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Gartner, Inc. this week highlighted the top strategic technology trends that will impact most organizations in 2018. Analysts presented their findings during Gartner Symposium/ITxpo, which took place through Thursday.

Gartner defines a strategic technology trend as one with substantial disruptive potential that is beginning to break out of an emerging state into broader impact and use, or which are rapidly growing trends with a high degree of volatility reaching tipping points over the next five years.

“Gartner’s top 10 strategic technology trends for 2018 tie into the Intelligent Digital Mesh. The intelligent digital mesh is a foundation for future digital business and ecosystems,” said David Cearley, vice president and Gartner Fellow. “IT leaders must factor these technology trends into their innovation strategies or risk losing ground to those that do.”

The first three strategic technology trends explore how artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are seeping into virtually everything and represent a major battleground for technology providers over the next five years. The next four trends focus on blending the digital and physical worlds to create an immersive, digitally enhanced environment. The last three refer to exploiting connections between an expanding set of people and businesses, as well as devices, content and services to deliver digital business outcomes.

The top 10 strategic technology trends for 2018 are:

AI Foundation
Creating systems that learn, adapt and potentially act autonomously will be a major battleground for technology vendors through at least 2020. The ability to use AI to enhance decision making, reinvent business models and ecosystems, and remake the customer experience will drive the payoff for digital initiatives through 2025.

“AI techniques are evolving rapidly and organizations will need to invest significantly in skills, processes and tools to successfully exploit these techniques and build AI-enhanced systems,” said Mr. Cearley. “Investment areas can include data preparation, integration, algorithm and training methodology selection, and model creation. Multiple constituencies including data scientists, developers and business process owners will need to work together.”

Intelligent Apps and Analytics
Over the next few years, virtually every app, application and service will incorporate some level of AI. Some of these apps will be obvious intelligent apps that could not exist without AI and machine learning. Others will be unobtrusive users of AI that provide intelligence behind the scenes. Intelligent apps create a new intelligent intermediary layer between people and systems and have the potential to transform the nature of work and the structure of the workplace.

“Explore intelligent apps as a way of augmenting human activity and not simply as a way of replacing people,” said Mr. Cearley. “Augmented analytics is a particularly strategic growing area which uses machine learning to automate data preparation, insight discovery and insight sharing for a broad range of business users, operational workers and citizen data scientists.”

AI has become the next major battleground in a wide range of software and service markets, including aspects of enterprise resource planning (ERP). Packaged software and service providers should outline how they’ll be using AI to add business value in new versions in the form of advanced analytics, intelligent processes and advanced user experiences.

Intelligent Things
Intelligent things are physical things that go beyond the execution of rigid programming models to exploit AI to deliver advanced behaviors and interact more naturally with their surroundings and with people. AI is driving advances for new intelligent things (such as autonomous vehicles, robots and drones) and delivering enhanced capability to many existing things (such as Internet of Things [IoT] connected consumer and industrial systems).

“Currently, the use of autonomous vehicles in controlled settings (for example, in farming and mining) is a rapidly growing area of intelligent things. We are likely to see examples of autonomous vehicles on limited, well-defined and controlled roadways by 2022, but general use of autonomous cars will likely require a person in the driver’s seat in case the technology should unexpectedly fail,” said Mr. Cearley. “For at least the next five years, we expect that semiautonomous scenarios requiring a driver will dominate. During this time, manufacturers will test the technology more rigorously, and the nontechnology issues such as regulations, legal issues and cultural acceptance will be addressed.” 

Digital Twin
A digital twin refers to the digital representation of a real-world entity or system. Digital twins in the context of IoT projects is particularly promising over the next three to five years and is leading the interest in digital twins today. Well-designed digital twins of assets have the potential to significantly improve enterprise decision making. These digital twins are linked to their real-world counterparts and are used to understand the state of the thing or system, respond to changes, improve operations and add value. Organizations will implement digital twins simply at first, then evolve them over time, improving their ability to collect and visualize the right data, apply the right analytics and rules, and respond effectively to business objectives.

“Over time, digital representations of virtually every aspect of our world will be connected dynamically with their real-world counterpart and with one another and infused with AI-based capabilities to enable advanced simulation, operation and analysis,” said Mr. Cearley. “City planners, digital marketers, healthcare professionals and industrial planners will all benefit from this long-term shift to the integrated digital twin world.”

Cloud to the Edge
Edge computing describes a computing topology in which information processing, and content collection and delivery, are placed closer to the sources of this information. Connectivity and latency challenges, bandwidth constraints and greater functionality embedded at the edge favors distributed models. Enterprises should begin using edge design patterns in their infrastructure architectures — particularly for those with significant IoT elements.

While many view cloud and edge as competing approaches, cloud is a style of computing where elastically scalable technology capabilities are delivered as a service and does not inherently mandate a centralized model.

“When used as complementary concepts, cloud can be the style of computing used to create a service-oriented model and a centralized control and coordination structure with edge being used as a delivery style allowing for disconnected or distributed process execution of aspects of the cloud service,” said Mr. Cearley.

Conversational Platforms
Conversational platforms will drive the next big paradigm shift in how humans interact with the digital world. The burden of translating intent shifts from user to computer. The platform takes a question or command from the user and then responds by executing some function, presenting some content or asking for additional input. Over the next few years, conversational interfaces will become a primary design goal for user interaction and be delivered in dedicated hardware, core OS features, platforms and applications.

“Conversational platforms have reached a tipping point in terms of understanding language and basic user intent, but they still fall short,” said Mr. Cearley. “The challenge that conversational platforms face is that users must communicate in a very structured way, and this is often a frustrating experience. A primary differentiator among conversational platforms will be the robustness of their conversational models and the application programming interface (API) and event models used to access, invoke and orchestrate third-party services to deliver complex outcomes.” 

Immersive Experience
While conversational interfaces are changing how people control the digital world, virtual, augmented and mixed reality are changing the way that people perceive and interact with the digital world. The virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) market is currently adolescent and fragmented. Interest is high, resulting in many novelty VR applications that deliver little real business value outside of advanced entertainment, such as video games and 360-degree spherical videos. To drive real tangible business benefit, enterprises must examine specific real-life scenarios where VR and AR can be applied to make employees more productive and enhance the design, training and visualization processes.

Mixed reality, a type of immersion that merges and extends the technical functionality of both AR and VR, is emerging as the immersive experience of choice providing a compelling technology that optimizes its interface to better match how people view and interact with their world. Mixed reality exists along a spectrum and includes head-mounted displays (HMDs) for augmented or virtual reality as well as smartphone and tablet-based AR and use of environmental sensors. Mixed reality represents the span of how people perceive and interact with the digital world.

Blockchain
Blockchain is evolving from a digital currency infrastructure into a platform for digital transformation. Blockchain technologies offer a radical departure from the current centralized transaction and record-keeping mechanisms and can serve as a foundation of disruptive digital business for both established enterprises and startups. Although the hype surrounding blockchains originally focused on the financial services industry, blockchains have many potential applications, including government, healthcare, manufacturing, media distribution, identity verification, title registry and supply chain. Although it holds long-term promise and will undoubtedly create disruption, blockchain promise outstrips blockchain reality, and many of the associated technologies are immature for the next two to three years.

Event Driven
Central to digital business is the idea that the business is always sensing and ready to exploit new digital business moments. Business events could be anything that is noted digitally, reflecting the discovery of notable states or state changes, for example, completion of a purchase order, or an aircraft landing. With the use of event brokers, IoT, cloud computing, blockchain, in-memory data management and AI, business events can be detected faster and analyzed in greater detail. But technology alone without cultural and leadership change does not deliver the full value of the event-driven model. Digital business drives the need for IT leaders, planners and architects to embrace event thinking.

Continuous Adaptive Risk and Trust
To securely enable digital business initiatives in a world of advanced, targeted attacks, security and risk management leaders must adopt a continuous adaptive risk and trust assessment (CARTA) approach to allow real-time, risk and trust-based decision making with adaptive responses. Security infrastructure must be adaptive everywhere, to embrace the opportunity — and manage the risks — that comes delivering security that moves at the speed of digital business.

As part of a CARTA approach, organizations must overcome the barriers between security teams and application teams, much as DevOps tools and processes overcome the divide between development and operations. Information security architects must integrate security testing at multiple points into DevOps workflows in a collaborative way that is largely transparent to developers, and preserves the teamwork, agility and speed of DevOps and agile development environments, delivering “DevSecOps.” CARTA can also be applied at runtime with approaches such as deception technologies. Advances in technologies such as virtualization and software-defined networking has made it easier to deploy, manage and monitor “adaptive honeypots” — the basic component of network-based deception.

Gartner clients can learn more in the Gartner Special Report “Top Strategic Technology Trends for 2018.” Additional detailed analysis on each tech trend can be found in the Smarter With Gartner article “Gartner Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2018.”

IC Insights recently released its September Update to The McClean Report.  This 32-page Update included a detailed look at the pure-play foundry market.  Shown below is an excerpt from the Update.

With the rise of fabless IC companies in China, demand for foundry services in that country has also increased.  Figure 1 shows IC Insights’ listing of the top pure-play foundries and their sales to China in 2016 and a forecast for 2017.  In total, pure-play foundry sales in China are expected to jump by 16% this year to about $7.0 billion, more than double the rate of increase for the total pure-play foundry market.  As shown, only about 10% of TSMC’s sales are forecast to go into China in 2017, yet the company is expected to hold the largest share of the China foundry market this year with a 46% share, up two percentage points from 2016.

Figure 1

Figure 1

The Chinese foundry market represented 11% of the total pure-play foundry market in 2015, 12% in 2016, and is forecast to hold a 13% share this year.  As a result of this growth, most pure-play foundries have made plans to locate or expand IC production in mainland China over the next few years. TSMC, GlobalFoundries, UMC, Powerchip, and, most recently, TowerJazz have announced plans to boost their China-based wafer fabrication production.  Most of these new China-based foundry wafer fabs are scheduled to come online in late 2017 or in 2018.  UMC began 40nm production at its 300mm joint venture China fab in November of 2016 and the company is planning to introduce 28nm technology into the fab in the second half of this year with additional expansion plans to come through the end of the decade.

It is well known that China is striving to develop an indigenous semiconductor industry but gaining access to the manufacturing technology has become increasingly difficult.  As a result, many China IC companies and government entities have structured joint ventures or partnerships with foundry companies in order to access leading manufacturing technology.  The partnerships give Chinese companies much needed access to production capacity using first-rate manufacturing technology and provide the foundries with an ongoing market presence and revenue stream within China.

Examples of pure-play foundries that are working to set up new manufacturing plants in China include,

•    UMC is working with Fujian Jin Hua IC Company to construct a 300mm wafer fab in Fujian, China to manufacture DRAM using 32nm process technology developed by UMC.

•    GlobalFoundries joined with the Chengdu Government in 1Q17 to begin building a 300mm wafer fab that will manufacture ICs using mainstream 130nm and 180nm processes.  Completion is set for early 2018.

•    TSMC started construction on a wholly owned $3 billion fab in Nanjing, China that will serve as a foundry that manufactures ICs using 16nm technology.  Production is scheduled to begin in 2H18.

•    TowerJazz signed an agreement with Tacoma Semiconductor to construct a 200mm wafer fab, also in Nanjing, China.  TowerJazz will have access to 50% of the capacity.  Tacoma is responsible for the entire investment of the project.

The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) today announced worldwide sales of semiconductors reached $35.0 billion for the month of August 2017, an increase of 23.9 percent compared to the August 2016 total of $28.2 billion and 4.0 percent more than the July 2017 total of $33.6 billion. All major regional markets posted both year-to-year and month-to-month increases in August, and the Americas market led the way with growth of 39.0 percent year-to-year and 8.8 percent month-to-month. All monthly sales numbers are compiled by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization and represent a three-month moving average.

“Global semiconductor sales were up significantly in August, increasing year-to-year for the thirteenth consecutive month and reaching $35 billion for the first time,” said John Neuffer, president and CEO, Semiconductor Industry Association. “Sales in August increased across the board, with every major regional market and semiconductor product category posting gains on a month-to-month and year-to-year basis. Memory products continue be a major driver of overall market growth, but sales were up even without memory in August.”

Year-to-year sales increased in the Americas (39.0 percent), China (23.3 percent), Asia Pacific/All Other (19.5 percent), Europe (18.8 percent), and Japan (14.3 percent). Month-to-month sales increased in the Americas (8.8 percent), China (3.7 percent), Japan (2.8 percent), Asia Pacific/All Other (2.2 percent), and Europe (0.6 percent).

“With about half of global market share, the U.S. semiconductor industry is the worldwide leader, but U.S. companies face intense global competition,” said Neuffer. “To allow our industry to continue to grow and innovate here at home, policymakers in Washington should enact corporate tax reform that makes the U.S. tax system more competitive with other countries. The corporate tax reform framework released last week by leaders in Congress and the Trump Administration is an important step forward. We look forward to working with policymakers to enact corporate tax reform that strengthens our industry and the U.S. economy.”

Aug 2017

Billions

Month-to-Month Sales                              

Market

Last Month

Current Month

% Change

Americas

6.94

7.55

8.8%

Europe

3.20

3.22

0.6%

Japan

3.04

3.13

2.8%

China

10.68

11.08

3.7%

Asia Pacific/All Other

9.77

9.98

2.2%

Total

33.63

34.96

4.0%

Year-to-Year Sales                         

Market

Last Year

Current Month

% Change

Americas

5.43

7.55

39.0%

Europe

2.71

3.22

18.8%

Japan

2.73

3.13

14.3%

China

8.99

11.08

23.3%

Asia Pacific/All Other

8.35

9.98

19.5%

Total

28.22

34.96

23.9%

Three-Month-Moving Average Sales

Market

Mar/Apr/May

Jun/Jul/Aug

% Change

Americas

6.27

7.55

20.5%

Europe

3.11

3.22

3.8%

Japan

2.95

3.13

6.0%

China

10.25

11.08

8.1%

Asia Pacific/All Other

9.43

9.98

5.9%

Total

31.99

34.96

9.3%

Cree names Gregg Lowe as CEO


September 25, 2017

Cree, Inc. (Nasdaq: CREE) announces the appointment of Gregg Lowe as president and chief executive officer and to the board of directors of Cree, effective September 27. Mr. Lowe succeeds Chuck Swoboda, per the transition plan announced in May. Coincident with this change, Robert Ingram, current board member and lead independent director of Cree, will assume the position of chairman of the board. Mr. Swoboda will remain on the board until the annual meeting of shareholders on October 24.

Mr. Lowe joins Cree with extensive leadership and deep industry experience. From 2012 through 2015, he served as president and CEO of Freescale Semiconductor, a $5 billion company with 17,000 employees and products serving automotive, industrial, consumer and communications markets. Prior to that, he had a long career spanning 28 years at Texas Instruments, most recently serving as senior vice president and leader of the analog business.

“Gregg is an exceptional leader and a proven visionary in the semiconductor industry. We are proud that he has accepted the CEO position and is prepared to lead this innovative, technology-rich company into the future,” said Robert Ingram, board chairman of Cree.

“I want to thank Chuck Swoboda for guiding this company for the past sixteen years. His leadership helped solidify Cree as an industry leader in multiple businesses,” stated Gregg Lowe, CEO of Cree. “Cree’s innovation engine is unmatched in the industry. I am honored to be a part of this team and look forward to working with the employees and the board to establish and execute a clear vision for the company moving forward.”

In addition to his experience with semiconductor companies, Mr. Lowe also holds numerous board positions including Silicon Labs in Austin, Texas; Baylor Healthcare System in Dallas, Texas; and The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, where he co-chairs the education committee for the board.

Mr. Lowe holds a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and has completed the executive program at Stanford University. He is the recipient of the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Career Achievement Award honoring both his accomplishments in the semiconductor industry as well as his community service. Additionally, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Engineering from the Institute in 2014.

Cree is an innovator of lighting-class LEDs, lighting products and Wolfspeed™ power and radio frequency (RF) semiconductors.

Upbeat about the growth prospects of Taiwan’s electronics sector, more than 45,000 visitors are expected to attend SEMICON Taiwan 2017 which opens tomorrow at Taipei’s Nangang Exhibition Center.  SEMICON Taiwan (September 13-15), the premier tradeshow and event for the electronics manufacturing supply chain, aims to connect the electronics manufacturing ecosystem─ both vertically and horizontally. The event will provide an overview of market trends and leading technologies in the industry, with forums and business-matching activities which will enable collaboration and new opportunities. The three-day event features 700 exhibitors covering over 1,800 booths.

Taiwan is forecast to spend US$12.3 billion in 2017, making it the second largest fab equipment spending region, according to the SEMI World Fab Forecast report just issued.  Taiwan is home to the leading share of the world’s IC foundry, and has the largest share of installed capacity ─ more than 20 percent. With 2017’s large semiconductor equipment investment, Taiwan’s semiconductor industry is booming and is also the world’s largest consumer of semiconductor materials ($9.8 billion in 2016) for the seventh consecutive year, bringing new opportunities in this increasingly critical sector.

Covering the hottest electronics topics like smart manufacturing and automation, high-tech facility, materials, laser, and emerging semiconductor technology, more than 70 presentations will be given on TechXPOT stages, providing the latest technology updates plus opportunities to meet potential partners and customers. To further connect attendees and exhibitors, SEMICON Taiwan will facilitate a series of networking events, like the Materials, High-Tech Facility, Laser, and Smart Manufacturing “Get Togethers” and the Supplier Search Program, creating business opportunities.

This year SEMICON Taiwan has added new theme pavilions including Circular Economy, Compound Semiconductor, Laser, and Opto Semiconductor.  In addition, 12 theme pavilions and eight country/region pavilions are featured.

This is the first year that the International Test Conference (ITC) will be co-located with SEMICON Taiwan 2017, also marking the first time that ITC is held in Asia. The conference will focus on the rapid growth of emerging applications like IoT and automotive electronics, and how testing technologies are challenged by rapid advancements of manufacturing processes, 3D stacking and SiP.

Also co-located with SEMICON Taiwan 2017, the SiP Global Summit will discuss three key system-in-package topics:

  •  Package Innovation in Automotive
  •  3D IC, 3D interconnection for AI and High-end Computing
  •  Innovative Embedded Substrate and Fan-Out Technology to Enable 3D-SiP Devices

The Jing Jing Lucky Draw is always an anticipated show activity with excellent prizes like the Dyson 3-in-1 smart fan, iPad Pro, and Nintendo Switch.

For more information about SEMICON Taiwan 2017, please visit http://www.semicontaiwan.org.

The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), representing U.S. leadership in semiconductor manufacturing, design, and research, today announced worldwide sales of semiconductors reached $97.9 billion during the second quarter of 2017, an increase of 5.8 percent over the previous quarter and 23.7 percent more than the second quarter of 2016. Global sales for the month of June 2017 reached $32.6 billion, an uptick of 2.0 percent over last month’s total of $32.0 billion, and a surge of 23.7 percent compared to the June 2016 total of $26.4 billion. Cumulatively, year-to-date sales during the first half of 2017 were 20.8 percent higher than they were at the same point in 2016. All monthly sales numbers are compiled by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization and represent a three-month moving average.

“The global semiconductor industry has enjoyed impressive sales growth midway through 2017, posting its highest-ever quarterly sales in Q2 and record monthly sales in June,” said John Neuffer, president and CEO, Semiconductor Industry Association. “Sales into the Americas market were particularly robust in June, and all regional markets saw growth of at least 18 percent year-over-year. Conditions are favorable for continued market growth in the months ahead.”

Regionally, sales increased compared to June 2016 in the Americas (33.4 percent), China (25.5 percent), Asia Pacific/All Other (19.5 percent), Europe (18.3 percent), and Japan (18.0 percent). Sales also were up across all regions compared to last month: the Americas (5.1 percent), Europe (1.9 percent), China (1.5 percent), Japan (1.0 percent), and Asia Pacific/All Other (0.8 percent).

June 2017

Billions

Month-to-Month Sales                              

Market

Last Month

Current Month

% Change

Americas

6.27

6.59

5.1%

Europe

3.11

3.16

1.9%

Japan

2.95

2.98

1.0%

China

10.25

10.41

1.5%

Asia Pacific/All Other

9.43

9.50

0.8%

Total

32.00

32.64

2.0%

Year-to-Year Sales                         

Market

Last Year

Current Month

% Change

Americas

4.94

6.59

33.4%

Europe

2.68

3.16

18.3%

Japan

2.52

2.98

18.0%

China

8.29

10.41

25.5%

Asia Pacific/All Other

7.95

9.50

19.5%

Total

26.38

32.64

23.7%

Three-Month-Moving Average Sales

Market

Jan/Feb/Mar

Apr/May/Jun

% Change

Americas

5.96

6.59

10.5%

Europe

2.96

3.16

7.1%

Japan

2.84

2.98

4.8%

China

10.06

10.41

3.4%

Asia Pacific/All Other

9.02

9.50

5.4%

Total

30.84

32.64

5.8%

Rudolph Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: RTEC) announced today that it has received an order for a JetStep G lithography system from a second customer in China for pilot line manufacturing of next-generation AMOLED (active-matrix organic light-emitting diode) displays.

The use of AMOLED displays in smartphones and wearables is growing rapidly because of their superior performance and form factor. Given the wide variety and rapid proliferation of consumer devices, an R&D or pilot line facility that can quickly and cost-effectively implement new processes allows manufacturers to bring new products to market faster. As these products continue to evolve, the need persists for low-power, low-cost, and conformity. Rudolph’s lithography solutions provide customers with the ability to develop these new processes with lower tooling costs and quicker product change-over.

Elvino da Silveira, vice president of marketing at Rudolph Technologies, said, “The AMOLED panel market is currently experiencing rapid growth, and in fact, UBI Research expects it to grow by close to 40 percent on an annual basis until 2020. We are seeing more and more companies enter this market by developing their own intellectual property, especially in China.”

“Customers continue to invest in Rudolph’s unique lithography solution for their R&D and pilot lines because it enables them to prove-out new processes more easily and at lower cost,” da Silveira continued. “The JetStep system is especially beneficial in pilot line environments where there is a high level of product change-over and pressure to minimize cost. A JetStep mask set, for example, is a fraction of the cost of a mask set for scanner-based photolithography tools, making it an ideal choice for new product development.”

The JetStep G lithography system addresses the AMOLED displays’ requirement for higher performance transistors by delivering finer resolution and tighter overlay. Additionally, the proprietary real-time magnification compensation and autofocus capabilities enable flexible substrate lithography. These capabilities are exactly what FPD manufacturers in China are looking for as they invest in capacity for next-generation AMOLED. Beyond the technology, Chinese manufacturers are looking for comprehensive and localized services. Rudolph is expanding capabilities in this area through the use of localized partnerships.

“With these technological advantages and local presence, we are poised to capture orders from additional China-based manufacturers,” da Silveira concluded.

As the global TV market continues to struggle with unit volume growth overall in 2017 — now projected to decline for the second year in a row — attention has turned to the most profitable market segments. This includes larger screen sizes and advanced technologies like OLED, quantum dots, 4K and HDR, each of which helps boost average selling prices and profits. In fact, OLED TV revenues are forecast to grow 71 percent year-over-year in 2017, while 4K TV revenues will increase 31 percent year-over-year, according to IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO). A number of brands have adopted OLED technology into their TV lineups in 2017, including Sony, joining LG Electronics, the primary promoter of OLED.

In 2016, the share of TV shipments at $1,000 and higher price points amounted to 5 percent of units, but more than 20 percent of dollars. Largely this is driven by the rapid share growth of 4K, especially at the largest screen sizes, where the retail premium for 4K has held remarkably steady without impacting average size growth.

Within the $1,000 and higher market segment, OLED TV share has grown significantly during the past eight quarters, from 2.4 percent in first quarter 2015 to 13.8 percent in first quarter 2017. Looking forward, IHS Markit is forecasting OLED TV shipments to grow from 723k units in 2016, to 6.6 million units in 2021. However, due to the very high average selling price of OLED, the unit share of the $1,000-plus market will increase to a peak of 59 percent in 2019, before declining as 8K LCD TVs begin shipping with very high prices as well.

The average selling price of a 4K OLED TV in 2017, forecast at $2,247,  is nearly 6 times greater than the average LCD TV, and three times greater when looking at just the 50-inch-plus and larger size category. However, the introduction of quantum dot enabled LCD TVs more directly competes with OLED TVs at the highest price points. Quantum dot LCD TVs are expected to account for 4 percent of LCD TV shipments in 2017, rising to 15 percent by 2021, and exceeding OLED TV shipments in the process. Samsung is the dominant brand in the quantum dot LCD TV category, accounting for 90 percent of shipments in first quarter 2017.

By 2020, 8K LCD TVs will have launched in all regions, primarily at 65-inch and 75-inch screen sizes. At the early introduction stages, 65-inch 8K LCD TVs will carry a 35 percent premium against 65-inch 4K OLED TVs, but gradually reduce as capacity rapidly increases in LCD fabs optimized for 65-inch-plus screen sizes.

Seoul Semiconductor Co., Ltd. (KOSDAQ 046890) today announced consolidated second-quarter revenues of KRW 267 billion. The rise in consolidated revenue came from strong sales in general lighting and strengths across all divisions within the company. The year over year rise in automotive lighting sales proved highly profitable for the company.

For the lighting division, while the differentiated product such as Wicop and Acrich increased in great proportion, automotive exterior lamps, e.g. daytime running lights and headlights continued their fast-paced growth. Automotive lighting is an area of high entry barriers due to high technology requirements and intellectual properties. Seoul expects to gain further market share with its differentiated Wicop technology. For the IT division, current customers expanding their product line-ups and new customer acquisitions were the main drivers for the rising sales figures.

To improve share price stability and increase shareholder value, Seoul announced plans to almost double its future dividends, based on the fact that its current level of pay-out is half the industry average and an increase up to the industry average is necessary. In addition, the company has sufficient cash generation capabilities since it has booked above 20% gains in EBITDA, leaving sufficient funds available for future investments. This was part of Seoul’s last quarter’s announcement to execute a KRW 10 billion share buyback program.

Company outlook

The company has provided revenue guidance of KRW 260 to 280 billion for the third quarter. The company plans to further strengthen its sales and marketing activities for its unique technologies including Acrich and Wicop and focus on acquiring more customers to reach new heights with respect to earnings.

The company’s Chief Financial Officer Sangbum Lee stated that SunLike, a new LED technology that produces light closely matching the spectrum of natural sunlight, unveiled at a press conference in Frankfurt, Germany in June, had been very well received with great interest from global customers. The company plans to launch additional new products during the remainder of the year and focus on protecting intellectual properties owned by the company.

Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: VECO) announced today that CrayoNano AS, research company for ultraviolet short wavelength light emitting diodes (UV-C LEDs), has ordered the Propel Power Gallium Nitride (GaN) Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) System. CrayoNano will use the system to grow semiconductor nanowires on graphene for water disinfection, air purification, food processing and life science applications.

UV-C LEDs are free of harmful mercury compared to typically 20-200 milligrams of mercury found in traditional UV lamps used in these applications. They also require minimal energy to operate and have longer life cycles compared to other purification and disinfection lighting methods. The value of the global market for UV-C LEDs used in sterilization and purification equipment is growing at a CAGR of 56% from US$28 million in 2016 to US$257 million in 2021, according to the 2016~2021 UV LED and IR LED Application Market Report by LEDinside, a division of TrendForce.

“We see enormous opportunity in our focused markets and we need superior MOCVD technology to accomplish our goals,” said Mr. Morten Froseth, Chief Executive Officer, CrayoNano. “Veeco’s Propel system offers us the unique opportunity to scale to 200 mm graphene wafer sizes while maintaining superior uniformity, low manufacturing costs and long run campaigns.”

Veeco’s Propel Power GaN MOCVD system is capable of processing single 200 mm wafers or smaller (e.g., two-inch) in batch mode. The system is based on Veeco’s TurboDisc® technology including the IsoFlange™ and SymmHeat™ breakthrough technologies, which provide homogeneous laminar flow and uniform temperature profile across each wafer, up to 200 mm in size.

“The Propel Power GaN system is the best choice to deposit advanced GaN-based structures, including complex semiconductor nanowires on graphene substrates with strict process demands,” said Peo Hansson, Ph.D., Veeco’s Senior Vice President, General Manager, MOCVD. “Our Propel system offers industry leading uniformity and process cycle time, therefore providing superior productivity compared to other technologies. As a global supplier of MOCVD systems, we look forward to supporting CrayoNano and their research activities.”