Category Archives: Materials and Equipment

ams AG, a provider of high performance analog ICs and sensors, today introduced the AS3721, a power management IC (PMIC) with an innovative remote-feedback circuit that helps reduce the thermal stress of applications processors in smartphones and tablets.

When paired with new AS3729 point-of-load regulators from ams, the highly-integrated AS3721 provides a complete power management system that offers a fast response to load transients for reliable processor performance, high efficiency, and flexible board layout.

The AS3721 and AS3729 are optimized for use with Tegra applications processors from Nvidia.

The AS3721 PMIC enables a compact remote feedback path from the processor to the IC’s integrated DC-DC controllers. Thanks to a patent-pending design innovation by ams, the feedback interface to the AS3721 only requires two wires (one control signal, one temperature signal) instead of the four or five wires typically required by other PMICs.

With fewer traces connecting the PMIC to the point-of-load power stages, the two devices can be placed far apart in the board layouts of space-constrained devices such as smartphones, tablets and notebooks. This dramatically reduces the size and intensity of the hotspot around the processor compared to conventional power architectures in which the processor and PMIC, both handling high currents simultaneously, must be located side-by-side.

The feedback loop carried over the AS3721’s two-wire interface also operates extremely fast, maintaining the processor it supports within its safe operating voltage even when supplying extremely fast-changing loads. Using an output capacitor of just 40µF and at an output voltage of 1.0V, the system’s voltage drop during a step up from 0.5A to 5A in burst mode is just 32mV (typical).

The AS3729 5A point-of-load power stages complement the AS3721 PMIC. The AS3729 contains NMOS and PMOS FETs for each of two phases, which can be controlled separately and can handle an output current of 2.5A. The PMIC can combine up to four devices in an eight-phase configuration that supplies a 20A maximum output. By choosing single- or multi-phase configurations, device manufacturers can optimize their design either for cost and board footprint (using fewer, larger inductors) or for low profile (using more, smaller inductors).

The AS3721 PMIC features four DC-DC step-down regulators supplying 4A, 2A and 1.5A; three DC-DC step-down controllers rated for 5A, 10A and 20A; 12 digital LDOs; a real-time clock; a supervisor circuit; GPIOs; a general-purpose ADC; and a one-time programmable boot sequence. The device’s 8mm x 8mm BGA package has a pitch of just 0.5mm.

The AS3729 power stage is in a chip-scale package measuring just 1.6mm x 1.6mm and with a 0.4mm pitch.

“Our patent-pending feedback interface technique provides for a huge improvement in the board layout of smartphones and tablets, and will allow device manufacturers to dramatically reduce the thermal stress on the processor and associated components,” Kambiz Dawoodi, vice-president and general manager of the power and wireless business unit at ams, said.

Invensas Corporation, a subsidiary of Tessera Technologies, Inc., will showcase its latest mobility solution, an ultra-high bandwidth Bond Via Array (BVATM) Package-on-Package (PoP) product, at the upcoming IEEE Electronic Components & Technology Conference (ECTC) in Las Vegas, NV on May 28 – 31, 2013. The solution was brought to high volume market readiness in collaboration with Kulicke & Soffa Industries, Inc. (K&S), Universal Instruments Corporation, and Celestica Inc.

“The BVA platform provides smartphone and tablet makers with a roadmap to much higher bandwidth and lower power consumption, enabling high definition mobile gaming, multi-channel video, and a host of new data-rich applications on next generation mobile devices,” said Simon McElrea, president of Invensas Corporation. “With greater than 1,000 interconnects, twice that of the current competition, in a tiny 14x14mm package-on-package form factor, BVA is by far the mobile industry’s highest bandwidth solution.”

The technology, which relies on conventional manufacturing infrastructure, enables the interconnection of System on Chip (SOC), Central Processing Unit (CPU), and Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) chips with their associated memory chips. It accommodates Double Data Rate 3/4 (DDR3/4 ) DRAM, Low Power Double Data Rate (LPDDR) and “Wide-IO” DRAM, as well as Flash and Multi Chip Package (MCP) memory. 512 bit memory bus width is supported which, at 800MHz operation, delivers an unprecedented 100GB/s bandwidth.

Invensas will display the technology at the 2013 ECTC in the Cosmopolitan Hotel, Las Vegas, NV, on May 28 – 31, 2013. In addition, Invensas will present a white paper “Package-on-Package with Very Fine Pitch Interconnects for High Bandwidth” on Thursday May 30, 2013 at 4:45pm PT.

North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $1.17 billion in orders worldwide in April 2013 (three-month average basis) and a book-to-bill ratio of 1.08, according to the April EMDS Book-to-Bill Report published today by SEMI.   A book-to-bill of 1.08 means that $108 worth of orders were received for every $100 of product billed for the month.

The three-month average of worldwide bookings in April 2013 was $1.17 billion. The bookings figure is 6.4 percent higher than the final March 2013 level of $1.10 billion, and is 26.8 percent lower than the April 2012 order level of $1.60 billion.

The three-month average of worldwide billings in April 2013 was $1.08 billion. The billings figure is 9.3 percent higher than the final March 2013 level of $991.0 million, and is 25.7 percent lower than the April 2012 billings level of $1.46 billion.

“Both bookings and billings trends have been improving over the last four months, with the book-to-bill ratio remaining above parity over the same period," said Denny McGuirk, president and CEO of SEMI.  “While orders remain well below last year’s numbers, the current order and spending activity is aligned with 2012 capex plans.”

The SEMI book-to-bill is a ratio of three-month moving averages of worldwide bookings and billings for North American-based semiconductor equipment manufacturers. Billings and bookings figures are in millions of U.S. dollars.

  Billings
(3-mo. avg)		 Bookings
(3-mo. avg)		 Book-to-Bill
November 2012 910.1 718.6 0.79
December 2012 1,006.1 927.4 0.92
January 2013 968.0 1,076.0 1.11
February 2013 974.7 1,073.5 1.10
March 2013 (final) 991.0 1,103.3 1.11
April 2013 (prelim) 1,083.2 1,173.4 1.08

Yole Développement announced its 2.5D, 3DIC and TSV Interconnect Patent Investigation report. Yole Développement’s investigation aims at providing statistical analysis of existing IP to give a landscape overview together with an in-depth investigation on five player portfolios selected by the analyst.

2.5D, 3DIC and TSV patent landscape

A very young patent landscape dominated by 10 companies

For this analysis of 3D packaging technology patents, more than 1800 patent families were screened. Fifty-two percent of the families have been classified as relevant and further studied.

“The in-depth analysis quickly revealed that the overall patent landscape was pretty young with 82 percent of patents filed since 2006,” explained Lionel Cadix, technology and market analyst of the Advanced Packaging division at Yole Développement. “Actually about 260 players are involved in 3DIC technology while the top 10 assignees represents 48 percent of patents filed in the 3DIC domain.”

In this report, Yole Développement selected five companies from these 10 most active players to focus on and lead an accurate analysis of their patent portfolios.

Yole Développement also found main types of business models among the top 10 assignees involved in this mutating middle end area:

  • Foundries and IDM: IBM, Samsung, Intel
  • OSATs: STATS ChipPAC, Amkor
  • Memory IDM/Foundries: Micron, SK Hynix, Elpida
  • Research centers: ITRI

It is also interesting to notice that the USA is the early player increasingly involved in 3DIC since 1969. China and Korea are new players since 2005.

This complete description of the patent landscape is included in the first part of the report and provides all the background materials for the 3DIC patent landscape analysis. Yole Développement’s report provides a complete analysis of the patent landscape including geographical origins of the patents, companies or R&D organizations that have been granted the patents, historical data on when the companies that have applied for patents in the last 20 years, inventors of the patents, expiration status, R&D collaborations.

Understanding the patent portfolio of the top 10 3DIC assignees

The report also provides a deep dive into each of the patent portfolios of assignees selected by Yole Développement, including Intel, Samsung, Micron, IBM and TSMC.

For each of these companies, Yole’s report provides an in-depth analysis of its patent portfolio, highlighting the following points:

  • Company patent portfolio evolution
  • Countries of deposition and origin of the patents
  • Top inventors
  • Technical segmentation of each patent portfolio
  • Patent portfolio analysis for each manufacturing process steps and architecture
  • Main technical innovations

This analysis of each company provides an in-depth view of the strengths and weaknesses of the patent portfolio of each company and the developments that are now implemented by these companies.

The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), representing U.S. leadership in semiconductor manufacturing and design, announced that worldwide sales of semiconductors reached $23.48 billion for the month of March 2013, an increase of 1.1 percent from the previous month when sales were $23.23 billion. Global sales for March 2013 were 0.9 percent higher than the March 2012 total of $23.28 billion, and total sales through the first quarter of 2013 were 0.9 percent higher than sales from the first quarter of 2012. All monthly sales numbers represent a three-month moving average.  

“Through the first quarter of 2013, the global semiconductor industry has seen modest but consistent growth compared to last year,” said Brian Toohey, president and CEO, Semiconductor Industry Association. “Sales have increased across most end product categories, with memory showing the strongest growth. With recent indications that companies could be set to replenish inventories, we are hopeful that growth will continue in the months ahead. Regionally, the Americas slipped slightly in March after a strong start to the year, but Asia Pacific and Europe have seen impressive growth recently.” 

Year-over-year sales increased in Asia Pacific (6.9 percent) and Europe (0.7 percent), but decreased slightly in the Americas (-1.5 percent) and sharply in Japan (-18 percent), reflecting in part the devaluation of the Japanese yen. Sales in Europe increased by 5.7 percent compared to the previous month, the region’s largest sequential monthly increase since March 2010.  Sales also increased from the previous month in Asia Pacific (1.7 percent), but fell in Japan (-1.6 percent) and the Americas (-1.9 percent).

Silex Microsystems, the world’s largest pure-play MEMS foundry, today announced that it has joined an international European Union-funded program aimed at developing a new MEMS manufacturing platform based on advanced inkjet-based printing technologies. The program, “Processes for MEMS by Inkjet Enhanced Technologies,” or PROMINENT, is leveraging the proven benefits of inkjet technologies to enable higher manufacturing efficiencies, increased product innovation, faster time-to-market, and lower costs throughout the entire MEMS manufacturing process. Silex’s contributions in this effort will include new low-cost technologies for through-wafer vias, hermetic high-vacuum seals for wafer-to-wafer bonding including advanced material deposition, advances in piezo-MEMS fabrication, and other functional materials processing.

As an innovation-driven industry, MEMS manufacturing depends on continuous innovation and exploitation of new technologies such as ink-jet processes. Ink-jet technology is one of the most mature MEMS technologies, having been in production since the late ‘70s and a mainstream of the digital printing industry since the early ‘80s. Similar to the impact that inkjet printing has had on the printing industry, the technology offers the promise of direct-to-wafer digitally-based patterning of wafer processing which can allow highly flexible prototyping and low-volume production for MEMS devices. In addition, advances in materials, electronics, and thin film compounds in recent years have opened up new avenues to apply ink-jet techniques to traditional manufacturing challenges such as metallization patterning using metallized inks. PROMINENT has been formed to exploit these new techniques and to advance the competitiveness of the European technology community.

“As a key partner in the PROMINENT project, Silex brings its extensive experience in metal TSVs and wafer bonding which will help end-users, partners in the consortium, and future customers advance the use of inkjet technologies for production purposes,” says Dr. Thorbjörn Ebefors, chief technologist at Silex Microsystems. “These new technologies have the potential to reduce costs and speed development time of new MEMS products, at no loss of performance for the customer.”

“Printed electronics have recently achieved considerable progress due to new printing technologies and the introduction of nanoparticle inks, paving the way towards integrating these capabilities within silicon-based nanoelectronics,” says Dr. Markku Tilli of Okmetic Oyj, PROMINENT project coordinator.  “The objective of the ENIAC JU project PROMINENT is to demonstrate significant cost reduction in MEMS manufacturing by using printing technologies to reduce materials, chemicals and energy consumption, waste water production, processing cycle time and capital investments.”

PROMINENT will develop novel low-cost, digitally controlled additive manufacturing methods that can radically change the manufacturing methods for MEMS and bring a substantial competitive edge to the European MEMS industry. The objective is not to replace the whole MEMS manufacturing process, but rather to introduce a new way of making its selected steps flow in a different, more flexible and cost-efficient way using methods developed in the printed electronics field.

By using maskless, digitally controlled, localized additive processes instead of the subtractive processes currently in use, selected steps in MEMS manufacturing can be done with a simplified process sequence. This will result in:

  • Lower initial investment costs for a MEMS line, making it easier for manufacturers to introduce new products.
  • New features in the MEMS devices, new application areas.
  • Greatly increased flexibility in production, allowing for smaller batches, mass customization and fast changes in the production process.
  • Increased flexibility, easier prototyping and shorter time-to-market for new MEMS devices.
  • Greatly reduced production costs and environmental impact.

Silex TSV and wafer-bonding

MOSIS, a provider of low-cost prototyping and small volume production services for custom ICs, has teamed up with imec, Ireland’s Tyndall National Institute and ePIXfab, the European Silicon Photonics support center providing low-cost prototyping services for photonic ICs. The partnership gives MOSIS’ customers access to imec’s state-of-the-art fully integrated silicon photonics processes and Tyndall’s advanced silicon photonics packaging technology.

Packaged passive silicon photonics chip, showing imec’s silicon photonic chip andTyndall’s fiber array packaging.

Imec’s silicon photonics platform enables cost-effective R&D of silicon photonic ICs for high-performance optical transceivers (25Gb/s and beyond) for telecom, datacom, and optical sensing for life science applications. The offered integrated components include low-loss waveguides, efficient grating couplers, high-speed silicon electro-optic modulators and high-speed germanium waveguide photo-detectors. A comprehensive design kit to access imec technologies will be provided. Moreover, the Tyndall National Institute, being a partner of ePIXfab, offers the ability to provide packaged silicon photonics devices. This includes the design and fabrication of custom photonic packages, fiber coupling (single and arrays) and electrical interconnects. Design rules to support these packaging capabilities will also be provided.

“Imec’s Silicon Photonics platform provides robust performance, and solutions to integrated photonics products. Companies can benefit from imec silicon photonics capability through established standard cells, or explore the functionality of their own designs in MultiProject Wafer runs,” stated Philippe Absil, program director at imec. “With this collaboration, MOSIS will offer its first access to a mature Silicon Photonics infrastructure, with the option for follow-on production,” added Wes Hansford, MOSIS Director.

The first ePIXfab-Europractice run for passive silicon photonics ICs is open for registration from June 2013 with design deadline September 9th 2013. MOSIS’ customers can register for this run and obtain the design kit via MOSIS in June 2013.

Imec’s Si Photonics 200mm wafer platform includes:

  • Tight within-wafer silicon thickness variation 3sigma < 2.5nm
  • 3-level patterning of 220nm top Si layer (193nm optical lithography)
  • poly-Si overlay and patterning (193nm optical lithography)
  • 3-level n-type implants and 3-level p-type implants in Si
  • Ge epitaxial growth on Si and p-type and n-type implants in Ge
  • Local NiSi contacts, Tungsten vias and Cu metal interconnects
  • Al bond pads
  • Validated cell library with fiber couplers, polarization rotators, highly efficient carrier depletion modulators and ultra-compact Ge waveguide photo-detectors with low dark current.
  • Design kit support for IPKISS framework, PhoeniX Software and Mentor Graphics software

Tyndall’s Si Photonics Packaging Technology enables:

  • Passive device packaging, single and multi-fiber arrays to grating couplers
  • Active device packaging, modulators and detectors with electrical ports and fiber arrays
  • Custom packaging requirements (mechanical, thermal stability etc.)

Amkor Technology, Inc. today announced that Stephen D. Kelley has been appointed to serve as president and chief executive officer and as a director of the company, effective May 8, 2013. Kelley succeeds Ken Joyce, who previously announced his intention to retire. Kelley’s appointment follows a comprehensive, six month search process conducted by the Board of Directors with the professional assistance of a global executive recruiting firm.

 “We have been investing significant resources in the key packaging and test technologies that support the rapidly growing market for smartphones and tablets, and today we are well-positioned to take advantage of significant growth opportunities in mobile communications and our other end markets,” said James J. Kim, Amkor’s executive chairman of the board of directors. “Steve Kelley has a wealth of experience helping major global semiconductor companies grow revenues and increase profitability. With his strong record of success, deep customer knowledge and great drive, Steve is the ideal CEO to lead Amkor.”

Most recently, Kelley served as chief executive officer of Scio Diamond Technology Corporation, an industrial diamond technology company, and as a senior advisor to Advanced Technology Investment Company, the Abu Dhabi-sponsored investment company that owns GLOBALFOUNDRIES, a full service semiconductor foundry. Kelley, 50, has more than 25 years of experience in the global semiconductor industry, including as executive vice president and chief operating officer of Cree, Inc. from 2008 to 2011, as vice president/general manager of display, standard logic, linear and military businesses at Texas Instruments, Inc. from 2003 to 2008, in various positions with Philips Semiconductors from 1993 to 2003 including senior vice president and general manager, and in various positions with National Semiconductor Corporation and Motorola Semiconductor. Kelley holds a B.S. in chemical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a J.D. from Santa Clara University.

“I’m very excited to join the Amkor team,” said Kelley. “Throughout its history, Amkor has been a pioneer and technology leader, and I look forward to the opportunity to build on that success.”

Kim also commented on the retirement of Joyce.

“Ken has had a remarkable career, including over 15 years of service to Amkor,” he said. “Today, Amkor is well-positioned for success with industry-leading technology in our key end markets, and the entire Board of Directors joins me in thanking Ken for helping to lead us here. We are fortunate that Ken has agreed to be available to work with Steve over the coming months to ensure a smooth transition.”

Amkor is a leading provider of semiconductor packaging and test services to semiconductor companies and electronics OEMs.

North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $1.14 billion in orders worldwide in March 2013 (three-month average basis) and a book-to-bill ratio of 1.14, according to the March Book-to-Bill Report published today by SEMI.  A book-to-bill of 1.14 means that $114 worth of orders were received for every $100 of product billed for the month.

The three-month average of worldwide bookings in March 2013 was $1.14 billion. The bookings figure is 5.9 percent higher than the final February 2013 level of $1.07 billion, and is 21.3  percent lower than the March 2012 order level of $1.45 billion.

The three-month average of worldwide billings in March 2013 was $1.00 billion. The billings figure is 2.8 percent higher than the final February 2013 level of $974.7 million, and is 22.2   percent lower than the March 2012 billings level of $1.29 billion.

“Continued improvement in three-month average bookings for new semiconductor manufacturing equipment is reflected in the March figures, which indicate a 23 percent improvement over the prior quarter," said Denny McGuirk, president and CEO of SEMI.  “While the overall expansion of new manufacturing capacity remains muted, we see continued investment in technology upgrades by the world’s chip makers.”

The SEMI book-to-bill is a ratio of three-month moving averages of worldwide bookings and billings for North American-based semiconductor equipment manufacturers. Billings and bookings figures are in millions of U.S. dollars.

  Billings
(3-mo. avg)		 Bookings
(3-mo. avg)		 Book-to-Bill
October 2012 985.5 742.8 0.75
November 2012 910.1 718.6 0.79
December 2012 1,006.1 927.4 0.92
January 2013 968.0 1,076.0 1.11
February 2013 (final) 974.7 1,073.5 1.10
March 2013 (prelim) 1,001.6 1,137.1 1.14

The data contained in SEMI’s release were compiled by David Powell, Inc., an independent financial services firm, without audit, from data submitted directly by the participants. SEMI and David Powell, Inc. assume no responsibility for the accuracy of the underlying data.

SEMI is the global industry association serving the nano- and micro-electronic manufacturing supply chains.

With time running out until U.S. component manufacturers are legally required to disclose their usage of conflict minerals to the federal government, many companies are woefully unprepared for the new regulations, with more than one-third of firms indicating they haven’t even commenced compliance planning, according to a survey from information and analytics provider IHS.

In a poll conducted last week during an IHS webinar entitled “The Clock’s Ticking: How to Comply with the New Conflict Minerals Regulations,” more than 35 percent of respondents—a plurality of the attendees—said they have made no plans on how to conform with the rules set out by the SEC Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act on conflict materials, which will start to go into effect in May 2014. Just 7.5 percent said that they were well-prepared for compliance.

The survey was taken of 134 electronics industry managers during the IHS webinar on April 9.

The Congo connection

Conflict minerals are raw materials mainly sourced in the war-torn country of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The materials—tantalum, tungsten, gold and tin—are widely used in the electronics market, in products ranging from cellphones to hearing aids, to pacemakers. For example, IHS estimates that $0.15 worth of tantalum was contained in every smartphone shipped when Dodd-Frank was originally signed in 2010. In 2012, this would amount to $93 million worth of tantalum in smartphones.

The SEC rules took effect in August 2012, with initial reporting required by May 2014. The rules affect publicly traded companies in the United States.

However, electronics manufacturers procure products and materials from all over the globe, so the likelihood is high that one or more supply-chain partners will require information regarding the sourcing of the four conflict minerals.

Compliance costs

While complying with the SEC rules is time-consuming and costly, the process may not be as complicated as originally projected.

One of the key industries involved in processing conflict minerals —smelters— are getting involved in and supporting compliance efforts, said Scott Wilson, content solution strategist at IHS.

“Smelters are a good control point, and this simplifies how far back in the supply chain companies have to go,” Wilson told the webinar audience.

Nevertheless, Wilson advises companies across the electronics supply chain to be prepared to provide compliance information by next May. Even if a business does not use conflict minerals in its products, it has to demonstrate it has conducted due diligence in making that determination. There is existing guidance to assist in the process, Wilson said. These include guidelines already in use issued by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that outline the key aspects of compliance.