Category Archives: Packaging and Testing

MediaTek Inc., a  fabless semiconductor company for wireless communications and digital multimedia solutions, today announced its breakthrough MT8135 system-on-chip (SoC) for high-end tablets. The quad-core solution incorporates two high-performance ARM Cortex-A15 and two ultra-efficient ARM Cortex-A7 processors, and the latest GPU from Imagination Technologies, the PowerVR Series6. Complemented by a highly optimized ARM big.LITTLE processing subsystem that allows for heterogeneous multi-processing, the resulting solution is primed to deliver premium user experiences. This includes the ability to seamlessly engage in a range of processor-intensive applications, including heavy web-downloading, hardcore gaming, high-quality video viewing and rigorous multitasking — all while maintaining the utmost power efficiency.

In line with its reputation for creating platform solutions, MediaTek has deployed an advanced scheduler algorithm, combined with adaptive thermal and interactive power management to maximize the performance and energy efficiency benefits of the ARM big.LITTLE architecture. This technology enables application software to access all of the processors in the big.LITTLE cluster simultaneously for a true heterogeneous experience.

"ARM big.LITTLE technology reduces processor energy consumption by up to 70 percent on common workloads, which is critical in the drive towards all-day battery life for mobile platforms," said Noel Hurley, vice president, Strategy and Marketing, Processor Division, ARM. "We are pleased to see MediaTek’s MT8135 seizing on the opportunity offered by the big.LITTLE architecture to enable new services on a heterogeneous processing platform."

"The move towards multi-tasking devices requires increased performance while creating greater power efficiency that can only be achieved through an optimized multi-core system approach. This means that multi-core processing capability is fast becoming a vital feature of mobile SoC solutions. The MT8135 is the first implementation of ARM’s big.LITTLE architecture to offer simultaneous heterogeneous multi-processing.  As such, MediaTek is taking the lead to improve battery life in next-generation tablet and mobile device designs by providing more flexibility to match tasks with the right-size core for better computational, graphical and multimedia performance," said Mike Demler, senior analyst with The Linley Group. 

The MT8135 features a MediaTek-developed four-in-one connectivity combination that includes Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS and FM, designed to bring highly integrated wireless technologies and expanded functionality to multimedia tablets. The MT8135 also supports Wi-Fi certified Miracast which makes multimedia content sharing between devices remarkably easier.

In addition, the tablet SoC boasts unprecedented graphics performance enabled by its PowerVR Series6 GPU from Imagination Technologies. "We are proud to have partnered with MediaTek on their latest generation of tablet SoCs" says Tony King-Smith, EVP of marketing, Imagination. "PowerVR Series6 GPUs build on Imagination’s success in mobile and embedded markets to deliver the industry’s highest performance and efficient solutions for graphics-and-compute GPUs. MediaTek is a key lead partner for Imagination and its PowerVR Series6 GPU cores, so we expect the MT8135 to set an important benchmark for high-end gaming, smooth UIs and advanced browser-based graphics-rich applications in smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices. Thanks to our PowerVR Series6 GPU, we believe the MT8135 will deliver five-times or more the GPU-compute-performance of the previous generation of tablet processors."

The MT8135 is the latest SoC in MediaTek’s line of quad-core processors, which since its launch last December has given rise to more than 350 projects and over 150 mobile device models across the world.

Researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of North Carolina have demonstrated a new design for an instrument, a "instrumented nanoscale indenter," that makes sensitive measurements of the mechanical properties of thin films — ranging from auto body coatings to microelectronic devices — and biomaterials. The NIST instrument uses a unique technique for precisely measuring the depth of the indentation in a test surface with no contact of the surface other than the probe tip itself.

Nanoindenter head

Indenters have a long history in materials research. Johan August Brinell devised one of the first versions in 1900. The concept is to drop or ram something hard onto the test material and gauge the material’s hardness by the depth of the dent. This is fine for railway steel, but modern technology has brought more challenging measurements: the stiffness of micromechanical sensors used in auto airbags, the hardness of thin coatings on tool bits, the elasticity of thin biological membranes. These require precision measurements of depth in terms of nanometers and force in terms of micronewtons.

Instead of dents in metal, says NIST’s Douglas Smith, "We are trying to get the most accurate measurement possible of how far the indenter tip penetrates into the surface of the specimen, and how much force it took to push it in that far. We record this continuously. It’s called ‘instrumented indentation testing’."

A major challenge, Smith says, is that at the nanoscale you need to know exactly where the surface of the test specimen is relative to the indenter’s tip. Some commercial instruments do this by touching the surface with a reference part of the instrument that is a known distance from the tip, but this introduces additional problems. "For example, if you want to look at creep in polymer — which is one thing that our instrument is particularly good at—that reference point itself is going to be creeping into the polymer just under its own contact force. That’s an error you don’t know and can’t correct for," says Smith.

The NIST solution is a touchless surface detector that uses a pair of tiny quartz tuning forks — the sort used to keep time in most wrist watches. When the tuning forks get close to the test surface, the influence of the nearby mass changes their frequency — not much, but enough. The nanoindenter uses that frequency shift to "lock" the position of the indenter mechanism at a fixed distance from the test surface, but without exerting any detectable force on the surface itself.

"The only significant interaction we want is between the indenter and the specimen," says Smith, "or at least, to be constant and not deforming the surface. This is a significant improvement over the commercial instruments."

The NIST nanoindenter can apply forces up to 150 millinewtons, taking readings a thousand times a second, with an uncertainty lower than 2 micronewtons, and while measuring tip penetration up to 10 micrometers to within about 0.4nm. All of this in done in a way that can be traceably calibrated against basic SI units for force and displacement in a routine manner.

The instrument is well suited for high-precision measurements of hardness, elasticity and creep and similar properties for a wide range of materials, including often difficult to measure soft materials such as polymer films, says Smith, but one of its primary uses will be in the development of reference materials that can be used to calibrate other instrumented indenters. "There still are no NIST standard reference materials for this class of instruments because we wanted to have an instrument that was better than the commercial instruments for doing that," Smith explains.

Together with its partners STFC and Fraunhofer IIS, imec announced today that the European Commission has pledged to continue funding the Europractice IC services for another three years under the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7).

"The EU’s continued support of the Europractice IC services speaks to the value of our efforts to help get European ASIC (application specific integrated circuits)-based products to market quickly and cost effectively,” stated Carl Das, director of the Europractice IC service at imec. “This funding will enable us to continue to provide the best and most advanced solutions to European academia and research institutes, start-up companies and companies within small niche markets.”

Europractice IC service is internationally recognized as a leading service to universities and industry for design, development, prototyping and manufacturing of application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) on a cost-sharing basis. Today, about 500 universities, 150 research centers and more than 200 European companies have access to this service.

Europractice IC services offers dedicated training courses on design flows and methods in advanced technologies, and has negotiated low cost opportunities with the most popular industry-standard CAD vendors and foundries.  As such, academics and research centers have access to state-of-the-art CAD tools for training and non-commercial research, and to multi-project wafer (MPW) runs for prototyping and manufacturing.  Europractice IC services also supports companies in the assembly and testing phase. Over the next three years, the service will expand its offering from ASIC services to prototyping possibilities in MEMS and photonics-related technologies.

Micralyne, Inc., an independent MEMS developer-manufacturer specializing in high-value applications, today announced a collaboration with Adamant-Kogyo Co., Ltd., a leading supplier of fine precision products for the optical communications industry, for the development and manufacture of micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS)-based fiber-optic subsystems. The companies’ joint solutions will serve markets for which a high-performance, ultra-reliable sensor-enabled communications backbone is essential.

Building upon a decade-long partnership in the global MEMS industry, Micralyne and Adamant will leverage their respective core competencies to develop new MEMS-based optical subsystems.

“Micralyne’s strength in optical MEMS component integration in performance-intensive industrial applications complements the subsystem design and packaging expertise of our longstanding partner, Adamant,” said Mike Ciprick, acting president and CEO, Micralyne. “Through our new alliance with Adamant, we aim to lead the industry in quality and reliability for the wide range of applications that benefit from MEMS-based fiber-optic sensors.”

“The global market for fiber-optic point sensors and related subsystems is growing exponentially,” said Yoichi Shimoda, president, Adamant. “In fact, the market research firm, ElectroniCast, has forecast a compound annual growth rate of more than 20 percent between 2012-2017, reaching US$3.98 billion by 2017. With demand for high-performance MEMS sensors especially strong—and with Micralyne so proficient there—we will work in partnership to map out the best possible solutions for this market.”

MEMS devices are proliferating in mobile devices. Yole Développement counts 25+ sensors and actuators in production or in development for mobile applications, including MEMS accelerometers, MEMS gyroscopes, magnetometers, 6-axis e-compasses, 6-axis IMU combos, 9-axis combo solutions, silicon microphones, microspeakers, pressure sensors, humidity/temperature sensors, BAW filters and duplexers, MEMS switches and variable capacitors, silicon MEMS oscillators/resonators, micromirrors for picoprojectors, microdisplays, MEMS auto-focus, IR sensors and micro bolometers, bio-chemical detectors & gas sensors, MEMS touchscreen, MEMS joystick, radiation detectors, MEMS fuel cells, energy harvesting, UV sensors, ultrasonic sensors and more.

The past 12 months have seen big changes. While in the past, cell phone MEMS were limited to three categories (inertial, microphones and filters), we’ve seen strong adoption of new device types targeting environmental sensing. Also, pressure sensors are being heavily adopted in flagship phones and tablets, and humidity sensors are being adopted in the Samsung Galaxy S4. All of these new MEMS killer applications are detailed in Yole Développement’s report.

Changes have even occurred in existing high-volume MEMS areas:

  • Significant architectural changes have been observed in inertial sensors, with current strong adoption of IMU combo sensors. Likewise, a new opportunity has appeared with a camera module’s dedicated OIS gyroscope.
  • A trend has appeared involving integration of a third MEMS microphone to provide HD voice recording (i.e. in the iPhone 5), in addition to the dual microphone architecture described in the last report. This trend is a market booster.
  • Strong adoption of LTE in high-end platforms will boost the duplexer market for the next three years.

The long-term outlook for MEMS companies is brighter than ever, as existing products and products just ramping up will drive solid growth over the next few years. Additionally, a new wave of MEMS products will enable further growth. This report describes why some of these emerging MEMS will ramp up in volume almost overnight, just as pressure and humidity sensors did in the past few months. A nice 19 percent yearly growth is predicted for a market that reached $2.2 billion in 2012, and volume growth will be even more impressive, with 17.5 billion units expected by 2018, up from 4.5 billion in 2012.

Sensor fusion is heating up with its first commercial implementations

As sensor popularity enables new applications, software is key for obtaining the best performance and functionalities. Sensor hubs appeared at the end of 2012, in Windows Phone architectures and also in some Android platforms such as the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 and Galaxy S4, which integrate Atmel hub. This greatly impacts the MEMS value chain, since successful products must offer the right level of software and be qualified with sensor hubs in a timely manner.

Sometime in 2013, evolution is still expected in value partitioning, in particular with sensor fusion integration in the application processor. Also, as the value chain continues moving and novel architectures appear, new killer functionalities will hit the market. In particular, an ecosystem for context awareness or indoor navigation is put in place, with technology demonstrations (such as Movea’s recent demo at CES) and release of the first commercial chipsets enabling new sensor and data fusion concepts (Qualcomm iZat, Gimbal, CSR SiRFusion Platform, etc.). The most recent end- user trends shaping demand for next-generation MEMS devices are carefully analyzed in this report. In fact, one of the strongest impacts on sensor fusion architecture is the growth of connected devices and the use of the cell phone as a hub.

A price war and market share erosion – all in the last year

A large, growing market often comes with a strong price decrease.

“This is true for MEMS in mobile devices, as was observed in 2012,” says Laurent Robin, Activity Leader, Inertial MEMS Devices & Technologies. “Continuous competition between STMicroelectronics and InvenSense, and the arrival of a third player in gyroscope and IMU, had a significant impact on pricing — which decreased 25 percent in just one year!”

In the magnetometer area, the price decrease was even more significant, at 35 percent. Memsic’s aggressive pricing strategy forced market leader AKM to realign. Detailed analysis is available in Yole Développement’s report.

While the big guys still dominate this field and possess most of the business, things are changing. For example, in some cases Yole Développement’s analysts have seen an erosion of market share, for reasons described in this report. In fact, this analysis shows that in one year, Knowles lost 19 percent market share, AKM eight percent and Avago two percent in their respective markets.

Opportunities for challengers are emerging every day, driven by several factors:

  • Technology shift linked to the demand for higher performance in order to enable new-end functionalities and integration levels (this may be happening for magnetometers)
  • New business models, such as integrating MEMS dies, which are sold off-the-shelf (typically by Infineon)
  • Adoption of disruptive concepts for new sensors and actuators

Out of the 20+ players currently doing business in mobile MEMS applications, only three have been able to successfully diversify by enlarging their MEMS product portfolio. It’s a difficult achievement because Yole Développement’s MEMS law remains valid: there is still no standardization for MEMS products and processes. However, all industry players are actively looking to provide new functions and launch new components.

David DiPaola is managing director for DiPaola Consulting a company focused on engineering and management solutions for electromechanical systems, sensors and MEMS products.  A 17 year veteran of the field, he has brought many products from concept to production in high volume with outstanding quality.  His work in design and process development spans multiple industries including automotive, medical, industrial and consumer electronics.  He employs a problem solving based approach working side by side with customers from startups to multi-billion dollar companies.  David also serves as senior technical staff to The Richard Desich SMART Commercialization Center for Microsystems, is an authorized external researcher at The Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology at NIST and is a senior member of IEEE. Previously he has held engineering management and technical staff positions at Texas Instruments and Sensata Technologies, authored numerous technical papers, is a respected lecturer and holds 5 patents.  To learn more, please visit www.dceams.com.    

In the development of new MEMS products, the team is the most important factor.  Executive management and investors will always evaluate teams and will only take large risks with teams that have earned their trust. In response to a question, I asked Rich Templeton (CEO of Texas Instruments) regarding how he made the decision to invest in a new technology, a portion of his response highlighted the evaluation of and betting on teams. This is driven by the fact that it is actually quite common for engineers and entrepreneurs to lead multiple successful projects or startups over their career. With this in mind, let’s review the necessary attributes that make these engineers and entrepreneurs so successful in MEMS new product development. 

Integrity:  This is the foundation upon which all other attributes are built. Truthfulness, consistency and accuracy of one’s actions is of utmost importance, as without it you have nothing. This is not something that is exercised in part or stretched. It needs to embody who you are.        

Good Judgment: An equally important attribute to integrity is a person’s ability to exercise discernment. It’s the skill of knowing what information is needed to make a sound decision, how to efficiently gather that information, being decisive and achieving positive outcomes a significant portion of the time. It also entails the ability to lead when large gaps in information exist and managing the associated risk. Engineers who use good judgment only reevaluate decisions for change as new information becomes available. Furthermore, they study given information, decisions made and outcomes to hone this skill over time. 

Details: The details are what make products robust with ultra high reliability. A small detail can often make the difference in achieving or missing a specified performance target. For example, overlooking the use of a getter in a MEMS device with a vacuum cavity could result in output drift if materials out gas over time. Understanding the detailed physics of the problem at hand is also critically important. 

Ability to Learn: Technology and human understanding of complex systems continues to evolve. In order to be successful, a individual must have the desire and ability to learn as new information becomes available. The MEMS industry is constantly changing with CMOS and nanotechnology integration, smaller feature sizes, optimized processes, standardization, sensor fusion and more.  Those who are unwilling to learn from not only their work but the credible work of others will have difficultly producing competitive products.       

Problem Solving:  This is really a combination of proper methodology, attention to details and the ability to learn. Experts in a field that know the answer before they start, rarely solve problems. In running a design of experiments (DOE) of a MEMS sensor with a flip chip on flex laminated to a plastic substrate, pressure, time and heat were varied in a effort to eliminate voids in the laminate material and optimize process parameters. The first DOE resulted in multiple large voids over all parameters showing no noticeable trends. Through a methodology of identifying alternate factors and testing hypothesizes, it was then discovered that moisture impregnated in the plastic substrate and flex circuit itself was actually introducing voids in the laminate as it out gassed during the lamination process. Once the moisture was removed either through a prebake or proper material handling, the voids were no longer present. A subsequent DOE was completed including moisture as a factor and the process was optimized. In a confirmation experiment, the predicted worst-case process parameters resulted in large lamination voids and the optimized case demonstrated lamination with no voids and excellent adhesion.     

Motivation / Passion:  The drive behind peoples’ actions and its alignment with project goals are essential. Are they doing it because they love it and in essence it is a part of their DNA or is it simply a paycheck? Does the subject matter wake them up in the morning because they can’t wait to get started? Do their eyes light up, their voice become invigorated and their body language become expressive when they speak? Do off shoots of their passion migrate into their personal time off? These are some of the characteristics that highly motivated and passionate people display. I had the privilege of discussing entrepreneurism and leadership with Ray Stata, founder and chairman of Analog Devices, a few years ago. Through words and action, his passion is intertwined throughout ADI. When their MEMS division was starting out and encountering difficultly, he showed his commitment to the business by becoming the general manager. He figured the company would not fire the founder although they could. In his spare time, he continues to show his entrepreneurial spirit as he lives vicariously through his investments in and mentoring of technology startups. Everyone I have spoken to at ADI speaks highly of him. Mr. Stata is an excellent example of the type of person you want on your team.

Creativity:  The ability to think in new ways is extremely important. It’s having the wherewithal to take an idea that appears crazy at the time and figuring out a way to make it work and provide a competitive advantage. Devices that provide outstanding function and have an elegant, eye-pleasing package with a captivating yet easy to use interface exude creativity. An example of creatively in action is the first generation Apple iPhone. When it was first released, it revolutionized the smart phone approach and the smart phone leader at the time is still recovering after large market share loss. 

Experience: When looking at job descriptions, the top requirement is often education level. This approach is not robust. Let me explain. If you were going to launch a MEMS device in production and wanted to hire an engineer, who would you choose: 1) A person with a bachelor’s degree in physics who launched several profitable MEMS products in millions of units per year successfully or 2) a person with a PhD in the subject matter of interest and an MBA with little industry experience? This is hypothetical, but it illustrates a point. Education is extremely important, but the method through which it is obtained is less critical and can take many forms. The CEO of Tumblr dropped out of high school in his freshman year because his school system had a weak computer science program. Instead he and his parents agreed for him to pursue his education through alternative, more productive channels. As recently highlighted in the news, he just sold his company for $1.1 billion to Yahoo. He cites that he worked with and learned a tremendous amount from the smart people he surrounded himself with.      

Persistence: The quality of steadily continuing despite difficult challenges along the way is a necessary characteristic of all accomplished engineers. People who are persistence are often mislabeled as stubborn. The key difference is persistent people listen to good reason and are cooperative. However, being cooperative does not mean going along with the direction from those in authority that logical reason and data shows is the wrong path. Instead staying the course and using influential communication with supporting data and analysis to gain needed support is a better approach.      

Communication:  Proper communication is not only used to transfer information but also to persuade doubters with good reason. This is an essential skill for interaction with customers, colleagues, investors and management. An engineer with good communication skills can explain a complex problem in a well-articulated, concise and simplified manner without skipping critical details. In the end, the listener understands what was accomplished, how it was done, critical details and the resulting impact of the project. 

Influence:  Individuals in MEMS new product development will encounter resistance from various people along the way. This could be from management, investors or colleagues. Hence the ability of individuals to affect the thinking and actions of others through sound reasoning, credible data, persistence and convincing plans is necessary to bring MEMS products to fruition. For many years, there were critics who stated that standards for MEMS will never happen. Instead of accepting the status quo, engineers from Intel and Qualcomm with the support of MIG and other companies worked together to produce the first MEMS standard on sensor parameters. These actions are now influencing the MEMS community to accept that maybe some level of standardization is possible and beneficial. 

Risk Tolerance: New product development and higher levels of risk go hand in hand. Engineers who take on this challenge, need to have a greater tolerance for this risk and be able to manage it. The key benefit of higher risk is the larger reward that is typically associated with it. With any new product development, there is always the possibility for cancellation, low adoption, project delays and insufficient funding. However, building teams on the principles above is the first step to lowering risk.      

Other Points to Consider:  When choosing a team leader, vision is another important factor to consider. Leaders with vision have the foresight to see the potential in an idea before it exists.  Not all team members have to be visionaries but it is important that trust is built between those who have it and those who don’t. In addition, carefully consider the chemistry when building a team. Having proper technical and business depth, meshing personalities and clear leadership is extremely important.

The team is essential for success in any MEMS new product development. Focusing on the key attributes mentioned above will help companies hire the best individuals for MEMS new product development. In next month’s blog, proper execution of MEMS validation will be discussed.   

CEA-Leti will present recent advances and a preview of future developments in micro- and nanotechnologies, followed by workshops on key technical fields, during Leti Innovation Days, June 25-28, on the MINATEC campus.

The gathering incorporates Leti’s two-day Annual Review, now in its 15th year. That event provides an update of developments from Leti’s labs and its success in transferring technology to industry.

The 15th Annual Review kicks off on June 25th with two plenary sessions:

  • Envisioning the Future, chaired by Leti CEO Laurent Malier, will include insights from industry leaders into the technological innovations that will shape the future.
  • Enabling the Future, chaired by Pierre-Damien Berger, Leti VP of business development and communication. Presentations will include Leti’s latest developments and the key enabling technologies that will drive advancements in a broad range of sectors.

June 26th presentations by Leti specialists and partners will cover security and safety, environment and health, green IT and nanoelectronics.

“This year’s review powerfully highlights the wide-ranging strengths of Leti’s offer, from continuous innovation to technology transfer and support for SMEs,” said Leti CEO Laurent Malier. “Leti last year demonstrated a new FD-SOI solution that offers a 40 percent improvement in power consumption and a 30 percent frequency improvement, at lower costs. Transferred to manufacturing, it delivered the first application processor product dedicated to smartphones exceeding 3 GHz. We also particularly expanded our actions for SMEs, with a specific initiative allowing them to benefit from the expertise of our researchers and engineers and to access our state-of-the-art equipment.”

The Annual Review will be followed on June 27-28 by five in-depth workshops on design for 3D, memory, photonics, imaging and nanopackaging.

Leti Innovation Days participants will include international and European decision-makers: CEOs, CTOs, marketing and strategy directors, R&D managers, IT and semiconductor companies, innovative SMEs, end-user companies, research institutes, startups and international press. Represented industries include advanced microelectronics, green IT, memory, imaging, LEDs and lighting, safety and security, and healthcare and the environment.

 

Fab equipment spending will grow two percent year-over-year  (US$ 32.5 billion) for 2013 and about 23 to 27 percent in 2014 ($41 billion) according to the May edition of the SEMI World Fab Forecast. Fab construction spending, which can be a strong indicator for future equipment spending, is expected to grow 6.5 percent ($6.6 billion) in 2013, followed by a decline of 18 percent ($5.4 billion) in 2014. The new World Fab Forecast report covers fab information on over 1,140 facilities, including such details as capacities, technology nodes, product types, and spending for construction and equipment for any cleanroom wafer facility by quarter.

Fab equipment spending for the second half of 2013 is expected to be much stronger with a 32 percent growth rate or $18.5 billion compared to the first half of 2013. The equipment spending increase in the second half is attributed to growing semiconductor demand and improving average selling price for chips. 2014 is expected to have about 23 to 27 percent growth year-over-year (YoY) to reach about $41 billion, which would be an all-time record.

Looking at product types, the largest amounts of spending on fab equipment in 2013 will come from the foundry sector, which increases by about 21 percent. This is driven mainly by capex increases by TSMC. The memory sector is expected to have an increase of only one percent — after a 35 percent decline in the previous year. The MPU sector is expected to grow by about five percent. A double-digit increase in the Analog sector in 2013 will still translate into low absolute dollar amounts, compared to the other sectors.  

 

Construction spending is a good indicator for more equipment spending.  Fab construction spending in 2013 is expected to be almost 15 percent growth YoY ($6.6 billion) with 38 known construction projects. Top spenders for fab construction in 2013 are TSMC and Samsung, who plan to spend between $1.5 and $2 billion each, followed by Intel, Globalfoundries and UMC. The SEMI World Fab Forecast report reveals more detail.

2014 shows a decline of about 18 percent ($5.4 billion) in construction spending with only 21 construction projects expected to be on-going. These construction projects include large fabs; some are 450mm-ready. 

Since the last fab database publication at the end February 2013 SEMI’s worldwide dedicated analysis team has made 389 updates to 324 facilities (including Opto/LED fabs) in the database. The latest edition of the World Fab Forecast lists 1,144 facilities (including 310 Opto/LED facilities), with 61 facilities with various probabilities starting production this year and in the near future. Seventeen new facilities were added and 8 facilities were closed.

The SEMI World Fab Forecast uses a bottom-up approach methodology, providing high-level summaries and graphs; and in-depth analyses of capital expenditures, capacities, technology and products by fab. Additionally, the database provides forecasts for the next 18 months by quarter.

Bosch has reached a significant manufacturing milestone. Since the start of production in 1995, the company has manufactured well in excess of three billion MEMS sensors. It took Bosch 13 years to manufacture the first billion, another three years to reach two billion, and only a further 18 months to cross the three-billion mark. In 2012, some 600 million sensors emerged from its wafer fab in Reutlingen, Germany – or 2.4 million each working day.

Bosch supplies sensors for a wide range of applications in the consumer electronics and automotive industries. These sensors measure pressure, acceleration, rotary motion, mass flow, and the earth’s magnetic field. Bosch has been at the forefront of MEMS technology since it first emerged, and today it generates more sales in the extremely dynamic MEMS sensor market than any other supplier.

“It’s no longer possible to imagine automotive or consumer electronics without MEMS sensors. In the future, they will act as the eyes and ears for systems and objects connected via the internet of things and services,” says Klaus Meder, president of the Bosch Automotive Electronics division.

The first application for MEMS sensors was in automotive electronics and Bosch has been producing these precision sensors for use in vehicles since 1995. A yaw-rate sensor that records the rotary movements of the car around its vertical axis is at the heart of ESP, for example, and today each modern vehicle is home to up to 50 MEMS sensors. In an automotive context, the key considerations for MEMS are their reliability and robustness, as the sensors have a direct impact on the safety of road users. Size and energy consumption are much less important factors.

But the picture is quite different when it comes to smartphones or games consoles, which is why Bosch shrunk its sensors over the years to just one fiftieth of their former size. The latest generation of these sensors unites a host of functions in a casing measuring just a few square millimeters. Meanwhile the sensors’ energy consumption has been reduced by a factor of 100. Of all the suppliers in the market, Bosch claims to be the only one producing sensor types for so many different applications. The company holds or has applied for a total of well over 1,000 patents.

Bosch Sensortec GmbH in Reutlingen was founded in 2005. This Bosch subsidiary recently brought the world’s first 9-axis sensor to market. The BMX055 is capable of measuring acceleration, yaw rate, and the earth’s magnetic field in all three spatial directions at the same time, which makes it suitable for a whole range of potential applications. The sensor can be put to work wherever there is a need to pinpoint a mobile device’s spatial location and position – or its orientation relative to the earth’s magnetic field – and can be integrated into even the smallest devices.

OMRON Corporation today announced that they have finished development work on the world’s first infrared sensor manufactured with wafer-level vacuum packaging technology to create a 16×16 element MEMS non-contact infrared thermal sensor capable of highly precise 90-degree area detection. OMRON says it will ship test samples beginning in October 2013.

In recent years, the demand for human presence sensors has been growing in tandem with the demand for energy-efficient "smart home" and "smart office" environments, in which lighting, heating, etc. is automatically controlled according to where people are positioned. Since conventional pyroelectric human presence sensors (motion sensors) are only able to detect people when they are in motion, they are not as suitable for detecting the number of people in a certain space or their relative positions as Omron’s new thermal sensor.

MEMS non-contact thermal sensors measure temperature by converting infrared energy radiated from target objects into heat with MEMS thermopiles and then measuring the thermoelectromotive force resulting from temperature differences that occur across the contact points of two different types of metal. However, up till now it has not been possible to create large temperature differences across the metal contact points because much of the heat generated by the thermopiles dissipates into the surrounding air, meaning that the resulting thermoelectromotive force is reduced thereby limiting sensitivity. Omron believes they solved this heat dissipation problem by vacuum sealing the thermopiles inside the chip – the first time this has been achieved. The reduction in heat dissipation leads to a greater temperature difference across the metal contacts thereby increasing sensitivity.

How non-contact thermal sensors work

MEMS thermal sensor wafer level packaging

Thermal sensors utilize the Seebeck effect in which thermoelectric force is generated due to the temperature difference at the contact points between two different kinds of metal. Thermopiles are created by serially connecting thermocouples consisting of N+ poly Si, P+ poly Si, and Al. By creating hot junctions on highly heat-resistant dielectric membranes, and cold junctions on highly heat-conductive silicon, it is possible to achieve high-energy conversion efficiency. Sealing thermopiles in a vacuum prevents the heat they create from dissipating into the air thereby increasing sensitivity. 

Omron will now also work on commercializing stand-alone human presence sensor modules by combining non-contact thermal sensors with algorithms that can accurately distinguish the number of people and their positions within a detected space.

Model versions of Omron’s new human presence sensors will be displayed at the "Nanomicro Biz" Exhibition at Tokyo Big Sight on July 3, 4, and 5.

The development of this new sensor was the result of research carried out in collaboration with Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization.