Category Archives: LEDs

The Internet of Everything, cloud computing/big data and 3-D printing are the three technologies most likely to transform the world during the next five years, according to IHS Technology.

“We know that technology has the capability to change the world: from the Gutenberg printing press to the steam engine to the microchip,” said Ian Weightman, vice president, research & operations, IHS Technology. “But how can we determine which technologies are likely to have the greatest potential to transform the future of the human race? What is the process to distinguish among the innovations that will have limited impact and those that will be remembered as milestones on the path of progress? How can you tell the difference between the VHS and Betamax of tomorrow’s technologies?”

“To answer these questions, IHS Technology gathered its leading experts representing the technology supply chain from electronic components to finished products across applications markets ranging from consumer, media, and telecom; to industrial, medical, and power. These experts were asked to nominate and vote for their top 10 most impactful technologies over the next five years.”

The top three technologies were: 3-D printing in third place; cloud computing/big data at No. 2; and the Internet of Everything coming out on top.

Manufacturing moves to next dimension with 3-D printing

Also called additive manufacturing, 3-D printing encourages design innovation by facilitating the creation of new structures and shapes, and allows limitless product complexity without additional production costs. It also greatly speeds up time to market by making the idea-to-prototype cycle much shorter.

Total revenue for the 3-D printing industry is forecast to grow by nearly 40 percent annually through 2020, when the aggregated market size is expected to exceed $35.0 billion, up from $5.6 billion in 2014.

Cloud computing/big data brings metamorphosis to computing and consumer markets

The cloud has become a ubiquitous description for on-demand provisioning of data, storage, computing power and services that are touching nearly every consumer and enterprise across the globe. Together with data analytics and mobile broadband, the cloud and big data are poised to reshape almost every facet of the consumer digital lifestyle experience and dramatically impact enterprise information technology (IT) strategies, while creating new opportunities and challenges for the various nodes in the entire information, communications and technology (ICT) value chain.

The cloud is transformational in the business landscape, changing the way enterprises interact with their suppliers, customers and developers.

The big data and data analytics segment is a separate but related transformational technology that harnesses the power of the cloud to analyze data for disparate sources to uncover hidden patterns, enable predictive analysis and achieve huge efficiencies in performance.

IHS forecasts that global enterprise IT spending on cloud-based architectures will double to approximately $230 billion in 2017, up from about $115 billion in 2012.

The Internet of Things becomes the Internet of Everything

The world is in the early stages of the Internet of Things (IoT)—a technological evolution that is based on the way that Internet-connected devices can be used to enhance communication, automate complex industrial processes and generate a wealth of information. To provide some context on the magnitude of this evolution, more than 80 billion Internet-connected devices are projected to be in use in 2024, up from less than 20 billion in 2014, as presented in the attached figure.

While the IoT concept is still relatively new, it is already transforming into a broader model: the Internet of Everything (IoE). The metamorphosis covers not just the number of devices but envisages a complete departure from the way these devices have used the Internet in the past.

Most of the connected devices in place today largely require direct human interaction and are used for the consumption of content and entertainment. The majority of the more than 80 billion future connections will be employed to monitor and control systems, machines and objects—including lights, thermostats, window locks and under-the-hood automotive electronics.

Other transformative technologies identified by IHS Technology analysts were:

  • Artificial intelligence
  • Biometrics
  • Flexible displays
  • Sensors
  • Advanced user interfaces
  • Graphene
  • Energy storage and advanced battery technologies

2015-01-12_Connectable_Devices

With new cost-sensitive semiconductor devices driving capacity demand, 200mm wafer size and currently existing (legacy) fabs are seeing a renaissance,  SEMI completed a thorough study of the secondary fab equipment market to identify the market size and to capture key trends and issues impacting this industry segment. SEMI interviewed and surveyed integrated device makers (IDMs) and foundries. Companies were asked to provide information pertaining to the acquisition of previously installed tools for 150mm, 200mm, and 300mm manufacturing. The SEMI Secondary Fab Equipment Report is new, unique coverage for the industry. The report contains 26 pages and 29 figures and charts. The target audience is expected to be companies serving the secondary fab equipment supply chain, IDMs and foundries, and other industry analysts who need data to benchmark and analyze this market.

The semiconductor industry is maturing where annual double-digit fab capacity additions are less frequent, and the industry is spending in the range of $30 billion per year in new fab equipment. Investment in “legacy” fabs is important in manufacturing semiconductor products, including the emerging Internet of Things (IoT) class of devices and sensors, and remains a sizeable portion of the industries manufacturing base:

  • 150mm and 200mm fab capacity represent approximately 40 percent of the total installed fab capacity
  • 200mm fab capacity is on the rise, led by foundries that are increasing 200mm capacity by about 7 percent through to 2016 compared to 2012 levels
  • New applications related to mobility, sensing, and IoT are expected to provide opportunities for manufacturers with 200mm fabs

Out of the total US$ 27 billion spent in 2013 on fab equipment and US$ 31 billion spent on fab equipment  in 2014, secondary fab equipment represents approximately 5 percent of the total, or US$ 1.5 billion, annually. For 2014, 200mm fab investments by leading foundries and IDMs resulted in a 45 percent increase in spending for secondary 200mm equipment. Foundries are estimated to represent half of the 200mm equipment spending in 2014.

In developing the report, SEMI interviewed and surveyed IDMs and foundries. Direct spending input was obtained from 28 companies, and estimates were made for another 12 companies based on known capex plans, quarterly financial statements and transcripts, and capacity investment trends tracked by the SEMI World Fab Forecast database. The focus of the new report is on secondary fab equipment spending; secondary test equipment and assembly and packaging equipment were not included in this study. To order the report, visit www.semi.org/en/node/53676. For information on all SEMI Market research reports, visit www.semi.org/en/MarketInfo. For information on SEMI, visit www.semi.org

GLOBALFOUNDRIES, a provider of advanced semiconductor manufacturing technology, and Linear Dimensions Semiconductor Inc., a semiconductor company specializing in low power analog and mixed signal integrated circuits, today announced that they are working together to manufacture a 14-channel programmable reference from Linear Dimensions for multiple markets including IoT (Internet of Things) sensor and wearable device applications.

The LND1114 is a 14-channel reference designed to meet the tuning needs of emerging IoT sensors and Wearable applications.  The LND1114 is available in QFN-3×2.2mm form factor, and is the world’s smallest programmable multi-channel reference product.  With a typical drift of only 13uV after 10 years at 70C, low temperature drift and an initial accuracy of 0.2%, the LND1114 is ideally suited for precision sensor biasing.

“GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ advanced process and development capabilities have allowed Linear Dimensions to engineer an analog non-volatile tuning solution ideally positioned for emerging wearable and portable IoT sensor applications,” said David Schie, CEO of Linear Dimensions.   “Devices such as wearable health and fitness products, cell phones, consumer cameras, media players and headsets are increasingly integrating multiple single and multi-function sensors to offer added functionality.  These multiple sensors all require specific biasing and tuning to operate correctly.  The LND1114 is a revolutionary new way to bias and tune precision devices because it offers multiple channels with unparalleled accuracy and flexibility, in a smaller footprint just a fraction of the size of existing solutions.’

“As sensor based applications proliferate, and wearables become more popular in the market, technologies that enable such devices become extremely important,” said Gregg Bartlett, senior vice president of product management at GLOBALFOUNDRIES. “We will continue to provide differentiated technology platforms from 350nm to 28nm that our customers can use for innovative products in the rapidly growing IoT and wearable markets.  By partnering with Linear Dimensions we have been able to leverage our world-class analog processing capabilities to offer tuning and biasing performance that has not previously been available in such a small form factor.”

GLOBALFOUNDRIES has a solid track record of providing semiconductor technologies to a variety of market segments including mobility, industrial, automotive and computing. In mainstream technologies, GLOBALFOUNDRIES offers modular platforms on technology nodes from 180nm to 40nm on both 200mm and 300mm wafers, with additional process modules such as analog, power management, radio frequency (RF), embedded non-volatile memory (eNVM) and Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS).

Wafer volume production for Linear Dimensions’ 14-channel programmable floating gate reference program is expected to start in Q3 2015 in GLOBALFOUNDRIES manufacturing facility in Singapore.

Scientists at UCL, in collaboration with groups at the University of Bath and the Daresbury Laboratory, have uncovered the mystery of why blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are so difficult to make, by revealing the complex properties of their main component – gallium nitride – using sophisticated computer simulations.

Blue LEDs were first commercialised two decades ago and have been instrumental in the development of new forms of energy saving lighting, earning their inventors the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics. Light emitting diodes are made of two layers of semiconducting materials (insulating materials which can be made conduct electricity in special circumstances). One has mobile negative charges, or electrons, available for conduction, and the other positive charges, or holes. When a voltage is applied, an electron and a hole can meet at the junction between the two, and a photon (light particle) is emitted.

The desired properties of a semiconductor layer are achieved by growing a crystalline film of a particular material and adding small quantities of an ‘impurity’ element, which has more or fewer electrons taking part in the chemical bonding (a process known as ‘doping’). Depending on the number of electrons, these impurities donate an extra positive or negative mobile charge to the material.

The key ingredient for blue LEDs is gallium nitride, a robust material with a large energy separation, or ‘gap’, between electrons and holes – this gap is crucial in tuning the energy of the emitted photons to produce blue light. But while doping to donate mobile negative charges in the substance proved to be easy, donating positive charges failed completely. The breakthrough, which won the Nobel Prize, required doping it with surprisingly large amounts of magnesium.

“While blue LEDs have now been manufactured for over a decade,” says John Buckeridge (UCL Chemistry), lead author of the study, “there has always been a gap in our understanding of how they actually work, and this is where our study comes in. Naïvely, based on what is seen in other common semiconductors such as silicon, you would expect each magnesium atom added to the crystal to donate one hole. But in fact, to donate a single mobile hole in gallium nitride, at least a hundred atoms of magnesium have to be added. It’s technically extremely difficult to manufacture gallium nitride crystals with so much magnesium in them, not to mention that it’s been frustrating for scientists not to understand what the problem was.”

The team’s study, published today in the journal Physical Review Letters, unveils the root of the problem by examining the unusual behaviour of doped gallium nitride at the atomic level using highly sophisticated computer simulations.

“To make an accurate simulation of a defect in a semiconductor such as an impurity, we need the accuracy you get from a quantum mechanical model,” explains David Scanlon (UCL Chemistry), a co-author of the paper. “Such models have been widely applied to the study of perfect crystals, where a small group of atoms form a repeating pattern. Introducing a defect that breaks the pattern presents a conundrum, which required the UK’s largest supercomputer to solve. Indeed, calculations on very large numbers of atoms were therefore necessary but would be prohibitively expensive to treat the system on a purely quantum-mechanical level.”

The team’s solution was to apply an approach pioneered in another piece of Nobel Prize winning research: hybrid quantum and molecular modelling, the subject of 2013’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In these models, different parts of a complex chemical system are simulated with different levels of theory.

“The simulation tells us that when you add a magnesium atom, it replaces a gallium atom but does not donate the positive charge to the material, instead keeping it to itself,” says Richard Catlow (UCL Chemistry), one of the study’s co-authors. “In fact, to provide enough energy to release the charge will require heating the material beyond its melting point. Even if it were released, it would knock an atom of nitrogen out of the crystal, and get trapped anyway in the resulting vacancy. Our simulation shows that the behaviour of the semiconductor is much more complex than previously imagined, and finally explains why we need so much magnesium to make blue LEDs successfully.”

The simulations crucially fit a complete set of previously unexplained experimental results involving the behaviour of gallium nitride. Aron Walsh (Bath Chemistry) says “We are now looking forward to the investigations into heavily defective GaN, and alternative doping strategies to improve the efficiency of solid-state lighting”.

SEMI today announced a “Call for Papers” for SEMICON West, North America’s premier microelectronics event, to be held July 14-16 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, Calif. The “Call for Papers” includes the Semiconductor Technology Symposium and the popular TechXPOT programs. Presentation abstracts are due March 20, 2015.

SEMICON West 2015 will be attended by nearly 27,000 semiconductor and related microelectronics industry professionals and feature more than 60 hours of technical sessions, led by the most informed and influential experts in the world. For 2015, SEMICON West will feature two “Generation Next” Pavilions — a new concept in topic-based engagement, which will connect exhibits, technical sessions, and networking events to current, critical industry topics, engaging exhibitors and visitors in an immersive exhibition experience.  In addition, the “standing-room only” success of the SEMICON West TechXPOT programs prompted the creation of the Semiconductor Technology Symposium (STS) at the 2014 event.

In 2015, the STS program continues with programs on leading-edge chip manufacturing held in a classroom setting with reserved seating adjacent to the show floor in the North Hall of Moscone Center. STS will offer technology trends, developments and new technology information in the areas of advanced materials and processing, lithography, metrology, 450mm, advanced packaging, and 3D-IC.  Test Vision 2020, the leading semiconductor test conference focusing on ATE and high-volume manufacturing, is part of the STS program in Moscone Center.

TechXPOT programs in the Moscone Center North and South Halls will continue focusing on special topics in semiconductor manufacturing, and adjacent and related microelectronics technologies.

For the Semiconductor Technology Symposium and for TechXPOT sessions, SEMI is soliciting technical presentations in the following areas:

  • Advanced lithography/Advanced films
  • Advanced materials and processes
  • Contamination control for advanced materials
  • New and advanced metrology solutions
  • Interconnect challenges at sub-10nm
  • Substrates: Materials research beyond Silicon
  • Other process implications for manufacturing next-generation transistors
  • Accelerating and improving yield
  • Silicon Photonics
  • Disruptive compound semiconductor technologies
  • Manufacturing advanced power semiconductors
  • Improving Yield on Non-Planar ICs
  • Failure analysis
  • Advanced packaging
  • Design for packaging
  • Semiconductor test
  • Design for test
  • Application Level Testing
  • Technologies for Emerging Markets & Applications
  • What’s next in MEMS?
  • How manufacturing of IoT devices will impact IC fabrication
  • How IoT and 3D printing will be used in IC manufacturing in the future
  • Printed and flexible electronics
  • Packaging of MEMS and Sensors
  • SiP for Power and RF
  • Heterogeneous Integration for SiP and Modules

“There are many exciting challenges facing the industry today,” said Karen Savala, President of SEMI Americas. “We are pleased that SEMICON West continues to serve as the premier forum where industry leaders share their insight on these issues.”

SEMICON West 2015 “Call for Participants”:  Prospective presenters are invited to submit abstracts (maximum 500 words) on key industry issues and topics in the areas listed above for consideration. Presentations should focus on the latest developments and innovations in these technology areas, inclusive of supporting data. Submissions may be made online from the “Call for Participants” website at: www.semiconwest.org/Participate/SPCFP. The deadline is March 20.

“Generation Next” Pavilions (Advanced Substrate Engineering; Packaging): These two new Generation Next Pavilions will be held in conjunction with technical sessions (STS and TechXPOTs) at SEMICON West — addressing critical issues, challenges, and opportunities. For more information about exhibiting opportunities within these new Pavilions, contact Nick Antonopoulos at [email protected] or +1.408.943.6986.

Silicon Innovation Forum (SIF) “Call for Startups”:  SEMI will host its 3rd Annual Silicon Innovation Forum at SEMICON West 2015 and is now accepting early applications to participate. The Silicon Innovation Forum (SIF) provides a stage for new and emerging innovators, industry leaders, strategic investors, and venture capitalists to discuss the needs and requirements of the industry’s innovation engine. Participants will gain insights into technology, capital, partnership, and collaboration strategies necessary for mutual success. For more information, please email Ray Morgan, director of Outreach at [email protected].  SIF application: 2015 SIF Showcase Request for Participation. The deadline is March 20.

About SEMICON West

SEMICON West is the flagship annual event for the global microelectronics industry, showcasing the people, products, and technologies driving the design and manufacture of advanced microelectronics. SEMICON West attracts the world’s leading technology companies serving the microelectronics supply chain and the largest audience of influential buyers, industry leaders, decision-makers, technologists, analysts, and media of any industry event in North America. SEMICON West 2015 is projected to bring together more than 27,000 international attendees, more than 700 global companies, and feature more than 60 hours of technical, business, and networking programs. For more information, visit www.semiconwest.org.

SEMI today announced the launch of the European MEMS Summit, to be held on 17-18 September 2015 in Milan, Italy.  With a 13 percent CAGR over the period of 2013-2019 (predicted by Yole Developpement), and the expected growth from the Internet of Things (IoT), the MEMS market has taken on a new importance — making collaboration around new business and technologies critically important.

The European MEMS Summit will address MEMS technologies, manufacturing, applications and time-to-growth. Over the course of the two-day event, more than 20 keynote and invited speakers from the entire supply chain will share their perspectives and latest updates, including participation by European MEMS leaders. Fabless, foundries, IDMs, OSATs, equipment and materials companies will deliver talks on MEMS and sensors. In addition, a focused industry exhibition will complement the conferences offering with additional networking opportunities.

Industry issues to be discussed at the conference:

  • Market drivers for MEMS applications and technology
  • Impact and opportunities arising from IoT and sensor-centric applications
  • Innovations in technology including new detection principles
  • Managing quick ramp up and product changeover — challenges for the supply chain
  • Standardization as a driver for cost reduction?
  • Trends relative to fabless and foundries business model

These issues are increasingly critical to maintaining MEMS growth and leading executives support this new SEMI event. “Bosch highly welcomes this new SEMI event in Europe since European manufacturers play a leading role in this industry,” says Stefan Finkbeiner, CEO of Bosch Sensortec.  Benedetto Vigna, executive VP and general manager of the Analog, MEMS and Sensors Group at STMicroelectronics, states that “With a significant part of MEMS success centered near Milan, the city offers the perfect backdrop for this event highlighting the technology’s magnificence and exceptional value.”

Conference speakers will address innovation in technology, with presentations covering new detection principles, new technologies, increased importance of software, as well as new types of MEMS devices. Challenges in the supply chain and the need for a more efficient MEMS-based ecosystem will also be explored during the Summit. Speakers will examine the potential evolution of MEMS fabless and foundries and the need for deeper collaboration between partners.

Business topics will cover macro market trends and feature specific talks on MEMS business challenges, possible industry consolidation and the expected advantages of standardization. Applications of MEMS in different segments including consumer, automotive, industrial, healthcare, and wearable will be discussed. IoT, the sensor-centric phenomenon, will present significant opportunities for MEMS.

The conference program is developed by a steering committee composed of MEMS industry professionals including ASE, Bosch Sensortec, CEA-Leti, EV Group, Fraunhofer ENAS, Fraunhofer IZM, Freescale Semiconductor, IHS, Okmetic, Sencio, SPTS, STMicroelectronics, SUSS MicroTec, X-Fab and Yole Developpement.

Please visit www.semi.org/europeanMEMSSummit for more information and to register for the European MEMS Summit email list, with important updates about the event. For more information on SEMI, visit www.semi.org.

Chinese IC manufacturer Shanghai Huali Microelectronics Corporation gave a presentation on its outlook for the Internet of Things (IoT) market and the wide application of its specialty technology at the 2014 China Semiconductor Industry Association IC Design Branch Annual Conference (“ICCAD”), which was recently held at Hong Kong Science Park.

As a keynote speaker at the event, Henry Liu, senior director of marketing at HLMC, said, “With the development of smart automotive, smart grid, smart home and smart medical services, among other sectors, coupled with the pursuit among the general population of a simpler lifestyle and more efficient management of one’s day to day affairs, IoT has become the new hot topic of the market. The development of the market is set to further promote the prosperity of the semiconductor industry as semiconductor components are the basic core and data gateway of IoT equipment.”

According to Cisco IBSG, IoT connections worldwide are expected to reach 50 billion units, a milestone that is expected to have a profound impact on both consumers and vendors around the world. Currently, many of the world’s leading IC producers are accelerating expansion into the IoT sector in preparation for building their own ecosystem.

As one of the most advanced 12-inch wafer foundries in mainland China, HLMC’s technology starts from 55nm technology node and mainly covers 55nm LP, 40nm LP and 28nm LP as well as 55nm HV, 55nm eFlash and specialty technology. HLMC provides customers with low-cost wafer foundry solutions.  During the annual event, Chris Shao, senior director of Technology Development Division 1 at HLMC, shared features of the 55nm embedded flash technology with attendees. The 55nm embedded flash technology, one of the company’s core process platforms, provides the following advantages:

  • Core device: 1.2V; IO device: 2.5V or 5V; low working voltage and power consumption
  • Embedded SONOS technology based on standard COMS process without any need to change features and model of standard device
  • Complete retention of 55nm low power logic process-based IP bank
  • Only three additional layers of photomask are required for application of SONOS technology based on standard CMOS process, compared with 9-12 layers when using others processes, lowering manufacturing costs
  • Continuous downscaling to more advanced process nodes

Looking back the year of 2014, the IC manufacturing industry has made several great achievements: the industry’s sub-sector wafer foundry is on track to having a record year in terms of output value, as a result of the introduction of new mobile communication products and demands for special manufacturing processes used for IoT devices. The semiconductor facilities benefitting from IoT are expected to grow more rapidly than the overall semiconductor industry. Cisco IBSG estimates that 50 billion IoT products will be in existence by 2020, generating an output value of USD 14.4 trillion. Henry Liu stressed that HLMC is optimistic about the future of IoT and expressed confidence that the Company’s excellent manufacturing abilities and reliable quality management will serve to assure that it will be able to provide Chinese IC designers as well as customers worldwide with low-cost wafer foundry solutions for the IoT applications sector, including smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, set-top boxes, banking cards and automotive electronics.

“The goal of The ConFab is to spark discussions” 

By PETE SINGER, Editor-in-Chief

The future of the semiconductor industry continues to shine brightly. Smart phones have become an everyday part of life the world over, and we will soon see a new explosion of demand brought about by thev“internet of things,” cloud computing, digital television, biomedical sensors and many other types of advance electronics. Many believe this capability is leading to the 4th industrial revolution.

The semiconductor industry’s ability to pack more and more functionality onto a single chip, many challenges remain. Some argue that we will soon reach the end of the road defined by Moore’s Law, pointing to higher costs per transistor. More complex device structures, such as the FinFET and Vertical NAND, have become mainstream, 3D integration with TSVs continue to make slow progress, and a wide variety of new materials are being put into play. The IoT could drive the need for low power, low cost and high levels of integration of diverse components.

The path forward is far from clear. But what is clear is that the need for collaboration has never been

greater. That’s what The ConFab 2015 is all about. We bring together executives from all parts of the supply chain for three days of thought provoking talks and panel discussions, networking events and in-depth, pre-arranged meetings. In 2015, we’ll be back at The Encore at The Wynn in Las Vegas, May 19-22. See www.theconfab.com for more information.

The goal of The ConFab is to spark discussions that will lead to faster resolution of problems, faster and broader industry expansion, and long-term collabora- tions among organizations of all types. In other words, our goal is to help The ConFab attendees “connect, collaborate and create”

Whenever we get together at The ConFab – which is now in its 11th year – I’m always reminded of a quote by Margaret Mead, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” Join as at The ConFab 2015 and you, too, can change the world.

The explosive expansion of the Internet of things (IoT) is driving rapid demand growth for microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) devices in areas including asset-tracking systems, smart grids and building automation.

Worldwide market revenue for MEMS directly used in industrial IoT equipment will rise to $120 million in 2018, up from $16 million in 2013, according to IHS Technology (NYSE: IHS). Additional MEMS also will be used to support the deployment of the IoT, such as devices employed in data centers. This indirect market for industrial IoT MEMS will increase to $214 million in 2018, up from $43 million in 2013.

The figure below presents the IHS forecast of global MEMS revenue from direct and indirect IoT uses.

Global market shipments for industrial IoT equipment are expected to expand to 7.3 billion units in 2025, up from 1.8 billion in 2013. The industrial IoT market is a diverse area, comprising equipment such as nodes, controllers and infrastructure, and used in markets ranging from building automation to commercial transport, smart cards, industrial automation, lighting and health. Such gear employs a range of MEMS device types including accelerometers, pressure sensors, timing components and microphones.

“The Internet of things is sometimes called the machine-to-machine (M2M) revolution, and one important class of machines—MEMS—will play an essential role in expansion of the boom of the industrial IoT segment in the coming years,” said Jeremie Bouchaud, director and senior principal analyst for MEMS and sensors at IHS. “MEMS sensors allow equipment to gather and digitize real-world data that then can be shared on the Internet. The IoT represents a major new growth opportunity for the MEMS market.”

More information on the topic can be found in the report entitled “Internet of Things begins to impact High-Value MEMS” from the MEMS & Sensors service of IHS.

Industrial IoT applications for MEMS

Building automation will generate the largest volumes for MEMS and other types of sensors in the industrial IoT market.

Asset tracking is the second-largest opportunity for sensors in industrial IoT. This segment will drive demand for large volumes of MEMS accelerometers and pressure sensors.

The smart grid also will require various types of MEMS, including inclinometers to monitor high-voltage power lines as well as accelerometers and flow sensors in smart meters.

Other major segments of the industrial IoT market include smart cities, smart factories, seismic monitoring, and drones and robotics.

MEMS types

Accelerometers and pressure sensors account for most of the MEMS shipments for direct industrial IoT applications in areas including building automation, agriculture and medical. MEMS timing devices in smart meters and microphones used in smart homes and smart cities will be next in terms of volume.

Indirect benefits

To support the deluge of data that IoT will generate, major investments will be required in the backbone infrastructure of the Internet, including data centers. This, in turn, will drive the indirect demand for MEMS used in such infrastructure.

Data centers will spur demand for optical MEMS, especially optical cross connects and wavelength selective switches. Big data operations also will require large quantities of integrated circuits (ICs) for memory. The testing of memory ICs makes use of MEMS wafer probe cards.

IoT Market

The demand for LED chipsets, primarily for the LED lighting market, is forecast to increase substantially through 2018. According to DisplaySearch, now part of IHS (NYSE: IHS), measured in standard units (500 x 500 micron chip size), demand for LED chipsets are expected to increase 293 percent from 35.8 million in 2013 to 1.4 billion in 2018.

“This forecast growth in the LED market is due in large part to increasing demand from the LED lighting segment,” said Steven Sher, analyst for DisplaySearch. “As average selling prices continue to fall, shipments of all LED lighting products will remain on the rise.”

In 2014 the LED market became more integrated from chip to channel, as competing companies merged and supply-chain companies acquired LED industry players. “The LED chip industry is expected to fare better than the LED package industry, as demand for lighting continues to increase through 2018,” Sher said.

While previously strong, the chipset demand from LCD TV backlights has slowed, due to a combination of sluggish growth in LED-backlit LCD TV sales, as well as improved efficiency in the number of chips used per backlight. For those reasons, growth in the global demand for chipsets used for display backlighting flattened after 2012, with a slow decrease forecast after 2014.

DisplaySearch_LED_Chip_Demand_in_Backlights_and_Lighting_141218