The year 2021 was strange, you can read more of it from A 2021 technology retrospective: Strange days indeed. But how strange will 2022 be? Here are some predictions for year 2022:
2022 preview: Will the global computer chip shortage ever end?
The growing demand for computer chips, used in everything from cars to fridges, has collided with the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, leading to a global shortage that is likely to continue through 2022
Read more: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2022-2022-preview-will-the-global-computer-chip-shortage-ever-end/#ixzz7GqrP1H9A
Industry Transforming In Ways Previously Unimaginable
https://semiengineering.com/industry-transforming-in-ways-previously-unimaginable/?cmid=3dedf05d-0284-497a-b015-daf7747872e6
As we look back over 2021, there have certainly been some surprises, but the industry continues to take everything in its stride.
2022 tech themes: A look ahead
https://www.edn.com/2022-tech-themes-a-look-ahead/
The continued COVID-19 question mark: The world quickly and dramatically changed. It hasn’t yet reverted to pre-pandemic characteristics, and it very likely never will. Sad but true, the pandemic isn’t even close to being over yet.
Deep learning’s Cambrian moment: Look at today’s participant-rich deep learning silicon and software market, spanning both training and inference.
The ongoing importance of architecture: As the number of transistors that it’s possible to cost-effectively squeeze onto a sliver of silicon continues to slow, what you build out of those transistors becomes increasingly critical.
Open source processors’ time in the sun: There is a burgeoning RISC-V movement. It’s likely a little-known fact to some of you, that a public domain instruction set for v2 and earlier versions of the Arm ISA exists. And both Sun (with OpenSPARC) and IBM (OpenPOWER) have also joined the open-source silicon movement.
The normalization of remote work (and the “Great Resignation’s” aftershocks): I suspect that, to at least a notable degree, we won’t ever completely return to the “way it was before.” In fact, I’d wager that having a taste of a work-from-home or “hybrid” employment lifestyle is one of the key factors behind the so-called “Great Resignation” that tech and broader media alike inform me is well underway.
The metaverse starts to stir: Perhaps we’ll look back at 2022 as the year when the crossing of the chasm started in earnest.
Autonomy slowly accelerates: 2021 was another year filled with fully autonomous car tests and premature “coming soon” pronouncements; 2022 will likely be the same.
Batteries get ever denser, ever more plentiful, and ever cheaper
Space travel becomes commonplace
Global semiconductor industry forecasts for 2022
https://www.digitimes.com/news/a20211229VL205.html
“2021 is the year that everyone remembered that chip mattered,” said Wired Magazine. So far 2022 seems likely to be another fruitful year for the semiconductor industry.
World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) also has predicted that the global semiconductor market is projected to grow by 8.8 percent in 2022, to US$ 601 billion, driven by double-digit growth of the sensors and logic category. All regions and all product categories are expected to continue positive growth. Wafer foundry manufacturers sales likely to remain strong due to tight supply. 5G smartphone silicon content increase to drive demand for foundry service higher. Demand for digital transformation is here to stay, no sign of weakening for foundry service sales.
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated digital transformation over the past two years. Work from home, virtual conference, and remote learning have driven up the demand for cloud computing, laptops, and servers, and hence the sales growth of related semiconductor products. Demands for CPU, GPU, AI accelerator (including FPGA) foundry services will remain strong in 2022 because trends such as virtual conferences, live streaming, and large capex of data centers are likely to stay. Long-term demands for customized chips in IoT, 5G infrastructure, HPC, and EV applications, like ADAS, autonomous driving, V2X, in-Vehicle Infotainment, will provide robust growth momentum for chip foundry services.
Chip crunch is not ending in 2022, as the lead time of some electronic components is stretching into 2023. Meanwhile, the increasing adoption of RISC-V open standard instruction set architecture is an important trend that can not be ignored. RISC-V market will double its size in 2022, compared to 2021, as it is attracting small and medium-size chip designers and manufacturers, especially those in China. RISC-V designs are now being used by Qualcomm, Samsung, Google, Microchip, Nvidia, and more.
Taiwan’s chip industry emerges as a battlefront in US-China showdown
https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2022/01/01/2003770517
The country dominates production of chips used in almost all civilian and military technologies. That leaves the US and Chinese economies reliant on plants that would be in the line of fire in an attack on Taiwan. The vulnerability is stoking alarm in Washington
40 prosenttia pienempiä latureita
https://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12981&via=n&datum=2021-12-20_14:53:12&mottagare=30929
The size of a standard mobile phone charger can be reduced by up to 40 percent when using GaN components or it can be designed to produce more power in the same size. GaN chargers are becoming the most popular charger technology for billions of devices, so it’s no wonder that European semiconductor giant STMicroelectronics is also excited about them.
1,321 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intel Nukes Alder Lake’s AVX-512 Support, Now Fuses It Off in Silicon
By Paul Alcorn published 2 days ago
Flipping the fuses ends the story
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-nukes-alder-lake-avx-512-now-fuses-it-off-in-silicon
Intel’s support for AVX-512 instructions with its Alder Lake processors has been a confusing affair. The company initially claimed the feature wouldn’t work on its new 12th Gen processors and then backtracked when motherboard vendors found multiple workarounds to enable the commands. After a bit of cat and mouse with motherboard vendors that built new firmware to enable the feature despite Intel’s attempts at disabling it, the company has finally decided to deploy the nuclear option and fuse off AVX-512 support entirely inside newer revisions of the Alder Lake chips.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Behind Intel’s HPC Chip that Will Pierce the Exascale Barrier Ponte Vecchio packs in a lot of silicon to power the Aurora supercomputer
https://spectrum.ieee.org/intel-s-exascale-supercomputer-chip-is-a-master-class-in-3d-integration?share_id=6926317
Tomi Engdahl says:
Terahertz Imaging Chip Can See Through Snow, Sleet, Steam, Smoke, and Even Cardboard Boxes
Emitting terahertz radiation and watching for the reflections, this low-resolution imager works in almost any condition.
https://www.hackster.io/news/terahertz-imaging-chip-can-see-through-snow-sleet-steam-smoke-and-even-cardboard-boxes-9a889120cacb
Tomi Engdahl says:
Behind Intel’s HPC Chip that Will Pierce the Exascale Barrier Ponte Vecchio packs in a lot of silicon to power the Aurora supercomputer
https://spectrum.ieee.org/intel-s-exascale-supercomputer-chip-is-a-master-class-in-3d-integration
Tomi Engdahl says:
Drooneissa pian laskuvarjot turvallisuussyistä – pienoiskoptereita koskevat säännöt kiristyivät
https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-12317683
Suureen suosioon nousseet pienoiskopterit eli droonit tai dronet on kuluneen kahden vuoden aikana otettu selvästi aikaisempaa tiukemmin viranomaisvalvontaan.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://lehtimaeki.medium.com/why-i-will-never-by-another-samsung-device-2237a40002a6
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intel Details Its Bitcoin-Mining ‘Bonanza Mine’ Chips and 3,600-Watt Miner
By Paul Alcorn published 13 days ago
Intel’s 3,600-watt Bitcoin-mining powerhouse
https://www.tomshardware.com/uk/news/intel-details-its-bitcoin-mining-bonanza-mine-chips-and-systems
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.iflscience.com/technology/eyetracking-moviepass-app-will-pause-ads-if-you-look-away/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Russia scrambles to bootstrap HPC clusters with native tech https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/04/russia-mobile-clusters/
With the largest data center chipmakers locking Russia out of next-generation devices, not to mention the withdrawal of mobile and software makers from that market, it is no surprise Russian researchers are on the fast track to develop ways around the new technologies that will drive the rest of the world. This is important in the Russian context now, but these efforts are likely to spur similar efforts in China, which is also no stranger to sanctions of the tech variety as we’ve seen in cases like Huawei, for instance.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Russia’s War in Ukraine Could Spur Another Global Chip Shortage
Ukraine is home to half of the world’s neon gas, which is critical for manufacturing semiconductor chips.
https://www.wired.com/story/ukraine-chip-shortage-neon/#intcid=_wired-bottom-recirc_8e802014-a05f-48c5-89e8-9dad931361ad_text2vec1-reranked-by-vidi
On Thursday morning, explosions rocked at least seven cities in Ukraine, heralding the start of a full-scale Russian invasion. Among Putin’s first targets was Odesa, a seaside city huddled around the Black Sea, and one of the country’s busiest ports. But it is also home to a little-known company called Cryoin, which plays a big role in the global production of semiconductors.
Cryoin makes neon gas, a substance used to power the lasers that etch patterns into computer chips. It supplies companies in Europe, Japan, Korea, China, and Taiwan, but most of its neon is shipped to the US, the company told WIRED. Now analysts are warning that the ripple effects caused by disruption to Cryoin’s supply could be felt around the world.
Cryoin’s production of neon and other gases ground to a halt on Thursday as the invasion began, says business development director Larissa Bondarenko. “We decided that [our employees] should stay at home for the next couple of days until the situation is clearer, to make sure that everyone is safe,” she says, adding there was no damage to the facility as of Monday. Despite plans to restart production over the weekend, missiles over Odesa meant it was still too dangerous. Bondarenko, who lives half an hour away from the site by car, says she has been sleeping in her basement. “Thank God we have one in our house.”
But Russian aggression in Ukraine is making the industry nervous that these shortages could be intensified by a repeat of 2014, when prices for neon gas spiked by 600 per cent in response to the annexation of Crimea. Last week, US and Japanese governments were scrambling to make sure that will not happen again, pressuring their chip industries to find alternative sources of this obscure gas before it’s too late.
Ukraine is just one of a series of choke points in the global semiconductor industry. Around half of the world’s neon gas comes from the country, TechCet, an electronic materials advisory firm which advises some of the world’s biggest chipmakers including Intel and Samsung, told WIRED.
Ukraine’s neon industry was built to take advantage of the gases produced as byproducts of Russian steel manufacturing. “What happens in Russia is that those [steel] companies that have the facility to capture the gas will bottle it and sell it as crude,” says Lita Shon-Roy, president and CEO of TechCet. “Then someone has to purify it and take out the other [gases] and that’s where Cryoin comes in.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Samsung lupaa korjata puhelimien jarrutuksen
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/13267-samsung-lupaa-korjata-puhelimien-jarrutuksen
Viime viikolla tuli ilmi, että joidenkin Samsung-älypuhelimien Game Optimizing Service (GOS) -palvelu hidasti tiettyjen pelien ja sovellusten suorituskykyä hallitakseen akun käyttöikää paremmin. Nyt Samsung sanoo, että jarruttamisen korjaava ohjelmistopäivitys on tulossa.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/13262-grafeenilla-ylivertaisia-antureita
Tomi Engdahl says:
ARM:n kisaaja vahvistuu uutuuspiireillä
https://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2022/03/07/armn-kisaaja-vahvistuu-uutuuspiireilla/
Berkeleyn yliopistossa kehitetty avoin RISC-V-prosessoriarkkitehtuuri on saanut koko ajan uusia tukijoita. Erityisesti RISC-V on kerännyt suosiota sulautetuissa ohjainpiirityyppisissä sovelluksissa juuri muunneltavuutensa ansiosta. Uusimpana mukaan on lähtenyt Renesas uudella RZ/Five-piirisarjallaan.
Uusimpana RISC-V-junaan on hypännyt japanilainen Renesas, joka on tuomassa tarjolle RISC-V-pohjalle rakennetut RZ/Five-sarjan mikroprosessoriyksiköt (MPU). Ne on rakennettu Risc-V:n 64-bittisen CPU -version ympärille.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why Russia Can’t Replace TSMC
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_4R4X7AWtU
In late February 2022, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company or TSMC announced that it would halt shipments to Russia per a new round of sanctions.
The TSMC halt ended shipments from fabless companies like Baikal, MCST, Yadro and STC Module. Intel and AMD have stopped their shipments to Russia as well.
In recent years, Russia has been looking to create their own supply of semiconductors. While there are some interesting domestic design successes, domestic capacity to manufacture those designs have been falling farther and farther behind.
We find ourselves living in strange times. In this video, we are going to do an overview of Russia’s ever-worsening domestic semiconductor manufacturing industry.
Read Ian’s write up on the Elbrus:
https://www.anandtech.com/show/15823/russias-elbrus-8cb-microarchitecture-8core-vliw-on-tsmc-28nm
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Superior Economics of TSMC’s Giga-Fabs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvEk6QsNuRA
In 2018, TSMC broke ground on Fab 18 near Tainan City in the south of Taiwan. Fab 18 is a monster. It sits on 103 acres and has a total floor space of 950,000 square meters (10.2 million square feet).
That is about 3 times the size of AT&T Stadium in Dallas, Texas – home of the Dallas Cowboys.
In total, across all of its phases, Fab 18 will cost TSMC nearly $20 billion to build and operate. More than the cost of the USS Gerald R. Ford, the US Navy’s most advanced aircraft carrier.
In this video, we are going to look at why TSMC’s fabs are getting bigger and more expensive than ever before. And why that makes a lot of economic sense for the Taiwanese chip maker.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sam Byford / The Verge:
Samsung, Lenovo, and Microsoft commit to shipping Android 12L, featuring optimizations for tablets and foldables, for some of their devices later this year — The update is coming later this year — Samsung, Lenovo, and Microsoft are the first device manufacturers to commit to shipping Android 12L …
Android 12L will come to Samsung, Lenovo, and Microsoft devices
The update is coming later this year
https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/7/22965155/android-12l-update-release-devices-lenovo-microsoft-samsung-google?scrolla=5eb6d68b7fedc32c19ef33b4
Samsung, Lenovo, and Microsoft are the first device manufacturers to commit to shipping Android 12L, the new version of Android designed to be better optimized for tablets and foldable devices. Google’s VP of engineering for Android, Andrei Popescu, announced the news in a blog post, saying that 12L would ship to devices from the three companies later this year.
Lenovo isn’t a surprise, since its P12 Pro tablet can already run a beta version of Android 12L. It’s not clear exactly which devices from the other two companies will get the update — presumably Microsoft’s Surface Duo 2 is one of them, while any number of Samsung Galaxy Tab tablets or Z Fold phones could potentially benefit from the new software.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Corbin Davenport / XDA Developers:
Google releases Android 12L and a feature update for Pixel phones, including Live Caption reading typed responses aloud to callers, Duo screen sharing, and more — Google released the long-awaited Android 12L update on Monday, with many improvements to foldable phones, tablets, and other large-screen devices.
March Pixel Feature Drop includes Live Caption on calls, night mode in Snapchat, and more
https://www.xda-developers.com/pixel-feature-drop-march-2022/
Tomi Engdahl says:
UWB näyttää tehonsa: 1,66 gigabittiä sekunnissa
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/13272-uwb-naeyttaeae-tehonsa-1-66-gigabittiae-sekunnissa
Ultralaajakaistainen signaali eli UWB yleistyy nyt nopeasti monissa sovelluksissa, joissa halutaan esimerkiksi siirtää nopea, murtamaton signaali kahden laitteen välillä. Belgialaisessa mikroelektroniikan tutkimuskeskus IMECissä on kehitetty seuraavan sukupolven UWB-linkki.
Tutkimuslaitos esitteli ISSCC-konferenssissa lähetinsirun, joka voi määritellä UWB-teknologian tulevaisuuden uudelleen. Piiri on valmistettu 28 nanometrin CMOS-prosessissa ja sen pinta-ala on vain 0,155 mm². Virrankulutus jää alle 10 milliwattiin.
Tästä huolimatta piirin tiedonsiirtonopeus on parhaimmillaan 1,66 gigabittiä sekunnissa. Tämä on 50 kertaa nykyisen UWB-standardin eli IEEE 802.15.4z:n tukema nopeus. Sirun suorituskyky vahvistaa tutkijoiden uskoa siihen, että UWB-tekniikkaa pystytään hyödyntämään paljon nykyistä laajemmalla sovellusalueella.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Piirien sopimusvalmistus nousee uuteen ennätykseen
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/13277-piirien-sopimusvalmistus-nousee-uuteen-ennaetykseen
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Briefing: Why Foundries Are Not the Only Culprits Behind Chip Deficit
Oct. 18, 2021
While foundries are investing aggressively to ease the global chip shortage, other factors are prolonging the supply woes, from tight supplies of raw materials to a lack of back-end packaging and test capacity.
https://www.electronicdesign.com/technologies/analog/media-gallery/21177630/electronic-design-the-briefing-why-foundries-are-not-the-only-culprits-behind-chip-deficit
The global chip shortage has plagued the electronics industry for most of the year, wreaking havoc on the auto industry before cascading into other sectors, such as consumer electronics, where even Apple has started to feel the pain.
The main culprit has been the lack of front-end production capacity at foundries. While contract chip suppliers are investing aggressively in fabs to turn things around, it can take a long time to increase the industry’s output.
But other parts of the supply chain have also emerged as bottlenecks. Shortages persist in blank silicon wafers that are processed and diced into chips. There are also supply constraints for substrates, chemicals, and resins used in chip packages. A shortage of capacity for back-end assembly and testing, compounded by snags in the supply chain, has also become a chokepoint. All these factors are leading to higher costs and longer lead times.
“Like wafer fab capacity, there is a need for expanded packaging capacity. However, the margins in assembly and test are a fraction of those in wafer fabs, so there is more hesitation to add capacity speculatively. There also is a shortage of assembly equipment, with some lead times increasing” to more than three months, said Mark Fulthorpe, automotive analyst at IHS Markit. The chip shortage is not expected to end until at least 2022.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Global Semiconductor Sales Increase 26.8% Year-to-Year in January
https://www.semiconductors.org/global-semiconductor-sales-increase-26-8-year-to-year-in-january/
Sales into the Americas increase 40.2% year-to-year to lead all regional markets
WASHINGTON—March 3, 2022—The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) today announced global semiconductor industry sales were $50.7 billion in the month of January 2022, an increase of 26.8% over the January 2021 total of $40.0 billion and 0.2% less than the December 2021 total of $50.9 billion. Monthly sales are compiled by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization and represent a three-month moving average. SIA represents 99% of the U.S. semiconductor industry by revenue and nearly two-thirds of non-U.S. chip firms.
Following record sales and units shipped in 2021, global semiconductor sales remained strong at the beginning of 2022, reaching the second-highest-ever monthly total in January,” said John Neuffer, SIA president and CEO. “Global sales in January increased by more than 20% for the tenth consecutive month on a year-to-year basis, and sales into the Americas increased by 40.2% year-to-year in January to lead all regional markets.”
In addition to the year-to-year sales increase in the Americas, sales were up compared to January 2021 in Europe (28.7%), China (24.4%), Asia Pacific/All Other (21.0%), and Japan (18.9%). Month-to-month sales increased in Europe (3.4%) and Asia Pacific/All Other (0.4%), but fell slightly in China (-0.7%), the Americas (-1.1%), and Japan (-1.3%).
Tomi Engdahl says:
Piirien sopimusvalmistus nousee uuteen ennätykseen
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/13277-piirien-sopimusvalmistus-nousee-uuteen-ennaetykseen
Mikropiirien sopimusvalmistus eli ns. foundry-liiketoiminta kasvaa tänä vuonna yli viidenneksen vauhti jo kolmatta vuotta peräkkäin. IC Insights ennustaa, että sopimusvalmistajien liikavaihto kasvaa 132,1 miljardiin dollariin.
Kasvua viime vuoteen tulee näin 20 prosenttia. Sopimusvalmistajien yhteenlaskettu liikevaihto pieneni prosentilla vuonna 2019, mutta sen jälkeen kasvua tuli 21 ja 26 prosenttia. Kolmen vuoden aikana sopimusvalmistajien tulot kasvavat näin lähes kaksinkertaiseksi.
Viime vuoden suurimmista sopimusvalmistajista yhdeksän on Aasiassa. Kahdentoista suurimman joukossa on vain yksi eurooppalainen foundry eli X-Fab. Kaksi muuta ei-aasialaista olivat Israelin Tower Semiconductor, jonka Intel ilmoitti juuri ostavansa sekä amerikkalainen GlobalFoundries.
Mielenkiintoinen on kiinalaisten sopimusvalmistajien kehitys. Viime vuonna kaikista sopimusvalmistetuista mikropiireistä 8,5 prosenttia valmistettiin Kiinassa, jossa SMIC on selvästi suurin yritys. Viime vuonna SMIC:n myynti kasvoi 39 prosenttia.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mullistava MEMS-kytkin lähtee maailmanvalloitukseen
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/13279-mullistava-mems-kytkin-laehtee-maailmanvalloitukseen
MEMS-pohjaisen RF-kytkimien IdealSwitch-tekniikan kehittänyt amerikkalainen Menlo Micro on saanut kasaan 150 miljoonan dollarin C-rahoituskierroksen. Lisärahan avulla yhtiö aikoo viedä globaalisti markkinoille kytkintekniikkansa, joka on pieni, nopea, luotettava, kestää ankaria olosuhteita ja kykenee kytkemään kilowatin tehoja.
Toimitusjohtaja Russ Garcian mukaan IdealSwitch-kytkimet tulevat mullistamaan yli sadan miljardin dollarin RF-kytkimien ja tehokytkimien markkinat. – Tekniikkamme on elektroniikkateollisuuden Graalin malja. Se tuo kaikki mekaanisten ja puolijohdekytkimien edut, ilman kompromisseja, Garcia hehkuttaa.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Datakeskuksen flash-tallennus ennätysnopeuteen
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/13282-datakeskuksen-flash-tallennus-ennaetysnopeuteen
Microchip kehuu Flashtec-ohjainperheen uutuutta markkinoiden nopeimmaksi. NVMe 4016 -ohjain siirtää PCIe5-väylän yli parhaimmillaan 14 gigatavua sekunnissa. Suorituskyky on yli 3 miljoonaa IOPS:ää.
NVMe 4016 on myös ensimmäinen PCIe Gen 5 -ohjain, joka esittelee PCIe-linkin salauksen tuen yhtenä monista ominaisuuksien parannuksista tässä uuden sukupolven Flashtec-ohjaimissa. Kaksoisallekirjoituksen todentamisen ja Trusted Platform -tuen ansiosta NVMe 4016 -ohjain täyttää kaikki kriittiset tallennus- ja yrityssovellusten tietoturvatarpeet.
Flashtec NVMe Gen 5 PCIe® Controller
https://www.microchip.com/en-us/products/storage/flashtec-nvme-controllers
Our fourth-generation Flashtec NVMe 4016 enterprise SSD controllers address the market demand for next-generation Solid-State Drives (SSDs), delivering throughput greater than 14 GB per second and over 3 million Input/Output Operations Per Second (IOPS), cloud-ready features and the security needed to create cutting-edge platforms.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.electronicdesign.com/blogs/article/21235705/electronic-design-electronic-design-blogs
Tomi Engdahl says:
Exclusive: Ukraine halts half of world’s neon output for chips
https://www.reuters.com/technology/exclusive-ukraine-halts-half-worlds-neon-output-chips-clouding-outlook-2022-03-11/
Ukraine’s two leading suppliers of neon, which produce about half the world’s supply of the key ingredient for making chips, have halted their operations as Moscow has sharpened its attack on the country, threatening to raise prices and aggravate the semiconductor shortage.
Tomi Engdahl says:
DUV: Deep Ultraviolet Lithography. Etching circuits at the nm. scale requires really, *really* short wavelengths (see: nyquest). https://sst.semiconductor-digest.com/2016/03/chipmakers-seek-solution-to-neon-gas-supply-shortage/
When many people think of neon, they think of brightly lighted signs used in restaurants and other retail environments. The element neon (Ne) gives a distinct reddish-orange glow when used in either low-voltage neon glow lamps or in high-voltage discharge tubes or neon advertising signs. The red emission line from neon is also responsible for the well known red light of helium–neon lasers. Neon is commercially extracted by the fractional distillation of liquid air. It is considerably more expensive than helium, since air is its only source.
What those outside the chip industry likely don’t know is that neon has been employed for semiconductor manufacturing for more than a decade, since deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography came into widespread use starting with 248nm exposure systems. Why is neon important in lithography? Excimer lasers use gases like krypton fluoride (KrF) and argon fluoride (ArF) to generate light, and those gases are regularly changed out during use. However, a charge of excimer laser gas is actually about 98 percent neon, making this carrier gas essential to the laser’s operation. Three main steps are involved in producing gas suitable for excimer laser use: (1) bulk neon production, (2) purification, and (3) final mix.
Today, the semiconductor industry is experiencing severe neon shortages, leading to price increases that are impacting end-users’ bottom line. As a result, fab owners are rushing to secure enough neon to keep their facilities in operation, including buying the critical gas on the cash market and then having it purified and mixed to allow them to put it into use as quickly as possible.
Neon is a byproduct of steel production, but because it is a rare component of the waste gases, it must be recovered at very large steel plants. The former Soviet Union manufactured all of its oxygen plants for steel mills with neon, krypton and xenon capabilities and formerly worked on high-powered lasers as weapons, giving rise to significant neon capacity. Ukraine and Russia still operate the old-style massive manufacturing plants that have long since disappeared from Western countries, and have thus historically enabled the gas to be in over-supply.
From 1990 to 2012, many of these eastern European plants simply sent the crude neon into the atmosphere as no one would buy it. This over-supply began to tighten in 2014, as many old oxygen plants in Eastern Europe were either replaced by newer units without neon capability or shutdown altogether, especially with the contraction of the steel industry.
Semiconductor-related lithography accounts for about 70 percent of worldwide neon demand. As mentioned earlier, an excimer laser uses a multi-gas mixture. The term “excimer” refers to the rare gas / halide molecule. Each fill is dedicated to the generation of a single wavelength. Four wavelengths can be generated from fluorine laser gas mixtures: 157 nm (F2), 193 nm (ArF), 248 nm (KrF) and 351 nm (XeF).
According to some reports, the price of neon gas skyrocketed in 2014, from roughly $1,000 for a 6,000-liter bottle of the gas, to approximately $6,000 for the same quantity as of late 2015. This is evident as seen in FIGURE 1, where the different colors represent the various global chipmakers. Neon gas, minerals, and the industry workhorse—silicon — are among the critical materials vital to semiconductor industry operations. The industry has had to deal with shortages in helium and rare earths in recent years, but was able to find at least temporary solutions.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Neon gas crisis threatens world’s chip supplies
https://techcentral.co.za/neon-gas-crisis-threatens-worlds-chip-supplies/208716/
Ukraine’s two leading suppliers of neon, which produce about half the world’s supply of the key ingredient for making chips, have halted their operations as Moscow has sharpened its attack on the country, threatening to raise prices and aggravate the semiconductor shortage.
Some 45-54% of the world’s semiconductor-grade neon, critical for the lasers used to make chips, comes from two Ukrainian companies, Ingas and Cryoin, based on figures from the companies and market research firm Techcet. Global neon consumption for chip production reached about 540 metric tons last year, Techcet estimates.
Both firms have shut their operations, according to company representatives, as Russian troops have escalated their attacks on cities throughout Ukraine, killing civilians and destroying key infrastructure.
The stoppage casts a cloud over the worldwide output of chips, already in short supply after the coronavirus pandemic drove up demand for cellphones, laptops and, later, cars, forcing some firms to scale back production.
While estimates vary widely about the amount of neon stocks chip makers keep on hand, production could take a hit if the conflict drags on, according to Angelo Zino, an analyst at CFRA.
“If stockpiles are depleted by April and chip makers don’t have orders locked up in other regions of the world, it likely means further constraints for the broader supply chain and inability to manufacture the end product for many key customers,” he said.
Before the invasion, Ingas produced 15 000 to 20 000 cubic metres of neon per month for customers in Taiwan, Korea, China, the US and Germany, with about 75% going to the chip industry, Nikolay Avdzhy, the company’s chief commercial officer, said in an e-mail.
The company is based in Mariupol, which has been under siege by Russian forces.
Cryoin, which produced roughly 10 000 to 15 000 cubic metres of neon per month, and is located in Odessa, halted operations on 24 February when the attacks began to keep employees safe, according to business development director Larissa Bondarenko.
Bondarenko said the company would be unable to fill orders for 13 000 cubic metres of neon in March unless the violence stopped. She said the company could weather at least three months with the plant closed, but warned that if equipment were damaged, that would prove a bigger drag on company finances and make it harder to restart operations quickly.
She also said she was unsure the company could access additional raw materials for making neon.
Ukrainian neon is a byproduct of Russian steel manufacturing. The gas, which is also used in laser eye surgery, is produced in China as well, but Chinese prices are rising steadily.
the price of neon gas (99.9% content) in China has quadrupled
Neon prices rose 600% in the run-up to Russia’s 2014 annexation of the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine, according to the US International Trade Commission.
Companies elsewhere could initiate neon production but it would take nine months to two years to ramp up
companies may be unwilling to invest in that process if the supply crunch is seen as temporary
Tomi Engdahl says:
How is neon used in semiconductors?
In semiconductor manufacturing, it is used for lithography. Because its wavelength is so short it can create patterns in the wafer chip down to 193 nanometres.
https://www.airproducts.co.uk/gases/neon
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://epsnews.com/2022/03/08/chip-materials-at-risk-as-russia-invades-ukraine/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Vertical MoS2 transistors with sub-1-nm gate lengths
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-04323-3
Ultra-scaled transistors are of interest in the development of next-generation electronic devices1,2,3. Although atomically thin molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) transistors have been reported4, the fabrication of devices with gate lengths below 1 nm has been challenging5. Here we demonstrate side-wall MoS2 transistors with an atomically thin channel and a physical gate length of sub-1 nm using the edge of a graphene layer as the gate electrode.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Here is what you need to know about how the war in Ukraine can impact the supply of #neon gas critical in #semiconductor manufacturing process.
Read the full article: http://arw.li/6189Kcaz1
#EDN #IndustryNews #Engineering #Ukraine #SupplyChain #manufacturing
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mike Matthews owner of Electro Harmonix says no more Russian vacuum tubes in 2022
Are vacuum tubes about to become more scarce?
https://www.gearnews.com/mike-matthews-owner-of-electro-harmonix-says-no-more-russian-vacuum-tubes-in-2022/
Due in part to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it looks like there could well be a worldwide shortage of vacuum tubes/valves. This would affect anyone looking to buy or use valve based music equipment.
Brands now affected by the export ban
Since the EHX family of tube brands includes: Tung-Sol, Electro-Harmonix, EH Gold, Genalex Gold Lion, Mullard, Svetlana and Sovtek, this could a bad year for manufacturers looking to build valve amps, and valve-based effects.
Russian Factory
Electro Harmonix bought a Russian factory that manufactured vacuum tubes in 1998 and since that date, it has had a relatively steady supply of tubes, with the odd bump in the road here and there.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How Much Longer Will It Take to Fix the Chip Shortage?
March 14, 2022
The global chip shortage is entering its second year, and there are a lot of variables complicating the recovery.
https://www.electronicdesign.com/markets/automotive/article/21235580/electronic-design-how-much-longer-will-it-take-to-fix-the-chip-shortage
The global chip shortage, now dragging into its second year, has shaken the electronics industry to its core, crimping the world’s ability to build everything from cars to consumer goods and raising prices.
Even companies that produce chips are themselves being hit—at least indirectly—by sourcing problems, adding to the upheaval facing the semiconductor industry as it attempts to solve the chip shortage.
Applied Materials, the world’s largest maker of the high-end machinery used to manufacture chips, said late last year it has been unable to get its hands on some of the chips used in its products due to snags in its supply chain. Demand for the analog, power and logic chips it uses is outstripping supply. This is exposing the company to some of the same supply chain issues affecting other areas, such as autos.
“That is the definition of a vicious cycle,” said Chris Richard, supply chain expert and principal analyst at Deloitte, where he covers the semiconductor market. “You can’t make more equipment to put in factories because you don’t have a chip that gets made in the same factory.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Staying a Step Ahead of the Global Chip Shortage
March 10, 2022
Engineering teams can take steps before and during the development process to ensure they’re in the best position to navigate a new era of supply-chain issues.
https://www.electronicdesign.com/technologies/embedded-revolution/article/21235575/electronic-design-staying-a-step-ahead-of-the-global-chip-shortage?utm_source=EG%20ED%20Analog%20%26%20Power%20Source&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CPS220301079&o_eid=7211D2691390C9R&rdx.ident%5Bpull%5D=omeda%7C7211D2691390C9R&oly_enc_id=7211D2691390C9R
An out-of-stock component can be the bane of even the best electronic design. As the chip shortage drags on into its second full year, access to electronic components has become a top challenge for engineers, and more challenges are likely ahead as everyone competes over a finite supply of chips.
But engineering teams can take steps before and during the development process to make sure they are in the best position possible to navigate this new era of supply-chain issues, industry experts said.
They said the path to solving component sourcing issues means working closely with both internal and external sourcing and manufacturing teams. When engineers select components and suppliers without input from procurement and sourcing departments, they can overlook more realistic options or end up scrambling for parts or rushing to onboard suppliers, which can add to costs or lead to product delays.
“Uncertainty and complexity are constants in business today. But global manufacturers have more control of managing their electronics sourcing risk than they may realize,” said Steve Flagg, CEO of Supplyframe, in a 2020 report. “Eighty percent of the lifetime risk and cost of a typical hardware product is decided during that product’s initial design. Companies need to examine what’s happening in the design phase because that’s where the disconnect often exists.”
Engineering teams also need to build more flexibility into their designs, industry experts said, making it easy to swap out scarce components with replacement parts without sacrificing product quality.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Building a Chiplet Ecosystem
March 10, 2022
The recently announced Universal Chiplet Interconnect Express standard, based on PCIe and CXL, will help simplify chip design.
https://www.electronicdesign.com/technologies/embedded-revolution/article/21235774/electronic-design-building-a-chiplet-ecosystem?utm_source=EG%20ED%20Analog%20%26%20Power%20Source&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CPS220302028&o_eid=7211D2691390C9R&rdx.ident%5Bpull%5D=omeda%7C7211D2691390C9R&oly_enc_id=7211D2691390C9R
What you’ll learn
What are chiplets?
What is the Universal Chiplet Interconnect Express (UCIe)?
Why UCIe matters.
Actually, a tiny PCB isn’t far from the truth as chiplets are essentially die that we mounted on a silicon interposer. Technologies like high bandwidth memory (HBM) are implemented using this technique since the memory and other logic are on separate dies. Check out our chip packaging video series for more details on chiplets and chip packaging in general. It also covers multichip modules (MCMs) and system-in-package (SIP). Our Path to Systems series addresses SIP design techniques and issues.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Tech Behind Apple’s M1 UltraFusion Chip Interconnect
By Anton Shilov published 4 days ago
TSMC’s CoWoS-S in action
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/apple-uses-cowos-s-to-build-m1-ultra
Building high-performance microprocessors is getting trickier and more expensive these days, which is why developers have to opt for sophisticated packaging technologies with designs aimed at performance-hungry applications. Apple admits that to make its M1 Ultra processor it had to fuse two M1 Max system-on-chips together, but what it didn’t say is that it had to use one of TSMC’s most advanced packaging technologies to build the M1 Ultra.
Fortunately, unofficial sources are less secretive than Apple and were able to unearth additional details about Apple’s UltraFusion interprocessor interconnection that offers bandwidth of 2.5 TB/s. DigiTimes reports that Apple’s M1 Ultra processor* used TSMC’s CoWoS-S (chip-on-wafer-on-substrate with silicon interposer) 2.5D interposer-based packaging process to build the M1 Ultra. Similar technologies are used by companies like AMD, Nvidia, and Fujitsu to build their high-performance processors for datacenters and high-performance computing (HPC).
Apple’s M1 Ultra is certainly a formidable design. Each M1 Max SoC feature a die size of 432 mm2, so the interposer that the M1 Ultra uses must be over 860 mm2. That’s rather massive but not unheard of. AMD and Nvidia use even bigger interposers with their compute GPUs featuring high-bandwidth memory.
Apple’s Spring Event pique: A not-so-unique chiplet ‘peek’
https://www.edn.com/apples-spring-event-pique-a-not-so-unique-chiplet-peek/
Tomi Engdahl says:
COVID digest: China’s Shenzhen goes into lockdown
https://amp.dw.com/en/covid-digest-chinas-shenzhen-goes-into-lockdown/a-61115243
Volkswagen, key Apple suppliers and other factories shut down their operations as China grapples with record COVID-19 cases. Meanwhile, France lifted restrictions.
The Chinese city of Shenzhen, with its population of 17 million, experienced its first full day under lockdown on Monday until March 20, following outbreaks of the highly transmissible omicron variant sweeping across the nation.
China has recorded more COVID-19 cases in 2022 than in the whole of 2021, official figures show. Mainland China reported 1,337 new domestically transmitted COVID-19 cases with confirmed symptoms on Sunday, the National Health Commission (NHC) said on Monday.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intel’s $20 bln Ohio factory could become world’s largest chip plant
https://lm.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.reuters.com%2Ftechnology%2Fintel-plans-new-chip-manufacturing-site-ohio-report-2022-01-21%2F&h=AT1aiQ5aDvlsXFTVoRyHd9ByTHDc1olhIV6VIA_kCf05Sov3kCcnxzGhEECoWODtX21OmrKQSeahdtfINefBNBvScwLahUm5ISabmIgpMNEPTfoC2CCcfvux–VeGKh9wGoA-V-JatkNk23DgQ
Intel Corp said on Friday it would invest up to $100 billion to build potentially the world’s largest chip-making complex in Ohio, looking to boost capacity as a global shortage of semiconductors affects everything from smartphones to cars.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/13303-intelin-xeon-d-tuli-sulautetulle-kortille
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/13308-arm-irtisanoo-jopa-tuhat-suunnittelijaa
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bloomberg:
Foxconn says it got approval to partially reopen two Shenzhen campuses, one of which makes iPhones, it closed on Monday
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-16/foxconn-partly-restarts-shenzhen-iphone-hub-hit-by-lockdowns
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intel is building a new €17 billion semiconductor manufacturing hub in Germany
Along with a €12 billion investment to expand its existing fab in Ireland
https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/15/22978954/intel-semiconductor-manufacturing-hub-germany-fab-europe-investment
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.theverge.com/2021/7/26/22594074/intel-acclerated-new-architecture-roadmap-naming-7nm-2025
Tomi Engdahl says:
How Much Longer Will It Take to Fix the Chip Shortage?
March 14, 2022
The global chip shortage is entering its second year, and there are a lot of variables complicating the recovery.
https://www.electronicdesign.com/markets/automotive/article/21235580/electronic-design-how-much-longer-will-it-take-to-fix-the-chip-shortage?utm_source=EG%20ED%20Analog%20%26%20Power%20Source&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CPS220303015&o_eid=7211D2691390C9R&rdx.ident%5Bpull%5D=omeda%7C7211D2691390C9R&oly_enc_id=7211D2691390C9R
The global chip shortage, now dragging into its second year, has shaken the electronics industry to its core, crimping the world’s ability to build everything from cars to consumer goods and raising prices.
Even companies that produce chips are themselves being hit—at least indirectly—by sourcing problems, adding to the upheaval facing the semiconductor industry as it attempts to solve the chip shortage.
Applied Materials, the world’s largest maker of the high-end machinery used to manufacture chips, said late last year it has been unable to get its hands on some of the chips used in its products due to snags in its supply chain. Demand for the analog, power and logic chips it uses is outstripping supply. This is exposing the company to some of the same supply chain issues affecting other areas, such as autos.
“That is the definition of a vicious cycle,” said Chris Richard, supply chain expert and principal analyst at Deloitte, where he covers the semiconductor market. “You can’t make more equipment to put in factories because you don’t have a chip that gets made in the same factory.”
The chip shortage is complicated even more by the fact that electronic devices use a very wide range of components that have varying levels of availability, Richard stated. It only takes a single part on a bill of materials (BOM) being out of stock or on allocation to halt production. At Applied Materials, executives said that out of the thousands of components used in its tools only 10 were giving its suppliers trouble.
Part of the problem is that semiconductor equipment makers are fighting over the same finite supply of chips as companies in other sectors. The reality is that no one is getting their hands on ample supplies.
Where Do Things Stand?
The chip industry is cyclical, driven by fluctuating demand for chips used in consumer goods and other sectors that follows the ebb and flow of the economy, with the market swinging from gluts to shortages.
But the pandemic sent a shock through every part of the semiconductor ecosystem when it hit in 2020.
The virus shut down factories where chips are made, packaged, and tested. It also took a toll on other parts of the supply chain, such as sourcing silicon wafers, substrates, and other raw materials, straining supplies. The complex logistics that companies use to move chips around the globe and ship finished stock to customers was also hit, leading to tighter inventories that companies are at pains to replenish.
“We aren’t even close to being out of the woods,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in January. “The semiconductor supply chain is very fragile and it’s going to remain that way until we can increase chip manufacturing.”
In January, the U.S. Department of Commerce released a report using survey results from over 150 U.S. companies, including nearly every major chip maker as well as automotive, industrial, and medical firms that have been hit hard. The report noted that median inventory levels of chips at U.S. companies fell from 40 days in 2019 to five days in 2021, leaving them exposed to even the slightest extra disruption.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3 Ways 3D Chip Tech Is Upending Computing AMD, Graphcore, and Intel show why the industry’s leading edge is going vertical
https://spectrum.ieee.org/amd-3d-stacking-intel-graphcore?share_id=6955119
A crop of high-performance processors is showing that the new direction for continuing Moore’s Law is all about up. Each generation of processor needs to perform better than the last, and, at its most basic, that means integrating more logic onto the silicon. But there are two problems: One is that our ability to shrink transistors and the logic and memory blocks they make up is slowing down. The other is that chips have reached their size limits. Photolithography tools can pattern only an area of about 850 square millimeters, which is about the size of a top-of-the-line Nvidia GPU.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Stop saying Open Source when it’s not. The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently affirmed a lower court decision concluding what we’ve always known: that it’s false advertising to claim that software is “open source” when it’s not licensed under an open-source license.
Court affirms it’s false advertising to claim software is Open Source when it’s not
https://opensource.org/court-affirms-its-false-advertising-to-claim-software-is-open-source-when-its-not
This “Swedish license” was simply the combination of the Affero General Public License with an additional restriction known as the Commons Clause. The defendants forked the software, renamed it “Open Native Graph Database” (ONgDB), and started distributing their version as AGPLv3-only licensed. They advertised ONgDB as “free and open source,” “100% free and open,” and “100% open source.”
The parties didn’t dispute that the use of the Commons Clause makes a license non-free. There was also no allegation that Neo4j had claimed that its software under the AGPLv3 + Commons Clause was open source. However, the court held that it was improper for the defendants to remove the Commons Clause, and therefore the defendants’ claims in advertising that its ONgDB software was open source was false advertising.
For a false advertising claim, there must be a false statement in commercial advertising and the statement must be deceptive in a material way. The trial court held that characterizing software that was under the Commons Clause as “free and open source” was false. This deception was also material: “Because Defendants misrepresented ONgDB as a free version of Neo4j EE licensed under the APGLv3, there is no doubt that this price differential (free versus paid) was likely to influence customers’ purchasing decisions. Thus, the Court finds that Defendants’ statements suggesting that customers could obtain a ‘free and open source drop in replacement’ for Neo4j EE were material.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.iltalehti.fi/digiuutiset/a/56a08fbf-eeee-4787-a642-ca60caf7a37b#Echobox=1647626814
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://help.minecraft.net/hc/en-us/articles/4403181904525-How-to-Migrate-Your-Mojang-Account-to-a-Microsoft-Account
Tomi Engdahl says:
Avnet’s Insights Into the Chip Shortage
Avnet conducted a survey of engineers around the world regarding the current chip shortage
https://www.hackster.io/news/avnet-s-insights-into-the-chip-shortage-2a0ae66ec143