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The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), representing U.S. leadership in semiconductor manufacturing and design, today announced that the global semiconductor industry posted record sales totaling $335.8 billion in 2014, an increase of 9.9 percent from the 2013 total of $305.6 billion. Global sales for the month of December 2014 reached $29.1 billion, marking the strongest December on record, while December 2014 sales in the Americas increased 16 percent compared to December 2013. Fourth quarter global sales of $87.4 billion were 9.3 percent higher than the total of $79.9 billion from the fourth quarter of 2013. Total sales for the year exceeded projections from the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization’s industry forecast. All monthly sales numbers are compiled by WSTS and represent a three-month moving average.

“The global semiconductor industry posted its highest-ever sales in 2014, topping $335 billion for the first time thanks to broad and sustained growth across nearly all regions and product categories,” said John Neuffer, president and CEO, Semiconductor Industry Association. “The industry now has achieved record sales in two consecutive years and is well-positioned for continued growth in 2015 and beyond.”

Several semiconductor product segments stood out in 2014. Logic was the largest semiconductor category by sales, reaching $91.6 billion in 2014, a 6.6 percent increase compared to 2013. Memory ($79.2 billion) and micro-ICs ($62.1 billion) – a category that includes microprocessors – rounded out the top three segments in terms of sales revenue. Memory was the fastest growing segment, increasing 18.2 percent in 2014. Within memory, DRAM performed particularly well, increasing by 34.7 percent year-over-year. Other fast-growing product segments included power transistors, which reached $11.9 billion in sales for a 16.1 percent annual increase, discretes ($20.2 billion/10.8 percent increase), and analog ($44.4 billion/10.6 percent increase).

Annual sales increased in all four regional markets for the first time since 2010. The Americas market showed particular strength, with sales increasing by 12.7 percent in 2014. Sales were also up in Asia Pacific (11.4 percent), Europe (7.4 percent), and Japan (0.1 percent), marking the first time annual sales in Japan increased since 2010.

“The U.S. market demonstrated particular strength in 2014, posting double-digit growth to lead all regions,” continued Neuffer. “With the new Congress now underway, we urge policymakers to help foster continued growth by enacting policies that promote U.S. innovation and global competitiveness.”

December 2014
Billions
Month-to-Month Sales
Market Last Month Current Month % Change
Americas 6.53 6.73 3.1%
Europe 3.19 3.01 -5.8%
Japan 2.93 2.80 -4.6%
Asia Pacific 17.12 16.59 -3.1%
Total 29.77 29.13 -2.2%
Year-to-Year Sales
Market Last Year Current Month % Change
Americas 5.80 6.73 16.0%
Europe 2.96 3.01 1.6%
Japan 2.93 2.80 -4.4%
Asia Pacific 14.96 16.59 10.9%
Total 26.65 29.13 9.3%
Three-Month-Moving Average Sales
Market Jun/Jul/Aug Sep/Oct/Nov % Change
Americas 6.06 6.73 11.1%
Europe 3.21 3.01 -6.4%
Japan 3.03 2.80 -7.7%
Asia Pacific 16.93 16.59 -2.0%
Total 29.23 29.13 -0.4%

Nanoengineers at the University of California, San Diego have tested a temporary tattoo that both extracts and measures the level of glucose in the fluid in between skin cells. This first-ever example of the flexible, easy-to-wear device could be a promising step forward in noninvasive glucose testing for patients with diabetes.

The sensor was developed and tested by graduate student Amay Bandodkar and colleagues in Professor Joseph Wang’s laboratory at the NanoEngineering Department and the Center for Wearable Sensors at the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego. Bandodkar said this “proof-of-concept” tattoo could pave the way for the Center to explore other uses of the device, such as detecting other important metabolites in the body or delivering medicines through the skin.

Nanoengineers at the University of California, San Diego have tested a temporary tattoo that both extracts and measures the level of glucose in the fluid in between skin cells. CREDIT Jacobs School of Engineering/UC San Diego

Nanoengineers at the University of California, San Diego have tested a temporary tattoo that both extracts and measures the level of glucose in the fluid in between skin cells. CREDIT: Jacobs School of Engineering/UC San Diego

At the moment, the tattoo doesn’t provide the kind of numerical readout that a patient would need to monitor his or her own glucose. But this type of readout is being developed by electrical and computer engineering researchers in the Center for Wearable Sensors. “The readout instrument will also eventually have Bluetooth capabilities to send this information directly to the patient’s doctor in real-time or store data in the cloud,” said Bandodkar.

The research team is also working on ways to make the tattoo last longer while keeping its overall cost down, he noted. “Presently the tattoo sensor can easily survive for a day. These are extremely inexpensive–a few cents–and hence can be replaced without much financial burden on the patient.”

The Center “envisions using these glucose tattoo sensors to continuously monitor glucose levels of large populations as a function of their dietary habits,” Bandodkar said. Data from this wider population could help researchers learn more about the causes and potential prevention of diabetes, which affects hundreds of millions of people and is one of the leading causes of death and disability worldwide.

People with diabetes often must test their glucose levels multiple times per day, using devices that use a tiny needle to extract a small blood sample from a fingertip. Patients who avoid this testing because they find it unpleasant or difficult to perform are at a higher risk for poor health, so researchers have been searching for less invasive ways to monitor glucose.

In their report in the journal Analytical Chemistry, Wang and his co-workers describe their flexible device, which consists of carefully patterned electrodes printed on temporary tattoo paper. A very mild electrical current applied to the skin for 10 minutes forces sodium ions in the fluid between skin cells to migrate toward the tattoo’s electrodes. These ions carry glucose molecules that are also found in the fluid. A sensor built into the tattoo then measures the strength of the electrical charge produced by the glucose to determine a person’s overall glucose levels.

“The concentration of glucose extracted by the non-invasive tattoo device is almost hundred times lower than the corresponding level in the human blood,” Bandodkar explained. “Thus we had to develop a highly sensitive glucose sensor that could detect such low levels of glucose with high selectivity.”

A similar device called GlucoWatch from Cygnus Inc. was marketed in 2002, but the device was discontinued because it caused skin irritation, the UC San Diego researchers note. Their proof-of-concept tattoo sensor avoids this irritation by using a lower electrical current to extract the glucose.

Wang and colleagues applied the tattoo to seven men and women between the ages of 20 and 40 with no history of diabetes. None of the volunteers reported feeling discomfort during the tattoo test, and only a few people reported feeling a mild tingling in the first 10 seconds of the test.

To test how well the tattoo picked up the spike in glucose levels after a meal, the volunteers ate a carb-rich meal of a sandwich and soda in the lab. The device performed just as well at detecting this glucose spike as a traditional finger-stick monitor.

The researchers say the device could be used to measure other important chemicals such as lactate, a metabolite analyzed in athletes to monitor their fitness. The tattoo might also someday be used to test how well a medication is working by monitoring certain protein products in the intercellular fluid, or to detect alcohol or illegal drug consumption.

The explosive expansion of the Internet of things (IoT) is driving rapid demand growth for microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) devices in areas including asset-tracking systems, smart grids and building automation.

Worldwide market revenue for MEMS directly used in industrial IoT equipment will rise to $120 million in 2018, up from $16 million in 2013, according to IHS Technology (NYSE: IHS). Additional MEMS also will be used to support the deployment of the IoT, such as devices employed in data centers. This indirect market for industrial IoT MEMS will increase to $214 million in 2018, up from $43 million in 2013.

The figure below presents the IHS forecast of global MEMS revenue from direct and indirect IoT uses.

Global market shipments for industrial IoT equipment are expected to expand to 7.3 billion units in 2025, up from 1.8 billion in 2013. The industrial IoT market is a diverse area, comprising equipment such as nodes, controllers and infrastructure, and used in markets ranging from building automation to commercial transport, smart cards, industrial automation, lighting and health. Such gear employs a range of MEMS device types including accelerometers, pressure sensors, timing components and microphones.

“The Internet of things is sometimes called the machine-to-machine (M2M) revolution, and one important class of machines—MEMS—will play an essential role in expansion of the boom of the industrial IoT segment in the coming years,” said Jeremie Bouchaud, director and senior principal analyst for MEMS and sensors at IHS. “MEMS sensors allow equipment to gather and digitize real-world data that then can be shared on the Internet. The IoT represents a major new growth opportunity for the MEMS market.”

More information on the topic can be found in the report entitled “Internet of Things begins to impact High-Value MEMS” from the MEMS & Sensors service of IHS.

Industrial IoT applications for MEMS

Building automation will generate the largest volumes for MEMS and other types of sensors in the industrial IoT market.

Asset tracking is the second-largest opportunity for sensors in industrial IoT. This segment will drive demand for large volumes of MEMS accelerometers and pressure sensors.

The smart grid also will require various types of MEMS, including inclinometers to monitor high-voltage power lines as well as accelerometers and flow sensors in smart meters.

Other major segments of the industrial IoT market include smart cities, smart factories, seismic monitoring, and drones and robotics.

MEMS types

Accelerometers and pressure sensors account for most of the MEMS shipments for direct industrial IoT applications in areas including building automation, agriculture and medical. MEMS timing devices in smart meters and microphones used in smart homes and smart cities will be next in terms of volume.

Indirect benefits

To support the deluge of data that IoT will generate, major investments will be required in the backbone infrastructure of the Internet, including data centers. This, in turn, will drive the indirect demand for MEMS used in such infrastructure.

Data centers will spur demand for optical MEMS, especially optical cross connects and wavelength selective switches. Big data operations also will require large quantities of integrated circuits (ICs) for memory. The testing of memory ICs makes use of MEMS wafer probe cards.

IoT Market

What’s next for MEMS?


December 16, 2014

By Paula Doe, SEMI

The proliferation of sensors into high volume consumer markets, and into the emerging Internet of Things, is driving the MEMS market to maturity, with a developed ecosystem to ease use and grow applications. But it is also bringing plenty of demands for new technologies, and changes in how companies will compete.

While the IoT may be all about sensors, it is not necessarily a bonanza for most traditional MEMS sensor makers. “The surprising winner turns to be optical MEMS for optical cross connect for the data center, where big growth is coming,” said Jérémie Bouchaud, IHS Director and Sr. Principal Analyst, MEMS & Sensors, at the recent MEMS Industry Group (MIG) “MEMS Executive Congress” held in Scottsdale, Arizona from November 5-7.

The market for wearables will also see fast growth for the next five years, largely for smart watches, driving demand for motion sensors, health sensors, sensor hubs and software –but even in 2019 the market for sensors in wearables will remain <5% the size of the phone/tablet market, IHS predicts.  The greater IoT market may reach billions of other connected devices in the next decade, but sensor demand will be very fragmented and very commoditized. Smart homes may use 20 million sensors in 2018, but many other industrial applications will probably each use only 100,000 to 2-3 million sensors a year, Bouchaud noted.

And most of this sensor market will be non-MEMS sensors, some mature and some emerging, including light sensors, fingerprint sensors, pulse sensors, gas sensors, and thermal sensors, all requiring different and varied manufacturing technologies.  Much of the new sensor demand from automotive will be also be for non-MEMS radar and cameras, though they will also add MEMS for higher performance gyros, lidar and microbolometers, according to IHS. Expect major MEMS makers to diversify into more of these other types of sensors.

MEMS Exec Bouchaud - IHS - MIG US 2014_Page_22_Resized

Yole Développement CEO Jean Christophe Eloy looked at how the value in the IoT would develop.  While the emerging IoT market is initially primarily a hardware market, with hardware sales climbing healthily for the next five years or so, it will quickly become primarily a software and services market.  In five to six years hardware sales will level off, and the majority of the value will shift to data processing and value added services.  This information service market will continue to soar, to account for 75% of the $400 Billion IoT market by 2024.

MEMS Exec JC Eloy_Market Panel_MIG 2014 V1_Page_28_Resized

Re-thinking the business models?

The IoT will bring big changes to the electronics industry, from new technologies to new business models, and new leaders, suggested George Liu, TSMC Director of Corporate Development.  He of course also argued that the high volume and low costs required for connected objects would drive sensor production to high volume foundries, and drive more integration with CMOS for smart distributed processing at CMOS makers.

Liu projected these changes would mean a new set of companies would come out on top. Few leading system makers managed to successfully transition from the PC era to the mobile handset era, or from the mobile handset era to the smart phone era, as both the key technologies and the winning business models changed, and chip makers faced disruption as well. “For one thing, the business model changed from making everything in house to making nothing,” he noted. “The challenge is to focus on where one is most efficient.”

“The odds of Apple or Google being the dominant players in the next paradigm is zero,” concurred Chris Wasden, Executive Director, Sorenson Center for Discovery and Innovation at the University of Utah.

Lots of other things will have to change to enable the IoT as well. Liu projected that devices will need to operate at near threshold or even sub-threshold voltages, with “thinner” processing overhead, while the integration of more different functions will redefine the system-in-a-chip. Smaller and lower cost devices will require new materials and new architectures, new types of heterogenous integration and wafer-level packaging, and an ecosystem of standard open platforms to ease development. TSMC’s own MEMS development kit has layout rules, but not yet behaviorial rules, always the more challenging issue for these mechanical structures. “That’s the next big thing for us,” he asserted. “These huge gaps mean huge opportunities.”

IDMs and systems companies still likely to dominate                     

Still, the wide variety, and sometimes tricky mechanics and low volumes, of many MEMS devices have been a challenge for the volume foundries.  The fabless MEMS model has seen only limited success so far and is unlikely to see much in the next decade either, countered Jean Christophe Eloy, CEO of Yole Développement, who pointed out that some 75% of the MEMS business is dominated by the four big IDMs who can drive costs down with volumes and diversified product lines. To date, only two fabless companies—InvenSense and Knowles—are among the top 30 MEMS suppliers.

Most of the rest of the top 30 are system makers with their own fabs, making their own MEMS devices to enable higher value system products of their own, which is likely to continue to remain a successful approach, as the opportunities for adding value increasingly come from software, processers, and systems.  “MEMS value has always been at the system level,” noted Eloy.

GE’s recent introduction of an improved MEMS RF switch to significantly reduce the size and cost of its MRI systems is one compelling example, with the potential of the little MEMS component to greatly extend the use of this high-contrast soft-tissue imaging technology.  Though the company sold off its general advanced sensors unit last year to connector maker Amphenol Corp., it is still making its unique RF switch using a special alloy in house in small volumes as a key enabler of its high value MRI systems. These imagers work by aligning the spin of hydrogen nuclei with a strong magnet, tipping them off axis with a strong RF pulse from an antenna, then measuring how they snap back into alignment with lots of localized antennas with low power RF switches close to the body.  “We’re now launching a new receive chain using MEMS RF switches,” reported Tim Nustad, GM and CTO, Global Magnetic Resonance, GE Healthcare. “Later we can see a flexible, light weight MRI blanket.”

Opportunity for smaller, lower power, lower cost technologies

So far, MEMS makers have driven down the cost of devices by continually shrinking the size of the die.  But that may be about to change, as the mechanical moving structures have about reached the limit of how much smaller they can get and still produce the needed quality signal.  That’s opening the door for a new generation of devices using different sensing structures and different manufacturing processes.  For inertial sensors, options include bulk acoustic wave sensing from Qualtre, piezoresistive nanowires from Tronics and CEA/Leti, and even extrapolating gyroscope-like data with software from accelerometers and magnetometers. MCube’s virtual gyro with this approach, now in production with some design wins, claims to save 80% of the power and 50% of the cost of a conventional MEMS gyro.

Piezoelectric sensing, often with PZT films, is also drawing attention, with products in development  for timing devices and microphones. Sand9 claims lower noise and lower power for its piezoelectric MEMS timing, now starting volume manufacturing for Intel and others for shipments in 1Q15.  It has also recently received a patent for piezo microphone, while startup Vesper (formerly known as Baker-Calling and then Sonify) also reports working with a major customer for its piezoelectric MEMS microphone.

More open platforms ease development of new applications of established devices

The maturing ecosystem of open development platforms across the value chain is helping to ease commercialization of new applications. The two latest developments in this infrastructure are a standard interface to connect all kinds of different sensors to the controller, and an open library of basic sensor processing software. The MIPI Alliance brought together major users and suppliers—ranging across STMicroelectronics and InvenSense, to AMD and Intel, to Broadcom and Qualcomm, to Cadence and Mentor Graphics—to agree on an interface specification to make it easier for system designers to connect and manage a wide range of sensors from multiple suppliers while minimizing power consumption of the microcontroller.  Meanwhile, sensor makers and researchers are making a selection of baseline algorithms available for open use to ease development of new products.  Offerings include Freescale’s inertial sensor fusion and PNI Sensors’ heart rate monitoring algorithms, along with other contributions from Analog Devices, Kionix, NIST, UC Berkeley and Carnegie Mellon to start. The material will be available through the MIG website.

Plenty of companies have also introduced their own individual platforms to ease customer development tasks as well, ranging from MEMS foundries’ inertial sensor manufacturing platforms to processor makers’ development boards and kits. Recently STMicroelectronics also adding its sensor fusion and other software blocks to its development platform.

KegData is one example of a company making use of these platforms to enable development of a solution for a niche problem – an automated system for telling pub owners how much beer is left in their kegs, using a Freescale pressure sensor and development tools. Currently the only way to know when a beer keg is empty is to go lift and weigh or shake it, a problem for efficiently managing expensive refrigerated inventory.  Adding a pressure sensor in the coupler on top of the keg allows the height of the beer to be measured by the differential pressure between the liquid and the gas above it. The sensor then sends the information to a hub controller that communicates with the internet, letting the pub manager know to order more, or even automatically placing the order directly with the distributor.  The startup’s business model is to give the system to distributors for free, but sell them the service of automating inventory management for their customers, saving them the significant expense of sending drivers around to shake the kegs and take pre-orders.

More broadly, MEMS microphones are poised to continue to find a wide range of new applications. IHS’ Bouchaud  pointed out that cars will soon each be using 12-14 MEMS microphone units, to listen for changes in different conditions, while home security applications will use them to detect  security breaches from unusual patterns of sounds, from people in the house to dogs barking. Startup MoboSens says it converts its chemical water quality data into audio signals to feed it into the phone’s mic port for better quality.

Opportunities still for new types of MEMS devices

Growth will also continue to come from new MEMS devices that find additional ways to replace conventional mechanical parts with silicon. Eloy noted that MEMS autofocus units may finally be the next breakout device, as they have started shipping in the last few weeks, and aim at shipping for products in 2015.  MEMS microspeakers are also making progress and could come soon. But ramping new devices to the high volumes demanded by consumer markets is particularly challenging. “The only way to enter the market is with new technology, but high volume consumer markets make entry very hard for new devices,” he said. “The market is saturated, wins depend on production costs, and not everyone can keep up…. The last significant new device was the MEMS microphone, and that was ten years ago.”

But innovative new MEMS technologies also continue to be developed for initial applications in higher margin industrial and biomedical fields. One interesting platform is the MEMS spectrometer from VTT Technical Research Center of Finland.  This robust tunable interferometer essentially consists of an adjustable air gap between two mirrors, made of alternating ALD or LPCVD bands of materials with different defraction indexes, explained Anna Rissanen, VTT research team leader for MOEMS and bioMEMS instruments. The structure can be tuned by different voltages to filter particular bands of light, while a single-point detector, instead of the usual array, enables very small and low cost spectrometers or hyper spectral cameras. VTT spinout Spectral Engines is commercializing near-IR and mid-IR sensors aimed at detecting moisture, hydrocarbons and gases in industrial applications.  Other programs have developed sensors for environmental analysis by flyover by nano satellites and UAVs, sensors for monitoring fuel quality to optimize energy use and prevent engine damage, and sensors that can diagnose melanoma from a scan of the skin.

Keep up with these changing manufacturing technology demands at upcoming MEMS events at SEMICON China 2015, SEMICON Russia 2015, SEMICON West 2015, and at the new European MEMS Summit planned for Milan in September.

3D TSV begins


December 10, 2014

3D TSV integration has already been adopted in MEMS and CMOS Image Sensors for consumer applications (Source: 3DIC & 2.5D TSV Interconnect for Advanced Packaging Business Update report). Device makers such as Sony, Toshiba, Omnivision, Samsung, Bosch Sensortec, STMicroelectronics and mCube … have all brought devices to the market that integrate 3D TSV technology.

“TSV’s added- value is important: increased performance and functionality, more compact devices, more efficient utilization of the silicon space,” explained Yole Développement (Yole). Moreover, even if 3D TSV process steps are adding cost at the device manufacturing level, these technologies enable cost- saving in other parts of the supply chain.

tsv

“No more doubts about adoption of 3D TSV platform across a wider range of applications: all key players added 3D TSV into their roadmaps, engineering samples have already started to ship and preparation is on-going for entering volume manufacturing,” said Rozalia Beica, CTO & Business Director, Advanced Packaging and Semiconductor Manufacturing at Yole. This year, the industry witnessed several memory product announcements for high-end applications, with transfer to volume production planned in the near future.

“Driven by the demand to further increase in performance, 2015 will be the year for the implementation of 3D TSV technology in high volume production,” explains Rozalia.

The market research and strategy consulting company, Yole and its advanced packaging team, are closely studying and monitoring the industry’s activities in this field. The latest results can be found in Yole’s new 3DIC & 2.5D Business Update Report published this year.

Yole’s vision on further 3D TSV technology adoption will be presented during the European 3D TSV Summit 2015 in Grenoble. The company is partnering with SEMI to support the European TSV Summit, which will take place in Grenoble, France on January 19 to 21, 2015. The European 3D TSV Summit is organized by SEMI Europe. To meet Yole’s experts, discover the detailed program and register, click European 3D TSV Summit 2015.

Also, at the European 3D TSV Summit, Jean-Christophe Eloy, President & CEO, Yole will moderate the panel discussion, “From TSV Technology to Final Products – What is the Business for 3D Smart Systems?” taking place on Tuesday 20, at 5:20 PM. Jean-Christophe will highlight 3D TSV market trends and technology challenges, especially its integration for 3D smart systems application. He will welcome the following panelists: Ron Huemoeller, Senior VP Advanced Product / Platform Development, AMKOR – Martin Schrems, VP of R&D, ams AG – Bryan Black, Senior Fellow, AMD – Mustafa Badaroglu, Senior Program Manager, Qualcomm.

In parallel, Rozalia Beica will be part of the Market Briefing Symposium, on Monday 19. Her presentation is entitled: “From Development to Manufacturing: An Overview of Industry’s 3D Packaging Activities”.

“We are excited to have a group of highly qualified market experts, such as Yole Développement, joining us this year for the European 3D TSV Summit,” stated Anne-Marie Dutron, Director of SEMI Europe’s Grenoble office. “To highlight the adoption of 3D TSV technology in several market applications and to answer the demand from our members, we have given the business aspects of the 3D TSV industry more importance in this 2015 edition.”

The European 3D TSV Summit final program is now available.

​SEMATECH announced today that promising progress has been made in qualifying outgassing specifications for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. As the first to certify a resist family using witness sample-based resist outgas testing, this achievement has the potential to realize substantial cost savings by significantly improving the resist learning cycle.

​The reduction of EUV resist outgassing to minimize or prevent possible contamination of EUV exposure tools is critical to the development of EUV resists. Therefore, it is vital that resist chemistries meet stringent outgassing specifications before being used in an EUV scanner. Today, however, the resist learning cycle is excessively long and inefficient due in part to the lengthy outgas tests that resist material formulations must undergo before being subjected to exposure in a production EUV scanner.

In a joint collaboration with the JSR Corporation, SEMATECH has experimentally proven an improved evaluation method that reduces the amount of testing of commercial EUV resists from every formulation to just three samples per family. The results confirm that the concentration of the major components in a resist can be varied without the need for requalification, which can result in a potential savings of few hundred outgas tests for each resist family.

“In mutual effort to develop leading-edge resists and materials, and accelerate optimized processes for EUV high-volume manufacturing, JSR and SEMATECH have made significant progress in identifying solutions for key outgassing issues,” said Tooru Kimura, General Manager of Semiconductor Materials Laboratory at JSR. “Through sophisticated process capabilities, the goal of our work is to discover new materials for the next generation EUV exposure tools that further stimulates resist development by enabling a more efficient way for outgas testing.”

“In order to ensure the affordable evolution of state-of-the-art lithography technologies, it is critical to predict a material’s outgassing level and understand the link between performance and resist outgassing,” said Kevin Cummings, SEMATECH’s Director of Lithography. “SEMATECH has been working with JSR over the last several months to make sure all test procedures meet industry guidelines for outgas testing. Now we are able to reduce the sample tests per each resist family for all resist suppliers, further enabling the infrastructure that will afford cost-effective EUV manufacturing.”

Over the past decade, SEMATECH has reduced resist and materials development cycle time by providing the industry access to successive generations of small field exposure tools. SEMATECH’s projects have succeeded in measuring the outgassing characteristics in hundreds of EUV resists and materials formulations, and delivering thousands of EUV exposure shifts to member companies to evaluate tens of thousands of materials formulations.

According to preliminary results from the upcoming DisplaySearch Quarterly Mobile PC Shipment and Forecast Report, in the third quarter of this year, the global notebook PC market grew 10 percent year over year, to reach 49.4 million units. Global shipments of tablet PCs, by comparison, fell 8 percent. Notebook PC growth was primarily driven by the developed regions of North America and Western Europe, which increased year-over-year shipments by more than 20 percent in the third quarter.

“The slump in tablet PC demand contributed to the growth in notebook PCs,” said Hisakazu Torii, vice president of smart application research at DisplaySearch, now part of IHS Inc. “Back-to-school sales were quite good, and this growth was supported by low-priced, Windows-based notebook PCs and Chromebooks. Chromebook sales were especially strong in the United States, especially in the commercial and education markets, due to easier IT management and volume-discount offers.”

Chromebooks are forecast to reach 5 percent (8 million units) of total global notebook PC shipments by the end of this year; however, if 2015 demand reaches the 20 million units planned by PC brands and OEMs, it is possible that the Chromebook share would rise to 12 percent. “Early Black Friday newspaper advertisements show some Windows-based notebook PCs and Chromebooks priced under $200,” Torii said.

The top five notebook PC brands collectively grew 23 percent in the third quarter of 2014, reaching 69 percent of total notebook units shipped. With strong sales in North America and Western Europe, the Lenovo Group and HP continued to lead the market, with shares of 20 percent and 19 percent, respectively. Lenovo Group led unit share in Western Europe and China, while HP took the leading position in North America, Eastern Europe and rest of the world. Year-over-year shipments of Apple’s iPad declined 13 percent, although Apple still ranked fifth globally, mainly due to increasing market share in North America. 

Table: Top-Five Worldwide Notebook PC Shipment Share 

Q3’14 Share Q3’13 Share Y/Y Growth
Lenovo Group 20% 16% 38%
HP 19% 18% 13%
Dell 12% 11% 21%
Acer Group 10% 9% 28%
Apple 9% 9% 15%
Total Top Five Brands 69% 62% 23%

Data note: Starting in Q1 2014, DisplaySearch included CCE, NEC, and Mobile Internet and Digital Home Business Group (MIDH) in Lenovo shipments. 

Source: DisplaySearch Quarterly Mobile PC Shipment and Forecast Report

The NPD DisplaySearch Quarterly Mobile PC Shipment and Forecast Report delivers insight into worldwide and regional mobile PC shipments with data for global and regional brands.

Nine of the Top 20 Semiconductor Suppliers are Forecast to Register Double-Digit Growth in 2014

Later this month, IC Insights’ November Update to The 2014 McClean Report will show a forecast ranking of the 2014 top 25 semiconductor suppliers with the companies’ sales broken down on a quarterly basis.  A preview of the forecast for the top 20 companies’ total 2014 sales results is presented in Figure 1.  The top 20 worldwide semiconductor (IC and O S D—optoelectronic, sensor, and discrete) sales ranking for 2014 includes eight suppliers headquartered in the U.S., three in Japan, three in Europe, three in Taiwan, two in South Korea, and one in Singapore, a relatively broad representation of geographic regions.

This year’s top-20 ranking includes two pure-play foundries (TSMC and UMC) and six fabless companies.  Pure-play IC foundry GlobalFoundries is forecast to be replaced in this year’s top 20 ranking by fabless IC supplier Nvidia.  It is interesting to note that the top four semiconductor suppliers all have different business models.  Intel is essentially a pure-play IDM, Samsung a vertically integrated IC supplier, TSMC a pure-play foundry, and Qualcomm a fabless company.

IC foundries are included in the top 20 ranking because IC Insights has always viewed the ranking as a top supplier list, not as a marketshare ranking, and realizes that in some cases semiconductor sales are double counted.  With many of IC Insights’ clients being vendors to the semiconductor industry (supplying equipment, chemicals, gases, etc.), excluding large IC manufacturers like the foundries would leave significant “holes” in the list of top semiconductor suppliers.  Foundries and fabless companies are clearly identified in Figure 1.  In the April Update to The McClean Report, marketshare rankings of IC suppliers by product type were presented and foundries were excluded from these listings.

As shown, it is expected to require total semiconductor sales of over $4.2 billion to make the 2014 top 20 ranking. In total, the top 20 semiconductor companies’ sales are forecast to increase by 9 percent this year as compared to 2013. However, when excluding the two pure-play foundries (TSMC and UMC) from the ranking, the top “18” semiconductor companies’ sales are forecast to increase by 8 percent this year, the same rate as IC Insights’ current forecast for total 2014 worldwide semiconductor market growth.

 

Fig. 1

Outside of the top six spots, there are numerous changes expected within the 2014 top-20 semiconductor supplier ranking.  In fact, of the 14 companies ranked 7th through 20th, 10 of them are forecast to change positions in 2014 as compared with 2013 (with NXP expected to jump up two spots).

More details on the forecasted 2014 top 25 semiconductor suppliers will be provided in the November Update to The McClean Report.

Propelled by the race between Apple and Samsung to enhance their mobile products with cutting-edge sensor technology, the market for sensors in cellphones and tablets is set to nearly triple from 2012 through 2018, according to IHS Technology.

Worldwide market revenue for sensors used in mobile handsets and media tablets will rise to $6.5 billion in 2018, up from $2.3 billion in 2012, as presented in the figure below. The fastest-expanding portion of the mobile sensor segment will be emerging devices, whose revenue will surge to $2.3 billion in 2018, up from just $24 million in 2012. In 2013, this segment posted dramatic growth, with revenue rising to more than $500 million.

2014-10-21_Sensors

“The next wave of sensor technology in smartphones and tablets has arrived,” said Marwan Boustany, IHS senior analyst for microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and sensors. “Led by Apple and Samsung, the mobile market is moving beyond simply integrating established devices like motion sensors and now is including next-generation features like fingerprint and environment/health sensors. Adoption of these newer devices will drive the expansion of the mobile sensor device market in the coming years.”

Established sensors in mobile devices include motion sensors, light sensors and MEMS microphones. Emerging sensors consist of new devices including fingerprint, optical pulse, humidity, gas, ultraviolet (UV) and thermal imaging.

Information in this media release is contained in the new IHS Technology report entitled Emerging Sensors in Handsets & Tablets Report – 2014 from the Semiconductors & Components service.

Heightened sensors

Apple initiated the market for fingerprint sensors in mobile devices with the release of the iPhone 5s in 2013.

“Fingerprint sensors have arrived in force. IHS forecasts that shipments of fingerprint-enabled devices will reach 1.4 billion units in 2020,” Boustany said. “This is more than four times the 317 million units expected to be shipped by the end of 2014.”

The fingerprint sensor market is beginning to gain traction at other companies outside of Apple. New devices with fingerprint sensors include Samsung’s flagship model—the Galaxy S5—and Huawei’s top-of-the-line smartphone, the Ascend Mate 7, both of which began shipping in 2014.

For its part, Samsung has pioneered the deployment of other devices, including environmental and health sensors in the flagship models introduced by the company during the last 18 months. Samsung rolled out a humidity sensor in the Galaxy S4, a pulse sensor in the Galaxy S5 and a UV sensor in the Note 4.

Asian sensation

Fingerprint sensors play a key role in mobile payment services, providing authentication for systems like Apple Pay. Other banks and financial institutions, including Visa, MasterCard and PayPal are also working to support mobile payments and biometric authentication.

“This fingerprint market has all its requirements for success converging at the right time,” Boustany said.

Mobile payment services are expected to gain popularity not just in Europe and North America, but also in Asia.

With the increasing demand for sensor technology in Asia, IHS expects Chinese smartphone original equipment manufacturers (OEM) to be the next driver for a new generation of sensors.

Humidity sensors have been used in Chinese handsets since 2011. In the future, air-quality sensors will experience growing usage in China.

The first gas sensors have just been designed in by Chinese smartphone OEMs. IHS expects these phones will enter the market during the first half of 2015. There is also a specific demand for sensors that can detect particle pollution in large Chinese cities such as Beijing or Shanghai.

Extrasensory perception

In terms of revenue, fingerprint sensors now dominate the mobile market, followed by optical pulse sensors, humidity and UV sensors. IHS anticipates gas sensors will join the fray in 2015 and thermal imagers will arrive during the 2018 time period.

Thermal imagers using microbolometer sensors emerged from the technology of forward-looking infrared (FLIR) systems in 2014 as accessories for the iPhone 5s. However, it will take a few more years before these sensors decline enough in pricing to be embedded in smartphones.

IHS predicts that Samsung will adopt gas/chemical sensors in the Note 6 that will be introduced in 2016. This is because gas/chemical sensor technology will have matured and use cases will be more clearly defined by then.

Some sensors that have appeared in smartphones are likely to migrate to wearables, which in some cases are better platforms for health or environmental sensors.

IBM and GLOBALFOUNDRIES today announced that GLOBALFOUNDRIES will acquire IBM’s global commercial semiconductor technology business, including IBM’s intellectual property, technologists and technologies.

IBM will pay GLOBALFOUNDRIES $1.5 billion in cash over the next three years to take the chip operations off its hands. The cash consideration will be adjusted by the amount of working capital which is estimated to be $200 million.

Workers prep Global Foundries' newest semiconductor factory, "Fab 8" in Saratoga County, New York State Source: IBM

Workers prep Global Foundries’ newest semiconductor factory, “Fab 8” in Saratoga County, New York State. Source: IBM

GLOBALFOUNDRIES will also become IBM’s exclusive server processor semiconductor technology provider for 22nm, 14nm and 10nm semiconductors for the next 10 years.

It its official statement, IBM said the agreement will enable the company to further focus on fundamental semiconductor research and the development of future cloud, mobile, big data analytics, and secure transaction-optimized systems. IBM will continue its previously announced $3 billion investment over five years for semiconductor technology research to lead in the next generation of computing. GLOBALFOUNDRIES will have primary access to the research that results from this investment through joint collaboration at the Colleges of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE), SUNY Polytechnic Institute, in Albany, N.Y.

Through the acquisition, GLOBALFOUNDRIES will gain substantial intellectual property including thousands of patents, making GLOBALFOUNDRIES the holder of one of the largest semiconductor patent portfolios in the world.

GLOBALFOUNDRIES will acquire and operate existing IBM semiconductor manufacturing operations and facilities in East Fishkill, New York and Essex Junction, Vermont, adding capacity to serve its customers and thousands of jobs to GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ workforce. GLOBALFOUNDRIES plans to provide employment opportunities for substantially all IBM employees at the two facilities who are part of the transferred businesses, except for a team of semiconductor server group employees who will remain with IBM. After the close of this transaction, GLOBALFOUNDRIES will be the largest semiconductor technology manufacturing employer in the Northeast.

GLOBALFOUNDRIES will also acquire IBM’s commercial microelectronics business, which includes ASIC and specialty foundry, manufacturing and related operations and sales. GLOBALFOUNDRIES plans to invest to grow these businesses.

IBM took a related pre-tax charge of $4.7 billion in its third quarter. It also reported a 4 percent drop in revenue on Monday.

What the analysts are saying

In terms of its 14nm FinFET collaboration with Samsung, the acquisition and the sudden influx of top talent from IBM will certainly help get GLOBALFOUNDRIES up to speed, Robert Maire of Semiconductor Advisors LLC reported.

“Even though Samsung still holds the keys and most of the cards in their relationship, the addition of the IBM horsepower does help even things a little bit even though IBM hasn’t been a serious player in the semiconductor business for quite a while it still has a deep well of expertise,” said Mr. Maire.

Currently, analysts at Summit Research Partners are not concerned about the long-term financial impact of the acquisition.

“We think that at present, when the transfer of IBM’s chip manufacturing assets to GLOBALFOUNDRIES is done, this is a non-event to the semiconductor industry for the most part,”  said Srini Sundararajan, Semiconductor, Semi-cap Equipment Analyst at Summit Research Partners. “That is sad considering that there were times in the 90s that IBM and Intel competed with one another over bragging rights for technological advancements.”

“In terms of potential impact to semiconductor equipment companies, there would likely be minimal to no impact as potential capex spend would be absorbed within the capex spend of Global Foundries,” Mr. Sundararajan concluded.