Category Archives: Device Architecture

The SEMI-THERM Educational Foundation (STEF) proudly announces that the 34th Annual Thermal Measurement, Modeling and Management Symposium will take place from Monday, March 19th to Friday, March 23rd, 2018. World-class thermal experts will speak at the symposium and attendees will be able to visit with more than 40 exhibitors and experience hands-on demonstrations at vendor workshops.

Conference committee chairs and presenters are leaders and practitioners from companies including Cisco, IBM, Intel, Facebook, Microsoft, Google, Huawei, Qualcomm, and other organizations and academia dedicated to solving thermal challenges.

“Not only will the attendees be able to network with the key technical players in the thermal management field, but they will also be able to get inspired by the keynote and luncheon speeches, while establishing an understanding of thermal principles,” said Bernie Siegal, co-founder of the conference and recipient of SEMI-THERM’s Lifetime Achievement Award. “This program has been successful for 34 years because it offers something for everyone, from in-depth short courses and technical sessions to free evening tutorials and practical how-to courses,” he added.

Symposium Highlights

SEMI-THERM has an entire session dedicated to consumer electronics, along with the keynote address, “Thermal Challenges and Industry Trends of Consumer Electronic Devices” presented by Dr. Andre Ali of Google. And new to this year’s program is a special panel session titled “Challenges in Consumer Electronics”.

Additional technical sessions present best practices for keeping data centers and large electronic systems cool. Papers focus on low acoustics air mover technologies, two-phase and liquid cooling, thermal interfaces and heat sinks.

Other sessions help optimize chip package and microprocessors designs to minimize thermal factors. Multiple papers being presented are dedicated to addressing special requirements of devices and systems exposed to rugged conditions such as LEDS, power, and automotive devices.

Unique to the symposium, full conference registrants are able to attend fascinating luncheon speeches: “Mission Critical Facilities, Data Centers, Technology Spaces and Electronic Equipment” by Dr. Dustin W. Demetriou, IBM and “Tales from the Mars Science Laboratory Thermal Protection System Development” by Dr. Helen H. Hwang, NASA Ames .

Free programs include an evening tutorial presented by Dr. Bruce Guenin, “The Internet of Things – A Personal Perspective”, exhibits, vendor workshops, how-to courses, and two evening networking receptions.

For more information and to register, please visit:

http://semi-therm.org

 

People are growing increasingly dependent on their mobile phones, tablets and other portable devices that help them navigate daily life. But these gadgets are prone to failure, often caused by small defects in their complex electronics, which can result from regular use. Now, a paper in today’s Nature Electronics details an innovation from researchers at the Advanced Science Research Center (ASRC) at The Graduate Center of The City University of New York that provides robust protection against circuitry damage that affects signal transmission.

The breakthrough was made in the lab of Andrea Alù, director of the ASRC’s Photonics Initiative. Alù and his colleagues from The City College of New York, University of Texas at Austin and Tel Aviv University were inspired by the seminal work of three British researchers who won the 2016 Noble Prize in Physics for their work, which teased out that particular properties of matter (such as electrical conductivity) can be preserved in certain materials despite continuous changes in the matter’s form or shape. This concept is associated with topology–a branch of mathematics that studies the properties of space that are preserved under continuous deformations.

“In the past few years there has been a strong interest in translating this concept of matter topology from material science to light propagation,” said Alù. “We achieved two goals with this project: First, we showed that we can use the science of topology to facilitate robust electromagnetic-wave propagation in electronics and circuit components. Second, we showed that the inherent robustness associated with these topological phenomena can be self-induced by the signal traveling in the circuit, and that we can achieve this robustness using suitably tailored nonlinearities in circuit arrays.”

To achieve their goals, the team used nonlinear resonators to mold a band-diagram of the circuit array. The array was designed so that a change in signal intensity could induce a change in the band diagram’s topology. For low signal intensities, the electronic circuit was designed to support a trivial topology, and therefore provide no protection from defects. In this case, as defects were introduced into the array, the signal transmission and the functionality of the circuit were negatively affected.

As the voltage was increased beyond a specific threshold, however, the band-diagram’s topology was automatically modified, and the signal transmission was not impeded by arbitrary defects introduced across the circuit array. This provided direct evidence of a topological transition in the circuitry that translated into a self-induced robustness against defects and disorder.

“As soon as we applied the higher-voltage signal, the system reconfigured itself, inducing a topology that propagated across the entire chain of resonators allowing the signal to transmit without any problem,” said A. Khanikaev, professor at The City College of New York and co-author in the study. “Because the system is nonlinear, it’s able to undergo an unusual transition that makes signal transmission robust even when there are defects or damage to the circuitry.”

“These ideas open up exciting opportunities for inherently robust electronics and show how complex concepts in mathematics, like the one of topology, can have real-life impact on common electronic devices,” said Yakir Hadad, lead author and former postdoc in Alù’s group, currently a professor at Tel-Aviv University, Israel. “Similar ideas can be applied to nonlinear optical circuits and extended to two and three-dimensional nonlinear metamaterials.”

The latest update to the SEMI World Fab Forecast report, published on February 28, 2018, reveals fab equipment spending will increase at 5 percent in 2019 for a remarkable fourth consecutive year of growth as shown in figure 1. China is expected to be the main driver of fab equipment spending growth in 2018 and 2019 absent a major change in its plans. The industry had not seen three consecutive years of growth since the mid-1990s.

Figure 1

Figure 1

SEMI predicts Samsung will lead in fab equipment spending both in 2018 and 2019, with Samsung investing less each year than in 2017.  By contrast, China will dramatically increase year-over-year fab equipment spending by 57 percent in 2018 and 60 percent in 2019 to support fab projects from both multinationals and domestic companies. The China spending surge is forecast to accelerate it past Korea as the top spending region in 2019.

After record investments in 2017, Korea fab equipment spending will decline 9 percent, to US$18 billion, in 2018 and an additional 14 percent, to US$16 billion, in 2019. However both years will outpace pre-2017 spending levels for the region. Fab equipment spending in Taiwan, the third-largest region for fab investments, will fall 10 percent to about US$10 billion in 2018, but is forecast to rebound 15 percent to over US$11 billion in 2019. (Details about other regions’ spending trends are available in SEMI’s latest World Fab Forecast.)

As expected, China’s fab equipment spending is increasing as projects shift to equipment fabs constructed earlier in this cycle.  The record 26 volume fabs that started construction in China in 2017 will begin equipping this year and next.  See figure 2.

Figure 2

Figure 2

Non-Chinese companies account for the largest share of fab equipment investment in China. However, Chinese-owned companies are expected to ramp up fabs in 2019, increasing their share of spending in China from 33 percent in 2017 to 45 percent in 2019.

Product Sector Spending

3D NAND will lead product sector spending, growing 3 percent each in 2018 and 2019, to US$16 billion and US$17 billion, respectively. DRAM will see robust growth of 26 percent in 2018, to US$14 billion, but is expected to decline 14 percent to US$12 billion in 2019.  Foundries will increase equipment spending by 2 percent to US$17 billion in 2018 and by 26 percent to US$22 billion in 2019, primarily to support 7nm investments and ramp of new capacity.

Most people have felt that sting from grabbing a doorknob after walking across a carpet or seen how a balloon will stick to a fuzzy surface after a few moments of vigorous rubbing.

While the effects of static electricity have been fascinating casual observers and scientists for millennia, certain aspects of how the electricity is generated and stored on surfaces have remained a mystery.

Now, researchers have discovered more details about the way certain materials hold a charge even after two surfaces separate, information that could help improve devices that leverage such energy as a power source.

“We’ve known that energy generated in contact electrification is readily retained by the material as electrostatic charges for hours at room temperature,” said Zhong Lin Wang, Regents’ Professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “Our research showed that there’s a potential barrier at the surface that prevents the charges generated from flowing back to the solid where they were from or escaping from the surface after the contacting.”

Georgia Tech professor Zhong Lin Wang poses with an array of 1,000 LED lights that can be illuminated by power produced by the force of a shoe striking a triboelectric generator placed on the floor. (Credit: Rob Felt, Georgia Tech).

Georgia Tech professor Zhong Lin Wang poses with an array of 1,000 LED lights that can be illuminated by power produced by the force of a shoe striking a triboelectric generator placed on the floor. (Credit: Rob Felt, Georgia Tech).

In their research, which was reported in March in the Advanced Materials, the researchers found that electron transfer is the dominant process for contact electrification between two inorganic solids and explains some of the characteristics already observed about static electricity.

“There has been some debate around contact electrification – namely, whether the charge transfer occurs through electrons or ions and why the charges retain on the surface without a quick dissipation,” Wang said.

It’s been eight years since Wang’s team first published research on triboelectric nanogenerators, which employ materials that create an electric charge when in motion and could be designed to harvest energy from a variety of sources such as wind, ocean currents or sound vibrations.

“Previously we just used trial and error to maximize this effect,” Wang said. “But with this new information, we can design materials that have better performance for power conversion.”

The researchers developed a method using a nanoscale triboelectric nanogenerator – composed of layers either of titanium and aluminum oxide or titanium and silicone dioxide – to help quantify the amount of charge accumulating on surfaces during moments of friction.

The method was capable of tracking the accumulated charges in real time and worked over a wide range of temperatures, including very high ones. The data from the study indicated that the characteristics of the triboelectric effect, namely, how electrons flowed across barriers, were consistent with the electron thermionic emission theory.

By designing triboelectric nanogenerators that could withstanding testing at high temperatures, the researchers also found that temperature played a major role in the triboelectric effect.

“We never realized it was a temperature dependent phenomenon,” Wang said. “But we found that when the temperature reaches about 300 Celsius, the triboelectric transfer almost disappears.”

The researchers tested the ability for surfaces to maintain a charge at temperatures ranging from about 80 degrees Celsius to 300 degrees Celsius. Based on their data, the researchers proposed a mechanism for explaining the physics process in triboelectrification effect.

“As the temperature rises, the energy fluctuations of electrons become larger and larger,” the researchers wrote. “Thus, it is easier for electrons to hop out of the potential well, and they either go back to the material where they came from or emit into air.”

Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM) today announced that Dr. Paul E. Jacobs will no longer serve as Executive Chairman of the Qualcomm Board of Directors. Dr. Jacobs will continue to serve on the Qualcomm Board, but will no longer serve in an executive management capacity. The Board has discontinued the role of Executive Chairman, which was established in 2014 as part of a leadership transition plan, based on its belief that an independent Chairman is now more appropriate for Qualcomm. The Board has named Jeffrey W. Henderson, an independent Qualcomm director since 2016, to serve as Non-Executive Chairman.

Tom Horton, Lead Director, said, “The Board is committed to the principles of strong corporate governance and believes that having an independent director as Chairman at this important juncture in Qualcomm’s history is in the best interest of the Company and our stockholders. We are unanimous in our view that Jeff is the ideal choice for this role based on his deep financial, operational, and international experience as well as his strong stockholder orientation. We are focused on maximizing stockholder value, and will consider all options to achieve that objective, as we seek to move Qualcomm forward by closing the acquisition of NXP, strengthening our licensing business, and capitalizing on the enormous 5G opportunity before us.”

Mr. Horton continued, “On behalf of the entire Board, I want to thank Paul for his tireless dedication to Qualcomm over many years. Paul is a technology visionary whose ideas and inventions have contributed significantly to the growth of both the Company and the industry.  Paul has led the development of generations of semiconductors that have fueled smart phones and the worldwide wireless revolution of the past 30 years. His deep expertise, coupled with a focus on innovation, have made Qualcomm a leader in critical technologies and positioned us at the forefront of the industry. We are grateful to have Paul’s continued contributions as a member of the Board.  His extensive knowledge of our business, products, strategic relationships and opportunities, as well as the rapidly evolving technologies and competitive environment in our industry, are invaluable to our Board.”

About Paul Jacobs

Dr. Jacobs has served as Chairman of the Board of Qualcomm since 2009, as Executive Chairman since 2014 and as a director since 2005. He served as Chief Executive Officer from 2005 to 2014, Group President of Qualcomm Wireless & Internet from 2001 to 2005, and as an executive vice president from 2000 to 2005. Dr. Jacobs serves on the Board of Directors for FIRST(R), OneWeb, Light and Dropbox. He holds a B.S. degree in electrical engineering and computer science, an M.S. degree in electrical engineering, and a Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of California, Berkeley.  Dr. Jacobs was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2016 and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2017.

About Jeffrey Henderson

Mr. Henderson has deep financial, operational, and international experience at major corporations.  He served as Chief Financial Officer of Cardinal Health Inc. from 2005 to 2014. Prior to joining Cardinal Health, Mr. Henderson held management positions at Eli Lilly and General Motors, including serving as President and General Manager of Eli Lilly Canada, Controller and Treasurer of Eli Lilly Inc., and in management positions with General Motors in Great Britain, Singapore, Canada and the U.S.  He is currently an Advisory Director to Berkshire Partners LLC, a private equity firm. He is also a director of Halozyme Therapeutics, Inc. and FibroGen, Inc. Mr. Henderson holds a B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Kettering University and an M.B.A. degree from Harvard Business School.

By Emmy Yi

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

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

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

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

Infrastructure Reliability Key to High Return on Investment

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

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

Financial Institutions Play an Important Role

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

A Truly Green Industry: Circular Economy

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

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

Originally published on the SEMI blog.

Synopsys, Inc. (Nasdaq: SNPS) today announced a collaboration with Samsung Foundry to develop DesignWare Foundation IP for Samsung’s 8 nanometer (nm) Low Power Plus (8LPP) FinFET process technology. Providing DesignWare Logic Library and Embedded Memory IP on Samsung’s latest process technology enables designers to take advantage of a reduction in power and area compared to Samsung’s 10LPP process. The DesignWare Foundation IP will be developed to meet strict automotive-grade requirements, enabling designers to accelerate ISO 26262 and AEC-Q100 qualifications of their advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) and infotainment system-on-chips (SoCs). The DesignWare Logic Library and Embedded Memory IP will be available from Synopsys through the Foundry-Sponsored IP Program for the Samsung 8LPP process, enabling qualified customers to license the IP at no cost. The collaboration extends Synopsys’ and Samsung’s long history of working together to provide silicon-proven IP that helps designers meet their performance, power, and area requirements for a wide range of applications including mobile, automotive, and cloud computing.

“Samsung’s collaboration with Synopsys over the last decade has enabled first-pass silicon success for billions of ICs in mobile and consumer applications,” said Jongwook Kye, vice president of Design Enablement at Samsung Electronics. “As designs get more complex and migrate to smaller FinFET processes, Samsung’s advanced 8LPP process with Synopsys’ high-quality Foundation IP solutions will enable designers to differentiate their products for mobile, cryptocurrency and network/server applications, accelerate project schedules, and quickly ramp into volume production.”

“Samsung and Synopsys share a long and successful history of providing designers with silicon-proven DesignWare IP on Samsung’s processes ranging from 180 to 10 nanometer,” said John Koeter, vice president of marketing for IP at Synopsys. “As the leading provider of physical IP with more than 100 test chip tapeouts on FinFET processes, Synopsys continues to make significant investments in developing IP to help designers take advantage of Samsung’s latest process technologies, reduce risk and speed development of their SoCs.”

Historically, the DRAM market has been the most volatile of the major IC product segments.  A good example of this was displayed over the past two years when the DRAM market declined 8% in 2016 only to surge by 77% in 2017! The March Update to the 2018 McClean Report (to be released later this month) will fully detail IC Insights’ latest forecast for the 2018 DRAM and total IC markets.

In the 34-year period from 1978-2012, the DRAM price-per-bit declined by an average annual rate of 33%. However, from 2012 through 2017, the average DRAM price-per-bit decline was only 3% per year! Moreover, the 47% full-year 2017 jump in the price-per-bit of DRAM was the largest annual increase since 1978, surpassing the previous high of 45% registered 30 years ago in 1988!

In 2017, DRAM bit volume growth was 20%, half the 40% rate of increase registered in 2016.  For 2018, each of the three major DRAM producers (e.g., Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron) have stated that they expect DRAM bit volume growth to once again be about 20%.  However, as shown in Figure 1, monthly year-over-year DRAM bit volume growth averaged only 13% over the nine-month period of May 2017 through January 2018.

Figure 1 also plots the monthly price-per-Gb of DRAM from January of 2017 through January of 2018.  As shown, the DRAM price-per-Gb has been on a steep rise, with prices being 47% higher in January 2018 as compared to one year earlier in January 2017.  There is little doubt that electronic system manufacturers are currently scrambling to adjust and adapt to the skyrocketing cost of memory.

DRAM is usually considered a commodity like oil.  Like most commodities, there is elasticity of demand associated with the product.  For example, when oil prices are low, many consumers purchase big SUVs, with little concern for the vehicle’s miles-per-gallon efficiency.  However, when oil prices are high, consumers typically look toward smaller or alternative energy (e.g., hybrid or fully electric) options.

Figure 1

Figure 1

While difficult to precisely measure, it is IC Insights’ opinion that DRAM bit volume usage is also affected by elasticity, whereby increased costs inhibit demand and lower costs expand usage and open up new applications.  As shown in Figure 1, the correlation coefficient between the DRAM price-per-bit and the year-over-year bit volume increase from January 2017 through January 2018 was a strong -0.88 (a perfect correlation between two factors moving in the opposite direction would be -1.0).  Thus, while system manufacturers are not scaling back DRAM usage in systems currently shipping, there have been numerous rumors of some smartphone producers scaling back DRAM in next-generation models (i.e., incorporating 4GB of DRAM per smartphone instead of 5GB).

In 2018, IC Insights believes that the major DRAM suppliers will be walking a fine line between making their shareholders even happier than they are right now and further alienating their customer base.  If, and it is a BIG if, the startup Chinese DRAM producers can field a competitive product over the next couple of years, DRAM users could flock to these new suppliers in an attempt to get out from under the crushing price increases now being thrust upon them—with the “payback” to the current major DRAM suppliers being severe.

The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), representing U.S. leadership in semiconductor manufacturing, design, and research, today announced worldwide sales of semiconductors reached $37.6 billion for the month of January 2018, an increase of 22.7 percent compared to the January 2017 total of $30.6 billion. Global sales in January were 1.0 percent lower than the December 2017 total of $38.0 billion, reflecting normal seasonal market trends. All monthly sales numbers are compiled by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization and represent a three-month moving average.

“After notching its highest-ever annual sales in 2017, the global semiconductor industry is off to a strong and promising start to 2018, posting its highest-ever January sales and 18th consecutive month of year-to-year sales increases,” said John Neuffer, president and CEO, Semiconductor Industry Association. “All major regional markets saw double-digit growth compared to last year, with the Americas leading the away with year-to-year growth of more than 40 percent. With year-to-year sales also up across all major semiconductor product categories, the global market is well-positioned for a strong start to 2018.”

Year-to-year sales increased substantially across all regions: the Americas (40.6 percent), Europe (19.9 percent), Asia Pacific/All Other (18.6 percent), China, (18.3 percent), and Japan (15.1 percent). Month-to-month sales increased slightly in Europe (0.9 percent), held flat in China, but fell somewhat in Asia Pacific/All Other (-0.6 percent), Japan (-1.0 percent), and the Americas (-3.6 percent).

To find out how to purchase the WSTS Subscription Package, which includes comprehensive monthly semiconductor sales data and detailed WSTS Forecasts, please visit http://www.semiconductors.org/industry_statistics/wsts_subscription_package/. For detailed data on the global and U.S. semiconductor industry and market, consider purchasing the 2017 SIA Databook: https://www.semiconductors.org/forms/sia_databook/.

Jan 2018

Billions

Month-to-Month Sales                              

Market

Last Month

Current Month

% Change

Americas

8.95

8.63

-3.6%

Europe

3.37

3.40

0.9%

Japan

3.24

3.21

-1.0%

China

12.01

12.01

0.0%

Asia Pacific/All Other

10.41

10.35

-0.6%

Total

37.99

37.59

-1.0%

Year-to-Year Sales                         

Market

Last Year

Current Month

% Change

Americas

6.14

8.63

40.6%

Europe

2.84

3.40

19.9%

Japan

2.79

3.21

15.1%

China

10.16

12.01

18.3%

Asia Pacific/All Other

8.73

10.35

18.6%

Total

30.64

37.59

22.7%

Three-Month-Moving Average Sales

Market

Aug/Sep/Oct

Nov/Dec/Jan

% Change

Americas

8.54

8.63

1.1%

Europe

3.36

3.40

1.1%

Japan

3.20

3.21

0.3%

China

11.65

12.01

3.1%

Asia Pacific/All Other

10.33

10.35

0.1%

Total

37.09

37.59

1.4%

Presto Engineering Inc., an outsourced operations provider to semiconductor and Internet of Things (IoT) device manufacturers, and Maja Systems, a designer of millimeter wave (mmWave) connectivity and sensing solutions, jointly announce their successful collaboration in comprehensive wafer-level ATE for the Maja AirData family of terabit connectivity and data transport solutions.

“Presto’s special expertise in high-volume mmWave RF test was essential in bringing terabit connectivity to the market efficiently,” said Joy Laskar, CTO and SVP of Maja Systems. “They were able to develop a solution that provides reliable testing at the speeds and costs we need, and in a time frame that let us hit our market window.”

“Scalable high-volume, high-frequency RF test solutions, like this one for Maja, will be critical for the industry to achieve the billion plus annual unit volumes projected for mmWave devices by 2020,” said Michel Villemain, CEO, Presto Engineering. “We have developed custom solutions that allow us to use existing ATE, that have already been proven at volumes exceeding millions of units per year and can scale to meet projected demand.”

The Maja AirData™ family of terabit connectivity solutions, based on the MW-6022 single-chip mmWave CMOS transceiver IC and the SPL-100 compact SMT mmWave antenna, solve the terabit wireless data transport problem, addressing data center, wireless, mmWave, and optical transport applications.