SEMICONDUCTOR INDUSTRY
UPDATE
May 2013
McIlvaine Company
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Materion Breaks Ground on Cleanroom
MIC, Leyard to Set up LED Chip Facility
Nuvotronics Opens Durham Facility
Masdar Institute Etches First Silicon Wafer in UAE
New Semiconductor Based on 2D Nanocrystals
Materion Barr Precision Optics & Thin Film Coatings has initiated the construction of a
3,000 sq. ft. Class 1,000 cleanroom outfitted with infrared coating chambers and 3D patterning equipment. The work cell will enhance Materion's capability to manufacture low-defect coatings in high volume for the infrared wafer level, defense, and consumer electronics markets.
The Wafer Level Coating Cell, located at Materion's facility in Westford, Mass., is designed to be self-contained with a semiconductor manufacturing layout to handle 200 mm wafers. The multi-million dollar investment will assist in decreasing the cost of uncooled micro bolometer detectors and ultimately facilitate major growth throughout the commercial infrared camera industry. The Wafer Level Coating Cell enhances competencies across many other technologies such as gesture control filters, arrays, and gas sensing filters.
Completion of the work cell is expected to finish in the third quarter of 2013 and will include a 3D photolithography deposition tool, semiconductor wet etch and alignment processing tools, semi-automated inspection tools, and several custom-designed high-volume 200 mm coating deposition chambers. The long-range plan foresees a total of 20,000 to 40,000 wafers per year when fully built out. Initial work will be composed of multiple volume production lines along with current projects aimed at the defense, commercial infrared, and consumer electronics markets. In addition, Materion is continuing to invest in its coating technology for the next generation micro-bolometer devices (less than 12 micron) and plans to unveil this new technology in 2014.
Materion Barr Precision Optics & Thin Film Coatings provides technologies including optical filters, filter arrays, lens coatings, and optical thin film component assemblies. Markets are composed of life sciences and medical, commercial, defense, thermal imaging, automotive, and space, science and astronomy industries.
Hyderabad-based MIC Electronics Ltd has entered into a strategic agreement with Beijing's Leyard Optoelectronics Co. Ltd in the field of LED (light emitting diode) applications.
MIC's CMD M.V. Ramana Rao and Li Jun, president of Leynard, signed an agreement at Infocomm China 2013 held in Beijing recently.
Under the agreement, the companies have agreed to set up an LED application manufacturing joint venture in India "to meet the growing sales volumes and address price competitiveness globally," MIC stated.
The JV will be created with an investment of Rs.268.82 crore ($50 million) for manufacturing of LED chip and packing in India along with a global LED company to address the rapidly growing LED market in India and South Asia.
MIC and Leyard will jointly develop LED applications, 3D and holographic software, and content development for global markets.
The agreement allows MIC to expand its product offerings, while Leyard will be able to offer LED street lights and solar LED lighting products.
Nuvotronics, a radio frequency hardware and defense technology company, announces the opening of a 40,000 ft2 manufacturing facility in Durham, N.C. The space will integrate research, development, design, and 10,000 ft2 of cleanroom operations for its 8-in. wafer fabrication line, assembly, and test for its PolyStrata architecture.
With Nuvotronics' increased capacity, the company plans to grow its product areas in miniaturized next-generation phased arrays, solid state power amplifiers (Ka, E, V, W, and G-Band), and advanced microwave and millimeter wave passives such as baluns, filters, diplexers, and time delay units. The company's precision 3D micro-scale manufacturing has wide market applications.
"We are proud of our roots in the New River Valley and remain committed to our 6-in. fab line in Radford, Va.," says David Sherrer, president of Nuvotronics. "We are also excited about our expansion into a state-of-the-art cleanroom facility in the Research Triangle region of North Carolina. This facility will be the fourth and largest location for Nuvotronics, which also maintains design centers in Boston and Los Angeles."
Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, an independent, research-driven graduate-level university focused on advanced energy and sustainable technologies, announces that its research staff have etched a silicon wafer for the first time in the United Arab Emirates, marking the beginning of a new phase in advanced technology learning and innovation.
With the etching of silicon wafer, the Masdar Institute Fabrication Facility has entered the operational phase. Etching is used in micro-fabrication to chemically remove layers from the surface of a wafer during manufacturing. The facility achieved Deep Reactive Ion Etching (DRIE) through the Bosch process, which also enables the use of silicon mechanical components in high-end wristwatches.
DRIE was developed for micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS), which is also used for high-density capacitors for direct random access memory (DRAM). More recently they are used for creating through silicon via's (TSVs) in advanced 3D wafer level packaging technology. TSV interconnects are emerging to serve a wide range of 3D packaging applications.
MEMS devices can be made using silicon wafers and the manufacturing process can incorporate semiconductor manufacturing processes such as sputtering, deposition, etching, and lithography. Some of the MEMS devices that can be mentioned include smartphones, tablets, game controllers, notebooks, digital cameras, and health/fitness apps. The technology also enables functionalities such as augmented reality applications, indoor navigation, immersive video-gaming, heart rate/blood pressure monitoring, e-reader displays, and improved voice communications.
With such additional functionalities, the industry portends a promising future. The bioMEMS market alone is expected to grow from $1.9 billion in 2012 to $6.6 billion in 2018. The benefits of growing MEMS applications include innovations, revolution, and growth in the personal healthcare market including wireless implants, as well as rising awareness and affordability of healthcare.
Established as an on-going collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Masdar Institute integrates theory and practice to incubate a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship, working to develop the critical thinkers and leaders of tomorrow. The Institute is committed to finding solutions to the challenges of clean energy and climate change through education and research.
Researchers at Purdue University are developing a new type of semiconductor technology for future computers and electronics based on "two-dimensional nanocrystals."
The material is layered in sheets less than a nanometer thick that could replace today's silicon transistors, according to the researchers.
The layered structure is made of a material called molybdenum disulfide, which belongs to a new class of semiconductors -- metal di-chalogenides -- emerging as "potential candidates to replace today's technology, complementary metal oxide semiconductors, or CMOS."
"We are going to reach the fundamental limits of silicon-based CMOS technology very soon, and that means novel materials must be found in order to continue scaling," said Saptarshi Das, who has completed a doctoral degree, working with Joerg Appenzeller, a professor of electrical and computer engineering and scientific director of nanoelectronics at Purdue's Birck Nanotechnology Center.
"I don't think silicon can be replaced by a single material, but probably different materials will co-exist in a hybrid technology."
The nanocrystals are called two-dimensional because the materials can exist in the form of extremely thin sheets with a thickness of 0.7 nanometers, or roughly the width of three or four atoms. Findings show that the material performs best when formed into sheets of about 15 layers with a total thickness of 8-12 nanometers.
The researchers also have developed a model to explain these experimental observations. "Our model is generic and, therefore, is believed to be applicable to any two-dimensional layered system."
Molybdenum disulfide is promising in part because it possesses a bandgap, a trait that is needed to switch on and off, which is critical for digital transistors to store information in binary code. Analyzing the material or integrating it into a circuit requires a metal contact. However, one factor limiting the ability to measure the electrical properties of a semiconductor is the electrical resistance in the contact. The researchers eliminated this contact resistance using a metal called scandium.
Transistors contain critical components called gates, which enable the devices to switch on and off and to direct the flow of electrical current. In today's chips, the length of these gates is about 14 nanometers, or billionths of a meter.
The semiconductor industry plans to reduce the gate length to 6 nanometers by 2020. "However, further size reductions and boosts in speed are likely not possible using silicon, meaning new designs and materials will be needed to continue progress," said the researchers.
The new facilities should be ready by the third quarter of next year. The chip packager is already building one factory that is due to be finished this year.
Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc chairman Jason Chang, introduces his company’s expansion project to Minister of Economic Affairs Chang Chia-juch, at the groundbreaking ceremony in the Nanzih Export Processing Zone in Greater Kaohsiung.
Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (ASE, 日月光半導體), the world’s biggest chip packager, held a groundbreaking ceremony for new facilities in Greater Kaohsiung, which are expected to create 3,500 jobs and generate US$530 million in revenue a year.
The facilities are part of the company’s expansion plan in the Nanzih Export Processing Zone’s second industrial park, which includes three factories dedicated to manufacturing, as well as research and development for advanced semiconductor packaging processes, ASE said.
The latest project includes a manufacturing plant and an R&D center, which are expected to be completed in the third quarter of next year, ASE said in a statement.
Construction of another manufacturing plant begun last year and it is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year.
ASE’s total investment in its new facilities is about US$800 million, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said.
“The investment in the new facilities is part of the company’s efforts to expand its capacity and provide clients advanced chip packaging services,” the ministry quoted ASE chairman Jason Chang (張虔生) in a statement.
ASE said the new factories will use more advanced process capabilities in bumping, copper pillar and 3D IC packaging, and it hopes the new R&D center will lead to between 250 and 300 new patents a year.
The company has recruited 20,000 people in Greater Kaohsiung. Chang said ASE plans to increase the number of employees to 40,000 in the medium term and 60,000 in the long term, although he did not say if those numbers were for Taiwan alone or worldwide.
ASE has set a long-term goal of US$9 billion in annual sales, Chang was quoted as saying.
In the first three months of this year, ASE reported its consolidated sales dropped 14 percent quarter-on-quarter to NT$48.19 billion (US$1.6 billion). However, the figure was 11.81 percent higher than a year earlier.
The company known as Telefunken Semiconductors America LLC changed its name to TSI Semiconductors LLC and has seated a new management team.
The headquarters will be in Roseville, on the campus of the company’s chip fabrication plant, which is also ramping up a new semiconductor chip fabrication line.
The plant was originally built in 1984 by Japanese technology Company NEC Electronics and sits on a 150-acre campus on Foothills Boulevard.
The new CEO is Sagar Pushpala, who worked most recently with the $1.3 billion Silicon Valley venture capital firm Khosla Ventures.
In addition to its 8-inch chip fabrication plant in Roseville and a 6-inch chip fab operation in Heilbronn, Germany, the company is now growing its business of offering contract fabrication.
TSI’s Technology Development & Commercialization Services operates out of the Roseville plant. It provides other companies’ workers access to lab facilities to build custom chip lines. TSI can make chips for other companies or assist the other companies in designing and building their own chips.
Most companies that develop technology don’t have cleanrooms, process tools and process equipment to manufacture microchips, and TSI makes that equipment accessible on a contract basis.
The Roseville plant will allow Silicon Valley companies to keep their technology development on-shore and also allow them to scale up production, Pushpala said.
Bay Area technology companies can either travel to Roseville for chips or get on a 15-hour flight to Taiwan or Japan.
TSI recently bought the equipment, property and assets of SVTC Technology Corp., a San Jose company that went out of business last year. It was the last contract chip fabrication plant in the Bay Area. TSI is moving SVTC’s equipment to Roseville, where it is converting an existing cleanroom to an 8-inch chip fabrication line, Pushpala said.
Last year, the Roseville plant had more than 40,000 square feet of clean-room space and a trained staff of engineers and technicians. The plant now has 90,000 square feet of cleanroom space.
Roger Lee, who had been interim CEO of Telefunken for nearly a year, is the new chief operations officer of TSI.
The new chief financial officer of TSI is David Bridgeford, and executive with 35 years of experience. He previously worked at Acclaim Communications Inc., Jadoo Power Systems Inc. and Steele Resources Corp. He had also worked as a financial manager at Level One Communications
The new head of marketing for TIS is John Doricko, a 25-year industry veteran.
The new chairman of the company is Michael Gontar, chief investment officer and a director at Wafra Capital Partners Inc. of New York.
For part of last year, Telefunken was in triage mode following fraud allegations — and then settlements — with its former president and chief executive officer, who have both since left the company.
Pushpala was most recently an operating partner at Khosla Ventures, he continues to serve in board and advisory roles for many system and medical device companies. Khosla is the Menlo Park venture capital firm managed by Vinod Khosla, the former general manager of legendary venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
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