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OMRON Corporation, which is in the field of automation based on its core sensing and control technology, and Adept Technology, Inc., a provider of intelligent robots, autonomous mobile robot solutions and services, today announced that the two companies have entered into an agreement whereby OMRON will acquire Adept.

OMRON plans to acquire 100% of the outstanding shares of Adept common stock through an all-cash tender offer followed by a second-step merger. OMRON will offer Adept investors $13.00 per share of Adept common stock, which represents a 63% premium over the closing price for Adept’s common stock on September 15, 2015. This values Adept at approximately $200 million. OMRON will fund the tender offer through cash on hand.

The tender offer is expected to commence on or about September 23, 2015, and the transaction is expected to close on or about October 23, 2015. The closing of the transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including at least a majority of shares of Adept common stock being tendered in the offer, expiration of the applicable waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 and receipt of required foreign antitrust approvals. The transaction has been unanimously approved by the Boards of Directors of both companies.

Commenting on the acquisition, Yutaka Miyanaga, OMRON Industrial Automation Business Company President, said, “We are delighted Adept Technology, a world leader in robotics, has agreed to join OMRON. This acquisition is part of our strategy to enhance our automation technology and position us for long term growth. Robotics will elevate our offering of advanced automation.”

Rob Cain, President and Chief Executive Officer of Adept, added, “We are excited about the opportunity to join OMRON, a global leader in automation. Together, our products will offer new innovative solutions to customers all around the globe.”

Following the transaction, Rob Cain will continue to lead Adept and will report to Nigel Blakeway, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President of Omron Management Center of America, Inc., OMRON’s wholly owned United States subsidiary.

As global manufacturing comes under even more pressure to cut costs, shorten supply cycles and operate across global environments, production sites around the world strive to improve productivity. Increased use of labor-saving robots is one of the solutions. By adding the robotics technology of Adept to its current offering, OMRON will be positioned to provide manufacturers in the automotive, digital device, food and beverage, packaging, and other industries with solutions to these challenges, as well as engineering support.

Founded in 1983, Adept is listed on NASDAQ under the ticker symbol ADEP. The company recorded annual sales of $54.2 million and gross margin of 42.0% in the fiscal year ended June 30, 2015. The company is a U.S. based manufacturer of industrial robots. Adept’s product lines include autonomous mobile robots, industrial robots, configurable linear modules, machine controllers for robot mechanisms and other flexible automation equipment, as well as machine vision systems and software. Adept’s strategy is to provide a broad range of highly reliable integrated products along with world-class service to allow manufacturers to maximize productivity, safety, flexibility and product quality. This acquisition is a part of the acceleration of OMRON’s “ILO+S” (Input, Logic, Output and Safety) strategy for its Industrial Automation Business, which provides automation solutions for the manufacturing industries.

Soitec (Euronext), which generates and manufactures semiconductor materials for the electronics and energy industries, and Shanghai Simgui Technology Co., Ltd. (Simgui), a Chinese silicon-based semiconductor materials company, jointly announced today that the first 200-mm silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers have been produced at Simgui’s manufacturing facility in Shanghai using Soitec’s proprietary Smart Cut (TM) technology, and will be shipped within the next weeks for customers’ qualification. This major milestone in the companies’ licensing and technology transfer agreement, signed in May 2014, demonstrates that the process has been successfully implemented at Simgui and that the technology transfer is proceeding as planned to produce Soitec’s SOI products in order to increase SOI wafer capacity to serve the growing RF and power markets.

“We are very pleased to have reached this major milestone with Simgui, which now has the capability to manufacture Soitec’s SOI products using our Smart Cut technology. This represents a key step in our commitment to increase capacity in response to the needs of our customers who serve the fast-growing RF and power markets, both in China and worldwide,” said Paul Boudre, CEO and chairman of the board of Soitec.

“China is a hot spot for the IC industry today. The fast growth of China’s mobile devices demands a large number of SOI wafers. Through the collaboration with Soitec, Simgui has successfully demonstrated a strong technical ability and expanded capacity to meet our customers’ needs. In addition to the planned high-volume manufacturing of SOI wafers, we will continue to promote the SOI ecosystem in China and build a globally influential Chinese silicon industry,” said Dr. Xi Wang, chairman of the board of directors of Simgui.

The two companies formed their international partnership last year to address both China’s growing demand and to increase worldwide production capacity for 200-mm SOI wafers used in fabricating semiconductors for RF and power applications. When completed, the partners’ first wafer production line in China will boost the industrial manufacturing capacity of SOI wafers to meet increasing worldwide usage and will also be a key element in establishing an SOI ecosystem in China.

Simgui is a high-technology company in Shanghai focused on supplying SOI wafers and providing foundry services for epitaxial (epi) wafers used in key sectors of the semiconductor industry. Soitec designs and manufactures high-performance semiconductor materials.

Until now, transparent electrode materials for OLEDs have mainly consisted of indium tin oxide (ITO), which is expected to become economically challenging for the industry due to the shrinking abundance of indium. Therefore, scientists are intensively looking for alternatives. One promising candidate is graphene, whose application fields are more closely investigated in the project GLADIATOR (“Graphene Layers: Production, Characterization and Integration”).

The project GLADIATOR, which is funded by the European Commission, has reached its midterm and has already achieved some successes. The aim of the project is the cost-effective production of high quality graphene at large area, which can then be used for numerous electrode applications. The usability of such applications will be demonstrated at the Fraunhofer FEP by integrating this graphene in OLEDs.

With graphene as an electrode, the researchers at the Fraunhofer FEP hope for flexible devices with higher stability. Beatrice Beyer, project coordinator, says: “Graphene is a very interesting material with many possibilities. Because of its opto-electrical properties and its excellent mechanical stability, we expect that the reliability of flexible electronics will be improved many times over.”

Graphene is a rediscovered modification of carbon with two-dimensional structure, which has gained enormously in popularity since its successful isolation in 2004. Such so-called “monolayer” graphene is synthesized on a metal catalyst via a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process and transferred by a further process step to a target substrate, such as thin glass or plastic film. Here, it is very important that no defects are added which might reduce the quality of the electrode. In order to compete with the reference material ITO, the transparency and conductivity of graphene must be very high. Therefore, not only is the process of electrode manufacturing being optimized, but also different ways of doping graphene to improve its properties are being examined.

At the same time, the developed process steps must be easily scalable for later industrial use. These many challenges are faced by a project consortium consisting of 16 partners from six EU member states and Switzerland.

The Fraunhofer FEP is coordinating the GLADIATOR project and acts as an end-user of the graphene electrode. Scientists examine the integration of graphene and compare it to the reference material ITO. The sophisticated material properties of graphene must be maintained during the integration in organic devices. To this end, several methods for cleaning and structuring the graphene must be modified. In addition, the processes for different target substrates such as glass or flexible foil must be adapted and optimized. The first hurdles have been overcome thanks to a close cooperation between the consortium partners and the first defect-free OLEDs on transparent graphene electrodes have been realized on small areas. The target of the next one and a half years is to successfully illuminate large area OLEDs.

The GLADIATOR project will run until April 2017. By this time several types of OLED will have been made using graphene electrodes: a white OLED with an area of about 42 cm2 to demonstrate the high conductivity, and a fully-flexible, transparent OLED with an area of 3 cm2 to confirm the mechanical reliability.

The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) today announced worldwide sales of semiconductors were $27.9 billion for the month of July 2015, a decrease of 0.9 percent from July 2014 when sales were $28.1 billion. Global sales from July 2015 were 0.4 percent lower than the June 2015 total of $28.0 billion. Regionally, sales in the Americas were roughly flat in July compared to last year, while sales in China increased by nearly 6 percent. All monthly sales numbers are compiled by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization and represent a three-month moving average.

“Global semiconductor sales have slowed somewhat this summer in part due to softening demand, normal market cyclicality, and currency devaluation in some regional markets,” said John Neuffer, president and CEO, Semiconductor Industry Association. “Despite these headwinds, year-to-date global sales through July are higher than at the same time last year, which was a record year for semiconductor revenues.”

Regionally, year-to-year sales increased in China (5.6 percent), Asia Pacific/All Other (1.0 percent), and the Americas (0.8 percent), but decreased in Europe (-12.5 percent) and Japan (-13.3 percent), in part due to currency devaluation. On a month-to-month basis, sales increased in Japan (2.7 percent), China (0.6 percent), and Europe (0.4 percent), but fell slightly in the Americas (-0.3 percent) and Asia Pacific/All Other (-2.5 percent).

“One key facilitator of continued strength in the U.S. semiconductor industry is research, the lifeblood of innovation,” Neuffer said. “SIA and Semiconductor Research Corporation this week released a report highlighting the urgent need for research investments to advance the burgeoning Internet of Things and develop other cutting-edge, semiconductor-driven innovations. Implementing the recommendations in the report will help the United States harness new technologies and remain the world’s top innovator.”

July 2015

Billions

Month-to-Month Sales                               

Market

Last Month

Current Month

% Change

Americas

5.53

5.52

-0.3%

Europe

2.83

2.84

0.4%

Japan

2.57

2.64

2.7%

China

8.13

8.18

0.6%

Asia Pacific/All Other

8.94

8.71

-2.5%

Total

27.99

27.88

-0.4%

Year-to-Year Sales                          

Market

Last Year

Current Month

% Change

Americas

5.47

5.52

0.8%

Europe

3.24

2.84

-12.5%

Japan

3.04

2.64

-13.3%

China

7.75

8.18

5.6%

Asia Pacific/All Other

8.63

8.71

1.0%

Total

28.13

27.88

-0.9%

Three-Month-Moving Average Sales

Market

Feb/Mar/Apr

May/Jun/Jul

% Change

Americas

5.61

5.52

-1.7%

Europe

2.89

2.84

-1.8%

Japan

2.54

2.64

3.8%

China

7.77

8.18

5.2%

Asia Pacific/All Other

8.74

8.71

-0.3%

Total

27.56

27.88

1.2%

Related news: 

Tech, academic leaders call for robust research investments to bolster U.S. tech leadership, advance IoT

Knowm Inc., a start-up pioneering next-generation advanced computing architectures and technology, today announced they are the first to develop and make commercially-available memristors with bi-directional incremental learning capability. The device was developed through research from Boise State University’s Dr. Kris Campbell, and this new data unequivocally confirms Knowm’s memristors are capable of bi-directional incremental learning. This has been previously deemed impossible in filamentary devices by Knowm’s competitors, including IBM, despite significant investment in materials, research and development. With this advancement, Knowm delivers the first commercial memristors that can adjust resistance in incremental steps in both direction rather than only one direction with an all-or-nothing ‘erase’. This advancement opens the gateway to extremely efficient and powerful machine learning and artificial intelligence applications.

“Having commercially-available memristors with bi-directional voltage-dependent incremental capability is a huge step forward for the field of machine learning and, particularly, AHaH Computing,” said Alex Nugent, CEO and co-founder of Knowm. “We have been dreaming about this device and developing the theory for how to apply them to best maximize their potential for more than a decade, but the lack of capability confirmation had been holding us back. This data is truly a monumental technical milestone and it will serve as a springboard to catapult Knowm and AHaH Computing forward.”

Memristors with the bi-directional incremental resistance change property are the foundation for developing learning hardware such as Knowm Inc.’s recently announced Thermodynamic RAM (kT-RAM) and help realize the full potential of AHaH Computing. The availability of kT-RAM will have the largest impact in fields that require higher computational power for machine learning tasks like autonomous robotics, big-data analysis and intelligent Internet assistants. kT-RAM radically increases the efficiency of synaptic integration and adaptation operations by reducing them to physically adaptive ‘analog’ memristor-based circuits. Synaptic integration and adaptation are the core operations behind tasks such as pattern recognition and inference. Knowm Inc. is the first company in the world to bring this technology to market.

Knowm is ushering in the next phase of computing with the first general-purpose neuromemristive processor specification. Earlier this year the company announced the commercial availability of the first products in support of the kT-RAM technology stack. These include the sale of discrete memristor chips, a Back End of Line (BEOL) CMOS+memristor service, the SENSE and Application Servers and their first application named “Knowm Anomaly”, the first application built based on the theory of AHaH Computing and kT-RAM architecture. Knowm also simultaneously announced the company’s visionary developer program for organizations and individual developers. This includes the Knowm API, which serves as development hardware and training resources for co-developing the Knowm technology stack.

New “thermodynamic RAM” (kT-RAM) artificial neural network (ANN) architecture from Knowm is inherent adaptive, and built with memristors capable of bi-directional incremental resistance changes for efficient learning. (Source: Knowm)

New “thermodynamic RAM” (kT-RAM) artificial neural network (ANN) architecture from Knowm is inherent adaptive, and built with memristors capable of bi-directional incremental resistance changes for efficient learning. (Source: Knowm)

By Pete Singer, Editor-in-Chief

Austria-based ams AG, formerly known as Austriamicrosystem, announced plans to locate a new 360,000 ft2 fab in upstate New York at the Nano Utica site in Marcy, NY. The fab will be used to manufacture analog devices on 200/300mm wafers. Total buildout at the site, including support buildings and office space, will be close to 600,000ft2.

An artist’s rendering of a semiconductor fab at the Marcy site.

An artist’s rendering of a semiconductor fab at the Marcy site.

This will be the first fab going into the 428 acre Marcy site, which is large enough to accommodate three fabs and an R&D or packaging facility.

Construction of the ams fab is scheduled to begin in spring 2016, with first wafer ramp in the last quarter of 2017.

In what might become the new business model for fabs, the building itself will be publicly owned and leased to ams, which will assume operating costs and most of the costs of the capital equipment. Capital purchases, operating expenses and other investments in the facility over the first 20 years are estimated at more than $2 billion. ams will create and retain more than 700 full time jobs and anticipates the creation of at least 500 additional support jobs from contractors, subcontractors, suppliers, and partners necessary to establish the full ecosystem necessary to enable advanced manufacturing operations.

Fort Schuyler Management (FSMC) will handle the construction, with the goal of turning the fab over to ams in Q2 2017. A key part of N.Y. Governor Andrew Cuomo’s START-UP NY initiative, FSMC is a State University of New York (SUNY Polytechnic Institute) affiliated, private, not-for-profit, 501c(3) corporation that facilitates research and economic development opportunities in support of New York’s emerging nanotechnology and semiconductor clusters.

“If jobs are being created, everything else will take care of itself,” Cuomo said.

Mohawk Valley EDGE President Steve DiMeo said site work has already started. “We’re putting roads in, storm drainage, utilities and we just approved the change order for clearing the land where ams will be located. We’ll be doing some additional site development this fall, and work closely with Fort Schuyler so that they will be in a position to begin construction the early part of next year.”

In a related announcement, GE Global Research said it will expand its New York global operations to the Mohawk Valley, serving as the anchor tenant of the Computer Chip Commercialization Center (QUAD C) on the campus of SUNY Polytechnic Institute’s Colleges of Nanoscale Science and Engineering in Utica. Nearly 500 jobs are expected to be created in the Mohawk Valley in the next five years from SUNY Poly, GE and affiliated corporations and another 350 in the subsequent five years.

These public-private partnerships represent the launch of the next phase of the Governor’s Nano Utica initiative, which now exceeds more than 4,000 projected jobs over the next ten years. Designed to replicate the dramatic success of SUNY Poly’s Nanotech Megaplex in Albany, NANO Utica further cements New York’s international recognition as the preeminent hub for 21st century nanotechnology innovation, education, and economic development.

“This is a transformative moment that will make a difference in peoples’ lives in the Mohawk Valley for generations to come,” said Governor Cuomo. “Over the past few years, we have worked to reverse the negative and invest in Upstate NY – and today we’re taking another huge step forward. With GE and ams joining the Nano Utica initiative, we’re seeing the region’s economy gathering momentum unlike ever before. The Mohawk Valley is beginning an economic revolution around nanotechnology, and I am excited to see the region take off and thrive, both today and in the years ahead.”

Dr. Alain Kaloyeros, President and Chief Executive Officer of SUNY Polytechnic Institute, said, “Today’s announcement by Governor Andrew Cuomo represents a major expansion for Quad-C and the Nano Utica initiative and is a tremendous victory for the Mohawk Valley and the entire State of New York. World renowned partners such as GE Global Research and AMS raise the level of prestige for the entire region and accelerate the development of this international hub for technology and innovation. Governor Cuomo’s pioneering economic development model, coupled with SUNY Poly CNSE’s world class expertise and resources, continues to generate historic investment and job creation throughout the state. We welcome GE and AMS and their leadership teams and look forward to their partnership in the continued growth of Nano Utica.”

ams Chief Operating Officer Dr. Thomas Stockmeier said, “Building a new wafer fab will help us achieve our growth plans and meet the increasing demand for our advanced manufacturing nodes. Our decision to locate the facility in New York was motivated by the highly-skilled workforce, the proximity to esteemed education and research institutions, and the favorable business environment provided by Governor Cuomo and all the public and private partners we are working with on this important project.”

Additionally, ams will collaborate with FSMC and SUNY Poly on a joint development program to support complimentary research, commercialization and workforce training opportunities at SUNY Poly facilities throughout New York State.

In 2020, flexible barrier manufacturing for flexible electronic devices such as displays will be a market worth more than US$184 million, according to IDTechEx Research. That equates to 3.8 million square meters of flexible barrier films for electronics.

Although multilayer approaches – usually organic and inorganic layers – have been the most popular solution for flexible encapsulation so far, there is significant development work with solutions based on single layer approaches such as flexible glass or atomic layer deposition (ALD) which could, in later years, capture part of the market. The table below, compiled by IDTechEx analysts shows some of the characteristics of flexible glass and ALD films as developers are looking to bring them to market.

Table 1. ALD and flexible glass metrics and commercialization status for Beneq, Lotus and Corning

Company Name  WVTR (gr/sq.m./day Deposition Technique Material Commercialization Status – Strategy
Beneq Can reach
10-6 		 Batch ALD. Also developing roll 2 Roll ALD. Proprietary Aluminium Oxide/Titanium Oxide nanolaminate Beneq supplies coating equipment
Lotus Can reach
10-6 		 Roll 2 Roll ALD Proprietary homogeneous mixture” of Aluminium Oxide/Titanium Oxide layers Lotus follows a licensing business model and is patenting Plasma Enabled Oxygen Radical Decomposition process so as to enable faster deposition rates
Corning Perfect sealing from water vapour/oxygen Down drawing Thin glass (less than 100 μm) Available in rolls and sheets, in sample volumes

Source: IDTechEx report “Barrier Layers for Flexible Electronics 2015-2025” www.IDTechEx.com/barrier

Flexible glass: current status, outlook and challenges

Flexible glass is a significant technical achievement, yet IDTechEx Research believes that it will not be the solution of choice for encapsulation of flexible electronics in the short to medium term, for multiple reasons.

In spite of the marketing spin given by the manufacturers, glass is inherently a fragile material and requires specialized handling and processing. While plastic materials can also be damaged, there is an important difference between the two: damage of barriers on plastic can lead to the failure of a specific part, however, shattering of glass, even if protective sheets are used, leads to particle contamination on the defect line able to affect multiple parts.

Inherent fragility of flexible glass makes sheet edges critical. All suppliers propose protective tabs to reduce the problem. However, any other particle on the processing equipment could also become a focal point of stress and lead to shattering of the glass sheet or web.

A strong point of traditional glass encapsulation (especially for top emission devices) has been its ability to form truly hermetic packaging by using glass frit and laser sealing. This advantage may not be transferable to flexible glass where glass-to-glass sealing may be very problematic and difficult because points of stress and relative twisting of the two sheets must be avoided in the laser firing of the frit. It may be that flexible glass has to be used in combination with adhesives (and desiccants).

Flexibility is another issue. Although glass is very flexible if flexed along a well-defined axis, it can be poor at tolerating any stress out of axis, so much so that twisting the sheet may lead to fracture. This is true with or without protective film applied to the glass. Extreme flexibility (r< 2-3 mm) may also be a problem. Data that has been shown would put the flexibility limit around r= 2.5 cm. Consequently, flexible glass as an encapsulant superstrate or substrate may be good for conformal applications, but for truly flexible applications there seem to be several challenges to be overcome.

Flexible glass makers are also waiting for equipment providers to make appropriate equipment to handle the flexible glass in manufacturing, another bottle neck.

Future opportunities for flexible glass

The thermal stability of flexible glass makes it the best choice as substrate for back-planes of high-resolution high-end large displays. Glass enables improved resolution and good registration between layers during processing compared to plastic substrates like PET, PEN, and PI. However, IDTechEx analysts and other affiliate experts have only seen results with metal oxide backplanes only so far (Tprocess < 350 C), none with LTPS backplanes (Tprocess < 450 C). If processability up to 450C is indeed possible, flexible glass would be a very good choice as a substrate for flexible AMOLED TV. Those devices are bottom emission (BE) AMOLED, normally have a metal foil as back encapsulant, a higher cost tolerance. Regarding R2R processing of flexible glass, it has demonstrated possible. Manufacturing by R2R will require specialized tools not differently than fabrication of barrier in R2R.

The multi-layer approach if correctly implemented on dedicated tools may have the potential to be low cost but an open question remains as to how low the defect density of barrier on foil can be. Consequently, it is an open question what the maximum size of displays that can be encapsulated with compatible yield can be. As it transpires from the discussion above, plastic engineered superstrate (=encapsulant foil) may be better for smaller devices (wearable, phone, tablets), while flexible glass may be better for TVs and in general larger displays.

Additionally, the smoothness of plastic films, even with smoothing layers, is not as good as glass (0.2 nm). This may be a problem for organic TFT backplanes. Finally optical transmission below 400nm require glass as substrate since PET and PEN have a cut off around 400 nm (PEN). IDTechEx does not see this as a critical limitation for general display applications (it may be for OPV).

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) present and future outlook/market share 

ALD is another flexible encapsulation technology receiving a lot of attention with several players currently developing solutions based on it. It seems like it is not a short-term solution, if it will ever be one as a stand-alone layer but ALD may be a solution in a multi-layer stack in combination with a sputtered or PECVD layer if it would be possible to find a good cost structure. Regarding the intrinsic properties of the material, ALD film deposited at low temperature (T<80 C) have a superior quality when tested at room temperature. A single ALD layer less-than 50 nm thick can perform better than thicker layers deposited by sputtering or PECVD.

However, the inherent stability of the films at higher temperature/humidity (e.g. 85C/85%RH) is a problem. If PE-CVD is used, ALD film stability improves, as well as for mixed oxides, but it is still an issue. A second problem comes with particles and substrates non-uniformity. Any defect may lead at an initial non-uniform nucleation that propagates into the growing film. Furthermore, loose particles on substrates may be partially covered, but because of the extreme thinness, the thin film does not have the mechanical strength to keep them in place under mechanical stress. Any mechanical stress leads to film fracture with consequent creation of an ingress path for moisture. That is why multilayer structures are necessary.

Deposition tools are in development from Lotus, Beneq, Encapsulix and others. Exploration at Samsung SDC with ALD films for TFE was very much advertised by Synos, but resulted in failure and any further evaluation was halted. ALD for barrier on foil has better results although there are doubts and hurdles in scaling up and reaching the deposition speed required for a cost effective process.

This is also one of the sessions at the Printed Electronics USA event, to be held on November 18-19 at Santa Clara, CA. See www.PrintedElectronicsUSA.com for full details.

Starting in the second half of 2015, the overall consumption of active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) materials will surge, as LG Display increases the production of white organic light-emitting diode (WOLED) TV panels. In the first half of 2015, the WOLED organic materials market reached $58 million; however, in the second half of the year the market will increase nearly threefold, reaching $165 million. The WOLED organic materials market is forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 79 percent from 2014 to 2019, according to IHS Inc. (NYSE: IHS), a global source of critical information and insight.

“Although the WOLED organic materials market is still at a fledgling state, it will grow considerably in tandem with a rise in WOLED panel production, beginning in the second half of 2015,” said Kihyun Kim, senior analyst for display chemical and materials at IHS Technology. “Since WOLED technology is mainly used for large-area AMOLED displays, particularly TVs, this rapid growth in the WOLED market will lead the continued growth in the overall AMOLED materials market.”

LG Display, the leader in the WOLED panel market, began manufacturing WOLED TV panels in their E3 line in Paju, South Korea, in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2012. To mass produce WOLED panels, the company installed 8th generation mother glass processing in its E4 line in February 2014. While the line became operational in Q4 2014, the line yield has been low to date; however, full operation is set to begin in earnest in the second quarter (Q2) 2015. “Most AMOLED TV panel makers, especially in China, are focusing on WOLED technology, which supports future WOLED material market growth,” Kim said.

AMOLED_Materials_WOLED_Chart2

The total AMOLED materials market, including both the fine-metal mask red-green-blue (FMM RGB) and WOLED types, will grow 54 percent year over year to reach $658 million in 2015, according to the latest IHS OLED Materials Market Tracker forecast. The AMOLED materials market is expected to reach $2.0 billion in 2019, growing at a CAGR of 37 percent from 2014 to 2019.

After leveling off in the second half of the last decade, CMOS image sensors are in the midst of a strong new wave of growth, which is being driven by a broad range of applications and promises to lift worldwide sales to record-high levels each year through 2019, according to the 2015 edition of IC Insights’ O-S-D Report—A Market Analysis and Forecast for Optoelectronics, Sensors/Actuators, and Discretes. The O-S-D Report’s forecast shows CMOS image sensor sales climbing 15 percent in 2015 to reach an all-time high of $10.1 billion after a strong 19 percent increase in 2014 and subpar 4 percent growth in 2013 that primarily resulted from steep price erosion and inventory corrections in camera phones.  CMOS image sensor unit shipments are now projected to grow 19 percent in 2015 to a record-high 3.7 billion after rising 20 percent in 2014 and 2013 (Figure 1).

Figure 1

Figure 1

For about 15 years, digital cameras in cellphone handsets have been the dominant system application in CMOS image sensors and that will continue to be the case in the second half of this decade, but growth rates in this optoelectronics semiconductor category are expected to be pushed higher by new automotive and machine-vision applications, security and surveillance systems (including body cameras), medical imaging, and a wide assortment of optical-sensing nodes tied to the Internet of Things (IoT).  In 2014, about 70 percent of CMOS image sensor sales ($6.2 billion) were for embedded cameras in cellphones, but that percentage is expected to fall to 49 percent in 2019 ($7.3 billion), which represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of just 3.4 percent, based on the forecast presented in the 2015 O-S-D Report.  In comparison, total CMOS image sensor sales are projected to grow by a CAGR of 11.1 percent in the five-year forecast period to reach $15.0 billion in 2019.

The 2015 O-S-D Report forecasts sales of CMOS image sensor sales for automotive safety systems will climb by a CAGR of 57.4 percent to $2.1 billion in 2019 and represent 14 percent of the market’s total dollar volume that year compared to just 3 percent in 2014.  CMOS image sensor sales for security systems and surveillance applications are expected to grow by a CAGR of 38.4 percent in the five-year forecast period to $899 million in 2019, which will represent 6 percent of the market’s total sales that year versus 2 percent in 2014. The O-S-D Reportshows medical and scientific instrument applications driving up CMOS image sensors sales by a CAGR of 36.0 percent to $824 million in 2019 or about 6 percent of the total market compared to about 2 percent in 2014. Toys and video game applications are expected to increase sales of CMOS image sensors by a CAGR of 32.7 percent to $255 million by 2019, which will represent 2 percent of the market’s total revenue compared to 1 percent in 2014.

Major suppliers of CMOS image sensors are responding to the shift in what’s driving sales growth.  For instance, CMOS image sensor leader Sony now aims to become the largest supplier of imaging solutions for automotive systems by the middle of the next decade after it accomplished its goal of taking the top spot in camera phones in the past few years. Sony’s CMOS image sensor sales grew 31 percent in 2014 to about $2.8 billion, which represented a 32 percent share of the market’s total revenues, based on the supplier ranking in the 2015 O-S-D Report.  After Sony, U.S.-based OmniVision was second in CMOS image sensor sales ($1.4 billion in 2014) followed by Samsung ($1.2 billion), Sharp ($720 million), SK Hynix ($488 million), and China’s GalaxyCore ($360 million), according to IC Insights’ supplier ranking.

Recently, quantum dots (QDs)–nano-sized semiconductor particles that produce bright, sharp, color light–have moved from the research lab into commercial products like high-end TVs, e-readers, laptops, and even some LED lighting. However, QDs are expensive to make so there’s a push to improve their performance and efficiency, while lowering their fabrication costs.

Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have produced some promising results toward that goal, developing a new method to extract more efficient and polarized light from quantum dots (QDs) over a large-scale area. Their method, which combines QD and photonic crystal technology, could lead to brighter and more efficient mobile phone, tablet, and computer displays, as well as enhanced LED lighting.

To demonstrate their new technology, researchers fabricated a novel 1mm device (aka Robot Man) made of yellow photonic-crystal-enhanced QDs. Every region of the device has thousands of quantum dots, each measuring about six nanometers. Credit: Gloria See, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

To demonstrate their new technology, researchers fabricated a novel 1mm device (aka Robot Man) made of yellow photonic-crystal-enhanced QDs. Every region of the device has thousands of quantum dots, each measuring about six nanometers. Credit: Gloria See, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

With funding from the Dow Chemical Company, the research team, led by Electrical & Computer Engineering (ECE) Professor Brian Cunningham, Chemistry Professor Ralph Nuzzo, and Mechanical Science & Engineering Professor Andrew Alleyne, embedded QDs in novel polymer materials that retain strong quantum efficiency. They then used electrohydrodynamic jet (e-jet) printing technology to precisely print the QD-embedded polymers onto photonic crystal structures. This precision eliminates wasted QDs, which are expensive to make.

These photonic crystals limit the direction that the QD-generated light is emitted, meaning they produce polarized light, which is more intense than normal QD light output.

According to Gloria See, an ECE graduate student and lead author of the research reported this week in Applied Physics Letters, their replica molded photonic crystals could someday lead to brighter, less expensive, and more efficient displays. “Since screens consume large amounts of energy in devices like laptops, phones, and tablets, our approach could have a huge impact on energy consumption and battery life,” she noted.

“If you start with polarized light, then you double your optical efficiency,” See explained. “If you put the photonic-crystal-enhanced quantum dot into a device like a phone or computer, then the battery will last much longer because the display would only draw half as much power as conventional displays.”

To demonstrate the technology, See fabricated a novel 1mm device (aka Robot Man) made of yellow photonic-crystal-enhanced QDs. The device is made of thousands of quantum dots, each measuring about six nanometers.

“We made a tiny device, but the process can easily be scaled up to large flexible plastic sheets,” See said. “We make one expensive ‘master’ molding template that must be designed very precisely, but we can use the template to produce thousands of replicas very quickly and cheaply.”