Category Archives: Applications

How can the Internet of Things change the future of the average citizen? To answer this question, imec joins forces with the City of Antwerp and the Flanders region to turn Antwerp into a Living Lab in which businesses, researchers, local residents and the city itself will experiment with smart technologies that aim to make urban life more pleasant, enjoyable and sustainable.

“Making life in cities more pleasant and sustainable, using everything that our technology has to offer, that is what Smart Cities is all about,” says Philippe Muyters, Flemish Minister for the Economy. “And imec, as a world-class research center, is the right partner to make this happen. With imec’s expertise, we can build a smart city with an open, secure and scalable infrastructure. A smart city where everyone has the opportunity to develop ideas and work together to create the future of Antwerp and the Flanders region.” Through imec, Flanders will invest €4 million annually in the City of Things project, in addition to the required project resources.

City of Things is a collaborative project between the City of Antwerp, Flanders and imec. The nerve center for this initiative is located at StartupVillage, the location from which imec also runs its Antwerp startup and incubation operations. During the period from 2017 to 2019, the City of Antwerp intends to invest €650,000 in the project. According to City Councilor for the Economy Caroline Bastiaens: “The city is targeting four strategic priorities: mobility, security, sustainability and digital interaction with citizens.”

Network of sensors

The City of Things project will roll out a fine-grained network of smart sensors and wireless gateways located around Antwerp’s buildings, streets, squares and other city objects. This network will connect the citizens with a whole range of innovative applications. The ensuing digital innovation is expected to enforce the city’s economic clout. And with the insights gained from the project, Antwerp and its businesses will learn how to collect the data they need to take well-informed decisions and develop innovative smart applications. Shortly, the seaport of Antwerp will also join the initiative, becoming an incubator for similar smart ideas.

“For the cities of tomorrow it’s all about the survival of the smartest,” says Antwerp mayor Bart De Wever. “Monitoring is the key to knowledge – so that’s exactly what we are going to do. Thanks to this unique collaboration, Antwerp is heading for a new golden age. In the coming years, the city will build a strong position in smart city technology, nationally and internationally. It is also the first step in putting Flanders firmly on the world map as a knowledge region: Smart Flanders, we call it.”

Europe’s biggest living lab

Imec has major ambitions. The Antwerp Living Lab is designed to grow into the largest living lab in Europe for Internet of Things applications. “Together with the City of Antwerp and Flanders, we have the ambition to become a leading player in the connected world,” says Luc Van den hove, CEO of imec. “The City of Things project allows us to join the city residents, developers, entrepreneurs, the government, and research centers and universities around one common goal: developing innovative solutions for better cities. Antwerp will become a living technology lab in which everyone can make a contribution to a sustainable, forward-looking society.”

The Antwerp Living Lab already has a number of projects up and running. These include vans operated by Bpost, the Belgian postal service, which have sensors to measure the air quality throughout the city, sensors whose data can be used to improve the city’s air quality. Another project involved the company Restore, measuring energy consumption in real-time and smoothing out usage spikes with the aim to ensure more efficient, cheaper energy production. With network operator Orange, we study how the project’s goals can be achieved using NarrowBand-IoT. This new technology enables communication of small data volumes over extended periods at hard-to-reach places, at the same time ensuring that the batteries of the connected devices can keep going for up to 10 years. The preparatory work on a host of other projects, e.g. concerning mobility, is underway.

A smart city will make life, living and working more enjoyable for local residents, visitors and businesses alike. Privacy and security are, of course, of great importance.

Ideal city

Caroline Bastiaens, City Councilor for the Economy: “Antwerp is an ideal city to establish this Living Lab. The city is big enough to test applications properly, yet sufficiently small to keep the cost and time required for development under control. Antwerp also has an interesting mix of offices, industry and retail, meaning that various applications can be developed to cover all needs.”

In recent years, Antwerp has developed a blooming ecosystem of start-up businesses and growth companies involved in digital innovation. Currently, the city has more than 350 start-ups and ten growth companies that have newly raised more than half a million euro capital, as well as nine incubators and accelerators, the StartupVillage, exciting corporation such as Nokia, and an extensive  international network. “And last but not least,” concludes Mayor Bart De Wever, “our city council is very open to innovation.”

Vesper, developer of the world’s most advanced acoustic sensors, DSP Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:DSPG), a global provider of wireless chipset solutions for converged communications, and Sensory, Inc., the leader in voice interface and keyword-detect algorithms, will demonstrate a turnkey development platform that boasts the lowest overall power consumption for far-field always-listening voice interfaces. This platform is the first to achieve overall power consumption low enough to enable battery-powered always-listening far-field systems.

“Today consumers who want to turn on their battery-powered smart speakers, TV remotes, smart home systems and Internet of Things (IoT) devices have to push a button to wake their device from sleep. This limits consumers’ ability to interact seamlessly and naturally with their devices, leaving them tethered to touch,” said Matt Crowley, CEO, Vesper. “The Vesper-DSP Group-Sensory development platform offers an alternative technology based on the fundamentally different physics of piezoelectric materials that wakes devices from sleep, while sipping mere microwatts of power. Due to the rugged nature of piezoelectric microphones, this platform is also ideal for systems that need to survive outdoors or in harsh environments.”

Crowley added, “The Vesper-DSP Group-Sensory wake-on-sound platform consumes 5x less power than existing approaches, potentially allowing products to run for years rather than months without battery replacement.”

The new development platform – which the companies will demonstrate at CES 2017 for the first time — integrates Vesper’s VM1010 wake-on-sound piezoelectric MEMS microphone with DSP Group’s DBMD4, an ultra-low-power, always-on voice and audio processor based on Sensory’s Truly Handsfree™ voice control embedded algorithms. The platform gives developers the ability to initiate voice processing through Sensory’s wake-up word technology, which ensures that only a specific trigger word activates the device.

“Our development platform enables and dramatically accelerates time to market for far-field voice-controlled battery-powered consumer electronics,” said Ofer Elyakim, CEO, DSP Group. “It gives OEMs and integrators a fully integrated solution for consumer electronics that actively listen and sense both voice activity and commands while in near-zero-power mode, alleviating battery strain, improving device usability, and extending battery life.”

“Voice-activated battery-powered consumer electronics, such as smart speakers and TV remotes, are proliferating,” said Todd Mozer, CEO, Sensory, Inc. “The Vesper-DSP Group-Sensory development platform — which features the same Sensory TrulyHandsfree voice activation algorithms that have already shipped in over 1 billion devices — is a major advancement in speeding the design-to-deployment cycle of keyword-activated battery-powered electronics.”

Vesper, DSP Group and Sensory will demonstrate their new development platform from January 5-8, 2017 during CES 2017.

Intel has agreed to purchase a 15 percent ownership stake in HERE, a global provider of digital maps and location-based services, from HERE’s current indirect shareholders: AUDI AG, BMW AG and Daimler AG.

In conjunction with Intel’s acquisition of a stake in HERE, the two companies also signed an agreement to collaborate on the research and development of a highly scalable proof-of-concept architecture that supports real-time updates of high definition (HD) maps for highly and fully automated driving. Additionally, the two companies plan to jointly explore strategic opportunities that result from enriching edge-computing devices with location data.

“Cars are rapidly becoming some of the world’s most intelligent, connected devices,” said Brian Krzanich, Intel CEO. “We look forward to working with HERE and its automotive partners to deliver an important technology foundation for smart and connected cars of the future.”

“A real-time, self-healing and high-definition representation of the physical world is critical for autonomous driving, and achieving this will require significantly more powerful and capable in-vehicle compute platforms,” said Edzard Overbeek, HERE CEO. “As a premier silicon provider, Intel can help accelerate HERE’s ambitions in this area by supporting the creation of a universal, always up-to-date digital location platform that spans the vehicle, the cloud and everything else connected.”

The proof-of-concept architecture HERE and Intel plan to deliver will be designed to help make autonomous driving as safe and predictable as possible. For example, today’s navigation technology can pinpoint a car’s location to within meters, but next generation, HD mapping supports localization to within centimeters. This will help vehicles precisely position themselves on the roadway to enable reliable autonomous driving functionality. HERE HD Live Map, HERE’s cloud service supporting vehicle automation, gives vehicles the ability to “see” obstacles beyond their immediate field of vision and receive real-time updates as environments change due to traffic, road conditions and other factors.

Intel will also work with AUDI AG, BMW AG and Daimler AG to test the architecture. Intel and HERE envision making the architecture broadly available across the automotive industry as a seamlessly integrated offering that simplifies and shortens time of development for automakers.

Intel is positioned to provide a secure, flexible and scalable technology foundation for the future of autonomous driving from the vehicle to the data center. Intel’s assets span: high-performance and flexible, in-vehicle computing; robust cloud and machine-learning solutions; and high-speed wireless connectivity. In addition to furthering Intel’s efforts in autonomous driving, the next generation location services that result from this collaboration can fuel the continued growth of cloud computing and the Internet of Things.

HERE is a private company, which is indirectly wholly owned by AUDI AG, BMW AG and Daimler AG. HERE is a global provider of embedded navigation solutions. By working with Intel, HERE aims to offer automakers a universal solution that reduces both complexity and long-term development costs. Intel also provides expertise in developing and optimizing hardware, which will be fundamental to moving cloud-based algorithms to in-vehicle architectures. This same expertise will support HERE’s strategy to connect multiple industries beyond automotive, such as in the Internet of Things where location algorithms and location-based services are increasingly becoming embedded into connected devices. Intel and HERE intend to explore other potential collaborative opportunities spanning next-generation cloud analytics, IoT applications, machine learning, augmented reality and more.

Today, Bosch Sensortec launches the BMP380, the company’s smallest and best performing barometric pressure sensor, with a compact size of only 2.0 x 2.0 x 0.75 mm³.

The BMP380 is aimed at the growing markets of gaming, sports and health management, as well as indoor and outdoor navigation. By measuring barometric pressure, the sensor enables drones, smartphones, tablets, wearables and other mobile devices to accurately determine altitude changes, in both indoor and outdoor environments.

Wide range of applications

This new BMP380 sensor offers outstanding design flexibility, providing a single package solution that can be easily integrated into a multitude of existing and upcoming applications and devices.

Typical applications for the BMP380 include altitude stabilization in drones, where altitude information is utilized to improve flight stability and landing accuracy. This simplifies drone steering, thereby making drones attractive for a broader range of users. The BMP380 can also substantially improve calorie expenditure measurement accuracy in wearables and mobile devices, for example by identifying whether a person is walking upstairs or downstairs in a step tracking application. Especially in hilly environments, this allows runners and cyclists to significantly improve the monitoring accuracy of their performance. In smartphones, tablets and wearables, this sensor brings unprecedented precision to outdoor/indoor navigation and localization applications, i.e. by utilizing altitude data to determine the user’s floor level in a building, and enhancing GPS accuracy outdoors.

Accurate and unmatched ease of use

Pressure and temperature data can be stored in the built-in FIFO of 512 byte. The new FIFO and interrupt functionality provide simple access to data and storage. This greatly improves ease of use while helping to reduce power consumption to only 2.7µA at 1Hz during full operation.

The sensor is more accurate than its predecessors, covering a wide measurement range from 300 hPA to 1250 hPA. Tests in real-life environments have verified a relative accuracy of +/-0.06 hPa (+/-0.5m) over a temperature range from 25°C to 40°C. The absolute accuracy between 300 and 1100 hPa is +/- 0.5 hPa over a temperature range from 0°C to 65°C.

This new barometric pressure sensor exhibits an attractive price-performance ratio coupled with low power consumption. The small package size of only 2.0 x 2.0 x 0.75 mm³ complies with new industry benchmarks and is more than one third smaller than the previous-generation BMP280, thus offering increased placement flexibility.

“We are very excited about the opportunities that this sensor opens up for designers to further advance their products,” says Jeanne Forget, Vice President Global Marketing at Bosch Sensortec. “Our product is unmatched in its scope, precision and footprint, and provides an improvement for outdoor localization, thereby reducing our reliance on GPS signals”.

The powerful features and solid performance specifications of the BMP380 are the result of more than a decade of experience that Bosch has acquired in the manufacturing of MEMS pressure sensors. Bosch invented a completely new “Advanced Porous Silicon Membrane” (APSM) process for the manufacture of MEMS pressure sensors and has applied this technology to produce more than one billion pressure sensors. Today, Bosch is the number one MEMS supplier and industry leader in barometric pressure sensors.

The sensor will be available for selected customers with the start of channel promotion in the 2nd quarter of 2017.

Worldwide combined shipments of PCs, tablets, ultramobiles and mobile phones are projected to remain flat in 2017, according to Gartner, Inc. Worldwide shipments for these devices are projected to total 2.3 billion in 2017, the same as 2016 estimates.

There were nearly 7 billion phones, tablets and PCs in use in the world by the end of 2016. However, Gartner does not expect any growth in shipments of traditional devices until 2018, when a small increase in ultramobiles and mobile phone shipments is expected (see Table 1).

“The global devices market is stagnating. Mobile phone shipments are only growing in emerging Asia/Pacific markets, and the PC market is just reaching the bottom of its decline,” said Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner.

“As well as declining shipment growth for traditional devices, average selling prices are also beginning to stagnate because of market saturation and a slower rate of innovation,” added Mr. Atwal. “Consumers have fewer reasons to upgrade or buy traditional devices (see Table 1). They are seeking fresher experiences and applications in emerging categories such as head mounted displays (HMDs), virtual personal assistant (VPA) speakers and wearables.”

Table 1 
Worldwide Devices Shipments by Device Type, 2016-2019 (Millions of Units)

Device Type

2016

2017

2018

2019

Traditional PCs (Desk-Based and Notebook)

219

205

198

193

Ultramobiles (Premium)

49

61

74

85

PC Market

268

266

272

278

Ultramobiles (Basic and Utility)

168

165

166

166

Computing Devices Market

436

432

438

444

Mobile Phones

1,888

1,893

1,920

1,937

Total Devices Market

2,324

2,324

2,357

2,380

Note: The Ultramobile (Premium) category includes devices such as Microsoft Windows 10 Intel x86 products and Apple MacBook Air.
The Ultramobile (Basic and Utility Tablets) category includes devices such as Apple iPad and iPad mini, Samsung Galaxy Tab S2, Amazon Fire HD, Lenovo Yoga Tab 3, and Acer Iconia One.
Source: Gartner (January 2017)

The embattled PC market will benefit from a replacement cycle toward the end of this forecast period, returning to growth in 2018. Increasingly, attractive premium ultramobile prices and functionality will entice buyers as traditional PC sales continue to decline. The mobile phone market will also benefit from replacements. There is, however, a difference in replacement activity between mature and emerging markets. “People in emerging markets still see smartphones as their main computing device and replace them more regularly than mature markets,” said Mr. Atwal.

Device vendors are increasingly trying to move into faster-growing emerging device categories. “This requires a shift from a hardware-focused approach to a richer value-added service approach,” said Mr. Atwal. “As service-led approaches become even more crucial, hardware providers will have to partner with service providers, as they lack the expertise to deliver the service offerings themselves.”

More detailed analysis is available to clients in the reports “Forecast: PCs, Ultramobiles and Mobile Phones, Worldwide, 2013-2020, 4Q16 Update.”

Adding intelligence to materials and products facilitates the fully decentralized operations model associated with Industry 4.0.

BY FRANCISCO ALMADA LOBO, Critical Manufacturing, Moreira da Maia, Portugal

Industry 4.0 is coming. It is the next major industrial revolution that will re-define manufacturing as we know it today. But what does Industry 4.0 bring to benefit an industry that already has highly advanced sophisticated manufacturing techniques?

The semiconductor industry is currently not one of those embracing Industry 4.0. Some of the reasons for this are based around the far reaching supply chain the industry uses, some because of the size of batches is still large in some businesses, and some because the idea of gathering greater quantities of information from machines is really not a new concept for the industry. To understand the benefits of Industry 4.0 to semiconductor production, let’s first look at exactly what it is.

A little about Industry 4.0

Industry 4.0 takes innovative developments that are available today and integrates them to produce a modern, smarter production model. It merges real and virtual worlds and is based on Cyber-physical Systems (CPS) and Cyber-physical Production Systems (CPPS), as show in FIGURE 1. The model was created to increase business agility, enable cost-effective production of customized products, lower overall production costs, enhance product quality and increase production efficiency. It brings with it new levels of automation and automated decision making that will mean faster responses to production needs and much greater efficiency.

FIGURE 1. Industry 4.0 merges real and virtual worlds and is based on Cyber-physical Systems (CPS) and Cyber-physical Production Systems (CPPS)

FIGURE 1. Industry 4.0 merges real and virtual worlds and is based on Cyber-physical Systems (CPS) and Cyber-physical Production Systems (CPPS)

The Industry 4.0 model is inherently a de-centralized one with masses of data being transferred. The reduced cost of computer technology enables it to be embedded into shop floor materials and products. CPS then integrate computational networks with the surrounding physical world and its processes. Using the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), products will have the ability to collect and transmit data; communicate with equipment, and take intelligent routing decisions without the need for operator intervention. Cloud computing technology further gives a ready platform to store this data and make it freely available to systems surrounding it.

As CPPS compete to provide services to CPS devices a smart shop floor is created that acts as a marketplace. Adding communication and integration throughout the wider supply chain also means that different manufacturing facilities and even individual processes within a factory can compete for work; creating a Manufacturing as a Service (MaaS) model.

With hundreds of devices and shop floor entities producing information, Big Data and advanced analytics are also a major part of Industry 4.0. Simply collecting a lot of data doesn’t improve a factory’s performance. Advanced analytical software is needed to transform structured and unstructured data into intelligent, usable information. Having huge volumes of data also means this powerful software can be used to help predict production scenarios to further drive efficiencies and improve production strategy.

The intelligent operation and advanced analytics within Industry 4.0 will enable smarter decision making and provide the opportunity to further enhance processes. It will enable new products to be created, tested and introduced at a much faster rate with assured quality, consis- tency and reliability. The benefits are far reaching and so significant that this revolution will certainly come but the change will be gradual. To be sure not to be left behind, manufacturers will need to plan for the implementation of this predicted industrial revolution.

What does Industry 4.0 mean for semiconductor manufacturers?

For the semiconductor industry, the high cost of wafers make attaching electronic components to each wafer carrier or FOUP completely viable and presents huge benefits in increased production efficiency. Adding intelligence to materials and products facilitates the fully decentralized operations model associated with Industry 4.0 (FIGURE 2). With devices communicating with each other, the increased flexibility and productivity this model produces will make it possible to meet an increasing demand for greater manufacturing mixes and individualized products at much lower costs. For the production of semiconductors in particular, the very nature of the product being manufactured means there may also be opportunity and added benefit for some devices to hold their own information without the need for additional electronics. The information gathered from the decentralized model and analytical software used in Industry 4.0 also makes it easier to account for the cost of each item, resulting in better intelligence for business strategy and product pricing.

FIGURE 2. Adding intelligence to materials and products facilitates the fully decentralized operations model associated with Industry 4.0.

FIGURE 2. Adding intelligence to materials and products facilitates the fully decentralized operations model associated with Industry 4.0.

Although equipment used in the production of semiconductors already have sensors and transmit intelligent information into wider systems, the concept of the CPPS using the IoT adds a new level of simplicity to this idea. The cost of production within the semiconductor industry also means that even marginal variable improvements through the increased use of big data analytics will have huge financial benefits. The Internet of Things (IoT) will further enhance flexibility in measurement and actuation possibilities and free manufacturers from the time and cost associated with changes to sophisticated interfaces on production equipment.

The smart marketplace

With components interacting with machines and having the information they need within them about the processing steps they require, this creates a smart marketplace where the CPS requests services (demand) and the CPPS provides them (supply). Using mobile communications and cloud computing, this can of course be further expanded into the wider supply chain.

The concept of Manufacturing as a Service (MaaS) is, to some extent, already present in the semiconductor industry. The full supply chain has many different steps and, because of the high value of the product, transportation costs become pretty much irrelevant. This means that processing steps can be geographically distributed and the smart marketplace bidding for the work can extend throughout the world. Different factories may compete with each other for procuring specific processing steps and still be competitive regardless of location. Industry 4.0 gives the industry all the tools it needs for a smart, highly efficient marketplace that can add significant production flexibility while reducing both costs and production times.

Benefits of virtual and augmented reality

There are already few manual steps in the semiconductor production process with wafer production in particular using highly automated processes. This means there are few operators to oversee significant amounts of operations and equipment. Industry 4.0 opens up new areas in virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) that will help keep operations running smoothly.

The visualization and control of the wide spread autonomous elements within the CPS and CPPS in a decentralized production model requires a move away from standard, fixed, desk-top like workstations. Mobile devices are now more than capable of handling the demanding tasks of an operator workstation and offer the potential to decrease operational costs and increase productivity (FIGURES 3a and b).

Industry 3

FIGURE 3. Mobile devices are now more than capable of handling the demanding tasks of an operator workstation and offer the potential to decrease operational costs and increase productivity.

FIGURE 3. Mobile devices are now more than capable of handling the demanding tasks of an operator workstation and offer the potential to decrease operational costs and increase productivity.

Using more comprehensive digital data and mobile computing technology, operators would be able to simply point a tablet at a piece of equipment and get real time information about what is happening. Locations of personnel could also be monitored to make most efficient use of human resources available. For the semiconductor industry; the use of secure, mobile devices further reduces the need to take up space in valuable clean-room environments.

Using mobile interfaces, maintenance technicians will also be able to conveniently move between machines without the need to logon at different workstations.

They can interact with different pieces of equipment and gather information about processes while carrying out tasks such as ordering spare parts all from a single mobile device. For specific operations relating to a piece of equipment, apps that automatically launch onto the technician’s tablet depending upon their location may further be used to add important additional infor- mation about a piece of equipment. For example, a particular part may be highlighted to be checked or replaced or additional information about specific machine readings highlighted on the display.

With all the amount of data sent by sensors, products and equipment it will also be possible to visualize in real-time the complete status of a production floor using VR 3D maps. Combining information about where personnel are within the factory and which direction they are facing, this further enables the implementation of some compelling AR scenarios. Indeed, the capability of mobile devices and the increase in real-time data available will likely make the wider use of both VR and AR a fundamental part of shop floor operations.

The Route to Industry 4.0 – the next generation of MES

There are a number of challenges that Industry 4.0 brings with it and its implementation will certainly not happen overnight. The huge benefits the model has to offer, however, can be planned into business strategies and realized over time. One of the first areas to consider is vertical integration of the model. This is important because corporate processes must not be avoided with the autonomy of materials and machines. Business processes for compliance, logistics, engineering, sales or operations all have components inside the plant as well as others that reside beyond the factory that are crucial to a business process being executed effectively. Without these, it’s almost impossible to properly manage a production floor of a certain complexity.

Modern Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) based on decentralized logic offer a platform for the development of the Industry 4.0 model and a natural route to its vertical integration. MES have always been most effective when integrated into Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems ‘above’ while monitoring and controlling production processes ‘below’.

With the CPS and CPPS communicating directly with each other, the MES can trigger business rules or workflows for the complete production process. For example, quality processes may demand that a device may need additional verification steps before processing continues as part of a higher level quality sampling strategy. This requires communication to intersect the business rules so the quality procedures are not bypassed before the device continues through its production processes.

Another area that is reliant on good vertical integration of systems within Industry 4.0 is Statistical Process Control (SPC). SPC requires data to be collected over time from numerous materials passing through the factory. For example, if a device within the CPS knows it needs to collect a measurable variable, this needs to be confirmed against SPC rules that it is within limits. If it is not, corrective action may be required. Flags for such actions need to be triggered in systems above the CPS and, again, the MES is an ideal platform for this.

By its very nature, the concept of a smart shop floor will generate huge volumes of data. An Industry 4.0 MES will need to aggregate this data and put it into a shop floor context. Indeed, to handle the decentralized logic and vertical integration of the autonomous entities on the shop floor, MES manufacturers need to fully expand their systems’ capabilities to ensure all plant activities are visible, coordinate, managed and accurately measured.

Future MES can also help to realize the full MaaS. This requires horizontal integration so all functions and services can be consumed by all entities on the shop floor including the CPS smart materials and CPPS smart machines. For individual equipment or processes to be procured in single steps, the MES needs to offer exceptional flexibility to expose all available services, capacity and future production plans. With visibility of the complete supply chain, MES also need to consider security and IP related challenges with multi-dimensional security. This needs to be at a service level but also at individual process, step and equipment levels and at any combination of these.

Ultimately it is envisioned that the Cloud will deliver the storage and the ‘anytime, anywhere’ ability to handle the volume of data created from sensors, processing and connectivity capability distributed throughout the plant. The manufacturing intelligence needed and provided by MES today therefore also has to expand to better accommodate the diversity and volume of big data. Fast response to any manufacturing issues will come from real-time analysis where advanced techniques such as “in-memory” and complex event processing may be used to drive operational efficiency even further, where the value of the process makes this a viable return on investment.

Support for advanced analytics in MES is needed to analyse historical data fully understand the performance of the manufacturing processes, quality of products and supply chain optimization. Analytics will also help by identifying inefficiencies based on historical data and pointing staff to corrective or preventive actions for those areas.

Legacy MES

Semiconductor was probably one of the first industries to embrace the idea of MES. First adopters were as early as the 1970s before the term ‘MES’ was even established. Some of these systems still exist today. The problem is that, as the limits of these early systems were reached; small applications have been added around them to meet modern manufacturing demands. These systems are so embedded into production processes that changing them is like replacing the heart of the factory and is no small consideration. There will, however, be some point where these systems can no longer be patched up to meet needs and factories will need to change to survive. The huge potential benefits Industry 4.0 offers may well be the catalyst to change and the basis of sound strategic planning for the future of a business.

Summary

One of the main areas of benefit of the Industry 4.0 decentralized model is the ability to individualize products efficiently with high quality results. This benefits all industries as trends show an increased demand for high mix, smaller batches to meet varying consumer demands. More than for many other industries, the high cost of individualized semiconductors makes the value of adding autonomy to customized processes even higher.

MES have been at the heart of the semiconductor industry for many decades but future-ready MES, based on models with de-centralized logic, offer a pathway to realizing the benefits Industry 4.0 has to offer. For semiconductors these benefits centre on reduced production costs, particularly for small production batches; enhanced efficiency of small workforces, and the business and cost reductions to be gained from the MaaS model and smart supply chain.

Although the semiconductor industry has been somewhat protected, competition is still fierce, especially in areas of mass production. In all different manufacturing areas, however, batch sizes will become smaller and the demand for individualized products will increase. Semiconductor manufacturers that can adapt more quickly to this trend will gain competitive edge and ultimately will be the businesses that survive and grow for the future. Without the Industry 4.0 model manufacturers will of course be able to produce in the future context of more customization, but costs will be much higher than for those who embrace this industrial revolution. If the full scope of Industry 4.0 is realized throughout the supply chain with MaaS, it will be even harder for companies that are outside of this model to compete in the smart marketplace.

With the dawn of Industry 4.0, manufacturing is moving into a new era that brings huge benefits and it is unlikely that the semiconductor industry will let itself be left behind!

The Electronic System Design (ESD) Alliance Market Statistics Service (MSS) today announced that the Electronic Design Automation (EDA) industry revenue increased 7.0 percent for Q3 2016 to $2093.7 million, compared to $1957.5 million in Q3 2015. The four-quarters moving average, which compares the most recent four quarters to the prior four quarters, increased by 3.7 percent.

“The industry realized solid growth in Q3, with all of the geographic regions – Americas, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Japan, and Asia/Pacific – reporting revenue increases,” said Walden C. Rhines, board sponsor for the ESD Alliance MSS and chairman and CEO of Mentor Graphics. “Product categories CAE, Semiconductor IP, IC Physical Design & Verification, and services all reported increases in the third quarter.”

Companies that were tracked employed a record 35,515 professionals in Q3 2016, an increase of 6.2 percent compared to the 33,430 people employed in Q3 2015, and up 1.5 percent compared to Q3 2016.

The complete quarterly MSS report, containing detailed revenue information broken out by both categories and geographic regions, is available to members of the ESD Alliance.

Revenue by product category

Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) generated revenue of $666.7 million in Q3 2016 which represents a 5 percent increase compared to Q3 2015. The four-quarters moving average for CAE decreased 1.2 percent.

IC Physical Design & Verification revenue was $441.3 million in Q3 2016, an 8.2 percent increase compared to Q3 2015. The four-quarters moving average increased 2.8 percent.

Printed Circuit Board and Multi-Chip Module (PCB & MCM) revenue of $162.2 million for Q3 2016 represents a decrease of 0.1 percent compared to Q3 2015. The four-quarters moving average for PCB & MCM increased 0.9 percent.

Semiconductor Intellectual Property (SIP) revenue totaled $720.9 million in Q3 2016, a 10.4 percent increase compared to Q3 2015. The four-quarters moving average increased 10.1 percent.

Services revenue was $102.6 million in Q3 2016, an increase of 3 percent compared to Q3 2015. The four-quarters moving average increased 2.9 percent.

Revenue by region

The Americas, EDA’s largest region, purchased $932.9 million of EDA products and services in Q3 2016, an increase of 3.2 percent compared to Q3 2015. The four-quarters moving average for the Americas increased 1.3 percent.

Revenue in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) increased 2.3 percent in Q3 2016 compared to Q3 2015 on revenues of $297 million. The EMEA four-quarters moving average decreased 0.7 percent.

Third-quarter 2016 revenue from Japan increased 3.9 percent to $213.2 million compared to Q3 2015. The four-quarters moving average for Japan increased 5.5 percent.

The Asia/Pacific (APAC) region revenue increased to $650.6 million in Q3 2016, an increase of 16.6 percent compared to the third quarter of 2015. The four-quarters moving average increased 9 percent.

The complete MSS report, available to the ESD Alliance members, contains additional detail for countries in the Asia/Pacific region.

Sensor sensation


December 22, 2016

Microfluidic platforms have revolutionized medical diagnostics in recent years. Instead of sending blood or urine samples off to a laboratory for analysis, doctors can test a single drop of a patient’s blood or urine for various diseases at point-of-care without the need for expensive instruments. Before the sample can be tested however, doctors need to insert specific disease-detecting biomolecules into the microfluidic platform. While doing so, it has to be ensured that these biomolecules are well-bound to the inside of the device to protect them from being flushed out by the incoming sample. As this preparatory step can be time-consuming, it would be advantageous if microfluidic platforms could come pre-prepared with specific biomolecules sealed inside. However, this sealing process requires exposure of the device components to high energy or ‘ionized’ gas and whether biomolecules can survive this harsh process is unknown.

The nMIS sensor created by researchers in OIST's Micro/Bio/Nanofluidics Unit. The sensor detects biomolecule charge in a conventional way, but additionally, the gold nano-islands enable the detection of biomolecule mass. Credit: Micro/Bio/Nanofluidics Unit, OIST

The nMIS sensor created by researchers in OIST’s Micro/Bio/Nanofluidics Unit. The sensor detects biomolecule charge in a conventional way, but additionally, the gold nano-islands enable the detection of biomolecule mass. Credit: Micro/Bio/Nanofluidics Unit, OIST

To answer this question, researchers at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) have created a novel sensor that detects biomolecules more accurately than ever before. This sensor was used to demonstrate that biomolecules can be successfully sealed within microfluidic devices. The results, published in Nanoscale, have profound implications for healthcare diagnostics and open up opportunities for producing pre-packaged microfluidic platform blood or urine testing devices.

Traditionally, metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) sensors are used to detect the binding of biomolecules to a surface by measuring changes in charge. Comprised of a silicon semiconductor layer, a glass insulator layer and a gold metal layer, these sensors are incorporated in an electric circuit with the biomolecule sitting in an electrolyte-filled plastic well on top of the sensor. If you then apply a voltage and measure current, you can work out the charge from the capacitance reading given off. Biomolecules with different charges will give you different capacitance readings, enabling you to quantify the presence of biomolecules.

The novel sensor created by researchers in OIST’s Micro/Bio/Nanofluidics Unit, measures charge using the same technique as conventional sensors but has the additional function of measuring mass. Instead of having a solid gold metal layer, the so-called nano-metal-insulator semiconductor (nMIS) sensor has a layer of tiny gold metal islands. If you shine light on these nanostructures, the surface electrons start oscillating at a specific frequency. When biomolecules are added to these nanoislands, the frequency of these oscillations change proportional to the mass of the biomolecule. Based on this change, you can use this technique to measure the mass of the biomolecule, and confirm whether it survives exposure to ionized gas during encapsulation within the microfluidic platform.

“We made a simple sensor that can answer very complex surface chemistry questions,” says Dr. Nikhil Bhalla who worked on the creation of the nMIS sensor.

Measuring two fundamental properties of surface chemical reactions on the same device means that researchers can be far more confident that biomolecules have been successfully encapsulated within the microfluidic platform. A measurement of charge or mass alone could be misleading, making it look like biomolecules have bound to a surface when in fact they have not. Having more than one technique in the same device means that you can switch from one mode to the other to see if you have the same result.

“Scientists have to validate one reaction with multiple techniques to confirm that an observation is authentic. If you’ve got a sensor that enables the detection of two parameters on a single platform, then it is really beneficial for the sensing community,” says Dr. Bhalla.

“By combining these two simple measurement techniques into one compact platform, it opens doors to create portable and reliable sensing technologies in the future”, adds PhD student Shivani Sathish.

In a proof-of-concept experiment, by combining information about both the mass and charge of the biomolecule, the scientists were able to show that a common biomolecule survives exposure to ionized gas at a specific energy level. A single reading of charge alone gives a misleading result, but looking at the complementary parameters together allows for more accurate biomolecule detection.

This novel nMIS sensor could be used to create microfluidic platforms that test for various diseases. By measuring charge and mass using the nMIS sensor, researchers can ensure that disease-detecting biomolecules are successfully sealed and functional inside the testing device.

“It would be like a pre-packaged pregnancy test,” says Professor Amy Shen, head of OIST’s Micro/Bio/Nanofluidics Unit. “If there is already something adsorbed then all you have to do is introduce whatever sample you are using, such as urine or blood.”

It might also be possible to combine several biomarkers in the same device to test for different diseases at the same time. By integrating this dual sensing technology with the ready-to-use devices, it offers great promise in the field of healthcare diagnostics owing to its advantages of portability and point-of-care testing.

From artificial intelligence to the Internet of Things (IoT), far-reaching innovations are unfolding in virtually every technology sector around the globe, continuing to change the way consumers, businesses and machines interact while also spurring the next revolution in tech market growth, according to a new white paper from IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO).

For the white paper, IHS Markit surveyed its leading technology experts, who represent various industry segments including advertising, automotive, connected networks, consumer devices, entertainment, displays, media, semiconductors, telecommunications and others. These analysts were asked to provide their informed predictions for the global technology market in the New Year.

The Top Seven Technology Trends for 2017, as identified in this IHS Markit report and listed in no particular order, are as follows:

Trend #1 – Smart Manufacturing Accelerates With More Real-World Products

  • Companies use IoT to transform how products are made, how supply chains are managed and how customers can influence design.
  • Example: look for automation/operator tech firms to release their own Platforms-as-a Service (PaaS) offering in the cloud as they compete to offer and own IoT projects for the industrial market.

Trend #2 – Artificial Intelligence (AI) Gets Serious

  • Already, personified AI assistants from a handful of companies (Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri) have access to billions of users via smartphones and other devices.
  • However, even bigger, more profound changes are on their way as levels of human control are ceded directly to AI, such as in autonomous cars or robots.

Trend #3 – The Rise of Virtual Worlds

  • After several years of hype, the operative reality behind virtual, augmented and mixed digital worlds is set to manifest more fully in 2017. The technology for augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) will advance significantly as Facebook, Google and Microsoft consolidate their existing technologies into more exhaustive strategies.
  • New versions of VR-capable game consoles featuring 4K video and high dynamic range (HDR) will also create the medium for high-quality VR content, even if availability will be limited for the next few years.

Trend #4 – The “Meta Cloud” Era Arrives

  • Communication service providers plan to deliver a new wave of innovation, allowing for a single connection to the enterprise and acting as a gateway to multiple cloud service providers. IHS Markit refers to this as the meta cloud.
  • In 2017, new offerings will become available from traditional Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) vendors, coupled with expanded offers from the likes of IBM, Amazon and— most notably—Google via its Tensor chip. Watch for the development and deployment of more specialized silicon in the next two years.

Trend #5 – A Revolution in New Device Formats

  • The development of the consumer drone is the closest example of a product type evolved over the past few years that has quickly gone mass market. 3D printers and pens are heading the same way.
  • The next set of new devices may well materialize at the boundary of cheap 3D printing and inexpensive smartphone components to create completely novel device types and uses.

Trend #6 – Solar Still the Largest Source of Renewable New Power

  • The next year, 2017, will see photovoltaic (PV) technology retaining—and confirming—its position as the planet’s largest source of new renewable power.
  • More than a quarter of all PV capacity added worldwide in 2016 and 2017 will be in the form of solar panels. The growth of solar can be attributed to sharp drops in the cost of PV systems, combined with favorable country policies toward new renewable power.

Trend #7 – Low-Power Technologies Extend Reach to Inaccessible IoT Devices

  • The first batch of low-power, wide-area networks (LPWAN) will go live around the world in 2017 as an alternative to short-range wireless standards such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. LPWAN technologies will connect hard-to-reach, IoT devices more efficiently and at a lower cost, dealing with challenges stemming from range limitation to poor signal strength. As a result, opportunities will open up for telecom providers to support low-bit-rate applications.
  • In turn, the increased availability and low cost of LPWAN technologies will drive connectivity for smart metering, smart building and precision agriculture, among many other applications.

Valencell, an innovator in performance biometric data sensor technology, and STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM) announced today the launch of a new, highly accurate and scalable development kit for biometric wearables that includes ST’s compact SensorTile turnkey multi-sensor module integrated with Valencell’s Benchmark(TM) biometric sensor system. Together, SensorTile and Benchmark deliver the most useful portfolio of sensors to support the most advanced wearable use cases.

The SensorTile is a tiny IoT (Internet of Things) module (13.5mm x 13.5mm) that packs on board a powerful STM32L4 microcontroller, a Bluetooth® Low Energy chipset, a wide spectrum of high-accuracy motion and environmental MEMS sensors (accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, pressure, temperature sensor), and a digital MEMS microphone.

Integrating ST’s SensorTile development kit with Valencell’s Benchmark sensor technology simplifies the prototyping, evaluation, and development of innovative wearable and IoT solutions by delivering a complete Valencell PerformTek technology package, ready for immediate integration and delivery into wearable devices. The collaboration with ST expands on previous work that incorporated the company’s STM32 MCUs and sensors into Valencell’s Benchmark sensor system.

“Valencell’s Benchmark solution leverages the high accuracy of ST’s MEMS sensor technology along with SensorTile’s miniature form factor, flexibility, and STM32 Open Development Environment-based ecosystem,” said Tony Keirouz, Vice President Marketing and Applications, Microcontrollers, Security, and Internet of Things, STMicroelectronics. “Combined, SensorTile and Benchmark enable wearable makers to quickly and easily develop the perfect product for any application that integrates highly accurate biometrics.”

“Working with ST has allowed us to bring together the best of all sensors required to support the most advanced wearable use cases through our groundbreaking Benchmark sensor system,” said Dr. Steven LeBoeuf, president and co-founder of Valencell. “What attracted us to the SensorTile was the flexibility of the platform and the ultra-low power consumption, which will enable our customers to create highly-accurate and powerful wearables and hearables in any form factor.”

At just over 180mm2, STMicroelectronics’ SensorTile is currently the smallest turnkey sensor board of its type, and it is jam-packed with a MEMS accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, pressure sensor, and a MEMS microphone. With the on-board low-power STM32L4 microcontroller, it can be used as a sensing and connectivity hub for developing firmware and shipping in products such as wearables, gaming accessories, and smart-home or IoT devices.

Adding to its features, SensorTile has a complete Bluetooth® Low Energy transceiver including a miniature single-chip balun on-board, as well as a broad set of system interfaces. It can be simply plugged to a host board, and when powered it immediately starts streaming inertial, audio, and environmental data to ST’s BlueMS smartphone app that can be downloaded free of charge from popular app stores.

The market leader, Valencell’s PerformTek sensor systems provide accurate, robust and flexible technology, powering more biometric hearables and wearables. The technology gives wearable and hearable devices the ability to continuously and accurately measure blood flow signals, even during extreme physical activity or when the optical signals are weak. These signals can be translated into biometric data, including continuous heart rate, VO2 and VO2 max, resting heart rate, heart rate response, heart rate recovery, continuous energy expenditure (calorie burn), cardiac efficiency and heart rate variability assessments.

STMicroelectronics and Valencell will showcase the new integrated development kit at CES in the Valencell Booth # 44330 and in a private STMicroelectronics suite.