Yearly Archives: 2016

Because of seasonally very weak demand and the ramping of new capacity in China, flat-panel display (FPD) supply exceeded demand by 20 percent in the first quarter of 2016, the largest glut since early 2012. The market began to rapidly correct itself in the second quarter and is now trending toward surprising tightness in the second half of 2016. Supply is expected to tighten still further in 2017, according to IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO).

flat panel display correction

Rapidly falling panel prices late last year and early this year have encouraged consumers to buy larger TVs. At the same time, notebook and monitor demand has started to stabilize. Finally, capacity growth is restricted, as manufacturers adopt new and more complicated processes in some factories, and more importantly close less productive facilities.

“South Korean panel makers are being particularly aggressive in shutting down older LCD fabs, including Gen 5 and even Gen 7 facilities,” said Charles Annis, senior director at IHS Markit. “The South Korean Gen 7 facility expected to be taken off-line late this year accounts for approximately nearly 4 percent of capacity dedicated to large-area production. It would be the largest factory shutdown in the history of FPD manufacturing.”

Based on the latest IHS Markit Display Supply Demand & Equipment Tracker, demand for large-area FPD applications is expected to grow 5 percent to 6 percent per year from 2016 through 2018; however, capacity dedicated to large-area production is only expected to expand 1 percent in 2017 and 5 percent in 2018. By the second half of 2018, the market is again expected to start trending towards looseness, as even more Chinese capacity is brought on-line, including the world’s first Gen 10.5 factory.

“Historically, the FPD market has corrected itself by reducing factory utilization and delaying capacity expansion plans,” Annis said. “With the rise of Chinese FPD manufacturing, neither of these strategies seemed likely in 2016. This situation has pushed makers in other regions to rationalize their current production assets at unprecedented and unexpected rates ”

Mouser Electronics, Inc., the global authorized distributor with the newest semiconductors and electronic components, today announced the appointment of Sam Katsuta as Vice President of Mouser Electronics-Japan.

“Japan is a key global market as well as one of the world’s leading markets for electronic design, and is therefore of great interest to us,” said Mark Burr-Lonnon, Mouser’s Senior Vice President of APAC and EMEA Business. “With this in mind, we are establishing a Japanese company which Sam Katsuta will run within our global operation. The nuances of the Japan market call for a special model.”

Katsuta will assume full control of Mouser’s customer service, marketing and finance within Japan. He will work closely with Mouser’s manufacturer partners in Japan and will report directly to Burr-Lonnon.

Katsuta has had a long, exceptional career at TDK, where he most recently served as General Manager of Global Distribution for both high service and volume distribution. He earned a degree in Economics at Keio University in Japan before taking his first role with Mitsubishi Chemical Industries. He joined TDK in 1984.

“I have long been impressed with Mouser’s business model, and I am pleased now to be a part of the Mouser team as we launch this exciting new phase of Mouser’s Japan operation,” Katsuta said.

Mouser has seen solid customer growth in Japan — where it opened a customer service center last year in Tokyo — with customers purchasing online through its website, Mouser.com. The global distributor stocks semiconductors and electronic components authorized by more than 600 manufacturers, including the leading Japanese manufacturers Murata, Panasonic, Toshiba, Taiyo Yuden, TDK, ROHM, Hirose, Nichicon, and OMRON.

“We see Japan as a strong market for innovative technologies, and the significant growth of design engineers and small- to medium-sized production business fits perfectly with our business model,” Burr-Lonnon said. “We are prepared to strengthen our brand and presence in this key market and believe the expanded Japan operation will allow us to uniquely establish closer cooperation with Japanese manufacturers to penetrate their products into more designs globally via our platform.”

Mouser caters to design engineers and buyers by delivering What’s Next in advanced technologies. Mouser offers customers 22 global support locations and stocks the world’s widest selection of the latest semiconductors and electronic components for the newest design projects.

The newest Airbus and Boeing passenger jets flying today are made primarily from advanced composite materials such as carbon fiber reinforced plastic — extremely light, durable materials that reduce the overall weight of the plane by as much as 20 percent compared to aluminum-bodied planes. Such lightweight airframes translate directly to fuel savings, which is a major point in advanced composites’ favor.

But composite materials are also surprisingly vulnerable: While aluminum can withstand relatively large impacts before cracking, the many layers in composites can break apart due to relatively small impacts — a drawback that is considered the material’s Achilles’ heel.

Now MIT aerospace engineers have found a way to bond composite layers in such a way that the resulting material is substantially stronger and more resistant to damage than other advanced composites. Their results are published this week in the journal Composites Science and Technology.

The researchers fastened the layers of composite materials together using carbon nanotubes — atom-thin rolls of carbon that, despite their microscopic stature, are incredibly strong. They embedded tiny “forests” of carbon nanotubes within a glue-like polymer matrix, then pressed the matrix between layers of carbon fiber composites. The nanotubes, resembling tiny, vertically-aligned stitches, worked themselves within the crevices of each composite layer, serving as a scaffold to hold the layers together.

In experiments to test the material’s strength, the team found that, compared with existing composite materials, the stitched composites were 30 percent stronger, withstanding greater forces before breaking apart.

Roberto Guzman, who led the work as an MIT postdoc in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AeroAstro), says the improvement may lead to stronger, lighter airplane parts — particularly those that require nails or bolts, which can crack conventional composites.

“More work needs to be done, but we are really positive that this will lead to stronger, lighter planes,” says Guzman, who is now a researcher at the IMDEA Materials Institute, in Spain. “That means a lot of fuel saved, which is great for the environment and for our pockets.”

The study’s co-authors include AeroAstro professor Brian Wardle and researchers from the Swedish aerospace and defense company Saab AB.

“Size matters”

Today’s composite materials are composed of layers, or plies, of horizontal carbon fibers, held together by a polymer glue, which Wardle describes as “a very, very weak, problematic area.” Attempts to strengthen this glue region include Z-pinning and 3-D weaving — methods that involve pinning or weaving bundles of carbon fibers through composite layers, similar to pushing nails through plywood, or thread through fabric.

“A stitch or nail is thousands of times bigger than carbon fibers,” Wardle says. “So when you drive them through the composite, you break thousands of carbon fibers and damage the composite.”

Carbon nanotubes, by contrast, are about 10 nanometers in diameter — nearly a million times smaller than the carbon fibers.

“Size matters, because we’re able to put these nanotubes in without disturbing the larger carbon fibers, and that’s what maintains the composite’s strength,” Wardle says. “What helps us enhance strength is that carbon nanotubes have 1,000 times more surface area than carbon fibers, which lets them bond better with the polymer matrix.”

Stacking up the competition

Guzman and Wardle came up with a technique to integrate a scaffold of carbon nanotubes within the polymer glue. They first grew a forest of vertically-aligned carbon nanotubes, following a procedure that Wardle’s group previously developed. They then transferred the forest onto a sticky, uncured composite layer and repeated the process to generate a stack of 16 composite plies — a typical composite laminate makeup — with carbon nanotubes glued between each layer.

To test the material’s strength, the team performed a tension-bearing test — a standard test used to size aerospace parts — where the researchers put a bolt through a hole in the composite, then ripped it out. While existing composites typically break under such tension, the team found the stitched composites were stronger, able to withstand 30 percent more force before cracking.

The researchers also performed an open-hole compression test, applying force to squeeze the bolt hole shut. In that case, the stitched composite withstood 14 percent more force before breaking, compared to existing composites.

“The strength enhancements suggest this material will be more resistant to any type of damaging events or features,” Wardle says. “And since the majority of the newest planes are more than 50 percent composite by weight, improving these state-of-the art composites has very positive implications for aircraft structural performance.”

Soft electronic devices, such as a smartphone on your wrist and a folding screen in your pocket, are looking to much improve your lifestyle in the not-too-distant future. That is, if we could find ways to make electronic devices out of soft organic materials instead of the existing rigid inorganic materials.

Conducting polymers are a promising candidate that could be utilized for these next-generation applications because they are malleable, lightweight, and can conduct electricity, although their charge carrier mobility is intrinsically lower than that of inorganic materials. Various studies therefore have focused on how to boost the speed at which the charge carriers move in conducting polymers. Many researchers have attempted to enhance the charge carrier mobility by increasing polymers’ crystallinity, which is the degree of structural order. However, this approach is inherently restrictive in terms of mechanical properties. In other words, an increase in the crystallinity results in a decrease of the mechanical resilience, at least according to the conventional norm.

A team of researchers with the Dept. of Chemical Engineering at Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), consisting of Profs. Taiho Park and Chan Eon Park with their students Sung Yun Son and Yebyeol Kim, has found a way to solve this dilemma and developed a low crystalline conducting polymer that shows high-field effect mobility. Their findings were recently published as the cover article in the Journal of American Chemical Societyand highlighted in the Spotlights.

To improve charge transport in a low-crystalline conducting polymer, the researchers took a simple yet unconventional approach. They introduced monomers without side chains into the polymer and utilized unconventional localized aggregates as stepping-stones to expedite charge transport in the microstructure of the polymer. Park et al. found that the resulting increase in the backbone planarity and chain connectivity of the polymer gave rise to enhanced charge transport along and between the polymer chains.

Their findings provide not only a greater understanding of charge transport dynamics in low-crystalline conducting polymers but also a new strategy in molecular design that allows faster charge transport without the loss of mechanical advantages. Taiho Park and Chan Eon Park, the two corresponding authors of this research, anticipate that their study opens up numerous possibilities and will bring forth new research, solutions, and applications for soft electronics.

GLOBALFOUNDRIES announced that Wallace Pai has been appointed as vice president and general manager of China. Pai will be responsible for driving the company’s strategic direction in China as it expands its presence and customer base in the region.

Pai has more than two decades of experience in the semiconductor industry, with expertise in strategic planning, corporate development, marketing and ecosystem growth. Throughout his career as a senior executive at Motorola, Qualcomm, Samsung and Synaptics, he has shaped strategy and led numerous strategic initiatives and investments in China. He is fluent in Mandarin and Cantonese, and has extensive access to business networks throughout the Greater China region. Pai will be based primarily in Shanghai and will report to Mike Cadigan, senior vice president of global sales and business development.

“Greater China represents a multi-billion dollar market opportunity, with significant growth potential for GLOBALFOUNDRIES,” Cadigan said. “Wallace has the ideal background and expertise to help drive our strategy, working closely with our extensive sales and design resources in the region. As we build on this base with a planned manufacturing presence, we will be well positioned to serve customers in Greater China and beyond.”

Wallace joins GLOBALFOUNDRIES from Synaptics, where he was vice president and general manager for the touch and display business where he spent most of the time in Greater China, Korea and Japan. Prior to Synaptics, Pai served as vice president of corporate business development at Samsung, where he led strategic initiatives and investments for the mobile and semiconductor business. He came to Samsung from Motorola Mobility, where as corporate vice president he led corporate development and managed Motorola’s corporate venture fund, driving a number of strategic acquisitions and divestitures key to establishing the foundation and trajectory for the company. Before Motorola, Pai worked at Qualcomm in a number of leadership roles in global business development, product management and strategic planning.

Pai holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and an MSEE from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Early in his career, Wallace was a consultant for McKinsey & Company and a microprocessor design engineer at Intel.

ams AG (SIX: AMS), a provider of high performance sensors and analog ICs, has launched the smallest ever optical sensor module that delivers a combination of colour (RGB), ambient light and proximity sensing, providing OEMs with design flexibility and the ability to provide a better display viewing experience.

The TMD3700 footprint, at 4.00 x 1.75mm, is the smallest footprint available in the market, and with height of 1.00mm, its low-profile is ideal for next-generation mobile phones with extremely tight layout and mechanical design constraints. Its wide 45 degree field-of-view, ambient light sensing accuracy of +/-10% and operating range of 200mlux to 60Klux behind dark glass enable smartphones to measure the surrounding light environment and automatically adjust display colour and brightness for optimal viewing.

The TMD3700 colour sensor channels each have UV and IR blocking filters and a dedicated converter allowing simultaneous data capture necessary for accurate measurements. The combination of photopic colour and ambient light sensing enables smartphones to perform real-time adjustment of the display properties, such as white point, colour gamut and colour saturation, to achieve the best visual colour accuracy.

The TMD3700 features allow dynamic elimination of both electrical and optical crosstalk producing reliable proximity detection, a function used by smartphone manufacturers to disable the touchscreen display when it is held close to the user’s face. In addition, the module’s integrated IR LED is calibrated for maximum performance and consistent operation.

“Smartphone OEMs are continually condensing their product profiles while seeking ways to improve display performance for the best visual appeal. The availability of the TM3700 light sensing and proximity detection performance in a compact package enables innovative display management for today’s space-constrained smartphones,” said Darrell Benke, Strategic Program Director for Advanced Optical Solutions at ams.

The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), representing U.S. leadership in semiconductor manufacturing, design, and research, today announced worldwide sales of semiconductors reached $79.1 billion during the second quarter of 2016, an increase of 1.0 percent over the previous quarter and a decrease of 5.8 percent compared to the second quarter of 2015. Global sales for the month of June 2016 reached $26.4 billion, an uptick of 1.1 percent over last month’s total of $26.1 billion, but down 5.8 percent from the June 2015 total of $28.0 billion. Cumulatively, year-to-date sales during the first half of 2016 were 5.8 percent lower than they were at the same point in 2015. All monthly sales numbers are compiled by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization and represent a three-month moving average.

“Global semiconductor sales increased slightly from Q1 to Q2 but remain behind the pace from last year, due largely to global economic uncertainty and sluggish demand,” said John Neuffer, president and CEO, Semiconductor Industry Association. “Sales into Japan and China have been a bright spot midway through 2016, and a modest rebound in sales is projected during the second half of the year.”

Regionally, sales increased compared to June 2015 in China (1.7 percent), but fell in Asia Pacific/All Other (-11.0 percent), the Americas (-10.8 percent), Europe (-5.5 percent), and Japan (-1.3 percent). Sales were up slightly compared to last month in the Americas (3.0 percent), China (2.2 percent) and Europe (1.7 percent), but down somewhat in Japan (-1.0 percent) and Asia Pacific/All Other (-0.6 percent).

sales graph sales table

Ultratech, Inc. (Nasdaq: UTEK), a supplier of lithography, laser­ processing and inspection systems used to manufacture semiconductor devices and high-brightness LEDs (HBLEDs), as well as atomic layer deposition (ALD) systems, today announced that it has received an ‘Outstanding Supplier Award’ from SJ Semiconductor Corp. Based in China, SJ Semiconductor is a pure play Middle-End-Of-Line (MEOL) semiconductor foundry house specializing in advanced wafer-level packaging. The award was presented to Ultratech by SJ Semiconductor CEO Cui Dong on July 27, at the company’s ‘Phase-I Mass Production, Outstanding Supplier Event’ at their facility in China. This award is further validation of Ultratech’s market leadership position in the advanced packaging lithography segment.

Rezwan Lateef, Ultratech’s General Manager and Vice President of Lithography Products, stated, “Ultratech has maintained its market leadership in the advanced packaging lithography segment by offering superior on-wafer results with industry leading cost-of-ownership and reliability in high-volume manufacturing environments. In recent years, Ultratech has expanded its presence in China, both in personnel and infrastructure, to support the burgeoning Chinese OSAT market. Ultratech believes that the SJ Semiconductor ‘Outstanding Supplier Award’ is a validation of our efforts in this region. We look forward to our continued partnership and to working closely with this valued customer to meet their future production and technology requirements.”

Ultratech is a supplier of lithography steppers for advanced packaging applications that include traditional copper pillar and wafer-level packaging (WLP), as well as the more advanced fan-out WLP and 3D ICs. The AP300 family of lithography systems is built on Ultratech’s customizable Unity Platform, delivering superior overlay, resolution and side wall profile performance while enabling cost-effective manufacturing. These systems are particularly well suited for copper pillar, fan-out, through-silicon via (TSV) and silicon interposer applications. In addition, the platform has numerous application-specific product features to enable next-generation packaging techniques, such as Ultratech’s award winning dual-side alignment (DSA) system, utilized around the world in volume production.

By Marwan Boustany, senior analyst, MEMS and sensors, IHS Markit

With less potential for organic volume growth due to slowing end-product markets, market-share competition will dominate in 2016. MEMS suppliers will therefore focus more on sensor improvement (power and performance), portfolio expansion and innovation (new sensor categories), acquisitions (rapid capability integration), new business models (software services based on sensors) and expansion into new product categories (drones, smart homes, etc.).

Even as motion sensors and other traditional MEMS markets slow down, there are new and growing opportunities, including the following:

  • Virtual-reality headsets using motion sensors and microphones are a growing category in gaming, with HTC, Facebook and Sony all offering products.
  • Drones that use motion sensors began to take off in 2015. While this is a segment with a lot of potential, regulatory issues may have an as yet unclear impact on future sales volume, especially when the potential for delivery drones from Amazon are considered.
  • Home environmental monitoring, using gas, humidity and temperature sensors, show good opportunity for growth. This segment is led by smart home products from Nest and Honeywell, as well as carbon-monoxide detection regulations and growing consumer adoption of air-purifiers.
  • E-cigarettes, using flow sensors, are also on the rise.

Leading MEMS sensor manufacturer trends

Following is a top-line review of the three leading MEMS sensor manufacturers, based on 2015 revenue:

1. STMicroelectronics 

STMicroelectronics is still the revenue leader for consumer MEMS, thanks to its business across a wide range of sensor types. The company’s consumer MEMS revenue lead continued to erode at a fast rate last year, with competitors growing share, the company’s first-place revenue lead has narrowed from $100 million in 2014 to around $10 million in 2015. STMicroelectronic’s motion sensor revenue continued to decline in 2015, however it was helped by its growing success with 6-axis inertial measurement units (IMUs) used mainly by manufacturers in China.

STMicroelectronics was hit hard in the last two years, because Apple shifted its gyroscope business to InvenSense in 2014; however, STMicroelectronics won the Apple Watch business in 2015 with its 6-axis IMU and also increased its share of motion sensors used by Samsung in 2016.

2. Knowles

Knowles is still the dominant leader in MEMS microphones, leading the second-ranked suppler (Goertek) by a power of three in units and revenue. In addition to offering a wide range of analog and digital-output microphones, Knowles has also started shipping its VoiceIQ microphones with local processing in 2016, as it seeks to address both mobile and internet of things (IoT) applications.

While MEMS microphone price erosion has led to revenue decline for Knowles, it still ranks second after STMicroelectronics thanks to a favorable shift in Microphone adoption. The company has dramatically narrowed the lead enjoyed by STMicroelectronics — from more than $100 million in 2014 to just $10 million last year. Knowles provides a large share of MEMS sensors used in Apple’s products, as well as a share in most handsets, tablets and wearable products from other manufacturers.

3. InvenSense

InvenSense overtook Bosch and moved into third-ranked revenue position in the MEMS market last year. The company leads in consumer motion sensor revenue, thanks to dramatic volume growth for 6-axis IMUs as well as its dedicated optical-image stabilization (OIS) gyroscope. InvenSense is the standout MEMS supplier in terms of motion sensor revenue growth, with 26 percent year-over-year revenue growth, while the other sensor leaders suffer declining revenue.

Apple is the key and dominant source of this revenue for InvenSense, especially as it loses share in Samsung to STMicroelectronics in 2016. The company is increasingly pushing its MEMS microphone products against strong competition and hopes to release an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor in 2017 to capitalise on a rapidly growing segment.

top mems suppliers

Source: The IHS Markit MEMS & Sensors for Consumer & Mobile Intelligence Service provides comprehensive insight and analysis on MEMS sensors used in smartphones, wearables and consumer electronics. For information about purchasing this report, contact [email protected].

Silicon manufacturing appears to have diminished in its luster and seems to be on the verge of extinction in Silicon Valley. The buzz today in the high tech capital of the world seems to be driven primarily by software companies; the likes of Facebook, Google, Intuit, Oracle, and LinkedIn. The traditional silicon chips seem to have stepped aside to give way for Big Data, Data Security, Mobile Apps, and Cloud Storage. The Valley which was traditionally recognized largely for its dominance in Semiconductors still boasts the highest concentration of companies involved in the design and development of silicon Integrated Circuits (ICs). However, much of the silicon wafer fabrication facilities have moved offshore, primarily to the Asia Pacific region. This has led to a score of serious risks such as loss of IP (intellectual property), lack of control over the production process, and the danger of finding these components in the gray market.

There are literally just a hand full of companies that have found a way to continue both innovating as well as “manufacturing” silicon products in Silicon Valley.  OnChip Devices, Inc. is one such company that has successfully found a way to produce a wide range of silicon components in Santa Clara, CA. The company has announced that it is now offering wafer foundry services to fabless semiconductor companies.

OnChip’s wafer foundry offers Thin Film, CMOS, and BiPolar processes and has produced more than 250 different high-volume products under the OnChip brand as well as for other companies globally. With installed capacity of over 10,000 wafers per month and current utilization of less than 30%, this fab offers high quality wafers with competitive pricing and very short turnaround time. The fab produces 4”, 5”, and 6” wafers at 2µ to 5µ BiCMOS process technology focusing primarily on Analog products.

OnChip’s wafer manufacturing facility has been granted the ISO 9001:2008 certification and strives to continuously improve its quality as well as the cycle time. The processing time for raw wafers is typically 6 to 8 weeks. With a workforce led by a very successful and long-tenured management team, the facility conducts frequent on-site trained maintenance for increased equipment uptime. In addition to silicon wafer fabrication, OnChip also offers various other services such as testing, dicing, and IC packaging.

OnChip Devices is headquartered in Santa Clara, CA and develops Integrated Passive Devices. With its own silicon fabrication facility and strong partnerships with full turn-keys assembly and test houses in Asia, OnChip is offering silicon and ceramic solutions for High-brightness LED, Computing, and Consumer Electronics.