Category Archives: Semiconductors

For the 20th year, a worldwide survey of semiconductor manufacturers has resulted in Plasma-Therm winning multiple awards for its systems and superior customer service.

In the annual Customer Satisfaction Survey conducted by VLSIresearch, Plasma-Therm earned a total of five awards, including two “RANKED 1st” awards. Plasma-Therm earned the highest scores of all companies in two award categories, “Etch & Clean Equipment” and “Focused Suppliers of Chip Making Equipment.”

Survey participants are asked to rate semiconductor equipment suppliers in 15 categories based on supplier performance, customer service, and product performance.

“The achievement of two ‘RANKED 1st’ awards and five awards overall is very gratifying” Plasma-Therm CEO Abdul Lateef said. “While we continue to expand our product and application portfolio, we never lose our focus on providing the best service and support. We are working harder than ever to ensure success for all our customers, from small institutions and start-ups to specialty fabs and high-volume manufacturers.”

In THE BEST Suppliers of Fab Equipment, which includes specialized manufacturers like Plasma-Therm as well as the world’s largest equipment makers, Plasma-Therm ranked higher than every other company besides ASML, the world’s largest maker photolithography supplier. Plasma-Therm also was ranked higher than all other suppliers besides ASML in THE BEST Suppliers of Fab Equipment to Specialty Chip Makers.

With this year’s awards, Plasma-Therm now has received a total of 42 awards over 20 years of participation in the Customer Satisfaction Survey. VLSIresearch received feedback from more than 94 percent of the chip market in this year’s survey, which was conducted over 2-1/2 months and in five languages. Here is the full list of awards earned by Plasma-Therm in the 2018 Customer Satisfaction Survey:

• RANKED 1st in FOCUSED SUPPLIERS OF CHIP MAKINGEQUIPMENT • RANKED 1st in ETCH & CLEAN EQUIPMENT
• 10 BEST FOCUSED SUPPLIERS OF CHIP MAKING EQUIPMENT
• THE BEST SUPPLIERS OF FAB EQUIPMENT

• THE BEST SUPPLIERS OF FAB EQUIPMENT TO SPECIALTY CHIP MAKERS About Plasma-Therm

Established in 1974, Plasma-Therm is a manufacturer of advanced plasma processing equipment for specialty semiconductor markets, including advanced packaging, wireless communication, photonics, solid-state lighting, MEMS/NEMS, nanotechnology, renewable energy, data storage, photomask, and R&D. Plasma-Therm offers etch and deposition technologies and solutions for these markets.

3D-Micromac AG, a supplier of laser micromachining and roll-to-roll laser systems for the photovoltaic, medical device and electronics markets, today announced it has received an order for the company’s new microMIRA excimer laser lift-off (LLO) system from dpiX, a leading manufacturer of high-resolution digital sensors. The microMIRA system will be shipped to dpiX’s fab in Colorado Springs, Colo., where it will provide laser lift-off processing from Gen 4.5 glass substrates used in manufacturing X-ray sensors for medical, industrial and military applications.

The new microMIRA excimer laser lift-off system from 3D-Micromac provides highly uniform, force-free lift-off of flexible layers on large surface areas and at high speeds.

The new microMIRA excimer laser lift-off system from 3D-Micromac provides highly uniform, force-free lift-off of flexible layers on large surface areas and at high speeds.

3D-Micromac’s new microMIRA laser lift-off system provides highly uniform, force-free lift-off of flexible layers on large surface areas and at high speeds (up to 500 wafers/hour and up to 200 sheets/hour on Gen 6 substrates depending on the application). The system is built on a highly customizable platform that can incorporate different laser sources, wavelengths and beam paths to meet each customer’s unique requirements.

The microMIRA system can be used for a variety of applications, such as device lift-off from glass and sapphire substrates in semiconductor manufacturing as well as organic light emitting diode (OLED) and microLED display manufacturing. Additional applications include laser annealing and crystallization for surface modification, including printed electronics such as near-field communication (NFC) sensors and tags.

“In evaluating various laser approaches for our manufacturing needs, 3D-Micromac’s microMIRA laser lift-off system provided the best possible combination of cost of ownership, throughput and uniformity results,” stated Frank Caris, President and CEO of dpiX. “We look forward to installing this system in our production fab for use in manufacturing our latest silicon-based X-ray sensor arrays.”

In addition to its high configurability, speed and uniformity, 3D-Micromac’s microMIRA laser lift-off system provides many other benefits, including:

  • Force-free and extremely selective laser processing
  • No damage due to thermo-mechanical effects
  • Low production costs, including the ability to recycle/reuse carrier substrates
  • Elimination of costly and polluting wet chemical processes
  • Easy integration of adjacent manufacturing steps for greater fab productivity

“Our new microMIRA laser lift-off system takes advantage of the extensive process and applications knowledge we have built up from the more than 400 3D-Micromac laser systems installed and in use worldwide to date, including dozens of excimer laser systems used for display and microelectronics manufacturing,” stated Uwe Wagner, 3D-Micromac’s chief technology officer. “We look forward to closer engagement with dpiX to explore new opportunities and applications that can benefit from our laser products, processes and expertise.”

Pure quartz glass is highly transparent and resistant to thermal, physical, and chemical impacts. These are optimum prerequisites for use in optics, data technology or medical engineering. For efficient, high-quality machining, however, adequate processes are lacking. Scientists of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have developed a forming technology to structure quartz glass like a polymer. This innovation is reported in the journal Advanced Materials.

“It has always been a big challenge to combine highly pure quartz glass and its excellent properties with a simple structuring technology,” says Dr. Bastian E. Rapp, Head of the NeptunLab interdisciplinary research group of KIT’s Institute of Microstructure Technology (IMT). Rapp and his team develop new processes for industrial glass processing. “Instead of heating glass up to 800 °C for forming or structuring parts of glass blocks by laser processing or etching, we start with the smallest glass particles,” says the mechanical engineer. The scientists mix glass particles of 40 nanometers in size with a liquid polymer, form the mix like a sponge cake, and harden it to a solid by heating or light exposure. The resulting solid consists of glass particles in a matrix at a ratio of 60 to 40 vol%. The polymers act like a bonding agent that retains the glass particles at the right locations and, hence, maintains the shape.

This “Glassomer” can be milled, turned, laser-machined or processed in CNC machines just like a conventional polymer. “The entire range of polymer forming technologies is now opened for glass,” Rapp emphasizes. For fabricating high-performance lenses that are used in smartphones among others, the scientists produce a Glassomer rod, from which the lenses are cut. For highly pure quartz glass, the polymers in the composite have to be removed. For doing so, the lenses are heated in a furnace at 500 to 600 °C and the polymer is burned fully to CO2. To close the resulting gaps in the material, the lenses are sintered at 1300 °C. During this process, the remaining glass particles are densified to pore-free glass.

This forming technology enables production of highly pure glass materials for any applications, for which only polymers have been suited so far. This opens up new opportunities for the glass processing industry as well as for the optical industry, microelectronics, biotechnology, and medical engineering. “Our process is suited for mass production. Production and use of quartz glass are much cheaper, more sustainable, and more energy-efficient than those of a special polymer,” Rapp explains.

This is the third innovation for the processing of quartz glass that has been developed by NeptunLab on the basis of a liquid glass-polymer mixture. In 2016, the scientists already succeeded in using this mixture for molding. In 2017, they applied the mixture for 3D printing and demonstrate its suitability for additive manufacture. Within the framework of the “NanomatFutur” competition for early-stage researchers, the team was funded with EUR 2.8 million by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research from 2014 to 2018. A spinoff now plans to commercialize Glassomer.

By Emir Demircan

SEMI Position on the European Commission’s Proposal for a Regulation Establishing a Framework for Screening Foreign Direct Investments into the European Union

In response to the European Commission’s (EC) proposed framework for screening foreign direct investments (FDI), SEMI, representing the global electronics manufacturing supply chain, offers three recommendations for consideration by EU policymakers:

To support the sophisticated global ecosystem of semiconductor manufacturers, the EU should remain open to global investment. More efforts should be made to form trade and investment agreements that support European businesses’ access to foreign markets.

The global micro- and nano-electronics (MNE) industry consists of organizations specializing in research, design, equipment, materials, semiconductor manufacturing, assembly and applications – a complex global ecosystem that contributes 2 trillion USD (SEMI data) to the world economy. With its production of smaller, faster, more reliable products with higher performance, the MNE industry is one of the world’s most capital- and research-intensive sectors. Today, a state-of-the-art semiconductor manufacturing fab can easily cost billions of euros and might require international investment to deliver cutting-edge solutions.

Europe’s MNE industry plays a pivotal role in this global value chain through its investments in emerging technologies such as autonomous driving, smart healthcare, artificial intelligence and industrial automation. The region’s MNE industry features leading electronics manufacturing equipment and materials businesses, world-class research and development (R&D) and educational institutions, and vital semiconductor manufacturing hubs that are home to multinationals headquartered both inside and outside of the EU.

In the proposed framework, the EU recognizes that FDI is an important engine of economic growth, jobs and innovation. Its work to maintain a climate of open investment and connect European businesses with leading innovators and investors around the world has laid the groundwork for the success of European industrial technologies sector. These efforts have set an example for rich cross-border business relations even in the face of rising protectionist practices around the world.

The proposed EC regulation aims to establish an EU-level framework for exchanging information related to a broad range of technologies between the EC and Member States, and to assess, investigate, authorize, condition, prohibit, or unwind FDI in certain technologies on the grounds of security or public order. EU policymakers should bear in mind that a new EU-level FDI screening mechanism must be implemented very carefully. Stakeholders must clearly understand how FDI can pose a threat to security and public order in the EU.

Only transparent and precise definitions of FDI, security and public order and a limited scope of targeted technologies can provide the regulatory certainty for the EU to remain an attractive destination for foreign investors and European investees alike. On the contrary, unclear regulations could sow insecurity amongst potential investors, leading to delays or cancellation of much-needed investments and choking access to finance in capital-intensive sectors such as MNE.

MNE is a key enabling technology and advances in semiconductors enable market adoption of game-changing technologies such as artificial intelligence. The EU should ensure that future regulations do not cause lock-in effects or limit the growth of key technologies in Europe.

In the interest of security and public order, the proposed EU regulation permits Member States and the EC to screen FDI in critical infrastructure such as energy, transportation, communications and critical technologies including semiconductors, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity.  While it might be easier to screen critical infrastructure and the large-scale public services it provides for potential threats in security and public order, applying the same FDI filter to critical technologies can be extremely challenging.

Semiconductors are embedded in virtually all smart devices and systems including computers, mobile phones, cars, and aircraft. The ubiquity of chips raises the prospect that FDI in European smart technologies – and the supply chain that develops them – could be subject to screening. This level of regulatory oversight is likely to hamper not only EU’s competitiveness in key enabling technologies such as MNE but also ever-evolving applications including artificial intelligence. Also, the proposed screening framework calls for the assessment of FDI risks to security or public order by determining if an investor is controlled by foreign governments through “significant funding.” In the context of FDI, differentiating between state and private actors in other countries can be extremely challenging or even impossible, and the term “significant funding” is not clearly defined. Under this light, SEMI recommends:

  1. Defining a limited scope with clear conditions, explaining in quantitative and qualitative terms how FDI in key enabling technologies can threaten public order and security, and
  2. Introducing criteria that identifies whether an FDI leads to market distortions in Europe because a government investment program is not aligned with EU state-aid rules.

FDI is a powerful tool to support economic growth and competitiveness. Many Member States already screen FDI on the grounds of security and public order. Future regulations should ensure that additional screening neither duplicates national and EU-level assessments nor hampers Member States’ competitiveness.

Under the proposed regulation, the EC could screen FDI at the Union level. However, because many Member States already have detailed screening procedures in place to protect national security and public order, the draft regulation could increase red tape by duplicating administrative processes and regulations at the national and EU levels. Policymakers should keep in mind that FDI must in principle remain a national competence, with each Member State establishing its own national policy aimed at attracting FDI and supporting its economic growth. Many Member States compete to increase their share of EU FDI in key technologies that underpin national economic growth. Likewise, international investors already subject each Member State to their own investment criteria before making significant FDI decisions. Any proposed regulation that pushes Member States to share national-level FDI information could dilute successful FDI policies of some Member States and hamper the EU’s overall competitiveness.

Emir Demircan is Senior Manager Public Policy at SEMI Europe. Contact Emir at [email protected] , 0032484903114. 

Originally published on the SEMI blog.

Crossbar, Inc. announced an agreement with Microsemi Corporation, the largest U.S. commercial supplier of military and aerospace semiconductors, in which Microsemi will license Crossbar’s ReRAM core intellectual property. As part of the agreement, Microsemi and Crossbar will collaborate in the research, development and application of Crossbar’s proprietary ReRAM technology in next generation products from Microsemi that integrate Crossbar’s embedded ReRAM with Microsemi products manufactured at the 1x nm process node.

“We are pleased to have Microsemi in our growing list of licensees,” said George Minassian, CEO of Crossbar. “Together, we can bring unique integration of ReRAM into highly integrated, advanced node semiconductor solutions for a wide range of high-performance, low-power solutions.”

The unique nanofilament technology of Crossbar ReRAM is built upon standard CMOS processes and is fully scalable to below 10nm without impacting performance. Highly integrated semiconductor solutions with unique embedded memory architectures can be built to offer a highly secure, low-power platform with fast access times for advanced applications including edge computing, communications infrastructure, artificial intelligence, Industrial IoT and automotive.

“We are very pleased with the Crossbar license as their unique and highly scalable ReRAM technology allows us to plan power-efficient, high performance products across a multi-generation roadmap,” said Jim Aralis, Microsemi CTO. “This technology collaboration with Crossbar furthers our commitment to becoming the leading supplier of semiconductor solutions differentiated by performance, reliability, security and power while delivering truly innovative solutions.”

Among the chief complaints for smartphone, laptop and other battery-operated electronics users is that the battery life is too short and–in some cases–that the devices generate heat. Now, a group of physicists led by Deepak K. Singh, associate professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Missouri, has developed a device material that can address both issues. The team has applied for a patent for a magnetic material that employs a unique structure–a “honeycomb” lattice that exhibits distinctive electronic properties.

The left shows the atomic force micrograph, exhibiting honeycomb structure pattern behind a magnetic device. Inset shows the schematic of current flow direction. On the right: electrical data reveals diode-type behavior of current flowing in one direction. Inset shows that the dissipative power is of the order of nano-watt in the current flowing direction, which is at least three orders of magnitude smaller than the semiconductor diode. Credit: Deepak Singh

The left shows the atomic force micrograph, exhibiting honeycomb structure pattern behind a magnetic device. Inset shows the schematic of current flow direction. On the right: electrical data reveals diode-type behavior of current flowing in one direction. Inset shows that the dissipative power is of the order of nano-watt in the current flowing direction, which is at least three orders of magnitude smaller than the semiconductor diode. Credit: Deepak Singh

“Semiconductor diodes and amplifiers, which often are made of silicon or germanium, are key elements in modern electronic devices,” said Singh, who also serves as the principal investigator of the Magnetism and Superconductivity Research Laboratory at MU. “A diode normally conducts current and voltage through the device along only one biasing direction, but when the voltage is reversed, the current stops. This switching process costs significant energy due to dissipation, or the depletion of the power source, thus affecting battery life. By substituting the semiconductor with a magnetic system, we believed we could create an energetically effective device that consumes much less power with enhanced functionalities.”

Singh’s team developed a two-dimensional, nanostructured material created by depositing a magnetic alloy, or permalloy, on the honeycomb structured template of a silicon surface. The new material conducts unidirectional current, or currents that only flow one way. The material also has significantly less dissipative power compared to a semiconducting diode, which is normally included in electronic devices.

The magnetic diode paves the way for new magnetic transistors and amplifiers that dissipate very little power, thus increasing the efficiency of the power source. This could mean that designers could increase the life of batteries by more than a hundred-fold. Less dissipative power in computer processors could also reduce the heat generated in laptop or desktop CPUs.

“Although more works need to be done to develop the end product, the device could mean that a normal 5-hour charge could increase to more than a 500-hour charge,” Singh said. “The device could also act as an ‘on/off switch’ for other periphery components such as closed-circuit cameras or radio frequency attenuators, which reduces power flowing through a device. We have applied for a U.S. patent and have begun the process of incorporating a spin-off company to help us take the device to market.”

The proposed startup company associated with this research, highlights the university’s impact on the state’s economic development efforts, including commercialization of research conducted at Mizzou, workforce development and job growth, quality of life improvements for residents, and attracting corporations and businesses to the state. Companies commercializing MU technologies have secured hundreds of millions of dollars in investments and grants to advance their commercialization efforts. In 2017, the Office of Technology Management and Industry Relations reported that 31 U.S. patents were issued to members of the MU community.

A Columbia University-led international team of researchers has developed a technique to manipulate the electrical conductivity of graphene with compression, bringing the material one step closer to being a viable semiconductor for use in today’s electronic devices.

By compressing layers of boron nitride and graphene, researchers were able to enhance the material's band gap, bringing it one step closer to being a viable semiconductor for use in today's electronic devices. Credit: Philip Krantz

By compressing layers of boron nitride and graphene, researchers were able to enhance the material’s band gap, bringing it one step closer to being a viable semiconductor for use in today’s electronic devices. Credit: Philip Krantz

“Graphene is the best electrical conductor that we know of on Earth,” said Matthew Yankowitz, a postdoctoral research scientist in Columbia’s physics department and first author on the study. “The problem is that it’s too good at conducting electricity, and we don’t know how to stop it effectively. Our work establishes for the first time a route to realizing a technologically relevant band gap in graphene without compromising its quality. Additionally, if applied to other interesting combinations of 2D materials, the technique we used may lead to new emergent phenomena, such as magnetism, superconductivity, and more.”

The study, funded by the National Science Foundation and the David and Lucille Packard Foundation, appears in the May 17 issue of Nature.

The unusual electronic properties of graphene, a two-dimensional (2D) material comprised of hexagonally-bonded carbon atoms, have excited the physics community since its discovery more than a decade ago. Graphene is the strongest, thinnest material known to exist. It also happens to be a superior conductor of electricity – the unique atomic arrangement of the carbon atoms in graphene allows its electrons to easily travel at extremely high velocity without the significant chance of scattering, saving precious energy typically lost in other conductors.

But turning off the transmission of electrons through the material without altering or sacrificing the favorable qualities of graphene has proven unsuccessful to-date.

“One of the grand goals in graphene research is to figure out a way to keep all the good things about graphene but also create a band gap – an electrical on-off switch,” said Cory Dean, assistant professor of physics at Columbia University and the study’s principal investigator. He explained that past efforts to modify graphene to create such a band gap have degraded the intrinsically good properties of graphene, rendering it much less useful. One superstructure does show promise, however. When graphene is sandwiched between layers of boron nitride (BN), an atomically-thin electrical insulator, and the two materials are rotationally aligned, the BN has been shown to modify the electronic structure of the graphene, creating a band gap that allows the material to behave as a semiconductor – that is, both as an electrical conductor and an insulator. The band gap created by this layering alone, however, is not large enough to be useful in the operation of electrical transistor devices at room temperature.

In an effort to enhance this band gap, Yankowitz, Dean, and their colleagues at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, the University of Seoul in Korea, and the National University of Singapore, compressed the layers of the BN-graphene structure and found that applying pressure substantially increased the size of the band gap, more effectively blocking the flow of electricity through the graphene.

“As we squeeze and apply pressure, the band gap grows,” Yankowitz said. “It’s still not a big enough gap – a strong enough switch – to be used in transistor devices at room temperature, but we have gained a fundamentally better understanding of why this band gap exists in the first place, how it can be tuned, and how we may target it in the future. Transistors are ubiquitous in our modern electronic devices, so if we can find a way to use graphene as a transistor it would have widespread applications.”

Yankowitz added that scientists have been conducting experiments at high pressures in conventional three-dimensional materials for years, but no one had yet figured out a way to do them with 2D materials. Now, researchers will be able to test how applying various degrees of pressure changes the properties of a vast range of combinations of stacked 2D materials.

“Any emergent property that results from the combination of 2D materials should grow stronger as the materials are compressed,” Yankowitz said. “We can take any of these arbitrary structures now and squeeze them and the strength of the resulting effect is tunable. We’ve added a new experimental tool to the toolbox we use to manipulate 2D materials and that tool opens boundless possibilities for creating devices with designer properties.”

IC Insights will release its May Update to the 2018 McClean Report later this month.  This Update includes a discussion of the 1Q18 IC industry market results, an update of the 2018 capital spending forecast by company, and a look at the top-25 1Q18 semiconductor suppliers (the top-15 1Q18 semiconductor suppliers are covered in this research bulletin).

The top-15 worldwide semiconductor (IC and O-S-D—optoelectronic, sensor, and discrete) sales ranking for 1Q18 is shown in Figure 1.  It includes eight suppliers headquartered in the U.S., three in Europe, two in South Korea, and one each in Taiwan and Japan.  After announcing in early April 2018 that it had successfully moved its headquarters location from Singapore to the U.S. IC Insights now classifies Broadcom as a U.S. company.

The top-15 ranking includes one pure-play foundry (TSMC) and four fabless companies.  If TSMC were excluded from the top-15 ranking, Taiwan-based fabless supplier MediaTek ($1,696 million) would have been ranked in the 15th position.

IC Insights includes foundries in the top-15 semiconductor supplier ranking since it has always viewed the ranking as a top supplier list, not a marketshare ranking, and realizes that in some cases the semiconductor sales are double counted.  With many of our clients being vendors to the semiconductor industry (supplying equipment, chemicals, gases, etc.), excluding large IC manufacturers like the foundries would leave significant “holes” in the list of top semiconductor suppliers.  As shown in the listing, the foundries and fabless companies are identified.  In the April Update to The McClean Report, marketshare rankings of IC suppliers by product type were presented and foundries were excluded from these listings.

Overall, the top-15 list shown in Figure 1 is provided as a guideline to identify which companies are the leading semiconductor suppliers, whether they are IDMs, fabless companies, or foundries.

Figure 1

Figure 1

In total, the top-15 semiconductor companies’ sales surged by 26% in 1Q18 compared to 1Q17, six points higher than the total worldwide semiconductor industry 1Q18/1Q17 increase of 20%.  Amazingly, the Big 3 memory suppliers—Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron, each registered greater than 40% year-over-year growth in 1Q18. Fourteen of the top-15 companies had sales of at least $2.0 billion in 1Q18, four companies more than in 1Q17. As shown, it took just over $1.8 billion in quarterly sales just to make it into the 1Q18 top-15 semiconductor supplier list.

Intel was the number one ranked semiconductor supplier in 1Q17 but lost its lead spot to Samsung in 2Q17 as well as in the full-year 2017 ranking, a position it had held since 1993.  With the continuation of the strong surge in the DRAM and NAND flash markets over the past year, Samsung went from having 5% less total semiconductor sales than Intel in 1Q17 to having 23% more semiconductor sales than Intel in 1Q18!

It is interesting to note that memory devices represented 83% of Samsung’s semiconductor sales in 1Q18, up six points from 77% in 1Q17 and up 12 points from 71% just two years earlier in 1Q16.  Moreover, the company’s non-memory sales in 1Q18 were only $3,300 million, up 6% from 1Q17’s non-memory sales level of $3,125 million.

As would be expected, given the possible acquisitions and mergers that could occur this year (e.g., Qualcomm/NXP), as well as any memory market volatility that may develop, the top-15 ranking is likely to undergo a significant amount of upheaval over the next few years as the semiconductor industry continues along its path to maturity.

Synopsys, Inc. (Nasdaq: SNPS) today announced that GLOBALFOUNDRIES (GF) has certified the Synopsys IC Validator tool for physical signoff on the GF 14LPP process technology. With this signoff certification, designers can take advantage of IC Validator’s speed and scalability, while ensuring a high level of manufacturability compliance and maximum yield. The certified runsets, including DRC, LVS, and metal fill technology files, are available today from GF.

“Signoff certification of IC Validator is an essential step in supporting our mutual customers for physical signoff,” said Jai Durgam, vice president, Customer Design Enablement at GLOBALFOUNDRIES. “Synopsys worked closely with us on an extensive tool certification and runset qualification for IC Validator on our 14LPP process technology. Our foundry customers can now use IC Validator’s fast analysis to maximize the high-performance and power efficiency benefits of our 14LPP process technology. In addition, we are actively working to expand IC Validator signoff verification for all of our advanced processes.”

IC Validator, a key component of the Synopsys Design Platform, is a comprehensive and highly scalable physical verification tool suite including DRC, LVS, programmable electrical rule checks (PERC), dummy metal fill, and DFM enhancement capabilities. IC Validator is architected for high performance and scalability that maximizes utilization of mainstream hardware, using smart memory-aware load scheduling and balancing technologies. It uses both multi-threading and distributed processing over multiple machines to provide scalability benefits that extend to more than a thousand CPUs.

“Manufacturing complexity at advanced nodes challenges designers to deliver within schedule,” said Christen Decoin, senior director of business development, Design Group at Synopsys. “Our close collaboration with GLOBALFOUNDRIES ensures designers have timely access to performance-optimized runsets. The runsets, in concert with IC Validator’s massively parallel architecture’s scalability, provide designers a fast and accurate path to physical signoff closure.”

Sciaky, Inc., a subsidiary of Phillips Service Industries, Inc. (PSI) and provider of metal additive manufacturing (AM) solutions, announced today that it has received an order for multiple Electron Beam Additive Manufacturing (EBAM®) systems to bolster the nation’s defense and power generation programs. Details of the project are confidential.

A Sciaky EBAM 110 System. (PRNewsfoto/Sciaky, Inc.)

A Sciaky EBAM 110 System. (PRNewsfoto/Sciaky, Inc.)

“Sciaky has a long history of providing innovative solutions to America’s military and power generation initiatives,” said Scott Phillips, President and CEO of Sciaky, Inc. “Our EBAM process is the only industrial-grade metal 3D printing technology to produce large-scale parts for land, sea, air, and space applications.”

As the most widely scalable metal additive manufacturing solution in the industry (in terms of work envelope), Sciaky’s EBAM systems can produce parts ranging from 8 inches (203 mm) to 19 feet (5.79 meters) in length. EBAM is also the fastest deposition process in the metal additive manufacturing market, with gross deposition rates ranging from seven to 25 lbs. (3.18 to 11.34 kg) of metal per hour. EBAM brings quality and control together with IRISS® – the Interlayer Real-time Imaging and Sensing System, which is the only real-time adaptive control system in the metal 3D printing market that can sense and digitally self-adjust metal deposition with precision and repeatability. This innovative closed-loop control is the primary reason that Sciaky’s EBAM 3D printing process delivers consistent part geometry, mechanical properties, microstructure, and metal chemistry, from the first part to the last.