for Gamephone
Samsung Electronics Develops 5 Mega Pixel CIS for Camera Phones
Softbank and Nortel Test Wireless LAN and 3G Handover
ACCESS and Oki Electric Jointly Develop IP Phone Function for Cellular Phones
Toppan Printing Develops Color OEL Panel
Perception Digital to Sell 20GB HDD Audio Player for Less than $200
NJR Develops Motor Driver IC for 10 mm x 10 mm Camera Module

Qualcomm of the U.S. plans to develop dual band dual mode (DBDM) for the South Korean wireless market, inews24 reported on June 23, 2005.

Brian Rodrigues, Senior Director of Product Management for Qualcomm CDMA Technologies commented that the company is in discussion with a South Korean mobile communication operator about development of the MSM7600 single chip DBDM. Qualcomm plans to introduce the chip before the end of 2006.

3G WCDMA handsets commercially available in South Korea contain two chips and employ software processing to synergize with the existing 2G network. For this reason, it has been difficult to technically solve roaming and handover issues and it has been difficult to create designs that are appealing to consumers.

If Qualcomm develops a DBDM chipset, South Korean handset manufacturers will be able to simplify the handset-manufacturing process. Qualcomm says it plans to roll out the DBDM chip in 2006. However it typically takes 9-10 months for development of such a device. Handsets containing Qualcomm's DBDM chip are expected to debut in 2007.

Qualcomm plans to debut the QSC 6 010/6020/6030 series, which integrates CDMA 2000 1x, RF Rx/TX, and PMIC into one. The QSC6xxx series are targeted to low-end handsets.

On the other hand, Qualcomm, aiming to capture the HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) market, plans to roll out the MSM6280 (maximum 7.2Mbps) and the MSM6260 (maximum 3.6Mbps) in the second half of 2005 after introducing the MSM6275 chipset at the end of 2004. The company plans to debut the MSM7200 supporting HSUPA (High Speed Uplink Packet Access) in the first half 2006.

In South Korea, Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics and Pantech & Curitel are developing HSDPA handsets adopting the MSM6275. [M. Robertson, Portelligent]

Samsung Electronics of South Korea is going to introduce a small slider phone equipped with advanced features called Micro Multi Phone (SCH-V730/SPH-V7300), the company made an announcement on June 22, 2005.

The Micro Multi Phone is 8.76 cm long. Although it is small, functionality and user-friendliness have been improved with a variety of advanced functions.

The "photo editing function" allows users to change the facial expression of portraits to happy, sad, sulky, angry and startled with editing software. Sliming down and plumping up the subject is also possible.

The handset features a 1 million-pixel camera and also supports VOD (Video on Demand), MOD (Music on Demand), an MP3 player, electronic dictionary, mobile printing, PDF viewer and melody composer. The handset will sell for less than 500,000 won ($489.72 @ won 1021/$US 1). An image of the SCH-V730 is available at: http://www.newswire.co.kr/read_sub.php?id=59554 [M. Robertson, Portelligent]

Samsung SDI of South Korea announced on June 23, 2005 that the company had developed an S3D display (Stereoscopic 3 Dimension) featuring 4 million polygons for game phone application. In order to achieve 3D video on a display, left and right images must be overlapped on one screen. Samsung SDI's new 3D display can achieve 4-million polygons per second and displays 3D video naturally.

Polygon indicates the smallest constituting unit of 3D computer graphics. The highest performance displays currently commercialized support only 1-1.2 million polygons.

For this reason, commercially available 3D game phones cannot display 3D video to the full satisfaction of users. Videos were not smooth and were coarse, not able to achieve a natural 3D video.

Although handset manufacturers began to supply 3D game phones, the currently available displays cannot achieve perfect 3D, according to Samsung SDI.

Samsung SDI plans to apply the technology to a 2.2-inch TFT-LCD module for cellular phone application and plans to supply the module in the fourth quarter 2005.

Samsung SDI will expand R&D activities to other display areas including OLED and PDP and plans to develop technologies to achieve 3D video on notebook PCs, monitors, and TVs.

3D display technology is a cutting edge technology which forms a different image on each eye and achieves a sense of distance and a sense of three dimensions. Besides Samsung SDI, Sanyo Electric of Japan, Sharp of Japan and Philips of the Netherlands are reportedly developing 3D display technologies.

Japan's market research firm, Nomura Research Institute forecasts 3D display demand will grow to $300 million in 2007 and $2.1 billion in 2010. [M. Robertson, Portelligent]

Samsung Electronics has developed a 5 million-pixel CIS (CMOS Image Sensor) for camera phones, the company announced on June 27, 2005. It is targeted to camera phones, digital cameras, and digital camcorders.

The device achieved 2608 x 1952 (QSXGA: Quadruple SXGA) resolution. The pixel size is claimed as the smallest in the industry, 2.2 micron x 2.2 micron. The sensor area is about 30 percent smaller than its competitors.

The Sub-sampling function, which processes image information recognized by pixels with average values, enables viewing of the5 million-pixel class high quality images on the handset LCD screen without degradation of image quality.

According to a company executive, through development of 5 million-pixel CIS, Samsung Electronics is going to solidify its leading position in the CIS market. It plans to take a lead in R&D of CIS technologies by developing a 7+ million-pixel CIS.

Samsung Electronics simultaneously announced development of a 3.2 million-pixel CIS with a 2.25 micron x 2.25 micron pixel size.

Samsung Electronics plans to mass-produce the 5 million-pixel and 3.2 million-pixel CMOS image sensors in the fourth quarter 2005 on a dedicated system LSI production line based on a 300mm wafer-size. A picture of the new 5 million-pixel CIS is available at: http://news.stockdaily.co.kr/news/read.php?idxno=67778&rsec=S1N3 [M. Robertson, Portelligent]

Softbank of Japan and Nortel Networks of Canada verified handover between UMTS (Universal Mobile telecommunications System) and IEEE802.11 wireless LAN. According to Nortel, handover verification between IEEE802.11 and 1.7GHz UMTS was achieved for the first time in the world.

The tests conducted by Nortel enabled users to switch between UMTS base stations and wireless LAN systems automatically while using services. If the system becomes reality, users will be able to use one terminal to make voice calls, view Internet sites, and download various types of files without recognizing the differences of wireless protocols. Wireless service operators will be able to offer systems which can transmit large volumes of data and can handle more users than previously allowed.

Softbank Group's Softbank BB and Yahoo have together been offering a free public wireless LAN test service called "Yahoo! BB Mobile" since May 2002 in Japan. The number of current wireless LAN base stations for "Yahoo! BB Mobile" is 681 according to Softbank. Softbank did not comment on when the service synergizing 1.7GHz 3G and public wireless LAN will be offered. [M. Robertson, Portelligent]

ACCESS and Oki Electric, both of Japan, jointly developed built-in software, which can add wireless IP phone function to cellular phones, the announcement was made on June 23, 2005.

By combining web browsing and voice calls, the companies will be able to achieve audio-based sharing of corporate information. The two companies will continue to work on a concrete commercialization plan.

The newly developed software is called the "VoIP Integrated Client Environment". It combines ACCESS' comprehensive software for cellular phones, the "NetFront Mobile Client Suite", and voice technology based on Oki Electric's IP. The two companies expect demand from cellular phone manufacturers.

By incorporating the software into cellular phones, the handsets will be used as wireless IP phones to access a company's intranet. The two will also cooperate on development of application services using the new software. [M. Robertson, Portelligent]

Toppan Printing of Japan has developed a color OEL (Organic Electroluminescent) display panel using a printing process. Materials are processed by vacuum evaporation. Compared to the commonly used manufacturing process which uses a light emitting layer, Toppan's process allows panels to be larger and cuts costs.

Toppan prototyped a 5-inch color OEL panel with 320 x 240 dots. Using a polymer material, the company was able to form a thinner light emitting layer with uniform thickness using a printing method. Details of its printing process are not available. However, compared to other processes such as ink jet, Toppan's process is suitable for forming a uniform thickness for the layer and manufacturing of panels without missing pixels.

Toppan plans to develop a panel manufacturing technology for large size televisions by 2007. Cambridge Display Technology of U.K. has been supplying the advanced material to the Japanese company. Toppan hopes to be able to commercialize a 30-40-inch TV with the new technology in the 2008-2009 timeframe. [M. Robertson, Portelligent]

Perception Digital Ltd. of Hong Kong is going to introduce four audio player products in Japan through TRANSTECHNOLOGY of Japan. TRANSTECHNOLOGY will start selling them through its web site DVDirect starting from July 7, 2005.

The PD-2000, which contains a 1.8-inch 20GB HDD, is priced at 19,800 yen ($180 @ yen 110/$US 1) including tax. iPod, the M9282J/A with the same capacity HDD, is priced at 32,800 yen ($298.28).

The PD-2000 (http://www.perceptiondigital.com/products/audio/2000/) supports a USB2.0 interface, a SD card/MultiMediaCard slot, and MP3 using WMA, DRAMWMA, and ADPCM music formats. Its battery life is 17 hours. The PD-2000 measures 67 mm x96 mm x 18 mm and weighs 150g.

Other models include one with a 1-inch 5GB HDD, (the PD 1001 priced at 18,400 yen or $167.27), one with a SD card/MultiMediaCard slot, (the PD-205 priced at 3,780 yen or $34.36), and one with a 1-inch portable 5GB HDD with USB interface, (the PD-1500 priced at14,800 yen or $134.55). [M. Robertson, Portelligent]

New Japan Radio (NJR) of Japan began sample shipment of a driver IC which embeds a comparator used for the signal processing of a position detection sensor for the stepping motor, the NJU7381. It is targeted to camera modules of cellular phones. A conventional motor drive circuit, which usually consists of three chips, can now be made with two chips. The company comments, "The camera module bottom surface area can be minimized to 10 mm x 10 mm."

The comparator's property of the new motor driver IC matches NJR's position detection sensor, the NJL5901R-1. However, it can work with other companies' devices as well. The power source voltage is +2.0-5.5V. Its power consumption is 0.1mA at +3.3V input. NJR sets the sample price at 100 yen ($0.91 @ yen 110/$US 1). The company is going to begin volume production in July 2005. An image of the NJU7381 is available at: http://www.njr.co.jp/j04/ju7381.htm [M. Robertson, Portelligent]