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Achronix Semiconductor Corporation, a developer of field programmable gate array (FPGA)-based hardware accelerator devices and embedded FPGA (eFPGA) intellectual property (IP), today announced availability of an optimized High-Level Synthesis (HLS) flow from its partner, Mentor, a Siemens business, for its FPGA technology products.

The integrated development environment enables designers to quickly go from C++ to FPGA using Mentor’s Catapult® HLS and Achronix’s ACE design tools. Initially used for 5G wireless applications to reduce the overall development effort and improve quality of results (QoR), it is suitable for any design targeting Achronix technology.

“The combination of Mentor’s powerful Catapult tools and Achronix’s embedded FPGA technology offer a truly unique value proposition for companies that require high performance FPGA technology in their SoC that can be configured using a proven C‑based design flow,” remarks Steve Mensor, Achronix’s vice president of marketing. “This combined solution is a great testament of a close working relationship between the engineering groups at Mentor and Achronix. Our initial target was 5G wireless, but the unique capabilities of the overall solution will be valuable across many market segments that require the fastest development time.”

“We are happy to welcome Achronix to the Mentor OpenDoor Program, and pleased to be an active member of the Achronix Partner Program. This open and collaborative partnership is very strategic and is already proving beneficial to our mutual customers,” notes Ellie Burns, director of marketing, Calypto Systems Division at Mentor. “Achronix eFPGA offers a tremendous ability to adapt to late changing and new requirements in a field programmable SoC. Coupled with Catapult HLS and the verification speed of C++, chip designers can now easily go from algorithm change to new low-power, high-performance hardware in days rather than weeks or months.”

The Catapult to Achronix Flow

The Catapult HLS to Speedcore embedded FPGA technology flow gives designers the ability to make algorithmic changes in late stages of IP development and to optimize the algorithm and the digital micro-architecture. The integrated verification environment allows reuse of the software tests for generated register transfer level (RTL) code, reducing the need for dedicated RTL test benches by more than 80%.

Achronix ACE design tools support Catapult’s RTL constructs and primitives. Currently Achronix libraries for its Speedcore eFPGA products and for its Speedster standalone FPGAs are integrated into the flow.

The Achronix high-performance and high-density FPGA technology can be used for diverse hardware acceleration applications in data center compute, networking and storage; 5G wireless infrastructure, network acceleration; advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous vehicles.

Availability

Early versions of the design and development environment are available now.

United Microelectronics Corporation (NYSE: UMC; TWSE: 2303) (“UMC”), a global semiconductor foundry, and Avalanche Technology, Inc., the next generation STT-MRAM (Spin Transfer Torque Magnetic RAM) leader, today announced that they have entered a partnership for joint development and production of MRAM to replace embedded flash. UMC will also make this technology available to other companies through licensing with Avalanche Technology Inc.

Under the terms of the agreement, UMC will provide embedded non-volatile MRAM blocks based on UMC’s 28nm CMOS manufacturing process. This will enable customers to integrate low latency, very high performance and low power embedded MRAM memory blocks into MCUs and SoCs, targeting the Internet of Things, wearable, consumer, industrial and automotive electronics markets.

The two companies are also considering to expand the cooperation beyond 28nm, as Avalanche Technology’s CMOS compatibility and scalability to advanced process nodes enables integration of unified memory (non-volatile as well as SRAM) blocks into next generation highly integrated MCUs and SoCs. This allows system designers to maintain the same architecture and software ecosystem without a redesign.

“We’re excited to team with a world leader in semiconductor manufacturing such as UMC to bring this outstanding technology to market,” said Petro Estakhri, CEO and co-founder of Avalanche Technology.

“UMC is continuously introducing enhanced process offerings to bring added competitive benefits to our customers,” said G C Hung, vice president of Advanced Technology Development at UMC. “With embedded NVM becoming more prevalent in today’s IC designs, we have developed a strong portfolio of robust eNVM process solutions for high growth sectors such as emerging consumer and automotive applications. We are happy to cooperate with Avalanche Technology for 28nm MRAM, and we look forward to ramping this process to production for UMC customers.”

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. today announced that it has begun mass producing the industry’s first 4-bit (QLC, quad-level cell) 4-terabyte (TB) SATA solid-state drive (SSD) for consumers.

Based on 1-terabit (Tb)* V-NAND with outstanding performance equivalent to the company’s 3-bit design, Samsung’s QLC SSD is expected to bring a new level of efficiency to consumer SSDs.

“Samsung’s new 4-bit SATA SSD will herald a massive move to terabyte-SSDs for consumers,” said Jaesoo Han, executive vice president of memory sales & marketing at Samsung Electronics. “As we expand our lineup across consumer segments and to the enterprise, 4-bit terabyte-SSD products will rapidly spread throughout the entire market.”

With its new 1Tb 4-bit V-NAND chip, Samsung will be able to efficiently produce a 128GB memory card for smartphones that will lead the charge toward higher capacities for high-performance memory storage.

Typically, as data stored within a memory cell increases from three bits to four, the chip capacity per unit area would rise and the electrical charge (used to determine information from a sensor) would decrease by as much as 50 percent, making it considerably more difficult to maintain a device’s desired performance and speed.

However, Samsung’s 4-bit 4TB QLC SATA SSD maintains its performance levels at the same level as a 3-bit SSD, by using a 3-bit SSD controller and TurboWrite technology, while increasing drive capacity through the use of 32 chips, all based on 64-layer fourth-generation 1Tb V-NAND.

The 4-bit QLC SSD enables a sequential read speed of 540 MB/s and a sequential write speed of 520 MB/s, and comes with a three-year warranty.

Samsung plans to introduce several 4-bit consumer SSDs later this year with 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB capacities in the widely used 2.5-inch form factor.

Since introducing the 32-gigabyte (GB) 1-bit SSD in 2006, which ushered in the PC SSD era, to today’s 4TB 4-bit SSD, Samsung continues to drive new thresholds for each multi-bit generation.**

In addition, the company expects to provide M.2 NVMe SSDs for the enterprise this year and begin mass production of 4-bit fifth-generation V-NAND. This will considerably expand its SSD lineup to meet the growing demand for faster, more reliable performance across a wide span of applications, such as next generation data centers, enterprise servers, and enterprise storage.

* 1Tb (128GB) x 32 = 4TB (4,096GB)

** Samsung’s mass production history of SSDs in bits per cell

Year Bit Nodes Chip Capacity Drive Capacity
2006 1-bit SLC (single-level cell) 70nm-class 4Gb 32GB
2010 2-bit MLC (multi-level cell) 30nm-class 32Gb 512GB
2012 3-bit TLC (triple-level cell) 20nm-class 64Gb

500GB
2018 4-bit QLC (quad-level cell) 4th-gen V-NAND 1Tb 4 TB

Xperi Corporation announced a partnership with global semiconductor foundry, UMC. This strategic partnership will enable the companies to support the growing demand for Invensas ZiBond and Invensas DBI 3D semiconductor technologies.

Together, Xperi and UMC will further optimize and commercialize the ZiBond and DBI technologies for a wide range of semiconductor devices including image sensors, radio frequency (RF), MEMS, display drivers, touch controllers, SoC, analog, power and mixed-signal devices. Wafer to wafer (W2W) and die to wafer (D2W) bonding and 3D interconnect implementations will be employed to address the requirements of a variety of applications within the mobile, consumer, automotive, communication, industrial and Internet of Things (IoT) industries.

“As a world-leading semiconductor foundry, we are committed to delivering leading-edge solutions to our customers,” said Wenchi Ting, vice president of specialty technologies at UMC. “By partnering with Xperi and the Invensas team, true pioneers in direct and hybrid bonding technologies, we continue to be well-positioned to meet our customers’ evolving requirements for advanced wafer bonding technologies.”

“We are excited to join forces with UMC, a premier global foundry engaged in every major sector of the electronics industry, to expand the production base for our ZiBond and DBI bonding and 3D interconnect platforms,” said Craig Mitchell, president, Invensas. “We look forward to working together to proliferate these enabling technologies into a wide range of high volume semiconductor applications.”

ZiBond is a low temperature homogenous direct bonding technology that forms strong bonds between semiconductor wafers or die with same or different coefficients of thermal expansion. This technology is used in image sensors, MEMS and various RF front-end devices.

DBI is a low temperature hybrid direct bonding technology that allows semiconductor wafers or die to be bonded with exceptionally fine pitch 3D electrical interconnect. This technology is suited for various semiconductor devices such as image sensors, DRAM, MEMS and RF devices.

Products employing these technologies are found in smartphones, tablets, laptops, cameras, televisions and gaming consoles, as well as in industrial, automotive and IoT electronic devices.

The silicon-on-insulator market is expected to reach USD 1,832.5 million by 2023 from USD 686.0 million by 2018, at a CAGR of 21.7%, According to the new market research report “Silicon on Insulator (SOI) Market by Wafer Size (200 mm and less than 200 mm, 300 mm), Wafer type (RF-SOI, FD-SOI, PD-SOI, Power SOI, Emerging-SOI), Application (Consumer Electronics, Automotive, Datacom, Industrial), Technology – Global Forecast to 2023”, published by MarketsandMarkets™ . The increasing use of SOI wafers in advanced devices such as smartphones, tablets, earphones/headphones, and wearables is expected to boost the market for consumer electronics application. Moreover, while manufacturing thin wafers, the use of SOI technology prevents the wastage of silicon, which reduces the cost of semiconductor devices. Hence, the effective use of silicon during the manufacture of thin SOI wafers is a major factor driving the growth of the SOI market.

SOI market for 300-mm wafers size to grow at a higher CAGR during forecast period

The market for 300-mm wafer size is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during 2018-2023. Wafer and foundry players expanding their capacity for producing 300-mm wafers is one of the driving factors for the growth of the SOI market. For instance, Soitec expanded its manufacturing capacity for the production of 300-mm SOI wafers.

Consumer electronics application expected to hold the largest share of the SOI market during the forecast period

Among the SOI applications, the market for consumer electronics is expected to hold the largest share during 2018-2023. The growth of this market is attributed to the increasing demand for SOI products in smartphones and other consumer electronics devices. For instance, RF SOI wafers are commonly used in smart devices as these wafers enable device integration, cost-effectiveness, and high performance. Also, the growing adoption of FD SOI for consumer or IoT devices is expected to drive the growth of the market.

SOI market in APAC expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period

SOI market in APAC is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during 2018-2023. APAC is witnessing an increase in the use of SOI products owing to the presence of a large number of consumer electronic companies, smartphone manufacturers, and advanced ICT technology providers, and wafer and foundry players in APAC.

Major players operating in this market are Soitec (France), Shin-Etsu Chemical (Japan), GlobalWafers (Taiwan), SUMCO (Japan), Simgui (China), GlobalFoundries (US), STMicroelectronics N.V. (Switzerland), TowerJazz (Isreal), NXP Semiconductor N.V. (Netherlands), and Murata Manufacturing (Japan).

Know more about the Silicon on Insulator (SOI) Market:

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/global-silicon-on-insulator-market-158.html

The VCSEL industry took a strategic turn last year with the release of the latest iPhone. Indeed the leading smartphones manufacturer, Apple revealed to the entire world a new smartphone with innovative 3D sensing function based on VCSEL technology. Apple’s technical choice directly impacted the VCSEL industry and Yole Développement (Yole) announces today impressive market figures in its new technology and market report, VCSEL – Technology, Industry and Market Trends: more than 3.3 billion units in 2023 with a 31% CAGR between 2017 and 2023. This explosion is changing the future of all players of the VCSELs supply chain including: OEMs , integrators, device manufacturers, epi houses, foundries, equipment and material suppliers.

VCSEL – Technology, Industry and Market Trends report performed by Yole, presents an in-depth analysis of the VCSEL industry with its supply chain and competitive landscape. It exposes a comprehensive review of the main VCSEL applications including in-depth analysis of the consumer and automotive landscapes with 3D sensing, LiDAR and gas sensing. Under this report, Yole details VCSEL device market size, broken down by application and segment, and the related MOCVD reactor market. In addition, Yole’s analysts bring to light a significant overview of the VCSEL IP landscape. VCSEL manufacturing processes, associated challenges, recent trends and player positioning are also well analyzed.

3D sensing – and more – in smartphones will drive the VCSEL market for the next five years, announces the market research and strategy consulting company. Make sure to get an up-to-date picture today of this explosive market.

Data communications was the first industrial application to start integrating VCSELs. Their sweet spot has been in short-distance data communication due to their low power consumption and competitive price compared to EELs . Driven by the development of datacenters, the VCSEL market and production boomed in the 2000s with the internet’s popularity, and then grew steadily. Some new applications for VCSEL emerged, like laser printers and optical mice, but weren’t strong growth drivers.

Only in 2014, almost 20 years since the first use of the technology in datacom, VCSELs started to make their way into high volume consumer smartphones. But this coupling with sensors for proximity sensing and autofocus functions was only the beginning of the VCSEL success story.
“In 2017 Apple released the iPhone X, with a 3D sensing function based on this technology,” explains Pierrick Boulay, Technology & Market Analyst at Yole. And he explains: “The iPhone X integrates three different VCSEL dies for the proximity sensor and the Face ID module, and made the VCSEL market explode in 2017, propelling overall revenue to about US$330 million.”

Only in 2014, almost 20 years since the first use of the technology in datacom, VCSELs started to make their way into high volume consumer smartphones. But this coupling with sensors for proximity sensing and autofocus functions was only the beginning of the VCSEL success story.
“In 2017 Apple released the iPhone X, with a 3D sensing function based on this technology,” explains Pierrick Boulay, Technology & Market Analyst at Yole. And he explains: “The iPhone X integrates three different VCSEL dies for the proximity sensor and the Face ID module, and made the VCSEL market explode in 2017, propelling overall revenue to about US$330 million.”

Good iPhone X sales have now triggered the interest of other smartphone brands in this breakthrough 3D sensing function. Less than one year after the release of Apple’s flagship, its competitors are now following the same trend and starting to integrate 3D sensing technologies. Xiaomi and Oppo were the quickest on the draw, with the Xiaomi Mi8 and the Oppo Find X models presented in the second quarter of 2018. Other leading smartphone players like Huawei, Vivo or Samsung are also expected to integrate VCSELs into their flagship models by 2019.

In this context, the explosion of VCSEL demand initiated in 2017 will persist for the next five years, potentially multiplying the business opportunity more than tenfold. During that time, the technology might also find some new growth drivers into some other high volume applications such as automotive Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) or gas sensors.

“This trend will likely cause rapid evolution in the VCSEL industry in coming years in the form of investment, new entrants and M&A ”, comments Pars Mukish, Business Unit Manager SSL & Display activities at Yole.

VCSEL market volume is expected to grow from 652 million units in 2017 to more than 3.3 billion units in 2023. This booming trend is likely to trigger interest in VCSEL technology at many industry levels, including OEMs, integrators, device manufacturers, epi houses, foundries, equipment and material suppliers. To be able to follow this booming demand, more than 100 MOCVD reactors will be needed, which is likely to please companies that supply this equipment, such as Aixtron, Veeco and Taiyo Nippon Sanso.

Yole expects therefore strong investment and proliferation in the VCSEL industry with the entry of several new players, mostly from the LED industry, whose technology is similar.
Since 2016, Yole analysts’ have already seen some M&A, like ams’ acquisition of Princeton Optronics and Osram’s deal for Vixar and investment in manufacturing expansion or supply chain reinforcement, like Apple investing US$390 million in Finisar. Yole expects the bulk of these investments to occur in the coming years.

And once VCSEL hype reaches its peak, Yole also expects a necessary consolidation phase with more M&A occurring at all level of the supply chain and to support different strategies
•  Vertical integration – from system to module and/or from module to component
•  Application diversification – from datacom to sensing
•  Business diversification – from LED or EEL devices to VCSELs

TheXcerra MT2168 XT pick-and-place handler was installed for a tri-temp module test application at a major player in global semiconductor manufacturing.  With its innovative features and highly flexible design the MT2168 XT meets the growing demand in high volume production for reliable and cost-efficient tri-temp test handling of multi-chip packages and modules in the automotive and consumer markets.

Today’s available equipment for module test handling are dedicated solutions with low throughput and limited temperature test capabilities. Xcerra’s MT2168 XT addresses the market need for a high volume production test solution for modules.  The MT2168 XT leverages the industry-known tri-temperature expertise of the Xcerra Handler Group specialists and provides advanced technical features of the latest generation of pick-and-place handler.  Additionally, the MT2168 XT is superior to traditional module test solutions when it comes to typical high volume production requirements such as the number of supported binning classes, small footprint, spare part and service support.

The MT2168 XT can be used for handling both package devices and modules.  Xcerra’s module test solution gives customers the greatest flexibility in high volume production with quick and easy change between different package types and different size modules.

Handling and testing modules can be challenging due to the physical dimensions and heterogeneous architecture of modules. The MT2168 XT independent plunger force and temperature control provides better ability to handle modules and precisely control power dissipation for high test yield.

Integrating contacting solutions from Xcerra’s Interface Product Group can be an additional advantage for module testing.  Extensive understanding of test contacting is beneficial for complex modules of different shapes and sizes.

Dr. Laurie Wright, Director Global Business Development, explains: “There is a growing demand in the semiconductor market for module test handling as customers seek to deliver greater value to their end customers.  The MT2168 XT brings the advantages from high volume package test to module test. Customers will benefit from this highly flexible and reliable tri-temperature test solution that can address a wide range of their high volume production requirements.”

To learn more about the Xcerra MT2168, please visit www.xcerra.com/MT2168.

North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $2.49 billion in billings worldwide in June 2018 (three-month average basis), according to the June Equipment Market Data Subscription (EMDS) Billings Report published today by SEMI. The billings figure is 8.0 percent lower than the final May 2018 level of $2.70 billion, and is 8.1 percent higher than the June 2017 billings level of $2.30 billion.

“Global billings of North American equipment manufacturers declined for the current month by 8 percent from the historic high but is still 8 percent higher than billings for the same period last year,” said Ajit Manocha, president and CEO of SEMI. “Billings remain robust.”

The SEMI Billings report uses three-month moving averages of worldwide billings for North American-based semiconductor equipment manufacturers. Billings figures are in millions of U.S. dollars.
Billings
(3-mo. avg)
Year-Over-Year
January 2018
$2,370.1
27.5%
February 2018
$2,417.8
22.5%
March 2018
$2,431.8
16.9%
April 2018
$2,689.9
25.9%
May 2018 (final)
$2,702.3
19.0%
June 2018 (prelim)
$2,485.7
8.1%

Source: SEMI (www.semi.org), July 2018

SEMI publishes a monthly North American Billings report and issues the Worldwide Semiconductor Equipment Market Statistics (WWSEMS) report in collaboration with the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ). The WWSEMS report currently reports billings by 24 equipment segments and by seven end market regions. SEMI also has a long history of tracking semiconductor industry fab investments in detail on a company-by-company and fab-by-fab basis in its World Fab Forecast and SEMI FabView databases. These powerful tools provide access to spending forecasts, capacity ramp, technology transitions, and other information for over 1,000 fabs worldwide. For an overview of available SEMI market data, please visit www.semi.org/en/MarketInfo.

Toshiba Memory Corporation today held a groundbreaking ceremony for the first semiconductor fabrication facility (fab), called K1, in Kitakami, Iwate prefecture, in northeastern Japan. On its completion in autumn 2019, the facility will be one of the most advanced manufacturing operations in the world, dedicated to production of 3D flash memory.

Toshiba Memory continues to advance technologies in flash memory. The company is now leading the way forward with advances in its BiCS FLASH™, its proprietary 3D flash memory.

Demand for 3D flash memory is increasing significantly on fast growing demand for enterprise servers, datacenters and smartphones. Toshiba memory expects continued strong growth in the mid and long term. The new facility will make a major contribution to business competitiveness in corporation with Yokkaichi operations.

The new facility will not only be the largest Toshiba Memory fab, but it will be the most advanced as well. It will be constructed with a seismic isolation structure that allows it to absorb earthquake tremors, and it will reduce environmental loads by deployment of the latest energy-saving manufacturing facilities. It will also introduce an advanced production system that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to boost productivity. Decisions on the new fab’s equipment investment, production capacity and production plan will reflect market trends.

Toshiba Memory expects to continue its joint venture investments in the new facility based on ongoing discussions with Western Digital Corporation.

Going forward, Toshiba Memory will continue to actively cultivate initiatives aimed at strengthening competitiveness, including timely capital investments and R&D in line with market trends. The company will also contribute to the development of the regional economy of Iwate prefecture, Japan.

By Yoichiro Ando

The Japan semiconductor manufacturing supply chain is a global semiconductor industry workhorse, producing about one third of world’s chip equipment and more than half of its semiconductor materials. In contributing the vast majority of these products, SEMI Japan member companies hold the high distinction of enabling continuous development of the worldwide semiconductor industry. Aptly, then, technology powerhouses IBM, Nissan Motors and Toshiba offered insights into the latest trends and innovations in computing and smart cars at the late-May SEMI Japan Members Days in Tokyo with 133 technologists from member companies in attendance.

As the audience discovered, chip innovation never sleeps and, as futuristic as it can be, invariably gives rise to possibilities beyond the human imagination. That was the message of kickoff presentation “Computing Reimagined – AI/Quantum/IoT” – by Dr. Shintaro Yamamichi, Senior Manager, Science & Technology at IBM Research-Tokyo. Dr. Yamamichi cited three examples of how semiconductors uncover new technology frontiers.

  • Computational materials discovery, a novel methodology, is the application of theory and computation to unearthing new materials and the key to enabling an ongoing stream of semiconductor innovation. In particular, using cognitive technology to mine huge volumes of literature reveal new insights into materials that uncover even more functionality such as greater conductivity and heat resistance. With new materials the oxygen of ever more advanced semiconductor chip manufacturing, the semiconductor industry will surely benefit from this methodology.
  • The opportunity to accelerate quantum computing innovation is now. Launched in May 2016, the IBM Quantum Experience gives students, researchers and general science enthusiasts hands-on access to IBM’s experimental cloud-enabled quantum computing platform. The online platform features a forum for discussing quantum computing topics, tutorials on how to program IBM Q devices, and other educational material about quantum computing. Dr. Yamamichi encouraged the audience to join the program.
  • The world’s tiniest computer, unveiled by IBM at the company’s Think 2018 conference in Las Vegas, packs several hundred thousand transistors and, IBM claims, the equivalent power of a 1990s x86 chip into a package smaller than a grain of salt. The computer’s small form factor (less than 1mm x 1mm) and low manufacturing cost means it can be embedded in product price tags and packages as an anti-fraud device using blockchain technology.

Vehicles need to be both electric and intelligent as countries become more populous and traffic density increases. More drivers extend average drive time, boost greenhouse emissions, devour precious energy resources and lead to more traffic congestion and accidents. Dr. Haruyoshi Kumura, fellow at Nissan Motor, highlighted these issues in stressing the importance of a new era of intelligent mobility. To mitigate these problems, Nissan is focusing on the electrification and intelligence of its vehicles:

  • Nissan’s electric vehicle, Leaf, reduces accidents with electric intelligence systems such as e-Pedal, which uses an accelerator pedal only for both acceleration and deceleration, and ProPILOT Park, a feature that automatically parks the car by using multiple cameras and ultrasonic sonars to detect pedestrians and other objects around the vehicle.

  • With more than 90 percent of traffic accidents caused by driver error, Nissan plans to introduce autonomous driving on multi-lane highways by the end of 2018 and on city streets by 2020. By 2022, the company plans to roll out full autonomous driving to reduce traffic accidents caused by inattentive drivers.
  • For full autonomous driving to materialize, sensor fusion technology must incorporate a combination of technologies – radar systems, light detection and ranging (LiDAR) systems and cameras – to identify the shapes and locations of nearby moving objects and measure their speed. Sensed information is then processed by a 3D graphic analyzer to make electric throttle, braking and steering decisions.

The outlook for automotive industry includes car sharing and more electrification – both insights from Yoshiki Hayakashi, general manager, automotive solution strategic planning division at Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage, who offered his perspectives on trends in Japan’s automotive industry and beyond.

  • To meet the requirements of the COP21 Paris agreement, the global automotive industry is shifting to electrification. Toshiba estimates 60 percent of new cars will be electric vehicles by 2040 to meet the International Energy Agency’s global EV outlook.
  • In Japan, autonomous driving or advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) will be offered in certain areas by 2020, the year of the Tokyo Olympic games. Growth of these advanced driving systems hinges on infrastructure development. Supporting data centers, intelligent transport systems, vehicle-to-everything connections, and smart city are all necessary components.
  • Car ownership will begin to cede ground to car sharing with technology elites such as Tesla, Apple and Google leading the way. To expand the car-sharing industry, new alliances will take shape between new and old-guard automotive companies and electronics manufacturing services (EMS) providers.
  • Autonomous driving requires precise 3D renderings of actual roadways using sensors for route mapping. While sensor fusion must be deployed for these capabilities, LiDAR offers better sensing range and space resolution precision than ultrasonic sonars, radars, and cameras.

The next SEMI Japan members day is scheduled for October 30 in Tokyo. SEMI holds similar events in most regions where SEMI and its members operate. For the members events in your region, contact the SEMI office nearest you.

Yoichiro Ando is a marketing director in SEMI Japan.

Originally published on the SEMI blog.