Category Archives: MEMS

June 20, 2012 — A major high-volume micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS) maker has purchased a FOGALE nanotech T-MAP DUAL 3D 200A metrology tool for its US manufacturing facility. The tool will be equipped with 2 load ports and will be fully automated.

The T-MAP DUAL 3D will perform thickness, total thickness variation (TTV) and stress measurement.

With the microscopy capability, the tool will also perform in-plane registration and out-of-the-plane registration for wafer bonding alignment process control. A new out-of-the-plane overlay metrology enables 0.1µm accuracy.

The tool will also be able to measure critical dimensions (CDs) and the depth of high-aspect-ratio cavities.

FOGALE also recently installed T-MAP DUAL 3D metrology at SPTS, a leader in deep reactive ion etch (DRIE) and plasma etching process tools. SPTS will use the T-MAP DUAL 3D 300M for its application lab in Newport, Wales to perform metrology on through silicon via (TSV) formations.

FOGALE T-MAP DUAL 3D technology was also qualified by a major Korean IDM for back-side wafer processing from temporary wafer bonding to TSV reveal.

FOGALE nanotech provides high-accuracy dimensional metrology tools. FOGALE nanotech provides process control and characterization solutions for MEMS and semiconductor manufacturers and labs around the world. Learn more at www.fogale-semicon.com.

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June 20, 2012 — In mid-2011, semiconductor manufacturing and assembly equipment supplier Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) acquired Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates Inc. Now, the company is adding Varian’s former CEO Gary Dickerson as president.

Dickerson will be responsible for the day-to-day operation and performance of the company’s four business units: the Silicon Systems Group, Energy and Environmental Solutions, Display and Applied Global Services. He will report directly to Mike Splinter, chairman and chief executive officer.

Dickerson brings more than 30 years of semiconductor industry experience. "Gary is a seasoned and respected leader who brings a wealth of industry knowledge and an impressive track record of delivering winning products, high customer satisfaction and strong financial performance," said Mike Splinter.

Dickerson spent 7 years as CEO of Varian Semiconductor, during which time the company delivered record revenue and profits and ranked high in customer satisfaction.

Prior to Varian, Dickerson spent 18 years at KLA-Tencor Corporation (KLAC) where he held a variety of operations and product development roles before being appointed COO in 1999 and then president and COO in 2002.  Dickerson started his semiconductor career in manufacturing and engineering management at General Motors’ Delco Electronics Division and AT&T Technologies.

Dickerson has a BS degree in Engineering Management from the University of Missouri, Rolla and an MBA from the University of Missouri, Kansas City.

Applied Materials, Inc. (Nasdaq:AMAT) provides equipment, services and software to enable the manufacture of advanced semiconductor, flat panel display and solar photovoltaic products. Learn more at www.appliedmaterials.com.

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Driven by the volume consumer business, the maturing MEMS sector starts to look at ways to reduce costs and speed time to market by coming together on things like easing integration, common test methods, and tool replacement parts. Fast-moving high-volume markets may also drive MEMS makers toward paring down the vast diversity of  processes and packages used, and into more collaboration on a mature ecosystem.

June 19, 2012 — The micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS) sector is poised for a multiyear period of steady double digit growth, with 20% average annual increases in unit demand, as systems makers find ever more uses for low cost, easy-to-integrate silicon sensors and actuators, reports Jean Christophe Eloy, founder and CEO of Yole Développement.  That means that even with steady price declines, the MEMS market will double, to reach $21 billion by 2017.  Volume consumer markets are driving much of this growth, as consumer applications accounted for more than 50% of total MEMS industry revenue in 2011.  “But growth will depend in part on how well MEMS makers manage to make these devices easier to use,” he notes. “A strong collective push will be needed to create a MEMS ecosystem to simplify the integration of MEMS into larger modules and systems, enabling non-specialists to use them without a steep learning curve.”

Measuring the same things in the same way

In another sign of the growing maturity of the MEMS industry, there’s been some real progress on agreement on measuring the same things in the same ways, to be able to compare results and agree on dimensional and property specifications. 

The US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is working with the MEMS community towards standard measurement methods for eight key parameters, to allow validation of in-house measurements, and enable meaningful comparisons of parameters measured by different tools, different labs, or different companies, to ease characterizing and trouble-shooting processes, calibrating instruments, and communicating among partners.

NIST will start to offer MEMS test chips with cantilevers, fixed-fixed beams, and structures for measuring step height, in-plane length and thickness, with reference data for parameters such as Young’s modulus, residual strain, strain gradient, step height and in-plane length and thickness measured on these structures by NIST, using SEMI and ASTM standard test methods, the consensus best practices developed by industry committees at these organizations.  Companies can then validate their own measurements on these chips against those made by NIST, supported by a user guide, the data analysis sheets for each measurement, a MEMS parameter calculator and additional information accessible online via the NIST Data Gateway (http://srdata.nist.gov/gateway/) with the keyword “MEMS Calculator”. 

At least one inspection and metrology equipment supplier is considering supplying the test chips and including software to automate running of the standard tests with its tools.

“We want to work with the MEMS community to facilitate widespread adoption and consistent usage of these standard test methods, and to make the reference materials available to as many people as possible,” says Janet Cassard, electronics engineer in NIST’s Semiconductor and Dimensional Metrology Division, who will explain these tools at the MEMS session at SEMICON West. “Developing the best practices and reference materials are typically prohibitively expensive for a single company to invest in on its own.”

The reference materials measure Young’s modulus, residual stress and stress gradient using the method in SEMI MS4, step height and thickness with SEMI MS2, residual strain with ASTM E 2245, strain gradient with ASTM E 2246, and in-plane length with ASTM E 2244. One test chip covers  material and dimensional properties for a composite oxide layer fabricated in a multi-user 1.5 µm CMOS process followed by a bulk-micromachining etch.  The other uses a polysilicon layer fabricated in a polysilicon multi-user surface-micromachining MEMS process with a backside etch. 

Maturing industry may move towards more commonality

Consumer markets, with their fast product iterations and price pressures, may be driving MEMS makers towards more common platforms and consistent package families to speed time to market and reduce costs.  “The high cost of packaging and test is a big challenge for the industry,” notes Micralyne director of strategic technology Peter Hrudey. “So we, as a MEMS community, should be starting the discussion about ways to increase commonality.”  He suggests the best near term possibility could be cooperative co-funding of research for base technology for emerging market needs. Could something like the model employed for the ARM common platform, licensed at reasonable rates for wide use and then further individually enhanced by users be a model for MEMS?   Or perhaps a combination of equipment makers and product designers can drive a move toward process commonality.  As product designers better understand the process characteristics they can design for manufacture more effectively, while the equipment manufacturers may tend toward increasing commonality through a desire to meet the needs of the biggest MEMS manufacturers.  “In a maturing industry the base technology becomes more common. No one player can drive the entire market forward on their own,” he notes.

Keeping legacy tools up and running by identifying common needs

Volume manufacture also means the MEMS industry will need start to think more about keeping its legacy equipment up and running.  While most parts can be relatively easily replaced with something similar, replacing the obsolete printed circuit boards that fail is more of a problem, especially for the more complex boards in 200mm tools that can no longer be fixed in house.  “The aftermarket of scavenged boards of unknown quality, unknown software version, and unknown availability is not a functional supply chain,” says SEMATECH ISMI obsolescent equipment program manager Bill Ross. “Plus chopping it up for parts takes a 200mm tool out of the available inventory forever.”

To help keep the 200mm tool base viable for the wider semiconductor industry, ISMI aims to facilitate the re-manufacture of critical boards, by identifying the key parts needs, then bringing together the original tool makers who have the IP but no longer support the parts, and potential re-manufacturers who could then make the needed quantities of the boards, if they had license to the IP and a market of potential users.  The organization is also setting up an online exchange for its members to speed the search for needed legacy parts.  Ross and others will be discussing this and other legacy tool issues in the Secondary Market session Wednesday afternoon, July 11 at SEMICON West.

These speakers from Yole, NIST and Micralyne join those from Hanking Electronics, IDT, Teledyne DALSA, Coventor, Applied Materials, Nikon and Scannano to talk about solutions for growing the MEMS sector to the next level at SEMICON West, July 10-12 in San Francisco. See http://semiconwest.org/Segments/MEMS for the complete agenda, and http://semiconwest.org/Participate/RegisterNow to register.

More on SEMICON West:

SEMICON West 2012 exhibits preview: Wafer processing and handling

SEMICON West preview: Conference keynotes and "Extreme Electronics"

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June 19, 2012 — Plasma etch and deposition processing system maker Oxford Instruments Plasma Technology won an order for its recently launched PlasmaPro Estrelas100 deep silicon etch tool from the University of Toronto.

The PlasmaPro Estrelas100 deep silicon etch tool offers flexibility for R&D uses. It forms nano and micro structures via Bosch and cryo etch technologies in the same chamber. It performs smooth sidewall processes and high-etch-rate cavity etches without changing the chamber hardware.

UToronto will use the system in its Emerging Communications Technology Institute (ECTI) in the central micro- and nanofabrication facility, serving academic research and development needs, as well as training functions. Professor Yu Sun, Director of ECTI, cited the PlasmaPro Estrelas100’s equipment quality, performance and capabilities, as well as system support.

The PlasmaPro Estrelas100 will be used for collaborative research with strategic partners in key research areas, including nanotechnology and nanofabrication, photonic materials and devices, micro- and nano-electromechanical systems (M/NEMS), biotechnology, micro- and nano-electronic devices, integrated optics, and photovoltaic devices.

The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) funded the purchase and commissioning of important tools including deep reactive ion etch (DRIE) and other tools for the Centre for Microfluidic Systems in Chemistry and Biology.

Oxford Instruments provides high-technology tools and systems for research and industry. The company designs and manufactures equipment that can fabricate, analyze and manipulate matter at the atomic and molecular level. Learn more at www.oxford-instruments.com.

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June 19, 2012 – BUSINESS WIRE — Timing device maker Sand 9 Inc. raised $23 million in its Series C financing round, led by Intel Capital and with significant participation from Vulcan Capital.

Sand 9 will use the Series C capital to “migrate from research and development toward shipping product into the market,” said Vince Graziani, CEO, Sand 9, who plans to commercialize the first Sand 9 product, ramp volume production, and rapidly expand the company’s product portfolio.

Intel Capital and Vulcan Capital join existing investors Commonwealth Capital Ventures, Flybridge Capital Partners, General Catalyst Partners, Khosla Ventures and CSR.

In November 2011, Sand 9 held an equity funding round, aiming for $6 million. Earlier that year, the company bolstered its Board with Skyworks EVP Greg Waters to plan for commercial launch.

Sand 9’s timing devices for wired and wireless applications use micro electro mechanical system (MEMS) technology to ensure synchronicity and stable operation in complex electronic devices. Sand 9’s MEMS timing device platform reportedly achieves stringent phase noise and short-term stability requirements. The spurious-free resonator design can enhance network efficiency due to reduced packet loss. The components offer high immunity to noise and shock and withstand high lead-free reflow temperatures. They challenge the conventional temperature compensated crystal oscillators (TCXO) for applications from smartphones and tablets to industrial test and measurement systems and communications infrastructure equipment.

Semico Research recently reported the MEMS oscillator market at <1% of the total timing market of $6.3 billion. Sand 9’s “drop-in replacement and technical benefits over established silicon quartz crystal timing devices,” will capture market share from the legacy quartz components,” said Tony Massimini, chief of technology, Semico Research.  

Intel Capital noted the limitations of quartz timing products in adding Sand 9 to its portfolio, said David Flanagan, managing director, Intel Capital, who added that Sand 9 MEMS components could make mobile devices easier to design and manufacture, as well as improving the end-product’s performance. As part of the funding, Intel Capital appointed Dr. Siva Sivaram, an industry veteran with significant semiconductor process and operational experience as well as founder and CEO of Twin Creeks Technologies, Inc., to join the Sand 9 Board of Directors.

Intel Capital, Intel’s global investment and M&A organization, makes equity investments in innovative technology start-ups and companies worldwide. For more information on Intel Capital, visit www.intelcapital.com.

Sand 9 offers a precision MEMS technology platform that enhances quality and performance, simplifies system design, and promotes space and power savings in integrated electronic systems. For more information on Sand 9, visit www.sand9.com.

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June 14, 2012 — Micro electro mechanical system (MEMS) oscillators are poised for steep growth in the next few years, says Semico. MEMS represented only 1.4% of all oscillator and clock generator circuits in 2011, but by the end of 2012, Semico expects to see at least a dozen vendors.

Semico projects the 2011-2016 CAGR for MEMS oscillators will be 85.6%, approaching $1.2 billion by 2016, with the market taking off in 2013. Established companies will leverage existing applications those with innovative designs will target key high-growth markets.

Also read: MEMS oscillators occupy 1% of timing market, but lure more makers

A MEMS oscillator may be secondary to system designers, who look more to microprocessors and SoCs, but the timing circuit is an important enabling technology that ties together the entire system design. Semico foresees the main driving markets for MEMS oscillators will be portable applications such as smart phones, tablets and ultrabooks. These are fast-changing designs that can benefit from the advantages offered by MEMS oscillators: lower cost, lower power consumption, and smaller thinner packages.

There are currently over 50 crystal oscillator suppliers worldwide, and some will pursue a MEMS-based product line. More MEMS oscillator vendors will emerge over the next few years, with some raising funds (like Sand9), and others being acquired (like VTI). A MEMS oscillator vendor needs to deliver on reliability, performance, cost and the right package for an application while marketing their product aggressively to overcome the entrenched position of quartz oscillators.

Semico is a semiconductor marketing & consulting research company. For more information, visit www.semico.com.

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June 13, 2012 — MicroSense LLC, maker of high-resolution capacitive position sensors, metrology modules, and high-sensitivity magnetic metrology tools, acquired SigmaTech Inc., developer of high-sensitivity metrology tools for light-emitting diode (LED), micro electro mechanical system (MEMS), and semiconductor manufacturing.

“SigmaTech’s customers and prospects will continue to be supported by the existing SigmaTech employees, all of whom will stay with the combined business,” said James Pelusi, Chairman and CEO of MicroSense.

MicroSense gains leading-edge wafer inspection tools for its metrology portfolio, with systems that integrate optical spectrometry, interferometry, SigmaTech’s patented auto-positioning back pressure (APBP) technology and other sensing tools. MicroSense will integrate its capacitance sensors into SigmaTech metrology platforms. SigmaTech took the 2011 Best of West award at SEMICON West. The MicroSense high-resolution capacitive sensor technology provides “an ideal path to increasing throughput” of SigmaTech metrology systems and expanding its applications, said Jacques Fauque, semiconductor industry veteran and founder of SigmaTech who will remain with the business and continue to lead its development.

MicroSense’s capacitive sensors enable precise, high-bandwidth measurements of solar wafers, hard disk drive (HDD) motors, air bearing spindles, precision X-Y stages, optical disks, automotive parts and machine tools. Leading equipment manufacturers around the world use MicroSense capacitive sensors in wafer lithography systems, solar wafer sorters, autofocus mechanisms, nanopositioning stages, metrology tools and flat panel display manufacturing equipment.

MicroSense supplies capacitive sensors, metrology modules, and magnetic metrology tools. Learn more at www.microsense.net.

SigmaTech offers automated metrology solutions for a broad range of standard and specific applications in the field of semiconductor wafers, materials and optics. SigmaTech has multiple system installations at many of the world’s leading semiconductor manufacturing companies and stands at the forefront of the dimensional wafer metrology industry. SigmaTech currently offers multiple gauging technologies that can be implemented to provide the optimal solution for virtually any customer application. Learn more at http://www.sigma9600.com/.

June 12, 2012 — Semiconductor sensor sales will grow 18% in 2012 to a record $5.7 billion, and continue double-digit growth rates and record-high revenues each year through 2016. The catalyst for growth is embedded features that let sensors automatically control and protect themselves, understand movement, detect changes around them, and support new user interfaces, shows IC Insights’ 2012 Optoelectronics, Sensors/Actuators, and Discretes (O-S-D) Report.

Annual sensors sales declined only once (2% in 2009) since the late 1990s, which was followed by a 53% surge in 2010 and 21% in 2011. Between 2011 and 2016, worldwide sensor sales will increase by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18%, to $10.9 billion in 2016.

Figure. Trajectory of sensor sales 2008-2016. SOURCE: IC Insights.

Within the sensor market segment, accelerometers and gyroscope devices (i.e., acceleration and yaw sensors) continue to be the largest and fastest-growing product category, with dollar volumes projected to increase by a 20% CAGR to $5.9 billion in 2016 compared to $2.4 billion in 2011.  Sales of magnetic-field sensors, such as Hall-effect devices and electronic compass chips, will grow by a CAGR of 16% to $2.7 billion in 2016 from $1.3 billion in 2011, according to IC Insights’ new O-S-D Report.  Pressure sensor sales are expected to rise by a 15% CAGR to $2.0 billion in 2016, from about $1.0 billion in 2011.

Accelerometers and gyroscope devices, along with most pressure sensors, use micro electro mechanical system (MEMS) structures to measure and detect changes around them. MEMS-based devices now account for about 70% of total sensor revenues compared to 54% in 2005. MEMS-based sensors sales will grow at a 19% CAGR 2011-2016, shows IC Insights.

Sensors are part of a broader semiconductor market segment that also includes actuators, such as micro-mirror devices, surface-acoustic wave (SAW) filters, microfluidic chips, inkjet nozzle components, and other MEMS-based products that initiate physical actions from electronic signals.  Sensor sales accounted for 56% of this market’s overall sales in 2011, while actuators represented 44%, or $3.7 billion, last year. MEMS-based actuator sales are expected to grow by a CAGR of 15% to $7.5 billion in 2016, according to the new O-S-D Report’s five-year forecast.

The 2012 edition of the O-S-D Report provides detailed analysis of trends and growth rates in the optoelectronics, sensors/actuators, and discretes market segments. The seventh annual edition of the report contains a detailed forecast of sales, unit shipments, and selling prices for more than 30 individual product types and categories through 2016. Access IC Insights’ new and existing market research products and services please visit our website: www.icinsights.com.

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June 12, 2012 — In the presence of his Royal highness Prince Philip of Belgium, Tohoku University (Sendai, Japan) and imec signed a collaboration agreement during the Belgian economic mission to Japan. Under the agreement, Tohoku University and imec will work closely together in various common areas of research, learning from each other’s expertise and leveraging each other’s strengths.

The collaboration agreement sets the framework for future collaboration projects between imec and Tohoku University where students, research staff, and professors will be exchanged between both organizations. Moreover, the agreement enables the exchange of samples between imec and Tohoku University, and sets the lines for joint research on specific topics. In the past five years, the 2 partners already collaborated on advanced interconnects, micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS) packaging and low-power sensor circuit readout design. In the future, the collaboration will be expanded to magnetic random access memory (MRAM) process technology, 3D integration technology, biosensors and wireless communication.

Imec aims to set up strategic collaborative relationships with world-class universities that excel in research areas where imec is also conducting studies, and where collaboration is mutually beneficial. The collaboration will also benefit from imec’s state-of-the-art 200 mm and 300 mm cleanroom facilities.

News courtesy of Kelly Chadwick, Optoiq.com.

June 8, 2012 — MicroGen Systems Inc. chose X-FAB Semiconductor Foundries to produce MicroGen’s first micro electro mechanical system (MEMS) energy harvesters.

X-FAB recently expanded its MEMS fab capabilities at its Germany headquarters.

Dr. Robert Andosca, CEO and cofounder of MicroGen, called the selection process for a foundry partner “exhaustive” and praised X-FAB’s technical capabilities, processes and capacity. MicroGen Systems recently received a new NYSERDA grant to scale the technology into mass production and initial product launches.

The process transfer is underway and volume production will begin in the first half of 2013. 
MicroGen Systems, Inc. is developing and bringing to market a suite of products based on its proprietary piezoelectric vibrational energy harvester (PZEH) technology, micro-power sources that extend rechargeable battery lifetime or eliminate the need for batteries.

X-FAB is an analog/mixed-signal foundry group manufacturing silicon wafers for analog-digital integrated circuits (mixed-signal ICs). X-FAB maintains wafer production facilities in Erfurt and Dresden, Germany; Lubbock, TX; and Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia with approximately 2,400 employees worldwide. For more information, visit www.xfab.com.

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