Monthly Archives: September 2004

Qualcomm’s CDMA Technologies division led all public fabless companies in sales in Q2 with $790 million. Broadcom was second with $641 million, while graphics chipmaker ATI Technologies was third with $492 million.

(September 21, 2004) Manhasset, N.Y.&#8212Agere Systems announced that its engineers have found the right mix of packaging ingredients to enable the semiconductor industry to successfully implement lead-free packaging. The mix consists of tin-copper with a nickel undercoating, which meets the European Union’s RoHS legislation and reportedly mitigates tin “whiskering” problems.

September 20, 2004 – Corning Inc.’s executives broke ground yesterday on the site of a new glass-substrate factory in the Central Taiwan Science Park as scheduled, according to the Financial Times Information Ltd.

The central Taiwan factory, which is scheduled to kick off production in the 3Q05, is Corning’s second of its kind in Taiwan. The other one is operating in the Southern Taiwan Science Park.

According to Corning executives, the company has injected a total of US$1.53 billion into expansions at factories in Taiwan and Japan over the past few years, with US$180 million spent on expansion at the factory in southern Taiwan, US$600 million on the southern Taiwan factory and Japan factory and US$750 million on the central Taiwan factory.

Throughout this year, Corning has planned to invest US$800 million in substrate-capacity expansions, according to Donald McNaughton, Coring’s senior VP.

September 20, 2004 – AMIS Holdings Inc., parent company of structured ASIC proponent AMI Semiconductor, has said it intends to purchase the assets of Dspfactory Ltd., a low-power DSP technology provider for $42.35 million in cash and restricted stock, with a potential additional payment of $8.5 million in stock if certain milestones are met before the end of 2006.

With this acquisition, AMIS gains mixed-signal DSP experience in hardware and product design, as well as software experience in algorithm development for the medical and industrial markets from Dspfactory, based in Ontario. The company’s DSP-based mixed-signal platform will enable AMIS to provide increased DSP functionality in applications such as advanced hearing aids, implantable and diagnostic applications in the medical market and motor control applications in the industrial market.

AMIS also assumes certain assets and liabilities of Dspfactory, including its facilities and operations in Waterloo, Ontario, and a design center in Marin, Switzerland, which AMI Semiconductor expects will help expand its reach into the North American and European markets.

Sept. 20, 2004 – STEAG microParts’ leading customer and a co-developer is acquiring the Dortmund, Germany-based subsidiary of STEAG AG.

German pharmaceutical firm Boehringer Ingelheim plans to take control of STEAG microParts by Oct. 1. It will become a legally independent company known as Boehringer Ingelheim microParts GmbH, according to company news releases.

Boehringer Ingelheim officials said the acquisition fits well within its production strategy, especially related to Respimat, the aerosol inhaler jointly developed by the companies. The metered-dose inhaler, sold by Boehringer, processes liquid through a micronozzle and delivers precise doses of drugs without environmentally harmful propellant gases.

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STOW, Mass., Sept. 20, 2004 – David-and-Goliath comparisons are clichés to be avoided in the small-tech world. In the case of Radant MEMS Inc., however, the description fits.

With only 25 employees and barely two years old, Radant has taken the lead in a race to bring MEMS-based radio frequency (RF) switches to market. It squeezed out defense-contracting giants Northrop Grumman and TRW Corp. along the way, and now has a $5-million government grant to verify that its switches do live up to the potential many people suspect RF MEMS switches have.

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“We see a lot of interest in general,” said John Maciel, Radant’s chief operating officer. His team spent the better part of two years researching how to make reliable, long-lasting switches and, he added, “Once you can perfect that, a switch is a basic component in a lot of devices.”

Radant MEMS began as a small group within Radant Technologies Inc., a 25-year-old maker of antenna equipment that works closely with military research labs at nearby Hanscom Air Force Base. Radant had landed a contract to supply switching equipment to the Air Force for a weather balloon, “and we saw the opportunity to put MEMS in there,” Maciel explained.

The company licensed some basic RF MEMS research from Analog Devices Inc. The technology proved so intriguing, Maciel said, that Radant Technologies spun off Radant MEMS as a separate company in May 2002. The former is now the latter’s largest customer.

The trick to Radant’s designs is the material used for the switch itself, which Maciel declined to identify. (Most RF switches are made of gold.) The company is even keeping all its intellectual property a trade secret, rather than disclosing it in a patent application. “We spent an awful lot of time just studying the physics of it,” said Maciel.

The active contacts in the switch are as small as 50 microns. The entire integrated patch is 1.5 millimeters; Radant can squeeze 7,000 switches onto one standard six-inch silicon wafer, which it then caps all at once.

Materials aside, Radant impressed military customers with its switches’ reliability. The Defense Advanced Research Agency (DARPA) selected the company two years ago, along with TRW and Northrop Grumman, to participate in a funding contest to develop high-performance switches. Phase I of the program called for a switch that could perform 100-million cycles before failing. No problem, all three companies passed the test.

Phase II raised the bar to a switch that could go 10-billion cycles before failing. Meanwhile, Northrop Grumman acquired TRW and narrowed the field to it and Radant. But while Northrop’s switch failed to reach 10 billion cycles, Radant delivered a prototype that went to 100-billion cycles.

“DARPA was very happy,” Maciel said. The company is now the sole participant in Phase III. It must deliver several hundred switches by the end of the year, and 95 percent must hit 100 billion cycles or more.

Radant also has an eye on commercial customers. Scott Rassoulian, the company’s head of business development, said Radant has sold trial units to 15 customers that are now in various stages of testing them.

“The industry has been waiting to hear about 100-billion cycles,” he said. That many cycles generally translate into a 10-year lifespan for most commercial uses, such as communication satellites.

How large the market for RF MEMS components is, however, remains a mystery. Wicht Technology Consulting, a German market-research firm, estimates worldwide growth in RF MEMS components will go from $100 million in 2004 to $1 billion by 2007. Others say the technology is too new to make predictions, and has failed to deliver on expectations before.

“The market was expected to take off, but has for most practical purposes been stillborn,” said Jagan Ramaswami, an analyst with Frost & Sullivan.

Most RF switches today sell for $10 to $20 in bulk. Rassoulian said Radant can approach $5 per switch for large orders of simple devices, and eventually he hoped it would reach $1 or less. But he quickly cautioned that Radant is small, and will take its time developing new RF-switch designs.

“We’re still very careful about choosing our customer base,” Rassoulian said. “We don’t want to fall on our face.”

Company

Radant MEMS Inc.

Headquarters

255 Hudson Rd.

Stow, Mass. 01775

History

Spun off as an independent company in May 2002, this former sub-group of Radant Technologies is commercializing technology originally developed at Foxboro Co. and later licensed from Analog Devices.

Industries potentially served

Communications: RF/wireless components

Selected small tech-related products and services

Radant MEMS has developed an electrostatically actuated MEMS-based microswitch with low power consumption and high reliability. With consistent reliability of 10-billion cycles and prototypes showing reliability of 100-billion cycles, the company has delivered trial product units to 15 customers.

Employees

25

Management

  • John Maciel, chief operating officer

  • Rick Morrison, senior engineer

  • Scott Rassoulian, head of business development

Financials

The company has received a $25-million DARPA research grant.

Selected strategic partners, customers

  • Advanced Microsensors

  • Radant Technologies

Selected competitors

Barriers to market

Radant is still working to bring the unit cost of its RF MEMS components down to a level more acceptable to the market. The company is fairly small, and that will take some time.

Contact

Research by Gretchen McNeely

(September 17, 2004) San Jose, Calif.&#8212North American-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $1.52 billion in orders in August 2004 and a book-to-bill ratio of 1.00, according to an August 2004 report published by SEMI. A book-to-bill of 1.00 means that $100 worth of orders were received for every $100 of product billed for the month.

(September 17, 2004) Sao Paulo, Brazil&#8212Intel Corp. CEO Craig Barrett ruled out building a chip manufacturing plant in Brazil, South America’s largest country, because of high labor costs. “There are other areas of the world that are more competitive,” Barrett told reporters at a news conference. He cited China, India and Russia as possibilities.

Brazil imports almost all of its semiconductors, and the government launched a drive in March 2004 to encourage chip manufacturers to set up shop in the country. Intel’s only existing manufacturing plants in Latin America are located in Costa Rica.

(September 20, 2004) Dallas, Texas&#8212The Fabless Semiconductor Association (FSA) announced today that global public fabless revenue grew 44 percent year over year in the second quarter (Q2) of 2004, totaling $8.3 billion. North American fabless companies represented 76 percent of Q2 2004 total fabless revenue, followed by Taiwan, which contributed 20 percent, the FSA said. Europe and China each represented two percent of worldwide sales.

September 16, 2004 – In a blow to Brazil, Intel Corp. chief executive Craig Barrett all but ruled out building a chip manufacturing plant in Latin America’s largest country because of high labor costs.

“There are other areas of the world that are more competitive than Brazil,” Barrett told reporters at a news conference, citing China, India, and Russia as examples.

Brazil imports almost all of its semiconductors, and the government launched a drive in March to encourage chip manufacturers to set up shop in the country. Intel’s only existing manufacturing plants in Latin America are located in Costa Rica.

While Brazilian labor costs are much lower than those in rich nations, workers are paid more than their Asian counterparts and businesses often must pay 50% on top of salaries to meet government-mandated benefit and tax obligations.

Barrett encouraged Brazil to concentrate on becoming a source for new technology ideas and design ideas, rather than manufacturing. “Brazil is a leader in the implementation and use of technology,” he said.

Brazil isn’t known for its high-tech manufacturing sector, but the country has a booming software industry and is a making a strong push promoting the use of free open-source software.

Intel is joining forces with Brazil’s Labor Ministry to launch a program called “Technical Student” to teach high school students to assemble and maintain computers.

It will be started with a pilot program for 200 students in the impoverished northeastern state of Piaui. Barrett left Sao Paulo Thursday for Brasilia, the capital, to discuss the program with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

September 17, 2004 – North American-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $1.52 billion in orders in August (three-month average basis) and a book-to-bill ratio of 1.00 according to SEMI. A book-to-bill of 1.00 means that $100 worth of orders were received for every $100 of product billed for the month.

The three-month average of worldwide bookings in August was $1.52 billion. The bookings figure is 5% below the revised July 2004 level of $1.59 billion and 107% above the $731.8 million in orders posted in August 2003.

The three-month average of worldwide billings in August 2004 was $1.51 billion. The billings figure is 1% below the revised July 2004 level of $1.53 billion and 90% above the August 2003 billings level of $792.3 million.

“Semiconductor equipment bookings and billings for North American-based suppliers have declined slightly from peak levels in the past few months, yet remain at high levels (each above $1.5 billion),” said Lubab L. Sheet, research development director, SEMI. “A number of recent company announcements suggest these levels may continue to soften in the coming months. However, we believe the industry is on track to exceed our overall worldwide forecast projection of $36 billion this year.

The SEMI book-to-bill is a ratio of three-month moving averages of worldwide bookings and billings for North American-based semiconductor equipment manufacturers.

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Sept. 17, 2004 – Smart homes, those high-tech houses where the lights, sprinkler systems, appliances and heating and cooling systems all communicate through Web-based wireless networks, still appear to be only for the very wealthy. Think Bill Gates.

Then think again. Thanks to MEMS, the basic building blocks actually are there for bringing intelligence into housing for the masses. All that remains is the network connection. Because MEMS may make the smart home concept a reality, there are some great opportunities for those pursuing this market.

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A tour of a middle-class home proves this point. Take the living room, family room, great room, or where ever everyone gathers around the TV. Texas Instruments’ Digital Light Processor has made great strides here, both in terms of home theater projectors as well as digital TVs. But how about the stereo that completes the home theater setup?

Interestingly, the use of accelerometers in active subwoofers, a key part of any surround-sound system, started out as a niche within the high-end audio market. But Home Theater in a Box (a basic surround sound system that’s all put together and just needs to be connected to a TV) has seen tremendous growth in the past several years, to the point where this niche is now accounting for millions of units.

Certainly no family room (at least in the U.S.) would be complete without an Xbox or other gaming system. Here, MEMS accelerometers, pressure sensors, strain gauges, thermopiles, and even gyroscopes are all playing a role in various forms, primarily via peripherals.

These peripherals tend to come and go, depending on market acceptance, but range from simple products such as a joystick, to Powergrid Fitness’ kiloWatt controller, which was designed to provide a bona fide workout while you play video games. For real. It appears that the days of being a couch potato and sitting numbly in front of the Playstation may be numbered.

Moving to the bathroom, MEMS can be found in bathroom scales, ear thermometers, hair dryers, and more recently, portable blood pressure monitors. Going a step further, Steag microParts is developing a virtually propellant-free aerosol system called TRUSPRAY, which is based on the same pump and nozzle system it successfully developed for use in soft mist inhalers available from Boehringer Ingelheim.

This could feasibly revolutionize the beauty product industry, but we’ll have to wait until late 2004 when it is scheduled to launch to see what the real impact is.

The laundry room offers some of the most mature applications of MEMS in the home. Washing machines have been integrating pressure sensors for water level monitoring and accelerometers for load imbalance over the past several years.

But it is the kitchen where the real action is taking place. From cook tops and dishwashers to microwaves and refrigerators, all sorts of MEMS sensors are making these appliances smarter by increasing their efficiency. And that’s just the white goods category (which typically encompasses the larger, more expensive appliances in the home).

Small electrics such as kitchen scales, toasters, space heaters, and vacuum cleaners are now using MEMS pressure sensors, strain gauges, thermopiles, and accelerometers. In fact, gyros (among a number of other MEMS sensors) are now purported to be in some of the robotic vacuums that are making a splash in the market. You’d have to buy one of the higher end models, such as Hanool Robotics’ OTTORO, which contains 30 sensors, and sells for $3,000.

For those of you with wall-to-wall carpet, Infineon Technologies is hoping to take smart homes to the next level by developing Smart Carpet. The project is still in the concept stage, but Infineon is working with carpet manufacturer Vorwerk to weave “intelligence” into carpeting. Accelerometers and pressure sensors (among other sensing functions) could provide feedback to security systems, or even help to control home heating and cooling.

Simply connect your carpet and the appliances discussed above to a home computer and wireless LAN, and voila — the smart home comes to life. Of course, it’s not quite that easy, and I still don’t understand why my vacuum cleaner would need to interact with my refrigerator. But it does serve to point out that the basic concept of the smart home (which will need to rely on sensors to make it so) does indeed already exist.

Clearly, MEMS are growing up fast when it comes to their integration into consumer electronics and helping to make smart homes a reality. While most applications, at this point, remain fairly niche, all signs point to more MEMS devices moving into an increasing number of product families, and thus, moving toward higher volumes.

What’s been key to this market movement have been the continued reductions in price (at lower minimum quantities) and smaller package designs. And we’ve only just begun. As a result, revenues for MEMS in consumer electronics products as a whole are forecast to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 13.2 percent, from $292.7 million in 2003, to $543.3 million in 2008, with unit shipments increasing at a CAGR of 14.2 percent.