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ASML Holding N.V. (ASML) today announces that its Supervisory Board intends to appoint Christophe Fouquet (44) as Executive Vice President to the Board of Management, subject to notification of the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders on 25 April 2018. With the addition of Christophe Fouquet, the ASML Board of Management will expand from five to six members. Christophe Fouquet will take over responsibility for the Business Line EUV (Extreme Ultraviolet) from Frits van Hout per 1 April 2018.

Frits van Hout has successfully overseen the development of the EUV business over the last 5 years, bringing it to a level where EUV is widely accepted as the next lithography platform for the semiconductor industry. From 1 April 2018, he will focus on strategy and strategic supplier relations. Within the Board of Management he will be responsible for ASML’s growth specifically as it relates to the increasing significance of strategic supplier relationships, notably in the context of EUV and High-NA EUV as well as e-beam metrology and optical systems.

Christophe Fouquet, as a new member of the Board of Management, will oversee the introduction of EUV lithography in high volume manufacturing of integrated circuits (ICs) at customer sites. As ASML will continue to make improvements in the availability of the EUV systems and the profitability of the EUV business, Christophe Fouquet will drive the roll-out and industrialization of EUV and in parallel he will oversee the development and introduction of High-NA EUV lithography over coming years. In his current role as leader of Business Line Applications, Christophe Fouquet has established the Applications business as a key pillar under ASML’s Holistic Lithography strategy, overseeing strong organic sales growth and initiating and executing successful M&A through Taiwan-based HMI. Jim Koonmen, currently managing ASML-unit Cymer Light Sources, and before that managing ASML’s computational lithography unit, will succeed Christophe Fouquet as the leader of Business Line Applications.

“We’re delighted to welcome Christophe to the Board of Management where he will bring broad and deep technology and business experience. With Frits focusing on the best possible collaboration with our key strategic suppliers, we are confident that we have a great team in place to execute our strategy, achieve our 2020 sales and profit targets and realize further growth of the company beyond 2020,” said ASML’s President and Chief Executive Officer Peter Wennink.

Despite slower demand from end market and panel price erosion, the large thin-film transistor (TFT) display market expanded in 2017 in all three aspects — unit shipments, area shipments and revenue. According to a new report from business information provider IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO), unit shipments of larger than 9-inch TFT displays increased by 4 percent in 2017 compared to a year ago, while area shipments rose 6 percent and revenues up 13 percent during the same period.

“Revenue growth was higher than that of area shipments, which was again bigger than that of unit shipments. This indicates that the display market is moving to larger screens in all applications, and the penetration of high specification products with a higher price tag, such as high resolution, wide viewing angle and slim design panels, has increased,” said Robin Wu, principal analyst at IHS Markit. Large TFT display revenues reached $63.7 billion in 2017, according to the latest Large Area Display Market Tracker by IHS Markit.

02.13.18_large_display_area_shipments 02.13.18_large_display_unit_shipments

By area shipments, TV displays, which grew 6 percent year over year, accounted for 78 percent of total large TFT display market, leading the overall market growth. Despite ongoing decline in TV panel prices, which started in the middle of 2017, revenue continued to grow by a double digit as panel makers have focused on high-end products, such as 4K TVs and 55-inch-and-larger TVs. Shipments of 4K TV panels amounted to 92 million units in 2017, up 46 percent year over year, making up 35 percent of the entire TV display market. OLED TV panels also continued its growth, marking unit shipments of 1.8 million with a 102 percent growth from 2016.

BOE led the large TFT display market with a 21 percent share in 2017 in terms of unit shipments, followed by LG Display with 20 percent and Innolux with 16 percent. It was the first time that a Chinese panel maker took the top position in an annual base result. However, in the TV panel market by unit shipments, LG Display retained its lead with a 19 percent share, followed by BOE with 17 percent. In terms of area shipments, South Korean panel makers remained strong, with LG Display accounting for 23 percent and Samsung Display for 17 percent.

The Large Area Display Market Tracker by IHS Markit provides information about the entire range of large display panels shipped worldwide and regionally, including monthly and quarterly revenues and shipments by display area, application, size and aspect ratio for each supplier.

US demand for semiconductor machinery is forecast to reach $7.4 billion in 2021, according to Semiconductor Machinery: United States, a report recently released by Freedonia Focus Reports. Growth in demand for wafer processing equipment will account for the majority of value increases. Ongoing expansion in global production of mobile electronics will support demand for smaller, faster, and more energy-efficient logic integrated circuits, as well as the increasingly advanced wafer processing machinery required for production. Specifically, rising adoption of lithography equipment that utilizes extreme ultraviolet (EUV) technology will spur gains.

Semiconductor assembly machinery demand is forecast to grow the fastest among the product segments. Intensifying production of increasingly compact electronic systems for use in mobile devices will drive demand for more sophisticated semiconductor assembly equipment. For example, semiconductor device manufacturers such as integrated device manufacturers, outsourced semiconductor assembly and test providers, and foundries will require systems capable of mounting ever-smaller semiconductors.

These and other key insights are featured in Semiconductor Machinery: United States. This report forecasts to 2021 US semiconductor machinery demand and shipments in nominal US dollars at the manufacturer level. Total demand is segmented by product in terms of:

  • wafer processing
  • testing
  • assembly

To illustrate historical trends, total demand, total shipments, the various segments, and trade are provided in annual series from 2006 to 2016.

More information about the report is available at https://www.freedoniafocusreports.com/Semiconductor-Machinery-United-States-FF75028/

Universal Display Corporation (Nasdaq:OLED) today announced the signing of long-term OLED material supply and license agreements with Samsung Display Co., Ltd. (SDC), a global display manufacturer. These agreements affirm that Universal Display will continue to supply its proprietary UniversalPHOLED phosphorescent OLED materials and technology to Samsung Display for use in its OLED displays. The agreements are scheduled to run through December 31, 2022, and may be extended for an additional two-year period. Financial terms of the agreements have not been disclosed.

“We are pleased to announce the signing of these long-term agreements with our partner Samsung Display,” said Steven V. Abramson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Universal Display Corporation. “Collaborating for over eighteen years, Samsung Display has been at the forefront of the OLED revolution with its vibrant, colorful, and brilliant displays. SDC’s ground-breaking innovation and manufacturing leadership are paving new pathways of growth in the display industry, including the advent of new form factors. As Samsung continues expanding its OLED product roadmap and investments, we look forward to supporting its advancements with our highly-efficient, high-performing proprietary OLED technologies and UniversalPHOLED materials.”

SiFive, the provider of commercial RISC-V processor IP, continues to grow its executive staff with the appointment of Shiva Natarajan as chief financial officer. Natarajan joins SiFive with more than two decades of financial management, accounting and strategic planning experience in both public and private technology companies.

As CFO, Natarajan will help to structure the company’s financial systems and oversee SiFive’s continued growth as it rolls out its innovative business model.

“I am excited to join one of the most unique teams in the world that is disrupting the semiconductor market using RISC-V technology,” said Natarajan. “I look forward to applying my experience to help guide the company through its continued, explosive growth.”

Since its founding in 2015, SiFive has grown exponentially with the RISC-V ecosystem, and the company is projecting to double its employee count in 2018 to support the increased demand for its market-leading RISC-V product offerings. The expansion includes the recent appointments of Sunil Shenoy as vice president of hardware engineering and Shafy Eltoukhy as vice president of operations.

“SiFive is at a crucial point in its development, and Shiva’s experience in navigating the growth path of expanding companies will help guide the next phase of SiFive’s growth,” said Naveed Sherwani, SiFive CEO. “Shiva will provide us with the financial vision, strategy and leadership to advance SiFive to the next level.”

Before joining SiFive, Natarajan was vice president of finance at A10 Networks. Earlier in his career, Natarajan served as vice president, corporate controller, chief accounting officer and interim CFO during his eight years at Applied Micro Circuits Corporation.

Natarajan began his career in public accounting and worked for PwC and Ernst & Young. He is a certified public accountant and holds a bachelor’s degree in science from the University of Calcutta.

By Cherry Sun, SEMI China

Yawning differences between cultures, economic systems and rules of law stand as barriers for many China- and US-based technology companies to do business on each other’s soil, making it imperative for both countries to work together to bridge the gaps that make it harder for tech businesses in each country to find partners and open markets in the other, SEMI China president Lung Chu said at a recent conference.

One answer is for SEMI, serving as a natural unifying communications platform, to help foster greater cooperation between US and China tech companies, Lung Chu said, speaking at the 2nd Silicon Valley Beijing International IoT Summit & Investment and Financing Competition in Santa Clara last month. The event gathered industry experts and experts to mine opportunities across technologies including smart and mobile medical care, virtual and augmented reality, wearables, smart homes, artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, 3D printing, Internet of Things (IoT) and manufacturing design.

In the IoT roundtable chaired by Chu, he asked mayors and other city officials from Sunnyvale, Palo Alto and Cupertino to consider the potential of IoT technology for improving city management. Inspired by the idea of greater efficiency, the mayors pointed to IoT applications including traffic management to better regulate traffic flow; faster, more effective medical treatment from first responders and emergency medical technicians; more efficient energy usage by cities and the public; better water resources management; and bicycle sharing programs for commuters.

Deploying more advanced networking architectures, the mayors agreed, is the first step for cities seeking to fulfill the promise of IoT. A recognized global leader in smart city technologies, China is much more than a key trade partner with the U.S., having developed IoT use cases for cities in Silicon Valley and beyond to consider.

Chu also asked the mayors about the importance to their cities of attracting talent and encouraging entrepreneurship. The roundtable agreed that in Silicon Valley, taking risks in hopes of reaping huge profits is prized and that failure is embraced as necessary to innovation. In China, pressure on business startups to flourish can inhibit the free-wheeling thinking and calculated risk-taking often needed to build new enterprises.

On talent, one mayor underscored the importance of diversity in building a skilled workforce. According to a recent report based on 2016 census data, nearly three-quarters – about 71 percent of tech employees in Silicon Valley – “are foreign born, compared to around 50 percent in the San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward region,” The Mercury News reported. Carl Guardino, CEO of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, has noted that this “diversity is the strength of Silicon Valley.”

Much as China can turn to Silicon Valley as a model of entrepreneurship and diversity, the U.S. can learn from China’s deployment of IoT technologies to power smart cities as the country’s prominence in the semiconductor manufacturing industry continues to grow. An ally in that rising influence, SEMI China follows the 5C principles – Connect, Collaboration, Community, Communication, China – to help narrow the differences between China and other countries and foster stronger partnerships.

Originally published on the SEMI blog.

Orbotech Ltd. (NASDAQ: ORBK) today announced that SPTS Technologies, an Orbotech company and a supplier of advanced wafer processing solutions for the global semiconductor and related industries, has received approximately $37M in orders for multiple etch and deposition systems from two GaAs foundry customers. SPTS’s Omega plasma etch, Delta PECVD, and Sigma PVD systems will be used to manufacture radio frequency (RF) devices for 4G and emerging 5G wireless infrastructure and mobile device markets. Delivery of the systems is expected to be split between the first quarter and second quarter of 2018.

“Compound semiconductor electronic devices based on gallium arsenide (GaAs) are the cornerstone of high speed wireless communications,” stated Kevin Crofton, Corporate Executive Vice President at Orbotech and President of SPTS Technologies. “RF devices are entering another exciting phase of growth with the proliferation of 4G mobile communications and preparation for 5G. IDMs and foundries are looking to add capacity to existing fabs to meet the growing demand, while new entrants are establishing new lines to address future demand for the 5G rollout. Our lead customer has been at the forefront of GaAs foundry services for almost two decades, and their repeat orders are a testament to the production advantages that our etch and deposition solutions continue to deliver to their core business.”

Power amplifiers (PAs) are among the most critical RF components in mobile communications and virtually all PAs in a modern smartphone are made from circuits built on GaAs semiconductors. Analysts[1] are predicting that the growth of 4G communications, gigabit LTE (Long Term Evolution) and emerging 5G will be the growth engine to drive the RF GaAs device market from over $8.1 billion in 2017 to over $9 billion by 2021.

“Our latest forecast[1] shows that PAs for cellular applications will continue to account for more than half of the RF GaAs device market,” noted Eric Higham, Director of the Advanced Semiconductor Applications service at Strategy Analytics. He added, “Despite smartphone growth slowing, the added complexity in mobile devices to support gigabit LTE and the emergence of 5G points to continuing growth in RF GaAs production.”

STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM) today announced it has signed an agreement on LDMOS RF power technology from Innogration Technologies, a fabless semiconductor company headquartered in Suzhou, China, specializing in the design and manufacturing of RF power semiconductor devices, modules, and sub-system assemblies.

Combining a short conduction-channel length with a high breakdown voltage, LDMOS devices are well suited for RF power amplifiers where they can be used in base stations for wireless communications systems, as well as in the power amplifiers for commercial and industrial systems. The agreement with Innogration expands the range of applications that ST can address with LDMOS technology.

Terms of the agreements were not disclosed.

The 2018 FLEXI Awards today recognized groundbreaking accomplishments in the Flexible Hybrid Electronics (FHE) sector in 2017. Presented at the opening session of the 17th annual 2018FLEX Conference and Exhibition, in Monterey, California, the awards spotlighted the following leaders in the categories of R&D Achievements, Product Innovation and Commercialization, Education Leadership and Industry Leadership.

Product Innovation – E Ink, creator of Dazzle, the world’s largest electronic paper installation, won a FLEXI for product design and ingenuity, and potential market adoption and revenue generation. Made from electrophoretic display technology, the programmable art installation adorns one side of San Diego International Airport’s new rental car center.

R&D Achievement – The Wearable Device for Dynamic Assessment of Hydration team – consisting of GE Global Research, UES, The University of Arizona, University of Connecticut, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Dublin City University and AFRL – won a FLEXI for developing a paper-based biofluid patch that collects sweat for human hydration index monitoring. Award criteria included research approach, originality and commercial potential for expanding the bounds of flexible or printed electronics.

Technology Leadership In Education – James Turner, research scientist at Binghamton University, won a FLEXI for outstanding leadership and attention to mentoring students during the development of an FHE electrocardiography (ECG) patch. Turner led a group of students through the development which included a multi-disciplinary approach as well as coordination with industry and several academic institutions to correlate reliability data, simulations and optimize design features of the revolutionary patch.

Industry Leadership – David Morton, formerly with the Army Research Laboratory, won a FLEXI for his dedication to building awareness of advanced flexible hybrid electronics in the broader field of electronics. Award criteria include outstanding leadership in public forums and contributions to industry associations.

Technology Champion – Robert Reuss, former program manager in the Microsystems Technology Office at DARPA, won a FLEXI for his extraordinary dedication to growing the flexible electronics industry, early recognition of the impact of large area electronics and strong contributions to helping build the FLEX Conference.

FLEXIs have been the industry’s premier award for distinguished organizations and individuals since 2009. See full list of awardees. The FLEXI Awards are sponsored by FlexTech, a SEMI Strategic Association Partner, an organization dedicated to the success of the FHE sector. The 2018 FLEXI award ceremony was sponsored by SCREEN Holdings.

2018FLEX – February 12-15 in Monterey, California – spotlights FHE innovation drivers in smart medtech, smart transportation, smart manufacturing, smart data, Internet of Things (IoT) and consumer electronics.

Park Systems, a manufacturer of atomic force microscopes celebrated the grand opening of their European Headquarters on February 6, 2018 in Mannheim, Germany.  The new office will serve as a central European AFM research facility, providing technical sales and service with a fully equipped Atomic Force Microscopy Nanoscience Lab on site. The ceremony was attended by many around Europe including from Deutsche Bank (Germany), Schaefer South-East Europe SRL (Romania), Milexia SAS (France), ST Instruments B.V. (Netherlands),  GambettiKenologiaSrl (Italy), Promenergolab LLC (Russia), Tekno-TIP AnalitikSistemler Ltd. (Turkey) and Park Systems representatives from Europe, US and Asia.

“The European scientific community plays a critical role in expanding cutting-edge science and research across many industries, particularly at the nanoscale,” commented Ludger Weisser, the General Manager of Park Systems Europe at the ribbon-cutting ceremony. “The new Park Systems Nanoscience Lab in Europeis a landmark opportunity to provide the best-in-class AFM technology and unparalleled technical service for our European business partners to advance scientific research and development.”

The new office will provide technical, application and sales support for all European customers. As the demand for a modern AFM technology continuously grows in Europe, Park Systems recognizes the need of serving the key European scientific laboratories and research facilities with even stronger and direct support.

“Park Systems has invested significant resources into the new Park Nanoscience Lab in Europe to offer the vast European scientific community a better opportunity to use our AFM product and make side-by-side comparisons to the well-known European AFM.  We are confident that our AFM will demonstrate in Europe as it has in North America and Asia undeniable higher performance and cost efficiencies for research and production facilities,” commented James Woo, Park Systems Global Sales Manager.  “We invite European customers to our new Park Nanoscience Lab facility to use our equipment and witness for yourself why Park has been the world-leader in AFM technology since its inception.”

The Park Nanoscience Lab at the Europe Headquarters in Manheim Germany is a new branch of Park Systems and part of a growing network of Park Global Nanoscience labs including a recently opened Park Nanoscience Center at SUNY Polytech Institute in Albany, New York.The Park Nanoscience Lab will showcase advanced atomic force microscopy (AFM) systems, demonstrate a wide variety of cutting-edge applications—ranging from materials science, to chemistry and biology, to semiconductor and data storage devices—and provide hands on experience, training and service, year-round.  It will be equipped with the latest Park AFM systems, including the Park NX20, Park NX10, and Park NX-Hivac, playing a crucial role in providing the best and direct technical, application and sales support to the European audience.

“Besides the excellent AFM technology, having a direct and reliable contact partner for inquires of any matter was surely one of the most important factors for us when we chose Park Systems half a year ago,” says Francesco Simone, the junior fellow at the University of Cambridge, UK, and Park NX10 AFM user.

Park Systems, a global AFM manufacturer, has offices in key cities worldwide, including Santa Clara, California; Tokyo, Japan; Singapore; Manheim, Germany; and Suwon, South Korea. Since becoming the only public offering for an AFM business in 2015, its stock has increased by over 300% reflecting the strong growth of its business with many company-wide global initiatives for continued future word-wide success.