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Worldwide silicon wafer area shipments increased during the third quarter 2016 when compared to second quarter 2016 area shipments according to the SEMI Silicon Manufacturers Group (SMG) in its quarterly analysis of the silicon wafer industry.

Total silicon wafer area shipments were 2,730 million square inches during the most recent quarter, a 0.9 percent increase from the 2,706 million square inches shipped during the previous quarter. New quarterly total area shipments are 5.4 percent higher than third quarter 2015 shipments and are at their highest recorded quarterly level.

“Global silicon wafer demand continued to grow during this quarter,” said Dr. Volker Braetsch, chairman SEMI SMG and senior vice president of Siltronic AG. “Year-to-date shipments are trending slightly above the same period as last year.”

Silicon* Area Shipment Trends

Millions of Square Inches

3Q 

2015

2Q 

2016

3Q 

2016

Q1 + Q2 + Q3 

2016

Q1 + Q2 + Q3 

2015
Total

 

2,591

2,706

2,730

7,973

7,930

 

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, as well as non-polished silicon wafers shipped by the wafer manufacturers to the end-users.

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

Datacenters with few other emerging applications will become a multibillion dollar market for silicon photonics by 2025. Transporting high level of data with existing technologies will soon reach its limit and photons will continue replacing step by step electrons throughout networks. Growing investments made by VCs have been identified by Yole Développements’ analysts and few startups have been created in this sector. All these indicators confirm the trend: silicon photonic technologies have reached the tipping point that precedes massive growth.

silicon photonics illustration

Yole Développement (Yole), the “More than Moore” market research and strategy consulting company releases this month the technology & market analysis titled Silicon Photonics for datacenters and other applications. Both experts Dr Eric Mounier, Sr Technnology & Market Analyst at Yole and Jean-Louis Malinge, former CEO of Kotura, now at ARCH Venture Partners combined their knowledge of the silicon photonic industry to perform a deep added-value analysis. Under this report, they examine the current status and future challenges for silicon photonics and data centers application. They detail for all applications, silicon photonic benefits as well as a comprehensive analysis of the industrial supply chain with player’s status.

What is the status of silicon photonic technologies? Could we already speak about commercial solutions? What is the market size today? What about tomorrow? How high are the current investments? Yole’s analysts offer you a snapshot of the story.

The silicon photonics market is still modest with estimated sales below US$40 million in 2015 and very few companies actually shipping products in the open market: Mellanox, Cisco, Luxtera, Intel, STMicroelectronics, Acacia and Molex are part of these leading players.

Silicon photonics has been under development for years. However now, this technology is being pushed hard by large webcom companies like Facebook and Microsoft. “Silicon photonics has reached the tipping point that precedes massive growth,” comments Dr Eric Mounier from Yole. “Indeed we estimate, the packaged silicon photonics transceiver market will be worth US$6 billion in 10 years.”

Silicon photonics is an exciting technology mixing optics, CMOS technology and advanced packaging. This combination benefits from semiconductor wafer manufacturing scalability to reduce costs.

“Silicon photonics offers silicon technology advantages including higher integration, more functionalities embedded with lower power consumption and better reliability compared to legacy optics”, analyzes Jean-Louis Malinge.

In 2020 and more, silicon photonic chips will far exceed copper cabling capabilities. Such solutions will be so deployed in high-speed signal transmission systems. In 2025 and more, the technology will be more and more used in processing such as interconnecting multiple cores with processor chips. Indeed, according to Yole’s analysts, the chip market value should score US$1,5 billion in 2025 at chip level (Estimated to be less than US$40 million in 2015). Step by step photons get closer to the chips!

Data centers are clearly the best opportunity for silicon photonics technology today. And there are also many other applications that silicon photonics can enable. These include high performance computers, telecommunications, sensors, life science, quantum computers and other high-end applications.

Two applications are particularly interesting as silicon photonics can push the integration of optical functions and miniaturization further to achieve successful products. Those applications are lidars for autonomous cars and biochemical and chemical sensors.

Lidars are costly and bulky instruments which make their integration in a car challenging. Within a promising ADAS market expected to reach US$3,9 billion in 2017 silicon photonic-based lidar will play a key role. Indeed silicon photonics allow lidar without moving elements, which can experience issues in a harsh car environment. Last august, MIT’s Photonic Microsystems Group announced a successful DARPA project using silicon photonics for lidar-on-a-chip with steerable transmitting and receiving phased arrays and on-chip Ge photodetectors.

Biochemical and gas sensors are not new, and several applications have existed for a while. Day by day, the interest in gas sensing is gaining importance due to the emergence of promising new large volume portable applications. Integration of biochemical or gas sensors into smartphones or wearables is currently on the roadmap of many companies but size, cost and sensitivity are still issues. To push optical gas sensor miniaturization further, some companies are already considering silicon photonics as an integration platform for their devices.

These non-data center applications will be about US$300 million in 2025, detail Yole’s analysts in the silicon photonics report.

Synopsys, Inc. (Nasdaq:  SNPS) today announced that its Custom Compiler tool has been certified by Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. to support their 10-nanometer (nm) LPP (Low Power Plus) process. This included providing and validating a Custom Compiler process design kit (PDK) in the industry-standard iPDK format. The kit is available on request from Samsung.

The newly developed Samsung 10LPP iPDK includes all technology information needed to create schematics and layout for customer designs using the Custom Compiler tool with Samsung’s 10LPP process. This comprehensive kit includes support for the groundbreaking Custom Compiler visually-assisted automation flow. Custom Compiler features enabled by the kit include full coloring for triple-patterning, fast placement of FinFET device arrays with the Symbolic Editor, in-design resistance and capacitance reporting during layout, and high-performance in-design design rule checking (DRC).

“We worked with Synopsys to include Custom Compiler support for Samsung’s foundry process offerings,” said Jaehong Park, senior vice president of the Design Service Team at Samsung Electronics. “This new 10LPP iPDK adds to our existing portfolio of iPDKs that are available for Synopsys Custom Compiler users.”

Unified with Synopsys circuit simulation, physical verification and digital implementation tools, Custom Compiler technology provides Samsung 10LPP process users with a comprehensive custom design solution that reduces FinFET layout time.

“Custom Compiler users include leading-edge customers that demand support for the latest process technologies,” said Bijan Kiani, vice president of product marketing at Synopsys. “Samsung and Synopsys worked together to enable Custom Compiler for Samsung’s 10LPP process, which can shorten layout time from days to hours.”

ams AG (SIX: AMS), a provider of high performance sensors and analog ICs, a provider of high performance sensors and analog ICs, has announced its fast and cost-efficient IC prototyping service, known as Multi-Project Wafer (MPW) or shuttle run, with an updated schedule for 2017. The prototyping service, which combines several IC designs from different customers onto a single wafer, offers significant cost advantages for foundry customers as the costs for wafers and masks are shared among all shuttle participants.

ams’ best in class MPW service offers the whole range of 180nm and 0.35μm specialty processes including the recently introduced 180nm CMOS technology (“aC18”). The aC18 process supports a large number of 1.8V and 5.0V NMOS and PMOS devices (substrate based, floating, low leakage and high threshold voltage options) and fully characterised passives including various capacitors. Area-optimised high-density and low-power digital libraries with gate densities up to 152kGates/mm², updated digital and analog I/O libraries with up to 6 metal layers as well as ESD protection cells with up to 8kV HBM level complete the offering. ams’ aC18 process is ideally suited for sensor and sensor interface devices in a wide variety of applications. All 2017 MPW runs in aC18 technology will be manufactured in ams’ state of the art 200mm fabrication facility in Austria ensuring very low defect densities and high yields.

In addition to the four aC18 MPW runs, ams will also offer four MPW runs in its advanced 180nm High-Voltage CMOS (aH18) technology supporting 1.8V, 5V, 20V and 50V devices. For its 0.35μm specialty processes a total of 14 runs are offered in 2017. ams’ 0.35μm High-Voltage CMOS process family, optimised for high-voltage designs in automotive and industrial applications, supports 20V, 50V and 120V devices as well as truly voltage scalable transistors. The advanced High-Voltage CMOS process with embedded EEPROM functionality as well as the 0.35μm SiGe-BiCMOS technology S35 are fully compatible with the base CMOS process and complete ams’ MPW service portfolio.

Overall, ams will offer almost 150 MPW start dates in 2017, enabled by co-operations with worldwide partner organisations such as CMP, Europractice, Fraunhofer IIS and Mosis. Customers located in APAC region may also participate via our local MPW program partners Toppan Technical Design Center Co., Ltd (TDC) and MEDs Technologies.

The complete schedule for 2017 has now been released and detailed start dates per process are available on the web atwww.ams.com/MPW.

To take advantage of the MPW service, ams’ foundry customers deliver their completed GDSII-data on specific dates and receive untested packaged samples or dies within a short lead-time of typically 8 weeks for CMOS and 12 weeks for High-Voltage CMOS, SiGe-BiCMOS and Embedded Flash processes.

All process technologies are supported by the well-known hitkit, ams’ industry benchmark process design kit based on Cadence, Mentor Graphics or Keysight ADS design environments. The hitkit comes complete with fully silicon-qualified standard cells, periphery cells and general purpose analog cells such as comparators, operational amplifiers, low power A/D and D/A converters. Custom analog and RF devices, physical verification rule sets for Assura and Calibre, as well as precisely characterised circuit simulation models enable rapid design starts of complex high performance mixed-signal ICs. In addition to standard prototype services, ams also offers advanced analog IP blocks, a memory (RAM/ROM) generation service and packaging services in ceramic or plastic.

Learn more about the comprehensive service and technology portfolio of Full Service Foundry at www.ams.com/foundry.

North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $1.60 billion in orders worldwide in September 2016 (three-month average basis) and a book-to-bill ratio of 1.05, according to the September Equipment Market Data Subscription (EMDS) Book-to-Bill Report published today by SEMI.  A book-to-bill of 1.05 means that $105 worth of orders were received for every $100 of product billed for the month.

SEMI reports that the three-month average of worldwide bookings in September 2016 was $1.60 billion. The bookings figure is 8.5 percent lower than the final August 2016 level of $1.75 billion, and is 3.2 percent higher than the September 2015 order level of $1.55 billion.

The three-month average of worldwide billings in September 2016 was $1.53 billion. The billings figure is 10.2 percent lower than the final August 2016 level of $1.71 billion, and is 2.6 percent higher than the September 2015 billings level of $1.50 billion.

“Semiconductor equipment bookings continue to outpace equipment billings,” said Denny McGuirk, president and CEO of SEMI.  “Year-to-date bookings and billings data are on trend to surpass last year’s levels.”

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.

Billings
(3-mo. avg)

Bookings
(3-mo. avg)

Book-to-Bill
April 2016

$1,460.2

$1,595.4

1.09
May 2016

$1,601.5

$1,750.5

1.09
June 2016

$1,715.2

$1,714.3

1.00
July 2016

$1,707.9

$1,795.4

1.05
August 2016 (final)

$1,709.0

$1,753.4

1.03
September 2016 (prelim)

$1,534.4

$1,604.1

1.05

Source: SEMI (www.semi.org), October 2016

Avalanche Technology, Inc., has entered into a manufacturing agreement with Sony Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation to begin production of it’s Spin Transfer Torque Magnetic RAM (STT-MRAM) on 300mm wafers at various advanced geometry nodes.  Volume production is expected in early 2017 at Sony Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation in Japan to address a wide range of applications for this disruptive non-volatile memory technology.

This partnership with Sony Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation will help the adoption of perpendicular Magnetic Tunnel Junction (pMTJ)-based STT-MRAM and further validate the widely accepted industry belief that STT-MRAM is the memory technology of choice for a broad spectrum of applications.

“Avalanche is working on breakthrough memory products.  As a result, we are able to address a very large non-volatile memory market with a wide range of requirements.  STT-MRAM is an ideal solution for markets such as Storage, Automotive, IoT and embedded applications,” said Petro Estakhri, founder and CEO of Avalanche Technology.

“We are pleased to partner with Avalanche Technology on the production of pMTJ based STT-MRAM,” said Toshiyuki Yanase, Representative of Yamagata Technology Center of Sony Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation.  “Working with Avalanche Technology, we look forward to manufacturing MRAM products that meet current and future demands in the memory market.”

SEMI today announced the retirement of Dennis (Denny) McGuirk, SEMI’s president and CEO. McGuirk has served on the board of directors and has led SEMI, the global industry association representing more than 2,000 companies in the electronics manufacturing supply chain, since November 2011. McGuirk will continue to lead SEMI in his current capacity until a successor is appointed.

While at SEMI, McGuirk has had responsibility for driving member satisfaction through SEMI’s global operations – anchored by eight international SEMICON expositions – and SEMI products and services including: Standards, market intelligence, business and technical programs, and industry advocacy. Over the past five years, the electronics manufacturing supply chain has undergone major changes as digital mobility, industry consolidation, and regional investment shifts have reshaped the industry. During this period, McGuirk provided stewardship and new direction to SEMI’s operations, expositions, communities, and partnerships.

“Upon joining, Denny realigned SEMI’s operations to be financially sustainable,” said Y.H. Lee, chairman of SEMI’s board of directors. “Denny has been a consistent and hospitable SEMI ambassador at our SEMICON tradeshows around the globe. We thank Denny for his service and many contributions and wish him well in his retirement.”

“After five years at SEMI, the time is right for me to retire. I am grateful to have worked with SEMI’s exceptional members and outstanding employees – the semiconductor industry is one of the most innovative and fast-paced industries in the world, where only the truly excellent thrive. It’s been great to lead a truly global association such as SEMI with achievements at both regional and international levels. I’m committed to ensure a smooth transition to my successor for the continued success of SEMI.”

A leading executive search firm has been engaged to assist in identifying and evaluating candidates, who can assume the responsibility to continue to focus on the growth and prosperity of SEMI members and drive SEMI’s 2020 vision.

Mentor Graphics Corporation (NASDAQ:  MENT) today announced that it has acquired Galaxy Semiconductor, a provider of test data analysis and defect reduction software for the semiconductor industry. With this acquisition, more design, test, and product engineers will now have access to Galaxy’s powerful solutions for maximizing device yields, improving test quality, reducing DPM (defects per million), and enhancing device characterization efforts.

“The acquisition of Galaxy Semiconductor provides a significant opportunity for Mentor to expand the breadth of our overall design-to-silicon product offering,” said Joe Sawicki, vice president and general manager of Mentor Graphics Design-to-Silicon Division. “The combination of Mentor’s Tessent® silicon test products along with Galaxy’s test data analysis products provides the industry with end-to-end solutions that span all aspects of design-for-test, device characterization, yield ramp, and cost-optimized high-quality manufacturing test.”

“The Galaxy team is excited to be a part of Mentor, an EDA industry leader with best-in-class products in design-for-test, design-for-manufacturing and automotive electronics design — all of which are highly complementary to Galaxy’s product line,” said Bertrand Renaud, former chief operating officer for Galaxy Semiconductor. “Through the acquisition, Mentor will be able to expand Galaxy’s worldwide sales and support and accelerate the next-generation solutions, which will provide even greater value to customers.”

Today, SEMI announced an exceptional lineup of keynotes at SEMICON Japan’s “SuperTHEATER” focusing on innovation and insights into the future of the electronics supply chain. SEMICON Japan 2016, the largest exhibition in Japan for electronics manufacturing, will take place at Tokyo Big Sight in Tokyo on December 14-16. Registration for the exhibition and programs is now open.

Japan’s semiconductor fab equipment capital expenditure (front-end facilities, both new and used including discretes and LED) is forecast to increase 12 percent (to US$5.0 billion) in 2017, according to the August SEMI World Fab Forecast report.

On December 14, keynotes will focus on the future:

  • Semiconductor Executive Forum – “The Creation of New Business Opportunities” keynotes:
    • Toshiba: Yasuo Naruke, corporate senior executive VP, on “Toshiba Storage Business Strategy; Utilizing Big Data to Win Productivity”
    • TSMC: Jack Sun, VP of R&D and CTO, on “New Frontiers of Semiconductor Innovation”
    • Murata Manufacturing: Hiroshi Iwatsubo, executive VP, on “Business Strategy and Technology Trends”
  • Opening Keynotes – “Into the Future” keynotes:
    • IBM Research:  Dario Gil, VP, Science and Solutions, on “The Cognitive Era and the New Frontiers of Information Technology”
    • University of Tsukuba: Yoichi Ochiai, media artist and assistant professor, Digital Nature Group, on “The Age of Enchantment”

The SEMI Market Forum, also on December 14, with the theme “Outlook and Growth Opportunities in the Electronics Manufacturing Supply Chain” will offer presentations from IHS Markit, VLSI Research Inc., and SEMI.

Highlights on December 15 include Industrial IoT Forum, Autonomous & Connected Car Forum, and U.S. Commercial Service IT Forum. The Technology Trend Forum on December 16 focuses on “The Tokyo 2020 Olympics: Innovation for All.” In addition, SEMICON Japan features forums on Manufacturing Innovation and IoT Innovation.

Attendees at SEMICON Japan will explore the key technologies and business models necessary to grow in the coming years. The SuperTHEATER offers nine keynote forums, all with simultaneous English-Japanese translation, with global top executives.

Platinum sponsors of SEMICON Japan include Disco Corporation, Screen Semiconductor Solutions Co., Ltd. and Tokyo Electron Limited. Gold sponsors include: Advantest Corporation, Applied Materials, Inc., ASE Group, Daihen Corporation, Ebara Corporation, Fasford Technology Co., Ltd., Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation, JSR Corporation, Lam Research Corporation, Nikon Corporation, Tokyo Seimitsu Co., Ltd. and VAT Ltd.

For more information and to register for SEMICON Japan, visit www.semiconjapan.org/en/

Mentor Graphics Corporation (NASDAQ:  MENT) today announced that it has joined the Wide Band Gap integration (WBGi) power electronics consortium to participate in thermal management and power cycling initiatives. The WBGi Consortium, established in 2013 by Professors Katsuaki Suganuma and Tsuyoshi Fuaki of OsakaUniversity in Japan, assembles academics and industrialists worldwide to leverage the possibilities of wide-bandgap technology and its challenges. Wideband-gap semiconductors are comprised of materials such as silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium arsenide (GaN), enabling devices to operate at much higher voltages, frequencies and temperatures than conventional silicon materials.

Mentor Graphics is already an active member of the US-based Center for Power Electronics Systems (CPES) and European Centre for Power Electronics Consortium (ECPE). This is the third power electronics consortium that Mentor Graphics has joined, offering its expertise in the field and proven technologies to advance the power and performance of semiconductors, IGBTs, MOSFETS, and other devices.

“We are glad that Mentor Graphics is joining WBGi. One of the key issues for SiC- and Ga- based power electronics is thermal dissipation,” said Katsuaki Suganuma, professor at the Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research at Osaka University. “Mentor’s T3Ster® transient thermal tester hardware is the most advanced technology in its field and can contribute to understanding what is going on in WBG semiconductors. There are standards for power LEDs already and we believe that MicReD® technology in the Mentor Graphics Power Tester can help in developing power cycling standards for WBG power electronics.”

The WBGi Consortium is addressing all aspects of packaging and reliability in the next generation of power electronics with 34 industrial company members, and several work groups, workshops, and meetings in place. The WBGi is also involved with the ECPE in Europe, U.S. and Asian partner organizations to establish itself as a global consortium.

“Being a member of the WBGi Consortium in Japan is extremely valuable and important to us and the semiconductor industry,” stated Roland Feldhinkel, general manager of Mentor Graphics Mechanical Analysis Division. “Our proven technologies and our team of researchers, educators and scientists are eager to contribute to WBGi’s initiatives and working groups. Our collaboration with the WGBi and its members can help result in tremendous advancements for the power electronics systems industry worldwide.”