Category Archives: Online Magazines

Solid State Technology is excited to announce that Mark Thirsk, managing partner at Linx Consulting, will be discussing the cost and technology needed to implement next-generation device technology at The ConFab 2013. Thirsk has over 20 years of experience in the chemical industry, working with a variety of materials and processes utilized in wafer fabrication.

“Planar CMOS logic and DRAM and NAND Flash memories are all facing major challenges for future scaling,” writes Thirsk, in his abstract. “This presentation will discuss the new fully depleted transistors, such as FDSOI and FinFETs that are now entering production for logic devices. New memory technologies such as MRAM, PCRAM and FeRAM are beginning to enter production for memory as well.”

Thirsk plans to review forecasts of implementation timing for the new technologies, scaling, equipment and materials requirements, and wafer costs. Additionally, he will review the cost and process complexity implications due to the delayed migration to EUV, the introduction of 450mm wafers, the migration of deposition to vapor phase processes, and novel cleaning and CMP processes.

Having been on both sides of the fence as a user and seller of materials and equipment, as well as being intimately involved with major materials manufacturers, Thirsk is well placed to bring clarity and insight into understanding markets from both a technical and commercial perspective. Previous to Linx, Mark was Senior Marketing Manager at Rohm and Haas Electronic Materials where he was responsible for strategic planning and new business development. Additionally, Mark has served in the SEMI Chemicals and Gases Manufacturers Group (CGMG) since 1999, acting as Chairman from 2001 to 2003.

For more information or to register for The ConFab 2013, visit The ConFab section of our website.

Gigaphoton, Inc., a lithography light source manufacturer, announced today that as of April 2013, it has started business operations at the Gigaphoton Singapore Branch, its newly established branch in that country.

Through this Singapore Branch, Gigaphoton will aggressively promote new business opportunities to find potential customers in Singapore by teaming up with lithography system manufacturers as well as further reinforce its local technical support system for existing Singaporean customers of Gigaphoton excimer lasers for semiconductor lithography systems.

Until now, Gigaphoton has developed its excimer laser business in Singapore with Komatsu Asia and Pacific Pte Ltd., an overseas subsidiary of Komatsu Ltd., as its sales representative. Gigaphoton officials said that the Gigaphoton Singapore branch has been established in order to directly engage in its Singapore-based business operations in the future.

The Gigaphoton branch is located at 1 Gul Avenue, Off Benoi Road, Singapore 62948. Gigaphoton has hired Hiroto Kai as branch manager, and operations officially began on April 1, 2013.

Gigaphoton is known for its patented LPP EUV technology solutions.

Gallium nitride has been described as “the most important semiconductor since silicon” and is used in energy-saving LED lighting. A new £1million (or US$1,530,700) growth facility will allow University of Cambridge researchers to further reduce the cost and improve the efficiency of LEDs, with potentially huge cost-saving implications.

A new facility for growing Gallium Nitride – the key material needed to make energy-saving light-emitting diodes (LEDs) – has opened in Cambridge, enabling researchers to expand and accelerate their pioneering work in the field.

Gallium Nitride LEDs are already used in traffic lights, bicycle lights, televisions, computer screens, car headlamps and other devices, but they are too expensive to be used widely in homes and offices. The main reason for this is that they are normally grown on expensive substrates, which pushes up the price of LED lightbulbs. The new Gallium Nitride growth reactor at Cambridge will allow researchers to further improve a method of growing low-cost LEDs on silicon substrates, reducing their cost by more than 50 percent and opening them up for more general use.

In addition, researchers are developing color-tunable LED lighting, which would have the quality of natural sunlight, bringing considerable health benefits to users.

University scientists are also starting to investigate the potential of Gallium Nitride in electronics, which it is thought could have similarly significant energy-saving consequences – perhaps cutting nationwide electricity consumption by a further 9 percent.

The reactor, which is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), was opened March 28, 2013 by David Willetts MP, the Minister for Universities and Science. It marks the latest chapter in a decade-long research project to make LEDs the go-to technology for lighting, led by Professor Sir Colin Humphreys in the University’s Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy.

In 2003, Humphreys and his team began experimenting with the possibility of growing Gallium Nitride (GaN) on silicon instead of costly sapphire and silicon carbide. After years of painstaking research, they finally developed a successful process, and in 2012 this was picked up by the British manufacturer, Plessey, which has already started to manufacture LEDs at its factory in Plymouth, based on the Cambridge technology. Plessey also hired three of Humphreys’ post-doctoral scientists to help transfer the process. It is the first time that LEDs have been manufactured in the UK.

Minister for Universities and Science David Willetts said: "LEDs are highly energy efficient but expensive to produce, meaning their domestic use is limited. This excellent new facility will enable researchers to look at more cost-efficient ways to produce LEDs, saving money and benefitting the environment. It will also help keep the UK research base at the very forefront of advanced materials, which is one of the eight great technologies."

Making Gallium Nitride LEDs more cost-effective could unlock benefits far beyond energy saving alone. Humphreys is investigating the possibility of “smart lighting” – a system in which LED lights coupled to a sensor would be able to switch themselves on and off, or alter their brightness, relative to a user’s presence or levels of natural daylight in a room.

As their use increases, the beams from LEDs could be used to transmit information, for example from traffic lights to cars.

“It’s conceivable that the two could be developed to talk to one another,” Humphreys said. “Traffic reports, such as information about a road accident, could be sent to traffic light systems. They could then relay the details to drivers by transmitting it through the headlamps.”

Researchers also believe that LEDs could be used to purify water supplies in the developing world. Deep ultraviolet (UV) radiation kills bacteria and viruses. By putting a ring of ultraviolet LEDs around a water pipe at the point where it enters a home, it might be possible to kill off bacteria in the water as well as other undesirable organisms, such as mosquito larvae.

Further energy-saving with LEDs may also be possible. Humphreys and his team are currently investigating the so-called “green gap” problem which could improve the way in which they make white light. The LEDs currently used to make white light are in fact blue – the color is changed using a phosphor coating. This phosphor is, however, not completely energy efficient, and a better way of making white light could be by mixing blue, red and green LEDs together instead.

This, however, depends on resolving lower efficiency in green light compared with the other two colors. If this can be addressed, and LEDs made the standard for lighting nationwide, then it is estimated that there would be an additional electricity saving of 5 percent – on top of the 10 percent likely to be engendered by switching to LED technology in the first place.

 “If we can replicate devices with Gallium Nitride electronics, we believe that we could make them 40 percent more efficient,” he said. “That in itself would translate into a 9 percent electricity saving in the UK, if applied across the board.”

GaN LEDs

Gallium Nitride (GaN), grown on a silicon substrate, to manufacture light-emitting diodes. The material is critical to making LED lighting, which researchers and the Government agree could cut UK electricity consumption by 10-15 percent.

 Credit: University of Cambridge Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy

Fulfilling the promise of performance and power scaling at 16nm, ARM and Cadence today announced details behind their collaboration to implement the first ARM Cortex-A57 processor on TSMC’s 16nm FinFET manufacturing process. The test chip was implemented using the complete Cadence RTL-to-signoff flow, Cadence Virtuoso custom design platform, ARM Artisan standard cell libraries and TSMC’s memory macros.

The Cortex-A57 processor is ARM’s highest-performing processor to date, and is based on the new ARMv8 architecture, designed for computing, networking and mobile applications that require high performance at a low-power budget. TSMC’s 16nm FinFET technology is a significant breakthrough that enables continued scaling of process technology to feature sizes below 20nm. This test chip, developed with Cadence’s custom, digital and signoff solutions for FinFET process technology, was a collaboration that resulted in several innovations and co-optimizations between manufacturing process, design IP, and design tools.

"More than ever, success at the leading edge of innovation requires deep collaboration. When designing SoCs incorporating advanced processors, like the Cortex-A57, and optimizing the implementation using physical IP created for FinFET processes, the expertise of our partners is needed," said Tom Cronk, executive vice president and general manager, Processor Division at ARM. "Our joint innovations will enable our customers to accelerate their product development cycles and take advantage of leading-edge processes and IP."

The 16nm process using FinFET technology presented new challenges that required significant new development in the design tools. New design rules, RC extraction for 3D transistors, increased complexity of resistance models for interconnect and vias, quantized cell libraries, library characterization that supports new transistor models and double patterning across more layers are some of the challenges that have been addressed in Cadence’s custom, digital and signoff products.

"This major milestone was challenging on all fronts, requiring engineers from ARM, Cadence and TSMC to work as a unified team," said Dr. Chi-Ping Hsu, senior vice president of R&D for the Silicon Realization Group at Cadence.

AIXTRON SE today announced that it is participating as a key partner in the recently announced European Union (EU) Future Emerging Technology (FET) flagship project “Graphene.” As part of the consortium, AIXTRON will bring its expertise in deposition processes for graphene and as such shall lead the production work package of the flagship.

“Congratulations to the leadership and partners of the Graphene Flagship,” Dr. Bernd Schulte, Chief Operating Officer at AIXTRON, said. “AIXTRON is proud to be a part of this future-oriented research initiative, which will have considerable impact on the European economy.”

Dr. Ken Teo, director of Nanoinstruments at AIXTRON, said AIXTRON’s key contribution will be to enable high-quality large-scale graphene growth through the development of next generation deposition equipment.

“Working with graphene thin-film producers, bulk graphene manufacturers and associated partners, graphene will be produced for a variety of applications ranging from wireless communications to display, sensing and energy storage,” said Teo. “This is a unique opportunity for us to interact with and understand the requirements of R&D and industrial end-users.”

“For a disruptive new material such as graphene, long-term investment is required to create the entire value chain and end market applications,” Dr. Schulte added. “Support for the Graphene Flagship over the next decade by the EU is indeed a significant commitment that makes this possible. The development furthermore confirms AIXTRON’s long-term strategy in enabling the deposition of new electronic materials such as graphene.”

Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, with Prof. Jari Kinaret as the flagship director, will coordinate 126 academic and industrial research groups in 17 European countries. The EU funding for the academic-industrial consortium starts with an initial 30-month-EU budget of 54 million euro which will be extended up to 10 years with 1 billion Euro total project cost, with further contributions coming from the Horizon 2020 program and local programs from various EU countries.

Graphene Flagship project
A 300 mm wafer of graphene produced on an AIXTRON system, presented by Prof. Jari Kinaret, Director of the Graphene Flagship, and Neelie Kroes, EU Digital Agenda Commissioner.

The polarizer market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6 percent until 2016 to $12 billion in 2013 and to $14 billion in 2016. In 2012, the market amounted to $11.2 billion, up 9 percent year on year, according to “Polarizer Market and Industry Trend Analysis” published by Displaybank, recently acquired by IHS Inc. Polarizers used for large size TFT-LCDs, such as TV, monitors, and laptops, made up 77 percent of the market, amounting to $8.6 billion, and this figure is expected to grow at a CAGR of 4 percent to $9.9 billion in 2016. However, the TFT-LCD segment will lose its share of the market, falling to 71 percent in 2016, as manufactures scale up their smartphones and other mobile devices and increase their volume. 

polarizer market TFT-LCD

The polarizer market can be characterized by the three powers: Nitto Denko, LG Chem, and Sumitomo. The biggest characteristic is that each company has different applications in which they excel at according to their own technical skills, competitiveness of securing component supplies, and production capacity. By major application, the LCD TV market has the largest share, with the manufacturing leaders being Nitto Denko (33 percent), Sumitomo (28 percent), and LG Chem (27 percent). These three companies combined make up 88 percent of the market for polarizers used in TVs. In the laptop segment that highly requires for thin panels, Sumitomo leads with 53 percent, with Cheil Industry and Nitto Denko taking the next two spots with 14 percent each. In the monitor segment, where prices matter, LG Chem leads with a 43 percent market share, and CMMT, Cheil Industry, and BQM are on its heels with 16 percent, 15 percent, and 11 percent, respectively. Polarizers for tablet PCs are getting the spotlight these days, and Nitto Denko is dominant in that segment with 62 percent, being the exclusive supplier to Apple for the iPad series. Next to Nitto Denko, LG Chem is the runner-up with a 24 percent share. 

Displaybank’s “Polarizer Market and Industry Trend Analysis” report analyzes the polarizer market forecast until 2016; production line status of polarizer maker; supply chain; and pricing trends. The report also analyzes polarizers’ sub-film market—TAC, PVA, PET protective film, release film, anti-reflective film, and replacement film—for a better understanding of the polarizer market where the competition for high value added film production has become more intense.

University of Manchester graphene researchers have been awarded a £3.5 million (or approximately US$5 million) funding boost that could bring desalination plants, safer food packaging and enhanced disease detection closer to reality.

Funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the research focuses on membranes that could provide solutions to worldwide problems: from stopping power stations releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, to detecting the chemical signals produced by agricultural pests.

The latest research grant comes just months after The University of Manchester was awarded £2.2 million (or approximately US$3 million) to lead research into graphene batteries and supercapacitors for energy storage.

No molecules can get through a perfect sheet of graphene and when platelets of graphene are built into more complex structures, highly selective membranes can be generated.  The aim is, together with industrial partners, to produce working membranes for applications related to sustainability, energy, health, defense and food security.

Wonder material graphene was first isolated in 2004 at The University of Manchester by Professor Andre Geim and Professor Kostya Novoselov. Their work earned them the 2010 Nobel prize for Physics.

Graphene is the world’s thinnest, strongest and most conductive material, and has the potential to revolutionize a huge number of diverse applications; from smartphones and ultrafast broadband to drug delivery and computer chips.

The membrane program builds on ground-breaking research at the University. Previous research showed that graphene oxide membranes are highly permeable to water, while being completely impermeable to gases and organic liquids when dry.

These membranes will be developed for a variety of applications, such as the removal of water when making biofuels by fermentation, and as components of fuel cells.

The research is led by Professor Peter Budd, of the School of Chemistry. He said: “We have also invented a range of polymers – called Polymers of Intrinsic Microporosity (PIMs) – which form membranes that are very good for separating gases and organic liquids.

“These are of interest, for example, for removing carbon dioxide from power station flue gases, or for removing organic compounds from water.  By combining PIMs with graphene, we expect to produce membranes with even better performance under long-term conditions of use.

“We will also be looking at practical ways of using the ability of graphene to act as a perfect barrier in, for example, food packaging, and we will be building graphene into sensors for detecting human diseases and agricultural pests.”

It’s no secret that Samsung is up against Apple in many ways, in products, sales and innovation. However, even in the face of Apple’s patent infringement lawsuits, Samsung is still climbing the charts. The electronics giant sold approximately $53 billion in revenue in the last quarter of 2012, in comparison to Apple’s $36 billion in revenue, though the profit margins both companies are seeing were relatively similar. And while Bloomberg is predicting Apple will post its lowest sales increase since 2009, Samsung is reportedly poised for big growth in a number of sectors.  

Samsung grabs No. 3 foundry spot

Samsung jumped into the foundry scene in mid-2010, and quickly became one of the anticipated long-term leaders in the sector. It’s now easily the biggest IDM foundry operation, with sales nearly 10 times that of IBM, IC Insights noted in January. IC Insights’ August update projected Samsung finishing in fourth place just behind UMC, separated by about $400 million, but anticipated Samsung surpassing the Taiwan rival in 2013.

Samsung followed a sparkling 82 percent growth in 2011 by nearly doubling sales again to $4.33 billion, putting it just shy of GLOBALFOUNDRIES which grew sales a solid 31 percent last year to $4.56B. In fact IC Insights believes Samsung will challenge GLOBALFOUNDRIES for the No.2 spot before 2013 is done, leveraging its leading-edge capacity and huge capital spending budget. With dedicated IC foundry capacity reaching 150,000 300mm wafers/month by 4Q12, and an average revenue/wafer of $3000, Samsung’s IC foundry capacity could pull down $5.4B in annual sales, the analyst firm calculates.

How did Samsung get so big so fast in the foundry business? It supplied chips to nearly half of the industry’s 750 million smartphones shipped in 2012 — application processors for the 220 million of its own handsets in 2012, plus the 133 million iPhones Apple shipped.

Thanks to the Galaxy S4, Samsung has 99% of the AMOLED market

Samsung has invested a considerable amount into the AMOLED market, which is now poised for steady growth, thanks to a growing demand for high-end smartphones and tablets. According to Forbes contributor Haydn Shaughnessy, Samsung now holds 99% of the AMOLED market.

AMOLED display shipments for mobile handset applications are expected to grow to 447.7 million units in 2017, up from 195.1 million units in 2013, according to insights from the IHS iSuppli Emerging Displays Service at information and analytics provider IHS. Within the mobile handset display market, the market share for AMOLED displays is forecast to grow from 7.9% in 2013 to 15.2 percent in 2017, as presented in the figure below. AMOLED’s market share for 4-inch or larger handset displays employed in smartphones is set to increase to 24.4% in 2017, up from 23.0% in 2013.

“Because of their use in marquee products like the Galaxy S4, high-quality AMOLEDs are growing in popularity and gaining share at the expense of liquid crystal display (LCD) screens,” said Vinita Jakhanwal, director for mobile & emerging displays and technology at IHS. “These attractive AMOLEDs are part of a growing trend of large-sized, high-resolution displays used in mobile devices. With the S4 representing the first time that a full high-definition (HD) AMOLED has been used in mobile handsets, Samsung continues to raise the profile of this display technology.”

Samsung anticipates MEMS pressure sensor market boom

Samsung has been ahead of its time in its adoption of MEMS pressure sensors, anticipating the state of the market and getting a jump on the competition.

Global shipments of MEMS pressure sensors in cellphones are set to rise to 681 million units in 2016, up more than eightfold from 82 million in 2012, according to the IHS iSuppli MEMS & Sensors Service at information and analytics provider IHS. Shipments this year are expected to double to 162 million units, as presented in the attached figure, primarily due to Samsung’s usage of pressure sensors in the Galaxy S4 and other smartphone models.

“Samsung is the only major original equipment manufacturer (OEM) now using pressure sensors in all its flagship smartphone models,” said Jérémie Bouchaud, director and senior principal analyst for MEMS and sensors at IHS. “The pressure device represents just one component among a wealth of different sensors used in the S4.”

Besides Samsung, few other OEMs have been using pressure sensors in smartphones. The only other smartphone OEMs to use pressure sensors in their products are Sony Mobile in a couple of models in 2012, and a few Chinese vendors, like Xiaomi.

Apple, which pioneered the use of MEMS sensors in smartphones, does not employ pressure sensors at the moment in the iPhone. However, IHS expects Apple will start them in 2014, which will contribute to another doubling of the market in 2014 to 325 million units.

But what about the patent infringement suit?

Six months after Samsung was ordered to pay an unprecedented $1.05 billion to Apple in the notorious patent infringement suit, Judge Lucy Koh, the federal judge presiding over two Apple v. Samsung cases in California, entered an order striking $450 million from the damages award determined by a jury in August 2012. This corresponds to 14 of the 28 Samsung products in question in the initial lawsuit. Koh disagreed with the notice date provided by Apple concerning its patents-in-suit, and, as a result, a new damages trial must be held, most likely after the appellate proceedings, which were sought by both parties.

The new trial could mean good news or bad news for Samsung. There is the possibility that the court could rule in favor of a reduction of damages to be paid. However, it is also just as likely that the court could rule Samsung owe Apple even more than the original $1.05 billion ordered in August.

Some analysts have speculated that, if the suit holds, consumers could see a jump in prices of Samsung, Google and Android devices. Only time will tell if will a price that the masses will be willing to pay. If it is, don’t expect to see Samsung slowing down any time soon.

Samsung Electronics Co Ltd of Seoul, South Korea has introduced a new lineup of Zhaga-compliant LED H-Series linear modules with high efficacy and light quality, as well as color consistency for use in a wide range of LED lighting applications including ambient lighting and linear fixtures.

“Our new Zhaga-compliant H-Series is well suited to be used in a variety of high-performance light fixtures,” says Jaap Schlejen, senior VP, LED lighting sales & marketing, at Samsung Electronics’s Device Solutions Division. The new LED module series is one of several launches in a series of new LED modules with high light performance and efficacy, says the firm.

The H-Series features luminous efficacy of 145lm/W, which is claimed to be the industry’s highest in the LED module product category. The new module’s correlated color temperature (CCT) of 5000K provides an improvement of about 40 percent over a typical T5 fluorescent lamp and an improvement of 50% over a T8 fluorescent lamp, says the firm.

The H-Series consists of four types of LED module, each with a different form factor and luminous flux for various market needs. Fixture makers can connect multiple modules together for variations in luminous flux, without a gap between the modules.

Bruker announced today the release of the Dimension Icon SSRM-HR, a new atomic force microscope (AFM) configuration including the Scanning Spreading Resistance Microscopy (SSRM) module, designed specifically for high-resolution (HR) semiconductor characterization. Integrating Bruker’s industry-leading Dimension Icon AFM platform with an environmental control system capable of 1ppm gas purity and high-vacuum control, the Dimension Icon SSRM-HR system provides vastly improved repeatability and spatial resolution in semiconductor carrier profiling. As confirmed by Imec (www.imec.be), buried gate oxide layers as thin as 5Å are detected routinely.

“As our customers continue to improve their products to follow the semiconductor roadmap, higher spatial resolution electrical characterization is a key requirement,” said David V. Rossi, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Bruker’s AFM Business. “The new Dimension Icon SSRM-HR combines the leading productivity and large programmable stage of our top performance AFM platform with atomic resolution, and the most accurate carrier profiling optimization to meet the specific demands of next-generation technology nodes.”

“We chose Bruker because they offer the only solution that meets our needs,” added Prof. Vandervorst, Imec Fellow and Department Head, Materials and Components Analysis, based in Leuven, Belgium. “Our decision followed a rigorous evaluation of spatial resolution and repeatability in carrier profiling. Being at the forefront in tackling the roadblocks to continued technology scaling means we have the most stringent requirements.”

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