Category Archives: Semiconductors

Researchers have shown that defects in the molecular structure of perovskites – a material which could revolutionise the solar cell industry – can be “healed” by exposing it to light and just the right amount of humidity.

The international team of researchers demonstrated in 2016 that defects in the crystalline structure of perovskites could be healed by exposing them to light, but the effects were temporary.

Now, an expanded team, from Cambridge, MIT, Oxford, Bath and Delft, have shown that these defects can be permanently healed, which could further accelerate the development of cheap, high-performance perovskite-based solar cells that rival the efficiency of silicon. Their results are reported in the inaugural edition of the journal Joule, published by Cell Press.

The concoction of light with water and oxygen molecules leads to substantial defect-healing in metal halide perovskite semiconductors. Credit: Dr. Matthew T. Klug

The concoction of light with water and oxygen molecules leads to substantial defect-healing in metal halide perovskite semiconductors. Credit: Dr. Matthew T. Klug

Most solar cells on the market today are silicon-based, but since they are expensive and energy-intensive to produce, researchers have been searching for alternative materials for solar cells and other photovoltaics. Perovskites are perhaps the most promising of these alternatives: they are cheap and easy to produce, and in just a few short years of development, perovskites have become almost as efficient as silicon at converting sunlight into electricity.

Despite the potential of perovskites, some limitations have hampered their efficiency and consistency. Tiny defects in the crystalline structure of perovskites, called traps, can cause electrons to get “stuck” before their energy can be harnessed. The easier that electrons can move around in a solar cell material, the more efficient that material will be at converting photons, particles of light, into electricity.

“In perovskite solar cells and LEDs, you tend to lose a lot of efficiency through defects,” said Dr Sam Stranks, who led the research while he was a Marie Curie Fellow jointly at MIT and Cambridge. “We want to know the origins of the defects so that we can eliminate them and make perovskites more efficient.”

In a 2016 paper, Stranks and his colleagues found that when perovskites were exposed to illumination, iodide ions – atoms stripped of an electron so that they carry an electric charge – migrated away from the illuminated region, and in the process swept away most of the defects in that region along with them. However, these effects, while promising, were temporary because the ions migrated back to similar positions when the light was removed.

In the new study, the team made a perovskite-based device, printed using techniques compatible with scalable roll-to-roll processes, but before the device was completed, they exposed it to light, oxygen and humidity. Perovskites often start to degrade when exposed to humidity, but the team found that when humidity levels were between 40 and 50 percent, and the exposure was limited to 30 minutes, degradation did not occur. Once the exposure was complete, the remaining layers were deposited to finish the device.

When the light was applied, electrons bound with oxygen, forming a superoxide that could very effectively bind to electron traps and prevent these traps from hindering electrons. In the accompanying presence of water, the perovskite surface also gets converted to a protective shell. The shell coating removes traps from the surfaces but also locks in the superoxide, meaning that the performance improvements in the perovskites are now long-lived.

“It’s counter-intuitive, but applying humidity and light makes the perovskite solar cells more luminescent, a property which is extremely important if you want efficient solar cells,” said Stranks, who is now based at Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory. “We’ve seen an increase in luminescence efficiency from one percent to 89 percent, and we think we could get it all the way to 100 percent, which means we could have no voltage loss – but there’s still a lot of work to be done.”

Researchers examining the flow of electricity through semiconductors have uncovered another reason these materials seem to lose their ability to carry a charge as they become more densely “doped.” Their results, which may help engineers design faster semiconductors in the future, are published online in the journal ACS Nano.

Semiconductors are found in just about every piece of modern electronics, from computers to televisions to your cell phone. They fall somewhere between metals, which conduct electricity very well, and insulators like glass that don’t conduct electricity at all. This moderate conduction property is what allows semiconductors to perform as switches and transistors in electronics.

The most common material for semiconductors is silicon, which is mined from the earth and then refined and purified. But pure silicon doesn’t conduct electricity, so the material is purposely and precisely adulterated by the addition of other substances known as dopants. Boron and phosphorus ions are common dopants added to silicon-based semiconductors that allow them to conduct electricity.

But the amount of dopant added to a semiconductor matters – too little dopant and the semiconductor won’t be able to conduct electricity. Too much dopant and the semiconductor becomes more like a non-conductive insulator.

“There’s a sweet spot when it comes to doping where the right amount allows for the efficient conduction of electricity, but after a certain point, adding more dopants slows down the flow,” says Preston Snee, associate professor of chemistry at the University of Illinois at Chicago and corresponding author on the paper.

“For a long time scientists thought that the reason efficient conduction of electricity dropped off with the addition of more dopants was because these dopants caused the flowing electrons to be deflected away, but we found that there’s also another way too many dopants impede the flow of electricity.”

Snee, UIC chemistry student Asra Hassan, and their colleagues wanted to get a closer look at what happens when electricity flows through a semiconductor.

Using the Advanced Photon Source Argonne National Laboratory, they were able to capture X-ray images of what happens at the atomic level inside a semiconductor. They used tiny chips of cadmium sulfide for their semiconductor “base” and doped them with copper ions. Instead of wiring the tiny chips for electricity, they generated a flow of electrons through the semiconductors by shooting them with a powerful blue laser beam. At the same time, they took very high energy X-ray photos of the semiconductors at millionths of a microsecond apart – which showed what was happening at the atomic level in real time as electrons flowed through the doped semiconductors.

They found that when electrons were flowing through, the copper ions transiently formed bonds with the cadmium sulfate semiconductor base, which is detrimental to conduction.

“This has never been seen before,” said Hassan. “Electrons are still bouncing off dopants, which we knew already, but we now know of this other process that contributes to impeding flow of electricity in over-doped semiconductors.”

The bonding of the dopant ions to the semiconductor base material “causes the current to get stuck at the dopants, which we don’t want in our electronics, especially if we want them to be fast and efficient,” she said. “However, now that we know this is happening inside the material, we can design smarter systems that minimize this effect, which we call ‘charge carrier modulation of dopant bonding’.”

By Dave Anderson, president, SEMI Americas

The SEMI Strategic Materials Conference (SMC) is the industry’s premier event devoted to technology and business drivers of materials in the electronics supply chain. Slated for September 18-20 in San Jose, Calif., the 18th annual SMC “offers a unique chance to network and discover opportunities in and around the industry in a year where dramatic growth has returned to the semiconductor market,” observes SMC 2017 co-chair Mark Thirsk of Linx Consulting, who will provide opening remarks at the conference.

SMC features three distinguished keynote speakers: AMD’s CTO, Mark Papermaster, will discuss “The Future of Semiconductors: Moore’s Law Plus.”  Next, Lam Research’s CTO, Dave Hemker, will present “The Next Level: Is it Time for Equipment and Materials Suppliers to Collaborate More?” describing how the current market environment is having a rippling effect across the supply chain. “As the continuation of Moore’s Law becomes ever-more challenging, closer, earlier collaboration between materials suppliers, equipment makers, and semiconductor manufacturers becomes necessary,” says Hemker.   SMIC’s Sunny Hui, senior VP of Marketing, will kick off day two telling the audience how to “Collaborate to Win in China.”

The first day’s agenda features “Economic and Market Trends: The Consolidation Game (M&A), China, 200mm & More,” with speakers from Applied Materials, Credit Suisse, Linx Consulting, and SEMI China.

Detailing Heterogeneous Integration for Performance and Scaling, UCLA’s Subramanian S. Iyer will describe how adapting silicon-inspired processing, integration, and materials to advanced packaging constructs may be the key to perpetuating Moore’s Law.

The Future of Materials Market in China will focus on the state of China’s semiconductor materials industry, government policies, growth opportunities for suppliers, and best practices for companies operating in this expanding environment.  Hear from Dow Chemical, Konfoong Materials International (KFMI) and SMIC.

More than twenty program sessions will explore the developments driving industry growth and enabling innovative new materials for today’s evolving electronics industry. The conference agenda also includes:

  • Process Challenges at 5nm & Beyond: Insights from ARM, Samsung, and TSMC.
  • Universities − Innovation Drivers: Viewpoints from Stanford University, University of California Berkeley, and University of Chicago.
  • Materials Supply Chain Challenges in Adjacent Industries: Perspectives from Linde Group, PARC (Xerox), and Pixelligent Technologies
  • Heterogeneous Integration − Design to New Materials & Packaging: Insights from ASE Group, imec, and UCLA

SMC 2017 will close with an Executive Panel discussion addressing emerging material challenges for each participant’s company and the segment within which it operates. Executives from Intel, Tokyo Electron, TSMC and Versum Materials will share their views on how the industry can collectively address challenges through focused R&D investment, collaboration throughout the vertical supply chain, and the application of innovative business strategies to ensure a win-win for all companies across the extended supply chain.

I hope to see you at the SEMI Strategic Materials Conference this month. Learn more and register here.

Note: The SEMI Strategic Material Conference (SMC) is organized by the Chemical and Gas Manufacturers Group, a SEMI not-for-profit Special Interest Group comprised of leading manufacturers, producers, packagers, and distributors of chemicals and gases used in the electronics industry.

 

By Ajit Manocha, president and CEO, SEMI

In my first six months at SEMI, I’ve visited with many member companies and industry leaders.  One theme I hear repeatedly is a concern about our most fundamental source of innovation and productivity – people.

Our industry has a significant need for additional workers and several trends are working against us.

For one, only 11 percent of elementary students in the U.S. indicate an interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education according to the National Science Foundation.  In other regions, recruiting and retaining high-skilled workers remains a constant challenge.

Ironically, the incredible electronics manufacturing technology that we create has enabled many of the new-tech industries in software, social media, internet services and applications that now directly compete for the best and brightest technical talent.  Young engineers have other choices and many are lured to newer growth industries with familiar internet brands.

Today, due to continued industry advancement and robust growth, capital equipment companies, device makers and materials companies collectively have thousands to tens-of-thousands of open unfilled positions. Furthermore, the representation of women in the high-tech workplace remains disproportionately low.

We have long been aware of the need to support a diverse pipeline for high-skilled workers.  In 2001, the SEMI Foundation was established to encourage STEM education and stimulate interest in high-tech careers. SEMI and its Foundation launched the High-Tech U (HTU) program to engage and excite high school students. HTU enlists industry volunteers to work with local high school students in a three-day interactive hands-on curriculum. Young people get a fun and inspirational exposure to binary logic, circuit making, a fab or electronics manufacturing setting and other aspects of professional development.

To date, we’ve delivered 216 HTU programs and reached nearly 7,000 students in 12 states and nine countries.  The results are compelling.  Our 2016 survey of HTU alumni shows that they enter college at five times the national rates and 70 percent that graduated college are employed in a STEM field.   By any measure, the initiative is successful and worthwhile.

However, the talent problem statement has grown. Industry needs are greater and the time has come to redouble our effort to attract and retain talent for our high-skilled manufacturing sector.  Therefore, SEMI is elevating workforce development as a top strategic priority.

The SEMI HTU team is already engaged with key member companies to develop our enhanced roadmap for workforce development including a comprehensive study with Deloitte Consulting to underpin the key problems and solutions in areas of focus for decisive and systematic SEMI action.

Belle Wei, SEMI Foundation Board member and the Carolyn Guidry Chair in Engineering Education and Innovative Learning at San Jose State University said, “It is critical that we work to prepare the future workforce.  This requires a high level of collaboration between industry and higher education.  We appreciate SEMI’s leadership role in this collaboration to further develop the workforce pipeline.”

We have launched a HTU Certified Partner Program (CPP) with the goal of reaching more students through industry partners who commit to long-term participation and independent delivery of High Tech U.  In addition, we are expanding outreach to universities and community colleges and preparing to launch an industry image campaign to better tell the remarkable story of opportunity in our industry.

The capacity to innovate and the skills to manage complex design, engineering and manufacturing processes are essential factors that sustains our high-tech industry – and they are dependent on people.

Finally, as mentioned above, we have already started some new initiatives to enhance our HTU. A SEMI workforce development roadmap and execution plan will be detailed in a future SEMI Global Update article following the upcoming SEMI International Board Meeting.  SEMI welcomes any inputs in addition to your continued support.

This endeavor is increasingly urgent and recruiting the industry’s future innovators is well-aligned with SEMI’s mantra to connect, collaborate, innovate, grow and prosper.

Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, Inc (TAIEX: 2311, NYSE: ASX), a semiconductor assembly and test service provider, announced that its K7 manufacturing facility in Kaohsiung has received the Green Factory Label from the Industrial Development Bureau, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Taiwan. K7 is the sixth factory following K3, K5, K11, K12 and K15, at the ASE Kaohsiung Nantze campus to receive the label.

ASE is fully committed to corporate sustainability through actions that produce tangible results and meet our goal of co-existence with the environment. In 2009, ASE Kaohsiung green building plans were drawn up to combine nature with technology, and provide a green factory environment optimized for living, productivity and the ecology. The ASE K7 building has incorporated green innovation, eco-friendly designs, energy and water conservation, waste reduction, low carbon and various environmental benchmarks to achieve the green factory label.

‘Sustainability has always been at the core of ASE’s corporate philosophy,’ said KC Chou, senior vice president, ASE. ‘In 2014, ASE Kaohsiung implemented the EEWH-RN system and adopted ‘clean production’. Beginning with sustainable product design and production, green management, social responsibility to innovation; these four facets helped reduce resource consumption, reduce waste, lower impacts to the environment and other improvements that aim to strike a balance between economic and environmental sustainability. Our Kaohsiung facilities are constantly challenged to establish energy reduction goals and each department regularly proposes diverse programs to lower carbon footprints. This year, K7 is also working towards achieving the EEWH-RN diamond grade. At ASE, we will continuously raise the bar on our sustainability performance,’ he concluded.

About ASE Sustainability Actions and Results

ASE K7

  • Green innovation. The use of DI water to replace acetic acid reduced the usage of organic acid by 14,400 liters.
  • Green material usage. The use of boron-free developing agent reduced boron-containing agent usage by 1,830 liters and boron-containing liquid waste by 2,015 metric tons per year. The use of lead-free solder paste reduced usage of lead paste by 1,500 kg per year.
  • Energy efficient manufacturing process. Improvements made to the adsorption dryer reduced energy usage by 278,495 kWh per year.
  • Water efficiency. The use of chamber piping to control water flow resulted in water savings of 314.52 tons per year. Employing UF and RO systems further reduced wastewater discharge volume by 15,600 tons.
  • Lower carbon emissions. Converting the fixed frequency of chilled water pumps and cooling water pumps to variable frequency enabled us to reduce 625 tons of CO2 equivalent per year. Energy efficiency lights are installed throughout the factory premises, further reducing 793 tons of CO2 equivalent per year.
  • Waste reduction. Establishing a central chemical delivery system helped reduce the use of 1,208 chemical barrels per year. We also reduced photoresist coating usage by 14,400 liters per year. Gold and copper reuse amounted to 474.45 kg per year. Wafer cassette reuse amounted to 39,795 pieces per year.

Building certifications as of August 31, 2017

  • LEED rating：Kaohsiung K12, K21, K22, K23, K26；Chung Li Buildings K and L；Shanghai Headquarters
  • EEWH rating：Kaohsiung K3, K4, K5, K7, K11, K12, K14B(water recycling facility), K15, K16, K21, K26；Chung Li Building A
  • Green Factory Label：Kaohsiung K3, K5, K7, K11, K12, K15
  • In progress: The construction of our new K24 building in Kaohsiung has taken into consideration of ‘low carbon footprint building’ methodologies from the transportation of materials, equipment, type of material used, renovation, dismantling and the entire building’s life cycle.

Toshiba Corporation (TOKYO:6502) (Toshiba) is in continuing negotiations with three consortia of potential purchasers of Toshiba Memory Corporation (TMC): the Innovation Network Corporation of Japan, Bain Capital Private Equity LP and Development Bank of Japan consortium; a consortium that includes Western Digital; and a consortium that includes Hon Hai. At this point, Toshiba has not made any decision to reduce the pool of candidate purchasers of TMC.

There have been media reports speculating that Toshiba will make a decision on Aug 31 at Toshiba’s Board of Directors meeting. While Toshiba exercised its best efforts to reach a mutually satisfactory definitive agreement with one of the consortia seeking to purchase TMC, the negotiation with each consortium has not reached the point which will allow Toshiba’s Board of Directors could make a decision regarding the sale of TMC.

The memory business requires timely investments, accelerated product development, and the ability to quickly ramp-up large-scale production capacity; Highly reliable memory devices are essential to meet growing demand for storage. Accordingly, Toshiba is looking for a purchaser of TMC that is able to deliver flexible, rapid decision-making and enhanced financial options, and to promote further growth of TMC’s memory business, while also being capable of contributing enough value from the sale of TMC to return the Toshiba group to positive equity.

Toshiba intends to continue negotiations with possible bidders to reach a definitive agreement which meets Toshiba’s objectives at the earliest possible date, and will announce material changes in status in a timely manner.

To perpetuate the pace of innovation and progress in microelectronics technology over the past half-century, it will take an enormous village rife with innovators. This week, about 100 of those innovators throughout the broader technology ecosystem, including participants from the military, commercial, and academic sectors, gathered at DARPA headquarters at the kickoff meeting for the Agency’s new CHIPS program, known in long form as the Common Heterogeneous Integration and Intellectual Property (IP) Reuse Strategies program.

Many future microelectronics systems could be assembled with a library of plug-and-play chiplets that combine their respective modular functions with unprecedented versatility.

Many future microelectronics systems could be assembled with a library of plug-and-play chiplets that combine their respective modular functions with unprecedented versatility.

“Now we are moving beyond pretty pictures and mere words, and we are rolling up our sleeves to do the hard work it will take to change the way we think about, design, and build our microelectronic systems,” said Dan Green, the CHIPS program manager. The crux of the program is to develop a new technological framework in which different functionalities and blocks of intellectual property—among them data storage, computation, signal processing, and managing the form and flow of data—can be segregated into small chiplets, which then can be mixed, matched, and combined onto an interposer, somewhat like joining the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Conceivably an entire conventional circuit board with a variety of different but full-sized chips could be shrunk down onto a much smaller interposer hosting a huddle of yet far smaller chiplets.

Central to the design and intention of the program is the creation of a new community of researchers and technologists that mix-and-match mindsets, skillsets, technological strengths, and business interests. That is why the dozen selected prime contractors for the program include large defense companies (Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Boeing), large microelectronics companies (Intel, Micron, and Cadence Design Systems), other semiconductor design players (Synopsys, Intrinsix Corp., and Jariet Technologies), and university teams (University of Michigan, Georgia Institute of Technology, and North Carolina State University). What’s more, many of these prime contractors will be working with additional partners who will extend the village of innovators working on the CHIPS program.

“If the CHIPS program is successful, we will gain access to a wider variety of specialized blocks that we will be able to integrate into our systems more easily and with lower costs,” said Green. “This should be a win for both the commercial and defense sectors.”

Among the specific technologies that could emerge from this newly formed research community are compact replacements for entire circuit boards, ultrawideband radio frequency (RF) systems, which require tight integration of fast data converters with powerful processing functions, and, by combining chiplets that provide different accelerator and processor functions, fast-learning systems for teasing out interesting and actionable data from much larger volumes of mundane data. “By bringing the best design capabilities, reconfigurable circuit fabrics, and accelerators from the commercial domain, we should be able to create defense systems just by adding smaller specialized chiplets,” said Bill Chappell, director of DARPA’s Microsystems Technology Office.

“The CHIPS program is part of DARPA’s much larger effort, the Electronics Resurgence Initiative, in which we are striving to build an electronics community that mixes the best of the commercial and defense capabilities for national defense,” Chappell said. “The ERI, which will involve roughly $200 million annual investments for the next four years, will nurture research in materials, device designs, and circuit and system architecture. The next round of investments are expected this September as part of the broader initiative.”

 Yole Développement (Yole) expects the IGBT market to go over US$ 5 billion by 2022 with a major growth coming from IGBT power module. The high performance that SiC and GaN materials can afford is already creating a battlefield with Silicon based IGBT. To overcome this thread, Si IGBT manufacturers need to look for prompt solutions as technologically update their systems for better efficiency or to increase their IGBT portfolio offer.

How is the IGBT market evolving for different applications? How will the IGBT market face the adoption of high performance WBG based devices?… Yole’s power electronics team proposes you today a new technology & market report titled IGBT market and technology trends 2017 report. Yole’s report presents an overview of the IGBT market including detailed forecasts and a new application section focused on energy storage systems. This analysis is also showing the status of the competitive landscape.

Figure 1

Figure 1

The IGBT market represents a very promising bet for the next few years, announces the “More than Moore” market research and strategy consulting company: its analysts invite you to discover the latest IGBT technology trends and market challenges.

“The IGBT industry will follow power electronics’ growth pattern, mainly caused by the high volume automotive market, especially for the electrification of powertrains in EV/HEV ”, asserts Dr Ana Villamor, Technology & Market Analyst, Power Electronics at Yole Développement.

The EV/HEV sector has great growth prospects because it is still an emerging market with tremendous volume potential.

Another big sector for IGBT is clearly motor drives, which keep on growing, thanks to aggressive regulation targets. Yole Développement forecasts a 4.6% CAGR for motor drives from 2016 to 2022. Photovoltaics and wind are very dynamic markets with growth from huge installations being installed during the last few years. It is worth to say that China led the solar panel implementation in 2016, with an impressive 35 GW installed.

“There will be applications for SiC which will impact the IGBT market, for example it is highly possible that it will take over the automotive market”, comments Dr Ana Villamor. “However, we forecast that IGBTs will keep a significant market share in the power electronics industry and will not be replaced completely.”

In fact, even if the IGBT has almost reached its technological limit, new designs and new materials can still be used to improve system performance to overcome the WBG devices arrival. In coming years, there will be new IGBT designs from Infineon, Fuji or ABB coming into the market. Packages are being improved by different manufacturers to decrease parasitics and improve system efficiency. A clear example is the introduction of the embedded techniques for discrete IGBTs and overmolded solutions for IGBT modules to reduce size or increase functional density.

Currently, IGBT manufacturers can have wide voltage ranges in their portfolios, going from 400 V to 6.5k V. The 400 V IGBTs will directly compete with MOSFETs, whereas IGBTs with voltages higher than 600 V will compete with SJ MOSFETs and WBG devices, which exhibit advantages over IGBTs. Lower voltage IGBTs will not be developed since they do not show any advantage compared with MOSFETs.

As IGBTs is a mature technology, the supply chain is well established, with strong partnerships and companies well positioned in each level.

“Therefore, the main IGBT manufacturers that we included in our 2015 report are still in the IGBT best sellers, except ON Semiconductor, which has become one of the top five IGBT vendors after the acquisition of Fairchild at the end of 2016”, explains Dr Ana Villamor. “However, more companies are entering the IGBT market in order to capture added value, like Littelfuse, who just announced the agreement on the acquisition of IXYS Corporation.”

BY PETE SINGER, Editor-in-Chief

At a SEMICON West press conference, SEMI released its Mid-year Forecast. Worldwide sales of new semiconductor manufacturing equipment are projected to increase 19.8 percent to total $49.4 billion in 2017, marking the first time that the semiconductor equipment market has exceeded the market high of $47.7 billion set in 2000. In 2018, 7.7 percent growth is expected, resulting in another record-breaking year—totaling $53.2 billion for the global semiconductor equipment market.

“It’s really an exciting time for the industry in the terms of technology, the growth in information and data and that’s all going to require semiconductors to enable that growth,” said Dan Tracy, senior director, IR&S at SEMI.

The average of various analysts forecast the semiconductor industry in general 12% growth for the year. “It’s a very good growth year for the industry,” Tracy said. “In January, the consensus was about 5% growth for the year and with the improvement in the market and the firmer pricing for memory we see an increase in the outlook for the market.”

The SEMI Mid-year Forecast predicts wafer processing equipment is anticipated to increase 21.7 percent in 2017 to total $39.8 billion. The other front-end segment, which consists of fab facilities equipment, wafer manufacturing, and mask/reticle equipment, will increase 25.6 percent to total $2.3 billion. The assembly and packaging equipment segment is projected to grow by 12.8 percent to $3.4 billion in 2017 while semiconductor test equipment is forecast to increase by 6.4 percent, to a total of $3.9 billion this year.

“Based on the May outlook, we are looking at a record year in terms of tracking equipment spending. This is for new equipment, used equipment, and spending related to the facility that installed the equipment. It will be about a $49 billion market this year. Next year, it’s going to grow to $54 billion, so we have two years in a row of back to back record spending,” Tracy said.

In 2017, South Korea will be the largest equipment market for the first time. After maintaining the top spot for five years, Taiwan will place second, while China will come in third. All regions tracked will experience growth, with the exception of Rest of World (primarily Southeast Asia). South Korea will lead in growth with 68.7 percent, followed by Europe at 58.6 percent, and North America at 16.3 percent.

SEMI forecasts that in 2018, equipment sales in China will climb the most, 61.4 percent, to a total of $11.0 billion, following 5.9 percent growth in 2017. In 2018, South Korea, Taiwan, and China are forecast to remain the top three markets, with South Korea maintaining the top spot to total $13.4 billion. China is forecasted to become the second largest market at $11.0 billion, while equipment sales to Taiwan are expected to reach $10.9 billion.

BY PETE SINGER, Editor-in-Chief

The ConFab 2018, to be held May 20-23 in Las Vegas at THE COSMOPOLITAN of Las Vegas, will take a close look at the new applications driving the semiconductor industry, the technology that will be required at the device and process level to meet new demands, and – perhaps most importantly – the kind of strategic collaboration that will be required. It is this combination of business, technology and social inter- actions that make The ConFab so unique and so valuable. Here are six key trends that will each have a huge impact in the near future:

  • The semiconductor industry is on the cusp of a new era of growth, driven by a diverse array of applications. Much of the growth will come from the need for better connec- tivity and more intelligent data analysis.
  • In the Internet of Things (IoT), data is captured by sensors and transferred via the appropriate networks, stored in data centers and analyzed. This creates demand for high perfor- mance computing, including artificial intelligence and “deep learning.” New computational methods are emerging, such as neuromorphic methods that mimic how the brain works.
  • Faster communication with higher bandwidth will be required. 5G wireless communication is coming, as is improved WiFi, near-field communication, Bluetooth and satellite communication.
  • Huge opportunities exist in automotive electronics, as autonomous driving moves closer to reality.
  • Virtual reality will be combined with artificial intelligence to create a truly immersive experience that mankind has never experienced.
  • Semiconductors will play an increasingly important role in the healthcare industry, as diagnostic tools and patient monitoring.To meet the demands of these diverse applications, much innovation will be required on the technology side. Huge efforts are also needed to reduce the overall cost. Since the beginning, the economics of semiconductor manufacturinghas been a focal point of The ConFab. In 2018, we will be including insights into the emerging and rapidly growing new markets and what semiconductor device manufacturers need to know to successfully tap into those markets.

New technology needed in manufacturing will be another focal point of The ConFab. EUV is finally entering volume production, ushering in a new era of patterning for the 7 and 5nm genera- tions. Many new materials are being considered, transistors are evolving from FinFETs to gate-all-around nanowires, on chip communication with silicon photonics will soon emerge, and advanced packaging/heterogeneous integration is ever more critical.

There is a strong need for strategic collaboration across the entire supply chain. Empowering that collaboration is a high priority goal for The ConFab 2018. We do that through private, pre-arranged meetings among interested parties. The ConFab also includes well-attended evening receptions plus breakfasts, lunches and refreshment breaks. These offer exceptional networking opportunities for people to meet in a relaxed environment.

In 2018, we expect heightened interest and involvement as we explore how businesses, people and technology must all work together to meet the world’s insatiable demand for new electronics.

To inquire about participating – if you represent an equipment, material or service supplier, contact Kerry Hoffman, Director of Sales: [email protected]. To inquire about attending as a VIP, contact Sally Bixby, Events Director: [email protected].