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Rambus Inc. (NASDAQ: RMBS), a developer of digital security, semiconductor and IP products and services, today announced the appointment of Sanjay Saraf to its board of directors, effective immediately.

Mr. Saraf currently serves as the executive vice president and chief technology officer at YapStone, where he is responsible for product engineering, infrastructure, operations, information security, research and development, and product innovation. Prior to YapStone, he was chief technology officer at Western Union Digital and was responsible for digital transformation and leading product engineering teams. Throughout Mr. Saraf’s career, he successfully launched mobile payments applications in over 50 countries, integrated payments with over a thousand banks in over 70 countries and processed over $80 billion in principal volume in over 200 countries.

“Sanjay’s accomplished background in mobile payments and digital transformation makes him an outstanding addition to the Board. He will bring strong leadership, especially for our growing security and payments business,” said Eric Stang, chairman of the Board at Rambus. “We are pleased to welcome Sanjay to the Board and look forward to his collaboration and contribution.”

“I am honored and thrilled to be joining Rambus’ Board of Directors,” said Saraf. “I look forward to using my leadership experience and knowledge of the payments and security industry to support Rambus’ strategy and growth initiatives.”

Mr. Saraf holds a B.S. in Engineering from the University of Bombay and a M.S. in Engineering from the University of Wyoming. He will be serving on the Board alongside E. Thomas Fisher, Emiko Higashi, Charles Kissner, David Shrigley and Eric Stang.

Reaching their highest recorded quarterly level ever on robust demand, worldwide silicon wafer area shipments rose 2.5 percent in the second quarter of 2018 to 3,160 million square inches from 3,084 million square inches the previous quarter, according to the SEMI Silicon Manufacturers Group (SMG) in its quarterly analysis of the silicon wafer industry. New quarterly total area shipments are 6.1 percent higher than second quarter 2017 shipments.

“The second calendar quarter of the year typically enjoys a volume increase over the first quarter,” said Neil Weaver, chairman SEMI SMG and Director, Product Development and Applications Engineering of Shin Etsu Handotai America. “This quarter is no exception. Continued solid demand is driving record wafer volume shipments.”

Silicon* Area Shipment Trends

Millions of Square Inches
1Q2017
2Q2017
3Q2017
4Q2017
1Q2018
2Q2018
Total
2,858
2,978
2,997
2,977
3,084
3,160
*Semiconductor applications only
Source: SEMI, (www.semi.org), July

Silicon wafers are the fundamental building material for semiconductors, which in turn, are vital components of virtually all electronics goods, including computers, telecommunications products, and consumer electronics. The highly engineered thin round disks are produced in various diameters (from one inch to 12 inches) and serve as the substrate material on which most semiconductor devices, or chips, are fabricated.

All data cited in this release includes polished silicon wafers, including virgin test wafers and epitaxial silicon wafers, as well as non-polished silicon wafers shipped by the wafer manufacturers to end users.

SiFive, the provider of commercial RISC-V processor IP, today welcomed Chipus Microelectronics, a semiconductor company with proven expertise in the development of ultra-low-power (ULP), low-voltage, analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits, to the growing DesignShare ecosystem. Through the partnership, Chipus will provide ULP IP for power management and ULP RF Front-Ends.

Chipus’ customizable technology will make it easier for SiFive customers to save power and extend battery life for IoT edge devices. Chipus also plans to add temperature sensors and switched regulators to the DesignShare program in the near future.

“Chipus is thrilled to partner up with SiFive to bring more chip design opportunities to reality, enabling innovation with our Ultra-Low-Power and simple-to-customize IP solutions,” said Murilo Pilon Pessatti, CEO and co-founder of Chipus. “Our mission, together with SiFive, is to enable innovation. With our expertise, Chipus looks forward to contributing to new IoT applications and edge devices.”

The availability of Chipus’ ULP IP through the DesignShare program shortens the time to market and removes common barriers to entry that have traditionally prevented smaller companies from developing custom silicon. Companies like SiFive, Chipus and other DesignShare partners provide low- or no-entry fee IP to emerging companies, minimizing the upfront engineering costs needed to bring a custom chip from design to realization.

“Startups today go through extensive processes, from sourcing viable IP to negotiating legal contracts, before they can even develop a prototype,” said Shafy Eltoukhy, vice president of operations and head of DesignShare for SiFive. “With Chipus joining our growing DesignShare economy, we continue to simplify the prototyping process and spur innovation across the industry.”

Since DesignShare launched in 2017, the program has grown to include a wide range of IP solutions, from complete ASIC solutions and trace technology to embedded memory and precision PLL. For more information on DesignShare and to see the complete list of available technologies, visit www.sifive.com/designshare.

The VCSEL industry took a strategic turn last year with the release of the latest iPhone. Indeed the leading smartphones manufacturer, Apple revealed to the entire world a new smartphone with innovative 3D sensing function based on VCSEL technology. Apple’s technical choice directly impacted the VCSEL industry and Yole Développement (Yole) announces today impressive market figures in its new technology and market report, VCSEL – Technology, Industry and Market Trends: more than 3.3 billion units in 2023 with a 31% CAGR between 2017 and 2023. This explosion is changing the future of all players of the VCSELs supply chain including: OEMs , integrators, device manufacturers, epi houses, foundries, equipment and material suppliers.

VCSEL – Technology, Industry and Market Trends report performed by Yole, presents an in-depth analysis of the VCSEL industry with its supply chain and competitive landscape. It exposes a comprehensive review of the main VCSEL applications including in-depth analysis of the consumer and automotive landscapes with 3D sensing, LiDAR and gas sensing. Under this report, Yole details VCSEL device market size, broken down by application and segment, and the related MOCVD reactor market. In addition, Yole’s analysts bring to light a significant overview of the VCSEL IP landscape. VCSEL manufacturing processes, associated challenges, recent trends and player positioning are also well analyzed.

3D sensing – and more – in smartphones will drive the VCSEL market for the next five years, announces the market research and strategy consulting company. Make sure to get an up-to-date picture today of this explosive market.

Data communications was the first industrial application to start integrating VCSELs. Their sweet spot has been in short-distance data communication due to their low power consumption and competitive price compared to EELs . Driven by the development of datacenters, the VCSEL market and production boomed in the 2000s with the internet’s popularity, and then grew steadily. Some new applications for VCSEL emerged, like laser printers and optical mice, but weren’t strong growth drivers.

Only in 2014, almost 20 years since the first use of the technology in datacom, VCSELs started to make their way into high volume consumer smartphones. But this coupling with sensors for proximity sensing and autofocus functions was only the beginning of the VCSEL success story.
“In 2017 Apple released the iPhone X, with a 3D sensing function based on this technology,” explains Pierrick Boulay, Technology & Market Analyst at Yole. And he explains: “The iPhone X integrates three different VCSEL dies for the proximity sensor and the Face ID module, and made the VCSEL market explode in 2017, propelling overall revenue to about US$330 million.”

Only in 2014, almost 20 years since the first use of the technology in datacom, VCSELs started to make their way into high volume consumer smartphones. But this coupling with sensors for proximity sensing and autofocus functions was only the beginning of the VCSEL success story.
“In 2017 Apple released the iPhone X, with a 3D sensing function based on this technology,” explains Pierrick Boulay, Technology & Market Analyst at Yole. And he explains: “The iPhone X integrates three different VCSEL dies for the proximity sensor and the Face ID module, and made the VCSEL market explode in 2017, propelling overall revenue to about US$330 million.”

Good iPhone X sales have now triggered the interest of other smartphone brands in this breakthrough 3D sensing function. Less than one year after the release of Apple’s flagship, its competitors are now following the same trend and starting to integrate 3D sensing technologies. Xiaomi and Oppo were the quickest on the draw, with the Xiaomi Mi8 and the Oppo Find X models presented in the second quarter of 2018. Other leading smartphone players like Huawei, Vivo or Samsung are also expected to integrate VCSELs into their flagship models by 2019.

In this context, the explosion of VCSEL demand initiated in 2017 will persist for the next five years, potentially multiplying the business opportunity more than tenfold. During that time, the technology might also find some new growth drivers into some other high volume applications such as automotive Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) or gas sensors.

“This trend will likely cause rapid evolution in the VCSEL industry in coming years in the form of investment, new entrants and M&A ”, comments Pars Mukish, Business Unit Manager SSL & Display activities at Yole.

VCSEL market volume is expected to grow from 652 million units in 2017 to more than 3.3 billion units in 2023. This booming trend is likely to trigger interest in VCSEL technology at many industry levels, including OEMs, integrators, device manufacturers, epi houses, foundries, equipment and material suppliers. To be able to follow this booming demand, more than 100 MOCVD reactors will be needed, which is likely to please companies that supply this equipment, such as Aixtron, Veeco and Taiyo Nippon Sanso.

Yole expects therefore strong investment and proliferation in the VCSEL industry with the entry of several new players, mostly from the LED industry, whose technology is similar.
Since 2016, Yole analysts’ have already seen some M&A, like ams’ acquisition of Princeton Optronics and Osram’s deal for Vixar and investment in manufacturing expansion or supply chain reinforcement, like Apple investing US$390 million in Finisar. Yole expects the bulk of these investments to occur in the coming years.

And once VCSEL hype reaches its peak, Yole also expects a necessary consolidation phase with more M&A occurring at all level of the supply chain and to support different strategies
•  Vertical integration – from system to module and/or from module to component
•  Application diversification – from datacom to sensing
•  Business diversification – from LED or EEL devices to VCSELs

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and PLDA®, an industry leader in high-speed interconnect IP, today announced a joint collaboration to meet the challenges of next-generation connectivity for advanced workloads. Gen-Z is a new open interconnect protocol and connector developed by the Gen-Z Consortium to solve the challenges associated with processing and analyzing huge amounts of data in real time. HPE and PLDA are working together to develop Gen-Z semiconductor IP designed to the Gen-Z Core Specification 1.0.

Announced in February 2018, the Core Specification 1.0 enables the industry to begin the development of products that incorporate the Gen-Z interconnect protocol.

Creating one standard interconnect is important because it allows any component – processing, memory, accelerators, networking – to talk to any other component as if it were communicating with its own local memory using simple commands. PLDA’s Gen-Z IP will provide the building blocks to create high performance low latency solutions where every device in the system is connected at the speed of memory.

“PLDA is proud to collaborate with HPE to provide comprehensive design IP to silicon providers to enable volume production of Gen-Z compatible components and to enable system vendors to utilize the Gen-Z silicon components to build network, storage and compute systems and solutions,” said Arnaud Schleich, CEO, at PLDA. “This will enable an open ecosystem of Gen-Z building blocks for a variety of solutions from the intelligent edge to the cloud.”

With Gen-Z, the industry can simultaneously support memory, I/O, storage and different forms of compute on a common disaggregated, composable or memory-semantic fabric (or interconnect).

Gen-Z reflects a broader industry trend that recognizes the importance and role of open standards in providing a level playing field to promote adoption, innovation and choice. By enabling technologists to collaborate and contribute to an open and competitive ecosystem, Gen-Z will help the industry fundamentally change how the world thinks about computing.

“At HPE, we recognize the need to partner in the development of new architectures and technologies that can effectively meet the needs of our customers,” said Mark Potter, CTO, HPE and Director, Hewlett Packard Labs. “HPE is committed to supporting open standards and working collaboratively to develop this new interconnect. The collaboration with PLDA is a demonstration of HPE’s commitment to the development and industry-wide proliferation of Gen-Z, an important technology in meeting the demands of the modern data center and in creating a Memory-Driven Computing architecture.”

With Gen-Z, the industry can combine fast persistent memory, DRAM and task-specific processing and accelerators on a fast memory fabric without legacy constraints or device hierarchies. This approach optimizes and simplifies system configurations to deliver optimal performance tailored to specific user demands simply and efficiently with better performance at reduced cost.

In a key move to inspire the next generation of innovators, the School District of Osceola County (SDOC) today became the first school district to join the SEMI High Tech U (HTU) Certified Partner Program (CPP), a curriculum that prepares high-school students to pursue careers in STEM fields.

Under the program sponsored by the SEMI Foundation, SDOC will independently deliver HTU programs to local students at the Osceola Technical College Campus, in Kissimmee, Florida. SEMI Foundation awarded SDOC the certification today at a graduation ceremony for HTU students.

“SDOC’s partnership with the SEMI Foundation gives young people and families in our community exposure to high-tech career opportunities and the educational pathways to reach their goals,” said Debra Pace, superintendent of School District of Osceola County. “Our industry partners – including Mercury, University of Central Florida, BRIDG, Osceola Technical College, imec, Neo City and the Osceola County Education Foundation – have all made it possible for SDOC to offer this amazing opportunity to students.”

“We are delighted to partner with SDOC in our common goal to motivate the next generation of innovators,” said Leslie Tugman, executive director of the SEMI Foundation. “The School District of Osceola County is well-positioned to put college-bound high school students on a track that speeds the time from graduation to employment in high technology. SDOC’s certification is a tremendous benefit for it students, the community and employers in the fast-growing Central Florida tech corridor.”

To win the certification, SDOC delivered HTU over the past three years with guidance and instruction from SEMI. SDOC is only the second organization to receive the certification.

The nonprofit SEMI Foundation has been delivering its flagship program, SEMI High Tech U, at industry sites around the world since 2001 to emphasize the importance of STEM skills and inspire young people to pursue careers in high-technology fields. HTU students meet engineers and STEM volunteer instructors from industry for site tours and hands-on classroom activities such as etching wafers, making circuits, coding and training for professional interviews.

SEMI’s Certified Partner Program identifies organizations that provide quality training and can recruit and educate local high-school students in the value of careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Participating organizations are trained to deliver the unique SEMI curriculum with the support of volunteer instructors from the high-tech and STEM industries. SEMI High Tech U is the longest-running STEM career exploration program in the United States with documented student impact. Since inception, SEMI has reached over 8,000 high-school students in 12 states and nine countries with its award-winning program.

SEMI Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charitable organization founded in 2001 to support education and career awareness in the electronics and high-tech fields through career exploration programs and scholarships. For more information, visit www.semifoundation.org.

The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), representing U.S. leadership in semiconductor manufacturing, design, and research, today welcomed newly announced research partnerships between the Defense Department’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and research teams from industry and academia that aim to bolster long-term semiconductor research. The research partnerships, part of new programs within DARPA’s Electronics Resurgence Initiative (ERI), will target advances in semiconductor circuit design, materials, and systems architectures. The selected research teams were unveiled yesterday in San Francisco during the first annual DARPA ERI Summit, a three-day event bringing together hundreds of members of the microelectronics community.

“As the brains of modern electronics, semiconductors are central to America’s economy, national security, and global competitiveness,” said John Neuffer, president and CEO, Semiconductor Industry Association. “The DARPA research partnerships announced yesterday will help catalyze transformational advances in semiconductor technology and enhance semiconductors’ positive impacts on our country.”

The ERI is divided into three main research thrust areas – Design, Materials & Integration, and Architectures. Each thrust area will feature two new research programs. The Design research thrust area will include the Intelligent Design of Electronic Assets (IDEA) program and the Posh Open Source Hardware (POSH) program. The Materials & Integration research thrust area will include the Three-Dimensional Monolithic System-on-a-Chip (3DSoC) program and the Foundations Required for Novel Compute (FRANC) program. The ERI Architectures research thrust area will include the Software Defined Hardware (SDH) program and the Domain-specific System on Chip (DSSoC) program.

“The semiconductor industry plows about one-fifth of its revenues into R&D – among the highest shares of any sector – and has a long record of partnering with our government to advance early-stage research,” Neuffer said. “The new DARPA research partnerships mark a major commitment to furthering semiconductor technology and keeping America at the tip of the spear globally in semiconductor innovation.”

Neuffer also noted SIA’s longstanding support for basic scientific research funded through other federal agencies such as the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science. He expressed the semiconductor industry’s eagerness to work with the Administration and Congress to advance research investments that will promote America’s economic and national security and technological leadership.

In total, the ERI will invest upwards of $1.5 billion over five years to jumpstart innovation in the electronics industry. In addition to fostering advancements in semiconductor technologies used for national security, the ripple effect from this research will be felt across the full range of semiconductor applications: communications, computing, health care, transportation, clean energy, and countless others. For more information about the Electronics Resurgence Initiative and the first annual ERI Summit, please visit http://www.eri-summit.com/.

SiFive, a provider of commercial RISC-V processor IP, today announced Brad Holtzinger as Vice President of Worldwide Sales, where he will work with the existing global portfolio of SiFive customers and onboard new clients seeking to take advantage of the company’s market-leading Core IP.  Holtzinger brings more than 30 years of embedded industry experience in sales, marketing and engineering.

“It is rare to see a company rapidly disrupting the silicon sector,” Holtzinger said. “I look forward to joining the SiFive team and supporting our customers and partners globally in adopting RISC-V and SiFive’s IP to move the industry forward.”

Previously, Holtzinger was the Vice President of Worldwide Sales for MIPS Technologies where he led licensing and sales of its global IP portfolio.  While at MIPS, Holtzinger drove the company to record sales and negotiated the sale and licensing of the MIPS patent portfolio to Bridge Crossing for $350 million and the sale of the remaining company to Imagination.

Prior to MIPS, he led the sales, operations and business development efforts as well as held the position of CEO for a number of privately funded and venture backed startups. He also founded the OEM Systems division of Force Computers, which was sold to Solectron for approximately $190 million.

Holtzinger started his career at Motorola as an embedded hardware and software design engineer, where he authored Motorola’s Technical Training class on Unix® System V and eventually was one of the founding members of Motorola’s Microcomputer Group, (MCG), that sold OEM systems and VME boards.  Holtzinger received his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Purdue University and was an instructor at University of California, Berkeley.

“SiFive is excited to bring someone with Brad’s decades-long silicon sales leadership to the SiFive executive team,” said Naveed Sherwani, CEO of SiFive. “His experience leading a world-class sales organization and embedded hardware expertise will help continue to propel SiFive customer adoption.”

TheXcerra MT2168 XT pick-and-place handler was installed for a tri-temp module test application at a major player in global semiconductor manufacturing.  With its innovative features and highly flexible design the MT2168 XT meets the growing demand in high volume production for reliable and cost-efficient tri-temp test handling of multi-chip packages and modules in the automotive and consumer markets.

Today’s available equipment for module test handling are dedicated solutions with low throughput and limited temperature test capabilities. Xcerra’s MT2168 XT addresses the market need for a high volume production test solution for modules.  The MT2168 XT leverages the industry-known tri-temperature expertise of the Xcerra Handler Group specialists and provides advanced technical features of the latest generation of pick-and-place handler.  Additionally, the MT2168 XT is superior to traditional module test solutions when it comes to typical high volume production requirements such as the number of supported binning classes, small footprint, spare part and service support.

The MT2168 XT can be used for handling both package devices and modules.  Xcerra’s module test solution gives customers the greatest flexibility in high volume production with quick and easy change between different package types and different size modules.

Handling and testing modules can be challenging due to the physical dimensions and heterogeneous architecture of modules. The MT2168 XT independent plunger force and temperature control provides better ability to handle modules and precisely control power dissipation for high test yield.

Integrating contacting solutions from Xcerra’s Interface Product Group can be an additional advantage for module testing.  Extensive understanding of test contacting is beneficial for complex modules of different shapes and sizes.

Dr. Laurie Wright, Director Global Business Development, explains: “There is a growing demand in the semiconductor market for module test handling as customers seek to deliver greater value to their end customers.  The MT2168 XT brings the advantages from high volume package test to module test. Customers will benefit from this highly flexible and reliable tri-temperature test solution that can address a wide range of their high volume production requirements.”

To learn more about the Xcerra MT2168, please visit www.xcerra.com/MT2168.

Toshiba Memory Corporation today held a groundbreaking ceremony for the first semiconductor fabrication facility (fab), called K1, in Kitakami, Iwate prefecture, in northeastern Japan. On its completion in autumn 2019, the facility will be one of the most advanced manufacturing operations in the world, dedicated to production of 3D flash memory.

Toshiba Memory continues to advance technologies in flash memory. The company is now leading the way forward with advances in its BiCS FLASH™, its proprietary 3D flash memory.

Demand for 3D flash memory is increasing significantly on fast growing demand for enterprise servers, datacenters and smartphones. Toshiba memory expects continued strong growth in the mid and long term. The new facility will make a major contribution to business competitiveness in corporation with Yokkaichi operations.

The new facility will not only be the largest Toshiba Memory fab, but it will be the most advanced as well. It will be constructed with a seismic isolation structure that allows it to absorb earthquake tremors, and it will reduce environmental loads by deployment of the latest energy-saving manufacturing facilities. It will also introduce an advanced production system that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to boost productivity. Decisions on the new fab’s equipment investment, production capacity and production plan will reflect market trends.

Toshiba Memory expects to continue its joint venture investments in the new facility based on ongoing discussions with Western Digital Corporation.

Going forward, Toshiba Memory will continue to actively cultivate initiatives aimed at strengthening competitiveness, including timely capital investments and R&D in line with market trends. The company will also contribute to the development of the regional economy of Iwate prefecture, Japan.