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The newest AVIA micromachining laser from Coherent, Inc. (Santa Clara, CA) delivers the highest power commercially available at its wavelength and repetition rate. Specifically, the AVIA 355-33 offers 33 Watts of output at 355 nm (at 110 kHz). This high power translates directly into increased production efficiency, thus lowering cost per part.

 The AVIA family of lasers has the longest track record of highly reliable, 24/7 operation in microelectronics manufacturing, and offers several features specifically designed to enhance its processing capabilities and minimize long term cost of ownership. These include ThermEQ, PulseEQ, and PulseTrack which enable precise control of the delivered pulse energy, allowing the OEM to define and optimize their laser process. The laser also has an automated harmonic crystal shifter to maintain constant output power for >20,000 hours and to maximize lifetime. In addition, the laser’s unique Posilock beam position sensor and feedback loop results in very high beam position stability over the life of the laser, thereby ensuring process consistency. 

 The AVIA 355-33 is targeted at a wide range of demanding, high-throughput microelectronics fabrication applications. Typical examples include via-hole drilling in printed circuit boards and flip chips and dicing and scribing of silicon wafers containing low-k dielectric materials.

coherent avia

Stung by plunging sales in Japan and declining demand in North America and Western Europe, global television shipments in 2012 fell, marking a major inflection point that will have a lasting impact on the market, according to an IHS iSuppli Worldwide Television Market Tracker Report from the IHS TV Systems Intelligence Service at information and analytics provider IHS.

Global shipments of all kinds of televisions in 2012 amounted to 238.5 million units, down 6.3 percent from 254.6 million in 2011. Shipments aren’t expected to rise back to the 2011 level until 2015, when they will amount to 253.1 million units.

Global TV market won't recover until 2015

“Television shipments in 2012 declined for the first time for more than a decade, sounding the coda for the flat-panel replacement wave that deluged the business throughout the 2000s,” said Tom Morrod, TV systems analyst at IHS. “This event marked a fundamental change in the growth trajectory of the market, with flat or minimal increases in shipments expected in the coming years—a sharp contrast to the double-digit increases seen prior to 2010. While some specific events contributed to the downturn of 2012, such as the fall of sales to the Japanese market, the decline reflects a fundamental slowdown in the television market, with liquid crystal display television (LCD TV) shipments falling for the first time ever. Although television shipments will stabilize in 2013 and growth will return in 2014, developed markets have become saturated with flat-panel televisions.”

Television market hits a wall in 2012

The TV market had been undergoing a slowdown prior to 2012, with shipments rising by 11.6 percent in 2010 and decelerating to 1 percent in 2011. By the beginning of this decade, most consumers in developed regions already had replaced their old cathode-ray tube (CRT) sets with flat-panel models, and many buyers in emerging economies had also made the switch. Combined with economic factors, and with issues related to government subsidies and the analog transition, the slowdown of the flat-panel replacement trend contributed to the major downturn in 2012.

The North American and Western European regions in 2012 both experienced significant shipment declines. Meanwhile, growth stalled in Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and the Asia-Pacific region. Eastern Europe and China were the only regions to continue to enjoy rising shipments

The biggest reduction occurred in Japan, where shipments fell by 13.5 million units in 2012, accounting for the vast majority of the global decline of 16.0 million.

Point shaving

The decline in Japan was due to the end of the country’s “eco-points” subsidy program. Starting in mid-2009, the program gave consumers points for buying energy-efficient products—such as light-emitting diode (LED)-backlit LCD TVs. These points could then be redeemed to buy other items.

Between 2009 and 2011, eco-points generated an additional 25 million television sets sold in the Japanese market. With the revocation of this artificial stimulus, demand declined in 2012, and the Japanese TV market will continue to be severely affected for the next five years.

Regional woes

The decline in Western Europe was predominantly due to the economic situation, combined with the analog switch-off. Markets such as France, Italy and Spain have experienced severe declines following analog broadcast switch-offs in 2010 and 2011. At the same time, there were declines in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Portugal and Greece because of financial challenges.

There was, however, some growth generated by the more prosperous Central European nations, with Germany in particular still continuing to show impressive growth.

In North America, the decline was caused by a mixture of economic factors and by the fact that consumers had increased their demand in 2010 and 2011. By 2012, however, buyers had expended their disposable income for television purchases.

Meanwhile, the Asia-Pacific market stalled because of lower growth than expected in India, together with declining sales in established markets such as Australia.

The Middle East and Africa continued their overall growth, but strife in certain countries—particularly Syria—had a negative impact on television shipments.

Television market rebounds in 2014

In 2013, the global TV market will stabilize, with shipments remaining flat compared to 2012, as economic conditions even out. Shipments will rise by a scant 0.3 percent for the year.

However, shipments will return to growth in 2014 with a 2.8 percent increase. The Football World Cup, to be held in Brazil, will boost Latin America sales, while China is expected to continue to prosper.

By 2017, global television shipments will rise to 270.5 million units for a number of reasons—as Chinese manufacturers flood the Asia-Pacific markets with new models; as Japan, North America and Western Europe continue to recover; and as ultra-high-definition (UHD) and organic light-emitting diode (OLED) TV uptake becomes more affordable.

LCDs fall for first time

The LCD TV market fell for the first time ever on an annual basis in 2012, with shipments declining to 209.8 million units, down slightly from 211.3 million in 2011. However, shipments are expected to return to growth and continue expanding through 2017 as new technologies like Smart TV and UHD increases.

Plasma TV shipments fell to 13.1 million units in 2012, down from 17.9 million 2011. This is partly due to Panasonic significantly reducing its supply of plasma televisions, and partly due to large-sized LCD displays becoming increasingly cost effective. North America continues to be a stronghold for plasma, as does China, but all regions experienced an annual decline in shipments. By 2017, it is anticipated that Plasma will be a niche product, and that the market will have almost completely transitioned to LCD TV and to OLED.

CRT-TV shipments slid to 15.5 million, down nearly 40 percent from 25.2 million in 2011. Global CRT shipments will cease by 2016, IHS expects.

Intermolecular, Inc. (Nasdaq:IMI) today announced that Dr. Raj Jammy has joined the company as senior vice president and general manager of the semiconductor group. Dr. Jammy will be responsible for Intermolecular’s semiconductor business and will play a central role in further developing Intermolecular’s products and capabilities for the semiconductor industry.

"We are extremely pleased to welcome Raj to Intermolecular," said Dave Lazovsky, president and CEO of Intermolecular. "Raj’s deep industry experience, proven technology development track record and wealth of relationships with our key customers make him an ideal candidate to lead our semiconductor business to an entirely new level in the coming years."

"I am very excited to be joining such an innovative and high-growth company,” Dr. Jammy commented. “Materials innovation in the semiconductor industry is an absolute prerequisite to achieving further cost reductions and performance improvements. Over the past 20 years, I have experienced firsthand the daunting challenge of trying to introduce new materials and processes into complex semiconductor devices. Intermolecular, with its proprietary High Productivity Combinatorial (HPC(TM)) development platform, top notch interdisciplinary technical team and a unique "win-win" business model, is extremely well positioned to play a critical role in shaping the future of the semiconductor industry."

Prior to joining Intermolecular, Dr. Jammy was vice president of materials and emerging technologies at SEMATECH. In that capacity he was responsible for leading the consortium’s efforts in front-end CMOS logic, novel memory technologies, 3D TSV interconnects and emerging beyond-CMOS technologies with disruptive scaling potential. Dr. Jammy had previously served three years as director of SEMATECH’s Front End Processes division.

Dr. Jammy began his career in the industry at IBM’s Semiconductor Research and Development Center in East Fishkill, N.Y., where he worked on front-end technologies for deep-trench DRAMs. He subsequently became manager of the Thermal Processes and Surface Preparation group in the DRAM development organization. In 2002, Dr. Jammy moved to the T. J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, N.Y., to manage IBM’s efforts in high-k gate dielectrics and metal gates. In 2005 he joined SEMATECH as Director of the Front End Processes division and an IBM assignee.

Dr. Jammy received a doctorate in electrical engineering from Northwestern University. He holds more than 50 patents and is an author/co-author of over 225 publications/presentations. He serves on a variety of conference and industry committees, including the IEEE VLSI Technology Symposium as technical program co-chair, the ITRS Front End International Technology Working Group, the IEEE VLSI TSA Conference as US Chair, and other industry and academic bodies.

Quantum dots will cascade into the marketplace. They offer lower cost, longer life, and brighter lighting, according to WinterGreen Research’s  new study Quantum Dot and Quantum Dot Display (QLED) Market Shares, Strategy, and Forecasts, Worldwide, 2013 to 2019.  

“The commercialization of quantum dots using kilogram quantity mass production is a game-changer,” said Susan Eustis, WinterGreen analyst. “High quality, high quantity and lowest price quantum dots increase product quality in every industry. The rate of change means speeded products cycles are evolving.”

Once manufacturers learn to integrate higher efficiency luminescent quantum dots into their products, each vendor will need to follow or dramatically lose market share, reports WinterGreen. This level of change brought by quantum dot and quantum dot displays (QLED) represents a new paradigm that will create new industries, products and jobs in science and industry. The list of possible quantum dot applications is ever expanding. New applications are waiting for the availability of more evolved quantum dots.

Quantum Dot LED (QLED) commercial focus has remained on key optical applications: Optical component lasers are emerging as a significant market. LED backlighting for LCD displays, LED general lighting, and solar power quantum dots are beginning to reach the market. Vendors continue to evaluate other applications.

Quantum dots QDs are minute particles or nano-particles in the range of 2nm to 10nm diameter. Quantum dots are tiny bits of semiconductor crystals with optical properties that are determined by their material composition. Their size is small to the nanoparticle level. They are made through a synthesis process. QD Vision synthesizes these materials in solution, and formulates them into inks and films. Quantum Dot LEDs (QLED) enable performance and cost benefits.

The quantum dot cannot be seen with the naked eye, because it is an extremely tiny semiconductor nanocrystal. The nanocrystal is a particle having a particle size of less than 10nm. QDs have great potential as light-emitting materials for next-generation displays with highly saturated colors because of high quantum efficiency, sharp spectral resolution, and easy wavelength tenability. Because QDs convert light to current, QDs have uses in other applications, including solar cells, photo detectors, and image sensors.

QLED displays are anticipated to be more efficient than LCDs and OLEDs. They are cheaper to make. Samsung estimates that they cost less than half of what it costs to make LCDs or OLED panels. QLED quantum dot display is better than OLED. It is brighter, cheaper, and saves more energy. Energy-savings is a strong feature. Its power consumption is 1/5 to 1/10 of the LCD’s Samsung offers now. Manufacturing costs of a display are less than half of OLED or LCD. It has a significantly longer life than the OLED.

QLED quantum dot display uses active matrix to control the opening and closing of the pixels of each color. Quantum dots have to use a thin film transistor. Emission from quantum dots is due to light or electrical stimulation. The quantum dots are able to produce different colors depending on the quantum shape and size used in the production of materials.

Dow Electronic Materials, a business unit of The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE: DOW) and Nanoco Group plc (AIM: NANO) have a global licensing agreement for Nanoco’s cadmium-free quantum dot technology. Under the terms of the agreement, Dow Electronic Materials will have exclusive worldwide rights for the sale, marketing and manufacture of Nanoco’s cadmium-free quantum dots for use in electronic displays.

Pixelligent Technologies, a manufacturer of nanocrystal additives for the electronics and semiconductor markets, last week announced the launch of its PixClear Zirconia nanocrystals. When incorporated into existing products, the nanoadditives can dramatically increase light output and readability of modern touch screens and displays. PixClear, Pixelligent officials say, also increases the light output of products for lighting applications such as HB-LEDs and OLEDs.

Prior to Pixelligent, nanocrystal dispersions suffered from aggregation and were cloudy, difficult to process, and unstable, which prevented their commercial adoption. But Pixelligent officials claim their PixClear dispersions are something new: they’re perfectly clear. These clear dispersions allow Pixelligent to deliver precise control over the target applications’ optical, chemical and mechanical properties.

“Pixelligent is at the forefront of developing nanotechnology innovations that will revolutionize light management in display and lighting applications,” said Craig Bandes, President and CEO of Pixelligent.  “The launch of PixClear is a great example of our ability to identify a need in the industry and then create a high-quality and scalable solution that will dramatically impact the performance of numerous end-products.”

Pixelligent’s PixClear nanocrystal dispersions have been tailored to be compatible with a wide variety of monomers and polymers. PixClear’s synthesis and surface modification technology produces high-quality dispersions that can be incorporated into many of the most widely used polymer systems. This enables highly transparent formulations with nanocrystal loadings in excess of 80 percent weight, while reaching a refractive index as high as 1.85, levels that are unmatched in the industry to date. Additionally, it provides great flexibility for index matching dissimilar materials and when using modern high-speed polymer film forming techniques.  

In their official release, Pixelligent claims the advantages of PixClear nanoadditives include a high refractive index, high transparency at visible wavelengths, low haze coating, improve scratch resistance, and an easy integration into existing manufacturing processes.

Many users of microwave ovens have had the frightening experience of leaving a fork, crumpled piece of aluminum foil or some other pointy metal item inside the cooking chamber. The sharp metal object acts as an antenna for the oven’s microwave radiation, causing strong local heating or sparking. Jing Hua Teng from the A*STAR Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE) and colleagues in Singapore and the UK have now observed a similar antenna effect, involving a different sort of electromagnetic radiation — known as terahertz (THz) radiation — in a microfabricated semiconductor structure. Their discovery could find application in areas ranging from bio-sensing to airport security scanners.

Teng and his co-workers developed tiny semiconductor structures made of the chemical elements indium and antimony. From this material, they produced disks of 20mm in diameter, which they arranged such that pairs just touched. The gap between contiguous disks was merely tens to hundreds of nanometers wide (see image). When the researchers exposed the structures to THz radiation, they found that the radiation intensity in the gap was enhanced by more than a hundred times.

Confining and enhancing THz radiation is significant for two reasons, according to Teng. First, electromagnetic waves in the THz range can be used in a broad range of applications, for example, to study the structure of large biomolecules. As this sort of radiation can penetrate textiles but is less energetic than X-rays — or microwaves — it is also well suited for use in body scanners at airports. The second reason as to why the new results are important is more fundamental.

“We have produced this particular touching-disk structure to test, in the THz regime, intriguing theoretical predictions made for optical radiation,” explains Teng. “Building a device such as ours for visible light is much more challenging, as it would involve even smaller structures.”

The now-verified theoretical predictions came from collaborators at Imperial College London in the UK.

“For the present work, IMRE is in charge of the materials growth and the structure fabrication, while Imperial College contributes structure design and characterization,” says Teng.

The A*STAR researchers are now focused on practical applications: they will further explore the unique properties of their semiconductor materials and try to develop devices for THz technology. The group has already succeeded in tuning the THz response of their structure2, meaning that they can conveniently adjust the frequency response of their device for different applications.

Semiconductor test equipment supplier Advantest Corporation entered the high-growth market for testing MEMS-based sensors by installing V93000 Smart Scale systems at several of Freescale Semiconductor’s facilities around the world. In addition to using Advantest’s testers for engineering development at Freescale’s Sensor and Actuator Solutions Division engineering center in Tempe, Arizona, the semiconductor manufacturer has started to employ the V93000 platform in production testing of its newest generations of MEMS-based sensors being manufactured in Asia.

Advantest claims its Smart Scale platform can be configured to provide the lowest cost of test for high-volume sensors. Officials says that while the ultra-compact A-Class test head enables a small footprint, the V93000’s robust system resources and its processor-based universal pin architecture combine to deliver unmatched parallelism and high multi-site efficiency in testing all current and emerging sensor technologies.

The tester is equipped with drivers for all major MEMS handlers and can communicate with the handler during the test flow. This is a key performance attribute in testing MEMS, which requires the handler to move between different orientations during test runs.

"In extensively evaluating testers for its MEMS applications, Freescale conducted comparative reviews of various systems to find the solution that would meet its technical requirements," said Sae Bum Myung, executive vice president of worldwide sales at Advantest.

The Advantest V93000 tester has a successful track record with Freescale. The company contracts with outsource semiconductor assembly and testing (OSAT) facilities throughout Asia that are using V93000 systems.

"Using Advantest’s V93000 systems in MEMS testing will enable us to continue to lower our cost of test and improve the time to market for our newest sensor products," said Seyed Paransun, vice president and general manager of Freescale’s Sensor and Actuator Solutions Division.

Advantest officials say the V93000 platform has the flexibility to test a wide range of semiconductor devices used in a variety of applications, from sensors to wireless communications. The tester’s per-pin accuracy and high throughput enable customers to quickly ramp to production volumes, shortening their time to market.

China-based manufacturers of cellphones and tablets in 2012 more than doubled their share of purchases of MEMS motion sensors, reflecting the rising prominence of the companies in the global market, according to an IHS iSuppli MEMS Topical Report from information and analytics provider IHS.

Chinese makers as a whole were the third major user last year of motion sensors for cellphones and tablets, accounting for 15% of the market, up from 7 percent in 2011, as presented in the attached figure.

“The purchasers fell into two groups: the first typified by big companies such as ZTE, Huawei Technologies, Lenovo and Coolpad; and the second made up of a multitude of smaller players,” said Jérémie Bouchaud, director and senior principal analyst for MEMS and sensors at IHS. “The two groups will evolve in different directions in the years ahead. The larger manufacturers will maintain their growth through 2016, but the boom that smaller players are enjoying at present—driven by the long-tail growth of smartphones—is a bubble that will not be sustainable. As top-tier suppliers start to optimize their lower-end platforms for this market, the window of growth for smaller players will shrink accordingly, expiring during the next few years.”

Shades of gray

Chinese firms ZTE and Huawei Technologies were at No. 8 and No. 9 last year—below top players Apple and Samsung, Nokia of Finland at No. 3, LG Electronics of South Korea in fourth place, HTC of Taiwan in fifth, Japan’s Sony in sixth and Illinois-based Motorola in seventh. However, ZTE and Huawei were ahead of No. 10 BlackBerry, the rebranded Canadian player formerly known as Research In Motion.

Outside of the legitimate Chinese market, the China gray-handset space also had a small presence in the global motion sensor industry given spending of $12.7 million, down from a peak of $41.1 million in 2009. The market here consisted solely of accelerometers supplied by American companies Memsic and Freescale, as well as STMicrolectronics and Bosch. There are no compasses or gyroscopes in this segment.

Apple and Samsung dominate

Apple and Samsung Electronics were the two largest buyers in 2012 of MEMS motion sensors for handsets and tablets with nearly three-fifths control of the total market last year, affording the two giants extraordinary leverage when negotiating prices.

Apple spent $422.4 million for a 31 percent share, while Samsung’s expenditure of $340.8 million gave it a 25 percent share. The combined share of 56 percent from the two—equivalent to $763.2 million—dwarfed the rest of the market, which included the underground gray-handset space in China, as well as other smaller buyers from Taiwan and the United States, as shown in the attached table.

“The heft and influence of Apple and Samsung in the consumption of motion sensors give the two titans incredible purchasing power in this key area,” Bouchaud said. “Apple and Samsung were leagues ahead of other companies like Nokia, LG Electronics, HTC, Sony and Motorola in purchasing motion sensors. Both companies in 2012 paid 20 to 25 percent lower prices than other buyers for all motion sensors on average. For 3-axis gyroscopes, Apple and Samsung paid prices that were 10 to 15 percent less than for everyone else.”

Apple and Samsung are expected to maintain their dominance until at least 2016, retaining approximately 55 percent of the market by then.

Overall, revenue last year for MEMS motion sensors used in handsets and tablets amounted to $1.34 billion, up a solid 21% from $1.11 billion in 2011.

Apple’s major contribution

California-based Apple was the biggest buyer of motion sensors for tablets, but fell behind top purchaser Samsung last year for the sensors in mobile handsets. Apple’s share last year was down from 36 percent in 2011, but the company can claim important milestones in the MEMS motion sensor market.

The first iPhone made the accelerometer popular as the phone could automatically orient to a horizontal or vertical position; the iPhone 3GS launched an electronic compass for navigation; and the iPhone 4 along with the first iPad created a new market for motion-sensitive gyroscopes.

Unlike most manufacturers, Apple so far has a single-source policy for motion sensors. French-Italian entity STMicroelectronics has been the sole supplier to Apple of accelerometers since 2007 and of gyroscopes since 2010, while Japanese-based AKM has been the lone supplier of the e-compass since 2009.

STMicroelectronics is also the supplier of 3-axis gyroscopes for the iPhone 4, 4S and 5, as well as for the iPad 2, 3 and mini tablets.

Apple, however, may be facing stiff competition from other buyers in pioneering new motion sensor applications. Samsung, for instance, is driving the adoption of pressure sensors for sophisticated indoor navigation, while Nokia and HTC have already introduced optical image stabilization to reduce camera shake in smartphones.

Samsung’s upstart challenge to Apple

Samsung overtook Nokia in 2011 to become the second-largest buyer of MEMS motion sensors for handsets and tablets. The South Korean behemoth increased purchasing by 69 percent, boosting its market share to a quarter of the total from 19 percent in 2011. Samsung’s new-found prominence puts it within 6 percentage points of Apple, narrowing Apple’s lead down from 15 percent in 2011.

Unlike Apple, Samsung has a diversified supplier base: three for discrete accelerometers; four for e-compasses; two suppliers for discrete gyroscopes; two for pressure sensors; two for 6-axis inertial measurement units combining a 3-axis accelerometer and a 3-axis gyroscope; and one for 6-axis compasses comprising a 3-axis accelerometer and a 3-axis e-compass.

STMicroelectronics was the main supplier to Samsung as it was for Apple, with German maker Bosch Sensortec and California-based InvenSense as Samsung’s next biggest providers.

Samsung’s inclusion of pressure sensors in the latest Galaxy Note 2 and S III smartphones is also notable, giving the company an important head start in this segment, especially as Apple is not expected to include pressure sensors in the iPhone until 2014.

The top suppliers overall

Four suppliers shipped more than $100 million worth of MEMS motion sensors last year, making up 84 percent of the market. STMicroelectronics was No. 1 with $640 million, followed by AKM with $236 million, Bosch Sensortec with $135 million and InvenSense with $121 million.

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Gandharv Bhatara is the product marketing manager for OPC technologies at Mentor Graphics.

The long-expected demise of optical lithography for manufacturing ICs has been delayed again, even though the technology itself has reached a plateau with a numerical aperture of 1.35 and an exposure wavelength of 193nm. Immersion lithography is planned for the 20/22nm node, and with the continued delay of EUV, is now the plan of record for 14nm.

How is it possible to use 193nm wavelength light at 14nm? How can we provide the process window to pattern such tight pitches? The secret lies in computational lithography. For 20nm, the two key innovations in computational lithography involve enabling double patterning with concurrent OPC, and in improving difficult-to-print layouts with localized in-situ optimization and by using an inverse lithography technique.

For 14nm, computational lithography offers more tools for process window enhancement with better approaches to sub-resolution assist features (SRAFs). SRAFs have been used since the 130nm node for resolution enhancement, but for 14nm, SRAF placement has evolved considerably. SRAFs placement has traditionally been based on a set of defined rules, which has given excellent coverage for line-space layouts and moderately good coverage for complex 2D layouts, along with fast runtime. However, the final SRAF coverage is highly dependent on the OPC recipe that the user is able to tune. Setting up these highly tuned recipes for 2D layouts can be time consuming, and also inadequate on very complex 2D layouts, leading to catastrophic failures in certain locations. The complexity of developing a well-tuned SRAF rules recipe since the introduction of pixelated sources and the introduction of more sophisticated contact and via layouts has driven lithographers away from rules-based solutions and towards model-based approaches.

Two distinct model-based approaches have developed: inverse lithography (ILT)-assisted and model-based. In the ILT-assisted approach, you use inverse lithography analysis to create a golden reference for a rules-based SRAF placement. ILT provides the ultimate lithography entitlement, but may not be practical to deploy in manufacturing because of increased mask cost and runtime. So, you use ILT only to find the best rules, and then let a rules-based SRAF tool do the actual placement. This gives superior process window for critical blocks like SRAM where the rules are relatively easy to develop.

The second approach is a true model-based approach, where a model is used to determine which areas on mask would benefit most from SRAFS and also to perform the initial SRAF placement. The model-based SRAF optimization reduces dependence on rules generation and improves SRAF placement. Model-based SRAFs can provide a process window that is comparable to that provided by ILT tools, but with much lower mask cost and runtime. The model-based approach is particularly useful for random logic designs, where developing rules continues to be challenging. Figure 1 shows a wafer validation done by IMEC, which shows that the process window obtained using model-based SRAFs and dense OPC was the same as obtained by using an ILT tool.

Given that both the ILT-assisted, rule-based approach and the model-based methods are good, but for different design styles, what if you could combine them easily into a hybrid approach? A hybrid approach combining the best of both solutions provides a single, unified SRAF recipe for SRAM (rules-based) and random logic designs (model-based). This is one of the secrets to 14nm computational lithography: advanced SRAF solutions that provide flexibility, control runtime, and leverage both rules-based and model-based approaches for the most challenging layouts.

Process window with model based SRAFs and ILT
Figure 1. Similar process window with model based SRAFs and ILT

 

SRAF placement flow high lithography
Figure 2.  A novel hybrid SRAF placement flow guarantees high lithography entitlement and resolves the SRAF development challenge.

The global LED lighting market will be worth $25.4 billion in 2013, representing 54% growth on the 2012 figure of $16.5, while the LED lighting penetration rate will also rise to 18.6%, according to a new DIGITIMES Research Special Report titled "Global high-brightness LED market forecast."

The report describes how the luminous efficacy of LEDs continues to rise, with manufacturers likely to be well ahead of the US Department of Energy’s (DoE) development targets of 129 lm/W for warm white light LEDs and 164 lm/W for cold white light LEDs.

LED lighting product prices are likely to drop by 20-25% in 2013, as LED component performance/price ratios rise from 2012’s 500 lm/US$ to 1,000 lm/US$ in 2013.

Looking further ahead to 2015, the US DoE targets are for LED component costs to drop 37% from 2013 levels, while 60W-equivalent LED bulb costs are to drop by 38% from 2013 levels by 2015. LED lighting prices would then be at a price point even more acceptable to general consumers.

Lighting policy in many countries is also critical to the development of LED lighting, and this effect has been most marked in the Asia region. For example, Japan now has the highest LED lighting market penetration rate of any region, with the rate set to rise to 73.8% by 2015; South Korea’s Korea Association for Photonics Industry Development (KAPID) projects that the country’s LED lighting industry will have an output value of US$7.8 billion by 2015, 5.6 times the figure for 2012; while China’s LED lighting market is growing by 30% per year, which will give the country nearly one third of total global output value for LED lighting in 2015.

All of these factors will drive major growth in the LED lighting market, which will beat even the significant gains forecast over the last one to two years. "In addition to the rise of LED TV applications, LED lighting will begin to replace conventional lighting technology in the market. LED lighting will take 38.6% of the global lighting market by 2015," predicts Jessie Lin, author of the report. DIGITIMES Research in fact projects that the global LED lighting market will be worth US$44.2 billion by 2015.

global lighting market