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As the Silicon Valley in California and the West Coast continue to be the hub of the semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S., HEIDENHAIN has expanded its motion systems support by establishing an ETEL facility in Fremont, CA.  This new 2018 office will provide product, service and support of its ETEL motion systems designed specifically for that industry and others.

The Fremont office is an expansion of HEIDENHAIN’s San Jose, CA, office and provides warehouse space to keep multiple ETEL motion systems on site.  On display currently is an ETEL VULCANO stacked platform motion system, the METIS planar platform, and a demo bench showing ETEL single-axis solutions all operating using ETEL’s AccurET controls.

A cleanroom has been built at this ETEL facility to simulate the expected working environment of its operation, and multiple Service Engineers are on hand to provide real-time support.  A conference room space has also been established as a meeting area for visitors.

“The opening of this facility in 2018 has allowed HEIDENHAIN to meet the needs of the high-tech and fast-paced nature of Silicon Valley that often demands immediate response and is yet another example or HEIDENHAIN’s Customer First initiative,” said Daniel Wiseman, HEIDENHAIN Motion System Sales Engineer. “And actually, area customers of all kinds can now walk-in and see motion systems in person.  Plus, we can now provide on-site trouble-shooting more easily when required.”

Rudolph Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: RTEC) today announced the receipt of over $12M in new orders for its recently-released NovusEdge™ system for edge and backside inspection on bare silicon wafers. The new orders are for capacity expansions at our existing customers as well as orders from two additional large wafer manufacturers based in Asia. These orders are in addition to the $3M previously announced and will ship throughout calendar year 2019.

“With these orders Rudolph has expanded its customer base to include the top wafer suppliers with over 75 percent of the bare wafer market share,” said Mike Plisinski, Rudolph Technologies’ CEO. “We believe the early acceptance of these new systems is being driven by the accelerating demand for high-quality bare silicon wafers for sub 20nm nodes. To meet that demand, customers require an inspection solution with increased sensitivity on the wafer edge and backside. The Rudolph team worked closely with bare wafer manufacturers in order to introduce a new product with compelling capabilities and value of ownership. As the rate of die shrinks slows at the advanced nodes, more wafers are required to make enough die to meet growing market demand, especially for advanced memory and logic chips.”

Chips and micro-fractures at the edge readily propagate as cracks into active areas of the wafer, especially when the wafer is thinned. Backside contamination can distort the frontside of the wafer during lithography, consuming focus budgets that are already thin and will become even thinner with the adoption of EUV lithography.

Edge and backside inspection have requirements that are very different from conventional frontside inspection. The NovusEdge EBI (Edge, Backside Inspection) system’s image-based approach provides full coverage of near-edge, bevel and apex regions, both top and bottom. Compared to existing technology, it is faster, more sensitive and better at classifying types of defects, especially for the complex shapes and curvatures at the notch. Backside inspection can use the same light scattering techniques used on the frontside but requires special handling capabilities to avoid contacting or contaminating the frontside. In all cases, sophisticated software provides analysis and automatic defect classification.

GOWIN Semiconductor Corp., an innovator of programmable logic devices, announces the expansion of its global sales operations into the EMEA region. Based in the UK, the operation is managed by recently appointed Mike Furnival, Director of Sales, EMEA and General Manager of GOWIN Semiconductor (Europe). Previously, Mike Furnival held similar senior positions at XMOS Ltd. and Lattice Semiconductor UK Ltd.

“We are truly excited to be expanding our global sales activities into EMEA,” said Jason Zhu, CEO of GOWIN Semiconductor Corp. “Today, EMEA remains a very important territory for innovation, design, and quality product development, especially in the communication, industrial and automotive marketplaces. We are convinced that this expansion will significantly enhance GOWIN’s ability to demonstrate its leadership position in our fast-growing FPGA business and having Mike’s experience and knowledge onboard will ensure that our customers receive the best possible sales support activity.”

Newly appointed Mike Furnival added, “I am delighted to be joining GOWIN at such an interesting and important time in the Company’s development. I have been extremely impressed by what GOWIN has achieved thus far and am excited by the prospect of significantly contributing to its future success which I believe will be to the benefit of customers and partners alike.”

About GOWIN Semiconductor Corp.
Founded in 2014, Gowin Semiconductor Corp., headquartered with major R&D in China, has the vision to accelerate customer innovation worldwide with our programmable solutions. We focus on optimizing our products and removing barriers for customers using programmable logic devices. Our commitment to technology and quality enables customers to reduce the total cost of ownership from using FPGA on their production boards. Our offerings include a broad portfolio of programmable logic devices, design software, intellectual property (IP) cores, reference designs, and development kits. We strive to serve customers in the consumer, industrial, communication, medical, and automotive markets worldwide.

Synopsys, Inc. (Nasdaq: SNPS) announced today another milestone in its longstanding partnership with imec, a research and innovation hub in nanoelectronics and digital technologies, with the successful completion of the first comprehensive sub-3 nanometer (nm) parasitic variation modeling and delay sensitivity study of complementary FET (CFET) architectures. With the potential to significantly reduce area versus traditional FinFETs, CFET is a promising option to maintain area scaling beyond 3nm technology.

In 3-nm and 2-nm process technologies, the magnitude of variation increases significantly for middle of line (MOL) parameters, as well as interconnect, due to high resistance of metal lines, vias, and surface scattering. Therefore, modeling parasitic variation and sensitivity is a critical factor in bringing CFET to mainstream production.

Prediction at early stages of process development will allow foundries to create more robust and variation-tolerant transistors, standard cells, and methodologies for metal interconnect. Using the QuickCap® NX 3D field solver, in a close collaboration between Synopsys R&D and imec research teams, allowed for fast and accurate modeling of parasitics for a variety of device architectures and to identify the most critical device dimensions and properties. This allowed the optimization of CFET devices for better power/performance trade-offs. As part of a comprehensive set of tools that includes Raphael™ TCAD extraction to StarRC™ parasitic extraction for the largest system-on-chips (SoCs), QuickCap NX effectively helps process engineers understand the sensitivity of circuit performance to variations in process parameters and improves modeling accuracy by establishing golden reference values.

“This work has allowed us to accurately model and analyze cell and interconnect variation at advanced processes and architectures, such as Complementary FET,” said Anda Mocuta, director, Technology Solutions and Enablement at imec. “Our collaboration with Synopsys continues a legacy of successful collaborations that enable us to search for technological breakthroughs below 3 nanometers. The capabilities of Synopsys tools, such as QuickCap NX, have been key to our joint research on variability.”

“Imec is at the forefront of research into semiconductor technology. Our collaboration with imec to develop variation-aware solutions down to 2 nanometer processes will benefit the entire semiconductor industry,” said Antun Domic, chief technology officer at Synopsys. “Utilizing the flexibility of Synopsys’ QuickCap NX 3D parasitic extraction interface, engineers can better target and significantly reduce the number of trials needed to optimize circuit performance in the presence of process variation and reduce circuit sensitivity. This significantly reduces the overall turnaround time for device and circuit optimization.”

Microtronic, Inc., a maker of high-speed full-wafer semiconductor macro defect inspection systems, wants to shed new light on a topic that is frequently misunderstood in the industry: macro vs. micro inspection. The company is releasing a new series of free informational tech bulletins entitled Macro Intelligence, addressing the often-underutilized capabilities of macro defect wafer inspection and how fabs can best use them to improve their total wafer defect management. Anyone may request to receive the new bulletins.

“In today’s fabs we still see confusion about the relative roles of macro and micro wafer inspection,” said Reiner Fenske, Microtronic’s CEO. “Many people still think that macro and micro are basically trying to do the same job, when actually they’re doing two very differentjobs — each very important and each complementary to the other.”

“Here’s the fundamental challenge,” said Fenske. “As critical dimensions and killer defects get smaller, micro inspection requires ever increasing magnification and resolution — and longer inspection times. Which is why micro inspections are usually limited to just a small part of the semiconductor wafer and on a small sampling of wafers, perhaps only one or two from a lot. Unfortunately, that leaves a great deal of wafer real estate uninspected!”

“And that’s the big void that automated macro wafer inspection can fill,” said Errol Akomer, Applications Director at Microtronic. “Today’s generation of ultra high-speed semiconductor macro defect wafer inspection systems, such as our EagleView, can now capture full-wafer, high-resolution images of every wafer in the lot within a few minutes, without needing recipes. So fabs can now do 100% macro defect wafer inspections after many more process steps, to catch defects that otherwise would have been missed — random defects, intermittent process or tool issues and a great deal more.”

Akomer noted that automated macro inspection not only detects more defects, it also recordswafer images and defect information in a database that can be reviewed long after the wafers have shipped. This database can supply extremely valuable information to each subsequent processing step and inspection, and it provides a way to find root causes of infrequent issues and excursions. And, importantly, it can also integrate defect data from manual microscopic as well as automated micro inspections — to become an extremely valuable resource for end-of-line inspection. This can significantly improve the quality and completeness of final inspections and reduce the number of hidden defects that escape into the field.

The first of the new Macro Intelligence e-bulletins dealt with the issue of “disappearing” latent defects that can get covered over by subsequent processing steps and become difficult to detect at later inspections. The second bulletin discussed the problem of partially compromised die that can slip through final electrical testing and become reliability problems in the field.

“Bottom line, these new e-mail tech bulletins aim to provide useful information,” said Akomer. “They’re about helping fabs to optimize their defect inspection protocols and improve yields. Each e-bulletin is intentionally brief, to the point, and a quick read. So far, people are telling us they like them!”

Vertiv announced today that it has completed the purchase of the maintenance business of MEMS Power Generation (MEMS), a privately-owned company headquartered in the United Kingdom that specializes in temporary power solutions. This marks the third acquisition for Vertiv, and is consistent with the company’s growth strategy. MEMS will now focus entirely on its generator rentals solutions business.

“The addition of the MEMS maintenance business is a natural fit for our existing U.K. business and we welcome MEMS’ more than 160 contract customers that we now have the opportunity to serve,” said Rob Johnson, Vertiv chief executive officer. “By strengthening our capability in generator maintenance, and expanding our service offerings in critical infrastructure in EMEA, we’re well positioned to offer customers an unmatched suite of services.”

“Since partnering with Vertiv in 2016, we continue to be impressed by the company’s vision and ability to execute strategic deals that serve to expand the business in key growth areas,” said Platinum Equity Partner Jacob Kotzubei. “The Vertiv management team continues to make smart investments to grow its global business and position the company for continued success.”

The 160 MEMS contract customers in the U.K. range from data centers to hospitals and universities to industrial companies and utilities. Vertiv will service the newly acquired MEMS customers with the Vertiv U.K. service team.

Vertiv and MEMS Power Generation closed the sale on Nov. 30, 2018. MEMS transferred all its service and maintenance contracts to Vertiv at that time.

Lam Research Corporation (Nasdaq: LRCX) today announced that the Board of Directors has accepted Martin Anstice’s resignation as chief executive officer and a member of the Board and has named Tim Archer president and chief executive officer (CEO) effective immediately. Mr. Archer has also been appointed to the Board of Directors of Lam Research. Prior to this appointment, Mr. Archer was the company’s president and chief operating officer (COO).

Mr. Anstice resigned as the company investigates allegations of misconduct in the workplace and conduct inconsistent with the company’s core values, including allegations about Mr. Anstice. The alleged conduct did not involve financial misconduct, nor did it relate to questions regarding the integrity of the company’s financial systems or controls. Upon learning of the allegations, the Board of Directors formed a committee of independent directors led by Lead Independent Director Abhi Talwalkar to conduct an investigation of the allegations, which is ongoing. The independent directors retained an external law firm to assist with the investigation. Mr. Anstice will be leaving the company without receiving any severance benefits.

Mr. Archer was appointed president and COO of Lam Research in January 2018, after serving as COO since June 2012 when Lam completed its acquisition of Novellus Systems, Inc. He joined Novellus in 1994 and held numerous positions throughout his tenure there, including serving as COO at the time of the acquisition by Lam Research.

“The board believes strongly in Lam’s vision and strategy. With Martin’s resignation, we are implementing our existing succession plan in which Tim was designated to succeed Martin. We are confident that Tim is the right leader to execute on the company’s strategic agenda and drive success in the coming years,” said Mr. Talwalkar. “Since joining us over six years ago with the acquisition of Novellus, Tim has been instrumental in leading Lam Research through a period of transformational growth, and we are confident our company and stakeholders will continue to prosper under Tim’s leadership.”

Mr. Archer commented, “I am honored to lead Lam Research at a time of great opportunity for our company. Lam has industry-leading technologies and is well-positioned to capitalize on the multiple demand drivers for the semiconductor industry. We are committed to our long-term strategy of value creation for our customers, employees, business partners, and stockholders.”

Mr. Talwalkar added, “Lam Research takes all allegations of misconduct seriously. An integral part of the culture of Lam Research is our commitment to provide a safe and positive work environment where each of our employees has the opportunity to thrive. The company has policies in place to support and enforce this commitment.”

Lam Research also reaffirms its financial guidance for the December 2018 quarter, as communicated in the press release dated October 16, 2018. An update to our financial performance and business outlook will be provided at our customary quarterly earnings call on January 23, 2019.

SEMI announced today that the Industry Strategy Symposium (ISS) 2019 will take place January 6-9 at Half Moon Bay’s Ritz-Carlton Hotel with the theme “Golden Age of the Semiconductor: Enabling the Next Industrial Revolution.” ISS is the year’s first executive check-in, bringing together leading analysts, researchers, economists, and technologists for insights on the forces impacting the semiconductor industry. The annual symposium offers executives a unique platform for identifying growth opportunities and gaining industry intelligence to help them ensure that their business plans and forecasts are based on up-to-the-minute market conditions. Registration for ISS 2019 is now open.

Major developments are transforming the extended supply chain — artificial intelligence (AI), intelligent vehicles, augmented and virtual reality, and seemingly limitless connectivity within the cloud. Collaboration across an expanding ecosystem and advanced technical innovations are giving rise to advanced electronics that continue to raise performance and power-consumption requirements and drive heterogenous integration.

“It can be hard to lead to where you’ve not been, particularly at this most dynamic time in business,” said David Anderson, president of SEMI Americas. “Executives from across the supply chain historically have asked for this timely ISS program in order to gauge what the year ahead looks like. To help management get the very latest picture, and to compare notes to most confidently tune their operations and sales, ISS is a tremendous level set for the new year.”

ISS 2019 is the first of seven conferences comprising SEMI’s inaugural Technology Leadership Series of the Americas. Aligned from coast to coast over one year, the series is designed to foster critical discussions on the short- and long-term influences and opportunities to the $2 trillion emerging markets.

ISS 2019 highlights include:

Keynotes

  • Dr. Jo de Boeck, chief strategy officer at IMEC, will share how nanotechnology’s “magic” will enable advanced applications for SMART mobility, SMART cities, infotainment and healthcare
  • Dr. Ann Kelleher, senior vice president for the technology and manufacturing group at Intel
  • Jim Talent, former U.S. Senator, will discuss the evolving U.S.-China strategic relationship

Economic trends and market perspectives affecting the chip industry

  • Executives and economists from Harvard Kennedy School, Gartner, Hilltop Economics, Linx, Amazon, Bank of America, Rockwell Automation, Ericsson, Selexis, Enthought and VLSI Research

Technology, manufacturing and industrial revolution discussions

  • Executives and CTOs from Google, TEL, Micron, Intel Labs, Applied Materials, Xperi, McKinsey, DECA Technologies, Carbon and Brewer Science

For more information about ISS, click here.

The semiconductor manufacturing industry is fighting to attract, educate, and retain the necessary talent for its continued growth. A significant workforce gap of up to 10,000 global positions stretches the industry’s ability to meet the world’s already demanding technology needs. To solve this challenge, SEMI, the global electronics manufacturing association, is launching an audacious and innovative campaign to raise industry awareness and attract students and recent graduates that don’t yet know about the immense opportunities available to them in semiconductor manufacturing.

Semiconductors are the brains and memory of all modern electronics. Their incredible processing power has made breakthroughs possible in communication, transportation, and medicine, powering everything from smartphones to space travel. Whether you’re driving a car, surfing the internet or using a computer, semiconductors drive technological innovation. Global semiconductor revenue has grown by over $100 billion in the last four years and is projected to surpass $0.5 trillion by 2019.

The campaign, You’re Welcome, speaks to how fundamental, yet underappreciated, this technology is. It includes a suspenseful, action-filled movie trailer that shows what happens when scientists, engineers, and mathematicians make semiconductors to save the world from the brink of disaster. The video also takes viewers behind-the-scenes of a semiconductor facility, or fab, which brings together cutting-edge STEM fields to develop the world’s most advanced technology. The campaign’s website provides information about the value and production of semiconductors, as well as a career guide that showcases the wide variety of opportunities available with companies such as Intel, Samsung, Applied Materials, Tokyo Electron, and the more than 2,000 SEMI member companies.

The campaign is just one piece in SEMI’s comprehensive workforce development plan. The plan engages students as early-on as 4th grade, inspires and motivates them through high school and college, and provides pathways to professional careers, building a pipeline to fill the short-term and long-term needs of the industry. Through the You’re Welcome campaign, SEMI is addressing the increasingly urgent workforce need by taking a completely new, never-before-seen approach to talent recruitment by leveraging high-interest areas of entertainment, media and storytelling to excite students about the industry’s role in society.

In the face of the microelectronics industry’s unprecedented challenges and opportunities with artificial intelligence (AI) and new markets outside the historic semiconductor audiences, SEMI announces the Technology Leadership Series of the Americas. The seven-part sequence of related strategy and technical conferences comprises the world’s largest and most comprehensive approach for examining and fabricating future innovations that can fuel a higher quality of life for the planet.

As the era begins with the volume of the world’s data doubling every 12-18 months, a global brain trust of hundreds of industry experts has provided inputs for a coherent, step-by-step process that will position the microelectronics industry to navigate the future.

With an objective to reduce learning curves and shorten product times to market, key interest groups have rallied with SEMI in the past 24 months to multiply interactions with the supply chain. In turn, these exchanges are calculated to increase the members’ respective technical ROIs. Technology communities include the Fab Owners Alliance (FOA), FlexTech, MEMS & Sensors Industry Group (MSIG), Electronic System Design Alliance, as well as global partner associations such as IEEE and SAE International, which leads technical learning for the mobility industry.

As a result, more than 2,100 global market-related businesses have teamed with SEMI to help structure content for the Technology Leadership Series of the Americas.

Aligned from coast to coast, across a 12-month span, the series is designed to foster the most critical discussions for connecting both the short-term and long-term influences impacting the $2 trillion worth of emerging markets. The series further aims to remove guesswork about which of the world’s rapidly rising number of conferences provides the highest ROI for the senior executive, engineer-scientist and sales manager.

“There’s been lots of talk around AI, its potential enhancements for nearly all markets, and which priorities should be next for maximizing those. To facilitate measurable industry progress, the approach for this series is to fit together the most critical puzzle pieces – strategy, design, new materials and manufacturing technologies – that will deliver the most impactful roadmap for the coming decades,” said David Anderson, president of SEMI Americas and series co-author. “The experts have concluded that focal points identified for these topic-exclusive conferences will each serve as a stepping stone – or enabler – for the roadmap’s most important areas. As with previous industry efforts, what hasn’t changed is that the path to success hinges on collaboration by partners from across the supply chain.”

Target topics will address the leading edges of industry knowledge and practices, including up-to-the-minute market forecasts and deep dives into game-changing issues and advancements. Six strategy and technical conferences will culminate in an unmatched integration of technologies and partners at SEMICON West, July 9-11, 2019, in San Francisco.

The Series’ special conferences are:

  • Industry Strategy Symposium (ISS) Jan. 6-9 – will kick off the new year with analysis of new and emerging demand drivers for new architectures, new logic and memory, new streams of investment and how to advance their arrivals and ensure longevities that enable the next industrial revolution.
  • Flexible & Printed Electronics and MEMS & Sensors Technical Congress (FLEX/MSTC) Feb. 18-21 – the co-located events will provide the most comprehensive technical conference as FLEX focuses on the design and manufacture of flexible electronics, including sensors, IC integration and substrates, while MSTC focuses on the technology behind the trends in MEMS and sensors for autonomous mobility in mobile devices, IOT, drones, and autonomous transportations.
  • Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Conference (ASMC) May 6-9 – will improve the industry’s advanced manufacturing strategies and methodologies through a combined sharing of highlights and insights by device makers, equipment and materials suppliers and academics. Women in Semiconductors will hold their third annual workshop.
  • Strategic Materials Conference (SMC) Sept. 2019 – will share the latest developments from around the world in strategic materials that will be vital for new markets, system creation, heterogeneous integration and packaging.
  • MEMS & Sensors Executive Congress (MSEC) Oct. 2019 – will present how the next generations of MEMS and sensors will be designed and produced to meet on-going growth for emerging markets beyond the historic microelectronics customer base.
  • International Technology Partners Conference (ITPC) Nov. 3-6 – will advance productive trans-pacific relationships to help avoid threatened supply chain prosperity, leveraging thought-leadership and relationship-building programs for executive-level engagement.

At the peak of the collaborative series, SEMICON West 2019 will provide renowned global presenters and hands-on demos, at both strategic and technical levels, for up-to-minute predictions and breakthroughs on upcoming trends and enablers. Based on direction from SEMI’s members, the five vertical application areas of AI and Data, Smart Transportation, MedTech, Smart Manufacturing and Industrial Automation, plus workforce development, will be featured at the semiconductor industry’s flagship event.