Category Archives: MEMS

Semiconductor equipment manufacturer ClassOne Technology has today announced the appointment of Kevin Witt to the position of Chief Technology Officer. Part of the company’s initial executive team, Witt has served as ClassOne’s Vice President of Technology since 2013.

“I’m delighted to announce Kevin’s promotion,” said Byron Exarcos, President of ClassOne Technology. “He has more than 25 years in the industry, and the depth and breadth of his experience have contributed significantly to the rapid success we’ve enjoyed to date. His strengths will be even more important as he spearheads the development of our coming generations of cost-efficient, high-performance systems.”

Prior to joining ClassOne Technology Witt had been Director of Disruptive Technology at Semitool and was on the executive team that sold the company to Applied Materials. Witt has also held global marketing positions at Rodel and Solution Technology as well as engineering positions at AMD and Perkin Elmer. Subsequent to this, he cofounded and served as CTO/COO of Zinc Air, an energy storage company. He holds an MS degree in Materials Science and Engineering and a BS in Physics, both from the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Witt has been a key contributor in the development of ClassOne’s popular Solstice family of electroplating systems, which includes models for development and volume production. The Solstice S4 was recently given the BEST OF WEST Award at the SEMICON West 2015 Conference in San Francisco. ClassOne also provides the innovative Trident families of Spin Rinse Dryers (SRDs) and Spray Solvent Tools (SSTs). All are designed to deliver high-performance wet processing at an affordable price, aimed primarily at MEMS, Sensors, LEDs, RF, Interposers and other ≤200mm emerging markets. Described as providing “Advanced Wet Processing for the Rest of Us,” ClassOne systems are generally priced at less than half of what similarly configured tools from the larger manufacturers would cost.

Marking an industry first for emerging electronics devices, Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) today announced a significant expansion of its benchmarking research — a unique program that evaluates the relative capabilities of new and emerging computing devices.

SRC, the world’s leading university-research consortium for semiconductor technologies, is managing the initiative through its Nanoelectronics Research Initiative (SRC-NRI) and STARnet Research programs. The research will be led by the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Azad Naeemi, associate professor, Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

“Benchmarking guides university research funded through SRC — enabling concise communication of research outcomes, focusing researchers’ attention on key technical challenges and sparking invention,” said Tom Theis, executive director of SRC-NRI. “Professor Naeemi’s research is expected to take benchmarking of emerging devices to a new level of sophistication.”

Evaluating the performance of devices in representative “benchmark” circuits is a well-established engineering practice in the semiconductor industry. However, this new program is the first to develop a comparable methodology for evaluating the relative capabilities of emerging devices.

These emerging devices include, for example, transistor-like “steep slope” devices that can operate at very low voltage and, therefore, very low power, and non-volatile magnetic devices that combine the functions of logic and memory. The new devices operate by a variety of principles fundamentally different from those governing the operation of established silicon field-effect transistor technology.

In recent years, benchmarking of these devices has steadily increased in rigor. The Georgia Tech team — selected by a group of SRC member companies supporting the initiative including IBM, Intel Corporation, Micron Technology and Texas Instruments — will build on this foundation.

“This research will also enable selection of the most promising emerging devices for technology transfer to SRC member companies and for continued development in future SRC research programs,” said Gilroy Vandentop, executive director of STARnet Research.

Besides maintaining and improving the established benchmarking methodology, the Georgia Tech team is tasked with developing and evaluating benchmark circuits to better understand the potential of new devices for memory arrays, to explore and quantify the value of non-volatility and to measure the impact of various ways of implementing device-to-device connections. Perhaps most challenging, Prof. Naeemi will lead the development of a rigorous benchmarking methodology for non-Boolean (analog) computational circuits being explored for future applications such as artificial neural networks.

“Our team is chartered with maintaining and improving the established benchmarking methodology for emerging devices, evaluating the potential performance of the various SRC-NRI and STARnet devices in the established benchmark circuits,” said Naeemi. “We will incorporate additional device concepts as they emerge through ongoing research, and we will develop additional benchmark circuits to better understand the capabilities of these devices.”

The SRC benchmark program is a two-and-a-half year effort that funds research from July 1, 2015 through the close of 2017.

Solid State Technology is thrilled to announce that several key industry leaders have joined the Advisory Board for its annual conference and networking event, The ConFab. New members include: Robert Cappel, Senior Director Corporate Marketing, KLA-Tencor; William Chen, Fellow and Senior Technical Advisor, ASE; L.T. Guttadauro, Executive Director, Fab Owners Association; Li Li, Distinguished Engineer, Cisco Systems; Ariel Meyuhas, COO, The MAX Group; Gary Patton, CTO and Head of Worldwide R&D, GLOBALFOUNDRIES and Elton Peace, General Manager North America Regional Operations, Lam Research.

“We are delighted to welcome the new additions to our Advisory Board, each of whom have a unique and valuable insight into the what makes the semiconductor manufacturing industry successful,” said Pete Singer, Editor-in-Chief of Solid State Technology and conference chair for The ConFab. “These individuals will be instrumental is ensuring that The ConFab has an expanded role in the industry and is a “must attend” event for networking and discussing critical economic and manufacturing issues.”

The ConFab 2016 conference program will focus on “The Economics of Semiconductor Manufacturing and Design”. Topics will include:

  • How IoT is Driving the Semiconductor Industry
  • Filling the Fabs of the Future: A Guide to Hot New Applications
  • MEMS Sensor Fusion and More then Moore
  • The Limits of Scaling: Understanding the Challenges of sub-10nm Manufacturing
  • Fabless, Foundries and OSATs: Optimizing the Supply Chain
  • System Integration, Advanced Packaging + 3D Integration
  • China’s New Role in the Global Semiconductor Industry
  • Legacy Fabs and the Resurgence of 200mm
  • The Impact of Continued Consolidation Across the Supply Chain
  • Wearables and Bioelectronics: The Cusp of a Revolution?
  • Tackling Rising R&D Costs in the Semiconductor Industry

The new members will be joining the existing Advisory Board, comprised of David Bennett, VP Alliances, GLOBALFOUNDRIES; Janice M. Golda, Director, Lithography Capital Equipment Development, Intel Corporation; Devan Iyer,,Director Worldwide Semiconductor Packaging Operations, Texas Instruments; Lori Nye, COO/Executive Director Customer Operations, Brewer Science; Ken Rygler, President, Rygler Associates (founder of Toppan Photomasks); Sima Salamati, VP, Fab Operations, imec; Hans Stork, CTO, ON Semiconductor Corporation; Aubrey Tobey, President, ACT International; Geoffrey Yeap, VP of Technology, Qualcomm Inc.; and Abe Yee, Sr. Director, Advanced Technology and Package Development, NVIDIA Corporation.

 The ConFab (June 12-15, 2016) is an executive-level conference and networking event for business leaders from the semiconductor manufacturing and design industry. The event features a high-level conference program, networking events and business meetings with purchasing decision makers and influencers. More information on The ConFab may be found at www.theconfab.com.

The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) today announced worldwide sales of semiconductors were $27.9 billion for the month of July 2015, a decrease of 0.9 percent from July 2014 when sales were $28.1 billion. Global sales from July 2015 were 0.4 percent lower than the June 2015 total of $28.0 billion. Regionally, sales in the Americas were roughly flat in July compared to last year, while sales in China increased by nearly 6 percent. All monthly sales numbers are compiled by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization and represent a three-month moving average.

“Global semiconductor sales have slowed somewhat this summer in part due to softening demand, normal market cyclicality, and currency devaluation in some regional markets,” said John Neuffer, president and CEO, Semiconductor Industry Association. “Despite these headwinds, year-to-date global sales through July are higher than at the same time last year, which was a record year for semiconductor revenues.”

Regionally, year-to-year sales increased in China (5.6 percent), Asia Pacific/All Other (1.0 percent), and the Americas (0.8 percent), but decreased in Europe (-12.5 percent) and Japan (-13.3 percent), in part due to currency devaluation. On a month-to-month basis, sales increased in Japan (2.7 percent), China (0.6 percent), and Europe (0.4 percent), but fell slightly in the Americas (-0.3 percent) and Asia Pacific/All Other (-2.5 percent).

“One key facilitator of continued strength in the U.S. semiconductor industry is research, the lifeblood of innovation,” Neuffer said. “SIA and Semiconductor Research Corporation this week released a report highlighting the urgent need for research investments to advance the burgeoning Internet of Things and develop other cutting-edge, semiconductor-driven innovations. Implementing the recommendations in the report will help the United States harness new technologies and remain the world’s top innovator.”

July 2015

Billions

Month-to-Month Sales                               

Market

Last Month

Current Month

% Change

Americas

5.53

5.52

-0.3%

Europe

2.83

2.84

0.4%

Japan

2.57

2.64

2.7%

China

8.13

8.18

0.6%

Asia Pacific/All Other

8.94

8.71

-2.5%

Total

27.99

27.88

-0.4%

Year-to-Year Sales                          

Market

Last Year

Current Month

% Change

Americas

5.47

5.52

0.8%

Europe

3.24

2.84

-12.5%

Japan

3.04

2.64

-13.3%

China

7.75

8.18

5.6%

Asia Pacific/All Other

8.63

8.71

1.0%

Total

28.13

27.88

-0.9%

Three-Month-Moving Average Sales

Market

Feb/Mar/Apr

May/Jun/Jul

% Change

Americas

5.61

5.52

-1.7%

Europe

2.89

2.84

-1.8%

Japan

2.54

2.64

3.8%

China

7.77

8.18

5.2%

Asia Pacific/All Other

8.74

8.71

-0.3%

Total

27.56

27.88

1.2%

Related news: 

Tech, academic leaders call for robust research investments to bolster U.S. tech leadership, advance IoT

The future of MEMS in the IoT


September 3, 2015

By Pete Singer, Editor-in-Chief

SEMI’s European MEMS Summit will be held on 17-18 September 2015 in Milan, Italy. Over the course of the two-day event, more than 20 keynote and invited speakers from the entire supply chain will share their perspectives and latest updates, including participation by European MEMS leaders. In addition, a focused industry exhibition will complement the conferences offering with additional networking opportunities.

In advance of the event, we asked members of the conference steering committee about what’s happening in the world of MEMS. Answers came from:

  • Stefan Finkbeiner, CEO Bosch Sensortec
  • Benedetto Vigna, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Analog MEMS, and Sensors Group, STMicroelectronics
  • Christophe Zinck, Senior Application Engineering Manager, ASE Group
  • Eric Mounier, Senior Analyst MEMS, Yole Developpement
  • Martina Vogel, Officer of the Director of the Institute, Fraunhofer ENAS
  • Yann Guillou, Business Development Manager and MEMS Summit event Manager, SEMI Europe Grenoble Office

Q: What do you see as the big trends and challenges in MEMS and their applications, particularly with regard to the IoT.

“The application of MEMS sensors to the IoT-enabled markets (e.g. wearables, smart home, etc.) will require sensors to shrink further and to work even more power-efficient as in smartphones,” said Dr. Stefan Finkbeiner, CEO Bosch Sensortec. “In particular, the application side of the sensor will demand more attention. The value-add of a sensor must be convincing to become designed into a certain product,” he added.

Finkbeiner said he sees a big market pull for gas sensors such as the Bosch in-door air quality sensor, the BME680. “That trend is visible for the smartphone as well as for the IoT-enabled markets, like for example the Smart Home market,” he said.

Martina Vogel, officer of the director of the institute, Fraunhofer ENAS, said: “We see, that MEMS exist almost everywhere in our daily lives – in our homes, our cars, our workplaces – and yet they go largely unnoticed. Despite this low profile, microsystems have undergone rapid development in the last two decades, evolving from miniaturized single-function systems into increasingly complex integrated systems. From our point of view we call these complex integrated systems, smart integrated systems.

From performance point of view we distinguish between different generations of smart systems. The first and the second generation entered into diverse applications. The first generation of Smart Systems consisted of several packages of components connected on a single substrate, or printed circuit board. These devices are commercially available in medical applications such as hearing aids and pacemakers, as well as in automotive applications such as airbag systems. The best-known example of a second-generation Smart System is the ubiquitous smart phone, which has seen great commercial success.

Smart systems of the third generation are self-sufficient intelligent technical systems or subsystems with advanced functionality, which bring together sensing, actuation and data processing, informatics / communications. Therefore these systems are not only able to sense but to diagnose, describe and manage any given situation. They are highly reliable and their operation is further enhanced by their ability to mutually address, identify and work in consort with each other. Such smart systems will be the hardware basis for the internet of things (IoT).”

From technology point of view, Vogel said such systems “are not limited to silicon–based technologies but integrate polymer-based technologies, printing technologies (e.g. for printed antennas, printed sensors, displays or batteries), different nanotechnologies (e.g spintronic devices, CNT based devices or devices based on embedded nanoparticles) and even embroidering technologies for sensors.”

Benedetto Vigna, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Analog MEMS, and Sensors Group, STMicroelectronics, said: “The next wave of MEMS development is moving toward actuation and, while the ripples from these beautiful little machines have been building slowly for years, they are converging quickly with the Internet of Things (IoT). We are beginning to see new applications such as tiny mirrors that enable people to interact more naturally with technology, smaller, faster autofocus solutions for mobile phones, and new types of printheads for 3D printing — and this is just the beginning.”

Christophe Zinck, senior application engineering manager, ASE Group, said the big trends and challenges from his perspective are “form factor (especially height), co-integration (flexibility to be used in different modules/SiP (in term of packaging of course but also compatibility with different wireless standard), power consumption and, of course, cost.”

Eric Mounier, senior analyst MEMS, Yole Developpement, said: “For us, MEMS is just a technology among others that could answer the IoT’s requirements for sensors. Indeed, type of sensing required for IoT is very broad: Inertial sensing, chemical sensing , pressure sensing, light sensing … any physical event.

Sensor for the internet of things follow several requirements, Mournier says:

  • Low power consumption (Due to the integration in wireless battery powered modules)
  • Small form factor (Due to the need for small wireless sensors)
  • Low cost (As IoT large expansion lies in the availability of low cost sensors)

For now, several sensing solutions exist in different fields (inertial sensors in smartphones for example). But strong challenges still have to be overcome:

  • New sensing solutions (such as MEMS chemical sensors, etc.)
  • Low cost, highly integrated solutions (via 3D stacking, etc.)
  • Standardization; The IoT is the accumulation of thousands of different applications requiring low cost solutions, but with limited volumes. Developing one sensor per application is not possible due to development costs.

“I am pretty confident MEMS will be used for IoT, specially for gas/chemical sensing. MEMS technologies for gas sensors have many advantages compared to other technologies: Up to 50% size reduction and cost reduction, CMOS scalable technology,” Mournier said. “With cost and miniaturization to be a driving force for consumer and industrial Iot applications, it opens the way to new technologies such as MEMS.”

Q: Sensor fusion is an intriguing thought and the ultimate device might have multiple sensors integrated with energy harvesting, a thin film battery, a microprocessor/ASIC, wireless communication capability, etc. How far away from that are we? What are the big challenges? Is it cost? Integration? Packaging? Form factor? What are the leading applications?

ST’s Vigna said “We are already well on the sensor-fusion path that contains multiple sensors integrated with a thin-film battery, a microprocessor/ASIC, and wireless communication capability. The two technical challenges are low-power radio and high-efficiency (energy) harvester.”

Finkbeiner said Bosch Sensortec already provides leading edge sensor fusion SW integrated within a multi-sensor 9-axis device powered by an ARM µController. “This single package device – the BNO055 – is already available and specifically targeting at motion sensing and orientation detection applications in the IoT-enabled markets. Energy harvesting and thin film batteries might still be a bit too far away from being capable of offering enough energy for this particular use case at reasonably small size. But there’s a lot of research in this area. The challenges? Yes, cost/price is always the main driver. Small size is also important. It allows for small form factor products and better placement flexibility.”

Fraunhofer’s Vogel said there is a lot of work carried out with in ECSEL and especially EPoSS. “EPoSS the industry driven Euroean Platform on smart system integration is just working more than 10 years in this field,” she said. “Big challenges are of course packaging and integration from technology point of view. But also issues like big data handling and data security in the internet need to be solved.”

Vogel said market reports concerning IoT predict two trends:

  • Printed electronic systems that will enable – low cost sensing. Printing technologies, such as roll-to-roll (R2R) will enable extremely large volumes and low cost. Also expect disposable devices with a short lifespan.
  • Sensor “swarms” for inorganic sensing. Devices will have complete integration of sensing, processing RF, energy harvesting, on single small chip ( <1mm2).

ASE’s Zinck said he didn’t see things going that far, “but each sensor fusion is quite specific and current modules are often using custom ASIC, MEMS, etc. The next big challenge is flexibility for co-integration and this will require availability of bare die on the market, otherwise small and efficient SiPs won’t be easily available if you cannot mix best solutions available on the market (in terms of performance and cost, of course).

Zinck said there are also lots of challenges regarding packaging, including compartmental shielding to avoid parasitic between components, antenna on package (especially for wearable), and test.

Q: We’re hearing a lot about wearables and medical applications, but what about applications in the smart home, smart city, smart grid, industrial and, of course, automotive ?

Vigna said: “There are already numerous applications for MEMS in Smart Environments, Smart Driving, and Smart Things and many of ST’s customers are leading that charge by combining elements of ST’s complete portfolio. We’ve got customers using ST MEMS, MCUs, analog and power, and connectivity products in smart thermostats, smart lighting, smart meters, and Smart Driving applications. If you’re not hearing enough about these, it is only because the wearable and medical applications may be sexier.”

Finkbeiner said: The sensors for the other IoT-enabled markets like smart home, smart grid etc. are available or already being developed … what is lacking is the corresponding infrastructure, that means the upper layers for aggregating, collecting and intelligent interpretation of the vast sensor data and bringing them into the cloud. This will for example require standards how to handle sensor data at an higher, more abstract level. But that’s beyond the domain of the MEMS sensor suppliers. At Bosch we have therefore founded Bosch Connected Devices & Solutions, a business unit which develops complete solutions based upon our MEMS sensors.

Vogel said: “Just several years ago Frost and Sullivan pointed out that smart is the new green. The concept of ‘Smart Earth’ is, in fact, the in-depth application of a new generation of network and information technologies. Smart cities arise worldwide. Global concepts for smart production are under development. The Internet of Things – IoT – including smart grid, smart health, smart city, smart buildings, smart home, smart production and smart mobility provides not only big opportunities but is requesting more highly integrated smart systems from the hardware side. The total number of connected devices is expected to grow rapidly. Electronic components and systems are a pervasive key enabling technology, impacting all industrial branches and almost all aspects of life.”

Zinck said: “Wearables and medical are driving SiPs developments as low power and very aggressive from factor, at low cost are mandatory. Smart home, smart city, etc. are using a lot of MEMS and sensors, but the challenges are not exactly the same, some are similar in particular for Smart home (low power, wireless modules, etc.) but there is less pressure on form factors.”

Automotive is a different topic, says Zinck. “The trend we can see is to go smaller for sure, but for the moment it implies move away from leaded packages to leadless, with specific technology developments like wettable flank QFN.  Also for automotive two categories have to be clearly distinguished:

  • Non-safety applications (like Infotainment):  basically similar trend as consumer MEMS, with more and more sensors in the cabin (uphones, pressure, etc.)
  • Safety applications: very robust have to be used, but some “intelligent SiPs” are already available like QFN 7×7 TPMS (featuring an accelerometer + ASIC + pressure sensor).

Q: Europe in general is very strong in MEMS for various reasons. Why does it make sense to have the MEMS Summit in Europe?

SEMI’s Yann Guillou said Europe is home to several strong IDMs in MEMS, and most notably home to Bosch and STMicroelectronics. “These MEMS leaders are often identified as the industry’s ‘Titans’. These IDMs have contributed enormously to the European industry, but they have also benefited from a strong value chain in the region: RTOs, equipment and materials companies, foundries, etc. Having such leaders in the region is definitively a differentiating factor for Europe in a MEMS and sensor industry that is facing mounting competition. With the IoT, many new business opportunities may arise and increase the competition. This might shake up the current state of the industry,” he said.

Organizing such event in Europe was pretty straightforward. We took this decision more than 1 year ago and it looks like this decision was right. Today more than 200 people are already registered for this event and we expect to go beyond. I see lot of non-European companies planning to attend, including many US and Asian companies. Interest is strong in Asia for this event. People from Korea, Taiwan and China will be attending. As an example, we will be pleased to receive the visit of a Chinese delegation interested to develop business and technology partnerships with European companies.

Batteries have not been a triumph of rapid innovation – from lead acid, nickel-cadmium, to nickel-metal-hydride and lithium-ion batteries, the development of batteries has significantly lagged many other components. For example, lithium-ion batteries, which are the mostly successful commercial battery system nowadays, have only seen a 1.6 times improvement in energy density over the last 24 years. Not exactly a follower of Moore’s Law like progress. It is already very optimistic to expect the energy density of lithium-ion battery to increase another 30 percent in five years time. Materials that can be chosen for the battery development are also limited. Companies see the challenge – and opportunity.

One significant development has been flexible battery technologies. However, even though thin, flexible batteries have been available for over fifteen years they have had limited commercial success. That is not really a surprise: they have been more expensive, offer lower capacity and have a shorter shelf life than regular button cell or larger batteries.

As a result, they have tried to exploit their thinness and flexibility as a way to differentiate – doing something that regular batteries cannot do.  Successes have been found in a small number of niche applications, such as powered skin patches, where the battery provides a voltage across an area of skin, opening the pores and allowing the anti-wrinkle cosmetic on the patch to be absorbed about ten times more quickly versus non-powered patches, an effect known as iontophoresis. For a patch applied to a face, that product is only possible with an unobtrusive thin and flexible battery. It created a new product category and price point – here the flexible battery was not a value sell proposition but an enabling sell.

However, despite a few pockets of success companies have been largely struggling to gain big commercial traction – new product categories need to be created rather than using these as a replacement versus the cheaper, higher performing incumbents.

Apple, Samsung, LG Chem Move into the Flexible Battery Business

Now the world’s largest consumer electronics companies such as Apple, LG and Samsung have moved into the development of flexible battery technology and that’s due in a large part to the wearable technology market, which will help drive the flexible battery market from US$ 6.9 million in 2015 to over US$ 400 million in 2025, according to IDTechEx Research.

Wearable electronics and IoT devices will increasingly require battery attributes such as thinness, flexibility, light weight and low charging thresholds to not just differentiate, but create new markets. Indeed, they already have – the powered cosmetic skin patch from Estee Lauder using a printed battery must have some claim to being one of the earliest successes of flexible wearable electronics.

Investment in flexible batteries is but one of the key areas of progress for truly wearable electronics. The first approach has been to reduce the energy consumption of electronics, such as the CPU and displays, in addition to making larger components, such as displays, flexible. Another direction is the charging method, such as integrating energy harvesting, rapid charging and wireless charging.

Now huge emerging topics such as wearable technology and IoT require some different parameters for the battery, such as ultra-thinness, small physical footprints, flexibility and light weight which are becoming increasingly prized.

While there is still progress to be made in both the performance of the battery technology and scaling up manufacturing, new products are appearing at a fast rate. In April this year Qualcomm unveiled a new product concept at the IDTechEx Printed Electronics Europe event in conjunction with printed battery provider Enfucell. This is a sensing label for golfers – stick the label on your golf club and play your game, with the label providing data via an app on your phone telling you information such as speed, angle and tempo of each swing. The electronics and battery form a single monolithic device.

In another example printed battery provider Blue Spark Technologies have launched a smart band-aid known as TempTraq, which reports your sick child’s temperature to your cellphone via a flexible band-aid powered by a flexible battery powering a low energy bluetooth circuit and sensor.

Source: IDTechEx Research report Flexible, Printed and Thin Film Batteries 2015-2025

Source: IDTechEx Research report Flexible, Printed and Thin Film Batteries 2015-2025

In the report Flexible, Printed and Thin Film Batteries 2015-2025 IDTechEx Research concludes that the current thin film battery market will change radically over the next years as grows – with wearable technology becoming the largest share of that, as pictured.

Knowm Inc., a start-up pioneering next-generation advanced computing architectures and technology, today announced they are the first to develop and make commercially-available memristors with bi-directional incremental learning capability. The device was developed through research from Boise State University’s Dr. Kris Campbell, and this new data unequivocally confirms Knowm’s memristors are capable of bi-directional incremental learning. This has been previously deemed impossible in filamentary devices by Knowm’s competitors, including IBM, despite significant investment in materials, research and development. With this advancement, Knowm delivers the first commercial memristors that can adjust resistance in incremental steps in both direction rather than only one direction with an all-or-nothing ‘erase’. This advancement opens the gateway to extremely efficient and powerful machine learning and artificial intelligence applications.

“Having commercially-available memristors with bi-directional voltage-dependent incremental capability is a huge step forward for the field of machine learning and, particularly, AHaH Computing,” said Alex Nugent, CEO and co-founder of Knowm. “We have been dreaming about this device and developing the theory for how to apply them to best maximize their potential for more than a decade, but the lack of capability confirmation had been holding us back. This data is truly a monumental technical milestone and it will serve as a springboard to catapult Knowm and AHaH Computing forward.”

Memristors with the bi-directional incremental resistance change property are the foundation for developing learning hardware such as Knowm Inc.’s recently announced Thermodynamic RAM (kT-RAM) and help realize the full potential of AHaH Computing. The availability of kT-RAM will have the largest impact in fields that require higher computational power for machine learning tasks like autonomous robotics, big-data analysis and intelligent Internet assistants. kT-RAM radically increases the efficiency of synaptic integration and adaptation operations by reducing them to physically adaptive ‘analog’ memristor-based circuits. Synaptic integration and adaptation are the core operations behind tasks such as pattern recognition and inference. Knowm Inc. is the first company in the world to bring this technology to market.

Knowm is ushering in the next phase of computing with the first general-purpose neuromemristive processor specification. Earlier this year the company announced the commercial availability of the first products in support of the kT-RAM technology stack. These include the sale of discrete memristor chips, a Back End of Line (BEOL) CMOS+memristor service, the SENSE and Application Servers and their first application named “Knowm Anomaly”, the first application built based on the theory of AHaH Computing and kT-RAM architecture. Knowm also simultaneously announced the company’s visionary developer program for organizations and individual developers. This includes the Knowm API, which serves as development hardware and training resources for co-developing the Knowm technology stack.

New “thermodynamic RAM” (kT-RAM) artificial neural network (ANN) architecture from Knowm is inherent adaptive, and built with memristors capable of bi-directional incremental resistance changes for efficient learning. (Source: Knowm)

New “thermodynamic RAM” (kT-RAM) artificial neural network (ANN) architecture from Knowm is inherent adaptive, and built with memristors capable of bi-directional incremental resistance changes for efficient learning. (Source: Knowm)

SEMICON Taiwan 2015 opened today starting a three-day event drawing over 43,000 attendees from electronics manufacturing. Held 2-4 September, SEMICON Taiwan represents the huge Taiwan business potential with Taiwanese chipmakers and Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test (OSAT) firms spending over $20 billion in the next two years on equipment and materials.

2015 is the 20th anniversary of SEMICON Taiwan and now draws more than 700 exhibitors and more than 43,000 attendees.  Over 500 will attend the SEMICON Taiwan Leadership Gala Dinner, one of the most important executive events for the high-tech industry in Taiwan.

SEMICON Taiwan features co-located events and technology theme pavilions focusing on IC design, MEMS, 3D-ICs, advanced packaging/testing, sustainable manufacturing, and secondary equipment.

Highlights of this year’s show include:

  • Executive Summit: With the theme “Conversation between Nobel Prize Laureate and Distinguished Leaders in Taiwan,” executives from Executive Yuan, Etron Technology, ASE Group, and NCTU will share their unique perspectives with Prof. Shuji Nakamura, 2014 Nobel Prize winner.
  • Market Trends Forum: Forum features speakers from Beijing Gaohua Securities, IDC Asia/Pacific, UBS Investment Bank, Sanford C. Bernstein, TechSearch, and SEMI, with moderation by TSMC.
  • CFO and Investor Summit: With the theme, “An Exciting Period of Growth and Mergers in the Semiconductor Industry,” the event features speakers from TSMC, DBS, National Tsing Hua University, imec, and Taiwan M&A and Private Equity Council, with moderation by EQUVO.
  • Memory Executive Summit: The Summit includes presenters from Everspin, imec, Inotera Memories, and ITRI.
  • SiP Global Summit 2015: With a strong focus on heterogeneous integration through System-in-a-Package (SiP) technology, the event features more than 20 industry leaders who will share their insights and solutions on 3D-IC, Through Silicon Via (TSV), 2.5D-IC with silicon interposer, and embedded substrate technologies. More than 500 industry professionals from around the world are expected to attend.
  • Advanced Packaging Technology Symposium: Presenters will cover market trends, product applications, and packaging/assembly solutions to advanced equipment and material development, and testing and reliability – covering the most advanced technology development directions for 3D-IC.
  • Sustainable Manufacturing Forum: Experts will address a wide variety of environment, health, safety (EHS) and sustainability topics that affect high-tech manufacturing.
  • Semiconductor Materials Forum: This is the newest forum — features topics including front-end materials for advanced semiconductor devises, advanced materials solutions for 10nm and beyond, challenges for local material manufacturers, and novel materials, and activities for advanced packaging.

For more information and online registration, visit the SEMICON Taiwan website: www.semicontaiwan.org

Energy storage players are eyeing emerging opportunities in bioelectronics as wearable, implantable and other medical devices create energy demands and design requirements beyond conventional batteries, according to Lux Research.

Existing battery solutions barely satisfy the demands for increased functionality and power in existing medical devices and may have slowed the shift toward personalized health care in many areas of medicine.

“Developers of energy storage must understand the required application-specific optimization of batteries, based on performance and safety, and desired form factors,” said Milos Todorovic, Lux Research Analyst and lead author of the report titled, “Powerful Medicine: Opportunities for Pairing New Bioelectronics with Innovative Energy Storage.”

“Winning in this race will require a thorough understanding of key technical requirements as well as the knowledge of regulatory and safety implications of bringing new energy storage to the fore,” he added.

Lux Research analysts identified key demands arising from the novel medical technologies, and evaluated energy storage companies on the proprietary Lux Innovation Grid. Among their findings:

  • Li-ion batteries will make rapid strides. Newer lithium-ion batteries will advance both safety and performance, besides extending life span. Compared with today’s best batteries, those that will become available in 2025 will double energy density to over 1,200 Wh/L, more than double specific energy to over 400 Wh/kg, quintuple life span to over 25 years and raise safety standards to “excellent,” from “mediocre to satisfactory.”
  • EaglePitcher, WiTricity, FlexEI are standout companies. On the Lux Innovation Grid, three companies offering diverse technologies stood out as “dominant” in the upper right quadrant. EaglePitcher’s batteries are entrenched in energy storage niches, including military, medical and aerospace; WiTricity leads with its wireless charging technology, a potential life-saving feature; and FlexEI offers contract engineering for custom batteries, with form factors including thin-film and cylindrical cells.
  • Current Li-ion developers lag. On the Lux Innovation Grid, Li-ion developers are clustered mostly in the lower-right “undistinguished” corner, with mediocre technology and business execution, highlighting the need to push beyond today’s incumbent technologies. To succeed, Li-ion battery companies would need to develop flexible form factors without sacrificing energy stored, sharply raise energy density with a push towards next-generation designs like ceramic or polymer solid-state electrolytes, and also enhance safety.

The report titled, “Powerful Medicine: Opportunities for Pairing New Bioelectronics with Innovative Energy Storage,” is part of the Lux Research BioElectronics Intelligence and the Lux Research Energy Storage Intelligence services.

A coalition of leaders from the tech industry and academia, led by the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) and Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC), today released a report highlighting the urgent need for robust investments in research to advance the burgeoning Internet of Things (IoT) and develop other cutting-edge innovations that will sustain and strengthen America’s global technology leadership into the future. The report, titled “Rebooting the IT Revolution: A Call to Action,” calls for a large-scale, public-private research initiative called the National Computing and Insight Technologies Ecosystem (N-CITE).

“The United States stands at a crossroads in the global race to uncover the next transformative innovations that will determine technology leadership,” said John Neuffer, president and CEO of the Semiconductor Industry Association, which represents U.S. leadership in semiconductor manufacturing, design, and research. “We either aggressively invest in research to foster new, semiconductor-driven technologies such as the Internet of Things that will shape the future of the digital economy, or we risk ceding ground to competitors abroad. The findings and recommendations in the Rebooting the IT Revolution report will help the United States rise to this bold challenge, choose the right path forward, and harness the new technologies that will keep America at the tip of the spear of innovation.”

Basic scientific research funded through agencies such as the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science has yielded tremendous dividends, helping launch technologies that underpin America’s economic strength and global competiveness. The U.S. semiconductor industry has been a reliable partner in funding research, investing about one-fifth of revenues each year in R&D – the highest share of any industry.

“The IoT — from ubiquitous sensor nodes to the cloud — will be orders of magnitude larger and more complex than anything we know today. Moreover, as the demand for more energy-efficient yet more powerful computing grows, new approaches such as brain-inspired computing have the potential to transform the way systems are designed and manufactured,” said Ken Hansen, president of Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC), the world’s leading university research consortium for semiconductor technologies. “Addressing the fundamental research challenges outlined in this report is essential to creating the infrastructure that will enable the conversion of data to insight and actionable information with appropriate security and privacy. While some areas are moving forward quickly, others require collaborative research among industry, academia and government to capture the untold benefits of this distributed, intelligent ecosystem.”

The report contains opinions from industry, academic and government leaders who participated in the Rebooting the IT Revolution Workshop on March 30–31, 2015. The workshop was sponsored by SIA and SRC and supported by NSF.

Participants stressed the need for fundamental research in the following areas in order to fully realize IoT breakthroughs and sustain America’s technology leadership: energy-efficient sensing and computing, data storage, real-time communication ecosystem, multi-level and scalable security, a new fabrication paradigm, and insight computing. Many of these areas align with Federal research initiatives, including the National Strategic Computing Initiative, the BRAIN Initiative, and the National Nanotechnology Initiative Grand Challenges.

“IoT technology will connect directly to both the physical and social worlds by advancing disruptive hardware, cross-field networking, insight-generating IT, and principles of convergence, which are at the core of future U.S. technology and economic development,” said Mihail C. Roco, Senior Advisor for Science and Engineering at NSF and a key architect of the National Nanotechnology Initiative. “The report’s contents reflect a new way of thinking to create an interdependent, scientific-technological-social ecosystem driven by the emergent confluence of IT with nanotechnology, advanced manufacturing, cognitive sciences, sustainability, and safety. All are in response to an increasingly interconnected, knowledge-driven and demanding society. In the longer term, implementation of the report would support global human progress.”