Category Archives: Materials and Equipment

(October 8, 2010) — Mark Danna, Owens Design, discusses the key questions that should be asked when selecting a strategic outsource partner particularly in the area semiconductor and solar manufacturing equipment development.

In many companies, the recent economic downturn has resulted in an overall reduction of manpower and the loss of key technologists. As budgets tighten, equipment companies are being forced to come up with innovative ways to cut the costs and speed up the time for new tool development. More then ever, solar and semiconductor equipment manufacturers will need to rely on the strategic outsourcing of non-core competencies to remain competitive. The problem for most companies is finding and selecting the “right partner.” What are the right questions to ask potential partners and what do their answers tell you about their abilities to respond to your particular needs?

This article will discuss the key questions that should be asked when selecting a strategic outsource partner particularly in the area semiconductor and solar manufacturing equipment development. Some of these questions and answers should be asked not just by the potential customer, but by the strategic outsourcing partner as well.

What do you want in an outsourcing partner?

Some of first questions a company needs to ask when picking an outsourcing partner have to with determining the kind of company with which you want to form a strategic alliance. In preparation, it’s important to look at your own company’s attributes. What is the key problem that you and your company are trying to solve? What is unique in this particular project that this strategic alliance will address? What strengths does your company bring to the table and how do they directly relate to this particular project? What particular strengths does your company have and which strengths do you want to leverage with the outsource partner? What kind of relationship do you want to have with this partner?

Consider these important outsource provider attributes: the potential outsourcing partner’s areas of expertise and their past experience. Does the potential partner have experience working on projects in your particular industry, or are they new to the market? How many projects were similar to the one your company has in mind? Have they demonstrated successful collaboration on a particular project? What is their philosophy of project management? Do they have a history of being responsive and communicative with clients? Do they have a history of accountability and delivering on time and at cost? What is their record of customer satisfaction in terms of repeat customers? What is the breadth of experience and size of their engineering staff, and how long have they been working together as a team? Getting the answers to these questions up front can help your company quickly narrow down its potential pool of partners, as well as saving a great deal of time, money, and frustration. Other factors to consider at this point include your potential outsourcing partner’s size and global presence. Ask yourself, what attributes do we need to leverage from the partner company to ensure success on this project?

In most cases, it is the size of your company that really determines the ideal size of an outsourcing partner. If you are a small start-up, partnering with a large outsourcing company is probably not the best choice, since you will be only one of many customers and probably not the most important (i.e. largest contributor to their bottom line). In general, it is best to pick a partner where economic benefits from the partnership are comparable to those of your own company.

Your potential partner’s global presence should also be of concern. If, for example, your company’s project involves overseas manufacturing, does the company have a presence in the area, in case manufacturing issues arise? Where are your key market regions? If your company is depending on your outsourced partner for service, support or parts, whether it is capable of supporting you in those regions can be critical to the market success of your project.

What kind of outsourcing partnership?

Determining the kind of relationship you want with your outsourcing partner is also highly critical to the success of any project. Knowing up front what role you want your partner to play in the process can make it easier to optimize your outsourcing decisions. It can also help avoid delays and cost overruns. As such, this question is one that should be asked up front by both partners in any strategic outsourcing agreement.

There are generally two approaches to outsourcing. In one the outsourcing partner accepts the project as presented and simply executes on the specifications presented. In the other, the outsourcing company works with its partner to clarify the scope of the project and actively contributes to the developmental and possibly the manufacturing process. The first approach may work if the project under consideration is relatively simple and straightforward. The more complex the project, however, the more the second approach becomes the optimal solution. This is also the type of approach that most often results in a long-term win/win relationship for the two companies.

What’s the problem?

The next thing to look at is the actual problem you are trying to solve and what’s involved in the project your company is considering outsourcing. Here, there are three things to look at: the technical capability of your potential partner; where you are in the development cycle; and what process will be used to determine the scope of the outsourcing project.

When judging the technical capabilities of a potential partner, one wants to look at several different factors. The first of these is experience. What other projects has your potential partner done for other companies? How big were those projects? Is your project something larger and more complex than the potential partner has ever handled, or is it well within the scope of previous projects they have successfully completed? Your potential partner’s size comes up again here. What other projects are they currently handling? Do they have enough existing resources to take on your project as well? When looking at their resources, it’s worth asking about the team that will be working on your project. How do they stack up in terms of experience, not only on an engineering level, but in terms of project management?

Next, you want to look at where your company is in the development cycle for the product it is considering outsourcing. Are you at an early research and development (R&D) stage, where you are going to want your outsourcing partner to help in product development, or is this a proven product concept that the company is interested in moving into production? As many a company has discovered when trying to take a new product from design to manufacturing, different skills are required at different points in the product development cycle. Does the outsourcing partner you are considering have the skill set that matches the problem you are trying to solve?

One should also consider whether the outsourcing partnership is designed to resolve a specific, well-defined problem, or whether it is one that will require more strategic input from the outsourcing partner. Here again, one wants to look at experience of both the company and the team assigned to work on your project.

It is also a good idea to explore the potential partner’s typical processes for clarifying the job scope and product delivery, including specific project deliverables and metrics. At Owens Design, for example, any project goes through three stages: project initiation, prototyping, and market validation.

The project initiation phase starts with preliminary project discussions with the objective of verifying project fit. It is during this process that both parties need to make sure there is solid alignment in the areas of technology expertise, resource availability, and overall commercial scope. This is when agreement is reached on issues such as design concept, hardware and software functional requirements, tool specifications, delivery schedules, and most important a fixed price to design and build a prototype.

The second phase, prototype development, involves finishing prototype design followed by building the tool and validating that the tool meets specification. To be a real value-add step in the development process, the design validation process must test the tool at real-world operating conditions. It is important that both parties put time and effort into this test phase or there will be a strong potential that the tool will not perform up to expectations in production.

In the last stage, market validation, the customer validates the tool in a real production environment and based on that experience, changes are made, if required. This last phase extends to any future upgrades and, if required, process support — things one should ensure are covered by your outsourcing partner during your initial discussions.

Who owns the intellectual property (IP)?

This is another one of those questions that should be determined very early in any partnership discussions, since failure to determine it upfront could have fairly significant consequences. This area involves some extremely important issues, including design rights, manufacturing rights, and overall issues of intellectual property. Concern also must be taken regarding the use of the outsource partner’s IP, if any, in the design of the new tool. This type of IP must be identified upfront with an agreed licensing arrangement. If this type of agreement can not be reached, then you might need to find a new partner. Finally, partner exclusivity around certain technology might be potential selection criteria for your company. Questions should be asked about relationships with potential competitors and other uses of the developed shared technology.

What are the final deliverables?

It’s important to remember that any final product encompasses more than just the hardware and software. Does one’s outsourcing partner provide software and hardware documentation. How will follow-on production be handled? If the tool volumes justify, can the tool be moved to a low cost region to reduce manufacturing costs? Is there a field support plan? (Here is where your outsourcing partner’s global reach comes into play.) How will warranty issues be handled between the two companies? Who stocks spare parts and consumables? Does your outsourcing partner have the capability and intent of fixing any software bugs that are discovered in the field? These are all critical issues that can significantly impact the customer satisfaction of your product’s users.

Conclusion

Picking the right outsourcing partner is one of those critical decisions that can significantly impact the success or failure of a particular product in terms of production cost, quality and time to market. Asking the right questions at the beginning of the process can minimize the risks involved. There are really two sets of questions that need to be asked. The first set is internal to the company seeking an outsourcing partner and focuses on the attributes needed in that partner and the kind of relationship desired. The second set involves the project itself — its scope, the development process, ownership of particular responsibilities, intellectual property confidentiality, costs, timelines, and final deliverables. Getting the answers to these questions at the beginning of the outsourcing process will go a long way in helping ensure a positive and mutually profitable partnership.

Mark Danna, senior director of marketing, Owens Design, Fremont, CA USA. Contact Mark Danna at [email protected] or (510) 770-3441.

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(October 6, 2010) — Camtek Ltd. (NASDAQ and TASE: CAMT) received an order for multiple wafer inspection systems from a major outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) company in southeast Asia.

The order, totaling approximately $3 million dollars, includes several Condor systems for 2D wafer inspection. The systems are expected to be installed during the fourth quarter of 2010.

Roy Porat, Camtek’s CEO, commented, "We are very pleased with this order, demonstrating the strong traction that the Condor is gaining in the market. This order is a result of continuous efforts working with this OSAT, that already has multiple Camtek systems. We believe that our selection as tool of choice for this project, will generate additional orders for us going into 2011. We believe that our system meets the inspection needs of our customers in general, and particularly within the OSAT environment, given the subcontractor’s requirements for rigorous cost and performance constraints combined with flexibility."

Camtek Ltd provides automated solutions dedicated for enhancing production processes and yield, enabling our customers new technologies in two industries; Semiconductors, Printed Circuit Board (PCB) & IC Substrates. Learn more at www.camtek.co.il.

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(October 6, 2010) — The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2010 to Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, both of the University of Manchester, UK, for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene.

A one-atom-thick flake of carbon, the nano material graphene was demonstrated by Geim and Novoselov to have exceptional properties that originate from the remarkable world of quantum physics. You can read the scientific background on graphene compiled for the Royal Swedish Academy here.

Related articles on graphene

 

Graphene: A playground for physics

Graphene quantized-electron bubble discovery at UC Berkeley

Bulk graphene oxide without the toxic gases

Listening to graphene’s quartet harmonies

Direct graphene CVD on a dielectric substrate

As a conductor of electricity, graphene performs as well as copper. As a conductor of heat, it outperforms all other known materials. It is almost completely transparent, yet so dense that not even helium, the smallest gas atom, can pass through it.

Geim and Novoselov extracted the graphene from a piece of graphite such as is found in ordinary pencils. Using regular adhesive tape they managed to obtain a flake of carbon with a thickness of just one atom. This at a time when many believed it was impossible for such thin crystalline materials to be stable.

However, with graphene, physicists can now study a new class of two-dimensional materials with unique properties. Graphene makes experiments possible that give new twists to the phenomena in quantum physics. Also a vast variety of practical applications now appear possible including the creation of new materials and the manufacture of innovative electronics. Graphene transistors are predicted to be substantially faster than today’s silicon transistors and result in more efficient computers.

 

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) image of a monolayer of graphene. Black area is substrate; dark orange is a monolayer of graphene about 0.5nm thick. The bright orange part contains a few layers, at about 2nm thick. Source: Scientific background material for the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Since it is practically transparent and a good conductor, graphene is suitable for producing transparent touch screens, light panels, and maybe even solar cells. Recent news has hinted at future mass production methods for graphene.

When mixed into plastics, graphene can turn them into conductors of electricity while making them more heat resistant and mechanically robust. This resilience can be used in new super strong materials, which are also thin, elastic and lightweight. In the future, satellites, airplanes, and cars could be manufactured out of the new composite materials.

This year’s Laureates have been working together for a long time. Konstantin Novoselov, 36, first worked with Andre Geim, 51, as a PhD student in the Netherlands. He subsequently followed Geim to the UK. Both of them originally studied and began their careers as physicists in Russia. Now they are both professors at the University of Manchester. In awarding the Nobel Prize, the Royal Swedish Academy noted that "playfulness is one of their hallmarks." The SEK 10 million prize money is to be shared equally between the Nobel Laureates.

Biographies of the Nobel Laureates

Andre Geim, Dutch citizen. Born 1958 in Sochi, Russia. Ph.D. 1987 from Institute of Solid State Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Chernogolovka, Russia. Director of Manchester Centre for Meso-science & Nanotechnology, Langworthy Professor of Physics and Royal Society 2010 Anniversary Research Professor, University of Manchester, UK.
www.condmat.physics.manchester.ac.uk/people/academic/geim

Konstantin Novoselov, Brittish and Russian citizen. Born 1974 in Nizhny Tagil, Russia. Ph.D. 2004 from Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Professor and Royal Society Research Fellow, University of Manchester, UK.
www.condmat.physics.manchester.ac.uk/people/academic/novoselov

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, founded in 1739, is an independent organization whose overall objective is to promote the sciences and strengthen their influence in society. The Academy takes special responsibility for the natural sciences and mathematics, but endeavours to promote the exchange of ideas between various disciplines.

For information about the Nobel Prize in Physics, including ways to post questions to the prize recipients and more information about their work, visit http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2010/

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(October 6, 2010 – Marketwire) — Mattson Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MTSN), advanced wafer fab process equipment supplier, received orders for multiple Suprema photoresist strip systems from a new Asian customer. The Supremas will be used in both front-end-of-line (FEOL) and back-end-of-line (BEOL) applications for advanced logic device production. The systems are scheduled to ship in the fourth quarter of 2010.

"The Suprema won head-to-head competitive evaluations to become the process tool of record as a result of its productivity, reliability, and on-wafer performance," said Rene George, VP and GM of Mattson Technology’s Plasma Products Group. "To address critical logic processes that require low silicon loss and ultra-low defectivity, the Suprema provides advanced processing capabilities for demanding strip and clean applications."

The new customer is satifying initial fab production requirements and will ramp capacity in the future.

Mattson Technology, Inc. designs, manufactures and markets semiconductor wafer processing equipment used in the fabrication of integrated circuits. Learn more at www.mattson.com.

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(October 4, 2010) — Forsyth Technical Community College in Winston-Salem, NC, is doing its part in keeping the Tar Heel State as one of the strongest nanotech clusters in the nation. Forsyth Tech provides a two-year nanotechnology degree program in the Southeast US. This program has strong partnerships with innovative employers, academic researchers, and industrial organizations across North Carolina, including both the Piedmont Triad (Winston-Salem, High Point, and Greensboro) and the Research Triangle (Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill).

North Carolina is ranked 8th in nanotechnology while the Triangle metro area is ranked fourth by the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies.

Nanotech second-year student Greg Walker changes the tip of a NanoSurf EasyScan 2 atomic force microscope.

Strong initial support

The two-year Associate Degree in Applied Science in Nanotechnology was first offered at Forsyth Tech in 2005 with the financial support of a $500,000 grant from the Wachovia Foundation. These financial resources give students access to a wide array of tools on campus at Forsyth Tech, including atomic-force microscopy (AFM) in both air and liquid, fluorescence microscopy, spin-coaters, polymer-synthesizing microwave ovens, heaters for nanotube fabrication, and high-rpm centrifugal mixers for the mixing of nanoparticles into macroscopic matrices.

From its inception, significant technical assistance from Dr. David Carroll, director of the Wake Forest University Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials, has provided access to highly qualified adjunct faculty and equipment, including MOCVD equipment, electron microscopes, and a class 10,000 clean room.

The Nanotech Toolbox

This degree is built around eight core courses: a pair each in theory, safety, characterization, and fabrication.

The two theory courses introduce students to the qualitative and quantitative aspects of nanotechnology, respectively. NAN 112 Fundamentals of Nanoscience includes four weeks each of biology, chemistry, physics, and nanostructures. The two safety courses encompass elements of laboratory and occupational safety, waste management and removal, as well as IP and litigation. NAN 132 Controlled Materials addresses corporate and regulatory issues, and provides a good forum for telephone interviews with representatives from FDA, EPA, and compliance consultant firms such as NanoTox of Houston.

The two fabrication courses introduce students to chemical, physical, and thermal methods of creating nanoparticles and nanocomposites. NAN 241 Fabrication of Soft Matter focuses on the fabrication of nanoparticles and polymers, and the mixing of the two to form nanocomposites. Forsyth Tech students take NAN 242 Thin Films at the Wake Forest University Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials.

The two characterization courses present the real strength of the program. NAN 243 covers all aspects of atomic-force microscopy, including AFM in liquid. Forsyth Tech students take NAN 244 Electron Microscopy with Wake Forest students but pay in-state community college tuition. In 2008, with the aid of a $136,000 grant from the North Carolina BioNetwork, an elective course, NAN 251 Biological Atomic-Force Microscopy, was added.

Nanotech program graduate Rei Kawamura processes fluorescence images of biological samples captured with an Olympus IX-71.

Human resources

Steven Crawford, a Nanotech diploma student with a B.A. in Biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was attracted to Forsyth Tech’s program because Nanotechnology is “at the forefront of everything I was interested in, both academics and my passion for technology.” Eric Norman, a first-year nanotech student adds “I’ve thought since high school chemistry, we know things are made of molecules, why can’t we move them around and build with them?” Wes Mays, a graduate of the program now working with PlexiLight, has benefitted from having “an internship to be able to work with an employer before I got a job. I now have an R&D position testing, optimizing, and making demonstration units.” Matt Craps of NanoTech Labs, producer of carbon nanotubes (CNT) and nanocomposite materials, sees it from the management side. He notes "Forsyth Tech graduates’ basis of knowledge, in the ever evolving field of nanotechnology, is valuable for our nanomaterials production. They demonstrate a keen interest to learn additional skills and become further involved in our manufacturing process."

Evolving curriculum

The curriculum received a significant overhaul in 2010 to provide students with easier access to the program. For those who enter with a two-year technical or four-year scientific degree, a new Diploma in Nanotechnology is offered. It consists of the eight core courses alone, and can be completed in just two semesters — or nine months. For incumbent workers, a new Certificate in Nanotechnology is now available. It includes one course each in theory, safety, characterization, and fabrication. The two-year Associate Degree for first-time college students remains the most popular option, but now students are able to supplement the eight core courses with electives, including more options in mathematics, chemistry, biology, physics, engineering, even biotechnology courses. This added flexibility allows students to prepare for careers in nanomaterials, quality control, metrology, nanobiology, regenerative medicine, and drug delivery. To support these classes in nanotechnology, students take one semester each of biology, chemistry, and physics. Integral to the program are also knowledge and skills from engineering, economics, and ethics.

Future nanotech advances for Forsyth Tech

A new facility for the program, a 3,000 sq.ft. laboratory – including a class-1000 clean room – on the ground floor of Forsyth Tech’s Center for Emerging Technologies in the Piedmont Triad Research Park situated in downtown Winston-Salem, is projected to open in 2014. The new campus will bring together Forsyth Tech’s Nanotech, Biotech, Design, and Corporate training programs for collaboration with other tenants in the park, including Nanoholdings’ PureLux and FiberCell, Triad Forensics Laboratory, Keranetics, Salzburg Therapeutics for Cancer, the North Carolina BioNetwork Pharmaceutical Center, and the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

The Nanotechnology program, in close cooperation with Forsyth Tech’s Biotechnology program and partners across the state — NC A&T University, the Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Tengion, Cook Medical, Nanomedica, Pioneer Surgical, Xanofi, and the Center of Innovation in Nanobiotechnology — is expanding into nanomedicine: regenerative medicine, tissue engineering, drug delivery, and cancer therapies. North Carolina is ranked third in biotechnology by the Battelle Technology Partnership Practice.

The Forsyth Tech program focuses on producing a workforce trained in the mutltidisciplinary skills that nanotech and nanomedicine employers across North Carolina are demanding. Through internships and new jobs, Forsyth Tech Nanotechnology graduates have brought their nanotech skill set to R&D firms, nanomanufacturing companies, and physics and engineering laboratories. These same graduates will do their part to keep NC in the forefront of the nation’s emerging nanotechnology sector.

Dr. Kevin J. Conley, the Program Coordinator of Nanotechnology Education at Forsyth Tech can be reached by email at [email protected] or phone at 336-734-7389.

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(October 1, 2010) — DEK has launched ProActiv process technology to enable electronics manufacturers to print pastes with high-density heterogeneous PCBs and ultra fine pitch assemblies such as advanced package assembly. Advanced printing can take place with a conventional printing process with a single thickness stencil.

As the stencil aperture area ratio decreases with the emergence of miniaturization and heterogeneous assemblies, the chance of successful printing decreases. Each ProActiv installation contains a control subsystem and a set of squeegees featuring embedded electronics. When activated, ProActiv energizes the paste that is in contact with or in very close proximity to the squeegee blade. This energizing action does not alter the paste but causes it to be far more compliant, improving the packing density of solder particles into apertures and enhancing the bond between those particles. In turn, this transforms solder paste transfer efficiency to deliver incremental improvements in quality, yield and throughput, even with today’s subassemblies.

DEK reports strong results after a ProActiv Beta Test program, enabling finer pitches, longer intervals between under-stencil cleaning, and fewer paste-print defects.

DEK is a global provider of advanced materials deposition technologies and support solutions including printing equipment platforms, stencils, precision screens and mass imaging processes used across a wide range of applications in electronics pre-placement subassembly, semiconductor wafer manufacture, and alternative energy component production. The technology is covered at www.dek.com/proactiv

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(October 1, 2010) — Adama Materials, Inc., a developer ofnanotechnology-based advanced materials, completed a $4.75 million Series A equity financing led by Artiman Ventures, along with Startup Capital Ventures, the company’s founders and a group of Hawaii-based angel investors including Cellular Bioengineering Inc.

The HI-based company also announced the appointment of Tim Dick from Startup Capital Ventures as CEO and a member of the board of directors. Also appointed to the board are Amit Shah of Artiman Ventures and John Dean of Startup Capital Ventures. They join founder and chief technology advisor, Dr. Mehrdad Ghasemi Nejhad, graduate chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the University of Hawaii (UH), Manoa. The company’s co-founder, Donavan Kealoha, will serve as director of administration.

Adama Materials was founded when Kealoha, a graduate of UH’s Shidler School of Business and the William S. Richardson School of Law, and Dr. Nejhad won first place and the technology prize at the 2008 UH business plan competition. Funded originally through grants from the United States Office of Naval Research, the company now has active projects with tier-one aerospace and composites companies and several patents.

"The investment will allow commercialization of the technology Adama has developed over many years at UH, our long-term partner," stated Dr. Nejhad.

"We are delighted to achieve this financial milestone with Hawaii technology that leads the world in this field," said Dick. "It reflects the excitement in the market for the striking performance increases made possible by Adama’s technology."

"Adama represents the ideal model of cross-disciplinary development of technology, business and law at UH, and demonstrates how UH discoveries can be successfully transferred to industry," said Jonathan Roberts of the UH Office of Technology Transfer and Economic Development.

Terms of the Series A equity financing were not disclosed.

Adama Materials Inc. develops proprietary nanotechnology-based advanced materials for use in composite materials and other applications. For more information on Adama, go to www.adamamaterials.com

Artiman Ventures helps talented entrepreneurs commercialize leading-edge technologies to create world-class companies.

Startup Capital Ventures focuses on early-stage companies that require relatively small amounts of capital to achieve success.

The University of Hawaii provides unique educational opportunities for its 58,000 students to learn and develop from undergraduate through post-doctoral work at its 10 UH campuses and dozens of educational, training and research centers on six Hawaiian Islands.

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by James Montgomery, news editor

October 1, 2010 – Another key theme that wove throughout the "Destination Nano" conference at UMass-Lowell (Sept. 22-23) was finding ways to analyze health and safety impacts with nanotechnology, ultimately to inform companies and researchers to better protect themselves and better know what results from nanotech in various applications and products.

Destination Nano series:
Driving research into sensors, devices
Emphasizing EHS
Saluting nanotech’s defense apps

Chuck Geraci from the US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) summarized much of their work in nanotechnology research and ESH — currently he oversees around 50 projects with nearly $10M in funding. Key research results involving nanotoxicology show nanoparticles of various ilk linked to a host of nasty problems: cardiovascular, lung fibrosis, brain inflammation, interference with cell division (more on that later), and invasion of the "intrapleural space" — which is where mesothelioma is found.

While supporting research into nanotech’s possible harmful effects, NIOSH also seeks to lay out and help implement safer ways to go about nanotech research and manufacturing. And judging by some of Geraci’s slides and stories about NIOSH field investigations, there’s no lack of need for such services. The slides below, taken from inside a "boutique maker" of single-walled carbon nanotubes, show a gloved hand scraping the inside of a bowlful of SWNTs resembling sooty cobwebs with what appears to be a kitchen spatula. Another slide showed a pile of charcoal-like chunks of unrefined multiwalled nanotubes, sitting on a metal tray in open air — one of 200 such trays at the site, Geraci noted. sing NIOSH’s "Nanotechnology Emission Assessment Technique" (NEAT), suggested 1200-19,000 particles/cm3 — levels that would make "a Class 100 cleanroom manager fall over" but can be acceptable for some operations. One site adapted a welding fume collector for its furnaces and "significantly reduced" worker exposure, he noted. Geraci also acknowledged that HEPA filters are "very good at capturing nano-sized particles," thanks to diffusion patterns.

Risk characterization is a big deal at NIOSH as well. The group has a new draft about the limits of ultrafine TiO2 (0.2mg/m3), beyond which are elevated risks of inflammation and tumors. A soon-to-be-released report is coming on the current state of CNTs, he said.

(Source: Geraci/NIOSH)

Northeastern’s Jackie Isaacs listed various US government agencies and what they’re doing for nanotech, e.g. EPA, FDA, CDSA, and of course the CDC/NIOSH. Some had very little info at all, surprisingly. For this talk’s purpose, a question was, what is the end-of-life for a carbon nanotube switch (NAND flash replacement) in cell phones? Assume the phones either get reused, or end up in landfills or strategically incinerated — facilities for the latter almost certainly have no filters capable of capturing CNTs, she pointed out, so it’s feasible that 6-50g of CNTs would end up in landfills nationwide. (Note above, NIOSH’s determination that 0.2mg of TiO2 is the risk threshold.) Isaacs also discussed cost-modeling, e.g. for SWNT HiPco production, of ~$450/g up to $650/g.

A highlight of the Destination Nano sessions was former US house member and current UMass-Lowell Chancellor Marty Meehan, announcing a partnership between the CHN and NIOSH to jointly address evaluate potential exposure to nanomaterials and recommend solutions for small- and medium-sized companies and research labs. NIOSH also will publish best practices from UMass Lowell prof. Michael Ellenbecker and CHN’s EHS manager Candace Tsai. Meehan also noted that UMass-Lowell will host the biennial International Symposium on Nanotechnology, Occupational and Environmental Health, to be in Boston Aug. 9-12 2011. (They’re now accepting abstracts, if you want to get involved.)

"Without strong partnerships in academia and the private sector, it would be very difficult to achieve our primary mission of protecting worker and human health by providing good risk management guidance to the nanomaterials industry," according to NIOSH’s Geraci, in a prepared statement. "Our partnership with the CHN strengthens those links and our history of working with UMass Lowell offers distinct advantages."

(September 30, 2010 – PRNewswire) — A revolutionary new spherical nanostructure, fully derived from very simple organic elements, yet strong as steel, has been developed and characterized at the laboratories of Ehud Gazit of Tel Aviv University and Itay Rousso of the Weizmann Institute of Science. Lightweight and exceptionally strong, easy and inexpensive to produce, friendly to the environment and biologically compatible, these promising bio-inspired nano-spheres have innumerable potential uses – from durable composite materials to medical implants.

The researchers, Prof. Gazit, Dr. Lihi Adler-Abramovich and Inbal Yanai from TAU’s Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, working in collaboration with Dr. Itay Rousso and Nitzan Kol from the Weizmann Institute and David Barlam and Roni Shneck of Ben-Gurion University, used a simple dipeptide, consisting of only two amino acids, to form spherical nanostructures. Self-assembling under ambient conditions — without any heating or manipulation — this remarkable new material is the first bio-inspired nano-material known to date that is mechanically equal and even superior to many metallic substances. While demonstrating chemical properties similar to those of the ultra-rigid Kevlar(R) polymer, already used for bulletproof vests, the new substance is built from much simpler building blocks, enabling some important advantages: manipulation and deposition at the nano-scale, the fabrication of nano-materials of tubular, spherical and other geometries, and spontaneous formation by self-assembly. Here, indeed is a perfect building block for numerous applications.

Hard and strong as steel, this new nanostructure is an ideal element for the reinforcement of composite materials used in the space, aviation and transportation industries; biologically compatible yet extremely rigid and durable, it is an excellent candidate for replacing metallic implants; tough, light and impenetrable, it is an exceptional option for manufacturing bullet-proof vests.

The work was recently published in Angewandte Chemie.

The new nanotechnology development now emerging from Tel Aviv University is based on extensive research which began in Prof. Gazit’s laboratory in 2003. In an earlier achievement, the team was able to fabricate tubular nanostructures that assemble themselves into vast "forests" featuring exceptional mechanical and physical properties. This earlier work, based on the doctoral thesis of Dr. Lihi Adler-Abramovich, and published in 2009 in Nature Nanotechnology, may eventually generate self-cleaning windows and solar panels, as well as supreme energy storage devices with exceptionally high energy density.

The original paper can be found here: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/anie.201002037 

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(September 30, 2010) — Research in China put out this new report chronicling the advanced semiconductor packaging industry happenings and key companies from 2009 to 2010. The study mainly focuses on CSP and BGA packaging. Technology adoption and costs are analyzed, from eWLB and other wafer-level packaging (WLP) techs to TSV.

Advanced packaging is mainly applied in mobile phone, CPU, GPU, Chipset, digital camera, digital video camera, and FPTV, of which mobile phone sectors use advanced packaging the most, since an average of approximately 12-18 pieces of IC in every mobile phone is in need of advanced packaging. Mobile telecom shapes the advanced packaging market of almost 18 billion pieces; followed by computer CPU, GPU and Chipset whose unit price and gross profit are far higher than that of mobile phone IC packaging despite the smaller quantity.

In 2010, the global packaging & testing industry will have an output value of nearly $46.15 billion, among which, the IDM sector enjoys $24.01 billion, and the outsourcing semiconductor assembly & testing providers (OSATs) occupy $22.14 billion. The proportion of world’s packaging & testing industry in the output value of global semiconductor industry climbed to 18.1% in 2009 from 17.5% in 2004, and it can promisingly reach 19.5% by 2013. The packaging and test industry has become increasingly important in semiconductor fab. The output value of packaging and test worldwide in 2010 will rise 22.8% or so from 2009 and the growth margin of SATS is close to 30.5%. In particular, advanced packaging providers will experience an even higher average growth of about 36.5%, the highest level since 2000.
 
QFN
Take the baseband MT6253, a highly integrated IC of MediaTek, as an example. If it adopts MediaTek’s consistent TFBGA packaging, the packaging area will be around 14mm2 with poor EMI/ESD performance and heat dissipation. So, MediaTek seeks help from ASE Inc., which developed a QFN package that reduced the area to 11.5mm2, with material cost of QFN packaging leadframe only one-third that of the BGA. In fact, cooperating with Mitsui in patent, ASE Inc. started R&D in 2007Q3, purchased machines from 2007Q4 and accomplished verification in 2008Q3. However, the pitch of aQFN packaging is relatively small, creating trouble for SMT assembly houses in China, resulting in the low yield rate at the initial stage. The yield rate has been much improved after considerable effort. MT6516, the mobile phone baseband of MediaTek, has a pitch of only 0.378mm, far smaller than that of MT6253.

WLCSP
In 2008, Infineon launched PMB8810, using eWLB packaging provided by STATS ChipPAC Ltd. eWLB, embedded wafer level packaging, is an upgraded version of wafer-level chipscale packaging (WLCSP), with a package size of 8mm2. As a small, highly integrated baseband processor, it also favors 6-layer PCB and reduces cost. LG has largely adopted PMB8810, e.g. GU230, T310, T300, GD350, GB220, and GS170; so have Samsung’s S3350 and Nokia. The global shipment of PMB8810 in 2009 hit 35 million.

TSV
The popular through-silicon via (TSV) technology is making slow progress. TSV has to solve quite a few technical problems and holds high cost against still immature technology and no unified standards, 3-5x higher than that of SoC or SiP designs of the same function or performance. TSV memory, originally anticipated to mushroom in 2010, failed to make its debut so far and it is predicted to be rolled out massively in 2011, while the Logic +Memory type TSV IC emerged roughly 1-3 years later than expected with not-so-large application numbers. In the future, TSV will be still primarily applied in CMOS image sensor and stack memory. Fan-Out WLCSP packaging starts to stand out conspicuously in 2010.

Packaging company ranks
In regard to industry, ASE Inc. (an average of 2-3 acquisitions per annum), the global No.1 packaging & test company, purchased 59% equities of Universal Scientific Industrial Co., Ltd. (USI) for nearly TWD13.5 billion in February 2010 and the shareholding ratio of ASE Inc. reached 77%. USI is the downstream manufacturer of ASE Inc.’s clients, and after the acquisition, ASE Inc. has further stabilized the orders, the estimated main business revenue in 2010 will see a growth close to 50%. In August 2010, ASE Inc. invested $67.68 million to acquire Singapore’s EEMS, intensifying its strength in test business. In December 2009, the global No.2 LCD packaging & test company Chipbond acquired International Semiconductor Technology Ltd. to become the world’s largest LCD packaging & test enterprise, and the revenue of Chipbond will experience a growth of 165.8% in 2010. At the end of December 2009, Unimicron officially amalgamated with Camel Precision Co., Ltd., and its revenue in 2010 is predicted to witness a growth margin of 142.6%, and it will climb to the global No.3 IC substrate manufacturer from the current 5th position worldwide. Subordinated to Samsung, South Korean STS Semiconductor has flooded into logic IC packaging & test field from memory packaging & test, and its revenue is expected to see a growth margin of 130.2% in 2010.

The full report includes a discussion of the status quo and future of IC advanced packaging, covering SOP, QFP & LQFP, FBGA, TEBGA, FC-BGA, WLCSP, Fan-out WLCSP (FOWLCSP), and more. It covers the global, and particularly China, semiconductor industry and wafer foundries. Features cover the future of copper wire bonding, horizontal package type comparisons, analysis of the industry and downstream markets, and top companies.

Advanced packaging companies covered by the study include Greatek Electronics; Formosa Advanced Technologies Co., Ltd. (FATC); Powertech Technology Inc. (PTI); ChipMOS TECHNOLOGIES (Bermuda) LTD. (ChipMOS); King Yuan Electronics Co., Ltd. (KYEC); Amkor; Siliconware Precision Industries Co., Ltd. (SPIL); STATS ChipPAC Ltd.; Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc. (ASE Inc.); Kinsus Interconnect Technology Corp.; Nan Ya PCB Corporation; Unimicron; Camel Precision Co., Ltd.; IBIDEN; Shinko Electric Industries Co., Ltd.; Nepes; STS Semiconductor; SEMCO; Jiangsu Changjiang Electronics Technology Co., Ltd (JCET); Unisem; CARSEM; Nantong Fujitsu Microelectronics Co., Ltd.; and Chipbond Technology Corporation (Chipbond).

The report can be ordered from provider Electronics.Ca Publications at http://www.electronics.ca/publications/products/Global-and-China-Advanced-Packaging-Industry-Report%2C-2009%252d2010.html

Also read the recently released NVR report on the global IC packaging market.

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