Can it be that no more new semiconductor fabs are being built in the U.S.?The last new volume fab known is Micron’s Building 60 in Utah, according to the SEMI World Fab Forecast report published in February 2018. The catch is Building 60 is not a new or greenfield facility but rather an existing structure being retooled for 3D NAND. Fab equipment spending for this fab is expected to be high in 2018.Then there is Fab 42 from Intel. Construction started in 2011 before it was shelved. It is expected to begin equipping by end of this year, with equipment spending expected to be high next year.Other fabs built many years ago are still ramping such as Globalfoundries Fab 8 phase 3 (TDC) and D1X (module 1 and module 2). D1X is a research and development pilot, not a high-volume fab. And Globalfoundries’ plans for a second fab in Malta have been pushed out.Samsung in Austin has space for more modules, but there is no indication they will ever be added.The SEMI World Fab Forecast shows five smaller facilities either planned or under construction, but these have little impact in this U.S. fab construction trend.And that’s basically it! No more volume fabs!If we divide fab equipment spending into two categories – investment in new capacity versus upgrades – we see a declining trend for fabs adding capacity. See chart below. (Compare 2005-2011 with 2017-2019). If we look at 2017, 2018 and 2019, Globalfoundries, Intel, and Micron are the big investors in new capacity.This year 60 percent of all fabs are expected to invest in equipment to add capacity, but just one or two volume fabs (Micron and Globalfoundries) account for the bulk of this growth. Same story for 2019, with two volume fabs (Intel and Globalfoundries) representing the lion’s share of the growth. Strike the Intel and Globalfoundries fabs from the equation, and investments in additional capacity would fall below upgrade spending levels.Once these fabs have reached full capacity, additional equipment investments will significantly lag spending increases for upgrades, signaling the end of new fabs in the U.S.

Peel-and-stick simplicity isn’t just for adhesive bandages any more. IoT and flexible hybrid electronics (FHE) are bound to change hardware business models. And flexible displays will breathe life into any surface.These were among the insights foreshadowing the future of the FHE, electronic textiles, IoT, MEMS and sensors industries at the FLEX Japan and MEMS Sensors Forum Japan 2018. At the April event, organized by SEMI-FlexTech-MSIG, nearly 200 attendees shared their observations and lessons learned in the development of processes, products and applications. Presentations and discussions revealed these five takeaways.1. Expect the unexpected with FHE developmentFlexible Hybrid Electronics (FHE) continues to shrink the size and weight of products, enabling new markets and concepts. “FHE takes printed electronics and adds ICs for getting performance out of the PE structure,” said Wilfried Bair of NextFlex, adding that “peel- and-stick electronic products are one example of unexpected new markets enabled by FHE capabilities.” One potential application is large peel-and-stick safety sensors adhered to buildings to warn of structural dangers.Another surprising turn: With new insights into OLED technology originally developed for flexible displays, Cambridge Display Technology (CDT) has devised an innovative medical diagnostic tool for markets such as biomedical and agricultural monitoring. The tool features an atmosphere-processable OLED component with a simplified OLED structure encapsulated in aluminum foil.2. IoT and FHE devices should change hardware business modelsThis is the standard business model for many new FHE products: develop a product, manufacture it, find customers and sell. FHE and IOT device developers were encouraged by Jam Kahn of Gemalto to consider flipping the script: During FHE product development, explore building an after-market revenue stream by controlling and mining the data for trends it reveals. Because of its data harvesting potential, IoT is an excellent emerging technology for this strategy.The “Experience Economy” could create 200 connectable items per person, generating strong revenue streams from the collection and analysis of massive amounts of sensor-generated data. The key is for the data to be actionable. That means hardware suppliers must extend their focus to software development. “A recent study of California investors found that by 2025, 60 percent of global business profits will be from data,“ noted Harri Kopola of VTT, who advised hardware producers to examine business models that produce continuous value by leveraging software. “With FHE, we are creating the path to digitization for non-digital industries, and these industries need complete solutions,” he said.Hardware provider Xenoma, for example, sells an electronic shirt with sensors for measuring muscle movements, heart rate and other health-related data. Xenoma’s Ichiro Amimori said the company offers its open-source software development kit for free under one condition: The developer must share the collection data with Xenoma. The idea is that the more data collected, the greater Xenoma’s ability to improve human health over the long term and achieve its long-term vision of alleviating disease.3. Roll-to-roll and sheet-to-sheet manufacturing will meet in the middleOne of the big advantages of flexible and printed electronics was its promise to enable the manufacturing of electronics on a roll-to-roll (R2R) process in atmospheric (or close) conditions, like newspaper, rather than one sheet at a time, as with displays or wafers. But as development of inks and interconnects progressed, along with the placement of discrete and thinned-die components and basic flexible substrates on a moving web, most research and development (R D) and limited-production runs moved to sheet-fed systems to control material costs for experiments and low-volume production. R D on printing electronics processes split into two camps: the simple printed components camp on R2R, and the camp backing more flexible hybrid electronics development on a sheet-by-sheet basis. But progress didn’t stop.Harri Kopola of VTT highlighted new R2R inspection and test capabilities in the VTT pilot line in Finland. R2R processing advances incorporate ideas from biology, chemistry, optics, optoelectronics, advanced inspection and test capability, illustrating the multidisciplinary nature of FHE. While accurate, high-speed, pick and place of thinned, bare die remains the domain of sheet-to-sheet manufacturing, look for more improvements in accuracy and speed.Another new manufacturing concept that turns business models on their heads – “minimal fabs” – focuses on creating limited-run equipment and processes that use 3D printing and do not require cleanrooms. With a relatively low cost of entry, the approach enables electronics to be produced affordably anywhere.4. Powering the IoT is a grand challengeThe requirement for edge devices to function without intervention for long periods raises hard questions about how to power the devices. Using organic photovoltaics (OPV) in textiles to harvest energy from light could be one solution, according to Kasimaesttro Sugino of the Suminoe Textile Technical Center. ULVAC’s answer to the IoT power issue are requirements for edge device micro-batteries to be environmentally benign, safe, flexible and compatible with semiconductor processing less than .1 mm in height. The micro-batteries must also feature a long life and support continuous power output, high power density, low self-discharge (over 10 years) and mass production, said Shunsuke Sasaki of ULVAC. The batteries are being built on silicon, glass and stainless steel with dry, thin-film vacuum processing. 5. Flexible displays bring any surface to lifeWith their durability, flexibility, low-cost processing and programmability, flexible displays can transform any surface into a content-rich display with messages that make lives healthier, simpler and safer.One example is FlexEnable’s organic thin-film transistor (OTFT), a device made possible not only by recent advances such as the ability to build organic material transistors on plastic and the increasing clarity of new film materials but by continuous manufacturing process improvements. These advances are improving switching times and the color and video capabilities of thin-film transistors while retaining their flexibility, low power consumption and communication capabilities. Simon Jone of FlexEnable gave the examples of wrapping a display around the blind spots of automobiles or replacing side-view mirrors with interior monitors showing feeds from an external camera, approaches that would improve safety while reducing wind drag and increasing fuel efficiency.E Ink’s reflective technology and flexible products are coming to market with a wider color spectrum. The company’s Michael McCreary said its designers are specifying the panels for innovative projects such as the exterior walls of the San Diego International Airport parking garage. Used to communicate with airport visitors, the installation is weather-proof, programmable and self-powered.

The MEMS industry has huge growth potential. Will MEMS fabrication act as a bottleneck to continued expansion or a critical conduit to achieving that potential? Slow development cycles, multiple fabrication platforms and high cost for small R D volumes are barriers to rapid development of new products. Understanding the special features of MEMS fabrication — with its many ecosystem options — will help your company to navigate successfully these challenges as you more quickly develop new and unique products.The sheer diversity and varying requirements of MEMS devices and the one product, one process approach are the root causes of most MEMS fabrication challenges. While a single approach will not suit all companies, forming an ecosystem that leverages different companies’ expertise is one of the best ways to address these challenges. However, knitting together this ecosystem is difficult because having multiple partners in the mix only works if the entire supply chain follows common basic design rules and a common top-level technology development roadmap.Because establishing these commonalities takes time and effort, many large- and medium-sized companies prefer to own their supply chain, regardless of the costs. In contrast, emerging companies that cannot support heavy capital investments in new equipment will inevitably find foundries that have all the equipment in place — as well as a wide variety of MEMS processes — a more attractive option. As you embark on a MEMS fabrication journey, which options should you consider to stay ahead of the pack?Finding ecosystem partnersSince there are so many different technology choices that make process integration difficult in MEMS fabrication, technology know-how is the key to developing unique products in time. If you are not able to own your supply chain, you must find ecosystem partners whose expertise both matches and complements your technology (Table 1). Table 1: Ecosystem options as a function of company expertise. 1=Excellent fit 2=Good fit 3= Ok fitYou must also understand how your company can add value — either directly to the end-product or to the other partners in the ecosystem. Above all, there must be trust among partners. A lack of mutual trust will lead to inadequate information-sharing and cumulative knowledge-gathering — slowing problem-solving and/or causing excessively long development cycles. Option 1: Own your supply chainWhile few companies can support Option 1 — having the whole supply chain in-house (like Bosch or STMicroelectronics) — the benefits are many: all know-how will be contained within the company, IP is easy to protect, and supply-chain management is simpler. However, this model demands a significant investment in tools and, in the long run, substantial effort and money to remain technologically competitive in each part of the supply chain.Option 2: Outsource the ASICYou might opt for a fully owned supply chain — outsourcing only ASIC fabrication and possibly ASIC design and assembly. This option requires significant expertise in MEMS technology, freeing you from the limitations of a fabless operation model as you gain more control of MEMS fabrication processes. It also offers more IP protection than you would have with a foundry.While the disadvantages of Option 2 are similar to the fully owned supply chain model, you can mitigate them by outsourcing part of the MEMS chip fabrication supply chain or outsourcing some development to wafer supply companies that can handle the customer-designed embedded structures inside the wafer and/or multi-stack wafer packages. Outsourcing will shorten the process flow and reduce the amount of capital required for growth. A third outsourcing option is to farm out especially difficult or incompatible steps, delivering multiple benefits such as access to better materials, including specialized polymers – which are typically more expensive than silicon – and precious metals, such as gold or platinum, which can contaminate equipment during thin-film deposition processes.Options 3-4: Foundry modelsWhile more companies still own the whole supply chain or outsource the ASIC portion of their device than use MEMS foundries, the MEMS foundry solution is still an especially good option for cost-conscious companies. If you cannot afford the substantial investment needed for new tools and/or advanced materials or your product requires rapid scaling-up because of short lifecycles, you should explore foundry solutions. There are two main types: pure-play foundries (Option 3) and a foundry with design services and its own IP (Option 4). Option 3 offers no design services, nor does it provide its own designs. It is an excellent choice for a MEMS design-based company lacking its own MEMS fabrication line. However, if your company lacks in-depth knowledge of MEMS design, Option 4 will give you design support and possibly some IP as well. Option 5: Buy the MEMSOption 5 is to buy ready-made MEMS chips and use them as the foundation to build your component. This is solid choice if your company is high in the value chain or has system-level expertise.In the future, MEMs ecosystem players will win by offering both design-library development and a supporting portfolio of MEMS process design kits — just as the IC industry now does. This winning approach will significantly shorten the MEMS product-design cycle – from idea to process development and finished product – and will ultimately change the rules of the game for the MEMS fabrication industry.Based in Vantaa, Finland, D.Sc.(Tech.) Heikki Holmberg develops new business opportunities for Okmetic’s high-performance silicon wafers. He also manages Okmetic’s research portfolio, including European Union- and nationally funded research projects. For more information, visit: https://www.okmetic.com/

Enjoying the richest lineup of talent and resources in SEMI history, West isn’t just a show anymoreIt’s a powerful conversation. With new venues, new voices, and new takes on the industries and markets that will fuel the industry’s growth, SEMICON West is adding more value and taking a fresh approach to event experiences.Arrive smart, advance to “beyond smart.” That’s AI we’re talking about, and you’ll see demos on how it’ll enhance every one of our established and emerging markets. TechXPOT pavilions will be ground zero for discussing the freshest perspectives about autonomous and connected transportation and smart manufacturing. Designed exclusively to increase your expertise in the most promising areas for the next five years of industry growth, the featured interactions will center around innovations for improving data sharing across the global supply chain.Meet the experts. They’ll be waiting for you at the Meet the Experts Theater in the Smart Manufacturing and Smart Transportation Pavilions located on the show floor. Placed specifically for your easy access, the experts represent the top of their fields in emerging IC technologies for leveraging connected intelligence in electronics manufacturing. They’ll drive conversations about the hottest areas of growth opportunity and how to crack the challenges facing the industry. They look forward to the specifics that you want to explore. “Workforce development” has become a rallying cry. Coming off a banner year, the chip business is mounting an unprecedented recruitment drive to attract the best talent. The results are vital for the next state-of-the-art tech roadmaps that rely on the most intelligent minds. To help accelerate learning curves, the Smart Workforce Pavilion welcomes college students and recent grads to see the engineering pros discuss what it’s like to work in the microelectronics industry, and to gain an understanding about what technologies will be driving the future.As an engineer and executive, I’ve attended SEMICON West for 25 years – this year’s event raises to another level the value of content and networking for all. Let’s talk at the show. We want to hear your ideas about how we move beyond smart to even higher growth and innovation.Register today for an Expo Pass to tour the exhibition floor and gain access to the Smart Pavilions and Meet the Experts Theaters. Or choose the Thought Leadership or All-in Pass to receive access to the TechXPOT presentations and more. To view all conference pass benefits, visit www.semiconwest.org/pricing.Great products start with semiconductors. Conversations make them happen.

“The ecosystem is ready. The focus is now on applications and products.” And with those words, SOI Consortium Executive Director Carlos Mazure opened the annual Silicon Valley SOI Symposium. As promised, the day was packed with presentations about products on FD-SOI – some from big players like NXP and Sony, some from names new to the FD-SOI ecosystem like Audi and Airbus, and some from start-ups just getting into the game. The event got excellent coverage in EETimes/EDN – including in their editions across the globe in China, Japan, Taiwan, India and more. Samsung, GF Ramp FD-SOI, heralded the headlines. It was a full day of excellent presentations. In this post, I'll chronicle the morning presentations. The next post(s) will cover the afternoon session. Note that as of this writing, the ppts are not yet posted on the SOI Consortium website, but many will be. Keep checking back under the Events tab, and look under “past Events”. Andes Technology As semiwiki noted a few years back, Andes Technology is “...the biggest microprocessor IP company you've never heard of.” Based in Taiwan, Mediatek is one of their big customers; they've got a strong client base across Asia/Pacific, and are now making inroads into North America. Last year they announced with GF their 32-bit CPU IP cores had been implemented on GF's 22FDX® FD-SOI technology. In his symposium keynote, CEO Frankwell Lin said that in the test chip they're doing with GF and Invecus, they're seeing a 70% power savings compared with what they'd gotten in 28ULP. Their newest products are the N25 32bit and NX25 64bit RISC-V based cores, and in July they'll announce a core that runs on Linux. NXP “With FD-SOI we're enabling the future of embedded processing,” the always-quotable (and keynote speaker) NXP VP/GM Ron Martino told us. NXP's i.MX7ULP, i.MX8, i.MX8X and i.MXRT are all FD-SOI based. They all share fundamental building blocks, so NXP can build platforms, scale and re-use IP. “It's better than any technology I've worked on in my 30 years in the industry,” he said. They're seeing much higher performance with on-chip flash. And the RT “crossover” processor boasts 3x higher computing performance than today's competing MCUs. This is going to be critical for edge computing going forward, to which end NXP is working very closely with foundry partner Samsung. FD-SOI is not just helpful for the logic part of these chips – memory technologies also share in the benefits. They get much higher performance with on-chip flash. Leakage is cut by a factor of ten with biasing techniques, and the enhancements mean that memory can operate at very low voltages. NXP is increasingly sophisticated with how they use body biasing, applying high-granularity techniques to independent domains in different parts of the chips. Getting sub-0.6 Vmin delivers value at multiple levels: on battery life, on total system cost, and on system enablement. Invest in body biasing if you want to get leadership results, advised Martino. Edge computing – including machine learning and neural networks for things like image classification – is a big target, he continued. At the last CES they did a proof-of-concept “foodnet” where two appliances talked to each other without having to go to the cloud. In that case it was an i.MX8 in a fridge and an i.MXRT in a microwave, but he explained that the same concept can be applied to a car for driver awareness, where you don't want to take the extra time for or don't have a connection to the cloud. iMX and FD-SOI enable scalable solutions, he concluded. Audi What's a metal-bending company doing talking about electrons? asked Audi Project Manager Dr. Andre Blum. And why SOI? Well, for Audi, he said, SOI stands for Solutions, Opportunities and Innovation. [caption id="attachment_11790" align="alignleft" width="300"] Audi Project Manager Andre Blum says SOI stands for Solutions, Opportunities and Innovation -- at the 2018 SOI Symposium in Silicon Valley.[/caption] Audi is working on the various levels of autonomous driving, and they want it to be without design limitations. That means being able to hide sensors wherever they're needed. They'll create a cocoon around the car for the best driver experience. He showed a fun video Audi's made to illustrate their concept – it's the Invisible Man video, which you can check out on YouTube. But those new architectures can't up the power budget (think heat): rather they need to cut power drastically while increasing performance. And with FD-SOI, they see an opportunity to do just that, he said, while integrating the sensors. Audi is one of 25 partners in a heavily funded ( 100 million Euros) brand new EU Horizon 2020 program called Ocean12 (lead by Soitec). The launch was only May 1st 2018 (so as of today it doesn't even have a website yet), and it will run for about 4 years. It is described by ECSEL (a public-private entity that puts together the big EU research projects) as an “opportunity to carry European autonomous driving further with FDSOI technology up to 12nm node”. One to watch! Airbus For Airbus, it's all about increased connectivity and communications that are trusted and secure, said company expert Olivier Notebaert. Since their chip runs are low, NRE – non-recurring engineering costs – are very important; and they need flexible systems. SOI has a long history in aerospace – in fact that's originally where it got its start, since it can handle radiation and is immune to latch-up. Notebaert says that even for Airbus, IoT is their future. The developments they pioneer will be part of it. Airbus is a partner in the EU Horizon 2020 DAHLIA project – which stands for Deep sub-micron microprocessor for spAce rad-Hard appLIcation Asic. The project is, “...developing a Very High Performance microprocessor System on Chip (SoC) based on STMicroelectonics European 28nm FDSOI technology with multi-core ARM processors for real-time applications, eFPGA for flexibility and key European IPs, enabling faster and cost-efficient development of products for multiple space application domains. The performance is expected to be 20 to 40 times the performance of the existing SoC for space.” According to another recent presentation, DAHLIA is prototyping an FPGA this year that will be in production in 2019. Sony For Sony GM Kenichi Nakano, FD-SOI has big potential for low-power products. And he should know. Sony has been an FD-SOI pioneer, using it as the basis for GPS chips that are now in a growing number of cool products, especially watches. They're getting good feedback from the market and see good opportunities across a diversified global customer base, he said. Their CXD5603, for example, is the lowest power GNSS (GPS) chip worldwide. In mass production since 2015, it is now dominating world wearable markets like trackers -- such the popular Amazfit line. Running through their various FD-SOI based GPS offerings, he noted that the GPS is a pretty simple chip. But now customers are asking for more, like for it to work in the water (where a GPS typically doesn't). So Sony has partnered with triathalon teams and are seeing good results. With success, of course, comes greater demands: for greater accuracy, for more precise positioning in motion, for increased height accuracy, for even lower power – and Sony is meeting these demands with FD-SOI, in solutions like the new CXD5602. The CXD5602 product configuration covers audio/video/communications: key factors in IoT. A camera version is releasing this summer, as are main and extension boards. An LTE module will be released at the end of 2018. And now they're using those FD-SOI chips in audio applications. You'll find it in the Xperia™ Ear Duo, he said. The MWC press release noted that Xperia Ear Duo “... is driven by Sony’s ultra-low power consuming “CXD5602” chip and a sophisticated multi-sensor platform, the “Daily Assist” feature will recognize time, location and activities to offer relevant information throughout the day – reminding you what time your next meeting is when you reach the office or narrating the latest news headlines.” Also in that PR, Hiroshi Ito,Deputy Head of Smart Product Business Group at Sony Mobile Communications, said, “Ear Duo is the first wireless headset to deliver a breakthrough Dual Listening experience – the ability to hear music and notifications simultaneously with sounds from the world around you.” The highly anticipated wireless “open-ear” stereo headset started rolling out to select markets in Spring 2018. There's a great info page with video here. https://youtu.be/1lKo9acJDPs So that's what we heard in the morning. My next post (or posts?) will cover the afternoon. That includes Dan Hutcheson's excellent talk updating his FD-SOI survey, presentations from Samsung, Globalfoundries and Simgui, plus some from very cool start-ups, and the final panel presentation.

Emboldened by advances in self-driving and Internet of Vehicles (IoV) technologies, Taiwan’s microelectronics sector is investing heavily in manufacturing processes and equipment as engines of innovation and growth for autonomous driving, the world’s next market goldmine. But breaking into the self-driving vehicle industry can be a steep uphill climb. Semiconductor players hungry to secure their piece of the potentially massive market must know how to navigate the automotive industry’s unique ecosystem of suppliers, not to mention its lofty standards for safety and reliability.To explore opportunities and challenges in the automotive semiconductor market, SEMI recently organized Mobility Tech Talk – a gathering of experts from Strategy Analysis, Yole Développement, Renesas, X-FAB and IHS Markit who examined the evolution of sensors for autonomous cars, advanced driver-assisted system (ADAS) applications, and new energy vehicles (NEVs) in China. Nearly 200 participants exchanged in-depth, forward-looking insights and perspectives as the event helped forge stronger relations among various market segments. Here are four key takeaways from the conference. Lidar: The Hottest Sensing Technology for Smart AutomotiveLidar, mmWave radar, cameras and inertial measurement units (IMUs) are critical sensing devices for autonomous cars. With sensor and high-speed computing technologies maturing at their current pace, some 350,000 self-driving vehicles are expected to hit the road by 2027. But before a single autonomous vehicle takes to the roadways, self-driving technology must become expert at monitoring a vehicle’s environment.That’s where Lidar, the hottest of all sensing technologies and the key to the holy grail of safe self-driving, comes into the picture. Lidar’s versatility supports multiple essential functions such as mapping, object detection and object movement. The problem is that mass production is still impossible due to the technology's high costs. What’s more, technical issues must still be sorted out with solid-state lidar, mechanical lidar and MEMS. Both startups and traditional tier-1 semiconductor manufacturers are aggressively investing in related research and development in hopes of fulfilling lidar's promise and seizing the market opportunity. Smart Automotive Sets New Quality and Safety StandardsAs cars become smarter, so too must silicon. Chips must support vastly more data generated by in-vehicle connectivity, ADAS, electrification, autonomous driving and an array of other functions that rely on advanced automotive electronics components. With demand for smarter silicon surging, Taiwan semiconductor companies are turning to the automotive chip industry for expertise and serving as OEMs for major automakers.Quality and safety for automotive applications is paramount. In-vehicle semiconductors must meet strict requirements for vehicle control, robustness, liability, cost and quality management to meet the automotive specifications necessary to securing certifications. Smart silicon must also pass all AEC-Q liability standards promoted by North America automakers and score “zero defect” for the ISO/TS 16949 Automotive Quality Management System.China’s New Energy Vehicles To Fuel Semiconductor GrowthTo promote NEVs and reduce fuel consumption of cars with internal combustion engines (ICEs), late last year the Chinese government introduced the Measures for the Parallel Administration of the Average Fuel Consumption and New Energy Vehicle Credits of Passenger Vehicle Enterprises. With China the world’s largest market for NEVs, the policy is forcing automakers in Japan, the U.S. and Europe to accelerate moves towards NEVs that, in turn, will fuel growth in the semiconductor and automotive battery industries. NEVs in China are expected to number 2 million by 2020 before more than doubling to 4.9 million by 2025. Today, most cars still run on ICEs as environmentally friendly motor drives are still under development. In unit shipments, motor drives are expected to surpass ICEs by 2025.Cross-field Collaboration is KeyThe rise of smarter, fully autonomous vehicles – a disruptive Car 2.0 – is unlikely to happen overnight. Rapid growth of the global automotive semiconductor market will continue, with safety and powertrain applications driving the strongest chip demand. Meanwhile, automakers are focusing more on innovations from startups and non-traditional suppliers, and some have even started to develop their own IP and solutions. These paradigm industry shifts are diversifying the automotive supply chain into a cross-domain collaborative network of suppliers, pushing the closed, one-way automotive supply chain into lesser relevance. In the near future, rivals and partners may become indistinguishable as traditional turf wars begin to wane. As ADAS and autonomous cars evolve, and the era of electric cars nears, automotive semiconductors are emerging as the engine of growth for the global semiconductor industry. The automotive semiconductor market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.8 percent, reaching US$48.78 billion by 2022.For its part, the SEMI Smart Automotive special interest group connects professionals from the microelectronics and automotive industries. The group promotes the semiconductor industry's development of automotive technologies and cross-domain collaboration to help drive autonomous vehicle innovation.

Just as the annual Cherry Blossom festival wraps up, international trade has flowered as a top concern for SEMI members, requiring immediate action as 20 SEMI member executives carried the torch for the industry in recent meetings with lawmakers at the annual SEMI Washington Forum. The business leaders quickly zeroed in on the proposed Sec. 301 tariffs of 25 percent on China imports to the U.S. and their potential to drive sharp increases in the cost of doing business. In the meetings at the two-day event in Washington, D.C., the executives expressed deep concern that the tariffs, aimed at protecting the interests of U.S. companies, would instead harm the intended beneficiaries including SEMI members around the globe. The executives also focused on the proposed 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum that would compound the damage to their businesses, spiking costs of materials that lie at the heart of their manufacturing operations. Also crucial to their business interests, the SEMI members educated lawmakers on the talent shortage and the intense competition to fill open positions across the supply chain. With fully 77 percent of industry executives seeing talent shortfalls as a pressing business issue, the business leaders pushed for legislation that would bring more domestic talent into the STEM education pipeline – such as S. 1518, The CHANCE in Tech Act to support more apprenticeships in technology, and H.R. 4023, the Developing Tomorrow’s Engineering and Technical Workforce Act to get more students involved in engineering. The group also encouraged support of the “Immigration Innovation” or “I-Squared” bill to strengthen and expand the H1-B visa program and STEM Greencards. The SEMI Washington Forum, a venue for SEMI members to educate lawmakers about the industry, also addressed concerns over restrictions on foreign investment in the U.S. Passage of S. 2098, the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act (FIRRMA), would usher in new operating efficiencies for the Committee for Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) by adding much-needed resources to the overburdened body. However, the bill would also subject many ordinary business transactions to a lengthy and costly national security review that would hamper the ability of many companies to do business in the global marketplace. All told, attendees at the forum held more than 30 meetings with lawmakers, reflecting the great impact of public policy on SEMI members companies. In a time when the stakes for the industry have risen to new levels, direct engagement with lawmakers in the nation’s capital by SEMI and its members is critical. The SEMI Washington Forum is a terrific way for members to more clearly understand the impact of key pieces of legislation and gain firsthand experience in influencing policy and helping lawmakers better understand the industry. If you are interested in learning more about the SEMI Washington Forum or SEMI’s public policy program, please contact Jamie Girard by email at [email protected].

The global semiconductor packaging materials market reached $16.7 billion in 2017. While slower growth of smartphones and personal computers – the industry’s traditional drivers – is reducing material consumption, the slowdown was offset by strong unit growth in the cryptocurrency market in 2017 and early 2018. Flip chip package shipments into the cryptocurrency market, while providing a windfall to many suppliers, are not expected to remain at high levels, SEMI, the industry association representing the global electronics manufacturing supply chain, and TechSearch International reported in The Global Semiconductor Packaging Materials Outlook.The outlook shows that, despite growth in automotive electronics and high-performance computing, continuing price pressure and declining material consumption will constrain future material revenue growth to steady single-digits, with the materials market forecast to reach $17.8 billion in 2021. IC leadframes, underfill, and copper wire are among the materials segments that will see single-digit unit volume growth through 2021.Laminate substrate suppliers participating in the sale of flip chip substrates for cryptocurrency saw volume increases in 2017, but this segment continues to be battered by increased use of multi-die solutions and the shift to wafer level packages (WLPs), including fan-out WLP, slowing growth. Wafer-level packaging (WLP) dielectrics and plating chemistry suppliers will experience stronger revenue growth as the adoption of advanced packaging continues. Over the next several years, advances in the semiconductor materials market will present a number of opportunities driven by trends including: Continued adoption of FO-WLP including FO-on-substrate solutions with high density geometries down to 2µm lines and spaces Liquid crystal polymer (LCP) under consideration as a possible material option because of its good electrical performance and low moisture absorption, especially for mmWave applications such as 5G Adoption of low-cost package solutions such as MIS and other routable-QFN technologies PPF QFN volumes are rising with automotive applications, driving a requirement for roughened plating to deliver needed reliability Expansion of photoresist plating capability for selective plating of leadframes Thermally enhanced and high-voltage mold compounds for power and automotive devices Thermally conductive die attach materials other than solder die attach for power applications Report highlights include: Laminate substrates represent the largest revenue segment of the materials market with more than $6 billion in sales for 2017. Overall leadframe shipments are forecast to grow at a 3.9 percent CAGR from 2017 through to 2021, with LFCSP (QFN type) experiencing the strongest unit growth, an 8 percent CAGR. Following five years of decline, gold wire shipments increased in both 2016 and 2017 though represent just 37 percent of the total bonding wire shipments in 2017. Liquid encapsulant revenues totaled $1.3 billion in 2017 with single-digit expected through 2021. LED packaging applications are driving the revenue growth over the forecast period though downward pricing pressures are a constant in the market. Die attach material revenues reached $741 million in 2017 with single digit growth to 2021. DAF materials will experience higher unit growth, though downward pricing trends continue. Solder ball revenues reached $231 million in 2017. The revenue outlook depends on fluctuations in metal pricing. The wafer-level plating chemical market was put at $263 million in 2017 with strong growth through 2021. RDL and Cu pillar will be the key growth segments. SEMI and TechSearch International, Inc. teamed up again to develop the 8th edition of the Global Semiconductor Packaging Materials Outlook, a comprehensive market research study on the semiconductor packaging materials market. Interviews were conducted with more than 130 semiconductor manufacturers, packaging subcontractors, fabless semiconductor companies, and packaging material suppliers to gather information for the report. The report covers the following semiconductor packaging materials segments: substrates, leadframes, bonding wire, mold compounds, underfill materials, liquid encapsulants, die attach materials, solder balls, wafer level package dielectrics, and wafer-level plating chemicals.For more information and to purchase the report, click here.

SEMI’s Nano-Bio Manufacturing Consortium (NBMC) is in the news again for collaborating on the development of a patch that monitors hydration by measuring electrolyte levels in sweat. The innovative sweat patch is featured in this story by Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS).“Born out of an AFRL (Air Force Research Laboratory) and industry collaboration within the Nano-Bio Manufacturing Consortium (NBMC), a wearable patch is helping researchers make ‘sense’ of the link between sweat and hydration,” the article notes.NBMC is a diverse group of companies, universities and organizations that brought their enthusiasm and interdisciplinary smarts across nanotechnology, biotechnology, advanced (additive) manufacturing, and flexible electronics to tackle the challenge of underhydration and dehydration for people with high-stress, high performance occupations. The idea was to develop a device that delivers reliable, wireless, actionable human performance data in a non-invasive way.The team is currently concentrating its efforts on a next-generation of sweat patches that will take what they developed, refine it and even incorporate other sweat-assessment capabilities.Certainly, the world is their oyster as the patch received recognition at this year’s 2018FLEX conference in February. The article notes:“The sweat patch development team received the 2018 FLEXI Award for R D Achievement at the SEMI FLEX Conference and Exhibition in Monterey, California. FLEXI awards recognize groundbreaking accomplishments in the Flexible Hybrid Electronics sector. The award-winning team is comprised of researchers from the Air Force Research Laboratory, GE Global Research, UES, Inc., the University of Arizona, University of Connecticut, University of Massachusetts Amherst and Dublin City University.”Kudos to the team! We couldn’t be more excited about future developments!Want more information? Be sure to check out our last blog post on GE's extensive report on the project. Also, visit www.nbmc.org for more information.NBMC is hosting a Smart MedTech TechXPOT on Digital Medicine and Remote Patient Monitoring at SEMICON West on July 12, 2018 from 10:30 AM to 12:30 PM. Listen to healthcare industry leaders explore state of the art and what is on the horizon for this medical technology space. Registration is now open.

2017 was a record-breaking year for the semiconductor industry. At SEMI, our aim is to help our members continue that momentum. To accomplish this goal, we need to encourage thousands more engineers, technologists and innovators to join our exciting industry.SEMI president and CEO Ajit Manocha has stated, “Attracting new candidates to build a global workforce is critical to sustaining the pace of innovation. If we don’t act together, we’ll limit our growth.”To meet the challenge, SEMI recently launched a workforce development initiative, a key pillar of SEMI goals to support our member companies. The showcase for meeting this challenge is the first-ever Smart Workforce Pavilion—an innovative talent recruitment venue making its premier at SEMICON West 2018 in July. The Pavilion represents a unique opportunity for SEMI member companies to get involved in an initiative that is critically important to our industry’s future success. The Smart Workforce Pavilion will connect a diverse audience of promising, entry-level prospects with SEMI member talent acquisition and human resources (HR) recruiting teams. The Smart Workforce Pavilion offers a variety of ways to engage with college students seeking to enter our industry’s Smart Workforce. Members who engage at the higher levels will have an opportunity to:connect a diverse audience of promising, entry-level prospects with SEMI member talent acquisition and human resources (HR) recruiting teams. Staff a booth within the Pavilion, where your HR representatives can informally meet with entry-level prospects to review resumes, conduct informational interviews, or even begin the application process. List some of your company’s open, entry-level positions on the onsite job board. Sign up to learn more about participation in a formal mentoring program. Provide your company literature and recruitment materials within a college student resource kit. Deliver motivational “day-in-the-life” presentations on how to pursue a career in the industry and why your company is the place to begin.* The Smart Workforce Pavilion promises to be a major draw at SEMICON West 2018. Join this effort and bring your voice to celebrate our industry as you seek new talent for your company. Start today! Contact Shane Poblete at +1.202.847.5983 or [email protected] *Featured benefit listed is only available to the highest-level participants.