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Linde LienHwa, a key supplier of gases and chemicals to the electronics industry, continues to invest with its customers in Mainland China and Taiwan. On-site nitrogen generator plants are an early, tangible and significant demonstration of commitment to individual customers as they plan and execute new semiconductor and display panel plants.

The company is also expanding its production of electronic special gases (ESGs). This enhances its portfolio to meet the growing demand of local customers in the semiconductor and display industries. Linde LienHwa is leveraging access to global expertise to build first-in-kind capabilities in Taiwan to innovate locally for customers.

In March, Linde LienHwa will highlight its position in the electronics material sector with presentations by its executives at two industry forums held in Shanghai. The company invites customers and others in the electronics industry to visit its booth at the SEMICON China trade show for one-on-one discussions about their requirements and how Linde LienHwa is their local partner with global expertise.

Investing and growing with customers in Mainland China with on-site nitrogen production

Mainland China has made a large commitment to the electronics industry through the Sino IC Industry Investment Fund, more commonly known as The Big Fund. This has spurred an unprecedented number of new semiconductor and display projects launch in 2017, on top of very active preceding years in 2015 and 2016.

Nitrogen gas is used in high volumes at these facilities in almost all manufacturing steps to purge and inert chemically sensitive processes. For most facilities, it is much more economical to produce the required volume of nitrogen on-site, rather than to supply the gas by truck delivery. On-site nitrogen generators are built at an early phase of each project because nitrogen is required to be ready before the facility equipment arrives.

SPECTRA-N® nitrogen generators from the Linde Engineering division of the Linde Group support customers with their high quality products, flexible capacity and production and energy efficiency. These plants are designed, fabricated and executed by teams located in Hangzhou and Dalian, China.

Linde LienHwa has been successful in addressing the market needs with a number of new project signings. “These wins were punctuated in 2017 by a Linde LienHwa commitment of over RMB 1.5 billion investment in on-site gas production and bulk gas installations for electronics customers in Mainland China, which will fuel electronics revenue growth for us over the next five years,” said Stan Tang, President of LLH China. “This is only possible with a strong network of bulk gas production plants and fleet delivery throughout Mainland China, which back-up the on-site nitrogen plants as well as offer competitive supplies of oxygen, argon, hydrogen and other products.”

GeH4 precision blending and filling at Taichung Harbor

Linde LienHwa’s capability for blending and filling of germane in Taichung Harbor is the first and only of its kind in Taiwan. The facility produces mixtures between 1 to 20% germane in ultra-high purity hydrogen with extreme precision and state-of-the-art analysis. Germane-hydrogen mixtures are used by leading-edge semiconductor companies to make the most critical elements of computer chips, and precision of the blend is essential to making a working device.

Fluorine production at Guanyin

Another first in Taiwan is Linde LienHwa’s production of electronics-grade fluorine in Guanyin, a district of Taoyuan City. This special high-purity grade of fluorine is produced using generators from Linde developed for the electronics industry. The fluorine is typically blended with nitrogen or other inert gases, packaged in cylinders and used by electronics customers to remove particles and unwanted deposits from the interior surfaces of manufacturing tools.

Local partner. Global expertise.

“By investing locally in material processing, we are significantly reducing the supply chain risk and increasing material availability for our customers,” notes Alex Tong, President of Linde LienHwa. “These new facilities represent the latest phases in our commitment to expand ESG production in both Taiwan and China.”

Linde LienHwa maintains an extensive network of on-site gas production, bulk gases for electronics customers, ESGs, ultra-pure wet chemicals, chemical production and stocking facilities. Linde LienHwa offers a widest number of electronics materials. Its products enable leading-edge manufacturing in the semiconductor, solar, display and solid state lighting/LED industries.

Linde Electronics, its global partner, is the electronics materials and service business of The Linde Group, an industry leader in the industrial gas sector. Linde Gas operates in more than 100 countries, with world-class R&D centers, including its newest Electronics R&D Center in Taichung Harbor, Taiwan.

SEMICON China and the Global Semiconductor Forum

Linde LienHwa will be exhibiting at the SEMICON China tradeshow in Shanghai 14-16 March 2018. Its focus will be on the quality, expertise, service and technical leadership that Linde LienHwa and its global partner Linde Electronics bring to the semiconductor industry through such offerings as electronic specialty gases, bulk gases for electronics customers and on-site solutions like SPECTRA-N nitrogen plants.

Anshul Sarda, Vice President of Electronics Special Gases for the Linde Group, will be speaking at the SEMICON China Win-Win: Build China’s IC Ecosystem forum, for which LLH is a sponsor, on 15 March in the Pudong Ballroom of the Kerry Hotel. His talk entitled “Integrating domestic and international electronic material solutions” given at 16:00 will explain the challenges of materials supply in a dynamic landscape of established and newly-launched customers and material producers.

Dr. Anish Tolia, Vice President of Global Marketing for Linde Electronics, will be speaking at the Global Semiconductor Forum on 9 March at the Grand Kempinski Hotel in Shanghai. His workshop entitled “Supplying China: Combining local partnerships with global expertise by electronic material providers” will instruct on how material providers can adapt global experience in supply chains to the burgeoning opportunities and requirements of the China electronics market.

Palma Ceia SemiDesign (PCS), a fabless semiconductor company offering wireless chips, modules, systems and IP supporting emerging Machine-to-Machine (M2M) WiFi and cellular standards for the Internet of Things (IoT), today announced it has completed a Series B round of financing. Leading the round is Global Connective LP, a U.S. subsidiary fund of Inspiration China Ltd Pty, based in Adelaide, Australia. Inspiration China has extensive experience with China’s wireless and industrial sectors, key markets for Palma Ceia. Inspiration China’s business model is to assist international leading technology companies in accessing global markets, especially China’s booming market.

“Inspiration China’s investment enables us to accelerate Palma Ceia’s transition from an analog/RF IP company to a provider of connectivity solutions for the Internet of Things,” said Roy E. Jewell, co-founder and chief executive officer of Palma Ceia. “Palma Ceia will build on our heritage of delivering leading-edge wireless IP for SoC designers and expand into also providing chips for IoT module makers. We look forward to working with the Global Connective team to broaden our market footprint.”

Palma Ceia also announced it is establishing a wholly owned subsidiary in Tianjin, China. This facility will enable the company to accelerate expansion into the China market and to establish IC and software design and IoT application support teams in Tianjin and Shanghai.

“Since China’s Twelfth Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) in 2010 identified IoT as an ‘emerging strategic industry,’ Beijing has focused on its adoption and deployment as part of the ‘Made in China 2025’ initiative. My team identified the advanced connectivity solutions being developed by PCS as key to this effort,” said Rebecca Qiu, founder & chief executive officer of Inspiration China. “We have already begun working closely with PCS to establish strategic industrial and government partnerships in China.”

Palma Ceia today delivers analog and RF IP for mixed-signal SoCs

Applied Materials, Inc. has been recognized by Intel as a recipient of a 2017 Preferred Quality Supplier (PQS) award. The PQS award recognizes companies like Applied that Intel believes have relentlessly pursued excellence and conducted business with resolute professionalism.

“The dynamic nature of our business necessitates continuous improvement and an unrelenting focus on quality,” said Jacklyn Sturm, Vice President of Technology and Manufacturing Group and General Manager of Global Supply Management at Intel. “As Intel transitions to become a more data centric company, our award winning suppliers are embracing the most difficult challenges with rapid innovation and bold strategies.”

To qualify for PQS status, suppliers must exceed high expectations and uncompromising performance goals while scoring at least 80 percent on an integrated report card that assesses performance throughout the year. Suppliers must also achieve 80 percent or greater on a challenging continuous improvement plan and demonstrate solid quality and business systems.

Presto Engineering Inc., an outsourced operations provider to semiconductor and Internet of Things (IoT) device manufacturers, and Maja Systems, a designer of millimeter wave (mmWave) connectivity and sensing solutions, jointly announce their successful collaboration in comprehensive wafer-level ATE for the Maja AirData family of terabit connectivity and data transport solutions.

“Presto’s special expertise in high-volume mmWave RF test was essential in bringing terabit connectivity to the market efficiently,” said Joy Laskar, CTO and SVP of Maja Systems. “They were able to develop a solution that provides reliable testing at the speeds and costs we need, and in a time frame that let us hit our market window.”

“Scalable high-volume, high-frequency RF test solutions, like this one for Maja, will be critical for the industry to achieve the billion plus annual unit volumes projected for mmWave devices by 2020,” said Michel Villemain, CEO, Presto Engineering. “We have developed custom solutions that allow us to use existing ATE, that have already been proven at volumes exceeding millions of units per year and can scale to meet projected demand.”

The Maja AirData™ family of terabit connectivity solutions, based on the MW-6022 single-chip mmWave CMOS transceiver IC and the SPL-100 compact SMT mmWave antenna, solve the terabit wireless data transport problem, addressing data center, wireless, mmWave, and optical transport applications.

Lumileds announced the appointment of Kevin Martin as Senior Vice President of Quality, effective March 1. Martin has over 30 years of experience in Quality, most recently serving as VP of Global Quality at Flextronics.

“We are thrilled to have Kevin join our organization to continue to strengthen how we deliver advanced lighting solutions at the highest quality level,” said Mark Adams, CEO of Lumileds.

During his time at Flextronics, Martin led the worldwide Quality team supporting global operations in North and South America, China, Europe and India. Prior to Flextronics, Kevin served as VP of Total Customer Satisfaction at Nissan Motor, where he was responsible for North and South America field quality and customer satisfaction for all Nissan and Infiniti vehicles. Prior to Nissan, Kevin was the General Manager of Customer Quality Engineering at Toyota. In addition to roles in Quality, Martin has held positions in production, manufacturing operations and engineering. Martin has a Bachelor’s Degree in Manufacturing Engineering from Western Carolina University.

“I am excited to join Lumileds and help further our commitment to quality across our growing customer base,” added Martin.

Silvaco today announced that it has acquired NanGate, a developer of Electronic Design Automation (EDA) software, that offers tools and services for creation, optimization, characterization and validation of physical library IP.

NanGate’s Library Creation Platform has been deployed by a large number of semiconductor companies creating standard cell libraries used in hundreds of SoC designs and have shipped in billions of units. NanGate’s technology is available and proven in a broad range of standard logic CMOS processes from 250nm down to 14nm nodes, available from multiple foundries. The acquisition extends Silvaco’s tools portfolio, complements Silvaco’s IC design flow and strengthens the methodology to achieve high performance, high yield standard cell libraries that meet today’s high-sigma requirements.

“We are happy for the NanGate team with their ability to deliver excellent solutions for library creation to top-tier Semiconductor companies,” said Dave Dutton, CEO of Silvaco. “Together with our leadership in variation aware design methodology with VarMan, SmartSpice, and our complete custom design flow including extraction, we are now able to deliver a complete solution for high performance standard cell libraries creation.”

“The synergy between Silvaco’s growth strategy and NanGates technology plus the combination of our talented teams will accelerate the delivery of tools and methodologies for a highly productive standard cell library and characterization flow,” said Ole Christian Andersen, President and CEO of NanGate. “We are excited to join Silvaco to further our original vision.”

Silvaco’s aggressive growth plan is designed to grow revenue by adding strategic technologies to offer the best solutions to our customers. This acquisition was led by Ron Sorisho and is the sixth acquisition for Silvaco’s business development team.

TDK Corporation (TSE: 6762) announced that it has reached an agreement with Chirp Microsystems, Inc. (Headquarters: Berkeley California U.S., hereinafter “Chirp”), a developer of high-performance ultrasonic sensing, in which Chirp becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of TDK. TDK expects to close the acquisition within the coming days.

Chirp is engaged in high-performance ultrasonic sensors featuring smaller sizes and lower power consumption compared with existing sensors. Chirp’s solutions are expected to find broader applications, such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), in addition to areas such as smartphones, automobiles, industrial machinery and other ICT applications.

Chirp solutions enable extremely precise sensing, ranging from several centimeters to several meters, sensing the distance to an object and expanding the way users can operate with AR and VR, detect the proximity distance when using smartphones, and track the variance between a vehicle and obstacles when driving. In addition, the sensor operates with low power consumption and enables products to be reduced in size, providing an outstanding sensor solution that is extremely easy for consumers to use. Furthermore, the addition of Chirp’s ultrasonic sensor solutions in combination to the existing fingerprint sensors offered by TDK subsidiary InvenSense, will significantly expand TDK’s ultrasonic sensor solutions.

“TDK is committed to contributing to the growth of systems deployed in the automotive, mobile, health-care and industrial industries. Our vision is to be the leading solutions provider of sensors for motion, sound, environmental elements (pressure, temperature and humidity), and ultrasonic sensors for the Internet of Things (IoT) era,” said Noboru Saito, Senior Vice President, TDK and CEO of Sensor Systems Business Company. “Chirp’s unique and high value-added 3-D sensing technologies will fill out our lineup of sensor solutions, positioning TDK as the leader in ultrasonic MEMS technology. We aim to continue to be a reliable partner that can provide solutions to the challenges our customers face.”

“Our team is excited to be part of the TDK family. We believe together we can bring ultrasonic sensors to a wide variety of products at an even greater speed and scale than we could on our own,” said Michelle Kiang, Chirp’s CEO. “We see so many synergies with TDK technologies; EPCOS is a world-leader in piezo-ceramic sensors and actuators, and InvenSense is a world-leader in MEMS sensors for consumer electronics.”

The acquisition will further accelerate TDK’s sensor and actuator business, providing an extensive sensor product lineup, including pressure, temperature, current, and magnetic sensors, as it continues to expand its sensor business.

TDK Corporation and Chirp are available for on-site discussions at the upcoming Mobile World Congress, along with additional innovative sensor solutions in Meeting Space – 2C40MR, Hall 2 of the Gran Via at MWC 2018, February 26 – March 1, 2018, Barcelona, Spain.

BY AJIT MANOCHA, President and CEO of SEMI

2017 was a terrific year for SEMI members. Chip revenues closed at nearly $440B, an impressive 22 percent year- over-year growth. The equipment industry surpassed revenue levels last reached in the year 2000. Semicon- ductor equipment posted sales of nearly $56B and semiconductor materials $48B in 2017. For semiconductor equipment, this was a giant 36 percent year-over-year growth. Samsung, alone, invested $26B in semiconductor CapEx in 2017 – an incredible single year spend in an incredible year.

MEMS and Sensors gained new growth in telecom and medical markets, adding to existing demand from automotive, industrial and consumer segments. MEMS is forecast to be a $19B industry in 2018. Flexible hybrid electronics (FHE) is also experiencing significant product design and functionality growth with increasing gains in widespread adoption.

No longer isa single monolithic demand driver propelling the electronics manufacturing supply chain. The rapidly expanding digital economy continues to foster innovation with new demand from the IoT, virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR), automobile infotainment and driver assistance, artificial intelligence (AI) and Big Data, among others. With the explosion in data usage, memory demand is nearly insatiable, holding memory device ASPs high and prompting continued heavy investment in new capacity.

2018 is forecast to be another terrific year. IC revenues are expected to increase another 8 percent and semiconductor equipment will grow 11 percent. With diverse digital economy demand continuing, additional manufacturing capacity is being added in China as fab projects come on line to develop and increase the indigenous semiconductor supply chain.

So, why worry?

The cracks starting to show are in the areas of talent, data management, and Environment, Health, and Safety (EH&S).

Can the industry sustain this growth? The electronics manufacturing supply chain has demonstrated it can generally scale and expedite production to meet the massive new investment projects. The cracks starting to show are in the areas of talent, data management, and Environment, Health, and Safety (EH&S).

Talent has become a pinch point. In Silicon Valley alone, SEMI member companies have thousands of open positions. Globally, there are more than 10,000 open jobs. Attracting new candidates and developing a global workforce are critical to sustaining the pace of innovation and growth.
Data management and effective data sharing are keys to solving problems faster and making practical novel but immature processes at the leading edge. It is ironic that other industries are ahead of semiconductor manufac- turing in harnessing manufacturing data and leveraging AI across their supply chains. Without collaborative Smart Data approaches, there is jeopardy of decreasing the cadence of Moore’s Law below the 10 nm node.

EH&S is critical for an industry that now uses the majority of the elements of the periodic table to make chips – at rates of more than 50,000 wafer starts per month (wspm) for a single fab. The industry came together strongly in the 1990s to develop SEMI Safety Standards and compliance methodologies. Since then, the number of EH&S profes- sionals engaged in our industry has declined while the number of new materials has exploded, new processing techniques have been developed, and manufacturing is expanding across China in areas with no prior semicon- ductor manufacturing experience.

HTU has been a very effective program with over 218 sessions run to date, over 7,000 students engaged, and over 70 percent of respondents pursuing careers in the STEM field.

To ensure we don’t slow growth, the industry will need to work together in 2018 in these three key areas:

Talent development needs to rapidly accelerate by expanding currently working programs and adding additional means to fill the talent funnel. The SEMI Foundation’s High Tech University (HTU) works globally with member companies to increase the number of high school students selecting Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields – and provides orientation to the semiconductor manufacturing industry. HTU has been a very effective program with over 218 sessions run to date, over 7,000 students engaged, and over 70 percent of respondents pursuing careers in the STEM field. SEMI will increase the number of HTU sessions in 2018.

Plans have already been approved by SEMI’s Board of Directors to work together with SEMI’s membership to leverage existing, and pioneer new, workforce development programs to attract and develop qualified candidates from across the age and experience spectrum (high school through university, diversity, etc.). Additionally, an industry awareness campaign will be developed and launched to make more potential candidates attracted to our member companies as a great career choice. I’ll be providing you with updates on this initiative – and asking for your involvement
– throughout 2018.

Data management is a broad term. Big Data, machine learning, AI are terms that today mean different things to different people in our supply chain. What is clear is that to act together and take advantage of the unimaginable amounts of data being generating to produce materials and make semiconductor devices with the diverse equipment sets across our fabs, we need a common understanding of the data and potential use of the data.

In 2018, SEMI will launch a Smart Data vertical application platform to engage stakeholders along the supply chain to produce a common language, develop Standards, and align expectations for sharing data for mutual benefit. Bench- marking of other industries and pre-competitive pilot programs are being proposed to learn and, here too, we need the support and engagement of thought leaders throughout SEMI’s membership.

EH&S activity must intensify to maintain safe operations and to eliminate business interruptions from supply chain disruptions. There is potential for disruptions from material bans such as the Stockholm Convention action on PFOA and arising from the much wider range of chemicals and materials being used in advanced manufacturing. Being able to reliably identify these in time to guide and coordinate industry action will take a reinvigorated SEMI EH&S stewardship and membership engagement.

As China rapidly develops new fabs in many provinces – some with only limited prior experience and infrastructure – SEMI EH&S Standards orientation and training will accelerate the safe and sustainable operation of fabs, enabling them to keep pace with the ambitious growth trajectory our industry is delivering. In 2018, we’ll be looking for a renewed commitment to EH&S and sustainability for the budding challenges of new materials, methods, and emerging regions.

Remarkable results from a remarkable membership

Thank you all for a terrific 2017 and let’s work together on the key initiatives to ensure that our industry’s growth and prosperity will continue in 2018 and beyond.

In a quick review of 2017, I would like to thank SEMI’s members for their incredible results and new revenue records. Foundational to that, SEMI’s members have worked together with SEMI to connect, collaborate, and innovate to increase growth and prosperity for the industry. These founda- tional contributions have been in expositions, programs, Standards, market data, messaging (communications), and workforce development (with HTU).

The infographic below captures these foundational accom- plishments altogether. SEMI strives to speed the time to better business results for its members across the global electronics manufacturing supply chain. To do so, SEMI is dependent upon, and grateful for, the support and volunteer efforts of its membership. Thank you for a terrific 2017 and let’s work together on the key initiatives to ensure that our industry’s growth and prosperity will continue in 2018 and beyond.

SMIC, Shaoxing Government, and Shengyang Group together announced today the founding of the Semiconductor Manufacturing Electronics (Shaoxing) Corporation (planned) with joint capital contributions. The signing of the joint venture agreement marks the start of a project to bring the manufacture of MEMS and power devices to Shaoxing. The Secretary of the Shaoxing Municipal Party Committee, Mr. Ma Weiguang, the Deputy Secretary and Deputy Mayor, Mr. Sheng Yuechun, the Member of the Standing Committee and Secretary General, Mr. Zhong Hongjiang, the Chairman of SMIC, Dr. Zhou Zixue, the Chief Financial Officer of SMIC, Dr. Gao Yonggang, and Senior Vice President of Strategic Development at SMIC, Ms. Ge Hong, attended the signing ceremony.

Application fields such as Artificial Intelligence, mobile communications, the Internet of Things, automotive electronics, and industrial controls are thriving and growing in pace with the growth of our intelligent society. Specialty MEMS technologies are at the core of the intelligentization of our industry and society, while the advanced manufacturing base for MEMS and power device chips is still relatively weak in China’s domestic semiconductor ecosystem. The investment of this signed joint venture amounts to ¥5.88 Billion RMB. The joint venture will focus on the fields of MEMS and power devices with a wafer and module foundry that will continue to grow and develop with sustained R&D investment. A comprehensive foundry for specialty technologies will be achieved to win leadership in China’s domestic market.

The Chairman of SMIC, Dr. Zhou Zixue indicated in his speech, “SMIC has worked on the specialty technologies of MEMS and power devices for almost ten years. This joint venture project with Shaoxing meets our strategic objectives to build an advanced manufacturing industrial cluster in the Yangtze River Delta region. We have confidence that we will create a leading first-class semiconductor corporation focused on specialty technologies.”

The Secretary of the Shaoxing Municipal Party Committee, Mr. Ma Weiguang said, “In the 1980s, Shaoxing used to be one of the most important towns for China’s IC manufacturing industry. After 40 years the smooth landing of this project will accelerate the transformation and upgrading of the phrase ‘Made in Shaoxing’ into ‘Intelligent Manufacturing in Shaoxing’. Meanwhile, seizing the opportunity to cooperate with SMIC will help to build the IC industry for specialty technologies in Shaoxing and make contributions to Intelligent Manufacturing in China.”

Since the global economic recession of 2008-2009, the IC industry has been on a mission to pare down older capacity (i.e., ≤200mm wafers) in order to produce devices more cost-effectively on larger wafers. The spree of merger and acquisition activity and the migration to producing IC devices using sub-20nm process technology has also led suppliers to eliminate inefficient wafer fabs. From 2009-2017, semiconductor manufacturers around the world have closed or repurposed 92 wafer fabs, according to data compiled, updated, and now available in IC Insights’ Global Wafer Capacity 2018-2022 report.

Figure 1 shows that since 2009, 41% of fab closures have been 150mm fabs and 26% have been 200mm wafer fabs. 300mm wafer fabs have accounted for only 10% of total fab closures since 2009. Qimonda was the first company to close a 300mm wafer fab after it went out of business in early 2009.

Figure 1

Figure 1

More recently, ProMOS closed two 300mm memory fabs in 2013 and Renesas sold its 300mm logic fab to Sony in 2014.  Sony repurposed that fab to make image sensors.  In 2017, Samsung closed its 300mm Line 11 memory fab in Yongin, South Korea, also repurposing it to manufacture image sensors. Semiconductor suppliers in Japan have closed a total of 34 wafer fabs since 2009, more than any other country/region.   In the 2009-2017 timeframe, 30 fabs were closed in North America and 17 shuttered in Europe, and only 11 wafer fabs were closed throughout the Asia-Pacific region (Figure 2).

Figure 2

Figure 2

Worldwide fab closures surged in 2009 and 2010 partly as a result of the severe economic recession at the end of the previous decade.  A total of 25 fabs were closed in 2009, followed by 22 being shut down in 2010.  Ten fabs closed in 2012 and 2013.  Two fabs were closed in 2015, the fewest number of closures per year during the 2009-2017 time span.  In 2017, 3 wafer fabs were removed from service. IC Insights has identified three wafer fabs (two 150mm fabs, one 200mm fab) that are targeted for closure this year and next.

Given the flurry of merger and acquisition activity seen in the semiconductor industry recently, the skyrocketing cost of new wafer fabs and manufacturing equipment, and as more IC companies transition to a fab-lite or fabless business model, IC Insights expects more fab closures in the coming years—a prediction that will likely please IC foundry suppliers.