Yearly Archives: 2016

Designers of solar cells may soon be setting their sights higher, as a discovery by a team of researchers has revealed a class of materials that could be better at converting sunlight into energy than those currently being used in solar arrays. Their research shows how a material can be used to extract power from a small portion of the sunlight spectrum with a conversion efficiency that is above its theoretical maximum — a value called the Shockley-Queisser limit. This finding, which could lead to more power-efficient solar cells, was seeded in a near-half-century old discovery by Russian physicist Vladimir M. Fridkin, a visiting professor of physics at Drexel, who is also known as one of the innovators behind the photocopier.

The team, which includes scientists from Drexel University, the Shubnikov Institute of Crystallography of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the University of Pennsylvania and the U. S. Naval Research Laboratory recently published its findings in the journal Nature Photonics. Their article “Power conversion efficiency exceeding the Shockley-Queisser limit in a ferroelectric insulator,” explains how they were able to use a barium titanate crystal to convert sunlight into electric power much more efficiently than the Shockley-Queisser limit would dictate for a material that absorbs almost no light in the visible spectrum — only ultraviolet.

A phenomenon that is the foundation for the new findings was observed by Fridkin, who is one of the principal co-authors of the paper, some 47 years ago, when he discovered a physical mechanism for converting light into electrical power — one that differs from the method currently employed in solar cells. The mechanism relies on collecting “hot” electrons, those that carry additional energy in a photovoltaic material when excited by sunlight, before they lose their energy. And though it has received relatively little attention until recently, the so-called “bulk photovoltaic effect,” might now be the key to revolutionizing our use of solar energy.

The limits of solar energy

Solar energy conversion has been limited thus far due to solar cell design and electrochemical characteristics inherent to the materials used to make them.

“In a conventional solar cell — made with a semiconductor — absorption of sunlight occurs at an interface between two regions, one containing an excess of negative-charge carriers, called electrons, and the other containing an excess of positive-charge carriers, called holes,” said Alessia Polemi, a research professor in Drexel’s College of Engineering and one of the co-authors of the paper.

In order to generate electron-hole pairs at the interface, which is necessary to have an electric current, the sunlight’s photons must excite the electrons to a level of energy that enables them to vacate the valence band and move into the conduction band — the difference in energy levels between these two bands is referred to as the “band gap.” This means that in photovoltaic materials, not all of the available solar spectrum can be converted into electrical power. And for sunlight photon energies that are higher than the band gap, the excited electrons will lose it excess energy as heat, rather than converting it to electric current. This process further reduces the amount of power can be extracted from a solar cell.

“The light-induced carriers generate a voltage, and their flow constitutes a current. Practical solar cells produce power, which is the product of current and voltage,” Polemi said. “This voltage, and therefore the power that can be obtained, is also limited by the band gap.”

But, as Fridkin discovered in 1969 — and the team validates with this research — this limitation is not universal, which means solar cells can be improved.

New life for an old theory

When Fridkin and his colleagues at the Institute of Crystallography in Moscow observed an unusually high photovoltage while studying the ferroelectric antimony sulfide iodide — a material that did not have any junction separating the carriers — he posited that crystal symmetry could be the origin for its remarkable photovoltaic properties. He later explained how this “bulk photovoltaic effect,” which is very weak, involves the transport of photo-generated hot electrons in a particular direction without collisions, which cause cooling of the electrons.

This is significant because the limit on solar power conversion from the Shockley-Queisser theory is based on the assumption that all of this excess energy is lost — wasted as heat. But the team’s discovery shows that not all of the excess energy of hot electrons is lost, and that the energy can, in fact, be extracted as power before thermalizing.

“The main result — exceeding [the energy gap-specific] Shockley-Queisser [power efficiency limit] using a small fraction of the solar spectrum — is caused by two mechanisms,” Fridkin said. “The first is the bulk photovoltaic effect involving hot carriers and second is the strong screening field, which leads to impact ionization and multiplication of these carriers, increasing the quantum yield.”

Impact ionization, which leads to carrier multiplication, can be likened to an array of dominoes in which each domino represents a bound electron. When a photon interacts with an electron, it excites the electron, which, when subject to the strong field, accelerates and ‘ionizes’ or liberates other bound electrons in its path, each of which, in turn, also accelerates and triggers the release of others. This process continues successively — like setting off multiple domino cascades with a single tipped tile — amounting to a much greater current.

This second mechanism, the screening field, is an electric field is present in all ferroelectric materials. But with the nanoscale electrode used to collect the current in a solar cell, the field is enhanced, and this has the beneficial effect of promoting impact ionization and carrier multiplication. Following the domino analogy, the field drives the cascade effect, ensuring that it continues from one domino to the next.

“This result is very promising for high efficiency solar cells based on application of ferroelectrics having an energy gap in the higher intensity region of the solar spectrum,” Fridkin said.

Building toward a breakthrough

“Who would have expected that an electrical insulator could be used to improve solar energy conversion?” said Jonathan E. Spanier, a professor of materials science, physics and electrical engineering at Drexel and one of the principal authors of the study. “Barium titanate absorbs less than a tenth of the spectrum of the sun. But our device converts incident power 50 percent more efficiently than the theoretical limit for a conventional solar cell constructed using this material or a material of the same energy gap.”

This breakthrough builds on research conducted several years ago by Andrew M. Rappe, Blanchard Professor of Chemistry and of Materials Science & Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, one of the principal authors, and Steve M. Young, also a co-author on the new report. Rappe and Young showed how bulk photovoltaic currents could be calculated — which led Spanier and collaborators to investigate if higher power conversion efficiency could be attained in ferroelectrics.

“There are many exciting reports utilizing nanoscale materials or phenomena for improving solar energy conversion,” Spanier said. “Professor Fridkin appreciated decades ago that the bulk photovoltaic effect enables free electrons that are generated by light and have excess energy to travel in a particular direction before they cool or ‘thermalize’–and lose their excess energy to vibrations of the crystal lattice.”

Rappe was also responsible for connecting Spanier to Fridkin in 2015, a collaboration that set in motion the research now detailed in Nature Photonics — a validation of Fridkin’s decades-old vision.

“Vladimir is internationally renowned for his pioneering contributions to the field of electroxerography, having built the first working photocopier in the world,” Rappe said. “He then became a leader in ferroelectricity and piezoelectricity, and preeminent in understanding light interactions with ferroelectrics. Fridkin explained how, in crystals that lack inversion symmetry, photo-excited electrons acquire asymmetry in their momenta. This, in turn, causes them to move in one direction instead of the opposite direction. It is amazing that the same person who discovered these bulk photovoltaic effects nearly 50 years ago is now helping to harness them for practical use in nanomaterials.”

Dmitry Fedyanin from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and Mario Agio from the University of Siegen and LENS have predicted that artificial defects in the crystal lattice of diamond can be turned into ultrabright and extremely efficient electrically-driven quantum emitters. Their work published in New Journal of Physics demonstrates the potential for a number of technological breakthroughs, including the development of quantum computers and secure communication lines, which, in contrast to previously proposed schemes, would be able to operate at room temperature.

The research conducted by Dmitry Fedyanin and Mario Agio is focused on the development of efficient electrically-driven single-photon sources — devices that emit single photons when an electrical current is applied. In other words, using such devices, one can generate a photon “on demand” by simply applying a small voltage across the devices, the probability of an output of zero photons is vanishingly low and generation of two or more photons simultaneously is fundamentally impossible.

Until recently, it was thought that quantum dots (nanoscale semiconductor particles) are the most promising candidates for true single-photon sources. However, they operate only at very low temperatures, which is their main drawback – mass application would not be possible if a device has to be cooled with liquid nitrogen or even colder liquid helium, or using refrigeration units, which are even more expensive and power-hungry. At the same time, it was known that certain point defects in the crystal lattice of diamond, which occur when foreign atoms (such as silicon or nitrogen) enter the diamond accidentally or through targeted implantation, can efficiently emit single photons at room temperature. However, this has only been achieved by optical excitation of these defects using external high-power lasers. This method is ideal for research in scientific laboratories, but it is very inefficient in practical devices. Experiments with electrical excitation, on the other hand, did not yield the best results — in terms of brightness, diamond sources lost out significantly (by several orders of magnitude) to quantum dots. As there were no theories describing the photon emission from colour centres in diamonds under electrical excitation, it was not possible to assess the potential of these single-photon sources to see if they could be used as a basis for the quantum devices of the future.

The new publication gives an affirmative answer — defects in the structure of diamond at the atomic level can be used to design highly efficient single-photon sources that are even more promising than their counterparts based on quantum dots.

Operation at the single?photon level will not only increase the energy efficiency of the existing data processing and data transmission devices by more than one thousand times, but will also lay the foundations for the development of novel quantum devices. Building quantum computers is still a prospect of the future, but secure communication lines based on quantum cryptography are already starting to be used. However, today they do not use true single-photon sources; instead, they rely on what are known as attenuated lasers. This means that not only is there a high probability of sending zero photons into a channel, which greatly reduces the speed of data transfer, but there is also a high probability of sending two, three, four, or more light quanta simultaneously. One could intercept these “extra” photons and neither the sender nor the recipient would know about it. This makes the communication channel vulnerable to eavesdropping and quantum cryptography loses its main advantage – fundamental security against all types of attacks.

For quantum computing it is also essential to have the ability to manipulate individual photons. The quantum of light can be used to represent a qubit – the fundamental unit of quantum information processing, – which is a superposition of two or more quantum states. For example, a qubit can be encoded in the polarization of a single photon. The advantage of the optical quantum computing paradigm is that one can natively combine quantum computations with quantum communication and design high-performance, large and scalable quantum supercomputers, which is not possible to do using other physical systems, such as superconducting circuits or trapped ions.

Dmitry Fedyanin and Mario Agio are the first to successfully reveal the mechanism of electroluminescence of colour centres in diamond and develop a theoretical framework to quantify it. They found that not all states of colour centres can be excited electrically, despite the fact that they may be “accessible” under optical excitation. This is because under optical pumping defects behave like isolated atoms or molecules (such as hydrogen or helium), with virtually no interaction with the diamond crystal. Electrical excitation, on the other hand, is based on the exchange of electrons between the defect and the diamond crystal. This not only brings limitations, but also opens up new possibilities. For example, according to the researchers, certain defects can emit serially two photons at two different wavelengths from two different charge states in a single act of the electroluminescence process. This feature could lead to the development of a fundamentally new class of quantum devices that had simply been disregarded before because these processes are not possible with optical excitation of colour centers. But the most important result of the study is that the researchers found out why high-intensity single-photon emission from colour centers was not observed under electrical pumping. The reason for this was the technologically complex process of doping of diamond by phosphorus, which cannot provide sufficiently high density of conduction electrons in diamond.

The calculations show that using modern doping technologies it is possible to create a bright single-photon source with an emission rate of more than 100,000 photons per second at room temperature. It is truly remarkable that the emission rate only increases as the device temperature increases achieving more than 100 million photons per second at 200 degrees Celsius. “Our single-photon source is one of few, if not the only optoelectronic device that should be heated in order to improve its performance, and the effect of improvement is as high as three orders of magnitude. Normally, both electronic and optical devices need to be cooled by attaching heat sinks with fans, or by placing them in liquid nitrogen,” says Dmitry Fedyanin from the Laboratory of Nanooptics and Plasmonics at MIPT. According to him, the technological improvement of diamond doping will further increase the brightness 10-100 times.

One hundred million photons is very low compared to household light sources (e.g. a normal light bulb emits more than 10^18 photons per second), but it should be emphasized that the entire flow of photons is created by a tiny (~10^-10 metres in size) defect in the crystal lattice of diamond and, unlike a light bulb, photons follow strictly one after the other. For the quantum computers mentioned above, around ten thousand photons per second would be enough — the possibility of developing a quantum computer is currently limited by entirely different factors. In quantum communication lines, however, the use of electrically-driven diamond single-photon sources will not only guarantee complete security, but will also greatly increase the speed of information transfer compared to the pseudo single-photon sources based on attenuated lasers used today.

ON Semiconductor (Nasdaq: ON) this week announced that it is joining the Original Equipment Suppliers Association (OESA), which champions the business interests of more than 430 member automotive suppliers. All members also belong to the parent Motor and Equipment Manufacturers Association (MEMA), which represents more than 1,000 companies from both the original equipment and aftermarket segments of the light vehicle and commercial vehicle industries.

Joining these organizations enables ON Semiconductor to work more closely with its customers on the policy issues that matter to the automotive industry, such as the promotion of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). MEMA estimates that ADAS technologies alone have the potential to prevent 30 percent of all crashes, and ON Semiconductor is a supplier of the components that are used in these systems.

“As the #2 ranked non-microcontroller automotive semiconductor supplier, we have long recognized the importance of working closely with customers to promote the policies and technologies that will advance innovation in vital areas like safety and sustainability,” said Lance Williams, vice president of automotive strategy and OEM development at ON Semiconductor. “OESA and MEMA are two of the automotive industry’s most well respected trade associations, and we look forward to expanding our collaborations with their more than 1,000 member companies.”

IBM (NYSE:  IBM) scientists have created randomly spiking neurons using phase-change materials to store and process data. This demonstration marks a significant step forward in the development of energy-efficient, ultra-dense integrated neuromorphic technologies for applications in cognitive computing.

An artistic rendering of a population of stochastic phase-change neurons which appears on the cover of Nature Nanotechnology, 3 August 2016. Credit: IBM Research

An artistic rendering of a population of stochastic phase-change neurons which appears on the cover of Nature Nanotechnology, 3 August 2016. Credit: IBM Research

Inspired by the way the biological brain functions, scientists have theorized for decades that it should be possible to imitate the versatile computational capabilities of large populations of neurons. However, doing so at densities and with a power budget that would be comparable to those seen in biology has been a significant challenge, until now.

“We have been researching phase-change materials for memory applications for over a decade, and our progress in the past 24 months has been remarkable,” said IBM Fellow Evangelos Eleftheriou. “In this period, we have discovered and published new memory techniques, including projected memory, stored 3 bits per cell in phase-change memory for the first time, and now are demonstrating the powerful capabilities of phase-change-based artificial neurons, which can perform various computational primitives such as data-correlation detection and unsupervised learning at high speeds using very little energy.”

The results of this research are appearing today on the cover of the peer-reviewed journal Nature Nanotechnology.

The artificial neurons designed by IBM scientists in Zurich consist of phase-change materials, including germanium antimony telluride, which exhibit two stable states, an amorphous one (without a clearly defined structure) and a crystalline one (with structure). These materials are the basis of re-writable Blu-ray discs. However, the artificial neurons do not store digital information; they are analog, just like the synapses and neurons in our biological brain.

In the published demonstration, the team applied a series of electrical pulses to the artificial neurons, which resulted in the progressive crystallization of the phase-change material, ultimately causing the neuron to fire. In neuroscience, this function is known as the integrate-and-fire property of biological neurons. This is the foundation for event-based computation and, in principle, is similar to how our brain triggers a response when we touch something hot.

Exploiting this integrate-and-fire property, even a single neuron can be used to detect patterns and discover correlations in real-time streams of event-based data. For example, in the Internet of Things, sensors can collect and analyze volumes of weather data collected at the edge for faster forecasts. The artificial neurons could be used to detect patterns in financial transactions to find discrepancies or use data from social media to discover new cultural trends in real time. Large populations of these high-speed, low-energy nano-scale neurons could also be used in neuromorphic coprocessors with co-located memory and processing units.

IBM scientists have organized hundreds of artificial neurons into populations and used them to represent fast and complex signals. Moreover, the artificial neurons have been shown to sustain billions of switching cycles, which would correspond to multiple years of operation at an update frequency of 100 Hz. The energy required for each neuron update was less than five picojoule and the average power less than 120 microwatts — for comparison, 60 million microwatts power a 60 watt lightbulb.

“Populations of stochastic phase-change neurons, combined with other nanoscale computational elements such as artificial synapses, could be a key enabler for the creation of a new generation of extremely dense neuromorphic computing systems,” said Tomas Tuma, a co-author of the paper.

Cascade Microtech, a FormFactor company (NASDAQ: FORM), and a supplier of solutions that enable precision measurements of discrete devices and integrated circuits at the wafer level, today announced the release of a comprehensive low-frequency noise measurement solution for device modeling, characterization and reliability testing with MeasureOne solution partner Keysight Technologies.

As the semiconductor industry has moved to smaller devices with lower power consumption, modern semiconductor processes have put forth devices where noise plays a bigger role in overall circuit system performance. Measuring and modeling low-frequency noise becomes imperative, as this noise can impair signal processing circuitry in both signal generation and receiver circuitry. Furthermore, the industry has now adopted 1/f and random telegraph noise (RTN) metrics as leading indicators for reliability, embracing these measurements for process control in semiconductor production.

True noise immunity is essential in a measurement environment that seeks precise 1/f data from 0.03 Hz to 40 MHz. One of the biggest challenges in measuring component noise is avoiding data corruption by other noise sources in the system. Creating a noise-free measurement environment remains a costly and time-consuming pursuit for device and circuit researchers to develop on their own. Additionally, when equipment is sourced from multiple suppliers, it can be challenging to specify test system integration and performance. Measurement functionality must be validated and proven on-site before the first device can be tested, often requiring data correlation between different locations. It can take weeks, or even months to arrive at the first measurements.

Cascade Microtech and Keysight Technologies have teamed up to provide semiconductor device characterization engineers a noise measurement system that integrates advanced low-frequency device noise measurement and analysis with wafer-level measurements in a single, powerful platform capable of managing full wafer-level characterization. Cascade Microtech’s 200 mm and 300 mm probe stations, with both probes and shielding hardware, combined with Keysight’s Advanced Low Frequency Noise Analyzer and WaferPro Express software, allow a test engineer to quickly solve challenging measurement problems like device oscillation, power line noise, repeatability, and shielding from ambient radiation. The collaboration of these two companies has resulted in a fully-integrated wafer-level 1/f device characterization solution with guaranteed system configuration as well as integration, installation, training and functional on-site qualification and validation. All backed by over 25 years of Cascade Microtech and Keysight working together to enable customer success.

“This is yet another example of how the Keysight and Cascade Microtech wafer-level measurement solution program is able to address a very challenging measurement application with a complete turnkey solution,” said Gregg Peters, Vice President and General Manager, Aerospace and Defense Solutions Group, Keysight Technologies. “We have a long history of collaborating with Cascade Microtech to understand the specific measurement challenges presented by emerging technologies, and ensuring that we provide tools that work seamlessly together. We’ve accomplished that again with the introduction of the 1/f wafer-level measurement solution, a comprehensive solution for low-frequency noise measurement.”

“Cascade Microtech and Keysight have a longstanding commitment to enabling customer success, and have worked closely together throughout the development process of Keysight’s new Advanced Low-Frequency Noise Analyzer to ensure smooth integration with the Cascade Microtech wafer probe stations,” said Mike Slessor, president and CEO of FormFactor, Inc. “Our MeasureOne program offers a framework for collaboration with industry-leading partners like Keysight to offer test and measurement solutions with validated performance. Together, we can offer our customers the assurance that their complex wafer probing systems are validated and performance is optimized. Our customers benefit from faster time to first measurement and therefore faster time to market with new devices.”

Park Systems, a manufacturer of Atomic Force Microscope, today announced NX20 300mm, the only AFM on the market capable of scanning the entire sample area of 300mm wafers using a 300mm vacuum chuck while keeping the system noise level below 0.5angstrom (Å) RMS. Park NX20 300mm enables AFM inspection and scans over the entire sample area of 300mm wafers by using a full 300mm x 300mm motorized XY stage so the system can access any location on a 300mm wafer.

“Today large samples of up to 300mm wafers and substrates are widely used for process development, failure analysis, and production but so far there has not been an AFM measurement tool that can accurately measure all samples simultaneously,” comments Keibock Lee, Park Systems President. “The new Park NX20 is the perfect solution for shared labs whose samples come in various sizes–small and large—as it supports from large to small coupon samples and is compatible with all the modes and options available to Park’s other research AFM products.”

“With a single loading, the entire 300mm wafer area can be accessed for low-noise AFM measurements,” adds Lee.  “This opens up a whole new scope of measurement automation on a 300 mm wafer.”

Parks NX20 300 mm is the only product that can hold a 300mm sample unlike current products on the market, for example the system that come closest to Park is combined with 300mm sample chuck but requires the user to load 9 times to access the entire 300mm wafer area because the range of the motorized XY stage is limited to 180mm x 220mm.

The Park NX20 300mm system is run by SmartScan, Park’s new operating software with automatic scan control and comes with the “Batch Mode” functionality where the users can perform recipe-automated, unlimited number of sequential multiple-site measurements over the 300 mm x 300 mm area.The automated measurements over a 300 mm wafer dramatically improve the user-convenience and productivity in an industrial lab where a comparison among site-to-site and sample-to-sample surface morphologies, e.g. height, surface roughness, etc., is important.

Park NX20 300mm standard vacuum chuck is designed to hold samples ranging in size from 300mm to 100mm, and can even support small coupon samples of arbitrary shapes using a vacuum hole. Products on the market now are limited to 200mm sample sizes and must rely on cutting up the sample to maintain the low noise required by industry, which is cumbersome and makes sharing the AFM challenging.

Park Systems, recognized for innovation in Nanoscale metrology, is the recipient of the Frost and Sullivan 2016 Global Enabling Technology Leadership Award for its proprietary technologies, such as the SmartScan OS and True Non-Contact Mode which have given its products an edge over competing solutions in terms of user friendliness, efficiency, and accuracy. These innovations have allowed Park Systems to bring the power of AFM to a wider user-base, enabling researchers and engineers further scientific discoveries and technological progress from materials to semiconductor to life sciences.

“Park NX20 300mm is another demonstration of Park Systems’s ability to innovate products demanded in today’s fast-growing semiconductor industry where status quo will not suffice in this new era of nanotechnology advances,” states Frost & Sullivan Industry Analyst Mariano Kimbara.

Since 1997, Park Systems has added significant innovations to their original AFM design to revolutionize imaging methodologies and enhance the user experience, resulting in their unbridled success.   Park Systems holds 32 patents related to AFM technology, including True Non-Contact Mode using decoupled XY and Z scanners, PTR measurements of HDD application, NX-Bio technology using Scanning ion conductance microscopy (SICM) on live cell, 3D AFM, Full automation AFM operation software (SmartScan).   SmartScan fully automatizes AFM imaging making it very easy for anyone to take an image of a sample at nanoscale resolution and clarity comparable to one taken by an expert.

Park Systems has a full range of AFM systems that provide solutions for researchers and industry engineers across a wide spectrum of disciplines including chemistry, materials, physics, life sciences, semiconductor and data storage. Used by thousands of the most distinguished academic and research institutions worldwide, Park is recognized as an innovate partner in nanoscale technologies.

Microsemi Corporation (NASDAQ:  MSCC), a provider of semiconductor solutions differentiated by power, security, reliability and performance, today announced the production release of its Flashtec NVM Express (NVMe)2032 and NVMe2016 controllers, enabling the world’s leading enterprises and data centers to realize the highest performance solid state drives (SSDs) utilizing next-generation NAND technologies. Providing the highest capacity, performance and reliability to store critical data, the devices are the industry’s first SSD controllers to integrate DDR4 DRAM, alleviating bottlenecks and maximizing throughput.

“Microsemi is pleased to announce the production release of our second-generation Flashtec NVMe controllers, tuned for enterprise storage, server and data center workloads,” said Derek Dicker, vice president and business unit manager, performance storage, at Microsemi. “These controllers deliver world class performance, advanced low-density parity-check (LDPC) error correction suitable for managing next-generation 3D NAND, and a programmable architecture upon which SSD builders can develop custom firmware, providing developers the ultimate means of product differentiation.”

Microsemi’s second-generation Flashtec NVMe2032 and NVMe2016 controllers support the standard NVMe host interface and are optimized for high-performance 4KB random read/write operations, performing all flash management operations on-chip and consuming negligible host processing and memory resources. In addition, the controllers can achieve up to 1 million random read input/output operations per second (IOPS).

“We congratulate Microsemi on the production release of its second-generation NVMe 2032/2016 enterprise NVMe controller with a high-performance, flexible low-density parity-check engine,” said Eric Endebrock, vice president of Storage Marketing Micron. “These types of enabling technologies align to Micron’s 3D NAND needs which are focused on mission-critical and high performance workloads.”

Hyperscale and enterprise data centers continue adopting NVMe due to the high speed and low latency connection between SSDs and host processors, providing significant performance advantages over SAS and SATA. According to market research firm IDC’s report titled, “Worldwide Solid State Drive Forecast, 2015–2019,” the number of high-performance PCIe-based SSD units has an estimated compound annual growth rate of 44 percent from 2014-2019. As part of Microsemi’s broad Flashtec controller family, the NVMe2032 and NVMe2016 controllers cater to this growing demand for robust NVMe-based solutions, with the devices optimized for power efficiency while providing customers the highest levels of performance, data integrity and reliability.

Intel appoints new CIO


August 4, 2016

Intel appointed Paula Tolliver as corporate vice president and chief information officer (CIO), replacing Kim Stevenson who will take on a new role at the company. Tolliver joins Intel from Dow Chemical where she served as corporate vice president of business services and CIO. As Intel CIO, Tolliver will report to Intel chief financial officer Stacy Smith and joins the company’s management committee.

“Paula brings both a depth and breadth of business, technology and strategic acumen that will be a tremendous asset to Intel,” Smith said. “We look forward to her leadership of Intel’s global IT organization and her contribution to corporate-level strategic initiatives.”

After nearly five successful years as Intel’s CIO, Stevenson will transition to a new executive role at Intel. Stevenson will serve as chief operating officer for the Client and Internet of Things Businesses and Systems Architecture (CISA) Group reporting to Dr. Venkata “Murthy” Renduchintala. She will remain on Intel’s management committee.

“Kim strategically aligned IT to Intel’s business priorities and established its reputation for excellence and innovation,” Smith said. “A true business partner and a consummate strategist, her experience running large organizations and working across groups will be a huge asset in her new role.”

Samco, a semiconductor process equipment developer and manufacturer based in Japan, announced that it will open its Malaysia branch office on Aug. 10, 2016 in Petaling Jaya, a suburb of Kuala Lumpur.

“With our new office conveniently located near Kuala Lumpur, we expect to better serve Malaysia’s research universities and manufacturers,” says Osamu Tsuji, Samco’s chairman, president and CEO. “Four company representatives will be assigned to this new location, where they will actively provide production-type systems and services, consisting of the three major technologies Samco specializes in.”

These technologies include: thin film deposition with PECVD and ALD systems; microfabrication with ICP etching, RIE and DRIE systems; and surface treatment with plasma cleaning and UV ozone cleaning systems.

“Samco has been continually enhancing its sales presence and service capability in Southeast Asia since the establishment of Samco’s Singapore office 20 years ago,” says Tsuji. “The region has seen an increased number of semiconductor and electronic component manufacturers in recent years, which initially led to the creation of the company’s former Vietnam service office in Ho Chi Minh during 2012.”

However, Tsuji adds, there was still a considerable physical distance between the Vietnam office and the Europe-based device manufacturers that have accumulated in Malaysia (mainly in Penang, Kuala Lumpur and Malacca), as well as the research institutions of some of Samco’s important customers.

“Bridging that distance was one reason Samco decided to replace its Vietnam office with our new location in Malaysia,” he says.

These efforts to strengthen the company’s presence in Southeast Asia include samco-ucp, which was established in Liechenstein after the acquisition of plasma cleaner systems maker UCP in May 2014, and now serves as Samco’s main European office.

“Some of samco-ucp’s chief customers are concentrated in Southeast Asia,” says Tsuji. “Our Malaysia office will also be used as a sales and service base for samco-ucp’s main product, production-type plasma cleaners that operate with a remote plasma source.”

Currently, the company’s annual sales in the region are nearly 2 million USD, which is expected to rise to 5 million USD after three years.

“With the combined sales revenue from both companies, we plan to increase Samco’s annual revenue in Malaysia to 10 million USD,” says Tsuji.

Samco’s Malaysia branch office is located at:

C-8-21, Block C, Centum at Oasis Corporate Park,
No. 2, Jalan PJU 1A/2, Ara Damansara, 47301
Petaling Jaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia

In addition to the monthly Updates, IC Insights’ subscription to The McClean Report includes three “subscriber only” webcasts.  The first of these webcasts was presented on August 3, 2016 and discussed semiconductor industry capital spending trends, the worldwide economic outlook, the semiconductor industry forecast through 2020, as well as China’s failures and successes on its path to increasing its presence in the IC industry.

In total, IC Insights forecasts that semiconductor industry capital spending will increase by only 3% this year after declining by 2% in 2015.  However, driven by the top three spenders—Samsung, TSMC, and Intel—capital spending in 2016 is expected to be heavily skewed toward the second half of this year. Figure 1 shows that the combined 2016 outlays for the top three semiconductor industry spenders are forecast to be 90% higher in the second half of this year as compared to the first half.

Figure 1

Figure 1

Combined, the “Big 3” spenders are forecast to represent 45% of the total semiconductor industry outlays this year.  An overview of each company’s actual 1H16 spending and their 2H16 spending outlook is shown below.

Samsung — The company spent only about $3.4 billion in capital expenditures in 1H16, just 31% of its forecasted $11.0 billion full-year 2016 budget.

TSMC — Its outlays in the first half of 2016 were only $3.4 billion, leaving $6.6 billion to be spent in the second half of this year in order to reach its full-year $10.0 billion budget.  This would represent a 2H16/1H16 spending increase of 92%.

Intel — Spent just $3.6 billion in 1H16.  The company needs to spend $5.9 billion in the second half of this year to reach its current $9.5 billion spending budget, which would be a 2H16/1H16 increase of 61%.

In contrast to the “Big 3” spenders, capital outlays by the rest of the semiconductor suppliers are forecast to shrink by 16% in the second half of this year as compared to the first half.  In total, 2H16 semiconductor industry capital spending is expected to be up 20% over 1H16 outlays, setting up a busy period for the semiconductor equipment suppliers through the end of this year.

Further trends and analysis relating to semiconductor capital spending through 2020 are covered in the 250-plus-page Mid-Year Update to the 2016 edition of The McClean Report.