OTHER ELECTRONICS & NANOTECHNOLOGY
INDUSTRY UPDATE
August 2015
McIlvaine Company
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
University of Washington to Invest in Nanofabrication Lab
SUSS
MicroTec Plans New Competence-Center for Nanoimprint
Conexant
Expands into New Facility
Intel
India to Open Lab for Start-Ups
Project
for Integrated Photonics Institute
The Washington Nanofabrication Facility (WNF) at the
University of Washington is to double in size and expand its cleanroom space in
a US$37m renovation. The WNF makes items that are not practical, economical or
possible to produce in commercial foundries, such as tiny parts, chips made from
unconventional materials and devices that probe the boundaries of our universe.
Located on the University of Washington campus, it is the
largest publicly accessible nanofabrication facility north of Berkeley and west
of Minneapolis. The upgrade of the facility is scheduled to begin in November,
and will double the lab's highly-specialized fabrication space.
The University says the investment is necessary to keep up
with rapid growth in demand – WNF revenue has nearly tripled since 2011. The 'fab
lab' in Fluke Hall has supported $32m in research grant funding this year. A
third of its 223 users are with commercial companies, which range from
multinational corporations to University spinouts and local start-ups. Users
include Jevne Branden Micheau-Cunningham, who launched a new company called
Flexforge six months ago. He is using WNF equipment and expertise to manufacture
nanoscale electronics with applications in the automotive, aerospace and medical
devices industries.
'The Washington Nanofabrication Facility is vital to my
existence,' he said. 'It allows entrepreneurs such as myself to flesh out ideas
and bring products to life — the costs to get up and running on my own would
have been prohibitive.' The WNF houses nearly 100 different pieces of equipment
that perform everything from electron beam lithography and atomic layer
deposition to plasma etching and wafer bonding. User fees paid by academic and
non-university clients are invested back into the facility. The WNF houses
equipment used in nanofabrication, from simple microscopes to this tool that
deposits dielectric materials at low temperatures.
The University took ownership of the non-profit
nanofabrication facility in 2011, which was formerly run by the Washington
Department of Commerce. Through private donations, grants, funding from the
University and corporate gifts, the lab has invested in excess of $8m over the
last four years to modernize tools and equipment. But the infrastructure in
Fluke Hall, built in 1988, needs upgrades to meet basic safety and environmental
standards and the highly specialized needs of nanofabrication users. The
renovation, which will be done in three phases over 14 months to minimize
downtime, will allow the lab to control temperature, humidity and air quality
better inside the cleanroom, where unwelcome fluctuations can contaminate an
entire production line. 'One dust speck can damage a device if it’s in the wrong
place, so this renovation will make a major difference,' said WNF Director Karl
Böhringer, a University of Washington professor of electrical engineering and of
bioengineering. 'The other advantage will be having more space — usage and
revenues have increased, and we are bursting at the seams.'
SUSS MicroTec, a global supplier of equipment and process
solutions for the semiconductor industry and related markets, and the Singh
Center for Nanotechnology at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) are
announcing a cooperation agreement in the field of nanoimprint technologies. As
part of this cooperation, Penn has recently received the equipment set and the
technology know-how for Substrate Conformal Imprint Lithography (SCIL), that
will expand the capabilities of the recently installed MA/BA6 Gen3 Mask Aligner
from SUSS MicroTec at Penn.
Substrate Conformal Imprint Lithography (SCIL) is a
nanoimprint technique combining the advantages of both soft and rigid stamps,
allowing large-area patterning and sub-50nm resolution to be achieved at the
same time. SCIL is applied in diverse fields, ranging from HB LEDs,
Photovoltaics, MEMS, NEMS and mass production of optical gratings for gas
sensing and telecommunications.
The Singh Center for Nanotechnology will implement SCIL for
use in plasmonic devices, semiconductor nanowires, flexible nanocrystal
electronics, biodegradable sensors and MEMS batteries.
In addition, Lithography Manager Dr. Gerald Lopez will lead the Center’s
efforts in qualifying new nanoimprint materials and related process technology
development in close cooperation with SUSS MicroTec.
As a further important part of the cooperation, SUSS
MicroTec`s customers will gain direct access to the cleanroom facilities and the
equipment set installed at Penn, serving as a demonstration center for North
American customers. The experience and high technology level of Penn allows the
customer to see the entire process flow, the imprinting process itself and the
subsequent steps up to a finished device.
“We are pleased to collaborate with SUSS MicroTec for
developing applications with SCIL. By combining our strengths in micro- and
nanofabrication, we are able to provide superior nanoimprint capabilities to our
researchers,” stated Professor Mark Allen, Scientific Director of the Singh
Center for Nanotechnology and Alfred Fitler Moore, Professor of Electrical and
Systems Engineering. “This industrial partnership enhances our ability to
demonstrate how nanoimprint technology serves as a catalyst in research and its
translation into the commercial sector.”
“We are very happy about the cooperation with the Singh Center
for Nanotechnology. Their work will contribute strongly to further commercialize
this large area nano-patterning technique in order to accelerate the adoption
for volume production. In addition, our customers do not just benefit from the
possibility to use Penn’s facilities and get insights to the entire imprinting
process, but also from Penn´s knowledge, by having an experienced partner at
hand”, says Ralph Zoberbier, General Manager Exposure and Laser Processing of
SUSS MicroTec.“
Foxconn Technology Group, the world's biggest electronics
contract manufacturing company, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with
the Maharashtra government to build a manufacturing facility with an investment
of $5 billion over the next five years.
The state government has allotted 1,500acre of land for the
new facility at Taloja in Pune district, which is promoted by the Maharashtra
Industrial Development Corporation and houses several other industrial units.
The deal with the Taiwan-based company—which makes devices for
Apple, Blackberry, Motorola, Amazon, Cisco and Xiaomi—is one of the largest
foreign direct investment projects in the country in recent years and is the
biggest in pure play manufacturing since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took
office last year.
Foxconn chair Terry Gou said that the facility would focus on
manufacturing and research and development, adding that he saw India as a
manufacturing and export base in their long-term plans. This seemingly fits
Modi's Make in India initiative, which aims to attract foreign investors to beef
up the country's manufacturing sector.
Foxconn might create thin film transistors (TFT), which is a
vital part in the production of high-definition television (HDTV) sets.
The MoU was the result of two months of dialogue between the
state government and the company. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis
led a delegation of 70 people in a meeting with Foxconn in its China facility.
Fadnavis said the investment would generate at least 50,000 jobs in the state
and would be crucial for both the Make in India and Make in Maharashtra
campaigns.
Foxconn picked Maharashtra over other states because it has a
leading financial center and a pool of skilled workforce and software-hardware
integration facilities. Gou said that the group would seek local partners
consistent with its plans for India. This means that Foxconn may search in other
cities like New Delhi.
Gou also hinted at building more factories in several
locations across India.
Last year, Foxconn shut down its manufacturing facility near
Chennai when Nokia decided to move out of the country.
Conexant Systems, Inc., an audio and imaging innovation
leader, has expanded its Asia Pacific AudioSmart business by moving into a new
facility located in Neihu Technology Park – considered the core of Taipei's
Technology Corridor. With this new location, Conexant will provide greater
localized support and cutting-edge facilities to serve customers in Taiwan. The
Taipei facility joins Conexant offices in China, Korea, Japan, and Singapore.
In addition to accommodating a larger staff, the new 1,500
square meter (approximately 16,000 square feet) facility includes anechoic and
EMI acoustic tuning chambers, an ETSI test room and state-of-the-art head
acoustic equipment. This allows Conexant to provide the same advanced acoustic
design, tuning and verification services for Taiwanese customers as is offered
from the company's headquarters in California – without requiring systems to be
physically shipped around the globe or having to navigate time differences
between regions. The new Taipei office also includes the ability to perform the
iterative testing necessary for Microsoft Skype for Business, Cortana and Intel
Automated Speech Recognition certifications. Finally, a new demo room enables
Conexant to showcase its full line of AudioSmart products to customers and
partners in the region.
Saleel Awsare, Conexant vice president and general manager,
attributes the new office location in Taipei to the company's continued growth
in the region. He states, "There is a large demand for our AudioSmart solutions
in Taiwan and throughout Asia Pacific, so we have expanded our presence to
better serve those markets. By opening a regional location that offers full
tuning and testing capabilities, we can respond to our customers' needs that
much quicker and provide them with the solutions they need to create a rich
audio experience for their end products."
Conexant's AudioSmart solutions address the growing number of
applications that combine embedded audio and voice – including smart TVs, smart
appliances, headsets and mobile computer platforms such as notebooks and
tablets. Used by industry leaders in Unified Communications, consumer
electronics and advanced gaming headsets, Conexant's solutions deliver the
highest level of audio quality combined with voice interaction for an
exceptional audio experience.
Local innovators and start-ups will get a boost in their
capabilities with Intel India's plan to build and open Maker Lab, an innovation
center, in its Bengaluru campus, a report from The Economic Times stated. The
move is also intended to speed up hardware design innovation in the country.
The timing of the plan is perfect as the Indian government
offers tax incentives and higher foreign direct investment limits, among others,
to attract more companies from abroad. In addition, Asia's third largest economy
is slowly becoming enthusiastic about the concept of maker spaces. Among the top
maker spaces in its shores right now are Workbench Projects and IKP EDEN.
"With the Intel India Maker Lab, we are offering a strong
platform to India's vibrant start-up ecosystem, and encouraging young innovators
to turn their ideas into exciting and relevant products for India," said Kumud
Srinivasan, president, Intel India.
Local Indian entrepreneurs will receive mentoring and business
connection from the lab, which will also provide the infrastructure, reference
boards, development kits, hardware and software tools. Hopefully, these
offerings will push innovators to create and test their ideas that will
eventually lead to products and solutions.
Intel India, however, emphasized that Maker Lab was neither a
non-profit initiative nor created as an extension of its software development
activities. The company also stated that aside from start-ups, it would also
work closely with the government incubation initiatives and accelerators to
bring the products to the market immediately.
Should start-ups develop a successful prototype, Intel India
will provide assistance by linking them to local technology ecosystem like
electronic manufacturing service providers, independent software vendors, system
integrators and original design manufacturers to take the innovation to the next
level.
Apart from the Maker Lab, the company will also establish the
Intel India Maker Showcase. This initiative will serve as a venue for delegates
and visitors from the ecosystem to witness and experience products and solutions
both from the Lab and from Intel.
A multi-partner project submitted by the Research Foundation
for the State University of New York (SUNY) has been identified as the winner of
a $110 million matching grant in US Department of Defense funding to build a new
Integrated Photonics Institute for Manufacturing Innovation (IP-IMI).
The award is an important milestone for the whole community,
said leaders of SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics. The
award was announced in the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle. A formal announcement
is expected from Washington, DC,.
SPIE leaders said the award marks another important step
forward in recognition for photonics technologies and their role in ensuring
economic vitality and global technology leadership for the USA.
Jim McNally, chair of the SPIE Engineering, Science, and
Technology Policy noted that the establishment of a photonics-driven institute
is a significant win for the industry as well as good for society and the
economy. "Having photonics as a key part of the National Network for
Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI) adds to the recognition of our light-based
science and technologies for their critical importance to our global
competitiveness and for contributions that significantly improve quality of
life," he said.
SPIE is a Founding Partner of the IYL 2015 observance as well
as a Founding Sponsor of the NPI, a collaborative alliance in the US among
industry, academia, government, and not-for-profit societies. The NPI was
launched in 2013 to raise awareness of photonics, increase collaboration
throughout the photonics community, and drive US funding and investment.
With a pledge for DOD matching funds up to $110 million, the
IP-IMI is the largest of several new manufacturing institutes (IMIs) being
established by the Obama Administration to develop high-tech jobs in the US,
according to a White House fact sheet. It is intended to advance the state of
the art in the design, manufacture, testing, assembly, and packaging of complex
photonic integrated circuits that combine a variety of photonic and electronic
components to achieve functionality.
The New York proposal was submitted by the SUNY Research
Foundation on behalf of SUNY Polytechnic Institute, the University of Rochester,
Rochester Institute of Technology, the University of Arizona, and Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, and other academic and industry partners and
stakeholders from California, New York, and Massachusetts.
The proposal noted that integrated photonics manufacturing has
the potential to revolutionize the carrying capacity of internet networks to
transmit more data at faster speeds; enhance medical technology; reduce the cost
of sequencing the human genome; and improve battlefield imaging and radar
capabilities for national defense. The principal investigator is Michael Liehr
of the Colleges of Nanoscale Science and Engineering at SUNY Polytechnic
Institute in Albany.
Other finalist teams in the three-way competition for the
matching funds were led by the University of Central Florida, with team members
including more than 55 industry partners and five key research universities
(UCF, Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Alabama-Huntsville,
Clemson University, and the University of Illinois); and by the University of
Southern California, with support from institutes across California plus Arizona
State University, the University of New Mexico, and Ohio State University.
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