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Deca Technologies, an electronic interconnect solutions provider to the semiconductor industry, announced today that it has shipped more than half a billion units since the company’s launch. Deca attributes this achievement to the very positive response from the industry to Deca¹s value proposition of enabling reduced cycle times and lower overall costs for wafer-level chip scale packages (WLCSP), combined with the overall growth in the use of WLCSP. This increase in demand led Deca to expand its automated production line (Autoline) in its Laguna, Philippines factory, which doubles its capacity to accommodate growing market needs.

The handset, wearables and Internet-of-Things markets are driving demand for low-cost WLCSP devices with rapid turnaround from design to delivery. Meeting these demands has been problematic for the majority of the supply base. Time-to-ramp for new product introductions is critical, as is dynamic manufacturing capability from the WLCSP supply base. Deca’s Autoline has demonstrated that it significantly reduces cycle time, thereby giving customers an ability to respond to rapid market demand swings and the competitive edge to be first to market.

“We consistently set new industry records in supporting new product builds for our customers,” said Garry Pycroft, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Deca Technologies. “Thanks to our Autoline, it’s now possible to get customers’ first parts out within 24 hours, while others are still awaiting delivery of mask sets to start the build. As such, Deca’s customers have a significant advantage in getting to market first.”

Deca’s Autoline further provides an advantage with the flexibility to support 200mm as well as 300mm wafers. “We’re seeing some reluctance from the supply base to invest in 200mm capacity, as the long-term ROI is being questioned,” said Chris Seams, CEO of Deca Technologies. “Our expansion provides additional capacity for 200mm and gives us the opportunity to capitalize on the growth in 300mm demand.”

“From Deca Technologies’ inception, our vision for the Autoline was to support the need for rapid cycle time and increased capacity,” Seams continued. “This vision has now been realized.”

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, China’s largest and most advanced semiconductor foundry; Huawei, a global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider; imec, a nanoelectronics research and development (R&D) centers; and Qualcomm Global Trading Pte. Ltd., an affiliate of Qualcomm Incorporated, one of the world’s largest fabless semiconductor vendors, held a signing ceremony at the Great Hall of the People, to announce the formation of SMIC Advanced Technology Research & Development (Shanghai) Corporation, an equity joint venture company. The joint venture company will focus on R&D towards next generation CMOS logic technology and build China’s most advanced integrated circuit (IC) development R&D platform.

His Majesty (H.M.) King Philippe of Belgium is visiting China in the framework of several cooperation agreements between China and Belgium related to cutting-edge technology. A Chinese leader and H.M. King Philippe of Belgium witnessed the signing ceremony of the joint investment.

SMIC Advanced Technology R&D (Shanghai) Corporation will be majority owned by SMIC, while Huawei, imec, and Qualcomm will be minority shareholders. The current focus will be on developing 14nm logic technology. Dr. Tzu-Yin Chiu, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of SMIC will be the legal representative, Dr. Yu Shaofeng, Vice President of SMIC will be the general manager.

This project is a major breakthrough in the cooperation model for IC manufacturers, international trade companies and research institutions. This project will facilitate closer cooperation between upstream and downstream companies, leading-edge R&D, and other synergies in the industry’s global eco-system. With the joint venture company oriented on innovation, it can target the demands of the industry more quickly and effectively through its R&D and manufacturing resources. Meanwhile, by enabling fabless semiconductor companies to join the development process as shareholders, the product development cycle can be shortened and the advanced process node tape out time can be accelerated.

In the first phase, the joint venture company will develop 14nm CMOS technology for mass production, which will be based on imec’s knowhow in advanced semiconductor processing technology. The new R&D project will be done at SMIC’s production line.

SMIC will have the rights to license the required intellectual property rights on the mass production technologies of advanced nodes developed by the joint venture company, enabling these technologies to be applied to SMIC’s current and future range of products and serve SMIC’s business with other companies. This can improve the overall level of China’s IC technologies, and is expected to facilitate the mass production of 16/14nm ICs in China by 2020, which is one of the goals set by the National IC Industry Development Outline. In the future, companies in China’s IC manufacturing industry, universities and colleges, and research institutions will continue working together on this platform to further enhance the core competitiveness of the industry.

Dr. Zhou Zixue, Chairman, of SMIC; Steve Chu, Vice President of Huawei; Ludo Deferm, Executive Vice President of Corporate Business and Public Affairs of imec; and Derek Aberle, President of Qualcomm Incorporated were all present at the signing ceremony.

“This is the most advanced work for China’s IC industry,” said Dr. Tzu-Yin Chiu, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director, of SMIC, “With 15 years of experience in manufacturing and R&D, SMIC is China’s largest semiconductor enterprise and has the capabilities to bring 14nm technology into production. It is exciting to be working with the largest IC design company both in China and abroad, and the world’s top research institutes to tackle advanced IC process technology. This collaboration will play an important role in improving our technologies and products. The new company model has allowed us to explore a new path to open up R&D and manufacturing resources in this industry’s ecosystem, and develop our advanced technology and R&D capabilities. In addition, it actively promotes the collaboration across all parts of the eco-system in China. ”

Steve Chu, Vice President of Huawei said: “Huawei has always been open to win-win partnerships. With our 20 years of experience in the IC design field and collaboration from our global partners, we are keen to promote the development of research capabilities in IC technology, to create China’s most advanced IC R&D platform. We believe that this collaboration will consolidate the IC domain, increase its resources and capabilities, and thereby improving the overall level of China’s IC industry. The improvements will provide more benefits to operators, companies, customers and partners.”

Luc Van den hove, CEO and president of imec, added: “We see a growing potential in China, both as a market and as a source of innovative engineering. The expertise of the four partners is focused on the creation of an excellent platform to foster nanoelectronics R&D in China. And the joint development of a 14nm process facility will be a step stone to achieve this goal. A step stone that, I am convinced, will benefit the world’s IC manufacturing community.”

“We are pleased to collaborate with SMIC, Huawei and imec to establish this new technology R&D joint venture company,” said Derek Aberle, president of Qualcomm Incorporated. “This is a significant milestone for the Chinese and global IC industries, which reinforces Qualcomm’s commitment to the continued growth of the vibrant semiconductor ecosystem in China. We believe that this venture will serve to better meet the growing needs of local Chinese and global customers who demand high performance, low power mobile devices. The collaboration will also help bring even more advanced processing technology and wafer manufacturing capacity to China, thereby helping China to build capability in FinFET technology. “

United Microelectronics Corporation, a global semiconductor foundry, today announced it has collaborated with ARM to tape out a process qualification vehicle (PQV) test chip on UMC’s 14nm FinFET technology to help validate an ARM Cortex-A family core on the advanced foundry process node. The 14nm cooperation expands on the two companies’ successful effort to develop and offer ARM Artisan Physical IP on UMC’s volume production 28nm High-K/Metal Gate process.

The validation of the UMC 14nm FinFET process technology kickstarts the enablement process for the rest of IP ecosystem needed for UMC’s FinFET technology, including the need for foundation IP and ARM processor physical design.

“ARM and UMC share a long history of successful collaboration through multiple technology generations,” said Will Abbey, general manager, physical design group, ARM. “We are highly encouraged by the test chip tape-out of a Cortex-A family core using UMC’s 14nm FinFet process. ARM will continue its close partnership with UMC during the development of this advanced process node.”

“As UMC prepares to make available our 14nm FinFET process to customers, it is important that we build a strong design support foundation to enhance our overall 14nm platform offering,” said Steve Wang, vice president of UMC’s IP and Design Support division. “ARM is a world-leading provider of advanced IP for leading-edge processes and we are excited to expand upon our past successes with them to develop Artisan Physical IP and Cortex-based solutions for our 14nm technology.”

UMC’s 14nm FinFET process has already demonstrated favorable 128mb SRAM yields and is expected to be ready for customer tape-out by late 2015.

Graham Curren, Sondrel CEO, has announced his commitment to further investment in the training of graduate engineers looking to develop a career in the IC design sector, by providing a teaching fellow, and nine scholarship awards to students engaged on the Sondrel University of Nottingham Ningbo (UNNC) School of VLSI Design.

This unique program, created in partnership with the University of Nottingham, and with the support of Mentor Graphics, is now in its third year, with over 100 students having successfully completed the course, and progressing to take up positions in the semiconductor sector. The bilingual course is run on the University of Nottingham’s Ningbo Campus, in China, as a three month intensive industry training program. There are two intakes in 2015, at the end of June, and in September, with demand continuing to be strong from students looking to enhance their EE qualifications as well as those opting to embark on a new career path.

Commenting about the award, Professor Chris Rudd, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for External Engagement at The University of Nottingham, said: “I am delighted that Sondrel has agreed to provide a scholarship fund to support integrated circuit design students and a teaching fellow at UNNC. We have an excellent relationship with Sondrel and have worked together with them very successfully over the last couple of years on the programme at our Ningbo campus. This scholarship demonstrates their commitment to build on the success of the course and we look forward to working closely with them over the years ahead to train the next generation of integrated circuit designers.”

Graham Curren, CEO of Sondrel, added: “We firmly believe in developing our new graduate talent and specifically wanted to find and train more young people for an international career in our offices around the world. Our working environment is multi-cultural and excellent communication skills coupled with cross-cultural awareness are vital for conducting business in global markets including China. These IC designers are set for an exciting career working in partnership with our clients in Europe, the US and China.”

Information on the course can be obtained from the Nottingham University website, and the Sondrel website.

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GLOBALFOUNDRIES and SRC announce new scholarship for undergraduate engineering students

North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $1.56 billion in orders worldwide in May 2015 (three-month average basis) and a book-to-bill ratio of 0.99, according to the May EMDS Book-to-Bill Report published today by SEMI.   A book-to-bill of 0.99 means that $99 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 May 2015 was $1.56 billion. The bookings figure is 0.8 percent lower than the final April 2015 level of $1.57 billion, and is 11.0 percent higher than the May 2014 order level of $1.41 billion.

The three-month average of worldwide billings in May 2015 was $1.57 billion. The billings figure is 3.7 percent higher than the final April 2015 level of $1.51 billion, and is 11.6 percent higher than the May 2014 billings level of $1.41 billion.

“The May book-to-bill ratio slipped below parity as billings improved and bookings dipped slightly from April’s values,” said Denny McGuirk, president and CEO of SEMI.  “Compared to one year ago, both bookings and billings continue to trend at higher 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
December 2014 

$1,395.9

$1,381.5

0.99
January 2015 

$1,279.1

$1,325.6

1.04
February 2015 

$1,280.1

$1,313.7

1.03
March 2015 

$1,265.6

$1,392.7

1.10
April 2015 (final)

$1,515.3

$1,573.7

1.04
May 2015 (prelim)

$1,571.2

$1,561.4

0.99

Source: SEMI (www.semi.org), June 2015

SK Hynix Inc. announced today that it is shipping mass production volumes of 1st generation High Bandwidth Memory (HBM1) based on SK hynix’s advanced 20nm-class DRAM process technology. HBM1 represents a groundbreaking leap in performance by enabling a 1,024 bit wide memory interface to achieve 128GB/second performance while reducing power by 50% over traditional GDDR5 DRAM solutions.

HBM1 utilizes through-silicon-via technology and microbumps to interconnect 4 DRAM die and 1 base die to achieve 1GB DRAM density per device. High Bandwidth Memory is designed to be assembled onto interposers allowing high speed memory interconnect to GPUs, CPUs, ASICs and FPGAs.

In addition to the mass production announcement, SK Hynix is pleased to recognize AMD as a key partner in enabling HBM1 technology. AMD announced the Radeon R9 Fury X, the world’s first graphics card with HBM technology in Los Angeles on June 16th. The AMD Radeon R9 Fury X graphics card utilizes 4GB HBM1 to achieve up to 512GB/second memory bandwidth performance while reducing memory subsystem power by up to 85%.

“AMD has pioneered the adoption of HBM1 technology in graphics applications achieving unprecedented memory bandwidth while reducing memory subsystem power” said Joe Macri, AMD Corporate Vice President and Product CTO, “Integrating AMD’s Graphics Processing Unit and HBM1 on a single 2.5D silicon interposer represents a major step forward in high performance graphics applications.”

“High Bandwidth Memory technology is the first JEDEC standard memory targeted for interposer system-in-package applications, effectively breaking down the memory wall barrier through tight integration of DRAM and high performance processors” said Kevin Widmer, SK Hynix America Vice President of Technical Marketing, “The performance requirements of emerging graphics, computing and networking applications are driving the demand for High Bandwidth Memory.”

SK Hynix is well positioned to support customer demand for High Bandwidth Memory as part of a broad portfolio of DRAM, NAND and SSD solutions. The 1.2V 1GB HBM1 device is available now in production quantities.

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3D NAND, MRAM, RRAM: Emerging opportunities and challenges for the changing memory market

Renesas Electronics, a supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, today announced the Renesas Synergy Platform, a new, easy-to-use, qualified platform designed to accelerate time to market, reduce total cost of ownership and remove many of the obstacles engineers face as they develop products for the growing Internet of Things (IoT) and industrial markets. The Renesas Synergy Platform achieves this by using an approach to new product design that lets embedded systems engineers start product development at the API level, giving them more time to design innovative and differentiated features.

“Engineering teams used to spend valuable development time writing software ranging from low-level peripheral drivers to complex communication and specialty stacks. This resulted in months of engineering resources spent integrating, testing, and maintaining software that didn’t differentiate the end-product in the market,” said Ali Sebt, Senior Vice President, Renesas Electronics Corporation. “By enabling engineers to start design at the software API level and enjoy a real-time control system without the need to build any baseline functionality, the Renesas Synergy platform accelerates embedded development, inspires innovation and enables differentiation.”

“With Synergy, Renesas has created an embedded design platform that is unique to the industry,” said Vin D’Agostino, Vice President, General Purpose Products Unit, Renesas Electronics America, Inc. “This software-first approach will make developing devices for the IoT, industrial and other markets easier by taking care of the low-level embedded software, real-time event management, secure connectivity, power management, and the robust GUIs needed.”

The Renesas Synergy Platform

The Renesas Synergy Platform integrates qualified software with a new family of MCUs and an ecosystem of tools and support options into one scalable and secure platform. It includes all rights and benefits to enable rich software development for an unlimited number of end products. There is no need to purchase a third-party commercial RTOS, communication stacks (TCP/IP, USB), file systems, graphic user interfaces and their associated development tools – all are included in the Renesas Synergy platform. As the Renesas Synergy Platform is a fully integrated product and not a set of separately sourced software and hardware components, Renesas provides technical support and licensing for the platform. This reduces the cost and time overhead required to manage relationships with different hardware and software component manufacturers.

Key elements of Renesas Synergy Platform include:

Renesas Synergy Software Package

The Renesas Synergy Platform uses qualified embedded software, tested to commercial standards with ensured compatibility across all Renesas Synergy MCUs. The Renesas Synergy Software Package (SSP) includes Express Logic’s X-Ware. X-Ware includes the premier ThreadX real time operating system (RTOS) plus X-Ware middleware NetX and NetX DUO IPV4 and IPv4/IPV6 TCP/IP stacks respectively, USBX USB Host/Device/OTG protocol stack, FileX® MS-DOS compatible file system and GUIX graphics runtime library. These are bundled in the Renesas application framework that is completely optimized for use with Renesas Synergy MCUs and compliant to the IEC/ISO/IEEE-12207 Software Life Cycle Process standard. Sold, maintained, and directly supported by Renesas, the software is guaranteed by Renesas to operate as per a published specification.

Renesas Synergy Microcontrollers

Within the Renesas Synergy Platform, there is a new, scalable MCU family that spans a wide spectrum of performance, power usage, safety, security, cryptography, connectivity, and graphics capabilities. The family provides customers a variety of choices to meet their requirements for IoT designs ranging from low-end, battery-powered products to complex communication and user interface hubs.

Renesas Synergy Tools, Kits, Solutions

The Renesas Synergy Platform’s Eclipse-based integrated solution development environment (ISDE) is available with C compilers from GNU and IAR Systems. Also available are Express Logic’s Windows based GUIX Studio graphic user interface prototyping tool and TraceX real-time event graphical analysis tool. Customers can begin full development with the purchase of any one of many low-cost Development or Starter Kits available for each of the Synergy MCU series. Renesas will also offer a number of Renesas Synergy Product Example kits, each one an example of an actual commercial product. Customers can leverage this information to modify the Product Examples to fit the needs of their own similar end products.

Renesas Synergy Gallery

Renesas recognizes the widely varied needs of product developers in the IoT space and their desire for plug-and-play add-on software components to reduce development time. Renesas satisfies this need with the Renesas Synergy Gallery, an online selection of quality software products from third-party software vendors that augment the Renesas Synergy Software Package. Customers may browse and download Renesas Synergy Software Package-compliant software for functions and features such as specialized communication stacks, control algorithms, and security services.

Renesas Synergy Support

All components of the Renesas Synergy platform are supported directly by Renesas, giving customers a single point of contact for integrated support spanning software, Renesas Synergy MCUs and hardware solutions. This unified support structure eliminates the struggle customers often encounter when trying to get hardware and software vendors to take ownership of a technical problem. Customers will not need to purchase service or maintenance contracts. Renesas warrantees the specification, provides regular feature upgrades and addresses all product questions through our global sales support organization.

Today, SEMI announced that SEMICON Europa 2015, the region’s largest microelectronics manufacturing event, will offer new themes to support the semiconductor industry’’s development in Europe. The exposition and conferences will take place in Dresden on October 6-8. SEMICON Europa will feature over 100 hours of technical sessions and presentations addressing the critical issues and challenges facing the microelectronics industries. Registration for visitors and conference participants opens today.

For the first time, SEMICON Europa will offer specific sessions on microelectronics in the automotive and medical technology segments as well as events focusing on microelectronics for the smart factory of the future. “SEMICON Europa will be the forum bringing semiconductor technology in direct contact with the industries that are driving chip usage the most right now,” explains Stephan Raithel, managing director in Berlin at SEMI. “The largest growth rates over the next few years will be in the automotive industry, medical technology, and communication technology – exactly the application areas that we are focusing on at SEMICON Europa this year.”

Materials and equipment for the semiconductor industry will remain the core of SEMICON Europa 2015. However, programs will also include new areas including imaging, low power, and power electronics. In addition, Plastic Electronics 2015, the world’s largest conference with exhibitions in the field of flexible, large-scale and organic electronics, will complement SEMICON Europa. In all, the SEMICON Europa 2015 conference program includes over 40 trade conferences and high-quality discussion forums.

At the Fab Managers Forum, Reinhard Ploss, CEO of Infineon Technologies AG, and Hans Vloeberghs, European Business director of Fujifilm, will be the keynote speakers, focusing on how the European semiconductor industry can improve its competitiveness. The Semiconductor Technology Conference, focusing on productivity enhancements for future advanced technology nodes in semiconductor technology, features keynote speakers Peter Jenkins, VP of Marketing at ASML; Niall MacGearailt, Advanced Manufacturing Research program manager at Intel; and Paul Farrar, GM for the consortium G450C at SUNY Polytechnic Institute’s Colleges of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, which works on creating the conditions necessary for producing chips on 450mm wafers.

New at SEMICON Europa 2015: SEMI and its German partner HighTech Startbahn are expanding the Innovation Village. Innovation Village is the ideal forum for European startups and high-growth businesses in search of investors. Sixty start-up/young businesses will have the opportunity to present their ideas and their business model to potential investors and industry partners. The application deadline is June 15.

Over 400 exhibitors at SEMICON Europa represent the suppliers of Europe’s leading microelectronics companies. From wafers to the finished product and every element in between, SEMICON Europa displays the best of the microelectronics manufacturing. The exhibitor markets include semiconductors, MEMS, consumables, device fabrication, wafer processing, materials, assembly and packaging, process, test, and components.

To learn more (exhibition or registration), please visit: www.semiconeuropa.org/en.

Integrated Silicon Solution, Inc. today announced that it has finalized a definitive agreement to be acquired by Cypress Semiconductor Corporation for $20.25 per share in cash. The definitive terms and conditions of a merger agreement detailing the current Cypress offer have been fully negotiated, and the merger agreement is subject only to execution by the parties.

The ISSI Board of Directors has determined in good faith (after consultation with its financial advisor and outside legal counsel), taking into account all relevant legal, financial and regulatory aspects of the current Cypress offer and the likelihood of consummation of such transaction, that the current Cypress offer would be more favorable from a financial point of view to the ISSI stockholders than the merger under the Uphill Agreement and that the failure to enter into a definitive agreement with Cypress on the terms in the current Cypress offer would reasonably be expected to be inconsistent with its fiduciary duties under Delaware Law.

As required by the terms of the Uphill Agreement, ISSI has notified Uphill of the determination by the ISSI Board and provided Uphill with copies of the proposed transaction documents relevant to the current Cypress offer.  In this notice, Uphill was informed that the ISSI Board is prepared to approve or recommend the Cypress offer and terminate the Uphill Agreement to enter into a definitive agreement with Cypress unless Uphill delivers within four days a written, binding and irrevocable offer to modify the terms of the Uphill Agreement in a manner such that the ISSI Board, shall have determined in good faith, after considering the terms of such offer, that the Cypress offer no longer constitutes a Superior Proposal (as defined in the Uphill Agreement). This four day period will expire at 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time on Sunday, June 14, 2015.  ISSI and its representatives are prepared to negotiate in good faith with Uphill and its representatives regarding any modifications to the terms of the transaction contemplated under the Uphill Agreement, such that the current Cypress offer would no longer constitute a Superior Proposal.

As a result of the foregoing, the ISSI special meeting of stockholders that was scheduled for June 12, 2015 at 2:00 p.m., local time, will not occur until at least June 19, 2015.

The ISSI Board of Directors is not withholding, withdrawing, qualifying, amending or modifying its recommendation with respect to the Uphill Agreement and the merger with Uphill, is not proposing to do so, and is not making any recommendation with respect to the current Cypress offer at this time.

ISSI is a fabless semiconductor company that designs and markets high performance integrated circuits

Over the past 15 years, strong growth in optoelectronics has been fueled by several different product categories at different times.  Laser transmitters for high-speed optical networks were a major growth driver before the “dot.com” implosion in 2001. Image sensors and lamp devices (primarily light-emitting diodes—LEDs) became star performers in the last decade, and more recently, laser transmitters have re-emerged as a major growth driver in optoelectronics.  IC Insights believes these three products will be key contributors to overall growth of the optoelectronics market through 2019 (Figure 1).

optoelectronics snapshot

 

Through 2019, IC Insights sees these three trends driving optoelectronics market growth:

•    High-brightness LEDs (HB-LEDs) have reached the luminous efficacy of fluorescent lights and are in a position to be a major factor in the $100 billion global lighting industry.  Since the end of the last decade, strong sales of HB-LEDs have gone into backlighting systems for cellphones, tablets, LCD TVs, and computer displays, but this growth has greatly eased with penetration rates reaching nearly 100 percent in these applications.  With production capacity growing, HB-LED suppliers are concentrating on cutting costs and improving the overall quality of light for general illumination products in homes, businesses, buildings, outdoor lighting, and other applications, such as automotive headlamps and digital signs. HB-LED 2014 -2019 CAGR forecast (sales):  9.7 percent.

•    CMOS image sensors have entered into another wave of strong sales growth as digital imaging moves into new automotive-safety systems, medical equipment, video security and surveillance networks, human-recognition user interfaces, wearable body cameras, and other embedded applications beyond camera phones and stand-alone digital cameras. CMOS image sensor 2014-2019 CAGR forecast (sales):  11.1 percent.

•    Fiber-optic laser transmitters will continue to be the fastest growing optoelectronics product category as network operators struggle to keep up with huge increases in Internet traffic, video streaming and downloads, cloud-computing services, and the potential for billions of new connections in the Internet of Things (IoT).  Laser transmitter 2014-2019 CAGR forecast (sales):  15.3 percent.