TI (TXN) Retakes MEMS Lead on Resurgence of DLP Demand (HPQ) (STM)

Good news all-around for Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) over the last 24-hours: a proposed acquisition of National Semiconductor (NYSE: NSM) Monday night, and Tuesday, a retaking of the lead for MEMS sales in 2010.

According to data from IHS (NYSE: IHS), Texas Instruments returned to the top of the microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) heap after a five-year hiatus, selling $793 million worth of chips in 2010. The 24.9 percent increase from 2009 was largely due to increased demand for Texas Instruments' Digital Light Processing (DLP) chips.

Texas Instruments' pico projectors led the surge, with nearly one million of these devices shipped in 2010. Pico projectors are rather small front projectors which weigh less than two-pounds, and yet are able to produce an image nearly 50-inches diagonal with DLP technology. To give you an idea of the size, you can hold a pico projector in the palm of your hand. IHS expects the popularity of the device to carry DLP sales from $790 million in 2010 to over $1 billion by 2013.

Next on the list was Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) with $782 million in sales, a decrease of 0.3 percent year-over-year. IHS noted Hewlett-Packard experienced weakness in the inkjet printhead segment, which contracted 0.8 percent through the year.

Rounding out the top five were: Bosch, Canon, and STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM).

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