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Lam Research Corp., a global supplier of wafer fabrication equipment and services to the semiconductor industry, today announced it has shipped the 100th Syndion module for deep silicon etch applications, including CMOS image sensors (CIS), interposers, and through-silicon vias (TSVs). Lam’s 2300 Syndion product family is the etch market leader for manufacturing advanced CIS chips, which are used in mobile, automotive, and medical devices. The systems are also used to create TSVs for stacked memory and other three-dimensional integrated circuits (3D ICs).

“We are pleased to have achieved this important milestone, which validates the trust our customers have in Syndion’s capabilities, not only to address expanding CIS applications, but also to tackle tough TSV integration challenges,” said Vahid Vahedi, group vice president, Etch Product Group. “Because of Syndion’s broad process flexibility, we are playing a critical role in supporting the industry’s transition of 3D ICs to production.”

The market for Syndion’s applications is growing with the increasing demand for new products that incorporate CIS devices and TSV structures. Widespread integration of CIS chips in mobile electronics — for example, cameras in cell phones and tablets — and for automotive and medical applications continues to fuel demand. To achieve smaller form factors and increase bandwidth for memory chips, TSVs are being integrated into manufacturing for stacked memory designs, such as those used in advanced networking systems and servers. To address requirements for faster data transfer rates, smaller package sizes, and reduced power consumption, TSVs are also being used to connect vertically stacked chips to form 3D ICs. One of the key challenges for transitioning 3D ICs to high-volume manufacturing is achieving a lower overall cost of ownership for integration.

The successful adoption of Syndion products at customers worldwide is a result of their robust design — built on Lam’s market-leading 2300 Kiyo conductor etch family — and their optimization for deep silicon etch applications. In particular, Syndion’s fast gas switching capabilities enable the industry’s highest throughput with superior etch depth and critical dimension (CD) uniformity for both large CD/low aspect ratio and small CD/high aspect ratio structures. These technologies provide the high productivity and process control needed to integrate TSVs into production environments.

North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $1.17 billion in orders worldwide in September 2014 (three-month average basis) and a book-to-bill ratio of 0.94, according to the September EMDS Book-to-Bill Report published today by SEMI.   A book-to-bill of 0.94 means that $94 worth of orders were received for every $100 of product billed for the month.

The three-month average of worldwide bookings in September 2014 was $1.17 billion. The bookings figure is 12.9 percent lower than the final August 2014 level of $1.35 billion, and is 18.1 percent higher than the September 2013 order level of $992.8 million.

The three-month average of worldwide billings in September 2014 was $1.25 billion. The billings figure is 3.3 percent lower than the final August 2014 level of $1.29 billion, and is 22.5 percent higher than the September 2013 billings level of $1.02 billion.

“Following 11 months of above parity book-to-bill ratios, the three-month average ratio declined in September,” said Denny McGuirk, president and CEO of SEMI.  “While order activity moderated, equipment spending this year is expected to be robust and remain on pace for double-digit year-over-year growth.”

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
April 2014

$1,403.2

$1,443.0

1.03
May 2014

$1,407.8

$1,407.0

1.00
June 2014

$1,327.5

$1,455.0

1.10
July 2014

$1,319.1

$1,417.1

1.07
August 2014 (final)

$1,293.4

$1,346.1

1.04
September 2014 (prelim)

$1,250.4

$1,172.8

0.94

Source: SEMI, October 2014

The semiconductor and other electronic component manufacturing industry produces a range of input devices that are necessary in the production of electronics, including circuits and memory chips. In the past five years, the industry has contracted due to the continued offshoring trend that has pervaded much of Canada’s manufacturing sector. In addition, greater competition from US and East Asian manufacturers, which offer lower-priced products due to more competitive labour costs, have contributed to the industry’s decline.

“As such, although demand for downstream electronics is on the rise, the inputs are being manufactured elsewhere,” according to IBISWorld Industry Analyst Darryle Ulama.

As a result, in the past five years, industry revenue in Canada is expected to decline at an annualized 5.1 percent to $2.5 billion, including an 8.0 percent decline in 2014.

The broader electronics value chain is highly globalized, with product design, raw material procurement and manufacturing segmented across facilities in different regions.

“Moreover, consumer electronics have global demand, driven by falling prices and technology innovation,” says Ulama.

Industry performance is thus dependent on trade trends such as the competiveness of exports and the extent of import penetration. In the five years to 2014, industry exports are expected to decline at an annualized 6.6 percent to $1.4 billion, as US and East Asian competitors outperform domestic manufacturers. Meanwhile, the value of industry imports is projected to increase at an annualized 1.3%, with strong double-digit gains in 2013 and 2014, pointing to the flood of imports that have supplanted operators.

Similar trends are expected during the five years to 2019. Industry manufacturers, which are typically small- to mid-sized enterprises, will find it difficult to match the research and development (R&D) spending of multinational competitors. As a result, industry exit and acquisition activity are anticipated during the next five years, further contributing to the industry’s decline.

IRLYNX and CEA-Leti today announced they have launched a technology-development partnership for a new CMOS-based infrared technology that will allow a new type of smart and connected detectors in buildings and cities.

The strategic partnership with Leti’s Silicon Development Division and the Optics and Photonics Division will develop a solid technology platform that allows IRLYNX to provide an unrivalled solution in the field of human-activity detection and characterization. These products will be able to count people, distinguish humans, get positions and determine posture. This new, low-cost technology will help IRLYNX bring to the market new sensors targeting various applications in energy saving, safety and security and human/object interactions.

The collaboration is based on the development of specific microelectronic steps above CMOS IC and on the hosting of IRLYNX R&D’s activities inside Leti’s clean-room facilities.

Partially funded through the Easytech program of the IRT Nanoelec research institute, the partnership blends Leti’s expertise in advanced materials and photonics technologies developments. IRLYNX is focusing for its part on a specific IC design, a customized optic integration and the “on-die” data processing of such human-sensing-activity module.

“Through this strong partnership with CEA-Leti, we continue to deploy our strategic plan as expected. The capacities and how-know of Leti in advanced-technologies development are really an advantage for IRLYNX. With this agreement and Leti’s support, we are shortening our time to market,” said Sébastien Fabre, IRLYNX CEO.

“The collaboration with IRLYNX highlights Leti’s mission to support startup initiatives and emphasizes our expertise in IR imaging devices and technologies,” said Bruno Mourey, vice president of Leti’s Optics and Photonics Division. “IRLYNX is a very good match for Leti, because the IRLYNX team has an innovative IC design, clear optic-integration goals and a persuasive business plan.”

With its recent first round of funding, which raised 1M€, IRLYNX will be able to deliver first products in the third quarter of 2015.

A Portland, Oregon jury today delivered a verdict in favor of Mentor Graphics in a patent infringement trial against Synopsys, Inc., awarding Mentor Graphics $35 million in damages and royalties.

The jury in the United States District Court for the District of Oregon found that one Mentor patent – U.S. Patent No. 6,240,376 – was directly and indirectly infringed by EVE and Synopsys.  As part of the verdict, the jury awarded damages of approximately $36 million and certain royalties to be paid to Mentor Graphics.

Four other Mentor patents were dismissed from the case prior to the trial. Synopsys said it plans to appeal the jury’s verdict.

The wafer foundry market experienced a wavy development, jumping by 39.4 percent in 2010 following a 7.9 percent decline in 2009. And the growth rate first shrank to 8.7 percent in 2011, then expanded to 21.7 percent in 2012, and fell back to 6.8 percent in 2013. It is projected that the growth rate will stand at 15.6 percent in 2014 and 6.0 percent in 2015. The fluctuation in the wafer foundry market will begin to present an increasingly small growth rate, which is mainly because of the differentiation in wafer foundry industry.

Released this month, the Global and China Wafer Foundry Industry Report, 2013-2014 provides data and information on: Overview of Global Semiconductor Industry, Downstream Market of Wafer Foundry Industry, Wafer Foundry Industry, Semiconductor Industry in China as well as 13 Key Wafer Foundry Vendors.

According to the nature of the vendors, the foundry businesses can be divided into two segments, namely, IDMs offering their excess capacity to third parties and pure-play (or dedicated) foundries, with the former including Samsung, Intel, and IBM. Global Foundries can be barely included in IDMs, for it originated from AMD. These vendors have long product lines, which makes it possible to cause competition with their customers. And IDMs, in reality, are not involved in foundry businesses and could conduct foundry business only when they have excess capacity. These IDMs will not become the first choice of the customers unless special reasons.

Money and technology do not always help do well in wafer foundry industry, which has been best illustrated by IBM. Recently, IBM was willing to pay USD1 billion for the sale of its wafer foundry business to GlobalFoundries. And GlobalFoundries suggested that the payment was very small and should be expanded to USD2 billion due to the fact that the business, which generates revenue of less than USD500 million annually, caused IBM to suffer approximately USD1.5 billion loss a year. Except TSMC, most foundries have more or less bought IBM’s technology, especially Samsung, STMicroelectronics, and GlobalFoundries, which are all technologically brought up by IBM.

Over the years, the four giants-Samsung, STMicroelectronics, Global Foundries, and IBM have formed an alliance in a vain attempt to compete against TSMC. Instead, TSMC has grown stronger and stronger. After years of efforts, Samsung has won a client in wafer foundry business-Apple. Unfortunately, the order of Apple’s main products A8 was gained by TSMC in 2014, thus leading to the first loss of Samsung System LSI Division over the years.

Although Samsung’s 14nm technology seems to take the lead, this is not approved by Apple. This is mainly because the four companies-Samsung, STMicroelectronics, GlobalFoundries, and IBM all developed from IDM. And Samsung has a long product line and therefore could compete with any electronic company in the world. Previously, Apple did not choose TSMC because the company suffered capacity constraints, and as TSMC’s capacity was expanded and met Apple’s requirements, Apple lost no time in making a shift from Samsung to TSMC.

Unlike IDMs such as Samsung, TSMC is pure-play foundry and will not compete with clients, which makes it easier for the company to get orders. And Samsung, STMicroelectronics, GlobalFoundries, IBM and Intel are the second choices for the clients.

The investment of Chinese enterprises in the field of semiconductors is totally dependent on the government, resulting in a lower efficiency. In 2010, Shanghai Huali Microelectronics Corporation was established with an investment of RMB14.5 billion. Although it had been into operation for 3 years, the company’s revenue was less than RMB1.2 billion in 2013. SMIC’s major clients include Spreadtrum, RDA, Hisilicon, GalaxyCore Inc., Rockchip, Allwinner Technology, GigaDevice, HED, Fudan Microelectronics, TMC, and DMT. The last few enterprises, which are mainly relied on the government orders, are the major design houses of chips for a variety of smart cards, including social security cards, ID cards, SIM cards, Union Pay cards. Therefore, 40 percent of SMIC’s revenue came from the low-end 0.15/0.18μm technology while TSMC’s revenue from lower than 65 nm technology accounted for 71 percent of the total.

According to the report, the specifically Foundry has a small market size and stable sales volume, but with low costs and high returns. In contrast, Logic IC Foundry has a large market size, but with a considerable fluctuation. Most important, only the leading player in the Logic IC Foundry industry can make profit, otherwise it is easy to make a loss. Take TSMC for example, which has taken the lead in the global market since its establishment in 1987, with its market share never less than 50%. Besides, TSMC is also the wafer foundry vendor that earns the highest profit around the globe, with the gross margin never lower than 40 percent even close to 50 percent in 2014 (exceeding Apple and Qualcomm). The No.2, No.3 and No. 4 players have ever suffered losses for many years, with SMIC, for example, making profit only in 2010 during the 12 years from 2000 to 2011. And the third player, Global Foundries, has suffered losses for years, with the revenue in 2013 showing a slight growth but the operating loss expanding from AED2.217 billion to AED3.217 billion.

Foundry vendors / companies mentioned in Global and China Wafer Foundry Industry Report, 2013-2014 include TSMC, UMC, SMIC, VIS, POWERCHIP, HHGRACE, DONGBU HITEK, TOWER, X-FAB, ASMC, SAMSUNG, MAGNACHIP and GLOBALFOUNDRIES.

The Board of Directors of United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC), a global semiconductor foundry, today announced a joint venture company focused on 12″ wafer foundry services with Xiamen Municipal People’s Government and FuJian Electronics & Information Group.

Based on the agreement, UMC will submit an investment application with ROC government authorities for approval to invest in the joint venture established by Xiamen Municipal People’s Government and FuJian Electronics & Information Group. The joint venture will be based in Xiamen, China. UMC anticipates its investment could reach approximately US$1.35 billion in the next five years, with funding starting in 2015 deployed in installments based on the progress of the joint venture. UMC’s participation will comply with ROC rules and regulations and will be subject to review for approval by the Taiwan government authorities.

“China’s domestic semiconductor market has become the world’s largest,” Po-Wen Yen, CEO of UMC, said. “Current levels of domestic semiconductor demand far outweigh China’s production supply, with semiconductor import revenue surpassing that of crude oil. As the semiconductor industry is closely monitored by the Beijing government, China has implemented national policies to expedite the development of its domestic IC design and semiconductor manufacturing through a multi-prong approach to support and expand its IC industry. We believe our decision to establish local manufacturing is our best approach to benefit from this substantial China growth and to gain additional foundry opportunities worldwide. The joint venture not only provides our customers the option to source IC components that are made in China, but also locates us within the Chinese market to enhance UMC’s service and support for local fabless customers. We anticipate the joint venture can propel the next round of UMC’s foundry business growth.”

CEO Yen continued, “The benefits for choosing Xiamen for the fab location are numerous. Xiamen is one of the five cities designated byChina as a municipality with independent planning status. Xiamen boasts excellent living standards and high quality of life; it is only a short distance from Taiwan, with similar culture, language and climate, allowing seamless support from UMC’s headquarters in Taiwan. Furthermore, Xiamen has a well-established infrastructure to supply sufficient local engineering talent to establish a world-class foundry base for the company.”

UMC currently owns an 86.88 percent stake in HeJian Technology (Suzhou) Co., Ltd. which mainly provides 8″ foundry services for Asia-Pacific and mainland Chinese customers. Today’s announced joint venture will manufacture 12″ wafers, initially offering 55nm and 40nm technologies. Capacity will reach 50K per month, with total investments targeted at US$6.2 billion. In addition to expanding UMC’s manufacturing scale, increasing global foundry market share and stimulating revenue growth, this joint venture will better fulfill customers’ demand, process technology, and integration requirements to achieve the highest synergies for UMC group.

Silicon Cloud International (SCI), a provider of secure and private cloud computing infrastructure, announced today successful pilot program launch of its semiconductor workflow platform in Singapore. The pilot program included trials by the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) on a collaborative design with remotely located researchers, using the SCI platform. The launch kickoff event was hosted by SUTD and was attended by about 50 professors, researchers, semiconductor industry leaders, and university students.

SCI’s cloud-based environment is used to guarantee consistency of the virtual platform, the tools used, and the data generated with laser focus on IP protection and security.

SCI provides an end to end semiconductor design infrastructure that is maintenance-free and provisioned with the latest semiconductor process technologies, production grade workflows, semiconductor Intellectual Property (IP), and Electronic Design Automation (EDA) software. SCI’s common and consistent infrastructure enables global semiconductor development and research collaboration, improves time to market, and provides secure access to leading edge EDA tools, process libraries and IP cores.

“Universities have been unable to collaborate on semiconductor design due to incompatible workflows, different EDA tool environments, IP security concerns and complexity in setting up common design environments. Silicon Cloud addresses these issues with its cloud-based, secure semiconductor workflow platform”, said Mojy Chian, CEO and co-founder of Silicon Cloud International.

Professor Yeo Kiat Seng, Associate Provost (Graduate Studies and International Relations) at SUTD, said: “With the increased complexity of today’s semiconductor designs, research collaboration amongst semiconductor research groups is critical to improve design efficiency. The multi-disciplinary environment at SUTD together with its world-class faculty will help our industry partners to accelerate the pace of innovation, both technically and in terms of generating new intellectual properties targeting a broad range of applications, including system-on-chip for future smartphones, storage, tablets and computers.”

ARM and TSMC today announced a new multi-year agreement that will deliver ARMv8-A processor IP optimized for TSMC 10FinFET process technology. Because of the success in scaling from 20SoC to 16FinFET, ARM and TSMC have decided to collaborate again for 10FinFET. This early pathfinding work will provide valuable learning to enable physical design IP and methodologies in support of customers to tape-out 10FinFET designs as early as Q4 2015.

“ARM and TSMC are industry leaders in our respective fields and collectively ensure the availability of leading-edge solutions for ARM-based SoCs through our deep and long-term collaboration,” said Pete Hutton, executive vice president and president, product groups, ARM. “Our mutual commitment to providing industry leading solutions drives us to work together early in the development cycle to optimize both the processor and the process node. This joint optimization enables ARM silicon partners to design, tape-out and bring their products to market faster.”

TSMC will be applying the learnings from prior generations of 20SoC and 16FinFET in the ARM ecosystem to offer performance and power improvements at 10FinFET that will be better than previous nodes. The ARM ecosystem can also take advantage of TSMC’s Open Innovation Platform (OIP) which includes a set of ecosystem interfaces and collaborative components initiated and supported by TSMC.

“TSMC has continuously been the lead foundry to introduce advanced process technology for ARM-based SoCs,” said Dr. Cliff Hou, TSMC vice president of R&D. “Together with ARM, we proved out in silicon the high performance and low power of the big.LITTLE architecture as implemented in 16FinFET. Given the successful adoption of our previous collaborative efforts, it makes sense that we continue this fruitful partnership with ARM in future 64-bit cores and 10FinFET.”

The joint innovations from previous TSMC and ARM collaborations have enabled customers to accelerate their product development cycles and take advantage of leading-edge processes and IP. Recent benefits have included early access to ARM Artisan Physical IP and tape-outs of ARM Cortex-A53 and Cortex-A57 processors on 16FinFET.

Boston Semi Equipment LLC (BSE) today announced it has combined all of its automated test equipment (ATE) businesses under the Boston Semi Equipment brand name. Effective immediately, the Test Advantage Hardware and MVTS Technologies businesses will operate using the Boston Semi Equipment name. This follows the company’s announcement in July that it was integrating all sales and service for ATE, Prober and Test Handler products into the Boston Semi Equipment field sales organization.

Boston Semi Equipment has now built an organization of tester, handler and prober integration specialists to address the semiconductor industry’s need for a vendor-independent test cell solution provider. BSE can provide equipment configured to the customer’s exact requirements, deliver a complete test cell solution across all tester platforms fully utilizing the original OEM technology, and provide service and support to keep ATE at peak performance.

“We believe we have created the largest ATE-focused organization outside of the OEMs,” stated Bryan Banish, CEO of Boston Semi Equipment. “Our ATE organizations have been delivering standard ATE configurations, test services, custom equipment solutions, and service and support programs for our semiconductor ATE customers since 1994. Because we have experience on all major current generation and legacy ATE models, we can support any and all ATE-related projects to meet our customers’ test needs.”

BSE acquired Test Advantage Hardware in 2010 and has steadily expanded the company’s capabilities in current-generation ATE platforms. In June, 2014 the company also acquired MVTS Technologies (MVTS), which has extensive experience extending the life of legacy ATE, maximizing the investment of semiconductor companies in their test assets. The combined capabilities provide Boston Semi Equipment customers with an alternate source for high quality and economical ATE equipment, service, and test cell solutions. 

Boston Semi Equipment LLC is a semiconductor equipment company that has established a reputation as a reliable source for affordable back end test equipment, fab tools and service solutions for semiconductor manufacturers and OSATs worldwide.