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Altair Semiconductor (www.altair-semi.com), a provider of cellular IoT chipsets, announced today it has partnered with JIG-SAW Inc. (jig-saw.com ), a provider of A&A (Auto sensor-ing and Auto Direction) solutions for IoT, to develop LTE-enabled sensors for a wide variety of global industrial IoT applications.

The partnership combines Altair’s dual-mode Cat-M/NB-IoT ALT1250 chipset with JIG-SAW’s software control technology to enable developers to create new IoT business models that can drive new efficiencies across their organizations. Potential market applications include IoT sensors for warehouse site management, equipment monitoring, logistics, and more.

“We are pleased to partner with Altair Semiconductor to bring end-to-end, power and cost-optimized LTE-connected solutions to IoT users around the world,” said Hiroto Ozaki, Chief Operating Officer of JIG-SAW. “The IoT market is expanding rapidly, and enabling control not only via the cloud, but also within the modem chip layer, offers significant value for IoT users by providing high monitoring quality and stabilized, consistent services.”

The collaboration will enable users with connected IoT devices to control and monitor individual devices and their statuses at all times via a modem chip connection. Additionally, auto-control services will enable users to address alerts in a timely manner.

“Because Wi-Fi is not always feasible or efficient for many industrial IoT applications, cellular is a strategic alternative for reliable, secure and low-cost connectivity to the cloud,” said Ilan Reingold, VP of Business Development and Marketing for Altair Semiconductor. “We are excited to collaborate with JIG-SAW to bring the most secure and effective LTE-enabled solutions to the global industrial sensors market.”

The integration will be demonstrated by JIG-SAW this month at re:Invent 2018 , the Amazon Web Services annual user conference, in Las Vegas from November 26-30. The service is scheduled to launch in the Spring of 2019.

North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $2.06 billion in billings worldwide in October 2018 (three-month average basis), according to the October Equipment Market Data Subscription (EMDS) Billings Report published today by SEMI. The billings figure is 0.9% percent lower than the final September 2018 level of $2.07 billion, and is 2.0 percent higher than the October 2017 billings level of $2.02 billion.

“October billings of North American equipment suppliers reflect near-term weakening of demand for PC, mobile phones and servers,” said Ajit Manocha, president and CEO of SEMI. “Additionally, memory manufacturers have pulled back investments in response to recent softening of memory pricing.”

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 2018
$2,702.3
19.0%
June 2018
$2,484.3
8.0%
July 2018
$2,377.9
4.8%
August 2018
$2,236.8
2.5%
September 2018 (final)
$2,078.6
1.2%
October 2018 (prelim)
$2,059.1
2.0%

Source: SEMI (www.semi.org), November 2018

SEMI publishes a monthly North American Billings report and issues the Worldwide Semiconductor Equipment Market Statistics (WWSEMS) report in collaboration with the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ). The WWSEMS report currently reports billings by 24 equipment segments and by seven end market regions. SEMI also has a long history of tracking semiconductor industry fab investments in detail on a company-by-company and fab-by-fab basis in its World Fab Forecast and SEMI FabView databases.

Mentor, a Siemens business, today announced that DECA Technologies has become the latest member of Mentor’s (outsourced assembly and test) OSAT Alliance – a program to help drive faster adoption of new, high-density advanced packaging (HDAP) technologies like 2.5D IC, 3D IC and fan-out wafer-level packaging (FOWLP) for customer integrated circuit (IC) designs. The Alliance enables mutual customers to better leverage Mentor’s proven HDAP flow to quickly bring to market innovations for internet of things (IoT), automotive, high-speed communications, computing and artificial intelligence (AI). DECA is supporting this objective by making available to Mentor and DECA’s mutual customers a new assembly design kit (ADK) for DECA’s M-Series advanced fan-out wafer-level package (FOWLP) process to be used with Mentor software.

Through the alliance, the two companies are offering a comprehensive tool flow that gives mutual customers the ability to create and evaluate multiple complex IC package assemblies and interconnect scenarios in an easy-to-use, data robust graphical environment prior to and during physical design implementation.

The Mentor flow from DECA Technologies features industry-leading tools:

  • Xpedition® Substrate Integrator – for engineers to evaluate M-Series package and configuration before committing to design; and for DECA configuration of customer designs into selected M-Series package.
  • Xpedition® Package Designer – for engineers to design/layout a single or multi-die M-Series package.
  • Calibre® 3DSTACK – for signoff leveraging the M Series ADK – ensures die or multiple dice and package design conform to M-Series manufacturing rules.

The DECA ADK provides mutual customers with a verified sign-off fabrication rule deck for Calibre 3DSTACK that will enable companies to converge on sign-off faster and with less verification cycles.

“Being part of the Mentor OSAT Alliance has allowed DECA to fast-track the creation of a Mentor-based ADK for our breakthrough M-Seriesä FO-WLP technology,” said Chris Scanlan, senior vice president at DECA Technologies. “Since the Mentor flow includes Calibre, the golden signoff solution for the fabless ecosystem, our customers are able to quickly close any physical verification issues for their entire solution, resulting in faster time to market.”

Mentor continues to spearhead the EDA industry by enabling the entire ecosystem to adopt new technologies via its OpenDoor program and the various alliances that fall under the program. The OSAT Alliance program helps promote the adoption, implementation and growth of HDAP throughout the semiconductor eco-system and design chain, enabling system and fabless semiconductor companies to have a friction-free path to emerging packaging technologies.

“We are pleased that HDAP technology pioneer DECA Technologies has joined the Mentor OSAT Alliance,” said AJ Incorvaia, vice president and general manager of Mentor’s Electronic Board Systems Division. “In doing so, and by providing a fully validated ADK for DECA’s M-Series FOWLP process for Mentor’s proven HDAP tool flow, we have enabled customers to more easily transition from classic chip design to 2.5 and 3D solutions.”

With Korea expected to remain the world’s largest consumer of semiconductor equipment, building on its 18 percent share in 2018, SEMICON Korea 2019 is poised to connect global electronics manufacturing companies to new opportunities. More than 450 companies will gather at SEMICON Korea 23 – 25 January 2019, at the COEX in Seoul – for the latest microelectronics developments and trends from industry leaders and visionaries. Registration is now open.

SEMICON Korea, the premier event in Korea for electronics manufacturing, features key insights in artificial intelligence (AI), SMART manufacturing, talent and other critical industry issues. SEMICON Korea brings companies together to “Connect, Collaborate, and Innovate” as the event is poised to set a record of more than 2,000 booths.

  • CONNECT to business and technology leaders to uncover new industry relationships
  • COLLABORATE with industry experts across the electronics manufacturing supply chain
  • INNOVATE to drive new technologies and business

SEMICON Korea 2019 highlights include the following:

AI Summit – AI is powering the next phase of semiconductor industry growth with applications across automotive, manufacturing, and more. Summit attendees will meet industry leaders to discuss new AI collaborations and emerging business opportunities.

MEMS and Sensors Summit – Data acquisition from the edge is essential for IoT and AI to flourish, driving growth of the MEMS and sensor industry. Industry-leading MEMS and sensors companies will share their visions, technology roadmaps and business models for enabling IoT and AI.

SMART Manufacturing Forum – Manufacturing adaptability is a key enabler of advanced technologies and applications. Industry leaders will gather to explore what’s needed to leverage advanced analytics, improve the use of real-time simulation and cyber-physical systems and better integrate the supply chain to drive greater manufacturing flexibility.

Workforce Development – The new Workforce Pavilion at SEMICON Korea extends SEMI’s efforts to help tackle the industry’s vital need for talent. The Pavilion offers university students interviews with industry experts and tutorials on semiconductor production to help students explore career paths. SEMICON Korea will also launch a mentoring program to help students enter careers in semiconductor manufacturing.

SEMICON Korea 2019 will also feature its popular business matching program with seven device makers and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) meeting with 100 potential customers.

“SEMICON Korea 2019 provides programs that help power industry growth,” said H.D. Cho, president of SEMI Korea. “We continue to expand our event offerings to offer new ways for the industry to “Connect, Collaborate and Innovate.”

For more event information, please click here.

Toshiba Machine Co., Ltd. (TOKYO:6104) has developed the new DC-KT Series Die Casting Machines to meet the needs of the Southeast Asian market and has started sales and production at its plant in Thailand.

DC-KT Series Features

  • Enhanced functions for meeting the unique needs of the Southeast Asian market. The Thai plant has been engaged in the manufacture and sales of die casting machines for four years. The knowledge gained about local market needs over this period led to the development of these new die casting machines with features not found in previous machines, namely, a preset function for casting pressure, 2-level injection settings for low speed, and intensification accumulator in standard configurations. Also, the machine control panel incorporates a touch panel for intuitive, simple operation and control.
  • Lineup with 280-ton and 400-ton die-locking force models. The product lineup includes 280-ton and 400-ton models providing even higher die-locking force than previous models for enabling support for casting of larger products. Improved high-speed acceleration performance and maximum injection force allow casting of complex-shaped products, products with large thicknesses, and a wide array of other product types. “Local production-local consumption”, providing optimum support to customers in Southeast Asia.
  • Production and shipping at the Thai plant near the market enables faster delivery times, more stable production, and quicker response to customer requests for modifications, overhauls, and other services.

Company president Tanabe of Toshiba Machine (Thailand) Co., Ltd, expressed his intention to expand in the Southeast Asian market; “We want to aggressively expand sales using this new model, which was developed based on feedback from our customers in the Southeast Asian market.”

Toshiba Machine will launch these new die casting machines to assist Southeast Asia region customers in attaining even higher productivity.

The flat panel display (FPD) equipment market is expected to start to decline after an unprecedented build-up in 2017 as panel makers take a more cautious approach as they wait for demand to catch up to rapidly ramping capacity. The FPD equipment market is forecast to fall from $20.2 billion in 2017 to $14.0 billion in 2020, declining at a compound annual rate of 11.6 percent, according to IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO).

“The expansion of the FPD equipment market that started in 2016 has been driven by the high equipment intensity of new flexible active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) display factories and the scale of Gen 10.5/11 LCD factories,” said Chase Li, senior analyst at IHS Markit. “This expansion has been further fueled by Chinese local governments, which have supported panel makers with various mechanisms such as financing, land grants, reduced taxes, infrastructure and direct subsidies.”

Such broad government support of Chinese FPD fabs for all types of display technologies and factory sizes is starting to distort the supply/demand balance as the new capacity begins to ramp. In the case of flexible AMOLED factories targeting smartphones, many multiple billion-dollar investments and even expansion phases have been moving forward before panel makers have proven their ability to produce high quality panels at high yields and competitive costs. The glut level of thin-film transistor (TFT) AMOLED panels for mobile applications is forecast to exceed 40 percent of the demand in terms of area in 2019. This implies that, on average, factories for mobile applications are likely to be underutilized.

This situation has caused both panel makers and China’s local governments to evaluate more critically new flexible AMOLED factory plans. Even South Korean panel makers have pulled back from their previous plans to expand Gen 6 flexible AMOLED capacity continuously due to slower-than-expected panel demand growth. Reduced spending on AMOLED fabs for mobile applications accounts for most of the decline in equipment spending in 2018 and 2019.

Even so, Chinese local governments continue to fund selected projects despite the tightening of credit, particularly for Gen 10.5/11 LCD factories. These projects are predicted to keep equipment spending relatively firm through 2020. However, it threatens to push the large display supply/demand glut level to a record annual high of 18 percent in 2020, unless panel makers reduce excessive LCD TV panel capacity by converting some of it to OLED TV panel production and shutter less productive legacy factories.

High-end OLED TVs are one segment that is still expected to face tight panel supply for the next few years. Although, demand is low compared to standard LCD TVs, OLED TVs are a growing niche, whose panel demand is forecast to rise from 2.9 million units in 2018 to 6.7 million units in 2020. Being the only panel maker to have commercialized OLED TV panels to-date, LG Display is shipping all the panels it fabricates and running its current factories at full utilization.

According to the AMOLED and LCD Supply Demand & Equipment Tracker by IHS Markit, equipment spending in 2019 will be significantly supported by the conversion of legacy LCD fabs to advanced AMOLED factories. JOLED, Samsung Display and others are utilizing previously purchased TFT tools, while adding OLED frontplane, color conversion, cell and module equipment, hoping that they will keep them ahead of rivals and enable them to ride the growth of the AMOLED TV market.

“The FPD equipment market has always been highly volatile depending on market and technology changes. Some slow-down is not surprising following years of record high equipment spending,” Li said. “How all the equipment being installed will affect the future opportunity is a question that equipment makers are now struggling to answer. Based on IHS Markit analysis, the correction will continue beyond 2020. Even so, hope for expanding the new technology investments in AMOLED and quantum-dot (QD) OLED TVs as well as foldable displays, combined with industry restructuring and increased demand as prices fall offers the hope of another positive cycle coming.”

SiFive, a provider of commercial RISC-V processor IP, today announced the appointment of Mohit Gupta as vice president of SoC IP. Mohit will play a key role in leadership and business development of the company’s SoC IP portfolio, including the DesignShare program, an IP ecosystem which has been instrumental in lowering the cost of bringing chips from design to silicon realization. He will report to Shafy Eltoukhy, senior vice president and general manager of SiFive’s Custom SoC Division.

“SiFive’s SoC IP, and its popular DesignShare program, has contributed significantly to the entire semiconductor ecosystem by leveling the playing field and democratizing access to custom silicon, which previously was not possible due to upfront IP cost,” said Mohit. “I’m very proud to be joining this team as we work toward expanding innovation through shared knowledge and innovation.”

Mohit has extensive expertise in semiconductor IP across product marketing, business development and engineering. He recently served as senior director of product marketing for the high speed SerDes and interface IP cores portfolio at Rambus. Prior to that, he was the director of ASIC IP development at Open-Silicon, a SiFive company, where he was instrumental in managing various SoC/ASIC and IP projects. Mohit has also held various positions in design and applications engineering at Infineon Technologies and STMicroelectronics.

“Mohit brings a deep understanding of the SoC IP ecosystem, as well as a reputation for business development and strong IP partner engagement,” said Shafy Eltoukhy SVP and GM of SiFive’s Custom SoC Division. “His experience and leadership will be instrumental in fostering the continued growth and expansion of our DesignShare program and continuing the mission of our SoC IP growth to meet the high quality and reliability expectations of our customers and ecosystem partners.”

Mohit earned an executive MBA degree from the Indian Institute of Management in Calcutta, India. He also holds a master’s degree in microelectronics from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science in India, and a bachelor’s degree in electronics and communication from Thapar University in India.

By Yoichiro Ando

Artificial intelligence (AI) is on the verge of transforming entire industries as it gears up to power semiconductor industry innovation and growth, thrusting the technology to front and center at SEMICON Japan 2019, December 12-14 at the Tokyo Big Sight (Tokyo International Exhibition Center).

A number of Japanese startups are on leading edge of AI innovation in machine and deep learning. One is Preferred Networks Inc., a company that applies cutting-edge deep learning technology to Internet of Things (IoT) applications across transportation, manufacturing and healthcare.

In his opening day keynote At SEMICON Japan 2019, Toru Nishikawa, president and CEO of Preferred Networks, Inc., will highlight the latest developments and promise of using deep learning for industrial applications. Nishikawa will unpack how AI companies jockeying for competitive advantage will win by harnessing technologies to process massive amounts of data efficiently and quickly.

Following is look at Preferred Networks, Inc. and five other Japanese startups that are driving AI innovation.

Within Japan’s world of AI, machine learning, and deep dearning, Preferred Networks is likely the most well-known Japanese company. The parent company, Preferred Infrastructure, was founded in March 2006 by Toru Nishikawa and Daisuke Okanohara, who focused on search engine development before turning to machine learning and establishing Preferred Networks to commercialize the technology.

Preferred Networks established itself as one of the world’s top providers of machine learning technology with the development of Chainer – an open source deep learning framework that has been offered free of charge since June 2015 and was released before TensorFlow, Google’s renowned Deep Learning framework.

Established in 2012, ABEJA is thought to be Japan’s first venture company to specialize in deep learning. ABEJA’s core technology is its AI platform ABEJA Platform. Based on this platform, the company offers various solutions to more than 100 client companies. ABEJA also offers ABEJA Insight, a specialized package service for the retail and distribution, manufacturing, and infrastructure industries.

Data analytics provider BrainPad Inc. was the first Japanese AI venture listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Established in 2004, before the advent of big data, BrainPad Inc. cultivated a vision of analyzing vast amounts of data in increase the competitiveness of Japanese companies.

LeapMind Inc. aims to offer deep learning technology that uses fewer computing resources and draws less power. Both are important capabilities since deep learning requires considerable computing resources to perform image and speech recognition. The company’s answer to this deep learning challenge is a small form factor FPGA with low power consumption.

In April 2018, LeapMind started offering the tool DeLTA-Lite to support model construction for Deep Learning. The tool simplifies the development of deep learning design models, eliminating the need for model design, hardware, and software expertise.

Hacarus Inc.’s HACARUS-X AI technology, which combines sparse modeling and machine learning technology, features low power consumption and small devices such as FPGAs. In collaboration with semiconductor trading company PALTEK, Hacarus is integrating HACARUS-X algorithms with Xilinx’s FPGA Zynq UltraScale + MPSoC. Both companies area also implementing HACARUS-X algorithms in a box computer.

Sparse modeling is gaining attention as a modeling method by which humans can understand the judgment process of AI by extracting features from a small amount of learning data.

With expertise in life science fields such as medical and biology and image processing technology, LPixel, Inc. develops image analysis systems with original algorithms and machine learning techniques. It has developed a cloud-based AI image analysis platform and an AI medical image diagnosis support technology that streamlines the review of large amounts of research data and detects image fraud in research papers and other documents for the medical and biology fields, freeing researchers to devote more time to their core work.

Yoichiro Ando is a marketing director at SEMI Japan. 

Cabot Microelectronics Corporation (Nasdaq: CCMP), today announced that it has completed its previously announced acquisition of KMG Chemicals, Inc.  As a result of the acquisition, KMG has become a wholly owned subsidiary of Cabot Microelectronics.  Under the terms of the definitive agreement, each share of KMG common stock was converted into the right to receive $55.65 in cash and 0.2000 of a share of Cabot Microelectronics common stock, without interest and with cash paid in lieu of any fractional shares.

The acquisition will extend and strengthen Cabot Microelectronics’ position as one of the leading suppliers of consumable materials to the semiconductor industry.  Additionally, the combined company will be a leading global provider of performance products and services for improving pipeline operations and optimizing throughput.  The transaction is expected to be significantly accretive to Cabot Microelectronics’ free cash flow and adjusted earnings per share in year one, excluding any acquisition-related costs.

“I am pleased to announce that we have completed the KMG transaction.  We welcome KMG’s employees to our team and look forward to our journey together towards becoming the premier global provider of semiconductor and specialty materials.  We believe that our employees, customers and shareholders will benefit from this transaction as we become a stronger company, focused on providing high-performing and innovative solutions to our customers,” said David Li, President and CEO of Cabot Microelectronics.  “KMG’s industry-leading electronic materials business will expand our CMP product offerings with high-purity solutions used throughout the semiconductor manufacturing process.  We are also excited about the addition of KMG’s performance materials businesses to our portfolio which will allow us to expand our participation into new markets including the attractive, high-growth pipeline performance segment.”

In connection with the acquisition, Cabot Microelectronics borrowed $1.065 billion under a new senior secured term loan facility, the proceeds of which were used to finance in part the cash portion of the merger consideration, to repay KMG’s existing indebtedness and to pay fees and expenses related to the acquisition.  Cabot Microelectronics issued approximately 3.2 million shares of common stock to holders of KMG common stock for the stock portion of the merger consideration.

FormFactor, Inc. (NASDAQ: FORM), an electrical test and measurement supplier to the semiconductor industry, announced that it has been recognized for supplier excellence by SK hynix, a manufacturer of DRAM, Flash and CMOS image sensor technology. FormFactor supplies SK hynix with advanced wafer probe cards for high bandwidth memory (HBM) and high-throughput, one-touchdown DRAM testing, as well as engineering probe systems that enable measurements in extreme environments to support cutting edge semiconductor devices.

“We are proud to be recognized as an outstanding supplier by SK hynix, and especially honored to be selected for our leadership in Technology Innovation,” said FormFactor’s CEO, Mike Slessor. “With a relationship of more than a decade, we continue to deliver innovative technologies to help them achieve their test objectives from their analytical labs to production test in their fabs. These innovations include high-parallelism, high-speed wafer probe test technologies that deliver on the quality and reliability that our customers demand. We’ve also provided probe system technology that pushes next generation devices to new limits in extreme conditions. These examples demonstrate FormFactor’s unique ability to support customers’ most demanding applications across the spectrum of electrical test and measurement.”

The SK hynix awards are given to a select few suppliers who demonstrate commitment to exceptional performance in support of the company’s development and manufacturing objectives.

In its annual customer survey earlier this year, FormFactor was recognized by VLSIresearch for its high customer satisfaction. “FormFactor’s high rankings reflect the company’s close partnerships with its customers,” said G. Dan Hutcheson, CEO of VLSIresearch. “Technical leadership, partnering and trust are all key to achieving consistently high results. These factors combined with excellent support and quality help FormFactor to stand out year after year in its categories.”