Category Archives: MEMS

Researchers at aBeam Technologies, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory have developed a technology to fabricate test patterns with a minimum linewidth down to 1.5nm. The fabricated nanostructures are used to test metrological equipment. The designed patterns involve thousands of lines with precisely designed linewidths; these lines are combined in such a way that the distribution of linewidths appears to be random at any location. This pseudo- random test pattern allows nanometrological systems to be characterized over their entire dynamic range.

lawrence berk micro2 lawrence berk micro1

TEM images of the test pattern with linewidths down to 1.5nm. The width of the lines was designed to form a pseudo-random test pattern; the pattern is used to characterize metrological instrumentation. The scale bar on the top image is 50nm. 

The test pattern contains alternating lines of silicon and silicon-tungsten, this results in a pretty good contrast in the metrological systems. The size of the sample is fairly large, apprx. 6×6 microns, and involves thousands of lines, each according to its designed width. Earlier, aBeam and LBNL reported the capability of fabricating 4nm lines and spaces using e-beam lithography, atomic layer deposition, and nanoimprint.

Dr. Sergey Babin, president of aBeam Technologies said, “The semiconductor industry is moving toward a half-pitch of 11nm and 7nm. Therefore, metrology equipment should be very accurate, at least one order of magnitude more accurate than that. The characterization of metrology systems requires test patterns at a scale one order smaller than the measured features. The fabrication was a challenge, especially for such a complex pattern as a pseudo-random design, but we succeeded.”

Dr. Valeriy Yashchuk, a researcher at the Advanced Light Source of LBNL continued: “When you measure anything, you have to be sure that your metrological system produces accurate results, otherwise what kind of results will you get, nobody knows. Qualifying and tuning metrology systems at the nanoscale is not easy. We designed the test pattern that is capable of characterizing nano-metrology systems over their entire dynamic range, resulting in the modulation transfer function, the most comprehensive characteristic of any system.”

The test pattern is to be used to characterize almost any nano-metrology system. Experiments were performed using a scanning electron microscope (SEM), atomic force microscope (AFM), and soft x-ray microscopes. A part of an ideal test-sample and its SEM microscopy image is shown below. The image includes imperfection in the microscope and needs to be characterized.

The power spectral density of the sample is flat; the spectra of the image has a significant cut-off at high frequencies; this is used to characterize the microscope over its dynamic range and show the degradation of the microscope’s sensitivity as soon as the linewidth becomes smaller.

This project was led by Dr. Sergey Babin, president of aBeam Technologies, Dr. Valeriy Yashchuk of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Dr. Ray Conley of Argonne National Laboratory. This work was supported by the Department of Energy under the contract #DE-SC0011352 in the framework of a STTR project.

SEMICON Korea 2015 at COEX in Seoul opens tomorrow with more than 500 exhibiting companies and an expected 40,000 attendees. With the backdrop of Korea as a pacesetter in the industry in memory and DRAM, today’s SEMICON Korea press conference expressed an optimistic lookout, for both 2015 and for longer-term monolithic growth drivers, like the Internet of Things (IoT).

Denny McGuirk, president and CEO of SEMI, summarized recent 2015 semiconductor revenue forecasts, which ranged from IDC’s 3.6 percent to VLSI’s 7.8 percent (IC only). 2015 semiconductor equipment revenue forecasts varied from Gartner forecasting an increase of 5.6 percent to the 15.0 percent growth SEMI forecasted in early December, which would see revenues approaching historic 2011 spending levels.  For semiconductor materials, 2015 could also approach 2011 spending levels. McGuirk described silicon cycles moderating with year-to-year volatility becoming more rational within the consolidated industry.

Semiconductor manufacturing in Korea represents the largest region of installed 300mm fab capacity in the world, with much of the capacity targeted towards both advanced NAND Flash and DRAM.  Korea holds 40 percent of the worldwide Memory output, and is the market leader for installed Memory fab capacity.  According to the SEMI World Fab Forecast, DRAM was a significant driver for the 18 percent growth rates for semiconductor equipment in 2014 and is expected to again fuel growth in 2015. While NAND’s pricing and growth moderated, the tight capacity and expansion of DRAM applications and customer diversity roughly doubled the DRAM ASPs in three years.  Mobility continues to be the primary driver for the Memory market and has kept the pressure on scaling and added functionality. In addition, 3D-IC is now coming to fruition as a solution to NAND to ensure the costs continue to scale with size and transistor density.

Korea fab equipment spending (front-end) in 2015 is forecast to be US$7.8 billion, an almost 28 percent increase over 2014.The combined equipment and materials spending outlook for Korea in 2015 will likely top US$14 billion. The semiconductor, semiconductor equipment, and materials supply chain in Korea is developing depth and breadth and becoming a more complete ecosystem.

The LED market remains an important segment for SEMI members, and this market will experience strong double-digit growth in lighting applications over the next several years. Overall LED fab capacity expansion is stabilizing, and many manufactures continue to transition manufacturing to 4-inch diameter sapphire wafers. Similar to the capacity growth trends, spending on LED fab equipment is also stabilizing with 12 percent growth estimated for 2015. 

Keynotes tomorrow at SEMICON Korea will be presented by Samsung Electronics, Intel, and Cisco Systems. Highlights include: Semiconductor Technology Symposium which addresses the global trends and new technologies of the semiconductor manufacturing process; Supplier Search Program; OEM Supplier Search Meeting; Presidents Reception; and International Standards meetings.

SEMICON Korea 2015 is the leading semiconductor technology event to explore the latest market trends and future developments for technology, featuring extensive technical forums, business programs and standards programs. Key sponsors of SEMICON Korea 2015 include Samsung, SK Hynix, and Dongbu HiTek, plus Lam Research, Applied Materials, Wonik IPS, ASE Group, Advantest, Hanmi Semiconductor, and TEL.

The event is co-located with LED Korea 2015, the largest exhibition in the world for LED manufacturing. For more information on the events, visit SEMICON Korea: www.semiconkorea.org and LED Korea: www.led-korea.org.

Imec, Medtronic, Ghent University and their project partners today announced the launch of the CARDIS project. Together they will develop and validate an early-stage cardio vascular disease detection platform using integrated silicon photonics. The project is supported by the recently launched European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Industrial leadership in Information and Communication Technologies (H2020). The project’s overarching goal is the investigation and demonstration of a mobile, low-cost device based on a silicon photonics integrated laser Doppler vibrometer. The concept will be validated for the screening of arterial stiffness, detection of stenosis and heart failure in a clinical setting.

Early identification of individuals at risk for cardio vascular disease (CVD) allows early intervention for halting or reversing the pathological process. This drives the CARDIS project team to develop a mobile, low-cost, non-invasive, point-of-care screening device for CVD. Assessment of arterial stiffness by measurement of the aortic pulse wave velocity (aPWV) is included in the latest ESC/ESH guidelines for CVD risk prediction. Besides aPWV, early identification of arterial stenosis and cardiac contraction abnormalities can be used to improve CVD risk classification. To date, there are no tools available to screen a large population set at primary care level on these parameters, and individuals that are considered to be at low or moderate risk too often go undiagnosed.

The CARDIS research activities include:

  • The investigation, design and fabrication op the optical subsystems and components.
  • The integration of the subsystems and building of a multi-array laser interferometer system.
  • The development of a process flow scalable to high volumes for all subsystems and their integration steps.
  • The investigation and development of the biomechanical model for translating optical signals related to skin-level vibrations into underlying CVD physiological events.
  • The validation of the system in a clinical setting.

Over the next three and a half years, CARDIS will be managed by imec, through imec’s associated laboratory located at Ghent University (Photonics Research Group in the Department of Information Technology). Medtronic Bakken Research Center (Netherlands) will be responsible for the scientific and technical coordination of the project. Other industrial, academic and clinical partners will bring their expertise to the project: SIOS Messtechnik (Germany), University College Cork Tyndall (Ireland), INSERM (France), Queen Mary University of London (United Kingdom), Universiteit Maastricht (Netherlands), Ghent University and Fundico (Belgium).

Interested to learn more about the potential of silicon photonics? Imec is exhibiting at next week’s SPIE Photonics West in San Francisco (booth 4635) and organizing a workshop and demonstration session on Silicon Photoncis together with MOSIS (February 10-11).

The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), representing U.S. leadership in semiconductor manufacturing and design, today announced that the global semiconductor industry posted record sales totaling $335.8 billion in 2014, an increase of 9.9 percent from the 2013 total of $305.6 billion. Global sales for the month of December 2014 reached $29.1 billion, marking the strongest December on record, while December 2014 sales in the Americas increased 16 percent compared to December 2013. Fourth quarter global sales of $87.4 billion were 9.3 percent higher than the total of $79.9 billion from the fourth quarter of 2013. Total sales for the year exceeded projections from the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization’s industry forecast. All monthly sales numbers are compiled by WSTS and represent a three-month moving average.

“The global semiconductor industry posted its highest-ever sales in 2014, topping $335 billion for the first time thanks to broad and sustained growth across nearly all regions and product categories,” said John Neuffer, president and CEO, Semiconductor Industry Association. “The industry now has achieved record sales in two consecutive years and is well-positioned for continued growth in 2015 and beyond.”

Several semiconductor product segments stood out in 2014. Logic was the largest semiconductor category by sales, reaching $91.6 billion in 2014, a 6.6 percent increase compared to 2013. Memory ($79.2 billion) and micro-ICs ($62.1 billion) – a category that includes microprocessors – rounded out the top three segments in terms of sales revenue. Memory was the fastest growing segment, increasing 18.2 percent in 2014. Within memory, DRAM performed particularly well, increasing by 34.7 percent year-over-year. Other fast-growing product segments included power transistors, which reached $11.9 billion in sales for a 16.1 percent annual increase, discretes ($20.2 billion/10.8 percent increase), and analog ($44.4 billion/10.6 percent increase).

Annual sales increased in all four regional markets for the first time since 2010. The Americas market showed particular strength, with sales increasing by 12.7 percent in 2014. Sales were also up in Asia Pacific (11.4 percent), Europe (7.4 percent), and Japan (0.1 percent), marking the first time annual sales in Japan increased since 2010.

“The U.S. market demonstrated particular strength in 2014, posting double-digit growth to lead all regions,” continued Neuffer. “With the new Congress now underway, we urge policymakers to help foster continued growth by enacting policies that promote U.S. innovation and global competitiveness.”

December 2014
Billions
Month-to-Month Sales
Market Last Month Current Month % Change
Americas 6.53 6.73 3.1%
Europe 3.19 3.01 -5.8%
Japan 2.93 2.80 -4.6%
Asia Pacific 17.12 16.59 -3.1%
Total 29.77 29.13 -2.2%
Year-to-Year Sales
Market Last Year Current Month % Change
Americas 5.80 6.73 16.0%
Europe 2.96 3.01 1.6%
Japan 2.93 2.80 -4.4%
Asia Pacific 14.96 16.59 10.9%
Total 26.65 29.13 9.3%
Three-Month-Moving Average Sales
Market Jun/Jul/Aug Sep/Oct/Nov % Change
Americas 6.06 6.73 11.1%
Europe 3.21 3.01 -6.4%
Japan 3.03 2.80 -7.7%
Asia Pacific 16.93 16.59 -2.0%
Total 29.23 29.13 -0.4%

ClassOne Technology, the wet-chemistry semiconductor equipment manufacturer, has announced the acquisition of two complete product lines from Microprocess Technologies. Included in the acquisition are the Microprocess Spin Rinse Dryer (SRD) and Spray Solvent Tool (SST) families — which have become ClassOne’s Trident SRD and SST lines. The news was jointly announced by Byron Exarcos, President of ClassOne, and Charles Brown, President of Microprocess Technologies.

“This acquisition is a natural fit for us, “ said Byron Exarcos. “ClassOne’s fundamental mission is to provide higher performance wet processing equipment at lower cost to the user, just as we’ve done with our Solstice electroplating tools — and that’s exactly what the new Trident SRDs and SSTs deliver.”

“It’s a win-win for us and for the industry,” said Charles Brown. “ClassOne will continue development and enhancement of the products, and they also will be able to make the tools available to a broader worldwide market.

“This acquisition is the culmination of a relationship that’s been in progress for some time with Microprocess Technologies,” said ClassOne CFO Richard Dotson. “Months ago we began with an exclusive sales agreement for the SRD and SST products, and now ClassOne has secured full ownership of both lines. The manufacturing will be moving to our Kalispell facility where ClassOne’s wet processing experience and ongoing product engineering will make these outstanding products even more advanced in the future.”

“ClassOne has been actively seeking opportunities to expand its offerings in high-growth segments of the industry,” said Exarcos. “Some of the emerging technologies such as MEMS, LEDs, power devices and RF are estimated to be growing at double-digit annual rates.”  He explained that in many of those fabs the Spray Solvent Tool is becoming an essential process-of-record tool for metal lift-off, resist strip and more. “In those scenarios Trident tools are being seen as attractive solutions,” said Exarcos, “because they’re able to handle a range of advanced processes at a cost substantially lower than competitive systems.”

Exarcos explained that many of the Trident performance advantages are the result of innovative and elegant design features, such as wrap-around heating to enhance drying, a Deluge spray manifold to improve rinsing and reduce particles, and ClassOne’s powerful new Solaris system controller.

If you can’t find the ideal material, then design a new one.

Northwestern University’s James Rondinelli uses quantum mechanical calculations to predict and design the properties of new materials by working at the atom-level. His group’s latest achievement is the discovery of a novel way to control the electronic band gap in complex oxide materials without changing the material’s overall composition. The finding could potentially lead to better electro-optical devices, such as lasers, and new energy-generation and conversion materials, including more absorbent solar cells and the improved conversion of sunlight into chemical fuels through photoelectrocatalysis.

“There really aren’t any perfect materials to collect the sun’s light,” said Rondinelli, assistant professor of materials science and engineering in the McCormick School of Engineering. “So, as materials scientists, we’re trying to engineer one from the bottom up. We try to understand the structure of a material, the manner in which the atoms are arranged, and how that ‘genome’ supports a material’s properties and functionality.”

The electronic band gap is a fundamental material parameter required for controlling light harvesting, conversion, and transport technologies. Via band-gap engineering, scientists can change what portion of the solar spectrum can be absorbed by a solar cell, which requires changing the structure or chemistry of the material.

Current tuning methods in non-oxide semiconductors are only able to change the band gap by approximately one electronvolt, which still requires the material’s chemical composition to become altered. Rondinelli’s method can change the band gap by up to 200 percent without modifying the material’s chemistry. The naturally occurring layers contained in complex oxide materials inspired his team to investigate how to control the layers. They found that by controlling the interactions between neutral and electrically charged planes of atoms in the oxide, they could achieve much greater variation in electronic band gap tunability.

“You could actually cleave the crystal and, at the nanometer scale, see well-defined layers that comprise the structure,” he said. “The way in which you order the cations on these layers in the structure at the atomic level is what gives you a new control parameter that doesn’t exist normally in traditional semiconductor materials.”

By tuning the arrangement of the cations–ions having a net positive, neutral, or negative charge–on these planes in proximity to each other, Rondinelli’s team demonstrated a band gap variation of more than two electronvolts. “We changed the band gap by a large amount without changing the material’s chemical formula,” he said. “The only difference is the way we sequenced the ‘genes’ of the material.”

Supported by DARPA and the US Department of Energy, the research is described in the paper “Massive band gap variation in layered oxides through cation ordering,” published in the January 30 issue of Nature Communications. Prasanna Balachandran of Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico is coauthor of the paper.

Arranging oxide layers differently gives rise to different properties. Rondinelli said that having the ability to experimentally control layer-by-layer ordering today could allow researchers to design new materials with specific properties and purposes. The next step is to test his computational findings experimentally.

Rondinelli’s research is aligned with President Barack Obama’s Materials Genome Initiative, which aims to accelerate the discovery of advanced materials to address challenges in energy, healthcare, and transportation.

“Today it’s possible to create digital materials with atomic level precision,” Rondinelli said. “The space for exploration, however, is enormous. If we understand how the material behavior emerges from building blocks, then we make that challenge surmountable and meet one of the greatest challenges today–functionality by design.”

Scientists are focusing on nanometer-sized crystals for the next generation of solar cells. These nanocrystals have excellent optical properties. Compared with silicon in today’s solar cells, nanocrystals can be designed to absorb a larger fraction of the solar light spectrum. However, the development of nanocrystal-based solar cells is challenging.

“These solar cells contain layers of many individual nano-sized crystals, bound together by a molecular glue. Within this nanocrystal composite, the electrons do not flow as well as needed for commercial applications,” explains Vanessa Wood, Professor of Materials and Device Engineering at ETH Zurich. Until now, the physics of electron transport in this complex material system was not understood so it was impossible to systematically engineer better nanocrystal composites.

Wood and her colleagues conducted an extensive study of nanocrystal solar cells, which they fabricated and characterized in their laboratories at ETH Zurich. They were able to describe the electron transport in these types of cells via a generally applicable physical model for the first time. “Our model is able to explain the impact of changing nanocrystal size, nanocrystal material, or binder molecules on electron transport,” says Wood. The model will give scientists in the research field a better understanding of the physical processes inside nanocrystal solar cells and enable them to improve solar cell efficiency.

Promising outlook thanks to quantum effects

The reason for the enthusiasm of many solar cell researchers for the tiny crystals is that at small dimensions effects of quantum physics come into play that are not observed in bulk semiconductors. One example is that the physical properties of the nanocrystals depend on their size. And because scientists can easily control nanocrystal size in the fabrication process, they are also able to influence the properties of nanocrystal semiconductors and optimize them for solar cells.

One such property that can be influenced by changing nanocrystal size is the amount of sun’s spectrum that can be absorbed by the nanocrystals and converted to electricity by the solar cell. Semiconductors do not absorb the entire sunlight spectrum, but rather only radiation below a certain wavelength, or – in other words – with an energy greater than the so-called band gap energy of the semiconductor. In most semiconductors, this threshold can only be changed by changing the material. However, for nanocrystal composites, the threshold can be changed simply by changing the size of the individual crystals. Thus scientists can select the size of nanocrystals in such a way that they absorb the maximum amount of light from a broad range of the sunlight spectrum.

An additional advantage of nanocrystal semiconductors is that they absorb much more sunlight than traditional semiconductors. For example, the absorption coefficient of lead sulfide nanocrystals, used by the ETH researchers in their experimental work, is several orders of magnitude greater than that of silicon semiconductors, used traditionally as solar cells. Thus, a relatively small amount of material is sufficient for the production of nanocrystal solar cells, making it possible to make very thin, flexible solar cells.

Need for greater efficiency

The new model put forth by the ETH researchers answers a series of previously unresolved questions related to electron transport in nanocrystal composites. For example, until now, no experimental evidence existed to prove that the band gap energy of a nanocrystal composite depends directly on the band gap energy of the individual nanocrystals. “For the first time, we have shown experimentally that this is the case,” says Wood.

Over the past five years, scientists have succeeded in greatly increasing the efficiency of nanocrystal solar cells, yet even in the best of these solar cells just 9 percent of the incident sunlight on the cell is converted into electrical energy. “For us to begin to consider commercial applications, we need to achieve an efficiency of at least 15 percent,” explains Wood. Her group’s work brings researchers one step closer to improving the electron transport and solar cells efficiency.

Gov. Charlie Baker today announced a $4 million dollar grant from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (“MassTech”) to UMass Lowell to support development of a printed and flexible electronics industry cluster, an emerging field that has the potential to become a $76 billion global market in the next decade.

The new Printed Electronics Research Collaborative (PERC) at UMass Lowell intends to position Massachusetts employers, large and small, to capitalize on the burgeoning printed and flexible electronics field, whether through direct development of products or as a piece of the supply chain. The PERC will initially focus on supporting the state’s defense cluster in printed electronics, but long-term, these technologies are expected to also have a broad range of applications in fields including health care, telecommunications and renewable energy. Printable electronics is currently a $16 billion global market and is projected to quadruple in 10 years, according to a 2014 report by IDTechEx.

“It is a privilege to announce today’s grant as another positive step forward for UMass Lowell, students and businesses across the Commonwealth. We have already seen great success stem from this partnership to fund research, support education and make new strides in innovation,” said Gov. Baker. “By connecting the incredible resources in our universities with the business community, the Commonwealth will continue to stimulate economic growth and create more good-paying jobs.”

The four-year grant award will be matched by $12 million in industry support and is being made as part of the Collaborative Research and Development Matching Grant Program, a $50 million dollar capital fund formed to support large-scale, long-term research projects that have high potential to spur innovation, cluster development and job growth in the Commonwealth. The fund was created as part of the 2012 Jobs Bill and is managed by the Innovation Institute at MassTech. Proposals are reviewed by an Investment Advisory Committee composed of executives from academia, industry, and the venture capital communities.

UMass Lowell Chancellor Marty Meehan and MassTech CEO Pamela Goldberg joined Gov. Baker at UMass Lowell’s Mark and Elisia Saab Emerging Technologies and Innovation Center, an 84,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art research facility where PERC will connect businesses with the expertise of UMass Lowell researchers. The MassTech grant will outfit laboratories and other research space at the Saab Center, also home to the Raytheon-UMass Lowell Research Institute, which will be among the participants in PERC. Other companies that have signed on include MicroChem of Westborough, Rogers Corp. of Burlington, SI2 Technologies of Billerica and Triton Systems of Chelmsford and more are expected, according to UMass Lowell Vice Provost for Research Julie Chen.

“Our mission is to convene industry, academia and government to catalyze economic opportunity in regions and clusters around the Commonwealth,” said Pamela Goldberg, CEO of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative. “This project hits the mark on several fronts, including the potential to drive the development of innovative products and business growth. We are excited to partner with UMass Lowell and regional industry partners like Raytheon to expand R&D capacity and help advance this exciting new industry cluster.”

“UMass Lowell has decades of experience in partnering with businesses, large and small, to advance technologies and economic development. Not only does bringing our researchers together with innovators in industry stimulate economic growth, it offers our students unparalleled opportunities for experiential education,” Meehan told attendees, including representatives of the business and technology communities, UMass Lowell and the Lowell legislative delegation. “We are grateful to the Commonwealth for its investment in what we believe will be a model for academic and industry collaboration.”

Highlighting the importance of both public and private investment in the University of Massachusetts, today’s event also included the announcement by UMass Lowell that two of its most successful and generous alumni are making another multimillion-dollar gift to the campus and students, bringing their total commitment to the campus to nearly $10 million.

Robert and Donna Manning, Methuen natives who earned degrees at UMass Lowell, will commit an additional $4 million to the university to be used specifically for strategic initiatives in UMass Lowell’s Robert J. Manning School of Business and the School of Nursing.

The gift, combined with the MassTech grant, will strengthen the university’s North Campus Innovation District, located on University Avenue in Lowell. Made up of the Saab Center, the Manning School, the Lydon Library and nearby academic and laboratory complex, the district brings together the expertise of UMass Lowell’s engineering, science and business programs to provide ease of access for students, entrepreneurs and industry partners.

The business school was named for Rob Manning in May 2011 in recognition of the couple’s earlier multimillion-dollar commitment to the university. Since the Mannings graduated from UMass Lowell in the 1980s, they have supported capital and other initiatives at the university, including establishing the Robert and Donna Manning Endowment Fund, which supports scholarships for students majoring in nursing and business. Rob Manning began his career at MFS Investment Management shortly after receiving his UMass Lowell degree in business administration. He worked his way up from research analyst to chairman, a role he has held since 2010, overseeing billions of dollars in assets and employees in 80 countries around the world.  Donna Manning – whose career as an oncology nurse at a Boston hospital spans three decades – earned degrees in nursing and business administration at UMass Lowell.

“Donna and I received a world-class education at UMass Lowell that allowed us to become successful in our careers and our passion is to give back to future generations so they can fulfill their hopes and dreams,” said Rob Manning.

The latest commitment to UMass Lowell by the Mannings will support strategic priorities in the university’s School of Nursing and the Manning School of Business. Those include providing resources for the new dean of the business school as its new home, the Pulichino Tong Business Building, is constructed and outfitted, as well as equipping the new nursing simulation laboratory in the Health and Social Sciences Building.

“Once again, UMass Lowell is grateful to Rob and Donna Manning for their generosity and their support for the future of business and nursing education on our campus. They understand firsthand how a UMass Lowell education positions students for success after graduation and thanks to their gift, our students will be even more prepared they enter the job market,” said Meehan.

Critical Manufacturing, a supplier of integrated manufacturing execution systems (MES), introduces cmNavigo 4.0, the industry’s first comprehensive MES software with embedded finite scheduling. By tightly unifying scheduling into critical MES functions in a modern, Microsoft-based operations management system, cmNavigo 4.0 software improves on-time delivery, shortens total cycle time, and makes better use of plant resources.

“As margins in global high-technology manufacturing shrink, many manufacturers are finding that their legacy MES systems don’t have the flexibility and functionality to meet the demands of today’s volatile markets. The new scheduling, quality control, warehouse management, and shift handoff capabilities we are announcing today reflect our commitment to provide the most modern and unified MES solution available,” said Francisco Almada-Lobo, CEO, Critical Manufacturing. “This new functionality will help manufacturers improve cost control, better manage inventory, and boost productivity of advanced, discrete production operations.”

New Scheduling Functionality Optimizes Production to Meet Customer Demand

cmNavigo 4.0 scheduling models plant floor resources and defines the role of each in fulfilling a mix of orders in an optimal near-term time frame, driven by customer demand. Schedules can be weighted around multiple production criteria and key performance indicators, such as minimizing delivery delays, maximizing machine loads, and reducing cycle times.

Built on Microsoft application development layers, the new scheduling application integrates with more than 30 extensible MES applications. These provide visibility and traceability, operational efficiency, quality management, factory integration, operations intelligence, and factory management.  The modern architecture empowers operations managers to configure and extend models and define workflows without the need for programming.

Integrating scheduling and other MES functionality so tightly avoids duplication of master data, allows real-time updates across different areas of the plant floor, and eliminates the need to maintain separate interfaces. Other new cmNavigo integrated applications announced today deliver the following capabilities:

  • Lot-based sampling enables automated calendar or time-based sampling of production.
  • Document management provides visualization, control, and approval of shop-floor, operations-related documents.
  • Warehouse management synchronizes exchange of information and material between the warehouse and the plant floor.
  • Durables-tracking  simplifies tracking of durable components such as boards, fixtures, tooling and masks, supporting recipe management, maintenance, exception handling, and data collection.
  • A shift logbook enhances both performance and safety by regulating exchange of critical information between shifts.

The new scheduling, sampling, factory management, tracking and logbook features of the software combine to address a wide range of MES needs in semiconductor manufacturing, electronics manufacturing, and medical device manufacturing and other manufacturing industries that might have both high mix and high volume lines. cmNavigo 4.0 software is available now for implementation throughout the world. Critical Manufacturing delivers its solutions through highly acclaimed service teams, skilled in extracting maximum value from complex operations. Expertise covers advanced information technology, business intelligence, migration from legacy MES systems, and greenfield installations.

There will also be a free webcast featuring a case history of an IC substrate manufacturer who is now implementing the new software. The webcast will take place on February 19th at 4:00 GMT (11:00 AM EST).  Register at http://www.criticalmanufacturing.com/en/webinar_201502 or at www.criticalmanufacturing.com.

The automotive semiconductor market did exceptionally well in 2014, according to new analysis from IHS. Robust vehicle production growth, together with increased semiconductor content in cars charted a path of 10 percent growth year over year to reach $29B in 2014. IHS reports the fastest growing segments for automotive semiconductors are hybrid electric vehicles, telematics and connectivity and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS).

The semiconductor revenue in these applications is forecast to achieve a compound annual growth rate (CAGR 2013–2018) of 20 percent, 19 percent and 18 percent respectively. The outlook for 2015 is also promising and the automotive semiconductor market is forecast to reach $31B, a strong 7.5 percent improvement over 2014.

Main growth drivers

Emissions legislations are leading semiconductor take rates in powertrain applications in regions around the world.

“The new concepts in emissions mitigation in the engine and in exhaust aftertreatment systems require advance sensors for their operation, said Ahad Buksh, analyst, automotive semiconductors, at IHS. “For example, a hybrid electric vehicle demands ten times more semiconductor content in powertrain,” he said.

Some of the key semiconductor applications for these vehicles include: a motor inverter is needed to convert the direct current to alternating current and vice versa, DC/DC converter is needed for bidirectional voltage control, battery management system is needed to monitor the state of the battery and plug-in charger required for charging the battery. All these applications require high-power management which will be achieved mainly with analog integrated circuits (ICs) and discrete components. After 24 percent growth in 2014, this segment is forecast to increase 22 percent in 2015, the highest of any automotive application.

Safety mandates and guidelines are driving the adoption of ADAS technology. Because of the encouragement of regional authorities and regulators for better safety standards, OEMs are increasingly adopting ADAS applications such as Lane Departure Warning (LDW), Forward Collision Warning (FCW) and Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB), among other technologies. These applications are being implemented with a front view camera module besides radar and lidar modules, providing high potential for semiconductor growth. A higher processing power (DMIPS) in micro-component ICs, increased non-volatile memory for image storage and increased volatile memory for execution of image processing functions would be required for these applications. The semiconductor market for ADAS technology is expected to reach $1.8B in 2015, a 21 percent increase over 2014.

The infotainment domain also provides strong growth opportunities for the future.  An important trend in head-units is the high-definition video function. It primarily comes from the adoption of consumer and mobile devices. This is also reflected in the incredible growth of the consumer electronic suppliers in the automotive industry, including Nvidia, which is estimated to have grown more than 80 percent in 2014.

The next five years are extremely important for telematics and broadband technology as well. 4G LTE technology will continue to grow in 2015, marking an inflection point toward sunset on 2G and 2.5G solutions in years to come. In the instrument cluster, the trend is moving from conventional analog to hybrid and fully digital instrument clusters. At the moment, the premium OEMs are going for a digital approach for their high-end vehicles, but in the long run, having digital instrument clusters in all the vehicles could be an option as well.

2014 Winners

2014 has seen a major change in the automotive supply chain, according to the Competitive Landscaping Tool CLT – Automotive – Q4 2014, now available from IHS Technology.  It has been a great year for Infineon, which enjoyed double digit revenue growth. Infineon has a strong presence in Powertrain, Chassis and Safety and Body and Convenience domains. Increased electrification in vehicles has helped its power management solutions, including the micro-component ICs.  Infineon, which was lagging more than $500 million behind Renesas in 2013, has now taken the lead over Renesas, who had been leading the market for many years.

IHS research indicates this change is largely due to fluctuation rates between the U.S. Dollar and the Japanese Yen, but it does not take into account the acquisition of International Rectifier, which was still in process in 2014. Now that the acquisition is complete, Infineon will further increase its lead over Renesas. International Rectifier’s strong presence in low-power insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT), power modules and power metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) arenas will particularly reinforce Infineon’s position in the key growing applications.

Based on the IHS analysis, other suppliers and their ranks are as follows:

Top Winners among Automotive Semiconductors Suppliers in 2014

Supplier

Rank, 2014

Rank, 2013

Market Share, 2014

Market Share, 2013

Key Drivers

Infineon

1

2

9.8%

9.2%
  • Strong growth in Chassis and Safety, Powertrain and Body and Convenience
  • Infineon’s power management solution benefit from HEV/EVs market

Freescale

4

4

7.4%

7.0%
  • Distinctive presence in fast growing segments such as Infotainment, ADAS and HEV/EVs

Texas Instruments

5

7

6.4%

5.3%
  • Strong year for TI’s embedded processors especially in ADAS and Infotainment

On Semiconductors

8

8

3.6%

2.9%
  • Increased position in ADAS with acquisition of Aptina’s CMOS imaging sensors

Micron

9

13

2.5%

1.8%
  • Increased its share in memory ICs for infotainment with its DRAM and eMMC solutions

Source: IHS