Category Archives: Manufacturing

BY AJIT MANOCHA, President and CEO of SEMI

2017 was a terrific year for SEMI members. Chip revenues closed at nearly $440B, an impressive 22 percent year- over-year growth. The equipment industry surpassed revenue levels last reached in the year 2000. Semicon- ductor equipment posted sales of nearly $56B and semiconductor materials $48B in 2017. For semiconductor equipment, this was a giant 36 percent year-over-year growth. Samsung, alone, invested $26B in semiconductor CapEx in 2017 – an incredible single year spend in an incredible year.

MEMS and Sensors gained new growth in telecom and medical markets, adding to existing demand from automotive, industrial and consumer segments. MEMS is forecast to be a $19B industry in 2018. Flexible hybrid electronics (FHE) is also experiencing significant product design and functionality growth with increasing gains in widespread adoption.

No longer isa single monolithic demand driver propelling the electronics manufacturing supply chain. The rapidly expanding digital economy continues to foster innovation with new demand from the IoT, virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR), automobile infotainment and driver assistance, artificial intelligence (AI) and Big Data, among others. With the explosion in data usage, memory demand is nearly insatiable, holding memory device ASPs high and prompting continued heavy investment in new capacity.

2018 is forecast to be another terrific year. IC revenues are expected to increase another 8 percent and semiconductor equipment will grow 11 percent. With diverse digital economy demand continuing, additional manufacturing capacity is being added in China as fab projects come on line to develop and increase the indigenous semiconductor supply chain.

So, why worry?

The cracks starting to show are in the areas of talent, data management, and Environment, Health, and Safety (EH&S).

Can the industry sustain this growth? The electronics manufacturing supply chain has demonstrated it can generally scale and expedite production to meet the massive new investment projects. The cracks starting to show are in the areas of talent, data management, and Environment, Health, and Safety (EH&S).

Talent has become a pinch point. In Silicon Valley alone, SEMI member companies have thousands of open positions. Globally, there are more than 10,000 open jobs. Attracting new candidates and developing a global workforce are critical to sustaining the pace of innovation and growth.
Data management and effective data sharing are keys to solving problems faster and making practical novel but immature processes at the leading edge. It is ironic that other industries are ahead of semiconductor manufac- turing in harnessing manufacturing data and leveraging AI across their supply chains. Without collaborative Smart Data approaches, there is jeopardy of decreasing the cadence of Moore’s Law below the 10 nm node.

EH&S is critical for an industry that now uses the majority of the elements of the periodic table to make chips – at rates of more than 50,000 wafer starts per month (wspm) for a single fab. The industry came together strongly in the 1990s to develop SEMI Safety Standards and compliance methodologies. Since then, the number of EH&S profes- sionals engaged in our industry has declined while the number of new materials has exploded, new processing techniques have been developed, and manufacturing is expanding across China in areas with no prior semicon- ductor manufacturing experience.

HTU has been a very effective program with over 218 sessions run to date, over 7,000 students engaged, and over 70 percent of respondents pursuing careers in the STEM field.

To ensure we don’t slow growth, the industry will need to work together in 2018 in these three key areas:

Talent development needs to rapidly accelerate by expanding currently working programs and adding additional means to fill the talent funnel. The SEMI Foundation’s High Tech University (HTU) works globally with member companies to increase the number of high school students selecting Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields – and provides orientation to the semiconductor manufacturing industry. HTU has been a very effective program with over 218 sessions run to date, over 7,000 students engaged, and over 70 percent of respondents pursuing careers in the STEM field. SEMI will increase the number of HTU sessions in 2018.

Plans have already been approved by SEMI’s Board of Directors to work together with SEMI’s membership to leverage existing, and pioneer new, workforce development programs to attract and develop qualified candidates from across the age and experience spectrum (high school through university, diversity, etc.). Additionally, an industry awareness campaign will be developed and launched to make more potential candidates attracted to our member companies as a great career choice. I’ll be providing you with updates on this initiative – and asking for your involvement
– throughout 2018.

Data management is a broad term. Big Data, machine learning, AI are terms that today mean different things to different people in our supply chain. What is clear is that to act together and take advantage of the unimaginable amounts of data being generating to produce materials and make semiconductor devices with the diverse equipment sets across our fabs, we need a common understanding of the data and potential use of the data.

In 2018, SEMI will launch a Smart Data vertical application platform to engage stakeholders along the supply chain to produce a common language, develop Standards, and align expectations for sharing data for mutual benefit. Bench- marking of other industries and pre-competitive pilot programs are being proposed to learn and, here too, we need the support and engagement of thought leaders throughout SEMI’s membership.

EH&S activity must intensify to maintain safe operations and to eliminate business interruptions from supply chain disruptions. There is potential for disruptions from material bans such as the Stockholm Convention action on PFOA and arising from the much wider range of chemicals and materials being used in advanced manufacturing. Being able to reliably identify these in time to guide and coordinate industry action will take a reinvigorated SEMI EH&S stewardship and membership engagement.

As China rapidly develops new fabs in many provinces – some with only limited prior experience and infrastructure – SEMI EH&S Standards orientation and training will accelerate the safe and sustainable operation of fabs, enabling them to keep pace with the ambitious growth trajectory our industry is delivering. In 2018, we’ll be looking for a renewed commitment to EH&S and sustainability for the budding challenges of new materials, methods, and emerging regions.

Remarkable results from a remarkable membership

Thank you all for a terrific 2017 and let’s work together on the key initiatives to ensure that our industry’s growth and prosperity will continue in 2018 and beyond.

In a quick review of 2017, I would like to thank SEMI’s members for their incredible results and new revenue records. Foundational to that, SEMI’s members have worked together with SEMI to connect, collaborate, and innovate to increase growth and prosperity for the industry. These founda- tional contributions have been in expositions, programs, Standards, market data, messaging (communications), and workforce development (with HTU).

The infographic below captures these foundational accom- plishments altogether. SEMI strives to speed the time to better business results for its members across the global electronics manufacturing supply chain. To do so, SEMI is dependent upon, and grateful for, the support and volunteer efforts of its membership. Thank you for a terrific 2017 and let’s work together on the key initiatives to ensure that our industry’s growth and prosperity will continue in 2018 and beyond.

Researchers have, for the first time, integrated two technologies widely used in applications such as optical communications, bio-imaging and Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) systems that scan the surroundings of self-driving cars and trucks.

In the collaborative effort between the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory and Harvard University, researchers successfully crafted a metasurface-based lens atop a Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) platform. The result is a new infrared light-focusing system that combines the best features of both technologies while reducing the size of the optical system.

This image gives a close-up view of a metasurface-based flat lens (square piece) integrated onto a MEMS scanner. Integration of MEMS devices with metalenses will help manipulate light in sensors by combining the strengths of high-speed dynamic control and precise spatial manipulation of wave fronts.This image was taken with an optical microscope at Argonne's Center for Nanoscale Materials. Credit: Argonne National Laboratory

This image gives a close-up view of a metasurface-based flat lens (square piece) integrated onto a MEMS scanner. Integration of MEMS devices with metalenses will help manipulate light in sensors by combining the strengths of high-speed dynamic control and precise spatial manipulation of wave fronts.This image was taken with an optical microscope at Argonne’s Center for Nanoscale Materials. Credit: Argonne National Laboratory

Metasurfaces can be structured at the nanoscale to work like lenses. These metalenses were pioneered by Federico Capasso, Harvard’s Robert L. Wallace Professor of Applied Physics, and his group at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). The lenses are rapidly finding applications because they are much thinner and less bulky than existing lenses, and can be made with the same technology used to fabricate computer chips. The MEMSs, meanwhile, are small mechanical devices that consist of tiny, movable mirrors.

“These devices are key today for many technologies. They have become technologically pervasive and have been adopted for everything from activating automobile air bags to the global positioning systems of smart phones,” said Daniel Lopez, Nanofabrication and Devices Group Leader at Argonne’s Center for Nanoscale Materials, a DOE Office of Science User Facility.

Lopez, Capasso and four co-authors describe how they fabricated and tested their new device in an article in APL Photonics, titled “Dynamic metasurface lens based on MEMS technology.” The device measures 900 microns in diameter and 10 microns in thickness (a human hair is approximately 50 microns thick).

The collaboration’s ongoing work to further develop novel applications for the two technologies is conducted at Argonne’s Center for Nanoscale Materials, SEAS and the Harvard Center for Nanoscale Systems, which is part of the National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure.

In the technologically merged optical system, MEMS mirrors reflect scanned light, which the metalens then focuses without the need for an additional optical component such as a focusing lens. The challenge that the Argonne/Harvard team overcame was to integrate the two technologies without hurting their performance.

The eventual goal would be to fabricate all components of an optical system — the MEMS, the light source and the metasurface-based optics — with the same technology used to manufacture electronics today.

“Then, in principle, optical systems could be made as thin as credit cards,” Lopez said.

These lens-on-MEMS devices could advance the LIDAR systems used to guide self-driving cars. Current LIDAR systems, which scan for obstacles in their immediate proximity, are, by contrast, several feet in diameter.

“You need specific, big, bulky lenses, and you need mechanical objects to move them around, which is slow and expensive,” said Lopez.

“This first successful integration of metalenses and MEMS, made possible by their highly compatible technologies, will bring high speed and agility to optical systems, as well unprecedented functionalities,” said Capasso.

Super Micro Computer, Inc. (NASDAQ: SMCI) today announced that it has expanded its Silicon Valley Headquarters to over two million square feet of facilities with the grand opening of its new Building 22.

The Corporate Headquarters includes engineering, manufacturing and customer service making Supermicro the only Tier 1 systems vendor to build its servers in Silicon Valley and worldwide.  Supermicro is ranked as the third largest server systems supplier in the world (Source: IDC).  In addition to the branded solution business used in the ranking, Supermicro also services large OEM and system integrator customers and shipped over 1.2 million units in 2017.

This latest building is the second of five facilities that the company plans to build on the 36-acre property formerly owned by the San Jose Mercury News. Additionally, the company continues to expand its other facilities worldwide.

“Having our design, engineering, manufacturing and service teams all here at our Silicon Valley campus gives Supermicro the agility to quickly respond to the newest technologies in the industry and to our customer’s needs and unique requirements, which is a major advantage that we have over the competition,” said Charles Liang, President and CEO of Supermicro.  “As our business continues to rapidly scale with over 1.2 million server and storage systems shipped globally last year, increasing our production capacity and capabilities is vital to keeping up with our rapid growth.  The opening of Building 22, along with the opening of two new facilities at our technology campus in Taiwan, provides the additional capacity and rack scale integration plug and play capabilities to ensure that we can provide the best possible service to our enterprise, datacenter, channel and cloud customers.”

“We’re thrilled to see an innovative, sustainable, and community-minded leader like Supermicro continuing to invest and grow in San Jose, and we look forward to their continued success now and for years to come!” said San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo.

“The Corporation for Manufacturing Excellence – Manex would like to congratulate Supermicro for its continued growth through design and engineering excellence,” said Gene Russell, President and CEO of Manex.  “Its investments in workforce, physical plant and equipment are crucial to the Silicon Valley Ecosystem and to its global client base.  Manex, as a network member of the NIST Manufacturing Extension Partnership and the CMTC California network is a proud partner of Supermicro.”

Working closely with key partners like Intel, Supermicro leverages its strength in design and engineering to lead the way with first-to-market server and storage technology innovations. The company offers the industry’s broadest portfolio of advanced server and storage solutions including the popular BigTwin™ and SuperBlade® product lines and provides rack scale integration with rack plug and play capabilities.

A global gathering of more than 650 industry and academic experts, including 140 speakers and 56 exhibitors, shared the latest advancements in both flexible hybrid electronics (FHE) and in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and sensors at 2018FLEX and MEMS & Sensors Technical Congress (MSTC). Hosted by SEMI strategic association partners, FlexTech and MEMS & Sensors Industry Group (MSIG), the events presented technologies, integration strategies and packaging/process methodologies that are advancing human-machine interaction in health monitoring and the treatment of illness, automotive systems, consumer electronics, Internet of Things (IoT) and industrial applications.

Speakers offered fascinating views of emerging FHE applications, including:

  • Cortera Neurotechnologies Co-founder and CTO Rikky Muller described how her company is replacing existing large wired sensors with small, minimally invasive thin biomaterials that interact more naturally with the neural cortex. Cortera Neurotechnologies’ devices will be used to treat neurological disease and psychiatric illnesses such as major depressive disorder. “I think we need biological invisibility,” said Muller. “We need materials and form factors that cause no reaction in the human body at all. We need stability and longevity, since we need these devices to outlive us.”
  • Auburn University MacFarlane Endowed Professor & Director Pradeep Lall called his department’s AU-CAVE3 Biometric Sensor Band with LifeSaver App a “guardian angel” that autonomously monitors patients without human interaction and can even call 9-1-1.
  • NASA Ames Research Center Chief Scientist for Exploration Technology Meyya Meyyappansaid that 3D printed electronics will support a multi-material “FabLab” on the International Space Station for repairing or replacing failed devices. “This will free scientists from having to send living supplies back and forth between the ISS and earth at a cost savings of up to $10,000 per pound,” he said.

Synergies and Integration Potential

SEMI for the first time co-located 2018FLEX with MSTC, which allowed attendees to explore potential synergies between the component-level technologies of MEMS/sensors and the more wide-reaching integration technologies of FHE. Longtime MSIG Members Mary Ann Maher, CEO of SoftMEMS, and Chip Spangler, president of Aspen Microsystems, offered a popular short-course on the integration of MEMS sensors and actuators with FHE electronics (FHE). “MEMS integrated with FHE offers distinct advantages for wearables and implantable devices, for example, which require conformal and flexible substrates and interconnections and small, accurate form-factor sensors,” said Maher.

Spangler gave the example of a prosthetic eye, saying, “Because the device must fit the form factor of an eyeball, flex circuits are used to make the antenna that connects to an external camera — which is outside the field of view — as well as to the optic nerve. FHE both facilitates the manufacture of the prosthetic eye and allows it to fit within the confined space of the eye socket.”

Awards and Recognitions

SEMI announced the recipients of its annual FLEXI Awards on February 13, 2018, lauding innovators in categories of R&D Achievements, Product Innovation and Commercialization, Education Leadership, and Industry Leadership. (See press release, “2018 FLEXI Awards Innovation and Leadership in Flexible Hybrid Electronics, February 13, 2018.)

SEMI announced the appointment of Frank A. Shemansky, Jr., Ph.D., as executive director and chief technology officer (CTO) of MSIG. Shemansky brings more than 25 years’ experience in microelectronics to MSIG, where he will now direct global activities. (See press release, Frank Shemansky to Lead SEMI’s MEMS & Sensors Industry Group, February 13, 2018.)

SEMI also recognized the “Innovators of Tomorrow” with its student poster session competition: Jonathan Ting, UC Berkeley: “Fully Screen-printed NiO Thermister Arrays;” Telha Alcagyazi, North Carolina State University: “Multi-modal Array Sensing with Textiles;” and Levent E. Ayguh, Princeton University: “Sound Identification Using Physically Expansive Sensing System.”

Entering 2018 on solid ground


February 22, 2018

By Walt Custer, Custer Consulting Group

2017 finished on an upturn – both in the USA and globally.  Based on consolidated fourth-quarter actual and estimated revenues of 213 large, global electronic manufactures, sales rose in excess of 7 percent in 4Q’17 vs. 4Q’16 (Chart 1).  This was the highest global electronic equipment sales growth rate since the third quarter of 2011. Because some companies in our sample didn’t close their financial quarter until the end of January, final results will take a few more weeks – but all evidence points to a very strong fourth quarter of last year.

Custer1-Electronic-Equipment

 

Using regional (country specific) data (Chart 2), the normal, consumer electronics driven seasonal downturn began again in January.  However the recent year-over-year growth is still substantial.  On a total electronic equipment revenue basis, January 2018 was up almost 19.5 percent over January 2017.

Custer2-World-Electronic

Because this regional data in local currencies was converted to U.S. dollars at fluctuating exchange, the dollar denominated-growth was amplified by currency exchange effects.  At constant exchange the January growth was only 14 percent.   That is, when the stronger non-U.S. currencies were converted to weakening dollars, the dollar-denominated January 2018 fluctuating exchange growth was amplified by 5.5 percent.

Chart 3 shows 4Q’17/4Q’16 growth of the domestic electronic supply chain.  U.S. electronic equipment shipments were up 9.1 percent.  Only computer equipment and non-defense aircraft sales declined in the fourth quarter.  And of note, SEMI equipment shipments to North America rose almost 31 percent!

Custer3-US-Electronic-Supply

 

Chart 4 shows estimated fourth-quarter growth for the world electronic supply chain.  Only “Business & Office” equipment revenues declined in 4Q’17 vs. 4Q’16.

Custer4-Global-Electronic

Total global electronic equipment sales increased more than 7 percent in the fourth quarter and SEMI equipment revenues rose 32 percent.

2017 was a strong year and 2018 is off to a good start!  The 2017 lofty growth rates will temper, but this current expansion will likely continue.  Watch the monthly numbers!

Originally published on the SEMI blog.

SEMI today announced the appointment of Frank A. Shemansky, Jr., Ph.D., as executive director and chief technology officer (CTO) of the MEMS & Sensors Industry Group (SEMI-MSIG). Shemansky brings to the leadership post more than 25 years of experience in the microelectronics industry including a strong background in research and development (R&D), manufacturing, product development and technology strategy. He will direct SEMI-MSIG’s global activities, including standards, technical programs and conferences, while strengthening and expanding SEMI’s benefits to the MEMS and sensors community.

“Dr. Shemansky’s deep industry experience makes him an outstanding choice to lead and build on the success of SEMI-MSIG, a vital SEMI community,” said Ajit Manocha, president and CEO of SEMI. “We look forward to Frank drawing on his technology thought-leadership and business development acumen to bring members together to connect, collaborate and innovate with SEMI in order to help grow the MEMS and sensors markets.”

“Frank Shemansky is a strong leader and respected technologist,” said Dave Kirsch, VP/GM of EV Group North America and chair of the SEMI-MSIG Governing Council. “As SEMI-MSIG’s CTO and interim executive director, Frank has been charting our strategic course. Governing Council members are eager to tap Frank’s excellent leadership skills to take SEMI-MSIG to its next level.”

Starting his career at Motorola in semiconductor research and development, Shemansky was part of the team that brought the first commercially available MEMS transducers to market.  Shemansky has also held various management and executive level positions at companies within the MEMs and sensors industry, including Akustica, Lumedyne Technologies, Sensor Platforms, and QuickLogic. He holds seven patents, is a published author in journals ranging from Sensors and Actuators to Microsystem Technologies, and co-authored the first MEMS textbook, Sensor Technology and Devices.

With a B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from Pennsylvania State University, Shemansky also holds an M.S. and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Arizona State University. He is a recipient of the Motorola Silver Quill Award, the Motorola Scientific and Technical Society Award, and the ASU Graduate Student Research Award.

“I’m very excited to lead SEMI-MSIG,” Shemansky said. “SEMI-MSIG members are enabling and transforming everything from autonomous vehicles to healthcare to drones. SEMI provides a wealth of industry services and global connections that can increasingly facilitate the growth and prosperity of SEMI-MSIG member companies. I look forward to working with our members to bring new value to our industry.”

Leti Chief Scientist Barbara De Salvo will help kick off ISSCC 2018 with an opening-day presentation calling for radically new, digital-communication architecture for the Internet of Things in which “a great deal of analytics processing occurs at the edge and at the end devices instead of in the Cloud.”

Delivering a keynote talk during the Feb. 12 plenary session that formally opens the conference, De Salvo will note that the architecture will include human-brain inspired hardware coupled to new computing paradigms and algorithms that “will allow for distributed intelligence over the whole IoT network, all-the-way down to ultralow-power end-devices.”

“We are entering a new era where artificial-intelligence systems are … shaping the future world,” says De Salvo, who also is Leti’s scientific director. “With the end of Moore’s Law in sight, transformative approaches are needed to address the enduring power-efficiency issues of traditional computing architectures.”

Leti paper and demo present technology for ‘extracting energy from shocks’

In addition, Leti scientists will present a paper on and a demonstration of real-life applications of piezoelectric energy harvesting, which converts mechanical energy, such as vibration and shocks, into electrical energy. The demo at Demonstration Session 1, 8.8, from 5-7 p.m., Feb. 12, in Golden Gate Hall of the San Francisco Marriott Marquis Hotel, will show a new technology for extracting energy from shocks. The demo shows an energy-autonomous temperature sensor node powered by the proposed harvesting circuit in an automotive environment. The system is able to harvest enough energy to sense temperature and transmit it wirelessly with a few mechanical pulses.

 

The demonstration is based on the paper, “A 30nA Quiescent 80nW-to-14mW Power-Range Shock-Optimized SECE-Based Piezoelectric Harvesting Interface with 420% Harvested-Energy Improvement”. The paper will be presented at 11:15 a.m., Feb. 13, during Session 8 on Wireless Power and Harvesting. The authors propose an efficient electrical interface to maximize the energy extraction from a piezoelectric energy harvester. The novelty of the approach is to adapt the strategy to sporadic mechanical shocks, usually found in real-environments, instead of periodic vibrations. The circuit allows a self-starting operation and energy-aware sequencing with nanowatt power consumption. Compared to a well-established interface, the proposed approach presents 4x energy harvesting capability.

SiTime Corporation, a developer of MEMS timing devices, announced today that it has shipped cumulatively over 1 billion timing devices.

“SiTime is redefining timing technology, and we’ve only just begun our journey,” said Rajesh Vashist, CEO of SiTime. “SiTime is uniquely focused on solving the most difficult timing problems for the electronics industry. That is why customers are using our timing products in self-driving cars, the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence systems, and 5G infrastructure. We believe that our timing components will be the device of choice for the next few decades.”

A timing device plays a critical role in most electronic systems. When timing fails, mobile phones miss calls, GPS navigation systems send drivers down the wrong streets, and financial transactions are not completed. SiTime products help prevent events like these from happening. Devices such as mobile phones, fitness trackers, and tablets rely on the small size and low power consumption of SiTime products. Mission-critical electronics such as space rockets, self-driving vehicles, and earthquake detection systems rely on the reliability and precision of the company’s solutions.

The market for all timing devices is $6 billion, and SiTime supplies 90% of the MEMS timing components sold.

“The performance and reliability of MEMS timing have improved dramatically over the past 10 years, making it a superior alternative to legacy technologies such as quartz for many applications,” said Jérémie Bouchaud, senior director of MEMS and sensors at IHS Markit, a global business information provider. “The use of oscillators in end products, as revealed by IHS Markit teardowns, is a great validation of MEMS timing as an established technology.”

SiTime first began operations in 2005 with the goal of transforming the timing industry. Today, the company has over 60 product families, which have garnered multiple industry awards and are being used across every major electronics segment. Even in challenging environments, with shock, vibration, extreme temperatures, and heavy airflow, SiTime products continue to exhibit excellent performance. This makes the company’s timing solutions ideal for automotive, telecommunications, networking, and industrial IoT applications.

“SiTime has made impressive growth in the timing market with its strong portfolio,” said Jean-Christophe Eloy, CEO of analyst firm Yole Développement. “Their devices are gaining market share in today’s and tomorrow’s growing markets: wearables, IoT, networking, storage, and telecom. Thanks to the dedication and expertise of its teams, SiTime has made the law of semiconductors come true once again: silicon technology always wins in the end.”

MACOM Technology Solutions Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: MTSI) (“MACOM”), a supplier of high-performance RF, microwave, millimeterwave and lightwave semiconductor products, and STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM) today announced an agreement to develop GaN (Gallium Nitride) on Silicon wafers to be manufactured by ST for MACOM’s use across an array of RF applications. While expanding MACOM’s source of supply, the agreement also grants to ST the right to manufacture and sell its own GaN on Silicon products in RF markets outside of mobile phone, wireless basestation and related commercial telecom infrastructure applications.

Through this agreement, MACOM expects to access increased Silicon wafer manufacturing capacity and improved cost structure that could displace incumbent Silicon LDMOS and accelerate the adoption of GaN on Silicon in mainstream markets. ST and MACOM have been working together for several years to bring GaN on Silicon production up in ST’s CMOS wafer fab. As currently scheduled, sample production from ST is expected to begin in 2018.

“This agreement punctuates our long journey of leading the RF industry’s conversion to GaN on Silicon technology. To date, MACOM has refined and proven the merits of GaN on Silicon using rather modest compound semiconductor factories, replicating and even exceeding the RF performance and reliability of expensive GaN on SiC alternative technology,” said John Croteau, President and CEO, MACOM. “We expect this collaboration with ST to bring those GaN innovations to bear in a Silicon supply chain that can ultimately service the most demanding customers and applications.”

“ST’s scale and operational excellence in Silicon wafer manufacturing aims to unlock the potential to drive new RF power applications for MACOM and ST as it delivers the economic breakthroughs necessary to expand the market for GaN on Silicon,” said Marco Monti, President of the Automotive and Discrete Product Group, STMicroelectronics. “While expanding the opportunities for existing RF applications is appealing, we’re even more excited about using GaN on Silicon in new RF Energy applications, especially in automotive applications, such as plasma ignition for more efficient combustion in conventional engines, and in RF lighting applications, for more efficient and longer-lasting lighting systems.”

“Once the $0.04/watt barrier for high power RF semiconductor devices is crossed, significant opportunities for the RF energy market may open up,” said Eric Higham, Director Advanced Semiconductor Applications Service at Strategy Analytics. Higham continued, “Potential RF energy device shipments could be in the hundreds of millions for applications including commercial microwave cooking, automotive lighting and ignition, and plasma lighting, with sales reaching into the billions of dollars.”

Texas Instruments (TI) (NASDAQ: TXN) today introduced the industry’s smallest operational amplifier (op amp) and low-power comparators at 0.64 mm2. As the first amplifiers in the compact X2SON package, the TLV9061 op amp and TLV7011 family of comparators enable engineers to reduce their system size and cost, while maintaining high performance in a variety of Internet of Things (IoT), personal electronics and industrial applications, including mobile phones, wearables, optical modules, motor drives, smart grid and battery-powered systems.

With a high gain bandwidth (GBW) of 10 MHz, fast slew rate at 6.5 V/µs and low-noise spectral density of 10 nV/√Hz, the TLV9061 op amp is designed for use in wide-bandwidth, high-performance systems. The TLV7011 family of nanopower comparators delivers a faster response time with propagation delays down to 260 ns, while consuming 50 percent less power than competitive comparators. Additionally, both devices support rail-to-rail inputs with low-voltage operation down to 1.8 V, enabling ease-of-use in battery-powered applications.

Achieve high performance in tiny spaces with the TLV9061 operational amplifier

  • Reduces system size and cost: In addition to its tiny size, the TLV9061 op amp also features integrated EMI filtering inputs. This helps provide resilient performance for systems prone to RF noise, while significantly reducing the need for external discrete circuitry.
  • Greater DC accuracy: Two times lower offset drift and typical input bias across a full temperature range, -40 to 125 degrees Celsius, creates a more precise signal chain solution compared to other small devices.

Lower power, faster response with the tiny TLV7011 family of comparators

  • Smaller footprint, extra features: No phase reversal and integrated internal hysteresis for overdriven inputs increase design flexibility and reduce the need for external components.
  • Fifty percent less power consumption: With power as low as 335 nA and fast propagation delay down to 260 ns, the TLV7011 family of nanopower comparators enable low-power systems to monitor signals and respond quickly.

These new devices join TI’s small-size amplifier portfolio which enables engineers to design smaller systems, while maintaining high performance, with industry-leading package options and many of the world’s smallest op amps and comparators.

Tools and support to speed design
Designers can download the TINA-TI™ SPICE model to simulate their designs and predict circuit behavior when using the TLV9061 op amp and TLV7011 family of comparators. Engineers can jump-start their small brushed DC servo drive designs using the TLV9061 op amp with the 10.8-V/15-W, >90% Efficiency, 2.4-cm2, Power Stage Reference Design. Also, they can quickly and easily evaluate the TLV7011 comparators with the DIP adapter evaluation module, available today for US$5.00 from the TI store and authorized distributors.

Package, availability and pricing
Preproduction samples of the TLV9061 op amp and volume quantities of the TLV7011 family of comparators are now available through the TI store and authorized distributors in a 5-pin extra small outline no-lead (X2SON) package, measuring 0.8 mm x 0.8 mm x 0.4 mm. Pricing starts at US$0.19 and US$0.25 in 1,000-unit quantities, respectively. Learn more about the family of comparators in the table below.

Product

Supply
voltage (Vcc)

DC input
offset (Vios)

Propagation
delay (tpd)

Supply
current (Icc)

TLV7011

1.6 – 5.5 V

0.5 mV

260 ns

5 µA

TLV7021

1.6 – 5.5 V

0.5 mV

260 ns

5 µA

TLV7031

1.6 – 6.5 V

0.1 mV

3 µs

335 nA

TLV7041

1.6 – 6.5 V

0.1 mV

3 µs

335 nA