Category Archives: MEMS

By Jean-Christophe Eloy, President & CEO, Yole Développement

Sensors and optoelectronics will continue to grow faster than the mainstream semiconductor market. We currently expect 9%-13% growth in these sectors in 2013, accompanied by rapid changes in technology and  market structures as well, as the specialty markets become increasingly mature. 

MEMS and image sensors will continue to ride the smart phone and tablet wave, while declining LED bulb prices will start to push the technology towards wider adoption. Demand for power electronics will pick up after its 2012 plunge.

We expect the MEMS market to continue its steady double digit growth with an ~9-11% increase to around $12 billion in 2013, driven of course by increasing adoption of the sensors in the expanding smart phone and tablet business. We expect the penetration of accelerometers into mobile phones and tablets will approach 65% by the end of 2013, with magnetometers nearing 54% and gyroscopes flirting with 34%. Growth will begin to transition from discrete sensors to combinations of two sensors in one package with a single ASIC to reduce costs, and to increasingly sophisticated software solutions that translate the sensor data into usable functions.  These trends are driving changes in the competitive landscape, with a crowd of new players targeting the key 3-axis gyroscope market, others introducing other new MEMS applications for the mobile market, chipset and software suppliers taking over the sensor management tasks, and a diversification of business models as the industry evolves. Healthy increases in the smart phone applications—and in other consumer products increasingly enabled by these low cost, easy to integrate product—will be somewhat countered by slower growth in mature TV and printer applications.

The smart phone and tablet market is also driving healthy growth in CMOS image sensors.  We expect ~11-13% growth to $7.5B in 2013.  Backside illumination and 3D wafer-level packaging technologies will continue to rapidly gain market share, and new stacked sensor architectures will likely follow soon.  These technological changes are bringing changing business models as well, as IDMs who are not vertically integrated up through the systems level will increasingly turn to outsourcing production to foundries. 

In the high brightness LED market, the TV backlighting market has slowed and the solid state lighting market has yet to really take off, but we still expect respectable ~10% growth for packaged LED devices in 2013, as rapidly improving technology, and an excess supply of devices from the backlight side, will drive down LED bulb prices to start to drive wider adoption. We expect LED penetration of the lighting market across all segments  (residential, industrial, outdoor and commercial) to reach about 8% of all lamps sold in 2013, to occupy about 2% of all lamp sockets. As in most of these non CMOS chip sectors, however, demand for more die doesn’t necessarily translate into demand for more manufacturing equipment.  We expect sales of front end equipment in 2013 to recover about 30% from its 2012 dropoff, but not back to peak levels of the boom years. Companies will start adding capacity again in the second half of the year for the ramp up in wafer area needed for the volume lighting market.  But some of that capacity will come from stronger producers acquiring struggling suppliers and their underutilized equipment.

We expect recovering demand for discrete power devices to drive ~10%  growth in power electronics to some $20 billion in 2013, after what we estimate was a ~20% drop  in 2012 as China cut back on its big investments in railroad, solar power and wind power systems.  Going forward, green tech demand from hybrid/electric vehicles, wind and PV systems should again help spur sales in 2014-2015, and then support stable 6%-7% long term growth after 2016. 

By Mario M. Pelella, VP of Engineering, sp3 Diamond Technologies

Interest in diamond continues to grow within traditional thermal and wear applications (packaging, tool coating) and beyond into new applications (semiconductor, MEMS/NEMS, optical, interposers, electrodes, sensors, wastewater treatment, acoustic) that were previously difficult to exploit.

Diamond’s unique physical and electrical properties, which include the highest known thermal conductivity, highest Young’s modulus (diamond is the hardest substance man has ever discovered), a wide band gap, excellent electrical insulator properties, very low thermal expansion, very high breakdown voltage, very high carrier mobility, high radiation hardness, chemical and biochemical inertness and the broadest electromagnetic transmission spectrum, makes this remarkable technology a key enabler to break through current limitations and extend the performance and scalability of existing products well into the future.

For the currently available diamond-deposition systems, hot-filament chemical vapor deposition (HFCVD) growth technology provides the most reliable, safest and most cost effective solution that enables high throughput and good uniformity, control, repeatability and ease of scaling over large areas. Although current deposition areas are in the 350 mm x 375 mm range, scaling the HFCVD technology deposition area to 1000mm x 1000mm is viable, unlike other diamond-growth technologies.

The next step in the evolution of the semiconductor industry is to establish an SOD (silicon-on-diamond) substrate platform that mitigates the thermal impact of ever increasing power densities and suppresses local hot spots that influence peak performance and reliability (FIT rates) specifications, especially for RF power circuits and 3D-ICs. Moreover, incorporating diamond solutions into the MtM (more-than-Moore) technology roadmap will help extend electronic device and sensor performance metrics for a broad array of applications. All the process integration pieces to fully embrace SOD technology have been demonstrated, although productizing a 200mm (or larger) SOD substrate platform for high volume is still an elusive goal for the industry. Government agencies and corporate research and development funding continue to champion the maturity and advancement of diamond technology, which will help shorten the commercialization cycle of this exceptional material.

Recent advances in diamond applications (diamond-on-silicon, MEMS, optical), including record folded-beam RF resonator performance with a Q value of 146,580 at 232.4 kHz, IR transmission values nearing the theoretical limit of 71 percent, brighter, more energy-efficient LED lamps, exceptional figure-of-merit for RF power devices that are 40-50 times better than Si substrates, and demonstrated diamond-based diodes, BJTs, FETs, SAW filters, and field-emission devices, suggest that its utilization into a broader scope of commercial products is not far away.

By Tony McKie, general manager, memsstar, Ltd.

At the moment, the MEMS industry is experiencing tremendous growth, driven largely by numerous consumer electronics products whose MEMS components, both multiple and varied, are finding their way into people’s everyday life. Whereas before a phone had a single microphone, today’s high-end smart phones may have as may as three microphones for noise suppression using advanced beam forming audio techniques. This and other high-end consumer applications for devices such as accelerometers, gyroscopes, and MEMS oscillators are the likely drivers in analysts’ predictions for a 15 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the next five years.

This growth in end-user devices has filtered down to the manufacturers and equipment suppliers, challenging them to provide more efficient and cost effective means to manufacturing at the component level. Low cost has always been a major consideration in the manufacturing of MEMS devices and now there is the added complexity of increasingly sophisticated devices. Any consumer market is price driven with increasing levels of competition between component manufacturers, so, to be competitive, manufacturers need to employ standard techniques where possible with a manufacturing process that provides high yields.

This need to provide increased process capability and performance has now reached equipment suppliers, who must provide more advanced processes to allow manufacturers to design and manufacture their structures in a cost effective manner with consistently high yields. In addition, advanced process monitoring is a critical differentiator that ensures processes are stable and predictable, minimizing testing and ensuring high yield for a given manufacturing step.

One new application on the horizon for MEMS devices is autofocus, and its potential to drive the MEMS market has yet to be determined. We also see significant potential coming from the area of energy harvesting. As devices are continually designed with more and more components, the need for low power components becomes a high priority issue, as consumers will no longer accept a short battery lifetime between charges. One method to accommodate the higher power requirements would be to employ energy harvesting techniques to further extend battery lifetime of devices.

In the end, while the consumer market continues to evolve and the demand for better, faster, smaller increases even further, MEMS should continue to grow and find success as they are designed into more and more devices.

By Paul Lindner, Executive Technology Director, EV Group

A city’s skyline is a testament to the transformative power of technology—skyscrapers made possible only by the Bessemer steel manufacturing process introduced in the 19th century.  Now in the 21st century, the world is undergoing another major transformation, as new MEMS and 3D semiconductor manufacturing processes create the building blocks for the Internet of Things. Being able to build higher gave birth to the modern city, while being able to connect not just people, but all manner of devices, promises to be just as big a reorganization of society. Similar to skyscrapers and the Bessemer process, the infrastructure of the Internet of Things is being enabled by new low-cost, high- volume manufacturing processes.

Today, sensors are not a new technology anymore than steel was in the 19th century. What’s new is the introduction of manufacturing technologies that are lowering costs to the point where sensors transmitting information to the Internet can be affordably integrated into almost any device. Material advances have played an important role, as metal bonding technologies enable narrower seal frames and shrinks of MEMS devices. In 2013, device shrinks, new high-throughput tools and increased competition between manufacturers, as volume picks up in increasingly standardized capacity lines, will further drive the commoditization of MEMS. With Windows 8 for example providing an API for sensors, operating system requirements are also driving sensor standardization, thereby making it easier to assemble the infrastructure for the Internet of Things.

The Internet of Things, however, is about more than just gathering information through ubiquitous sensors. Huge amounts of data need to be affordably stored and analyzed, in order to be useful, which requires keeping Moore’s Law alive. Fortunately, new semiconductor 3D manufacturing technologies are poised to play a critical role in further commoditizing memory and processing power. In 2013 high volume production of true 3D technology will commence. The industry will also see intensified wafer level developments particularly around image sensors and memory, as new DRAM designs allow for monolithic integration at the wafer level. Wafer-to-wafer bonding processes, combined with built in self-test, error detection and correction  are poised to overcome one of the few remaining hurdles to high-volume, low-cost 3D manufacturing.

Although pundits can debate how the Internet of Things will transform the world, it is becoming increasingly clear that new MEMS and 3D high-volume, low-cost manufacturing technologies will accelerate a radical change to society’s cyber skyline.

By Ron Leckie, President, Infrastructure Advisors

2012 brought a slowdown in consumer spending which has negatively impacted chip unit demand.  In fact, chip units have been essentially flat for much of the last two years.  However, the good news is that unlike in prior slow periods, average selling prices have maintained a steady level.  As a result, the industry sits today with slightly elevated inventories and also with factory utilization levels that are generally about 15 percentage points below normal healthy levels.  I look to enter 2013 with continued seasonal slowness, but anticipate that unit volumes and utilization levels will start picking up by the second quarter and throughout the year.

As a result, with utilization rates at the low end of the range, we will not be seeing any significant capacity additions until later in the year.  Capital purchases will be primarily for new technology capabilities until unit volumes pick up and in turn drive capacity needs.  The Test and Assembly equipment sectors should feel a recovery slightly ahead of their Wafer Fab counterparts since they tend to be more units-driven.

The semiconductor industry and its entire supply chain are certainly maturing and are becoming more dependent than ever on the overall economy.  Consumer influence is a big factor affecting semiconductor and electronics growth.  Individual companies either need to have new innovative products to gain market share and drive organic growth, or they need to acquire companies that will take them into new adjacent markets.

In recent years, we have seen consolidation by some of the larger companies in the industry.  However, when walking around trade shows such as Semicon West, it is evident just how many small and medium sized companies still exist.  For these companies to thrive in a mature market, they need critical mass and now is the time to be looking at strategic alternatives.  Such smaller companies with complementary product lines and customers should be looking for merger opportunities.  The semiconductor industry is truly global and for example, there are big synergies to be found when bringing together global sales and service operations.  Customers prefer working with strong suppliers who will be around to support them for years to come.

For the equipment and materials suppliers, their customer base is consolidating. Some of this is through M&A (Merger and Acquisition) activities and some is through the transition to heavily outsourced business models.  Instead of selling to many IDMs, they now find themselves dealing with customers who are mostly a few large IDMs, large Wafer Foundries and OSATs.

Increasingly, we find ourselves becoming more involved with clients who are seeking strategic alternatives to “business as normal.”  In 2013, it is anticipated that M&A transaction activities will increase and result in further consolidation of the semiconductor supply chain.  It’s true what they say – size does matter.

By Bill McClean, president, IC Insights

The expectations for global economic growth consistently deteriorated throughout 2012, with worldwide GDP eventually growing by only 2.6% last year.  It should be noted that 2.5% or less worldwide GDP growth is typically considered a global recession.  IC Insights’ forecast for 2013 worldwide GDP growth is 3.2%.  Although this figure is higher than the 2.6% increase logged in 2012, it would still be 0.3 points below the 3.5% long-term average annual global GDP growth rate.

One of the primary reasons for weak 2012 worldwide GDP growth was the negative growth registered by the Eurozone and U.K. economies.  Unfortunately, the Eurozone is not expected to display a strong rebound in 2013, with 0.0% growth forecast for the Eurozone economy this year.

China’s GDP growth rate dropped to only 7.7% in 2012 with a modest rebound to 8.1% growth forecast for 2013.  While many developed countries would welcome 7% or higher GDP growth rates, for China, this figure is significantly below the 10% and greater annual GDP increases logged from 2002-2009.  In an attempt to address its economic “slowdown,” the Chinese government was quick to inject stimulus into its economy starting in the second half of 2012 by aggressively lowering interest rates as well as enacting $156 billion in construction project programs.  While this stimulus was too late to have a significant positive affect on its 2012 GDP growth, China’s GDP is likely to get at least a modest boost from this activity in 2013.

While the correlation between worldwide GDP growth and IC industry growth has historically been good, IC Insights believes that the correlation in 2013 will be very good, as it was in 2012.   Using a worldwide GDP forecast of 3.2%, the most likely range for worldwide IC market growth in 2013 is 3-7%.

The election-year cycle is one reason why IC Insights has identified 2013 as a possible slow growth year in the worldwide economy and IC industry.  Over the past 10 post-U.S.-election years, worldwide GDP growth averaged 3.1% with worldwide IC industry growth averaging only 4%.  Moreover, worldwide IC industry growth exceeded 8% in only three of these 10 post-U.S.-election years (1973, 1977, and 1993), and only once since the late 1970s.

IC Insights believes that the IC industry cycles are becoming increasingly tied to the health of the worldwide economy.  While poor IC market growth has occurred during periods of strong worldwide economic growth, primarily due to IC industry overcapacity and the resulting IC price declines, it is rare to have strong IC market growth without at least a “good” worldwide economy to support it.  Thus, over the next five years, annual global IC market growth rates are expected to closely mirror the performance of worldwide GDP growth. 

Overall, the IC industry is set to emerge from a difficult 5-year period of minimal growth.  From 2007-2012, the IC market grew at an average annual rate of 2.1%.  In IC Insights’ opinion, the “bottom” of the current cycle in the worldwide economy and IC industry was reached in 2012 and 2013 will mark the beginning of the next cyclical upturn—one in which the IC market CAGR will more than triple to 7.4% in the 2012-2017 timeperiod. 

December 29, 2012 – Industry watchers have been lowering their outlooks for 2013 over the past few weeks, but there’s one set of opinions that still see optimism for an industry rebound in 2013 — chip industry executives themselves.

In its annual study, KPMG found three quarters of semiconductor executives polled believe they will see revenue growth in the next fiscal year — that’s up from 63% in last year’s survey. Two-thirds expect to hire more workers (vs. 48% in 2011), and 71% say annual industry profitability will increase in 2013. Overall their sentiment is for a recovery that builds up steam especially heading into the second half of the year.

KPMG’s Global Semiconductor Survey, conducted in September, surveyed 152 semiconductor industry business leaders (primarily senior-level execs) at device, foundry, and fabless manufacturers, half of whom have annual revenue of $1 billion or more. Overall, its "Semiconductor Business Confidence Index" climbs to 57, stepping across the 50/50 threshold into optimism vs. the index of 46 recorded a year ago. Among its other findings:

— More activity, inside and out. Seventy-three percent of respondents expect to increase capital spending over the next fiscal year, up from 51% a year ago — and 24% expect to increase spending by 10% or more, vs. 10% of respondents in late 2011. Just 6% of respondents expect capital spending cuts, s. 18% a year ago. Similarly, 77% of execs expect semiconductor-related R&D spending to increase in 2013, up from just 65% a year ago. And two thirds of execs expect more merger and acquisition deals in fiscal 2013, up from 62% a year ago looking into 2012’s crystal ball.

— The US is tops again. Execs placed the US ahead of China in the most important geographic markets for semiconductor revenue growth three years out — for a third consecutive year, fewer see China as their most important market. Next in priority are Europe, Korea, and then Taiwan — which two years ago was ranked 2nd and slightly ahead of the US, but might be losing favor due to exposure to softer Japanese and Chinese economies, according to Gary Matuszak, global chair of KPMG’s Technology, Media and Telecommunications practice. Also, "significantly" fewer chip execs viewed China as a top-three hiring market in 2013; it’s still in first place, but the US and Europe are gaining favor.

— Consumer is king, redux. Consumer applications are officially the most important revenue driver, as viewed by the chip execs over the next fiscal year; computing now ranks third, behind wireless. "Unlike past recoveries, this one won’t be driven by wireless handsets and wireless communications alone," said Matuszak. Other revenue-driving apps — industrial, medical, automotive (with many sub-applications in body electronics, communications convergence, and safety), and power management (a big feature in wireless devices) — were emphasized by more chip execs in this year’s survey than in the past three years. That’s a clear indication how semiconductors have proliferated beyond traditional wireless and computing applications, such as mobile commerce and various automotive functionalities, added Ron Steger, global chair of KPMG’s Semiconductor practice. Also getting a big push from semi execs: "renewal energy" such as battery technologies, listed by 53% of execs as an important revenue driver over the next three years, up from just 36% a year ago.

Percentage of survey respondents who expect their company’s semiconductor-
related capital spending to increase over the next fiscal year. (Source: KPMG)

December 27, 2012 – Nikon and Singapore’s Institute of Microelectronics (IME), a research institute of the Science and Engineering Research Council of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), are jointly setting up a R&D lab to develop optical lithography technology for semiconductor manufacturing.

The efforts will include multipatterning and directed self-assembly techniques for ArF deep-ultraviolet (DIV) dry and immersion lithography down to 20nm and beyond, targeting applications from logic to high-density and nonvolatile memory, nanophotonics, and nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS).

For Nikon, the collaboration will add to new capabilities in Singapore, tapping into IME’s infrastructure, process technology, and talent pool to learn future process technology and continue to push ArF immersion litho for several more device nodes. "Nikon will gain knowledge of future process technology and total solution, which will be important for our lithography system development,” stated Kazuo Ushida, president of Nikon Precision Equipment Company. "We are very excited to partner with one of the most advanced and established institute in the Asia region."

For the IME, the Nikon JDA shows how it can develop and nurture a local ecosystem for advanced R&D through industry partnerships, developing advanced technologies from process steps to metrology to materials. "Nikon is an ideal technology partner well-established in technical excellence to help IME enhance and expand our R&D capabilities to meet the needs of the industry,” stated Prof. Dim-Lee Kwong, executive director of the IME.

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., or SMIC, (NYSE: SMI; SEHK: 981), is claiming a breakthrough in its development of backside-illuminated (BSI) CMOS image sensor (CIS) technology, with the first test chip demonstrating good image quality even in low-light conditions. The complete BSI process technology, which has been independently developed by SMIC, will serve the market for high-end mobile phone cameras, and is targeted to enter risk production with partnering customers in 2013.

The BSI process development allows SMIC to broaden its CIS foundry service offerings to customers with five-megapixel and higher resolution phone cameras and high-performance video camera products. BSI sensors are more light-sensitive than frontside-illuminated CMOS sensors, allowing today’s top smartphones to take brighter, clearer pictures at night or indoors. While driving its BSI technology toward commercial production, the company is soon to begin early development of next-generation CIS technology based on 3D integrated circuits.

"We are proud to be the first Chinese foundry to successfully develop BSI CMOS image sensors," said SMIC CEO Dr. TY Chiu. "CMOS image sensors are among the key value-added technologies that SMIC offers for customers in the mobile device and imaging markets."

"With this achievement as a stepping stone, our development team will drive the BSI sensor technology to timely commercialization," added Dr. Shiuh-Wuu Lee, SMIC’s Senior Vice President of Technology Development.

Since the introduction of its frontside-illuminated CIS process in 2005, SMIC says it has become a major foundry for CIS wafers, primarily for mobile phone and consumer electronics applications. In order to provide turnkey CIS fabrication service, SMIC and Toppan Printing of Japan operate a joint venture, Toppan SMIC Electronics (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., (TSES), which fabricates on-chip color filters and micro lenses at SMIC’s Shanghai site.

Earlier this year, rival foundry United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC) and STMicroelectronics said they are collaborating on 65nm CMOS image sensor (CIS) technology using backside illumination (BSI), following completion of a frontside illumination (FSI) process at UMC’s 300mm Fab 12i in Singapore.

Mike Rosa, MEMS global product manager at Applied Materials, blogs about recent advances in MEMS, as described at the recent MEMS Executive Congress.  

Over the last 50 years computing power has migrated from the mainframe, to the desktop, to the laptop, and now, with almost-equivalent computing capability, onto mobile devices, tablets, and smart phones. 

And tomorrow? If you were in Scottsdale, AZ in November for the now semi-annual MEMS Executive Congress, you would have heard about the latest concepts in personal computing – and I mean really personal. Think body art that collects data…well, not quite body art, but an array of patches, arm bands, watches, jewelry and more, all with one goal in mind – to help quantify every aspect of our daily lives!

It’s been referred to in recent times as the “Quantified Self” or “QS Quotient” and it’s just one of the many exciting advances enabled by MEMS.

MEMS devices enable many advances in personal health care including portable (sometimes wearable) health monitors. Fast-evolving innovations from a host of companies promise even more imaginative and discretely wearable integrated solutions.

For example, personal wellness is rapidly becoming a key priority for individuals and employers alike, both as a means to improve longevity and quality of life, and to control dramatically rising health care costs.  The result is a burgeoning business in devices that enable people to continuously gauge their personal behaviors and habits and provide actionable information.   Companies like BodyMedia and WiThings are incorporating MEMS into various portable products designed to monitor and track your vital signs, which they believe will open up new and exciting markets in personal healthcare. 

Looking only slightly further into the future, wearable patches embedded with monitoring technologies that are currently available only through health care professionals will soon find their way onto the consumer market.  One such MEMS enabled offering (see images below) being developed by BodyMedia is a seven-day, disposable patch that, will measure calorie burn, activity levels, and other body metrics, creating a snapshot of lifestyle habits to guide recommendations for weight loss, sports, fitness and much more. 

A major supplier of sports and fitness products has recently debuted a wristband with a built in accelerometer to track of all your daily activity, report calories burned and allow you to track your data over time ─ oh, and did I forget to mention ─ all wirelessly from the your favorite mobile device.  And for times when you’re not running, biking, hiking or salsa dancing, start-up company Lark has also introduced a wristband technology that, with the help of MEMS, monitors and keeps a record of your sleep patterns.

Where will it end?

According to Dr. Janusz Bryzek, vice president, Development, MEMS and Sensing Solutions at Fairchild Semiconductor, it won’t!  Bryzek moderated a lunch table discussion at the MEMS Congress entitled “Roadmap to a $Trillion MEMS Market” where we debated the growth of MEMS fueled by an increasing number of consumer, industrial and medical applications. These are based on the four strongest device types to date: gyroscopes, accelerometers, microphones, and pressure sensors.  In addition to these, there was increasing support expressed for the growth of “the internet of things,” where everyday objects are not only connected to the Internet or Cloud, but also play host to a MEMS device that enables the object to collect data from its surroundings.

The consensus among the group is that the road to a $Trillion (or unit volume) market is not an easy one.  Based on the use of today’s conventional MEMS technologies, it looks like it may take the invention of many more wristbands, waistbands, head bands, patches and pills before we can truly reach that lofty goal.  That’s not to say it won’t happen, but as in most other technology segments we’re in for many exciting baby steps as we march down the road to a “$Trillion MEMS Market.” 

 Nowhere was this more evident than during the “MEMS Technology Showcase” – a segment at the Congress where companies have an opportunity to show off the latest inventions and prototypes for MEMS-based technologies.   

Sphero and Lightbohrd are two examples of novel and very exciting products that rely on MEMS, either for acceleration, gyroscope function or for ambient light sensing and external interaction.  The MEMS in these products are available today and their use is representative of the MEMS adoption we’re likely to see as new product innovations emerge. And Applied Materials continues to be committed to developing the device fabrication technologies needed to keep those innovations coming.

Industry analysts Yole Developpment currently estimate the MEMS market at just over 7.5 billion units per year, with a valuation of $11.5 billion. Their 5-year forecast shows the combined MEMS/emerging MEMS technology market at about $20 billion by 2017, with a unit volume of more than 18 billion units. Those figures represent healthy growth, but there’s still a long way to go.  It will take many more amazing inventions ─ both new applications and new MEMS device designs ─ before that 1 trillion mark becomes a reality.  

Author

Mike Rosa serves as MEMS global product manager within the 200mm equipment products group at Applied Materials. He has over 15 years of technology focused product and business development experience.