Category Archives: Packaging

SPIE leaders said they were encouraged to see proposed increases in funds for scientific research and development and a greater emphasis on STEM education in President Obama’s 2014 budget proposal released last Wednesday. At the same time, they stressed the importance of making applied research high priority, and expressed concerns about some funding levels.

The White House proposal includes an 8.4 percent increase over the 2012 enacted level for the National Science Foundation (NSF). Funding would rise for the NSF to an annual $7.6 billion. The budget for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science would increase by 5.7 percent, to $5 billion.

All told, the President’s 2014 budget proposes $143 billion for federal research and development, providing a 1 percent increase over 2012 levels for all R&D, and an increase of 9 percent for non-defense R&D.

“While the budget continues this Adminstration’s unflinching support for science and recognition of the importance of photonics to our future economy and health, I have some concerns,” said Eugene Arthurs, CEO of SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics. “In these times of constraint, It is very encouraging to see proposed increases for NSF, DOE science, and NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology), and the investment in the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) earth observations program is overdue. But it is disturbing to see both NASA and NIH R&D budgets reduced, in real terms.”

Arthurs said that the decrease for NIH is particularly troubling because health issues are changing with demographics and risks are expanding with global disease mobility. He cited recognition by NIH director Francis Collins of the potential for imaging coupled with the power and possible economies from more use of data tools as ways to address those challenges.

A strong proposal, Arthurs said, is the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) initiative announced by the President. The initiative would be launched with approximately $100 million in funding for research supported by the NIH, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and NSF.

“The decrease in real terms, compared with 2012 budgets, for defense basic and applied research and advanced technology development is worrying,” Arthurs said. “We need to better understand the deep cuts in defense development when this is where our security has come from and also where for decades there has been much spillover into our tech industry.”

To remain competitive in the global economy, the nation would benefit from even stronger support of applied research, Arthurs said.

“Canada and the European Union are among regions that have established policies focusing priority on applied research, and for good reason,” he said. “Applied research is concerned with creating real value through solving specific problems ― creating new energy sources, finding new cures for disease, and strengthening the security and stability of communication systems. Its metrics are improvements in the functioning of society as a whole and in the quality of individual human lives, not those of laboratory animals, and in patents and new inventions that spark economic growth, not just journal citations.”

That focus on applications is reflected in work being done by the National Photonics Initiative (NPI) committee to raise awareness of the positive force of photonics on the economy and encourage policy that promotes its development. Born out of the National Academies report issued last year on “Optics and Photonics, Essential Technologies for Our Nation,” the NPI is being driven by five scientific societies: SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics; OSA; LIA; IEEE Photonics Society; and APS.

The President’s budget proposal also moves 90 STEM programs across 11 different agencies under the jurisdiction of the Department of Education. This "reorganization" aims to "improve the delivery, impact, and visibility of STEM efforts," the budget document said.

IBM announced plans on Thursday to invest $1 billion in flash memory research and development and launch a series of systems that will use solid state drives.

solid state drives and flash memory IBM

At an event in New York, IBM’s Steve Mills, head of IBM’s software and systems division, said Flash is at a key tipping point and IT will see all-solid state data centers sooner than later. 

Corporate servers have struggled to keep up with the substantial growth in data use from smartphones and tablets. IBM believes there is a solution in flash memory, which is faster, more reliable, and uses less power than a traditional hard disk drive. The $1 billion investment will be put to use in research and development to design, create and integrate new flash-based products in its expanding portfolio of servers, storage systems and middleware.

"The economics and performance of flash are at a point where the technology can have a revolutionary impact on enterprises, especially for transaction-intensive applications," said Ambuj Goyal, IBM’s general manager of systems storage. "The confluence of Big Data, social, mobile and cloud technologies is creating an environment in the enterprise that demands faster, more efficient, access to business insights, and flash can provide that access quickly."

IBM also announced the availability of the FlashSystem line of all-flash storage appliances. Sprint Nextel will be installing nine of these storage systems at its data center, becoming one of the first companies to adopt IBM’s flash-based model.

As part of its commitment to flash development, IBM said it plans to open 12 Centers of Competency around the globe, which will allow customers to run proof-of-concept scenarios with real-world data to measure the projected performance gains that can be achieved with IBM flash products.

"Clients will see first-hand how IBM flash solutions can provide real-time decision support for operational information, and help improve the performance of mission-critical workloads, such as credit card processing, stock exchange transactions, manufacturing and order processing systems," IBM said in a news release.

Glass is everywhere: from MEMS, CMOS image sensors and power to memory, logic IC and microfluidics

Glass is widely used in everyday life and found in large quantities in many industries, such as flat panel display applications. Over the last few years, glass has gained considerable interest from the semiconductor industry due to its very attractive electrical, physical and chemical properties, as well as its prospects for a relevant and cost-efficient solution. The application scope of glass substrates in the semiconductor field is broad and highly diversified.

The demand for glass is growing, and glass has already been adapted for various and unique wafer-processing functionalities and platforms supporting a wide range of end-applications. For example, WLCapping is driven mainly by MEMS and CMOS image sensors. In the coming years, the availability of other glass functionalities such as 3D TGV/2.5 D interposer in conjunction with end-applications like memory and logic IC will be the driving force for growth, creating new challenges and new technical developments along the way.

Mainly driven by the wafer-level packaging industry, the glass wafer market is expected to grow from $158 million in 2012 to $1.3B by 2018, at a CAGR of ~41 percent over the next five years

“Initially driven by CMOS image sensor and MEMS applications, this growing industry will be supported by relevant end-applications such as LED, memory and logic IC, where glass is on its way to being commercialized. In terms of wafers shipped, a 4x glass wafer growth is expected in the semiconductor industry over the next five years, achieving more than 15 million 8 inch equivalent wafer starts per year by 2018,” explains Amandine Pizzagalli, market and technology analyst, Equipment & Materials Manufacturing, at Yole Développement.

Glass substrate: a key enabler of various functionalities in the semiconductor field

The glass WLCapping platform is a mature functionality already adopted with significant volume in CMOS Image Sensors, where more than 3.3 million glass caps were shipped in 2012. This market is expected to grow slowly, with a CAGR of 14 percent from 2012-2018, mainly supported by MEMS devices impacted by the request for further miniaturization. On the flip side, the glass market for WLOptics will likely decline from 2015-2018 due to the development of competing technologies.

All of this said, we expect to see strong growth in the glass market, mainly supported by two emerging WLP platforms: with a CAGR of 110 percent and 70 percent respectively, the glass-type 2.5D interposer emerging platform and the carrier wafer will be glass’s fastest-growing fields over the next five years, since glass offers the best value proposition in terms of cost, flexibility, mechanical rigidity and surface flatness.

If glass is qualified for 2.5D interposer functionality, the glass market could exceed $1B revenue by 2018. However, it’s still unclear how BEOL wafer fabs will choose glass over the current silicon technology used for logic IC applications (for the 2.5D/3D SOC and system partitioning areas), but the glass variety of 2.5D interposer substrates is expected to significantly impact future glass wafer demand, and it’s obvious that the 2.5D glass interposer will attract many newcomers.

The use of glass interposers in packaging will certainly be on the HVM roadmap within a few years.

glass wafer market

Glass substrate: The top five players hold almost 80 percent of the market

In the semiconductor industry, the glass substrate market is split amongst five main suppliers. Schott (G), Tecnisco (JP), PlanOptik (G), Bullen (US) and Corning (US) will share more than 70 percent $158M glass substrate market this year, driven mainly by demand for WLCapping.

In the midst of this growing market, semiconductor glass suppliers are trying to differentiate themselves by proposing a variety of glass substrate material properties with a good CTE, solid thermal properties and no polishing/grinding steps required, which would result in reduced costs.

Many glass substrate suppliers such as AGC, Corning and HOYA are expected to increase their business in the next few years since they are quite aggressive in 2.5D interposers and glass carrier wafers, and are expected to ramp-up into high volume production. Since the big players are already deeply entrenched in the glass market, it will be very challenging for a new entrant to break through in the foreseeable future.

PC shipments fall, post worst quarter on recordIn another sign of the worldwide shift in preferred personal devices, PC shipments posted the steepest decline ever in a single quarter, according to the International Data Corporation Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker (IDC).

Worldwide PC shipments totaled 76.3 million units in the first quarter of 2013, down -13.9 percent compared to the same quarter in 2012 and worse than the forecast decline of -7.7 percent, according to the IDC. Despite some mild improvements in the economic environment, PC shipments were down significantly across all regions compared to a year ago, marking the worst quarter reported since IDC began tracking the PC market in 1994. The results also marked the fourth consecutive quarter of year-on-year shipment declines.

The reduction in shipments isn’t entirely shocking, given the obvious cannibalization from tablets and smartphones. Smartphones shipments are expected to continue their historic rise at a rate of 24 percent CAGR from 2011 to 2016, according to Andy Oberst, Strategic Vice President of Qualcomm, and PC makers are collectively bracing for the change, as other indicators have risen throughout the past year. DRAM content growth is reported slowing, as slim notebooks have limited space for it, and tablets and smartphones have no use for it at all. Instead, its low-power variant, mobile DRAM, is seeing an increase. Additionally, the chip market outlook was downgraded in 2012, with the weak PC market mostly to blame.

"Although the reduction in shipments was not a surprise, the magnitude of the contraction is both surprising and worrisome," said David Daoud, IDC Research Director, Personal Computing. "The industry is going through a critical crossroads, and strategic choices will have to be made as to how to compete with the proliferation of alternative devices and remain relevant to the consumer. Vendors will have to revisit their organizational structures and go to market strategies, as well as their supply chain, distribution, and product portfolios in the face of shrinking demand and looming consolidation."

PC makers had pinned their hopes on the launch of Microsoft’s Windows 8 OS, which is a complete overhaul of the operating system with touch-screen capabilities. Unfortunately, these new shipment trends are indicating that the upgraded operating system has not had the desired effect on consumers.

Bob O’Donnell, IDC Program Vice President, believes it is clear that Windows 8 not only failed to provide a positive boost, but also appears to have slowed the market.

"While some consumers appreciate the new form factors and touch capabilities of Windows 8, the radical changes to the UI, removal of the familiar Start button, and the costs associated with touch have made PCs a less attractive alternative to dedicated tablets and other competitive devices,” said O’Donnell. “Microsoft will have to make some very tough decisions moving forward if it wants to help reinvigorate the PC market."

Microsoft, at least in public, does not appear to be on the verge of making tough decisions at the moment, however. A Microsoft spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal that, along with their partners, they planned “to continue to bring even more innovation to market across tablets and PCs.”

Increased spending in NAND and flash by Micron, LEDs by Philips and Osram, and continued investments by GLOBALFOUNDRIES will create new opportunities for equipment and materials suppliers in Southeast Asia. These trends will be explored at the upcoming SEMICON Singapore 2013, which will take place May 7-9 at the Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Center. With a focus on new technologies and products for advanced IC packaging, test, and fab efficiency, as well as in new application areas including LEDs and MEMS, the event capitalizes on Southeast Asia’s strong contribution to the global semiconductor market.

For the Southeast Asia region, capital equipment investment will see some pickup in the second half of 2013, followed by a strong recovery in 2014. Overall front-end fab equipment spending is expected to double next year from $810 million in 2013 to $1.62 billion in 2014. Foundry and memory are the two major sectors that invest most in the region. The GLOBALFOUNDRIES expansion plan at Fab 7 will be completed by mid-2014 while UMC continues to upgrade their Fab 12i capacity to 40nm process.

The Southeast Asia region’s capacity growth for front-end fabs shows two percent increase this year and an expectation of  higher growth, eight percent, in 2014, exceeding overall global capacity growth of five percent according to the SEMI World Fab Forecast.  The growth will mainly be driven by memory sector, specifically from NAND flash capacity as Micron gears up for further expansion at its Singapore NAND flash facility next year plus ongoing capacity conversion from DRAM to NAND flash at Fab 7 (Tech). Singapore is emerging to become the third largest NAND flash manufacturing country in the world by the end of 2014.  The conversion and the expansion projects will drive related semiconductor investment in the region in 2013 and 2014.     

For the assembly and test sector, Southeast Asia has long been the focal point of the industry with a large installed capacity from both IDMs and OSATs.  This position contributes to the region being the largest packaging materials consumption market in the world, representing a market size of $6.6 billion in 2013 and $6.8 billion in 2014. The region’s back-end equipment investment remain significant with over $1 billion spending each year throughout 2012 to 2014, accounting for about 17 percent of worldwide share according to SEMI’s WWSEMS.

Aside from manufacturing capacity, Southeast Asia region is now extending its value proposition to IC design and R&D areas with more joint development projects between multi-national corporations (MNC) and local institutes. SEMI expects to see a more robust semiconductor ecosystem arise from the region as a result of these endeavors and as companies seek ready access to customers throughout Asia-Pacific and South Asia.

Currently, Singapore has 14 wafer fabrication plants, including the world’s top three wafer foundries.  Singapore also has 20 semiconductor assembly and test operations, including three of the world’s top six outsourced assembly and test companies. There are about 40 IC design centers, which comprise nine of the world’s “top 10” fabless IC design companies.

SEMICON Singapore, in its 20th year, will feature over 40 programs and forums to highlight the industry’s major technology trends, and investment and expansion opportunities in manufacturing.  Forum themes include: Market Trends Briefing, Lithography Technology, Assembly Packaging Technology, 2.5D/3D-IC, LED Manufacturing Technology, Product Test, and MEMS.  Attendees can save up to 30 percent on programs by registering before April 15.

Other special programs include a job fair, a SEMICON University Program, and both an OEM Sourcing Program ad a Suppliers Search Program. These programs demonstrate SEMI Singapore’s commitment to connecting the global semiconductor manufacturers to Singapore-based resources and professions.

Natcore Technology Inc. announced major strides in advancing its black silicon solar cells to commercial levels of efficiency and, as part of its development process, has discovered that its technology could finally provide a low-cost selective emitter application.

Natcore’s initial black silicon solar cells, the first full-size black silicon cells produced using a low-cost, scalable manufacturing process, had efficiencies of approximately 1 percent, as compared with average efficiencies for commercial cells of approximately 17 percent.

Through refinement of its in-lab production process, and despite the lack of a key piece of equipment, Natcore’s technical staff has been able to achieve efficiencies as high as 14.7 percent.

These results have been achieved without an adequate diffusion furnace to control phosphorus diffusion into the solar cells’ silicon surfaces. Natcore has now obtained and installed a fully capable diffusion furnace, with commissioning of this crucial piece of equipment having begun the week of April 1, 2013. The company’s technical staff is confident that this diffusion furnace will allow for significant improvements in the efficiencies of its black silicon cells.

Importantly, Natcore’s staff has discovered that its proprietary liquid phase deposition (LPD) may make a low-cost selective emitter application available to the solar industry. Selective emitter technology is a long-sought enhancement to solar cells in which the regions under a cell’s front contacts are heavily doped to improve the electrical connection, while the remaining emitter surface is lightly doped to promote better efficiency.

Selective emitter applications have been proven to significantly increase solar cell efficiencies, but a low-cost, highly scalable process has remained elusive to industry. Theoretically, Natcore’s LPD process could make this achievable, and early results from experiments using the company’s newly installed diffusion furnace have been very encouraging.

Because of these positive results, Natcore is now rapidly moving to protect its selective emitter intellectual property, and is in the process of filing provisional patents.

"The solar industry has been clamoring for a selective emitter application that is cost-effective because of its demonstrated improvement to cell efficiencies," notes Natcore’s CEO, Chuck Provini. "In fact, once Dr. Daniele Margadonna joined our Science Advisory Board and learned of our plans to install a new diffusion furnace, he immediately urged us to simultaneously pursue a selective emitter approach. I’m pleased to say that we were very quickly able to demonstrate the efficacy of our technology toward this crucial and valuable application."

Natcore’s black silicon and selective emitter applications are not mutually exclusive; in fact, they are synergistic. Indeed, the envisioned production process would allow both of these important improvements to be seamlessly inserted into a solar cell manufacturing line.

"Combining Natcore’s black silicon technology with our groundbreaking selective emitter technology could raise today’s commercial solar cell efficiencies to new high levels, while still lowering the cost per watt," says Natcore’s Chief Technology Officer, Dr. Dennis Flood. "Solar cell manufacturers are aggressively seeking easy-to-implement production steps that will improve their product and profitability without having to raise their prices. Natcore’s combination of selective emitter and black silicon technologies promises to do just that."

NikkoIA announces the production of several innovative organic image sensors, confirming the potential of its technology, and validates the technology building blocks that can be immediately implemented to build its product lines.

NikkoIA’s technology consists in depositing thin films of photosensitive organic materials onto active or passive reading substrates. Current products are mainly based on TFT backplanes on glass, with a sensitivity optimized in the visible and/or 700/900nm spectrum range. The first evaluation cameras based on these sensors have already been shipped to the company customers.

CMOS VGA organic image sensor
CMOS VGA organic image sensor

NikkoIA announces the application of its organic imaging technology to two new product families: 1. X-ray sensitive image sensors, based on 256×256, 98μm-pixels organic image sensors, coupled with a CsI scintillator optimized for 70-90keV energy; 2. VGA CMOS sensors with 15μm-pixels based on organic photodiodes and CMOS pixel arrays.

“The extension of the sensitivity to the X-rays range and the application of NikkoIA’s technology to various types of substrates (TFT or CMOS) enables, in the very short term, the production of large area visible, IR or X-rays image sensors at an extremely competitive cost structure compared to existing technologies, as well as the production of CMOS image sensors sensitive in the infrared beyond the cut-off wavelength of the silicon,” said Alain Jutant, President of NikkoIA SAS.

These developments especially enable the production of image sensors immediately interesting for dental radiography and some security applications. They also enable other combinations such as the production of small size, high resolution, SWIR-sensitive CMOS image sensors at a very low cost structure, opening up new imaging solutions in the medical or automotive markets.

“These milestones reinforce our technology potential and validate our development strategy. They represent significant achievements that can now be implemented in products dedicated to our target markets,” Alain Jutant added.

NikkoIA has a unique position in the market thanks to its worldwide and exclusive license agreement with Siemens AG, granting access to a strong intellectual property protected by several key patents. The company carries on its developments by the sensitivity extension beyond 1300nm while developing at the same time the first products dedicated to its target markets.

organic image sensors
Organic image sensors sensitive to X-rays, visible and near infrared spectrum ranges.

 Electro Scientific Industries, Inc. today announced it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire the Semiconductor Systems business of GSI Group, Inc., a supplier of precision photonics, laser-based solutions and precision motion devices to the medical, industrial, scientific, and electronics markets. Based in Bedford, Massachusetts, the Semiconductor Systems business provides products in laser marking and trimming of semiconductor wafers and hybrid circuits. The parties expect the transaction to close within thirty days.

Both ESI and Semiconductor Systems have decades of laser-based wafer processing experience. The Semiconductor Systems’ wafer marking products are positioned to capitalize on the industry-wide transition to 450mm wafer diameters and are complementary to ESI’s commitment to enabling 3D semiconductor packaging.

This acquisition will add approximately $20-30 million of annual revenue to ESI. It is expected to add $0.05 to $0.10 to non-GAAP earnings per share in the first year.

“The GSI Semiconductor Systems business is an excellent operational fit with ESI. The business brings a strong technical team, broadens our revenue base with our semi customers, and strengthens our Semiconductor Division,” stated Nick Konidaris, CEO of ESI. “With complementary capabilities but almost no product overlap, this acquisition broadens our product portfolio and allows ESI to provide a more complete set of laser-based manufacturing solutions to our semiconductor customers.”

“We are pleased to complete this transaction, which ultimately enables GSI to focus our growth investments on our OEM component businesses,” said John Roush, CEO of GSI. “We believe this outcome is the best result for customers, employees and shareholders of both companies. The GSI team will work closely with our counterparts at ESI to ensure a smooth transition of ownership of the Semiconductor Systems business.”

ESI is a leading supplier of innovative, laser-based manufacturing solutions for the microtechnology industry. Their focus is on developing the precise structuring of micron to submicron features in electronic devices, semiconductors, LEDs and other high-value components. Founded in 1944, ESI is headquartered in Portland, Ore., with global operations from the Pacific Northwest to the Pacific Rim.

Alliance Memory today extended its 128M and 256M lines of high-speed CMOS synchronous DRAMs (SDRAM) with new devices in a 54-ball 8 mm by 8mm by 1.2mm TFBGA package. These 8M x 16 and 16M x 16 SDRAMs feature fast access time from clock down to 4.5 ns at a 5-ns clock and clock rates of 143MHz.

The devices released today are optimized for medical, industrial, automotive, and telecom applications requiring high memory bandwidth, and are particularly well-suited to high-performance PC applications. The SDRAMs operate from a single +3.3-V (0.3 V) power supply and are lead (Pb)- and halogen-free.

The AS4C8M16S-7BCN and AS4C16M16S-7BCN provide programmable read or write burst lengths of 1, 2, 4, 8, or full page, with a burst termination option. An auto pre-charge function provides a self-timed row pre-charge initiated at the end of the burst sequence. Easy-to-use refresh functions include auto- or self-refresh while a programmable mode register allows the system to choose the most suitable modes to maximize performance.

Alliance Memory’s legacy ICs provide reliable drop-in, pin-for-pin-compatible replacements for a number of similar solutions. The AS4C8M16S-7BCN and AS4C16M16S-7BCN are the latest in the company’s full line of high-speed SDRAMs, which includes devices with densities of 16 Mb, 64 Mb, 128 Mb, 256 Mb, and 512 Mb in the 54-pin TSOP II, 54-ball TFBGA, 86-pin TSOP II, and 90-ball BGA packages.

The global semiconductor materials market decreased 2 percent in 2012 compared to 2011 while worldwide semiconductor revenues declined 3 percent. Revenues of $47.11 mark the first decline in the semiconductor materials market in three years.

Total wafer fabrication materials and packaging materials were $23.38 billion and $23.74 billion, respectively. Comparable revenues for these segments in 2011 were $24.22 billion for wafer fabrication materials and $23.62 billion for packaging materials. 2012 is the first time packaging materials revenues exceeded wafer fabrication materials revenues. A substantial decline in silicon revenue contributed to the year-over-year decrease to the total semiconductor materials market.

For the third year in a row, Taiwan is the largest consumer of semiconductor materials with record spending of $10.32 billion due to its large foundry and advanced packaging base. Materials markets in China and South Korea also experienced increases in 2012, benefiting from strength in packaging materials. The materials market in Japan contracted 7 percent, with markets also contracting in Europe, North America, and Rest of World. (The ROW region is defined as Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, other areas of Southeast Asia and smaller global markets).

2011-2012 Semiconductor Materials Market by World Region
(Dollar in U.S. billions; Percentage Year-over-Year) 

Region 2011 2012 %Change
Taiwan 10.11 10.32 2%
Japan 9.21 8.53 -7%
Rest of World 8.21 8.09 -1%
South Korea 7.27 7.33 1%
China 4.87 5.07 4%
North America 4.86 4.74 -2%
Europe 3.31 3.03 -8%
Total 47.84 47.11 -2%

Source: SEMI April 2013

Note: Figures may not add due to rounding.

The Material Market Data Subscription (MMDS) from SEMI provides current revenue data along with seven years of historical data and a two-year forecast. A year subscription includes four quarterly updates for the material segments reports revenue for seven market regions (North America, Europe, ROW, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, and China). The report also features detailed historical data for silicon shipments and revenues for photoresist, photoresist ancillaries, process gases and leadframes.