Category Archives: 3D Integration

Integrated Device Technology, Inc. (IDT) (NASDAQ :IDTI ) announced today a strategic partnership with Steradian Semiconductor Pvt. Ltd. to deliver ultra-high resolution 4D mmWave imaging RADAR for emerging industrial, security, medical, and autonomous vehicle markets.

Steradian Semiconductor is a fabless semiconductor company based out of Bangalore, India. Steradian is founded by industry experts with decades of experience in designing cellular/RF and microwave transceiver ICs. Their unique IP has enabled IDT to offer highly differentiated “SenseVerse” series of RADAR transceiver ICs to our customers.

The IDT® SenseVerse SVR4410 IC is a multi-channel high resolution MIMO RADAR device that operates in the 76-81 GHz frequency band offering superior interference performance and the highest number of channels per device in the industry. With integrated beamforming and support for multi-device aggregation, the SVR4410 provides best-in-class angular resolution, range, and power consumption in a very small form factor. The two companies are collaborating on a series of roadmap ICs with increasing levels of integration and enable customers’ adoption by means of providing radar modules with integrated antennas, SVR transceiver ICs, radar processing IC and DSP algorithms.

“IDT’s SenseVerse RADAR family will add new dimension to sensing and vision, causing a disruptive change in Industry 4.0 and similar end markets needing high resolution solutions,” stated Sailesh Chittipeddi, executive vice president, global operations and chief technology officer at IDT. “IDT’s novel imaging RADAR architecture based on mmWave technology will be key to reliable and autonomous operation in various climatic conditions and continues IDT’s tradition of delivering high value-added solutions for its customers.”

“IDT’s SenseVerse RADAR family offers all weather high resolution sensing and will enhance and complement human and computer vision,” said Gireesh Rajendran, CEO of Steradian Semiconductor. “IDT’s SVR4410 and roadmap ICs together with Steradian’s RF expertise will offer exceptional value to a wide variety of application spaces.”

IDT’s SenseVerse RADAR products are currently sampling at selected customers.

MRSI Systems (Mycronic Group), is expanding its high speed MRSI-HVM3 die bonder platform with the launch of the MRSI-HVM3P to offer configurations for active optical cable (AOC), gold-box packaging, and other applications in addition to chip-on-carrier (CoC).

This expansion is in response to our customer’s request to take advantage of the field-proven performance of the flexible high speed MRSI-HVM3 platform, for their other essential packaging applications in photonics manufacturing which are high volume and high mix by nature.

The new MRSI-HVM3P is the first major extension to the HVM3 family, equipped with inline conveyor for single fixture or multiple cassette inputs that can automatically transport large forms of carriers of the dies. This configuration is targeted at AOC or similar die-to-printed circuit board (PCB) applications, gold-box packaging, and CoC in fixture. The processes include eutectic, epoxy stamping, UV epoxy dispensing, and in-situ UV curing.

“With these extensions to our successful HVM3 platform, MRSI Systems is now able to offer flexible high volume die bonding solutions, not just for CoC, but also for PCB and box levels of packaging to our customers in photonics, sensors and other advanced technology fields,” said Dr. Yi Qian, Vice President of Product Management of MRSI Systems. “This is another demonstration of MRSI’s commitment to provide critical solutions promptly in response to our customers’ needs,” concluded Mr. Michael Chalsen, President of MRSI Systems.

Both MRSI-HVM3 and MRSI-HVM3P now carry the following options inherited from our long proven MRSI-M3 family:  localized heating, flip-chip bonding, and co-planarity bonding. These options are increasingly critical for new applications such as 400G transceivers and silicon photonics.

The MRSI-HVM3 product family delivers industry-leading speed, future-proof high precision (<3mm), and superior flexibility for true multi-process, multi-chip, high-volume production.

The launch of the MRSI-HVM3P builds on the success of our first configuration launched last year, the MRSI-HVM3 for CoC, Chip-on-Submount (CoS), and Chip-on-Baseplate (CoB) assembly using eutectic and/or epoxy stamping die bonding, which has proved to be the best-in-class die bonder with the leading speed, zero-time tool change between dies, and <3mm accuracy. The superior performance was enabled by dual head, dual stage, integrated “on-the-fly” tool changer, ultrafast eutectic stage, and multi-levels of parallel processing optimizations (see product launch press release August 14, 2017).

MRSI Systems is exhibiting at China International Optoelectronic Expo (CIOE) with our partner CYCAD Century Science and Technology (Booth #1C66) in Shenzhen, September 5-8, 2018 and ECOC (Booth #577) in Rome, Italy, September 24-26, 2018.

Soitec (Euronext Paris), a designer and manufacturer of semiconductor materials, and MBDA, announce the joint acquisition of Dolphin Integration.

Dolphin Integration is an industry recognized provider of semiconductor design, silicon IP and SoC (System-On-Chip) solutions for low power applications. Headquartered in Grenoble, Dolphin Integration was founded in 1985. It currently employs 155 people, including 130 design engineers. For the fiscal year ended March 31th, 2018, the company generated revenues of 17 million Euros.

The joint venture formed by Soitec and MBDA acquires Dolphin Integration, including all employees. The resulting ownership of the joint venture is as follows: Soitec at 60% and MBDA at 40%.

The transaction was authorized today by the Commercial Court of Grenoble. It comes as a prompt and positive outcome of Dolphin Integration insolvency proceedings. The company went into receivership on July 24, 2018.

Soitec and MBDA each provide complementary strategic support to Dolphin Integration.

Soitec brings its engineered substrates expertise and unique low-power design methodology (body biasing) to accelerate Dolphin Integration design activities in low-power electronic devices, where a growing number of critical chips are built on FD-SOI technology. In addition, Soitec will strengthen Dolphin Integration’s position within the entire semiconductor ecosystem, to develop and promote products and services in several strategic markets, including mobile devices and infrastructure, data centers, and space and industrial applications.

MBDA, a strategic customer of Dolphin Integration for defense applications since 2004, strengthens its existing industrial collaboration and long-term commercial pipeline for ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) and SoC (System on Chip) products. With the support of MBDA, Dolphin Integration will be able to advance its positions in aerospace and defense design.

Soitec and MBDA confident in Dolphin Integration profitable growth.

Soitec and MBDA together committed to a financial investment of around 6 million Euros including the acquisition of most of Dolphin Integration’s assets, the payment of certain liabilities and a significant cash injection to finance Dolphin Integration’s working capital requirements.

Soitec and MBDA are confident in their ability to turnaround the financial position of Dolphin Integration. Dolphin Integration is expected to be fully consolidated into Soitec’s financial statements as of September 2018.

“Dolphin Integration represents a strategic opportunity for Soitec to reinforce a full IP and service offering related to energy efficient solutions for chip design on FD-SOI. This is a major differentiating factor for FD-SOI and a key accelerator of FD-SOI adoption in major market segments,” highlighted Paul Boudre, CEO of Soitec.

“MBDA investment will strengthen the French defense industrial base since it will provide Dolphin Integration with a more stable flow of defense related revenues and a closer technological collaboration that will allow it to enhance the access of its specialized microelectronics offering to the entire French and European defense industry,” said Antoine Bouvier, CEO of MBDA.

Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation (“Toshiba”) has launched a new series of next-generation 650V power MOSFETs that are intended for use in server power supplies in data centers, solar (PV) power conditioners, uninterruptible power systems (UPS) and other industrial applications.

The first device in the DTMOS VI series is the TK040N65Z, a 650V device that supports continuous drain currents (ID) up to 57A and 228A when pulsed (IDP). The new device offers an ultra-low drain-source on-resistance RDS(ON) of 0.04Ω (0.033Ω typ.) which reduces losses in power applications. The enhancement mode device is ideal for use in modern high-speed power supplies, due to the reduced capacitance in the design.

Power supply efficiency is improved as a result of reductions in the key performance index / figure-of-merit (FoM) – RDS(ON) x Qgd. The TK040N65Z shows a 40% improvement in this important metric over the previous DTMOS IV-H device, which represents a significant gain in power supply efficiency in the region of 0.36%[1] – as measured in a 2.5kW PFC circuit.

The new device is housed in an industry-standard TO-247 package, ensuring compatibility with legacy designs as well as suitability for new projects.

Toshiba will continue to expand their product lineup to meet market trends and help improve the efficiency of power supplies and systems.

The new device enters mass production today and shipments begin immediately.

SEMI today announced that all legal requirements have been met for the ESD (Electronic Systems Design) Alliance to become a SEMI Strategic Association Partner.

Full integration of the Redwood City, California-based association representing the semiconductor design ecosystem is expected to be complete by the end of 2018. The integration will extend ESD Alliance’s global reach in the electronics manufacturing supply chain and strengthen engagement and collaboration between the semiconductor design and manufacturing communities worldwide.

As a SEMI Strategic Association Partner, the ESD Alliance will retain its own governance and continue its mission to represent and support companies in the semiconductor design ecosystem.

The ESD Alliance will lead its strategic goals and objectives as part of SEMI, leveraging SEMI’s robust global resources including seven regional offices, expositions and conferences, technology communities and activities in areas such as advocacy, international standards, environment, health and safety (EH&S) and market statistics.

With the integration, SEMI adds the design segment to its electronics manufacturing supply chain scope, connecting the full ecosystem. The integration is a key step in streamlining SEMI members’ collaboration and connection with the electronic system design, IP and fabless communities. The Strategic Association Partnership will also enhance collaboration and innovation across the collective SEMI membership as ESD Alliance members bring key capabilities to SEMI’s vertical application platforms such as Smart Transportation, Smart Manufacturing and Smart Data as well as applications including AI and Machine Learning.

“The addition of ESD Alliance as a SEMI Strategic Association Partner is a milestone in our mission to drive new efficiencies across the full global electronics design and manufacturing supply chain for greater collaboration and innovation,” said Ajit Manocha, president and CEO of SEMI. “This partnership provides opportunities for all SEMI members for accelerated growth and new business opportunities in end-market applications. We welcome ESD Alliance members to the SEMI family.”

“Our members are excited about becoming part of SEMI’s broad community that spans the electronics manufacturing supply chain,” said Bob Smith, executive director of the ESD Alliance. “Global collaboration between design and manufacturing is a requirement for success with today’s complex electronic products. Our new role at SEMI will help develop and strengthen the connections between the design and manufacturing communities.”

All ESD Alliance member companies, including global leaders ARM, Cadence, Mentor, a Siemens business, and Synopsys, will join SEMI’s global membership of more than 2,000 companies while retaining ESD Alliance’s distinct self-governed community within SEMI.

TowerJazz, the global specialty foundry, announced details of its China Technical Global Symposium (TGS) event in Shanghai on August 22, 2018, focusing on the company’s analog technology offerings, advanced manufacturing solutions and commitment to customer partnerships.

In addition, TowerJazz has launched its official “WeChat” account, the most popular communication app in China, enabling the Company to support the growing activities in China while increasing interaction with Chinese users and sharing the latest TowerJazz technology information, news and events.

“China is a strong region for TowerJazz with on-going increased activities and we are answering the growing demand of Chinese players with our various advanced analog platforms, including Radio Frequency (RF) & High Performance Analog (HPA), power management, and CMOS image sensors (CIS), targeting fast growing markets such as automotive, sensors, the IoT, and 5G, among others,” said Qin Lei, TowerJazz China Country Manager. “In addition, we are pleased to launch our “WeChat” account to better reach and network with our existing and potential Chinese customers.”

Company executives and experts will provide technical sessions on TowerJazz’s leading specialty process technologies such as: RF SOI and SiGe for wireless handsets and the IoT, high performance SiGe for optical networking, 5G, mmWave and automotive applications, silicon photonics (SiPho) technology for optical networks, 65nm CMOS technology with embedded NVM solutions, 0.18um and 65nm BCD focusing on low voltage power products, and CMOS image sensors for face recognition and automotive.

TowerJazz will also present the latest design enablement tools and solutions jointly developed with its EDA partners, and its sponsors – Mentor, Empyrean, Silvaco and Xpeedic Technology –will share the latest design capabilities offered in collaboration with TowerJazz.

IC Insights recently released its Mid-Year Update to The McClean Report 2018.  The update includes a revised forecast of the largest and fastest-growing IC product categories this year.  Sales and unit growth rates are shown for each of the 33 IC product categories defined by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization in the Mid-Year Update.

The five largest IC product categories in terms of sales revenue and unit shipments are shown in Figure 1.  With forecast sales of $101.6 billion, (39% growth) the DRAM market is expected to be the largest of all IC product categories in 2018, repeating the ranking it held last year.  If the sales level is achieved, it would mark the first time an individual IC product category has surpassed $100.0 billion in annual sales. The DRAM market is forecast to account for 24% of IC sales in 2018.  The NAND flash market is expected to achieve the second-largest revenue level with total sales of $62.6 billion this year. Taken together, the two memory categories are forecast to account for 38% of the total $428.0 billion IC market in 2018.

Figure 1

For many years, the standard PC/server MPU category topped the list of largest IC product segments, but with ongoing increases in memory average selling prices, the MPU category is expected to slip to the third position in 2018.  In the Mid-Year Update, IC Insights slightly raises its forecast for 2018 sales in the MPU category to show revenues increasing 5% to an all-time high of $50.8 billion, after a 6% increase in 2017 to the current record high of $48.5 billion.  Helping drive sales this year are AI-controlled systems and data-sharing applications over the Internet of Things.  Cloud computing, machine learning, and the expected tidal wave of data traffic coming from connected systems and sensors is also fueling MPU sales growth this year.

Two special purpose logic categories—computer and peripherals, and wireless communications—are forecast to round out the top five largest product categories for 2018.

Four of the five largest categories in terms of unit shipments are forecast to be some type of analog device.  Total analog units are expected to account for 54% of the total 318.1 billion IC shipments forecast to ship this year.  Power management analog devices are projected to account for 22% of total IC units and are forecast to exceed the combined unit shipment total of the next three categories on the list.  As the name implies, power management analog ICs help regulate power usage and to keep ICs and systems running cooler, to manage power usage, and ultimately to help extend battery life—essential qualities for an increasingly mobile and battery-powered world of devices.

By Laith Altimime

In a bid to reinvigorate Europe’s electronics strategy and strengthen the region’s position in key emerging technologies, European electronics industry CEOs in June called on public and private actors to accelerate collaboration at the European Union and national levels. The CEO’s proposed new strategic actions include creating a European Design Alliance to pool the expertise of design houses and forming an electronics education and skills task force consisting of representatives from industry, research, European institutions, member states and SEMI.

The business executive’s calls – embodied in “Boosting Electronics Value Chain in Europe,” a report submitted to Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society, of the European Commission – come as global competition in the electronics industry intensifies. The document highlights Europe’s need to buttress its position amongst others in artificial intelligence (AI), autonomous driving and personalized healthcare – applications that rely on new semiconductor architectures, materials, equipment and design methodologies.

The European semiconductor industry plans to pour more than 50 billion EUR into technology development and innovation by 2025, deepening its investments in research, innovation and manufacturing to help drive Europe’s digital transformation.

For its part, SEMI, as the industry association connecting the electronics value chain, is well-positioned to bring together member companies and public actors to address key challenges facing the sector. This year in April, SEMI announced that Electronics System Design Alliance (ESD Alliance) will join SEMI, adding key electronics design companies to SEMI membership and unlocking the full potential of collaboration between electronics design and manufacturing.  With the ESD Alliance, SEMI adds the product design segment to the electronics supply chain, streamlining and connecting the full ecosystem. The integration also promises to support the industry coordination required to develop specialized (AI) chips used in various smart applications.

SEMI Europe is also accelerating its education and workforce development activities. SEMI Europe this year created its Workforce Development Council Europe, chaired by Emir Demircan, SEMI Europe’s senior manager of public policy, based in Brussels. The council is designed to connect electronics industry human resources representatives with members to evolve best practices in hiring that help Europe gain, train and retain world-class talent.

Other SEMI Europe workforce development activities include the following:

  • SEMI member forums across Europe are helping young talent with career opportunities in the semiconductor industry.
  • In November, SEMICON Europa will host a Career Café where STEM students will explore careers in electronics design and manufacturing.
  • With the participation of representatives from the European Commission, SEMI Europe’s Industry Strategy Symposium in April focused on strategies for attracting more skilled workers into electronics design and manufacturing.

Looking ahead, semiconductor sales is forecast to reach USD 1 trillion by 2030. The global semiconductor industry is at the heart of a new era of connectivity, developing breakthrough solutions for ascendant data-driven technologies such as AI and Internet of Things (IoT). SEMI Europe’s role in strengthening the region’s position in the global electronics industry to help drive this extraordinary growth is critical. SEMI Europe will continue to foster public-private partnerships to tackle industry challenges that are too big, too risky and too costly for companies and government institutions to address alone.

Contact: Laith Altimime, President, SEMI Europe, [email protected] ; Emir Demircan, Sr Manager Public Policy, [email protected]

Originally published on the SEMI blog.

Achronix Semiconductor Corporation, a developer of field programmable gate array (FPGA)-based hardware accelerator devices and embedded FPGA (eFPGA) intellectual property (IP), today announced availability of an optimized High-Level Synthesis (HLS) flow from its partner, Mentor, a Siemens business, for its FPGA technology products.

The integrated development environment enables designers to quickly go from C++ to FPGA using Mentor’s Catapult® HLS and Achronix’s ACE design tools. Initially used for 5G wireless applications to reduce the overall development effort and improve quality of results (QoR), it is suitable for any design targeting Achronix technology.

“The combination of Mentor’s powerful Catapult tools and Achronix’s embedded FPGA technology offer a truly unique value proposition for companies that require high performance FPGA technology in their SoC that can be configured using a proven C‑based design flow,” remarks Steve Mensor, Achronix’s vice president of marketing. “This combined solution is a great testament of a close working relationship between the engineering groups at Mentor and Achronix. Our initial target was 5G wireless, but the unique capabilities of the overall solution will be valuable across many market segments that require the fastest development time.”

“We are happy to welcome Achronix to the Mentor OpenDoor Program, and pleased to be an active member of the Achronix Partner Program. This open and collaborative partnership is very strategic and is already proving beneficial to our mutual customers,” notes Ellie Burns, director of marketing, Calypto Systems Division at Mentor. “Achronix eFPGA offers a tremendous ability to adapt to late changing and new requirements in a field programmable SoC. Coupled with Catapult HLS and the verification speed of C++, chip designers can now easily go from algorithm change to new low-power, high-performance hardware in days rather than weeks or months.”

The Catapult to Achronix Flow

The Catapult HLS to Speedcore embedded FPGA technology flow gives designers the ability to make algorithmic changes in late stages of IP development and to optimize the algorithm and the digital micro-architecture. The integrated verification environment allows reuse of the software tests for generated register transfer level (RTL) code, reducing the need for dedicated RTL test benches by more than 80%.

Achronix ACE design tools support Catapult’s RTL constructs and primitives. Currently Achronix libraries for its Speedcore eFPGA products and for its Speedster standalone FPGAs are integrated into the flow.

The Achronix high-performance and high-density FPGA technology can be used for diverse hardware acceleration applications in data center compute, networking and storage; 5G wireless infrastructure, network acceleration; advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous vehicles.

Availability

Early versions of the design and development environment are available now.

The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), representing U.S. leadership in semiconductor manufacturing, design, and research, today announced worldwide sales of semiconductors reached $117.9 billion during the second quarter of 2018, an increase of 6.0 percent over the previous quarter and 20.5 percent more than the second quarter of 2017. Global sales for the month of June 2018 reached $39.3 billion, an uptick of 1.5 percent over last month’s total of $38.7 billion, and a surge of 20.5 percent compared to the June 2017 total of $32.6 billion. Cumulatively, year-to-date sales during the first half of 2018 were 20.4 percent higher than they were at the same point in 2017. All monthly sales numbers are compiled by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization and represent a three-month moving average.

“Halfway through 2018, the global semiconductor industry continues to post impressive sales totals, notching its highest-ever quarterly sales in Q2 and record monthly sales in June,” said John Neuffer, president and CEO, Semiconductor Industry Association. “Global sales have increased year-to-year by more than 20 percent for 15 consecutive months, and sales of every major product category increased year-to-year in June. Sales into the Americas market continue to be strong, with year-to-date totals more than 30 percent higher than at the same point last year.”

Regionally, sales increased compared to June 2017 in China (30.7 percent), the Americas (26.7 percent), Europe (15.9 percent), Japan (14.0 percent), and Asia Pacific/All Other (8.6 percent). Sales also were up compared to last month in China (3.2 percent), Japan (1.3 percent), the Americas (1.2 percent), and Asia Pacific/All Other (0.5 percent), but down slightly in Europe (-0.8 percent).

For comprehensive monthly semiconductor sales data and detailed WSTS Forecasts, consider purchasing the WSTS Subscription Package. For detailed data on the global and U.S. semiconductor industry and market, consider purchasing the 2018 SIA Databook.