Category Archives: Packaging

Intel announced Monday a major move to expand its foundry business. Altera Corporation and Intel Corporation have entered into an agreement for the future manufacture of Altera FPGAs on Intel’s 14nm tri-gate transistor technology. These next-generation products, which target ultra high-performance systems for military, wireline communications, cloud networking, and compute and storage applications, will enable breakthrough levels of performance and power efficiencies not otherwise possible.

"Altera’s FPGAs using Intel 14nm technology will enable customers to design with the most advanced, highest-performing FPGAs in the industry," said John Daane, president, CEO and chairman of Altera. "In addition, Altera gains a tremendous competitive advantage at the high end in that we are the only major FPGA company with access to this technology."

Intel promised Altera access to the 14nm process for 12 years to satisfy long-term availability requirements of defense and other customers, Daane said. The agreement will allow Altera the use of other nodes, but Altea will focus on high-end parts at 14nm initially. Intel has yet to disclose the details about its 14nm tri-gate technology.

Daane told Reuters he believes Intel’s manufacturing technology will give Altera’s chips a several-year advantage against Xilinx, Altera’s main competitor.

While Intel has built manufactured chips in collaboration with other companies in the past, this particular announcement with Altera is a significant step in the unfolding timeline of its 14nm technology.

"They’ve crossed over the line from it just being a questionable experiment to – we’re going to do this for tier-1 customers," said RBC analyst Doug Freedman to Reuters.

Daane said he believes Intel is two to four years ahead of other foundries with its 14nm FinFET process, which Altera plans to use to on its highest-end FPGAs, giving them advantages in power, performance and density.

"We are essentially getting access like an extra division of Intel. As soon as they’re making the technology available to their various groups to do design work, we’re getting the same," Daane said.

Altera’s next-generation products will now include 14nm, in addition to previously announced 20nm technologies, extending the company’s tailored product portfolio that meets myriad customer needs for performance, bandwidth and power efficiency across diverse end applications.

"It’s a step in terms of building into a business level we wish to achieve," Sunit Rikhi, Vice President and General Manager of Intel custom foundry, told Reuters on Monday. "There’s no doubt in my mind the foundry will be a significant player in the future."

Altera still plans to use TSMC as its primary foundry, which will continue to supply its current processes and fulfill Altera’s product portfolio.

New automotive technologies that go beyond touchscreens, satellite radio, and voice-activated GPS commands are being tested and improved, and will soon begin to appear in many more new car models, resulting in solid growth for the automotive IC market through 2016, according to the 2013 edition of IC Insights’ IC Market Drivers—A Study of Emerging and Major End-Use Applications Fueling Demand for Integrated Circuits.

Military-like night-vision systems that quickly identify pedestrians, animals or road hazards in low-light conditions; airbags stowed in shoulder harnesses of seatbelts; and the ability for drivers to customize the look of their dashboard instrument panels are examples of systems that are available in a select number of cars now, but will soon become available in many more vehicles. Along with backup cameras, electronic stability control, active-cruise control, and several other systems covered in the IC Market Drivers report, emerging electronic systems are forecast to help the automotive IC market grow 52% from $18.2 billion in 2012 to $27.7 billion in 2016. This growth translates to an average annual increase of 11% for the automotive IC market.

Analog ICs and MCUs are forecast to benefit most from the increasing electronic content within automobiles.  According to the IC Market Drivers report, analog ICs accounted for 41% of the 2012 automotive IC market (Figure 2).  Analog ICs are used in “traditional” applications such as to gauge input functions like speed measurement and for output functions like opening and closing power windows and adjusting power seats.  One of the newer applications for analog ICs in cars is LED lighting.  Depending on the application, LED drivers and various converters are used to supply constant current despite variations in battery voltage.

Microcontrollers accounted for 36% of the automotive IC market in 2012.  16-bit applications in chassis and safety applications (lane-detection warning, hands-free telematics, etc.) are increasing, but enhanced 8-bit and low-end 32-bit MCUs are competing for many of the same sockets as 16-bit controllers.  Applications like anti-skid braking and airbag systems are solidly 16-bit now, but are transitioning to larger bit widths.  Electronic parking assist could be a new sweet spot for 16-bit MCUs. These systems typically use two to four (but as many as eight) ultrasonic sensors to detect objects near the vehicle.  Processing the additional information drives the requirements into the domain of 16-bit devices.

The 32-bit chips are incorporated into powertrains to handle functions such as electronic throttle control, cylinder deactivation, variable valve timing, and fuel injection, and in next-generation chassis and safety systems including active high-end electronic stability control, complex smart airbag systems, and more.  In addition, 32-bit MCUs are used to process sophisticated, real-time sensor functions within safety and crash-avoidance systems.

Gesture recognition is a growing trend that is being incorporated both inside and outside the car. 32-bit MCUs are at the core of many emerging gesture-recognition systems and in many ways, they are an extension of gesture-recognition technology found onboard in game controllers.

Though the automotive market represents only about 7% of total IC sales, increasing electronic system content in motor vehicles is forecast to result in this segment being one of the fasting-growing end-use categories through 2016.

 

 

LFoundry, an analog mixed signal and specialized technologies foundry, today announced that it has entered into an agreement with Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) to acquire Micron Technology Italia, Srl. and all of its semiconductor fabrication facility assets in Avezzano, Italy. Micron’s Fab in Italy is expected to become a strategic part of LFoundry’s global growth.

After this acquisition, LFoundry will employ approximately 2,400 people worldwide and will have a wafer start capacity of 65,000 200mm wafers per month, which will allow LFoundry to expand its market presence as the leading analog mixed signal foundry in Europe.

“Operating out of two most advanced European 200mm Fabs, supporting 90nm, a volume copper path and state of the art technology perfectly positions LFoundry to provide flexible and high quality technology and manufacturing services,” said Günther Ernst, CEO of LFoundry. “Combined with our greatly expanded R&D and engineering teams, our customers will have access to a strong partner for specialized technologies and collaborative development, ensuring smooth industrialization from lab to fab, either based on LFoundry’s CMOS or on proprietary technologies.”

Ernst added that the combination of the manufacturing capacity and the technology capabilities of Micron’s Fab in Avezzano with LFoundry’s existing Fab in Rousset, France, is consistent with their development vision for the company.

“We have successfully attained a strategic position in several value added markets in Europe, such as digital security, imaging and power management,” said Ernst. “With the new Fab in Avezzano, we will surpass an important threshold, enabling us to accelerate further growth of our business outside of Europe.”

Ernst believes that this move will allow the company to begin to gain a foothold in U.S. and APAC markets.

Yole Développement’s research has credited STMicroelectronics for capitalizing on the booming demand for MEMS in mobile devices by shipping 58% more MEMS units in 2012, to become the first company to reach $1 billion in MEMS sales. And that was in a year when the average prices of accelerometers and gyroscopes that are its core MEMS products dropped by 20%-30%.

“The company was there and ready with its 8-inch fab when the volume demand started, as well as a large portfolio of products and low prices,” said Laurent Robin, Activity Leader, Inertial MEMS Devices & Technologies at Yole Développement. “They could use a feed-the-fab-strategy to build volumes, and discounts for buyers of multiple devices to meet the price demands of the cell phone makers.”

“Even more than Yole Développement’s recognition of ST’s achieving the revenue milestone, we appreciate the endorsement from our customers, across a broad range of applications and segments, of our strategy of being a reliable one-stop MEMS partner,” said Benedetto Vigna, Executive Vice President and General Manager of STMicroelectronics Analog, MEMS and Sensors Group. “We remain fully committed to continuing to meet our customers’ expectations and to expanding the role of sensors in ways that augment all of our lives.”

The morphing of the MEMS industry into a high volume consumer smart phone business has played to the advantage of big IDMs with their ability to ramp volumes to price aggressively, and to offer customers a wide variety of products from a single source to simplify the supply chain. The inertial sensor business also drove healthy 14% MEMS growth at Robert Bosch, boosting that big IDM’s sales close to those of long time industry leader Texas Instruments in a further reshuffling of the top companies lineup. Yole Développement will release its complete listing of the Top 30 MEMS companies early in April.

ST is now churning out some 4 million MEMS devices a day, offering not only inertial sensors but also now consumer pressure sensors, microphones, and e-compasses. The fully-integrated supplier has been able to optimize all steps in the process to wring out costs, from its mature standard manufacturing process for all inertial sensors, to its inhouse ASIC design, to its long expertise in common LGA packaging across all products, to its high volume parallel testing developed on commercial equipment with SPEA, to its sales force that can sell and deal on the whole smart phone sensor line. The company has also pushed the manufacturing technology to bring down die size, replacing glass frit with narrower gold bonding frames and replacing big bond pads with smaller TSVs made by etching air gaps around polysilicon vias. And it turned to outside partnerships (microphone technology from Omron) and purchases (magnetometers from Honeywell) to get new products to market faster.

GaN Systems Inc., a developer of gallium nitride power switching semiconductors, announced today the opening of a new office facility located in Reading, England. This expansion of the Company’s European operations will aid the Company in continuing to impact key industries, like manufacturing and automotive, where the need for clean technology power conversion applications continue to grow. GaN Systems’ head office is currently located in Ottawa, Canada.

"GaN Systems new office facility comes in response to a strong pull from our growing base of European customer partners," said Geoff Haynes, the Company’s UK based VP Business Development. "The Company has a strong focus on collaborating across the manufacturing value chains for global power electronics markets to accelerate the adoption, and drive the cost of manufacture of GaN components. That can only be achieved through a strong local technical presence."

In addition to sales offices, the new location will include technical support and seminar facilities.

GaN Systems expands
GaN Systems is a developer of gallium nitride power switching semiconductors

 

Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM) and TSMC (TWSE: 2330, NYSE: TSM) today announced that Qualcomm’s wholly owned subsidiary, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., will be the first company to produce working silicon on TSMC’s 28nm HPM (High Performance Mobile) process technology. TSMC’s 28HPM is the first production process that can support 2GHz + application processors with low power consumption. The process is ideally suited for tablet and high-end smartphone applications.

The first 28HPM production device is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor with quad core Krait 400 CPUs with speeds of up to 2.3 GHz per core, customized for low power consumption.  It also is the first SoC to integrate a 4G LTE Advanced modem with Carrier Aggregation and Category 4 data speeds up to 150 Mbps. Compared to previous generations, Qualcomm Technologies has significantly improved overall power efficiency via reduced leakage and active power while substantially increasing speed in its Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processors.

With its large speed and power range, TSMC’s 28HPM process is optimized for mobile computing applications. It also supports wide market applications from application processors, integrated application processors with multimode LTE-Advanced Qualcomm Gobi modems to cloud-computing networking applications. The process could support CPU speeds of 2-2.3GHz with less than 750mW of power consumption per core. Compared to TSMC’s 40LP, 28HPM devices are 2.5-2.7X faster, and cut active power in half.

"By utilizing TSMC’s 28HPM process, Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processors will deliver industry leading performance and outstanding battery life," said Jim Lederer, executive vice president and general manager, Qualcomm Technologies. "In working closely with TSMC, we maximize the impact this process will have on bringing Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processors to tablet and high-end smartphone solutions, while continuing to find ways to align our business and strategic objectives that help to define the value of our partnership."

"Qualcomm Technologies uses its world-class architecture and deep familiarity with 28nm design to achieve breakthrough 2.3GHz performance and power characteristics high-end smartphone users want today," said Rick Cassidy, President, TSMC North America. "We are happy to see Qualcomm Technologies’ achievement in producing the first 28HPM device and congratulate them on their ongoing mobile device leadership."

The German trade fair organizer Messe Düsseldorf and ESNA (European Association for Specialist Printing Manufacturers of Screen, Digital and Flexo Technology) have formed a strategic cooperation in order to address the fast-growing printed electronics market and its huge potential in a wide range of sectors.  By organizing the new special show PEPSO – Printed Electronics Products and Solutions at six of Messe Düsseldorf’s relevant trade fairs, Messe Düsseldorf and ESNA will offer an information platform for the latest trends and developments relating to printed electronics in the glass and solar industry, the medical and retail technology sector as well as in the plastics and printing industry.

“Printed electronics is becoming attractive in many user sectors for which Messe Düsseldorf stages the respective flagship fairs,” said Hans Werner Reinhard, deputy managing director of Messe Düsseldorf, “By establishing PEPSO, we are giving this topic a platform of its own and are integrating it in the trade fairs for the retail, glass processing, packaging, printing and medical sector. We are in the ideal position to offer manufacturers of printed electronics a marketing showcase for specific target group.,”

“The printing industry is ready to vertically integrate functionality and electronic applications. This cooperation is an ideal opportunity for the printing sector to gain access to the many industries and markets covered by Messe Düsseldorf’s range of exhibitions,” added Peter Buttiens, CEO of ESMA.

The two partners will combine their public relations and online activities and promote each other’s events by presenting themselves at the appropriate partner events. Messe Düsseldorf will be represented with an information stand at the upcoming AFIP – Advanced Functional & Industrial Printing – in Düsseldorf on March 6 and 7, 2013 while ESMA will take part in the relevant Düsseldorf trade fairs.

advanced electronics packagingEngineered Material Systems, a global supplier of electronic materials for circuit assembly applications, debuts its DB-1568-1 low-temperature cure die attach adhesive for attaching semiconductor die in temperature-sensitive devices. Applications include smart cards, camera modules, flex circuits and more.

The DB-1568-1 is more than 90 percent cured after 30 minutes at 80°C, but has a dispensing work life greater than 48 hours (measured as a 25 percent increase in viscosity), while maintaining optimized rheology for stencil printing and excellent damp heat resistance and conductivity stability. DB-1568-1 features extreme flexibility that is ideal for flexible applications with high peel strength to withstand the stresses induced in flexible electronics and display applications. Also, this material can be fast cured at elevated temperatures (1 minute @ 180°C).

DB-1568-1 is the latest addition to Engineered Material Systems’ extensive line of electronic materials for semiconductor, circuit assembly, photovoltaic, printer head, camera module, disk drive and photonic applications.

KLA-Tencor Corporation (NASDAQ: KLAC) announced its SpectraShape 9000 optical critical dimension (CD) metrology system and BDR300 backside defect inspection and review module at the SPIE Advanced Lithography conference this week. The SpectraShape 9000 is a new metrology system capable of monitoring the shapes of three-dimensional transistors, memory cells and other key structures that enable high-performance memory and microprocessor chips. The BDR300 inspects and reviews the back side of the wafer for defects that can cause patterning problems on the wafer’s front side. The two new systems are designed to enable volume production of integrated circuits at sub-20nm design rules.

“In this era of highly extended 193nm immersion lithography, our customers are innovating on several fronts to deal with process tolerances in lithography and etch that have become remarkably tight,” said Brian Trafas, Ph.D., chief marketing officer at KLA-Tencor. “The two products we have launched today tackle two key process control issues in this area: scanner focus-related defects and failure or underperformance of finFETs, vertically stacked NANDs, and other three-dimensional structures, caused by small deviations in shape. The BDR300 and SpectraShape 9000 are designed to help our customers navigate the monumental challenges they are facing today in lithography and etch.”

The new SpectraShape 9000 introduces a laser-driven plasma light source and several other significant advances that enable dimensional metrology capability for a broad range of materials and structures. The SpectraShape 9000 features higher sensitivity and throughput than its predecessor in order to accommodate the industry’s need for tighter process control at sub-20nm nodes—a need to measure more sites per wafer on an increasing number of layers. It also supports innovative metrology targets designed for multiple-patterning lithography.

The new BDR300 back-side inspection and review module for the CIRCL cluster tool features a dramatic improvement in defect sensitivity over that of its predecessor, allowing fabs to find and classify sub-micron back-side defects, which can agglomerate and affect yield at advanced nodes. The CIRCL cluster is now available as a stand-alone back-side inspection and review system, a configuration designed to support an increasing industry requirement to inspect the back sides of wafers before wafers enter the scanner. Clean wafer back sides reduce the probability of contaminating the scanner chuck and affecting subsequent product.

Multiple SpectraShape 9000 shape metrology systems have been installed at leading logic and memory chip manufacturers, where they are replacing existing CD/shape metrology tools for new technology development and ramp or fulfilling requirements for additional metrology capacity. The first CIRCL tools containing the BDR300 module have also been installed and are being used for proactive scanner monitoring as well as traditional after-develop defect inspection. To maintain the high performance and productivity demanded by leading-edge production, the SpectraShape and CIRCL tools are backed by KLA-Tencor’s global, comprehensive service network.