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Graham Curren, Sondrel CEO, has announced his commitment to further investment in the training of graduate engineers looking to develop a career in the IC design sector, by providing a teaching fellow, and nine scholarship awards to students engaged on the Sondrel University of Nottingham Ningbo (UNNC) School of VLSI Design.

This unique program, created in partnership with the University of Nottingham, and with the support of Mentor Graphics, is now in its third year, with over 100 students having successfully completed the course, and progressing to take up positions in the semiconductor sector. The bilingual course is run on the University of Nottingham’s Ningbo Campus, in China, as a three month intensive industry training program. There are two intakes in 2015, at the end of June, and in September, with demand continuing to be strong from students looking to enhance their EE qualifications as well as those opting to embark on a new career path.

Commenting about the award, Professor Chris Rudd, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for External Engagement at The University of Nottingham, said: “I am delighted that Sondrel has agreed to provide a scholarship fund to support integrated circuit design students and a teaching fellow at UNNC. We have an excellent relationship with Sondrel and have worked together with them very successfully over the last couple of years on the programme at our Ningbo campus. This scholarship demonstrates their commitment to build on the success of the course and we look forward to working closely with them over the years ahead to train the next generation of integrated circuit designers.”

Graham Curren, CEO of Sondrel, added: “We firmly believe in developing our new graduate talent and specifically wanted to find and train more young people for an international career in our offices around the world. Our working environment is multi-cultural and excellent communication skills coupled with cross-cultural awareness are vital for conducting business in global markets including China. These IC designers are set for an exciting career working in partnership with our clients in Europe, the US and China.”

Information on the course can be obtained from the Nottingham University website, and the Sondrel website.

Related news: 

GLOBALFOUNDRIES and SRC announce new scholarship for undergraduate engineering students

North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $1.56 billion in orders worldwide in May 2015 (three-month average basis) and a book-to-bill ratio of 0.99, according to the May EMDS Book-to-Bill Report published today by SEMI.   A book-to-bill of 0.99 means that $99 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 May 2015 was $1.56 billion. The bookings figure is 0.8 percent lower than the final April 2015 level of $1.57 billion, and is 11.0 percent higher than the May 2014 order level of $1.41 billion.

The three-month average of worldwide billings in May 2015 was $1.57 billion. The billings figure is 3.7 percent higher than the final April 2015 level of $1.51 billion, and is 11.6 percent higher than the May 2014 billings level of $1.41 billion.

“The May book-to-bill ratio slipped below parity as billings improved and bookings dipped slightly from April’s values,” said Denny McGuirk, president and CEO of SEMI.  “Compared to one year ago, both bookings and billings continue to trend at higher levels.”

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
December 2014 

$1,395.9

$1,381.5

0.99
January 2015 

$1,279.1

$1,325.6

1.04
February 2015 

$1,280.1

$1,313.7

1.03
March 2015 

$1,265.6

$1,392.7

1.10
April 2015 (final)

$1,515.3

$1,573.7

1.04
May 2015 (prelim)

$1,571.2

$1,561.4

0.99

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

Entegris, Inc., a developer of yield-enhancing materials and solutions for highly advanced manufacturing environments, announced the first shipments of production quantities of UPE (ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene) membrane from its i2M Center for Advanced Materials Science in Bedford, Massachusetts. UPE membrane is a core material used in high-purity filtration solutions for semiconductor and life sciences applications.

“In the first half of 2015, we reached multiple milestones in our expansion plan to provide new membrane technologies to solve the yield challenges our customers face to manufacture semiconductor devices,” said Entegris Vice President of the Liquid Microcontamination Control business unit, Clint Haris. “Several key customers have completed their qualification process and are now receiving i2M-based products for use in current applications, as well as for their developmental programs. We’re excited to take this step forward as we continue to commercialize other UPE-based technologies in 2015.”

The 80,000 sq. ft. facility opened in June 2014 as a $60 million investment intended to create one of the most advanced facilities of its kind. The investment included an expansion of membrane manufacturing capacity, implementation of advanced process controls and upgraded quality monitoring systems. In addition, the i2M Center is also used to develop and manufacture gas filtration and specialty coatings products.

SK Hynix Inc. announced today that it is shipping mass production volumes of 1st generation High Bandwidth Memory (HBM1) based on SK hynix’s advanced 20nm-class DRAM process technology. HBM1 represents a groundbreaking leap in performance by enabling a 1,024 bit wide memory interface to achieve 128GB/second performance while reducing power by 50% over traditional GDDR5 DRAM solutions.

HBM1 utilizes through-silicon-via technology and microbumps to interconnect 4 DRAM die and 1 base die to achieve 1GB DRAM density per device. High Bandwidth Memory is designed to be assembled onto interposers allowing high speed memory interconnect to GPUs, CPUs, ASICs and FPGAs.

In addition to the mass production announcement, SK Hynix is pleased to recognize AMD as a key partner in enabling HBM1 technology. AMD announced the Radeon R9 Fury X, the world’s first graphics card with HBM technology in Los Angeles on June 16th. The AMD Radeon R9 Fury X graphics card utilizes 4GB HBM1 to achieve up to 512GB/second memory bandwidth performance while reducing memory subsystem power by up to 85%.

“AMD has pioneered the adoption of HBM1 technology in graphics applications achieving unprecedented memory bandwidth while reducing memory subsystem power” said Joe Macri, AMD Corporate Vice President and Product CTO, “Integrating AMD’s Graphics Processing Unit and HBM1 on a single 2.5D silicon interposer represents a major step forward in high performance graphics applications.”

“High Bandwidth Memory technology is the first JEDEC standard memory targeted for interposer system-in-package applications, effectively breaking down the memory wall barrier through tight integration of DRAM and high performance processors” said Kevin Widmer, SK Hynix America Vice President of Technical Marketing, “The performance requirements of emerging graphics, computing and networking applications are driving the demand for High Bandwidth Memory.”

SK Hynix is well positioned to support customer demand for High Bandwidth Memory as part of a broad portfolio of DRAM, NAND and SSD solutions. The 1.2V 1GB HBM1 device is available now in production quantities.

Related news: 

3D NAND, MRAM, RRAM: Emerging opportunities and challenges for the changing memory market

DCG Systems, Inc. announced today that it has acquired the assets of MultiProbe, Inc., a provider of atomic force-based nanoprobing solutions for the semiconductor industry. MultiProbe was founded in 2001 to address the growing needs of failure analysis (FA) engineers and to help the industry find solutions for device technology development. DCG’s MultiProbe operations will remain in Santa Barbara, California.

Dr. Israel Niv, DCG Systems CEO and Mr. Andy Erickson, MultiProbe founder and CEO, sealing the acquisition.

Dr. Israel Niv, DCG Systems CEO and Mr. Andy Erickson, MultiProbe founder and CEO, sealing the acquisition.

“The AFP-based nanoprobers offered by MultiProbe complement DCG Systems’ SEM-based nanoprobing product portfolio,” said Dr. Israel Niv, Chief Executive Officer of DCG Systems, Inc. “Being able to call upon the strengths of two distinct technologies will help the combined companies better address the breadth of yield-limiting electrical fault issues that our diverse customer base is facing now and in the future.”

MultiProbe’s flagship product, the Hyperion, uses atomic force probe (AFP) technology to provide characterization and localization of electrical faults in transistors. The MultiProbe systems can also be operated in a mode called PicoCurrent imaging, which simultaneously displays variations in topography and conductivity, allowing engineers to quickly identify anomalous features that can be further investigated by transistor probing.

DCG’s flagship nanoprobing system, the nProber II, is built upon a scanning electron microscope (SEM) platform. Like the Hyperion, the nProber II system delivers electrical fault localization and characterization of transistors. The nProber II can also be operated in electron-beam current (EBC) mode to localize surface and sub-surface shorts, opens and resistive faults within interconnect structures.

“I am pleased to hand over the reins of MultiProbe to DCG Systems at a time when nanoprobing is becoming increasingly critical to yield engineering,” said Andy Erickson, founder and Chief Executive Officer of MultiProbe. “In addition, our customers will benefit from the strength of the combined worldwide applications and service team.”

Both the Hyperion and nProber II nanoprobing systems have been installed at multiple customer sites worldwide, where they are being used to accelerate development and yield of devices down to the 10nm node.

Headquartered in Fremont, California, DCG Systems, Inc. is a supplier of electrical fault characterization, localization and editing equipment, serving process development, yield ramp and failure analysis applications for a wide range of semiconductor and electronics manufacturers. DCG Systems has field offices in the United States, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Israel and Germany.

SEMI today announced that SEMICON West 2015 will feature the Silicon Innovation Forum (SIF), a unique forum for strategic investors and key decision makers to meet new and emerging early-stage companies developing the future of microelectronics.  SIF is organized by SEMI (www.semi.org) in partnership with top research institutes and strategic investment groups such as Applied Ventures, Intel Capital, Samsung Ventures, and more. The event is strategically co-located with SEMICON West (www.semiconwest.org) – the U.S. electronics manufacturing event.

“Investment in semiconductor equipment and materials is increasingly crowded out by VC’s interest in software, media and entertainment and biotechnology segments. Traditional venture capital and private attention to advanced semiconductor technology development has declined in recent years, putting the future of microelectronics innovation at risk. SIF helps accelerate R&D in our industry and encourages continued innovation from new sources,” said Karen Savala, president of SEMI Americas.

SIF brings together research institutes and emerging companies in the electronics manufacturing sector with the industry’s  strategic investors and leading technology partners ─ for a two-day forum of investor panels, startup pitches, round tables, keynotes, research forum and an innovator showcase.

The Silicon Innovation Forum will be held July 14 and 15 at Moscone Center in San Francisco, Calif.  SIF includes:

“Startup/Investor Forum” agenda (July 14):

·   “Investor Pitch” Session: SIF exhibitors present directly to a panel of top investors. Examples of exciting new technologies presented include:

— Silicon thermo electronic technology enabling wearable devices to operate using energy from body heat

— Low cost, 3D printing technology for mass production

— CMP slurries with nano-sized contact release capsules to enable planarization of high aspect ratio structures

— Power management IC with reduced footprint and thickness

— Sensors based on silicon germanium capable of detecting a broader range of the IR spectrum

— Radically new, biomedical applications for semiconductor technology

·   Investor Panel discussion

·   Awards

·   New this year: Innovation Village Startup Showcase and Research Park is a new exposition segment that includes 20 emerging startups and 10 breakthrough research organizations in an interactive exposition showcase arena.

“Research and Innovation” agenda (July 15):

 ·   Advanced Research: Includes presentations from: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, International Consortium for Advanced Manufacturing Research, SUNY Network of Excellence – Materials & Advanced Manufacturing, Novati Technologies, MIST Center, Micro/Nano Electronics Metrology at NIST, Texas State University and Georgia Tech Heat Lab

·   INNOVATE Keynote and Reception at Innovation Village: An exclusive networking session for investors, SIF exhibitors and session partners.  Advanced registration is required.

Attendees at the Silicon Innovation Forum will include entrepreneurs engaged in silicon innovation, investment professionals from angel, venture, corporate and institutional communities, and senior executives from the microelectronics industries.

For information on exhibiting at the Silicon Innovation Forum, contact Ray Morgan, SEMI Americas at [email protected] or visit www.semiconwest.org/sif.

Today, SEMI announced that SEMICON Europa 2015, the region’s largest microelectronics manufacturing event, will offer new themes to support the semiconductor industry’’s development in Europe. The exposition and conferences will take place in Dresden on October 6-8. SEMICON Europa will feature over 100 hours of technical sessions and presentations addressing the critical issues and challenges facing the microelectronics industries. Registration for visitors and conference participants opens today.

For the first time, SEMICON Europa will offer specific sessions on microelectronics in the automotive and medical technology segments as well as events focusing on microelectronics for the smart factory of the future. “SEMICON Europa will be the forum bringing semiconductor technology in direct contact with the industries that are driving chip usage the most right now,” explains Stephan Raithel, managing director in Berlin at SEMI. “The largest growth rates over the next few years will be in the automotive industry, medical technology, and communication technology – exactly the application areas that we are focusing on at SEMICON Europa this year.”

Materials and equipment for the semiconductor industry will remain the core of SEMICON Europa 2015. However, programs will also include new areas including imaging, low power, and power electronics. In addition, Plastic Electronics 2015, the world’s largest conference with exhibitions in the field of flexible, large-scale and organic electronics, will complement SEMICON Europa. In all, the SEMICON Europa 2015 conference program includes over 40 trade conferences and high-quality discussion forums.

At the Fab Managers Forum, Reinhard Ploss, CEO of Infineon Technologies AG, and Hans Vloeberghs, European Business director of Fujifilm, will be the keynote speakers, focusing on how the European semiconductor industry can improve its competitiveness. The Semiconductor Technology Conference, focusing on productivity enhancements for future advanced technology nodes in semiconductor technology, features keynote speakers Peter Jenkins, VP of Marketing at ASML; Niall MacGearailt, Advanced Manufacturing Research program manager at Intel; and Paul Farrar, GM for the consortium G450C at SUNY Polytechnic Institute’s Colleges of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, which works on creating the conditions necessary for producing chips on 450mm wafers.

New at SEMICON Europa 2015: SEMI and its German partner HighTech Startbahn are expanding the Innovation Village. Innovation Village is the ideal forum for European startups and high-growth businesses in search of investors. Sixty start-up/young businesses will have the opportunity to present their ideas and their business model to potential investors and industry partners. The application deadline is June 15.

Over 400 exhibitors at SEMICON Europa represent the suppliers of Europe’s leading microelectronics companies. From wafers to the finished product and every element in between, SEMICON Europa displays the best of the microelectronics manufacturing. The exhibitor markets include semiconductors, MEMS, consumables, device fabrication, wafer processing, materials, assembly and packaging, process, test, and components.

To learn more (exhibition or registration), please visit: www.semiconeuropa.org/en.

Europe’s leading nanoelectronics institutes, Tyndall National Institute in Ireland, CEA-Leti in France and imec in Belgium, have entered a €4.7 million collaborative open-access project called ASCENT (Access to European Nanoelectronics Network). The project will mobilize European research capabilities at an unprecedented level and create a unique research infrastructure that will elevate Europe’s nanoelectronics R&D and manufacturing community.

ASCENT opens the doors to the world’s most advanced nanoelectronics infrastructures in Europe. Tyndall National Institute in Ireland, CEA-Leti in France and imec in Belgium, leading European nanoelectronics institutes, have entered into a collaborative open-access project called ASCENT (Access to European Nanoelectronics Network), to mobilise European research capabilities like never before.

The €4.7 million project will make the unique research infrastructure of three of Europe’s premier research centres available to the nanoelectronics modelling-and-characterisation research community.

ASCENT will share best scientific and technological practices, form a knowledge-innovation hub, train new researchers in advanced methodologies and establish a first-class research network of advanced technology designers, modellers and manufacturers in Europe. All this will strengthen Europe’s knowledge in the integral area of nanoelectronics research.

The three partners will provide researchers access to advanced device data, test chips and characterisation equipment.  This access programme will enable the research community to explore exciting new developments in industry and meet the challenges created in an ever-evolving and demanding digital world.

The partners’ respective facilities are truly world-class, representing over €2 billion of combined research infrastructure with unique credentials in advanced semiconductor processing, nanofabrication, heterogeneous and 3D integration, electrical characterisation and atomistic and TCAD modelling. This is the first time that access to these devices and test structures will become available anywhere in the world.

The project will engage industry directly through an ‘Industry Innovation Committee’ and will feed back the results of the open research to device manufacturers, giving them crucial information to improve the next generation of electronic devices.

Speaking on behalf of project coordinator, Tyndall National Institute, CEO Dr. Kieran Drain said: “We are delighted to coordinate the ASCENT programme and to be partners with world-leading institutes CEA-Leti and imec. Tyndall has a great track record in running successful collaborative open-access programmes, delivering real economic and societal impact. ASCENT has the capacity to change the paradigm of European research through unprecedented access to cutting-edge technologies. We are confident that ASCENT will ensure that Europe remains at the forefront of global nanoelectronics development.”

“The ASCENT project is an efficient, strategic way to open the complementary infrastructure and expertise of Tyndall, Leti and imec to a broad range of researchers from Europe’s nanoelectronics modelling-and-characterisation sectors,” said Leti CEO Marie–Noëlle Semeria. “Collaborative projects like this, that bring together diverse, dedicated and talented people, have synergistic affects that benefit everyone involved, while addressing pressing technological challenges.”

“In the frame of the ASCENT project, three of Europe’s leading research institutes – Tyndall, imec and Leti – join forces in supporting the EU research and academic community, SMEs and industry by providing access to test structures and electrical data of state-of-the-art semiconductor technologies,” stated Luc Van den hove, CEO of imec. “This will enable them to explore exciting new opportunities in the ‘More Moore’ as well as the ‘More than Moore’ domains, and will allow them to participate and compete effectively on the global stage for the development of advanced nano-electronics.”

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No. 65384.

Orbotech Ltd. today announced that SPTS Technologies, an Orbotech company and supplier of advanced wafer processing solutions for the global semiconductor and related industries, is named as one of the  2015 10 BEST Suppliers of Chip Making Equipment by VLSIresearch in the Focused Suppliers segment. SPTS also ranked as a 2015 THE BEST Supplier in the Fab Equipment category in the VLSIresearch annual Customer Satisfaction Survey.

“Establishing close relationships with our customers and consistently delivering on commitments are paramount in an industry where we’re continually pushing the boundaries of process technologies,” stated Kevin Crofton, President of SPTS Technologies and Corporate Vice President at Orbotech. “Achieving extraordinary customer satisfaction is the number one goal of everyone at SPTS. To be recognized as one of the 10 BEST suppliers by our customers is a real testament to the performance of our etch, deposition and thermal solutions and the exceptional support delivered by our global team.”

The survey, which is based on actual feedback from leading IC manufacturers worldwide, received feedback on 3,842 equipment suppliers who were rated among fifteen categories based on three key factors: supplier performance, customer service, and product performance.  The 10 BEST Chip Making Equipment Supplier awards recognizes each supplier as a whole, regardless of product type, then categorizes as either Large or Focused based on average revenues across all its markets.  The survey named SPTS a 10 BEST Supplier in the Focused segment, and further awarded SPTS a THE BEST Supplier in the Fab Equipment category.

G. Dan Hutcheson, CEO and Chairman of VLSIresearch Inc., commented, “SPTS received top marks from its customers, with their highest ratings in the categories of Field Engineering Support, Recommend Supplier, and Partnering. SPTS exemplifies the characteristics customers require from their suppliers, and their impressive commitment to customers is reflected in their ‘BEST’ supplier rankings.”

Crofton added, “We are extremely proud to have received such outstanding ratings from our customers, which has ranked us among the 10 BEST suppliers out of the 3,842 companies rated in the survey. We have an ongoing program of obtaining customer feedback and monitoring our own customer satisfaction scores. However, the VLSIresearch survey is an industry-wide publicly available opportunity for customers to provide feedback, which makes this recognition even more important and rewarding. We are grateful to our customers for publicly making us a 2015 10 BEST supplier.”

Integrated Silicon Solution, Inc. today announced that it has finalized a definitive agreement to be acquired by Cypress Semiconductor Corporation for $20.25 per share in cash. The definitive terms and conditions of a merger agreement detailing the current Cypress offer have been fully negotiated, and the merger agreement is subject only to execution by the parties.

The ISSI Board of Directors has determined in good faith (after consultation with its financial advisor and outside legal counsel), taking into account all relevant legal, financial and regulatory aspects of the current Cypress offer and the likelihood of consummation of such transaction, that the current Cypress offer would be more favorable from a financial point of view to the ISSI stockholders than the merger under the Uphill Agreement and that the failure to enter into a definitive agreement with Cypress on the terms in the current Cypress offer would reasonably be expected to be inconsistent with its fiduciary duties under Delaware Law.

As required by the terms of the Uphill Agreement, ISSI has notified Uphill of the determination by the ISSI Board and provided Uphill with copies of the proposed transaction documents relevant to the current Cypress offer.  In this notice, Uphill was informed that the ISSI Board is prepared to approve or recommend the Cypress offer and terminate the Uphill Agreement to enter into a definitive agreement with Cypress unless Uphill delivers within four days a written, binding and irrevocable offer to modify the terms of the Uphill Agreement in a manner such that the ISSI Board, shall have determined in good faith, after considering the terms of such offer, that the Cypress offer no longer constitutes a Superior Proposal (as defined in the Uphill Agreement). This four day period will expire at 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time on Sunday, June 14, 2015.  ISSI and its representatives are prepared to negotiate in good faith with Uphill and its representatives regarding any modifications to the terms of the transaction contemplated under the Uphill Agreement, such that the current Cypress offer would no longer constitute a Superior Proposal.

As a result of the foregoing, the ISSI special meeting of stockholders that was scheduled for June 12, 2015 at 2:00 p.m., local time, will not occur until at least June 19, 2015.

The ISSI Board of Directors is not withholding, withdrawing, qualifying, amending or modifying its recommendation with respect to the Uphill Agreement and the merger with Uphill, is not proposing to do so, and is not making any recommendation with respect to the current Cypress offer at this time.

ISSI is a fabless semiconductor company that designs and markets high performance integrated circuits