Tag Archives: Top Story Left

The car is not a simple mode of transportation anymore. In addition to security and autonomous driving features, car manufacturers are considering more and more functionalities to propose vehicles as custom and fashion item.

During the last few years, electronic, optoelectronic, software and various digital technologies along with societal changes are increasingly pressuring the automotive players in transforming offerings and business models faster than ever before. Under this context, automotive OEM firms remain focused on core competencies and also develop new ones. Lighting technologies are part of them.
The lighting market for automotive applications should reach a 23.7% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) 2015-2121 reaching a US$27.7 billion market in 2021, announces Yole Développement (Yole) in its latest LED report entitled “Automotive Lighting: Technology, Industry and Market trends”. The increasing role of design and the introduction of new functionalities including ambient light, rear light, turn signal, parking & day ruing lights, fog light, low/high beam light and more are the reasons of this success. But what are the companies behind this impressive growth? What will be the impact on the supply chain? LED, OLED – which technologies are today able to answer to the market needs? The market research and strategy consulting offers today its vision of this industry.

With this new technology & market analysis, the “More than Moore” company, Yole investigates the attractive world of lighting solutions for automotive applications. The automotive lighting report from Yole analyzes the status of the market and its applications. It reviews the structure of the automotive lighting industry and details the market and technology trends. Under this new analysis, Yole’s experts present the main lighting technologies developed for automotive applications and propose valuable roadmaps until 2021. They cover the whole supply chain from devices to systems and give market insights between 2013 and 2021.

With the recent integration of LED technology, lighting has evolved from a basic, functional feature to a distinctive feature with high-value potential in automotive. Indeed, LED technology has given manufacturers the opportunity for strong differentiation via lighting design and additional functionalities. This is particularly true for exterior lighting, but it is also spreading to interior lighting. These changes are heavily impacting the supply chain, with new suppliers and a new value chain emerging.

In 2015, the automotive lighting market totaled nearly US$22.4 billion, up 5.4% from 2014. “This growth was driven by increased lighting system content per vehicle and a more favorable product mix driven by strong adoption of LED-based front lighting systems,” says Pars Mukish, Business Manager, LED, OLED and sapphire activities at Yole. Indeed, headlamp and DRL systems represented 43% and 28% of total 2015 revenue, respectively. Other lighting systems including rear combination light/center high-mounted signal light, interior light, and side turn-signal light comprised the remaining 29% of 2015 revenue. According to Yole’s analysts, the automotive lighting market will continue growing, reaching a market size of almost US$27.7 billion by 2021 – +23.7% compared to 2015, and driven by different growth areas:
• Short-term: increased LED technology penetration rate into different automotive lighting applications/systems, and increased lighting content per vehicle.
• Middle/long-term: potential integration of new lighting technologies like OLED and laser, development of AFLS and other security functions, and incredible developments employing lighting as a new design feature.

automotive lighting industry

“From a geographic point of view, Asia is the largest market for automotive lighting systems, reflecting the trends in term of vehicle production location but with higher share of revenue from Europe due to more favorable product mix in this area,” explains Pierric Boulay, Technology & Market Analyst at Yole. However European and Japanese companies dominate and supply together 81% of the market:
• Koito, Stanley and Ichikoh capture 40% of the revenue
• From an European side, Yole’s analysts announce 13-14% market share for each key European players: Magneti Marelli, Hella and Valeo.

Yole’s report presents all automotive lighting applications and the associated market revenue for the period 2013 – 2021, with details concerning drivers and challenges, integration status of different lighting technologies and systems, recent trends, and market size per application

By Debra Vogler, SEMI

The semiconductor industry is nothing if not persistent — it’s been working away at developing extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) for many years. Though its production insertion target has slipped over the years, some say that the industry is getting closer to its introduction at the 5nm node. But it’s also true that some may be hedging their bets.

Whatever camp you fall into, the discussion is sure to be lively as a team of experts tackles the status of advanced lithography options that can get the industry from node 10 to node 5 (session “Lithography: Charting a Path, or Paths, between Nodes 10 and 5”, part of the Advanced Manufacturing Forum) at SEMICON West 2016 (July 12, 10:30am-12:30pm). Confirmed speakers for this event include Robert Aitken (ARM), Stephen Renwick (Nikon Research Corporation of America), Ben Rathsack (TEL), Mike Lercel (ASML), Mark Slezak (JSR Micro, Inc.), and Harry Levinson (GLOBALFOUNDRIES). The session will be moderated by Lithoguru’s Chris Mack. SEMI interviewed some of the session speakers to get a preview of the issues most likely to be addressed.

Equipment status

Mike Lercel, director of product marketing at ASML, told SEMI that his company is very confident that EUVL will be ready for next-generation nodes, having demonstrated progress on the NXE:3350B, which is intended for volume production: achieving 1,368 wafers per day at the ASML factory, and excellent imaging and overlay performance at >80W. He further noted that the company’s logic customers will take EUV into production in 2018-2019, so it needs to ship in volume a year before — likewise for DRAM. “We believe that EUV is cost-competitive around 1,500 good wafers per day, but the crossover point may be lower depending on the customer and the application.”

Having already achieved the productivity milestone of 1,368 wafers per day makes EUVL cost-competitive or break-even for many applications, said Lercel, primarily because multiple patterning is becoming too difficult and EUV is needed to reduce this complexity. “Additionally, we’ve exposed more than 300,000 wafers on multiple NXE:3300 scanners at customer sites and that has accelerated our rates of learning. A 125W EUV source setting has been qualified and is ready for field rollout, and we demonstrated 200W source power at ASML.” He also noted that the company has a robust EUVL product roadmap, including a high-NA EUV scanner, which will take it into the next decade and beyond. “As long as the industry continues to scale and we are not close to reaching devices’ physical limits, there will be a need for EUV.”

Lercel acknowledged that EUVL productivity must continue to be improved and throughput is closely connected to source power and tool reliability. “We’ve derived new understandings from plasma modeling and computational lithography that have enabled us to significantly increase our conversion efficiency,” said Lercel. “This was a key contributing factor in our latest 200W achievement and builds confidence in our ability to reach 250W by the end of the year, which is the source power required for 1,500 wafers per day.”

Materials and infrastructure for EUVL

There are still a number of challenges remaining for the infrastructure needed to support EUVL. Among them are actinic inspections for blanks and resists. “Deposition tools and post-pellicle mask inspection must catch up to support EUVL,” said Lercel, who told SEMI that notable progress has already been made on E-beam mask inspection high-volume manufacturing (HVM) tools and on an actinic blank inspection tool development program led by the EUVL Infrastructure Development Center (EIDEC).

In other developments reported by Lercel, Zeiss is working on an AIMS tool for defect disposition; and at imec’s EUV Resist Manufacturing & Qualification Center (EUV RMQC), the industry-wide manufacturing infrastructure and quality control capabilities needed to take EUVL into HVM are being finalized. Other R&D efforts are continuing to improve EUV blank quality process and yield — defects are now reaching single digits said Lercel. ASML is also in the process of commercializing a pellicle. Significant gaps still exist with respect to a blank multi-layer deposition tool that needs to have improved defect results. “Multiple deposition techniques are being evaluated to define the HVM tool approach,” said Lercel. “And post-pellicle mask inspection (APMI) is not on timeline for insertion,” so the industry needs other options.

Regarding EUVL resists, Mark Slezak, executive vice-president, at JSR Micro, Inc., told SEMI that short-term, the materials industry is continuing to evolve and improve chemically amplified systems that are allowing technical requirements to be met at 7nm (see Figure 1 for examples of recent performance data). “Longer term, the industry is focused on new alternative approaches to chemically amplified systems with a variety of techniques, including molecular resists, nano-particles, and advanced sensitizers,” said Slezak, who will also present at SEMICON West 2016. “Additionally, in the case of both 193i and EUV, the material industry is working on post-development solutions, such as chemical shrink, pattern collapse mitigation, and combinations with DSA (directed self-assembly) that enable further imaging extensions.”

Figure 1: Examples of recent progress in patterning materials. Source: ASML, PSI, and imec

Figure 1: Examples of recent progress in patterning materials.
Source: ASML, PSI, and imec

As a company, JSR Micro is preparing to provide scaled-up EUV materials in a HVM setting, including advanced quality control, as early as the end of 2016, Slezak told SEMI. “However, we see that the most likely insertion point for significant volumes is in the 2018 time period.”

Overall outlook

Chris Mack summed up the industry’s current dilemma with respect to EUVL and getting from node 10 to node 5. “The whole idea of continuing on the Moore’s Law progression is to reduce the cost of a transistor by shrinking it,” Mack told SEMI. “We’ve seen a flattening of the cost/transistor trends over time lately, and I think there are some serious questions as to whether or not any specific new technology node from 10nm on will actually result in a lower cost/transistor — and if it doesn’t, there won’t be much motivation for designs to migrate to these nodes.”

Mack further observed that the cost of lithography already accounts for more than 50% of the cost of making a chip, and possibly even as high as 70% depending on the design. “As those costs escalate with each node, we worry that the cost savings won’t be enough to compensate for the higher design costs.” Citing conventional wisdom, Mack noted that the rule-of-thumb with respect to the break-even point for deciding to use EUVL is that it has to be able to cost-effectively replace three 193nm immersion steps (or masks). While there are a lot of assumptions that go into the cost-of-ownership models, Mack explained that if throughput levels can get to around 60-90wph, that would make one EUV layer cost-competitive with three 193nm immersion exposures. “I think most people agree that EUV would then be worthwhile to do. The hope is to be able to do that at the 5nm node.”

Aside from the actual technical challenges that remain to be solved before EUVL can be inserted into HVM, the major hurdle is time. “People are planning the 7nm logic node right now,” said Mack, “and no one is willing to commit to EUV for 7nm because it’s not ready.” He further explained that TSMC has said publicly it plans to exercise EUV in parallel with 193i manufacturing for the 7nm node and then implement EUV in manufacturing at the 5nm node. That would place it at around the 2020 time frame. “If EUV hits its schedule between now and 2018/2019, then we may see TSMC commit to using EUV at 5nm.” Conversely, if the EUV schedule slips and is still too risky to implement, then when 2019 comes around, it could very well be that EUVL will be pushed out even further. “Because foundries have to accept design rules about two years before manufacturing begins, and because the design rules for multiple-patterning 193 immersion are very different from single-patterning EUV, TSMC and other foundries will have to make their call about two years from now.”

For DRAM, Mack says there is still a desire for EUV to be successful, but the window is rapidly disappearing. “We might see more chip stacking as a solution going forward for DRAM,” said Mack, but “then we could see 193nm immersion SADP (single immersion double-patterning) for 20nm DRAM.” Below 20nm DRAM, If EUV isn’t ready, Mack says that chip stacking would be the solution, which leaves EUV for logic, primarily at 5nm.

“Here’s where an interesting phenomenon happens,” Mack told SEMI. “The classic view of Moore’s Law — a doubling of the number of components on a chip every two years — has been carrying on for over 50 years. Current trends are redefining the meaning of Moore’s Law (see Figure 2).”

The industry is seeing a slow-down in, i.e., 3-year cycles instead of 2-year cycles. “If that trend continues and EUV is late, that would give some breathing room for EUV to catch up. So it might be ready in time for the 5nm node.”

Figure 2: Moore’s Law trend. Courtesy: Chris Mack

Figure 2: Moore’s Law trend. Courtesy: Chris Mack

These speakers and more will present at SEMICON West 2016 (July 12-14) in San Francisco, Calif. The new SEMICON West offers eight forums: Extended Supply Chain, Advanced Manufacturing Chain Forum, Advanced Packaging Forum, Test Forum, Sustainable Manufacturing Forum, Silicon Innovation Forum, Flexible Hybrid Electronics Forum, and World of IoT Forum. Register before June 3 and save $50.

Worldwide semiconductor capital spending is projected to decline 2 percent in 2016, to $62.8 billion, according to Gartner, Inc. (see Table 1). This is up from the estimated 4.7 percent decline in Gartner’s previous quarterly forecast.

“While the first quarter 2016 forecast has improved from a projected decline of 4.7 percent in the previous quarter’s forecast, the 2 percent decline in the market for 2016 is still bleak,” said David Christensen, senior research analyst at Gartner. “Excess inventory and weak demand for PCs, tablets, and mobile products continue to plague the semiconductor industry, resulting in a slow growth rate that began in late 2015 and is continuing into 2016.”

Table 1

Worldwide Semiconductor Capital Spending and Equipment Spending Forecast, 2015-2018 (Millions of Dollars)

2015

2016

2017

2018

Semiconductor Capital Spending ($M)

64,062.9

62,795.3

65,528.5

70,009.5

Growth (%)

-0.8

-2.0

4.4

6.8

Wafer-Level Manufacturing Equipment ($M)

33,248.1

32,642.0

34,897.6

37,641.1

Growth (%)

-1.1

-1.8

6.9

7.9

Wafer Fab Equipment ($M)

31,485.4

30,841.9

32,930.3

35,443.4

Growth (%)

-1.3

-2.0

6.8

7.6

Wafer-Level Packaging and Assembly Equipment ($M)

1,762.7

1,800.2

1,967.3

2,197.7

Growth (%)

4.1

2.1

9.3

11.7

Source: Gartner (May 2016)

“The slowdown in the devices market has driven semiconductor producers to be conservative with their capital spending plans,” said Mr. Christensen. “This year, leading semiconductor manufacturers are responding to anticipated weak demand from semiconductors and preparing for new growth in leading-edge technologies in 2017.”

In addition, the aggressive pursuit of semiconductor manufacturing capability by the Chinese government is an issue that cannot be ignored by the semiconductor manufacturing industry. In the last year, there has been consolidation and merger and acquisition (M&A) activity with specific offers from various Chinese-based entities, indicating the aggressiveness of the Chinese. This will dramatically affect the competitive landscape of global semiconductor manufacturing in the next few years, as China is now a major market for semiconductor usage and manufacturing.

Looking forward, the market is expected to return to growth in 2017. Increased demand for 10 nanometer (nm) and 3D NAND process development in memory and logic/foundry will drive overall spending to grow 4.4 percent in 2017.

This research is produced by Gartner’s Semiconductor Manufacturing program. This research program, which is part of the overall semiconductor research group, provides a comprehensive view of the entire semiconductor industry, from manufacturing to device and application market trends. Additional analysis on the outlook for the semiconductor market can be found at “Forecast Analysis: Capital Spending and Semiconductor Manufacturing Equipment, Worldwide, 1Q16.”

The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) this week announced worldwide sales of semiconductors reached $26.1 billion for the month of March 2016, a slight increase of 0.3 percent compared to the previous month’s total of $26.0 billion. Sales from the first quarter of 2016 were $78.3 billion, down 5.5 percent compared to the previous quarter and 5.8 lower than the first quarter of 2015. All monthly sales numbers are compiled by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization and represent a three-month moving average.

“Global semiconductor sales increased in March for the first time in five months, but soft demand, market cyclicality, and macroeconomic conditions continue to impede more robust growth,” said John Neuffer, president and CEO, Semiconductor Industry Association. “Q1 sales lagged behind last quarter across nearly all regional markets, with the Americas showing the sharpest decline.”

Regionally, month-to-month sales increased in Japan (4.8 percent), Asia Pacific/All Other (2.3 percent), and Europe (0.1 percent), but fell in China (-1.1 percent) and the Americas (-2.8 percent). Compared to the same month last year, sales in March increased in Japan (1.8 percent) and China (1.3 percent), but decreased in Asia Pacific/All Other (-6.4 percent), Europe (-9.8 percent), and the Americas (-15.8 percent).

“Eighty-three percent of U.S. semiconductor industry sales are into markets outside the U.S., so access to overseas markets is imperative to the long-term strength of our industry,” Neuffer said. “The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a landmark trade agreement that would tear down myriad barriers to trade with countries in the Asia-Pacific. The TPP is good for the semiconductor industry, the tech sector, the American economy, and the global economy. Congress should approve it.”

March 2016

Billions

Month-to-Month Sales                               

Market

Last Month

Current Month

% Change

Americas

5.03

4.89

-2.8%

Europe

2.66

2.67

0.1%

Japan

2.47

2.59

4.8%

China

8.02

7.93

-1.1%

Asia Pacific/All Other

7.83

8.01

2.3%

Total

26.02

26.09

0.3%

Year-to-Year Sales                          

Market

Last Year

Current Month

% Change

Americas

5.81

4.89

-15.8%

Europe

2.96

2.67

-9.8%

Japan

2.55

2.59

1.8%

China

7.83

7.93

1.3%

Asia Pacific/All Other

8.57

8.01

-6.4%

Total

27.70

26.09

-5.8%

Three-Month-Moving Average Sales

Market

Oct/Nov/Dec

Jan/Feb/Mar

% Change

Americas

5.75

4.89

-15.0%

Europe

2.77

2.67

-3.6%

Japan

2.57

2.59

0.8%

China

8.45

7.93

-6.1%

Asia Pacific/All Other

8.08

8.01

-0.8%

Total

27.62

26.09

-5.5%
Year-to-year percent change in world semiconductor revenues over the past 20 years.

Year-to-year percent change in world semiconductor revenues over the past 20 years.

Revenue associated with the wireless competitive landscape continued to serve as a bright spot in the larger semiconductor market in 2015, growing almost 4 percent to over $56 billion, year over year, while total semiconductor revenue fell 2 percent to $347 billion during the same period. The wireless competitive landscape includes logic and analog semiconductors used in connectivity, mobile phones, media tablets, mobile infrastructure and other applications. However, due to slowing sales of smartphones and other wireless devices, the wireless competitive landscape faces a set of challenges that could result in similar or slower growth in 2016, according to IHS Inc. (NYSE: IHS), a global source of critical information and insight.

wireless semiconductors

“Apple recently reported its fiscal second quarter results, and for the first time iPhone unit sales fell year over year, indicating the potential magnitude of the softness in the premium smartphone market,” said Brad Shaffer, senior analyst, mobile devices and networks, IHS Technology. “If the iPhone and other premium smartphones fail to gain enough traction to support growth in that market segment, it may be reflected in the underlying semiconductor market in 2016.”

According to the IHS Wireless Semiconductor Competitive Intelligence Service, the mobile handset integrated-circuit (IC) market is the largest segment in the wireless competitive landscape, comprising 62 percent of revenue in 2015 as the smartphone market continued to grow. “If unit shipments from Apple and other smartphone original equipment manufacturers continue to decline, the wireless competitive landscape could have a dragging effect on the larger semiconductor market in 2016. However, though currently too early in their lifecycles to make a material difference in the short term, emerging technologies like LTE-Advanced Pro or 4.5G could provide upside potential in the next 12 to 18 months,” Shaffer said.

Along with maturing growth rates in the smartphone market, Samsung, Apple, Huawei and other OEMs that are vertically integrated have varying degrees of internal semiconductor capabilities at their disposal — with the potential to supply their own smartphones and other OEMs as well. These internal design decisions tend to be cyclical in nature and can change from one product iteration to another, switching from internally-supplied components to third-party solutions.

“While this vertical integration has been especially evident in the premium smartphone tier, it helps to create a fiercely competitive environment in all market tiers, as it can limit the available market for third-party suppliers,” Shaffer said. “The increased competition resulting from a smaller market could impact core handset integrated-circuit prices in the entry-level and mid-range segments, with MediaTek, Spreadtrum and other suppliers vying for revenue share with market leader Qualcomm.”

This article originally appeared on EECatalog.com.

By Venetia Espinoza, BrightVolt

Are the power solutions the IoT needs arriving quickly enough?

The massive game-changing potential of the Internet of Things (IoT) connected devices has been limited by a lack of effective power solutions. The solid-state thin film battery market is forecasted to reach $1.3 bil­lion worldwide by 2021 as published by Custom Market Insights. Fueling this growth is the rise of IoT—wear­ables, medical devices and sensors. Traditional battery technologies simply cannot provide the new features and designs that these new applications demand.

However, arriving on the market are thin-film, flexible batteries which are ultra-thin, flexible, rollable, stretch­able and can withstand high temperatures.

Many applications are still emerging, and their require­ments are evolving fast. Because target specs are also very diverse, each with unique requirements for power, thinness, cost, safety, shelf life, reliability, and flex­ibility, a customized power source makes sense.

BrightVolt is one company tackling the demand for small powered solutions.

Figure 1: Traditional battery technologies are giving way to new designs, which can reduce design complexity. (Courtesy BrightVolt)

Low power/long battery life—As IoT infrastructure becomes ubiquitous, many use-cases require designing and building low power and small form factor batteries, both primary and rechargeable. BrightVolt’s Flexion™ batteries have 3.0V, multiple capacity options such as 10, 14, 20, 25mAh and varied tab con­figurations such as extended tab, terminal support, terminal support with ACF. They also have attachment options such as ultrasonic welding, soldering, conductive epoxy and conductive film and a shelf life of 3-5+ years.

Customized—Battery designs are available that are as thin as 0.37mm. For example, BrightVolt Flexion batteries were designed to operate continuously over a wide temperature range (-10 ºC to +60 ºC). They utilize a patented solid polymer electrolyte and contain no volatile liquids or gelling agents. Self-connecting battery terminals using anisotropic conductive film. BrightVolt can custom-build the size, shape, power, capacity, tab configurations and attachment options that are needed for these diverse requirements.

Scalable Manufacturing—BrightVolt has already shipped millions of units. Scalability is our key differentiator. We can take a solution from prototype to full production and anything in between. Our enduring quality, durability, and built-in intelligence is what makes us the best choice for custom product designs.

Safe—It is now possible to find batteries that are non-toxic, non-corrosive and environ­mentally friendly. It’s also important to choose an Inherently safe design that reduces the need for additional battery safety circuitry. Polymer matrix electrolyte provides outstanding thermal stability with no volatile liquids or gels.

Medical Miracles and Thin Batteries

Nanotechnology itself dates back to the 1980s, when U.S. engineer Eric Drexler coined it. Today, nanotechnology and tiny batteries are changing the medical device industry.

Applicable medical uses include the ability to use small form batteries to power the circuitry associated wit skin-based monitoring devices that can detect the glucose levels, for example. Trans­dermal drug delivery and patches could change how injectable drugs are delivered in a more effective time-released manner through a battery-powered patch.

Additionally, the combination of a nanosensor used in conjunction with a smartphone could be used to track auto­immune diseases and cancer. It could also be an effective screening tool for rejection in patients with organ transplants.

Sensors, Smart Packaging and the IoT

It is anticipated that the temperature monitoring market will reach over $3.2 billion by 2020. Smart sensor labels answer the needs for numerous indus­tries, particularly perishable goods. These printed electronics devices and labeling enable the IoT to reduce waste and improve consumer safety.

This technology allows pharmaceutical companies to keep temperature-sensitive products safe and effective, while pre­venting the unnecessary ruin of usable products. Retailers who use temperature-monitoring labels during shipment of produce and other food products as well as cosmetics and off-the-shelf healthcare items will have immediate insight with regards to both shelf life and food safety.

Some of the most ubiquitous wearables are fitness trackers like FitBit and Jaw­bone that hit the market like wildfire in 2013. 1 in 5 Americans today wear this technology to track their activity levels, sleep and more. Wearables will continue to evolve in size, usability, form factors and diverse power needs.

Assisted living and eldercare is another compelling and demanding wearable technology market. Wearable sensors for this market pose massive potential in generating big data for IoT, with a great applicability to biomedicine and ‘ambient assisted living’ (AAL). ‘Ambient intelligence’ in eldercare is being sensi­tive and responsive to the presence of people. Recent advancements in several technological areas have helped the vision of AAL to become a reality. These tech­nologies include of course smart homes, assistive robotics, and, in small form: e-textile, mobile and wearable sensors.

Another significant advancement is detecting common medical issues such as sleep apnea, which used to require an uncomfortable in-clinic sleep study. No more. Today, a patient can wear a device overnight in the privacy of their own home and send the results off to their physician. Other exciting uses include trackers in clothing, interactive toys, games and more.

Embedding Security

Target’s $10 million 2013 class action data breach lawsuit and privacy issue hammered home just how devastating security fraud really is. Since that time, many credit cards are now embedded with an EMV chip but there’s an even better solution emerging. Not only will a small form battery the size of a postage stamp power these new cards, a com­puter chip randomizes the code number about every hour, adding to its security. This renders the card useless to anyone who has written down your card number, expiration date and code. This applica­tion will effectively eliminate ‘card not present’ fraud. Other ultra-thin battery uses in a credit card could allow for a tiny screen on your card itself that displays your balance.

When Apple launched its biometric ID fingerprint reader on its iPhone 5S, many people adjusted quickly to the convenience of the fingerprint password. Building on that same technology, travel documents including drivers’ licenses and passports, as well as vital health information, can be included in one ultra-thin battery-powered, pocket-sized card that fits in your wallet.

Conclusion

By assessing the considerations outlined in this article, a product designer can effectively achieve a small-form factor product able to reliably operate with the right battery. Custom batteries can eliminate design complexities and opti­mize battery use for many applications.

About the Author

Venetia Espinoza is in charge of market­ing at BrightVolt, a worldwide leader in the design, development and scale manufacturing of thin film batteries. She holds more than 25 years of marketing and product experience with premier technology companies. She also served as Vice President and General Manager of Softcard, a joint venture established by industry giants Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile. She holds an MBA and BS de­gree in Industrial Engineering.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. announced today that it has begun mass producing the industry’s first 10-nanometer (nm) class, 8-gigabit (Gb) DDR4 (double-data-rate-4) DRAM chips and the modules derived from them. DDR4 is quickly becoming the most widely produced memory for personal computers and IT networks in the world, and Samsung’s latest advancement will help to accelerate the industry-wide shift to advanced DDR4 products.

Samsung 10nm-class DRAM-Group_002

Samsung opened the door to 10nm-class DRAM for the first time in the industry after overcoming technical challenges in DRAM scaling. These challenges were mastered using currently available ArF (argon fluoride) immersion lithography, free from the use of EUV (extreme ultra violet) equipment.

Samsung’s roll-out of the 10nm-class (1x) DRAM marks yet another milestone for the company after it first mass produced 20-nanometer (nm) 4Gb DDR3 DRAM in 2014.

“Samsung’s 10nm-class DRAM will enable the highest level of investment efficiency in IT systems, thereby becoming a new growth engine for the global memory industry,” said Young-Hyun Jun, President of Memory Business, Samsung Electronics. “In the near future, we will also launch next-generation, 10nm-class mobile DRAM products with high densities to help mobile manufacturers develop even more innovative products that add to the convenience of mobile device users.”

Samsung’s leading-edge 10nm-class 8Gb DDR4 DRAM significantly improves the wafer productivity of 20nm 8Gb DDR4 DRAM by more than 30 percent.

The new DRAM supports a data transfer rate of 3,200 megabits per second (Mbps), which is more than 30 percent faster than the 2,400Mbps rate of 20nm DDR4 DRAM. Also, new modules produced from the 10nm-class DRAM chips consume 10 to 20 percent less power, compared to their 20nm-process-based equivalents, which will improve the design efficiency of next-generation, high-performance computing (HPC) systems and other large enterprise networks, as well as being used for the PC and mainstream server markets.

The industry-first 10nm-class DRAM is the result of Samsung’s advanced memory design and manufacturing technology integration. To achieve an extremely high level of DRAM scalability, Samsung has taken its technological innovation one step further than what was used for 20nm DRAM. Key technology developments include improvements in proprietary cell design technology, QPT (quadruple patterning technology) lithography, and ultra-thin dielectric layer deposition.

Unlike NAND flash memory, in which a single cell consists of only a transistor, each DRAM cell requires a capacitor and a transistor that are linked together, usually with the capacitor being placed on top of the area where the transistor rests. In the case of the new 10nm-class DRAM, another level of difficulty is added because they have to stack very narrow cylinder-shaped capacitors that store large electric charges, on top of a few dozen nanometer-wide transistors, creating more than eight billion cells.

Samsung successfully created the new 10nm-class cell structure by utilizing a proprietary circuit design technology and quadruple patterning lithography. Through quadruple patterning, which enables use of existing photolithography equipment, Samsung also built the core technological foundation for the development of the next-generation 10nm-class DRAM (1y).

In addition, the use of a refined dielectric layer deposition technology enabled further performance improvements in the new 10nm-class DRAM. Samsung engineers applied ultra-thin dielectric layers with unprecedented uniformity to a thickness of a mere single-digit angstrom (one 10 billionth of a meter) on cell capacitors, resulting in sufficient capacitance for higher cell performance.

Based on its advancements with the new 10nm-class DDR4 DRAM, Samsung expects to also introduce a 10nm-class mobile DRAM solution with high density and speed later this year, which will further solidify its leadership in the ultra-HD smartphone market.

While introducing a wide array of 10nm-class DDR4 modules with capacities ranging from 4GB for notebook PCs to 128GB for enterprise servers, Samsung will be extending its 20nm DRAM line-up with its new 10nm-class DRAM portfolio throughout the year.

Global semiconductor revenues fell by 2 percent in 2015. Sequential quarterly growth was weak throughout every quarter of 2015, especially in the first quarter when the market declined 8.9 percent over the previous quarter — the deepest sequential quarterly decline since the semiconductor market collapsed in the fourth quarter of 2008 and first quarter of 2009.  Global revenue in 2015 totaled $347.3 billion, down from $354.3 billion in 2014, according to IHS Inc. (NYSE: IHS), a global source of critical information and insight. The market drop follows solid growth of 8.3 percent in 2014 and 6.4 percent in 2013.

“Weak results last year signal the beginning of what is expected to be a three-year period of declining to stagnant growth for semiconductor revenues,” said Dale Ford, vice president and chief analyst at IHS Technology. “Anemic end-market demand in the major segments of wireless communications, data processing and consumer electronics will hobble semiconductor growth during this time.”

Overall semiconductor revenue growth will limp along at roughly 2.1 percent growth compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 2015 and 2020, according to the latest information from the IHS Semiconductors Service. Current technology, economic, market and product trends suggest that sometime between 2020 and 2022 new products will come to market that will enable a significant level of growth in semiconductor revenues.

Reshaping the leader board

“Of course the big story for the semiconductor industry was the record level of merger-and-acquisition activity last year,” Ford said. “Top players pursued bold, strategic maneuvers to enhance their market position and improve overall revenue growth and profitability.”

Intel retained its number one ranking in 2015, after completing its acquisition of Altera, which allowed the company to offset declining processor revenues and achieve 2.9 percent overall growth in 2015.  Qualcomm slipped to number four in the rankings as its revenues fell by 14.5 percent, because the company’s 2015 acquisition of CSR was not enough to counter declining revenues in the wireless markets.  The final major deal among the top 10 in 2015 was NXP’s acquisition of Freescale, which boosted it from number 15 in the 2014 rankings to number seven in 2015.

Among the top 20, Infineon’s acquisition of International Rectifier enabled it to jump to number 12 in 2015.  Announced deals that are expected to close in the first half of 2016 will continue to reshape the leader board. Avago Technologies continues its aggressive acquisition activity with its purchase of Broadcom. Broadcom is already ranked at number nine in 2015.  The combined revenues of the two companies would place them at number five overall.  ON Semiconductor’s acquisition of Fairchild Semiconductor should boost it up two notches in the rankings.

Among the top 25 semiconductor suppliers, 14 companies achieved growth in 2015.  This stands in sharp contrast to the overall semiconductor market where less than 42 percent of 285 companies tracked by IHS were able to achieve positive revenue results in 2015.

semiconductor slump graph

A reversal of fortunes

Whereas 2014 was a year of broad-based strength and growth, the market downturn last year left few markets unscathed. Semiconductor revenues for data processing, wired communications and consumer electronics all declined.  Automotive electronics and industrial electronics grew less than 1 percent, while wireless communications — the strongest growth area — only grew 3 percent. Semiconductor revenues in all regions of the world declined, and all seven of the major semiconductor segments (i.e., memory integrated circuits (ICs), microcomponents, logic ICs, analog ICs, discrete components, optical components and sensors) experienced revenue declines from 2014 to 2015.  In fact, out of 128 semiconductor segments and sub-segments tracked by IHS, 89 declined.  Combined, these 89 segments accounted for over 77 percent of semiconductor revenues in 2015.

In 2014, five of the six semiconductor end-market segments grew; only consumer electronics declined.  All regions, except Japan, achieved revenue growth and 88 out of 128 semiconductor segments and sub segments accounted for over 83 percent of semiconductor market revenue growth.  In 2014, 195 of 307 companies tracked achieved positive growth.  These companies accounted for 83 percent of total semiconductor market revenues.  The number of companies achieving growth in 2015 fell to 119 out of 285 companies tracked.  These 119 companies only accounted for 64 percent of total semiconductor market revenues.

The few bright glimmers from 2015

Only ten semiconductor market sub-segments worth more than $1 billion in annual revenue grew more than 5 percent year over year in 2015.  Wireless communications logic application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and analog ASICs both grew 30 percent, while radio-frequency (RF) small signal transistors, wired communications logic ASICs and wireless communications application-specific standard products (ASSPs) grew between 10 percent and 20 percent.

Overall demand for optoelectronics, sensors, actuators, and discrete semiconductors softened in 2015 as the fragile global economy weakened, but these market segments are expected to stabilize in 2016 and gradually return to more normal growth rates in the second half of this decade, according to IC Insights’ new 2016 O-S-D Report—A Market Analysis and Forecast for Optoelectronics, Sensors/Actuators, and Discretes.  The 360-page report shows combined O-S-D sales growing 5% in 2016 to a new record-high $70.2 billion, after increasing just 3% in 2015 to the current annual peak of $66.6 billion.  O-S-D revenues accounted for nearly 19% of the semiconductor industry’s $353.7 billion sales total in 2015 versus about 81% coming from ICs (Figure 1), according to IC Insights’ newly released report.

osd market share

 

Total O-S-D revenues continued to outgrow the larger integrated circuit market, which dropped 1% last year to $291.5 billion, primarily because of the weak global economy and a 3% decline in memory IC sales.    O-S-D’s share of 2015 semiconductor sales was the highest it has been since 1988.  IC Insights expects the O-S-D marketplace to account for 20.0% of total semiconductor sales in 2020.

On the strength of optoelectronics and sensor products—including CMOS image sensors, high-brightness light-emitting diodes (LEDs), and devices built with microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology—total O-S-D sales have outpaced the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of ICs since the mid-1990s.  IC Insights’ new report shows this trend continuing in the next five years.  The 2016 O-S-D Report says modest improvements in the global economy, steady increases in electronic systems production, and new end-use applications—such as wearable systems and connections to the Internet of Things (IoT)—are expected to collectively lift the three O-S-D market segments by a CAGR of 6.5% between 2015 and 2020 compared to a projected 4.9% annual growth rate for IC sales in the second half of this decade.

During 2015, the O-S-D marketplace was a mixed bag of double-digit growth in most optoelectronics products and sales declines in discretes and a number of large sensor categories.  Optoelectronics sales grew 11% to a record-high $35.2 billion in 2015 while the discretes market suffered its worst decline since the 2009 semiconductor downturn year, falling nearly 8% to $21.2 billion, says the new O-S-D Report.  The sensors/actuators market increased about 4% in 2015 to a record-high $10.2 billion, with steep price erosion in accelerometers, gyroscope devices, and magnetic-field sensors dragging down overall growth in this semiconductor segment, according to the report.  In 2016, optoelectronics sales are expected to increase 9% to $38.2 billion, while sensors/actuators revenues are forecast to rise again by 4% to $10.6 billion, and the commodity-filled discretes market is projected to grow just 1% this year.  Between 2015 and 2020, all three O-S-D market segments are forecast to expand by more normal annual dollar-sales growth rates—with optoelectronics rising by a CAGR of 8.3%, sensors/actuators increasing at a rate of 5.6%, and discretes being up by a CAGR of 3.5% (Figure 2).

osd return to normal

 

Since 2000, we have entered the age of sensing and interacting with the wide diffusion of MEMS and sensors that give us a better, safer perception of our environment. MEMS have grown in volume to be almost a 15 billion units market today. And analysts believe that this market will double to almost 30 billion by 2020, in less than 5 years, according to the Status of the MEMS Industry, Yole Développement, May 2015.

Claire Troadec, MEMS & Semiconductor Manufacturing Analyst from Yole Développement (Yole), the “More than Moore” market research and strategy consulting proposes you to learn more about the MEMS & sensors challenges and identify the related opportunities for the next decade. So what can we expect?

Since its early beginning, MEMS technology has been considered as a “transfer function” technology: taking existing products such as Hg tilt sensors, syringe, galvanometric mirror and transforming them in IMU , micro-needles, micro-mirrors. The interest of MEMS relies in the miniaturization and lower cost manufacturing brought by a semiconductor technology.

Today the MEMS & Sensors industry is transitioning towards 3 main hubs: the inertial hub (a closed package hub), the optical hub and the environmental hub (open package hubs)

Looking closely at the inertial hub, complete integration has been achieved at sensor level. The miniaturization race is still ongoing to lower the sensor cost and developments are focusing on advanced packaging technologies (e.g. TSV, WLP) and power consumption reduction. Major developments occur at software level to achieve sensor fusion and get precise data acquisition, precise tracking within the environment. Hence the inertial Bill of Materials within a smartphone today is around US$1.

This is nothing compared to the US$10 spent for the optical hub within the same smartphone: imaging is highly valued by the end customer. This is part of our “human” nature, where vision represent around 83% of our external world perception .

And what about the environmental hub? At Yole, we do believe that the environmental hub is an interesting way for the MEMS industry to gain value. Therefore, particles, gas detection are real market pull applications which would make sense to be integrated in a smartphone. Some more integration could also be achieved by combining pressure and microphone for example. Of course, this increased integration is not an easy task but represents real market opportunities. Today’s environmental sensors’ Bill of Materials in a smartphone is around US$0.70 and could represent US$1.50 tomorrow with this increased integration path.

The MEMS Market is observing a strong paradox today

Increasing volumes driven by the consumer wave (more and more smartphones sold and more and more sensors integrated in smartphone) leading to sensor die size reduction to answer the strong price pressure dictated by the consumer market. But this affect sensors margins, which shrink if the process is not re-tuned to gain on margin again. Overall resulting in a stable or declining market in terms of value!

Thus is the MEMS industry digging its own grave with this commoditization paradox? How to exit from this scenario?

mems virtuous cycle

Well, one might take a step back and look at what the CMOS Image sensor industry has achieved. Driven by the self-love or narcissism of human kind, the front cameras of our smartphones have increased in resolution for us to achieve better quality images of “selfies”: Hence the front camera resolution has been increased by a factor 4 in 4 years, thanks to increased number of pixels and thus sensor die size, leading inevitably to higher sensor prices!

What can we learn from this story and apply to the MEMS industry to gain value?
More complexity at system level: drive for better accuracy/precise tracking and features, meaning:
•  Sensor fusion
•  More integration: Pressure + microphone for example
•  Improved environment tracking: particles and gas sensing

MEMS markets challenges are thus evolving
Power consumption is becoming a major trend while mobiles, tablets, wearables have to survive for long periods on battery while interacting with the environment (voice calls, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS , sensors …).

Sensor fusion, software and added features are the current battleground of the hubs integration path.
Finally the user case is definitely mandatory! The idea is to start with applications, and work downwards to the chips needed to support them. This will be easier for a system maker than a pure sensor player who is further away on the supply chain and thus further away from his final end user needs!

In brief a new virtuous cycle is needed for the MEMS industry to gain value and stop being limited by shrinking prices and margins.

ILLUS_MEMSVirtuousCycle_YOLE_March2016_2

Yole’s analysts highlight the MEMS market evolution and technology trends within the report Status of the MEMS Industry, yearly updated (2015 edition available on i-micronews.com – 2016 version to be released soon). Moreover make sure you will meet our analysts and debate with them at

   •  MEMS Engineer Forum (May 11&12, 2016 – Tokyo, Japan), within the MEMS trends worldwide session. Yole’s presentation is entitled “MEMS & Sensors for Smart Cities” and takes place on May 11 at 11:00 AM. Speaker: Claire Troadec, Technology & Market Analyst, MEMS & Semiconductor Manufacturing, Yole Développement
•  2016 Sensors Expo & Conference (June 21 – 23, 2016 – McEnery Convention Center, San Jose, CA), Pre-Conference Symposium 3 entitled “IoT 2.0 – Sensor Innovation Moves From “Smart” to “Intelligent”” on June 21 from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Speaker: Guillaume Girardin, Technology & Market Analysts, MEMS & Sensors, Yole Développement.