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Slideshow: IEDM 2014 Preview


November 26, 2014

This year, the IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) celebrates 60 years of reporting technological breakthroughs in the areas of semiconductor and electronic device technology, design, manufacturing, physics, and modeling. The conference scope not only encompasses devices in silicon, compound and organic semiconductors, but also in emerging material systems. In 2014 there is an increased emphasis on circuit and process technology interaction, energy harvesting, bio-snesors and bioMEMS, power devices, magnetics and spintronics, two dimensional electronics and devices for non-Boolean computing.

Solid State Technology will be reporting insights from bloggers and industry partners during the conference, and this slideshow provides an advance look at some of the most newsworthy topics and papers to be presented at the annual meeting, to be held at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square Hotel from December 15-17, 2014.

Click here to launch slideshow. 

Bay Bridge, San Francisco at dusk

 

Related news and blogs: 

Intel and IBM to lay out 14nm FinFET strategies on competing substrates at IEDM 2014

Slideshow: IEDM 2013 Highlights

Continuing strength in China and a resurgent U.S. economy are combining to drive accelerated growth in the worldwide market for semiconductors used in industrial applications this year, according to IHS Technology.

Global market revenue for industrial semiconductors is expected to rise by 12.9 percent in 2014, reaching $38.5 billion, up from $34.0 billion in 2013. This represents an even larger increase in market growth compared to an 11.4 percent expansion in 2013.

The United States and China, the world’s two largest markets for industrial semiconductors, are propelling global growth this year, with revenue increases of 13 percent and 17 percent, respectively, as presented in the figure below. The two regions were responsible for strong market increases in the second quarter, compensating for a decline in Europe.

The surge in in the second quarter was thanks in particular to three sectors: factory automation; building and home control; and commercial aircraft. Expansion in the economies of the US and China overcame a contraction in the European market region during the April through June period. Following a seasonally slow first quarter, the strong second quarter expansion of nearly 7 percent kept the global market for industrial semiconductors on a strong ascendant path for the year.

“Rising demand for industrial semiconductors in the United States is being driven by a wide range of positive economic factors that are boosting the manufacturing sector,” said Robbie Galoso, principal analyst for IHS.

“At the same time, the Chinese government’s generous stimulus programs in several product markets are promoting broad-based strength for various industrial electronics areas. The robust performance in both countries kept spending on industrial semiconductors on track in the second quarter and set the stage for accelerated growth for the entire year of 2014.”

For more information, see the report entitled “Robust Q2 supports 2014 double-digit growth forecast” from the IHS Semiconductors & Components service.

Industrial juggernauts

The growth in the U.S. is driven by a plethora of factors, including a more stable housing market, improved consumer finances, and credit and increased capital spending. This will cause annual growth in the U.S. industrial semiconductor market to rise by about 2 percentage points in 2014 compared to 2013.

With 30.5 percent of total revenue in 2013, the United States is the No. 1 purchaser of industrial semiconductors in the world and has market share dominance across several industrial markets.

Meanwhile for China, that country’s economic growth is cooling somewhat, with the impact of government stimulus programs reverberating through the country’s various market segments. This is resulting in strong spending on microchips in industrial areas including manufacturing and process automation, test and measurement, building and home control, and security and video surveillance.

China is the second largest purchaser of industrial semiconductors in the world with 14.1 percent of total revenues in 2013.

LEDs light up the industrial chip sector

Among the fastest growing product sectors within the industrial semiconductor market will be optical light-emitting diodes (LEDs), which will attain 12.4 percent growth. The use of LEDs for general-lighting applications is propelling expansion of this area. Demand for general-lighting LEDs is so strong that as lighting outperformed other applications like televisions, some LEDs originally intended for TVs are being sold to the general-lighting market.

Other fast-growing segments include transistors and thyristors, which will grow 14.2 percent this year.

The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) today announced that the SIA board of directors has elected Brian Krzanich, CEO of Intel, as its 2015 chairman and Dr. Necip Sayiner, president, CEO and director of Intersil, as its 2015 vice chairman.

“We are excited to welcome Brian Krzanich as SIA’s 2015 chairman,” said Brian Toohey, SIA president and CEO. “His exceptional understanding of semiconductor issues and extensive industry experience make him uniquely qualified to help tackle our industry’s challenges and lead us into the future. We appreciate his many achievements and look forward to his leadership in 2015 as SIA chairman.”

Krzanich became the CEO of Intel in May 2013. He has progressed through a series of technical and leadership roles at Intel, most recently serving as the COO since January 2012. As COO, his responsibilities included leading an organization of more than 50,000 employees spanning Intel’s Technology and Manufacturing Group, Intel Custom Foundry, supply chain operations, the NAND Solutions group, human resources, information technology and Intel’s China strategy. Prior to becoming COO, Krzanich held senior leadership positions within Intel’s manufacturing organization. Krzanich began his career at Intel in 1982 in New Mexico as a process engineer.

“On the cusp of innovations such as the Internet of Things, wearable devices and smart cities, the U.S. semiconductor industry is poised for growth,” said Krzanich. “I look forward to collaborating with colleagues and policymakers to ensure that our industry reaches its full potential, continues to create jobs and keeps America at the forefront of technological advancement.”

Dr. Sayiner joined Intersil as president, CEO and director in March 2013. Prior to joining Intersil, he served as president, CEO and director of Silicon Laboratories from September 2005 to April 2012. Previously, Sayiner held various leadership positions at Agere Systems Inc., which included Executive Vice President and General Manager, Enterprise and Networking Division from August 2004 to September 2005; and Vice President and General Manager, Networking ICs Division from March 2002 to August 2004.

“Necip Sayiner has extensive industry experience and a strong technical background,” Toohey said. “His skills and leadership will be a tremendous asset to our association as we work to enact pro-innovation policies and build a stronger semiconductor industry in the U.S. We welcome him as 2015 SIA vice chairman.”

“I’m pleased to be supporting the SIA as vice chairman and helping to drive awareness of the importance of the semiconductor industry to our nation’s economic health,” said Sayiner. “Now more than ever, it is vital that we fight for government policies that promote growth and competitiveness.”

Worldwide silicon wafer area shipments increased during the third quarter 2014 when compared to second quarter area shipments according to the SEMI Silicon Manufacturers Group (SMG) in its quarterly analysis of the silicon wafer industry.

Total silicon wafer area shipments were 2,597 million square inches during the most recent quarter, a 0.4 percent increase from the 2,587 million square inches shipped during the previous quarter. New quarterly total area shipments are 11.0 percent higher than third quarter 2013 shipments, according to SEMI.

“After reaching record levels in the second quarter, silicon wafer shipment volume growth plateaued during the most recent quarter,” said Hiroshi Sumiya, chairman of SEMI SMG and general manager of the Corporate Planning Department of Shin-Etsu Handotai Co., Ltd. “Year-to-date silicon volumes are 10 percent higher than the same period last year.”

Quarterly Silicon Area Shipment Trends

 

Million Square Inches
 

Q3 2013

Q2 2014

Q3 2014

Q1-Q3 2013

Q1-Q3 2014
Total

2,341

2,587

2,597

6,859

7,548

Semiconductor Silicon Shipments* – Millions of Square Inches

Silicon wafers are the fundamental building material for semiconductors, which in turn, are vital components of virtually all electronics goods, including computers, telecommunications products, and consumer electronics. The highly engineered thin round disks are produced in various diameters (from one inch to 12 inches) and serve as the substrate material on which most semiconductor devices or “chips” are fabricated.

All data cited in this release is inclusive of polished silicon wafers, including virgin test wafers, epitaxial silicon wafers, and non-polished silicon wafers shipped by the wafer manufacturers to the end-users.

The Silicon Manufacturers Group acts as an independent special interest group within the SEMI structure and is open to SEMI members involved in manufacturing polycrystalline silicon, monocrystalline silicon or silicon wafers (e.g., as cut, polished, epi, etc.). The purpose of the group is to facilitate collective efforts on issues related to the silicon industry including the development of market information and statistics about the silicon industry and the semiconductor market.

For more information on the SEMI Worldwide Silicon Wafer Shipment Statistics, visit www.semi.org/en/MarketInfo/SiliconShipmentStatistics.

Nine of the Top 20 Semiconductor Suppliers are Forecast to Register Double-Digit Growth in 2014

Later this month, IC Insights’ November Update to The 2014 McClean Report will show a forecast ranking of the 2014 top 25 semiconductor suppliers with the companies’ sales broken down on a quarterly basis.  A preview of the forecast for the top 20 companies’ total 2014 sales results is presented in Figure 1.  The top 20 worldwide semiconductor (IC and O S D—optoelectronic, sensor, and discrete) sales ranking for 2014 includes eight suppliers headquartered in the U.S., three in Japan, three in Europe, three in Taiwan, two in South Korea, and one in Singapore, a relatively broad representation of geographic regions.

This year’s top-20 ranking includes two pure-play foundries (TSMC and UMC) and six fabless companies.  Pure-play IC foundry GlobalFoundries is forecast to be replaced in this year’s top 20 ranking by fabless IC supplier Nvidia.  It is interesting to note that the top four semiconductor suppliers all have different business models.  Intel is essentially a pure-play IDM, Samsung a vertically integrated IC supplier, TSMC a pure-play foundry, and Qualcomm a fabless company.

IC foundries are included in the top 20 ranking because IC Insights has always viewed the ranking as a top supplier list, not as a marketshare ranking, and realizes that in some cases semiconductor sales are double counted.  With many of IC Insights’ clients being vendors to the semiconductor industry (supplying equipment, chemicals, gases, etc.), excluding large IC manufacturers like the foundries would leave significant “holes” in the list of top semiconductor suppliers.  Foundries and fabless companies are clearly identified in Figure 1.  In the April Update to The McClean Report, marketshare rankings of IC suppliers by product type were presented and foundries were excluded from these listings.

As shown, it is expected to require total semiconductor sales of over $4.2 billion to make the 2014 top 20 ranking. In total, the top 20 semiconductor companies’ sales are forecast to increase by 9 percent this year as compared to 2013. However, when excluding the two pure-play foundries (TSMC and UMC) from the ranking, the top “18” semiconductor companies’ sales are forecast to increase by 8 percent this year, the same rate as IC Insights’ current forecast for total 2014 worldwide semiconductor market growth.

 

Fig. 1

Outside of the top six spots, there are numerous changes expected within the 2014 top-20 semiconductor supplier ranking.  In fact, of the 14 companies ranked 7th through 20th, 10 of them are forecast to change positions in 2014 as compared with 2013 (with NXP expected to jump up two spots).

More details on the forecasted 2014 top 25 semiconductor suppliers will be provided in the November Update to The McClean Report.

Applied Materials, Inc. today announced it collaborated with Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. and PSK Inc., a Korea-based leader in photoresist removal, to develop an advanced patterning solution for the manufacture of future generations of NAND and DRAM device designs. The new solution, available now, consists of the unique Saphira(TM) APF hardmask deposited on the Applied Producer® XP Precision CVD* system, and the Saphira removal process supported on the PSK OMNIS Asher tool. This comprehensive solution represents a breakthrough in precision materials engineering for complex patterning applications.

“This collaboration allows us to demonstrate and enhance the Saphira film’s deposition qualities and removal process,” said Dr. Mukund Srinivasan, vice president and general manager of the Dielectric Systems and Modules Group at Applied Materials. “A new superior class of hardmask films, such as the Saphira APF, is needed as the extendibility of traditional films to support high aspect ratio patterning is a major barrier to NAND and DRAM scaling. Teaming with industry experts on this new hardmask solution gives Applied a strong advantage to set the pace for advanced memory manufacturing.”

“We are very pleased to work with Applied Materials on developing a highly productive, enabling technology that helps solve tomorrow’s patterning challenges,” said JJ Lee, SVP and chief marketing officer of PSK. “With the unprecedented complexities in patterning future device designs, we believe it is through cooperative efforts that the industry can achieve novel solutions to meet customer requirements. The combination of systems from Applied and PSK provide the industry with an efficient, readily integrated, comprehensive solution.”

The Saphira APF deposition and PSK OMNIS Asher systems resolve major issues to improve patterning of more complex device structures at advanced technology nodes. For emerging high aspect ratio and dense patterning requirements, the Saphira APF process introduces new film properties that include greater selectivity and transparency. The high-productivity PSK OMNIS Asher system is capable of completely removing the Saphira hardmask layer while preserving the patterned shapes and underlying materials. Together, these leading-edge processes have demonstrated the capabilities to meet the patterning demands of next-generation devices.

Applied has exclusively licensed its proprietary removal process for the Saphira APF hardmask to PSK. 

GLOBALFOUNDRIES, a provider of advanced semiconductor manufacturing, design and technology solutions, today announced a partnership with INVECAS Inc., a newly formed design services provider focused on accelerating customer introduction of new products on leading-edge semiconductor process technologies. INVECAS will operate multiple system-on-chip (SoC) design service centers in both the United States and India to provide exclusive support for GLOBALFOUNDRIES customers.

This new partnership is intended to serve a variety of customers across multiple market segments, from small fabless companies with limited internal resources to large systems companies seeking to differentiate their products through customized silicon. INVECAS will focus on offering design services for GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ leading-edge processes including 14nm FinFET, addressing multiple market segments including high-performance computing, consumer electronics, and mobile communications.

INVECAS will operate design service centers in Santa Clara, Calif., Burlington, Vt., Bangalore, India and Hyderabad, India. INVECAS design centers will be staffed by more than 600 engineers and will provide customers with GLOBALFOUNDRIES-focused design services.

“These newly launched centers will provide a significant complement to our in-house global design solutions capabilities while enhancing our existing ecosystem of design and IP partners,” said Gregg Bartlett, senior vice president of product management at GLOBALFOUNDRIES. “The INVECAS team has a strong track record of providing spec-to-silicon solutions for complex SoC designs in multiple high-volume market segments. They will be an excellent partner to help us expand the services available to customers designing products on the leading edge of technology.”

“By combining our proven system-level expertise with a laser-like focus on GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ advanced processes, INVECAS brings unrivaled expertise to some of the most difficult issues facing designers today,” said Dasaradha Gude, chairman of INVECAS Inc. “This will enable a broader range of customers to accelerate time-to-volume of designs on complex technologies like 14nm FinFETs.”

Through INVECAS, customers will have access to a broad spectrum of services such as system design, embedded software design, SoC design and verification, and physical implementation.

In additional to traditional design services, INVECAS will offer customers a wide selection of design IP across various GLOBALFOUNDRIES process nodes. The IP offerings include standard cells, IOs, memories, analog, and complex interface IP solutions. The center will expand the availability and affordability of qualified IP solutions for GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ leading-edge process technologies.

The new design centers complement GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ broad ecosystem of partners enabling customers to achieve the fastest time-to-volume. Called GLOBALSOLUTIONSSM, the ecosystem includes partners in all aspects of design enablement and turnkey services, OPC and mask operations, and advanced capabilities in assembly solutions.

Belgian nanoelectronics research center imec has announced a joint development project with Coventor, a supplier of semiconductor process development tools. The collaboration will enable faster and more optimized development of advanced manufacturing technology in the 3D device architecture era, extending down to imec’s 10- and 7-nanometer (nm) processes.

To adopt the 7nm node, the industry needs to select the optimal layout, as well as optimize process step performance and control methodology. Using Coventor’s SEMulator3D platform, engineers from imec and Coventor are working together to reduce silicon learning cycles and development costs by down selecting the options for development of next-generation manufacturing technologies. The SEMulator3D platform is an integrated set of modeling tools with enhanced visibility, accuracy and performance that enables engineers to interactively model and simulate a wide range of manufacturing effects in software before committing to expensive test chips.

At imec, process and integration experts have connected optical lithography simulations with Coventor’s SEMulator3D virtual fabrication platform to explore FinFET scaling to the 7nm node and to compare the process window marginalities in several dense SRAM designs using  Spacer Assisted Quadruple Patterning and either multiple immersion or EUV patterning cut/keep solutions. Moreover, a Spacer-Assisted Quad Patterning scheme for 7nm dense interconnect was devised using SEMulator3D, and process window marginalities for an immersion based multiple block patterning solution were analyzed. Additional collaboration will focus on the predictive modeling of Directed Self-Assembly for advanced patterning.

An Steegen, senior vice president process technology at imec said:  “A virtual fabrication platform enables us to tie together integrated processing before all of the individual processes are available.  The SEMulator3D tool gives us the visibility and accuracy to do that, and an integrated platform to bring together all the various elements of advanced processing before moving on to actual silicon.”

“Imec is the premier semiconductor research center, and this collaboration allows us to synchronize our modeling roadmap with one of the industry’s most advanced process roadmaps, as well as to speed the development of their 10nm and 7nm technology,” said David Fried, Chief Technical Officer, Semiconductor, at Coventor. “Working together with imec on novel integration schemes, designing SEMulator3D-specific structures for imec’s testsites, and then calibrating advanced models to imec’s wafer processing is an extremely effective and valuable way for Coventor to optimize our virtual fabrication platform for emerging market requirements.”

imec&conventor

Capped by last week’s announcement that Qualcomm Inc. would buy CSR PLC, the automotive semiconductor industry recently has been undergoing a wave of merger and acquisition (M&A) activity that has shaken up the competitive order of the market, according to IHS Technology.

In two major deals announced in August, Germany’s Infineon Technologies AG said it would acquire U.S.-based International Rectifier Corp., while ON Semiconductor Corp. sealed a deal to acquire fellow American firm Aptina Imaging Corp.

With the International Rectifier deal, Infineon bolstered its No. 2 rank in the global automotive semiconductor business and helped it to close the gap on the market leader, Renesas of Japan. Following the acquisition, Infineon trails Renesas by just $288 million, down from nearly $500 before Infineon bought International Rectifier, based on ranking data from 2013.

Meanwhile, the Aptina acquisition expanded ON’s automotive semiconductor revenue by $183 million, allowing ON to move up one position to eighth place in the market, also based on 2013 ranking data.

The purchase of the U.K.’s CSR will allow California-based Qualcomm to enhance its market share. Qualcomm ranked No. 43 in 2013, while CSR came in at 23. The two companies combined would have ranked at No. 19 in 2013.

“While these three M&A deals differ in their specific goals and benefits, all have the same strategic objective: expanding market share in the lucrative business for semiconductors used in automobiles,” said Ahad Buksh, analyst for automotive semiconductors at IHS. “The automotive supply is adding new infotainment, communications and driver-assist functionality at a rapid pace, causing related semiconductor revenue to rise 5 percent to reach $26 billion in 2013. Suppliers are buying up competitors to gain scale in the market, to add key capabilities and to capitalize on established customer relationships.”

Clash of the top 10 titans

The figure below presents the IHS ranking of the world’s top 10 suppliers of automotive semiconductors in 2013, showing the impact from the recent acquisitions.

Auto_Semi_in_Cars

All of these 10 companies increasingly are investing in automotive, having identified the area as a strategic field of expansion. At the same time, most of these companies are divesting from other markets, such as wireless and consumer electronics.

The strong positions held by the top 10 suppliers are the result of decades of investment to meet the specific requirements of leading customers. These requirements include high product quality and strong service support. IHS believes that automotive manufacturers will tend to maintain long-term relationship with these established semiconductor suppliers.

To Infineon and beyond

Infineon’s acquisition of International Rectifier not only will diversify the former’s product portfolio but also will make it a bigger threat to Renesas.

Last year was great for both Infineon and International Rectifier, with automotive-related revenue at the two companies rising by 11.7 percent and 15.6 percent, respectively. In contrast, the declining exchange rate of Japanese yen vs. the U.S. dollar meant that Renesas suffered a 14.2 percent drop in automotive revenue in 2013. What used to be a lead of more than $1.2 billion for Renesas over Infineon in 2012 eroded by 60 percent.

Once the International Rectifier acquisition is complete, Renesas’ lead will shrink further.

International Rectifier’s strong presence in low-power insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT), power modules and power metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) will boost Infineon into the top spot in the discrete integrated circuit (IC) category. This particularly reinforces Infineon’s position in the fast growing hybrid and electric vehicle segment. Intelligent power switches, data converters and application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC) from International Rectifier also will complement Infineon’s portfolio and will generate economies of scale. Even though Infineon’s second position in analog ICs won’t change, the acquisition will help it close in on the top player in the segment, STMicroelectronics.

On the acquisition hunt

Aside from bringing ON Semiconductor closer to the $1 billion mark in automotive semiconductors, Aptina’s sensor business is of strategic importance, as it was a weak spot in On’s portfolio. Now, ON Semiconductor can count itself the leading supplier of complementary-metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) imaging sensors, which serve as the eyes of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) in vehicles. The rapid adoption of ADAS will drive markets for automotive image sensors to attain 10 percent growth per year from 2013 to 2020, making it a good investment for On.

Qualcomm boosts automotive market share with CSR acquisition

Qualcomm’s acquisition of CSR is more about buying—and as a result, enlarging—market share in automotive than about complementing Qualcomm’s product portfolio.

With the purchase, Qualcomm will become the world’s fourth-largest supplier of ASICs for automotive infotainment, with a 10 percent market share. In 2013, the company ranked 11th with a market share of 2.7 percent, unchanged from 2012 and 2011.

Gigaphoton Inc., a lithography light source manufacturer, announced today that it has succeeded in achieving 3-hour continuous operation of its prototype LPP EUV light source at 50 percent duty cycle and 42-W output, equivalent to usage in a high-volume-manufacturing (HVM) environment.

The 3-hour continuous operation under such HVM environment as above was achieved by irradiating an Sn target (tin droplet) with a solid-state pre-pulse laser and a CO2 laser after combining and optimizing these lasers. Achievement of 3-hour continuous operation at a duty cycle of 50 percent with the high output of 42 W is proof that the development of HVM EUV scanners has entered its final stage. Gigaphoton remains committed to continuing its R&D efforts, and is targeting around-the-clock operation at 150-W output and 250-W output for high-volume manufacturing by the end of 2014 and 2015, respectively.

Related news: IBM announces EUV benchmark

The prototype LPP light source attains the emission of EUV by radiating ultra-small tin (Sn) droplets of less than 20 μm in diameter with a solid-state pre-pulse laser and main-pulse CO2 laser. Additionally, to maximize the life of the collector mirror, a high-output superconducting magnet generates a powerful magnetic field that guides unwanted debris produced by thermal expansion of the tin droplets towards the tin catcher. Moreover, use of Sn target droplets of less than 20 µm in diameter allows prolongation of the droplet generator life as well as reduction of downtime and cost.

“Our success in 3-hour continuous operation of the prototype LPP EUV light source at 50 percent duty cycle and 42-W output is clear evidence that achievement of a high-performance LPP EUV light source capable of stable operation at higher output and lower running cost will soon be completed,” said Hitoshi Tomaru, president and CEO of Gigaphoton, “I am confident that Gigaphoton’s expertise and efforts to develop an LPP light source that accelerates development of HVM EUV scanners will enable earlier introduction of these scanners as next-generation lithography tools.”

Gigaphoton will present the latest status of its EUV light source development at the 2014 International Symposium on Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography, which will be held in Washington, DC on October 27 through 29. The company will also co-sponsor this 2014 EUVL symposium.

This utilizes the achievement of a program subsidized by NEDO（New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization).