Category Archives: MEMS

Leti announced today that a team of its researchers is participating in a U.S.-funded project to develop a safe, implantable neural interface system to restore vision by stimulating the visual cortex.

Funded by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Neural Engineering System Design program (NESD) sets out to expand neurotechnology capabilities and provide a foundation for future treatments of sensory deficits.

Scientists from Leti and Clinatec, Leti’s biomedical research center focused on applying micro- and nanotechnology innovations to health care, are part of a consortium conducted by the Paris Vision Institute under the leadership of Prof. José-Alain Sahel and Dr. Serge Picaud. The Vision Institute is a leading European research center in eye diseases, and is part of the Seeing and Hearing Foundation (Fondation Voir et Entendre, FVE), which was awarded the DARPA grant.

The FVE team project, called CorticalSight, is part of the six projects selected by DARPA to participate in the groundbreaking NESD program. CorticalSight will apply techniques from the field of optogenetics to enable communication between neurons in the visual cortex and a camera-based, high-definition artificial retina worn over the eyes. Leti will lead the development of the active implantable medical device that will interface with the visual cortex.

Clinatec and its Leti partners will focus on developing a safe, wireless, implantable system that restores vision through light stimulation of optogenetically modified neurons in the visual cortex. Leti is tasked with designing an implantable device, as well as creating hermetic packaging and radiofrequency links for the implantable system, and subsequently conducting technical test benches. The Leti implant will enable visual cortex optical-stimulation patterns, and integrate the underlying control electronics within a minimally invasive cortical implant.

“Clinatec’s integrated approach to high-tech, medical-device R&D, extending from Leti’s technological development to in-house clinical expertise and testing capabilities, allows our teams to address cutting-edge medtech development challenges,” said Prof. Alim-Louis Benabid, Clinatec’s chairman of the board, and co-investigator of the CorticalSight project. “This contribution to the CorticalSight consortium will pave the way to new therapeutic devices for vision restoration thanks to the NESD program.”

Partners of the CorticalSight project also include the French companies Chronocam and Gensight®, Stanford University, Inscopix and the Friedrich Miescher Institute of Switzerland.

STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM) is powering up wireless charging for mobile devices by introducing one of the world’s first chips to support the latest industry standard for faster charging.

Nowadays, people are using their smartphones and tablets so intensively that many need to top up battery power several times a day. With wireless charging, users don’t need to carry the charger or a bulky power bank, and can charge their electronic devices as fast as with a cable. Major mobile manufacturers are committing to wireless charging by joining the industry alliances and launching compatible products.

Users on the move, who put their mobiles down to charge for a few minutes – say, during a break or in a meeting — need the device to be ready to go again when they are. To enable this, the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) that manages the Qi specification — a widely adopted industry standard — has introduced the Extended Power profile for faster charging. By raising the maximum charging power from 5W to 15W, this new profile enables devices to be charged up to three times more quickly.

One of the market’s first wireless-charging controllers to support Qi Extended Power, ST’s STWBC-EP combines best-in-class energy efficiency, consuming just 16mW in standby and able to wirelessly transfer more than 80% of the total input power, with unique features created by ST to enhance the user experience. These include a patented solution enhancing active presence detection to wake the system quickly when a compatible object is presented for charging. The patented technology also enhances the performance of Foreign Object Detection (FOD), to cut power and prevent overheating if objects containing metals are brought too close to the charger. Other unique innovations enhance power control and energy transfer to maximize efficiency and ease of use.

“ST’s Advanced Wireless-Charging chip enables manufacturers to create new, high-power products that offer superior features and efficiency,” said Domenico Arrigo, General Manager, Industrial and Power Conversion Division, STMicroelectronics. “The Qi Extended Power support dramatically shortens charging time and our patented detection and safety innovations greatly improve safety and ease of use.”

The STWBC-EP provides the level of integration allowing to simplify charger design while providing the flexibility to work with supply voltages ranging from 5V USB power up to 12V.

To help accelerate time to market for product developers, ST has created an associated reference design with a Qi 15W ready-built transmitter board and documentation to get started. ST also has a 15W receiver chip (STWLC33) for use in high-speed chargeable devices, which developers can use to complete their applications.

ST’s new wireless-charging chip will be showcased at the Qi Wireless Power Developers Conference and Tradeshow held in San Francisco on November 16-17.

The STWBC-EP is available now, as a 32-lead QFN (5mm x 5mm) device, priced from $3.175 for 1000 pieces.

 

Automotive electronic system sales are forecast to rise by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.4% from 2016 through 2021, which is the highest among six major end-use system categories (Figure 1), according to data presented in the 2018 edition of the IC Insights’ IC Market Drivers—A Study of Key System Applications Fueling Demand for Integrated Circuits that will be released later this year.

worldwide electronic systems 1

Demand is rising for electronic systems in new cars with increasing attention focused on self-driving (autonomous) vehicles, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communications, as well as on-board safety, convenience, and environmental features, and growing interest in electric vehicles.  Automotive electronics is growing as technology becomes more widely available on mid-range and entry-level cars and as consumers purchase technology-based aftermarket products.  For semiconductor suppliers, this is good news as analog ICs, MCUs, and a great number of sensors are required for many of these automotive systems.

The automotive segment is expected to account for an estimated 9.1% of the $1.49 trillion total worldwide electronic systems market in 2017 (Figure 2), a slight increase from 8.9% in 2015, and 9.0% in 2016. Automotive’s share of global electronic system production has increased only incrementally through the years, and is forecast to show only marginal gains as a percent of total electronic systems market through 2021, when automotive electronics are forecast to account for 9.8% of global electronic systems sales.  Though many electronics systems are being added in new vehicles, IC Insights believes pricing pressures on both ICs and electronic systems will keep the automotive end-use application from accounting for much more than its current share of total electronic systems through the forecast period.

worldwide electronic systems 2

Other electronic system and IC market highlights from the 2018 IC Market Drivers Report include the following.

• The automotive segment is forecast to be the fastest growing electronic system market through 2021. This is good news for the total automotive IC market, which is forecast to surge 22% in 2017 and 16% in 2018.

• Industrial electronic systems are forecast to enjoy the second-fastest growth rate (4.6%) through 2021 as robotics, wearable health devices, and systems promoting the Internet of Things help drive growth in this segment. Analog ICs are forecast to hold 45% of the industrial IC market in 2017.

• The 2016-2021 communication systems CAGR is projected to be 4.2% as global sales of smartphones and other mobile devices reach saturation.  Asia-Pacific is forecast to show the strongest regional growth of communication systems and account for 69% of the total communications IC market in 2017.

• The consumer electronic systems market is forecast to display a CAGR of 2.8% through 2021.  The logic segment is forecast to be the largest consumer IC market throughout the forecast.  In total, the consumer IC market is expected to register a 2.4% CAGR across the 2016-2021 time period.

• Flat or marginal demand for personal computing devices (desktops, notebooks, tablets) is expected to result in the computer systems market showing the weakest CAGR through 2021. The total computer IC market is forecast to increase 25% in 2017 driven by much higher average selling prices for computer DRAM and NAND flash memory.

 

Enabling the A.I. era


November 8, 2017

BY PETE SINGER, Editor-in-Chief

There’s a strongly held belief now that the way in which semiconductors will be designed and manufactured in the future will be largely determined by a variety of rapidly growing applications, including artificial intelligence/deep learning, virtual and augmented reality, 5G, automotive, the IoT and many other uses, such as bioelectronics and drones.

The key question for most semiconductor manufacturers is how can they benefit from these trends? One of the goals of a recent panel assembled by Applied Materials for an investor day in New York was to answer that question.

The panel, focused on “enabling the A.I. era,” was moderated by Sundeep Bajikar (former Sellside Analyst, ASIC Design Engineer). The panelists were: Christos Georgiopoulos (former Intel VP, professor), Matt Johnson (SVP in Automotive at NXP), Jay Kerley (CIO of Applied Materials), Mukesh Khare (VP of IBM Research) and Praful Krishna (CEO of Coseer). The panel discussion included three debates: the first one was “Data: Use or Discard”; the second was “Cloud versus Edge”; and the third was “Logic versus Memory.”

“There’s a consensus view that there will be an explosion of data generation across multiple new categories of devices,” said Bajikar, noting that the most important one is the self-driving car. NXP’s Johnson responded that “when it comes to data generation, automotive is seeing amazing growth.” He noted the megatrends in this space: the autonomy, connectivity, the driver experience, and electrification of the vehicle. “These are changing automotive in huge ways. But if you look underneath that, AI is tied to all of these,” he said.

He said that estimates of data generation by the hour are somewhere from 25 gigabytes per hour on the low end, up to 250 gigabytes or more per hour on the high end. or even more in some estimates.

“It’s going to be, by the second, the largest data generator that we’ve seen ever, and it’s really going to have a huge impact on all of us.”

Intel’s Georgiopoulos agrees that there’s an enormous amount of infrastructure that’s getting built right now. “That infrastructure is consisting of both the ability to generate the data, but also the ability to process the data both on the edge as well as on the cloud,” he said. The good news is that sorting that data may be getting a little easier. “One of the more important things over the last four or five years has been the quality of the data that’s getting generated, which diminishes the need for extreme algorithmic development,” he said. “The better data we get, the more reasonable the AI neural networks can be and the simpler the AI networks can be for us to extract information that we need and turn the data information into dollars.” Check out our website at www.solid-state.com for a full report on the panel.

By Ajit Manocha, president and CEO, SEMI

Artificial intelligence (AI) may be a hot topic today, but SEMI has helped to incubate Big Data and AI since its founding. Early in SEMI’s history, SEMI’s always intelligent members worked together to introduce International Standards that enabled different pieces of equipment to collect and later pass data.  At first, it was for basic interoperability and equipment state analysis.  Later, SEMI data protocol Standards allowed process and metrology data to be used locally and across the fab to approach the goals of Smart Manufacturing and AI – for the equipment itself to make adjustments based on incoming wafer data.

Ajit--photo 1--sample.e.XL3A5483 (from pdg)As a part of this evolution, SEMI members developed the latest sensors and computational hardware that could ever better sense, analyze and act on the environment. Often first to use its own newly developed hardware, progress in this area was critical toward improving the likelihood of success for one of the world’s most complicated production processes – and coping with the breakneck speed of Moore’s Law – by accelerating capabilities that would later be regarded as the basis for machine learning and “thinking” systems.

Since then, process steps have increased from about 175 to as many as 1,000 for the leading technology nodes. By the time 300mm wafers were introduced, manufacturing intelligence and automation sharply increased productivity while reducing fab labor by more than 25 percent. Employing adaptive models, modern leading-edge factories are fully automated and operate at nearly 60 percent autonomous control.

Today, AI is akin to where IoT was yesterday in the hype cycle – popping up everywhere as a major consideration for the future. Neither IoT nor AI is hype, though – they’re the future.  There is ever more at stake for SEMI members with AI.  AI appears to be the next wave helping to maintain double-digit growth for the foreseeable future.

As part of its appeal for the global supply chain, AI can be a key silicon driver for three inflections that should benefit society. First, there is a massive increase in the amount of compute needed. Half of all the compute architectures shipping in 2021 will be supporting and processing AI.

Second, the Cloud will flourish and the Edge will bloom. By 2021, 50 percent of enterprise infrastructure will employ cognitive and artificial intelligence.

Third, new species of chips will emerge, such as the devices fueling IC content and electronics for the rapid growth of disruptive capabilities in vehicles and autonomous cars (as well as medical and agricultural applications, for example). There are also many more advantages created with and for AI as SEMI members enable new materials and advanced packaging.

What results can be measured from these changes for the global electronics manufacturing supply chain? More apps, more electronics, more silicon and more manufacturing.

On the other hand, the technologies alone create relatively little business value if the problems in our factories and markets are not well understood. There’s a great need to anticipate and guide AI. This requires a new kind of collaboration.

To address this need, SEMI’s vertical application platforms have been created for Smart Data (which is all about AI), and also for Smart MedTech, Smart Transportation, Smart Manufacturing and IoT. This higher degree of facilitated collaboration serves to cultivate multiple “smart communities” that accelerate progress for AI, better directing how connected networks and data mining can step up the pace for advancement of global prosperity. This process also provides members with access to untapped business opportunities and new players.​​

Ajit--photo 2 (panel)_D512959

We at SEMI are learning right along with our members. If you attended SEMICON West in July, several lessons about AI were presented by the Executive Panel (“Meeting the Challenges of the 4th Industrial Revolutions along the Microelectronics Supply Chain”) with Mary Puma (Axcelis), Shaheen Dayal (Intel), Lori Ciano (Brooks Automation) and Regenia Sanders (Ernst & Young). This very timely and excellent panel discussed how and where predictive analytics can have the biggest impact and the implications of sharing (and not sharing) data for problem solving and process optimization.

Ensuring that the SEMI staff gleans everything possible from the experts, we hosted an “encore” of the Executive Panel in October in our headquarters for an even more in-depth discussion about how to enhance collaboration across the supply chain in support of AI.

Going forward, these SEMI vertical platform communities will help to simplify and accelerate supply chain engagement for member value. Collaboration will play an ever greater role for using AI to master the making of advanced node semiconductor devices and enabling limitless cognitive computing. As a result, AI as we know it today, has a big head start over the previous pace of evolution for one of our great trendsetters, Moore’s Law.

Join the conversation.  Find out how you can work with SEMI to advance the AI – and especially AI in semiconductor manufacturing.  Frank Shemansky Jr., Ph.D., is heading up SEMI’s formation of SEMI’s Smart Data vertical application platform.  Let Frank know ([email protected]) you’re interested and he’ll give you more information on what’s to come.  As always, please let me know your thoughts.

 

Worldwide silicon wafer area shipments increased during the third quarter 2017 when compared to second quarter 2017 area shipments according to the SEMI Silicon Manufacturers Group (SMG) in its quarterly analysis of the silicon wafer industry.

Total silicon wafer area shipments were 2,997 million square inches during the most recent quarter, a 0.7 percent increase from the record 2,978 million square inches shipped during the previous quarter. New quarterly total area shipments are 9.8 percent higher than third quarter 2016 shipments and continue to ship at their highest recorded quarterly level.

“Global silicon wafer shipment volumes surpassed record levels for the sixth quarter in a row, resulting in a new historical high,” said Chungwei (C.W.) Lee (李崇偉), chairman of SEMI SMG and spokesman, VP, Corporate Development and chief auditor of GlobalWafers (環球晶圓).  “While silicon demand is strong, silicon pricing remains well below pre-downturn levels.”

Silicon* Area Shipment Trends

Source: SEMI (www.semi.org), November 2017
Millions of Square Inches
2Q2016
3Q2016
4Q2016
1Q2017
2Q2017
3Q2017
Total
2,706
2,730
2,764
2,858
2,978
2,997

*Semiconductor applications only

Silicon wafers are the fundamental building material for semiconductors, which in turn, are vital components of virtually all electronics goods, including computers, telecommunications products, and consumer electronics. The highly engineered thin round disks are produced in various diameters (from one inch to 12 inches) and serve as the substrate material on which most semiconductor devices or “chips” are fabricated.

All data cited in this release is inclusive of polished silicon wafers, including virgin test wafers and epitaxial silicon wafers, as well as non-polished silicon wafers shipped by the wafer manufacturers to the end-users.

 

The technologies to watch identified by TechInsights analysts at the beginning of the year have not been disappointing.

BY STACY WEGNER, Ottawa, Canada, and JEONGDONG CHOE, Ottawa, Canada

TechInsights analysts have been keeping an intent watch on where technology has progressed, how it’s changing, and what new developments are emerging. At the end of the first quarter, our analysts shared their insights and thoughts about what to keep an eye on as the year unfolds. In this article, they provide an update on what 2017 has delivered so far.

Intelligent, connected devices

As we wrote earlier this year, in 2016, wearables were extremely interesting mainly because there was so much uncertainty around whether or not the market would be viable. Some, no, many, say the wearables market will cool off and possibly just expire. At TechInsights, we do will not speculate about whether this market is going to survive. We will report what we find and analyze what is currently being sold. Apple, Samsung, and Huawei have all released smartwatches for what would parallel a “flagship” in the mobile market (FIGURE 1). Fitness bands are becoming even ”smarter” and combining sensors where possible. Perhaps one of the most notable developments is Nokia’s acquisition and complete integration of Withings into its existing brands.

Screen Shot 2017-11-07 at 12.24.01 PM

We are witnessing the “rise of the machines,” in products from scales and hair brushes to rice cookers. Primarily these devices offer consumers convenience. For example, with a connected scale, instead of recording your weight manually, the smart scales do the job for you, syncing with various health apps so you can track your weight over time. The connected hair brush provides insights into your hair’s manageability, frizziness, dryness, split ends and breakage to provide a hair quality score. Brushing patterns, pressure applied and brush stroke counts are analyzed to measure effectiveness of brushing habits and a personal diagnosis is provided with tips and real-time product recommendations. The most common connected devices include refrigerators, lights, washing machines, thermostats, and televisions.

One dominant example is the ever-popular Amazon Echo, which has taken on a life of its own and is generating spin-off markets and competition. In July, it was reported that Amazon’s Alexa voice platform passed 15,000 skills — the voice-powered apps that run on devices like the Echo speaker, Echo Dot, newer Echo Show and others. The figure is up from the 10,000 skills Amazon officially announced in February. Amazon’s Alexa is building out an entire voice app ecosystem putting it much further ahead than its nearest competitor. The success seen with Echo has motivated other companies like Google, Lenovo, LG, Samsung and Apple to release compet- itive speakers, however it is estimated that Amazon is expected to control 70 percent of the market this year. In addition, Amazon and Microsoft recently announced a partnership to better integrate their digital assistants. This cross-platform integration provides users with access to Cortana features that Alexa is missing, and vice versa. Finally, the high- performance far-field microphones found in Amazon Echo products may soon find their way to other hardware companies as Amazon announced that the technology is available to those who want to integrate into the Alexa Experience. With its new reference solution, it’s never been easier for device makers to integrate Alexa and offer their customers the same voice experiences.

In the mobile market overall, we are seeing a strong emergence of devices targeted for the very hot market of India. The mobile devices for this market range from supporting 15 or more cellular bands to as few as five cellular bands, and that is for smart- phones. At TechInsights, we will be analyzing OEMs in India like Micromax, Intex, and Lava to see how they approach dealing with strong competitors like Samsung and Xiaomi.

Memory devices

In early 2017, 32L and 48L 3D NAND products were common and all the NAND players were eager to develop next generation 3D NAND products such as 64L and 128L. 3D NAND has been jumping into 64L (FIGURE 2). Samsung, Western Digital, Toshiba, Intel, and Micron already revealed CS or mass-products on the market. SK Hynix also showed their 72L NAND die as a CS product. In the second half of this year, we will see 64L and 72L NAND products on the commercial market. For n+1 generation with 96L or 128L, we expect that two-stacked cell array architecture for 3D NAND would be adopted in 2018. Micron/Intel will keep their own FG based 3D NAND cell structure for the next generation.

Screen Shot 2017-11-07 at 12.24.10 PM

Referring to DRAM, all the major players already used their advanced process technology for cell array integration such as an advanced ALD for high-k dielectrics, low damage plasma etching and honeycomb capacitor structure. Buried WL, landing pad and plug for a capacitor node, and MESH structure are still main stream. Samsung 18nm DRAM products for DDR4 and LPDDR4X are on the market. SK Hynix and Micron will reveal the same tech node DRAM products in this year. n+1 gener- ation with 15nm or 16nm node will be next in 2018. Once 6F2 15nm DRAM cell technology is successful, 4F2 DRAM products such as a capacitorless DRAM might be delayed. In 2018, 18nm and 15nm DRAM technology will be used for GDDR6 and LPDDR5.

When it comes to emerging memory, 3D XPoint memory technology is a hot potato (FIGURE 3). The XPoint products from Intel are on the market as an Optane SSD with 16GB and 32GB. Performance including retention, reliability and speed are not matched as expected, but they used a double stacked memory cell between M4 and M5 on the memory array. It’s a PCM with GST based material. An OTS with Se-As-Ge-Si is added between the PCM and the electrode (WL or BL). We expect to see multiple (triple or quadruple) stacked XPoint memory architecture within a couple years. For other emerging memory such as STT-MRAM, PCRAM and ReRAM, we’re waiting on some commercial products from Adesto (CBRAM 45nm, RM33 series) and Everspin (STT-MRAM pMTJ 256Mb, AUP-AXL-M128).

Screen Shot 2017-11-07 at 12.24.21 PM

Conclusion

The technologies to watch identified by TechInsights analysts at the beginning of the year have not been disappointing. As our analysts continue to examine and reveal the innovations others can’t inside advanced technology, we will continue to share our findings on these and new technologies as they emerge, including how they are used, how they impact the market, and how they will be changed by the next discovery or invention.

SEMI announced today that the Industry Strategy Symposium (ISS) 2018, will take place January 15-18 at Half Moon Bay’s Ritz-Carlton Hotel, with the theme “Smart, Intuitive & Connected: Semiconductor Devices Transforming the World.”  ISS is the year’s first executive check-in, bringing together leading analysts, researchers, economists, and technologists for insights on the forces impacting the semiconductor industry. The annual symposium offers executives a unique platform for identifying growth opportunities and gaining industry intelligence to help them ensure that their business plans and forecasts are based on up-to-the-minute market conditions. Registration for ISS is now open.

Major developments are transforming the extended supply chain — artificial intelligence, intelligent vehicles, augmented and virtual reality, and limitless connectivity within the cloud. Through collaboration across an expanding ecosystem and advanced technical innovations, today’s electronics are incorporating features that defy convention, while constantly raising performance and lowering power consumption, with smaller footprints,  reduced device sizes, and increasingly packaging heterogeneously integrated components.

The ISS 2018 will feature insightful keynote addresses, panel discussions, and presentations spanning four key session topics:

  • Economic Trends: Get an insider’s view from Alpha Capital Partners, BCA Research, Gartner, IHS Markit and SEMI.
  • Market Perspective: Autonomous cars, virtual reality, and cloud connectivity — where’s the growth? Hear perspectives from Amazon Web Services, Mentor (a Siemens Business), Nissan Research Center Silicon Valley and Oculus.
  • Technology: Emerging applications and major advances in equipment, materials, design, and packaging. Get insights from executives at ASM, ASML, IC Knowledge, imec, Intel, and Versum Materials.
  • Societal Disruptions by Technology: Robotics, artificial intelligence, social media — hear from representatives of Accenture, IBM, McKinsey & Co., Tufts University and VLSI Research, among others.

The industry is going through a major growth cycle and the challenges remain to stay strong ahead of the cycles. SEMI Industry Strategy Symposium 2018 will give industry professionals the knowledge needed to succeed. To learn more and to register, visit http://www.semi.org/en/ISS

SEMI-MSIG’s MEMS & Sensors Executive Congress (MSEC) held November 1-2 in San Jose, CA, challenged industry executives to see beyond traditional dividing lines of human-machine interaction. MEMS and sensors were hailed as the enablers for pervasive, connected and contextually aware computing and seen as drivers for an explosion of new applications and possibilities. Securing autonomous vehicles from hackers and improving crop yields to feed the 10 billion people we will have on the planet by 2050 were two popular examples of new applications.

Keynote Speaker Intel’'s Lama Nachman discussed contextually aware systems.

Keynote Speaker Intel’’s Lama Nachman discussed contextually aware systems.

Lama Nachman, Intel fellow and director of the company’s Anticipatory Computing Lab, explored contextually aware systems during her keynote. Lachman said that technology needs to be more proactive, anticipating our needs, e.g., Google Now. One challenge lies in using sensors to measure things for which they were not designed, such as emotions and physiology. Lachman exhorted MSEC attendees to develop more configurable systems and sensors so that they can be used for other applications and possibly drive the next “killer app.”

Lars Reger, CTO, NXP Automotive Business Unit, described the essential and extensive use of MEMS and sensors in automotive connectivity, autonomy, electrification, and safe and secure mobility during his keynote. Reger noted that “motion sensors are the key to increasing security in keyless entry systems, reducing hacking.” He concluded that “entering a new era of automated driving requires functional safety and security,” telling MSEC attendees, “we need the best sensors to achieve a failure-free model in autonomous vehicles.”

Alissa Fitzgerald, founder and managing member, A.M. Fitzgerald & Associates, noted that the pipeline for emerging technologies generally begins with university labs turning out proof-of-concept devices. “The next $1B product is lurking in a lab somewhere,” said Fitzgerald. She also encouraged attendees to look for key trends in emerging technologies, citing “ultra-low power, a migration from capacitive MEMS to piezoelectric sensors and actuators, the stagnation of silicon sensors, and a movement toward paper and plastic sensors.” She drew her results from a review of more than 500 papers from academic conferences, filtered for commercial viability.

Henri Hekman, CEO and president of SoilCares BV, explained how his company is using MEMS near infrared (NIR) devices to scan soil samples. “To feed a surging global population, we cannot increase arable land so we must increase agricultural productivity. The place to start is in the soil.” Hekman said that SoilCares is conducting trials in Africa and North America as it launches in 20 countries in 2017.

SEMI-MSIG Executive Director Frank Shemansky expanded upon themes from MEMS & Sensors Executive Congress. “From device-makers to commercial application developers, there was a collective buzz around ubiquitous intelligent sensing,” said Shemansky. “Speakers explored the critical role of sensing in more natural and immersive user interfaces, including voice, in interpreting emotion, in anticipating needs, in managing medication, and in providing safer, more secure ways to build autonomous vehicles that will actually save human lives. As we look toward 2018 and beyond, the MEMS and sensors industry will continue to work closely with the consumers of our products, as we help them to further advance human-machine interaction in meaningful ways.”

Technology Showcase Winner and Hall of Fame Recognitions
A highly anticipated event at the Executive Congress, the Technology Showcase, was a forum where four finalists competed for attendees’ votes and the title of “winner.” The 2017 Technology Showcase winner, Menlo Digital-Micro-Switch Technology by Menlo Micro, demonstrates fundamental materials’ advancements that improve the size, speed, power handling and reliability of MEMS switches. Menlo Micro’s MEMS-based switching element is the width of a human hair, enabling RF switching 1,000 times faster and lasts 1,000 times longer than traditional mechanical switches.

SEMI-MSIG also inducted two new members into the SEMI-MSIG Hall of Fame: Raji Baskaran, pathfinding lead, Hardware and Software Co-optimization, Intel Corporation: Saffron Technology Group, and Kevin Crofton, executive vice president and COO, SPTS Technologies, an Orbotech Company.

 

NXP Semiconductors, Chongqing Economic and Information Technology Commission, and Chongqing Laingian New Area Administrative Committee have signed an agreement to establish the NXP China Applications Development Center for Auto Electronics. The center will help China’s domestic carmakers quickly gain the needed knowledge and expertise to build Electronic Control Units (ECUs) using NXP solutions.

Chongqing, a mega city with more than 30 million inhabitants located in the eastern part of China, plays a vital role in China’s modern automobile industry. As the country’s largest automobile production base with 14 vehicle manufacturers, Chongqing has identified automotive growth as a key strategic pillar and seeks to build its strength and competitive edge by expanding its semiconductor capabilities.

NXP has partnered with the Chongqing Economic and Information Technology Commission and the Chongqing Laingian New Area Administrative Committee to drive more automotive industry growth with the new applications development center. The facility, staffed with NXP automotive experts, provides a tight link to local automotive teams that will bring their products, reference designs and application support needs for consultation.

The agreement outlines a 15-year minimum window of commitment, the hiring of 100 team members and massive joint investment to create rich conditions for growth. It also aims to increase tier one electronic capability and build and support infrastructure with an initial focus on microcontrollers.

About Chongqing and the Application Center

  • Chongqing plays a vital role in China’s modern automobile industry. It has the country’s largest automobile production base with 14 vehicle manufacturers.
  • It is the first R&D organization in Chongqing to focus on automotive semiconductors and four major applications in the automotive industry (traditional vehicle body, new energy, autonomous driving and intelligent networks).
  • Chongqing is developing an automotive electronics industry worth hundreds of billions of RMB and expanding the influence of the city’s innovation in the Chinese and global automotive market.

“It is the right time for NXP to establish the China Auto Electronics Application Development Center in Chongqing,” said Wu Cunrong, mayor of Chongqing. “Combining automotive and electronic information, the automotive electronics industry has a vast space for development. Chongqing is currently targeting global market demand and focusing on automotive electronics research and development in order to promote industrial transformation and upgrading. We hope that the Application Center will enhance the capability of Chongqing in auto electronics R&D, improve the industrial ecosystem and enhance the vitality of industrial development. I hope that the project can start construction as soon as possible, so that we can benefit from its research and development capacity.”