Here are some of my collection of newest trends and predictions for year 2018. I have not invented those ideas what will happen next year completely myself. I have gone through many articles that have given predictions for year 2018. Then I have picked and mixed here the best part from those articles (sources listed on the end of posting) with some of my own additions to make this posting.This article contains very many quotations from those source articles (hopefully all acknowledged with link to source).
The general trend in electronics industry is that the industry growth have been driven by mobile industry. Silicon content in smartphones and other mobile devices is increasing as vendors add greater functionality. Layering on top of that are several emerging trends such as IoT, big data, AI and smart vehicles that are creating demand for greater computing power and expanding storage capacity.
Manufacturing trends
According to Foundry Challenges in 2018 article the silicon foundry business is expected to see steady growth in 2018. The growth in semiconductor manufacturing will remain steady, but there will be challenges in the manufacturing capacity and expenses to move to the next nodes. For most applications, unless you must have highest levels of performance, there may not be as compelling a business case to focus on the bleeding-edge nodes. Over the last two years, the IC industry has experienced an acute shortage of 200mm fab capacity (legacy MCU, power, sensors, 6-micron to 65nm). In 2018, 200mm capacity will remain tight. An explosion in 200mm demand has set off a frenzied search for used semiconductor manufacturing equipment that can be used at older process nodes. The problem is there is not enough used equipment available. The profit margins in manufacturing are so thin in markets served by those fabs that it’s hard to justify paying current rising equipment prices, and newcomers may have a tough time making inroads. Foundries with fully depreciated 200mm equipment and capacity already are seeing increased revenues in their 200mm business.The specialty foundry business is undergoing a renaissance, thanks to the emergence of 5G and automotive.
300mm is expected to follow a similar path for lack of capacity because 300mm fabs already produce leading-edge chips and more mainstream 300mm demand is driven by MCUs, wireless communications and storage applications. Early predictions are for solid growth in 2018, fueled by demand for memory and logic at advanced 10/7nm.
In 2017, marking the first time that the semiconductor equipment market has exceeded the previous market high of US$47.7 billion set in 2000. Fab tool vendors found themselves in the midst of an unexpected boom cycle in 2017, thanks to enormous demand for equipment in 3D NAND and, to a lesser degree, DRAM. In 2018, equipment demand looks robust, although the industry will be hard-pressed to surpass the record growth figures in 2017. In 2018, 7.5 percent growth is expected to result in sales of US$60.1 billion for the global semiconductor equipment market – another record-breaking year. Demand looks solid across the three main growth drivers for fab tool vendors—DRAM, NAND and foundry/logic.
Rising demand for chips is hitting the IC packaging supply chain, causing shortages of select manufacturing capacity, various package types, leadframes and even some equipment. Spot shortages for some IC packages began showing up in 2017, but the problem has been growing and spreading since then, so packaging customers may encounter select shortages well into 2018. Apple Watch 3 shipment growth to benefit Taiwan IC packagers in 2018.
Market for advanced packaging begins to diverge based on performance and price. Advanced Packaging is now viewed as the best way to handle large amounts of data at blazing speeds.
Moore’s law
Many recent publications say Moore’s Law is dead. Though Moore’s Law is dead may be experiencing some health challenges, it’s not time to start digging the grave for the semiconductor and electronics market yet.
Even smaller nodes are still being taken to use in high end chips. The node names are confusing. Intel’s 10nm technology is roughly equivalent to the foundry 7nm node.In 2018, Intel is expected to finally ramp up 10nm finally in the first half of 2018. In addition, GlobalFoundries, Samsung and TSMC will begin to ship their respective 7nm finFET processes. On the leading edge, GlobalFoundries, Intel, Samsung and TSMC start migrating from the 16nm/14nm to the 10nm/7nm logic nodes. It is expected that some chip-makers face some challenges on the road. Time will tell if GlobalFoundries, Samsung and TSMC will struggle at 7nm. Early predictions are for solid growth in 2018, fueled by demand for memory and logic at advanced 10/7nm. 7nm is projected to generate sales from $2.5 billion to $3.0 billion in 2018. Over time 10nm/7nm is expected to be a big and long-running node. Suppliers of FPGAs and processors are expected to jump on 10nm/7nm.
South Korea’s Samsung Electronics said it has commenced production of the second generation of its 10nm-class 8-Gb DDR4 DRAM. Devices labeled 10nm-class have feature sizes as small as 10 to 19 nanometers. With the continued need for shrinking pattern dimensions, semiconductor manufacturers continue to implement more complex patterning techniques, such as advanced multi-patterning, for the 10nm design node and beyond. They also are investing significant development effort in readying EUV lithography for production at the 7/5nm design nodes. Samsung is planning to begin transitioning to EUV for logic chips next year at the 7nm node, although it is unclear when the technology will be put into production for DRAM.
There will be talk on even smaller nodes. FinFETs will get extended to at least to 5nm, and possibly 3nm in next 5 years. The path to 5nm loks pretty clear. FinFETs will get extended at least to 5nm. It’s possible they will get extended to 3nm. EUV will be used at new nodes, followed by High NA Lithography. New smaller nodes challenges the chip design as abstractions become more difficult at 7nm and beyond. Models are becoming more difficult to develop, integrate and utilize effectively at 10/7nm and beyond as design complexity, process variation and physical effects add to the number of variables that need to be taken into account. Materials and basic structures may diverge by supplier, at 7 nm and beyond. Engineering and scientific teams at 3nm and beyond will require completely different mixes of skills than today.
Silicon is still going strong, but the hard fact is that CMOS has been running out of steam for several nodes, and that becomes more obvious at each new node. To extend into new markets and new process nodes Chipmakers Look To New Materials. There are a number of compounds in use already (generally are being confined to specific niche applications), such as gallium arsenide, gallium nitride, and silicon carbide. Silicon will be supplemented by 2D materials to extend Moore’s Law. Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs), a class of 2D materials derived from basic elements—principally tellurium, selenium, sulfur, and oxygen—are being widely explored by researchers. TMDCs are functioning as semiconductors in conjunction with graphene. Graphene, the wonder material rediscovered in 2004, and a host of other two-dimensional materials are gaining ground in manufacturing semiconductors as silicon’s usefulness begins to fade. Wide-bandgap semiconductor materials like gallium nitride (GaN) and silicon carbide (SiC) are anticipated to be used in many more applications in 2018. Future progress increasingly will require a mix of different materials and disciplines, but silicon will remain a key component.
Interconnect Materials need to to be improved. For decades, aluminum interconnects were the industry standard. In the late 1990s, chipmakers switched to copper. Over the years, transistors have decreased dramatically in size, so interconnects also have had to scale in size leading to roadblock known as the RC challenge. Industry is investing significant effort in developing new approaches to extend copper use and finding new metals. There’s also some investigation into improvements on the dielectric side. The era of all-silicon substrates and copper wires may be coming to an end.
Application markets
Wearables are a question mark. Demand for wearables slowed down in 2017 so much that smart speakers likely outsold wearable devices in 2017 holiday season. eMarketer is estimating that usage of wearable will grow just 11.9 percent in 2018, rising from 44.7 million adult wearable users in 2017 to 50.1 million in 2018. On the other hand market research firm IDC estimates that the shipments of wearable electronics devices are projected to more than double over the next five years as watches displace fitness trackers as the biggest sellers. IDC forecasts that wearables shipments will increase at a compound annual growth rate of 18.4 percent between 2017 and 2021, rising from 113.2 million this year to 222.3 million in 2021. At the same time fitness trackers are expected to become commodity product. Tomorrow’s wearables will become more fully featured and multi-functional.
The automotive market for semiconductors is shifting into high gear in 2018. Right now the average car has about $350 worth of semiconductor content, but that is projected to grow another 50% by 2023 as the overall automotive market for semiconductors grows from $35 billion to $54 billion. The explosion of drive-by-wire technology, combined with government mandates toward fully electric powertrains, has changed this paradigm—and it impacts more than just the automotive industry. Consider implications beyond the increasingly complex vehicle itself, including new demands on supporting infrastructure. The average car today contains up to 100 million lines of code. Self-driving car will have considerably more code in it. Software controls everything from safety critical systems like brakes and power steering, to basic vehicle controls like doors and windows. Meeting ISO 26262 Software Standards is needed but it will not make the code bug free. It’s quickly becoming common practice for embedded system developers to isolate both safety and security features on the same SoC. The shift to autonomous vehicles marks a major shift in the supply chain—and a major opportunity.
Many applications have need for a long service life — for example those deployed within industrial, scientific and military industries. In these applications, the service life may exceed that of component availability. Replacing an advanced, obsolete components in a design can be very costly, potentially requiring an entire redesign of the electronic hardware and software. The use of programmable devices helps designers not only to address component obsolescence, but also to reduce the cost and complexity of the solution. Programmable logic devices are provided in a range of devices of different types, capabilities and sizes, from FPGAs to System on Chips (SoC) and Complex Programmable Logic Devices (CPLD). The obsolete function can be emulated within the device, whether it is a logic function implemented in programmable logic in a CPLD, FPGA or SoC, or a processor system implemented in an FPGA or SoC.
Become familiar with USB type C connector. USB type C connector is becoming quickly more commonplace than any other earlier interface. In the end of 2016 there were 300 million devices using a USBC connection – a big part was smartphones, but the interface was also widespread on laptops. With growth, the USBC becomes soon the most common PC and peripheral interface. Thunderbolt™ 3 on USBC connector promises to fulfill the promise of USB-C for single-cable docking and so much more.
Power electronics
The power electronics market continues to grow and gain more presence across a variety of markets. 2017 was a good year for electric vehicles and the future of this market looks very promising. In 2017, we saw also how wireless charging technology has been adopted by many consumer electronic devices- including Apple smart phones. Today’s power supplies do more than deliver clean and stable dc power on daily basis—they provide advanced capabilities that can save you time and money.
Wide-bandgap semiconductor materials like gallium nitride (GaN) and silicon carbide (SiC) are anticipated to be used in many more applications in 2018. At the moment, the number of applications for those materials is steadily increasing in the automotive and military industry. Expect to see more adoption of SiC and GaN materials in automotive market.
According to Battery Market Goes Bigger and Better in 2018 article advances in battery technologies hold the keys to continuing progress in portable electronics, robotics, military, and telecommunication applications, as well as distributed power grids. It is difficult to see lithium-ion based batteries being replaced anytime soon, so the advances in battery technology are primarily through the application of lithium-ion battery chemistries. New battery protection for portable electronics cuts manufacturing steps and costs for Lithium-ion.
Transparency Market Research analysts predict that the global lithium-ion battery market is poised to rise from $29.67 billion in 2015 to $77.42 billion in 2024 with a compound annual growth rate of 11.6 %. That growth has already spread from the now ubiquitous consumer electronics segment to automotive, grid energy, and industrial applications. Dramatic increase is expected for battery power for the transportation, consumer electronic, and stationary segments. According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF), the global energy-storage market will double six times between 2016 and 2030, rising to a total of 125 G/305 gigawatt-hours. In 2018, energy-storage systems will continue proliferating to provide backup power to the electric grid.
Memory
Memory business boomed in 2017 for both NAND and DRAM. The drivers for DRAM are smartphones and servers. Solid-state drives (SSDs) and smartphones are fueling the demand for NAND. Both the DRAM and NAND content in smartphones continues to grow, so memory business will do well in 2018.Fab tool vendors found themselves in the midst of an unexpected boom cycle in 2017, thanks to enormous demand for equipment in 3D NAND and, to a lesser degree, DRAM. In 2018, equipment demand looks robust, although the industry will be hard-pressed to surpass the record growth figures in 2017.
NAND Market Expected to Cool in Q1 from the crazy year 2017, but it is still growing well because there is increasing demand. The average NAND content in smartphones has been growing by roughly 50% recently, going from approximately 24 gigabytes in 2016 to approximately 38 gigabytes today.3D NAND will do the heavy memory lifting that smartphone users demand. Contract prices for NAND flash memory chips are expected to decline in during the first quarter of 2018 as a traditional lull in demand following the year-end quarter.
Lots of 3D NAND will go to solid state drives in 2018. IDC forecasts strong growth for the solid-state drive (SSD) industry as it transitions to 3D NAND. SSD industry revenue is expected to reach $33.6 billion in 2021, growing at a CAGR of 14.8%. Sizes of memory chips increase as number of layer in 3D NAND are added. We’ve already scaled up to 48 layers. Does this just keep scaling up, or are there physical limits here? Maybe we could see a path to 256 layers in few years.
Memory — particular DRAM — was largely considered a commodity business. Though that it’s really not true in 2017. DRAM memory marked had boomed in 2017 at the highest rate of expansion in 23 years, according to IC Insights. Skyrocketing prices drove the DRAM market to generate a record $72 billion in revenue, and it drove total revenue for the IC market up 22%. Though the outlook for the immediate future appears strong, a downturn in DRAM more than likely looms in the not-too-distant future. It will be seen when there are new players on the market. It is a largely unchallenged assertion that Chinese firms will in the not so distant future become a force in semiconductor memory market. Chinese government is committed to pumping more than $160 billion into the industry over a decade, with much of that ticketed for memory startups.
There is search for faster memory because modern computers, especially data-center servers that skew heavily toward in-memory databases, data-intensive analytics, and increasingly toward machine-learning and deep-neural-network training functions, depend on large amounts of high-speed, high capacity memory to keep the wheels turning. The memory speed has not increased as fast as the capacity. The access bandwidth of DRAM-based computer memory has improved by a factor of 20x over the past two decades. Capacity increased 128x during the same period. For year 2018 DRAM remains a near-universal choice when performance is the priority. There has been some attempts to very fast memory interfaces. Intel the company has introduced the market’s first FPGA chip with integrated high-speed EMBED (Embedded Multi-Die Interconnect Bridge): The Stratix 10 MX interfaces to HMB2 memory (High Memory Bandwidth) that offers about 10 times faster speed than standard DDR-type DIMM.
There is search going on for a viable replacement for DRAM. Whether it’s STT-RAM or phase-change memory or resistive RAM, none of them can match the speed or endurance of DRAM. Necessity is the mother of invention, and we see at least two more generations after 1x. XPoint is also coming up as another viable memory solution that could be inserted into the current memory architecture. It will be interesting to see how that plays out versus DRAM.
5G and IoT
5G something in it for everyone. 5G is big. 5G New Radio (NR) wireless technology will ultimately impact everyone in the electronics and telecommunications industries. Most estimates say 2020 is when we will ultimately see some real 5G deployments on a scale. In the meantime, companies are firming up their plans for whatever 5G products and services they will offer. Though test and measurement solutions will be key in the commercialization cycle. 5G is set to disrupt test processes. If 5G takes off, the technology will propel the development of new chips in both the infrastructure and the handset. Data centers require specialty semiconductors from power management to high-speed optical fiber front-ends. 5G systems will drive more complexity in RF front-ends .5G will offer increased capacity and decreased latency for some critical applications such as vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) or vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communications for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and self-driving vehicles. The big question is whether 5G will disrupt the landscape or fall short of its promises.
Electronics manufacturers expect a lot from Internet of Thing. The evolution of intelligent electronic sensors is creating a revolution for IoT and Industrial IoT as companies bring new sensor-based, intelligent systems to market. The business promise is that the proliferation of smart and connected “things” in the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) provides tremendous opportunities for increased performance and lower costs. Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) has a market forecast approaching $100 billion by 2020. Turning volumes of factory data into actionable information that has value is essential. Predictive maintenance and asset tracking are two big IoT markets to watch in 2018 because they will provide real efficiencies and improved safety. It will be about instrumenting our existing infrastructures with sensors that improve their reliability and help predict failures. It will be about tracking important assets through their lifecycles.
A new breed of designers has arrived that is leveraging inexpensive sensors to build the intelligent systems at the edge of the Internet of Things (IoT). They work in small teams, collaborate online, and they expect affordable design tools that are easy to use in order to quickly produce results. Their goal is to deliver a functioning device or a proof-of-concept to their stakeholders while spending as little money as possible to get there. We need to become multi-functional engineers who can comfortably work in the digital, RF, and system domains.
The Io edge sensor device usually needs to be cheap. Simple mathematical reasoning suggests that the average production cost per node must be small, otherwise the economics of the IoT simply are not viable. Most suppliers to the electronics industry are today working under the assumption that the bill-of-materials (BoM) cost of a node cannot exceed $5 on average. While the sensor market continues to garner billions of dollars, the average selling price of a MEMS sensor, for example, is only 60 cents.
Designing a well working and secure IoT system is still hard. IoT platforms are very complex distributed systems and managing these distributed systems is often an overlooked challenge. When designing for the IoT, security needs to be addressed from the Cloud down to each and every edge device. Protecting data is both a hardware and a software requirement, as more data is being stored and analyzed in edge devices and gateways.
The continued evolution of powerful embedded processors is enabling more functionality to be consolidated into single heterogeneous multicore devices. You will see more mixed criticality designs – those designs which contain both safety-critical and non-safety critical processes running on the same chip. It’s quickly becoming common practice for embedded system developers to isolate both safety and security features on the same SoC.
AI
There is clearly a lot of hype surrounding machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) fields. Over the past few years, machine learning (ML) has evolved from an interesting new approach that allows computers to beat champions at chess and Go, into one that is touted as a panacea for almost everything. Machine learning already has delivered beneficial results in certain niches, but it has potential for a bigger and longer lasting impact because of the demand for broad insights and efficiencies across industries. Also EDA companies have been investing in this technology and some results are expected to be announced.
The Battle of AI Processors Begins in 2018. Machine learning applications have a voracious appetite for compute cycles, consuming as much compute power as they can possibly scrounge up. As a result, they are invariably run on parallel hardware – often parallel heterogeneous hardware—which creates development challenges of its own. 2018 will be the start of what could be a longstanding battle between chipmakers to determine who creates the hardware that artificial intelligence lives on. Main contenders on the field at the moment are CPUs, GPUs, TPUs (tensor processing units), and FPGAs. Analysts at both Research and Markets and TechNavio have predicted the global AI chip market to grow at a compound annual growth rate of about 54% between 2017 and 2021.
Sources:
Battery Market Goes Bigger and Better in 2018
Smart speakers to outsell wearables during U.S. holidays, as demand for wearables slows
Wearables Shipments Expected to Double by 2021
The Week In Review: Manufacturing #186
Five technology trends for 2018
NI Trend Watch 2018 explores trends driving the future faster
Creating Software Separation for Mixed Criticality Systems
Isolating Safety and Security Features on the Xilinx UltraScale+ MPSoC
Meeting ISO 26262 Software Standards
DRAM Growth Projected to be Highest Since ’94
NAND Market Expected to Cool in Q1
Memory Market Forecast 2018 … with Jim Handy
3D NAND Storage Fuels New Age of Smartphone Apps
$55.9 Billion Semiconductor Equipment Forecast – New Record with Korea at Top
Advanced Packaging Is Suddenly Very Cool
Apple Watch 3 shipment growth to benefit Taiwan IC packagers in 2018
Rapid SoC Proof-of-Concept for Zero Cost
EDA Challenges Machine Learning
What Can You Expect from the New Generation of Power Supplies?
Optimizing Machine Learning Applications for Parallel Hardware
FPGA-dataa 10 kertaa nopeammin
Chipmakers Look To New Materials
What the Experts Think: Delivering the next 5 years of semiconductor technology
Programmable Logic Holds the Key to Addressing Device Obsolescence
The Battle of AI Processors Begins in 2018
For China’s Memory Firms, Legal Tests May Loom
Predictions for the New Year in Analog & Power Electronics
Lithium-ion Overcomes Limitations
Will Fab Tool Boom Cycle Last?
The Next 5 Years Of Chip Technology
Chipmakers Look To New Materials
Process Window Discovery And Control
Sensors are Fundamental to New Intelligent Systems
Industrial IoT (IIoT) – Where is Silicon Valley
Internet of things (IoT) design considerations for embedded connected devices
How efficient memory solutions can help designers of IoT nodes meet tight BoM cost targets
1,325 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Supercharging Chips by Integrating Optical Circuits
Optical CMOS process could break communications bottleneck
https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/semiconductors/optoelectronics/optics-on-chips-could-speed-up-computing
A new way of building optical circuits on ordinary computer chips could speed up communications between microprocessors by orders of magnitude while reducing waste heat, increasing the processing power of laptops and smartphones.
“What we’re talking about is integrating optics with electronics on the same chip,” says Milos Popovic, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Boston University. The method entails adding “a handful” of processing steps to the standard way of making microprocessors in bulk silicon and should not add much time or cost to the manufacturing process, Popovic says.
Their approach adds a thin layer of polycrystalline silicon on top of features already on the chips. The same material is used on chips as a gate dielectric, but in a form that absorbs too much light to be useful as a waveguide.
To make a material more suitable for photonics, the researchers tweaked the deposition process, altering factors such as temperature, to obtain a different crystalline structure. They also took trenches of silicon dioxide, already used to electrically isolate transistors from one another, and made them deeper, to prevent light from leaking out of their polycrystalline silicon to the silicon substrate.
Using the approach, the researchers built chips with all the necessary photonic components—waveguides, microring resonators, vertical grating couplers, high-speed modulators, and avalanche photodetectors—along with transistors with 65-nm feature sizes. A laser light source would sit outside the chip. The photodetectors rely on defects that absorb the photons. The chips were built at the 65 nm node because that is what the semiconductor manufacturing research fab at SUNY Albany is capable of, but Popovic says it should be easy to apply the same processes to transistors being made with much smaller features.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Researchers Successfully 3D Print Circuits Directly on Human Skin
https://blog.hackster.io/researchers-successfully-3d-print-circuits-directly-on-human-skin-38d366995d32
While the idea of electronic body augmentation is nothing new, researchers at the University of Minnesota have taken things in a new direction, applying circuits to a person’s body using a 3D-printer. The device first places discreet electronics and a series of markers on a person’s skin, then scans them. From this model, computer vision is used to track a person’s movements, so that while a person is bound to move at least slightly during the process, the printer can still produce a usable circuit.
Tomi Engdahl says:
A lifetime designing PCBs: Applying a designer perspective to BGAs
https://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/all-aboard-/4460396/A-lifetime-designing-PCBs–Applying-a-designer-perspective-to-BGAs
Tomi Engdahl says:
TSMC’s Roadmap Full, But Thin
EUV readied for 7, 5nm–but gains decline
https://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1333244
Continuing to move fast in multiple directions at once, TSMC announced it is in volume production with a 7nm process and will have a version using extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography ramping early next year. In addition, it gave its first timeline for a 5nm node and announced a half dozen new packaging options.
Meanwhile, the foundry is pushing power consumption and leakage down on more mainstream 22/12nm nodes
Overall, the Taiwanese giant expects to make 12 million wafers this year with R&D and capex spending both on the rise. It has even started production of 16nm FinFET chips in Nanjing, a big first for China.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Samsung, GF Ramp FD-SOI
Foundries expect 30+ tapeouts this year
https://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1333229
Globalfoundries announced that it has 36 design wins for its 22-nm fully depleted silicon-on-insulator process, more than a dozen of which should tape-out this year. Rival Samsung said that it expects to tape-out more than 20 chips in its 28-nm FD-SOI process this year.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intel Delays 10-nm Volume Production Until 2019
https://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1333230
Intel announced the appointment of yet another big-name chip architect and provided more evidence that its multi-year quest to diversify beyond the PC is finally paying dividends. But the company also pushed volume production of 10-nm chips from late this year to next year, saying that progress in improving yields is slower than expected.
In a conference call with analysts following its first quarter earnings announcement, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich said that Intel is shipping 10-nm products in low volumes and that yields are improving but that the rate of improvement is slower than the company expected.
Tomi Engdahl says:
ST Sees Sales Growth Despite Weak Smartphone Demand
https://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1333222
Results coming in from several of the chip companies this week have shown a seasonal decline in demand from smartphones impacting revenue growth. STMicroelectronics announced strong first quarter results despite slowdown in sales for smartphones, while Austrian chipmaker ams expects a significant short-term impact from changes in its customers’ smartphone programs.
STMicroelectronics’ announced net revenues of $2.23 billion in Q1 2018, up 22.2 percent year-over-year, but a sequential decrease from the previous quarter of 9.8 percent.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why Can’t China Make Semiconductors?
After decades of failure, it may now be on the right track.
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-04-29/why-can-t-china-make-semiconductors
Jack Ma says he’s ready for China to make semiconductors at home. It’s a longstanding goal for the Chinese government. And thanks to a recent crackdown on certain technology exports by the U.S., it’s now a critical one. The question is whether China can finally conquer this challenge after decades of failures.
Semiconductors are the building blocks of electronics, found in everything from flip phones to the servers that make up a supercomputer. Although China long ago mastered the art of making products with semiconductors produced elsewhere (the iPhone is the most famous example), it wants to move beyond being a mere assembler. It aspires to being an originator of products and ideas, especially in cutting-edge industries such as autonomous cars. For that, it needs its own semiconductors.
That’s no small challenge. China is currently the world’s biggest chip market, but it manufactures only 16 percent of the semiconductors it uses domestically. It imports about $200 billion worth annually — a value exceeding its oil imports. To cultivate a domestic industry, the government has slashed taxes for chip makers and plans to invest as much as $32 billion to become a world leader in design and manufacturing. Yet as history shows, spending won’t be enough.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Broadcom says weak wireless chip demand to hurt revenue forecast
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-broadcom-forecast/broadcom-says-weak-wireless-chip-demand-to-hurt-revenue-forecast-idUSKBN1I118V
Chipmaker Broadcom, which counts Apple Inc among its customers, on Monday cut the top end of its previously issued second-quarter revenue forecast, citing weak demand for its wireless chips.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Improved Chemistry Enhances Zinc-Battery Recharge, Safety, Performance
http://www.powerelectronics.com/alternative-energy/improved-chemistry-enhances-zinc-battery-recharge-safety-performance?NL=ED-003&Issue=ED-003_20180502_ED-003_605&sfvc4enews=42&cl=article_2_b&utm_rid=CPG05000002750211&utm_campaign=17046&utm_medium=email&elq2=f8a135d001bd433e8c8c34e45863e79a
A multi-institutional team has developed a battery which overcomes the poor recharge performance of zinc-based cells.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Low Current, Power Measurements Require Extreme Accuracy
http://www.powerelectronics.com/alternative-energy/low-current-power-measurements-require-extreme-accuracy?NL=ED-003&Issue=ED-003_20180502_ED-003_605&sfvc4enews=42&cl=article_2_b&utm_rid=CPG05000002750211&utm_campaign=17046&utm_medium=email&elq2=f8a135d001bd433e8c8c34e45863e79a
Low operating current is a factor in a wide range of applications from R&D to production. Measuring these low currents requires an instrument that provides the necessary long-term accuracy.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Global Semiconductor Sales Up 20 Percent Year-to-Year in Q1
https://www.semiconductors.org/news/2018/04/30/global_sales_report_2017/global_semiconductor_sales_up_20_percent_year_to_year_in_q1/
Worldwide semiconductor sales reach $37 billion in March; year-to-year sales increase for 20th consecutive month
Tomi Engdahl says:
Opinion: AMD the underdog bites back, as Intel and Qualcomm struggle in their own ways
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/amd-the-underdog-bites-back-as-intel-and-qualcomm-struggle-in-their-own-ways-2018-05-01
The chip companies’ quarterly reports show a divergent path: AMD is growing quickly, Intel is trying to kick-start innovation, and Qualcomm is bogged down in licensing deals
U.S. chip companies Advanced Micro Devices, Intel and Qualcomm last week reported first-quarter earnings, and each had drastically different results and outlooks. They’re on divergent paths, attempting to redefine themselves with varying levels and rates of success.
Let’s break them down.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Parasitic extraction must solve advanced node issues
https://www.edn.com/design/integrated-circuit-design/4460621/Parasitic-extraction-must-solve-advanced-node-issues
Integrated circuit (IC) designers move to advanced process technology nodes to leverage higher performance, density, and functionality, as well as reduced delay and power consumption, enabled by continuous dimensional scaling. Transitioning to new device architectures such as fin field-effect transistors (finFETs), fully depleted silicon on insulator (FDSOI), and gate-all-around (GAA) further extends gate length scaling, but leads to increased parasitic interactions between neighboring geometries [1]. New parasitic extraction (PEX) options for interconnect modeling ensure accurate capture of parasitic and layout-dependent effects for non-planar devices. In addition, these options can provide more efficient netlist input to downstream analysis. By adopting these advanced PEX solutions as part of their verification flows, designers can successfully realize the benefits of their advanced node designs.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Report: Toshiba May Scrap Chip Unit Sale
https://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1333243
With its financial fortunes much improved and facing uncertainty over winning approval from Chinese antitrust regulators, there is speculation that Toshiba may abandon its $18 billion deal to sell its memory chip business to a consortium of investors, according to a report this week by the Nikkei Asian Review.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Micron, World’s Third-Largest Chipmaker, Plans to Hire More Staff in Taiwan to Counter China’s Tech Theft
By Sunny Chao, Epoch Times
https://www.theepochtimes.com/micron-worlds-third-largest-chipmaker-plans-to-hire-more-staff-in-taiwan-to-counter-chinas-tech-theft_2509916.html
U.S.-based memory chip maker Micron Technology is planning to expand its operations and hire 800 more employees in Taiwan by the end of this year. It plans to hire 350 more next year.
As Chinese semiconductor firms have been trying to poach engineers from U.S. companies, Micron is hiring more talent in Taiwan to counter the competition from Chinese rivals, reported The Nikkei Asian Review on April 25.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Need Isolation? Capacitive Solutions Outperform Opto, Magnetic Options
http://www.electronicdesign.com/analog/need-isolation-capacitive-solutions-outperform-opto-magnetic-options?NL=ED-003&Issue=ED-003_20180503_ED-003_585&sfvc4enews=42&cl=article_1_b&utm_rid=CPG05000002750211&utm_campaign=17072&utm_medium=email&elq2=504524e2bd734f1abfe0aa482073f7fc
Sponsored by Texas Instruments: Industrial and medical applications can benefit from capacitive-isolator ICs, which offer a lower-power, simpler means of protection from ESD and other electrical surges.
If you’re designing circuits and equipment that require electrical/electronic isolation, it may be time to consider electronic isolation via capacitance. Of the methods available, capacitive isolation provides outstanding advantages over magnetic isolation by transformer or optoisolation with an LED and photodetector.
Such isolation is a common requirement in most industrial and medical applications. That’s where capacitive-isolation ICs, which have been developed and refined for implementation into these critical designs, step in.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to Design Isolated Comparators for ±48V, 110V and 240V DC and AC Detection
http://www.ti.com/lit/an/slla382a/slla382a.pdf
Tomi Engdahl says:
The world’s first DDR5 test chip
JEDEC is working on the next version of the DDR bus. The standard is already long, so Cadence has introduced the first functional DDR5 test circuit. The TSMC’s 7 nanometer processor driver transfers data to 4400 mega shifts per second.
DDR5 is 37.5 percent faster than the current DDR4 bus memory. The new standard will thus mark a clear leap forward in data transfer between memory and processor.
The test circuit includes both the physical part and the driver for the implementation of the DDR5 bus. The implementation of a working circuit shows that Cadence’s DDR5-IP can soon begin to manufacture high-speed DDR5 subsystems for servers, storage devices, and other business applications to which DDR5 technology is first expected to arrive.
Source: http://www.etn.fi/index.php/13-news/7937-maailman-ensimmainen-ddr5-testipiiri
Tomi Engdahl says:
Graphene Propelled These 4 Power-Related Advances
http://www.powerelectronics.com/alternative-energy/graphene-propelled-these-4-power-related-advances?NL=ED-003&Issue=ED-003_20180504_ED-003_383&sfvc4enews=42&cl=article_1_b&utm_rid=CPG05000002750211&utm_campaign=17073&utm_medium=email&elq2=b6bba39de5b64ecca4d45ba49874ca58
The superior properties of graphene continue to push research into its application across the power landscape. One issue holds it back from going mainstream, though.
Graphene, the super-material that’s stronger than steel, lighter than air, and highly conductive, is poised to impact industry at a scale that hasn’t been seen since the Industrial Revolution.
Tomi Engdahl says:
TSMC’s Roadmap Full, But Thin
EUV readied for 7, 5 nm — but gains decline
https://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1333244
Continuing to move fast in multiple directions at once, TSMC announced that it is in volume production with a 7-nm process and will have a version using extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography ramping early next year. In addition, it gave its first timeline for a 5-nm node and announced a half-dozen new packaging options.
Meanwhile, the foundry is pushing power consumption and leakage down on more mainstream 22-/12-nm nodes, advancing a laundry list of specialty processes and rolling out an alphabet soup of embedded memories. At the same time, it is exploring future transistor structures and materials.
Overall, the Taiwanese giant expects to make 12 million wafers this year with R&D and capex spending both on the rise. It has even started production of 16-nm FinFET chips in Nanjing, a big first for China.
Tomi Engdahl says:
University Spinout Targets Mass-Market-Scale Graphene IP
https://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1333251
A University of Cambridge spinout focused on commercializing large-scale production of graphene intellectual property (IP) for electronics devices has closed of a £2.9M (about $3.9 billion) seed round to support the development of its first major products.
Backed by some founders and investors of the who’s who of the U.K.’s electronics industry, the company, Paragraf, uses a proprietary, patent-protected approach to overcome the challenges of poor uniformity, reproducibility, limited size, and material contamination that have stymied all current graphene manufacturing techniques. It aims to harness the high conductivity, strength, low weight, and flexibility of graphene and says that it has developed the first-ever commercial-scale method validated to consistently deliver functionally active graphene with properties targeted to its final device-specific application, with both high quality and high throughput.
Tomi Engdahl says:
TI Adds to Lead in Analog IC Market
https://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1333259
Texas Instruments expanded its lead in analog IC market share last year with $9.9 billion in analog revenue, more than twice that of No. 2 player Analog Devices (ADI), according to market research firm IC Insights.
TI held 18 percent of the analog IC market in 2017, compared to 8 percent for ADI, IC Insights said.
Overall, the top 10 analog chip vendors accounted for $32.3 billion in sales, a cumulative market share of 59 percent, according to IC Insights. The cumulative sales total was up 14 percent compared with 2016, and the top 10 players combined picked up two points of market share, the firm said.
The total analog market was worth $54.5 billion in 2017.
TI’s analog chip sales accounted for about 71 percent of the company’s total semiconductor revenue last year, according to IC Insights’ estimates.
Tomi Engdahl says:
2018 TSMC Technology Symposium: Listen – Analyze – Act
https://www.3dincites.com/2018/05/tsmc-2018-technology-symposium-listen-analyze-act/
Dr. Kevin Zhang, VP Business Development, started his message with: 5G applications require not only very low power solutions but also a multitude of radios in the package. Zhang explained that 22 ULP is a 5% optical shrink of 28 HPC+ to simplify cost reductions. He announced that 22 MRAM and 22 RRAM will be released during 2018, ’19 and 2020.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intel hits a wall on Moore’s Law; growth in computing power finally slows
http://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/index.ssf/2018/05/intel_hits_a_wall_on_moores_la.html
Intel has been pushing the laws of physics for years. Now, physics is pushing back.
The chipmaker has again delayed the rollout of its 10-nanometer technology, the next generation of smaller, smarter, faster microprocessors. Originally expected in 2015, Intel now says the chips won’t be widely available before 2019 – and maybe not until late in the year.
A high percentage of the 10nm chips – produced at Intel’s Hillsboro research factories — are plagued with defects that render them useless. As chip features shrink to scales measured in just a few atoms, manufacturing techniques have proven unable to keep up with the rapid pace of advancement Intel has always promised.
Moore’s Law has hit a wall.
Tomi Engdahl says:
System-on-Chip for mmWave 3D Imaging with No CPU Needed
https://electronics360.globalspec.com/article/11743/system-on-chip-for-mmwave-3d-imaging-with-no-cpu-needed
Israeli startup Vayyar Imaging has introduced a system-on-chip (SoC) for mmWave 3D imaging that does not need an external CPU to execute complex imaging algorithms.
The Vayyar chip integrates a number of transceivers and advanced digital signal processing (DSP) to create high resolution contour with high accuracy. The IC covers imaging and radar bands from 3 GHz to 81 GHz with 72 transmitters and 72 receivers in one chip.
Using wideband radio waves, the sensor can penetrate different types of materials and operates in every weather or light condition, making it applicable for automotive and industrial markets. The sensor differentiates between objects and people, determines location while mapping large areas and creates a 3D image of the environment.
Tomi Engdahl says:
China’s chip industry sees rapid Q1 growth
http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1100433.shtml
China’s chip-making industry has seen rapid growth in the first quarter of 2018, amid the rising performance of Chinese semiconductor foundries in the global market.
According to data released by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) on Wednesday, in the first quarter of 2018, the value of China’s electronic information manufacturing industry grew by 12.5 percent year-on-year, faster than the growth rate of all above-scale industries by 6.7 percentage points.
The number of integrated circuits (ICs) produced reached 39.99 billion in 2017, an increase of 15.2 percent compared with 2016, and the number of electronic components reached 1.128 trillion, an increase of 22.7 percent year-on-year, said the MIIT.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Chip giant ARM finds local partner for China operations
http://www.atimes.com/article/chip-giant-arm-finds-local-partner-for-china-operations/
Joint venture ARM mini China to provide integrated circuit technology to Chinese chip companies with eye on boosting global sales
Tomi Engdahl says:
IFTLE 381 TSMC WOW
http://electroiq.com/insights-from-leading-edge/2018/05/iftle-381-tsmc-wow/
TSMC Introduces WoW Technology
At the TSMC Technology Symposium in Santa Clara, the company discussed their new Wafer-on-Wafer (WOW) silicon wafer stacking technology for the 7 and 5nm nodes. The “new” technology connects chips on two silicon wafers reportedly using 10um TSV. Those of us who have been following 3DIC for over a decade recognize this as W2W 3DIC. Even the name isn’t new, since Fujitsu introduced their version of WoW technology in 2010 which we discussed way back in in IFTLE 181.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Classic SiP Tech Repels Modern Threats
http://www.mwrf.com/defense/classic-sip-tech-repels-modern-threats?NL=MWRF-001&Issue=MWRF-001_20180507_MWRF-001_874&sfvc4enews=42&cl=article_2_b&utm_rid=CPG05000002750211&utm_campaign=17126&utm_medium=email&elq2=7ce56bf9b5524067aa7cef3a3ae6344d
For the rugged operating conditions required by defense applications, SiP packaging technology still has more than a few miles left for squeezing advanced functionality in small spaces.
Choice of packaging technology can often determine an electronic technology’s ultimate effectiveness in a defense-related application. Once considered highly advanced, system-in-package (SiP) technology is no longer at the forefront of microelectronic packaging.
But, while other applications may seek to leverage the latest and greatest packaging technologies, military system architects cannot leverage new packaging technologies without clear evidence of military-grade reliability. In fact, by using a four-pronged approach, it is possible to modernize a proven, existing packaging technology—SiP—to power military applications in the most threatening environments.
SiP technology is still a valid approach for miniaturizing defense microelectronics, but other packaging options now crowd the scene (Fig. 1). Semiconductor manufacturers and outsourced assembly and test (OSAT) providers have made tremendous progress in the commercialization of through-silicon-via (TSV) technology to interconnect multiple devices in compact form factors. The technology has matured sufficiently such that logic, memory, RF devices, sensors, and passive components are often integrated in a single package. While it would appear that the defense community would widely adopt TSV technology as its next packaging technology, there are still strong needs for SiP devices.
Tomi Engdahl says:
MIS Packaging Takes Off
https://semiengineering.com/mis-packaging-takes-off/
Molded interconnect substrate emerges as packaging choice for analog, power ICs and cryptocurrency chips.
Momentum is building for IC packages based on an emerging technology called molded interconnect substrate (MIS).
ASE, Carsem, JCET/STATS ChipPAC, Unisem and others are developing IC packages based on MIS substrate technology, which is ramping up in the analog, power IC and even the cryptocurrency markets.
MIS starts with a specialized substrate material for select IC packages. The MIS substrate itself is developed and sold by various vendors. A packaging house then takes that substrate and assembles an IC package around it. Some refer to the MIS substrate as a leadframe.
MIS is different than traditional substrates, as the technology consists of a pre-molded structure with one or more layers. Each layer is pre-configured with copper plating or interconnects to provide electrical connections in the package. All told, MIS supports single- or multi-die configurations, enabling low-profile, fine-pitch packages. It can be used to develop souped-up leaded packages, flip-chip, modules and system-in-packages (SiPs).
Tomi Engdahl says:
Software-Defined Test And Measurement
https://semiengineering.com/software-defined-test-and-measurement/
SDx is making inroads into 5G, automotive radar, and other new technology.
Software-defined radios, instrumentation and test are ramping up alongside a flood of new technologies related to assisted and autonomous vehicles, 5G, and military/aerospace electronics, breathing new life and significant change into the test and measurement market.
Software-defined test adds flexibility in markets where the products and protocols are evolving or still being defined, and where system architectures are being tweaked or replaced to deal with an explosion of data. In effect, the entire compute infrastructure across multiple markets is shifting, and the number of signals that need to be optimized and processed is rising significantly. Alongside of that is software-based instrumentation, also known as virtual instrumentation, which builds in similar levels of flexibility rather than relying on benchtop, handheld, and standalone instruments that have been a mainstay of the test and measurement business for decades.
Tomi Engdahl says:
China Said to Raising $47 Billion Semiconductor Fund
https://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1333268
A second fund to bolster China’s domestic semiconductor industry a government-backed investment firm — set to be launched soon — is believed to be much greater than original thought.
The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources, reported that the government-backed China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund would allocate the funding to — among other things — improving China’s ability to design and manufacture advanced processors and GPUs. The size of the fund, which had previously been reported to be valued at between $19 billion and $32 billion, may have been increased as the result of boiling trade tensions between China and the U.S.
Tomi Engdahl says:
STM’s Latest BCD Node Examined
https://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1333263
TechInsights has been monitoring the evolution of STMicroelectronics Bipolar-CMOS-DMOS (BCD) technology since the year 2000, when we performed a structural and electrical characterization of a 0.8 µm BCD device with a 1999 mask date.
BCD technology integrates CMOS logic, double-diffused MOS transistors (DMOS), lateral-diffused MOS transistors (LDMOS) and bipolar transistors into a single silicon die. The DMOS and LDMOS transistors are generally used to create high voltage or higher power output driver transistors, while the bipolar transistors provide analog functionality.
STMicroelectronics is a market leader in BCD technology, which they claim to have invented in the mid-1980s. The technology also is offered by other vendors, including Texas Instruments, Infineon, Atmel, Maxim and by major foundries such as TSMC.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Irresistible Appeal of Automotive Electronics
https://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1333261
Engineers who previously designed all forms of consumer electronic devices such as smartphones and digital cameras, are steering themselves to chip companies driving the autonomous vehicle trend.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Chip designer Mediatek gets Taiwan nod to export goods to ZTE
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-china-zte-mediatek/chip-designer-mediatek-gets-taiwan-nod-to-export-goods-to-zte-idUSKBN1I809Y
TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwanese chip designer Mediatek Inc has received an export permit from the government to sell components to ZTE Corp, a Chinese telecoms equipment maker subjected to restrictions in the United States.
The U.S. government last month banned American firms from selling to ZTE for seven years, saying the company had failed to comply with a settlement related to ZTE shipping U.S.-made goods to Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions.
Following the U.S. ban, Taiwan had instructed local firms wanting to ship goods to ZTE to apply for permission.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Watch out, Qualcomm: China set to launch $47 billion chip investment fund
https://www.androidauthority.com/china-launch-47-billion-chip-fund-861007/
China is expected to announce a new $47 billion investment fund for its chip sector soon.
The fund will reportedly focus on microprocessors and graphics processing units, among other areas.
The news comes after ZTE was slapped with a U.S. supply ban, which could deprive the brand of Snapdragon chips.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Arizona is poised to capitalize on growing microelectronic industry
https://azbigmedia.com/arizona-is-poised-to-capitalize-on-growing-microelectronic-industry/
The Valley’s microelectronics industry sees opportunity for a market turnaround, after nearly a decade of decline in the semiconductor industry.
According to the Semiconductor Industry Association, global sales of semiconductors are on the rise with sales increasing over twenty percent and topping $400 Billion last year, making it the industry’s highest-ever annual sales.
“The semiconductor industry had a very strong year in 2017 with double digit growth that was broad-based. We saw growth in all product lines, all regions of the world and all end markets. This year, we expect that the Industrial, Automotive and IoT (Internet of Things) markets are likely to be the stronger end markets,” said Ganesh Moorthy, president and chief operating officer of Chandler-headquartered Microchip Technology Inc.
Microelectronics, the designer and manufacturer of microchips and microcircuits, is a component of semiconductors. The microelectronics industry has a large presence in greater Phoenix, with operations from legacy companies such as Intel Corporation, and ON Semiconductor and Microchip Technology.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Output of Taiwan’s IC industry down over 10% in Q1
http://focustaiwan.tw/news/aeco/201805070014.aspx
Taipei, May 7 (CNA) The production value of Taiwan’s semiconductor industry for the first quarter of this year fell more than 10 percent from a quarter earlier due to the slow-season effect, but momentum is expected to pick up in the second quarter, according to the Taiwan Semiconductor Industry Association (TSIA).
Tomi Engdahl says:
Chip Sector’s Big Risk Isn’t a Trade Spat
A paradigm shift in China could unseat existing manufacturers.
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-05-07/chip-industry-s-biggest-risk-isn-t-a-u-s-trade-spat
A tit for tat between Beijing and Washington wouldn’t be good for the Chipmaker to the Stars, its founder and outgoing chairman told the Financial Times.
“China does a lot of assembling of the final product, so the U.S.-China trade dispute may impact us also,” Morris Chang said.
I suspect Chang may have been dumbing down his analysis, because I’m sure he knows full well that the bigger risk to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. isn’t some short-term disruption to end-product manufacturing.
Where the real risk lies is in having his clients lose orders to Chinese substitutes. Right now, there are few alternatives to the chips that Qualcomm Inc., Broadcom Corp. and Nvidia Corp. design, and TSMC is their primary supplier. But when new options do become available, there’s a greater chance TSMC won’t be contracted to make them.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Memory boost: How chipmakers are weathering slowing smartphone sales
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tech-chips/memory-boost-how-chipmakers-are-weathering-slowing-smartphone-sales-idUSKBN1I909Z
Investors in global chipmakers have had a rocky ride in the last few months on worries about a slowing smartphone market, but a clamor for more video content from consumers is underpinning buoyant sales for memory-chip makers.
Indeed, the earnings reports of various chipmakers and smartphone companies in the past month tell a more interesting story beyond the cooling in phone shipment volumes: smartphone makers are cramming their devices with memory to satisfy the increasing demands of consumers.
Samsung last month forecast strong sales for “high-density” chips that have more processing power and bigger storage capacity – demand that will help it weather a decline in overall smartphone shipments as consumers are willing to pay for costlier and faster models that allow them to easily watch and store large amounts of video.
Tomi Engdahl says:
MIS Packaging Takes Off
https://semiengineering.com/mis-packaging-takes-off/
Molded interconnect substrate emerges as packaging choice for analog, power ICs and cryptocurrency chips.
Momentum is building for IC packages based on an emerging technology called molded interconnect substrate (MIS).
ASE, Carsem, JCET/STATS ChipPAC, Unisem and others are developing IC packages based on MIS substrate technology, which is ramping up in the analog, power IC and even the cryptocurrency markets.
MIS starts with a specialized substrate material for select IC packages. The MIS substrate itself is developed and sold by various vendors. A packaging house then takes that substrate and assembles an IC package around it. Some refer to the MIS substrate as a leadframe.
MIS is different than traditional substrates, as the technology consists of a pre-molded structure with one or more layers. Each layer is pre-configured with copper plating or interconnects to provide electrical connections in the package. All told, MIS supports single- or multi-die configurations, enabling low-profile, fine-pitch packages. It can be used to develop souped-up leaded packages, flip-chip, modules and system-in-packages (SiPs).
Tomi Engdahl says:
Foxconn ‘eyes semiconductor field’
http://www.ecns.cn/business/2018/05-08/301747.shtml
Foxconn Technology Group is reportedly ramping up efforts to develop its thriving semiconductor business, but industry insiders say it may still be difficult for the electronics manufacturing giant to enter the chip design sector.
The company has established a semiconductor subgroup, which is studying the feasibility of building two 12-inch wafer plants, according to a report from Digi-Times, a daily newspaper for the semiconductor and electronics sectors.
Foxconn’s chipmaking related affiliates, including Foxsemicon Integrated Technology, Shunsin Technology and Fitipower Integrated Technology, have already gone into operation under the semiconductor subgroup, industry sources said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
CMOS Image Sensor Sales Stay on Record-Breaking Pace
http://www.icinsights.com/news/bulletins/CMOS-Image-Sensor-Sales-Stay-On-RecordBreaking-Pace/
Embedded imaging applications in cars, security, machine vision, medical, virtual reality, and other new uses will offset slow growth in camera phones, says new report.
CMOS image sensors continue to take marketshare from charge-coupled devices (CCDs) as embedded digital-imaging capabilities expand into a wider range of systems and new end-use applications, says the 2018 O-S-D Report. With the smartphone market maturing, sales growth in CMOS image sensors slowed to 6% in 2016, but strong demand in other imaging applications played a major factor in boosting revenues by 19% to $12.5 billion last year. Sales of CCD and other image sensor technologies fell 2% in 2017 to about $1.6 billion after rising 5% in 2016, according to the new IC Insights report.
Overall, CMOS image sensors grabbed 89% of total image sensor sales in 2017 compared to 74% in 2012 and 54% in 2007. Unit shipments of CMOS imaging devices represented 81% of total image sensors sold in 2017 compared to 64% in 2012 and 63% in 2007. New CMOS designs keep improving for a variety of light levels (including near darkness at night), high-speed imaging, and greater resolution as well as integrating more functions for specific applications, such as security video cameras, machine vision in robots and cars, human recognition, hand-gesture interfaces, virtual/augmented reality, and medical systems.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Chicken Game Looming in Memory Chip Business
http://www.businesskorea.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=22073
Foxconn (Hong Hai Precision Industry) Group, well known for manufacturing the Apple iPhone, is preparing to enter the memory semiconductor business. As China is set to begin to produce memory chips next year following Taiwan’s reattempt to enter the memory semiconductor market, there are growing concerns that a chicken game in the memory chip industry will take place as it did ten years ago.
On May 7, Digitimes, an IT-specializing media outlet in Taiwan, reported that the Hon Hai Group was planning to establish a group of semiconductor affiliates and establish two factories to produce 12-inch memory semiconductor wafers by reorganizing its structure.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Case For Chiplets
https://semiengineering.com/chiplet-model-gaining-steam/
Emphasis on time to market and design costs is raising visibility for this approach.
Discussion about chiplets is growing as the cost of developing chips at 10/7nm and beyond passes well beyond the capabilities of many chipmakers.
Estimates for developing 5nm chips (the equivalent 3nm for TSMC and Samsung) are well into the hundreds of millions of dollars just for the NRE costs alone. Masks costs will be in the double-digit millions of dollars even with EUV. And that’s assuming that IP will be available for the most advanced nodes, which isn’t a sure thing because a number of IP vendors are debating which nodes to support and from which foundries.
This doesn’t mean that billions of 5/3nm chips won’t be produced and sold.
So rather than a 3nm SoC, it’s highly likely that a 3nm processor platform will be included inside a package.
This is where chiplets begin to look much more interesting. If IP can be hardened at the node that makes the most sense—which in the case of analog may be 250nm or 40nm, depending upon the IP—then IP blocks or subsystems can be fully characterized to the point where they can be used in multiple designs, almost like off-the-shelf components. That’s a much more attractive business model for IP vendors, because they can develop IP once and sell it for years to come to more customers in more market segments, and it levels the playing field for chipmakers around the globe.
Marvell and Kandou Bus were the first to jump on this shift. They announced a deal in 2016 under which Marvell would use Kandou’s chip-to-chip interconnect technology to tie multiple chips together. Since then, DARPA has established a chiplet program, and other companies say privately they are working on similar approaches.
Tomi Engdahl says:
A look at two different memory options, and the pros and cons of each.
May 10th, 2018 – By: Ed Sperling
https://semiengineering.com/tech-talk-hbm-vs-gddr6/
Frank Ferro, senior director of product management at Rambus, talks about memory bottlenecks and why both GDDR6 and high-bandwidth memory are gaining steam and for which markets.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Is Power Verification An Oxymoron?
https://semiengineering.com/is-power-verification-an-oxymoron/
Verification implies comparison against an expected result, but the industry has yet to define how this works for power. How are power bugs found?
Tomi Engdahl says:
TDK Acquires Power Converter Company Targeting Cars and Factories
http://www.electronicdesign.com/power/tdk-acquires-power-converter-company-targeting-cars-and-factories?NL=ED-003&Issue=ED-003_20180510_ED-003_278&sfvc4enews=42&cl=article_2_b&utm_rid=CPG05000002750211&utm_campaign=17203&utm_medium=email&elq2=f3d6e09c461a4f6ab9803f617fd80f13
TDK Corporation announced on Wednesday that it would acquire Faraday Semi, a startup focused on advanced power converters that can be installed in connected cars, factory equipment and data centers to regulate the electrical current powering them.
“As we see an increase in connected devices, whether in autos, on the factory floor, or data centers, we’re witnessing the need for greater processing power in the devices themselves,” said Arthur Asai, TDK’s senior product marketing manager for power solutions. “These changes are increasing the need for miniaturized, specialized electronics with efficient power management.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bitcoin and Beanie Babies: Why Cryptocurrency Volatility Matters to the Semiconductor Industry
https://www.3dincites.com/2018/05/bitcoin-and-beanie-babies-why-cryptocurrency-volatility-matters-to-the-semiconductor-industry/
Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency built on blockchain, has become one of the hottest topics to hit the semiconductor news feeds and the conference circuit since the iPhone. Why? Because this code-based technology requires so much compute power to run complex mathematical equations that it gobbles up more energy than is required to fuel the entire country of Denmark.
In fact, a recent article in the Washington Post said the practice of bitcoin mining just about shut down Iceland’s power grid in February.
In December 2017, Bitcoin’s value skyrocketed, and it rapidly became a key driver for the semiconductor industry. Just last month TSMC reported record growth and credited orders for cryptocurrency mining chips, because of Bitcoin’s record high values in December.
In January, Bloomberg predicted Bitcoin would account for 10th of TSMCs total revenue for 2018, and will likewise impact companies like Nvidia and AMD. At SEMI’s ISS in January, and again at IMAPS Device Packaging Conference in March, bitcoin and blockchain were identified as key technologies to watch for the industry.
However, a few weeks ago, TSMC adjusted its expected growth for 2018 down to 10% because Bitcoin dropped in value as rapidly as it had climbed, according to Morgan Stanley analysts, who predict if the cryptocurrency doesn’t recoup its value, hardware and price will decline and impact wafer orders. This may be why presenters at last week’s TSMC Customer Symposium didn’t include cryptocurrency and blockchain as a significant driver for 2018, and instead focused on artificial intelligence and 5G.