Category Archives: LEDs

August 9, 2007 – Researchers at the U. of Texas/Austin say they’ve developed a nanoparticle technique that provides more insight into the formation of “deep traps,” which are desired for memory devices built with plastic semiconductors but undesirable for things like solar cells and LEDs.

Deep traps — explained by the researchers as electrical charges essentially falling into holes when traveling through a semiconductor — are desirable for memory devices, but can decrease efficiency of the material’s electrical conductivity, precisely the wrong property to have in, say, a solar cell. Previous techniques to study deep traps typically involved completed and complex semiconductor devices, noted Rodrigo Palacios post-doctoral fellow at UT/Austin’s Center for Nano and Molecular Science and Technology, in a statement.

To better understand this phenomenon, a team of researchers developed a single-particle technique to study small portions of semiconductor material at the nanoscale. Their research, appearing in an advanced online publication of the journal Nature Materials, used single-molecule spectroelectrochemistry to study oxidation of nanoparticles of a conjugated polymer named “F8BT” (poly(9,9-dioctylfluorene-co-benzothiadiazole)).

Shining light on F8BT particles and measuring the changes in resulting fluorescence intensity showed deep traps forming as the semiconductor nanoparticles were charged and uncharged. “A reversible hole-injection charging process has been observed that occurs primarily by initial injection of shallow (untrapped) holes, but soon after the injection, a small fraction of the holes becomes deeply trapped,” according to the published paper.

“With our new technique, we got detailed information on how these deep traps are formed and how long they live,” information that can help improve devices made from conjugated polymers, and design new materials that can either avoid deep traps or form them better, Palacios noted.


IMAGE: Microscopic image of nanoparticles of the plastic semiconductor material F8BT. (Source: U. of Texas/Austin)

August 8, 2007 – Despite worries that plunging memory device ASPs would dent profits and ultimately capacity investment plans, it seems device manufacturers are still pouring investments into 300mm capacity, according to data from SEMI.

Worldwide 300mm capacity is seen doubling from the start of 2007 through 2008, with 25 new 300mm high-volume fabs coming online. By next year’s end, 73 300mm fabs will churn out over 6.2 million wafers/month, SEMI notes, suggesting a changing fab landscape where fewer but bigger fab facilities will do most of the industry’s 300mm-wafer-output heavy lifting.

Coming off record levels in 2006, fab construction spending will decline slightly this year, led by Taiwan (30% of all spending), Japan (20%), and China (>16%), with investments going mainly to 300mm memory operations (DRAM and NAND flash), according to SEMI, citing its “Fab Database” report data.

Foundries are also maintaining their ambitious capex plans this year, and are seen surging an overall 40% to $10B in 2008 led by South Korea and others in the Southeast Asia region.

Fab tooling, meanwhile, should rise 5% this year, led by Taiwan (24% of fab equipment spending) and Japan (22%), followed by Korea (17%), investments, according to SEMI. That will translate into a 17% boost to total worldwide fab capacity, more than a third of which (38%) will be for memory. SEMI sees another 5% increase in tool spending in 2008, resulting in an 11% hike in total capacity, with memory accounting for even more of the world’s capacity (40%).

August 8, 2007 – Willem Roelandts, CEO/president/chairman of fabless firm Xilinx, is retiring from his executive positions, though will remain chairman of the company he has led for more than a decade.

No reasons were given for his stepping down and no timeline was given for a replacement, though the company indicated it has formed a committee “to begin an immediate search” and that Roelandts will stay in his executive positions until a successor is found.

Since Roelandts took the company’s reins in 2006, revenues have nearly quadrupled, with global business expanding and diversifying into high-growth end markets including consumer, automotive, industrial, and defense, the company noted.

Xilinx ranked No.8 in global fabless revenues in 2Q07 with $443M, and No.7 overall in 2006 ($1.9B), according to the Fabless Semiconductor Association (FSA).

by James Montgomery, News Editor

A new round of financing for Group IV Semiconductor Inc., an Ottawa-based startup developing silicon-based solid-state light emitters, comes with a twist: support from Applied Materials’ VC arm and a promise to work together to get the company’s technology to a cost-effective production model within two years.

“We need two years more work to get to a product,” Stephen Naor, CEO, told WaferNEWS. “This funding will get us there,” including everything from R to D and manufacturing as well as day-to-day operations.

Group IV’s technology involves a solid-state light engine utilizing a single-chip, AC-powered, silicon-based process, with what it calls a “unique materials system” to provide high-efficiency, long-life lighting that it says outperforms incandescent, compact fluorescent and fluorescent lighting. “Silicon is traditionally not regarded as a good light emitter,” explained Howard Tweddle, director of business development. “We cause the silicon to create light efficiently.” Building on a silicon base instead of compound semiconductors like LEDs makes the device cost-effective, and in two years the firm wants to achieve around 40-50 lumens/watt at an “affordable” price point that makes them competitive with regular or compact fluorescent bulbs, Naor said.

The trick in getting those costs down is finding a way to reduce manufacturing costs, and that’s where Applied Materials comes in. “We talk to people interested in investing in solid-state lighting,” Naor said, and Group IV quickly realized that Applied — one of many semiconductor industry firms actively looking at other markets outside traditional chipmaking — could help not only with financial support but also helping the company’s product development to reduce cost. “From our perspective, they’re the leaders in manufacturing processes in the silicon space,” Naor said. “That’s critical to us — we need to make sure to not only design a product that works well, but that the manufacturing process is low-cost.”

The two firms have yet to hammer out details of their joint work, though Naor noted that the main goal is to leverage AMAT’s process knowledge (e.g. how to set up a factory line, what steps go in what order, etc.) and make sure certain design features are put together at the lowest cost. Group IV’s processes are pretty standard even in prototypes — “we’re not talking about new equipment here,” Naor said. Tweddle elaborated that the company lays down layers of thin films in a controlled fashion (“PECVD is what we use now”), and the geometries are noncritical, “making a die maybe several mm on a side.” –J.M.

BlueShift shifts gears


August 7, 2007

by Ed Korczynski, Senior Technical Editor

BlueShift Technologies, the startup led by former Brooks Automation execs that decloaked from stealth-mode a year ago with support from Intel’s VC arm, is now confidently touting its business model combining modular hardware and software, with a handful of shipments now to show for its efforts.

Besides claiming throughput and cost advantages for certain applications, the company’s QuickLink linear vacuum handling systems are modular for rapid delivery. For example, the vacuum robot has four major sub-assemblies and approximately 20 parts total, so it can be assembled in 30 minutes. “You don’t have to engineer to build your system, you configure,” said Marty Petraitis, VP of sales and marketing. The result is 4-week lead times.

The software architecture is likewise modular in terms of I/O, memory management, and threading, so customers can configure custom handling in <30 minutes. Modules can be configured with integrated metrology and in-situ particle-removal -- an example of the latter is "nanodroplet" kinetic cleaning technology from EHD, which was shown on the floor at this year's SEMICON West.

Smaller original equipment manufacturers (OEM) can gain much faster time-to-market for their vacuum-based thin-film PVD, CVD, and etch chambers by using BlueShift for the vacuum robotics, the company claims. “We’ve been able to get these guys into their first alpha- and beta-tools within three months,” informed Petraitis.

The first customer is an OEM, and three linear modular vacuum systems have been shipped since May of this year with a fourth to be shipped by end of August, all going into multiple DRAM fabs of one Korean IDM, Petraitis told WaferNEWS. In principle, an IDM could choose BlueShift as the backbone of a multi-station system using different process chambers from different OEMs.

August 7, 2007 — Nanometrics Inc., supplier of advanced metrology equipment to the semiconductor industry, says that Timothy J. Stultz, Ph.D. will join the company as its president and chief executive officer (CEO), succeeding Bruce C. Rhine, who will become chairman of the Board of Directors. Founder Vincent J. Coates will become vice chairman of the Board. Dr. Stultz will also be appointed to the company’s Board, effective as of his start date, which is expected to be late August 2007.

Dr. Stultz, 59, comes to Nanometrics from Imago Scientific Instruments, where he has served as president, CEO and a director since June 2003. From 1994 to 1999, Dr. Stultz served as a vice president and general manager with Veeco Instruments, during which time he led the growth of Veeco’s metrology business. Dr. Stultz also was the founder and CEO of Peak Systems, Inc., a pioneer in the rapid thermal processing segment of the semiconductor capital equipment industry.

August 6, 2007 – Nanometrics Inc. has appointed Timothy Stultz, former president/CEO of Imago Scientific Instruments, as its new CEO, taking over for Bruce Rhine who held the spot since March and move to the position of chairman, in a culmination of moves in what the company admits has been a year of “challenges.”

Stultz, who had led Imago since June 2003, also was VP and GM with Veeco Instruments from 1994-1999, and founder/CEO of Peak Systems Inc., a developer of rapid thermal processing equipment. In between those stints and Imago he served as president/CEO for ThauMDx, a provider of diagnostics systems for bio/chem applications.

In a statement, Rhine hinted at the company’s recent activities and shakeups which apparently haven’t gone as smoothly as hoped, areas Stultz will presumably address as he attempts to “implement business processes to focus on profitability, cash flow and predictability.” Nanometrics founder Vincent Coates noted that Rhine “has guided Nanometrics through some of the most challenging tasks we have faced as a company,” most notably “turning around a troubled business integration,” and Rhine himself remarked on “a number of challenges in integrating and consolidating its operations worldwide.”

It’s been a tumultuous year for Nanometrics, with a number of executive shuffles, selling off certain product assets, and moving other product lines overseas. Since last summer’s acquisition of metrology firms Soluris Inc. and Accent Optical Technologies (AOI), the firm has watched former CEO John Heaton leave the company with little explanation, followed a month later by CFO Dave McCutcheon “to pursue other interests”. More recently Nanometrics has announced it will consolidate all its overlay metrology production in Korea (and close the Soluris site in Concord, MA), where it already makes its Orion and Caliper systems. And weeks ago Nanometrics sold off the Yosemite CD-SEM technology originally developed by Soluris and AOI’s DiVA series of IV instruments primarily for use in the RF microwave industry, both for undisclosed amounts.

July 23, 2007 — FAIR LAWN, NJ — As of July 1st 2007, JDV Products Inc., whose corporate headquarters is located in Fair Lawn, NJ, is proud to announce the acquisition of Standard Pneumatic & Electronic Tool Company from the Hamilton Group located in Reno, NV.

JDV Products Inc. will take ownership of all naming rights and intellectual property and will be handling the sale of all new products, warranties, and repairs for all Standard Pneumatic items including wire wrapping tools, pneumatic screwdrivers, nut runners, torque tools, and additional accessory items.

Eva Dvorak, president of JDV, released the following statement: “The purchase of Standard Pneumatic greatly enhances JDV’s position as an industry leader in the telecom and electronic markets due to their 30 years of tool-making excellence, innovative products, and outstanding service. It will surely complement JDV’s current specialty of manufacturing wire wrapping tools, expertise in pneumatic and cutting tools, as well as adding to JDV’s high-quality manufacturing capabilities and processes.”

In 1971, JDV Products Inc. started out as a machine shop manufacturing small hand tools and components for telephone companies, which led into specialized manufacturing of wire wrapping and unwrapping tools that today are widely used within the telecommunication, electronic, and assembly industries. Due to the acquisition, JDV Products now has a combined total of over 60 years of experience in manufacturing reliable wire wrapping and unwrapping tools, making JDV Products an expert on producing these particular items.

Today, JDV Products Inc. is a woman-owned business enterprise and has become a recognized leader for manufacturing and supplying tools and accessories to the telecom and electronic industries.

In addition to Wire Wrap, JDV has been the exclusive North American Distributor for VESSEL Co., a Japanese manufacturer well known for its ergonomic and unique tool designs since 1986. With such a wide array of tools, JDV has become a one-stop shop for consumers who are looking to purchase air tools, industrial bits, hand tools, static ionizers, pneumatic cutters/crimpers, and gas-powered impact tools for the electronic, assembly, cleanroom, injection molding, construction, and railroad industries.

www.jdvproducts.com
www.standardpneumatic.com

August 3, 2007 — MEMS processing tools and equipment supplier ISE has released a five-recipe temperature timer controller (TTC) is designed for use with virtually all process etch, strip, and develop wet-process baths. Model TTC-H5 incorporates all the functions of ISE’s standard TTC-H but enables users to set up and store five separate process recipes, each of which includes a process temperature set point, high- and low-temperature alarm set points, PID parameters, and 10 years’ worth of EEPROM memory retention without power.

The H5 version is geared for R&D, university, and pilot programs where a single process bath is used for multiple processes.

Standard TTC features include an integral process timer with a count-through and pre-warn functions; a bright LED temperature and time readout; a programmable access code protection; audio and LED alarms for over temperature, low liquid level etc.; a chemical resistant membrane style faceplate; and an integral drain switch with temperature interlock.

August 1, 2007 – OSRAM Opto Semiconductors says it will stop making its “Pictiva” organic LEDs (OLEDs) for passive matrix displays by year’s end, instead focusing on its OLED activities for “market-ready” lighting solutions. The shift means closing a display manufacturing facility in Penang, Malaysia, transferring the 270 employees to a new LED chip production facility at the same site.

Global demand for the displays has lagged far behind the company’s expectations, the company said in a statement. CEO Rudiger Muller noted the company will turn its attention to its core business of lighting solutions with OLEDs (e.g. area lighting), and expects to have first “market-ready” products “in the next few years,” adding that experience from the display business “will speed up the process considerably.”