Category Archives: Packaging

Mouser Electronics, Inc. today announced the 40th company anniversary milestone of Glenn Smith, Mouser’s president and CEO.

In 1973, Pong was cutting edge in the world of video games, music came on eight-track tapes, TV viewing was limited to three networks and Glenn Smith was a college kid who went to work part-time in the warehouse of what was little more than a mom and pop electronics catalog start-up in San Diego. Smith was one of just 12 employees.

With strategic vision, Smith has built the company into a global corporation that today – four decades later – has 1,200 employees, 400,000 customers, more than $600 million annual revenue, and 19 offices on three continents.

Glenn Smith Mouser Electronics
Mouser Electronics’ president and CEO Glenn Smith stands in the hub of the company’s distribution warehouse.

Not long after Smith started at Mouser, his foresight and leadership qualities were evident. From the warehouse, he moved on to management positions at every department, including technical sales, marketing, purchasing, operations and information technology. In 1985, he was promoted to senior vice president and general manager with responsibility for day-to-day operations.

In 1986, Smith was instrumental in moving the operation to Mansfield, Texas, placing Mouser near the DFW International Airport for expanded distribution capabilities. Two years later, Smith was named company president. Fort Worth-based TTI, Inc. acquired Mouser in 2000 and by 2004, Smith was named president and CEO, a position he retained in 2007 after Mouser and TTI were acquired by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

With his corner office door open, Smith impresses with his dedication to the industry, the company and the employees. As a small token of his thanks, Smith treated all employees to lunch to commemorate his anniversary. In attendance was TTI Chairman Paul Andrews who presented Smith with his 40-year service certificate.

“I would like to congratulate Glenn on this important milestone and for your leadership in building this successful company,” said Andrews. “Your outstanding 40-year career with Mouser has impacted the entire electronics component industry. Thank you for your commitment and dedication.”

Glenn Smith thanked employees for their devotion to their jobs and the company.

“First and foremost, I would like to thank all of the Mouser employees who have been part of this company throughout the years,” Smith said. “Each of you plays an important role. There was a time when I could ship all the orders by myself. Then and now, it takes every employee and every job to make this company work. I would not be standing here today, celebrating 40 years, without all of you. When I look back to what we were then and what we are now, I can’t help but feel a great sense of satisfaction…and we aren’t finished yet.”

Smith’s commitment to the electronics component industry led him to receive the 2011 Distinguished Service Award from the ECIA. Smith currently serves on the Board of Directors of ECIA (Electronic Component Industry Association). In 2012, Mouser Electronics received an Employer of Excellence Award from the Texas Workforce Commission and Workforce Solutions for Tarrant County for the company’s significant economic and community impact on the North Texas area.

Mouser Electronics, a subsidiary of TTI, Inc., is part of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway family of companies. Mouser is a semiconductor and electronic component distributor, focused on the rapid introduction of new products and technologies to electronic design engineers and buyers. Mouser.com features more than 3 million products online from more than 500 manufacturers. Mouser publishes multiple catalogs per year providing designers with up-to-date data on the components now available for the next generation of electronic devices. Mouser ships globally to over 375,000 customers in 170 countries from its 492,000 sq. ft. facility south of Dallas, Texas.

Slow notebook and desktop PC sales and strong growth in mobile processors for smartphones and tablet PCs continues to lower Intel’s marketshare as well.

A slowdown in notebook and desktop personal computer purchases coupled with strong growth in smartphones and tablet PCs knocked Advanced Micro Devices down to fourth place in microprocessor sales in 2012 from second, where AMD had been perched behind Intel since the 1990s, according to a new ranking of MPU suppliers by IC Insights.  The new top 10 MPU list shows most leading suppliers of mobile processors based on ARM technology moving higher in the ranking while PC-dependent x86 MPU companies—Intel and AMD—continued to lose marketshare in 2012.

Among the MPU leaders shown in the figure below, only top-ranked Intel and fourth-place AMD sell central processors built with x86 microarchitectures for standard notebook and desktop PCs running Windows operating system software from Microsoft.  The remaining top 10 suppliers develop and sell mobile MPUs with RISC processor cores licensed from ARM in the U.K.

leading MPU suppliers

Moving ahead of AMD in the 2012 microprocessor ranking were Qualcomm, the cellphone IC sales leader that’s been primarily successful in selling cellphone application processors, and Samsung, which in addition to its own ARM-based processors is the sole foundry source for Apple’s custom-designed MPUs for its iPad tablet PCs and iPhone handsets. Sales of Qualcomm’s ARM-based Snapdragon system-on-chip (SoC) processors increased 28 percent in 2012 to $5.3 billion, increasing its MPU marketshare to 9.4 percent and moving it to second place in the ranking from third in 2011.  Samsung (with Apple’s MPU foundry business) moved to third place in the 2012 ranking from fourth in 2011 with a 78 percent increase in MPU sales.  About 83 percent of Samsung’s $4.7 billion in MPU revenues in 2012 came from Apple’s processors.

Intel remained the dominant leader in microprocessor sales, but its share slipped to 65.3 percent of the MPU market compared to 67.3 percent in 2011 and 68.6 percent in 2010, based on IC Insights’ analysis of suppliers.  AMD’s share of microprocessor sales fell to 6.4 percent in 2012 compared to 8.2 percent in 2011 and 9.6 percent in 2010, according to the new MPU ranking, which was recently released to subscribers of IC Insights’ McClean Report 2013.  Slowing sales of legacy PCs caused AMD to announce in late 2012 that it would be the first MPU supplier sell microprocessors built with x86 and ARM architectures—initially for server computers—starting in 2014.

The $56.5 billion microprocessor market continued to be the largest single semiconductor product category in 2012, accounting for 22 percent of total IC sales.  However, microprocessor sales growth slowed to 2 percent in 2012 following a strong 19 percent increase in 2011.  IC Insights is forecasting a 10 percent increase in total MPU sales in 2013 to $62.0 billion. During 2012, strong increases in mobile application processors used in cellphones and tablet PCs offset a 6 percent decline in MPU sales for desktop and notebook PCs, servers, and embedded-processor applications.  Between 2012 and 2017, total MPU sales are projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12 percent, reaching $97.7 billion in the final year of the forecast.

With smartphone and tablet PC system shipments increasing by strong annual rates, IC Insights believes the inclusion of mobile application processors into the MPU category has become necessary to fully comprehend market and technology trends impacting this important IC product segment.  SoC application processors in cellphones accounted for 22 percent of worldwide MPU sales in 2012 compared to 14 percent in 2010, while tablet microprocessors represented 4 percent of the total in 2012 versus a little under 1 percent in 2010, which was the year Apple launched its first iPad products and dramatically changed portable computing in the consumer PC market.

Toshiba Corporation today announced that the company has developed second generation 19nm process technology that it will apply to mass production of 2-bit-per-cell 64 gigabit NAND memory chips later this month.

Toshiba has used the new generation technology to develop the world’s smallest 2-bit –per-cell 64 gigabit NAND memory chips, with an area of only 94 square millimeters. Using a unique high speed writing method, the next generation chips can achieve a write speed of up to 25 megabytes a second – the world’s fastest class in 2-bit-per-cell chips.

Toshiba is also developing 3-bit-per-cell chips by using this process technology and aims to start mass production in the second quarter of this fiscal year. The company will initially introduce 3-bit, multi-level-cell products for smartphones and tablets by developing a controller compatible with eMMC, and will subsequently extend application to notebook PCs by developing a controller compliant with solid state drives (SSD).

NAND flash memory is an essential component of a diverse line-up of consumer products, including memory cards, smartphones, tablets and notebook PCs, and is increasingly deployed in enterprise products, including SSD for data centers.

Mentor Graphics Corp. and Tezzaron Semiconductor Corp. today announced they are collaborating to integrate the Mentor Calibre 3DSTACK product into Tezzaron’s 3D-IC offerings. The new integration will focus on fast, automated verification of die-to-die interactions in 2.5D and 3D stacked die configurations by verifying individual dies in the usual manner, while verifying die-to-die interfaces in a separate procedure with specialized automation features. The two companies plan to extend their collaboration to include development of solutions for the silicon photonics market.

 “Tezzaron specializes in 3D wafer stacking and TSV processes. We work with dozens of customers to create custom 3D-ICs for prototyping and commercialization, including recent 3D-ICs in 40nm and 65nm, the first at these small nodes,” said Robert Patti, CTO and VP of design engineering at Tezzaron Semiconductor. “By collaborating with Mentor Graphics, we can offer our mutual customers a comprehensive design verification solution. It creates the highest value for them with the least disruption to their existing flows. Using Calibre, our customers get the best possible turnaround time. Even better, there is no need to generate a ‘Frankenstein’ GDS file combining all the individual dies in a 3D-IC assembly, and no need to deal with a ‘monster’ rule file combining different die processes. Calibre makes the process very fast and relatively easy.”

Tezzaron works with industry, academia, and government to create advanced 3D-ICs. Their offerings include wafer stacking and die stacking technology with TSVs, Bi-STAR built in self-test and repair circuitry for continuous error detection and recovery, and extremely fast memory devices for both standalone and stacked applications.

Complementing Tezzaron’s 3D-IC design capabilities, the Calibre 3DSTACK signoff solution provides DRC, LVS, and parasitic extraction (PEX) capabilities. It verifies physical offset, rotation, and scaling at the die interfaces. It also enables connectivity tracing and extraction of interface parasitic elements needed for multi-die performance simulation. The Calibre 3DSTACK product is a fully compatible extension to the standard Calibre signoff platform, so it can be easily added to existing verification flows to support flexible stacking configurations of multiple dies, including dies based on different technologies or process nodes.

“Over the last two years, the relationship between Mentor Graphics and Tezzaron has really blossomed as we work together to bring volume 3D-IC applications to the IC industry mainstream,” said Michael Buehler-Garcia, senior director of marketing for Calibre Design Solutions at Mentor Graphics.

Tezzaron Semiconductor Corporation is a designer and producer of 3D-ICs built with through-silicon vias (TSVs). Tezzaron also builds patented ultra-high-speed memory products. Tezzaron’s products and technologies have applications in defense, super-computing, high speed telecommunications, and anywhere that speed, reliability, and power optimization are needed. Corporate headquarters are located at 1415 Bond Street, Suite 111, Naperville, Illinois.

Can PC makers produce ultrathin, touch-screen PCs that are appealing to consumers—and that are priced at just $200?

The astounding answer seems to be yes—if microprocessor Intel Corp. is willing to cut the price of its semiconductor components to PC makers, according to a PC Dynamics Market Brief from information and analytics provider IHS.

Speaking at the IHS/SID 2013 Business Conference, held May 20 in Vancouver, Canada, Zane Ball, Intel vice president and general manager, Global Ecosystem Development, is presenting his company’s plan to empower the PC industry to produce low-cost notebooks incorporating touch technology. Craig Stice, senior principal analyst for compute platforms at IHS, believes Intel has a shot at success.

“A price point that low seems far-fetched considering the mobile PC prices of today, with Ultrabooks and other ultrathins going as high as $1,000 or more,” Stice said. “However, the small laptops known as netbooks saw their prices reach down into the $200 range at the height of their popularity a few years ago, and a cost analysis of netbooks shows how such a low level of pricing can be used to support a no-frills type of ultrathin PC.”

The cost estimate for a standard netbook, based on the IHS Compute Systems Cost Analyzer that calculates the major components of a netbook on a third-quarter 2013 timeline, comes out to $207.82, as shown in the table below.

standard netbook cost estimate

“Hitting this kind of price point is not impossible for the PC industry, already a cutthroat market accustomed to razor-thin margins,” Stice said. “Such a possibility was stated by outgoing Intel CEO Paul Otellini, who during Intel’s first-quarter earnings call in April made the bold prediction that touch-enabled, ultrathin Intel-based notebooks using non-core processors could be available by the end of this year.”

Intel holds the cards

The key factor that could make this happen is Intel, which can control up to 33 percent of the total bill-of-materials cost for the PC through the central processing unit (CPU) and motherboard. If Intel decides to provide a price break for just these components, PC original equipment manufacturers could see their margins improve, allowing them to drive down prices for the retail market. With PC competition so fierce, it takes only one PC manufacturer to find a price point that sells—and others are bound to follow suit shortly afterward.

Intel could also be instrumental in introducing an even more powerful ultrathin-type mobile PC than netbooks, which have now been overtaken by media tablets and are on their way out of the market altogether.

Intel’s next-generation Atom processor, called Bay Trail, has the potential to deliver a performance boost that will clearly separate the traditional netbooks of old from the new generation of mobile and ultrathin PCs.

Avoiding netbooks’ fate

While netbooks had limited computing power and were regarded more as devices for content consumption, the new and much more economical ultathins, in contrast, would possess considerably more power and be categorized as content-creation devices. Such a perceptible enhancement could increase their chances of survival in the marketplace, unlike the short-lived netbooks.

Much depends on Bay Trail, which Intel says will move from two processing cores to four to provide beefed-up performance. Along with Bay Trail, Intel’s own high-definition embedded graphics and an extended battery life for improved power will yield a processor bearing similar performance to the chipmaker’s renowned family of Core processors. All these traits could be part of the new, less expensive ultrathin being projected.

What PC manufacturers also must do

What these developments portend for the PC industry is significant. If the PC industry is able to get down to the $200 price point, and Intel’s Bay Trail processor delivers what it claims to do, then the PC market will have its much-needed shot in the arm. Such a turn of events could then spark the mobile PC market, which has been losing steam to flashier rivals like smartphones and tablets.

Besides Intel’s willingness to cut its own price point to make chips available at a lower cost to customers, a second important factor involves the PC makers themselves. For their part, PC manufacturers also need to find a way of getting to the magic price point of $200—and possibly sacrifice even more margin in exchange for the greater amount of volume that they seek.

All told, the scenario above—merely hypothetical at this point—is not entirely out of reach. A strong second half is already being forecast for PCs this year: add in the potential for lower-priced next-generation ultrathin systems, and the PC industry may finally have a valid competitor to lower-priced media tablets.

Vishay Intertechnology, Inc. today announced that the company has enhanced its ACAS 0606 AT and ACAS 0612 AT precision thin film chip resistor arrays with tighter absolute tolerance, relative tolerance, and relative TCR for the new S, T, and U accuracy grades. Offering two and four integrated resistors on one substrate, respectively, the ACAS 0606 AT and ACAS 0612 AT lower costs when compared to using multiple high-precision discrete resistors, while at the same time their stable divider ratio improves the stability of the application.

For increased accuracy, the Vishay Beyschlag ACAS 0606 AT and ACAS 0612 AT combine their high-temperature operation to +155 °C with tight absolute tolerance of 0.1 percent, relative tolerance of 0.05 percent, absolute TCR down to 10 ppm/K, and relative TCR down to 5 ppm/K. The devices offer resistance from 47 ohms to 150 kilohms, with equal or different resistor values, and maximum resistance ratio of 1:20.

In addition to excellent high-temperature performance, the ACAS 0606 AT and ACAS 0612 AT are extremely robust against harsh environmental conditions and provide superior moisture resistivity of l delta R/Rl less than 0.5 % at +85 °C and 85 percent relative humidity for 1000 hours. The devices offer a 1000 V ESD capability, a 75 V operating voltage, and maximum rated dissipation to 0.125W per element. For automotive applications, the resistors are qualified according to AEC-Q200.

Vishay said the new resistor arrays are suited for precision analog circuits, voltage dividers, and feedback circuit applications that require extraordinarily stable fixed resistor ratios. Typical applications will include automotive electronics, including engine control units, gear box controls, safety, power supply electronics, body electronics, braking systems, climate control, steering technology, and lighting; and industrial electronics, such as energy management, measurement control, sensors, scales, and precision amplifiers.

Vishay Intertechnology, Inc., a Fortune 1,000 Company listed on the NYSE (VSH), is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of discrete semiconductors (diodes, MOSFETs, and infrared optoelectronics) and passive electronic components (resistors, inductors, and capacitors).

last power logoLAST POWER, the European Union-sponsored program aimed at developing a cost-effective and reliable technology for power electronics, today announced its three-year program achievements.

Launched in April 2010 by the European Nanoelectronics Initiative Advisory Council (ENIAC) Joint Undertaking (JU), a public-private partnership in nanoelectronics, LAST POWER links private companies, universities and public research centers working in the field of wide bandgap semiconductors (SiC and GaN). The consortium members are STMicroelectronics (Italy), project coordinator, LPE/ETC (Italy), Institute for Microelectronics and Microsystems of the National Research Council -IMM-CNR (Italy), Foundation for Research & Technology-Hellas – FORTH (Greece), NOVASiC (France), Consorzio Catania Ricerche – CCR (Italy), Institute of High Pressure Physics – Unipress (Poland), Università della Calabria (Italy), SiCrystal (Germany), SEPS Technologies (Sweden), SenSiC (Sweden), Acreo (Sweden), Aristotle University of Thessaloniki – AUTH (Greece).

The main achievements in SiC-related efforts were based on the demonstration by SiCrystal of large-area 4H-SiC substrates, 150mm in diameter, with a cut-off angle of 2°-off axis. The material quality, both in crystal structure and surface roughness, is comparable with the standard 100mm 4°-off material available at the beginning of the project. At LPE/ETC, these substrates have been used for epitaxial growth of moderately doped epi-layers suitable for the fabrication of 600-1200V JBS (Junction Barrier Schottky) diodes and MOSFETs, owing to the development of a novel CVD reactor for the growth on large-area (150mm) 4H-SiC.

The quality of the epitaxial layer enabled the fabrication of JBS (Junction Barrier Schottky) diodes in the industrial production line at STMicroelectronics. The characterization of the first lots showed electrical performance comparable with the state-of-the-art 4°-off material. In this context, the fundamental technological step was the chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process — StepSiC  reclamation and planarization — implemented at NOVASiC, which is a key issue both for the preparation of the substrates before epitaxial growth and for the sub-nanometric control of the surface roughness of the device active layers. Within the project, the same company also developed epitaxial growth capability for both MOSFET and JFET devices.

Additional research activities in SiO2/SiC interfaces have been carried out in collaboration with ST and IMM-CNR to improve the channel mobility in 4H-SiC MOSFETs.

Finally, novel technological modules for high-temperature 4H-SiC JFETs and MOSFETs have been developed in collaboration between Acreo and FORTH, with the support of CCR for the study of molding compounds and "lead-free" die-attach materials for reliable packaging solutions.

The LAST POWER project also researched the use of GaN-based devices in power-electronics applications. In particular, ST successfully obtained the development of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs epitaxial structures grown on 150mm Si substrates, reaching a target of 3mm thickness and 200V breakdown. LAST POWER worked with IMM-CNR, Unipress, and ST to develop the technological steps for normally-off AlGaN/GaN HEMTs with a "gold-free" approach. The process modules are fully compatible with the device-fabrication flow-chart set in the ST production line and are being integrated for HEMTs fabrication. The fruitful interaction between the project partners working on material growth and device technology has enabled important steps towards monolithic integration of GaN-based and SiC-based devices, as both technologies have been successfully proven on 2°-off axis 4H-SiC substrates.

Yole Développement announced its 2.5D, 3DIC and TSV Interconnect Patent Investigation report. Yole Développement’s investigation aims at providing statistical analysis of existing IP to give a landscape overview together with an in-depth investigation on five player portfolios selected by the analyst.

2.5D, 3DIC and TSV patent landscape

A very young patent landscape dominated by 10 companies

For this analysis of 3D packaging technology patents, more than 1800 patent families were screened. Fifty-two percent of the families have been classified as relevant and further studied.

“The in-depth analysis quickly revealed that the overall patent landscape was pretty young with 82 percent of patents filed since 2006,” explained Lionel Cadix, technology and market analyst of the Advanced Packaging division at Yole Développement. “Actually about 260 players are involved in 3DIC technology while the top 10 assignees represents 48 percent of patents filed in the 3DIC domain.”

In this report, Yole Développement selected five companies from these 10 most active players to focus on and lead an accurate analysis of their patent portfolios.

Yole Développement also found main types of business models among the top 10 assignees involved in this mutating middle end area:

  • Foundries and IDM: IBM, Samsung, Intel
  • OSATs: STATS ChipPAC, Amkor
  • Memory IDM/Foundries: Micron, SK Hynix, Elpida
  • Research centers: ITRI

It is also interesting to notice that the USA is the early player increasingly involved in 3DIC since 1969. China and Korea are new players since 2005.

This complete description of the patent landscape is included in the first part of the report and provides all the background materials for the 3DIC patent landscape analysis. Yole Développement’s report provides a complete analysis of the patent landscape including geographical origins of the patents, companies or R&D organizations that have been granted the patents, historical data on when the companies that have applied for patents in the last 20 years, inventors of the patents, expiration status, R&D collaborations.

Understanding the patent portfolio of the top 10 3DIC assignees

The report also provides a deep dive into each of the patent portfolios of assignees selected by Yole Développement, including Intel, Samsung, Micron, IBM and TSMC.

For each of these companies, Yole’s report provides an in-depth analysis of its patent portfolio, highlighting the following points:

  • Company patent portfolio evolution
  • Countries of deposition and origin of the patents
  • Top inventors
  • Technical segmentation of each patent portfolio
  • Patent portfolio analysis for each manufacturing process steps and architecture
  • Main technical innovations

This analysis of each company provides an in-depth view of the strengths and weaknesses of the patent portfolio of each company and the developments that are now implemented by these companies.

Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are increasingly turning to electronics manufacturing service (EMS) providers to better handle the escalating volumes of electronic content in the medical industry. With opportunities for high-level product assembly and complete build projects expected to increase, the potential for EMS in the medical industry will progress gradually over the next few years

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, “EMS Opportunities in the Medical Industry,” research finds that the market earned revenue of more than $16.43 billion in 2012 and estimates this to reach $34.38 billion in 2019.

 “The challenge in maintaining certified, state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities and complex supply chain operations is that it strains OEMs’ profit margins, compelling them to adopt EMS,” said Frost & Sullivan Electronics and Manufacturing Equipment Research Analyst Lavanya Rammohan. “EMS providers, with their exposure to various verticals, are the ideal solution to manage the electronics boom in healthcare brought about by the use of wireless communications, robotics and software.”

Rising demand for engineering support as well as improving EMS competencies in product introduction, manufacture design and value-add services will boost EMS growth in the medical industry.

However, despite EMS providers’ growing expertise, the risk of liabilities prevents OEMs from outsourcing several services. Stringent regulations place medical OEMs under huge scrutiny, thereby limiting their outsourcing to tactical operations, such as printed circuit board assembly and sub-system assembly.

Strict regulations also lengthen the outsourcing cycle, as OEMs are cautious in decision-making and favor EMS vendors with proven expertise. Manufacturers’ preference to retain intellectual property and strategic customer touch points reduces revenue possibilities for EMS dealers.

“EMS suppliers need to focus on developing strong relationships with original equipment manufacturers to build trust and capability, as OEM-EMS partnerships require long-term commitment in order for outsourcing to increase,” concluded Rammohan. “Service providers must be aware of industry trends, including financial models, long sales realization cycles, manufacturing challenges, supply chain complexities, certifications and audits, to offer all-round services.”

The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), representing U.S. leadership in semiconductor manufacturing and design, announced that worldwide sales of semiconductors reached $23.48 billion for the month of March 2013, an increase of 1.1 percent from the previous month when sales were $23.23 billion. Global sales for March 2013 were 0.9 percent higher than the March 2012 total of $23.28 billion, and total sales through the first quarter of 2013 were 0.9 percent higher than sales from the first quarter of 2012. All monthly sales numbers represent a three-month moving average.  

“Through the first quarter of 2013, the global semiconductor industry has seen modest but consistent growth compared to last year,” said Brian Toohey, president and CEO, Semiconductor Industry Association. “Sales have increased across most end product categories, with memory showing the strongest growth. With recent indications that companies could be set to replenish inventories, we are hopeful that growth will continue in the months ahead. Regionally, the Americas slipped slightly in March after a strong start to the year, but Asia Pacific and Europe have seen impressive growth recently.” 

Year-over-year sales increased in Asia Pacific (6.9 percent) and Europe (0.7 percent), but decreased slightly in the Americas (-1.5 percent) and sharply in Japan (-18 percent), reflecting in part the devaluation of the Japanese yen. Sales in Europe increased by 5.7 percent compared to the previous month, the region’s largest sequential monthly increase since March 2010.  Sales also increased from the previous month in Asia Pacific (1.7 percent), but fell in Japan (-1.6 percent) and the Americas (-1.9 percent).