Tag Archives: letter-pulse-top

Ongoing growth in cellular and Wi-Fi applications will continue to drive GaAs device revenues higher.  The recently released Strategy Analytics Advanced Semiconductor Applications (ASA) Forecast and Outlook report, “GaAs Industry Forecast: 2013- 2018” and the accompanying spreadsheet model forecasts further growth in the GaAs device market in 2014, before competitive technologies and trends act to reduce the growth rates.

The wireless communications segment continues to be the largest user of GaAs devices. Strong demand in this segment helped propel GaAs device revenues up by 11 percent in 2013. GaAs MMIC devices, supplied by device OEMs like Skyworks, RFMD/TriQuint, Avago, ADI/Hittite, M/A-COM Technology Solutions, ANADIGICS, etc. make up nearly 98 percent of all GaAs device revenues. Competitive technologies like silicon and GaN will continue to capture market share from GaAs. This will put the brakes on the growth rate of GaAs device revenue and contribute to an expected decline by 2018.

Strategy Analytics ASA GaAs Forecast

“The GaAs device market has proven incredibly resilient in the face of threats, and manufacturers have been rewarded with nearly 10 years of uninterrupted revenue growth,” Eric Higham, Service Director, Advanced Semiconductor Applications commented. “However, increasing market share for CMOS PAs, GaN and multi-mode and multi-band GaAs PAs will signal a new challenge to revenue growth in the future.”

“The call to action has gone out to all the participants in the GaAs supply chain to provide innovation that will enable GaAs devices to fend off these challenges and continue the trend of revenue growth,” Asif Anwar, Director in the Strategic Technologies Practice added.

Extensive market models detailing the more than 30 market segments that utilize GaAs devices back the forecast.  The ASA service specifically focuses on the different semiconductor technologies like GaAs, GaN, InP, SiC and silicon that compete for end applications in the RF, optical and power electronics segments, resulting in the most robust market data in the industry.

Contour Semiconductor, Inc., a developer of non-volatile memory technologies, today announced it has been awarded three new patents to back its Diode Transistor Memory (DTM) technology, the world’s lowest production-cost, non-volatile memory technology.The three new patents recognize Contour’s achievements in the field of low-mask count/reduced process step memory, and bring the company’s total issued patents to 45.

The new patents focus on better and more cost effective approaches to phase-change and resistive non-volatile memory, 3D memory, and embedded memory applications – concepts that are “top of the list” for memory manufacturers and their customers.

“Contour’s patent portfolio seeks to return Moore’s Law to the non-volatile discussion, and enable the next big thing,” said Contour CEO Saul Zales. “DTM technology will overcome production and CapEx challenges that stymie NAND manufacturers, and deliver significant technical advantages over traditional NAND flash memory, to support emerging and future technologies like wearables, Internet connected devices and the Internet of Things.”

Contour estimates the production cost of its DTM to be 60-65 percent lower than today’s NAND memory, while maintaining or improving on NAND’s performance and endurance.

NAND is currently used in a wide range of products from digital photography to smartphones and solid-state drives. However, in recent years, the high costs associated with production tools and fabrication facilities have slowed NAND bit growth rate from 70-80 percent to 25-30 percent annually.

Fujitsu Semiconductor America (FSA) today announced that Shinichi “James” Machida, who led the company from late 2008 until spring of 2011, has been named as the new president and CEO of FSA.

Machida, who has more than 25 years’ experience in semiconductor marketing and overseas sales support, has held a wide range of management positions at Fujitsu Microelectronics Limited (FML) and its affiliates, serving as president of Fujitsu Microelectronics Asia Pte. Ltd. (FMAL) headquartered in Singapore and Fujitsu Microelectronics Pacific Asia Ltd. (FMP) headquartered in Hong Kong from October 2006 until his appointment as Fujitsu Semiconductor America’s President and CEO from June 2008 to April 2011.  From July 1990 through June 1995, he was assigned to Fujitsu Microelectronics, Inc. (FMI), a predecessor of Fujitsu Microelectronics America (FMA) and FSA. During that time, he worked in FMA’s operations group, managing special projects with FMA’s strategic customers.

“Fujitsu Semiconductor America has developed a long history of world-class research, advanced product development, and strong sales throughout the Americas,” said Machida.  “I am pleased and excited to return to the US and look forward to my new tenure at FSA, and to continuing and strengthening the excellent product development and customer service that have been a hallmark of the company for many years.”

Fujitsu Semiconductor America, Inc. (FSA) is a designer and developer of semiconductor products and solutions for new generations of consumer, communications, automotive and industrial products. Founded in 1979 and headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, Fujitsu Semiconductor America is a wholly owned subsidiary of Fujitsu Semiconductor Limited (FSL), Japan.

MarketResearchReports.Biz released a new market research report this week entitled “Metal Oxide TFT Backplanes For Displays 2014-2024: Technologies, Forecasts, Players.”

According to the new report, metal oxide display backplanes have already gone commercial. Sharp has invested in establishing a Gen8 IGZO plant at its Kameyama plant in Japan while LG has also selected IGZO backplanes for its large-sized white OLED technology. At the same time, Chinese companies such as BOE are fast playing catch up with both prototype and production capacity announcements.

IDTechEx estimates that 7 km sqr of metal oxide backplanes will be used in the OLED industry in 2024, enabling a 16 billion USD market at the display module level. The LCD display market will add an extra demand of at least 1 km sqr per year in 2024 for metal oxide backplanes.

The display industry continues to rapidly change and seek new markets. Long term trends are still prevalent and shape global activity. Examples include reducing power consumption, improving image resolution, and decreasing device thickness. At the same, the need to differentiate and capture new markets such as wearable electronics is first bringing in robust and then flexible and bendable displays. These trends will drastically affect the technology requirements at many levels including the backplane level. This will stretch several existing solutions beyond likely performance limits, thereby creating openings and opportunities for new entrants and the technology space for backplanes is complex. It consists of (a) mature technologies such as amorphous and polycrystalline silicon, (b) emerging technologies such as organic and metal oxides and (c) early state technologies such as graphene, carbon nanotubes, nanowires, etc. No single technology offers a one-size-fits-all solution and many technologies will co-exist in the market. Betting on the right technology will remain a decision-making nightmare.

It is within this emerging, complex yet changing space that metal oxide are emerging. They promise low leakage currents, high mobility, amorphousity, stability and wide bandgap. These attributes promise to enable, respectively, power consumption reduction, compatibility with current-driven OLEDs and/or 3D displays, image uniformity over large areas, long lifetime and transparency.

In the short term, this will help enable higher resolution and lower power consumption levels in displays including LCDs (particularly in medium- to large-sized displays); while in the medium- to long-term metal oxides will help enable uniform medium- to large-sized OLED displays.

The report specifically addresses the big picture – including OLED displays and lighting, to thin film photovoltaics to flexible sensors and much more. Importantly, it includes not only electronics which are printed, organic and/or flexible now, but it also covers those that will be. Realistic timescales, case studies, existing products and the emergence of new products are given, as are impediments and opportunities for the years to come.

Over 3,000 organizations are pursuing printed, organic, flexible electronics, including printing, electronics, materials and packaging companies. While some of these technologies are in use now – indeed there are three sectors which have created billion dollar markets – others are commercially embryonic.

When ClassOne Technology introduced its new Solstice electroplating systems at SEMICON West last month they didn’t expect to actually sell their first production unit off the show floor, but that’s what happened. The company reported that the Washington Nanofabrication Facility (WNF) at the University of Washington purchased the Solstice Model LT plating tool for installation at its facility in Seattle, Washington. The WNF is a national user center that is a part of the National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network (NNIN). WNF is a full-service micro and nanotechnology user facility and the largest public-access fabrication center in the Pacific Northwest. It provides 15,000 sq ft of laboratories, cleanrooms, and user spaces focused on enabling basic and applied research, advanced R&D and prototype production.

“The Solstice LT was exactly what we’ve been looking for,” said Michael Khbeis, Ph.D., Associate Director of the WNF. “It’s a very flexible development tool with the capabilities we need to serve our customers and perform a range of advanced processes — Through Silicon Via (TSV) plating and MEMS are particularly important to us. Plus, the LT price was within our budget, so we made our purchase commitment right there at the show.”

“And WNF wasn’t the only one,” noted Kevin Witt, ClassOne’s VP of Technology. “The customer interest in Solstice at SEMICON was unprecedented in my experience. We had high-level discussions with more than a dozen serious potential buyers, and many of those look like they will turn into purchase orders in the coming weeks.”

To date, ClassOne has announced two Solstice models: The semi-automated Solstice LT features 1 or 2 chambers for development and pilot lines and starts at $350k. The fully-automated, cassette-to-cassette Solstice S8 provides up to 8 process chambers, throughputs up to 75 wph and starts at $1M — which is less than half the cost of equivalent 300mm tools from the large manufacturers.

ClassOne Technology, founded in early 2013, produces new wet processing tools; and its stated mission is to offer more affordable alternatives to the large systems from larger equipment manufacturers. The company specifically focuses on the needs of cost-conscious smaller-substrate users in emerging technologies such as MEMS, LEDs, Power Devices, RF Communications, Interposers, Photonics and Microfluidics. In addition to electroplating systems, ClassOne Technology also provides advanced Spin Rinse Dryers (SRDs), Spray Solvent Tools (SSTs) and more.

“We’ve been very gratified by the overwhelming customer response we received at SEMICON,” said Byron Exarcos, President of ClassOne. “We describe what we do as ‘advanced wet processing tools for the rest of us,’ and it’s evident that users are really understanding — and appreciating — the concept.”

North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $1.41 billion in orders worldwide in July 2014 (three-month average basis) and a book-to-bill ratio of 1.07, according to the July EMDS Book-to-Bill Report published today by SEMI.   A book-to-bill of 1.07 means that $107 worth of orders were received for every $100 of product billed for the month.

The three-month average of worldwide bookings in July 2014 was $1.41 billion. The bookings figure is 2.8  percent lower than the final June 2014 level of $1.46 billion, and is 17.1 percent higher than the July 2013 order level of $1.21 billion.

The three-month average of worldwide billings in July 2014 was $1.32 billion. The billings figure is 0.7 percent lower than the final June 2014 level of $1.33 billion, and is 9.4 percent higher than the July 2013 billings level of $1.20 billion.

“Order activity for semiconductor equipment has held at a steady level so far for 2014,” said Denny McGuirk, president and CEO of SEMI. “This trend, along with improvements in semiconductor device sales and unit shipments, is consistent with our outlook for strong equipment sales growth this year.”

The SEMI book-to-bill is a ratio of three-month moving averages of worldwide bookings and billings for North American-based semiconductor equipment manufacturers. Billings and bookings figures are in millions of U.S. dollars.

 

Billings
(3-mo. avg)

Bookings
(3-mo. avg)

Book-to-Bill
February 2014

1,288.3

1,295.4

1.01
March 2014

1,225.5

1,297.7

1.06
April 2014

1,403.2

1,443.0

1.03
May 2014

1,407.8

1,407.0

1.00
June 2014 (final)

1,327.5

1,455.0

1.10
July 2014 (prelim)

1,317.6

1,413.7

1.07

Source: SEMI, August 2014

Intel Corporation and Unity Technologies today announced a strategic collaboration to advance the development of Android-based applications on Intel architecture. The agreement accelerates Intel’s mobility push as millions of developers using the Unity development platform can now bring native Android games and other apps to Intel-based mobile devices. Unity adds support for Android across all of Intel’s current and future processors including both the Intel Core and Intel Atom processor families.

Unity will ensure Intel product enhancements, including both graphics and CPU performance improvements and features, will be seamlessly integrated into future releases of the Unity 4 and Unity 5 product lines. As Intel architecture continues to gain market segment share on mobile devices, these improvements will help ensure that the Unity developers’ games run natively as well as look great and perform beautifully on Intel platforms.

In addition, developers using Unity can now easily add support for Intel architecture in their applications or produce native applications for Intel architecture only with minimal extra effort.

“We’ve set a goal to ship 40 million Intel-based tablets this year and expect more than 100 Android tablet designs on Intel in the market by the end of this year,” said Doug Fisher, Intel corporate vice president and general manager of the Software and Services Group. “Our collaboration with Unity will give its nearly 3 million developers the necessary software tools and support to build amazing Android experiences on Intel architecture.”

“Unity is used by half of all mobile game developers, and many of them have been asking for increased support for Intel-based devices running Android,” said David Helgason, CEO, Unity Technologies. “We are proud to be working with Intel to ensure that Unity provides the smoothest and highest performing experience possible on Intel platforms.”

“As a mobile gaming company, Kabam relies on the Unity game engine and the compelling performance and efficiency it provides us to publish our mobile games for players around the world,” said Kent Wakeford, COO of Kabam. “We are very excited to bring Unity-authored content, such as our upcoming title, ‘Marvel Contest of Champions,’ to the rapidly growing installed base of Intel-powered Android devices.”

By Anand Sundaram, Senior Associate for PwC’s Operations Consulting

Software that controls and powers embedded devices is playing a key role in making possible the highly integrated, multi-functional ‘smart’ devices we take for granted in our daily lives – from the ubiquitous smart phones/tablet to ‘smart’ home appliances and wearable electronics.

F1

Smart Connected Device Unit shipments by Product Category, 2012-2017 (in millions). Source: IDC’s Worldwide Smart Connected Device Tracker Forecast Report, May 2013. Totals may not equal 100% due to rounding.

Despite the wide variety of features and attributes, a few key trends stand out that are common to most  devices:

  • Explosion in device functionality: Many of today’s highly-integrated devices have impressive communication, computing and sensing capabilities, resulting in the convergence of many functions on a single device.
  • Increased focus on customer experience: Today’s embedded devices are not only expected to deliver a rich set of features and performance at an acceptable price point, but are also expected to be aesthetically pleasing and easy-to-use – tangible attributes that directly drive a customer’s perception of value.
  • Increasing speed of innovation: In a dynamic market environment where products are being launched every 12-18 months, companies are trying to keep up with faster time-to-market expectations and driving an increased pace of innovation.

This results in intense competition, constant product category reinvention, and price/cost pressures for OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers). However, there is also an impact on the broader value chain, including device makers that design and sell semiconductor chips for these embedded applications. Embedded device OEMs, under tremendous pressure to improve their time-to-market and reduce costs, have begun requiring semiconductor companies to provide not just a chip, but a complete system solution. This is vastly different from the reality of the decades past (figure 2b), where OEMs played the role of system software integrators, requiring System-on-a-Chip (SoC) vendors to provide just the basic, lower-level building blocks.

F2

Embedded Software Model and Work-Split

What does this increased responsibility for embedded software mean for semi device makers?  Should chip makers reluctantly enter this uncharted territory, viewing it as nothing more than a “new normal” in hyper-competitive markets? Is it possible to strategically reposition their overall value proposition to build a long-term sustainable competitive advantage? Does the current operating model enable chip companies to deal with the added complexity of delivering quality embedded software? How efficient is the R&D organization in delivering to the new paradigm? As we try to find answers to these questions, let us examine the opportunities and discuss what companies should do in order to address the unique challenges that lie ahead.

Benefiting from the changing landscape

These trends have the potential to open new opportunities for semiconductor device makers, just by virtue of their position as key enablers of the value chain. Here are some ways in which companies can build a competitive advantage over rivals, if they play their cards right. Many leading companies are slowly recognizing the underlying opportunities:

  • Enhanced product differentiation: Device makers could differentiate themselves by moving to a solution offering that includes a complete library of embedded software modules – feature-rich middleware such as protocol stacks, integrated graphical user interfaces, and integrated security software. Also, they could use embedded software to deliver tremendous flexibility to incorporate evolving technology standards (e.g., communication protocols) on the same silicon device with a minor software update. Thirdly, companies could target the same device to multiple applications by using embedded software to “tune” the chip performance, thus allowing OEM customers to quickly create product variants for minor, incremental effort.
  • Increased platform leverage: Companies could employ advanced architecture exploration as part of the design process to arrive at intelligent “hardware – software” partitioning, to result in a single hardware device that can be customized to the needs of different applications or customers. Creating “common/unified” hardware, and building the differentiating functionality in software increases platform leverage (fewer distinct silicon devices), and hence improves the return on R&D investment. This strategy not only reduces the cost of designing and managing multiple silicon versions, but also simplifies the overall supply chain by reducing operational complexity.
  • New revenue streams: Although there is already a growing perception that the “value add” has increasingly come to reside in the software, much of today’s embedded software is given away for free in order to secure the “design wins”. However, opportunities to monetize it could arise if companies make the right strategic moves to hedge against a future, wherein hardware is a commodity “vehicle” to deliver value-added functionality to the end consumer. Bundled middleware and application software could be sold as packaged software or on a one-time NRE (Non-Recurring Engineering) fee followed licence royalty model for every unit sold. Significant upgrades to functionality could also be software enabled and delivered to customers remotely, for a fee.

How can companies respond?

Irrespective of where companies find themselves on this journey from chip to solution companies, it is worthwhile to take a holistic view of strategy through execution. PwC’s Product Innovation and Development team has identified a few areas of focus for device companies to help position themselves  for success:

Revisit the overall strategy:  Firstly, companies should rethink their overall strategy, focused on:

  • Their role in the evolving ecosystem and the types of embedded software to offer, e.g., system IP, firmware, and development tools, etc.
  • The markets/applications to offer system solutions, supported by customer value proposition and business case
  • An operational assessment to determine capability gaps, and how to address them, e.g., organically, via partnerships, or through M&A

The clamour of M&A activity indicates that chip vendors are acquiring software companies to rapidly gain the required system knowledge and incorporate it into their “complete solution” offerings. PwC’s analysis indicated that  between January 2010 and June 2013, semiconductor firms acquired 16 companies for system software, 3 for application software, and 8 for the software development tools. There were a total of 34 M&A transactions by semiconductor firms during this period (including private placements)

Design a new operating model: Next, companies should redesign their operating model in alignment with their strategy, focused on the following key areas:

F3

  • Agile development methodology: Companies should consider adopting the Agile methodology or its variants to helping them focus on quality, and flexibly respond to ever changing customer requirements effectively. For a detailed look at effective Agile adoption, read PwC’s whitepaper titled “Accelerating embedded software development via agile techniques: The nine strategies that lead to successful embedded software development”
  • Organizational structure: Companies should work to build a collaborative model of development that encompasses all ecosystem partners and OEM customers build teams. Cross-functional teams with broad application and system know-how will allow teams to make intelligent trade-off decisions that best suits the market or application. Teams should be accountable for overall solution, and empowered to drive rapid decision-making
  • Partnership models: Operationalizing the partnership model is essential to drive go-to-market efforts, and is achieved through a collaborative, cross-enterprise level effort that spans R&D, marketing, sales and customer support
  • Software productivity tools: Companies should evaluate and adopt new development tools that can help improve R&D productivity by speeding up the design and testing process. The increased sophistication of hardware-software co-development requires tools such as virtual prototyping, IDEs, and emulators that enable fast and effective testing of complex, deeply embedded hardware-software functionality. Specialized Requirements Management tools can also help effectively manage complex hardware/software dependencies, thereby delivering improved efficiency and quality

Conclusion

As companies embark on this operational transformation, it is important to periodically benchmark performance against leading companies. Metrics should account for effectiveness of R&D investments, development productivity, speed of execution, and quality. The new paradigm demands new solutions.

For more information contact Anand Sundaram at [email protected]

The semiconductor industry in India is estimated to grow from $10.02 billion in 2013 to $52.58 billion in 2020 at CAGR of 26.72%, according to Research and Markets new report the “Semiconductor Market in India 2014 – 2020.”

India has a very large industry base of electronics items, but there is little manufacturing base for semiconductors. As of now India doesn’t have any operational wafer fabrication plants and depends extensively on the imports. Currently, the semiconductor industry is 100% import based with India importing semiconductors worth $10 billion in 2013. Since In 2013, India spent $169 billion on oil imports, $54 billion on gold imports and $31.5 billion on electronic imports.

Semiconductors are used extensively in various applications, which offer immense potential for the growth of this industry in India. Semiconductors are used majorly in Mobile Devices, Telecommunications, Information Technology & Office Automation (IT & OA), Industrial, Automotive and other industries (Aerospace, Defense and Medical industries).

Mobile devices are expected to grow at CAGR of 33.4% from 2013 to 2020, according to this research report,. The contribution to semiconductor revenue is expected to grow from 35.4% in 2013 to 50.7% in 2020.

Telecommunication segment is expected to grow at CAGR of 26.8% from 2013 to 2020 and its contribution to total revenue will remain the same at 19.7% in 2020.

IT&OA contribution to the total semiconductor revenue will come down from 28.3% in 2013 to 17.4% in 2020 due to consolidation in this sector. This segment will grow at CAGR of 18.2% over the next seven years.

The consumer electronics segment is expected to grow at CAGR of 18.8% and the contribution to the total semiconductor revenue will come down from the current level of 5.6% in 2013 to 3.5% in 2020. Industrial electronics segment is expected to grow at CAGR of 19.6% and the contribution to the total semiconductor revenue will come down from current level of 4% to 2.7%.

Automotive electronics segment is expected to grow faster at CAGR of 30.5% from 2013 to 2020; its revenue contribution will increase from 3.2% in 2013 to 3.9% in 2020.

This study looks at the current state of the semiconductor industry in terms of products and service offerings and their growth over the last few years. The growth drivers and inhibitors of the industry are also examined in detail. The value chain of the industry in India has also been identified and mapped out. Based on all these factors, the report makes projections for the market size in 2020 in terms of products, services, application domains and overall market potential.

In addition to this, the report contains profiles of and inputs from several key companies operational in this sector. 24 companies have been extensively profiled in this report, to cover the entirety of the value chain.

Read more: Global semiconductor industry on pace for record sales through first half of 2014

Seoul Semiconductor Co., Ltd., an LED manufacturer has announced that the company was ranked as number four in the global rankings for Packaged LED Revenue in 2013 according to the market research firm IHS Technology. This is a step up from the 2012 ranking of number five global LED manufacturer despite any internal captive revenue.

One of the most important factors of Seoul Semiconductor’s consistent growth in the global LED market is based upon its established patent portfolio that consists of more than 10,000 patents. The company invests approximately 10% of its sales revenue each year into LED product research and development. Seoul Semiconductor was also the sole semiconductor company that only manufactures LED components to be selected in the 2012 and 2013 Semiconductor Manufacturing Patent Power Ranking by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

As Seoul Semiconductor has manufactured LED technology for more than 20 years, the company continues to secure its place in the global LED market with continuous improvements and advancements in its LED product portfolio. In 2006, Seoul Semiconductor launched the revolutionary direct AC LED technology ‘Acrich’ which can be driven directly from AC without an AC-DC converter. After that, Seoul Semiconductor launched the nPola LED technology to boost brightness 5-10 times that of a conventional LED. Recently in June, Seoul Semiconductor launched the next generation of smart lighting with ‘Acrich3’ IC technology.

From the early 2000s when the LED lighting market was not fully developed, Seoul Semiconductor strengthened its sales teams and global marketing strategy. The company secured its business competence by providing high-quality LED products through 50 overseas sales offices including five production sites in Europe, North America and China.

Jung-Hoon Lee, CEO of Seoul Semiconductor, notes that “Because Seoul Semiconductor has no captive market and does not produce or sell LED lighting finished goods all LED lighting manufacturers in the lighting market, which is estimated to grow to $150 Billion, are potential Seoul Semiconductor customers.”