By Mark LaPedus

Taking another shot to displace ARM, Intel recently rolled out its new microarchitecture for its Atom processor line. In a research note, Will Strauss, president of Forward Concepts, said: “How many times have we heard Intel say that its next member of the Atom processor line would finally be competitive with low-power ARM implementations? Every other year, Intel carts out a new variant that will ‘finally’ do the trick.  The next (and fourth?) iteration of the family, code named Merrifield is said to be the ‘turning point’ for the company in mobile phones.  Although the 2012 launch of Medfield-based 3G phones came close, it didn’t put a dent in ARM’s market share. Merrifield will ship in 4Q13 and phones based on the SoC will be announced at MWC in February 2014. But, the application processor is only part of the solution for a successful smartphone chip offering.  Multimode LTE modems and LTE RF transceivers are also necessary.  Yes, the Infineon-heritage RF transceivers have been fielded in Motorola LTE smartphones, but we’re still waiting for Intel’s multimode LTE modem.  It’s our understanding that the Infineon-heritage multimode 2G/3G/HSPA+ (based on CEVA’s DSP cores) will be married to the Blue Wonder-heritage single-mode LTE (based on Tensilica’s DSP cores). Since the software between the two is not compatible, we expect that has led to integration problems and subsequent delays.”

Following a disappointing period in the first quarter of this year, IHS plans to lower its chip forecast to 4.8% for 2013, down from 5.6% in the previous forecast. In 2012, the IC market fell 2.2%, according to the research firm. Mike Splinter, chairman and CEO of Applied Materials, presents his forecast.

In its most recent quarter, Applied Materials generated orders of $2.27 billion, up 7%t from the prior period, with Silicon Systems Group orders up 14% from the first quarter and Display orders up 41% sequentially. Net sales were $1.97 billion, up 25% sequentially.

At SEMI’s recent Silicon Valley Lunch Forum, speakers from Applied Materials, ASML, and Intel discussed the critical challenges of 450mm and EUV.

The infrastructure in Saratoga, N.Y. can’t keep pace with the growth. One local government organization, the Saratoga County Industrial Development Agency, voted to consider issuing GlobalFoundries nearly $70 million in bonds to finance the infrastructure, according to The Saratogian.

Three companies announced RF switches based on SOI or a variant of the technology. Skyworks rolled out some new parts. Peregrine announced a product for harsh environments. And RDA’s RF switches are being used in Samsung’s smartphones.

Mentor Graphics announced that MagnaChip Semiconductor has adopted the Pyxis custom IC design platform and the Mentor process design kit (PDK) automation process.  Mentor Graphics also announced that CNH, a supplier of agricultural and construction equipment, has transitioned to the latest VeSys software platform.

Cadence Design Systems announced that it helped Yamaha reduce power consumption for its mobile consumer chips with characterization tools.

Is TranSwitch on the block? The communications chip maker has retained Needham & Co. as financial advisor to assist the board in evaluating various strategic alternatives available to the company.

Altera has signed a definitive merger agreement to acquire Enpirion, a provider of high-efficiency, integrated power conversion products known as power SoCs (power system-on-chips).

The use of Wi-Fi functionality in small-cell base stations will be a game changer for cellphone service providers, according to IHS.

Android and iOS, the number one and number two ranked smartphone operating systems (OS) worldwide, combined for 92.3% of all smartphone shipments during the first quarter of 2013 (1Q13) as Windows Phone crept past BlackBerry for 3rd place, according to IDC.

By Mark LaPedus
After its formation nearly 20 months ago, a 450mm consortium has reached its latest milestone by recently completing a cleanroom and installing the first 450mm demonstration tools in the facility.

The so-called Global 450 Consortium (G450C) also has set a goal to bring 450mm fabs into high-volume manufacturing at the 10nm or 7nm nodes by 2018. That gives the industry a little less than five years to develop the production tools for 450mm fabs, which are expected to cost a whopping $10 billion or more. Based in Albany, N.Y., the G450C has five members—GlobalFoundries, Intel, IBM, Samsung and TSMC.

But between now and 2018, there is a staggering amount of work to be done. Based on the current progress for select equipment, fab technologies and standards, the path towards 450mm will be a bumpy road and it’s unclear if the industry can meet the 2018 target.

The most obvious problem is lithography. For example, ASML Holding is not expected to deliver a production-worthy, 450mm version of its extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography scanner until 2018. Other challenges include lithographic cost-of-ownership and throughput.

On the wafer-processing front, Applied, Lam, TEL and others are moving full speed ahead in 450mm. TEL also is proposing an “open platform” standard—a move that has received a lukewarm response. Meanwhile, there is some movement in metrology, as a new consortium has recently been formed to address the challenges in 450mm.

And the industry is still debating over various 450mm fab standards, such as aisle space and ceiling height. There is even a debate over the type of cranes needed to install 450mm tools. Other standards, such as gas interface boxes, cooling water manifolds, and hookups for power, are also in the works.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg. The goal for the G450C is not only to help develop these technologies, but it also has the arduous task of getting the various players to synchronize on the roadmap. “It’s going to require a collaborative and concerted effort to introduce (450mm technology) in an efficient manner,” said Steve Johnston, director of external programs and technology strategy in the Technology Manufacturing Engineering Group at Intel, at a recent SEMI event. “All of this requires flawless and synchronized execution across the industry and at multiple levels.”

Avoiding past mistakes
Indeed, the industry hopes to avoid past mistakes. In the mid-1990s, the IC industry wanted to make the shift from 200mm to 300mm fabs. The equipment industry had the 300mm tools ready in the late 1990s, but chipmakers pushed out their 300mm fabs amid an IC downturn. Equipment vendors ended up holding the bag and lost a fortune. Shortly thereafter, chipmakers began to ramp up their 300mm fabs, but the events left a bad taste in vendors’ mouths.

Recently, Intel, Samsung and TSMC have been pushing for 450mm fabs. The argument is that the industry needs to make a wafer transition every 15 years to stay on Moore’s Law. Moving to 450mm wafers will give chipmakers a 2.25x boost in wafer area and a 30% cost reduction, according to chipmakers.

For some time, however, fab tool vendors were lukewarm about 450mm. There are only a handful of customers who would buy 450mm tools, and it’s unclear who will foot the R&D bill for the technology.

More recently, 450mm has become a reality. Intel and TSMC have outlined plans to build 450mm fabs. And in 2011, the G450C was established at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering’s NanoTech Complex. The G450C recently opened a cleanroom. Its roadmap also calls for 450mm pilot lines in 2015 and 2016, with high-volume production targeted for 2018.

“Synchronization and collaboration are very important to avoid the same type of issues we ran into in the late 1990s with the transition to 300mm,” said Kirk Hasserjian, corporate vice president for the Silicon Systems Group at Applied Materials.

There are other issues, namely supply-chain readiness, return-on-investment and R&D funding. “The (R&D funding) issue requires a very different business model,” Hasserjian said. “That has not been completely resolved. We have the consortium activities, which have provided some level of funding.”

Fab tool challenges
The industry has moved to fund at least one technology, namely lithography. Intel, Samsung and TSMC recently invested in ASML, in an effort to accelerate ASML’s efforts in 450mm and EUV. And with separate funding from Intel, Nikon is developing a 193nm immersion scanner for 450mm.

ASML itself has initiated 450mm programs on two separate platforms and four wavelengths, including EUV. The goal is to deliver “early version tools” in 2015 to 2016, with 450mm production systems due out by 2018, said Jim Koonmen, general manager of Brion Technologies, a division of ASML.

The development of a 450mm EUV scanner is expected to be a herculean effort. Today, ASML is struggling to deliver 300mm EUV tools amid delays with the power sources. Cost is also an issue, as ASML’s pre-production EUV scanners cost $100 million or more per unit today.

Throughput is also an issue. The throughput for a 450mm scanner in general is projected to be only about one-half of a 300mm tool, Koonmen said. A 300mm tool has a throughput of about 250 wafers per hour (wph), while a 450mm system can run 100-125 wph at 1.1x the cost, he said.

“If you look at the entire semiconductor process, there are steps that do get a lot of leverage from larger wafer sizes and can realize cost reduction,” he said. “Unfortunately, with lithography, there simply isn’t that much of a benefit in going to larger wafer sizes. We are scanning as fast as we can. The number of fields is going to increase when we go to larger wafers, but that just means your throughput for each 450mm wafer is going to go down. So you’ve got double the number of fields, but you are going at half the throughput. That in itself is not easy to do. In order to handle a 450mm wafer, you need to have larger stages with larger masks, and that creates a whole bunch of issues for us.”

Meanwhile, amid the problems with EUV, the industry is hedging its bets by developing 193nm immersion scanners for 450mm. Optical is a proven technology, but the solution is expensive. At 10nm or 7nm, chipmakers must also use expensive multiple patterning schemes.

Delivery schedules for 193nm immersion are more certain, however. “450mm is expected to be in production by 2018,” said Hamid Zarringhalam, executive vice president at Nikon Precision. “We will ship development tools earlier than that.” By 2015, Nikon plans to ship “early learning tools” based on 193nm immersion for 450mm, Zarringhalam said. Nikon has already garnered “multiple orders” for the systems, he added.

On the wafer processing side, there are also some technical and cost challenges. “Prices could rise 30% to 50% for 450mm tools, as they did when the wafer size shifted to 300mm from 200mm,” said analyst David Motozo Rubenstein, who is also the author of a blog entitled “Chips and Dips.”

Applied, Lam, TEL and others are developing standalone 450mm tools. TEL also is proposing the idea of having an “open and modular platform” for 450mm. This would enable fab tool vendors to develop various plug-and-play process modules for the open platform, thereby reducing costs and development times. TEL and its rivals could develop modules for the platform. “The open platform is a concept for the 450mm high-volume manufacturing era,” said Aki Sekiguchi, vice president and general manager for SPE marketing at TEL.

The open platform could benefit smaller companies that don’t have the resources to develop standalone tools. But larger companies are not eager to endorse an open platform, because it will give its rivals a competitive edge. “We are looking at it,” said Applied’s Hasserjian. “We are not doing what TEL is doing and advocating a modular platform.”

Metrology challenges

Another challenge is the development of 450mm metrology gear. “There are not many companies that can invest six years in advance,” said Menachem Shoval, chairman of Metro450, an Israeli-based consortium that is developing 450mm metrology technology. “Even without going 450mm, there are huge challenges for metrology in terms of going down from 22nm to 14nm to 10nm to 7nm.”

This is especially true when moving from today’s planar devices to finFETs at 22nm and beyond. “Going to 3D has created numerous challenges for us,” said John Allgair, senior member of the technical staff at GlobalFoundries. “We see tenfold measurement problems as we go to 3D. A lot of things you see in 2D tend to get amplified as we go to these 3D structures. Then, we see some real challenges when it comes to compositional analysis. In finFET devices, we’ve got compositional measurements like SiGe with a percentage of germanium and a percentage of boron on a 3D structure. That’s a very complex measurement. Finally, we try and do measurements on test structures. The test structures don’t always mimic what’s actually taking place on your device. That really adds to the complexity of trying to manufacture finFETs in a stable manner.”

One solution to the problem is to collaborate through a consortium, Metro450′s Shoval said. Last year, for example, the Metro450 consortium was formed by the following companies—Applied Materials, Nova, Jordan Valley, Nanomotion and Intel. The group also consists of four universities in Israel, with some 60% of the funding coming from the Israeli government.

“Each company develops its own technology,” Shoval said. “They are competing with each other. But we can collaborate on those parts which are common. We will work on platforms, but not on detection.”

One of the goals for the Metro450 group is to meet the design rule targets by 2017. It is also devising technologies that are 2.5x faster than 300mm, thereby meeting the cost requirements for 450mm. To reach its goals, the group is working on five specific technologies: wafer handling; sampling optimization; wafer damage and contamination; calibration; and data processing.

“We plan to complete our work in three years,” Shoval said. “So companies will still have about three years to complete the development of their high-volume manufacturing tools.”

By Mark LaPedus
Japan’s Ushio will discontinue its R&D for EUV light sources and will sell its EUV service business to ASML. That means the market has only two EUV source vendors—ASML’s Cymer unit and Gigaphoton. “Ushio’s subsidiary, Xtreme Technologies, competes with Cymer, which was recently acquired by ASML, thus symbolizing an endorsement of Cymer’s EUV technology. Ushio will gain cost savings in both fixed costs and variable costs as 30 staff in their German facility will be shifted under ASML’s umbrella. Although the termination of this business is disappointing, it does reduce future risk of high R&D costs as well as lowering current costs,” said analyst David Motozo Rubenstein in his blog called Chips and Dips.

Taking another shot to displace ARM in the mobile, tablet and other markets, Intel rolled out its new and long-awaited microarchitecture for its Atom processor line.

SEMI applauded the White House announcement that President Obama decided to visit Applied Materials’ facilities in Austin, Texas. This was part of his focus on manufacturing jobs, high-tech skills and technology that will drive long-term economic growth. The administration’s announcement cited Applied Materials’ contribution to innovation and job creation.

While faced with difficult technology and investment choices in R&D, there is now increased pressure on the component-level supply chain, according to Michael Lercel, director of nanodefectivity and metrology at Sematech, in SEMI’s newsletter.

Worldwide silicon wafer area shipments decreased during the first quarter 2013, when compared to fourth quarter 2012 area shipments according to the SEMI.

KC Ang, senior vice president and general manager of GlobalFoundries Singapore, has been appointed to serve SEMI Singapore Regional Advisory Board (RAB) as their new chairman.

Cadence announced its intent to acquire the IP business of Evatronix, adding to its rapidly expanding IP offering.

Cadence also introduced a new version of Incisive Enterprise Simulator, which improves low-power verification productivity of complex SoCs by 30%.

Mentor Graphics announced availability of the newest tool in the Capital software suite, Capital Harness TVM. This tool automatically generates detailed harness manufacturing process and cost data that is specific to each harness design, each factory and each company’s cost models.

SRC and NIST announced the second phase of the Nanoelectronics Research Initiative (NRI). For this phase, SRC and NIST will provide a combined $5 million in annual funding for three multi-university research centers tasked with demonstrating non-conventional, low-energy technologies that outperform current technologies on critical applications in 10 years and beyond.

On the outside, the U.S. and South Korean versions of Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy S4 smartphone look alike. But on the inside, there are differences in key components, according to IHS. Global shipments of solid state drives (SSD) in PCs are set to rise by a factor of seven by 2017, allowing them to claim more than one-third of the market for PC storage solutions by that time, according to an IHS.

The high-flying acceleration and sensor product category was brought back to earth in 2012 when price erosion pulled down annual sales growth to 7%—the lowest percentage increase for motion-sensing semiconductors since 2005, according to IC Insights.

After falling 15% in 2012, solar photovoltaic wafer production is forecast to grow 19% in 2013, passing 30 GW and recovering to the 2011 level, according to NPD Solarbuzz. However, industry utilization is expected to remain below 60%.

Natural gas vehicles (NGVs) on the road in the world’s seven largest automobile markets will reach only 7.5 million as the industry struggles to capitalize on cheap shale-driven natural gas, Lux Research said.

By Mark LaPedus
Enterprise-based bring your own device (BYOD) programs continue to become more commonplace. In fact, 38% of companies expect to stop providing devices to workers by 2016, according to a global survey of CIOs by Gartner.

What would happen if half of all global DRAM production, two-thirds of NAND flash manufacturing and 70% of the world’s tablet display supply suddenly disappeared from the market? For high-tech companies, this could be the outcome if current tensions escalate to the point of war on the Korean peninsula, resulting in the disruption of South Korea’s technology manufacturing base, says IHS iSuppli.

Intel telegraphed its future directions. The chip giant has named Brian Krzanich as its next chief executive, succeeding Paul Otellini. Krzanich, Intel’s chief operating officer since January 2012, will become the sixth CEO in Intel’s history. As announced, Otellini will step down as CEO. In a research note, Hans Mosesmann, an analyst with Raymond James, said: “We are not entirely shocked by the news but note that some investors preferred an external option on the belief that new blood was needed. Giving Krzanich’s manufacturing background we think the appointment is an indication that Intel will continue Paul Otellini’s strategy of building bigger/better fabs to attack the market. We also believe the move toward better manufacturing processes (like the 450mm transition) will remain front and center.” Added RBC Capital analyst Doug Freedman: “The move to appoint Renee James (as president) is likely in support of the vision of Krzanich’s and the board has laid out for the future of Intel. This appointment validates the increasing importance of on-going software development to Intel’s future, whether it be internally or in collaboration with partners.”

Microsemi has inked a foundry deal with Intel. Microsemi is currently engaged with customers and has started designs utilizing Intel’s 22nm tri-gate technology. Product delivery is anticipated to begin in late 2014 to early 2015.

Infineon and GlobalFoundries announced a joint technology development and production agreement for 40nm embedded flash (eFlash) process technology. The cooperation will focus on technology development based on Infineon’s eFlash cell design and manufacturing of automotive and security microcontrollers with 40nm process structures.

GlobalFoundries has collaborated with Cadence to provide pattern classification data for manufacturing processes of 20nm and 14nm. GlobalFoundries is using the Cadence Pattern Classification and Pattern Matching Solutions.

SEMI announced that Philip Yeo, chairman of Spring Singapore, and Lee Kok Choy, country manager of Micron Technology Singapore, have been voted by the SEMI Singapore Regional Advisory Board as recipients of two prestigious awards recognizing their contributions to the development and success of the Southeast Asian semiconductor industry. The awards will be presented during festivities held at Semicon Singapore 2013 on May 7.

Soitec has finalized a ZAR 1,000,000,000 (more than $100 million) solar financing bond issued by CPV Power Plant No.1 Bond SPV, an affiliate of Soitec Solar GmbH. The bonds will finance the construction of a 44 MWp utility-scale concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) solar power plant in Touwsrivier, South Africa.

Applied Materials and The Center for Science Teaching and Learning (CSTL) announced the San Francisco Bay Area grand-prize winning team and nine finalist teams in the 2013 Clean Tech Competition.

Rudolph has purchased selected assets related to 3D metrology from Tamar Technology.

Proteus Digital Health has completed a second closing of its Series F financing, raising $62.5 million in total. New corporate investor Oracle joins Otsuka, Novartis, Sino Portfolio and others in this funding round. Proteus is working to create a new category of products. Called Digital Medicines, these new pharmaceuticals will contain a tiny sensor that can communicate, via a digital health feedback system, vital information about an individual’s medication-taking behavior and how their body is responding.

Is Mindspeed Technologies on the block? The supplier of semiconductor solutions for communications has retained Morgan Stanley as a financial advisor to assist the board in evaluating various strategic alternatives available to the company.

Spansion has acquired the microcontroller and analog business of Fujitsu Semiconductor for approximately $110 million, plus approximately $65 million for inventory.

Amkor Technology announced that Stephen Kelley has been appointed to serve as president and CEO. He succeeds Ken Joyce, who previously announced his intention to retire.

ASE remained the world’s largest OSAT in 2012, according to the new rankings from Gartner.

By Mark LaPedus
Qualcomm has the highest market share for baseband solutions in handsets, resulting in a position far out in front of its competitors. ST-Ericsson has strong products on the market with competitive features. But one analyst at ABI Research questions why ST-Ericsson was broken up just as it finally came out with a highly competitive product, which was based on FD-SOI.

The worldwide semiconductor foundry market totaled $34.6 billion in 2012, a 16.2% increase from 2011, according to final results by Gartner. TSMC maintained the No. 1 spot in the rankings in 2012. Strong performance on 32nm yields and the availability of sub-45nm wafer capacity at the Dresden, Germany, fabs allowed GlobalFoundries to advance to the No. 2 position in 2012. UMC‘s market share decreased due to reduced wafer shipments. Driven by the wafers consumed by Apple, Samsung moved up four spots to the No. 5 position with 175.5% growth in 2012.

At this year’s Symposium on VLSI Technology, Intel will report technical details of its embedded DRAM with 22nm technology on bulk silicon wafers. Intel realized a 0.029mm2 DRAM cell capable of meeting >100us retention at 95 C. In the DC-DC converter session, Intel will present a switched capacitor step-down converter designed in a 22nm tri-gate CMOS technology. The VLSI Symposium is slated for June 11–14 in Kyoto, Japan.

At the VLSI event, STMicroelectronics and CEA-LETI will report six transistor SRAM (6T-SRAM) cells for high-density and low-voltage. The technology is fabricated at the 28nm node using FD-SOI technology for the first time.

At the VLSI Symposium, IBM and GlobalFoundries will report a SiGe channel tri-gate pFET with aggressively scaled fin width and gate length dimensions. It is fabricated using SiGe on an insulator substrate. Excellent electrostatic control down to Lg= 18nm and Wfin<18nm has been reported.

At the event, IMEC and GlobalFoundries will present the first demonstration of strained germanium channel pFETs fabricated on SiGe strain relaxed buffers, which is surrounded by STI region. Also, they introduced raised SiGe source/drain structures (Ge concentration= 75%) with an implant-free quantum well, replacement metal-gate process and germanide in contacts to solve void issues.

In addition, STMicrolectronics, Samsung, GlobalFoundries and IBM will report a 64nm pitch BEOL integration and material strategy. A self-aligned-via (SAV) approach was exploited for single pattern via extendibility, enabling via placement at CPP with a single mask.

SEMI reported that for the quarter ending Dec. 31, 2012, the worldwide photovoltaic manufacturing equipment book-to-bill ratio remained well below parity, at 0.45, for the seventh consecutive quarter. Booking levels continue to be low as PV manufacturers grapple with oversupply across the supply chain.

Khaled Juffali Company (KJC), a Saudi Arabian investment company, and Soitec, signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to cooperate in driving solar industry growth in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. Under the MOU, the two companies will create a joint venture to market and sell concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) systems in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Hwa Chong Institution emerged as the winner of the Applied Materials Clean Tech Competition in Singapore. The project focused on utilizing calcium carbonate found in clam shells to remove toxic metal ions from waste water.

The separate hardware and software teams in companies are notorious for not being on the same page, thereby putting product development times and cost at risk. Mentor Graphics CEO Walden Rhines outlined some new and practical solutions to the problem.

Mentor Graphics announced the release of the Mentor Embedded Sourcery CodeBench Virtual Edition product, a native software environment for developing embedded systems pre- and post-silicon. The tool provides a tighter connection between hardware and software co-development, but allows software developers to use existing programming tools with extensions.

Cadence announced results for the first quarter of fiscal year 2013. Cadence also completed its previously announced acquisition of Tensilica.

Advantest will acquire W2BI, a provider of system level test automation software focusing on wireless communications.

Shipments of smart glasses may rise to as high 6.6 million units in 2016, up from just 50,000 in 2012, for a total of 9.4 million units for the five-year period, according to an upside forecast from IMS Research.

The worldwide mobile phone market grew 4% year over year in the seasonally slow first quarter of 2013 as smart phones out-shipped feature phones for the first time, according to IDC. Nokia, BlackBerry and HTC have dropped out of the top rankings.

By Mark LaPedus
The term carbon footprint seems to be “old hat” and yesterday’s measure of sustainability. “Sustainable development” is the new term. But what is it and can someone please define it? The recent European Coatings Show provided a clue, according to Lux.

For years, smart watches have failed to take off for one reason or another: they looked ugly, had weak functionality, or the battery life was lousy, according to ABI Research. However, a new collection of smart watches have emerged that could change consumers’ perceptions. Market intelligence firm ABI Research projects more than 1.2 million smart watches will be shipped in 2013.

Intel announced its results and cut its CapEx by $1 billion from $13 billion to $12 billion. Hans Mosesmann, an analyst with Raymond James, made the following observations: “With smartphones/tablets not contributing much for Intel in 2013 and the foundry growth vector still 2-3 years from being a real business, Intel is, in our view, quite vulnerable. The hope is for a datacenter recovery as an offset in 2H13 – we’ll see. Interestingly, Intel indicated in relation to its foundry strategy that it would not enable competitors that license ARM processor technology. Outside of programmable logic devices (PLDs), isn’t everybody of significance already using ARM?”

For total fab spending, GlobalFoundries plans to spend $4.4 billion this year to expand production as demand for smartphones and tablets jumps, according to Bloomberg. The spending compares with $3.8 billion last year.

TSMC raised its capital spending. Spending will be $9.5 billion to $10 billion, compared to an earlier forecast of $9 billion, according to Bloomberg. TSMC is accelerating its 20nm and finFET production.

In a blog, Applied Materials said it has recently completed the electrical characterization of through-silicon via (TSV) structures. This development is important because TSVs are the vertical interconnections that carry power and high-bandwidth speed signals between the stacked die of layered logic and memory devices.

Recently, more than 270 students from National Tsing Hua University in Hsinchu, Taiwan, crowded into the campus auditorium to hear Mike Splinter, chairman and CEO, of Applied Materials, to deliver a talk. The Applied Materials CEO told students to follow their passion.

Soitec’s solar unit has completed a debt financing plan for its Touwsrivier project in South Africa.

Soitec announced consolidated sales of 72.7 million euros for the fourth quarter, down 9.3% on a yearly basis. On a sequential basis, Q4 electronic sales were up by 19.1%.

North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted a book-to-bill ratio of 1.14 in March, up from 1.10 from April, according to SEMI. id=highlights

Mentor Graphics announced the opening of a new Mentor-sponsored electronics design laboratory at The University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC), based in the Zhejiang province. Mentor has donated more than $10 million in EDA software and support to enable UNNC students to graduate with in-depth knowledge of leading-edge design methodologies.

ASML announced its results and said the contract of Eric Meurice, president and CEO, ends next year. As of July 1, ASML’s leadership will be comprised as follows: Peter Wennink, ASML’s CFO, will be president and CEO; Martin van den Brink, ASML’s executive vice president, will be president and chief technology officer. Meurice will be chairman of ASML and act as adviser to the new leadership and the supervisory board until the end of his contract on March 31, 2014.

Intermolecular has entered into a multi-year technology development and IP licensing agreement with Micron Technology, focused on technology development and related IP for advanced memory technologies. Intermolecular has been working on DRAM technology with Elpida, which is being acquired by Micron. Now, with Micron, Intermolecular is expanding into the nonvolatile memory front with the memory maker, said Dave Lazovsky, president and CEO of Intermolecular. “New materials and device architectures are increasingly needed to meet future embedded and mobile technology requirements, and partnering with Micron in this area is a significant milestone for Intermolecular,” he said.

Tessera has named Richard Hill as interim chief executive and executive chairman of the board. Hill replaces former president and CEO Robert Young, who has decided to step down amid pressure from an investment firm.

Altera has agreed to acquire TPACK, a subsidiary of Applied Micro Circuits Corp. TPACK delivers FPGA-based optical transport network products targeting packet and optical networking equipment suppliers.

”According to Dow Jones VentureWire and other news reports, Avago has reached a deal to acquire Javelin Semiconductor, a manufacturer of CMOS power amplifiers (PAs) which services the mobile market,” said Doug Freedman, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets.

Netronome has raised $19 million in series E and related financing from Sourcefire, Intel Capital and existing investors DFJ Esprit and the Raptor Group. The company is making a next-generation flow processor line, the NFP-6xxx, which is built using Intel’s 22nm tri-gate technology.

Smartphones are forecast to account for 26% of the $30.0 billion NAND flash memory market in 2013. The NAND flash market is forecast to grow 12% in 2013, from $26.8 billion in 2012, according to IC Insights.

By Mark LaPedus
New research reveals that 53% of office workers with computers are opting to either fix their own computer problems, or ask a co-worker or someone else for help, instead of relying on an IT professional/helpdesk. The nationwide survey, conducted online by Harris Interactive on behalf of Crucial.com, also revealed that 29% of office computer users cite computer problems (lost files, slowness, crashes, etc.) as the top reason for reduced productivity in the office. Office computer problems trumped co-workers (25%), workload (22%), management (22%) and customers/clients/vendors (15%) when it comes to negatively affecting worker productivity in the office.

Big banks may be considered too big to fail, but their size and operational complexity create performance drags that could also make them too big to succeed, according to Gartner. Bank CIOs and COOs must innovate in IT and operations to negate a problem Gartner has identified as the “law of diminishing IT returns.”

Intel announced its annual equipment and materials supplier awards. The awards provide an insight regarding the fab suppliers at Intel, which normally declines to comment about the identity of its vendors. The winners are interesting, but it’s even more interesting to see which vendors failed to make the list. Meanwhile, Intel announced the eight winners of the company’s most prestigious award for equipment and materials suppliers, the Supplier Continuous Quality Improvement (SCQI) award. In addition, Intel announced that 17 equipment and materials companies will receive the 2012 Intel Preferred Quality Supplier (PQS) award.

DARPA has achieved world record power output levels using silicon-based technologies for millimeter-wave power amplifiers. The power amp was based on a multiple-stacked, 45nm silicon-on-insulator (SOI) CMOS device.

Electronic components distributor Digi-Key announced the signing of a global distribution agreement with Adesto Technologies, a developer of nonvolatile memory chips. One of Adesto’s investors is Applied Ventures, the venture capital arm of Applied Materials.

The global semiconductor materials market decreased 2% in 2012 compared to 2011, while worldwide semiconductor revenues declined 3%, according to SEMI.

For the Southeast Asia region, SEMI expects to see capital equipment investment to bottom out in the first half of 2013 and a mild pickup in the second half followed by a strong recovery in 2014. Overall front-end fab equipment spending is expected to double next year from $810 million in 2013 to $1.62 billion in 2014, according to SEMI.

Mentor Graphics announced various hardware and software solutions to accelerate the verification of Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) second-generation (Gen 2) products. Using the Mentor verification solutions, designers can test their SAS Gen2 devices integrated on their SoC designs, and develop and test their software drivers and applications prior to silicon being available.

Entegris, a supplier of contamination control and materials handling solutions, has acquired the assets of Jetalon Solutions, a California-based supplier of fluid metrology products.

Avago announced the execution of a definitive agreement to acquire CyOptics, a supplier of indium phosphide (InP) optical chip and component technologies for the data communications and telecommunications markets, for an aggregate acquisition price of approximately $400 million in cash.

2012 was a miserable year for the semiconductor market, with only 8 of the top 25 chipmakers managing to eke out revenue growth. Among the top 25 suppliers, the only companies to expand revenue in 2012 were No. 2 Samsung, No. 3 Qualcomm, No. 9 Broadcom, No. 11 Sony, No. 14 NXP, No.15 nVidia, No.18 MediaTek and No. 24 LSI.

Worldwide PC shipments totaled 79.2 million units in the first quarter of 2013, a 11.2% decline from the first quarter of 2012, according to preliminary results by Gartner. Global PC shipments went below 80 million units for the first time since the second quarter of 2009.

3D printing, touted as an enabling platform for applications ranging from personalized medicine to personal drones, will grow to an $8.4 billion market in 2025, up from $777 million in 2012. However, consumer applications will have limited upside, according to Lux Research, while industrial uses generate the most value.

By Mark LaPedus
Has Apple finally hit the wall after years of sizzling growth? “Relatively soft sales of large-format iPads and iPhones are likely to drive FQ2 revenue to $41.1 billion and FQ3 revenue to $33.5 billion, both of which are below the Street estimates of $42.8 billion and $40.0 billion, respectively,” according to a research note from Pacific Crest Securities. “Among them, we consider the reduction to our large-format iPad estimates to be the most significant, as this appears likely to be a sustained trend as tablet demand shifts to smaller and less expensive models. The shifts to our iPhone estimates are largely related to the product cycle, which we consider to be a transitory issue. However, we continue to believe sell-through evidence supports our view that the high end of the smartphone market is quickly becoming saturated.”

The semiconductor equipment market continues to consolidate. Hitachi High-Technologies has completed its acquisition of SII NanoTechnology from Seiko Instruments. SII, a supplier of photomask repair tools, has been placed into a new subsidiary called Hitachi High-Tech Science. The move also propels Hitachi High-Tech into the mask repair equipment business.

The European Commission is funding yet another 450mm program. The project, called Enable450, includes Intel and fab tool vendors. It is aimed at 450mm wafer processing, specifically targeting European material and equipment companies. The group also consists of U.S. tool vendors, as well. ASM International is the coordinator of the group. Other members are Applied Materials Israel, ASML, CEA-LETI, Fraunhofer, Future Horizons, IMEC, RECIF, SEMI, Soitec, among others. At present, there is no news to report beyond the formation of this group. Stay tuned.

IC Insights has released its top-50 semiconductor supplier rankings. In the rankings, Qualcomm registered a 34% surge in sales and moved up three positions to replace TI as the fourth-largest semiconductor supplier in 2012. GlobalFoundries registered better than 30% growth last year, moving from 21st place in the rankings in 2011 to 15th last year.

Taiwan DRAM maker ProMOS Technologies has agreed to sell its 300mm wafer fab and equipment to GlobalFoundries, according to Reuters.

Peregrine Semiconductor has filed a new suit, alleging the infringement of its RF silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology by RF Micro Devices. This new legal action is in addition to an existing suit filed by Peregrine against RFMD in February 2012. That case is still pending.

In a blog, Applied Materials’ venture capital arm discusses the lessons it has learned to ensure the mutual success of a startup company and a corporate investor.

In another blog, Applied Materials talks about the evolution of the semiconductor service model. Instead of just repairing the equipment as in the past model, the new idea is to make fab tools work better, with higher output and lower cost of ownership.

SEMI Europe honored four industry leaders for their accomplishments in developing standards for the photovoltaics (PV) industry. The SEMI Standards awards were recently announced at the SEMI PV Fab Manager Forum 2013.

Why is there a need for “best practices” in mixed-signal SoC verification, and what are some of those practices? Cadence provides some insights in a video.

Mentor Graphics said that its FloEFD computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation solution helped Skeleton Bobsleigh World Championship winner Shelley Rudman of Great Britain to her first world championship win on Feb. 1 in St. Moritz, Switzerland.

Analog Devices announced that CEO Jerald Fishman passed away suddenly from an apparent heart attack. ADI President Vincent Roche has been appointed CEO on an interim basis by ADI’s board. In a research note, Doug Freedman, an analyst with RBC, said: ”If Jerry Fishman did not touch your life personally, his work and that of ADI have surely touched your life. I had the pleasure of competing against ADI for 12 years, and writing investment research about ADI for another 11 years. While Jerry was given a great company to run he did so much more than could be expected. ADI has been the envy of the analog IC industry for as long as I can remember. In Silicon Valley, we watched ADI build and maintain a data convertor and amplifier franchise that is unmatched in our industry. All the while, competitors tried extremely hard to take away the market share ADI had, and at every turn Jerry, and his east coast based team, turned away the efforts from Silicon Valley and Texas. In one instance, a competitor hired a team of engineers away from ADI and was able to get a foot hold into a market. Jerry fought back and won, not just in the market but in the courts having found patents that were violated. The far reaching impact of Jerry and the work at ADI is being felt in the areas of driver safety, medical imaging, and mobile communication (none of which would be as advanced as they are today without Jerry and his team of analog engineers). In recent years he had turned his attention on making the best better, not just technically but financially. The path he sought was always clear and easy to see, for all those that wished to follow him. I always enjoyed my interactions with him and will miss his conviction, thoughts and guidance. Jerry, Your legacy lives on in your family and ADI.”

China’s move to corner the market for rare-earth minerals (REMs) has prompted manufacturers of low-voltage industrial motors to adopt alternative technologies that reduce or eliminate the use of these materials, spurring new growth in the motors market, according to IHS.

By Mark LaPedus

For years, the DRAM industry has been engulfed in a downturn. Sadly, vendors have grown accustom to overcapacity, falling ASPs and losses. Now, the tide is turning, at least based on the data from Micron Technology. Micron posted a loss this week, but the company provided some surprising and welcomed news about DRAMs. “Despite a weak PC environment and more DRAM capacity from the revised Inotera agreement, Micron is allocating DRAM to some channel and OEM customers. DRAM capacity continues to go offline or transition to NAND, and Micron envisions no new capacity coming online in either 2013 or 2014. This suggests to us that the recent ASP dynamic is here to stay,” said Hans Mosesmann, an analyst with Raymond James. Another chip analyst, Jagadish Iyer of Piper Jaffray, said: “Micron articulated that DRAM capacity likely remains constrained for the next two years as near-term allocation prevails.”

What about NAND flash? “We expect industry supply to be far more rational than years past. Expect NAND ASP trends to strengthen through 2Q ‘13 with handset ramps pending,” said Doug Freedman, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets. Added Monika Garg, an analyst with Pacific Crest: “During our meetings with semiconductor capital equipment companies last month, all companies highlighted that they have not yet received any NAND capacity orders. These comments lend conviction that we should see strong NAND supply-demand balance in 2013.”

Richard Hill, the former chairman and CEO of Novellus, is back in the news. Hill, an outspoken executive who left Novellus after it was acquired by Lam, is leading a committee of independent directors for troubled Tessera. The committee is refocusing Tessera’s DigitalOptics unit. This follows a move by an investment firm to oust Tessera’s CEO and the board.  This week, the board began a search for a new chief executive to replace Robert A. Young, who was ousted. And Hill is the new chairman.

The Saratoga County Industrial Development Agency has approved about $387 million in sales tax exemptions for GlobalFoundries, according to the Saratogian. The tax breaks are for an R&D center and a proposed fab in New York.

In a blog, an investment site discusses its price estimates for Applied Materials. It also gives a fair and balanced analysis of the company.

RF Micro Devices will phase out manufacturing in its Newton Aycliffe, U.K.-based GaAs pHEMT facility and transition most GaAs manufacturing to its GaAs HBT manufacturing facility in Greensboro, N.C. RFMD will also partner with leading GaAs foundries for additional capacity. The U.K.-based GaAs pHEMT facility had been RFMD’s primary source for cellular switches. However, RFMD has transitioned to higher-performance, lower-cost silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology for the cellular switch.

North American-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted a book-to-bill ratio of 1.10 in February, according to SEMI. This compares to a ratio of 1.11 in January.

SEMI has released the 4th edition of the International Technology Roadmap for PV (ITRPV), the global collaborative process that informs PV cell, module and system manufacturers, equipment and materials suppliers, and other industry stakeholders on key technology trends in the solar field.

Mentor Graphics and Mercedes-Benz Trucks announced the application of the Mentor Capital software suite to the development of Daimler’s flagship heavy truck, the new Actros.

TEL’s Q3 orders were up 27%, above the firm’s original guidance of “slightly up,” according to Chips and Dips, a blog site.

Golden Gate Capital, a venture capital firm, recently sold its e-beam company, Vistec, to two different companies. In one transaction, Raith recently acquired Vistec’s Gaussian e-beam unit, called Vistec Lithography. Vistec Lithography continues to specialize in conventional direct-write applications in the aerospace and military arena. In a separate move, the Heidenhain Group recently acquired Vistec’s variable shaped beam (VSB) e-beam unit. That operation, Vistec Electron Beam, sells a single-beam e-beam tool based on VSB technology.

Samsung’s new Galaxy S4 smartphone is causing a buzz. In a blog DisplaySearch answered a pressing question: How Did Samsung achieve full HD in the AMOLED display?

Spansion and XMC, a Chinese foundry, announced an expanded partnership to develop and manufacture Spansion’s 32nm NOR flash memory. The agreement expands XMC’s current 300mm manufacturing of Spansion’s 65nm and 45nm flash memory technology.

VLSI Research is raising its 2013 fab tool growth forecast to minus 4.6%. Previously, the 2013 forecast was minus 5.3%. “Memory suppliers are beginning to loosen their purse strings. The orders are technology buys. Capacity expansions are not in the radar. Foundry is cooling due to the pull back by Apple along with some inventory buildups,” according to the firm.

Global PC shipments were expected to decline by 7.7% in the first quarter, according to IDC. However, IDC’s February monthly data suggest that the market could see a drop touching double-digits in the first quarter, according to the firm.

A predicted surge of smaller, lower-priced devices in the tablet market has led IDC to increase its 2013 forecast for the worldwide tablet market to 190.9 million, up from its previous forecast of 172.4 million units.

Samsung catapulted to the top of the optoelectronics supplier ranking in 2012 from 12th place in 2011 after it gained full ownership of Samsung LED, a 50-50 joint venture in light-emitting diodes that was created in 2009 between Samsung Electronics and affiliate Samsung Electro-Mechanics, according to IC Insights.

By Mark LaPedus
Sara Volz, 17, of Colorado Springs, Colo., won $100,000—the top award—from the Intel Foundation for her research on algae biofuels. Algae produces oil that can be converted into a sustainable, renewable fuel. Volz, who built a home lab under her loft bed, sleeps on the same light cycle as her algae.

For years, the investment community has demanded that ASM International (ASMI) should break up the company into two pieces. This week, ASMI finally caved in, leaving some to wonder if the company is the next takeover target in the semiconductor equipment business. ASMI intends to sell a stake in ASM Pacific Technology, valued at between 8% to 12%. Following the planned divestment, ASMI will own between 40% and 44% of the shares in ASM Pacific, a supplier of wirebonders.

A TEM image taken at Applied Materials’ Maydan Technology Center shows a series of 20nm-wide trenches in a cross section. What does this all mean? According to Applied, it’s a breakthrough in reflow to push interconnect boundaries beyond 20nm.

Applied Materials was named by the Ethisphere Institute, a business ethics think-tank, as one of the 2013 world’s most ethical companies.

MEMC, a supplier of silicon and SOI wafers, announced a plan, subject to shareholder approval, to change its name to SunEdison. The name change reflects its recent efforts in the solar industry. MEMC competes in both the semiconductor and solar industries. Does the name change reflect that semis are passé or does MEMC have an identity crisis?

Specialty foundry TowerJazz is seeing significant customer engagements and market share gain in the fast growing RF front-end module market. For Skyworks and others, TowerJazz is providing RF SOI, RF CMOS and SiGe processes.

ALTIS Semiconductor announced the finalization of a foundry agreement with IBM Microelectronics. Under the terms, ALTIS will be the foundry partner for the IBM 180nm RF SOI technology.

SEMI reported that worldwide sales of semiconductor manufacturing equipment totaled $36.93 billion in 2012, representing a year-over-year decrease of 15%.

Cadence has agreed to buy Tensilica, setting the battle over IP into high gear among EDA vendors.

Mentor Graphics announced the Nucleus SmartFit product, a cost-effective, binary version of the Nucleus RTOS optimized to fit the limited internal memory of 32-bit MCUs.

ST-Ericsson, a joint venture of STMicroelectronics and Ericsson, announced that Didier Lamouche, president and chief executive, has decided to resign from the company to pursue other opportunities. And following those events, Ericsson and STMicroelectronics this week announced an agreement on the fate of ST-Ericsson. Ericsson will take on the design, development and sales of the LTE multimode thin modem products, including 2G, 3G and 4G multimode. ST will take on the existing ST-Ericsson products, other than LTE multimode thin modems, and related business as well as certain assembly and test facilities. The companies will close down the remaining parts of ST-Ericsson.

China’s Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment (AMEC) will make its solid-state lighting market debut with a new multi-reactor metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) cluster tool. The Prismo D-Blue MOCVD platform enables high-volume manufacturing of GaN, InGaN and AlGaN structures required for high-brightness LEDs.

Nanoplas announced a new dry-etch process that offers unlimited etch selectivity for removing dielectric films. Nanoplas’s new Atomic-Layer Downstream Etching (ALDE) processing allows etching rate and selectivity to be controlled independently.

According to IHS, the steady increase in PC capabilities that has justified the upgrade cycle and fueled the long-term growth of the PC market is undergoing a historical deceleration.

Household adoption and spending on consumer technology products is shifting faster than expected in favor of gadgets and services that are portable or mobile, according to a recent survey by Gartner.