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Technavio has added a new market research report on the global discrete semiconductors market, to its semiconductors portfolio. The global discrete semiconductors market is expected to grow at a CAGR of around 5% between 2015 and 2019. APAC dominates the global market, accounting for around 62% of the overall market revenue. The main reason for the high revenue contribution from this region is the high concentration of OEMs and ODMs in the region.

The new industry research report from Technavio discusses in detail the key drivers and trends responsible for the growth of this market and its sub-segments.

“The market vendors are offering various discrete power devices with diverse applications especially to reduce energy wastage. Vendors are increasing the power density, aiming towards energy conservation. More is the power density of discrete semiconductors, netter is the efficiency of these devices which help end-users in saving energy. Moreover, the depletion and rising cost of fossil fuels have made energy conservation a requirement, resulting in the augmented adoption of discrete power semiconductors over the next few years,” said Navin Rajendra, Lead Analyst, Hardware & Semiconductor, Technavio Research.

Automotive segment is the fastest growing segment of the overall discrete semiconductors market. To reduce the dependence on fossil fuels and to reduce environmental hazards, the automotive sector is shifting to hybrid vehicles. Also, these vehicles have more semiconductor content compared to traditional automobiles. This change has raised the demand and requirement for power efficiency fulfilled by the discrete power semiconductors.

The key vendors in the global discrete semiconductors market include Fairchild, Infineon, and NXP. The market is expected to witness a significant push for investments in R&D by the leading market vendors during the forecast period. The main area of vendor focus in the market is toward energy conservation. Many vendors are engrossed in increasing power density, and it is expected to positively impact the implementation of discrete power in newer application areas.

A more detailed analysis is available in the Technavio report, Global Discrete Semiconductors Market 2015-2019.

GaN Systems, a manufacturer of gallium nitride power transistors, announces that its foundry, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (TSMC), has expanded the high volume production of products based on GaN System’s proprietary Island Technology by 10X in response to surging global demand from consumer and enterprise customers. GaN Systems has the industry’s broadest and most comprehensive portfolio of GaN power transistors with both 100V and 650V GaN FETs shipping in volume.

Transistors based on GaN Systems’ Island Technology and using TSMC’s GaN fab process boast the best performance and Figure of Merit in the industry, easily outstripping the capabilities of the world’s highest performance silicon power semiconductors, the latest silicon carbide devices and competing gallium nitride products. The unique combination of TSMC’s gallium nitride process and GaN Systems’ proprietary Island Technology design is further enhanced by GaNPX packaging, which delivers high current handling, extremely low inductance and exceptional thermal performance. GaN Systems’ power switching transistors continue to lead the gallium nitride market, providing best-in-class 100V and 650V devices and driving product innovation ranging from thinner TVs to extended range electric vehicles.

Sajiv Dalal, VP Business Management at TSMC, comments, “We are delighted to confirm that our collaboration with GaN Systems has brought the promise of gallium nitride from concept through reliability testing and on to volume production.”

Adds Girvan Patterson, GaN Systems’ President, “GaN has emerged as the power semiconductor solution of choice. Smart mobile devices, slim TVs, games consoles, automotive systems and other mass volume items have been designed with GaN transistors as the enabling power technology, so it is imperative that devices are available in correspondingly large quantities. Using our patented Island Technology, we have designed and made available for widespread adoption GaN power solutions that greatly exceed the performance standards exhibited by silicon devices. That is why, after three years of working together, we are so excited to formally announce our collaboration with TSMC, the world’s leading third-party semiconductor manufacturing company and a byword for quality and service industry-wide.”

Delivering large volumes of highly reliable GaN transistors in near-chipscale packaging is the culmination of a journey GaN Systems began in 2008. The company was founded with the mission of creating a low cost, highly reliable GaN-on-Silicon product based on Island Technology, a method of creating small islands where electro-migration is mitigated, die size is minimized and very high current devices realized with high yield. Using Island Technology with TSMC’s GaN-on-Silicon manufacturing techniques enabled GaN Systems to deliver the most usable, high performance, normally-off transistor to the market in mid-2014. This has allowed global power system manufacturers in the energy storage, enterprise and consumer markets to design, develop, test and bring to market more powerful, lighter and far smaller new products in their quest to attain competitive edge. To meet customers’ increasing demand for high GaN volumes in 2016, TSMC’s commitment to volume production flow comes at the perfect time.

Lattice Semiconductor Corporation, a manufacturer of programmable logic devices, has appointed Glen Hawk as COO.

This is a new position for the Company. Mr. Hawk previously served as the Company’s Corporate vice president, Chief Marketing Officer.

In his new role as COO, Mr. Hawk will be responsible for all aspects of the Company’s operations, sales and marketing functions. He will report directly to the Company’s President and CEO, Mr. Darin G. Billerbeck. Darin G. Billerbeck, President and CEO, said, “We are pleased that Glen has agreed to take on the expanded role of COO. His extensive semiconductor industry experience, market insight and drive make him ideal for this position. Glen’s direct role in helping companies to create value through growth and market differentiation will continue to benefit Lattice as we move forward.”

Glen Hawk, COO, said, “I joined Lattice Semiconductor earlier this year because I was excited about the Company’s long-term prospects. I look forward to partnering with Darin and the leadership team to accelerate growth by delivering compelling FPGA, ASSP and millimeter wave solutions to our customers.”

Glen Hawk joined Lattice Semiconductor in May 2015 as Corporate vice president, Chief Marketing Officer after serving as vice president and General Manager of the NAND Solutions Group at Micron Technology. During his time at Micron, Mr. Hawk directed the activities of 1,200 employees. Before Micron, Mr. Hawk was vice president, General Manager of the Embedded Business Group at Numonyx and was at Intel for 22 years in both engineering and business functions, including General Manager of Intel’s Flash Products Group. Mr. Hawk started his career at Monolithic Memories developing Programmable Array Logic technologies.

Vistec Electron Beam GmbH, a supplier of electron-beam lithography systems, announced that it has established a show room facility in Schaumburg, IL to promote and demonstrate their Variable Shaped Beam systems specifically for the US and North America market.

The show room facility in Schaumburg is designed to demonstrate the functionality and operation of Vistec’s ebeam equipment and to provide an insight into its various applications. The key component of the facility is a fully operational Vistec SB254 electron-beam lithography system, installed in a clean room of 970sqft., supplemented by a set of process and measurement equipment for standard sample processing.

“We are very pleased to be able to offer such a demonstration capability to potential North America market customers. The availability of the show room facility shall manifest our commitment to this important high technology region, it will foster our activities to better understand customer needs and shall help to provide tailored solutions to their specific requirements,” said Wolfgang Dorl, General Manager of Vistec Electron Beam.

AKHAN Semiconductor, Inc., a developer of diamond semiconductor technology, celebrated the opening of its new global headquarters and production facility in Gurnee, Illinois, and announcing that its first commercial customer will take delivery of the first AKHAN diamond semiconductor based-technology products in Q1 2016.

The ceremony is being attended by Gurnee Mayor Kristina Kovarik, US Senator Dick Durbin, Illinois State Senator Melinda Bush, US Representatives Randy Hultgren and Robert Dold, or designees, and numerous other state, local, and international dignitaries.

AKHAN is actively hiring to staff the new facility, which is expected to employee 100 people in the next two years.

“As a native of Gurnee, I am proud to help spur a new era of innovation and semiconductor technology in my hometown, in the state of Illinois, right here in the Diamond Prairie,” said Adam Khan, CEO and Founder of AKHAN Semiconductor. “The opening of our new global headquarters and production facility is just the first step in our goal to transform the chip industry and to extend Moore’s Law. Our diamond semiconductor-based technology will enable a new generation of commercial, industrial and consumer products such as flexible and transparent displays that can be used in wearables and thinner consumer devices that last longer. On the commercial side, we expect to develop new products such as diamond windows for industrial, defense and aerospace applications.”

AKHAN’s technology is based on a new process that uses man-made diamond rather than silicon to produce new chip materials that are more cost effective, operate at higher temperatures, are thinner and require less power. It is a result of the marriage of two scientific breakthroughs: ability to use nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) films and a new doping process the makes it possible to use NCD as a semiconductor material.

The AKHAN facility is slated to begin production in Q1 2016 and will produce and deliver more than 1,000 diamond-based technology windows.

North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $1.33 billion in orders worldwide in October 2015 (three-month average basis) and a book-to-bill ratio of 0.98, according to the October EMDS Book-to-Bill Report published today by SEMI. A book-to-bill of 0.98 means that $98 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 October 2015 was $1.33 billion. The bookings figure is 14.7 percent lower than the final September 2015 level of $1.55 billion, and is 20.3 percent higher than the October 2014 order level of $1.10 billion.

The three-month average of worldwide billings in October 2015 was $1.36 billion. The billings figure is 9.1 percent lower than the final September 2015 level of $1.50 billion, and is 14.7 percent higher than the October 2014 billings level of $1.18 billion.

“Both bookings and billings weakened for the second consecutive month; however, year-to-date bookings and billings levels remain above last year’s levels,” said Denny McGuirk, president and CEO of SEMI. “SEMI will update its 2016 equipment outlook during SEMICON Japan next month.”

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
May 2015 $1,557.3 $1,546.2 0.99
June 2015 $1,554.9 $1,517.4 0.98
July 2015 $1,556.2 $1,587.3 1.02
August 2015 $1,575.9 $1,670.1 1.06
September 2015 (final) $1,495.0 $1,554.9 1.04
October 2015 (prelim) $1,358.4 $1,325.8 0.98

Source: SEMI (www.semi.org), November 2015

Inotera appoints new president


November 19, 2015

Inotera’s board of directors announced this week that they have approved the appointment of Mr. Rod Morgan as president, succeeding Dr. Scott Meikle. The change is effective January 1, 2016.

Mr. Morgan is currently Special Assistant of Inotera. Prior to joining Inotera, he was vice president of Procurement at Micron Technology, Inc. Before that, he served as co-executive officer of IM Flash Technologies, LLC. Mr. Morgan joined Micron in 1984 and held numerous leadership roles in manufacturing operations, including Fab Manager, Manufacturing Integration Manager, Key Equipment Group Director, and Site Director.

The board of directors announced that Dr. Pei-Ing Lee, currently serving as president of Nanya Technology Corporation, was elected to be the new chairman of the company. The election is effective November 10, 2015.

Inotera is a DRAM manufacturing venture between US memory giant Micron Technology Inc. and DRAM chipmaker Nanya Technology.

Inotera plans to fully convert all its production to 20nm chips by the end of the second quarter next year. At end of this year, the chipmaker plans to convert 80 percent of its 30nm chips into 20nm.

GLOBALFOUNDRIES today announced it has been presented with an Award of Excellence from INOVA Semiconductors GmbH, a specialist in the development of products for Gigabit/s serial data communication for in-vehicle Display- and Driver Assistance Systems.

This award acknowledges GLOBALFOUNDRIES for its ability to achieve top quality and yield performance for the silicon wafers produced specifically for the customer’s RF communication products used in the automotive market. Driven by “Zero Excursion, Zero Defect” (ZEZD) mindset, this is a testament to GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ continuous strive for improvement to increase initial product quality and reduce wafer failure rate after delivery.

“Achieving zero defect is our goal and GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ proven expertise in the automotive semiconductor supply chain plays an important role in helping us to reach that goal,” said Robert Kraus, INOVA Semiconductors CEO.

“It is a great honor for GLOBALFOUNDRIES to receive this award from INOVA. This award further solidifies our position in serving the automotive market over a decade with high quality and reliability standard, and propel us to become a leading foundry in this segment,” said KC Ang, SVP and General Manager for GLOBALFOUNDRIES Singapore.

GLOBALFOUNDRIES completes a range of industry certifications and audits every year in its continuous commitment to semiconductor quality and reliability. Every fab in Singapore are certified or exceeding ISO-TS 16949, ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001, including the customer-led VDA6.3 audits that exceed the TS16949 standard. GLOBALFOUNDRIES is also a member of the Automotive Electronics Council (AEC) which sets global industry standards for automotive semiconductor quality.

TowerJazz, a global specialty foundry, announced today it has signed an agreement with Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. to purchase Maxim’s 8-inch fabrication facility in San Antonio, Texas, United States.

The proposed purchase will expand TowerJazz’s current worldwide manufacturing capacity, cost-effectively increasing production by approximately 28,000 wafers per month. The availability of additional capacity is expected to be needed to serve TowerJazz’s current and forecasted robust customer demand. TowerJazz and Maxim expect to close the transaction in January 2016, subject to customary closing conditions.

As part of the transaction, the companies have also signed a long-term supply agreement for TowerJazz to manufacture products for Maxim in the San Antonio facility. The transaction is to be paid with TSEM ordinary shares with a total value of approximately 40 million US dollars.

All of the site’s nearly 500 employees will be retained. The headcount consists of production operators, highly experienced production support personnel and process and integration engineers, the majority of which possess graduate degrees.

The facility can support the advanced analog platforms using geometries down to 130nm and can be used also to manufacture third party products using TowerJazz specialty process technologies. TowerJazz plans to quickly qualify its core specialty technologies, including its advanced Radio-Frequency Silicon-on-Insulator (RF-SOI) offering, to serve the substantial growth in demand from its customers.

“We are very excited about this fab purchase. It will provide a quick solution for our significantly growing customer demand, while gaining additional high quality manufacturing capabilities and global flexibility with the incremental capacity,” said Dr. Itzhak Edrei, TowerJazz’s President. “The multi-year supply agreement with Maxim and the new available capacity will enable continuous growth with increased manufacturing scale to support our position as the worldwide leading specialty analog foundry.”

“We know Maxim very well, having been their supplier for a family of high-end SiGe based products for many years. During this period we have developed an appreciation for Maxim’s technical capabilities, business vision and corporate culture. Above all, we built a strong relationship of mutual trust and respect,” said Russell Ellwanger, TowerJazz’s Chief Executive Officer. “The San Antonio factory enables us to further strengthen our relationship with Maxim, in a true win-win business model enabling TowerJazz incremental capacity supported by a proven high performing technical and operational team.”

“We needed a trusted partner to manage our proprietary process technology who also shared our commitment to the employees in San Antonio. Tower Jazz has a proven track record with Maxim and similar beliefs about employees, so this is a natural fit. I look forward to our continued partnership over the coming years,” said Vivek Jain, Senior Vice President of Maxim Integrated’s Technology and Manufacturing Group. “With this arrangement, we will continue to support our customers for years to come, improve utilization in our Oregon fab, and advance our manufacturing flexibility.”

TowerJazz manufactures integrated circuits, offering a broad range of customizable process technologies including: SiGe, BiCMOS, mixed-signal/CMOS, RF CMOS, CMOS image sensor, integrated power management (BCD and 700V), and MEMS. TowerJazz also provides a world-class design enablement platform for a quick and accurate design cycle as well as Transfer Optimization and development Process Services (TOPS) to IDMs and fabless companies that need to expand capacity.

To provide multi-fab sourcing and extended capacity for its customers, TowerJazz operates two manufacturing facilities in Israel (150mm and 200mm), one in the U.S. (200mm) and three additional facilities in Japan (two 200mm and one 300mm) through TowerJazz Panasonic Semiconductor Co. (TPSCo), established with Panasonic Corporation of which TowerJazz has the majority holding. Through TPSCo, TowerJazz provides leading edge 45nm CMOS, 65nm RF CMOS and 65nm 1.12um pixel technologies, including the most advanced image sensor technologies.

Novel, chemically precipitated sub-micron silver materials from Ames Goldsmith Corporation will be introduced Nov. 18 at Printed Electronics 2015 in Hall C, Booth R20. This proprietary technology platform enables fine-line flexible circuits, allowing product designers more versatility and greater freedom to incorporate electronics into broader applications than previously possible to expand commercialization of advanced technologies such as flexible displays and printed, flexible circuits.

Average particle sizes range between 200–400 nanometers. Ames controls particle synthesis of the sub-micron silver material via chemical precipitation, which allows its surface chemistry to be tailored to match customers’ needs to optimize specific ink systems. This produces conductive inks, pastes, and adhesives with controlled rheology and viscosity for finer and sharper line definition.

Ames Goldsmith controls synthesis of its proprietary sub-micron Ag material via chemical precipitation to produce well-defined, uniform spherical particles to customers’ targeted size and morphology with very tight distribution. Average particle sizes range between 200–400nm, with specific surface area > 1.5 m2/g and tapped density > 3.5g/cm3. The spherical sub-micron material are compatible with many solvents.

Ames Goldsmith controls synthesis of its proprietary sub-micron Ag material via chemical precipitation to produce well-defined, uniform spherical particles to customers’ targeted size and morphology with very tight distribution. Average particle sizes range between 200–400nm, with specific surface area > 1.5 m2/g and tapped density > 3.5g/cm3. The spherical sub-micron material are compatible with many solvents.

The new sub-micron silver materials offer cost-efficient performance and are commercially available in high-volume quantities.

Ames Goldsmith is a supplier of silver-based, gold, platinum, palladium and copper products to the global printed electronics, EO catalyst refining, photographic, and health care industries. Ames Goldsmith and Ames Advanced Materials Corporation develop next generation metal products for the electronics industry. The company’s Catalyst Refiners, Inc. subsidiary provides a variety of silver oxide and refining services on a global basis.