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Knowles, Goertek and AAC ranked as the top three global suppliers of packaged MEMS microphones for 2015, according to the latest analysis from IHS Markit (NASDAQ: INFO), a world leader in critical information, analytics and solutions.

MEMS (micro-electromechanical systems) technology is utilized to produce microphones used in laptops, hearing aids, wearables and smartphones among many other products. Last year, MEMS microphones remained the healthiest sensors segment for suppliers, in terms of unit volume and revenue, said Marwan Boustany, senior analyst for IHS Technology.

“Our updated analysis of 2015 MEMS microphone supplier market share, shows that Knowles remained the dominant supplier with more than two times the units and revenue of the second-place supplier, Goertek,” Boustany said. “In addition to offering a wide range of analog and digital output microphones for many applications, Knowles has also started shipping its VoiceIQ ‘intelligent’ microphones with local processing as it seeks to address both mobile and IOT applications.”

2016 mems mic growth

Strong growth for MEMS’ runner-ups

Goertek MEMS microphone units grew by an impressive 104 percent CAGR between 2011 and 2015, thanks in large part to its design wins in Apple, the IHS Markit analysis shows. Apple accounts for approximately 70 percent (in units) of Goertek’s MEMS microphone business in 2015. Goertek entered in large volume in the iPhone in 2014 and has since continued to increase its share; this has had the impact of reducing the share of AAC and Knowles in subsequent years.

While still solidly in third position among packaged MEMS suppliers after Goertek, AAC has faced challenges from Goertek in both Apple and in Chinese OEMs. This has resulted in a reduction in unit volume shipped by AAC in 2015 of almost 9 percent, IHS Markit says. However, AAC invested in a new technology for MEMS microphones in 2016 when it officially partnered with Vesper MEMS, a piezoelectric MEMS microphone start-up.

Boosting audio performance in handsets

The general adoption trend for microphones in smartphones has been towards higher performance, IHS Markit says. Driving this trend: OEMs want better quality audio for calls and hand-free communication, noise cancellation, voice recognition such as Siri and Google Now, as well as the availability of lower-cost microphones due to the erosion of ASP (average selling price).

“These types of use cases also drive high-performance microphone adoption in smart watches, tablets, noise cancelling earphones, hearing aids and increasingly in automotive cabins,” Boustany said.

Beyond performance, the average number of microphones per handset increased in 2015 due to Apple adopting four microphones in its iPhone 6S, with most other OEMs using two or three microphones in their mid- to high-end smartphones, the IHS Markit analysis shows. In tablets, smart watches and hearing aids, the number of microphones is between one and two. Adoption of microphones in automotive cabins can potentially exceed eight, depending on use cases and implementation choices in the future.

Knowles tops list for die makers, too

According to the IHS Technology analysis, Knowles – which produces its own microphone dies – holds the number one spot for market share in MEMS microphone production, with a dominant 43 percent market share.

Infineon acts as the major supplier of MEMS microphone dies to Goertek, AAC and BSE among others and stands solidly in second place with a 31 percent market share. In third place is Omron, which has supplied into STMicroelectronics, ACC and Goertek among others and has a 13 percent market share, the analysis shows. Neither Infineon nor Omron supply fully packaged MEMS microphone die.

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (“SMIC”; NYSE:  SMI; SEHK: 981), the largest and most advanced foundry in mainland China, announces the laying of the foundation stone to mark the official launch of its capacity expansion project at SMIC’s TianJin facility. After the project’s completion, SMIC TianJin is expected to become the world’s largest integrated 8-inch IC production line.

SMIC TianJin is located in the Xiqing Economic Technological Development Area, Tianjin, and currently has a mature 8-inch IC production line with a capacity of 45,000 wafers/month. After completion of the expansion project, SMIC TianJin’s capacity will reach 150,000 8-inch wafers/month. The project’s progress and capacity arrangement will depend on customers’ needs. The main product applications supported by the project include IoT related IC’s, fingerprint identification, power management, mixed signal processing, and automotive electronics.

The Chairman of SMIC, Dr. Zixue Zhou, said: “The launch of capacity expansion of our 8-inch production line is another milestone in the history of SMIC TianJin. SMIC TianJin has long been running at full capacity, and this expansion will significantly ease the balance of demand and supply and provide more high-quality capacity to our clients. Moreover, SMIC’s capacity distribution throughout mainland China will be further optimized.”

The TianJin Deputy Mayor, Mr. Shushan He, the Secretary of Xiqing Area, Mr. Xuewang Wang attended the ceremony. The Chairman of SMIC, Dr. Zixue Zhou, and the CEO and Executive Director of SMIC, Dr. Tzu-Yin Chiu, together laid the foundation stone for the new project.

SEMI recently completed its annual silicon shipment forecast for the semiconductor industry. This forecast provides an outlook for the demand in silicon units for the period 2016–2018. The SEMI forecast shows polished and epitaxial silicon shipments totaling 10,444 million square inches in 2016; 10,642 million square inches in 2017; and 10,897 million square inches in 2018 (refer to table below). Total wafer shipments this year are expected to exceed the market high set in 2015 and are forecast to continue shipping at record levels in 2017 and 2018.

“Silicon shipment volumes have been gaining strength in recent months, after a soft start at the beginning of the year,” said Denny McGuirk, president and CEO of SEMI. “This positive momentum is expected to continue and result in modest annual growth for the segment this year, 2017 and into 2018.”

2016 Silicon Shipment Forecast

Total Electronic Grade Silicon Slices* – Does not Include Non-Polished Wafers

(Millions of Square Inches, MSI)

Actual

Forecast

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018
MSI

9,826

10,269

10,444

10,642

10,897
Annual Growth

11%

5%

2%

2%

2%

Source: SEMI, October 2016

* Shipments are for semiconductor applications only and do not include solar applications

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 and epitaxial silicon wafers shipped by the wafer manufacturers to the end-users. Data do not include non-polished or reclaimed wafers.

Enormous financial and technology hurdles continue to plague the development of 450mm wafers. Ambitious goals to put 450mm wafers to use have been scaled back.  IC manufacturers are instead maximizing their manufacturing efficiency using 300mm and 200mm wafers.  IC Insights’ Global Wafer Capacity 2016-2020 report shows that worldwide capacity by wafer size was dominated by 300mm wafers in 2015 and is forecast to continue increasing through 2020 (Figure 1).

Figure 1

Figure 1

  • 300mm wafers represented 63.1% of worldwide capacity at the end of 2015 and are forecast to increase to about 68% by the end of 2020.
  • The share of the industry’s monthly wafer capacity represented by 200mm wafers is expected to drop from 28.3% in 2015 to 25.3% in 2020. But, 200mm wafer capacity is predicted to increase every year over the next several years.
  • Capacity for wafers of ≤150mm diameter is forecast to remain relatively flat during the forecast period.

The number of 300mm wafer fabrication facilities in operation is forecast to keep increasing through 2020 (Figure 2). For the most part, 300mm fabs are, and will continue to be, limited to production of high-volume, commodity-type devices like DRAMs and flash memories; image sensors and power management devices; and complex logic and microcomponent ICs with large die sizes; and by foundries, which can fill a 300mm fab by combining wafer orders from many sources.

Figure 2

Figure 2

  • The number of active volume-production 300mm fabs declined for the first time in 2013. A few fabs that were scheduled to open in 2013 were delayed until 2014. In addition, two large 300mm fabs owned by ProMOS closed in 2013.
  • At the end of 2015, there were 95 production-class IC fabs utilizing 300mm wafers (there are numerous R&D IC fabs and a few high-volume fabs around the globe that make “non-IC” products using 300mm wafers, but these are not included in the count).
  • Currently, there are eight 300mm wafer fabs scheduled to open in 2017, which would be the highest number in one year since 2014 when nine were added.
  • By the end of 2020 there are expected to be 22 more fabs in operation, bringing the total number of 300mm fabs used for IC fabrication to 117. The peak number of 300mm fabs may be somewhere around 125. For comparison, the most volume-production 200mm wafer fabs in operation was 210 (in December 2015 there were 148).

KLA-Tencor Corporation (NASDAQ:  KLAC) and Lam Research Corp. (NASDAQ:  LRCX) today announced that they have agreed to terminate their proposed merger agreement. The parties decided to it was not in the best interests of their respective stakeholders to continue pursuing the merger after the U.S. Department of Justice advised KLA-Tencor and Lam Research that it would not continue with a consent decree that the parties had been negotiating. No termination fees will be payable by either the Company or Lam Research in connection with the termination of the Merger Agreement.

“Although we are disappointed with this outcome, KLA-Tencor’s performance over the past several quarters demonstrates the Company is executing our strategies at a high level and creating compelling value for the industry and for our stockholders,” commented Rick Wallace, President and Chief Executive Officer of KLA-Tencor.

“Today our customer engagement and market leadership is strong and KLA-Tencor is delivering superior financial results. Growth and earnings momentum is expected to continue as we go forward, fueled by new products in the marketplace today, and with many more products in the pipeline,” continued Mr. Wallace. “Additionally, our collaboration over the past year with Lam Research and with our customers has affirmed the value of closer cooperation between process and process control for new, enabling solutions. For that reason, we plan to explore collaboration opportunities with Lam Research around programs identified as beneficial to our customers.”

After the initial announcement of the proposed merger, which was expected to close mid-year 2016, analysts voiced concern over whether the deal would be approved. Robert Maire of Semiconductor Advisors wrote: “We think this is going to be the obvious biggest issue after the failed AMAT & TEL merger.  We think there will likely be opposition in the semi industry but probably less so than we heard the screaming related to AMAT/TEL.”

IC Insights recently released its September Update to the 2016 McClean Report. This Update included Part 2 of an extensive analysis of the IC foundry business. An excerpt from the September Update, describing foundry sales by feature size, is shown below.

Figure 1

Figure 1

TSMC has long been the technology leader among the major pure-play foundries. As shown in Figure 1, 54% of TSMC’s 2016 revenue is expected to come from <40nm processing. GlobalFoundries, which has dedicated a large portion of its capacity to making advanced processors over the past few years, also generates a large portion of its sales based on leading-edge process technology and feature sizes. In 2016, 52% of GlobalFoundries’ sales are forecast to come from <40nm production.

Although GlobalFoundries and TSMC are forecast to have a similar share of their sales dedicated to <40nm technology this year, TSMC is expected to have almost 6x the sales volume at <40nm as compared to GlobalFoundries in 2016 ($15.6 billion for TSMC and $2.6 billion for GlobalFoundries). In contrast, SMIC only entered initial production of its 28nm technology in 4Q15, more than three years after TSMC first put its 28nm process into production.

Because TSMC has a very large percentage of its sales targeting <40nm production, its revenue per wafer is forecast to increase at a CAGR of 3% from 2011 through 2016 as compared to a -1% CAGR expected for the total revenue per wafer average of GlobalFoundries, UMC, and SMIC over this same timeperiod. Only 2% of SMIC’s 2016 sales are expected to come from devices having 28nm feature sizes (the company does not offer a finer feature size at this time), which is the primary reason its revenue per wafer is so low as compared to TSMC and GlobalFoundries.

It is interesting to note that the increase in pure-play foundry sales this year is forecast to be almost entirely due to <40nm feature size device sales (Figure 2). Although it is expected to represent 60% of total pure-play foundry sales in 2016, the ≥40nm pure-play IC foundry market is forecast to be flat this year. In contrast, the leading-edge <40nm pure-play foundry market in 2016 is expected to surge by 23%, increasing by a hefty $3.6 billion.

Figure 2

Figure 2

Solid State Technology announced today that its premier semiconductor manufacturing conference and networking event, The ConFab, will be held at the iconic Hotel del Coronado in San Diego on May 14-17, 2017. A 30% increase in attendance in 2016 with a similar uplift expected in 2017, makes the venue an ideal meeting location as The ConFab continues to expand.

    

For more than 12 years, The ConFab, an invitation-only executive conference, has been the destination for key industry influencers and decision-makers to connect and collaborate on critical issues.

“The semiconductor industry is maturing, yet opportunities abound,” said Pete Singer, Editor-in-Chief of Solid State Technology and Conference Chair of The ConFab. “The Internet of Things (IoT) is exploding, which will result in a demand for “things” such as sensors and actuators, as well as cloud computing. 5G is also coming and will be the key technology for access to the cloud.”

The ConFab is the best place to seek a deeper understanding on these and other important issues, offering a unique blend of market insights, technology forecasts and strategic assessments of the challenges and opportunities facing semiconductor manufacturers. “In changing times, it’s critical for people to get together in a relaxed setting, learn what’s new, connect with old friends, make new acquaintances and find new business opportunities,” Singer added.

Dave Mount

David Mount

Solid State Technology is also pleased to announce the addition of David J. Mount to The ConFab team as marketing and business development manager. Mount has a rich history in the semiconductor manufacturing equipment business and will be instrumental in guiding continued growth, and expanding into new high growth areas.

Mainstream semiconductor technology will remain the central focus of The ConFab, and the conference will be expanded with additional speakers, panelists, and VIP attendees that will participate from other fast growing and emerging areas. These include biomedical, automotive, IoT, MEMS, LEDs, displays, thin film batteries, photonics and advanced packaging. From both the device maker and the equipment supplier perspective, The ConFab 2017 is a must-attend networking conference for business leaders.

The ConFab conference program is guided by a stellar Advisory Board, with high level representatives from GLOBALFOUNDRIES, Texas Instruments, TSMC, Cisco, Samsung, Intel, Lam Research, KLA-Tencor, ASE, NVIDIA, the Fab Owners Association and elsewhere.

Details on the invitation-only conference are at: www.theconfab.com. For sponsorship inquiries, contact Kerry Hoffman at [email protected]. For details on attending as a guest or qualifying as a VIP, contact Sally Bixby at [email protected].

By Zvi Or-Bach, President & CEO, MonolithIC 3D Inc.

As we have predicted two and a half years back, the industry is bifurcating, and just a few products pursue scaling to 7nm while the majority of designs stay on 28nm or older nodes.

Our March 2014 blog Moore’s Law has stopped at 28nm has recently been re-confirmed. At the time we wrote: “From this point on we will still be able to double the amount of transistors in a single device but not at lower cost. And, for most applications, the cost will actually go up.” This reconfirmation can be found in the following IBS cost analysis table slide, presented at the early Sept FD-SOI event in Shanghai.

Gate costs continue to rise each generation for FinFETs, IBS predicts.

Gate costs continue to rise each generation for FinFETs, IBS predicts.

As reported by EE Times – Chip Process War Heats Up, and quoting Handel Jones of IBS “28nm node is likely to be the biggest process of all through 2025”.

IBS prediction was seconded by “Samsung executive showed a foil saying it believes 28nm will have the lowest cost per transistor of any node.” The following chart was presented by Samsung at the recent SEMICON West (2016).

Zvi 2

And even Intel has given up on its “every two years” but still claims it can keep reducing transistor cost. Yet Intel’s underwhelming successes as a foundry suggests otherwise. We have discussed it in a blog titled Intel — The Litmus Test, and it was essentially repeated by SemiWiki’s Apple will NEVER use Intel Custom Foundry!

This discussion seems academic now, as the actual engineering costs of devices in advanced nodes have shown themselves to be too expensive for much of the industry. Consequently, and as predicted, the industry is bifurcating, with a few products pursuing scaling to 7nm while the majority of designs use 28nm or older nodes.

The following chart derived from TSMC quarterly earnings reports was published last week by Ed Sperling in the blog Stepping Back From Scaling:

Zvi 3

Yes, the 50-year march of Moore’s Law has ended, and the industry is now facing a new reality.

This is good news for innovation, as a diversity of choices helps support new ideas and new technologies such as 3D NAND, FDSOI, MEMS and others. These technologies will enable new markets and products such as the emerging market of IoT.

A good opportunity to learn more about these new scaling technologies is the IEEE S3S ’16, to be held in the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport, October 10th thru 13th, 2016. It starts with 3D and FDSOI tutorials, the emerging technologies for the IC future. CEA Leti is scheduled to give an update on their CoolCube program, Qualcomm will present some of their work on monolithic 3D, and three leading researchers from an imec, MIT, and Korea university collaboration will present their work on advanced monolithic 3D integration technologies. Many other authors will discuss their work on monolithic 3DIC and its ecosystem, in addition to tracks focused on SOI, sub-VT and dedicated sessions on IoT.

By Christian G. Dieseldorff, Industry Research & Statistics Group at SEMI (September 6, 2016)

SEMI’s Industry Research and Statistics group has published its August update of the World Fab Forecast report. The report has served the industry for 24 years, observing and analyzing spending, capacity, and technology changes for all front-end facilities worldwide, from high-volume to R&D fabs.  SEMI’s latest data show increasing equipment spending, reaching 4.1 percent YOY in 2016 and 10.6 percent in 2017. Figure 1 (below) shows a forecast of  -2 percent decline from 2H2015 to 1H2016 and an 18 percent increase from 1H2016 to. 2H2016.

Figure 1: Fab Equipment Spending by Quarter

Figure 1: Fab Equipment Spending by Quarter

The largest growth drivers for the industry are mobile devices (including devices using SSDs), automotive, and soon anticipated to be IoT, with these applications, in many cases, requiring 3D NAND and Logic 10nm/7nm.

The SEMI report indicates that the two industry segments leading to the biggest increase in 2H16 are Foundry (29 percent) and Memory (21 percent).  Growth in Memory is driven by a significant increase in 3D NAND spending in 2016. Comparing 2016 to 2017, Foundry growth remains quite steady, with a 14 percent increase in 2016 and 13 percent in 2017.

Companies like Samsung, Micron, Flash Alliance, Intel, and SK Hynix drive Memory growth with 3D NAND to an astounding 152 percent increase in 2016 and 29 percent in 2017. However, utilization of all this equipment is still low in 2016 but is expected to increase in 2017.

Looking at other product segments, DRAM equipment spending is expected to decline by 31 percent in 2016 and then recover slightly with 2 percent growth in 2017. Power devices also show strong growth with 25 percent in 2016 and 16 percent in 2017. The Analog segment will slump by -15 percent in 2016 but increase by 20 percent in 2017. Similarly, MPU will drop -20 percent in 2016 and then is expected to increase by 48 percent in 2017.

Comparing spending by region in 2016, SE Asia shows the largest growth, with 157 percent in 2016, driven mainly by 3D NAND (see Figure 2).

China, in third place for overall spending, shows 64 percent growth for 2016 primarily due to 3D NAND by non-Chinese companies, closely followed by Foundry companies. Although the largest spenders in China currently are overseas device companies, China-based chipmakers are starting to pick up investment activity.

Figure 2: Fab Equipment Spending by Region

Figure 2: Fab Equipment Spending by Region

By contrast, the largest growth rate in 2017 is in Europe/Mideast with about 60 percent which is mainly due to ramping of 10nm facilities. Korea is in second place for total spending, mainly driven by Samsung’s investment in DRAM and Flash. Japan in third place driven by Flash Alliance (3D NAND).

The World Fab Forecast report provides more detailed information by company and fab for construction spending, equipment spending and capacities by region and product type.  Since the last publication in May 2016, the SEMI research team has made over 330 changes to 300 facilities/lines. This includes 27 new records and 18 records closed.

For information about semiconductor manufacturing for the remainder of 2016 and in 2017, and for details about capex for construction projects, fab equipping, technology levels, and products, order the SEMI World Fab Forecast Report. The report, in Excel format, tracks spending and capacities for over 1,100 facilities including over 82 future facilities, across industry segments from Analog, Power, Logic, MPU, Memory, and Foundry to MEMS and LEDs facilities.  Using a bottoms-up approach methodology, the SEMI Fab Forecast provides high-level summaries and graphs, and in-depth analyses of capital expenditures, capacities, technology and products by fab.

The SEMI Worldwide Semiconductor Equipment Market Subscription (WWSEMS) data tracks only new equipment for fabs and test and assembly and packaging houses.  The SEMI World Fab Forecast and its related Fab Database reports track any equipment needed to ramp fabs, upgrade technology nodes, and expand or change wafer size, including new equipment, used equipment, or in-house equipment. Also check out the Opto/LED Fab Forecast. Learn more about the SEMI fab databases at: www.semi.org/MarketInfo/FabDatabase and www.youtube.com/user/SEMImktstats

ARM and Intel Custom Foundry this week at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco an agreement to accelerate the development and implementation of ARM SoCs on Intel’s 10nm process. In their joint press releases, Intel and ARM said that the agreement will enable Intel Custom Foundry to use its upcoming 10nm FinFET platform for fabricating chip designs based on ARM’s Artisan Physical IP.

“The initial POP IP will be for two future advanced ARM Cortex-A processor cores designed for mobile computing applications in either ARM big.LITTLE or stand-alone configurations,” according to ARM’s press release. Intel’s release says that LG will be using the process to “produce a world-class mobile platform based on Intel Custom Foundry’s 10nm design platform.”

The Intel-ARM partnership could provide new foundry options for chipmakers like Qualcomm — and potentially Apple — beyond current industry bigwigs Samsung and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC).

Chips based on Intel’s 10nm process are expected at some point in 2017.