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Hitachi Cable, Ltd. announced today that it has developed a new mass-production technology for GaN-templates, in which a high-quality gallium nitride (GaN) single-crystal thin film is grown on a sapphire substrate.

Using this product as a base substrate for an epitaxial wafer for white LEDs makes it possible to drastically improve productivity of white LED epiwafers and the LED properties. Hitachi intends for this product to become an effective solution to improve the position of white LED manufacturers in the industry, where there is severe competition.

The demand for white LEDs is rapidly expanding, and they have come to be used in backlight unit in liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and ordinary lighting devices in recent years, thanks to their energy efficiency and long service life. The structure of an white LED epiwafer consists of a thin, active layer and a p-type GaN layer with a total thickness of about 1μm over an n-type GaN layer with a thickness of about 10μm, grown on a sapphire substrate. Hitachi said all of these crystal layers are produced by the MOVPE method in ordinary manufacturing processes. The MOVPE method is suitable for growing active layers which require atomic-level control of the film thickness. Meanwhile, a disadvantage of this method is that it takes a long time to grow a high-quality and thick n-type GaN layer. White LED epiwafers can be grown about once or twice a day at the most, and thus there is a need for a high-efficiency production method.

To solve this problem, Hitachi Cable developed a GaN-template used as a base substrate for growth in the MOVPE method.

The GaN template consists of an n-type GaN layer grown on a sapphire substrate. Using a GaN-template means LED manufacturers do not need to grow an n-type GaN buffer layer and this reduces the time required for growth by about half compared with conventional methods. The GaN-templates of Hitachi Cable are also suitable for high-output LEDs which require large currents because they allow both low resistance and high crystal formation.

Hitachi Cable has developed single-crystal free-standing GaN substrates used for blue-violet lasers and developed unique HVPE-growth technology and machines for mass-production of GaN substrates. Based on this technology, Hitachi Cable developed new high-efficiency production technology and machines for mass-production of high-quality GaN-templates.

Main characteristics of GaN-template include:

  • High crystal quality and high surface quality based on growth technology established in the development of free-standing GaN substrates
  • Low resistance n-type GaN buffer which is suitable for high-output wafers and bonding-type LEDs
  • Templates on flat-surface sapphire substrates and various types of PSS (Note 4) are available
  • Wafers with 2 to 6 inches in diameters are available (8-inch version is now planned for development)

With this new GaN-template added to the lineup of GaN substrates and GaN epiwafers that it has been selling, Hitachi Cable plans to strengthen and expand its GaN product group and offer compound semiconductor products.

Dongbu HiTek today announced that it has begun volume production of Ambient Light Proximity Sensor (ALPS) chips for Clairpixel Co., Ltd., a Korean company specializing in single-chip image and motion sensor solutions for mobile, automotive, medical and security applications. Leveraging Dongbu HiTek’s specialized mixed-signal process, Clairpixel’s advanced ALPS chip is expected to target the growing Chinese smartphone market.

“Clairpixel’s ALPS chip highlights the system-on-chip attributes of our specialized 0.18um mixed-signal process,” said Jae Song, Dongbu HiTek EVP of marketing. “We look forward to expanding our collaboration before year end to add a color sensor function to this highly integrated chip design.” He credited the rapidly rising adoption rate of ALPS chips to their ability to extend battery life by optimizing screen brightness against ambient light. “With the addition of a color sensor, ALPS will also be able to automatically optimize color on large mobile screens while conserving battery power.”

According to recent market research from Gartner, Inc., worldwide smartphone shipments are expected to more than double from about 718 million units last year to more than1.6 billion units in 2016. Over this same period, Chinese smartphone shipments are forecast to rise from 25 percent to 33 percent of the total. Smart phone manufacturers such as Huawei and ZTE Corporation are expected to lead the expanding share of Chinese shipments. During the fourth quarter of 2012, some estimates report that Huawei shipped nearly 5 percent the worldwide total giving them the third largest market share worldwide

Dongbu HiTek Co., Ltd. specializes in developing s analog and mixed-signal processing technologies. The company processing portfolio encompasses Analog CMOS, BCDMOS, High Voltage CMOS, CMOS RF, CMOS Image Sensor (CIS), Display Driver IC (DDI), Touch Screen Controller IC and NOR Flash technologies.

Demand for 4-inch or larger AMOLED panels has continued to increase in the fourth quarter of 2012 thanks to strong growth in the market for high-end smartphones with large screens, such as the Galaxy S and Note series by Samsung Electronics, according to a recent report released by Displaybank. The larger size group made up 88 percent of total AMOLED panel shipments, which amounted to 41 million units in the fourth quarter of 2012: In detail, 4.x-inch panels accounted for 65.1 percent and 5.x-inch ones 22.8 percent.

In particular, shipments of 5.x-inch AMOLED panels hiked in the fourth quarter of 2012, expanding its market share for the third consecutive quarter, to 22.8 percent of the total. It is a rather rapid growth, considering that 5.3-inch AMOLED panel was first released in the third quarter of 2011, thanks to the popularity of larger-screen smartphones. This is in stark contrast to 3.x-inch AMOLED panels whose market share plunged to 11.6 percent in total shipments in the last quarter of 2012 from more than 60 percent in the first quarter of 2011. Along with the 4.x-inch sector, which takes the majority of total AMOLED shipments, 5.x-inch panels are expected to become the main display size group in the market.

By application, demand of AMOLED panels for mobile phones accounted of 96 percent of the total AMOLED panel shipments in the last quarter of 2012, up from 86 percent in the first quarter of the year. Mobile phones have contributed to the rapid growth of the market for AMOLED panels, but this caused concerns about the market’s too much dependence on one application. The trend also indicates how difficult for the AMOLED technology to enter the mid-to-large-sized panel market.

About 1,000 of the world’s leading experts in the field of microelectronics will gather here for the 2013 Symposia on VLSI Technology and Circuits, from June 11-13, 2013 (Technology) and from June 12-14, 2013 (Circuits). The Symposia alternate between Kyoto, Japan and Honolulu, HI annually and serve as the premier mid-year gatherings to present research for the advancement of microelectronics technology and circuit development.

To foster joint interactions among device technologists and circuit/system designers, the technical programs of both Symposia will overlap for two days, and attractive joint technology-circuits focus sessions – which were successfully introduced in last year – will be held again. For a single registration fee, attendees can benefit from unique opportunities for interdisciplinary learning that cannot be replicated by other important conferences in each area.

More than 200 presentations will be given, including short courses prior to each Symposium, invited speakers addressing the industry’s most important issues, evening rump sessions spanning a range of topics at the leading edge of technology and circuit design, and a compelling luncheon talk. Also, the Symposium on VLSI Technology will be preceded by the Silicon Nanoelectronics Workshop on June 09-10, 2013 and the Spintronics Workshop on LSI in the evening of June 10, 2013.

“This year’s VLSI Technology program will highlight the breakthroughs in the evolution of SoC and More-than-Moore technologies such as advanced CMOS devices, eDRAM, new NVM’s, image sensor, and their processes (lithography, interconnects and 3D stacks), as the semiconductor industry is moving to the beyond 22nm node,” said Hitoshi Wakabayashi of Tokyo Institute of Technology, Symposium Chair of the 2013 Symposium on VLSI Technology.

“The VLSI Circuits program will present major advancements in the designs with scaled devices at and below 22nm and also with three dimensional chip stacking with TSVs, as well as more universal topics such as energy-efficient electronics, bio-medical applications, and wireline/wireless communications interfaces,” said Makoto Nagata of Kobe University, Symposium Chair of the 2013 Symposium on VLSI Circuits.

Both Symposium Chairs also expressed that: “Joint focus sessions provide excellent opportunities of close interactions among technology and circuits communities, with alignments of selected topics in a program as well as a common session room for ease of participation.”

The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) and Veredus Laboratories, a supplier of innovative molecular diagnostic tools, announced the launch of VereTropTM, the first biochip in the molecular diagnostics market that can identify 13 different major tropical diseases from a single blood sample.

With its high level of automation, this lab-on-chip diagnostic kit is poised to transform the quality and efficiency of testing tropical infectious diseases, including dengue fever, malaria, chikungunya and hand, foot and mouth disease, in the field.

 “Tropical diseases often reflect common symptoms like fever, and may not be accurately diagnosed early by doctors,” said Associate Professor Lisa F.P.Ng, the lead virologist in this project, from A*STAR’s Singapore Immunology Network. “This portable test kit is a rapid and reliable method to accurately test for multiple pathogenic targets from just one blood sample in a matter of hours.”

Together with Professor Laurent Renia, an expert in Malaria Immunobiology at SIgN, the team from SIgN has successfully validated the kit on patient samples in the external fields of Northern Thailand, at the Thai-Myanmar border.

 “This technology opens new possibilities for the accurate and rapid diagnostic of important infectious diseases that remain the main causes of illness in the tropics,” Professor François H Nosten, the clinical collaborator at the Oxford Clinical Unit in Mae Sot and Director of the Shoklo Malaria Research Unit said. “Its versatility and ease of use will change the approach to diagnostics at the periphery of health care system.”

Developed with infectious disease expertise from A*STAR’s SIgN, this biochip, which operates on STMicroelectronics’ Lab-on-Chip platform, was initiated between ETPL, the technology transfer arm of A*STAR and Veredus in 2009. Prior to this, Veredus had licensed diagnostic technology from A*STAR in the areas of influenza and malaria.

“Veredus and A*STAR have worked on several collaborative projects dating back to 2004,” said Dr. Rosemary Tan, CEO of Veredus Laboratories, a Singapore-based, majority owned subsidiary of STMicroelectronics. “This latest project on VereTrop Lab-on-Chip has combined the strengths and expertise of A*STAR, Veredus, and STMicroelectronics to create a powerful multiplexed molecular product that can rapidly detect and differentiate symptomatically similar tropical infectious diseases and enable timely proper treatment.”

 “After this journey of more than three years, we are glad that such a compelling technologically-advanced product with global healthcare benefits is ready to be launched to the market. Veredus is a good example of how local companies can work with A*STAR for a consistent stream of technology to develop products that can enhance their offerings and level them up to be competitive and relevant globally,” said Philip Lim, Chief Executive Officer of ETPL.

To see learn more about MEMS in medical devices, check out the Top 10 medical applications for MEMS slideshow.

STATS ChipPAC Ltd., a provider of advanced semiconductor packaging and test services, today announced the appointment of Mr. James A. Norling to succeed Mr. Charles R. Wofford as chairman of the Board of Directors with immediate effect. He was appointed to the Board of Directors at the Company’s Annual General Meeting held on April 24, 2013. Mr. Wofford will retire from over 15 years of service on STATS ChipPAC’s Board of Directors, including 11 years as Chairman of the Board.

Norling is presently the Executive Chairman of GLOBALFOUNDRIES Inc. and a Director of Harley-Davidson, Inc. A well respected electronics industry veteran, Mr. Norling served a distinguished 35-year career with Motorola Inc. from 1965 to 2000, where he was the president of the Personal Communications Sector. He was the former Chairman of Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd., from 2002 until the company was acquired by Advanced Technology Investment Corporation in 2009. Norling also served as interim President and Chief Executive Officer of Chartered during 2002.

"It is my honor and privilege to have lead STATS ChipPAC through the past 11 years of growth to be one of the largest semiconductor assembly and test companies in the world,” Wofford remarked. “This would not have been possible without the leadership and guidance of my fellow Board members. Jim’s seasoned industry experience and wealth of perspectives will contribute greatly to STATS ChipPAC’s continued success as a leading semiconductor assembly and test company."

"I am delighted to join STATS ChipPAC as the Chairman of the Board and am excited to build on the firm foundations and momentum of the Company,” Norling said. The Board expresses its deep appreciation and gratitude to Charles for his leadership and exceptional contributions as the chairman of STATS ChipPAC."

When a team of University of Illinois engineers set out to grow nanowires of a compound semiconductor on top of a sheet of graphene, they did not expect to discover a new paradigm of epitaxy.

The self-assembled wires have a core of one composition and an outer layer of another, a desired trait for many advanced electronics applications. Led by professor Xiuling Li, in collaboration with professors Eric Pop and Joseph Lyding, all professors of electrical and computer engineering, the team published its findings in the journal Nano Letters.

Nanowires, tiny strings of semiconductor material, have great potential for applications in transistors, solar cells, lasers, sensors and more.

“Nanowires are really the major building blocks of future nano-devices,” said postdoctoral researcher Parsian Mohseni, first author of the study. “Nanowires are components that can be used, based on what material you grow them out of, for any functional electronics application.”

graphene nanowires
A false-color microscope image of a single nanowire, showing the InAs core and InGaAs shell. | Graphic by Parsian Mohseni

 

Li’s group uses a method called van der Waals epitaxy to grow nanowires from the bottom up on a flat substrate of semiconductor materials, such as silicon. The nanowires are made of a class of materials called III-V (three-five), compound semiconductors that hold particular promise for applications involving light, such as solar cells or lasers.

The group previously reported growing III-V nanowires on silicon. While silicon is the most widely used material in devices, it has a number of shortcomings. Now, the group has grown nanowires of the material indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs) on a sheet of graphene, a 1-atom-thick sheet of carbon with exceptional physical and conductive properties.

Thanks to its thinness, graphene is flexible, while silicon is rigid and brittle. It also conducts like a metal, allowing for direct electrical contact to the nanowires. Furthermore, it is inexpensive, flaked off from a block of graphite or grown from carbon gases.

“One of the reasons we want to grow on graphene is to stay away from thick and expensive substrates,” Mohseni said. “About 80 percent of the manufacturing cost of a conventional solar cell comes from the substrate itself. We’ve done away with that by just using graphene. Not only are there inherent cost benefits, we’re also introducing functionality that a typical substrate doesn’t have.”

The researchers pump gases containing gallium, indium and arsenic into a chamber with a graphene sheet. The nanowires self-assemble, growing by themselves into a dense carpet of vertical wires across the surface of the graphene. Other groups have grown nanowires on graphene with compound semiconductors that only have two elements, but by using three elements, the Illinois group made a unique finding: The InGaAs wires grown on graphene spontaneously segregate into an indium arsenide (InAs) core with an InGaAs shell around the outside of the wire.

“This is unexpected,” Li said. “A lot of devices require a core-shell architecture. Normally you grow the core in one growth condition and change conditions to grow the shell on the outside. This is spontaneous, done in one step. The other good thing is that since it’s a spontaneous segregation, it produces a perfect interface.”

So what causes this spontaneous core-shell structure? By coincidence, the distance between atoms in a crystal of InAs is nearly the same as the distance between whole numbers of carbon atoms in a sheet of graphene. So, when the gases are piped into the chamber and the material begins to crystallize, InAs settles into place on the graphene, a near-perfect fit, while the gallium compound settles on the outside of the wires. This was unexpected, because normally, with van der Waals epitaxy, the respective crystal structures of the material and the substrate are not supposed to matter.

“We didn’t expect it, but once we saw it, it made sense,” Mohseni said.

In addition, by tuning the ratio of gallium to indium in the semiconductor cocktail, the researchers can tune the optical and conductive properties of the nanowires.

Next, Li’s group plans to make solar cells and other optoelectronic devices with their graphene-grown nanowires. Thanks to both the wires’ ternary composition and graphene’s flexibility and conductivity, Li hopes to integrate the wires in a broad spectrum of applications.

“We basically discovered a new phenomenon that confirms that registry does count in van der Waals epitaxy,” Li said.

EPIC, the European Photonics Industry Consortium, has published a public database of more than 5000 company entries, an interactive map, and a report on the photonics ecosystem in Europe. With the support and contribution of numerous associations, clusters, event organizers, media organizations, and all the individuals who contributed to the survey, EPIC compiled a database of companies active in the field of Photonics. The database lists companies that manufacture photonic related equipment/materials/components/systems or extensively use photonics components, or provide services to the European photonics ecosystem. The European photonics companies are segmented by the type of systems they provide, with respectively sensing 27 percent, imaging 17 percent, transmitting information 11 percent, information storage and display 5 percent, light providing 19 percent, energy providing 6 percent, and processing 15 percent.

“One of the nice surprises of the study is the breakdown of final markets with a fairly uniform distribution, the photonics industry in Europe clearly tends to diversify” says Carlos Lee, Director General at EPIC.

The final markets are manufacturing 13 percent, lab equipment 10%, healthcare and biomedical 9 percent, life science 7 percent, automotive 6 percent, defense 6 percent, energy 5 percent, consumer electronics 5 percent, communications 5 percent and a large variety of other sectors. In addition to serving a variety of end-markets, European photonics companies are less exposed to the European crisis due to their strong exposure to foreign markets, more than 50 percent of sales are done outside Europe.

“The photonics market is terrific for Europe! The photonics companies purchase and manufacture mainly in Europe, and sell mainly outside Europe.” says Lee.

The survey also quantified Europe’s photonics employment at 377.000 people. Most companies are small, 86 percent have less than a hundred employees, but those are the ones that forecast highest growth in employment.

“The ratio turnover/staff between 150 and 250k€/employee reflects a generally high skilled workforce” says Lee.

The database, report, and map are freely available from www.epic-assoc.com/database thanks to the sponsorship of European clusters and research organizations CSEM (Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology), Photonics Cluster Berlin Brandenburg, Photonics Finland, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (TeCIP Institute) / CNIT (Italy), SECPhO (Southern European Cluster in Photonics and Optics, and SWISSPHOTONICS.

EPIC is the industry association that promotes the sustainable development of organisations working in the field of photonics. Its members encompass the entire value chain from LED lighting, PV solar energy, Silicon photonics, Optical components, Lasers, Sensors, Displays, Projectors, Optic fiber, and other photonic related technologies.

The emerging market for Silicon Carbide (SiC) and Gallium Nitride (GaN) power semiconductors is forecast to grow a remarkable factor of 18 during the next 10 years, energized by demand from power supplies, photovoltaic (PV) inverters and industrial motor drives.

Worldwide revenue from sales of SiC and GaN power semiconductors is projected to rise to $2.8 billion in 2012, up from just $143 million in 2012, according to a new report entitled “The World Market for SiC & GaN Power Semiconductors – 2013 Edition” from IMS Research, now part of IHS. Market revenue is expected to rise by the double digits annually for the next decade, as shown in the figure below.

SiC and GaN power semiconductors

SiC Schottky diodes have been around for more than 10 years, with SiC metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFET), junction-gate field-effect transistors (JFET) and bipolar junction transistors (BJT) appearing in recent years. In contrast, GaN power semiconductors are only just appearing in the market.

GaN is a wide bandgap material that offers similar performance benefits to SiC but has greater cost-reduction potential. This price/performance advantage is possible because GaN power devices can be grown on silicon substrates that are larger and lower in cost compared to SiC.

“The key factor determining market growth will be how quickly GaN-on-silicon (Si) devices can achieve price parity and equivalent performance as silicon MOSFETs, insulated-gate bipolar transistors (IGBT) or rectifiers,” said Richard Eden, senior market analyst for power semiconductor discretes and modules at IHS. “IHS expects this will be achieved in 2019, driving the GaN power market to pass the $1 billion mark in 2022.”

SiC Schottky diode revenue exceeded $100 million in 2012, making it the best-selling SiC or GaN device currently. But even though SiC Schottky diode revenue is forecast to grow until 2015, it will decline when lower-priced 600-V GaN diodes become available. Still revenue will recover to approach $200 million by 2022, with sales concentrated at voltage ratings of 1200V and above.

By then, SiC MOSFETs are forecast to generate revenue approaching $400 million, overtaking Schottky diodes to become the best-selling SiC discrete power device type. Meanwhile, SiC JFETs and SiC BJTs are each forecast to generate less than half of SiC MOSFET revenues at that time, despite their likelihood of achieving good reliability, price and performance. End users now strongly prefer SiC MOSFETs, so vendors of SiC JFETs and BJTs have a major task ahead in educating their potential customers on the benefits of these technologies.

While IHS predicts strong growth for the SiC and GaN power semiconductor market in the years ahead, the forecast has been significantly reduced compared to the outlook from one year ago.

The main reason for the change is the reduced forecasts for shipments of equipment that use power components, resulting from today’s gloomier view of the global economy. SiC adoption forecasts also have been slashed because device prices are not falling as fast as originally assumed a year ago.

In contrast, industry confidence in GaN technology has increased, with more semiconductor companies announcing GaN development projects. For instance, Transphorm has become the first company to achieve JEDEC qualification for its GaN-on-Si devices.

Initiated by the arrival of Google Glass and magnified by Google’s efforts to promote application development for the product, the global market for smart glasses could amount to almost 10 million units from 2012 through 2016.

Shipments of smart glasses may rise to as high 6.6 million units in 2016, up from just 50,000 in 2012, for a total of 9.4 million units for the five-year period, according to an upside forecast from IMS Research, now part of IHS Inc. Growth this year will climb 150 percent to 124,000 shipments, mostly driven by sales to developers, as shown in the figure below. Expansion will really begin to accelerate in 2014 with the initial public availability of Google Glass, as shipment growth powers up to 250 percent, based on the optimistic forecast.

Google Glass this month began shipping to application developers who registered as early backers and paid the $1,500 price tag. This is expected to spur innovations in applications that should take Glass from early adopters to the mass market. As the developers get to work and Google encourages venture capitalists to back them, shipments will begin to surge to high volumes, according to the forecast.

However, the success of Google Glass will depend primarily on the applications developed for it. If developers fail to produce compelling software and uses for the devices, shipments could be significantly lower during the next several years.

“The applications are far more critical than the hardware when it comes to the success of Google Glass,” said Theo Ahadome, senior analyst at IHS. “In fact, the hardware is much less relevant to the growth of Google Glass than for any other personal communications device in recent history. This is because the utility of Google Glass is not readily apparent, so everything will depend on the appeal of the apps. This is why the smart glass market makes sense for a software-oriented organization like Google, despite the company’s limited previous success in developing hardware. Google is betting the house that developers will produce some compelling applications for Glass.”

The glass is half full

According to the optimistic scenario, developers will succeed in producing augmented reality applications for smart glasses that provide the user with information that can be safely and conveniently be integrated into casual use. Such applications typically are known as augmented reality, which involves adding a layer of computer-generated data to real-world people, places and things.

“The true success of Glass will be when it can provide some information to users not apparent when viewing people, places or things,” Ahadome said. “This information may include live updates for travel, location reviews and recommendations, nutritional information and matching personal preferences, and previous encounters to aid decision making. The upside for smart glasses will arise when they become a powerful information platform. In many ways, this is exactly what Google already does via other mediums, and also is why the upside scenario seems more likely.”

Broken glass

Under a more pessimistic scenario, IHS forecasts that only about 1 million smart glasses will be shipped through 2016.

According to this outlook, applications for smart glasses will be limited to some of those already displayed by Google in its Glass marketing. These include scenarios where smart glasses become more of a wearable camera device than a true augmented reality system. In this case, smart glasses will be mainly used for recording sports and other non-casual events, like jumping out of a plane, as demonstrated at the Google I/O developer conference in 2012. 

However, Glass will face competition from alternative wearable camera devices already in the market, such as GoPro Hero or Recon MOD Live.

While the wearable camera market was worth more than $200 million in 2012, it is not the multibillion-dollar market that smart glasses can achieve with wider applicability.

“The less frequently consumers interact with any personal communications device, the less valuable it becomes,” Ahadome observed. “If smart glasses become devices that are used only occasionally, rather than all the time, they become less attractive and desirable to consumers.”