Category Archives: LEDs

The ConFab – an exclusive conference and networking event for semiconductor manufacturing and design executives from leading device makers, OEMs, OSATs, fabs, suppliers and fabless/design companies – announces Keynotes in the May 14-17 event being held at the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego.

The ConFab 2017 is excited to welcome these distinguished Keynote speakers: Hans Stork, Senior Vice President and Chief Technical Officer at ON Semiconductor; Mohan Trivedi, Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and founding director of the Computer Vision and Robotics Research Laboratory, as well as the Laboratory for Intelligent and Safe Automobiles at the University of California San Diego; Dr. Alissa Fitzgerald, Founder and Managing Member of A.M. Fitzgerald & Associates, and Bill McClean, President of IC Insights.

Hans Stork, Senior Vice President and Chief Technical Officer at ON Semiconductor

Hans Stork, Senior Vice President and Chief Technical Officer at ON Semiconductor

Mohan Trivedi, Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and founding director of the Computer Vision and Robotics Research Laboratory

Mohan Trivedi, Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and founding director of the Computer Vision and Robotics Research Laboratory

Mohan Trivedi, Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and founding director of the Computer Vision and Robotics Research Laboratory

Mohan Trivedi, Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and founding director of the Computer Vision and Robotics Research Laboratory

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“The five hottest areas for semiconductor growth in the coming years are the Internet of Things (IoT), automotive, 5G, virtual reality/augmented reality (VR/AR), and artificial intelligence (AI). The ConFab 2017 program will take a close look at the challenges of these applications in the semiconductor industry, not just on the microprocessor and memory side, but on the MEMS, sensor, display, power and analog side. Many new innovations in packaging will also addressed,” said Pete Singer, Conference Chair of The ConFab and Editor-in-Chief of Solid State Technology.

In addition to our great Keynotes, the 2017 Agenda brings together sessions on heterogeneous integration and advanced packaging, starting with a talk from Islam Salama, Director with Intel, followed by Bill Chen, ASE Fellow, and Jan Vardaman, President of TechSearch. Siemens will speak on Smart Manufacturing, which will encompass the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). A panel discussion on Advanced Packaging will be moderated by Vinayak Pandey, Vice President of STATS ChipPAC with additional sessions that will focus on MEMS and sensors. Speakers include Kevin Shaw, CTO and Founder of Algorithmic Intuition and J.C. Eloy, President and CEO of Yole Développement. Another panel will look into the coming opportunities and changes in a range of diverse markets, including MEMS and Sensors, power electronics, biomedical, LEDs, displays and more. Those panelists include Valerie Marty of Connected Micro, Laura Rothman Mauer of Veeco, David Butler of SPTS and Mike Rosa of Applied Materials. Jason Marsh of NextFlex will provide an update on flexible electronics on Wednesday.

The ConFab is a high-level conference for decision-makers and influencers to connect, innovate and collaborate in multiple sessions, one-on-one private business meetings, and other networking activities. For more information, visit www.theconfab.com.

About The ConFab

The ConFab is the premier semiconductor manufacturing conference and networking event bringing over 200 notable industry leaders together. The ConFab is owned and produced by Extension Media and hosted by Pete Singer, Solid State Technology’s Editor-in-Chief, and Conference Chair. To inquire about participating – if you represent an equipment, material or service supplier, contact Kerry Hoffman, Director of Sales, at [email protected]. To inquire about attending, contact Sally Bixby, Sr. Events Director at [email protected]

About Extension Media

Extension Media is a privately held company operating more than 50 B2B magazines, engineers’ guides, newsletters, websites and conferences that focus on high-tech industry platforms and emerging technologies such as: chip design, semiconductor and electronics manufacturing, embedded systems, software, architectures and industry standards. Extension Media also produces industry leading events including The ConFab, the Internet of Things Developers Conference (IoT DevCon 2017) and the new Machine Learning Developers Conference (ML DevCon 2017), and publishes Embedded Systems Engineering, EECatalog.com, Embedded Intel® Solutions, EmbeddedIntel.com, Chip Design, ChipDesignMag.com, Solid State Technology and Solid-State.com.

Over 60,000 attendees are expected at SEMICON China opening tomorrow at Shanghai New International Expo Centre (SNIEC). SEMICON China (March 14-16) offers the latest in technology and innovation for the electronics manufacturing industry. FPD China is co-located with SEMICON China, providing opportunities in this related market. Featuring nearly 900 exhibitors occupying nearly 3,000 booths, SEMICON China is the largest gathering of its kind in the world.

Worldwide fab equipment spending is expected to reach an industry all-time record, to more than US$46 billion in 2017, according to the latest version of the SEMI (www.semi.org) World Fab Forecast. In 2018, the record may break again, with spending close to the $50 billion mark.  SEMI forecasts that China will be third ($6.7 billion) for regional fab equipment spending in 2017, but its spending in 2018 may reach $10 billion – which would be a 55 percent increase year-over-year, placing China in second place for worldwide fab equipment spending in 2018.

On March 14, keynotes at SEMICON China include SMIC chairman of the Board Zhou Zixue. ASE Group director and COO Tien Wu, ASML president and CEO Peter Wennink, Intel VP Jun He, Lam Research CEO Martin Anstice, TEL CTO Sekiguchi Akihisa and imec president and CEO Luc Van den hove.

SEMICON China programs expand attendees’ knowledge, networking reach, and business opportunities. Programs this year feature a broad and deep range:

  • CSTIC: On March 12-13, the China Semiconductor Technology International Conference (CSTIC) precedes SEMICON China. CSTIC is organized by SEMI and imec and covers all aspects of semiconductor technology and manufacturing.
  • Technical and Business Programs: 
    • March 14: China Memory Strategic Forum.
    • March 15: Building China’s IC Ecosystem, Green High-Tech Facility Forum, and Smart Manufacturing Forum, in addition Power & Compound Semiconductor Forum (Day 1).
    • March 16: Smart Automotive Forum, MEMS & Sensors Conference Asia, plus Power & Compound Semiconductor Forum (Day 2)
  • Tech Investment Forum: On March 15, an international platform to explore investment, M&A, and China opportunities.
  • Theme Pavilions:  SEMICON China also features six exhibition floor theme pavilions: IC Manufacturing, LED and Sapphire, ICMTIA/Materials, MEMS, Touch Screen and OLED.
  • Networking Events: SEMI Industry Gala, China IC Night, and SEMI Golf Tournament

For additional information on sessions and events at SEMICON China 2017, please visit www.semiconchina.org/en/4.

Russian physicists, with their colleagues from Europe through changing the light parameters, learned to generate quasiparticles – excitons, which were fully controllable and also helped to record information at room temperature. These particles act as a transitional form between photons and electrons so the researchers believe that with excitons, they will be able to create compact optoelectronic devices for rapid recording and processing an optical signal. The proposed method is based on use of a special class of materials called metal-organic frameworks. The study appeared in Advanced Materials.

The way of how the light with different wavelengths influences on a MOF crystal: different types of excitons are showed in red and blue (left). Image of crystals (right). Credit: ITMO University

The way of how the light with different wavelengths influences on a MOF crystal: different types of excitons are showed in red and blue (left). Image of crystals (right). Credit: ITMO University

To simplify the description of complex effects in quantum mechanics, scientists have introduced a concept of quasiparticles. One of them which is called exciton is an “electron – hole” pair, which provides energy transfer between photons and electrons. According to the scientific community, this mediation of quasiparticles will help to combine optics with electronics to create a fundamentally new class of equipment – more compact and energy efficient. However, all exciton demo devices either operate only at low temperature, or are difficult to manufacture which inhibits their mass adoption.

In the new study, the scientists from ITMO University in Saint Petersburg, Leipzig University in Germany and Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands could generate excitons at room temperature by changing the light parameters. The authors also managed to control the quasiparticles with ultra-high sensitivity of about hundreds of femtoseconds (10-13 s). Finally, they developed an easy method for data recording with excitons. This all became possible through the use of an individual class of materials called metal-organic frameworks.

Metal-organic frameworks (MOF) synthesized at ITMO University, have a layered structure. Between the layers, there is a physical attraction called van der Waals force. To prevent the plates from uncontrollably coming together, the interlayer space is filled with an organic liquid, which fixes the framework to be three-dimensional.

In such crystals, the researchers learned to bring two types of excitons individually: intralayer and interlayer. The first arise when a photon absorbed by the crystal turns into an electron-hole pair inside a layer, but the second appear when an electron and a hole belong to neighboring layers. In some time, both kinds of quasiparticles disintegrate, re-radiating the energy as a photon. But excitons can move around the crystal while they exist.

The life time of intralayer excitons is relatively short, but their high density and agility allow one to use these quasiparticles to generate light in LEDs and lasers, for instance. Interlayer excitons are more stable, but slow-moving, so the researchers propose them to be used for the data recording. Both types of excitons fit processing of an optical signal, according to the physicists.

The innovative approach for information recording concerns the changing a distance between crystal layers to switch “on” and “off” the interlayer excitons. Valentin Milichko, the first author of the paper, associate professor of Department of Nanophotonics and Metamaterials at ITMO University, comments: “We locally heated the crystal with a laser. In the place of exposure, the layers stuck together and the luminescence of excitons disappeared while the rest of the crystal continued shining. This could mean that we recorded 1 bit of information, and the record, in the form of a dark spot, was kept for many days. To delete the data, it was enough to put the MOF into the same organic liquid that supports layers. In this case, the crystal itself is not affected, but the recorded information (the dark spot) disappears.”

The authors believe that in the future the new material will help to bring processing of an optical signal to the usual pattern of zeros and ones: “In fact, we can influence the exciton behavior in the crystal, changing the light intensity. At weak irradiation, excitons are accumulated (in ‘1’ state), but if the laser power increases, the concentration of quasiparticles grows so much that they can instantly disintegrate (in ‘0’ state),” says Valentin Milichko.

Typically, excitons occur in dielectric and semiconductor crystals, but the scientists could create these quasiparticles and get control over them in a completely different class of materials, which never was used for this. The MOF crystal combines organic components with inorganic that gives it additional properties not available for materials of a single nature. Thus, the organic term allows one to generate excitons at room temperature, but inorganic provides their efficient transfer around the crystal.

The darkest form of ultraviolet light, known as UV-C, is unique because of its reputation as a killer – of harmful organisms.

With wavelengths of between 200 and 280 nanometers, this particular form of UV light penetrates the membranes of viruses, bacteria, mold and dust mites, attacking their DNA and killing them. Sanitization with UV-C light has been around for more than 100 years, following Niels Finsen’s discovery of UV light as an antidote to tuberculosis, which won the Faroese-Danish physician the 1903 Nobel Prize for Medicine.

Currently, most deep-UV lamps are mercury-based. They pose a threat to the environment, and are bulky and inefficient. A Cornell research group led by Huili (Grace) Xing and Debdeep Jena, along with collaborators from the University of Notre Dame, has reported progress in creating a smaller, more earth-friendly alternative.

Using atomically controlled thin monolayers of gallium nitride (GaN) and aluminum nitride (AlN) as active regions, the group has shown the ability to produce deep-UV emission with a light-emitting diode (LED) between 232 and 270 nanometer wavelengths. Their 232- nanometer emission represents the shortest recorded wavelength using GaN as the light-emitting material. The previous record was 239 nanometers, by a group in Japan.

“MBE-grown 232-270 nm deep-UV LEDs using monolayer thin binary GaN/AlN quantum heterostructures” was published online Jan. 27 in Applied Physics Letters.

Postdoctoral researcher SM (Moudud) Islam, the lead author, said: “UV-C light is very attractive because it can destroy the DNA of species that cause infectious diseases, which cause contamination of water and air.”

One of the major challenges with ultraviolet LEDs is efficiency, which is measured in three areas: injection efficiency – the proportion of electrons passing through the device that are injected into the active region; internal quantum efficiency (IQE) – the proportion of all electrons in the active region that produce photons or UV light; and light extraction efficiency – the proportion of photons generated in the active region that can be extracted from the device and are actually useful.

“If you have 50 percent efficiency in all three components … multiply all of these and you get one-eighth,” Islam said. “You’re already down to 12 percent efficiency.”

In the deep-UV range, all three efficiency factors suffer, but this group found that by using gallium nitride instead of conventional aluminum gallium nitride, both IQE and light extraction efficiency are enhanced.

Injection efficiency is improved through the use of a polarization-induced doping scheme for both the negative (electron) and positive (hole) carrier regions, a technique the group explored in previous work.

Now that the group has proven its concept of enhanced deep-UV LED efficiency, its next task is packaging it in a device that could one day go on the market. Deep-UV LEDs are used in food preservation and counterfeit currency detection, among other things.

Further study will include packaging both the new technology and existing technologies in otherwise similar devices, for the purpose of comparison.

“In terms of quantifying the efficiency, we do want to package it within the next few months and test it as if it was a product, and try to benchmark it against a product with one of the available technologies,” Jena said.

Seoul Semiconductor Europe, a subsidiary of Seoul Semiconductor Co. Ltd. today announced the availability of reference modules based on its package-free Wicop LEDs.

“We found that offering module solutions, based on our highly innovative technologies, will allow our customers to evaluate the technology and its benefits easily, enabling them to realize their solutions faster than by just using LED components”, Mr. Andreas Weisl, CEO Seoul Semiconductor Europe and Vice President Sales, explained. “Resources at our customers are often limited, so they need powerful, reliable and easy to handle solutions to meet their requirements. As a solution provider, we help them to be ahead of competition and to achieve a fast time-to-market, also by creating customized modules in our Munich-based lab, we are able to offer,” he added.

This first release includes reference modules for the Wicop Y19, Y22 and Y22P LEDs. The Y19 module consists of four clusters of 2 x 2 LEDs with a combined typical flux of 4,650 lumens, while the Y22 and Y22P modules achieve 1,268 lumens with four single LEDs each. They all feature a Color Rendering Index (CRI) of 70 and a Correlated Color Temperature (CCT) of 4,000 K.

All modules announced today are tailored to common customer needs and follow the outlines given in book 15 of the Zhaga specification, which defines the location and pitch of the LEDs and the position and size of the alignment holes for optical lenses. The boards feature standard power connectors and are easy to assemble and easy to use together with commercially available lenses, like the new Wilma lens-array from LEDiL.

Wicop LEDs with their luminous efficiency of up to 210 lm/W at 350 mA are well suited as light-source for applications for example such as wall washers or floodlights in the architectural space and lighting in warehouses or production sites in the industrial area. Outdoor they can be used for example for street lighting, in tunnels or for the illumination of stadiums, harbors, airports or railway stations, as well as for security applications.

Their compact footprint makes these LEDs several times smaller and much brighter than conventional LEDs, enabling cost savings at the system level. This is achieved through its state of the art chip design with the phosphor film directly attached to the chip surface, making the previously needed packaging with frames and gold wires obsolete. This way, Wicop LEDs are also suitable for applications, where a small form factor is needed.

The three reference modules introduced today are available from Seoul Semiconductor Europe. Production quantities can be provided on request. If necessary, they can also be customized by Seoul Semiconductor’s regional labs for special requirements.

In cooperation with Okmetic Oy and the Polish ITME, researchers at Aalto University have studied the application of SOI (Silicon On Insulator) wafers, which are used as a platform for manufacturing different microelectronics components, as a substrate for producing gallium nitride crystals. The researchers compared the characteristics of gallium nitride (GaN) layers grown on SOI wafers to those grown on silicon substrates more commonly used for the process. In addition to high-performance silicon wafers, Okmetic also manufactures SOI wafers, in which a layer of silicon dioxide insulator is sandwiched between two silicon layers. The objective of the SOI technology is to improve the capacitive and insulating characteristics of the wafer.

The researchers used Micronova's cleanrooms and, in particular, a reactor designed for gallium nitride manufacturing. The image shows a six-inch substrate in the MOVPE reactor before manufacturing. Credit: Aalto University / Jori Lemettinen

The researchers used Micronova’s cleanrooms and, in particular, a reactor designed for gallium nitride manufacturing. The image shows a six-inch substrate in the MOVPE reactor before manufacturing. Credit: Aalto University / Jori Lemettinen

“We used a standardised manufacturing process for comparing the wafer characteristics. GaN growth on SOI wafers produced a higher crystalline quality layer than on silicon wafers. In addition, the insulating layer in the SOI wafer improves breakdown characteristics, enabling the use of clearly higher voltages in power electronics. Similarly, in high frequency applications, the losses and crosstalk can be reduced”, explains Jori Lemettinen, a doctoral candidate from the Department of Electronics and Nanoengineering.

‘GaN based components are becoming more common in power electronics and radio applications. The performance of GaN based devices can be improved by using a SOI wafer as the substrate’, adds Academy Research Fellow Sami Suihkonen.

SOI wafers reduce the challenges of crystal growth

Growth of GaN on a silicon substrate is challenging. GaN layers and devices can be grown on substrate material using metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE). When using silicon as a substrate the grown compound semiconductor materials have different coefficients of thermal expansion and lattice constants than a silicon wafer. These differences in their characteristics limit the crystalline quality that can be achieved and the maximum possible thickness of the produced layer.

‘The research showed that the layered structure of an SOI wafer can act as a compliant substrate during gallium nitride layer growth and thus reduce defects and strain in the grown layers”, Lemettinen notes. GaN based components are commonly used in blue and white LEDs. In power electronics applications, GaN diodes and transistors, in particular, have received interest, for example in frequency converters or electric cars. It is believed that in radio applications, 5G network base stations will use GaN based power amplifiers in the future. In electronics applications, a GaN transistor offers low resistance and enables high frequencies and power densities.

Dow Corning further expanded the design flexibilities for LED packaging manufacturers today with the addition of five new optical encapsulants (OEs) to its portfolio of advanced LED solutions. Offering extra high thermal and optical stability with optimized refractive indexes, hardness and gas barrier properties, these five new products broaden design latitudes for very high power LED packages, such as ceramic substrate-based surface mount device (SMD), chip on-board (COB) and plastic leaded chip carrier (PLCC) packaging.

All introduced under the Dow Corning label, the five new products include OE-7840, OE-7841, OE-7843, OE-7810 and OE-7820 Optical Encapsulants. They fall into two separate categories of targeted performance properties, but all deliver superior photothermal stability and reliability at sustained temperatures of 150°C.

“As today’s LED manufacturers continue to design brighter, smaller and more cost-effective LED packages, Dow Corning is working closely with them to evolve advanced new silicone solutions to meet their most demanding challenges,” said Takuhiro Tsuchiya, global marketing manager at Dow Corning. “These five cutting-edge optical encapsulants build on the success of our industry-leading OE product family, and enable customers to continue pushing the design boundaries for their high-power LED packages.”

Three of the products – Dow Corning OE-7840, Dow Corning® OE-7841 and Dow Corning® OE-7843 Optical Encapsulants – provide OEMs optimized refractive indexes and other features to improve both efficiency and reliability of high-power PLCC LED packages. The OE-7840 and OE-7841 products respectively offer RIs of 1.5 and 1.48 to allow designers to optimize light output while ensuring their LED packages have good gas barrier properties. OE-7843 Encapsulant rounds this category out by combining an RI of 1.5 with good anti-silver corrosion properties to enable high-power PLCC LED packages to withstand severe environmental conditions.

The two remaining new products – Dow Corning OE-7810 and Dow Corning OE-7820 Optical Encapsulants – target high-power COB and ceramic substrate-based SMD LED packages, where very high thermal resistance is the priority and corrosive silver is not used. They offer a choice of durometer tailored to improve durability depending on design parameters. OE-7810 Encapsulant provides a hardness of Shore A55 for packaging applications that require higher elongation for improved durability under thermal cycling. OE-7820 Encapsulant, with a durometer of Shore A70, delivers higher hardness that can contribute to better handling and minimal dust pick up.

Versum Materials, Inc. (NYSE: VSM), a materials supplier to the semiconductor industry, announced today that it would expand its manufacturing capacity at its Delivery Systems and Service (DS&S) headquarters in Allentown, Pennsylvania. To support customer demand and the growth in its DS&S business, new positions will be created for highly skilled technicians, engineers, quality control personnel, and manufacturing and support staff.

The timing of the expansion aligns with the 25th anniversary of manufacturing at the Allentown location. The 31,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility was established in 1992 as the Semiconductor Equipment Manufacturing Center (SEMC) of Air Products, which Versum Materials spun-off from in October 2016. The facility will be rebranded Vultee Street as part of this announcement.

The manufacturing capacity expansion will serve the semiconductor, LCD and LED markets around the globe with gas and chemical delivery equipment designed to meet their precise purity and safety requirements. This investment will increase the production of Versum Materials’ line of GASGUARD ultra-high purity specialty gas equipment and CHEMGUARD chemical delivery equipment.

Last year, Versum Materials increased capacity at its DS&S manufacturing location in Ansan, South Korea, where in addition to the above-mentioned equipment, it produces a line of GASKEEPER specialty gas equipment designed specifically for the region.

“We are excited about our prospects for growth in the industry and supporting our valued customers with state-of-the-art, high-purity equipment. We are enhancing our manufacturing capacity to keep pace with our customers’ increasing requirements for more flexibility and shorter lead times,” said Jeff White, vice president and general manager of DS&S.

The company expects the expansion of the Allentown facility to be complete this spring. A list of open positions can be found on the company’s career page.

LG Innotek today announced that the company has developed the world’s first 70mw UV-C LED for sterilization applications. As its sterilization performance is 1.5 times higher than the competitor’s 45mW module.

UV-C LED produces the short wavelength ultraviolet rays in the range of 200 — 280nm, allowing it to be used for sterilization purpose. It prevents the proliferation of bacteria by destroying their DNA. LG Innotek’s product emits UV in the range of 280nm.

Until now, UV-C LED has been mainly applied in small sanitary products because its low optical power led to low sterilization performance. The power of LEDs for toothbrush sterilizers is 1mW and that for sterilizing the water tank of humidifier is 2mW.

LG Innotek improved UV-C LED’s optical power to 70mW by utilizing its proprietary LED vertical chip technology. While the product measures only 6mm in both its length and width, its sterilization performance is the world’s best.

The company overcomes the UV output limit with specialized LED chip technology. The epitaxial structure design and vertical chip technology to maximize light extraction have increased the output and ensured quality reliability by effectively exhausting heat.

As the company’s product is compact and boasts high sterilization performance, it can be applied to various fields such as water purifiers and air purifiers as it allows you to sterilize flowing water and air.

It is also good for use in hardening equipment in the manufacturing industry. The UV output is strong, the performance of the curing device can be enhanced.

Manufacturers of water purification, cleaning and curing device can benefit from stable supply of UV-C LEDs optimized for respective purposes from LG Innotek. Because LG Innotek is equipped with a consistent production system that produces Epi-wafers, chips, packages, and modules, and offers its products to its customers after rigorous quality management.

Along with its 280nm UV-C LED, LG Innotek has a lineup of LEDs from 365nm, 385nm, 395nm, and 405nm UV-A LEDs for general industrial purposes to 305nm UV-B LEDs for bio and medical purposes.

According to Yole Development, a market research firm, the UV LED market is forecast to grow from 130 million USD in 2015 to 270 million USD in 2017.

innotek

Mergers & acquisitions in 2017


February 19, 2017

BY SEMI STAFF

At SEMI’s Industry Strategy Syposium this year, a merger’s and acquisitions panel, moderated by Robert Maire of Semiconductor Advisors, took a look at how the industry might look in the future. The panel consisted of:

• Patrick Ho, senior research analyst, Semiconductor Capital Equipment at Stifel Nicolaus
• John Ippolito, VP Corporate Development at MKS Instruments
• Israel Niv,former CEO of DCGS ystems
• Tom St.Dennis, chairman of the Board of FormFactor.

Will the huge deals of 2015 and 2016 continue?

Setting up the panel, Maire observed that 2015 and 2016 were huge in transaction size (over $100 billion announced in 2015), but while the values of the deals have jumped, the number of deals has remained fairly consistent over the past several years. Also, China has more significantly moved into the M&A market in 2015, in the range $4 to $5 billion.

It appears that M&A will continue, but not at the same pace as 2015 and 2016 due to increasing political, regulatory, and industry pushback. In the equipment space, while big deals such as Advantest and Verigy were possible in 2011, the current climate has seen big deals falter including Applied Materials and Tokyo Electron; Lam Research and KLA-Tencor; and Aixtron and Fujian Grand Chip.

However, Maire observed that the motivations for M&A continue; for instance, Intel needs to offset a declining PC market and ramp IoT, VR, and Cloud activity and will likely consider M&A as part of its approach. Similarly, opportunities for equipment companies to increase scale and size exist for process control companies and in the back-end segment where further consolidation appears necessary.

China becomes a player

China’s ambitions in M&A may have been complicated by recent events, but with a $150 billion investment fund there are likely more opportunities ahead. China has stated the intent to move from producing just 10 percent of its IC consumption to 70 percent in ten years and catching up technologically by 2030. While some see concerns given China’s investment and later pricing collapses in FPD, PV, and LED, others see China’s efforts to increase its indig- enous production of ICs as similar to what has happened as the industry spread from U.S. and Europe to Japan, Taiwan, and Korea.

The panel responded to questions from Maire, questions submitted from the audience, and live audience questions. Ho noted that big deals in semiconductor equipment appear, for the time being, to be difficult or over. However, there is still low-hanging fruit and smaller deals. There is a need to focus on scale and size because customers (IC manufac- turers) are bigger and fewer. For example, Form Factor’s combination with Cascade brought size and scale and enabled Form Factor to be more competitive.

The future for semiconductor equipment consolidation

Several questions revolved around where M&A would happen in the semiconductor equipment space. There was general consensus that M&A of any of the “big five” (not named, but likely ASML, Applied Materials, Lam Research, Tokyo Electron, and KLA-Tencor) were off the table in the short term due to both regulatory pressure and industry pushback given fears of overly strong supplier power. Niv thought there were opportunities for consolidation in the metrology and process control space. Ippolito thought there might be further consoli- dation opportunities in motion control. St. Dennis thought there were opportunities throughout the whole supply chain. He pointed out that the benefits of acquiring a good company were significant, including great talent (difficult and time consuming to develop organically), synergies in not just SG&A, but in technology and field organizations.

The role of private equity was raised. Ippolito noted that the private market and private equity have roles to play in consoli- dation opportunities, noting the success of Atlas Copco with Edwards Vacuum and Oerlikon Leybold as an example.

Several questions focused on China. Niv pointed out the industry needs to think about China similar to how they thought about Japan when Japan was emerging as an IC manufacturing power. Partnering with Japanese companies was an effective strategy for many and brought long-term success in that market. Ippolito thought that very large China deals might be off the table for a while, but smaller deals would likely go through. He noted that $150 billion (the China investment fund) is a lot of money and that tends to find a way forward.