Category Archives: Metrology

SEMI has announced the new Semiconductor Technology Symposium (STS), to be held July 8-10 as part of the SEMICON West 2014 (www.semiconwest.org) technical and business program agenda. The new program addressing the most important and critical issues facing the future of semiconductor manufacturing in a new and more technical conference format.

The three-day STS conference is a comprehensive technology and business conference addressing the key issues driving the future of semiconductor manufacturing and markets. Aligned with the latest inputs from technology roadmaps, sessions at the STS will focus on the significant trends shaping near-term semiconductor technology and market developments in areas including advanced processes and materials, lithography, metrology, yield, design, packaging, test, and 450mm.

The STS will also incorporate two IEEE sessions — the IEEE/SEMI Test Vision 2020 workshop, a popular technical conference focused on key trends in automated test equipment (ATE) held concurrently with SEMICON West since 2011, and the IEEE CPMT session (Mobility and More: The M&Ms of Cost Beneficial Advanced Packaging).

“The Semiconductor Technology Symposium addresses today’s critical business and technology issues that companies need to understand in order to plan their investments for the next business cycle,” said Karen Savala, president of SEMI Americas, organizer of SEMICON West. “While technical sessions at past SEMICON West events have addressed these topics and areas, we are focused this year on elevating both the content and presentation in a format more conducive to information exchange and peer-to-peer engagement.”

Since 2006, the majority of technical program content at SEMICON West has been presented on the popular TechXPOT stages on the show floor, with select sessions attracting “standing room only” audiences, exceeding the capacity and capabilities of the stage areas. “We have responded to attendee feedback and developed the STS to take these ‘sold-out’ sessions off the show floor into a more traditional and professional conference setting, with paid guaranteed classroom-style seating, lunch, and networking breaks,” Savala added.

The STS agenda is arranged in parallel sessions (both in the morning and the afternoon), with joint networking luncheons held each day. Registration is available for day passes (one morning and one afternoon session on the same day) or as a package for multiple days. Separate registration for the Test Vision 2020 Workshop is also available. For SEMI members, day passes start at $169 and packages start at $380. For non-members, day passes start at $199 and packages start at $449. Test Vision 2020-only registration starts at $240 for members, $300 for non-members.  Early-bird pricing for the STS and Test Vision 2020 ends June 6.

Tuesday, July 8

  • Challenges, Innovations and Drivers in Metrology
  • Mobility and More: M&Ms of Cost Beneficial Advanced Packaging
  • STS Networking Lunch
  • Yield Session: Defectivity and Process Variability-Inspection, Defect Reduction Challenges and Process Controls at the Sub 20nm Nodes
  • Packaging Architectures with TSV

Wednesday, July 9                 

  • Design for Test
  • Getting to 5nm Devices: Evolutionary Scaling to Disruptive Scaling and Beyond
  • STS Networking Lunch
  • Test Vision 2020, Day 1 of 2, afternoon session/panel
  • Readiness of Advanced Lithography Technologies for HVM

Thursday, July 10

  • Test Vision 2020, Day 2, morning session
  • 450mm Technology Development Update
  • STS Networking Lunch
  • Test Vision 2020, Day 2, afternoon session
    • Breakthrough High-Volume Manufacturing Innovations: New Paradigms for the Road Ahead

In addition to the Semiconductor Technology Symposium (www.semiconwest.org/sts), SEMICON West continues to feature complimentary “no charge” keynote addresses and TechXPOT conference sessions on the exhibition floor as part of the free “expo pass.” Sessions at the TechXPOTs are aimed at engineers and technologists looking for solutions to key technology challenges and looking to better understand cutting-edge and future technology developments. Developed in conjunction with SEMI technical committees, partner organizations, and technologists, the TechXPOT agenda will provide a deeper view of key technology developments in areas including MEMS, Variability Control, Supply Chain, Productivity, 3D Printing, Test, 3D, Silicon Photonics, Automotive Applications, and Compound Semiconductors.  SEMICON West will features over 50 hours of free technical, applications and business programs with the critical, need-to-know information presented by industry leaders.

Free registration for SEMICON West 2014 (www.semiconwest.org) ends May 9.  Early-bird pricing for the Semiconductor Technology Symposium (STS) and Test Vision 2020 ends June 6.  Register for SEMICON West here: www.semiconwest.org/register.

KLA-Tencor Corporation has been recognized as one of 18 companies receiving Intel Corporation’s Preferred Quality Supplier (PQS) award for their performance in 2013. It has demonstrated industry-leading commitment across all critical focus areas on which they are measured: quality, cost, availability, technology, customer service, labor and ethics systems and environmental sustainability. The company is recognized for their significant contributions providing Intel with process control capital equipment and services, deemed essential to Intel’s success.

“We are extremely honored to receive Intel’s Preferred Quality Supplier Award for a third consecutive year,” said Mike Kirk, executive vice president of Global Customer Operations at KLA-Tencor.

“KLA-Tencor has been awarded PQS in 2013 for growing their partnership to help solve Intel’s most difficult metrology and inspection challenges.  In addition, they took a transparent approach to enable the companies to address challenging high volume manufacturing requirements in the areas of cost and velocity.  We appreciate KLA-Tencor’s commitment to build on their prior PQS performance and drive continuous improvement in the spirit of the Intel SCQI program,” said Janice Golda, Director, Patterning Capital Equipment Development.

The PQS award is part of Intel’s Supplier Continuous Quality Improvement (SCQI) program that encourages suppliers to strive for excellence and continuous improvement. To qualify for PQS status, suppliers must score 80 percent on a report card that assesses performance and ability to meet cost, quality, availability, technology, environmental, social and governance goals. Suppliers must also achieve 80 percent or greater on a challenging improvement plan and demonstrate solid quality and business systems. Additional information about the SCQI program is available at http://intel.com/go/quality.

A celebration to honor PQS award winners was held in Santa Clara, California themed “Deliver the Present and Create the Future,” which illustrates the contributions this supplier has made in 2013.

The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) today announced that worldwide sales of semiconductors reached $25.87 billion for the month of February 2014, an increase of 11.4 percent from February 2013 when sales were $23.23 billion. This marks the industry’s largest year-to-year increase in more than three years. Global sales from February 2014 were 1.5 percent lower than the January 2014 total of $26.26 billion, reflecting normal seasonal trends. Regionally, sales in the Americas increased by 18 percent compared to last February. All monthly sales numbers are compiled by WSTS and represent a three-month moving average.

“The trend lines remain positive for the global semiconductor industry, which has followed record revenues in 2013 with an encouraging start to 2014,” said Brian Toohey, president and CEO, Semiconductor Industry Association. “The Americas market continues to demonstrate impressive growth, while sales in Asia Pacific and Europe also increased substantially year-to-year, and the Japanese market continued its recent rebound.”

Regionally, year-to-year sales increased in the Americas (18 percent), Asia Pacific (12 percent), and Europe (9.6 percent). Sales decreased slightly in Japan (-0.2 percent), but February marked the region’s smallest year-to-year decrease since August 2012. Sales fell across all regions compared to the previous month, as February sales historically are lower than January sales due to seasonal trends.

“The U.S. semiconductor market has been a key driver of global market growth over the last year, and policymakers in Washington can help maintain this momentum by enacting measures that remove obstacles to continued growth,” Toohey continued. “One such obstacle is America’s dysfunctional immigration system, which was revealed again this week when scarce H-1B visas were rapidly claimed by employers. Lawmakers should recognize that outdated immigration policies hamper economic growth and innovation, and they should work together to enact meaningful immigration reform in short order.”

The Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA) is celebrating 20 years of industry collaboration this year. Over the past 20 years, GSA has recognized public and private semiconductor companies that have demonstrated excellence through their success, vision, strategy and future opportunities in the industry. This year’s commemorative Award’s Dinner Celebration will be held on Thursday, December 11, 2014, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, Calif.

The celebration honors the achievements of semiconductor companies in several categories ranging from outstanding leadership to financial accomplishments, as well as overall respect within the industry. GSA is currently accepting nominations for the following award categories:

Most Respected Private Semiconductor Company Award
Outstanding EMEA Semiconductor Company Award
Start-Up to Watch Award

The “Most Respected Private Semiconductor Company Award” is designed to identify the private company garnering the most respect from the industry in terms of its products, vision and future opportunity. GSA’s Private Awards Committee, comprised of members of the Emerging Company CEO Council, venture capitalists and select serial entrepreneurs in the industry, reviews all private semiconductor companies, conducts analysis of each company’s performance and likelihood of long-term success, and provides a list of respectable private companies to be voted on by GSA membership. On-line voting takes place to allow GSA members, including semiconductor companies and partners, to cast a ballot for the private semiconductor company that they most respect. Nominations are open until June 27, 2014.

GSA’s Private Awards Committee selects up to two winners for the “Start-Up to Watch Award” by identifying the semiconductor company (or companies) that demonstrates the potential to positively change its market or the industry through the innovative use of semiconductor technology or a new application for semiconductor technology. Nominations will be accepted until June 27, 2014.

As a global organization, the GSA recognizes companies headquartered in the EMEA and APAC regions. Award winners are chosen by the leadership council of each respective region and are semiconductor companies that demonstrate the most strength when measuring products, vision, leadership and success in the marketplace. Nominations for the Outstanding EMEA Semiconductor Company Award will be accepted until July 11, 2014.

The GSA’s most prestigious award, the Dr. Morris Chang Exemplary Leadership Award recognizes individuals, such as its namesake, Dr. Morris Chang, for their exceptional contributions to drive the development, innovation, growth and long-term opportunities for the semiconductor industry. This year, there will be a special presentation honoring past Dr. Morris Chang Exemplary Leadership Award recipients.

“We are very excited to celebrate GSA’s 20 year evolution as a neutral industry platform as well as the proliferation of the entire semiconductor ecosystem at this year’s dinner,” said Jodi Shelton, co-founder and president of GSA. “Since its inception in 1994, it has been an honor to be part of this remarkable industry and have the opportunity to recognize the companies that have had such an impact on growing it into the industry that it is today, an industry that is the bedrock of all modern technical innovation.”

The global semiconductor materials market decreased 3 percent in 2013 compared to 2012 while worldwide semiconductor revenues increased 5 percent. Revenues of $43.5 mark the second consecutive year of contraction for the semiconductor materials market.

Total wafer fabrication materials and packaging materials were $22.76 billion and $20.70 billion, respectively. Comparable revenues for these segments in 2012 were $23.44 billion for wafer fabrication materials and $21.36 billion for packaging materials. For the second year in a row, substantial declines in silicon revenue, advanced substrates, and bonding wire contributed to the year-over-year decrease to the total semiconductor materials market.

For the fourth consecutive year, Taiwan was the largest consumer of semiconductor materials due to its large foundry and advanced packaging base, despite not experiencing any annual growth. The materials market in North America also remained flat year-over-year. The materials markets in China and Europe increased in 2013, benefiting from strength in wafer fab materials. The materials market in Japan contracted 12 percent, with markets also contracting in South Korea and Rest of World. (The ROW region is defined as Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, other areas of Southeast Asia and smaller global markets.)

2012-2013 Semiconductor Materials Market by World Region
(Dollar in U.S. billions; Percentage Year-over-Year)

Region

2012*

2013

% Change

Taiwan

8.97

8.96

0%

Japan

8.24

7.29

-12%

South Korea

7.22

6.94

-4%

Rest of World

7.17

6.76

-6%

China

5.50

5.70

4%

North America

4.75

4.75

0%

Europe

2.95

3.07

4%

Total

44.80

43.46

-3%

Source: SEMI April 2014

Note: Figures may not add due to rounding.

* 2012 data were revised based on the recently released Global Semiconductor Packaging Materials Outlook- 2013/2014.

ON Semiconductor today signed a definitive agreement to acquire Truesense Imaging, Inc., a provider of high-performance image sensor devices addressing a wide range of industrial end-markets including machine vision, surveillance, traffic monitoring, medical and scientific imaging, and photography. Under the terms of the agreement, ON Semiconductor will pay approximately $92 million in cash to acquire Truesense Imaging.

“The pending acquisition of Truesense Imaging is a step towards our stated strategic goal of expanding our presence in select segments of the industrial end-market,” said Keith Jackson, president and CEO of ON Semiconductor. “With the acquisition of Truesense, we will augment our abilities to deliver a broad range of high-performance image sensors to the industrial end-market and at the same time significantly expand our customer footprint. I am excited about the growth opportunities the combination of the two companies presents in the high-performance imaging market.”

“ON Semiconductor is an ideal strategic fit for Truesense as we share a common vision for expanding the capabilities of high-performance sensors used in the world’s most demanding imaging applications,” said Chris McNiffe, CEO of Truesense Imaging, Inc. “This combination enables us to leverage our technology base and four decades of imaging expertise with ON Semiconductor’s R&D, manufacturing and global logistics infrastructure. We are very excited to join the ON Semiconductor organization and to enable new growth opportunities for both our customers and our employees.”

Truesense Imaging’s revenue for 2013 was approximately $79 million with gross and operating margins of approximately 44 percent and 23 percent, respectively. Truesense Imaging will be incorporated in ON Semiconductor’s Application Products Group (APG) business group. The transaction has been approved by ON Semiconductor’s and Truesense Imaging’s boards of directors (or authorized committees thereof) and is anticipated to close before the end of the second quarter of 2014, subject to required regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.

SEMATECH, the global consortium of semiconductor manufacturers, announced today that Ronald Goldblatt, vice president of Technical Strategy and Operations, has been appointed by the board of directors as acting president and chief executive officer, effective immediately. Dr. Goldblatt will replace Daniel Armbrust, who served as SEMATECH’s president and CEO since November 2009.

“On behalf of SEMATECH’s board, we wish to thank Dan for his many contributions over the past five years and for the passion, dedication and leadership he brought to SEMATECH,” said Chairman William Rozich. “The board sees tremendous opportunity for ongoing growth and we have full confidence in Ron’s ability to lead a diverse and innovative team that will build on our initiatives and assure SEMATECH’s position as the place to collaborate for critical industry technology transitions.”

Dr. Goldblatt will be responsible for ensuring a smooth transition and leading SEMATECH’s executive team. Goldblatt joined SEMATECH as vice president of Technical Strategy and Operations in September 2013, and brings significant executive leadership to his new responsibilities.

Prior to joining SEMATECH, Goldblatt spent 32 years at IBM Corporation, culminating his tenure as Distinguished Engineer and senior manager of Advanced Silicon Science and Process Technology for the company’s Microelectronics Division and IBM Research in Yorktown Heights, NY. His leadership was marked by successful efforts in leading the transformation of IBM’s semiconductor research cleanroom, supporting early prototyping of breakthrough technologies, and developing leading-edge semiconductor technologies.

“Our charge at SEMATECH has always been to move the industry forward and deliver value to our members,” said Goldblatt. “Going forward, we will continue to flawlessly execute on our current operating strategy, leverage the full capabilities of our technical programs, and increase our relevance to our members and to the industry at large.”

Noel Technologies, a Silicon Valley specialty foundry offering process development and substrate fabrication, has added semiconductor industry veteran Joe Medeiros to its growing management staff. Medeiros will manage and direct all aspects of Noel’s silicon wafer reclaim processing, including lapping, strip/etch, polishing, final cleans and metrology to ensure quality and productivity and to optimize process and yields.

Late last year, Noel added 450mm wafer capability for specific wet processes, etches, and wafer cleaning and will now develop processes for prime test and reclaim wafers for the 450mm wafer size.

Medeiros brings to Noel over 25 years of silicon manufacturing experience in engineering, process development, applications, production and quality control.  Most recently he was Director of Operations & Engineering at WRS Materials in San Jose, CA. His previous experience includes management positions at Nano Green Technology, KLA-Tencor and Exsil/Pure Silicon.

Noel Technologies, Inc. is a Silicon Valley based foundry focused on process development, optimization, quality and delivery. An ISO 9001 registered facility, Noel Technologies offers process development and fabrication up to 300mm and several services for 450mm.

SEMATECH announced today that Particle Measuring Systems has joined SEMATECH to advance the development of nanoscale particle removal processes and cleaning technologies for next-generation wafers and devices. This collaboration will address many of the profound changes taking place in the semiconductor industry that are impacting fundamental aspects of process and equipment design, including integration of new materials and process technology for sub-20nm node manufacturing, next-generation lithography requirements.

Speaking with SEMATECH, Brian Knollenberg, VP/GM at Particle Measuring Systems said, “Partnering with SEMATECH accelerates our cycle of learning, enabling us to provide industry leading particle metrology solutions for evolving semiconductor manufacturing processes.”

Particle Measuring Systems will work with SEMATECH to advance particle counting technologies in ultrapure water and common chemistries used in the preparation and cleaning of wafer surfaces throughout the entire semiconductor manufacturing process. This development work will accelerate learning in nanoparticle detection in solutions and will also aid in understanding the correlation between the particles seen in solutions and the particles found on surfaces exposed to solutions.

“SEMATECH’s Nanodefect Center aims to build industry participation in detecting, modeling, characterizing and providing solutions for defect issues as geometries shrink below the 10nm node,” said Michael Lercel, senior director of Lithography, Metrology and Nanodefectivity. “Partnering with Particle Measuring Systems brings additional expertise to SEMATECH, and in turn, will raise the level of our research efforts and further strengthen our commitment in identifying and addressing the challenges of future technology nodes.”

Built on more than a decade of technical expertise in surface cleaning, particle removal and cleaning technology development, SEMATECH’s Nanodefect Center provides a complete suite of metrology and analysis capabilities to investigate the generation, propagation, removal and impact of defects generated by equipment, equipment components and materials used in advanced semiconductor processes such as lithography, etch, CMP, deposition and cleaning.

Mentor Graphics Corp. today announced that it has acquired Berkeley Design Automation, Inc. BDA addresses nanometer circuit design challenges via its Analog FastSPICE unified verification platform and exceptional vertical-application expertise.

In it’s official press release, Mentor Graphics said the acquisition of BDA aligns with Mentor’s goal to deliver technologies with superior performance and automation for the growing challenges of Analog/Mixed-Signal (AMS) verification.

“BDA has built an outstanding reputation helping nanometer-scale analog, mixed-signal, and RF design teams rigorously verify and characterize leading-edge circuits,” said Ravi Subramanian, president and CEO of Berkeley Design Automation. “With Mentor’s outstanding market reach and our combined technology portfolio, we look forward to providing world-class solutions to the entire AMS design community.”

“Tight integration between best-in-class tools, strong foundry partnerships and impeccable engineering work were the criteria used in our decision to acquire BDA,” said Robert Hum, vice president and general manager, DSM division at Mentor. “When complex analog and mixed-signal circuits are designed for nanometer geometries, the verification tools must have the capacity, capability and performance to enable designers to predictably and reliably solve increasingly tough verification problems. Joining forces with BDA gives our mutual customers the most advanced tools that deal with the growing number of nanometer-scale physical effects that design teams are facing.”

“Bessemer Venture Partners is excited by Mentor’s acquisition of BDA,” said Umesh Padval, Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners. “BVP backs great entrepreneurs who lead transformative startups – and BDA certainly fits that strategy. We are proud of BDA’s success, and we believe the combination with Mentor will create the industry’s most powerful mixed-signal verification technology business with critical scale and a large market reach.”