Category Archives: Online Magazines

January 24, 2012 – Imec and PVA Tepla say they have achieved void detection in through-silicon vias at wafer level, after TSV copper plating, thanks to a nondestructive high-frequency scanning acoustic microscopy (SAM) technique. The method also can be applied to detect voids in TSVs during processing, they claim.

The initial focus of their work was to develop metrology for detecting voids after temporary wafer bonding of 3D wafers, which remains challenging because development of interface particles and voids can impact subsequent wafer thinning processes, as well as overall wafer thinning and tool performance.

To address this, PVA Tepla and imec developed an automated foup-to-foup, wafer-level process based on 200MHz SAM using Tepla

January 24, 2012 – Protecting intellectual property, protecting federal funding for R&D, and enabling friendlier export, tax, and other policies are the top priorities for the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) in 2013.

Top items on the SIA’s 2013 policy roadmap, presented this week by president/CEO Brian Toohey:

  1. Facilitate open markets and protect intellectual property. As the semiconductor industry expands globally, promoting free and open international trade and safeguarding IP rights are paramount. Of particularly importance to the semiconductor industry: the updated Information Technology Agreement (ITA), Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations, and the World Semiconductor Council (WSC).

  2. Support federal funding for university research. The fiscal cliff was averted only for a few months; looming concerns remain on federal spending for R&D investments in jeopardy. Key semiconductor research programs are in the spotlight the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science.

  3. Streamline export control regulations. The semiconductor industry is one of the nation’s top exporters, and the SIA supports "appropriate controls" on technologies tied to national security — but wants relief on areas that "stifle" US competitiveness abroad, such as "troublesome rad-hard requirements" and satellite decontrol legislation, while pushing for reform of IC controls..

  4. Reform the corporate tax system. America’s tax structure blocks possible pathways to innovation to enhance America’s competitiveness, and the SIA wants any tax legislation to "reflect the semiconductor industry’s core tax priorities: adoption of a lower rate, a territorial system, and incentives for innovation." Extension of the R&D tax credit through 2013 is a start, but needs to be expanded and made permanent.

  5. Improve security and authentication of semiconductor products. Proliferation of counterfeit semiconductors is a growing economic and national security concern. The SIA pledges to work with industry and government to advance legislation that stops counterfeit semiconductors from entering the US, promote stricter government procurement guidelines, enhance international efforts to stop counterfeiting at its source, and explore various research opportunities and technology solutions.

  6. Support sustainability practices and innovation development. "Certain environmental regulations, when applied broadly to all industries, could inappropriately undermine semiconductor design and manufacturing processes in the US," the SIA says. The semiconductor industry will keep working on environmental "stewardship" with an eye to keeping regulation of chemicals and other materials from limiting operations, product design, or future innovation.

"Through hard work and ingenuity, the semiconductor industry creates American jobs, drives U.S. economic growth and leads the global market. By enacting SIA’s Policy Roadmap in 2013, policymakers can further strengthen the industry and help unlock its full potential," Toohey writes.

January 23, 2012 – The market for MEMS microphones has nearly quintupled in just the past three years, topping a projected 2 billion shipments in 2012, a rise attributed mainly to the rise of Apple and the iPhone, according to IHS iSuppli.

"While MEMS microphones have been around for many years, 2009 marked an important milestone when Apple started to buy MEMS microphones for the iPod Nano 5, and more importantly, for the iPhone 4," stated Jérémie Bouchaud, director and senior principal analyst for MEMS & sensors at IHS. "With Apple playing a huge role, the MEMS microphone market turned up the volume dramatically." Apple’s share of MEMS microphone consumption was just 6.2% of shipments in 2009, and nearly a third of the market (31%) in 2012.

Silicon microphones are "one of the great success stories in the MEMS field," according to the firm. A smartphone may need one of most MEMS-enabled features, e.g. an accelerometer or compass or gyroscope, it typically has two MEMS microphones these days — and some handset suppliers are considering designing in a third device for noise suppression and better audio recording for videos.

Interestingly, MEMS microphones’ usefulness has resisted the typical price reduction seen in technologies rapidly adopted in consumer and mobile markets, because the high-end segment (Apple, Nokia, etc.) is driven more by than just price. "Apple, for instance, pays anywhere from three to four times more than its competitors to secure performance-oriented MEMS microphones, helping to stabilize pricing for MEMS microphones as a whole," iSuppli notes.

Differentiating a smartphone/handset with better audio capabilities is increasingly important as consumers rely on their devices for even more tasks beyond simply making a phone call, such as consuming music or video content. The new Nokia Lumia is one such smartphone specifically marketing its audio and recording features. Apple’s addition of Siri voice command to the iPhone 4S has carried over into the iPhone 5 and other Apple devices including the newest iPod touch music player and iPad tablet. "Siri demonstrated the impressive functionality that could be achieved by multiple MEMS microphones featuring a lower signal-to-noise ratio," the firm notes.

More MEMS microphones in handsets has also improved audio for video recording, iSuppli points out. The iPhone 4 and 4S had two microphones (supplied by Knowles and AAC) on the side of the display — great placement for calls and voice commands, but not for recording the sound of the video taken with the main camera on the back of the phone. The iPhone 5 has those same two microphones but adds a third from Analog Devices on the back of the phone for video recording.

Worldwide MEMS microphone historical shipments, in millions of units. (Source: IHS iSuppli)

January 22, 2013 – Reports are circling around Apple’s supply chain of a potential shift in the company’s display strategy for its future iPhones and iPads — moving back to LCDs and away from touch panels — but a drastic realignment of its supply chain is probably not likely, observes DisplaySearch.

Calvin Hsieh, senior analyst at DisplaySearch, cites a report from China that Innolux has delivered "touch on display" samples for the iPhone, another China report that Innolux and AU Optronics have provided "one-glass solution" (OGS) samples for the iPad Mini, and his firm’s own analysis that the iPhone 5 uses in-cell touch technology but the iPad mini uses a glass/film dual ITO (GF2, or DITO) structure. With both those processes struggling to attain good yields, could Apple end up changing its display technology adoption midstream?

TOD is a proprietary on-cell touch technology developed by Innolux in which the sensor is located on the upper glass (the color filter substrate) beneath the top polarizer. On-cell touch combines both LCD and touch so it must meet Apple’s LCD display requirements; Hsieh notes, adding that Innolux accounted for less than 10% of iPhone 4 display shipments (3.5-in, 960×640). "If Apple were to adopt TOD, it would very likely request that Innolux share its technology, structure or even patents with Apple’s other LCD suppliers in order to ensure adequate supply," he writes," and Apple also probably would want to take over the controller IC and algorithm from any Innolux partners (e.g. Synaptics). Apple already owns DITO patents, he adds.

The OGS display technology is an even more complex problem, Hsieh points out. OGS integrates the touch ITO sensor circuits into the cover glass, via two possible methods: a piece type such as "touch on lens" (TOL) or a sheet type, each accomplished with a different process. Either way the X-Y sensor patterns are on the same side of the substrate, so it’s called a "SITO" structure or "G2." Touch panel maker TPK owns patents for the piece-type OGS method, and claim they have key SITO patents as well and are suing Nokia and Chinese panel maker O-film, Hsieh notes; whether the aforementioned Innolux-AUO partnership could produce the technology given the TPK patents is unclear, he says.

There’s more to Apple use of OGS display if it chooses that route. Sheet-type OGS has a compressive cover-glass strength of 500-6600 Mpa; Corning’s IOX-FS and Gorilla glass have 600-700 Mpa for smartphone sizes and cannot be used in sheet type, Hsieh says. Piece type has the higher CS value but are difficult to mask-stamp and align under lithography, and throughput may be low.

Among iPhone 5 panel suppliers only LG Display offers everything from in-cell touch LCD to cover glass lamination (consigned by Apple), Hsieh notes. Other in-cell touch LCD makers Japan Display and Sharp rely on partners for the cover glass. If Innolux and AUO continue with their OGS partnership, they have a choice:

  • An integrated offering of LCD, OGS sheet patterning (cover glass with SITO sensor), and lamination let Apple specify the IOX-FS glass sheet with compressive strength of Gorilla 1; "In this scenario, LG Display will never give up and must be one of the suppliers," he notes.

  • Integrate the LCD, OGS piece-type sensor patterning, and lamination, using consigned cover glass pieces from other finishers (e.g. Lens One). The challenge here is expanding tools, throughput, and yield for piece-type patterning, to be acceptable for the iPhone’s >100M unit base.

All that is somewhat speculation, though, because long-term Apple touch supplier TPK already "has excellent OGS sheet and piece-type technology, and high lamination yield rates," and is unlikely to simply hand over that business to new entrants. "Although AUO and Innolux have advantages as LCD makers and can shorten the supply chain by producing LCD and touch at the same time, TPK has strength in OGS integration from sensor patterning, cover glass finishing (for sheet type), to module lamination," Hsieh writes. "Thus, there is a good chance that TPK will once again be a key touch supplier to Apple if it decides to change touch structures."

January 22, 2012 – The Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research (IAP) in Potsdam-Golm and fab/cleanroom developer MBRAUN have commissioned a new "near industrial-scale" pilot line for organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) and organic solar cells.

The 15m-long pilot line, dubbed the Pilot Plant for Solution-based Processes for Organic Electronics at Fraunhofer IAP’s Application Center for Innovative Polymer Technologies, was commissioned during a two-day workshop last week (Jan. 15-16) entitled "Solution-based Organic Electronics: From Materials to Technology."

Showing the new ability to extend of previous laboratory-scale work, part of the ceremony apparently included showing a 1:20 scale bus shelter (10cm high), designed by a joint project of IAP and fdesign and funded by the Federal Ministry of Research. The mini-shelter is solar powered with partially transparent organic solar cells integrated into the roof and sidewall; OLEDs display the schedule or give light signals when a bus arrives. The Potsdam Fraunhofer Institute developed the OLEDs as well as the organic solar cells.

"The model shows that organic electronics has great design potential for energy-saving, intelligent lighting control and information systems," stated Armin Wedel, division director at Fraunhofer IAP. "To apply these technologies to life-size street furniture, the new pilot line now offers the possibility to realize organic electronic components under near-industrial conditions — a crucial prerequisite for the later transfer into commercial products."

Martin Reinelt, CEO of MBRAUN, added his hope that such partnerships can "strengthen the German research landscape in order to compete successfully with American and Asian research institutions. We also want to demonstrate the performance of German plant manufacturing."

January 18, 2013 – Ziptronix Inc. says it has signed a licensing agreement with Novati Technologies Inc. for the use of its patented direct bonding technologies, "direct bond interconnect" (DBI) and "direct oxide bonding (ZiBond).

Novati, the former SVTC facility in Austin which was acquired and relaunched by Tezzaron Semiconductor last fall, will use the technology for 3D stacking services and test. Tezzaron itself recently licensed Ziptronix’s DBI and ZiBond patents for use in 3D memory.

"Adding Ziptronix 3D process technologies to Novati’s existing wafer fabrication and testing facilities enables Novati to become the first open-platform, full-line foundry in the world offering 3D stacking services and test to all its customers," stated Dave Anderson, CEO of Novati Technologies. "We believe 3D is the new cutting edge of product development and we intend to continue our heritage as a contract R&D and lab-to-fab production facility enabling customers to cost-effectively prototype and test both 2.5D interposer and 3D designs with true, 3D integration and TSV interconnect."

"With our DBI, which contains interconnect at the bond interface, Novati can now provide technologically advanced services in many different markets at a lower cost and better performance compared to competing technologies also attempting 3D integration," added Ziptronix CEO Dan Donabedian.

By Tom Morrow, chief marketing officer, SEMI

Spending on LED fab manufacturing equipment will decline 9.2% in 2013 as the industry faces weak long-term demand and consolidates manufacturing capacity. According to the SEMI LED/Opto Fab Forecast, spending on LED fab manufacturing equipment will drop to $1.68 billion in 2013, down from $1.85 billion in 2012. Global LED manufacturing capacity will continue to grow this year, reaching an estimated 2.57 million 4-in. wafer equivalents, a 24% increase over 2012. The outlook for equipment spending in 2014 is currently projected at less than $1 billion, as manufacturers assess an uncertain competitive environment and potential alternative manufacturing strategies.

Underlying the softening in manufacturing investment is weak long-term demand for package LED components. Despite growing demand for solid state lighting systems, total demand for packaged LEDs is at or nearing its peak. Last year, Strategies Unlimited forecasted that demand for LEDs would peak in 2012 or 2013 at approximately $13.3 billion, declining to less than $13.0 billion in 2014. Recently, IMS Research forecasted that LED demand would peak in 2015 at nearly $14 billion before declining through the remainder of the decade.

World LED capacity trend. (Source: SEMI Opto/LED Fab Forecast, Nov. 2012)

Among the reasons for weak long-term demand is the LED count per device is dropping fast and the long-life of LED-based lighting systems radically reduces the replacement lamp market. For LED manufacturers, average selling prices continue to drop, especially in high-growth mid- and low-power segments serving the lighting industry.

With excess manufacturing capacity continuing to place price pressures on LED components, manufacturers will be cautious in embarking on major new manufacturing investments. Low fab utilization is also delaying the transition to 6-in. sapphire wafers. In addition, new GaN on silicon products are just now reaching the market, creating further uncertainty. Last month, Toshiba announced the beginning of production of white LEDs using GaN on 8-in. silicon substrates, utilizing depreciated IC fabs with modern automation tools. Working with technology from Bridgelux, Toshiba has reportedly indicated they will eventually ramp to 10 million units per month. German-based Azzurro Semiconductors announced that Taiwan LED leader, Epistar, has successfully migrated their LED structures to its 150mm GaN-on-Si templates and the company is feverishly working on 200mm technology. Philips, OSRAM, and Samsung are all actively exploring GaN on silicon technology.

GaN on silicon could be a game-changer in the LED market, but its impact is still uncertain. Yole Developpement estimates that significant cost benefits can only occur if equivalent yields to sapphire processes can be achieved, and that production utilizes fully amortized 200mm lines. Sapphire wafer prices have significantly declined over the past 18-months, lessening the benefits of a move to silicon.

Apart from major substrate technology changes, manufacturing spending will increasingly be focused on yield rather than capacity and throughput. Equipment, materials and technology suppliers who can deliver an ROI through improved manufacturing yields can still prosper in the weakened market.

China pursues leadership

China’s 12th Five Year Plan took effect in 2011 and renewed the country’s commitment to LED and solid state lighting technologies. While the massive MOCVD spending of 2010/2011 has significantly declined, China remains the leading region in manufacturing investments. China will be the largest market for LED fab equipment in 2013 with projected spending of $667 million, approximately 40% of the total worldwide spending and almost double Japan’s spending, the second largest region. In 2011, China spent over $1.2 billion on LED fab manufacturing equipment.

China’s generous national and local subsidy programs behind the massive industry development (China now has 82 LED fabs, up from only 16 in 2006) have all but disappeared, but the country remains committed to developing all sectors of the LED industry. China is a major consumer of LEDs in signage, mobile displays, TVs, and lighting that utilize low and mid-power LEDs that Chinese suppliers specialize in. Energy conservation through solid state lighting is a national priority. Most observers predict a consolidation of the China LED industry, with perhaps one of two companies emerging as global powerhouses. While much of China’s LED capacity is dormant, in transition or reliant on older technology, companies such as SanAn and ETi will invest new and upgraded manufacturing technology over the next two years.

Industry structure implications

Another troublesome aspect of the LED industry is that nearly 70% of the LED market is supplied by only ten companies, most of whom are directly involved in manufacturing lighting systems. Increasingly, the LED components may be seen as loss leaders offering little incentive for manufacturing investments. With falling ASP’s, soft demand, vertically integrated customers, and increasing supply of quality products from China and elsewhere, the outlook for continued LED manufacturing investments will be limited for the foreseeable future.

Tom Morrow will be providing the keynote address at the Strategies in Light (SIL) conference, February 12, 2013. SEMI members can receive a special discount rate with up to $200 savings to attend the Manufacturing Track. To register for SIL, click here.

The SEMI HB-LED Wafer Task Force, Equipment Automation Task Force, and Impurities & Defects Task Force will be meeting in conjunction with the Strategies in Light conference in Santa Clara, CA (Feb. 12-14). Following Strategies in Light, the NA HB-LED committee and its task forces will meet in April 1-4 in conjunction with the NA Standards Spring 2013 meetings in San Jose, California. For more information and to register for these meetings, please visit the SEMI Standards website here: www.semi.org/en/Standards.

For more information on SEMI’s involvement in the LED market, visit www.semi.org/LED.

January 17, 2012 – In the ranks of top foundries, there’s a new Number Three in town: Samsung, which climbed up the ranks again in 2012 thanks to its ubiquity in smart phone technology, according to updated rankings by IC Insights.

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× that of IBM, IC Insights notes. 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% growth in 2011 by nearly doubling sales again to $4.33 billion, putting it just shy of GlobalFoundries which grew sales a solid 31% last year to $4.56B. (Compare that with former No.3 UMC, which has seen sales declines each of the past two years: -5% in 2011, -1% in 2012.) In fact IC Insights thinks 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. Note that Apple made up about 89% of Samsung’s total foundry sales, despite being bitter rivals in broader electronic device markets, and Apple is still very reliant on Samsung for IC processors for iPads, iPhones, and iPods — and gets favorable pricing thanks to "bundling" deals using Samsung’s memory chips, IC Insights notes. Apple is exploring other sourcing options (TSMC, GlobalFoundries, and possibly Intel) to decouple somewhat from reliance on Samsung, but the analyst firm points out that TSMC currently is already running high utilizations and can’t take on such a heavy new workload, and "as of early-2013, no other foundry in the world could come close to matching Samsung’s total IC supply capabilities."

IBM (NYSE: IBM) Research scientists Gerhard Meyer, Leo Gross, and Jascha Repp have been awarded the prestigious 2012 Feynman Prize for Experiment by the Foresight Institute at its annual conference.

IBM Researchers Gerhard Meyer, Leo Gross (pictured) and Jascha Repp (now at Regensburg University) won the prestigious Feynman prize given by the Foresight Group. The team of research scientists was the first to produce images detailed enough to identify the structure of individual molecules, as well as metal-molecule complexes. They have also been able to accurately deconstruct individual chemical bonds which provide key insights into designing future molecular systems and nano scale devices.

According to a statement by the Foresight Institute, the Prize recognizes the scientists for their remarkable experiments in advancing the frontiers of scanning probe microscopy. They were the first to produce images of molecular orbitals and charges detailed enough to identify the structure of individual molecules, as well as metal–molecule complexes. They have also been able to precisely make and break individual chemical bonds. These developments provide crucial insights and tools for the design of future molecular systems.

In his laudation Ralph C. Merkle, Chairman of the Prize Committee, said "The work of these Feynman Prize winners has brought us one step closer to answering Feynman’s 1959 question, ‘What would happen if we could arrange atoms one by one the way we want them?’ And the ability to simulate and manipulate atoms advanced by the work of these Prize winners will enable us to design and build engineered molecular machinery with atomic precision. It will take us another step on the way to the development of revolutionary nanotechnologies that will transform our lives for the better."

The awards were presented at the 2013 Foresight Technical Conference in Palo Alto, California.

The Foresight Feynman Prizes were established by the Foresight Institute in 1993. They are named in honor of Nobel Prize laureate Richard Feynman, whose influential essay entitled "There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom" inspired the first work on nanoscale science. The Institute awards Feynman prizes each year to recognize researchers—one for theoretical work and one for empirical research—whose recent work has most advanced the field toward the achievement of Feynman’s vision for nanotechnology: molecular manufacturing, the construction of atomically precise products through the use of molecular machine systems.

Most people are familiar with the concept of RADAR. Radio frequency (RF) waves travel through the atmosphere, reflect off of a target, and return to the RADAR system to be processed. The amount of time it takes to return correlates to the object’s distance. In recent decades, this technology has been revolutionized by electronically scanned (phased) arrays (ESAs), which transmit the RF waves in a particular direction without mechanical movement. Each emitter varies its phase and amplitude to form a RADAR beam in a particular direction through constructive and destructive interference with other emitters.

Similar to RADAR, laser detection and ranging, or LADAR, scans a field of view to determine distance and other information, but it uses optical beams instead of RF waves. LADAR provides a more detailed level of information that can be used for applications such as rapid 3-D mapping. However, current optical beam steering methods needed for LADAR, most of which are based on simple mechanical rotation, are simply too bulky, slow or inaccurate to meet the full potential of LADAR.

As reported in the current issue of the journal Nature, DARPA researchers have recently demonstrated the most complex 2-D optical phased array ever. The array, which has dimensions of only 576µm x 576µm is composed of 4,096 (64 x 64) nanoantennas integrated onto a silicon chip. Key to this breakthrough was developing a design that is scalable to a large number of nanoantennas, developing new microfabrication techniques, and integrating the electronic and photonic components onto a single chip.

“Integrating all the components of an optical phased array into a miniature 2-D chip configuration may lead to new capabilities for sensing and imaging,” said Sanjay Raman, program manager for DARPA’s Diverse Accessible Heterogeneous Integration (DAHI) program. “By bringing such functionality to a chip-scale form factor, this array can generate high-resolution beam patterns — a capability that researchers have long tried to create with optical phased arrays. This chip is truly an enabling technology for a host of systems and may one day revolutionize LADAR in much the same way that ESAs revolutionized RADAR. Beyond LADAR, this chip may have applications for biomedical imaging, 3D holographic displays and ultra-high-data-rate communications.”

This work was supported by funding from DARPA’s Short-Range, Wide Field-of-View Extremely agile, Electronically Steered Photonic Emitter (SWEEPER) program under Josh Conway, and the Electronic-Photonic Heterogeneous Integration (E-PHI) thrust of the DAHI program. Future steps include integrating non-silicon laser elements with other photonic components and silicon-based control and processing electronics directly on-chip using E-PHI technologies currently under development.

Photo courtesy of MIT.