Category Archives: Applications

By Emmy Yi

The solar energy sector shined in a global renewable energy market that maintained steady growth last year despite the United States’ shocking withdrawal from the Paris Agreement. Solar panel costs dropped to an all-time low, driving global demand that surpassed the 100GW mark for the first time on the strength of standout annual 26 percent growth.

Taiwan has vigorously pursued a transition to renewable energy since 2016. Most notably, Taiwan is phasing out nuclear power as it increases its reliance on climate-friendly energy sources and seeks more foreign investment. The hope is also to boost economic growth and create more jobs.

With its limited land space, the region is fertile ground for rooftop photovoltaic system (PV) systems. In 2016, the Taiwan government set out on an ambitious plan to achieve 3,000MW of installed capacity by 2020 – enough to supply electricity for 1 million households while improving air quality, help spruce up the urban landscape and generate jobs.

The SEMI Taiwan Energy Group fully backs the government renewable-energy policy. Earlier this year, the group gathered more than 200 industry professionals and government officials to explore challenges and opportunities in deploying more rooftop PV systems. Here are some key takeaways:

Infrastructure Reliability Key to High Return on Investment

Size, reliability and safety are paramount in rooftop PV system design. To make the best use of space, reduce the cost per kWh, and ensure a long-term, stable supply of electric energy, the PC modules must be:

  • Compact to fit within limited rooftop space
  • Robust to endure extreme temperatures over long periods; resist fire, salt and water damage; and ensure safe, reliable operation

Financial Institutions Play an Important Role

In response to the government energy policy, domestic financial institutions have funded select projects or issued bonds and derivative products to support the development of Taiwan’s renewables industry. A key part of these efforts is to evaluate risks in areas such as system module safety, maturity of technologies and designs, energy-generating efficiency and maintenance costs.

A Truly Green Industry: Circular Economy

Energy storage systems are maturing rapidly to support expanding markets for renewable energy products. The market for home renewable energy systems is growing, fueled in part by low prices, and the adoption of electric vehicles continues to rise as advances in energy storage technology drive down costs and enable longer ranges. At the current pace of technological development, the world could be using 100 percent renewable energy to achieve the goal of zero emission by 2025. However, to achieve a truly pollution-free environment, a circular economy – marked by the regeneration and reuse of resources – must be established.

For its part, the SEMI Taiwan Energy Group this year will transform the 11-year-old PV Taiwan exhibition into Energy Taiwan, Taiwan’s largest international platform for facilitating communication and collaboration of the entire renewable energy ecosystem. Exhibition themes will range from solar energy, wind energy, hydrogen energy and fuel cells to green transportation, smart energy storage and green finance. The event reflects the consolidation of the SEMI Taiwan Energy Group’s growing resources and its commitment to a circular economy free of fossil fuels.

Originally published on the SEMI blog.

Brown University engineers have devised a new method of measuring the stickiness of micro-scale surfaces. The technique, described in Proceedings of the Royal Society A, could be useful in designing and building micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS), devices with microscopic moving parts.

With slight modifications, an atomic force microscope could be used to measure adheasion in micro-materials. Credit: Kesari Lab/Brown University. Credit: Kesari Lab/Brown University

With slight modifications, an atomic force microscope could be used to measure adheasion in micro-materials. Credit: Kesari Lab/Brown University. Credit: Kesari Lab/Brown University

At the scale of bridges or buildings, the most important force that engineered structures need to deal with is gravity. But at the scale of MEMS — devices like the tiny accelerometers used in smartphones and Fitbits — the relative importance of gravity decreases, and adhesive forces become more important.

“The main thing that matters at the microscale is what sticks to what,” said Haneesh Kesari, an assistant professor in Brown’s School of Engineering and coauthor of the new research. “If you have parts of your device sticking together that shouldn’t be, it’s not going to work. So in order to design MEMS devices, it helps to have a good way of measuring adhesion in the materials we use.”

That’s what Kesari and two Brown graduate students, Wenqiang Fang and Joyce Mok, looked to accomplish with this new research. Specifically, they wanted to measure a quantity known as “work of adhesion,” which roughly translates into the amount of energy required to separate a unit area of two adhered surfaces.

The key theoretical insight developed in the new study is that thermal vibrations of a microbeam can be used to calculate work of adhesion. That insight suggests a method in which a slightly modified atomic force microscopy (AFM) system can be used to probe adhesive properties.

Standard AFM works a bit like a record player. A cantilever with a sharp needle moves across a target material. A laser shown on the cantilever measures the tiny undulations it makes as it moves along the material’s contours. Those undulations can then be used to map out the material’s surface properties.

Adapting the method to measure adhesion would require simply removing the metal tip from the cantilever, leaving a flat microbeam. That beam can then be lowered onto a target material, where it will adhere. When the cantilever is raised slightly, some portion of the beam will become unstuck, while the rest remains stuck. The unstuck portion of the beam will vibrate ever so slightly. The authors found a way to use the extent of that vibration, which can be measured by an AFM laser, to calculate the length of the unstuck portion, which can in turn be used to calculate the target material’s work of adhesion.

With slight modifications, an atomic force microscope could be used to measure adheasion in micro-materials. Credit: Kesari Lab/Brown University Fang says the technique could be useful in assessing new material coatings or surface textures aimed at alleviating the failure of MEMS devices through sticking.

“Once you have a robust technique for measuring the material’s work of adhesion, then you have a systematic way of evaluating these methods to get the level of adhesion needed for a particular application,” Fang said. “The main advantage to this method is that you don’t need to change a standard AFM setup very much in order to do this.”

The approach is also much simpler than other techniques, according to Mok.

“Previous methods based on interferometry are labor intensive and may require many data points to be taken,” she said. “Our theoretical framework would give a value for the work of adhesion from a single measurement.”

Having demonstrated the technique numerically, Kesari says the next step is to build the system and start collecting some experimental data. He’s hopeful that such a system will aid in pushing the MEMS field forward.

“We have MEMS accelerometers and gyroscopes, but I don’t think the field has quite lived up to its promise yet,” Kesari said. “Part of the reason for that is that people haven’t completely understood adhesion at the small scale. We think that a more robust way of measuring adhesion is the first step towards gaining such an understanding.”

Palma Ceia SemiDesign (PCS), a fabless semiconductor company offering wireless chips, modules, systems and IP supporting emerging Machine-to-Machine (M2M) WiFi and cellular standards for the Internet of Things (IoT), today announced it has completed a Series B round of financing. Leading the round is Global Connective LP, a U.S. subsidiary fund of Inspiration China Ltd Pty, based in Adelaide, Australia. Inspiration China has extensive experience with China’s wireless and industrial sectors, key markets for Palma Ceia. Inspiration China’s business model is to assist international leading technology companies in accessing global markets, especially China’s booming market.

“Inspiration China’s investment enables us to accelerate Palma Ceia’s transition from an analog/RF IP company to a provider of connectivity solutions for the Internet of Things,” said Roy E. Jewell, co-founder and chief executive officer of Palma Ceia. “Palma Ceia will build on our heritage of delivering leading-edge wireless IP for SoC designers and expand into also providing chips for IoT module makers. We look forward to working with the Global Connective team to broaden our market footprint.”

Palma Ceia also announced it is establishing a wholly owned subsidiary in Tianjin, China. This facility will enable the company to accelerate expansion into the China market and to establish IC and software design and IoT application support teams in Tianjin and Shanghai.

“Since China’s Twelfth Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) in 2010 identified IoT as an ‘emerging strategic industry,’ Beijing has focused on its adoption and deployment as part of the ‘Made in China 2025’ initiative. My team identified the advanced connectivity solutions being developed by PCS as key to this effort,” said Rebecca Qiu, founder & chief executive officer of Inspiration China. “We have already begun working closely with PCS to establish strategic industrial and government partnerships in China.”

Palma Ceia today delivers analog and RF IP for mixed-signal SoCs

Solar cells have great potential as a source of clean electrical energy, but so far they have not been cheap, light, and flexible enough for widespread use. Now a team of researchers led by Tandon Associate Professor André D. Taylor of the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department has found an innovative and promising way to improve solar cells and make their use in many applications more likely.

Most organic solar cells use fullerenes, spherical molecules of carbon. The problem, explains Taylor, is that fullerenes are expensive and don’t absorb enough light. Over the last 10 years he has made significant progress in improving organic solar cells, and he has recently focused on using non-fullerenes, which until now have been inefficient. However, he says, “the non-fullerenes are improving enough to give fullerenes a run for their money.”

Think of a solar cell as a sandwich, Taylor says. The “meat” or active layer – made of electron donors and acceptors – is in the middle, absorbing sunlight and transforming it into electricity (electrons and holes), while the “bread,” or outside layers, consist of electrodes that transport that electricity. His team’s goal was to have the cell absorb light across as large a spectrum as possible using a variety of materials, yet at the same time allow these materials to work together well. “My group works on key parts of the ‘sandwich,’ such as the electron and hole transporting layers of the ‘bread,’ while other groups may work only on the ‘meat’ or interlayer materials. The question is: How do you get them to play together? The right blend of these disparate materials is extremely difficult to achieve.”

Using a squaraine molecule in a new way – as a crystallizing agent – did the trick. “We added a small molecule that functions as an electron donor by itself and enhances the absorption of the active layer,” Taylor explains. “By adding this small molecule, it facilitates the orientation of the donor-acceptor polymer (called PBDB-T) with the non-fullerene acceptor, ITIC, in a favorable arrangement.”

This solar architecture also uses another design mechanism that the Taylor group pioneered known as a FRET-based solar cell. FRET, or Förster resonance energy transfer, is an energy transfer mechanism first observed in photosynthesis, by which plants use sunlight. Using a new polymer and non-fullerene blend with squaraine, the team converted more than 10 percent of solar energy into power. Just a few years ago this was considered too lofty a goal for single-junction polymer solar cells. “There are now newer polymer non-fullerene systems that can perform above 13 percent, so we view our contribution as a viable strategy for improving these systems,” Taylor says.

The organic solar cells developed by his team are flexible and could one day be used in applications supporting electric vehicles, wearable electronics, or backpacks to charge cell phones. Eventually, they could contribute significantly to the supply of electric power. “We expect that this crystallizing-agent method will attract attention from chemists and materials scientists affiliated with organic electronics,” says Yifan Zheng, Taylor’s former research student and lead author of the article about the work in the journal Materials Today.

Next for the research team? They are working on a type of solar cell called a perovskite as well as continuing to improve non-fullerene organic solar cells.

Each year, Solid State Technology turns to industry leaders to hear viewpoints on the technological and economic outlook for the upcoming year. Read through these expert opinions on what to expect in 2018.

Enabling the AI Era with Materials Engineering

Screen Shot 2018-03-05 at 12.24.49 PMPrabu Raja, Senior Vice President, Semiconductor Products Group, Applied Materials

A broad set of emerging market trends such as IoT, Big Data, Industry 4.0, VR/AR/MR, and autonomous vehicles is accelerating the transformative era of Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI, when employed in the cloud and in the edge, will usher in the age of “Smart Everything” from automobiles, to planes, factories, buildings, and our homes, bringing fundamental changes to the way we live

Semiconductors and semiconductor processing technol- ogies will play a key enabling role in the AI revolution. The increasing need for greater computing perfor- mance to handle Deep Learning/Machine Learning workloads requires new processor architectures beyond traditional CPUs, such as GPUs, FPGAs and TPUs, along with new packaging solutions that employ high-density DRAM for higher memory bandwidth and reduced latency. Edge AI computing will require processors that balance the performance and power equation given their dependency on battery life. The exploding demand for data storage is driving adoption of 3D NAND SSDs in cloud servers with the roadmap for continued storage density increase every year.

In 2018, we will see the volume ramp of 10nm/7nm devices in Logic/Foundry to address the higher performance needs. Interconnect and patterning areas present a myriad of challenges best addressed by new materials and materials engineering technologies. In Inter- connect, cobalt is being used as a copper replacement metal in the lower level wiring layers to address the ever growing resistance problem. The introduction of Cobalt constitutes the biggest material change in the back-end-of-line in the past 15 years. In addition to its role as the conductor metal, cobalt serves two other critical functions – as a metal capping film for electro- migration control and as a seed layer for enhancing gapfill inside the narrow vias and trenches.

In patterning, spacer-based double patterning and quad patterning approaches are enabling the continued shrink of device features. These schemes require advanced precision deposition and etch technologies for reduced variability and greater pattern fidelity. Besides conventional Etch, new selective materials removal technologies are being increasingly adopted for their unique capabilities to deliver damage- and residue-free extreme selective processing. New e-beam inspection and metrology capabilities are also needed to analyze the fine pitch patterned structures. Looking ahead to the 5nm and 3nm nodes, placement or layer-to-layer vertical alignment of features will become a major industry challenge that can be primarily solved through materials engineering and self-aligned structures. EUV lithography is on the horizon for industry adoption in 2019 and beyond, and we expect 20 percent of layers to make the migration to EUV while the remaining 80 percent will use spacer multi- patterning approaches. EUV patterning also requires new materials in hardmasks/underlayer films and new etch solutions for line-edge-roughness problems.

Packaging is a key enabler for AI performance and is poised for strong growth in the coming years. Stacking DRAM chips together in a 3D TSV scheme helps bring High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) to market; these chips are further packaged with the GPU in a 2.5D interposer design to bring compute and memory together for a big increase in performance.

In 2018, we expect DRAM chipmakers to continue their device scaling to the 1Xnm node for volume production. We also see adoption of higher perfor- mance logic technologies on the horizon for the periphery transistors to enable advanced perfor- mance at lower power.

3D NAND manufacturers continue to pursue multiple approaches for vertical scaling, including more pairs, multi-tiers or new schemes such as CMOS under array for increased storage density. The industry migration from 64 pairs to 96 pairs is expected in 2018. Etch (high aspect ratio), dielectric films (for gate stacks and hardmasks) along with integrated etch and CVD solutions (for high aspect ratio processing) will be critical enabling technologies.

In summary, we see incredible inflections in new processor architectures, next-generation devices, and packaging schemes to enable the AI era. New materials and materials engineering solutions are at the very heart of it and will play a critical role across all device segments.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

TDK Corporation (TSE: 6762) announced that it has reached an agreement with Chirp Microsystems, Inc. (Headquarters: Berkeley California U.S., hereinafter “Chirp”), a developer of high-performance ultrasonic sensing, in which Chirp becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of TDK. TDK expects to close the acquisition within the coming days.

Chirp is engaged in high-performance ultrasonic sensors featuring smaller sizes and lower power consumption compared with existing sensors. Chirp’s solutions are expected to find broader applications, such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), in addition to areas such as smartphones, automobiles, industrial machinery and other ICT applications.

Chirp solutions enable extremely precise sensing, ranging from several centimeters to several meters, sensing the distance to an object and expanding the way users can operate with AR and VR, detect the proximity distance when using smartphones, and track the variance between a vehicle and obstacles when driving. In addition, the sensor operates with low power consumption and enables products to be reduced in size, providing an outstanding sensor solution that is extremely easy for consumers to use. Furthermore, the addition of Chirp’s ultrasonic sensor solutions in combination to the existing fingerprint sensors offered by TDK subsidiary InvenSense, will significantly expand TDK’s ultrasonic sensor solutions.

“TDK is committed to contributing to the growth of systems deployed in the automotive, mobile, health-care and industrial industries. Our vision is to be the leading solutions provider of sensors for motion, sound, environmental elements (pressure, temperature and humidity), and ultrasonic sensors for the Internet of Things (IoT) era,” said Noboru Saito, Senior Vice President, TDK and CEO of Sensor Systems Business Company. “Chirp’s unique and high value-added 3-D sensing technologies will fill out our lineup of sensor solutions, positioning TDK as the leader in ultrasonic MEMS technology. We aim to continue to be a reliable partner that can provide solutions to the challenges our customers face.”

“Our team is excited to be part of the TDK family. We believe together we can bring ultrasonic sensors to a wide variety of products at an even greater speed and scale than we could on our own,” said Michelle Kiang, Chirp’s CEO. “We see so many synergies with TDK technologies; EPCOS is a world-leader in piezo-ceramic sensors and actuators, and InvenSense is a world-leader in MEMS sensors for consumer electronics.”

The acquisition will further accelerate TDK’s sensor and actuator business, providing an extensive sensor product lineup, including pressure, temperature, current, and magnetic sensors, as it continues to expand its sensor business.

TDK Corporation and Chirp are available for on-site discussions at the upcoming Mobile World Congress, along with additional innovative sensor solutions in Meeting Space – 2C40MR, Hall 2 of the Gran Via at MWC 2018, February 26 – March 1, 2018, Barcelona, Spain.

BY AJIT MANOCHA, President and CEO of SEMI

2017 was a terrific year for SEMI members. Chip revenues closed at nearly $440B, an impressive 22 percent year- over-year growth. The equipment industry surpassed revenue levels last reached in the year 2000. Semicon- ductor equipment posted sales of nearly $56B and semiconductor materials $48B in 2017. For semiconductor equipment, this was a giant 36 percent year-over-year growth. Samsung, alone, invested $26B in semiconductor CapEx in 2017 – an incredible single year spend in an incredible year.

MEMS and Sensors gained new growth in telecom and medical markets, adding to existing demand from automotive, industrial and consumer segments. MEMS is forecast to be a $19B industry in 2018. Flexible hybrid electronics (FHE) is also experiencing significant product design and functionality growth with increasing gains in widespread adoption.

No longer isa single monolithic demand driver propelling the electronics manufacturing supply chain. The rapidly expanding digital economy continues to foster innovation with new demand from the IoT, virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR), automobile infotainment and driver assistance, artificial intelligence (AI) and Big Data, among others. With the explosion in data usage, memory demand is nearly insatiable, holding memory device ASPs high and prompting continued heavy investment in new capacity.

2018 is forecast to be another terrific year. IC revenues are expected to increase another 8 percent and semiconductor equipment will grow 11 percent. With diverse digital economy demand continuing, additional manufacturing capacity is being added in China as fab projects come on line to develop and increase the indigenous semiconductor supply chain.

So, why worry?

The cracks starting to show are in the areas of talent, data management, and Environment, Health, and Safety (EH&S).

Can the industry sustain this growth? The electronics manufacturing supply chain has demonstrated it can generally scale and expedite production to meet the massive new investment projects. The cracks starting to show are in the areas of talent, data management, and Environment, Health, and Safety (EH&S).

Talent has become a pinch point. In Silicon Valley alone, SEMI member companies have thousands of open positions. Globally, there are more than 10,000 open jobs. Attracting new candidates and developing a global workforce are critical to sustaining the pace of innovation and growth.
Data management and effective data sharing are keys to solving problems faster and making practical novel but immature processes at the leading edge. It is ironic that other industries are ahead of semiconductor manufac- turing in harnessing manufacturing data and leveraging AI across their supply chains. Without collaborative Smart Data approaches, there is jeopardy of decreasing the cadence of Moore’s Law below the 10 nm node.

EH&S is critical for an industry that now uses the majority of the elements of the periodic table to make chips – at rates of more than 50,000 wafer starts per month (wspm) for a single fab. The industry came together strongly in the 1990s to develop SEMI Safety Standards and compliance methodologies. Since then, the number of EH&S profes- sionals engaged in our industry has declined while the number of new materials has exploded, new processing techniques have been developed, and manufacturing is expanding across China in areas with no prior semicon- ductor manufacturing experience.

HTU has been a very effective program with over 218 sessions run to date, over 7,000 students engaged, and over 70 percent of respondents pursuing careers in the STEM field.

To ensure we don’t slow growth, the industry will need to work together in 2018 in these three key areas:

Talent development needs to rapidly accelerate by expanding currently working programs and adding additional means to fill the talent funnel. The SEMI Foundation’s High Tech University (HTU) works globally with member companies to increase the number of high school students selecting Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields – and provides orientation to the semiconductor manufacturing industry. HTU has been a very effective program with over 218 sessions run to date, over 7,000 students engaged, and over 70 percent of respondents pursuing careers in the STEM field. SEMI will increase the number of HTU sessions in 2018.

Plans have already been approved by SEMI’s Board of Directors to work together with SEMI’s membership to leverage existing, and pioneer new, workforce development programs to attract and develop qualified candidates from across the age and experience spectrum (high school through university, diversity, etc.). Additionally, an industry awareness campaign will be developed and launched to make more potential candidates attracted to our member companies as a great career choice. I’ll be providing you with updates on this initiative – and asking for your involvement
– throughout 2018.

Data management is a broad term. Big Data, machine learning, AI are terms that today mean different things to different people in our supply chain. What is clear is that to act together and take advantage of the unimaginable amounts of data being generating to produce materials and make semiconductor devices with the diverse equipment sets across our fabs, we need a common understanding of the data and potential use of the data.

In 2018, SEMI will launch a Smart Data vertical application platform to engage stakeholders along the supply chain to produce a common language, develop Standards, and align expectations for sharing data for mutual benefit. Bench- marking of other industries and pre-competitive pilot programs are being proposed to learn and, here too, we need the support and engagement of thought leaders throughout SEMI’s membership.

EH&S activity must intensify to maintain safe operations and to eliminate business interruptions from supply chain disruptions. There is potential for disruptions from material bans such as the Stockholm Convention action on PFOA and arising from the much wider range of chemicals and materials being used in advanced manufacturing. Being able to reliably identify these in time to guide and coordinate industry action will take a reinvigorated SEMI EH&S stewardship and membership engagement.

As China rapidly develops new fabs in many provinces – some with only limited prior experience and infrastructure – SEMI EH&S Standards orientation and training will accelerate the safe and sustainable operation of fabs, enabling them to keep pace with the ambitious growth trajectory our industry is delivering. In 2018, we’ll be looking for a renewed commitment to EH&S and sustainability for the budding challenges of new materials, methods, and emerging regions.

Remarkable results from a remarkable membership

Thank you all for a terrific 2017 and let’s work together on the key initiatives to ensure that our industry’s growth and prosperity will continue in 2018 and beyond.

In a quick review of 2017, I would like to thank SEMI’s members for their incredible results and new revenue records. Foundational to that, SEMI’s members have worked together with SEMI to connect, collaborate, and innovate to increase growth and prosperity for the industry. These founda- tional contributions have been in expositions, programs, Standards, market data, messaging (communications), and workforce development (with HTU).

The infographic below captures these foundational accom- plishments altogether. SEMI strives to speed the time to better business results for its members across the global electronics manufacturing supply chain. To do so, SEMI is dependent upon, and grateful for, the support and volunteer efforts of its membership. Thank you for a terrific 2017 and let’s work together on the key initiatives to ensure that our industry’s growth and prosperity will continue in 2018 and beyond.

SMIC, Shaoxing Government, and Shengyang Group together announced today the founding of the Semiconductor Manufacturing Electronics (Shaoxing) Corporation (planned) with joint capital contributions. The signing of the joint venture agreement marks the start of a project to bring the manufacture of MEMS and power devices to Shaoxing. The Secretary of the Shaoxing Municipal Party Committee, Mr. Ma Weiguang, the Deputy Secretary and Deputy Mayor, Mr. Sheng Yuechun, the Member of the Standing Committee and Secretary General, Mr. Zhong Hongjiang, the Chairman of SMIC, Dr. Zhou Zixue, the Chief Financial Officer of SMIC, Dr. Gao Yonggang, and Senior Vice President of Strategic Development at SMIC, Ms. Ge Hong, attended the signing ceremony.

Application fields such as Artificial Intelligence, mobile communications, the Internet of Things, automotive electronics, and industrial controls are thriving and growing in pace with the growth of our intelligent society. Specialty MEMS technologies are at the core of the intelligentization of our industry and society, while the advanced manufacturing base for MEMS and power device chips is still relatively weak in China’s domestic semiconductor ecosystem. The investment of this signed joint venture amounts to ¥5.88 Billion RMB. The joint venture will focus on the fields of MEMS and power devices with a wafer and module foundry that will continue to grow and develop with sustained R&D investment. A comprehensive foundry for specialty technologies will be achieved to win leadership in China’s domestic market.

The Chairman of SMIC, Dr. Zhou Zixue indicated in his speech, “SMIC has worked on the specialty technologies of MEMS and power devices for almost ten years. This joint venture project with Shaoxing meets our strategic objectives to build an advanced manufacturing industrial cluster in the Yangtze River Delta region. We have confidence that we will create a leading first-class semiconductor corporation focused on specialty technologies.”

The Secretary of the Shaoxing Municipal Party Committee, Mr. Ma Weiguang said, “In the 1980s, Shaoxing used to be one of the most important towns for China’s IC manufacturing industry. After 40 years the smooth landing of this project will accelerate the transformation and upgrading of the phrase ‘Made in Shaoxing’ into ‘Intelligent Manufacturing in Shaoxing’. Meanwhile, seizing the opportunity to cooperate with SMIC will help to build the IC industry for specialty technologies in Shaoxing and make contributions to Intelligent Manufacturing in China.”

Researchers have, for the first time, integrated two technologies widely used in applications such as optical communications, bio-imaging and Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) systems that scan the surroundings of self-driving cars and trucks.

In the collaborative effort between the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory and Harvard University, researchers successfully crafted a metasurface-based lens atop a Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) platform. The result is a new infrared light-focusing system that combines the best features of both technologies while reducing the size of the optical system.

This image gives a close-up view of a metasurface-based flat lens (square piece) integrated onto a MEMS scanner. Integration of MEMS devices with metalenses will help manipulate light in sensors by combining the strengths of high-speed dynamic control and precise spatial manipulation of wave fronts.This image was taken with an optical microscope at Argonne's Center for Nanoscale Materials. Credit: Argonne National Laboratory

This image gives a close-up view of a metasurface-based flat lens (square piece) integrated onto a MEMS scanner. Integration of MEMS devices with metalenses will help manipulate light in sensors by combining the strengths of high-speed dynamic control and precise spatial manipulation of wave fronts.This image was taken with an optical microscope at Argonne’s Center for Nanoscale Materials. Credit: Argonne National Laboratory

Metasurfaces can be structured at the nanoscale to work like lenses. These metalenses were pioneered by Federico Capasso, Harvard’s Robert L. Wallace Professor of Applied Physics, and his group at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). The lenses are rapidly finding applications because they are much thinner and less bulky than existing lenses, and can be made with the same technology used to fabricate computer chips. The MEMSs, meanwhile, are small mechanical devices that consist of tiny, movable mirrors.

“These devices are key today for many technologies. They have become technologically pervasive and have been adopted for everything from activating automobile air bags to the global positioning systems of smart phones,” said Daniel Lopez, Nanofabrication and Devices Group Leader at Argonne’s Center for Nanoscale Materials, a DOE Office of Science User Facility.

Lopez, Capasso and four co-authors describe how they fabricated and tested their new device in an article in APL Photonics, titled “Dynamic metasurface lens based on MEMS technology.” The device measures 900 microns in diameter and 10 microns in thickness (a human hair is approximately 50 microns thick).

The collaboration’s ongoing work to further develop novel applications for the two technologies is conducted at Argonne’s Center for Nanoscale Materials, SEAS and the Harvard Center for Nanoscale Systems, which is part of the National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure.

In the technologically merged optical system, MEMS mirrors reflect scanned light, which the metalens then focuses without the need for an additional optical component such as a focusing lens. The challenge that the Argonne/Harvard team overcame was to integrate the two technologies without hurting their performance.

The eventual goal would be to fabricate all components of an optical system — the MEMS, the light source and the metasurface-based optics — with the same technology used to manufacture electronics today.

“Then, in principle, optical systems could be made as thin as credit cards,” Lopez said.

These lens-on-MEMS devices could advance the LIDAR systems used to guide self-driving cars. Current LIDAR systems, which scan for obstacles in their immediate proximity, are, by contrast, several feet in diameter.

“You need specific, big, bulky lenses, and you need mechanical objects to move them around, which is slow and expensive,” said Lopez.

“This first successful integration of metalenses and MEMS, made possible by their highly compatible technologies, will bring high speed and agility to optical systems, as well unprecedented functionalities,” said Capasso.

By Emmy Yi, SEMI Taiwan

Since 2010, 474 companies have poured $51 billion into developing products enabled by artificial intelligence (AI), with the bulk of these investments targeting autonomous driving and in-vehicle experiences, according to the McKinsey reports. With AI and automotive electronics promising massive growth potential, it’s no surprise that IHS Market predicts the Advance Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) market will reach $67.43 billion by 2025 and that, by 2040, 33 million AI-enabled autonomous vehicles will be on the road worldwide.

Lured by this immense business opportunity, many key semiconductor industry players are jumping into the automotive market. Their ICs, however, will face far more stringent reliability requirements than most consumer products, making testing crucial to accelerating the realization of level 5 autonomous driving – a fully autonomous system that rivals the behind-the-wheel performance of a human driver even in extreme road conditions like snow and ice.

With testing such a vital aspect of autonomous driving, SEMI Taiwan recently connected industry experts from IC design and testing-related fields to facilitate cross-discipline collaboration and help inspire innovative solutions to current testing challenges. The early February AI IC and Automotive IC Test Seminar is part of a series of SEMI Taiwan events focused on hot topics including like AI, IoT, smart automotive, smart data and smart MedTech. Following are a few key takeaways from the seminar.

A Paradigm Shift is Needed in Automotive Electronics Testing Strategies

Designers of automotive electronics need to transform their test strategies to match the technical rigors of autonomous driving. The traditional process of build, test, and then fix-for-compliance must be changed in the era of self-driving vehicles. Adding AI to already electronically complex automotive systems will dramatically increase the number of ICs and sensors in vehicles.

The process of testing component points of failure falls well short of the requirement to test under countless driving scenarios during a which a device might fail. Testing, therefore, must be holistic. Starting in the development phase of their own electronics systems, automotive electronics designers must work closely with component and other technology suppliers to ensure that designs are well-integrated and rigorously tested for interoperability and points of failure under any conditions a human driver would face.

Wafer-level Test is A Trend

The cost and time for IC testing have steadily increased to meet the relentless scaling requirements of highly integrated advanced technologies, placing immense pressure on current wafer-level packaging and testing methodologies to maintain cost efficiencies, chip yields and time-to-market speed. The challenges will intensify with the multiple-component parallel testing required for autonomous vehicles. Demands on automotive electronics manufacturers to maintain DDPM quality levels key to smart functionalities, powertrain operation, safety and reliability will also complicate current IC testing methodologies.

Beyond Technology

To fulfill the promise of autonomous automobiles and other AI applications, industry, academia, and government in Taiwan must work together to solve underlying technical challenges, create profitable business models and develop a strong programming and system integration workforce. Taiwan has a solid foundation to build on. With its strong semiconductor manufacturing industry and advanced IC testing capabilities, Taiwan is well-positioned as a growth engine for the advanced automotive electronics needed for autonomous vehicles.