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Materion Corporation (NYSE:MTRN) announced today that it has completed the previously announced acquisition of the target materials business of the Heraeus Group, of Hanau, Germany, for approximately $30 million.

The acquisition strengthens Materion’s position in precious and non-precious target materials for the architectural and automotive glass, photovoltaic, display and semiconductor markets. The business, now operating within the Materion Advanced Materials business segment, is expected to generate approximately $50 to $60 million in new value-added sales on an annualized basis and be accretive to 2017 earnings. Materion Advanced Materials reported value-added sales of $176.3 million in 2016.

Through this transaction, Materion’s Advanced Materials segment gains target manufacturing capability in Europe, Asia and the U.S., as well as new technologies and a highly specialized workforce of 135 employees.

Donald G. Klimkowicz, President, Materion Advanced Materials, commented, “Beyond accelerating and solidifying our global materials offering in semiconductor and display, the acquisition provides diversification, critical mass and new opportunities in other growing target-related areas where Materion has not enjoyed as strong a position including glass and photovoltaic. This truly is a winning combination.”

Added Materion Chief Executive Officer Richard J. Hipple, “This transaction is the latest in a series of advanced materials acquisitions made by Materion since 2005 to augment our growth and further our diversification into a leading advanced materials organization. I am very excited about the prospects for future growth that this acquisition brings us in existing and new markets, and how closely the values and culture of the Heraeus employees who join us match with our own. We welcome them to the Materion family.”

Materion Corporation is headquartered in Mayfield Heights, Ohio. The Company, through its wholly owned subsidiaries, supplies highly engineered advanced enabling materials to global markets. Products include precious and non-precious specialty metals, inorganic chemicals and powders, specialty coatings, specialty engineered beryllium alloys, beryllium and beryllium composites, and engineered clad and plated metal systems.

IC Insights’ 20th anniversary, 2017 edition of The McClean Report shows that since 2010, worldwide economic growth has been the primary influencer of IC industry growth.  In this “global economy-driven” IC industry, factors such as interest rates, oil prices, and fiscal stimulus are the primary drivers of IC market growth.  This is much different than prior to 2010, when capital spending, IC industry capacity, and IC pricing characteristics drove IC industry cycles.

Figure 1 plots the actual annual growth rates for worldwide GDP and the IC market from 1992 and includes IC Insights’ 2017 forecast.  As shown, both of these categories displayed extremely volatile behavior from 1992 through 2010 before registering much more subdued growth rates from 2011 through 2016.  Moreover, IC Insights forecasts similar restrained annual growth rates for worldwide GDP and the IC market through 2021.

Figure 1

Figure 1

Some observations regarding worldwide economic growth (GDP) include the following.

•    Since 1980, the annual worldwide GDP growth has averaged 2.8%. The average annual worldwide GDP growth rate has declined every decade since the 1960s with a slight rebound forecast to be registered in the first seven years of the current decade.

•    Worldwide GDP growth of 2.5% or less is currently considered by most economists to be indicative of a global recession, which puts 2016’s growth right at the threshold.  The 2017 global growth rate is forecast to come in only slightly better at 2.6%.  Prior to the late 1990s, when emerging markets like China and India represented a much smaller share of the worldwide economy, a global recession was typically defined as 2.0% or less growth.  The global recession threshold has never been a “hard and fast” rule, but the guidelines discussed here are useful for this analysis.

Figure 2 compares the actual annual growth rates of worldwide GDP and the worldwide IC market from 2011 through IC Insights’ 2017 forecast.  It is worth mentioning that the same scale used in Figure 1 for both worldwide GDP growth (-2% to 5%) and IC market growth (-40% to 50%) was used for this chart.  It is clear when looking at this specific timeperiod and using the historical growth rate scale end points, that IC market and worldwide GDP growth volatility from 2011 through 2017 is expected to be much more tame than in the past.

Figure 2

Figure 2

Worldwide GDP growth rates are expected to range from 2.5% to 3.0% from 2016 through 2021.  IC Insights’ expects the IC market to mirror the narrow range of worldwide GDP growth with forecasted growth rates ranging from a low of 2% to a high of 7% through 2021.

Given the tight correlation between annual worldwide GDP growth rates and IC market growth rates, IC Insights believes that a significant and noticeable IC market cycle will not occur through 2021 unless there is a significant departure from trend, up or down, for worldwide GDP growth (e.g., <2% growth on the low side and >3.0% growth on the high side).

UniPixel, Inc. (NASDAQ: UNXL), a provider of high performance metal mesh capacitive touch sensors to the touchscreen and flexible display markets, announced today positive results from in-house testing conducted on its XTouch touch screen sensors for use in future flexible/foldable display devices such as smartphones, tablets, and wearable devices.

  • UniPixel conducted tests in which its XTouch sensors were folded and opened more than 200,000 times at a 2-millimeter radius at the fold.
  • During the tests, as well as at the conclusion of those tests, there was no damage to the XTouch sensors and no degradation to their performance capabilities.

Flexible displays will also need to have a thin and pliable cover lens that will bend consistently without damage.

  • UniPixel’s Diamond Guard scratch resistant cover lens technology is an excellent complement to XTouch sensors as it is applied in a very thin layer and will bend and seamlessly fold as it protects the underlying touch sensor metal mesh from abrasion damage.

Jalil Shaikh, chief operating officer of UniPixel, commented, “The results of our in-house testing were very positive. As flexible displays require thin and pliable touch sensors and cover lenses, our proprietary XTouch sensors and Diamond Guard are ideally suited for flexible display applications. We have already demonstrated to a major original equipment manufacturer (“OEM”) that our XTouch sensors deliver optimal performance with a lens coating as minute as five microns. As far as we are aware our XTouch sensors are the only sensors available that operate effectively with such a thin cover lens coating.

“We believe that as flexible technologies make their way to the market, our proprietary XTouch and Diamond Guard technologies can become staple components in a broad array of products. While foldable displays are in early consideration by OEMs, our products now meet the early specifications OEMs have targeted to create devices that work effectively with the necessary durability for broad market acceptance.”

Worldwide silicon wafer area shipments increased 3 percent in 2016 when compared to 2015 area shipments according to the SEMI Silicon Manufacturers Group (SMG) in its year-end analysis of the silicon wafer industry, while worldwide silicon revenues increased by 1 percent in 2016 compared to 2015.

Silicon wafer area shipments in 2016 totaled 10,738 million square inches (MSI), up from the previous market high of 10,434 million square inches shipped during 2015. Revenues totaled $7.21 billion, one percent higher from the $7.15 billion posted in 2015. “Annual semiconductor silicon volume shipments reached record levels for the third year in a row,” said Chungwei (C.W.) Lee, chairman SEMI SMG and Corporate Development VP of GlobalWafers. “However, despite historical shipment highs, the same cannot be said about silicon revenue. The market remains well below pre-downturn levels.”

Annual Silicon* Industry Trends

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016
Area Shipments (MSI)

8,661

8,137

6,707

9,370

9,043

9,031

9,067

10,098

10,434

10,738
Revenues ($B)

12.1

11.4

6.7

9.7

9.9

8.7

7.5

7.6

7.2

7.2

*Shipments are for semiconductor applications only and do not include solar applications

Silicon wafers are the fundamental building material for semiconductors, which in turn, are vital components of virtually all electronics goods, including computers, telecommunications products, and consumer electronics. The highly engineered thin round disks are produced in various diameters (from one inch to 12 inches) and serve as the substrate material on which most semiconductor devices or “chips” are fabricated.

All data cited in this release is inclusive of polished silicon wafers, including virgin test wafers and epitaxial silicon wafers, as well as non-polished silicon wafers shipped by the wafer manufacturers to the end-users.

This week, Future Market Insights (FMI) releases its latest report on the semiconductor assembly and testing services market. The global market for semiconductor assembly and testing services (SATS) will continue to be primarily driven by the surging demand for high-end packaging solutions. The global semiconductor assembly and testing services market will possibly reach a value of US$ 24.72 Bn by 2016 end. The market will gain continued traction communication vertical. Asia Pacific will remain the most attractive market for semiconductor assembly and testing services.

Increased demand for outsourced SATS or OSAT services will be a remarkable trend favoring the growth of the global SATS market. With the rapidly thriving consumer electronics industry, the demand for connectivity and mobility is also on the rise, which is foreseen to be an important booster to the demand for connected devices, eventually fostering the semiconductor assembly and testing services market. Rising adoption of multimedia technology devices is identified to be another factor bolstering the demand for SATS. A number of SATS providers offer value added services, such as in-house testing and high-end packaging, which will remain an important driver to the market growth. Several integrated design manufacturers are increasingly prioritising semiconductor assembly and testing services as a time-efficient alternative.

Moreover, rising demand for automotive safety systems is expected to be a strong factor providing impetus to the SATS market. Due to higher costs associated with larger wafer fabrication factory, manufacturers are largely inclined toward outsourcing semiconductor assembly and testing services to third party providers. Leading fabless companies will continue to outsource everything, including testing, assembly, and packaging of semiconductor. This will favour the market growth. Rising adoption of automotive electronics and promising emergence of next-generation electronic vehicles are likely to boost the market growth further.

However, high capital costs related to high-end packaging solution provision, volatility of prices in the market, and uncertainty in exchange rates will continue to pose a negative impact on the global SATS market growth.

By service, assembly and packaging segment will continue to be dominant over the testing segment, prominently driven by the rising demand for consumer electronics and advanced packaging solutions.

On the basis of packaging solution, the copper wire and gold wire bonding segment is expected to retain the leading segment position with over 53% market value share, accounting for the revenues of around US$ 13.24 Bn in 2016. However, the growth of this segment is likely to witness sluggish growth post-2016. The flip chip segment is foreseen to exhibit a robust growth rate, contributing around 18% share to the entire market revenues in 2016. This segment will witness an impressive Y-o-Y growth of 8.6% in 2017 over 2016.

Based on application, communication segment is projected to remain dominant, whereas consumer electronics application segment is likely to register a stellar growth rate in terms of Y-o-Y.

By regional analysis, the global semiconductor assembly and testing services market is segmented into four key markets viz. North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Middle East and Africa. APAC will remain the dominant market with over 84% market value share in 2016 but is anticipated to witness a consistent Y-o-Y decline post-2016. On the other side, North America is likely to see a consistent gain in the Y-o-Y growth post-2016. This region will account for over 31% share of the market in 2016, in terms of revenues.

Some of the key companies operating in the global marketplace for semiconductor assembly and testing services (SATS), include Amkor Technologies Inc., ASE Group, Silicon Precision Industries Co. Ltd., STATS ChipPAC Ltd. (JCET), Psi Technologies Inc. (IMI), Powertech Technology Inc., Global Foundries, CORWIL Technology corporation, and Chipbond Technology Corporation.

Long-term Outlook: By 2021 end, the global semiconductor assembly and testing services (SATS) market is expected to account for US$ 39.05 Bn in terms of revenues.

Worldwide semiconductor capital spending is projected to increase 2.9 percent in 2017, to $69.9 billion, according to Gartner, Inc. This is down from 5.1 percent growth in 2016 (see Table 1).

“The stronger growth in 2016 was fueled by Increased spending in late 2016 which can be attributed to a NAND flash shortage which was more severe in late 2016 and will persist though most of 2017. This is due to a better-than-expected market for smartphones, which is driving an upgrade of NAND spending in our latest forecast,” said David Christensen, senior research analyst at Gartner. “NAND spending increased by $3.1 billion in 2016 and several related wafer fab equipment segments showed stronger growth than our previous forecast. The thermal, track and implant segments in 2017 are expected to increase 2.5 percent, 5.6 percent and 8.4 percent, respectively.

Compared with early 2016, the semiconductor outlook has improved, particularly in memory, due to stronger pricing and a better-than-expected market for smartphones. An earlier-than-anticipated recovery in memory should lead to growth in 2017 and be slightly enhanced by changes in key applications.

Table 1: Worldwide Semiconductor Capital Spending and Equipment Spending Forecast, 2015-2020 (Millions of Dollars)

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

Semiconductor Capital Spending ($M)

 67,994.0

 69,936.6

 73,613.5

 78,355.6

 75,799.3

Growth (%)

5.1

2.9

5.3

6.4

-3.3

Wafer-Level Manufacturing Equipment ($M)

35,864.4

38,005.4

38,488.7

41,779.7

39,827.0

Growth (%)

7.9

6.0

1.3

8.6

-4.7

Wafer Fab Equipment ($M)

 34,033.2

 35,978.6

 36,241.1

 39,272.8

 37,250.4

Growth (%)

8.1

5.7

0.7

8.4

-5.1

Wafer-Level Packaging and Assembly Equipment ($M)

1,831.2

2,026.8

2,247.6

2,506.9

2,567.7

Growth (%)

3.9

10.7

10.9

11.5

2.8

Source: Gartner (January 2017)

Foundries continue to outgrow the overall semiconductor market with mobile processors from Apple, Qualcomm, MediaTek and HiSilicon as the demand driver on leading-node wafers. In particular, fast 4G migration and more-powerful processors have resulted in larger die sizes than previous-generation application processors, requiring more 28 nanometer (nm), 16/14 nm and 10 nm wafers from foundries. Nonleading technology will continue to be strong from the integrated display driver controllers and fingerprint ID chips and active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) display driver integrated circuits (ICs).

This research is produced by Gartner’s Semiconductor Manufacturing program. This research program, which is part of the overall semiconductor research group, provides a comprehensive view of the entire semiconductor industry, from manufacturing to device and application market trends. Gartner clients can see more in “Forecast Analysis: Semiconductor Capital Spending and Manufacturing Equipment, Worldwide, 4Q16 Update.”

MagnaChip Semiconductor Corporation (“MagnaChip”) (NYSE: MX), a Korea-based designer and manufacturer of analog and mixed-signal semiconductor products, today announced it was given the prestigious “2016 Best Supplier Award” by LG Display.

The “Best Supplier Award” is the highest possible level of recognition presented to a supplier by LG Display for delivering outstanding product quality.  MagnaChip’s achievement is notable because approximately 180 suppliers competed for the award.  This is the second consecutive year in which MagnaChip received a supplier award from LG Display.  Last year, MagnaChip was honored with LG Display’s “2015 Excellence Supplier Award”.

Korea-based LG Display each year honors key component suppliers that have demonstrated competence for both “zero-defective” products and “zero-accident” performance.  Of LG Display’s myriad suppliers, 15 are selected to receive the “Excellence Supplier Award” and the top five suppliers of the year are presented with the “Best Supplier Award”.  The “2016 Best Supplier Award” is presented at LG Display’s Annual Quality Festival, where LG Display employees and suppliers are recognized for quality-related achievements.

MagnaChip was selected to receive LG Display’s “2016 Best Supplier Award” in recognition of its achievement of delivering “zero-defective” products and “zero-accident” performance, in particular due to its cooperation with and significant contribution to LG Display’s ongoing efforts to improve manufacturing process stabilization and product competitiveness by building a high-level system of quality assurance.

“MagnaChip has been one of LG Display’s strongest and best partners, doing its best to control quality and maintain partnership this year,” said Mr. Deuk Jung Lee, Senior Vice President and Head of the Quality Assurance Center at LG Display.  “We deeply appreciate MagnaChip for its concerted and cooperative efforts to improve LG Display’s manufacturing process stabilization and product competitiveness.”

“I am very pleased and excited that we were able to follow up our selection as the 2015 winner of LG Display’s ‘Excellence Supplier Award’ with the ‘Best Supplier Award’ in 2016, which is highest award given by LG Display to its suppliers,” said YJ Kim, CEO of MagnaChip Semiconductor.  Mr. Kim added, “Winning these awards from LG Display clearly shows our ongoing commitment to high quality standards and high levels of customer service, and also demonstrates the value of our technology leadership.  We will continue to strive to deliver the highest quality components to LG Display and to the consumers who use LG Display products.”

EV Group (EVG), a supplier of wafer bonding and lithography equipment, together with the Korea National NanoFab Center (President Jae Young Lee, NNFC), a nano-technology R&D infrastructure for academia, research institutes and the industry, announced preliminary results on improved transparent nanostructured anti-reflective coatings for next-generation displays. The ongoing work has been carried out within a joint-development program (JDP) established between the two partners in November 2015. This collaborative research has been partly funded by the Nano-Open-Innovation-Lab Project of the NNFC.

Korea National NanoFab Center (NNFC)

Korea National NanoFab Center (NNFC)

The goal of the EVG-NNFC JDP is the development of optimized materials, the process technology for structure replication, and the industrial implementation of the AR coatings for large-area substrates. The NNFC research team under its director Dr. Jae Hong Park is responsible for the development of the materials and the “reversible nano-molding” process, which can be compatible with EVG’s proprietary SmartNIL UV-nanoimprint lithography (UV-NIL) technology. EVG is responsible for optimizing the UV-NIL replication process and transferring the technology from the R&D phase on current 200mm round substrates to large panel sizes.

Outstanding preliminary results

EVG and the NNFC have successfully demonstrated an anti-reflective coating with excellent structure replication that provides over 97-percent transmittance and a surface hardness of 3H, which is superior to most other polymeric coatings. By contrast, current commercial thin-film coatings only provide up to 92-percent transmittance. The JDP partners achieved these results by applying EVG’s SmartNIL technology on 200-mm round substrates using a polymer material developed by the NNFC. This material was developed for performing the reversible nano molding process at the NNFC, and is compliant with commercial standards for display coating.

In the next phase of the program, EVG and the NNFC plan to promote these promising results to initiate partnerships with end-users that are interested in joining the JDP to help commercialize the new AR coating. The goal of this next phase is the qualification of the novel anti-reflective coating technology for industrial use through the NNFC, and the implementation of the process by EVG to high-volume panel manufacturing on large screen sizes, such as Gen 2 (370 mm x 470 mm) panels and beyond. In addition to this specific project, EVG and the NNFC plan to investigate other application areas leveraging nanostructures and NIL technology.

“As part of our Triple-i philosophy of invent-innovate-implement, EV Group has a long history of engagements with groups across the nanotechnology value chain–from research institutes and materials suppliers to manufacturers–to develop new processes and devices, and bring them into production,” stated WeonSik Yang, general manager of EV Group Korea, Ltd. “We’re pleased to have the opportunity to participate in this level of cooperation with our partners in Korea, namely the NNFC, and see the efforts of our previous cooperation bearing fruit. On behalf of EVG, I would like to extend my sincerest thanks to Dr. Jae Hong Park as well as NNFC President Jae Young Lee for their dedication and support for this project. We look forward to working with local industrial partners to commercialize this novel display coating technology and process to support large-area display manufacturing.”

EVG and the NNFC presented the results of this JDP at the recent NANO KOREA symposium and exhibition in Goyang, Korea. A copy of the poster summarizing the results can be downloaded at http://www.evgroup.com/en/about/news/2016_12_NNFC/.

 

The National NanoFab Center (NNFC) is a nanotechnology and semiconductors R&D center, located in Daejeon City, Korea.

ChipMOS TECHNOLOGIES INC. and Tsinghua Unigroup Ltd. (“Tsinghua Unigroup”) today announced an agreement to form a joint-venture and to mutually terminate Tsinghua Unigroup’s earlier private placement plan.

Under the joint-venture agreement, ChipMOS TECHNOLOGIES (BVI) LTD., a wholly owned subsidiary of ChipMOS Taiwan, will sell 54.98% of the equity interests of its wholly owned subsidiary, ChipMOS TECHNOLOGIES (Shanghai) LTD., to a group led by Tsinghua Unigroup, for approximately RMB 498.4 million (approximately NT$2,437 million or US$77 million). After the consummation of such equity interest transfer, ChipMOS BVI will own 45.02% of the equity interests of ChipMOS Shanghai, Tsinghua Unigroup through its subsidiary, Tibet Unigroup Guowei Investment Co., Ltd. (“Unigroup Guowei”) will own 48%, and other strategic investors, including a limited partnership owned by ChipMOS Shanghai’s employees will own 6.98%. The investment will be used to expand the capacity of and services offered by ChipMOS Shanghai. The joint-venture agreement has been approved by the Board of Directors of ChipMOS Taiwan.

S.J. Cheng, Chairman of ChipMOS, commented, “We are pleased to reach this joint-venture agreement with Tsinghua Unigroup, which has been at the forefront of the rapidly evolving global semiconductor value chain. As a leader of the semiconductor assembly and test segment, ChipMOS will be able to leverage our extensive expertise and relationships, R&D resources and technology roadmap to meet a critical need within the Tsinghua Unigroup portfolio as it works to meet expanding domestic China market. The joint-venture will allow us accelerate the planned expansion of ChipMOS Shanghai, while adding on new lines to given the higher demand we are seeing for our LCD driver ICs, touch driver, AMOLED, OLED and memory testing, assembly and bumping services. Tsinghua Unigroup is committed to actively supporting the company across its comprehensive semiconductor supply chain investment portfolio, as we work to mutually grow the sustainable revenue and profit of ChipMOS Shanghai over the long-term, while promoting the interests of all shareholders and employees.”

Details of Joint-Venture Agreement and Termination Agreement: 

  1. A mutual agreement was reached between ChipMOS and Tsinghua Unigroup to terminate Tsinghua Unigroup’s participation in a planned private placement of ChipMOS Taiwan:On December 11, 2015, the Board of Directors of ChipMOS Taiwan adopted a resolution to approve a private placement of common shares in which 299,252,000 private placement shares issued by ChipMOS Taiwan would be subscribed by a controlled entity of Tsinghua Unigroup at NT$ 40 per share, and ChipMOS Taiwan and Tsinghua Unigroup entered into the Share Subscription Agreement with other transaction documents on the same date. The aforementioned private placement was subsequently approved by a resolution of ChipMOS Taiwan’s shareholders meeting on January 28, 2016, and the subscriber, Tibet MaoYeChuangXin Investment LTD., also entered into another Share Subscription Agreement and other transaction documents with ChipMOS Taiwan.All parties have agreed to mutually terminate the Share Subscription Agreement and other transaction documents. ChipMOS Taiwan held a Board meeting to terminate the aforementioned private placement, and entered into the Termination Agreement with Tsinghua Unigroup and the subscriber, respectively.
  2. Under the joint-venture agreement announced today, ChipMOS BVI, a wholly owned subsidiary of ChipMOS Taiwan, will sell 54.98% of the equity interests of its China subsidiary, ChipMOS Shanghai, to strategic investors led by Tsinghua Unigroup, and will further increase the capital of ChipMOS Shanghai with such strategic investors according to their respective shareholding ratio. The sale of the 54.98% equity interest is expected to result in a gain to ChipMOS Taiwan of approximately NT$2,288 million(approximately NT$2.67 per ChipMOS Taiwan share) upon the transaction’s close primarily due to a gain on the appreciation of fixed assets and land use rights.ChipMOS BVI, a wholly owned subsidiary of ChipMOS Taiwan, originally owned 100% of equity interests of ChipMOS Shanghai. ChipMOS and ChipMOS BVI entered into the Equity Interest Purchase Agreement and the Agreement for China-Foreign Joint Venture with each strategic investor respectively, such as Unigroup Guowei, an indirectly wholly owned subsidiary of Tsinghua Unigroup, and the limited partnership owned by ChipMOS Shanghai’s employees, selling 54.98% of equity interests of ChipMOS Shanghai at the price of around RMB 498.4 million to strategic investors including Unigroup Guowei and others, and the limited partnership owned by ChipMOS Shanghai’s employees (hereinafter collectively as “Purchasers”). After the consummation of such equity interest transfer, ChipMOS BVI will own 45.02% of equity interests of ChipMOS Shanghai, Unigroup Guowei will own 48% of equity interests of ChipMOS Shanghai, and other strategic investors and the limited partnership owned by ChipMOS Shanghai’s employees will own 6.98% of equity interests of ChipMOS Shanghai. ChipMOS BVI will increase capital to ChipMOS Shanghai, by the funds obtained from selling equity interests of ChipMOS Shanghai, with the Purchasers according to their respective shareholding ratio, and except the foregoing funds, ChipMOS BVI does not inject any additional funds to ChipMOS Shanghai. ChipMOS Shanghai is expected to gain additional cash of approximately RMB 1,074.0 million from a capital increase after the deal closes.

S.J. Cheng, Chairman of ChipMOS, added, “We have been steadily ramping production at ChipMOS Shanghai as part of a three-year capacity expansion plan, which is aligned with the increasing customer demand levels for semiconductor testing and assembly services in Mainland China and our goal of achieving sustainable profitability at ChipMOS Shanghai. Other than the US$42 millioncapital contribution invested and US$33 million bank loan facility secured formerly, the additional RMB 1,074.0 million capital contribution will help us achieve our targeted economies of scale and our long-term goals. We are also pleased as the joint-venture structure brings powerful strategic partners to ChipMOS Shanghai in a structure that will benefit all shareholders.”

Today, SEMI announced that Innovation Village at SEMICON Japan 2016 has been expanded with participation by 31 start-up companies. SEMICON Japan, held December 14-16 at Tokyo Big Sight in Tokyo, is already the largest and most important gathering of the electronics manufacturing supply chain in Japan. With added exhibition and programming for innovation in the expanded Innovation Village this year, attendees will gain access to early high-tech startups and strategic investors ─ the driving force for future growth of the electronics supply chain. Click here to register for SEMICON Japan exhibition and conference programs.

SEMICON Japan 2016 Innovation Village includes:

  • TechSTAGE Start-up Pitches: from 31 start-up companies including: Adawarprobotics (opensource library for telepresence robot), ArtifactNoise (environmental measurements), Inupathy (a smart communication device for dogs), Osaka University (plasma nanomanufacturing), PixieDust Technologies (ultrasonic waves to generate a sound point source in air), primesap (a smart remote nursing system), Simulatio (AI that processes both natural languages and formulas), Trybots (a penguin robot), Yamanashi Thin Film Technology Developments (zinc oxide films) and ZaaZ (a scent device for head mounted displays).
  • Tabletop exhibition area: start-ups will describe new ideas, technologies, products, and services with attendees.
  • Innovate Reception: results revealed from the pitch contest and a networking opportunity for start-up companies seeking investment capital or strategic industry partners.
  • IoT and Innovation Village Joint Session on “Manufacturing Startups Today”: with a keynote by Junichi Hasegawa of Preferred Networks on “Industrial Revolution Led by Deep Learning” and panel discussion ─ with CEO panelists from AgIC, BONX, and SORACOM ─ moderated by Ken Nishimura of AOL Online Japan.

Innovation Village attendees will gain key insights into new technologies and products, advanced research solutions, investment opportunities, as well as technology transfer and partnerships opportunities.

Osamu Nakamura, president of SEMI Japan, said, “Our industry is driven by innovation. During the four decades of SEMICON Japan history, continuous innovation has moved our industry forward. The Japan semiconductor industry has increased its diversity in processes and product portfolio as well. As we face unprecedented changes, the industry is in need of new innovations to enable us to serve the smart and creative world of today and tomorrow. This year’s Innovation Village at SEMICON Japan will help fuel our industry with new ideas.”

Register now for SEMICON Japan. For a detailed agenda ─ including keynotes, SuperTHEATER, TechSTAGE, IoT sessions, SEMI Market Forum, Sustainable Manufacturing, 200mm Market,  networking events, and standards meetings ─ please see the “SEMICON Japan Schedule-at-a-Glance.”

SEMICON Japan’s Innovation Village is sponsored by: DMM.com, Japan Venture Capital Association, JSR, Leave a Nest, Japan Research Institute, and Tokyo Ohka Kogyo.