Category Archives: Semiconductors

Amkor Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMKR) today announced that Doug Alexander and MaryFrances McCourt have been appointed as new members of the Company’s Board of Directors. With these appointments, Amkor’s Board has been expanded to twelve members.

“We are pleased to have Doug and MaryFrances join Amkor’s Board,” said James Kim, Amkor’s Executive Chairman. “The demonstrated leadership skills and breadth of experience that they each bring to the Board will be great assets to the Company.”

Mr. Alexander was an original member of the advisory board of Actua Corporation (formerly named ICG Group, Inc.), a multi-vertical cloud technology company. Mr. Alexander joined Actua full-time in September 1997 as Managing Director and was appointed President in January 2009 where he served until December 2017. During his tenure at Actua, Mr. Alexander served in many senior management roles including as CEO of WiseWire Technologies, which was acquired by Lycos; CEO of ICG Europe; CEO of Traffic.com, which was acquired by Navteq; and CEO of Channel Intelligence, which was acquired by Google.

Mr. Alexander has served on the boards of directors for GovDelivery, Procurian, and Bolt. Mr. Alexander has also served as the Co-Chairman of the Philadelphia National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), and is Chairman of the Management & Technology Executive Board at the University of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Alexander holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

Ms. McCourt is Vice President for Finance and Treasurer at the University of Pennsylvania. In her role, Ms. McCourt leads Penn’s cash and short-term investment and capital financing strategies as well as oversees Penn’s financial functions. Ms. McCourt is responsible for the University’s multi-year financial planning efforts and collaborates closely with Penn Medicine leadership on its growth and financial planning. She directly manages the strategic and operational direction of a variety of functions, including the Comptrollers Office, financial training, global support services, research services, risk management and insurance, student registration and financial services and the Treasurer’s Office.

Prior to joining Penn, Ms. McCourt was the senior vice president and chief financial officer at Indiana University. Ms. McCourt has also served in financial-management positions for Agilysis, Inc., a diversified enterprise focused on technology and enterprise system solutions.

She earned her bachelor’s degree magna cum laude from Duke University and an MBA from Case Western University.

 

Two Waterloo chemists have made it easier for manufacturers to produce a new class of faster and cheaper semiconductors.

The chemists have found a way to simultaneously control the orientation and select the size of single-walled carbon nanotubes deposited on a surface. That means the developers of semiconductors can use carbon as opposed to silicon, which will reduce the size and increase the speed of the devices while improving their battery life.

“We’re reaching the limits of what’s physically possible with silicon-based devices,” said co-author Derek Schipper, Canada Research Chair Organic Material Synthesis at the University of Waterloo. “Not only would single-walled carbon nanotube-based electronics be more powerful, they would also consume less power.”

The process, called the Alignment Relay Technique, relies on liquid crystals to pass orientation information to a metal-oxide surface. Small molecules called iptycenes then bond to the surface locking the orientation pattern into place. Their structure includes a small pocket large enough to fit a certain size carbon nanotube that remains after washing.

“This is the first time chemists have been able to externally control the orientation of small molecules covalently bonded to a surface,” said Schipper, a professor of chemistry and a member of the Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology. “We’re not the first ones to come up with potential solutions to work with carbon nanotubes. But this is the only one that tackles both orientation and purity challenges at the same time.”

Schipper further pointed out that the approach is from the bottom up with the use of organic chemistry to design and build a molecule which then does the hard work.

“Once you’ve built the pieces, the process is simple. It’s a bench-top method requiring no special equipment,” Schipper explained.

In contrast to self-assembly techniques which rely on the design of a suitable molecule to fit snuggly together, this process can be controlled at every step, including the size of the iptycene “pocket”. In addition, this is the first a solution has been found to tackling the challenge of aligning and purifying carbon nanotubes at the same time.

INFICON,a manufacturer of leak test equipment, introduced the UL3000 Fab leak detector for semiconductor manufacturing maintenance teams to easily check the tightness of vacuum chambers for wafer production. Special advantages of the new leak detector are its fast readiness and unrivaled simplicity enabling the operator to find leaks of all sizes with the same procedures. It also has a slim mobile design for easy maneuverability and an intuitive operating concept for easy operation. The UL3000 Fab, which uses helium as a test gas, detects even the smallest leakage rates up to 5 x 10-12 atm cc/, thus providing the highest seal confirmation tightness of vacuum chambers for wafer production.

Daniel Hoffman, Sales and Service Manager for Leak Detection in the Americas, sees the new model as a big step forward. “Constantly innovating and optimizing our products to meet customer needs is a core goal for INFICON. With our new UL3000 Fab we will enable leak detection productivity gains never before seen in the semiconductor leak testing process,” said Hoffman.

The powerful, compact and smart leak detector enables testing at atmospheric pressure (through MASSIVE leak function) with best in class time to test or background generation, saturation protection, smart power and PM saving control all in a compact package. With its narrow design (only 18.6 inches wide), the mobile leak detector is designed for high maneuverability. Also, UL3000 Fab features robust construction, a deep center of gravity and large tires to ensure optimum mobility.

UL3000Fab_sil_right_MEDIUM

IC industry wafer capacity, specifically in the memory segment, was inadequate to meet demand throughout 2017. However, with Samsung, SK Hynix, Micron, Intel, Toshiba/WD, and XMC/Yangtze River Storage Technology planning to significantly ramp up 3D NAND flash capacity over the next few years, and Samsung and SK Hynix boosting DRAM capacity this year and next, what does this mean for total industry capacity growth?  In its 2018-2022 Global Wafer Capacity report, IC Insights shows that new manufacturing lines are expected to boost industry capacity 8% in both 2018 and 2019 (Figure 1). From 2017-2022, annual growth in IC industry capacity is forecast to average 6.0% compared to 4.8% average growth from 2012-2017.

annual wafer trends

Figure 1

Large swings in the addition or contraction of wafer capacity by the industry, as a whole, appear to be moderating. Since 2010, annual changes in wafer capacity volume have been in the relatively narrow range of 2-8%, with the largest year-to-year difference being just three percentage points.  This suggests that IC manufacturers are better today than in years past about trying to match supply with demand.  It’s still an incredibly difficult task for companies to gauge how much capacity will be needed to meet demand from customers, especially given the time it takes a company to move from the decision to build a new fab to that fab being ready for mass production.

Many companies, DRAM and NAND flash suppliers in particular, have become much more active with new fab construction and expansion projects at existing fabs.  This surge in activity comes after four years (2014-2017) when capacity growth lagged wafer start volume increases.  During the past few years, IC producers have worked to increase utilization rates from the low levels in 2012-2013.

If all the new fab capacity expected to be brought on-line in 2019 happens as planned, the volume of capacity added that year will approach the record set in 2007.  Figure 2 shows more that 18 million wafers per year of new capacity is expected to be added in 2019, and this number even assumes some of the massive DRAM and NAND fabs being built by Chinese companies will not be carried out quite as aggressively as has been advertised.  IC Insights believes that construction of these China-owned fabs is progressing slower than planned.

Figure 2

Figure 2

By Heidi Hoffman, SEMI

SEMI continues to transform to increase its impact on the success of the electronics industry supply chain. As one step in that process, SEMI President & CEO Ajit Manocha has formed a new group, Technology Communities, to better collaborate, align, and enhance all of SEMI’s technology-focused activities by operating them under one umbrella. The group is led by industry-veteran Mike Ciesinski, the new vice president of Technology Communities. Mike has more than 20 years’ experience creating and managing industry consortia and a strong record of fostering collaboration among industry, academia, and government research and development (R&D) agencies.

The charter of Technology Communities is to share best practices for SEMI’s special interest groups (SIGs), including hosting industry-wide CTO forums; providing regional insights; forming member, industry and academic consortia; and engaging with technology thought-leaders. The goal is to elevate the prominence of electronics technology in an effort to improve lives and enhance member profitability by speeding industry collaboration and opportunities for innovation.

SEMI SIGs serve as member groups that share information, explore common opportunities in a synergistic and non-competitive environment and provide a collective voice on issues within the global electronics industry. By segmenting the sprawling electronics supply chain into focused communities, SIGs foster more effective technical discussions and provide exclusive networking and speaking opportunities.

The Technology Communities encompasses Fab Owners Alliance (FOA), FlexTech, and MEMS & Sensors Industry Group (MSIG), as well as the SEMI Standards organization.  It supports key SEMI market verticals including Smart Manufacturing, Smart Data, and Smart MedTech.

Technology Communities also includes the Chemical & Gases Manufacturers Group (CGMG), the Silicon Manufacturers Group (SMG), the Collaborative Alliance for Semiconductor Test (CAST), Semiconductor Components, Instruments and Subsystems (SCIS), the Strategic Innovation Platforms (SIP) and the Heterogeneous Integration Roadmap. Each one of these communities has a unique and focused mission.

For SEMI’s members, these groups mean more opportunities to meet with peers and customers and help to define industry direction.

Members can be confident that SEMI technology SIGs are led by experienced industry professionals with extensive networks and a strong technical knowledge in their respective areas. Alongside Ciesinski, SEMI veteran Tom Salmon leads FOA, while James Amano directs SEMI Standards. Melissa Grupen-Shemansky, PhD, is the new FlexTech leader and CTO, while Frank Shemansky, Jr., PhD, is the MEMS and sensors CTO and oversees the MSIG group.

The HQ team is joined by experienced, knowledgeable professionals in each of SEMI’s seven regions to provide a global network and cross-region collaboration.

It’s easy to get involved and the SEMI groups are always seeking new members and industry drivers. Visit SEMI Special Interest Groups for more details on SEMI’s special interest groups. We will also be bringing you more in-depth articles on each of the technology groups in SGU.

Most of the groups and committees are available to any SEMI member in good standing – simply request to join.  Come to one of our upcoming events – such as 2018FLEX and MSTC2018 — to discuss opportunities to participate.

MACOM Technology Solutions Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: MTSI) (“MACOM”), a supplier of high-performance RF, microwave, millimeterwave and lightwave semiconductor products, and STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM) today announced an agreement to develop GaN (Gallium Nitride) on Silicon wafers to be manufactured by ST for MACOM’s use across an array of RF applications. While expanding MACOM’s source of supply, the agreement also grants to ST the right to manufacture and sell its own GaN on Silicon products in RF markets outside of mobile phone, wireless basestation and related commercial telecom infrastructure applications.

Through this agreement, MACOM expects to access increased Silicon wafer manufacturing capacity and improved cost structure that could displace incumbent Silicon LDMOS and accelerate the adoption of GaN on Silicon in mainstream markets. ST and MACOM have been working together for several years to bring GaN on Silicon production up in ST’s CMOS wafer fab. As currently scheduled, sample production from ST is expected to begin in 2018.

“This agreement punctuates our long journey of leading the RF industry’s conversion to GaN on Silicon technology. To date, MACOM has refined and proven the merits of GaN on Silicon using rather modest compound semiconductor factories, replicating and even exceeding the RF performance and reliability of expensive GaN on SiC alternative technology,” said John Croteau, President and CEO, MACOM. “We expect this collaboration with ST to bring those GaN innovations to bear in a Silicon supply chain that can ultimately service the most demanding customers and applications.”

“ST’s scale and operational excellence in Silicon wafer manufacturing aims to unlock the potential to drive new RF power applications for MACOM and ST as it delivers the economic breakthroughs necessary to expand the market for GaN on Silicon,” said Marco Monti, President of the Automotive and Discrete Product Group, STMicroelectronics. “While expanding the opportunities for existing RF applications is appealing, we’re even more excited about using GaN on Silicon in new RF Energy applications, especially in automotive applications, such as plasma ignition for more efficient combustion in conventional engines, and in RF lighting applications, for more efficient and longer-lasting lighting systems.”

“Once the $0.04/watt barrier for high power RF semiconductor devices is crossed, significant opportunities for the RF energy market may open up,” said Eric Higham, Director Advanced Semiconductor Applications Service at Strategy Analytics. Higham continued, “Potential RF energy device shipments could be in the hundreds of millions for applications including commercial microwave cooking, automotive lighting and ignition, and plasma lighting, with sales reaching into the billions of dollars.”

By Jamie Girard and Jay Chittooran, SEMI Public Policy

With much pride, President Donald Trump, in his State of the Union address last week, touted the signature legislative achievement of his first year in office – passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.  As companies doing business globally, SEMI members have long stressed their concern that the US business tax code was putting them at a disadvantage.  SEMI has worked for many years to voice its position that the US code needed to be reformed to lower the overall tax rate on businesses while also retaining incentives for innovation, like the research and development (R&D) and tax credits.  SEMI also pushed for the US to move to a territorial tax system to bring the US into alignment with the rest of the world.

President Donald Trump, State of the Union speech. Photo credit: CNN

President Donald Trump, State of the Union speech. Photo credit: CNN

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act implements all the of principle that SEMI members have advocated for, and included other industry priorities like repatriation of foreign held assets at a lower rate.  The new structure promises to allow for a more competitive business environment for companies doing business from the US, and greater growth for them globally.

“As tax cuts create new jobs, let us invest in workforce development and job training,” Trump noted in his State of the Union speech, addressing another major industry priority. “Let us open great vocational schools so our future workers can learn a craft and realize their full potential.”

Workforce development (Talent) is a critical issue for the industry, and SEMI recognizes the pressing need on multiple fronts to find the workers, both technical and highly-educated, to continue the work of driving innovation in the semiconductor industry.  While SEMI works with industry partners to boost the industry talent pool, we also recognize that the federal government has a role to play in ensuring that the US is doing its share to help address the problem. That’s why SEMI supports legislation like H.R. 4023, the Developing Tomorrow’s Engineering and Technical Workforce Act, aimed at providing federal dollars to promote engineering education at all levels of learning. The bill has bipartisan support in Congress, and SEMI will continue to work to see the bill travel to President Trump’s desk for his signature.

Facilitating trade and lowering barriers for good and services to move across borders is key to SEMI’s mission to support its members. The semiconductor industry has catalyzed growth across the global economy – growth that relies heavily on trade.

“America has also finally turned the page on decades of unfair trade deals that sacrificed our prosperity and shipped away our companies, our jobs, and our nation’s wealth,” Trump noted last Tuesday. “The era of economic surrender is over. From now on, we expect trading relationships to be fair and to be reciprocal. We will work to fix bad trade deals and negotiate new ones.”

Unfortunately, trade has been turned into a hot-button political issue, raising many new trade challenges to companies throughout the semiconductor industry. The Trump Administration has levied intense criticism of China, launched a number of trade investigations citing foreign overproduction, and has threatened to withdraw from the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (KORUS). The United States has also levied tariffs on a number of products, including solar cells. This is all on top of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) modernization talks, which have seen slow and shallow progress.

While the United States “reexamines” and stands still, other countries are filling the leadership void. China, Canada, Korea, and the European Union, among others, are negotiating or have concluded trade deals in the last year. Indeed, the updated Trans-Pacific Partnership, which now excludes the US but covers many of the fastest-growing Asian markets, is on track to be enacted by the end of the year. SEMI will continue to work on behalf of its members around the globe to open up new markets and lessen the burden of regulations on cross-border trade and commerce.

Additionally, although President Trump devoted much his address to immigration, he overlooked the opportunity to address the need for immigration reform for high-skilled workers.  This important aspect of the immigration debate, which also has major implications for economic growth, will fall to Congress to sort out in any immigration package it considers in the coming weeks.

Fortunately, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) recently reintroduced his Immigration Innovation Act, also known as “I-Squared,” which would implement a number of reforms to the H1-B visa and green card system for highly-skilled workers.  The bill would raise the cap for H1-B visas from the current 65,000 to allow for as many as 190,000 in good economic times, while also lifting the cap on greed card holders with STEM degrees from US institutions.  SEMI has long supported these efforts and will continue to work with policymakers to see reforms implemented to improve the system.

While partisanship in Washington remains high, SEMI continues to work on behalf of its members to advance crucial public policy matters for its members with policymakers in Washington, DC. In particular, SEMI focuses on how these issues impact the four 4T’s – Trade, Taxes, Technology and Talent. The path forward on many of these issues will be complicated by midterm election year politics, but the opportunity remains to see real positive changes enacted, even in such a challenging environment.

If you’d like more information on SEMI’s public policy work, or how you can be involved, please contact Jamie Girard at [email protected].

Market shares of top semiconductor equipment manufacturers for the full year 2017 indicate large gains by Tokyo Electron and Lam Research while top supplier Applied Materials dropped, according to the report “Global Semiconductor Equipment: Markets, Market Shares, Market Forecasts,” recently published by The Information Network, a New Tripoli-based market research company.

The chart below shows shares for the entire years of 2016 and 2017. Market shares are for equipment only, excluding service and spare parts, and have been converted for revenues of foreign companies to U.S. dollars on a quarterly exchange rate.

market shares

Market leader Applied Materials lost 1.8 share points among the top seven companies, dropping from 28.8% in 2016 to 27.0% in 2017. Gaining share are Tokyo Electron Ltd., which gained 2.1 share points while rising from 17.4% in 2016 to 19.1% in 2017, and Lam Research, which gained 1.5 share points and grew from a 19.4% share in 2016 to a 20.9% share in 2017.

In third place ASML gained 0.6 share points, growing from an 18.8% share in 2016 to a 19.4% share in 2017.

Fifth place KLA-Tencor is the dominant supplier in the process control sector (inspection and metrology) and competes against Applied Materials and Hitachi High-Technologies, as well as several other companies including Nanometrics, Nova Measuring Instruments, and Rudolph Technologies. KLA-Tencor gained market share against each of its competitors in this sector in 2017.

Much of the equipment revenue growth was attributed to strong growth in the DRAM and NAND sectors, as equipment was installed in memory manufacturers Intel, Micron Technology, Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, Toshiba, and Western Digital. The memory sector is expected to have grown 60.1% in 2017 and another 9.3% in 2018 according to industry consortium WSTS (World Semiconductor Trade Statistics).

Following the strong growth in the semiconductor equipment market, The Information Network projects another 11% growth in 2018. for semiconductor equipment.

ON Semiconductor (Nasdaq: ON) today announced its top distribution partners for 2017. These awards honor the distributor in each region that led overall channel sales, grew market share, captured increased sales of products from ON Semiconductor’s acquisitions and scored highly on overall process excellence.

The top 2017 distribution partners are:

“Distribution sales accounted for approximately 60 percent of ON Semiconductor’s 2017 annual revenues,” said Jeff Thomson, vice president of global channel sales for ON Semiconductor. “The support of our worldwide distribution partners is fundamental to the success of ON Semiconductor’s ongoing plans to increase market penetration and growing revenue at a faster pace than the industry. The collaborative relationships and progressive sales programs we foster with our channel partners are an integral part of this ongoing plan. As advocates of these goals, each of the 2017 distribution partner award winners successfully grew product sales, generated significant new business, and effectively supported both our customers’ needs and ON Semiconductor’s initiatives for operational excellence. We are pleased to recognize these outstanding channel partners for their valuable contributions throughout 2017 and look forward to continued success in the coming year.”

Graphene is a remarkable material: light, strong, transparent and electrically conductive. It can also convert heat to electricity. Researchers have recently exploited this thermoelectric property to create a new kind of radiation detector.

Classified as a bolometer, the new device has a fast response time and, unlike most other bolometers, works over a wide range of temperatures. With a simple design and relatively low cost, this device could be scaled up, enabling a wide range of commercial applications. Researchers describe a graphene-based radiation detector this week in Applied Physics Letters, from AIP Publishing.

The discovery of graphene in 2004 was anticipated to herald a whole new type of technology. “But unfortunately, there are some strong fundamental limitations for this material,” said Grigory Skoblin of Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden. “Nowadays, the real industrial applications of graphene are quite limited.”

Graphene — composed of single sheets of carbon atoms that form a flat, hexagonal lattice structure — has been used mainly for its mechanical properties.

“But our device shows that more fundamental properties can be used in actual applications,” Skoblin said. The new bolometer is based on graphene’s thermoelectric properties. Radiation heats part of the device, inducing electrons to move. The displaced electrons generate an electric field, which creates a voltage difference across the device. The change in voltage thus provides an essentially direct measurement of the radiation.

Other devices rely on the generation of electrical current or resistance change by incoming radiation. But measuring changes in current or resistance requires an external power source to generate an initial current. The mechanism is much simpler than in other bolometers, according to Skoblin.

The piece of graphene in the new bolometer is small, so it’s one of the fastest bolometers because it heats up and responds quickly. Furthermore, the device remains sensitive to radiation at temperatures up to 200 degrees Celsius. Conventional bolometers typically work only at cryogenic temperatures.

Other researchers have previously made graphene bolometers, with better properties than this new device, but these models contain a double layer of graphene, making them more difficult to scale, Skoblin said.

Another advantage of the new device is its coating. The researchers previously developed a method to coat graphene with a dielectric polymer called Parylene, which offers a good balance of performance and scalability. You can get better performance by coating with hexagonal boron nitride, Skoblin said, but it’s hard to acquire and the coating techniques are difficult to scale up. Other studies suggest that a bolometer with hexagonal boron nitride coating would be less efficient.

The prototype bolometer works only with microwave radiation at 94 gigahertz, but future designs will widen the frequency range. Next, the researchers plan to make the device using chemical vapor deposition to grow larger pieces of graphene, paving the way for mass production.