Category Archives: Advanced Packaging

November 1, 2012 – X-Fab Silicon Foundries says it has become the majority shareholder in German MEMS Foundry Itzehoe GmbH (MFI), the latest in a series of recent moves to raise its profile as a top MEMS foundry.

The MFI business, renamed X-Fab MEMS Foundry Itzehoe, complements X-Fab’s capabilities in its MEMS foundry in Erfurt, adding technologies for microsensors, actuators, micro-optical structures and hermetic wafer-level packaging processes. X-Fab originally signed MFI as a contract MEMS manufacturing partner in Feb. 2011, a deal that expanded its capabilities across a range of 200mm MEMS technologies. Its ownership stake in MFI is now 51%, up from 25.5%.

X-Fab MEMS Foundry Itzehoe will continue its long-term cooperation with the Frauhofer Institute for Silicon Technology‘s (ISIT) MEMS Group. MFI was spun out of ISIT in 2009 and is located within the same wafer fabrication facility in Itzehoe/Germany.

"Our customers will benefit from both an even wider spectrum of available MEMS technologies and from direct access to X-Fab’s manufacturing facilities for CMOS-compatible MEMS processes," stated Thomas Hartung, VP of marketing at X-Fab Group. "X-Fab MEMS Foundry Itzehoe will play an important role in the implementation of our MEMS strategy, and brings us closer to our goal of becoming one of the top three pure-play MEMS foundry providers."

"The rich combination of the versatile MEMS-specific technology portfolio at the Itzehoe-based MEMS foundry and the development expertise of Fraunhofer ISIT greatly expands the capabilities of X-Fab’s technology offering," added Peter Merz, managing director of X-Fab MEMS Foundry Itzehoe. "We are delighted to provide the full bandwidth of MEMS technologies including vacuum and optical wafer-level packaging or TSV backed by X-Fab’s existing and well-proven foundry services. This integration brings X-Fab customers bundled and accelerated product development and manufacturing cycles for micro-machined devices such as inertial sensors, micro-mirrors, and piezoelectric transducers."

Barely a month ago X-Fab pledged to invest $50M over the next three years to support projected growth and a goal of "becoming one of the top three worldwide suppliers of MEMS foundry services." (X-Fab placed 10th in Yole Développement’s 2011 MEMS foundry rankings, surging 33% to roughly $16M in revenues, about $31M shy of No.3 Silex Microsystems.) Among X-Fab‘s other recent MEMS accomplishments:

 

October 31, 2012 – Applied Materials has announced two new tools for making ultrahigh-definition displays and high-pixel-density screens for mobile devices. One offers a new design for depositing IGZO films for TFTs; the other handles bigger substrates of low temperature polysilicon (LTPS) films to help lower manufacturing costs.

The Applied AKT-PiVot PVD for metal oxide-based thin-film transistors (TFTs) enables a transition from aluminum to copper interconnect bus lines leading to faster pixel response and lower power consumption in LCD TV panels. It overcomes the problem of "mura effect" that reduce display quality, which the company says has hindered metal-oxide technology’s inroads into mainstream LCDs. The "breakthrough" stability of the IGZO films deposited by the tool offers the promise of metal oxide backplanes for OLEDs which would significantly lower their cost as well, the company adds.

(Source: Applied Materials)

A proprietary rotary cathode design employs unique deposition modulation technology to deposit copper layers and form the transistor channel with uniform grain distribution, low resistivity and high thickness uniformity. The technology enables nearly 3× higher target utilization than competitive systems, according to the company, and its rotary targets have >4× longer lifetimes than conventional planar targets.

(Source: Applied Materials)

The Applied AKT-PX PECVD is an extension of the company’s line of PECVD systems to deposit highly-uniform LTPS films on glass substrates. The new tool extends to larger sheets (1.6-5.7m2, or Gen 5 to Gen 8.5 sizes) to help manufacturers increase production and drive down costs, and accelerate the transition of LTPS technology to larger screen sizes for both mobile devices and TVs, the company points out. AMOLED and advanced TFT-LCD displays are switching to the polysilicon-based transistors, which offer higher electron mobility vs. the amorphous silicon (a-Si) used in conventional LCD displays, leading to smaller and faster pixel-controlling transistors, and displays that are brighter, sharper, and use less power — features most desirable for mobile applications.

(Source: Applied Materials)

"The display industry is undergoing one of the most critical technical transitions in the last 20 years — which is being driven by advances in TFT technology," stated Tom Edman, group VP and GM of Applied’s display business group. He added that "customers have reported excellent results with our systems and we already have received multiple orders from major display manufacturers."

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October 30, 2012 – This year is shaping up to be a historically lousy year for makers of flat-panel display (FPD) manufacturing equipment, but expectations are looking up that demand will catch up to supply in 2013 and balance the market, according to NPD DisplaySearch projections. Spending on FPD equipment is projected to plummet -69% in 2012 to $3.8 billion, making it the worst year in the sector’s history. But even with slow demand growth in maturing markets (TVs and PCs), the firm sees "significantly improved conditions" in 2013, more than doubling to $8.3B.

Most of that spending will be for new low-temperature polysilicon (LTPS) fabs or converting existing amorphous silicon (a-Si) capacity to LTPS, both for use in TFT-LCD and active-matrix OLED (AMOLED) production, explains Charles Annis, VP of manufacturing research at NPD DisplaySearch. "One reason spending is increasing so much is because LTPS fabs cost substantially more than a-Si fabs to build. There are extra process necessitate more than 10 mask steps." LTPS fabs also require higher-priced equipment, particularly high-resolution photolithography tools, he added, but having those technologies does enable production of high-value displays used in smartphones and tablets.



FPD equipment spending forecast. (Source: NPD DisplaySearch)

Such dramatic cutbacks in investment will more quickly rebalance supplies with demand and raise fab utilization rates. Meanwhile, new manufacturing technologies (oxide semiconductors, in-cell touch, flexible AMOLEDs and AMOLED TVs) promise lower costs and higher-value applications. Together that spells improve profitability for panel makers, notes Annis. Even with the cautionary disclaimer that new investments (e.g. AMOLED capacity) can be pushed out or cancelled if performance and cost targets don’t materialize, most of the firm’s indicators project 2013 "to be a much better year than 2012."

October 26, 2012 – Communications applications are far and away the leading growth market for ICs over the next five years, and PCs and consumer applications have fallen far back in the pack.

IC Insights projects a 7.4% compound annual growth rate for total IC sales from 2011-2016. That’s largely because of good growth in the communications end market (14.1% CAGR) which will nearly double the entire IC market over the period — and nearly double in size to $160B by 2016. The Asia-Pacific region will see the lion’s share (61%) of this year’s comm IC sales, up from 59% in 2011.

Also ahead of the curve is the automotive IC market (9.0% CAGR), pegged to surge to $28B in 2016, 53% bigger than where it was in 2011. Europe has been the big market in that sector, accounting for 37% of sales in 2012 — but by 2016 the Asia-Pacific market will be nearly equal in size, IC Insights projects.

Another emerging sector is medical/industrial applications, within which is an aging global population requiring home healthcare as well as other industrial applications. Analog ICs will continue to dominate here (45% of total in 2012, and still the largest in 2016). The government/military IC market will reach $2.46B by 2016 but still be a tiny slice of the total market (<1%).

IC market growth forecast by application, 2011-2016 CAGR. (Source: IC Insights)

The two slowest sectors are the ones which have fallen the farthest from grace. Computer IC sales will drop to 34% of the total market in 2012 vs. nearly 42% in 2011. This year’s -9% drop in computer IC sales is due to a -12% decline in memory sales. And consumer ICs will register just 1.9% CAGR from 2011-2016. Japan was "once the stronghold of the consumer electronics business," points out the analyst firm, but in 2012 it will hold less than half the share of the consumer IC market vs. the Asia Pacific region (22% to 50%).

IC Insights had already been predicting that communications will usurp computers as the biggest application for leading-edge ICs. Comm will be the biggest end-use IC app in every major geographic region starting in 2014. Communications accounted for 31% of worldwide IC sales, vs. 41.7% for computers; the analyst firm sees them swapping to 42.2% and 34.0% by 2016.

(Source: IC Insights)

In fact, telecom apps are already the biggest growth areas for ICs, notes IC Insights. In 2012 the top three growth areas are all telecom, and thanks to application-specific processors used in smartphones and tablet computers. Also note that NAND flash continues to grow, though at much slower rates due to a surge in capacity (and vendors) and subsequently lower pricing pressures. Auto is a top market in 2012 as ell, thanks to needed functions such as self-parking systems, stability control, and collision avoidance.


Top growing IC markets (in revenue growth), 2010-2012F. (Source: IC Insights)

Note that the lines are blurring with every new generation of technology — what counts as a consumer device, or a business application, or communications usage. "It is getting more difficult to keep nice matter-of-fact demarcations between the products," acknowledges IC Insights president Bill McClean. "We are classifying by type of product and not really who is the end user." That puts smartphones in the "communications" category because it’s a type of cellphone, whatever else they are capable of doing and are used for. Consumer gear, then, means systems including TVs, stereo equipment, iPods, etc., he explains. Tablets are a form of PCs so they are included as computers, though some market watchers (particularly for early versions) ranked them as personal media devices.

October 24, 2012 – Several trends are helping to steer the flat-panel display industry back on the road to recovery, despite excess capacity and eroding prices (and profits). One is the commercialization of advanced technologies and specifications (e.g. higher resolution, wider viewing angels, integrated touch functionality, and slimmer/lighter formfactors). The other is a shift toward larger panel sizes.

“The average diagonal sizes of key FPD applications have increased over the past three years, and every inch of growth in flat panel display applications results in growth in area demand and thus capacity utilization,” points out David Hsieh, VP of Greater China Market Research for NPD DisplaySearch. Consumers won’t want to go back to smaller displays and lower resolutions, so average (diagonal) sizes will accelerate in 2013, spurring long-term growth for the entire flat-panel display industry. DisplaySearch notes that LCD TV panel sizes have increased 2 inches in just the past 12 months (August 2011-August 2012), from 34.8-in. to 36.8-in.. Sharp, which has the highest average screen size of TV panels shipped, has added nearly 10-in. to its panels (39.1-in. to 48.3 in). Given a total typical 18-20M panel shipments/month, those extra sizes add up quickly.

Here’s DisplaySearch’s tracking of multiple key FPD applications and their size differences over a four-year period. Note mobile PCs are actually seeing smaller screen sizes thanks to the rise of tablets and ultrabooks. The firm also notes "challenges" for desktop panels in 2012-2013 as due to PC bundles and fewer standalone PC replacements, though consumers are splurging on bigger LCD monitors (23-in. to 27-in.).

Average diagonal size of key FPD applications, in inches. (Source: NPD DisplaySearch)

What’s behind the increase in screen sizes? Consumers, given the choice, are choosing bigger: 26W to 29 W, 37W to 39W, 46/47 to 50-in, 55 to 60-in. That includes when they upgrade older LCD TVs. Consumers in North America have been upgrading their living room sets from 40-in. to 50-in. or bigger, and from 32-in. to 39-40 in the bedroom, DisplaySearch notes. And for TV firms, larger-sized TVs mean bigger profit margins.

DisplaySearch says to watch for some major holiday promotions around bigger LCD TVs. (Rumor has it there’ll be a Black Friday deal of $999 for a 60-in. LCD TV.) This should keep whetting consumers’ appetites to keep migrating to bigger screens, perpetuating the trend of making the bigger panels.

October 22, 2012 – In case anyone needed a reminder or a wake-up, new data from SEMI reiterates chip tool sales are slumping badly in the latter part of this year.

Worldwide orders reported by North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment totaled $952.0M in September, -15% from August’s revised $1.12B level, but 2.8% higher than the same month a year ago. Billings similarly were down from August (-12% to $1.18B), but they’re also down -10.4% from a year ago.

The first half of the year was pretty good for semiconductor equipment demand, raising hopes of at least some minor full-year growth after a disappointing 2011 (particularly in the fall). It’s increasingly clear now, though, that the second half of 2012 is suffering from another investment slowdown. "In the current cycle, device makers are grappling with lower average selling prices and uncertainty with the broader economy, which clearly has a near-term impact on equipment purchases," noted Denny McGuirk, president and CEO of SEMI.

In the four months since peaking in May, equipment bookings have declined -40%, and are now right around where they were in the trough of Sept-Oct 2011, which was a two-year low point. Sales aren’t off by as much (-23%) but the dollar amount is also at the 3Q11 trough level. The B:B ratio has been plummeting since April when it was well above the parity level (1.12); it’s now at 0.81, meaning $81 worth of product orders are coming in for every $100 of equipment sold.

For the nine months through September, equipment orders tracked by SEMI are down -7% from the same period in 2011 to $11.9B. Sales are down -15% at $12.3B. SEMI’s official forecast, originally issued at SEMICON West, predicts an overall -2.6% decline for the year in global frontend + backend equipment.

Industry watchers and chipmakers were expecting a soft 3Q12, but holding out hopes for 4Q12 and especially 2013. Intel didn’t help with either timeframe in its 3Q12 results, when it announced lower overall 2012 capex and utilization rates slashed to 50% — and refused to forecast into 2013 spending due to visibility concerns, just two months away.

October 18, 2012 – Worldwide flat-panel display (FPD) revenues will reach a record $120 billion in 2012, up 8% from a challenging year in 2011, and the recovery is entirely on the backs of TFT-LCDs and AMOLED displays, according to NPD DisplaySearch.

TFT-LCD displays still make up the vast share of all display sales (~90%), and so the overall market tracks in-step with this segment, rebounding from a -5% decline in 2011 to an 8% rise in 2012. Note, though, that of all the other display technology slices, AMOLEDs have by far the best growth trajectory — two years ago it was fourth in total market share (1%) behind plasma, passive matrix, and roughly tied with CRT; now it’s the second-most-popular display technology with a 5.4% share and the gap is widening. Credit surging manufacturing capacity and expansion of market players, DisplaySearch says. The only other segment to see any growth is liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS) used for microdisplays. Also note the sharp rise and sharper plummet of active-matrix electrophoretic displays (AMEPD), used in monochrome e-reader devices, which are giving up ground to TFT-LCD tablet PCs.

Worldwide FPD revenues by technology, 2010-2012. (Source: NPD DisplaySearch)

2011 was a tough year for displays due to price erosion in TFT-LCD panels, particularly for TV applications, DisplaySearch notes. The rebound in 2012 has many factors behind it: bigger average sizes and shipments of LCD TVs, higher prices for high-resolution mobile displays, strong unit growth for tablet PCs, expansion of AMOLED shipments and applications, thinner and lighter ultraslim notebook PC panels, the emergence of 4k × 2k LCD TVs, and demand for a number of applications including games, car navigation systems, and digital signage.

"While the industry faces challenges in traditional applications such as plasma TVs and mainstream sizes of LCD TVs and desktop monitors, the addition of new features and lower prices are driving growth of applications such as tablet PCs and smartphones," explained David Hsieh, VP at NPD DisplaySearch.

The outlook for the FPD industry isn’t entirely cloud-free: there’s a lot of saturation in several major markets, Hsieh noted. Nevertheless, the supply chain is figuring out how to "increase the value proposition" of FPDs by emphasizing their technology improvements: higher resolution for mobile devices, bigger screens, thinner and lighter versions for mobile PCs, improved wide-viewing angle, and desirable functionalities like touchscreen. "We expect 2013 to be a good year for the FPD industry, with revenue increasing, as TFT LCD prices recover and AMOLED demand grows," Hsieh said.

FlexTech Alliance announced the completion of a development project with Etched in Time, Inc. (EITI), for a plasma etch system that is compatible with a wide array of roll-to-roll equipment.  The result of the project is a tool that can be used in the manufacture of a broad range of products including LED lighting or solar panels fabricated on plastic substrates.

The purpose of this FlexTech Alliance funded project was to create a plasma etching tool for dielectric films that offers a number of manufacturing advantages for flexible electronics. For example, plasma etching is cleaner than a wet etching manufacturing process due to the lack of chemicals to dispose after use. Additionally, incorporating the system into a roll-to-roll process allows large area and flexible products to be fabricated at low cost.

After the successful system development, the final step of the project was installation of the EITI plasma tool into the roll-to-roll flexible processing equipment at Binghamton University’s Center for Advanced Microelectronics Manufacturing (CAMM), where the follow-on work will take place of fine tuning processes with the new system for different materials.  

The new tool has gained commercial traction since the project completion. For example, a joint venture has been established between EITI and the Solar Product Lab (SPL) at Arizona State University to build and install a demonstration tool to etch silicon nitride for solar cell production.
“Not only will this project refine the manufacturing process of printed, flexible electronics through the continued work at CAMM,” commented Michael Ciesinski, CEO of the FlexTech Alliance. “Etched in Time has also been very resourceful using the results of this project and their design and build expertise to adapt the technology for commercial markets.”

Additional applications of the tool include texturizing a silicon surface during the manufacture of solar cells fabricated with multi crystal silicon, a material currently in wide industry use.

October 16, 2012 – SEMI has extended the call for papers for the 2013 China Semiconductor Technology International Conference (CSTIC) to October 22. Paper abstract guidelines are listed here, and SEMI says there remain "just a few openings" for proposed talks on semiconductor technology and manufacturing. Original and overview papers from integrated device manufacturers (IDMs), equipment/materials suppliers, and academic and research institutes are welcomed.

The CSTIC (March 17-18 in Shanghai), held in conjunction with SEMICON China (March 19-21), is the largest annual semiconductor technology conference for the industry in China. (Last year’s CSTIC featured 100 technical lectures, 300 speakers, and nearly 1000 attendees.) Confirmed plenary speakers for CSTIC 2013 are RPI prof and Nobel Laureate Ivar Giaever, and "father of SOI technology" Ghavam Shahidi, IBM Fellow and director of Silicon Technology at IBM.

The CSTIC program offers 10 symposia covering all aspects of semiconductor technology and manufacturing, including a just-announced new track covering "circuit design, system integration and applications." Other tracks include: device engineering and technology; lithography and patterning; dry & wet etch and cleaning; thin-film technology; CMP, wafer substrate polishing and post-polish cleaning; materials and process integration for device and interconnection; packaging and assembly; metrology, reliability and testing; emerging semiconductor technologies; and advances in MEMS and sensor technologies.

SEMI and ECS are the organizers along with China’s High-Tech Expert Committee (CHTEC) with co-sponsors IEEE, MRS, and the China Electronics Materials Industry Association.

October 16, 2012 – The Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA) says it has formed a Technology Steering Committee to help address key business and technology areas of interest to its members, and "encourage the advancement and adoption of leading technology and practices."

The committee will meet quarterly to "provide general oversight and guidance to the GSA’s working groups, committees, and research and events, as it pertains to key technological trends and their implications on the technology ecosystem," according to the GSA. The committee also will be charged with keeping the GSA’s focus aligned with key technologies and practices having the most positive impact on its members. Topics range from the technologically specific such as 3D IC packaging (for which the GSA has had a working group since 2009) to broader themes such as taxation and education.

The steering committee is chaired by Open Silicon top exec Naveed Sherwani, and seats representatives from two dozen companies spanning the fabless, foundry, and equipment supplier sectors: Altera, Applied Materials, ASE, Amkor, Cadence, CSR, eSilicon, GlobalFoundries, IBM, IDT, Intersil, LSI, Microsemi, Open-Silicon, PMC-Sierra, Rambus, SanDisk, Silicon Labs, SMIC, Spreadtrum, SuVolta, Synopsys, and TSMC.

The Technology Steering Committee is expected to help companies across the semiconductor ecosystem "address business and technology concerns specifically, where they intersect and their implications in this industry," stated Jodi Shelton, co-founder and president of GSA. "The committee will support, encourage and promote entrepreneurship, as well as accelerate industry adoption of emerging technologies and practices that are most significant to GSA members and their constituents."

The first TSC meeting was held Aug 8 at Open Silicon in Milpitas, CA, site of all the quarterly meetings. The next one is scheduled for Nov. 7.

Update 10/16: Jodi Shelton summed up the reason and timing for the formation of this steering committee: "The participants within the Technology Steering Committee are all senior technical executives with tremendous visibility and insight into the trends of the industry. We simply want to leverage this visibility and insight." Forming a steering committee to oversee the GSA’s working groups helps "bring in fresh perspectives from a different angle" and keep momentum moving forward, she explained.

Takeaways from that inaugural TSC meeting were to decide on key areas of focus, key individual technology & broader topics toward which the TSC will be "steering" the GSA’s efforts:

– 2.5-3D. Technical readiness (e.g. EDA, equipment, I/O standards, etc.); supply chain optimization (e.g. foundries want complete ownership to guarantee yields, but others may want to add their own disintegrated portion of expertise); and collaborative innovation (who will create and own IPs/standards, profit and loss sharing).

– Beyond Moore. Roadmap challenges for 450mm wafer manufacturing (what the ecosystem needs to do to support this); technologies beyond CMOS and NAND; trends on cost and power; the effect of silicon convergence (integrating large systems, EDA challenges, what is the FPGA component, etc.); the roles of FinFETs and 3D wafers; how Beyond Moore can be effected with a limited number of players in fab development, and how this will effect fab development costs; will this drive further industry consolidation or opportunities for micro fabs; managing package equivalence and system costs, reference designs, software, support, etc.

– IP. How can a limited number of vendors enable more shuttle and support, process, non-essential IP; make finding the right IP easier — if it exists; packaging and transferring quality; verifying IP, making it portable and usable.

– More than Moore/Innovation in Legacy Nodes. What’s the solution for low-cost, heterogeneous integration for MEMS, simple analog blocks, and other drivers that may not necessarily scale to Moore’s Law? (e.g. 2D-2.5D-3D, which may or may not include TSVs) And how can the GSA’s working groups determine ways to improve efficiencies and innovations at the ≥90nm nodes, and leverage existing technology to support emerging markets?