Category Archives: MEMS

North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $1.34 billion in orders worldwide in December 2015 (three-month average basis) and a book-to-bill ratio of 0.99, according to the December EMDS Book-to-Bill Report published today by SEMI.  A book-to-bill of 0.99 means that $99 worth of orders were received for every $100 of product billed for the month.

SEMI reports that the three-month average of worldwide bookings in December 2015 was $1.34 billion. The bookings figure is 8.6 percent higher than the final November 2015 level of $1.24 billion, and is 2.8  percent lower than the December 2014 order level of $1.38 billion.

The three-month average of worldwide billings in December 2015 was $1.35 billion. The billings figure is 4.9 percent higher than the final November 2015 level of $1.29 billion, and is 3.2 percent lower than the December 2014 billings level of $1.40 billion.

“Both semiconductor equipment bookings and billings improved in December,” said Denny McGuirk, president and CEO of SEMI.  “Despite softness in the equipment market in the fourth quarter, both annual bookings and billings in 2015 of North American equipment suppliers remained above 2014 levels.”

The SEMI book-to-bill is a ratio of three-month moving averages of worldwide bookings and billings for North American-based semiconductor equipment manufacturers. Billings and bookings figures are in millions of U.S. dollars.

Billings
(3-mo. avg)

Bookings
(3-mo. avg)

Book-to-Bill
July 2015

$1,556.2

$1,587.3

1.02
August 2015

$1,575.9

$1,670.1

1.06
September 2015

$1,495.0

$1,554.9

1.04
October 2015

$1,358.6

$1,325.6

0.98
November 2015 (final)

$1,288.3

$1,236.6

0.96
December 2015 (prelim)

$1,351.8

$1,342.7

0.99

Source: SEMI (www.semi.org), January 2016

During SEMICON China 2016 on March 15-17 in Shanghai, key government decision makers, IC fund managers, and global industry analysts will share their insights on China’s IC manufacturing policy. SEMI expects record numbers of global industry executives will attend the world’s largest electronics manufacturing exposition to learn about the opportunities, challenges, and risks in China’s quickly changing market.

In 2016, semiconductor equipment spending is expected to be $5.3 billion, 9 percent above 2015 spending. In 2016, total spending on semiconductor materials in China will be $6.2 billion, with China representing the highest growth rate of all the regions tracked by SEMI.  SEMI is tracking ten 300mm facilities in China that are currently in production, with eight of these facilities either upgrading or ramping. Another three are either in construction or changing product type.  In addition, SEMI is tracking another six 300mm projects in various stages of planning.

The global industry is watching and taking cues from the bold industry investment policy and its implementation with its massive potential impact on the global semiconductor manufacturing supply chain.  The policies represent major opportunities for China and global semiconductor companies who understand and have the ambition to play in the new ecosystem.

Dr. C.C. Wei, general manager and co-CEO of TSMC will present the grand opening keynote at SEMICON China. Keynote speakers from SMIC, National IC Investment Fund, BOE, Applied Materials, LAM Research, TEL and STATS ChipPAC will also present. The entire semiconductor industry ecosystem – including device manufacturing, equipment, materials, assembly and test services, design, and more – will participate.

2016 is the first year that SEMICON China will present forums on the entire ecosystem “Build China’s IC Manufacturing Ecosystem.” In addition, forums will include: Mobile and IOT Technology Forum (co-organized with JEDEC), China Memory Strategic Forum, Sensor Hub Solution for Wearable and IOT, LED China, and Power Semiconductors.

“Tech Investment Forum-China 2016” will be held on March 16. The Tech Investment Forum has already become an important platform between the investment and semiconductor industry in China. This year, Mr. Lu Jun, the president of SINO IC Capital will give a keynote speech. There will also be a session where startup companies can pitch to venture investors for project funding.

China Semiconductor Technology International Conference (CSTIC) precede at SEMICON China. Organized by SEMI and IEEE-EDS, CSTIC 2016 covers all aspects of semiconductor technology and manufacturing (more than than 400  papers), including devices, design, lithography, integration, materials, processes, and manufacturing, as well as emerging semiconductor technologies and silicon material applications.

FPD China and the LED China Conference are co-located with SEMICON China, leveraging synergies in these emerging and adjacent markets. Featuring more than 900 exhibitors occupying more than 2,600 booths, SEMICON China is the largest exposition of its kind in China with over 50,000 people expected to attend.

SEMICON China 2016 is approved by the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China, co-organized by SEMI and the China Electronic Chamber of Commerce (CECC). Sponsors include: JCET, SMIC, TEL, Applied Materials, LAM Research, ASE, GCL, and ANJI.

For more information on SEMICON China 2016, visit www.semiconchina.org/

The wearable technology market continues to rapidly expand, driving more than $40 billion in revenue by 2020. There were 23 million wireless-charging-enabled wearable products shipped in 2015, and by 2020 40 percent of all wearable devices shipped will be enabled to charge wirelessly. Smartwatches are set to be the largest contributor to the wirelessly charged wearables market, accounting for almost 40 percent of all wearable-device wireless-charging receivers shipped in 2020, according to IHS Inc. (NYSE: IHS), a global source of critical information and insight,

“Smartwatches are a key driver for wireless charging adoption in the wearable market, as both the Apple Watch and the Samsung Gear S2 use inductive wireless charging technology as the only method of recharging the battery,” said Vicky Yussuff, wireless power analyst for IHS Technology. “By 2020, Apple and Samsung are expected to account for almost half of all smartwatch shipments; significantly increasing the number of wireless charging-enabled devices available to consumers.”

As with any other application, the key appeal of integrating wireless charging into wearable devices is the improvement in convenience it offers end users; however, in contrast to mobile phones and other consumer devices, wireless charging is typically the only way to charge smartwatches and other wearables. For example, the Samsung Galaxy S6 and Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge mobile phones are both enabled for wireless charging, but they also include a micro USB cable for traditional charging. In contrast, the Samsung Gear S2 smartwatch is also enabled to charge wirelessly, but has no wired connection; it is shipped with its own dedicated wireless charging transmitter dock, which is the only way to recharge the device battery.

Wearable devices come in various form factors, which presents challenges for wireless charging, because alignment becomes more difficult and more spatial freedom is required. “Magnetic resonance technology offers greater spatial freedom than an inductive solution and thus would best support the use case for wearable technology,” Yussuff said. “Delays in the commercial release of magnetic resonance solutions have created opportunity for inductive solutions to gain widespread adoption in the short term, before magnetic resonance market share increases towards 2020.”

Some progress in uncoupled technology using radio frequency was recently demonstrated by Energous Corporation at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). The company demonstrated power transmission using its first miniature WattUp transmitter, which accompanies a receiver chip that is specially designed to easily fit small wearable devices. Ossia also grabbed headlines at CES this year. The company demonstrated its “Cota” uncoupled wireless power platform and announced a recent investment by Molex, as Energous chases its first commercial launch of consumer-ready products.

“Overall, the early adoption of inductive technology by Apple, Samsung and some others is a step in the right direction, but there are still some challenges that need to be addressed before wireless charging technology can become mature in the market for wearable technology,” Yussuff said.  “At this stage, the biggest objective for many stakeholders is to avoid negative customer experiences that could create further barriers to adoption in the future.  Rising adoption and an increasing customer base will only help fuel more demand for this feature on devices — especially in an application where wireless charging can provide so many benefits.”

SEMICON Korea 2016 at COEX in Seoul opens tomorrow with more than 540 exhibiting companies and an expected 40,000 attendees. Today’s SEMICON Korea press conference expressed a positive lookout, for both 2016 and for longer-term growth drivers, like the Internet of Things (IoT).

Denny McGuirk, president and CEO of SEMI, reported at the Press Conference that even with slightly decreased annual spending, Korea is expected to remain the second largest equipment market for the second year in a row. In 2014, the materials market in Korea surpassed Japan to become the second largest materials market after Taiwan. This year, we expect Korea to represent about a $7.3 billion market, representing 16 percent of the world materials market.

Much of the semiconductor manufacturing capacity in Korea is targeted towards both advanced NAND Flash and DRAM. Korea represents the largest region of installed 300mm fab capacity in the world. Korean semiconductor manufacturers represent about 60 percent of the worldwide Memory output, and is the market leader for installed Memory fab capacity.  According to the SEMI World Fab Forecast, memory was a significant driver for semiconductor equipment spending in 2015 and is expected to remain the largest spending segment 2016, driven mainly by investments for 3D NAND. The primary driver for the Memory market continues to be mobility, keeping the pressure on scaling and added functionality.

Korea fab equipment spending (front-end) in 2016 is forecast to be US$ 8.1 billion. The combined equipment and materials spending outlook for Korea in 2016 will likely top $15.3 billion. The semiconductor, semiconductor equipment, and materials supply chain in Korea is increasingly deep and broad and filling out as a complete ecosystem.

In addition, the LED market will experience strong double-digit growth in lighting applications over the next several years. Overall LED fab capacity continues to expand, and many manufacturers are transitioning to manufacturing with 4-inch diameter sapphire wafers. Korean manufacturers are prominently positioned in the global LED rankings.

Tomorrow’s keynotes at SEMICON Korea will be presented by AUDI, Synopsys, and Texas Instruments. Highlights include: Semiconductor Technology Symposium which addresses the global trends and new technologies of the semiconductor manufacturing process; Market Seminar; Supplier Search Program; OEM Supplier Search Meeting; Presidents Reception; and International Standards meetings.

SEMICON Korea 2016 is a semiconductor technology event for market trends and breaking technology developments, featuring deep technical forums, business programs and standards activities.

Sponsors of SEMICON Korea 2016 include: Special sponsors Samsung, SK Hynix, and Dongbu HiTek; Platinum sponsors Lam Research, Applied Materials, Wonik, Exicon, ASE Group, Advantest, EO Technics, and TEL; and Gold sponsors Hitachi High-Tech and PSK.

The event is co-located with LED Korea 2016.  For more information on the events, visit SEMICON Korea: www.semiconkorea.org/en/  and LED Korea: www.led-korea.org/en/.

The demand for sensor hubs, dedicated processing elements used for low-power sensor processing tasks, is booming. In fact due to “always on” sensor processing trends and the limitations of battery technology, the overall market for all types of sensor hubs will exceed 1.0 billion units in 2015, rising to nearly 2.0 billion in 2018, according to IHS Inc. (NYSE: IHS), a global source of critical information and insight. Samsung, Apple and Motorola have already been using sensor hubs in their smartphones for a number of years, and Apple, Motorola and Microsoft explicitly advertise their use of sensor hubs or sensor cores in certain smartphones.

“The sensor hub market is incredibly dynamic, changing rapidly over the last two years, due in large part to Apple’s iPhones,” said Marwan Boustany, senior analyst for IHS Technology. “When Apple shifted from a discrete microcontroller to an integrated application-processor-based solution for the iPhone 6S line in 2015, it signaled to other manufacturers that this approach had reached maturity.”

Sensor_Hub_Forecast

According to the IHS MEMS & Sensors for Consumer and Mobile Intelligence Service, sensor hubs for high-end smartphones are changing rapidly from discrete microcontrollers (MCUs) used in the iPhone 6, Samsung Galaxy S6, and other high-end smartphones, to sensor hubs that are integrated into the application processor (AP), as in the iPhone 6S and Huawei Mate S.

“AP-sensor hubs will increasingly dominate the midrange to high-end smartphone segments in the next few years,” Boustany said. “Samsung is also testing alternative approaches to sensor hubs using a Global-Navigation-Satellite-System-integrated sensor hub from Broadcom in its Note 4 and S6 smartphones. We also expect to see sensor hubs that are integrated in the sensor package to make inroads in smartphones, especially in the midrange and low-end segments.”

As the use of AP sensor hubs rises, market share for MCU and other discrete sensor hubs will decline; however, because wearable devices require long battery life in a small package, they will continue to rely on discrete MCUs and field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). With increasing numbers of smart watches entering the market, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 400 and other AP sensor hubs have also begun to penetrate the wearable-device market.

“Apple has chosen to use a discrete MCU in the first-generation Apple Watch, but the company may follow its handset strategy and integrate the sensor hub into its custom application processor in later generations,” Boustany said. “Smartwatches will likely follow trends seen in the smartphone segment, but with a higher penetration of MCUs than smartphones, due to tighter power-saving requirements.”

Fingerprint sensors, used primarily for mobile device login and payment security systems, have become an expected feature in high-end smartphones and, to a lesser extent, in tablets and notebook computers. Led by Apple’s iPhone juggernaut, unit shipments of fingerprint sensors were expected to have grown from 316 million in 2014 to 499 million in 2015 and will continue to increase each year to peak at 1.6 billion in 2020, according to IHS Inc. (NYSE: IHS), a global source of critical information and insight.

“The market for fingerprint sensors has heated up quickly, with explosive growth expected to continue in 2016 and beyond,” said Jamie Fox, principal analyst for IHS Technology. “The highest revenue growth is likely to be in the short term, as the market becomes more competitive, price erosion continues and the high-end smartphone market matures and becomes more saturated.”

Apple, which acquired fingerprint-sensor maker Authentec in 2012, continued to lead the fingerprint sensor market in 2015, due mainly to the popularity of its iPhone 6S and iPad product lines. Fingerprint Cards (FPC), with a wide range of customers in China and elsewhere, came from behind to tie second-ranked Samsung-supplier Synaptics in unit shipments in 2015; however, FPC actually led Synaptics in 2015 revenues at $316 million.

“As more smartphone brands have adopted fingerprint sensors, the market has expanded, and FPC reacted very quickly to the industry’s trend, shifting away from swipe sensors,” Fox said. “FPC’s strong customer-base in China also helped catapult the company into the top three fingerprint sensor makers in 2015.”

The current market for fingerprint sensors relies on capacitive sensors; however, led by Qualcomm, ultrasonic sensors that are even more resistant to user impersonation will soon enter the market. “InvenSense is another company to watch because it is expected to introduce its own line of ultrasonic fingerprint sensors in 2017,” Fox said.

Technavio’s latest report on the global microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) microphone market provides an analysis on the most important trends expected to impact the market outlook through 2020. Technavio defines an emerging trend as a factor that has the potential to significantly impact the market and contribute to its growth or decline.

According to the report, the global MEMS microphone market is expected to reach close to USD 2 billion by 2020, posting a CAGR of over 12%. MEMS microphones are being integrated in most audio applications and are growing in popularity due to their digital output, monolithic structure, and high tolerance to mechanical vibration. Apple and Samsung are the major revenue contributors to the market, as they purchase majority of the MEMS microphones for integration into their numerous consumer electronic products.

Asif Gani, a lead industry analyst from Technavio’s semiconductor equipment research team says, “MEMS microphones are important components in smartphones and tablets as they are used to improve sound clarity and eliminate ambient sounds. Thus, the rapid adoption of mobile devices will create a high demand for MEMS microphones. This technology is also gaining traction in the healthcare sector as it is being integrated into hearing aids and blood pressure monitoring systems.”

The top two emerging trends driving the global MEMS microphone market according to Technavio’s research analysts are:

Miniaturization

MEMS microphones are 10 times smaller than electret condenser microphones (ECMs), and further reductions in size are expected during the forecast period. These devices also have more functionalities than traditional ECMs.

“The small size makes the MEMS microphones preferable as it occupies less space when embedded in electronic devices. The small size coupled with low power consumption adds to the sturdiness of these devices, making them efficient in providing high-quality output,” adds Asif.

Advanced MEMS packaging

The requirement to integrate 9-axis sensors in a single package has increased the importance of MEMS packaging. Rapid advances in technology and increase in unit shipments of MEMS sensors has also made it important for vendors to achieve standardization in packaging. The other types of advanced MEMS packaging include low-temperature wafer bonding, doped polysilicon, and silicon interposers for packaging and packing MEMS at wafer dicing level.

Competitive vendor landscape

With the entry of numerous new vendors in the global MEMS microphone market, competition in the market has increased, which in turn has resulted in the decline of average selling prices of MEMS microphones. This is compelling vendors to offer their products at low prices, thus affecting their revenue.

Knowles dominates the market with almost 50% of the overall market share. Companies such as AAC and GoerTek are dependent on demand from Apple, who is their largest client, and accounts for more than 40% of the MEMS microphone revenue for both companies. Both AAC and GoerTek MEMS source their die technology from Infineon.

Worldwide IT spending is forecast to total $3.54 trillion dollars in 2016, just a 0.6 percent increase over 2015 spending of $3.52 trillion dollars, according to Gartner, Inc. 2015 saw the largest U.S. dollar drop in IT spending since Gartner began tracking IT spending. $216 billion dollars less was spent on IT in 2015 than in 2014 and 2014 spending levels won’t be surpassed until 2019.

“The rising U.S. dollar is the villain behind 2015 results,” said John-David Lovelock, research vice president at Gartner. “U.S. multinationals’ revenue faced currency headwinds in 2015. However, in 2016 those headwinds go away and they can expect an additional 5 percent growth.”

The Gartner Worldwide IT Spending Forecast is the leading indicator of major technology trends across the hardware, software, IT services and telecom markets. For more than a decade, global IT and business executives have been using these highly anticipated quarterly reports to recognize market opportunities and challenges, and base their critical business decisions on proven methodologies rather than guesswork.

Table 1. Worldwide IT Spending Forecast (Billions of U.S. Dollars)

 

2015 Spending

2015 Growth (%)

2016 Spending

2016 Growth (%)
Data Center Systems

170

1.8

175

3.0
Software

310

-1.4

326

5.3
Devices

653

-5.8

641

-1.9
IT Services

912

-4.5

940

3.1
Communications Services

1,472

-8.3

1,454

-1.2
Overall IT

3,517

-5.8

3,536

0.6

Source: Gartner (January 2016)

The devices market (PCs, ultramobiles, mobile phones, tablets and printers) is forecast to decline 1.9 percent in 2016. The combination of economic conditions preventing countries such as Russia, Japan and Brazil from returning to stronger growth, together with a shift in phone spending in emerging markets to lower-cost phones, is overlaid with weak tablet adoption in regions where there was an expectation of growth.

Ultramobile premium devices are expected to drive the PC market forward with the move to Windows 10 and Intel Skylake-based PCs. Gartner has slightly reduced the speed of adoption over the forecast period, as buying in Eurasia, Japan, and the Middle East and North Africa moves away from purchasing these relatively more expensive devices in the short term, but expect them to revert back to buying in 2017 as the economic environment stabilizes.

Data center systems’ spending is projected to reach $75 billion in 2016, a 3.0 percent increase from 2015. The server market is the segment that has seen the largest change since the previous quarter’s forecast. The server market has seen stronger-than-expected demand from the hyperscale sector, which has lasted longer than expected. Typically, this segment has spikey demand which lasts for a couple of quarters before moderating. Demand in this segment is expected to continue to be strong through 2016.

The worsening economic environment in emerging markets has had little effect on the global enterprise software spending forecast for 2016, with IT spending on pace to total $326 billion, a 5.3 percent increase from 2015. However, key countries in emerging markets, particularly Brazil and Russia, face escalating political and economic challenges. Organizations in those regions must balance cost cutting with growth opportunities during times of economic concern.

Spending in the IT services market is expected to return to growth in 2016, following a decline of 4.5 percent in 2015. IT services spending is projected to reach 940 billion in 2016, up 3.1 percent from 2015. This is due to accelerating momentum in cloud infrastructure adoption and buyer acceptance of the cloud model.

Telecom services spending is projected to decline 1.2 percent in 2016, with spending reaching $1,454 trillion. The segment will be impacted by the abolition of roaming charges in the European Union and parts of North America. While this will increase mobile voice and data traffic, it will not be enough to counter the corresponding loss of revenue from lost roaming charges and premiums.

More-detailed analysis on the outlook for the IT industry will be presented in the webinar “IT Spending Forecast, 4Q15 Update: What Will Make Headlines in 2016.”

The Critical Materials Council (CMC) and TECHCET have issued a call for papers to be presented at the “Critical Materials for Device Driven Scaling” Seminar to be held May 5-6, 2016 in Hillsboro, Oregon, USA. Semiconductor manufacturing industry experts from IDMs, OEMS, and materials suppliers will gather to discuss actionable information on critical materials used in HVM fabs, while also looking at issues associated with new materials needed for future devices. Tim G. Hendry, Vice President, Technology & Manufacturing and Group Director of Fab Materials, Intel Corp., will provide the keynote address.

Following the annual members-only CMC meeting to be held May 3-4, the 2016 CMC Seminar is open to the public. Business drives our world, but technology enables the profitable business of manufacturing new devices in IC fabs, and new devices need new materials. In addition to panel discussions, presentation sessions will focus on the following topics:

  1. Semiconductor Market Briefing: application-specific demands for devices and materials
    II. Tracking the Supply Chain down to Earth, Wind, and Fire: manufacturing and supply chain
    III. Emerging Materials Evolutions: alternate logic channels and new memory switches, and
    IV. Materials Revolutions: beyond silicon CMOS.

Attendees will include industry experts handling supply-chains, business-development, R&D, and product management, as well as academics and analysts. The early-bird registration fee (before March 15th) for the CMC Seminar is $349; the standard registration fee is $425 (after March 15th). CMC member companies will be attending this meeting, as it is an important part of their membership. Additional information can be found online at http://cmcfabs.org/seminars.

To submit a paper for consideration, please send a 1-page abstract focusing on critical materials supply dynamics by February 29, 2016 to [email protected].

The Critical Materials Council for Semiconductor Device Fabricators was originally started by SEMATECH in the early 1990’s, and is now managed by TECHCET. It actively works to identify issues surrounding the supply, availability, accessibility, or lack thereof, of semiconductor process materials, current and emerging, also known as “Critical Materials”. This is done by collectively working to solve common materials related issues in a non-competitive environment. The CMC supports the continuous improvement of the Materials Supply Chain Community for Semiconductor Fabricators. For more information see www.CMCFabs.org .

Semiconductor industry spending on research and development grew by just 0.5% in 2015, which was the smallest increase since the 2009 downturn year and significantly below the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.0% in R&D expenditures during the last 10 years, according to IC Insights’ new 2016 edition of The McClean Report.  The half-percent increase nudged worldwide R&D spending by semiconductor companies to a new record-high level of $56.4 billion in 2015 from the previous peak of $54.1 billion set in 2014, says IC Insights’ flagship market analysis and forecast report on the IC industry.

Growing concerns about the weak global economy, slumping sales in the second half of the year, and unprecedented industry consolidation through a huge wave of merger and acquisition agreements weighed on semiconductor R&D spending in 2015.  The new 2016 McClean Report shows Intel continuing to lead all semiconductor companies in R&D spending in 2015, accounting for 22% of the industry’s total research and development expenditures.  The top 10 R&D ranking is shown in Figure 1.

Following Intel in the 2015 R&D ranking are Qualcomm, Samsung, Broadcom, and the world’s largest wafer foundry, TSMC.  The top five spenders were unchanged from 2014, but below that point, the rankings of most companies were shuffled.  Micron Technology moved up to sixth in 2015, swapping positions with Toshiba, which fell to seventh in the new ranking.  MediaTek went from ninth in 2014 to eighth place, while SK Hynix climbed from 12th to ninth in 2015.  ST slid from eighth in 2014 to 10th in 2015, and Nvidia fell out of the top 10 to 11th place in 2015.

The top 10 in the R&D ranking collectively increased spending on research and development in 2015 by about 2% compared to the half-percent increase for total semiconductor R&D expenditures in the year.  Combined R&D spending by the top 10 exceeded total expenditures by the rest of the semiconductor companies (about $30.8 billion versus $25.6 billion) in 2015—something that has continued to hold true since 2005 and probably well before that, according to The 2016 McClean Report, which becomes available in January 2016.

Figure 1

Figure 1

Additional details on semiconductor R&D spending and other technology trends within the IC industry are provided within the IC industry are provided in The McClean Report—A Complete Analysis and Forecast of the Integrated Circuit Industry (released in January 2016).