Category Archives: MEMS

A report that resulted from a workshop funded by Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) and National Science Foundation (NSF) outlines key factors limiting progress in computing—particularly related to energy consumption—and novel device and architecture research that can overcome these barriers. A summary of the report’s findings can be found at the end of this article; the full report can be accessed here.

The findings and recommendations in the report are in alignment with the nanotechnology-inspired Grand Challenge for Future Computing announced on October 20 by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. The Grand Challenge calls for new approaches to computing that will operate with the efficiency of the human brain. It also aligns with the National Strategic Computing Initiative (NSCI) announced by an Executive Order signed by the President on July 29.

Energy efficiency is vital to improving performance at all levels. This includes from devices and transistors to large IT systems, as well from small sensors at the edge of the Internet of Things (IoT) to large data centers in cloud and supercomputing systems.

“Fundamental research on hardware performance, complex system architectures, and new memory/storage technologies can help to discover new ways to achieve energy-efficient computing,” said Jim Kurose, the Assistant Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE). “Partnerships with industry, including SRC and its member companies, are an important way to speed the adoption of these research findings.”

Performance improvements today are limited by energy inefficiencies that result in overheating and thermal management issues. The electronic circuits in computer chips still operate far from any fundamental limits to energy efficiency, and much of the energy used by today’s computers is expended moving data between memory and the central processor.

At the same time as increases in performance slow, the amount of data being produced is exploding. By 2020, an estimated 44 zettabytes of data (1 zettabyte equals 1 trillion gigabytes) will be created on an annual basis.

“New devices, and new architectures based on those devices, could take computing far beyond the limits of today’s technology. The benefits to society would be enormous,” said Tom Theis, Nanoelectronics Research Initiative (NRI) Executive Director at SRC, the world’s leading university-research consortium for semiconductor technologies.

Inspired by the neural architecture of a macaque brain, this neon swirl is the wiring diagram for a new kind of computer that, by some definitions, may soon be able to think. (Credit: Emmett McQuinn, IBM Research - Almaden)

Inspired by the neural architecture of a macaque brain, this neon swirl is the wiring diagram for a new kind of computer that, by some definitions, may soon be able to think. (Credit: Emmett McQuinn, IBM Research – Almaden)

In order to realize these benefits, a new paradigm for computing is necessary. A workshop held April 14-15, 2015 in Arlington, Va., and funded by SRC and NSF convened experts from industry, academia and government to identify key factors limiting progress and promising new concepts that should be explored. The report being announced today resulted from the workshop discussions and provides a guide to future basic research investments in energy-efficient computing.

The report builds upon an earlier report funded by the Semiconductor Industry Association, SRC and NSF on Rebooting the IT Revolution.

To achieve the Nanotechnology Grand Challenge and the goals of the NSCI, multi-disciplinary fundamental research on materials, devices and architecture is needed. NSF and SRC, both individually and together, have a long history of supporting long-term research in these areas to address such fundamental, high-impact science and engineering challenges.

Report Findings

Broad Conclusions

Research teams should address interdisciplinary research issues essential to the demonstration of new device concepts and associated architectures. Any new device is likely to have characteristics very different from established devices. The interplay between device characteristics and optimum circuit architectures therefore means that circuit and higher level architectures must be co-optimized with any new device. Devices combining digital and analog functions or the functions of logic and memory may lend themselves particularly well to unconventional information processing architectures. For maximum impact, research should focus on devices and architectures which can enable a broad range of useful functions, rather than being dedicated to one function or a few particular functions.

Prospects for New Devices

Many promising research paths remain relatively unexplored. For example, the gating of phase transitions is a potential route to “steep slope” devices that operate at very low voltage. Relevant phase transitions might include metal-insulator transitions, formation of excitonic or other electronic condensates, and various transitions involving structural degrees of freedom. Other promising mechanisms for low-power switching may involve transduction. Magnetoelectric devices, in which an external voltage state is transduced to an internal magnetic state, exemplify the concept. However, transduction need not be limited to magnetoelectric systems.

In addition to energy efficiency, switching speed is an important criterion in choice of materials and device concepts. For example, most nanomagnetic devices switch by magnetic precession, a process which is rather slow in the ferromagnetic systems explored to date. Magnetic precession switching in antiferromagnetic or ferrimagnetic materials could be one or more orders of magnitude faster. Other novel physical systems could be still faster. For example, electronic collective states could, in principle, be switched on sub-picosecond time scales.

More generally, devices based on computational state variables beyond magnetism and charge (or voltage) could open many new possibilities.

Another relatively unexplored path to improved energy efficiency is the implementation of adiabatically switched devices in energy-conserving circuits. In such circuits, the phase of an oscillation or propagating wave may represent digital state; devices and interconnections must together constitute circuits that are non-dissipative. Nanophotonic, plasmonic, spin wave or other lightly damped oscillatory systems might be well-suited for such an approach. Researchers should strive to address the necessary components of a practical engineering solution, including mechanisms for correction of unavoidable phase and amplitude errors.

Networks of coupled non-linear oscillators have been explored for non-Boolean computation in applications such as pattern recognition. Potential technological approaches include nanoelectromechanical, nanophotonic, and nanomagnetic oscillators. Researchers should strive for generality of function and should address the necessary components of a practical engineering solution, including devices, circuits, and architectures that allow reliable operation in the presence of device variability and environmental fluctuations.

Prospects for New Architectures

While appropriate circuits and higher level architectures should be explored and co-developed along with any new device concept, certain novel device concepts may demand greater emphasis on higher-level architecture. For example, hysteretic devices, combining the functions of non-volatile logic and memory, might enhance the performance of established architectures (power gating in microprocessors, reconfiguration of logic in field programmable gate arrays), but perhaps more important, they might play an enabling role in novel architectures (compute in memory, weighting of connections in neuromorphic systems, and more). As a second example, there has been great progress in recent years in the miniaturization and energy efficiency of linear and non-linear photonic devices and compact light emitters. It is possible that these advances will have their greatest impact, not in the ongoing replacement of metal wires by optical connections, but rather in enabling new architectures for computing. Computation “in the network” is one possible direction. In general, device characteristics and architecture appear to be highly entwined in oscillatory or energy-conserving systems. Key device characteristics may be inseparable from the coupling (connections) between devices. For non-Boolean computation, optimum architectures and the range of useful algorithms will depend on these characteristics.

In addition to the examples above, many other areas of architectural research might leverage emerging device concepts to obtain order of magnitude improvements in the energy efficiency of computing. Research topics might include architectures for heterogeneous systems, architectures that minimize data movement, neuromorphic architectures, and new approaches to Stochastic Computing, Approximate Computing, Cognitive Computing and more.

SEMI, the global industry association advancing the interests of the worldwide electronics supply chain, today published a new report, “Global 200mm Fab Outlook to 2018.” According to the report, worldwide 200mm semiconductor wafer fab capacity is forecast at 5.2 million wafer starts per month (wspm) in 2015 and expanding to 5.4 million wspm in 2018. In addition to the release of the report, SEMI is offering two complimentary webinars (November 2 at 5:00pm Pacific; November 3 at 8:00am Pacific) with highlights of the newly released 200mm report.

Based on the rapidly increasing number of internet-enabled mobile devices and the emergence of the IoT (Internet of Things), demand for sensors, MEMS, analog, power and related semiconductor devices is growing. While these devices are critical to enable the new era of computing, the applications do not require leading-edge manufacturing capability, and this demand is “breathing new life” into 200mm fabs.

Source: Global 200mm Fab Outlook, SEMI; October 2015

Source: Global 200mm Fab Outlook, SEMI; October 2015

Highlights of the results of the SEMI 200mm report include:

  • 36 facilities are expected to add 300,000 to 400,000 200mm wspm from 2015 through 2018.
  • Capacity investment is expected to total over US $3 billion during the 2015 to 2018 period.
  • Eight new facilities/lines are expected to begin operation from 2015 through 2018.
  • China and Southeast Asia are forecast to lead the expansion in 200mm fab capacity.

In this report, SEMI covers nearly 200 facilities using 200mm wafers, including facilities that are planned, under construction, installing new equipment, active, closing or closed, and fabs changing wafer size to and from 200mm. Analysis covers the years 1995 to 2018, with focus on developments in the recent past through 2018. The 80-page SEMI report offers graphs and tables in PDF slide format and details in Microsoft Excel. In addition, the report includes trend analysis for fab capacity and count; capacity additions for new and existing fabs; capacity loss for fabs closing or converting to other wafer sizes; 200mm equipment spending; and summary and highlights for each region.

Slideshow: 2015 IEDM Preview


October 20, 2015
The 2015 IEDM Conference will be held in Washington DC.

The 2015 IEDM will be held in Washington DC.

This year marks the 61st annual IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM). It is arguably the world’s pre-eminent forum for reporting technological breakthroughs in semiconductor and electronic device technology, design, manufacturing, physics, and modeling. The conference focuses not only on devices in silicon, compound and organic semiconductors, but also in emerging material systems.

As usual, Solid State Technology will be reporting insights from bloggers and industry partners during the conference. This slideshow provides an advance look at some of the most newsworthy topics and papers that will be presented at this year’s meeting, which will be held at the Washington, D.C. Hilton from December 7-9, 2015.

Click here to start the slideshow

Check back here for more articles and information about IEDM 2015:

Helpful conference links:

By Tom Abate, Stanford Engineering

Stanford chemical engineering Professor Zhenan Bao and her team have created a skin-like material that can tell the difference between a soft touch and a firm handshake. The device on the "golden fingertip" is the skin-like sensor developed by Stanford engineers.

Stanford chemical engineering Professor Zhenan Bao and her team have created a skin-like material that can tell the difference between a soft touch and a firm handshake. The device on the “golden fingertip” is the skin-like sensor developed by Stanford engineers. (Photo: Bao Lab, Stanford)

Stanford engineers have created a plastic “skin” that can detect how hard it is being pressed and generate an electric signal to deliver this sensory input directly to a living brain cell.

Zhenan Bao, a professor of chemical engineering at Stanford, has spent a decade trying to develop a material that mimics skin’s ability to flex and heal, while also serving as the sensor net that sends touch, temperature and pain signals to the brain. Ultimately she wants to create a flexible electronic fabric embedded with sensors that could cover a prosthetic limb and replicate some of skin’s sensory functions.

Bao’s work, reported today in Science, takes another step toward her goal by replicating one aspect of touch, the sensory mechanism that enables us to distinguish the pressure difference between a limp handshake and a firm grip.

“This is the first time a flexible, skin-like material has been able to detect pressure and also transmit a signal to a component of the nervous system,” said Bao, who led the 17-person research team responsible for the achievement.

Benjamin Tee, a recent doctoral graduate in electrical engineering; Alex Chortos, a doctoral candidate in materials science and engineering; and Andre Berndt, a postdoctoral scholar in bioengineering, were the lead authors on the Science paper.

Digitizing Touch

Stanford sensor closeup

A closeup of the sensor. (Photo: Bao Lab, Stanford)

The heart of the technique is a two-ply plastic construct: the top layer creates a sensing mechanism and the bottom layer acts as the circuit to transport electrical signals and translate them into biochemical stimuli compatible with nerve cells. The top layer in the new work featured a sensor that can detect pressure over the same range as human skin, from a light finger tap to a firm handshake.

Five years ago, Bao’s team members first described how to use plastics and rubbers as pressure sensors by measuring the natural springiness of their molecular structures. They then increased this natural pressure sensitivity by indenting a waffle pattern into the thin plastic, which further compresses the plastic’s molecular springs.

To exploit this pressure-sensing capability electronically, the team scattered billions of carbon nanotubes through the waffled plastic. Putting pressure on the plastic squeezes the nanotubes closer together and enables them to conduct electricity.

This allowed the plastic sensor to mimic human skin, which transmits pressure information to the brain as short pulses of electricity, similar to Morse code. Increasing pressure on the waffled nanotubes squeezes them even closer together, allowing more electricity to flow through the sensor, and those varied impulses are sent as short pulses to the sensing mechanism. Remove pressure, and the flow of pulses relaxes, indicating light touch. Remove all pressure and the pulses cease entirely.

The team then hooked this pressure-sensing mechanism to the second ply of their artificial skin, a flexible electronic circuit that could carry pulses of electricity to nerve cells.

Importing the Signal

Bao’s team has been developing flexible electronics that can bend without breaking. For this project, team members worked with researchers from PARC, a Xerox company, which has a technology that uses an inkjet printer to deposit flexible circuits onto plastic. Covering a large surface is important to making artificial skin practical, and the PARC collaboration offered that prospect.

Finally the team had to prove that the electronic signal could be recognized by a biological neuron. It did this by adapting a technique developed by Karl Deisseroth, a fellow professor of bioengineering at Stanford who pioneered a field that combines genetics and optics, called optogenetics. Researchers bioengineer cells to make them sensitive to specific frequencies of light, then use light pulses to switch cells, or the processes being carried on inside them, on and off.

For this experiment the team members engineered a line of neurons to simulate a portion of the human nervous system. They translated the electronic pressure signals from the artificial skin into light pulses, which activated the neurons, proving that the artificial skin could generate a sensory output compatible with nerve cells.

Optogenetics was only used as an experimental proof of concept, Bao said, and other methods of stimulating nerves are likely to be used in real prosthetic devices. Bao’s team has already worked with Bianxiao Cui, an associate professor of chemistry at Stanford, to show that direct stimulation of neurons with electrical pulses is possible.

Bao’s team envisions developing different sensors to replicate, for instance, the ability to distinguish corduroy versus silk, or a cold glass of water from a hot cup of coffee. This will take time. There are six types of biological sensing mechanisms in the human hand, and the experiment described in Science reports success in just one of them.

But the current two-ply approach means the team can add sensations as it develops new mechanisms. And the inkjet printing fabrication process suggests how a network of sensors could be deposited over a flexible layer and folded over a prosthetic hand.

“We have a lot of work to take this from experimental to practical applications,” Bao said. “But after spending many years in this work, I now see a clear path where we can take our artificial skin.”

SITRI, the innovation center for accelerating the development and commercialization of “More than Moore” (MtM) solutions to power the Internet of Things (IoT), today announced the opening of SITRI Innovations in Belmont, California. This new kind of hardware accelerator was launched into the Bay Area’s rich technology ecosystem during a recent event attended by many of Silicon Valley’s leading investors, technologists, entrepreneurs, and incubators.

SITRI Innovations addresses a gap that exists in the current “More than Moore” and IoT innovation ecosystem and provides a path for new entrepreneurs in the hardware space to bring their ideas to fruition. “More than Moore” is the next wave of semiconductor innovations such as MEMS, Sensors, Optoelectronics, RF, Bio, and micro-Energy that do not depend on feature-size driven CMOS technology (the “Moore’s Law”). The first of its kind for “More than Moore” and IoT hardware startups, SITRI provides entrepreneurs a full spectrum of services and resources designed to help them succeed in their development and commercialization phases.

“The Internet of Things represents a vast opportunity and ‘More than Moore’ technologies are at the heart of it,” said Charles Yang, CEO of SITRI Group. “However, the MtM silicon innovations needed requires a fusion of multi-disciplinary technologies which raises a new set of challenges in engineering and manufacturing, leaving the market open to only the largest and most sophisticated companies. SITRI Innovations addresses this by speeding up MtM innovation and commercialization, opening the IoT market to a much broader range of players and their ideas.”

By tapping into the global ecosystem for the MtM industry, SITRI Innovations can provide startups with the resources of large corporations to access the R&D platform and critical supply chain partners needed to achieve high efficiency and fast time to market. SITRI’s unique 360-degree platform offers support to the startups in all areas, from proof of concept to engineering to fab to market studies and industry supply chain.

“As a leading factor in the transition to the ‘More than Moore’ era, MEMS represent a huge future opportunity in the consumer, mobile, wearables, healthcare, biotech, and IoT markets,” said Dr. Kurt Peterson of the Silicon Valley Band of Angels, a veteran in the semiconductor and MEMS industry. “By serving as an innovation catalyst to the ‘More than Moore’ community, SITRI will be a key element in the future growth of the MEMS industry as well as the overall semiconductor market.”

“China is playing a vital part in the development of IoT and this is evident by the significant investment in creating a Shanghai technology cluster where SITRI is located,” said Jérémie Bouchaud, Senior Director, MEMS & Sensors at IHS. “SITRI plays a key role in fostering MEMS and sensor innovation in China to enable new IoT applications. By opening this new office, SITRI replicates the accelerator model of Shanghai and bridges innovation between China and Silicon Valley.”

A group of venture funds will be co-located with SITRI Innovations in its Belmont, California, offices including SummitView Capital, SVC Angel, Tsing Capital, Nautilus Ventures, TEEC Angel Fund, Oriza Ventures, Cenova Ventures, Magic Stone Alternative Investments, Cybernaut Investment, and Jiading Ventures.

The global automotive MEMS sensor market was valued at $2,600.5 million in 2014, and it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.0%, during the period 2015-2020, according to P&S Market Research. The government regulation towards passenger safety and environment has become more stringent in recent years, and therefore automotive manufacturers are forced to implement latest and advanced sensor based automotive safety features, such as Electronic stability control (ESC), Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems (TPMS), Advanced Driver Assistance Systems, (ADAS), Anti-lock braking system (ABS), and others. The development in the field of vehicle to infrastructure (V2I) and vehicle to vehicle communication (V2C) is providing new market opportunity for the low cost wireless MEMS sensors used in the communication and information technology. The limited foundry outsourcing of the MEMS sensor is one major road block for the low cost design, precise size, and mass production of the automotive MEMS sensor.

The automobile companies are investing heavily for the development of MEMS based energy harvester in automobiles, especially through the tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMS). Most of the TPMS systems available in the market are powered by battery with short life and hence, the energy harvesting can increase the product life cycle of the TPMS. The advancement in the IC fabrication technology has facilitated cost effective fabrication process of automotive MEMS. The modern IC fabrication technology provides monolithic integration of micro electro-mechanical structure, with signal processing, controlling and driving electronics.

The European Union mandates the electronic stability control (ESC) systems. According to the regulation, all new vehicles from November 2014 and onwards have to be operational with ESC active safety. Since 2009, the tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS) was mandated in Europe, while in U.S. it was mandated from 2000. The effective legislation in these countries insures the TPMS in all type of vehicles. On an average, 150 sensors are integrated within the luxury passenger cars in developed countries. The latest technology, such as connected car and data centric traffic management approach, and growing demand of hybrid car in the developed market is expected to drive the automotive MEMS sensor market during next few years.

Based on application, the automotive infotainment market is expected to witness the fastest growth (CAGR of 9.2%), during the forecast period. Among various type of automotive MEMS sensor, the pressure sensor led the automotive MEMS sensor market in 2014, with the market size of $ 763.1 million. The MEMS design in terms of different type of MEMS integration and application in automotive is changing continuously with the advent of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS); connected car such as telematics, infotainment, and mobile based apps; safe car such as autonomous vehicles and V2X; and secure car such as automotive cyber security.

The information and data in the publication “Global Automotive MEMS Sensor Market Size, Share, Development, Growth and Demand Forecast to 2020” represent the research and analysis of data from various primary and secondary sources. A top-down approach has been used to calculate the global automotive MEMS market by type and application. P&S Market Research analysts and consultants interact with leading companies of the concerned domain, to substantiate every value of data presented in this report. The company bases its primary research on discussions with prominent professionals and analysts in the industry, which is followed by informed and detailed online and offline research.

The barrier for the entry in automotive MEMS sensor market for consumer-market oriented MEMS manufacturers is expected to be high, even during the forecast period. The top ten companies of MEMS automotive sensor accounted for about 80% of total market share in 2014. Major players of automotive MEMS market, such as Robert Bosch GmbH, have high proprietary learning curve, and absolute cost advantage. The new market opportunities are expected mainly from non-safety based automotive MEMS sensors used in GPS navigation, communication, and infrared sensors.

The key companies operating in the global automotive MEMS sensor market include ST Microelectronics N.V., Robert Bosch GmbH, Analog Devices Inc., Sensata Technologies Inc., Panasonic Corporation, Infineon Technologies AG, and Freescale Semiconductors Ltd.

When University of Oregon associate professor Ramesh Jasti began making tiny organic circular structures using carbon atoms, the idea was to improve carbon nanotubes being developed for use in electronics or optical devices. He quickly realized, however, that his technique might also roll solo.

In a new paper, Jasti and five University of Oregon colleagues show that his nanohoops — known chemically as cycloparaphenylenes — can be made using a variety of atoms, not just those from carbon. They envision these circular structures, which efficiently absorb and distribute energy, finding a place in solar cells, organic light-emitting diodes, or as new sensors or probes for medicine.

Though barely one-nanometer, nanohoops offer a new class of structures for use in energy or light devices. (Courtesy of Ramesh Jasti)

Though barely one-nanometer, nanohoops offer a new class of structures for use in energy or light devices. (Courtesy of Ramesh Jasti)

The research, led by Jasti’s doctoral student Evan R. Darzi, was described in a paper placed online ahead of print in ACS Central Science, a journal of the American Chemical Society. The paper is a proof-of-principle for the process, which will have to wait for additional research to be completed before the full impact of these new nanohoops can be realized, Jasti said.

These barely one-nanometer nanohoops offer a new class of structures — sized between those made with long-chained polymers and small, low-weight molecules — for use in energy or light devices, said Jasti, who was the first scientist to synthesize these types of molecules in 2008 as a postdoctoral fellow at the Molecular Foundry at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

“These structures add to the toolbox and provide a new way to make organic electronic materials,” Jasti said. “Cyclic compounds can behave like they are hundreds of units long, like polymers, but be only six to eight units around. We show that by adding non-carbon atoms, we are able to move the optical and electronic properties around.”

Nanohoops help solve challenges related to materials with controllable band gaps — the energies that lie between valance and conduction bands and is vital for designing organic semiconductors. Currently long materials such as those based on polymers work best.

“If you can control the band gap, then you can control the color of light that is emitted, for example,” Jasti said. “In an electronic device, you also need to match the energy levels to the electrodes. In photovoltaics, the sunlight you want to capture has to match that gap to increase efficiency and enhance the ability to line up various components in optimal ways. These things all rely on the energy levels of the molecules. We found that the smaller we make nanohoops, the smaller the gap.”

To prove their approach could work, Darzi synthesized a variety of nanohoops using both carbon and nitrogen atoms to explore their behavior. “What we show is that the charged nitrogen makes a nanohoop an acceptor of electrons, and the other part becomes a donator of electrons,” Jasti said.

“The addition of other elements like nitrogen gives us another way to manipulate the energy levels, in addition to the nanohoop size. We’ve now shown that the nanohoop properties can be easily manipulated and, therefore, these molecules represent a new class of organic semiconductors — similar to conductive polymers that won the Nobel Prize in 2000,” he said. “With nanohoops, you can bind other things in the middle of the hoop, essentially doping them to change properties or perhaps sense an analyte that allows on-off switching.”

His early work making nanohoop compounds was carbon-based, with the idea of making them different diameters and then combining them, but his group kept seeing unique and unexpected electronic and optical properties.

Jasti, winner of a National Science Foundation Career Award in 2013, brought his research from Boston University to the UO’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in 2014. He said the solar cell research being done by his colleagues in the Materials Science Institute, of which he is a member, was an important factor in his decision to move to the UO.

“We haven’t gotten very far into the application of this,” he said. “We’re looking at that now. What we were able to see is that we can easily manipulate the energy levels of the structure, and now we know how to exchange any atom at any position along the loop. That is the key discovery, and it could be useful for all kinds of semiconductor applications.”

Co-authors with Darzi and Jasti were: former BU doctoral student Elizabeth S. Hirst, who now is a postdoctoral fellow at the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center; UO doctoral student Christopher D. Weber; Lev N. Zakharov, director of X-ray crystallography in the UO’s Advanced Materials Characterization in Oregon center; and Mark C. Lonergan, a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.

The NSF (grant CHE-1255219), Department of Energy (DE-SC0012363), Sloan Foundation and Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation supported the research.

VeriSilicon Holdings Co., Ltd. and Vivante Corporation today announced a definitive merger agreement under which the companies will be combined in an all-stock transaction. The combined company, to be called VeriSilicon Holdings Co., Ltd., will offer robust IP-centric, platform-based custom silicon solutions and end-to-end semiconductor turnkey services.

Highlights of the transaction include:

  • Revenue for the combined company of more than $180 million for the year ended December 31, 2014;
  • Expected to be accretive to VeriSilicon’s non-GAAP earnings;
  • Establishes richer IP portfolio with the addition of licensable graphic cores (GPU);
  • Expands opportunities in the automotive market with established top OEM customers;
  • Increases exposure and content in IoT applications, as well as mobility applications, including smartphones, tablets, and connected TVs;
  • Leverages VeriSilicon’s extensive IP portfolio, design services capabilities and established direct sales channels worldwide;
  • Expands Tier 1 customer base

With the addition of Vivante’s GPU and vision image processing solutions, VeriSilicon continues to build out its Silicon Platform as a Service (SiPaaSTM) offering. Vivante has an established global customer base of over 50 licensees and has shipped more than 300 million units. Additionally, Vivante is a recognized industry leader in GPU solutions for automotive display, visualization and vision processing as well as mass market IoT applications. The combined company will hold a patent portfolio of more than 75 issued and pending U.S. patents and maintain operations in eight countries.

“This transaction creates an extensive semiconductor IP portfolio that will now include GPU cores, vision image processors, digital signal processors, video codecs, mixed signal IP and foundry foundation IP,” said Wayne Dai, VeriSilicon chairman, president and chief executive officer. “We expect our combined technology and scale will enable us to further extend our franchises in the automotive, IoT, mobility, and consumer market segments. Additionally, we share a strong culture of innovation and creativity that will provide significant benefits to our semiconductor, system and Internet platform customers by delivering best-in-class IP, design services and turnkey ASICs. This Silicon Platform as a Service (SiPaaSTM) model enables our customers to deliver high-quality, differentiated products in the fastest and most cost-effective way possible.”

“Together, VeriSilicon and Vivante will be well positioned to achieve even greater success,” said Weijin Dai, Vivante chief executive officer. “Our technology has been instrumental in providing PC-quality performance and experience at mobile power levels to create life-like graphics across a number of key end market segments and applications. VeriSilicon shares our vision for providing exceptional technology solutions that meet the unique requirements of automotive and IoT customers, as well as mobility, consumer and gaming customers. Our complementary products and capabilities will enable the combined company to pursue significant new growth opportunities, while delivering even greater value to customers, employees and shareholders.”

By Lara Chamness, senior manager, market analysis, SEMI

Japan has long played a critical role in semiconductor manufacturing and is home to Flash Alliance, Fujitsu, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Renesas, Rohm, Seiko Epson Corp, Sharp, Sony, Toshiba, and others. As a result, Japan accounts for the largest portion, 21 percent (including discretes), of the global total installed fab capacity in 2015 according to the SEMI Fab database. Of that fab capacity, 41 percent is 300 mm and 27 percent is 200 mm. As Yoichiro Ando detailed in his article last month, Japan is uniquely positioned to support the Internet of Things (IoT).

Japan_Well_Positioned_SGU_10_2015_1

Source: SEMI, 2015

Due to the presence of these established device manufacturers, Japan represents a significant portion of the new equipment and materials market; for the last two years, Japan represented 15 percent of the semiconductor equipment and materials market. While spending is expected to slightly decline in the region next year, it is anticipated that device manufacturers in Japan will still spend in the range of $12 billion on new equipment and materials next year.

Source: SEMI/SEAJ, SEMI; 2015

Source: SEMI/SEAJ, SEMI; 2015

In addition to hosting veteran device manufacturers, Japan is also home to leading equipment and materials suppliers such as Advantest, Canon, Dai Nippon Printing, Ebara, Hitachi Chemical, Hoya, Ibiden, JSR, Kyocera, Nikon, Tanaka, TEL, SCREEN, Shin-Etsu, SUMCO, Taiyo Nippon Sanso, TOK, Tokyo Seimitsu, and Ulvac, among others. It is estimated that equipment companies based in Japan account for about a third of the total equipment market, while materials suppliers headquartered in Japan supply around 50 percent of the world’s semiconductor materials on a revenue basis. The semiconductor manufacturing market in Japan is solid and is well positioned to support the evolving needs of the industry.

SEMICON Japan 2015 (December 16-18) in Tokyo will be an ideal venue to connect with Japan’s semiconductor supply chain companies as well as key IoT players in the region that will exhibit at “World of IoT,” a show-within-the-show showcase. For further information, visit: http://www.semiconjapan.org.

According to a new market research report on the “Chemical Mechanical Planarization Marketby type (Equipment & consumables), Application(IC manufacturing, MEMS & NEM, Optics and Others), Technology (Leading edge, More Than Moore’s, and Emerging), and Geography (North America, Europe, APAC and RoW) – Global Forecast to 2020”, published by MarketsandMarkets, the market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.83% between 2015 and 2020, and reach $4.94 Billion by 2020.

Chemical mechanical planarization is a critical process technology step in the semiconductor wafer fabrication process. In this process step, the top surface of the wafer is polished or planarized to create a flawless flat surface that is essential to make faster and more powerful semiconductor devices with the aid of chemical slurry & mechanical movements. The CMP tool is comprised a rotating platen, slurry, pad, holding ring, brush, and pad conditioner. The mechanical element of this system applies downward pressure to a wafer surface, while the chemical reaction increases the material removal rate. The value chain of the CMP market consists of different players, including semiconductor material suppliers, CMP integrated solution providers, semiconductor wafer suppliers, semiconductor device manufacturers, slurry & pad manufacturers, technology solution providers, and CMP equipment manufacturers.

The global Chemical Mechanical Planarization Market was worth USD 3.32 Billion in 2014, and it is expected to reach USD 4.94 Billion by 2020, at an estimated CAGR of 6.83% from 2015 to 2020. Though the CMP market is at the mature stage, it still continues to evolve depending on the end users. The industry is being forced to adopt much innovation in process technologies and applications; as a result, different CMP processes have been evolved with technology nodes and newer applications such as MEMS, advanced packaging, and advanced substrates. The growing demand for consumer electronic products, increasing need of wafer planarization, and increasing use of micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) is driving the global CMP market.

The CMP equipment market is expected to grow at the highest CAGR of 8.32% from 2015 to 2020. The key factors behind the high growth of the CMP equipment market is the strong growth in semiconductor equipment and capital spending. The CMP consumables market was valued at USD 2.25 Billion in 2014 and is expected to reach to USD 3.21 billion by 2020. The Applied Materials, Inc. (U.S.) and Ebara Corporation (Japan) are the major CMP equipment suppliers for different integrated device manufacturers.

This CMP consumables market is dominated by major market players such as Cabot Microelectronics Corporation (U.S.), Fujimi Incorporated (Japan), and Dow Electronic Materials (U.S.).The CMP regional market is mainly dominated by Asia-Pacific, followed by North America and Europe. The Asia-Pacific region accounted for the largest market share of ~67% and is expected to grow at the highest CAGR of 7.40% during the forecast period, followed by North America. The countries in Asia-Pacific region such as Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, and China are investing more in semiconductor manufacturing to meet the increasing demand for consumer electronic products. This detailed market research study provides detailed qualitative and quantitative analysis of the global chemical mechanical planarization market. It provides a comprehensive review of major market drivers, restraints, opportunities, challenges, and key issues in the market.