Category Archives: MEMS

In an industry where finer features are driving market needs, current deposition processes are no longer sufficient to address challenges like interconnect dimensions below 16/14nm or high aspect ratio TSVs (>8) without experiencing defects, voids, or low reliability. Beyond process performance, cost remains a critical consideration for manufacturing next-generation devices. Today, Alchimer is announcing a new collaboration with imec to validate its wet deposition technology.

Alchimer is a provider of wet deposition technologies for dual damascene, TSVs, MEMS and solar. The new joint development project with imec will evaluate and implement copper filling solutions for advanced nano-interconnect technologies. The focus of the project will be on Alchimer’s Electrografting products, which have demonstrated void-free filling on 7nm node devices and allow direct Cu fill on barrier with no seed layer required for damascene processes.

As CMOS scaling creates finer features, market requirements for copper damascene include smaller dimensions (≤16/14 nm) with a thin barrier layer, and thin or no Cu seed layer. Filling processes must be defect/void free to meet reliability specifications, and achieve high yields. Conventional physical vapor deposition (PVD) and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) processes are not meeting these requirements. Alchimer’s wet deposition technologies are based on a molecular build-up process that breaks through the limitations of dry deposition processes.

"We believe that as the industry moves to smaller technology nodes, performance and cost will drive technology adoption," said Bruno Morel, CEO of Alchimer. "The performance of eG in advanced damascene applications, including single and dual damascene below 20nm, hasbeen very promising both in terms of performance and cost of ownership. Collaborating with imec gives us access to tremendous resources to validate our technology’s suitability at 300mm and understand what it would take to get ready for 450mm."

The goal of the JDP is to obtain reliability data and electrical performance for eG wet deposition processes in a 300mm manufacturing environment for sub-22nm technologies. As part of the JDP, the companies will assess the plating chemistry and work to identify the optimal process conditions for 300mm wafer-level advanced damascene plating applications.

 

 

David DiPaola is managing director for DiPaola Consulting a company focused on engineering and management solutions for electromechanical systems, sensors and MEMS products.  A 17 year veteran of the field, he has brought many products from concept to production in high volume with outstanding quality.  His work in design and process development spans multiple industries including automotive, medical, industrial and consumer electronics.  He employs a problem solving based approach working side by side with customers from startups to multi-billion dollar companies.  David also serves as senior technical staff to The Richard Desich SMART Commercialization Center for Microsystems, is an authorized external researcher at The Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology at NIST and is a senior member of IEEE. Previously he has held engineering management and technical staff positions at Texas Instruments and Sensata Technologies, authored numerous technical papers, is a respected lecturer and holds 5 patents.  To learn more, please visit www.dceams.com.    

In the development of new MEMS products, the team is the most important factor.  Executive management and investors will always evaluate teams and will only take large risks with teams that have earned their trust. In response to a question, I asked Rich Templeton (CEO of Texas Instruments) regarding how he made the decision to invest in a new technology, a portion of his response highlighted the evaluation of and betting on teams. This is driven by the fact that it is actually quite common for engineers and entrepreneurs to lead multiple successful projects or startups over their career. With this in mind, let’s review the necessary attributes that make these engineers and entrepreneurs so successful in MEMS new product development. 

Integrity:  This is the foundation upon which all other attributes are built. Truthfulness, consistency and accuracy of one’s actions is of utmost importance, as without it you have nothing. This is not something that is exercised in part or stretched. It needs to embody who you are.        

Good Judgment: An equally important attribute to integrity is a person’s ability to exercise discernment. It’s the skill of knowing what information is needed to make a sound decision, how to efficiently gather that information, being decisive and achieving positive outcomes a significant portion of the time. It also entails the ability to lead when large gaps in information exist and managing the associated risk. Engineers who use good judgment only reevaluate decisions for change as new information becomes available. Furthermore, they study given information, decisions made and outcomes to hone this skill over time. 

Details: The details are what make products robust with ultra high reliability. A small detail can often make the difference in achieving or missing a specified performance target. For example, overlooking the use of a getter in a MEMS device with a vacuum cavity could result in output drift if materials out gas over time. Understanding the detailed physics of the problem at hand is also critically important. 

Ability to Learn: Technology and human understanding of complex systems continues to evolve. In order to be successful, a individual must have the desire and ability to learn as new information becomes available. The MEMS industry is constantly changing with CMOS and nanotechnology integration, smaller feature sizes, optimized processes, standardization, sensor fusion and more.  Those who are unwilling to learn from not only their work but the credible work of others will have difficultly producing competitive products.       

Problem Solving:  This is really a combination of proper methodology, attention to details and the ability to learn. Experts in a field that know the answer before they start, rarely solve problems. In running a design of experiments (DOE) of a MEMS sensor with a flip chip on flex laminated to a plastic substrate, pressure, time and heat were varied in a effort to eliminate voids in the laminate material and optimize process parameters. The first DOE resulted in multiple large voids over all parameters showing no noticeable trends. Through a methodology of identifying alternate factors and testing hypothesizes, it was then discovered that moisture impregnated in the plastic substrate and flex circuit itself was actually introducing voids in the laminate as it out gassed during the lamination process. Once the moisture was removed either through a prebake or proper material handling, the voids were no longer present. A subsequent DOE was completed including moisture as a factor and the process was optimized. In a confirmation experiment, the predicted worst-case process parameters resulted in large lamination voids and the optimized case demonstrated lamination with no voids and excellent adhesion.     

Motivation / Passion:  The drive behind peoples’ actions and its alignment with project goals are essential. Are they doing it because they love it and in essence it is a part of their DNA or is it simply a paycheck? Does the subject matter wake them up in the morning because they can’t wait to get started? Do their eyes light up, their voice become invigorated and their body language become expressive when they speak? Do off shoots of their passion migrate into their personal time off? These are some of the characteristics that highly motivated and passionate people display. I had the privilege of discussing entrepreneurism and leadership with Ray Stata, founder and chairman of Analog Devices, a few years ago. Through words and action, his passion is intertwined throughout ADI. When their MEMS division was starting out and encountering difficultly, he showed his commitment to the business by becoming the general manager. He figured the company would not fire the founder although they could. In his spare time, he continues to show his entrepreneurial spirit as he lives vicariously through his investments in and mentoring of technology startups. Everyone I have spoken to at ADI speaks highly of him. Mr. Stata is an excellent example of the type of person you want on your team.

Creativity:  The ability to think in new ways is extremely important. It’s having the wherewithal to take an idea that appears crazy at the time and figuring out a way to make it work and provide a competitive advantage. Devices that provide outstanding function and have an elegant, eye-pleasing package with a captivating yet easy to use interface exude creativity. An example of creatively in action is the first generation Apple iPhone. When it was first released, it revolutionized the smart phone approach and the smart phone leader at the time is still recovering after large market share loss. 

Experience: When looking at job descriptions, the top requirement is often education level. This approach is not robust. Let me explain. If you were going to launch a MEMS device in production and wanted to hire an engineer, who would you choose: 1) A person with a bachelor’s degree in physics who launched several profitable MEMS products in millions of units per year successfully or 2) a person with a PhD in the subject matter of interest and an MBA with little industry experience? This is hypothetical, but it illustrates a point. Education is extremely important, but the method through which it is obtained is less critical and can take many forms. The CEO of Tumblr dropped out of high school in his freshman year because his school system had a weak computer science program. Instead he and his parents agreed for him to pursue his education through alternative, more productive channels. As recently highlighted in the news, he just sold his company for $1.1 billion to Yahoo. He cites that he worked with and learned a tremendous amount from the smart people he surrounded himself with.      

Persistence: The quality of steadily continuing despite difficult challenges along the way is a necessary characteristic of all accomplished engineers. People who are persistence are often mislabeled as stubborn. The key difference is persistent people listen to good reason and are cooperative. However, being cooperative does not mean going along with the direction from those in authority that logical reason and data shows is the wrong path. Instead staying the course and using influential communication with supporting data and analysis to gain needed support is a better approach.      

Communication:  Proper communication is not only used to transfer information but also to persuade doubters with good reason. This is an essential skill for interaction with customers, colleagues, investors and management. An engineer with good communication skills can explain a complex problem in a well-articulated, concise and simplified manner without skipping critical details. In the end, the listener understands what was accomplished, how it was done, critical details and the resulting impact of the project. 

Influence:  Individuals in MEMS new product development will encounter resistance from various people along the way. This could be from management, investors or colleagues. Hence the ability of individuals to affect the thinking and actions of others through sound reasoning, credible data, persistence and convincing plans is necessary to bring MEMS products to fruition. For many years, there were critics who stated that standards for MEMS will never happen. Instead of accepting the status quo, engineers from Intel and Qualcomm with the support of MIG and other companies worked together to produce the first MEMS standard on sensor parameters. These actions are now influencing the MEMS community to accept that maybe some level of standardization is possible and beneficial. 

Risk Tolerance: New product development and higher levels of risk go hand in hand. Engineers who take on this challenge, need to have a greater tolerance for this risk and be able to manage it. The key benefit of higher risk is the larger reward that is typically associated with it. With any new product development, there is always the possibility for cancellation, low adoption, project delays and insufficient funding. However, building teams on the principles above is the first step to lowering risk.      

Other Points to Consider:  When choosing a team leader, vision is another important factor to consider. Leaders with vision have the foresight to see the potential in an idea before it exists.  Not all team members have to be visionaries but it is important that trust is built between those who have it and those who don’t. In addition, carefully consider the chemistry when building a team. Having proper technical and business depth, meshing personalities and clear leadership is extremely important.

The team is essential for success in any MEMS new product development. Focusing on the key attributes mentioned above will help companies hire the best individuals for MEMS new product development. In next month’s blog, proper execution of MEMS validation will be discussed.   

Advanced packaging technology is undergoing dramatic changes as the smart phones and new sensor technologies demand continued improvements in form and function.  To address these massive changes, SEMICON West will feature a number of programs on new packaging technologies and processes with speakers from leading chip makers, equipment manufacturers, and material suppliers.

According to IDC, forecasts semiconductor revenues will log a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.1 percent from 2011-2016, but revenues for 4G phones will experience annual growth over 100 percent for the same period. NanoMarkets estimates that the global market for “Internet of Things” sensors will reach $1.6 billion this year and grow to a value of $17.6 billion by the end of the decade as sensors become increasingly connected to the Internet directly or through hubs.  Both trends will significantly impact semiconductor and microelectronics packaging.  Demand for equipment and related tools in the 3D-IC and wafer-level packaging area alone is forecasted to grow from approximately $370 million in 2010 to over $2.5 billion by 2016, according to Yole Developpment.

To address these changes, SEMICON West 2013 (register at www.semiconwest.org/registration), held on July 9-11 in San Francisco, will feature a number of programs on new packaging applications, requirements, technologies, and products, including:

  • Generation Mobile:  Enabled by IC Packaging Technologies — Speakers from ASE, UBM Tech Insights, Amkor Technology, SK Hynix, and Universal Scientific Industrial will present on the latest advances in wafer-level packaging, new materials, and multi-die integration, including new System-in-Package (SiP) and Package-on-Package (PoP) methods. Location: Moscone Center (North Hall), TechXPOT North, Tuesday, July 9, 10:30am-12:30pm.
  • “THIN IS IN": Thin Chip & Packaging Technologies as Enablers for Innovations in the Mobility Era — IEEE/CPMT will hold a technical workshop on the overall trend of maximum functional integration in the smallest and thinnest package with lowest packaging costs with speakers from Intel, Cisco, ASE, Micron, SK Hynix, Nanium, Kyocera and more. Location: San Francisco Marriott Marquis, Tuesday, July 9, 1:30-4:45pm.
  • Advancing 2.5D and 3D Packaging through Value Engineering — Speakers from Altera, Amkor, ASE, ASET, KPMG, UMC, STATS ChipPAC and more will take a critical look at 2.5D implementations and the current outlook for 3D packages, including tools and technologies for heterogeneous stacks. Location: Moscone Center (North Hall), TechXPOT North, Wednesday, July 10, 1:00-3:30pm.
  • MEMS & Sensor Packaging for the Internet of Things— This session will feature speakers from all parts of the ecosystem to address how future visions of a pervasive interconnected world will be realized through the heterogeneous integration of MEMS and ICs.  The program will feature keynote speaker Janusz Bryzek from Fairchild Semiconductor, and speakers from VTT Research, Fraunhofer IZM, Robert Bosche, EV Group, Dai Nippon Printing, and more. Location: Moscone Center (North Hall), TechXPOT North, Thursday, July 11, 10:30am-1:00pm.

In addition to the packaging programs, SEMICON West 2013 will also feature over 560 exhibitors with the latest innovation on microelectronics manufacturing, including over 150 exhibitors with equipment and technology solutions for advanced packaging.  Other programs and exhibitors at West will address lithography, advanced materials and processes, silicon photonics, test, LED and MEMS manufacturing, and other subjects.  For more information on SEMICON West and to register, visit www.semiconwest.org

CEA-Leti will present recent advances and a preview of future developments in micro- and nanotechnologies, followed by workshops on key technical fields, during Leti Innovation Days, June 25-28, on the MINATEC campus.

The gathering incorporates Leti’s two-day Annual Review, now in its 15th year. That event provides an update of developments from Leti’s labs and its success in transferring technology to industry.

The 15th Annual Review kicks off on June 25th with two plenary sessions:

  • Envisioning the Future, chaired by Leti CEO Laurent Malier, will include insights from industry leaders into the technological innovations that will shape the future.
  • Enabling the Future, chaired by Pierre-Damien Berger, Leti VP of business development and communication. Presentations will include Leti’s latest developments and the key enabling technologies that will drive advancements in a broad range of sectors.

June 26th presentations by Leti specialists and partners will cover security and safety, environment and health, green IT and nanoelectronics.

“This year’s review powerfully highlights the wide-ranging strengths of Leti’s offer, from continuous innovation to technology transfer and support for SMEs,” said Leti CEO Laurent Malier. “Leti last year demonstrated a new FD-SOI solution that offers a 40 percent improvement in power consumption and a 30 percent frequency improvement, at lower costs. Transferred to manufacturing, it delivered the first application processor product dedicated to smartphones exceeding 3 GHz. We also particularly expanded our actions for SMEs, with a specific initiative allowing them to benefit from the expertise of our researchers and engineers and to access our state-of-the-art equipment.”

The Annual Review will be followed on June 27-28 by five in-depth workshops on design for 3D, memory, photonics, imaging and nanopackaging.

Leti Innovation Days participants will include international and European decision-makers: CEOs, CTOs, marketing and strategy directors, R&D managers, IT and semiconductor companies, innovative SMEs, end-user companies, research institutes, startups and international press. Represented industries include advanced microelectronics, green IT, memory, imaging, LEDs and lighting, safety and security, and healthcare and the environment.

 

Fab equipment spending will grow two percent year-over-year  (US$ 32.5 billion) for 2013 and about 23 to 27 percent in 2014 ($41 billion) according to the May edition of the SEMI World Fab Forecast. Fab construction spending, which can be a strong indicator for future equipment spending, is expected to grow 6.5 percent ($6.6 billion) in 2013, followed by a decline of 18 percent ($5.4 billion) in 2014. The new World Fab Forecast report covers fab information on over 1,140 facilities, including such details as capacities, technology nodes, product types, and spending for construction and equipment for any cleanroom wafer facility by quarter.

Fab equipment spending for the second half of 2013 is expected to be much stronger with a 32 percent growth rate or $18.5 billion compared to the first half of 2013. The equipment spending increase in the second half is attributed to growing semiconductor demand and improving average selling price for chips. 2014 is expected to have about 23 to 27 percent growth year-over-year (YoY) to reach about $41 billion, which would be an all-time record.

Looking at product types, the largest amounts of spending on fab equipment in 2013 will come from the foundry sector, which increases by about 21 percent. This is driven mainly by capex increases by TSMC. The memory sector is expected to have an increase of only one percent — after a 35 percent decline in the previous year. The MPU sector is expected to grow by about five percent. A double-digit increase in the Analog sector in 2013 will still translate into low absolute dollar amounts, compared to the other sectors.  

 

Construction spending is a good indicator for more equipment spending.  Fab construction spending in 2013 is expected to be almost 15 percent growth YoY ($6.6 billion) with 38 known construction projects. Top spenders for fab construction in 2013 are TSMC and Samsung, who plan to spend between $1.5 and $2 billion each, followed by Intel, Globalfoundries and UMC. The SEMI World Fab Forecast report reveals more detail.

2014 shows a decline of about 18 percent ($5.4 billion) in construction spending with only 21 construction projects expected to be on-going. These construction projects include large fabs; some are 450mm-ready. 

Since the last fab database publication at the end February 2013 SEMI’s worldwide dedicated analysis team has made 389 updates to 324 facilities (including Opto/LED fabs) in the database. The latest edition of the World Fab Forecast lists 1,144 facilities (including 310 Opto/LED facilities), with 61 facilities with various probabilities starting production this year and in the near future. Seventeen new facilities were added and 8 facilities were closed.

The SEMI World Fab Forecast uses a bottom-up approach methodology, providing high-level summaries and graphs; and in-depth analyses of capital expenditures, capacities, technology and products by fab. Additionally, the database provides forecasts for the next 18 months by quarter.

The smartphone is a subset of the total cellphone handset marketplace. One basic difference between an enhanced cellphone and a smartphone is the ability of the smartphone to incorporate third-party applications. Smartphones also typically connect to leading-edge cellular network services and are at the forefront of the convergence of data, telecom, and consumer-oriented functions (such as video games, camera, music player, mobile TV, etc.) in a single handheld device.  Most smartphones include touchscreens with built-in wireless modems and GPS/GNSS, and are capable of Web browsing, sending and receiving e-mail, voice recognition, video and audio streaming, running office applications, and over-the-air synching with a PC.

Many in the cellphone industry believe new smartphone designs are reaching the point where they have enough performance to become the primary computing device for many consumers.  If so, the market could be on the verge of entering into “the post-PC era,” as previously identified by the late Steve Jobs, who stirred up controversy with his provocative prediction in June 2010.

The new consumer/Web emphasis in the cellphone market has been a challenge for a number of top-ranked smartphone suppliers (e.g., RIM, Nokia, etc.), which have struggled to refocus their handset designs, software platforms, and business strategies to address the current phase of the fast-growing smartphone segment.

Figure 1 shows that total smartphone shipments grew 47% in 2012 to 712 million units, after surging by 67% to 485 million in 2011.  Moreover, smartphone shipments are forecast to grow by another 37% in 2013 and fall only 25 million units shy of 1.0 billion.  Smartphones are expected to account for over 50% of quarterly shipments for the first time ever in 2Q13.  In fact, smartphone shipments are forecast to reach 300 million units in 4Q13 and represent 60% of total cellphones shipped that quarter.  Smartphones are expected to surpass the 50% penetration level on an annual basis this year and hold 85% of total cellphone shipments in 2016.

In contrast to smartphones, total cellphone unit shipments grew only 1% in 2012 and are forecast to grow only 3% in 2013 (Figure 2).  As shown, non-smartphone cellphone sales were flat in 2011 but showed a 17% decline in 2012.  Moreover, IC Insights expects another 20% drop in non-smartphone handset sales in 2013.

 

Between 2011 and 2016, smartphone shipments are expected to rise at a very strong CAGR of 29% to 1,760 million units in the final year of the forecast period (the 2011-2016 CAGR for non-smartphone unit shipments is -24%).  Overall, the smartphone 2011-2016 unit shipment CAGR is greater than 7x the expected CAGR for total cellphone unit shipments in that same five-year timeframe (4%).

Competition in smartphones intensified in 2012 as suppliers rolled out new handset designs with larger touch-screen displays, more powerful processors, better operating systems, higher-resolution cameras, and new radio-modem connections to the faster “4G” cellular networks, which were quickly spreading in the U.S., South Korea, Europe, and Japan.  In the next few years, new high-speed “4G” networks are planned for China, India, Brazil, the Middle East, and other fast-growing developing markets.

Samsung and Apple dominated the smartphone market in 2012 and are expected to do so again in 2013.  In total, these two companies shipped 354 million smartphones (218 million for Samsung and 136 million for Apple) and held a combined 50% share of the total smartphone market last year.  For 2013, these two companies are forecast to ship 480 million smartphones (300 million for Samsung and 180 million for Apple) and see their combined smartphone unit marketshare slip only one percentage point to 49%.

In 2012, smartphone sales from China-based ZTE, Lenovo, and Huawei surged.  Combined, the three top-10 China-based smartphone suppliers shipped about 80 million smartphones in 2012, more than a 3x increase from the 24 million smartphones these three companies shipped in 2011.  Moreover, these three companies are forecast to ship 142 million smartphones in 2013 and together hold a 15% share of the worldwide smartphone market.  In contrast to the success of the large China-based smartphone suppliers, IC Insights expects RIM and HTC to continue to struggle in the smartphone marketplace in 2013 with both companies forecast to show a double-digit decline in smartphone unit shipments as compared to 2012.

Smartphone suppliers under pressure include Nokia, RIM, and HTC, each of which registered steep double-digit year-over-year declines in smartphone sales in 2012.  Until several years ago, Nokia held a 50% marketshare in smartphones, but in 2008 and 2009, the company saw its share fall below 40% due to increased competition from suppliers targeting consumers with interactive touch-screen handsets that are capable of running multimedia applications.  In 2012, Nokia’s smartphone shipments declined by 55% (to only 35 million units) and represented only a 5% share of the total smartphone market.  Other smartphone producers that have fallen on hard times recently include RIM and HTC.  While each of these companies had about a 10% share of the 2011 smartphone market, IC Insights forecasts that each of them will have only about a 3% share of the 2013 smartphone market.

 Report Details:  IC Market Drivers 2013

IC Market Drivers 2013—A Study of Emerging and Major End-Use Applications Fueling Demand for Integrated Circuits examines the largest, existing system opportunities for ICs and evaluates the potential for new applications that are expected to help fuel the market for ICs.

IC Market Drivers is divided into two parts.  Part 1 provides a detailed forecast of the IC industry by system type, by region, and by IC product type through 2016.  In Part 2, the IC Market Drivers report examines and evaluates key existing and emerging end-use applications that will support and propel the IC industry through 2016.  Some of these applications include the automotive market, cellular phones (including smartphones), personal/mobile computing (including tablets and Ultrabooks), wireless networks, digital imaging, and a review of many applications to watch—those that may potentially provide significant opportunity for IC suppliers later this decade.  The 2013 IC Market Drivers report is priced at $3,190 for an individual-user license and $6,290 for a multi-user corporate license.

Bosch has reached a significant manufacturing milestone. Since the start of production in 1995, the company has manufactured well in excess of three billion MEMS sensors. It took Bosch 13 years to manufacture the first billion, another three years to reach two billion, and only a further 18 months to cross the three-billion mark. In 2012, some 600 million sensors emerged from its wafer fab in Reutlingen, Germany – or 2.4 million each working day.

Bosch supplies sensors for a wide range of applications in the consumer electronics and automotive industries. These sensors measure pressure, acceleration, rotary motion, mass flow, and the earth’s magnetic field. Bosch has been at the forefront of MEMS technology since it first emerged, and today it generates more sales in the extremely dynamic MEMS sensor market than any other supplier.

“It’s no longer possible to imagine automotive or consumer electronics without MEMS sensors. In the future, they will act as the eyes and ears for systems and objects connected via the internet of things and services,” says Klaus Meder, president of the Bosch Automotive Electronics division.

The first application for MEMS sensors was in automotive electronics and Bosch has been producing these precision sensors for use in vehicles since 1995. A yaw-rate sensor that records the rotary movements of the car around its vertical axis is at the heart of ESP, for example, and today each modern vehicle is home to up to 50 MEMS sensors. In an automotive context, the key considerations for MEMS are their reliability and robustness, as the sensors have a direct impact on the safety of road users. Size and energy consumption are much less important factors.

But the picture is quite different when it comes to smartphones or games consoles, which is why Bosch shrunk its sensors over the years to just one fiftieth of their former size. The latest generation of these sensors unites a host of functions in a casing measuring just a few square millimeters. Meanwhile the sensors’ energy consumption has been reduced by a factor of 100. Of all the suppliers in the market, Bosch claims to be the only one producing sensor types for so many different applications. The company holds or has applied for a total of well over 1,000 patents.

Bosch Sensortec GmbH in Reutlingen was founded in 2005. This Bosch subsidiary recently brought the world’s first 9-axis sensor to market. The BMX055 is capable of measuring acceleration, yaw rate, and the earth’s magnetic field in all three spatial directions at the same time, which makes it suitable for a whole range of potential applications. The sensor can be put to work wherever there is a need to pinpoint a mobile device’s spatial location and position – or its orientation relative to the earth’s magnetic field – and can be integrated into even the smallest devices.

OMRON Corporation today announced that they have finished development work on the world’s first infrared sensor manufactured with wafer-level vacuum packaging technology to create a 16×16 element MEMS non-contact infrared thermal sensor capable of highly precise 90-degree area detection. OMRON says it will ship test samples beginning in October 2013.

In recent years, the demand for human presence sensors has been growing in tandem with the demand for energy-efficient "smart home" and "smart office" environments, in which lighting, heating, etc. is automatically controlled according to where people are positioned. Since conventional pyroelectric human presence sensors (motion sensors) are only able to detect people when they are in motion, they are not as suitable for detecting the number of people in a certain space or their relative positions as Omron’s new thermal sensor.

MEMS non-contact thermal sensors measure temperature by converting infrared energy radiated from target objects into heat with MEMS thermopiles and then measuring the thermoelectromotive force resulting from temperature differences that occur across the contact points of two different types of metal. However, up till now it has not been possible to create large temperature differences across the metal contact points because much of the heat generated by the thermopiles dissipates into the surrounding air, meaning that the resulting thermoelectromotive force is reduced thereby limiting sensitivity. Omron believes they solved this heat dissipation problem by vacuum sealing the thermopiles inside the chip – the first time this has been achieved. The reduction in heat dissipation leads to a greater temperature difference across the metal contacts thereby increasing sensitivity.

How non-contact thermal sensors work

MEMS thermal sensor wafer level packaging

Thermal sensors utilize the Seebeck effect in which thermoelectric force is generated due to the temperature difference at the contact points between two different kinds of metal. Thermopiles are created by serially connecting thermocouples consisting of N+ poly Si, P+ poly Si, and Al. By creating hot junctions on highly heat-resistant dielectric membranes, and cold junctions on highly heat-conductive silicon, it is possible to achieve high-energy conversion efficiency. Sealing thermopiles in a vacuum prevents the heat they create from dissipating into the air thereby increasing sensitivity. 

Omron will now also work on commercializing stand-alone human presence sensor modules by combining non-contact thermal sensors with algorithms that can accurately distinguish the number of people and their positions within a detected space.

Model versions of Omron’s new human presence sensors will be displayed at the "Nanomicro Biz" Exhibition at Tokyo Big Sight on July 3, 4, and 5.

The development of this new sensor was the result of research carried out in collaboration with Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization.

 

UPDATE: Intel has been revealed as the purchaser of the GNSS business unit of ST-Ericsson. The deal extends Intel’s position in the mobile chip business, an area that it is eager to penetrate.

PREVIOUSLY: ST-Ericsson, a joint venture of STMicroelectronics and Ericsson, today announced the signature of a definitive agreement to sell the assets and intellectual property rights associated with its mobile connectivity Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) business to a semiconductor company. At the time of release, ST had not released the name of the purchasing company.

The sale of these assets represents another step in the execution of Ericsson’s and ST’s announcement of March 18, 2013. In addition to the assets and IPR associated with this business, a team of 130 industry veterans located in Daventry (UK), Bangalore (India) and Singapore are anticipated to join the buyer at closing of the transaction.

The closing of the transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and standard conditions and is expected to be completed in August 2013. ST-Ericsson estimates the proceeds from the sale, combined with the avoidance of employee restructuring charges and other related restructuring costs, will reduce the joint venture’s cash needs by approximately $90 million.

"Today’s transaction validates the leading innovation developed by ST-Ericsson in mobile navigation systems and marks a further important step towards the execution of our shareholders’ decision to exit from ST-Ericsson" commented Carlo Ferro, president and CEO of ST-Ericsson. "I am pleased that this organization will continue to develop leading-edge technologies and delighted that the team found a new home at a leading player in the semiconductor industry."

ATIC logoThe Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC) and the Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) today launched the ATIC-SRC Center of Excellence for Energy Efficient Electronic Systems (ACE4S), to be hosted jointly in Abu Dhabi by Khalifa University of Science, Technology and Research, and Masdar Institute of Science and Technology. ATIC will dedicate over AED 17.5 million to the project over the next three years, which will be matched collectively by Masdar Institute and Khalifa University for a total budget of more than AED 35 million. This funding will drive innovation in next-generation electronic systems ranging in applications from smart phones and medical devices to the Internet of Things.

“This center is a significant research milestone for Abu Dhabi, the UAE and the region,” said Sami Issa, Executive Director at ATIC. “ACE4S is a critical building block of our ecosystem strategy to help enable the development of homegrown talent in key areas of science and technology. Such talent development is essential as Abu Dhabi transitions into an innovation-based society as per the 2030 vision.”

SRC logo“Over the past 30 years, SRC has successfully helped establish numerous university research centers and distributed more than $2 billion dollars in research funds in the United States; ACE4S role as our first international center reflects significantly on the quality of research we pursue,” said SRC President Larry Sumney. “The ACE4S Center has been established with valuable industry guidance from companies such as GLOBALFOUNDRIES, AMD, Applied Materials, Freescale, IBM, Intel, Mentor Graphics, Texas Instruments and Tokyo Electron (TEL) and will build on SRC-sponsored university research supporting 15 individual researchers in the UAE. Top semiconductor industry experts will oversee and serve as liaisons for each research task, and SRC will productively guide the overall research while also promoting strong student engagement—enabling us to identify areas of greatest need and foster the move of innovations from lab to market.”

The center will be overseen by a steering committee of high-level ATIC, SRC, Khalifa University and Masdar Institute representatives and will be directed jointly by Professors Mohammed Ismail of Khalifa University, and Ibrahim Elfadel of Masdar Institute. The directors will oversee research across five targeted areas and work closely with a Technology Advisory Board (TAB) of representatives from industry-leading companies.

GLOBALFOUNDRIES will serve a special role on the TAB, assigning Mohamed Lakehal as an Abu Dhabi-based industrial liaison to oversee design tape-outs to fabrication in GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ facilities worldwide. The liaison will also support design enablement, deploying design-for-manufacture tools and raising the level of local semiconductor expertise.

“As a research-oriented institution, we are proud to be part of the ACE4S leadership and offer our expertise and research capabilities,” said Dr. Fred Moavenzadeh, President, Masdar Institute. “Our faculty will aim to develop microelectronic technologies with healthcare applications individually and in collaboration with their peers within the initial period of the center’s operation. These innovative products will include biosensor applications, wearable devices and self-powered wireless body area networks (WBAN). We believe these applications will have a wide impact because of their energy efficiency and novel designs.”

“This partnership will transform the way we conduct research in nano-scale energy efficient systems-on-chips as it will help us educate and train a highly skilled workforce with relevant skills. This is a key element in driving innovation and entrepreneurship in the UAE’s semiconductor sector in line with the Abu Dhabi 2030 vision,” said Dr. Tod A. Larsen, President of Khalifa University. “The involvement of the SRC and its member companies in center development will help create a world-leading institution with a sustainable university/industry collaborative research environment conducive to high-tech job creation and direct local and foreign investment.”

The center will focus on energy efficient devices with research in energy harvesting, power management, sensor technologies and wireless communications networks. The research will be conducted primarily at Khalifa University and Masdar Institute but with important involvement from UAE University, American University of Sharjah and New York University, Abu Dhabi.  Within the first three years, ACE4S will seek to produce integrated prototypes with healthcare applications as well as knowledge and research relevant to safety and security, aerospace, water quality and the environment.

Supporting the transition of innovations to market, the center will develop an aggressive Intellectual Property Management Plan (IPMP). The IPMP will include early identification of interconnected families of innovation arising from technical themes, placing special emphasis on the integrated systems selected for demonstration at the end of year three.

ACE4S is a continuation of ATIC’s broader focus on cultivating a technology research ecosystem within Abu Dhabi. Additional programs supported in this vein include: the Twin-Labs research center, a collaboration between Masdar Institute and Technical University of Dresden with support from the State of Saxony, ATIC and GLOBALFOUNDRIES; the ATIC professorship chairs at UAEU and Khalifa University;  the Masters in Microsystems degree in collaboration with Masdar Institute; and ongoing MEES research grants in collaboration with the SRC.