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By Emir Demircan

SEMI recently shared industry feedback with the European Commission on the roadmap for reviewing RoHS (the Directive on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment). SEMI brought the following topics to the attention of the European Commission:

  • There exist serious inconsistencies between RoHS and REACH, e.g. different product information requirements, contradictory restrictions for certain substances, and inconsistent ways of calculating action threshold concentrations. In addition, it is not clear why certain material restrictions have been included in REACH but not in RoHS (e.g. PFOA). The requirement to ensure EEE compliance with both RoHS and REACH is damaging for manufacturers with complex and global supply chains.
  • RoHS-like laws in other countries are not realized with the same detailed requirements of RoHS. Exemptions by certain RoHS-like laws are not harmonized with RoHS, and as far as one can tell they do not expire. The basic facts about other laws in other countries should be considered by the EU in the hopes that more harmony could be built into RoHS.
  • Retaining LSSIT and LSFI exclusions in RoHS is critically important to the semiconductor industry. The justifications for their exclusion from the first two versions of RoHS are equally valid today. While some equipment categories are no longer excluded, retaining the LSSIT and LSFI exclusions allows most used equipment – vital to semiconductor manufacturing in Europe – to continue to be imported.
  • It is an economically beneficial and environmentally sound strategy to extend the useful life of semiconductor manufacturing equipment as long as possible by facilitating the acquisition of used equipment. Imported used equipment is a first placing on the EU market and carries an obligation to confirm the compliance of the equipment with RoHS. Yet, it is most likely that neither the importer nor the non-EU seller of the used equipment (who is not necessarily the OEM) can access component information necessary for compliance for the following reasons:
    • They have no access to OEM design information.
    • New research of most components cannot be done because components are not marked with complete origin information.
    • Component OEMs are non-responsive or no longer in business.

Thus, while RoHS does not currently support EU imports of used equipment, used equipment already on the EU market may be sold and resold without any RoHS burdens. Many businesses in Europe rely on imported used equipment. If adjustments are not made to RoHS, this will eventually hamper Europe’s competitiveness and jeopardize its industrial policy goals.

  • Although components themselves do not have to be CE marked for RoHS compliance, they must be RoHS-compliant for the sake of the equipment into which they are assembled. Requesting a RoHS compliance declaration for components is the most common way supply chains answer this requirement. However, RoHS compliance can depend on one or more exemptions, all of which eventually expire. A component in a warehouse that is compliant today might not be compliant next year. Actors in the supply chain have invented a variety of custom contract requirements to gather exemption-use information for components. The way forward with significant benefits is to require a RoHS declaration of compliance to exemptions relied upon to achieve RoHS compliance. This could standardize supply chain communications and reduce costs. Therefore, it is recommended that the RoHS Annex VI DoC criteria be amended to include an additional element to the effect of “Where applicable, references to the relevant exemptions given in Annex III and Annex IV on which conformity depends.”

If you have any questions on these issues, please contact Emir Demircan, senior manager, Advocacy and Public Policy,  SEMI Europe, [email protected], +32 (0) 2 609 53 18.

KLA-Tencor Corporation (NASDAQ: KLAC) has announced plans to establish a research-and-development (R&D) center in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The development is expected to include a total capital investment of more than $70 million and create up to 500 new high-tech jobs in the region over the next five years.

“Among the reasons for building a major R&D hub in the Ann Arbor and Detroit metropolitan area are the region’s attractive talent pool, relative low cost of living and proximity to Detroit Metropolitan Airport,” said Bobby Bell, chief strategy officer. “Our plan is to develop innovative solutions that will have an impact across a broad spectrum of semiconductor and electronics applications, including data storage, cloud computing, machine learning and automotive.”

“We’re confident that we can continue to create and deliver impactful technologies that ultimately help enrich the human experience. Our expansion into Michigan will help us realize our vision,” said Rick Wallace, chief executive officer. “This location also allows the company to strengthen our long-term partnership with the University of Michigan, including engaging in collaborative research.”

Semiconductor manufacturing to support the growing automotive electronics industry requires improved device reliability and defect control. In addition, the expanding applications of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are driving strong demand for compute power and memory. Semiconductor manufacturers serving these diverse needs are turning to KLA-Tencor’s advanced process control solutions and services to help address their complex challenges.

KLA-Tencor’s decision to build a new location is founded upon a need to serve growing demand from its global customer base, while expanding the company’s footprint in North America.

The project was conceived in partnership with Michigan Economic Development Corporation and approved by the Michigan Strategic Fund.

Sensera Inc. (ASX: SE1), a provider of MEMS devices and Internet of Things (IoT) solution provider that delivers sensor-based products transforming real-time data into meaningful information, action and value, is pleased to announce it has acquired and qualified additional thin-film processing equipment including a dicing saw, a wafer bonder and an electroplating cell to meet the growing customer demand in this segment.

“We are very pleased to be able to expand our production capabilities, closely aligning ourselves with growing customer demand. This new production equipment substantially broadens our existing tool set and enables greater vertical integration and process control,” said Tim Stucchi, GM/COO of the Sensera MicroDevices Division.

The new dicing saw operates in either fully-automatic or semi-automatic mode for full wafer and custom cuts, featuring a positional accuracy down to 1 μm and a cutting speed of 300 mm/sec. It supports small pieces and allows for custom shaping of silicon, sapphire, Pyrex, quartz, ceramics and metals.

Operating under high vacuum, precisely controlled temperature and high-pressure conditions, the new wafer bonder facilitates extremely demanding applications. Eutectic, thermal compressive, adhesive and anodic bonding processes with a wafer alignment accuracy of 2 μm have been smoothly integrated into Sensera’s qualified processes, thus enabling the company to offer many wafer level packaging (WLP) solutions to its current and future customers in multiple applications and market spaces:

    • Microfluidic devices for bio-analysis, medical research and drug development
    • Pressure sensors for human implantable surgical devices
    • Precision accelerometer and gyroscope devices for geo-positioning
    Micro-mirror devices for laser based Automotive self-driving applications

The wafer bond chamber is configurable to process small coupons (from ~10 mm2) and wafer diameters from 25 mm (1”) up to 200 mm (8″).

The electroplating cell is able to plate and electroform wafers or discreet parts up to a size of 200 mm (8″). Typical applications include MEMS, Integrated Circuits (IC) on silicon, gallium arsenide and similar glass-type substrates. Sensera’s qualified processes achieve exceptionally low residual stress and enable tight thickness uniformity control.

“To drive down cycle times, improve quality control and reduce costs, our fab requires ongoing capability upgrades,” stated Ralph Schmitt, CEO of Sensera Inc. “Our objective here is to bring previously outsourced processes back in-house and to expand our internal capability to develop and produce complex MEMS products and solutions. The new dicer, bonder and electroplating cell are just some of the essential steps required to enable innovative development programs and commercial volume customer shipments.”

With tight supplies of widely used power transistors and diodes driving up prices and new optical-imaging applications moving into more systems, the diverse marketplace for optoelectronics, sensors and actuators, and discrete semiconductors (O-S-D) is on pace to grow by 11% for the second year in a row in 2018 and set a ninth consecutive record-high level in combine annual revenues worldwide.  An update to IC Insights’ O-S-D forecast shows total sales across the three market segments reaching $83.2 billion this year, followed by 9% growth in 2019, when revenues are expected to hit an all-time high of $90.6 billion (Figure 1).

Figure 1

In 2017, O-S-D revenues grew 11% with total unit shipments also rising 11%, but in 2018, combined sales of optoelectronics, sensors/actuators, and discretes are expected to increase by about 11% with overall unit volumes rising 9% and average selling prices (ASPs) for products in the three market segments being nearly 1.5% higher this year.  Shortages of power transistors, diodes, and other widely used commodity parts in 2018 are expected to drive up total discrete ASPs by nearly 8% this year and result in a strong 12% increase in sales to a record-high $27.6 billion from the current peak of $24.6 billion set in 2017.

Optoelectronics sales are forecast to rise nearly 11% in 2018 to reach an all-time high of $40.9 billion, with unit shipments climbing 18% this year, but the ASP in this market is expected to decline by about 6% because of falling prices for some image sensors, infrared products, lasers, optocouplers, and lamp devices, which are mostly light-emitting diodes (LEDs).  Optoelectronics sales are getting a tremendous boost from sharply higher demand for light sensors, which are used in automatic controls of displays in smartphones and other systems, heart rate monitoring, proximity detection, and color sensing.  Light sensors along with infrared and laser transmitters are also seeing strong growth in new three-dimensional depth scanning systems and time-of-flight (ToF) cameras, which use reflected light to sense distances and are appearing in more smartphones and other applications for face recognition, 3D imaging, and virtual/augmented reality applications.

Following strong growth of 16% in both 2016 and 2017, total revenues for non-optical sensors and actuators are expected to rise 7% in 2018 to a record-high $14.8 billion with unit volume being up just 5%—the lowest rate of increase in 10 years—because of inventory adjustments in several product categories, low smartphone growth, and some production constraints.  Strong automotive sensor demand has propped up total sensors/actuator sales growth and helped lift ASPs by 2%—the first rise since 2010.

Air Liquide Advanced Materials Inc. was joined by local officials and members of the community to inaugurate a new speciality chemical production facility in Upper Mount Bethel, Pennsylvania, on October 19, 2018.

This new facility marks an expansion of Air Liquide’s operations in the community, adding 105,000 sq. ft. of production space. Featuring multiple manufacturing suites and updated infrastructure, the new site offers next generation specialty chemical operations that complement our global manufacturing base. Air Liquide worked closely with the Governor of Pennsylvania’s Action Team to reinforce its commitment to the region and bring this project to fruition.

Commented Paul Burlingame, President & CEO, Air Liquide Advanced Materials Inc.: “Air Liquide Advanced Materials is experiencing strong global growth, and the inauguration of the second state-of-the-art Advanced Materials Center in Upper Mount Bethel, Pennsylvania further enhances our ability to serve customers with innovative products and technologies. This facility comes to life thanks to the men and women of ALAM focused on safety, quality, and our customers along with the strong support of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation, and the local Upper Mount Bethel community.”

North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $2.09 billion in billings worldwide in September 2018 (three-month average basis), according to the September Equipment Market Data Subscription (EMDS) Billings Report published today by SEMI. The billings figure is 6.5 percent lower than the final August 2018 level of $2.37 billion, and is 1.8 percent higher than the September 2017 billings level of $2.05 billion.

“Quarterly global billings of North American equipment suppliers experienced their typical seasonal weakening in the most recent quarter,” said Ajit Manocha, president and CEO of SEMI. “Relative to the third quarter, we expect investment activity to improve for the remainder of the year.”

The SEMI Billings report uses three-month moving averages of worldwide billings for North American-based semiconductor equipment manufacturers. Billings figures are in millions of U.S. dollars.
Billings
(3-mo. avg.)
Year-Over-Year
April 2018
$2,689.9
25.9%
May 2018
$2,702.3
19.0%
June 2018
$2,484.3
8.0%
July 2018
$2,377.9
4.8%
August 2018 (final)
$2,236.8
2.5%
September 2018 (prelim)
$2,091.9
1.8%

Source: SEMI (www.semi.org), October 2018

SEMI publishes a monthly North American Billings report and issues the Worldwide Semiconductor Equipment Market Statistics (WWSEMS) report in collaboration with the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ).

Two leading French and Taiwanese research institutes today announced their new collaboration to facilitate a scientific and technological exchange between France and Taiwan.

Leti, a research institute of CEA Tech in Grenoble, France, and the Taiwanese National Applied Research Laboratories (NARLabs), two key nanotechnology research providers in their respective countries, will explore opportunities for joint research-and-development projects in high-performance computing and networks, photonics, bio-medical nanotechnologies and brain-computer interface. Their scientists will meet in a series of workshops to initiate joint R&D projects. This agreement also includes access to each other’s unique equipment and platforms, and will offer opportunities to researchers with a specific exchange program.

The agreement was signed by CEA-Leti CEO Emmanuel Sabonnadière and NARLabs President Yeong-Her Wang during the recent Leti Day Taiwan in Hsinchu.

“CEA-Leti and NARLabs have the same goals: to create differentiating technologies and transfer them to industry,” Sabonnadière said. “This cooperation agreement will be the starting point for a strategic research cooperation between our organizations that will strengthen R&D and inspire microelectronics innovation in both Taiwan and France.”

“The National Chip Implementation Center (CIC) and the National Nano Device Laboratories (NDL) of National Applied Research Laboratories (NARLabs) have fostered close ties with CEA-Leti since 2017,” said NARLabs Vice President Wu Kuang-Chong. “Around the Leti Day Taiwan, we held seminars together, and our researchers were able to meet and exchange ideas. Topics included silicon photonics, intelligent image sensors, RF technology, 3D IC+ and device fabrication technology, among others. We believe that with this memorandum of understanding, CEA-Leti and NARLabs will continue to collaborate together to complement and to enlighten each other to formulate innovative research projects.”

MagnaChip Semiconductor Corporation (“MagnaChip”) (NYSE: MX), a designer and manufacturer of analog and mixed-signal semiconductor platform solutions, today announced that volume production of a new Display Driver IC (DDIC) for automotive panel displays has begun.

MagnaChip is planning to expand its business to various automotive display applications in the market, starting with the design-win of new product at a leading Japanese panel maker of automotive CSD (Center Stack Display) panels. The application of this LCD-based display driver product will be further extended to a wide range of automotive applications such as instrument cluster, GPS navigation and car entertainment displays in the future. Over time, it is widely anticipated that OLED display drivers also will be adopted for use in automotive applications.

The new automotive DDIC, S8311, has a maximum of 1440 channel outputs and an mLVDS (Mini Low-Voltage Differential Signaling) interface and supports all types of TFT-LCD such as a-Si (Amorphous silicon), LTPS (Low Temperature Poly Silicon) and IGZO (Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide) for various automotive applications. MagnaChip fabricates the product in-house using the 150nm process, which is a cost-effective method the company has successfully used for many different products in recent years.

According to market research firm IHS, automotive display shipments keep growing with three primary automotive display systems: instrument cluster, center stack and heads-up display system. Based on current trends, IHS forecasts that global shipments of automotive display panels will rise to 165Mpcs in 2018 and increase to 200Mpcs in 2022.

“As the global automotive display market continues to expand, demand for high quality display driver products is expected to grow,” said YJ Kim, CEO of MagnaChip. “With our know-how and long track record of success in the Display market, we will continue to cooperate with major automotive display panel makers to extend our automotive DDIC business from a-Si TFT-LCD to LTPS, IGZO TFT-LCD and further to OLED panel-type displays.”

Silvaco welcomed Dr. Babak Taheri as CTO and Executive Vice President of Products. He brings three decades of engineering and leadership experience, with a track record of transforming and scaling global technology platforms. This new position at Silvaco is designed to drive innovation and project execution while increasing the synergy between Silvaco’s products and services across the company.

Dr. Taheri will be taking Silvaco’s advanced positions in FinFET and beyond nodes, novel materials, emerging memory and advanced display technologies, to the next level. He is also tasked with extending Silvaco’s market leadership in analog mixed signal, custom IC design and power devices. Furthermore, Dr. Taheri’s vast expertise in IP Products will accelerate Silvaco’s IP business growth.

Dr. Taheri said, “Silvaco has tremendous potential and I look forward leading Silvaco technologies as their CTO and EVP of products. My focus will be on TCAD, EDA, IP products, IP security, and related services. Silvaco has an impressive history of innovative solutions. I am excited about the opportunity to help bring the next level of innovation for products and services while deepening relationships with our customers and partners. Silvaco has a compelling combination of ground-breaking software solutions, global reach, and talented employees that form a strong foundation for industry leadership and success.”

Earlier in his career, Dr. Taheri has served as VP/GM of the Sensor Solutions Division at Freescale Semiconductor (now NXP). He also held VP/GM roles at Cypress Semiconductor and Invensense (now TDK), as well as key roles at SRI International and Apple.

David Dutton, CEO of Silvaco, welcomes Babak to the Team: “Babak Taheri is joining at the perfect time in Silvaco’s growth as a technology company in the demanding semiconductor industry,” said Dutton. “Babak understands our products and how to make them work together in a cohesive solution for the changing needs of our customers. I am looking forward to our partnership in growing Silvaco’s leadership in the industry.”

Babak has a Ph.D. in EECS and Neurosciences from UC Davis, a 30-year career spanning Engineering, R&D, Corporate IP Development/Management, MEMS/Sensors/Actuator Products, Memory Products and more, including 20 Published articles and 28 patents to his name. Silvaco welcomes Babak Taheri to its Executive Team to help drive Silvaco’s Vision, Mission and strategies.

STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM) and Fidesmo, the contactless-services developer and Mastercard Approved Global Vendor, have created a turnkey active solution for secure contactless payments on smart watches and other wearable technology.

The complete payment system-on-chip (SoC) is based on ST’s STPay-Boost IC, which combines a hardware secure element to protect transactions and a contactless controller featuring proprietary active-boost technology that maintains reliable NFC connections even in devices made with metallic materials. Its single-chip footprint fits easily within wearable form factors.

Fidesmo’s MasterCard MDES tokenization platform completes the solution by allowing the user to load the personal data needed for payment transactions. Convenient Over-The-Air (OTA) technology makes personalization a simple step for the user without any special equipment.

“STPay-Boost, featuring our secure element and performance-boosting active contactless technology, is a unique single-chip payment solution that fits the design constraints of wearable devices,” said Laurent Degauque, Marketing Director, Secure Microcontroller Division, STMicroelectronics. “Fidesmo’s personalization platform provides the vital ingredient to create a turnkey payment solution that device makers can simply take and use with minimal engineering and certification effort.”

“Our cooperation with STMicroelectronics opens up a new market for us with support for lightweight boosted secure elements, and broadens choices for our customers,” said Mattias Eld, CEO of Fidesmo. “Together, we have created a unique offering that is sure to impact the hybrid watch market and drive the emergence of innovative new products such as wristbands, bracelets, key fobs, and connected jewelry.”

Kronaby, the Malmö, Sweden-based hybrid smart-watch maker, has embedded the STPay-Boost chip in its portfolio of men’s and women’s smart watches that offer differentiated features such as freedom from charging and filtered notifications. The SoC with Fidesmo tokenization enables Kronaby watches to support a variety of services such as payments, access control, transportation, and loyalty rewards.

Jonas Morän, Global Product Manager at Kronaby, said, “We have achieved an intuitive and seamless user experience leveraging the ability to communicate with the Secure Element in the watch using Bluetooth. In addition, the ST/Fidesmo chip’s boosted wireless performance and compact size gives us extra freedom to style our watches to maximize their appeal in our target markets.”

STPay-Boost chips with Fidesmo OTA personalization are sampling now to lead customers and are scheduled to enter production in November 2018, priced from $3.50 for orders of 1000 pieces (excluding Fidesmo license).