Technology and Trends

The semiconductor industry is in the final throes of its most recent cyclical downturn, but clear demand drivers on the horizon, such as 5G and autonomous driving, have created a decidedly upbeat mood at SEMI’s Strategic Materials Conference, held this week in San Jose, California. Increased connectivity in daily lives will not only dramatically boost semiconductor volumes, but the physical challenges of improving chip performance have positioned materials as the key enabling technology of the fourth industrial revolution – creating opportunities for suppliers to capture significant value. Most speakers were quick to underscore the importance of materials innovation. According to Dave Anderson, president of SEMI Americas, “We are entering the era of the material scientist,” and the role of materials in semiconductor manufacturing “has never been more important.” Carlos Diaz, senior director, corporate research at foundry major TSMC, said that the future “belongs to new materials and processes,” while Bertrand Loy, president and CEO, Entegris, told attendees the world is on the brink of the fourth industrial revolution, where technology will be fusing “physical, digital, and biological worlds and transforming our collective lives.” Len Jelinek, senior director/semiconductor manufacturing, IHS Markit, noted that 2019 has been a challenging year for semiconductor revenue – expectations are for a 12.5% decline YOY – but said he is not forecasting “doom and gloom” because of positive consumer demand trends beyond 2019. These include the rollout of 5G networks, internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and autonomous vehicles. Jelinek emphasized the foundational impact of 5G in particular. “Don’t think of 5G’s impact only in terms of handsets. It’s an enabling technology that will have broad-based impact” and will be key to creating a sustainable recovery in semiconductor demand in the second half of 2020. The current semiconductor downturn – the industry’s 10th – was initiated by an imbalance in memory supply and demand, and the lack of resolution of trade issues between China and the US is threatening to amplify volatility. Smartphones, the number-one application for semiconductors, are currently challenged by extended replacement cycles, and total handset shipments are set for its second year of decline. “We, as consumers, are waiting for revolutionary features such as 5G speeds, biometrics, foldable handsets and AI capabilities,” Jelinek says. Recent iterations have been merely evolutionary, and premium handset costs have escalated, he adds. Automotive electronics, which account for about 10% of global semiconductor demand, will eke out slight growth in 2019, Jelinek says. “Long-term semi component revenue growth within the Auto segment will focus on increasing content within cars supporting advanced safety features.” During his session, Duncan Meldrum, chief economist and founder of Hilltop Economics, addressed recent threats of a recession. “Underlying economic fundamentals are strong, but we are at that point in the business cycle where it doesn’t take much to knock the economy into recession,” he says. “I am telling people to have a contingency plan in place.” Nevertheless, Meldrum laid out reasons for optimism. Most economies have plenty of jobs, and consumers have been confident despite negative headlines. “For the average person, a tariff trade war gets to be noise. If they don’t see immediate impact, they tend to eventually discount all the headline noise. The same goes for Washington politics or Brexit.” There are no serious signs of inflation pressures in the US or other major economies, he adds. Beyond the cycleLonger-term, explosive growth in connected devices will create a runway for semiconductor volume growth. According to SEMI, over 30 billion devices are currently connected and another 200 million are added daily. By 2020, the number of connected devices will reach 1 trillion. “The growth profile for industry will be very strong and a multiplicity of drivers will bring more stability to this industry,” Loy adds. “But before this future becomes a reality we have a lot of work to do.” Current chips need to be faster and cheaper. “Physical scaling is not going to get us there, we’ve hit those limits,” Loy adds. “We have to look at new architectures and materials.” Loy called on the materials sector to need to “up our game” and spend more on R D. “Customers want us to make our products in very tight process window and ship to control. They want extreme purity for everything. It’s a long list of to-dos and it’s going to cost us a lot,” he adds. Among the needed innovations are photoresist hard masks to hand high aspect ratio, new etch chemistries for better rates and higher selectivity, and new cleaning chemistries for high aspect ratio geometry with high selectivity.Loy also identified contamination control as a key challenge for material suppliers. “When you think about purity and contaminants, you need to think about size, concentration levels, and classes. To optimize yields and lower wafer defectivity, our customers expect materials to be very pure and exhibit low variability.” The payoff for customers is large; a 1% yield improvement can mean $150 million in annual net profit for a leading-edge logic fab, Loy says. For a 3D NAND fab, that figure can be around $110 million per year. But these requirements are getting exponentially tighter. From 28 to 7 nm, the metal impurity concentration limit became 1,000 times lower, Loy notes. Contamination control is even more vital when the potential impacts of latent defects – which are difficult to detect in a fab and during electrical testing – are considered, particularly in emerging applications like autonomous driving, Loy says. “The cost of yield loss is expensive, but failure in a critical optical sensor of a car could be significantly greater, in terms of recalls or even human loss of life.” To meet tightening purity requirements, Loy recommends throwing out traditional thinking about contamination control. “In the past, we could get away with simple filtrations,” he says. “That’s no longer going to work. We need to collectively, up and down the supply chain, migrate to better filtration and purification and also rethink chemical delivery systems and packaging solutions to preserve the integrity of our products.”Metrology will also be key, but analytical capability is lagging. “We all like to believe that we cannot control what we cannot see, but that is exactly what we have to do.” The need for innovation is also being felt at the wafer level. Kevin Light, director, Applications Technology Americas at Siltronic Corp., said that as semiconductor markets become more diversified, silicon suppliers must recognize the distinct challenges each segment faces. Better wafer properties are required for next-generation chips, he adds. “Excessive wafer geometry can cause errors during lithography, especially when printing even smaller linewidths,” he says. The end result can be defocus and placement errors. When dealing with “More than Moore” architectures, wafer requirements are driven by other factors than defects. “More than Moore applications do not benefit from scaling, but instead drive capabilities of separate silicon parameters,” Light says. “In some cases you need high doping, in others the doping needs to be precise.” Czochralski crystal growth is suitable for high dopant levels, but the concentrations vary at the top and bottom of the ingot. Float Zone crystals avoid oxygen incorporation and provide consistent doping. These variations make Czochralski process suitable for PowerMOS, and Float Zone appropriate for IGBT. Compound semiconductor layers, such as GaN-on-Si, offer potential advantages owing to higher switching speeds and critical breakdown fields, he adds. “Silicon wafer requirements are diversifying as the devices themselves find increasing use outside of traditional logic,” Light adds. “Moore’s law is alive and next-gen computing will continue to push the limits of flatness and cleanliness. Meanwhile, demands of energy efficiency, electrification, IoT, and 5G drive wafer requirements other than scaling, including extremely high doped or ultra-low oxygen growing techniques, high lifetimes, and substrates engineered for compounds semiconductors.” Driverless futureAutonomous driving was a frequent discussion topic at SMC. Although IHS Markit does not see it really rolling out until past 2025, the disruption to the auto industry’s status quo is very much being felt now. Dragos Maciuca, executive technical director, Palo Alto Research and Innovation Center at Ford Motor Company, says cars of the future will be autonomous, connected, electrified, and shared. “The biggest transformation will be the shift from mechanical hardware to software,” he says. “Currently [a car] is a mechanical thing that has some electronics. Going forward, it will be a software-driven system that happens to control some mechanical elements.” The transition is already way under way, so much so that autonomous technology developed for the automotive industry is already being spun off into other sectors, such as mining and agriculture, and the auto industry’s competitive landscape is already seeing changes. OEMs and carmakers are entering the market from the traditional auto industry side, while companies such as Google are participating from the software side. “Others, like Uber and Lyft, are coming in from the business plan point of view to eliminate drivers and improve margins,” Maciuca adds. Autonomous driving will require numerous innovations, many of which will require new electronic materials and production processes. “We need weight savings, space savings, and advanced architecture,” Maciuca says. “We also need customization to print circuits as the vehicle comes down the line.” The tech community is proving up to the task. For LIDAR, there were just two technologies available a few years ago, he adds. The impact on chipmakers is also already being felt. “The automotive industry used to buy older chips,” Maciuca says. “Now we are moving to a stage where we need the very first chips at the most advanced node. And we are using them for safety-critical operations. If an AI chip that is supposed to detect a human fails, the consequences can be very severe.”Rebecca Coons is a senior editor at Chemical Week. Republished with permission from Chemical Week.The SEMI Electronic Materials Group (SEMI EMG) is the backbone of the Strategic Materials Conference. EMG is a technology community representing SEMI member companies that provide substrates, polymers, metals, organic and inorganic materials, chemicals, and gases that are developed or in use for the manufacturing of electronics. The group is open to SEMI Members involved in materials manufacture, distribution, and services throughout the microelectronics industry. For more details, please visit the website.

For many technologies, standards unshackle them from patents and enable their mass production – an idea close to the heart of Wendy Chen, associate vice president of the R D Center at King Yuan Electronics Corp. and vice chair of the SEMI Taiwan Test Committee. More importantly, standards are crucial to a product’s commercial success: Producing it in high volume reduces its price and helps drive widespread adoption.With standards part and parcel to the economies of manufacturing , SEMI has sought consensus over the years among key players in materials, equipment, and other manufacturing segments on the importance of standardization in a push to cut costs.Chen first set herself to work on SEMI standards development in 2010, when 74 percent of 3D IC patents were owned by IBM. At the time, SEMI saw the huge potential in 3D IC and believed the lack of technology standards might hamper the future of the semiconductor industry.Motivated by that conviction, SEMI established the 3DS-IC Standard Committee in the U.S. in July 2010 and the SEMI Taiwan 3DS-IC Standard Committee the following year, and before long the committees were working together to form standards targeting mass production at low cost. The Taiwan committee was co-chaired by Wendy Chen, Dr. Yi-shao Lai (Advanced Semiconductor Engineering), and Dr. Zhi-kun Gu (Industrial Technology Research Institute). The trio spearheaded 3DS-IC standard development efforts in Taiwan.In setting the 3DS-IC standards, SEMI put the needs of the manufacturing sector first, Chen says, to ensure their implementation throughout the supply chain. SEMI saw Taiwan’s development of 3D IC standards, coupled with its manufacturing prowess, as key to securing the region’s place in the global 3D IC market.Wide Range of Industries Prosper With SEMI StandardsOf course the influence of SEMI Standards extends well beyond 3D IC to include protocols for hardware and software communication, traceability, compound semiconductors, facilities, MEMS (micro-electromechanical systems), metrics, silicon wafers, carriers and automation systems. The standards are used in a broad range of manufacturing segments including panel display, photovoltaic, PCB and high brightness LED.As recently as last February, SEMI Taiwan formed a PCBECI (PCB equipment communication interface) equipment networking pilot team to build a solid foundation for smart PCB manufacturing in the region. The team combined the SECS (SEMI equipment communication standard) and GEM (generic equipment model) interfaces to create the PCBECI protocol.Security Standards Vital in Smart ManufacturingWith smart manufacturing’s aim to drive new efficiencies comes growing security concerns in the global microelectronics industry. Improving communication within a manufacturing facility, and between that facility and trusted suppliers or partners, is central to the success of smart manufacturing. To improve communications, the conduits for the flow of information must first be secure. SEMI Taiwan is answering this critical need by creating a task force to promote information security standards – an effort that will give Taiwan a powerful voice in the development of global standards.For Taiwan, SEMI Standards is the backbone of a thriving semiconductor manufacturing industry. As many as 25 SEMI Standards are cited in a purchase order for a piece of semiconductor processing equipment, and standards helped propel Taiwan’s rise as global semiconductor manufacturing power. The region has produced a staggering 2.2 billion wafers and 1.8 trillion IC devices.Taiwan on Track to Become World’s Largest Equipment MarketTaiwan’s semiconductor industry continues to gather strength. According to the SEMI 2019 Mid-Year Total Equipment Forecast, Taiwan will dethrone Korea as the largest equipment market and lead the world with 21.1 percent growth this year.Since Wendy Chen started her work on standards in 2010, SEMI has published about 200 protocols. As part of the SEMI Taiwan Test Committee, she joined the celebration for another milestone – the publication of the 1,000th SEMI International Standard in July. The corks of the champagne bottles popped nearly a half century after SEMI began developing standards to accelerate innovation and help power what today is the $2 trillion global electronics industry.And with Taiwan’s rise to the top of equipment market, it has good reason to cheer too. Emmy Yi is a marketing specialist at SEMI Taiwan.

The combination of state-of-the-art semiconductor devices and upcoming manufacturing technologies for cost-effective processing of flexible film substrates has paved the way for a large variety of new applications in the emerging Flexible Hybrid Electronics (FHE).SEMI spoke with Professor Christoph Kutter, executive director, Fraunhofer EMFT, about current FHE technologies and market opportunities ahead of the Get Started with Flexible Hybrid Electronics workshop organized by Fraunhofer EMFT and supported by SEMI, 15 October, 2019, in Munich, Germany. To register for the event, click here.SEMI: Recent developments in thin semiconductors, new materials and cost-effective processing techniques have opened the door to a plurality of new applications and future products. What are the most innovative integration approaches?Kutter: Most interesting is the hybrid integration approach – the combination of most modern printing technologies and lithographically defined semi-additive copper wiring systems with state-of-the-art semiconductor components. Combining these best-of-breed technologies enables low-cost and high-volume printing but also ultra-low power electronics, which is important for every wireless device without or with limited power supply.SEMI: Integrating sensors, integrated circuits (IC), displays, antennas and communication devices on film substrates enables extremely thin and bendable form factors for applications where existing board-level technologies fall short. What are the key enabler technologies?Kutter: Key enabling technologies are fabrication of high-performance wiring patterns, integration of ultra-thin bare dies/components and ongoing advancements in roll-to-roll processing of film substrates. Besides the manufacturing technologies, materials such as electronic inks, substrates, isolation and passivation layers play a key role.SEMI: Are you currently working and experimenting on something particularly exciting?Kutter: We are in the process of developing an adaptive roll-to-roll direct imaging system that analyzes the position of the components manufactured before adaptive lithography steps are carried out in real time. We think that this concept will open up completely new processing possibilities for us. The technical infrastructure making this development possible is funded within the framework of the Research Fab Microelectronics Germany (FMD), the largest cross-site R D cooperation for microelectronics and nanoelectronics in Europe.SEMI: Can you share some details about the Fraunhofer EMFT roadmap?Kutter: Fraunhofer will push the hybrid integration – for example, combining printing technologies with high-performance CMOS – since we are convinced that hybrid integration is the only way to offer low-power systems for IoT with the highest performance and at the lowest cost. For this purpose, we are currently setting up a roll-to-roll die bond and component assembly machine.SEMI: What are your expectations for the future of flexible electronics and why would you recommend attending the workshop in Munich?Kutter: Flexible hybrid integration is becoming more important and offers the best of both worlds: mass volume printing technologies integrated with high performance ultra-low power electronics. You will see many examples of hybrid integration approaches during the workshop. This is a very important opportunity to highlight the latest developments in the semiconductor industry. Researchers, market analysts, material and product developers, and equipment suppliers will gather to provide insights into the latest flexible hybrid electronics innovations. We are particularly proud to organize this platform with SEMI and FlexTech Alliance.Agenda - Get Started with Flexible Hybrid ElectronicsLocation: Fraunhofer EMFT, Hansastrasse 27d, 80686 Munich, GermanyConference Chair: Prof. Dr. Christoph KutterENTRANCE Fees: 150 € VAT excl.Contact: [email protected] Prof. Dr. Christoph Kutter is the director of the Fraunhofer EMFT, focusing on sensing technologies based on silicon electronics and flexible hybrid integration technologies.Kutter completed his physics studies at TU Munich. In 1995, he earned his doctorate in physics at the University of Konstanz. Serena Brischetto is a marketing and communications manager at SEMI Europe.

The evolution of industrial and non-industrial automation, smart manufacturing, and Industry 4.0 technologies have increased demand for vision systems that support robust, reliable imaging industrial applications. What factors are driving growth in the machine vision market today?SEMI spoke with Frederic Laune, Business Manager, European Technology, Corning, about how Corning® Varioptic® Lenses are vital to advancing the speed, efficiency, and integration of products using computer imaging. Laune shared his views ahead of his presentation at SEMI MEMS Imaging Sensors Summit, 25-27 September, 2019, at the WTC in Grenoble, France. Join us at the event to meet Corning and many other key industry influencing players. Registration is open.SEMI: Corning's markets include optical communications, mobile consumer electronics, display technology, automotive, and life sciences vessels. Back in June 2019, Corning Incorporated announced that it had delivered its 2 millionth Corning® Varioptic® Lens for industrial applications. What drove this great milestone?Laune: This milestone was met thanks to the fact that Corning Varioptic’s solution solves several problems generated by classical motorized solutions used in industrial applications: limited number of actuation cycles, poor vibration and shock resistance, size (meaning bulky), and high-power consumption. Before Varioptic, there was no variable focus solution that worked well.In addition, the explosion of the CMOS sensor technology helped drive down the cost of imaging solutions for industrial devices, increasing the number of applications and shipping volumes.SEMI: What inspired Corning Varioptic Lenses?Laune: Varioptic was started in 2002 by Dr. Bruno Berge, a French physicist turned entrepreneur. Inspired by the work of Gabriel Lippmann, the 1908 Nobel Prize winner for the invention of color photography, Dr. Berge explored the shape-altering effects of an electric charge when applied to two liquids, a phenomenon referred to as electrowetting. His research ultimately led to the creation of liquid lenses.Fast forward to 2017, when Varioptic became a part of Corning through an acquisition that included Varioptic and Invenios technologies. We believe the synergies from this acquisition will lead to exciting new liquid lens application opportunities that align with Corning’s growth strategy and core capabilities. Corning is one of the world’s leading innovators in materials science. For more than 165 years, Corning has applied its unparalleled expertise in glass science, ceramic science, and optical physics to develop products that transform industries and enhance people’s lives.SEMI: What differentiates traditional camera systems from adjustable lens solutions?Laune: Traditional industrial cameras are usually fixed focus, meaning that the image is sharp only in a limited distance range. Unlike consumer camera applications, there were no good solutions for variable or auto focus cameras in the industrial space. This is due to the intrinsic limitations of motorized technologies.Therefore, customers were using, for example, several cameras to focus at several distances. This compromises the optical quality by closing the objective in order to increase the depth of field, therefore limiting resolution and leading to a need for more light.The cameras using Corning Varioptic’s technology offer more functionality with their ability to focus, whatever the distance, in a fast, reliable, and accurate fashion, and with lower power consumption than traditional mechanical solutions. The upshot is that the product that can withstand heat, vibration, mechanical shocks, and high numbers of focus cycles in tough industrial environments. SEMI: And how is electrowetting enabling industrial devices to capture images and process information quickly and clearly? Laune: In two words: fast and accurate.Electrowetting has unique features – with our two-liquid solution, we combine fast focus with high vibration and shock resistance, and the added benefit of low power consumption.What’s more, our programmable lens can be reconfigured on demand. The lens adapts rapidly and continuously from diverging to converging and can be modeled to support demanding variable focus applications. Our lenses can change their focus in milliseconds, similar to the human eye, and capture fast-moving objects at varying distances. The use of liquid, over mechanical solutions, allows us to create a small form factor, saving precious space and reducing power consumption.SEMI: What industrial applications are taking advantage of this technology? Can you name one example?Laune: 2D barcode readers and industrial vision are our main markets. There is also a strong adoption of our technology in medical applications.SEMI: What does the rise of machine vision mean for manufacturers? Give us one prediction about the opportunities offered by advanced imaging applications.Laune: A great example is the use of 2D barcode readers and liquid lenses to track your ecommerce order, point to point. Another example is full product traceability by implementing a 2D barcode on every component of a given product globally to improve product quality. The varying and adjustable focus abilities of our liquid lens technology make it possible for barcode scanners to track products of different heights, allowing manufactures to improve their processes and logistics.Beyond these examples, tracking and analyzing are booming, thanks to the combination of low-cost CMOS sensor technology, increasing processing power, innovative algorithms (deep learning, AI, neuromorphic processors, etc.), and better image quality due to the progress of lens technology, Varioptic being one.We see an opportunity to improve people’s lives, such as enabling better analysis of medical images and improving the use of cameras in biomedical technologies.SEMI: Quality inspection and automation, adoption of Industrial 4.0 technologies, government initiatives. If you were to choose one, what main factor will drive growth in the machine vision market?Laune: It is difficult to pick just one. I believe that full traceability (monitoring individual parts throughout the production process) has interesting implications as compliance and regulatory efforts ramp up and stronger security of goods becomes more important, particularly as consumers become engaged in food safety and tracing products throughout the supply chain.SEMI: What are your expectations for the SEMI MEMS Imaging Sensors Summit and why would you invite your peers to attend? Laune: I strongly believe in the power of human interactions in technology and science! Ideas come from discussions and physical interactions. The SEMI MEMS Imaging Sensors Summit is a great place to network, meet people, and think about the future! Frederic Laune is the business manager leading the Corning® Varioptic® Lenses business. Laune joined Varioptic as an R D engineer in 2003 after spending the first eight years of his career developing novel active components for the optical telecom industry. At the time, Varioptic was a newly created start-up aiming to develop liquid lens technology for industrial applications. After designing the first two Varioptic commercial products, the Arctic 320 and Artic 416, Laune stepped up as head of Varioptic’s R D department to focus on product and performance improvements. In 2010, he was appointed sales and marketing lead for the company. Varioptic was acquired by Corning Incorporated in early 2017. Laune received a master’s degree in physics and optics from University Pierre and Marie Curie (Paris) in 1995.Serena Brischetto is a marketing and communications manager at SEMI Europe.

Since the beginning of the year, there’s been a steady stream of excellent news around Samsung Foundry’s 28FDS, their highly successful 28nm FD-SOI offering. Let’s take a look at what’s been happening, as things do seem to be accelerating. By way of reminder, they announced the industry’s first eMRAM (embedded MagnetoResistive RAM) testchip tape-out milestone on 28FDS in September 2017 (you can read the press release here) - which was just a year after they had announced mass production of 28FDS process technology.At the end of 2018, Arm announced the industry’s first Embedded MRAM (eMRAM) compiler IP built on Samsung Foundry’s 28FDS process technology. Follow that with this announcement at the beginning of 2019: Soitec Expands Collaboration with Samsung Foundry on FD-SOI Wafer Supply. The two companies announced that Samsung had secured a high-volume supply of FD-SOI technology to meet industry's current and future demands especially in consumer, IoT and automotive applications. In March came two more big announcements. First: Samsung Electronics Starts Commercial Shipment of eMRAM Product Based on 28nm FD-SOI Process. As they noted in the PR, “Samsung’s 28FDS-based eMRAM solution offers unprecedented power and speed advantages with lower cost. Since eMRAM does not require an erase cycle before writing data, its writing speed is approximately a thousand times faster than eFlash. Also, eMRAM uses lower voltages than eFlash, and does not consume electric power when in power-off mode, resulting in great power efficiency.”Hard on the heals of that came the news that Arm and Samsung Announce IP Platform including eMRAM for 18nm FD-SOI. At the SOI Consortium’s Silicon Valley Symposium in April, Tim Dry (he’s Samsung’s Director of Foundry Marketing for Edge and End Point), gave a terrific presentation. Entitled Samsung’s FDS with MRAM: Enabling Today’s Innovative Low Power Endpoint Products, it details the company’s FDSOI roadmap for the IoT Endpoint Platform (and yes, you can download in its entirety). Then in May at the big Samsung Foundry Forum in Silicon Valley, Arm, in collaboration with Samsung Foundry, Cadence, and Sondrel, demonstrated the first 28nm FD-SOI eMRAM IoT test chip and development board. The Musca-S1 test chip demonstrates a new choice in SoC design for IoT solutions, said Arm. (Sondrel, btw, is Europe's largest independent IC design consultancy.)In parallel, Cadence announced: Cadence Custom/AMS Flow Certified for Samsung 28nm FD-SOI Process Technology. Especially aimed at digitally-assisted analog designs, what’s new here is that the Cadence custom and analog/mixed-signal IC design flow is now Samsung Foundry certified for 28FDS. Samsung’s 28FDS PDK techfile is Mixed-Signal OpenAccess ready, enabling customers to deploy OpenAccess-integrated, fully interoperable Virtuoso-Innovus implementation flows. For its part, at its Foundry Forum, Samsung unveiled extensions of the company’s FD-SOI (FDS) process and eMRAM together with an expanded set of state-of-the-art package solutions. They indicated that the development of the successor to the 28FDS process, 18FDS, and eMRAM with 1Gb capacity will be finished this year.And finally, companies like NXP are shipping exciting new products fabbed on Samsung’s 28FDS. Ron Martino, VP GM of NXP’s i.MX Application Processor Product Line covered key products in his presentation at the SOI Consortium’s Silicon Valley Symposium (see our coverage here). Among them: the i.MX7ULP for long battery life with 2D 3D graphics for wearables and portables in consumer and industrial applications; the i.MX 8 and 8X subsystems for automotive and industrial applications; and the i.MX RT series of “cross-over” processors. The i.MX RT ULP (real-time, ultra-low-power) series, which Martino says is the “new normal”, deals with a high number of sensor inputs. The i.MX RT 1100 MCUs, which have been qualified for automotive and industrial applications, are breaking the gigahertz performance barrier.In July, linuxgizmos.com reported that, “In June, NXP began volume shipments of its super power-efficient i.MX7 ULP, which it announced in 2017. The SoC is billed as the most power-efficient processor on the market that also includes a 3D GPU. […] the ULP version includes a 3D graphics capable Vivante GC7000.” (Vivante, btw, is a VeriSilicon company, which is an SOI Consortium member and a leading proponent of FD-SOI design and IP in China and worldwide.) This is leading to some really nice wins for NXP. For example, they’ve got Amazon's Alexa Voice Service (AVS) leveraging the i.MX RT crossover processor, enabling developers to quickly and easily add Alexa voice assistant capabilities to their products. The RT series has rapidly been expanded, with versions for voice-controlled devices and offline face and expression recognition capabilities for smart home, commercial and industrial devices.Also announced this summer: NXP and Microsoft Bring Microsoft Azure Sphere Security to the Intelligent Edge with a New Energy-Efficient Processor. That collaboration includes development of a new crossover applications processor in NXP’s i.MX 8 series integrating Microsoft’s Azure Sphere security architecture and Pluton Security Subsystem. Their customers “will be able to harness the high-performance and energy efficiency of NXP’s i.MX 8 applications processors combined with Microsoft’s unequaled security and assurance provided by Azure Sphere certified chips”. As Martino concluded in his presentation, “The future of embedded processing [is] enabled by FD-SOI.” And Samsung Foundry’s FD-SOI offerings are clearly a massive enabler of that future.

John Smee, VP Engineering, Qualcomm Technologies Inc., will share insights on 5G – which is evolving to enable more reliable connectivity with higher performance in and beyond the era of Internet of Things (IoT) – in his keynote at MEMS Sensors Executive Congress, October 22-24, 2019, in Coronado, Calif.SEMI’s Maria Vetrano caught up with John to give MSEC attendees a preview of his talk.SEMI: Why should MEMS and sensors suppliers stand up and take note of the evolution in 5G, particularly 5G NR?Smee: 5G is the unifying fabric that will connect virtually everything around us. 5G New Radio (NR) is the global standard for a unified, more capable 5G wireless air interface. It will deliver significantly faster and more responsive mobile broadband experiences to users. It will also extend mobile technology to connect and redefine a multitude of new industries, including the IoT.As tens of millions of MEMS and sensors are the core components providing intelligence and interactivity to IoT devices, suppliers need to understand the capabilities and efficiencies that 5G will bring to connect the wide range of MEMS and sensors.We should also recognize that we are at the beginning of the 5G era, and 5G technologies will continue to evolve and expand in the coming years to connect new types of devices in increasingly efficient ways.SEMI: What’s special about the upcoming release of 5G NR, 3GPP Rel-16?Smee: While the first 5G NR release, 3GPP Rel-15, focused primarily on enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), it also established a solid technology foundation for continued evolution in Rel-16 and beyond.With Rel-16, we are seeing 5G NR’s expansion beyond eMBB to address new tiers of IoT services such as industrial IoT (e.g., automation) with ultra-reliable, low-latency communication (URLLC) and cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) for more advanced use cases, such as autonomous driving. MEMS and sensors are critically important to both types of use cases as they collect the raw information of the physical world, and 5G is the connectivity of these sensors to the network. This makes the technologies inextricably linked.MEMS and sensors are equally integral to the development of more efficient low-complexity massive IoT devices (MIoT) with in-band 5G NR deployments of enhanced machine-type communication (eMTC)/narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) and the use of the new 5G Core Network. In practical terms, devices that enable smart city use cases – such as smart utility monitoring, connected parking meters, and smart street lighting solutions that support 3GPP Rel-16 – are MIoT devices that will delight city administrators and dwellers with their improved coverage and efficiency. SEMI: In addition to low-complexity MIoT devices, what other markets will benefit most from the evolution in 5G NR?Smee: We continue to enhance 5G NR to support the high-performance IoT, including URLLC.URLLC is one of the many new 5G capabilities that wasn’t possible with the previous generation of cellular technologies, such as LTE. Because it delivers services at very high reliability (i.e., 99.9999%) and ultra-low latency (i.e., sub-1ms), URLLC literally opens up new use cases that that only wired communication could serve in the past. Industrial IoT applications that require a mix of high reliability and low latency, such as robotic arm command and control, are foremost among these new URLLC use cases.Another example of IoT taking advantage of URLLC is smart grid, where faults in the electricity distribution network require immediate protection and control to ensure safety and avoid equipment damage.SEMI: How is Qualcomm building on the eMTC/NB-IoT for low-power wide-area IoT (LPWA) – and how will this influence IoT connectivity?Smee: We continue to evolve eMTC/NB-IoT beyond its initial 3GPP release in Rel-13, making these foundational LPWA IoT technologies more capable and efficient as they become the basis for 5G massive IoT.The most significant updates to eMTC/NB-IoT include multi-cast and positioning support in Rel-14 and improved spectral/power efficiencies in Rel-15. Multi-cast can help service providers to deliver firmware updates over the air with greater efficiency, which speeds deployment of new features. Positioning can create new values, which can inform end users where their assets/packages are located, potentially safeguarding assets in transit. Improving spectral/power efficiencies offers more power-efficient transmissions, which takes less toll on battery-operated devices.With Rel-16, we have further optimized eMTC/NB-IoT, which is supported by the new 5G Core Network and is also deployable in 5G spectrum in-band with other 5G NR services.The evolutionary path ahead for eMTC/NB-IoT enables support for an even wider range of 5G massive IoT devices. New enhancements in the pipeline, such as grant-free uplink and multi-hop mesh, will boost efficiency and coverage area that much more.SEMI: Where do mobile broadband devices such as ultra-high-definition (UHD) security cameras fall within Qualcomm’s realization of 5G-NR?Smee: Mobile broadband is at the core of 5G NR. We see it both powering the new generation of 5G smartphones and expanding beyond traditional devices (including always-connected PCs and tablets) to address the needs of high-performance IoT devices such as UHD security cameras.It’s actually an important part of our vision for 5G to have an industrial network that requires all types of 5G connectivity for devices spanning eMBB (e.g., cameras, laptops), URLLC (e.g., machines) and MIoT (e.g., sensors).SEMI: What can the MEMS and sensors industry do to prepare for the 5G wave?Smee: Because 5G can evolve to deliver even better performance and efficiency for connecting sensors in the 5G world, we will see even more widespread adoption of MEMS and sensors into larger numbers of connected applications. MEMS and sensors suppliers, therefore, need to get ready for the 5G wave by preparing to support 5G connectivity in their devices, which will ultimately help to realize the 5G vision of connecting virtually everything in the world around us.John Smee, Ph.D., is vice president of engineering at Qualcomm Technologies Inc., where he is the 5G R D lead responsible for overseeing all 5G research projects, including end-end systems design and advanced RF/HW/SW prototype implementations in Qualcomm’s wireless research and development group. He joined Qualcomm in 2000, holds over 100 U.S. Patents, and has been involved in the design, innovation, and productization of wireless communications systems such as 5G NR, 4G LTE, 3G CDMA, and IEEE 802.11. He also leads Qualcomm’s companywide academic collaboration program across technologies including wireless, semiconductor, multimedia, security and machine learning. John was chosen to participate in the National Academy of Engineering Frontiers of Engineering program and received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Princeton University and also holds an M.A. from Princeton and an M.Sc. and B.Sc. from Queen’s University.Smee will present Evolving 5G NR to Connect the Internet of Things on Wednesday, October 23, 2019, at MEMS Sensors Executive Congress, Coronado Island Marriott Resort Spa in Coronado, Calif.Register today to learn how 5G NR will transform the user experience with MEMS- and sensors-enabled devices in IoT, automation and beyond.Interested in engaging with the MEMS and sensors supply chain? MEMS Sensors Industry Group is a SEMI technology community that enables the MEMS and sensors industry to innovate, address common challenges and accelerate business results.Maria Vetrano is a public relations consultant for SEMI.

In 2000, the average car sported 30 to 50 semiconductors. By 2025, the number of chips and sensors in an automobile will soar to an eye-popping 70,000 as it comes uber-connected and immeasurably smarter, powered by machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), visual sensing, high-precision mapping and other advanced capabilities.Today, the proliferation of semiconductors in cars is remaking the automotive industry as four major forces – electrification, connectivity, autonomous driving and diverse mobility – take hold, according to the consultancy firm McKinsey in its report Automotive Revolution – Perspective towards 2030 report. The chip industry saw auto-related sales jump from US$7 billion in 1995 to US$30 billion in 2015, a trajectory that has steepened over the past two years as major chip suppliers have rolled out products for precision mapping, navigation, in-car entertainment, and communications. With semiconductors fast becoming a major aspect of automotive design, traditional automakers are quickly moving to build strong partnerships with the semiconductor sector.Audi, a leading German car brand, took a big step to just that when it became the first automotive OEM to join SEMI as a member in June 2019 and strengthen the automaker’s ties to the semiconductor industry. With a massive market potential to tap, are Taiwan's auto electronics firms well-positioned to work even more closely with first-tier car brands like Audi?At the Smart Transportation Forum on September 18 at SEMICON Taiwan, Andre Blum, project manager at AUDI AG, will join Ian Chan, CTO of Cyntec, to offer insights into how automakers can team up with Taiwanese auto electronics companies. TechOrange, a Taiwanese tech news online media, spoke Blum ahead of the event about Audi's smart car efforts and the carmaker’s work to integrate new technologies into its automotive designs as it forms new partnerships with the semiconductor industry.Blum joined Audi in 2004 and since 2016 has led manifold projects within the group driving Audi’s work with semiconductor companies (Progressive Semiconductor Program). He has seen the automotive industry rapidly accelerate the integration of high technology in vehicles, an area where Audi excels. “The industry is changing how it works and new partners are joining the ecosystems," Blum said.Audi Wants to be the Next Apple in the Car SectorAudi's business developments in recent years echo Apple's early push to integrate the Internet and a panoply of applications into mobile phones. The difference now is Audi is working to integrate a wide range of smart applications into its automobiles for – ala Apple – the best user experience.For example, Audi has recently launched cars designed with Traffic Jam Pilot, Parking Pilot, and Garage Pilot three smart driver-assisting systems. With Traffic Jam Pilot, drivers no longer need to be on standby when stuck in the traffic. Instead, they can kill time with an infotainment system. While out shopping or making other stops, Parking Pilot helps drivers find a parking spot and park automatically. Garage Pilot provides a more comfortable parking-at-home experience – the driver waits maneuvers the car into the garage using handheld remote control. Audi stepped up its efforts in 2019 and revealed its latest concept car at the Shanghai Auto Show. Dubbed Audi AI:ME, the vehicle is equipped with a dizzying array of high tech: level-four self-driving technology, technology that allows the driver to control features with eye movements, LED units in headlights and taillights that change brightness accordingly at night and in bad weather, and VR goggles for onboard infotainment. Innovation and Tech Both Key to the New Driving ExperienceAutomotive technology is rapidly advancing in areas such as electric vehicles, autonomous driving and smart auto electronics. Cars of the future must have more computing power and connectivity to deliver a great user experience that includes high battery efficiency to extend the duration between recharges, in-car entertainment, and intelligent voice assistants – all capabilities made possible by semiconductors.Unburdened by the tasks of driving, passengers will enjoy a more intimate relationship with their vehicles. "The in-car entertainment system will allow passengers to have a teleconference or enjoy a movie in a theater-like setting,” Blum said. Switch on the self-driving system and you can drive through the night from Munich to Hamburg, covering a distance of 800 kilometers in the comfort of a home-like environment. The trip is even possible on one charge, meeting high energy-saving standards.These capabilities are technologically feasible now, but government regulations and policies still need to catch up. In the meantime, Blum says that Audi is focusing on creating a top-notch experience for car users today."The minute you step into a car, all the features, including the seat, radio channels, and the entertainment system will have already been adjusted to your liking and seamlessly connected to your mobile or other hand-held devices," he said.What does the Future Hold for Taiwan in the Next Blue Ocean Market?Semiconductors are the heart of these features, and Blum believes Taiwan is uniquely positioned to drive advances in automotive chips. Taiwan is home to semiconductor powerhouses TSMC and ASE as well as auto electronics companies, and its sophisticated mobile phone supply chain has endowed it with deep experience in integrating semiconductors with electronic modules – advantages that give Taiwan a head start in the automotive semiconductor market.Audi, too, is in a strong position to thrive in the new age of automotive electronics as it looks to its membership with SEMI to collaborate with companies across the microelectronics supply chain.“With rapid advances in automotive electronics technology, semiconductors now play a critical role in innovation and product differentiation,” said Dr. Klaus Buettner, executive vice president of Development Electrics/Electronics, CarIT, Audi.“To fulfill the promise of sustainable, connected-to-everything, highly automated mobility up to autonomous driving, we need to also align automotive requirements across the entire semiconductor value chain,” he said. “With its global platform, SEMI is the right association to bring together supply chain stakeholders for the close collaboration critical to driving technology innovation.”Emmy Yi is a marketing specialist at SEMI Taiwan.

SEMI spoke with Dr. Mikko Söderlund, sales director for Beneq’s semiconductor business, about trends in Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) applications. Söderlund shared his views ahead of his presentation at SEMI MEMS Imaging Sensors Summit, 25-27 September, 2019, at the WTC in Grenoble, France. Join us at the event to meet Beneq and other key industry influencers. Registration is open.SEMI: The Backside Illuminated (BSI) CMOS Image Sensors (CIS) market continues to experience steady growth. Which applications are currently driving market growth?Söderlund: BSI CMOS Image Sensor market continues to be driven by mobile, security, automotive and Internet of Things (IoT) applications – so there seems to be plenty of opportunities for BSI CIS market to grow further.SEMI: What is critical for advanced thin-film deposition methods to extract best electrical performance?Söderlund: It is critical to control the material properties of the deposited layer (such as charge density, resistivity or barrier property) and of course, film uniformity and conformality. Furthermore, controlling material interfaces is also important, especially for sensitive III-V materials. {% video_player "embed_player" overrideable=False, type='scriptV4', hide_playlist=True, viral_sharing=False, embed_button=False, width='350', height='197', player_id='12721134435', style='margin: 0px auto; display: block; float: right; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; width: 350px;' %} Coatings and material features based on existing standard techniques can be very expensive, or not feasible at all. What does Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD), as a thin film coating method, offer in particular?Söderlund: ALD offers dense, highly conformal and pinhole-free best-in-class functional layers for dielectrics, passivation, encapsulation and much more. As a gentle and precise layer-by-layer method, ALD is extremely well-suited for deposition of such performance critical layers over large surface areas such as a cassette of wafers.SEMI: Please describe the Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) coating process. Söderlund: ALD is based on a self-limiting surface reaction controlled thin film deposition. During coating, two or more chemical vapors or gaseous precursors react sequentially on the substrate surface, producing a solid thin film (see schematic below). Most ALD coating systems use a flow-through traveling wave setup, where an inert carrier gas flows through the system and precursors are injected as very short pulses into this carrier flow. The carrier gas flow takes the precursor pulses as sequential waves through the reaction chamber, followed by a pumping line, filtering systems and, eventually, a vacuum pump.SEMI: What are the two leading edge ALD applications?Söderlund: Today’s leading-edge ALD applications are in logic (high-k/metal gate, multiple patterning) and memory (DRAM capacitor, 3D NAND). Within the More-than-Moore (MtM) markets, CIS and MEMS (actuators and sensors, RF) have been early adopters of ALD, and we also see ALD being introduced in GaN Power and RF, as well as photonics.SEMI: Give us one prediction about the opportunities offered by advanced imaging applications.Söderlund: The large diversity of imaging applications will continue to drive growth and innovation. For example, machine vision is expected to transform the imaging landscape. We see this as a big opportunity for advanced thin-film deposition methods such as ALD, provided that the tools are versatile enough to address the diverse manufacturing requirements.SEMI: What are your expectations for SEMI MEMS Imaging Sensors Summit and why do you invite your peers to attend? Söderlund: The summit brings together all key RF stakeholders in the MEMS and imaging sensors industry, and we are looking forward to a great event. It’s a special event for us as we are officially launching a new ALD cluster tool product specifically engineered for the MtM applications – so this brings great excitement that we want to share with the attendees.Dr. Mikko Söderlund is Sales Director for Beneq’s semiconductor business. He has more than 20 years of experience in product development, product management, technical sales and business development across the photonics, OLED, and semiconductor industries. Mikko received his Ph.D. in Micro- and Nanotechnology from the Helsinki University of Technology. Serena Brischetto is a marketing and communications manager at SEMI Europe.

The BioMEMS market is becoming increasingly diverse, encompassing gas and pressure sensors, ultrasound, specialized biomedical sensors, and other types of MEMS and microfluidic chips used for drug delivery and analytical applications. The BioMEMS market is also growing steadily: Research firm Yole Développement predicts that BioMEMS will grow at 14.9% CAGR from 2017-2023, reaching US$6.9B by 2023.1 As a high-value market, BioMEMS is worth pursuing as long as you can manage the complexities of manufacturing, including a sometimes-fragmented supply chain. Fortunately, the MEMS manufacturing ecosystem is evolving to accommodate the needs of companies that are in the process of commercializing BioMEMS-enabled products. Understanding the ecosystem’s shifting dynamics will help BioMEMS to flourish in this promising while often-challenging market segment.Unique Product, Unique ProcessIn the world of semiconductor manufacturing, it is routine for a fab to manufacture hundreds of different device designs using just a handful of process nodes. Semiconductor foundries share their design rules with customers, who then develop the mask set accordingly, literally adapting their designs to fit the rules for manufacturing on one of the foundries’ process nodes. In stark contrast, most MEMS devices cannot conform to the level of standardized manufacturing processes that work so well for semiconductors. Rather, MEMS challenges us to develop individualized processes for each device. It’s one product, one process.New BioMEMS designs generally emerge from either corporate R D or academia, two groups that approach specialized MEMS foundries such as ours when they’re entering pilot or low-volume production. Today successful commercialization depends on open, accurate communication and close collaboration. MEMS foundries must work side-by-side with designers to ensure that designs are based on real-world manufacturing process technologies. This highly customized manufacturing model makes it very difficult to support future demand for the groundswell of diverse BioMEMS devices that are in development. If we want to handle this upward trajectory of BioMEMS, we’ll need to adapt.Change the ModelWhile most existing MEMS foundries currently support a wide variety of devices types, I predict that market forces will cause our foundries to move toward specialization. Some companies will specialize in what they already do best, e.g., inertial sensors for the automotive industry. Others might choose to develop their foundry business around a purpose-built facility, which, for example, only manufactures microfluidics or magnetic devices. Larger enterprises might opt to build captive foundries that are designed to serve their specific needs. Get Creative: Combine, CollaborateSatisfying the thriving market for BioMEMS will require creativity. One idea: combine different disciplines of the manufacturing process at the same foundry. For example, we could have a biochemistry fab and a MEMS fab under the same roof, or we could have a MEMS fab and a packaging facility in one building. While these approaches may not yet exist outside of academia, necessity may drive them to fruition.It will also require heightened strategic collaboration, a process that has already begun. To support both large volumes and greater diversity of devices, some MEMS foundries are building cooperative relationships with former competitors. Think of it as a restructuring of the supply chain.Embracing the special challenges of BioMEMS manufacturing is worth our investment in time and resources. We need to step back, individually and collectively, to understand where each of the existing MEMS foundries fits into the new supply chain so we can leverage our strengths. We can start by forging stronger alliances for tech transfer. Once we more freely share information as we engage in joint product development — involving technology teams who are more connected and less guarded — we will expedite tech transfer and manufacturability.While we are unlikely to achieve the same level of standardization that has enabled the semiconductor industry to reach its great heights, as long as we evolve to meet demand, we will grow together and prosper.To learn more about this topic, meet with Jessica Gomez at the upcoming SEMI-MSIG MEMS Sensors Executive Congress (October 22-24, 2019 in Coronado, Calif.) or email her: [email protected][1] “BioMEMS Emerging Non-Invasive Biosensors: Microsystems for Life Sciences Healthcare 2018 Report,” Yole Développement, https://yole-i-micronews-com.osu.eu-west-2.outscale.com/uploads/2018/08/Sample-BioMEMS-Non-Invasive-Sensors-Microsystems-for-Life-Sciences-Healthcare-2018-.pdf As founder and CEO of Rogue Valley Microdevices, Jessica Gomez has created a world-class precision MEMS foundry and wafer fab in the heart of Southern Oregon. Integral to her role as CEO, Ms. Gomez practices a business philosophy of offering custom design, best-in-class process technology and R D expertise to customers, to help them achieve the highest quality and reliability in their products.In 2018, Ms. Gomez was selected for the prestigious SEMI Board of Industry Leaders. SEMI also recognized her in its first Spotlight on SEMI Women, which honors accomplished women in the global microelectronics industry.Prior to founding Rogue Valley Microdevices in 2003, Ms. Gomez honed her experience in semiconductor processing and production management through positions at Standard Microsystems Corporation, Integrated Micromachines and Xponent Photonics.For more information, visit: https://roguevalleymicrodevices.com/Rogue Valley Microdevices is a longtime member and supporter of SEMI-MEMS Sensors Industry Group, which connects the MEMS and sensors supply network, allowing members to address common industry challenges and explore new markets.

Automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and their direct suppliers of parts and systems share a vision: Next-generation vehicles will be more electric, autonomous and connected. At a market size of more than $1 trillion, automotive is steadily becoming a high-tech market as cars morph into advanced technology platforms with partially or fully autonomous features. Call them semiconductors on wheels. Big players such as Google and many carmakers are investing heavily in chip advances to help drive increases in silicon content in automobiles.At SEMICON Europa, Pierrick Boulay, Solid State Lighting and Lighting Systems analyst at Yole Développement, will provide a market update on autonomous automobile trends including the state of sensors, radars, cameras and LiDARs as the industry works to increase the level of autonomy and electrification.Autonomous vehicle design can only thrive with the development of an industry standard for chip and device traceability across the supply chain. The importance of chip traceability to the automotive industry is reflected in its central role in driving a chip traceability standard.According to Heidi Hoffman, senior director of technology communities marketing at SEMI, “chip traceability is one of the next big things for the technology industry. The benefits are enormous, and the upsides – including yield enhancements, counterfeiting safeguards, and support for new applications – are plentiful. But the implementation challenges of chip traceability are also big and will require considerable effort to overcome. The biggest hurdle of all? We need to transcend industry fears by demonstrating that we can secure IP when it is shared across the hardware supply chain.” The Importance of Standards, Data Collection and Collaboration Across the Supply ChainThe automotive industry has long embraced tracing the sources of defects. Now, as the automotive and semiconductor supply chains increasingly overlap, traceability has taken on greater importance in the semiconductor industry. SEMI committees, task forces and events such as the Smart Transportation Forum at SEMICON Europa are ideal platforms for collaborating to develop new standards and best practices for the automotive industry.Earlier this year, German luxury automobile maker Audi AG became the first automotive original equipment manufacturer (OEM) to join SEMI as member, strengthening alignment across automotive supply-chain segments. At SEMICON Europa, the SMART Transportation Forum and Pavilion, staged by the SEMI Global Automotive Advisory Council (GAAC) and bolstered by the Electronic System Design Alliance, a SEMI Strategic Association Partner, will gather key stakeholders across the automotive value chain, from design and semiconductor equipment to materials and carmakers, to explore innovation opportunities in automotive electronics. SEMI Global Automotive Advisory Council (GAAC) “If the industry wants to reach the goal of zero defects, a new collaborative approach is necessary,” observed Antoine Amade, senior regional director EMEA at Entegris. At SEMICON Europa, Amade will present new ways to collaborate in reducing chip defectivity and meet other challenges in the automotive industry.More than half of semiconductor failures on the automotive assembly line today (so-called 0km failures) are traced to semiconductor fab defectivity. “The increasing semiconductor content in automobiles – driven by growth in ADAS, electrification and autonomy – has put a growing focus on the quality and reliability of these devices and their implications for consumer safety and satisfaction,” said Oreste Donzella, senior vice president and CMO at KLA.The smart manufacturing (Industry 4.0) revolution is already spurring higher performance and great efficiencies throughout the supply chain and will also be crucial to driving innovation in automotive. Smart manufacturing makes possible significant improvements in factory key performance indicators (KPI) for cycle time, on-time delivery, overall equipment effectiveness, cost and product quality.“These KPI gains are key to meeting quality levels the automotive industry must reach to support the deployment of autonomous driving vehicles,” said John R. Behnke, general manager of Final Phase Systems at INFICON. In his talk at SEMICON Europa, Behnke will provide an overview of existing, in-progress, and future smart manufacturing solutions for the semiconductor industry and their impact on the automotive supply chain. The SMART Transportation Forum, 13 November, 2019 (9:30-15:30 at ICM Munich, room 14c) at SEMICON Europa is the premier platform for key stakeholders to connect, collaborate and innovate across the automotive value chain. Automotive and semiconductor industry experts will offer insights into trends in design, semiconductor equipment and materials, and automotive innovation and the roadmap to 2030. The SMART Transportation Forum will also showcase innovations in imaging, sensing, artificial intelligence (AI), smart manufacturing and L5 mobility.Other SEMICON Europa highlights: Advanced Packaging Conference: Packaging and Test Challenges Towards High Reliability (12-13 November 2019) 23rd Fab Management Forum: Game Changers for Semiconductor Operations(11-12 November 2019) Strategic Materials Conference: Strategic Materials Enabling Industry Roadmaps(12-13 November 2019) SEMICON Europa registration is open for visitors and exhibitors. For more details, please visit the SEMICON Europa website and connect with SEMI Europe on Twitter or LinkedIn @SEMIEurope (use #SEMICONEuropa).Learn more about the SEMI chip traceability standard – SEMI T23 - Specification for Single Device Traceability for the Supply Chain – and SEMI Technology Communities.Serena Brischetto is a marketing and communications manager at SEMI Europe.