Category Archives: MEMS

Nanoelectronics research center imec, today reported the financial results for fiscal year ended December 31, 2014. Revenue for 2014 totaled 363 million euros, a 9 percent growth from the previous year.

The fiscal year end total includes the revenue generated through R&D contracts from international partners, collaborations with universities worldwide and funds from European research initiatives. The annual revenue figure also covers a yearly grant from the Flemish government totaling 48.8 million euro in 2014, and a 4.1 million euro grant from the Dutch government to support the Holst Centre, a research center setup by imec and TNO.

“I am extremely proud that 2014, our 30th anniversary year, concludes as one of our strongest years ever,” said Luc Van den hove, president and CEO at imec. “We reported strong financial growth, announced new collaborations and inspiring innovations. We filed a record number of patents, achieved notable industry awards and published prominent scientific papers—all a testament to our commitment to innovate. Moreover, we also added significant talent to our already impressive roster of researchers, growing to a total of 2,188 employees by the end of 2014.”

“Looking to the future, together with our partners, we are committed to overcome the next challenges. First, we work to enable the fabrication of sub-10nm technology. With further scaling, new lithography techniques and new materials, and based on CMOS technology, we’ll be busy doing that for another number of years. But we have also started looking for materials and techniques for the post-CMOS era. There are many alternatives, and it is our task to see which of these can be scaled to a technology that can be mass-produced. Next to that, we help our partners with technologies for the sustainable and smart applications of the Internet-of-Things, Internet-of-Energy, and Internet-of-Health. It is expected that 2015 will be an important year for the breakthrough of these systems. A breakthrough that will be positive for the whole semiconductor industry;” continued Luc Van den hove. “This groundbreaking research requires ever more talent. That’s why today we have over 100 vacancies for a variety of profiles. Vacancies for people who have the ambition to contribute to the technologies for a sustainable future.”

2014 Organizational Highlights:

  • As an international scientific hub, 71 nationalities are now represented at imec, a multicultural environment, attracting top global talent
  • 950 peer-reviewed papers and conference presentations were published
  • ·         Imec and the organization’s researchers received 34 awards. Amongst them, imec took home the CS Industry R&D Award 2014, recognizing success and progression along the entire value chain of the semiconductor industry, for its outstanding work on III/V FinFET devices. Imec also received the PRoF Award for Research 2014, acknowledging the application of imec’s nanotechnology research and development in the healthcare domain. In July 2014, imec was awarded by the European Commission with the HR excellence in Research label, a recognition of imec’s human resource policy to create the best possible employment and working conditions for researchers 
  • With a record of 143 filed patents, imec was the leading Belgian applicant of European patents in 2014. In the past years, imec has increased its investment in building a patent portfolio to support its R&D offering and to form a solid base for more application oriented activities. Imec’s patent portfolio also leverages the patent portfolio of Flemish Academia with which the organization collaborates
  • Two new spin-offs were launched in 2014—Luceda Photonics, active in photonics design, and Bloom Technologies, focusing on wearable health monitoring for expectant mothers
  • To house its growing talent base, imec opened a new office building, as it aims to expand further across its R&D focuses. Additionally, the center also started building a new cleanroom that adheres to the very latest standards with a significant footprint for the most advanced semiconductor tools. The new cleanroom will enable the organization to remain at the forefront of nanoelectronics research and development, offering a neutral platform where all the key players from the semiconductor value chain closely collaborate to advance the next generation technology nodes and advancing industrial innovation
  • Imec IC-link is imec’s industrial arm offering SMEs, universities and research institutes access to advanced foundry technologies, assembly, test, and place and route services. With a customer base of more than 300 SMEs and 700 universities and research institutes (through Europractice service), IC-link tapes-out an average of 500 designs per year

SIGFOX and Texas Instruments (TI) announced the two companies are working together to increase IoT deployments using the Sub-1 GHz spectrum. Customers can use the SIGFOX network with TI’s Sub-1 GHz RF transceivers to deploy wireless sensor nodes that are lower cost and lower power than 3G/cellular connected nodes, while providing long-range connectivity to the IoT.

Targeting a wide variety of end-user applications, including environmental sensors, smart meters, agriculture and livestock sensors, asset tracking and smart cities, the SIGFOX and TI collaboration maximizes the many benefits of narrowband radio technology and reduces barriers to entry for manufacturers wanting to connect their products to the cloud. Using the SIGFOX infrastructure reduces the cost and effort to get sensor data to the cloud and TI’s Sub-1 GHz technology provides years of battery life for less maintenance and up to 100 km range.

“TI’s Sub-1 GHz technology is an excellent fit for the SIGFOX network, because it supports long-range and high-capacity connectivity in a system-cost-optimized way that users everywhere require to fully benefit from the potential of the Internet of Things,” said Stuart Lodge, executive vice president of global sales at SIGFOX. “TI technology that leverages our ultra-narrowband technology is a powerful endorsement and will be a key part of our rapid network deployment in key global markets.”

SIGFOX’s two-way network is based on an ultra-narrowband (UNB) radio technology for connecting devices, which is key to providing a scalable, high-capacity network with very low energy consumption and unmatched spectral efficiency. That is essential in a network that will handle billions of messages daily.

“Narrowband technology is the superior option for a global Internet of Things network, because it offers the lowest-cost, most energy-efficient connectivity, along with the data capacity and robust coexistence, that competing technologies just cannot match,” said Oyvind Birkenes, general manager, Wireless Connectivity Solutions, TI. “We are excited to be working with SIGFOX to expand their network deployments and bring the benefits of narrowband Sub-1 GHz technology to users worldwide.”

TI’s CC1120 Sub-1 GHz RF transceiver uses narrowband technology to deliver the longest-range connectivity and superior coexistence to SIGFOX’s network with strong tolerance of interference. Narrowband is the de-facto standard for long-range communication due to the high spectral efficiency, which is critical to support the projected high growth of connected IoT applications. The CC1120 RF transceiver also provides years of battery lifetime for a sensor node, which reduces maintenance and lowers the cost of ownership for end users.

From mobile phones and computers to television, cinema and wearable devices, the display of full color, wide-angle, 3D holographic images is moving ever closer to fruition, thanks to international research featuring Griffith University.

Led by Melbourne’s Swinburne University of Technology and including Dr Qin Li, from the Queensland Micro- and Nanotechnology Center within Griffith’s School of Engineering, scientists have capitalised on the exceptional properties of graphene and are confident of applications in fields such as optical data storage, information processing and imaging.

“While there is still work to be done, the prospect is of 3D images seemingly leaping out of the screens, thus promising a total immersion of real and virtual worlds without the need for cumbersome accessories such as 3D glasses,” says Dr Li.

First isolated in the laboratory about a decade ago, graphene is pure carbon and one of the thinnest, lightest and strongest materials known to humankind. A supreme conductor of electricity and heat, much has been written about its mechanical, electronic, thermal and optical properties.

“Graphene offers unprecedented prospects for developing flat displaying systems based on the intensity imitation within screens,” says Dr Li, who conducted carbon structure analysis for the research.

“Our consortium, which also includes China’s Beijing Institute of Technology and Tsinghua University, has shown that patterns of photo-reduced graphene oxide (rGO) that are directly written by laser beam can produce wide-angle and full-colour 3D images.

“This was achieved through the discovery that a single femtosecond (fs) laser pulse can reduce graphene oxide to rGO with a sub-wavelength-scale feature size and significantly differed refractive index.

“Furthermore, the spectrally flat optical index modulation in rGOs enables wavelength-multiplexed holograms for full colour images.”

Researchers say the sub-wavelength feature is particularly important because it allows for static holographic 3D images with a wide viewing angle up to 52 degrees.

Such laser-direct writing of sub-wavelength rGO featured in dots and lines could revolutionise capabilities across a range of optical and electronic devices, formats and industry sectors.

“The generation of multi-level modulations in the refractive index of GOs, and which do not require any solvents or post-processing, holds the potential for in-situ fabrication of rGO-based electro-optic devices,” says Dr Li.

“The use of graphene also relieves pressure on the world’s dwindling supplies of indium, the metallic element that has been commonly used for electronic devices.

“Other technologies are being developed in this area, but rGO looks by far the most promising and most practical, particularly for wearable devices. The prospects are quite thrilling.”

Mentor Graphics Corporation this week announced the delivery of three new PADS family products starting at five thousand dollars to address the advancing needs of the independent engineer. The new PADS family provides for the wide spectrum of electronics complexity by combining ease of learning and use, characteristic of previous PADS products, with high-productivity design and analysis technologies and unprecedented price-performance value. It builds on the PADS legacy, and in some cases leverages certain technologies of the Xpedition suite.

These independent engineers are typically part of a small to mid-sized company, or members of an isolated team within a large enterprise (e.g. building prototypes, validating reference designs, and performing manufacturability studies), and perform the complete design, analysis and manufacturing data delivery of printed circuit board (PCB) electronic products. In the past, for engineers doing complex design, their only option was to look at enterprise solutions, and for many, these solutions were out of their reach due to budget and heavy infrastructure requirements.

As demands increase for the efficient design of electronic products, the burden often falls on independent engineers to perform the complete process but current lower-priced offerings run out of steam and do not support their complete needs. The design process can often include more than schematic entry and layout of the PCB and may require analysis such as signal integrity, thermal, design-for-manufacturability, and power distribution network integrity. As well, depending on the company, the complexity of the end-product can vary from relatively simple to extremely complex.

“The biggest pressure that we face is being able to produce a design that is good on the first run.” stated Louis Demers, CTO, Obzerv Technologies, Inc. “The PADS tool suite is a very cost-effective design solution that tackles our most complex design challenges, as well as providing a growth path for our future needs. The advantage of going with PADS is that we will be able to converge toward a workable design much quicker, with fewer iterations, fewer expenses and quicker delivery to market. We will also have more time to be bold in our design, driving for maximum performance and functionality.” Obzerv Technologies Inc. designs and manufactures high-end night-vision cameras for mid-range and long-range surveillance applications based on active imaging.

“To achieve maximum engineering efficiency and to optimize our products, our engineers work on board projects from concept through simulation and layout, all the way into manufacturing.” stated John Sherman, vice president, Astek Corporation. “They need to use a broad set of tools, which means tools must be easy to pick up after a period of non-use. They also push the edge on product complexity, with high-frequency, high-density designs. We believe the PADS technology will enable us to easily tackle our complexity challenges, optimizing the productivity of our multi-disciplinary engineers.” Astek Corporation provides storage solutions, test and measurement equipment, and electronic design services for the embedded market.

Technologies in the PADS products that differentiate them from the market include:

• Correct-by-construction methodology: Enabled by a common constraint management system used across the flow to support advanced high-speed topologies and design for manufacture, minimizing design cycle iterations by getting it right the first time.
• Integrated, accurate, easy-to-use analysis and verification technology: Designers can virtually prototype their system powered by the HyperLynx product with signal/power integrity analysis, analog or thermal simulation and advanced full-board rule checks, minimizing expensive, time-consuming physical prototype cycles.
• Highest performing, highest capacity layout environment: Leverages technology powered by the Xpedition product for placement/planning, 2D/3D layout, dynamic power distribution design, and constraint-driven routing including the Sketch Router tool to tackle the most complex layouts.
• Part library access: Engineers can use over 360,000 parts via PartQuest, a fully integrated website that also merges Digi-Key part numbers with symbols and footprints, reducing manual errors and saving time and cost.
• Manufacturing preparation: Validation of the design for fabrication and test, and preparation for manufacturing hand-off and documentation.
• Maintenance of data integrity: Management and archiving of different design revs, and simplification of reviews across the organization.

“Mentor Graphics has long been known for providing…solutions for team design in large enterprises with our Xpedition product line as well as our classic PADS offerings,” stated AJ Incorvaia, general manager of Mentor Graphics Systems Design Division. “But as the industry grows, there is more need for higher productivity design capabilities for the independent engineer. With the PADS product offerings we can better serve the independent engineer with scalable price-performance options from lower priced options up to highly complex design and analysis powered by Xpedition technologies. And as the design organization expands, we offer seamless scalability to our Xpedition Enterprise platform.”

The ability of materials to conduct heat is a concept that we are all familiar with from everyday life. The modern story of thermal transport dates back to 1822 when the brilliant French physicist Jean-Baptiste Joseph Fourier published his book “Théorie analytique de la chaleur” (The Analytic Theory of Heat), which became a corner stone of heat transport. He pointed out that the thermal conductivity, i.e., ratio of the heat flux to the temperature gradient is an intrinsic property of the material itself.

The advent of nanotechnology, where the rules of classical physics gradually fail as the dimensions shrink, is challenging Fourier’s theory of heat in several ways. A paper published in ACS Nano and led by researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (Germany), the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2) at the campus of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) (Spain) and the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland (Finland) describes how the nanometre-scale topology and the chemical composition of the surface control the thermal conductivity of ultrathin silicon membranes. The work was funded by the European Project Membrane-based phonon engineering for energy harvesting (MERGING).

The results show that the thermal conductivity of silicon membranes thinner than 10 nm is 25 times lower than that of bulk crystalline silicon and is controlled to a large extent by the structure and the chemical composition of their surface. Combining state-of-the-art realistic atomistic modelling, sophisticated fabrication techniques, new measurement approaches and state-of-the-art parameter-free modelling, researchers unravelled the role of surface oxidation in determining the scattering of quantized lattice vibrations (phonons), which are the main heat carriers in silicon.

Both experiments and modelling showed that removing the native oxide improves the thermal conductivity of silicon nanostructures by almost a factor of two, while successive partial re-oxidation lowers it again. Large-scale molecular dynamics simulations with up to 1,000,000 atoms allowed the researchers to quantify the relative contributions to the reduction of the thermal conductivity arising from the presence of native SiO2 and from the dimensionality reduction evaluated for a model with perfectly specular surfaces.

Silicon is the material of choice for almost all electronic-related applications, where characteristic dimensions below 10nm have been reached, e.g. in FinFET transistors, and heat dissipation control becomes essential for their optimum performance. While the lowering of thermal conductivity induced by oxide layers is detrimental to heat spread in nanoelectronic devices, it will turn useful for thermoelectric energy harvesting, where efficiency relies on avoiding heat exchange across the active part of the device.

The chemical nature of surfaces, therefore, emerges as a new key parameter for improving the performance of Si-based electronic and thermoelectric nanodevices, as well as of that of nanomechanical resonators (NEMS). This work opens new possibilities for novel thermal experiments and designs directed to manipulate heat at such scales.

New work from Carnegie’s Russell Hemley and Ivan Naumov hones in on the physics underlying the recently discovered fact that some metals stop being metallic under pressure. Their work is published in Physical Review Letters.

Metals are compounds that are capable of conducting the flow of electrons that make up an electric current. Other materials, called insulators, are not capable of conducting an electric current. At low temperatures, all materials can be classified as either insulators or metals.

Insulators can be pushed across the divide from insulator to metal by tuning their surrounding conditions, particularly by placing them under pressure. It was long believed that once such a material was converted into a metal under pressure, it would stay that way forever as the pressure was increased. This idea goes back to the birth of quantum mechanics in the early decades of the last century.

But it was recently discovered that certain groups of metals become insulating under pressure-a remarkable finding that was not previously thought possible.

For example, lithium goes from being a metallic conductor to a somewhat resistant semiconductor under around 790,000 times normal atmospheric pressure (80 gigapascals) and then becomes fully metallic again under around 1.2 million times normal atmospheric pressure (120 gigapascals). Sodium enters an insulating state at pressures of around 1.8 million times normal atmospheric pressure (180 gigapascals). Calcium and nickel are predicted to have similar insulating states before reverting to being metallic.

Hemley and Naumov wanted to determine the unifying physics framework underlying these unexpected metal-to-insulator-to-metal transitions.

“The principles we developed will allow for predictions of when metals will become insulators under pressure, as well as the reverse, the when-insulators-can-become-metals transition,” Naumov said.

The onsets of these transitions can be determined by the positions of electrons within the basic structure of the material. Insulators typically become metallic by a reduction in the spacing between atoms in the material. Hemley and Naumov demonstrated that for a metal to become an insulator, these reduced-spacing overlaps must be organized in a specific kind of asymmetry that was not previously recognized. Under these conditions, electrons localize between the atoms and do not freely flow as they do in the metallic form.

“This is yet another example of how extreme pressure is an important tool for advancing our understanding principles of the nature of materials at a fundamental level. The work will have implications for the search for new energy materials.” Hemley said.

Communication and computer systems are forecast to account for the greatest percentage of IC sales in every geographic region—Americas, Europe, Japan, and Asia-Pacific—this year, according to data released in the 2015 edition of IC Insights’ IC Market Drivers, A Study of Emerging and Major End-Use Applications Fueling Demand for Integrated Circuits. Communications applications are expected to capture just over 41 percent of IC sales in Asia-Pacific and 39 percent of the revenue in the Americas region this year.  Computer applications are forecast to be the largest end-use market in Japan and Europe, accounting for nearly one-third of ICs sales in both regions in 2015 (Figure 1).

Fig. 1

Fig. 1

Consumer systems are forecast to be the third-largest end-use category for ICs in the Americas, Japan, and Asia-Pacific regions in 2015. In Europe, automotive applications are expected to remain the third largest end-use category for ICs this year.

Collectively, communications, computers, and consumer systems are projected to account for 85.7 percent of IC sales in the Americas this year compared to 77.9 percent in Japan and 90.8 percent in Asia-Pacific. Communications, computer, and automotive applications are forecast to represent 82.3 percent of IC sales in Europe in 2015.

For more than three decades, computer applications were the largest market for IC sales but that changed in 2013 when the global communications IC market took over the top spot due to steady strong growth in smartphones and weakening demand for personal computers. Globally, communications systems are forecast to represent 38.1 percent of the $310.5 billion IC market this year compared to 35.2 percent for computers, and 12.2 percent for consumer (Figure 2). IC sales to the automotive market are forecast to represent only about 8 percent of the total IC sales this year but from 2013-2018, this segment is projected to rise by a compound average growth rate (CAGR) of 10.8%, highest among all the end-use applications.

Fig. 2

Fig. 2

IC Market Drivers 2015—A Study of Emerging and Major End-Use Applications Fueling Demand for Integrated Circuits examines the largest, existing system opportunities for ICs and evaluates the potential for new applications that are expected to help fuel the market for ICs.

By Paula Doe, SEMI

In this 50th year anniversary of Moore’s Law, the steady scaling of silicon chips’ cost and performance that has so changed our world over the last half century is now poised to change it even further through the Internet of Things, in ways we can’t yet imagine, suggests Intel VP of IoT Doug Davis, who will give the keynote at SEMICON West (July 14-16) this year.  Powerful sensors, processors, and communications now make it possible to bring more intelligent analysis of the greater context to many industrial decisions for potentially significant returns, which will drive the first round of serious adoption of the IoT. But there is also huge potential for adding microprocessor intelligence to all sorts of everyday objects and connecting them with outside information, to solve all sorts of real problems, from saving energy to saving babies’ lives. “We see a big impact on the chip industry,” says Davis, noting the needs to deal with highly fragmented markets, as well to reduce power, improve connectivity, and find ways to assure security.

The end of the era of custom embedded designs?

The IoT may mean the end of the era of embedded chips, argues Paul Brody, IBM’s former VP of IoT, who moves to a new job this month, one of the speakers in the SEMICON West TechXPOT program on the impact of the IoT on the semiconductor sector.  Originally, custom embedded solutions offered the potential to design just the desired features, at some higher engineering cost, to reduce the total cost of the device as much as possible. Now, however, high volumes of mobile gear and open Android systems have brought the cost of a loaded system on a chip with a dual core processor, a gigabit of DRAM and GPS down to only $10.  “The SoC will become so cheap that people won’t do custom anymore,” says Brody. “They’ll just put an SoC in every doorknob and window frame.  The custom engineering will increasingly be in the software.”

Security of all these connected devices will require re-thinking as well, since securing all the endpoints, down to every light bulb, is essentially impossible, and supposedly trusted parties have turned out not to be so trustworthy after all. “With these SoCs everywhere, the cost of distributed compute power will become zero,” he argues, noting that will drive systems towards more distributed processing.  One option for security then could be a block chain system like that used by Bit Coin, which allows coordination with no central control, and when not all the players are trustworthy. Instead of central coordination, each message is broadcast to all nodes, and approved by the vote of the majority, requiring only that the majority of the points be trustworthy.

While much of the high volume IoT demand may be for relatively standard, low cost chips, the high value opportunity for chip makers may increasingly be in design and engineering services for the expanding universe of customers. “Past waves of growth were driven by computer companies, but as computing goes into everything this time, it will be makers of things like Viking ranges and Herman Miller office furniture who will driving the applications, who will need much more help from their suppliers,” he suggests.

Intel Graphics

Source: Intel, 2015

Adding context to the data from the tool

The semiconductor industry has long been a leader in connecting things in the factory, from early M2M for remote access for service management and improving overall equipment effectiveness, to the increased automation and software management of 300mm manufacturing, points out Jeremy Read, Applied Materials VP of Manufacturing Services, who’ll be speaking in another SEMICON West 2015 program on how the semiconductor sector will use the IoT. But even in today’s highly connected fabs, the connections so far are still limited to linking individual elements for dedicated applications specifically targeting a single end, such as process control, yield improvement, scheduling or dispatching.  These applications, perhaps best described as intermediate between M2M and IoT, have provided huge value, and have seen enormous growth in complexity. “We have seen fabs holding 50 TB of data at the 45nm node, increasing to 140 TB in 20nm manufacturing,” he notes.

Now the full IoT vision is to converge this operational technology (OT) of connected things in the factory with the global enterprise (IT) network, to allow new ways to monitor, search and manage these elements to provide as yet unachievable levels of manufacturing performance. “However, we’ve learned that just throwing powerful computational resources at terabytes of unstructured data is not effective – we need to understand the shared CONTEXT of the tools, the process physics, and the device/design intent to arrive at meaningful and actionable knowledge,” says Read.  He notes that for the next step towards an “Internet-of-semiconductor-manufacturing-things” we will need to develop the means to apply new analytical and optimizing applications to both the data and its full manufacturing context, to achieve truly new kinds of understanding.

With comprehensive data and complete context information it will become possible to transform the service capability in a truly radical fashion – customer engineers can use the power of cloud computation and massive data management to arrive at insights into the precise condition of tools, potentially including the ability to predict failures or changes in processing capability. “This does require customers to allow service providers to come fully equipped into the fab – not locking out all use of such capabilities,” he says. “If we are to realize the full potential of these opportunities, we must first meet these challenges of security and IP protection.”

Besides these programs on the realistic impact of the IoT on the semiconductor manufacturing technology sector, SEMICON West 2015, July 14-16 in San Francisco, will also feature related programs on what’s coming next across MEMS, digital health, embedded nonvolatile memory, flexible/hybrid systems, and connected/autonomous cars.  

It’s big, it’s blue, and it’s preventing approximately 30 tons of waste materials from winding up in a landfill every year. Brewer Science today announced its latest initiative to achieve and maintain zero-landfill status: a giant blue trash compactor that turns garbage into electricity.

Visitors to Brewer Science may notice “Big Blue,” a large compactor located on its campus headquarters. Items that would normally go to the landfill are now placed in the compactor and the contents taken to a waste-to-energy facility where it is used as fuel to make electricity. Generating electricity from items that would otherwise be discarded is another effort by Brewer Science to be a good corporate citizen that shares the values of its customers, employees, and community who want a stronger and healthier environment.

“We know ‘Big Blue’ will prevent approximately 30 tons of waste materials from going to the landfill each year. In simpler terms, it means that each compactor box will fuel approximately four houses or power 480 light bulbs for a month,” said Dr. Terry Brewer, President and CEO of Brewer Science. “Strong environmental stewardship has always been an important value for Brewer Science.  In 2002, Brewer Science began our mini-bin recycling program, which has resulted in recycling nearly 538 tons of waste. With the installation of more efficient water and electrical fixtures, we have reduced our water, electricity, and natural gas consumption. We have continued to challenge ourselves to find additional opportunities that make a positive difference in our environment and our community. With the addition of ‘Big Blue,’ we are not only reducing waste, we are harnessing a new energy source.”

Brewer Science has continued a partnership with the community by helping stakeholders properly dispose of waste and adopting surrounding streets in our industrial park. By working with the City of Rolla, the Ozark Rivers Solid Waste Management District, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, the Meramec Regional Planning Commission, and the Phelps County Commission, Brewer Science provides area residents with community collections that have enabled Phelps County to properly dispose of almost 811,000 pounds of waste over the past 11 years. This partnership has contracted disposal companies and provided volunteers who collected appliances, electronics, and tires from area residents, which would have otherwise been disposed of in a landfill.  Brewer Science continues to support these efforts and will host an annual Electronic Waste and Tire Collection on May 30, 2015, from 8 am to noon at the Rolla Campus.

Brewer Science is a developer and manufacturer of materials, processes, and equipment for the reliable fabrication of cutting-edge microdevices used in electronics such as tablet computers, smartphones, digital cameras, televisions, LED lighting, and flexible technology products.

IHS Technology’s final market share results for 2014 reveal that worldwide semiconductor revenues grew by 9.2 percent in 2014 coming in just slightly below the growth projection of 9.4 percent based on preliminary market share data IHS published in December 2014. The year ended on a strong note with the fourth quarter showing 9.7 percent year-over-year growth.  IHS semiconductor market tracking and forecasts mark the fourth quarter of 2014 as the peak of the annualized growth cycle for the semiconductor industry.

Global revenue in 2014 totaled $354.5 billion, up from $324.7 billion in 2013, according to a final annual semiconductor market shares published by IHS Technology). The nearly double-digit percentage increase follows solid growth of 6.6 percent in 2013, a decline of 2.6 percent in 2012 and a marginal increase of 1.3 percent in 2011. The performance in 2014 represents the highest rate of annual growth since the 33 percent boom of 2010.

“While 2014 marked a peak year for semiconductor revenue growth, the health of both the semiconductor supply base and end-market demand, position the industry for another year of strong growth in 2015,” said Dale Ford, vice president and chief analyst at IHS Technology. “Overall semiconductor revenue growth will exceed 5 percent in 2015, and many component categories and markets will see improved growth over 2014.  The more moderate 2015 growth is due primarily to more modest increases in the memory and microcomponent categories.  The dominant share of semiconductor markets will continue to see vibrant growth in 2015.”

More information on this topic can be found in the latest release of the Competitive Landscaping Tool from the Semiconductors & Components service at IHS.

Top ten maneuvers

Intel maintained its strong position as the largest semiconductor supplier in the world followed by Samsung Electronics and Qualcomm at a strong number two and three position in the rankings.  On the strength of its acquisition of MStar, MediaTek jumped into the top 10 replacing Renesas Electronics at number 10.  The other big mover among the top 20, Avago Technologies, also was boosted by an acquisition, moving up nine places to number 14 with its acquisition of LSI in 2014.

Strategic acquisitions continue to play a major role in shaping both the overall semiconductor market rankings and establishing strong leaders in key semiconductor segments.  NXP and Infineon will be competing for positions among the top 10 semiconductor suppliers in 2015 with the boost from their mergers/acquisitions of Freescale Semiconductor and International Rectifier, respectively.

Among the top 25 semiconductor suppliers, 21 companies achieved growth in 2014.  Out of the four companies suffering declines, three are headquartered in Japan as the Japanese semiconductor market and suppliers continue to struggle.

Broad-based growth

As noted in the preliminary market share results, 2014 was one of the healthiest years in many years for the semiconductor industry.  Five of the seven major component segments achieved improved growth compared to 2013 growth. All of the major component markets saw positive growth in 2014.  Out of 128 categories and subcategories tracked by IHS, 73 percent achieved growth in 2014.  The combined total of the categories that did not grow in 2014 accounted for only 8.1 percent of the total semiconductor market.

Out of more than 300 companies included in IHS semiconductor research, nearly 64 percent achieved positive revenue growth in 2014.  The total combined revenues of all companies experiencing revenue declines accounted for only roughly 15 percent of total semiconductor revenues in 2014.

Semiconductor strength

Memory still delivered a strong performance driven by continued strength in DRAM ICs. However, memory market growth declined by a little more than 10 percent compared to the boom year of 2013 with over 28 percent growth in that year.  Growth in sensors & actuators came in only slightly lower than 2013.

Microcomponents achieved the strongest turn around in growth moving from a -1.6 percent decline in 2013 to 8.9 percent growth in 2014.  It also delivered the best growth among the major segments following memory ICs.  Even Digital Signal Processors (DSPs) achieved positive growth in 2014 following strong, double-digit declines in six of the last seven years.  MPUs lead the category with 10.7 percent growth followed by MCUs with 5.4 percent growth.

Every application market delivered strong growth in 2014 with the exception of Consumer Electronics.  Industrial Electronics lead all segments with 17.8 percent growth.  Data Processing accomplished the strongest improvement in growth as it grew 13.7 percent, up nearly 10 percent from 2014.  Of course, MPUs and DRAM played a key role in the strength of semiconductor growth in Data Processing.  The third-strongest segment was Automotive Electronics which was the third segment with double-digit growth at 10 percent.  Only Wireless Communications saw weaker growth in 2014 compared to 2013 as its growth fell by roughly half its 2013 level to 7.8 percent in 2014.