Category Archives: Metrology

SEMI, the industry association representing the global manufacturing supply chain, today announced postponement of SEMICON Southeast Asia from 8-10 May 2018 to 22-24 May 2018. The postponement avoids a timing conflict with the recently announced Malaysian election planned for 9 May 2018. The venue for SEMICON Southeast Asia, the newly constructed Malaysia International Trade and Exhibition Centre (MITEC), remains unchanged

The postponement is in respect to Malaysian exhibitors and visitors to exercise their right to vote, said Ng Kai Fai, President of SEMI Southeast Asia. The decision was made in view of the election date and following discussions with SEMICON Southeast Asia stakeholders.

“We highly value and respect the country’s election process, which is very important for Malaysia and Malaysians,” Kai Fai said. “We also want to ensure that SEMICON Southeast Asia achieves its primary objective of forming connections and collaborations for exhibitors and visitors, both regionally and globally. We have received very strong support from our stakeholders and are confident and reassured that this will be the largest SEMICON Southeast Asia show to date.”

 

Research included in the April Update to the 2018 edition of IC Insights’ McClean Report shows that the world’s leading semiconductor suppliers significantly increased their marketshare over the past decade. The top-5 semiconductor suppliers accounted for 43% of the world’s semiconductor sales in 2017, an increase of 10 percentage points from 10 years earlier (Figure 1).  In total, the 2017 top-50 suppliers represented 88% of the total $444.7 billion worldwide semiconductor market last year, up 12 percentage points from the 76% share the top 50 companies held in 2007.

2e775855-14c8-463e-883d-ead33f35beb6

Figure 1

As shown, the top 5, top 10, and top 25 companies’ share of the 2017 worldwide semiconductor market each increased from 10-12 percentage points over the past decade.  With the surge in mergers and acquisitions expected to continue over the next few years (e.g., Qualcomm and NXP), IC Insights believes that consolidation will raise the shares of the top suppliers to even loftier levels.

As shown in Figure 2, Japan’s total presence and influence in the IC marketplace has waned significantly since 1990, with its IC marketshare (not including foundries) residing at only 7% in 2017.  Once-prominent Japanese names missing from the top IC suppliers list are NEC, Hitachi, Mitsubishi, and Matsushita. Competitive pressures from South Korean IC suppliers—especially in the memory market—have certainly played a significant role in changing the look of the IC marketshare figures over the past 27 years. Moreover, depending on the outcome of the sale of Toshiba’s NAND flash division, the Japanese-companies’ share of the IC market could fall even further from its already low level.

Figure 2

Figure 2

With strong competition reducing the number of Japanese IC suppliers, the loss of its vertically integrated businesses, missing out on supplying ICs for several high-volume end-use applications, and its collective shift toward the fab-lite IC business model, Japan has greatly reduced its investment in new semiconductor wafer fabs and equipment.  In fact, Japanese companies accounted for only 5% of total semiconductor industry capital expenditures in 2017 (two points less than the share of the IC market they held last year), a long way from the 51% share of spending they represented in 1990.

The 2018 Symposia on VLSI Technology & Circuits will deliver a unique perspective into the technological ecosystem of converging industry trends – machine learning, IoT, artificial intelligence, wearable/implantable biomedical applications, big data, and cloud computing – the emerging technologies needed for ‘smart living.’ In a weeklong conference packed with technical presentations, a demonstration session, panel discussions, focus sessions, short courses, and a new “Friday Forum” on machine learning, the microelectronics industry’s premiere international conference covers technology, circuits, and systems with a range and scope unlike any other conference.

Built around the theme of “Technology, Circuits & Systems for Smart Living,” the Symposia programintegrates advanced technology developments, innovative circuit design, and the applications that they enable as part of our global society’s adoption of smart, connected devices and systems that change the way humans interact with each other.

Plenary Sessions (June 19):
The Symposia will open with two technology plenary sessions, including “Memory Technology: The Core to Enable Future Computing Systems” by Scott DeBoer, executive VP for technology development, Micron; and “Revolutionizing Cancer Genomic Medicine by Artificial Intelligence & Supercomputing with Big Data” by Satoru Miyano, director of the Human Genome Center, Institute of Medical Science at University of Tokyo.

The following Circuits plenary sessions include “Hardware-Enabled Artificial Intelligence” by Dr. Bill Dally, chief scientist & senior VP, Nvidia; and “Semiconductor Technologies Accelerate Our Future Vision: ‘ANSHIN Platform'” by Tsuneo Komatsuzaki, advisor, SECOM.

Focus Sessions (June 19, 20 & 21):
As part of the Symposia’s ongoing program integration, a series of joint focus sessions will be held to present contributed papers from the Technology and Circuits Symposia on June 20 and 21. Topics will include: “Heterogeneous System Integration,” “Power Devices & Circuits,” “New Devices & Systems for AI,” and “Design & Technology Co-Optimization (DTCO) in Advanced CMOS Technology.”

On June 19, the Technology focus sessions will include: “Back-End Compatible Devices & Advanced Thermal Management“ and “Sensors and Devices for IoT, Medicine, & Smart Living.” The Circuits focus sessions, held on June 21, include “Machine Learning Circuits & SoCs,” and “Advanced Wireline Techniques.”

Evening Panel Sessions (June 18 & 19):
A joint panel discussion, bringing together leading experts from Technology & Circuits programs will be held June 18 to answer the question, “Is the CPU Dying or Dead? Are Accelerators the Future of Computation?”

As Moore’s Law slows down and processor architecture innovations move away from single thread performance, the future of computing seems to be moving away from the general purpose CPU. Is the era of the CPU over? Will future CPUs simply coordinate activity among accelerators and other specialized processing units? The panel will examine future computing workloads as well as the innovative technology and circuit solutions that enable them, from moving computation closer to memory, and developing bio-inspired systems.

The Technology evening panel session panel discussion, held on June 19 will examine “Storage Class Memories: Who Cares? DRAM is Scaling Fine, NAND Stacking is Great.” Memory – DRAM and NAND scaling – though difficult, has persisted due to rapid innovations and continued engineering. Although there are new economic and fundamental challenges posed to continued memory scaling, a new class of memories – Storage Class memories, appears to bridge the latency gap that exists in the memory hierarchy and promises to improve system performance. Now the real question becomes – who really cares now? System architects, DRAM/NAND manufacturers? End users? The panel will discuss the challenges and opportunities of storage class memories in the environment where DRAM and NAND scaling continue.

The question to be addressed by the Circuits evening panel session, also held on June 19, is “What’s The Next Big Thing After Smartphones?” Although smartphones have driven the industry for more than a decade, the pace of innovation is slowing, and market saturation is occurring. What will be the next big thing? The Internet of Things? Automotive electronics? Virtual reality? Something else? A set of panelists with diverse expertise will discuss the possibilities.

Thursday Luncheon (June 21):
Continuing the Symposia’s tradition of thought-provoking presentations centered around the conference theme is the Thursday luncheon talk, entitled “The Hardware of The Mind, from Turing to Today,” by Grady Booch, chief scientist for software engineering at IBM Research. As scientists continue to the computing power of the human mind, they strive to bridge the gap between the physicality of silicon and the exquisite wonder of the brain. This presentation examines the journey of the hardware of the mind – from the Iliad, to da Vinci, to Edison, to Turing, to today – including an examination of how the growing understanding of the brain transforms the engineering of silicon, and how the laws of physics as well as the laws of humanity constrain that journey.

Full Day Short Courses (June 18):
The Technology Short Course – “Device & Integration Technologies for Sub-5nm CMOS & the Next Wave of Computing” will cover a range of topics, including CMOS technology beyond the 5nm node, MOL/BEOL interconnects, atomic-level analysis for FinFET & Nanowire design, 3D integration for image sensors, neuromorphic AI hardware, memory technologies for AI/machine learning, and sensors & analog devices for next generation computing.

The first Circuits Short Course – “Designing for the Next Wave of Cloud Computing” will address advanced computer architectures, GPU applications and FPGA acceleration, the evolution of memory and in-memory computation, and advanced packaging, power delivery and cooling for cloud computing, as well as the impact of quantum computing.

The second Circuits Short Course – “Bio-Sensors, Circuits & Systems for Wearable & Implantable Medical Devices” will cover circuits and systems for mobile healthcare, analog front-ends for bio-sensors, digital phenotyping using wearable sensors, bi-directional neural interfacing, body-area networking and body-coupled communications, ultrasound-on-a-chip, as well as a CMOS-based implantable retinal prosthesis.

Demonstration Session (June 18):
Following a successful launch last year in Kyoto, the popular demonstration session will again be part of the Symposia program, providing participants an opportunity for in-depth interaction with authors of selected papers from both Technology and Circuits sessions. These demonstrations will illustrate technological concepts and analyses through table-top presentations that show device characterization, chip operational results, and potential applications for circuit-level innovations.

Friday Forum (June 22):
New to the Symposia program this year will be the Friday Forum – a full-day series of presentations focusing on how technology and circuit designers engage in and drive the future of AI/machine learning systems, a subject area that continues to evolve as an impactful driver of the integrated systems that are part of the Symposia’s “Smart Living” theme. “Machine Learning Today & Tomorrow: A Technology, Circuits & Systems View” will provide the foundations and performance metrics for machine learning systems, an examination of advanced and emerging circuit architectures for next-generation systems, as well as highlighting tools and datasets for benchmarking and evaluating service-oriented architecture (SoA) machine learning systems.

The annual Symposium on VLSI Technology & Circuits will be held at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Honolulu, Hawaii from June 18-22, 2018, with Short Courses held on June 18 and a special Friday Forum dedicated to machine learning/AI topics on June 22. The two conferences have been held together since 1987, providing an opportunity for the world’s top device technologists, circuit and system designers to exchange leading edge research on microelectronics technology, with alternating venues between Hawaii and Japan. A single registration enables participants to attend both Symposia.

GLOBALFOUNDRIES Inc. (GF) and Toppan Photomasks, Inc. (TPI) today announced a multi-year extension to their Advanced Mask Technology Center (AMTC) joint venture in Dresden, Germany. Opened in 2002, the AMTC provides GF’s fabs in Dresden, Malta and Singapore with high-end production and development masks at world-class cycle times in support of the foundry’s ambitious technology roadmap. The AMTC also supports TPI customers worldwide from Dresden.

Owned equally by TPI and GF, the AMTC joint venture was previously extended in 2012 to further increase tool capability and capacity. This new extension to the agreement aims to continue the current charter for manufacturing production masks as well as developing mask technology for ever smaller geometries. GF is both TPI’s partner in the joint venture and a strategic and critical customer, while TPI is GF’s preferred mask supplier, leveraging AMTC and TPI’s global manufacturing network to support GF’s worldwide operations.

The AMTC provides one of the most essential and complex elements in the semiconductor manufacturing process, which puts the latest technology innovations at consumers’ fingertips.

Since its inception, the output of AMTC has grown continuously with growth rates exceeding 10 percent in recent years. Sizeable investments have enabled the AMTC to keep up with the rapid technological developments and challenges of this dynamic market sector; in 2017 alone more than 100 million euros (US$124 million) were invested.

“From computing to communication, and from automotive to medtech – our dual roadmap allows us to provide innovative technologies for the benefit of our customers around the world,” said Geoff Akiki, World Wide Mask Operations Executive at GF. “Regardless if they choose FD-SOI with its focus on energy efficiency or FinFET with its focus on high performance, both require leading-edge lithographic masks. AMTC is a great partner and provider of those masks. We are especially pleased that the experience of AMTC will be fully utilized to support us at the leading edge of chip technology.”

“Having been in place for more than 15 years, this joint venture is one of the lengthiest in the mask industry,” said Mike Hadsell, TPI CEO. “This is a testament to the synergy and commitment of the partners, as well as the strength of the AMTC and Toppan Dresden team members. AMTC is truly a best-of-breed effort that has provided high-quality masks to TPI’s customer base, both in Europe and globally.”

“AMTC was founded with a mission to be its customers’ first choice for photomasks. To achieve this goal, our experienced and dedicated team pursues cost-effective and timely manufacturing of high-quality masks for multiple nodes. In the process, the partners have continued to strengthen their relationship while allowing AMTC to serve as a valuable resource for our demanding global customer base,” noted Thomas Schmidt, AMTC’s general manager. “AMTC was established to support AMD’s microprocessor production in Dresden at the 65nm/90nm node. We have moved way beyond that and are looking beyond the current 14nm node.”

AMTC was founded in 2002 by AMD, Infineon Technologies and DuPont Photomasks, which became TPI in 2005. Subsequently, GF and TPI became the ownership partners in 2009. AMTC has seen a cumulative investment of more than US$600 million since 2002. The mask facility employs more than 250 engineers and other specialists. The company is currently expanding its team.

By Jamie Girard, Sr. Director, Public Policy, SEMI

Although many months past due, Congress on March 23 finalized the federal spending for the remainder of fiscal year (FY) 2018, only hours before a what would have been the third government shutdown of the year. Congressional spending has been allocated in fits and starts since the end of FY 2017 last September, with patchwork deals keeping things running amid pervasive uncertainty. While this clearly isn’t an ideal way to fund the federal government, the end result will make many in the business of research and development pleased with the addition of more resources for science and innovation.

There was grave concern over the future of federal spending with the release of the president’s FY 2018 budget, which would have cut the National Science Foundation (NSF) budget by 11 percent and National Institutes of Standards & Technology (NIST) spending by 30 percent. Relief came with early drafts from Congress that whittled those cuts down to between 2-9 percent. But the real boost was a February bipartisan Congressional agreement that lifted self-imposed spending caps and introduced a generous dose of non-defense discretionary spending, increasing NSF spending 3.9 percent over the previous year and the NIST budget an astounding 25.9 percent over FY 2017 levels.

SEMI applauds this much-needed support for basic research and development (R&D) at these agencies after their budgets were cut or flat-funded for multiple cycles. It is well understood that federal R&D funding is critical to U.S. competitiveness and future economic prosperity. With the stakes that high, full funding of R&D programs at the NSF and NIST should be a bipartisan national priority backed by a strong and united community of stakeholders and advocates in the business, professional, research, and education communities.

With the work for FY 2018 completed, Congress will now turn to FY 2019 spending – already behind schedule due to the belated completion of the previous year’s budget. With 2018 an election year, Congress will likely begin work on the FY 2019 budget in short order, but probably won’t complete its work prior to the November elections.  SEMI will continue to work with lawmakers to support the R&D budgets at the agencies and their important basic science research. If you’d like to know how you can be more involved with SEMI’s public policy work, please contact Jamie Girard, Sr. Director, Public Policy at [email protected].

SEMI, the global association representing the worldwide electronics manufacturing supply chain, today reported that worldwide sales of semiconductor manufacturing equipment totaled $56.6 billion in 2017, a year-over-year increase of 37 percent from 2016 sales of $41.24 billion. The data are available in the Worldwide Semiconductor Equipment Market Statistics (WWSEMS) Report, now available from SEMI.

Korea claimed the largest market for new semiconductor equipment for the first time, shattering all previous regional spending records with $17.95 billion in equipment sales. Taiwan fell to the second position with sales of $11.49 billion. Annual spending rates increased for South Korea, Europe, China, Japan and North America. However, new equipment markets in Taiwan and Rest of World (primarily Southeast Asia) contracted.

Equipment sales to China increased 27 percent as the region maintained the third largest market position for the second year in a row. The 2017 equipment markets in Japan and North America held onto fourth and fifth places, respectively, while the Europe market rose in the rankings to the sixth spot. The global other front-end segment increased 40 percent; the wafer processing equipment market segment rose 39 percent; the assembly and packaging segment jumped 29 percent; and total test equipment sales increased 27 percent.

Compiled from data submitted by members of SEMI and the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ), the Worldwide SEMS Report is a summary of the monthly billings figures for the global semiconductor equipment industry. Categories cover wafer processing, assembly and packaging, test, and other front-end equipment. Other front-end includes mask/reticle manufacturing, wafer manufacturing, and fab facilities equipment.

Semiconductor Capital Equipment Market by World Region (2016-2017)
2017
2016
% Change
South Korea
17.95
7.69
133%
Taiwan
11.49
12.23
-6%
China
8.23
6.46
27%
Japan
6.49
4.63
40%
North America
5.59
4.49
24%
Europe
3.67
2.18
68%
Rest of World
3.20
3.55
-10%
Total
56.62
41.24
37%

Source: SEMI/SEAJ April 2018

Note: Summed subtotals may not equal the total due to rounding.

The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), representing U.S. leadership in semiconductor manufacturing, design, and research, today announced worldwide sales of semiconductors reached $36.8 billion for the month of February 2018, an increase of 21.0 percent compared to the February 2017 total of $30.4 billion. Global sales in February were 2.2 percent lower than the January 2018 total of $37.6 billion, reflecting typical seasonal market trends. All monthly sales numbers are compiled by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization and represent a three-month moving average.

“The global semiconductor market continued to demonstrate substantial and consistent growth in February, notching its 19th consecutive month of year-to-year sales increases and growing by double-digit percentages across all major regional markets,” said John Neuffer, president and CEO, Semiconductor Industry Association. “The Americas stood out once again, with sales increasing nearly 40 percent compared to last year, and sales were up year-to-year across all major semiconductor product categories.”

Year-to-year sales increased significantly across all regions: the Americas (37.7 percent), Europe (21.7 percent), China (16.4 percent), Asia Pacific/All Other (16.2 percent), and Japan (15.5 percent). Month-to-month sales increased slightly in Europe (0.9 percent), but fell somewhat in Japan (-0.9 percent), Asia Pacific/All Other (-1.5 percent), China (-2.6 percent), and the Americas (-4.3 percent).

For comprehensive monthly semiconductor sales data and detailed WSTS Forecasts, consider purchasing the WSTS Subscription Package. For detailed data on the global and U.S. semiconductor industry and market, consider purchasing the 2017 SIA Databook.

Feb 2018

Billions

Month-to-Month Sales                              

Market

Last Month

Current Month

% Change

Americas

8.63

8.26

-4.3%

Europe

3.40

3.43

0.9%

Japan

3.21

3.18

-0.9%

China

12.01

11.70

-2.6%

Asia Pacific/All Other

10.35

10.19

-1.5%

Total

37.60

36.75

-2.2%

Year-to-Year Sales                         

Market

Last Year

Current Month

% Change

Americas

6.00

8.26

37.7%

Europe

2.82

3.43

21.7%

Japan

2.75

3.18

15.5%

China

10.05

11.70

16.4%

Asia Pacific/All Other

8.77

10.19

16.2%

Total

30.38

36.75

21.0%

Three-Month-Moving Average Sales

Market

Sep/Oct/Nov

Dec/Jan/Feb

% Change

Americas

8.77

8.26

-5.8%

Europe

3.42

3.43

0.1%

Japan

3.21

3.18

-1.0%

China

11.90

11.70

-1.7%

Asia Pacific/All Other

10.39

10.19

-1.9%

Total

37.69

36.75

-2.5%

 

The semiconductor industry closed out 2017 in blockbuster fashion, posting the highest year-over-year growth in 14 years. Global semiconductor revenue grew 21.7 percent, reaching $429.1 billion in 2017, according to IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO).

Recording year-over-year growth of 53.6 percent, and its highest semiconductor revenue ever, Samsung replaced Intel as the new market leader of the semiconductor industry in 2017. Intel was followed by SK Hynix, in third position.

“2017 was quite a memorable year,” said Shaun Teevens, semiconductor supply chain analyst, IHS Markit. “Alongside record industry growth, Intel, which had led the market for 25 years, was supplanted by Samsung as the leading semiconductor supplier in the world.”

Among the top 20 semiconductor suppliers, SK Hynix and Micron enjoyed the largest year-over-year revenue growth, growing 81.2 percent and 79.7 percent, respectively. “A very favorable memory market with strong demand and high prices was mainly responsible for the strong growth of these companies,” Teevens said.

Qualcomm remained the top fabless company in 2017, followed by nVidia, which moved into the second position, after growing 42.3 percent over the previous year. Among the top 20 fabless companies, MLS enjoyed the highest market share gain, moving from number 20 to number 15 in the IHS Markit revenue ranking.

Figure 1

Figure 1

Memory was the strongest industry category

Memory integrated circuits proved to be the strongest industry category, growing 60.8 percent in 2017 compared to the previous year. Within the category, DRAM grew 76.7 percent and NAND grew 46.6 percent — the highest growth rate for both memory subcategories in 10 years. Much of the revenue increase was based on higher prices and increased demand for memory chips, relative to tight supply.

“The technology transition from planar 2D NAND to 3D NAND drove the market into an unbalanced supply-demand environment in 2017, driving prices higher throughout the year,” said Craig Stice, senior director, memory and storage, IHS Markit. “Entering 2018, the 3D NAND transition is now almost three-quarters of the total bit percent of production, and it is projected to provide supply relief for the strong demand coming from the SSD and mobile markets. Prices are expected to begin to decline aggressively, but 2018 could still be a record revenue year for the NAND market.”

Excluding memory, the remainder of the semiconductor industry grew 9.9 percent last year, largely due to solid unit-sales growth and strong demand across all applications, regions and technologies. Notably, semiconductors used for data processing applications expanded 33.4 percent by year-end. Intel remained the market leader in this category, with sales almost two times larger than second-ranked Samsung.

 

More than Moore (MtM) wafer demand reached almost 45 million 8-inch eq wafers in 2017. The wafer demand is expected to reach more than 66 million 8-inch eq. wafers by 2023, with an almost 10% CAGR between 2017 and 2023. According to Yole Développement (Yole)’s definition, the MtM applications include MEMS & sensors, CIS , and power, along with RF devices.

For the first time, the market research and strategy consulting company Yole announces a global technology & market analysis dedicated to the MtM industry. The Wafer Starts for More Than Moore Applications report is the first part of a valuable series that will be released all year long.

“Yole’s analysts are part of the powerful semiconductor community”, explains Emilie Jolivet, Director, Semiconductor and Software at Yole. “Their daily interactions with leading companies allow them to collect a large amount of relevant data and cross their vision of market segments’ evolution and technology breakthroughs. Wafer Starts for More Than Moore Applications report is the first opportunity to get an overview of the MtM industry based on a 20-year expertise.”

“Numerous megatrend market drivers will contribute to MtM devices’ growth”, confirms Amandine Pizzagalli, Technology & Market Analyst, Semiconductor Manufacturing at Yole. “The megatrends are covering the following market segments: 5G including wireless infrastructure & mobile, mobile with additional functionalities, voice processing, smart automotive, AR/VR and AI.”

What is the status of the MtM wafer demand? Which market drivers will contribute to the growth of MtM devices? Which semiconductor substrate materials and wafer diameter dominate the MtM industry today? What are Yole’s expectations for the next 5 years? The analysts propose you a comprehensive analysis of the MtM wafer demand market.

Driven by the increasing deployment of renewable energy sources , and industrial motor drives, as well as the growing EV/HEVs industry, power devices’ wafer market size will grow at an almost 13% CAGR from 2017 to 2023. In 2017, it accounted for more than 60% of overall MtM wafer starts. According to Yole’s analysts, it will continue dominating the MtM industry.

In parallel, 5G, a hot topic today, will likely be a huge part of the MtM evolution, bringing any service to any user anywhere, but also requiring new antennas, along with filtering functionality. These stringent requirements will lead to increasing demand for RF components like RF filters, PAs , and LNAs to ensure access to tomorrow’s radio network.

Meanwhile, the demand for advanced mobile applications that integrate more functionalities will require aggregating more and more devices such as fingerprint sensors, ambient light sensors, 3D sensing, microphones, and inertial MEMS devices. This will, in the near future, contribute to strong wafer growth in the MEMS & sensors wafer market. Additionally, smart automobiles have reached a new level of complexity requiring the development and integration of new sensors. As such, Yole expects smart automobiles to drive consistent growth of CIS and sensor wafer production over the next five years, fueled by the expanding integration of high-value sensing modules like radar, imaging, and LiDAR. Although automotive will be mainly supported by these growth areas, classical MEMS & sensors such as MEMS pressure sensors and inertial MEMS will still continue growing at a reasonable rate, supporting the standard automotive world.

Yole’s investigations are based on numerous discussions with leading semiconductor players. Applied Materials Inc. is part of them. Amandine Pizzagalli recently had the opportunity to debate with Mike Rosa, Head of Marketing, 200mm Equipment Products Group (EPG) at Applied Materials. During this discussion, both exchanged their vision of the MtM industry and its evolution.

“Today, while many of these technologies exist on 200mm and below wafer sizes much of this business falls within the purview of the 200mm Equipment Product Group”, explains Mike Rosa from Applied Materials. “With the exception of Power Bipolar-CMOS-DMOS (BCD) and some Discretes, 2.5D Interposer, CMOS Image Sensors and some Photonics devices in the market – all other technologies in the MtM segment are manufactured on 200mm and 150mm wafer sizes today. So, to support our customers on current and future wafer size requirements, we work across the company to share the domain knowledge acquired, for example in the 200mm group on MEMS or Discrete Power, with the 300mm group in order to ensure continuity of technology development onto the larger wafer sizes.”

The full interview is available on i-micronews.com, semiconductor manufacturing news or click Here.

In terms of wafer size, the MtM wafer market is dominated by the 6-inch wafer format, followed by the 8-inch size, which is mostly supported by power device applications. However, though 6-inch will continue increasing in the next few years, its share will decrease compared to 8-inch. “We expect 8-inch wafer diameter to progress significantly and surpass the 6-inch wafer size by 2023”, explains Amandine Pizzagalli from Yole. And she adds: “This transition will be driven first by power and MEMS & sensor applications, where the vast majority will convert their components from 6-inch to 8-inch over the next five years due to increasing volume production.”

Nevertheless, 12-inch will represent the fastest growth from 2017 to 2023, with a 15% CAGR. The 12-inch wafer demand should also grow from 3.3 million units in 2017 to 7.5 million in 2023, mainly fueled by BSI CIS (Including 3D stacked BSI, 3D hybrid BSI).

On the other side, 4-inch wafer diameter is in large demand today for MtM applications driven by RF SAW filter products. However, 4-inch’s adoption will decrease due to the transition from 4-inch to 6-inch for these applications. Yole still sees some MtM products manufactured in wafer sizes below 4-inch, i.e. 3-inch and 2-inch wafer formats. However, these represent a very small volume, and the analysts expect such sizes to die out, aside from small volumes still used for producing MEMS, power, and RF SAW devices.

The Wafer Starts for More Than Moore Applications report is the first research performed by Yole’s analysts, gathering all the wafer starts markets for MtM applications. Yole’s market forecast methodology is based on both top bottom and a bottom up approach with dozens of interviews of companies across the entire semiconductor value chain. With this report, the company proposes an assessment of the wafers market for MEMS & Sensors, CIS, power and RF devices. This analysis reveals the market metrics at wafer market level for the whole MtM industry from 2017-2023. It evaluates market developments in terms of market size, substrate sizes/formats, and by MtM application.

Yole’s report also discloses the competitive landscape with key players in technology development and manufacturing. A detailed analysis of the key market drivers that will shape the MtM market in the future are also part of this technology & market report.

ON Semiconductor (Nasdaq: ON) today announced it has recognized 20 companies with supplier excellence awards. Selected from among the company’s extensive list of preferred global suppliers, the 2017 award winners represent partners who have demonstrated a deep commitment to ensuring high quality and supply continuity in an evolving semiconductor market.

elected from more than 3,000 active production suppliers, the finalists gathered for a two-day awards event and executive conference in Hong Kong, China, with the focus of anticipating the future of semiconductor growth and accelerating customer needs.

“As a top 20 global semiconductor design and manufacturing company, ON Semiconductor creates innovative semiconductor and general electronic component solutions to solve our customers’ design challenges and reduce their time to market,” said Jeffrey Wincel, vice president and chief procurement officer at ON Semiconductor. “All the suppliers recognized today demonstrated a similar commitment to collaboration and partnership. These strong relationships are key in delivering on our business strategy, including the areas of product innovation, customer satisfaction and growth.”

Full list of award winners:

Front End (FE) Direct Material Supplier: Konfoong Materials International Company, LTD.
Back End (BE) Direct Material Supplier: Chang Wah Technology Co., Ltd.
FE Site Supplier: Plansee SE
BE Site Supplier: KETECA Singapore (Pte) Ltd
BE External Manufacturing: King Yuan Electronics Co. Ltd.
FE External Manufacturing: JiangYin ChangDian Advanced Packaging Co., LTD
Corporate Services Supplier: DHL Supply Chain
Technology Leader Award: Mentor Graphics
BE Subcon Quality Award: GEM Services, Inc.
BE Perfect Quality Award: Indium Corporation
BE Perfect Quality Award: Henkel
FE Perfect Quality Platinum Award: Shin-Etsu Handotai Co., Ltd
FE Perfect Quality Platinum Award: Brewer Science, Inc.
FE Perfect Quality Platinum Award: JSR Micro, Inc.
FE Perfect Quality Platinum Award: JX Nippon Mining & Metals
FE Perfect Quality Gold Award: Cabot Microelectronics Corporation
FE Perfect Quality Gold Award: Grikin Advanced Materials Co., Ltd.
FE Perfect Quality Award: Tanaka Kikinzoku Kogyo K.K.
FE Perfect Quality Award: Tosoh SMD, Inc.
Pinnacle Award: Global Wafers