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The GaN devices market for power electronics application will explode in 2016, reaching US$300 million in 2020, Yole Développement (Yole) announced in its latest power electronic report, entitled GaN and SiC devices for power electronics applications (July 2015). The “More than Moore” market research and strategy consulting company Yole, highlights an increasing interest of numerous industrial companies already involved in this sector.

“The future GaN power devices market is also depending on the global patent landscape and coming mergers and acquisitions,” explained Dr. Nicolas Baron, CEO of KnowMade, partner of Yole.
Indeed KnowMade and Yole’s analysts are working together for a long time in order to combine their technical expertise and market knowledge. Both companies combine their vision of the industry and create a high added-value synergy through technical, market and patent analysis on the disruptive technology markets.

power GaN

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Nicolas Baron detailed: “To dominate the GaN power devices market, industrial companies will have to anticipate changes, identify business opportunities, mitigate risks and make strategic decisions to strengthen their market positioning and maximize return on IP portfolio.” But who owns these patents? To answer to these questions, KnowMade proposes today a comprehensive patent analysis dedicated to the GaN devices for power electronic applications. This report is entitled Power GaN Devices for Power Electronics patent investigation: under this report, KnowMade’s experts review the technical challenges, highlight the business opportunits and detail a comprehensive IP landscape.

Today, there are only a few players selling power GaN products: Infineon/International Rectifier, EPC, GaN Systems, Transphorm are the main companies. The market is still small, estimated at US$10 million in 2015 (Source: GaN and SiC devices for power electronics application report, July 2015, Yole Développement).

“But, the ramp-up will be quite impressive, starting in 2016, at an estimated 93 percent CAGR through 2016-2020, with an estimated 2020 device market size of more than US$300 million in the baseline ‘nominal’ scenario,” explained Dr. Hong Lin, Technology & Market Analyst at Yole.

The GaN devices for power electronics industry is consolidating in preparation for this significant growth. This can been seen in:

–  The recent acquisitions of International Rectifier (IR) by Infineon
–  The license agreements between Infineon and Panasonic and between Transphorm and Furukawa
–  And the will of several firms to move onto the mass production stage. Transphorm/Fujitsu is a good example.

Under the GaN Devices for Power Electronics patent investigation, KnowMade’s experts identified more than 1,960 worldwide patented inventions related to GaN for power electronic applications up to April 2015 and more than 200 patent applicants. Most of the major silicon power players are present in the list of the top patent applicants.

“Those figure indicate a strong interest from power electronic players in the GaN business” commented Dr. Nicolas Baron from KnowMade. And he added: “So far, only IR/Infineon has commercialized GaN devices. But other traditional power players are able to disrupt and reshape the market, armed with strong IP.”

According to this patent investigation, it can be safely assumed that IR has the best patent portfolio in power GaN, and IR/Infineon combined company has the strongest IP, putting them in position to lead GaN power market growth.

However, this IP leadership position could evolve in the future since newcomers like Transphorm, Fujitsu and Mitsubishi Electric are becoming major forces and may reshape the landscape:

– Transphorm is the most important IP challenger in the power GaN arena, ahead of other GaN start-ups like EPC and GaN Systems. Its patent portfolio and partnerships with the likes of Furukawa, Fujitsu and On Semiconductor have put it in a strong position to take a leading role in the GaN device market. Furukawa Electric has an ample IP portfolio with a significant ‘blocking potential’, but the company hasn’t been able yet to commercialize the technology on its own. By giving Transphorm exclusive licensing rights on its GaN patent portfolio, Furukawa Electric has found a strategic partner to bring its technology to market.

– In parallel, both companies, Fujitsu and Mitsubishi Electric have demonstrated an interest in power GaN technology since 2010 with a strong increase of their patenting activity these last 3 years, heralding substantial future IP portfolios.

With this new GaN patent analysis KnowMade and Yole review the power GaN technology and market trends, including technical challenges and known solutions. Both partners propose a deep understanding of the IP landscape and related key trends in IP and technology development.
This analysis lists as well the major players and relative strength of their patent portfolio. It also identifies the new players.

The analysts highlight the IP collaboration networks between the key players and propose a deep added-value synthesis of their strategic decisions.

The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) today announced worldwide sales of semiconductors were $27.9 billion for the month of July 2015, a decrease of 0.9 percent from July 2014 when sales were $28.1 billion. Global sales from July 2015 were 0.4 percent lower than the June 2015 total of $28.0 billion. Regionally, sales in the Americas were roughly flat in July compared to last year, while sales in China increased by nearly 6 percent. All monthly sales numbers are compiled by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization and represent a three-month moving average.

“Global semiconductor sales have slowed somewhat this summer in part due to softening demand, normal market cyclicality, and currency devaluation in some regional markets,” said John Neuffer, president and CEO, Semiconductor Industry Association. “Despite these headwinds, year-to-date global sales through July are higher than at the same time last year, which was a record year for semiconductor revenues.”

Regionally, year-to-year sales increased in China (5.6 percent), Asia Pacific/All Other (1.0 percent), and the Americas (0.8 percent), but decreased in Europe (-12.5 percent) and Japan (-13.3 percent), in part due to currency devaluation. On a month-to-month basis, sales increased in Japan (2.7 percent), China (0.6 percent), and Europe (0.4 percent), but fell slightly in the Americas (-0.3 percent) and Asia Pacific/All Other (-2.5 percent).

“One key facilitator of continued strength in the U.S. semiconductor industry is research, the lifeblood of innovation,” Neuffer said. “SIA and Semiconductor Research Corporation this week released a report highlighting the urgent need for research investments to advance the burgeoning Internet of Things and develop other cutting-edge, semiconductor-driven innovations. Implementing the recommendations in the report will help the United States harness new technologies and remain the world’s top innovator.”

July 2015

Billions

Month-to-Month Sales                               

Market

Last Month

Current Month

% Change

Americas

5.53

5.52

-0.3%

Europe

2.83

2.84

0.4%

Japan

2.57

2.64

2.7%

China

8.13

8.18

0.6%

Asia Pacific/All Other

8.94

8.71

-2.5%

Total

27.99

27.88

-0.4%

Year-to-Year Sales                          

Market

Last Year

Current Month

% Change

Americas

5.47

5.52

0.8%

Europe

3.24

2.84

-12.5%

Japan

3.04

2.64

-13.3%

China

7.75

8.18

5.6%

Asia Pacific/All Other

8.63

8.71

1.0%

Total

28.13

27.88

-0.9%

Three-Month-Moving Average Sales

Market

Feb/Mar/Apr

May/Jun/Jul

% Change

Americas

5.61

5.52

-1.7%

Europe

2.89

2.84

-1.8%

Japan

2.54

2.64

3.8%

China

7.77

8.18

5.2%

Asia Pacific/All Other

8.74

8.71

-0.3%

Total

27.56

27.88

1.2%

Related news: 

Tech, academic leaders call for robust research investments to bolster U.S. tech leadership, advance IoT

Asia-Pacific’s grip as the dominant market for IC sales is forecast to strengthen in 2015 with the region expected to account for 58.9 percent of the $295.0 billion IC market this year, based on analysis published in IC Insights’ mid-year Update to its IC Market Drivers 2015 report.  The forecast marketshare represents an increase of 0.5 percentage points over the 58.4 percent share that the Asia-Pacific region captured in 2014. The Asia-Pacific region is particularly dominant with regard to IC marketshare in the computer and communications categories, and to a lesser extent in the consumer and industrial categories (Figure 1).  Globally, the communications segment first surpassed the computer segment to become the largest end use market for ICs in 2013 and it is forecast to extend its marketshare lead to 2.7 points in 2015.

ic sales asia pacific

Europe is forecast to account for the largest share of the automotive IC market in 2015, but IC Insights expects the Asia-Pacific region will achieve top share of that segment in 2016 as China continues to account for a large and growing portion of new car shipments.  That will leave only the Government/Military end use segment where Asia-Pacific does not have top IC marketshare—a condition that is forecast to hold through 2018.

IC Insights’ Update to the IC Market Drivers 2015 report forecasts total IC usage by system type through the year 2018.  Highlights from the forecast data include the following items.

•    The two largest end-use market segments in 2015—computer and communications—are forecast to account for 73.9 percent of the total IC sales this year.

•    From 2012-2018, the two highest growth end-use markets for ICs are forecast to be the industrial and communication segments, having CAGRs of 9.1 percent and 8.2 percent, respectively.

•    The automotive IC market is forecast to a CAGR of 6.1 percent from 2012-2018, yet automotive’s share of the total IC market is forecast to remain below 8.0 percent throughout this time.

•    In 2015, analog ICs are forecast to represent the greatest share of IC sales among automotive (43 percent) and industrial (50 percent) applications; logic devices are expected to account for the greatest share of IC sales within government (33 percent) and consumer (19 percent) systems, and MPUs (60 percent) are forecast to account for the greatest share of IC sales in the computer segment.

The future of MEMS in the IoT


September 3, 2015

By Pete Singer, Editor-in-Chief

SEMI’s European MEMS Summit will be held on 17-18 September 2015 in Milan, Italy. Over the course of the two-day event, more than 20 keynote and invited speakers from the entire supply chain will share their perspectives and latest updates, including participation by European MEMS leaders. In addition, a focused industry exhibition will complement the conferences offering with additional networking opportunities.

In advance of the event, we asked members of the conference steering committee about what’s happening in the world of MEMS. Answers came from:

  • Stefan Finkbeiner, CEO Bosch Sensortec
  • Benedetto Vigna, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Analog MEMS, and Sensors Group, STMicroelectronics
  • Christophe Zinck, Senior Application Engineering Manager, ASE Group
  • Eric Mounier, Senior Analyst MEMS, Yole Developpement
  • Martina Vogel, Officer of the Director of the Institute, Fraunhofer ENAS
  • Yann Guillou, Business Development Manager and MEMS Summit event Manager, SEMI Europe Grenoble Office

Q: What do you see as the big trends and challenges in MEMS and their applications, particularly with regard to the IoT.

“The application of MEMS sensors to the IoT-enabled markets (e.g. wearables, smart home, etc.) will require sensors to shrink further and to work even more power-efficient as in smartphones,” said Dr. Stefan Finkbeiner, CEO Bosch Sensortec. “In particular, the application side of the sensor will demand more attention. The value-add of a sensor must be convincing to become designed into a certain product,” he added.

Finkbeiner said he sees a big market pull for gas sensors such as the Bosch in-door air quality sensor, the BME680. “That trend is visible for the smartphone as well as for the IoT-enabled markets, like for example the Smart Home market,” he said.

Martina Vogel, officer of the director of the institute, Fraunhofer ENAS, said: “We see, that MEMS exist almost everywhere in our daily lives – in our homes, our cars, our workplaces – and yet they go largely unnoticed. Despite this low profile, microsystems have undergone rapid development in the last two decades, evolving from miniaturized single-function systems into increasingly complex integrated systems. From our point of view we call these complex integrated systems, smart integrated systems.

From performance point of view we distinguish between different generations of smart systems. The first and the second generation entered into diverse applications. The first generation of Smart Systems consisted of several packages of components connected on a single substrate, or printed circuit board. These devices are commercially available in medical applications such as hearing aids and pacemakers, as well as in automotive applications such as airbag systems. The best-known example of a second-generation Smart System is the ubiquitous smart phone, which has seen great commercial success.

Smart systems of the third generation are self-sufficient intelligent technical systems or subsystems with advanced functionality, which bring together sensing, actuation and data processing, informatics / communications. Therefore these systems are not only able to sense but to diagnose, describe and manage any given situation. They are highly reliable and their operation is further enhanced by their ability to mutually address, identify and work in consort with each other. Such smart systems will be the hardware basis for the internet of things (IoT).”

From technology point of view, Vogel said such systems “are not limited to silicon–based technologies but integrate polymer-based technologies, printing technologies (e.g. for printed antennas, printed sensors, displays or batteries), different nanotechnologies (e.g spintronic devices, CNT based devices or devices based on embedded nanoparticles) and even embroidering technologies for sensors.”

Benedetto Vigna, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Analog MEMS, and Sensors Group, STMicroelectronics, said: “The next wave of MEMS development is moving toward actuation and, while the ripples from these beautiful little machines have been building slowly for years, they are converging quickly with the Internet of Things (IoT). We are beginning to see new applications such as tiny mirrors that enable people to interact more naturally with technology, smaller, faster autofocus solutions for mobile phones, and new types of printheads for 3D printing — and this is just the beginning.”

Christophe Zinck, senior application engineering manager, ASE Group, said the big trends and challenges from his perspective are “form factor (especially height), co-integration (flexibility to be used in different modules/SiP (in term of packaging of course but also compatibility with different wireless standard), power consumption and, of course, cost.”

Eric Mounier, senior analyst MEMS, Yole Developpement, said: “For us, MEMS is just a technology among others that could answer the IoT’s requirements for sensors. Indeed, type of sensing required for IoT is very broad: Inertial sensing, chemical sensing , pressure sensing, light sensing … any physical event.

Sensor for the internet of things follow several requirements, Mournier says:

  • Low power consumption (Due to the integration in wireless battery powered modules)
  • Small form factor (Due to the need for small wireless sensors)
  • Low cost (As IoT large expansion lies in the availability of low cost sensors)

For now, several sensing solutions exist in different fields (inertial sensors in smartphones for example). But strong challenges still have to be overcome:

  • New sensing solutions (such as MEMS chemical sensors, etc.)
  • Low cost, highly integrated solutions (via 3D stacking, etc.)
  • Standardization; The IoT is the accumulation of thousands of different applications requiring low cost solutions, but with limited volumes. Developing one sensor per application is not possible due to development costs.

“I am pretty confident MEMS will be used for IoT, specially for gas/chemical sensing. MEMS technologies for gas sensors have many advantages compared to other technologies: Up to 50% size reduction and cost reduction, CMOS scalable technology,” Mournier said. “With cost and miniaturization to be a driving force for consumer and industrial Iot applications, it opens the way to new technologies such as MEMS.”

Q: Sensor fusion is an intriguing thought and the ultimate device might have multiple sensors integrated with energy harvesting, a thin film battery, a microprocessor/ASIC, wireless communication capability, etc. How far away from that are we? What are the big challenges? Is it cost? Integration? Packaging? Form factor? What are the leading applications?

ST’s Vigna said “We are already well on the sensor-fusion path that contains multiple sensors integrated with a thin-film battery, a microprocessor/ASIC, and wireless communication capability. The two technical challenges are low-power radio and high-efficiency (energy) harvester.”

Finkbeiner said Bosch Sensortec already provides leading edge sensor fusion SW integrated within a multi-sensor 9-axis device powered by an ARM µController. “This single package device – the BNO055 – is already available and specifically targeting at motion sensing and orientation detection applications in the IoT-enabled markets. Energy harvesting and thin film batteries might still be a bit too far away from being capable of offering enough energy for this particular use case at reasonably small size. But there’s a lot of research in this area. The challenges? Yes, cost/price is always the main driver. Small size is also important. It allows for small form factor products and better placement flexibility.”

Fraunhofer’s Vogel said there is a lot of work carried out with in ECSEL and especially EPoSS. “EPoSS the industry driven Euroean Platform on smart system integration is just working more than 10 years in this field,” she said. “Big challenges are of course packaging and integration from technology point of view. But also issues like big data handling and data security in the internet need to be solved.”

Vogel said market reports concerning IoT predict two trends:

  • Printed electronic systems that will enable – low cost sensing. Printing technologies, such as roll-to-roll (R2R) will enable extremely large volumes and low cost. Also expect disposable devices with a short lifespan.
  • Sensor “swarms” for inorganic sensing. Devices will have complete integration of sensing, processing RF, energy harvesting, on single small chip ( <1mm2).

ASE’s Zinck said he didn’t see things going that far, “but each sensor fusion is quite specific and current modules are often using custom ASIC, MEMS, etc. The next big challenge is flexibility for co-integration and this will require availability of bare die on the market, otherwise small and efficient SiPs won’t be easily available if you cannot mix best solutions available on the market (in terms of performance and cost, of course).

Zinck said there are also lots of challenges regarding packaging, including compartmental shielding to avoid parasitic between components, antenna on package (especially for wearable), and test.

Q: We’re hearing a lot about wearables and medical applications, but what about applications in the smart home, smart city, smart grid, industrial and, of course, automotive ?

Vigna said: “There are already numerous applications for MEMS in Smart Environments, Smart Driving, and Smart Things and many of ST’s customers are leading that charge by combining elements of ST’s complete portfolio. We’ve got customers using ST MEMS, MCUs, analog and power, and connectivity products in smart thermostats, smart lighting, smart meters, and Smart Driving applications. If you’re not hearing enough about these, it is only because the wearable and medical applications may be sexier.”

Finkbeiner said: The sensors for the other IoT-enabled markets like smart home, smart grid etc. are available or already being developed … what is lacking is the corresponding infrastructure, that means the upper layers for aggregating, collecting and intelligent interpretation of the vast sensor data and bringing them into the cloud. This will for example require standards how to handle sensor data at an higher, more abstract level. But that’s beyond the domain of the MEMS sensor suppliers. At Bosch we have therefore founded Bosch Connected Devices & Solutions, a business unit which develops complete solutions based upon our MEMS sensors.

Vogel said: “Just several years ago Frost and Sullivan pointed out that smart is the new green. The concept of ‘Smart Earth’ is, in fact, the in-depth application of a new generation of network and information technologies. Smart cities arise worldwide. Global concepts for smart production are under development. The Internet of Things – IoT – including smart grid, smart health, smart city, smart buildings, smart home, smart production and smart mobility provides not only big opportunities but is requesting more highly integrated smart systems from the hardware side. The total number of connected devices is expected to grow rapidly. Electronic components and systems are a pervasive key enabling technology, impacting all industrial branches and almost all aspects of life.”

Zinck said: “Wearables and medical are driving SiPs developments as low power and very aggressive from factor, at low cost are mandatory. Smart home, smart city, etc. are using a lot of MEMS and sensors, but the challenges are not exactly the same, some are similar in particular for Smart home (low power, wireless modules, etc.) but there is less pressure on form factors.”

Automotive is a different topic, says Zinck. “The trend we can see is to go smaller for sure, but for the moment it implies move away from leaded packages to leadless, with specific technology developments like wettable flank QFN.  Also for automotive two categories have to be clearly distinguished:

  • Non-safety applications (like Infotainment):  basically similar trend as consumer MEMS, with more and more sensors in the cabin (uphones, pressure, etc.)
  • Safety applications: very robust have to be used, but some “intelligent SiPs” are already available like QFN 7×7 TPMS (featuring an accelerometer + ASIC + pressure sensor).

Q: Europe in general is very strong in MEMS for various reasons. Why does it make sense to have the MEMS Summit in Europe?

SEMI’s Yann Guillou said Europe is home to several strong IDMs in MEMS, and most notably home to Bosch and STMicroelectronics. “These MEMS leaders are often identified as the industry’s ‘Titans’. These IDMs have contributed enormously to the European industry, but they have also benefited from a strong value chain in the region: RTOs, equipment and materials companies, foundries, etc. Having such leaders in the region is definitively a differentiating factor for Europe in a MEMS and sensor industry that is facing mounting competition. With the IoT, many new business opportunities may arise and increase the competition. This might shake up the current state of the industry,” he said.

Organizing such event in Europe was pretty straightforward. We took this decision more than 1 year ago and it looks like this decision was right. Today more than 200 people are already registered for this event and we expect to go beyond. I see lot of non-European companies planning to attend, including many US and Asian companies. Interest is strong in Asia for this event. People from Korea, Taiwan and China will be attending. As an example, we will be pleased to receive the visit of a Chinese delegation interested to develop business and technology partnerships with European companies.

bill holt

William M. Holt, executive vice president and general manager of the Technology and Manufacturing Group (TMG) at Intel.

The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) today announced William M. Holt, executive vice president and general manager of the Technology and Manufacturing Group (TMG) at Intel, has been named the 2015 recipient of SIA’s highest honor, the Robert N. Noyce Award. SIA presents the Noyce Award annually in recognition of a leader who has made outstanding contributions to the U.S. semiconductor industry in technology or public policy. Holt will accept the award at SIA’s Annual Award Dinner on Thursday, Dec. 3.

“For the last four decades, Bill Holt has been a tireless advocate, innovator, and leader for the semiconductor industry, helping advance new technologies that drive our industry and power our economy,” said John Neuffer, president and CEO, Semiconductor Industry Association. “Throughout his distinguished career, Bill’s expertise, skill, and unwavering determination have helped keep the semiconductor industry at the forefront of innovation. On behalf of the SIA board of directors, it is an honor to announce Bill’s selection as the 2015 Robert N. Noyce Award recipient in recognition of his tremendous accomplishments.”

Holt began his Intel career in DRAM development in 1974. Today, he is responsible for technology development and the company’s worldwide manufacturing operations, including component fabrication, assembly and test, customer fulfillment, and supply chain management. Additionally, Holt oversees research and development in the areas of wafer process, package assembly and test, and design and technology computer-aided tools. Holt earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Illinoisand a master’s in electrical engineering from the University of Santa Clara.

“It is a tremendous honor to join the ranks of Noyce Award winners, individuals who have built the semiconductor industry and made it a paragon of America’s economic and technological strength,” said Holt. “Throughout my career, I have focused on doing my part to advance the forward march of innovation, one step at a time. As I gratefully accept this award, I look forward to continuing to help our industry take the next step forward.”

The Noyce Award is named in honor of semiconductor industry pioneer Robert N. Noyce, co-founder of Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel. In addition to the presentation of the Noyce Award, this year’s SIA Award Dinner will feature former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta as keynote speaker.

Knowm Inc., a start-up pioneering next-generation advanced computing architectures and technology, today announced they are the first to develop and make commercially-available memristors with bi-directional incremental learning capability. The device was developed through research from Boise State University’s Dr. Kris Campbell, and this new data unequivocally confirms Knowm’s memristors are capable of bi-directional incremental learning. This has been previously deemed impossible in filamentary devices by Knowm’s competitors, including IBM, despite significant investment in materials, research and development. With this advancement, Knowm delivers the first commercial memristors that can adjust resistance in incremental steps in both direction rather than only one direction with an all-or-nothing ‘erase’. This advancement opens the gateway to extremely efficient and powerful machine learning and artificial intelligence applications.

“Having commercially-available memristors with bi-directional voltage-dependent incremental capability is a huge step forward for the field of machine learning and, particularly, AHaH Computing,” said Alex Nugent, CEO and co-founder of Knowm. “We have been dreaming about this device and developing the theory for how to apply them to best maximize their potential for more than a decade, but the lack of capability confirmation had been holding us back. This data is truly a monumental technical milestone and it will serve as a springboard to catapult Knowm and AHaH Computing forward.”

Memristors with the bi-directional incremental resistance change property are the foundation for developing learning hardware such as Knowm Inc.’s recently announced Thermodynamic RAM (kT-RAM) and help realize the full potential of AHaH Computing. The availability of kT-RAM will have the largest impact in fields that require higher computational power for machine learning tasks like autonomous robotics, big-data analysis and intelligent Internet assistants. kT-RAM radically increases the efficiency of synaptic integration and adaptation operations by reducing them to physically adaptive ‘analog’ memristor-based circuits. Synaptic integration and adaptation are the core operations behind tasks such as pattern recognition and inference. Knowm Inc. is the first company in the world to bring this technology to market.

Knowm is ushering in the next phase of computing with the first general-purpose neuromemristive processor specification. Earlier this year the company announced the commercial availability of the first products in support of the kT-RAM technology stack. These include the sale of discrete memristor chips, a Back End of Line (BEOL) CMOS+memristor service, the SENSE and Application Servers and their first application named “Knowm Anomaly”, the first application built based on the theory of AHaH Computing and kT-RAM architecture. Knowm also simultaneously announced the company’s visionary developer program for organizations and individual developers. This includes the Knowm API, which serves as development hardware and training resources for co-developing the Knowm technology stack.

New “thermodynamic RAM” (kT-RAM) artificial neural network (ANN) architecture from Knowm is inherent adaptive, and built with memristors capable of bi-directional incremental resistance changes for efficient learning. (Source: Knowm)

New “thermodynamic RAM” (kT-RAM) artificial neural network (ANN) architecture from Knowm is inherent adaptive, and built with memristors capable of bi-directional incremental resistance changes for efficient learning. (Source: Knowm)

A coalition of leaders from the tech industry and academia, led by the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) and Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC), today released a report highlighting the urgent need for robust investments in research to advance the burgeoning Internet of Things (IoT) and develop other cutting-edge innovations that will sustain and strengthen America’s global technology leadership into the future. The report, titled “Rebooting the IT Revolution: A Call to Action,” calls for a large-scale, public-private research initiative called the National Computing and Insight Technologies Ecosystem (N-CITE).

“The United States stands at a crossroads in the global race to uncover the next transformative innovations that will determine technology leadership,” said John Neuffer, president and CEO of the Semiconductor Industry Association, which represents U.S. leadership in semiconductor manufacturing, design, and research. “We either aggressively invest in research to foster new, semiconductor-driven technologies such as the Internet of Things that will shape the future of the digital economy, or we risk ceding ground to competitors abroad. The findings and recommendations in the Rebooting the IT Revolution report will help the United States rise to this bold challenge, choose the right path forward, and harness the new technologies that will keep America at the tip of the spear of innovation.”

Basic scientific research funded through agencies such as the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science has yielded tremendous dividends, helping launch technologies that underpin America’s economic strength and global competiveness. The U.S. semiconductor industry has been a reliable partner in funding research, investing about one-fifth of revenues each year in R&D – the highest share of any industry.

“The IoT — from ubiquitous sensor nodes to the cloud — will be orders of magnitude larger and more complex than anything we know today. Moreover, as the demand for more energy-efficient yet more powerful computing grows, new approaches such as brain-inspired computing have the potential to transform the way systems are designed and manufactured,” said Ken Hansen, president of Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC), the world’s leading university research consortium for semiconductor technologies. “Addressing the fundamental research challenges outlined in this report is essential to creating the infrastructure that will enable the conversion of data to insight and actionable information with appropriate security and privacy. While some areas are moving forward quickly, others require collaborative research among industry, academia and government to capture the untold benefits of this distributed, intelligent ecosystem.”

The report contains opinions from industry, academic and government leaders who participated in the Rebooting the IT Revolution Workshop on March 30–31, 2015. The workshop was sponsored by SIA and SRC and supported by NSF.

Participants stressed the need for fundamental research in the following areas in order to fully realize IoT breakthroughs and sustain America’s technology leadership: energy-efficient sensing and computing, data storage, real-time communication ecosystem, multi-level and scalable security, a new fabrication paradigm, and insight computing. Many of these areas align with Federal research initiatives, including the National Strategic Computing Initiative, the BRAIN Initiative, and the National Nanotechnology Initiative Grand Challenges.

“IoT technology will connect directly to both the physical and social worlds by advancing disruptive hardware, cross-field networking, insight-generating IT, and principles of convergence, which are at the core of future U.S. technology and economic development,” said Mihail C. Roco, Senior Advisor for Science and Engineering at NSF and a key architect of the National Nanotechnology Initiative. “The report’s contents reflect a new way of thinking to create an interdependent, scientific-technological-social ecosystem driven by the emergent confluence of IT with nanotechnology, advanced manufacturing, cognitive sciences, sustainability, and safety. All are in response to an increasingly interconnected, knowledge-driven and demanding society. In the longer term, implementation of the report would support global human progress.”

The digital world once existed largely in non-material form. But with the rise of connected homes, smart grids and autonomous vehicles, the cyber and the physical are merging in new and exciting ways. These hybrid forms are often called cyber-physical systems (CPS), and are giving rise to a new Internet of Things.

Such systems have unique characteristics and vulnerabilities that must be studied and addressed to make sure they are reliable and secure, and that they maintain individuals’ privacy.

The National Science Foundation (NSF), in partnership with Intel Corporation, one of the world’s leading technology companies, today announced two new grants totaling $6 million to research teams that will study solutions to address the security and privacy of cyber-physical systems. A key emphasis of these grants is to refine an understanding of the broader socioeconomic factors that influence CPS security and privacy.

“Advances in the integration of information and communications technologies are transforming the way people interact with engineered systems,” said Jim Kurose, head of Computer and Information Science and Engineering at NSF. “Rigorous interdisciplinary research, such as the projects announced today in partnership with Intel, can help to better understand and mitigate threats to our critical cyber-physical systems and secure the nation’s economy, public safety, and overall well-being.”

The partnership between NSF and Intel establishes a new model of cooperation between government, industry and academia to increase the relevance and impact of long-range research. Key features of this model for projects funded by NSF and Intel include joint design of a solicitation, joint selection of projects, an open collaborative intellectual property agreement, and a management plan to facilitate effective information exchange between faculty, students and industrial researchers.

This model will help top researchers in the nation’s academic and industrial laboratories transition important discoveries into innovative products and services more easily.

“The new CPS projects, announced today, enable researchers to collaborate actively with Intel, resulting in strong partnerships for implementing and adopting technology solutions to ensure the security and privacy of cyber-physical systems,” said J. Christopher Ramming, director of the Intel Labs University Collaborations Office. “We are enthusiastic about this new model of partnership.”

The NSF-Intel partnership further combines NSF’s experience in developing and managing successful large, diverse research portfolios with Intel’s long history of building research communities in emerging technology areas through programs such as its Science and Technology Centers Program.

The projects announced today as part of the NSF/Intel Partnership on Cyber-Physical Systems Security and Privacy are:

Rapidly increasing incorporation of networked computation into everything from our homes to hospitals to transportation systems can dramatically increase the adverse consequences of poor cybersecurity, according to Philip Levis, who leads a team at Stanford University that received one of the new awards. Levis’ team investigates encryption frameworks for testing and protecting networked infrastructure.

“Our research aims to lay the groundwork and basic principles to secure computing applications that interact with the physical world as they are being built and before they are used,” Levis said. “The Internet of Things is still very new. By researching these principles now, we hope to help avoid many security disasters in the future.”

The team, consisting of researchers from Stanford University, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Michigan, considers how new communication architectures and programming frameworks can help developers avoid decisions that lead to vulnerabilities.

Another project explores the unique characteristics of cyber-physical systems, such as the physical dynamics, to provide approaches that mix prevention, detection and recovery, while assuring certain levels of guarantees for safety-critical automotive and medical systems.

“With this award, we will develop robust, new technologies and approaches that work together to lead to safer, more secure and privacy-preserving cyber-physical systems by developing methods to tolerate attacks on physical environment and cyberspace in addition to preventing them,” said Insup Lee, who leads a team at the University of Pennsylvania, along with colleagues at Duke University and the University of Michigan.

“New smart cyber-physical systems technologies are driving innovation in sectors such as food and agriculture, energy, transportation, building design and automation, healthcare, and advanced manufacturing,” Kurose said. “With proper protections in place, CPS can bring tremendous benefits to our society.”

The new program extends NSF’s investments in fundamental research on cyber-physical systems, which has totaled more than $200 million in the past five years.

NSF is also separately investing in three additional CPS security and privacy projects that address the safety of autonomous vehicles, the privacy of data delivered by home sensors and the trustworthiness of smart systems:

The pure-play foundry market is forecast to grow to an all-time high of $12.2 billion in 4Q15, following several quarters in which sales remained between $11.3 and $11.8 billion, based on IC Insights’ updated foundry forecast presented in the August Update to The McClean Report 2015 (Figure 1). IC Insights defines a pure-play foundry as a company that does not offer a significant amount of IC products of its own design, but instead focuses on producing ICs for other companies (e.g., TSMC, GlobalFoundries, UMC, SMIC, etc.).

Fig 1

Fig 1

The quarterly pure-play IC foundry market has recently displayed a seasonal pattern in which the best growth rate takes place in the second quarter of the year and a sales downturn occurs in the fourth quarter.  Given that about 98 percent of pure-play foundries’ sales are to IDMs and fabless companies that will re-sell the devices they purchase from the foundry, it makes sense that the pure-play foundries’ strongest seasonal quarter (second quarter) is one quarter earlier than the total IC industry’s strongest seasonal quarter (third quarter).

However, as shown in the figure, 2015 is not expected to display the typical pure-play foundry quarterly revenue pattern.  Although 1Q15 registered its usual weakness, 2Q15 showed a sequential decline, rather than an increase. In 2012, 2013, and 2014, second quarter pure-play foundry revenue showed strong double-digit growth.  In 2Q15, results were decidedly atypical with a 2 percent decline in pure-play foundry sales. The primary reason behind the 2Q15 sales decline was the 5 percent 2Q15/1Q15 revenue decline by foundry giant TSMC.  TSMC’s 5 percent sequential decline was equivalent to a $366 million drop in its revenue.

For 4Q15, IC Insights forecasts that the quarterly pure-play foundry market will show a higher than normal growth rate of 4 percent.  With most of the inventory adjustments that held back growth in the first half of the year expected to be completed by the end of 3Q15, 4Q15 is forecast to register enough growth to boost the quarterly pure-play foundry market to over $12.0 billion for the first time.

By Pete Singer, Editor-in-Chief

Austria-based ams AG, formerly known as Austriamicrosystem, announced plans to locate a new 360,000 ft2 fab in upstate New York at the Nano Utica site in Marcy, NY. The fab will be used to manufacture analog devices on 200/300mm wafers. Total buildout at the site, including support buildings and office space, will be close to 600,000ft2.

An artist’s rendering of a semiconductor fab at the Marcy site.

An artist’s rendering of a semiconductor fab at the Marcy site.

This will be the first fab going into the 428 acre Marcy site, which is large enough to accommodate three fabs and an R&D or packaging facility.

Construction of the ams fab is scheduled to begin in spring 2016, with first wafer ramp in the last quarter of 2017.

In what might become the new business model for fabs, the building itself will be publicly owned and leased to ams, which will assume operating costs and most of the costs of the capital equipment. Capital purchases, operating expenses and other investments in the facility over the first 20 years are estimated at more than $2 billion. ams will create and retain more than 700 full time jobs and anticipates the creation of at least 500 additional support jobs from contractors, subcontractors, suppliers, and partners necessary to establish the full ecosystem necessary to enable advanced manufacturing operations.

Fort Schuyler Management (FSMC) will handle the construction, with the goal of turning the fab over to ams in Q2 2017. A key part of N.Y. Governor Andrew Cuomo’s START-UP NY initiative, FSMC is a State University of New York (SUNY Polytechnic Institute) affiliated, private, not-for-profit, 501c(3) corporation that facilitates research and economic development opportunities in support of New York’s emerging nanotechnology and semiconductor clusters.

“If jobs are being created, everything else will take care of itself,” Cuomo said.

Mohawk Valley EDGE President Steve DiMeo said site work has already started. “We’re putting roads in, storm drainage, utilities and we just approved the change order for clearing the land where ams will be located. We’ll be doing some additional site development this fall, and work closely with Fort Schuyler so that they will be in a position to begin construction the early part of next year.”

In a related announcement, GE Global Research said it will expand its New York global operations to the Mohawk Valley, serving as the anchor tenant of the Computer Chip Commercialization Center (QUAD C) on the campus of SUNY Polytechnic Institute’s Colleges of Nanoscale Science and Engineering in Utica. Nearly 500 jobs are expected to be created in the Mohawk Valley in the next five years from SUNY Poly, GE and affiliated corporations and another 350 in the subsequent five years.

These public-private partnerships represent the launch of the next phase of the Governor’s Nano Utica initiative, which now exceeds more than 4,000 projected jobs over the next ten years. Designed to replicate the dramatic success of SUNY Poly’s Nanotech Megaplex in Albany, NANO Utica further cements New York’s international recognition as the preeminent hub for 21st century nanotechnology innovation, education, and economic development.

“This is a transformative moment that will make a difference in peoples’ lives in the Mohawk Valley for generations to come,” said Governor Cuomo. “Over the past few years, we have worked to reverse the negative and invest in Upstate NY – and today we’re taking another huge step forward. With GE and ams joining the Nano Utica initiative, we’re seeing the region’s economy gathering momentum unlike ever before. The Mohawk Valley is beginning an economic revolution around nanotechnology, and I am excited to see the region take off and thrive, both today and in the years ahead.”

Dr. Alain Kaloyeros, President and Chief Executive Officer of SUNY Polytechnic Institute, said, “Today’s announcement by Governor Andrew Cuomo represents a major expansion for Quad-C and the Nano Utica initiative and is a tremendous victory for the Mohawk Valley and the entire State of New York. World renowned partners such as GE Global Research and AMS raise the level of prestige for the entire region and accelerate the development of this international hub for technology and innovation. Governor Cuomo’s pioneering economic development model, coupled with SUNY Poly CNSE’s world class expertise and resources, continues to generate historic investment and job creation throughout the state. We welcome GE and AMS and their leadership teams and look forward to their partnership in the continued growth of Nano Utica.”

ams Chief Operating Officer Dr. Thomas Stockmeier said, “Building a new wafer fab will help us achieve our growth plans and meet the increasing demand for our advanced manufacturing nodes. Our decision to locate the facility in New York was motivated by the highly-skilled workforce, the proximity to esteemed education and research institutions, and the favorable business environment provided by Governor Cuomo and all the public and private partners we are working with on this important project.”

Additionally, ams will collaborate with FSMC and SUNY Poly on a joint development program to support complimentary research, commercialization and workforce training opportunities at SUNY Poly facilities throughout New York State.