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Micross, headquartered in Orlando, FL announced a new appointment within the company’s senior management team. Marshall (Mac) Blythe has joined Micross in the role of General Manager of Component Modification Services (CMS) located in Hatfield, PA.

Mac brings more than twenty-five years leadership experience in a variety of business development, operations & executive management roles to Micross. His career has been primarily focused in the Electronic Manufacturing Services industry, supporting customers across the Aerospace & Defense, Industrial, Healthcare and Communication sectors.

Mac comes to Micross from Creation Technologies where he served as Vice President, Business Development for Eastern North America. Previously, Mac was President of Accuspec Electronics (now 4Front Solutions) where he successfully led the team to accelerate revenue growth through improving the company’s operational effectiveness, manufacturing productivity and quality. Mac also spent over 12 years at Celestica, where he held key general management and senior sales leadership roles.

Mac earned his M.B.A. from the University of Chicago and holds a BA from UNC, Chapel Hill, NC.

“We are delighted to welcome Mac to the Micross team,” stated Richard Kingdon, CEO of Micross. “We are confident that Mac’s combination of leadership skills and industry experience will both drive Micross’ Component Modification business forward and enhance the effectiveness of our broader organization.”

Micross is the one-source, one-solution provider of Bare Die & Wafers, Advanced Interconnect Technology, Custom Packaging & Assembly, Component Modification Services, Electrical & Environmental Testing and Hi-Rel Products to manufacturers and users of semiconductor devices.

Plasma-Therm, the manufacturer of plasma etch, deposition, and advanced packaging equipment for the production of specialty semiconductor devices, announced today the successful acquisition of CORIAL, a France-based plasma processing equipment supplier.

“This transaction is expected to produce significant cost savings from operational synergies while increasing the group’s top line revenue by leveraging the combined sales and service network. This acquisition enforces Plasma- Therm’s commitment to the European market by further enhancing our support infrastructure for the European customer base” stated Abdul Lateef, Plasma-Therm CEO. “With this acquisition we take one more step in the execution of our vision of a Technology Center of Excellence and Research in the Grenoble ecosystem” further emphasized Abdul Lateef.

Thierry Lazerand, Plasma-Therm Director of Marketing said, “CORIAL is a strategic acquisition that strengthens our presence in the R&D market space and for all other markets requiring small footprint and technology-rich equipment. We are also excited about the addition of the experienced team of Engineers with differentiated know-how for product development. The combination will leverage Plasma-Therm’s award-winning service, as recognized by the VLSIresearch Customer Satisfaction Survey”.

“We are excited to become a subsidiary of Plasma-Therm”, comments Andrei Uvarov, CORIAL’s Chief Research Officer. “It is a great opportunity for CORIAL to consolidate its future and accelerate the development of innovative stand-alone equipment based on joined CORIAL and Plasma-Therm expertise and advance our commercialization initiatives globally”.

IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for humanity, and the IEEE Electronics Packaging Society (EPS) today announced Dr. William Chen as the recipient of the 2018 IEEE Electronics Packaging Award. The IEEE Electronics Packaging Award and the society’s other annual awards were presented on 31 May in San Diego, California, at the 2018 IEEE Electronic Components and Technology Conference (ECTC), the society’s flagship event.

Dr. Chen is an IEEE Life Fellow and Fellow of ASE Group in Sunnyvale, California. He is a former president of the IEEE Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology (CPMT) Society, as which the IEEE EPS was formerly known, and a prominent leader in the packaging community since his early years at IBM. He was recognized for his pioneering contributions to electronic packaging—from research and development through industrialization—and for his leadership in strategic roadmapping efforts in heterogeneous integration. Dr. Chen has been instrumental in the industrialization of game-changing packaging technologies which enabled miniaturization, cost reduction and performance enhancements for today’s pervasive, all-powerful electronic devices. He has been previously recognized for his work in the field and was the recipient of the IEEE CPMT David Feldman Outstanding Contribution Award in 2010.

At the IEEE Electronic Components and Technology Conference, IEEE EPS also honored other packaging leaders and innovators driving the research, design and development of revolutionary electronic microsystem packaging and integration technology:

In addition, Annette Teng of Promex Industries Inc., Gilles Poupon of CEA-LETI in France and Yoshitaka Fukuoka of Worldwide Electronic Integrated Substrate Technology Inc. in Japan received the 2018 IEEE EPS Regional Contributions Awards.

“The electronics industry is experiencing tremendous expansion and revolutionary change, repositioning electronic packaging as a value creator and product differentiator for broad domains of the semiconductor industry. Our members are at the forefront of this transformation, driving innovation in microsystem packaging in key areas such as heterogeneous integration, 3D packaging and the IoT (Internet of Things),” said Avram Bar-Cohen, IEEE EPS president. “This ECTC EPS luncheon showcased their efforts and the outstanding leadership of William Chen, to strengthen and expand the society as the leading global authority on packaging and integration and to help define the future of the electronics industry.”

IEEE EPS (https://eps.ieee.org) represents current and future technologists in electronics packaging, spanning every nuance from earliest-stage research, through design and prototyping, to assembly and manufacturing, and ultimately to ensuring safe and reliable operation. IEEE EPS is also increasingly serving as a focal point for information transfer and collaboration for other IEEE societies, as technologists in those technology areas seek to derive value from microsystem packaging.

Synopsys, Inc. (Nasdaq: SNPS) today announced that it has collaborated with Toshiba Memory Corporation to accelerate the verification of Toshiba Memory Corporation’s BiCS FLASH™ vertically stacked three-dimensional (3D) flash memory. By working closely with Toshiba Memory Corporation, Synopsys introduced innovative simulation algorithms in its FineSim® Pro FastSPICE tool to address the increased design complexity of 3D NAND Flash memory. These new technologies improve simulation speed by an average of 2X, thereby reducing multi-day simulation runs to less than a day.

Compared to traditional Flash devices, 3D Flash devices have much larger memory arrays, more complex analog and programming circuits, and extensive power distribution network.  Additionally, due to the stacked memory array structure, 3D Flash designs must deal with increased coupling effects due to layout parasitic elements. This increased complexity results in multi-day simulation times when using existing circuit simulation technology. Through close collaboration with Toshiba Memory Corporation, the latest release of FineSim Pro FastSPICE delivers several key technologies specifically optimized for 3D Flash simulation, for efficient handling of massive array structures, large power distribution network, increased layout parasitic elements, and high-precision analog circuits.

“FineSim has been our signoff circuit simulator since early 2000. Our long collaboration with Synopsys has enabled us to develop best-in-class Flash memory products for a broad range of applications,” said Shigeo (Jeff) Ohshima, Technology Executive SSD Application Engineering of Toshiba Memory Corporation. “By working closely with Synopsys we’re able to deploy FineSim Pro for verification of our latest BiCS Flash memories and meet our stringent quality and reliability requirements.”

“Advanced flash memory designs require extensive circuit simulation to ensure design robustness, reliability, and cost competitiveness,” said Paul Lo, corporate vice president of Engineering in the Design Group at Synopsys. “Our team is committed to continuing our close collaboration with Toshiba Memory Corporation to deliver novel circuit simulation technologies to meet the challenging needs of simulating complex 3D NAND Flash memories and enable Super Chips with Synopsys™.”

Without any doubt, the advanced packaging industry is on the move. Emerging applications are bringing many new challenges. Packaging experts from all over the world are deeply involved in the development of innovative solutions to answer to the market demand dominated by megatrends. “Megatrend will probably be the key word for the next 10-years within the advanced packaging industry, and more generally in the semiconductor industry”, comments Emilie Jolivet, Semiconductor & Software Division Director at Yole Développement (Yole).“AI , IoT , 5G, mobility, and more… all major applications of our century are today the new drivers of these industries.”

What exactly is the impact of the megatrends on the advanced packaging industry? Could we expect a strong move of the advanced packaging companies: from their traditional activities to innovative services/products to answer to the specificities of the mega market segments? How will the advanced packaging supply chain evolve?

NCAP China, part of JITRI, and Yole today invite you to discover the 4th Advanced Packaging & System Integration Technology Symposium. The 2018 edition takes place in Wuxi, China, on June 20&21. It is a 2-day conference to answer strategic questions and get the opportunity to meet the leaders in the advanced packaging industry. After the last four successful events, Yole Développement & NCAP have decided to continue and strengthen their collaboration to once again provide a powerful program including Panel Level, FO , SiP , advanced substrates, 3D technology. Megatrends will be at the heart of the conference hosted by NCAP CHINA. Advanced packaging is on the move. Don’t miss it!
• Click program & registration to see the schedule, list of speakers, abstracts, and much more.
• The 2018 symposium is sponsored by DIPSOL, ERS, Nordson, SPTS (An Orbotech Company), and SEMSYSCO.

First held in 2014, the Advanced Packaging & System Integration Technology Symposium attracts more than 180 worldwide executive attendees each year. The program, designed by both partners Yole and NCAP China, brings together numerous valuable discussions, short courses, meetings and business collaborations. The list of executive speakers is impressive (Full list of speakers). The 2018 program welcomes two keynotes, among the numerous presentations: 
• Impact of the industry trends on advanced packaging – Jean-Christophe Eloy, President, Yole Group of Companies. Yole Group of Companies includes Yole Développement, System Plus Consulting, KnowMade and PISEO. 
• The industrialization road of innovative Wafer Level Fan-Out technology: eSiFO – Dr. Daquan Yu, VP, Huatian Technology Electronic … And much more. The list of speakers, biographies and abstracts are available on i-micronews.com. To download the PDF version, click Program – Abstracts.

Amongst the numerous sessions of the Advanced Packaging & System Integration Technology, 2018 edition, FOWLP will be deeply covered by a significant list of speakers: Klemens Reitinger, CEO, ERS electronic, Stephen Hiebert, Sr Director of Marketing, KLA-Tencor and David Butler, EVP General Manager, SPTS Technologies. Currently FOWLP is the fastest growing packaging platform and is directly impacted by the megatrends. From mobile to automotive to medical, for both low-end (e.g. audio codecs) and high-end devices (e.g. APU), Yole analyzes daily the technology evolution and market drivers. “Today, cost is still a concern compared to other more mature packaging platforms”, assert Yole’s Sr Analyst, Santosh Kumar (1). Market trends and technical challenges will be detailed in a presentation proposed by Santosh Kumar in the dedicated session. Santosh also recently invited Albert Koller, Head of Advanced Packaging Business Unit at Evatec, to discuss its activities and present its vision of the advanced packaging industry. This interview is available on i-micronews.com, advanced packaging news section.

Dr Cao LiQiang, NCAP’s CEO asserts: “In recent years, many aspects of advanced packaging worldwide remained focused on FI, FO, TSV and WLP… As for China, we have identified major changes to FO technology development and commercialization in the next five years. Potential packaging houses will be established here, in China. NCAP is preparing FI & FO manufacturing mass production, together with our partners of several years…With Yole, NCAP is exploring possible collaborations with worldwide equipment and material suppliers. The symposium is a real opportunity to interact with OSAT and end-users as well. At NCAP, we believe the NCAP- Yole collaboration will positively influence the advanced packaging industry and encourage its development. During the symposium, we especially expect many debates on the numerous challenges facing the domestic packaging materials and equipment market, the 5G requirements, the development of innovative technologies by OSATs and much more.”

The symposium represents an exciting opportunity for advanced packaging companies to expand their activities in China and in all other countries. NCAP and Yole are very enthusiastic about this 2018 edition. Make sure you attend the symposium and book your place immediately on i-micronews.com or click: Registration.
To see the full schedule, please click here: Program.

Technavio’s latest market research report on the global substrate-like PCB market provides an analysis of the most important trends expected to impact the market outlook from 2018-2022. Technavio predicts an emerging trend as a major factor that has the potential to significantly impact the market and contribute to its growth or decline.

The global substrate-like PCB market will grow at a CAGR of over 7% during the forecast period, according to Technavio analysts. A key factor driving the market’s growth is the need for miniaturization and more efficient interconnect solutions. In the recent years, the size of electronic packages has decreased to reduce power consumption and increase the functionality and the number of embedded components. The size of mobile phone PCBs decreased by over 75% between 2004 and 2017, with the inclusion of a growing number of sensors and processors.

In this report, Technavio highlights the increasing outsourcing of activities in the semiconductor industry as one of the key emerging trends in the global substrate-like PCB market:

Increasing outsourcing of activities in the semiconductor industry

Previously, the semiconductor industry was characterized by the presence of companies that designed, fabricated, packaged, and tested ICs in-house. But, at present, most semiconductor companies are going fabless by only designing chips while outsourcing fabrication, packaging, and testing to other companies. An increasing number of semiconductor and electronics manufacturing companies are outsourcing their manufacturing processes to foundries and (semiconductor and testing services) SATS providers.

“Semiconductor vendors that do not own fabrication facilities outsource the expensive process of semiconductor manufacturing to dedicated third-party manufacturers that have large-scale manufacturing plants, thereby cutting down on capital investments, operational costs, and complexity,” says a senior analyst at Technavio for research on semiconductor equipment.

Global substrate-like PCB market segmentation

This market research report segments the global substrate-like PCB market into the following applications (communication and IoT) and key regions (the Americas, APAC, and EMEA).

The communication segment held the largest market share in 2017, accounting for more than 73% of the market. This application segment is expected to demonstrate steady growth during the forecast period.

APAC was the leading region for the global substrate-like PCB market in 2017, accounting for a market share of approximately 85%. The market share of this region is anticipated to increase significantly during the period 2018-2022.

Microsemi Corporation (Nasdaq: MSCC), a provider of semiconductor solutions differentiated by power, security, reliability and performance, today announced it will be expanding its Silicon Carbide (SiC) MOSFET and SiC diode product portfolios early next quarter, including samples of its next-generation 1200-volt (V), 25 mOhm and 80 mOhm SiC MOSFET devices; next-generation 700 V, 50 A Schottky barrier diode (SBD) and corresponding die. These SiC solutions, along with other recently announced devices in the SiC SBD/MOSFET product families, will be demonstrated June 5-7 in hall 6, booth 318 at PCIM Europe 2018, held at the Exhibition Centre in Nuremberg, Germany.

As Microsemi continues to expand development efforts for its SiC product family, it has become one of the few suppliers providing a range of Si/SiC power discrete and module solutions to the market. These next-generation SiC MOSFETs are ideally suited for a number of applications within the industrial and automotive markets, including hybrid electric vehicle (HEV)/EV charging, conductive/inductive onboard chargers (OBCs), DC-DC converters and EV powertrain/traction control. They can also be used for switch mode power supplies, photovoltaic (PV) inverters and motor control in medical, aerospace, defense and data center applications.

“Fast adoption of SiC solutions for applications such as EV charging, DC-DC converters, powertrain, medical and industrial equipment, and aviation actuation demand a high degree of efficiency, safety and reliability on components used in such systems,” said Leon Gross, vice president and business unit manager for Microsemi’s Power Discretes and Modules business unit. “Microsemi’s next-generation SiC MOSFET and SiC diode families will include AEC-Q101 qualifications, which will insure high reliability while ruggedness is demonstrated by high repetitive unclamped inductive switching (UIS) capability at rated current without degradation or failures.”

According to market research firm Technavio, the global SiC market for semiconductor applications is expected to reach nearly $540.5 million by 2021, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 18 percent. The firm also forecasts the global SiC market for automotive semiconductor applications at nearly 20 percent CAGR by 2021. Microsemi is well-positioned with these trends, with its SiC MOSFET and Schottky barrier diode devices avalanche-rated with a high short-circuit withstand rating for robust operation, and the capabilities necessary to enable these growing application trends.

Microsemi’s next-generation 1200 V, 25/40/80 mOhm SiC MOSFET devices and die as well as its next-generation 1200 V and 700 V SiC SBD devices offer customers attractive benefits in comparison to competing Si/SiC diode/MOSFET and IGBT solutions, including more efficient switching at higher switching frequencies as well as higher avalanche/UIS rating and higher short-circuit withstand rating for rugged and reliable operation. For example, SiC MOSFETs are developed with an ideal balance of specific on-resistance, low gate and thermal resistances, and low gate threshold voltage and capacitance for reliable operation. Designed for high yield processes and low parameter variation across temperature, they operate at higher efficiency (in comparison to Si and IGBT solutions) across high junction temperature (175 degrees Celsius) to extend battery systems like those in HEV/EV applications.

The newly sampling devices also offer excellent gate integrity and high gate yield as verified through high temperature reverse bias (HTRB) and time-dependent dielectric breakdown (TBBD) tests, which are part of its AEC-Q101 qualification in progress. Other key features include:

  • High UIS capability, offering 1.5x to 2x higher than competitive SiC MOSFETs and GaN devices for avalanche ruggedness;
  • High short-circuit rating ranging from 1.5x to 5x higher than competitor SiC MOSFET devices for more rugged operation;
  • Up to 10x lower failure-in-time (FIT) rate than comparable Si IGBTs at rated voltage for neutron susceptibility and with comparable performance against SiC competition pertaining to neutron irradiation; and
  • Higher SiC power density versus Si, enabling smaller magnetics/transformers/DC bus capacitors and less cooling elements for more compact form factor to lower overall system costs.

Molex, a global manufacturer of electronic solutions, announced today the acquisition of BittWare, Inc., a global provider of computing systems featuring field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) deployed in data center compute and network packet processing applications.

“Among the foremost FPGA computing platform developers, BittWare brings an impressive breadth of board-level computing technologies, integrated systems and software expertise,” said Tim Ruff, senior vice president of Molex.

According to Mark Gilliam, president of Interconnect Systems International, a Molex company, “The acquisition expands on the capabilities of Molex and its subsidiary Nallatech to address the rising demand for FPGA-based high-performance compute and network processing solutions.”

Headquartered in Concord, NH, BittWare provides solutions based on FPGA technology from Intel (formerly Altera) and Xilinx. Many of the world’s leading companies use BittWare FPGA solutions to provide the processing power for demanding applications in compute and data center, military and aerospace, government, instrumentation and test, financial services, broadcast and video.

“FPGA-based platforms have become a strategically important driver of machine learning, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, network acceleration, IoT, and other megatrends. As a Molex subsidiary, now working with Nallatech, I believe we will have the critical mass to bring new resources, better processes, and economies of scale to our valued customers and this rapidly growing industry as a whole,” said Jeff Milrod, president and CEO of BittWare.

BittWare commercial products turn the latest FPGA device features into reliable board-level solutions, suitable for both development and deployment in integrated servers. The company serves original equipment manufacture (OEM) customers, who value the decades of engineering experience BittWare brings to designing custom solutions and manufacturing them at scale with partners such as Benchmark Electronics. BittWare products are supported with extensive tools, FPGA IP, and in-house technical support staff.

Philpott Ball & Werner, LLC acted as BittWare’s financial advisor. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

For more information about Molex BittWare FPGA solutions, please visit www.molex.com.

Presto Engineering Inc. today announced that it has joined GLOBALSOLUTIONS, GF’s ecosystem of partners that provides services from conception to production. As an ecosystem partner, Presto will provide its post-silicon engineering and production turnkey solutions based upon GF’s technologies and services for customers across the globe.

The partnership will focus on specialized testing and packaging, leveraging Presto’s extensive mixed signal, radio frequency (RF) and analog test expertise to deliver system-level differentiation in semiconductors for GF’s advanced process technologies. Presto’s services — including package development, test solutions implementation and production, qualification and supply chain management — allow customers to reduce development time and risks through customizing industry-standard capabilities, choosing from a number of design platforms at GF. For higher-volume applications, customers can work with Presto to develop and source fully custom system-on-chips (SoCs).

“We are very pleased to join GLOBALSOLUTIONS Ecosystem as a Worldwide ASIC Partner,” said Michel Villemain, CEO of Presto Engineering. “Together, we will provide an innovative, design-to-production implementation that will help customers deliver customized silicon solutions that satisfy increasing market needs for high performance and low power technologies. We believe that GF customers will benefit from our expertise in the test and development of solutions for IoT, analog, mixed signal, RF and secured applications.”

“Presto is a recognized expert in the industrialisation of ASIC solutions throughout the world,” said Jai Durgam, vice president of design enablement at GF. “Together, our customers will benefit from the combination of Presto’s test expertise and in-house resources and our proven silicon process technologies to enable a new level of user experience for next-generation chip designs for Internet of Things (IoT) and automotive applications.”

Martin Kingdon, Presto’s VP of Sales, added, “We are able to provide significant added value to our customers, not only through handling the technical support and sourcing of the wafers, but also by providing an end-to-end solution including testing, packaging and through to the logistics of warehousing and shipping the final parts. There are so many stages in the complex semiconductor supply chain that it is easy for a newcomer to miss vital steps, which can delay a product timeline and add to the costs. Our experience of doing this whole process so many times means that we know exactly how do the whole process efficiently and cost effectively.”

Launched more than five years, GF’s GLOBALSOLUTIONS provides chip designers with experienced design enablement and turnkey services from chip design, methodology, test and packaging that enable customers to bring today’s complex integrated circuits to market. The ecosystem combines the company’s internal resources with a broad spectrum of partners to efficiently enable the fastest time-to-volume for foundry customers.

Silvaco, an EDA and IP provider of software tools, announced today that it has moved into new corporate headquarters at 2811 Mission College Boulevard on the sixth floor of one of the towers of the Mission Corporate Center in the heart of Silicon Valley in Santa Clara.

After 34 years, Silvaco moved from its company-owned Patrick Henry campus, where it occupied 5 buildings to a state of the art facility with workspace for all employees under one roof.

“This is an exciting time for Silvaco and marks a huge milestone for the company, aligned with our progress in our leadership for Advanced Nodes, Power and Display. The new layout allows for a modern-style collaborative working environment to help accelerate our pace of innovation,” said Dave Dutton, CEO of Silvaco. “I am confident that this move will allow us to accommodate our future growths plans.

Silvaco, Inc. is a leading EDA and IP provider of software tools used for process and device development and for analog/mixed-signal, power IC, and memory design. Silvaco delivers a full TDAD-to-sign-off flow for vertical markets including displays, power electronics, optical devices, radiation and soft error reliability, and advanced CMOS process and IP development