Category Archives: Semiconductors

GLOBALFOUNDRIES today announced an important step in its transformation, continuing the trajectory launched with the appointment of Tom Caulfield as CEO earlier this year. In line with the strategic direction Caulfield has articulated, GF is reshaping its technology portfolio to intensify its focus on delivering truly differentiated offerings for clients in high-growth markets.

GF is realigning its leading-edge FinFET roadmap to serve the next wave of clients that will adopt the technology in the coming years. The company will shift development resources to make its 14/12nm FinFET platform more relevant to these clients, delivering a range of innovative IP and features including RF, embedded memory, low power and more. To support this transition, GF is putting its 7nm FinFET program on hold indefinitely and restructuring its research and development teams to support its enhanced portfolio initiatives. This will require a workforce reduction, however a significant number of top technologists will be redeployed on 14/12nm FinFET derivatives and other differentiated offerings.

“Demand for semiconductors has never been higher, and clients are asking us to play an ever-increasing role in enabling tomorrow’s technology innovations,” Caulfield said. “The vast majority of today’s fabless customers are looking to get more value out of each technology generation to leverage the substantial investments required to design into each technology node. Essentially, these nodes are transitioning to design platforms serving multiple waves of applications, giving each node greater longevity. This industry dynamic has resulted in fewer fabless clients designing into the outer limits of Moore’s Law. We are shifting our resources and focus by doubling down on our investments in differentiated technologies across our entire portfolio that are most relevant to our clients in growing market segments.”

In addition, to better leverage GF’s strong heritage and significant investments in ASIC design and IP, the company is establishing its ASIC business as a wholly-owned subsidiary, independent from the foundry business. A relevant ASIC business requires continued access to leading-edge technology. This independent ASIC entity will provide clients with access to alternative foundry options at 7nm and beyond, while allowing the ASIC business to engage with a broader set of clients, especially the growing number of systems companies that need ASIC capabilities and more manufacturing scale than GF can provide alone.

GF is intensifying investment in areas where it has clear differentiation and adds true value for clients, with an emphasis on delivering feature-rich offerings across its portfolio. This includes continued focus on its FDXTM platform, leading RF offerings (including RF SOI and high-performance SiGe), analog/mixed signal, and other technologies designed for a growing number of applications that require low power, real-time connectivity, and on-board intelligence. GF is uniquely positioned to serve this burgeoning market for “connected intelligence,” with strong demand in new areas such as autonomous driving, IoT and the global transition to 5G.

“Lifting the burden of investing at the leading edge will allow GF to make more targeted investments in technologies that really matter to the majority of chip designers in fast-growing markets such as RF, IoT, 5G, industrial and automotive,” said Samuel Wang, research vice president at Gartner. “While the leading edge gets most of the headlines, fewer customers can afford the transition to 7nm and finer geometries.  14nm and above technologies will continue to be the important demand driver for the foundry business for many years to come. There is significant room for innovation on these nodes to fuel the next wave of technology.”

Lattice Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ: LSCC), a provider of customizable smart connectivity solutions, announced the appointment of Jim Anderson as the Company’s President and Chief Executive Officer, and to the Company’s Board of Directors, effective September 4, 2018. Mr. Anderson brings broad technology industry experience and a proven track record of leading and transforming businesses to drive sustained growth and profitability. Mr. Anderson joins Lattice from Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) where he served as the General Manager and Senior Vice President of the Computing and Graphics Business Group.

Jeff Richardson, Chairman of the Board, said, “On behalf of the Board, we are pleased to announce the appointment of Jim Anderson as Lattice’s new President and Chief Executive Officer. Jim brings a strong combination of business and technical leadership with a deep understanding of our target end markets and customers. The transformation he drove of AMD’s Computing and Graphics business over the past few years is just a recent example of his long track record of creating significant shareholder value. We are excited to bring Jim’s proven leadership to Lattice as we accelerate all aspects of the company in order to capture the enormous opportunity that lies ahead.” Mr. Richardson added, “The Board would also like to thank Glen Hawk for his leadership and service to Lattice as COO and then as Interim CEO during the Company’s management transition.” Glen has agreed to serve as Special Advisor to the CEO through October 31, 2018, to help ensure a smooth transition before leaving Lattice to pursue other opportunities.

Mr. Anderson said, “I want to thank the Board of Directors for its confidence and the opportunity to lead Lattice as President and CEO, with a focus on driving sustained growth and profitability. Lattice has an impressive history of innovation in programmable solutions. I am excited about the opportunity to help bring that innovation to growing end markets, while deepening partnerships with our customers. Lattice has a compelling combination of ground-breaking hardware and software solutions, global reach, and talented employees that forms a strong foundation for industry leadership and success.”

Jim Anderson brings to the role over 20 years of broad technology industry experience across many markets, including consumer, enterprise/datacenter, and telecom. In his role leading AMD’s Computing and Graphics business group since 2015, Mr. Anderson drove a strategic and operational transformation that brought disruptive new products to the market and delivered market-leading revenue growth and significant profitability expansion for AMD. Prior to AMD, he held a broad range of leadership positions spanning general management, engineering, sales, marketing, and strategy at companies including, Intel, Broadcom Limited (formerly, Avago Technologies), and LSI Corporation.

Mr. Anderson holds an MBA and Master of Science in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a Master of Science in electrical engineering from Purdue University, and a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from the University of Minnesota. Mr. Anderson has received four patents for innovations in computer architecture. He also serves on the Board of Directors of Qylur Intelligent Systems, Inc.

By Jay Chittooran

In testimony last week before a U.S. government interagency panel considering tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods, SEMI called for the removal of nearly 100 tariff lines, all of which cover items critical to the semiconductor manufacturing process, including materials and machines.

Jonathan Davis, global vice president of advocacy at SEMI, explained in his testimony that while SEMI strongly supports efforts to better protect valuable intellectual property (IP), tariffs will not help address Chinese trade practices, and will ultimately have significant and unintended consequences. SEMI asserts that these tariffs will harm companies in the semiconductor supply chain by increasing business costs, introducing uncertainty, and stifling innovation. Collectively, SEMI estimates that this round of tariffs will cost its 400 U.S. members more than tens of millions annually in additional duties. All told, SEMI estimates that all U.S. and Chinese retaliatory tariffs will cost members nearly $700 million in annual duties.

SEMI’s full written comments note that these tariffs, on top of those already in force and the retaliatory tariffs, will hamstring the industry. The tariffs seem to target U.S. firms for simply operating in China. Given that tools and materials are extremely complex, precise, and difficult to manufacture, it is unreasonable to believe that a constituent component can simply be replaced with a part from another source. Further, this U.S. government approach does not take into account that many items  subject to these tariffs are not available, at sufficient quality and cost, from domestic sources, or even non-Chinese sources. We stand steadfast in our belief that this trade action will raise prices, put thousands of high-paying and high skill jobs at risk, and curb growth.

Over the past four months, SEMI submitted written comments and offered testimony on the two previous rounds of tariffs, citing the damaging impact tariffs would have on the U.S. semiconductor industry. The first round of tariffs – on $34 billion worth of Chinese goods – took effect July 6, and the second round – targeting $16 billion in Chinese imports – will be imposed on August 23. The tariffs hit machines and tools central to the semiconductor industry, including equipment used to manufacture wafers, boules, and chips as well as test, inspection and sensing equipment.

We urge SEMI members to review the $200 billion U.S. tariff list to determine the level, if any, of impact. We also strongly encourage members to review Chinese retaliatory lists as well. Any SEMI members who have questions, should contact Jay Chittooran, Public Policy Manager at SEMI, at [email protected].

Originally published on the SEMI blog.

Cymer, a manufacturer of excimer lasers used in semiconductor manufacturing, today announced the first customer installation of its XLR 860ix light source, which is expected to be used in the production of chips at advanced logic and memory nodes.

The XLR 860ix is a deep-ultraviolet (DUV) light source based on an Argon Fluoride excimer laser. The first customer installation was completed this month, and the XLR 860ix was paired up with ASML’s latest lithography system, the TWINSCAN NXT:2000i, for which the source was qualified earlier this year.

“The XLR 860ix, through improvements in high-speed controls and redesigned, on-board bandwidth metrology, reduces variations in bandwidth by a factor of two compared to its predecessor. This is an important achievement, since these variations contribute to errors in critical dimension (CD) uniformity, which in turn affects image quality and ultimately manufacturing yields. The improvement in the spectral stability of the light has been verified by our customers using early-access versions of the XLR 860ix, which gives us confidence that this light source will help to improve CD uniformity when used in the production of advanced ICs,” said Cymer Vice President Product Marketing Patrick O’Keeffe.

Ahead of the full release of the XLR860ix, Cymer made the key technologies available to customers in an early access program by upgrading existing light sources. Four such upgrades have been completed, and seven additional sources are planned to be upgraded by the end of the year. A total of seven customers are participating in the early access program. In response to strong customer demand, Cymer has rapidly shifted its production capacity to the XLR 860ix model for all future ArF immersion shipments.

“In addition to the early access program, we have also offered one of the key new technologies of the XLR 860ix as an upgrade to previous light source models. This upgrade, which extends the lifetime of the optics and the chamber, increases the time between service intervals by 33%, and thus allows our customers to better utilize their lithography systems and expose thousands of additional wafers per tool, per year. Our customers have aggressively taken advantage of this upgrade, with more than 400 upgrades completed within the past year. The majority of the upgraded systems are exceeding the targeted service intervals,” O’Keeffe said.

GOWIN Semiconductor Corp., an innovator of programmable logic devices, announces their development of RISC-V Microprocessor IP implemented in their current ARORA® Family GW-2A FPGA products.  In addition, GOWIN launches an Industry Early Adopter Program to kickstart engineering design activity.  The Industry EAP includes: an FPGA programming bit-file reference design with RISC-V Microprocessor core, AHB & APB Bus, Memory Control & Peripherals, as well as the GW-2A development board for a complete, ready to use solution.

RISC-V is a free and open ISA enabling a new era of processor innovation through open standard collaboration. The RISC-V ISA has been designed with small, fast, and low-power real-world implementations in mind without over-architecting for a particular microarchitecture style. The instruction set also has a substantial body of supporting software for a comprehensive design ecosystem.

“GOWIN’s FPGA solutions showcase the growing adoption of RISC-V around the world. It’s exciting to see how the RISC-V ecosystem is maturing as more companies design innovative implementations based on the free and open ISA,” said Rick O’Connor, executive director of the non-profit RISC-V Foundation.

The GOWIN Arora® Family GW-2A FPGAs offer best-in-class performance at an effective cost. With abundant logic, high performance DSP resources, and high speed I/O, the family is optimized for co-processing of computation tasks while hosting the RISC-V Microprocessor soft core. The Arora® family is also the first FPGA with embedded DRAM in the industry, allowing customers to design without using up I/O for external memory.

GOWIN also announces today the appointment of Edge Electronics as their US National Distributor and EBBM, Inc as their East Coast Manufacturers Representative.  “Demand is high for our innovative FPGA products serving the low to mid density logic element markets,” said Scott Casper, Director of Sales for GOWIN’s Americas Region, “The need for the right channel partners is necessary for our growth.  We are excited to be working with Edge and EBBM as we continue our Americas expansion plan.”

“GOWIN Semiconductor is a natural fit alongside our semiconductor and LCD solutions product offerings, both of which are geared toward serving North American industrial, medical and automotive OEM markets among others,” says Michael Pollina, Edge Electronics’ VP Operations & Procurement. “GOWIN’s collection of development tools in tandem with Edge’s engineering team will make it simple for customers to transition existing designs or start new projects with low power, space-efficient and cost-effective FPGA solutions.”

“We are thrilled to be working with GOWIN, one of the Silicon60 Most Remarkable Global Technology Startups,” said Chief Executive Officer of EBBM, Inc., Alex Angelou. “EBBM, Inc has been helping custom logic architects quickly articulate their design and beat their competition to market for 14 years. GOWIN’s One-Stop Complete Solution, including DVK, EDA, IP, is a perfect match to bring the competitive advantage to more companies,” said EBBM, Inc. Chief Strategy Officer Ken Cheo.

TowerJazz, the global specialty foundry, today announced its participation at European Microwave Week (EuMW), being held in Madrid, Spain on September 25 – 27, 2018. The Company will showcase its extensive RF silicon process capability including its advanced SiGe and RF SOI technologies, addressing the emerging 5G and mmWave markets and focusing on high-data rate mobile and automotive applications.

TowerJazz will present its best-in-class, high volume SiGe BiCMOS technology for 5G mobile transmit-receive chips with greater than 12 Gbps data rates, with record performance at the 28GHz band, representing a more than 10-times improvement in data rate vs. 4G LTE, and meeting many other technical specification requirements of the emerging 5G standard. The Company will also highlight its 5G RF SOI technology which includes its newest 65nm process ramping on 300mm wafers with best-in-class LNA and switch performance to address integration in the front-end-module. The process can reduce losses in an RF switch improving battery life and boosting data rates in handsets and IoT terminals.

During the conference, TowerJazz will participate on a panel to discuss RF semiconductor solutions for 5G systems. The panel session is scheduled for September 25, 2018 from 11:00 a.m. until noon.

Semiconducting heterostructures have been key to the development of electronics and opto-electronics. Many applications in the infrared and terahertz frequency range exploit transitions, called intersubband transitions, between quantized states in semiconductor quantum wells. These intraband transitions exhibit very large oscillator strengths, close to unity. Their discovery in III-V semiconductor heterostructures depicted a huge impact within the condensed matter physics community and triggered the development of quantum well infrared photodetectors as well as quantum cascade lasers.

Schematic illustration of charge carriers confined within a TMD flake comprising different thicknesses. Charge carriers in the ground state (blue) can be excited upon resonant light excitation to a higher state (pink). Credit: ICFO/Fabien Vialla

Quantum wells of the highest quality are typically fabricated by molecular beam epitaxy (sequential growth of crystalline layers), which is a well-established technique. However, it poses two major limitations: Lattice-matching is required, restricting the freedom in materials to choose from, and the thermal growth causes atomic diffusion and increases interface roughness.

2D materials can overcome these limitations since they naturally form a quantum well with atomically sharp interfaces. They provide defect free and atomically sharp interfaces, enabling the formation of ideal QWs, free of diffusive inhomogeneities. They do not require epitaxial growth on a matching substrate and can therefore be easily isolated and coupled to other electronic systems such as Si CMOS or optical systems such as cavities and waveguides.

Surprisingly enough, intersubband transitions in few-layer 2D materials had never been studied before, neither experimentally nor theoretically. Thus, in a recent study published in Nature Nanotechnology, ICFO researchers Peter Schmidt, Fabien Vialla, Mathieu Massicotte, Klaas-Jan Tielrooij, Gabriele Navickaite, led by ICREA Prof at ICFO Frank Koppens, in collaboration with the Institut Lumière Matière – CNRS, Technical University of Denmark, Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, CIC nanoGUNE, and the National Graphene Institute, report on the first theoretical calculations and first experimental observation of inter-sub-band transitions in quantum wells of few-layer semiconducting 2D materials (TMDs).

In their experiment, the team of researchers applied scattering scanning near-field optical microscopy (s-SNOM) as an innovative approach for spectral absorption measurements with a spatial resolution below 20 nm. They exfoliated TMDs, which comprisedterraces of different layer thicknesses over lateral sizes of about a few micrometers. They directly observed the intersubband resonances for these different quantum well thicknesses within a single device. They also electrostatically tuned the charge carrier density and demonstrated intersubband absorption in both the valence and conduction band. These observations were complemented and supported with detailed theoretical calculations revealing many-body and non-local effects.

The results of this study pave the way towards an unexplored field in this new class of materials and offer a first glimpse of the physics and technology enabled by intersubband transitions in 2D materials, such as infrared detectors, sources, and lasers with the potential for compact integration with Si CMOS.

Watlow, a designer and manufacturer of complete thermal systems, announced that it has acquired Yarbrough Solutions Worldwide of Austin, Texas. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Yarbrough is a semiconductor equipment solutions provider that services semiconductor fabrication companies globally by developing, installing and servicing high-performance solutions at its customer’s fabrication plants. In performing these services, Yarbrough has long relied upon a myriad of Watlow product offerings such as electric heaters, temperature sensors, temperature controllers and power controllers.

“Yarbrough is a known leader in providing innovative thermal system solutions to semiconductor equipment end users,” said Rob Gilmore, vice president and general manager of Watlow’s semiconductor business unit. “Adding Yarbrough’s know-how and expertise to Watlow’s world-class suite of thermal system capabilities enhances our ability to serve customers through the entire semiconductor fabrication process, from the tool to the scrubber, to ensure thermal optimization of the complete system.”

“This acquisition enables both parties to provide even more value to our semiconductor equipment customers,” said Pat Swayze, vice president of Yarbrough. “We are very excited about Watlow’s long-term vision and we look forward to contributing to the company’s future growth.”

A key element of the acquisition is a South Korean joint venture, which enhances Watlow’s presence in the region. This joint venture between Watlow and its partner, Global Standard Technology Co., Ltd., an established semiconductor business, will be named Watlow Pacific Inc.

Watlow has experienced significant recent growth and aspires to be the share leader in all of its core markets. According to Peter Desloge, Watlow’s president, chief executive officer and chairman, “Watlow is committed to the success of its customers through product and technology leadership, and this is one of the many reasons why the world’s leading companies begin with Watlow for their thermal needs. The Yarbrough acquisition is a continuation of Watlow’s strategy to combine organic investments and acquisitions to achieve consistent, sustainable long-term growth. This acquisition enhances our thermal control capabilities and our ability to create value and deliver a competitive advantage to our customers. We are very excited to welcome Yarbrough to the Watlow team.”

By Christopher Morales, Head of Security Analytics, Vectra

On August 3, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC), the largest chip fabricator globally introduced a WannaCry Ransomware cryptowormvariant onto its information technology/operational technology (IT/OT) networks. A TSMC supplier installed infected software on a new fabrication tool and connected it to the network, facilitating the malware infestation.

The infection spread quickly, taking out 10,000+ unpatched Windows 7 machines that run the chip fab company’s tool automation interface. The crypto worm crashed and rebooted systems endlessly, forcing several plants in Taichung, Hsinchu andTainan to shut down through much of the weekend.

The infection crippled materials handling systems and production equipment as well as Windows 7 computers. Some of the plants were producing SoC chips for the AppleiPhone 8 and X models. The incident’s connection to Apple and the iPhone heightened its visibility in the news media.

According to TSMC CEO C.C. Wei, patching for the Windows 7 machines requires computer downtime and collaboration with equipment suppliers. The absence of currentpatches created an environment where WannaCry could easily propagate.

The 2018 Spotlight Report on Manufacturing published by Vectra a few weeks before the incident foretold TSMC’s infection, which could cost the company as much as $255 million.

Smart manufacturer cybersecurity risks are increasing

According to the TSMC website, the company had “introduced new applications such as IoT, intelligent mobile devices and mobile robots to consolidate data collection, yield traceability, workflow efficiency, and material transportation to continuously enhance fab operation efficiency.” Further, TSMC had “integrated automatic manufacturing systems,” according to its website.

These innovations are typical in the evolution of Industry 4.0, which has increased the risk of cyber attacks against manufacturers.

But as manufacturers moved from air-gapped industrial systems to cloud-connectedsystems as part of the IT/OT convergence – using unpartitioned networks and insufficient access controls for proliferating IIoT devices – they created a massive, vulnerable attack surface, according to the Vectra report.

While air-gapped systems such as industrial controls have no connections by design to guard against malicious tampering, IT/OT convergence has connected these systems to information technologynetworks with little accounting for security vulnerabilities.

Many factories connect IIoT devices to flat, unpartitioned networks that rely on communication with general computing devices and enterprise applications. Since IIoT devices support few if any native cybersecurity measures, connecting them to easily infected applications, computers and unsegregated IP networks only invites trouble.

In the past, manufacturers relied on more customized, proprietary protocols, which made mounting an attack more difficult for cybercriminals. The conversion from proprietary protocols to standard protocols makes it easier to infiltrate networks to spy, spread and steal.

Few if any cyberattackers know and understand the proprietary protocols those closed legacy systems used. But it’s easy for most criminal hackers and their exploits to access standard IP network protocols just as WannaCry abuses the SMB protocol where there is no patch.

Real-time network visibility is crucial 

Industry 4.0 brings with it a new operational risk for connected, smart manufacturers and digital supply networks. The interconnected nature of Industry 4.0-driven operations and the pace of digital transformation mean that cyber attacks can have far more damaging effects than ever before, and manufacturers and their supply networks may not be preparedfor the risks.

Wherever cyber attacks interfere business continuity for business and information processes, they can also disrupt operational technologies that render products and get them out the door.

For cyber-risk to be adequately addressedin the age of Industry 4.0, manufacturing organizations need to ensure that proper visibility and response capabilities are in place to detect and respond to events as they occur. As in the case of the TSMC ransomware debacle, anything less than real-time detection and response is too little, too late to avoid production downtime.

There is no visibility into these systems to enable real-time detection before cyber attacks spread. Visibility into these internal connected systems is necessary to curtail the extent of damage from a cyberattack.

Manufacturing security operations now require automated, real-time analysis of entire networks to proactively detect and respond to in-progress threats before they do damage.

The Vectra 2018 Spotlight Report on Manufacturing

The 2018 Spotlight Report on Manufacturing delineates the many attack types and behaviors that the Cognito platform captured. The Cognito threat-detection and hunting platform monitored traffic and collected rich metadata from more than 4million devices and workloads from customer cloud, data center, and enterprise environmentsto reveal the cyberattacker behaviors.

Cyber attacks on manufacturers increased in severity from January to June 2018 based on data that the Vectra Cognito platform collected. The Vectra report confirms that all manufacturing industries are at equal risk of cyberattacks.

To learn about other findings pertinent to your Industry 4.0 cybersecurity risk, download the 2018 Spotlight Report on Manufacturing.

Christopher Morales is the head of security analytics at Vectra, a San Jose, Calif. cybersecurity firm that detects hidden cyberattacks and helps threat hunters improve the efficiency of incident investigations.

North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $2.36 billion in billings worldwide in July 2018 (three-month average basis), according to the July Equipment Market Data Subscription (EMDS) Billings Report published today by SEMI. The billings figure is 4.9 percent lower than the final June 2018 level of $2.48 billion, and is 4.1 percent higher than the July 2017 billings level of $2.27 billion.

“Global billings declined for the second month in a row, indicative of customer push-outs,” said Ajit Manocha, president and CEO of SEMI. “We expect the industry to weather this soft patch and end the year overall with strong growth.”

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
February 2018
$2,417.8
22.5%
March 2018
$2,431.8
16.9%
April 2018
$2,689.9
25.9%
May 2018
$2,702.3
8.1%
June 2018 (final)
$2,484.3
8.0%
July 2018 (prelim)
$2,363.1
4.1%

Source: SEMI (www.semi.org), August 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.