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Universal Display Corporation (Nasdaq: OLED), enabling energy-efficient displays and lighting with its UniversalPHOLED® technology and materials, announced today the recipients of the UDC Innovative Research Award in Organic Electronics and the UDC Pioneering Technology Award in Organic Electronics. These awards were presented at the 18th International Meeting of Information Display (IMID) conference on August 30, 2018 in Busan, Korea by Dr. Julie Brown, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Universal Display.

“Universal Display Corporation is proud to sponsor and support the innovative and brilliant research work in the organic electronics industry,” said Steven V. Abramson, President and Chief Executive Officer. “As a leader in the OLED industry, we believe that it is important to encourage and foster the relentless pursuit of exploration, experimentation and education in the scientific community. We congratulate the award recipients, and commend all the researchers for the important role they play in the field of organic electronics.”

The UDC awards recognize outstanding individuals or teams that have demonstrated innovative ideas or research initiatives impacting the organic electronics industry. The winners were selected by IMID and KIDS (Korean Information Display Society). The recipients for 2018 are:

UDC Innovative Research Award in Organic Electronics

Byung-Jun Kang, Dong-Myung Lee, Chang-Jae Yu, E-Joon Choi (Kumoh National Institute of Technology, Korea), and Jae-Hoon Kim (Hanyang University, Korea)

UDC Pioneering Technology Award in Organic Electronics

Hwang-Beom Kim and Jang-Joo Kim (Seoul National University, Korea)

 

ON Semiconductor is collaborating with Optimal Plus to gather, analyze and build actionable insights out of the company’s manufacturing data. As a supplier to the automotive industry, ON Semiconductor is pioneering innovative technologies that enable all aspects of automated driving and vehicle electrification. The company is also committed to developing the semiconductor technology capable of supporting the rigors of IoT and empowering businesses to capitalize on their investments to drive profitability and ultimately success.

Following an initial pilot project that demonstrated new levels of control and visibility into the company’s manufacturing operations, ON Semiconductor and Optimal Plus will further leverage their solutions to connect the ON Semiconductor global manufacturing footprint as demand continues to grow for the company’s complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) and charge-coupled device (CCD) image sensors and other technologies that are powering disruptive applications in strategic growth markets.

“Demand for power products for automotive applications continues to grow. With an expansive portfolio for power and automotive applications, we continue to see strong growth in our power related revenue for automotive applications,” said Mark Goranson, ON Semiconductor senior vice president manufacturing. “With a broad range of power products for a complete spectrum of voltages starting from low voltage to high voltage, we also have one of the most comprehensive portfolios of power devices and modules. Partnering with Optimal Plus is a key element to enable the shift from detect to predict and eventually prevent.”

“The Intelligent Sensing Group within ON Semiconductor is innovating vision beyond the human eye and holds imaging and technology leadership in automotive, space, industrial and medical mission-critical market segments,” said Mitch Mooney, general manager of ON Semiconductor Nampa, Idaho operations. “Optimal Plus provides advanced analytics with real-time visibility of our test operations through their leading-edge software that enables big data analysis of all our test parameters. We expect significant benefits in capital efficiency, yield enhancements and quality improvements.”

ON Semiconductor is deploying Optimal Plus solutions to provide increased visibility into their manufacturing processes, from e-test to wafer sort, and final test including communication between geographically-dispersed semiconductor teams. The solution includes deep, multi-stage product analytics for near real-time response capabilities. A core element of the deployment will be enabling ON Semiconductor to lower their Defective Parts Per Million (DPPM) rates to the single digit range.

“The Optimal Plus platform was designed to deliver the actionable insights that ON Semiconductor requires to intelligently adapt operations to increase product yield, quality and productivity,” said Dan Glotter, Optimal Plus Founder and CEO. “Together, ON Semiconductor and Optimal Plus are demonstrating how operations optimization is keeping manufacturers ahead of an increased adoption of Industrial IoT, electric vehicles, machine vision and other disruptive applications in automotive and industrial end markets.”

Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CDNS) today announced that its full-flow digital tool suite has achieved certification for the GLOBALFOUNDRIES (GF) 22FDX® process technology. The GF certification process was completed using the Cadence® Tensilica® Fusion F1 DSP, which targets internet of things (IoT) and wearables applications. Through the certification process, the Cadence tools have been confirmed to meet all of GF’s accuracy criteria for its fully depleted silicon-on-insulator (FD-SOI) architecture, and customers using the Cadence digital tool suite on the GF 22FDX process technology can optimize power, performance and area (PPA) and reduce time-to-market.

For more information on the GF-certified Cadence digital tool suite, please visit www.cadence.com/go/dandsgfcert22fdx. For more information on the Tensilica Fusion F1 DSP, visit www.cadence.com/go/tensilicafusiongf22fdx.

To facilitate the adoption of GF’s 22FDX process technology, the following Cadence tools that offer 22FDX body bias support are supported in the GF design flow:

  • Innovus™ Implementation System: An advanced physical implementation tool, incorporating a massively parallel architecture that helps designers deliver high-quality SoCs in less time with best-in-class PPA
  • Genus™ Synthesis Solution: An RTL synthesis and physical synthesis engine that improves productivity challenges faced by RTL designers, delivering up to 5X faster synthesis turnaround times
  • Tempus™ Timing Signoff Solution: A complete timing analysis tool that improves signoff timing closure via massively parallel processing and physically aware timing optimization
  • Voltus™ IC Power Integrity Solution: A cell-level power integrity solution that supports comprehensive electromigration and IR drop (EM/IR) design rules and requirements while providing full-chip SoC power signoff accuracy
  • Voltus-Fi Custom Power Integrity Solution: A transistor-level power integrity solution that supports comprehensive EM/IR design rules and requirements while providing SPICE-level power signoff accuracy for analog, memory and custom digital IP blocks
  • Quantus™ Extraction Solution: A single, unified parasitic extraction tool that supports cell-level and transistor-level extractions during design implementation and signoff and provides best-in-class accuracy versus foundry golden
  • Physical Verification System: Includes advanced technologies and rule decks to support design rule checks (DRCs), layout versus schematic (LVS), advanced metal fill, voltage-dependent checks and in-design verification
  • Litho Physical Analyzer: Signoff solution that enables designers to detect and automatically fix process hotspots to improve design manufacturability and yield of digital, custom and mixed-signal designs, libraries and IP
  • Litho Electrical Analyzer: Allows layout-dependent effect- (LDE-) aware re-simulation, layout analysis, matching constraint checking, reporting on LDE contributions and the generation of fixing guidelines from partial layout to accelerate analog design convergence

GF chose the Fusion F1 DSP to demonstrate the compelling PPA results with the 22FDX node, which is designed for low-cost, low-energy IoT sensing and connectivity applications. The Fusion F1 DSP provides the power-efficient control and signal processing demanded by emerging IoT applications like NB-IoT-based modems and other battery-powered products.

“Through our collaboration with Cadence, we’ve verified that the Cadence methodology meets our accuracy, frequency, power and cell utilization requirements,” said Richard Trihy, senior director, design enablement at GF. “The certification of the Cadence digital tool suite allows our mutual customers to reach their PPA targets and to experience the benefits associated with the GF 22FDX body bias techniques that are key differentiators with our process technology.”

“Through the integration and innovation offered by our full-flow digital tool suite that was certified using the Tensilica Fusion F1 DSP, customers designing with the GF 22FDX process technology can converge on PPA targets faster,” said KT Moore, vice president, product management in the Digital & Signoff Group at Cadence. “GF performed thorough correlation checks on the Cadence flow, thereby giving users added confidence that they can successfully implement robust designs quickly and stay ahead of the competition in their respective markets.”

IC Insights forecasts total semiconductor capital expenditures will rise to $102.0 billion this year, marking the first time that the industry has spent more than $100 billion on capital expenditures in one year.  The $102.0 billion spending level represents a 9% increase over $93.3 billion spent in 2017, which was a 38% surge over 2016.

Figure 1 shows that more than half of industry capital spending is forecast for memory production—primarily DRAM and flash memory—including upgrades to existing wafer fab lines and brand new manufacturing facilities. Collectively, memory is forecast to account for 53% of semiconductor capital expenditures this year. The share of capital spending for memory devices has increase substantially in six years, nearly doubling from 27% ($14.7 billion) in 2013 to a forecast of 53% ($54.0 billion) of total industry capex in 2018, which amounts to a 2013-2018 CAGR of 30%.

Figure 1

Of the major product categories shown, DRAM/SRAM is forecast to show the largest increase in spending, but flash memory is expected to account for the largest share of capex spending this year (Figure 2).  Capital spending for the DRAM/SRAM segment is forecast to show a 41% surge in 2018 after a strong 82% increase in 2017.  Capital spending for flash memory is forecast to rise 13% in 2018 after a 91% increase in 2017.

Figure 2

After two years of big increases in capital expenditures, a major question looming is whether high levels of spending will lead to overcapacity and a softening of prices.  Historical precedent in the memory market shows that too much spending usually leads to overcapacity and subsequent pricing weakness.  With Samsung, SK Hynix, Micron, Intel, Toshiba/Western Digital/SanDisk, and XMC/Yangtze River Storage Technology all planning to significantly ramp up 3D NAND flash capacity over the next couple of years (and new Chinese memory startup companies entering the market), IC Insights believes that the future risk for overshooting 3D NAND flash market demand is high and growing.

Roger Carpenter, a Google hardware engineer with 30 years of experience in electronic design automation and chip design, has been elected to the Silicon Integration Initiative board of directors. Si2 is a research and development joint venture that provides standard interoperability solutions for integrated circuit design tools.

Before joining Google, Carpenter held executive roles at three EDA firms: Magma Design Automation, Javelin Design Automation and Envis. His design experience includes positions at Wave Computing, Broadcom, Chromatic Research and Xilinx. A holder of more than a dozen patents, Carpenter received a Bachelor’s and Master’s of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

John Ellis, Si2 president and CEO, said that Google’s membership on the Si2 board reflects the increasing impact of vertical integration in the electronics industry.  “A recent Si2 industry survey showed that over 80 percent of our end users develop some specialized, internal design tools. This proprietary software meets their unique needs and performance requirements,” Ellis said.

“Directly accessing the Si2 OpenAccess data base by making use of our Application Programming Interface, designers and integrators have greater control over their bottom line by optimizing their design flow and, in turn, shortening product time-to-market. It’s critical that system houses like Google, along with their unique semiconductor design software needs, are now represented on the Si2 board.”

The twelve members of the Si2 board represent leading semiconductor manufacturers and foundries, fabless companies, and EDA software providers.

Avegant Corp. (“Avegant”) announced today that the company closed $12M in Series AA funding from new investors Walden SKT Venture Fund and China Walden Venture Investments III, L.P., as well as previous investors.

Ed Tang, CEO of Avegant, said, “The consumer AR industry faces significant challenges developing displays that are high resolution, small form factor, large field-of-view, light field, and low power. The industry is excited about our unique solutions to these technical challenges, which will enable previously impossible AR experiences.”

Earlier this year, Avegant focused its operations on its next generation display technologies which are targeted for the consumer market. Avegant’s current research builds on its industry-first light field technologies and the high resolution, low latency, and high brightness retinal displays first used in Avegant’s Video Headset.

According to Dr. Om Nalamasu, President of Applied Ventures and Chief Technology Officer of Applied Materials, “Applied is excited to use its materials engineering technologies to enable new inflections like AR/VR, which require advanced displays, high-performance computing and lots of memory. We are working with Avegant to accelerate the development of their light field technology to create compelling AR applications.”

“Many companies are trying to solve multiple, very difficult technical problems to bring AR experiences to consumers,” said Andrew Kau, Managing Director of Walden International. “We chose to invest in Avegant because their solutions elegantly tackle these problems in creative ways that consider human factors without losing sight of manufacturability.”

Avegant is a well-funded, venture-backed technology company developing next-generation display technology to enable previously impossible augmented reality experiences. The company uses its deep scientific understanding of human sight and head-mounted display ergonomics together with its consumer electronics manufacturing experience to develop displays that enable realistic AR experiences for consumers. Avegant’s Light Field Technology enables a compelling, up-close, hands-on AR experience, and its Consumer AR Display Technology makes these experiences possible in a consumer wearable AR device. For more information visit avegant.com or follow Avegant on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Lattice Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ: LSCC), a provider of customizable smart connectivity solutions, announced the appointment of Jim Anderson as the Company’s President and Chief Executive Officer, and to the Company’s Board of Directors, effective September 4, 2018. Mr. Anderson brings broad technology industry experience and a proven track record of leading and transforming businesses to drive sustained growth and profitability. Mr. Anderson joins Lattice from Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) where he served as the General Manager and Senior Vice President of the Computing and Graphics Business Group.

Jeff Richardson, Chairman of the Board, said, “On behalf of the Board, we are pleased to announce the appointment of Jim Anderson as Lattice’s new President and Chief Executive Officer. Jim brings a strong combination of business and technical leadership with a deep understanding of our target end markets and customers. The transformation he drove of AMD’s Computing and Graphics business over the past few years is just a recent example of his long track record of creating significant shareholder value. We are excited to bring Jim’s proven leadership to Lattice as we accelerate all aspects of the company in order to capture the enormous opportunity that lies ahead.” Mr. Richardson added, “The Board would also like to thank Glen Hawk for his leadership and service to Lattice as COO and then as Interim CEO during the Company’s management transition.” Glen has agreed to serve as Special Advisor to the CEO through October 31, 2018, to help ensure a smooth transition before leaving Lattice to pursue other opportunities.

Mr. Anderson said, “I want to thank the Board of Directors for its confidence and the opportunity to lead Lattice as President and CEO, with a focus on driving sustained growth and profitability. Lattice has an impressive history of innovation in programmable solutions. I am excited about the opportunity to help bring that innovation to growing end markets, while deepening partnerships with our customers. Lattice has a compelling combination of ground-breaking hardware and software solutions, global reach, and talented employees that forms a strong foundation for industry leadership and success.”

Jim Anderson brings to the role over 20 years of broad technology industry experience across many markets, including consumer, enterprise/datacenter, and telecom. In his role leading AMD’s Computing and Graphics business group since 2015, Mr. Anderson drove a strategic and operational transformation that brought disruptive new products to the market and delivered market-leading revenue growth and significant profitability expansion for AMD. Prior to AMD, he held a broad range of leadership positions spanning general management, engineering, sales, marketing, and strategy at companies including, Intel, Broadcom Limited (formerly, Avago Technologies), and LSI Corporation.

Mr. Anderson holds an MBA and Master of Science in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a Master of Science in electrical engineering from Purdue University, and a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from the University of Minnesota. Mr. Anderson has received four patents for innovations in computer architecture. He also serves on the Board of Directors of Qylur Intelligent Systems, Inc.

TowerJazz, the global specialty foundry, today announced its participation at European Microwave Week (EuMW), being held in Madrid, Spain on September 25 – 27, 2018. The Company will showcase its extensive RF silicon process capability including its advanced SiGe and RF SOI technologies, addressing the emerging 5G and mmWave markets and focusing on high-data rate mobile and automotive applications.

TowerJazz will present its best-in-class, high volume SiGe BiCMOS technology for 5G mobile transmit-receive chips with greater than 12 Gbps data rates, with record performance at the 28GHz band, representing a more than 10-times improvement in data rate vs. 4G LTE, and meeting many other technical specification requirements of the emerging 5G standard. The Company will also highlight its 5G RF SOI technology which includes its newest 65nm process ramping on 300mm wafers with best-in-class LNA and switch performance to address integration in the front-end-module. The process can reduce losses in an RF switch improving battery life and boosting data rates in handsets and IoT terminals.

During the conference, TowerJazz will participate on a panel to discuss RF semiconductor solutions for 5G systems. The panel session is scheduled for September 25, 2018 from 11:00 a.m. until noon.

Watlow, a designer and manufacturer of complete thermal systems, announced that it has acquired Yarbrough Solutions Worldwide of Austin, Texas. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Yarbrough is a semiconductor equipment solutions provider that services semiconductor fabrication companies globally by developing, installing and servicing high-performance solutions at its customer’s fabrication plants. In performing these services, Yarbrough has long relied upon a myriad of Watlow product offerings such as electric heaters, temperature sensors, temperature controllers and power controllers.

“Yarbrough is a known leader in providing innovative thermal system solutions to semiconductor equipment end users,” said Rob Gilmore, vice president and general manager of Watlow’s semiconductor business unit. “Adding Yarbrough’s know-how and expertise to Watlow’s world-class suite of thermal system capabilities enhances our ability to serve customers through the entire semiconductor fabrication process, from the tool to the scrubber, to ensure thermal optimization of the complete system.”

“This acquisition enables both parties to provide even more value to our semiconductor equipment customers,” said Pat Swayze, vice president of Yarbrough. “We are very excited about Watlow’s long-term vision and we look forward to contributing to the company’s future growth.”

A key element of the acquisition is a South Korean joint venture, which enhances Watlow’s presence in the region. This joint venture between Watlow and its partner, Global Standard Technology Co., Ltd., an established semiconductor business, will be named Watlow Pacific Inc.

Watlow has experienced significant recent growth and aspires to be the share leader in all of its core markets. According to Peter Desloge, Watlow’s president, chief executive officer and chairman, “Watlow is committed to the success of its customers through product and technology leadership, and this is one of the many reasons why the world’s leading companies begin with Watlow for their thermal needs. The Yarbrough acquisition is a continuation of Watlow’s strategy to combine organic investments and acquisitions to achieve consistent, sustainable long-term growth. This acquisition enhances our thermal control capabilities and our ability to create value and deliver a competitive advantage to our customers. We are very excited to welcome Yarbrough to the Watlow team.”

North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $2.36 billion in billings worldwide in July 2018 (three-month average basis), according to the July Equipment Market Data Subscription (EMDS) Billings Report published today by SEMI. The billings figure is 4.9 percent lower than the final June 2018 level of $2.48 billion, and is 4.1 percent higher than the July 2017 billings level of $2.27 billion.

“Global billings declined for the second month in a row, indicative of customer push-outs,” said Ajit Manocha, president and CEO of SEMI. “We expect the industry to weather this soft patch and end the year overall with strong growth.”

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
February 2018
$2,417.8
22.5%
March 2018
$2,431.8
16.9%
April 2018
$2,689.9
25.9%
May 2018
$2,702.3
8.1%
June 2018 (final)
$2,484.3
8.0%
July 2018 (prelim)
$2,363.1
4.1%

Source: SEMI (www.semi.org), August 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). The WWSEMS report currently reports billings by 24 equipment segments and by seven end market regions. SEMI also has a long history of tracking semiconductor industry fab investments in detail on a company-by-company and fab-by-fab basis in its World Fab Forecast and SEMI FabView databases. These powerful tools provide access to spending forecasts, capacity ramp, technology transitions, and other information for over 1,000 fabs worldwide. For an overview of available SEMI market data, please visit www.semi.org/en/MarketInfo.