Category Archives: Semiconductors

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. today announced the industry’s first production of ultra-high-speed four gigabit (Gb) low power double data rate 3 (LPDDR3) mobile DRAM, which is being produced at a 20nm-class process node.

The new 4Gb LPDDR3 mobile DRAM enables performance levels comparable to the standard DRAM utilized in personal computers, making it an attractive solution for demanding multimedia-intensive features on next-generation mobile devices such as high-performance smartphones and tablets.

“By providing the most efficient next-generation mobile memory with a very large data capacity, we are now enabling OEMs to introduce even more innovative designs in the marketplace,” said Young-Hyun Jun, executive vice president, memory sales & marketing, Samsung Electronics. “Our 20nm-class four gigabit mobile DRAM provides another example of our ability to deliver well-differentiated, high-performance, high-density memory to customers in a timely manner.”

The 4Gb LPDDR3 can transmit data at up to 2,133 megabits per second (Mbps) per pin, which is more than double the performance of the preceding memory standard mobile DRAM (LPDDR2) with a data transmission speed of 800Mbps. This makes it possible to transmit three full HD videos, collectively 17GBs in length, in one second over the new Samsung chip embedded in a mobile device.  

Samsung’s 20nm-class LPDDR3 mobile DRAM enables seamless display of full HD video on smartphones with five inch-or-larger screens. In comparison to a 30nm-class LPDDR3 DRAM, the new device generates more than a 30 percent improvement in performance and 20 percent savings in power consumption.

While mobile gadgets continue to scale down in height, battery packs have been increasing in size. By adopting Samsung’s 4Gb LPDDR3 mobile DRAM, OEMs can have a 2GB package that includes four of Samsung’s new chips in a single package that meets the memory package height of 0.8mm.

Representing a major growth factor in the DRAM market, Samsung plans to increase production of its advanced 20nm-class mobile DRAM later this year, solidifying its competitiveness as a memory industry leader.

According to market research firm, Gartner, the DRAM market is forecast to grow by 13 percent year-over-year to reach $29.6 billion USD in 2013, with mobile DRAM to exceed $10 billion in sales, for 35 percent of the total DRAM market.

China rose to the top of the PC market for the first time ever on an annual basis last year, relegating the United States to second place with a lead of more than 3 million units, according to an IHS iSuppli PC Dynamics Market Brief from information and analytics provider IHS.

PC shipments in 2012 to China amounted to 69 million units, exceeding the 66 million total reached by the United States. Only a year earlier in 2011, the United States was the leading global destination for PCs.

Beyond its large size, China’s PC market exhibits distinct characteristics that set it apart from the computer trade elsewhere, possessing a vast untapped rural market and unique consumer-purchasing patterns. While desktop PC shipments lagged notebooks around the world, the two PC segments were on par in China in 2012, with an even 50-50 split, as shown in the table below.

China PC shipments

“The equal share of shipments for desktops and notebooks in China is unusual, since consumers in most regions today tend to prefer more agile mobile PCs, rather than the bulky, stationary desktops,” said Peter Lin, senior analyst for compute platforms at IHS. “The relatively large percentage of desktop PC shipments in China is due to huge demand in the country’s rural areas, which account for a major segment of the country’s 1.34 billion citizens. These consumers tend to prefer the desktop form factor.”

The market will change gradually as desktop PCs face rising competition from the high value proposition presented by notebooks. Notebooks will then surpass desktops in the country by 2014, tracking more closely with the worldwide desktop-to-notebook PC ratio of 36 to 64 percent.

The desktop vs. notebook pattern of consumption in China is only one example of the distinctive hallmarks of the country’s dynamic PC market. In another indicator, China also has approximately a 50-50 proportion in consumer vs. commercial PCs, compared to the 65-35 percent ratio for the rest of the world.

A third pattern unique to the China PC market is the preferred notebook display size of 14 inches, which accounts for more than 70 percent of notebook PC shipments in the country. For the rest of the world, the 14-inch makes up less than 30 percent.

A fourth pattern of note is the attach rate of PCs with a pre-installed operating system, especially for notebooks. While mature PC markets in other parts of the world claim a 90 percent attach rate, the proportion for China comes out to lower than 50 percent, with the ratio even lower in the desktop PC market.

Despite such exclusive behavior, the China PC space shares one common trait with the worldwide PC market. Like the rest of the world, demand in China remains weak as consumers migrate to using mobile devices like cellphones. China’s PC market is projected to grow only by 3 to 4 percent this year.

Even so, a vast market opportunity continues to exist for PCs in the country, in the form of potential first-time buyers mostly residing in the countryside. The government already plans this year to invest some 40 trillion yuan—equivalent to some $6.4 trillion—to build rural infrastructure in the next 10 years, and PC original equipment manufacturers can take advantage of the initiative to build out and expand from the cities, IHS believes.

China is also on track to retain its position as the largest PC market in the world for the foreseeable future unchallenged and alone—further providing PC brands a rare opportunity for expansion, counter to the myriad travails they face in the rest of the world.

SEMI today announced that Philip Yeo, chairman of SPRING Singapore, and Lee Kok Choy, country manager of Micron Technology Inc. Singapore, have been voted by the SEMI Singapore Regional Advisory Board as recipients of two prestigious awards recognizing their contributions to the development and success of the Southeast Asian semiconductor industry. The awards will be presented during festivities held at SEMICON Singapore 2013 on 7 May, 2013.

The Lifetime Achievement Award is presented to Yeo for his pioneering and significant contributions to Singapore’s economic development, especially in the promotion and growth of the semiconductor industry. During his tenure as Chairman of the EDB, Yeo was instrumental in leading Singapore’s strategic growth and investment into the semiconductor industry, which today boasts an annual output of over $49 billion, hires over 42,000 employees and has 14 wafer fabrication plants. Yeo was also the former chairman of A*STAR and former special advisor for Economic Development in the Singapore Prime Minister’s Office.

The Industry Contribution Award will be presented to Lee for his work in advancing the competitiveness of the wafer fabrication industry in Singapore. Lee’s career in the Singapore semiconductor industry spans more than four decades, including positions at Texas Instruments, TECH and Micron. During his tenure at TECH and Micron, Lee was instrumental in growing their Singapore presence and maintaining Singapore’s competitiveness in the midst of competition from Korean and Taiwanese manufacturers. Lee also led the world’s first factory conversion from 200mm to 300mm technology while simultaneously maintaining production, and was instrumental into making Singapore into a base of Flash memory production that started in partnership with Intel.

"The contributions and accomplishments of both Yeo and Lee are well known within the Singapore and Southeast Asian semiconductor industry and these awards are a worthy recognition of their achievements on behalf of our industry," said Denny McGuirk, president and CEO of SEMI.

Terry Tsao, president of SEMI Southeast Asia added: "Yeo and Lee’s dedication to advancing the establishment and growth of the industry here has helped build Singapore into a globally recognized center of microelectronics innovation and manufacturing."

The award recipients were voted by the SEMI Singapore Regional Advisory Board (RAB), an advisory group of industry executives focused on advancing SEMI’s mission in Southeast Asia through the development and support of programs and initiatives designed to accelerate the growth and increase the visibility of the semiconductor industry in the region. The advisory board is led by newly elected executive directors including chairman KC Ang, senior vice president and general manager of GLOBALFOUNDRIES Singapore; vice-chairman Russell Tham, regional president, Applied Materials South East Asia and corporate vice president, Global Continuous Improvement, Applied Materials Inc.; and vice-chairman Jen Kwong Hwa, site director, Micron Semiconductor Asia.

"On behalf of SEMI and the industry, the SEMI Singapore RAB is proud to honor Yeo and Lee with these awards that acknowledge the key roles they have played in growing the Singapore semiconductor industry over the last two decades,” said KC Ang. “From a public and private sector perspective, their contributions have resulted in a robust semiconductor ecosystem in the region, where we continue to see this industry driving the global economic growth and now even enabling the explosive growth of the mobility markets that we are witnessing today."

The awards will be presented during two separate events held as part of SEMICON Singapore 2013. The Industry Achievement Award will be presented to Lee during the event opening ceremony on May 7 from 9:30am-10:00 a.m. at the Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Center, and the Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to Yeo during the SEMI Singapore VIP Dinner, also on 7 May, at the Fullerton Hotel.

Rudolph Technologies, Inc., a provider of process characterization, photolithography equipment and software for the semiconductor, FPD, LED and solar industries, announced today that it has purchased selected assets, including a strong patent portfolio, relating to metrology capability from Tamar Technology, Newbury Park, Calif. The addition of Tamar’s advanced metrology technologies to Rudolph’s existing inspection and metrology systems will allow the company to address the emerging need for fast, precise three-dimensional (3D) measurement capabilities in the rapidly-growing advanced packaging market sector.

“The purchase of these assets adds new capabilities to our technology portfolio, which addresses an emerging need for 3D measurements to control copper pillar bumping in advanced packaging processes,” said Michael Jost, vice president and general manager of Rudolph’s Inspection Business Unit. “Tamar’s technology is already well-known and widely used. Integrating it into our NSX and F30 inspection and metrology platforms adds critical capability and value to an established and reliable tool set. Several customers brought this exclusive technology to our attention; and it was readily apparent that the acquisition of these assets would significantly enhance the breadth of our advanced packaging solutions. In addition, this purchase gives Rudolph a significant patent portfolio that we plan to fully leverage. The integration work is essentially complete and we expect to receive initial system orders in the coming months.”

Copper pillar bumping for flip-chips has been forecast to grow at a 35 percent CAGR from 2010 to 2018. While copper pillar bumping processes are the most significant immediate application, Tamar’s products are capable of critical measurements required in several packaging applications. For example, one application uses infrared light to measure TSV depth from the backside of the wafer, thus avoiding the limitations on via aspect ratio encountered by most frontside measurement approaches.

“We expect the addition of these unique and proprietary capabilities to positively influence both unit volume and margins while helping Rudolph to maintain our #1 market share position in this rapidly growing sector,” said Jost.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. However, the company noted that the asset purchase agreement includes an earn-out contingency that, if met, would bring the total transaction value to approximately $10 million. The company also noted that it expects the transaction to be accretive to earnings within the first 12 months.

Tamar Technology, based in Newbury Park, California, is a precision metrology company specializing in systems for the semiconductor, hard disk drive and medical device industries.  Rudolph provides a full-fab solution through its families of proprietary products that provide critical yield-enhancing information, enabling microelectronic device manufacturers to drive down the costs and time to market of their products.

Cadence Design Systems, Inc. announced today that GLOBALFOUNDRIES has collaborated with Cadence to provide pattern classification data for manufacturing processes of 20 and 14 nanometers. GLOBALFOUNDRIES is using the Cadence Pattern Classification and Pattern Matching Solutions because they enable up to four times faster design for manufacturing (DFM), which is key to improving silicon yield and predictability.

"We have integrated Cadence pattern classification technologies to classify yield detractors into pattern families based on pattern similarity, including inexact patterns, to maximize the efficiency of the pattern matching-based lithography signoff flow called DRC+," said Luigi Capodieci, fellow and senior director of DFM at GLOBALFOUNDRIES. "The innovative DRC+ signoff flow has been successfully used on several 32- and 28nm production IC designs, and we are now using it in today’s most advanced process geometries."

Cadence pattern classification technology allows GLOBALFOUNDRIES to classify hundreds of thousands of yield detractor, process hotspots, and silicon failures into easily usable pattern libraries. Cadence Pattern Search and Matching Analysis are embedded in Cadence Litho Physical Analyzer, Physical Verification System and the unified Virtuoso custom/analog and Encounter Digital Implementation System solutions. This offers GLOBALFOUNDRIES customers the flexibility to leverage the in-design signoff pattern matching and automatic fixing available in Encounter and Virtuoso, which correlates 100 percent with the full-chip signoff flow and has successfully been used on advanced node production chips.

For GLOBALFOUNDRIES customers using Cadence design tools, the silicon-proven DFM flow is easy to use and integrates seamlessly with Cadence custom, digital, and full-chip signoff flows. The integration of pattern matching-based DRC+ into the Virtuoso Layout Suite enables a powerful, correct-by-construction methodology and enables sophisticated avoidance and auto-fixing of bad patterns. Encounter Digital Implementation System has been able to accurately and quickly find and fix 100 percent of the DRC+ violations without introducing additional DRC or DRC+ violations, and has been successfully used on several 28nm designs.

Morgan Advanced Materials has joined SEMATECH’s International SEMATECH Manufacturing Initiative (ISMI), a program designed to improve semiconductor equipment manufacturing productivity, yield, and cost. Morgan Advanced Materials will help develop process variation solutions to improve availability and process control across 200mm and 300mm semiconductor manufacturing facilities, while allowing for forward-compatibility with 450mm.

As a member of SEMATECH’s Manufacturing Technology Program, Morgan will collaborate with ISMI engineers to develop and introduce new material solutions that will help to significantly extend the life of chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) pads, CMP conditioners, as well as electrostatic chucks. The partnership will further the development of processing solutions for effective CMP processing, including pad conditioning, to eliminate legacy high-volume manufacturing issues, shorten pad break-in time, and extend pad life of soft-pad textures.

“We are excited to collaborate with ISMI on innovative technology development to help address current and future technology challenges for both CMP and electrostatic chuck design,” said Daniel Manoukian, general manager of Morgan’s Allentown, PA site. “These projects will enable high-volume manufacturing of 10nm devices and improve manufacturing for current technologies. As the complexity of the technology increases, innovations in pad conditioner materials to control pad textures are essential for successful manufacturing.”

Morgan Advanced Materials’ Phoenix edge CMP conditioner uses a unique design consisting of an engineered substrate with CVD diamond coating, which produces a uniform fine-textured pad surface that is essential for advance nodes.  This unique conditioner design increases pad life by five times compared to standard gritted conditioners. Morgan expects the partnership with ISMI will help solve critical technology challenges, ultimately resulting in manufacturing advancements for the semiconductor industry.

“Electrostatic chucks are a major cost-of-ownership issue for vacuum tools and Morgan has introduced advancements in both new surface ceramics and bonding techniques, along with an entirely new style of pad conditioner," said Bill Ross, ISMI project manager. “We look forward to working closely with Morgan in a collaborative effort to find methods to develop a quicker pad break-in and increased texture control that will improve manufacturing efficiencies and cost-of-ownership.”

Morgan Advanced Materials is a global materials engineering company that offers a wide range of high specification engineered products with extraordinary properties. The company has a global presence with over 10,000 employees across 50 countries serving specialist markets in the energy, transport, healthcare, electronics, petrochemical and industrial sectors.  It is listed on the London Stock Exchange in the engineering sector.

Infineon Technologies and GLOBALFOUNDRIES Inc. today announced a joint technology development and production agreement for 40nm embedded flash (eFlash) process technology. The cooperation will focus on technology development based on Infineon’s eFlash cell design and manufacturing of automotive and security microcontrollers (MCUs) with 40nm process structures. Production of the next generation 40nm eFlash MCUs will take place at different GLOBALFOUNDRIES sites, initially in Singapore with subsequent transfer to its site in Dresden, Germany.

“Next generation embedded Flash microcontrollers with 40nm process structures will further enhance our competitive strength in the automotive as well as chip card and security markets,” says Arunjai Mittal, Member of the Management Board of Infineon Technologies. “We trust in GLOBALFOUNDRIES with their excellent manufacturing background and sites on different continents to fulfill Infineon’s stringent quality, infrastructure security and business continuity requirements.”

“Infineon’s decision to choose GLOBALFOUNDRIES as the foundry partner for the 40nm embedded Flash technology node recognizes our unique ability to offer one-foundry-solutions supported by multiple fabs in different geographies,” says Ajit Manocha, CEO GLOBALFOUNDRIES. “We are committed to providing leading-edge technology and manufacturing capabilities required to support Infineon’s business. We are looking forward to a long-term collaboration with Infineon and to contribute to their success in a very dynamic industry.”

This agreement with GLOBALFOUNDRIES is consistent with Infineon’s strategy to engage in technology co-development for CMOS-based technologies in 65nm and below. Process and product qualification for security microcontrollers is planned for the second half of 2015. Automotive microcontroller production start is scheduled for the first half of 2017.

Infineon and GLOBALFOUNDRIES have a longstanding relationship in development and manufacturing, including joint development and manufacturing of CMOS-based low-power mobile phone products.

GLOBALFOUNDRIES is the world’s first full-service semiconductor foundry. Launched in March 2009, the company quickly achieved scale as the second largest foundry in the world. With operations in Singapore, Germany and the United States, GLOBALFOUNDRIES is the only foundry that offers the flexibility and security of 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. GLOBALFOUNDRIES is owned by the Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC).

Infineon Technologies AG, Neubiberg, Germany, offers semiconductor and system solutions addressing three central challenges to modern society: energy efficiency, mobility, and security. In the 2012 fiscal year (ending September 30), the Company reported sales of Euro 3.9 billion with close to 26,700 employees worldwide. Infineon is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (ticker symbol: IFX) and in the USA on the over-the-counter market OTCQX International Premier (ticker symbol: IFNNY).

Renesas Electronics Corporation, a supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, this week announced the development of the R2A25110KSP intelligent power device of isolated IGBT driver for use in electric and hybrid vehicle power inverters. Incorporating newly developed micro-isolator isolation technology exclusive to Renesas Electronics, the R2A25110KSP makes it possible to build more highly reliable and compact systems for today’s demanding automotive applications.

Inverters that drive the electric motors in electric and hybrid vehicles comprise a power module employing motor drive elements such as IGBTs and a control circuit block with electrical isolation between the low-voltage drive electronics and the high-voltage power electronics. The market growth of power inverters has driven power modules to become even more compact to reduce size, weight and overall cost of the system. Demand is growing for solutions that integrate the isolation elements and IGBT driver circuits to enable an even greater reduction in power module size to meet the ever-increasing push for lower cost and higher performance.

The R2A25110KSP has a built-in isolation feature called “Micro-Isolator,” an isolated signal transmission technology exclusive to Renesas that uses a coreless transformer configuration. Designed for automotive applications with severe ambient temperature conditions, this device has a rated channel temperature of 150°C (max.). The R2A25110KSP delivers fast switching capacity with low dispersion (meaning that the range of characteristic values is narrow), for improved efficiency in motor drive applications. In addition, capability of IGBT drive is two to four times better than that of comparable products (impedance in on state: 1.0 Ω max.), allowing direct IGBT drive without external transistors. This reduction in external components makes it possible to decrease the PCB footprint area and use a more compact inverter control board design.

IGBT devices are used in parallel as drive elements in inverter systems. In many HEV/EV applications, two IGBT devices are connected in parallel to drive a large capacity motor. Therefore, the inverter system should detect both the IGBT abnormal conditions such as over-current and/or over-temperature and avoid them. Conventional isolated IGBT drivers, however, have only one over-current protection and/or one over-temperature protection; this requires larger circuit board area.

The R2A25110KSP integrates both methods, enabling protection for both IGBTs without increasing circuit area.

IGBT chip temperature monitor for enhanced system reliability. The IGBT chip temperature monitor circuit monitors the temperature of both IGBTs continuously and also feeds back the higher one to the MCU via Micro-Isolator. The temperature can be calculated from the duty ratio of the pulse. Other functions that are integrated include active Miller clamp and soft turn-off. The active Miller clamp prevents false turn-on when an IGBT is in off state, and soft turn-off of  the IGBT gradually when an abnormal state such as over-current occurs. This IGBT turn-off function can avoid an over-voltage spike across the IGBT caused by lead and wire inductances. These features result in a higher performance-to-cost ratio in terms of smaller system footprint, better performance and improved system reliability.

Renesas is working to strengthen its product lineup in the field of three-phase motors for automotive applications. The company is expanding its active sales efforts for total solutions combining components such as MCUs and power devices.

Renesas is also moving forward with the planning and development of additional “micro-isolated” future products that meet the isolation requirements of automotive systems while additionally integrating other functionality.

Global macroeconomic developments and technological advances, personal computers, and memory markets are expected to drive demand over the forecast period, Research and Markets predicts in their report, “Global Semiconductor Industry 2012-2017: Trend, Profit and Forecast Analysis.”

The global semiconductor industry is a fragmented market, according to the report. The Asia Pacific (APAC) region dominates this market and represents approximately three-fourths of the global market. Some of the major players include Intel Corporation, Samsung Electronics, Taiwan Semiconductor, Texas Instruments, and Toshiba Corporation. The combination of factors such as continuing transfer of worldwide electronic equipment production to China and the above-average semiconductor content of that equipment influences market dynamics tremendously.

The study indicates that there is increasing demand for semiconductors from the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) economies due to increasing end-use electronic product demand. The demand for laptops, notebooks, and tablet computers has overtaken the demand for desktop computers due to their advantages such as low cost, portability, and variety. Some of the industry challenges include the economic cycle, which may have the strongest negative influence on semiconductor industry growth. The Rest of the World is the emerging market for the industry due to the increase in the growth of automotive and consumer electronics and huge opportunities in developing countries.

Lucintel’s report provides an overview of the global semiconductor industry, tracking two market segments of the industry in four geographic regions. Thus, eight segments of the global semiconductor industry are tracked. The report studies manufacturers of integrated circuit segment and optoelectronic-sensor-discrete segment, providing a five-year annual trend analysis that highlights market size, profit and cost structure for North America, Europe, APAC, and ROW. The report also provides forecast, addressing market opportunities for next five years for each of these regions.

The global markets for digital power supplies and digital power integrated circuits (ICs) are projected to boom from 2013 to 2017, as their use in IT infrastructure increases and as the technology expands into lighting and consumer-oriented applications including PCs, appliances and cellphones.

Global market revenue for digital power supplies will rise to $12.4 billion in 2017, more than three times the $3.7 billion predicted for 2013, according to a new report entitled, “The World Market for Digital Power” from IMS Research, now part of IHS. Revenue this year will soar 37 percent from $2.7 billion in 2012, as shown in the figure below. Explosive growth in digital power ICs is also forecast with revenues increasing more than fivefold from 2013 to reach $2.6 billion in 2017.

digital power market growth

“The digital power market is currently one of the fastest-growing segments of the power management industry,” said Jonathon Eykyn, power supply and energy storage analyst at IHS. “Early adopters of digital power components include information technology and communications infrastructure applications such as servers and telecommunications/data-communications equipment. But now digital power is also entering the consumer realm, as other sectors adopt digital power solutions.”

Digital power trip

Manufacturers at present mainly employ analog power-management systems. However, they are migrating to digital technology because of its flexibility and programmability, which leads to increased performance and reliability. This will reduce hardware complexity, cutting the amount of time and effort to design systems and ultimately lowering the cost of electronic systems.

“Digital power can reduce the overall bill-of-materials cost by reducing the number of discrete components, reducing the overall footprint, increasing power density and providing the capability to monitor as well as optimize power levels and system requirements while in operation,” Eykyn said. “All this can help accelerate time to market for a range of products.”

Power to the people

Severs are now the largest single market for digital power, accounting for an expected 33 percent of market revenue in 2013. This segment will rise at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 44.8 percent from 2012 to 2017.

The fastest-growing application for digital power will be lighting, with the segment anticipated to expand at a CAGR of 146 percent from 2012 to 2017. The increase will be driven by the rising usage of light-emitting diode (LED) lighting solutions, which lend themselves to digital power control and monitoring.

Meanwhile, digital power in notebooks and tablet PCs will rise at 99 and 82 percent CAGR, respectively, during the same period. Major home appliances will surge by 76 percent and cellphones will increase by 52 percent.

Power chips for power players

The rise of digital power supplies will fuel the rapid growth in the market of associated semiconductors.

The digital power IC market is projected to grow at a faster rate than the digital power supply market, because the chips are used in end equipment at the board level and also in digital power supplies.

Money and power

One obstacle to even faster adoption of digital power supplies is their perceived expense.

A total of 27 percent of manufacturers and designers surveyed by IHS indicated that cost is still the largest barrier in the market.

This highlights the lack of knowledge from some potential implementers regarding the overall cost savings that digital solutions can provide, and shows that there is still some way to go in educating designers at electronics manufacturers.