Japanese earthquake tightens supply of EMI filters and aluminum electrolytic capacitors

Japan’s earthquake will exacerbate supply shortages for EMI filters, Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitors and MLCCs. According to the latest information learned in this publication, TDK shut down a production plant, Murata closed the Miyagi prefectural EMI suppression filter and coil product manufacturing plant, Sendai piezoelectric products and high frequency assembly manufacturing plant, Hill's performance Manufacturer of polymer capacitors. The products produced by these three factories include EMI suppression filters, MLCCs, and surface acoustic wave filters.

Nichicon's affected aluminum Electrolytic capacitor production plants and business units are mainly located in Nagano, Hotaka, Ohmachi and Tomita. Rubycon is mainly affected by Akita and Fukushima's two factories and business units.

In addition, the equipments of Toshiba Electronic Semiconductor Manufacturing Plant and Fujitsu Semiconductor Factory in Iwate Prefecture suffered from varying degrees of damage, and both plants have stopped production. This may affect the supply of flash memory.

Toshiba's production of logic IC and consumer IC production lines in Iwate Prefecture has been hit harder. Motorola’s sole-venturer Northeast Semiconductor Plant in Iwate Prefecture also suffered partial damage during the earthquake and has now stopped production. Freescale Semiconductor's 6-inch wafer fab in Sendai has also been discontinued.

Cree Introduces Half-Watt Lighting Grade LED to Meet ENERGY STAR Requirements

Cree XLamp ML-E LED is a lighting-grade LED that can be used in the half-watt LED market, providing lighting designers with a compact and cost-effective distributed LED array solution that fully meets the US Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star strict Performance standards. The XLamp ML-E provides lighting-grade performance for applications that require uniform soft tones. The cool white (5000K) flux at 58mA drive current is as high as 58lm and the warm white light flux is as high as 48lm, providing tightly controlled spatial uniformity of chromaticity and The 120 degree lighting angle can meet the lighting needs of replacement of LED fluorescent tubes, skylights, and cabinet lights.

The XLamp ML-B LED can operate at 0.25 watts of power, expanding the maximum portfolio of lighting-grade LED products and extending the performance of the lighting level to the visible distributed applications of the light source. At a drive current of 80mA, its cool white light output is up to 30lm and the warm white light output is up to 24lm, providing tightly controlled spatial uniformity of chromaticity and a 120 degree light emitting angle. It can be applied to panel lights and LED-based Fluorescent tube replacement products have successfully achieved the perfect balance of light output, package size, light efficiency and value of direct lighting equipment.