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Researchers have developed a new type of optomechanical device that uses a microscopic silicon disk to confine optical and mechanical waves. The new device is highly customizable and compatible with commercial manufacturing processes, making it a practical solution for improving sensors that detect force and movement.

Researchers created an optomechanical silicon bullseye disk that traps optical waves in the outermost ring via total internal reflection while the radial groves confine the mechanical waves to the same area. Credit: Thiago P. Mayer Alegre, University of Campinas

Researchers created an optomechanical silicon bullseye disk that traps optical waves in the outermost ring via total internal reflection while the radial groves confine the mechanical waves to the same area. Credit: Thiago P. Mayer Alegre, University of Campinas

Optomechanical devices use light to detect movement. They can be used as low-power, efficient building blocks for the accelerometers that detect the orientation and movement of a smart phone or that trigger a car’s airbag to deploy split seconds after an accident. Scientists are working to make these devices smaller and even more sensitive to movement, forces and vibrations.

Identifying the smallest movements requires extremely high levels of interaction, or coupling, between light waves, which are used for detection, and the mechanical waves that are tied to movement. In The Optical Society journal Optics Express, researchers from the University of Campinas, Brazil, report that their new bullseye disk design achieves coupling rates that match those of the best lab-based optomechanical devices reported.

While most state-of-the-art optomechanical devices are made using equipment that isn’t widely available, the new bullseye disk device was fabricated in a standard commercial foundry with the same processes used to manufacture complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) chips, such as the ones used in most digital cameras.

“Because the device was made at a commercial CMOS foundry, any group in the world could reproduce it,” said Thiago P. Mayer Alegre, leader of the research group. “If thousands were made, they would all perform in the same manner because we made them resilient to the foundry’s fabrication processes. It is also much cheaper and faster to make these types of devices at a CMOS foundry rather than using specialized in-house fabrication techniques.”

Bringing light and motion together

Most optomechanical devices use the same mechanism to confine both the light and mechanical waves inside a material, where the waves can interact. However, this approach can limit the performance of optomechanical devices because only certain materials work well for confining both light and mechanical motion.

“Once you decouple the confinement rules for the light and mechanics, you can use any type of material,” said Alegre. “It is also makes it possible to independently tailor the device to work with certain light frequencies or mechanical wave frequencies.”

The researchers created a silicon disk 24 microns wide that confines the light and mechanical waves using separate mechanisms. The light is confined with total internal reflection, which causes the light to bounce off the edge of the disk and travel around the outer portion in a circular ring. The researchers added circular groves to the disc, giving it the appearance of a bullseye, to localize mechanical motion to the outer ring, where it can interact with the light. The disk is supported by a central pedestal that allows the disk to move.

“Radial groves have been used to confine light waves in other devices, but we took this idea and applied it to mechanical waves,” said Alegre. “Our optomechanical device is the first one to use radial groves to couple mechanical and optical waves.”

The versatility of the bullseye disk design means it could be used for more than sensing movement. For example, making the disk out of a lasing material could create a laser with pulses or power levels that are controlled by motion. The device could also be used to make very small and high frequency optical modulator for telecommunication applications.

The researchers are now working to further refine their device’s design to work even better with CMOS foundry fabrication processes. This should lessen the amount of light that is lost by the disk and thus improve overall performance. They also want to make the device even more practical by combining the optomechanical disk with an integrated optical waveguide that would bring light to and from the device, all in one package.

Worldwide combined shipments of PCs, tablets, ultramobiles and mobile phones are projected to remain flat in 2017, according to Gartner, Inc. Worldwide shipments for these devices are projected to total 2.3 billion in 2017, the same as 2016 estimates.

There were nearly 7 billion phones, tablets and PCs in use in the world by the end of 2016. However, Gartner does not expect any growth in shipments of traditional devices until 2018, when a small increase in ultramobiles and mobile phone shipments is expected (see Table 1).

“The global devices market is stagnating. Mobile phone shipments are only growing in emerging Asia/Pacific markets, and the PC market is just reaching the bottom of its decline,” said Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner.

“As well as declining shipment growth for traditional devices, average selling prices are also beginning to stagnate because of market saturation and a slower rate of innovation,” added Mr. Atwal. “Consumers have fewer reasons to upgrade or buy traditional devices (see Table 1). They are seeking fresher experiences and applications in emerging categories such as head mounted displays (HMDs), virtual personal assistant (VPA) speakers and wearables.”

Table 1 
Worldwide Devices Shipments by Device Type, 2016-2019 (Millions of Units)

Device Type

2016

2017

2018

2019

Traditional PCs (Desk-Based and Notebook)

219

205

198

193

Ultramobiles (Premium)

49

61

74

85

PC Market

268

266

272

278

Ultramobiles (Basic and Utility)

168

165

166

166

Computing Devices Market

436

432

438

444

Mobile Phones

1,888

1,893

1,920

1,937

Total Devices Market

2,324

2,324

2,357

2,380

Note: The Ultramobile (Premium) category includes devices such as Microsoft Windows 10 Intel x86 products and Apple MacBook Air.
The Ultramobile (Basic and Utility Tablets) category includes devices such as Apple iPad and iPad mini, Samsung Galaxy Tab S2, Amazon Fire HD, Lenovo Yoga Tab 3, and Acer Iconia One.
Source: Gartner (January 2017)

The embattled PC market will benefit from a replacement cycle toward the end of this forecast period, returning to growth in 2018. Increasingly, attractive premium ultramobile prices and functionality will entice buyers as traditional PC sales continue to decline. The mobile phone market will also benefit from replacements. There is, however, a difference in replacement activity between mature and emerging markets. “People in emerging markets still see smartphones as their main computing device and replace them more regularly than mature markets,” said Mr. Atwal.

Device vendors are increasingly trying to move into faster-growing emerging device categories. “This requires a shift from a hardware-focused approach to a richer value-added service approach,” said Mr. Atwal. “As service-led approaches become even more crucial, hardware providers will have to partner with service providers, as they lack the expertise to deliver the service offerings themselves.”

More detailed analysis is available to clients in the reports “Forecast: PCs, Ultramobiles and Mobile Phones, Worldwide, 2013-2020, 4Q16 Update.”

From the ground-breaking research breakthroughs to the shifting supplier landscape, these are the stories the Solid State Technology audience read the most during 2016.

#1: Moore’s Law did indeed stop at 28nm

In this follow up, Zvi Or-Bach, president and CEO, MonolithIC 3D, Inc., writes: “As we have predicted two and a half years back, the industry is bifurcating, and just a few products pursue scaling to 7nm while the majority of designs stay on 28nm or older nodes.”

#2: Yield and cost challenges at 16nm and beyond

In February, KLA-Tencor’s Robert Cappel and Cathy Perry-Sullivan wrote of a new 5D solution which utilizes multiple types of metrology systems to identify and control fab-wide sources of pattern variation, with an intelligent analysis system to handle the data being generated.

#3: EUVL: Taking it down to 5nm

The semiconductor industry is nothing if not persistent — it’s been working away at developing extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) for many years, SEMI’s Deb Vogler reported in May.

#4: IBM scientists achieve storage memory breakthrough

For the first time, scientists at IBM Research have demonstrated reliably storing 3 bits of data per cell using a relatively new memory technology known as phase-change memory (PCM).

#5: ams breaks ground on NY wafer fab

In April, ams AG took a step forward in its long-term strategy of increasing manufacturing capacity for its high-performance sensors and sensor solution integrated circuits (ICs), holding a groundbreaking event at the site of its new wafer fabrication plant in Utica, New York.

#6: Foundries takeover 200mm fab capacity by 2018

In January, Christian Dieseldorff of SEMI wrote that a recent Global Fab Outlook report reveals a change in the landscape for 200mm fab capacity.

#7: Equipment spending up: 19 new fabs and lines to start construction

While semiconductor fab equipment spending was off to a slow start in 2016, it was expected to gain momentum through the end of the year. For 2016, 1.5 percent growth over 2015 is expected while 13 percent growth is forecast in 2017.

#8: How finFETs ended the service contract of silicide process

Arabinda Daa, TechInsights, provided a look into how the silicide process has evolved over the years, trying to cope with the progress in scaling technology and why it could no longer be of service to finFET devices.

#9: Five suppliers to hold 41% of global semiconductor marketshare in 2016

In December, IC Insights reported that two years of busy M&A activity had boosted marketshare among top suppliers.

#10: Countdown to Node 5: Moving beyond FinFETs

A forum of industry experts at SEMICON West 2016 discussed the challenges associated with getting from node 10 — which seems set for HVM — to nodes 7 and 5.

BONUS: Most Watched Webcast of 2016: View On Demand Now

IoT Device Trends and Challenges

Presenters: Rajeev Rajan, GLOBALFOUNDRIES, and Uday Tennety, GE Digital

The age of the Internet of Things is upon us, with the expectation that tens of billions of devices will be connected to the internet by 2020. This explosion of devices will make our lives simpler, yet create an array of new challenges and opportunities in the semiconductor industry. At the sensor level, very small, inexpensive, low power devices will be gathering data and communicating with one another and the “cloud.” On the other hand, this will mean huge amounts of small, often unstructured data (such as video) will rippling through the network and the infrastructure. The need to convert that data into “information” will require a massive investment in data centers and leading edge semiconductor technology.

Also, manufacturers seek increased visibility and better insights into the performance of their equipment and assets to minimize failures and reduce downtime. They wish to both cut their costs as well as grow their profits for the organization while ensuring safety for employees, the general public and the environment.

The Industrial Internet is transforming the way people and machines interact by using data and analytics in new ways to drive efficiency gains, accelerate productivity and achieve overall operational excellence. The advent of networked machines with embedded sensors and advanced analytics tools has greatly influenced the industrial ecosystem.

Today, the Industrial Internet allows you to combine data from the equipment sensors, operational data , and analytics to deliver valuable new insights that were never before possible. The results of these powerful analytic insights can be revolutionary for your business by transforming your technological infrastructure, helping reduce unplanned downtime, improve performance and maximize profitability and efficiency.

From artificial intelligence to the Internet of Things (IoT), far-reaching innovations are unfolding in virtually every technology sector around the globe, continuing to change the way consumers, businesses and machines interact while also spurring the next revolution in tech market growth, according to a new white paper from IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO).

For the white paper, IHS Markit surveyed its leading technology experts, who represent various industry segments including advertising, automotive, connected networks, consumer devices, entertainment, displays, media, semiconductors, telecommunications and others. These analysts were asked to provide their informed predictions for the global technology market in the New Year.

The Top Seven Technology Trends for 2017, as identified in this IHS Markit report and listed in no particular order, are as follows:

Trend #1 – Smart Manufacturing Accelerates With More Real-World Products

  • Companies use IoT to transform how products are made, how supply chains are managed and how customers can influence design.
  • Example: look for automation/operator tech firms to release their own Platforms-as-a Service (PaaS) offering in the cloud as they compete to offer and own IoT projects for the industrial market.

Trend #2 – Artificial Intelligence (AI) Gets Serious

  • Already, personified AI assistants from a handful of companies (Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri) have access to billions of users via smartphones and other devices.
  • However, even bigger, more profound changes are on their way as levels of human control are ceded directly to AI, such as in autonomous cars or robots.

Trend #3 – The Rise of Virtual Worlds

  • After several years of hype, the operative reality behind virtual, augmented and mixed digital worlds is set to manifest more fully in 2017. The technology for augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) will advance significantly as Facebook, Google and Microsoft consolidate their existing technologies into more exhaustive strategies.
  • New versions of VR-capable game consoles featuring 4K video and high dynamic range (HDR) will also create the medium for high-quality VR content, even if availability will be limited for the next few years.

Trend #4 – The “Meta Cloud” Era Arrives

  • Communication service providers plan to deliver a new wave of innovation, allowing for a single connection to the enterprise and acting as a gateway to multiple cloud service providers. IHS Markit refers to this as the meta cloud.
  • In 2017, new offerings will become available from traditional Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) vendors, coupled with expanded offers from the likes of IBM, Amazon and— most notably—Google via its Tensor chip. Watch for the development and deployment of more specialized silicon in the next two years.

Trend #5 – A Revolution in New Device Formats

  • The development of the consumer drone is the closest example of a product type evolved over the past few years that has quickly gone mass market. 3D printers and pens are heading the same way.
  • The next set of new devices may well materialize at the boundary of cheap 3D printing and inexpensive smartphone components to create completely novel device types and uses.

Trend #6 – Solar Still the Largest Source of Renewable New Power

  • The next year, 2017, will see photovoltaic (PV) technology retaining—and confirming—its position as the planet’s largest source of new renewable power.
  • More than a quarter of all PV capacity added worldwide in 2016 and 2017 will be in the form of solar panels. The growth of solar can be attributed to sharp drops in the cost of PV systems, combined with favorable country policies toward new renewable power.

Trend #7 – Low-Power Technologies Extend Reach to Inaccessible IoT Devices

  • The first batch of low-power, wide-area networks (LPWAN) will go live around the world in 2017 as an alternative to short-range wireless standards such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. LPWAN technologies will connect hard-to-reach, IoT devices more efficiently and at a lower cost, dealing with challenges stemming from range limitation to poor signal strength. As a result, opportunities will open up for telecom providers to support low-bit-rate applications.
  • In turn, the increased availability and low cost of LPWAN technologies will drive connectivity for smart metering, smart building and precision agriculture, among many other applications.

At last week’s IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) in San Francisco (USA), imec, the world-leading research and innovation hub in nano-electronics and digital technology and Holst Centre debuted a miniaturized sensor that simultaneously determines pH and chloride (Cl–)levels in fluid. This innovation is a must have for accurate long-term measurement of ion concentrations in applications such as environmental monitoring, precision agriculture and diagnostics for personalized healthcare. The sensor is an industry first and thanks to the SoC (system on chip) integration it enables massive and cost-effective deployments in Internet-of-Things (IoT) settings. Its innovative electrode design results in a similar or better performance compared to today’s standard equipment for measuring single ion concentrations and allows for additional ion tests.

Sensors based on ion-selective membranes are considered the gold standard to measure ion concentrations in many applications, such as water quality, agriculture, and analytical chemistry. They consist of two electrodes, the ion-sensitive electrode with the membrane (ISE) and a reference electrode (RE). When these electrodes are immersed in a fluid, a potential is generated that scales with the logarithm of the ion activity in the fluid, forming a measure for the concentration. However, the precision of the sensor depends on the long-term stability of the miniaturized RE, a challenge that has now been overcome.

“The common issue with such designs is the leaching of ions from the internal electrolyte, causing the sensor to drift over time,” stated Marcel Zevenbergen, senior researcher at imec/Holst Centre. “To suppress such leaching, we designed and fabricated an RE with a microfluidic channel as junction and combined it with solid-state iridium oxide (IrOx) and silver chloride (AgCl) electrodes fabricated on a silicon substrate, respectively as indicating electrodes for pH and Cl–. Our tests demonstrated this to be a long-term stable solution with the sensor showing a sensitivity, accuracy and response time that are equal or better than existing solutions, while at the same time being much smaller and potentially less expensive.”

“We are providing groundbreaking sensing and analytics solutions for the IoT,” stated John Baekelmans, Managing Director of imec in The Netherlands. “This new multi-ion sensor is one in a series that Holst Centre is currently developing with its partners to form the senses of the IoT. For each sensor, the aim is to leapfrog the current performance of the state-of-the-art sensors in a mass-producible, wireless, energy optimized and miniaturized package.”

imec iot sensor

The Electronic Components and Systems for European Leadership (ECSEL) Joint Undertaking announced the Lab4MEMS project as the winner of its 2016 Innovation Award during the European Nanoelectronics Forum, in Rome, Italy.

At its launch in January 2014, Lab4MEMS was identified as a Key Enabling Technology Pilot-Line project for next-generation Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) devices augmented with advanced technologies such as piezoelectric or magnetic materials and 3D packaging to enhance the next generation of smart sensors, actuators, micro-pumps, and energy harvesters. These technologies were recognized as important contributors to future data-storage, printing, healthcare, automotive, industrial-control, and smart-building applications, as well as consumer applications such as smartphones and navigation devices.

In accepting the award, Roberto Zafalon, General Project Coordinator of Lab4MEMS and the European Programs Manager in R&D and Public Affairs for STMicroelectronics Italy said, “The ECSEL Innovation Award highlights the excellent results the Lab4MEMS team achieved through the project’s execution and the high impact of its successes. In particular, Lab4MEMS developed innovative MEMS solutions with advanced piezoelectric and magnetic materials, including advanced 3D Packaging technologies.”

In coordinating the €28m[1], 36-month Lab4MEMS project, ST led the team of twenty partners, which included universities, research institutions, and technology businesses across ten European countries. ST’s MEMS facilities in Italy and Malta contributed their complete set of manufacturing competencies for next-generation devices, spanning design and fabrication to test and packaging to the project.

Lab4MEMS’ devices, technologies, and application improvements emphasized:

  • Micro-actuators, micro-pumps, sensors, and energy scavengers integrated on silicon-based MEMS using piezoelectric thin-films (PZT), for applications in Data Storage, Printing, Health Care, Automotive, Energy Scavenging, and Autofocus Lenses.
  • Magnetic-field sensors, for applications in consumer applications such as GPS positioning, indoor navigation, and mobile phones.
  • Advanced packaging technologies and vertical interconnections, including flip chip, Through Silicon Via (TSV) or Through Mold Via (TMV) for full 3D integration, which could be used in Consumer and Healthcare applications such as body-area sensors and remote monitoring.

All of these successes contributed to the Lab4MEMS project and are available to benefit the contributors. These participants were Politecnico di Torino (Italy); Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (Italy); Politecnico di Milano (Italy); Consorzio Nazionale Interuniversitario per la Nanoelettronica (Italy); Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique et aux énergies alternatives (France); SERMA Technologies SA (France); STMicroelectronics Ltd. (Malta); Universita ta Malta (Malta); Solmates BV (Netherlands); Cavendish Kinetics BV (Netherlands); Okmetic OYJ (Finland); VTT (Finland); Picosun OY (Finland); KLA-Tencor ICOS (Belgium); Universitatea Politehnica din Bucuresti (Romania); Instytut Technologii Elektronowej (Poland); Stiftelsen SINTEF (Norway); Sonitor Technologies AS (Norway); BESI GmbH (Austria).

The MEMS microphone market has enjoyed continuous growth since its debut. The “More than Moore” market research and strategy consulting company, Yole Développement (Yole) forecasts a 10% CAGR between 2015 and 2021. According to its analysts, this growth is due a strong demand coming from the smartphone and home appliance market segment. Today, MEMS microphones’ penetration rate in smartphones is already close to 100%.

Under this context, the reverse engineering and costing company, System Plus Consulting, proposes today a comprehensive technical analysis of the 4 microphones embedded in Apple iPhone 7 Plus. What are the technologies selected by Apple for its latest smartphone and proposed by the leading MEMS companies Goertek/Infineon Technologies, Knowles and STMicroelectronics? What is the added-value of each device? Are there strong differences?

Entitled “Apple iPhone 7 Plus: MEMS Microphones”, System Plus Consulting’s report includes a relevant physical analysis of the 4 MEMS microphones, a detailed description of the manufacturing process flow with the related cost analysis as well as a estimated selling price. Every day, System Plus Consulting’s team is analyzing and modeling production cost and selling price of semiconductors, electronic boards and systems. Discover today the reverse engineering & costing analysis of the MEMS microphones selected by Apple. What’s inside?

The Apple iPhone 7 and 7 Plus each are both featuring the following MEMS microphones:
• A front-facing top microphone,
• Two front-facing bottom microphones,
• And a rear-facing top microphone.
“In every iPhone 7 Plus we examined, we observed a Knowles design win for the rear-facing top microphone and an STMicroelectronics design win for the front-facing top microphone,” explains Sylvain Hallereau in charge of costing analyses for IC, Power and MEMS at System Plus Consulting.

From their side, the two front-facing bottom microphones were sourced by either Knowles or Goertek.

The competitive landscape of the MEMS microphones industry is showing a lot of companies including Knowles, AAC Technologies, Infineon Technologies, Goertek, STMicroelectronics, Gettop, InvenSense, Bosch Akustica, and Cirrus Logic. Knowles, AAC and Goertek are the top players of the consumer market field. Knowles also addresses, in a leading position, the medical application of hearing aids.

On the manufacturing process side, System Plus Consulting’s team is highlighting in the report, the full in-house manufacturing microphone developed by STMicroelectronics. “Indeed, for the 1st time, the leading company now makes the MEMS die internally without relying on the Japanese company, OMRON,” commented Sylvain Hallerau. “This strategic choice confirms a new manufacturing process developed by STMicroelectronics.” Under a different strategy, Goertek still relies on Infineon Technologies for die manufacturing. The company integrates the latest Infineon Technologies MEMS microphone process, which delivers a differential MEMS microphone using a dual backplate technology. The third manufacturer, Knowles, makes strategic technical choices internally which allows the company to propose the smallest MEMS die.

Each four microphones share the same Apple-specific package dimensions. However they present total different internal structures. System Plus Consulting’s engineers list for example: the number of substrate metal layers, the embedded capacitance and more.

“The 4 MEMS devices do present any significant technical innovations, like the dual backplane of Infineon Technologies used in the Goertek device,” commented Michel Allain, System Plus Consulting’s CEO. “In addition, the key change is probably located at the supply chain level. Indeed some players decided to manage internally the full manufacturing steps of their devices; some selected leading partners to provide them the relevant solutions. And these strategies are directly impacting the cost analysis and at the end the selling price of each MEMS component”. 

IC Insights will release the 2017 edition of its IC Market Drivers Report later this month.  The newly updated report reviews many of the end-use system applications that are presently impacting and that are forecast to help propel the IC market through 2020. IC Market Drivers 2017 shows that the market for automotive electronic systems is expected to display the strongest cumulative average growth rate (CAGR) through 2020, at 4.9%, highest among the six main electronic system categories (Figure 1). Safety and convenience systems are essential features that consumers look for and want in their new car.  Automatic emergency braking, lane departure/blind spot detection systems, and backup cameras are among the most desired systems.  For semiconductor suppliers, this is good news as analog ICs, MCUs, and a great number of sensors will be required for these and other automotive systems throughout the forecast.

Figure 1

Figure 1

Other electronic system and IC market highlights from the 2017 IC Market Drivers Report include the following.

•    Although the automotive segment is forecast to be the fastest growing electronic system market through 2020, its share of the total IC market was only 7.9% in 2016 and is forecast to remain less than 10% throughout the forecast period.

•    Industrial/Medical/Other electronic systems are forecast to enjoy the second-fastest growth rate (4.3%) through 2020 as wearable health devices, home health diagnostics, robotics, and systems promoting the Internet of Things help drive growth in this segment.  Analog ICs are forecast to hold 49% of the industrial/medical/other IC market in 2016.

•    Communications became the largest end-use market for ICs in 2013, surpassing the computer IC market.  Asia-Pacific is forecast to represent 67% of the total communications IC market in 2016; 70% in 2020.

•    The consumer electronics system market is forecast to display 2.8% CAGR through 2020.  The logic segment is forecast to be the largest consumer IC market throughout the forecast.  In total, the consumer IC market is expected to register a 2.3% CAGR through this same time period.

•    The worldwide government/military IC market is forecast to be $2.5 billion in 2016, but represent only 0.8% of the total IC market ($290.0 billion).  The Americas region is the largest regional market for military ICs, accounting for 63% of the worldwide military IC market this year.

•    Hit by slowing demand for personal computing devices (desktops, notebooks, tablets), the market for computer systems is forecast to show the weakest growth through 2020.  The total computer IC market is forecast to decline 2% in 2016 following a 3% drop in 2015.  Asia-Pacific is forecast to hold a 66% share of the computer IC market in 2016 and a 71% share in 2020.

Knowles, Goertek and AAC ranked as the top three global suppliers of packaged MEMS microphones for 2015, according to the latest analysis from IHS Markit (NASDAQ: INFO), a world leader in critical information, analytics and solutions.

MEMS (micro-electromechanical systems) technology is utilized to produce microphones used in laptops, hearing aids, wearables and smartphones among many other products. Last year, MEMS microphones remained the healthiest sensors segment for suppliers, in terms of unit volume and revenue, said Marwan Boustany, senior analyst for IHS Technology.

“Our updated analysis of 2015 MEMS microphone supplier market share, shows that Knowles remained the dominant supplier with more than two times the units and revenue of the second-place supplier, Goertek,” Boustany said. “In addition to offering a wide range of analog and digital output microphones for many applications, Knowles has also started shipping its VoiceIQ ‘intelligent’ microphones with local processing as it seeks to address both mobile and IOT applications.”

2016 mems mic growth

Strong growth for MEMS’ runner-ups

Goertek MEMS microphone units grew by an impressive 104 percent CAGR between 2011 and 2015, thanks in large part to its design wins in Apple, the IHS Markit analysis shows. Apple accounts for approximately 70 percent (in units) of Goertek’s MEMS microphone business in 2015. Goertek entered in large volume in the iPhone in 2014 and has since continued to increase its share; this has had the impact of reducing the share of AAC and Knowles in subsequent years.

While still solidly in third position among packaged MEMS suppliers after Goertek, AAC has faced challenges from Goertek in both Apple and in Chinese OEMs. This has resulted in a reduction in unit volume shipped by AAC in 2015 of almost 9 percent, IHS Markit says. However, AAC invested in a new technology for MEMS microphones in 2016 when it officially partnered with Vesper MEMS, a piezoelectric MEMS microphone start-up.

Boosting audio performance in handsets

The general adoption trend for microphones in smartphones has been towards higher performance, IHS Markit says. Driving this trend: OEMs want better quality audio for calls and hand-free communication, noise cancellation, voice recognition such as Siri and Google Now, as well as the availability of lower-cost microphones due to the erosion of ASP (average selling price).

“These types of use cases also drive high-performance microphone adoption in smart watches, tablets, noise cancelling earphones, hearing aids and increasingly in automotive cabins,” Boustany said.

Beyond performance, the average number of microphones per handset increased in 2015 due to Apple adopting four microphones in its iPhone 6S, with most other OEMs using two or three microphones in their mid- to high-end smartphones, the IHS Markit analysis shows. In tablets, smart watches and hearing aids, the number of microphones is between one and two. Adoption of microphones in automotive cabins can potentially exceed eight, depending on use cases and implementation choices in the future.

Knowles tops list for die makers, too

According to the IHS Technology analysis, Knowles – which produces its own microphone dies – holds the number one spot for market share in MEMS microphone production, with a dominant 43 percent market share.

Infineon acts as the major supplier of MEMS microphone dies to Goertek, AAC and BSE among others and stands solidly in second place with a 31 percent market share. In third place is Omron, which has supplied into STMicroelectronics, ACC and Goertek among others and has a 13 percent market share, the analysis shows. Neither Infineon nor Omron supply fully packaged MEMS microphone die.

New research, led by the University of Southampton, has demonstrated that a nanoscale device, called a memristor, could be used to power artificial systems that can mimic the human brain.

First demonstration of brain-inspired device to power artificial systems. Credit: University of Southampton

First demonstration of brain-inspired device to power artificial systems. Credit: University of Southampton

Artificial neural networks (ANNs) exhibit learning abilities and can perform tasks which are difficult for conventional computing systems, such as pattern recognition, on-line learning and classification. Practical ANN implementations are currently hampered by the lack of efficient hardware synapses; a key component that every ANN requires in large numbers.

In the study, published in Nature Communications, the Southampton research team experimentally demonstrated an ANN that used memristor synapses supporting sophisticated learning rules in order to carry out reversible learning of noisy input data.

Memristors are electrical components that limit or regulate the flow of electrical current in a circuit and can remember the amount of charge that was flowing through it and retain the data, even when the power is turned off.

Lead author Dr Alex Serb, from Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton, said: “If we want to build artificial systems that can mimic the brain in function and power we need to use hundreds of billions, perhaps even trillions of artificial synapses, many of which must be able to implement learning rules of varying degrees of complexity. Whilst currently available electronic components can certainly be pieced together to create such synapses, the required power and area efficiency benchmarks will be extremely difficult to meet -if even possible at all- without designing new and bespoke ‘synapse components’.

“Memristors offer a possible route towards that end by supporting many fundamental features of learning synapses (memory storage, on-line learning, computationally powerful learning rule implementation, two-terminal structure) in extremely compact volumes and at exceptionally low energy costs. If artificial brains are ever going to become reality, therefore, memristive synapses have to succeed.”

Acting like synapses in the brain, the metal-oxide memristor array was capable of learning and re-learning input patterns in an unsupervised manner within a probabilistic winner-take-all (WTA) network. This is extremely useful for enabling low-power embedded processors (needed for the Internet of Things) that can process in real-time big data without any prior knowledge of the data.

Co-author Dr Themis Prodromakis, Reader in Nanoelectronics and EPSRC Fellow in Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton, said: “The uptake of any new technology is typically hampered by the lack of practical demonstrators that showcase the technology’s benefits in practical applications. Our work establishes such a technological paradigm shift, proving that nanoscale memristors can indeed be used to formulate in-silico neural circuits for processing big-data in real-time; a key challenge of modern society.

“We have shown that such hardware platforms can independently adapt to its environment without any human intervention and are very resilient in processing even noisy data in real-time reliably. This new type of hardware could find a diverse range of applications in pervasive sensing technologies to fuel real-time monitoring in harsh or inaccessible environments; a highly desirable capability for enabling the Internet of Things vision.”