Category Archives: Manufacturing

Yole releases today its annual MEMS technology & market analysis: Status of the MEMS Industry. This 2018 edition presents the MEMS device market along with key industry changes and trends. The market research and strategy consulting company is following the MEMS industry for a while, tracking more than 200 applications and 300 MEMS companies. This report is a significant combination all of these applications into more than 15 major MEMS devices. This 15th version includes: global macro economical megatrends and their impact on MEMS and sensors business – MEMS and sensors market forecast – manufacturers rankings – analysis by device and application.

“MEMS market will experience a 17.5% growth in value between 2018 and 2023, to reach US$ 31 billion at the end of the period,” reported Dr. Eric Mounier, Principal Analyst, MEMS & Photonics, at Yole Développement (Yole). “The consumer market segment is showing the biggest share, with more than 50% . The good news is that almost all MEMS devices will contribute to this growth.”

 

However, the RF industry is still playing a key role in the MEMS industry development. Excluding RF, the MEMS market will grow at 9% over 2018 – 2023. With RF MEMS devices, CAGR reaches 17.5% during the same period. Driven by the complexities associated with the move to 5G and the higher number of bands it brings, there is an increasing demand for RF filters in 4G/5G, making RF MEMS (mainly BAW filters) the largest-growing MEMS segment.

Amongst the numerous existing MEMS devices, inkjet heads will grow, with the consumer market representing more than 70% of printhead market demand. This market recorded its first signs of recovery in the first half of 2017, a trend confirmed in the second half of the year. This recovery was noticed both in disposable and fixed printheads. Most consumer players show discernable growth: for example, HP has recorded a 2% growth in consumer printer revenue since 2016, and Canon has confirmed a progression in sales for inkjet printers, with strong demand in Asia.

Numerous pressure sensor applications also contribute to market expansion. Indeed, it is interesting to see that, although it is one of the oldest MEMS technologies, pressure sensor keeps growing. In automotive, pressure sensors have the highest number of applications, with many advantages such resistance to toxic exhaust gas and harsh environments, higher accuracy, and the development of intelligent tires that deliver more information on tire status (especially for future autonomous cars). For consumer, mobiles and smartphones still account for 90% of pressure sensor sales, and cost reduction is the priority vs. size reduction because size is already very small. Although there are no big “killer” applications expected in the future, new applications are emerging: smart homes, electronic cigarette, drones, and wearables, to name several. (1)

Then after, are coming the MEMS microphones. Such MEMS components have been in the spotlight for a long time and have expressed one of the highest CAGRs of any MEMS technology over the last five years. “In the range of US$105 million in 2008, the MEMS microphone market was worth US$402 million in 2012 and reached the US$1 billion milestone in 2016”, asserts Guillaume Girardin, Director of the Photonics, Sensing and Display division at Yole. “Currently, almost 4.5 billion units are shipped annually. The main application is mobile phones, which comprise 85% of shipment volumes, in a consumer market that makes up 98% of the total shipment volume. Tablets and PCs/laptops take second and third place, with 5% and 3.2% of total shipment volumes, respectively.” (2)

Step by step, the uncooled IR imager market keeps growing. This is due to a continuous price decrease over the last few years stemming from new technologies such as WLP and silicon lenses, as well as increasing acceptance from customers. As prices continue falling, we believe the market for uncooled IR imaging technology will continue finding new applications in the coming years. More results will be detailed during the 3rd Executive Infrared Imaging Forum, powered by Yole and taking place on September 7 in Shenzhen, China: Full program

All MEMS market segments including inertial, optical MEMS, microfluidics, new micro components and more … are deeply analyzed in Yole’s annual MEMS report, Status of the MEMS Industry. A full description of this technology & market analysis is available in the MEMS & Sensor reports section, on i-micronews.com.

In this new edition, Yole’s team is also analyzing the market positioning of the MEMS device manufacturers and their annual revenue. What is the status of the 2017 Top MEMS manufacturers? 
• In 2017, the biggest surprise was Broadcom becoming the #1 MEMS player. As growth continues for RF, driven by an increasing number of filters/phones and by the front-end module’s increasing value, it is likely that RF players will still dominate the top 2018 rankings. 
• In parallel, most MEMS players showed positive growth in 2016 – 2017. Established players, Robert Bosch, STMicroelectronics and HP were “shaken” by Broadcom’s growth but still performed well. For example, the German leader, Robert Bosch enjoyed growth of approximately US$100 million. Inkjet heads players also had a good overall performance compared to previous years. In addition, the company, SiTime displayed the most impressive growth, exceeding 100%. Other MEMS players posting significant growth are: FormFactor, benefiting from the semiconductor business’s excellent health; and ULIS, with uncooled IR imaging still growing annually into multiple applications including consumer – thermography, firefighting, night vision, smartphones, drones, and military.

In 2016, the top 30 MEMS players totaled more than US$9,238 million. In 2017, that number increased to US$9,881 million.

 

BISTel, a provider of intelligent, real-time data management, advanced analytics and predictive solutions for smart manufacturing announced today its first adaptive intelligence (A.I.) based applications to enable the smart connected factory or industry 4.0 as some call it. Called Dynamic Fault Detection (DFD), BISTel’s new fault detection and classification solution offers customers full sensor trace data analysis to detect and classify faults real-time, improving quality and yield significantly.

Today, customers rely on legacy FDC systems for accurate fault detection. These systems offer only summary data analysis from sensors for fault detection. Consequently, small changes in sensor behavior can go undetected, resulting in a negative impact on yield. BISTel’s new Dynamic Fault Detection (DFD®) system overcomes these challenges by offering full trace analysis. Because BISTel’s new DFD® system establishes trace references dynamically and does not rely on the traditional control limiting methods used by FDC, it eliminates modeling completely. DFD also uses smarter algorithms to better distinguish between real alarms and false alarms resulting in 10 times fewer alarms than FDC systems.

“DFD is the first of several intelligent manufacturing applications with new machine learning that will help our customers to start to realize the full potential of A.I. for smart manufacturing,” commented W.K. Choi, Founder and CEO, BISTel. “DFD enables customers to quickly and accurately identify and classify faults. DFD helps our customers create early identification of yield related issues so that they can quickly execute the fastest possible response to solving these issues.” added Choi.

Sensor trace data contains a wealth of information that helps manufacturers identify potential yield issues, including ramp rate changes, spikes, glitches, shift and drift. BISTel’s first of its kind, online Dynamic Fault Detection (DFD®) system lowers these risks by offering manufacturers real-time monitoring and detection of full sensor trace data. Customers can now quickly detect, and analyze yield impacting events and quickly resolving yield issues. DFD® also integrates seamlessly to legacy FDC systems.

Key Features and Benefits

  • Real time monitoring Improves quality and yield.
  • Reduces risk by protecting against yield impacting events.
  • Real-time fault detection with dynamic references instead of static control limits.
  • DFD’s sensor behavior analysis enables best system drift detection
  • Intelligent alarming reduces alarms by more than 10X

Upon the proposal of ST’s new President & CEO Jean-Marc Chery, the Supervisory Board has approved the establishment of a newly formed Executive Committee, entrusted with the management of the Company and led by Mr. Chery as its Chairman.

The other members of ST’s Executive Committee are:

  • Orio Bellezza, President, Technology, Manufacturing and Quality
  • Marco Cassis, President, Sales, Marketing, Communications and
    Strategy Development
  • Claude Dardanne, President, Microcontrollers and Digital ICs Group
  • Lorenzo Grandi, President, Finance, Infrastructure and Services and Chief Financial Officer
  • Marco Monti, President, Automotive and Discrete Group
  • Georges Penalver, President, Human Resources and Corporate Social Responsibility
  • Steven Rose, President, Legal Counsel
  • Benedetto Vigna, President, Analog, MEMS and Sensors Group.

“ST’s new Executive Committee is a team of strong and experienced semiconductor industry leaders. Our first priority is to deliver on our 2018 business and financial objectives and continue on our path of sustainable and profitable growth. Customers choose ST because we are able to bring them innovation in technology and products. We will keep pushing in this direction, with a focus on fast time-to-market and strong execution, to create value for customers and for all of our stakeholders.” said Jean-Marc Chery, President & CEO of STMicroelectronics.

Leti, a technology research institute of CEA Tech, today announced its annual flagship event, Leti Innovation Days, July 4-5 in Grenoble.

This year, the institute will address how microelectronics, Leti’s core activities, are empowering new technological revolutions within industry, changing our daily lives in ways that will shape tomorrow’s global, post-modern society – in other words, how humans interact, commute, consume and much more. This two-day event gathers each year hundreds of top executives for presentations and discussions of the latest tech trends and the outlook for the future. 

Program 2018

From microelectronics to markets and end-users

–        Quantum computing: from lab to fab

–        New advances in materials

–        The virtues of photons

–        Bio-inspired circuits

–        5G: Towards less redundant processing

Sessions during the two-day event also will present novel use cases in personalized healthcare and other fields in a hyper-connected world, as well as live tech demonstrations from Renault, Rossignol and other global industrials.

On the evening of July 4, Arianespace CEO Stéphane Israël will headline a special Leti Innovation Days event about trends and visions for the space industry.

Technical Workshops

In addition, there will be seven satellite workshops on design for 3D, lithography, quantum engineering, silicon photonics, memory, 5G, and MEMS on July 2, 3 and 6.

The full program can be found here.

For free registration, please contact [email protected]

Researchers using powerful supercomputers have found a way to generate microwaves with inexpensive silicon, a breakthrough that could dramatically cut costs and improve devices such as sensors in self-driving vehicles.

“Until now, this was considered impossible,” said C.R. Selvakumar, an engineering professor at the University of Waterloo who proposed the concept several years ago.

High-frequency microwaves carry signals in a wide range of devices, including the radar units police use to catch speeders and collision-avoidance systems in cars.

The microwaves are typically generated by devices called Gunn diodes, which take advantage of the unique properties of expensive and toxic semiconductor materials such as gallium arsenide.

When voltage is applied to gallium arsenide and then increased, the electrical current running through it also increases – but only to a certain point. Beyond that point, the current decreases, an oddity known as the Gunn effect that results in the emission of microwaves.

Lead researcher Daryoush Shiri, a former Waterloo doctoral student who now works at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, used computational nanotechnology to show that the same effect could be achieved with silicon.

The second-most abundant substance on earth, silicon would be far easier to work with for manufacturing and costs about one-twentieth as much as gallium arsenide.

The new technology involves silicon nanowires so tiny it would take 100,000 of them bundled together to equal the thickness of a human hair.

Complex computer models showed that if silicon nanowires were stretched as voltage was applied to them, the Gunn effect, and therefore the emission of microwaves, could be induced.

“With the advent of new nano-fabrication methods, it is now easy to shape bulk silicon into nanowire forms and use it for this purpose,” said Shiri.

Selvakumar said the theoretical work is the first step in a development process that could lead to much cheaper, more flexible devices for the generation of microwaves.

The stretching mechanism could also act as a switch to turn the effect on and off, or vary the frequency of microwaves for a host of new applications that haven’t even been imagined yet.

“This is only the beginning,” said Selvakumar, a professor of electrical and computer engineering. “Now we will see where it goes, how it will ramify.”

BY DAVID W. JIMENEZ, CEO, Wright Williams & Kelly, Inc.

For 27 years Wright Williams & Kelly, Inc. (WWK) has developed strategies and operational products and services proven to produce significant results. Over the course of nearly three decades, WWK has saved its clients over $10 billion and led the way in cost modeling, capacity planning, and operational efficiency; however, sometimes a company gets ahead of its markets. It has been 15 years since WWK launched its first online subscription-based product…and 13 years since it stopped offering it. Today, WWK returns to the cloud.

The cloud is an innovation fueled by advanced chip technology, but it has also been a model the industry hesitated to embrace. Much of this had to do with limited data protection schemes. Intellectual property (IP) is at the core of a successful integrated circuit business and letting key information leave the confines of the organization has traditionally been a forbidden proposition.

Fast forward a decade and a half and cloud-based services are now the norm. Fears over IP theft remain, but the protections have greatly improved. Further, the offerings that add value to cloud-based solutions have also greatly expanded. The move to the cloud now has less to do with a reduction in paranoia and more to do with the advantages of cloud computing. IBM breaks down the advantages into three areas; flexibility; efficiency; and strategic value.

Flexibility allows the scaling of computing power to the task at hand regardless of the local machine used to connect. Efficiency is accessing the needed applications from anywhere in the world from any connected device. Strategic value comes from being able to move faster than competitors by not being tied to existing infrastructure and the hesitancy to obsolete major IT investments. Michael Wright and Walter Ferguson in their 2005 treatise “The New Business Normal” predicted strategic advantage would accrue to those who could access, collate, analyze, and act on information faster than the competition, anywhere in the world and at any time.

WWK has leveraged these advantages by moving its complete suite of manufacturing optimization applica- tions to the cloud. In addition to the advantages inherent in cloud computing, this move provides WWK’s clients substantial cost advantages by lowering up front licensing costs and shifting from capital budgeting to more flexible expense accounting.

Cloud-based solutions: Developed with DARPA/SEMATECH, TWO COOL® is a cost of ownership (COO) and overall equipment efficiency (OEE) modeling platform designed to help equipment and process engineers as well as suppliers understand process step level impacts of changes in operating parameters.

Initially developed by Sandia National Laboratories, Factory Commander® is a cost and resource analysis platform. It analyzes overall factory and individual product costs, manufacturing capacity, and return on investment.

Factory Explorer® is an integrated capacity, cost, and discrete-event simulation tool which predicts factory capacity and bottleneck resources, product cost and gross margins, and dynamic measures such as cycle time and work-in-process.

Advantages put into practice: One advantage in moving these applications to the cloud is users benefit from a state-of-the art computing system. Modeling and simulation apps are computing power intensive. Instead of each user requiring a high-end workstation, the cloud allows users to share a virtual machine(s) (VM). When needs increase, upgrading the VM is quick and low-cost. This keeps the total cost of ownership (TCO) for IT infrastructure at a minimum.
Another advantage is updates happen behind the scenes and for all users at the same time. Traditional software maintenance costs disappear. No more scenarios where users are operating on different revision levels nor lose data due to forgotten backups.

Remote computing has always been a better solution, but there were reasons behind the slow acceptance. Even before the term cloud computing came to the fore, WWK understood this. It offered a remote server-based product before anyone knew what the cloud was. WWK was early to market, but the understanding it gained pointed it in the right direction. Like most market windows you can be early but never late. The arrival of the breadth of solutions needed to offer cloud-based applications has enabled WWK to scrap client-side software licensing and provide a robust, low cost manufacturing optimization software suite with all the advantages it envisioned 15 years ago. I guess we are back to the future.

SEMI, the global industry association representing the electronics manufacturing supply chain, today announced that the WT | Wearable Technologies Conference 2018 USA will co-locate July 11-12 with SEMICON West 2018 in San Francisco. The electronics industry’s premier U.S. event, SEMICON West — July 10-12 at Moscone North and South — will highlight engines of industry expansion including smart transportation, smart manufacturing, smart medtech, smart data, big data, artificial intelligence, blockchain and the Internet of Things (IoT). Click here to register.

“We are excited that the WT | Wearables Technologies Conference has joined SEMICON West to co-locate in 2018,” said David Anderson, president of SEMI Americas. “Our strategic partnership brings new content and more value to our extended supply chain. Every day the semiconductor industry makes chips smaller and faster with ever-higher performance. These innovations enable new wearable applications for smart living, smart medtech and healthcare that are continuously improving our lives. The WT | Wearable Technologies Conference speakers at SEMICON West 2018 will demonstrate just how they use semiconductor technology to deliver leading-edge wearables.”

“It is a great pleasure to collaborate with the leading global electronics manufacturing association and its successful SEMICON West event,” said Christian Stammel, CEO of WT | Wearables Technologies. “Since the beginning of our platform in 2006, the semiconductor industry has been a major driver of wearables and IoT innovation. All major developments in the WT application markets like healthcare (smart patches), safety and security (tracking solutions), lifestyle and sport (smartwatches and wristbands) and in the industrial field (AR / VR) were driven by semiconductor and MEMS innovations. Our program of expert speakers at SEMICON West will share the latest insights in the wearables market as the SEMI and WT ecosystems explore collaboration and innovation opportunities.”

By Walt Custer, Custer Consulting Group

Broad global & U.S. electronic supply chain growth

The first quarter of this year was very strong globally, with growth across the entire electronics supply chain. Although Chart 1 is based on preliminary data, every electronics sector expanded –  with many in double digits. The U.S. dollar-denominated growth estimates in Chart 1 have effectively been amplified by about 5 percent by exchange rates (as stronger non-dollar currencies were consolidated to weaker U.S. dollars), but the first quarter global rates are very impressive nonetheless.

Walt Custer Chart 1

U.S. growth was also good (Chart 2) with Quarter 1 2018 total electronics equipment shipments up 7.2 percent over the same period last year. Since all the Chart 2 values are based on domestic (US$) sales, there is no growth amplification due to exchange rates.

Walt Custer Chart 2

We expect continued growth in Quarter 2 but not at the robust pace as the first quarter.

Chip foundry growth resumes

Taiwan-listed companies report their monthly revenues on a timely basis – about 10 days after month end. We track a composite of 14 Taiwan Stock Exchange listed chip foundries to maintain a “pulse” of this industry (Chart 3).

Walt Custer Chart 3

Chip foundry sales have been a leading indicator for global semiconductor and semiconductor capital equipment shipments. After dropping to near zero in mid-2017, foundry growth is now rebounding.

Chart 4 compares 3/12 (3-month) growth rates of global semiconductor and semiconductor equipment sales to chip foundry sales. The foundry 3/12 has historically led semiconductors and SEMI equipment and is pointing to a coming cyclical upturn. It will be interesting to see how China’s semiconductor industry buildup impacts this historical foundry leading indicator’s performance.

Walt Custer Chart 4

Passive Component Shortages and Price Increases

Passive component availability and pricing are currently major issues. Per Chart 5, Quarter 1 2018 passive component revenues increased almost 25 percent over the same period last year. Inadequate component supplies are hampering many board assemblers with no short-term relief in sight.

Walt Custer Chart 5

Peeking into the Future

Looking forward, the global purchasing managers index (a broad leading indicator) has moderated but is still well in growth territory.

Walt Custer Chart 6

The world business outlook remains positive but requires continuous watching!

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

Originally published on the SEMI blog.

SiTime Corporation announced it has expanded its global footprint to support its rapid growth with the opening of a new Center of Excellence in Michigan.

“SiTime’s mission is to solve the most difficult timing challenges for our customers,” said Rajesh Vashist, CEO of SiTime. “To fulfil our mission, SiTime’s strategy is to deliver leading-edge solutions by employing the best talent in communities that offer the highest quality of life. Our Michigan Center is near many world-class universities. The rich talent pool in the region, especially in engineering, will help us accelerate our product development. Additionally, Michigan is at the forefront of connected and autonomous vehicle innovation, which is of strategic importance to SiTime. Our proximity and collaborative cooperation with the industry will extend our leadership in automotive timing solutions. We look forward to SiTime Michigan becoming a key contributor to our success.”

By combining unique MEMS and analog technology with a fabless semiconductor model and significant knowhow, SiTime has transformed the timing industry over the past decade. Today, SiTime sets the benchmark in performance, reliability, size, and flexibility, and is the preferred timing supplier for high-performance electronics. SiTime has cumulatively shipped 1 billion units since 2005 and has 90% share of the MEMS timing market. To support this rapid global growth and fuel innovation, SiTime has a significant presence worldwide, including China, Japan, the Netherlands, Russia, Taiwan, and Ukraine.

In Michigan, to assist with office space location, new talent acquisition, and business support services, SiTime collaborated with Ann Arbor SPARK, a non-profit economic development organization.

“The Ann Arbor region is a unique place where business intersects with advanced research, out-of-the-box thinkers, abundant financial resources, vibrant economic development and an immense talent pool,” said Paul Krutko, president/CEO, Ann Arbor SPARK. “We are thrilled to work with SiTime to help them get settled and to find the talent that will fuel their continued growth, while further energizing our technology sector.”

Pure quartz glass is highly transparent and resistant to thermal, physical, and chemical impacts. These are optimum prerequisites for use in optics, data technology or medical engineering. For efficient, high-quality machining, however, adequate processes are lacking. Scientists of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have developed a forming technology to structure quartz glass like a polymer. This innovation is reported in the journal Advanced Materials.

“It has always been a big challenge to combine highly pure quartz glass and its excellent properties with a simple structuring technology,” says Dr. Bastian E. Rapp, Head of the NeptunLab interdisciplinary research group of KIT’s Institute of Microstructure Technology (IMT). Rapp and his team develop new processes for industrial glass processing. “Instead of heating glass up to 800 °C for forming or structuring parts of glass blocks by laser processing or etching, we start with the smallest glass particles,” says the mechanical engineer. The scientists mix glass particles of 40 nanometers in size with a liquid polymer, form the mix like a sponge cake, and harden it to a solid by heating or light exposure. The resulting solid consists of glass particles in a matrix at a ratio of 60 to 40 vol%. The polymers act like a bonding agent that retains the glass particles at the right locations and, hence, maintains the shape.

This “Glassomer” can be milled, turned, laser-machined or processed in CNC machines just like a conventional polymer. “The entire range of polymer forming technologies is now opened for glass,” Rapp emphasizes. For fabricating high-performance lenses that are used in smartphones among others, the scientists produce a Glassomer rod, from which the lenses are cut. For highly pure quartz glass, the polymers in the composite have to be removed. For doing so, the lenses are heated in a furnace at 500 to 600 °C and the polymer is burned fully to CO2. To close the resulting gaps in the material, the lenses are sintered at 1300 °C. During this process, the remaining glass particles are densified to pore-free glass.

This forming technology enables production of highly pure glass materials for any applications, for which only polymers have been suited so far. This opens up new opportunities for the glass processing industry as well as for the optical industry, microelectronics, biotechnology, and medical engineering. “Our process is suited for mass production. Production and use of quartz glass are much cheaper, more sustainable, and more energy-efficient than those of a special polymer,” Rapp explains.

This is the third innovation for the processing of quartz glass that has been developed by NeptunLab on the basis of a liquid glass-polymer mixture. In 2016, the scientists already succeeded in using this mixture for molding. In 2017, they applied the mixture for 3D printing and demonstrate its suitability for additive manufacture. Within the framework of the “NanomatFutur” competition for early-stage researchers, the team was funded with EUR 2.8 million by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research from 2014 to 2018. A spinoff now plans to commercialize Glassomer.