Category Archives: Lithography

TowerJazz, the global specialty foundry, today announced details on its 13th annual Technical Global Symposium (TGS) being held in China, Japan, and the United States. This year, TowerJazz TGS will focus on the Company’s leading analog technology offerings, advanced manufacturing solutions and commitment to customer partnerships. All TGS events will commence with a keynote from TowerJazz CEO, Mr. Russell Ellwanger focusing on the Company’s performance, business strategy and industry leadership through alignment with customer roadmaps, innovative and superior technology, and worldwide manufacturing capabilities.

During TGS, speakers will discuss market directions and the latest TowerJazz plans, developments and activities for strategic growth in its specialty process technologies such as Radio Frequency (RF) & High Performance Analog (HPA), power management, and CMOS image sensors (CIS), as well as its process transfer offering (TOPS) for the rising markets of automotive, sensors, the IoT, and 5G, among others. In addition, TowerJazz will present the latest design enablement tools and solutions jointly developed with its EDA partners as well as the Company’s expanded manufacturing capacity and multi-sourcing capabilities.

The global TGS events facilitate customer and partner interaction with TowerJazz team members and industry executives to exchange information on the latest unique and advanced solutions for next-generation analog ICs. TowerJazz focuses on strong roadmap alignment and long-term partnerships with its customers to meet their current and future needs with the most innovative process platforms, addressing the requirements of the fastest growing markets.

As the leading analog pure play foundry, TowerJazz continues to be committed and passionate toward creating value for its customers. The Company offers the most advanced analog technology and best-in-class design enablement while providing global capacity assurance and flexibility to enable customers with competitive advantage and fast time to market.

This year, TowerJazz TGS events will be hosted in the following locations:

Sponsors at TowerJazz TGS events include the industry’s leading EDA vendors and tool providers who will share the latest design capabilities offered in collaboration with TowerJazz: Cadence, HES, Integra Tech, Keysight Technologies, Magwel, Mentor, PacTech, Photronics, Presto, Silvaco, Synkom and Synopsis.

For more information about TowerJazz TGS and registration please visit:
http://www.towerjazz.com/events.html#tgs

Synopsys, Inc. (Nasdaq: SNPS) today announced that Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. has certified the Synopsys Custom Design Platform for Samsung Foundry’s 7-nanometer (nm) Low Power Plus (LPP) process Samsung Foundry’s 7LPP is its first semiconductor process technology to use extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, a process technology that greatly reduces complexity and offers significantly better yield and fast turnaround time when compared to its 10-nanometer (10nm) FinFET predecessors. Synopsys custom design tools have been updated to support Samsung Foundry’s 7LPP requirements. In addition, a Synopsys-ready process design kit (PDK) and custom design reference flow are available from Samsung Foundry.

The Synopsys Custom Design Platform has been certified for Samsung Foundry’s 7LPP process technology. The platform is centered around the Custom Compiler custom design and layout environment, and includes HSPICE, FineSim SPICE and CustomSim FastSPICE circuit simulation, StarRC parasitic extraction, and IC Validator physical verification. To support efficient 7LPP custom design, Synopsys and Samsung Foundry have collaborated to develop a reference flow that includes a set of tutorials illustrating key requirements of 7-nm design and layout. These tutorials include sample design data and step-by-step instructions for performing typical design and layout tasks. Topics covered include electrical rule checking, circuit simulation, mixed-signal simulation, Monte Carlo analysis, layout, parasitic analysis, and electromigration.

To achieve certification from Samsung Foundry, Synopsys tools have been optimized to support the demanding requirements of 7-nm design, including:

  • Accurate FinFET device modeling with device aging effect
  • Advanced Monte Carlo simulation features to enable efficient analysis
  • High-performance transient noise simulation for analog and RF designs
  • High-performance post-layout simulation to enable parasitic-aware design and simulation
  • Dynamic circuit ERC for device voltage checks
  • High-performance transistor-level EM/IR analysis to minimize over-design
  • Efficient symbolic editing of FinFET device arrays
  • EUV support
  • Coverage-based via resistance extraction

“Our custom design collaboration with Synopsys has expanded substantially over the past two years,” said Ryan Sanghyun Lee, vice president of Foundry Marketing Team at Samsung Electronics. “With this latest effort, we have added Synopsys Custom Design Platform support for our 7LPP process, including a custom design reference flow based on Synopsys tools.”

“We’ve been collaborating closely with Samsung Foundry to simplify custom design using FinFET process technology,” said Bijan Kiani, vice president of product marketing at Synopsys. “Together we have delivered certified tools, a reference flow, a PDK, simulation models, and runsets to enable Samsung customers to achieve robust custom designs on the 7LPP process.”

ON Semiconductor (Nasdaq: ON) plans to invest $51 million to support expansion of the Luzerne County facility. The ON Semiconductor Mountain Top location specializes in the manufacturing of semiconductor discrete devices used in power management applications across a wide variety of industries, including automotive, industrial, communication and computing.

Today, ON Semiconductor occupies 437,000 square feet of space on 84 acres in the Crestwood Industrial Park. The Mountain Top site is a high-tech location with a highly skilled workforce, benefits, clean work environment and open communication environment. The investment is planned to increase production and in turn create over 70 new jobs, including production staff, technicians, engineers and other support staff.

“We have an outstanding team of highly motivated employees combining our technical capabilities and expansive space capacity to meet exploding business growth in critical markets for ON Semiconductor,” said Heather Carreiro, general manager at ON Semiconductor’s Mountain Top facility. “The initial phase of expansion is currently underway. I’m very proud of our accomplishments and excited about the future of our operation here in Mountain Top.”

With its acquisition of Fairchild’s product portfolio of medium and high voltage products in late 2016, complementing ON Semiconductor’s specialization in low power, the company now has a complete suite of power conversion and power management technologies. This makes ON Semiconductor uniquely positioned to support customers across multiple sectors in working purposefully toward realizing the degree of energy efficiency desired by their customers and increasingly required by regulations.

ON Semiconductor is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, and offers a portfolio of over 80,000 energy efficient power management, analog, sensors, logic, timing, connectivity, discrete, SoC and custom devices utilized in, computing, consumer, industrial, medical and military/aerospace applications. The company operates a network of manufacturing facilities, sales offices and design centers which are located in key markets throughout North America, Europe, and in the Asia Pacific region.

The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), representing U.S. leadership in semiconductor manufacturing, design, and research, this week released the following statement regarding the Trump Administration’s announcement on tariffs on products imported from China.

“While the U.S. semiconductor industry shares the Trump Administration’s concerns about China’s forced technology transfer and intellectual property (IP) practices, the proposed imposition of tariffs on semiconductors from China, most of which are actually researched, designed, and manufactured in the U.S., is counterproductive and fails to address the serious IP and industrial policy issues in China. We look forward to working with the Administration to explain why imposing tariffs on our products would be harmful to our competitiveness and does not address our challenges with China.”

SIA seeks to strengthen U.S. leadership of semiconductor manufacturing, design, and research by working with Congress, the Administration and other key industry stakeholders to encourage policies and regulations that fuel innovation, propel business and drive international competition. Learn more at www.semiconductors.org.

North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $2.70 billion in billings worldwide in May 2018 (three-month average basis), according to the May Equipment Market Data Subscription (EMDS) Billings Report published today by SEMI. The billings figure is 0.6 percent higher than the final April 2018 level of $2.69 billion, and is 19.2 percent higher than the May 2017 billings level of $2.27 billion.

“May 2018 monthly global billings of North American equipment manufacturers exceeded last month’s level to set yet another record,” said Ajit Manocha, president and CEO of SEMI. “Demand for semiconductor equipment remains strong on the back of smart, data-centric applications such as artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), big data, and edge computing.”

The SEMI Billings report uses three-month moving averages of worldwide billings for North American-based semiconductor equipment manufacturers. Billings figures are in millions of U.S. dollars.
Billings
(3-mo. avg)
Year-Over-Year
December 2017
$2,398.4
28.3%
January 2018
$2,370.1
27.5%
February 2018
$2,417.8
22.5%
March 2018
$2,431.8
16.9%
April 2018 (final)
$2,689.9
25.9%
May 2018 (prelim)
$2,705.8
19.2%

Source: SEMI (www.semi.org), June 2018

FormFactor, Inc. (NASDAQ:FORM), a electrical test and measurement supplier to the semiconductor industry, has extended its Contact Intelligence technology. With Contact Intelligence, FormFactor’s advanced probe systems automatically and autonomously adapt in real time to changes in the testing environment, enabling customers to collect large amounts of RF data faster. As the race to bring 5G devices to market heats up, this addresses the need for higher productivity, to reduce time to market.

FormFactor’s Contact Intelligence technology combines smart hardware design and innovative software algorithms to provide accurate probe-to-pad alignment and electronic recalibrations in engineering labs and many production applications. With the introduction of its new RF solution, FormFactor now has specialized Contact Intelligence applications for RF, DC and Silicon Photonics (SiPh) testing.

FormFactor is best known for it’s probe card business, but with its acquisition of Cascade Microtech in 2016, it became more involved in the design and characterization side of chip-making, including RF and silicon photonic devices (probe cards are primarily used at the end of wafer manufacturing, testing the devices before they are packaged).

Mike Slessor, CEO of FormFactor, said with upcoming infrastructure changes — such as 5G, more mobile communications and IoT — RF is an important place to be. “The Cascade Microtech acquisition gave us an engineering systems business. These are pieces of customized capital equipment that help people very early on in their development and R&D — even early pathfinding — to figure out how their next device is going to perform, to characterize it and to improve its yield,” he said. That systems business grew saw a double digit growth rate last year.

Slessor said the new Contact Intelligence technology is designed to help customers in the systems business get a lot of data faster. He said the push to improve yield, along with new materials and new devices, is driving a tremendous amount of data collection. “What Contact Intelligence really is positioned to do is to help people easily and efficiently collect that data. You can think of it as bringing almost production automation to the engineering lab. We’re helping people do it autonomously over wide ranges of temperatures,” he said. He said it enables engineering tools to be upgraded. Customers can “set it up, push a button and walk away for 48 hours, 96 hours even more and come back and have a hundreds of thousands of individual characterization data points.”

New high frequency ICs, such as 5G (with multiple high frequency bands from sub-6 to more than 70 GHz) and automotive communication devices, need the highest quality process design kits (PDK’s) to ensure working devices at first iteration.

Traditional systems and methods require engineers to invest significant time for recalibration when the system invariably drifts, or to reposition probes with intentional changes in test temperatures. At higher frequencies, calibrations and measurements are more sensitive to probe placement errors and there is more calibration drift, so recalibration is required more often.Over time and temperature, Contact Intelligence automatically makes these adjustments with no operator intervention, resulting in more devices tested in less time, for more accurate PDK’s and faster time to market.

Slessor says the push to 5G brings many design and test challenges due to the significant increase in carrier frequencies – 10 times higher than 4G. “Although there are different bands and the carriers and the countries are still ironing out where they’re going to operate, there are bands as high as 72 gigahertz,” Slessor said. “Electrical signal propagation gets much, much more challenging as you go up in frequency. All kinds of new engineering and physics challenges emerge because you’ve got things that are radiating a good deal of power and there’s a whole bunch of cross talk on the chip. There are all kinds of interesting phenomena that appear that make the designers and the test engineer’s job much more difficult just because of these higher frequencies.”

In an RF front end, instead of modems or radios communicating, a wide variety of a BAW and SAW  filters are used to do the frequency band management and make sure that only the individual bands that are supposed to be used or being effectively used.

In addition to RF, Contact Intelligence is also designed for use in autonomous DC testing and for silicon phototonics.

In DC applications, Contact Intelligence automatically senses preset temperatures, and responds by waiting the correct amount of time until the system is stabilized. This allows lengthy test routines to be conducted over multiple temperatures without an operator present. Contact Intelligence also provides dynamic probe-to-pad alignment, even on pads as small as 25 µm, employing a combination of smart software, probe tip recognition algorithms and advanced programmable positioners.

FormFactor’s integrated SiPh solution allows sub-micron manipulation of optical fibers positioned above the wafer, automatically optimizing fiber coupling position.  Contact Intelligence uses machine vision technology to automate Theta X, Y and Z axis calibrations and alignments enabling measurements out of the box, reducing what used to take days or weeks to a matter of minutes.When combined with autonomous DC and RF, measurement options expand from Optical-Optical to include Photo-Diodes, Optical Modulators and more.

For more information, visit http://www.formfactor.com/contactintelligence.

Cautious optimism


June 15, 2018

By Walt Custer

Updated global GDP forecast

The World Bank just updated its multiyear forecast for GDP growth both globally and by country (Chart 1).

It noted: “Despite recent softening, global economic growth will remain robust at 3.1 percent in 2018 before slowing gradually over the next two years, as advanced-economy growth decelerates and the recovery in major commodity-exporting emerging market and developing economies levels off.

“This outlook is subject to considerable downside risks. The possibility of disorderly financial market volatility has increased, and the vulnerability of some emerging market and developing economies to such disruption has risen. Trade protectionist sentiment has also mounted, while policy uncertainty and geopolitical risks remain elevated.”

Chart 1

Semiconductor growth outlook strong (Chart 2)

The WSTS updated its world semiconductor shipment forecast. This new forecast (endorsed by SIA) projects worldwide semiconductor sales will be a record $463 billion in 2018, a 12.4 percent increase from 2017. WSTS projects year-to-year increases across all regional markets for 2018.

Chart 2

This revised semiconductor forecast coupled with very robust global semiconductor capital equipment sales (Chart 3) paint a positive outlook for 2018.

Chart 3

Very strong end market growth in first quarter (Chart 4)

Based upon the combined 1Q’18 financial reports of 213 large, global OEMs, electronic equipment sales (consolidated into U.S. dollars) increased globally an estimated (and very robust) 10.6 percent in 1Q’18 vs. 1Q’17. While this world growth result is very heartening it was significantly inflated by exchange rate effects as stronger non-dollar currencies were converted into weaker dollars.

Chart 4

Looking at world electronic equipment sales consolidated into both dollars and euros, 1Q’18 growth rates are MUCH different (Chart 5). 1Q’18 vs.1Q’17 electronic equipment sales grew 10.6 percent in dollars but declined 4.3 percent in euros!

Chart 5

Certainly the first quarter was strong globally but the currency chosen for analysis can have a BIG effect.

U.S. supply chain expansion continues

Looking at the U.S. market (in dollars – therefore not distorted by exchange rates) domestic electronic equipment orders rose 6.7 percent in February-April 2018 versus the same three-month period in 2017. The U.S. electronic industry is doing reasonably well at present.

www.census.gov/manufacturing/m3/

Expect the recent exchange rate based amplification of dollar denominated global growth to taper off quickly.

Keep a careful watch on the geopolitical situation.

Walt Custer of Custer Consulting Group is an analyst focused on the global electronics industry.

Originally published on the SEMI blog.

Synopsys, Inc. (Nasdaq: SNPS) today announced that Samsung Foundry has certified the Synopsys Design Platform with Fusion Technology for 7-nanometer (nm) Low Power Plus (LPP) process with Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) lithography technology. The Synopsys Design Platform provides comprehensive full-flow 7LPP support for EUV single-exposure-based routing and via stapling to ensure maximum design routability and utilization while minimizing IR-drop. Synopsys’ SiliconSmart® library characterization tool was key to developing the foundation IP used for this certification process and reference flow. Samsung Foundry has certified Synopsys Design Platform tools and the reference flow, which is compatible with the Lynx Design System with scripts for automation and design best practices. The reference flow is available through the Samsung Advanced Foundry Ecosystem (SAFE™) program.

“Built through deep collaboration with Synopsys, this certification and reference flow for our 7LPP process will enable our mutual customers to achieve the best power, performance, and area for their designs,” said Ryan Sanghyun Lee, vice president of Foundry Marketing Team at Samsung Electronics. “Our foundry customers can confidently ramp their designs to volume production on our most advanced EUV-based process using the proven Synopsys Design Platform with Fusion Technology.”

“Our tools and reference flow collaboration with Samsung Foundry is focused on enabling designers to get the optimum quality of results with the highest confidence on Samsung Foundry’s latest 7LPP process with EUV,” said Michael Jackson, corporate vice president of marketing and business development for Synopsys’ Design Group. “This scalable 7LPP reference flow based on the Synopsys Design Platform with Fusion Technology will allow designers to easily achieve their desired design and schedule targets.”

The 64-bit Arm Cortex-A53 processor, based on the ARMv8 architecture, was used for quality of results (QoR) optimization and flow certification. Key tools and features of the Synopsys Design Platform 7LPP reference flow include:

  • IC Compiler II place-and-route: EUV single-exposure-based routing with optimized 7LPP design rule support, and via stapling to ensure maximum design routability and utilization while minimizing IR-drop
  • Design Compiler Graphical RTL synthesis: Correlation, congestion reduction, optimized 7LPP design rule support, and physical guidance for IC Compiler II
  • IC Validator physical signoff: High-performance DRC signoff, LVS-aware short-finder, signoff fill, pattern matching, and unique dirty data analysis with Explorer technology, as well as in-design verification for automated DRC repair and accurate timing-aware metal fill within IC Compiler II
  • PrimeTime timing signoff: Near-threshold ultra-low voltage variation modeling, via variation modeling, and placement rule-aware engineering change order (ECO) guidance
  • StarRC™ parasitic extraction: EUV single pattern-based routing support, and new extraction technologies such as coverage-based via resistance
  • RedHawk™ Analysis Fusion: ANSYS® RedHawk™-driven EM/IR analysis and optimization within IC Compiler II including via insertion and power grid augmentation
  • DFTMAX™ and TetraMAX® II test: FinFET-based, cell-aware, and slack-based transition testing for higher test quality
  • Formality® formal verification: UPF-based equivalence checking with state transition verification

The certified, scalable reference flow compatible with Synopsys’ Lynx Design System is available through the SAFE™ program. The Lynx Design System is a full-chip design environment that includes innovative automation and reporting capabilities to help designers implement and monitor their designs. It includes a production RTL-to-GDSII flow that simplifies and automates many critical implementation and validation tasks, enabling engineers to focus on achieving performance and design goals. The SAFE™ program provides extensively tested process design kits (PDKs) and reference flows (with design methodologies) that are backed by Samsung Foundry’s certification.

The semiconductor industry is nearing a third consecutive year of record equipment spending with projected growth of 14 percent (YOY) in 2018 and 9 percent in 2019, a mark that would extend the streak to a historic fourth consecutive growth year, according to the latest update of the World Fab Forecast report published by SEMI. Over the semiconductor industry’s 71-year history, only once before – in the mid 1990s – has the industry logged four consecutive years of equipment spending growth.

Korea and China are leading the growth, with Samsung dominating global spending and ascendant China on a fast, steep rise, surging ahead of all other markets. See Figure 1.

Figure 1 equipment spending by region (includes new and refurbished)

While Samsung is expected to reduce equipment investments in 2018, the company still accounts for a dominant 70 percent of all investment in Korea. At the same time, SK Hynix is increasing its equipment spending in Korea.

China’s equipment spending is forecast to increase 65 percent in 2018 and 57 percent in 2019.  Notably, 58 percent of investments in China in 2018 and 56 percent in 2019 stem from companies with headquarters in other regions such as Intel, SK Hynix, TSMC, Samsung, and GLOBALFOUNDRIES. Domestic, Chinese-owned companies – backed by large government initiatives – are building a considerable number of new fabs that will start equipping in 2018. The companies are expected to double their equipment investments in 2018 and again in 2019.

Other regions are also ramping up investments. Japan is increasing equipment spending by 60 percent in 2018, with the largest increases by Toshiba, Sony, Renesas and Micron.

The Europe and Mideastern region will boost investments by 12 percent in 2018, with Intel, GLOBALFOUNDRIES, Infineon and STMicroelectronics the largest contributors.

Southeast Asia will boost investments by more than 30 percent in 2018, although total spending is proportionately smaller than in other regions owing to its size. The main contributors are Micron, Infineon and GLOBALFOUNDRIES, though companies including OSRAM and ams are also increasing investments.

The SEMI World Fab Forecast, which also includes information on other companies, covers data and predictions through the end of 2019, including milestones, detailed investments by quarter, product types, technology nodes and capacities down to fab and project level.

Learn more about the SEMI fab databases at:

www.semi.org/en/MarketInfo/FabDatabase and www.youtube.com/user/SEMImktstats.

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 April 2018, an increase of 20.2 percent from the April 2017 total of $31.3 billion and 1.4 percent more than last month’s total of $37.1 billion. Monthly sales numbers are compiled by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization and represent a three-month moving average. Additionally, a newly released WSTS industry forecast projects annual global market growth of 12.4 percent in 2018 and 4.4 percent in 2019.

“The global semiconductor industry has posted consistently strong sales so far in 2018, and the global market has now experienced year-to-year growth of greater than 20 percent for 13 consecutive months,” said John Neuffer, president and CEO, Semiconductor Industry Association. “Although boosted in part by impressive growth in the memory market, sales of non-memory products also grew by double digits in April on a year-to-year basis, and all major regional markets posted double-digit year-to-year gains. The global market is projected to experience significant annual growth this year, with more modest growth expected next year.”

Regionally, year-to-year sales increased in the Americas (34.1 percent), China (22.1 percent), Europe(21.4 percent), Japan (14.6 percent), and Asia Pacific/All Other (10.2 percent). Compared with last month, sales were up in China (3.2 percent), Japan (2.7 percent), Europe (1.4 percent), and the Americas (0.8 percent), but down slightly in Asia Pacific/All Other (-0.8 percent).

Additionally, SIA today endorsed the WSTS Spring 2018 global semiconductor sales forecast, which projects the industry’s worldwide sales will be $463.4 billion in 2018. This would mark the industry’s highest-ever annual sales, a 12.4 percent increase from the 2017 sales total. WSTS projects year-to-year increases across all regional markets for 2018: the Americas (14.0 percent), Europe (13.4 percent), Asia Pacific (including China) (12.3 percent), and Japan (8.6 percent). In 2019, growth in the semiconductor market is expected to moderate, with sales increases of between 4-5 percent expected across each of the regions. WSTS tabulates its semi-annual industry forecast by convening an extensive group of global semiconductor companies that provide accurate and timely indicators of semiconductor trends.

For comprehensive monthly semiconductor sales data and detailed WSTS Forecasts, consider purchasing the WSTS Subscription Package. For information about the global semiconductor industry and market, check out SIA’s free 2018 Factbook.

Apr 2018

Billions

Month-to-Month Sales                              

Market

Last Month

Current Month

% Change

Americas

8.10

8.16

0.8%

Europe

3.58

3.63

1.4%

Japan

3.21

3.30

2.7%

China

11.98

12.36

3.2%

Asia Pacific/All Other

10.23

10.15

-0.8%

Total

37.09

37.59

1.4%

Year-to-Year Sales

Market

Last Year

Current Month

% Change

Americas

6.08

8.16

34.1%

Europe

2.99

3.63

21.4%

Japan

2.88

3.30

14.6%

China

10.12

12.36

22.1%

Asia Pacific/All Other

9.21

10.15

10.2%

Total

31.28

37.59

20.2%

Three-Month-Moving Average Sales

Market

Nov/Dec/Jan

Feb/Mar/Apr

% Change

Americas

8.63

8.16

-5.5%

Europe

3.40

3.63

6.6%

Japan

3.21

3.30

2.8%

China

12.01

12.36

2.9%

Asia Pacific/All Other

10.35

10.15

-1.9%

Total

37.60

37.59

0.0%