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SK Hynix Inc. (or “the Company“, www.skhynix.com) announced its board of directors yesterday approved its plan to participate in a Bain Capital-led consortium that plans to purchase Toshiba Corporation’s memory chip unit, Toshiba Memory Corporation (or “TMC“). The Company will invest 395 billion yen (4 trillion won) in the consortium’s estimated 2 trillion yen of total investment.

SK Hynix is a part of a group of investors led by Bain Capital Private Equity that includes several Japanese and a number of U.S. companies. The Bain-led consortium will hold 49.9 percent stake in TMC, while Toshiba will hold 40.2 percent and Japan’s Hoya Corp. will own 9.9 percent.

SK Hynix plans to finance 129 of its total 395 billion yen via convertible bonds that could allow it to take an equity stake of up to 15 percent in the future. The remaining 266 billion yen is to put in a fund established by Bain Capital as a limited partner, which would help the Company enjoy capital gains when the TMC is listed.

The Bain-led consortium including SK Hynix will make its best endeavors to finalize the deal by March 2018.

Silicon Mobility announced today the opening of an office in Burlingame, CA. The office is located close to San Francisco international airport at the gate entry of the Silicon Valley. Silicon Mobility’s Bay Area office will be headed by Mr. David Fresneau, co-founder and Vice President of Marketing and Business Development, and will lead Silicon Mobility’s corporate marketing and business development activities.

“The Silicon Valley sees a growing presence of automotive OEMs and Tiers 1 attracted by the unique concentration of high-technology companies and software excellence” says Bruno Paucard, President and CEO of Silicon Mobility. “Being full-time present in this new land for automotive will help to catalyze our contribution to the cars’ digital and electric revolution”.

In addition to powertrain electrification, Silicon Mobility foresees its deployment into the broader electrification area (Electric Power Steering, Braking, etc.) and the processor centralization in the car’s E/E architecture, in particular with regard to ADAS data fusion, functions grouping and domain control. By choosing to open an office in the Bay area, Silicon Mobility fosters its global expansion strategy helping the company to build long-term partnerships with the local ecosystem and preparing Silicon Mobility’s future.

Silicon Mobility designs, develops and sells flexible, real-time, safe and open semiconductor solutions for the automotive industry used to increase energy efficiency and reduce pollutant emissions while keeping passengers safe.

TowerJazz, the global specialty foundry, and Crocus, a developer of TMR magnetic sensor technology and embedded MRAM, today announce volume manufacturing of Crocus TMR (Tunnel MagnetoResistance) sensors, using TowerJazz’s 0.13um CMOS process with a dedicated magnetic module in the Cu BEOL. With Crocus’ magnetic process, know-how and IP, and TowerJazz’s process technology and integration expertise, Crocus has successfully licensed the TMR technology to an automotive Tier 1 customer, bringing increased business to both companies.

According to a 2016 MarketsandMarkets report, the overall magnetic field sensors market was valued at USD $2.25 billion in 2015 and is expected to reach S4.16 billion by 2022, at a CAGR of 8.87% between 2016 and 2022. The growth of this market is driven by the rising demand for MEMS-based sensors across industry verticals, surge in the automotive industry, increasing demand for high-quality sensing devices, and continuous growth in consumer electronics applications.

Magnetic transducers which sense magnetic field strength are widely used in modern industry and electronics to measure current, position, motion, direction, and other physical parameters. Crocus’ TMR technology is a CMOS-based, robust technology capable of offering important advantages in sensitivity, performance, power consumption, size and full integration with CMOS to create monolithic single die ICs. Benefits to customers come in the form of low power, a robust design and high temperature performance. Crocus TMR solutions are ideally suited for many applications ranging from IoT to consumer, medical, automotive and industrial equipment.

“We selected TowerJazz because of their high flexibility and capabilities to adapt their TS13 platform to incorporate our TMR technology which includes magnetic materials that are typically not used in CMOS. TowerJazz’s vast manufacturing expertise is enabling us to successfully fulfill the needs of several market sectors combined with increased performance required in next-generation sensors. TowerJazz has been our development partner for many years and together we have achieved technology maturity leading to expanded business and successful licensing of Crocus IP,” said Michel Desbard, Crocus CEO.

“As the demand for IoT applications in our daily life is ever-increasing, there is an even greater need for intelligent sensing, low power and improved performance. Crocus’ successful licensing of their IP, along with TowerJazz’s manufacturing capability and know-how, enables us to deliver highly-advanced and competitive embedded-solutions to multiple customers in various markets. Through our partnership with Crocus, we are broadening our presence in the sensors’ market, complementing our MEMS and image sensing programs,” said Zmira Shternfeld-Lavie, VP of TOPS BU and R&D Process Engineering.”

Crocus’s TMR magnetic sensor is expected to displace existing sensor technologies in many applications. Crocus’ TMR magnetic sensor product family includes multiple architectures which are based on its Magnetic Logic Unit, a disruptive CMOS-based rugged magnetic technology.

IDTechEx predict that 2017 will be the first billion dollar year for wearable sensors. These critical components are central to the core value proposition in many wearable devices. The “Wearable Sensors 2018-2028: Technologies, Markets & Players” report includes IDTechEx’slatest research and forecasts on this topic, collating over 3 years of work to provide a thorough characterisation and outlook for each type of sensor used in wearable products today.

Despite sales volumes from wearable products continuing to grow, creeping commoditisation squeezes margins, with hardware sales being particularly vulnerable. This has led to some consolidation in the industry, with several prominent failures and exits, and challenging time even amongst market leaders in each sector. As hardware margins are squeezed, business models are changing to increasingly focus on the valuable data generated once a device is worn. Sensors are responsible for the collection and quality of that data, so understanding the capabilities and limitations of different sensor platforms is critical to understanding the progress of the industry as a whole.

In the report, IDTechEx address 21 different types of wearable sensor across 9 different categories as follows: Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs), optical sensors, electrodes, force/pressure/stretch sensors, temperature sensors, microphones, GPS, chemical & gas sensors & others. Hundreds of examples from throughout the report cover a breadth of technology readiness, ranging from long-established industries to early proof-of-concepts. The report contains information about the activities of over 115 different companies, with primary content (including interviews, exhibition or site visits by the authors) to more than 80 different companies, large and small.

IDTechEx describe wearable sensors in three waves. The first wave includes sensors that have been incorporated in wearable for many years, often being originally developed for wearable products decades ago, and existing as mature industries today. A second wave of wearable sensors came following huge technology investment in smartphones. Many of the sensors from smartphones could be easily adapted for use in wearable products; they could be made-wearable. Finally, as wearable technology hype and investment peaked, many organisations identified many sensor types that could be developed specifically with wearable products in mind. These made-for-wearablesensors often remain in the commercial evaluation or relatively early commercial sales today, but some examples are already becoming significant success stories.

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Billions of wearable electronic products are already sold each year today. Many have already experienced significant hardware commoditisation, with tough competition driving prices down. Even as wearable devices become more advanced, introducing more sensors and better components to enhance value propositions, lessons of history tell us that hardware will always be prone to commoditisation. As this happens the role of sensors only becomes more important; with hardware prices being constantly squeezed, increasing proportions of the value that companies can capture from products will be from the data that the products can generate.

The key hardware component for capturing this data is the sensors, so understanding the development and prospects of sensors today is critical to predicting the potential for this entire industry in the future. “Wearable Sensors 2018-2028: Technologies, Markets & Players” is written to address the needs of any company or individual looking to gain a clearer, independent perspective on the outlook for various types of wearable sensor. The report answers detailed questions about technology, markets and industry trends, and supported by years of primary research investment collated and distilled within.

Reno Sub-Systems (Reno), a developer of high-performance radio frequency (RF) matching networks, RF power generators and gas flow management systems for semiconductor manufacturing, today announced it has closed its Series C funding. Samsung Venture Investment Corporation led the round. New investors Samsung Venture Investment Corp., Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation and SK hynix all join Reno’s premier list of strategic investors. Existing investors Intel Capital, Lam Research and MKS Instruments also participated in this funding round.

“Our list of strategic investors now includes the venture arms of three of the top five largest semiconductor manufacturers, two out of four of the largest etch tool providers, and a key subsystems supplier,” said Bob MacKnight, CEO of Reno Sub-Systems. “Our holistic approach to precision subsystem process control across RF as well as flow technologies offers clear differentiation from competitive approaches. Our new investors are motivated to participate to secure access to our innovative technologies, to enhance their manufacturing operations or product offerings.”

“We saw high value in Reno’s technology, so it only made sense for us to pursue an investment,” said Dr. Dong-Su Kim, vice president of Samsung Venture Investment Corp.

“The new capabilities that Reno’s subsystems provide will add to our competitive strengths,” said Craig Kerkove, president & CEO of Hitachi High-Technologies America.

“Greater precision and repeatability of processing are key to future device geometries,” said Heejin Chung, head of SK hynix’s Venture Investment. “Reno’s subsystems can help us achieve that.”

The additional funding will support continued development of the technology to enable leading-edge silicon manufacturing technology nodes in high-volume production. “The C-round will allow us to support our rapidly growing number of deployments and enable high-volume manufacturing of our systems to support our recent platform wins,” said MacKnight.

The company also announced that it has secured several additional platform design wins for its Electronically Variable Capacitor (EVC™) impedance matching networks and has been qualified by a leading OEM.

SiFive, the first fabless provider of customized, open-source-enabled semiconductors, today announced it has joined the TSMC (NYSE: TSM) IP Alliance Program, part of the TSMC Open Innovation Platform, which accelerates innovation in the semiconductor design community. As an alliance member, SiFive’s RISC-V based Coreplex IP are made available to its customers to reduce time-to-market, increase return on investment and reduce waste in the manufacturing process.

With the significant increases in non-recurring engineering and design costs required to bring to life new silicon designs, TSMC’s IP Alliance Program makes it easier for fabless chipmakers to innovate and produce custom semiconductors. By participating in the TSMC IP Alliance Program, SiFive becomes the first RISC-V solution provider to make its IP readily available for fabless chipmakers leveraging the industry’s most comprehensive semiconductor IP portfolio.

“Acceptance into the TSMC IP Alliance is an honor and a significant validation not only of SiFive, but of the RISC-V architecture as a whole,” said Jack Kang, vice president of Product and Business Development, SiFive. “Having the SiFive Coreplex IP platform available through the program makes designing a chip based on the latest in open source hardware even easier. We look forward to continued collaboration with TSMC and the other members of the IP Alliance ecosystem.”

“The TSMC Open Innovation Platform forms the center of our open innovation model that addresses the needs of our customers looking to reduce design time and speed time-to-market,” said Suk Lee, TSMC senior director, Design Infrastructure Marketing Division. “The addition of SiFive’s IP to the TSMC IP catalog will streamline the process of fabricating custom silicon designs based on the RISC-V implementation.”

SiFive was founded by the inventors of RISC-V – Andrew Waterman, Yunsup Lee and Krste Asanovic – with a mission to democratize access to custom silicon. In its first six months of availability, more than 1,000 HiFive1 software development boards have been purchased and delivered to developers in over 40 countries. Additionally, the company has engaged with multiple customers across its IP and SoC products, started shipping the industry’s first RISC-V SoC in November 2016 and announced the availability of its Coreplex RISC-V based IP earlier this year. SiFive’s innovative “study, evaluate, buy” licensing model dramatically simplifies the IP licensing process, and removes traditional road blocks that have limited access to customized, leading edge silicon.

Cree names Gregg Lowe as CEO


September 25, 2017

Cree, Inc. (Nasdaq: CREE) announces the appointment of Gregg Lowe as president and chief executive officer and to the board of directors of Cree, effective September 27. Mr. Lowe succeeds Chuck Swoboda, per the transition plan announced in May. Coincident with this change, Robert Ingram, current board member and lead independent director of Cree, will assume the position of chairman of the board. Mr. Swoboda will remain on the board until the annual meeting of shareholders on October 24.

Mr. Lowe joins Cree with extensive leadership and deep industry experience. From 2012 through 2015, he served as president and CEO of Freescale Semiconductor, a $5 billion company with 17,000 employees and products serving automotive, industrial, consumer and communications markets. Prior to that, he had a long career spanning 28 years at Texas Instruments, most recently serving as senior vice president and leader of the analog business.

“Gregg is an exceptional leader and a proven visionary in the semiconductor industry. We are proud that he has accepted the CEO position and is prepared to lead this innovative, technology-rich company into the future,” said Robert Ingram, board chairman of Cree.

“I want to thank Chuck Swoboda for guiding this company for the past sixteen years. His leadership helped solidify Cree as an industry leader in multiple businesses,” stated Gregg Lowe, CEO of Cree. “Cree’s innovation engine is unmatched in the industry. I am honored to be a part of this team and look forward to working with the employees and the board to establish and execute a clear vision for the company moving forward.”

In addition to his experience with semiconductor companies, Mr. Lowe also holds numerous board positions including Silicon Labs in Austin, Texas; Baylor Healthcare System in Dallas, Texas; and The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, where he co-chairs the education committee for the board.

Mr. Lowe holds a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and has completed the executive program at Stanford University. He is the recipient of the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Career Achievement Award honoring both his accomplishments in the semiconductor industry as well as his community service. Additionally, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Engineering from the Institute in 2014.

Cree is an innovator of lighting-class LEDs, lighting products and Wolfspeed™ power and radio frequency (RF) semiconductors.

Cypress Semiconductor Corp. (NASDAQ: CY) today announced the appointment of Jeffrey J. Owens to its board of directors. He will serve on the company’s Compensation Committee. Owens brings to Cypress more than 40 years of experience in a variety of technology, engineering and operating leadership roles at Delphi Automotive, one of the world’s largest suppliers of vehicle electronics.

Owens recently retired from his role as Chief Technology Officer at Delphi Automotive, where he was responsible for a global engineering team of 20,000 technologists located in 14 major tech centers and was instrumental in transforming the company into a provider of software, electronics, and advanced safety and electrical architectures to the world’s largest automotive manufacturers. Prior to his CTO role, he was President of Delphi’s $3 billion Electronics and Safety division. Owens currently serves on the board of directors of public engineering materials supplier Rogers Corporation. He is on the board of trustees at Kettering University and previously served as chairman of the board.

“We are pleased to welcome Jeff Owens to Cypress’ board,” said Steve Albrecht, Cypress’ chairman. “He is a great addition to our team with invaluable technology and system expertise to support management as they continue building the already strong automotive business. His capabilities align perfectly with the Cypress 3.0 strategy to evolve into an embedded system solutions leader in fast-growing market segments, including autonomous driving.”

Synopsys, Inc. (NASDAQ: SNPS) today announced that the Synopsys Design Platform has been fully certified for use on Samsung Foundry’s 28FDS (FD-SOI) process technology. A Process Design Kit (PDK) and a comprehensive reference flow, compatible with Synopsys’ Lynx Design System, containing scripts, design methodologies and best practices is now available. For Samsung Foundry’s latest differentiated process offering, support for bias throughout the Design Platform flow has been thoroughly verified and certified to achieve optimal power and performance tradeoffs.

“FD-SOI technology offers one of the best power, performance, and cost tradeoffs,” said Jaehong Park, senior vice president of the Foundry Solutions Team at Samsung Electronics. “Samsung Foundry’s 28FD-SOI technology allows designs to operate both at high and low voltage making it ideal for IoT and mobile applications. Moreover, the FD-SOI technology exhibits the best soft error immunity, and, therefore, is well suited for applications that require high reliability such as automotive. Availability of certified Synopsys Design Platform, PDK and reference flow will allow our mutual customers to accelerate adoption of our 28FDS technology.”

“Our long standing, close collaboration with Samsung Foundry starts very early, allowing Synopsys to refine tools and flows enabling customers to achieve desired performance and power targets,” said Michael Jackson, corporate vice president of marketing and business development for the Design Group at Synopsys. “Certification of the Synopsys Design Platform, complete with PDK and reference flow helps our mutual customers to rapidly design with confidence for Samsung Foundry’s 28-nm FD-SOI process.”

Applied Materials, Inc. will explore the future of computing in the era of artificial intelligence (A.I.) at its 2017 Analyst Day on Wednesday, September 27 in New York. In his presentation, Applied president and CEO Gary Dickerson will explain how the rapid increase in data generation, combined with A.I. and machine learning, creates the need for new system architectures and compute models in the years ahead.

“The move to artificial intelligence signals a new era for computing that is driving major changes to the way logic and memory chips are designed and manufactured,” said Gary Dickerson. “New materials and innovative chip architectures will increasingly be needed to bring faster processors and more efficient memory to market, and Applied Materials is at the foundation with the solutions that enable the A.I. revolution.”

Applied will also host a panel of technical experts for a discussion titled “Enabling the A.I. Era.” The panelists include:

  • Christos Georgiopoulos, Former Vice President at Intel Corporation and Professor of High Energy Physics at Florida State University and CERN
  • Matt Johnson, Senior Vice President and General Manager in Automotive, NXP Semiconductors
  • Mukesh Khare, Vice President of Semiconductor Research, IBM Research
  • Praful Krishna, CEO, Coseer
  • Jay Kerley, Group Vice President and CIO, Applied Materials

Applied Materials’ Analyst Day presentations will be webcast live beginning at 1:00 p.m. EDT (10:00 a.m. PDT) on the company’s investor relations website: http://www.appliedmaterials.com/company/investor-relations.