Category Archives: Packaging

January 11, 2012 – GlobalFoundries says it plans to build a $2 billion R&D facility at its Fab 8 campus in Saratoga County, NY. The new Technology Development Center (TDC) will span more than 500,000 sq. ft of "flexible space" for various technology development and manufacturing activities, including cleanroom and lab space. Construction is planned to begin in early 2013 and completed in late 2014.

The TDC will focus on a variety of semiconductor development and manufacturing work "to support the transition to new technology nodes," and development of "innovative capabilities to deliver value to customers beyond the traditional approach of shrinking transistors," according to the company. Broadly speaking, the TEC is planned to be a collaborative space to develop "end-to-end solutions covering the full spectrum of silicon technology," from EUV lithography photomasks to new interconnect and packaging technologies enabling 3D chip stacking, "and everything in between."

"As the industry shifts from the PC era to a market focused on mobile devices, we have seen increasingly strong interest from customers in migrating to advanced nodes on an accelerated schedule," stated GlobalFoundries CEO Ajit Manocha. "To help facilitate this migration, we are making significant investments in strengthening our technology leadership, including growing our workforce and adding new capabilities to make Fab 8 the hub of our global technology operations." Toward that end, "the new TDC will help us bridge between the lab and the fab by taking research conducted with partners and further developing the technologies to make them ready for volume manufacturing," he added

Other regional New York State leaders chimed in with appreciation and optimism for the project’s synergy with the local and regional economy. "New York has become the world’s hub for advanced semiconductor research and now, the Technology Development Center will further help ensure the innovations developed in New York, in collaboration with our research institutions, are manufactured in New York," said Governor Andrew M. Cuomo. "New York State’s public investments to develop CNSE as a hub of innovation coupled with the private investments of GLOBALFOUNDRIES are prime examples of best practices for public-private partnerships linking research, innovation and production that have made New York a globally recognized center of innovation," added Charles W. Wessner, director of the National Academies’ Innovation Program.

GlobalFoundries began developing its Fab 8 project in the summer of mid-2009; today its campus includes approximately 2 million sq. ft of development. The company has continued to make investments in manufacturing production as well as technology development, including work underway on 20nm and 14nm technology nodes.

by Todd Traylor, Vice President of Global Trading for Smith & Associates.

Consumer devices and cutting-edge tech make Consumer Electronics Show (CES) exciting; this year’s show stealers are the components that power it all. If you have any doubt look to center stage and Qualcomm’s opening keynote.

To those embedded (pun intended) in the semiconductor and electronics industry, Qualcomm is not a surprise keynote presenter. But CES is about the consumer, and their keynote highlighted what’s really at the core of consumer electronics’ (CE) success: powerful components. Components, after all, enable the innovative feature capabilities, mobility, power efficiency, and the integration of hardware and software, all which make CE devices "smart."   

Get smarter

The innovation behind the expanding class of smart devices (from phones to cars and all that is between) is the component breakthroughs from manufacturers – the processors, microelectromechanical sensors (MEMS) and sensor hubs, and the chips that are the brains, communication, and power of the devices.

Qualcomm unveiled their Snapdragon 800 and 600 series, processors designed for a range of mobile devices. The 800 series, manufactured using 28nm architecture, enables the integration of the new Krait 400, quad-core CPU with each core running at 2.3GHz, the new Adreno 330 GPU, 4G LTE, and 802.11ac WiFi, all with reduced power consumption, due in part to the smaller and more integrated chipset; the Snapdragon 600 series has similar architecture but slower speeds. The user experiences fast processing power for the next generation of smart devices, but at the level of traditional PCs, with the added benefits of always-on, always-connected plus the enhanced graphics and fast data communication speeds.

Nvidia’s latest Tegra 4 and Samsung’s Exynos 5 are among the direct competitors to the Snapdragon series . Nvidia’s Tegra 4 boasts 72 GPU cores in addition to the powerful quad-core Cortex A15 CPU, code-named "Wayne," for processing plus an additional low-power Cortex A15 running background tasks. The Tegra 4 CPU combination improves power use, essential in today’s devices, while integrating the CPU and GPU to improve performance and signal processing, important for graphics in digital cameras.

Tough competition improves CE field

At CES we see the envelope pushed to  be the  fastest, lightest, smallest, most efficient, best integrated, or first-mover. Intel scooped CES with the announcement of the new, quad-core, 22nm, Atom processor, Bay Trail, due this year to compete with ARM processors in mobile. Beyond speed, Bay Trail is only 8mm thick and enables all-day battery-life, essential to both mobile and Ultrabooks. AMD is showcasing its new Temash chip, based on the Jaguar CPU core, designed for tablets to support long battery life, HD graphics, powerful processing for full-applications for business productivity, as opposed to the reduced capabilities found mostly today. AMD’s Kabini chips are also on display, designed for the new line of low-powered laptops with A8 and A10 quad-core chips. These advances will support Ultrabook adoption in 2013 as prices decreases and features increase.

Expanded connectivity is also CES theme this year, such as Broadcom’s "Connected Life," enhancing consumer experiences in the home, car, and across wired and wireless devices. Pushing connectivity moves CE toward a unified experience as users move through environments. It also paves the growth path for NFC opportunities, content sharing, and allows for the latest in seamless "whole-home connectivity" through Broadcom’s  4th-generation, Gigabit DOCSIS system-on-chip (SoC) series, and dedicated SoC solutions for the fastest TV, internet, and mobile connected solutions.

Another set of breakthroughs comes from Atmel XSense™ flexible touch sensor, winner of CES’ Innovations Award in the Embedded Technologies. Flexible touchscreens are certain to be a desired feature in next-gen mobile devices, and Atmel’s expertise in sensor hubs and innovative material designs will ensure success.

Opportunities for everyone

One final note, it is not just the high-end CE devices that are targeted at CES. There is more attention this year to low-cost solutions designed for the emerging markets, which are set for double-digit growth for these devices, provided low-price points are met.

Author biography:

Todd Traylor began his career with Smith in 1997 in OEM sales, and was promoted to Trading Manager in 1999. In 2001, he transferred to The Netherlands to serve as General Manager of Smith’s Amsterdam office, and was promoted to Managing Director of Europe for Smith in 2002. Todd was named CPU Commodity Manager upon returning to Houston in 2003, and in 2012 was promoted to Vice President of Global Trading. Todd is a 1991 graduate of Texas A&M University, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in Business Management.

The International Data Corporation (IDC) is forecasting that semiconductor revenues worldwide will improve by 4.9% to $319 billion in 2013 and log a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.1% from 2011-2016, reaching $368 billion in 2016. Bright spots for the semiconductor market include smartphones, tablets, set-top boxes, and automotive electronics, which IDC expects will continue to be key drivers of growth over the coming years.

The group said that 2012 saw a nominal growth of less than 1% reaching $304 billion, due to weakness in PC demand, DRAM and overall memory price deterioration, and semiconductor inventory rationalization. This was coupled with continued global macroeconomic uncertainty from lower global GDP growth, a slowdown in China, the Eurozone debt crisis and recession, Japan’s recession, and ongoing fear of fiscal cliff negotiations’ impact on IT spending by corporations.

IDC expects semiconductor inventories to come into balance with demand in the second quarter of 2013 with growth to resume in the second half of 2013. "We expect lower, but positive global GDP growth in 2013. Semiconductors for smartphones will see healthy revenue growth as appetite for data, multimedia processing, and multitasking will drive high-end smartphone demand in developed countries while an ongoing transition to 3G networks will accelerate smartphone adoption in developing regions. PC demand will continue to remain in a period of transition next year until more technology and design innovation begin to change the course of demand," said Mali Venkatesan, research manager for semiconductors at IDC.

Regionally, Japan and Europe continue to be the two weakest regions. Although GDP growth has slowed in China, India, and Brazil, demand for smartphones, tablets, and automotive electronics remains strong. In the U.S., 4G phones, mobile consumer devices (tablets and e-readers), network infrastructure, and set-top box deployments will drive a healthy semiconductor growth cycle over the next five years.

Other key findings from IDC’s Semiconductor Application Forecaster include:

  • Semiconductor revenues for the Computing industry segment will log year-over-year growth of 1.7% for 2013 and will show a muted CAGR of only 1.7% for the 2011-2016 forecast period. Semiconductor revenues from mobile PC demand will register 5.5% year-over-year growth in 2013, after declining 7.7% in 2012.
  • Semiconductor revenues for the Communications segment will grow 6.5% year over year in 2013 with a five-year CAGR of 5.5%. Semiconductor revenues for 4G phones will experience annual growth of 140.1% in 2013 and a CAGR of 103.4% for 2011-2016.
  • Media tablets, e-Readers, set-top boxes, and blu-ray players, will continue to see above average semiconductor revenue growth. Sales of traditional devices such as DVD players, DVD recorders, DVD players, portable media players, and game consoles will continue to erode. Overall, semiconductor revenues for the Consumer segment will record year-over-year growth of 9.8% in 2013 and a 2011-2016 CAGR of 6.0%.
  • Driven by strong global demand for automobiles and increased semiconductor content (i.e. applications such as in-vehicle infotainment, automobile body electronics, and driver safety systems), semiconductor revenues for the Automotive segment is expected to grow 5.9% (CAGR) for the five-year forecast period.
  • Regionally, Asia/Pacific will continue to grow its share of semiconductor revenues, with year-over-year growth of 5.5% in 2013 and a five-year CAGR of 5.3%.

IDC’s Worldwide Semiconductor Applications Forecaster database serves as the basis for all IDC semiconductor supply-side documents, including market forecasts and consulting projects. This database contains revenue data collected from the top 100 semiconductor companies for 2006-2011 and market history and forecasts for 2006-2016. Revenue for over twelve semiconductor device areas, four geographic regions, six industries, and more than 80 end-device applications are also included in the database.

By Adrienne Downey, Director of Technology Research, Semico Research

In February 2012, Semico forecast 2012 semiconductor capex to reach $59.8 billion.  In December 2012, that forecast was virtually unchanged at $59.9 billion, down 5.6% from 2011.  After two years of double-digit growth (98% in 2010 and 26.2% in 2011), the semiconductor industry needed to back off and regroup.  Most concerning is that the gap between the big spenders and the small has expanded.  The top ten spenders for 2012 made up 81% of the total; this figure is up from the 76% of the total in 2011.  Overall, the top ten combined spent $48.2 billion, which is only 0.3% up from 2011.  Meanwhile, the rest of the companies went from spending $15.3 billion in 2011 to $11.7 billion in 2012, a decline of 24%.  Some of the decline can be attributed to companies like SanDisk, which, along with its partner Toshiba, delayed fab expansion projects until 2013.  Other companies like ST and TI made capacity improvements over the past few years, so spending in 2012 was mainly for maintenance.

In December 2012, most companies have still not announced capex plans for the following year.  This year is no different.  However, a handful of companies have given some indication of what they might spend next year.  For example, TSMC is forecasting 2013 capex to be slightly up compared to 2012.  Most of the other companies that have given a hint of 2013’s capex have indicated flat to down spending compared to 2012.  These companies include GLOBALFOUNDRIES, Avago, Fairchild, Micron, ON Semiconductor, SMIC, Spansion, and STMicroelectronics.  GLOBALFOUNDRIES announced its “Vision 2015” initiative to expand 300mm capacity in Singapore, but no budget was announced for the project. 

That being said, there are several construction projects that may give some indication of spending in 2013.  Samsung is retrofitting its Austin fab to switch from NAND to logic production, with mass production beginning in the second half of next year.  This is a $4 billion project spread out over 2012-2013.  Intel’s D1X and Fab 42 construction will wrap up in 2013; the company will also begin production at 14nm by the end of this year.  Samsung, TSMC, and GLOBALFOUNDRIES are also working on the 14nm and 20/22nm nodes.  UMC has Fab 12A Phases 5 and 6 under construction, with production schedule to begin in 2014.  SanDisk and Toshiba will probably increase their spending to complete the ramp of Fab 5, which they said would be complete by the end of 2013. 

Based on current indications, capital spending would seem to be flat in 2013.  However, Semico predicts healthy revenue growth this year, which may encourage more spending, particularly in the second half of the year.  This may bring total capex for 2013 into the positive range. 

January 3, 2012 – SK Hynix has entered into new eight-year patent licensing agreements with Tessera Inc. and Invensas, making it the first DRAM maker to gain access to both companies’ patents, according to the firms.

The Korean chipmaker will make a one-time payment and pay running royalties Financial terms of the deals were not disclosed, but Tessera said in a statement that its recurring royalty revenues from SK Hynix would increase starting in 2Q13 (because it reports royalties one quarter in arrears) and that the two sides have dismissed an antitrust lawsuit pending in a California state court.

"Multi-year agreements like these benefit our customers with secure pricing and provide us with running royalties that fund new innovations," said Robert A. Young, president/CEO of parent company Tessera Technologies Inc. He added that SK Hynix now has access to more than 1200 issued patents combined from the portfolios of Tessera Inc. (the subsidiary) and Invensas.

By Joe Cestari, President, Total Facility Solutions

A major challenge facing the industry in the coming year is how to deliver products faster without affecting budgets or compromising safety and quality. The continued technology innovations will still support investment, and the ongoing move to mobile computing is a major driver in everyone’s forecast. The bottom line is that the industry will continue to advance, with Moore’s Law and economics driving market opportunity. From a US standpoint, we must continue to invest in emerging technologies and maintain our leadership status as an R&D center of excellence — driving investment is important. We can’t continue to afford to just innovate here then provide incentives to drive manufacturing overseas. We must find a way to keep heavily IP-weighted manufacturing in the US. What has happened in New York is a great example. Previously known for high labor rates, now some of the top manufacturers in the industry are bringing their manufacturing there, proving the US is not only an innovator, but a viable producer of a quality product at a lower total cost.

Most notably, in semiconductor manufacturing, 450mm is the next big opportunity. Issues of economic scale and complexity will force fab designers, OEMs and process integrators to investigate all open avenues in the search for solutions to the huge challenges that accompany 450mm. Next generation fabs present new challenges with respect to the design of the facilities, substrate handling, tool connection, chemical distribution, water and electrical systems and other areas. A transition to a bigger wafer size will bring many opportunities – some of which include helping to evolve the way we fabricate devices, introducing different chemistries, supporting greener, more sustainable builds and improving the efficiency of the entire process infrastructure.

Right now, with 450mm in its infancy, no one really knows what to expect, especially with regards to tool installation and hook up as design packages aren’t ready yet and in some cases the tools don’t even exist. The switch faces numerous challenges, as is the nature of the business. Competing vendors will no longer have to work only with the manufacturer, but with each other to settle a standard platform, an approach that could be challenging, yet beneficial all around. There has been a need for closer collaboration throughout the semiconductor industry for some time, starting from the facility construction process. The entire industry would benefit if suppliers were more integrated in the supply chain; and our goal of delivering products faster without affecting budgets or compromising safety and quality could be better realized.

By Mario M. Pelella, VP of Engineering, sp3 Diamond Technologies

Interest in diamond continues to grow within traditional thermal and wear applications (packaging, tool coating) and beyond into new applications (semiconductor, MEMS/NEMS, optical, interposers, electrodes, sensors, wastewater treatment, acoustic) that were previously difficult to exploit.

Diamond’s unique physical and electrical properties, which include the highest known thermal conductivity, highest Young’s modulus (diamond is the hardest substance man has ever discovered), a wide band gap, excellent electrical insulator properties, very low thermal expansion, very high breakdown voltage, very high carrier mobility, high radiation hardness, chemical and biochemical inertness and the broadest electromagnetic transmission spectrum, makes this remarkable technology a key enabler to break through current limitations and extend the performance and scalability of existing products well into the future.

For the currently available diamond-deposition systems, hot-filament chemical vapor deposition (HFCVD) growth technology provides the most reliable, safest and most cost effective solution that enables high throughput and good uniformity, control, repeatability and ease of scaling over large areas. Although current deposition areas are in the 350 mm x 375 mm range, scaling the HFCVD technology deposition area to 1000mm x 1000mm is viable, unlike other diamond-growth technologies.

The next step in the evolution of the semiconductor industry is to establish an SOD (silicon-on-diamond) substrate platform that mitigates the thermal impact of ever increasing power densities and suppresses local hot spots that influence peak performance and reliability (FIT rates) specifications, especially for RF power circuits and 3D-ICs. Moreover, incorporating diamond solutions into the MtM (more-than-Moore) technology roadmap will help extend electronic device and sensor performance metrics for a broad array of applications. All the process integration pieces to fully embrace SOD technology have been demonstrated, although productizing a 200mm (or larger) SOD substrate platform for high volume is still an elusive goal for the industry. Government agencies and corporate research and development funding continue to champion the maturity and advancement of diamond technology, which will help shorten the commercialization cycle of this exceptional material.

Recent advances in diamond applications (diamond-on-silicon, MEMS, optical), including record folded-beam RF resonator performance with a Q value of 146,580 at 232.4 kHz, IR transmission values nearing the theoretical limit of 71 percent, brighter, more energy-efficient LED lamps, exceptional figure-of-merit for RF power devices that are 40-50 times better than Si substrates, and demonstrated diamond-based diodes, BJTs, FETs, SAW filters, and field-emission devices, suggest that its utilization into a broader scope of commercial products is not far away.

By Julian Gates, Managing Director, AG Semiconductor Services

The multibillion-dollar secondary or used semiconductor equipment market has gone through significant changes over the past five years and has become increasingly sophisticated in its approach, with industry leaders offering a full range of services well beyond the tool purchase itself. The days of a broker trying to sell a piece of chipmaking gear of uncertain condition and provenance out of a crate on a warehouse floor are numbered. IC manufacturers trying to balance cost considerations with the need to upgrade or expand their production capability can now partner with secondary equipment services firms that offer economical turnkey solutions combining tool configuration, refurbishment, installation, start-up and support with a risk-reducing warranty package that largely mirrors that of an original equipment manufacturer.

Since most OEMs have focused their efforts on the development and proliferation of their 300mm equipment suites and have either reduced or eliminated their 200mm offerings, many semiconductor companies need support in enhancing their existing 200mm production lines, or with converting from 150 to 200mm wafer size operations. Some firms lack the internal human resources or technical proficiency to handle the equipment aspects of the ramp by themselves. With dedicated expertise in 200mm systems, the full-service secondary equipment firm can provide a project management team to the customer site that will work with the device-maker to help get the facility’s toolset up and running.  

Another trend in the used equipment space we’re seeing is the synergistic combination of dedicated remarketing services with turnkey solution capabilities. Done well, these services increase the amount and diversity of a secondary equipment company’s inventory and provide customers more flexibility and velocity in their ability to buy and sell surplus equipment.

Analysts forecast that wafer fab utilization will increase in 2013 and gain momentum into 2014, which means that chipmakers will soon begin to invest in production equipment to meet the demand curve of the emerging upcycle in the market. For those seeking to gain the most out of their capital budgets, the availability of more high-quality pre-owned 200 and 300mm equipment backed by comprehensive service and support packages offers a financially attractive, low-risk path to fulfilling their capacity requirements.

Jim Mello, Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Entrepix, Inc.

The global economic difficulties are impacting the semiconductor industry more now than ever because the world has become increasingly interconnected and more consumer driven. The financial crisis in Europe, the "fiscal cliff" in the US and the slow down in China’s growth have made it more difficult for any one catalyst to push the markets in a positive direction. Ultimately, the semiconductor industry is caught up in this environment and its outlook continues to be mixed, which points towards a flat 2013. While smart phones and tablets will continue to drive the markets for communication chips, CMOS image sensors and many other types of sensors, the semiconductor industry will not be able to overcome the stagnation of the PC market. The momentum for more powerful, smaller and faster portable devices will dominate the PC market, continuing to drive smaller system packaging technologies and less power consumption while creating more functionality and memory capacity. Technology investments will continue for the advanced nodes and leading edge packaging development, but until the confidence of the economy comes back, the capacity investments will be selective based on individual markets. 

One of the biggest challenges for the industry is that 80 percent of the devices used for portable and mobile applications are currently manufactured on 200mm or smaller wafers. How this plays out going forward could change who the dominant players will be and therefore could drive consolidation. As the communications market advances, design wins play a large role in the uncertainty. The secondary equipment market provides ongoing opportunities throughout the entire market, especially during periods of economic difficulty, and is extremely well positioned to capitalize on the continued strength of the 200mm market. Remanufactured equipment continues to demonstrate its viability within the industry, often being sold with guaranteed reliability and shorter lead times that allow for capacity investments that can accommodate changes in short term demand. Additional value-add can be found in the secondary market from a subset of suppliers who are specialized in specific processes. These vendors provide process development and fully qualified processes to customers to accelerate the manufacturing ramp and further enhance the cost of ownership benefits of refurbished equipment.

By Rudy Kellner, VP & GM, Electronics Business Unit, FEI

Consumer demand for more power, speed and functionality in less space seems to be insatiable. Yet semiconductor manufacturers have reached the end of the era when this demand could be satisfied by simply shrinking the dimensions of fundamental planar device technologies. Now they must accommodate complex, three-dimensional (3D) device architectures and a plethora of new materials. At the package level they must develop and produce 3D designs that stack and interconnect multiple die without sacrificing yield or performance. The net result of all this innovation is a sharp increase in R&D capital intensity. In order to maintain profitability manufacturers must increase the productivity and return from their R&D investments. Moreover, time-to-market has become the new battle ground where the first to market enjoy a brief period of premium pricing and higher margins, before the battle begins again.

The decreasing size and increasing complexity of devices has driven demand for high-power transmission electron microscopes (TEMs) required to visualize and analyze structures with critical dimensions of a few tens of nanometers. Equally important, it has also driven demand for the focused ion beam/scanning electron microscope (FIB/SEM) systems needed to create ultrathin samples from precise locations on a die. We have invested heavily to improve the speed and throughput of these systems, reducing sample preparation times to less than 90 minutes with recipe-based automation and hardware innovations that streamline difficult and time-consuming sample manipulations. At the packaging level we have introduced a plasma-based FIB system with milling rates fast enough to permit package-scale edits that can save weeks in the assembly process.

As the industry continues to consolidate, the battle ground will continue to shift. Production excellence and efficiency will remain a requirement, but the spoils will go to the first to market. Accelerating R&D turns and decreasing time to yield will be the keys to success.