Category Archives: MEMS

MagnaChip Semiconductor Corporation, a Korea-based designer and manufacturer of analog and mixed-signal semiconductor products announced today that it has kicked-off an Internet of Things (IoT) task force and will offer diversified products with ultra-low power technology in anticipation of the fast growing IoT market. Gartner estimates that the processing, sensing and communications segments of the IoT market will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 29.2 percent from $7B in 2013 to $43B by 2020. This rapid growth rate outpaces the rest of the semiconductor industry which is predicted to grow at a rate of 4.6 percent over the same period.

MagnaChip offers a 0.18 micron ultra-low power technology that enables System-on-a-Chip (SoC) applications with low active and low stand-by power consumption. This new process features very low start-up voltage and enables DC-DC Boost Converters to be suitable for IoT applications. Another important technology feature is operational efficiency. This process allows for low electrical current draw, which is suitable for IoT devices such as solar cells, thermoelectric generators, vibration energy harvesters and electromagnetic harvesters.

Based on its already developed 0.18 micron ultra-low power technology, MagnaChip also plans to provide a diversified portfolio within the ultra-low power sector. This includes 0.13 micron ultra-low power EEPROM, Bipolar-CMOS-DMOS (BCD) and mixed-signal technologies. Ultra-low power technology is a key element for conserving energy usage within IoT devices. IoT applications demand an always on, low-power energy source and long battery life which are requirements that MagnaChip’s ultra-low power technology enables.

MagnaChip also offers 0.18 micron and plans to offer 0.13 micron Silicon on Insulator (SOI) RF-CMOS technologies, which is suitable for use in antenna switching, tuner and Power Amplifier (PA) applications. Switches and tuners are core components of wireless Front-End-Modules (FEMs) for cellular and Wi-Fi connectivity in IoT devices. MagnaChip’s CMOS based FEMs reduce manufacturing cost and time to market while providing competitive performance for multiband and multimode smartphones, tablets and other IoT devices.

Furthermore, MagnaChip’s 0.13 and 0.18 micron BCD technologies support high-voltage (up to 100V) and high-efficiency power ICs such as voltage regulators and converters, Power-over-Ethernet and smart LED Lighting solutions, which are essential power elements in IoT applications. With the combination of power devices with lower Specific On-Resistance (Rsp, defined as drain-source resistance times device area, Rds*A), improved isolation and higher reliability, MagnaChip’s 0.13 and 0.18 micron BCD processes will help our foundry customers to design IoT products with smaller and more power efficient characteristics.

“We believe there is tremendous growth opportunity in the IoT market and our participation is part of our overall strategy to broaden our product portfolio in new markets,” said YJ Kim, MagnaChip’s interim Chief Executive Officer. “MagnaChip’s IoT task force and business consortium with key business partners will reinforce our position as a key manufacturing service provider in the expanding IoT market.”

The key to better cellphones and other rechargeable electronics may be in tiny “sandwiches” made of nanosheets, according to mechanical engineering research from Kansas State University.

Gurpreet Singh, assistant professor of mechanical and nuclear engineering, and his research team are improving rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. The team has focused on the lithium cycling of molybdenum disulfide, or MoS2, sheets, which Singh describes as a “sandwich” of one molybdenum atom between two sulfur atoms.

In the latest research, the team has found that silicon carbonitride-wrapped molybdenum disulfide sheets show improved stability as a battery electrode with little capacity fading.

The findings appear in Nature’s Scientific Reports in the article “Polymer-Derived Ceramic Functionalized MoS2Composite Paper as a Stable Lithium-Ion Battery Electrode.” Other Kansas State University researchers involved include Lamuel David, doctoral student in mechanical engineering, India; Uriel Barrera, senior in mechanical engineering, Olathe; and Romil Bhandavat, 2013 doctoral graduate in mechanical engineering.

In this latest publication, Singh’s team observed that molybdenum disulfide sheets store more than twice as much lithium — or charge — than bulk molybdenum disulfide reported in previous studies. The researchers also found that the high lithium capacity of these sheets does not last long and drops after five charging cycles.

“This kind of behavior is similar to a lithium-sulfur type of battery, which uses sulfur as one of its electrodes,” Singh said. “Sulfur is notoriously famous for forming intermediate polysulfides that dissolve in the organic electrolyte of the battery, which leads to capacity fading. We believe that the capacity drop observed in molybdenum disulfide sheets is also due to loss of sulfur into the electrolyte.”

To reduce the dissolution of sulfur-based products into the electrolyte, the researchers wrapped the molybdenum disulfide sheets with a few layers of a ceramic called silicon carbonitride, or SiCN. The ceramic is a high-temperature, glassy material prepared by heating liquid silicon-based polymers and has much higher chemical resistance toward the liquid electrolyte, Singh said.

“The silicon carbonitride-wrapped molybdenum disulfide sheets show stable cycling of lithium-ions irrespective of whether the battery electrode is on copper foil-traditional method or as a self-supporting flexible paper as in bendable batteries,” Singh said.

After the reactions, the research team also dissembled and observed the cells under the electron microscope, which provided evidence that the silicon carbonitride protected against mechanical and chemical degradation with liquid organic electrolyte.

Singh and his team now want to better understand how the molybdenum disulfide cells might behave in an everyday electronic device — such as a cellphone — that is recharged hundreds of times. The researchers will continue to test the molybdenum disulfide cells during recharging cycles to have more data to analyze and to better understand how to improve rechargeable batteries.

Other research by Singh’s team may help improve high temperature coatings for aerospace and defense. The engineers are developing a coating material to protect electrode materials against harsh conditions, such as turbine blades and metals subjected to intense heat.

The research appears in the Journal of Physical Chemistry. The researchers showed that when silicon carbonitride and boron nitride nanosheets are combined, they have high temperature stability and improved electrical conductivity. Additionally, these silicon carbonitride/boron nitride nanosheets are better battery electrodes, Singh said.

“This was quite surprising because both silicon carbonitride and boron nitride are insulators and have little reversible capacity for lithium-ions,” Singh said. “Further analysis showed that the electrical conductivity improved because of the formation of a percolation network of carbon atoms known as ‘free carbon’ that is present in the silicon carbonitride ceramic phase. This occurs only when boron nitride sheets are added to silicon carbonitride precursor in its liquid polymeric phase before curing is achieved.”

The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) today applauded the Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act of 2015 (TPA-2015), legislation introduced today by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.). The SIA board of directors, led by Intel CEO and SIA chairman Brian Krzanich, sent a letter today to congressional leaders expressing support for the legislation and urging its swift passage. Additionally, SIA president and CEO John Neuffer released the following statement in support of the bill:

“SIA strongly supports Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) and applauds the introduction of this bipartisan legislation. TPA paves the way for free trade by empowering U.S. negotiators to reach final trade agreements consistent with negotiating objectives laid out by Congress. Free trade is especially critical to the U.S. semiconductor industry, which designs and manufactures the chips that enable virtually all electronics. Our industry relies on a global ecosystem of materials and equipment suppliers, technology providers, services, R&D, and customers, so we depend on open access to international markets.

“In 2014, U.S. semiconductor company sales totaled $173 billion, representing over half the global market, and 82 percent of those sales were to customers outside the United States. The U.S. semiconductor industry employs nearly 250,000 people in high-skilled, high-wage jobs in America, and supports over one million additional U.S. jobs. Since most of the U.S. semiconductor industry’s customers are abroad, free trade is critical to creating and supporting these U.S. jobs.

“The United States is currently pursuing the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), two important trade agreements that would result in billions of dollars in global trade of semiconductor products. Without TPA, these agreements may never see the light of day.

“TPA makes sense for America and for the future prosperity of Americans. We commend Chairman Ryan, Chairman Hatch and Ranking Member Wyden for introducing this pro-growth legislation and urge lawmakers to act swiftly to approve it.”

Take a material that is a focus of interest in the quest for advanced solar cells. Discover a “freshman chemistry level” technique for growing that material into high-efficiency, ultra-small lasers. The result, disclosed Monday, April 13 in Nature Materials, is a shortcut to lasers that are extremely efficient and able to create many colors of light.

That makes these tiny lasers suitable for miniature optoelectronics, computers and sensors.

“We are working with a class of fascinating materials called organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites that are the focus of attention right now for high-efficiency solar cells that can be made from solution processes,” says Song Jin, a professor of chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“While most researchers make these perovskite compounds into thin films for the fabrication of solar cells, we have developed an extremely simple method to grow them into elongated crystals that make extremely promising lasers,” Jin says. The tiny rectangular crystals grown in Jin’s lab are about 10 to 100 millionths of a meter long by about 400 billionths of a meter (nanometers) across. Because their cross-section is measured in nanometers, these crystals are called nanowires.

The new growth technique skips the costly, complicated equipment needed to make conventional lasers, says Jin, an expert on crystal growth and nanomaterial synthesis.

Jin says the nanowires grow in about 20 hours once a glass plate coated with a solid reactant is submerged in a solution of the second reactant. “There’s no heat, no vacuum, no special equipment needed,” says Jin. “They grow in a beaker on the lab bench.”

“The single-crystal perovskite nanowires grown from solutions at room temperature are high quality, almost free of defects, and they have the nice reflective parallel facets that a laser needs,” Jin explains. “Most importantly, according to the conventional measures of lasing quality and efficiency, they are real standouts.”

When tested in the lab of Jin’s collaborator, Xiaoyang Zhu of Columbia University, the lasers were nearly 100 percent efficient. Essentially every photon absorbed produced a photon of laser light. “The advantage of these nanowire lasers is the much higher efficiency, by at least one order of magnitude, over existing ones,” says Zhu.

Lasers are devices that make coherent, pure-color light when stimulated with energy. “Coherent” means the light waves are moving synchronously, with their high and low points occurring at the same place. Coherence and the single-wavelength, pure color give lasers their most valuable properties. Lasers are used everywhere from DVD players, optical communications and surgery to cutting metal.

Nanowire lasers have the potential to enhance efficiency and miniaturize devices, and could be used in devices that merge optical and electronic technology for computing, communication and sensors.

“These are simply the best nanowire lasers by all performance criteria,” says Jin, “even when compared to materials grown in high temperature and high vacuum. Perovskites are intrinsically good materials for lasing, but when they are grown into high-quality crystals with the proper size and shape, they really shine.”

What is also exciting is that simply tweaking the recipe for growing the nanowires could create a series of lasers that emit a specific wavelength of light in many areas of the visible spectrum.

Before these nanowire lasers can be used in practical applications, Jin says their chemical stability must be improved. Also important is finding a way to stimulate the laser with electricity rather than light, which was just demonstrated.

Semiconductor equipment manufacturer ClassOne Technology announced today that it has signed a joint electrochemical deposition (ECD) applications lab agreement with Shanghai Sinyang Semiconductor Materials Co., Ltd.  Sinyang, China’s premier supplier of ECD chemicals, is purchasing ClassOne electroplating equipment and will be providing a site for demonstrating ClassOne’s tools in the Chinese marketplace. SPM International Ltd., ClassOne’s representative in China will also be providing product support and process assistance.

“This collaborative lab will be the first of its kind in the region,” said Byron Exarcos, President of ClassOne Technology. “Now, in a single location, users will be able to see the advanced performance of ClassOne’s electroplating tools and Sinyang’s electroplating chemicals and also be able to evaluate processes. It allows us to provide a complete solution — and a significant convenience — to users throughout the region.”

“We are looking forward to working with customers on the Solstice LT plating system because it is a high-performance tool and will provide an excellent real-world laboratory for ongoing enhancement of our chemicals,” said Dr. Wang Su, Vice President of Sinyang. “The new working arrangement will also enable us to provide direct input to ClassOne as they develop future generations of wet processing equipment.”

Shanghai Sinyang is purchasing ClassOne’s Solstice LT Electroplating System and Trident Spin Rinse Dryer (SRD). The Solstice LT is a two-chamber plating development tool designed for <200mm wafers. In Sinyang’s applications, one chamber will be dedicated to copper plating and the second to nickel plating, with the Trident SRD servicing both process streams. This will provide significant flexibility while substantially reducing cycle time and streamlining process development. The new equipment will be installed at the Sinyang lab facility in Shanghai, which is scheduled to begin live demonstrations in late May. The lab will be able to plate virtually all metals except gold, and it can also cross-reference with all chemicals for comparison benchmarks.

In addition to the LT development tool, ClassOne also offers the Solstice S8, an 8-chamber, fully-automated electroplating system for high-volume production needs. These tools are particularly well suited to wafer level packaging (WLP), through silicon via (TSV) and other applications that are important for MEMS, Sensors, LEDs, RF, Power and many other devices.

ClassOne Technology products have been described as “Advanced Wet Processing Tools for the Rest of Us” because they address the needs of many cost-conscious users. The company’s stated aim is to provide advanced yet affordable alternatives to the large systems from the large manufacturers. ClassOne supplies a range of innovative new wet processing tools, including its Solstice Electroplating Systems, Trident Spin Rinse Dryers and Trident Spray Solvent Tools (SSTs).

April 2015 marks the 50th anniversary of one of the business world’’s most profound drivers, now commonly referred to as Moore’s Law.  In April 1965, Gordon Moore, later co-founder of Intel, observed that the number of transistors per square inch on integrated circuits would continue to double every year.  This “observation” has set the exponential tempo for five decades of innovation and investment resulting in today’s $336 billion USD integrated circuits industry enabled by the $82 billion USD semiconductor equipment and materials industry (SEMI and SIA 2014 annual totals).

SEMI, the global industry association serving the nano- and micro-electronic manufacturing supply chains, today recognizes the enabling contributions made by the over 1,900 SEMI Member companies in developing semiconductor equipment and materials that produce over 219 billion integrated circuit devices and 766 billion semiconductor units per year (WSTS, 2014).

50 years of Moore’’s Law has led to one of the most technically sophisticated, constantly evolving manufacturing industries operating today.  Every day, integrated circuit (IC) production now does what was unthinkable 50 years ago.  SEMI Member companies now routinely produce materials such as process gases, for example, to levels of 99.994 percent quality for bulk Silane (SiH4) in compliance with the SEMI C3.55 Standard.  Semiconductor equipment manufacturers develop the hundreds of processing machines necessary for each IC factory (fab) that are at work all day, every day, processing more than 100 silicon wafers per hour with fully automated delivery and control – all with standardized interoperability. SEMI Member companies provide the equipment to inspect wafer process results automatically, and find and identify defects at sizes only fractions of the 14nm circuit line elements in today’s chips, ensuring process integrity throughout the manufacturing process.

“”It was SEMI Member companies who enabled Moore’’s Law’’s incredible exponential growth over the last 50 years,”” said Denny McGuirk, president and CEO of SEMI.  “”Whereas hundreds of transistors on an IC was noteworthy in the 1960s, today over 1.3 billion transistors are on a single IC.  SEMI Member companies provide the capital equipment and materials for today’s mega-fabs, with each one processing hundreds or thousands of ICs on each wafer with more than 100,000 wafers processed per month.””

To celebrate SEMI Member companies’ contribution to the 50 years of Moore’s Law, SEMI has produced a series of Infographics that show the progression of the industry.

1971

2015

Price per chip

$351

$393

Price per 1,000 transistors

$150

$0.0003

Number of transistors per chip

2,300

1,300,000,000

Minimum feature size on chip

10,000nm

14nm

From SEMI infographic “Why Moore Matters”: www.semi.org/node/55026

A team of researchers from the University of Cambridge have unravelled one of the mysteries of electromagnetism, which could enable the design of antennas small enough to be integrated into an electronic chip. These ultra-small antennas – the so-called ‘last frontier’ of semiconductor design – would be a massive leap forward for wireless communications.

In new results published in the journal Physical Review Letters, the researchers have proposed that electromagnetic waves are generated not only from the acceleration of electrons, but also from a phenomenon known as symmetry breaking. In addition to the implications for wireless communications, the discovery could help identify the points where theories of classical electromagnetism and quantum mechanics overlap.

The phenomenon of radiation due to electron acceleration, first identified more than a century ago, has no counterpart in quantum mechanics, where electrons are assumed to jump from higher to lower energy states. These new observations of radiation resulting from broken symmetry of the electric field may provide some link between the two fields.

The purpose of any antenna, whether in a communications tower or a mobile phone, is to launch energy into free space in the form of electromagnetic or radio waves, and to collect energy from free space to feed into the device. One of the biggest problems in modern electronics, however, is that antennas are still quite big and incompatible with electronic circuits – which are ultra-small and getting smaller all the time.

“Antennas, or aerials, are one of the limiting factors when trying to make smaller and smaller systems, since below a certain size, the losses become too great,” said Professor Gehan Amaratunga of Cambridge’s Department of Engineering, who led the research. “An aerial’s size is determined by the wavelength associated with the transmission frequency of the application, and in most cases it’s a matter of finding a compromise between aerial size and the characteristics required for that application.”

Another challenge with aerials is that certain physical variables associated with radiation of energy are not well understood. For example, there is still no well-defined mathematical model related to the operation of a practical aerial. Most of what we know about electromagnetic radiation comes from theories first proposed by James Clerk Maxwell in the 19th century, which state that electromagnetic radiation is generated by accelerating electrons.

However, this theory becomes problematic when dealing with radio wave emission from a dielectric solid, a material which normally acts as an insulator, meaning that electrons are not free to move around. Despite this, dielectric resonators are already used as antennas in mobile phones, for example.

“In dielectric aerials, the medium has high permittivity, meaning that the velocity of the radio wave decreases as it enters the medium,” said Dr Dhiraj Sinha, the paper’s lead author. “What hasn’t been known is how the dielectric medium results in emission of electromagnetic waves. This mystery has puzzled scientists and engineers for more than 60 years.”

Working with researchers from the National Physical Laboratory and Cambridge-based dielectric antenna company Antenova Ltd, the Cambridge team used thin films of piezoelectric materials, a type of insulator which is deformed or vibrated when voltage is applied. They found that at a certain frequency, these materials become not only efficient resonators, but efficient radiators as well, meaning that they can be used as aerials.

The researchers determined that the reason for this phenomenon is due to symmetry breaking of the electric field associated with the electron acceleration. In physics, symmetry is an indication of a constant feature of a particular aspect in a given system. When electronic charges are not in motion, there is symmetry of the electric field.

Symmetry breaking can also apply in cases such as a pair of parallel wires in which electrons can be accelerated by applying an oscillating electric field. “In aerials, the symmetry of the electric field is broken ‘explicitly’ which leads to a pattern of electric field lines radiating out from a transmitter, such as a two wire system in which the parallel geometry is ‘broken’,” said Sinha.

The researchers found that by subjecting the piezoelectric thin films to an asymmetric excitation, the symmetry of the system is similarly broken, resulting in a corresponding symmetry breaking of the electric field, and the generation of electromagnetic radiation.

The electromagnetic radiation emitted from dielectric materials is due to accelerating electrons on the metallic electrodes attached to them, as Maxwell predicted, coupled with explicit symmetry breaking of the electric field.

“If you want to use these materials to transmit energy, you have to break the symmetry as well as have accelerating electrons – this is the missing piece of the puzzle of electromagnetic theory,” said Amaratunga. “I’m not suggesting we’ve come up with some grand unified theory, but these results will aid understanding of how electromagnetism and quantum mechanics cross over and join up. It opens up a whole set of possibilities to explore.”

The future applications for this discovery are important, not just for the mobile technology we use every day, but will also aid in the development and implementation of the Internet of Things: ubiquitous computing where almost everything in our homes and offices, from toasters to thermostats, is connected to the internet. For these applications, billions of devices are required, and the ability to fit an ultra-small aerial on an electronic chip would be a massive leap forward.

Piezoelectric materials can be made in thin film forms using materials such as lithium niobate, gallium nitride and gallium arsenide. Gallium arsenide-based amplifiers and filters are already available on the market and this new discovery opens up new ways of integrating antennas on a chip along with other components.

“It’s actually a very simple thing, when you boil it down,” said Sinha. “We’ve achieved a real application breakthrough, having gained an understanding of how these devices work.”

Sensor shipments are getting a big boost from the spread of embedded measurement functions for automated intelligent controls in systems and new high-volume applications—such as wearable electronics and the huge potential of the Internet of Things (IoT)—but sales growth is being pulled down significantly by price erosion in this once high-flying semiconductor marketplace, according to IC Insights’ new 2015 O-S-D Report—A Market Analysis and Forecast for Optoelectronics, Sensors/Actuators, and Discretes.

Average selling prices (ASPs) for all types of semiconductor sensors are forecast to fall by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of -5 percent in the next five years, which is double the rate of decline in the previous five years (2009-2014), says the new IC Insights report. Unit volume growth is expected to climb by a strong CAGR of 11.4 percent in the 2014-2019 timeframe and reach 19.1 billion sensor shipments worldwide in five years and revenue growth is projected to rise by an annual rate of 6.0 percent in the forecast period. In comparison, sensor sales grew by a CAGR of 17.1 percent between 2009 and 2014 to reach a new record high of $5.7 billion last year, according to analysis found in the 360-page annual O-S-D Report, which also covers actuators, optoelectronics, and discrete semiconductors.

ASP erosion is partly a result of intense competition among a growing number of sensor suppliers pursuing new portable, consumer, and IoT applications. Sensor ASPs are also being driven much lower because many new high-volume applications require rock-bottom prices. The fall in prices is not only undermining revenue growth in the highly competitive sensor segment, but it is also now squeezing profit margins among suppliers.

Semiconductor sensors make up nearly two-thirds of the total sensor/actuator market segment, according to the 2015 O-S-D Report. As shown in Figure 1, acceleration/yaw sensors (i.e., accelerometers and gyroscope devices) remained the largest sensor category, in terms of dollar sales volume, accounting for 26 percent of the total sensor/actuator market. The acceleration/yaw sensor category continued to struggle due to price erosion and a significant deceleration in unit growth to just 1 percent in 2014, which resulted in a 4 percent drop in worldwide sales to $2.4 billion after falling 2 percent in 2013. Magnetic-field sensors (including electronic compass chips) rebounded in 2014 with an 11 percent increase in sales to set a new record high of about $1.6 billion after slumping 1 percent in 2013. Pressure sensor sales remained strong in 2014, growing 15 percent to a new record-high $1.5 billion after climbing 16 percent in 2013.

sensor shipments

Figure 1

 

The forecast in the O-S-D Report shows total sensor sales growing 7 percent in 2015 to $6.1 billion after rising just 5 percent in 2014. Sensor shipments are projected to climb 16 percent in 2015 to 12.9 billion units after a 13 percent increase in 2014.

About 80 percent of the sensors/actuators market’s sales in 2014 came from semiconductors built with microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology—primarily pressure and acceleration/yaw sensors and actuator devices.  MEMS-based product sales grew about 5 percent to a record-high $7.4 billion in 2014 from $7.0 billion in 2013.  Sensors accounted for 53 percent of MEMS-based semiconductor sales in 2014 ($3.9 billion) while 46 percent of the total ($3.5 billion) came from actuators, such as micro-mirrors for displays and digital projectors, microfluidic devices for inkjet printer nozzles and other application, radio frequency (RF) MEMS filters, and timekeeping silicon oscillators.

In terms of unit volumes, sensors represented 80 percent of the 5.1 billion MEMS-based semiconductors shipped in 2014 (4.1 billion) with the remaining 20 percent being actuators (about 1.0 billion).

After dropping slightly more than 1 percent in 2012 and being flat in 2013, sales of MEMS-based semiconductors recovered in 2014 with actuators ending a two-year decline, rising 7 percent, and pressure sensors continuing double-digit growth with a 15 percent increase in the year.  Sales of MEMS-based sensors and actuators are forecast to grow 7 percent in 2015 to $7.9 billion and reach $9.8 billion in 2019, representing a CAGR of 12.0 percent from 2014.

By Lara Chamness, senior market analyst manager, SEMI

Semiconductor Market Trends

2014 was the second record breaking year in a row in terms of semiconductor device revenues; the industry grew a robust 10 percent to total $336 billion, according to the WSTS. The strong momentum of the device market was enough to drive positive growth for both the equipment and materials markets. After two successive years of revenue decline, both the equipment and materials markets grew 18 percent and 3 percent, respectively last year, according to SEMI (www.semi.org). Even though the semiconductor materials market did not enjoy the same magnitude of recovery as the equipment market last year, the materials market has been larger than the equipment for the past seven years.

Just like last year, the weakened Yen negatively impacted total revenues for semiconductor materials and equipment (refer to Dan Tracy’s March 2014 article for more detail). The Table (below) shows the impact of the weakened Yen on Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan’s (SEAJ) book-to-bill data. SEMI reveals that if the data was kept in Yen, the 2014 market for Japan-based suppliers would be up 37 percent. However, when the Yen are converted to dollars the 2014 equipment market for Japan-based suppliers only increased 26 percent. When silicon semiconductor shipment volumes are compared year-over-year, shipments were up 11 percent. By comparison, silicon revenues only increased one percent. SEMI also tracks leadframe unit shipments. In 2014, leadframe shipments were up 9 percent year-over-year; however, leadframe revenues increased only 4 percent. Silicon and leadframe revenues were adversely impacted by intense price down pressure exasperated by the weakened Yen. Given that Japan-headquartered suppliers represent a significant portion of the equipment and materials markets; this has the effect of muting the growth of the global equipment and materials markets as well.

Semiconductor Equipment

Worldwide sales of semiconductor manufacturing equipment totaled $37.5 billion in 2014, representing a year-over-year increase of 18 percent and placing spending on par with 2004 levels. According to SEMI, looking at equipment sales by major equipment category, 2014 saw expansions in all major categories — Wafer Processing equipment increased 15 percent, while the Assembly and Packaging and Test equipment segments grew 32 and 31 percent, respectively. The Other Front-end segment (Other Front End includes Wafer Manufacturing, Mask/Reticle, and Fab Facilities equipment) increased 15 percent.

Taiwan retained its number one ranking last year at $8.2 billion, even though it was the only region to experience a year-over-year contraction in spending. The equipment market in North America maintained second place at $8.2 billion for the second year as its market grew a robust 55 percent due to investments in excess of a billion dollars each from Intel, GLOBALFOUNDRIES, and Samsung.  Spending levels of $6.8 billion in South Korea remain significantly below their market high set in 2012 resulting in South Korea maintaining the third spot for the second year in a row. China moved up in the rankings to hit a market high and displacing Japan to claim the fourth position in the market. Strong investments by Samsung, SK Hynix, SMIC, and back-end companies are driving the equipment market in China. Equipment sales to Europe and Rest of world increased 24 and 4 percent, respectively in 2014. Rest of World region aggregates Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, other areas of Southeast Asia and smaller global markets.

Semiconductor Materials
SEMI reports that the global semiconductor materials market, which includes both fab and packaging materials, increased 3 percent in 2014 totaling $44.3 billion. Looking at the materials market by wafer fab and packaging materials, the wafer fab materials segment increased 6 percent, while the packaging materials segment was flat.  However if bonding wire were excluded from the packaging materials segment, the segment increased more than 4 percent last year. The continuing transition to copper-based bonding wire from gold is negatively impacting overall packaging materials revenues.

Taiwan maintained the top spot for the fifth year in a row, followed by Japan, South Korea, Rest of World, and China. Driving the materials market in Taiwan are advanced packaging operations and foundries. Japan still claims a significant installed fab base and has a tradition in domestic-based packaging, although many companies in Japan have rapidly adopted a fab lite strategy and have consolidated their fab and packaging plants. South Korea passed Rest of World (primarily SE Asia) as the third largest market for semiconductor materials given the dramatic increase in advanced fab capacity in the region in recent years.

Outlook

Most analysts predict mid- to high single-digit growth for the semiconductor device market for 2015. Initial monthly data for silicon shipments and semiconductor equipment are proving to be encouraging. In light of growth expectations for the device market, SEMI projects that the semiconductor materials market will increase 4 percent this year. Given current CapEx announcements, the outlook for semiconductor equipment is optimistic as well, with current projections of the equipment market showing another year of growth, which would place the equipment market on par with the last market high set in 2011.

2014 was a much welcomed year for equipment and materials suppliers as device manufacturers easily exceeded revenues of $300 billion. Even with the weakened Yen, both the semiconductor and equipment segments experienced growth. 2015 is promising to be another growth year for the entire market with device, materials and equipment suppliers poised to experience increases for the year.

Portions of this article were derived from the SEMI Worldwide Semiconductor Equipment Market Statistics (WWSEMS), the Material Market Data Subscription (MMDS) and the World Fab Watch database. These reports are essential business tools for any company keeping track of the semiconductor equipment and material market. Additional information regarding this report and other market research reports is available at www.semi.org/marketinfo

The market for MEMS has been growing at a fast rate.  Gyroscopes and accelerometers will account for a significant amount of the MEMS revenues.  But growth will come as a result of a wide variety of emerging MEMS and will be driven by the growth of the Internet of Things (IoT), where MEMS devices will replace conventional sensors, and by the introduction of new sensor technologies.  The new Semico Research report “MEMS Market Update: The New Driving Forces” projects that MEMS shipments will reach 43.3 billion units by 2018.

“Going forward, industrial and home automation are the new drivers for MEMS innovation as more devices with new sensing technologies are connected to the IoT,” says Tony Massimini, Semico Research’s Chief of Technology. “MEMS are growing in part as they replace conventional non-MEMS sensors in automotive and industrial applications. Accelerometers and microphones will account for the bulk of these shipments.  Magnetometers, gyroscopes, pressure sensors, and actuators will also have significant volumes.”

Key findings of the report include:

  • Sales of MEMS devices exceeded $14.3 billion in 2014.
  • MEMS unit shipments grew 36.6 percent annually in 2014.
  • From 2013 to 2018, Semico projects a CAGR of 28.4 percent for MEMS units.
  • By 2018, industrial will be the second largest market reaching $5.3 billion.

In its recent report “MEMS Market Update: The New Driving Forces” (MP109-15), Semico Research presents the MEMS market and forecasts by the device type and  by key end use markets.  Readers will see which MEMS are growing fastest and in which market segments.

The report also discusses the latest trends in Sensor Fusion, the use of MEMS and sensors in IoT, and collaboration among companies and organizations involved with MEMS and sensors.  The report is 52 pages long and includes 26 tables and 27 figures.