By Mark LaPedus

A group of 19 European companies and academic institutions have launched a three-year, 360 million euro ($464.5 million) pilot-line project to support the industrialization of fully-depleted silicon-on-insulator (FD-SOI) technology.

The project, dubbed Places2Be, is led by one of the biggest proponents of FD-SOI–STMicroelectronics. In addition, STMicroelectronics and GlobalFoundries will provide the manufacturing capabilities for the program. Separately, GlobalFoundries is also joining Imec’s advanced MRAM project.

Meanwhile, Places2Be, which stands for “Pilot Lines for Advanced CMOS Enhanced by SOI in 2x nodes, Built in Europe,” is aimed to support the deployment of FD-SOI pilot lines at 28nm and beyond.  It will also drive the creation of a European microelectronics design ecosystem using this FD-SOI platform and explore the path towards the next step for this technology at 14nm and 10nm.

The FD-SOI manufacturing sources for the project are located in two fabs. The first is the pilot line in STMicroelectronics’ Crolles fab, near Grenoble, France. The dual-source is in GlobalFoundries’ fab 1 in Dresden, Germany. STMicroelectronics and IBM are the biggest proponents for FD-SOI. Not long ago, STMicroelectronics signed an FD-SOI foundry deal with GlobalFoundries.

FD-SOI is a low-power, high-performance alternative to conventional bulk silicon and finFET technologies. The first FD-SOI systems-on-chips are expected to be used in consumer electronics, high-performance computing and networking.

The project includes participation of 19 partners from 7 countries, and the planned involvement of about 500 engineers over three years across Europe. Places2Be is the largest ENIAC Joint Undertaking project to date and is supported as well by the National Public Authorities in the participating countries. The ENIAC JU was set up in 2008 and will allocate grants throughout 2013. The projects selected for funding shall be executed till December of 2017. The total value of the R&D activities generated through ENIAC JU is estimated at 3 billion euros ($3.8 billion).

“The Places2Be project will reinforce the ecosystems of both Grenoble and Dresden clusters, while also positively impacting the whole value chain of microelectronics in Europe–large companies, SMEs, start-ups and research organizations–beyond the direct impact induced by the material and IP investments,” said François Finck, director of ST’s R&D cooperative programs and project coordinator, in a statement.

The Places2Be members include ACREO Swedish ICT AB,  Adixen Vacuum Products,  Axiom IC, Bruco Integrated Circuits, Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives, Dolphin Integration,  Ericsson AB, eSilicon Romania S.r.l., Forschungzentrum Jülich Gmbh, GlobalFoundries Dresden, Grenoble INP, IMEC,  Ion Beam Services, Mentor Graphics France Sarl, Soitec, ST-Ericsson, STMicroelectronics, Université Catholique de Louvain, and the University of Twente.

In a separate move, GlobalFoundries is joining Imec and others to advance STT-MRAM (spin-transfer torque magnetoresistive random access memory) technology. The first IC manufacturer to join Imec’s R&D program on emerging memory technologies, GlobalFoundries completes the value chain of Imec’s research platform.

GlobalFoundries is joining a team with Qualcomm and several worldwide equipment suppliers providing the complete infrastructure necessary for R&D on STT-MRAM. In January, Qualcomm joined Imec’s STT-MRAM program.

STT-MRAM technology is a promising high-density alternative to existing memory technologies, like SRAM and DRAM. Together, imec and the program members aim to explore the potential of STT-MRAM, including performance below 1ns and scalability beyond 10nm for embedded and standalone applications.

By Mark LaPedus
About every five years or so, a new and hot market emerges in the specialty foundry business that resembles a frenetic gold rush.

The last big gold rush occurred around 2008, when more than a dozen foundries jumped into the bipolar-CMOS-DMOS (BCD) market to capitalize on the booming power-management sector. Now, the next gold rush is centering on an emerging technology—the radio frequency (RF) silicon-on-insulator (SOI) market.

Today, IBM, STMicroelectronics and TowerJazz offer RF SOI foundry processes for the merchant market. Over time, analysts estimate that a dozen or more foundries could offer RF SOI. Altis Semiconductor and Grace Semiconductor have announced plans to enter the RF SOI fray. Two others, Lapis Semiconductor and Silanna, have put RF SOI on their foundry roadmaps. And sources indicate that GlobalFoundries, MagnaChip and TSMC are developing RF SOI or evaluating the technology.

Foundries are jumping on the RF SOI bandwagon amid a boom for select parts, particularly within the RF front-end for the latest smartphones and tablets. Typically, the RF front-end consists of power amplifiers (PAs), RF switches, tunable capacitors and filters. Generally, the PA and switch are based on gallium arsenide (GaAs), while the tunable capacitors and filters use various technologies.

RF SOI and its variant, silicon-on-sapphire (SOS), recently have made inroads for the RF switch—at the expense of GaAs. Most PAs are still based on GaAs, but the tide is slowly turning. For example, Peregrine Semiconductor is developing an SOS-based PA for a future smartphone at Apple, according to RBC Capital Markets.

Generally, RF chipmakers make GaAs-based devices in their own fabs. Chips based on RF CMOS, RF SOI and SOS generally are outsourced to the foundries. RF SOI is not a difficult technology to develop, but the real issue is that the sector could meet the same fate as BCD. As it turned out, the BCD market was not big enough to support a dozen foundries, prompting a shakeout in the arena.

In all likelihood, there is room for only a handful of RF SOI foundry players. “I would say IBM and TSMC are the only ones that have the economies of scale (in RF SOI),” said Doug Freedman, an analyst at RBC. “IBM is the leader in RF SOI right now, with TSMC trying to play catch-up. There are some other vendors like TowerJazz in the market, as well.”

From a supply/demand perspective, there is already ample RF SOI capacity to meet demand right now. “I have heard that capacity in RF SOI is adequate,” said Christopher Taylor, an analyst with Strategy Analytics. “I would have my doubts about the prospects of serious shortages barring compelling information to the contrary. Also, in light of the fact that RF SOI does not really push into the CMOS, small-node frontier, there is potentially quite a bit of capacity available from older fabs and foundries at the higher nodes.”

Rushing into RF SOI
The stakes are high, especially as RF content continues to increase in the latest mobile devices. In total, the PA market is expected to grow from $1.7 billion in 2008 to $3.8 billion by 2015, according to RBC. The multi-throw RF switch market is projected to grow from $262 million in 2008 to $1.2 billion by 2015, according to RBC. And the tunable capacitor market is expected to reach $500 million by 2016, it said.

“Driving this growth is rising handset and tablet units, which requires a greater amount of PA ICs,” RBC’s Freedman said. “Principally driving (RF switch) growth is rising radio bands. Driving (tunable capacitor) growth is the wider frequency range of bands and the need to reduce antenna size without performance trade-off.”

There is also an increase in design complexity amid a transition from 3G networks to the next-generation, 4G/LTE wireless standard. “LTE and carrier aggregation are thorny problems even in the best of situations,” said Michael Noonen, executive vice present of global sales, marketing, quality and design at GlobalFoundries. “You also want to be as Spartan as possible in the RF front-end design from a battery consumption standpoint.”

GlobalFoundries, which has been expanding its RF process offerings, is “very much interested” in RF SOI, Noonen said. “We have a lot of experience with SOI, but there are also other approaches in RF,” he said.

Indeed, OEMs face a series of complex device and process choices. For years, GaAs has dominated the RF landscape. GaAs has a larger energy gap and is faster than silicon, but it is more expensive to manufacture. RF CMOS, RF SOI, SOS and silicon-germanium (SiGe) are also in the mix. The RF version of SOI combines CMOS with a highly-resistive, thick-film SOI substrate.

RF SOI is an alternative to GaAs, with equivalent insertion loss and noise isolation characteristics. RF SOI also enables OEMs to integrate various chips on the same die. Another technology, SOS, makes use of an insulating sapphire substrate. And SiGe is built with silicon transistors to create RF circuits.
Meanwhile, after years of promises, RF SOI and its variants are finally cracking the RF front-end. OEMs are moving from GaAs pHEMT to RF SOI and SOS for the RF switch, said Paul Boudre, chief operating officer at Soitec, an SOI wafer supplier. “GaAs pHEMT will not disappear, but it will remain for more specific devices,” Boudre said.

Actually, the buzz started when Apple incorporated Peregrine’s SOS-based RF switches in the iPhone 5. Samsung’s Galaxy S4 and other smartphones are also using SOS-based switches, according to RBC. SOS is a proprietary technology that is only offered by Peregrine. Its SOS chips are made on a foundry basis by Lapis, MagnaChip and Silanna.

Rodd Novak, chief marketing officer of Peregrine, said SOS has better insulating properties than RF SOI. SOS also uses sapphire wafers, making it a more expensive than RF SOI. But the overall cost for SOS is declining. This is because sapphire wafers are ramping up in high-volume markets like LEDs, which will impact the cost of SOS, Novak said.

Peregrine recently rolled out a new version of SOS, based on 0.35-micron technology. “Before, we grew an epi (layer) on top of our sapphire process,” Novak said. “Now, we are taking a very clean silicon substrate and bonding that to the sapphire. That process enables better performance.”

Apple to drive SOI?
The fact that Apple and other OEMs have adopted SOS and RF SOI for the RF switch has given the technology some credence. It also has caused a stampede of foundry players looking to enter the RF SOI sweepstakes.

Now, with help from the foundries, RF chipmakers are looking to displace SOS-based switches with traditional and less-expensive RF SOI technology. “RF switches are typically based on GaAs pHEMT, SOS and SOI, with SOI gaining more and more market share away from the other and more expensive technologies,” said Marco Racanelli, senior vice president and general manager at TowerJazz.

In addition to cost, OEMs are also interested in capacity. In one effort to ensure supply, IBM recently signed a second-source foundry deal for its 0.18-micron, RF SOI process with Altis.

Besides the RF switch, the next big market for RF SOI and SOS could be the PA, with Apple emerging as the possible driving force. “We believe that Peregrine is developing a unique integrated PA solution that is targeting the next generation of Apple’s PA product needs,” said RBC’s Freedman. “(This) could add approximately $1.25 in content, assuming (Apple integrates) five to six single PAs in 3G smartphones. We note that in 4G, PA content opportunity rises to approximately $3.00 due to rising single chip PAs per device.”

In another example, Qualcomm recently rolled out the RF360, an RF front-end that includes a PA based on SOI. Today, however, the jury is still out for PAs based on RF SOI and SOS. For the PA, GaAs still has a higher power-efficiency over CMOS.

Still, the handwriting is on the wall for GaAs. “For the PA, SiGe BiCMOS has strong market share in WiFi, while GaAs HBT has strong market share in cellular. RF CMOS is relegated to the very low-end 2G/2.5G cellular space,” TowerJazz’ Racanelli said. “SOI for the PA is only in R&D and may not deliver the best performance by itself. But combined with switches and other functions, (SOI-based PAs) could become relevant as new architectures are adopted. Our view is that SiGe has the best tradeoff in performance. The cost structure is closer to CMOS/SOI. SiGe is likely to gain more ground in the future.”

Also in the RF front-end, there is a tunable capacitor, which tunes the antennae to boost efficiencies. Peregrine is selling SOS-based tunable devices. Paratek and STMicroelectronics are selling components based on barium strontium titanate (BST). And WiSpry is offering a MEMS solution.

“There are two vectors worth exploring here,” GlobalFoundries’ Noonen said. “If you can do something in CMOS, it will be done in CMOS. We will see other ways to approach the problem. Using a tunable capacitor based on MEMs, for instance, you can attack the problem from an entirely different angle.”

Indeed, in the RF front-end, there is no one-size-fits-all technology; OEMs likely will adopt several types of chips and processes. “We will also see more functionality in the RF subsystem,” Noonen said. “The idea is to bring RF into more of a mainstream technology.”

Soitec’s Steve Longoria talks with Semiconductor Manufacturing and Design about what’s changing at the leading edge of Moore’s Law and why those changes are necessary.

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
The next-generation 4G wireless standard known as long-term evolution (LTE) presents some new and difficult design choices for OEMs.

One of the more difficult choices involves the less glamorous, but arguably the most critical part in a handset—the radio-frequency (RF) front-end. Typically, the RF front-end often comes in a module and includes various key components, such as the power amplifier (PA), antenna switch and filter.

The latest RF front-ends are moving towards multi-mode, multi-band PAs, based on the traditional technology for PAs—gallium arsenide (GaAs). The new PAs handle more frequencies, but it’s still difficult to support all 40 LTE bands; the RF front-end would end up being too big and costly. So for practical purposes, a 4G handset generally is configured with a different RF front-end to support various bands in a specific region, a sometimes complex and cumbersome process for OEMs and carriers alike.

But now there are some new options in the mix, which could help solve the band fragmentation problem for LTE and also turn the RF market upside down. One vendor, Peregrine Semiconductor, has been sampling a PA based on a variant of silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology called silicon-on-sapphire (SOS).

And looking to accelerate the deployment of LTE, Qualcomm recently unveiled an RF front-end device, based on a mix of bulk CMOS and SOI. Instead of using an RF module, Qualcomm’s solution is housed in a package-on-package (PoP) configuration, enabling OEMs to save board space and re-configure the device more easily for a given region.

Multiple sources indicate that Qualcomm’s RF front-end incorporates the industry’s first multi-band, multi-mode PA based on SOI. Qualcomm declined to comment, saying the company isn’t ready to break out the technologies within the device. But after dissecting Qualcomm’s device, analysts said the part poses as a potential threat to GaAs-based PA suppliers, such as RF Micro Devices, Skyworks, TriQuint and others. “Qualcomm fired the first shot across the bow,” said Eric Higham, an analyst at Strategy Analytics, a research firm. “The subsystem consists of an antenna tuning IC, an envelope tracking (ET) IC for Qualcomm’s PA and a multi-mode, multi-band CMOS PA fabricated using a silicon-on-insulator substrate.”

Christopher Taylor, an analyst with Strategy Analytics, added: “This does not mean the death of GaAs, but the Qualcomm announcement undoubtedly signals faster acceptance of CMOS PAs. To stay competitive, GaAs PA suppliers will have to continue to innovate, and they may also need to offer their own CMOS PAs for the most cost-sensitive phones, as Skyworks and RFMD have already done.”

All told, there are some dramatic changes taking place in the RF front-end, where CMOS, SOI, and SOS are making inroads at the expense of GaAs. “GaAs has been displaced by SOI in the switch,” said Rodd Novak, chief marketing officer of Peregrine. “The PA is the next thing to conquer. The stranglehold that GaAs has on the power amp will start to erode.”

RF complexities for LTE
The stakes are high in the RF front-end, a $5 billion business, according to Strategy Analytics. The big market is LTE, a technology that boasts data rates of up to 100 megabits per second, which is up to 10 times faster than 3G. In total, there were 88 million connections on LTE networks in 2012, but this number is projected to jump to 322 million in 2013 and 1.6 billion by 2017, according to the firm.

LTE could grow even faster, but in many respects the technology is being held back amid a slew of challenges, namely the band-fragmentation problem. Today, there are four frequency bands in 2G cellular networks and five for 3G. “Right now, there are about 40 cellular LTE bands in total when you add 2G, 3G and 4G worldwide,” said Peter Carson, senior director of marketing for Qualcomm. “And so the challenge in terms of getting to scale in an LTE device, meaning the ability to design one device and be able to ship it anywhere, is really a function of how many bands you have in LTE.”

The problem is that many countries support their own LTE frequencies, making it difficult for handsets to provide coverage for all 40 bands. “Each country has its own frequency challenges,” said Shane Smith, vice president of mobile devices global marketing at TriQuint. “So, you are dealing with multiple bands in each country at a 3G level. This proliferates in LTE. And then with global roaming, (the bands) can’t interfere with each other. And that’s where the RF complexity is significant.”

In another example of the complexities, AT&T uses Band 17 and bought some spectrum in Band 4 for LTE. Technically, the two bands are not contiguous. But AT&T has implemented carrier aggregation techniques to make them look contiguous. “That’s the benefit and advantage of carrier aggregation, but that causes the RF architecture to change (to meet) that new requirement,” Smith said.

Generally, the 2G and 3G cell phone is relatively simple. Chipmakers ship an RF front-end, which includes a discrete PA that would support a particular band. In contrast, OEMs face some difficult choices with LTE. In theory, OEMs could build a “universal” handset that could support all LTE bands, but that could be large and expensive due in part to the RF content, screen size and other features. “You would be paying a lot of extra cost for bands that may or may not be used,” Smith said.

In a more practical scenario, OEMs can develop “regional” phones that support limited bands in a given region. But still, the question is how much RF content does a “regional” handset require? It depends on the type of handset and price point. As a rule of thumb, Smith draws the line at four bands. A handset that requires four or more bands may need multi-mode, multi-band PAs, while cheaper discrete PAs are suitable for a phone with anything less than that.

“Of all the smartphones shipped this year, the average band count is actually still less than four. Some 60% to 70% of the market would probably lean towards a more discrete solution, whether that is a discrete PA or putting two power amps in one package,” he said. “Some 30% to 40% of the market would take advantage of multi-mode, multi-band PAs. The ones shipping today would probably (support) six to seven bands. Then, on top of that, they also have discrete PAs, which can be populated or de-populated depending on the region they want to support.”

OEMs face other complex choices. To date, the PA has been dominated by GaAs. Now there are some new and emerging PAs based on CMOS, SOI and SOS, all of which promise to provide more integration and have lower power than GaAs. What’s next? “The RF antenna switch is moving from III-V materials to SOI,” said Paul Boudre, chief operating officer at Soitec. “GaAs pHEMT will not disappear, but it will remain for more specific devices.”

Soitec sees a surge in its RF business, where the company develops substrates based on bonded silicon-on-sapphire (BSOS) and high-resistivity SOI. “Our technologies’ market penetration in smartphones and other RF-based communication devices proves that our engineered substrates are competitive,” Boudre said.

GaAs is still a better solution for the PA, TriQuint’s Smith contends, but SOI still has its place. “All of the traditional RF manufacturers have SOI designers and are making many of our switches in SOI,” Smith said.  “SOI has better insertion loss and some natural linearity aspects due to the materials that GaAs pHEMT switches could not meet very easily. The SOI performance actually meets or exceeds (GaAs pHEMT). And there is a cost advantage.’’

The new contender

Leveraging the benefits of bulk CMOS and SOI, Qualcomm recently rolled out the RF360, a front-end solution that combines a PA, antenna switch, antenna matching tuner and an envelope power tracker. Supporting all seven cellular modes, the RF360 also works in conjunction with Qualcomm’s digital cell-phone chipsets.

Qualcomm integrated the PA and antenna switch into one device. “What we tried to solve here is what we call the LTE band fragmentation problem,” Qualcomm’s Carson said. “The integration of the PA and antenna switch frees up the board area so you can have enough space for the filters, duplexers and additional switches to support roaming bands, and have a single design that can be shipped to any market.”

Another key is that the device comes in a PoP package, which cuts board space by 50%. “It allows (OEMs) to have a faster development cycle,” added Steve Brown, senior director of product management at Qualcomm. “By just changing the top of the PoP package, you can actually have a different set of characteristics in bands for a given region and phone.”

The RF360 is based on both CMOS and SOI. “It’s a mix-and-match of SOI and CMOS,” Brown said. “What we’ve done is look at each of the various areas and look at the best way to get to the highest levels of integration.”

For PAs, many argue that GaAs has a huge power-added-efficiency (PAE) advantage over CMOS. Brown dismissed that notion, saying CMOS and SOI are indeed ready for LTE. “You can actually use CMOS for very complicated RF front-end solutions. For example, we have a GSM, UMTS, CDMA and LTE front-end all on one piece of silicon,” he said.

Another key to Qualcomm’s PA is a technology called envelope tracking. In this approach, the voltage is constantly adjusted to make sure the PA is operating at peak efficiency. “PA efficiency is a challenge,” Carson said. “You don’t want to waste power and generate heat. Those two things are critical to smartphone design because you want to preserve battery life. If you don’t do something like envelope tracking, you actually waste power.”

Qualcomm’s rivals are keeping a close eye on the company’s new RF solution. “Do I think it’s a competitive threat long term? Sure,” said TriQuint’s Smith. “But I also think the CMOS solutions are not superior in performance to GaAs (for the PA).”

Qualcomm already dominates the cell-phone chipset business. Many OEMs may want to differentiate their RF front-ends and not get locked into using both Qualcomm’s chipset and RF solution, Peregrine’s Novak said. In any case, Qualcomm’s solution is a step towards bringing out the long-awaited single-chip, monolithic RF front-end. But it’s unlikely that OEMs will see a single-chip RF solution anytime soon due to cost. “The RF architectures are also changing so quickly,” Novak added.

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
Altera has entered into an agreement for the future manufacturing of its FPGAs based on Intel’s 14nm tri-gate transistor technology. Intel will provide foundry services for the FPGA giant. That puts the processor giant on a collision course in the foundry business against the likes of GlobalFoundries, Samsung, TSMC and UMC

The Altera-Intel deal could change the landscape in the foundry business, in which Intel will likely become a much bigger player in the arena. But does Intel have staying power to remain in the foundry business? Added John Vinh, an analyst from Pacific Crest Securities: Altera’s “foundry agreement with Intel is exclusive for the foreseeable future. We believe Altera will have exclusive access versus Xilinx at 14nm and effectively have the right of first refusal at 10nm. Strategically, we believe this is likely the most significant aspect of this agreement in that it prevents Xilinx from having access.”

At SPIE, ASML Holding disclosed various milestones with its extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography technology. ASML’s EUV production tool, dubbed the NXE:3300B, has demonstrated resolutions of 13nm for lines and spaces and 18nm contact holes. In addition, ASML demonstrated a 40-Watt source with dose control and under good collector protection conditions in six 1-hour runs. It also demonstrated a 55-Watt source in a 1 hour run. But that’s a far cry from the eventual goal. By 2015, ASML hopes to deliver a 250-Watt source for the NXE:3300B, thereby enabling a throughput of 126 wafers an hour.

With the help of self-aligned double patterning (SADP), sometimes called spacer, ASML’s NXE:3300B also demonstrated the ability to print lines and spaces down to 9nm. The work was done in conjunction with ASML, Applied Materials and Imec.

At the International Semiconductor Strategy Symposium in Europe (ISS Europe) on Feb. 24-26, the European semiconductor industry discussed 450mm fabs and other chip topics. In addition, European Commissioner Neelie Kroes floated the idea of creating an “Airbus for chips,” a European initiative for the semiconductor industry comparable to the launch of the Airbus in the aviation industry.

Also at ISS Europe, Malcolm Penn, chairman and CEO of Future Horizons, said that the decline of the major European chip makers has been a result of a defeatist attitude, not necessarily fundamental structural issues. He suggests European chip makers should build a 450mm fab jointly and operate it as a foundry.

SEMI has announced the release of “Global Trade War and Peace: Unified Approaches to a Global Solar Energy Solution,” a white paper containing recommendations to move beyond trade litigation and encourage an accelerated path towards dispute resolution.

In case your calendar has turned into a blur, take note: Semicon is near! SEMI, in collaboration with leading investment groups, has announced the Silicon Innovation Forum (SIF). The forum will bridge funding gaps for new and early-stage companies with manufacturing and technology solutions. SIF will be held in conjunction with Semicon West, on July 9 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Peregrine Semiconductor rolled out its latest version of its UltraCMOS process technology, dubbed Semiconductor Technology Platform 8 (STeP8). UltraCMOS is a variant of silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology called silicon-on-sapphire (SoS).

Also in Spain, Skyworks Solutions said it is ramping several antenna-tuning products with leading smartphone manufacturers. The tuning devices are based on SOI technology.

The RATP Group, the fifth-largest urban transport operator worldwide, has awarded Soitec and Philips/Step an LED lighting contract for its metro and network stations.

Soitec and Medina College of Technology have signed a cooperative agreement for concentrating photovoltaic technology in Saudi Arabia.

GT Advanced Technologies has entered into a development and licensing agreement with Soitec to develop and commercialize a hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) system for producing GaN template substrates.

Mentor Graphics announced record financial results for the company’s fiscal fourth quarter and year ended Jan. 31.

During a conference call, Walden Rhines, chairman and CEO of Mentor, said the quarter was an all-time revenue and EPS record. Rhines also has a mixed forecast for the overall IC industry in 2013. “For next year, the analysts project mid-single-digit growth, but the general attitude is less positive,” he said.

Mentor Graphics rolled out the Kronos Cell Characterization and Analysis platform.

A blogger discusses Applied Materials, saying the company is at the cyclical trough and its prospects should improve with an increase in equipment spending.

Applied Materials announced that Bob Halliday has been named senior vice president and chief financial officer. Halliday previously was executive vice president and chief financial officer of Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates prior to Applied’s acquisition of the company in November 2011.

Micron Technology announced the Tokyo District Court’s issuance of an order approving Elpida’s plan of reorganization. Elpida’s plan of reorganization calls for Micron to acquire Elpida. In addition, mixed-signal foundry specialist LFoundry has acquired Micron’s fab in Italy.

Whatever happened to Conexant Systems? The chipmaker recently went private to avoid a takeover. Now, the company this week implemented a restructuring agreement. As part of the plan, Conexant voluntarily filed protection under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code.

Photomask maker Photronics has announced its intent to acquire the shares of its majority-owned Taiwan subsidiary, PSMC.

After a loss and a proxy battle, Aetrium is considering options that may include a sale or other disposition of one or both of its reliability test and test handler product groups.

According to IHS, the competitive landscape of the cell-phone integrated circuits business has completely transformed over the past five years, with Qualcomm and Samsung capitalizing on the rise of smartphones and 4G.

By Mark LaPedus
Is China set to bail out a U.S. government technology darling? Two Chinese automotive companies, Geely and Dongfeng Motor, are reported to have bid between $200 million and $350 million for a majority stake in Fisker, the maker of plug-in hybrid cars. If that happens Fisker—which has $192 million in U.S. federal government loan guarantees—could be headed to China, according to Lux Research.

Over the years, Apple has moved deeper into IC design. In an e-mail newsletter, Will Strauss, president of Forward Concepts, indicated that Apple could be expanding its efforts in wireless ICs, a move that might impact Broadcom, Qualcomm and others. “There is a rumor published in Israel that Apple will be designing its own baseband and Wi-Fi chips,” Strauss said. “When Texas Instruments dropped out of the cell-phone business, within a week about 100 of the former TI engineers in Israel were hired by Apple. Of course, Apple once hired a bunch of former VLSI Technology wireless engineers, but I understand that that operation came to naught. So, maybe Apple just wanted more engineering talent.”

In a separate research note, Doug Freedman, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets, said: “After talks with management dating back from CES to today (Feb. 25), we believe that Intel is becoming increasingly closer to inking a material foundry design win(s).” Intel is in consideration to be a potential foundry partner for Apple. “Intel’s foundry aspirations may come to light soon,” he said. Apple is also supposedly doing a 20nm foundry deal with TSMC.

Taking the process technology lead in the FPGA market, Achronix Semiconductor is shipping the first in a family of devices based on Intel’s 22nm finFET technology. Achronix’ FPGAs are built using Intel’s foundry services. Achronix says that it has a two- to three-year lead over Altera and Xilinx, which are still shipping 28nm planar devices. The event has prompted two questions. First, will Altera and Xilinx turn up the heat on their FPGA foundry partner, TSMC, to accelerate its finFET efforts? Or second, will Altera and Xilinx turn to Intel over time?

CEA-Leti will coordinate a four-year project aimed at building a European-based supply chain in silicon photonics and speeding up the industrialization of the technology. Mentor Graphics, PhoeniX BV and Si2 will work together to develop a common reference platform. STMicroelectronics, Tyndall-UCC, Aifotec and others are also part of the group.

Mentor Graphics has expanded its automotive business unit by purchasing certain assets from MontaVista. This establishes Mentor as a bigger commercial provider of Linux-based automotive in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) solutions.

Mentor announced the 10.2 release of the Questa functional verification platform. In addition, Tesla Motors has standardized on Mentor’s Capital toolset for 12-volt electrical systems design.

With FD-SOI, STMicroelectronics said that application processors manufactured at its fab are capable of operating at 3 GHz.

Soitec and Sumitomo Electric have signed a licensing and technology-transfer agreement. Sumitomo will use Soitec’s Smart Cut technology to manufacture engineered gallium nitride (GaN) substrates. GaN substrates are used in high-performance light-emitting diode (LED) lighting applications.

GlobalFoundries announced enhancements to its 55nm Low-Power Enhanced (LPe) process technology platform. The so-called 55nm LPe 1V has been qualified with next-generation memory and logic IP solutions from ARM.

Are happy days here again for fab tool vendors? The book-to-bill ratio is above parity for the first time in recent memory. North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted a book-to-bill ratio of 1.14 in January, according to SEMI. This compares to a ratio of 0.92 in December.

Intersil cut its global work force by approximately 18%. This comes on the heels of the resignation of the company’s CEO.

Sony introduced the PlayStation 4, which is based on AMD’s single-chip, eight-core custom processor. The x86 processor, dubbed Jaguar, is a 28nm device built by TSMC.

Five IC suppliers are expected to hold one-third of 300mm wafer capacity in 2013, according to IC Insights. Samsung was by far the leader in 2012, having about 61% more 300mm capacity than second-place SK Hynix. Intel was the only other company that held a double-digit share of 300mm capacity at the end of 2012.

Qualcomm dominated the LTE cell-phone modem market with a staggering 86% share in 2012, according to Forward Concepts. In total, Qualcomm shipped 47 million FDD-LTE cell-phone modems last year. Samsung followed with 9% of the shipments in 2012, while GCT Semiconductor managed to grab 3% of the market, primarily through LG handsets, according to the firm. Renesas Mobile and Nvidia-Icera each garnered 1% market shares.

The number of China Mobile 4G subscribers is forecast to reach 228.8 million in 2017, representing 52 percent of China’s 439.9 million total 4G users, according to IHS. In comparison, 4G users from China Unicom and China Telecom, the country’s two other major telecommunications operators, will number 114.4 million and 96.8 million, respectively.