Tag Archives: letter-mems-business

Semiconductor equipment manufacturer ClassOne Technology announced that X-FAB — recently named “MEMS Foundry of the Year” — has just purchased a new Solstice S8 Electroplating System. The 8-chamber, fully-automated tool will be installed at the X-FAB facility in Erfurt, Germany.

“X-FAB selected ClassOne from a field of major equipment vendors after an in-depth evaluation that compared plating technology, price and overall value,” said Win Carpenter, ClassOne’s V.P. of Global Sales. “X-FAB was particularly interested in process performance, so our advanced and flexible chamber design gave ClassOne a strong advantage.”

“We see the MEMS market growing significantly,” said Kevin Witt, ClassOne’s V.P. of Technology. “However, one of the fundamental challenges is that MEMS users need to be cost sensitive, so they generally cannot afford the large, expensive tools that were developed for CMOS technology. This is why Solstice has become very attractive to many emerging markets like MEMS: It gives them the advanced processing technology they want at a price they can afford.”

ClassOne Technology introduced its Solstice family in 2014 as a high-performance yet cost-efficient electroplating solution for users of ≤200mm wafers, in MEMS and many other emerging markets. Solstice systems are priced at less than half of what similarly configured plating systems from the larger manufacturers would cost — which is why Solstice has been described as “Advanced Plating for the Rest of Us.” These tools can electroplate many different metals and alloys in a broad spectrum of processes, either on transparent or opaque substrates. Solstice models are available for development use as well as for fully-automated, cassette-to-cassette production, with throughput of up to 75 wph. ClassOne also supports customers with world-class process development, deployment and service around the globe.

X-FAB Semiconductor Foundries, with headquarters in Erfurt, Germany, is one of the industry’s leading analog/mixed-signal and MEMS foundry groups, manufacturing silicon wafers for automotive, industrial, consumer, medical and other applications. Its worldwide customers utilize X-FAB’s modular CMOS processes in geometries ranging from 1.0 to 0.18 µm, and its special BCD, SOI and MEMS long-lifetime processes. The company operates five production facilities in Germany, Malaysia and the U.S.

ORBOTECH LTD. today announced that SPTS Technologies Group Ltd. (SPTS), an Orbotech company and supplier of advanced wafer processing solutions, has sold its Thermal Products business to SPP Technologies Co, Ltd. (SPT), a subsidiary of Sumitomo Precision Products Co., Ltd. SPT specializes in the production, sales and support of micro electromechanical systems (MEMS) and semiconductor related process equipment. The transaction includes sale of all thermal product lines and virtually all worldwide assets of SPTS’s Thermal Product business, and will involve approximately fifty SPTS employees worldwide, who are currently engaged in the Thermal Products business, becoming employees of SPT. 

Kevin Crofton, President of SPTS and Corporate Vice President at Orbotech said: “Historically, the Thermal Products business has been part of SPTS’s growth and success, with a range of production-proven vertical batch furnaces that continue to be the process tools of choice at leading semiconductor fabs around the world.  Divestment at this time, however, will benefit SPTS by enabling us to focus resources on our core Advanced Packaging, MEMS, RF and Power devices businesses.  We believe this sale will provide new opportunities for the Thermal Products business under the ownership of SPT, and we wish them continued achievement and success.”

Toshihiro Hayami, President of SPT, said: “This acquisition will allow us to expand the product portfolio that we offer our customers, create a footprint in the global semiconductor capital equipment industry and establish a worldwide presence for our company. We expect the Thermal Products business to contribute to the success of SPT and look forward to new product development activities related to this business in its current and adjacent markets.”

SPT acquired the assets of the Thermal Products business based on a valuation of approximately $28 million, comprised of $22 million in cash plus approximately $6 million in accounts receivable. Half of the cash was paid on completion and the balance will be paid in 2016, without any performance conditions. Orbotech intends to use the net proceeds to repay a portion of the amount outstanding under its credit facilities.  The sale does not materially affect Orbotech’s expectations for its financial performance in the second half of 2015 or its long term business model.

“Growing photolithography equipment markets in advanced packaging, MEMS and LEDs are attracting new players; but they have to navigate complex roadmaps,” announced Yole Développement (Yole). Under its new report, Yole’s analysts announce a projection system market for advanced packaging, MEMS and LEDs reaching more than US$150M in 2014. To perform this report, they interviewed leaders and outsiders of this market such as SUSS MicroTec, ASML, EV Group, Rudolph Technologies, USHIO. They analyzed their market positioning and their technical solutions.

Within a highly competitive and innovative environment, Yole’s analysis shows, at first glance, some similarities between “More Moore” and “More than Moore”. However the analysis is more complex.

“Photolithography Equipment & Materials for Advanced Packaging, MEMS and LED Applications” analysis provides a comprehensive overview of all the key lithography technologies used in advanced packaging, MEMS and LED applications and benchmarks them in terms of feature requirements. Yole’s analysts provide examples of lithography process steps for these applications. In parallel, Yole’s report describes associated technological breakthroughs and manufacturing process. More insights are included on specific lithography equipment tools for advanced packaging, MEMS and LED devices.

illus_lithography_market_yole_june2015

The semiconductor industry is very often identified by its “More Moore” players, driven by technology downscaling and cost reduction. There is one clear leader supplying photolithography tools to the “More Moore” industry: ASML, based in The Netherlands. The company proposes lithography equipment with $10M unit price and incredible optics, mechanics and precision stage in order to reach sub 20nm precision (Latest announcement from ASML, April 2015). ASML is followed by two Japanese outsiders, Nikon and Canon.

“Providing this market with photolithography equipment is highly complex and there are gigantic barriers to market entry,” asserted Claire Troadec, Technology & Market Analyst, Semiconductor Manufacturing at Yole. Enormous R&D investments are required as the key features to print shrink ever further. Also, the tolerances specified are very aggressive and thus equipment complexity keeps on increasing.

In the “More than Moore” industry the Holy Grail isn’t downscaling any more – it is adding functionality: according to Yole’s analysis, there are two clear leaders today: SUSS MicroTec (Latest order: lithography tools from TDK, Feb. 2015) in the MEMS and sensors industry, and Ultratech in the advanced packaging industry. Both players are closely followed by the following outsiders, EV Group, Rudolph Technologies and USHIO.

“But the similarities between both worlds, are only superficial,” commented Amandine Pizzagalli, Technology & Market Analyst, Advanced Packaging & Semiconductor Manufacturing at Yole. “Indeed market entry barrier is much lower in the “More than Moore” market. Equipment in the Advanced Packaging, MEMS and LEDs industries is less complex but customer adoption needs are higher, which leads to a much broader photolithography landscape,” she added.

The photolithography market structure for these three industries is very different compared to the “More Moore”, or mainstream semiconductor, industry. New entrants can penetrate these markets with a good knowledge of the technological building blocks. But the key to success is to adapt the equipment to the specific customer’s needs. That means that these markets are complex to develop and that they take a long time to penetrate.

To develop their knowledge and expand their range of products, some players entered through acquisition. Rudolph Technologies acquired Azores Corp. in 2012 to enter the advanced packaging photolithography equipment arena. Also in 2012, SUSS MicroTec acquired Tamarack Scientific Co. Inc. to enlarge its semiconductor back end photolithography equipment market.

Others like Orbotech, which acquired a leading MEMS and advanced packaging company, SPTS, is today only present in substrate and PCB direct imaging.

in this report, competition trends are carefully analyzed and presented as a competitive landscape and competitive analysis of the major equipment and materials suppliers involved in Advanced Packaging, MEMS and LED applications. Finally, a section is also dedicated to disruptive technologies such as LDI, laser ablation and nanoimprint lithography, which could reshape the lithography landscape in the future. Yole describes possible reshaping scenarios are described, including acquisitions, mergers, and joint ventures, along with their anticipated impact on the global photolithography market.

United Microelectronics Corporation, a global semiconductor foundry, today announced it has collaborated with ARM to tape out a process qualification vehicle (PQV) test chip on UMC’s 14nm FinFET technology to help validate an ARM Cortex-A family core on the advanced foundry process node. The 14nm cooperation expands on the two companies’ successful effort to develop and offer ARM Artisan Physical IP on UMC’s volume production 28nm High-K/Metal Gate process.

The validation of the UMC 14nm FinFET process technology kickstarts the enablement process for the rest of IP ecosystem needed for UMC’s FinFET technology, including the need for foundation IP and ARM processor physical design.

“ARM and UMC share a long history of successful collaboration through multiple technology generations,” said Will Abbey, general manager, physical design group, ARM. “We are highly encouraged by the test chip tape-out of a Cortex-A family core using UMC’s 14nm FinFet process. ARM will continue its close partnership with UMC during the development of this advanced process node.”

“As UMC prepares to make available our 14nm FinFET process to customers, it is important that we build a strong design support foundation to enhance our overall 14nm platform offering,” said Steve Wang, vice president of UMC’s IP and Design Support division. “ARM is a world-leading provider of advanced IP for leading-edge processes and we are excited to expand upon our past successes with them to develop Artisan Physical IP and Cortex-based solutions for our 14nm technology.”

UMC’s 14nm FinFET process has already demonstrated favorable 128mb SRAM yields and is expected to be ready for customer tape-out by late 2015.

Fan-in WLP is experiencing continuous growth and attracting new applications, according to Yole Développement’s (Yole) latest report “Fan-in Wafer Level Packaging: Market & Technology Trends.” Indeed fan-in WLP technology confirms its presence on the semiconductor market with indisputable benefits linked to cost and form factor. Technology innovation continues and widens the sphere of possibilities of fan-in WLP solutions.
“Fan-in Wafer Level Packaging: Market & Technology Trends” report proposes a deep analysis of the fan-in WLP technology trends with a dedicated roadmap and an overview of latest technical innovations. Under this report, the “More than Moore” market research and strategy consulting company, Yole, also reviews the potential disruptions including new market drivers, infrastructure, expanding business models, new entries, competing packaging solutions, and analyzes the impact on the supply chain.

Although seemingly out of the spotlight, fan-in Wafer Level Packages (WLP) remain a highly important and constant presence with unmatchable advantages in cost and form factor. Fan-in WLP holds 16 percent of the total number of packages, while serving 4.4 percent of the wafer market at only 1.5 percent of the total semiconductor revenue.

“Fan-in WLP is forecasted to continue a stable growth, with a market of $5.3B in 2014 and a CAGR between 2014 and 2020 of 7 percent,” explained Andrej Ivankovic, Technology & Market Analyst, in the Advanced Packaging and Semiconductor Manufacturing team, at Yole. And he added: “The total wafer count in 300mm equivalent wafers is reaching 4 million with a projected CAGR of 8 percent while the unit number is found at 36 billion with a projected CAGR of 9 percent.”

Throughout the past few years, MEMS and CMOS image sensors have been increasing their share compared to analog, mixed signal and digital ICs and are now accounting for more than 50 percent of the total revenue.

The leading applications by wafer demand in the analog/mixed signal/digital domain are BT+WiFi+FM combos and RF transceivers followed by PMU, audio/video codecs, DC/DC converters, ESD/EMI IPD. MEMS devices are led by digital compasses, RF filters, accelerometers and gyroscopes. CMOS image sensors are strongly positioned in 2nd place by overall fan-in application rankings. In total 41 applications and their evolution are analyzed in more depth within Yole’s report. Yole’s data include breakdowns of MEMS, CMOS image sensors and analog, mixed signal and digital devices.

From a technology viewpoint, innovation continues in order to extend fan-in WLP capability, as summarized in Yole’s figure below.

fan in wlp fig 1

Click to view full size.

“Current bump pitch in high volume is mostly at 0.4mm with 0.35mm already present as well. Particular effort is being made to increase the die size and I/O count” says Santosh Kumar, Senior Technology & Market research analyst, Advanced Packaging and Semiconductor Manufacturing at Yole. Max I/O count in high volume is heading above 200 and announcements have been made for high volume production up to 800 I/Os. The die size sweet spot ranges up to 7mm x 7mm with 8mm x 8mm and 9mm x 9mm qualified and ready.

Yole’s technology & market analysis contains an in-depth analysis on the outlook for bump pitch, die size, I/O count, minimum line width/space, package thickness, RDL dielectric materials, who is developing which technology and the main challenges to be overcome for the evolution of fan-in technology. Fan-in WLP is still on track of technology innovation.

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By Yann Guillou, Business Development Manager, SEMI Europe

Based on a need expressed by MEMS industry actors and with their strong support, SEMI has chosen to transform its MEMS Networking Tech Seminar and the MEMS Industry Forum of SEMICON Europa into a much larger, combined conference/exhibition event called the European MEMS Summit, giving actors in MEMS a worthy stage to showcase and talk about technology, business and applications. The first edition of this Summit will take place on September 17-18, 2015 in Milan, Italy and its theme will be “Sensing the Planet, MEMS for Life.”

With a stellar lineup of speakers, SEMI is hoping to cover the spectrum of issues pressing the MEMS industry today. The two-day program will be broken up into five segments, one dealing with the market and business, another with MEMS technology and three sessions appealing to the application of MEMS technology in consumer goods and wearables, the automotive industry and the Internet of Things.

Keynote speakers will include high-level representatives of MEMS giants Bosch Sensortec and STMicroelectronics as well as the largest MEMS fabless, InvenSense, and the largest IC foundry, TSMC. Be ready to hear “Smart” “Things” about “Sensors” and “MEMS” during their presentations titled:

  • Smart Systems for IoT, STMicroelectronics
  • Building Smart Sensors for a Connected World, TSMC
  • Internet of Sensors, InvenSense
  • MEMS Sensors: Enabler for the IOT, Bosch Sensortec

Attendees will leave the Summit with a better understanding of the evolution of MEMS in the marketplace and of the technological advances in MEMS and sensors.

MEMS foundries such as X-FAB and Tronics Microsystems will share their perspectives about the new challenges facing the industry and business opportunities. Focusing on the dynamics in China, SITRI will explain why it is critical to build a domestic MEMS business and will invite companies to revisit the Chinese market as a strategic element in their global business strategy.

Technology-wise, Yole Developpement will inform attendees about what to expect in the near future and how MEMS are contributing to sensing our world. Continuing with a technology focus, LETI will present the key emerging enabling technologies for MEMS they are developing. Focusing on thin film PZT materials, STMicroelectronics will explain how promising these materials are for actuators, opening a complete new field of applications. Covering packaging, ASE will address the integration aspect with flexible integration solutions enabling cost effecting HVM solutions.

The application sessions will give attendees an in-depth view of the new realm of opportunities open to those who develop MEMS technology. ARM will explain their strategy for IoT. Sensirion will describe the key success factors, addressing for instance the monolithic integration to enhance the miniaturization of the sensors. ams AG will present brand-new achievements in environmental sensor products while Infineon will talk about innovation in sensors for consumer products. IHS will highlight the changes in the automotive MEMS market and supplier landscape. Freescale and a few other companies will present their perspectives on this changing automotive landscape.

In addition, the event will present attendees with a chance to network in a dynamic and professional setting tailored to executives and engineers working in and for the MEMS industry. Milan will definitively be the city to visit in 2015 with the European MEMS Summit and the Universal Exposition taking place in the capital of Lombardi.

Rudolph Technologies, Inc. announced today that the MEMS company, Robert Bosch GmbH, has selected Rudolph to supply several different configurations of its F30 Inspection System for various steps in the front- and back-end fabrication processes of micro electrical mechanical systems (MEMS) devices. This win represents increasing business with tools beginning to ship in the second quarter 2015.

“We are thrilled that Bosch selected Rudolph’s inspection solutions for a variety of critical consumer goods and automotive applications,” said Mike Goodrich, vice president and general manager of Rudolph’s Inspection Business Unit. “The configurability of one base tool paired with a variety of high volume manufacturing (HVM)-proven handling options provides Bosch with the flexibility to apply these tools across numerous applications, improving overall tool utilization. Bosch’s challenge was handling the wide variety of substrates used in complex MEMS processes and we were able to meet their needs, providing handling solutions for frameless, ultrathin, film-frame and thicker non-traditional substrates.”

The MEMS industry is expanding, according to Yole Développement, and Bosch has experienced noteworthy growth in the past years. Zero defects is critical for the MEMS application of automotive sensors. The F30 system’s high speed and high sensitivity give the ability to free up expensive micro tools and focus on throughput and sampling inspection.

“A critical deciding factor for Bosch was the fact that Rudolph goes beyond traditional inspection by not only detecting defects but automatically classifying data so customers can quickly eliminate the source of the defect,” Goodrich added. “Our integrated software solutions will help Bosch meet the stringent automotive quality standards by enabling full characterization of the inspection data, resulting in high productivity and demonstrable quality.”

“It is rewarding to see that our customers value the R&D investments we made to elevate the value of our inspection solutions,” said Mike Plisinski, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Rudolph. “We see an increased demand for more intelligent process control solutions as pressure on quality and time-to-market continue to increase for our customers.”

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North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $1.56 billion in orders worldwide in May 2015 (three-month average basis) and a book-to-bill ratio of 0.99, according to the May EMDS Book-to-Bill Report published today by SEMI.   A book-to-bill of 0.99 means that $99 worth of orders were received for every $100 of product billed for the month.

SEMI reports that the three-month average of worldwide bookings in May 2015 was $1.56 billion. The bookings figure is 0.8 percent lower than the final April 2015 level of $1.57 billion, and is 11.0 percent higher than the May 2014 order level of $1.41 billion.

The three-month average of worldwide billings in May 2015 was $1.57 billion. The billings figure is 3.7 percent higher than the final April 2015 level of $1.51 billion, and is 11.6 percent higher than the May 2014 billings level of $1.41 billion.

“The May book-to-bill ratio slipped below parity as billings improved and bookings dipped slightly from April’s values,” said Denny McGuirk, president and CEO of SEMI.  “Compared to one year ago, both bookings and billings continue to trend at higher levels.”

The SEMI book-to-bill is a ratio of three-month moving averages of worldwide bookings and billings for North American-based semiconductor equipment manufacturers. Billings and bookings figures are in millions of U.S. dollars.

Billings
(3-mo. avg)

Bookings
(3-mo. avg)

Book-to-Bill
December 2014 

$1,395.9

$1,381.5

0.99
January 2015 

$1,279.1

$1,325.6

1.04
February 2015 

$1,280.1

$1,313.7

1.03
March 2015 

$1,265.6

$1,392.7

1.10
April 2015 (final)

$1,515.3

$1,573.7

1.04
May 2015 (prelim)

$1,571.2

$1,561.4

0.99

Source: SEMI (www.semi.org), June 2015

Renesas Electronics, a supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, today announced the Renesas Synergy Platform, a new, easy-to-use, qualified platform designed to accelerate time to market, reduce total cost of ownership and remove many of the obstacles engineers face as they develop products for the growing Internet of Things (IoT) and industrial markets. The Renesas Synergy Platform achieves this by using an approach to new product design that lets embedded systems engineers start product development at the API level, giving them more time to design innovative and differentiated features.

“Engineering teams used to spend valuable development time writing software ranging from low-level peripheral drivers to complex communication and specialty stacks. This resulted in months of engineering resources spent integrating, testing, and maintaining software that didn’t differentiate the end-product in the market,” said Ali Sebt, Senior Vice President, Renesas Electronics Corporation. “By enabling engineers to start design at the software API level and enjoy a real-time control system without the need to build any baseline functionality, the Renesas Synergy platform accelerates embedded development, inspires innovation and enables differentiation.”

“With Synergy, Renesas has created an embedded design platform that is unique to the industry,” said Vin D’Agostino, Vice President, General Purpose Products Unit, Renesas Electronics America, Inc. “This software-first approach will make developing devices for the IoT, industrial and other markets easier by taking care of the low-level embedded software, real-time event management, secure connectivity, power management, and the robust GUIs needed.”

The Renesas Synergy Platform

The Renesas Synergy Platform integrates qualified software with a new family of MCUs and an ecosystem of tools and support options into one scalable and secure platform. It includes all rights and benefits to enable rich software development for an unlimited number of end products. There is no need to purchase a third-party commercial RTOS, communication stacks (TCP/IP, USB), file systems, graphic user interfaces and their associated development tools – all are included in the Renesas Synergy platform. As the Renesas Synergy Platform is a fully integrated product and not a set of separately sourced software and hardware components, Renesas provides technical support and licensing for the platform. This reduces the cost and time overhead required to manage relationships with different hardware and software component manufacturers.

Key elements of Renesas Synergy Platform include:

Renesas Synergy Software Package

The Renesas Synergy Platform uses qualified embedded software, tested to commercial standards with ensured compatibility across all Renesas Synergy MCUs. The Renesas Synergy Software Package (SSP) includes Express Logic’s X-Ware. X-Ware includes the premier ThreadX real time operating system (RTOS) plus X-Ware middleware NetX and NetX DUO IPV4 and IPv4/IPV6 TCP/IP stacks respectively, USBX USB Host/Device/OTG protocol stack, FileX® MS-DOS compatible file system and GUIX graphics runtime library. These are bundled in the Renesas application framework that is completely optimized for use with Renesas Synergy MCUs and compliant to the IEC/ISO/IEEE-12207 Software Life Cycle Process standard. Sold, maintained, and directly supported by Renesas, the software is guaranteed by Renesas to operate as per a published specification.

Renesas Synergy Microcontrollers

Within the Renesas Synergy Platform, there is a new, scalable MCU family that spans a wide spectrum of performance, power usage, safety, security, cryptography, connectivity, and graphics capabilities. The family provides customers a variety of choices to meet their requirements for IoT designs ranging from low-end, battery-powered products to complex communication and user interface hubs.

Renesas Synergy Tools, Kits, Solutions

The Renesas Synergy Platform’s Eclipse-based integrated solution development environment (ISDE) is available with C compilers from GNU and IAR Systems. Also available are Express Logic’s Windows based GUIX Studio graphic user interface prototyping tool and TraceX real-time event graphical analysis tool. Customers can begin full development with the purchase of any one of many low-cost Development or Starter Kits available for each of the Synergy MCU series. Renesas will also offer a number of Renesas Synergy Product Example kits, each one an example of an actual commercial product. Customers can leverage this information to modify the Product Examples to fit the needs of their own similar end products.

Renesas Synergy Gallery

Renesas recognizes the widely varied needs of product developers in the IoT space and their desire for plug-and-play add-on software components to reduce development time. Renesas satisfies this need with the Renesas Synergy Gallery, an online selection of quality software products from third-party software vendors that augment the Renesas Synergy Software Package. Customers may browse and download Renesas Synergy Software Package-compliant software for functions and features such as specialized communication stacks, control algorithms, and security services.

Renesas Synergy Support

All components of the Renesas Synergy platform are supported directly by Renesas, giving customers a single point of contact for integrated support spanning software, Renesas Synergy MCUs and hardware solutions. This unified support structure eliminates the struggle customers often encounter when trying to get hardware and software vendors to take ownership of a technical problem. Customers will not need to purchase service or maintenance contracts. Renesas warrantees the specification, provides regular feature upgrades and addresses all product questions through our global sales support organization.

MEMSIC announced the launch of its latest addition, the INS380, to its portfolio of Inertial Systems enabled with SmartSensing technology targeted to a broad range of precision motion sensing applications. The portfolio offering consists of Inertial Measurement Units (IMU), Vertical Gyros (VG), Attitude and Heading Reference Systems (AHRS), Inertial Navigation Systems (INS) and Tilt measurement systems in a variety of packages suited for system designers to end equipment manufacturers.

The latest product from MEMSIC, the INS380SA, is a complete inertial navigation system with a built-in 48-channel GPS receiver. The SmartSensing technology enables a turnkey system with better than 0.01 m/s velocity measurement accuracy. The integrated 3-axis magnetometer allows for accurate operation when the GPS signal is lost or when the vehicle comes to a stop.

SmartSensing technology provides users with sensor fusion and performance in critical motion sensing applications. SmartSensing combines enhanced and patented Kalman-based algorithm with proprietary temperature, motion and alignment calibration for consistent and high accuracy performance over a wide range of extreme operating conditions. Applications include unmanned ground and aerial vehicles, platform stabilization, avionics, precision agriculture, construction, and more.

“With over 400 man-years of design and development experience and knowledge in designing IMUs and sophisticated MEMS sensor solutions,” said Masoud Beheshti, VP and General Manager of MEMSIC’s system division. “MEMSIC is in a very unique position in the industry to help enable designer’s unprecedented size, accuracy and cost, with our SmartSensing technology.”