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By Jay Chittooran

Last week, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), on instruction from President Trump, notified Congress that the administration intends to begin bilateral trade negotiations with Japan, the European Union (EU), and the United Kingdom.

SEMI stands strong for free trade and open markets, and roundly supports efforts to increase market access and tap into more foreign economies, especially economies like Japan and the EU, both of which are central to the semiconductor industry. The semiconductor industry, which enables the $2 trillion electronics market, is built on global commerce. SEMI members rely on a vast network of supply chains that span the globe, bringing together components and tools made all around the world and assembled into a single sub-system that is then integrated into a larger tool used in the chipmaking process.

These free trade agreements will reduce tariffs, which will result in cost savings and productivity gains, and allow SEMI members to expand and grow. But the benefits of modern free trade agreements extend well beyond tariff reduction. Indeed, these trade deals will establish and enhance global trade rules that enable companies to innovate and compete fairly on a level playing field. Trade agreements strengthen certainty and further business continuity.

While the exact nature and negotiation timelines for the talks remain unclear, SEMI will engage the administration, urging it to maintain high standards in these agreements, such as:

  • Maintain strong respect for intellectual property and trade secrets through robust safeguards and significant penalties for violators
  • Remove tariffs and non-tariff barriers on semiconductor products as well as products that depend on semiconductors
  • Simplify and harmonize the customs and trade facilitation processes
  • Combat any attempts of forced technology transfer
  • Prevent use of data localization measures and enable the free flow of cross-border data flows
  • End discriminatory and/or burdensome regulatory practices
  • Ensure standards in all forms are market-oriented
  • Create rules for state-owned enterprises to ensure fair and non-discriminatory treatment of all companies

According to Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), the U.S. law that guides trade votes in Congress, negotiations with each country can only begin 90 days after last week’s notification. During that period, there will be intensive consultation with Congress and stakeholders. This means, at the earliest, talks can start on January 14, 2019. (Bear in mind that discussions with the UK can only begin in earnest once the UK has formally left the European Union on March 29, 2019.)

The Trump administration’s announcement comes after the U.S. imposed or threatened tariffs on imports on all trading partners, including the EU and China. All told, the U.S. has imposed tariffs on more than $300 billion worth of goods. SEMI has weighed in on the detrimental nature of tariffs, arguing that tariffs on China will ultimately do nothing to address the concerns with China’s trade practices. This sledgehammer approach will introduce significant uncertainty, impose greater costs, and potentially lead to a trade war, ultimately undercutting the ability of semiconductor companies to sell overseas, stifling innovation and curbing U.S. technological leadership.

Elsewhere, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, the multilateral trade deal that links 11 Asia-Pacific economies, is well on its way to taking force. Canada will be taking its final steps to ratify the deal, joining Mexico, Japan and Singapore. The deal, formerly known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, should take effect by the first half of 2019.

SEMI will continue tracking ongoing trade developments. Any SEMI members with questions should contact Jay Chittooran, Public Policy Manager at SEMI, at [email protected].

By Nishita Rao

ULVAC Technologies’ David Mount is working with The CIA. Is he the Jack Reacher of the MEMS and sensors industry, jetting around the world to secret meetings, you wonder? While David isn’t quite the super-spy that you might have imagined, he is doing some fascinating work on behalf of ULVAC Technologies, the world leader in vacuum technology.

ULVAC has been collaborating with The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) on Menus of Change, “a ground-breaking initiative from The Culinary Institute of America and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health that works to realize a long-term, practical vision integrating optimal nutrition and public health, environmental stewardship and restoration, and social responsibility concerns within the foodservice industry and the culinary profession.”

ULVAC also partners with Menus of Change (MOC) University Research Collaborative, a group of elite universities and food-service executives working together to “accelerate efforts to move Americans toward healthier, more sustainable, plant-forward diets.”

MEMS & Sensors Industry Group’s Nishita Rao caught up with David, a featured speaker at MEMS & Sensors Executive Congress on October 29-30, 2018, in Napa, Calif. to give MSEC attendees a preview of David’s talk.

SEMI: How did ULVAC get involved with The CIA on Menus of Change?

Mount: People in the MEMS & sensors industry may not know that ULVAC started as an equipment supplier to the food industry. In 1952 ULVAC began supplying freeze-drying equipment – which relies on vacuum technology — to food companies tasked with providing long-lasting foods and beverages for the U.S. military under the Marshall Plan. Think instant soup, ramen noodles and Tang. While ULVAC’s technology portfolio is now very broad — spanning deposition equipment for the semiconductor industry, vacuum brazing for automotive, and even vacuum freeze-drying of vaccines that can be shipped dry but combined with distilled water for administration — the company has kept a hand in food technology. ULVAC’s vacuum cooling equipment rapidly and safely cools foods, dramatically increasing shelf life.

The CIA is at the forefront of innovation in food technology, so we worked with them to test a vacuum cooling system that can also be used in the kitchen or in the field. In the Central Valley of California, for example, it can be 104ºF in the fields where lettuce is picked; our vacuum cooling system can cool that lettuce down to 47ºF in minutes.

The CIA is also developing prepared foods for industrial settings such as university cafeterias and airlines. A prepared chicken dish, for example, might be cooked at 350ºF and then cooled to refrigeration temperatures. The potential problem is that bacteria can grow when you cool that food for storage. Some of The CIA test kitchens in California are using ULVAC’s vacuum cooling system to quickly and safely cool prepared foods.

Vacuum-cooling is just one stage in food production, of course. Sensors are also widely used in food production and safety.

SEMI: How do The CIA test kitchens use sensors?

Mount: Nearly all aspects of production, processing and management in agricultural and food systems involve measurement of product and resource attributes. Sensors are a natural fit here as they can provide inspection capabilities that are accurate, fast and consistent. I plan to dive into some specific examples of the ways that The CIA and the MOC Research Collaborative are employing sensors to increase the safety of food and agricultural production.

SEMI: What would you like MSEC attendees to take away from your presentation?

Mount: I love knowing that the work that we do in this industry can benefit humanity. Applying our various technologies to food and agricultural production is just one way to do that. I encourage MSEC attendees to explore those markets that improve human quality of life – as well as the life and health of our planet and its other inhabitants.

ULVAC Technologies senior advisor David Mount is a 35-year veteran of the vacuum and thin film equipment industry. He tried to retire from ULVAC but they would not let him go! David consults with ULVAC on strategic projects such as the company’s collaboration with the CIA.

He will present Sensors in Food and Agriculture on Tuesday, October 30 at the MEMS & Sensors Executive Congress.

Register today to learn more about how sensors are transforming the food industry.

Nishita Rao is a marketing manager at SEMI.

Originally published on the SEMI blog.

Cynthia Wright, a retired military officer with over 25 years of experience in national security and cyber strategy and policy, now Principal Cyber Security Engineer at The MITRE Corporation, will give the opening keynote at the upcoming MEMS & Sensors Executive Congress, October 29-30, 2018 in Napa, Calif. SEMI’s Maria Vetrano interviewed Wright to give MSEC attendees an advance look at Wright’s highly anticipated presentation.

SEMI: MEMS and sensors suppliers provide intelligent sensing and actuation to hundreds of billions of autonomous mobility devices – but historically, our community has not been at the forefront of cybersecurity. Why is now a good time for us to get involved?

Wright: From wearables, smartphones, refrigerators and agriculture to medical devices and military hardware, autonomous mobility devices pervade our lives. At the same time, Internet of Things (IoT) botnet attacks like Mirai — and other demonstrated cyberattacks on home devices, vehicles and infrastructure — highlight the increasingly urgent need to address cybersecurity and privacy in MEMS/sensors-enabled devices.

As building-block players in autonomous devices, MEMS and sensors suppliers have several good reasons to get involved.

The number of IoT cyber security bills before state and federal legislatures suggest that regulation is coming, and it is in everyone’s best interest to prepare. While original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) would generally be held liable in cases of component malfunction or data breach, if insecurity stems from a microelectromechanical component, OEMs would most likely choose component suppliers with secure products.

Beyond legislation and competitive advantage, we must consider that people’s well-being, even lives, could be at stake. Imagine what could happen if someone hacks into an insulin pump, the accelerometer on a train, or the LIDAR of an autonomous car. Intrusions of this sort could prove catastrophic.

SEMI: Where do you perceive the biggest potential threats to consumers, industry, government?

Wright: In good military fashion, I would say that it depends. If a person is a consumer of medical implants, that’s a big threat. On the government side, we could be talking about networked devices involved in military situational awareness. In industry, it could be sensors governing critical manufacturing or safety processes.

I am not saying that every sensor must be secure. In every sector, there are areas of greater or lesser vulnerability, depending on context.

SEMI: What is security or privacy by design?

Wright: Addressing security flaws is cheaper and more easily accomplished at the design stage and not after the vulnerabilities are discovered. At MITRE, we practice systems- and design-oriented thinking as we consult with people doing development. We help them to develop security standards and approaches that are broadly applicable, rather than focusing on a specific product.

For example, MITRE looks at the ways that a person might hack into a car to steal location and life history data — or alter its functions — to facilitate general standards and approaches that will help manufacturers better ensure the privacy and security of autonomous vehicles. Hackers have demonstrated that they can interfere with vehicle transmissions and brakes. Ignition, steering and other critical systems are theoretically accessible through the same types of attacks. To what degree can MEMS/sensors suppliers help automotive manufacturers ensure the privacy and security of autonomous cars, and the safety of their drivers?

SEMI: What would you like MSEC attendees to take away from your presentation?

Wright: MEMS/sensors suppliers are on the leading edge of computing and should take some responsibility for considering cybersecurity and privacy, for the safety of their customers and their own competitive advantage. Recognize which devices should be secure and act accordingly. Get involved at the design stage. The market for secure microelectronics is only going to grow, and this will benefit suppliers who take secure design seriously.

Cynthia Wright will present Cyber Security and Privacy in the Age of Autonomous Sensing on Monday, October 29 at MEMS & Sensors Executive Congress in Napa, Calif.

Register today to connect with her at the event.

Maria Vetrano is a public relations consultant at SEMI.

With tremendous growth of smartphones over the past decade, foundry sales to the communications market have soared and are now forecast to account for about 3x more than IC foundry sales to the computer market in 2018, based on IC Insights’ extensive part-two analysis of the integrated circuit foundry business in the September Update to The 2018 McClean Report (Figure 1).

Figure 1

Ten years ago, computers/computing systems were easily the largest application for pure-play IC foundry sales, but a relatively flat tablet PC market and lackluster desktop and notebook PC sales since 2011 contributed to weak pure-play foundry sales into the computer segment.

Now, new server applications targeting artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things, Cloud Computing, and cryptocurrency are forecast to breathe new life into this market segment over the next five years. TSMC expects its IC sales into the IoT segment will grow by a CAGR of more than 20% from 2017 through 2022 (the company had greater than $1.0 billion in IoT sales in 2017).

Although IC foundry sales for computer applications are expected to surge 41% this year (driven by TSMC’s cryptocurrency device sales), the communications foundry market is still expected to be about 3x the size of the computer segment in 2018.  The communications foundry market is forecast to display only a 2% growth rate in 2018, six points less than the total pure-play foundry market growth rate expected for this year.

Overall, the communications (52%), computer (19%), and consumer (13%) market segments are forecast to represent 84% of the pure-play IC foundry market in 2018.

Total wafer shipments in 2018 year are expected to eclipse the all-time market high set in 2017 and continue to reach record levels through 2021, according to SEMI’s recent semiconductor industry annual silicon shipment forecast. The forecast of demand for silicon units for the period 2018 through 2021 shows polished and epitaxial silicon shipments totaling 12,445 million square inches in 2018; 13,090 million square inches in 2019; 13,440 million square inches in 2020, and 13,778 million square inches in 2021 (see table below).

“As new greenfield fab projects continue to emerge for memory and foundry, silicon shipments are expected to remain strong for 2019 and through 2021,” said Clark Tseng, director of Industry Research & Statistics at SEMI. “Silicon demand will continue to grow as semiconductor content increases in mobile, high-performance computing, automotive, and Internet of Things applications.”

2018 Silicon* Shipment Forecast (MSI = Millions of Square Inches)
Actual
Forecast
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
MSI
10,577
11,617
12,445
13,090
13,440
13,778
Annual Growth
3.0%
9.8%
7.1%
5.2%
2.7%
2.5%

*Total Electronic Grade Silicon Slices – Excludes Non-Polished Wafers

*Shipments are for semiconductor applications only and do not include solar applications

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

Silicon wafers are the fundamental building material for semiconductors, which in turn, are vital components of virtually all electronics goods, including computers, telecommunications products, and consumer electronics. The highly engineered thin round disks are produced in various diameters (from one inch to 12 inches) and serve as the substrate material on which most semiconductor devices or chips are fabricated.

All data cited in this release is inclusive of polished silicon wafers, including virgin test wafers and epitaxial silicon wafers shipped by the wafer manufacturers to the end-users. Data do not include non-polished or reclaimed wafers.

The average revenue generated from processed wafers among the four biggest pure-play foundries (TSMC, GlobalFoundries, UMC, and SMIC) is expected to be $1,138 in 2018, when expressed in 200mm-equivalent wafers, which is essentially flat from $1,136 in 2017, according to a new analysis by IC Insights (Figure 1).  The average revenue per wafer among the Big 4 foundries peaked in 2014 at $1,149 and then slowly declined through last year, based on IC Insights’ extensive part-two analysis of the integrated circuit foundry business in the September Update to The 2018 McClean Report.

Figure 1

TSMC’s average revenue per wafer in 2018 is forecast to be $1,382, which is 36% higher than GlobalFoundries’ $1,014.  UMC’s average revenue per wafer in 2018 is expected to be only $715, about half of the projected amount at TSMC this year.  Furthermore, TSMC is the only foundry among the Big 4 that is expected to generate higher revenue per wafer (9% more) in 2018 than in 2013.  In contrast, GlobalFoundries, UMC, and SMIC’s 2018 revenue per wafer averages are forecast to decline by 1%, 10%, and 16%, respectively, compared to 2013.

Although the average revenue per wafer of the Big 4 foundries is forecast to be $1,138 this year, the amount generated is highly dependent upon the minimum feature size of the IC processing technology. Figure 2 shows the typical 2Q18 revenue per wafer for some of the major technology nodes and wafer sizes produced by pure-play foundries.  In 2Q18, there was more than a 16x difference between the 0.5µ 200mm revenue per wafer ($370) and the ≤20nm 300mm revenue per wafer ($6,050).  Even when using revenue per square inch, the difference is dramatic ($7.41 for the 0.5µ technology versus $53.86 for the ≤20nm technology).  Since TSMC gets such a large percentage of its sales from ≤45nm production, its revenue per wafer is expected to increase by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2% from 2013 through 2018 as compared to a -2% CAGR for the total revenue per wafer average of GlobalFoundries, UMC, and SMIC during this same timeperiod.

Figure 2

There will probably be only three foundries able to offer high-volume leading-edge production over the next five years (i.e., TSMC, Samsung, and Intel).  IC Insights believes these companies are likely to be fierce competitors among themselves—especially TSMC and Samsung—and as a result, pricing will likely be under pressure through 2022.

Data provided by the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) indicates that worldwide sales of semiconductors reached USD 40.16 Billion for the month of August 2018, representing an increase of 14.9% when compared to the August 2017 total of USD 34.96 Billion. Global sales in August 2018were 1.7% higher than the July 2018 total of USD 39.49 Billion. The semiconductor industry is one of the fastest growing industries of the technology sector. According to Stratistics MRC, many semiconductor companies are beginning to embrace IoT to drive new revenue and growth models. Squire Mining Ltd. (OTC: SQRMF), Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (NYSE: TSM), Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT), Qorvo, Inc. (NASDAQ: QRVO), Entegris, Inc. (NASDAQ: ENTG)

According to a recent report by Accenture, the semiconductor industry is the most bullish sector when it comes to the integration of blockchain within their industry and the impact of artificial intelligence. “Throughout the industry’s complex supply chain, blockchain simplifies business operations leveraging semiconductor chips and related technologies,” said Syed Alam, a Managing Director in Accenture Strategy who leads Accenture’s Semiconductor practice. “This faster traceability will improve companies’ business operations and accelerate delivery of their products to market – while enabling them to do so at lower costs. Semiconductor companies can also use blockchain to create, scale and manage technology-based collaborations and redefine future business transactions.”

Squire Mining Ltd. (OTCQB: SQRMF) is also listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange under the ticker (CSE: SQR). Just earlier today, the company announced breaking news that, “Ennoconn Corporation (“Ennoconn”) as our hardware manufacturer for next generation mining systems to mine Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin and other associated cryptocurrencies. Ennoconn is a leading industrial motherboard designer and total hardware system solution provider headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan and listed on the Taiwan stock exchange (TPE:6414). In 2007, Foxconn Technology Group, the largest “Electronic Manufacturing Service” company in the world, became the majority shareholder of Ennoconn, forming a strong strategic alliance in embedded system and electronic manufacturing.

On August 21, 2018, Squire announced that AraSystems Technology Corp. (“AraSystems”), a subsidiary of Squire, had entered into a provisional non-binding agreement with a major global technology assembly company. This company, now revealed to be Ennoconn, will assist in the design and assembly of our next generation mining rig at such time as a working prototype of our debut ASIC chip is completed.

On October 3, 2018 Squire announced the successful completion and testing of its FPGA working prototype microchip, with early results of the terahash-to-energy consumption ratio, indicating that the final ASIC chip and mining system has the potential to reduce operational costs by up to 40% for enterprise mining facilities.

● This cost reduction was estimated by one leading enterprise mining group to be worth up to $60M per year in savings to their operations alone.

● The final ASIC chip and mining system together are expected to provide up to a four times improvement in the performance of mining the blockchain, a process that enables miners to be paid, thereby increasing the return on investment, and profit, for miners. Such calculations are based on comparisons with the majority of current generation mining machines operating inside enterprise facilities around the world.

Following this success, the Company has signed a binding Memorandum of Understanding with Ennoconn and funded work to commence Phase 1 design and development of AraSystem’s next generation mining system in collaboration with its partners in Taipei, Taiwan and in Seoul, South Korea. Definitive documentation will be entered into following delivery of final specifications and data sheets to Ennoconn later this month.

Squire’s engineers are currently working with Ennoconn to design and develop AraSystem’s mining rig which will house the debut ASIC chip currently under development by the Company’s subsidiary AraCore Technology Corp (“AraCore”), in conjunction with GaonChips and Samsung Electronics (see news releases dated September 25 and October 3, 2018). In turn, Ennoconn will be responsible for mass assembly of the mining rig once all design, development and testing work has been completed.

A prototype of the mining rig along with full specifications of the AraCore ASIC chip are expected to be presented at the CoinGeek Conference in London on November 28 – 30, 2018, with presales expected to commence on or around that date. Significant interest has already been expressed by several of the industry’s largest enterprise mining companies, which currently host hundreds of thousands of mining machines in their facilities across the world.”

‘We are very pleased to be partnering with the skilled engineers at Ennoconn, one of the world’s leading electronic manufacturing companies,’ stated Simon Moore, Executive Chairman and CEO of Squire. ‘As we launch our next generation mining rig with a suite of proprietary innovations, it’s imperative that our manufacturing partners have the talent, experience and capacity to not only deliver unique hardware, but also deliver best in class quality. We believe Ennoconn will help ensure the production of an exceptional mining rig for the marketplace,’ he said. Further, Mr. Moore noted, ‘based on initial interest from the sector, the potential for significant sales and the subsequent revenue for Squire is on track in the coming year which would make Squire and its partners a noteworthy industry provider of crypto mining hardware and next generation innovation on a global scale.’

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (NYSE: TSM) is the world’s largest dedicated semiconductor foundry, providing the industry’s leading process technology and the foundry segment’s largest portfolio of process-proven libraries, IPs, design tools and reference flows. TSMC recently announced the initial availability of its Open Innovation Platform® Virtual Design Environment (OIP VDE), which enables semiconductor customers to securely design in the cloud, leveraging TSMC OIP design infrastructures within the flexibility of cloud infrastructures. OIP VDE is the result of TSMC collaboration with TSMC OIP design ecosystem partners and leading cloud providers to deliver a complete systems-on-chip (SoCs) design environment in the cloud. TSMC OIP VDE’s first implementations of digital RTL-to-GDSII and custom schematic capture-to-GDSII flows are via partnerships with TSMC’s inaugural Cloud Alliance partners, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Cadence, Microsoft Azure, and Synopsys. In TSMC’s enablement of OIP VDE, both digital and custom design flows have been validated in the cloud, along with OIP design collateral-including process technology files, PDKs, foundation IP, and reference flows. To ensure low barriers to entry and high technical support levels, Cadence and Synopsys act as the focal point helping customers to set up VDE and providing first line support.

Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT) is a developer of materials engineering solutions used to produce virtually every new chip and advanced display in the world. Applied Materials recently celebrated the 20th anniversary and 5,000th shipment of the Producer® platform, a manufacturing system that helps make virtually every chip in the world. The Producer platform was launched in July of 1998 to help enable chips to run faster by changing their wiring from aluminum to copper, which is a better conductor. The transition was needed by the industry to drive the performance and power improvements associated with Moore’s Law, but it also required many additional steps that could have made the progress unaffordable. To help, Applied Materials designed every element of the Producer platform to give customers the highest performance at the lowest possible operating cost. “With the landmark Producer platform, Applied achieved something that had never been done before on this scale: create a highly flexible architecture that can support multiple technology generations and still remain incredibly productive,” said G. Dan Hutcheson, Chief Executive Officer of VLSIresearch. “Today, the Producer platform continues to allow chipmakers to imagine and build chips in entirely new ways. Congratulations to Applied Materials on this impressive milestone for one of the most important process systems in the semiconductor industry.”

Qorvo, Inc. (NASDAQ: QRVO) recently introduced a new System in Package (SiP) that enables dynamic, simultaneous support for Zigbee® 3.0, Green Power, Thread and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). This new SiP integrates Qorvo power amplifier technology providing 20 dBm output, which is especially important for U.S. smart home applications. The Qorvo QPG6095M is a fully integrated SiP for ultra-low power wireless communications. It is BLE 5.0 and Zigbee 3.0 platform and product certified, and offers Green Power energy efficiency. This SiP also extends range and battery life and enables robust interference mitigation. The QPG6095M delivers optimized connectivity throughout the home, eliminating the need for complex mesh architectures and unnecessary battery consumption in intermediate devices. The QPG6095M blends Qorvo’s power amplifier (PA) technology with a multi-standard, multi-protocol chip. Its level of integration and performance benefit product designers by lowering development costs and speeding time to market. Cees Links, General Manager of Qorvo’s Wireless Connectivity business unit, said, “This new SiP is another example of Qorvo’s commitment to combining and leveraging RF technologies to improve the consumer’s connected experience. Developers can now deliver BLE, Zigbee and Thread simultaneously with more range and reliability, and reduce concerns about future compatibility.”

Entegris, Inc. (NASDAQ: ENTG) is a developer and provider of specialty chemicals and advanced materials solutions for the microelectronics industry and other high-tech industries. Entegris, Inc. recently released the next generation EUV 1010 Reticle Pod for high-volume IC manufacturing using extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. Developed in close collaboration with ASML, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of chip-making equipment, Entegris’s EUV 1010 is the first to be qualified by ASML for use in the NXE:3400B and beyond. As the semiconductor industry begins ramping EUV lithography for the high-volume manufacturing (HVM) of advanced technology nodes, keeping EUV reticles defect-free is more demanding than ever. Entegris’s EUV 1010 Reticle Pod is now fully qualified by ASML for their latest generation scanner having demonstrated outstanding protection of the EUV reticles, including against the most critical particle challenges. As a result, Entegris’s EUV 1010 enables customers to safely transition to smaller and smaller line widths, as needed for the most advanced lithography processes.

According to Allied Market Research, the global compound semiconductor market was valued at USD 66,623 million in 2016 and is expected to reach USD 142,586 million in 2023 while growing at a CAGR of 11.3% from 2017 to 2023. The report indicates that a compound semiconductor is composed of two or more elements. Numerous compound semiconductors can be obtained by changing the combination of elements. Some of the factors affecting the market include the increasing demand for optoelectronic devices, as well as the attraction of compound semiconductor’s significant features, such as less power consumption, low price, and reduced heat dissipation. Rise in usage of optical devices, photovoltaic cells, and modules & wireless communication products is expected to provide an attractive opportunity for the compound semiconductor market. Squire Mining Ltd. (OTC: SQRMF), Nvidia Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA), Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMD), KLA-Tencor Corporation (NASDAQ: KLAC), Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. (NASDAQ: MXIM)

As semiconductor technology begins to advance, new segments are swiftly being integrated into the market, such as Machine Learning. AI has observed significant growth in recent years. Initially, AI was considered a topic for academicians, though in recent years with development of various technologies, AI has turned into reality and is influencing many lives and businesses. According to MarketsandMarkets the global artificial intelligence chipset market is expected to be worth USD 16.06 Billion by 2022 and grow at a CAGR of 62.9% between 2016 and 2022.

Squire Mining Ltd. (OTCQB: SQRMF) is also listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange under the ticker (CSE: SQR). Earlier last week, the Company announced breaking news that, “to report on its prototype ASIC chip testing event held in Seoul, South Korea. With executives and board members from Squire, Future Farm, CoinGeek, Gaonchips and Samsung Electronics in attendance, Peter Kim, President of Squire’s subsidiary AraCore Technology Corp. (“Aracore”), and his team of front-end microchip engineers and programmers, unveiled and tested a working prototype mining system comprised of a newly engineered FPGA (field programmable gate array) ASIC microchip that will be converted into AraCore’s first ASIC chip utilizing 10 nanometer technology for mining Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin and other associated cryptocurrencies. The test results confirm Aracore’s original design specifications indicating that the ASIC chip, once mass manufactured by Samsung Electronics, will be capable of delivering a projected hash rate of 18 to 22 terahash per second (TH/s) with an energy consumption of between 700 and 800 watts.

Taras Kulyk, Chief Executive Officer of CoinGeek Mining and Hardware, said “The CoinGeek team is very pleased with the progress of our strategic partners; Squire Mining and Aracore. With this next generation technology, CoinGeek will continue to pull the blockchain industry out of the proverbial basement and into the boardroom.”

Stefan Matthews, Chairman of nChain, one of the industry leaders in blockchain research and development, and a director of Squire Mining added, “The early results indicate that this ASIC microchip has the potential to be the next generation leader in providing hash power for enterprise mining of Bitcoin Cash and other associated crypto currencies. It has also demonstrated the potential to rapidly process consensus protocols across the blockchain faster whilst utilizing less energy than anything currently in this sector.”

Hash rate speed and microchip efficiency are the two most important measuring criteria in the crypto-mining industry to enable end-users to maximize profitability and ROI in their day to day mining operations.

Simon Moore, Executive Chairman and CEO of Squire Mining, stated, “Aracore’s time and investment to date have been validated by the impressive results of this new microchip. Once completed, we believe the speed and efficiency of our ASIC microchip combined with our respective mining systems powered by this Samsung manufactured microchip together have the potential to substantially increase the profitability of enterprise mining facilities around the globe. We look forward to releasing our mining system to the market in the first half of next year through our exclusive distribution partners CoinGeek, and competing for a significant piece of this multi-billion-dollar enterprise mining market.”

About AraCore Technology Corp. – Aracore is a joint venture company established by Squire and Peter Kim to design and develop next generation ASIC chips for mining Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin and other associated cryptocurrencies. Squire owns a 75% interest in Aracore and Peter Kim owns the remaining 25% interest.

About Squire Mining Ltd. – Squire is a Canadian based company engaged, through its subsidiaries, in the business of developing data mining infrastructure and system technology to support global blockchain applications in the mining space including applicable specific integrated circuit (ASIC) chips and next generation mining rigs to mine Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin and other associated cryptocurrencies.”

Nvidia Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA), in 1999, sparked the growth of the PC gaming market, redefined modern computer graphics, and revolutionized parallel computing. Nvidia recently announced that it invited the world’s top automotive safety and reliability company, TÜV SÜD, to perform a safety concept assessment of its new NVIDIA Xavier system-on-chip (SoC). The 150-year-old German firm’s 24,000 employees assess compliance to national and international standards for safety, durability and quality in cars, as well as for factories, buildings, bridges and other infrastructure. As the world’s first autonomous driving processor, Xavier is the most complex SoC ever created. Its 9 billion transistors enable Xavier to process vast amounts of data. Its GMSL (gigabit multimedia serial link) high-speed IO connects Xavier to the largest array of lidar, radar and camera sensors of any chip ever built. “NVIDIA Xavier is one of the most complex processors we have evaluated,” said Axel Köhnen, Xavier lead assessor at TÜV SÜD RAIL. “Our in-depth technical assessment confirms the Xavier SoC architecture is suitable for use in autonomous driving applications and highlights NVIDIA’s commitment to enable safe autonomous driving.”

Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMD), for more than 45 years, has driven innovation in high-performance computing, graphics and visualization technologies ― the building blocks for gaming, immersive platforms and the datacenter. AMD recently announced the availability of world’s most powerful desktop processor, the 2nd Gen AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX processor with 32 cores and 64 threads. Designed to power the ultimate computing experiences, 2nd Gen AMD Ryzen Threadripper processors are built using 12nm “Zen+” x86 processor architecture and offer the most threads on any desktop processor with the flagship model delivering up to 53% greater performance than the competition’s flagship model. Second Gen AMD Ryzen Threadripper processors support the most I/O2, and are compatible with existing AMD X399 chipset motherboards via a simple BIOS update, offering builders a broad choice for designing the ultimate high-end desktop or workstation PC. “We created Ryzen Threadripper processors because we saw an opportunity to deliver unheard-of levels of multithreaded computing for the demanding needs of creators, gamers, and PC enthusiasts in the HEDT market,” said Jim Anderson, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Computing and Graphics Business Group, AMD. “With the 2nd Gen processor family we took that challenge to a whole new level – delivering the biggest, most powerful desktop processor the world has ever seen.”

KLA-Tencor Corporation (NASDAQ: KLAC), a provider of process control and yield management solutions, partners with customers around the world to develop sinspection and metrology technologies. Recently, KLA-Tencor Corporation announced two new defect inspection products designed to address a wide variety of integrated circuit (IC) packaging challenges. The Kronos™ 1080 system offers production-worthy, high sensitivity wafer inspection for advanced packaging, providing key information for process control and material disposition. The ICOS™ F160 system examines packages after wafers have been diced, delivering fast, accurate die sort based on detection of key defect types-including sidewall cracks, a new defect type affecting the yield of high-end packages. The two new inspection systems join KLA-Tencor’s portfolio of defect inspection, metrology and data analysis systems that help accelerate packaging yield and increase die sort accuracy. “As chip scaling has slowed, advances in chip packaging technology have become instrumental in driving device performance,” said Oreste Donzella, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at KLA-Tencor. “Packaged chips need to achieve simultaneous targets for device performance, power consumption, form factor and cost for a variety of device applications. As a result, packaging design has become more diverse and complex, featuring a range of 2D and 3D structures that are more densely packed and shrinking in size with every generation. At the same time, the value of the packaged chip has grown substantially, along with electronics manufacturers’ expectations for quality and reliability.”

Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. (NASDAQ: MXIM) develops innovative analog and mixed-signal products and technologies to make systems smaller and smarter, with enhanced security and increased energy efficiency. Maxim Integrated recently announced that automotive infotainment designers can now upgrade to bigger, higher resolution displays with greater ease, reduced cost and smaller solution size with the MAX20069 from Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. The MAX20069 provides the industry’s first solution integrating four I2C-controlled, 150mA LED backlight drivers and a four-output thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal display (TFT-LCD) bias in a single chip. The IC can reduce design footprint up to one-third compared to the closest competitor’s parts. “Automotive manufacturers are using more screens, larger panels and brighter displays across several vehicle lines to support a safer and more engaging experience on the road,” said Szukang Hsien, Executive Business Manager, Automotive Business Unit, Maxim Integrated. “Maxim’s integrated LED backlight driver and TFT-LCD bias solution supports newer panel types to help automotive manufacturers adopt lower cost yet higher resolution panels with smaller solution size and a high level of integration.”

By Serena Brischetto

SEMI met with Heinz Martin Esser, managing director at Fabmatics GmbH, to discuss how existing 200mm semiconductor fabs can master the challenges of a 24×7 production under highest cost and quality pressure by implementing intralogistics automation solutions. The two spoke ahead to his presentation at the Fab Management Forum at SEMICON Europa 2018, 13-16, November 2018, in Munich, Germany. To register for the event, click here.

SEMI: Looking at the latest production capacity data for 2018 – it is a 200mm fab boom. Growing demand for analog, MEMS and RF chips continues to cause acute shortages for both 200mm fab capacity and equipment. Do you think this trend will continue the next years or is it only a short term run on 200mm fabs?

Esser: We at Fabmatics believe in a long-term trend. The emergence of the Internet of Things and growing digitalization in all areas of life will continue to increase demand for integrated circuits (ASICs), analog ICs, high-performance components and micro-mechanical sensors (MEMS) in the coming years. Many of these semiconductor elements should be produced in 200 mm fabs.

SEMI: How does Fab automation contribute to increase capacity of existing, mature 200mm fabs?

Esser:  We are convinced that fab automation is one of the greatest potentials for older 200mm factories to effectively master increased demand, increasing efficiency, quality assurance and flexibility at the same time. In particular, material flow automation, which is often the missing link between existing equipment in different production areas, can help increase productivity in an elementary way.

If you analyze how long valuable tools typically wait for loading and unloading, you can see a direct effect of the intralogistics automation system, which leads to a significantly higher utilization of process equipment by making the material flow independent from human performance. Additional side effects such as reduced cycle time, stable fab flow factor or flattened WIP shafts further increase the contribution of material flow automation to get the most out of existing mature factories. Older does not mean obsolete.

SEMI: What are the biggest challenges for a successful implementation?

Esser: There is no single challenge when you automate an existing mature fab. Instead, you face a whole variety of challenges you have to tackle, ranging from historically grown non-aligned fab layouts over non-linear material flows and older non-standardized equipment to “automation unfriendly” fab environment. Also you should not underestimate the efforts to overcome the practice manual fab operation people in the cleanroom are so familiar with for many years. Before doing automation you have to think automation, i.e. you have to question all processes to make them ready for automation.

SEMI: What are the key drivers to automate a mature fab today: costs, process stability, quality or a combination of them?

Esser: This question should be better asked to our customers, but we believe it is a mix of many impacts. Most likely everybody sees the cost reduction at first, but we get more aware of process and performance stability as well as quality requirements – and here our customers’ play the most important role – become more and more focused.

SEMI: What do you expect from SEMICON Europa 2018 and why do you recommend attending the Fab Management Forum?

Esser: This year SEMICON Europa will co-locate with electronica. So it`s going to be the greatest trade fair for electronics manufacturing in Europe. We will meet innovators and decision-makers across the whole electronics supply chain.

The Fab Management Forum addresses a highly topical question that concerns all semiconductor manufacturers not only in Europe – how to handle complexity and enable the necessary flexibility to cope with customers’ needs. High-ranking speakers will give an insight into the latest technologies and best practices. I am looking forward to the lively exchange with the participants and taking away new impulses for our business.

Heinz Martin Esser is managing director at Fabmatics GmbH, responsible for sales and marketing, customer service and administration. He studied supply engineering at the University of Applied Sciences in Cologne and later earned a university degree in business administration.

Originally published on the SEMI blog.

By Alan Weber

Even for someone who has been in this industry since the days of the TI Datamath 4-function calculator and the TMS1100 4-bit microcontroller (yes, that’s been a LONG time – the movie Grease premiered the same year!), it is sometimes hard to grasp the scope and complexity of what happens in today’s leading-edge semiconductor gigafabs. In fact, the only way to comprehend the enormous volume of transactions that occur is to consider what happens in a single minute – this is illustrated in the infographic we have labeled “The Gigafab Minute.”*

It’s amazing enough to think that a single factory can start 100,000 wafers every month on their cyclical journey through 1500 process steps… and have 99%+ of them emerge 4 months later to be delivered to packaging houses and then on to waiting customers. It’s quite another to realize that all of this happens continuously (24 x 7) and automatically.

“How is this possible?” you ask.

Well, a big part of the solution is the body of SEMI standards which have evolved since the early 80s to keep pace with the ever-changing demands of the industry. From an automation standpoint, many of these standards deal with the communications between manufacturing equipment and the factory information and control systems that are essential for managing these complex, hyper-competitive global enterprises.

A significant characteristic of these standards is that they have been carefully designed to be “additive.” This means that new generations of SEMI’s communications standards do not supplant or obsolete the previous generations, but rather provide new capabilities in an incremental fashion. To appreciate the importance of this in actual practice, consider how the GEM, GEM300, and EDA/Interface A standards support the transactions that occur in a single Gigafab Minute.

Starting at 1:00 o’clock on the infographic and moving clockwise, you first notice that 2.31 wafers enter the line. Of course, these are actually released in 25-wafer 300mm FOUPs (Front-Opening Unified Pod), but 100K wafers per month translates to 2.31 per minute. Since these factories run continuously, once the line is full, it stays full. And with an average total cycle time of 4 months, this means that there are 400K wafers of WIP (work in process) in the factory at any given time. This number, and the total number of equipment (5000+), drive the rest of the calculations.

GEM (Generic Equipment Model) – SEMI E30, etc.

The GEM messaging standards were initially defined in the early 90s to support the factory scheduling and dispatching applications that decide what lots should go to what equipment, the automated material handling systems that deliver and pick-up material to/from the equipment accordingly, the recipe management systems that ensure each process step is executed properly, and the MES (Manufacturing Execution System) transactions that maintain the fidelity of the factory system’s “digital twin.”

Every minute of every day, GEM messages support and chronicle the following activities: 240 process steps are completed (i.e., 240 25-wafer lots are processed), 300 recipes are downloaded along with a set of run-specific adjustable control parameters, and 600 FOUPs are moved from one place to another (equipment, stockers, under-track storage, etc.). For each of these activities, the factory’s MES is notified instantaneously.

GEM300 – SEMI E40, E87, E90, E94, E157

With the advent of 300mm manufacturing in the mid-to-late 90s, a global team of volunteer system engineers from the leading chip makers defined the GEM300 standards to support fully automated manufacturing operations. Starting at 5:00 o’clock on the infographic, the number of transactions per minute jumps almost 3 orders of magnitude, from the monitoring of 900 control jobs across 4000 process tools to the tracking of 360,000 individual recipe step change events. This level of event granularity is essential for the latest generation of FDC (Fault Detection and Classification) applications, because precise data framing is a key prerequisite for minimizing the false alarm rate while still preventing serious process excursions. In this context, more than 6000 recipe-, product- and chamber-specific fault models may be evaluated every minute.

Simultaneously, the applications that monitor instantaneous throughput to prevent “productivity excursions” and identify systemic “wait time waste” situations depend on detailed intra-tool wafer movement events. In a fab with hundreds of multi-chamber, single-wafer processes, 75,000 or more of these events occur every minute.

EDA (Equipment Data Acquisition) – SEMI E120, E125, E132, E134, E164, etc.

Rounding out the SEMI standards in our example gigafab is the suite of EDA standards which complement the command and control functions of GEM/GEM300 with flexible, high-performance, model-based data collection. The EDA standards enable the on-demand collection of the volume and variety of “big data” required from the equipment to support the advanced analysis, machine learning, and other AI (Artificial Intelligence) applications that are becoming increasingly prevalent in leading semiconductor manufacturers. As EUV (Extreme Ultraviolet) lithography moves from pilot production to high-volume manufacturing at the 7nm process node and beyond, the litho process area will become a major source of process data by itself, generating 10 GB of data every minute. This is in addition to the 100 GB of data collected from other process areas.

The End Result

The final wedge (12:00 o’clock) in our infographic highlights the real objective – which is producing the millions of integrated circuits that fuel our global economy and provide the technologies that are an integral part of our modern way of life. Assuming a nominal die size of 50 square mm (typical of an 8 GB DRAM), the 2.31 wafers we started at 1:00 o’clock result in almost 3200 individual chips. But none of this would be possible without the pervasive factory automation technology we now take for granted. So, as you finish reading this posting on whatever device you happen to be using, take a micro-moment to acknowledge and thank the hundreds of standards volunteers whose insights and efforts made this a reality!

You may not be responsible for running a gigafab anytime soon, but the SEMI standards used in this setting are no less applicable to any Smart Manufacturing environment. Give us a call if you’d like to know more about how these technologies can benefit your operations for many years to come.

Alan Weber is Vice President, New Product Innovations, at Cimetrix Incorporated. Previously he served on the Board of Directors for eight years before joining the company as a full-time employee in 2011. Alan has been a part of the semiconductor and manufacturing automation industries for over 40 years. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Electrical Engineering from Rice University.

Originally published on the SEMI blog.