Electronics technology and market trends for 2019:
Markets: The Future of the Semiconductor Industry is Bright. Demand is rising for AI and automotive, flat for mobile phones, with trade uncertainty looming over everything. Foundries see growth and new issues in 2019. WSTS industry forecast projects annual global market growth of 2.6 percent in 2019.
Politics: Superpower politics may start to unravel semiconductor industry. China – USA market war is going on or starting. Trade Disputes Increase Market Uncertainty. The need to impose tariffs on U.S. imports of semiconductors is perplexing and frequently confusing. For example GoPro says it will move production of US-bound cameras out of China by summer 2019 due to fear of future tariffs, as US-China trade war escalates.
More-Than-Moore Markets: Software developers have come to expect ever-growing compute and memory resources, but the CPU no longer can deliver the kinds of performance benefits that scaling used to provide. CPUs no longer deliver the same kind of of performance improvements as in the past, raising questions across the industry about what comes next. The growth in processing power delivered by a single CPU core began stalling out at the beginning of the decade. The escalating costs of following Moore’s Law have shifted the semiconductor industry’s focus to More-than-Moore (MtM) technologies, where analog/mixed-signal, RF, MEMS, image sensing, power or other technologies may be integrated with CMOS in a variety of planar, 2.5D and 3D architectures. New Metrology and Inspection Technologies Needed for More-than-Moore Markets. Maximum flexibility is no longer the reliable path to product success. With scaling no longer happening for many companies, competitiveness now comes from better design, better performance and lower power.
Memory: DRAM fastest growing market in four of past six years, demonstrating very cyclical market. For the last two years, DRAMs have been sold more than any other semiconductors and market has been strongly growing. DRAM growth ends in 2019. New memory technologies like GDDR6 and HBM2 impacts system design. By 2018, embedded memory has become pervasive in a system-on-chip (SoC) and the area devoted to memory has risen to 72% and Semico Research predicts that this will rise to 79% by 2021.
AI: AI/ML/DL is now cropping up everywhere, and that trend shows no sign of abatement. AI and machine learning were considered distant future technologies until a few years ago, but now AI is suddenly pushed into the mainstream. ML support is showing up at all levels. The almost ubiquitous rollout of AI and its offshoots—machine learning, deep learning, neural nets of all types—will require significantly more processing power as the amount of data that needs to be processed continues to grow by orders of magnitude. What isn’t clear yet is how that will affect semiconductor manufacturing or how quickly that might happen. Your Next SoC Will Probably Include AI Acceleration. China has never had a real chip industry, but in making specialized AI chips, though, it’s got a head start. Today, selling custom chips for artificial intelligence is still a small business – the current market at $2.5 billion which is one half of one percent of the estimated value of the 2018 global semiconductor market). It could be worth $20 billion in 2021.
Heterogeneous processing: It used to be that the only processing device was an x86. Now almost all data centers have added both FPGA and GPU processors in various configurations. This heterogeneous approach is particularly apparent in AI/ML designs. This means that processors are no longer the one-size-fits-all answer for processing which means faster rate of innovation. Addition of multiple processing elements and memories is causing design challenges. System-on-chip (SoC) solutions continue to get more complex as more specialized hardware is added to optimize the SoC for new applications. Designers today are faced by a “whole system” problem: a problem of systemic complexity. Making Sure A Heterogeneous Design Will Work is hard. While existing tools still work well enough, no one has yet figured out the most efficient way to use them in a variety of new applications. A growing push toward more heterogeneity and customization in chip design is creating havoc across the global supply chain.
Equipment: After a period of record growth, the semiconductor equipment industry is facing a slowdown in 2019, in addition to several technical challenges that still need to be resolved. Both DRAM and NAND vendors are expected to push out their equipment orders. On the positive side, foundry vendors continue to ramp up their 7nm processes, propelling equipment orders in the logic space. Still, the demand for leading-edge and mature tools can’t make up for the downturn in memory. Total fab equipment spending in 2019 is projected to drop 8 percent.
Advanced nodes: Intel plans to ship products based on 10nm in the second half of 2019. TSMC and Samsung are ramping up 7nm, which is equivalent to Intel’s 10nm. 7 nm is important node. It’s becoming harder to prepare a wafer at advanced nodes. There are considerable challenges of planarizing a thin film on a wafer for etch and optical control at 7nm and beyond. Intel is working on 7nm and 5nm.
MEMS: Small but mighty, micro-electrical mechanical systems (MEMS) were the driving force behind many of the most surprising devices at this year’s CES. MEMS are tiny machines made of components between 1 and 100 micrometers in size. Event-driven MEMS sensors consume no power while standing by. A triggering mechanical or thermal event closes a contact within the sensor to activate its circuitry and telemetry. Compared to traditional RF relays, RF MEMS switch technology can provide a relay replacement solution that is smaller, faster, more reliable, and use less power than conventional electromechanical relays.
Packaging: Although IC packaging industry braces for slower growth in 2019, advanced packaging remains a bright spot. Intel has demonstrated a new Foveros 3D ‘stacked’ packaging technology for face-to-face stacking of logic. Foveros extends the 3D packaging concept to include high-performance logic such as CPU, graphics, and AI processors.
Sensors: New sensors could vastly extend the reach of electronics, creating new markets and new opportunities within existing markets. The sensors market be segmented on the basis of technology, named as CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor), MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical System), NEMS (Nano Electromechanical System) and others. It is expected to increase due to increasing adoption of sensors in automotive sector, escalating use of sensors in industrial products, strong demand for sensors in smart home and building applications, growing adoption of sensors in healthcare equipments, etc. Yet the market faces some challenges such as declining personal computers (PCs) shipments.
EDA: Digital circuit design is largely automated today, but most analog components still are designed manually. Analog electronics design is needed very much today, especially in IoT applications where same chips need to have both analogue and digital functionality. As analog design grows increasingly complex and error-prone, design teams and tool vendors are focusing on how to automate as much of the design of analog circuits as possible. We need new ways to find defects in multi-technology devices.
Power consumption: Today, information and communication technologies globally consume 8% of electricity and doubles every year. New low power technologies are needed in both hardware and software.
2019 Will Be the Year of Open Source from software and even hardware. It seems that it is the time for RISC-V to rise to the challenge. It is possible that there is a bright future for RISC-V, as the biggest concern isn’t even choosing “the core” as designers today are faced by a “whole system” problem. Open hardware/software platforms like Arduino and Raspberry Pi are inresingly important in many applications.
Compliance: The IEC 62368-1 standard represents an important transition for designers of ICT and audio-visual equipment because it is set to supersede the outgoing IEC 60950-1 and IEC 60065 electrical safety standards. It applies to to the end systems and also to components such as power supplies. The implementation date is by the December 2020.
289 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Semiconductor R&D Spending Projected to Rise
https://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1334280&_mc=RSS_EET_EDT
Tomi Engdahl says:
Inside China’s High-Tech Dystopia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydPqKhgh9Mg
Inside China’s Future Factory
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLmaIbb13GM
Tomi Engdahl says:
EDN Hot 100 products of 2018: Sensors
https://www.edn.com/electronics-products/other/4461490/EDN-Hot-100-products-of-2018–Sensors
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2019/02/13/euroopan-puolijohdekauppa-kasvoi-82-prosenttia/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Demand for memory chips in Asia might be picking up soon, analysts say
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/13/demand-for-memory-chips-in-asia-might-be-picking-up-soon-analysts-say.html
Investors in the semiconductor space could be attempting to “time the bottom,” said Randy Abrams of Credit Suisse.
The downturn cycle in the semiconductor sector “might be much shorter than expected,” according to Kiwoom Securities’ Daniel Yoo.
Both analysts also explained to CNBC how the sector might be affected by the upcoming trade negotiations between the U.S. and China.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why Analog Designs Fail
https://semiengineering.com/making-analog-more-reliable/
Analog circuitry stopped following Moore’s Law a long time ago, but that hasn’t always helped.
The gap between analog and digital reliability is growing, and digital designs appear to be winning.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Arms Race In Chip Performance
https://semiengineering.com/arms-race-in-chip-performance/
Processing speed is now a geopolitical issue, which could help solve one of the thorniest problems in computing.
An AI arms race is taking shape across continents. While this is perilous on many fronts, it could provide a massive boost for the chip technology—and help to solve a long-simmering problem in computing, as well as lots of lesser ones.
The U.S. government this week announced its AI Initiative, joining an international scramble for the fastest way to do multiply/accumulate and come up with good-enough results. Behind the geopolitcal rhetoric, all are working to process enormous amounts of data at blazing speeds, often with limited power budgets because some of these systems need to operate in the field using batteries. And now they all are competing for the most effective way to process that data in the shortest amount of time.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Promise Of GDDR6 And 7nm
https://semiengineering.com/the-promise-of-gddr6-and-7nm/
Why this new memory is so critical for everything from AI to ADAS.
Computer graphics is just the beginning of the burgeoning markets that GDDR6 DRAM will supercharge over the near term. Industry forecasts expect GDDR6 to start ramping up this year and become the mainstream graphic memory by 2024. GDDR6 revenue is expected to be in the range of $6 to $8 billion, which foretells the increasingly vast system application usage over the next few years.
This healthy growth, fueled by the graphics market, is only the start for GDDR6. The memory bandwidth bottleneck is now affecting a broad range of high-performance applications including networking, data center, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), cryptocurrency mining, high-performance computing (HPC), machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI).
GDDR6 DRAM, at speeds of 16Gbps (per pin) or 512Gbps of total bandwidth per DRAM device, offers these applications a memory subsystem that is in many cases 5X faster than traditional memory solutions.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Getting Ready for 32 GT/s PCIe 5.0 Designs
https://semiengineering.com/getting-ready-for-32-gt-s-pcie-5-0-designs/
The transition from older PCI Express (PCIe) technologies to the latest Revision 5.0 is on an accelerated path, with system-on-chip (SoC) designers seeing a much faster roll out than they did with PCIe 4.0. The recent release of version 0.9 of the PCIe 5.0 Base Specification locks in the functional changes to the specification, allowing designers to confidently start their designs. With the rapid adoption of PCIe 5.0 technology, SoC designers should understand and consider some of the key design challenges they will face, such as increased channel loss, complex controller considerations, PHY and controller integration, packaging and signal integrity issues, and modeling and testing requirements.
This article outlines the design challenges of moving to a PCIe 5.0 interface and how to successfully overcome the challenges using proven IP that is designed and tested to meet the key features of PCIe 5.0 at 32 GT/s.
Tomi Engdahl says:
TSMC to move 7nm EUV process to volume production in March
https://www.digitimes.com/news/a20190212PD200.html%20%20
Tomi Engdahl says:
Quantum strangeness gives rise to new electronics
https://electroiq.com/2019/02/quantum-strangeness-gives-rise-to-new-electronics/
Noting the startling advances in semiconductor technology, Intel co-founder Gordon Moore proposed that the number of transistors on a chip will double each year, an observation that has been born out since he made the claim in 1965. Still, it’s unlikely Moore could have foreseen the extent of the electronics revolution currently underway.
Today, a new breed of devices, bearing unique properties, is being developed. As ultra-miniaturization continues apace, researchers have begun to explore the intersection of physical and chemical properties occurring at the molecular scale.
Advances in this fast-paced domain could improve devices for data storage and information processing and aid in the development of molecular switches, among other innovations.
Tomi Engdahl says:
New Method Makes Waterproof Graphene Circuits for Sensors
https://www.designnews.com/electronics-test/new-method-makes-waterproof-graphene-circuits-sensors/51061556160216?ADTRK=UBM&elq_mid=7493&elq_cid=876648
A European team of researchers has found a way to make graphene-based circuits immune to humidity for use in environmental sensors.
Engineers love graphene for its versatility, strength, and electrical conductivity. However, one drawback to its use in electrical applications, such as sensors, is that it is sensitive to humidity.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple supply chain: TSMC to remain sole iPhone chip supplier
https://www.digitimes.com/news/a20190130PD218.html%20
Tomi Engdahl says:
China’s IC Production Forecast to Double Over Next 5 Years
https://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1334300
Integrated circuit production in China is projected to nearly double between 2018 and 2023, increasing from $23.8 billion to $47 billion, according to market research firm IC Insights.
This increase — albeit from a relatively a small base — represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15% over the five-year period, IC Insights said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
200mm Fabs to Add 700,000 Wafers Through 2022, SEMI Reports
http://www1.semi.org/en/200mm-fabs-add-700000-wafers-through-2022-semi-reports%20
Robust demand for more content for mobile, Internet of Things (IoT), automotive and industrial applications will drive production of 700,000 200mm wafers from 2019 to 2022, a 14 percent increase, reports SEMI, the global industry association serving the electronics manufacturing supply chain, in its latest Global 200mm Fab Outlook. The increase brings total 200mm wafer fab capacity to 6.5 million wafers per month as many devices have found their sweet spot with 200mm wafer fabrication.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Lithography Challenges For Fan-out
https://semiengineering.com/lithography-challenges-for-fan-out/
Advanced packaging moves into high-volume mobile markets, but requires more sophisticated equipment and lower-cost processes.
Tomi Engdahl says:
http://www.etn.fi/index.php/13-news/9078-euroopan-puolijohdejakelussa-ennatysvuosi
Tomi Engdahl says:
A Lack of Minerals Is Threatening America’s Energy Future
https://www.designnews.com/electronics-test/lack-minerals-threatening-americas-energy-future/177607494160239?ADTRK=UBM&elq_mid=7518&elq_cid=876648
The future of American consumer electronics, electric vehicles, and renewable energy will depend upon securing sources of vital minerals for battery production.
Tomi Engdahl says:
TSMC gearing up for 7nm chip production for Qualcomm
https://www.digitimes.com/news/a20190215PD201.html%20%20
Pure-play foundry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) will soon kick off commercial production for Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 855 processor designed for high-end smartphones, according to industry sources.
Tomi Engdahl says:
China’s Chip Fab Capacity Rising Fast
https://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1334325
China’s installed semiconductor wafer production capacity grew faster than any other region of the world in 2018 as the nation continued to ramp into high gear its ambitious plan to bolster its domestic semiconductor industry, according to market research firm IC Insights.
At the end of 2018, China accounted for 12.5% of the world’s global fab capacity, up from 10.8% in 2017, IC Insights said. The 12.5% share put China nearly in a dead heat with North America, the firm said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Would a Huawei Boycott Unravel the Supply Chain?
https://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1334370
Huawei Technologies Co. — the controversial Chinese vendor of networking gear and smartphones — faces the real possibility that its telecom equipment will be banned from U.S. and European markets. If Huawei’s sales suffer, its supply chain will feel the pain. Huawei became the world’s third-largest semiconductor buyer in 2018, according to Gartner, and almost half its $100 billion revenue is derived from foreign markets.
Huawei’s ascension on the top buyers’ list underscores a dilemma facing the global supply chain.
A U.S.-EU Huawei ban would whack component makers with both ends of the stick. U.S. vendors would be cut off from a massive — and growing — global OEM. A boycott of Huawei’s smartphones and telecom equipment would put a considerable dent in its component demand.
Tomi Engdahl says:
EUV Errors Under Attack
Experts describe an array of challenges making next-gen chips
https://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1334369
After decades of development, EUV systems are being used by both TSMC and Samsung for some aspects of their next-generation 7nm processes. In recent years, the throughput of the systems slowly increased to levels acceptable for use in commercial fabs, but other nagging shortcomings are now front and center.
Today, engineers can print at best 40nm metal gate pitches, but that could shrink with a combination of improvements in materials, design and manufacturing processes. Gate pitches, on the other hand, have largely hit a wall, said Ryoung-han Kim, an Imec researcher in an invited talk.
The biggest problem continues to be random errors in EUV called stochastics identified last year that create unintended connections and holes.
Masks themselves may need to move to a high-k absorber. However, they may not be ready until second-generation EUV systems emerge in about 2024 targeting the 3nm node. Meanwhile, multibeam mask writers may help improve throughput, Kim said.
“We used to joke at least EUV will simplify OPC [optical proximity correction techniques used in today’s steppers], but it actually complicates it,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
NVM ReRAM Memory Cell Targets Edge AI
https://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1334371
Researchers at CEA-Leti and Stanford University have demonstrated a chip that integrates multiple-bit non-volatile memory (NVM) resistive RAM (ReRAM) with silicon computing units and new memory resiliency features that provide 2.3× the capacity of existing ReRAM. Target applications include energy-efficient, smart-sensor nodes to support artificial intelligence on the internet of things or edge AI.
Tomi Engdahl says:
U.S.-China Crisis: Fallout for Chip Industry
https://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1334360
Tomi Engdahl says:
TSMC lowers 1Q19 guidance after defective material impact
Monica Chen, Taipei; Rodney Chan, DIGITIMES
Monday 18 February 2019
https://www.digitimes.com/news/a20190218PD201.html
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has revised downward its first-quarter 2019 guidance following the completion of an assessment of all wafers recently affected by a batch of problematic photoresist material.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Thank 2.5D Interposer Technologies for the Success of 3D ICs
https://www.3dincites.com/2019/02/thank-2-5d-interposers-technologies-for-the-success-of-3d-ics/
Would it be flippant to say that the most pivotal event that impacted the commercialization of 3D integration technologies, may have been the commercialization of 2.5D interposer technologies? Arguably, 3D and silicon interposer are very different technologies, with a common denominator that happens to be the through silicon via (TSV). Until Xilinx announced its Virtix-7 2000T in or around 2011, skepticism was the other common denominator. 3D memory cubes were certainly in the ether at the time, but there was still much debate about the cost and commercial viability of TSV technologies.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Chinese chipmakers lure Taiwanese engineers with fat pay packets
https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Business-trends/Chinese-chipmakers-lure-Taiwanese-engineers-with-fat-pay-packets
China’s cash-rich companies can offer ’2 to 3 times’ the salary of their rivals
Tomi Engdahl says:
Racetrack Memory Gets a Boost
With ultrafast pulses, it’s possible to write bits in picoseconds—100 times faster than today’s technologies
https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/computing/embedded-systems/making-memory-with-light
Tomi Engdahl says:
ARMv8.1-M Adds Machine Learning to Microcontrollers
The latest microcontroller architecture definition from Arm—ARMv8.1-M—stirs machine-learning hardware acceleration into the mix.
https://www.electronicdesign.com/industrial-automation/armv81-m-adds-machine-learning-microcontrollers?NL=ED-005&Issue=ED-005_20190220_ED-005_566&sfvc4enews=42&cl=article_1_b&utm_rid=CPG05000002750211&utm_campaign=23424&utm_medium=email&elq2=f3363fb86e984996bbac396824acd23c
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Great Semi Debate: SiC or GaN?
https://www.powerelectronics.com/power-management/great-semi-debate-sic-or-gan?NL=ED-003&Issue=ED-003_20190215_ED-003_838&sfvc4enews=42&cl=article_1_b&utm_rid=CPG05000002750211&utm_campaign=23375&utm_medium=email&elq2=43f6772001e442f4a8af720231456ffc
SiC and GaN semiconductors are vying for use in automotive and industrial applications with performance superior to current silicon technology.
Tomi Engdahl says:
China’s top chipmaker SMIC to boost capex 20% despite downturn
https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Companies/China-s-top-chipmaker-SMIC-to-boost-capex-20-despite-downturn
Investment up to 2.2 billion in 2019 amid Beijing’s push for tech self-reliance
Tomi Engdahl says:
How Graphene Might Revolutionise Industry Beyond Semiconductors
https://www.electropages.com/2019/02/graphene-revolutionise-industry-semiconductors/?utm_campaign=&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=article&utm_content=How+Graphene+Might+Revolutionise+Industry+Beyond+Semiconductors
Tomi Engdahl says:
Kertakäyttöisiä antureita voidaan 3D-tulostaa
http://www.etn.fi/index.php/13-news/9137-kertakayttoisia-antureita-voidaan-3d-tulostaa
Tomi Engdahl says:
IC Insights has released the process technology roadmaps for chipmakers and foundries. GlobalFoundries, Intel, Samsung, SMIC, TSMC and UMC are highlighted.
Advances in Logic IC Process Technology Move Forward
Despite increasing development costs, IC manufacturers continue to make great strides.
http://www.icinsights.com/news/bulletins/Advances-In-Logic-IC-Process-Technology-Move-Forward/
Tomi Engdahl says:
TI Claims Breakthrough BAW Technology
https://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1334373
Texas Instruments unveiled this week what the company describes as “breakthrough” bulk acoustic wave (BAW) resonator technology. With microresonator technology, TI no longer needs to use external quartz crystal. Instead, it can integrate high-precision and ultra-low-jitter clocks directly into packages that contain other circuits, according to the company. This has enabled TI to roll out for the embedded market the industry’s first crystal-less, wireless MCU, SimpleLink CC2652RB, with the clock included in the same silicon.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Smart Radios Map Analog Processing onto Moore’s Law
https://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1334385
A San Diego-based fabless semiconductor startup has developed a single chip wireless internet of things (IoT) platform that allow analog radio circuits to take advantage of the power consumption and performance benefits of digital, enabling analog RF processing to benefit from Moore’s Law.
enables the radio function to be carried out in the digital domain rather than the analog domain, which means a significant part of the RF processing can be implemented on high end process nodes and reducing power consumption by 50% or more for edge-of-network IoT devices.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Chip Roadmap Looks Dark, Bumpy
Resists under pressure to deliver fine features
https://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1334381
The semiconductor roadmap could extend a decade to a 1-nm node or it could falter before the 3-nm node for lack of new resist chemistries. Those were some of the hopes and fears that engineers expressed at an evening panel session at an annual lithography conference here.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Good And Bad Of 2D Materials
https://semiengineering.com/the-good-and-bad-of-2d-materials/
Single-layer materials are a long way from displacing or even complementing silicon, but no one is ruling them out.
Despite years of warnings about reaching the limits of silicon, particularly at leading-edge process nodes where electron mobility is limited, there still is no obvious replacement.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Smoke Testing A High-Level Synthesis Design
https://semiengineering.com/smoke-testing-a-high-level-synthesis-design/
Making easy comparisons between newly generated RTL and the original C++.
Designing hardware using C++ and C++ testbenches brings orders of magnitude speed-up to simulation. But after High-Level Synthesis (HLS), teams need a way to quickly ensure that the newly-generated RTL is functionally the same as the original untimed C++.
They don’t want to create an RTL testbench in order to make this comparison.
Tomi Engdahl says:
HPC, AI and Datacenters: the 2.5D and 3D Stacking Technologies Playground
https://www.3dincites.com/2019/02/hpc-ai-and-datacenters-the-2-5d-and-3d-stacking-technologies-playground/
“2.5D and 3D stacking technologies are the only solutions that meet the required performance of applications like artificial intelligence (AI) and datacenter as of today”, confirms Mario Ibrahim, Technology & Market Analyst from Yole Développement (Yole). Stacking technologies are used in a variety of hardware, including 3D stacked memory, graphics processor units (GPUs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), and CMOS image sensors (CIS), are intended for the high/mid and low-end market segments.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Co-emulation for better IC testing
https://www.edn.com/design/integrated-circuit-design/4461606/Co-emulation-for-better-IC-testing?utm_source=Aspencore&utm_medium=EDN&utm_campaign=social
Tomi Engdahl says:
97 IC Wafer Fabs Closed or Repurposed During Past 10 Years
90% of closures were ≤200mm wafer fabs; greatest number of closures in Japan.
http://www.icinsights.com/news/bulletins/97-IC-Wafer-Fabs-Closed-Or-Repurposed-During-Past-10-Years/
The IC industry has been on a mission to pare down older capacity (i.e., ≤200mm wafers) in order to produce devices more cost-effectively on larger wafers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Industry 4.0 brings lucrative opportunities for chipmakers: Q&A with TI manager Matthieu Chervier
https://www.digitimes.com/news/a20190226PD209.html
Global chipmakers have been racing to develop chip solutions associated with Industry 4.0 applications to tap huge business opportunities arising from smart manufacturing in conjunction with the rapid development of 5G and AI applications.
In a recent interview conducted by Digitimes, Matthieu Chervier, systems and application manager at Texas Instruments (TI), shed lights on opportunities for chipmakers from Industry 4.0 applications, and current worldwide progresses and prospects for industrial upgrades based on the concept.
A: There is no significant difference in promoting factory automation around the world. While labor costs in the US and Europe are relatively higher, young people in Asia are increasingly unwilling to enter factories, making production automation an urgent task to complete.
Network infrastructure at factories now commands the largest portion of the costs for industry upgrades with Industry 4.0 solutions. If a factory already owns sound network communications systems, then only sensors and edge processors need to be installed at the factory to conduct instant collection and analysis of production data to facilitate production management and efficiency. Accordingly, factories may differ in their efforts in pursing Industry 4.0 goals, but they apparently move in exactly the same direction.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Chip Market Downturn Begins in Earnest
https://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1334399
After a three-year run of record chip sales, the widely expected semiconductor industry downturn appears to be at hand.
Chip sales fell sharply in January on both a sequential and annual basis, according to the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization. It was the first year-to-year decline in chip sales for any month since July 2016.
“It seems clear the global market is experiencing a period of slower sales,” Neuffer said.
In the Americas region, chip sales for January were down 15.3% year-to-year and down 13% month-to-month, according to the WSTS.
Despite the slowdown in sales, Neuffer maintained that the long-term outlook for the industry remains promising “due to the ever-increasing semiconductor content in a range of consumer products and future growth drivers such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality, the Internet of Things and 5G and next-generation communications networks.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Broadcom Ranked as No. 1 Fabless Chip Vendor
https://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1334400
Broadcom ascended to the top of the heap in sales among fabless chip vendors in 2018, knocking rival Qualcomm from the spot it had held for more than 10 years, according to TrendForce, a Taipei-based market research firm.
Tomi Engdahl says:
New Design Approaches At 7/5nm
https://semiengineering.com/new-design-approaches-at-7-5nm/
Smaller features and AI are creating system-level issues, but traditional ways of solving these problems don’t always work.
The race to build chips with a multitude of different processing elements and memories is making it more difficult to design, verify and test these devices, particularly when AI and leading-edge manufacturing processes are involved.
There are two fundamental problems. First, there are much tighter tolerances for all of the components in those designs due to proximity effects. Second, as a result of those tighter tolerances, better characterization data is required. However, the behavior of these chips or their component parts isn’t always precise. This is especially true for AI chips, as well as chips that include AI, where predictability and measurability are relative terms. Two devices may start out identical and diverge over time due to different use cases or environmental conditions.
“With AI, it’s not just silicon—it’s also software,” said Raik Brinkmann, CEO of OneSpin Solutions. “You can measure what’s going on with the training set, but you have limited visibility into how the network will interpolate from that. So two chips may still perform in a similar way, but they might not be at the same accuracy. The big question here is whether it is accurate enough.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Problem With Post-Silicon Debug
https://semiengineering.com/the-problem-with-post-silicon-debug/
Rising costs, tighter market windows and more heterogeneous designs are forcing chipmakers to rethink fundamental design approaches.
Tomi Engdahl says:
http://www.etn.fi/index.php/13-news/9161-future-hakee-kasvua-osaamiskeskuksilla
Tomi Engdahl says:
Advanced Nodes Face Edge Errors
https://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1334393
Edge placement error has emerged as a new challenge to good semiconductor yields, says an expert from Applied Materials who gives guidance for dealing with it.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Advances in Logic IC Process Technology Move Forward
Despite increasing development costs, IC manufacturers continue to make great strides.
http://www.icinsights.com/news/bulletins/Advances-In-Logic-IC-Process-Technology-Move-Forward/