GEO Semiconductor Launches India Operations

U.S.-based GEO Semiconductor Inc., a provider of geometric processor ICs, has announced the launch of its Indian operations, GEO Semiconductor (India) Pvt Ltd. The Indian operations will encompass both a critical R&D operation and a marketing and sales outreach program, the company said.

The company has established a facility in Bangalore on the technology corridor of the Outer Ring Road. The facility houses 22 engineering staff in areas of chip design, hardware engineering and embedded software. The facility includes a multimedia lab and audio testing lab along with cutting-edge software, hardware and chip design tools.

Geo Semiconductor India said it will ramp up its headcount over the next few months, as the company plans to add more engineering staff as well as set up a sales and marketing team to leverage the opportunities in the Indian market.

“India is a very critical geography for GEO Semiconductor both from the R&D angle and the market perspective. We are very positive about both the quality of talent available here and the robustness of the market that we can leverage. This is indeed a very interesting phase in our growth trajectory,” said Paul M Russo, CEO of GEO Semiconductor.

“We believe that the Indian semiconductor and electronics ecosystem is poised for exponential growth. We have entered the arena at the perfect time to leverage the opportunities available to us,” Pradip A. Thaker, who has been appointed general manager, GEO Semiconductor (India) Pvt Ltd, said.

The company sees two markets in India -- automobile cameras and HUDs (head-up displays), and cloud and Skype cameras. GEO develops geometric processor ICs focused on smartphone peripherals, automotive cameras and HUDs and surveillance and video communication markets. Geo's eWarp platform features the lowest power and silicon cost for performing unlimited pixel

transformations such as de-warping wide-angle, fisheye and 360 degree video streams. The company’s eWarp processor ICs can simultaneously correct optical distortion and stitch together multiple camera video streams, allowing unlimited numbers of views at no extra cost.

TowerJazz to Build Chip Fab in India

A consortium comprising Israeli chipmaker TowerJazz, IBM, and Jaypee Associates has been shortlisted for setting up the first chip fab in India.

Now, the consortium has won a tender to build a semiconductor plant in India.

TowerJazz, which will provide know how, consulting and support services, will have revenue of Rs.1,630.43 crore ($300 million) over six years from the project. It will not have any expenses and therefore will have a profit of 90 per cent of the revenue.

The group also includes IBM and Indian infrastructure company Jaypee, which will fund the project.

TowerJazz will also be able to use part of the facility for its own products, enabling it to expand in India.

Union Minister Kapil Sibal was in Israel last week and met TowerJazz Chief Executive Russell Ellwanger.

The government was in talks with two consortiums to set up chip fabrication units in the country. One was Tower Jazz, IBM, and Jaypee consortium; and the other was by Geneva–based chipmaker STMicroelectronics and Hindustan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. (HSMC).

The official announcement is yet to be made by the government.

5N Plus to Install Gallium Plant in South Korea

To meet the growing demand for gallium in LED manufacturing in North-East Asia, specialty metal and chemical products firm 5N Plus Inc of Montreal, Quebec, Canada is to invest in a new gallium chemicals facility to be located in South Korea, one of the world’s fastest-growing regions for electronics manufacturing.

The new facility should be operational before the end of 2013 and will be located within an industrial park nearby a number of important electronic manufacturing facilities. 5N Plus has entered into an agreement with a local chemical distributor for the supply of operating services and logistics of the new facility.

North East Asia represents the majority of the world's LED production, and over 70 percent of the world's electronic tablet display supply. The LED market is expected to grow at a 15-20 percent annual rate in the near to medium term, with growth mainly driven by increasing market penetration for lighting applications.

High purity gallium metal and chemicals also represent essential materials in the manufacture of products such as GaAs electronic components for 3/4G wireless applications, IGZO transparent semiconductor for next generation displays, CIGS thin film solar panels, and GaSb wafers for IR detection and imagery systems.

As a group, these applications are foreseen to drive significant growth in gallium demand in the coming years. This new investment in South Korea should serve as a platform in the future for the manufacture of other high purity materials for the Asian market.

"We are pleased to be able to make this investment in gallium chemicals and demonstrate our commitment to serve our customers wherever in the world they may require our products and services," says Jacques L'Ecuyer, President and Chief Executive Officer of 5N Plus. 5N Plus has existing gallium chemicals manufacturing facilities in Madison, Wisconsin, USA and in Wellingborough, UK.

5N Plus has existing gallium chemicals manufacturing facilities in Madison, WI, USA and Wellingborough, UK. The new plant will be located within an industrial park nearby a number of electronic manufacturing facilities, and should be operational by the end of 2013. 5N Plus has entered into an agreement with a local chemical distributor for the supply of operating services and logistics for the new facility.

North-East Asia represents the majority of the world’s LED production, and more than 70% of electronic tablet display supply. The LED market is expected to grow at a 15-20% annually in the near to medium term, with growth driven mainly by increasing market penetration for lighting applications.

High-purity gallium metal and chemicals are also essential for manufacturing products such as gallium arsenide (GaAs) electronic components for 3/4G wireless applications, indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO) transparent semiconductor for next-generation displays, copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) thin-film solar panels, and gallium antimonide (GaSb) wafers for infrared (IR) detection and imagery systems.

As a group, these applications are expected to drive significant growth in gallium demand in the coming years. 5N Plus adds that its new investment in South Korea should serve as a platform in future for the manufacture of other high-purity materials for the Asian market.

Producing Cheaper and More Flexible Wafers

Thin crystalline silicon wafers of the order of 10 µm are costly to obtain but are crucial to 3D circuit integration for microchips and for the next generation of solar cells.

A team of researchers from the Nanoengineering Research Centre (CRNE) and the Department of Electronic Engineering at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) has found a way to make the manufacture of crystalline silicon materials faster and more affordable. The results of their research have recently been published in the online version of the journal Applied Physics Letters.

Thin crystalline silicon wafers measuring around 10 µm (microns) are costly but also very sought after in the field of microelectronics, especially in view of the growing demand for 3D circuit integration with microchips. Silicon wafers also have potential photovoltaic applications in the medium term in the conversion of sunlight to electricity and the production of more affordable, more flexible, and lighter solar cells.

In recent years, techniques have been developed to obtain increasingly thinner crystalline silicon wafers from monocrystalline cylindrical ingots. Layers cut from the ingots using a multithreaded saw impregnated with abrasive material have a minimum thickness of around 150 µm. Obtaining wafers that are any thinner is more complicated, as existing methods only allow such wafers to be obtained one at a time. Furthermore, 50% of the silicon is lost in the process.

The technology developed by the research team – David Hernández, Trifon Trifonov, and Moisés Garín, led by Professor Ramon Alcubilla – enables a large number of crystalline layers, controlled for thickness, to be produced from a single crystalline silicon wafer in just a single step. The outcome is a kind of crystalline silicon "millefeuille" produced more efficiently, more rapidly, and more affordably than by existing methods.

The methodology developed by the scientists is based on making small pores in the material and applying a high temperature during the manufacturing process. Multiple separate crystalline silicon wafers are obtained by carefully controlling the pore profiles. Precise control over diameter controls both the number of layers and their thickness. The millefeuille silicon layers are then separated by exfoliation.

The resulting number of silicon layers is determined by the thickness of the layers themselves and the initial thickness of the wafer. The CRnE researchers have succeeded in creating up to 10 thin wafers (5 to 7 µm thick) from a single 300 µm thick wafer.

The demand for thin and ultra-thin crystalline silicon wafers responds to the application possibilities offered by 3D circuit integration of micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) with conventional microchips and also to the latest generation of photovoltaic technology. Wafer cutting for solar cell production, for example, has been steadily improving.

Thickness has been reduced (350 µm in the 1990s to 180 µm currently) while efficiency has been enhanced, resulting in reduced manufacturing costs; nonetheless, greater reductions are likely to be difficult to achieve. It has been shown that, despite lesser thickness, the wafers retain a high capacity to absorb solar energy and convert it into electricity.

Texas Instruments Plans Chinese Wafer Fab

Texas Instruments’ future plans include a new assembly/test operation and the expansion of its existing wafer fabrication factory in China.

Semiconductor design and manufacturing company Texas Instruments Inc. has outlined its long-term strategy for manufacturing facilities in Chengdu, China. Future plans include a new assembly/test operation and the expansion of its existing wafer fabrication factory.

Texas Instruments develops analog ICs and embedded processors. The company's investments in these operations could total up to $1.69 billion over the next 15 years and potentially include facilities, manufacturing equipment, and land.

Since opening its fab in Chengdu in 2010, TI has made a significant investment in the site, as well as in the surrounding community. TI is near completion of a new classroom building at the TI Project Hope School in rural Nanbu County and has donated 30 TI Project Hope libraries as part of the China Youth Development Foundation's effort to aid schools in need of being rebuilt or modernized. TI has also donated 50 multimedia classrooms to other rural schools in Sichuan. In addition, TI and its employees donated about $600,000 to support earthquake relief to Wenchuan and Ya'an in Sichuan.

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