Category Archives: Displays

AMD today announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Board member John Caldwell as Chairman. Caldwell succeeds Bruce Claflin as Chairman of the Board. Claflin has been Chairman of the Board since March 2009 and will continue to serve as an AMD Board member.

“I am honored to be named chairman of AMD’s Board,” said John Caldwell. “It is an exciting time to be part of AMD as we execute on our transformative strategy — bringing innovative products to market and delivering increased value to our shareholders. On behalf of our Board of Directors, I would like to recognize Bruce Claflin for his leadership and for his continuing contribution to our company.”

Caldwell joined AMD’s Board in 2006 and has held a variety of Committee positions including most recently Compensation and Leadership Resources Committee Chair and Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee membership. Caldwell brings extensive board and executive level experience. In his career, he has served as a CEO of three technology companies and been on the board of seven public technology companies.

Chinese brands have had a significant impact on the global TV market recently, due to their aggressive pursuit of export growth. In large part because of these efforts, monthly liquid crystal display (LCD) TV unit shipments returned to positive year-over-year growth in March 2016 after three months of declines, increasing by 4.8 percent to 16.2 million units, according to IHS Inc. (NYSE: IHS), the global source of critical information and insight. Every Chinese brand experienced positive growth in March, offsetting the drop in shipments in February.

“Major global TV brands have adjusted their strategy this year to focus on profitability, avoiding severe competition in pursuit of market share,” said Ken Park, principal analyst of TV sets research for IHS Technology. “Chinese brands, in particular, have started to play a more critical role in the global TV market over the last year.”

Chinese TV brand shipments, which fell 63.5 percent month over month in February, rebounded 88.9 percent in March, from 2.4 million to 4.5 million units. In fact, Chinese brands accounted for 28 percent of all LCD TV shipments in March, an increase of 11 percentage points from the previous month.

“After cleaning up carried-over stock from the Chinese New Year holiday in February, Chinese TV brands began to restock retail inventory in March for upcoming promotional events on the Web and May Labor Day holiday sales,” Park said. “E-commerce-focused brands like LeEco, Xiaomi and newcomer FunTV have also been aggressive in increasing production and shipments in the TV market this year, leveraging their online content portals to attract new customers.”

In contrast, year-over-year South Korean TV brands’ shipments dropped 7.8 percent in March, according to the IHS TV Sets Intelligence Service. Both Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics recorded contraction in March, but their reported operating margins in the first quarter of 2016 increased relative to a year ago. “These two companies were able to benefit from the drop in panel prices and relatively conservative sales targets, targeting profits over absolute market share growth,” Park said.

The 50-inch and larger share of monthly LCD TV shipments increased by more than 6 percentage points in March to 22.4 percent, compared to a year earlier. During the same period, the 4K TV share grew to a record 20.9 percent of unit shipments. “Both of these factors are driving worldwide growth as consumers upgrade from older TVs,” Park said.

TV displays will be a key theme in the coming SID Display Week 2016 Business Track, which is co-organized by IHS and the Society for Information Display. For more information, visit SID Display Week.

FlexTech, a SEMI Strategic Association Partner, today announced the formal completion of three flexible hybrid electronics (FHE) R&D projects under its U.S. Army Research Laboratory  (ARL) technology investment agreement.  The completed projects are with ENrG for a flexible ceramic substrate; nScrypt and NovaCentrix for a next-generation three-dimensional (3D) printing tool for creating complex and functional objects; and PARC, a Xerox company, for a flexible sensor platform. Projects ranged from 12-18 months and were managed by a member of the FlexTech Technical Council, which is a team of experts in flexible, hybrid and printed electronics technologies.

  • ENrG, located in Buffalo, New York, completed a 15 month project to develop a high-yield process to create a 20 micron thick, flexible ceramic substrate capable of retaining its integrity when drilled, cut, rolled and processed at high temperatures. During the project, ENrG developed processes to print thin-film lithium batteries, circuits, application of copper cladding and other metallization with excellent performance characteristics. The project, valued at $570,000 total, was 56% cost shared by the company.
  • nScrypt, based in Orlando, Florida, in partnership with NovaCentrix of Austin, Texas, developed a 3D printer for rapid prototyping of new electronic devices. The total award of $1,291,000 was cost-shared by nScrpyt, NovaCentrix and FlexTech and it was completed over a 16-month period. The new tool additively builds integrated hybrid circuits on 3D surfaces, as well as devices on flexible, low temperature, and rigid planar substrates. It integrates processing of three previously-separate tools. The first tool has been installed at ARL. Commercial tools are available from nScrypt.
  • PARC, a Xerox Company, Palo Alto, California, developed a passively powered, digitally-fabricated, communication-enabled, flexible sensor platform that is easily customizable to multiple sensor types. The project addressed the availability of an end-to-end system design that can be manufactured in large quantities with digital printing for smart tag or wearable applications. In its final report, the PARC researchers noted several key areas where additional development would be helpful, including components designed specifically to be compatible with flexible, printed sensor systems. Total cost was $409,000 and shared equally between PARC and FlexTech.

“Each of these projects, chosen and supported by the Technical Council, moves the needle on learning how to fabricate electronics on flexible substrates,” stated Michael Ciesinski, president of FlexTech. “Especially impressive is the teaming on the projects, which helps build out the FHE supply chain.”

FlexTech, a SEMI Strategic Association Partner, is focused on growth, profitability, and success throughout the manufacturing and distribution chain of flexible hybrid electronics, by developing solutions for advancing these technologies from R&D to commercialization. Learn more at www.nscrypt.com, www.novacentrix.com, www.enrg-inc.com, www.parc.com

For more information, visit www.semi.org

Research published in the journals Materials Today Communications and Scientific Reports has described how silver nanowires are proving to be the ideal material for flexible, touch-screen technologies while also exploring how the material can be manipulated to tune its performance for other applications. Currently, touch screen devices mainly rely on electrodes made from indium tin oxide (ITO), a material that is expensive to source, expensive to process and very brittle.

A team from the University of Surrey, led by Professor Alan Dalton and in collaboration with M-SOLV Ltd, a touch-sensor manufacturer based in Oxford, looked to alternative materials to overcome the challenges of ITO, which is suffering from supply uncertainty. Alternative materials investigated as ITO replacements have included graphene, carbon nanotubes and random metal nanowire films. This study showed how silver nanowire films have emerged as the strongest competitor, due to transmittances and conductivities which can match and readily exceed those of ITO. This is a material that consists of wires which are over a thousand times thinner than a human hair, that form an interconnected conductive network.

Matthew Large, the first author on the research published in Scientific Reports described the importance of these latest results. “Our research hasn’t just identified silver nanowires as a viable replacement touchscreen material, but has gone one step further in showing how a process called ‘ultrasonication’ can allow us to tailor performance capabilities. By applying high frequency sound energy to the material we can manipulate how long the nanosized ‘rods’ of silver are. This allows us to tune how transparent or how conductive our films are, which is vital for optimising these materials for future technologies like flexible solar cells and roll-able electronic displays.”

In a paper published last month in Materials Today Communications, the same team, showed how silver nanowires can be processed using the same laser ablation technique commonly used to manufacture ITO devices. Using this technique, the team produced a fully operating five inch multi-touch sensor, identical to those typically used in smartphone technology. They found it performed comparably to one based on ITO but used significantly less energy to produce.

“Not only does this flexible material perform very well, we have shown that it is a viable alternative to ITO in practical devices,” concluded Professor Dalton. “The fact we are able to produce devices using similar methods as currently in use, but in a less energy-intensive way is an exciting step towards flexible gadgets that do not just open the door for new applications, but do so in a much greener way.”

Maria Cann, a technologist from M-SOLV and first author on the Materials Today Communications paper added “”We are seeing a lot of interest from our customers in silver nanowire films as an ITO replacement in devices. This work is a really important step in establishing exactly which sensor designs can make good nanowire products. The fact that the nanowire films are processed by the same laser techniques as ITO makes the transition from ITO to nanowires really straightforward. It won’t be long before we are all using nanowires in our electronic devices. ”

The team, now based at the University of Sussex is now looking to develop the scalability of the process to make it more industrially viable. One limiting factor is the current cost of silver nanowires. Funded by Innovate UK and EPSRC, the team are collaborating with M-SOLV and a graphene supplier Thomas Swan to use a nanowire and graphene combination in the electrodes to markedly reduce the cost.

The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) this week announced worldwide sales of semiconductors reached $26.1 billion for the month of March 2016, a slight increase of 0.3 percent compared to the previous month’s total of $26.0 billion. Sales from the first quarter of 2016 were $78.3 billion, down 5.5 percent compared to the previous quarter and 5.8 lower than the first quarter of 2015. All monthly sales numbers are compiled by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization and represent a three-month moving average.

“Global semiconductor sales increased in March for the first time in five months, but soft demand, market cyclicality, and macroeconomic conditions continue to impede more robust growth,” said John Neuffer, president and CEO, Semiconductor Industry Association. “Q1 sales lagged behind last quarter across nearly all regional markets, with the Americas showing the sharpest decline.”

Regionally, month-to-month sales increased in Japan (4.8 percent), Asia Pacific/All Other (2.3 percent), and Europe (0.1 percent), but fell in China (-1.1 percent) and the Americas (-2.8 percent). Compared to the same month last year, sales in March increased in Japan (1.8 percent) and China (1.3 percent), but decreased in Asia Pacific/All Other (-6.4 percent), Europe (-9.8 percent), and the Americas (-15.8 percent).

“Eighty-three percent of U.S. semiconductor industry sales are into markets outside the U.S., so access to overseas markets is imperative to the long-term strength of our industry,” Neuffer said. “The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a landmark trade agreement that would tear down myriad barriers to trade with countries in the Asia-Pacific. The TPP is good for the semiconductor industry, the tech sector, the American economy, and the global economy. Congress should approve it.”

March 2016

Billions

Month-to-Month Sales                               

Market

Last Month

Current Month

% Change

Americas

5.03

4.89

-2.8%

Europe

2.66

2.67

0.1%

Japan

2.47

2.59

4.8%

China

8.02

7.93

-1.1%

Asia Pacific/All Other

7.83

8.01

2.3%

Total

26.02

26.09

0.3%

Year-to-Year Sales                          

Market

Last Year

Current Month

% Change

Americas

5.81

4.89

-15.8%

Europe

2.96

2.67

-9.8%

Japan

2.55

2.59

1.8%

China

7.83

7.93

1.3%

Asia Pacific/All Other

8.57

8.01

-6.4%

Total

27.70

26.09

-5.8%

Three-Month-Moving Average Sales

Market

Oct/Nov/Dec

Jan/Feb/Mar

% Change

Americas

5.75

4.89

-15.0%

Europe

2.77

2.67

-3.6%

Japan

2.57

2.59

0.8%

China

8.45

7.93

-6.1%

Asia Pacific/All Other

8.08

8.01

-0.8%

Total

27.62

26.09

-5.5%
Year-to-year percent change in world semiconductor revenues over the past 20 years.

Year-to-year percent change in world semiconductor revenues over the past 20 years.

By Lara Chamness, Industry Research and Statistics, SEMI

North America has a long and rich history of semiconductor manufacturing and innovation. As home to device manufacturers such as Intel, Texas Instruments, Micron, GLOBALFOUNDRIES, NXP (Freescale), Fairchild, Avago, Qorvo, Microchip, ON Semiconductor, significant operations of Samsung, and leading fabless companies such as Qualcomm, Broadcom, NVIDIA, AMD, Apple, Marvell, and Xilinx, North America continues to play an important role in advanced semiconductor manufacturing and in device and system design. SEMI’s Fab Forecast shows that North America accounts for 14 percent of Worldwide Installed Fab capacity (excluding discretes).

Source: SEMI (www.semi.org)

In terms of revenues, IC Insights recently announced, that companies headquartered in the United States continue to capture the bulk of IDM and Fabless IC Sales.

  • U.S. companies account for 51 percent of IDM Companies IC Sales in 2015
  • U.S. companies account for 62 percent of Fabless Companies IC Sales in 2015

Due to the presence of leading device manufacturers, North America represents a significant portion of the new equipment market, annual spending on average over the past five years has been in excess of $7 billion. Spending for new equipment is expected to be approach $6 billion this year.

Source: SEMI/SEAJ; Forecast, SEMI (www.semi.org)

With such a large installed fab base, North America also claims a significant portion of the wafer fab materials market.  Comparing global fab capacity to global wafer fab market share, North America represents 18 percent of the Wafer Fab Materials market compared to 14 percent of global fab capacity. This is due to the advanced device manufacturing that occurs in the region, which requires more process steps and advanced materials which fetch higher average selling prices.

Regional Wafer Fab Materials Markets

Source: SEMI (www.semi.org)

The equipment market is expected to increase about 10 percent in North America this year due to sizable investments by GLOBALFOUNDRIES, Intel and Samsung, while the Wafer Fab Materials Market is expected to remain flat this year relative to last year. As companies like Apple, Intel, Qualcomm continue to innovate, North America will remain an essential force in both device and systems design and in semiconductor manufacturing.

Plan to attend the SEMI/Gartner Market Symposium at SEMICON West 2016 on Monday, July 11, for an update on the semiconductor market outlook.

Revenue associated with the wireless competitive landscape continued to serve as a bright spot in the larger semiconductor market in 2015, growing almost 4 percent to over $56 billion, year over year, while total semiconductor revenue fell 2 percent to $347 billion during the same period. The wireless competitive landscape includes logic and analog semiconductors used in connectivity, mobile phones, media tablets, mobile infrastructure and other applications. However, due to slowing sales of smartphones and other wireless devices, the wireless competitive landscape faces a set of challenges that could result in similar or slower growth in 2016, according to IHS Inc. (NYSE: IHS), a global source of critical information and insight.

wireless semiconductors

“Apple recently reported its fiscal second quarter results, and for the first time iPhone unit sales fell year over year, indicating the potential magnitude of the softness in the premium smartphone market,” said Brad Shaffer, senior analyst, mobile devices and networks, IHS Technology. “If the iPhone and other premium smartphones fail to gain enough traction to support growth in that market segment, it may be reflected in the underlying semiconductor market in 2016.”

According to the IHS Wireless Semiconductor Competitive Intelligence Service, the mobile handset integrated-circuit (IC) market is the largest segment in the wireless competitive landscape, comprising 62 percent of revenue in 2015 as the smartphone market continued to grow. “If unit shipments from Apple and other smartphone original equipment manufacturers continue to decline, the wireless competitive landscape could have a dragging effect on the larger semiconductor market in 2016. However, though currently too early in their lifecycles to make a material difference in the short term, emerging technologies like LTE-Advanced Pro or 4.5G could provide upside potential in the next 12 to 18 months,” Shaffer said.

Along with maturing growth rates in the smartphone market, Samsung, Apple, Huawei and other OEMs that are vertically integrated have varying degrees of internal semiconductor capabilities at their disposal — with the potential to supply their own smartphones and other OEMs as well. These internal design decisions tend to be cyclical in nature and can change from one product iteration to another, switching from internally-supplied components to third-party solutions.

“While this vertical integration has been especially evident in the premium smartphone tier, it helps to create a fiercely competitive environment in all market tiers, as it can limit the available market for third-party suppliers,” Shaffer said. “The increased competition resulting from a smaller market could impact core handset integrated-circuit prices in the entry-level and mid-range segments, with MediaTek, Spreadtrum and other suppliers vying for revenue share with market leader Qualcomm.”

According to the latest research from Strategy Analytics, global smartphone shipments fell 3 percent annually to reach 335 million units in Q1 2016. It is the first time ever in history the global smartphone market has shrunk on an annualized basis. Samsung maintained first position with 24 percent global smartphone marketshare.

Linda Sui, Director at Strategy Analytics, said, “Global smartphone shipments fell 3 percent annually from 345.0 million units in Q1 2015 to 334.6 million in Q1 2016. It is the first time ever since the modern smartphone market began in 1996 that global shipments have shrunk on an annualized basis. Smartphone growth is slowing due to increasing penetration maturity in major markets like China and consumer caution about the future of the world economy.”

Neil Mawston, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics, added, “Samsung shipped 79.0 million smartphones worldwide in Q1 2016, dipping 4 percent annually from 82.7 million units in Q1 2015. Samsung maintained first position with 24 percent share for the quarter, broadly around the same level as a year ago. Samsung’s new Galaxy S7 flagship and its popular J series models are helping to hold steady its smartphone leadership. Apple fell 16 percent annually and shipped a disappointing 51.2 million smartphones worldwide in Q1 2016. Apple’s global smartphone marketshare has softened from 18 percent to 15 percent in the past year. Apple is facing iPhone fatigue and pressure is mounting for Apple to innovate a new wow design beyond its standard rectangle formfactor.”

Woody Oh, Director at Strategy Analytics, added, “Huawei maintained third position with 8 percent global smartphone marketshare in Q1 2016, up from 5 percent a year ago. Huawei grew 64 percent annually to ship an impressive 28.3 million smartphones worldwide in the quarter. Huawei is closing the gap on Apple, but Huawei itself is now being chased hard by ambitious rivals like OPPO and Vivo.”

Linda Sui, Director at Strategy Analytics, added, “OPPO shipped 15.5 million smartphones and soared to fourth position with 5 percent global smartphone marketshare in Q1 2016. OPPO has been well known in the smartphone industry for several years, but it is finally breaking into the wider public consciousness with its popular range of 4G models like the R9 across Asia and elsewhere. Xiaomi maintained fifth place with 4 percent global smartphone marketshare in Q1 2016. Xiaomi remains under pressure from OPPO, Vivo and others across Asia, while it is still very weak in North America and Western Europe and the vendor will need to target these regions more aggressively if it wants to catch Huawei and others in the future.”

Global Smartphone Vendor Shipments and Marketshare in Q1 20161

Global Smartphone Vendor Shipments (Millions of Units) Q1 ’15 Q1 ’16
Samsung 82.7 79.0
Apple 61.2 51.2
Huawei 17.3 28.3
OPPO 8.3 15.5
Xiaomi 14.9 14.6
Others 160.6 146.0
Total 345.0 334.6
Global Smartphone Vendor Marketshare (%) Q1 ’15 Q1 ’16
Samsung 24.0% 23.6%
Apple 17.7% 15.3%
Huawei 5.0% 8.5%
OPPO 2.4% 4.6%
Xiaomi 4.3% 4.4%
Others 46.6% 43.6%
Total 100.0% 100.0%
Total Growth: Year-over-Year (%) 21.1% -3.0%
Source: Strategy Analytics

The full report, Global Smartphone Shipments Fall 3 Percent in Q1 2016, is published by the Strategy Analytics Wireless Smartphone Strategies (WSS) service, details of which can be found here.

Active matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) displays are rising fast, thanks to lowering costs, wider use in end-market consumer electronics devices and the ramp-up of new manufacturing capacities.  While liquid crystal display (LCD) technology is still the dominant technology in the display industry, AMOLED display shipments will grow 40 percent, year over year, to reach 395 million units in 2016. AMOLED display revenue is expected to increase by 25 percent, to reach $15 billion in 2016, according to IHS Inc. (NYSE: IHS), a global source of critical information and insight.

“AMOLED is becoming the shiniest spot in the flat-panel display industry,” said David Hsieh, senior director, displays at IHS Technology. “AMOLED has a simpler structure than LCD, as well as a thinner and lighter form factor, better color saturation, greater contrast ratio, faster response time and easier integration with touch functions. In addition, AMOLED is formed on a polymer base substrate, allowing it to be flexible, bendable and even foldable. The organic electro-luminescence materials can be formed using a soluble printing process, which means AMOLED has the potential to be produced at a very low cost.”

Many of the obstacles to AMOLED development, such as production inefficiencies, yield-rate management issues, higher investment costs and a short lifetime for light emitting materials, were also resolved in 2015, improving the production. OLED has started to find its niche in many applications, especially in smartphones, smartwatches, automotive displays, home appliances, near-eye virtual reality (VR) devices and televisions. “Improvements in production and lowering costs are attracting more device makers to install AMOLED displays in their products,” Hsieh said.

For example, Samsung Electronics has been using AMOLED as an important differentiator in its proprietary Galaxy smartphones. Since the second half of 2015, more smartphone brands — especially manufacturers in China — have installed AMOLED displays in their devices, such as Google, Microsoft, Meizhu, Blackberry, Huawei, HTC, ZTE, Oppo and Coolpad. The 5-inch high-definition (HD), 5.5-inch full high definition (FHD), 5.5-inch and 6-inch wide quad high definition (WQHD) will be the major AMOLED smartphone display driving forces in 2016.

AMOLED penetration in smartphone displays is expected to rise from 17 percent in 2015 to 21 percent this year. Apple is reported to be considering AMOLED as a display source for its new iPhone in late 2017, replacing the current low-temperature polysilicon (LTPS) thin-film transistor (TFT) LCD display. “If Apple actually starts using AMOLED displays, the transition will be viewed as a milestone in flexible form factor development,” Hsieh said.

AMOLED_Chart_LG_IHS

According to the IHS OLED Display Market Tracker, OLED TV shipments will further expand in 2016, thanks to process improvements and production efficiency enhancements, as well as improvements in organic light emitting materials layers. In fact, LG Display is already expanding its AMOLED TV panels to 65 inches with ultra-high definition (UHD), which will bring AMOLED into the high-end TV segment. IHS expects OLED TV display shipments will grow 125 percent, year over year, to reach 900,000 units in 2016.

Tablet and notebook PCs is another important venue for AMOLED, for its slim and light form factor, and high resolution. We expect to see 8-inch and 9.7-inch quad extended graphics array (QXGA) displays and 12-inch AMOLED panels begin to emerge in the mobile PC arena this year. Many PC brands are planning to use AMOLED in notebook PCs and two-in-one convertible mobile PC models beginning in 2016. AMOLED mobile PC panels are expected to grow 63 percent year over year, to reach to 8.6 million units in 2016.

AMOLED is also leading other display technologies when it comes to response time and power consumption, which is extremely useful in near-eye display devices, including VR and augmented reality (AR) devices. AMOLED display and OLED on silicon projection displays, which are both used in near-eye displays are forecast to grow 119 percent, year over year, to reach 3.6 million units in 2016.

“The central information display in cars will also feature AMOLED within the next couple of years,” Hsieh said, “AMOLED displays provide features that are useful in automotive display applications, because of their high contrast ratio, flexible and curved form factors as well as better color gamut. Aside from these applications, AMOLED also presents great opportunities for industrial applications, home appliances, digital signage and broadcasting.”

AMOLED, as a rapidly emerging display technology, will be a key theme in the coming SID Display Week 2016 Business Track, which is co-organized by IHS and the Society for Information Display. For more information, visit SID Display Week.

With consumers becoming increasingly comfortable using smartphones and tablet PCs, touch screens are now increasingly making their way into their vehicles, too. In fact, the automotive touch panel market is expected to expand from 28 million units shipped in 2013 to 86 million in 2021, according to IHS Inc. (NYSE: IHS), a global source of critical information and insight.

“Projected capacitive touch technology is commonly found in consumer smartphones and tablets, which consumers have grown very comfortable using,” said Shoko Oi, senior display analyst at IHS Technology. “Although there are concerns about how direct touch operations could affect safety while driving, automotive touch panels are becoming a standard feature in new vehicles coming to market.”

The content shown on automotive displays now comes from a variety of sources, both inside and outside the car. Many of these applications require touch panels, which shift the role of the display from simply revealing information visually to becoming an actual human-machine interface. This shift, along with the increased volume and importance of displayed data, is leading to a growing need for easy-to-see designs that incorporate larger sizes, irregular or curved shapes and higher resolutions.

Technological evolution hits automakers

Automotive touch panels are shifting from resistive-touch to capacitive-touch technology, and capacitive touch screens are forecast to exceed resistive touch-screens in vehicles in 2017, according to the IHS Automotive Touch Panel Market Report. As vehicle models are updated, the resistive touch screens that formerly dominated the automotive industry are quickly being replaced by capacitive touch screens.

“In spite of higher module costs, projected capacitive technology is replacing resistive technology as the mainstream touch solution for automotive monitors,” Oi said. “The latest trends in connected cars and telematics encourage car makers to adopt projected capacitive touch screens, because they provide a similar user experience to smartphone and tablet-PC touch displays.”

The IHS Automotive Touch Panel Market Report analyzes all aspects of current touch technologies, plus those being considered for future automotive applications. It includes market historical and forecast analyses by technology, sensor type, size, maker, and price.