Category Archives: MEMS

Imec has designed and fabricated a 16,384-electrode, 1,024-channel micro-electrode array (MEA) for high-throughput multi-modal cell interfacing. The chip offers intracellular and extracellular recording, voltage- and current-controlled stimulation, impedance monitoring and spectroscopy functionalities thereby packing the most cell-interfacing modalities on a single chip, and being the only one to enable multi-well assays. With this new chip, imec has created a platform that enables high quality data acquisition at increased throughput in cell-based cell studies. Imec’s micro-electrode array chip will be presented at ISSCC in San Francisco, Feb. 11-15.

These results will be presented at ISSCC2018 on Feb 14, 2018 in session 29: Advanced Biomedical Systems at 2.30 pm: 29.3 – A 16384-Electrode 1024-Channel Multimodal CMOS MEA for High-Throughput Intracellular Action Potential Measurements and Impedance Spectroscopy in Drug-Screening Applications, C. Mora Lopez et al. (imec).

These results will be presented at ISSCC2018 on Feb 14, 2018 in session 29: Advanced Biomedical Systems at 2.30 pm: 29.3 – A 16384-Electrode 1024-Channel Multimodal CMOS MEA for High-Throughput Intracellular Action Potential Measurements and Impedance Spectroscopy in Drug-Screening Applications, C. Mora Lopez et al. (imec).

MEAs have since long been used for in vitro cell-interaction experiments. However, most of today’s MEAs do not support high throughput measurements, making current cell-assays time-consuming. They are typically passive devices, without built-in circuitry, therefore requiring complex external equipment for data acquisition. Additionally, most MEAs are not able to accommodate the extra sensing modalities to fully characterize complex cell behavior and interactions.

Imec’s high-throughput multi-modal CMOS-MEA packs 16,384 active electrodes with signal processing, filtering and analog-to-digital conversion on-chip, resulting in a very complete and compact system with easy interfacing. To improve the signal quality, each electrode has a miniature pre-amplifier. The electrodes are grouped in 16 clusters, each of which can be addressed individually, making it possible to run 16 experiments independently and simultaneously. This CMOS-MEA also includes 1,024 low-noise readout channels that can be connected to any of the 16,384 electrodes. The custom reconfigurable on-chip circuits support 6 cell-interfacing modalities: both extra- and intracellular electrical activity recording, constant voltage and constant current stimulation for cell excitation or localized electroporation, fast impedance monitoring and, finally, impedance spectroscopy. While fast impedance monitoring can detect impedance changes over time and cell presence for optimal electrode selection, single-cell impedance spectroscopy gives detailed information of the electrode impedance, seal resistance and cell-membrane impedance which can be used for cell differentiation. Imec’s high input impedance, low noise and low power reconfigurable circuits make it possible to integrate 1,024 parallel readout channels and 64 reconfigurable stimulation units on a small chip area.

“Not only are we reporting the highest number of modalities so far on a single chip with a very high channel count, we are able to achieve this without any performance penalty. Moreover, by offering six modalities on such large scale, the imec CMOS-MEA will greatly improve the throughput and versatility of cell-based assays,” commented Nick Van Helleputte, manager biomedical circuits at imec. “With the introduction of CMOS chip technology into the MEA-technology, we have realized a breakthrough in cell interfacing.”

NUST MISIS scientists jointly with an international group of scientists have managed to develop a composite material that has the best piezoelectric properties today. The research results were published in Scientific Reports journal.

Topography (a), PFM images of a pristine state (b) and after poling by +/?60V (c). Credit: ©NUST MISIS

Topography (a), PFM images of a pristine state (b) and after poling by +/?60V (c). Credit: ©NUST MISIS

Piezoelectrics are one of the world`s most amazing materials. It is possible to literally squeeze electricity from them. That is, an electric charge appears at the time of the material`s compression (or stretching). This is called the piezoelectric effect. Piezoelectric materials can be applied in many fields – from pressure sensors and sensitive elements of a microphone to the controller ink pressing in ink-jet printers and quartz resonators.

Lead zirconate titanate is one of the most popular piezoelectric materials. However, it has several disadvantages: it is heavy and inflexible. Additionally, lead production often causes great harm to the environment. That is why scientists are constantly looking for new materials with low lead content as well as with less weight and greater flexibility. In particular, the creation of flexible piezoelectric materials (while maintaining the key properties) would greatly expand piezoelectric materials` possibilities both as acoustic membrane and as pressure sensors.

An international team of scientists from the University of Duisburg-Essen (Germany), NUST MISIS, National Research Tomsk State University and the National Research University of Electronic Technology, working with the financial support of the Russian Science Foundation (grant 16-19-10112), has managed to create such a material and analyze its properties. For this, the nanoparticles consisting of titanate-zicronate barium-lead were placed in a complex polymer consisting of vinylidene disluoride and trifluoroethylene. By diversifying the composition of the components, scientists were able to get the most ideal composite.

The Russian-German group of scientists, including Dmitri Kiselev, a Senior Researcher at the NUST MISIS R&D Center for Materials Science & Metallurgy, has managed to create a composite material based on ceramics and organic polymer whose properties exceed today`s best piezoelectric materials. The research’s experimental part was carried out with an atomic-force microscope in the University of Duisburg-Essen (Germany). Thanks to this scientific collaboration, Dmitri Kiselev has gained skills from the world`s best scanning probe microscope, which he can later apply at NUST MISIS», said Alevtina Chernikova, Rector of NUST MISIS.

According to Dmitri Kiselev, the developed material has a very distinct field of application due to its polymer component: «Composite materials based on polymer and classic ferroelectrics, which have piezo- and pyroelectric properties, have a number of advantages compared to pure ceramics: low density, the ability to manufacture parts of any size and shape, mechanical elasticity, stability of electrophysical properties, and the simplicity and relatively low cost of production. Additionally, the synthesized composite has proved to be excellent at high pressures which makes it an excellent base for pressure sensors».

According to Kiselev, to study the composite they had to modify the standard technique which allowed them to correctly visualize the nanoparticles of ceramics in the volume of the polymer matrix: «In order to capture the electrical signal more clearly, we heated our sample in a certain way from room temperature to 60 degrees Celsius. It allowed us to measure the material’s characteristics very qualitatively and reproducibly. Our method will greatly simplify the work of our colleagues in the study of composites, so I hope that it will be in demand among our colleagues microscopists».

«It is now easier for Russian scientists to carry out world-class measurements as the MFP 3D Stand ?lone (Asylum Research) microscope is now available at the NUST MISIS Center for Collaborative Use, hence why we are now actively collaborating with several institutes from the Russian Academy of Sciences as well as other Moscow universities», Kiselev concluded.

 

Leti Chief Scientist Barbara De Salvo will help kick off ISSCC 2018 with an opening-day presentation calling for radically new, digital-communication architecture for the Internet of Things in which “a great deal of analytics processing occurs at the edge and at the end devices instead of in the Cloud.”

Delivering a keynote talk during the Feb. 12 plenary session that formally opens the conference, De Salvo will note that the architecture will include human-brain inspired hardware coupled to new computing paradigms and algorithms that “will allow for distributed intelligence over the whole IoT network, all-the-way down to ultralow-power end-devices.”

“We are entering a new era where artificial-intelligence systems are … shaping the future world,” says De Salvo, who also is Leti’s scientific director. “With the end of Moore’s Law in sight, transformative approaches are needed to address the enduring power-efficiency issues of traditional computing architectures.”

Leti paper and demo present technology for ‘extracting energy from shocks’

In addition, Leti scientists will present a paper on and a demonstration of real-life applications of piezoelectric energy harvesting, which converts mechanical energy, such as vibration and shocks, into electrical energy. The demo at Demonstration Session 1, 8.8, from 5-7 p.m., Feb. 12, in Golden Gate Hall of the San Francisco Marriott Marquis Hotel, will show a new technology for extracting energy from shocks. The demo shows an energy-autonomous temperature sensor node powered by the proposed harvesting circuit in an automotive environment. The system is able to harvest enough energy to sense temperature and transmit it wirelessly with a few mechanical pulses.

 

The demonstration is based on the paper, “A 30nA Quiescent 80nW-to-14mW Power-Range Shock-Optimized SECE-Based Piezoelectric Harvesting Interface with 420% Harvested-Energy Improvement”. The paper will be presented at 11:15 a.m., Feb. 13, during Session 8 on Wireless Power and Harvesting. The authors propose an efficient electrical interface to maximize the energy extraction from a piezoelectric energy harvester. The novelty of the approach is to adapt the strategy to sporadic mechanical shocks, usually found in real-environments, instead of periodic vibrations. The circuit allows a self-starting operation and energy-aware sequencing with nanowatt power consumption. Compared to a well-established interface, the proposed approach presents 4x energy harvesting capability.

SiTime Corporation, a developer of MEMS timing devices, announced today that it has shipped cumulatively over 1 billion timing devices.

“SiTime is redefining timing technology, and we’ve only just begun our journey,” said Rajesh Vashist, CEO of SiTime. “SiTime is uniquely focused on solving the most difficult timing problems for the electronics industry. That is why customers are using our timing products in self-driving cars, the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence systems, and 5G infrastructure. We believe that our timing components will be the device of choice for the next few decades.”

A timing device plays a critical role in most electronic systems. When timing fails, mobile phones miss calls, GPS navigation systems send drivers down the wrong streets, and financial transactions are not completed. SiTime products help prevent events like these from happening. Devices such as mobile phones, fitness trackers, and tablets rely on the small size and low power consumption of SiTime products. Mission-critical electronics such as space rockets, self-driving vehicles, and earthquake detection systems rely on the reliability and precision of the company’s solutions.

The market for all timing devices is $6 billion, and SiTime supplies 90% of the MEMS timing components sold.

“The performance and reliability of MEMS timing have improved dramatically over the past 10 years, making it a superior alternative to legacy technologies such as quartz for many applications,” said Jérémie Bouchaud, senior director of MEMS and sensors at IHS Markit, a global business information provider. “The use of oscillators in end products, as revealed by IHS Markit teardowns, is a great validation of MEMS timing as an established technology.”

SiTime first began operations in 2005 with the goal of transforming the timing industry. Today, the company has over 60 product families, which have garnered multiple industry awards and are being used across every major electronics segment. Even in challenging environments, with shock, vibration, extreme temperatures, and heavy airflow, SiTime products continue to exhibit excellent performance. This makes the company’s timing solutions ideal for automotive, telecommunications, networking, and industrial IoT applications.

“SiTime has made impressive growth in the timing market with its strong portfolio,” said Jean-Christophe Eloy, CEO of analyst firm Yole Développement. “Their devices are gaining market share in today’s and tomorrow’s growing markets: wearables, IoT, networking, storage, and telecom. Thanks to the dedication and expertise of its teams, SiTime has made the law of semiconductors come true once again: silicon technology always wins in the end.”

When it comes to biometric sensors, human skin isn’t an ally.

It’s an obstacle.

The University of Cincinnati is developing cutting-edge methods to overcome this barrier without compromising the skin and its ability to prevent infection and dehydration. By making better noninvasive tests, researchers can open up enormous opportunities in medicine and the fitness industry.

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UC engineering student Adam Hauke holds up the latest generation of wearable sensor in UC’s Novel Devices Lab. Credit: Joseph Fuqua II/UC Creative Services

“You think of the skin as an opportunity because you can measure things through it optically, chemically, electrically and mechanically,” said Jason Heikenfeld, assistant vice president in UC’s College of Engineering and Applied Science. “But it’s actually the opposite. The body has evolved to preserve all of these chemical analytes. So the skin actually isn’t very good at giving them up.”

Heikenfeld, director of UC’s Novel Devices Lab, co-authored a critical review of sensor research this month with his students and colleagues for the nanotechnology journal Lab on a Chip, outlining both scientific accomplishments to date and challenges ahead.

“We wanted to have all of the current progress and future directions and needs consolidated in one article,” said Andrew Jajack, co-author and a UC engineering student. Jajack designed the image and graphic that appears on the journal’s cover depicting the four ways that sensors can read biometrics in a track athlete.

The article, co-authored by international leaders in biosensors, discussed the growing popularity of wearable devices such as Fitbit and explored the limitations of current technology.

The skin can provide misleading data to biosensors since it harbors bacteria and tends to collect salt and other minerals from dried sweat. An effective sensor has to bend and stretch like human skin, even as it adheres to the surface when the subject is moving. Electrical sensors that track your heartbeat have to account for noise both from within the body or the environment such as from power lines or nearby electronics.

Heikenfeld said biosensors in most wearable devices use technology that has been available for years.

“The latest trend has not been driven by technological breakthroughs,” he said. “When you think of Fitbit, these capabilities have been around a long time. What’s driven it is the proliferation of smartphones and miniaturization of electronics and a growing desire for health awareness.”

UC has a long history with biosensors. The late Leland Clark Jr., sometimes called “the father of biosensors,” conducted research at the UC College of Medicine and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Research Foundation. Among his many feats, he developed the modern blood glucose monitor that diabetics use today and the first sensors to measure a patient’s blood oxygen levels.

“Sensors are a big deal here,” Heikenfeld said. “It’s something we’ve had historical strength in with pioneers in the field.”

UC’s research in sensors continues to be a pipeline for industry. Heikenfeld is co-founder and chief science officer for Eccrine Systems Inc., a Cincinnati company that specializes in sweat biosensors.

Eccrine Systems announced this month that it won a $750,000 contract with the U.S. Air Force to study biomarkers from human sweat in real time. It marks the second phase of an initial research contract with the military.

“We try to know other people’s business better than they do. You can’t innovate unless you are willing to dig way deeper than the competition,” he said.

Jajack said Eccrine Systems, Inc. is working on new ways to track biometric information continuously over time.

“A lot of the way we diagnose disease is based on single-moment-in-time markers. But the promise of wearable sensors is real-time health monitoring,” he said. “You can see a more complex picture of what’s going on in the body. That alone will lead to more diagnostic techniques across a spectrum of diseases.”

Students in UC’s Novel Devices Lab, located in the College of Engineering and Applied Science, are coming up with innovative ways to glean information from human sweat. These devices are the size of a Band-Aid and are worn on the skin like one, too.

Students Adam Hauke and Phillip Simmers are working on UC’s next generation of sweat-stimulating sensors. These devices generate sweat on a tiny patch of skin, even when the subject is resting and comfortable, and wick it away to sensors that measure substances like glucose. The biosensors collect and concentrate the faintest amounts of sweat into samples that sensors can read.

“We’ll stimulate sweating in this area and then this will start to pick up sweat off the skin, pulling it from the pores and moving it up across these electrodes here,” Hauke said. “That’s where we do the sensing.”

Among its other capabilities, the device measures the galvanic skin response, an indication of how much someone is sweating, he said.

“The more you sweat, the wetter your skin is and the electrical resistance goes down,” he said.

The Society for Chemistry and Micro-Nano Systems recognized Hauke and Simmers with its Young Researcher Award last year for their collaborative study in continuous sweat sampling and sensing.

In a different part of the Novel Devices Lab, engineering student Laura Stegner worked with a milling machine to customize flow-rate sensors. Across from her, classmate Amy Drexelius worked on the part of the device that can separate and concentrate the analytes they want to test in sweat or blood.

“We want to concentrate the sample. So you can stick this on the front of your sensor and it does a lot of previously hard chemistry lab work for you,” she said.

This technique could apply to other trace chemicals scientists want to measure, Jajack said.

“A big issue today is the amount of pharmaceuticals found in our drinking water,” Jajack said. “They’re hard to measure because they’re so diluted. Even at diluted concentrations, they might be having an effect on us.”

Heikenfeld said his lab’s success stems from its talented students, who apply their diverse interests and experiences to their lab work. Developing new sensors and applications takes problem solving that draws from many academic disciplines.

“How often are you going to find someone who’s deep into biology and chemistry who also does hack-athons and is a big maker, too?” Heikenfeld said of Jajack. “But that’s what it’s going to take. We need to innovate in disciplines that are not our traditional areas of expertise so we’re not relying on others to move at speeds at which our own creative minds want to sprint. We’re doing that now because of the quality of people we have here.”

Moving sensor applications from the lab bench to the store shelf remains a big challenge, UC chemistry professor William Connick said. He serves as director of UC’s Center for Biosensors & Chemical Sensors.

“Groups like Dr. Heikenfeld’s are making remarkable strides in developing technologies that provide information on biomarkers at exceedingly low levels from very small quantities of fluid like sweat,” Connick said.

“To go from the lab to a practical device is a challenge when you’re working with real-world samples. Every person is a little different. Every circumstance is a little different,” he said. “Making something that’s robust enough to accurately perform under a wide variety of conditions is challenging.”

Connick said demand for biosensors is only going to grow as labs like UC’s develop better ways to collect information. And home testing and continuous monitoring of drugs over time could lead to better health outcomes, he said.

“The market is wide open now. The potential is gigantic, just in cost savings and being able to provide rapid screening without taking blood and having to send samples off to a laboratory,” Connick said.

Heikenfeld’s journal article noted that biosensors of the future will measure multiple aspects of a person’s physiology. And new wearable sensors will need a mix of disposable and reusable parts to address the wear and tear that come with daily life.

Now UC’s Novel Devices Lab is developing a new noninvasive technique to make sweat glands more permeable so sensors can record even more detailed data. Heikenfeld and Jajack are not ready to talk about how it works but they are very excited about the possibilities.

“Let’s just say it’s safe and super awesome,” Heikenfeld said. “There are a lot of great things coming up.”

MACOM Technology Solutions Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: MTSI) (“MACOM”), a supplier of high-performance RF, microwave, millimeterwave and lightwave semiconductor products, and STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM) today announced an agreement to develop GaN (Gallium Nitride) on Silicon wafers to be manufactured by ST for MACOM’s use across an array of RF applications. While expanding MACOM’s source of supply, the agreement also grants to ST the right to manufacture and sell its own GaN on Silicon products in RF markets outside of mobile phone, wireless basestation and related commercial telecom infrastructure applications.

Through this agreement, MACOM expects to access increased Silicon wafer manufacturing capacity and improved cost structure that could displace incumbent Silicon LDMOS and accelerate the adoption of GaN on Silicon in mainstream markets. ST and MACOM have been working together for several years to bring GaN on Silicon production up in ST’s CMOS wafer fab. As currently scheduled, sample production from ST is expected to begin in 2018.

“This agreement punctuates our long journey of leading the RF industry’s conversion to GaN on Silicon technology. To date, MACOM has refined and proven the merits of GaN on Silicon using rather modest compound semiconductor factories, replicating and even exceeding the RF performance and reliability of expensive GaN on SiC alternative technology,” said John Croteau, President and CEO, MACOM. “We expect this collaboration with ST to bring those GaN innovations to bear in a Silicon supply chain that can ultimately service the most demanding customers and applications.”

“ST’s scale and operational excellence in Silicon wafer manufacturing aims to unlock the potential to drive new RF power applications for MACOM and ST as it delivers the economic breakthroughs necessary to expand the market for GaN on Silicon,” said Marco Monti, President of the Automotive and Discrete Product Group, STMicroelectronics. “While expanding the opportunities for existing RF applications is appealing, we’re even more excited about using GaN on Silicon in new RF Energy applications, especially in automotive applications, such as plasma ignition for more efficient combustion in conventional engines, and in RF lighting applications, for more efficient and longer-lasting lighting systems.”

“Once the $0.04/watt barrier for high power RF semiconductor devices is crossed, significant opportunities for the RF energy market may open up,” said Eric Higham, Director Advanced Semiconductor Applications Service at Strategy Analytics. Higham continued, “Potential RF energy device shipments could be in the hundreds of millions for applications including commercial microwave cooking, automotive lighting and ignition, and plasma lighting, with sales reaching into the billions of dollars.”

Market shares of top semiconductor equipment manufacturers for the full year 2017 indicate large gains by Tokyo Electron and Lam Research while top supplier Applied Materials dropped, according to the report “Global Semiconductor Equipment: Markets, Market Shares, Market Forecasts,” recently published by The Information Network, a New Tripoli-based market research company.

The chart below shows shares for the entire years of 2016 and 2017. Market shares are for equipment only, excluding service and spare parts, and have been converted for revenues of foreign companies to U.S. dollars on a quarterly exchange rate.

market shares

Market leader Applied Materials lost 1.8 share points among the top seven companies, dropping from 28.8% in 2016 to 27.0% in 2017. Gaining share are Tokyo Electron Ltd., which gained 2.1 share points while rising from 17.4% in 2016 to 19.1% in 2017, and Lam Research, which gained 1.5 share points and grew from a 19.4% share in 2016 to a 20.9% share in 2017.

In third place ASML gained 0.6 share points, growing from an 18.8% share in 2016 to a 19.4% share in 2017.

Fifth place KLA-Tencor is the dominant supplier in the process control sector (inspection and metrology) and competes against Applied Materials and Hitachi High-Technologies, as well as several other companies including Nanometrics, Nova Measuring Instruments, and Rudolph Technologies. KLA-Tencor gained market share against each of its competitors in this sector in 2017.

Much of the equipment revenue growth was attributed to strong growth in the DRAM and NAND sectors, as equipment was installed in memory manufacturers Intel, Micron Technology, Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, Toshiba, and Western Digital. The memory sector is expected to have grown 60.1% in 2017 and another 9.3% in 2018 according to industry consortium WSTS (World Semiconductor Trade Statistics).

Following the strong growth in the semiconductor equipment market, The Information Network projects another 11% growth in 2018. for semiconductor equipment.

Texas Instruments (TI) (NASDAQ: TXN) today introduced the industry’s smallest operational amplifier (op amp) and low-power comparators at 0.64 mm2. As the first amplifiers in the compact X2SON package, the TLV9061 op amp and TLV7011 family of comparators enable engineers to reduce their system size and cost, while maintaining high performance in a variety of Internet of Things (IoT), personal electronics and industrial applications, including mobile phones, wearables, optical modules, motor drives, smart grid and battery-powered systems.

With a high gain bandwidth (GBW) of 10 MHz, fast slew rate at 6.5 V/µs and low-noise spectral density of 10 nV/√Hz, the TLV9061 op amp is designed for use in wide-bandwidth, high-performance systems. The TLV7011 family of nanopower comparators delivers a faster response time with propagation delays down to 260 ns, while consuming 50 percent less power than competitive comparators. Additionally, both devices support rail-to-rail inputs with low-voltage operation down to 1.8 V, enabling ease-of-use in battery-powered applications.

Achieve high performance in tiny spaces with the TLV9061 operational amplifier

  • Reduces system size and cost: In addition to its tiny size, the TLV9061 op amp also features integrated EMI filtering inputs. This helps provide resilient performance for systems prone to RF noise, while significantly reducing the need for external discrete circuitry.
  • Greater DC accuracy: Two times lower offset drift and typical input bias across a full temperature range, -40 to 125 degrees Celsius, creates a more precise signal chain solution compared to other small devices.

Lower power, faster response with the tiny TLV7011 family of comparators

  • Smaller footprint, extra features: No phase reversal and integrated internal hysteresis for overdriven inputs increase design flexibility and reduce the need for external components.
  • Fifty percent less power consumption: With power as low as 335 nA and fast propagation delay down to 260 ns, the TLV7011 family of nanopower comparators enable low-power systems to monitor signals and respond quickly.

These new devices join TI’s small-size amplifier portfolio which enables engineers to design smaller systems, while maintaining high performance, with industry-leading package options and many of the world’s smallest op amps and comparators.

Tools and support to speed design
Designers can download the TINA-TI™ SPICE model to simulate their designs and predict circuit behavior when using the TLV9061 op amp and TLV7011 family of comparators. Engineers can jump-start their small brushed DC servo drive designs using the TLV9061 op amp with the 10.8-V/15-W, >90% Efficiency, 2.4-cm2, Power Stage Reference Design. Also, they can quickly and easily evaluate the TLV7011 comparators with the DIP adapter evaluation module, available today for US$5.00 from the TI store and authorized distributors.

Package, availability and pricing
Preproduction samples of the TLV9061 op amp and volume quantities of the TLV7011 family of comparators are now available through the TI store and authorized distributors in a 5-pin extra small outline no-lead (X2SON) package, measuring 0.8 mm x 0.8 mm x 0.4 mm. Pricing starts at US$0.19 and US$0.25 in 1,000-unit quantities, respectively. Learn more about the family of comparators in the table below.

Product

Supply
voltage (Vcc)

DC input
offset (Vios)

Propagation
delay (tpd)

Supply
current (Icc)

TLV7011

1.6 – 5.5 V

0.5 mV

260 ns

5 µA

TLV7021

1.6 – 5.5 V

0.5 mV

260 ns

5 µA

TLV7031

1.6 – 6.5 V

0.1 mV

3 µs

335 nA

TLV7041

1.6 – 6.5 V

0.1 mV

3 µs

335 nA

The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), representing U.S. leadership in semiconductor manufacturing, design, and research, today announced the global semiconductor industry posted sales totaling $412.2 billion in 2017, the industry’s highest-ever annual sales and an increase of 21.6 percent compared to the 2016 total. Global sales for the month of December 2017 reached $38.0 billion, an increase of 22.5 percent over the December 2016 total and 0.8 percent more than the previous month’s total. Fourth-quarter sales of $114.0 billion were 22.5 percent higher than the total from the fourth quarter of 2016 and 5.7 percent more than the third quarter of 2017. Global sales during the fourth quarter of 2017 and during December 2017 were the industry’s highest-ever quarterly and monthly sales, respectively. All monthly sales numbers are compiled by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization and represent a three-month moving average.

Worldwide semiconductor revenues, year-to-year percent change

Worldwide semiconductor revenues, year-to-year percent change

“As semiconductors have become more heavily embedded in an ever-increasing number of products – from cars to coffee makers – and nascent technologies like artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and the Internet of Things have emerged, global demand for semiconductors has increased, leading to landmark sales in 2017 and a bright outlook for the long term,” said John Neuffer, SIA president and CEO. “The global market experienced across-the-board growth in 2017, with double-digit sales increases in every regional market and nearly all major product categories. We expect the market to grow more modestly in 2018.”

Several semiconductor product segments stood out in 2017. Memory was the largest semiconductor category by sales with $124.0 billion in 2017, and the fastest growing, with sales increasing 61.5 percent. Within the memory category, sales of DRAM products increased 76.8 percent and sales of NAND flash products increased 47.5 percent. Logic ($102.2 billion) and micro-ICs ($63.9 billion) – a category that includes microprocessors – rounded out the top three product categories in terms of total sales. Other fast-growing product categories in 2017 included rectifiers (18.3 percent), diodes (16.4 percent), and sensors and actuators (16.2 percent). Even without sales of memory products, sales of all other products combined increased by nearly 10 percent in 2017.

Annual sales increased substantially across all regions: the Americas (35.0 percent), China (22.2 percent), Europe (17.1 percent), Asia Pacific/All Other (16.4 percent), and Japan (13.3 percent). The Americas market also led the way in growth for the month of December 2017, with sales up 41.4 percent year-to-year and 2.1 percent month-to-month. Next were Europe (20.2 percent/-1.6 percent), China (18.1 percent/1.0 percent), Asia Pacific/All Other (17.4 percent/0.2 percent), and Japan (14.0 percent/0.9 percent).

“A strong semiconductor industry is foundational to America’s economic strength, national security, and global technology leadership,” said Neuffer. “We urge Congress and the Trump Administration to enact polices in 2018 that promote U.S. innovation and allow American businesses to compete on a more level playing field with our counterparts overseas. We look forward to working with policymakers in the year ahead to further strengthen the semiconductor industry, the broader tech sector, and our economy.”

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago describe a new technique for precisely measuring the temperature and behavior of new two-dimensional materials that will allow engineers to design smaller and faster microprocessors. Their findings are reported in the journal Physical Review Letters.

Newly developed two-dimensional materials, such as graphene — which consists of a single layer of carbon atoms — have the potential to replace traditional microprocessing chips based on silicon, which have reached the limit of how small they can get. But engineers have been stymied by the inability to measure how temperature will affect these new materials, collectively known as transition metal dichalcogenides, or TMDs.

Using scanning transmission electron microscopy combined with spectroscopy, researchers at UIC were able to measure the temperature of several two-dimensional materials at the atomic level, paving the way for much smaller and faster microprocessors. They were also able to use their technique to measure how the two-dimensional materials would expand when heated.

“Microprocessing chips in computers and other electronics get very hot, and we need to be able to measure not only how hot they can get, but how much the material will expand when heated,” said Robert Klie, professor of physics at UIC and corresponding author of the paper. “Knowing how a material will expand is important because if a material expands too much, connections with other materials, such as metal wires, can break and the chip is useless.”

Traditional ways to measure temperature don’t work on tiny flakes of two-dimensional materials that would be used in microprocessors because they are just too small. Optical temperature measurements, which use a reflected laser light to measure temperature, can’t be used on TMD chips because they don’t have enough surface area to accommodate the laser beam.

“We need to understand how heat builds up and how it is transmitted at the interface between two materials in order to build efficient microprocessors that work,” said Klie.

Klie and his colleagues devised a way to take temperature measurements of TMDs at the atomic level using scanning transition electron microscopy, which uses a beam of electrons transmitted through a specimen to form an image.

“Using this technique, we can zero in on and measure the vibration of atoms and electrons, which is essentially the temperature of a single atom in a two-dimensional material,” said Klie. Temperature is a measure of the average kinetic energy of the random motions of the particles, or atoms that make up a material. As a material gets hotter, the frequency of the atomic vibration gets higher. At absolute zero, the lowest theoretical temperature, all atomic motion stops.

Klie and his colleagues heated microscopic “flakes” of various TMDs inside the chamber of a scanning transmission electron microscope to different temperatures and then aimed the microscope’s electron beam at the material. Using a technique called electron energy-loss spectroscopy, they were able to measure the scattering of electrons off the two-dimensional materials caused by the electron beam. The scattering patterns were entered into a computer model that translated them into measurements of the vibrations of the atoms in the material – in other words, the temperature of the material at the atomic level.

“With this new technique, we can measure the temperature of a material with a resolution that is nearly 10 times better than conventional methods,” said Klie. “With this new approach, we can design better electronic devices that will be less prone to overheating and consume less power.”

The technique can also be used to predict how much materials will expand when heated and contract when cooled, which will help engineers build chips that are less prone to breaking at points where one material touches another, such as when a two-dimensional material chip makes contact with a wire.

“No other method can measure this effect at the spatial resolution we report,” said Klie. “This will allow engineers to design devices that can manage temperature changes between two different materials at the nano-scale level.”