Tag Archives: letter-mems-business

BY BYRON EXARCOS, President, CLASSONE TECHNOLOGY

Historically, the major semiconductor capital equipment manufacturers have focused on supporting the bigger semiconductor companies at the expense of the smaller ones. The last decade’s round of consolidations in the manufacturing and equipment sectors has only exacerbated this trend. This approach may make good business sense for the large equipment companies, but it’s created a serious challenge for smaller IC manufacturers. Even worse, it now threatens to stifle the continuing innovation on which the high tech industry depends.

It’s hard to fault the big equipment players for their business model. It’s much more cost-effective and profitable to dedicate the bulk of your resources to those customers who want to buy multiple process tools featuring “bleeding edge” technology on highly automated, volume production platforms. In many cases, it’s simply not as profitable to engage with smaller customers.

So what choice do the manufacturers have for populating their fabs if they’re running 200mm or smaller wafers? One alternative is to buy refurbished tools, assuming they can find a tool that meets their needs, which is not always easy. Another is to buy a bigger tool with more performance capabilities than they need, which busts their equipment budget. There aren’t many other options.

Now, one could dismiss this issue by simply saying, that’s the way this market works. Continued growth in our industry has always depended on a certain path of continual innovation. “Smaller, faster, cheaper” — producing smaller, more powerful chips in ever greater volume on larger wafers was a highly successful means of turning computers and subsequent mobile computing and communication devices into household items. It’s hard to fault a business/technology model that has been successful for so many years.

On the other hand, every emerging market eventually matures. We’ve all experi- enced the boom-and-bust cycles that roil our industry and what happens when the “last big thing” plateaus or dries up. Today, the capital equipment market is at a cusp. We need to examine whether the traditional smaller-design-rules/bigger-wafers/faster-throughput approach is helping or hindering the introduction of new technologies.

Today’s emerging technologies include devices such as smart sensors, power and RF wireless devices. The fact is, many of these chips can be made quite well and quite profitably using larger design rules on 200mm or even smaller substrates. However, many of the companies developing these devices are not huge enterprises, and they’re hampered by the unavailability of tools delivering the appropriate levels of process technology, automation and throughput — at a price they can afford. Ironically, our industry is in a phase where the equipment companies that once drove significant innovations, such as the introduction of copper deposition and low-k dielectrics, have become so large and narrowly focused that they’re impeding the development of many other emerging technologies.

I have some understanding of the needs of smaller device manufacturers because one of our companies, ClassOne Equipment, has been selling refurbished equipment to them for over a decade. That is why we’ve now created a whole new company, ClassOne Technology, to provide new equipment at substantially lower prices specifically for 200mm and smaller substrates. We are introducing new electroplating systems, spin rinse dryers and spray solvent tools; and some of them are literally half the cost of high-end competitive units. We’re particularly interested in serving all those small- to mid-sized companies who are making MEMS, power devices, RF, LEDs, photonics, sensors, microfluidics and other emerging-technology devices.

However, no single company can solve the entire problem. There is a glaring need for equipment manufacturers to bring the price/performance ratio of their tools back in line with the needs of more of the equipment users, not just those at the bleeding edge. If the tool manufacturers persist in trying to only sell the equivalent of sports cars to customers who just need pickup trucks, America’s high tech industry may soon find itself trailing, rather than leading the innovation curve.

Harnessing big data


July 28, 2014

Addressing the analytics challenges in supply chain management. 

BY NORD SAMUELSON, CHRISTOPHER POCEK and CHRIS LANMAN, AlixPartners, San Francisco, CA 

A changing workforce and lack of convergence between information technology (IT) and business may be preventing many companies from joining the big-data revolution. Defined as very large sets of data but more commonly used in reference to the rapid increase in amounts of data in recent years, big data will divide companies into two groups in the next decade: those able to benefit from big data’s potential and those unable. Companies that create capabilities for capturing, processing, analyzing, and distributing data in order to make better decisions in real time will likely be able to outperform their competition and respond more quickly to their customers’ needs. The data avalanche is coming from a number of sources, such as enterprise resource planning, orders, shipments, Weblogs, GPS data, radio-frequency identification, mobile devices, and social channels; and there is value to be created in all areas of a business by adopting a data-driven culture.

However, in discussions about big data’s arrival, we sometimes forget to ask how effectively we’re converting the data into value. Too often, huge investments in IT infrastructure coupled with sophisticated analytical and reporting software have delivered little value. Why? We often find it’s because companies are understaffed, or they may lack the analytics talent who know how to build links between the data and the value drivers. There is also a gap between finding insights from data and then applying the insights to create value. That is where the levels of training and experience of a company’s analysts enter the equation.

One area of particular concern is supply chain management (SCM). A company’s SCM organization makes decisions about build plans, stocking locations, inventory levels, and so forth based on the conversion of raw data about demand, sales, and inventory on hand. And when there’s a shortage of analytics talent, SCM is typically one of the first areas affected. Traditionally, analytical innovation happens in two ways: either through an internal-pipeline process of developing junior analysts into senior analysts or by periodically bringing in external experts to seed knowledge. But big data is challenging both approaches.

The internal pipeline is challenged by a workforce marked by shorter tenures. Shorter tenures result
in more generalists in the workforce, often in place of the specialists needed for analytical innovation. For example, younger workers, such as millennials, are significantly less likely to settle into a long career at a company. According to a survey by Future Workplace, 91% of millennials (born in the 1980s and ’90s) expect to stay in a job for less than three years (Meister 2012), meaning that those in analytical roles are usually in the job only long enough to execute established analytics—and not long enough to develop a holistic understanding of how data can be applied to drive business value. As a result, those on the business side and those on the IT side don’t always learn to make the end-to-end connections between raw data and measurable value. The internal-pipeline approach is further challenged by companies themselves: frustrated by high turnover, companies are less likely to invest in developing their people— only to watch the people leave for higher-paying positions.

The second approach—that of periodically bringing in external experts to rebuild a process or implement the latest software package—is also starting to show wear. The evolution cycle of new analytical techniques is rapidly slowing down as big data brings opportunities to better integrate internal and external data sources. Traditionally, companies have been able to implement software solutions or bring in experts to install the latest offering and then profit from that investment for five or seven years. The initial cost was justified by the continued value for years to come. But now, the volume, variety, and velocity of the new data being generated are changing the business landscape by calling for a more rapid cycle of analytical-tool introduction. And that landscape itself usually changes every two or three years. So, as a result, the days of big-bang projects appear to be coming to an end.

What can be done? Companies should look across the entire supply chain—or across any function,
for that matter—and measure the amount of data being generated. Then they should weigh that measurement against the value actually realized. If data volumes are growing more rapidly than the corresponding increase in value, there may be an analytics talent challenge.

Three methods of creating value have proved effective in today’s rapidly changing market.

1. Outsourcing portions of analytic requirements

Companies can approach analytics outsourcing in a variety of ways, ranging from a data prep model—in which a company hires a third party to process raw data to the point where an analyst can consume it— all the way to a fully outsourced model, in which a third party processes and analyzes the data, poten- tially adds other proprietary data, and sends back fully actionable information. The data prep model enables a company to focus a limited pool of analysts on the critical knowledge-capture portion of the process and thereby free up time spent on non-value- added processes. The fully outsourced model enables companies to stay up-to-date on the latest technol- ogies and software without having to make up-front investments to purchase the latest software and technology.

2. Creating central analytics teams

Companies that rely heavily on converting data to knowledge can set up an analytic group focused solely on solving analytical issues across the company. Such companies have adopted analytics
as a core differentiator and encourage analysts to develop the holistic view that facilitates insight. Central analytics groups seem to perform better than embedded groups—and especially when they report through the business side. Of course, maintaining a group dedicated to analytics is an investment that some companies may hesitate to make, but there is tremendous value in having such in-house expertise.

3. Partnering with academic or not-for-profit institutions

Academic and nonprofit organizations are often-overlooked resources. For instance, the brand-new Center for Supply Chain Management at the University of Pittsburgh intends to provide student and faculty interactions with industry representatives who will promote experience-based learning activities within the university’s supply chain management courses. To improve the center’s effectiveness, the university plans to create a Supply Chain Management Industry Council composed of member companies dedicated to SCM. The council members, along with tenured faculty specializing in teaching SCM, will foster interest and excellence in SCM and analysis. Other institutions offer training, certifications, and conferences that encourage and enable analysts to further develop and share ideas. The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences recently introduced the Certified Analytics Profes- sional certification to give companies an option for developing their people without having to make hefty investments in training organizations.

Big data is fundamentally transforming the way business operates. It is enabling management to track the previously untrackable, forecast the previ- ously unpredictable, and understand interactions between suppliers and customers—all of it with unprecedented clarity. And winning organizations will invest in the necessary infrastructure and people to harness the transformative power of data.

By Paula Doe, SEMI

Investors are still looking for differentiated technologies that solve high-value problems in semiconductor manufacturing, or that bring semiconductor technology to disruptive applications in other fields, particularly in the medical and environmental sectors, said the leading venture capitalists gathered at the Silicon Innovation Forum at SEMICON West 2014.

“As financial investors have moved to fund more ‘flapping bird’ apps instead of hardware, strategic investors have moved more to early-stage hardware opportunities,” noted Robert Maire, president, Semiconductor Advisors.

Tallwood Ventures general partner George Pavlov concurred that his financial investment firm was making fewer hardware investments because the technology is maturing and there are fewer opportunities, as well as the lower margins and lower exit prices. “The app maker gets $1 a shot, which is more than the chip maker,” another VC put it more bluntly. That means that semiconductor investments need creative strategies to reduce risk, such as one recent deal that involved three strategic investors all interested in helping the startup succeed, including a customer and a supplier. “It’s also important to have a capitalist at the table to assure that the company’s interest comes first,” Pavlov noted, which may involve making the difficult moves like rebalancing leadership teams or reconstituting the Board of Directors.  Financial investors can also come in early with an experienced team that can help a company find the right strategic partners they need and introduce them.

Strategic investors are getting more involved with early-stage companies to reduce risk even if it means collaborating with the competition. “More and more we are collaborating in investments, and we will see more in the future, in both big and small companies, depending on the size of the problem, when fundamental industry interests are aligned,” said Sean Doyle, director, Intel Capital. “We see greater pull from financial investors to have strategic investors involved from the beginning.” More handholding is needed even before investment. Kurt Petersen, a member of the Band of Angels, noted that three of the group’s members spent two years mentoring a company before it was ready even for angel investment. In fact, a MEMS company may need a strategic investor to even convince a foundry to take it on.

“More than half the investments we’ve made in the last year have been with other strategic investors,” concurred Eileen Tanghal, general manager of Applied Ventures, adding that investing with Intel and Samsung for customer input was especially useful.

Semiconductor startups to watch: The VCs’ current favorites

So where are these investors putting their money in the semiconductor sector these days?  Primarily it’s either towards technologies with potential to solve next-generation semiconductor manufacturing challenges, or towards extending conventional semiconductor technology to new fields, from medicine to agriculture. The strategic investors from the venture arms of Samsung, Intel and Applied Materials all cited innovative materials solutions as the investments about which they were currently most excited, particularly Inpria for its high-resolution metal oxide photoresists, SBA Materials for its liquid-phase self assembled porous ultra low-k dielectrics, and Voltaix (recently acquired by Air Liquide) for its unique precursor gases for germanium and other chemistries. “We’re making more investments in equipment and materials because it is becoming incredibly difficult to advance the technology,” said Dong-Su Kim, senior director, Samsung Ventures Investment Corp.

The VCs saw a wider range of investment opportunities in applying silicon technology to other fields, especially if time-to-market and development costs can be reduced by re-using existing technology.  Peter Moran, general partner, DCM, cited RayVio as a good example, making high power UV LEDs specifically for sterilizing surfaces, with both cost and performance that have no competition from traditional wet or heat methods.  Another of his favorites is battery maker Enovix, which leverages  existing thin-film photovoltaics technology and invovates the battery structure itself for a battery that could potentially store 3X the charge per area. The financial VC worked with strategic investor  Cypress who brought specific manufacturing and scaling expertise from its Sunpower experience, while Intel brought its experience in identifying where, globally, was best to build the manufacturing plant.  Moran also noted that DCM previously did not consider devices that sold for less than a dollar, but it is now looking at lower cost devices as long as they are differentiated and high volume, such as ingestible sensors that track if people have taken their pills.

“The most opportunity is in proliferating silicon technology into other fields, especially in the medical field,” concurred Tanghal, citing Applied Venture’s investments in Oncoscope’s optical screening for pre-cancerous cells to significantly improve the accuracy of biopsies compared to the usual random sampling, Twist Bioscience’s platform for large-scale synthetic gene manufacturing, and  MTPV Power Corp.’s chips that convert heat to electricity.  Applied Ventures is also looking at ongoing opportunities for capturing more value from the inflection point of the emerging Internet of Things, such as supplying the materials for, or the service of, making implantable or ingestible coatings.

The MEMS field continues to come up with new kinds of electromechanical structures for new tasks.  Peterson said he was particularly excited about Chirp Microsystems for its ultrasonic gesture recognition, Next Input with its force-sensitive touch screen technology, and Lumedyne Technologies for its completely new, high accuracy, inertial sensor approach.

VC panels choose Amorphyx and Aledia for best startup pitches

The panel of leading investors selected two companies offering disruptive materials/process technologies — and leveraging a collaborative infrastructure — for the best pitches from among 25 selected startups at the event. Aledia says its microwire LEDs grown on 8-inch silicon should cost 2x-3x less than conventional LEDs grown as thin films on sapphire. The ~1µm diameter pillars, with the active quantum well layers grown vertically in concentric layers, provide more light emitting surface area from less material in less time in the MOCVD reactor.  Their small area on the wafer likely helps ease the lattice and thermal mismatch issues compared to blanket GaN on silicon.  Co-founder, president and CEO Giorgio Anania said the company has figured out how to grow regular, high quality pillars through holes in a mask, though lumens/watt remains low and is not the current focus of improvement. Based on the CEA campus in Grenoble, the startup plans to grow only the pillar layer, then send the wafers out to a mainstream CMOS foundry for the rest of the processing.

The other winner, Amorphyx, offers a fast switching, low cost backplane solution for displays, using a kind of tunneling effect through a near-perfect amorphous sapphire insulating layer in a metal-insulator-metal device. The company is working at ITRI in Taiwan with a production collaborative it put together  three Asian companies, aiming at start joint production in 2015. “This should save $100 of the cost of a $400 display,” claimed CEO and President John Brewer.

Among the other interesting startups pitching to the investors at the event was MEMS microphone startup Baker-Calling, with an innovative simplified design for an AlN piezoelectric MEMS microphone, using four separate triangular plates free to expand and contract so they are less sensitive to film stess than the usual capacitive membranes. CEO Matt Crowley reported the company has sampled prototypes to its strategic investor, and is now bringing up the process at a foundry.

Okeanos Technologies showed its microfluidics desalinization technology, which CEO Tony Frudakis reported uses half the energy to remove salt from water compared to the usual reverse osmosis, because the tiny volumes react better, using an electrochemically mediated process that strips off ions as they pass through the small channel.  However, each pass removes only about 10% of the salt, so multiple cells would be needed to remove all the salt from significant volumes of water.

Inpria leverages grant money for years to take university research towards commercial

The venture arms of Applied Materials, Intel and Samsung have all recently invested in Inpria, and kept citing it as an example of semiconductor development they were excited about for its potential solution to the key problem of resolution of next generation photoresist. Replacing the long, tangled, polymer molecules of traditional photoresist with the smaller inorganic molecules enables cleaner edges and reduces collapse of 7nm and 10nm features.  CEO Andrew Grenville reported that the line-width roughness with this resist is half that of conventional polymer products (0.7nm vs 1.5nm) on 10nm lines and spaces.

Grenville told the tale of the company’s earlier years of leveraging its capital as it developed the metal oxide cluster technology from Oregon State University, starting with NSF/SBIR funding, then a grant from Oregon’s Onami, then joint development funding with potential users. Inpria first developed the material using shared equipment of the Onami university network, then the SEMATECH microexposure tool at Laurence Berkeley national lab, and then in joint development programs at imec’s consortium in projects with equipment suppliers and customers – for about five years before the technology was developed enough for angel investors and Applied Materials. This year strategic investors Intel and Samsung joined Applied in further funding, which then attracted more from the Oregon Angel Fund, with deep semiconductor experience and connections. “We expect we will be interesting for a financial investor in a couple of years,” said Grenville. “It takes leveraging, leveraging, leveraging for capital-efficient development…though the proof will come in 2015 when we go into the fabs.”

The next Silicon Innovation Forum at SEMICON West will be held on July 14, 2015. In addition, SEMICON Europa 2014 (October 7-9) will offer an Innovation Village with a Silicon Innovation Forum.

SEMI today announced the launch of the association’s first-ever event in Latin America. The inaugural SEMI South America Semiconductor Strategy Summit will be held November 18-20, 2014, at the Hilton Buenos Aires in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Argentina-based Unitec Blue and the Brazil Development Bank BNDES are supporting the event.

The growing strength of Latin American markets is driving interest and investment in electronics manufacturing in South America. Device manufacturers, including Unitec Blue in Argentina, and SIX Semicondutores and CEITEC in Brazil, are established and planning new investments in front- and back-end manufacturing capabilities. With the continued globalization of the microelectronics industry, and localization of manufacturing capabilities within growing electronic markets, the South American market presents new opportunities for supply chain companies.

“We are pleased to announce this new project and excited by the opportunities in Latin America for our members,” said Bettina Weiss, vice president of business development for SEMI. “We are especially grateful to Unitec Blue and BNDES for their support of this inaugural event, as it shows the clear intent of the device maker community in South America to attract new investment and drive industry expansion in the region.”

The three-day event includes a delegation tour of the Unitec Blue facilities in Buenos Aires, and a full two-day conference featuring presentations and panel discussions from industry leaders, analysts, and government representatives. The conference will provide overviews of the current industry environment in South America, address the challenges and opportunities for supply chain companies in the region, and explore the next steps in building the region’s microelectronics industry infrastructure.

The SEMI South America Semiconductor Strategy Summit follows the successful launch of a similar event in Vietnam last year, which was the first SEMI venture in that emerging market. “By taking small, but significant steps in new and emerging markets, SEMI is strategically working to open doors for our members to help them explore new opportunities when markets emerge,” said Weiss. “Events like the SEMI South America Semiconductor Strategy Summit bring together global and regional industry leaders and helps foster the connections and relationships that hopefully lead to business and market growth.”

Registration for the SEMI South America Semiconductor Strategy Summit costs US$ 350. Registration, agenda, and sponsorship information is available online at www.semi.org/southamerica.

Orbotech Ltd. today announced the acquisition of SPTS Technologies Group Limited, a U.K.-based leading manufacturer of etch, deposition and thermal processing equipment for the microelectronics industry, from European private equity firm Bridgepoint and others. The combined companies’ comprehensive offering is expected to enable designers of consumer electronics to turn their vision of next generation devices into reality.

SPTS offers an extensive range of manufacturing solutions which set industry standards in the high growth Advanced Packaging and MEMS (micro-electro-mechanical systems) markets. Through this acquisition, in its official release Orbotech said it expects to accelerate the execution of its growth and diversification strategy, and is moving up the electronics value chain. By building on SPTS’ technological and commercial leadership position, Orbotech will be able to offer best-in-class solutions for a broad range of the most demanding micro manufacturing applications. Moreover, the combination will expand Orbotech’s presence in Europe and North America and provide SPTS with a greater reach throughout the Pacific region, particularly in China.

“Orbotech identified Advanced Packaging as a strategic and natural extension of its business into an adjacent high growth market, where SPTS is a recognized technology leader. SPTS benefits from established, long-standing partnerships with major industry players. It is a well-known and highly respected brand with deep domain expertise in those segments in which it operates. Acquiring SPTS allows us to accelerate the expansion into Advanced Packaging, with multiple manufacturing solutions ideally suited for this growing segment”, said Mr. Asher Levy, CEO of Orbotech Ltd. “Orbotech and SPTS are complementary in many ways. By combining the extensive know-how and core assets of both companies we will continue to enhance Orbotech’s portfolio and industry leadership while focusing our efforts on driving profitable growth.”

Mr. Levy concluded, “We look forward to welcoming the SPTS team to Orbotech and capitalizing on the best of both companies for continued success.”

“This is an exceptional opportunity to bring together two proven leaders both operating at the cutting-edge of consumer electronics manufacturing,” Mr. Kevin Crofton, President and Chief Operating Officer of SPTS, said. “We share a common vision for our respective markets, including an uncompromising commitment to our customers. Together, we will be a powerhouse of expertise in micro manufacturing, providing a broad solution set of mission-critical capabilities to serve designers and manufacturers across the dynamic electronics industry landscape. We are excited about the opportunity to leverage Orbotech’s strong presence in the Pacific as well as its products and technologies.”

Mr. Christopher Bell, partner at Bridgepoint, said: “Clear market leadership of high growth niches as well as the application of its technology to emerging niches in the microchip industry have made SPTS strategically attractive. With its new shareholder, the business will be well positioned to combine expertise in micro manufacturing to advance further. We wish the team continued success in the future.”

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

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

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

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

Perm Bond fig

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nanolab Technologies, Inc. announced today that it has acquired Microtech Laboratories, LLC a well-established Dallas, Texas, failure analysis laboratory founded in 1999.  Microtech Laboratories provides electrical and physical failure analysis to the semiconductor industry as well as extensive reverse engineering work to the legal industry.

The acquisition continues the rapid growth path set by Nanolab Technologies, Inc., which opened its new, purpose built, analytical services laboratory in Silicon Valley in 2011, a second lab operation at the Center for Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) in Albany, NY in 2011 and acquired Silicon Valley based FIB Lab, Inc. in 2013.

Since its inception Nanolab continues to invest heavily in new instrumentation for its existing advanced electron microscopy and materials analysis businesses. The company recently identified device failure analysis (FA) as an underserved market and as part of its overall growth strategy has expanded its capabilities through the acquisition of new, advanced instruments.

The company also sees opportunities for further consolidation in the space that will be driven by the cost of new instruments necessary to stay relevant in support of its customers’ transition to current and future technology nodes.

Microtech will continue its operations in Plano, Texas where it provides services to a broad array of analog, digital, mixed-signal, MEMS and RF customers.  Nanolab Technologies, Inc. will acquire all equipment assets of the company and also hire all of its employees.

“This acquisition is the next step in our company’s plan to accelerate growth in key market sectors, leveraging the investments that we have made since 2007 in leading-edge analytical instruments and laboratory facilities,” stated John P. Traub, Nanolab Technologies, Inc., President and CEO. “Strategic acquisitions will complement our current expansion plans for our Silicon Valley and Albany, NY, lab operations.”

Microtech Laboratories President, John Olson, commented, “I am excited to add Nanolab’s failure analysis and advanced material analysis services to our capabilities.  The combined operations of both companies broaden our portfolio of leading edge electrical and physical analysis services.  This also broadens our geographic reach and customer support with complimentary facilities in California, Texas and New York.”

Beyond all of the hype and tumult, market drivers and technological developments are converging to ensure a bright future for Si photonics. Indeed, though the Si photonics market has just kicked off, volume production is already close.

“In the short term, silicon photonics will be the platform solution for future high-power, high- bandwidth data centers,” explains Dr Eric Mounier, Senior Technology & Market Analyst, MEMS Devices & Technologies, at Yole Développement.

Si Photonics report, 2014 update, from Yole Développement is now available. Under this report, Yole Développement analysts have been interacting with Jean-Louis Malinge, former Kotura CEO, to provide a comprehensive analysis of the Si Photonics current & future business trends and associated challenges.

Yole Développement’s report describes industrial status and supply chain for silicon photonic technologies. This analysis includes an overview of R&D, tools, materials, devices, system players’ activities and a detailed description of silicon photonics applications.

The aim of Silicon Photonics 2014 report is to provide a deep understanding of current key market and technical challenges and detail the major moves, transactions and mindsets of silicon photonics players.

Screen Shot 2014-06-25 at 9.35.14 AM

Silicon photonics is an exciting field that mixes optics, CMOS, MEMS and 3D stacking technologies. Over the past several years, it’s become clear that some technical choices will be better than others for successful commercial development:

      Light source is a big integration challenge. As silicon laser is probably years away from realization, the different approaches are likely to be either attached laser (i.e. Luxtera) or (InP) wafer-to-wafer/die-to-wafer bonding, followed by post-processing (i.e. Intel or Leti).

Yole Développement has also seen a shift from monolithic integration for electronic/photonic-to-hybrid integration, since critical dimensions are very different. Today, the favored approach seems to be two-chip hybrid integration (the Cu-pillar from STMicroelectronics, for example), since semiconductors’ and photonics’ critical dimensions are likely to be at least one order of magnitude different.

The fiber choice: multi-mode versus single mode is also on the table.

“Silicon photonics is a business opportunity for different player types: OSATs, MEMS firms, semiconductors companies, etc., because it involves different challenges for packaging, optical alignment and electronics integration. The need for very diverse technologies creates a need for different packaging/micro-machining/manufacturing approaches,” explains Claire Troadec, Technology & Market Analyst, Semiconductor Manufacturing, Yole Développement.

According to Yole Développement, the silicon photonics device market, including HPC, future-generation optical data centers, telecom and others applications (sensors, medical and consumer) will grow from around US$25M in 2013 to more than US$700M in 2024, at a 38% CAGR. In 2018, emerging optical data centers from big Internet companies (Google, Facebook, etc.) will trigger this market growth.Non-datacom/telecom will only have a small portion of market value since these applications are still far from market maturity.

“However, we’re at a turning point where the market is increasing again and Intel, which is very active in this field, could contribute to a quick ramp-up of Si photonics,” Claire adds.

By Mike Rosa, Applied Materials

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

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

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

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

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

200mm equipment market gaiting new lease on life

200mm equipment market gaiting new lease on life

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Imec, a nanoelectronics research center, announced today that it is collaborating with Samsung Electronics to accelerate innovation and collaboration among technology companies and researchers working in the burgeoning mobile wearable field.

The announcement comes as part of Samsung’s recently announced digital health initiative, which aims to facilitate the development of wearable sensors that can help users gain new insights into their own wellness and enable them to live healthier lives. A centerpiece of the announcement is Samsung’s Simband platform, which includes an open reference sensor module integrating the industry’s most advanced sensing technologies from imec. This sensor array promises to bring a new understanding of the body’s inner workings to the world of consumer health monitoring.

“A growing public interest in healthy living is driving the emergence of activity monitors, with a number of devices already available,” stated Luc Van den hove, president and CEO at imec. “We are excited to have contributed to Samsung’s effort to take the next step in wearable health monitoring devices with our Body Area Networks (BANs) technology, developed at imec Belgium and imec The Netherlands/Holst Centre (Eindhoven). Imec and Holst Centre’s cutting-edge technology, enabling highly accurate and non-invasive monitoring with clinical-grade functionality, paves the way for more efficient and better healthcare.”

“Samsung’s open digital health initiative promises to deliver revolutionary changes to the way that consumers monitor, interact with and understand their own health and wellness,” said Young Sohn, president and chief strategy officer at Samsung Electronics. “With imec and our other partners, Samsung is excited to develop the next generation of wearable health sensors that can offer the best, most accurate, and most convenient health sensing technologies to consumers around the world.”