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Slideshow: IEDM 2014 Preview


November 26, 2014

This year, the IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) celebrates 60 years of reporting technological breakthroughs in the areas of semiconductor and electronic device technology, design, manufacturing, physics, and modeling. The conference scope not only encompasses devices in silicon, compound and organic semiconductors, but also in emerging material systems. In 2014 there is an increased emphasis on circuit and process technology interaction, energy harvesting, bio-snesors and bioMEMS, power devices, magnetics and spintronics, two dimensional electronics and devices for non-Boolean computing.

Solid State Technology will be reporting insights from bloggers and industry partners during the conference, and this slideshow provides an advance look at some of the most newsworthy topics and papers to be presented at the annual meeting, to be held at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square Hotel from December 15-17, 2014.

Click here to launch slideshow. 

Bay Bridge, San Francisco at dusk

 

Related news and blogs: 

Intel and IBM to lay out 14nm FinFET strategies on competing substrates at IEDM 2014

Slideshow: IEDM 2013 Highlights

Continuing strength in China and a resurgent U.S. economy are combining to drive accelerated growth in the worldwide market for semiconductors used in industrial applications this year, according to IHS Technology.

Global market revenue for industrial semiconductors is expected to rise by 12.9 percent in 2014, reaching $38.5 billion, up from $34.0 billion in 2013. This represents an even larger increase in market growth compared to an 11.4 percent expansion in 2013.

The United States and China, the world’s two largest markets for industrial semiconductors, are propelling global growth this year, with revenue increases of 13 percent and 17 percent, respectively, as presented in the figure below. The two regions were responsible for strong market increases in the second quarter, compensating for a decline in Europe.

The surge in in the second quarter was thanks in particular to three sectors: factory automation; building and home control; and commercial aircraft. Expansion in the economies of the US and China overcame a contraction in the European market region during the April through June period. Following a seasonally slow first quarter, the strong second quarter expansion of nearly 7 percent kept the global market for industrial semiconductors on a strong ascendant path for the year.

“Rising demand for industrial semiconductors in the United States is being driven by a wide range of positive economic factors that are boosting the manufacturing sector,” said Robbie Galoso, principal analyst for IHS.

“At the same time, the Chinese government’s generous stimulus programs in several product markets are promoting broad-based strength for various industrial electronics areas. The robust performance in both countries kept spending on industrial semiconductors on track in the second quarter and set the stage for accelerated growth for the entire year of 2014.”

For more information, see the report entitled “Robust Q2 supports 2014 double-digit growth forecast” from the IHS Semiconductors & Components service.

Industrial juggernauts

The growth in the U.S. is driven by a plethora of factors, including a more stable housing market, improved consumer finances, and credit and increased capital spending. This will cause annual growth in the U.S. industrial semiconductor market to rise by about 2 percentage points in 2014 compared to 2013.

With 30.5 percent of total revenue in 2013, the United States is the No. 1 purchaser of industrial semiconductors in the world and has market share dominance across several industrial markets.

Meanwhile for China, that country’s economic growth is cooling somewhat, with the impact of government stimulus programs reverberating through the country’s various market segments. This is resulting in strong spending on microchips in industrial areas including manufacturing and process automation, test and measurement, building and home control, and security and video surveillance.

China is the second largest purchaser of industrial semiconductors in the world with 14.1 percent of total revenues in 2013.

LEDs light up the industrial chip sector

Among the fastest growing product sectors within the industrial semiconductor market will be optical light-emitting diodes (LEDs), which will attain 12.4 percent growth. The use of LEDs for general-lighting applications is propelling expansion of this area. Demand for general-lighting LEDs is so strong that as lighting outperformed other applications like televisions, some LEDs originally intended for TVs are being sold to the general-lighting market.

Other fast-growing segments include transistors and thyristors, which will grow 14.2 percent this year.

Worldwide silicon wafer area shipments increased during the third quarter 2014 when compared to second quarter area shipments according to the SEMI Silicon Manufacturers Group (SMG) in its quarterly analysis of the silicon wafer industry.

Total silicon wafer area shipments were 2,597 million square inches during the most recent quarter, a 0.4 percent increase from the 2,587 million square inches shipped during the previous quarter. New quarterly total area shipments are 11.0 percent higher than third quarter 2013 shipments, according to SEMI.

“After reaching record levels in the second quarter, silicon wafer shipment volume growth plateaued during the most recent quarter,” said Hiroshi Sumiya, chairman of SEMI SMG and general manager of the Corporate Planning Department of Shin-Etsu Handotai Co., Ltd. “Year-to-date silicon volumes are 10 percent higher than the same period last year.”

Quarterly Silicon Area Shipment Trends

 

Million Square Inches
 

Q3 2013

Q2 2014

Q3 2014

Q1-Q3 2013

Q1-Q3 2014
Total

2,341

2,587

2,597

6,859

7,548

Semiconductor Silicon Shipments* – Millions of Square Inches

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

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

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

For more information on the SEMI Worldwide Silicon Wafer Shipment Statistics, visit www.semi.org/en/MarketInfo/SiliconShipmentStatistics.

By Daniel QI, SEMI China

General Lighting is a Key Growth Driver

As a result of cost reduction and performance improvements, LED lighting is becoming more and more competitive in general lighting market. Energy-efficient fluorescent lamps (like CFL) productions have experienced growing and stabilizing stages in recent years; however, energy-efficient fluorescent lamp production is now facing a significant decline in 2014 as LED lighting products represent a faster growing segment of this market. SEMI China believes that the general lighting market will replace the LCD TV backlight market as the largest application market for LEDs in 2014, and general lighting market will continue to drive the LED industry over the next several years.

ChinaLED1

China’s LED Fab Industry Is Consolidating and Recovering

Due to overly optimistic expectations for future market growth and opportunities, coupled with many local governments providing subsidies for MOCVD equipment procurement, China’s LED fab industry entered into a hyper-growth period between 2010 and 2011, resulting in 76 LED fabs being established by the end of 2011. Many of these companies struggled given challenges in ramping up and with over-supply in the market. Fab capacity utilization lagged for many companies.

Following this post hyper growth period, fab utilization eventually recovered and improved throughout 2013, reaching about 90% by first quarter in 2014 (see next figure). Two key reasons are evident for improved capacity utilization. First, as previously mentioned, demand in general lighting application has increased. Second, China’s LED fabs have undergone consolidation since 2012. Consolidation occurred as some of LED fabs went bankrupt or exited the industry entirely, thus mitigating oversupply in the China market. These bankrupted or former LED fabs are not included in the utilization statistics shown in the figure below.

 ChinaLED2

China LED Fab Industry Expansion Plan

There has been very limited news of LED fab expansions over the previous two years, but the situation has changed as a number of China’s LED companies have announced new fab projects and/or expansion plans in 2014. SEMI believes that over the next three to four years upstream LED manufacturers in China will enter robust era of growth. Unlike 2010 and 2011, this expansion round will be dominated by leading manufacturers, not new entrants. Also, the total increase in MOCVD tool quantity in 2014 and 2015 will be from just six companies  and will account 74% of the total quantity of MOCVD tools installed in China. It is expected that the number of new MOCVD tools installed will exceed 1,000 from 2014 to 2018.

ChinaLED3

The New Edition of China LED Fab Industry Report

SEMI China has recently published a new report of China’s LED Fab Industry in October 2014.This report covers: the LED lighting market, global LED fab capacity forecast, China’s LED fab industry utilization statistics, a listing of all of China’s LED fabs, LED fab expansion plans by supplier, China MOCVD tool market analysis and forecast, China GaN epitaxial wafer capacity statistics, and LED forecast by wafer size.

For more information, please contact Daniel QI: [email protected]

Belgian nanoelectronics research center imec has announced a joint development project with Coventor, a supplier of semiconductor process development tools. The collaboration will enable faster and more optimized development of advanced manufacturing technology in the 3D device architecture era, extending down to imec’s 10- and 7-nanometer (nm) processes.

To adopt the 7nm node, the industry needs to select the optimal layout, as well as optimize process step performance and control methodology. Using Coventor’s SEMulator3D platform, engineers from imec and Coventor are working together to reduce silicon learning cycles and development costs by down selecting the options for development of next-generation manufacturing technologies. The SEMulator3D platform is an integrated set of modeling tools with enhanced visibility, accuracy and performance that enables engineers to interactively model and simulate a wide range of manufacturing effects in software before committing to expensive test chips.

At imec, process and integration experts have connected optical lithography simulations with Coventor’s SEMulator3D virtual fabrication platform to explore FinFET scaling to the 7nm node and to compare the process window marginalities in several dense SRAM designs using  Spacer Assisted Quadruple Patterning and either multiple immersion or EUV patterning cut/keep solutions. Moreover, a Spacer-Assisted Quad Patterning scheme for 7nm dense interconnect was devised using SEMulator3D, and process window marginalities for an immersion based multiple block patterning solution were analyzed. Additional collaboration will focus on the predictive modeling of Directed Self-Assembly for advanced patterning.

An Steegen, senior vice president process technology at imec said:  “A virtual fabrication platform enables us to tie together integrated processing before all of the individual processes are available.  The SEMulator3D tool gives us the visibility and accuracy to do that, and an integrated platform to bring together all the various elements of advanced processing before moving on to actual silicon.”

“Imec is the premier semiconductor research center, and this collaboration allows us to synchronize our modeling roadmap with one of the industry’s most advanced process roadmaps, as well as to speed the development of their 10nm and 7nm technology,” said David Fried, Chief Technical Officer, Semiconductor, at Coventor. “Working together with imec on novel integration schemes, designing SEMulator3D-specific structures for imec’s testsites, and then calibrating advanced models to imec’s wafer processing is an extremely effective and valuable way for Coventor to optimize our virtual fabrication platform for emerging market requirements.”

imec&conventor

Capped by last week’s announcement that Qualcomm Inc. would buy CSR PLC, the automotive semiconductor industry recently has been undergoing a wave of merger and acquisition (M&A) activity that has shaken up the competitive order of the market, according to IHS Technology.

In two major deals announced in August, Germany’s Infineon Technologies AG said it would acquire U.S.-based International Rectifier Corp., while ON Semiconductor Corp. sealed a deal to acquire fellow American firm Aptina Imaging Corp.

With the International Rectifier deal, Infineon bolstered its No. 2 rank in the global automotive semiconductor business and helped it to close the gap on the market leader, Renesas of Japan. Following the acquisition, Infineon trails Renesas by just $288 million, down from nearly $500 before Infineon bought International Rectifier, based on ranking data from 2013.

Meanwhile, the Aptina acquisition expanded ON’s automotive semiconductor revenue by $183 million, allowing ON to move up one position to eighth place in the market, also based on 2013 ranking data.

The purchase of the U.K.’s CSR will allow California-based Qualcomm to enhance its market share. Qualcomm ranked No. 43 in 2013, while CSR came in at 23. The two companies combined would have ranked at No. 19 in 2013.

“While these three M&A deals differ in their specific goals and benefits, all have the same strategic objective: expanding market share in the lucrative business for semiconductors used in automobiles,” said Ahad Buksh, analyst for automotive semiconductors at IHS. “The automotive supply is adding new infotainment, communications and driver-assist functionality at a rapid pace, causing related semiconductor revenue to rise 5 percent to reach $26 billion in 2013. Suppliers are buying up competitors to gain scale in the market, to add key capabilities and to capitalize on established customer relationships.”

Clash of the top 10 titans

The figure below presents the IHS ranking of the world’s top 10 suppliers of automotive semiconductors in 2013, showing the impact from the recent acquisitions.

Auto_Semi_in_Cars

All of these 10 companies increasingly are investing in automotive, having identified the area as a strategic field of expansion. At the same time, most of these companies are divesting from other markets, such as wireless and consumer electronics.

The strong positions held by the top 10 suppliers are the result of decades of investment to meet the specific requirements of leading customers. These requirements include high product quality and strong service support. IHS believes that automotive manufacturers will tend to maintain long-term relationship with these established semiconductor suppliers.

To Infineon and beyond

Infineon’s acquisition of International Rectifier not only will diversify the former’s product portfolio but also will make it a bigger threat to Renesas.

Last year was great for both Infineon and International Rectifier, with automotive-related revenue at the two companies rising by 11.7 percent and 15.6 percent, respectively. In contrast, the declining exchange rate of Japanese yen vs. the U.S. dollar meant that Renesas suffered a 14.2 percent drop in automotive revenue in 2013. What used to be a lead of more than $1.2 billion for Renesas over Infineon in 2012 eroded by 60 percent.

Once the International Rectifier acquisition is complete, Renesas’ lead will shrink further.

International Rectifier’s strong presence in low-power insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT), power modules and power metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) will boost Infineon into the top spot in the discrete integrated circuit (IC) category. This particularly reinforces Infineon’s position in the fast growing hybrid and electric vehicle segment. Intelligent power switches, data converters and application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC) from International Rectifier also will complement Infineon’s portfolio and will generate economies of scale. Even though Infineon’s second position in analog ICs won’t change, the acquisition will help it close in on the top player in the segment, STMicroelectronics.

On the acquisition hunt

Aside from bringing ON Semiconductor closer to the $1 billion mark in automotive semiconductors, Aptina’s sensor business is of strategic importance, as it was a weak spot in On’s portfolio. Now, ON Semiconductor can count itself the leading supplier of complementary-metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) imaging sensors, which serve as the eyes of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) in vehicles. The rapid adoption of ADAS will drive markets for automotive image sensors to attain 10 percent growth per year from 2013 to 2020, making it a good investment for On.

Qualcomm boosts automotive market share with CSR acquisition

Qualcomm’s acquisition of CSR is more about buying—and as a result, enlarging—market share in automotive than about complementing Qualcomm’s product portfolio.

With the purchase, Qualcomm will become the world’s fourth-largest supplier of ASICs for automotive infotainment, with a 10 percent market share. In 2013, the company ranked 11th with a market share of 2.7 percent, unchanged from 2012 and 2011.

Driven by rising demand for fitness and health monitoring features as well as by improved user interfaces, shipments of sensors used in wearable electronic devices will rise by a factor of seven from 2013 through 2019, according to IHS Technology. 

The worldwide market for sensors in wearables will expand to 466 million units in 2019, up from 67 million in 2013, as presented in the figure below.

2014-10-15_MEMS

Shipments of sensors will climb much more quickly than the market for the wearable devices themselves. Wearable devices will increase to 135 million units in 2019, less than three times the total of 50 million in 2013.

“Wearables are a hotbed for sensors, with market growth driven by the increasing number of these components in each product sold,” said Jérémie Bouchaud, director and senior principal analyst, MEMS & Sensors, at IHS Technology. “The main factor propelling this phenomenon is a transition in market share away from simple products like pedometers and toward more sophisticated multipurpose devices such as smartwatches and smartglasses. Instead of using a single sensor like the simpler devices, the more complex products employ numerous components for health and activity monitoring, as well as for their more advanced user interfaces.”

The average wearable device shipped in 2019 will incorporate 4.1 sensor elements, up from 1.4 in 2013.

Smartphone brands are increasingly aware that wearables are a better platform for some types of sensors than mobile handsets. IHS expects components like humidity sensors and pulse sensors to move from handsets to wearable devices, such as new smartwatches introduced by Samsung, Apple and others. This will further boost shipments of sensors in wearables.

This information is derived from the new IHS report entitled “MEMS & Sensors for Wearables Report – 2014” from the IHS MEMS & Sensors service.

Sensor scan

The types of sensors used in wearables are motion sensors, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and sensors for user interfaces, health sensors and environmental sensors.

Motion sensors represent the dominant technology in the wearables segment and comprise the component categories of accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetometers, pressure sensors and combo motion sensors. MEMS sensors for user interfaces include MEMS microphones, proximity sensors and MEMS displays.

The health sensor area is represented by pulse, pulse-oximeters, hydration and skin temperature sensors. Environmental sensors include humidity, temperature and ultraviolet (UV) components.

Sensing opportunity

Wearables increasingly are employing sensors for fitness monitoring, using motion sensors or health sensors. The wearable devices also are implementing fitness and health monitoring using motion sensors or health sensors like pulse sensors. On the user interface front, wearables use MEMS microphones for voice command and motion sensors for tap command.

“The use of these types of sensors reflects consumer preferences that are propelling the growth of the wearables market,” Bouchaud said. “Users want health and fitness monitoring, and they want wearable devices that act as extensions of their smartphones. However, there’s no real demand from consumers for environmental sensors. Instead, the rising adoption of environmental sensors such as humidity and UV devices is being pushed by both sensor suppliers and wearable original equipment manufacturers (OEM).”

Watching the market

The market for sensors in wearables will undergo a major acceleration next year as shipments of the Apple Watch commence. Overall wearable sensor shipments will double next year; shipments of sensors for smartwatches will surge by nearly 600 percent.

The Apple Watch not only employs an accelerometer, but also a gyroscope, a microphone and a pulse sensor.

“Similar to the iPhone and iPad, IHS expects the Apple Watch will set a de facto standard for sensor specifications in smartwatches,” Bouchaud said. “Most other wearable OEMs will follow Apple’s lead in using these four devices—or will add even more sensors to differentiate.”

Fitness and heart rate monitors and foot pods and pedometers lead the wearable market in terms of sensor shipments in 2013.

However, smartwatches will take the top position starting next year and will maintain dominance through 2019.

STMicroelectronics dominates sensors

STMicroelectronics is by far the top MEMS and sensor supplier for the wearable market. The company consolidated its leadership position in 2013 with a 26 percent share of revenue, up from 20 percent in 2012.

Beside its leadership in the discrete accelerometer market, STMicroelectronics’ success with wearable sensors is because of its strong bundling strategy. The company often sells its sensors as part of a packaged deal along with its other semiconductor offerings, such as 32-bit microcontrollers and wireless chips.

India has a very large industry base of electronics items, but there is little manufacturing base for semiconductors. As of now India doesn’t have any operational wafer fabrication plants and depends extensively on the imports. Semiconductor industry is 100 percent import based with India importing semiconductors worth $10 billion in 2013. Since In 2013, India spent $169 billion on oil imports, $54 billion on gold imports and $31.5 billion on electronic imports.

Semiconductors are used extensively in various applications, which offer immense potential for the growth of this industry in India.  Semiconductors are used majorly in Mobile Devices, Telecommunications, Information Technology & Office Automation (IT & OA), Industrial, Automotive and other industries (Aerospace, Defense and Medical industries).

The latest research report by NOVONOUS finds that the semiconductor industry is estimated to grow from $10.02 billion in 2013 to $52.58 billion in 2020 at CAGR of 26.72 percent.

According to this research report, mobile devices are expected to grow at CAGR of 33.4 percent from 2013 to 2020. The contribution to semiconductor revenue is expected to grow from 35.4 percent in 2013 to 50.7 percent in 2020.

Telecommunication segment is expected to grow at CAGR of 26.8 percent from 2013 to 2020 and its contribution to total revenue will remain the same at 19.7 percent in 2020.

IT&OA contribution to the total semiconductor revenue will come down from 28.3 percent in 2013 to 17.4 percent in 2020 due to consolidation in this sector. This segment will grow at CAGR of 18.2 percent over the next seven years.

Consumer electronics segment is expected to grow at CAGR of 18.8 percent and the contribution to the total semiconductor revenue will come down from the current level of 5.6 percent in 2013 to 3.5 percent in 2020. Industrial electronics segment is expected to grow at CAGR of 19.6 percent and the contribution to the total semiconductor revenue will come down from current level of 4 percent to 2.7 percent.

Automotive electronics segment is expected to grow faster at CAGR of 30.5 percent from 2013 to 2020; its revenue contribution will increase from 3.2 percent in 2013 to 3.9 percent in 2020.

Samsung Electronics announced plans on Monday to invest $14.7 billion (15.6 trillion Korean won) in a new semiconductor fabrication facility in Pyeongtaek, South Korea to meet growing demand from smartphones, enterprise computing and the emerging “Internet of Things” market.

Samsung_PM853T_SSD

The new fabrication plant is expected to help Samsung Electronics to develop a semiconductor cluster in Giheung, Hwaseong and Pyeongtaek to meet growing demand for advanced semiconductor products. However, the company wrote on its website that it has not determined the specific products to be manufactured.

The fab will be built in the 790,000 square meter site in Godeok Industrial Complex, where construction will begin during the first half of next year, with operations scheduled to begin sometime during the second half of 2017, Samsung told the press on Monday.

The investment “will significantly influence the shaping of Samsung’s future semiconductor business,” said Kwon Oh-hyun, co-chief and a vice chairman of Samsung Electronics.

Samsung’s semiconductor business announced revenue of close to 9.8 trillion Korean won in the second quarter.

A Samsung spokeswoman said a decision has not been taken yet on what type of chips would be made at the new fab and the manufacturing process. The company said in July it was on track to roll out 14nm manufacturing process in volume by the end of this year.

SEMICON Europa will feature semiconductor device technology for a wide range of applications, equipment, materials, services and will provide access to critical information relative to device manufacturing, partnership opportunities, next-generation fab requirements  and funding. The event will be held in France (7-9 October in Grenoble) for the first time with an expanded exhibition (25 percent larger). The opportunities and challenges in microelectronics will be discussed in more than 70 sessions with 300 speakers.

Global capital spending on semiconductor equipment is projected to grow  21.1 percent in 2014 and 21.0 percent in 2015. According to the August edition of the SEMI World Fab Forecast, semiconductor equipment spending will increase from $29 billion in 2013 to $42 billion in 2015.

SEMI projects back-to-back years of double-digit growth in Europe and Mid-East semiconductor equipment sales. The SEMI outlook forecasts that the European/Mid-East semiconductor equipment market will grow 11 percent in 2014 (reaching $1.9 billion) and 100 percent in 2015 (reaching $3.8 billion). In terms of percentage of worldwide sales, the Europe/MidEast region’s share is expected to increase from 5.9 percent in 2013 to 9.0 percent in 2015.

The event offers several semiconductor Front-End manufacturing highlights, including the 18th Fab Managers Forum, which is themed “Improving Productivity for Mature Fabs.” Speakers from IMEC, Infineon AG, and Bosch will present on Internet of Things, Automation Level in Fabs, and Smart Connected Sensor Devices. The prospect for future 450mm wafer processing, as well other technical and business challenges in semiconductor and related micro and nano-electronics industries, will be addressed at SEMICON Europa.

In the two-day special program, “450mm Innovations and Synergies for Smaller Diameters,” leaders will present on progress, research, and collaboration on the future of the semiconductor manufacturing. The session includes presentations from Global 450 Consortium, European Commission, ASM Europe BV, and RECIF Technologies.

In addition, a Secondary Equipment Session, themed “Fundamental to European Competitiveness?”, features presentations from  Infineon Technologies AG, STMicroelectronics, and Robert Bosch GmbH.

Other conference programs at SEMICON Europa will explore critical issues in Fab Management, Advanced Packaging, 3DIC, Test and MEMS. In addition, SEMICON Europa this year features a special focus on Electronic Applications (Imaging Conference and Nanoelectronics for Healthcare Conference) and Electronic Components (Low Power Conference and Power Electronics Conference).

Now in its third decade, SEMICON Europa’s new location this year leverages the growing strengths of Grenoble’s technology businesses, academia and institutions  to showcase a diverse array of products, solutions and opportunities spanning the most advanced innovations in the European microelectronics industry.  For more information on exhibition opportunities, visit www.semiconeuropa.org.  For more information on SEMI Europe, visit: www.semi.org/eu.

SEMICON Europa 2014 will be held on 7-9 October in conjunction with the Plastics Electronics Conference and Exhibition (www.plastic-electronics.org) to showcase Europe’s most innovative companies, institutions and people.