Taiwan

In much of post-lockdown China, urban life is humming. The streets of Beijing and Shanghai are bustling with traffic, smog again shrouds city skylines with the resurgence of economic activity, property sales are bouncing back and a revival in consumer confidence is taking hold. Emerging from monthslong shelter-in-place orders, the nation has seized a large measure of control in containing COVID-19 as it breaks fertile new ground in pandemic response and recovery. In Wuhan, Hubei, the fountainhead of the novel coronavirus, one company offers a striking example of China’s muscular COVID-19 containment efforts, carefully continuing to operate through January and February as the virus set root, said Karel Eloot, a Shenzhen-based senior partner and Asia leader of Transformation and Operations practices at McKinsey Company, speaking at a recent webinar presented with SEMI. Soon, COVID-19 spread to eight other provinces that suffered serious outbreaks and forced the nationwide lockdown that sent China’s GDP plunging 7 percent, its first contraction in 28 years. An impressive array of safety protocols, many designed to reduce people density as a bulwark against the virus, animates China’s fight against COVID-19, a return-to-work movement that is laying a path forward for companies around the world. It is these measures, Eloot said, that have kept the Wuhan company afloat and helped other businesses across China restore operations with unusual speed. Community and Social Distancing – The Heart of China’s COVID-19 Response In establishing safeguards, many companies started by assessing staffing requirements, identifying workers essential to sustaining on-site operations while allowing others, such as white-collar staff, to work from home, though some have since returned to their offices. Seen as non-essential, some factory maintenance workers have been instructed to stay home. To fill staffing gaps, business have turned to multi-skilling practices, such as having on-site supervisors and engineers step out of their daily roles to handle lower-level operations activities. Much of the focus has been on community distancing, with businesses quickly identifying workers suffering even minor COVID-19 symptoms and using contact tracing to prevent sick or vulnerable employees from entering offices and factories and turning them into hot zones for community spread, Eloot said. Manufacturing facilities are staggering work shifts to reduce people density, closely monitoring workers’ body temperatures with an eye toward other symptoms, and following up with medical tests and quarantines as needs dictates. QR codes, long a staple of e-commerce, have been a particularly effective weapon in combatting COVID-19. Companies are deployed the scanning technology to identify workers by color code – green, yellow or red – and assign various levels of site access depending on who they’ve been in contact with. Some factory workstations are now walled off by transparent plastic sheeting to prevent COVID-19 infection through aerosol drift. In business meetings and lunchrooms, staffers sit spaced a safe distance apart and facing the same direction to avoid crosscurrents of the microscopic respiratory droplets that can carry the virus. Others eat in isolation. Meeting room windows are opened, weather permitting, to admit fresh air. And elevators – perfect petri dishes for contagion – are shuttered to ward off human clusters, shifting all floor-to-floor movement to staircases. Companies united by the common goal to keep goods flowing through supply chains are providing masks and other personal protective devices to smaller players most vulnerable to the economic shock of COVID-19. The aim: Shield the companies from the potentially crippling effects of the virus to avoid supply chain breakdowns that can undercut the performance of the whole. Even competitors have formed unexpected alliances, sharing parts and components that are in short supply. “Some sectors have maintained steady production throughout the crisis” thanks to these practices, Eloot said. “China has been able to create safe communities where people can operate as normal.” Executive Uncertainty Reigns, Hope Springs Eternal with Innovation The objective of China’s fast, forceful response to the COVID-19 outbreak is economic: A V-shaped rebound after the 7 percent wallop to its GDP in the first quarter of the year. The trajectory is among nine economic recovery scenarios McKinsey Company presented to more than 2,000 executives worldwide in a recent survey seeking their views on the likelihood of each. The business leaders coalesced around two – a full restoration of global GDP growth that could materialize this year or extend into next, or a two- to three-year recovery following the initial economic tsunami, Sven Smit, an Amsterdam-based senior partner with McKinsey and global leader of the McKinsey Global Institute and global COVID-19 response team, said at the webinar. The executives see the multi-year recovery as the most likely. The shorter rebound ranked second on a scale of probabilities. Notably, the business leaders found the V-shaped bounceback China is attempting – returning to GDP growth in one quarter – the least likely outcome. But the biggest surprise from the survey, Smit said, was executives’ view that of the two major global interventions for restoring GDP growth – viral and economic – one will be ineffective, reflecting their deep uncertainty about what lies ahead. A growing body of knowledge about COVID-19 tempers that doubt. It’s established fact that the virus is highly contagious, more lethal than the flu, and spread by means including aerosols and touching contaminated surfaces. But only recently has more insight emerged about human immunity. Broad-based blood testing in the Netherlands has discovered that only 3 percent to 4 percent of the people screened are immune to the coronavirus, leaving the vast majority of the population without natural biological protection – a sweeping vulnerability evident in Asian countries hit early by the virus only to see fresh flare-ups after initial containment. Smit warned of the pandemic’s potential resurgence. Testing has revealed that coronavirus cases are underreported by a staggering 10- to 15-fold, a clarion call that countries “need to be very careful about how they re-open economies.” That means in order to keep COVID-19 at bay until a vaccine is developed, the best defenses will remain temperature monitoring, contact tracing, quarantining, social distancing, mask wearing, frequent hand-washing and other proven protective measures. And while the relative contribution of each safeguard to slowing COVID-19’s spread is unknown, Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan and other Asian countries have shown that “if you apply them all, you are likely to keep this virus under control,” Smit said. It remains to be seen whether protections the U.S. and European countries have put in place will stave off the virus as effectively as the rigorous measures implemented by Asian countries and, if the Western regions deploy a different cocktail of safety protocols, how well they will work. The re-opening of their economies promises to reveal the answers – and the McKinsey recovery scenario they’ll face. These and other open questions help explain the uncertainty of the executives McKinsey polled. Pandemic Supercharges, Adds New Urgency to Long-Term Trends What is known is that, far from upending the way all organizations operate, COVID-19 is supercharging secular trends and showing that people can react with dizzying velocity when confronting global mortal threats. That speed, Smit said, “is not determined by the potential of technology, but by events." For decades, doctors and technologists have teamed to develop ways to examine and treat people from afar, yet telemedicine managed to eke out only small, incremental gains in adoption. Since the COVID-19 outbreak, patients have flocked online, with virtual doctor’s visits accounting for more than 70 percent of all physician-patient interactions. “People like it, and we can reach many more patients as a result. It happened in a few weeks,” Smit said. Similarly, teachers and unions have only inched toward digital communications for years, fearing job losses in education at the hands of technology. When schools closed recently under shelter-in-place orders, teachers quickly switched to online lessons. The transition, Smit said, took one weekend. Meanwhile, as office workers holed up at home, usage of teleconferencing applications skyrocketed. “We’re collectively learning at unprecedented speed,” Smit said. “We’re sharing. We’re learning about supply chains. We’re learning about collaboration. We’re learning about masks. We’re learning about contact tracing. We’re learning how to work more efficiently. We’re learning from real-time data about the behavior of people. And we’re investing collectively enormous sums in finding cures and treatments and expanding hospital capacity.” While the coronavirus’s blistering spread caught many countries off-guard, Smit expects scientists to spare no effort to innovate. Expressing hope that new medical interventions will be available by summer, Smit said the world needs to buttress its key lines of defense against the coronavirus until a vaccine is developed – a shield that will quicken the global economic recovery. “The race is on," he said. Related blog COVID-19: Economic and Microelectronics Industry Impacts – Insights from McKinsey Company For McKinsey’s latest insights on the coronavirus pandemic, visit its website, which is updated daily. For the latest COVID-19 information and SEMI event updates SEMI is providing members, visit Coronavirus Resources. Michael Hall is a marketing communications manager at SEMI.

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared a state of emergency for Tokyo, Osaka and five other prefectures[1] on April 7 in response to a startling increase of COVID-19 infections in the region’s cities in an uneasy moment for its domestic semiconductor industry. The declaration, effective through May 6, authorized the six prefectural governors to strengthen curbs on the spread of the virus and included guidance for citizens to stay home and restrictions on operations of non-essential businesses.With Japan supplying some 40 percent of the world’s chip production equipment and materials, the declaration stirred fears among semiconductor manufacturers that their uninterrupted operations – critical to sustaining the global industry – might be at risk. Japan Government Designates Semiconductor Industry as EssentialIn April 7 and 11 revisions to its Basic Policies for Novel Coronavirus Disease Control, the Japanese government allayed those concerns by designating semiconductor manufacturers essential businesses – a stark acknowledgment of the chipmakers’ vital role in combatting the novel coronavirus. The policy stated:“Among medical and manufacturing industries, we request the continuation of the following business operators in consideration of infection prevention: operators who are difficult to stop production line due to the characteristics of the equipment (such as blast furnaces and semiconductor factories); and operators who produce essentials (including important items in supply chains) for protection of the people who need medical care and support, as well as for maintenance of social infrastructure. We also request the continuation of the business operators who sustain medical care, the lives of the people, and maintenance of the national economy.”[2]SEMI Japan Reaches Out to Prefectures to Urge Essential Business Designation Equipment and materials shortages can halt production of an entire fab line and ripple through intricately connected global supply chains to stifle the production of end devices including the electronics critical to COVID-19 treatments. Electronic devices also play a central role in containing the virus’s spread by enabling artificial intelligence (AI), data analytics, digital communications, telemedicine, robotics, remote health monitoring, telecommuting, online shopping and other digital services.The essential business designation was explicit recognition that Japan’s semiconductor supply chain is integral to the global chip production ecosystem and worthy of the same protections the government has implemented for semiconductor companies. With SEMI members operating in Japan’s 47 prefectures, I sent letters to all prefectural governors three days after the second policy revision, urging them to apply the same designation, and the SEMI Japan team is following up to secure their support.SEMI Japan Encourages Government to Exempt Members from Travel Restrictions The Japan Foreign Ministry on March 31 raised to level 3 its travel advisory for 49 regions including the U.S., China, Taiwan and South Korea, encouraging Japanese citizens to avoid travel regardless of purpose to blunt the international spread of the coronavirus. SEMI Japan is working with the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan to urge the government to exempt semiconductor supply chain companies from the level 3 travel restrictions if they implement measures to prevent domestic infections and contagion in the visited regions. The exemptions would allow supply chain companies to install and service equipment at fabs – one key to maintaining smooth, uninterrupted operations.SEMI Supports Members with COVID-19 ResourcesSEMI international headquarters and regional offices are here to help you, our members. For more information on our webinars, surveys, best practices and other information designed to help you meet the challenges of the pandemic, please visit the SEMI Coronavirus Updates Resources page.[1] The six prefectures are Tokyo, Kanagawa, Chiba, Saitama, Osaka, Hyogo and Fukuoka.[2] Provisional translation by Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. Full document is available at https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/10900000/000620733.pdf.Jim Hamajima is president of SEMI Japan.

SEMI has urged government representatives around the U.S. and world to designate the semiconductor industry as an essential business so operations at companies across the chip supply chain can continue without interruption as the spread of COVID-19 continues. SEMI President and CEO Ajit Manocha assured the U.S. and global officials that SEMI members – the device makers and suppliers of chemicals, materials, components, design tools and equipment at the heart of chip manufacturing – “are employing all measures necessary to maintain the health and safety of their employees and local communities” to help contain the virus. Manocha last week sent letters to the governors of 16 states and the chairs of the National Governors Association, U.S. Conference of Mayors, National League of Cities, and National Association of Counties requesting consideration of the semiconductor industry as an essential business if shelter-in-place or similar orders are issued to curb the spread of COVID-19. More than half of U.S. states have imposed shelter-in-place or stay-at-home orders in the past month. The designation would allow SEMI members to maintain continuous operations to ensure that manufacturing of components for critical infrastructure equipment, the defense industrial base, and other vital technological products and services is not jeopardized. Semiconductors are the foundation of modern electronics and information technology and are critical in helping health workers effectively treat COVID-19 symptoms, Manocha told the officials. The devices also play a central role in containing its spread by enabling artificial intelligence (AI), data analytics, digital communications, telemedicine, robotics, remote health monitoring, telecommuting, online shopping and other digital services.Manocha urged state and local officials to follow guidelines issued on March 19 by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) identifying “manufacturers and supply chain vendors that provide hardware and software, and information technology equipment (to include microelectronics and semiconductors) for critical infrastructure as ‘essential critical infrastructure workers.’” Most states issuing shelter-in-place or stay-at-home orders have followed the DHS guidelines and/or separately designated the semiconductor industry an essential business. Likewise, other nations have recognized the power of technology in effectively containing COVID-19 and similarly designated the semiconductor industry an essential business.On March 27, SEMI, the Semiconductor Industry Associations in China, Europe, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and the U.S., as well as several other trade associations in Asia issued a statement “calling on all governments to specify semiconductor industry operations as ‘essential infrastructure’ and/or ‘essential business’ to allow continuity in operations.” The global semiconductor supply chain forms a highly intricate network consisting of research, design and manufacturing operations. Operating restrictions in one region can compromise production in others, leading to inefficiencies and breakdowns that cascade across the supply chain.With semiconductors underpinning vital sectors of the global economy, the chip associations called on all global governments at all levels – central, states, provinces and localities – to help protect the uninterrupted operations of domestic semiconductor companies and their suppliers by applying the essential infrastructure or essential business designation.Joe Pasetti is Vice President of Global Public Policy and Advocacy at SEMI.

Plunging stock prices and Coronavirus-driven business shutdowns presently dominate the news. Current economic data, including the recently released February Global Purchasing Manager Index, support earlier negative predictions of an imminent industry decline.

We are now in the recovery phase of the current business cycle with SEMI equipment already in a growth mode. However significant economic and geopolitical concerns persist.

High-tech industry clusters in the bustling northern Taiwan port city of Hsinchu look set for an upgrade. Long a world-class hub of the semiconductor and optoelectronic technology industries, Hsinchu City is laying out plans to work with SEMI to attract more international companies, generate more jobs, promote Hsinchu’s development and help grow Taiwan’s microelectronics industry. High-tech heavyweights such as TSMC, UMC, MediaTek, Realtek, and AUO are all headquartered in The Windy City. The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), a leading Taiwan research center and incubator, also calls Hsinchu home, and the city boasts one of the highest concentrations of educational institutions in the region, a roster that includes National Chiao Tung and National Tsing Hua universities. Hsinchu’s thriving relations with these industry, academic and research partners have made it a hotbed of innovation, with numerous large Taiwanese and foreign companies having opened local offices. No less than these partners, the city – like SEMI – is committed to innovation.In a recent visit to the SEMI Taiwan office in Taipei, a Hsinchu City government team led by mayor Lin Chih-Chien, met with Terry Tsao, global SEMI chief marketing officer and president of SEMI Taiwan, to explore collaboration opportunities in areas such as technology subsidies, policy, education, and infrastructure. The meeting built on a relationship between the city and SEMI Taiwan that sprouted after SEMI executives and Hsinchu officials joined ITRI to host the Autonomous Driving System Platform in Open Fields kick-off ceremony – an initiative to accelerate Taiwan’s adoption of smart transportation technologies – at SEMICON Taiwan 2019.At the meeting, Mayor Lin highlighted that Hsinchu has long attracted high-tech companies by cultivating a business-friendly climate through incentives such as subsidies for infrastructure buildouts. He hopes to work with SEMI to promote to members the benefits of setting up local offices in Hsinchu City.With both Hsinchu’s high-tech clusters and SEMI’s global members deeply reliant on skilled workers for sustaining innovation and growth, Tsao and Mayor Lin agreed that inspiring students to pursue an education and careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) is vital to building a high-tech talent pool. One collaboration opportunity SEMI Taiwan is eyeing is to launch Taiwan’s first SEMI High Tech U (HTU) program in Hsinchu to spark the interest of school-age children through STEM educational activities at school camps or art and cultural centers. SEMI’s STEM discovery program offers hands-on activities and experiential learning led by industry volunteers. Since 2002, HTU has reached some 8,000 high-school students in 12 U.S. states and nine countries.Emmy Yi is a marketing specialist at SEMI Taiwan.

The ESG MarketElectronic Gases represents the largest percentage of the spend on chemicals and materials by semiconductor producers. Taken altogether, the spend on Electronic Gases was almost $6 billion worldwide in 2018. Recent critical shortages of key gases have impacted the industry tremendously and, in some cases, has also limited output. The Electronic Specialty Gas (ESG) market, while a small segment of the global gas market, is one of the most complex and least understood market segments of the electronic chemicals and materials landscape. Linx Consulting estimates that the ESG market totaled nearly $3.4 billion in 2018, up from roughly $3.1 billion in 2017 with a growth rate of 10 percent last year. Growth was driven by rising demand and the increasing use of higher-value products in applications such as etch and specialized deposition. ESGs are used in the manufacture of electronic devices that are subsequently assembled in systems and in a variety of processes such as film deposition, film etching, substrate doping and chamber cleaning. The devices – semiconductors, LEDs, and displays – are processed on larger substrates, and then separated before assembly.Key differentiators for ESGs are not only the technical complexity of the gases and mixtures supplied, but the purity and consistency demands placed on the gas supply. Product purity and consistency, often at the limits of analytical capability, must go hand in hand with rigorous application of statistical process control in manufacturing and absolute delivery reliability. ESGs include fluorocarbons, hydrocarbons, deposition precursors, dopants, corrosives (halides/hydrates) and rare gas mixtures.The key end-use markets for ESGs include semiconductor wafer fabrication, flat panel display (FPD) manufacture, compound semiconductors / LEDs production and Photovoltaics cell manufacture, as illustrated below in Figure 1. Figure 1 - ESG Market by End-Use Applications Source: Linx Consulting The semiconductor industry is the largest user of ESGs and has the most diverse ESG requirements in terms of products, package sizes and purity requirements. The semiconductor industry uses all the different specialty gases produced. Purities are typically 4N and above and the packages can range from small cylinders to tonner/Y packages to tube trailers. The ESG market is global, with key demand centers in China, Europe, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, Taiwan and the United States. The Flat Panel Display (FPD) community is the second largest user group for ESGs. However, the breadth of ESG products used in FPD fabs is much more limited than in the semiconductor industry. Key product applications include silicon sources, dopants, oxidation and nitridation sources, chamber cleans, and etchants. ESG use has grown with the development of the FPD industry across both TFT-LCD segment and AMOLED segment, with many large end users in Korea, China, Taiwan, and Japan. Korea and China boast large ESG supply infrastructures geared towards serving the FPD industry. Early on, these countries targeted the development of the FPD industry and the associated value chain, so there has been large-scale development of required ESG products such as NF3 and silicon precursors. When we review the markets in aggregate, coupled with the geographic intensity of the electronics industry in Asia, it is unsurprising that a vast majority of the ESG market would be in Asia, as illustrated in Figure 2, below.Figure 2 - ESG Market by Key RegionSource: Linx Consulting Key ApplicationsThe applications for ESGs can be readily tied to major thin film fab processes that are commonly used in the microelectronics industry. The processes include dielectric and metal etch, dielectric deposition, metal deposition such as titanium or tungsten, deposition of non-silicon materials such as hard masks etc., dopants for thermal diffusion methods and ion implantation, reactor chamber cleaning; as well as some other specialty applications. This is illustrated in Figure 3 below. Figure 3 - Applications for ESGsSource: Linx Consulting Clearly there is a close tie-in for ESGs into thin film deposition (CVD and chamber cleaning) and etch processing. In the future, the industry will increase its use of ESGs with novel deposition and etch processes. New applications may include lower temperature deposition, high deposition rate processes, flowable CVD films for high aspect ratio structures, and high selectivity deep etching with greater uniformity. All these processes improve device performance and will rely on ESGs and rare gases as enablers. Outlook for ESGsOverall, we believe that the ESG market will grow at a compound rate of about 6 percent over the next five years. Currently the largest six suppliers – Versum Materials, SK Materials, MTG/TNS, Air Liquide, Linde/Praxair, and KDK – control about half of the overall market, with about 50 suppliers accounting for the other half of the market. We anticipate that as the industry continues to grow, we will continue to see changes in the supplier base with both continuing consolidation and new regional suppliers emerging as unique technologies and value-added capabilities enter the market.For More InformationThis article is based on insights and analysis from Linx Consulting’s Electronic Specialty Gas report. The annual report is considered the leading industry source for comprehensive information about demand for specialty gases used in the electronics industry. We track more than 60 different ESG products used across the global semiconductor, flat panel display, solar and compound semiconductor industries.For more information, please contact [email protected], or Mike Corbett at +1 973 698 2331, Mark Thirsk at +617 273 8837, or Andy Tuan + 886 952 111222, or visit Linx Consulting.Interested in engaging with the electronic materials supply chain? The Electronic Materials Group (EMG) is a SEMI technology community representing SEMI member companies that provide substrates, polymers, metals, organic and inorganic materials, chemicals, and gases developed for electronics manufacturing. Linx Consulting has been a longtime member and supporter of the SEMI Electronic Materials Group.Mike Corbett is managing partner and Andy Tuan is managing director, Asia, at Linx Consulting.

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.

Flexible hybrid electronics (FHE) is innovation and modern technology at their best, giving rise to lighter, more malleable sensors that better conform to the human body while breeding new applications across a number of markets. For the semiconductor industry, FHE technology is enabling the development of a new generation of chips with the high performance, light weight, scalability, softness and flexibility usually seen in printed electronics. The technology is a boon to chipmakers, giving them novel ways to innovate for the Internet of Things (IoT) market.“The global printed electronics market is expected to garner 14.9% GAGR from 2018 to 2023,” said Stanley Wong, Director of Asia Business Development, Brewer Science, said in his presentation at FLEX Taiwan 2019 in late May. Representatives from industry, government, academia and research institutions gathered at the event in Taipei to explore flexible electronics innovation and growth opportunities.One shining star of FHE innovation is the foldable smartphone. So bright is the future of the bendable devices that not even recent trade tensions between the United States and China have dimmed prospects for the fledgling industry.“While the US-China trade war might slow down shipments of Huawei’s phones, the industry remains bullish on foldable phones,” said Stacy Wu, Principal Analyst at IHS Markit. “When the first generation of flexible AMOLED displays was launched in 2016, the rolling radius was 3mm and it could be folded 200,000 times.”For foldable phones, the 200,000 mark was a major milestone – the industry’s consensus standard for foldable phone display reliability. The industry reasoned that phones capable of being folded and unfolded 200,000 times without distorting color or images or the display itself cracking was a safe bet for consumer adoption. Earlier this year, both Samsung and Huawei announced foldable phones using the thin-film-display technology, ushering in the era of mass-market availability of the devices. Steve Chiu, Division Director for Electronics, IC package, Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), believes that breakthroughs in the next generation of flexible AMOLED technology will allow thin films to be folded 100,000 times with a rolling radius up to 30mm and electric resistivity of less than 10 percent. The rolling radius of 30mm, 10 times higher than today’s phones, will give foldables a higher bending radius, while the lower electric resistivity will help maintain the brightness of the AMOLED panel after tens of thousands usages and extend the service life of foldable smartphones.The biggest challenge facing the foldable phone industry remains developing new materials that are flexible yet durable, stressed Francesco Lemmi, Business Development Director, Flexible Display, at DuPont. Today, the prevailing practice is to layer polyimide (PI) and hard coating on the display module. These stacked protective films replace traditional glass panels but present technical challenges related to impact resistance and the durability of the display as it is folded and unfolded over time.Smart clothing market is another hot market, with 33 percent global growth annually and revenue expected to reach US$ 3.26 billion in 2026. Yet for all the promise of smart clothing, reliability and accuracy remain a big challenge chiefly due to a lack of industry standards. Another gap is the unanswered question of whether consumers will embrace light and energy-efficient products.FLEX Taiwan 2019 speaker Satoshi Maeda of Toyobo is confident they will, pointing out that in the future consumers will enjoy a wide selection of comfortable smart clothing products and applications. The industry is still working to better understand how to develop human-machine interfaces, the essential seam between the human body (the outer layer of skin) and electronics, said Dr. Reinhold H. Dauskardt of Stanford University. Still, he sees great promise in an innovative somatosensory communications platform involving human skin. Human-computer interactions have historically been defined by human touch and vision (for example, typing at a computer keyboard and checking our monitor for the accuracy of our inputs). Dauskardt believes that, in the future, electrical impulses from the skin (conductance) will interact with signals from electronic devices to establish a more intimate human-machine interface that could be adapted one day to extend the visual and auditory abilities of humans.David M. Yeung, co-founder and CEO of Lionrock Batteries, pointed to another challenge in wearables: battery size. Today, large and heavy batteries account for 50 percent to 70 percent of the space in wearable devices, making many of the products too cumbersome to wear. Nanofiber lithium-ion batteries now under development can be as small as ultra-thin 2mm with a rolling radius of up to 20mm in radius and support for high electrical currents, significantly lightening their weight and improving comfort.Nardev Ramanathan, Lead Analyst, Digital Health and Wellness at Lux Research, predicts that, of all flexible electronics products, smart watches will win the largest market share and with the fastest rate of adoption. The devices will get a boost when they shrink as flexible batteries are integrated with the bands. The next wave of smart wearables will feature devices for exercise or medical monitoring. Already, FHE materials have led to advances in medical devices. One example is that smaller hearing aids are now possible thanks to flexible electronics and dressings used to promote skin regeneration, reduce wrinkles and remove scars.Gillian Ewers, VP Marketing at PragmatIC, sees fertile ground for FHE applications in IoT solutions. As FHE manufacturing costs drop, she believes IoT technologies will significantly deepen their penetration into a broad range of industries. For example, the number of electronic tags used in convenience stores worldwide will exceed 100 billion in 2025. Thinner than human hair and more durable than traditional wafers, these tags are expected to spawn a host of new business opportunities. FLEX Taiwan attracted more than 270 attendees from more than 30 fields including smart healthcare, e-paper, displays, system integration, automotive electronics, textiles, wearables, and avionics. On the first day of the event, industry, academia and research center representatives from the United States, Japan, China, Singapore and Taiwan gathered to discuss common goals on a range of FHE-related issues and deepen cross-regional cooperation. Like the FHE industry itself, SEMI-FlexTech remains focused on the future by strengthening cross-border cooperation to help manufacturers find killer applications and test profit-making models. For Taiwanese companies, the event will continue to provide insights on market trends, equipment, materials, advanced manufacturing technologies, product applications and new business opportunities, helping the organizations hone their competitive edge in the global market.Emmy Yi is a marketing specialist at SEMI Taiwan.

Shenyang is on an unwavering path to maturing its integrated circuit (IC) equipment manufacturing industry over the next few decades in response to the Made in China 2025 Strategy. Since the strategy’s introduction in 2015, the city, long a transportation and commercial hub of China's northeast, has built out a complete integrated circuit industrial chain integrating technical research and innovation, components and parts processing, and equipment manufacturing. Its ambition is to compete on the world stage.Shenyang has implemented policies and provided funding to support the development of its IC equipment and related industries to buttress the development of emerging industries. Speaking at the SEMI China Members Day 2019 in Shenyang, Zheng Guangwen, secretary-general of ICMTIA and Shenyang IC Equipment Industry Technology Innovation Strategic Alliance, said that the city, as a key IC equipment industry base in the upstream of China’s industrial chain, hopes to enter the international community in part by leveraging SEMI’s global platform. Zheng Guangwen, Secretary General, ICMTIA and Shenyang IC Equipment Industry Technology Innovation Strategic Alliance More than 150 representatives from member companies gathered at SEMI China Members Day 2019 to discuss China’s semiconductor industry investment and capital dynamics and semiconductor market trends. The event sought to promote stronger communication and interaction between the upstream and downstream of the semiconductor industry chain. The forum was co-sponsored by SEMI China and Shenyang Science and Technology Bureau and co-hosted by ICMTIA and Shenyang IC Equipment Industry Technology Innovation Strategic Alliance. Lung Chu, President of SEMI China Opening the event, Lung Chu, president of SEMI China, set stage for the discussion by noting that global semiconductor industry has been booming since 1957, reaching another record high of $470 billion in sales last year as it faced a critical juncture, with industry growth slowing in the first half of 2019. The slowdown was predictable and is temporary, a natural stage in the industry’s cyclicality. From a macro point of view, the development of advanced technology requires huge investment. There was an obvious gap in investment between enterprises, which often leads to the stronger become much stronger. Under these circumstances, it is very important for China to master key technologies and products during the process of catching up and surpassing. Each region should focus on its strengths.Enterprises should do their own business in a low-key way and keep a prudent and optimistic attitude. The number of SEMI China members has reached a new high. SEMI China is committed to becoming the best partner to realize China's semiconductor dreams. In promoting the development of global semiconductor industry and China's semiconductor industry, SEMI has continuously gathered strength and actively organized rich activities to promote the sustainable growth of Chinese semiconductor enterprises through international cooperation. Zhao Rigang, Director of SCTB, Shenyang Science and Technology Bureau Zhao Rigang, director of SCTB at Shenyang Science and Technology Bureau, pointed to the importance of SEMI’s pivotal role and global influence in cultivating cooperation between international and domestic industries including Shenyang’s IC sector. Speaking at the SEMI China Members Day 2019 in early June, Rigang said the growing importance of chips in China is a key catalyst for Shenyang’s rise as semiconductor sectors domestically and abroad invest heavily in a new generation of information technologies such as mobile Internet, cloud computing, big data, Internet of Things. Kang Jin, General Manager, SMIC Beijing For China’s semiconductor industry to flourish, the region must improve its IC supply capacity just as it has brought its PV industry to full maturation, said Kang Jin, general manager of SMIC Beijing. The key to developing China's integrated circuit industry, he said, lies in building a robust semiconductor supply chain. Zong Runfu, Chairman and General Manager, KINGSEMI Semiconductor Equipment Supply Chain DevelopmentLocalization has enabled KINGSEMI to optimize its technology design capabilities to produce high cost-performance equipment for greater competitive advantage, saidZong Runfu, chairman and general manager of KINGSEMI. While the localization rate of supply chain construction was over 50 percent, the localization rate for front-end equipment is still low. Zong Runfu said localization is imperative not only to lowering costs, but also to ameliorating the supply-guarantee rate, maintaining quality and shortening the delivery cycle. Russell Li, VP of Marketing and Business Development, WLCSP Packaging Solutions for 3D Active Sensing DevicesInternet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), 5G and other technologies are starting to become a part of daily life as more sensors find their way into new retail stores and smartphones, a trend that will continue as autonomous transportation begins to take hold, said Russell Liu, VP of marketing and business development at WLCSP. The move to bring more human-like capabilities to technology is driving the implementation of perception function in devices, with passive sensors giving way to active sensors and machines translating the physical world into a 3D view through the eyes of a 3D camera. What’s more, the next generation of IoT devices will feature more integrated processors including signal processors, caches, sensors, photons, RF and MEMS, bringing the challenges of miniaturization to system integration. Liu said miniaturization will only be possible by developing advanced packaging technologies that enable highly integrated processors for mobile devices and intelligent automobiles. Wang Ronghua, VP of Technology, Dalian Xinguan Technology Getting Ready for GaN Power Electronics EraGaN offers excellent performance in optoelectronics, RF and power electronics and will coexist with and complement silicon devices for years to come, said Wang Ronghua, VP of Technology at Dalian Xinguan Technology. However, the industrialization of GaN power devices still faces technical challenges in application, reliability, packaging, epitaxy, device and process – all barriers to market adoption. To overcome these hurdles, GaN power devices must meet the reliability and cost-performance requirements of applications to which they are best suited.Ronghau said that GaN power devices, such as cascade and p-GaN enhanced devices, now support end products, proof that the era of gallium nitride has arrived. “Gallium nitride is quite different from silicon in epitaxy, device design and key technology, which requires close integration of upstream and downstream industry chains for effective promotion,” he said. Billy Feng, Executive Director, J.P. Morgan Is the Semiconductor Industry Still Cyclical? Since 2008, the semiconductor cycle has waned, disrupting the traditional thinking of investors, equipment suppliers and logistics channel providers as investors’ appetite for the chip industry investments has grown, said Billy Feng, executive director at J.P. Morgan. The long-term prospects for the semiconductor industry remain bright. But after reaching historic revenue highs in 2017 and 2018, the industry – and investor expectations – will enter a period of adjustment. Dr. Adam He, Executive Director, CGP Tech Fund The unique gene of the semiconductor industry consists of the blend of its lofty requirements for quality, reliability and consistency; cooperation between upstream and downstream sectors; internationalization; and a powerful ambition to innovate, said Dr. Adam He, Executive Director of CGP Tech Fund. He described Chinese chip enterprises he often encounters as falling into one of two entrepreneurial categories – IC experts and cross-border business people. Both want the answer to "how to make money and how to establish a solid competitive position?” He said. Adam believes that accessing the genes of the semiconductor industry is the answer to both questions and crucial to the maturation of China’s chip industry. The genes must be used to strengthen the Chinese manufacturing and materials sectors. Du Shanshan, Senior Analyst, SEMI China SEMI Market Outlook: Fab Investment, Equipment and Materials Market ForecastsEmerging technologies have sparked explosive semiconductor industry growth, said Du Shanshan, a senior analyst at SEMI China. While the industry will see a slight recession in 2019 due to memory market softness, trade wars and other factors, it is on stable footing for the long run. At the same time, China continues to optimize its IC industry chain, and semiconductor design and manufacturing companies have gradually grown in number. Over the next decade, the average growth rate of China's production capacity is expected to exceed 10 percent. Richard Feldman, VP of Global Expositions and Events, SEMI Richard Feldman, vice president of Global Expositions and Events of SEMI headquarters, presented the new SEMI Asia semiconductor business development plan to members and called on companies in mainland China, Taiwan and Malaysia to participate in SEMICON Europe to strengthen the influence of globalization.After the meeting, participants visited KINGSEMI Co., Ltd., Shenyang Piotech Co., Ltd, Shenyang SIASUN Robot and Automation Co., Ltd., Shenyang Fortune Precision Equipment Co., Ltd. and SKY Technology Development Co., Ltd. The event facilitated communications between upstream and downstream companies. SEMI China Member Day 2019 Group Photo Cherry Sun is a marketing manager at SEMI China.