Category Archives: SST

Europe’s recently launched industrial strategy to reinforce micro- and nanoelectronics manufacturing is more than just a vision — it’s a major opportunity for equipment and material suppliers to participate to large-scale investment projects, increase their holding in key technologies and reach out to new customers and markets. Implementation is already underway: the first EU funding calls for projects will start at the latest in early 2014 and discussions are already underway on investment priorities.  The recent launch of five EU projects, worth over €700 Million and bringing together over 120 partners, around 30 percent of which are small and medium enterprises, is proof that Europe can put its “money where its mouth is.” So what should you be doing to join the 10/100/20 momentum?

10/100/20 in a nutshell

Dubbed the ‘10/100/20’ strategy, the EU initiative will see €10 billion worth of EU co-funded projects (public/private investment), coupled with €100 Euros investment by the industry with the goal of 20 percent of global chip manufacturing by 2020. The aim is to focus on Europe’s strengths, pool together EU, national and regional resources and invest in specific areas that can give Europe a competitive edge globally. EU investment will cover the entire semiconductor manufacturing supply chain, from research to design and device makers. Maintaining leadership in equipment and material supply is clearly stated as an objective of the EU’s strategy, as is the integration of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in value chains and providing them access to state-of-the-art technologies and R&D&I facilities.

Why get involved, especially as a SME

A number of companies, and small and medium enterprises in particular, may shy away from EU projects, perceiving them to be too complex to access and placing too much of an administrative burden for little financial gain. But the true value of EU projects lies in the new network you have access to: a variety of companies across the supply chain, many of who will become your new customers, and access to state-of-the-art research facilities and technologies. Take the example of the five pilot lines recently launched with combined funding from the EU, national governments and partner companies under the ENIAC program:

The European 450 Equipment Demo Line (E450EDL) will support the equipment and materials industry in the 450mm wafer size transition. 43 partners from 11 European countries will develop and test lithography, front end equipment, metrology tools and wafer handling and automation equipment. The partners include the large European research centers and equipment and device manufacturers, as well as smaller companies. The demo line will provide a world-class research infrastructure to validate tools that remain at the manufacturers’ sites, thus giving suppliers access to state-of-the-art facilities and an opportunity to share the knowledge and financial burden of testing their products. The Lab4MEMS project will create the first European pilot line for innovative technologies on advanced piezoelectric and magnetic materials, including 3D packaging, offers SMEs and fabless companies a manufacturing route for their future projects that has been difficult to access so far.

Interested? So what’s next?

Now is the time to decide on the technology trends that you want your company to follow and start reaching out to your partners and customers. If you think your technology could give Europe a competitive edge and should be part of Europe’s investment strategy, then start talking about it, show its benefits and convince people that this is the way to go. In the case of EU projects, there is strength in numbers, so start talking to your customers and your suppliers, look at what others are doing, and see how you can fit into the technology and investment trends.

The EU pledge of €10 billion worth of public/private co-financed projects will be spent gradually in the form of regular EU funding calls, the first of which is expected by end 2013. The call will set the overall requirements for project ideas: what technologies the project should focus on, what parts of the value chain should be partners to the project, the estimated overall budget and duration of the project as well as the technical details for applying for EU funding.  By the time the call has been published, you should already have an idea of what it is you want to do, who you want to work with and how you can fit your idea into the investment priorities that will be announced.

How to get connected

If you are visiting SEMICON West in San Francisco, then mark your calendar for Wednesday, July 10. At 16:00/4:00pm there will be a presentation of the new 10/100/20 strategy for Europe at the TechXpot in South Hall. Join us to find out more about the new strategy, why it’s important and how to get involved.

Your next major opportunity to meet with the equipment and materials industry, learn about the latest technologies and discuss the EU strategy is SEMICON Europa 2013 (8-10 October, Dresden, Germany).  Our programs will cover each of the major projects, including 450mm wafer processing, power electronics, MEMS, FDSOI as well as advanced packaging including 3D and TSV technologies.  They will in one way or the other all address Europe’s 10/100/20 strategy. The SEMICON Europa Executive Summit will discuss implementation of the strategy and we are also organizing an EU funding workshop with hands-on advice about how to identify funding opportunities for your company and join EU projects.

For more information on SEMICON Europa, please visit: www.semiconeuropa.org. The event in Dresden will again be co-located with Plastic Electronics Europe. The conference and exhibition is the leading international technology-to-industry and industry-to-industry event focused on organic and large area electronics. It is the premium forum in its kind where professionals in the area and from around the world meet to present and to discuss progress of topics. For more information, please visit: www.plastic-electronics.org.

 

Developers have made major progress in the technology to manufacture printed or flexible circuits, sensors, batteries and displays. But frankly it’s been hard to build applications with much market pull without logic or memory as well, and those have been much harder to make. However, now printed memory and solutions for integrating conventional silicon die into flexible systems are edging into production, to potentially improve performance for a wider range of applications.  On the display side, easily integrated printed or flexible transparent conductive films for touch screens are starting to see some market traction.

Yole Développement projects the market for printed and flexible electronics will remain a modest ~$176 million this year, but will see 27 percent CAGR to ~$950 million by 2020, driven largely by printed layers integrated into large OLED displays.

Thinning patterned die makes flexible silicon on polymer

One interesting solution to add performance to flexible electronics could be an open platform for making flexible silicon die. American Semiconductor proposes drastically thinning conventional fabricated silicon wafers, and coating them with a combination of polymers. The resultant silicon-on-polymer approach protects and eases handling of the ultra-thin die, says CEO Doug Hackler, who will discuss the technology in a program on such hybrid solutions in the emerging market program series at SEMICON West in San Francisco in July. He reports user interest for large area distributed sensing systems that include ICs within structural composites in aircraft bodies to monitor stress, for bio sensors that conform to the body, for RF for wireless data transmission from printed sensors, and for drivers for flexible displays.

The company has qualified TowerJazz’s 130nm process to make SOI CMOS for its initial flexible standard microcontroller, and has worked with the foundry to establish design rules to make an open platform for other designers to create their own flexible chips. American Semiconductor thins these fabricated wafers by standard methods down to about ~40µm. “And then from <40µm it gets trickier and more proprietary,” says Hackler. But once these flexible silicon-on-polymer die are diced and released, they can be handled pretty much like standard chips. “The dicing and release are a little different, but once the die are on tape, then it appears feasible to do traditional pick and place,” he says, noting the company intends to use printed connections instead of bonding wire or solder bumps. After assembly on a flexible substrate, perhaps by a pick-and-place module integrated on a roll-to-roll printing tool, the devices would typically be laminated or overcoated for additional protection. The company plans to follow its flexible microcontroller with a standard analog/digital converter to take in sensor data, and an RF IC to send out the data. 

Innovative solutions for assembling silicon on flexible substrates move towards production

Packaging and assembling tiny thin die on flexible substrates remains a challenge, but multiple suppliers are making progress towards solutions that are starting to edge into commercial production. One approach particularly suitable for attaching sensors to the body is the spring-like stretchy wiring developed by MC10 for attaching thin silicon die to flexible substrates, for everything from wearable heart rate and fitness monitors to sensor membranes that can be implanted directly on organs inside the body. VP of R&D Kevin Dowling reports the company’s first commercial application is in a soft skullcap from Reebok that uses flexibly connected motion sensors to measure impacts to the head.

Tiny die size could also help with both cost and attachment of rigid die to conformable substrates, although handling and assembling them then becomes more of an issue. Terepac Corp. CTO Jayna Sheats notes that plenty of logic for simple controls could be very tiny and low cost — microprocessors with ~8000 transistors like the Z-80 generation currently used for many embedded control applications take up  <70µm2 of silicon with 90nm design rules, for millions on a wafer. But the die are too tiny to make the input/output connections or to handle with traditional pick and place for packaging and assembly. So Terepac proposes a photochemical assembly process instead, picking up an array of thinned and diced chips with a sticky printhead, positioning the chips over the substrate with a tool similar to a proximity aligner, and vaporizing the proprietary polymer/adhesive behind each selected chip with a combination of heat and UV so it falls into the desired position.  Chips can then be attached to the flexible substrate by conductive adhesive, electroplating, or printed connections. The company is working with equipment manufacturing partners including Rockwell International to construct manufacturing facilities for customers with products for the Internet of Things.

Jabil reports progress in low temperature attachment technologies for use with heat-sensitive flexible substrates. And Sandia National Lab reports it’s come up with a solution for the common researchers’ problem in this field of how to build prototypes of flexible systems when the necessary ultra thin chips only come in costly wafer-level volumes. Researchers there have figured out how to thin off-the-shelf single die for developing flexible systems.

Printed memory targets low-cost, high-volume applications          

Thin Film Electronics, meanwhile, is developing systems that use its simple, low cost printed memory. The company’s 20-bit memory can be produced in volume for under ~$0.05, targeted at applications like consumer packaging, with volumes of billions of units a year where roll-to-roll printing makes most sense, says Chandrasekhar Durisety, assistant director, North America, who will give an update on the company’s progress towards commercialization at the session. Thin Film is introducing a next generation of passive array memory, in 4×4 (16 bit), 5×5 (25 bit) or 6×6 (36-bit) options, a more conventional format with fewer pads at higher density for easier addressing than its initial 20-bit in-line architecture. 

The company is working with a global consumer product maker on using low-cost printed memory to make brand authentication cost effective for a wide range of lower-priced products. It’s also working with major flexible packaging supplier Bemis Company Inc. on sensor labels for food, healthcare and consumer products that can collect and wirelessly communicate sensor information at roughly the same low cost as current color-changing chemical indicators. The digital system under development — with Thin Film’s printed memory, an electrochromic display from Acreo, and printed logic technology from PARC — stores data when the temperature exceeds a certain range, to indicate more clearly than a color gradient can whether the product is usable or not. 

Thin Film aims to add electronics to applications that currently don’t use them, to add simple intelligence at prices far below those possible with silicon, such as low-cost brand authentication, temperature sensors on packaging, or simple electronics in toys.  “Silicon die could add significant capability to printed electronics. But with fabrication and assembly it would likely be more expensive than either silicon or printed electronics alone,” suggests Durisety.”  

Market starts to develop for printed/flexible ITO replacements

Another key potential market for printed/flexible electronics is next-generation transparent conductive film to replace brittle and expensive indium tin oxide in touch screens and displays, lighting, and photovoltaics.  Touch Display Research says the market for non-ITO transparent conductors will be about $206 million this year, and grow to some $4 billion by 2020.  “High demand for touchscreens for notebook and PC size displays has created a shortage of ITO touch sensors since the end of last year to drive more interest in these technologies, and the more flexible and potentially cheaper replacement technologies are getting more mature,” notes Jennifer Colegrove, president and analyst, who will speak at the FlexTech workshop on transparent conductors. She notes that Atmel, FUJIFILM, Unipixel and Cambrios are all in some phase of production.

There is, however, a confusing range of contending options for processes and materials for these films.  Applied Materials has interesting progress in its roll-to-roll deposition technology, while FUJIFILM Dimatix targets ink jet printing the materials, and NovaCentrix offers rapid thermal curing that doesn’t heat the substrate. Materials options range from nano metal wires at Cambrios Technology, Carestream and Sinovia, to embossed and metalized patterns from Unipixel, to carbon nanotubes at Brewer Science and graphene at Nanotech Biomachines. 

These and other speakers will talk about the challenges and solutions to move printed/flexible electronics into real markets at SEMICON West’s emerging technology programs, July 9-11 in San Francisco.

· Mon, July 8: Market Symposium, SF Marriott Marquis, Keynote: “New Directions in Flexible and Printed Electronics,” Dr. Ross Bringans, VP at PARC (1:00-5:30pm)

· Tue, July 9: Materials Growth Opportunities at Both Ends of the Spectrum (1:30-3:30pm)

· Wed, July 10: FlexTech Alliance Workshop: Emerging Materials and Processes for Transparent Conductors, SF Marriott Marquis (10:00am-5:00pm)

· Thur, July 11: Integrating Conventional Silicon in Flexible Electronics at the Extreme Electronics TechXPOT, South Hall (10:30am-1:10pm)

For more information, visit www.semiconwest.org/SessionsEvents/PlasticElectronics

Paula Doe is an analyst for advanced technologies for the global trade association SEMI.

Imec has developed a Manganese (Mn)-based self-formed barrier (SFB) process that significantly improves Resistance Capacitance (RC) performance, via resistance and reliability in advanced interconnects. It provides excellent adhesion, film conformality, intrinsic barrier property and reduced line resistance. This technology paves the way towards interconnect Cu metallization into the 7nm node and beyond.

With continuous interconnect scaling, the wire resistance per unit length increases, which has a detrimental impact on the device performance (RC). Moreover, when reducing the dimensions with conventional barrier layers, an increased loss of copper (Cu) cross sectional area is observed, resulting in high resistance and decreased interconnect lifetime (electro-migration and time dependent dielectric breakdown – EM and TDDB). To overcome these interconnect metallization issues when scaling beyond the 1X technology node, imec’s R&D program on advanced interconnect technology explores new barrier and seed materials as well as novel deposition and filling techniques. The Mn-based SFB was demonstrated to be an attractive candidate for future interconnect technology.  At module level, Mn-based SFB resulted in a 40 percent increase in RC benefits at 40nm half pitch compared to conventional barrier and good lifetime performance (comparable to TaN/Ta reference).

These results were achieved in cooperation with imec’s key partners in its core CMOS programs Globalfoundries, Intel, Micron, Panasonic, Samsung, TSMC, Elpida, SK hynix, Fujitsu and Sony.

Imec exhibits at SEMICON West, July 9-11, 2013.

Altair Semiconductor, a maker of small, low-power semiconductors for wireless applications, announced today that it has completed a $25 million round of funding from existing investors.

altair logo

Altair said it plans to use the capital to further strengthen its position in the single-mode LTE market as well as to support high volume product deployments from its largest customers.

"As LTE networks reach coverage parity with 3G in key markets, carriers realize that removing 3G and adapting LTE-only is the most efficient way to significantly lower costs and increase mobile broadband attach rates," said Oded Melamed, Co-Founder and CEO of Altair. "Our month over month increase in chip shipments is a testament to the widespread move towards LTE-only across the industry and we intend to use the funds to support our customers as they ramp high volume production and deploy their products in the field."

The cost of integrating LTE-only is substantially lower than LTE+3G, minimizing the prohibitively high cost delta that exists today between basic Wi-Fi models and those with mobile broadband connectivity. The lower cost of integrating LTE-only connectivity is also a key factor in the enablement of widespread availability of cloud-connected devices in the consumer and machine to machine space, driving what is known as the "Internet of Everything."

Altair has pioneered the introduction of cutting edge, low cost single-mode LTE chipsets and, since rolling out its first chipset in 2009, has achieved many industry-firsts, including the release of the first FDD/TDD chipset in the world, the first commercial LTE chipset to exceed 100Mbps and the first chipset to be certified by Verizon Wireless’ 4G chipset certification program.

To date, Altair’s products have been integrated into more than 100 different product models, including tablets, Ultrabooks, portable hotspots, USB dongles and routers, designed by more than 30 global customers.

Gigaphoton Inc. announced today that it has completed delivery of its first ArF immersion Excimer laser supporting 450mm multi-patterning, the GT64A.

This product is the latest advancement in Gigaphoton’s ArF platform – offering even greater levels of performance and efficiency to support the growing requirements of our customers’ High Volume Manufacturing (HVM) environment. The product inherits proven "timeless" technologies from its predecessors such as the twin-chamber architecture, output control algorithm, and beam alignment technologies, and advances them further to achieve greater output power, beam performance and stability.

The GT64A, with its extremely high laser efficiency levels, can produce variable power outputs ranging from 90W to 120W for multi-patterning in 450mm wafer production applications. Power output can be automatically adjusted to optimal levels based on the scanner’s requirements and the customers’ process. With its highly stable energy, spectral bandwidth, and beam profile, combined with longer pulse durations, the product offers greatly improved overlay accuracy, critical dimension control, and minimization of line edge roughness – all of which are extremely important for multi-patterning.

"To support the semiconductor industry’s health and growth during turbulent times, it is essential to our company’s existence that we continue to focus on delivering the most effective Excimer laser technology for HVM in conjunction with world-class support and services", said Hitoshi Tomaru, president and CEO of Gigaphoton. "With this in mind, I am very pleased we were able to deliver our first product designed to support the highly anticipated 450mm wafer scanners. This achievement also signifies our contribution to the industry’s goal of maturing 450mm technology – bringing us one step closer to HVM."

The future is bright for the future semiconductor and IT industry, according to Samsung exec Yoon Woo (Y.W.) Lee. In a keynote talk at The ConFab, Mr. Lee described a future with dramatic advances in almost every field, including healthcare, nano, energy and the environment, all powered by semiconductors. The end result:  a smarter, healthier and cleaner planet. Mr. Lee, who is widely credited with the success of Samsung’s semiconductor business, is now an Executive Advisor at Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. He previously held positions at Vice Chairman and CEO, Chairman of the Board of Directors, and Chief Technology Officer at Samsung Electronics.

Mr. Lee noted two major trends in the world’s population: more people living in cities, and a greater number of elderly. “There will be 500 cities with over 1 million people by 2015,” Mr. Lee said. “Such a trend will stimulate the IT industry.” According to UN projections, more than 400 of these cities will be in developing countries. The number of "megacities" of 10 million people or more also will increase. Worldwide by 2015, 22 cities will be this big, all but five in developing countries. “Asia continues to grow into the largest economy in the world,” Lee said.

By 2020, most of the rich world will be a “super-aged” society, Lee added. A country can be described as an aging society when people aged sixty-five or above make up more than 7% of the total population (as in China). When the elderly make up more than 20% of the population, the country has a super-aging society.

“From a business perspective, bio and healthcare holds great potential,” Lee said. He also spoke on the importance of global sustainability, which he said will face strain. “There are finite reserves of oil. We must also address global warming which is behind extreme weather conditions.”

Lee said much of the remarkable progress in fields such as mobile computing and medicine has been possible due to the advancement of IT, and semiconductors in particular. “The industry strives for greater performance, lower power, and smaller form factor to enable this technology migration,” he said.

He noted that new innovations, such as nanowires and transistors with III-V channels, are being developed for 10nm chips, and said the use of new TSV technology “will raise transfer speed, function less power and reduce size.”

He also predicted that optical interconnects would soon be required. “Exascale computing will require optical interconnection to communicate between the CPU and memory chip,” he said.

He also gave a nod to MEMS devices, saying nanostructures would be used to switch mechanical energy such as background noise and wind into electric energy. “Our movement will be converted into electricity that charges most of our mobile device in the future,” he said.

As part of his presentation, Lee asked the audience to imagine what it would be like in the year 2025, when we will experience a smarter world, a healthier life and a cleaner planet. Among the advances expected:

  • A light field 3D camera that easily captures three dimensional information, color and depth data simultaneously from different viewpoints in order to generate an accurate real-life picture.
  • Tangible interaction technology that will enable the user to directly touch and freely manipulate three dimensional images in open space. One will be able to actually feel the shape, the temperature and even the texture of a real object.
  • Displays in the form of a contact lens. Augmented reality on such lenses will inform you of traffic and weather conditions.
  • With thermochromic materials, it will be easy to check what’s inside the fridge. When exposed to heat, these thermal sensitive molecules lose their alignment and by transmitting light more readily the material becomes semi-transparent.
  • A terahertz medical mirror that exploits terahertz antenna technology to enable real-time medical diagnosis, or remote treatment with nanotechnology allowing the system to be miniaturized for household or portable use.
  • Using intra-operative optical spectroscopic imaging, tissue can be analyzed without waiting for the pathology lab. By 2025, the aggregate medical data from patients worldwide will reach 6 zettabytes (1021 bytes), roughly equivalent to 6 quadrillion books. From the use huge volume of databases, we can find similar cases by analyzing the organ, physiological and molecular level data, using this “big data” to optimize medical diagnoses.
  • Clean and inexhaustible energy based on hydrogen, from sunlight and water will provide electricity and heat without releasing greenhouse gases.
  • Batteries will be entirely redesigned to utilize abundant and affordable substances such as magnesium or sodium, taking increasingly important roles in the future of large scale power storage.
  • Next generation microorganisms can biodegrade waste and transform these products into highly concentrated raw materials. This technology can also be used to inexpensively produce new plastic materials for many applications.

Lee concluded with a call for collaboration, which he said is critical in intra-regional trade and development. “Countries will need to lower risk and boost efficiency through closer cooperation along the supply chain, forging alliances, devising common standards, and undertaking joint R&D,” he said.

Gigaphoton Inc., a lithography light source manufacturer, announced today that it has successfully achieved two hour continuous operation of its laser-produced plasma (LPP) light source for EUV lithography scanners. This milestone was confirmed using a prototype LPP system which generates EUV light by irradiating Tin (Sn) Droplets with a solid-state pre-pulse laser and a CO2 main pulse laser. The Tin debris generated from the irradiation is mitigated through the combination of a high power superconducting magnet and Sn etching using H2 gas. The two hour continuous operation produced an averaged output power of 5W at two percent conversion efficiency (CE). Considering the current commercially accepted EUV output level is around 10W, the results demonstrated by Gigaphoton represents that yet another critical milestone has been reached for achieving initial production level laser performance. Gigaphoton is committed to continuing its development efforts targeting 250W output.

Gigaphoton has focused on developing unique technologies that enable high output, stable, and economical (cost effective) LPP light sources since 2002. Since that time, Gigaphoton has introduced several unique technologies including the development of droplet-on-demand systems with each Tin droplet measuring less than 20µm, the combined use of short wavelength solid-state pre-pulse and CO2 main pulse lasers, and the use of high power superconducting magnets for debris mitigation. The recent achievement in reaching production level output can be attributed to Gigaphoton’s highly advanced technical capabilities and has brought the company one step closer to the mass production of LPP light sources.

The unique LPP light source technology introduced by Gigaphoton extends the lifetime of droplet generators by utilizing ultra-small Tin droplets on-demand, reducing downtime and cost. In addition, high EUV output conversion efficiency has been achieved through the optimized combination of short wavelength solid-state pre-pulse laser and CO2 laser as the main pulse. This technology contributes to the real possibility of achieving efficient, high output EUV light sources. In order to maximize the life of the collector mirror, a superconducting magnet is used to generate a powerful magnetic field that guides the unwanted debris resulting from the thermal expansion of the Tin droplets towards the tin catcher. This results in further reduction of cost and downtime.

"I am very pleased with the progress we have made in achieving two hours of continuous operation using our unique LPP light source technologies. This further proves that our vision for high output, stable, and economical LPP light sources is real," said Hitoshi Tomaru, president and CEO of Gigaphoton. "We will continue our efforts to help to bring the industry closer to realizing EUV lithography tools for HVM."

Deca Technologies, an electronic interconnect solutions provider to the semiconductor industry, today announced it has named semiconductor industry veteran Chris Seams its new CEO. Seams brings more than 25 years expertise in managing operations, manufacturing, and sales and marketing. He has also been appointed to the company’s board of directors.

Seams joins Deca from Cypress Semiconductor Corporation, where he served as executive vice president of Sales and Marketing. He takes over for Tim Olson, who will now serve as Deca’s Chief Technology Officer and a member of its board of directors.

"Deca has two key value propositions: truly revolutionary wafer level packaging technology and industry-leading manufacturing efficiency," said T.J. Rodgers, chairman of Deca’s board of directors. "Chris brings a wealth of manufacturing experience to the position. He directly managed Cypress’ manufacturing for 14 years, building up its reputation for world-class efficiency. We are confident Chris will successfully build upon Deca’s strong inroads with top customers and lay the groundwork for the next level of the company’s growth."

"This is an exciting time to be joining Deca," said Seams. "The company is poised for rapid growth with the continued development of its offerings. I welcome the opportunity to lead Deca’s efforts to bring the potential of our wafer scale packaging capabilities to reality. In so doing, we will transform the way our customers­the leading semiconductor manufacturers around the world­approach wafer level packaging."

Seams joined Cypress in 1990, where other assignments included technical and operational management in manufacturing, development, and operations. Prior to joining Cypress, he worked in process development for Advanced Micro Devices and Philips Research Laboratories.

Seams is a senior member of IEEE, serves on the Engineering Advisory Council for Texas A&M University, and is on the board of directors of Tessera Technologies, Inc. Seams earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Texas A&M University and his master’s degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.

Toshiba Corporation today announced that it will showcase its leading-edge semiconductor solutions for mobile devices at Mobile Asia Expo 2013. Toshiba will highlight solutions in five areas: "Smart Connectivity," "Smart Imaging," "Smart Audio," "Memory" and "Discrete," under the unifying concept "A Smart Future Starts from Toshiba Semiconductor Solutions."

Mobile Asia Expo 2013 will run from June 26 to June 28 at Shanghai New International Expo Centre (SNIEC) in Shanghai, China and Toshiba will be at booth N1.F78.

Outline of Toshiba’s Exhibition at Mobile Asia Expo 2013:

1) Smart Connectivity: Solutions that use various wireless environments, including near field communication technologies such as TransferJet(TM)and NFC, plus other technologies, among them FlashAir(TM), Bluetooth(TM), Wi-Fi(TM) and wireless charging.

2) Smart Imaging: System solutions including CMOS sensors and image processing technologies that help to create a safe and smart future.

3) Smart Audio: High quality, low noise, low power audio solutions, including a noise/echo canceller that brings clear communications to a variety of ever-changing user environments, such as audio and movie playback and device control through voice recognition.

4) Memory: High capacity memory products that enable users to store all sorts of data: music, movies, smartphone apps and more. The exhibit will also feature "SeeQVault(TM)", a next-generation content protection technology, which makes it possible to store high definition (HD) contents on memory cards.

5) Discrete: Discrete products in ultra-small packages, such as CSP, which support power management and high-speed interfaces on mobile devices. Products on display will include MOSFETs, load switches and ESD protection diodes.  

While military applications continue to drive the GaN device market, commercial applications have emerged that will help fuel rapid market growth. The recently released Strategy Analytics GaAs and Compound Semiconductor Technologies Service (GaAs) Forecast and Outlook, "GaN Microelectronics Market Update: 2012-2017," concludes that the overall GaN microelectronics device market closed 2012 with revenues of slightly less than $100 million. The report also forecasts that commercial RF and power management applications will begin shipping in volume during the forecast period and this activity will push the overall market to slightly more than $334 million by 2017.

"The GaN device market has been ‘about to take off’ for a number of years," noted Eric Higham, director of the Strategy Analytics GaAs and Compound Semiconductor Technologies Service (GaAs).  "Based on our most recent research, it appears there are segments of the commercial market, like CATV and wireless infrastructure that are seeing higher volumes, but the broad commercial market is still not quite into the production phase. We do anticipate seeing more of these commercial segments contribute over the period and this will be the driver for strong revenue growth."

Asif Anwar, director in the Strategy Analytics Strategic Technologies Practice (STP) added, "Despite the interest and growth in commercial applications for GaN, military applications will continue to account for more than half of the GaN device revenue in 2017. The performance benefits of using GaN devices in military applications are clear and this will keep driving GaN usage."

The Strategy Analytics forecast segments the GaN device market by RF and power management applications, as well as substrate technology. The report also discusses technology advantages and challenges for GaN, along with trends and differentiators for commercial and military market segments. A summary of GaN research projects details contributions to the current state of the technology.