Category Archives: MEMS

September 20, 2012 – CrossFiber, a San Diego, CA maker of photonic switches that incorporate microelectromechanical system (MEMS) technology, has acquired substantially all the assets — patent portfolio, manufacturing know-how, inventory, even lab notebooks — of 2D MEMS switch firm OMM for an undisclosed amount.

OMM was the inventor and pioneering manufacturer of Telcordia-qualified MEMS-based photonics switches. CrossFiber’s LiteSwitch family of photonic switches feature 3D MEMS micromirror technology originally devised at OMM, coupled with beam control techniques developed and licensed by Trex and CrossFiber’s own work in beam control, switch architecture, and precision optics.

"We now own an even stronger IP portfolio and a deeper base of know-how," stated Hus Tigli, CrossFiber’s president & CEO (he also served as the CEO of OMM). "Our core technologies, combined with our innovations in automated manufacturing and testing of precision parts enable us to serve customers demanding performance, economical solutions, and volume manufacturing."

It’s a busy month for CrossFiber — days ago it closed a $13M Series D funding round to help ramp capacity for its LightSwitch technology, which combines 3D MEMS micro-mirrors on silicon, non-invasive beam steering (NIBS), and custom ASICs, for application in data centers and fiber-optic switching. The company says its proprietary methods create precisely positioned fiber and microlens arrays, yielding collimator arrays with good beam shape and low insertion loss.

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September 19, 2012 – X-Fab Silicon Foundries has debuted an open-platform MEMS 3D inertial sensor process, the first to be made available directly from a high-volume pure-play foundry, it claims. The new technology is suitable for a wide range of applications that use 3D accelerometers or gyroscopes: mobile devices, consumer goods, games and toys, automotive, robotics, and industrial and medical equipment.

The new technology features robust, single-crystal silicon for inertial masses and drive-combs, proprietary buried contact technology that supports complex metal interconnects using a single metal layer, low parasitic capacitance, and EMI protection. It was developed using X-FAB’s step-by-step qualification procedures to ensure the process is characterized, stable, and high-yielding. One- and 2-axis designs can be produced with the same process, and accelerometer and gyroscope designs can be placed side-by-side on a single chip enabling manufacture of "six degrees of freedom" (6DoF) inertial measurement units (IMU).

Also read:

"X-FAB’s open-platform processes launch a new era for the MEMS industry," proclaimed Iain Rutherford, X-FAB’s MEMS business line manager. "We are shifting the paradigm from the limiting ‘one product, one process’ rule to the open platform approach of giving any company access to a world-class quality process that can be used for multiple applications. It enables our customers to realize their goals in record time."

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imec, based in Leuven, Belgium, announced that it has integrated an ultra-thin, flexible chip with bendable and stretchable interconnects into a package that adapts dynamically to curving and bending surfaces. The resulting circuitry can be embedded in medical and lifestyle applications where user comfort and unobtrusiveness is key, such as wearable health monitors or smart clothing. At the 2012 ESTC conference (Electronics System Integration Technology Conference) in Amsterdam (September 17-20, 2012), the researchers will present their results and showcase their latest demonstrations.

Today, most electronic appliances are rigid, or at most mechanically flexible. A growing number of applications, however, require electronics that dynamically adapt to curving and bending surfaces. Some examples include biomedical systems such as unobtrusive, wearable health monitors (e.g. electrocardiogram or temperature sensors), advanced surgical tools, or consumer electronics such as mobile phones embedded in smart textiles. imec’s associated lab at the University of Ghent has pioneered this technology, moving it toward industrial applicability. Industrial partners that want to build a critical lead in this field are welcomed to join the R&D program.

For the demonstration, the researchers thinned a commercially available microcontroller down to 30µm, preserving the electrical performance and functionality. This die was then embedded in a slim polyimide package (40-50µm thick). Next, this ultrathin chip was integrated with stretchable electrical wiring. These were realized by patterning polyimide-supported meandering horseshoe-shaped wires, a technology developed and optimized at the lab. Last, the package is embedded in an elastomeric substrate, e.g. polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). In this substrate, the conductors behave as two dimensional springs, enabling greater flexibility while preserving conductivity.

“Future electronic circuitry will stretch and bend like rubber or skin while preserving its conductivity,” comments Jan Vanfleteren, responsible for the research on flexible and stretchable electronics at imec’s Ghent lab. “This breakthrough achievement demonstrates that flexible Ultra-Thin Chip Packages (UTCP) can be integrated with stretchable wiring, paving the way toward fully flexible applications. We anticipate the first appliances will be used in intelligent clothing, with medical applications following later. Once commercial products are introduced, I expect to see clothing with signalization by using LEDs and sensors to track movements.”

This research is supported by the Agency for Innovation by Science and Technology in Flanders (IWT) through the SBO-BrainSTAR project.

Also read: IBM demos high-performance CMOS on flexible plastic substrates

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Flexible circuitry promises a host of innovative biomedical, security, wearable and other products. To date, flexible circuits have offered only limited performance because plastic substrates aren’t compatible with the high temperatures/harsh processes needed to make high-performance CMOS devices.

Some attempts have been made to fabricate high-performance CMOS on silicon substrates and then transfer the devices to plastic, but this has been complex and expensive. At the International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM), for the first time, a way around this will be unveiled. IBM researchers will demonstrate high-performance state-of-the-art CMOS circuits —including SRAM memory and ring oscillators—on a flexible plastic substrate. The image above is a photo of the final 100-mm-diameter flexible ETSOI circuit on plastic.

The extremely thin silicon on insulator (ETSOI) devices had a body thickness of just 60 angstroms. IBM built them on silicon and then used a simple, low-cost room-temperature process called controlled spalling, which essentially flakes off the Si substrate. Then they transferred them to flexible plastic tape.

The devices had gate lengths of <30 nm and gate pitch of 100 nm. The ring oscillators had a stage delay of just 16 ps at 0.9 V, believed to be the best reported performance for a flexible circuit. A slight degradation of delay for the flexible sample after the layer transfer comes from degradation of p-FET performance due to strain effects.

The image below is a cross-sectional view taken by a TEM electron microscope after selective removal of the residual silicon, confirming the structural integrity of the device.

 

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September 17, 2012 – CrossFiber, a San Diego, CA maker of photonic switches that incorporate microelectromechanical system (MEMS) technology, says it has completed the final tranche of a Series D round of funding, which closes totaling $13.4 million. Southern Cross Venture Partners led the funding round, with participation from New Venture Partners and Arsenal Venture Partners, as well as existing investors including Back Bay Management and PacifiCap.

The majority of the funds has been and will be used to rapidly expand manufacturing capacity for CrossFiber’s LiteSwitch family of photonic switches, according to the company. The LiteSwitch photonic switches combine 3D MEMS micro-mirrors on silicon, non-invasive beam steering (NIBS), and custom ASICs, for application in data centers and fiber-optic switching. The company says its proprietary methods create precisely positioned fiber and microlens arrays, yielding collimator arrays with good beam shape and low insertion loss.

Visit the MEMS Channel of Solid State Technology, and subscribe to our MEMS Direct e-newsletter!

The 58th annual International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) will take place December 10-12, 2012 at the San Francisco Hilton Union Square, preceded by a full day of Short Courses on Sunday, Dec. 9 and by a program of 90-minute afternoon tutorial sessions on Saturday, Dec. 8.

Highlights of the IEDM 2012 technical program, which comprises some 220 presentations, include Intel’s unveiling of its industry-leading trigate manufacturing technology; a plethora of advances in memory technologies from numerous companies; IBM’s demonstration of high-performance logic technology on flexible plastic substrates; continuing advances in the scaling of transistors to vanishingly small sizes, and breakthroughs in many other areas that will continue to move electronics technology forward.

“The IEDM can be a crystal ball looking into the future of technology evolution. Leading-edge technologies and novel devices reported at the conference will shine light on the industrial mainstream in the next three-to-five years,” said Tzu-Ning Fang, IEDM 2012 Publicity Chair and Senior Member, Technical Staff, at Spansion, Inc. “This year’s program shows a tremendous amount of work being done in emerging technologies, including novel materials such as molybdenum sulfide, new structures, 3D NAND memories, wider use of III-V materials, MRAM, nanowires and more.”

Besides the IEDM technical program, attendees will enjoy evening panel sessions, Short Courses, award presentations and other events, as follows:

90-Minute Tutorials — Saturday, Dec. 8

Back by popular demand for the second year, the IEDM will hold 90-minute tutorial sessions on emerging topics presented by experts in the fields. They are meant to bridge the gap between established textbook-level knowledge and the leading-edge research as presented during the conference. The tutorial sessions will be presented in parallel in two time slots. Advance registration is required.

2:45-4 p.m.

High Mobility Channel CMOS Transistors – Beyond Silicon by Shinichi Takagi, University of Tokyo

Fundamentals of GaN Based High Frequency Power Electronics by Tomas Palacios, M.I.T.

Spintronics for Embedded Non-Volatile Electronics by Tetsuo Endoh/Tohoku University and Arijit Roychowdhury/Intel

4:30-6:00

2D semiconductors – Fundamental Science and Device Physics by Ali Javey, University of California, Berkeley

Scaling Challenges of Analog Electronics at 32nm and Beyond by Mustafa Badaroglu/IMEC and Bram Nauta/University of Twente

Beyond Charge-Based Computing by Kaushik Roy, Purdue University

Short Courses — Sunday, Dec. 9

The IEDM offers two day-long short courses on Sunday, prior to the technical sessions. They provide the opportunity to learn about emerging areas and important developments, and to benefit from direct contact with expert lecturers. Advance registration is required. This year’s courses are:

Emerging Technologies for Post-14nm CMOS

Circuit and Technology Interaction

Plenary Presentations — Monday, Dec. 10

IEDM 2012 will open on Monday, Dec. 10 at 9 a.m. with three plenary talks:

Flexible Bio-Integrated Electronics by John A. Rogers, University of Illinois

State of the Art and Future Prospects in Display Technologies by Joo-Tae Moon, Senior VP, Director R&D Center, Samsung Display Company

Ultimate Transistor and Memory Technologies: Core of a Sustainable Society by Luc Van den hove, CEO and President IMEC

Emerging Technologies Session — Tuesday morning, Dec. 11

This year’s Emerging Technologies session is on the topic Spintronics: Magnetic Materials and Device Applications, organized by Stefan De Gendt of IMEC. Invited speakers from academia and industry will discuss the challenges, prospects and recent advances in spin-based technology, devices and systems. Following the discovery of the giant magnetoresistance (GMR) effect more than a decade ago, this field has witnessed a veritable revolution encompassing materials and physical phenomena. Electronic devices based on spin transport are expected to play a major role in future information and communication technologies, as spintronic devices will use the spin degree of freedom to store, transport and process information. Papers in this session are:

Spin Transport in Graphene: Fundamental Concepts and Practical Implications by Abdelmadjid Anane et al, Unité Mixte de Physique CNRS/Thales

Thermal Spin Transport and Applications by S. Y. Huang et al, Johns Hopkins/National Tsing Hua University/Academia Sinica

Progress of STT-MRAM Technology and the Effect on Normally-Off Computing Systems, by H. Yoda et al, Toshiba

 Spin Transport in Metal and Oxide Devices at the Nanoscale, by Subir Parui et al, Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials

Error Immunity Techniques for Nanomagnetic Logic, Brian Lambson et al, University of California, Berkeley/Lawrence Berkeley National Lab

Boolean and Non-Boolean Computation With Spin Devices, Mrigank Sharad et al, Purdue University

Luncheon Presentation — Tuesday, Dec. 11

The IEDM Luncheon presentation will be given by Ajit Manocha, CEO of GLOBALFOUNDRIES, Inc., on the topic Is the Fabless/Foundry Model Dead? We Don’t Think So. Long Live Foundry 2.0!

Evening Panel Sessions — Tuesday evening, Dec. 11

The IEDM will offer attendees two evening panel discussions. Audience participation is encouraged, with the goal of fostering an open and vigorous exchange of ideas. The panel topics are:

"Will Future Non-Volatile-Memory Contenders Disrupt NAND?" moderated by Al Fazio, Intel

 “The Mighty Little Transistor: FinFETs to the Finish or Another Radical Shift?” moderated by Suresh Venkatesan, GLOBALFOUNDRIES.

Entrepreneurs Lunch — Wednesday noon, Dec. 12

New for 2012 is an entrepreneurs lunch. The speaker will be Weili Dai, cofounder of Marvell Technology Group and Vice President and General Manager of Marvell’s Communications and Consumer Business. One of the most successful women entrepreneurs in the world, she was named No. 89 on the Forbes list of “The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women” earlier this year.

Further information

For registration and other information, interested persons should visit the IEDM 2012 home page at www.ieee-iedm.org.

September 14, 2012 – Now that the initial dust has settled after Apple’s debut of the new iPhone 5, industry watchers are taking a tally of which semiconductor suppliers stand to gain in the newest must-have smartphone.

Below is a quick tally of the key features and which suppliers likely benefit. (As usual teardown firms prepare their knives, TechInsights has cooked up a preliminary calculation of the iPhone 5’s bill-of-materials.)

— Dual-band WiFi. 4G LTE connectivity, which dramatically accelerates speeds vs. previous models This technology (similar to what the Kindle Fire now uses) increases test times at the module test level, which is a sweetspot for TER’s Litepoint business, points out Credit Suisse’s Satya Kumar. TER already indicated that this unit already saw a boost in 2Q12 attributable to both the iPhone 5 and Kindle Fire. Going forward, this likely means other smartphone vendors will adopt this technology, and eventually 802.11ac next year — both of which "are particularly test-intensive" and thus positives for TER, he notes.

Barclay’s CJ Muse, meanwhile, calls out Qualcomm’s 28nm 4G/LTE baseband and Broadcom’s 40nm WiFi combo chip.

— Upgrade to the A6 logic chip. Apple’s projections of nearly 300m iOS units for 2013 is such a sheer volume that "a seemingly benign metric like SoC die size for iPhone 5 [which is 95 mm2, 22% smaller than the A5] is actually meaningful enough to move the worldwide capex for semiconductor industry by 5% for every 10-sqmm variation," Kumar observes. He factors in 32nm capital intensity, Apple’s unit growth and die size, and determines that Apple’s chip partner Samsung could keep its logic capex spending flat in 2013 just to keep up with manufacturing the new A6 chips. (Apple also is using a dual-core ARM-A15 cores to run at 2× speed for the CPU, which Apple believes is better than Intel’s SoC core roadmap.

Barclays’ Muse points out that anything that means more 28/20nm chips means more litho-intensive processing, which "should benefit ASML disproportionally."

— More DRAM memory content, no extra NAND. DRAM content in the iPhone 5 is doubled to 1GB; Kumar actually had expected an increase in NAND content in the iPhone 5, but apparently Apple’s keeping it steady at 16-32-64GB, which underscores "the cautious commentary on wafer starts and capex from NAND companies," he writes. Among chip tool suppliers possibly affected, KLAC has higher exposure to logic/foundry and LRCX is more heavy into NAND than peers, but the extra DRAM content in the iPhone 5 likely makes up for that. Thus, the extra DRAM and no extra NAND means it’s "a wash" for suppliers.

— Upgraded to in-cell display technology. Putting touch sensors inside the panel, vs. adding a separate touch layer on top of the LCD panel, helps reduce the display’s thickness, which means the phone can be thinner or more features can be improved such as a bigger longer-life battery, explains Vinita Jakhanwal, director for small and medium displays at IHS iSuppli. LG, Sharp, and Japan Display are all potential suppliers of the in-cell display — if they can keep up with demand.

— Audio, antenna upgrades mean more sapphire. Sterne Agee’s Andrew Huang points to Cirrus Logic as a big beneficiary of a new "wideband audio" feature that can fill up more frequency spectrum to improve voice sound quality. Magnachip Semiconductor gets extra business tied to Cirrus Logic, points out Barclays’ Muse. Another winner is Corning, whose Gorilla Glass 2 is likely used as the cover glass for the iPhone 5, he says.

Huang also points out the iPhone 5’s increased used of sapphire, both as a camera lens cover and as the substrate (silicon-on-sapphire) for the antenna switch to automatically switch antenna connections, is a trend worth watching: "Within the next 12-18 months, we believe sapphire content per mobile phones could increase," he writes, suggesting eventually it might supplant the cover glass material. The silicon-on-sapphire trend likely benefits Rubicon (SoS wafer sapphire substrate supplier) and Peregrine Semiconductor (SoS switch component supplier). [Corrected 9/20: Soitec makes the actual SoS wafers for Peregrine.] "Our checks indicate that Rubicon supplies ~30-40% of the market for SoS wafers," he writes, and although a number of other ingot makers are currently getting qualified, "it is much more difficult to core, slice and polish SoS wafers, which suggests margins for SoS wafers are comparable, maybe even lower than those of LED wafers." Muse adds that Magnachip gets a foundry-biz boost from Peregrine, too.

September 6, 2012 – Sand 9, a Cambridge, MA-based provider of precision microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) products for wireless and wired applications, has secured a $3M investment from telecommunications giant Ericsson. According to a local media report, Sand 9 would not disclose whether its MEMS timing technology is already or being incorporated into Ericsson products, or whether this might be a prelude to a formal acquisition.

MEMS oscillators accounted for less than 1% of the $6.3B timing devices market $6.3B in 2011, according to Semico Research, but the firm projects a sparkling ~86% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for both MEMS oscillator sales and unit shipments over the next five years (2011-2016), mostly thanks to demand from smartphones. Compared with traditional quartz-based devices, MEMS oscillators can be made with semiconductor technology and thus their production can be scaled up to lower costs and extended to smaller process nodes, Semico explains. The technology also is programmable, so vendors can offer faster response times and improved inventory management.

Sand 9, which spun out of Boston University in 2008 with backing led by Khosla Ventures, says its MEMS timing technology is better than quartz crystal technologies, offering capability for integration and greater immunity to electromagnetic interference (EMI), vibration, noise, shock, and lead-free reflow temperatures. The devices feature piezoelectric actuation to achieve stringent phase noise and short-term stability, a spurious-free resonator design, and a low phase-noise oscillator resulting in low jitter to reduce packet loss and enhance network efficiency.

"Ericsson has a well-earned reputation as one of the world leaders in communications infrastructure and base station equipment," stated Vince Graziani, CEO of Sand 9. "Their investment in Sand 9 validates our emphasis on MEMS timing products that deliver high robustness, without sacrificing performance."

Earlier this summer the company raised $23 million in its Series C financing round, led by Intel Capital and with significant participation from Vulcan Capital, along with existing investors Commonwealth Capital Ventures, Flybridge Capital Partners, General Catalyst Partners, Khosla Ventures, and CSR. A previous equity funding drive launched in November 2011, targeted $6M in investments.

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September 5, 2012 – The recent partnership between Vectron International, Knowles Electronics, and SiTime could create a new force in the emerging market for MEMS timing devices, notes Semico Research.

Weeks ago Vectron and Knowles announced a partnership with SiTime to grow MEMS timing components in the frequency control products market. Under the deal, SiTime’s products will be rebranded by Vectron to its customers. Both Vectron, a decades-long leader in timing (but without a MEMS product) and Knowles (a leader in MEMS microphones) are part of Dover Corp. SiTime is a longtime leader in MEMS oscillators, notes Tony Massimini, Semico’s chief of technology.

Also consider: sales of timing devices totaled $6.3B in 2011, but MEMS oscillators accounted for less than 1% of that. Semico projects a sparkling ~86% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for both MEMS oscillator sales and unit shipments over the next five years (2011-2016), mostly thanks to demand from smartphones. Put it all together and it looks like a big market opportunity.

MEMS oscillators can be made with semiconductor technology, and thus their production can be scaled up to lower costs and to shrink the technology — both of which are advantages vs. traditional quartz-based devices, Semico explains. MEMS oscillators are also programmable, so vendors can offer faster response times and improved inventory management.

Adding the name-recognition and reputation of Knowles and Vectron will add credibility to the message of educating customers about MEMS oscillators, notes Massimini. (There’s also a barrier to entry in that it takes four years or more to develop and bring to market one’s own MEMS oscillator, so partnerships or M&A makes sense.)

Semico’s recent report, "The time has come for MEMS oscillators," examines key end-use markets for the devices, key and emerging players, and projections for units and sales.