Tag Archives: letter-pulse-business

With electronic content in automobiles seeing rapid global growth, automotive and semiconductor industry leaders will convene for the first SMART Transportation Summit at SEMICON Japan 2018 to connect, collaborate and innovate the new generation of automobiles. Registrationis now open for SEMICON Japan, Japan’s largest global electronics manufacturing supply chain event, December 12-14 at Tokyo Big Sight in Tokyo.

Automobiles are growing in technical sophistication thanks to increasing silicon content, adding connected navigation systems, Lidar, and other connected-car features including internet radio, mobile search and cloud-based content. According to IHS Markit, microcomponent ICs will grow the fastest over the next five years among all semiconductor device categories, driven by automated driving and the increased number of sensors.

SMART Transportation Summit

The new SMART Transportation Summit, December 13 at the SEMICON Japan SuperTHEATER, will connect the automotive and semiconductor supply chains. Automotive executives from Bosch, Denso, Honda, Toyota and other powerhouses will share their visions with electronics supply chain players.

  • Takashi Imai, President & CEO, Toyota Info Technology Center Co., Ltd.
  • Kazuyuki Iwata, Operating Officer, Energy & Mobility Management System Executive LPL, Honda R&D Co., Ltd. R&D Center X
  • Hajime Kumabe, Executive Director, Denso Corporation
  • Klaus Meder, President and Representative Director, Bosch Corporation
  • Hirotaka Kizuki, Senior Manager, OEM Business Development & System Competence, Regional Center Automotive Japan, Infineon Technologies Japan K.K.

SMART applications will also take center stage at other SEMICON Japan programs including the SMART Technology Forum on December 13. Featured speakers from the University of Tokyo, Microsoft, Amazon Web Service and DefinedCrowd will explore artificial intelligence (AI) innovations and opportunities.

SMART Application Zone

On the SEMICON Japan show floor, 70 companies will exhibit in the new SMART Application Zone in East Hall 3. The zone features two areas with key exhibitors including:

  • SMART Transportation – Bosch, Tesla Motors and Toyota Motor
  • SMART Manufacturing – IBM, Japan Semiconductor, Lapis Semiconductor, Microsoft, NEC, Preferred Networks, Sony, SAS and SIEMENS

“Semiconductors are becoming an even bigger part of our lives as more consumer electronics, medical devices, factories, buildings, homes and, of course, automobiles demand more electronic content and greater connectedness,” said Jim Hamajima, president of SEMI Japan. “SEMICON Japan will highlight AI, other SMART technologies and related industry growth drivers as the era of AI dawns.”

Over 70,000 attendees are expected to convene at SEMICON Japan at Tokyo Big Sight in Tokyo. For registration and other SEMICON Japan information, please visit www.semiconjapan.org. Exhibitor information will be available on the SEMICON Japan website in mid-November.

Praxair, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Linde plc (NYSE:LIN; FWB:LIN) today announced it has signed a long-term agreement to supply ultra-high purity nitrogen to Samsung’s world-class semiconductor facility in Hwaseong, South Korea. This is the fifth plant Praxair will build at this site to help enable Samsung to meet increased global semiconductor demand.

The plant will supply Samsung’s facility with high purity nitrogen and is expected to start up in late 2019. Additionally, the company will install multiple purifiers and a new pipeline system to support the project.

“Praxair has been a reliable partner to Samsung for over four decades,” said B.S. Sung, president of Praxair Korea. “We are proud to continue to support their growth as global demand for electronics intensifies. This project increases our density in the region and positions us for future expansion.”

Earlier this year, Praxair announced two other long-term agreements with Samsung affiliates in South Korea, one to supply another of Samsung Electronics’ world-scale semiconductor plant in Pyeongtaek and a second to supply Samsung Electro-Mechanics’ facility in Busan.

BISTeL, a provider of adaptive intelligent (AI) applications for smart manufacturing today announced that it has joined the MindSphere Partner Program, Siemens’ partner program for Industrial IoT solution and technology providers. BISTel applications are expected to be available on the MindSphere platform Q1 2019.

BISTel’s advanced data analytics platform, eDatalzyer®, and its real-time, health monitoring and predictive maintenance (HMP) solution will connect with the MindSphere cloud-based, open Industrial IoT platform to deliver significant business value to the manufacturing sector. Opportunities for enhanced business value include access to the latest industrial IoT technology and access to industry leading manufacturing applications that are designed to accelerate the customers’ journey to smart manufacturing, improve engineering productivity, provide greater operational efficiencies, and increase quality and yield. Smart Manufacturing (also referred to as Industry 4.0), is event driven, enabling issues to be addressed before they occur, and machines taken offline only when it is absolutely necessary.

According to W.K. Choi, CEO, BISTel, “We are delighted to work with Siemens and build MindSphere applications to take advantage of Siemens’ leading industrial IoT technology. BISTel’s real-time monitoring, fault detection, data analysis and predictive maintenance applications on the MindSphere platform enable customers to quickly turn manufacturing data into actionable intelligence that improves business performance and creates significant efficiencies across their manufacturing organizations.”

“BISTel is capable of delivering tremendous value in engineering and automation applications for smart manufacturing,” said Paul Kaeley, senior vice president, global partner ecosystem at Siemens PLM Software. “With BISTel as a partner in the MindSphere ecosystem, customers now have more strong options to solve operational challenges with advanced data analytics and predictive maintenance.”

Industry 4.0 enables the digitalization of the manufacturing sector and transforms the way plants operate. Increased automation and the introduction of AI create new ways for engineers and operators to interface with factory equipment and processes and solve every day manufacturing problems in real time. Key to this, is Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technology. According to a recent Gartner Group study, the number of IoT connected devices worldwide will grow from 8.4 billion in 2017 to more than 20.4 billion by 2020, creating access to a wealth of new data across the manufacturing ecosystem.  To achieve the vision of Industry 4.0 the manufacturing ecosystem must deliver this data to the right people, at the right place and at the right time. The proliferation of the Cloud, Big Data analytics and the adoption of AI based technologies are critical to achieving this goal.

Adaptive Intelligence for Smart Manufacturing

BISTel is redefining AI as adaptive intelligence for smarter manufacturing.  Several new AI based, real-time monitoring and advanced data analytics tools connect with IIoT platforms. These new solutions enable manufacturers to connect to and gather data from any data source. BISTel’s real-time monitoring applications detect faults before they occur, quickly conduct root cause analysis in hours and minutes versus the weeks and months it takes others.  With its new health monitoring and predictive maintenance (HMP) solution, engineers and operators can now predict outcomes and adapt real-time to changing factory conditions.

Micron Technology, Inc., (NASDAQ:MU) today received the announcement from the U.S. Department of Justice that on Nov. 1, 2018, it had issued indictments against United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC), Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit (Jinhua) and three former employees of Micron’s Taiwan unit for conspiracy to commit trade secret theft, economic espionage and related crimes.

“We appreciate the U.S. Department of Justice’s decision to prosecute the criminal theft of our intellectual property,” said Joel Poppen, senior vice president, legal affairs, general counsel and corporate secretary at Micron Technology. “Micron has invested billions of dollars over decades to develop its intellectual property. The actions announced today reinforce that criminal misappropriation will be appropriately addressed.”

The three former Micron employees named in the indictment are former Micron Memory Taiwan chairman Stephen Chen and engineers JT Ho and Kenny Wang.

In December 2017, Micron filed suit against UMC and Jinhua in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California for the misappropriation of Micron intellectual property and trade secrets.

Background about prior cases

  • In August 2017, Taiwan authorities filed criminal indictments against UMC and three of its employees for the alleged theft and use of trade secrets from Micron, for the purpose of developing DRAM chip manufacturing technologies in cooperation with Jinhua. Two of those charged are former employees of Micron’s Taiwan unit who have now also been indicted for trade secret theft by the U.S. Department of Justice.
  • In December 2017, Micron filed a civil case against UMC and Jinhua in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California for the misappropriation of Micron trade secrets.
  • In January 2018, in retaliation for the criminal indictments filed by Taiwan authorities and the civil lawsuit filed by Micron in Federal Court in California, UMC and Jinhua filed patent infringement suits in Fujian Province, China, against Micron’s China subsidiaries. On July 5, 2018, the court in Fujian notified the Micron subsidiaries that it had issued preliminary injunctions against them. Micron has asked the court to reconsider the injunctions, which the court issued without allowing Micron to present a defense. Micron strongly believes that the patents are invalid, that Micron’s products do not infringe the patents and that these suits are without merit.

MagnaChip Semiconductor Corporation (“MagnaChip”) (NYSE: MX), a designer and manufacturer of analog and mixed-signal semiconductor platform solutions, today announced the appointment of Jeong Ki Min to the newly created position of Chief of Strategic Planning. Mr. Min, a seasoned semiconductor executive with 33 years of global business experience, previously held senior positions at Samsung Semiconductor, Samsung Electronics, Samsung Display, and SK Telecom. He reports directly to YJ Kim, MagnaChip’s Chief Executive Officer.

During his more than three decades in the high-tech industry, Mr. Min has initiated and negotiated high-profile joint venture agreements, strategic alliances and acquisitions. Among his other accomplishments, Mr. Min also has led new business planning teams, managed R&D operations, led Foundry marketing teams, and helped develop semiconductor growth strategies.

Most recently, Mr. Min was Senior Vice President, Office of the Vice Chairman of SK Telecom. Prior to that, Mr. Min held various leadership roles at several divisions of Samsung during a 25-year career.

At MagnaChip, Mr. Min will have a variety of responsibilities, including strategic planning related to semiconductor technologies, products, and markets. He also will play a key role in activities related to potential alliances, joint ventures and other transactions.

“Mr. Min brings to MagnaChip a wealth of semiconductor experience as well as a strong track record of business success,” said YJ Kim, MagnaChip CEO. “Mr. Min will drive the strategic planning process across MagnaChip and help the management team set the future direction of our company.”

Mr. Min said,  “Over the past three years, MagnaChip has been transformed into a powerhouse in the Display and Power standard products businesses and become an industry leader in the analog and mixed signal Foundry business. I’m excited to join MagnaChip and look forward to working with the management team on strategic issues to help MagnaChip achieve the next level of success.”

The Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA) Board of Directors has appointed Dr. Lisa Su, President and Chief Executive Officer of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD), as Chair of GSA Board of Directors and Simon Segars, Chief Executive Officer of Arm, as the Vice Chair. These leaders will help drive the GSA vision to establish an efficient, profitable and sustainable global ecosystem as well as broaden the scope of GSA to represent an extended value chain to include systems, software, solutions and services, in addition to semiconductors. Under the direction of the new leadership, GSA will be launching several initiatives that support this expanded vision, including Interest Groups and Working Groups for rapidly emerging but fragmented markets like automotive, artificial intelligence and internet-of-things (IoT). The GSA has also created a Women’s Leadership Initiative and “Rising Women of Influence Award” dedicated to highlighting and honoring key female executive leaders within the industry. The award will be presented at the GSA Annual Awards Dinner on December 6.

“I’m very honored to be named as Chair of GSA Board of Directors and look forward to working with my fellow Board members to execute the expanded GSA vision,” said Dr. Lisa Su. “Semiconductors are crucial drivers for a variety of industries and rapidly growing markets such as AI, IoT, automotive, big data, cloud computing and 5G. This industry is going through radical growth and transformation which demands new and different thinking, including an emphasis on stronger collaboration across the entire ecosystem to increase our pace of innovation.”

GSA will execute its vision with several new initiatives including strategically planned Interest Groups, that will convene the value chain in rapidly growing market segments like IoT and Automotive to collaborate on programs and projects important to the industry. Simon Segars outlined one of these collaborative programs. “We have established a GSA IoT Security Working Group within the IoT Interest Group to address end-to-end issues in IoT Security. It is comprised of various IoT ecosystem security stakeholders including chipset vendors, platform companies, cloud vendors and service providers. The goal is to promote best practices on IoT Security, share information on threats and attacks, define security requirements and inform standards bodies. It is also an opportunity for GSA members and partners to influence the requirements for security that get passed to all participants in the value and supply chains.”

“The GSA Board of Directors is comprised of a literal “Who’s Who” of leaders within the semiconductor ecosystem,” said Jodi Shelton, Co-founder and President of GSA. “They represent some of the most influential companies in the industry providing a comprehensive global perspective. As the CEO of AMD, Lisa understands the value of collaboration. We are confident Lisa and Simon will advance the GSA commitment to being a meaningful platform fostering collaboration, innovation and integration for this industry and across the value chain.”

Dr. Lisa Su is AMD president and chief executive officer and serves on the company’s board of directors. Previously, Dr. Su held executive leadership and engineering positions with AMD, Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. and IBM after receiving her bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In 2017, Dr. Su was named one of the “World’s 50 Greatest Leaders” by Fortune Magazine and the “Top Ranked Semiconductor CEO” by Institutional Investor Magazine. Under Dr. Su’s leadership, AMD has introduced two completely new chip architectures and more than ten different product families, resulting in double-digit annual revenue growth in 2017.

Simon Segars is chief executive officer of Arm. Since joining Arm as one of its first employees, Simon has driven technical and business innovations to help transform the company into the leading architect of the most pervasive compute technology the world has ever seen. He was named CEO in July 2013 after successfully expanding the company’s U.S. business and strengthening its leadership and relationships in Silicon Valley, where he still lives with his family. Simon earned his BEng in electronic engineering from the University of Sussex and an MSc in computer science from the University of Manchester.

Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE:6723, “Renesas”), a supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, today announced that it has resolved at the Meeting of Board of Directors held on October 31, 2018 to consolidate its wholly-owned subsidiary Renesas Semiconductor Package & Test Solutions Co, Ltd. (“Renesas Semiconductor Package & Test Solutions”) through an absorption-type merger (“Merger”).Certain disclosure items and details have been omitted due to the Merger being an absorption-type merger of a wholly-owned subsidiary.

Purpose of Merger

With an aim to build a business structure that can generate consistent profitability, Renesas reorganized its domestic manufacturing subsidiaries and business units in April 2014 to simplify and boost the efficiency of its organization and these efforts have steadily delivered tangible results. Nevertheless, Renesas must build a flexible production system based on quick decision-making to be able to respond to the rapid changes in the semiconductor industry. Renesas therefore decided to consolidate Renesas Semiconductor Package & Test Solutions, which is responsible overall for the back-end production business, effective January 1, 2019, to further simplify the organization and decision-making process within the semiconductor production business and enable rapid and consistent decision-making. The Merger will enable Renesas to build a manufacturing structure optimized for responding to changes in the business environment and accelerate further growth.

As a provider of industrial-grade storage and memory, Innodisk has devoted more and more resources into the development of AI in the industrial market. In order to further this goal, the company has now entered The AIoT Alliance along with subsidiaries and partners such as SuperMicro and IronYun.

The AIoT Alliance was announced at a conference held on Wednesday, October 17 that also showcased comprehensive solutions on smart city data storage, edge computing, software, analytics, cloud-management and more.

Innodisk’s role in the alliance is not only as a provider of storage and memory but as a responsible for allover AIoT integration. Following this commitment the company is adding a new business department named IPA (Intelligent Peripherals Appliance) to better facilitate the integration different roles in an AIoT ecosystem.

Of the partners, Innodisk subsidiaries comprises industrial GPU with Aetina; all-flash arrays provided by Accelstore; 5G wireless, high-speed communication solutions from Millitronic; and IoV and CAN solutions from Antzer.

Innodisk president Randy Chien has strongly encouraged this partnership and states: “As the leading industrial-grade storage provider our next step is the AIoT market which will be major business focus for the next few years. However, realizing AI in the industrial field requires not only expertise and technology, but also a deep understanding of different vertical markets. We believe that our alliance and the total integration from cloud to edge is essential to our clients.”

Featured on Forbes’ Asia’s 200 Best Under A Billion companies, Innodisk is a provider of flash memory, DRAM modules and embedded peripheral products for the industrial and enterprise applications. Founded in 2005 and headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan, Innodisk supports clients globally with engineering support and sales teams in mainland China, Europe, Japan, and the United States.

The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), representing U.S. leadership in semiconductor manufacturing, design, and research, today announced worldwide sales of semiconductors reached $122.7 billion during the third quarter of 2018, an increase of 4.1 percent over the previous quarter and 13.8 percent more than the third quarter of 2017. Global sales for the month of September 2018 reached $40.9 billion, an uptick of 2.0 percent over last month’s total and 13.8 percent more than sales from June 2017. All monthly sales numbers are compiled by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization and represent a three-month moving average.

“Three-quarters of the way through 2018, the global semiconductor industry is on pace to post its highest-ever annual sales, comfortably topping last year’s record total of $412 billion,” said John Neuffer, president and CEO, Semiconductor Industry Association. “While year-to-year growth has tapered in recent months, September marked the global industry’s highest-ever monthly sales, and Q3 was its top-grossing quarter on record. Year-to-year sales in September were up across every major product category and regional market, with sales into China and the Americas continuing to lead the way.”

Regionally, sales increased compared to September 2017 in China (26.3 percent), the Americas (15.1 percent), Europe (8.8 percent), Japan (7.2 percent), and Asia Pacific/All Other (2.4 percent). Sales were up compared to last month in the Americas (6.0 percent), China (1.8 percent), and Europe (1.2 percent), but down slightly in Asia Pacific/All Other (-0.1 percent) and Japan (-0.6 percent).

For comprehensive monthly semiconductor sales data and detailed WSTS Forecasts, consider purchasing the WSTS Subscription Package. For detailed data on the global and U.S. semiconductor industry and market, consider purchasing the 2018 SIA Databook.

September 2018
Billions
Month-to-Month Sales
Market Last Month Current Month % Change
Americas 8.68 9.20 6.0%
Europe 3.53 3.57 1.2%
Japan 3.39 3.37 -0.6%
China 14.10 14.35 1.8%
Asia Pacific/All Other 10.43 10.42 -0.1%
Total 40.12 40.91 2.0%
Year-to-Year Sales
Market Last Year Current Month % Change
Americas 7.99 9.20 15.1%
Europe 3.28 3.57 8.8%
Japan 3.14 3.37 7.2%
China 11.36 14.35 26.3%
Asia Pacific/All Other 10.18 10.42 2.4%
Total 35.95 40.91 13.8%
Three-Month-Moving Average Sales
Market Apr/May/Jun Jul/Aug/Sept % Change
Americas 8.34 9.20 10.2%
Europe 3.67 3.57 -2.7%
Japan 3.39 3.37 -0.8%
China 13.59 14.35 5.6%
Asia Pacific/All Other 10.32 10.42 1.0%
Total 39.31 40.91 4.1%

Synopsys, Inc. (Nasdaq: SNPS) today announced the availability of Test Fusion technology with new test point functionality, providing design teams with powerful design-for-test (DFT) circuit modifications to reduce silicon test costs by an average of forty percent and increase defect detection while meeting design targets for power, performance, and area. Test Fusion ensures the test points avoid introducing routing congestion and minimize area impact, in contrast to traditional test point implementation techniques. RTL designers can easily deploy test points with a single step that automatically combines Synopsys’ SpyGlass® DFT ADV testability analysis, DFTMAX™ design-for-test, and Synopsys synthesis products, then run TetraMAX® II automatic test pattern generation (ATPG) to create efficient silicon manufacturing tests. The solution is fully certified to comply with the ISO 26262 automotive functional safety standard and is widely deployed among semiconductor manufacturers.

To meet lower cost and increasing quality requirements, semiconductor manufacturers seek new technologies to improve detecting defective silicon prior to shipment. Several industry segments, such as automotive, are challenged to meet manufacturing test cost goals while achieving quality levels for their integrated circuits (ICs) of less than one defective part per million. Synopsys test points assist meeting these requirements by modifying the design to improve the ability of TetraMAX II to generate silicon test programs. SpyGlass DFT ADV analyzes designs and determines the most optimal and effective locations for test points that both decrease test pattern volume and increase defect coverage. Test Fusion technology ensures DFTMAX and Synopsys synthesis tools work in combination to implement the test points at the selected locations while minimizing routing using physical design data. Furthermore, Test Fusion provides an unprecedented reduction of area and congestion by enabling multiple test points to share a single test register based on physical proximity.

“Semiconductor companies are increasingly concerned about meeting manufacturing test quality and cost goals while achieving IC area, power, and performance goals within predictable design schedules,” said Steve Pateras, senior director of marketing for Test Automation in Synopsys’ Design Group. “Physically-aware test points are just one of several innovative Test Fusion technologies we are bringing to market to address this growing challenge.”