Category Archives: Semiconductors

Kulicke & Soffa Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ: KLIC) (“Kulicke & Soffa”, “K&S” or the “Company”) announced today that it has received the highest level of recognition, the prestigious 2017 Supplier Excellence Award, from Texas Instruments.

Texas Instruments works with more than 11,000 suppliers worldwide, and Kulicke & Soffa has received this accolade following a rigorous round of evaluation covering K&S’s commitment to ethical behavior, as well as its exceptional performance in areas including productivity, environmental and social responsibilities, technology, responsiveness, assurance of supply and quality.

“We are honored to receive this recognition from Texas Instruments and deeply value the close partnership we have built with them. We will continue to work to deliver innovative and quality solutions to support our broad base of customers now and in the future,” said Hoang Huy Hoang, Kulicke & Soffa’s Senior Vice President of Global Sales, Aftermarket Products & Services Business Unit.

“At TI, our customers depend on us for quality parts to help them innovate and grow, and we share these same rigorous expectations of quality from our suppliers,” said Rob Simpson, Vice President of TI Worldwide Procurement and Logistics. “The Supplier Excellence Award winners have demonstrated an exceptional commitment to delivering the products and services we need at the performance we expect.”

A current area of intense interest in nanotechnology is van der Waals heterostructures, which are assemblies of atomically thin two-dimensional (2D) crystalline materials that display attractive conduction properties for use in advanced electronic devices.

A representative 2D semiconductor is graphene, which consists of a honeycomb lattice of carbon atoms that is just one atom thick. The development of van der Waals heterostructures has been restricted by the complicated and time-consuming manual operations required to produce them. That is, the 2D crystals typically obtained by exfoliation of a bulk material need to be manually identified, collected, and then stacked by a researcher to form a van der Waals heterostructure. Such a manual process is clearly unsuitable for industrial production of electronic devices containing van der Waals heterostructures

Now, a Japanese research team led by the Institute of Industrial Science at The University of Tokyo has solved this issue by developing an automated robot that greatly speeds up the collection of 2D crystals and their assembly to form van der Waals heterostructures. The robot consists of an automated high-speed optical microscope that detects crystals, the positions and parameters of which are then recorded in a computer database. Customized software is used to design heterostructures using the information in the database. The heterostructure is then assembled layer by layer by a robotic equipment directed by the designed computer algorithm. The findings were reported in Nature Communications.

Robot developed for automated assembly of designer nanomaterials. Credit: 2018 SATORU MASUBUCHI, INSTITUTE OF INDUSTRIAL SCIENCE, THE UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO

Robot developed for automated assembly of designer nanomaterials. Credit: 2018 SATORU MASUBUCHI, INSTITUTE OF INDUSTRIAL SCIENCE, THE UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO

“The robot can find, collect, and assemble 2D crystals in a glove box,” study first author Satoru Masubuchi says. “It can detect 400 graphene flakes an hour, which is much faster than the rate achieved by manual operations.”

When the robot was used to assemble graphene flakes into van der Waals heterostructures, it could stack up to four layers an hour with just a few minutes of human input required for each layer. The robot was used to produce a van der Waals heterostructure consisting of 29 alternating layers of graphene and hexagonal boron nitride (another common 2D semiconductor). The record layer number of a van der Waals heterostructure produced by manual operations is 13, so the robot has greatly increased our ability to access complex van der Waals heterostructures.

“A wide range of materials can be collected and assembled using our robot,” co-author Tomoki Machida explains. “This system provides the potential to fully explore van der Waals heterostructures.”

The development of this robot will greatly facilitate production of van der Waals heterostructures and their use in electronic devices, taking us a step closer to realizing devices containing atomic-level designer materials.

Physicists at the University of Warwick have today, Thursday 19th April 2018, published new research in the fournal Science today 19th April 2018 (via the Journal’s First Release pages) that could literally squeeze more power out of solar cells by physically deforming each of the crystals in the semiconductors used by photovoltaic cells.

This is an artists impression of squeezing more power out of solar cells by physically deforming each of the crystals in the semiconductors used by photovoltaic cells. Credit: University of Warwick/Mark Garlick

This is an artists impression of squeezing more power out of solar cells by physically deforming each of the crystals in the semiconductors used by photovoltaic cells. Credit: University of Warwick/Mark Garlick

The paper entitled the “Flexo-Photovoltaic Effect” was written by Professor Marin Alexe, Ming-Min Yang, and Dong Jik Kim who are all based in the University of Warwick’s Department of Physics.

The Warwick researchers looked at the physical constraints on the current design of most commercial solar cells which place an absolute limit on their efficiency. Most commercial solar cells are formed of two layers creating at their boundary a junction between two kinds of semiconductors, p-type with positive charge carriers (holes which can be filled by electrons) and n-type with negative charge carriers (electrons).

When light is absorbed, the junction of the two semiconductors sustains an internal field splitting the photo-excited carriers in opposite directions, generating a current and voltage across the junction. Without such junctions the energy cannot be harvested and the photo-exited carriers will simply quickly recombine eliminating any electrical charge.

That junction between the two semiconductors is fundamental to getting power out of such a solar cell but it comes with an efficiency limit. This Shockley-Queisser Limit means that of all the power contained in sunlight falling on an ideal solar cell in ideal conditions only a maximum of 33.7% can ever be turned into electricity.

There is however another way that some materials can collect charges produced by the photons of the sun or from elsewhere. The bulk photovoltaic effect occurs in certain semiconductors and insulators where their lack of perfect symmetry around their central point (their non-centrosymmetric structure) allows generation of voltage that can be actually larger than the band gap of that material (the band gap being the gap between the valence band highest range of electron energies in which electrons are normally present at absolute zero temperature and the conduction band where electricity can flow).

Unfortunately the materials that are known to exhibit the anomalous photovoltaic effect have very low power generation efficiencies, and are never used in practical power-generation systems.

The Warwick team wondered if it was possible to take the semiconductors that are effective in commercial solar cells and manipulate or push them in some way so that they too could be forced into a non-centrosymmetric structure and possibly therefore also benefit from the bulk photovoltaic effect.

For this paper they decided to try literally pushing such semiconductors into shape using conductive tips from atomic force microscopy devices to a “nano-indenter” which they then used to squeeze and deform individual crystals of Strontium Titanate (SrTiO3), Titanium Dioxide (TiO2), and Silicon (Si).

They found that all three could be deformed in this way to also give them a non-centrosymmetric structure and that they were indeed then able to give the bulk photovoltaic effect.

Professor Marin Alexe from the University of Warwick said:

“Extending the range of materials that can benefit from the bulk photovoltaic effect has several advantages: it is not necessary to form any kind of junction; any semiconductor with better light absorption can be selected for solar cells, and finally, the ultimate thermodynamic limit of the power conversion efficiency, so-called Shockley-Queisser Limit, can be overcome. There are engineering challenges but it should be possible to create solar cells where a field of simple glass based tips (a hundred million per cm2) could be held in tension to sufficiently de-form each semiconductor crystal. If such future engineering could add even a single percentage point of efficiency it would be of immense commercial value to solar cell manufacturers and power suppliers.”

Nexperia, a developer of discretes, logic and MOSFET devices, today announced the successful completion of a refinancing of its current facilities with USD 800 million equivalent of senior credit facilities. This includes a significant proportion of Revolving Credit facility. The proceeds will be used to refinance existing outstanding debt and for Capex expenditure to fund future growth.

The facilities were arranged by Bank of America Merrill Lynch and HSBC, acting as Global Coordinators, and were syndicated by a group of nine global banks. The refinancing is fully supported by JAC Capital and Wise Road Capital, Nexperia’s two main shareholders, and provides a flexible financing package at very attractive terms to support the further growth of Nexperia going forward.

Comments from Frans Scheper, Nexperia’s CEO: “This is the first time that Nexperia has approached the financial markets as an independent company, so we are very pleased with the enthusiastic response. Refinancing the outstanding debt will result in significant savings and give us greater flexibility, while the extra credit will enable us to pursue our ambitions fully with investment in new facilities and manufacturing technology.”

Nexperia is a Netherlands-headquartered, global manufacturer of discrete semiconductor components. The company is investing in increasing its capacity and footprint, having recently made a significant expansion to its Guangdong Assembly and Test Facility in China.

A chemical reactor that operates at extremely high temperatures is being developed by KAUST and could improve the efficiency and economy of a commonly used process in the semiconductor industry, with flow-on benefits for Saudi Arabia’s chemical industry.

The production of semiconductors relies on epitaxy: a process that creates high-quality single-crystal materials by depositing atoms on to a wafer layer by layer, controlling thickness with atomic precision.

The most common method of epitaxy is metalorganic chemical vapor deposition, or MOCVD. Pure vapors of organic molecules containing the desired atoms–for example, boron and nitrogen in the case of boron nitride–are injected into a reaction chamber. The molecules decompose on a heated wafer to leave the semiconductor’s atoms behind on the surface, which bond both to each other and the wafer to form a crystal layer.

Ph.D. student Kuang-Hui Li and a team led by Xiaohang Li at KAUST are developing an MOCVD reactor that can efficiently operate at extremely high temperatures to create high-quality boron nitride and aluminum nitride materials and devices particularly promising for flexible electronics, ultraviolet optoelectronics and power electronics.

The epitaxy of high-quality boron nitride and aluminum nitride have been a huge challenge for the conventional MOCVD process, which usually operates below 1200 degrees Celsius. Epitaxy of these materials responds best to temperatures over 1600 degrees Celsius; however, the most common resistant heaters are not reliable at these temperatures.

Although induction heaters can reach these temperatures, the heating efficiency of the conventional design is low. Because the wasted energy can overheat the gas inlet, it must be placed far away from the wafer, which is problematic for high-quality boron nitride and aluminum nitride due to particle generation and low utilization of organic molecules.

The KAUST team has developed an innovative and low-cost induction heating structure to solve these problems. “Our design can help greatly improve uniformity for up to 12-inch wafers and reduce particle generation, which is crucial for high-quality material and device fabrication,” says Kuang-Hui. “It also allows us to discover new materials.”

The results show significant increase in heating efficiency and reduction in wasted energy. “This equipment research involves many disciplines and is highly complex. However, history has shown that equipment innovation is the key to scientific breakthroughs and industrial revolution,” says Xiaohang Li. “A goal of the research is to set up MOCVD manufacturing activities that can be integrated into the huge chemical industry of Saudi Arabia.”

Boston Semi Equipment (BSE), a semiconductor test handler manufacturer and provider of test automation technical services, today announced it is a recipient of the 2017 Texas Instruments Supplier Excellence Award (SEA).  The SEA is TI’s highest level of supplier recognition.  Boston Semi Equipment is among an elite group of suppliers chosen by TI for their exemplary performance in the areas of Cost, Environmental & Social Responsibility, Technology, Responsiveness, Assurance of Supply, and Quality.

“The TI Supplier Excellence Award is public recognition of the focus and effort that Boston Semi Equipment commits to continually improving the performance of our company and the solutions we provide our customers.  We appreciate the opportunity to provide products and services to Texas Instruments, and it is an honor to be recognized by TI as an excellent supplier,” stated Colin P Scholefield, President.  “I am proud of the performance of the Boston Semi Equipment team.”

Collaborative research team of Prof. Jun Takeda and Associate Prof. Ikufumi Katayama in the laboratory of Yokohama National University (YNU) and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) successfully observed petahertz (PHz: 1015of a hertz) electron oscillation. The periodic electron oscillations of 667-383 attoseconds (as: 10-18 of a second) is the fastest that has ever been measured in the direct time-dependent spectroscopy in solid-state material.

NIR femtosecond pulse (pump pulse) induces the electron oscillation, which is monitored by the extreme ultraviolet IAP (probe pulse) based on the transient absorption spectroscopy. Credit: Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT)

NIR femtosecond pulse (pump pulse) induces the electron oscillation, which is monitored by the extreme ultraviolet IAP (probe pulse) based on the transient absorption spectroscopy. Credit: Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT)

As high-speed shutter cameras capture motions of fast-moving objects, researchers generally use laser (pulse) like instantaneous strobe light in order to observe the ultrafast motion of an electron underlying a physical phenomenon. The shorter the pulse duration, the faster the electron oscillation can be observed. The frequency of the lightwave-field in the visible and ultraviolet region can reach the petahertz (PHz: 1015 of a hertz), which means that the oscillation periodicity can achieve attosecond (as: 10-18 of a second) duration.

In previous studies, NTT researchers of the team generated an isolated attosecond pulse (IAP) [H. Mashiko et al., Nature commun. 5, 5599 (2014)] and monitored the electron oscillation with 1.2-PHz frequency using gallium-nitride (GaN) semiconductor [H. Mashiko et al., Nature Phys. 5, 741 (2016)]. The next challenges are the observation of faster electron oscillation in the chromium doped sapphire (Cr:Al2O3) insulator and the characterization of the ultrafast electron dephasing.

The paper, published in the journal Nature communications reports a successful observation of the near-infrared (NIR) pulse-induced multiple electronic dipole oscillations (periodicities of 667-383 as) in the Cr:Al2O3 solid-state material. The measurement is realized by the extreme short IAP (192-as duration) and the use of stable pump (NIR pulse) and probe (IAP) system (timing jitter of ~23 as). The characterized electron oscillations are the fastest that has ever been measured in the direct time-dependent spectroscopy. In addition, the individual dephasing times in the Cr donor-like intermediate level and the Al2O3 CB state are revealed.

Dr. Hiroki Mashiko, a NTT scientist of the team, said, “We contrived the robust pump-probe system with an extremely short isolated attosecond pulse, which led to the observation of the fastest electron oscillation in solid-state material in recorded history. The benefits of this study are directly related to the control of various optical phenomena through the dielectric polarization, and the results will help the development of future electronic and photonic devices.”

Getting better by design


April 18, 2018

By Ajit Manocha, President and CEO of SEMI

Mantra by Design

SEMI’s mantra is: Connect, Collaborate, Innovate. This mantra has delivered industry-enabling value to our members since SEMI’s beginnings in 1970. It has been essential for SEMI members to grow and prosper locally, while being synchronized globally. As the electronics manufacturing business has become more complex and interdependent, SEMI’s mantra has increasingly been applied across the full span of electronics manufacturing.

With the IC industry now worth over $400 billion in annual revenue, developing a single new chip can cost hundreds of millions of dollars. Consequently, industry players now connect, collaborate, and innovate in new, but more often, deeper ways. This is especially true with IC design – what’s possible in chip design is only possible if the manufacturing processes can be developed as projected. It makes sense, as complexity grows and the stakes get higher, that design and manufacturing are closely linked and apply the SEMI mantra together.

Where Electronics Begin

“Where Electronics Begin” is the tagline of the Electronics System Design Alliance, or the ESD Alliance. It aptly distills the fact that all IC manufacturing begins with design – and the design ecosystem. This week, SEMI announced it reached an agreement with the ESD Alliance to join SEMI as a SEMI Strategic Association Partner. The ESD Alliance will become part of the SEMI organization in 2018. With the ESD Alliance and its community joining SEMI, its membership will complete the full electronics design and manufacturing span.

This is a momentous step forward. The ESD Alliance’s ecosystem is vital and thriving and includes the world’s leading EDA and IP companies. Within the ESD Alliance community, Aart de Geus (Synopsys), Wally Rhines (Mentor, a Siemens Company), Simon Segars (Arm), and Lip-Bu Tan (Cadence), among others, are already familiar figures, having brought their thought leadership to SEMI platforms in the past. Now they, and the rest of the ESD Alliance members, will be able to more directly work with semiconductor equipment manufacturers, devices makers, and the rest of SEMI’s membership.

At events like SEMICON China, which recently concluded in March and attracted over 90,000 attendees, SEMI and the ESD Alliance members will be able to efficiently connect and engage the supply chain players and find new areas for collaboration. As SEMI’s membership looks out towards new applications and systems opportunities, having both ecosystems together will find possibilities faster and innovate approaches more practically.

The ESD Alliance will maintain its distinct community identity and governance while having access to, and the ability to augment, SEMI’s global platforms including seven regional offices, programs and expositions (including SEMICONs), advocacy (including trade, tax, talent, and technology), industry research and statistics, and other SEMI Strategic Association Partner and technology communities.

SEMI will gain direct access to the electronics design ecosystems to provide a deeper and wider value – to its combined membership – with SEMI’s mantra. SEMI and its more than 2,000 corporate members and more than 1.2 million stakeholders look forward to connecting, collaborating, and innovating with the ESD Alliance and its members. SEMI’s global reach and wide span of membership with ESD Alliance’s deep expertise in design and IP is truly the best of both worlds for all stakeholders.

Connect:  Design & Manufacturing

SEMI’s members have been reaching into the electronics design ecosystem and the ESD Alliance members have been reaching into SEMI’s ecosystem to optimize design and manufacturing process for lowest cost and highest yield. This week’s announcement is a step forward to directly and more intimately connect electronics design and manufacturing for the supply chain to work more closely together in full synchronization.

 

Connect-image1

Collaborate: From Beginning to End in Electronics Applications

With the ESD Alliance joining SEMI as a Strategic Association Partner, SEMI members can better collaborate across the full supply chain. Gone are the days when it was enough to collaborate only with one’s direct customer. Today, for example, components and c-subs suppliers frequently collaborate not just with their OEM equipment manufacturer customers, but with device manufacturers – and even system integrators. To be successful, companies are striving for connection to their customers’ customers.

The ESD Alliance, with its design ecosystem and linkage to the fabless community, will join three existing SEMI Strategic Association Partners: Fab Owners Alliance (FOA), MEMS & Sensors Industry Group (MSIG), and FlexTech (the association representing the flexible hybrid electronics ecosystem). These relationships now cover the entire span of electronics manufacturing.

To provide focused collaboration across the full supply chain, SEMI has developed five vertical application platforms: IoT, Smart Manufacturing, Smart Transportation, Smart MedTech, and Smart Data. These have been chosen because of unique and pressing needs to synchronize the supply chain and to engage and develop solutions collectively.

Collaborate-image1

Innovate:  Faster Future

With the confluence of emerging digital disruptions and new demand drivers, forecasts suggest the IC industry could grow to over $1 trillion in annual revenue by 2030. To deliver this growth, the supply chain must efficiently innovate together. SEMI’s value proposition is to speed the time to better business results for its members across the global electronics (design and) manufacturing supply chain. The addition of the ESD Alliance as a Strategic Association Partner is a key contributor to deliver this value proposition for the industry to grow and prosper now and in the future.

Global-Semi-Sales

Originally published on the SEMI blog.

Imec, a research and innovation hub in nanoelectronics, energy and digital technologies and partner in EnergyVille, has been named the coordinator of an ambitious 3-year European Union (EU) funded project, “ESPResSo” (Efficient Structures and Processes for Reliable Perovskite Solar Modules), that gathers known leaders in the field of perovskite PV technology to revolutionize Europe’s photovoltaics (PV) industry.

The ESPResSo consortium has been granted over 5M euro by the European Union to overcome the limitations of today’s state-of-the-art perovskite PV technology, bring perovskite solar cells to the next maturity level, and demonstrate their practical application. The members of the consortium include the fundamental research organizations Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland and Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Italy; perovskite solar cell scale-up and industrialization members imec, Belgium, Universita degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata (UNITOV-CHOSE), Italy and Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, Germany;  and experts in sustainability and renewable energies CSGI (Consorzio Interuniversitario per lo Sviluppo dei Sistemi a Grande Interfase), Italy and University of Cyprus, Cyprus.  Members representing materials development include Dycotec Materials LTD, United Kingdom, Dyenamo AB, Sweden and Corning SAS, France; equipment manufacturer, M-Solv LTD, United Kingdom; along with perovskite solar cell technology developers Saule Technologies, Poland, and building-integrated photovoltaics developer, Onyx Solar Energy SL, Spain.

With its low-cost materials and low temperature deposition processes, perovskite-based PV technology has the potential to takes its place in the thin-film PV market. Perovskite solar cells have already demonstrated high efficiencies (above 22%) that rival those of established mainstream thin-film PV technologies like copper-indium-gallium-selenide (CIGS) and cadmium-telluride (CdTe). The challenge is now to transfer the unprecedented progress that the perovskite PV cell technology has made in recent years from its cell level into a scalable, stable, low-cost technology on module level.

“Every aspect of our lives – from our homes to our workplaces, hospitals, schools and farms – depends on the nonstop availability of energy,” stated Tom Aernouts, imec group leader of thin-film photovoltaics.  “Perovskite cells demonstrate clear potential to support world’s energy demands cost-effectively. The ultimate aim of the partners of the ESPResSo project is to achieve this by bringing perovskite photovoltaics from the lab to the fab.”

The ESPResSo team targets alternative cost effective materials, novel cell concepts and architectures, and advanced processing know-how and equipment to overcome the current limitations of this technology. The consortium aims to bring the cell performance close to its theoretical limit by demonstrating cell efficiency of more than 24% (on 1cm²) and less than 10% degradation in cell efficiency following thermal stress at 85°C, 85% RH for over 1000h. Scale up activities utilising solution processed slot-die coating and laser processing will additionally deliver modules with more than 17% efficiency showing long-term (>20 years) reliable performance as deduced from IEC-compliant test conditions.

The ESPResSo team also envisions integrating modules in façade elements demonstrating a levelised cost of electricity (LCoE) of ≤ 0.05€/kWh. Prototyping advanced, arbitrary-shaped architectures with specific materials and process combinations will emphasize that new highly innovative applications like on flexible substrates or with high semi-transparency are well accessible in the mid- to longer-term with this very promising thin-film PV technology.

Technavio market research analysts forecast the global lithography metrology equipment market to grow at a CAGR of around 8% during the period 2018-2022, according to their latest report.

This market research report segments the global lithography metrology equipment market into the following end-users (foundry, memory, and IDMs) and key regions (the Americas, APAC, and EMEA). It provides an in-depth analysis of the prominent factors influencing the market, including drivers, opportunities, trends, and industry-specific challenges.

In this report, Technavio analysts highlight the high demand for miniaturized electronic devices as a key factor contributing to the growth of the global lithography metrology equipment market:

High demand for miniaturized electronic devices

One of the key transformations in the global semiconductor industry is the emergence of miniaturized semiconductor components such as ICs. The vendors are concentrating on manufacturing miniaturized personal electronics that consume less power. The semiconductor components range from IC and chips to LED displays. The demand for miniaturized electronic devices has increased significantly. The vendors are focusing on reducing the size of the devices without compromising on their performance. Therefore, the IC chips installed in the system need to be small, while delivering better performance and consuming less power.

In case of equipment such as photolithography systems, they need to transfer the IC design from a photomask to a silicon wafer, which is smaller in size. The use of optimized and miniaturized electronic circuits made of semiconductor materials has increased due to the miniaturization of electronic devices. This aids in keeping the structure small while delivering the same performance.

According to a senior analyst at Technavio for semiconductor equipment, “The demand for small-sized ICs has been increasing due to the advances in technology and the emergence of compact devices such as smartphones, tablets, and wearable technology. The semiconductor device manufacturers have constantly been updating their offerings with more advanced and compact IC chips to suit their consumer requirements.”

Global lithography metrology equipment market geographical – segmentation analysis

The APAC region led the global lithography metrology equipment market in 2017. It contributed to more than 71% share of the global market. It was followed by EMEA and the Americas respectively. The market in the APAC region is expected to post significant growth by 2022. The APAC region will dominate the market through the forecast period. The market share of the Americas will decrease to some extent, and it will remain the least contributor to the market share through the forecast period.

Technavio is a global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focuses on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions.