June 7, 2012 — Day 3 of the 15th IITC (International Interconnect Technology Conference) opened Wednesday, June 6 at the Doubletree Hotel in San Jose, CA under clear sunny skies and a pleasant breeze. The herd thinned a bit, down to ~150 hearty souls from the original 230 the prior two days.
Subramanian Iyer of IBM started the day with an invited talk on scaling in the 3rd dimension (not to be confused with The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension) and prospects for silicon interposers and 3D integration. His retrospective introduction harkened back to IBM
June 7, 2012 — Bosch GmbH Automotive Electronics of Germany retained its position as the world’s top supplier of automotive micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS) in 2011, according to an IHS iSuppli Automotive MEMS report.
Overall 2011 revenue for automotive MEMS sensors amounted to $2.24 billion, up 14% from $1.96 billion in 2010. Growth occurred despite a disrupted supply chain in the aftermath of natural disasters last year in Japan and Thailand, with expansion in the next two years to be driven by government mandates in the United States and Europe for electronic stability control (ESC) and tire-pressure monitoring systems (TPMS).
The automotive MEMS Top 10 enjoyed combined revenues in 2011 of more than $2.0 billion, up 11% from $1.8 billion the year before. Together the top 10 accounted for 91% of the market.
Table. Top 10 automotive MEMS manufacturer by revenues ($M). SOURCE: IHS iSuppli Research, June 2012
Rank
Company
2011 revenue
2010 revenue
Y/Y growth
1
Bosch
$625
$524
19%
2
Denso
$286
$263
9%
3
Panasonic
$202
$181
12%
4
Freescale
$191
$190
1%
5
Sensata
$190
$153
24%
6
Analog Devices
$161
$136
18%
7
Infineon
$139
$117
19%
8
VTI
$103
$76
36%
Tie: 9 & 10
GE Sensing
$64
$57
12%
Delphi
$64
$62
3%
Total Top 10
$2,025
$1,759
11%
Booking $625 million in revenue last year, Bosch’s 19% expansion from $524 million in 2010 outpaced the 14% growth of the automotive MEMS industry as a whole. It was also $339 million ahead of the #2 supplier, Denso Corp., which grew 9% to post revenue of $286 million in 2011.
“Bosch’s success last year can be credited to its internal captive market, which promoted stable revenue and visibility into future demand for the company,” said Richard Dixon, principal analyst for MEMS & sensors at IHS. “Bosch is a major player in the dominant auto MEMS markets — being the No. 1 supplier overall in MEMS sensor shipments for ESC systems in vehicles; as well as supplying the highest combined total of related automotive MEMS sensors such as accelerometers, gyroscopes and pressure sensors. Bosch’s performance was also boosted by a rapidly growing airbag market in China, along with a surge in demand for frontal and side airbags in the United States, where especially stringent testing is needed for side impacts of vehicle doors, unlike in Europe or anywhere else in the world.”
Denso is the major supplier in its domestic Japanese market, with a diverse customer base that also includes almost half of Toyota’s auto MEMS business. Denso as a concern reported heavy declines in sales in the second quarter of last year after the Japan earthquake-tsunami disaster in March, but managed to recoup its losses during the next quarter. Denso is a top supplier of MEMS sensors of automotive heating/ventilation/air conditioning (HVAC) systems, as well as satellite airbag accelerometers and oil-pressure sensors. Nonetheless, Denso’s growth during the last two years has been relatively subdued compared to the rest of the auto MEMS market, because of an overly strong yen against the US dollar hindered exports.
Moving up a spot to #3 in 2011 was Panasonic, with revenue of $202 million, up 12% from $181 million in 2010. Most of Panasonic’s sales came from its automotive gyroscope business, reflecting a narrower focus compared to that of the leading two companies. However, Panasonic is the undisputed leader in in-dash navigation gyroscopes and ranks a very close second to Bosch in gyroscopes needed for ESC systems. The two devices are the highest-priced components in the automotive MEMS space. Panasonic is no longer the sole supplier of yaw rate sensors to European Tier 1 Continental, and in the future will see increased competition from VTI on combo-packaged inertial sensors for ESC systems.
Freescale Semiconductor dropped down one place to #4 with automotive MEMS revenue of $191 million, in a near tie with #5 Sensata. Freescale is the leading supplier of satellite airbag accelerometers, even though it temporarily lost share in that market last year as a result of earthquake damage to its Sendai facility in Japan. Sensata concentrates MEMS production on pressure sensors, and is #1 in high-pressure applications like brake and common fuel rail sensing, using its silicon piezoresistive sensors that are glass-bonded to steel substrates. Sensata also had the second-highest yearly growth rate of 24%, ahead of even top-ranked Bosch.
Among the remaining Top 10, growth ranged from an anemic 3% at Delphi to 36% for VTI, thanks to VTI’s strong position in ESC accelerometers. Infineon and Analog Devices Inc. joined Bosch, Sensata and VTI in recording growth rates higher than the industry average, while GE Sensing had slightly below-average expansion of 12%.
Fuji Electric fell just outside the top 10, with overall revenue of $30 million.
Learn more about this topic with the forthcoming IHS iSuppli report entitled: “Fat Years Ahead for Automotive MEMS Sensors.” For more information, visit the MEMS & sensors research product page at http://goo.gl/bDmQY. IHS (NYSE: IHS) is a leading source of information, insight and analytics in critical areas that shape today’s business landscape. Learn more at www.ihs.com.
June 6, 2012 — Ali Sebt, CEO of Renesas Electronics America, keynoted Day 2 of Solid State Technology’s The ConFab 2012, an invitation-only meeting of the semiconductor industry. Here, he discusses the role of inexpensive sensors and microcontrollers in energy savings with editor-in-chief Pete Singer.
We can no longer consider electronics and equipment “On/Off,” Sebt said. The demand for natural resources is skyrocketing, machines and equipment are being deployed at the individual level, and the global population is growing. To meet power consumption and intelligent environmental needs, we need sensors, Sebt said.
Sensors for humidity, sound, light, and more have become more affordable, and low-power semiconductors are supporting these sensors. Microcontrollers can modulate energy consumption based on sensor input.
Renesas is advocating for these low-cost microcontrollers to be used in new buildings and new equipment to start, avoiding higher retrofitting costs.
June 5, 2012 — Day 2 of The ConFab, Solid State Technology’s invitation-only meeting of the semiconductor industry, opened in Las Vegas with Ali Sebt, CEO of Renesas Electronics America, delivering “Smart Society, the Sensing Era and Signal Chain.” Sebt addressed how the semiconductor industry can support this smart society emerging around us, and help it grow. Start with a focus on the complete signal chain — from analog to digital to low power to the software intelligence — and we’ll end up with the next generation of connectivity for a smarter world.
The trend toward “Smart Society” is emerging from the home and office to our cities and the grids that power them, Sebt said. “Smart” in this case refers to any object or place that is connected to the Internet, and is sometimes called the “Internet of Things.” We live in a world where people interact with their electronics more efficiently, more conveniently, more safely, and with greater intelligence and intuition, Sebt said, and we also pay close attention to energy consumption. From the era of stationary personal computers, we moved into an era of networked connectivity, with more focus on performance than energy consumption. As the mobile era emerges, and the Internet of Things grows, battery life and energy consumption are front of mind at tuned-in semiconductor companies.
Low-power ICs are the pillars on which Smart Society is built. Low-leakage transistors have been a focus at Renesas since the 1980s, Sebt notes, but today, the ability of our electronics to intelligently interpret the analog world is just as important.
A network of sensing elements helps make this possible. Sensor fusion combines pressure, light, directional, and other sensory inputs into meaningful capabilities for users. This network of smart detectors uses “The Signal Chain” to handle the analog-to-digital conversion, signal conditioning and digital control necessary to process sensed data and arrive at an intelligent decision. Sebt mentioned camera-integrated infrared occupancy sensors that can detect radiating body heat to assist emergency responders in visually obscured situations as just 1 example of the pervasive network of sensors enabling today’s society. Consider the smart home, wherein these IR occupancy sensors are combined with temperature and humidity sensors for comfort, air quality sensors alerting occupants to the presence of CO2 and volatile organic compounds, and light sensors for energy control and security. With intelligent control electronics, these sensors can be combined and networked for applications impossible as stand-alone devices. Microcontrollers make the sensors meaningful and efficient. Sebt developed this idea further with a discussion of commercial buildings, and considered other examples such as supporting electric vehicle batteries and smart energy metering for power generation and storage/distribution.
Sebt then turned his focus to security in the connected Smart Society. The minute you add connectivity to an embedded system, you expose that system to malicious hackers, unauthorized users, and denial-of-service attackers, he said. Immediately, authentication becomes a must-have feature.
Video interview with Ali Sebt and Solid State Technology chief editor Pete Singer
June 5, 2012 — Semiconductor supplier STMicroelectronics (ST, NYSE:STM) is now mass manufacturing its micro electro mechanical system (MEMS) microphones in plastic packages. Plastic packaging increases durability for consumer and professional end-use sectors, in mobile phones, tablets, headphones and more. The technology also saves space in the device compared to metal-lid MEMS packaging.
ST says that its microphone assembly process ensures good electrical and acoustic performance and mechanical robustness. The MEMS microphones integrate an internal shielding cage from electromagnetic immunity. Plastic packages proved better than metal-lid designs in compression and drop tests, withstanding a 40N force and 40 drops from 1.5m with a static force of 15N on the package.
The plastic package offers a slimmer form factor, advancing the microphone chip size reduction to 2mm2. This is a step on the path to MEMS microphones embedded in silicon cavities, said ST. Also read:MEMS microphones shrink to grow market share
ST’s MEMS microphones can be assembled on flat-cable printed circuit boards (PCBs) or rigid PCBs, with the sound hole designed in the package to either appear on the top or bottom for the shortest acoustic path from the environment to the microphone. Top-port microphones suit the size and sound-inlet position requirements of laptops and tablets; bottom-port microphones are common in mobile phones. The packages can be placed with standard surface mount assembly equipment.
The microphones can be used with ST’s Smart Voice processors for multi-microphone applications and Sound Terminal audio processing chips. ST supplies semiconductors and MEMS to customers in sense and power technologies and multimedia convergence applications. Further information on ST can be found at www.st.com.
June 5, 2012 — Chip scaling will go on for the foreseeable future, enabling new product with more compute power, more memory, faster on-chip communication. That was one of the conclusions put forth by imec’s An Steegen, speaking on technology trends at The ConFab 2012. Steegen is Senior Vice President Process Technology Development at imec, where she has the responsibility for the technical leadership and execution of IMEC’s CORE Program activities in the areas of devices, process, lithography and design and CMORE activities such as MEMS, Power, Sensors and Photonics.
She began by outlining the requirements for future applications, noting that, at a very high level, people want everything. “You want high speed, you want to increase battery lifetime, more data storage, multi-functionality, all at a reduced cost,” she said. “You also want heterogeneous integration, and of course, it all needs to fit into a handheld device.”
She said designers today are using a lot of techniques such as parallelism and dynamic voltage switching to work within a battery lifetime constraint. “The challenge here is going to be the active leakage current. What this means for your future technology is that you basically have to put leakage as a constraint, which will automatically pin the performance,” Steegen said. She noted that this constraint is only for mobile devices, and isn’t a problem for wired devices such as servers. This means CMOS development will evolve in two directions, one for wireless and the other for wired.
Steegen said technology scaling is the key, and that’s still driven by Moore’s Law, which dictates that the number of transistors in an integrated circuit has to double every two years to offset the ever increasing R&D cost. “The technology knobs for system scaling are the famous four: power, performance, area and cost (PPAC),” she said.
Area is still very much lithography enabled, Steegen noted, presenting a chart showing the key dimensions of a transistor from 28nm technology down to a 10nm CMOS — the three key dimensions are the gate pitch, CPP, the metal 1 pitch and the finFET pitch. “What you need to scale the area for each technology from generation to generation is 50%, so each of these key dimensions will have to shrink by 0.7X. If today at 28nm, your gate pitch is 110nm, we will push that down to 40nm in the 10nm node. Another one to remember is the 42nm finFET pitch,” Steegen explained.
It’s not only the dimensions of the transistor that have been pushed over the last decade, it’s also the overlay, the layer-to-layer accuracy in device patterning. “If you look at the trends here, when the industry was working with 1 micron technology, a 300nm overlay spec was still doable. When you go into the more advanced nodes like 20nm, 5nm overlay is definitely what you need if not less,” she said.
In another graphic, she focused the audience’s attention on the red line, the logic scaling line, and need need for 43nm finFETs. That equates to a half pitch of 20-22nm. “That means you’re in this dark gray box which basically tells you which tool is going to be needed to print this technology. You’re clearly already in the area of EUV. If you don’t use EUV here, you come automatically back to the 193nm immersion tools where you multi patterning to print the layers for these technologies.”
Steegen said one of the key challenges we’re facing right now is EUV tool readiness for the 14nm node. “A lot of effort is being spent right now on EUV readiness and on the source power readiness,” she said. Showing a photo of ASML’s 3100 EUV pre-production tool at imec, she said “That tool is able to do great things. We were able to print 16nm half-pitch lines and spaces with a single exposure. Also, the overlay ability of this tool is very promising, with 3 sigma overlay specs below 2nm.”
June 4, 2012 — The ConFab’s sessions opened with “The Economic Outlook for the Semiconductor Industry,” featuring Jackie Sturm of Intel, Dan Hutcheson of VLSIresearch, and Jim Feldhan of Semico. The ConFab is an invitation-only meeting of the semiconductor industry, taking place this week in Las Vegas.
Jackie Sturm is VP of the Technology and Manufacturing Group and GM of Global Sourcing and Procurement at Intel Corporation. She focused on bright spots of growth in a mature semiconductor industry. She also urged attendees to consider factors outside of the semiconductor industry — gross domestic product (GDP) around the world, disposable income, etc. — when forecasting. Jim Feldhan, president of research and analysis firm Semico, shared Sturm’s view on macroeconomic factors, listing jobs growth, consumer spending as a percentage of GDP, and the inflation rate as factors impacting chip sales.
Intel’s Jackie Sturm presenting at The ConFab 2012 in Las Vegas.
Emerging markets like Brazil, India, China, etc. all present vastly different consumer habits and refresh cycles than mature markets like the US and Western Europe. They also have varying saturation of consumer goods like PCs and smartphones. Expect rapid adoption for these consumer electronics from Eastern Europe, Latin America, and China. Semico has lowered its 2012 world GDP growth forecast from 4.5% to 4.2%, considering drivers like emerging markets, US and European economies, and growth in China and India.
Exponential growth is expected in data server demand, Sturm noted, thanks to increased time spent, and available content, online. Photo and video up/downloads increase every year. New applications like tablets and music/video players are driving NAND Flash memory bit growth, pointed out Feldhan.
Semiconductor sales are on an upward trajectory for the remainder of 2012, Feldhan says, after a dip in late 2011/early 2012. Semiconductor revenues could be up by 9% this year.
Semico’s IPI shows semiconductor industry trajectory.
Growth applications include ultrabooks, tablets, and 4G phones. “Consumers still love electronics,” Feldhan said, and this means purchasing of HDTVs, set-top boxes, cameras, games etc. Unit sales are growing and aggregate IC ASPs are stabilizing. Feldhan said that the supply chain realized that inventories were too low, and this trend is reversing.
What does it take to capitalize on these areas of semiconductor demand? Sturm advises that companies drive price points by the consumer, remain agile to meet new needs, collaborate where possible, and invest in your company’s future. Be aware of the varying refresh rates for different consumer goods, as well as how these vary in different parts of the world. Collaborations with academia and government, as well as intra-industry collaborations with suppliers and customers, enable rapid work on device structures, designs, and processes.
Sturm’s advice: Work with customers to understand market needs. Work with suppliers to ensure the tools and materials are in place for you to meet those needs. And work with universities on R&D for future technology generations. Investing in research and new process and product development requires significant revenue. Sturm estimates $9-12 billion in annual semiconductor revenue is needed to support just 1 leading-edge fab. With this factor, it’s no surprise that the semiconductor arena is experiencing consolidation.
As an example of how electronics suppliers need to adapt to consumer behavior, Feldhan discussed the jolt of energy that PCs will get from the emerging ultrabook category, which will cannibalize other notebooks. Ultrabooks will be 15% of total notebook market in 2012, some ODMs think 20% Components from the battery to the CPU and GPU to the display will change as ultrabooks take market share. Right now, touchscreens are a limiting factor in ultrabook production, as is user confidence in the OS. Many ultrabook barriers will be worked out by 2013, and by 2015, ultrabooks will be outshipping notebooks.
Other end-use products? Tablets, despite phenomenal consumer adoption, do not threaten to eradicate the PC market, Feldhan noted. Smartphones saw higher-than-expected (29%) growth in 2011; expect 34% growth in 2012. New features and functions will be the key to success for smartphone designs.
MEMS are behind many new components that enable better sound quality, new device capabilities, and more. Keep an eye out for micro opto-electro mechanical systems (MOEMS), used to improve images and lower costs in new displays. MOEMS suppliers are a mix of industry heavyweights and newcomers — TI, Microvision , bTendo, Maradin, Mirrorcle, Qualcomm, and Unipixel. 2012 is the opening year of breakneck growth for MOEMS, 79.1% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2016, fueled primarily by communications and computing applications.
2012 is also a jumping off year for MEMS oscillators, which are challenging the entrenched crystal quartz technology for timing ICs. Smartphones use as many as 7 timing devices per unit.
Video interview: Jim Feldhan speaks to Solid State Technology editor-in-chief Pete Singer
Read on for a discussion of silicon cycles and capex with input from session speakers Dan Hutcheson and Jim Feldhan in How to prevail over silicon cycles.
Today’s keynote address presented the "virtual IDM" concept, from John Chen of Nvidia. The next keynote address will take place Tuesday morning, with Ali Sebt, CEO of Renesas Electronics America, presenting “Smart Society, the Sensing Era and Signal Chain.”
June 4, 2012 — X-FAB Silicon Foundries completed its dedicated noble metal facility for micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS) and post-complementary oxide metal semiconductor (CMOS) processing in Erfurt, Germany. The company also marked a milestone, shipping its 1 billionth MEMS device.
The dedicated MEMS manufacturing facility will add gold deposition and patterning capabilities to X-FAB’s existing MEMS capabilities at Erfurt. The facility has capacity for approximately 100,000 wafers/year, processing MEMS for high-growth consumer, mobile, and computer end markets.
The noble metal processes facility began construction in late 2011, and was completed on schedule. The full equipment set is installed and being qualified for production.
X-FAB has manufactured and shipped 1 billion MEMS devices, since production began in 1995. Used in consumer, automotive and medical applications, MEMS made at X-FAB include gyroscopes, pressure sensors, accelerometers, microfluidic devices, thermopiles, and CMOS-integrated MEMS sensors and wafer-level packaged (WLP) devices. Improvements to its MEMS capacity include adding 8” wafer capability and the new noble metals processing unit, as well as ready-to-use design IP blocks, said Iain Rutherford, business line manager for X-FAB’s MEMS foundry service.
X-FAB will discuss these new MEMS achievements at Sensors Expo, Booth 826, on June 6-7 in Rosemont, IL.
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.
Newton is tasked with introducing MEMSIC’s accelerometers, magnetic sensors, gas flow sensors and its sensor-based systems to the automotive and industrial market sectors. Newton said that he is “excited to lead the effort to introduce [MEMSIC’s] technology to a wide array of new markets and applications,” noting that sensing is a fast-growing field. His first major project will focus on the launch of the company’s industrial MEMS-based gas flow sensor module, at next week’s Sensors Expo & Conference in Chicago.
Newton brings 23 years of in-depth experience in the integrated circuits (IC) industry to MEMSIC, including 9 years at Maxim Integrated Products, where he co-founded its high-speed signal processing business unit. He’s also served in various positions at Analog Devices and Custom One Design Inc., an early-stage supplier of highly integrated semiconductor products.
Newton holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
His experience in product design, development and marketing activities as well as a broad business background in the IC business will serve MEMSIC well as it introduces new products to the stable, high-margin industrial and automotive markets, said Dr. Yang Zhao, MEMSIC chairman, president, and CEO.
MEMSIC Inc. provides advanced semiconductor sensors and multi-sensor system solutions based on micro electro mechanical system (MEMS) technology and sophisticated integration technologies in both the IC level and module level. The company’s shares are listed on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange (NASDAQ GM: MEMS). Learn more at http://www.memsic.com/.
May 30, 2012 – BUSINESS WIRE — Inertial sensor maker Qualtré Inc. closed a $10 million round of financing with 2 equity finance partners and one debt financier, all from Massachusetts, where Qualtre is based.
Matrix Partners and Pilot House Ventures contributed equity financing, while Eastward Capital Partners provided debt financing. Qualtre also raised $10 million a year ago, in July 2011.
Qualtré will use the funds to launch multiple products targeting high-volume consumer and industrial applications. The company offers a highly differentiated bulk acoustic wave (BAW) micro electro mechanical system (MEMS) gyroscope architecture, upon which the new products will be based. Developing multiple products off the same design building blocks then tailored to specific applications and markets delivers the most value for customers, said Stan Reiss, a General Partner with Matrix Partners.
Edgar Masri, CEO of Qualtré, also noted that the range of customers for Qualtre products have expressed that its BAW technology is safer in terms of intellectual property rights and long-term supply assurance than tuning-fork gyroscopes.
MEMS gyroscopes are used in end products from mobile phones to electronics stability control systems in vehicles, and diverse applications in between. Also read: Introduction to MEMS gyroscopes
Gyroscopes generated more revenues in 2011 than any other consumer/mobile MEMS. This was the first time gyroscopes topped accelerometers in consumer/mobile MEMS revenues, reports IHS. IHS expects MEMS gyroscopes to be a $1+ billion market by 2015.
Qualtré is a venture-backed company commercializing the next generation of solid-state silicon MEMS motion sensor solutions for cutting edge consumer and industrial applications. It builds upon research conducted by founder and CTO Dr. Farrokh Ayazi, at Georgia Tech’s Integrated MEMS Laboratory. More information can be found at www.qualtre.com.
Pilot House Ventures is a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage technology companies. Internet: www.pilothouseventures.com.
Eastward Capital Partners is a venture debt provider to companies in the Information Technology, Communications, Alternative Energy and Healthcare sectors. Internet: www.eastwardcp.com.
