OTHER ELECTRONICS & NANOTECHNOLOGY
INDUSTRY UPDATE
December 2020
McIlvaine Company
STMicroelectronics Establishes “Lab-in-Fab” in
Singapore
Creation Technologies Breaks Ground on New
Facility in Hermosillo, Mexico
IGaN Epi Centre Aims to Boost GaN Ecosystem in Asia
UCLA to Upgrade Advanced Nanofabrication Capabilities
PlayNitride to Set Up Second Micro LED Production Line
More Details on EVG’s New Clean Room Facility
___________________________________________________________________
STMicroelectronics Establishes “Lab-in-Fab” in
Singapore
Partnership with A*STAR and ULVAC has been agreed to attempt to advance adoption
of Piezoelectric MEMS
STMicroelectronics, a global semiconductor provider and Micro-Electromechanical
Systems (MEMS) specialist, has announced a collaboration with A*STAR's IME, a
research institute in Singapore, and ULVAC, a leading Japanese
manufacturing-tool vendor.
The collaboration will jointly setup and operate an 8-inch (200mm) R&D line
focused on Piezo MEMS technology within ST's existing manufacturing facility in
Singapore. The first of its kind in the world, this "Lab-in-Fab" R&D line brings
together three partners with leading-edge and complementary competencies in
Piezo materials, Piezo MEMS technologies, and wafer-fab tools to boost
innovation and accelerate development of new materials, process technologies,
and ultimately, products for industry customers.
The Lab-in-Fab consists of a new cleanroom area within ST's Ang Mo Kio campus
and will host tools and dedicated resources from the three parties, which
include MEMS R&D and process scientists and engineers.
IME's knowledge base and industrial drive in piezo-MEMS device design, process
integration, and system integration will add value to the development of the
line. IME will also contribute state-of-the-art tools to help ensure a smooth
product flow through to production, all within the same location. The new R&D
line will also leverage existing ST resources, benefiting from the economies of
scale of ST's wafer fabs on the same campus. The "Lab-in-Fab" facility is
forecast to be ready and operational with first wafers in Q2 2021 and volume
production at the end of 2022.
"We want to build the world's leading R&D center for Piezo MEMS materials,
technologies, and products with IME and ULVAC, with whom we have been working
for a long time. This world first will be hosted in our Singapore site, a
strategic location for ST," said Benedetto Vigna, President of Analog, MEMS and
Sensors Group at STMicroelectronics. "The Lab-in-Fab will offer our customers
the capability to more easily go from a feasibility study to product development
and high-volume manufacturing."
This collaboration enhances the existing manufacturing-process portfolio of ST
Singapore and will accelerate the adoption of Piezo MEMS actuators in promising
new fields of application, including MEMS Mirrors for Smart Glasses, AR Headsets
and LIDAR systems, Piezoelectric Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducers (PMUT) for
emerging medical applications, and Piezo Heads for Commercial and industrial 3-D
Printing.
"The public-private partnership between IME, ST and ULVAC has led to the
creation of a unique R&D line, which will bring about novel products using piezo
materials, and boost the competitiveness of our partners. These efforts will
continue to anchor high-value R&D activities in Singapore and demonstrate that
Singapore continues to be an attractive environment for industry leaders to
innovate and grow their businesses. A*STAR is also committed to helping local
SMEs tap into our technologies. We welcome companies to collaborate with IME and
leverage our Lab-in-Fab facilities for proof of concept," said Dim-Lee Kwong,
Executive Director of IME.
"We are proud of being a "Lab-in-Fab" partner of ST and IME in developing
advanced Piezo-MEMS for numerous promising future applications. This is also a
strong proof of ULVAC's leadership in providing manufacturing technology
solutions to the Piezo-MEMS industry. We are looking forward to working closely
with our partners for a successful collaboration," said Koukou SUU, Executive
Officer and Senior Fellow of ULVAC.
Creation Technologies Breaks Ground on New
Facility in Hermosillo, Mexico
Creation Technologies, an end-to-end, scalable Global Electronic Manufacturing
Services provider, announced that it is expanding the Hermosillo operation with
a new, state-of-the-art facility. The company is making a strategic investment
to significantly expand its North American footprint to better serve Aerospace &
Defense, Medical, and Tech Industrial customers.
“We are thrilled to announce our plans
for a significant expansion of our manufacturing capacity in Mexico,” said
Stephen P. DeFalco, Chairman and CEO of Creation Technologies. “This expansion
builds on our current Mexico operations where we have over 700 dedicated
employees focused on providing outstanding service to our customers’ high
reliability needs.”
The new facility will provide significantly more capacity with a total of
205,000 square feet which will bring the total capacity of our Mexico operations
to 330,000 square feet and complement the company’s existing capabilities in
Mexicali. It will have space for up to 12 highly automated SMT lines and will be
a purpose-built greenfield facility designed for lean factory flow with the most
modern manufacturing equipment. The new manufacturing site is located three
kilometers from the company’s current Hermosillo facility, providing a smooth
transition for employees and existing customers, and is scheduled to be
operational in Q3 2021.
In addition to offering efficient product flow, the new facility will provide
fully integrated EMS solutions, including dedicated areas for PCB Assembly,
System Integration & Test, as well as Forward and Reverse Logistics.
About Creation Technologies:
Creation Technologies (www.creationtech.com) provides total electronics product
lifecycle solutions including turnkey design, rapid prototyping, manufacturing
and fulfillment to support its high reliability customers around the world. The
company of approximately 3,200 employees operates ten manufacturing locations,
two design centers and a rapid prototyping center in the USA, Canada, Mexico and
China. Its OEM customers are in the Aerospace & Defense, Medical, and Tech
Industrial markets.
IGaN Epi Centre Aims to Boost GaN Ecosystem in
Asia
IGaN, IGSS Ventures and partners invest some $73 million to expand GaN Epi
production capacity
Following successes in customer pilot lines, Singapore-based IGSS GaN, a company
focused on GaN-on-Si/SiC technology, has set up a 4 inch to 8 inch MOCVD GaN Epi
Centre, which is expected to be operational mid-2021.
The Epi Centre brings together customers, universities, research institutes and
tool vendors to collaborate in the future development of GaN technologies as the
quality of epiwafers are critical to GaN device manufacturing, according to Raj
Kumar, IGaN's CEO and founder of its holding company IGSS Ventures.
IGaN, IGSS Ventures and select partners have invested some $73 million to expand
GaN Epi production capacity and to mass produce 8inch GaN fabrication
technologies.
“What the industry lacks today is a concerted effort to enhance the overall GaN
ecosystem to lower cost barriers so that technology adoption can happen at the
pace the market is moving. We projected more than nine years ago that at 8inch
wafer dimensions, GaN-on-Si capabilities becomes a competitive and powerful
solution to create the right balance between superior performances and cost
competitiveness," said Kumar.
"A commercial center and Joint Lab hosting several top specialist brands and
leading vendors is a timely market response to creating strategic partnerships
that fast-track innovation, growth, and customer value. Capitalizing on the
recognizable Singapore-brand, second to none IPs standards, its known
semiconductor infrastructure and IGaN's in-house expertise, I truly believe we
can set standards, create benchmarks and lead the global movement in GaN
adoption,” he added.
Ambitions for the Epi Centre is indicative of the growing excitement in the
industry as GaN technology sits at the intersection of power-efficient
electronics, AI, 5G and IoT, charging systems/powertrain management, green
energy and smart city demands.
UCLA to Upgrade Advanced Nanofabrication
Capabilities
Engineering school and California NanoSystems Institute have planned to create
integrated, state-of-the-art spaces
Marc Roseboro/UCLA California NanoSystems Institute
UCLA's high-tech capabilities for creating atomically tiny devices and materials
are undergoing a multimillion-dollar upgrade.
The enhancements include adding state-of-the-art fabrication equipment to its
existing cleanrooms - specialized laboratories where the air is free from dust
and other particles.
The changes will allow researchers to build new generations of small devices,
such as computer chips that mimic how the brain works, ultra high-efficiency
batteries and solar panels, and even biological sensors for rapid and portable
diagnosis.
As part of the upgrade, two existing cleanrooms will merge under a single
operation - called the UCLA Nanofabrication Laboratory, or UCLA NanoLab for
short. The new entity combines resources from the UCLA Samueli School of
Engineering's Nanoelectronics Research Facility and the California NanoSystems
Institute at UCLA's Integrated Systems Nanofabrication Cleanroom. The upgrades,
which began this year, should be complete in 2022.
The UCLA NanoLab is available to the campus community, as well as to researchers
from other institutions and high-tech companies. Hundreds of businesses have
already used UCLA's cleanrooms. The facility has remained active during the
COVID-19 pandemic, although applications to use it are subject to campus
guidance designed to limit the spread of the disease.
The upgrades are being made possible by a combined multimillion-dollar
investment from UCLA Engineering, CNSI and the office of UCLA's Vice Chancellor
of Research.
"This joint investment is an important demonstration of a strategic partnership
with an impact that will extend across campus and beyond," said Adam Stieg, an
Associate Director of CNSI responsible for the institute's technology centers.
"Providing this type of advanced research infrastructure will accelerate the
translation of early-stage scientific discoveries into new technologies and
knowledge-driven enterprises."
Cleanrooms help prevent contamination of the tiny experimental device
researchers are studying or building. On a day with "good" outdoor air quality,
there can be millions of particles of dust, pollen and microbes in each cubic
foot of air. By contrast, the cleanest area of the UCLA NanoLab will have less
than 10 particles per cubic foot.
The UCLA NanoLab will offer state-of-the-art resources for the fabrication of
devices at the nanoscale - items so small that they are measured in
one-billionths of a meter. Additionally, UCLA is the only institution in
Southern California that enables researchers to work with biological materials -
such as what is needed to build next-generation biosensors - within a fully
functional nanofabrication facility.
Some of the upgrades will build on UCLA's established excellence in
semiconductor lithography, the drawing of patterns onto the silicon wafers that
form the foundation of integrated circuits. New equipment will enhance the
campus's capabilities for subsequent steps in the process - depositing
functional materials onto the patterns, etching away unneeded parts of the
wafers and analyzing the characteristics of the resulting devices.
This added equipment will enable researchers to work with emerging materials
that combine metal with oxygen or nitrogen, with potential applications
including greener electrical power and brain-mimicking computer chips.
"We're creating more possibilities for users," said You-Sheng "Wilson" Lin, who
oversees day-to-day operations as director of the UCLA NanoLab. "With the new
tools, UCLA investigators can be even more creative about conceiving their
research programs."
The NanoLab location in CNSI will house a full suite of equipment to support
most common nanofabrication processes. The location at UCLA Samueli, which is in
the nearby Engineering IV building, will host equipment for specialized
processes such as advanced etching and continue to be used as a teaching
laboratory for UCLA students in engineering and the sciences.
Beyond campus researchers, one company that has used UCLA's cleanrooms is
Carbonics, which makes energy-efficient wireless chips integrating carbon
nanotubes, hollow cylinders of graphene that help lower power consumption and
improve performance. The business's foundational research began at UCLA, and the
company emerged from CNSI's Magnify startup incubator, which provides lab space
and other support for entrepreneurs. According to Carbonics co-founder Kos
Galatsis, the resources at UCLA were integral to launching the business.
"The facility has some unique capabilities when it comes to semiconductor
fabrication that don't exist anyplace else," said Galatsis, the company's CEO
and chairman, who was an associate adjunct professor of materials science at
UCLA. "Our critical activities have taken place at UCLA, so the impact is
tremendous."
Stieg said the investment in nanofabrication will have broad-ranging impacts.
"With our capabilities modernized and renewed, the UCLA NanoLab will provide a
unique resource for Southern California," he said.
PlayNitride to Set Up Second Micro LED Production Line
PlayNitride, to fund its plan to set up its second micro LED production line,
will raise additional paid-in capital of US$50 million by the end of September
2020, according to the company.
EV Group Completes State-Of-The-Art Cleanroom Facility
Newly opened Cleanroom V building nearly doubles cleanroom capacity and
strengthens capabilities of EVG’s NILPhotonics and Heterogeneous Integration
Competence Centers.
The facility will open officially in August.
EV Group (EVG), a leading supplier of wafer bonding and lithography equipment
for the MEMS, nanotechnology and semiconductor markets, today announced that it
has completed construction of its new Cleanroom V building at its corporate
headquarters in Austria. Built from top to bottom with the latest cleanroom
design and construction technology, the new building nearly doubles the
cleanroom capacity at EVG’s headquarters, and will be used for product and
process development, equipment demonstrations, prototyping and pilot-line
production services. The Cleanroom V building, which is part of a 30 million
Euro investment announced last year, will officially open in August.
The new Cleanroom V building is directly connected to EVG’s existing cleanroom
and applications lab, and provides approximately 6,671 sq. ft. (620 square
meters) of additional Class 10 cleanroom floor space. The new building also
houses a modern training center with multiple dedicated areas for training
customers and field service engineers on EVG equipment platforms. As part of the
expansion investment, the existing cleanroom and applications lab facility have
also been upgraded, including the creation of redundant systems to ensure the
highest availability and new safety features.
The added capacity afforded by the new Cleanroom V building will strengthen the
capabilities of EVG’s NILPhotonics® Competence Center and Heterogeneous
Integration Competence Center™, which provide world-class process development
services, and serve as open access innovation incubators for customers and
partners across the microelectronics supply chain. Through these centers of
technology excellence, EVG helps customers to accelerate technology development,
minimize risk, and develop differentiating technologies and products through the
implementation of nanoimprint lithography and heterogeneous integration,
respectively, while guaranteeing the highest IP protection standards that are
required for working on pre-release products.
“We are extremely proud of the technical innovation and know-how that went into
the construction of this new cleanroom. It is truly a world-class,
state-of-the-art facility down to the smallest details—arguably on par with some
of the most technically advanced cleanrooms in Europe,” stated Markus
Wimplinger, corporate technology development & IP director at EV Group. “For
EVG, this new facility will greatly enhance our ability to co-develop future
applications and technologies with our customers. In particular, we see it
benefiting our competence centers, which have seen particularly strong activity
and demand. The unique services offered at our NILPhotonics and Heterogeneous
Integration Competence Centers enable our customers and partners to shorten
development cycles and create novel products in these critical application
areas.”
With its technology competence centers and strong customer partnerships, EVG is
uniquely positioned to provide uninterrupted process development services and
support for its customers. At the same time, EVG’s local installation and
support teams as well as remote support capabilities enable continuous
installation and service operations of EVG’s equipment.
More Details on EVG’s New Clean Room Facility
Newly opened Cleanroom V building nearly doubles cleanroom capacity and
strengthens capabilities of NILPhotonics and Heterogeneous Integration
Competence Centres
EV Group (EVG), a supplier of wafer bonding and lithography equipment for
semiconductor, MEMS and nanotechnology markets, has completed construction of
its new Cleanroom V building at its corporate headquarters in Austria.
Built from top to bottom with the latest cleanroom design and construction
technology, the new building nearly doubles the cleanroom capacity at EVG's
headquarters, and will be used for product and process development, equipment
demonstrations, prototyping and pilot-line production services. The Cleanroom V
building, which is part of a €30 million investment announced last year, will
officially open in August.
The new Cleanroom V building is directly connected to EVG's existing cleanroom
and applications lab, and provides approximately 620 square meters of additional
Class 10 cleanroom floor space. The new building also houses a modern training
center with multiple dedicated areas for training customers and field service
engineers on EVG equipment platforms. As part of the expansion investment, the
existing cleanroom and applications lab facility have also been upgraded,
including the creation of redundant systems to ensure the highest availability
and new safety features.
EV Group personnel are finalizing the interior of the new facility, which
includes dedicated co-development areas. It will officially open in August.
The added capacity afforded by the new Cleanroom V building will strengthen the
capabilities of EVG's NILPhotonics Competence Centre and Heterogeneous
Integration Competence Centre, which provide world-class process development
services, and serve as open access innovation incubators for customers and
partners across the microelectronics supply chain.
Through these centers of technology excellence, EVG helps customers to
accelerate technology development, minimize risk, and develop differentiating
technologies and products through the implementation of nanoimprint lithography
and heterogeneous integration, respectively, while guaranteeing the highest IP
protection standards that are required for working on pre-release products.
"We are extremely proud of the technical innovation and know-how that went into
the construction of this new cleanroom. It is truly a world-class,
state-of-the-art facility down to the smallest details - arguably on par with
some of the most technically advanced cleanrooms in Europe," stated Markus
Wimplinger, corporate technology development & IP director at EV Group.
"For EVG, this new facility will greatly enhance our ability to co-develop
future applications and technologies with our customers. In particular, we see
it benefiting our Competence Centres, which have seen particularly strong
activity and demand. The unique services offered at our NILPhotonics and
Heterogeneous Integration Competence Centres enable our customers and partners
to shorten development cycles and create novel products in these critical
application areas."
Creation
Technologies Breaks Ground on New Manufacturing Facility
Creation Technologies, an end-to-end,
scalable Global Electronic Manufacturing Services provider, announced that it is
expanding the Hermosillo operation with a new, state-of-the-art facility. The
company is making a strategic investment to significantly expand its North
American footprint to better serve Aerospace & Defense, Medical, and Tech
Industrial customers.
Fraser Groundbreaking, “We are thrilled to
announce our plans for a significant expansion of our manufacturing capacity in
Mexico,” said Stephen P. DeFalco, Chairman and CEO of Creation Technologies.
“This expansion builds on our current Mexico operations where we have over 700
dedicated employees focused on providing outstanding service to our customers’
high reliability needs.”
The new facility will provide significantly
more capacity with a total of 205,000 square feet which will bring the total
capacity of our Mexico operations to 330,000 square feet and complement the
company’s existing capabilities in Mexicali. It will have space for up to 12
highly automated SMT lines and will be a purpose-built greenfield facility
designed for lean factory flow with the most modern manufacturing equipment. The
new manufacturing site is located three kilometers from the company’s current
Hermosillo facility, providing a smooth transition for employees and existing
customers, and is scheduled to be operational in Q3 2021.
In addition to offering efficient product
flow, the new facility will provide fully integrated EMS solutions, including
dedicated areas for PCB Assembly, System Integration & Test, as well as Forward
and Reverse Logistics.
About Creation Technologies:
Creation Technologies (www.creationtech.com)
provides total electronics product lifecycle solutions including turnkey design,
rapid prototyping, manufacturing and fulfillment to support its high reliability
customers around the world. The company of approximately 3,200 employees
operates ten manufacturing locations, two design centers and a rapid prototyping
center in the USA, Canada, Mexico and China. Its OEM customers are in the
Aerospace & Defense, Medical, and Tech Industrial markets.
Huawei to
Build an Optoelectronics R&D Site in UK
Huawei gets approval to build new £1 billion
optoelectronics R&D facility in Cambridge, UK...
Huawei received approval to build the first
phase of its new optoelectronics research and development (R&D) center near
Cambridge in the UK, which will include fab space as part of the 538,000 sq. ft.
(50,000 sq.m.) facility.
Speaking to the local government council
planning meeting, Henk Koopmans, the CEO of Huawei Technologies Research &
Development (UK), said, “We want this to be a key facility for Cambridge and the
UK”. He said this would be a completely new facility and separate from the
existing center it already has in Cambridge, indicating that it would involve
moving many of its 200 people currently at its Adastral Park site near Ipswich.
Huawei said it will invest £1 billion in the
first phase of the project, which includes construction of 538,000 sq. ft.
(50,000 square meters) of facilities across nine acres of land and will directly
create around 400 local jobs. Once fully operational, it will become the
international headquarters of Huawei’s optoelectronics business.
The first phase of the project will focus on
the research, development, and manufacturing of optical devices and modules,
using an integrated model that it said will bring innovation faster to market.
Optoelectronics is a key technology for fiber optic communication systems, so
Huawei said this investment aims to bring the best of such technology to data
centers and network infrastructure around the world.
The approval to build at the site in Sawston,
near Cambridge (around six miles from the Arm global headquarters), was given at
a local council planning meeting. The committee was asked very explicitly to
consider the application from Huawei purely on the merits of the application
based on local planning regulations. The committee was told, “The proposed user
[Huawei] is not a material consideration.” Apart from one councilor, the
committee voted overwhelmingly to approve the application to proceed with the
building of the R&D center including a 240,500 sq. ft. (22,351 sq.m.) wafer
fabrication cleanroom.
The approval follows over three years of work
and planning – according to Huawei, it began the search for the ideal location
back in 2017 and completed the acquisition of the 500-acre South Cambridgeshire
site in 2018. The company began its planning application process in early 2019.
The vice president of Huawei, Victor Zhang,
said of the new site, “The UK is home to a vibrant and open market, as well as
some of the best talent the world has to offer. It is the perfect location for
this integrated innovation campus. Through close collaboration with research
institutes, universities, and local industry, we want to advance optical
communications technology for the industry as a whole, while doing our part to
support the UK’s broader industrial strategy. Ultimately, we want to help
enshrine the UK’s leading position in optoelectronics and promote UK tech on a
global scale.”
Employing 1,600 people in the UK and
established in the country in 2000, Huawei has evolved its expertise in
optoelectronics in the country significantly since its acquisition of the Center
for Integrated Photonics (CIP) in 2012. CIP was a developer of advanced photonic
hybrid integrated circuits and InP-based optoelectronic modules for
communications markets, developed based on technology licenses from both BT and
Corning Incorporated. This expertise is what would appear to be moving across to
the new optoelectronics R&D facility in Cambridge.
CIP was located on the site of BT’s Research
Labs at Martlesham Heath, also known as Adastral Park, near Ipswich in the UK.
This site is now home to BT’s innovation labs and Innovation Martlesham, a
cluster of 141 high tech companies, including Huawei, BT, Cisco, Ericsson,
Intel, Juniper, Keysight Technologies, Tech Mahindra and ZTE.
Following news of the approval, there has
been widespread coverage in the media about the decision, especially questioning
the wisdom given the debate on national security and whether Huawei poses a
threat. Apart from one councilor, the planning committee in Cambridge clearly
attempted to ensure that they were looking at the application based on a process
that looks at the merit of the application based on planning laws; they were
urged to separate this from national and political sentiment around Huawei.
This is clearly a huge dilemma for those in
UK politics, especially as there is a desire to attract inward investment and
forge strong relationships with non-European countries as it treads the path of
its exit from Europe. Investment from China has in the past been actively
encouraged by most of the senior political leaders. Another dimension is the
opportunity for the UK tech sector, many of whom look to China for a large chunk
of revenue growth: Arm and Imagination Technologies are two prime examples who
have established joint ventures and entities in China to support growth and
market penetration.
Hence it would be difficult for the UK to
turn its back on such a large investment. At national level, this will no doubt
be debated by the policymakers in weeks and months to come. But at the local
level, the planners did what they thought would be good for jobs and their local
communities.
McIlvaine Company
Northfield, IL 60093-2743
Tel: 847-784-0012; Fax:
847-784-0061
E-mail:
editor@mcilvainecompany.com
Web site:
www.mcilvainecompany.com