Category Archives: Semiconductors

Researchers have created a new type of transparent electrode that might find uses in solar cells, flexible displays for computers and consumer electronics and future "optoelectronic" circuits for sensors and information processing.

The electrode is made of silver nanowires covered with a material called graphene, an extremely thin layer of carbon. The hybrid material shows promise as a possible replacement for indium tin oxide, or ITO, used in transparent electrodes for touch-screen monitors, cell-phone displays and flat-screen televisions. Industry is seeking alternatives to ITO because of drawbacks: It is relatively expensive due to limited abundance of indium, and it is inflexible and degrades over time, becoming brittle and hindering performance.

"If you try to bend ITO it cracks and then stops functioning properly," said Purdue University doctoral student Suprem Das.

The hybrid material could represent a step toward innovations, including flexible solar cells and color monitors, flexible "heads-up" displays in car windshields and information displays on eyeglasses and visors.

"The key innovation is a material that is transparent, yet electrically conductive and flexible," said David Janes, a professor of electrical and computer engineering.

Research findings were detailed in a paper appearing online in April in the journal Advanced Functional Materials.

The hybrid concept was proposed in earlier publications by Purdue researchers, including a 2011 paper in the journal Nano Letters. The concept represents a general approach that could apply to many other materials, said Alam, who co-authored the Nano Letters paper.

"This is a beautiful illustration of how theory enables a fundamental new way to engineer material at the nanoscale and tailor its properties," he said.

Such hybrid structures could enable researchers to overcome the "electron-transport bottleneck" of extremely thin films, referred to as two-dimensional materials.

Combining graphene and silver nanowires in a hybrid material overcomes drawbacks of each material individually: the graphene and nanowires conduct electricity with too much resistance to be practical for transparent electrodes. Sheets of graphene are made of individual segments called grains, and resistance increases at the boundaries between these grains. Silver nanowires, on the other hand, have high resistance because they are randomly oriented like a jumble of toothpicks facing in different directions. This random orientation makes for poor contact between nanowires, resulting in high resistance.

"So neither is good for conducting electricity, but when you combine them in a hybrid structure, they are," Janes said.

The graphene is draped over the silver nanowires.

"It’s like putting a sheet of cellophane over a bowl of noodles," Janes said. "The graphene wraps around the silver nanowires and stretches around them."

Findings show the material has a low "sheet resistance," or the electrical resistance in very thin layers of material, which is measured in units called "squares." At 22 ohms per square, it is five times better than ITO, which has a sheet resistance of 100 ohms per square.

Moreover, the hybrid structure was found to have little resistance change when bent, whereas ITO shows dramatic increases in resistance when bent.

"The generality of the theoretical concept underlying this experimental demonstration – namely ‘percolation-doping’ — suggests that it is likely to apply to a broad range of other 2-D nanocrystaline material, including graphene," Alam said.

A patent application has been filed by Purdue’s Office of Technology Commercialization.

Soitec announced the PV industry’s first four-junction solar cell device, which works under concentrated sunlight, achieving 43.6 percent efficiency as confirmed by the Fraunhofer ISE Calibration Laboratory. This measurement was achieved at a concentration level of 319 (319 suns). The new cell has demonstrated more than 43 percent energy-generating efficiency over a concentration range between 250 and 500.

Today’s triple-junction solar cells used in commercial concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) modules in real-world applications are approaching their physical limits in converting sunlight into renewable energy. The four- junction cell is designed to increase the conversion efficiency of commercial CPV systems to the highest level ever achieved by any photovoltaic technology. It uses two dual-junction sub cells grown on different III-V compound  materials, which allows optimal band-gap combinations tailored to capture a broader range of the solar spectrum. This maximizes energy-generating efficiency.

Soitec leveraged its proprietary semiconductor-bonding (Smart Stacking) and layer-transfer (Smart Cut) technologies, which have been used in volume production by the global semiconductor industry for decades, to successfully stack non-lattice-matched materials while also raising the possibility of re-using expensive materials.

The new cell was developed in collaboration with the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) in Freiburg, Germany, and the Helmholtz-Zentrum für Materialien und Energie in Berlin, which developed and deposited III-V epitaxial layers on new base materials as well as fabricating and characterizing the device. CEA-Leti, France’s research institute for electronics and information technologies also actively participated in the project and contributed its expertise in mechanically strong, electrically conductive and optically transparent bonding interfaces as well as layer-transfer engineering of III-V compound materials.

“Boosting efficiency levels is a key step in outperforming the economics of conventional PV. This great achievement brings strong value to our solar division and validates our strategy and business model in the solar market,” said André-Jacques Auberton-Hervé, CEO of Soitec. “Through our collaboration with the Fraunhofer and the Leti, two world-class R&D partners, our own leadership experience in materials and bonding technologies as well as our CPV commercial experience, we have been able to achieve this major advancement in a very short time. This represents a major proof-of-concept, on track to demonstrate a concentrated solar cell with 50% efficiency as soon as 2015.”

Worldwide semiconductor revenues decreased by 2.2 percent year over year to $295 billion in 2012, according to the latest version of the International Data Corporation (IDC) Semiconductor Application Forecaster (SAF). The industry witnessed a slowdown during the second half of 2012 on weak consumer spending across PCs, mobile phones, and digital televisions (DTV), as well as in the industrial and other market segments. The European economic crises and a slowdown in China also had an impact on global demand while the lackluster launch of Windows 8 failed to stimulate PC sales and turn the tide. Meanwhile, competitive suppliers from China continued to pressure average selling prices, dragging down overall revenue growth. IDC expects the semiconductor market to return to growth in 2013 with revenues forecast to increase by 3.5 percent this year.

IDC’s SAF tracks more than 120 semiconductor companies. Most companies saw their revenues decline during the year, including eight of the top ten companies. Only 17 companies, with revenues of a billion or more, grew at a rate above 5 percent last year. Among the 25 largest companies covered in the SAF, only seven had positive top-line growth, including: Qualcomm, Broadcom, NXP, NVIDIA, MediaTek, Apple, and Sharp Electronics. AllWinner, a tablet application processor supplier, was the fastest growing company in 2012.

The largest semiconductor company, Intel, saw its revenues decline to $50.0 billion in 2012, down 3 percent from 2011 largely due to weak PC demand, and minimal traction in tablets and smartphones. Samsung Electronics, the second largest supplier, saw revenues drop 6 percent on weak DTV demand, loss of market share at Apple, and volatile memory prices. Meanwhile, Qualcomm, the largest fabless semiconductor supplier, ranked third last year as revenues grew 34 percent to $13.2 billion due to its leadership in modem technology and success of its Snapdragon application processor in smartphones. Texas instruments, the number four supplier, saw revenues decline by 6 percent due to falling analog, DSP, and MPU revenues and the company’s exit from its wireless business. Rounding out the top 5, Toshiba revenues were off by 13 percent from the previous year due to declining revenues for its analog, ASSP, and memory products. Renesas, Hynix, Broadcom, STMicroelectronics, and Micron filled out the top 10 spots. From this group of companies, only Broadcom saw revenues grow last year. Combined, the top 10 vendors represented 52 percent of worldwide semiconductor revenues, declining 3 percent when compared to 2011. The top 25 semiconductor firms brought in $206 billion, declining 3 percent year over year.

Within the semiconductor device types, performance was mixed. Sensors and actuators grew the fastest at 11 percent year over year, but with 2012 revenues of $7 billion the segment only accounted for 2 percent of industry revenues. ASSPs, the largest category of semiconductors with 32 percent of the overall opportunity, grew by 4 percent for the year on strength in media, graphics, and application processors and RF and mixed-signal ASSPs. Finally, optoelectronics, with 6 percent of total semiconductor revenues, grew 5 percent, mostly from image sensors and LEDs. Revenues for microcomponents declined by 5 percent, driven by lower revenues for MPUs and MCUs. Memory, representing 17 percent of the industry, saw its revenues decline by 10 percent. Finally, Analog, which accounted for 7 percent of revenues last year, declined by 7 percent.

"Beyond the slowdown in end-market demand, the challenge for semiconductor companies is to zero in on their key value propositions. Whether that is in modem or connectivity technologies, sensors, mixed-signal processing, or power management, there are areas of the market showing strong potential. However, competing in crowded segments with little differentiation has contributed to the slowdown in semiconductor revenues," said Michael J. Palma, research manager, Semiconductors at IDC, who led the study and compiled the SAF results. "Large vendors have been going through a process of narrowing their product portfolios to focus resources on profitable lines where their IP and experience provide an edge in the market."

"As we mentioned in our Top 10 Predictions for the 2013 worldwide semiconductor market, investment in R&D and capital in the semiconductor industry remains very high and focused on innovation and addressing the competitive dynamics of a diverse set of industries that semiconductors support. In fact, the overall market landscape and reach of semiconductors continues to expand with the rise of Intelligent Systems and will play a critical role in the overall health and growth of the market," said Mario Morales, program vice president for enabling technologies and semiconductors.

IDC’s Semiconductor and Enabling Technologies research team manages the Worldwide Semiconductor Applications Forecaster database, which is a focal point for IDC’s semiconductor research efforts. This database contains revenue data collected from more than 120 semiconductor companies and forecasts the markets to 2017. Revenue for over twelve semiconductor device areas, four geographic regions, six major vertical markets, and over 90 system devices markets are also part of the SAF coverage.

North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $1.17 billion in orders worldwide in April 2013 (three-month average basis) and a book-to-bill ratio of 1.08, according to the April EMDS Book-to-Bill Report published today by SEMI.   A book-to-bill of 1.08 means that $108 worth of orders were received for every $100 of product billed for the month.

The three-month average of worldwide bookings in April 2013 was $1.17 billion. The bookings figure is 6.4 percent higher than the final March 2013 level of $1.10 billion, and is 26.8 percent lower than the April 2012 order level of $1.60 billion.

The three-month average of worldwide billings in April 2013 was $1.08 billion. The billings figure is 9.3 percent higher than the final March 2013 level of $991.0 million, and is 25.7 percent lower than the April 2012 billings level of $1.46 billion.

“Both bookings and billings trends have been improving over the last four months, with the book-to-bill ratio remaining above parity over the same period," said Denny McGuirk, president and CEO of SEMI.  “While orders remain well below last year’s numbers, the current order and spending activity is aligned with 2012 capex plans.”

The SEMI book-to-bill is a ratio of three-month moving averages of worldwide bookings and billings for North American-based semiconductor equipment manufacturers. Billings and bookings figures are in millions of U.S. dollars.

  Billings
(3-mo. avg)		 Bookings
(3-mo. avg)		 Book-to-Bill
November 2012 910.1 718.6 0.79
December 2012 1,006.1 927.4 0.92
January 2013 968.0 1,076.0 1.11
February 2013 974.7 1,073.5 1.10
March 2013 (final) 991.0 1,103.3 1.11
April 2013 (prelim) 1,083.2 1,173.4 1.08

Leaders of the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) today announced 18 new projects funded through a joint initiative to address research challenges in the design of failure-resistant circuits and systems.

failture resistant systems
Failure Resistant Systems

Credit: Subhasish Mitra, Stanford University

The three-year, $6 million collaborative program will support research being conducted by 29 faculty members at 18 U.S. universities. Their work focuses on a variety of aspects of resilient circuit and system design for future computing applications.

Miniaturized electronics form parts of today’s pervasive and increasingly efficient and complex electronic systems. Common examples include communication devices such as cell-phones and personal digital assistants (so-called PDAs), aircraft flight controls, autonomous vehicles, sophisticated weapon systems and tiny medical devices inside or outside of the human body, such as pacemakers and heart monitors.

The accurate functioning of these systems is often a matter of life and death. A small malfunction in a pacemaker could threaten the life of a patient; unexpected failures in flight control circuitry or in an autonomous vehicle may result in a crash.

A host of reasons could cause highly sensitive, automated mechanical devices to deviate from desired behavior or functionalities. These include design imperfections, faults resulting from uncontrolled physical phenomena, manufacturing variations, aging over time and other external disturbances, which even may include tampering or malicious design.

By funding fundamental research in the design of electronic chips, this joint NSF/SRC program on Failure Resistant Systems aims to ensure that at the outset systems are designed in such a way that they are self-corrective or self-healing with minimal or no external intervention during the entire life of its operation.

"As devices become smaller and approach fundamental limits, new design methodologies will be required to account for the wide variability which arises in the fabrication process" said Pramod Khargonekar, head of NSF’s Directorate for Engineering. "This joint program with SRC will allow our academic researchers to address pressing problems faced by our semiconductor industry."

"New fundamental design techniques have the potential to yield major advances in the reliability of electronic systems," said Farnam Jahanian, head of NSF’s Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering. "This program builds on more than a decade of successful partnerships with SRC and provides the academic research community a new opportunity to do ground-breaking, long-term, basic research."

"This partnership of government, industry and academia helps our universities address critical computing challenges," said Steve Hillenius, SRC executive vice president. "This effort in resilient systems will have an effect on multiple industries and boost their competitiveness on a global scale, helping to transform market segments and translate research results into practice. Cooperative programs with NSF also help SRC deliver value to its industrial members’ capabilities, while allowing universities to continue to improve their understanding of the needs of the semiconductor industry."

Funding will support researchers at the following universities: the University of Texas (Austin, Dallas), the University of California (Riverside, Santa Barbara), the University of Southern California, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Connecticut, the University of Utah, Texas A&M University, the University of Illinois, Stanford University, the University of Michigan, the University of Minnesota, the University of Rochester, Colorado State University, North Carolina State University, the University of Virginia and West Virginia University.

Later this month, IC Insights’ May Update to The 2013 McClean Report will show a ranking of the top 25 semiconductor suppliers in 1Q13.  A preview of the top 20 companies is listed in Figure 1.  The top 20 worldwide semiconductor (IC and OSD—optoelectronic, discrete, and sensor) sales leaders for 1Q13 include nine suppliers headquartered in the U.S., four in Japan, three in Europe, and two each in South Korea and Taiwan, a relatively broad representation of geographic regions.  The top-20 ranking also includes three pure-play foundries (TSMC, GlobalFoundries, and UMC) and four fabless companies.

IC foundries are included in the top-20 semiconductor supplier ranking, because IC Insights has always viewed the ranking as a top supplier list, not as a marketshare ranking, and realizes that in some cases semiconductor sales are double counted.  With many of our clients being vendors to the semiconductor industry (supplying equipment, chemicals, gases, etc.), excluding large IC manufacturers like the foundries would leave significant “holes” in the list of top semiconductor suppliers.  Foundries and fabless companies are each clearly identified in Figure 1.  Overall, the list shown in Figure 1 is provided as a guideline to identify which companies are the leading semiconductor suppliers, whether they are IDMs, fabless companies, or foundries.

figure 1

It should be noted that not all foundry sales should be excluded when attempting to create marketshare data.  For example, although Samsung has a large amount of foundry sales, most of its sales are to Apple.  Since Apple does not re-sell these devices, counting these foundry sales as Samsung semiconductor sales does not introduce double counting.

In total, the top 20 semiconductor companies’ sales increased by 2 percent in 1Q13 as compared to 1Q12, one point better than the total 1Q13/1Q12 worldwide semiconductor market increase of 1 percent.  It took semiconductor sales of almost $900 million in 1Q13 to make the top-20 ranking.

Intel remained firmly in control of the number one spot in the 1Q13 ranking.  However, Intel lost some of its lead over second-ranked Samsung by registering 45 percent greater semiconductor sales than Samsung in 1Q13 as compared to a 68 percent margin in 1Q12.  The only movement with regard to the top five spots in the 1Q13 ranking was that fabless supplier Qualcomm, riding the continued success of the smartphone market, reported a 28 percent surge in sales (highest among the top 20 companies) and moved up one position to replace Toshiba as the fourth-largest semiconductor supplier.

Micron’s acquisition of Elpida is expected to be completed sometime in 2Q13.  It is interesting to note that if Micron and Elpida’s 1Q13 sales were combined, the “new” company would have had $3,060 million in total sales and would have been ranked as the fifth-largest semiconductor supplier.

As shown in Figure 2, there was a wide range of growth rates among the worldwide top 20 semiconductor suppliers in 1Q13.  The continued success of the fabless/foundry business model is evident when examining the top 20 semiconductor suppliers ranked by growth rate.  As shown, the top nine performers included three fabless companies (Qualcomm, Broadcom, and Nvidia) and three pure-play foundries (TSMC, UMC, and GlobalFoundries).

figure 2

Figure 2 illustrates that four of the five top-20 ranked companies that registered a double-digit sales decline in 1Q13 were headquartered in Japan (Toshiba, Renesas, Fujitsu, and Sony).  However, it should be noted that the conversion of Japanese company semiconductor sales from yen to U.S. dollars, at 79.26 yen per dollar in 1Q12 versus 92.19 yen per dollar in 1Q13, had a big impact on the sales figures for the Japanese semiconductor suppliers.  Thus, while Sony and Fujitsu would have logged a double-digit semiconductor sales decline even if their sales results were not converted to U.S. dollars, Toshiba would have posted a 5 percent increase in semiconductor sales if the figures were expressed in yen.  Unfortunately for AMD, it cannot attribute its extremely poor performance to currency conversion issues.

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.

Imec and GLOBALFOUNDRIES announced today that they have expanded joint development efforts to advance STT-MRAM (spin-transfer torque magnetoresistive random access memory) technology.

The first IC manufacturer to join imec’s R&D program on emerging memory technologies, GLOBALFOUNDRIES completes the value chain of imec’s research platform, which fuels industry collaboration from technology up to the system level. GLOBALFOUNDRIES is joining a team with a leading fabless company and several worldwide equipment suppliers providing the complete infrastructure necessary for R&D on STT-MRAM.

STT-MRAM technology is a promising high-density alternative to existing memory technologies, like SRAM and DRAM.  Together, imec and the program members aim to explore the potential of STT-MRAM, including performance below 1ns and scalability beyond 10nm for embedded and standalone applications.

“We are elated to intensify our collaboration with GLOBALFOUNDRIES and the other program members on advanced memory technologies—it’s a true testament to the value we offer our industrial partners,” stated Luc Van den hove, president and CEO at imec. “Our unique research environment harnesses the collective expertise and knowledge of the entire value chain, bringing together foundries, IDMs, fabless and fablite companies, packaging and assembly companies, and equipment and material suppliers to drive innovation and the development of new, competitive products.”

“Innovation in next-generation memory is required to give chip designers new options to continue to deliver leading-edge products with higher performance, lower power-consumption, and better bandwidth,” said GLOBALFOUNDRIES chief technology officer Gregg Bartlett. “This new partnership with imec will enable close collaboration with customers, partners, and the supplier community to help reduce the risk in bringing this new memory technology to market.”

Imec performs research in nanoelectronics. Imec leverages its scientific knowledge with the innovative power of its global partnerships in ICT, healthcare and energy. Imec is headquartered in Leuven, Belgium, and has offices in Belgium, the Netherlands, Taiwan, US, China, India and Japan. Its staff of more than 2,000 people includes more than 650 industrial residents and guest researchers. In 2012, imec’s revenue (P&L) totaled 320 million euro.

GLOBALFOUNDRIES is the world’s first full-service semiconductor foundry with a global footprint. With operations in Singapore, Germany and the United States, GLOBALFOUNDRIES is the only foundry that offers manufacturing centers spanning three continents. The company’s three 300mm fabs and five 200mm fabs provide the full range of process technologies from mainstream to the leading edge. This global manufacturing footprint is supported by major facilities for research, development and design enablement located near hubs of semiconductor activity in the United States, Europe and Asia. GLOBALFOUNDRIES is owned by the Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC).