Category Archives: Packaging

In its recently released Mid-Year Update to The McClean Report 2018, IC Insights forecasts that the 2018-2022 global GDP and IC market correlation coefficient will reach 0.95, up from 0.88 in the 2010-2017 time period.  IC Insights depicts the increasingly close correlation between worldwide GDP growth and IC market growth through 2017, as well as its forecast through 2022, in Figure 1.

As shown, over the 2010-2017 timeframe, the correlation coefficient between worldwide GDP lgrowth and IC market growth was 0.88, a strong figure given that a perfect correlation is 1.0.  In the three decades previous to this timeperiod, the correlation coefficient ranged from a relatively weak 0.63 in the early 2000s to a negative correlation (i.e., essentially no correlation) of -0.10 in the 1990s.

IC Insights believes that the increasing number of mergers and acquisitions, leading to fewer major IC manufacturers and suppliers, is one of major changes in the supply base that illustrate the maturing of the industry that is helping foster a closer correlation between worldwide GDP growth and IC market growth. Other factors include the strong movement to the fab-lite business model and a declining capex as a percent of sales ratio, all trends that are indicative of dramatic changes to the semiconductor industry that are likely to lead to less volatile market cycles over the long term.

In 2017, IC industry growth was greatly influenced by the “Capacity/Capital Spending Cycle Model” as the DRAM and NAND flash markets surged and served to drive total IC industry growth of 25%.  It would initially appear that the strong correlation coefficient between worldwide GDP growth and total IC market growth that had been evident from 2010 through 2016 had disappeared in 2017.  However, IC Insights does not believe that is the case.

When excluding the DRAM and NAND flash segments from the IC market in 2017, the remainder of the IC market displayed an 11% increase, which closely correlates to what would be expected given a worldwide GDP increase from 2.4% in 2016 to 3.1% in 2017.  Moreover, the three-point decline in the total IC market growth rate forecast for 2018, when excluding DRAM and NAND flash (from 11% in 2017 to 8% in 2018), is expected to mirror the slight decline expected for worldwide GDP growth this year as compared to last year.  Thus, excluding the amazing surge for the DRAM and NAND flash markets in 2017 and 2018, IC Insights believes that the trend toward an increasingly close correlation between total IC market growth and worldwide GDP growth is still largely intact.

Figure 1

 

Imec, a research and innovation hub in nanoelectronics and digital technologies, announces that Niels Verellen, one of its young scientists, has been awarded an ERC Starting Grant. The grant of 1.5 million euros (for 5 years) will be used to enable high-resolution, fast, robust, zero-maintenance, inexpensive and ultra-compact microscopy technology based on on-chip photonics and CMOS image sensors. The technology paves the way for multiple applications of cell imaging in life sciences, biology, and medicine and compact, cost-effective DNA sequencing instruments.

Microscopy is an indispensable tool in biology and medicine that has fueled many breakthroughs. Recently the world of microscopy has witnessed a true revolution in terms of increased resolution of fluorescent imaging techniques, including a Nobel Prize in 2014. Yet, these techniques remain largely locked-up in specialized laboratories as they require bulky, expensive instrumentation and highly skilled operators.

The next big push in microscopy with a large societal impact will come from extremely compact and robust optical systems that will make high-resolution microscopy highly accessible and as such facilitate the diagnosis and treatment of diseases or disorders caused by problems at the cell or molecular level, such as meningitis, malaria, diabetes, cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease. Moreover, it will pave the way to DNA analysis as a more standard procedure, not only for the diagnosis of genomic disorders or in forensics, but also in cancer treatment, follow-up of transplants, the microbiome, pre-natal tests, and even agriculture, and archeology.

Niels Verellen, Senior Photonics Researcher & project leader at imec: “Compact, high-resolution and high-throughput microscopy devices will induce a profound change in the way cell biologists do research, in the way DNA sequencing becomes more and more accessible, in the way certain diseases can be diagnosed, new drugs are screened in the pharma industry, and healthcare workers can diagnose patients in remote areas.”

The topic of Verellen’s ERC grant is the development of Integrated high-Resolution On-Chip Structured Illumination Microscopy (IROCSIM). This new technology is based on a novel imaging platform that integrates active on-chip photonics and CMOS image sensors. “Whereas existing microscopy techniques today suffer from a trade-off between equipment size, field-of-view, and resolution, the IROCSIM solution will eliminate the need for bulky optical components and enable microscopy in the smallest possible form-factor, with a scalable field-of-view and without compromising the resolution,” continues Verellen.

The European Research Council (ERC) is a pan European funding body designed to support investigator-driven frontier research and stimulate scientific excellence across Europe. The ERC aims to support the best and most creative scientists to identify and explore new opportunities and directions in any field of research. ERC Starting grants in particular are designed to support outstanding researchers with 2 to 7 years postdoctoral experience.

Jo De Boeck, imec’s CTO says: “We are very proud that young researchers such as Niels Verellen are awarded an ERC Starting Grant and as such get a unique opportunity to fulfill their ambitions and creative ideas in research. At imec, we select and foster our young scientists and provide them with a world-class infrastructure. These ERC Starting Grants show that their work indeed meets the highest standards.”

The VCSEL industry took a strategic turn last year with the release of the latest iPhone. Indeed the leading smartphones manufacturer, Apple revealed to the entire world a new smartphone with innovative 3D sensing function based on VCSEL technology. Apple’s technical choice directly impacted the VCSEL industry and Yole Développement (Yole) announces today impressive market figures in its new technology and market report, VCSEL – Technology, Industry and Market Trends: more than 3.3 billion units in 2023 with a 31% CAGR between 2017 and 2023. This explosion is changing the future of all players of the VCSELs supply chain including: OEMs , integrators, device manufacturers, epi houses, foundries, equipment and material suppliers.

VCSEL – Technology, Industry and Market Trends report performed by Yole, presents an in-depth analysis of the VCSEL industry with its supply chain and competitive landscape. It exposes a comprehensive review of the main VCSEL applications including in-depth analysis of the consumer and automotive landscapes with 3D sensing, LiDAR and gas sensing. Under this report, Yole details VCSEL device market size, broken down by application and segment, and the related MOCVD reactor market. In addition, Yole’s analysts bring to light a significant overview of the VCSEL IP landscape. VCSEL manufacturing processes, associated challenges, recent trends and player positioning are also well analyzed.

3D sensing – and more – in smartphones will drive the VCSEL market for the next five years, announces the market research and strategy consulting company. Make sure to get an up-to-date picture today of this explosive market.

Data communications was the first industrial application to start integrating VCSELs. Their sweet spot has been in short-distance data communication due to their low power consumption and competitive price compared to EELs . Driven by the development of datacenters, the VCSEL market and production boomed in the 2000s with the internet’s popularity, and then grew steadily. Some new applications for VCSEL emerged, like laser printers and optical mice, but weren’t strong growth drivers.

Only in 2014, almost 20 years since the first use of the technology in datacom, VCSELs started to make their way into high volume consumer smartphones. But this coupling with sensors for proximity sensing and autofocus functions was only the beginning of the VCSEL success story.
“In 2017 Apple released the iPhone X, with a 3D sensing function based on this technology,” explains Pierrick Boulay, Technology & Market Analyst at Yole. And he explains: “The iPhone X integrates three different VCSEL dies for the proximity sensor and the Face ID module, and made the VCSEL market explode in 2017, propelling overall revenue to about US$330 million.”

Only in 2014, almost 20 years since the first use of the technology in datacom, VCSELs started to make their way into high volume consumer smartphones. But this coupling with sensors for proximity sensing and autofocus functions was only the beginning of the VCSEL success story.
“In 2017 Apple released the iPhone X, with a 3D sensing function based on this technology,” explains Pierrick Boulay, Technology & Market Analyst at Yole. And he explains: “The iPhone X integrates three different VCSEL dies for the proximity sensor and the Face ID module, and made the VCSEL market explode in 2017, propelling overall revenue to about US$330 million.”

Good iPhone X sales have now triggered the interest of other smartphone brands in this breakthrough 3D sensing function. Less than one year after the release of Apple’s flagship, its competitors are now following the same trend and starting to integrate 3D sensing technologies. Xiaomi and Oppo were the quickest on the draw, with the Xiaomi Mi8 and the Oppo Find X models presented in the second quarter of 2018. Other leading smartphone players like Huawei, Vivo or Samsung are also expected to integrate VCSELs into their flagship models by 2019.

In this context, the explosion of VCSEL demand initiated in 2017 will persist for the next five years, potentially multiplying the business opportunity more than tenfold. During that time, the technology might also find some new growth drivers into some other high volume applications such as automotive Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) or gas sensors.

“This trend will likely cause rapid evolution in the VCSEL industry in coming years in the form of investment, new entrants and M&A ”, comments Pars Mukish, Business Unit Manager SSL & Display activities at Yole.

VCSEL market volume is expected to grow from 652 million units in 2017 to more than 3.3 billion units in 2023. This booming trend is likely to trigger interest in VCSEL technology at many industry levels, including OEMs, integrators, device manufacturers, epi houses, foundries, equipment and material suppliers. To be able to follow this booming demand, more than 100 MOCVD reactors will be needed, which is likely to please companies that supply this equipment, such as Aixtron, Veeco and Taiyo Nippon Sanso.

Yole expects therefore strong investment and proliferation in the VCSEL industry with the entry of several new players, mostly from the LED industry, whose technology is similar.
Since 2016, Yole analysts’ have already seen some M&A, like ams’ acquisition of Princeton Optronics and Osram’s deal for Vixar and investment in manufacturing expansion or supply chain reinforcement, like Apple investing US$390 million in Finisar. Yole expects the bulk of these investments to occur in the coming years.

And once VCSEL hype reaches its peak, Yole also expects a necessary consolidation phase with more M&A occurring at all level of the supply chain and to support different strategies
•  Vertical integration – from system to module and/or from module to component
•  Application diversification – from datacom to sensing
•  Business diversification – from LED or EEL devices to VCSELs

In a key move to inspire the next generation of innovators, the School District of Osceola County (SDOC) today became the first school district to join the SEMI High Tech U (HTU) Certified Partner Program (CPP), a curriculum that prepares high-school students to pursue careers in STEM fields.

Under the program sponsored by the SEMI Foundation, SDOC will independently deliver HTU programs to local students at the Osceola Technical College Campus, in Kissimmee, Florida. SEMI Foundation awarded SDOC the certification today at a graduation ceremony for HTU students.

“SDOC’s partnership with the SEMI Foundation gives young people and families in our community exposure to high-tech career opportunities and the educational pathways to reach their goals,” said Debra Pace, superintendent of School District of Osceola County. “Our industry partners – including Mercury, University of Central Florida, BRIDG, Osceola Technical College, imec, Neo City and the Osceola County Education Foundation – have all made it possible for SDOC to offer this amazing opportunity to students.”

“We are delighted to partner with SDOC in our common goal to motivate the next generation of innovators,” said Leslie Tugman, executive director of the SEMI Foundation. “The School District of Osceola County is well-positioned to put college-bound high school students on a track that speeds the time from graduation to employment in high technology. SDOC’s certification is a tremendous benefit for it students, the community and employers in the fast-growing Central Florida tech corridor.”

To win the certification, SDOC delivered HTU over the past three years with guidance and instruction from SEMI. SDOC is only the second organization to receive the certification.

The nonprofit SEMI Foundation has been delivering its flagship program, SEMI High Tech U, at industry sites around the world since 2001 to emphasize the importance of STEM skills and inspire young people to pursue careers in high-technology fields. HTU students meet engineers and STEM volunteer instructors from industry for site tours and hands-on classroom activities such as etching wafers, making circuits, coding and training for professional interviews.

SEMI’s Certified Partner Program identifies organizations that provide quality training and can recruit and educate local high-school students in the value of careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Participating organizations are trained to deliver the unique SEMI curriculum with the support of volunteer instructors from the high-tech and STEM industries. SEMI High Tech U is the longest-running STEM career exploration program in the United States with documented student impact. Since inception, SEMI has reached over 8,000 high-school students in 12 states and nine countries with its award-winning program.

SEMI Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charitable organization founded in 2001 to support education and career awareness in the electronics and high-tech fields through career exploration programs and scholarships. For more information, visit www.semifoundation.org.

Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC), today announced the release of $26 million in added research funding for its New Science Team (NST) Joint University Microelectronics Program (JUMP). JUMP will fund 24 additional research projects spanning 14 unique U.S. universities. The new projects will be integrated into JUMP’s six existing research centers. NST will continue to distribute funds over its five-year plan, and industrial sponsors are welcome to join to further accentuate those plans.

The awards have been given to 27 faculty and will enhance the program’s expertise in technical areas such as atomic layer deposition (ALD), novel ferroelectric and spintronic materials and devices, 3D and heterogeneous integration, thermal management solutions, architectures for machine learning and statistical computing, memory abstractions, reconfigurable RF frontends, and mmWave to THz arrays and systems for communications and sensing.

“The goal of the NST project is not only to extend the viability of Moore’s Law economics through 2030, but to also change the research paradigm to one of co-optimization across the design hierarchy stack through multi-disciplinary teams,” said Ken Hansen, President and CEO of Semiconductor Research Corporation. “Our strategic partnerships with industry, academia, and government agencies foster the environment needed to realize the next wave of semiconductor technology innovations.”

“A new wave of fundamental research is required to unlock the ultimate potential of autonomous vehicles, smart cities, and Artificial Intelligence (AI),” said Dr. Michael Mayberry, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Intel and the elected Chairman of the NST Governing Council. “Such advances will be fueled by novel and far-reaching improvements in the materials, devices, circuits, architectures, and systems used for computing and communications.”

The JUMP program, a consortium consisting of 11 industrial participants and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), is one of two complementary research programs for the NST project—a 5-year, greater than $300 million SRC initiative launched this January. JUMP and its six thematic centers will advance a new wave of fundamental research focused on the high-performance, energy-efficient microelectronics for communications, computing, and storage needs for 2025 and beyond.

TheXcerra MT2168 XT pick-and-place handler was installed for a tri-temp module test application at a major player in global semiconductor manufacturing.  With its innovative features and highly flexible design the MT2168 XT meets the growing demand in high volume production for reliable and cost-efficient tri-temp test handling of multi-chip packages and modules in the automotive and consumer markets.

Today’s available equipment for module test handling are dedicated solutions with low throughput and limited temperature test capabilities. Xcerra’s MT2168 XT addresses the market need for a high volume production test solution for modules.  The MT2168 XT leverages the industry-known tri-temperature expertise of the Xcerra Handler Group specialists and provides advanced technical features of the latest generation of pick-and-place handler.  Additionally, the MT2168 XT is superior to traditional module test solutions when it comes to typical high volume production requirements such as the number of supported binning classes, small footprint, spare part and service support.

The MT2168 XT can be used for handling both package devices and modules.  Xcerra’s module test solution gives customers the greatest flexibility in high volume production with quick and easy change between different package types and different size modules.

Handling and testing modules can be challenging due to the physical dimensions and heterogeneous architecture of modules. The MT2168 XT independent plunger force and temperature control provides better ability to handle modules and precisely control power dissipation for high test yield.

Integrating contacting solutions from Xcerra’s Interface Product Group can be an additional advantage for module testing.  Extensive understanding of test contacting is beneficial for complex modules of different shapes and sizes.

Dr. Laurie Wright, Director Global Business Development, explains: “There is a growing demand in the semiconductor market for module test handling as customers seek to deliver greater value to their end customers.  The MT2168 XT brings the advantages from high volume package test to module test. Customers will benefit from this highly flexible and reliable tri-temperature test solution that can address a wide range of their high volume production requirements.”

To learn more about the Xcerra MT2168, please visit www.xcerra.com/MT2168.

North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $2.49 billion in billings worldwide in June 2018 (three-month average basis), according to the June Equipment Market Data Subscription (EMDS) Billings Report published today by SEMI. The billings figure is 8.0 percent lower than the final May 2018 level of $2.70 billion, and is 8.1 percent higher than the June 2017 billings level of $2.30 billion.

“Global billings of North American equipment manufacturers declined for the current month by 8 percent from the historic high but is still 8 percent higher than billings for the same period last year,” said Ajit Manocha, president and CEO of SEMI. “Billings remain robust.”

The SEMI Billings report uses three-month moving averages of worldwide billings for North American-based semiconductor equipment manufacturers. Billings figures are in millions of U.S. dollars.
Billings
(3-mo. avg)
Year-Over-Year
January 2018
$2,370.1
27.5%
February 2018
$2,417.8
22.5%
March 2018
$2,431.8
16.9%
April 2018
$2,689.9
25.9%
May 2018 (final)
$2,702.3
19.0%
June 2018 (prelim)
$2,485.7
8.1%

Source: SEMI (www.semi.org), July 2018

SEMI publishes a monthly North American Billings report and issues the Worldwide Semiconductor Equipment Market Statistics (WWSEMS) report in collaboration with the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ). The WWSEMS report currently reports billings by 24 equipment segments and by seven end market regions. SEMI also has a long history of tracking semiconductor industry fab investments in detail on a company-by-company and fab-by-fab basis in its World Fab Forecast and SEMI FabView databases. These powerful tools provide access to spending forecasts, capacity ramp, technology transitions, and other information for over 1,000 fabs worldwide. For an overview of available SEMI market data, please visit www.semi.org/en/MarketInfo.

Toshiba Memory Corporation today held a groundbreaking ceremony for the first semiconductor fabrication facility (fab), called K1, in Kitakami, Iwate prefecture, in northeastern Japan. On its completion in autumn 2019, the facility will be one of the most advanced manufacturing operations in the world, dedicated to production of 3D flash memory.

Toshiba Memory continues to advance technologies in flash memory. The company is now leading the way forward with advances in its BiCS FLASH™, its proprietary 3D flash memory.

Demand for 3D flash memory is increasing significantly on fast growing demand for enterprise servers, datacenters and smartphones. Toshiba memory expects continued strong growth in the mid and long term. The new facility will make a major contribution to business competitiveness in corporation with Yokkaichi operations.

The new facility will not only be the largest Toshiba Memory fab, but it will be the most advanced as well. It will be constructed with a seismic isolation structure that allows it to absorb earthquake tremors, and it will reduce environmental loads by deployment of the latest energy-saving manufacturing facilities. It will also introduce an advanced production system that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to boost productivity. Decisions on the new fab’s equipment investment, production capacity and production plan will reflect market trends.

Toshiba Memory expects to continue its joint venture investments in the new facility based on ongoing discussions with Western Digital Corporation.

Going forward, Toshiba Memory will continue to actively cultivate initiatives aimed at strengthening competitiveness, including timely capital investments and R&D in line with market trends. The company will also contribute to the development of the regional economy of Iwate prefecture, Japan.

Toshiba Memory Corporation today announced that it has developed a prototype sample of 96-layer BiCS FLASH, its proprietary 3D flash memory, with 4-bit-per-cell (quad level cell, QLC) technology that boosts single-chip memory capacity to the highest level yet achieved.

Toshiba Memory will start to deliver samples to SSD and SSD controller manufacturers for evaluation from the beginning of September, and expects to start mass production in 2019.

The advantage of QLC technology is pushing the bit count for data per memory cell from three to four and significantly expanding capacity. The new product achieves the industry’s maximum capacity [1] of 1.33 terabits for a single chip which was jointly developed with Western Digital Corporation.

This also realizes an unparalleled capacity of 2.66 terabytes with a 16-chip stacked architecture in one package. The huge volumes of data generated by mobile terminals and the like continue to increase with the spread of SNS and progress in IoT, and the need to analyze and utilize that data in real time is expected to increase dramatically. That will require even faster than HDD, larger capacity storage and QLC products using the 96-layer process will contribute a solution.

A packaged prototype of the new device will be exhibited at the 2018 Flash Memory Summit in Santa Clara, California, USA from August 6th to 9th.

Looking to the future, Toshiba Memory will continue to improve memory capacity and performance and to develop 3D flash memories that meet diverse market needs, including the fast expanding data center storage market.

Rahul Goyal of Intel has been elected to a one-year term as board chair of Silicon Integration Initiative, a research and development joint venture that provides standard interoperability solutions for integrated circuit design tools. The election was held during Si2’s board meeting at the recent Design Automation Conference.

A member of the Si2 board since 2003, Goyal is vice president, Technology and Manufacturing Group and director, Research and Development Strategic Enabling for Intel. He has global responsibility for strategic sourcing, supply chain strategy, industry relations, ecosystem development, strategic collaborations, data analytics, and capacity management related to product development across Intel’s broad product portfolio. This includes software, system and semiconductor intellectual property, product development outsourcing services, electronic measurement solutions, electronic design automation software, prototyping and verification products used in all aspects of product design, validation and technology development.

Goyal joined Intel in 1989 and has held various technical and management positions in software engineering and technology development. His previous roles there include engineering director in the Design and Technology Solutions Group, director of the integrated silicon technology roadmap development in the Microprocessor Products Group, and senior engineering manager of mask operations.

Goyal holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical and electronics engineering from Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, India, and a master’s degree in computer engineering from Syracuse University, Syracuse, N.Y.