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Yole Développement has released a new report, Permanent Wafer Bonding, detailing permanent bonding technologies and the microelectronic applications that use permanent bonding such as MEMS, Advanced Packaging, LEDs and SOI substrates. Forecasts through 2019 are given for market size, wafer starts and equipment usage by application and technology.

Their analysis shows that MEMS devices are the main applications using permanent bonding technologies in mass production, followed by CMOS Image Sensor BSI (CIS BSI). They conclude that fusion bonding is the most frequently-used permanent bonding technologies in today’s semiconductor industry, mainly supported by CIS and SOI substrate applications.

Permanent wafer bonding revenue was close $127MM in 2013 and expected to reach $450MM by 2019, growing at a 23% CAGR.

In the next few years, growth is expected from metal bonding for MEMs applications and Cu-Cu / oxide “hybrid bonding.” All major players are working on the implementation and qualification of this technology for the new generation of BSI CIS.

Perm Bond fig

Yole projects that permanent bonding, which is well established for MEMs,  will continue to grow over the next five years while moving from glass frit technology to metal bonding for  better reliability, better hermaticity and smaller footprint due to smaller required bond frames.

Permanent bonding for CMOS sensors is dominated by adhesive and fusion bonding. Adhesive bonding is used for attaching the glass cap wafer to the device wafer. Fusion bonding, with anneal temperatures in the range of 20 – 400 ◦C, is the dominant technology for BSI sensor technology. In the future Yole sees Cu-Cu /oxide hybrid bonding, such as that developed by Ziptronix, as the technology of choice to replace fusion bonding due to its superior electrical and mechanical properties.

For LEDs grown on GaAs or sapphire substrates thermo-compression and eutectic bonding are most often applied.

Fusion bonding is the technology of choice for SOI activities.  While the recent SOI market has been flat, due to AMDs recent move from SOI to bulk SI technology, Yole expects the SOI market to double by 2015 due to Rf applications making use of SOI.

EVG currently holds 75% of the permanent bonding equipment market. Yole sees them being challenged in the future by the recently combined TEL / Applied Materials. TEL has gained market share in 2013. Suss MicroTec, exited the market in 2013 after supplying permanent bonders for more than a decade.

Companies cited in this report include: AMD, AML, Applied Materials, Avago, Bosch, Discera, EVG, Infineon, Invensense, Lemoptix, Luxtera, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Murata/VTI, Nemotek, OSRAM, PlanOptik, Samsung, Sensonor, SOITEC, STMicroelectronics, SUSS MicroTec, Sony, Teledyne/Dalsa, Tokyo Electron, Ziptronix, IMEC, Leti, Texas Instruments, Tezzaron, WiSpry and Ziptronix.

The report was written by Amandine Pizzagalli who is responsible for equipment and materials for Yole’s Advanced Packaging team.

Jordan Valley Semiconductors Ltd., a supplier of X-ray based metrology tools for advanced semiconductor manufacturing lines, today announced that its micro-spot X-ray Fluorescence (µXRF) metrology tool has been qualified for production monitoring of advanced Wafer Level Packaging (WLP) processes, by another memory player. The tool provides fully automated metrology solutions for several key applications, including single µ-bump chemical composition and height measurements, as well as control of multi-layer Under Bump Metallization (UBM) stack deposition.

Isaac Mazor, Jordan Valley’s CEO, said: “We are glad to add another leading memory customer to our distinguished list of advanced customers. This is additional proof that Jordan Valley’s tool and technology superiority is well appreciated and serves leading companies in the industry. Advancements in WLP technologies, such as the scaling down of solder bumps, complex UBM stacks, etc., set new metrology challenges and requirements that Jordan Valley can address. We believe that our tools will further contribute to our customer’s high yield targets in the current and future WLP process.”

Jordan Valley’s micro-XRF metrology tool is the “tool of record” for single bump composition measurements. It is ideal for non-destructive, in-line µ-bump %Ag measurements and uses a vertical excitation geometry that provides the smallest beam footprint with no dependence on height variation. The tool provides information critical for WLP process control, and comes with fully automated recipe driven measurements and analysis capabilities, advanced navigation algorithms for measurement on product wafers and more.

Jordan Valley’s management will attend Semicon West 2014 in San Francisco on July 7-10, 2014.

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, China’s largest and most advanced semiconductor foundry, today announced that the first 12″ color filter and micro lens array production line in mainland China has been completed and put into production by Toppan SMIC Electronics of Shanghai. Combined with SMIC’s 12″ CMOS Image Sensor (CIS) wafer production line, a new 12″ CIS supply chain will be established in China.

The color filter and micro lens array are important middle-end processes for manufacturing CIS which are widely used in electronic products with image processing functions such as camera phones, digital cameras, and car cameras. To meet the demand of fast-growing consumer electronics market for digital image products with high definition and miniaturization, and provide customers highly integrated and more powerful CIS products, SMIC and TSES planned the 12″ color filter & micro lens array production line together to connect the front-end and middle-end of CIS manufacturing supply chain. It will help IC design customers reduce transportation and other intermediate costs, and shorten the production cycle and time to market. With equipment installation completed, TSES 12″ production line has started production for customer engagement.

“Building a 12″ color filter and micro lens array production line is an pivotal step for SMIC to create IC manufacturing supply chain and implement differentiated strategy,” said Dong Cui, executive vice president of SMIC Investment and Strategic Business Development. “With SMIC’s front-end 12″ CIS wafer manufacturing line in volume production and existing domestic back-end package capacity, SMIC will build the first complete 12″ CIS supply chain in China covering all the processes of front-end, middle-end and back-end to support customers with differentiated offerings and a convenient one-stop service.”

“TSES, invested jointly by SMIC and Toppan, is the first company in China to manufacture and sell color filter and micro lens array used for CIS. Its 8″ production line has been put into volume production for many years,” said Mike Rekuc, executive vice president of SMIC Worldwide Sales and Marketing. “In combination with TSES’s color filter and micro lens array technologies transferred from Toppan, and SMIC’s matured front-end CIS process technologies and services, we are committed to build the most suitable supply chain in meeting customers’ and markets’ demands.”

GS Nanotech, microelectronics products development and manufacture center, plans to launch mass assembly of 3D stacked TSV (through-silicon via) microcircuits in next few years. The company does not disclose the total investments in the project, but it will include the cost of hardware, software, and staff training.

GS Nanotech is a part of Technopolis GS, a private innovation cluster of GS Group holding located in Kaliningrad region, Russia. Launched in 2012, it is the only back-end facility in Russia that performs mass packaging and testing of integrated circuits, including multi-chip units built using the SiP (System-in-Package) technology. The production capacity of the plant is enough for GS Nanotech to become the first in Russia to run its services in the global mass market.

Microcircuits, assembled at the facilities, could be used in any consumer or industrial electronics devices. In particular, the GS Lanthanum chip, designed and issued by GS Nanotech, is implemented in GS U510 digital set-top box under the General Satellite brand. U510 became the first mass consumer electronics product with a Russian-made microprocessor built in.

3D packaging would bring the Russian company to the next technological level. It will allow the facility to provide its customers highly integrated chips, packaged with advanced technology that is widely used today by the world leaders of the microelectronics industry. Within 3D TSV integration technology, dice are placed one above another with vertical interconnections between them.

“This method provides such advantages as smaller size of the system, power consumption reduction, and heat dissipation improvement,” noted Sergei Belyakov, GS Nanotech senior marketing manager.

According to the Yole Development forecast, all TSV packaged devices market value will represent nine percent of the total semiconductor value by 2017, hitting almost 39 billion US dollars.

A business model for microcircuits packaging is at an early stage in Russia. Even large Russian microelectronics enterprises assemble chips in small amounts just for domestic needs specializing on the metal-ceramic cases only. Yet the costs of the packaging services contribute a significant share in the microcircuit prime cost. Development of the 3D TSV packaging will open wide opportunities for a new leap of modern technology in Russia. Mass and high quality 3D packaging by local Russian manufacturers will allow using the technology not only for civil, but military and space applications as well. Chips packaging in Russia will simplify logistics, reduce expenditures for the components transportation, so that the Russian customers could get the parts faster and easier. Integrated circuits, packaged in Russia, will become cheaper and more qualitative alternative to Asian components for European customers as well. All these factors combined contribute to the development of Russian electronics as a modern high-tech industry competitive in the global market.

Miniaturization of manufactured consumer electronics devices is a global trend today, and 3D TSV technology development in Russia will allow the domestic industry keep up with the world technological tendencies. The technology will also foster Russian design and production market development of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), optoelectronics, hybrid power modules, LED, and other innovative products in the electronics industry.

Want more information on these packaging trends? Register for our free Trends in Packaging webcast.

Entegris Inc., a Billerica-based materials and solutions provider to the microelectronics industries, today inaugurated its new i2M Center for Advanced Materials Science (“The i2M Center”) in Bedford, Massachusetts. The facility is the company’s flagship innovation center for developing filtration and specialty coatings technologies, which are used to maximize production yields in the world’s most demanding and challenging microelectronics manufacturing environments.

Representing an investment of more than $55 million, the i2M Center will focus on R&D and manufacturing for filtration media, metal membranes, electrostatic clamps (E-Chucks) and proprietary advanced, low-temperature coatings.

“i2M stands for ‘ideas to market’ and we intend for this facility to be our flagship innovation center for solving very difficult materials science challenges,” Bertrand Loy, President and CEO of Entegris, said. “Our customers run extremely complex manufacturing processes and the i2M Center reflects our commitment to developing truly innovative solutions to support their process advancements. As a global company serving global customers, we evaluated a number of locations for this new building. We chose Massachusetts because it is at the epicenter of some of the best engineering talent in the world.”

Approximately 100 professionals will work at i2M Center, many of whom hold doctorates and advanced degrees in material/separation science and chemical engineering. Entegris has approximately 350 employees in Massachusetts and approximately 3,500 employees worldwide.

Entegris reported on April 30, 2014 that it completed the acquisition of Danbury-based ATMI for $1.1 billion.

Boston Semi Equipment LLC (BSE) today announced it has completed the acquisition of MVTS Technologies (MVTS). The combination of the product lines, service offerings and global reach of both companies has created a single, comprehensive source for companies seeking ATE equipment solutions from the secondary market.

“This acquisition is a significant enhancement to our ATE business,” stated Bryan Banish, President and CEO, Boston Semi Equipment. “MVTS has an excellent reputation for service and a long history of partnering with the original equipment manufacturer.”

Since 1994, MVTS Technologies has provided equipment, service and support solutions to semiconductor manufacturers in more than 15 countries in North America, Europe and Asia. MVTS enables customers and OEM affiliates to extend the life and value of investments in semiconductor equipment and other technologies.

Banish further commented, “Integrating MVTS into BSE doubles our worldwide service resources, expands the coverage for direct distribution and increases the portfolio of solutions we are able to offer customers. The result makes Boston Semi Equipment the industry’s most comprehensive source for reconfigured back-end products and related services.”

By Mike Rosa, Applied Materials

In 2004/2005, shipments of 300mm wafer fab equipment (WFE) began to outpace that of 200mm platforms.  As the “baton” in the node-scaling race appeared to pass from 200mm to 300mm, it was clear that device manufacturers were transitioning to higher-volume, more cost-effective 300mm toolsets for cost efficiencies of the production of advanced memory and microprocessor devices.  Tool suppliers enabled the transition with the availability of the comprehensive 300mm toolset and began a new 300mm technology race, and leaving the major OEMs to focus on service and spares for the now legacy 200mm toolsets.  With advanced device designs fully transitioned to 300mm, many IDMs and foundries were left with growing excess capacity on their 200mm production lines.

Surprisingly, new life and attention has been refocused on the 200mm tool sets and available capacity as two phenomena are driving new requirement and economics.

First, in 2006, a MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems)-based accelerometer became a game changer when introduced into Nintendo’s next-generation Wii motion controller.  This was the first significant and novel use of a MEMS device for motion tracking in a high-volume consumer application.  Next, in 2007, when Apple Inc. first introduced the iPhone to the world, it came to light that MEMS devices were enabling a number of its advanced motion-based features.

Later, it would be noted that more than 75% of the semiconductor device content in the iPhone was sourced from 200mm wafer starts.  The devices manufactured on 200mm wafers spanned a wide variety of applications that included not only MEMS applications (motion, audio, RF, etc.) but also CIS (CMOS Image Sensor), communications, power management and analog devices.

Sold in the hundreds of millions per year, first the iPhone and then the multitude of other smart phones, tablet PCs, and related digital devices, that followed, drove the adoption of the emerging “More-than-Moore” class of devices (which were first pioneered  on 150mm wafers at the time) onto 200mm wafers.  These high-volume consumer applications gave rise to a resurgence in both new and used of 200mm equipment. This sudden requirement for new sourcing of “legacy” 200mm toolsets placed considerable strain on a supply  chain that then focused almost exclusively on 300mm; tool vendors struggled in  refurbishment, upgrade, and production of matching tools and processes that performed outside the requirements of traditional semiconductor applications (see Figure 1).

200mm equipment market gaiting new lease on life

200mm equipment market gaiting new lease on life

Some of these additional requirements — including new and thicker films (>20µm), advanced DRIE (Deep-Reactive-Ion-Etch) capabilities capable of delivering aspect ratios approaching 100:1, and new process capabilities like HFv (Hydrofluoric Acid vapor) release etch and Wafer Bonding — resulted in OEMs needing to restart 200mm tool development.  In some cases, OEMS needed to expand their product portfolios to support the growing needs of customers producing devices in the rapidly expanding “More-than-Moore” device segment.

Fast forward to 2014 —what a difference approximately seven years has made to the industry segment and more specifically the number of opportunities in the 200mm WFE market for the new class of devices.

The surge in mobile device applications and more recently wearable technologies, has meant that device manufacturers are increasingly  under  pressure to produce cheaper, smaller, more capable and more power efficient devices most economically and efficiently — and this remains optimally on legacy 200mm toolsets.  Combining this with the materials and production challenges presented by ultra-high volume applications spelled out in the ‘Trillion Sensor Vision’ and the now looming IoT (Internet-of-Things) (see Figure 2), and it becomes clear that OEMs who continue to support and develop solutions for the 200mm WFE market  have both significant challenges and potential rewards.

Figure 2. The IoT (Internet-of-Things) by most accounts prescribes device volumes as high as 1 Trillion (per year!) by 2024. These device volumes are accompanied by severe reductions in ASP. Maintaining expanded device functionality, a reduced device size and a further reduced cost of fabrication, presents considerable challenge to both device producers and tool OEMs alike.

Figure 2. The IoT (Internet-of-Things) by most accounts prescribes device volumes as high as 1 Trillion (per year!) by 2024. These device volumes are accompanied by severe reductions in ASP. Maintaining expanded device functionality, a reduced device size and a further reduced cost of fabrication, presents considerable challenge to both device producers and tool OEMs alike.

Rising to the challenge presented by the demands of these rapidly growing market segments, Applied Materials is an OEM that has, over the past several years, continued to invest in the R&D of its 200mm portfolio products.  Challenged to deliver new materials and processes (see Figure 3) in support the growing class of 200mm emerging technology applications that have come to include MEMS, CIS, Power Device, Analog, WLP (Wafer Level Packaging), TFB (Thin Film Battery), TSV (through-silicon via), etc., Applied Materials believes that working close to the customer and more collaboratively throughout the supply chain is paramount to success in a technically challenging and price sensitive market. The 200mm ecosystem supporting broadly expanding cost-senstive device classes represent a new fork in the roadmap that has been almost myopically focused on Moore’s Law evolution.

deliver substantially re-engineered 200mm toolsets to produce advanced materials and processes needed to support the next generation of “More-than-Moore” devices. Source: Applied Materials

deliver substantially re-engineered 200mm toolsets to produce advanced materials and processes needed to support the next generation of “More-than-Moore” devices. Source: Applied Materials

Learn more about how this dynamic market is changing at the session on “Secondary Equipment for Mobile & Diversified Applications” at SEMICON West 2014 in San Francisco, Calif on July 8-10.