Category Archives: SST

Small, fast and not so demanding

August 14, 2013

Memory devices like disk drives, flash drives and RAM play an important role in our lives. They are an essential component of our computers, phones, electronic appliances and cars. Yet current memory devices have significant drawbacks: dynamic RAM memory has to be refreshed periodically, static RAM data is lost when the power is off, flash memory lacks speed, and all existing memory technologies are challenged when it comes to miniaturization.

Increasingly, memory devices are a bottleneck limiting performance. In order to achieve a substantial improvement in computation speed, scientists are racing to develop smaller and denser memory devices that operate with high speed and low power consumption.

Prof. Yossi Paltiel and research student Oren Ben-Dor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Harvey M. Krueger Family Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, together with researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science, have developed a simple magnetization progress that, by eliminating the need for permanent magnets in memory devices, opens the door to many technological applications.

Published in Nature Communications, the research paper, A chiral-based magnetic memory device without a permanent magnet, was written by Prof. Yossi Paltiel, Oren Ben Dor and Shira Yochelis at the Department of Applied Physics, Harvey M. Krueger Family Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem; and Shinto P. Mathew and Ron Naaman at the Department of Chemical Physics, Weizmann Institute of Science.

The research deals with the flow properties of electron charge carriers in memory devices. According to quantum mechanics, in addition to their electrical charge, electrons also have a degree of internal freedom called spin, which gives them their magnetic properties. The new technique, called magnetless spin memory (MSM), drives a current through chiral material (a kind of abundantly available organic molecule) and selectively transfers electrons to magnetize nano magnetic layers or nano particles. With this technique, the researchers showed it is possible to create a magnetic-based memory device that does not require a permanent magnet, and which could allow for the miniaturization of memory bits down to a single nanoparticle.

The potential benefits of magnetless spin memory are many. The technology has the potential to overcome the limitations of other magnetic-based memory technologies, and could make it possible to create inexpensive, high-density universal memory-on-chip devices that require much less power than existing technologies. Compatible with integrated circuit manufacturing techniques, it could allow for inexpensive, high-density universal memory-on-chip production.

According to the Hebrew University’s Prof. Paltiel, “Now that proof-of-concept devices have been designed and tested, magnetless spin memory has the potential to become the basis of a whole new generation of faster, smaller and less expensive memory technologies.”

The technology transfer companies of the Hebrew University (Yissum) and the Weizmann Institute of Science (Yeda) are working to promote the realization of this technology, by licensing its use and raising funds for further development and commercialization. With many possible applications, it has already attracted the attention of start-up funds.

The Hebrew University’s Center of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology helped with device fabrication and advice. Prof. Paltiel acknowledges the Yessumit internal grant from the Hebrew University, and Ron Naaman and Shinto P. Mathew acknowledge the support of the Minerva Foundation.

Established in 2001, the Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology deals with diverse fields of nanoscience such as new materials, molecular and nano-electronics, nano-electrooptics, nanomedicine and nano-biology. The research will enable technological development of new transistors, memory elements, sensors and biosensors, renewable energy sources, directed drug delivery schemes, and more. Operating within the Faculty of Science, the Center aims to create an enabling environment for interdisciplinary research, education, technological development and commercialization of scientific achievements in the field of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, in order to participate as a leading force in the world nanotechnology revolution and contribute to Israeli academia, industry and society. The Center has almost 70 member groups and is expected to expand further through recruitment of promising young faculty members.

Global semiconductor foundry market to grow at a CAGR of 19.7% from 2012-2016

August 14, 2013

Research and Markets today announced the addition of the "Global Semiconductor Foundry Market 2012-2016" report to their offering.

One of the key factors contributing to this market growth is the customer’s need to restock inventory. The global semiconductor foundry market has also been witnessing an increased adoption of expansion strategies. However, the fluctuating revenue of the semiconductor market could pose a challenge to the growth of this market.

The key vendors dominating this space include GlobalFoundries Inc., Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd., and United Microelectronics Corp.

The other vendors mentioned in Research and Market’s report are Apple Inc., Dongbu HiTek Co. Ltd., IBM Microelectronics, Magnachip Semiconductor Corp., Powerchip Technology Corp., Samsung Semiconductor Inc., Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (TowerJazz), Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp., and WIN Semiconductors Corp (GaAs).

According to Research and Markets, the global semiconductor foundry market is witnessing an increasing consolidation and strategic alliances between market players, which are expected to continue even in the future. Both existing vendors and new entrants prefer the acquisitive route to either enter the market or broaden their portfolio of offerings. For instance, Hua Hong NEC Electronics and Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. completed their merger in 2011. In addition, IBM, Global Foundries, and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. have formed an alliance in the market. Since the market is highly fragmented and competitive, players are adopting strategies such as alliances, agreements, and mergers to sustain the competition.

One of the main drivers is the restocking of inventory by customers. As the demand for semiconductor devices is increasing, customers are replenishing the stock to keep pace with the current as well as near-future market conditions. For the past few years, this has been one of the major contributing factors to the growth of the market.

Second quarter graphics chip shipments: AMD tops the chart, Intel is up, Nvidia is down

August 14, 2013

Jon Peddie Research (JPR) announced estimated graphics chip shipments and suppliers’ market share for 2013 2Q.

While the news was disappointing year-to-year, the news was encouraging quarter-to-quarter.

AMD overall unit shipments increased 10.9 percent, quarter-to-quarter, Intel increased 6.2 percent, and Nvidia decreased by 8 percent.

The overall PC market declined 2.5 percent quarter-to-quarter while the graphics market increased 4.6 percent. Overall this net 7.1 percent increase reflects an interest on the part of consumers for double-attach—the adding of a discrete GPU to a system with integrated processor graphics, and to a lesser extent dual AIBs in performance desktop machines.

On a year-to-year basis we found that total graphics shipments during Q2’13 dropped 6.8 percent while PC shipments which declined by at a faster rate of 11.2 percent overall. GPUs are traditionally a leading indicator of the market, since a GPU goes into every system before it is shipped and most of the PC vendors are guiding down to flat for Q3’13.

The popularity of tablets and the persistent economic slowness are the most often mentioned reasons for the decline in the PC market and the CAGR for PC graphics from 2012 to 2016 is -1.4 percent; JPR expects the total shipments of graphics chips in 2016 to be 319 million units.

JPR’s findings include discrete and integrated graphics (CPU and chipset) for Desktops, Notebooks (and Netbooks), and PC-based commercial (i.e., POS) and industrial/scientific and embedded. This report does not include handhelds (i.e., mobile phones), x86 Servers or ARM-based Tablets (i.e. iPad and Android-based Tablets), Smartbooks, or ARM-based Servers. It does include x86-based tablets.

The quarter in review:

AMD’s shipments of desktop heterogeneous GPU/CPUs, i.e., APUs declined 9.6 percent from Q1 and increased an astounding 47.1 percent in notebooks. The company’s overall PC graphics shipments increased 10.9 percent.
Intel’s desktop processor-graphics EPG shipments decreased from last quarter by 1.4 percent, and Notebooks increased by 12.13 percent. The company’s overall PC graphics shipments increased 6.2 percent.
Nvidia’s desktop discrete shipments were down 8.9 percent from last quarter; and, the company’s mobile discrete shipments decreased 7.1 percent. The company’s overall PC graphics shipments declined 8.0 percent.
Year-to-year this quarter AMD overall PC shipments declined 15.8 percent, Intel dropped 12.9 percent, Nvidia declined 5.1 percent, and VIA fell 12.4 percent from last year.
Total discrete GPUs (desktop and notebook) were down 5.5 percent from the last quarter and were down 5.2 percent from last year for the same quarter due to the same problems plaguing the overall PC industry. Overall the trend for discrete GPUs is up with a CAGR to 2016 of -2.2 percent.
Ninety nine percent of Intel’s non-server processors have graphics, and over 67 percent of AMD’s non-server processors contain integrated graphics; AMD still ships IGPs.

Year-to-year for the quarter the graphics market decreased. Shipments were down 16.1 million units from this quarter last year.

Samsung introduces worldâs first 3D V-NAND-based SSD

August 14, 2013

Samsung today introduced the first solid state drive (SSD) based on its recently released 3D V-NAND technology. Samsung announced its new SSD, designed for use in enterprise servers and data centers, during a keynote at the Flash Memory Summit 2013.

Samsung V-NAND SSD

“By applying our 3D V-NAND – which has overcome the formidable hurdle of scaling beyond the 10-nanometer (nm) class, Samsung is providing its global customers with high density and exceptional reliability, as well as an over 20 percent performance increase and an over 40 percent improvement in power consumption,” said E.S. Jung, executive vice president, semiconductor R&D center at Samsung Electronics and a keynote speaker at the Flash Memory Summit. “As we pioneer a new era of memory technology, we will continue to introduce differentiated green memory products and solutions for the server, mobile and PC markets to help reduce energy waste and to create greater shared value in the enterprise and for consumers.”

South Koreaâs photoresist market set to bottom out at $220 million in 2013

August 14, 2013

Photoresists are primarily used in the electronics industry and in high demand from the semiconductor and liquid crystal display (LCD) sectors where photolithography is a main manufacturing process. Photolithography is a very important process during chip fabrication and makes up a large portion of production costs. Although it varies depending on semiconductor types, the photolithography process generally accounts for 30 percent of memory chip manufacturing costs and 60 percent of total production time.

Reflecting the trend toward microfabrication in the semiconductor industry, photoresists have emerged as core materials. Organic photosensitive material producers, which have been participating in the industry from the beginning, are leading the development of photoresists. Those companies include JSR Corp., Tokyo Ohka Kogyo Co. Ltd. (TOK), Dow Chemical Co. (formerly Rohm and Haas Co.), Shin-Etsu Chemical Co. Ltd., Sumitomo Chemical, and AZ Electronic Materials (AZEM). All major photoresist suppliers run their businesses in South Korea where the world’s top LCD and semiconductor manufacturers are based. In particular, most of major photoresist companies make every effort to supply their products to Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., as it could serve as a guarantee of product quality. Samsung has the most advanced semiconductor fabrication processes in the sector.

The consumption of photoresists by the South Korean semiconductor industry was estimated at $240 million in 2012, down from 2011 in value due to a drop in shipment volume, and it will decline further to $220 million in 2013. With the prospective adoption of high-end extreme ultraviolet (EUV) photoresist in 2014, the photoresist market is expected to post an annual growth of more than five percent in value going forward, despite a minimal volume growth.

The number of wafer inputs into semiconductor fab lines has barely changed since the industry is increasingly adopting microfabrication process. Despite anemic growth in photoresist demand compared with the chip output increase, the rising portion of high-end ArF resists will push the photoresist market higher in terms of value.

photoresist demand

Si2 appoints John Ellis as VP of Engineering

August 13, 2013

The Silicon Integration Initiative (Si2), a global semiconductor standards consortium, announced today that it has appointed John Ellis as vice president of Engineering and officer of Si2. He will be responsible for managing the technical strategy and direction for all semiconductor / EDA standardization projects created and managed at Si2. He will also directly manage Si2’s engineering staff to provide program management, training and documentation, software development, and infrastructure support.

John replaces Dr. Sumit DasGupta, who held the position since 2002 and retired on June 30th.

John has more than 25 years of experience leading diverse research and development programs spanning multiple industries. For over a decade, he served the semiconductor industry at SEMI, a global trade association for the semiconductor industry, where as VP of Technology he was responsible for semiconductor, photovoltaic, and flat-panel display manufacturing standards as well as coordination of industry initiatives such as e-Diagnostics and 450mm wafer size economic analyses. Prior to joining SEMI, John worked at Sandia National Labs on R&D projects for the Department of Energy, Department of Defense, National Institute of Standards and Technology, and other federal agencies. His broad experience includes nuclear weapons testing, missile guidance, air-borne and space-borne imaging systems, Internet and IC security, MEMS, and semiconductor manufacturing.

“John’s domain knowledge in semiconductor technology and software development, coupled with his extensive experience managing a large international staff to lead the development of important industry standards at SEMI, make him an excellent fit to lead engineering for Si2,” said Steve Schulz, President and CEO. “John received strong support from industry leaders on Si2’s Board of Directors, following many hours of rigorous interviewing and assessment. I look forward to John’s unique contributions in the months and years ahead that will further Si2’s mission and future success.”

Sono-Tek expands in-house laboratory testing facilities

August 13, 2013

Sono-Tek Corporation, a global ultrasonic spray technology company, announces a just completed expansion of their laboratory testing facility, located at their corporate headquarters in Milton, NY. The recent acquisition of new equipment, including an SEM microscope for on-site analysis of coatings performed in the lab, led to some reorganization and physical expansion of the facility itself, in order to provide a better workflow for customers and visitors, in addition to some increased elbow room.

sono-tek expands testing facility

The new equipment now installed, in particular the SEM microscope, enables Sono-Tek to gauge process variables by providing immediate on-site analysis of coatings requiring very precise deposition characteristics, such as photoresist onto MEMs, fuel cell coatings, medical implantable device coatings and other nanomaterial coatings. In addition, a new corona surface treatment has been installed, to better prepare substrates for improved surface tension characteristics prior to coating. Acquisition of at least one more surface treatment tool is planned as well.

Located in the heart of the Hudson Valley, Sono-Tek is pleased to help bring these high tech applications for precision semiconductor and advanced energy close to home.

"Access to equipment such as this new SEM is beneficial not only to Sono-Tek customers, but to the surrounding community of colleges and other research institutions in New York for advancing research and manufacturing of future innovations in our area," said Steve Harshbarger, Sono-Tek’s President. "We envision our lab continuing to grow in the coming years, as new applications for ultrasonic spray coating continue to develop."

Primoceler develops worldâs first sapphire-to-sapphire welding machine

August 13, 2013

Primoceler, a microfabrication company specializing in laser micro welding and scribing of transparent materials, has developed the first sapphire-to-sapphire welding process.

“At Primoceler, we constantly expand technological boundaries,” said Ville Hevonkorpi, Primoceler’s managing director. “We were the first to weld glass to glass, glass to silicon and now sapphire to sapphire. Sapphire-to-sapphire welding is even more difficult than glass-to-glass welding, and no one has been able to do it before.”

Sapphire’s cost-effectiveness, durability, high melting point, chemical inertness, transparency and capacity for optical transmission in visible, ultra-violet and near-infrared light make it a highly desirable material in several industries. For example, because of the material’s resistance to heat and chemical erosion, sapphire substrates are currently used in the manufacturing of many LEDs for mobile handsets, televisions, automobile headlights and general lighting. “Now that we have developed this totally new technology, we’re anticipating that it will open new possibilities for industries, just as our glass-glass welding technology did,” said Hevonkorpi.

Hevonkorpi was referring to one of Primoceler’s previous innovations, a laser micro welding methodology that produced an extremely small heat-affected zone (HAZ), expanding the potential for packaging fragile components, including under or inside glass, which had been a challenge for manufacturers. “We recently learned the benefits of glass to welding glass in medical devices,” he continued. “As glass is transparent to infrared light and radio frequency waves, it makes new kind of implants possible. Also glass is highly bio-compatible and so better for patients.”

Sapphire has also yielded a great deal of benefits for medical devices. As an optical material, its durability is second only to diamond, which, in addition to the fact that it is chemically inert and non-thrombogenic (will not cause blood clots), makes it an excellent material for surgical tools, implants, braces as well as endoscopes and laser windows.

“Sapphire is widely used in sensors, different types of lenses and other devices, so there is a range of potential for this new technology,” said Hevonkorpi. “Companies that use sapphire for their products will come to us with ideas of how sapphire-to-sapphire welding technology can benefit them. We always welcome customers to challenge us and test their products.”

The machine that Primoceler developed for the new process is somewhat similar to the laser-based welding machine previously created to produce a small HAZ. The new machine contains a fiber laser unit specially optimized for the welding process by Corelase and also features software and components developed in-house.

Rolith successfully demonstrates ITO-alternative technology based on rolling mask lithography

August 13, 2013

Rolith, Inc., a developer of advanced nanostructured devices, yesterday announced the successful demonstration of Transparent Metal Grid Electrode technology based on its disruptive nanolithography method (Rolling Mask Lithography – RMLTM).

We see an explosive growth of touch screen displays in consumer electronics market. ITO (Indium Titanium Oxide) material is a standard solution for transparent electrodes so far. Apart from a considerable cost and limited supply of this material, it has additional problems: high reflectance of this materials reduces contrast ratio, optical properties degrade rapidly below 50 Ω/☐, which limits the size of display produced using ITO without degradation of performance.

The only viable alternative to ITO (and the only solution for large touchscreen displays) is a metal wire grid. The requirement for a metal wire grid to be invisible to human eye means that width of the wire should be < 2 micron. Moreover, narrow wires are helpful to fight Moiré effects, which caused by superposition of the metal wire grid and the pixel structure of a display.

Rolith, Inc. has used its proprietary nanolithography technology called Rolling Mask Lithography (RMLTM) for fabrication of transparent metal wire grid electrodes on large areas of substrate materials. RML is based on near-field continuous optical lithography, which is implemented using cylindrical phase masks.

Transparent metal electrodes on glass substrates were fabricated in the form of submicron width nanowires, lithographically placed in a regular 2-dimentional grid pattern with a period of tens of microns, and thickness of a few hundreds of nanometers. Such metal structure is evaluated as completely invisible to the human eye, highly transparent (>94 percent transmission) with a very low haze (~two percent), and low resistivity (<14 Ohm/☐). This set of parameters places Rolith technology above all major competition for ITO-alternative technologies.

Gen-2 RML tool capable of patterning substrates up to 1 m long and built earlier this year has been used to demonstrate this technology.

“Rolith has launched Transparent Metal Grid Electrodes application development just few months ago, and we are very excited with the extraordinary results already achieved. We believe RMLTM technology will enable high quality cost effective touch screen sensors for mobile devices and large format displays, monitors and TVs. Currently Rolith is negotiating partnerships with a few touch screen display manufacturers and hope to move fast with commercialization of our technology next year. Our roadmap also calls for expansion into OLED lighting and flexible substrates in 2014-2015,” said Dr Boris Kobrin, founder and CEO, Rolith.

Tablet and cellphone processors offset PC MPU weakness

August 13, 2013

Worldwide microprocessor sales are on pace to reach a record-high $61.0 billion in 2013 mostly due to strong demand for tablet computers and cellphones that connect to the Internet, but the ongoing slump in standard personal computers-including notebook PCs-is once again dragging down overall MPU growth this year. Total microprocessor sales are now expected to increase eight percent in 2013 after rising just two percent in 2012, according to a new forecast in IC Insights’ Mid-Year Update of The McClean Report 2013.

IC Insights’ mid-year forecast trims the marketshare of x86 microprocessors primarily sold by Intel and rival Advanced Micro Devices for PCs and servers to 56 percent of total MPU sales in 2013 compared to the previous estimate of 58 percent. Figure 1 shows embedded microprocessors are now expected to account for 11 percent of MPU sales in 2013 (versus nine percent previously), while tablet processors are projected to be six percent of the total (compared to five percent in the original January forecast). The new forecast keeps cellphone application processors at 26 percent of total MPU sales in 2013 but lowers the marketshare of non-x86 central processing units (CPUs) in computers outside of tablets to one percent (from two percent previously).

The proliferation of multimedia cellphones and the surge in popularity of touch-screen tablet computers are fueling strong double-digit growth rates of MPU sales and unit shipments in these two systems categories. The vast majority of these systems are built with mobile processors based on 32-bit CPU architectures licensed from ARM in the U.K. Many MPU suppliers serve smartphone and tablet applications with the same processor platform design. The falloff in standard PC shipments is a major problem for Intel and AMD since they have supplied more than 95 percent of the x86-based MPUs used in personal computers since the 1980s.

The new mid-year forecast raises tablet processor sales in 2013 to nearly $3.5 billion, which is a 54 percent increase from $2.3 billion in 2012. Cellphone application processor sales are now expected to grow 30 percent in 2013 to $16.1 billion from $12.4 billion in 2012. At the start of this year, sales of mobile processors in tablet computers and cellphones were forecast to grow 50 percent and 28 percent, respectively. Stronger unit shipment growth in mobile processors has lifted the revenue forecast in these MPU market segments.

mpu sales

Figure 1

Meanwhile, the larger market segment of MPUs used in PCs, servers, and embedded-microprocessor applications continues to contract, albeit at a slower rate than in 2012. The mid-year forecast shows sales of MPUs in PCs, servers, large computers, and embedded applications slipping by one percent to $41.4 billion in 2013 from $41.9 billion in 2012, when revenues dropped six percent. This large MPU market segment was previously forecast to rebound with sales increasing five percent, but the anticipated bounce back has been blocked by weak shipments of standard PCs, which IC Insights believes will fall by five percent in 2013 to 327 million systems.

While the mid-year outlook lowers total MPU revenues in 2013, it slightly increases the growth in microprocessor unit shipments to 10 percent this year from a projection of nine percent in the January forecast. Total MPU shipments are now expected to reach 2.15 billion devices in 2013, with tablet processors growing 62 percent to 190 million units and cellphone application processors increasing 11 percent to 1.50 billion this year. IC Insights’ microprocessor category does not include cellular radio-frequency baseband processors or stand-alone graphics processing units (GPUs), which are counted in the special-purpose logic/MPR category of the IC market.