Category Archives: LEDs

Based on a study of the optical properties of novel ultrathin semiconductors, researchers of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich have developed a method for rapid and efficient characterization of these materials.

Chemical compounds based on elements that belong to the so-called transition metals can be processed to yield atomically thin two-dimensional crystals consisting of a monolayer of the composite in question. The resulting materials are semiconductors with surprising optical properties. In cooperation with American colleagues, a team of LMU physicists led by Alexander Högele has now explored the properties of thin-film semiconductors made up of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs). The researchers report their findings in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

These semiconductors exhibit remarkably strong interaction with light and therefore have great potential for applications in the field of opto-electronics. In particular, the electrons in these materials can be excited with polarized light. “Circularly polarized light generates charge carriers that exhibit either left- or right-handed circular motion. The associated angular momentum is quantized and described by the so-called valley index which can be detected as valley polarization,” Högele explains. In accord with the laws of quantum mechanics, the valley index can be used just like quantum mechanical spin to encode information for many applications including quantum computing.

However, recent studies of the valley index in TMD semiconductors have led to controversial results. Different groups worldwide have reported inconsistent values for the degree of valley polarization. With the aid of their newly developed polarimetric method and using monolayers of the semiconducting TMD molybdenum disulfide as a model system, the LMU researchers have now clarified the reasons for these discrepancies: “Response to polarized light turns out to be very sensitive to the quality of the crystals, and can thus vary significantly within the same crystal,” Högele says. “The interplay between crystal quality and valley polarization will allow us to measure rapidly and efficiently those properties of the sample that are relevant for applications based on the valley quantum degree of freedom.”

Moreover, the new method can be applied to other monolayer semiconductors and systems made up of several different materials. In the future, this will enable the functionalities of devices based on atomically thin semiconductors — such as novel types of LEDs — to be characterized swiftly and economically.

ams AG (SIX: AMS), a provider of high performance sensor solutions and analog ICs, today launched the world’s first series of cost-effective multispectral sensor-on-chip solutions, opening the way for a new generation of spectral analyzers for consumer and industrial applications.

Offered in a small 4.5 x 4.4mm land grid array package, the ultra-low power AS7262 visible range sensor and AS7263 NIR sensor each provide six calibrated spectral channels. Because of their attractive price point, the new multispectral sensors open the door to testing and use in a very wide range of consumer and real-world field applications. Key solution spaces include material and product authentication, product quality and integrity as well as material content analysis in the near-infrared (NIR) and visible spectrums.

“In much the same way that intense sensor integration into our smartphones and tablets has created a tidal wave of new mobile applications, the launch of the AS7262 and AS7263, enabling chip-scale spectral analysis, heralds a similar revolution that will open the door wide for spectral sensing innovation for both industrial and consumer applications,” commented Jean Francois Durix,
Marketing Director for Emerging Sensor Systems at ams. “The dramatic reduction in the size and cost of spectral analysis enabled by our new spectral sensing solutions brings the lab to the sample for an incredible variety of applications from food safety and product authentication, to routine
testing that can better protect both our health and our environment.”

The multispectral sensors employ a new fabrication technique which enables nano-optical interference filters to be deposited directly on the CMOS silicon die with extreme precision. This interference filter technology used for the sensors offers extremely precise and reproduceable filter characteristics which are stable over both time and temperature and are much smaller and more cost-effective than the components typically used in today’s spectral analysis instruments.

The AS7262 six-channel visible light sensor with integrated intelligence provides a calibrated digital output over an I2C or UART interface. It measures light intensity at six wavelengths in the visible light spectrum: 450nm, 500nm, 550nm, 570nm, 600nm and 650nm. The AS7263 operates in the NIR spectrum detecting 610nm, 680nm, 730nm, 760nm, 810nm and 860nm infrared signatures. Both devices include an electronic shutter with LED drive circuitry, which means that device de-signers can accurately control the light source and the spectral sensing functions with a single chip.

The small size of the new multispectral sensors combined with their low power consumption enable measurement equipment OEMs to develop new product types that take advantage of these unique attributes. For instance, bulky laboratory-grade analysis equipment can now be replaced by conve-nient handheld form factors. In factories, samples which today have to be removed from the production line and taken to a laboratory for chemical analysis or quality testing will be tested in-line by new small, robust spectral analyzers based on the multispectral sensors.

The AS7262 and AS7263 are in volume production now. Unit pricing is $4.00 in order quantities of 1,000.

Dow Corning significantly expanded the design flexibilities for LED packaging manufacturers today with the addition of three new highly reflective silicone coatings to its fast-growing portfolio of advanced LED solutions. Offering targeted solutions for cutting-edge LED designs – such as chip scale (CSP) and chip on-board (COB) packaging – the three new products also deliver versatile processing options ranging from conventional dispensing to emerging printing methods.

All introduced under the Dow Corning label, the three new products include WR-3001 Die Edge Coat, WR-3100 Die Edge Coat and WR-3120 Reflective Coating. In the future, products are planned to be added to match customer required processes.

“Manufacturers are aggressively seeking to design smaller, more efficient and cost-effective LED packages, which is driving demand for advanced new reflective materials that enable evolving application processes such as printing, and withstand increasingly stringent operating conditions,” said Takuhiro Tsuchiya, global marketing manager at Dow Corning. “These three cutting-edge coatings are only the first of a range of new products that we have in store for the industry. A proactive and collaborative innovator, Dow Corning formulated these three reflective silicone coatings specifically to help customers overcome today’s greatest design challenges and deliver highly reliable and differentiated products in the fiercely competitive LED market.”

As with all of Dow Corning reflective materials, the three new grades maintain high reflectivity at low thicknesses and retain their performance at sustained temperatures of 150°C – a temperature at which many organic coatings crack and yellow. Listed in order of increasing hardness, the new products include:

  • WR-3001 Die Edge Coat targets high-power CSP applications that demand LED materials with high thermal- and photostability. It is compatible with conventional dispensing processes.
  • WR-3100 Die Edge Coat is formulated for CSP applications and low- to middle-power LED package designs. Compatible with conventional dispensing equipment, it delivers comparatively high hardness of Shore D 65 after cure, making it suitable with chip dicing processes.
  • WR-3120 Reflective Coating also provides high thermal- and photostability suitable for high-power LED packaging applications, as well as the highest hardness of Dow Corning’s three new products. Suitable for printing processes, this advanced silicone further offers the highest reflectivity for enhanced LED performance.

A market leader in materials, expertise and collaborative innovation for LED lighting concepts, Dow Corning offers solutions that span the entire LED value chain, adding reliability and efficiency for sealing, protecting, adhering, cooling and shaping light across all lighting applications.

Wolfspeed, a Cree Company and a developer of silicon carbide (SiC) power products, has introduced a 900V, 10mΩ MOSFET rated for 196 A of continuous drain current at a case temperature of 25̊̊ C. This device enables the reduction of EV drive-train inverter losses by 78 percent based on EPA combined city/highway mileage standards. This efficiency improvement offers designers new options in terms of range, battery usage and vehicle design.

Recently Wolfspeed supplied Ford Motor Company―in a collaboration with the U.S. DoE―with a full-SiC, 400A power module designed around the 900V, 10mΩ chip. The module, designed and produced by Wolfspeed, contains four MOSFETs connected in parallel to achieved a remarkable 2.5mΩ Rds(on). Wolfspeed engineers have since demonstrated the capability to use these chips to create an 800A, 1.25mΩ module.

“With the commercial release of the 900V 10mΩ device, electric vehicles can now reap the benefits of SiC in all aspects of their power conversion,” said John Palmour, CTO of Wolfspeed. “With the continued expansion of our Gen3 MOSFET portfolio in new package options, our devices can now support significant efficiency improvements in onboard chargers, offboard chargers, and now EV drive trains.”

Commercially qualified and rated for a maximum operating temperature of 175˚C, Wolfspeed’s new chip offers high-reliability in harsh environments, like those found in vehicle drive-trains.

Device Information

The new 900V, 10mΩ MOSFET is available in bare die, is listed as part number CPM3-0900-0010A, and is currently available for purchase from SemiDice. Wolfspeed expects to release the associated discrete device in a 4L-TO247 package (C3M0010090K) in the coming weeks. This package has a Kelvin-source connection that allows engineers to create designs that maximize the benefits of SiC’s superior speed and efficiency.

For more complete technical information about Wolfspeed’s new 900V, 10mΩ MOSFET, access its part page here.

Reproducibility is a necessity for science but has often eluded researchers studying the lifetime of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). Recent research from Japan sheds new light on why: impurities present in the vacuum chamber during fabrication but in amounts so small that they are easily overlooked.

Organic light-emitting diodes use a stack of organic layers to convert electricity into light, and these organic layers are most commonly fabricated by heating source materials in vacuum to evaporate and deposit them onto a lower temperature substrate.

While issues affecting the efficiency of OLEDs are already well understood, a complete picture of exactly how and why OLEDs degrade and lose brightness over time is still missing.

Complicating matters is that devices fabricated with seemingly the same procedures and conditions but by different research groups often degrade at vastly different rates even when the initial performance is the same.

Unable to attribute these reproducibility issues to known sources such as the amount of residual water in the chamber and the purity of the starting materials, a report published online in Scientific Reports on December 13, 2016, adds a new piece to the puzzle by focusing on the analysis of the environment in the vacuum chamber.

“Although we often idealize vacuums as being clean environments, we detected many impurities floating in the vacuum even when the deposition chamber is at room temperature,” says lead author Hiroshi Fujimoto, chief researcher at Fukuoka i3-Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics Research (i3-OPERA) and visiting associate professor of Kyushu University.

Because of these impurities in the deposition chamber, the researchers found that the time until an OLED under operation dims by a given amount because of degradation, known as the lifetime, sharply increased for OLEDs that spent a shorter time in the deposition chamber during fabrication.

This trend remained even after considering changes in residual water and source material purity, indicating the importance of controlling and minimizing the device fabrication time, a rarely discussed parameter.

Research partners at Sumika Chemical Analysis Service Ltd. (SCAS) confirmed an increase of accumulated impurities with time by analyzing the materials that deposited on extremely clean silicon wafers that were stored in the deposition chamber when OLED materials were not being evaporated.

Using a technique called liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, the researchers found that many of the impurities could be traced to previously deposited materials and plasticizers from the vacuum chamber components.

“Really small amounts of these impurities get incorporated into the fabricated devices and are causing large changes in the lifetime,” says Professor Chihaya Adachi, director of Kyushu University’s Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics Research (OPERA), which also took part in the study.

In fact, the new results suggest that the impurities amount to less than even a single molecular layer.

To improve lifetime reproducibility, a practice often adopted in industry is the use of dedicated deposition chambers for specific materials, but this can be difficult in academic labs, where often only a limited number of deposition systems are available for testing a wide variety of new materials.

In these cases, deposition chamber design and cleaning in addition to control of the deposition time are especially important.

“This is an excellent reminder of just how careful we need to be to do good, reproducible science,” comments Professor Adachi.

From the ground-breaking research breakthroughs to the shifting supplier landscape, these are the stories the Solid State Technology audience read the most during 2016.

#1: Moore’s Law did indeed stop at 28nm

In this follow up, Zvi Or-Bach, president and CEO, MonolithIC 3D, Inc., writes: “As we have predicted two and a half years back, the industry is bifurcating, and just a few products pursue scaling to 7nm while the majority of designs stay on 28nm or older nodes.”

#2: Yield and cost challenges at 16nm and beyond

In February, KLA-Tencor’s Robert Cappel and Cathy Perry-Sullivan wrote of a new 5D solution which utilizes multiple types of metrology systems to identify and control fab-wide sources of pattern variation, with an intelligent analysis system to handle the data being generated.

#3: EUVL: Taking it down to 5nm

The semiconductor industry is nothing if not persistent — it’s been working away at developing extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) for many years, SEMI’s Deb Vogler reported in May.

#4: IBM scientists achieve storage memory breakthrough

For the first time, scientists at IBM Research have demonstrated reliably storing 3 bits of data per cell using a relatively new memory technology known as phase-change memory (PCM).

#5: ams breaks ground on NY wafer fab

In April, ams AG took a step forward in its long-term strategy of increasing manufacturing capacity for its high-performance sensors and sensor solution integrated circuits (ICs), holding a groundbreaking event at the site of its new wafer fabrication plant in Utica, New York.

#6: Foundries takeover 200mm fab capacity by 2018

In January, Christian Dieseldorff of SEMI wrote that a recent Global Fab Outlook report reveals a change in the landscape for 200mm fab capacity.

#7: Equipment spending up: 19 new fabs and lines to start construction

While semiconductor fab equipment spending was off to a slow start in 2016, it was expected to gain momentum through the end of the year. For 2016, 1.5 percent growth over 2015 is expected while 13 percent growth is forecast in 2017.

#8: How finFETs ended the service contract of silicide process

Arabinda Daa, TechInsights, provided a look into how the silicide process has evolved over the years, trying to cope with the progress in scaling technology and why it could no longer be of service to finFET devices.

#9: Five suppliers to hold 41% of global semiconductor marketshare in 2016

In December, IC Insights reported that two years of busy M&A activity had boosted marketshare among top suppliers.

#10: Countdown to Node 5: Moving beyond FinFETs

A forum of industry experts at SEMICON West 2016 discussed the challenges associated with getting from node 10 — which seems set for HVM — to nodes 7 and 5.

BONUS: Most Watched Webcast of 2016: View On Demand Now

IoT Device Trends and Challenges

Presenters: Rajeev Rajan, GLOBALFOUNDRIES, and Uday Tennety, GE Digital

The age of the Internet of Things is upon us, with the expectation that tens of billions of devices will be connected to the internet by 2020. This explosion of devices will make our lives simpler, yet create an array of new challenges and opportunities in the semiconductor industry. At the sensor level, very small, inexpensive, low power devices will be gathering data and communicating with one another and the “cloud.” On the other hand, this will mean huge amounts of small, often unstructured data (such as video) will rippling through the network and the infrastructure. The need to convert that data into “information” will require a massive investment in data centers and leading edge semiconductor technology.

Also, manufacturers seek increased visibility and better insights into the performance of their equipment and assets to minimize failures and reduce downtime. They wish to both cut their costs as well as grow their profits for the organization while ensuring safety for employees, the general public and the environment.

The Industrial Internet is transforming the way people and machines interact by using data and analytics in new ways to drive efficiency gains, accelerate productivity and achieve overall operational excellence. The advent of networked machines with embedded sensors and advanced analytics tools has greatly influenced the industrial ecosystem.

Today, the Industrial Internet allows you to combine data from the equipment sensors, operational data , and analytics to deliver valuable new insights that were never before possible. The results of these powerful analytic insights can be revolutionary for your business by transforming your technological infrastructure, helping reduce unplanned downtime, improve performance and maximize profitability and efficiency.

Weisl-AndreasAndreas Weisl (38), former Vice President Europe of Korean LED manufacturer Seoul Semiconductor (SSC), has taken on the position of CEO at Seoul Semiconductor Europe GmbH based Munich, Germany, with effect from November 11, 2016.

The European headquarters has been consistently successful, establishing themselves since 2010. The global success story of SSC, which is marked by rapid growth, has been successfully implemented in Europe for many years now. SSC is among the leading companies in global markets and throughout the European LED market.

In his role as General Manager for Central and Northern Europe since 2010, and as Vice President Europe since 2014, Mr. Weisl is part of the SSC executive and is responsible for business developments in Europe. Mr Weisl has contributed significantly to the company’s success and looks back on more than eleven years of experience in the area of LEDs before coming to SSC in 2010. Previously he served as a manager, among other roles, at Osram Opto Semiconductors.

By Christian G. Dieseldorff, Industry Research & Statistics Group at SEMI 

Data from SEMI’s recently updated World Fab Forecast report reveal that 62 new Front End facilities will begin operation between 2017 and 2020.  This includes facilities and lines ranging from R&D to high volume fabs, which begin operation before high volume ramp commences.  Most of these newly operating facilities will be volume fabs; only 7 are R&Ds or Pilot facilities.

Between 2017 and 2020, China will see 26 facilities and lines beginning operation, about 42 percent of the worldwide total currently tracked by SEMI.  The majority of the facilities starting operation in 2018 are Chinese-owned companies. The peak for China in 2018 comes mainly from foundry facilities (54 percent). The Americas region follows with 10 facilities, and Taiwan with 9 facilities. See Figure 1.

Figure 1 depicts the regions in which new facilities will begin operation.

Figure 1 depicts the regions in which new facilities will begin operation.

By product type, the forecast for new facilities and lines include: 20 (32 percent) are forecast to be foundries, followed by 13 Memory (21 percent), seven LED (11 percent), six Power (10 percent) and five MEMS (8 percent). See Figure 2

Figure 2: New facilities & lines starting operation by product type from 2017 to 2020

Figure 2: New facilities & lines starting operation by product type from 2017 to 2020

Because the forecast extends several years, it includes facilities and lines of all probabilities, including rumored projects and projects which have been announced, but have a low probability of actually happening.  See Table 1.

FabForecast-table1

 

Probabilities of less than 50 percent are considered unconfirmed, while a probability of 80 to 85 percent means that the facility is currently in construction mode.  Projects with 90 percent probability are currently equipping. As the forecast gets farther out, more of the projects have lower probabilities.

The projects under construction, or soon to be under construction, will be key drivers in equipment spending for this industry over the next several years — with China expected to be the key spending market.

SEMI’s World Fab Forecast provides detailed information about each of these fab projects, such as milestone dates, spending, technology node, products, and capacity information. Since the last publication in August 2016, the research team has made 249 changes on 222 facilities/lines.

The World Fab Forecast Report, in Excel format, tracks spending and capacities for over 1,100 facilities including future facilities across industry segments from Analog, Power, Logic, MPU, Memory, and Foundry to MEMS and LEDs facilities.  Using a bottoms-up approach methodology, the SEMI Fab Forecast provides high-level summaries and graphs, and in-depth analyses of capital expenditures, capacities, technology and products by fab.

The SEMI Worldwide Semiconductor Equipment Market Subscription (WWSEMS) data tracks only new equipment for fabs and test and assembly and packaging houses.  The SEMI World Fab Forecast and its related Fab Database reports track any equipment needed to ramp fabs, upgrade technology nodes, and expand or change wafer size, including new equipment, used equipment, or in-house equipment. Also check out the Opto/LED Fab Forecast.

Learn more about the SEMI fab databases at: www.semi.org/en/MarketInfo/FabDatabase and www.youtube.com/user/SEMImktstats.

In 2015, all economic indicators pointed to continued market growth for both industries, power electronics and LED, especially with IGBT modules boosted by EV/HEV industry and general lighting applications, a killer application for LEDs since 2012. To support this growth and answer the thermal management needs in power electronics and LED, lot of innovative technologies are emerging. According to Yole Développement (Yole), one of the most impressive technical developments is the convergence of thermal management for both sectors, LED and power electronics, particularly the materials used for thermal management. The thermal management convergence is driven by the applications, announces the “More than Moore” market research and strategy consulting company, Yole.

thermal management

Thermal Management Technology & Market perspectives in Power Electronics and LEDs report powered by Yole’s Power Electronics & LED teams, reviews insight into synergies between power electronics and LED for thermal management. It describes and analyzes drivers and challenges that are facing industrial companies. This latest report proposes an overview of the market trends and technology evolution including 2015-2021 market figures, technology status and technical roadmap analysis and more. Under this report, Yole’s analysts also offer business model and supply chain analysis across various materials used for thermal management.

A rapid convergence of key technologies is driving unprecedented change. In this dynamic environment, Yole’s goal is to understand their customers’ strengths and guide their success.

“Power electronics and LEDs are different industries that today face similar challenges”, explains Dr Pierric Gueguen, Business Unit Manager at Yole. And he adds:”Needs for green energy with lower CO2 emissions have led these industries to develop more efficient and smaller solutions.” At the device level, cost pressure and the need for better performance is pushing designers towards smaller and thinner chips, also leading to increased power density. Such power density targets in both power electronics and LEDs bring a convergence of thermal management requirements, supporting the development of new materials.

Among materials used for thermal management, Yole specifically investigated the market and technology evolution of die attach, substrates, baseplates/PCBs and encapsulants. Overall, the market for these materials was worth US$1.98 billion in 2015 and will grow to US$3.16 billion by 2021 at a CAGR of 6%.

“Their value proposition has the potential to bring business to their suppliers and key differentiating factors to device manufacturers,” commented Pierrick Boulay, Technology & Market Analyst at Yole.

“Power electronic modules represent a healthy market, worth about US$2.9 billion in 2015 and set to reach US$4.5 billion in 2021, growing at 9% CAGR,” explained Pierric Gueguen. In parallel, the LED packaging market reached US$15 billion in 2015, after years of strong growth led by LED TV and general lighting. However, price pressure will moderate growth in coming years, with a 3.4% CAGR leading to a market worth US$18.5 billion in 2021.

Power electronics and LEDs need the right materials to handle thermal management challenges. As those applications are driven by similar technical requirements, one technical solution can be adopted and developed for one industry before being used by another industry. “The 30% of the overall thermal management material market that is common to both LED and power electronics represents US$660 million in 2015”, announces Pierrick Boulay. “According to our estimations, such market segment will reach US$1014 million in 2021”. Moreover, another 30% can be reached by adapting existing technologies used in LED or power for the other application…

From perspectives ranging from manufacturers and material suppliers through to end users, market dynamics, drivers and challenges are presented in this report, for both power electronics and LEDs.
A detailed description of the thermal management report as well as other LED & Power Electronics reports Yole are available on i-micronews.com, reports section.

Cree, Inc. (Nasdaq: CREE) introduces the XLamp XHP50.2 LED, which delivers up to seven percent more lumens and 10 percent higher lumens-per-watt (LPW) than the first generation XHP50 LED in the same 5.0 mm x 5.0 mm package. The new XHP50.2 LED enables lighting manufacturers to quickly improve the performance of existing XHP50 lighting designs. Capable of producing more than 2,500 lumens from its 6mm light emitting surface (LES), the XHP50.2 can reduce the size and cost of new designs and enable innovative solutions to address applications ranging from spot to street lighting.

“Arianna shares Cree’s vision that LEDs should not compromise quality or performance and should provide better lighting experiences in all aspects,” said Lorenzo Trevisanello, R&D manager of Arianna. “Our goals are to achieve the best cost-efficacy and versatility using the most efficient LEDs. Thanks to the XHP50.2 LED’s lumen density and proven reliability, even at high operating temperatures and drive currents, we are able to push the performance and size boundaries of our products even further.”

In addition to light output and efficacy enhancements, the XHP50.2 LED provides improvements to optical uniformity through secondary optics, enabling spot and portable lighting manufacturers to deliver better lighting experiences. The XHP50.2 LED has LM-80 data available immediately, reducing the time required to receive ENERGY STAR® and DesignLights Consortium® qualifications.

“Cree redefined High Power LED performance with the introduction of the industry’s first Extreme High Power LEDs,” said Dave Emerson, senior vice president and general manager for Cree LEDs. “Delivering the industry’s best lumen density and reliability, Cree’s XHP LED family allows our customers to achieve performance levels not possible with other LEDs at the lowest total system cost in a wide range of applications. With the launch of XHP50.2, Cree continues to redefine what is possible with high performance LEDs.”

Featuring Cree’s EasyWhite technology, which provides the industry’s best color consistency, the XLamp XHP50.2 LEDs are available in 2700K-6500K with high CRI options. Product samples are available now, and production quantities are available with standard lead times.