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The Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA) Board of Directors has appointed Dr. Lisa Su, President and Chief Executive Officer of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD), as Chair of GSA Board of Directors and Simon Segars, Chief Executive Officer of Arm, as the Vice Chair. These leaders will help drive the GSA vision to establish an efficient, profitable and sustainable global ecosystem as well as broaden the scope of GSA to represent an extended value chain to include systems, software, solutions and services, in addition to semiconductors. Under the direction of the new leadership, GSA will be launching several initiatives that support this expanded vision, including Interest Groups and Working Groups for rapidly emerging but fragmented markets like automotive, artificial intelligence and internet-of-things (IoT). The GSA has also created a Women’s Leadership Initiative and “Rising Women of Influence Award” dedicated to highlighting and honoring key female executive leaders within the industry. The award will be presented at the GSA Annual Awards Dinner on December 6.

“I’m very honored to be named as Chair of GSA Board of Directors and look forward to working with my fellow Board members to execute the expanded GSA vision,” said Dr. Lisa Su. “Semiconductors are crucial drivers for a variety of industries and rapidly growing markets such as AI, IoT, automotive, big data, cloud computing and 5G. This industry is going through radical growth and transformation which demands new and different thinking, including an emphasis on stronger collaboration across the entire ecosystem to increase our pace of innovation.”

GSA will execute its vision with several new initiatives including strategically planned Interest Groups, that will convene the value chain in rapidly growing market segments like IoT and Automotive to collaborate on programs and projects important to the industry. Simon Segars outlined one of these collaborative programs. “We have established a GSA IoT Security Working Group within the IoT Interest Group to address end-to-end issues in IoT Security. It is comprised of various IoT ecosystem security stakeholders including chipset vendors, platform companies, cloud vendors and service providers. The goal is to promote best practices on IoT Security, share information on threats and attacks, define security requirements and inform standards bodies. It is also an opportunity for GSA members and partners to influence the requirements for security that get passed to all participants in the value and supply chains.”

“The GSA Board of Directors is comprised of a literal “Who’s Who” of leaders within the semiconductor ecosystem,” said Jodi Shelton, Co-founder and President of GSA. “They represent some of the most influential companies in the industry providing a comprehensive global perspective. As the CEO of AMD, Lisa understands the value of collaboration. We are confident Lisa and Simon will advance the GSA commitment to being a meaningful platform fostering collaboration, innovation and integration for this industry and across the value chain.”

Dr. Lisa Su is AMD president and chief executive officer and serves on the company’s board of directors. Previously, Dr. Su held executive leadership and engineering positions with AMD, Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. and IBM after receiving her bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In 2017, Dr. Su was named one of the “World’s 50 Greatest Leaders” by Fortune Magazine and the “Top Ranked Semiconductor CEO” by Institutional Investor Magazine. Under Dr. Su’s leadership, AMD has introduced two completely new chip architectures and more than ten different product families, resulting in double-digit annual revenue growth in 2017.

Simon Segars is chief executive officer of Arm. Since joining Arm as one of its first employees, Simon has driven technical and business innovations to help transform the company into the leading architect of the most pervasive compute technology the world has ever seen. He was named CEO in July 2013 after successfully expanding the company’s U.S. business and strengthening its leadership and relationships in Silicon Valley, where he still lives with his family. Simon earned his BEng in electronic engineering from the University of Sussex and an MSc in computer science from the University of Manchester.

By Emir Demircan

SEMI Europe today confirmed its support for the joint call to future Members of the European Parliament to put industry at the core of the European Union’s future. The joint call is as follows:

Industry Matters for Europe and Its Citizens

European industry is everywhere in our daily life: from the houses we build, the furniture we buy, the clothes we wear, the food we eat, the healthcare we receive, the energy and means of transport we use to the objects and products ever-present in our lives. With its skilled workforce and its global reputation for quality and sustainability, industry is vital for Europe and its prosperity. Today, 52 million people and their families throughout Europe benefit directly and indirectly from employment in industrial sectors. Our supply chains, made up of hundreds of thousands of innovative SMEs and larger suppliers, are thriving and exporting European industrial excellence all over the world.

Industry Needs You!

Following the 2008 financial crisis, millions of manufacturing jobs were lost in Europe, each time bringing dramatic human and social consequences. Even now, we are still far from the employment levels seen before the crisis and jobs are vulnerable to worrying international trends, including increasing protectionism. The European Union now needs an ambitious industrial strategy to help compete with other global regions – such as China, India and the USA – that have already put industry at the very top of their political agenda.

Therefore we, industrial sectors from all branches, call on you – future Members of the European Parliament – to commit today to:

  • Put industry at the top of the political agenda of the European Parliament during the next institutional cycle (2019-2024)
  • Urge the next European Commission to shortlist industry as a top priority of its 5-year Work Programme and appoint a dedicated Vice-President for Industry
  • Uphold the next European Commission to swiftly present an ambitious long-term EU industrial strategy which shall include clear indicators and governance

We, the Signatories of this Manifesto, count on your support to make sure that Europe remains a hub for a leading, smart, innovative and sustainable industry, that benefits all Europeans and future generations. Europe can be proud of its industry. Together we must put it at the core of the EU’s future!

The joint call and the list of supporting associations can be reached here.

Emir Demircan is senior manager, Advocacy and Public Policy, at SEMI Europe. He can be reached at [email protected]. 

By Emir Demircan

SEMI recently shared industry feedback with the European Commission on the roadmap for reviewing RoHS (the Directive on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment). SEMI brought the following topics to the attention of the European Commission:

  • There exist serious inconsistencies between RoHS and REACH, e.g. different product information requirements, contradictory restrictions for certain substances, and inconsistent ways of calculating action threshold concentrations. In addition, it is not clear why certain material restrictions have been included in REACH but not in RoHS (e.g. PFOA). The requirement to ensure EEE compliance with both RoHS and REACH is damaging for manufacturers with complex and global supply chains.
  • RoHS-like laws in other countries are not realized with the same detailed requirements of RoHS. Exemptions by certain RoHS-like laws are not harmonized with RoHS, and as far as one can tell they do not expire. The basic facts about other laws in other countries should be considered by the EU in the hopes that more harmony could be built into RoHS.
  • Retaining LSSIT and LSFI exclusions in RoHS is critically important to the semiconductor industry. The justifications for their exclusion from the first two versions of RoHS are equally valid today. While some equipment categories are no longer excluded, retaining the LSSIT and LSFI exclusions allows most used equipment – vital to semiconductor manufacturing in Europe – to continue to be imported.
  • It is an economically beneficial and environmentally sound strategy to extend the useful life of semiconductor manufacturing equipment as long as possible by facilitating the acquisition of used equipment. Imported used equipment is a first placing on the EU market and carries an obligation to confirm the compliance of the equipment with RoHS. Yet, it is most likely that neither the importer nor the non-EU seller of the used equipment (who is not necessarily the OEM) can access component information necessary for compliance for the following reasons:
    • They have no access to OEM design information.
    • New research of most components cannot be done because components are not marked with complete origin information.
    • Component OEMs are non-responsive or no longer in business.

Thus, while RoHS does not currently support EU imports of used equipment, used equipment already on the EU market may be sold and resold without any RoHS burdens. Many businesses in Europe rely on imported used equipment. If adjustments are not made to RoHS, this will eventually hamper Europe’s competitiveness and jeopardize its industrial policy goals.

  • Although components themselves do not have to be CE marked for RoHS compliance, they must be RoHS-compliant for the sake of the equipment into which they are assembled. Requesting a RoHS compliance declaration for components is the most common way supply chains answer this requirement. However, RoHS compliance can depend on one or more exemptions, all of which eventually expire. A component in a warehouse that is compliant today might not be compliant next year. Actors in the supply chain have invented a variety of custom contract requirements to gather exemption-use information for components. The way forward with significant benefits is to require a RoHS declaration of compliance to exemptions relied upon to achieve RoHS compliance. This could standardize supply chain communications and reduce costs. Therefore, it is recommended that the RoHS Annex VI DoC criteria be amended to include an additional element to the effect of “Where applicable, references to the relevant exemptions given in Annex III and Annex IV on which conformity depends.”

If you have any questions on these issues, please contact Emir Demircan, senior manager, Advocacy and Public Policy,  SEMI Europe, [email protected], +32 (0) 2 609 53 18.

KLA-Tencor Corporation (NASDAQ: KLAC) has announced plans to establish a research-and-development (R&D) center in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The development is expected to include a total capital investment of more than $70 million and create up to 500 new high-tech jobs in the region over the next five years.

“Among the reasons for building a major R&D hub in the Ann Arbor and Detroit metropolitan area are the region’s attractive talent pool, relative low cost of living and proximity to Detroit Metropolitan Airport,” said Bobby Bell, chief strategy officer. “Our plan is to develop innovative solutions that will have an impact across a broad spectrum of semiconductor and electronics applications, including data storage, cloud computing, machine learning and automotive.”

“We’re confident that we can continue to create and deliver impactful technologies that ultimately help enrich the human experience. Our expansion into Michigan will help us realize our vision,” said Rick Wallace, chief executive officer. “This location also allows the company to strengthen our long-term partnership with the University of Michigan, including engaging in collaborative research.”

Semiconductor manufacturing to support the growing automotive electronics industry requires improved device reliability and defect control. In addition, the expanding applications of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are driving strong demand for compute power and memory. Semiconductor manufacturers serving these diverse needs are turning to KLA-Tencor’s advanced process control solutions and services to help address their complex challenges.

KLA-Tencor’s decision to build a new location is founded upon a need to serve growing demand from its global customer base, while expanding the company’s footprint in North America.

The project was conceived in partnership with Michigan Economic Development Corporation and approved by the Michigan Strategic Fund.

North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $2.09 billion in billings worldwide in September 2018 (three-month average basis), according to the September Equipment Market Data Subscription (EMDS) Billings Report published today by SEMI. The billings figure is 6.5 percent lower than the final August 2018 level of $2.37 billion, and is 1.8 percent higher than the September 2017 billings level of $2.05 billion.

“Quarterly global billings of North American equipment suppliers experienced their typical seasonal weakening in the most recent quarter,” said Ajit Manocha, president and CEO of SEMI. “Relative to the third quarter, we expect investment activity to improve for the remainder of the year.”

The SEMI Billings report uses three-month moving averages of worldwide billings for North American-based semiconductor equipment manufacturers. Billings figures are in millions of U.S. dollars.
Billings
(3-mo. avg.)
Year-Over-Year
April 2018
$2,689.9
25.9%
May 2018
$2,702.3
19.0%
June 2018
$2,484.3
8.0%
July 2018
$2,377.9
4.8%
August 2018 (final)
$2,236.8
2.5%
September 2018 (prelim)
$2,091.9
1.8%

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

SEMI publishes a monthly North American Billings report and issues the Worldwide Semiconductor Equipment Market Statistics (WWSEMS) report in collaboration with the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ).

Exagan, an innovator of gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductor technology enabling smaller and more efficient electrical converters, has established Exagan Taiwan Ltd. with a new sales and applications center in Taiwan – the company’s first step in its global market deployment – to accelerate the development and use of fast, intelligent GaN power solutions in the region.

The facility in Taipei’s Nankang Software Park officially opened today during ceremonies attended by Exagan’s president and CEO Frédéric Dupont, COO Fabrice Letertre and Asia sales director Ralf Kilguss. Kilguss is heading up regional sales in Asia, leveraging his 20 years of experience in the semiconductor and power electronics markets.

“With this new application center, our company experts will be able to work closely with local customers on evaluating and designing GaN-based solutions while speeding the technology’s adoption in the rapidly growing charger and server sectors, which are being driven by a very dynamic Asian market,” Dupont said.

Since its creation in 2014, Exagan has developed multiple partnerships in Asia to support its product design, development and manufacturing, thus establishing a robust supply chain with proven solutions for the targeted markets.

Earlier this year, Exagan launched its safe, powerful G-FET™ power transistors and G-DRIVE™ intelligent and fast-switching solution featuring an integrated driver and transistor in a single package. These are designed for easy system implementation in applications including servers and USB chargers.

The number of devices with at least one USB type C port for the simultaneous transfer of electrical power, data and video is forecasted to grow to nearly five billion units by 2021, according to market research firm IHS Markit, while total server shipments are expected to expand at a CAGR of 14 percent over the period of 2018 to 2023, as forecasted by Digitimes Research.

Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) today marked its 40th anniversary with a celebration on the steps of the Idaho state Capitol, one of many celebrations at Micron sites around the world.

From its early days as a startup in Boise 40 years ago, Micron has established itself as the world’s fourth-largest semiconductor company, with the broadest portfolio of memory and storage solutions in the industry. Today, Micron employs more than 34,000 people in 17 countries globally. Micron has contributed nearly 40,000 patents over the course of its history, and the company’s commitment to innovation continues to serve as an engine for its expansion and growth. Over the last 40 years, Micron’s high-performance memory and storage solutions have helped enable many broader technology advances in diverse end applications such as Personal Computing, Mobile Smartphones, Networking and Cloud Computing. In the future, Micron’s products will play an instrumental role in delivering storage and faster access to data that will continue to drive breakthroughs in new areas such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and autonomous driving.

“Our 40-year history is a great story of innovation and tenacity, and we are proud of our legacy,” Micron President and CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said. “Micron is scaling new heights and our technology is the foundation on which the AI revolution is being built. We look forward to the next decade with great optimism and excitement – and the confidence that the technology evolution is increasingly making Micron an indispensable player and key partner to the ecosystem and to our customers.”

Micron’s leadership and contributions extend to the communities in which it operates. The Micron Foundation, which the company established in 1999, has donated more than US$100 million in 17 countries. In the past two years alone, the Micron Foundation has contributed nearly $25 million globally. At the Boise celebration, Mehrotra announced the “40 For Good” program, awarding donations to four Boise-area charities. Last week at its inaugural Insight 2018 event, Micron announced a $1 million grant for universities and nonprofit organizations to conduct research on AI. The event featured keynotes and discussions with some of the industry’s most important thought leaders in the fields of AI, machine learning and data science.

At the Boise state Capitol celebration today, Idaho Gov. Butch Otter and Boise Mayor Dave Bieter joined the festivities, commending Micron on its success and commitment to local communities.

“Micron has created a vibrant legacy of leadership and innovation in their industry and an enviable record of civic involvement within our state,” Otter said. “The Micron Foundation has made tremendous investments in critical educational and community infrastructure. As one of Idaho’s largest employers, Micron has played a vital role in providing not just jobs, but meaningful careers. Through their 40 years, Micron has been a big part of Idaho’s success in diversifying our economy and expanding our economic base. With their continued wise and steady leadership, I have no doubt that Micron’s best years are yet to come.”

Business leaders around the world extended their congratulations to Micron on its 40th anniversary.

“In the course of the last 40 years when I was in the industry, many technology companies have come and gone,” NVIDIA Founder, President and CEO Jensen Huang said. “Yet the great ones, somehow, reinvent themselves, and surf the waves, and somehow are always ahead of it. Micron is one of those great companies.”

“As data continues to rise in importance, so does the need to securely and efficiently store and access it,” said Richard Yu, executive director and CEO of the Consumer Business Group for Huawei Technology Co. Ltd. “Micron has proven to be a reliable and innovative partner, helping Huawei address its data storage needs and supporting our growth as a networking and communications leader. We look forward to our future work with Micron.”

“Decades ago Micron allowed a small Dutch startup into its fab and has since been instrumental in ASML’s success. I have experienced firsthand the innovation and tenacity that have enabled Micron to survive and thrive when so many others did not,” ASML President and CTO Martin van den Brink said. “It has been a privilege to be part of Micron’s 40-year journey. Throughout the years, Micron has remained fully committed to our shared goal to successfully push leading-edge technology forward as a core differentiator. Congratulations to the whole Micron team on your 40th anniversary.”

“Micron is a longtime supplier for our business that has pivoted to provide memory solutions across Dell’s core technologies, from edge devices to data centers,” said Jeff Clarke, vice chairman, products and operations, Dell Technologies. “It is great to work with a company that not only delivers on our current needs, but listens, innovates and leads as new opportunities emerge to serve our customers.”

Seoul Semiconductor (KOSDAQ:046890), a global developer of LED products and technology, announced that it and Seoul Viosys Co., Ltd. have successfully resolved two patent infringement lawsuits filed in the U.S. Federal District Court for the Central District of California against Archipelago Lighting, Inc. (“Archipelago”), a company that sells LED light bulbs.

In 2017, Seoul filed the first patent infringement lawsuit against Archipelago for infringement of 12 LED patents covering various aspects of Seoul’s long-established Acrich technology. A few months later, Seoul filed a second patent litigation against Archipelago accusing additional products of infringement of 8 other Acrich technology patents.

In the lawsuits, Archipelago acknowledged that LED components used in its LED light bulbs were manufactured by several third party suppliers. Although Archipelago had no knowledge of any Seoul Semiconductor patents, or the possibility of infringement, Archipelago did not dispute that the LED light bulbs in question infringed Seoul Semiconductor’s patents. Archipelago also did not dispute the validity of the relevant Seoul Semiconductor’s patents and agreed to pay a license fee in order to affirm its commitment to respecting the intellectual property rights of others. Based upon these admissions, the California Central district court entered judgments in favor of Seoul in these cases. Seoul’s asserted patents include technologies for LED drivers for high-voltage operations, Acrich MJT (multi junction technology – over 6V high power chip), filament LED bulb structures, LED packaging, LED epitaxial growth, and LED chip fabrication.

Seoul is the pioneer of Acrich technology that enables high-voltage operation with a high power output using only a small number of LED units. Specifically, Acrich technology utilizes proprietary LED driver technology to enable high-voltage operation, as well as proprietary MJT technology for mounting and integrating many LEDs within a small area. This maximizes the available space in LED products and power efficiency by 20%, facilitating a simple circuit design and significantly reducing the size and cost of LED products.

Nam Ki-bum, Executive Vice President of the Lighting Department at Seoul Semiconductor, said, “While Seoul will continue enforcement actions to prevent unauthorized use of Acrich technology, we will offer a license program with reasonable terms for companies that recognize and respect the value of Acrich technology. This will promote the distribution of innovative technology products in the market.” He added, “For young entrepreneurs and small entities that wish to pursue technology innovation, this will help them achieve business success, while Seoul continuously works to encourage a fair competition market where intellectual property rights are respected.”

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.”

Semiconductors play increasingly important control roles in automotive, industrial and safety critical applications. Quality and reliability are therefore of vital importance and so Presto Engineering has completed certification to the ISO 9001:2015 quality standard at its facility in Caen, France, which is Europe’s largest independent semiconductor test facility.

“We have an extensive and comprehensive range of semiconductor test equipment,” said Dr Alban Colder, Presto’s Site Director at Caen. “This includes testing at every stage from wafer, through die, to final packed device. As part of the ISO 9001: 2015 quality standard, we have a comprehensive range of equipment for non-destructive analysis such as X-Ray to check packaging and bondings, and ultrasound to see inside a device to check for delamination, voids and cracked silicon. There is also equipment to check for failure localization by photoemission or thermal laser stimulation, and deep physical analysis, i.e. strip a device down layer by layer to see exactly where it is failing and why. Other advanced equipment such as an atomic force microscope or a scanning electron microscope are used to reveal the precise details of the structure of a chip down to a few nanometers.”

The key part of a quality system in semiconductors industry, is traceability. Detailed record keeping traces every wafer, every operation, every die and every test. Thus, in the event that there is a faulty chip in the field, it can be traced back to try and determine the cause and to see if any other chips have been affected that might necessitate a recall. In the case of an automotive recall, this could be very expensive so it is vital to be able to narrow the problem down to only the affected chips.

Martin Kingdon, Presto’s VP of Sales, added, “We have assembled a suite of state-of-the-art equipment as part of our commitment of quality and this new standard. We provide customers with a comprehensive service once they provide us with a design that covers every stage of the chip manufacturing and testing process right through to final product. As part of our quality assurance to customers, we rigorously test at every stage. Such a comprehensive test and failure analysis capability all together under one roof is very rare; usually it requires a number of different test houses which means that issues could be missed. Having all the skills and equipment together in one place means that we can keep searching until we find the cause of a problem so that it can be resolved and quality maintained.”