TDK

More consumer and industrial products may emit volatiles that now are known to be harmful, including furniture, passenger cars, and industrial trucks. Interest in detecting and measuring the gaseous pollutants is growing in order to create effective responses to reduce or eliminate health risks. 

To help build the MEMS and sensors industry’s understanding of the Smart City challenges facing city technical and management personnel (and their integrators), MSIG held an invitation-only Sensorize Your City workshop for sensor device manufacturers and integrators on April 5 in Columbus OH.

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.

Part of 1 of 2-part series on MSEC 2019 highlights. Read Part 2. MEMS and sensors are proliferating across consumer, automotive, biomedical/healthcare, robotics, industrial and agriculture applications to harvest sensory data in a hyper-connected world and meet demand from consumers and organizations alike as they clamor for more intelligence in electronics.Take the ubiquitous iPhone. Shipped in 2007, Apple’s first iPhone sported five sensors. By contrast, the most feature-packed smartphones will embed up to 20 sensors by 2021, according to Yole Développement’s Jérôme Azémar. He estimates that the devices will feature four MEMS microphones, four CMOS image sensors (CIS), a RGB color sensor, a laser rangefinder, an infrared sensor, a gas sensor, a heart rate monitor and a fingerprint sensor, not to mention the MEMS inertial sensors that device users have come to know and trust.The MEMS market is expected to reach $18.5 billion in 2024 [1], up a whopping 60 percent from $11.6 billion in 2018, according to Azémar, who presented at MEMS Sensors Industry Group’s 15th annual MEMS Sensors Executive Congress (MSEC) in late October in Coronado, Calif. Add other types of sensors to the mix – CIS, environmental sensors, LiDARs, radars, ultrasonics, and fingerprint sensors – and the market will mushroom to $93 billion by 2024, said Azémar.Since MEMS Sensors Industry Group (MSIG) joined SEMI as a Strategic Association Partner three years ago, SEMI has expanded its MEMS and sensors programs to Europe and Asia while continuing to grow its U.S. conferences. “SEMI is continually investing in MEMS and sensors innovation across the supply chain,” said Dave Anderson, president of SEMI Americas and host of MSEC. “For example, MSIG is contributing to the development of the Heterogeneous Integration Roadmap, an initiative designed to drive heterogeneous integration technology development and accelerate electronics innovation. The roadmap spans device design, test and fabrication, ecosystem development, R D, equipment and materials. “At MSEC, executives and other speakers explored how AI and blockchain are remaking the food supply chain, air transportation and other sectors as MEMS and sensors improve the quality of our lives,” said Anderson.Sensing at the EdgeThe concept of artificial intelligence (AI), that a machine can harness intelligence that rivals or outperforms humans – and act without human intervention – has been a feature of the human imagination since at least the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey. MEMS and sensors facilitate intelligence in a wide range of electronics such as smartphones, healthcare wearables, robots, industrial predictive maintenance systems, and cars. AI is sure to augment that functionality.MEMS and sensors are now in their third wave of evolution, a focus on edge AI, Bosch Sensortec CEO and General Manager Stefan Finkbeiner told MSEC attendees. For its part, Bosch is working to add AI to MEMS devices. The first wave integrated software with MEMS sensors, and the second, sensor fusion, enabled designers to allocate performance and power strategically to tune MEMS for resource-constrained devices. The third wave is “an active-learning phase in which MEMS facilitates real-time learning at the edge to promote greater personalization, environmental feedback, privacy of user data and improved battery life,” said Finkbeiner.Small sensor nodes with edge AI exemplify third-wave applications. Integrating low-power environmental sensors (e.g., gas, temperature, pressure, humidity and air-flow sensors), the nodes could be deployed in fire-prone forests to assess fire risk and support early detection. Access to this real-time environmental information could prove invaluable to residents and public-safety personnel alike.Google takes another tack, applying machine learning to resource-constrained devices, said Nick Kreeger, a senior software engineer at the Internet giant. The company’s Google Brain creates machine learning models that can run on inexpensive, low-power microcontrollers using Google’s TensorFlow Lite, an open-source machine learning tool that’s been deployed on a multitude of mobile devices. Inferencing is done at the device’s edge, rather than transmitted to the cloud.Meeting the power constraints of battery-powered sensing devices is another matter that starts with minimizing energy and data waste. “Deep learning is compute-bound and runs well on existing microcontrollers,” Kreeger said. “Because it’s all arithmetic, it’s low-power compared to storage access.”Already Google has worked with Plant Village, a research unit at Penn State University, and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) to help farmers improve food production by using machine learning and cheap sensors to spot and manage planet diseases in developing countries. And that production chain is in dire need of a boost, according to Rajendra Rao, general manager of IBM Food Trust, an enterprise-class blockchain solution.“We are on the cusp of complete failure of the food system,” Rao said. “One out of 10 people gets sick each year from foodborne illness, 420,000 die from this annually, 80 percent of companies in the food supply chain have not digitized, one-third of all fresh food in the US is thrown away, and one in five seafood samples worldwide is mislabeled.”IBM Food Trust’s work with Sucafina, which manages a global green coffee supply chain, shows how sensors can trace food from the farm to the processing plant to the consumer. With the IBM Food Trust platform, Sucafina can track the origin of the beans used in a cup of coffee – a competitive differentiator to coffee drinkers eager to support fair-trade coffee roasters.ripe.io, one of Forbes’ 25 most innovative AgTech startups, is also tackling the challenges and complexities of the food supply chain.“Our secure blockchain platform creates a digital twin of food items, transparently aggregating foods’ journey in real-time, to provide a harmonized trustworthy platform for multiple stakeholders,” said Rachel Gabato, the company’s COO. The ripe.io blockchain-based platform collects data from various sensors – temperature, pressure, light, humidity and inertial MEMS sensors. Growers, distributors and end customers including sweetgreen – a U.S. restaurant chain that depends on fresh produce – use the information to trace the origin and quality of food.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.[1] Source: Status of the MEMS Industry report, Yole Développement, 2019Maria Vetrano is a public relations consultant at SEMI.

Automobiles have become an even more important segment for MEMS and sensors as carmakers integrate more chips for propulsion, navigation, and control into their designs. However, these advanced functions and their crisp rate of adoption have fragmented the sourcing of automotive chips. IHS Markit’s Jérémie Bouchaud provided a closer look at and outlook for this key market at the MEMS and Sensors Executive Congress in late October in Napa. Following are key takeaways from his presentation.Autonomous and Electric/Hybrid Vehicles to Drive MEMS Market GrowthThe automotive market, approaching 100 million vehicles produced annually, is approaching $6 billion, dominated by MEMS and silicon magnetic sensors for chassis and safety, and powertrain applications. Going forward, the market growth will be in autonomous vehicles and electric/hybrid vehicles. Because the penetration of electric and hybrid vehicles is much higher than that of autonomous vehicles, it has a larger available market, particularly for sensors. Each of these markets has its own dynamics.For example, the electric and hybrid market has historically relied on a significant number of traditional, or non-semiconductor sensors, but new sensor technologies are vying to address multiple sensing needs. The most important limitation on demand of autonomous vehicles is the overall market penetration: IHS Markit expects autonomous vehicle production to reach 10 million at most by 2030.Production of Electric and Hybrid Automobiles Now Growing at Fast ClipProduction of electric and hybrid vehicles is in a rapid growth phase, and IHS Markit expects penetration of such vehicles to reach 50% of the automotive market by 2030, up from 3% in 2016. The core functions of charging and power inversion require, among other capabilities, current, temperature and position sensing. Historically, many of these functions have been handled by non-semiconductor devices, for example negative temperature coefficient (NTC) thermistors for temperature sensing, devices that appear to be strongly positioned. In other areas, semiconductor sensors are competing with traditional devices.For example, silicon magnetoresistive devices are going head-to-head with inductive devices for position and Hall effect sensing. Sensing requirements are also likely to evolve over time, particularly as battery systems become more reliable and robust. While some automakers are looking to sensors to monitor pressure or gas leaks from batteries, battery makers are more focused on maturing the systems and reducing the need for monitoring.Autonomous Vehicles Drive New Source of Demand for MEMS and SensorsThe movement towards automated driving has created a new source of demand for MEMS and sensors, with advanced driver assistance systems driving faster growth than the historical powertrain applications. Currently available vehicles are at Level 2 (partial automation), with multiple cameras and radars. Level 3 vehicles (conditional automation) are likely to enter the market next year, adding driver monitoring cameras, LIDAR systems and, potentially, microbolometers or other night-vision systems. Level 4 and 5 (high and full automation, respectively) will add vehicle-to-vehicle communications and other systems, but are not likely to be widely available for several years.The autonomous vehicle market, while smaller overall compared to electric/hybrid vehicles, provides a more attractive opportunity for MEMS devices, particularly in LIDAR systems. LIDAR and other sensing/surveying systems are at the heart of autonomous vehicles, and MEMS devices are in demand for the critical beam-steering function. However, demand for image and other sensors will accelerate as the higher levels of autonomy are rolled out.Automotive Drives Extremely Diverse Set of Applications for MEMS and Sensor MakersThe automotive market presents an extremely diverse set of applications for MEMS and sensor makers. Some companies have developed broad product portfolios and compete in multiple applications. For example, TDK offers NTC thermistors as well as MEMS and silicon-based sensors. Semiconductor companies such as Infineon are competing in MEMS and with silicon-based sensors such as magnetoresitive and Hall effect.The growth in demand for image and radar sensors used in ADAS, as well as magnetoresistive and Hall sensors in EVs, means that the center of gravity in automotive markets is likely to shift from MEMS over the next several years – a fundamental change, Bouchaud cautioned, that will put automotive sensor suppliers focusing solely on MEMS at risk.Paul Semenza is a consultant in SEMI Industry Research and Statistics.

On June 1st, 2018, Toshiba sold Toshiba Memory, Toshiba’s memory business, to an investment group led by Bain Capital. Toshiba Memory was then owned by a consortium of American, Japanese and Korean companies.After the long and tough negotiations, Toshiba Memory moved forward at full throttle, holding a groundbreaking ceremony for its new 3D NAND fab (100,000 WPM) in Kitakami in July and, in September, celebrating the opening of Fab 6 Phase 1 (50,000 WPM). To be sure, NAND memory is a key feature of Japan’s semiconductor industry. But the sector’s reach extends well beyond memory with its rich and versatile product portfolio nourished by active investment.Born in the early 1950s, Japan’s semiconductor industry today boasts more than 30 companies with fabs. Many feature 200mm and smaller wafer lines with legacy technologies, form factors that account for the bulk of the world’s semiconductors and are the oxygen of Japan’s chip industry. Clearly, the world is not built only with the state-of-art 7nm processed chips on the latest generation 300mm lines. Japanese chipmakers are flourishing.Automotive SemiconductorsRenesas Electronics remains a giant in microcontrollers (MCU) and system on chip (SoC) devices for automotive applications. According to IHS Markit, Renesas automotive semiconductor revenue in 2017 reached $3.6 billion while Inineon Technologies and NXP Semiconductors revenues were $3.4 billion and $3.7 billion, respectively. The three companies dominate the global automotive MCU global market. The company recently acquired Integrated Device Technology (IDT), a U.S. fabless company specializing in analog/mixed signal chips, to strengthen its automotive semiconductor portfolio. Renesas operates four volume production fabs, according to the latest World Fab Forecast from SEMI. Renesas’s microcontrollers for automotive applications (Source: Renesas Electronics) Power SemiconductorsWith power semiconductors the chips of choice for boosting the efficiency and performance of motors and batteries used in equipment, demand for the devices is rapidly growing, especially for automotive applications. Power semiconductor companies in Japan are legion and include Denso, Fuji Electric, Fujitsu Semiconductor, Hitachi, Kyocera, Mitsubishi Electric, New Japan Radio, Origin Electric, Phenitec Semiconductor, Renesas, Rohm, Sanken Electric, Sansha Electric Manufacturing, Seiko NPC, Shindengen Electric Manufacturing, Sumitomo Electric Device Innovations, Toshiba and Toyota Industries. The companies account for 26% of global power semiconductor capacity and will spend $317 million for construction and equipping in 2018.CMOS SensorsSony dominates the CMOS image sensors market with 42% share in 2016, according to Yole Développment. To meet growing demand for high-end CMOS image sensors, Sony has acquired several legacy 300mm wafer fabs and retooled them for CMOS sensor manufacturing. What’s more, Sony’s May announcement of its mid-term corporate strategy includes a 1 trillion Japanese yen investment in CMOS image sensors targeted to automotive applications by March 2021.Sony’s 7.42 effective megapixel stacked CMOS image sensor for automotive cameras (Source: Sony Corporation) MEMSMEMS is perhaps the most wide-ranging device market: Every application requires different capabilities and functions. The latest World Fab Forecast report lists 17 MEMS companies in Japan, though three makers of fast-growing RF MEMS, typically known as surface acoustic wave (SAW) or bulk acoustic wave (BAW) filters, are coming to the attention of semiconductor manufacturers. All are familiar passive electronic components suppliers – Murata Manufacturing, Taiyo Yuden and TDK – and all acquired legacy semiconductor fabs to manufacture RF MEMS.Their high-performance radio wave filters make mobile phones usable around the world. Research companies like Yole expect the introduction of 5G cellular mobile communication systems to fuel another wave of growth of the RF MEMS market. Murata Manufacturing’s SAW filters for smart phones (source Murata Manufacturing) Japanese Supply Chain Meets All Different NeedsJapan’s semiconductor supply chain provides one third of the world’s semiconductor manufacturing equipment and more than half of the industry’s materials. But Japanese suppliers also work with small and midsize makers of highly versatile chips critical to enabling the explosion of smart applications.Meet these versatile Japanese suppliers at SEMICON Japan to find solutions to your unique needs and help the world get smarter. Themed “Dreams Start Here,” SEMICON Japan 2018 reflects the promise of AI (artificial intelligence), Internet of Things (IoT) and Smart technologies. Featuring more than 750 exhibitors from around the world, the event is the gathering place to connect the people, technologies and business across the electronics manufacturing supply chain, from semiconductor manufacturing to autonomous cars, robotics and other smart applications. For more information about SEMICON Japan, visit www.semiconjapan.org.Yoichiro Ando is a marketing director at SEMI Japan.