SEMI, the association representing the end-to-end global electronics industry supply chain, today provided the following statement from Mike Russo, VP of Global Industry Advocacy, regarding the escalation in tensions between the U.S. and China regarding trade:“We continue to monitor what appears to be a deteriorating situation between the U.S. and China related to their ongoing trade negotiations. The escalation in tariffs as well as the recent supply chain executive order and Department of Commerce action against Huawei are cause for increasing concern as those actions disrupt the supply chain and run counter to all-important market access.” “The globally integrated, complex supply chain that underpins our industry requires the world’s largest economies to lead the way by establishing rules that ensure access to markets and protect IP. Reaching an agreement that is aligned with SEMI’s global trade principles would be mutually beneficial to the two nations as well as our global industry, and we are hopeful that such an agreement can still be reached.”

On May 8, a group of students gathered at SEMICON Southeast Asia for a one-of-a-kind experience. These students would be the first in the region to participate in SEMI High Tech U (HTU) – diving into the deep technology at the core of our industry. They simulated the layering process used in the wafer fabs for microelectronics and solar cell fabrication, then identified uses of integrated circuits and how the process evolves from materials (silicon) to product (patterned wafers).Nearby, another group of students jumped into lessons about gates and binary logic, the language of computers and how they communicate. They played with four basic logic gates – “AND”, “OR”, “NOT” and “XOR” – by using logic boards. Then it was high time to apply what they learned about gates and the binary systems – the inner workings of a calculator – and launch into the much-anticipated Human Calculator game. During the game, students become a 2-bit adder. First, they must convert numbers into binary and then trace the digits through a series of gates. It's only with careful communication and concentration that teams get the right outputs.HTU is the SEMI program that introduces students to science, engineering, technology, and math (STEM) through hands-on activities and experiential learning led by industry volunteers. Since 2002, HTU has reached some 8,000 students in 12 states and nine countries.Southeast Asia hosts first HTUThe ‘Human Calculators’ were one of two groups of more than 80 high-school students from four schools who came to the Malaysia International Trade and Exhibition Centre (MITEC) in Kuala Lumpur for a fun day of education and workshops. The sessions were led by instructors Shafiq Shahmeen and Zafryl-Zaheidy Mustofa from Inari-Amertron and Jamaludin Johar and Huichin Chew from STMicroelectronics.Kicking off the sessions, High Tech U program manager Bryson Gauff gave an oral history of HTU with the students and their teachers and prepped them for the exciting workshops.From India to the United States – Ajit Manocha’s inspiring storySEMI president and CEO Ajit Manocha, on stage for the ribbon-cutting to celebrate the Southeast Asia’s first HTU, shared the story of how he was moved to enter high technology at a young age. Growing up in New Delhi, India, Ajit developed his passion for engineering after being inspired by a close family friend. His love of bits and bytes led him to the United States, where he started his career at Bell Labs, working with semiconductors. Reflecting on his past, he told the students that if a young boy from New Delhi can become an engineer and move to the U.S. to pursue his dream, everyone in the room can do it too – whatever their passion. Much like his friend as a youth, Ajit paid it forward by encouraging the students to follow their hearts: “The future is yours and you can be whatever you want to be.” Ajit Manocha and Professor Madya were joined onstage by Kai Fai Ng, president of SEMI Southeast Asia, and Leslie Tugman, SEMI VP of Global Workforce Development and Diversity, for the ribbon-cutting at SEMI High Tech U in Southeast Asia. The power of experiential learning YBrs. Prof. Madya Dr. Wan Zuhainis Binti Saad, Director of Academic Development Management, Ministry of Education, lit up the room with her passion for education. She quickly connected with the students as she shared her story of being a microbiologist and a professor. She encouraged the students to learn together and do what they love. A strong advocate for empowering learners, Professor Madya also offered a transformational approach to teaching students in the 21st century education – a dynamic, forward-thinking mix of passion-based learning, experiential learning, and entrepreneurial innovation.She believes the more students blend STEM studies with other curriculum like the arts and humanities, the better they can work collaboratively and develop their passion in life. Professor Madya thrilled the roomful of students with her message about what the future holds for all students, especially those participating in Southeast Asia’s first-ever High Tech U.The future of electronicsWith today’s semiconductors processing data at blurring speeds, the program ended aptly with awards for quickness. The awards ceremony, sponsored by Edwards Technology Singapore, recognized the winning team for the fastest Human Calculator in each session. And all four schools received certificates for participating in High Tech U to celebrate the work of all the students – the faces of the future of electronics.SEMI welcomes Southeast Asia to the global High Tech U community! To learn more about SEMI HTU please visit our website. The first-ever SEMI HTU Southeast Asia students with their teachers, industry volunteers and HTU staff at SEMICON Southeast Asia. Ariana Raftopoulos is a marketing communications manager at SEMI.

The typical winter “seasonal slowdown” is now behind us. What can we expect as the year progresses? 

Why FD-SOI? What can you do with it that you couldn’t do before? That was the big question from IHS Markit’s Matthew Short that kicked off the first panel discussion at the SOI Consortium’s Silicon Valley Symposium. And there were some great answers.VeriSilicon, Analog Bits and Silicon Catalyst were among the consortium members with stands at the SOI Symposium, Silicon Valley 2019.Here in this final part of our coverage of the event, we’ll detail who said what in the two panel discussions, as well as the presentations by Leti, Intento Design the SOI Consortium’s IP/EDA roundup.If you missed the previous two installments of our coverage, you can catch up on the rest of the presentations in part 1 (NXP, Samsung more) here and part 2 here (Synaptics, GlobalFoundries more). Almost all of the presentations are now freely available under "events" on the consortium website - or just click here to get them.How FD-SOI Changes What You Can DoThe presentation by Matthew Short, Sr. Director of IoT Technology at IHS Markit, was not specific to SOI, but it sure did lay out out the market opportunities. Entitled IoT, 5G, ADAS and AI Market, it’s available on our website. Matt spent most of his career in chip design at NXP/Freescale, so he really has an engineer’s perspective on where this all is going. At IHS Markit, they define IoT as anything with an IP address. Over the past year more than 10 billion devices were shipped, and there were more “things” than cellular handsets, so the world has really changed. He outlined the growth drivers, suggested that 5G won’t be a “wow” thing for consumers, and noted there is a lot of debate raging regarding how smart sensors should be (the Tier 1’s want smart).He was then joined on the stage by the participants in the first panel discussion, which looked at product and application drivers. That included: NXP Fellow Rob Cosaro; Tim Dry, Director of Edge Endpoints Marketing at Samsung Foundry; ST biz dev director Roger Forchhammer; CoreAVI biz dev VP Lee Melatti; Nokia VP Michael Reiha; and Analog Bits EVP Mahesh Tirupattur.First Short asked why customers wanted more integrated solutions. For CoreAvi, it’s about safety, for ST in automotive it’s about security, for Analog Bits, it’s about integrating more analog, for Nokia it’s just a necessity.Then he asked Why FD-SOI? What can you do that you couldn’t do before? For ST, which is doing MCUs for automotive, it’s about energy efficiency, speed, the density of non-volatile memory and the robustness of the technology. For NXP, it’s back biasing, low voltage and power numbers never seen before. “FD-SOI really makes a difference in the products we can bring to market,” said Cosaro. For CoreAVI, it’s the long-term power impact. And for Analog Bits, “Customers see huge benefits,” said Tirupattur, for cost sensitive applications. He has customers selling their technology in high volumes in FD-SOI. What about edge vs. cloud? For Nokia, it’s monolithic integration for best-in-class RF, advanced memory, biasing and voltage regulation adding a layer of intelligence. Samsung sees edge as distributed cloud, and CoreAVI sees safety in the edge, because you can’t completely rely on the cloud.Where are the weak points in the FD-SOI ecosystem? For Samsung, more people need to use back biasing. “People need to use the knobs,” said Dry. For Analog Bits, the next step is innovation around back biasing, as many in logic don’t understand the benefits, so the ecosystem needs to promote the value proposition. ST suggests that with more products out there, customers will see the benefits. NXP did “a lot of the heavy lifting” at 28nm – now you need more people using these nodes, not just the cellphone nodes.How will the architecture change? For NXP, it’s all about memory bandwidth. For Samsung, it’s the promise of analog and interconnect. Nokia sees the back-end and heterogeneous integration with FD-SOI and RF enablement. Analog Bits’ Tirupattur said he’s pushing his engineers for even lower power in a still smaller form factor, noting that most analog engineers had been more focused on performance than power, but now that’s changed. For ST, it’s AI/ML throughout automotive, and FD-SOI is beneficial there.Leti the Connected Car Leti's slide 27, SOI Symposium, Silicon Valley 2019Research giant Leti’s presentation was entitled Applications Around the Connected Car. 85% of Leti’s €315M budget comes from R D contracts with its 350 industrial partners. Truly a driving force in FD-SOI, Leti is involved in a dizzying array of projects. For the connected car, they cover (much of it on SOI): high precision smart sensing, embedded processing fusion, new computing paradigms and deep learning, ultra-low power computing nodes framework, ultra-low power connectivity for IoT, energy management and scavenging, and security. They do vision at the edge, 3D technology for smart imagers, and ways to dramatically reduce power. They’ve got a Qbits platform on FD-SOI for AI at the edge, a super low power neural network accelerator, and ULP connectivity. Check out the presentation for lots of details.EDA/IP OverviewSlide 9 from SOI EDA/IP Overview.SOI Consortium Executive Co-Director Jon Cheek gave a quick round-up presentation aggregating various IP and EDA offerings entitled , SOI EDA/IP Overview. It is taken from recent member presentations including Cadence, Silvaco, VeriSilicon, Synopsys and GlobalFoundries, giving you an idea of how dynamic the ecosystem has become.Automating Analog While the logic side of the design equation has long had robust automation tools, some consider the analog side as sort of black magic. New consortium member Intento Design aims to fix that. Here at ASN we covered their work with ST briefly a few months ago here. At the SOI Symposium, the company’s CEO Dr. Ramy ISKANDER presented their solution in ID-XploreTM: A Disruptive EDA for Emerging FDSOI Applications. Intento, a partner in GlobalFoundries FDXcelerator program, has cognitive software for first-time right analog design. It determines the appropriate static and dynamic body biasing ranges to meet PVTB (Process/Voltage/Temperature/Body Bias), and is fully integrated into the Cadence Environment. They produced multiple correct-by-construction FD-SOI designs, and the total time spent to generate eight candidates FD-SOI designs took less than a day. The Tools Are in the BoxThe last panel discussion, entitled Are the Tools in the Box? was moderated by the Consortium’s Jon Cheek. Participants included: VeriSilicon SVP David Jarmon; Arm PDG Marketing VP Kelvin Low; NXP’s Stefano Pietri, Technical Director of the company’s Microcontrollers Analog Design Team; Jamie Schaeffer, who’s GF’s Sr. Product Offering Manager for 22FDX and 12FDX; and Cadence Strategic Alliances Director Jonathan Smith. 2nd panel discussion, SOI Symposium, Silicon Valley 2019Yes, the tools are in the box. Smith of Cadence said they’re providing them, and NXP’s Pietro said that they’re very well positioned in his specialty, analog. VeriSilicon has IP, and anything they don’t have in house they’ll license. So why be afraid of body biasing? NXP has proof by example – they see such huge cost advantages that they try to leverage it as much as possible. GF’s doing training, since each area (automotive, IoT, etc.) has different needs. Some VeriSilicon customers already see such substantial benefits from FD-SOI that they’re not bothering to do biasing. Cadence points out that the Arm POP announcement is huge, and Arm’s Low wondered if the SOI Consortium could do an IP portal? “Our sales departments need to explain the advantages to our customers!” said NXP’s Pietro.From the audience, NXP VP longtime FD-SOI proponent Ron Martino (who, btw, wrote some great articles for ASN when they first got into FD-SOI – read them here), asked why designers think FD-SOI means a lot of corners? How do we convince the industry that FD-SOI simplifies design? Cadence is working with GF, responded Smith, and will have some big new at Arm’s TechCon this fall. “We need more training and marketing to show it’s not scary," he added. For GF, the corners don’t get more complicated, and they’re working with Dolphin Integration on getting them covered early in the planning. Ease of access to IP will help, per Arm. And in a great concluding remark, VeriSilicon’s Jarmon said, “The craft is being automated. The more we work together, the greater success of FD-SOI.”

Today, the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), as part of its Section 301 investigation into China's trade practices, released a list of approximately $300 billion worth of Chinese goods, including a number in the semiconductor supply chain, that would face a tariff of up to a 25 percent. SEMI is working with members to assess the industry impact and will submit written comments and testify against the tariffs at a public hearing scheduled for mid-June.SEMI encourages members to review the new list and determine the level, if any, of impact.Today’s announcement follows last Friday’s tariff hike from 10 percent to 25 percent on $200 billion of imports from China. All told, the U.S. already has levied tariffs on $250 billion of Chinese goods that include materials and machines critical to semiconductor manufacturing. The expanded list released Monday would impose tariffs on essentially all imports from China. For its part, China has announced retaliatory tariffs, but more are likely coming.SEMI has been steadfast in its opposition to these tariffs and other barriers to global commerce. Over the past year, SEMI has submitted numerous written comments and offered testimony on the damaging impact of tariffs to the semiconductor industry. While SEMI strongly supports efforts to strengthen intellectual property protections, we believe that the tariff increases will do nothing to address concerns over China’s trade practices but, instead, harm companies in the semiconductor supply chain by increasing business costs, introducing uncertainty and stifling innovation.SEMI will continue tracking ongoing trade developments. SEMI members with questions should contact Jay Chittooran, global public policy manager at SEMI, at [email protected].

Dan Hutcheson, VLSI Research, Interviews Carlos Mazure, Executive Director, SOI Industry Consortiumhttps://youtu.be/a5GyrAZTYIsSummary: SOI has come a long way over the last two years. Design flows and IP portfolios are more complete. Long a mainstay for RF, Silicon-On-Insulator has made its way into many new products on the market this year. Dan Hutcheson has a conversation about what’s happening today with Carlos Mazure, Executive Director, SOI Industry Consortium.

Join us! In partnership with our members, the SOI Consortium is co-organizing and participating in two key SOI events coming up in China over the next few weeks. On May 18th, we’ve put together an SOI Forum at the World Semiconductor Congress (WCS) in Nanjing. And on May 23rd 24th, we’ve teamed up with our members SIMIT, Sitri and Leti for another in our series of SOI Academies, including an FD-SOI Training Day. (The last one this past winter was a terrific success – read about that here if you missed our coverage at the time.) QR code for WCS, Nanjing '19At WCS, the SOI Forum (sub-forum #8) is part of the afternoon Innovation Summit. We’ll cover the broader SOI ecosystem, including both RF-SOI and FD-SOI – from wafers to design through manufacturing. Presentations will be given by members of the SOI Consortium team, and by leaders from our membership, including Simgui, NXP, Incize, ST, IBM, Cadence and Xpeedic. Click here or scan the QR code for the full program and registration information. Also at WCS, SOI Consortium member VeriSilicon will be participating in a morning session on AI and IoT Wireless Communications (sub-forum #4). They’ll be giving a presentation on their low-power Bluetooth design platform for GlobalFoundries 22FDX, and their CEO Wayne Dai will be moderating a round-table discussion. You can get more information on that (in Chinese only, tho) here, or follow VeriSilicon on WeChat. QR code for SOI Academy and FD-SOI Training, Shanghaid 2019The SOI Academy in Shanghai is an opportunity for experienced designers to gain solid expertise in FD-SOI. The event begins in the afternoon of May 23rd with a series of informative plenary talks by members of the SOI Consortium team, and by experts from our members Leti, Soitec, VeriSilicon, GlobalFoundries and NXP. The FD-SOI Training starts the next morning, on May 24th.. This is a hands-on event lead by top experts from Leti. The morning is devoted to digital design in FD-SOI, and the afternoon to RF design (including for 5G) in FD-SOI. Attendees will get a comprehensive understanding of design techniques for low-power chips leveraging the multiple benefits and flexibility of FD-SOI technology. Get more information here, or from the WeChat QR code.We've got a busy schedule! To keep up to date with where we and our members will be promoting the SOI ecosystem, be sure to check our Events page regularly.

Why Is Smart Parking a Hot Topic? Poorly managed parking resources have a substantial negative impact on cities — one that has been well-documented. According to industry studies, poorly managed parking: Increases Traffic Congestion: 30% of traffic is caused by ongoing circling for parking. Increases Pollution: In Westwood, California, cruising for parking burned 47,000 gallons of gas and generated 730 tons of carbon dioxide in one year. Frustrates Drivers: Urban drivers spend an average of 20 minutes per trip looking for parking. Stifles Economic Opportunities: Traffic congestion cost Americans $124 billion in 2013, and this is predicted to rise to $186 billion by 2030. These problems are getting worse. As a result of growing urban populations, cities account for more than 80% of carbon emissions globally. Unplanned or inadequately managed urban expansion leads to rapid sprawl, pollution and environmental degradation. Due to the lack of parking-space availability, for example, Japan is ranked among the most expensive countries for paid parking. If left unaddressed, poor parking management will continue to plague cities, both large and small. Fortunately, Smart City Internet of Things (IoT) initiatives are helping cities to address their parking issues. IoT to the RescueThere are three key drivers of Smart City IoT initiatives. Cities want to: Improve the overall quality of life and mobility in urban environments Leverage technology to augment and improve existing infrastructure and services that citizens rely on every day Foster both economic and environmental improvements The availability of high-accuracy vehicle detection sensors coupled with affordable, low-power connectivity has enabled a new generation of Smart Parking technology. However, choosing the right Smart Parking solution is essential.High-accuracy vehicle detection sensors can provide valuable data to city planners and parking managers. This information includes: Parking availability Traffic flow Parking occupancy rate and historical data Turnover For parking management to effect change, city traffic managers, parking managers and urban planners need a holistic view of parking availability and usage patterns, and users need real-time information about available parking spaces.Sensors, cameras and communication networks form the basic infrastructure for Smart Parking. To deliver on the promise of IoT and to help cities improve the overall quality of life for residents and visitors, cities need a complete smart parking solution that provides: Accurate real-time vehicle detection and location of available parking spaces – significantly reduces the amount of time spent cruising for parking spaces, giving drivers the precise location of available spaces Connectivity from the sensor to the cloud – facilitates real-time parking data that city planners, parking enforcement and traffic managers can use to reduce traffic congestion Parking applications for cities, parking-lot owners and drivers — enables navigation to available parking and supports mobile payment, streamlining the parking process. Parking applications can also direct traffic enforcement personnel to parking violations as they occur, helping to alleviate traffic bottlenecks, such as double parking in loading zones. Such applications also improve the efficiency of other city services such as public transportation and garbage collection. Complete Smart Parking Solution – Sensor to Cloud (Source: PNI Sensor) To learn how cities are using Smart Parking sensors to improve the services they offer to residents and visitors, come see PNI at SEMI’s 2019 FLEX Japan MEMS Sensors Forum (May 22-23, Toyko, Japan). PNI President and CEO Becky Oh and PNI’s partner, Macnica Networks, will share Smart Parking use cases from innovative cities, corporate campuses and universities (Smart Parking presentation, May 22 from 16:55-17:25). Register for the conference today. For more information about PNI Sensor, visit the PNI Sensor website. Becky Oh is the president and CEO of PNI Sensor. Throughout her 20 years with the company, Ms. Oh has held a range of senior-level positions, from operations to technical business development. She received an M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT. Ms. Oh holds multiple patents in the area of devices with multi-sensing and reporting capabilities.

SEMI is excited to recognize Elizabeth Lee of X-Fab as the SEMI Spotlight on Women Honoree for Q2 2019!Spotlight on SEMI Women celebrates the many accomplished women who work in the global microelectronics industry. Nominees in the quarterly spotlight include women who are beacons of knowledge, leaders of organizations and initiatives, hidden heroes and innovators in our industry. They are volunteers, protectors, intellectual disruptors and activists. Learn how you can nominate a woman for Spotlight on SEMI Women.Elizabeth Lee has loved technology from a young age. As a child, Elizabeth once took apart a broken VHS player and managed to repair the device, armed with nothing but a few simple tools and a strong sense of curiosity. After her more than 15 years in the microelectronics industry, it’s clear that this love – along with Elizabeth’s drive, curiosity, and tenacity – has allowed her to thrive in her career and have a significant impact as a leader not only as a quality systems engineer at X-Fab but in her community.Growing up in a rural Texas town of fewer than 200 people, Elizabeth found opportunities to learn about STEM extremely limited. Although Elizabeth’s interest in technology started at a young age, her first real learning opportunity came during a high-school computer science class. Fascinated by the physics of how computers work, Elizabeth became inspired to pursue electrical engineering at Texas Tech University after graduation.Elizabeth’s transition to university life was difficult. She struggled to balance life as a young mother with her studies and became frustrated when she saw no career path to electrical engineering. During her junior year at Texas Tech, Elizabeth was ready to move into a different field and requested a transfer into civil engineering. Looking back, Elizabeth sees this moment as a crucial turning point in her life that would eventually propel her into the semiconductor industry. Her academic advisor, also a woman, denied the transfer request and pushed Elizabeth to remain in electrical engineering. The advisor also urged Elizabeth to expand her focus outside of academics and get hands-on experience through undergraduate research.Elizabeth acted on the advice and found herself performing research at the Texas Tech nanotech center. She also began volunteering with West Texas BEST – a high-school robotics program that engages students in STEM and semiconductor technologies.Elizabeth has now volunteered for BEST for more than 18 years. She has served on its computer game development board, helping to design games and create rules, and contributed as an author. Elizabeth also served on the South Plains chapter of IEEE as secretary of the board, vice chair, chair, and is now an advisor for the TTU IEEE student brand of WiE (Women in Engineering).She is also a member of the Industrial Advisory Board of the Electrical and Computer Engineering department at Texas Tech University and the Faculty/Staff committee chair. More recently, Elizabeth participated in SEMI High Tech U (HTU), a STEM immersion program for high-school students, and will serve as an emcee for the third time in an upcoming HTU program. Elizabeth graduated with a master’s from Texas Tech after her research in MEMS biomedical lab-on-a-chip and quantum mechanics evaluation of AIO2 tunnel junctions. In 2004, she began her journey with X-Fab, where her responsibilities have included sustaining legacy node silicon technologies and developing yield improvement analysis techniques in the areas of silicon and silicon carbide. She was awarded the Technical Ladder distinction of Principal Engineer in 2015.Today, Elizabeth has more than 15 years of experience in quality, yield improvement, and process integration, all areas that support X-Fab foundry customers with yield and failure investigations. In addition to her technical accomplishments, she represented X-Fab as a Value Promoter, introducing new X-Fab employees to its core values. Over the course of Elizabeth’s career at X-Fab, she has continued to lead key improvement initiatives and dedicate herself to her community.Cristina Sandoval is manager of Workforce Development at SEMI.

For the second consecutive year the SOI Consortium will have a stand at the Networking Reception during the Samsung Foundry Forum (SFF). This important Silicon Valley event will be held on May 14, 2019 at the Santa Clara Marriott. We hope you'll stop by to learn more about the SOI Consortium and the FD-SOI ecosystem. There’s been a steady stream of news about Samsung’s FD-SOI offerings and support, including their highly successful 28FDS and coming very soon: 18FDS. (If you need to catch up, click here to read more.) As in the previous 3 years, Samsung will be making major announcements on their technology roadmap and application solutions. SFF is a unique opportunity to network with Korean and US based executives from Samsung Foundry as well as customers and ecosystem partners. SOI Consortium members ARM, Synopsys, Cadence, Analog Bits, VeriSilicon and Xpeedic will also have stands, and NXP will be on the customer panel.Seats are limited, so go to http://www.samsungfoundryforum.com/2019/ to register now.