Category Archives: LEDs

June 20, 2011 – BUSINESS WIRE — Tsinghua Tongfang Company, publicly listed Tsinghua Holdings Company Limited division, ordered Veeco Instruments Inc. (Nasdaq:VECO) new TurboDisc MaxBright multi-reactor metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) system for high-brightness light-emitting diodes (HB-LEDs) production.

Veeco is the primary supplier for the NanTong, China HB-LED fab, which was built in 2010. Veeco’s single-chamber K465i systems are performing well in the facility, noted Professor Liu Gang, GM of Nantong Tongfang, adding that the MaxBright multi-chamber CVD adds productivity. Veeco says that the Maxbright is 500% more productive with a 2.5x better footprint than the K465i.

The MaxBright system is available in a 2 or 4-reactor cluster architecture.

Veeco equipment is used to develop and manufacture LEDs, solar panels, hard disk drives and other devices. Learn more at www.veeco.com.

Tsinghua Tongfang Company Limited (SSE: 600100) is part of Tsinghua Holdings Company Limited and is a state-owned enterprise headquartered in Beijing, China, engaged in information technology, energy and environment industries.

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June 14, 2011 — Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at UCL and the London Centre for Nanotechnology researchers have demonstrated an electrically driven, quantum dot laser grown directly on a silicon (Si) substrate, with a 1300nm wavelength suitable for telecommunications electronics.

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Silicon photonics — optical interconnects for use with silicon electronics — will enable electronics to handle larger quanitites of data than current copper interconnects. However, silicon has proven to have a difficult atomic structure for light sources. Semiconductor lasers provide high-efficiency, direct interfaces for silicon electronics and data modulation. Direct compound semiconductor laser material growth on silicon could spur silicon photonics. However, the crystal lattice constants differ significantly between silicon and compound semiconductors, causing dislocations in the crystal structure. This leads to low efficiency and short operating lifetime for semiconductor lasers.

The UCL group developed special layers to prevent dislocations from reaching the laser layer, and a quantum dot laser gain layer. They demonstrated the technique on an electrically pumped 1,300nm wavelength laser grown by direct epitaxy on silicon.

In a recent paper in Optics Express (Vol. 19 Issue 12, pp.11381-11386 (2011)) they report an optical output power of over 15mW/facet at room temperature.

In collaboration with device fabricators at EPSRC National Centre for III-V Technologies, the team demonstrated the first quantum dot laser on a germanium (Ge) substrate by direct epitaxial growth. The laser, reported in Nature Photonics , (DOI: 10.1038/NPHOTON.2011.120, 12 June 2011) is capable of continuous operation at temperatures up to 70C and has a continuous output power of over 25mW/facet.

Quantum dot gain layers improve tolerance to residual dislocations relative to conventional quantum well structures, said Dr Huiyun Liu, epitaxy research leader and Royal Society University Research Fellow in the UCL Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering. "Our work on germanium should also permit practical lasers to be created on the Si/Ge substrates that are an important part of the roadmap for future silicon technology."

Future work will tackle combining the lasers with waveguides and drive electronics, furthering silicon photonics integration, added Professor Alwyn Seeds, Head of the Photonics Group in the UCL Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Principal Investigator in the London Centre for Nanotechnology and Director of the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Photonic Systems Development.

Learn more at http://www.ucl.ac.uk/

June 10, 2011 — The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) will grant $2.9 million to Moser Baer Technologies (MBT) for work on better organic light emitting diode (OLED) manufacturing processes.

MBT aims to reduce the cost of manufacturing high-efficiency OLED lighting panels via improved processing steps. The research will focus on process control and cost reduction.

MBT has growing operations at the University of Albany’s College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) Smart System Technology & Commercialization Center of Excellence (STC). They will use CNSE STC’s pilot OLED production line to demonstrate and vet these manufacturing improvements. MBT is investing more than $17 million at CNSE’s STC for equipment for the pilot production line and creating 50+ high-tech jobs by 2013.

DOE is ponying up $15 million to support projects targeting LEDs and OLEDs, spending it on core research and development, new product development, and domestic manufacturing capacity. DOE is behind LEDs due to the energy savings LEDs can acheive over traditional lighting technologies.

US Senator Charles E. Schumer called OLEDs a driver for "good-paying private-sector jobs," as it brings Moser Baer into the western NY region.

The UAlbany CNSE is dedicated to education, research, development, and deployment of nanoscience, nanoengineering, nanobioscience, and nanoeconomics. Integrated into CNSE in a partnership of two of New York’s Centers of Excellence following a merger in September 2010, CNSE’s STC provides certified cleanroom space for fabrication and packaging of MEMS devices, and leverages CNSE’s $7 billion Albany NanoTech Complex, which features 80,000 square feet of Class 1 capable cleanrooms equipped with leading-edge tools and state-of-the-art capabilities. For information, visit www.cnse.albany.edu.

Moser Baer Technologies Inc. (MBT) is the U.S.-based subsidiary of Moser Baer India, Ltd., headquartered in New Delhi, and one of India’s leading technology companies. For more information, visit www.MoserBaer.com

June 10, 2011 – Marketwire — Lattice Power Corporation and ShineOn Inc. jointly demonstrated a high-brightness LED (HB-LED) product based on GaN-on-Si technology.

Lattice Power built the HBLED, LP1000, chip as a thin-film vertical structure on its proprietary gallium nitride on silicon (GaN-on-Si) technology. The chip was packaged in ShineOn’s MOZ3535 ceramic packaging platform. GaN-on-Si is inherently low cost, and the ceramic packaging technology is well-established and automated, the companies said in a statement. GaN on a silicon substrate is being investigated by multiple companies and researchers to build better power semiconductors.

The finished product has a small form factor and low thermal impedance, with good optical performance. The device can take 350-1000mA current input and deliver more than 100-lumen light output at 350mA, or more than 200 lumens when over-driven.

The component suits lighting indoors and as a incandescent replacement bulb, flashlight and even direct-lit LCD backlighting device.

The HB-LED is available as samples, with volume shipments beginning in Q4 2011.

LatticePower fabricates high-power high-brightness LEDs with GaN on a Silicon substrate. Learn more at http://www.latticepower.com

ShineOn Corporation researches, develops, and produces high-brightness and ultra-high-brightness LED devices. Learn more at www.shineon.cn

Also read:
IMEC tips GaN-on-Si for power switches

Potential $45B power device market looks to new substrates

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June 10, 2011 – Marketwire — Chinese researchers used a supercomputer to run high-performance molecular simulation, looking to improve production and use of crystalline silicon (c-Si) for photovoltaics and semiconductors.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Process Engineering (CAS-IPE) researchers used Tianhe-1A, which was named the world’s fastest supercomputer in 2010 by the Top 500 organization. Tianhe-1A performed a simulation on 7,168 NVIDIA Tesla GPUs, creating 5x better performance than the previous highest-performing molecular simulation, and on a scope twice as big. The simulation modeled the behavior of 110 billion atoms at 1.87 petaflops of performance.

The simulations came "closer than ever" to modeling real crystalline silicon material behavior and true properties in various conditions, said Dr. Wenlai Huang, research associate at CAS-IPE, who notes that the simulations take less time and money than experimental exercises.

Members of the CAS-IPE research team will present the research at the GPU Tech Conference (GTC) in San Jose, CA, May 14-17, 2012, and at GTC China, December 15-16, 2011 in Beijing.

NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) expertise in programmable GPUs has led to breakthroughs in parallel processing that make supercomputing inexpensive and widely accessible. For more information, see www.nvidia.com.

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June 10, 2011 — The Large Area, Organic and Printed Electronics Convention (LOPE-C) conference and exhibition, June 28-30 in Frankfurt, Germany, will focus largely on organic photovoltaics (OPV) and organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs).

OLED lighting will receive particular attention, with a special conference session dedicated to the latest developments and market trends. Osram, Konica Minolta, Moser Baer and DuPont, among others, will present in this session.

The tradeshow as a whole expects 1000 visitors and 90 exhibitors, with 130 companies speaking in the conference.

LOPE-C’s investor forum will connect investors and start-up companies. The investor forum is organized by the OE-A in cooperation with the European Commission (DG INFSO), Germany Trade and Invest (GTAI), the European Investment Fund (EIF) and ACCESS ICT. NTERA (IR), Eight 19 (UK), Metalonix (USA), Thin Film Electronics (N), and many other international companies will deliver presentations. A plenary session, "Financing Opportunities in Organic and Printed Electronics" will open the investor forum.

LOPE-C (Large-area, Organic & Printed Electronics Convention) is an annual conference and exhibition of organic and printed electronics. Learn more at www.lope-c.com

Formed in 2004 as a Working Group within VDMA (German Engineering Federation), the OE-A (Organic and Printed Electronics Association) represents the organic and printed electronics industry. Learn more at www.oe-a.org

Also read: Printed electronics update: Roadmaps were wrong, mass adoption on track

June 9, 2011 — Yole Développement’s "Thin Wafer Manufacturing Equipment & Material Market" research study found at least 10 methods currently in use to temporarily bond wafers, protecting thinned wafers during processing.

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Figure. Temporary bonding tools used during a temporary bonding step. The figures in red show the order of the steps. Source: Yole, Thin Wafer Manufacturing Equipment & Materials Markets Report, June 2011.

Many consumer applications will require ultra-thin semiconductor wafers (down to 50µm) for advanced packages with through silicon vias (TSV), interposers, or fan-out wafer-level packaging (FOWLP); power devices like IGBTs, RF devices, and LEDs. Because ultra-thin wafers are less stable and more vulnerable to stresses than traditional ones, and die can be prone to breaking and warpage during grinding and wafer processing, new temporary bonding technologies will be required for handling support.

Wafer bonding tapes are unsuitable for ultra-thin wafers: they cause non-uniformity, can impact flexing, etc.

Yole has identified at least 6 carrier-based temporary bonding technologies — each with variations in chemistry, carriers, etc. Add to that carrier-free adn reconstituted wafer technologies, and the options are 10 or more. The market is so young, and no options are clearly winning out over others, says Dr Eric Mounier, Project Manager at Yole Développement, which means the technology developers are competing to win converts.

Companies mentionned in the report:

3M, ABB, Accretech, AIT, All Via, ALSI, AMAT, Brewer Science, Corning, Danfoss, Denka, Disco, DoubleCheck Semiconductors, Dupont, Dynatex, ERS, ESI, EVG, Fairchild, FhG IZM, Fico, Furukawa, Hamamatsu, Hitachi Chemical, Infineon, Invensense, IR, Jenoptik, Laserod, Leti, Lintec, Loadpoint, Lumileds, Mitsui Chemicals, Nitronex, Nitta, Nitto Denko, OnSemi, Osram, Panasonic, Plan Optik, ProTec, PVA Tepla, RFMD, Ricmar, Rorze, Schott, Scrypt, Sekisui, Shibuya, ShinEtsu, Skyworks, STM, Strasbaugh, Sumitomo Bakelite, Sumitomo Chemical, SUSS MicroTec, Synova, Sysmelec, Takada, TEL, TMAT, TOK, Triquint, Veeco, Yushin

The goal is temporary wafer bonding at a low cost, with high temperature resistance and no or little topographic issues. Tool makers, chemistry providers, and substrate suppliers are all working together in various ways to reach that goal. A few — Nitto Denko, TOK or TEL — are attempting to be a process and chemistry provider.

Yole expects the temporary bonding market to experience 5x market growth 2011 to 2016, raising its value to $300 million. Wafers that require temporary bonding during processing will top 35M by 2016 (estimated across all wafer sizes).

"Thin Wafer Manufacturing Equipment & Materials Market" describes markets, applications and technologies for thin wafer manufacturing: temporary bonding markets, applications, descriptions and trends for wafer thinning and dicing. This report also includes a market analysis on temporary bonding materials (wax, glue, tapes, carrier wafers) associated with the temporary bonding technology.

Dr. Eric Mounier has a PhD in microelectronics from the INPG in Grenoble. Mounier is in charge of market analysis for MEMS, equipment & materials at Yole. 

Yole Developpement is a market research and strategy consulting firm analyzing emerging applications using silicon and/or micro manufacturing. Learn more at www.yole.fr  

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by Denise Rael, FlexTech Alliance

June 8, 2011 – Emerging technology and a developing infrastructure for printed electronics is enabling circuitry that is flexible, conformable, and inexpensive to mass-produce. FlexTech Alliance has identified, funded, and directed advanced development in the flexible and printed electronics infrastructure, paving the way for the practical manufacture of a variety of low-cost applications such as electronic packaging, ID tags, and wide-area lighting panels.

Printed electronics include a set of consumer markets where printed logic and memory will be required. The size and cost of fully printed systems is set to challenge silicon-based technologies in ultra-high-volume distributed applications. To address this issue, Norwegian firm ThinFilm Electronics produces rewritable memory tags manufactured using full roll-to-roll (R2R) printing. Printed non-volatile RAM (NVRAM), when combined with printed transistor elements, serves as the basis of a new generation of cheap, disposable, and highly ubiquitous electronic devices. The company is working with major toy and game companies and has established high-volume manufacturing to deliver millions of tags per month.

In other commercial development, a new method for fabricating printed semiconductors, developed by NthDegree Technologies, allows a standard high-speed printing press to print conductive ink on to paper, plastic, or other substrate materials. Printed semiconductors made with these inks reduce the cost of producing semiconductor-based devices while creating innovative conformable products. Wide-area lighting is currently being produced with this technology by means of a light-emitting diode (LED) "ink". This LED ink is being used to print area lighting that is converted into a flat panel to replace fluorescent tube fixtures.

These latest developments in printed electronics materials, tools and processes, including LED lighting and printed memory, will be discussed and demonstrated at the Extreme Electronics TechXpot session "Printed electronics: Beyond R&D to real-deal technologies," presented by the FlexTech Alliance at SEMICON West, July 14, 2011. For more information about FlexTech Alliance visit www.flextech.org.

June 8, 20111 – The semiconductor industry’s torrid pace of capital equipment expenditures will continue in 2011, but actual construction of new fabs is slowing to "historically low" levels, according to data from SEMI.

Some companies in 2011 have already increased their guidance for capital spending (most notably Intel), which should help push total fab equipment spending to a record $44B this year, says Christian Gregor Dieseldorff, senior analyst of fab information in SEMI’s Industry Research and Statistics group. Spending in 2012 will dip slightly (-6%) to $41B, he predicts.

But in stark contrast to equipment spending, actual fab construction is slowing down significantly, and that could spell trouble for capacity plans in 2012 and beyond, he warns. 17 new volume fabs have "a high probability" (>60%) of beginning construction this year, but 13 of those are for LEDs — only four volume semiconductor fabs are slated to break ground this year. And in 2012, only another four chip fabs are on the boards. SEMI also is now calculating who is looking to build out 450mm facilities, with construction beginning last year and more in this year.

Installed capacity should rise about 9% this year and another 7% in 2012 and (excluding discretes) is leveling off to <10% annually, according to Dieseldorff. (The Japan earthquake/tsunami/nuclear/recovery odyssey won’t have a significant impact on installed capacity, minus some possible short-term effects on utilization and output, he adds.) Foundry capacity growth surpassed memory fab capacity in 2010 and should do so again in 2011 (13% vs. 8%), while LEDs continue to race ahead in with double-digit growth (40% in 2011). Memory still dominates with 38% of installed fab capacity, trailed by foundries (29%).

The fab spending and construction forecasts will be part of a joint SEMI/Gartner market symposium at SEMICON West, on Monday afternoon July 11.

 

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 Spending on equipment (new and used) by wafer size, and construction, in US $M.
*Number rounded (Source: SEMI World Fab Forecast, May 2011)

 

Sharon Stiefel, IHS iSuppli

June 2, 2011 — Excess semiconductor chip inventories are generally a cause for concern, flooding the market and swaying average selling prices (ASPs). In the wake of the March 11 Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami, however, several fabs went off-line in the Sendai area. Rolling power outages and aftershocks significantly disrupted wafer fabs that didn’t see outright earthquake damage. In Q1 2011, the excess inventory helped smooth out shortages at these fabs, IHS iSuppli (NYSE: IHS) research indicates.

Days of inventory (DOI) for non-memory chip suppliers was estimated at 80.3 days by the tail end of Q1: a 1.1% increase from 79.4 days in Q4 2010 and 9.1 days longer year-over-year. 80.3 days lead time was a two-year high (Q1 2009 DOI was 82.4). Semiconductor DOI has steadily risen since Q3 2009, paralleling a rise in inventory value since Q1 2010. Inventory value in Q1 2011 was an estimated $26.2 billion. 

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Figure. Average days of inventory for semiconductor suppliers. SOURCE: IHS iSuppli, May 2011.

The seasonally slow Q4-Q1 period is when suppliers try to build up inventories, which helped mitigate the fab stoppages, said Sharon Stiefel, analyst for semiconductor market intelligence at IHS, noting that excesses led to a "2-4 week cushion of raw materials, work-in-process (WIP) goods and finished products."

The Japan disaster occurred late in the first quarter, which also dampened the supply chain effect on Q1, Stiefel added. The second quarter may also show less severe shortages than once predicted, as damaged or powerless semiconductor manufacturing facilities returned to normal operations.

Semiconductor makers facing severely damaged fabs, like Renesas Electronics, have aggressively transferred fab work to other internal facilities or outside foundries. Production from Renesas’ damaged Naka facility was redistributed to other sites soon after the quake, and the company is targeting pre-disaster production levels in July.

Inventories will continue to climb through Q2, as companies make up for lost production and ramp for seasonally busy Q2 and Q3, IHS believes. Component shortage fears will fade out except in some specific instances, though many companies are learning from the Japan disaster and reconsidering a just-in-time inventory strategy. Just-in-time inventory management keeps costs down, but in the event of a supply chain disruption, companies could lose key orders. IHS iSuppli notes that it is too early to tell what will come of this supply chain re-evaluation.

Beyond Q2, the inventory/demand relationship might come under strain. "Once internal inventories dwindle, the pipeline may not be replenished quickly enough to meet all of the end demand, creating risks for participants in the supply chain," Stiefel warned.

Read more from IHS iSuppli in Elevated Semiconductor Inventories Cushion Japan Impact: http://www.isuppli.com/Semiconductor-Value-Chain/Pages/Elevated-Semiconductor-Inventories-Cushion-Japan-Impact.aspx?PRX or visit IHS iSuppli’s website at www.isuppli.com.

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