July 27, 2012 — At Nanya Technology
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July 26, 2012 — The analog IC market is a $42 billion business, or 14% of the total semiconductor market. More than 90 companies supply analog ICs, including IDMs, foundries, and fabless semiconductor companies.
Revenues from analog are heavily weighted to communications products, but several market growth drivers are identified in Semico’s new report, including automotive, energy, mobility, and medical/healthcare.
As the analog industry moves to more complex products on smaller technology nodes, there will be an increase in 300mm production. Both smaller nodes and larger wafers offer cost advantages at the IC production level.
This report covers analog capacity by region, by wafer size, and by company type. Analog IDMs and fabless companies are presented according to the types of analog products they produce. Companies with analog foundry capability are also included. The report ranks the top ten analog companies by their analog capacity. The 2011 analog market shares are included.
The analog market is moving into the 300mm era, and this report explores the players in this area and who will be next to move to the larger wafer size. Finally, analog capacity by technology node is presented.
Companies mentioned in this report: Allegro Microsystems, Alpha and Omega Semiconductor, Altis Semiconductor (IBM/Infineon JV), Anadigics, Analog Devices, Atmel, austriamicrosystems, Avago Technologies, AWSC (Advanced Wireless Semiconductor Company), BCD Semiconductor (SIM-BCD), Bi-CMOS Foundry, Bosch, CEITEC, China Resources Microelectronics, Conexant Systems, Cree, CSMC Technologies, Diodes Inc., Dongbu HiTek, Exar, Fairchild Semiconductor, Founder Microelectronics International, Freescale, Fujitsu, Global Mixed-mode Technology (GMT), GLOBALFOUNDRIES, Grace Semiconductor Mfg Corp (GSMC), Hangzhou Silan Microelectronics Co., Hitachi, Honeywell International, HRL Laboratories, LLC, IBM Corporation Burlington, Infineon, Intersil Corporation, IXYS, Kokomo Semiconductors, Lapis Semiconductor, LFoundry, Linear Technology, Lite On Semiconductor, MagnaChip Semiconductor, Maxchip, Maxim, Micrel, Microchip Technology, Microsemi, MIMOS Semiconductor, Mitsumi Electric, Mosel Vitelic Inc., Northrop Grumman, Nuvoton, NXP, ON Semiconductor, On-Bright Electronics, Panasonic Semiconductor, Plessey Semiconductor, Polar Semiconductor Inc (Sanken Electric), Qualcomm, Renesas Electronics Corporation, RFMD, Richtek Technology, Rohm, Samsung, Sanken Electric, Seiko Epson, Semtech, Shanghai Belling, Shanghai Hua Hong NEC Electronics Co. Ltd. (SHHNEC), Sharp, Silicon Labs, Silterra, Skyworks, SMIC, Sony, SSMC (Systems on Silicon Manufacturing Company), STMicroelectronics, Supertex, Teledyne DALSA Semiconductor, Telefunken Semiconductors, Texas Instruments, Tokai Rika, Toshiba, TowerJazz, Triquint, TSMC, UMC, Universal Semiconductor Inc., Vanguard International Semiconductor, Vitesse, X-FAB, ZMD.
Semico is a semiconductor marketing & consulting research company. Access reports at www.semico.com.
July 26, 2012 — AIXTRON SE introduced a 5 x 200mm gallium nitride on silicon (GaN-on-Si) reactor design for its G5 Planetary Reactor metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) platform. AIX G5+ comprises special reactor hardware and process design, developed with customers in AIXTRON’s R&D lab.
Any existing G5 system can be upgraded to this latest version.
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| Figure. AIX G5+ offers fully rotationally symmetrical uniformity pattern on five wafers. |
Power electronics makers are using GaN-on-Si technology, and future high-brightness light-emitting diodes (HB-LEDs) are in development on GaN-on-Si substrates, noted Dr. Rainer Beccard, VP, marketing at AIXTRON. Recent GaN-on-Si development has occured at Lattice Power, NXP Semiconductors, EpiGaN, Bridgelux, Toshiba, and Nitronex, among other semiconductor and LED makers.
GaN-on-Si offers high performance on a lower-cost substrate than sapphire. “Wafer size and material plays a crucial role when it comes to cost-effective manufacturing processes, and thus the transition to 200mm standard silicon wafers is a logical next step on the manufacturing roadmaps,” said Beccard.
The GaN-on-Si reactor was designed for high uniformity and yield. It was developed via simulations, which guided the “fundamentally new” hardware design in the 5 x 200mm configuration.
Select AIXTRON customers are using the AIX G5+, reporting fully rotationally symmetrical uniformity pattern on all five 200mm wafers, which are standard-thickness silicon substrates. These trials also show controlled wafer bow behavior.
AIXTRON provides MOCVD production technologies for semiconductor devices, such as LEDs, lasers, transistors and solar cells. For further information on AIXTRON (FSE: AIXA, ISIN DE000A0WMPJ6, DE000A1MMEF7; NASDAQ: AIXG, ISIN US0096061041), see www.aixtron.com.
July 24, 2012 — Yole Développement updated its micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS) industry database, World MEMS Players 2012. The product includes contact information for MEMS players, geographical breakdown of the industry, and various MEMS device categories.
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| Figure. MEMS players’ business models breakdown. SOURCE: Yole, July 2012. |
World MEMS Players 2012 database provides an overview of the worldwide MEMS market with an easy access to the MEMS players. World MEMS Players 2012 database gives a complete overview of the worldwide MEMS fabs. It includes contacts, business models, MEMS products, wafer size and production status. Each entry includes: organization name, business model, MEMS manager/MEMS marketing/MEMS technical contacts, company mail address, staff in MEMS activity, clean room size, MEMS product portfolio, real production and MEMS sales.
Yole Développement’s database also provides geographical statistics data on company breakdown by business model, breakdown by MEMS product, breakdown by production capacity. It describes worldwide area, Europe, North America, Asia Pacific, Japan and China.
MEMS devices covered in this database: inkjet heads, pressure sensors, microphones, magnetometers, accelerometers, gyroscopes, combos, optical MEMS, microbolometers, thermopiles/pyro sensors, microdisplays, micro actuators, RF MEMS, microtips, micro fuel cells, flow meters, bioMEMS, microspeakers, oscillators, energy harvesting, and microfluidics.
Dr. Eric Mounier co-authored the report. He has a PhD in microelectronics from the INPG in Grenoble and is a co-founder of Yole Développement, leading market analysis for MEMS, equipment & material. Antoine Bonnabel, co-author, is a market analyst for MEMS devices and technologies at Yole Développement.
Yole Développement is a group of companies providing market research, technology analysis, strategy consulting, media in addition to finance services. Learn more at www.yole.fr.
Visit the MEMS Channel of Solid State Technology, and subscribe to our MEMS Direct e-newsletter!
July 24, 2012 — Silicon carbide (SiC) is a niche material for semiconductor, power electronics, and light-emitting diode (LED) manufacturing. Yole Développement analyzed patents related to SiC growth and wafer manufacturing to glean trends in production, R&D, top companies, barriers to entry, and more.
Despite a cumulative raw wafers + epi wafers market that won’t exceed $80 million in 2012, SiC-related patents comprises over 1772 patent families with more than 350 companies involved in the material since 1928. 83% of patents cover a method; 17% of them claim an apparatus.
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| Figure. SiC crystal, wafer, and epiwafer patents distribution. SOURCE: Yole, July 2012. |
SiC growth
Since 1978, the main technique to grow bulk single crystals of SiC has been physical vapor transport (seeded sublimation method, PVT), covered in 36% of published patents, said Dr. Philippe Roussel, business unit manager, Compound Semiconductors, Power Electronics, LED & Photovoltaics, Yole Développement. PVT mostly deals with the hexagonal polytypenH SiC (n=2,4,6). Liquid phase epitaxy (LPE), an alternative SiC growth method developed in 1961, allows crystals to grow with low dislocation densities and at relatively low temperatures. LPE is an attractive SiC growth method for cubic polytype 3C SiC.
Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) almost exclusively dominates SiC epiwafer fab today, and is covered in about 37% of SiC-related patents. Molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) is only mentioned in 1% of patents. The polytype (hexagonal or cubic) is explicitly claimed in 15% of patents.
Numerous strategies to reduce crystal defects (micropipes, carrots, etc.) and make semi-insulating (SI) material are proposed in 23% and 10% of patents respectively.
Patent count vs revenues
About 350 patent applicants are involved in SiC crystal/epiwafer technology, pointed out Roussel, mainly located in Japan (72% of patents) and the US (12% of patents). The five major applicants based on their patents number are Denso, Sumitomo, Nippon Steel, Bridgestone and Toyota. They represent about 35% of studied patents. While Cree Inc. is the 6th major applicant for patents by volume, and the top US company on the list, US companies generate 75% of the SiC wafer business. Leaders include CREE, II-VI, and Dow Corning. Japan is only responsible for 5% of the revenues (at least before SiCrystal was acquired by Rohm). This trend of poor correlation between patent count and revenues is seen in Europe and the rest of Asia as well.
Only 3 Japanese companies are commercially active in SiC material: Showa Denko (epiwafer), Bridgestone (wafer) and Nippon Steel (wafer and epiwafer). China and Korea emerged as new players during the last 5 years, establishing Epiworld, TianYue, TYSTC, and Tankeblue in China and SKC in Korea. However, these companies’ market shares remain very low at the moment.
In the SiC substrate business, Cree holds about 50% market share on a worldwide basis, and has the best reputation in terms of quality, diameter and reproducibility. However, here again Cree does not own the widest patent portfolio.
The only SiC field where number of patents and business size are more balanced is SI SiC technology, where both Cree (vanadium-free) and II-VI (vanadium-doped) have extensively patented their respective developments.
Today’s SiC landscape
Today’s state-of-the-art SiC wafer is 6” diameter, no micropipe, with very low dislocation density. Only CREE seems able to offer such a product today. Barriers to entry and competition in the SiC arena are high, Yole points out.
Cree enjoys funding from the US Department of Defense (DOD), Department of Energy (DOE), Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and the US Navy, improving its technology for LEDs and power electronics. Cree also likely benefits from cross-fertilization of technologies between LEDs and power electronics.
Virtually no SiC substrate companies are for sale today. Beyond the top 5 SiC substrate leaders, Yole does not see a clear positioning of companies who may want to participate in a sale or merger of their business.
New developments are being made around LPE at Toyota, Denso, and Sumitomo. 3C SiC (Cubic) may also disrupt the current PVT domination.
Report
“Patent analysis of SiC single crystal, wafer and epiwafer manufacturing” from Yole Développement presents the patent landscape for SiC single crystal and epiwafer over a total of 1772 patent families. Several key patents are selected based upon their interest regarding the particular technological issues related to the SiC development, as well as their possible blocking factor for new competing development. It puts in contrast the patent landscape with the current and expected market status, highlighting the most active companies, the patent transfer and the sleeping IP. The document also highlights and describes the key patents that could possibly block newcomers, for both crystal and epi-growth.
The analysis goes along with spreadsheets presenting the 1772 patents (Publication Number, Publication Date, Priority Date, Title, Abstract, Assignee(s) and Inventor(s), Legal Status) with direct link to the full patent text and pictures.
Report author: Philippe Roussel holds a PhD in Integrated Electronics Systems from the National Institute of Applied Sciences (INSA) in LYON. He leads the Compound Semiconductors, LED, Power Electronics and Photovoltaic department at Yole Développement.
Companies cited in this analysis: ABB, ACREO, AIST, Ascatron, ATMI, Bridgestone, C9 Corporation, Cabot, Cree, Crysband, Denso, Dow Corning, Ecotron, Epiworld, Fuji Electric, Fujimi, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Hoya, II-VI, Infineon, Kansai Electric Power, Kwansei Gakuin Univ., Mitsubishi, Mitsui, NASA, National Tsing Hua Univ., N-Crystals, NEC, NeoSemitech, Nippon Pillar Packing, Nippon Steel, NIRO, Nisshin Steel, Norstel, North Carolina Univ., Northrop Grumann, NovaSiC, Okmetic, Panasonic, POSCO, Rohm, Sanyo, SemiSouth, Sharp, Shikusuon, Shinetsu Chemical, Showa Denko, SiC Systems, SiCilab, SiCrystal, Siemens, Sumitomo Metal Industries, TankeBlue, Toshiba, Toyota, TyanYue, TYSTC, United Silicon Carbide, US Navy, Widetronix, etc.
Yole Développement is a group of companies providing market research, technology analysis, strategy consulting, media in addition to finance services. Learn more at www.yole.fr.
July 23, 2012 — Researchers sponsored by Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC), a leading university-research consortium for semiconductors and related technologies, developed new sensor-based metrology technology that can significantly reduce water and related energy usage during semiconductor manufacturing.
The sensor-based real-time monitoring approach showed 30% less water and energy used for ultra-clean chip production. The SRC Engineering Research Center (ERC) for Environmentally Benign Semiconductor Manufacturing team at the University of Arizona (UA) calls this “the most significant metrology improvements for the rinse and cleaning of wafers in more than a decade.”
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| Figure. In-situ monitors provide unprecedented control of water and chemical usage during surface preparation for silicon wafers. Highly sensitive sensors, like those shown in this micrograph of a sensing channel, can reduce the amount of resources needed for the cleaning of surfaces. |
Surface preparation, when semiconductor wafers are cleaned, rinsed, and dried to prevent defects between various front end of line and back end of line (FEOL/BEOL) steps, is one of the largest water-consuming processes in semiconductor manufacturing. The International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS) identifies lower resource utilization at current and future fabrication steps among its goals.
Also read: Semiconductor fabs use significantly less energy today, but work remains from ISMI.
The ERC team’s real-time monitoring approach is applicable to current cleaning processes for 300mm silicon wafers, and the gain is expected to be especially beneficial when the industry transitions to 450mm wafers. At 450mm, chipmakers will need to clean and prep a wafer surface that is more than twice the size of current state-of-art wafers.
Current surface preparation practices are recipe-based and not controlled with real-time, in-line monitoring of the process steps. Surface prep is carried out without feedback or control, with a large cushion of safety to overcome lack of regulation. This sizeable safety factor creates unnecessary waste of chemicals, water and energy.
“The challenge is how to balance a minimal application of precious resources with the grave risk of allowing contamination to occur, which can kill huge investments made elsewhere in the fabrication process,” said Dr. Steve Hillenius, executive vice president for SRC.
The next step is to commercialize the monitoring technology, said Farhang Shadman, lead researcher and the ERC director at UA for the SRC-funded research. Semiconductor equipment and manufacturing companies, as well as other industries that use ultra-clean for planar or patterned surfaces and small structures could use the real-time metrology technology to improve resource management. Examples include optics, optoelectronics, and flat panel display (FPD) makers.
For more information about the research, please visit http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TSM.2010.2089542. Contributors for the joint effort include K. Dhane, J. Han, J. Yan, O. Mahdavi, D. Zamani, B. Vermeire and F. Shadman.
SRC defines industry needs, invests in and manages the research that gives its members a competitive advantage in the dynamic global marketplace. For more information, visit www.src.org.
July 23, 2012 — Strategies in Light 2013 will take place February 12-14 in Santa Clara, CA, hosted by PennWell Co.’s Strategies Unlimited and LEDs Magazine. The event’s theme is “Exploring the Growth Opportunities in the LED and Lighting Markets.” Submit an abstract through August 3 for a chance to present at the conference.
Also read: Strategies in Light 2012 takeaways: LED expectations for the short- and long-term
Strategies in Light seeks presentations on these or related topics:
Technology–
• Automotive lighting
• Display backlighting
• Phosphors-new materials, remote, quantum dots
• Packaging-HV,AC LEDs, COB/multichip arrays
• Color quality metrics, optical safety, test & measurement
• Drivers, dimming & control networks
• Replaceable modules and light engines
• Luminaire design: role of thermal management, advanced packaging & optical concepts
• Measuring color quality
• Light & human biology
• Advances in LED cost, performance, lifetime and reliability
• Development of OLEDs and other competing lighting technologies
• Testing-chips/packages, luminaires
• Controls — components and systems — design & implementation
Market Transformation–
• Market growth and outlook, penetration of LEDs into key applications, barriers to further market penetration
• Case studies of specific installations: cost and performance analysis, user feedback, lessons learned
• Product differentiation
• Industry consolidation
• Regional- and country-specific activities to promote LED lighting
• Quality control and labeling programs
• Customer awareness and acceptance, incentives and subsidies
• Funding from governments and investment community
• Standards development and implementation
• Intellectual property issues
• LED Lighting–design perspectives, luminaire design
• End-user requirements: lighting designers, specifiers, architects
• New applications
• Color (quality, reliability, tunability)
• Non-visual response to light
• Perception of light & color
LED Manufacturing–
• Supply and demand, capacity constraints, availability of materials and equipment
• Advanced chip design and lower-cost manufacturing; epitaxial growth and processing
• Process automation
• Yield management
• Metrology
• Substrates, GaN on silicon
• Transition to larger substrates
• Adapting existing semiconductor facilities to LED manufacturing
• Advances in MOCVD technology
• LED packaging — advanced materials and processes
• Manufacturing standards
Also consider presenting a 3-4 hour workshop or tutorial.
All abstracts must be submitted in English between 100 and 300 words. Overtly commercial submissions will be automatically rejected. Submit an abstract by August 3 at http://forms.events.pennnet.com/fl/forms/sil/online_abstract_main.cfm.
July 20, 2012 — North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $1.46 billion in orders, $1.55 billion in bookings, and a book-to-bill ratio of 0.94 worldwide in June 2012 (three-month average basis), reported SEMI. This is the first time the book-to-bill has dropped below parity (1.00) since January 2012.
The three-month average of worldwide bookings in June 2012 was $1.46 billion. The bookings figure is 9.8 percent lower than the final May 2012 level of $1.61 billion, and is 5.5 percent lower than the June 2011 order level of $1.54 billion.
The three-month average of worldwide billings in June 2012 was $1.55 billion. The billings figure is 1.0 percent more than the final May 2012 level of $1.54 billion, and is 5.2 percent less than the June 2011 billings level of $1.64 billion.
"Following seven months of increases, the three-month average bookings declined in June and likely reflects some slowing in investment plans attributed to weaknesses in the broader economy," said Denny McGuirk, president and CEO of SEMI. "While order activity may slow, equipment spending this year will continue to be directed towards advanced technologies in wafer processing and packaging assembly."
The SEMI book-to-bill is a ratio of three-month moving averages of worldwide bookings and billings for North American-based semiconductor equipment manufacturers. Billings and bookings figures are in millions of U.S. dollars. A book-to-bill of 0.94 means that $94 worth of orders were received for every $100 of product billed for the month.
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Billings avg) |
Bookings avg) |
Book-to- Bill |
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1,239.9 |
1,187.5 |
0.96 |
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|
1,322.8 |
1,336.9 |
1.01 |
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1,287.6 |
1,445.7 |
1.12 |
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|
1,458.7 |
1,602.8 |
1.10 |
|
|
1,539.3 |
1,613.7 |
1.05 |
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June 2012 (prelim) |
1,554.9 |
1,455.6 |
0.94 |
Source: SEMI July 2012
The data contained in this release were compiled by David Powell, Inc., an independent financial services firm, without audit, from data submitted directly by the participants. SEMI and David Powell, Inc. assume no responsibility for the accuracy of the underlying data.
The data are contained in a monthly Book-to-Bill Report published by SEMI. The report tracks billings and bookings worldwide of North American-headquartered manufacturers of equipment used to manufacture semiconductor devices, not billings and bookings of the chips themselves. The Book-to-Bill report is one of three reports included with the Equipment Market Data Subscription (EMDS). SEMI is a global industry association serving the nano- and micro-electronic manufacturing supply chains. For more information, visit www.semi.org.
July 19, 2012 — Osram Opto Semiconductors developed a concept for uniform solder pads based on the Oslon light-emitting diode (LED) component family. This enables second sourcing by Osram’s LED customers without an additional soldering board, potentially reduces the costs of storage and process modification.
LED components from different manufacturers can differ in the dimensions and shape of their solder pads. For second sourcing, two different soldering boards are made, to suit the LEDs from two different manufacturers.
The combined board design comes from the design of one of the two LED components. The individual solder surfaces are divided into segments, electrically connected and electrically disconnected. By selecting appropriate spacings between the solder surfaces, makers can attach the second LED product — rotated 90° — to the uniform board design. The anode and cathode of the two LED components are connected to the same electrically contacted segments. Because solder surfaces are divided, the two LED types automatically align themselves to the edges of the solder surfaces during the reflow solder process.
Osram Opto Semiconductors has developed a concept for ceramic LED components, such as the Oslon family, that makes the board solder pad design so adaptable that it can be used for LED components from at least two different manufacturers. The concept can also be used for metal core, FR4, and ceramic boards.
For both LED components, the luminous area is in the same lateral position on the board. If the LEDs have the same emission behavior, the same secondary lenses and reflectors can be used. This means that neither the LED components nor the end application are changed in terms of their characteristics.
OSRAM AG, a wholly owned subsidiary of Siemens, is a leading lighting manufacturer. Its subsidiary, OSRAM Opto Semiconductors GmbH, offers semiconductor-based technology for lighting, sensor and visualization applications. For more information, go to www.osram-os.com.
July 19, 2012 — 3D through silicon via (TSV) chips will represent 9% of the total semiconductors value in 2017, according to Yole D