Category Archives: LEDs

Engineering researchers at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) have found a way to mass-produce antennas so small that they approach the fundamental minimum size limit for their bandwidth. This could lead to new generations of wireless consumer electronics and mobile devices that are either smaller or can perform more functions.
The antenna is typically the largest wireless component in mobile devices. Shrinking it could leave more room for other gadgets and features, said Anthony Grbic, an associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Grbic and Stephen Forrest, a professor in the departments of Materials Science and Engineering and Physics, led the development of the hemisphere-shaped antennas, which can be manufactured with innovative imprint processing techniques that are rapid and low cost. The finished product is 1.8 times the fundamental antenna size limit established in 1948 by L.J. Chu. The dimensions of this limit vary based on an antenna’s bandwidth.

"Ever since the Chu limit was established, people have been trying to reach it. Standard printed circuit board antennas don’t come close. Some researchers have approached the limit with manually-built antennas, but those are complicated and there’s no efficient way to manufacture them," Grbic said.

"We’ve found a way to reduce the antenna’s size while maximizing its bandwidth, using a process that’s amenable to mass production."

The researchers’ prototype operates at 1.5 gigahertz, in the frequency range of WiFi devices as well as cordless and mobile phones. The antenna is 70 percent efficient and ten times smaller than conventional antennas, Grbic said. It has three times the conductivity of similar devices produced by 3-D ink-jet printing techniques, a process that serially writes the antenna geometry.

This new method is a very general process, said Carl Pfeiffer, a doctoral student in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and first author of a paper on the work being presented at the 2011 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation.

"It can be used to fabricate antennas that are of a wide variety of sizes, shapes, frequencies, and designs," Pfeiffer said. "Basically if you tell me the data rate that is required for a particular application, I can make an antenna that does this while at the same time being as small as possible."

Beyond consumer electronics, this work could be useful in wireless sensing and military communications. Wireless sensor networks could be used for environmental monitoring or surveillance.

The prototype was made in the College of Engineering’s Lurie Nanofabrication Facility. The work was funded by the Department of Education’s Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need program, the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research.

The paper is titled, "Novel Methods to Analyze and Fabricate Electrically Small Antennas."

Forrest is also the William Gould Dow Collegiate Professor of Electrical Engineering and the university’s vice president for research.

U-M has licensed certain rights involved in this research to Universal Display Corp. Forrest holds an equity interest in, serves on the scientific advisory board, and is a consultant for the company.

July 5, 2011 — WACKER began operating several silicone-polymer production lines at its Burghausen, Germany, site, expanding production of high-purity specialty silicones, encapsulation and coating compounds, as well as UV-activated silicones. Wacker added a new cleanroom facility to the site to meet the purity standards of semiconductors, LEDs, and other applications.

The new facility meets WACKER’s novel Clean Operations principles, said Dr. Bernd Pachaly, head of the Engineering Silicones business unit. These include housing production, filling and logistics separately with airlock entrances; strict regulation on filling operations; and special stipulations regarding clothing and hygiene, air, and particle filters. The facility meets the ISO standard for class 8 cleanrooms. Production steps are all monitored and documented constantly.

The new clean-operations facility produces highly specialized LUMISIL, SEMICOSIL, and WACKER SilGel silicone products for encapsulating and coating electronic components; as well as other products for medical uses. There is also a production line for UV silicones.

Wacker Chemie AG produces chemicals for various end-use sectors, such as WACKER POLYSILICON Polysilicon for the semiconductor and photovoltaics industries and Siltronic Hyperpure silicon wafers and monocrystals for semiconductor devices. For further information, visit www.wacker.com

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June 30, 2011 — Semiconductor wet chemicals saw 13% growth year-over-year in 2010, while the electronics fab gasses market grew 16%, according to 2 new reports on semiconductor manufacturing materials from Techcet Group: Wet Chemicals for Semiconductor Device Processing 2011, A Techcet Group Critical Materials Report and Gases for Semiconductor Device Processing 2011, A Techcet Group Critical Materials Report. Gases bounced back faster from the recent recession due to consumer spending habits, buying new TVs instead of taking expensive vacations.

Semiconductor wet chemicals include acids, bases and solvents, and totaled $850M in 2010. Wet chemicals will grow 6% in 2011, not hitting the high mark of $968 million (last seen in 2008) until 2013. By 2015, semiconductor wet chemicals will top the billion dollar mark, hitting about $1.08 billion, Techcet predicts.

9 major players operate in the wet wafer fab sector, each with 5%+ market share. BASF dominates Europe and China; Kanto leads Japan; KMG is expected to have 50%+ market share in the US, after acquiring General Chemical in Q1 2010. Mitsubishi’s production of hydrogen peroxide in Japan, disrupted by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, is expected to be back to full capacity this month. China’s restrictions on fluorspar and phosphor mineral exports continue to put pressure on hydrofluoric and phosphoric acid manufacturers, while rising petroleum prices are increasing the cost of solvents and polyethylene containers.

While the US consumes only 14% of electronic wet chemicals (4th largest globally behind Japan, Taiwan, Korea), it spends more than Taiwan and Korea due to price pressure in Asia and US demand for higher-performance chemicals needed for leading-edge technologies.

In addition to market analysis, technical trends, critical supply chain issues and
EH&S activities, the report includes profiles and updates for 16 major chemical suppliers to the global semiconductor industry.

Gasses used for semiconductor assembly closely followed the path of silicon wafer consumption in recent years, following the same track during the 2009 recession.

Overall gas revenues are back to 2008 levels. Electronics gases as a whole reached a $2.74 billion market in 2010, up 16% from 2009. The 2011 outlook is for 11% growth overall, with the electronic specialty gases segment leading the way with 12% growth to $1.9 billion. Techcet sees the combined electronic gases market topping $4 billion by 2015.

Bulk gases, which do not track closely with wafers due to usage volumes, saw 55% growth in 2009, led by consumers buying thin film transistor (TFT)-based displays. Vigorous growth in bulk gases is expected to continue with projections of annual market expansions of 10% for ICs and TFTs, 8.5% for LEDs and 24% for PV over the next several years.

Air Products, Taiyo Nippon Sanso and Air Liquide each claim just under a quarter of the electronics gasses market, followed by Praxair, BOC/Linde, OCI and others.

June 29, 2011 – Marketwire — The Flexible Display Center (FDC) at Arizona State University (ASU) completed installation and acceptance of a Sunic Systems GEN-II OLED SUNICEL Plus 400 vacuum evaporation and encapsulation process tool.

The FDC will manufacture full-color organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays in-house, such as its full-color, full-motion video active matrix (AM) OLED prototype displays, using the tool.

FDC partner companies will be able to use the processing tool to fab flexible OLED displays, solid-state lighting and plastic electronics at larger-scale manufacturing levels.

The FDC is a partnership between government, industry, and academia on full-color flexible display technology and manufacturing ecosystemMore information on the FDC can be found at flexdisplay.asu.edu.

by Dr. Paula Doe, SEMI Emerging & Adjacent Markets

June 29, 2011 – At $10, long life and low energy use make LED lighting costs compelling for the consumer. Despite major recent progress, however, current prices are closer to $40.

"Improvements in device efficacy have been driving big improvements in lumens per dollar, but that’s getting close to the theoretical maximum — there’s not room to double it again, but costs still need to come down much more than that," says Bryan Bolt, Cascade Microtech’s director of technology development. "So that means it’s now all about manufacturing efficiency — things like designing devices that are easy to manufacture, and improving cost-of-ownership of equipment." Better wafer-level testing is one area that can have a big impact on reducing costs by avoiding the high cost of packaging for bad die. Also key will be bringing traceability to test, for tracking defects back to root causes. But for test suppliers to deliver traceability, the sector will need to come to some degree of consistency in operating conditions and performance parameters from the wide range of different probers, spectrometers, integrating spheres, and software now put together in different combinations by individual LED makers.

Better measurement of process conditions can also improve yields. Veeco Instruments chief technologist Bill Quinn reports that test results using the near UV pyrometer developed with Sandia National Lab to monitor the temperature of the transparent and often warped sapphire wafer directly during epitaxial deposition — instead of just the temperature in the pocket in which it sits — are showing potential to improve yields even in a well-controlled manufacturing environment. With each 2

June 28, 2011 — As light-emitting diode (LED) adoption continues to grow, LED driver ICs face pressure from increased IC integration, driver-less AC-LEDs and other technologies, and falling prices. However, the driver IC unit can bring performance and power enhancements that consumers want for LED lighting adoption.

LED driver IC sales are seeing >10% compound annual growth, with a rise from nearly $2 billion in 2010 to nearly $3.5 billion in 2015 (12% CAGR), says market research group Strategies Unlimited. The driver is the entire LED circuit, including the driver IC but excluding the LEDs.  As edge-lit TV and monitor sales grow, LCD backlight LEDs will dominate. The production value of drivers for lighting will see strong 40% compound annual growth through 2015.  

The promise of an LED lighting boon is still on the horizon, and Strategies Unlimited expects replacement bulbs to eat into the incandescent bulbs

by Michael A. Fury, Techcet Group

June 27, 2011 – About a hundred people gathered at the San Jose Marriott on June 22 for the first IHS Global Design & Supply Chain Summit. The objective of the forum was to provide a strategic perspective on both managing and surviving product innovation and supply chain cycles in an electronics industry now subject to highly correlated global uncertainties. With the exception of the opening talk, the agenda comprised a series of IHS speakers showcasing their various services. (While the event was clearly a marketing vehicle for IHS and its services, it was well attended and provided a lot of information. I expect the presentations will be available shortly on their website.)

The session led off with the upbeat views of Jim Brown, president of Tech-Clarity, speaking on innovation and engineering excellence. Regulatory compliance and sustainability issues have measurably impacted businesses globally in the past two years, compounding the recession effects. The number of companies reporting no impact due to regulatory issues has dropped by 70% in the past year as the impact becomes more pervasive.

Lloyd Kaplan, COO of IHS iSuppli (iSuppli having been acquired by IHS earlier this year), discussed the wireless ecosystem for the technology, media and telecommunications sectors, which are a $1.6-$1.7 trillion market growing at 6%-7% globally. Consumer spending on wireless services averages $14/month per customer — clearly, some of us need to reassess our service plans. Legal handset shipments will be 1.428 billion units in 2011, with the gray market adding an additional 250-300 million units. The lifecycle of 3G smart phones is being compressed to 25% of the prior 2G and 2.5G due to the pending introduction of 4G units. The operating margins of AT&T Wireless have increased from 15% to 25% since AT&T introduced its iPhone service. The netbook market peaked in 2010 and is already in decline, losing share to tablet PCs like the iPad. Apple will surpass HP this year as the largest consumer of semiconductor components, including 35% of the global supply of NAND flash memory.

The risky after-lunch speaker position was bravely handled by Duncan Meldrum, director of the IHS Center for Forecasting and Modeling (and retired former chief economist for Air Products). Following a recession, consumer savings typically spike and then decline as consumer confidence and spending resume. This time, the savings spike is declining due not to confidence but to pressure on disposable income. Industrial production recovery to the pre-recession peak is expected to be four years, fully a year longer than the 2001 recession. This translates to 2011 being a soft year for computer and communications equipment sales as corporate buyers hold back until their own business improves.

Mitigating global supply chain risk — a timely topic given the March 2011 earthquake in Japan — was addressed by Glenn Bassett, IHS VP of strategic biz dev for design & supply chain. This talk focused on methodology used by IHS for BOM management and sourcing. The most surprising item was the extent to which counterfeit components are penetrating the marketplace, which prompted the issuance of a DoD procedure to bring the problem under control.

Keith Doubleday, IHS director of product development, talked about compliance with industry standards and environmental regulations, an issue made all the more complex by globalization. The use of a database of local regulations as a decision tool in both site selection and product design is a practice that is becoming an essential element of product and project approval.

Lessons from the March 2011 Japan disaster continued into the next talk by Dale Ford, IHS VP for market intelligence services. Electronics is only 4.7% of global manufacturing output, but there is no other industry except energy that has such a pervasive impact on the global economy, he noted. Fab capex investment since 2008 has been more heavily driven by keeping up with technology evolution than by addition of capacity for established nodes. The Japan earthquake has resulted in an upward adjustment in the 2011 semiconductor revenue growth forecast (in the case of IHS, up to 7.2% from 7.0%) due to pricing pressure resulting from constrained supply. Starting with 4Q10, semiconductor revenues have fallen back in line with seasonal expectations, building anticipation that the remainder of 2011 will play out normally. Since 1979, the 2008 recession has been the only time that the global economy played a primary role in driving a semiconductor cycle. As to the specific impacts of the earthquake on our industry, automotive electronics have been hit the hardest. Hitachi will be back to nominal production levels in September of this year. Fujitsu, the 2nd hardest hit, announced only this week that they are back up to nominal production levels, but they were well served by an elaborate disaster preparedness plan. The supply of hard disk drive blanks continues to be constrained. (This talk was followed by what seemed like a large exodus from the room, indicating the draw of this post-earthquake topic… in fairness to the final speaker, I’m sure there was also a compelling desire to beat the rush hour.)

Counterfeit risk mitigation was then addressed by Bob Braasch, IHS director of electronic products & services. The counterfeit problem has reached the point of affecting 40% of the Pentagon’s DoD supply chains, as reported by CNN last week. A portion of such parts are being extracted from e-waste and being relabeled and misrepresented as new or higher-grade components. Guidelines for detecting some counterfeits and avoiding them in the first place are well documented but perhaps not widely distributed enough.

Michael A. Fury, Ph.D, is senior technology analyst at Techcet Group, LLC, P.O. Box 29, Del Mar, CA 92014; e-mail [email protected].

June 27, 2011 –Until now, LED makers used retrofitted IC equipment and materials. Yole Developpement predicts that the market has enough sway now to attract dedicated toolsets for LED fab and packaging. LED growth will not be boring, however, as a few mini down-/up-turn cycles will occur through 2016.

Yole will release "LED Packaging 2011" in July, covering the market for capital equipment, packaging trends (hint: lower the cost), and LED manufacturing capacity expectations through 2016.

With packaging eating up 20-60% of the packaged LED’s total cost, it represents the biggest area for cost reduction on this emerging technology. Although LEDs can have longterm cost benefits over traditional lighting technologies, for example, their upfront costs have inhibited widespread adoption.

More than $2 billion will be spent through 2016 on new equipment for LED packaging, including laser lift-off [LLO], permanent wafer/die bonding, singulation, and testing. Yole notes that the LED packaging houses’ reliance on retrofitted IC fab equipment is now constraining the LED industry. What once was a cost-saving and field-proven option is now becoming too far removed from the specific needs of LED devices. Yole forecasts that equipment and materials suppliers will now develop dedicated LED manufacturing and packaging products. These fab investments will allow LED makers to boost yields and throughputs and obtain other benefits.

Unfortunately, an over-investment in LED packaging equipment in the last 2 years will create a mini down-cycle in 2012-2013. The rush to add capacity for the upcoming general LED lighting spike meant aggressive investment from 2009 onward. This cycle, initiated in Korea, is now essentially fueled by subsidies and other incentives in China. New entrants are investing heavily to displace existing manufacturers. This will lead to a world averaged overcapacity that will briefly exceed 50% for some tools (ie: capacity utilization rate of <50%) by mid-2012.

The resultant 12-18 month down cycle may bring up some consolidations before utilization rates return to the 80% neighborhood. By mid-2013, a new investment cycle will begin, fueled by general lighting again. This might lead to another, shorter excess investment to be absorbed in 2016.

Material and component suppliers will enjoy a smoother ride: 27.6% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 2011 and 2016.

Package substrate makers will see the fastest growth: 45% CAGR through 2016. Phosphors will experience strong price pressure but still enjoy double digit growth with a 12% CAGR. More innovation in this field could pay off in more added value. For such products however, it remains paramount that the solution offers an overall reduction in cost of ownership ($/lumen) to LED manufacturers.

"LED Packaging 2011" reviews the major challenges associated with the key LED packaging process steps. It focuses especially on the most recent technologies and market trends for high power LED and packages and arrays and provides quantification for various materials and equipment associated with each of those key steps. Trends are analyzed in detail including emerging technologies like silicon substrates, wafer level packaging (WLP), chip on board (COB), etc.

Companies mentioned in the report:

3M, A-Bright, ACC Silicon, Accretech, ADT Dicing, Advanced Photoelectronic, ALSI, AM Technology, Amceram, American bright, American Opto Plus, AOT, Apeax, APT, Asahi Glass, ASM Pacific, Assymtec, Autec, Avago, Axxon, Bayer, Bergquist, Brightled, Brightview, BYD, Cascade Microtech, Century epitech, Ceramtec, Ceratech, CETC, Chroma, Citizen, CMO, Cofan PCB, Cree, CS Bright, Curamik, Daitron, Datacon, Delphi Laser, Denka, Dian, Disco, Dominant semiconductor, Doosan, Dow Chemical, Dow Corning, Dowa, Dupont, Dynatex, Edison Opto, Enfis, Epistar, Epitex, Epoxy Technology, EPWorks, ESEC, ESI, Essemtec, Everlight, EV-Group, Evident Technologies, Excellence, Fangda, Fittech, Formosa Epitaxy, Friatec, GE, Gia Tzoong,Golden Valley, Han

June 24, 2011 — The board of directors of GLOBALFOUNDRIES, along with majority shareholder Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC), appointed new leadership to run GlobalFoundries, effective immediately. It will be the company’s first CEO change since its inception.

Ajit Manocha has been appointed interim CEO of GLOBALFOUNDRIES. Doug Grose will step down and transition to senior advisor to both companies, focusing on new technology generations. An executive search for a permanent GLOBALFOUNDRIES CEO has begun. Manocha will work closely with top management and talent to optimize performance, drive progress on the customer and technology roadmap, and continue capacity ramp ups in Dresden and New York.

Manocha was recently an ATIC advisor, and has held positions with semiconductor companies in operations, management, and manufacturing divisions. Manocha was EVP, worldwide operations at Spansion, EVP and chief manufacturing officer of NXP (formerly Philips Semiconductor), and held positions with AT&T Microelectronics and AT&T Bell Laboratories. He holds over a dozen patents in the microelectronics field.

James A. Norling will serve as executive chairman. Norling is the former Chairman of Chartered Semiconductor and also served as interim CEO of that company in 2002. He has worked at Motorola Inc. (serving 7 years as president of the Semiconductor Products Sector), and spent 30 years in the electronics sector.

Ibrahim Ajami will serve as vice chairman of the GLOBALFOUNDRIES board of directors, and retain the position of CEO of ATIC. Ajami led Mubadala Development Company’s initial investment in AMD in 2007, and helped create GlobalFoundries with ATIC. Prior to Mubadala, he held several positions in Silicon Valley, including Packard Bell/NEC.

Chia Song Hwee, COO, will remain with the company as COO until August 2011, when he will pursue business interests in Singapore.

Customers want more capacity, faster technology delivery, and greater agility, said Norling. The Board also expects stronger operational performance. Investment in GLOBALFOUNDRIES will double over the next 18 months, added Ajami.

Through end of May 2011, ATIC had invested over $6 billion to acquire the former manufacturing assets of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) in Dresden, Germany ($2.1 billion in March 2009) and the assets of Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing of Singapore ($3.1 billion in December 2009) as well as an estimated $1 billion to construct a new fab in upstate New York.

Through the end of 2012, ATIC will invest another approximately $6 billion in manufacturing capacity in Dresden, Singapore, New York, and Abu Dhabi. 

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June 21, 2011 – BUSINESS WIRE — A special meeting of Endwave Corporation (NQ:ENWV) stockholders approved Endwave’s acquisition by GigOptix Inc. (OTCBB:GGOX), semiconductor and optical component supplier. At the meeting, holders of more than 55% of outstanding Endwave shares (more than 98% of the shares at the meeting), were voted for the acquisition.

Under the terms of the acquisition, all outstanding Endwave common stock shares will be converted into shares of GigOptix common stock. Conversion ratio = approximately 0.908, or about $24 million in stock.

Dr. Avi Katz, GigOptix CEO and chairman of the Board, called the acquisition a move toward "one-stop-shop supplier" status in high-speed information streaming analog and optical components.

John Mikulsky, Endwave’s former CEO, was appointed to the GigOptix Board. GigOptix will relocate its headquarters to Endwave’s site at 130 Baytech Drive, San Jose, CA 95134. GigOptix will additionally proceed with strategic changes to its leadership structure that include a horizontal class of functional organizations led by three executives, which are supported by three general manager executives each leading specific vertical product lines. This revised structure will help streamline company-wide collaboration and expand business and product portfolios. The majority of the integration process to be completed early in Q3 2011, said Dr. Katz.

GigOptix supplies semiconductor and optical components that enable high speed information streaming and address emerging high-growth opportunities in the communications, industrial, defense and avionics industries. GigOptix is actively pursuing shares listing on the NYSE Amex.

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