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On October 27, SEMI China held a kickoff meeting for a new FlexTech Committee in Suzhou. FlexTech, a SEMI Strategic Association Partner, is devoted to fostering the growth, profitability and success of the flexible and printed electronics supply chain, and enabling the many smart products enabled by this new class of electronic intelligence. FlexTech offers collaboration opportunities among industry, academia, and research organizations working in the field.

Flexible, hybrid and printed electronics (FHE) are being designed into a wide range of products on the market today, in both consumer and industrial segments. These products include, components in today’s cell phones, human and health performance tools, security tags, sensor componentry in cars and airplanes, agricultural and environmental sensors, strain gauges in bridges and equipment, just to name a few.  Flexible electronic technology also intersects semiconductors, packaging, testing, materials, chemical, printed circuit boards, and display industries – for a total market size of one trillion yuan, and boosting the transformation of traditional industries in China.

China-FlexTech-photo1

Through group discussion at the meeting, Cui Zheng, researcher of SINANO of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was elected Chairman of the committee. Zhang Jie, vice president of Changzhou Institute of Printed Electronics Industry, was elected Vice Chairman of the committee. SEMI FlexTech CTO Dr. Melissa Grupen-Shemansky gave the letter of appointment to the two appointees. Committee members hail from many different companies in the flexible, hybrid and printed electronics industry, including:

  • Applied Materials: Technology Director Sun Zhenghong
  • Beijing Institute of Graphic Communication: Professor Wang Wei
  • Beijing Sineva Technology Co., Ltd.: General Manager Zhang Mi
  • Guangdong Juhua Printing Display Technology Co., Ltd.: General Manager Fu Dong
  • Guangzhou OED Technologies Co., Ltd.: General Manager Wang Xidu
  • Guangzhou New Vision Opto-Electronic Technology Co., Ltd.: General Manager Wang Lei
  • Guangdong University of Technology:  Professor Cui Chengqiang
  • Royole Corporation: Marketing Department Director Dang Pangfeng
  • Semiconductor Institute of Chinese Academy of Sciences: Researcher Shen Guozhen
  • Shanghai Jiao Tong University: Professor Guo Xiaojun
  • Shenzhen Laibao Hi-Tech Co., Ltd.: Vice General Manager Wang Shimin
  • Sun Yat-Sen University: Professor Yang Boru

During the meeting, SEMI FlexTech CTO Dr. Melissa Grupen-Shemansky introduced FlexTech and its efforts in fostering an FHE eco-chain, including market research, R&D, and final pilot manufacturing. She expressed her optimism for strong FHE opportunities in China.

In the second half of the meeting, GM Wang Lei of Guangzhou New Vision Opto-Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. gave an introduction on the development trends of flexible OLED displays, researcher Shen Guozhen of the Semiconductor Institute of Chinese Academy of Sciences shared the research on soft sensor and multi-functional system based on low-dimensional semiconductor nanostructures, and Guangdong University of Technology Professor Cui Chengqiang presented applications for flexible packaging substrates in chip packaging.

The participants were also invited to visit the SINANO of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, where Dr. Zhang Dongyu gave a detailed introduction to the latest results of the research center.

The SEMI China FlexTech Committee will serve as an important tie between China and the global flexible hybrid and printed electronics industry.

For more information on SEMI China, visit http://www.semichina.org/index.html .

GLOBALFOUNDRIES and Ayar Labs, a startup bringing optical input/output (I/O) to silicon chips, today announced a strategic collaboration to co-develop and commercialize differentiated silicon photonic technology solutions. The companies will develop and manufacture Ayar’s novel CMOS optical I/O technology, using GF’s 45nm CMOS fabrication process, to deliver an alternative to copper I/O that offers up to 10x higher bandwidth and up to 5x lower power. This cost-effective solution is integrated in-package with customer ASICs as a multi-chip module, and improves data speed and energy efficiency in cloud servers, datacenters and supercomputers. As part of the agreement, GF has also invested an undisclosed amount in Ayar Labs.

Modern data centers and cloud applications require high-performance, power-hungry chips to process and analyze huge volumes of data in real time. Growth in chip I/O capabilities has not matched exponential increases in computing power, because of physical limitations in electrical data transmission. Optical I/O, which leverages optical components on the CMOS die to transmit data at rapid speeds, will be a key enabler to overcoming the limitations of today’s data center interconnects. In addition, Ayar’s technology reduces power consumption at both the network and processor level.

“GF has demonstrated true technology leadership in recognizing optical I/O as the inevitable next step as we move into a More than Moore world,” said Alex Wright-Gladstein, CEO at Ayar Labs. “This collaboration between Ayar and GF could improve chip communication bandwidth by more than an order of magnitude and at lower power, and is a validation of Ayar’s viability in the current semiconductor ecosystem. This collaboration will unlock a larger market opportunity, expanding both our and GF’s customer base. We look forward to working with GF to help solve the interconnect problems of today’s chips and create greater value for our customers than if both companies worked independently.”

“The Ayar Labs team has been designing cutting-edge silicon photonics components on GF’s technology for the past eight years and has achieved exceptional results,” said Mike Cadigan, senior vice president of global sales and business development at GF. “Our strategic collaboration builds on our relationship, leveraging GF’s silicon photonics IP portfolio and our world-class manufacturing expertise to enable faster and more energy-efficient computing systems for data centers.”

The collaboration brings together Ayar Labs’ patented IP in optical technology with GF’s best-in-class expertise in silicon photonics to co-develop optical solutions that will be fabricated using GF’s process technology. The availability of this technology, including certain Design IP cores, will enable internet service providers, system vendors and communication systems to push data capacity to 10 Tera bits per second (Tbps) and beyond, while maintaining the low energy and cost of optical-based interconnects.

Electronics manufacturing executives will attend Europe’s SEMI Industry Strategy Symposium (ISS Europe) in Dublin, Ireland on 4-6 March. Hosted by SEMI Europe, the ISS Europe 2018 is the three-day flagship business event that brings together leading analysts, researchers, economists, and technologists for critical insights on the forces shaping the electronics manufacturing supply chain.

While having core strengths of its own, Europe is part of a global innovation and supply chain and European organisations need to find new ways to maximise competitive advantage. “Organisations operating in Europe need to find the most effective way to innovate, manufacture and profit by finding their place in the global supply chain. During the symposium, best class discussions will address Europe’s strategic, economic and social needs“ said Laith Altimime, president, SEMI Europe.

A wide range of top European companies, research institutes and public institutions will debate the best ways to compete globally, along with discussions on successful manufacturing in Europe and mechanisms to support innovation:

Speaker Line-up:

  • David Bloss, VP, Technology Manufacturing Group, Intel
  • Holger Blume, Professor, University of Hanover
  • Jean-Frederic Clerc, Deputy CEO and CTO, CEA Tech
  • Kevin Cooney, Senior VP and Managing Director, Global CIO, Xilinx EMEA
  • Jean-Christophe Eloy, CEO, Yole Développement
  • Ann-Charlotte Johannesson, CEO, CEI-Europe AB
  • Cheryl Miller, Founder/Executive Director, Digital Leadership Institute
  • Mick A Morris, Director AMBER Research Centre, Professor, Trinity College Dublin
  • Alain Mutricy, Senior VP Product Management, GLOBALFOUNDRIES
  • James O’Riordan, CTO, S3
  • David Sneddo, Director of Large Customer Sales for Central Europe, Google
  • Florien van der Windt, Cluster Manager Smart Mobility, Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure & Environment
  • Hanns Windele, Vice President, Europe and India, Mentor, a Siemens Business

Highlight of this year, the Panel Discussion “Critical Strategies to Grow Europe in the Global Supply Chain”. SEMI will also offer great networking opportunities such as an opening networking reception and, a gala dinner during which SEMI will announce the 2017 European Award winner.

Join Europe’s strategic thinkers and business drivers at ISS Europe 2018 in Dublin, Ireland from March 4-6, 2018!

For further information about our programs, please visit www.semi.org/eu/iss-europe-2018 or contact Christina Fritsch, Senior Manager, Program and Events. To sponsor the event please contact: SEMI Europe, Denada Hodaj, Manager Sales Europe (email: [email protected]). Register before January 31 for a discount. Fee includes conference and presentations access, reception, lunches and dinner. To register online, please visit: https://iss2018.besl-eventservice.de/front/index.php

 

Global demand for flat panel displays by area is forecast to grow 7.2 percent to 210 million square meters in 2018 compared to 2017, according to IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO). That will be the biggest annual growth since 2014.

“Growth in demand for flat panel displays next year will be mainly driven by migration to large displays, declining panel prices, and high expectations for a recovery in the global economy,” said Ricky Park, director at IHS Markit.

171120_Flat_Panel_Demand

The rise in demand area is largely attributed to a fall in retail prices of applications along with a drop in panel prices, which is expected to spur consumers’ appetite for various display devices. The sharp fall in panel prices in the second half of 2017 should soon be reflected in the prices of consumer electronics goods in the upcoming peak shopping seasons later this year and in early 2018. The cheaper panel prices are also expected to bolster demand for larger display products. As Gen 10.5 fabs are due to start operation in the first half of 2018, supply of super large TV panels, including 65- and 75-inch products, is projected to grow, according to the Display Long-term Demand Forecast Trackerreport by IHS Markit.

Increasing adoption of bezel-less flexible organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display in smartphones will lead to a growth in the size of overall smartphone displays next year. “Launches of new smartphones with large screens should stimulate consumers’ demand to replace their old phones,” Park said.

The flat panel TV market is also expected to see a significant rise in replacement demand, following the transition into digital broadcasting from analogue signal that started in late 2000s. TV sales in markets where the digital transition was completed in late 2000s grew at 10 to 21 percent in 2009 and 2010, much faster than the compound annual growth rate of 3 percent between 2004 and 2014. “A consumer’s TV replacement cycle is usually about 10 years,” Park said. “A hike in replacement demand for the next few years is expected.”

The global flat panel market will also get a boost from higher demand for new and larger TVs ahead of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics scheduled in February and the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia in June. “Panel sales in even years when major world sports events were held had grown at a faster rate than in odd years,” Park said.

In addition, the ongoing recovery in the global economy bodes well for the panel demand. Global gross domestic product (GDP) is forecast to grow 3.2 percent in 2018, following 3.1 percent in 2017 and 2.5 percent in 2016, according to IHS Markit. In particular, the economic recovery in North America and emerging markets, such as India, Brazil and Russia, is expected to be stronger than the previous year. A rise in non-ferrous metal prices, often a precursor to an economic recovery, is another positive sign.

Unlike the strong gain in demand by area, the growth in the global flat panel market in value is, however, projected to be restrained by the fall in the panel price in the second half of 2017. The panel demand by value is forecast to rise 1 percent to $126 billion in 2018 from 2017, according to IHS Markit.

The ConFab 2018, to be held at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas on May 21-23, is thrilled to announce the newest opening day Keynote speaker, Professor John M. Martinis. John is a Research Scientist who heads up Google’s Quantum AI Lab. He also holds the Worster Chair of Experimental Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The lab is particularly interested in applying quantum computing to artificial intelligence and machine learning, and as one of Google’s quantum computing gurus, John shared the company’s “stretch goal”. That is to build and test a 49-qubit (“quantum bit”) quantum computer by the end of this year. The test will be a milestone in quantum computer technology.

The conference team is also very excited to have IBM distinguished Engineer, Rama Divakaruni – who is responsible for IBM Advanced Process Technology Research – present his Keynote Address: How Artificial Intelligence is driving the “New” Semiconductor Era. Both Keynotes, set for May 21, promise to be outstanding presentations.

Additional outstanding speakers at The ConFab 2018 include:

  • Dan Armbrust, CEO and Co-founder of Silicon Catalyst will present: “Enabling a Startup Ecosystem for Semiconductors” describing the current environment for semiconductor startups.
  • George Gomba, GLOBALFOUNDRIES VP of Technology Research will discuss the EUV lithography project with SUNY Polytechnic Institute now finding its way into advanced semiconductor manufacturing.
  • John Hu, Director of Advanced Technology for Nvidia – John heads up R&D of Advanced IC Process Technologies and programs, Design For Manufacturing, Testchips, and New technology/ IC product.
  • Tom Sonderman, President of Sky Water Technology Foundry will focus on smart manufacturing ecosystems based on big data platform, predictive analytics and IoT.
  • Kou Kuo Suu of ULVAC Japan will delve into manufacturing various types of NVM memory chips, including Phase-Change memory (PCRAM).

More industry experts adding to the conference will be announced soon.  Further event details are available at: www.theconfab.com.

Micron Technology Inc. (Nasdaq:MU) today announced that the company has appointed Derek Dicker as vice president and general manager of the Storage Business Unit.

In this role, Dicker will be responsible for leading and expanding Micron’s solid-state storage business. This includes building world-class storage solutions to address the growing opportunity in large market segments like cloud, enterprise and client computing. He will report to Sumit Sadana, Micron’s executive vice president and chief business officer.

Dicker has 20 years of experience in the semiconductor industry, including sales, marketing and executive roles at Intel, IDT, PMC-Sierra and Microsemi Corporation. Most recently, he served as vice president and business unit manager of performance storage at Microsemi, where he led a global organization and drove all general management functions.

“Derek’s deep technical expertise and experience in the storage industry make him the ideal choice to lead our storage business,” Sadana said. “His strategic mindset, coupled with his outstanding track record of business leadership, will help us fully capitalize on our leading-edge NAND technologies and solutions.”

Dicker holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science and engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles.

 

Transphorm Inc., a designer and manufacturer of highest reliability (JEDEC and AEC-Q101 qualified) 650V gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductors, announced it received a $15 million investment from Yaskawa Electric Corporation. This news comes only a few weeks after Yaskawa revealed its integrated Σ-7 F servo motor relies on Transphorm’s high-voltage (HV) GaN to deliver unprecedented performance and power density. Transphorm intends to allocate the funds to various areas of its GaN product development.

“We’ve seen the benefits of working with gallium nitride from the R&D phases through to the application development phases of our products, such as photovoltaic converters and the integrated Σ-7 F servo motor,” said Yukio Tsutsui, General Manager of Corporate R&D Center from Yaskawa. “We look ahead to further developments from Transphorm and its cutting-edge technology.”

The integrated Σ-7 F products resulting from the companies’ co-development serves one of the core target markets that can benefit most from HV GaN: servo motors. The technology is also an optimal solution for automotive systems, data center and industrial power supplies, renewable energy and other broad industrial applications.

“Transphorm has consistently prioritized the quality and reliability of our GaN platform,” said Dr. Umesh Mishra, Chairman, CTO and co-founder of Transphorm. “That focus leads to strong customer relationships with visionaries such as Yaskawa and companies that not only innovate, but also influence market growth by demonstrating GaN’s real-world impact. Receiving Yaskawa’s recent support illustrates the rising confidence in GaN while underscoring its reliability.”

SiFive announced today that it has joined GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ FDXcelerator Partner Program, and will be making RISC-V CPU IP including SiFive’s E31 and E51 RISC-V cores available on GF’s 22FDX process technology. Based on the open source RISC-V ISA, the SiFive E31 offers embedded chip designers new capabilities in high performance within strict area and power requirements, and the SiFive E51 offers a full 64-bit performance at 32-bit price, power and area.

“As the RISC-V ecosystem continues to grow, SiFive’s leading CPU IP is seeing increased adoption. Our partnership with GF is going to enable an even larger pool of system designers to build on an industry-leading process platform,” said Naveed Sherwani, CEO, SiFive. “SiFive has led the RISC-V ecosystem from early on and we are excited to continue extending RISC-V into new market segments.”

“As members of the RISC-V Foundation, we are excited to see more RISC-V IP offerings made available on our processes,” said Gregg Bartlett, senior vice president of CMOS business at GF. “SiFive’s wide range of cores makes them an ideal partner for our FDXcelerator program.”

GF’s FDXcelerator Program brings together select partners to integrate their products or services into validated, plug-and-play design solutions, giving customers access to a broad set of quality offerings specific to 22FDX technology. The program’s open framework enables members to minimize development time and cost while simultaneously leveraging the inherent power and performance advantages of FDX technology.

North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $2.02 billion in billings worldwide in October 2017 (three-month average basis), according to the October Equipment Market Data Subscription (EMDS) Billings Report published today by SEMI.

SEMI reports that the three-month average of worldwide billings of North American equipment manufacturers in October 2017 was $2.02 billion.The billings figure is 1.8 percent lower than the final September 2017 level of $2.05 billion, and is 23.7 percent higher than the October 2016 billings level of $1.63 billion.

“Equipment billings dipped in October, the fourth consecutive monthly decline during this record spending year,” said Ajit Manocha, president and CEO of SEMI. “In spite of this seasonal weakness, we expect equipment spending to increase by 30 percent or more this year and are positive about growth in 2018.”

The SEMI Billings report uses three-month moving averages of worldwide billings for North American-based semiconductor equipment manufacturers. Billings figures are in millions of U.S. dollars.
Billings
(3-mo. avg)
Year-Over-Year
May 2017
$2,270.5
41.8%
June 2017
$2,300.3
34.1%
July 2017
$2,269.7
32.9%
August 2017
$2,181.8
27.7%
September 2017 (final)
$2,054.8
37.6%
October 2017 (prelim)
$2,017.0
23.7%

Source: SEMI (www.semi.org), November 2017

 

SPTS Technologies, an Orbotech company and a supplier of advanced wafer processing solutions for the global semiconductor and related industries, today announced it has won an order for its Omega plasma etch system from Chengdu HiWafer Semiconductor Co., Ltd (HiWafer), China’s first pure-wafer foundry, to establish their new gallium nitride (GaN) on silicon carbide (SiC) production line. SPTS’s Synapse and ICP process modules on an Omega c2L platform will etch SiC backside vias (BSV) and GaN epitaxial layers to manufacture high power radio frequency (RF) devices. The high rate Omega system was selected over the competition because the Synapse provided superior SiC etch rates while the ICP module delivered improved selectivity for GaN etch.

“HiWafer is already a well-established Chinese foundry producer of gallium arsenide based pHEMT and HBT RF devices currently used in 4G communication, and they are an early adopter of SiC and GaN materials for use in high-end RF devices that target the worldwide 5G protocol,” stated Kevin Crofton, President of SPTS Technologies and Corporate Executive Vice President at Orbotech. “This leadership position is important as Power and RF applications are high on the ‘Made in China 2025’ agenda for promoting domestic production of semiconductor devices, and companies like HiWafer are well-positioned to contribute to realizing this national initiative. Our leadership in high rate etching of SiC and other dielectric materials will support HiWafer to provide manufacturing solutions for the coming 5G wave.”

Mr. Nengwu Gao, General Manager of HiWafer, stated, “Orbotech’s SPTS Technologies is a recognized leader in compound wafer processing solutions to the global power and RF device industries. The addition of SPTS’s Omega plasma etch system gives us the tools to compete in GaN on SiC RF technology in telecoms and transportation applications, including railway systems. Acquiring this capability enables us to explore new applications and supports our ambitions to become a highly profitable and successful semiconductor foundry.”