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Paul Lindner, executive technology director at EV Group, is the recipient of the 2015 European SEMI Award.  Since 1989, the European SEMI Award has been presented to the person or team that made significant contributions to the European semiconductor and related industries.  This award, an industry honor for Lindner, was presented at the SEMI Industry Strategy Symposium Europe 2016 conference held in Nice on 6–8 March.

Paul Lindner was nominated and selected by his peers within the international semiconductor community in recognition of his outstanding contributions in the field of wafer processing equipment.  Lindner led exceptional innovations in wafer bonding technologies at EV Group (EVG).  The process separation between wafer alignment and wafer bonding, developed in 1990, revolutionized wafer bonding technology and has since become an industry standard.  Lindner changed the way the industry builds semiconductors.  Lindner exemplifies EVG’s ongoing effort of “being the first” in exploring new techniques and serving next-generation applications of micro- and nano-fabrication technologies.

“We are very proud of SEMI Member EVG’s achievements in wafer bonding technologies and the contributions that Paul Lindner and his team have made to the semiconductor community,” says SEMI Europe president Laith Altimime.

Lindner heads the R&D, product and project management, quality management, business development and process technology departments at EVG Group. He joined EVG in 1988 as a mechanical design engineer and has since pioneered semiconductor and MEMS processing systems, which have set industry standards.

The European SEMI Award was established more than two decades ago to recognize individuals and teams who have made a significant contribution to the European semiconductor and related industries. Prior award recipients hailed from these companies: Infineon, Semilab, Deutsche Solar, STMicroelectronics, IMEC, Fraunhofer Institute, and more.

Total yearly semiconductor unit shipments (integrated circuits and opto-sensor-discrete, or O-S-D, devices) are forecast to continue their upward march and are now expected to top one trillion units for the first time in 2018, according to data presented in IC Insights’ recently released 2016 edition of The McClean Report—A Complete Analysis and Forecast of the Integrated Circuit Industry, and its soon to be released 2016 O-S-D Report—A Market Analysis and Forecast for the Optoelectronics, Sensors/Actuators, and Discretes. Semiconductor shipments in excess of one trillion units are forecast to be the new normal beginning in 2018. Figure 1 shows that semiconductor unit shipments are forecast to climb to 1,022.5 billion devices in 2018 from 32.6 billion in 1978, which amounts to average annual growth of 9.0% over the 40 year period and demonstrates how increasingly dependent on semiconductors the world has become.

The largest annual increase in semiconductor unit growth during the timespan shown was 34% in 1984; the biggest decline was 19% in 2001 following the dot-com bust. The global financial meltdown and ensuing recession caused semiconductor shipments to fall in both 2008 and 2009, the only time the industry has experienced consecutive years in which unit shipments declined. Semiconductor unit growth then surged 25% in 2010, the second-highest growth rate since 1978.

Figure 1

Figure 1

The percentage split of IC and O-S-D devices within total semiconductor units has remained fairly steady despite advances in integrated circuit technology and the blending of functions to reduce chip count within systems. In 1980, O-S-D devices accounted for 78% of semiconductor units and ICs represented 22%. Thirty-five years later in 2015, O-S-D devices accounted for 72% of total semiconductor units, compared to 28% for ICs (Figure 2).

Figure 2

Figure 2

From one year to the next year—and usually depending on the must-have electronic system or product in the market at the time—different semiconductor products emerge to experience the strongest unit shipment growth. Figure 3 shows IC Insights’ forecast of the O-S-D and IC product categories with largest unit growth rates forecast for 2016. Semiconductors showing the strongest unit growth are essential building-block components in smartphones, new automotive electronics systems, and within systems that are helping to build out of Internet of Things. More about these semiconductor products and end-use applications are included in IC Insights’ McClean Report and O-S-D Report.

GLOBALFOUNDRIES, a provider of advanced semiconductor manufacturing technology, announced today that Alain Mutricy has joined the company as senior vice president of the Product Management Group. In this role, Mutricy is responsible for the company’s leading edge and mainstream technology solutions and go-to-market activities for these differentiated products.

Mutricy succeeds Mike Cadigan, who will transition to a newly created role as senior vice president of global sales and business development.

“Alain is an accomplished senior executive with more than 25 years of experience in the consumer electronics, mobile, and semiconductor industries,” said GLOBALFOUNDRIES CEO Sanjay Jha. “He brings a strong portfolio of successes contributing to growth, profitability, and competitiveness for global product organizations, which will help him build on the strong foundation we have already established in our product management group. I am thrilled to welcome Alain to the GlobalFoundries team.”

Before joining GlobalFoundries, Mutricy was founder and executive adviser at AxINNOVACTION, a consulting firm that promotes action to unlock and accelerate innovation in big organizations, as well as co-founder and CEO of Vuezr, which attempted to revolutionize mobile direct marketing by delivering product visual recognition to consumers’ mobile devices via augmented reality.

From 2007-2012, Mutricy served as senior vice president of portfolio and device product management for mobile devices at Motorola Mobility Holdings, Inc., where he led a global team responsible for defining the company’s mobile devices product portfolio strategy and structure. He and his team advanced a strategic focus on Android-based smartphones, which included the widely acclaimed family of DROID by Motorola products. During his tenure at Motorola Mobility, Mutricy was also responsible for defining and directing the Mobile Devices business unit’s global strategy for silicon and software platforms, as well as leadership of a global R&D team responsible for designing and implementing integrated circuits, wireless chipset solutions, platform software, product software for non-CDMA products, and an ecosystem strategy for mobile devices.

Prior to joining Motorola in 2007, Mutricy served at Texas Instruments for 18 years, where he was promoted to vice president in January 2002. From 2004 until his departure from Texas Instruments, Mutricy served as vice president and general manager for the company’s Cellular Systems Solutions business. In that role, he was responsible for commercializing and building a leadership position for the company’s wireless chipset solutions for GSM/GPRS/EDGE/3G and OMAP application processors. Prior to leading Cellular Systems Solutions, Mutricy was general manager for the Texas Instruments OMAP business, which he led from start-up status to global leadership between 2000 and 2004. Additionally, from the time he joined Texas Instruments in 1989, Mutricy was promoted through a series of general- management positions, each with increasing scope and responsibility in areas including sales, marketing and general management.

Mutricy holds a master’s degree in engineering from ENSAM and an MBA from HEC Group—both in Paris.

The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) today announced worldwide sales of semiconductors reached $26.9 billion for the month of January 2016, 2.7 percent lower than the previous month’s total of $27.6 billion and 5.8 percent down from the January 2015 total of $28.5 billion. Sales into the Americas were particularly sluggish, decreasing 5.9 percent month-to-month and 16.9 percent year-to-year. All monthly sales numbers are compiled by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization and represent a three-month moving average.

“Global semiconductor sales decreased in January across most regional markets and product categories, largely due to softening demand and lingering macroeconomic headwinds,” said John Neuffer, president and CEO, Semiconductor Industry Association. “Despite these challenges, modest market growth is projected for 2016, following essentially flat sales last year.”

Regionally, sales decreased in most regions: China (-0.4 percent month-to-month/+4.3 percent year-to-year), Europe (-1.7 percent/-7.7 percent), Japan (-3.3 percent/-5.1 percent), Asia Pacific/All Other (-2.8 percent/-6.5 percent), and the Americas (-5.9 percent/-16.9 percent).

Sales also decreased across most major semiconductor product categories, with the notable exception of microprocessors, which increased year-to-year by 2.1 percent.

January 2016

Billions

Month-to-Month Sales                               

Market

Last Month

Current Month

% Change

Americas

5.75

5.41

-5.9%

Europe

2.77

2.72

-1.7%

Japan

2.57

2.48

-3.3%

China

8.45

8.41

-0.4%

Asia Pacific/All Other

8.08

7.85

-2.8%

Total

27.62

26.88

-2.7%

Year-to-Year Sales                          

Market

Last Year

Current Month

% Change

Americas

6.51

5.41

-16.9%

Europe

2.95

2.72

-7.7%

Japan

2.62

2.48

-5.1%

China

8.07

8.41

4.3%

Asia Pacific/All Other

8.40

7.85

-6.5%

Total

28.55

26.88

-5.8%

Three-Month-Moving Average Sales

Market

Aug/Sep/Oct

Nov/Dec/Jan

% Change

Americas

6.05

5.41

-10.6%

Europe

2.91

2.72

-6.4%

Japan

2.70

2.48

-7.8%

China

8.58

8.41

-1.9%

Asia Pacific/All Other

8.75

7.85

-10.2%

Total

28.97

26.88

-7.2%

Toppan Printing Co., Ltd. announced it has developed a next-generation EUV photomask for semiconductors.

The new photomask minimizes the unwanted reflection of light to peripheral sections during EUV exposure, a next-generation semiconductor manufacturing technology. Sample shipments to semiconductor manufacturers will begin in fiscal 2016, with the start of full-scale mass production slated for fiscal 2017.

Based on this technology, Toppan Printing is aiming to establish the industry standard for next-generation EUV photomasks. This development marks the first time anywhere in the world that a structure to suppress the unwanted reflection of light to peripheral sections has been created on the surface of an EUV photomask, and the areas around the pattern have been miniaturized.

By further developing and fusing its microfabrication and optical design technologies, Toppan Printing has become the first company in the world to form a special 3D structure on the light-shielding black border on the surface of an EUV photomask and reduce the reflection of OOB light by approximately 70% compared with conventional products. Transfer testing using EUV exposure machinery manufactured by ASML has verified that this new EUV photomask can reduce dimension variability on silicon substrates by two-thirds. As a result, it enables improvements in quality and yield for semiconductor patterns.

North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $1.32 billion in orders worldwide in January 2016 (three-month average basis) and a book-to-bill ratio of 1.08, according to the January EMDS Book-to-Bill Report published today by SEMI.  A book-to-bill of 1.08 means that $108 worth of orders were received for every $100 of product billed for the month.

SEMI reports that the three-month average of worldwide bookings in January 2016 was $1.32 billion. The bookings figure is 1.4 percent lower than the final December 2015 level of $1.34 billion, and is 0.1 percent lower than the January 2015 order level of $1.33 billion.

The three-month average of worldwide billings in January 2016 was $1.23 billion. The billings figure is 8.8 percent lower than the final December 2015 level of $1.35 billion, and is 3.7 percent lower than the January 2015 billings level of $1.28 billion.

“Recent semiconductor order activity is on par with the figures reported one year ago,” said Denny McGuirk, president and CEO of SEMI.  “While uncertainty clouds the near-term economic outlook, we currently expect 2016 capex to remain in range of 2015 spending.”

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
August 2015 $1,575.9 $1,670.1 1.06
September 2015 $1,495.0 $1,554.9 1.04
October 2015 $1,358.6 $1,325.6 0.98
November 2015 $1,288.3 $1,236.6 0.96
December 2015 (final) $1,349.9  $1,343.5 1.00
January 2016 (prelim) $1,231.4 $1,324.1 1.08

Source: SEMI (www.semi.org), February 2016

The annual SEMI Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Conference (ASMC 2016) will be held May 16-19 in Saratoga Springs, New York. The conference will feature 35 hours of technical presentations and over 100 experts covering all aspects of advanced semiconductor manufacturing. This year’s event features a panel discussion on “Moore’s Law… Wall vs. Wallet… Where Do We Grow from Here?” and a tutorial on Nanoscale III-V CMOS by Dr. Jesús A. del Alamo, director, Microsystems Technology Laboratories, MIT.

SEMI’s ASMC continues to provide a venue for industry professionals to network, learn and share knowledge on new and best-method semiconductor manufacturing practices and concepts.  The conference is co-chaired by Dr. Jeanne Bickford of GLOBALFOUNDRIES and Dr. Janay Camp of KLA-Tencor.  ASMC 2016 offers keynotes by Christine Furstoss, VP and technical director, Manufacturing & Materials Technologies, GE Global Research on “Advanced Manufacturing…Changing Today’s Paradigm,” and Robert Maire, president, Semiconductor Advisors, on “Is China Driving the Urge to Merge?”

The topical areas that ASMC 2016 will address include:

  • 3D/TSV
  • Advanced Equipment and Materials Processes
  • Advanced Metrology
  • Advanced Patterning
  • Advanced Process Control (APC)
  • Contamination Free Manufacturing (CFM)
  • Yield Management; Defect Inspection
  • Equipment Reliability and Productivity Enhancement
  • Factory Optimization

ASMC includes an interactive poster session and reception, which provides an ideal opportunity for networking between authors and conference attendees.

ASMC 2016 is presented by SEMI with technical sponsors: Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers (IEEE), IEEE Electron Devices Society (EDS), and IEEE Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology Society (CPMT). Corporate sponsors include: Air Liquide, Applied Materials, Applied Seals, Edwards, FEI, Greene Tweed, JT Baker – Avantor, KLA-Tencor, Nikon, and Valqua America.

Registration for ASMC 2016 is available at www.semi.org/asmc.  For more information contact Margaret Kindling at [email protected] or phone 1.202.393.5552. Qualified members of the media should contact Deborah Geiger (SEMI Public Relations) at [email protected] for media registration information.

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, or SMIC, and Leadcore Technology Co. Ltd. have announced a collaboration to launch SMIC’s 28nm High-K Metal Gate, or HKMG, process.

Based on this platform, Leadcore is launching a 28nm SoC (System on a Chip) for smartphones and other fields of applications, including high-performance application processor and mobile baseband functions. The chip has passed validation and is ready for mass production. SMIC is the first foundry to provide both 28nm PolySiON and 28nm HKMG processes in Mainland China.

Compared with the traditional PolySiON process, SMIC’s 28nm HKMG process can provide improved drive capability and transistor performance and substantially reduce gate leakage. Based on SMIC’s 28nm HKMG process platform, the Smartphone SoC launched by Leadcore has better performance, higher speed and lower power consumption, and CPU performance achieves 1.6GHz. To extend Leadcore’s success in 4G mobile communication market, this launch will expand the market share of Smartphones which are equipped with chips made in China.

“We’re glad to collaborate with Leadcore on 28nm HKMG process and develop advanced Smartphone SoC. Following the successful adoption by mainstream smartphones of the chips based on SMIC’s 28nm PolySiON process, our 28nm HKMG process has also been highly recognized by end customers and is ready for commercial use,” said Dr Tzu-Yin Chiu, CEO and Executive Director of SMIC. “We will continue to develop and improve 28nm derivative technology platforms and expect to introduce an enhanced compact version of 28nm HKMG process at the end of 2016, and provide more optimized processes to customers.”

Qian Guoliang, General Manager of Leadcore said, “Leadcore is dedicated to the R&D and application of the core technologies of 3G/4G mobile connectivity terminal and collaboration with ecosystem partners to create world-class products. This powerful industrial alliance with SMIC will promote domestic chip technology development and help Leadcore to improve the cost performance of our products to better serve the markets of Smartphone, smart car and robot and support ‘Made in China 2025.’ In the future, we will further strengthen our cooperation with SMIC and develop high-performance chip products based on more advanced technology nodes.”

Fairchild Semiconductor International, Inc. announced this week that its board of directors, after consultation with its legal and financial advisors, has determined that the unsolicited proposal received on December 28, 2015, from China Resources Microelectronics Ltd and Hua Capital Management Co., Ltd.  to acquire Fairchild does not constitute a “Superior Proposal” as defined in the Company’s Agreement and Plan of Merger with ON Semiconductor Corporation.

On January 5, 2016, Fairchild announced that the Board determined that the Acquisition Proposal would reasonably be expected to result in a Superior Proposal. The Fairchild management team, along with Fairchild’s legal and financial advisors, engaged in extensive discussions with China Resources and Hua Capital. After conducting a thorough review, and after consultation with Fairchild’s legal and financial advisors, the Board concluded that the Acquisition Proposal is not superior to Fairchild’s existing agreement with ON Semiconductor.

As previously announced on November 18, 2015, Fairchild entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger with ON Semiconductor, under which a wholly owned subsidiary of ON Semiconductor agreed to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Fairchild common stock for $20.00 per share in cash.

Fairchild remains subject to the Agreement and Plan of Merger with ON Semiconductor, and the Board has not changed its recommendation in support of that agreement.

Goldman, Sachs & Co. is acting as financial advisor to Fairchild, and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz is serving as its legal counsel.

The worldwide electronics industry is greatly influenced by consumer purchases of smartphones, PCs, automobiles, and many other devices and systems. The better the worldwide economy performs, the more money consumers will spend on electronic systems, which in turn creates a positive environment conducive to good IC market growth.  For 2016, IC Insights is taking a conservative approach to worldwide GDP with forecast growth of 2.7%, which is only slightly better than the 2.5% global GDP growth in 2015. Some observations regarding worldwide GDP include the following.

– Average annual worldwide GDP figures have declined every decade since the 1960s with a slight rebound registered in the first six years of the current decade (Figure 1). Worldwide annual GDP growth has averaged 2.8% since 1980.

– Worldwide annual GDP growth rarely goes negative (the last negative worldwide GDP year before 2009 was in 1946) and rarely goes above 5.0% (with the usual associated surge in oil prices acting as a strong limiting factor).

– A worldwide GDP growth rate of 2.5% or less is considered by most economists to be indicative of a global recession, which puts 2015’s growth right at the threshold.  Prior to the late 1990s, when emerging markets like China and India represented a much smaller share of the worldwide economy, a global recession was typically defined as 2.0% or less growth.  The global recession threshold has never been a “hard and fast” rule, but the guidelines discussed here are useful for this analysis.

IC Insights depicts the increasingly close correlation between worldwide GDP growth and IC market growth in Figure 2.

Figure 1

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 2

As seen in Figure 2, the 2010-2015 correlation coefficient between worldwide GDP growth and IC market growth was 0.92, a very strong figure given that a perfect correlation is 1.0.  In the three decades previous to this time period, the correlation coefficient ranged from a relatively weak 0.63 in the early 2000s to a negative correlation of -0.10 in the 1990s.

IC Insights believes that the growing number of mergers and acquisitions in the IC industry (discussed in detail in Section 3 of the new 2016 McClean Report) has resulted in fewer major IC manufacturers and suppliers and is just one of the major changes in the supply base that illustrates the maturing of the industry.  Other factors such as few, if any, new entry points for startup IC manufacturers, a strong movement to the fab-lite business model, and declining capex as a percent of sales ratios, are also indicative of dramatic changes to the semiconductor industry that are likely to lead to less volatile pricing and less volatile market cycles.

With forecasted annual worldwide GDP growth rates that range from 2.7% to 3.1% over the next five years, IC Insights’ IC market growth rate expectations mirror the narrow range of worldwide GDP growth.