Burn-in material, a reusable thermal interface material (TIM), provides repeatable thermal performance over thousands of cycles, and offers an alternative to greases, phase change materials (PCMs), and gap pads in thermal module test applications.
Category Archives: Materials and Equipment
July 31, 2007 — Nano-Proprietary Inc., (NPI) through its subsidiary Applied Nanotech Inc., announced that Japan based Mitsui & Co., Ltd. has extended its exclusive option regarding royalty-bearing licenses. On behalf of Nano-Proprietary, then, Mitsui will continue to offer companies headquartered in Japan licenses to use NPI’s carbon cold cathode intellectual property for the manufacture of lighting devices.
Mitsui reports “remarkable progress” in its discussions with at least five leading companies and says it expects one or more of these companies to be interested in a license. The purpose of the extension is to continue the prospecting process and try to finalize license agreement under the exclusive option agreement. In addition, as a result of the successful collaboration in Japan, the companies also agreed to explore extending the exclusive relationship to other Asian countries such as Taiwan.
Mitsui has various future extension rights, at escalating fee levels, to maintain the right to grant licenses.
NEWS FROM JAPAN: Firms find ways to better profits in slow environment
July 30, 2007 – A roundup of the past week’s headlines from Japan center largely on April-June financial results, with Toshiba and NEC improving their profits (though largely due to restructuring and asset sales), while Fujitsu takes a hit for finance missteps.
Toshiba Corp. which had warned of a profit decline in fiscal 1Q, actually posted a 2% increase in group operating profit to 21.2 billion yen (US $178.8M), thanks to a 17% jump in chip profits (to 23.5B/$198.2M), mainly from its flash memory business, reports the Nikkei daily. Sales rose about 15% to 1.66T yen ($13.9B), and total net income leapt fivefold to 20.63B yen ($173.8M), which included the sale of real estate and the stake in a music-content venture, noted the Associated Press.
Flash memory prices have recovered from an 80% plummet a year ago and stabilized in 1Q thanks to increased demand from cell phones, MP3 players, and other electronics. That, plus a 1T-yen ($8.4B) investment in flash memory over the past three years, has narrowed the gap with market-leading Samsung to around 44% vs. 30%, and “we expect to reach parity in worldwide market share in 2008,” according to an unidentified Toshiba official quoted by the paper.
The company has hiked its 3Q operating profit forecast to 70 billion yen (~$590M), a 7% Y-Y increase, instead of previously anticipated 40 billion yen ($337.4M), the paper noted, and full-year earnings (currently pegged at a -13% drop) might be improved as well, according to EVP Fumio Muraoka.
DRAM maker Elpida, too, more than doubled its group net profit in fiscal 1Q (to 14.55B yen/$122.7M, vs. 6.61B yen/$55.8M in 1Q06) on 19% higher sales of 109.48B yen ($923.4M), thanks to its $320 million sale of 200mm wafer processing equipment to China’s Cension Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp., from which it pocketed 22.1B yen ($186M), noted Dow Jones. The company managed to maintain profits despite a >50% plunge in ASPs by selling DRAM into end products other than PCs, as well as other cost cutbacks. It also held firm in pricing negotiations with its customers, and expects DRAM prices to stay near or above the $2.50 mark in the current quarter, the report noted.
In a separate announcement, Elpida said it will absorb its DRAM manufacturing unit, Hiroshima Elpida Memory Inc., at the start of the next fiscal year in order to coordinate technology development, manufacturing and sales.
Also improving its books was NEC Electronics, which narrowed its fiscal 1Q07 net loss to 1.33B yen ($11.3M), vs. a 6.09B yen ($51.4M) net loss a year ago, and operating loss was more than cut in half to 2.23B yen ($18.8M), on 5% higher sales of 173.57B yen ($1.46B). Cuts in R&D and SG&A, previously announced facilities closures and transferring of manufacturing operations, and a strategic shift to automotive and digital products have turned things around, as did proceeds from the sale of its Fabserve photomask operations to Dai Nippon Printing Co. Ltd., noted a Dow Jones report. CFO Hiroshi Sato was cited saying that NEC could achieve an operating profit as soon as the current quarter even if sales growth remains “mild,” though full-year projections remain unchanged, with a loss of 15B yen ($126.5M) on sales of 690B yen ($5.82B).
Not faring as well as its brethren is Fujitsu, which swung to a group net loss of 14.7B yen ($124.0M) in fiscal 1Q, vs. a tiny 600M yen ($5.1M) net profit a year ago. The big item was a 25B yen ($210.9M) hit for changing to new accounting valuations ahead of FY08 requirements, which also is causing the firm to trim FY07 profit projections by 13% to 65B yen ($548.2M), noted the Nikkei daily. Sales rose 6% to 1.16T yen ($9.78B), with sluggish shipments for businesses including chips being offset by other group businesses.
Elsewhere, Matsushita Electric Industrial Corp. saw group net profit rise nearly 10% also due to cost-cutting efforts, while operating profits rose 14% on ~5% higher group sales. All businesses except JVC saw sales rise Y-Y, driven by flat-panel TVs, digital cameras, and car electronics, as well as a weaker yen, noted Dow Jones.
July 27, 2007 — Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), collaborating with Innovalight, Inc., say they have shown that a new and important effect called Multiple Exciton Generation (MEG) occurs efficiently in silicon nanocrystals. MEG results in the formation of more than one electron per absorbed photon.
Silicon is the dominant semiconductor material used in present day solar cells, representing more than 93% of the photovoltaic cell market. Until this discovery, MEG had been reported over the past two years to occur only in nanocrystals (also called quantum dots) of semiconductor materials that are not presently used in commercial solar cells, and which contained environmentally harmful materials (such as lead). The new result opens the door to the potential application of MEG for greatly enhancing the conversion efficiency of solar cells based on silicon because more of the sun’s energy is converted to electricity. This is a key step toward making solar energy more cost-competitive with conventional power sources.
In a paper published on July 24 in the initial on-line version of the American Chemical Society’s Nano Letters Journal, an NREL team reported that silicon nanocrystals, or quantum dots, obtained from Innovalight can produce more than one electron from single photons of sunlight that have wavelengths less than 420 nm. According to the team, when today’s photovoltaic solar cells absorb a photon of sunlight, about 50% of the incident energy is lost as heat. MEG provides a way to convert some of this energy lost as heat into additional electricity.
(Reprinted from SST sister publication Small Times magazine)
July 27, 2007 — Keithley Instruments, Inc., provider of solutions for emerging measurement needs, has entered into a Joint Development Partnership (JDP) surrounding semiconductor device material testing technology with France’s CEA Leti semiconductor development laboratories. Keithley and CEA Leti will research methods for characterizing advanced semiconductor materials and devices that support DC, high frequency, and RF-level signals on both micro- and nano-level structures. CEA Leti will use Keithley RF-enabled semiconductor test equipment as part of its broad portfolio of research projects in order to expand and enhance understanding of the performance of semiconductor devices that perform at the highest levels.
“As semiconductor technology pushes the upper limits to achieving RF-level signals and device miniaturization to nano levels, measurement technology must not only keep pace but even lead researchers’ ability to build and test these devices,” explained Mark Hoersten, Keithley vice president, business management. “Our partnership with CEA Leti is a unique opportunity to create new measurement technology at the point where many of our customers’ technologies converge – semiconductor, RF/wireless, and nanotechnology.”
(July 27, 2007) SAINT-JEOIRE, France — SUSS MicroTec France’s president, Gaël Schmidt, used a management buy out (MBO) agreement to acquire SUSS MicroTec’s device bonder division. He will rename the company Smart Equipment Technology (S.E.T.); S.E.T. will operate as a simplified joint stock company with about €40,000 ($55,000) capital.
(July 26, 2007) SAN JOSE, CA — The North American semiconductor equipment manufacturing book-to-bill ratio fell to 0.94 in June 2007, which the indicator hasn’t approached since an October 2006 ratio of 0.95. The dip belies the fact that booking and billing amounts are trending up slightly, and hitting highs for the year, said Stanley T. Myers, president and CEO, SEMI.
July 26, 2007 – The US Securities and Exchange Commission has come down hard on former top execs of two semiconductor equipment suppliers for their participation in the wide-ranging practice of stock options backdating in recent years.
In one filing, the SEC has filed civil and criminal charges against Kenneth Schroeder, former CEO of KLA-Tencor Corp., alleging that he “repeatedly engaged in backdating” between his ascension to CEO in 1999 until 2002, and once again in 2005 — even after being told by the company and lawyers that retroactive backdating without disclose was “improper” and put the company at risk of accounting penalties, according to the SEC filing.
The SEC’s complaint against KLA-Tencor itself, though, resulted in essentially a wrist-slap — no civil penalty, fine, or money damages, and a “permanent injunction against future violations” of relevant federal securities laws — though it’s possible the settlement may include unusually stiff penalties for future transgressions. “KLA-Tencor went to great lengths to clean house after discovering the fraud, and their cooperation greatly facilitated the government’s investigation,” noted Marc Fagel, associate regional director of the SEC’s San Francisco regional office, in a statement.
Meanwhile, Robert Therrien, former president/CEO of Brooks Automation, is being charged in a civil fraud action, alleging that he pocketed more than $10 million by fraudulently backdating his stock purchasing options, as part of a broader scheme to grant himself and other Brooks execs and employees with undisclosed “in-the-money” options. Furthermore, the SEC has hit Therrien with a criminal indictment on tax evasion in connection with a Nov. 1999 stock option transaction.
In a separate statement, Brooks noted that was not charged in either the SEC complaint or the indictment, and that it has not been notified of any criminal or civil charges being brought against it by the SEC or US Attorney’s Office.
“All companies must play by the same rules when it comes to accounting for employee compensation and reporting its impact on the company’s bottom line,” stated Linda Chatman Thomsen, director of the SEC’s enforcement division. “Executives who violate these rules for their own personal benefit will be held accountable for their actions.”
July 26, 2007 — Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), collaborating with Innovalight, Inc., say they have shown that a new and important effect called Multiple Exciton Generation (MEG) occurs efficiently in silicon nanocrystals. MEG results in the formation of more than one electron per absorbed photon.
Silicon is the dominant semiconductor material used in present day solar cells, representing more than 93% of the photovoltaic cell market. Until this discovery, MEG had been reported over the past two years to occur only in nanocrystals (also called quantum dots) of semiconductor materials that are not presently used in commercial solar cells, and which contained environmentally harmful materials (such as lead). The new result opens the door to the potential application of MEG for greatly enhancing the conversion efficiency of solar cells based on silicon because more of the sun’s energy is converted to electricity. This is a key step toward making solar energy more cost-competitive with conventional power sources.
In a paper published on July 24 in the initial on-line version of the American Chemical Society’s Nano Letters Journal (see), an NREL team reported that silicon nanocrystals, or quantum dots, obtained from Innovalight can produce more than one electron from single photons of sunlight that have wavelengths less than 420 nm. According to the team, when today’s photovoltaic solar cells absorb a photon of sunlight, about 50% of the incident energy is lost as heat. MEG provides a way to convert some of this energy lost as heat into additional electricity.
by Phil LoPiccolo, Editor-in-Chief, Solid State Technology
What’s the difference between semiconductor equipment and solar equipment? “A factor of ten, squared,” said T.J. Rodgers, chairman of SunPower Corp. and president and CEO of Cypress Semiconductor, during his Wednesday (July 18) keynote address at SEMICON West. “If you want to sell a solar fab some equipment, it has to be 10x cheaper — for example, $400,000 not $4 million,” he explained, “and it has to be 10x faster — say, 800 wafers per hour, not 80 wafers per hour.”
To illustrate how silicon plants contrast with typical semiconductor fabs, Rodgers offered a glimpse inside SunPower’s solar cell facility in Manila, Philippines, a “mega-monster fab” compared to the scale of semiconductor plants, he said. (SunPower, a former Cypress business, was spun out in 2002.) For example, the facility produces wafers with a peak power capability of 100 million watts/year, which translates to 32 million wafers per year. In contrast, a large semiconductor plant produces about 1 million wafers per year, he explained. Moreover, given that solar cells require about 8 grams of silicon per watt, at 100MW, the plant consumes 800 tons of silicon, which is nearly 15 tons per week or some 2 tons per day.
To accommodate the high-volume throughput, the solar facility is a continuous-flow operation that runs “more like a razor-blade plant than a semiconductor fab,” Rodgers said. The silicon flows in a continuous stream (24 hours a day/seven days a week), with several wafers moving along side-by-side on tracks at the rate of 3600 wafers/hour, the equivalent of one wafer being produced every second.
Given the rapid flow, if any machine goes down the line will typically shut down within an hour, Rodgers noted. Therefore, another prerequisite for solar equipment is a minimum uptime requirement of ~99.8%. “If your machine were capable of being up and running only 90% of the time, I couldn’t afford to put it on my line, even if you gave to me for free,” he said, “because I’d lose the entire value of your machine within a few weeks.”
In terms of the individual processes used to fabricate the solar cells — e.g., lithography, diffusion, etching, metallization, etc. — the requirements are far less stringent in solar cell plants than in present-day semi fabs. “Our plant looks a semi fab from 1985, because it has the sophistication of a fab from 1985,” Rodgers said. For example, in lithography, the design rules are currently 100 microns. “We’d like to get down to about 30 microns,” he said, “but we have no use for going below that.”
The diffusion process is also old school. “We have giant racks of tubes loaded with thousand-wafer lots,” Rodgers said. “If anyone wanted to make a continuous machine that dopes wafers, our industry would really appreciate it,” he said. As long as it costs <$400,000, runs >800 wafers/hour, and has virtually no downtime. — P.L.