Category Archives: Device Architecture

Toshiba Corporation (TOKYO:6502) today announced that it has started construction of a new semiconductor fabrication facility, Fab 6, and a new R&D center, the Memory R&D Center, at Yokkaichi Operations in Mie prefecture, Japan, the company’s main memory production base.

Fab 6 will be dedicated to production of BiCS FLASH, Toshiba’s 3D Flash memory. Like Fab 5, construction will take place in two phases, allowing the pace of investment to be optimized against market trends, with completion of Phase 1 scheduled for summer 2018. Toshiba will determine installed capacity and output targets and schedules by closely monitoring the market.

Toshiba will also construct a Memory R&D Center adjacent to the new fab, with completion targeting December 2017. The facility will advance development of BiCS FLASH and new memories.

Toshiba is determined to enhance its competitiveness in the memory business by timely expansion of BiCS FLASH production in line with market trends, and to retain leadership in innovation in the memory business.

Intel Corporation yesterday announced plans to invest more than $7 billion to complete Fab 42, a project Intel had previously started and then left vacant. The high-volume factory is in Chandler, Ariz., and is targeted to use the 7 nanometer (nm) manufacturing process. The announcement was made by U.S. President Donald Trump and Intel CEO Brian Krzanich at the White House.

Intel Corporation on Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2017, announced plans to invest more than $7 billion to complete Fab 42. On completion, Fab 42 in Chandler, Ariz., is expected to be the most advanced semiconductor factory in the world. (Credit: Intel Corporation)

Intel Corporation on Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2017, announced plans to invest more than $7 billion to complete Fab 42. On completion, Fab 42 in Chandler, Ariz., is expected to be the most advanced semiconductor factory in the world. (Credit: Intel Corporation)

According to Intel’s official press release, the completion of Fab 42 in 3 to 4 years will directly create approximately 3,000 high-tech, high-wage Intel jobs for process engineers, equipment technicians, and facilities-support engineers and technicians who will work at the site. Combined with the indirect impact on businesses that will help support the factory’s operations, Fab 42 is expected to create more than 10,000 total long-term jobs in Arizona.

Mr. Trump said of the announcement: “The people of Arizona will be very happy. It’s a lot of jobs.”

There will be no incentives from the federal government for the Intel project, the White House said.

Context for the investment was outlined in an e-mail from Intel’s CEO to employees.

“Intel’s business continues to grow and investment in manufacturing capacity and R&D ensures that the pace of Moore’s law continues to march on, fueling technology innovations the world loves and depends on,” said Krzanich. “This factory will help the U.S. maintain its position as the global leader in the semiconductor industry.”

“Intel is a global manufacturing and technology company, yet we think of ourselves as a leading American innovation enterprise,” Krzanich added. “America has a unique combination of talent, a vibrant business environment and access to global markets, which has enabled U.S. companies like Intel to foster economic growth and innovation. Our factories support jobs — high-wage, high-tech manufacturing jobs that are the economic engines of the states where they are located.”

Intel is America’s largest high-technology capital expenditure investor ($5.1 billion in the U.S. 2015) and its third largest investor in global R&D ($12.1 billion in 20151). The majority of Intel’s manufacturing and R&D is in the United States. As a result, Intel employs more than 50,000 people in the United States, while directly supporting almost half a million other U.S. jobs across a range of industries, including semiconductor tooling, software, logistics, channels, OEMs and other manufacturers that incorporate our products into theirs.

The 7nm semiconductor manufacturing process targeted for Fab 42 will be the most advanced semiconductor process technology used in the world and represents the future of Moore’s Law. In 1968, Intel co-founder Gordon Moore predicted that computing power will become significantly more capable and yet cost less year after year.

The chips made on the 7nm process will power the most sophisticated computers, data centers, sensors and other high-tech devices, and enable things like artificial intelligence, more advanced cars and transportation services, breakthroughs in medical research and treatment, and more. These are areas that depend upon having the highest amount of computing power, access to the fastest networks, the most data storage, the smallest chip sizes, and other benefits that come from advancing Moore’s Law.

After the announcement, President Trump tweeted his thanks to Krzanich, calling the factory a great investment in jobs and innovation. In his email to employees, Krzanich said that he had chosen to announce the expansion at the White House to “level the global playing field and make U.S. manufacturing competitive worldwide through new regulatory standards and investment policies.”

“When we disagree, we don’t walk away,” he wrote. “We believe that we must be part of the conversation to voice our views on key issues such as immigration, H1B visas and other policies that are essential to innovation.”

During Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign, Krzanich had reportedly planned a Trump fundraiser event and then cancelled following numerous controversial statements from Trump regarding his proposed immigration policies. Intel has continued to be critical of the Trump administration’s immigration policies, joining over 100 other companies to file a legal brief challenging President Trump’s January 27 executive order which blocked entry of all refugees and immigrants from seven predominantly Muslim countries. Recently, Krzanich took to Twitter to criticize the order, voicing the company’s support of lawful immigration.

In 2012, Paul Otellini, then Intel’s CEO, made a similar promise about Fab 42 in the company of Obama, during a visit to Hillsboro, Oregon.

IC Insights’ 20th anniversary, 2017 edition of The McClean Report shows that since 2010, worldwide economic growth has been the primary influencer of IC industry growth.  In this “global economy-driven” IC industry, factors such as interest rates, oil prices, and fiscal stimulus are the primary drivers of IC market growth.  This is much different than prior to 2010, when capital spending, IC industry capacity, and IC pricing characteristics drove IC industry cycles.

Figure 1 plots the actual annual growth rates for worldwide GDP and the IC market from 1992 and includes IC Insights’ 2017 forecast.  As shown, both of these categories displayed extremely volatile behavior from 1992 through 2010 before registering much more subdued growth rates from 2011 through 2016.  Moreover, IC Insights forecasts similar restrained annual growth rates for worldwide GDP and the IC market through 2021.

Figure 1

Figure 1

Some observations regarding worldwide economic growth (GDP) include the following.

•    Since 1980, the annual worldwide GDP growth has averaged 2.8%. The average annual worldwide GDP growth rate has declined every decade since the 1960s with a slight rebound forecast to be registered in the first seven years of the current decade.

•    Worldwide GDP growth of 2.5% or less is currently considered by most economists to be indicative of a global recession, which puts 2016’s growth right at the threshold.  The 2017 global growth rate is forecast to come in only slightly better at 2.6%.  Prior to the late 1990s, when emerging markets like China and India represented a much smaller share of the worldwide economy, a global recession was typically defined as 2.0% or less growth.  The global recession threshold has never been a “hard and fast” rule, but the guidelines discussed here are useful for this analysis.

Figure 2 compares the actual annual growth rates of worldwide GDP and the worldwide IC market from 2011 through IC Insights’ 2017 forecast.  It is worth mentioning that the same scale used in Figure 1 for both worldwide GDP growth (-2% to 5%) and IC market growth (-40% to 50%) was used for this chart.  It is clear when looking at this specific timeperiod and using the historical growth rate scale end points, that IC market and worldwide GDP growth volatility from 2011 through 2017 is expected to be much more tame than in the past.

Figure 2

Figure 2

Worldwide GDP growth rates are expected to range from 2.5% to 3.0% from 2016 through 2021.  IC Insights’ expects the IC market to mirror the narrow range of worldwide GDP growth with forecasted growth rates ranging from a low of 2% to a high of 7% through 2021.

Given the tight correlation between annual worldwide GDP growth rates and IC market growth rates, IC Insights believes that a significant and noticeable IC market cycle will not occur through 2021 unless there is a significant departure from trend, up or down, for worldwide GDP growth (e.g., <2% growth on the low side and >3.0% growth on the high side).

A team of researchers, affiliated with UNIST has created a new technique that greatly enhances the performance of Schottky Diodes (metal-semiconductor junction) used in electronic devices. Their research findings have attracted considerable attention within the scientific community by solving the contact resistance problem of metal-semiconductor, which had remained unsolved for almost 50 years.

Shown above is the Internal Photoemission (IPE) Measurement System, developed by Hoon Hahn Yoon, combined M.S./Ph.D. student of Natural Science at UNIST. Credit: UNIST

Shown above is the Internal Photoemission (IPE) Measurement System, developed by Hoon Hahn Yoon, combined M.S./Ph.D. student of Natural Science at UNIST. Credit: UNIST

As described in the January issue of Nano Letters, the researchers have created a new type of diode with a graphene insertion layer sandwiched between metal and semiconductor. This new technique blows all previous attemps out the water, as it is expected to significantly contribute to the semiconductor industry’s growth.

The Schottky diode is one of the oldest and most representative semiconductor devices, formed by the junction of a semiconductor with a metal. However, due to the atomic intermixing along the interface between two materials, it has been impossible to produce an ideal diode. (An ideal diode acts like a perfect conductor when voltage is applied forward biased and like a perfect insulator when voltage is applied reverse biased.)

Professor Kibog Park of Natural Science solved this problem by inserting a graphene layer at the metal-semiconductor interface. In the study, the research team demonstrated that this graphene layer, consisting of a single layer of carbon atoms can not only suppress the material intermixing substantially, but also matches well with the theoretical prediction.

“The sheets of graphene in graphite have a space between each sheet that shows a high electron density of quantum mechanics in that no atoms can pass through,” says Professor Park. “Therefore, with this single-layer graphene sandwiched between metal and semiconductor, it is possible to overcome the inevitable atomic diffusion problem.”

The study also has the physiological meaning of confirming the theoretical prediction that “In the case of silicon semiconductors, the electrical properties of the junction surfaces hardly change regardless of the type of metal they use,” according to Hoon Hahn Yoon (Combined M.S./Ph.D. student of Natural Science), the first author of the study.

The internal photoemission method was used to measure the electronic energy barrier of the newly-fabricated metal/graphene/n-Si(001) junction diodes. The Internal Photoemission (IPE) Measurement System in the image shown above has contributed greatly to these experiments. This system has been developed by four UNIST graduate students (Hoon Han Yoon, Sungchul Jung, Gahyun Choi, and Junhyung Kim), which was carried out as part of an undergraduate research project in 2012 and was supported by the Korea Foundation for the Advancement of Science and Creativity (KOFAC).

“Students have teamed up and carried out all the necessary steps for the research since they were undergraduates,” Professor Park says. “Therefore, this research is a perfect example of time, persistence, and patience paying off.”

SEMICON Korea 2017, opening today at COEX in Seoul, celebrates its 30th anniversary with its largest-ever exhibition. The gathering of the Korean semiconductor and electronics supply chain, SEMICON Korea runs February 8 to 10 and features 600 exhibiting companies and expects more than 40,000 attendees.

SEMI, the global industry association representing more than 2,000 companies in the electronics manufacturing supply chain, and host of global SEMICONs, held a press conference this morning.  SEMI’s Dan Tracy reported the global semiconductor industry has an upbeat outlook for 2017 with key electronics drivers including storage, industrial, wireless and automotive. For overall semiconductor equipment, demand is expected to increase 9 percent, according to the SEMI 2016 Year-End Equipment Forecast.

Korea is expected to make the largest regional investment, globally, in semiconductor fab equipment at a projected US$9.7 billion in 2017, a 36 percent increase over 2016. For fab materials markets, Tracy expects 3.1 percent growth globally in 2017, and 4.3 percent in Korea ($4.8 billion).

Highlights of SEMICON Korea:

  • At the Opening Ceremony on February 8, in honor of SEMICON Korea’s 30-year anniversary, Yong-Han LEE, Chairman of SEMI’s Board of Directors (BoD), will address the attendees, followed by SEMI BoD members and Korean industry leaders cutting the ceremonial ribbon and opening the doors.
  • Four industry thought leaders ─ from SK Hynix, Hewlett-Packard, imec and Microsoft ─ will present keynote insights on the future of the global semiconductor industry, immediately following the opening ceremony.
  • The Supplier Search Program has been expanded this year with 70 meetings arranged; seven of the world’s leading companies (Samsung, SK Hynix, Intel, Micron, SONY, Toshiba and Lam Research) will look for new suppliers.
  • The Presidents Reception – an exclusive VIP networking event with more than 450 global industry leaders ─ is the premier executive connection opportunity, continuing to mark the growth of the Korea semiconductor industry over the last 50 years.
  • A sold-out exhibition brings the top companies to SEMICON Korea to connect with customers and decision makers and to demonstrate product and technology leadership. The exposition includes deep technical networking and business programs that give insight into the full Korean electronics manufacturing ecosystem.

SEMICON Korea 2017 is the leading semiconductor technology event for market trends and breaking technology developments, featuring technical forums, business programs and standards activities. The event is an opportunity to meet and learn from more 100 global experts.

For more information on SEMICON Korea, visit www.semiconkorea.org/en/.

Worldwide silicon wafer area shipments increased 3 percent in 2016 when compared to 2015 area shipments according to the SEMI Silicon Manufacturers Group (SMG) in its year-end analysis of the silicon wafer industry, while worldwide silicon revenues increased by 1 percent in 2016 compared to 2015.

Silicon wafer area shipments in 2016 totaled 10,738 million square inches (MSI), up from the previous market high of 10,434 million square inches shipped during 2015. Revenues totaled $7.21 billion, one percent higher from the $7.15 billion posted in 2015. “Annual semiconductor silicon volume shipments reached record levels for the third year in a row,” said Chungwei (C.W.) Lee, chairman SEMI SMG and Corporate Development VP of GlobalWafers. “However, despite historical shipment highs, the same cannot be said about silicon revenue. The market remains well below pre-downturn levels.”

Annual Silicon* Industry Trends

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016
Area Shipments (MSI)

8,661

8,137

6,707

9,370

9,043

9,031

9,067

10,098

10,434

10,738
Revenues ($B)

12.1

11.4

6.7

9.7

9.9

8.7

7.5

7.6

7.2

7.2

*Shipments are for semiconductor applications only and do not include solar applications

Silicon wafers are the fundamental building material for semiconductors, which in turn, are vital components of virtually all electronics goods, including computers, telecommunications products, and consumer electronics. The highly engineered thin round disks are produced in various diameters (from one inch to 12 inches) and serve as the substrate material on which most semiconductor devices or “chips” are fabricated.

All data cited in this release is inclusive of polished silicon wafers, including virgin test wafers and epitaxial silicon wafers, as well as non-polished silicon wafers shipped by the wafer manufacturers to the end-users.

NXP Semiconductors N.V. (NASDAQ:NXPI) today announced that Marcel Pelgrom is the recipient of the 2017 Gustav Robert Kirchhoff Award from the IEEE. The long-time NXP researcher and inventor was recognized for “seminal contributions to systematic analysis of random offsets in semiconductor devices and their impact on circuits,” where his theories on random component variation led to the Pelgrom Law, widely acknowledged as a critical enabler of design efficiency in analog chip design.

The Kirchhoff Award, given at the 2017 edition of the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC), is sponsored by the IEEE Circuits & Systems Society. Notably, this is the first time in the award’s history that the honoree comes from the commercial electronics industry, with previous recipients coming from academia and research.

“Marcel’s work literally transformed generations of chip designs and is a linchpin in the advancement of a wide range of circuitry that forms the foundation of devices that touch our lives every day,” said Lars Reger, CTO, Automotive at NXP. “His significant contributions helped NXP establish a leadership position in high-performance, mixed-signal circuits and we continue to make use of his insights in virtually every technology we use, both analog and digital. More significantly, it inspired and enabled thousands of engineers throughout the world, and sparked a broader movement in understanding statistical phenomena across the semiconductor industry. I deeply admire his work.”

Pelgrom is most known for his formulation of the random variation (mismatch) behavior between two otherwise identical components. His work is the starting point for proper analysis of matching, essential for accurate analog circuits. The Pelgrom Law or “Pelgrom Model” has been accepted by the global device and design community as an elegant description for mismatch. His 1989 prediction still holds after more than 12 technology generations. The general formulation of the model has allowed applications to other devices, like bipolar devices, resistors and capacitors.

Pelgrom’s contribution has had a dramatic impact on the design efficiency of analog designers, allowing engineers to optimize designs for lowest power and highest yield. Pelgrom’s mismatch model has become an essential performance metric for technology optimization, serving as the key element of communication between the technologists and device physicists on one hand and the design community on the other.

“I am incredibly honored to be recognized by the IEEE and included in such prestigious company of past Kirchhoff Award winners. The namesake of the award is a true pioneer and personal inspiration to me, so it is especially meaningful,” said Pelgrom. “I am also extremely grateful for the opportunities Philips and NXP have given me over the years to pursue my research and provide a practical means to see it implemented to benefit actual chip designers and product developers. The freedom and resources to research and be surrounded with such gifted fellow engineers has been an essential factor in our ability to advance our findings. I am happy to see my colleagues continuing and expanding this research field to keep our company at the forefront of high performance circuits.”

After earning degrees from the Arnhem Polytechnical School (BEE with honors) and the University of Twente (MEE with honors and a Ph.D), Pelgrom began his a career in 1979 at Philips Research, which later became part of NXP. In addition to his groundbreaking research, during that time he wrote three books on AD conversion and taught this topic to generations of R&D engineers at NXP. He retired from NXP in 2013 and is still active as an advisor, consultant and trainer. He regularly teaches classes at TU Delft, University of Twente and Stanford University and serves as honorary professor at the KU Leuven.

The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), representing U.S. leadership in semiconductor manufacturing, design, and research, today announced the global semiconductor industry posted sales totaling $338.9 billion in 2016, the industry’s highest-ever annual sales and a modest increase of 1.1 percent compared to the 2015 total. Global sales for the month of December 2016 reached $31.0 billion, equaling the previous month’s total and bettering sales from December 2015 by 12.3 percent. Fourth quarter sales of $93.0 billion were 12.3 percent higher than the total from the fourth quarter of 2015 and 5.4 percent more than the third quarter of 2016. All monthly sales numbers are compiled by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization and represent a three-month moving average.

“Following a slow start to the year, the global semiconductor market picked up steam mid-year and never looked back, reaching nearly $340 billion in sales in 2016, the industry’s highest-ever annual total,” said John Neuffer, president and CEO, Semiconductor Industry Association. “Market growth was driven by macroeconomic factors, industry trends, and the ever-increasing amount of semiconductor technology in devices the world depends on for working, communicating, manufacturing, treating illness, and countless other applications. We expect modest growth to continue in 2017 and beyond.”

2016 worldwide revenue

Several semiconductor product segments stood out in 2016. Logic was the largest semiconductor category by sales with $91.5 billion in 2016, or 27.0 percent of the total semiconductor market. Memory ($76.8 billion) and micro-ICs ($60.6 billion) – a category that includes microprocessors – rounded out the top three segments in terms of total sales. Sensors and actuators was the fastest growing segment, increasing 22.7 percent in 2016. Other product segments that posted increased sales in 2016 include NAND flash memory, which reached $32.0 billion in sales for a 11.0 percent annual increase, digital signal processors ($2.9 billion/12.5 percent increase), diodes ($2.5 billion/8.7 percent increase), small signal transistors ($1.9 billion/7.3 percent), and analog ($47.8 billion/5.8 percent increase).

Regionally, annual sales increased 9.2 percent in China, leading all regional markets, and in Japan (3.8 percent). All other regional markets – Asia Pacific/All Other (-1.7 percent), Europe (-4.5 percent), and the Americas (-4.7 percent) – saw decreased sales compared to 2015.

“A strong semiconductor industry is strategically important to U.S. economic growth, national security, and technological leadership,” said Neuffer. “We urge Congress and the new administration to enact polices in 2017 that spur U.S. job creation, and innovation and allow American businesses to compete on a more level playing field with our competitors abroad. We look forward to working with policymakers in the year ahead to further strengthen the semiconductor industry, the broader tech sector, and our economy.”

Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: VECO), a developer of advanced thin film etch and deposition process equipment, and Ultratech, Inc. (NASDAQ: UTEK), a supplier of lithography, laser-processing and inspection systems used to manufacture semiconductor devices and LEDs, today announced that they have signed a definitive agreement for Veeco Instruments Inc. (“Veeco”) to acquire Ultratech, Inc. (“Ultratech”). The Boards of Directors of both Veeco and Ultratech have unanimously approved the transaction.

Ultratech shareholders will receive (i) $21.75 per share in cash and (ii) 0.2675 of a share of Veeco common stock for each Ultratech common share outstanding. Based on Veeco’s closing stock price on February 1, 2017, the transaction consideration is valued at approximately $28.64 per Ultratech share. The implied total transaction value is approximately $815 million and the implied enterprise value is approximately $550 million, net of Ultratech’s net cash balance as of December 31, 2016. Post transaction it is projected that Ultratech shareholders will own approximately 15 percent of the combined company.

Ultratech is a recognized leader of lithography products for Advanced Packaging applications and for LEDs and is a pioneer for laser spike anneal technology used for the production of semiconductor devices. In addition, the company offers wafer inspection solutions leveraging its proprietary coherent gradient sensing (CGS) technology which address a wide variety of semiconductor applications.

“The strategic combination will establish Veeco as a leading equipment supplier in the high growth Advanced Packaging industry. Ultratech’s leadership in lithography together with Veeco’s Precision Surface Processing (PSP) solutions form a strong technology portfolio to address the most critical Advanced Packaging applications. We believe our complementary end market exposure and customer relationships will create the ideal platform to accelerate growth,” said John R. Peeler, Veeco’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “Ultratech is a great fit with our strategy to profitably grow our business and diversify our revenue. We expect this transaction to be immediately accretive to adjusted EBITDA and non-GAAP EPS.”

Ultratech Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Arthur W. Zafiropoulo said, “Both companies have a strong heritage of developing innovative and cutting-edge technologies. The combined company will create a formidable team to execute against growth opportunities and deliver significant value to customers and shareholders.”

Veeco expects to realize approximately $15 million in annualized run rate synergies within 24 months after closing, to be achieved through increased efficiencies and leveraging the scale of the combined businesses. The combined company is expected to have an efficient balance sheet, benefiting from the deployment of excess cash.

The transaction is expected to close in the second calendar quarter of 2017, subject to approval by Ultratech shareholders, regulatory approvals in the U.S. and other customary closing conditions.

Micron Technology, Inc. today announced the upcoming retirement of its Chief Executive Officer, Mark Durcan. The Board of Directors has formed a special committee to oversee the succession process and has initiated a search, with the assistance of an executive search firm, to identify and vet candidates. The Board has not established a timeframe for this process and intends to conduct a deliberate review of candidates who can contribute to Micron’s future success. Mark Durcan will continue to lead Micron as CEO during this process and will assist the company with its search and subsequent leadership transition.

“Mark Durcan recently discussed with the Board his desire to retire from Micron when the time and conditions were right for the company,” said Robert E. Switz, Chairman of the Board and a member of the search committee. “As CEO, he has successfully guided Micron’s strategy and growth for the past five years and has allowed the company to initiate this transition from a position of strength. The Board is committed to thoughtful long-term succession planning and takes seriously its responsibility to maintain a high-caliber management team and to ensure successful executive leadership transition. We expect Mark to play an instrumental role in securing and transitioning his replacement.”

Micron Technology, Inc., is a global leader in advanced semiconductor systems. Micron’s broad portfolio of high-performance memory technologies—including DRAM, NAND and NOR Flash—is the basis for solid state drives, modules, multichip packages and other system solutions. Backed by more than 35 years of technology leadership, Micron’s memory solutions enable the world’s most innovative computing, consumer, enterprise storage, networking, mobile, embedded and automotive applications. Micron’s common stock is traded on the NASDAQ under the MU symbol. To learn more about Micron Technology, Inc., visit www.micron.com.