MEMS

The automotive industry is changing. Our vehicles are getting electrified, connected and automated. As this trend is accelerating, it’s having an impact on how semiconductor devices, including MEMS sensors, are designed and qualified for automotive. As automotive semiconductor designers carefully consider product definition, product validation, and long-term reliability, MEMS sensor suppliers are responding to new opportunities created by electrified and automated vehicles by developing inertial measurement units (IMUs) for automated driving as well as battery pressure monitoring sensors for Li-ion EV batteries. The most complex MEMS device of all The automotive MEMS IMU is probably the most complex MEMS device that will be used inside a vehicle. This type of IMU is a System-in-Package (SiP) comprised of multiple gyroscope and accelerometer sensing elements plus a signal processing ASIC, integrated into one package that creates an inertial sensor able to measure up to six degrees of freedom (6DoF): yaw, roll and pitch for rotational movements, and lateral, longitudinal and vertical acceleration for linear movements. Degrees of freedom in a vehicle For vehicles with Level 3 autonomy and above (per SAE definition), the IMU is mandatory for taking over the trajectory control of the vehicle in case other sensors, such as the camera, radar or LiDAR, become impaired. Should such a failure occur, the IMU will function as a guidance sensor to bring the car to a safe stop within a short period of time and distance. The IMU is also used to control the regular movement of the car while driving in automated mode. While IMU technology already exists for aerospace applications, there are significant challenges to adapting it for automotive. The automotive IMU requires high performance at costs that are compatible with the automotive industry. Because automotive life cycles are long, MEMS sensor suppliers must produce the device in high volume for an extended period of time. They must also guarantee the sensor’s performance and reliability over a 10- to 15-year lifetime with no maintenance or recalibration of the sensor required. Only a few MEMS suppliers have the capability and willingness to embark on this kind of journey. Electrification is creating new applications for MEMS sensors The conversion from internal combustion engines to electrified propulsion is going to affect the powertrain MEMS market. For example, pressure sensors used in engine management for air pressure and fuel pressure will simply go away with electrification. However, the use of large Li-ion batteries in electrified vehicles has created a new application for MEMS sensors. One of the known risks of Li-ion batteries is the small probability for a battery cell to go into a thermal runaway situation that will lead to a fire. The press has reported multiple cases of EV batteries catching fire. Thermal runway effects When it comes to thermal runaway events, every second counts. Detecting the event as early as possible enables the vehicle safety system to take all necessary measures to warn occupants of an imminent fire and activate timely countermeasures (e.g., trigger fire extinguisher and call fire brigade) to mitigate the impact of the fire. Published studies have shown that measuring the pressure inside the battery pack is a good indication that a thermal runaway is starting. The outgassing of a battery cell, plus a sudden rise in temperature, will increase pressure inside the battery pack, which will generate a pressure pulse. To detect such a pressure pulse, a MEMS pressure sensor must permanently measure the pressure inside the pack. It must also report to the battery management system any suspicious change in pressure, independent of atmospheric pressure changes. It’s important to keep this kind of sensor on all the time to detect any pressure anomaly in the system, even when the vehicle is completely off. NXP has developed a pressure sensor to specifically address this new safety application in EVs, and several automotive manufacturers are already using this solution. NXP battery pressure management sensor The quest for zero defects While the automotive industry is targeting zero fatalities as its ultimate goal, the semiconductor industry and module suppliers are targeting zero defects for each and every semiconductor device. For safety-critical automotive MEMS sensors complying with the Automotive Electronics Council (AEC) Q100 qualification for semiconductors, it’s necessary but clearly not sufficient to guarantee a zero defects production launch and long-term reliability of the device. To boost the reliability and robustness of automotive sensors, NXP has developed Above and Beyond (AaB), a new methodology that studies advanced reliability and robustness well ahead of the device’s qualification and production release. Based on risk-mitigation analysis, AaB consist of extensive testing, such as test-to-fail, corner lot testing, and new use-case testing combined with advanced statistics, all of which help NXP understand how these different parameters interact with each other. As sensor suppliers must integrate AaB into their project planning, it does add time and cost to the project. The upside is that this early investment pays off as long as weaknesses in the device can be detected and corrected before a production launch. Field failures, on the other hand, can lead to unplanned redesign and requalification of a device. Worst-case, they can lead to a recall campaign that costs a huge amount of money. We’re systematically using the AaB methodology at NXP for safety-critical MEMS sensors because its potential benefits far outweigh its costs. For more information about NXP MEMS sensors, register for the upcoming webinar series, MEMS to Market: Ingredients for Success, where NXP will discuss The Growing Importance of MEMS Reliability (May 5, 2021). Register by March 10 to watch all the webinars LIVE. Each webinar will also be available to watch on-demand at your convenience. Contact the author via LinkedIn or learn more about NXP sensors. About the Author With nearly 30 years of experience in the field of automotive and MEMS sensors, Marc Osajda is responsible for European automotive MEMS sensors business development activities at NXP Semiconductors. Osajda holds an engineering degree in mechanics and electronics from the French Ecole Nationale Superieure d’Arts et Métiers (ENSAM). NXP Semiconductors is an active member of MEMS Sensors Industry Group®(MSIG), a SEMI technology community that connects the MEMS and sensors supply network in established and emerging markets to enable members to grow and prosper. Visit us today.

PNI Sensor, a member of the SEMI-MSIG Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) Technical Advisory Council, is developing advanced tracking systems that promise to increase industrial worker safety.The availability of low-cost GPS jamming and spoofing technologies renders GPS-only solutions for location and navigation an increasingly dangerous and ineffective choice for the dismounted soldier in a battlefield environment. This threat to armed forces has spurred development of new self-contained location and navigation technologies for defense applications — an innovation that offers significant advantages for commercial applications.Though not as complex and mission-critical as in defense, self-contained location technology is also essential in commercially available industrial applications. That’s particularly true for workers in industrial sectors such as utilities, mining, and construction, and in environments with lone or remote workers, such as first responders. While jamming and spoofing are not a threat in the industrial sector, determining the precise location of workers in GPS-denied environments is fundamental to ensuring their safety. This makes it a priority to adapt any self-contained, non-infrastructure-based location technology — which was first developed for the modern dismounted soldier — to industrial applications.Bodies in MotionInertial solutions are very difficult to implement properly, even without the challenges uniquely created by human motion dynamics. On a construction site, for example, workers tend to cover a wide range of disciplines: supervisors, electricians, iron workers and equipment operators, among others. While performing their jobs, construction workers change locations, both indoors and outdoors, and perform dynamic motion such as crawling, ducking and climbing. These are all motions that are very difficult to model using traditional adaptive filtering techniques, which are typically applied in vehicular inertial navigation platforms, such as aircraft, ships and tanks. Even if existing inertial navigation systems could be made size, weight, power and cost (SWaP-C)-compatible to be body-worn, their performance accuracy would still need to satisfy the application’s requirements. To properly determine a worker’s precise location to ensure safety on job sites and in remote locations, we must tackle the combined challenges of SWaP-c and human dynamic motion. That’s the most effective approach for creating a complementary positioning technology that augments GPS or other infrastructure-based location systems.To address these challenges, we need to build a high-performance inertial measurement solution using commercially available MEMS inertial sensors. The issues of bias drift error and low sensitivity have traditionally made such sensors practically useless for any meaningful inertial tracking. Fortunately, this is no longer the case. We now have sensors that already conform to the necessary SWaP-C requirements for the application, and have the additional advantage of high dynamic range of measurements without saturation errors, which helps to reduce high-force and rapid movement-induced errors, promoting greater accuracy.Thus, a path forward is emerging. The current generation of high-performance MEMS gyros can now inertially track workers’ locations to step-level resolution very well for up to 30 minutes — without significant location errors due to bias or scale errors. That’s an order of magnitude better than previous generations. With the new MEMS gyros, errors typically remain less than 2% of distance travelled over that time period. Strategically applying algorithm improvements with higher levels of magnetic corrections has the potential to bring that accuracy down even lower, to less than 0.5% of distance traveled for durations of one hour or more. What’s more, the improved gyro and accelerometer bias, gain, and signal-to-noise (SNR) performance allows for better magnetic anomaly rejection. This enables finer and more sustained gyro bias corrections in the fused solution, which creates a system greater than the sum of its parts. We believe that these newer systems will promote greater worker safety at a truly affordable price.PNI Sensor, a member of the SEMI-MSIG PNT Technical Advisory Council (TAC), is developing a tracking system that combines the best elements of the newest-generation MEMS devices with an electronic compass that uses advanced magnetic anomaly detection and rejection algorithms. Based on PNI’s latest attitude and heading reference system (AHRS), the novel PNT system employs a unique Kalman algorithm that intelligently fuses its reference magnetic sensors with gyros and accelerometers. In conjunction with this work, PNI Sensor has developed advanced pedometry functionality for use in its tracking system for very high dead-reckoning tracking performance used in defense industry applications. PNI is initially designing that system to track dismounted soldiers and special forces operating in GPS-denied or contested environments.For more information about PNI Sensor’s advanced location and navigation technology, please visit PNI Sensor. To learn more about the SEMI-MSIG PNT TAC, please contact Carmelo Sansone, director, MEMS Sensors Industry Group.George Hsu is a founder and CTO of PNI Sensor. He has focused his career on the sensor industry, having invented several magnetic sensor breakthroughs, including the magneto-inductive technology, the core of today’s electronic compassing in the automotive, consumer, scientific and military markets. Hsu is a graduate of Stanford University School of Engineering, holds several patents, and is a much-published author of technical articles on sensor theory, design and applications. He is an active member of the MEMS Sensors Industry Group PNT TAC.About the SEMI-MSIG Positioning, Navigation and Timing ProjectMEMS Sensors Industry Group (MSIG) created a member-based PNT TAC to identify and pursue PNT system innovations for GPS-denied environments. To that end, MSIG solicited proposals from its membership for the SEMI-MSIG PNT Project, a U.S. Army Research Laboratory-funded R D project. PNT committee members that have secured funding are pursuing R D platforms that improve accuracy and performance. Platforms may include software, hardware, and advanced packaging requirements of optical and MEMS-based positioning and timing systems.

Connectivity. Electrification. Shared Mobility. Autonomous Driving. McKinsey Company cites these four disruptive trends behind future mobility — dynamics that could help to transform quality of life for hundreds of millions of people.McKinsey Company predicts that by 2030, mobility innovation could dynamically alter everything from safety in human locomotion to air quality, public spaces and power systems. Much the same way that tiny plankton in our oceans sustain aquatic animals, MEMS and sensors, while small, are crucial building blocks of integrated mobility.As partner at McKinsey Company, Andreas Breiter will explore this connection during his MSEC 2020 presentation, Future Mobility Enabled by Sensorization. SEMI recently caught up with Breiter to preview his October 7 talk at SEMI’s first virtual MEMS Sensors Executive Congress, October 6-8 and 13-15, 2020.Register now for MSEC 2020 and explore this topic with Breiter during the live Q A portion of his presentation.SEMI: You play a dual role at McKinsey Company, advising clients in advanced industries on capital investments and serving on the leadership team of the McKinsey Center for Future Mobility (MCFM). What is the relationship between them?Breiter: Mobility has become so much more than the auto sector. Today when we say future mobility, we’re talking about the convergence of many exciting developments influencing the ways that people and goods move around. Cars have become computers, and we now have to contemplate new frontiers, such as air taxis and electric vehicle infrastructure.Mobility is changing so quickly that it’s inspiring decision-makers from other market sectors to explore what implications it will have for them. We’re helping mining companies think about their haulers, retailers think about their footprints, and insurance companies plan for autonomous vehicles. The MCFM exists as a global think tank to focus on these frontier topics, helping to ensure we are ready for the future. During my MSEC presentation, I’ll explore how those future topics are influencing automotive mobility in the short- and long-term. The MCFM is even more forward-looking, so we’re just starting to build scenarios for what might come in 2040 and beyond.SEMI: How are changes in the mobility ecosystem affecting the automotive value chain?Breiter: In the past, the automotive value chain was clearly structured. We had sensor companies selling to Tier 1 suppliers, who would in turn sell to OEMs, who would sell directly to end customers.The value chain has grown more complex, however. In the future, we might see fleets of robotaxis, which will be owned by companies instead of by individual consumers. Already today, rideshare companies are game-changers because consumers can travel by car without owning one.Plus we see companies offer parts of the user experience such as user interfaces for automotive infotainment. In the past, everything in the car was branded by the OEM, but now we have third-party platforms that let us control some of our automotive infotainment options.SEMI: How are MEMS and sensors suppliers participating in this new value chain?Breiter: The pervasive use of sensors in cars has driven automotive OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers to work directly with suppliers, whose close involvement eases the complexity of integration. Just think about the sensors used in autonomous driving. Getting that right is safety-critical.We’re also seeing suppliers go beyond the individual component level to provide complete systems-level solutions. Advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) are a good example.SEMI: Automotive applications tends to have some of the longest design-to-delivery cycles in industry. Will this ever change?Breiter: The automotive product lifecycle was typically five-plus years, with a few years of development before that and continued service after the end of the lifecycle. That gives MEMS and sensors suppliers a 10+ year timeline on one model.With so much innovation taking place, this slow cycle won’t work forever. Over-the-air (OTA) updates, for example, enable new features when they become ready for deployment. I expect we’ll see OTA updates from many end manufacturers in coming years. SEMI: What changes do you foresee in ADAS and autonomous driving?Breiter: ADAS and autonomous features will become much more common. We’ve already witnessed this progression, with introductions first in premier models and later rolling out in more affordable vehicles. Lane-change assist and rear camera followed this path and are now pretty standard. Collision avoidance, as a safety-critical feature, is likely next in line for more widespread adoption.As for fully autonomous driving, consumers will accept that only when it becomes safer than a human driving a car.SEMI: Where is the greatest opportunity in the next five years?Breiter: Electrification of vehicles is number one. When it comes to engines, we’re moving from internal combustion to hybrid and then to electric. Since OEMs are adding sensors for the battery system, for battery management, and for electric motors, this progression represents growth opportunity for sensors suppliers – in particular for hybrid vehicles that contain both powertrain technologies.But that’s not all when it comes to sensors. Outside of powertrains, new sensors are added to enable a variety of functions, including, for example, ADAS and autonomy, as well as increased interior content, such as mood lighting.SEMI: Is there anything surprising coming, sensor-wise, in mobility?Breiter: To enable intelligent traffic systems, you need to make infrastructure smarter — which brings us to sensors. We’re going to see roads and other assets in infrastructure sense the state of traffic, sense what traffic participants are doing, and support connectivity between, for example, the infrastructure, vehicles on the ground, pedestrians on walkways and drones in the air.SEMI: What would you like MSEC attendees to take away from your presentation?Breiter: We’re living in a transformative era for the mobility industry. During the last 100 years of mobility, the ecosystem barely changed. In recent years, however, we’ve seen massive technological gains, largely enabled by semiconductors, MEMS and sensors. Instead of serving as just one of many suppliers, I’d encourage MSEC attendees to anticipate future mobility challenges so they can offer solutions to OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers accordingly.For more information, visit McKinsey Center for Future Mobility. MEMS Sensors Industry Group® (MSIG), a SEMI technology community that connects the MEMS and sensors supply network in established and emerging markets, enables members to grow and prosper. Visit us today.Andreas Breiter leads McKinsey’s capital-investment work for advanced industries in North America as well as its Center for Future Mobility on the West Coast. In his advisory work, Breiter serves a broad range of companies in the automotive sector, including car and truck manufacturers and their suppliers, as well as companies in the utilities and renewables space. He helps executives make strategic choices around product development and helps companies stay ahead of emerging trends, such as autonomous driving, connectivity, electric vehicles, and shared mobility.Andreas holds a Ph.D. in Operations Management and studied in Germany, France, the U.S. and Canada.Nishita Rao is product marketing manager at SEMI.

MEMS and image sensors are shining stars in the chip industry as technology companies worldwide accelerate innovation in the fight against COVID-19. The tiny devices are behind advances in areas of electronics ranging from thermal imaging and faster point-of-care testing to microfluidics-based polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tools and techniques to detect SARS-CoV-2.SEMI recently spoke with Yole Développement analysts Dimitrios Damianos and Chenmeijing Liang about MEMS and imaging sensors market trends and how microelectronics-enhanced technologies are supporting the worldwide push to contain the spread of COVID-19.For additional insights on the technologies, join the SEMI MEMS Imaging Sensors Summit, held for the first time at SEMICON Europa, 12-13 November 2020 in Munich, Germany. Registration is open.SEMI: Despite the global pandemic, the MEMS and sensors market is still growing and is one of the healthiest industries, not only in Europe, but globally. What is driving this growth?Damianos: MEMS have been continuously evolving from the first sensors that were measuring pressure and acceleration to rotation sensing and visible light management followed by light sensing beyond visible and the expansion to ultrasound and multi-spectral. Now we are heading towards an era where we want to sense every aspect of our environment, with more processing and eventually analytics bringing more quality to the data.COVID-19 has impacted various global markets in very different ways. While automotive, mobility and civil aviation have suffered, the impact on telecommunications and medical has been positive. The effects on the consumer, mobile and industrial markets have been moderate. Moreover, COVID-19 is changing the perception of the current global supply chain in manufacturing, potentially leading to more localized value chains and further regionalization in order to minimize similar risks posed by the pandemic and the first lockdown.SEMI: Who are the main MEMS players based on your research? Damianos: For MEMS players, the picture in 2019 was not the same as 10 years ago, when Texas Instruments (TI) and Hewlett-Packard (HP) were leading the scene, with Bosch and ST Microelectronics following, all at comparable revenue levels. Now, Broadcom and Bosch lead with almost $1.4 billion in revenue each, and the rest of the MEMS key stakeholders compete in the $400 million to $600 million league. Microphone players profited from the voice interface adoption trend, while players active in MEMS for mobility and smartphones suffered slightly due to weak end-system demand.SEMI: What scenarios can we expect for each market with regard to the impact of COVID-19 on MEMS for 2020? Damianos: For 2020, at Yole Développement we expect the consumer market to contract slightly by 2.6%, with the automotive market to dip by 27.5%, and defense and aerospace by 20.5%. For the defense market, no major effect is expected, as all major programs still run for the year. The market may experience some slight delays in deliveries due to supply chain and logistics problems. However, sensors integrated in commercial/civil aerospace applications will suffer due to the general paralysis of the air travel industry. On the positive side, telecommunications could increase by 4.7%, medical applications by 10.6%, and industrial by 11.5%.Due to the global pandemic, some types of MEMS have spiked in demand this year. For example, demand for thermopiles and microbolometers used in temperature guns and thermal cameras has increased because of the need for contactless monitoring of people’s temperatures. Moreover, microfluidics for DNA sequencing and real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) diagnostic tests for detecting COVID-19 are gaining market relevance, with the latter serving as a premier method of detecting a bacteria or virus on the molecular level with high degrees of accuracy. Furthermore, pressure and flowmeters in ventilators will grow because of huge demand by hospital intensive care units (ICUs).SEMI: What growth trends do you predict for the long haul?Damianos: In the longer term, we expect global MEMS volumes to almost double, from 24.4 billion units in 2019 to 50.8 billion units in 2025, with a 13% CAGR during the same period. The global MEMS market could reach $17.7 billion in revenue by 2025.We see a trend to more wearable devices integrating a lot of sensors but also a move to a more consumer-oriented healthcare. Moreover, everything related to voice interfaces and voice/virtual-personal assistants (VPAs) will continue to see strong growth, increasing demand for MEMS mics with better quality and high-fidelity voice capture. MEMS devices are shifting to higher accuracy, ultra-low power, embedded intelligence and possibly some bio-compatibility for medical applications.MEMS players will try to escape the commoditization cycle and deliver more value by increasing the value of the data, either grouping many sensors to create sensor hubs or by adding processing, algorithms and software. Industry players are employing strategies such as adding extra processing close to the sensor (e.g. Knowles) or ameliorating the use cases of their applications of their clients (e.g. Bosch or ST). AI on the edge seems very alluring for extra value acquisition, with many startups already working on it. Some examples include always-on-sensing (Aspinity in collaboration with Infineon, Syntiant), echolocation (IMERAI) and predictive maintenance using inertial sensors (Cartesiam). This will be the next pit stop for MEMS technology for sure. SEMI: The CMOS Image Sensor (CIS) is a cornerstone technology in the development of devices powered by machine sensing and artificial intelligence (AI) for applications such as advanced driver assistance system (ADAS). CIS powers many of the ongoing revolutions in new technical products and use cases. What is the status of the image sensors industry? Liang: Last year was exceptional with a combination of high demand and high prices due to capacity limitations. Q4 2019 went way above the forecast, and, in the end, the CIS industry reached $19.3 billion for the full year. This year, we think it will return to normal, and, despite the pandemic impact, we expect significant growth in the range of 7% to 12%. Last year’s 25% year-over-year (YOY) growth was the highest we’ve seen over the past decade. Mobile still dominates the marketplace for CIS with 69% market share. Two markets, computing (8%) and consumer (5%), are adjacent to the mobile market but progressively losing ground due to the smartphone disruption.Security, at 6% market share, will probably be the second largest CIS market in the future. Although this is an area of excellence for the emerging Chinese players, unfortunately, they could be hit by the current trade war. The automotive market did very well from 2018 to 2019 because of the numerous applications recently developed for ADAS, viewing, and in-cabin applications. Lastly, the industrial camera applications benefited from large investments in automation, especially in the semiconductor and automotive industries, but here again many uncertainties remain as these markets will reshuffle in the post COVID-19 world. SEMI: Which CIS markets are most susceptible to seasonality and the impact of COVID-19?Liang: According to our quarterly CIS monitor, automotive and security were both negatively impacted by the pandemic beyond what we expected in terms of seasonality. For computing, the situation improved just prior the lockdown. Q1 got a positive impact with high sales results for laptops and tablets, but no significant impact was seen for security equipment. For automotive, the demand for cameras was very high in Q1, which is seasonally normal, despite the decrease of car shipments that followed later. The automotive CIS market in 2020 should remain relatively flat compared to 2019 due to the higher attachment rates of cameras despite the lower number of cars produced. Consumer and industrial segments dropped in Q1, which is typical early in the year.The next five years might be a bit slow, and although we forecast growth for the next year, in the future the market share will be lower in mobile. In fact, mobile CIS growth will fall below the CIS growth average, but we will see an increase of market share for the security, automotive and industrial segments. The CIS market could reach $28 billion in 2025.At first, COVID-19 had a limited impact on the production side, as factories in China are usually closed for the New Year holiday, when the pandemic started. While supply is currently recovering, we still consider the limited impact on demand. Smartphone production for 2020 will be down 6%, but camera shipments for mobile should increase about 10% this year. Another positive trend for the mobile market is optical fingerprint implementation. Currently, high-end Android phones use this kind of technology. For 2023, we estimate optical fingerprint technology revenue to be over $1 billion.The roadmap for the automotive market is driven by camera proliferation. We’ll see 10 cameras per car and more for some high-end vehicles. Increasing demand for safety and convenience will mean more cameras per car in the future. With a strong attachment rate, the market average in automotive is around 2.0 cameras per car nowadays, and we expect the market average to reach 3.5 cameras per car in 2025. In security, Charge Coupled Device (CCD)-based cameras are nearly out of the market, as CMOS-based IP cameras are most important now.SEMI: What are current key technology trends?Liang: 3D semiconductor technology is the hot topic. CIS wafer staking technology is indeed at the center of the CIS technology race. Future applications could be AI analytics or recently developed applications on new types of CIS. So far, we have seen the introduction of variants of the CIS pixel. Global shutter (GS) and indirect Time of Flight (iToF) were recently introduced, and now direct time-of-flight (dTOF) pixels are being used in high volume. 3D semiconductor technology is a bonanza for the industry, as it allows to pack more value in a single chip. While the surface of silicon is still increasing, additional silicon is added through stacking.With COVID-19 still a problem, the endpoint for smartphones in 2020 remains uncertain. The short-term impact for CIS will be slower growth with respect to the 25% YoY of last year. The downturn in car production will be mitigated by an increased attachment rate for automotive cameras. The security market will also help maintain CIS growth.For more insights, see the following reports: Status of the MEMS Industry 2020 3D Imaging and Sensing 2020 CIS Market Monitor Q2 2020 Dimitrios Damianos is a technology and market analysts at Yole Développement covering MEMS, Sensors, Photonics and Imaging. Chenmeijing Liang is a technology and market analysts at Yole Développement covering Imaging. Serena Brischetto is senior manager of Marketing and Communications at SEMI Europe.

Humanity has survived almost unimaginable challenges over the past 5,000 years of documented human history. From war, famine and natural disasters to the first global pandemic in the last 100 years, more often than not, people have relied on one another to survive and thrive again. As the industry association representing the global microelectronics industry, SEMI has similarly made collaboration and community integral to the fabric of its organization. From helping members to succeed through the COVID-19 pandemic to facilitating member-driven industry standards around environmental health and safety, materials, and manufacturing capabilities, this approach shows members that standing together is better than standing alone.On the eve of the 50th annual SEMICON West (July 20-23, 2020) — the first virtual edition in SEMI’s history — I spoke with SEMI’s vice president of technology communities, Michael Ciesinski, about the role of SEMI in tackling big challenges through an active member community intent on solving problems through collaboration.SEMI: How long have you worked with SEMI and in what capacity?Ciesinski: In January 2016, I started my second tour at SEMI when FlexTech, the industry consortium I’d been leading, became SEMI’s first strategic partner. Nearly two years into that role, SEMI President CEO Ajit Manocha asked me to form Technology Communities to engage members with common interests. After FlexTech, we brought on the Fab Owners Alliance, then MEMS Sensors Industry Group (MSIG), and later the Electronic System Design Alliance (ESD Alliance).SEMI now has more than 20 communities in all, including Smart MedTech, Smart Data AI, Smart Manufacturing, Electronic Materials, and Integrated Packaging, Assembly and Test.SEMI: What is your role with Technology Communities — and how do members stand to benefit?Ciesinski: The leadership of Technology Communities ensures that SEMI’s benefits and services align to our members’ interests so we can provide member benefits that matter most. This spans forming communities where people hold common interests (e.g., advanced packaging) to facilitating standards that will promote intelligence in manufacturing (e.g., data standards for AI and machine learning) as well as providing R D funding.I’m especially proud that over the past three years, SEMI has brought more than $40 million in R D funding to our members, with most grants in the $500,000-$1 million range. We’ve been especially successful in securing funding in flexible hybrid electronics (FHE) through U.S. Army Research Laboratories (ARL), a model we first developed through FlexTech.Two recent recipients of FHE funding, GE Research and ITN Energy Systems, show how the grants are spawning partnership opportunities among commercial enterprises, R D organizations and universities. In developing lightweight, non-invasive wearables, including a human-performance sweat-monitoring patch that remotely analyzes sweat to detect hydration levels and other vital signs, GE Research is using key components such as sensors and lightweight batteries in its designs.ITN Energy Systems designed a flexible all-solid-state lithium battery that’s printed on light, flexible substrates to power small and incredibly thin applications.Universities are also benefiting by plugging into the SEMI ecosystem. In fact, 40-50 percent of funded projects are seeding commercialization by universities. This is another validation that SEMI’s collaborative, community approach to microelectronics is working.SEMI: Position, Timing and Navigation (PNT) is another hot area where SEMI has secured ARL funding. What makes this funding different and why is it important?Ciesinski: The PNT grant makes ARL funding available to the MEMS Sensors Industry Group (MSIG) members through SEMI for the first time. If you’ve ever lost GPS signal while coming out of a tunnel, you know how frustrating that is. For us, that’s an inconvenience, but for a healthcare worker in a remote location who’s waiting for a delivery of medication by drone, it could be life-critical. While that’s just one example of why we need PNT to operate when GPS isn’t available, I can imagine dozens of other important dual-use cases, including autonomous driving.SEMI: How else do Technology Communities benefit under SEMI?Ciesinski: Technology Communities need access to diverse resources to spur continuous innovation. Electronic Materials Group participants, for example, need to stay informed on regulations coming out of Asia, the U.S. and Europe that may affect their businesses. Where else other than SEMI can like-minded stakeholders congregate with people up and down the supply chain to determine whether industry-wide action is needed on regulation?SEMI: What is the importance of SEMI’s global footprint?Ciesinski: I’ve worked with many associations and managed major industry consortia. The clear advantage of SEMI is our global footprint. And that’s vital because microelectronics is a global industry involving a multitude of stakeholders that play essential roles in the supply chain.Let’s say you want to discuss EU regulations on hazardous chemicals. Rather than decipher these complexities alone, you can pick up the phone to speak with someone on SEMI’s European team to learn what’s critical.What if you’d like more information on the 20-plus new fabs that are going up in China? You can explore that question with our SEMI China or SEMI Industry Research and Statistics teams.SEMI: How has SEMI evolved over the years?Ciesinski: SEMI has a long history of providing what the industry cares about. We started in trade shows and pivoted to industry standards. We began with small silicon wafers and wafer carriers, and now within the span of 50 years we’re working on data-format standards that will support the application of AI and machine learning (ML) in the semiconductor industry.While highly varied today, data-format standards will help component manufacturers refine processes to create more efficient solutions. This ARL-funded program, which pairs SEMI members with the grant recipient, Cornell University, may offer dramatic gains in the productivity of semiconductor manufacturing.SEMI: How does SEMI’s approach to COVID-19 reflect core values of collaboration and community?Ciesinski: Together with Ajit Manocha, CMO Terry Tsao and other team members at SEMI, we pulled together a task force to help SEMI members navigate the pandemic.We tapped two existing groups, Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) and Information Technology Leadership (ITL) from the start, documenting their strategic and tactical approaches to help all members through the COVID-19 resource section of our website. The EHS section provides tips on facilities and meetings, employee policies, business travel and communications, while the ITL section lists insights on computing hardware for staff, licensing, networks, security and employee policies.Our EHS leadership team, which includes Entegris, Axcelis, Versum, and Intel, immediately started sharing best practices for sanitizing facilities. As a result of team meetings, SEMI EHS shared best practices on keeping the workforce remote and guidelines for returning people to work safely. From securing PPE and safeguarding employees and visitors by performing thermal scanning to outlining communications around potential employee exposures, EHS has provided meaningful resources for the benefit of all members.SEMI also took immediate steps in the area of advocacy. Our advocacy team in Washington, D.C., together with regional SEMI presidents around the world, have ensured that semiconductor facilities were and still are considered essential businesses in the U.S., Europe and Asia. That’s because microelectronics are foundational to fighting the pandemic.Microfluidics are critical to the Reverse Transcription (RT) Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests most commonly used for COVID-19. Sensors are embedded in the pulse oximeters that allow patients and healthcare professionals to monitor a vital rubric: oxygen saturation level. If oxygen saturation level drops into the low 90 percentiles or below, it may be time to go to the hospital for treatment.Microcontroller units are essential components in a wide range of hospital equipment, including the ventilators that may make the difference between life and death in the most seriously ill patients.SEMI: How can the ingenuity realized through microelectronics continue to help us tackle other big problems? Ciesinski: We have MEMS and sensors to thank for distributed intelligence, giving us the ability to put sensors anywhere, locally based in the field or in the packaging house.Food production is a prime example. Leveraging miniaturized wirelessly connected sensors, we can trace food through the entire production lifecycle, from the seed in the ground to the food in the warehouse and, ultimately, to the product that lands on the table.From larger enterprise such as IBM Food Trust to small startups, we’re using MEMS and sensors to improve crop yields so we can feed a human population that’s growing each year.There’s a sustainability piece as well. We’re using MEMS and sensors to reduce the amount of fertilizer or other nutrients or chemicals in the soil. That’s good for the environment and for the agricultural workers who labor in the fields.MEMS and sensors can also condense the time it takes to perform a specific task, conserving human resources.SEMI: Where do you think SEMI will go in the next decade?Ciesinski: Ten years from now, I believe we will still have our global footprint in place. I expect it will expand, particularly in Asia.We may also expand into new areas such as Latin America and Central America, which would provide at least two major benefits: People working in microelectronics would, I hope, have access to better quality of life. And diversifying the supply chain would allow nations and regions to have more control over the products they need, from PPE to medications, which may help us to better manage through the next pandemic.I am also hopeful that SEMI will be on the leading edge of helping our members communicate in much different fashion from what we have today. We’re already expanding beyond the paradigm of in-person meetings for standards meetings and conferences. As we move forward, I think we’ll see a hybrid solution to doing business, combining in-person meetings with virtual conferences and digital content that’s available 24/7.Whatever changes we see in SEMI, I’m confident that we will continue to see a global footprint in an industry association that prioritizes connections among members.Engage in the SEMI experience at upcoming SEMICON WestRegister today to hear from keynote speakers such as environmental advocate and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, futurist and author Steve Brown, and IBM Research senior vice president and director Dr. John E. Kelly III, and Lea Gabrielle, special envoy of the Global Engagement Center for the U.S. State Department, at SEMICON West , July 20-23, 2020. Content will be live streamed and available on-demand. Michael Ciesinski is vice president of Technology Communities for SEMI, the global microelectronics industry association, appointed in August 2018. At SEMI, he directs activity for more than 20 industry groups, oversees the association’s R D funding program, and develops new technology initiatives to serve SEMI’s 2,400 members. Prior to re-joining SEMI, Ciesinski was president/CEO of FlexTech Alliance, an industry consortium focused on new methods of creating electronics. From 1995-2008, Ciesinski served in a similar role at the U.S. Display Consortium (USDC), a private/public partnership chartered with building the infrastructure for electronic display and flexible electronics manufacturing. Both FlexTech and USDC annually sponsor multimillion dollar technology development programs and provide industry technical, financial and market services. Ciesinski is a graduate of the University of Albany, NY, and a former member of the Dean’s Advisory Committee at California Polytechnic State University.Maria Vetrano is a PR consultant at SEMI.

The COVID-19 pandemic has inflicted major impacts on manufacturing operations worldwide including in the semiconductor industry. The virus has left millions of people confined to their homes, resulting in a massive shift to virtual work and online engagement. In Singapore, where AEM is headquartered, our management team took proactive measures to protect our workers by implementing best practices ahead of the Singapore Circuit Breakers.AEM is globally deemed an essential service, requiring us to maintain operations and minimize impact to our customers. Business continuity plans that include work-from-home and safe-distancing guidelines are in place. As of the time of this writing, we are very fortunate that all of our employees are safe and that we’ve seen only minimal impacts to our customer commitments. AEM has confined this impact by spreading operational risks across our facilities in Asia, Europe, the U.S. and divisions in Singapore, Malaysia, China, North America, Central America, Finland, France and Vietnam. All told, these facilities employ more than 550 people (Figure 1).Figure 1 – AEM Global Presence As a global leader, AEM offers application-specific intelligent system-level test and handling solutions for semiconductor and electronics companies that serve the advanced computing, 5G communications and artificial intelligence (AI) markets.Leveraging our decade of experience, the latest AMPS solutions provide asynchronous, modular, massively parallel and smart system-level testing to meet the new test challenges of complex ICs. The modularity and scalability of these systems enables customers to scale their existing engineering device validation solutions into high-volume, massively parallel production solutions that increase faults coverage, reduces time to market, and decreases cost of test and ownership (Figure 2).Figure 2 – AMPS System-Level Test Solution In meeting 5G infrastructure test needs, AEM developed a field-deployable fiber optics tester. Called WideOptix SR4, the system was initially developed in collaboration with a world leader to support the 5G fiber infrastructure deployment in China and has now been adopted for some Ethernet standards testing. With our WideOptix SR4 development, we cultivated Silicon Photonics (SiPh) testing expertise that complements our AMPS system-level test capability. As part of our business continuation and risk diversifications plan, we had also set up factories in Penang (5,200m2) and Suzhou (3,600m2). Penang’s rising influence in the Southeast Asia semiconductor industry has prompted AMM (AEM Malaysia) to expand its scope to include value-added services with a Center of SSD Excellence and Center of Photonic Excellence.ASZ (AEM Suzhou) will continue to focus on the domestic market in China for further expansion and penetration with products ranging from cost-sensitive testers to state-of-the-art test measurement instruments. In Europe, AEM is focused on wafer-level test and cost-effective ATE test solutions. Finland-based AFORE specializes in MEMS and application-specific wafer testing with the ability to add physical stimulus. The company's state-of-the-art instruments enable the testing of devices such as diced IMU’s (Inertia and Motion Units) in continuous rotation on a wafer mounting ring. Our process increased test throughput by 3X compared to the traditional pick-and-place methods (Figure 3).Figure 3 – Wafer-Level Test Throughput Advantage A specialist in application-specific wafer handling, AFORE developed its latest design to support quantum computing in collaboration with its partner BLUE FORS. The company’s probing equipment features a handling solution with temperature tolerances to 2K (-270’C) to support cryogenic testing (Figure 4).Figure 4 – Cryogenic Quantum Computing Probing Solution AFORE also gained critical insights into creating total darkness, enabling us to further explore opportunities for dark matter testing. AFORE is currently in talks with a member of the LUX Photonics Consortium funded by the National Research Foundation (Singapore) to provide a dark body testing environment and handling for its IR detectors.In Europe, our acquisition of Mu-TEST in France helps diversify our product and service offerings while spreading our business continuity risks. Mu-TEST enjoys collective test-development experience of more than 320 man-years thanks to various ATE suppliers including Schlumberger and Credence. To help combat rising costs of traditional ATE, Mu-TEST developed cost-effective solutions using FPGA-based instruments supported by a full suite of test development, debug and production test software with links to EDA and standard interfaces. This provides Mu-TEST an agile platform that can be easily re-configured for different customer needs.This Mu-Test acquisition expands AEM’s system-level testing capability to include Functional Test, allowing BIST, SCAN, JTAG to test structural failures and perform other application-level test that interface directly with the DUT using the EVM (Electronics Validation) boards to increase fault coverage within the same test environment. Mu-TEST has also enabled AEM to form the recent partnership with UTAC to develop a cost-effective CIS test solution that addresses UTAC’s test needs and complements its CIS advanced packaging solutions. Our U.S. headquarters based in Chandler, Arizona has expanded its capabilities to provide application engineering.In summary, AEM has been expanding its global footprint while managing risk and has been fortunate to be positioned to manage the recent COVID-19 excursions. While each geographical location specializes in core technologies, all sites have access to one another’s manufacturing facilities in times of need and a pool of IP available to address new opportunities. We believe this risk diversification positions us well to serve the needs and interests of our customers worldwide.Lo Wee Tick is Director, Business Development, and Stuart Pearce is Senior Director, Field Marketing, at AEM Holdings Ltd.

As the body’s largest organ, skin is responsible for the transduction of a vast amount of information. This conformable, stretchable, self-healable and biodegradable material simultaneously collects signals from external stimuli, which translates into information such as pressure, pain and temperature. The development of electronic materials, inspired by the complexity of this organ, offers a tremendous unrealized materials’ challenge. Fortunately, the advent of organic-based electronic materials may offer a solution to this longstanding problem.Zhenan Bao, K.K. Lee Professor of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University, is one of the world’s leading researchers working on the design of organic electronic materials that mimic skin functions. SEMI’s Maria Vetrano interviewed professor Bao to preview her February 25 keynote, Skin-Inspired Electronics, at FLEX|MEMS Sensors Technical Congress (MSTC) 2020, February 24-27, 2020, at the DoubleTree by Hilton in San Jose, California.Join us at FLEX|MSTC to meet Professor Bao and other industry influencers furthering innovation in flexible hybrid electronics (FHE) and MEMS sensors. Register now to connect with her at FLEX|MSTC or visit her on LinkedIn.SEMI: Your pioneering work on the use of electronic materials to construct second skin is a major step forward in human-machine interfaces. Could you please describe second skin?Bao: Second skin is a new electronic-device platform encompassing electronic devices that have skin-like properties such as stretchability, self‐healing ability, biocompatibility and biodegradability. In essence, the second skin is an electronic system of fully integrated multifunctional components operating on the surface of or inside the body to enable smart healthcare for disease prevention and treatment and to enhance the functional capabilities of natural skin. The second skin could also serve as a module to connect our human body to the Internet, thereby allowing human integration with the Internet of Things (IoT) for next‐generation wireless communications. In this way, we can view the second skin as an artificial body part that can be used to improve our everyday lives.SEMI: How might second skin operate in the human body?Bao: It has many potential uses. It could be a prosthesis for people who have lost their sense of touch. It could be used to repair damaged skin as well as to provide enhanced functionality that’s not possible with biological human skin. It could, for example, connect us with our external environment, with other people, even with our cars.I can also envision second skin as an implantable device for both neurostimulation and for early detection of disease. Schematic illustration of structure of second skin composed of functional devices: sensor, integrated circuit, display and power supply. Source: Stanford University SEMI: How did you get started in this research? Bao: Sixteen years ago when I started at Stanford, I learned of a colleague in mechanical engineering who was working on robotic cockroaches. That’s when I understood the need for sensor functions in robotics.I considered the large number of people with prosthetics who do not have a sense of touch. With this audience in mind, I started by designing a simple flexible electronic device that could take the shape of skin, even conforming to a robot hand, thereby approximating the natural sense of human touch.Once we developed the first sensor, and realized that its touch sensitivity could eclipse that of human touch, I asked myself: what can we learn from second skin – in addition to its sensing functionality?Skin is not just flexible; it is biodegradable and stretchable. So we started to dream. We began by developing electronic materials, either conductors or semiconductors. We added new functionality, such as self-healing properties, biodegradability and stretchability. That opened the way to new materials’ development.SEMI: What discoveries have you made in new materials?Bao: Over the past decade, we’ve developed skin-like materials with electronic properties that are on par with the best conducting and semiconducting polymers. Some of our skin-like semiconducting polymers can perform even better than amorphous silicon. That means with suitable processing methods, we can make stretchable ICs, initially with tens of transistors that can perform analog or digital functions, and in a later stage, stretchable displays driven by active matrix arrays.SEMI: What would it take to put these materials into production?Bao: We need to develop methods to pattern the skin-like electronic materials into fine features. We have been leveraging similar processes used for flexible circuit boards. Some research groups are developing roll-to-roll fabrication and printing methods.SEMI: Which technologies/applications are you commercializing?Bao: C3Nano is a Bao Research Group spin-off startup that is commercializing nanomaterials that are promising for bendable and foldable electronics.Another spin-off that is licensing our technology, PyrAmes, is developing a continuously non-invasive blood-pressure monitor. It’s not a cuff so the patient doesn’t have to remember to put it on.In the shorter term, we’re looking at putting artificial skin on prosthetic limbs and robotic hands. Further down the road, we could put skin on wounded regions of the body, forging connections to nerves that would support realistic sensation.To realize these applications, we’ll need to conduct further R D on materials and applications. The manufacturing of these devices still needs much more development.Fortunately, we’re part of a fertile development ecosystem at Stanford. I started the Stanford Wearable Electronics Initiative (eWEAR) to forge collaborations across Stanford campus as well as with industry.SEMI: What would you like FLEX|MSTC attendees to take away from your presentation?Bao: I’d like them to realize that the future of electronics is changing. I imagine a future in which the functions of a smartphone will disappear into what we wear, what we attach to our skin and what we implant inside our body. I believe that skin-like electronics will help to facilitate this future, allowing us to connect with each other and our surroundings in ways that feel natural, yet that also enhance our quality of life. Zhenan Bao is K.K. Lee Professor of Chemical Engineering with courtesy appointments in Chemistry and Material Science and Engineering at Stanford University. She founded the Stanford Wearable Electronics Initiate (eWEAR) and serves as the faculty director. Prior to joining Stanford in 2004, she was a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff at Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies from 1995 to 2004.Bao has over 500 refereed publications and over 65 U.S. patents with a Google Scholar H-Index 155. In her recent work, she has developed skin-inspired organic electronic materials, which have resulted in unprecedented performance or functions in medical devices, energy storage and environmental applications. She has pioneered several important design concepts for organic electronic materials. Her work has enabled flexible electronic circuits and displays.For more information on professor Bao’s research, visit Bao Research Group. FLEX|MSTC is organized MEMS Sensors Industry Group (MSIG) and FlexTech, SEMI technology communities focused on the growth of MEMS sensors and the flexible electronics supply chain, respectively. Maria Vetrano is a public relations consultant at SEMI.

MEMS technology has changed human interaction with electronic devices. Introduced in the 1990s, the first mass-market MEMS devices were used for inkjet printheads and automotive airbag crash sensors. Today, MEMS are ubiquitous, with billions of the tiny devices adding intelligence and interactivity to smartphones, smart speakers, wearables, automobiles, biomedical devices, remote monitoring and event detection systems, and countless other applications. Integrating MEMS with Flexible Hybrid Electronics (FHE) is an important step in the evolution of this miniaturized intelligent sensing technology, paving the way for its use in new classes of flexible, conformal devices.The integration of the two technologies promises to breed new applications in small form factors but also presents challenges inherent to FHE design and fabrication processes. SEMI’s Nishita Rao caught up with Nathan Pretorius, prototyping and automation engineer, NextFlex, to discuss MEMS-FHE device integration challenges and opportunities ahead of his February 26 presentation, Integrating MEMS Devices in FHE, at FLEX|MEMS Sensors Technical Congress (MSTC) 2020, February 24-27, 2020, at the DoubleTree by Hilton in San Jose, California.Join us at FLEX|MSTC to meet Nathan and other industry influencers advancing innovation in FHE and MEMS sensors. Register now to connect with him at FLEX|MSTC or visit him on LinkedIn.SEMI: Why is integrating MEMS devices into FHE systems important? What new use cases might it enable?Pretorius: The main value proposition of integrating MEMS devices into FHE is that it allows MEMS devices to exist in a different form factor than was possible previously, giving us high-quality MEMS sensors on the flexible and conformable platform of FHE.Ease of application, flexibility, lower cost and rapid iteration on a design are just some of the benefits of FHE devices. And because there are few robust FHE sensors that overlap with MEMS’ capabilities, when you combine the two, you get a lot of compelling uses. That’s why NextFlex is working with agencies and companies to evaluate MEMS’ integration, including using bare MEMS die with microfluidics and promoting new ways of attaching and packaging MEMS die for use with FHE. SEMI: Why is FHE an ideal platform for integrating various types of sensors?Pretorius: MEMS integrated with FHE devices are ideal for rapid design and deployment of data-gathering sensor nodes — which we can iterate for specific applications. A few examples include on-body health monitoring devices for bio-fluids analysis, medical pressure sensors for monitoring blood pressure, and peel-and-stick sensors nodes for infrastructure monitoring. In terms of design and production, FHE devices support rapid prototyping, allowing for instantaneous design-iteration cycles. This speeds design-to-production over traditional rigid PCBs and copper flex because the feedback cycle time between design, manufacturing and testing is shorter, accelerating time to market. What’s exciting about FHE technology is that a variety of sensors or components, including MEMS, can be designed into the base system to easily customize it for a specific application. In addition, our experience shows that when compared to a traditional rigid PCB, an FHE board reduces manufacturing steps and device weight by two-thirds and, perhaps most importantly, converts the device to a thin, conformal shape that makes possible products in new form factors. SEMI: What are the primary challenges to integrating MEMS with FHE? What is NextFlex doing to help device manufacturers address these challenges? Pretorius: There are a few challenges, some of which are device-specific. Most recently, I’ve been focusing on inertial and timing devices, including accelerometers, gyroscopes and resonators. There are a few technical challenges involved in the process of getting the devices from the wafer to an FHE substrate. The wafer processing is very important, especially the dicing and thinning steps. After thinning and dicing, the die is placed onto the FHE substrate. The stresses caused by bonding to the substrate have to be understood and characterized. After placing the die, you then have a calibration step, which is normally performed after the device is packaged. With a MEMS die placed onto directly onto an FHE substrate, calibration then must be done.Finally, the device encapsulation is important, since on an FHE substrate the hard-to-soft material transition is very important to mitigate stresses to rigid component interfaces. We have also been looking at how to work with devices that have damping vents. Flexible encapsulants are inherently more permeable to gases and water vapor than hard encapsulants, so studying the encapsulation of MEMS devices on FHE is another area of interest. NextFlex has been working in a supporting role to evaluate best design practices and best attach and integration methods. In addition to our ongoing collaborative programs, NextFlex is developing the FHE manufacturing ecosystem to include system and component manufacturers and designers, product developers, and materials and equipment providers.SEMI: How do we facilitate closer collaboration between the FHE manufacturing ecosystem and MEMS suppliers such as MEMS device manufacturers, product developers, and materials and equipment providers?Pretorius: It’s important to include manufacturers early in the design process so we can identify challenges up front. That’s why NextFlex spearheads technology road-mapping efforts that include representatives from across the manufacturing ecosystem. We use the roadmaps to prioritize challenges that we can address effectively through collaboration, focusing the industry on solving problems through Project Calls that reveal integration challenges and results from real devices and that tell us how the materials and equipment actually perform with a real device.NextFlex keeps the information flowing, holding quarterly project update webinars to share results. As current devices are optimized for the process in which they will be used, we learn a lot from the project performers who make FHE system demonstrators — and we share that information with the member community. SEMI: Can you point to an example of a successful MEMS-FHE device integration?Pretorius: MEMS-FHE integration is still in the early stages, but we are working on several projects including a DARPA Seedling project for which we have integrated MEMS sensors into FHE systems for testing and evaluation. We plan to continue this work by integrating MEMS and FHE devices using methods that support mass production.SEMI: What would you like FLEX|MSTC attendees to take away from your presentation?Pretorius: We would like to see the FHE community work more closely with MEMS device manufacturers. For example, NextFlex often works with manufacturers to gain access to bare die, which is still a significant hurdle in making devices.The best way to speed things along is to get involved. We encourage FLEX|MSTC attendees to join NextFlex. As a prototyping and automation engineer at NextFlex, Nathan Pretorius explores new print methods for prototyping and automation using novel materials and processes. Pretorius currently focuses on how best to apply software scripting and machine learning to streamline FHE processes. Prior to joining NextFlex, he researched the strengths of roll to roll and screen printing on printed electronics designs, including capacitive touch interfaces, FHE passive component design, and antennas. Nathan holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Graphic Communications from Clemson University. FLEX|MSTC is organized MEMS Sensors Industry Group (MSIG) and FlexTech, SEMI technology communities focused on the growth of MEMS sensors and the flexible electronics supply chain, respectively.Nishita Rao is marketing manager for technology communities at SEMI.

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd (VTT) has its sights set high. As a leading global research and development firm , VTT is out to produce bio-interfacing and biodegradable flexible hybrid electronics (FHE) devices that help tackle some of the world’s greatest challenges including environmental degradation and food scarcity.SEMI’s Maria Vetrano interviewed Antti Vasara, president and CEO of VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, to preview his February 25 keynote, Beyond Flexible Hybrid Electronics: Biodegradable Electronics and Interfacing Bio+Electronics, at FLEX|MEMS Sensors Technical Congress (MSTC) 2020, February 24-27 at the DoubleTree by Hilton in San Jose, California. Join us at FLEX|MSTC to meet Antti and other industry influencers driving innovation in flexible hybrid electronics (FHE) and MEMS sensors. Register now to connect with him at FLEX|MSTC or visit him on LinkedIn.SEMI: What is body-interfacing electronics and what is your vision for bio-interfacing and biodegradable electronics?Vasara: Body-interfacing electronics have existed for decades. Developed in the 1970s, the wireless heart rate monitor is a good example. While continuous heart monitoring with a compact, inexpensive wearable device is widely accessible technology, other bodily parameters, such as cholesterol levels or biomarkers, are diagnosed every time we see a doctor. Establishing a baseline using multiple measurements — before symptoms develop is actually much more effective.That’s where bio-interfacing comes in. Bio-interfacing devices will continuously measure and analyze complex biogenic substances such as sweat, breath, blood and urine. A smart patch for continuous sweat monitoring, for example, would overcome several challenges: supporting electronics functionality in liquid environments, managing the transport of harvested samples to and from the sensor, managing potential contamination, and disposing of samples after measurement.While FHE in principle delivers the right building blocks and is an ideal form factor for a wearable sweat analytics patch, flexible circuits are not ready for out-of-the box interaction with biological matrices. Hence, our mission at VTT is to anticipate and develop the upscaling process know-how required for FHE devices that either interface with biological systems — or that must themselves biodegrade.We’re also focusing on biodegradable electronics because environmentally conscious end-users and manufacturing companies want biodegradable versions of energy-autonomous, label- or sticker-like Internet of Things (IoT) sensors. Typically used for packaging, logistics, environmental monitoring and medical diagnostics applications, these sensors — which have a lifetime of a few days, weeks or months — have become very popular. Unless they are biodegradable, however, they just add to landfill.SEMI: What approaches is VTT using to develop bio-interfacing and biodegradable electronics?Vasara: In our Business Finland-funded ECOtronics project, we are working with our partners to create recyclable and compostable electronics and optics that use renewable resources. For example, devices developed using substrate materials like paper, cardboard or VTT’s in-house-developed nanocellulose films and biopolymer films for environmental monitoring or skin patches can be easily recycled or even biodegrade naturally. Where possible, we use roll-to-roll printing to generate the device circuitry, and on a component level, we have optimized our assembly process towards bare-die component bonding to reduce the overall footprint of non-biodegradable waste per device.SEMI: What use cases do you find most promising and why?Vasara: A prominent example of a single-use test that generates a large amount of waste is the digital pregnancy test. When breaking it down into components, you will find a rigid circuit board with microprocessor, a couple of coin cell batteries, a liquid crystal display, a LED light source and photodiode, and a large chunk of plastic packaging around it. The materials and battery capacity of such a device would be sufficient to run hundreds of pregnancy tests – actually technical overkill.By using printed circuits on biodegradable substrates, bare-die assembled components (ASIC, LED light sources, photo diodes, thin film batteries as power sources) and device packaging composed of biodegradable plastics, we can completely redefine the environmental footprint of single-use tests. We are currently developing a toolbox for our customers to turn their existing conventional test into an ecotronic form factor.Another exciting use case is a sweat sensor that we developed collaboratively with Ali Javey, Ph.D., professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, UC Berkeley, and the co-director of Berkeley Sensor and Actuator Center (BSAC). Together with his team, we created a wearable electrochemical sensor for continuous sweat analysis during exercise. With the UC Berkeley group providing the chemistry to monitor N+, K+ ion and hydration levels in sweat over the duration of several hours, VTT delivered the underlying sensor platform, featuring the printed sensor electrodes and sweat harvesting microfluidic channels for fluid management and transport. It’s exciting to see what we can achieve by combining techniques from different disciplines, in this case electrochemistry, printing, packaging and microelectronics.SEMI: How can industry enable the development/manufacture of flexible FHE devices? Where does VTT fit into the ecosystem?Vasara: As many FHE devices target large-volume markets, scalability of manufacturing is key: How can I get from one device (= working prototype) to a handful of devices (= feasibility study), to thousands (= pilot manufacturing), to a million (= mass manufacturing) without compromising the quality of the system’s performance and reliability?Access to upscaling infrastructure is essential for the development of novel FHE devices and methods, but infrastructure is expensive. That’s where our establishment of a roll-to-roll pilot printing line to bridge the gap between laboratory R D and mass manufacturing has proved invaluable. We can provide a unique worldwide upscaling infrastructure for advanced FHE devices, with a strong focus on large-area roll-to-roll processes and hybrid assembly. This service removes our customers’ burden of high infrastructure investment in early development stages and it allows us to guide customers along their development path, from prototype to mass production.Watch our video: VTT pilot manufacturing for diagnostics and wearablesSEMI: Is there anything else that device manufacturers need to know in order to succeed?Vasara: In my eyes, the success of FHE devices eventually depends on several factors: It requires a high degree of automation, well-optimized processes, reliable supply chains, and perhaps most importantly, clear standards and rules for designers to guarantee flawless interoperability of all the different elements on a flexible and hybrid circuit. Let us not forget – we are trying to marry electronics with printing, biology, packaging, microfluidics, injection molding and other fields of expertise.We recently finalized the compilation of a set of design rules for publication in our state-of-the-art overview of printed and hybrid electronics manufacturing methods. You can download the overview, PrintoCent Handbook, for free.SEMI: What would you like FLEX|MSTC attendees to take away from your presentation?Vasara: The latest technologies and innovations in microelectronics, MEMS, printing, materials, and biosensors provide us a toolbox for true innovation in the FHE space. Now we need cross-disciplinary thinking and daring steps to combine different manufacturing methods and skill-sets. The ideal cross-disciplinary team might include: The printing engineer who knows how to design contact pads for a bare-die IC assembly The biologist who knows about the thermal and mechanical stress in a printing environment to design processes for bio-functionalization of surfaces The electronics engineer who knows how to optimize a circuit powered with an enzymatic biofuel cell The number of sensors deployed on (or inside) our body, in our drinking water, in our cars, on our fields, in our pets, and everyday products will surely grow. Let us make sure they leave the smallest environmental footprint possible.Antti Vasara, Ph.D. has been the president and CEO of VTT Ltd since 2015. VTT is a visionary research, development and innovation partner with over 2000 people and a turnover exceeding 250M EURO. Vasara is president of EARTO (European Association of Research and Technology Organisations) and is chairman of the board of Palta (Finnish Service Sector Employers). In addition, he is a non-executive director of Elisa Oyj (largest communications operator in Finland) and a board member at EK (Finnish Confederation of Industries).He has served on several high-profile groups on industrial and innovation policy of the European Commission, in addition to several groups in Finland on artificial intelligence and research policy. Previously, Vasara spent close to 25 years in private industry, working at Nokia, Tieto, SmartTrust and McKinsey Company. Earlier in his career, he was a researcher in optical communications with 20+ peer-reviewed articles and one international patent. Vasara holds a Doctor of Science (Technology) degree from Aalto University in Finland.For more information about VTT’s work in bio-interfacing and biodegradable FHE devices, visit VTT Research. FLEX|MSTC is organized MEMS Sensors Industry Group (MSIG) and FlexTech, SEMI technology communities focused on the growth of MEMS sensors and the flexible electronics supply chain, respectively.Maria Vetrano is a public relations consultant at SEMI.

Part 2 of 2-part series on MSEC 2019 highlights. Read Part 1. Neural Networks on ChipTo be sure, low power is king when bringing machine learning to the sensor edge. Battery-powered, always-on sensing devices require it since frequent recharging is the death knell of any electronic product. That’s why semiconductor companies are offering new ways to conserve power.“MEMS sensor suppliers have made significant strides in the power, size and performance of their devices,” said Aspinity CEO Tom Doyle. “Yet these gains deliver only incremental power improvements to the system.”Doyle advocates a new architectural model that uses an analog neuromorphic processor to analyze all sensor data at the start of the signal chain instead of sending it downstream so power-hungry chips such as DSPs can digitize it before analysis.“The technology industry wants to take advantage of the many benefits of always-on sensing applications,” said Doyle. “Before we can reach mass proliferation, however, we need to resolve the power issues that are deal-breakers for some applications. We believe the answer to this challenge is architectural. All the data gathered by always-on sensing systems is analog in nature, yet as soon as it’s captured, it’s digitized immediately for analysis. Determining which data is important up front eliminates the digitization and processing of irrelevant data so that voice-first devices such as smart speakers and wearables/hearables can run for long periods of time without requiring battery recharge.”Syntiant CTO Jeremy Holleman agreed that on-device intelligence is the future.“Did you just fall? Is your heartrate a bit off? Deep learning provides a toolset that yields vastly superior decisions,” said Holleman. “The problem is that deep learning is computationally intensive. The answer is a neural network that performs on-device edge inferencing.”Holleman added that Syntiant’s neural decision processor was recently certified as Amazon Voice Service (AVS)-compliant for wake-word detection, making it easier to design voice control in battery-powered devices such as earbuds and wearables.MSEC Technology Showcase WinnerWith the groundswell of interest in intelligence at the edge, it was no surprise that Cartesiam won top honors among all competitors in the MSEC Technology Showcase for its NanoEdge AI, software that brings AI to the edge of the signal chain, making it easier for designers to create intelligent objects that can learn and understand.“Unlike other AI algorithmic technologies for sensing devices, NanoEdge enables both learning and inference at the edge, providing accurate and adaptive intelligence,” said Cartesiam Managing Director and Co-founder Marc Dupaquier, who accepted the award. “It’s also the only tool of its kind that does not require data scientists on board for implementation, which saves a tremendous amount of money. Our clients can build a machine learning library and embed it into their own code within weeks to realize the same caliber of unsupervised neural network that was once the exclusive domain of AI cloud vendors.”MSIG 2019 Hall of FameAt this year’s conference, MSIG Director Carmelo Sansone recognized two longtime contributors to the commercialization of MEMS and sensors: Peter G. Hartwell, Ph.D., chief technology officer at InvenSense, a TDK group company; and Thomas Kenny, professor and senior associate dean of engineering at Stanford University.Hartwell leads technology strategy and the InvenSense advanced technology research group. He has more than 25 years’ experience commercializing silicon MEMS products, including advanced sensors and actuators, and developing MEMS testing techniques.Kenny’s academic accomplishments include authoring or co-authoring more than 250 scientific papers and holding 50 issued patents. He has also advised more than 50 graduated Ph.D. students from Stanford.MSEC 2020Mark your calendar for next year’s MSEC, October 12-14, at Coronado Island Marriott Resort Spa in Coronado, Calif. Get updates from MSIG on MSEC and other upcoming events including MSTC 2020.Stay in Touch with MSIGMEMS Sensors Industry Group (MSIG), a SEMI Strategic Association Partner, is the industry association representing the global MEMS and sensors supply chain. To learn how MSIG enables professionals in the MEMS and sensors industry to innovate, address common challenges and accelerate business results, visit us today.Connect with MSIG on Twitter and LinkedIn. Subscribe to SEMI Blog: Technology and Trends.Maria Vetrano is a public relations consultant at SEMI.