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GLOBALFOUNDRIES, a provider of advanced semiconductor manufacturing technology, and NXP Semiconductor N.V, a semiconductor company for secure connection solutions, today announced that they have jointly developed a next-generation embedded non-volatile memory (eNVM), which has resulted in production of 300mm prototype wafers on GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ 40-nanometer (nm) process technology platform. GLOBALFOUNDRIES is the first wafer foundry to develop and qualify 40nm eNVM low-power process technology.  Volume production is expected in 2016 at its Singapore facility.

The successful execution of joint development and technology production milestones will enable faster time to market of high density on-chip eNVM for innovative applications in a variety of products including identification, near-field-communication, healthcare, and microcontrollers. NXP will leverage GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ leading-edge semiconductor manufacturing capability to apply the overall technology to 40nm eNVM that will bring competitive value to end customers.

“We are pleased to see the co-developed 40nm-LP eNVM technology is ready for production in GLOBALFOUNDRIES facility,” said Dr. Hai Wang, executive vice president of Technology and Operations at NXP Semiconductor. “GLOBALFOUNDRIES is the first foundry that developed this process technology specifically targeting markets that require embedded non-volatile memory products. The successful release to production will enable NXP to further strengthen our market leadership in offering advanced solutions for secure and near field communication market segments.”

“We have a long-standing and close collaboration with NXP across other technology nodes. The successful joint development of eNVM gives us a boost in our confidence in the marketplace as we advance our 40nm technology leadership,” said KC Ang, SVP and GM for GLOBALFOUNDRIES Singapore. “We look forward to having additional eNVM technology offerings for future market opportunities.”

GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ manufacturing site in Singapore is certified by the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) for secure IC products manufacturing.  In 2012, the foundry received Common Criteria ISO 15408-EAL 6 certification and successfully received renewal in 2014. The company is also a two-time winner of NXP annual supplier award for best foundry services.

North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $1.31 billion in orders worldwide in February 2015 (three-month average basis) and a book-to-bill ratio of 1.02, according to the February EMDS Book-to-Bill Report published today by SEMI.   A book-to-bill of 1.02 means that $102 worth of orders were received for every $100 of product billed for the month.

The three-month average of worldwide bookings in February 2015 was $1.31 billion. The bookings figure is 1.3 percent lower than the final January 2015 level of $1.33 billion, and is 1.0 percent higher than the February 2014 order level of $1.30 billion.

The three-month average of worldwide billings in February 2015 was $1.28 billion. The billings figure is 0.2 percent lower than the final January 2015 level of $1.28 billion, and is 0.9 percent lower than the February 2014 billings level of $1.29 billion.

“Year-to-date bookings and billings for North American semiconductor equipment are higher than last year for the same time period,” said SEMI president and CEO Denny McGuirk. “The year is off to a good start, with growth in bookings from the back-end sector.”

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
September 2014 

$1,256.5

$1,186.2

0.94
October 2014 

$1,184.2

$1,102.3

0.93
November 2014 

$1,189.4

$1,216.8

1.02
December 2014 

$1,395.9

$1,381.5

0.99
January 2015 (final)

$1,279.1

$1,325.6

1.04
February 2015 (prelim)

$1,277.1

$1,308.1

1.02

Source: SEMI, March 2015

Smaller and more powerful medical systems are driving up sales of ICs, sensors, and other devices for the medical semiconductor market.  IC Insights believes medical semiconductor sales growth will strengthen this year and next before sliding back in the next expected economic slowdown in 2017 (Figure 1). Between 2013 and 2018, worldwide medical semiconductor sales are projected to rise by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.3 percent, reaching $8.2 billion in the final year of the forecast.  In the 2008-2013 period (which included the 2009 downturn), medical semiconductor sales grew by a CAGR of 6.9 percent.

medical semiconductor sales

The IC portion of the medical semiconductor business is expected to rise by a CAGR of 10.7 percent to $6.6 billion in 2018 while the marketshare for optoelectronics, sensors/actuators, and discretes (O-S-D) is forecast to grow by an annual rate of 20.3 percent to $1.6 billion that year (primarily due to strong demand for solid-state sensors and optical imaging devices).

ICs and other semiconductor technologies continue to play key roles in reshaping and redefining medical systems. With more medical imaging systems being digitized and healthcare equipment running under computer control, IC-driven advancements are happening almost as quickly as they are in mobile phones, and many consumer electronics. Government certification can slow some system introductions. The scaling of IC feature sizes, system-on-chip (SoC) designs, improvements in sensors, and powerful analog frontend (AFE) data converters are reducing the size of medical diagnostic equipment and the cost of using them.

Developments of new medical systems for imaging and diagnostics, treatment, and surgery are heading in two different directions as equipment makers respond to growing pressures for lower costs and increased availability of healthcare worldwide. In one direction, new medical equipment is becoming smaller and less expensive so that systems can be used in the rooms of hospital patients, clinics, and doctor offices. These systems cost one-quarter to one-tenth the price of large diagnostic equipment—such as traditional MRI and CT scanners, which can cost $1 million and are normally installed in medical-imaging centers or in dedicated hospital examination rooms.

Also, lower-cost wearable medical systems and fitness monitors, which can wirelessly transmit vital signs and other readings to doctors or be used as “activity trackers” for health-conscious individuals, are seeing tremendous growth. In some cases, medical and fitness-monitoring applications can be performed directly by smartphones using their embedded sensors and downloaded software apps. However, medically certified mobile healthcare devices are usually required in most countries for monitoring patients and the elderly in their homes. The information is sent to doctors via wireless connections to cellphones or the Internet.

The second major trend in medical equipment is the development of more powerful and integrated systems, which are expensive but promise to lower healthcare costs by detecting cancer and diseases sooner and supporting less invasive surgery for quick recovery times and shorter stays in hospitals. Computer-assisted surgery systems, surgical robots, and operating-room automation are among new technologies being pursued by some hospitals in developed markets.

High growth in lower-cost systems along with the rising price tag of more sophisticated hospital equipment in developed country markets is expected to increase total medical electronics systems sales by a CAGR of 8.2 percent between 2013 and 2018, to $70.1 billion in the final year of the forecast.

Additional details on the IC market for medical and wearable electronic is included in the 2015 edition of IC Insights’ IC Market Drivers—A Study of Emerging and Major End-Use Applications Fueling Demand for Integrated Circuits.

Ziptronix Inc., a developer and provider of patented, low-temperature direct bonding technology for 3D integration, today announced a patent licensing agreement with Sony Corporation for application in advanced image sensors. The agreement marks the continued adoption of Ziptronix’s hybrid bonding patents for high volume applications.

“This license agreement with Sony is an exciting milestone for Ziptronix because it removes any doubt that our patented DBI hybrid bonding technology is both manufacturable and beneficial for high volume applications,” noted Dan Donabedian, CEO and president of Ziptronix. “We believe it demonstrates that our patented hybrid bonding technology is both enabling and cost effective as compared to stacking with TSVs. Sony licensed Ziptronix’s ZiBond direct bonding patents in 2011, which we also believe grew their image sensor market share from a few percent to the largest market share in the industry. We expect this new license for Ziptronix’s DBI hybrid bonding patents will further contribute to Sony’s growth within the industry. Any company wishing to compete in this space will need Ziptronix’s DBI hybrid bonding patents.”

Ziptronix offers patented technology for wafer- or die-level bonding. The company’s intellectual property has been licensed for a variety of semiconductor applications including BSI sensors, RF front ends, pico-projectors, memories and 3D integrated circuits.  Founded in 2000 as a venture-backed spinoff of RTI International, the company has been issued 45 U.S. patents and 42 international patents, with 18 U.S. and international patent applications pending.

Poised for more growth


March 17, 2015

By Christian G. Dieseldorff, Industry Research & Statistics Group, SEMI

The most recent edition of the SEMI World Fab Forecast report — which tracks fab spending for construction and equipment, as well as capacity changes, and technology nodes transitions and product type changes by fab — reveals a positive forecast. The report shows that fab equipment spending in 2014 increased 20 percent, is expected to rise 15 percent in 2015, with another increase of 2-4 percent in 2016. Spending on construction projects, which typically represents new cleanroom projects, will see a significant decline in 2015 with -32 percent, but is expected to increase by 32 percent in 2016.  Since its last publication in November 2014, about 270 updates were made including data on 17 new facilities.

Fab Equipment/Fab Construction (2013-2016)

 

2013

2014

2015

2016
Fab equipment* 

$29.4

$35.2

$40.5

$41 to $42
Change % Fab equipment

-10.0%

19.8%

15.0%

2% to 4%
Fab construction US$

$8.8

$7.7

$5.2

$6.9
Change % construction

13.6%

-11.0%

-32.0%

+32.0%

* Chart US$, in billions; Source: SEMI, March 2015; SEMI World Fab Forecast and its related Fab Database reports track any equipment needed to ramp fabs, upgrade technology nodes, and expand or change wafer size, including new equipment, used equipment, or in-house equipment and spending on facilities for installation.

The SEMI World Fab Forecast and its related Fab Database reports track any equipment needed to ramp fabs, upgrade technology nodes, and expand or change wafer size, including new equipment, used equipment, or in-house equipment and spending on facilities for installation.

Fab spending, such as construction spending and equipment spending, are fractions of a company’s total capital expenditure (capex). Typically, if capex shows a trend to increase, fab spending will follow.  Capex for most of the large semiconductor companies is expected to increase by eight percent in 2015, and grow another three percent in 2016. These increases are driven by new fab construction projects and also ramp of new technology nodes. Spending on construction projects, which typically represents new cleanroom projects, will experience a significant -32 percent decline in 2015, but is expected to rebound by 32 percent in 2016.

With worldwide capex growth of 8 percent, fab equipment spending is expected to increase by 15 percent in 2015.  At this point, SEMI’s data predict a slowdown of fab equipment spending in 2016 to low single digits.  No negative change is currently expected in our forecast scenario. Looking back to the last 25 years, after two years of growth a negative year typically followed. This may not be the case this time. Developments in the industry are pointing to a small but positive 2016.

Most fab equipment spending in 2015 is for foundry, memory, and Logic+MPU. Discretes including LED remain at about 4 percent share, MEMS/Other about 2-3 percent and Analog at less than1 percent.  Distribution will not change for 2016, except for foundry spending, which continues to increase year-over-year.

Comparing regions across the world, according to SEMI, the highest fab equipment spending in 2015 will occur in Taiwan, with US$ 11.9 billion, followed by Korea with US$ 9 billion.  The region with third largest spending, the Americas, is forecast to spend about US$ 7 billion.  Yet growth will decline in the Americas, by 12 percent in 2015, and decline by 12 percent in 2016 again.  Fourth in spending is China, with US$ 4.7 billion in 2015 and US$ 4.2 billion in 2016. In other regions, Japan’s spending will grow by about 6 percent in 2015, to US$ 4 billion; and 2 percent in 2016, to US$ 4.2 billion.  The Europe/Mideast region will see growth of about 20 percent (US$ 2.7 billion) in 2015 and over 30 percent (US$ 3.5 billion) in 2016. South East Asia is expected to grow by about 15 percent (US$ 1.3 billion) in 2015 and 70 percent (US$ 2.2 billion) in 2016.

New facilities beginning construction in 2015 and 2016 will start equipping in 2016 or later. SEMI’s data show that seven new facilities will start construction in 2015 (including one LED and one shell). In 2016, construction will possibly begin on five or six new fabs.

2015 is expected to be the second consecutive year in equipment spending growth. Our positive outlook for the year is based on spending trends we are tracking as part of our fab investment research. As noted in some of the examples cited above, the “bottom’s up” company-by-company and fab-by-fab approach points to strong investments by foundries and memory companies driving this year’s growth. Learn more about the SEMI fab databases at: www.semi.org/MarketInfo/FabDatabase.

Nano-electronics research center imec has announced that it will award Dr. Morris Chang, founding chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Limited (TSMC), the world’s first and largest semiconductor foundry, with a lifetime of innovation award. With his pioneering vision and founding of TSMC, Dr. Chang enabled the rapid growth of the fabless sector and changed the landscape of the semiconductor industry. Imec’s award recognizes Dr. Chang’s profound and unparalleled impact on the global semiconductor industry, and will be presented to him in person on June 23, in Belgium at imec’s annual Imec Technology Forum in Brussels.

Dr. Chang founded TSMC in 1987 as a company solely dedicated to manufacturing chips according to customers’ designs. By not competing with customers, TSMC enabled entrepreneurs to build world-class businesses around designing and marketing chips without the need of a manufacturing facility. By partnering for manufacturing capabilities, fabless companies can avoid the mammoth costs of operating their own semiconductor fabrication facility and focus on innovation of the circuits while leaving the manufacturing and yield challenges to their partners in foundry, and thereby accelerating innovation according to market needs. It is the world’s largest dedicated independent semiconductor foundry, and many of today’s largest high-tech companies can link their success directly to their partnership with TSMC.

“Chairman Chang is immensely respected in the global semiconductor community for his innovative vision and tireless drive to shape the future of technology,” stated Luc Van den hove, president and CEO at imec. “Innovation is the cornerstone of economic growth and imec, as the nucleus of the global semiconductor industry for joint R&D on advanced technologies, is a proud partner of TSMC. We are greatly honored to welcome Chairman Chang to Belgium and to present him with this award, representing imec’s and its partners’ gratitude, respect, admiration and appreciation.”

Imec and TSMC have a long and fruitful history of collaboration. Since 2005, TSMC is one of the core partners in imec’s industrial affiliation program on advanced CMOS technologies. Imec’s unique research platform harnesses the collective expertise and knowledge of the entire value chain, bringing together foundries, IDMs, fabless and fab-lite companies, packaging and assembly companies, and equipment and material suppliers, to drive innovation and the development of new, competitive products. Other strategic CMOS partners include Intel, Samsung, Globalfoundries, Micron, SK Hynix, Toshiba/Sandisk, Qualcomm, Huawei, Panasonic, Sony … TSMC’s commitment to imec was extended in 2009 by the establishment of TSMC’s European R&D facility at the imec campus, benefiting from imec’s state-of-the-art semiconductor cleanroom facility. Imec and its partners, in turn, benefit from TSMC’s broad-based technology roadmap and platform expertise, its customers, suppliers, and ecosystem partners. Other highlights in the collaboration between imec and TSMC are the appointment of imec as a TSMC value chain aggregator for Europe, enabling imec to offer TSMC technology on a multiproject wafer basis to European companies and academia through imec’s Europractice IC services, and imec to become a VCA of TSMC for the Indian market in 2013.

Morris Chang - Founding Chairman, TSMC

Morris Chang – Founding Chairman, TSMC

The power packaging market is growing, pulled by the interconnection and substrate segments, respectively +14 percent and +13 percent between 2014 and 2020. And global growth for raw material is expected to reach +12 percent between 2014 and 2020, with a global market of $1.7B for 2020.

After Status of the Power Electronics report (March 2015), Yole Développement (Yole), the “More than Moore” market research and strategy consulting company pursues its investigation in the Power Electronics industry and announces its new technology and market analysis: Power Packaging Technologies Trends & Market Expectations report (April 2015).

Under this new report, Yole’s analysts propose a deep understanding of the power module packaging design especially at the substrate, thermal interface materials, baseplate, encapsulation, die attach and interconnection levels. With an approach mixing technologies trends and market needs, the Power Electronics team, managed by Dr. Pierric Gueguen, reviews the technical issues and analyzes the market evolution.

In order to increase power module yield and reliability, companies are working on new products for power packaging, especially for the common failure locations, die and substrate attach, interconnection and encapsulation. Both new designs and new materials can be used, whether to eliminate levels of connection or to improve interfaces. In die attach, for instance, soldering is progressively losing market share, which benefits silver sintering. Although the basic material is more expensive, taking into account cheaper equipment and manufacturing costs and improved reliability, this technology is seducing ever more players. Standard wire bonding is evolving as well, with solutions increasing contact surface, such as ribbon or ball bonding. Encapsulation technologies must evolve to handle high operating temperatures: standard silicone gel or epoxy are limited in terms of temperature, and so new materials such as parylene are being developed.

“Developments for power packaging are needed because power electronics is facing many challenges, due to both environmental and technical requirements,” says Coralie Le Bret, Technology & Market Analyst, Power Electronics and Compound Semiconductors technologies at Yole. “Increasing power density and power conversion optimization for CO2 emission reduction are key,” she adds. To achieve ambitious governmental targets and to respect volume constraints, technology breakthroughs are needed at device and module level. Moreover, the growing and important role of Wide Band Gap (WBG) semiconductors makes efficient packages mandatory, so that devices’ high frequency, high voltage or high temperature capabilities can be best exploited.

illus_standardpowermodule_yole_apr2015_433x280

 

“Growth of electric vehicles and hybrid electric vehicles (EV/HEV) will drive the power electronics market in the coming year,” announces Dr Pierric Gueguen, Business Unit Manager at Yole. That brings particular requirements, like size and cost constraints, large production volumes, and ability to automate assembly. Packaging improvements will go with these specific requirements. Applications also increasingly need to work at high voltage or high temperature. Innovations are also needed so that system packages can support harsh working conditions.

And what about the supply chain? “Vertical integration is progressing,” confirms Yole. In order to increase performance and to reduce losses, more and more power electronics applications choose to use power modules instead of discrete components. In this context mastering power module assembly is mandatory for manufacturers. Power module manufacturing becomes a key step and a hotly contested area between device makers and inverter makers. The main trend for power module makers is sourcing package materials from specialized companies and to assemble the module in-house. Developing new designs is also a good business development opportunity for small companies or start-ups, even if for many fields regional preferences still exist. Different types of business model are presented in Yole’s report, as well as specialized companies for each part of the final package.

SEMI, the global industry association for companies that supply manufacturing technology and materials to the world’s chip makers, today reported that worldwide sales of semiconductor manufacturing equipment totaled $37.50 billion in 2014, representing a year-over-year increase of 18 percent. 2014 total equipment bookings were 8 percent higher than in 2013. The data are available in the Worldwide Semiconductor Equipment Market Statistics (WWSEMS) Report, now available from SEMI.

Compiled from data submitted by members of SEMI and the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ), the Worldwide SEMS Report is a summary of the monthly billings and bookings figures for the global semiconductor equipment industry. The report, which includes data for seven major semiconductor producing regions and 24 product categories, shows worldwide billings totaled $37.50 billion in 2014, compared to $31.79 billion in sales posted in 2013. Categories cover wafer processing, assembly and packaging, test, and other front-end equipment. Other front-end includes mask/reticle manufacturing, wafer manufacturing, and fab facilities equipment.

Spending rates increased for all the regions tracked in the WWSEMS report, except for Taiwan. Even with the annual decrease, Taiwan remained the largest market for new semiconductor equipment for the third year in a row with $9.41 billion in equipment sales. The North American market held onto the second place with $8.16 billion in sales; South Korea maintained its third position with total sales of $6.84 billion. China moved up in the rankings, surpassing Japan with $4.37 billion in sales.

The global assembly and packaging segment increased 33 percent; total test equipment sales increased 31 percent; other front end equipment segment increased 15 percent; and the wafer processing equipment market segment increased 15 percent.

Semiconductor Capital Equipment Market by World Region (2013-2014)

(Dollar in U.S. billions; Percentage Year-over-Year)

2014

2013

% Change
Taiwan

9.41

10.57

-11%
North America

8.16

5.27

55%
South Korea

6.84

5.22

31%
China

4.37

3.37

30%
Japan

4.18

3.38

24%
Europe

2.38

1.91

25%
Rest of World

2.15

2.07

4%
Total

37.50

31.79

18%

Source: SEMI/SEAJ March 2015
Note: Figures may not add due to rounding.

XMC, a 300mm semiconductor manufacturing company, today announces it has shipped over 100 million Backside Illumination (BSI) CMOS Image Sensor (CIS) units. All of the BSI CIS units are high end products ranging from 5 to 23 mega pixels by using wafer bonding technology. In addition, the state of the art 3D wafer stacking technology developed by XMC for BSI CIS has also entered volume production now. It indicates that XMC has become one of the leading BSI CIS and 3D IC manufacturing companies in the world.

XMC is dedicated to developing advanced specialty IC manufacturing technologies and providing its customers with high performance and cost effective total solutions. The R&D of wafer-level BSI technology started in the second half of 2012. It took over one year’s joint effort with our partner to reach mass production at the beginning of 2014. A year later, the more advanced 3D wafer stacking, based on the BSI technology, has also been successfully developed. It is a wafer stacking technology that not only bonds two functional wafers (of different process technologies), but also establishes the electrical connection between the two different chips in the bonded wafers. The technology fully realizes vertical wafer integration and improves both chip reliability and efficiency.

“With the offering of the advanced wafer stacking technology, XMC enables its partners to enlarge the share of high-end CIS market,”Dr. Shaoning Mei, CTO at XMC said, “We will further enhance our 3D IC expertise on the basis of 3D wafer stacking technology, by which we can achieve high performance and low power through directly connecting the core parts of two chips. 3D IC is expected to be an important technology to keep us on track with Moore’s Law. It is also the key strength for XMC to establish its leadership in 3D IC industry.”

Mentor Graphics Corporation today announced that it has joined the Center for Power Electronics Systems (CPES) at Virginia Tech, the industry consortium dedicated to improving electrical power processing and distribution across various systems. CPES is focused on technologies and applications related to power electronic components: vehicular power conversion, power conversion technologies, power management, and renewable energy systems. CPES has a global reputation for advanced research in power electronics with 78 members who contribute and participate in the organization’s mission, including Toyota, GE, Fairchild, Cree, Rohm, and Mitsubishi.

Commenting on the recent MicReD Industrial Power Tester 1500A solution from Mentor, Professor G. Q. Lu, CPES affiliate faculty and professor in the departments of Materials Science and Engineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering, who has collaborated with Mentor Graphics, stated, “We expect Mentor’s ability to perform reliability testing of wide-bandgap SiC power electronics devices to be a unique resource for CPES, leveraging its proven technologies to advance the power and performance of semiconductors, IGBTs, MOSFETs and other devices in our industry. We welcome Mentor Graphics’ software contribution and combined expertise in semiconductor thermal simulation and measurement that benefit the development of reliable power electronics components and systems.”

Mentor Graphics membership supports expanded use of electronics thermal design simulation software and industry adoption of thermal characterization methods for power semiconductor lifetime prediction and thermal testing. Mentor Graphics is also donating simulation software including market-leading FloTHERM and FloTHERM XT electronics thermal analysis software and FloEFD general purpose concurrent computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software.

“We are honored to be a member of CPES and our technologies are in perfect alignment with the organization’s mission,” stated Roland Feldhinkel, general manager of Mentor Graphics Mechanical Analysis Division. “The collaboration with the global member companies and researchers will provide tremendous gains for the power electronics systems industry and its customers, and we believe Mentor’s technology will be a valued contributor for these advancements.”