Tag Archives: letter-wafer-top

By Paula Doe, SEMI

New metrology and inspection technologies and new analysis approaches made possible by improving compute technology offer solutions to finding the increasingly subtle variations in materials and subsystems that meet specifications but still cause defects on the wafer. More collaboration across the supply chain is helping too.  SEMICON West programs on materials and subsystems will address these issues.

New metrology approaches needed to deal with process margin challenges

As device process margins shrink and subtler materials variations cause unwanted variations,  the need for better monitoring of both surface and sub-surface material variations is driving a trend towards “metro-spection” – the convergence of metrology and inspection. “Device process margins have eroded to the point that traditional metrology strategies and techniques are no longer viable for controlling yield and parametric performance,” says Nanometrics Vice President Robert Fiordalice, who will speak in the materials program at SEMICON West. “Limited sampling capability, low throughput, insufficient sensitivity or the destructive nature of the techniques can often become problems. What’s more, deviations in material characteristics are not always determined by the initial quality of the material, but often arise from variations during the integration of the materials.”

“Device process margins have eroded to the point that traditional metrology strategies and techniques are no longer viable for controlling yield and parametric performance.” – Robert Fiordalice, Nanometrics

One new type of inline tool or line monitoring technology is Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, traditionally used in quality control or tool characterization. Better sensitivity and higher throughput now enable rapid analysis and feedback for on-the-fly detection of subtle deviations in film properties that may compromise device performance or yield.

More advanced analytics will help extract new information from old metrology

More expensive metrology may not be required to identify subtle variations in in-spec materials that cause wafer defects. Today’s advanced compute capabilities now enable more sophisticated analysis of existing data and the identification of small but significant variations in raw materials and finished goods.

The figure of merit (FoM) values presented in certificate of analysis (CoA) reports miss subtle variations in raw material properties. Of particular note is the reduction of molecular weight distributions to a mean, and standard deviation, whereas variations in the tails are associated with pattern defects. Advanced compute capabilities now allow the industry to step beyond the FoM in favor of more holistic measures, enabling predictive analysis of resist chemical variations associated with specific pattern defects. Source: JSR Micro

“We often don’t need to find a new measure, but just a new way of looking at what we measure now,” says Jim Mulready, vice president of global quality assurance at JSR Micro. Mulready will speak in the SEMICON West program on materials defectivity issues. “The certificate of analysis reduces multiple measurements to a single figure of merit. But if we ignore all that raw data, we miss a chance to learn.  One of our sayings in quality is ‘Customers don’t feel the average, they feel the variation.’ In many electronic materials, the quality of the raw material can have a big impact on the final performance, but the types of analysis needed to look at the tails of the distribution of these measures (such as molecular weight) in detail used to be really hard to do. Now it’s becoming increasingly straightforward and affordable.”

 “We often don’t need to find a new measure, but just a new way looking at what we measure now.” – Jim Mulready, JSR Micro

Mulready says tools now available in the data processing sector enable the identification of subtle variations in materials that can cause defects on the wafer. These tools use methods like detailed subtractions of chromatography curves of polymer raw materials or analysis of tails of distributions of molecular weights. “Our job now is to drive these kinds of more sophisticated data analysis back into our chemical supply chain as well,” says Mulready. “We must work more closely with our suppliers to integrate their raw materials into our products. The reason the JSRs of the world exist is as a safety valve to reduce the variation from the chemical industry before it gets to the fab.”

Continued collaboration with equipment suppliers required as well

While the industry has been talking about the need for tighter collaboration between materials suppliers and equipment manufacturers for years, it still doesn’t always happen. “The material supplier and the equipment maker are tied together like kids in a three-legged race when we deliver an integrated system for consistent on-wafer performance,” says Cristina Chu, TEL/NEXX director of strategic business development, another speaker in the materials program.  “When we introduce changes to the tool hardware, we need to make sure it doesn’t upset the system. Similarly, we need the material supplier to send a bottle over when a new chemistry formulation is under development. If a new chemistry runs into problems in the field, it will take much more time for both of us to fix it at the customer site. The toolmaker can provide a slightly different perspective on applications, while being more objective than a customer on how the formulation performs compared to earlier versions.”

“The material supplier and the equipment maker are tied together like kids in a three-legged race when we deliver an integrated system for consistent on-wafer performance.” – Cristina Chu, TEL/NEXX

Regular and ongoing collaboration between chemistry suppliers and toolmakers enables the highest quality system solution to reach the customer. Chu notes that her team tries to maintain consistent collaborations with material suppliers across changes in organizations as the business environment changes. “For consistent on-wafer capabilities, we need a consistent collaboration process with chemistry suppliers. We need to meet with materials providers at a regular cadence throughout their development process. We need to check back with them as we scale up results from the coupon to the wafer level and to work out the kinks in the integrated solution together. The quality and consistency of our combined performance at the customer depends on ensuring the quality and consistency of our development and evaluation process as well.”

Fabs and subsystems suppliers look to pilot data sharing program to improve process margins

With ever tighter process margins, subtle variations in parameters that don’t appear in the specifications are also compromising results on the wafer, and neither the fab nor the supplier alone has the full information needed to improve performance. To help, a SEMI standards group is developing a protocol for a pilot program to standardize and automate some data sharing.

“In order for engineers to have constructive conversations about how to improve performance, we all need to exchange more information.” – Eric Bruce, Samsung Austin

The fab knows that performance is best with a particular parameter value, and knows when performance fluctuates,  but often faces a black box problem with no way of knowing what exactly is wrong. In the rush to get the tool back up, the fab engineers may not get around to emailing the supplier about the issue for some time. The subsystems supplier, on the other hand, may know the cause of the variation,  but likely has no way of knowing the critical parameters or ideal target valuesfor the fab’s process..  “In order for engineers to have constructive conversations about how to improve performance, we all need to exchange more information,” says Eric Bruce, Samsung Austin diffusion engineer, and co-chair of the SEMI standards effort working on the issue, who will speak in the subsystems program at SEMICON West.

A potential solution could be to create a standard and automated process to share particular data, agreed to in the purchasing contract, whereby the subsystems supplier shares more information about their parameters with the fab, and the fab in return gives feedback on what parameters work best to drive improved performance. The best place to start will likely be on parts that do not contain core yield-related IP, but where usage and lifetime information is useful.

“We’re looking for people to participate in a pilot program to work together with suppliers to try sharing some information to improve performance,” says Bruce. “There’s a lot of this sharing in the backroom anyway, but this could make it fast and automated, and make everyone’s engineering job a lot easier.”

IC Insights will release its 200+ page Mid-Year Update to the 2018 McClean Report next month.  The Mid-Year Update will revise IC Insights’ worldwide economic and IC industry forecasts through 2022 that were originally presented in the 2018 McClean Report issued in January of this year.

Figure 1 shows that IC Insights forecasts that China-headquartered companies will spend $11.0 billion in semiconductor industry capex in 2018, which would represent 10.6% of the expected worldwide outlays of $103.5 billion.  Not only would this amount be 5x what the Chinese companies spent only three years earlier in 2015, but it would also exceed the combined semiconductor industry capital spending of Japan- and Europe-headquartered companies this year.

Since adopting the fab-lite business model, the three major European producers have represented a very small share of total semiconductor industry capital expenditures and are forecast to account for only 4% of global spending in 2018 after representing 8% of worldwide capex in 2005.  Although there may be an occasional spike in capital spending from European companies (e.g., the surge in spending from ST and AMS in 2017), IC Insights believes that Europe-headquartered companies will represent only 3% of worldwide semiconductor capital expenditures in 2022.

It should be noted that several Japanese semiconductor companies have also transitioned to a fab-lite business model (e.g., Renesas, Sony, etc.).  With strong competition reducing the number and strength of Japanese semiconductor manufacturers, the loss of its vertically integrated businesses and thus missing out on supplying devices for several high-volume end-use applications, and its collective shift toward fab-lite business models, Japanese companies have greatly reduced their investment in new wafer fabs and equipment.  In fact, Japanese companies are forecast to represent only 6% of total semiconductor industry capital expenditures in 2018, a big decline from the 22% share they held in 2005 and an even more precipitous drop from the 51% share they held in 1990.

Figure 1

Although China-headquartered pure-play foundry SMIC has been part of the list of major semiconductor industry capital spenders for quite some time, there are four additional Chinese companies that are forecast to become significant semiconductor industry spenders this year and next—memory suppliers XMC/YMTC, Innotron, JHICC, and pure-play foundry Shanghai Huali.  Each of these companies is expected to spend a considerable amount of money equipping and ramping up their new fabs in 2018 and 2019.

Due to the increased spending by startup China-based memory manufacturers, IC Insights believes that the Asia-Pac/Others share of semiconductor industry capital spending will remain over 60% for at least the next couple of years.

The semiconductor industry posted record results in 2017, with revenue exceeding US$400 billion. Overall demand for semiconductor devices was robust throughout the year, driven by the growing adoption of electronics components across all applications, with particular strength in the mobile and data center markets. Semiconductor growth in 2017 was led by the memory segment, with impressive revenue reaching US$126 billion. It represents an increase of over 60% year-over-year. Yole Développement (Yole) Memory Team forecasts the memory market to reach US$177 billion in 2018, with 40% growth.

Under this dynamic ecosystem, Yole and its partners System Plus Consulting and Knowmade, all parts of Yole Group of Companies, deeply scan the memory area. They propose today valuable memory services to deliver world class research, data and insight. Their aim is to ensure its clients are well-versed in all aspects of this competitive industry. Yole Group of Companies leverage decades of industry experience and expertise while partnering with its clients to make sure they are consistently well-informed on this pushy market.

Today two memory research services, DRAM Service and NAND Service have been developed by Yole Group of Companies. Full description of both services are available in a new dedicated Memory section on i-micronews.com. In addition, a selection of technology & market news are daily selected by Yole’s memory team and posted in this section.

Make sure to collect deep insights and significant analyses from leading industry experts, combining over 50-year experience in memory and semiconductor-related fields.

Both DRAM and NAND markets were in a state of undersupply throughout the year, leading to rising prices and record revenue and profitability for the memory suppliers. Demand was very strong, led by mobile and data center / SSD and augmented by emerging growth drivers including AI , IoT and automotive. Supply growth across both DRAM and NAND was constrained, due to a combination of limited wafer growth and technological challenges.

The current macro trends of AI and machine learning, mobility, and connectivity, are favorable to both the DRAM and NAND markets, and will likely result in Memory continuing to increase its share of the overall the semiconductor market.

“Understanding memory supply/demand dynamics and its relationship with pricing is vital to understanding the broader semiconductor market and all associated supply chains”, asserts Emilie Jolivet, Division Director, Semiconductor & Software at Yole.

The DRAM market is constantly evolving and changing. Yole Group is announcing a 22% CAGR for bit demand over the next five years.

“New Chinese suppliers threaten the current market balance, and emerging memory technologies are poised to cannibalize huge chunks of DRAM demand while the demand drivers of the past, including PCs and smartphones lose steam and no longer push industry demand,” comments .Mike Howards, VP of DRAM & Memory research within the Semiconductor & Software division at Yole.
In parallel, NAND market is expected to set another revenue record in 2018, before a flattish 2019. Therefore it continues to expand, with several consecutive quarters of record revenue and profitability for suppliers.

NAND’s competitive landscape remains incredibly dynamic. Samsung is prepping its first fab at its massive Pyeongtaek site; Intel is emerging as a stand-alone supplier with capacity in China; and the sale of Toshiba’s memory business to a consortium led by Bain Capital is finally happening. Meanwhile, a new entrant looms on the horizon: China’s Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. (YMTC), which threatens to disrupt the status-quo as well as multiple other Chinese projects.

“NAND demand remains robust, with strong growth for enterprise SSDs in data centers, increasing adoption of SSDs in laptop PCs, and continued content growth in smartphones and other mobile devices,” asserts Walt Coon, VP of NAND and Memory Research at Yole.“These segments will continue driving the bulk of NAND bit consumption, though several emerging trends are poised to augment future growth, including AI and VR adoption, automotive, and IoT,” he adds.

Memory Research Service from Yole, provides all data related to NAND/DRAM revenue per quarter, NAND/DRAM shipments, pricing per NAND/DRAM type, near and long-term revenue, market share per quarter, CAPEX per company, and a market demand/supply forecast. It also includes a complete analysis and details on the demand side, with a deep dive into client and enterprise SSD, data centers, mobile, automotive, graphics, PC, and more. Each Memory Research Service is composed of both products, the Quarterly Market Monitor and the Monthly Pricing Monitor.

During the next few weeks, Yole’s Memory Team will attend a selection of key trade shows and conferences to present the Memory Research Services. Make sure you will be there and ask for a meeting right now. Mike Howard and Walt Coon will for example be at SEMICON West mid-July and the Flash Memory Summit (Santa Clara, CA, North America – From August 6 to 9) in August. More information: Yole’s Agenda

The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), representing U.S. leadership in semiconductor manufacturing, design, and research, this week released the following statement regarding the Trump Administration’s announcement on tariffs on products imported from China.

“While the U.S. semiconductor industry shares the Trump Administration’s concerns about China’s forced technology transfer and intellectual property (IP) practices, the proposed imposition of tariffs on semiconductors from China, most of which are actually researched, designed, and manufactured in the U.S., is counterproductive and fails to address the serious IP and industrial policy issues in China. We look forward to working with the Administration to explain why imposing tariffs on our products would be harmful to our competitiveness and does not address our challenges with China.”

SIA seeks to strengthen U.S. leadership of semiconductor manufacturing, design, and research by working with Congress, the Administration and other key industry stakeholders to encourage policies and regulations that fuel innovation, propel business and drive international competition. Learn more at www.semiconductors.org.

One of the leading challenges for autonomous vehicles is to ensure that they can detect and sense objects–even through dense fog. Compared to the current visible light-based cameras, infrared cameras can offer much better visibility through the fog, smoke or tiny particles that can scatter the visible light.

Artist’s rendering of light interacting with BaTiS3 crystals. Credit: Talia Spencer

Within the air, infrared light –within a specific range called mid-wave infrared– scatter much less compared to other visible or other infrared light waves. Infrared cameras can also see more effectively in the dark, when there is no visible light. However, currently the deployment of infrared cameras is limited by their heavy cost and scarcity of effective materials. This is where materials, which possess unique optical properties in the infrared and can be scalable, might make a difference in providing better object identification in several technologies including autonomous vehicles.

A new material developed by scientists at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering and the University of Wisconsin along with researchers from Air Force Research Laboratories, University of Missouri, and J.A. Woollam Co. Inc, might show promise for such infrared detection applications as autonomous vehicles, emergency services and even manufacturing.

The research group of Jayakanth Ravichandran, an assistant professor of materials sciences at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering has been studying a new class of materials called chalcogenide perovskites. Among these materials is Barium titanium sulfide (BTS), a material rediscovered and prepared in large crystal form by Shanyuan Niu, a doctoral candidate in the Materials Science program at the USC Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science. Ravichandran’s research group collaborated with the research groups of Mikhail Kats, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at University of Wisconsin-Madison and Han Wang, an assistant professor of electrical engineering and electrophysics in USC’s Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering to study how infrared light interacts with this material. These researchers discovered that this material interacted differently with light in two different directions.

“This is a significant breakthrough, which can affect many infrared applications,” says Ravichandran.

This direction dependent interaction with light is characterized by an optical property called birefringence. In simple terms, birefringence can be viewed as light moving at different speeds in two directions in a material. Much like sunglasses with polarized lenses block glare, BTS has the ability to block or slow down light depending on the direction in which it travels in the material. The researchers maintain that their material, barium titanium sulfide, has the highest birefringence among known crystals.

“The birefringence is larger than that of any known solid material, and it has low losses across the important long-wave infrared spectrum,” says Kats.

How BTS could improve infrared vision:

The BTS material can be used to construct a sensor to filter out certain polarizations of light to achieve better contrast of the image. It could also help filter light coming from different directions to enable sensing of a remote object’s features. This could be particularly important for improving infrared vision used in autonomous vehicles, which need to see the entire landscape around them even in low visibility conditions.

“The hope is that in the future, a BTS-enhanced sensor in a car would function as retinas do to the human body,” says Niu.

The authors believe these infrared-responsive materials can extend human perception. Beyond autonomous vehicles, there are other possible heat sensing or temperature measurement applications. One application could be in the creation of imaging tools used by firefighters to generate an instant temperature map outside a burning building to assess where a fire is spreading and where emergency responders need to rescue trapped individuals.

At present, the cost of infrared equipment makes it too expensive for all fire stations to have such equipment. BTS, which is made of elements readily abundant in earth crust–could make infrared equipment more affordable and effective. In addition, such materials are safer for the user and the environment, as well as easier to dispose of than the materials that are used now, which contain hazardous elements such as mercury and cadmium.

These materials could also be useful in devices that sense harmful molecules, gases, even biological systems. The applications range from heat sensing, pollution monitoring to medicine.

“To date, the constraint of existing mid-IR materials is a big bottleneck to translate many of these technologies,” says USC’s Wang.

The researchers hope that intense research in this area will make several of these technologies a reality in the near future.

The research on BTS is documented in “Giant optical anisotropy in a quasi-1D crystal” featured in Nature Photonics.

Cautious optimism


June 15, 2018

By Walt Custer

Updated global GDP forecast

The World Bank just updated its multiyear forecast for GDP growth both globally and by country (Chart 1).

It noted: “Despite recent softening, global economic growth will remain robust at 3.1 percent in 2018 before slowing gradually over the next two years, as advanced-economy growth decelerates and the recovery in major commodity-exporting emerging market and developing economies levels off.

“This outlook is subject to considerable downside risks. The possibility of disorderly financial market volatility has increased, and the vulnerability of some emerging market and developing economies to such disruption has risen. Trade protectionist sentiment has also mounted, while policy uncertainty and geopolitical risks remain elevated.”

Chart 1

Semiconductor growth outlook strong (Chart 2)

The WSTS updated its world semiconductor shipment forecast. This new forecast (endorsed by SIA) projects worldwide semiconductor sales will be a record $463 billion in 2018, a 12.4 percent increase from 2017. WSTS projects year-to-year increases across all regional markets for 2018.

Chart 2

This revised semiconductor forecast coupled with very robust global semiconductor capital equipment sales (Chart 3) paint a positive outlook for 2018.

Chart 3

Very strong end market growth in first quarter (Chart 4)

Based upon the combined 1Q’18 financial reports of 213 large, global OEMs, electronic equipment sales (consolidated into U.S. dollars) increased globally an estimated (and very robust) 10.6 percent in 1Q’18 vs. 1Q’17. While this world growth result is very heartening it was significantly inflated by exchange rate effects as stronger non-dollar currencies were converted into weaker dollars.

Chart 4

Looking at world electronic equipment sales consolidated into both dollars and euros, 1Q’18 growth rates are MUCH different (Chart 5). 1Q’18 vs.1Q’17 electronic equipment sales grew 10.6 percent in dollars but declined 4.3 percent in euros!

Chart 5

Certainly the first quarter was strong globally but the currency chosen for analysis can have a BIG effect.

U.S. supply chain expansion continues

Looking at the U.S. market (in dollars – therefore not distorted by exchange rates) domestic electronic equipment orders rose 6.7 percent in February-April 2018 versus the same three-month period in 2017. The U.S. electronic industry is doing reasonably well at present.

www.census.gov/manufacturing/m3/

Expect the recent exchange rate based amplification of dollar denominated global growth to taper off quickly.

Keep a careful watch on the geopolitical situation.

Walt Custer of Custer Consulting Group is an analyst focused on the global electronics industry.

Originally published on the SEMI blog.

The semiconductor industry is nearing a third consecutive year of record equipment spending with projected growth of 14 percent (YOY) in 2018 and 9 percent in 2019, a mark that would extend the streak to a historic fourth consecutive growth year, according to the latest update of the World Fab Forecast report published by SEMI. Over the semiconductor industry’s 71-year history, only once before – in the mid 1990s – has the industry logged four consecutive years of equipment spending growth.

Korea and China are leading the growth, with Samsung dominating global spending and ascendant China on a fast, steep rise, surging ahead of all other markets. See Figure 1.

Figure 1 equipment spending by region (includes new and refurbished)

While Samsung is expected to reduce equipment investments in 2018, the company still accounts for a dominant 70 percent of all investment in Korea. At the same time, SK Hynix is increasing its equipment spending in Korea.

China’s equipment spending is forecast to increase 65 percent in 2018 and 57 percent in 2019.  Notably, 58 percent of investments in China in 2018 and 56 percent in 2019 stem from companies with headquarters in other regions such as Intel, SK Hynix, TSMC, Samsung, and GLOBALFOUNDRIES. Domestic, Chinese-owned companies – backed by large government initiatives – are building a considerable number of new fabs that will start equipping in 2018. The companies are expected to double their equipment investments in 2018 and again in 2019.

Other regions are also ramping up investments. Japan is increasing equipment spending by 60 percent in 2018, with the largest increases by Toshiba, Sony, Renesas and Micron.

The Europe and Mideastern region will boost investments by 12 percent in 2018, with Intel, GLOBALFOUNDRIES, Infineon and STMicroelectronics the largest contributors.

Southeast Asia will boost investments by more than 30 percent in 2018, although total spending is proportionately smaller than in other regions owing to its size. The main contributors are Micron, Infineon and GLOBALFOUNDRIES, though companies including OSRAM and ams are also increasing investments.

The SEMI World Fab Forecast, which also includes information on other companies, covers data and predictions through the end of 2019, including milestones, detailed investments by quarter, product types, technology nodes and capacities down to fab and project level.

Learn more about the SEMI fab databases at:

www.semi.org/en/MarketInfo/FabDatabase and www.youtube.com/user/SEMImktstats.

The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), representing U.S. leadership in semiconductor manufacturing, design, and research, today announced worldwide sales of semiconductors reached $37.6 billion for the month of April 2018, an increase of 20.2 percent from the April 2017 total of $31.3 billion and 1.4 percent more than last month’s total of $37.1 billion. Monthly sales numbers are compiled by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization and represent a three-month moving average. Additionally, a newly released WSTS industry forecast projects annual global market growth of 12.4 percent in 2018 and 4.4 percent in 2019.

“The global semiconductor industry has posted consistently strong sales so far in 2018, and the global market has now experienced year-to-year growth of greater than 20 percent for 13 consecutive months,” said John Neuffer, president and CEO, Semiconductor Industry Association. “Although boosted in part by impressive growth in the memory market, sales of non-memory products also grew by double digits in April on a year-to-year basis, and all major regional markets posted double-digit year-to-year gains. The global market is projected to experience significant annual growth this year, with more modest growth expected next year.”

Regionally, year-to-year sales increased in the Americas (34.1 percent), China (22.1 percent), Europe(21.4 percent), Japan (14.6 percent), and Asia Pacific/All Other (10.2 percent). Compared with last month, sales were up in China (3.2 percent), Japan (2.7 percent), Europe (1.4 percent), and the Americas (0.8 percent), but down slightly in Asia Pacific/All Other (-0.8 percent).

Additionally, SIA today endorsed the WSTS Spring 2018 global semiconductor sales forecast, which projects the industry’s worldwide sales will be $463.4 billion in 2018. This would mark the industry’s highest-ever annual sales, a 12.4 percent increase from the 2017 sales total. WSTS projects year-to-year increases across all regional markets for 2018: the Americas (14.0 percent), Europe (13.4 percent), Asia Pacific (including China) (12.3 percent), and Japan (8.6 percent). In 2019, growth in the semiconductor market is expected to moderate, with sales increases of between 4-5 percent expected across each of the regions. WSTS tabulates its semi-annual industry forecast by convening an extensive group of global semiconductor companies that provide accurate and timely indicators of semiconductor trends.

For comprehensive monthly semiconductor sales data and detailed WSTS Forecasts, consider purchasing the WSTS Subscription Package. For information about the global semiconductor industry and market, check out SIA’s free 2018 Factbook.

Apr 2018

Billions

Month-to-Month Sales                              

Market

Last Month

Current Month

% Change

Americas

8.10

8.16

0.8%

Europe

3.58

3.63

1.4%

Japan

3.21

3.30

2.7%

China

11.98

12.36

3.2%

Asia Pacific/All Other

10.23

10.15

-0.8%

Total

37.09

37.59

1.4%

Year-to-Year Sales

Market

Last Year

Current Month

% Change

Americas

6.08

8.16

34.1%

Europe

2.99

3.63

21.4%

Japan

2.88

3.30

14.6%

China

10.12

12.36

22.1%

Asia Pacific/All Other

9.21

10.15

10.2%

Total

31.28

37.59

20.2%

Three-Month-Moving Average Sales

Market

Nov/Dec/Jan

Feb/Mar/Apr

% Change

Americas

8.63

8.16

-5.5%

Europe

3.40

3.63

6.6%

Japan

3.21

3.30

2.8%

China

12.01

12.36

2.9%

Asia Pacific/All Other

10.35

10.15

-1.9%

Total

37.60

37.59

0.0%

Worldwide industrial semiconductor revenues grew by 11.8 percent year over year, reaching $49.1 billion in 2017, according to the latest analysis from IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO). Industrial electronics equipment demand was broad-based, with continued growth in commercial and military aircraft, LED lighting, digital signage, digital video surveillance, climate control, smart meters, traction, photovoltaic (PV) inverters, human machine interface and various medical electronics like cardiac equipment, hearing aids, endoscopy and imaging systems. The industry is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.1 percent through 2022.

Optical semiconductors delivered excellent performance, due to the continued strength of the general LED lighting market. Power discretes demand has ramped up in industrial motor drives, EV chargers, PV inverters, traction and lighting equipment. General purpose analog has a strong five-year growth in various industrial markets, especially in factory automation, power and energy, and lighting. Microcontrollers (MCUs) are also projected to experience broad-based growth in the long term, thanks to advances in power efficiency and integration features.

“The resilient economy in the United States, and strong demand in China, carried the lion’s share of industrial equipment demand in 2017,” said Robbie Galoso, associate director and principal analyst, industrial semiconductors, for IHS Markit. “A European resurgence also provided a strong tailwind for semiconductor growth.”

Global industrial semiconductor market share rankings

Strategic acquisitions continued to play a major role in shaping the overall semiconductor market rankings in key industrial semiconductor segments. All the following top 10 industrial semiconductor suppliers achieved revenue growth in 2017:

  1. Texas Instruments (TI) maintained its position as the largest industrial semiconductor supplier in 2017.
  2. The acquisition of Linear Technology catapulted Analog Devices into second position.  The combined Analog Devices and Linear Technology company generated $2.8 billion in industrial revenue in 2017. This acquisition boosted ADI’s industrial market shares in diversified segments within factory automation, military aerospace, video surveillance, test and measurement, medical, and power and energy applications.
  3. Intel ranked third, as the company’s Internet of Things (IoT) division continued to generate double-digit revenue growth attributed to innovation and strength in its factory automation, video surveillance and medical segments. Growth was also aided by the proliferation of smart and connected devices and a tremendous uplift in data analytics.
  4. Ranking fourth, Infineon’s strong revenue growth continued to be led by industrial applications, especially in factory automation, traction and various power and energy segments like PV, electric vehicle chargers and power supplies, where its leading discrete and power management devices are used.
  5. In fifth position, STMicroelectronics solid industrial revenue stream stems from a variety of applications, including factory and building automation, where its MCU, analog and discrete components are used.
  6. Micron’s organic revenue from industrial businesses continued to flourish in 2017, pushing the company into sixth place, driven by dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) growth in industrial IoT (IIoT) markets, spanning factory automation, video surveillance and transportation.
  7. Toshiba ranked seventh, with industrial electronics revenue growing to $1.5 billion in 2017. Growth was driven by power transistor discretes, MCU, optical and logic integrated circuit (IC) solutions in manufacturing and process automation, power and energy, and building and home control.
  8. Microchip Technology ranked eighth, and its revenue growth was primarily supported by MCU solutions in manufacturing and process automation, power and energy, and building and home control.
  9. ON Semiconductor was ranked ninth in 2017, driven by manufacturing and process automation, including machine vision, power and energy, building automation and hearing aids and other medical devices.
  10. NXP ranked tenth in the industrial market, with its strong presence in manufacturing and process automation, building and home control, medical electronics and other industrial applications.

Although not part of the top 10 ranking, China’s massive investments in LED manufacturing were especially noteworthy. Chinese firm MLS rose from 18th to 13th place, after posting 50 percent revenue growth and reaching $1 billion in 2017. MLS beat out other leading general lighting LEDs suppliers Nichia, Osram and Cree.

Applied Materials, Inc. today announced a breakthrough in materials engineering that accelerates chip performance in the big data and AI era.

In the past, classic Moore’s Law scaling of a small number of easy-to-integrate materials simultaneously improved chip performance, power and area/cost (PPAC). Today, materials such as tungsten and copper are no longer scalable beyond the 10nm foundry node because their electrical performance has reached physical limits for transistor contacts and local interconnects. This has created a major bottleneck in achieving the full performance potential of FinFET transistors. Cobalt removes this bottleneck but also requires a change in process system strategy. As the industry scales structures to extreme dimensions, the materials behave differently and must be systematically engineered at the atomic scale, often under vacuum.

To enable the use of cobalt as a new conducting material in the transistor contact and interconnect, Applied has combined several materials engineering steps – pre-clean, PVD, ALD and CVD – on the Endura® platform. Moreover, Applied has defined an integrated cobalt suite that includes anneal on the Producer® platform, planarization on the Reflexion® LK Prime CMP platform and e-beam inspection on the PROVision™ platform. Customers can use this proven, Integrated Materials Solution to speed time-to-market and increase chip performance at the 7nm foundry node and beyond.

“Five years ago, Applied anticipated an inflection in the transistor contact and interconnect, and we began developing an alternative materials solution that could take us beyond the 10nm node,” said Dr. Prabu Raja, senior vice president of Applied’s Semiconductor Products Group. “Applied brought together its experts in chemistry, physics, engineering and data science to explore the broad portfolio of Applied’s technologies and create a breakthrough Integrated Materials Solution for the industry. As we enter the big data and AI era, there will be more of these inflections, and we are excited to be having earlier and deeper collaborations with our customers to accelerate their roadmaps and enable devices we never dreamed possible.”

While challenging to integrate, cobalt brings significant benefits to chips and chip making: lower resistance and variability at small dimensions; improved gapfill at very fine dimensions; and improved reliability. Applied’s integrated cobalt suite is now shipping to foundry/logic customers worldwide.

Applied Materials, Inc. (Nasdaq:AMAT) is a leader in materials engineering solutions used to produce virtually every new chip and advanced display in the world.