Semiconductor ICs Supporting Smart Human Life

Progress of Semiconductor Technologies for Realization of Smart Human Life
MAEDA Takeo

System IC Technologies for Realization of Smart Tools Supporting People's Lives
YOSHIMOTO Takeshi
Tools, which are essential to create better and more comfortable lives for people, have been continuously evolving from stone tools in primitive times to today's smartphones applying leading-edge technologies. System integrated circuit (IC) technologies are contributing to the innovation of tools from simple tools that assist human actions to smart tools that can work autonomously.
With the aim of realizing smart tools to support people's lives, Toshiba has been engaged in research and development of the following fundamental technologies: (1) near-field communication technologies that facilitate electronic data exchange applicable to cloud computing; (2) technologies that can control complex systems and support the care of elderly people through the development of sensing and control devices, image recognition engines, text-to-speech middleware, and so on; and (3) measurement and control technologies to achieve efficient energy utilization.

Pixel Technologies for High-SNR CMOS Image Sensors
KOHYAMA Yusuke / YAMASHITA Hirofumi
Accompanying the pixel size shrinkage of complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image sensors, demand has been growing in recent years for improvement of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at low light intensity. High quantum efficiency (QE) and low crosstalk between adjacent pixels are key factors for the realization of high-SNR CMOS image sensors.
Toshiba has developed high-QE and low-crosstalk technologies for each generation of the CMOS process, and realized high-SNR CMOS image sensors by applying these technologies. We are also promoting the development of future key technologies to ensure a sufficient SNR for the next-generation CMOS sensor with a pixel size of less than 1 µm.

Computational Camera Allowing Creation of Unprecedented Applications
OGASAHARA Takayuki
Computational cameras have been attracting increasing research interest in recent years as a new camera technology that can offer various attractive applications such as three-dimensional (3D) image cameras, refocus cameras, face recognition cameras, and so on.
Toshiba has been developing a refocus camera incorporating multiple camera modules and proprietary image processing technologies that makes it possible to easily focus on an arbitrary position after taking a picture. This refocus camera can achieve 3D image detection and face recognition in the fields of surveillance cameras and security systems with the appropriate image recognition algorithms, and is also expected to be used in various unprecedented applications.

TMPM061FWFG Microcontroller for Smart Meters Incorporating High-Accuracy AD Converters
YOSHIDA Mitsuru / KARASUDA Hiroshi
Efforts toward the early introduction of smart grids through demonstration projects planned by the government and electricity companies have been accelerating, reflecting the increased awareness of the need for energy conservation and the tight electricity supply and demand situation caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake. Smart meters, which are a key component for accurately determining the electricity demand in such systems, must be capable of not only providing highly accurate energy measurements but of operating on very low power.
In response to the requirements of smart meter manufacturers and the smart grid market, Toshiba has developed the TMPM061FWFG microcontroller for smart meters incorporating three high-accuracy 24-bit Δ∑ analog-to-digital (AD) converters to measure the current and voltage of AC power simultaneously and an ARM Cortex^TM-M0 processor, in addition to a significant improvement in bus architecture. The TMPM061FWFG achieves a balance between high performance for accurate electricity measurement and reduced power consumption.

Fan Motor Driver ICs Using BiCD-0.13/CD-0.13 Process Realizing High Performance and Low Cost
IKEDA Sadao / OMURA Naoki / YAMAURA Kazuaki
The annual worldwide production of fan motors for air conditioner fans, PC cooling fans, etc. exceeds 800 million pieces, and the market is expected to further expand in the future. The market trend for fan motor driver integrated circuits (ICs) is characterized by demand for reduced noise and increased motor operating efficiency. However, as the development of high-performance fan motor driver ICs requires increases in the performance and speed of analog circuits such as analog-to-digital (AD) converters and power transistors, as well as greater density of logic circuits, fabrication of the large chips tends to be costly.
With these trends as a background, Toshiba has developed the BiCD-0.13/CD-0.13 process, a 0.13 µm high-voltage analog device consolidation process based on a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology, ahead of its competitors in the industry in order to realize low on-resistance (RonA) characteristics of the top class in the world. Using this process, we can provide high-performance fan motor driver ICs integrating both analog and digital circuits at low cost.
BiCD: Bipolar + CMOS + DMOS (double-diffused MOS)

TC94B23WBG Speaker Amplifier and TC94B24WBG Audio Codec LSIs for High Sound Quality in Mobile Devices
KII Masayuki / TAKAHASHI Kiyonori / SUDO Takashi
With the widespread dissemination of mobile devices including smartphones and tablets in recent years, the usage of these devices has become diversified. Unlike the telephone receiver, which has conventionally been held by hand, smartphones are used in numerous ways such as for hands-free calls, video calls, and so on. Furthermore, these devices are used as music or video players by many users. As a result of this trend, high-quality sound is required for mobile devices.
To satisfy the market demand for high sound quality, Toshiba has developed the TC94B23WBG high-power speaker amplifier and TC94B24WBG audio codec large-scale integrations (LSIs) to achieve clear sound based on proprietary echo and noise cancellation algorithms.

Visconti_TM 2 Series Image Recognition Processors with High Performance and Low Power Consumption
TANABE Yasuki / ARAKIDA Hideho / BANNO Moriyasu
With the advancement of image recognition technologies in recent years, their application to various types of products is rapidly spreading. Toshiba has developed two new devices in the Visconti_TM 2 series of image recognition processors, the TMPV7506XBG and TMPV7504XBG, offering both high performance and low power consumption.
The TMPV7506XBG has four video inputs, four media processing engines (MPEs), and six image processing accelerators. It achieves an average power consumption of about 0.74 W during the simultaneous execution of one image processing and five image recognition applications. In the case of hand gesture recognition applications, it also achieves an improvement in performance of about six to 10 times compared with a general-purpose processor operated at 1 GHz in an embedded system.

ToSpeak G2 Text-to-Speech Middleware Offering Individuality to Application Systems through Quick Voice Production Technology
SETO Shigenobu
Toshiba has developed ToSpeak G2, a new text-to-speech (TTS) middleware that can provide users with a wide choice of voices in producing speech contents. ToSpeak G2 features a quick voice production system, and the output voice data of only several megabytes in size can be easily sent via the Internet and installed in an embedded system with a small memory footprint. Using this quick voice production system, a trial version of a new voice can be built within several hours from speech data recorded for several tens of minutes. A new voice can also be created by a combination of two different speakers' voice components, or by changing the voice parameter settings. ToSpeak G2 makes it possible to offer individuality to various application systems with a wide variety of voices.

Proximity Wireless Technologies Aimed at Easy Operation for All Users
KANO Tokuji
Proximity wireless solutions including TransferJet^TM, near field communication (NFC), and wireless charging technologies, which have come into widespread use for portable devices, are now attracting attention due to their simplicity and applicability as technologies to meet various requirements in the market.
Toshiba is promoting the development and production of large-scale integrations (LSIs) in order to realize these new proximity wireless technologies. We have been also contributing to the global standardization and development of proximity wireless technologies as a promoter member of the TransferJet^TM Consortium, an associate member of the NFC Forum, and a regular member of the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC). These proximity wireless technologies are facilitating the connection of various digital devices such as smartphones, tablets, PCs, TV sets, recorders/players, and so on, with the aim of enhancing operability for all users.

Low-Power-Consumption Driving Technologies for Wireless Communication LSIs
TEH Chen Kong / FUJITA Tetsuya / KUSHIDA Keiichi
Wireless communication technologies including Bluetooth^® and wireless LAN have been widely utilized for smartphones and personal information devices in recent years. As wireless communication large-scale integrations (LSIs) are basically powered by the battery of the device, low-power-consumption driving technologies for these LSIs have become essential.
Toshiba has developed two technologies, low-power flip-flops and on-chip voltage control circuits, that effectively reduce switching power and leakage power, respectively. These technologies have been applied to our products including a wireless LAN baseband LSI and a TransferJet^TM LSI. In order to achieve further reductions in power consumption, we are also engaged in the research and development of circuit technologies for low-power static random access memories (SRAMs) used in LSIs.

Battery Monitoring ICs Supporting Electric Vehicles and Hybrid Electric Vehicles
SUZUKI Atsuhisa / MORIKAWA Masaaki
It is necessary to measure the voltage and temperature of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) not only for the purpose of overvoltage and undervoltage protection, but also to detect the remaining battery level. High-accuracy voltage monitoring is required because of the characteristics of lithium-ion batteries, and an additional prerequisite is stable communication with the external controller in the noisy automotive environment.
Toshiba has developed a high-accuracy voltage measurement technology and a noise-tolerant differential communication technology for lithium-ion batteries installed in EVs and HEVs to realize highly accurate detection of remaining battery level and reliable battery monitoring in a noisy environment. Battery monitoring integrated circuits (ICs) equipped with these technologies make it possible to handle lithium-ion batteries safely and promote their effective use.

Texture Restoration Technology to Restore Degraded Texture in Images
SAITOH Kanako / KANEKO Toshimitsu / KUBOTA Susumu
Toshiba developed and commercialized 4K2K ultrahigh-definition TVs equipped with a quad full high-definition (3,840 × 2,160 pixels) liquid crystal display (LCD) in December 2011. These 4K2K TVs opened up the possibility of providing users with higher resolution images than ever before. However, the mainstream resolution of contents still remains at the full high-definition (Full-HD) level.
With this as a background, we have developed a new texture restoration technology to restore normal contents to high-frequency texture patterns. This technology makes it possible to restore degraded original texture in images, so as to take full advantage of 4K2K TVs.

Technology for Production of Graphene from Carbon Nanofibers Using Supercritical Processing
YAMAGE Masashi / HIRABAYASHI Hideaki
Graphene is a substance consisting of one-atom-thick planar sheets of sp2-bonded carbon atoms. Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010 for their pioneering work in this field. One of the methods of producing graphene is by means of longitudinally incised carbon nanotubes. Although graphene is expected to be applied to horizontal interconnects for high-speed electronic devices and various additives, it is necessary to overcome the tradeoff between reduction of cost and reduction of impurity elements.
Toshiba has developed a new technology for the production of carbon nanofibers (CNFs) as a precursor to graphene. This technology uses a supercritical process to continuously obtain nanomaterials including graphene, with a minimum quantity of iron as an impurity element. As the particle diameter of the produced graphene is much smaller than that of commercial graphenes, it has the potential to be applied to nonmetallic catalysts.

Electronic Frequency Converter Feeding Single-Phase Circuit for Shinkansen Railyard
MIYAJIMA Hiroki / OTSUKI Midori / NAKAJIMA Naoya / KUNOMURA Ken
As the Tokaido Shinkansen trains run on 60 Hz single-phase electric power, equipment to convert the frequency from 50 Hz to 60 Hz is required when these trains run in areas east of the Fuji River. To replace the aging equipment at the Hamamatsucho Frequency Conversion Substation (FC), the Oi FC was newly constructed in the Oi Railyard.
Central Japan Railway Company and Toshiba have developed an electronic frequency converter for the Oi FC that applies the latest power electronics and microelectronics technologies to provide single-phase feeding to the Shinkansen. This frequency converter started operation at the Oi FC in March 2012, and is contributing to the stable supply of power to the Tokaido Shinkansen.