Category Archives: Semiconductors

Adapteva introduces Parallella University Program

August 12, 2013

Advanced semiconductor and computer manufacturer Adapteva today introduced its Parallella University Program (PUP) for academic institutions that conduct leading parallel programing research and/or education. The program is designed so universities can access inexpensive and open parallel computing hardware. Institutions participating in the PUP program will receive free hardware and developmental software specifically focused on parallel computing. The first offering via the PUP program will be the Parallella-16 computer, Adapteva’s breakthrough credit-card sized multicore processing platform.

To kick off the program, Adapteva is donating one Parallella-16 platform for each 100 units sold via the Adapteva online store. Universities eligible for the PUP must be actively involved in parallel computing research and education.

The Parallella platform, equipped with Adapteva’s energy-efficient Epiphany multicore processor and the Xilinx Zynq-7000 All Programmable SoCs that includes a dual-core ARM A9 CPU. The whole board is the size of a credit-card, consumes less than 5 Watts under typical workloads and has a $99 entry level price point. Adapteva’s Parallella was launched in a successful Kickstarter campaign in late 2012 and recently opened orders for the general public.

“The present and future of computing is clearly parallel but the world is still struggling with the transition from the serial computing model that has served it well for decades,” said Andreas Olofsson, CEO of Adapteva. “We created the Parallella platform to help make the world’s first open and affordable platform for the development of massively parallel programs. With the Parallella University Program we want to do our part to help accelerate the transition to parallel computing.”

Adapteva invites other companies dedicated to advancing education and research in the area of parallel computing to join the Parallella University Program and match Adapteva’s donation.

Diving deep â because materials matter

August 8, 2013

We hope you had a productive and enjoyable time at SEMICON West. Despite the lackluster marketplace, this year’s SEMICON West achieved a 15 percent increase in unique visitors and over an 18 percent increase in R&D titles. We were also happy to see such strong attendance at the keynotes, executive panels and TechXPOT stages, confirming our claim that SEMICON West delivers the most well-informed and influential speakers (and audience) in the industry.

Isola introduces very low-loss materials

August 8, 2013

Isola Group S.a.r.l. today announced Astra, the company’s breakthrough very low-loss dielectric constant (Dk) product for millimeter wave frequencies and beyond. Astra revolutionizes RF and microwave designs, as it delivers a thermoset solution, which is very easy to process and has stable electrical properties over a wide range of temperatures and frequencies.

The lead-free Astra laminate materials exhibit exceptional electrical properties that are constant over a broad frequency and temperature range. Astra features a Dk that is stable between 55 degrees Celsius and +125 degrees Celsius. In addition, Astra offers a lower dissipation factor (Df) of 0.0017, making it an extremely cost-effective alternative to PTFE and other commercial microwave laminate materials.

"Astra enables up to a 50 percent lower cost of ownership because of its processing advantages and lower price point. The product requires a press cycle that is roughly one-half that of competitive products and processing temperatures below 200 degrees Celsius, making it compatible with a wide range of hybrid products," stated Tarun Amla, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Isola Group.

Astra does not require the use of plasma cleaning, an offline and expensive PCB hole-wall preparation process. Astra also enables lower drilling costs, as its unfilled system provides easier drilling and extends drill life. It is available in all glass styles and thickness configurations, which eliminates the barriers to board thickness. Astra also demonstrates a high-peel strength, which enables use of special copper types to deliver very-low passive intermodulation numbers.

Astra is suitable for many of today’s commercial RF/microwave printed circuit designs that operate at 24 GHz. and 77 GHz frequencies. Key applications include long antennas and such radar applications for automobiles as adaptive cruise control, collision avoidance, blind spot detection, lane departure warning and stop-and-go systems.

TriQuint acquires CAP Wireless

August 8, 2013

TriQuint Semiconductor, Inc., a RF solutions supplier, today announced that it has acquired CAP Wireless, Newbury Park, CA, and its patented Spatium RF power combining technology that replaces traveling wave tube amplifiers (TWTAs) in communications and defense systems. TriQuint estimates that the TWTA market opportunity will be about $600 million by 2015.

The combined company now offers a wider selection of high power / high frequency products. CAP Wireless’ Spatium technology adds to the exceptional bandwidth, efficiency and ruggedness of TriQuint’s product portfolio.

Spatium technology dramatically improves broadband RF power efficiency through the use of patented coaxial spatial combining techniques. Spatium provides other performance advantages including solid-state reliability, smaller form factors, higher power densities and reduced weight compared to either TWTA-based systems or conventional planar power combining products. Spatium can provide faster time-to-market and can seamlessly incorporate GaN MMIC performance breakthroughs while reducing product lifecycle costs.

TriQuint Vice President and General Manager for Infrastructure and Defense Products, James L. Klein, noted that TriQuint’s acquisition of CAP Wireless merges a unique approach to high power RF amplifier system design with the benefits of TriQuint GaN device technology.

“CAP Wireless initially developed its Spatium amplifier platform using gallium arsenide-based (GaAs) MMICs. GaN-based products from TriQuint can elevate Spatium to new levels of efficiency, power density, frequency coverage and output power.”

TriQuint will focus Spatium technology development as a solution for high efficiency power applications in commercial and defense markets, including electronic warfare (EW), communications and radar.

TriQuint is continuing operation of CAP Wireless product sales and contracts while it develops new devices based on Spatium technology using TriQuint GaN and GaAs MMIC amplifiers.

Appleâs shift in chip manufacturing strategy boosts semiconductor foundry business

August 8, 2013

apple logo In an illustration of the massive power it wields in the electronics supply chain, Apple Inc.’s migration of the production of key semiconductors from Samsung to pure-play foundries will single-handedly boost the growth of the chip contract manufacturing market this year.

By the end of the year, pure-play semiconductor foundry market revenue is forecast to rise 21 percent compared to 2012, according to the new IHS report entitled: “Low-Cost Tablet Processor Market Computes New Growth” from information and analytics provider IHS.

In contrast, takings for the overall semiconductor industry will expand by a more staid 5 percent.

The pure-play foundry industry is already on track to achieve such growth this year, with revenue amounting to $8.2 billion in the first quarter, up 4 percent from $7.9 billion in the fourth quarter last year, as shown in the attached figure. In comparison, the overall semiconductor market was down by 5 percent during the same period.

The foundry segment is also believed to have outperformed the rest of the industry in the second quarter when final figures are released, and then go on to perform strongly for the second half.

Pure-play foundries are companies that exclusively perform contract manufacturing of chips for other semiconductor suppliers. Major companies in the pure-play foundry business include Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. and United Microelectronics Corp.

Apple takes apps processor business elsewhere

“The growth outlook for the pure-play foundry business has risen considerably in anticipation of Apple’s transition of its applications processor chip manufacturing to third-party manufacturers,” said Len Jelinek, director and chief analyst of semiconductor manufacturing at IHS. “Previously, Apple had relied on Samsung as the primary supplier of applications processor chips for the iPhone and iPad. However, Samsung is not considered a pure-play foundry. Instead, it is designated as an integrated device manufacturer (IDM)—a chip supplier that not only builds products but also possesses design capabilities and sells devices under its own brand name, functions not performed by foundries.”

Apple already has its own designs and does not need an IDM for its chips to be made, so it can just as easily move its semiconductors to a foundry.

“However, Apple’s anticipated shift is also the result of its well-publicized tiffs with Samsung over patent infringements on both makers’ smartphones that have strained relationships between the two,” Jelinek added.

Moving forward, Apple is likely to use a producer like TSMC, the largest foundry in the business, with $16.9 billion in revenue for 2012.

Wireless on the rise

While the overall semiconductor industry continues to be heavily dependent on components sold to the PC market, foundry players have hitched their revenue prospects to the rising fortunes of the wireless segment. As a result, revenue for foundries has been expanding steadily, while that for the overall chip industry has been less assured.

Threats and risks ahead

Although strong growth is projected in 2013 for foundry suppliers, several concerns abound that foundry players must monitor throughout the year.

Foundry suppliers must be aware of the global economy, as well as the inventory that their clients maintain. Should the world market sputter, consumer demand for electronic products will weaken, thereby impacting chip makers and foundries alike. If inventory grows out of control for foundry clients as it did in the second half of 2012, manufacturing run rates for foundries could decline significantly for the remaining six months of 2013 as their customers hold back on chip orders.

A rising threat to foundries is also coming from IDMs like Samsung and chipmaker Intel. For the first time, the top foundry suppliers are facing technological competition from IDMs—which means that the leading foundries are no longer in competition with just one another.

As several IDMs attempt to revamp their manufacturing models and move to new and more efficient lithographies, incumbent foundries will be forced to accelerate internal technology development. The race between the two rival groups will result in a shortening of technology cycles and fierce competition among participants. A company unsuccessful in execution will inevitably lose important market share and be weakened, or worse, forced out, IHS believes.

Ultimately the consumer will be the winner. Technological developments will provide designers the ability to integrate multiple functions onto a chip, offered at a unit cost that results in cheaper, yet more powerful consumer products.

Magnetic switching simplified

August 7, 2013

An international team of researchers has described a new physical effect that could be used to develop more efficient magnetic chips for information processing. The quantum mechanical effect makes it easier to produce spin-polarized currents necessary for the switching of magnetically stored information. The research findings were published online on 28 July in the high-impact journal Nature Nanotechnology.

Random-access memory is the short-term memory in computers. It buffers the programs and files currently in use in electronic form, in numerous tiny capacitors. As capacitors discharge over time, they have to be recharged regularly to ensure that no data are lost. This costs time and energy, and an unplanned power failure can result in data being lost for good.

Magnetic Random Access Memories (MRAMs), on the other hand, store information in tiny magnetic areas. This is a fast process that functions without a continuous power supply. In spite of this, MRAMs have yet to be implemented on a large scale, as their integration density is still too low, and they use too much energy, are difficult to produce, and cost too much.

One reason for this is that spin-polarized currents, or spin currents for short, are needed to switch the magnetic areas of the MRAMs. Spin is the intrinsic angular momentum of electrons that gives materials their magnetic properties, and it can point in two directions. Spin currents are electric currents that possess only one of these two spin types. Similar to the way in which the Earth’s magnetic field affects the needle of a compass, a current of one of the spin types influences a magnetic layer and can cause it to flip.

To produce spin currents up to now, the desired spin type was filtered from normal electric current. This required special filter structures and high current densities. Thanks to the new effect identified by researchers from Jülich, Barcelona, Grenoble, and Zurich, magnetic information could now be switched more easily.

"We no longer need spin filters. Instead, we produce the spin current directly where it will be used. All that is needed is a layer stack made of cobalt and platinum," says Dr. Frank Freimuth from the Peter Grünberg Institute and the Institute for Advanced Simulation at Forschungszentrum Jülich. This reduces the amount of space required, makes the system more robust, and may simplify the production of magnetic chips.

An electric current, conducted through the stack at the interface, separates the spins in the platinum layer and transports only one spin type into the magnetic cobalt layer. This creates a torque in this layer that can reverse the magnetization. "Spin torques had already been observed in double layer systems in the past," says the physicist, who is part of the Young Investigators Group on Topical Nanoelectronics headed by Prof. Yuriy Mokrousov. "The fact that we have conclusively explained for the first time how they are created is a scientific breakthrough, because this will enable us to produce them selectively and investigate them in more detail."

The researchers identified two mechanisms that combine to produce the new effect, which they have dubbed ‘spin-orbit torque’: spin-orbit coupling and the exchange interaction. Spin-orbit coupling is a well-known relativistic quantum phenomenon and the reason why all electron spins of one type move from the platinum to the cobalt layer. Within the cobalt layer, the layer’s magnetic orientation then interacts with the spins via the exchange interaction.

The researchers tested their theory successfully in experiments. Their next step is to calculate the effect in other materials with stronger spin-torque coupling to find out whether the effect is even more apparent in other material combinations.

Second quarter shows increase in silicon wafer shipments

August 7, 2013

Worldwide silicon wafer area shipments increased during the second quarter 2013 when compared to first quarter 2013 area shipments, according to the SEMI Silicon Manufacturers Group (SMG) in its quarterly analysis of the silicon wafer industry.

Total silicon wafer area shipments were 2,390 million square inches during the most recent quarter, a 12.3 percent increase from the 2,128 million square inches shipped during the previous quarter. New quarterly total area shipments are 2.3 percent lower than second quarter 2012 shipments.

"Total quarterly silicon shipment volumes accelerated in the most recent quarter in contrast to the first quarter” said Byungseop (Brad) Hong, chairman of SEMI SMG and director of Global Marketing at LG Siltron. “As such, silicon shipment volumes for the first half of this year are trending at a slightly higher level than the first half of 2012.”

Quarterly Silicon Area Shipment Trends
Semiconductor Silicon Shipments* – Millions of Square Inches

	*Million of Square Inches*
	*Q2 2012*	*Q1 2013*	*Q2 2013*
*TOTAL*	2,447	2,128	2,390

*Shipments are for semiconductor applications only and do not include solar applications

Silicon wafers are the fundamental building material for semiconductors, which in turn, are vital components of virtually all electronics goods, including computers, telecommunications products, and consumer electronics. The highly engineered thin round disks are produced in various diameters (from one inch to 12 inches) and serve as the substrate material on which most semiconductor devices or "chips" are fabricated.

All data cited in this release is inclusive of polished silicon wafers, including virgin test wafers, epitaxial silicon wafers, and non-polished silicon wafers shipped by the wafer manufacturers to the end-users.

The Silicon Manufacturers Group acts as an independent special interest group within the SEMI structure and is open to SEMI members involved in manufacturing polycrystalline silicon, monocrystalline silicon or silicon wafers (e.g., as cut, polished, epi, etc.). The purpose of the group is to facilitate collective efforts on issues related to the silicon industry including the development of market information and statistics about the silicon industry and the semiconductor market.

SEMI is the global industry association serving the nano- and micro-electronic manufacturing supply chains.

Compact linear piezo nanopositioning stage

August 7, 2013

PI (Physik Instrumente) L.P., a manufacturer of nanopositioning equipment — offers the LPS-45 series of piezo positioning stages manufactured by PI subsidiary PI miCos.

This low profile linear translation stage is driven by a PIshift inertia-type piezo motor. The closed-loop stage is equipped with a high precision optical linear encoder providing for nanometer-level repeatability. An open-loop version and vacuum compatible and non-magnetic versions are also offered.

The PIShift piezo inertia drive is very quiet, due to its high operating frequency of 20 kHz. It provides high holding forces of 10 N. The drive principle works similar to the classic tablecloth trick, a cyclical alternation of static and sliding friction between a moving runner and the drive element.

When at rest, the maximum clamping force is available, with no holding current and consequently no heat generation.

PI provides a large variety of nanopositioning stages, based on several piezo-motor techniques, as well as classical electromagnetic drives.

Despite the very low profile of only 0.8” (20 mm) and compact dimensions, the stage offers a standard travel range of 30 mm (1.2”) and can be scaled up for longer travels, if needed.

PI’s precision linear translation stages are of great value for precision alignment in photonics, semiconductor, bio/nanotech applications as well as in scientific research.

Peregrine Semiconductor and LG team up for antenna tuning in Optimus G Pro smartphone

August 7, 2013

Peregrine Semiconductor Corporation, a fabless provider of high-performance radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs), and LG Electronics today announced they have teamed up to develop the high-performance antenna tuning design solution in the LG Optimus G Pro smartphone that was recently introduced to the Korean market. The Optimus G Pro features a 5.5-inch full High Definition (HD) In-Plane Switching (IPS) display—the largest display available on a LG smartphone—and it is a mere 9.4 mm thick, meeting the growing demand for smartphones with large screens in a thin-and-slim form factor. Peregrine’s DuNE technology optimizes the performance of the main antenna by bringing the best of what its UltraCMOS and DuNE technologies offer—namely, optimized handset efficiency, data rate, call integrity, and battery life. By enabling one antenna to more efficiently cover multiple frequency bands, the DuNE-based tuning solution enables the Optimus G Pro to support a subset of the more than 40 frequency bands available with 4G LTE.

“Peregrine is thrilled to announce that we have teamed up with industry giant LG for their latest offering,” said Dylan Kelly, vice president of Peregrine’s Mobile Wireless Solutions business unit. “LG continues to develop innovative products for the premium LTE smartphone market, and the release of the Optimus G Pro in Korea is the latest example. Teaming up with LG further validates that Peregrine’s DuNE technology is ideal for 4G LTE smartphones.”

Nanotechnology battery design gets boost from aligned carbon nanotubes

August 7, 2013

Researchers at North Carolina State University have created a new flexible nano-scaffold for rechargeable lithium ion batteries that could help make cell phone and electric car batteries last longer.

The research, published in Advanced Materials ("Aligned Carbon Nanotube-Silicon Sheets: A Novel Nano-architecture for Flexible Lithium Ion Battery Electrodes"), shows the potential of manufactured sheets of aligned carbon nanotubes coated with silicon, a material with a much higher energy storage capacity than the graphite composites typically used in lithium ion batteries.

“Putting silicon into batteries can produce a huge increase in capacity—10 times greater,” said Dr. Philip Bradford, assistant professor of textile engineering, chemistry and science at NC State. “But adding silicon can also create 10 times the problems.”

One significant challenge in using silicon is that it swells as lithium ion batteries discharge. As the batteries cycle, silicon can break off from the electrode and float around (known as pulverization) instead of staying in place, making batteries less stable.

When the silicon-coated carbon nanotubes were aligned in one direction like a layer of drinking straws laid end to end, the structure allowed for controlled expansion so that the silicon is less prone to pulverization, said Xiangwu Zhang, associate professor of textile engineering, chemistry and science at NC State.

“There’s a huge demand for batteries for cell phones and electric vehicles, which need higher energy capacity for longer driving distances between charges,” Zhang said. “We believe this carbon nanotube scaffolding potentially has the ability to change the industry, although technical aspects will have to be worked out. The manufacturing process we’re using is scalable and could work well in commercial production.”