Smeiconductors are all about the use of electric current to control, communicate, and process information, varying smoothly to represent information in analog signals, or in pulses of current with digital signals
Digital Signal Processors (DSP) are semiconductor chips designed for specific communications functions
They are becoming everyday workhorses and new applications have found their way in telecommunications, digital image processing, radar, sonar and speech recognition systems, and in common consumer electronic devices
Targeting market share across many industry segments, the largest chip specialists are connecting the signal processors with controlers (DSC where the C stands for controler) - all on a microchip unit (MCU) dedicated to a specific application
The selection of small-cap component suppliers of the theme seeks to offer insights about industry demand in unique and fast growing segments driven by new standards - such as for instance, high-frequency power for cellular communication standards (5G) or high-speed battery chargers
Their much larger competitors are included in a separate theme "Semiconductor Signals"
The selections are not exclusive of many other specialized firms likely to benefit from demand for robots and automation in broad segments such as general industrial processes, or 'Internet of Things' (IoT) and in a wide range of niche sectors such as medical robotics, logistics or automated driving, amongst many others
'Semiconductor signals' will be updated periodically to reflect the importance of major semiconductor suppliers
Analysis of trends in robotics may be further refined by tracking the related theme of key automation suppliers in 'Controllers and Sensors'
Semiconductor Signals is illustrative of the focus of Pininvest on strong long-term technological and collective trends, ensuring better protection to the investor in case of market pull-back