AlSiC (aluminum silicon carbide) is a metal-matrix composite suited for base plates material for insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBT) used in high-power traction, power control, hybrid electric vehicle power systems, and fly-by-wire applications. AlSiC has been tested and meets the requirements of the Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS compliant) of the European Parliament. The low isotropic coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) value of AlSiC-9 (8 ppm/°C: 30-100°C) is compatible with the thermal expansion value of the die or substrate used in IGBT applications. The AlSiC CTE match reduces the mechanical stresses on IGBT die and substrates that is induced by thermal power cycling. The device compatible AlSiC CTE eliminates the need for stress compensation material layers that are required in Cu (CTE = 17ppm/°C) baseplate assemblies. CPS fabricates standard of 190 mm × 140 mm, 140 mm × 130 mm and 140 mm × 70 mm base plate formats (shown) as well as custom formats. CPS Technologies, Norton, MA; www.alsic.com.
Category Archives: Materials and Equipment
December 3, 2007 – Rohm and Haas and SKC Co. Ltd. have officially opened their joint venture to make advanced optical and functional films for flat-panel displays, three months after announcing their partnership. Meoung-Han Kim will lead the business, having most recently served as managing director of SKC’s display division.
The new FPD films JV, as described in August, was to involve spinning off SKC’s Korea-based display technologies business into a separate legal entity, with Rohm & Haas investing $190M for a 51% controlling interest. The JV will make and sell a suite of specialty display films for LCD and plasma displays, as well as dispersions of pigments for making LCD color filter resists. The firms projects sales of about $300 million in its first year of operation, increasing to $350M in 2008.
“We have been aggressively expanding our presence in the flat panel market, where we believe the combination of our materials expertise, the deep pipeline of technology from the Kodak Light Management Films acquisition, and the manufacturing capability of SKC Haas will position us extremely well in this growing space,” said Yi Hyon Paik, VP and business group director, Rohm and Haas Electronic Materials, in a statement.
The US company has spent $230M in the past year (including its April 2007 purchase of Eastman Kodak’s light management films business) to create a new business unit in its Electronic Materials group, developing and manufacturing a variety of products for flat-panel displays including TFT photoresists and color filter chrome patterning. Dominic Yang, president/director of Rohm and Haas’ microelectronics technologies business, has been appointed to lead the company’s flat panel display technologies business.
By Debra Vogler, Senior Technical Editor
The tradition of the ISMI Manufacturing Symposium as an “in the trenches” conference, by and for the people doing the actual day-to-day work in the fabs, continued Oct. 24-25 in Austin, TX. Particular attention was given to topics on yield improvement/productivity methodologies, ESH, and sustainability. Specific talks included how to fix litho “hot spots,” cleaning wafer chucks without DI water or solvents, guidelines for detecting/preventing electrostatic discharge (ESD) events, and why process stability may be the deciding factor in the battle over 450mm wafers.
November 26, 2007 – A pair of reports from Wall Street analysts suggest Taiwan foundry TSMC will begin production for some AMD microprocessors as soon as 1H08.
Since AMD first laid out plans to shift to a more fab-lite approach, speculation about how and when the company might outsource some of its chip production has been a popular industry exercise, recently focusing on the company’s transition from 200mm to 300mm capabilities at its Dresden, Germany facilities.
Barrons blogger Eric Savitz points to a pair of reports that suggest TSMC may start at least limited production for AMD much sooner than previously anticipated. Caris & Co. analyst Daniel Berenbaum thinks the companies’ relationship is deeper than thought, and pilot production for non-mainstream AMD products, including a standalone CPU and integrated graphics processor/CPU (the raison d’etre for AMD’s acquisition of ATI), both targeting the lowend-PC market, could be ready “much sooner than we had thought likely.”
He noted, however, that the arrangement “falls well short of the radical ‘fab light’ strategy that some were hoping for,” with AMD unable or unwilling to transition its more mainstream processor production to TSMC, and with the sale of an AMD fab to TSMC “unlikely.”
Agreeing that TSMC could be ready for initial production of AMD microprocessors in 1H08 despite “some technical issues remaining,” Lehman Bros. analyst Tim Luke notes that AMD may also be considering other foundry partnership options, including its erstwhile Common Platform Alliance brethren IBM and Chartered.
November 9, 2007 — LUDWIGSHAFEN, GERMANY — After a construction period of around 15 months, the Electronic Materials Center Europe at BASF’s Ludwigshafen site is now complete. Today, Friday, November 9, 2007, BASF presented the new production center to its customers in the semiconductor industry. The production plant for process chemicals for the semiconductor industry is fully integrated in the Verbund and secures supplies to customers throughout Europe. The double-digit million Euro investment has created sixty jobs in Ludwigshafen.
BASF welcomed its most important customers from the European semiconductor industry to the new Electronic Materials Center Europe and informed them about the range of products and services. “With this production center, we are combining BASF’s expertise in electronic chemicals and as ‘The Chemical Company’ to help make our customers in Europe even more successful,” says Dr. Karl-Rudolf Kurtz, group vice president of BASF’s Electronic Materials global business unit.
BASF is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of electronic chemicals for use in the production of semiconductors. The new center includes state-of-the-art purification facilities as well as cleanroom filling stations to ensure the high purity and consistent quality of the products. At the production center, high purity electronic chemicals are filled in containers ranging from 2.5-L bottles to tank containers. BASF’s products for the electronic industry fully satisfy the quality standards of the semiconductor industry.
After completion of the qualification activities at the end of 2007, routine production will commence at the Electronic Materials Center Europe on January 1, 2008. From then onwards, research, product development (including state-of-the-art analytics and a cleanroom laboratory), marketing and sales will be integrated at a single location at BASF’s Ludwigshafen Verbund site.
With its structure and the way it is integrated into BASF’s Verbund, the Electronic Materials Center Europe is unique in Europe. This allows the Electronic Materials business unit to offer its customers a wide range of standard products as well as tailor-made solutions.
The production center also contributes to optimizing the logistics process for electronic chemicals: the Electronic Materials Center Europe has its own storage facilities, ensuring compliance with high standards of supply security.
Ludwigshafen is BASF’s largest production site. The 10 km2 site is also the company’s headquarters and home to its central research platform. Between 2005 and 2009, BASF is investing about EUR6 billion in Ludwigshafen for capital expenditures, modernization, and maintenance of its plants as well as an additional EUR800 million per year in the research and development of modern processes and innovative products.
About BASF
BASF is the world’s leading chemical company: The Chemical Company. Its portfolio ranges from chemicals, plastics, performance products, agricultural products, and fine chemicals to crude oil and natural gas. As a reliable partner to virtually all industries, BASF’s high-value products and intelligent system solutions help its customers to be more successful. BASF develops new technologies and uses them to meet the challenges of the future and open up additional market opportunities. It combines economic success with environmental protection and social responsibility, thus contributing to a better future. BASF has approximately 95,000 employees and posted sales of EUR52.6 billion in 2006. BASF shares are traded on the stock exchanges in Frankfurt, London, and Zurich.
Visit www.basf.com
The data is gathered in cooperation with the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ) from more than 150 global equipment companies that provide data on a monthly basis.
(November 26, 2007) CUPERTINO, CA — Verigy today announced that Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. has purchased the Verigy Port Scale RF solution for testing its highly integrated wireless communications devices.
by Meredith Courtemanche, contributing editor, Advanced Packaging
The tech-friendly atmosphere of San Jose, surrounded by silicon wafers inside and outside the IMAPS show, generated the ideal mood to study harsh-environment medical electronics at IMAPS 2007, the International Microelectronics And Packaging Society’s 40th annual international symposium on microelectronics. The Body Worlds exhibit at The Tech Innovation Museum, where real cadavers are preserved to expose the makeup of the human body, provided a fitting backdrop to a half-day session titled “Biomedical Materials, Devices, and Packaging,” with discussions about the challenges and potential breakthroughs in medical engineering.
As evidenced by the failure of complete synthetic hearts inside the body, perfect mechanical and electronic performance means nothing in a medical device if the body rejects the implanted system. Z. Joan Delalic of Temple U. began the session with the mantra of “the body is one of the worst environments for electronics,” with a host of conditions working against medical devices: acidity, electromagnetic interference (EMI), fluctuating pressure, vibration, humidity, etc. The dangers range from electrical failure to corrosion, resulting in everything from restricted mobility to toxicity and infection. Hemorrhaging is a constant worry with implanted medical electronics, she noted.
The list of considerations for engineering a medical device, particularly one that goes inside a human body, is long. Implanted devices need to communicate with external instruments, either with connecting leads or wireless transmission. Biomedical device frequencies are regulated by the FCC, but the risk of signal interference is still a factor. Interaction with other machinery (hospitals and EMT vehicles are rife with electronic devices operating and transmitting), passive/active interaction with the user, thermal management, and other issues typically encountered with electronic devices are magnified in the medical sector. Recalls can be costly, if not devastating. Plus the standard concerns of high-reliability electronics apply: acceptable solder joints, functioning IC components, long in-field life, etc.
Delalic noted that while most other electronics production moves abroad, biomedical electronics production is a sector of packaging services that remains in the US, due to intensive R&D, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations, and lengthy test periods.
More research is needed into new sensors, particularly those comprised of bio-neutral or inert materials, which gather accurate readings and lower human risk. Because sensor components are “the building blocks of medical equipment,” the industry is pushing for more accurate and wider-scope sensors that cause less irritation to the patient. These could lead to everything from killing cancer cells to regulating organs like the kidneys and bladder. Materials science is key to future generations of sensing modules, from the gates of an individual sensing circuit to a complex miniaturized system like a cardiac-assist device. Drug-delivery devices also factor into this area.
The ideal medical electronic device should be 100% biocompatible, small and noninvasive, safe, effective, and reliable. While the reality of such a device is still in the future, nanomaterials are enabling more biocompatible assemblies. Nanometer-thin carbon-based coatings provide a hermetic barrier between living tissue and functioning electronics. Conformal coatings will figure into this equation, allowing devices like sensor arrays to be insulated and smaller. Advanced medical devices will use carbon nanotubes as a moldable interface, connecting electronic sensors, transmitters, and signal conditioning modules to human tissue. Today, the majority of implantable medical electronics are coated with engineered polymers that can be extremely costly and difficult to manufacture, Delalic acknowledged, though the advantages of increased biocompatibility offset costs, she added.
Device design and packaging in the biomedical sector is a unique field from most electronics segments, even other harsh-environment areas. “Packaging is less about interconnection and encapsulation, and more about protecting the body and the device from each other,” explained Delalic. But the aim of packaging a component remains the same — to ensure that the device functions as accurately and effectively as possible, for as long as possible, without detrimental effects. With everything from sensors to nanoscale electromechanical systems to lab-on-chip to organ-assisting devices appearing in the medical sector, improvements in packaging, encapsulation, system design, and materials engineering are at a premium. M.C.
November 19, 2007 – The launch of Intel’s new 45nm-based Penryn processors means more business from IC substrate makers with small volume production of new flip-chip substrate makers, causing several Taiwan and Japanese firms to project a 25% increase in their business next year, according to a Digitimes report.
Japan-based Ibiden, NGK Spark Plug and Shinko, as well as Taiwan-based Nanya Printed Circuit Board (NPC), have all started shipping 14-layer flip-chip substrates to Intel in small volumes, and once CPU shipments ramp to volume production in 2008 the firms estimate that Intel will consume 25%-30% of total FV substrate capacity — but most major substrate makers haven’t laid out expansion plans beyond a 10% capacity increase, the report claims.
Meanwhile, new graphics chips also will require more substrate layers — AMD and Nvidia are also growing their substrate layer demand for entry-level graphics chips from six to eight layers, the report adds.
Among substrate providers’ individual plans, only Unimicron has what the paper deemed an “aggressive” capacity expansion plan, aiming to add 8M units/month by year’s end, mainly to meet demand for main customer Nvidia, and 12M units/month output is possible for 2008. NPC only expects to increase capacity by 3%-6% next year to 33M units/month. Phoenix Precision Technology, which averaged 85% utilization for its 14M unit/month capacity in 3Q and expects to hit 90%-95% utilization in 4Q, says it hasn’t decided on 2008 expansion plans yet.
Major FC substrate makers expansion plans
Company……….Monthly capacity ……….2007 shipments……….2008 shipments……….Major customers
ASE…………………..2-3M………………………..16M………………………….40M…………………..Broadcom
NGK…………………..15M…………………………95M………………………..116M…………………..Intel
NPC…………………..30M……………………….253M………………………..344M…………………..AMD, Intel, ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………Nvidia
PPT…………………..14M……………………….140M…………………………167M…………………..AMD, Nvidia, ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………SiS, VIA
Unimicron………………8M……………………….66M………………………..113M…………………..Nvidia
Semco…………………20M……………………..155M………………………..194M…………………..Intel
Shinko………………..20M………………………120M………………………..140M…………………..Intel
Source: Companies, Digitimes compilations
November 19, 2007 – China Sunergy Co. Ltd. says it has entered into various agreements to supply up to 25MW of solar cells to Canadian Solar in 2008, with about 1/4 of the volume based on fixed pricing terms.
The deal “signifies a substantial development in our relationship with Canadian Solar, one of the leading China-based module manufacturing companies,” noted China Sunergy CEO Allen Wang, in a statement. [Canadian Solar has an office in Suzhou.] Shawn Qu, CEO of Canadian Solar, added that the deal “provides further visibility to the supply contracts we had in place in order to support our 2008 business plan,” and supports the firm’s long-term supply chain plans for “continued direct purchasing from a selected number of long-term strategic cell suppliers in addition to our internal solar cell production.”
Meanwhile, China Sunergy says it has ramped to mass production of selective emitter cells, having recently completed commissioning new production equipment. Average efficiency rates during the first few days of volume output were 17.5%, close to peak levels of 18.2% achieved on certain pilot runs in early November, the company noted.
Want noted that the company aims to sustain 18% efficiency and beyond in 2008, and plans to add another four production lines in 2H08 to help boost margins.
November 16, 2007 – A month after semiconductor equipment demand slid to some significant lows in several areas, data for the most recent month shows things haven’t gotten any better, and in fact may be a little worse.
Global bookings tallied by North American-based vendors were flat sequentially in October at $1.23B, representing a -16% decline from a year ago. Billings were down about 4% M-M and 5% Y-Y to $1.49B. Those add up to a book-to-bill ratio (B:B) of 0.83, meaning just $83 worth of orders were received for every $100 of product billed for the month.
In a statement, SEMI president/CEO Stanley Myers noted that actual sales of new equipment are following bookings trends, which have been heading south since a cyclical peak earlier this summer. He reiterated the sentiment that for the year equipment sales will be “comparable to or slightly above 2006 sales.”
Revisiting last month’s rundown of how ugly equipment sales are becoming, with updated data:
– In terms of dollars, October bookings were the lowest since Jan. 2006, down -25% since a peak in May ($1641.9B).
– A similar five-month streak of Y-Y double-digit % declines hasn’t been seen since late 2005 (July-Nov).
– Billings (in US$) have fallen -15.8% since a peak in June ($1786.1).
– Recalculating Sept. data muted a previous -10.2% M-M drop in billings (what was a five-year low) to -7.4%…but we’re now four straight months of negative growth and counting.
– Three straight months of Y-Y % declines haven’t been seen since Nov. 2005.
– The B:B is now at four straight months of <0.84 (not since Feb-April 2005), and nine months below parity and counting — the previous ministreak was four months in Aug-Nov 2006, and before that, 17 months spanning late 2004-early 2006.
North American equipment bookings, billings — October 2006-October 2007
Month…….Billings…….%M-M………%Y-Y……….Bookings……..%M-M……..% Y-Y………B:B
……………..(US $M)…………………………………………….(US $M)…………………………………..
………………(3-mo. avg.)………………………………….(3-mo.avg.)……………………………………..
Sept’06…………..1672.8……-4.0%……..53.7%……….1639.2…….-5.2%…….66.6%……..0.98
Oct’06…………..1562.9……-6.6%……..36.4%……….1468.6……-10.4%…….34.3%……..0.94
Nov’06…………..1486.1……-4.9%……..26.0%……….1426.5…….-2.8%…….30.5%……..0.96
Dec’06…………..1482.3……-0.2%……..21.1%……….1497.2……..5.0%…….31.0%……..1.01
Jan’07…………..1448.0……-2.3%……..15.0%……….1445.8…….-3.4%…….17.9%……..1.00
Feb’07………….1423.0……-1.3%……..11.3%……….1398.1…….-3.1%……..8.3%……..0.98
Mar’07………….1436.4……..0.9%……….7.3%………..1419.6………1.5%………2.5%……..0.99
Apr’07………….1594.7……..11.0%……..10.1%………..1567.5………10.4%………-2.1%……..0.98
May’07………….1670.2……..4.7%………15.0%………..1641.9………4.7%………1.4%……..0.98
June’07…………1768.1……..5.9%……….13.5%………..1607.6……..-2.1%………-9.8%……..0.91
July’07………….1685.8…….-4.7%……..2.9%………..1406.3…….-12.5%……-18.9%……..0.83
Aug’07………..1682.3……-0.2%……..-3.5%……….1371.2…….-2.5%……-20.7%……..0.82
Sept’07 (f)……….1557.4…….-7.4%……..-6.9%……….1235.0……-9.9%……-24.7%……..0.79
Aug’07 (p)………..1488.1……-4.4%……..-4.8%……….1231.6…….-0.3%……-16.1%……..0.83