Category Archives: Top Story Right

March 19, 2012 — Semiconductor fab equipment supplier SUSS MicroTec launched the RCD8 manual resist coat and develop platform for R&D and low-volume use in micro electro mechanical system (MEMS), semiconductor packaging, light-emitting diode (LED) and other applications.

The RCD8 can convert from a spin coater, with the proprietary GYRSET closed cover coating technology, to a spray developer. The convertion takes minutes. Install options range from basic manual operation to semi-automated to puddle & spray developer.

The processes developed on the manual RCD8 are easily transitioned to a SUSS MicroTec production tool.

The RCD8 combines SUSS’ multiple dedicated Delta Series tools that served specific applications in MEMS, advanced packaging, and LED fab or the R&D market. All necessary coating and developing processes for these applications are incorporated.

The GYRSET rotating closed cover coating option can be integrated into the RCD8 spin coating module to widen the process window and reduce consummables use on various photoresists and applications. GYRSET allows square substrates and pieces to be coated with a homogenous resist thickness.

Various options can be added in the field to adapt with process changes. The RCD8 hosts a large variety of available chucks and configurations.

SUSS MicroTec, listed on TecDAX of Deutsche Boerse AG, is a leading supplier of equipment and process solutions for microstructuring in the semiconductor industry and related markets. For more information, please visit http://www.suss.com.

Subscribe to Solid State Technology

March 16, 2012 — The Great East Japan Earthquake, March 11, 2011 off Sendai, was "a Darwinian event" for the micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS) market, says IHS. The MEMS supply chain came out of the disaster much richer, more diverse, and better positioned for growth, shows the IHS iSuppli MEMS & Sensors Service.

Also read: Japan 1 year after the earthquake: Supply chain lessons
 
The majority of MEMS operations in Japan escaped damage, but the global business impact of the earthquake was significant, said Richard Dixon, principal analyst for MEMS & sensors at IHS. In light of the threat of supply disruptions, some MEMS buyers diversified their supplier bases, reducing reliance on a small pool of sole sources in Japan, he added. The result? A more secure supply chain, and new opportunities for MEMS suppliers globally.

Japan accounted for about 33% of global MEMS sensor market revenue at the time of the earthquake last year. Despite this, only 5 MEMS-related production facilities were directly affected, located in the northeast of the country (see map): Freescale Semiconductor’s accelerometer facility in Sendai; Canon’s MEMS printhead fab in Fukushima; Texas Instruments’ DLP wafer site in Miho; Seiko Epson’s printhead, gyroscope and microphone fab in Sakata; and Micronics Japan Corp.’s MEMS wafer probe operations.

Map. Locations of major MEMS and digital compass fabs in Japan. SOURCE: IHS iSuppli March 2012.

Knowles Acoustics is one example of the supply chain strengthening that took place after Japan’s quake. Last year, Knowles shipped 41% of all microphones — MEMS and others — for cellphones. The company had a single MEMS supplier for its advanced microphones, despite several years using MEMS technology, foundry partner Sony Kyushu in Japan. No other MEMS supplier could have met Knowles’ volume needs if Sony Kyushu had been damaged in the quake (The fab, located on Japan’s southern island of Kyushu, was not damaged).

With the supply chain threat recognized, Knowles is now looking to diversify its MEMS supply base and add an additional source, according to IHS iSuppli information. With two sources, Knowles is likely to attract more cellphone original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), securing more business alongside a more reliable supply chain.

Another example of supply chain concentration was the concentration (97%) in Japan of digital compass production. The total market for electronic compasses was $400+ million in 2011, with the majority coming from 4 Japanese companies: AKM, Yamaha, Aichi Steel and ALPS. If any of the 4 companies’ fabs had been quake-affected, the digital compass supply would have severely faltered. Three of the four plants are located furthest south on the island of Kyushu, including AKM, the largest supplier with 70% market share in 2011. AKM has a general policy of mitigating risk by employing multiple suppliers.

Certain sensor suppliers for automotive applications had a more difficult time following the quake. An estimated 24% of the global automotive MEMS sensors market comes from Japanese companies. The biggest suppliers in this area are Denso and Panasonic. Denso, which makes accelerometers and pressure sensors for Honda and Toyota, showed a Q2 2011 shortfall of $850 million, although it completely recovered in the subsequent quarter.

OEMs like Toyota, Honda and Nissan did an amazing job of damage containment by finding new sources and mitigating the disruptions caused by the earthquake or associated infrastructure-related events like blackouts. Unfortunately, Japanese automotive OEMs were also hit by the Thailand floods in November 2011, impacting much of the resourcing work up to that point.

IHS iSuppli MEMS & Sensors Service can be accessed at http://www.isuppli.com/MEMS-and-Sensors/Pages/Products.aspx. IHS iSuppli’s market intelligence helps technology companies achieve market leadership.

View recent issues of the MEMS Direct newsletter

March 15, 2012 — VLSIresearch released its 2011 Top Semiconductor Equipment suppliers rankings, noting important acquisitions and strong spending in lithography tools in 2011. Semiconductor equipment spending was driven by aggressive capacity expansion in the foundry and logic sectors, mostly driven by mobile device production.

Also read: Semiconductor manufacturing equipment sales rose 9% in 2011

Capacity expansions in the memory sector were limited; strong pricing pressure reduced profitability for memory suppliers, prohibiting expansion.

Table. 2011 top semiconductor equipment suppliers (Worldwide sales, semiconductor equipment and service, $M). SOURCE: VLSIresearch inc Chip Market Research Services.
2011
rank		 Location Company 2011 sales
1 EU ASML 7877.1
2 NA Applied Materials* 7437.8
3 JA Tokyo Electron 6203.3
4 NA KLA-Tencor 3106.2
5 NA Lam Research 2804.1
6 JA Dainippon Screen Mfg. Co. 2104.9
7 JA Nikon Corporation 1645.5
8 JA Advantest** 1446.7
9 EU ASM International 1443.0
10 NA Novellus Systems 1318.7
11 JA Hitachi High-Technologies 1138.7
12 NA Teradyne 1106.2
13 NA Varian Semiconductor Equipment*** 1096.3
14 JA Hitachi Kokusai Electric 838.4
15 NA Kulicke & Soffa 780.9
Total top 15   40347.7
Year-over-year
growth		   13%
* Applied Materials (AMAT) includes Varian revenues for Nov 1 to Dec 31, 2011.
** Advantest includes Verigy’s revenues from July 1 to Dec 31, 2011.
*** Varian includes revenues as an independent company from Jan 1 to Oct 31, 2011.
(2011 Exchange rates).

Lithography spending enabled ASML to become the largest equipment supplier. ASML and fellow lithography equipment supplier Nikon grew 27% combined. Overall, the top 15 semiconductor equipment suppliers grew 13% in 2011.

Mergers & acqusitions: Advantest closed the Verigy acquisition in July; Applied Materials acquired Varian Semiconductor in November.

Japanese equipment suppliers recorded higher than average growth rates, with Advantest out front with 28% sales increase in 2011. Advantest saw the large increase thanks to its Verigy acquisition, and strong SOC test equipment sales in North America.

VLSIresearch inc provides market research and economic analysis on the technical, business, and economic aspects within nanotechnology and related industries. Website: http://www.vlsiresearch.com.

Subscribe to Solid State Technology

March 15, 2012 — Worldwide television shipments fell in 2011, the first decline since NPD DisplaySearch began tracking global TV shipments in 2004. 247.7 million TVs shipped, a drop-off of 0.3% year over year (Y/Y). LCD TV shipments rose 7% (205M units), which was not enough to offset declines of 7% in plasma TV shipments and 34% in CRT TVs.

LCD panel TVs had seen double digit growth in previous years. 2011’s numbers were "well below industry expectations," said Paul Gagnon, NPD DisplaySearch Director of North America TV Research. Causes? Excessive inventory levels early in 2011 across the US and Europe and a sharp drop in Japanese demand from Eco-Points replacement incentives, which ended in 2010.

LCD TVs’ shipment share increased to a record 86.5% of global TV shipments in Q4 2011, up from 83% in Q3 and 82% one year ago. LCD TV shipment growth is strongest in larger screen sizes with very aggressively priced models shipping for the holiday season. Shipments of 40" and larger LCD TVs rose 20% Y/Y; sub-40" fell 7%. Average prices for 40/42” LCD TVs were down 11% Y/Y; 60”+ average LCD TV prices were down more than 16% Y/Y.

Plasma TV shipments saw their biggest decline yet in 2011, with a nearly 7% drop to 17.2M units shipped. In Q2 2011, plasma units saw a 6% drop Y/Y, 14% fall-off in Q3, followed by an 8% drop in Q4. This decline demand coincides with a shift to larger screen sizes and focus on greater profitability, with the 50”+ share of plasma TV shipments increasing more than 50% for the first time in Q4 2011.

LED backlight penetration continues to grow slowly, rising above 50% of LCD units for the first time in Q4 2011, although only about 3 percentage points higher than in Q3 2011. The high premium for edge-lit LED LCD TVs is still an inhibitor to adoption, but new low-cost direct-lit LED models arriving in 2012 will help speed adoption.

Table 1: Q4’11 Worldwide TV Shipments by Technology (000s). Source: NPD DisplaySearch Quarterly Global TV Shipment and Forecast Report – Advanced version.
Technology Q4’11 Units Q/Q Growth Y/Y Growth
LCD TV 64,237 24% 1%
PDP TV 5,195 26% -8%
OLED TV 0.1 470% -73%
CRT TV 4,772 -25% -43%
RPTV 32 46% -51%
Total 74,236 19% -4%

Q4 2011 TV shipments were down 4% Y/Y globally to 74.2M units, with a 1% rise in LCD TV shipments, 8% drop in plasma TV units, and 43% plunge in CRTs. A mature-market 21% Y/Y decline was most pronounced in Japan and Western Europe, with only mild growth in North America. TV shipment growth in emerging regions continues to be strong though, increasing 12% Y/Y in Q4 2011, with LCD TV unit shipments rising 20%.

China remained the top region for TV shipments at 21%, unchanged from the previous quarter, totaling 15.6M units for the quarter and 49M units for the year. China also had strong growth in 2011, with shipments increasing 19% Y/Y in Q4 2011, the highest of any region. More than 90% of TV sets in the region were LCD as of 2011. North America was the second largest region for TV shipments, accounting for 20.5% of shipments in Q4 2011, and was the only developed region to experience Y/Y shipment growth.

3D continues to grow worldwide as a percentage of TV shipments, posting gains in every region, but most impressively in China and Europe. 3D penetration continues to be lackluster in North America, accounting for just 9% of Q4 2011 TV shipments as opposed to 21% in Western Europe and 23% in China. 3D TVs accounted for more than 24M units shipped worldwide in 2011.

Samsung’s global flat panel display (FPD) TV revenue share increased in Q4’11 to 26.3%, which is a record level for any brand and a 3 percentage point increase from Q3 2011. Samsung was also the revenue market share leader in both LCD and plasma. This was the first time that a brand other than Panasonic led in global plasma TV market revenues. Samsung was also the top brand in 3D TV and LED TV shipments. LGE was the #2 brand worldwide at 13.4% and, besides Samsung, was the only other top five TV brand to see revenue growth Y/Y in Q4’11. Sony rounded out the top three at almost 10% revenue share, but saw a more than 30% decline in revenues Y/Y.

Table 2. Q4’11 Worldwide Flat Panel TV Brand Rankings by Revenue Share. Source: NPD DisplaySearch Quarterly Global TV Shipment and Forecast Report – Advanced version.
Rank Brand Q3’11 Share Q4’11 Share Q/Q Growth Y/Y Growth
1 Samsung 23.0% 26.3% 36% 18%
2 LGE 13.0% 13.4% 22% 2%
3 Sony 9.9% 9.8% 18% -34%
4 Panasonic 8.4% 6.9% -2% -19%
5 Sharp 7.5% 5.9% -7% -30%

The NPD DisplaySearch Quarterly Global TV Shipment and Forecast Report includes NPD DisplaySearch TV market intelligence: panel and TV shipments; TV shipments by region, brand, size, resolution, frame rate and backlight type for nearly 60 brands; rolling 16-quarter forecasts; TV cost/price forecasts and design wins. For more information on this report, visit http://www.displaysearch.com/cps/rde/xchg/displaysearch/hs.xsl/quarterly_global_tv_shipment_and_forecast_report.asp NPD DisplaySearch is a global market research and consulting firm specializing in the display supply chain, as well as the emerging photovoltaic/solar cell industries.

March 14, 2012 – PRNewswire — Texas Instruments opened a CA-based research lab for analog and mixed-signal circuits, tapping into local universities for a portion of the research. SMIC is teaming with Brite Semiconductor and Zhejiang University for an IC research program in China. Both aim to develop a "home-grown" and dynamic semiconductor industry workforce.

Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI, NASDAQ:TXN) opened TI Silicon Valley Labs, a research center for analog and mixed-signal electronics that will conduct advanced R&D into circuits and technologies. The lab plans to recruit top talent and collaborate with universities and TI customers.

Advanced research projects ranging from analog signal processing for ultra-low power pattern recognition to re-architecting power management for future cloud servers are under development in the labs.

In addition, TI will work with Stanford University, the University of California Berkeley, and other area universities to strengthen key engineering undergraduate programs. Graduate-level research opportunities will exist on-site at TI’s Lab in Santa Clara, CA. The company is also doubling its internship opportunities for top engineering undergraduate students as well as training programs at TI in Silicon Valley for top new college graduates. Over the last 5 years, TI has invested $9 billion in R&D.

Texas Instruments makes semiconductors. Learn more at www.ti.com.

Photo. TI Silicon Valley Labs in California, USA.

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC, NYSE:SMI, SEHK:0981.HK), an advanced semiconductor foundry in China, is working with IC design and services provider Brite Semiconductor (Shanghai) Corporation and Zhejiang University IC and Basic Software Research Institute on a new IC research program. The prograim aims to strengthen technology development and academic exchange combining theory and practice, developing a highly qualified, dynamic semiconductor industry workforce.

SMIC and Brite Semiconductor will provide Zhejiang University graduate students with hands-on training and internship opportunities, while Zhejiang University will provide a continuing education program for SMIC and Brite Semiconductor employees.

"The program will further facilitate the joint development of advanced technologies by Brite, SMIC and Zhejiang University," said Charlie Zhi, the president and CEO of Brite Semiconductor, and generate a strong graduate pool while improving Brite’s engineering talent.

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC, NYSE:SMI, SEHK:0981.HK) is a leading global semiconductor foundry in Mainland China. For more information, please visit http://www.smics.com.

Brite Semiconductor is a fabless ASIC turnkey service company. For more information, please visit www.britesemi.com.

Also read: Engineering Education is Tough And Needs to Stay That Way by blogger Linda Rae

Subscribe to Solid State Technology

March 14, 2012 — Japan’s NAND flash memory industry rapidly rebounded from the devastating Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami that hit one year ago this week, says IHS. Strong demand, fortunate fab location, and quick wafer supply replenishment allowed Toshiba Corp. to quickly regain some of its lost market share, according to the IHS iSuppli Memory & Storage Service.

Toshiba is Japan’s only NAND flash maker. The company saw a Q2 2011 impact from the March 11 earthquake off Sendai, Japan, losing more than 6 percentage points of market share in that quarter. Corresponding share increases went to competitors Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Micron Technology Inc., and Hynix Semiconductor Inc.

Figure. Global NAND flash memory revenue, market share by quarter (Percentage Share of Revenue in USD).

  Q1’10 Q2’10 Q3’10 Q4’10 Q1’11 Q2’11 Q3’11 Q4’11
Samsung 41.1% 42.6% 40.2% 37.7% 38.8% 41.6% 39.1% 36.9%
Toshiba 36.1% 33.4% 35.6% 36.6% 35.0% 28.7% 31.4% 31.1%
Micron 12.9% 13.4% 13.7% 14.8% 14.6% 16.0% 17.0% 18.8%
Hynix 9.7% 10.4% 10.3% 10.9% 11.4% 13.5% 12.2% 12.8%
Powerchip 0.1% 0.2% 0.2% 0.1% 0.2% 0.2% 0.3% 0.5%

By the next quarter, Toshiba had regained nearly half that share, and dismissed any remaining effects from the disaster as negligible. This made the Japan earthquake disaster a "short-lived" burden on the NAND industry, with several factors lessening its impact on Toshiba and on the market as a whole, said Dee Nguyen, memory analyst at IHS. "Although Toshiba accounted for 35% of global NAND capacity at the time of the disaster, its Yokkaichi facilities [Fab 3 and Fab 4] were far enough from the epicenter to avoid significant damage," Nguyen said. The Yokkaichi fabs only went offline for a week, which spiked NAND spot prices 10-15% but failed to greatly impact average selling prices (ASPs).

There were also enough silicon wafers in the supply chain to sustain Toshiba’s fab operations while wafer suppliers rebooted. While wafer suppliers worked to keep the semiconductor supply chain on track following the March 11 quake, it was difficult for companies to procure raw materials for their production lines in the immediate aftermath. Two of Toshiba’s 300mm wafer suppliers, Shin-Etsu and Sumco, were located in the earthquake-affected area, with damage to their equipment and facilities. By the second week of April, Sumco restarted mass production and ramped additional manufacturing at its other sites. Shin-Etsu, the most significantly quake-affected, restarted production in mid to late April. 300mm wafer suppliers returned to near-normal levels by the end of May 2011.

Toshiba was therefore able to capitalize on the rising sales of storage-intensive tablets, smartphones, and other devices throughout 2011. Combining this steady NAND demand with a supply/demand rebalance brought on by the quake, NAND pricing improved, propelling the industry to 10% quarter-over-quarter revenue growth in Q3 2011.
 
Toshiba also reported no employee casualties from the disaster, and little to no damage to public infrastructure in the area of its fabs, the buildings, or its power supply. Japan’s government had prioritized electricity consumption to keep facilities like Toshiba’s in operation, mitigating the impact of power outages and minimizing the cost of idle fabs.

In July 2011, Toshiba opened a new fab (Fab 5) on its Yokkaichi campus. In a nod to the post-disaster mindset of Japan, Toshiba’s new facility uses advanced earthquake-absorbing techniques, as well as power-compensation technologies to protect against power disruptions.
 
IHS (NYSE: IHS) provides information, insight and analytics in critical areas that shape today’s business landscape. Learn more at www.ihs.com.

Subscribe to Solid State Technology

March 13, 2012 — Worldwide sales of semiconductor manufacturing equipment totaled $43.53 billion in 2011, representing a year-over-year increase of 9%, shows the Worldwide Semiconductor Equipment Market Statistics (SEMS) Report from SEMI.

Categories cover wafer processing and other front-end equipment, assembly and packaging, and test. Other front-end includes mask/reticle manufacturing, wafer manufacturing, and fab facilities equipment.

The global wafer processing equipment market segment increased 15%, the assembly and packaging segment decreased 14%, and total test equipment sales decreased 9%. Other front-end equipment sales grew by 5%.

Worldwide billings totaled $43.53 billion in 2011, compared to $39.93 billion in sales posted in 2010. Also read: Semiconductor fab equipment spending to hit a record in 2013

Spending rates varied for all the regions tracked in the WWSEMS report, with increases reported for Europe, North America, and Japan. North America surpassed Taiwan as the region with the highest amount of spending with $9.26 billion in equipment sales. The Korea market claimed the second place for the second year in a row with $8.66 billion in sales; Taiwan fell to the third position with a regional decrease of 24%.

Table. 2010-2011 Semiconductor Capital Equipment Market by World Region. (Dollars in US billions; Percentage Year-over-Year). Source: SEMI/SEAJ March 2012.

Region

2011

2010

% Change
North America

9.26

5.75

61%
South Korea

8.66

8.63

0%
Taiwan

8.52

11.25

-24%
Japan

5.81

4.44

31%
Europe

4.22

2.34

80%
China

3.65

3.68

-1%
Rest of World
(Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines,
other areas of Southeast Asia and
smaller global markets)

3.41

3.84

-11%
Total

43.53

39.93

9%

Note: Figures may not add due to rounding.

Compiled from data submitted by members of SEMI and the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ), the Worldwide SEMS Report is a summary of the monthly billings and bookings figures for the global semiconductor equipment industry. The report includes data for seven major semiconductor producing regions and 24 product categories. The Equipment Market Data Subscription (EMDS) from SEMI provides comprehensive market data for the global semiconductor equipment market. A subscription includes three reports: the monthly SEMI Book-to-Bill Report, which offers an early perspective of the trends in the equipment market; the monthly Worldwide Semiconductor Equipment Market Statistics (SEMS), a detailed report of semiconductor equipment bookings and billings for seven regions and over 22 market segments; and the SEMI Semiconductor Equipment Consensus Forecast, which provides an outlook for the semiconductor equipment market. For more information, visit www.semi.org.

March 9, 2012 — Media tablets, a consumer electronics product sector experiencing "remarkably rapid ascension," will become the fourth-largest application for semiconductors globally by 2014, up from 35th in 2010 and 8th in 2011, and predicted 5th in 2012, according to the IHS iSuppli Application Market Forecast Tool.

In 2014, semiconductor revenues from media tablet consumption will hit $18.2 billion, up from $2.6 billion in 2010, the year that Apple introduced the iPad.

Rank (2014) Application Revenue
1 Mobile Handsets $58,589
2 Mobile PCs $48,239
3 Desktop PCs $19,213
4 Media Tablets $18,447
5 LCD TVs $17,489

“The speed of the media tablet’s rise from near insignificance to top-tier prominence is unprecedented in the history of the global semiconductor industry,” said Dale Ford, head of electronics & semiconductor research for IHS, who attributes much of this growth to Apple’s iPad. The global semiconductor industry will need to realign to accommodate the fast growth and vast size of the media tablet market, Ford said.

  2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
USD Millions $2,585 $6,864 $10,673 $15,253 $18,447 $18,162
Figure. Global media tablet semiconductor forecast (USD Millions). SOURCE: IHS iSuppli

In the past, the PC microprocessor boom lifted Intel Corp. and the cellphone chipset rise brought along Qualcomm Inc, Ford said. "Media tablets will generate semiconductor demand that is much more broadly diversified, spreading the opportunity among a wider set of suppliers than previous platforms did."

The winners? Application processors, baseband and radio frequency (RF) chips, NAND flash and DRAM, wireless ICs, image sensors, micro electro mechanical sensors (MEMS), light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and power management ICs.

Media tablets and handsets are a key driving force in reducing semiconductor industry consolidation, developed in more mature markets like PCs, Ford noted.

Mobile handsets will become the world’s largest semiconductor application in 2012, for the first time exceeding mobile PCs as the leading chip segment.
 
The IHS iSuppli Application Market Forecast Tool from information and analytics provider IHS (NYSE: IHS) is available at http://www.isuppli.com/Semiconductor-Value-Chain/Pages/Consumer-Electronics-Semiconductors-to-See-Largest-Decline-in-Q4-2011.aspx?PRX

Subscribe to Solid State Technology

March 9, 2012 — IBM (NYSE:IBM) scientists developed a prototype optical chipset, Holey Optochip, that can transfer 1 trillion bits (1Tbit) per second as a parallel optical transceiver, or 8X faster than today’s parallel optical components. IBM expects to commercialize the concept within a decade, with the help of its chip manufacturing partners.

The chip-scale transceiver relies on higher levels of integration, power efficiency and performance through packaging and circuit innovations, said IBM Researcher Clint Schow, part of the team that built the prototype. Optical chips transfer data using light pulses instead of electron transmission on wires. The aim is to use optical signals on chips made via standard low-cost/high-volume manufacturing methods.

Photo 1. IBM’s Holey Optochip. Original chip dimensions are 5.2 x 5.8mm.

To make the Holey Optochip, IBM fabricated 48 through-silicon holes (optical vias) through a standard 90nm silicon CMOS IC. The holes allow optical access through the back of the chip to 24 receiver and 24 transmitter channels, creating an ultra-compact, high-performing and power-efficient optical module. The transceiver consumes <5W power. The Holey Optochip module is constructed with components that are commercially available today, with an eye on future commercial scaleability.

Simple post-processing on completed CMOS wafers with all devices and standard wiring levels results in an entire wafer populated with Holey Optochips. The transceiver chip measures 5.2 x 5.8mm. Twenty-four channel, industry-standard 850-nm VCSEL (vertical cavity surface emitting laser) and photodiode arrays are directly flip-chip soldered to the Optochip. This direct packaging produces high-performance, chip-scale optical engines.

The Holey Optochips are designed for direct coupling to a standard 48-channel multimode fiber array through an efficient microlens optical system that can be assembled with conventional high-volume packaging tools.

Photo 2. The back of the IBM Holey Optochip with lasers and photodectors visible through substrate holes. 

Parallel optics is a fiber optic technology primarily targeted for high-data, short-reach multimode fiber systems that are typically less than 150m. Parallel optics differs from traditional duplex fiber optic serial communication in that data is simultaneously transmitted and received over multiple optical fibers.

The research will be presented at the Optical Fiber Communication Conference taking place in Los Angeles. Learn more at www.ibm.com.

Subscribe to Solid State Technology

March 8, 2012 — The year 2012 is an election year for the US president and numerous Congress representatives. Historically, US presidential election years have been very good for the semiconductor market as many elected officials attempt to pass (mostly short-term) legislation to boost the economy in order to look good in the eyes of voters and stand a better chance of getting re-elected.

Figure. Worldwide gross domestic product (GDP) and global semiconductor industry growth in US presidential election years. SOURCE: IMF, IC Insights.

Over the past 10 US election years dating back to 1972, worldwide GDP growth averaged 4.0% while semiconductor industry growth has averaged 24%! In fact, the semiconductor industry has increased 10% or better in 8 of the past 10 U.S. election years. The two election years when the semiconductor industry did not grow 10% or better (1996 and 2008), it registered single-digit declines. For 2012, IC Insights is forecasting 3.4% WW GDP growth and single-digit (7%) semiconductor market growth.

The election-year uptick is one of the reasons IC Insights has identified 2013 as a possible slow year in the semiconductor industry. Over the past 10 post-U.S.-election years, worldwide GDP growth averaged 3.1% while worldwide semiconductor industry growth averaged only 4%. Moreover, worldwide semiconductor industry growth exceeded 8% in only three of these 10 post-election years (1973, 1977, and 1993).

Oftentimes the problem with post-election years is that many of the subsidies and stimulus measures enacted during an election year are withdrawn or allowed to expire after the election is over. For example, in the U.S., payroll tax cuts and unemployment benefits were extended through the end of 2012 (through the elections), but IC Insights does not expect these measures to be in place in the post-election year of 2013. Because of this, the U.S. economy is forecast to lose some momentum in 2013 before picking up speed again in 2014. It is worth noting that presidential elections will also be held in Russia, South Korea, Taiwan, China, and France this year, giving politicians in these countries additional incentive to boost their economies in 2012.

Additional details of the global economic picture and its impact on the 2012 semiconductor market can found in the 2012 edition of The McClean Report, IC Insights’ complete market analysis and forecast of the IC industry. View http://www.icinsights.com/services/mcclean-report/ for more information.

Subscribe to Solid State Technology