Category Archives: Wafer Processing

Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CDNS) today announced that John Wall, corporate vice president of finance and corporate controller of Cadence, has been appointed senior vice president and chief financial officer of Cadence, effective October 1, 2017. Geoff Ribar, current CFO of Cadence, will remain with the company as a senior advisor until his previously announced retirement at the end of March 2018.

Mr. Wall, a 20-year Cadence executive, has been corporate controller for the past year-and-a-half, during which he has worked closely with Mr. Ribar to set and execute the company’s financial goals. He previously served as vice president of finance, where he was responsible for worldwide revenue accounting and sales finance, and was instrumental in development of the ratable revenue model and sales models that Cadence uses. At the beginning of his tenure with Cadence, Mr. Wall established the Cadence office in Dublin, Ireland, was European controller and implemented the company’s international tax structure.

“The Board of Directors and I are excited to appoint John Wall as the next CFO of Cadence,” said Lip-Bu Tan, president and chief executive officer of Cadence. “We are confident that John’s deep financial experience and knowledge about our business will serve us well as we build upon the important progress we have made with our System Design Enablement strategy, further expand Cadence’s position with customers and improve our financial position.”

Mr. Tan continued, “On behalf of the Board and the entire Cadence team, I want to express our deepest gratitude to Geoff Ribar for his significant contributions to Cadence’s excellent financial management over the last seven years as CFO. Geoff played a key role in building the financial foundation through which we steadily increased our operating margin and improved our performance. We look forward to continuing to benefit from his exceptional skill and leadership during the transition and wish him all the best for the future.”

Cadence has also appointed Michelle Quejado as corporate controller, reporting to Mr. Wall. Ms. Quejado was most recently interim CFO at Zynga Inc., where she also served as corporate controller and chief accounting officer. Prior to Zynga, she served in multiple financial executive positions at Lam Research Corporation, including assistant corporate controller.

TowerJazz, the global specialty foundry, today announced the release of its advanced 5V 65nm power process providing customers with multiple advantages over 0.18um 5V technologies. The advanced 5V 65nm technology increases TowerJazz’s footprint in the 5V power market by offering enhanced Rdson efficiency with an attractive die cost advantage over 0.18um 5V processes. This technology is based on TowerJazz’s automotive 300mm 65nm process platform manufactured in its Uozu, Japan facility and supports both best in class quality and manufacturing cycle time.

The advanced 5V 65nm contains a rich portfolio of analog features and many different metal combinations to optimize cost/performance for any application. The first products, for several strategic customers, were already prototyped with outstanding performance. The technology is now fully released and supports Multi-layer Masking (MLM) and an MPW option to reduce engineering costs. The first MPW is targeted for November 2017.

TowerJazz’s 5V 65nm power technology offers high Rdson efficiency using tighter design rules for power devices, and a thick copper top metal for large current applications, enabling the 5V transistors using a 65nm design to achieve dense digital capabilities and a dense analog periphery, with a low number of manufacturing masks. The technology offers an average of 30% area reduction for a given 5V power transistor and typically a 35% die size reduction for a mixed-signal chip. An optimization effort to minimize cost and manufacturing layers needed to support 5V enables highly competitive solutions for many different markets such as automotive, industrial and consumer. The advanced 5V 65nm supports high current power applications such as PMIC, DC/DC converters, load switches and point of load ICs using single and dual 3.3um thick copper metal layers.

“Streamlining our feature rich automotive quality 65nm technology allows TowerJazz to provide very attractive 5V power and mixed-signal solutions with the high quality standard set required for servicing the automotive market,” said Shimon Greenberg, Vice President and General Manager of Mixed-Signal and Power Management Business Unit, TowerJazz. “This technology is utilized for relatively high current power ICs at 5V which have large growth drivers to advanced analog and mixed-signal ICs.”

Lam Research Corp. (Nasdaq: LRCX), a global supplier of wafer fabrication equipment and services to the semiconductor industry, today announced it has recognized seven companies with Supplier Excellence Awards. Selected from among Lam’s extensive list of preferred global suppliers, the 2017 award winners represent partners who have demonstrated a deep commitment to collaboration and strategic operations in an evolving semiconductor industry.

“We are pleased to recognize the critical role our top suppliers play in the delivery of industry-leading products and services to our customers,” said Tim Archer, chief operating officer of Lam Research. “Lam’s business operations continue to grow—in scale, complexity, and geographic footprint. All of the suppliers recognized today demonstrate a commitment to innovation, collaboration, and partnership that will be increasingly important to our future. We are pleased to honor the achievements of these remarkable companies with our 2017 Supplier Excellence Awards.”

Award recipients were announced on September 12 at the company’s 2017 Supplier Day event, during which Lam Research focused on enhancing collaboration and renewing opportunities for mutual success with its customers and suppliers. Executives from suppliers around the world attended the event, where the following seven companies were recognized.

  • Edwards Vacuum
  • HORIBA, Ltd.
  • ILSHIN Precision Co. Ltd.
  • MKS Instruments, Inc.
  • Tokai Carbon Korea Co. Ltd.
  • TOTO, Ltd.
  • Ultra Clean Technology

SPTS Technologies, an Orbotech company and a supplier of advanced wafer processing solutions for the global semiconductor and related industries, today announced that it has been selected by Chipmore Technology Corporation Limited, an LCD driver integrated chip (IC) packaging specialist, to supply physical vapor deposition (PVD) solutions for the under bump metallization (UBM) and redistribution layers (RDL) for their flip-chip packaging line.   Chipmore chose the Sigma® fxP PVD solution for their new copper (Cu) bumping line, as it provides superior results and lowest cost of ownership over competitor systems.

“Consumer demand for high-end smartphones and other mobile devices with higher resolution screens are driving the rapid growth of advanced display driver IC’s,” stated Mr. Kevin Crofton, Corporate Vice President at Orbotech and President of SPTS Technologies. “Our Sigma fxP PVD system provides Chipmore with the most cost effective means to expand their bumping capacity to meet the demand from display-driver IC manufacturers.” 

Mr. Sampus Yang, Vice President at Chipmore stated: “Chipmore offers a range of bumping solutions for our global customers, ranging from high-end gold bumping to cost-effective copper bumping for flip chip packaging. SPTS’s Sigma fxP PVD system produces high quality copper pillars with excellent throughput and low cost of ownership, which allows us to remain competitive in a highly cost-sensitive market. The additional bumping capability will allow us to capitalize on consumers’ growing appetite for higher resolution LCD displays and strengthen our reputation as a top packaging services company.”

Despite a slightly down first quarter, the semiconductor industry achieved near record growth in the second quarter of 2017, posting a 6.1 percent growth from the previous quarter, according to IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO). Global revenue came in at $101.4 billion, up from $95.6 billion in the first quarter of 2017. This is the highest growth the industry has seen in the second quarter since 2014.

The memory chip market set records in the second quarter, growing 10.7 percent to a new high of $30.2 billion with DRAM and NOR flash memory leading the charge, growing 14 percent and 12.3 percent quarter-on-quarter, respectively.

“The DRAM market had another quarter of record revenues on the strength of higher prices and growth in shipments,” said Mike Howard, director for DRAM memory and storage at IHS Markit. “Anxiety about product availability in the previous third and fourth quarters weighed on the industry. This led many DRAM buyers to build inventory — putting additional pressure on the already tight market. This year is shaping up to smash all DRAM revenue records and will easily pass the $60 billion mark.”

“For NOR, the supply-demand balance has tightened raising average selling prices and revenue,” said Clifford Leimbach, senior analyst for memory and storage at IHS Markit. “This mature memory technology has been in a steady decline for many years, but some market suppliers are reducing supply or leaving the market, which has tightened supply recently, resulting in the increase of revenue.”

In terms of application, consumer electronics and data processing saw the most growth, increasing in revenue by 7.9 percent and 6.8 percent, respectively, quarter-on-quarter. A lot of this growth can be attributed to the continual growth in memory pricing, as supply still remains tight.

Industrial semiconductors showed the third highest growth rate at 6.4 percent during the same period. This growth can be attributable to multiple segments, such as commercial and military avionics, digital signage, network video surveillance, HVAC, smart meters, traction, PV inverters, LED lighting and medical electronics including cardiac equipment, hearing aids and imaging systems.

Another trend in the industrial market is increasing factory automation, which alone is driving growth for discrete power transistors, thyristors, rectifiers and power diodes. The market for these devices is expected to reach $8 billion in 2021, up from $5.7 billion in 2015.

Intel remains the number one semiconductor supplier in the world, followed by Samsung Electronics by a slight margin. IHS Markit does not include foundry operations and other non-semiconductor revenue in the semiconductor market rankings.

Among the top 20 semiconductor suppliers, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and nVidia achieved the highest revenue growth quarter over quarter by 24.7 percent and 14.6 percent, respectively. There was no market share movement in the top 10 semiconductor suppliers. However, seven of the 10 companies in the 11 to 20 market share slots did change market share.

top_5_semiconductor_companies

JoshThe Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), representing U.S. leadership in semiconductor manufacturing, design, and research, today announced Josh Shiode has joined the association as government affairs director. In this role, Shiode will help advance the U.S. semiconductor industry’s key legislative and regulatory priorities related to semiconductor research and technology, product security, and high-skilled immigration, among others. He also will serve as a senior representative of the industry before Congress, the White House, and federal agencies.

“The U.S. semiconductor industry is a key driver of America’s economic strength, national security, and global technology leadership,” said John Neuffer, SIA president and CEO. “Josh Shiode’s extensive knowledge, skills, and experience will make him an ideal advocate for our industry’s policy priorities in Washington, D.C. We’re thrilled to welcome him to the SIA team and look forward to his help advancing initiatives that promote growth and innovation in our industry and throughout the U.S. economy.”

Shiode most recently served as senior government relations officer at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), where he helped guide the association’s science and technology advocacy before the executive and legislative branches. Previously, Shiode was a public policy fellow at the American Astronomical Society (AAS), where he helped develop and implement AAS’s government advocacy strategies. Shiode holds a doctorate in astrophysics from the University of California, Berkeley and a bachelor’s degree in astronomy and physics from Boston University.

Soitec, a designer and manufacturer of semiconductor materials for the electronics industry, is launching a pilot line to produce fully depleted silicon-on-insulator (FD-SOI) wafers in its Singapore wafer fab. This is the first stage in beginning FD-SOI production in Singapore and providing multi-site FD-SOI substrate sourcing to the global semiconductor market.

“Our decision to launch this FD-SOI line in Singapore as well as the decision we already made to ramp up our FD-SOI production in France are based on direct customer demand,” said Paul Boudre, CEO of Soitec. “These are very important milestones for Soitec and the expanding FD-SOI ecosystem. In Singapore, we plan to get full qualification at the customer level in the first half of 2019 and then increase capacity in line with market commitment.”

The FD-SOI ecosystem continues to strengthen and the use of FD-SOI technology is progressing. Multiple foundries, IDMs and fabless customers are engaged with a growing number of FD-SOI tape-outs and wafer starts. FD-SOI offers a unique value proposition for low-power applications, which makes it well suited for rapidly growing electronic market segments such as mobile processing, IoT, automotive and industrial.

Soitec reports that its investment in Singapore to launch its FD-SOI pilot line is approximately US$40 million, to be spent over a 24-month period.

SEMI, the global industry association representing the electronics manufacturing supply chain, today reported that worldwide semiconductor manufacturing equipment billings reached US$14.1 billion for the second quarter of 2017.

Quarterly billings of US$14.1 billion represent an all-time historic record for quarterly billings, exceeding the record level set in the first quarter of this year. Billings for the most recent quarter are 8 percent higher than the first quarter of 2017 and 35 percent higher than the same quarter a year ago. Sequential regional growth was mixed for the most recent quarter with the strongest growth exhibited by Korea. Korea maintained the largest market for semiconductor equipment for the year, followed by Taiwan and China. The data are gathered jointly with the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ) from over 95 global equipment companies that provide data on a monthly basis.

The quarterly billings data by region in billions of U.S. dollars, quarter-over-quarter growth and year-over-year rates by region are as follows:

2Q2017
1Q2017
2Q2016
2Q2017/1Q2017

(Qtr-over-Qtr)
2Q2017/2Q2016

(Year-over-Year)
Korea
4.79
3.53
1.53
36%
212%
Taiwan
2.76
3.48
2.73
-21%
1%
China
2.51
2.01
2.27
25%
11%
Japan
1.55
1.25
1.05
24%
47%
North America
1.23
1.27
1.20
-3%
3%
Europe
0.66
0.92
0.37
-29%
76%
Rest of World
0.62
0.63
1.31
-1%
-53%
Total
14.11
13.08
10.46
8%
35%

Source: SEMI (http://www.semi.org) and SEAJ (http://www.seaj.or.jp)

The Equipment Market Data Subscription (EMDS) from SEMI provides comprehensive market data for the global semiconductor equipment market.

The latest update to the World Fab Forecast report, published on September 5, 2017 by SEMI, again reveals record spending for fab equipment. Out of the 296 Front End facilities and lines tracked by SEMI, the report shows 30 facilities and lines with over $500 million in fab equipment spending.  2017 fab equipment spending (new and refurbished) is expected to increase by 37 percent, reaching a new annual spending record of about US$55 billion. The SEMI World Fab Forecast also forecasts that in 2018, fab equipment spending will increase even more, another 5 percent, for another record high of about $58 billion. The last record spending was in 2011 with about $40 billion. The spending in 2017 is now expected to top that by about $15 billion.

fab equipment spending

Figure 1: Fab equipment spending (new and refurbished) for Front End facilities

Examining 2017 spending by region, SEMI reports that the largest equipment spending region is Korea, which increases to about $19.5 billion in spending for 2017 from the $8.5 billion reported in 2016. This represents 130 percent growth year-over-year. In 2018, the World Fab Forecast report predicts that Korea will remain the largest spending region, while China will move up to second place with $12.5 billion (66 percent growth YoY) in equipment spending. Double-digit growth is also projected for Americas, Japan, and Europe/Mideast, while other regions growth is projected to remain below 10 percent.

The World Fab Forecast report estimates that Samsung is expected to more than double its fab equipment spending in 2017, to $16-$17 billion for Front End equipment, with another $15 billion in spending for 2018. Other memory companies are also forecast to make major spending increases, accounting for a total of $30 billion in memory-related spending for the year. Other market segments, such as Foundry ($17.8 billion), MPU ($3 billion), Logic ($1.8 billion), and Discrete with Power and LED ($1.8 billion), will also invest huge amounts on equipment. These same product segments also dominate spending into 2018.

In both 2017 and 2018, Samsung will drive the largest level in fab spending the industry has ever seen. While a single company can dominate spending trends, SEMI’s World Fab Forecast report also shows that a single region, China, can surge ahead and significantly impact spending. Worldwide, the World Fab Forecast tracks 62 active construction projects in 2017 and 42 projects for 2018, with many of these in China.

For insight into semiconductor manufacturing in 2017 and 2018 with more details about capex for construction projects, fab equipping, technology levels, and products, visit the SEMI Fab Database webpage (www.semi.org/en/MarketInfo/FabDatabase) and order the SEMI World Fab Forecast Report. The report, in Excel format, tracks spending and capacities for over 1,200 facilities including over 80 future facilities, across industry segments from Analog, Power, Logic, MPU, Memory, and Foundry to MEMS and LEDs facilities.

The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), representing U.S. leadership in semiconductor manufacturing, design, and research, today announced worldwide sales of semiconductors reached $33.6 billion for the month of July 2017, an increase of 24.0 percent compared to the July 2016 total of $27.1 billion and 3.1 percent more than the June 2017 total of $32.6 billion. All major regional markets posted both year-to-year and month-to-month increases in July, and the Americas market led the way with growth of 36.1 percent year-to-year and 5.4 percent month-to-month. All monthly sales numbers are compiled by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization and represent a three-month moving average.

“Worldwide semiconductor sales increased on a year-to-year basis for the twelfth consecutive month in July, reflecting impressive and sustained growth for the global semiconductor market,” said John Neuffer, president and CEO, Semiconductor Industry Association. “Sales in July increased throughout every major regional market and semiconductor product category, demonstrating the breadth of the global market’s recent upswing, and the industry is on track for another record sales total in 2017.”

Year-to-year sales increased in the Americas (36.1 percent), China (24.1 percent), Asia Pacific/All Other (20.5 percent), Europe (18.9 percent), and Japan (16.7 percent). Month-to-month sales increased in the Americas (5.4 percent), Asia Pacific/All Other (2.8 percent), China (2.7 percent), Japan (2.1 percent), and Europe (1.2 percent).

To find out how to purchase the WSTS Subscription Package, which includes comprehensive monthly semiconductor sales data and detailed WSTS Forecasts, please visit http://www.semiconductors.org/industry_statistics/wsts_subscription_package/. For detailed data on the global and U.S. semiconductor industry and market, consider purchasing the 2017 SIA Databook: https://www.semiconductors.org/forms/sia_databook/.

Jul 2017

Billions

Month-to-Month Sales                              

Market

Last Month

Current Month

% Change

Americas

6.59

6.94

5.4%

Europe

3.16

3.20

1.2%

Japan

2.98

3.04

2.1%

China

10.41

10.69

2.7%

Asia Pacific/All Other

9.50

9.77

2.8%

Total

32.64

33.65

3.1%

Year-to-Year Sales                         

Market

Last Year

Current Month

% Change

Americas

5.10

6.94

36.1%

Europe

2.69

3.20

18.9%

Japan

2.60

3.04

16.7%

China

8.61

10.69

24.1%

Asia Pacific/All Other

8.11

9.77

20.5%

Total

27.13

33.65

24.0%

Three-Month-Moving Average Sales

Market

Feb/Mar/Apr

May/Jun/Jul

% Change

Americas

6.08

6.94

14.2%

Europe

2.99

3.20

7.3%

Japan

2.88

3.04

5.7%

China

10.13

10.69

5.6%

Asia Pacific/All Other

9.21

9.77

6.0%

Total

31.29

33.65

7.5%