Category Archives: Advanced Packaging

The Silicon Integration Initiative (Si2), a global semiconductor standards consortium, announced today that it has appointed John Ellis as vice president of Engineering and officer of Si2. He will be responsible for managing the technical strategy and direction for all semiconductor / EDA standardization projects created and managed at Si2. He will also directly manage Si2’s engineering staff to provide program management, training and documentation, software development, and infrastructure support.

John replaces Dr. Sumit DasGupta, who held the position since 2002 and retired on June 30th.

John has more than 25 years of experience leading diverse research and development programs spanning multiple industries. For over a decade, he served the semiconductor industry at SEMI, a global trade association for the semiconductor industry, where as VP of Technology he was responsible for semiconductor, photovoltaic, and flat-panel display manufacturing standards as well as coordination of industry initiatives such as e-Diagnostics and 450mm wafer size economic analyses. Prior to joining SEMI, John worked at Sandia National Labs on R&D projects for the Department of Energy, Department of Defense, National Institute of Standards and Technology, and other federal agencies. His broad experience includes nuclear weapons testing, missile guidance, air-borne and space-borne imaging systems, Internet and IC security, MEMS, and semiconductor manufacturing.

“John’s domain knowledge in semiconductor technology and software development, coupled with his extensive experience managing a large international staff to lead the development of important industry standards at SEMI, make him an excellent fit to lead engineering for Si2,” said Steve Schulz, President and CEO. “John received strong support from industry leaders on Si2’s Board of Directors, following many hours of rigorous interviewing and assessment. I look forward to John’s unique contributions in the months and years ahead that will further Si2’s mission and future success.”

Sono-Tek Corporation, a global ultrasonic spray technology company, announces a just completed expansion of their laboratory testing facility, located at their corporate headquarters in Milton, NY. The recent acquisition of new equipment, including an SEM microscope for on-site analysis of coatings performed in the lab, led to some reorganization and physical expansion of the facility itself, in order to provide a better workflow for customers and visitors, in addition to some increased elbow room.

sono-tek expands testing facility

The new equipment now installed, in particular the SEM microscope, enables Sono-Tek to gauge process variables by providing immediate on-site analysis of coatings requiring very precise deposition characteristics, such as photoresist onto MEMs, fuel cell coatings, medical implantable device coatings and other nanomaterial coatings. In addition, a new corona surface treatment has been installed, to better prepare substrates for improved surface tension characteristics prior to coating. Acquisition of at least one more surface treatment tool is planned as well.

Located in the heart of the Hudson Valley, Sono-Tek is pleased to help bring these high tech applications for precision semiconductor and advanced energy close to home.

"Access to equipment such as this new SEM is beneficial not only to Sono-Tek customers, but to the surrounding community of colleges and other research institutions in New York for advancing research and manufacturing of future innovations in our area," said Steve Harshbarger, Sono-Tek’s President. "We envision our lab continuing to grow in the coming years, as new applications for ultrasonic spray coating continue to develop."

 

Rolith, Inc., a developer of advanced nanostructured devices, yesterday announced the successful demonstration of Transparent Metal Grid Electrode technology based on its disruptive nanolithography method (Rolling Mask Lithography – RMLTM).

Read more: Researchers extend thermal nanolithography process

We see an explosive growth of touch screen displays in consumer electronics market. ITO (Indium Titanium Oxide) material is a standard solution for transparent electrodes so far. Apart from a considerable cost and limited supply of this material, it has additional problems: high reflectance of this materials reduces contrast ratio, optical properties degrade rapidly below 50 Ω/☐, which limits the size of display produced using ITO without degradation of performance.

The only viable alternative to ITO (and the only solution for large touchscreen displays) is a metal wire grid. The requirement for a metal wire grid to be invisible to human eye means that width of the wire should be < 2 micron. Moreover, narrow wires are helpful to fight Moiré effects, which caused by superposition of the metal wire grid and the pixel structure of a display.

Rolith, Inc. has used its proprietary nanolithography technology called Rolling Mask Lithography (RMLTM) for fabrication of transparent metal wire grid electrodes on large areas of substrate materials. RML is based on near-field continuous optical lithography, which is implemented using cylindrical phase masks.

Transparent metal electrodes on glass substrates were fabricated in the form of submicron width nanowires, lithographically placed in a regular 2-dimentional grid pattern with a period of tens of microns, and thickness of a few hundreds of nanometers. Such metal structure is evaluated as completely invisible to the human eye, highly transparent (>94 percent transmission) with a very low haze (~two percent), and low resistivity (<14 Ohm/☐). This set of parameters places Rolith technology above all major competition for ITO-alternative technologies.

Gen-2 RML tool capable of patterning substrates up to 1 m long and built earlier this year has been used to demonstrate this technology.

Read more: ITO film market undergoing a sea of changes

“Rolith has launched Transparent Metal Grid Electrodes application development just few months ago, and we are very excited with the extraordinary results already achieved. We believe RMLTM technology will enable high quality cost effective touch screen sensors for mobile devices and large format displays, monitors and TVs. Currently Rolith is negotiating partnerships with a few touch screen display manufacturers and hope to move fast with commercialization of our technology next year. Our roadmap also calls for expansion into OLED lighting and flexible substrates in 2014-2015,” said Dr Boris Kobrin, founder and CEO, Rolith.

 

Weak demand and rising production in China, combined with efforts by South Korean suppliers to cut manufacturing charges in order to stimulate demand, is resulting in pronounced price reductions in the third quarter for popular sizes of liquid-crystal display television (LCD TV) panels.

Read more: LCD TV panel inventory rises to excess levels, spurring price drops

Average pricing for 32- , 40- and 50-inch LCD TV open cell panels is set to decline in a range from 4.6 percent to 5.1 percent in September compared to June. Pricing for these panels for the previous period from March to June declined t a more moderate rate ranging from 2.0 percent to 3.4 percent.

Surprisingly, weakness is coming at a time when pricing and demand normally should be robust as the holiday season approaches.

“A number of factors are conspiring to cause weak pricing for LCD TV panels,” said Ricky Park, senior manager for large-area displays at IHS. “TV panel demand is tepid worldwide and particularly in China, where the end of a popular government incentive has led to a major sales slowdown. Meanwhile, Chinese panel manufacturers are adding new capacity—exacerbating the glut currently plaguing the industry. Finally, in an attempt to spur sales, some panel suppliers are offering attractive deals on certain panel sizes, causing pricing to fall.”

The 32-inch conundrum

The Chinese government’s move to discontinue its eco-subsidy program at the end of May had a broad impact on panel sales, but the biggest repercussion was in the 32-inch size. And because 32-inch is the most popular size in China, sales and pricing for this dimension plunged worldwide.

Meanwhile, production capacity for 32-inch panels still exceeds demand. The combination of weak demand and oversupply is expected to drive down the lowest price of 32-inch open cell panels to $90 in the first quarter of 2014, down from $96 during this year’s first quarter.

South Korea acts on 40-inch panels

Samsung’s aggressive stance on 40-inch panels also has impacted prices for similar-sized LCDs. As a result, prices for 39- and 42-inch panels are expected to decline by 5.2 percent and 4.2 percent, respectively, in the third quarter.

South Korean makers in general reportedly are planning to produce 48- and 49-inch panels in 2014, and both 46- and 47-inch panels will then be phased out. Anticipation of such developments caused a $4 to $5 price deduction in June for the 46- and 47-inch panel categories.

Taiwan cuts 50-inch prices

For their part, Taiwanese manufacturers cut prices for 50-inch panels to maintain a reasonable gap with 46- and 47-inch panels. And like the South Koreans, the Taiwanese are planning to offer panels in new 48- and 49-inch sizes. This is likely to further drive down pricing for 50-inch LCD TV panels.

Read more Displays News

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology want to put your signature up in lights – tiny lights, that is. Using thousands of nanometer-scale wires, the researchers have developed a sensor device that converts mechanical pressure – from a signature or a fingerprint – directly into light signals that can be captured and processed optically.

The sensor device could provide an artificial sense of touch, offering sensitivity comparable to that of the human skin. Beyond collecting signatures and fingerprints, the technique could also be used in biological imaging and micro-electromechanical (MEMS) systems. Ultimately, it could provide a new approach for human-machine interfaces.

Read more: Driven by Apple and Samsung, light sensors achieve double-digit growth

"You can write with your pen and the sensor will optically detect what you write at high resolution and with a very fast response rate," said Zhong Lin Wang, Regents’ professor and Hightower Chair in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Georgia Tech. "This is a new principle for imaging force that uses parallel detection and avoids many of the complications of existing pressure sensors."

piezo LED

Individual zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowires that are part of the device operate as tiny light emitting diodes (LEDS) when placed under strain from the mechanical pressure, allowing the device to provide detailed information about the amount of pressure being applied. Known as piezo-phototronics, the technology – first described by Wang in 2009 – provides a new way to capture information about pressure applied at very high resolution: up to 6,300 dots per inch. The research was scheduled to be reported August 11 in the journal Nature Photonics. It was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Basic Energy Sciences, the National Science Foundation, and the Knowledge Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

 Piezoelectric materials generate a charge polarization when they are placed under strain. The piezo-phototronic devices rely on that physical principle to tune and control the charge transport and recombination by the polarization charges present at the ends of individual nanowires. Grown atop a gallium nitride (GaN) film, the nanowires create pixeled light emitters whose output varies with the pressure, creating an electroluminescent signal that can be integrated with on-chip photonics for data transmission, processing and recording.

"When you have a zinc oxide nanowire under strain, you create a piezoelectric charge at both ends which forms a piezoelectric potential," Wang explained. "The presence of the potential distorts the band structure in the wire, causing electrons to remain in the p-n junction longer and enhancing the efficiency of the LED."

The efficiency increase in the LED is proportional to the strain created. Differences in the amount of strain applied translate to differences in light emitted from the root where the nanowires contact the gallium nitride film.

Read more: Student develops brighter, smarter and more efficient LEDs

To fabricate the devices, a low-temperature chemical growth technique is used to create a patterned array of zinc oxide nanowires on a gallium nitride thin film substrate with the c-axis pointing upward. The interfaces between the nanowires and the gallium nitride film form the bottom surfaces of the nanowires. After infiltrating the space between nanowires with a PMMA thermoplastic, oxygen plasma is used to etch away the PMMA enough to expose the tops of the zinc oxide nanowires.

piezo LED 2

A nickel-gold electrode is then used to form ohmic contact with the bottom gallium-nitride film, and a transparent indium-tin oxide (ITO) film is deposited on the top of the array to serve as a common electrode. When pressure is applied to the device through handwriting, nanowires are compressed along their axial directions, creating a negative piezo-potential, while uncompressed nanowires have no potential. The researchers have pressed letters into the top of the device, which produces a corresponding light output from the bottom of the device. This output – which can all be read at the same time – can be processed and transmitted. The ability to see all of the emitters simultaneously allows the device to provide a quick response. "The response time is fast, and you can read a million pixels in a microsecond," said Wang. "When the light emission is created, it can be detected immediately with the optical fiber."

The nanowires stop emitting light when the pressure is relieved. Switching from one mode to the other takes 90 milliseconds or less, Wang said.

The researchers studied the stability and reproducibility of the sensor array by examining the light emitting intensity of the individual pixels under strain for 25 repetitive on-off cycles. They found that the output fluctuation was approximately five percent, much smaller than the overall level of the signal. The robustness of more than 20,000 pixels was studied.

A spatial resolution of 2.7 microns was recorded from the device samples tested so far. Wang believes the resolution could be improved by reducing the diameter of the nanowires – allowing more nanowires to be grown – and by using a high-temperature fabrication process.

Computer simulations have revealed how the electrical conductivity of many materials increases with a strong electrical field in a universal way. This development could have significant implications for practical systems in electrochemistry, biochemistry, electrical engineering and beyond.

The study, published in Nature Materials, investigated the electrical conductivity of a solid electrolyte, a system of positive and negative atoms on a crystal lattice. The behavior of this system is an indicator of the universal behavior occurring within a broad range of materials from pure water to conducting glasses and biological molecules.

Electrical conductivity, a measure of how strongly a given material conducts the flow of electric current, is generally understood in terms of Ohm’s law, which states that the conductivity is independent of the magnitude of an applied electric field, i.e. the voltage per metre.

This law is widely obeyed in weak applied fields, which means that most material samples can be ascribed a definite electrical resistance, measured in Ohms.

However, at strong electric fields, many materials show a departure from Ohm’s law, whereby the conductivity increases rapidly with increasing field. The reason for this is that new current-carrying charges within the material are liberated by the electric field, thus increasing the conductivity.

Remarkably, for a large class of materials, the form of the conductivity increase is universal – it doesn’t depend on the material involved, but instead is the same for a wide range of dissimilar materials.

The universality was first comprehended in 1934 by the future Nobel Laureate Lars Onsager, who derived a theory for the conductivity increase in electrolytes like acetic acid, where it is called the "second Wien effect." Onsager’s theory has recently been applied to a wide variety of systems, including biochemical conductors, glasses, ion-exchange membranes, semiconductors, solar cell materials and to "magnetic monopoles" in spin ice.

Researchers at the London Centre for Nanotechnology (LCN), the Max Plank Institute for Complex Systems in Dresden, Germany and the University of Lyon, France, succeeded for the first time in using computer simulations to look at the second Wien effect. The study, by Vojtech Kaiser, Steve Bramwell, Peter Holdsworth and Roderich Moessner, reveals new details of the universal effect that will help interpret a wide varierty of experiments.

Professor Steve Bramwell of the LCN said: "Onsager’s Wien effect is of practical importance and contains beautiful physics: with computer simulations we can finally explore and expose its secrets at the atomic scale.

"As modern science and technology increasingly explores high electric fields, the new details of high field conduction revealed by these simulations, will have increasing importance."

We hope you had a productive and enjoyable time at SEMICON West.  Despite the lackluster marketplace, this year’s SEMICON West achieved a 15 percent increase in unique visitors and over an 18 percent increase in R&D titles.  We were also happy to see such strong attendance at the keynotes, executive panels and TechXPOT stages, confirming our claim that SEMICON West delivers the most well-informed and influential speakers (and audience) in the industry.

Read more news from SEMICON West 2013

One of the strongest programs at SEMICON West 2013 was the materials program produced by the Chemical & Gases Manufacturer Group (CGMG), a SEMI special interest group.  This session, entitled, “Materials Growth Opportunities at Both Ends of the Spectrum” attracted over 450 people, more than any dedicated materials session we’ve ever had at SEMICON West.  And it’s no surprise. Innovations in materials are driving leading-edge semiconductor development.  Material markets are growing as the result of opportunities for both large geometry devices such as wide bandgap and printed electronics, and nano-scale devices at sub 22nm and beyond.

As much as materials took center stage at SEMICON West, the subject is simply too big and dynamic to cover in-depth at SEMICON West.  For the real “deep dive” into the critical trends and opportunities in advanced electronic materials, you must attend the SEMI Strategic Materials Conference (SMC), held October 16-17 at the Santa Clara Marriott in Silicon Valley, California.  SMC is the only executive conference in the world dedicated to advanced electronic materials.

SMC provides valuable forecasting information and serves as a forum for collaboration among all sectors of the advanced materials supply chain. This year’s program will feature powerhouse keynote speakers including:

 Luc Van den hove, president and CEO, imec

Gregg Bartlett, chief technology officer, GLOBALFOUNDRIES

Laurie E. Locascio, Ph.D., director, Material Measurement Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology, and co-chair of the US government’s ambitious and essential Materials Genome Initiative

Other top-tier speakers will address market forecasts, materials developments in memory and logic, packaging materials trends, and materials-enabled “Beyond CMOS” devices.  Speakers will also address emerging materials opportunities and challenges in printed electronics, wide bandgap power devices, and MEMS.   The conference will also explore regulatory threats to the microelectronics industry and directly confront the increasingly difficult collaboration challenges between manufacturers, process equipment companies and diverse materials suppliers.

Last year’s conference sold out and attendees are encouraged to register early to ensure participation.

For additional information, please visit, http://www.semi.org/smc.

Thank you for making SEMICON West such a great success and hope to see you at the Strategic Materials Conference, if not before.

Transistors in ultra-high definition displays (UHD) possess particularly fine structures. Only extremely pure sputtering targets are suitable for use as the input materials for the fine conductor paths. “UHD-ready” will be the motto when Plansee present their ultra-pure coating materials at Touch Taiwan.

Ultra-high definition is a digital video format that transmits images at widths of up to 4000 pixels. Display manufacturers are now supplying the necessary hardware in the form of UHD screens. The advent of UHD technology is bringing with it more stringent requirements with respect to the purity of the materials used, such as molybdenum.

Molybdenum is a key component of the layer system in a thin film transistor and helps to determine the color with which an LED is illuminated. There are several million of these transistors in a single UHD screen. Ulrich Lausecker, Head of the Coating Business Unit at Plansee explains: “Any foreign particle in the thin film material is huge in relation to the fine transistor structures. Even the slightest contamination of the molybdenum layer can cause whole pixels to fail.”

The company is one of the leading manufacturers of molybdenum sputtering targets. When processed, these targets form key layers in the transistor system. Plansee is the only manufacturer to supply molybdenum at a guaranteed purity of 99.97 percent. As a rule, the material is even purer than this. Which means that Plansee’s sputtering targets are ready for ultra-high definition technology.

In-house production guarantees the highest levels of material purity

This is made possible by the proprietary production process. At Plansee, this starts with molybdenum trioxide, in other words shortly after the ore has been processed. In-house reduction processes then allow to convert this to extremely pure molybdenum powder. And Plansee is also responsible for further downstream process steps such as pressing, sintering and forming sputtering targets. Before the sputtering targets are delivered to the customers, Plansee bond them in their own machine shops in Asia.

Because all the production steps are kept in house, Plansee is able to control the quality of the material right from the start in a way that no other target manufacturer can.

“Even the raw material itself comes from part of our family,” said Lausecker. “The Plansee Group has a 14 percent stake in the Chilean company Molymet, the largest molybdenum ore processor in the world.”

PI (Physik Instrumente) L.P., a manufacturer of nanopositioning equipment — offers the LPS-45 series of piezo positioning stages manufactured by PI subsidiary PI miCos.

This low profile linear translation stage is driven by a PIshift inertia-type piezo motor. The closed-loop stage is equipped with a high precision optical linear encoder providing for nanometer-level repeatability. An open-loop version and vacuum compatible and non-magnetic versions are also offered.

The PIShift piezo inertia drive is very quiet, due to its high operating frequency of 20 kHz. It provides high holding forces of 10 N. The drive principle works similar to the classic tablecloth trick, a cyclical alternation of static and sliding friction between a moving runner and the drive element.

When at rest, the maximum clamping force is available, with no holding current and consequently no heat generation.

PI provides a large variety of nanopositioning stages, based on several piezo-motor techniques, as well as classical electromagnetic drives.

Despite the very low profile of only 0.8” (20 mm) and compact dimensions, the stage offers a standard travel range of 30 mm (1.2”) and can be scaled up for longer travels, if needed.

PI’s precision linear translation stages are of great value for precision alignment in photonics, semiconductor, bio/nanotech applications as well as in scientific research.

Researchers at North Carolina State University have created a new flexible nano-scaffold for rechargeable lithium ion batteries that could help make cell phone and electric car batteries last longer.

The research, published in Advanced Materials ("Aligned Carbon Nanotube-Silicon Sheets: A Novel Nano-architecture for Flexible Lithium Ion Battery Electrodes"), shows the potential of manufactured sheets of aligned carbon nanotubes coated with silicon, a material with a much higher energy storage capacity than the graphite composites typically used in lithium ion batteries.

Read more: UC Riverside scientists discover new uses for carbon nanotubes

 “Putting silicon into batteries can produce a huge increase in capacity—10 times greater,” said Dr. Philip Bradford, assistant professor of textile engineering, chemistry and science at NC State. “But adding silicon can also create 10 times the problems.”

One significant challenge in using silicon is that it swells as lithium ion batteries discharge. As the batteries cycle, silicon can break off from the electrode and float around (known as pulverization) instead of staying in place, making batteries less stable.

When the silicon-coated carbon nanotubes were aligned in one direction like a layer of drinking straws laid end to end, the structure allowed for controlled expansion so that the silicon is less prone to pulverization, said Xiangwu Zhang, associate professor of textile engineering, chemistry and science at NC State.

 “There’s a huge demand for batteries for cell phones and electric vehicles, which need higher energy capacity for longer driving distances between charges,” Zhang said. “We believe this carbon nanotube scaffolding potentially has the ability to change the industry, although technical aspects will have to be worked out. The manufacturing process we’re using is scalable and could work well in commercial production.”