Category Archives: Device Architecture

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland developed an extremely efficient small-size energy storage, a micro-supercapacitor, which can be integrated directly inside a silicon microcircuit chip. The high energy and power density of the miniaturized energy storage relies on the new hybrid nanomaterial developed recently at VTT. This technology opens new possibilities for integrated mobile devices and paves the way for zero-power autonomous devices required for the future Internet of Things (IoT).

Supercapacitors resemble electrochemical batteries. However, in contrast to for example mobile phone lithium ion batteries, which utilize chemical reactions to store energy, supercapacitors store mainly electrostatic energy that is bound at the interface between liquid and solid electrodes. Similarly to batteries supercapacitors are typically discrete devices with large variety of use cases from small electronic gadgets to the large energy storages of electrical vehicles.

The energy and power density of a supercapacitor depends on the surface area and conductivity of the solid electrodes. VTT’s research group has developed a hybrid nanomaterial electrode, which consists of porous silicon coated with a few nanometre thick titanium nitride layer by atomic layer deposition (ALD). This approach leads to a record large conductive surface in a small volume. Inclusion of ionic liquid in a micro channel formed in between two hybrid electrodes results in extremely small and efficient energy storage.

The new supercapacitor has excellent performance. For the first time, silicon based micro-supercapacitor competes with the leading carbon and graphene based devices in power, energy and durability.

Micro-supercapacitors can be integrated directly with active microelectronic devices to store electrical energy generated by different thermal, light and vibration energy harvesters and to supply the electrical energy when needed. This is important for autonomous sensor networks, wearable electronics and mobile electronics of the IoT.

VTT’s research group takes the integration to the extreme by integrating the new nanomaterial micro-supercapacitor energy storage directly inside a silicon chip. The demonstrated in-chip supercapacitor technology enables storing energy of as much as 0.2 joule and impressive power generation of 2 watts on a one square centimetre silicon chip. At the same time it leaves the surface of the chip available for active integrated microcircuits and sensors.

VTT is currently seeking a party interested in commercializing the technique.

IC Insights has just released the Update to its 2016 IC Market Drivers Report that examines and evaluates key existing and emerging end-use applications that will support and propel the IC industry through 2019.

In 2015 and early 2016, there were numerous reports of slowing in the Chinese smartphone market. Since most of the Chinese smartphone producer’s sales are to Chinese customers, this slowdown became evident in some of their 2015 and 1Q16 smartphone sales figures.  For example, China-based Coolpad’s smartphone sales dropped by 44% in 2015 to only 25.5 million units.  Moreover, Xiaomi, a real “high-flyer” in smartphone sales in 2013 and 2014 saw its growth slow to 16% last year.  While a 16% growth rate is still very commendable, its sales of about 71 million smartphones last year was well below the company’s earlier stated goal of shipping 100 million smartphones in 2015.

Figure 1 depicts actual 1Q16 smartphone unit sales by the top 12 companies with a forecast for their full-year 2016 unit volume shipments.  As shown, eight of the top 12 companies are headquartered in China with an Indian company (Micromax) making the list for the first time.   Gionee, a China-based smartphone supplier, just missed making the 1Q16 top 12 ranking after shipping 4.8 million handsets in the quarter.

IC Insights believes that there will be very little middle ground with regard to smartphone shipment growth rates among the top 12 suppliers this year.  As shown, seven of the top twelve companies are forecast to register 2016 growth rates of 6% or less while the other five companies are expected to each log 29% or better increases.  Further illustrating the maturing of the smartphone market, the top two suppliers, Samsung and Apple, are each forecast to show a slight decline in smartphone shipments this year.

Three companies are expected to drop out of the top 12 ranking this year as compared to 2015—Japan-based Sony, U.S.-based Microsoft, and China-based Coolpad.  These three companies saw their 1Q16 sales of smartphones drop to 3.4, 2.3, and 4.0 million, respectively.  Although Microsoft announced it intends to sell its non-smartphone business later this year, its early 2016 Lumia smartphones shipments put it on a path to sell less than 15 million units in 2016.

chinese ic suppliers fig 1

Figure 1

Additional details on the cellphone IC market are included in the 2016 Update of IC Insights’ IC Market Drivers—A Study of Emerging and Major End-Use Applications Fueling Demand for Integrated Circuits. This report examines the largest, existing system opportunities for ICs and evaluates the potential for new applications that are expected to help fuel the market for ICs through the end of this decade.

SEMI, the global industry association for companies that supply manufacturing technology and materials to the world’s chip makers, today reported that worldwide semiconductor manufacturing equipment billings reached US$8.3 billion in the first quarter of 2016. The billings figure is 3 percent higher than the fourth quarter of 2015 and 13 percent lower than the same quarter a year ago. The data is gathered jointly with the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ) from over 95 global equipment companies that provide data on a monthly basis.

Worldwide semiconductor equipment bookings were $9.4 billion in the first quarter of 2016. The figure is 2 percent lower than the same quarter a year ago and 5 percent higher than the bookings figure for the fourth quarter of 2015.

The quarterly billings data by region in billions of U.S. dollars, quarter-over-quarter growth and year-over-year rates by region are as follows:

 

1Q2016

4Q2015

1Q2015

1Q16 / 4Q15
(Qtr-over-Qtr)

1Q16 / 1Q15
(Year-over-Year)
Taiwan

1.89

2.64

1.81

-29%

4%
Korea

1.68

1.22

2.69

38%

-37%
China

1.60

1.00

1.16

60%

39%
Japan

1.24

1.40

1.26

-11%

-2%
North America

1.01

0.92

1.47

10%

-32%
Rest of World

0.51

0.43

0.43

17%

18%
Europe

0.35

0.39

0.69

-10%

-49%

Total

8.28

8.00

9.50

3%

-13%

Source: SEMI/SEAJ

Exar Corporation, a supplier of analog mixed-signal semiconductor components and system solutions serving the industrial, high-end consumer and infrastructure markets, today announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Ryan A. Benton as Chief Executive Officer, and a member of the Board of Directors, effective immediately.  Mr. Benton will replace Richard L. Leza, Interim President and Chief Executive Officer.

Simultaneously, the Board of Directors also announced that Mr. Keith Tainsky, Sr. Director of Finance, will immediately assume the position of Chief Financial Officer, and Mr. Leza, Chairman of the Board of Directors, will assume the role of Executive Chairman and Technology Advisor of Exar. In his new role, Mr. Leza will devote more time to the Company and work with Mr. Benton and the Company’s executive management team in shaping strategy, technology and product direction.

Mr. Leza stated, “As a result of the semiconductor industry’s on-going consolidation, there were a number of very strong external candidates interested in Exar’s CEO position.  We were seeking someone who had the talent and leadership to seamlessly carry forward our newly established vision and long-term strategy, without disrupting our hard-fought momentum.  We’ve accomplished a great deal in a short amount of time, due in large part to the very capable team already in place.  We are committed to staying the course and focusing on our core technologies.  Ryan has been a critical player in developing and executing on the current strategy and I have every confidence that he and his team are the right mix to drive cost reductions and profitable growth, while delivering improved shareholder value.  Ryan is clearly the best person to lead Exar, and he has the unanimous support of our Board.”

Mr. James Lougheed, Senior Vice President World-wide Sales and Marketing, stated, “Ryan is the right person to lead us through our next phase of growth.  Ryan has proven his leadership excellence with strong business acumen, long-term vision, and the ability to bring people together under a culture of winning.  Ryan has been tremendously supportive of the efforts to transform Exar’s Sales & Marketing functions, and his vision for improving Exar’s profitability is becoming a reality.  I look forward to continuing our work together with Ryan, Keith, Richard and the entire Exar team to deliver the next chapter of expanded product innovation and success.”

Mr. Benton joined Exar in December 2012 as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.  Mr. Benton added, “I appreciate the opportunity the Board of Directors has given me, which is a vote of confidence for the entire Exar team and clear recognition of the success we are starting to realize.  I’ve worked closely with Richard and I am pleased that his role as Executive Chairman will enable the Company to benefit from his continued leadership.  Richard and I will continue to work closely together to finish what we have started.  Richard, James and many others have worked hard to narrow the Company’s focus to leverage our core analog strengths, improve execution, and put Exar on a path for sustainable, profitable growth.  I look forward to the challenge of leading this team and to continuing to execute on our overall growth objectives.”  Mr. Benton continued, “I am thrilled with the opportunities in front of Exar.  Industry consolidation has created a unique window for Exar to leverage our broad product and IP portfolio to fulfill unmet customer and market needs.  I am confident that if we continue to focus on our core competencies, improve execution, and bring better advanced products to our customers quickly and more competitively, this will lead us toward our fundamental goal of increasing shareholder value.”

Mr. Benton has over 25 years of finance, business, and operational experience, 16 of which have been in senior management positions.  Mr. Benton’s experience includes a range of leadership positions at companies including, ASMI International NV, eFunds, SoloPower, and Synapsense.  Mr. Benton started his career at Arthur Andersen & Co. after receiving his B.A. from the University of Texas.  Mr. Benton currently serves on the Board of Directors of Pivotal Systems, Inc., which provides best-in-class monitoring and process control technology for the semiconductor manufacturing industry.

Mr. Tainsky has been with Exar for over one year as Sr. Director of Finance, where he has been instrumental in driving the Company’s cost down initiatives.  Mr. Tainsky brings with him over 25 years of experience in finance, operations, and management consulting.  His experience includes 15 years in the semiconductor industry, most recently as Director of Finance for Amkor, one of the world’s largest providers of contract semiconductor assembly and test services.

Exar Corporation designs, develops and markets high performance integrated circuits and system solutions for the industrial, high-end consumer and infrastructure markets.

Micron Technology, Inc. today introduced Micron 1100 SATA and Micron 2100 PCIe NVMe, two new solid state drive (SSD) product lines designed to tackle client computing workloads from web browsing and email, to video editing and auto CAD design.

Enhancing Micron’s portfolio of client data storage solutions, these next-generation 3D NAND flash SSDs deliver the security, performance, endurance, efficiency and capacity that IT administrators, OEMs and power users crave.

The Micron 1100 and 2100 SSD product families are designed to address the storage demands of today’s most challenging client computing platforms, including Ultrabook and tablets as well as performance-oriented PC desktops and workstations. Micron’s newest line of 3D NAND SSDs delivers the speed, capacity and power needed to handle massive files, images and multimedia workloads.

“With the growing demands of mobile computing driving the need for high-capacity, high-performance NAND flash technology, Micron is well-positioned for growth,” said Gregory Wong, President, Forward Insights. “Leadership in the client SSD market will be won by the innovator that successfully increases power efficiency without sacrificing security and performance.”

“Micron is raising the bar for power-efficient, high-performance storage and revolutionizing the client computing experience for all users, from the board room to the class room,” said Darren Thomas, vice president of storage at Micron. “Now our customers can future-proof their machines of tomorrow with the newest line of 3D NAND SSDs from Micron – all at an attractive cost compared to HDDs.”

Key benefits across both drive lines include:

Power Efficiency – Micron maximizes efficiency by reducing power consumption to deliver deep energy savings for notebooks and desktops alike, extending device battery life and user productivity.

Performance –Dynamic Write Acceleration has been optimized for common client computing environments, where data writing operations tend to occur in bursts, offering the increased performance without decreasing user capacity.

Security – In today’s world, protecting valuable data is a top priority. The Micron 1100 and 2100 SSDs deliver top-of-the-line solid secure features, by placing parameters at the core to protect user data.

Durability – Each Micron SSD is carefully designed for an intended workload, meeting the necessary endurance and reliability specifications required.

Manageability – With Micron’s Storage Executive software, a simple interface enables users to proactively monitor drive health and perform firmware updates. Additionally, the sanitize feature allows users to easily erase, repurpose and retire an SSD.

Micron 1100 and 2100 3D NAND SSDs are now sampling with key OEMs. The 1100 SSD is expected to begin production in July with the 2100 SSD expected to follow in summer of 2016.

GLOBALFOUNDRIES today announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding to drive its next phase of growth in China. Through a joint venture with the government of Chongqing, the company plans to expand its global manufacturing footprint by establishing a 300mm fab in China. GLOBALFOUNDRIES is also investing in expanding design support capabilities to better serve customers across the country.

“China is the fastest growing semiconductor market, with more than half of the world’s semiconductor consumption and a growing ecosystem of fabless companies competing on a global scale,” said GLOBALFOUNDRIES CEO Sanjay Jha. “We are pleased to partner with the Chongqing leadership to expand our investment in support of our growing Chinese customer base.”

The initial plan of the project includes upgrading an existing semiconductor fab to accommodate the manufacturing of 300mm wafers using GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ production-proven technologies from its Singapore site. The proposed joint venture will provide immediate access to a state-of-the-art facility, accelerating time-to-market with production planned for 2017.

“In recent years, Chongqing has followed the cluster model to vigorously develop the electronic information industry, becoming one of China’s most important locations for intelligent end products manufacturing,” said Huang Qifan, Mayor of Chongqing. “During the period of China’s thirteenth five-year plan, Chongqing will continue to develop the intelligent IC and other strategic emerging industries, and promote sustained and healthy economic development in the region. GLOBALFOUNDRIES is a world-famous IC manufacturing company, and we welcome them to participate through cooperation to achieve mutual benefit and win-win. Cooperation between the two parties will help to enhance the production of intelligent IC technology in Chongqing, further improving the electronic information supply chain in Chongqing and the rest of China.”

GLOBALFOUNDRIES continues to strengthen its sales, support, and design services offerings in China, doubling over the past year with plans for continued growth. The company’s current presence is anchored by world-class design centers in Beijing and Shanghai, which have extensive expertise in custom designs supporting a robust ASIC platform, coupled with foundry design capabilities for a variety of technology nodes. These capabilities are complemented by key regional partners in its design and IP ecosystem.

The 2015 analog market grew 2% to $47.0 billion.  Combined sales of general-purpose analog products (amplifiers/comparators, interface, power management, an signal conversion devices) increased 2% to $19.1 billion and sales of application-specific analog devices also improved 2% to $27.9 billion. Among analog IC products the market for signal conversion devices showed the largest increase in 2015, growing 14% to $2.9 billion.

IC Insights’ ranking of top analog IC suppliers for 2015 is shown in Figure 1.  Collectively, these 10 companies accounted for 56% of global analog sales last year, down slightly from 57% in 2014. Among the top suppliers, nine had analog sales in excess of $1.0 billion; five of these had sales in excess of $2.0 billion.  Only tenth-ranked Renesas fell short of the $1.0 billion mark.  With a 10% increase, NXP’s analog sales outperformed the total analog market by the widest margin (Figure 1).

Figure 1

Figure 1

Texas Instruments was again the leading supplier of analog devices in 2015 with $8.3 billion in sales, which was good for 18% marketshare.  TI’s analog sales slightly surpassed the combined revenue of the next three-largest analog suppliers, and represented 69% of its total semiconductor revenue last year.  TI has always been a major player in analog, but beginning in 2009, it doubled down on its long-term efforts to dominate this market segment. That year, TI became the first company to manufacture analog devices on 300mm equipment.  It purchased 300mm manufacturing tools from defunct Qimonda and transferred it to its existing fabs in Texas to build analog ICs.  In 2010, TI acquired two wafer fabs operated by Spansion in Aizu-Wakamatsu, Japan, and a fully equipped 200mm fab in Chengdu, China from Cension Semiconductor Manufacturing.  Both facilities were converted and immediately put to use making analog ICs.  In April 2011, TI acquired National Semiconductor—its rival in many analog markets—for $6.5 billion.

TI also strengthened its analog position by transitioning to 300mm manufacturing capacity at its newer RFAB and its older DMOS 6 fabs.  Aside from boosting its analog manufacturing capacity, moving to 300mm wafer helped reduce total production costs by 40%, according to the company.

Other changes seen in the 2015 ranking include Infineon moving up one place to become the second-largest analog supplier and Skyworks Solutions moving up two spots to #3.  ST slipped from #2 in 2014 to #5 in the 2015 ranking following its 13% decline in analog sales, which it attributed to soft equipment sales (computer, consumer, automotive, industrial) among its primary customers. Collectively, Infineon, NXP, and ST—Europe’s three-largest IC suppliers—accounted for 15% analog marketshare last year.

Skyworks continues to enjoy solid analog sales due to design wins with smartphones providers around the world. Skyworks Solutions makes analog and mixed signal semiconductors for Apple, Samsung, and other suppliers of mobile devices.  Many of Skyworks’ power amplifier components are found in Apple’s iPhone 6 models.  It has been estimated that Skyworks supplies $4 worth of content for every iPhone 6 handset.

Although highly focused in mobile markets, Skyworks plans to expand into the automotive, home, and wearable markets to develop its presence in applications linked to the Internet of Things.  Analog ICs such as audio amplifiers, op amps, and analog switches are building blocks for creating wearable applications. Skyworks’ wireless technology is used in General Electric healthcare equipment, and the company recently sealed a deal to supply high-performance filter solutions to Panasonic.

Analog Devices’ analog sales grew 2% last year.  One of its key analog ICs is a device that enables 3D/Force Touch, a feature available on the Apple Watch, the latest iPhones, and new generations of the iPad, that uses tiny electrodes to distinguish between a light tap and a deep press to trigger contextually specific controls.

IC Insights forecasts the total analog market to grow 4% this year, reaching $49.1 billion and then surpass the $50.0 billion mark for the first time in 2017 as analog sales climb to an expected $51.4 billion. From 2015 to 2020, the analog market is forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 6%, one point higher than the total IC market.

MACOM Technology Solutions reported the newest entries in its MAGb series of GaN on Silicon power transistors for use in macro wireless basestations.

According to a media release, based on MACOM’s Gen4 GaN technology, the new MAGb-101822-240B0P and MAGb-101822-120B0P power transistors harness the clear performance benefits of GaN in rugged, low-cost plastic packaging, enabling improved cost efficiencies that further distinguish MACOM’s GaN power transistors as the natural successors to legacy LDMOS offerings for basestation applications.

The Company noted that the new plastic TO-272-packaged MAGb-101822-240B0P and MAGb-101822-120B0P power transistors provide 320 W and 160 W output peak power, respectively, in the load-pull system with fundamental tuning only, and cover all cellular bands and power levels within the 1.8 – 2.2 GHz frequency range. These transistors’ ability to operate over 400 MHz of bandwidth precludes the need to use multiple LDMOS-based products, further optimizing cost and design efficiencies.

MACOM said that plastic-packaged MAGb power transistors deliver power efficiency up to 79 percent – an improvement of up to 10 percent compared to LDMOS offerings – with only fundamental tuning across the 400 MHz RF bandwidth, and with linear gain of up to 20 dB. These transistors provide an alternative to ceramic-packaged devices without compromising RF performance or reliability – thermal behavior is improved by 10 percent compared to ceramic-packaged MAGb offerings.

“DPD is critical to increase the efficiency of power amplifiers for 4G and 5G basestation applications and has a significant impact on network operators’ operating expenses and capital expenditures,” said Dr. Chris Dick, Chief DSP Architect at Xilinx. “Our joint demonstration with MACOM at IMS 2016 will showcase the combined DPD capabilities of MACOM’s Gen4 GaN-based MAGb power transistors and Xilinx’s complementary DPD technologies on our 28 nm Zynq SoC and 16 nm UltraScale+ MPSoCs. This joint solution highlights the time-to-market advantages that can be achieved with a proven, interoperable DPD solution.”

“Our collaboration with Xilinx demonstrates the linearity and ease of correction of our MAGb, especially with signals that are known to be challenging to correct using GaN-based solutions like multi-carrier GSM and TDD-LTE signals,” said Preet Virk, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Carrier Networks, at MACOM. “We believe that with the introduction of our new plastic-packaged MAGb power transistors, we’re further extending this price/performance advantage over competiting LDMOS and other GaN technologies, and accelerating the evolution to GaN-based PAs for wireless basestations.”

Nanoelectronics research center imec, Holst Centre (set up by imec and TNO) and micro-electronic design house Barco Silex, belonging to the Barco group, today announced that they will collaborate to implement data security into sensors for wearable devices and Internet of Things (IoT) sensor networks. The organizations are coming together to bring data security for the IoT to the next level.

Smart wearables for lifestyle and health monitoring as well as many other personal IoT applications are evolving with a plethora of capabilities at a rapid pace. However, trust is key for a broad adoption and the implementation of a true intuitive IoT society -with sensors invisibly embedded everywhere in the environment, measuring all kind of parameters and making smart decisions- to support everyday life. The smart society can only become a reality when the sensor technology is trusted by their users and the privacy of the users’ data is guaranteed at all time. Data security for the IoT is therefore considered as one of the main challenges to solve.

Current security solutions for IoT are designed for communication within one application domain or network. To realize a higher level of security, novel concepts for authentication, onboarding and end-to-end security in heterogeneous IoT networks are needed. Imec, Holst Centre and Barco Silex’ collaboration aims to leverage the technology and design expertise of imec and Holst Centre with the security IP portfolio of Barco Silex to develop novel chip architectures for secure ultra-low power sensors, and novel security concepts for reliable heterogeneous networks. Barco Silex will deliver the needed embedded security solution including crypto IP blocks to be implemented into imec’s multisensor IC for wearables and imec’s demonstrator platform for IoT. Imec will develop novel compute and memory architectures for minimal overhead of the secure implementation on the overall cost and power consumption of the sensors. In a next step, imec will study the impact of secure communication on throughput, response time and other performance aspects of heterogeneous IoT networks.

“This collaboration is part of a roadmap on a secure and intuitve IoT. Close collaborations with security experts like Barco Silex, but also with excellent research groups from KULeuven and iMinds will offer the imec ecosystem to develop novel and complete solutions for secure wearables and heterogeneous IoT networks. The program is open for new companies to join us on this exciting journey!” stated Kathleen Philips, program director  perceptive systems for an Intuitive IoT at imec.

“We are very pleased to be part of imec’s ambitious R&D program on intuitive IoT.” said Thierry Watteyne, CEO of Barco Silex. “This exciting collaboration is the recognition of the quality and flexibility of our security solutions. In addition it will help our developers to push our embedded security platforms solutions to the next level, especially in terms of optimizing the low power-high security equation within the chip architecture.”

Communication and computer systems are forecast to be two of the three largest system applications for IC sales in every global region—Americas, Europe, Japan, and Asia-Pacific—this year, according to data presented in the upcoming Update to the 2016 edition of IC Insights’ IC Market Drivers, A Study of Emerging and Major End-Use Applications Fueling Demand for Integrated Circuits. Communications applications are expected to capture nearly 43% of IC sales in Asia-Pacific and 39% of the revenue in the Americas region this year. Communications and computer applications are forecast to tie as the largest end-use markets in Japan while in Europe, communications apps are forecast to trail computer applications with 23.5% of ICs sales (Figure 1).

Figure 1

Figure 1

Consumer systems are forecast to be the third-largest end-use category for ICs in the Americas and Asia-Pacific regions in 2016. Automotive is expected to be the second-largest system application for ICs in Europe, which has been a bastion for automotive electronics systems development. Each of Europe’s three largest IC manufacturers—Infineon, ST, and NXP—is annually ranked among the top suppliers of automotive ICs. In addition, the automotive segment is forecast to edge ahead of the consumer segment in Japan in 2016 to become the third-largest end-use market for ICs in that country.

Collectively, communications, computers, and consumer systems are projected to account for 86.4% of IC sales in the Americas this year (an increase of half a percentage point from 2015) and 89.5% in Asia-Pacific (a decrease of half a percentage point from 2015). This year, communications, computer, and automotive applications are forecast to represent 73.5% of IC sales in Japan and 78.8% of IC sales in Europe, the same percentage as in 2015.

For more than three decades, computer applications were the largest market for IC sales but that changed in 2013 when the global communications IC market took over the top spot due to steady strong growth in smartphones and weakening demand for desktop and notebook personal computers. Figure 2 shows that globally, communications systems are now forecast to represent 39.3% of the $291.3 billion IC market in 2016 compared to 34.7% for computers, and 10.7% for consumer, which has gradually been losing marketshare for several years. IC sales to the automotive market are forecast to represent only about 7.4% of the total IC sales this year but from 2015-2019, this segment is projected to rise by a compound average growth rate (CAGR) of 8.0%, fastest among all the end-use applications.

Figure 2

Figure 2

Additional details on end-use markets for ICs are included in the 2016 edition of IC Insights’ IC Market Drivers—A Study of Emerging and Major End-Use Applications Fueling Demand for Integrated Circuits.