Category Archives: Applications

9:00 am – 10:00 am
“CONNECT” Executive Summit
SEMI’s Denny McGuirk moderates a panel of execs from Lam, Qualcomm, Intel and Entegris
Keynote Stage

9:00 am – 3:00 pm
Women in Technology Forum
Room 304, Esplanade

12:30 am –2:00 pm
The Business Case for Supplier Diversity: Why it Matters to You
Intel presentation and panel discussion
Rm 308, Esplanade

1:00 pm – 5:00 pm
From Collision to Convergence: Co-creating Soutions in the Semiconductor and MEMS/Sensors Industries
San Francisco Marriott Marquis

2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
World of IoT Innovation
Innovation and IoT Theater

3:00 pm –4:30 pm
Bulls & Bears Panel
W Hotel

Imec, a nanoelectronics research center, today announced the opening of imec Florida, a new entity focusing on photonics and high-speed electronics IC design based in Osceola, Florida. Imec Florida kicked off with the signing of a collaboration agreement with the University of Central Florida (UCF), Osceola County and the International Consortium for Advanced Manufacturing Research (ICAMR), that is setting up fab facilities for the development and production of highly innovative III-V-on-silicon solutions for a broad range of applications including sensors, high-speed electronics and photonics.

Imec Florida will be established as a design center facilitating the collaboration between imec’s headquarters, based in Leuven, Belgium, and U.S.-based semiconductor and system companies, universities, and research institutes. Imec Florida’s initial focus will be the R&D of high speed electronics and photonics solutions, starting with an offering of IC design research for a broad set of semiconductor-based solutions such as THz and LIDAR sensors, imagers, and a broad range of sensors.  It will also provide IC design needs that will be driving the ICAMR manufacturing research. Through imec Florida, imec’s design, prototyping and low-volume production service – also named imec IC-link – will provide the US market low-cost access to advanced foundry services, helping entrepreneurs to (industry and academia) design innovative products and get them to market.

Funding for imec Florida will come from Osceola County, and the University of Central Florida. The new center will attract top talent through future strategic partnerships, with the aim to employ about 10 scientists and engineers by the end of the year and increase to 100 researchers in the next five years. Heading up the facility as General Manager will be imec’s Vice President Bert Gyselinckx who previously served as general manager at imec in Eindhoven, the Netherlands and helped to co-invent many technologies deployed by innovative semiconductor and consumer electronics companies.

“As the U.S. semiconductor market continues to strengthen with semiconductor manufacturing, equipment, materials and system innovation, we are extremely pleased to collaborate with partner organizations in Florida and see Osceola County in the Orlando region as an interesting location to drive the next phase of imec’s growth and innovation,” stated Luc Van den hove, president and CEO of imec. “Together with industrial and academic partners, we want to develop sustainable solutions and technology to accelerate innovation and stimulate economic growth within Osceola County and the State of Florida.”

“Imec’s international prestige gives us the opportunity to leverage its standing in a field that is growing exponentially in order to recruit more partners and funding for our work at the new Design Center and the Florida Advanced Manufacturing Research Center,” said Osceola County Commission Chairwoman Viviana Janer. “The relationships and people that imec brings to our operation are tangible ways that Osceola County’s 5-year, $15 million investment will be more than re-paid. It’s important to realize that the new Design Center is going to capture the attention of everyone in this field, thereby ensuring maximum utilization and value of the FAMRC.”

“The imec Design Center is the funnel that will fill ICAMR with high-value manufacturing opportunities and we will work closely with them to make sure our capabilities tightly align with their technology direction, said ICAMR CEO Chester Kennedy.  “This partnership is poised to shine the global high-tech spotlight on Central Florida.”

On July 11, 2016, imec will introduce imec Florida to the semiconductor industry at its annual Imec Technology Forum (ITF) USA, a half-day conference in San Francisco Calif., at the Marriott Marquis. ITF USA is part of imec’s prestigious worldwide ITF events, organized in conjunction with SEMICON West and supported by SEMI. With the theme ‘Towards the Ultimate System’, imec’s highly acclaimed speakers and industrial keynote speakers will look at the co-optimization of design and new technology, and how technology innovation can deliver the right building blocks to build these systems.

The health of the semiconductor industry is increasingly tied to the health of the worldwide economy. Rarely can there be strong semiconductor market growth without at least “good” worldwide economic growth to support it. Consequently, IC Insights expects annual global semiconductor market growth rates to continue to closely track the performance of worldwide GDP growth (Figure 1).  In its upcoming Mid-Year Update to The McClean Report 2016 (to be released at the end of July), IC Insights forecasts 2016 global GDP growth of only 2.3%, which is below the 2.5% level that is considered to be the global recession threshold.

Figure 1

Figure 1

In many areas of the world, local economies have slowed.  China, which is the leading market for personal computers, digital TVs, smartphones, new commercial aircraft, and automobiles, is forecast to continue to lose economic momentum in 2016.  Its GDP is forecast to increase 6.6% this year, which continues a slide in that country’s annual GDP growth rate that started in 2010 when growth rates exceeded 10%.

IC Insights believes that the worldwide economy will be negatively impacted, at least over the next year or two, by the Brexit vote this past June.  At this point, since the U.K. is unlikely to officially be able to leave the European Union (EU) for a couple of years, the biggest negative effect on economic growth is the uncertainty of the entire situation.  Some of the uncertainty created by the vote includes:

•    Whether the U.K. will actually leave the EU.  Since the Brexit vote is not legally binding, and still needs to be approved by the U.K. government, there is uncertainty if its departure from the EU will actually happen.

•    Whether the U.K. will come apart itself.  There are rumblings about Scotland breaking away from being a part of the U.K. in order for it to remain as part of the EU.

•    What trade deals will be made by the U.K. if it does leave the EU?  As part of its exit from the EU, the U.K. will need to establish numerous new trade deals with the EU.  There is tremendous uncertainty regarding whether these deals would have a positive or negative effect on the U.K. economy.

•    Will other countries follow the U.K. and depart from the EU?  Anxiety persists over whether the EU will fall apart as other countries attempt their own exit.  Some countries mentioned as possibly following the U.K. out of the EU include the Netherlands (Nexit), France (Frexit), Italy, Austria, and Sweden (Swexit).

The other major “culprit” dragging down semiconductor industry growth this year is the very weak DRAM market.  At $45.0 billion, the DRAM market was the largest single product category in the semiconductor industry in 2015.  IC Insights forecasts that the DRAM market will register a 19% drop of $8.5 billion this year to $36.5 billion.  The DRAM market alone is forecast to shave three percentage points off of total semiconductor market growth this year. Semiconductor market growth excluding DRAM is forecast to be +2%.

Most of the DRAM market decline expected for this year is due to a rapid decline in DRAM pricing over the past 18 months.  For 2016, the average price for a DRAM device is forecast to drop to $2.55, a steep 16% decline as compared to 2015’s DRAM ASP of $3.03. Further trends and analysis relating to semiconductor market forecasts through 2020 will be covered in the 250-plus-page Mid-Year Update to the 2016 edition of The McClean Report.

By James Hayward, Technology Analyst, IDTechEx

With hype around some of the core wearable technology sectors beginning to wane, IDTechEx have released their latest analysis of this diverse and growing industry in their brand new report Wearable Technology 2016-2026. The report finds the market to be worth over $30bn in 2016, with over $11bn of that coming from newly popular products including smartwatches and fitness trackers. However, despite the total market growing to over $150bn by 2026, IDTechEx forecast shake-ups in several prominent sectors, with commoditization hitting hard, and product form factors changing rapidly.

Global wearable technology forecast summary, including 39 forecast lines covering all prominent products today (e.g. smartwatches, fitness trackers, smart eyewear, smart clothing, medical devices and more), but also to many incumbent products (e.g. headphones, hearing aids, basic electronic watches and more). Source: IDTechEx Research report Wearable Technology 2016-2026.

Global wearable technology forecast summary, including 39 forecast lines covering all prominent products today (e.g. smartwatches, fitness trackers, smart eyewear, smart clothing, medical devices and more), but also to many incumbent products (e.g. headphones, hearing aids, basic electronic watches and more). Source: IDTechEx Research report Wearable Technology 2016-2026.

The IDTechEx report covers these trends in granular detail, including 39 separate forecast lines by product type and 60 formal company profiles and interviews compiled from primary research by IDTechEx’s expert analysts. The report also covers all of the industry megatrends that are driving innovation, demand and development, as well as describing application sectors including fitness & wellness, elite sportswear, healthcare & medical, infotainment, commercial, industrial, military, and others. For each, general sector-wide themes are described, but also detailed case studies are used to explain value propositions, end user needs and unmet problems that are driving the market forward.

Fuelled by a frenzy of hype, funding and global interest, wearable technology was catapulted to the top of the agenda for companies spanning the entire value chain and world. This investment manifested in hundreds of new products and extensive tailored R&D investigating relevant technology areas. However, the fickle nature of hype is beginning to show, and many companies are now progressing beyond discussing “wearables” to focus on the detailed and varied sub-sectors. Within this report, we include sections on each key of these key product areas, including fitness trackers, smartwatches, smart clothing, smart eyewear (including AR and VR), smart skin patches, headphones and more. For each, the key trends are discussed, the key players characterised, and qualified market forecasts provided.

IDTechEx’s expert analyst team has been covering this topic for over three years, including device level studies, but also looking to the component level at displays, sensors, batteries & power solutions, microcontrollers, e-textiles and haptics. This understanding of the entire value chain is used to qualify the market forecasts, and particularly when looking at the future of personal communication devices.

In a unique aspect of this report, IDTechEx outlines a long term case for standalone wearable communication devices as a future evolution of the smartphone. Today, most smartwatches and many fitness trackers still rely, at least partially, on a connection to a smartphone hub. The ubiquity of the smartphone as a central platform has been a key enabler for growth in wearables so far, but all of the largest manufacturers now look to a future, where the hub itself may become wearable. In the report, the authors describes the growth central, personal hub providing connectivity to peripheral devices, whether they be displays, sensor platforms or otherwise. With many smartwatches already beginning to move in this direction, we extend this case further providing a 10 year forecast for growth of devices of this type.

This is the most thorough and comprehensive report covering the entire wearable technology ecosystem. It provides detailed description of all of the hardware challenges and opportunities across the varied device types, and draws from IDTechEx’s case study database of around 1000 companies in the wearable technology value chain. The report lists around 500 companies actively making products (both hardware and software) to support this report. For full details of Wearable Technology 2016-2026, including the table of contents, please see www.IDTechEx.com/wearable.

 

Driven by the increase in global demand for sensors from the smartphone and automotive markets, Amkor Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: AMKR), a provider of semiconductor packaging and test services, today announced it is ramping up a new MEMS and sensor packaging line at its facility in Shanghai. This new line will build on the expertise developed at Amkor’s MEMS packaging line in the Philippines, which has produced more than 2.1 billion units of MEMS and sensors since 2011.

“Because the package influences device performance, MEMS and sensor development requires close collaboration between device technologists and packaging engineers,” said John Donaghey, Amkor’s corporate vice president, Mainstream Products business unit. “Our Shanghai expansion allows us to better serve customers in Greater China and internationally.”

The sensor content of smartphones, Internet of Things devices, and smart automobiles is increasing rapidly. According to Yole Développement, this has spurred unit growth in the MEMS market to an expected 13% compound annual growth rate through 2021. Additionally, miniaturization and the need for advanced MEMS and sensors are driving the need for “sensor fusion,” which integrates more functionality into a single package.

The new MEMS and sensor line in Shanghai uses Amkor’s standard strip-based processes, and offers leading-edge test protocols to speed time-to-market.

A research team at Clarkson University reports an interesting conclusion that could have major impacts on the future of nano-manufacturing. Their analysis for a model of the process of random sequential adsorption (RSA) shows that even a small imprecision in the position of the lattice landing sites can dramatically affect the density of the permanently formed deposit.

With the advent of nanotechnology, not only can we deposit tiny particles, but the target surfaces or substrates can be tailored to control the resulting structures.

This article addresses the precision that must exist in the pattern of the target surface, in order to achieve high perfection and high coverage in the pattern of deposited particles. To do this, it compares RSA on three types of surfaces: a continuous (non-patterned) lattice, a precisely patterned surface, and a surface with small imprecisions in the pattern. The researchers find that very small imprecisions can make RSA proceed as if the surface is continuous. The consequence is that the deposition process is less efficient, and the ultimate coverage is much lower. In the process of RSA, a continuous surface is covered slowly with a larger fraction of the area remaining uncovered than a precisely lattice-patterned surface. In the past when surfaces on which microscopic particles were deposited were naturally flat (continuous) or had a lattice-structure, the importance of small imprecisions had not been recognized.

The researchers explain their analysis this week in the Journal of Chemical Physics, from AIP Publishing.

Vladimir Privman at Clarkson University has been involved in studying aspects of such systems since 2007; however this study, conducted with graduate student Han Yan, was the first to consider the imprecision in the surface lattice-site localization, rather than in the particle size uniformity.

Initially suggested by computer modeling, their results were later derived by analytical model considerations which are novel for the research field of RSA.

“The greatest difficulty was to understand and accept the initial numerical finding that suggested results that seemed counterintuitive,” Privman explained. “Once accepted, we could actually confirm the initial findings, as well as generalize and systematize them by analytical arguments.”

Pre-patterned substrates have been studied for applications ranging from electronics to optics, to sensors, and to directed crystal growth. The reported results suggest that efforts at precise fixed positioning and object-sizing in nano-manufacturing might be counterproductive if done as part of forming structures by RSA, under practically irreversible conditions. A certain degree of relaxation, to allow objects to “wiggle their way” into matching positions, may actually be more effective in improving both the density and rate of formation of the desired dense structures, Privman said.

This work has implications that the team is preparing to explore.

“Now that we have realized that not only particle non-uniformity, but also substrate-pattern imprecision have substantial effects on the dynamics of the RSA process, we will begin studying various systems and patterning geometries, expanding beyond our original model,” Privman said.

Scientists and doctors in recent decades have made vast leaps in the treatment of cardiac problems – particularly with the development in recent years of so-called “cardiac patches,” swaths of engineered heart tissue that can replace heart muscle damaged during a heart attack.

Thanks to the work of Charles Lieber and others, the next leap may be in sight.

The Mark Hyman, Jr. Professor of Chemistry and Chair of the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Lieber, postdoctoral fellow Xiaochuan Dai and other co-authors of a study that describes the construction of nanoscale electronic scaffolds that can be seeded with cardiac cells to produce a “bionic” cardiac patch. The study is described in a June 27 paper published in Nature Nanotechnology.

“I think one of the biggest impacts would ultimately be in the area that involves replaced of damaged cardiac tissue with pre-formed tissue patches,” Lieber said. “Rather than simply implanting an engineered patch built on a passive scaffold, our works suggests it will be possible to surgically implant an innervated patch that would now be able to monitor and subtly adjust its performance.”

Once implanted, Lieber said, the bionic patch could act similarly to a pacemaker – delivering electrical shocks to correct arrhythmia, but the possibilities don’t end there.

“In this study, we’ve shown we can change the frequency and direction of signal propagation,” he continued. “We believe it could be very important for controlling arrhythmia and other cardiac conditions.”

Unlike traditional pacemakers, Lieber said, the bionic patch – because its electronic components are integrated throughout the tissue – can detect arrhythmia far sooner, and operate at far lower voltages.

“Even before a person started to go into large-scale arrhythmia that frequently causes irreversible damage or other heart problems, this could detect the early-stage instabilities and intervene sooner,” he said. “It can also continuously monitor the feedback from the tissue and actively respond.”

“And a normal pacemaker, because it’s on the surface, has to use relatively high voltages,” Lieber added.

The patch might also find use, Lieber said, as a tool to monitor the responses under cardiac drugs, or to help pharmaceutical companies to screen the effectiveness of drugs under development.

Likewise, the bionic cardiac patch can also be a unique platform, he further mentioned, to study the tissue behavior evolving during some developmental processes, such as aging, ischemia or differentiation of stem cells into mature cardiac cells.

Although the bionic cardiac patch has not yet been implanted in animals, “we are interested in identifying collaborators already investigating cardiac patch implantation to treat myocardial infarction in a rodent model,” he said. “I don’t think it would be difficult to build this into a simpler, easily implantable system.”

In the long term, Lieber believes, the development of nanoscale tissue scaffolds represents a new paradigm for integrating biology with electronics in a virtually seamless way.

Using the injectable electronics technology he pioneered last year, Lieber even suggested that similar cardiac patches might one day simply be delivered by injection.

“It may actually be that, in the future, this won’t be done with a surgical patch,” he said. “We could simply do a co-injection of cells with the mesh, and it assembles itself inside the body, so it’s less invasive.”

Presto Engineering Inc., a semiconductor product engineering and supply chain service provider, announced today that it has signed a multi-year supply agreement with NAGRA, a Kudelski Group company in secure digital TV access and management systems. Presto will provide supply chain management and production services for several of NAGRA’s key products in the Pay TV market.

“We are delighted that NAGRA has placed trust in Presto to be its production partner for volume products,” said Michel Villemain, CEO, Presto Engineering. “Leveraging team and expertise acquired from INSIDE Secure in 2015, this is a natural complement to our strategy of deploying an independent subcontract back-end manufacturing and supply chain service for the secure card industry and IoT markets.”

Providing full production support and secured back-end operations (EAL5+), Presto Engineering will leverage the teams, operations and platforms it has established in France (Meyreuil) and Asia (Thailand, Taiwan and Hong Kong) to provide supply chain services for NAGRA.

“We wanted to secure a rapid and trouble-free transition for the production of some of our important products,” said Maurice Van Riek, Senior Vice President, Head of Content & Asset Security, NAGRA. “Presto Engineering has demonstrated flexibility, dedication, and a high degree of expertise in developing global solutions, which will ensure continuity and performance through the transition and in production. We are very pleased to initiate this partnership with them.”

 

Brite Semiconductor, Inc.(Brite), an ASIC/SoC design and turnkey solution provider, today announced the collaborative development of an industrial machine-to-machine (M2M) system on chip (SoC) with Semitech Semiconductor, a provider of power line communications (PLC) solutions that enable the transformation of the electricity grid into a smart grid. This SoC is designed to support M2M communication in the global industrial and energy transmission market via PLC/wireless modes.

Backed by a successful track record that includes numerous ASIC designs, Brite has developed a Cadence Tensilica-based communication core architecture SoC that integrates DSP, memory, PLC AFE, RF transceiver and high-speed interface IPs with DDR and USB. This provides a market-defining dual-mode PLC/wireless communication system to achieve interactive M2M communication. This SoC will be manufactured using an advanced process with strategic partner SMIC, and will contain Semitech’s integrated PLC/wireless IP. The resulting product will provide high reliability and quality, ensuring it can be adopted by a broad range of industrial applications.

Semitech develops a dual-mode communication core (DMCC) for PLC/wireless and will apply this IP to Brite’s SoC-based system. By leveraging its abundant experience in M2M communication and expanding its proven PLC core, Semitech provides a total DMCC solution (including architecture, digital modules and algorithms) that can simultaneously support reliable wireless and PLC connectivity for the M2M market.

“This collaboration represents an important milestone for Brite, as designing an industrial SoC product for the emerging M2M market has been a goal of ours,” said Jerry Ardizzone, senior vice president of worldwide sales and marketing for Brite Semiconductor. “The primary application for the Brite and Semitech collaboration will be smart meters, and we will develop additional solutions for broader industrial applications including smart home, smart grid and automotive.”

“The next evolutionary step for smart grid applications is to move toward heterogeneous PLC/wireless networks, while accommodating aggressive cost and power budgets,” noted Zeev Collin, CEO of Semitech Semiconductor. “Our existing PLC architecture and the extensive experience of our team in narrowband communication across different media make it possible to take this step. Partnering with Brite puts us at the leading edge of the M2M market and will ensure that we yield a superior product.”

With a surface resembling that of plants, solar cells improve light-harvesting and thus generate more power. Scientists of KIT (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology) reproduced the epidermal cells of rose petals that have particularly good antireflection properties and integrated the transparent replicas into an organic solar cell. This resulted in a relative efficiency gain of twelve percent. An article on this subject has been published recently in the Advanced Optical Materials journal.

Biomimetics: the epidermis of a rose petal is replicated in a transparent layer which is then integrated into the front of a solar cell. Credit: Illustration: Guillaume Gomard, KIT

Biomimetics: the epidermis of a rose petal is replicated in a transparent layer which is then integrated into the front of a solar cell. Credit: Illustration: Guillaume Gomard, KIT

Photovoltaics works in a similar way as the photosynthesis of plants. Light energy is absorbed and converted into a different form of energy. In this process, it is important to use a possibly large portion of the sun’s light spectrum and to trap the light from various incidence angles as the angle changes with the sun’s position. Plants have this capability as a result of a long evolution process – reason enough for photovoltaics researchers to look closely at nature when developing solar cells with a broad absorption spectrum and a high incidence angle tolerance.

Scientists at the KIT and the ZSW (Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg) now suggest in their article published in the Advanced Optical Materials journal to replicate the outermost tissue of the petals of higher plants, the so-called epidermis, in a transparent layer and integrate that layer into the front of solar cells in order to increase their efficiency.

First, the researchers at the Light Technology Institute (LTI), the Institute of Microstructure Technology (IMT), the Institute of Applied Physics (APH), and the Zoological Institute (ZOO) of KIT as well as their colleagues from the ZSW investigated the optical properties, and above all, the antireflection effect of the epidermal cells of different plant species. These properties are particularly pronounced in rose petals where they provide stronger color contrasts and thus increase the chance of pollination. As the scientists found out under the electron microscope, the epidermis of rose petals consists of a disorganized arrangement of densely packed microstructures, with additional ribs formed by randomly positioned nanostructures.

In order to exactly replicate the structure of these epidermal cells over a larger area, the scientists transferred it to a mold made of polydimethylsiloxane, a silicon-based polymer, pressed the resulting negative structure into optical glue which was finally left to cure under UV light. “This easy and cost-effective method creates microstructures of a depth and density that are hardly achievable with artificial techniques,” says Dr. Guillaume Gomard, Group Leader “Nanopothonics” at KIT’s LTI.

The scientists then integrated the transparent replica of the rose petal epidermis into an organic solar cell. This resulted in power conversion efficiency gains of twelve percent for vertically incident light. At very shallow incidence angles, the efficiency gain was even higher. The scientists attribute this gain primarily to the excellent omnidirectional antireflection properties of the replicated epidermis that is able to reduce surface reflection to a value below five percent, even for a light incidence angle of nearly 80 degrees. In addition, as examinations using a confocal laser microscope showed, every single replicated epidermal cell works as a microlense. The microlense effect extends the optical path within the solar cell, enhances the light-matter-interaction, and increases the probability that the photons will be absorbed.

“Our method is applicable to both other plant species and other PV technologies,” Guillaume Gomard explains. “Since the surfaces of plants have multifunctional properties, it might be possible in the future to apply multiple of these properties in a single step.” The results of this research lead to another basic question: What is the role of disorganization in complex photonic structures? Further studies are now examining this issue with the perspective that the next generation of solar cells might benefit from their results.