Category Archives: Applications

MIT researchers have developed a new, ultrasensitive magnetic-field detector that is 1,000 times more energy-efficient than its predecessors. It could lead to miniaturized, battery-powered devices for medical and materials imaging, contraband detection, and even geological exploration.

Magnetic-field detectors, or magnetometers, are already used for all those applications. But existing technologies have drawbacks: Some rely on gas-filled chambers; others work only in narrow frequency bands, limiting their utility.

Synthetic diamonds with nitrogen vacancies (NVs) — defects that are extremely sensitive to magnetic fields — have long held promise as the basis for efficient, portable magnetometers. A diamond chip about one-twentieth the size of a thumbnail could contain trillions of nitrogen vacancies, each capable of performing its own magnetic-field measurement.

The problem has been aggregating all those measurements. Probing a nitrogen vacancy requires zapping it with laser light, which it absorbs and re-emits. The intensity of the emitted light carries information about the vacancy’s magnetic state.

“In the past, only a small fraction of the pump light was used to excite a small fraction of the NVs,” says Dirk Englund, the Jamieson Career Development Assistant Professor in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and one of the designers of the new device. “We make use of almost all the pump light to measure almost all of the NVs.”

The MIT researchers report their new device in the latest issue of Nature Physics. First author on the paper is Hannah Clevenson, a graduate student in electrical engineering who is advised by senior authors Englund and Danielle Braje, a physicist at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. They’re joined by Englund’s students Matthew Trusheim and Carson Teale (who’s also at Lincoln Lab) and by Tim Schröder, a postdoc in MIT’s Research Laboratory of Electronics.

Telling absence

A pure diamond is a lattice of carbon atoms, which don’t interact with magnetic fields. A nitrogen vacancy is a missing atom in the lattice, adjacent to a nitrogen atom. Electrons in the vacancy do interact with magnetic fields, which is why they’re useful for sensing.

When a light particle — a photon — strikes an electron in a nitrogen vacancy, it kicks it into a higher energy state. When the electron falls back down into its original energy state, it may release its excess energy as another photon. A magnetic field, however, can flip the electron’s magnetic orientation, or spin, increasing the difference between its two energy states. The stronger the field, the more spins it will flip, changing the brightness of the light emitted by the vacancies.

Making accurate measurements with this type of chip requires collecting as many of those photons as possible. In previous experiments, Clevenson says, researchers often excited the nitrogen vacancies by directing laser light at the surface of the chip.

“Only a small fraction of the light is absorbed,” she says. “Most of it just goes straight through the diamond. We gain an enormous advantage by adding this prism facet to the corner of the diamond and coupling the laser into the side. All of the light that we put into the diamond can be absorbed and is useful.”

Covering the bases

The researchers calculated the angle at which the laser beam should enter the crystal so that it will remain confined, bouncing off the sides — like a tireless cue ball ricocheting around a pool table — in a pattern that spans the length and breadth of the crystal before all of its energy is absorbed.

“You can get close to a meter in path length,” Englund says. “It’s as if you had a meter-long diamond sensor wrapped into a few millimeters.” As a consequence, the chip uses the pump laser’s energy 1,000 times as efficiently as its predecessors did.

Because of the geometry of the nitrogen vacancies, the re-emitted photons emerge at four distinct angles. A lens at one end of the crystal can collect 20 percent of them and focus them onto a light detector, which is enough to yield a reliable measurement.

Supplier Hub answers the needs of a changing semiconductor industry. 

BY LUC VAN DEN HOVE, imec, Leuven, Belgium

Supplier HubOur semiconductor industry is a cyclical business, with regular ups and downs. But we have always successfully rebounded, with new technologies that have brought on the next generation of electronic products. Now however, the industry stands at an inflection point. Some of the challenges to introduce next generation technologies are larger than ever before. Overcoming this point will require, in our opinion, a tighter collaboration than ever. To accommodate that collaboration, we have set up a new Supplier Hub, a neutral platform where researchers, IC producers, and suppliers work on solutions for technical challenges. This collaboration will allow the industry to overcome the inflection point and to move on to the next cycle of success, driven by the many exciting application domains that appear on the horizon.

Call for a new collaboration model

The formulas for the industry’s success have changed. Device structures are pushing the limits of physics, making it challenging to continue progressing according to Moore’s Law. Intricate manufacturing requirements make process control ever more difficult. Also chip design is more complex than ever before, requiring more scrutiny, analysis and testing before manufacturing can even begin. And the cost of manufacturing equipment and setting up a fab has risen exponentially, shutting out many smaller companies and forcing equipment and material suppliers to merge.

In that context, more and more innovation is coming from the supplier community, both from equipment and material suppliers. But as processes are approaching some fundamental limits, such as material limits, chemical, physical limits, it is also for suppliers becoming more difficult to operate and develop next-generation process steps in an isolated way. An earlier and stronger interaction among suppliers is needed.

All this makes a central and neutral platform more important than ever. That insight and the requests we got from partners set imec on the path to organizing a supplier hub. A hub that is structured as a neutral, open innovation R&D platform, a platform for which we make a substantial part of our 300mm cleanroom floor space available, even extending our facilities. It is a platform where suppliers and manufacturers collaborate side-to- side with the researchers developing next-generation technology nodes.

Organizing the supplier hub is a logical evolution in the way we have always set up collaborations with and between companies that are involved in semiconductor manufacturing. Collaborations that have proven very successful in the previous decade and that have resulted in a number of key innovations.

Supplier Hub off to a promising start

Today, both in logic and in memory, we are developing solutions to enable 7nm and 5nm technology nodes. These will involve new materials, new transistor architectures, and ever shrinking dimensions of structures and layers. At imec, the bulk of scaling efforts like these used to be done in collaborative programs involving IDMs and foundries, but also the fabless and fablite companies. All of these programs were strongly supported by our partnerships with the supplier community.

But today, to work out the various innovations in process steps needed for future nodes, we simply need this stronger and more strategic engagement from the supplier community, involving experimenting on the latest tools, even if they are still under development. And vice-versa, the tool and material suppliers can no longer only develop tools based on specs documents. To fabricate their products successfully and on time, they need to develop and test in a real process flow, and be involved in the development of new device concepts, to be able to fabricate tools and design process steps that match the requirements of the new devices.

A case in point: it is no longer possible now to develop and asses the latest generation of advanced litho without matching materials and etch processes. And reversely, the other tool suppliers need the result of the latest litho developments. So today, all process steps have to be optimized concurrently with other process steps, integrating material innovations at the same time. And this is absolutely necessary for success.

So that’s where the Supplier Hub enters.

In 2013, imec announced an extended collaboration with ASML, involving the set up an advanced patterning center, which will grow to 100 engineers. In 2014, the new center was started as the cornerstone of the supplier hub. Mid 2014, Lam Research agreed to partake in the hub. And since then a growing number of suppliers has been joining, among them the big names in the industry. Some of more recent collaborations that we announced e.g. were Hitachi (CD-SEM metrology equipment) and SCREEN Semiconductor Solutions (cleaning and surface preparation tools).

End of 2014, ASML started installing its latest EUV-tool, the NXE:3300. In the meantime, we have initiated building a new cleanroom next to our existing 300mm infrastructure. The extra floor space will be needed to accommodate all the additional equipment that will come in in the frame of the tighter collaboration among suppliers. Finally, during our October 2014 Internal Partner Conference, we organized a first Supplier Collaboration Forum where the suppliers discussed and evaluated their projects with all partners, representing a large share of the semiconductor community.

We have also been expanding the supplier hub concept through a deeper involvement of material suppliers. These will prove a cornerstone of the hub, as many advances we need for scaling to the next nodes will be based on material innovations.

Enabling the Internet-Of-Everything

I hold great optimism for the industry. The last years, the success of mobile devices has fueled the demand for semiconductor-based products. These mobile applications will continue to stimulate data consumption, going from 4G to 5G as consumers clamor for greater data availability, immediacy, and access. Beyond the traditional computing and communications applications loom new markets, collectively called the ‘Internet of Everything.’

In addition, nanoelectronics will enable disruptive innovations in healthcare to monitor, measure, analyze, predict and prevent illnesses. Wearable devices have already proven themselves in encouraging healthier lifestyles. The industry’s challenge is now to ensure that the data delivered via personal devices meet medical quality standards. In that frame, our R&D efforts will continue to focus on ultra-low-power multi-sensor platforms.

While there are many facets to the inflection point puzzle, the answers of the industry begin to take shape. The cost of finding new solutions will keep on rising. Individual companies carry ever larger risks if their choices prove wrong. But through closer collabo- ration, companies can share that risk while developing solutions, exploring and creating new technologies, shorten times to market, and be ready to bring a new generation of products to a waiting world. The industry may indeed stand at an inflection point, but the future is bright. Innovation cannot be stifled. And collaboration remains the consensus of an industry focused on the next new thing. Today, IC does not just stand for Integrated Circuit, it indeed calls for Innovation and Collaboration.

A pair of light waves – one zipping clockwise the other counterclockwise around a microscopic track – may hold the key to creating the world’s smallest gyroscope: one a fraction of the width of a human hair. By bringing this essential technology down to an entirely new scale, a team of applied physicists hopes to enable a new generation of phenomenally compact gyroscope-based navigation systems, among other intriguing applications.

“We have found a new detection scheme that may lead to the world’s smallest gyroscope,” said Li Ge, a physicist at the Graduate Center and Staten Island College, City University of New York. “Though these so-called optical gyroscopes are not new, our approach is remarkable both in its super-small size and potential sensitivity.”

Ge and his colleagues – physicist Hui Cao and her student Raktim Sarma, both at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut – recently published their results in The Optical Society’s (OSA) new high-impact journal Optica.

More than creative learning toys, gyroscopes are indispensable components in a number of technologies, including inertial guidance systems, which monitor an object’s motion and orientation. Space probes, satellites, and rockets continuously rely on these systems for accurate flight control. But like so many other essential pieces of aerospace technology, weight is a perennial problem. According to NASA, it costs about $10,000 for every pound lifted into orbit, so designing essential components that are smaller and lighter is a constant struggle for engineers and project managers.

If the size of an optical gyroscope is reduced to just a fraction of a millimeter, as is presented in the new paper, it could then be integrated into optical circuit boards, which are similar to a conventional electric circuit board but use light to carry information instead of electric currents. This could drastically reduce the equipment cost in space missions, opening the possibility for a new generation of micro-payloads.

Putting a New Spin on Light-powered Gyroscopes

Quite different from mechanical gyroscopes, which are currently used on ships for stabilization and rockets for guidance, optical gyroscopes have no moving parts. Instead, dual light waves race around an optical cavity or fiber, constantly passing each other as they travel in opposite directions.

Traditional mechanical gyroscopes use Newton’s laws of motion to maintain stability and orientation. These same physics principles, however, do not apply to light, so measuring motion requires looking for telltale yet very subtle optical signals instead.

One such signal comes from the unusual property of light known as the Sagnac effect, which – put simply – creates a measurable interference pattern when light waves split and then recombine upon leaving a spinning system. Commercial optical gyroscopes build on this principle, with their sizes varying from that of a baseball to a basketball. They could be made much smaller, but measuring rotation would require a much greater level of sensitivity than is currently available.

Making a Gyroscope Out of Light

Traditionally, engineers have used two approaches to make optical gyroscopes, both based on the Sagnac effect. The first one uses an optical cavity – an engineered structure on a crystal – to confine light and the second one uses an optical fiber to guide light.

The second approach has, to date, been most practical because its sensitivity can be easily enhanced by using longer sections of optical fiber (some up to five kilometers long). These lengths of fiber would then be wrapped around an object about five centimeters in diameter, achieving a more manageable size. Though this system is sensitive to rotation, there are practical limits to how long the fiber can be and how small it can be wrapped before the fiber itself is damaged.

To go truly small, optical cavities seem to be the preferable option, where the Sagnac effect manifests as a subtle color change. The problem, however, has been that the sensitivity of this type of optical gyroscopes degrades as the cavity gets smaller.

“This issue was the roadblock that has hindered scientists from developing tiny optical gyroscopes,” noted Ge. “There have been several attempts to get around this limitation, but they could not get around the real problem, the Sagnac effect itself.”

The researchers were able to overcome this hurdle by using a very different principle based on far-field emission. Rather than directly measuring the color change of the light waves, the researchers determined that they could measure the pattern the light produced as it exited the cavity.

“That was our key innovation – finding a new signal with a much improved sensitivity to rotation,” said Ge. “Optical gyroscopes optimized to produce and detect this new signal, we found, could be about 10 microns across – smaller than the cross section of a human hair.”

The idea is similar to rotating an uncovered light bulb. You can’t see any direct spinning, but on small scales, the act of rotation itself causes a small but measurable relativistic effect – slightly bending space in and around the light source. This then almost imperceptibly distorts the pattern on the wall. If measured, however, the speed of rotation can be calculated from the degree of distorting.

Spinning the Gyroscope

To start the new optical gyroscope, light waves are first pumped into the optical cavity. This naturally produces light waves traveling in both clockwise and counterclockwise directions. This behavior is similar to plucking a guitar string in the middle, sending vibrations in both directions simultaneously.

By carefully designing the shape of the optical cavity, the researchers were able to control where both waves would exit. Normally, cavities are designed to trap light as long as possible. Here, the researchers needed to balance the light trapping properties of the cavity with the need for some light to escape to create a far-field emission pattern. This pattern is observed by placing a pair of camera-like detectors facing the cavity at different angles that move along with the cavity. This allows them to continuously monitor the pattern for distortions that would reveal the speed of rotation.

Though this only reveals one plane of motion, multiple such sensors at different orientations would be able to give a fully three-dimensional picture of how the object is moving.

Next Steps and Technology Development

According to the researchers, further studies are needed to take into consideration the possibility that many modes, or light paths, exist simultaneously in the cavity. Their far-field emission patterns may change in different ways, which causes a reduction of the sensitivity to rotation. The researchers are currently working on different methods to control this effect.

At this week’s OFC 2015, the largest global conference and exposition for optical communications, nanoelectronics research center imec, its associated lab at Ghent University (Intec), and Stanford University have demonstrated a compact germanium (Ge) waveguide electro-absorption modulator (EAM) with a modulation bandwidth beyond 50GHz. Combining state-of-the-art extinction ratio and low insertion loss with an ultra-low capacitance of just 10fF, the demonstrated EAM marks an important milestone for the realization of next-generation silicon integrated optical interconnects at 50Gb/s and beyond.

Future chip-level optical interconnects require integrated optical modulators with stringent requirements for modulation efficiency and bandwidth, as well as for footprint and thermal robustness. In the presented work, imec and its partners have improved the state-of-the-art for Ge EAMs on Si, realizing higher modulation speed, higher modulation efficiency and lower capacitance. This was obtained by fully leveraging the strong confinement of the optical and electrical fields in the Ge waveguides, as enabled in imec’s 200mm Silicon Photonics platform. The EAM was implemented along with various Si waveguide devices, highly efficient grating couplers, various active Si devices, and high speed Ge photodetectors, paving the way to industrial adoption of optical transceivers based on this device.

“This achievement is a milestone for realizing silicon optical transceivers for datacom applications at 50Gb/s and beyond,” stated Joris Van Campenhout, program director at imec. “We have developed a modulator that addresses the bandwidth and density requirements for future chip-level optical interconnects.”

Companies can benefit from imec’s Silicon Photonics platform (iSiPP25G) through established standard cells, or by exploring the functionality of their own designs in Multi-Project Wafer (MPW) runs. The iSiPP25G technology is available via ICLink services and MOSIS, a provider of low-cost prototyping and small volume production services for custom ICs.

Following two lethargic years of low growth and some setbacks, worldwide sales of optoelectronics, sensors, actuators, and discrete semiconductors regained strength in 2014 and collectively increased 9 percent to reach an all-time high of $63.8 billion after rising just 1 percent in 2012 and 2013, according to IC Insights’ new 2015 O-S-D Report—A Market Analysis and Forecast for Optoelectronics, Sensors/Actuators, and Discretes.  Modest gains in the global economy, steady increases in electronic systems production, and higher unit demand in 2014 drove a strong recovery in discretes along with substantial improvements in sensors/actuators and greater growth in optoelectronics, says the new 360-page annual report, which becomes available in March 2015.

Each of the three O-S-D market segments are forecast to increase at or above their long-term annual growth rates in 2015 and 2016 (Figure 1) as the global economy continues to gradually improve and major new end-use systems applications boost sales in some of the largest product categories of optoelectronics, sensors/actuators, and discretes.  After a modest slowdown in 2017, due to the next anticipated economic downturn, all three O-S-D market segments are expected to continue reaching record-high sales in 2018 and 2019, based on the five-year forecast in the new 10th edition of IC Insights’ O-S-D Report.

Optoelectronics sales are now forecast to rise 10 percent in 2015 to set a new record-high $34.8 billion after growing 8 percent in 2014 to reach the current annual peak of $31.6 billion.  Sales of sensors/actuators are also expected to strengthen slightly in 2015, rising 7 percent to $9.9 billion, which will break the current record high of $9.2 billion set in 2014 when this market segment grew 6 percent.  The commodity-filled discretes market is forecast to see a more normal 5 percent increase in 2015 and reach a new record high of $24.2 billion after roaring back in 2014 with a strong 11 percent increase following declines of 7 percent in 2012 and 5 percent in 2013.  The two-year drop was the first back-to-back decline for discretes sales in more than 30 years and primarily resulted from delays in purchases of power transistors and other devices as cautious systems manufacturers kept their inventories low in the midst of uncertainty about the weak global economy and end-user demand.

OSD fig 1

 

In 2014, combined sales of O-S-D accounted for 18 percent of the semiconductor industry’s $354.9 billion in total revenues compared to 16 percent in 2004 and 13 percent in 1994.  (Optoelectronics was 9 percent of the 2014 sales total with sensors/actuators being 3 percent, discretes at 6 percent and ICs accounting for 82 percent, or $290.8 billion, last year).  On the strength of optoelectronics and sensor products—including CMOS image sensors, high-brightness light-emitting diodes (LEDs), and devices built with microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology—total O-S-D sales have outpaced the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of ICs since the late 1990s.  IC Insights’ new report shows this trend continuing between 2014 and 2019 with combined O-S-D sales projected to grow by a CAGR of 6.9 percent versus 5.5 percent for ICs.

The 2015 O-S-D Report shows strong optoelectronics growth being driven in the next five years by new embedded cameras and image-recognition systems made with CMOS imaging devices as well as the spread of LED-based solid-state lights and high-speed fiber optic networks built with laser transmitters that are needed to keep up with tremendous increases in Internet traffic, video transmissions, and cloud-computing services, including those connected to the huge potential of the Internet of Things (IoT). The sensors/actuators market is forecast to see steady growth from high unit demand driven by the spread of automated embedded-control functions, new sensing networks, wearable systems, and measurement capabilities being connected to IoT in the second half of this decade.  Discretes sales are expected to climb higher primarily due to strong growth in power transistors and other devices used in battery-operated electronics and to make all types of systems more energy efficient—including automobiles, high-density servers in Internet data centers, industrial equipment, and home appliances.

Bosch #1

Bosch reinforced its leadership in the MEMS industry in 2014 with a 16.6 percent increase to $1167 million up from $1001 million in 2013. Bosch alone held 12 percent of the very fragmented MEMS market in 2014 compared to 11 percent in 2012.

Bosch took the leadership in 2013 thanks to its design in the Apple iPhone 5s and iPad with its accelerometer. Apple boosted Bosch’s MEMS revenue in 2014 again as Bosch is the sole supplier of the pressure sensors added to the iPhone 6 and 6+. Besides Apple, Bosch enjoyed a strong growth of its motion combo sensors with Sony both for gaming with the Sony PS4 and for handsets and tablets. Bosch started going after the consumer MEMS market in 2005 when it created Bosch Sensortec. It added MEMS microphone to its portfolio with the acquisition of Akustica in 2009. Bosch’s bet on consumer applications paid off as this segment now accounted for a third of Bosch’s total MEMS revenue in 2014 compared to less than 18 percent in 2012.

The legacy automotive business continues to dominate Bosch’s MEMS revenue with 67 percent in 2014. Bosch is the undisputed leader in automotive MEMS with 30 percent market shares in 2014 and with revenue more than three times as high as the 2nd largest Automotive MEMS maker Denso.

Texas Instrument #2

Texas Instrument enjoyed a rebound of its Digital Light Processing business in 2014 with an estimated $805 million up from $709 million in 2013. The business growth in 2014 was seen mostly in the main business line of DLP business projector segment using TI’s Digital Micromirror Device (DMD). TI’s DLP business had declined from 2010 to 2013 as Epson – TI’s DLP’s main competitor with its (non-MEMS) LCD technology – won shares in the projector business. Also the business projector market suffered in the past few years from the competition from low cost LCD flat panels being used as an alternative to projectors for many conference rooms, especially in Asia region. TI won back shares in the projection display market against Epson’s LCD technology last year.

STMicroelectronics #3

ST’s MEMS business suffered a 19 percent decline in revenue from $777 million to $630 million. ST is still the #1 MEMS manufacturer for consumer and mobile applications with 15 percent of this segment. The historical MEMS business of ST i.e. motion sensors for consumer applications has been hit as ST lost its spot in the latest iPhone for the accelerometer in 2013 and for the gyroscope in 2014 and as well as for the combo motion sensors in the Samsung Galaxy S5. In this game of musical chair ST mitigated the damage however by winning 100 percent of the pressure sensor in the Galaxy S5.

ST has laid in 2014 the foundation for a rebound of its MEMS business in 2015. Especially ST’s MEMS microphone is growing very fast thanks to the design win in the iPhone 6 in addition to ST’s existing microphone sales into the iPad. ST’s MEMS microphone shipment grew more than 2.5 times in 2014 and IHS expects the Apple design win to attract further customers.

The decline of inkjet makers (HP #4th and Canon #7th) 

HP #4th and Canon #7th continue to see the revenue associated to their MEMS inkjet printheads declining. Canon saw a slight decline of its inkjet printer sales. Sales of inkjet printers were up 1 percent for HP in 2014 but the shipment of inkjet is declining since HP started the transition from disposable printheads (which are part of the ink cartridge) to permanent printheads in 2006.

Knowles #5 

After enjoying a 19 percent and 50 percent growth respectively in 2012 and 2013, Knowles saw its MEMS microphone revenue decline 9 percent from $505 to $460 million in 2014. While Apple was largely responsible for the formidable year 2013 as Knowles won a second spot in the iPhone 5S, the decline in 2014 was also related to the iPhone. Early teardowns by IHS of the iPhone 6 and 6+ reveal that Knowles was present with ST and AAC in the first batch of iPhones. Knowles dropped out of the supply chain however due to a technical defect leaving the business to ST, AAC and the new-comer Goertek. Still Knowles remains by far the top MEMS microphone supplier with more than 45 percent units shares. It is also the second largest MEMS manufacturer for consumer and mobile applications with 12 percent revenue share. IHS believes that Knowles will resume with revenue growth in 2015 as it starts shipping to Apple again.

BAW filters makers continue to thrive on LTE (Avago #6th and TriQuint)

Avago and TriQuint grew 6 percent and 15 percent respectively their MEMS based BAW filter business. The LTE band is a boon for the two BAW filter makers, especially in the 2.3 GHz to 2.7 GHz bands, as BAW devices perform better than SAW filters at these frequencies, and solve the coexistence issues of Wi-Fi and LTE. The BAW filter market is currently experiencing resurgence thanks to LTE and as the number of bands of in handsets keeps increasing.

InvenSense # 8

InvenSense was the fastest growing company in the top 10 with an impressive 34 percent jump to $332 million. The vast majority of his jump comes from InvenSense win of the 6-axis motion combo sensor in the iPhone 6 and 6+. InvenSense has also been very successful with its gyroscope built into camera modules for Optical Image Stabilization (OIS).

Freescale # 10

Rounding up the top 10, Freescale saw its MEMS revenue grow 6 percent to $271 million in 2014. Automotive continue to make up for around 80 percent of Freescale’s. Freescale enjoyed especially a robust expansion of its pressure sensor sales for Tire Pressure Monitoring Applications.

In March 2015 NXP and Freescale announced a merger. There is no overlap on the sensor side. NXP has had various MEMS developments in the past 10 years (RF MEMS switches, MEMS timing…) but nothing has come in production yet. NXP is however one of the leading magnetic sensor suppliers for automotive. The new entity will become the leading merchant supplier of automotive semiconductor sensors with a very strong positon in chassis and safety applications especially. NXP is also the leading suppliers of microcontrollers used as sensor hubs as it produces the sensor hubs for the Apple iPhone and iPads.

Reference: IHS MEMS Market Tracker Q1 2015

top 10 mems -2

With an impressive 20 percent growth in MEMS revenue compared to 2013, and sales revenues of more than $1.2B, Robert Bosch GmbH is the clear #1.

illus_top30mems_march2015

From Yole Développement’s yearly analysis of “TOP 100 MEMS Players,” analysts have released the “2014 TOP 20 MEMS Players Ranking.” This ranking shows the clear emergence of what could be a future “MEMS titan”: Robert Bosch (Bosch). Driven by MEMS for smartphone sales – including pressure sensors -, Bosch’s MEMS revenue increased by 20 percent in 2014, and totaling $1.2B. The gap between Bosch and STMicroelectronics now stands at more than $400M

“The top five remains unchanged from 2013, but Bosch now accounts for one-third of the $3.8B MEMS revenue shared by the top five MEMS companies. Together, these five companies account for around one- third of the total MEMS business,” details Jean-Christophe Eloy, President & CEO, Yole Développement (Yole). “It’s also interesting to see that among the top thirty players, almost every one increased its revenue in 2014,” he adds.

In other noteworthy news, Texas Instruments’ sales saw a slight increase thanks to its DLP projection business. RF companies also enjoyed impressive growth, with a 23 percent increase for Avago Technologies (close to $400M) and a 141 percent increase for Qorvo (formerly TriQuint), to $350M.

Meanwhile, the inertial market keeps growing. This growth is beneficial to InvenSense, which continues its rise with a 32 percent increase in 2014, up to $329M revenue. Accelerometers, gyroscopes and magnetometers are not the only devices contributing to MEMS companies’ growth. Pressure sensors also made a nice contribution, especially in automotive and consumer sectors. Specifically, Freescale Semiconductor saw a 33 percent increase in pressure revenue, driven by the Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems (TPMS) business for automotive. On the down side, ink jet head companies still face hard times, with Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Canon both seeing revenues decrease. However, new markets are being targeted. Though thus far limited to consumer printers, MEMS technology is set to expand into the office and industrial markets as a substitute for laser printing technology (office) and inkjet piezo machining technology (for industrial & graphics).

“What we see is an industry that will generally evolve in four stages over the next 25 years. This is true for both CMOS Image Sensors and MEMS,” explains Dr Eric Mounier, Senior Technology & Market Analyst, MEMS devices & Technologies at Yole. He explains: “The “opening stage” generally begins when the top three companies hold no more than 10 – 30 percent market share. Later on, the industry enters the “scale stage” through consolidation, when the top three increases its collective market share to 45 percent.”

According to Yole, the “More than Moore” market research and strategy consulting company, MEMS industry has now entered the “Expansion Stage.”

“Key players are expanding, and we’re starting to see some companies surpassing others (i.e. Bosch’s rise to the top). If we follow this model, the next step will be the “Balance & Alliance” stage, characterized by the top three holding up to 90 percent of market share”, comments Dr Mounier.

Among the 10 or so MEMS titans currently sharing most of the MEMS markets, Yole’s analysts have separated them into two categories:

  • “Titans with Momentum” and “Struggling Titans”. In the first category we include Bosch, InvenSense, Avago Technologies and Qorvo. Bosch’s case is particularly noteworthy, since it’s currently the only MEMS company with dual markets (automotive and consumer) and the right R&D/production infrastructure.
  • On the “Struggling Titans” side, Yole identifies STMicroelectronics, HP, Texas Instruments, Canon, Knowles, Denso and Panasonic. These companies are currently struggling to find an efficient growth engine.

 

Without question, both Bosch and InvenSense are growing, while others like STMicroelectronics and Knowles are suffering a slow-down or MEMS sales decrease.

Another interesting fact about Yole’s 2014 TOP MEMS Ranking is that there are no new entrants (and thus no exits).

More market figures and analysis on MEMS, the Internet of Things (IoT) and wearables can be found in Yole’s 2014 IoT report (Technologies & Sensors for Internet of Things: Business & Market Trends, June 2014), and the upcoming “Sensors for Wearables and Mobile” report.

Also, Yole is currently preparing the 2015 release of its “MEMS Industry Status.” This will be issued in April and will delve deeper into MEMS markets, strategies and players analyses.

Silicon Labs, a provider of semiconductor and software solutions for the Internet of Things (IoT) and Digi-Key, a developer of electronic component selection, availability and delivery, today announced an IoT design contest for pioneering developers who want to create connected “things” that will help make the world a smarter, more connected and energy-friendly place. Co-sponsored by Silicon Labs and Digi-Key, the “Your IoT Connected World” design contest is open to inventors of all skill levels, from professional embedded developers and seasoned makers to electronics enthusiasts.

The contest runs now through July 17, with three winners to be announced on August 3, 2015. Visitors to the www.YourIoTContest.com site will vote to decide on 15 finalists, and expert judges from Silicon Labs and Digi-Key will choose the three winners. Each winner will select the Silicon Labs components they need (microcontrollers, wireless chips, sensors, boards and more – valued up to $10,000) to bring their prize-winning IoT ideas to market as commercially viable products.

“The silicon and software technology needed to make ‘your IoT’ a reality is available today, and it’s up to pioneering developers like you to create the next IoT innovations that will help save time and energy, enhance health and security, and improve the quality of life for people everywhere,” said Peter Vancorenland, vice president of engineering and IoT solutions at Silicon Labs. “This is your chance to bring your groundbreaking IoT ideas to market, enabled by Silicon Labs development tools and kickstarted by $10,000 in Silicon Labs components.”

“Whether designers are solving an existing problem or creating a totally new invention, ideas are limited only by the developer’s imagination,” said David Sandys, director of technical marketing for Digi-Key. “Winning IoT designs may include innovations like connected home devices, smart appliances, lighting control systems, wearable technology, security systems, wireless sensor networks and much more.”

To get started, simply visit www.YourIoTContest.com. All IoT designs must contain a Silicon Labs microcontroller (MCU) product. Each contestant must submit photos or a brief video overview of their IoT product design. Silicon Labs offers a wide array of 8-bit and 32-bit MCUs, wireless ICs, interface chips, optical and environmental sensors, and development tools for IoT applications, all available through Digi-Key. To help simplify the evaluation, design and prototyping process, Silicon Labs’ Simplicity Studio development platform can be downloaded at no charge at www.silabs.com/simplicity-studio.

The competition is open to contestants in selected countries in the Americas and EMEA including Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada (excluding Quebec), the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Creating large amounts of polymer nanofibers dispersed in liquid is a challenge that has vexed researchers for years. But engineers and researchers at North Carolina State University and one of its start-up companies have now reported a method that can produce unprecedented amounts of polymer nanofibers, which have potential applications in filtration, batteries and cell scaffolding.

In a paper published online in Advanced Materials, the NC State researchers and colleagues from industry, including NC State start-up company Xanofi, describe the method that allows them to fabricate polymer nanofibers on a massive scale.

The method – fine-tuned after nearly a decade of increasing success in producing micro- and nanoparticles of different shapes – works as simply as dropping liquid solution of a polymer in a beaker containing a spinning cylinder. Glycerin – a common and safe liquid that has many uses – is used to shear the polymer solution inside the beaker along with an antisolvent like water. When you take out the rotating cylinder, says Dr. Orlin Velev, Invista Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at NC State and the corresponding author of the paper describing the research, you find a mat of nanofibers wrapped around it.

When they first started investigating the liquid shearing process, the researchers created polymer microrods, which could have various useful applications in foams and consumer products.

“However, while investigating the shear process we came up with something strange. We discovered that these rods were really just pieces of ‘broken’ fibers,” Velev said. “We didn’t quite have the conditions set perfectly at that time. If you get the conditions right, the fibers don’t break.”

NC State patented the liquid shear process in 2006 and in a series of subsequent patents while Velev and his colleagues continued to work to perfect the process and its outcome. First, they created microfibers and nanoribbons as they investigated the process.

“Microfibers, nanorods and nanoribbons are interesting and potentially useful, but you really want nanofibers,” Velev said. “We achieved this during the scaling up and commercialization of the technology.”

Velev engaged with NC State’s Office of Technology Transfer and the university’s TEC (The Entrepreneurship Collaborative) program to commercialize the discoveries. They worked with the experienced entrepreneur Miles Wright to start a company called Xanofi to advance the quest for nanofibers and the most efficient way to make mass quantities of them.

“We can now create kilograms of nanofibers per hour using this simple continuous flow process, which when scaled up becomes a ‘nanofiber gusher,'” Velev said. “Depending on the concentrations of liquids, polymers and antisolvents, you can create multiple types of nanomaterials of different shapes and sizes.”

“Large quantities are paramount in nanomanufacturing, so anything scalable is important,” said Wright, the CEO of Xanofi and a co-author on the paper. “When we produce the nanofibers via continuous flow, we get exactly the same nanofibers you would get if you were producing small quantities of them. The fabrication of these materials in liquid is advantageous because you can create truly three-dimensional nanofiber substrates with very, very high overall surface area. This leads to many enhanced products ranging from filters to cell scaffolds, printable bioinks, battery separators, plus many more.”

Smaller and more powerful medical systems are driving up sales of ICs, sensors, and other devices for the medical semiconductor market.  IC Insights believes medical semiconductor sales growth will strengthen this year and next before sliding back in the next expected economic slowdown in 2017 (Figure 1). Between 2013 and 2018, worldwide medical semiconductor sales are projected to rise by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.3 percent, reaching $8.2 billion in the final year of the forecast.  In the 2008-2013 period (which included the 2009 downturn), medical semiconductor sales grew by a CAGR of 6.9 percent.

medical semiconductor sales

The IC portion of the medical semiconductor business is expected to rise by a CAGR of 10.7 percent to $6.6 billion in 2018 while the marketshare for optoelectronics, sensors/actuators, and discretes (O-S-D) is forecast to grow by an annual rate of 20.3 percent to $1.6 billion that year (primarily due to strong demand for solid-state sensors and optical imaging devices).

ICs and other semiconductor technologies continue to play key roles in reshaping and redefining medical systems. With more medical imaging systems being digitized and healthcare equipment running under computer control, IC-driven advancements are happening almost as quickly as they are in mobile phones, and many consumer electronics. Government certification can slow some system introductions. The scaling of IC feature sizes, system-on-chip (SoC) designs, improvements in sensors, and powerful analog frontend (AFE) data converters are reducing the size of medical diagnostic equipment and the cost of using them.

Developments of new medical systems for imaging and diagnostics, treatment, and surgery are heading in two different directions as equipment makers respond to growing pressures for lower costs and increased availability of healthcare worldwide. In one direction, new medical equipment is becoming smaller and less expensive so that systems can be used in the rooms of hospital patients, clinics, and doctor offices. These systems cost one-quarter to one-tenth the price of large diagnostic equipment—such as traditional MRI and CT scanners, which can cost $1 million and are normally installed in medical-imaging centers or in dedicated hospital examination rooms.

Also, lower-cost wearable medical systems and fitness monitors, which can wirelessly transmit vital signs and other readings to doctors or be used as “activity trackers” for health-conscious individuals, are seeing tremendous growth. In some cases, medical and fitness-monitoring applications can be performed directly by smartphones using their embedded sensors and downloaded software apps. However, medically certified mobile healthcare devices are usually required in most countries for monitoring patients and the elderly in their homes. The information is sent to doctors via wireless connections to cellphones or the Internet.

The second major trend in medical equipment is the development of more powerful and integrated systems, which are expensive but promise to lower healthcare costs by detecting cancer and diseases sooner and supporting less invasive surgery for quick recovery times and shorter stays in hospitals. Computer-assisted surgery systems, surgical robots, and operating-room automation are among new technologies being pursued by some hospitals in developed markets.

High growth in lower-cost systems along with the rising price tag of more sophisticated hospital equipment in developed country markets is expected to increase total medical electronics systems sales by a CAGR of 8.2 percent between 2013 and 2018, to $70.1 billion in the final year of the forecast.

Additional details on the IC market for medical and wearable electronic is included in the 2015 edition of IC Insights’ IC Market Drivers—A Study of Emerging and Major End-Use Applications Fueling Demand for Integrated Circuits.