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ROHM, a supplier of power semiconductors, and GaN Systems, a developer of GaN power semiconductors, today announced their collaboration in the GaN (gallium nitride) Power Semiconductor business, with the goal of contributing to the continuing evolution of power electronics.

This strategic partnership leverages GaN Systems’ industry leading capabilities in power GaN transistors along with ROHM’s comprehensive footprint in semiconductor and considerable resources in the design and manufacture of electronic components. The companies have agreed to jointly develop form-, fit-, and function-compatible products using GaN semiconductor dies in both GaN Systems’ GaNPX® packaging and ROHM’s traditional power semiconductor packaging. GaN Systems and ROHM customers will now have the advantage of having two possible sources for package-compatible GaN power switches, presenting the widest selection of dual-sourced GaN devices.

Customers will also benefit from greater access to GaN products and resources globally, especially in Asia, one of the fastest growing market for GaN. In addition, GaN Systems and ROHM will work together on GaN semiconductor research and development activities to propose ground-breaking solutions for the industrial, automotive, and consumer electronics fields. And to contribute to greater energy savings and increased power densities in the power electronics market, both companies will continue to collaborate to expand their line-up of GaN products and broaden the range of choices.

“GaN has rapidly made its ascent into power electronics applications and this partnership exemplifies how important GaN has become in a complete power electronics offering,” said Jim Witham, CEO of GaN Systems. “We’re proud to partner with ROHM, a company well-known for developing industry-leading technologies. By combining our joint expertise and capabilities, we’re enabling more businesses to access and experience the benefits of GaN in achieving higher power, more efficient, smaller, and lighter power electronics.”

“ROHM has targeted the power device business as one of our growth strategies. We offer leading-edge products such as SiC (Silicon Carbide) power devices and provide power solutions that integrate control technologies, including gate drivers that maximize device performance. We are also developing GaN for next-generation power devices. By leveraging the superior technologies and expertise of both companies, we are able to accelerate the development of high-performance solutions to solve the needs of the power market,” said Katsumi Azuma, Senior Managing Director of ROHM Semiconductor.

IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for humanity, and the IEEE Electronics Packaging Society (EPS) today announced Dr. William Chen as the recipient of the 2018 IEEE Electronics Packaging Award. The IEEE Electronics Packaging Award and the society’s other annual awards were presented on 31 May in San Diego, California, at the 2018 IEEE Electronic Components and Technology Conference (ECTC), the society’s flagship event.

Dr. Chen is an IEEE Life Fellow and Fellow of ASE Group in Sunnyvale, California. He is a former president of the IEEE Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology (CPMT) Society, as which the IEEE EPS was formerly known, and a prominent leader in the packaging community since his early years at IBM. He was recognized for his pioneering contributions to electronic packaging—from research and development through industrialization—and for his leadership in strategic roadmapping efforts in heterogeneous integration. Dr. Chen has been instrumental in the industrialization of game-changing packaging technologies which enabled miniaturization, cost reduction and performance enhancements for today’s pervasive, all-powerful electronic devices. He has been previously recognized for his work in the field and was the recipient of the IEEE CPMT David Feldman Outstanding Contribution Award in 2010.

At the IEEE Electronic Components and Technology Conference, IEEE EPS also honored other packaging leaders and innovators driving the research, design and development of revolutionary electronic microsystem packaging and integration technology:

In addition, Annette Teng of Promex Industries Inc., Gilles Poupon of CEA-LETI in France and Yoshitaka Fukuoka of Worldwide Electronic Integrated Substrate Technology Inc. in Japan received the 2018 IEEE EPS Regional Contributions Awards.

“The electronics industry is experiencing tremendous expansion and revolutionary change, repositioning electronic packaging as a value creator and product differentiator for broad domains of the semiconductor industry. Our members are at the forefront of this transformation, driving innovation in microsystem packaging in key areas such as heterogeneous integration, 3D packaging and the IoT (Internet of Things),” said Avram Bar-Cohen, IEEE EPS president. “This ECTC EPS luncheon showcased their efforts and the outstanding leadership of William Chen, to strengthen and expand the society as the leading global authority on packaging and integration and to help define the future of the electronics industry.”

IEEE EPS (https://eps.ieee.org) represents current and future technologists in electronics packaging, spanning every nuance from earliest-stage research, through design and prototyping, to assembly and manufacturing, and ultimately to ensuring safe and reliable operation. IEEE EPS is also increasingly serving as a focal point for information transfer and collaboration for other IEEE societies, as technologists in those technology areas seek to derive value from microsystem packaging.

NVIDIA and Taiwan’s Ministry of Science and Technology today announced an extensive collaboration that will advance Taiwan’s artificial intelligence capabilities.

Announced at the start of Computex 2018, the partnership will extend over the next decade to build up local deep learning and associated AI technologies.

“Taiwan was at the center of the PC revolution and now it is investing to play an important role in the next era of computing,” said Jensen Huang, founder and chief executive officer of NVIDIA. “With the essential infrastructure and tools, the rich talent in Taiwan’s schools and industry will create world-changing breakthroughs in science and society.”

Taiwan Premier Lai Ching-te expressed enthusiasm for the collaboration, which he called essential to sharpening national competitiveness.

“Taiwan is committed to be an important global player in the AI ecosystem,” Premier Lai said. “NVIDIA is the leader of AI computing in the world. By collaborating with NVIDIA, we will gain the expertise and technical platforms to train AI talents, build the strongest AI ecosystem of both software and hardware, and further reshape the world with our own technologies and services of AI.”

The collaboration is focused in five key areas:

  • Supercomputing infrastructure. NVIDIA and Taiwan government agencies will co-invest to bring NVIDIA’s most advanced technology to Taiwan, including the new NVIDIA® HGX-2™, which fuses AI and high performance computing into a single platform.
  • Research. NVIDIA Research, a global organization that includes some of the world’s best computer scientists, will collaborate with Taiwan researchers and startups to exchange best practices.
  • Training. NVIDIA will expand its Deep Learning Institute — which has provided developers worldwide with hands-on training for beginning and advanced AI techniques — to train thousands of Taiwanese developers on the latest AI capabilities.
  • Startups. Taiwan agencies and NVIDIA will work together to help Taiwan AI startups through NVIDIA’s Inception startup accelerator program, which is helping more than 2,800 young companies globally.
  • Innovation. Joint investment in developing AI solutions for key vertical markets for Taiwan, including manufacturing, healthcare, safe cities and transportation.

Building on Grand Plan
The announcement extends the Taiwan Ministry of Science and Technology’s “AI Grand Plan,” which was unveiled last year. Last month, MOST unveiled its Taiwania HPC supercomputer powered by NVIDIA technology. And last week, it selected NVIDIA for an AI supercomputer powered by 2,000 NVIDIA Tesla® V100 32GB Tensor Core GPUs with access to the NVIDIA GPU Cloud™ (NGC) container registry of AI-optimized software.

Speaking last Wednesday to more than 2,200 technologists, developers, researchers and business executives at NVIDIA’s GPU Technology Conference Taiwan, Huang described a series of AI initiatives underway in Taiwan. These address a range of pressing domestic issues in such fields as manufacturing, healthcare and transportation, which align with the government’s focus on furthering AI.

Among the five examples he cited:

  • Foxconn drives superhuman inspection accuracy in manufacturing. Using GPU-powered deep learning with NVIDIA HGX-1 and Tesla P4 GPUs, Foxconn is slashing its manufacturing defect detecting “escape rate.” It has cut the rate to 0.015 percent from the 4.3 percent rate expert human inspectors can achieve — a 287x performance improvement.
  • China Medical University Hospital attacks Asia’s highest cancer fatality rate. Using the NVIDIA DGX-1™ supercomputer, CMUH and Eddie Huang — a post-doc student from MOST — developed an AI to detect liver cancer. The AI diagnostic “super assistant” is especially important on Taiwan, which has Asia’s highest cancer fatality rate.
  • National Taiwan University addresses locally acute cancer type. Working with Dr. Winston Hsu, NTU has made breakthroughs in detecting nasopharyngeal carcinoma, a rare head and neck cancer that’s locally prevalent due to diet and environmental factors. NVIDIA DGX-1 enabled Dr. Hsu to combine CT scans with AI-generated MRI images into one algorithm — improving detection rates by as much as 36 percent.
  • Taoyuan City makes its streets safer. Taiwan’s third-largest city is pushing development of autonomous vehicles to cut back on accidents and carbon emissions, while improving the productivity of trucks, taxis and buses. It is using the NVIDIA DGX Station™ deskside supercomputer for AI model training and the NVIDIA DRIVE™ PX2 autonomous driving computer as it works to have 30 percent of its fixed-route buses equipped with autonomous capabilities by the start of the new decade.
  • Tainan City girds against typhoons. The municipal government of Taiwan’s fourth-largest city is deploying drones, with AI software developed using NVIDIA DGX-1 systems, to monitor the structural integrity of the city’s 1,650 bridges. By evaluating their risk to potential damage from flooding, earthquakes and mudslides, it can fix bridges before the next typhoon hits.

Synopsys, Inc. (Nasdaq: SNPS) today announced that it has collaborated with Toshiba Memory Corporation to accelerate the verification of Toshiba Memory Corporation’s BiCS FLASH™ vertically stacked three-dimensional (3D) flash memory. By working closely with Toshiba Memory Corporation, Synopsys introduced innovative simulation algorithms in its FineSim® Pro FastSPICE tool to address the increased design complexity of 3D NAND Flash memory. These new technologies improve simulation speed by an average of 2X, thereby reducing multi-day simulation runs to less than a day.

Compared to traditional Flash devices, 3D Flash devices have much larger memory arrays, more complex analog and programming circuits, and extensive power distribution network.  Additionally, due to the stacked memory array structure, 3D Flash designs must deal with increased coupling effects due to layout parasitic elements. This increased complexity results in multi-day simulation times when using existing circuit simulation technology. Through close collaboration with Toshiba Memory Corporation, the latest release of FineSim Pro FastSPICE delivers several key technologies specifically optimized for 3D Flash simulation, for efficient handling of massive array structures, large power distribution network, increased layout parasitic elements, and high-precision analog circuits.

“FineSim has been our signoff circuit simulator since early 2000. Our long collaboration with Synopsys has enabled us to develop best-in-class Flash memory products for a broad range of applications,” said Shigeo (Jeff) Ohshima, Technology Executive SSD Application Engineering of Toshiba Memory Corporation. “By working closely with Synopsys we’re able to deploy FineSim Pro for verification of our latest BiCS Flash memories and meet our stringent quality and reliability requirements.”

“Advanced flash memory designs require extensive circuit simulation to ensure design robustness, reliability, and cost competitiveness,” said Paul Lo, corporate vice president of Engineering in the Design Group at Synopsys. “Our team is committed to continuing our close collaboration with Toshiba Memory Corporation to deliver novel circuit simulation technologies to meet the challenging needs of simulating complex 3D NAND Flash memories and enable Super Chips with Synopsys™.”

Ultra Clean Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: UCTT), a developer and supplier of critical subsystems for the semiconductor and display capital equipment industries, today announced that Ernest Maddock has joined the Board of Directors effective June 1, 2018. Mr. Maddock’s nearly 40 years of experience includes senior leadership roles in finance, operations, and general management. He recently retired as the SVP & CFO of Micron Technology, one of the largest memory chip makers in the world, reporting $20.3 billion in net sales for its fiscal year ended August 31, 2017.

“We are very pleased to announce that Ernie is joining the UCT board of directors. His extensive experience in the semiconductor industry and with UCT makes him a very valuable addition to the board,” said Clarence Granger, Chairman of the Board.

Prior to joining Micron in 2015, Mr. Maddock held leadership positions at multiple global companies including Riverbed Technology, where he served as Executive VP and CFO from April 2013 to April 2015. In that role, he was also responsible for worldwide operations and information technology. Prior to Riverbed, he spent 15 years at Lam Research Corporation rising to EVP & CFO in 2008 and serving in that role until April 2013. His previous roles at Lam included VP, Customer Support Business Group; Group VP and Senior VP of Global Operations.

“We are delighted to have Ernie join our board and benefit from his significant experience and success in business, operations and finance within the Semiconductor industry,” said Jim Scholhamer, President & CEO. “Ernie brings a wealth of knowledge that will be extremely valuable to UCT and its shareholders as we continue to execute on our growth strategy in this exciting market.”

Mr. Maddock has public company board and audit committee experience. He served as a member of the Board of Directors and Audit Committee for Intersil Corporation from July 2015 to February 2017 until Intersil was acquired by Renesas Electronics for $3.2 billion. During his tenure on the Intersil board, Mr. Maddock was appointed as Audit Committee Chair. Mr. Maddock will also serve as Audit Committee Chair of Ultra Clean effective with his appointment to the Board of Directors. He also has private company board experience having served on the Novaled AG board from March 2012 to August 2013; Novaled GmbH now operates as a subsidiary of Samsung SDI Co. Ltd.

Mr. Maddock holds a B.S. in Industrial Management from the Georgia Institute of Technology and an M.B.A. from Georgia State University.

Semiconductor equipment manufacturer ClassOne Technology has announced the sale of its Solstice® Electroplating Systems to the industry’s leading providers of VCSEL (Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser) devices in recent months. The announcement was made by ClassOne Group CEO, Byron Exarcos.

“This is an important trend. We’re observing unprecedented demand for VCSEL manufacturing capacity to support 3D sensing, fiber-optic communications, and laser-based materials processing,” said Exarcos. “At the same time, we see that compound semiconductor manufacturers are migrating production from wet-benches to automated single-wafer plating. The strong upturn in our Solstice sales reflects this. Our Solstice platform provides state-of-the-art automation and control, with industry-leading uniformity and throughput. At half the cost of competitive products, Solstice has become the platform of choice for manufacturers who use smaller substrates.”

ClassOne has developed several proprietary high-performance Solstice processing chambers that are of particular interest to VCSEL manufacturers who require high-speed, high-quality cost-cutting plating using materials such as Gold, Nickel or Copper.

“Compound semiconductor makers are looking for maximum flexibility,” explained Exarcos. “They like the fact that Solstice can run multiple wafer sizes simultaneously, and that the platform can be configured for a wide variety of wet processes beyond electroplating. These include Metal Lift Off, Resist Strip, Gold Deplate, UBM Etch, KOH Etch, Anodizing, and more—all from a single automated platform. We call this Plating-Plus™, and it can eliminate the need to purchase additional downstream tools.”

Exarcos emphasized that in addition to system performance, VCSEL manufacturers are attracted to Solstice’s exceptional affordability. The ≤200mm Solstice systems are priced at roughly half the cost of comparable 300mm systems from the large equipment manufacturers.

Solstice is a family of electroplating tools that includes Solstice S8 and S4, which are 8- and 4-chamber systems that can deliver throughputs of up to 75 wph. Multiple wet-process chambers enable the tools to perform multiple processes in-line simultaneously. ClassOne also offers the semi-automated Solstice LT specifically for process development and low-volume applications.

All Solstice customers enjoy access to the services of ClassOne’s world-class applications lab, which offers advanced equipment and expert technical support in developing and optimizing customized wet-process applications.

Upon the proposal of ST’s new President & CEO Jean-Marc Chery, the Supervisory Board has approved the establishment of a newly formed Executive Committee, entrusted with the management of the Company and led by Mr. Chery as its Chairman.

The other members of ST’s Executive Committee are:

  • Orio Bellezza, President, Technology, Manufacturing and Quality
  • Marco Cassis, President, Sales, Marketing, Communications and
    Strategy Development
  • Claude Dardanne, President, Microcontrollers and Digital ICs Group
  • Lorenzo Grandi, President, Finance, Infrastructure and Services and Chief Financial Officer
  • Marco Monti, President, Automotive and Discrete Group
  • Georges Penalver, President, Human Resources and Corporate Social Responsibility
  • Steven Rose, President, Legal Counsel
  • Benedetto Vigna, President, Analog, MEMS and Sensors Group.

“ST’s new Executive Committee is a team of strong and experienced semiconductor industry leaders. Our first priority is to deliver on our 2018 business and financial objectives and continue on our path of sustainable and profitable growth. Customers choose ST because we are able to bring them innovation in technology and products. We will keep pushing in this direction, with a focus on fast time-to-market and strong execution, to create value for customers and for all of our stakeholders.” said Jean-Marc Chery, President & CEO of STMicroelectronics.

Without any doubt, the advanced packaging industry is on the move. Emerging applications are bringing many new challenges. Packaging experts from all over the world are deeply involved in the development of innovative solutions to answer to the market demand dominated by megatrends. “Megatrend will probably be the key word for the next 10-years within the advanced packaging industry, and more generally in the semiconductor industry”, comments Emilie Jolivet, Semiconductor & Software Division Director at Yole Développement (Yole).“AI , IoT , 5G, mobility, and more… all major applications of our century are today the new drivers of these industries.”

What exactly is the impact of the megatrends on the advanced packaging industry? Could we expect a strong move of the advanced packaging companies: from their traditional activities to innovative services/products to answer to the specificities of the mega market segments? How will the advanced packaging supply chain evolve?

NCAP China, part of JITRI, and Yole today invite you to discover the 4th Advanced Packaging & System Integration Technology Symposium. The 2018 edition takes place in Wuxi, China, on June 20&21. It is a 2-day conference to answer strategic questions and get the opportunity to meet the leaders in the advanced packaging industry. After the last four successful events, Yole Développement & NCAP have decided to continue and strengthen their collaboration to once again provide a powerful program including Panel Level, FO , SiP , advanced substrates, 3D technology. Megatrends will be at the heart of the conference hosted by NCAP CHINA. Advanced packaging is on the move. Don’t miss it!
• Click program & registration to see the schedule, list of speakers, abstracts, and much more.
• The 2018 symposium is sponsored by DIPSOL, ERS, Nordson, SPTS (An Orbotech Company), and SEMSYSCO.

First held in 2014, the Advanced Packaging & System Integration Technology Symposium attracts more than 180 worldwide executive attendees each year. The program, designed by both partners Yole and NCAP China, brings together numerous valuable discussions, short courses, meetings and business collaborations. The list of executive speakers is impressive (Full list of speakers). The 2018 program welcomes two keynotes, among the numerous presentations: 
• Impact of the industry trends on advanced packaging – Jean-Christophe Eloy, President, Yole Group of Companies. Yole Group of Companies includes Yole Développement, System Plus Consulting, KnowMade and PISEO. 
• The industrialization road of innovative Wafer Level Fan-Out technology: eSiFO – Dr. Daquan Yu, VP, Huatian Technology Electronic … And much more. The list of speakers, biographies and abstracts are available on i-micronews.com. To download the PDF version, click Program – Abstracts.

Amongst the numerous sessions of the Advanced Packaging & System Integration Technology, 2018 edition, FOWLP will be deeply covered by a significant list of speakers: Klemens Reitinger, CEO, ERS electronic, Stephen Hiebert, Sr Director of Marketing, KLA-Tencor and David Butler, EVP General Manager, SPTS Technologies. Currently FOWLP is the fastest growing packaging platform and is directly impacted by the megatrends. From mobile to automotive to medical, for both low-end (e.g. audio codecs) and high-end devices (e.g. APU), Yole analyzes daily the technology evolution and market drivers. “Today, cost is still a concern compared to other more mature packaging platforms”, assert Yole’s Sr Analyst, Santosh Kumar (1). Market trends and technical challenges will be detailed in a presentation proposed by Santosh Kumar in the dedicated session. Santosh also recently invited Albert Koller, Head of Advanced Packaging Business Unit at Evatec, to discuss its activities and present its vision of the advanced packaging industry. This interview is available on i-micronews.com, advanced packaging news section.

Dr Cao LiQiang, NCAP’s CEO asserts: “In recent years, many aspects of advanced packaging worldwide remained focused on FI, FO, TSV and WLP… As for China, we have identified major changes to FO technology development and commercialization in the next five years. Potential packaging houses will be established here, in China. NCAP is preparing FI & FO manufacturing mass production, together with our partners of several years…With Yole, NCAP is exploring possible collaborations with worldwide equipment and material suppliers. The symposium is a real opportunity to interact with OSAT and end-users as well. At NCAP, we believe the NCAP- Yole collaboration will positively influence the advanced packaging industry and encourage its development. During the symposium, we especially expect many debates on the numerous challenges facing the domestic packaging materials and equipment market, the 5G requirements, the development of innovative technologies by OSATs and much more.”

The symposium represents an exciting opportunity for advanced packaging companies to expand their activities in China and in all other countries. NCAP and Yole are very enthusiastic about this 2018 edition. Make sure you attend the symposium and book your place immediately on i-micronews.com or click: Registration.
To see the full schedule, please click here: Program.

Leti, a technology research institute of CEA Tech, today announced its annual flagship event, Leti Innovation Days, July 4-5 in Grenoble.

This year, the institute will address how microelectronics, Leti’s core activities, are empowering new technological revolutions within industry, changing our daily lives in ways that will shape tomorrow’s global, post-modern society – in other words, how humans interact, commute, consume and much more. This two-day event gathers each year hundreds of top executives for presentations and discussions of the latest tech trends and the outlook for the future. 

Program 2018

From microelectronics to markets and end-users

–        Quantum computing: from lab to fab

–        New advances in materials

–        The virtues of photons

–        Bio-inspired circuits

–        5G: Towards less redundant processing

Sessions during the two-day event also will present novel use cases in personalized healthcare and other fields in a hyper-connected world, as well as live tech demonstrations from Renault, Rossignol and other global industrials.

On the evening of July 4, Arianespace CEO Stéphane Israël will headline a special Leti Innovation Days event about trends and visions for the space industry.

Technical Workshops

In addition, there will be seven satellite workshops on design for 3D, lithography, quantum engineering, silicon photonics, memory, 5G, and MEMS on July 2, 3 and 6.

The full program can be found here.

For free registration, please contact [email protected]

Technavio’s latest market research report on the global substrate-like PCB market provides an analysis of the most important trends expected to impact the market outlook from 2018-2022. Technavio predicts an emerging trend as a major factor that has the potential to significantly impact the market and contribute to its growth or decline.

The global substrate-like PCB market will grow at a CAGR of over 7% during the forecast period, according to Technavio analysts. A key factor driving the market’s growth is the need for miniaturization and more efficient interconnect solutions. In the recent years, the size of electronic packages has decreased to reduce power consumption and increase the functionality and the number of embedded components. The size of mobile phone PCBs decreased by over 75% between 2004 and 2017, with the inclusion of a growing number of sensors and processors.

In this report, Technavio highlights the increasing outsourcing of activities in the semiconductor industry as one of the key emerging trends in the global substrate-like PCB market:

Increasing outsourcing of activities in the semiconductor industry

Previously, the semiconductor industry was characterized by the presence of companies that designed, fabricated, packaged, and tested ICs in-house. But, at present, most semiconductor companies are going fabless by only designing chips while outsourcing fabrication, packaging, and testing to other companies. An increasing number of semiconductor and electronics manufacturing companies are outsourcing their manufacturing processes to foundries and (semiconductor and testing services) SATS providers.

“Semiconductor vendors that do not own fabrication facilities outsource the expensive process of semiconductor manufacturing to dedicated third-party manufacturers that have large-scale manufacturing plants, thereby cutting down on capital investments, operational costs, and complexity,” says a senior analyst at Technavio for research on semiconductor equipment.

Global substrate-like PCB market segmentation

This market research report segments the global substrate-like PCB market into the following applications (communication and IoT) and key regions (the Americas, APAC, and EMEA).

The communication segment held the largest market share in 2017, accounting for more than 73% of the market. This application segment is expected to demonstrate steady growth during the forecast period.

APAC was the leading region for the global substrate-like PCB market in 2017, accounting for a market share of approximately 85%. The market share of this region is anticipated to increase significantly during the period 2018-2022.