The high-tech company TRUMPF and the semiconductor manufacturer STMicroelectronics have concluded a strategic partnership in the field of UWB positioning technology. As part of this agreement, STMicroelectronics will acquire TRUMPF’s majority stake in the UWB pioneer BeSpoon. Within the framework of the strategic partnership, TRUMPF will focus on the ongoing development of its Track&Trace indoor positioning and tracking system.
“This partnership will enable us to expand TRUMPF’s pioneering role in localisation systems for industry. As well as laying the foundations for our next-generation products, it will also strengthen our role as a system provider,” says Peter Leibinger, Chief Technology Officer at TRUMPF.
As a developer and high-volume manufacturer of semiconductor devices, STMicroelectronics will be injecting the expertise required to develop the next generation of industrial UWB chips in partnership with TRUMPF. TRUMPF is also the co-founder of omlox, an open standard for locating technologies.
BeSpoon has been developing software and UWB chips for indoor localisation since 2010. The technology enables positioning with centimeter accuracy inside buildings, including harsh industrial environments. Use cases for UWB technology include industrial manufacturing and the automotive and consumer sectors. By acquiring BeSpoon, STMicroelectronics aims to build on the rapidly growing market potential of UWB in the industrial, automotive and personal electronics markets.
Global semiconductor manufacturing equipment sales will drop 10.5 percent to $57.6 billion in 2019 from last year’s historic peak of $64.4 billion but stage a 2020 recovery and set a new high in 2021, SEMI, the global industry association representing the electronics manufacturing and design supply chain, reported in its Year-End Total Equipment Forecast.
Released at SEMICON Japan 2019, the forecast shows equipment sales registering a 5.5 percent increase to $60.8 billion in 2020 and continued expansion into 2021, with record revenues of $66.8 billion as leading device manufactures invest in sub-10nm equipment, especially for foundry and logic.
The SEMI year-end forecast shows sales of wafer fab equipment – consisting of wafer processing, fab facility and mask/reticle equipment – falling 9 percent in 2019 to $49.9 billion. The assembly and packaging equipment segment is on track to decline 26.1 percent to $2.9 billion in 2019, while semiconductor test equipment is forecast to drop 14.0 percent to $4.8 billion this year.
Taiwan will dethrone Korea as the largest equipment market and lead the world with 53.3 percent growth this year, followed by North America with a 33.6 percent uptick. China will maintain the second spot for the second consecutive year, and Korea will fall to third after throttling back capital expenditures. All regions tracked except Taiwan and North America will contract this year.
SEMI expects the 2020 equipment market recovery to be fuelled by advanced logic and foundry, new projects in China, and, to a lesser extent, memory. In Europe, equipment sales will surge 45.9 percent to $3.3 billion. Taiwan is forecast to remain the top equipment market next year on the strength of $15.4 billion in sales, with China second at $14.9 billion and Korea third at $10.3 billion. More upside is likely if the macroeconomy improves and trade tensions subside in 2020.
In 2021, all sectors tracked are expected to grow and the memory spending recovery will hit full stride. China is expected to ascend to the top position with equipment sales of more than $16 billion, followed by Korea, and Taiwan.
The Year-End Total Equipment Forecast is based on SEMI’s industry-recognised World Fab Forecast database and input from equipment manufacturers. Total equipment includes wafer processing, fab facilities, mask/reticle, total test, and assembly and packaging equipment.
Asia Pacific Metalworking Equipment News is pleased to conduct an interview with Asif Chowdhury, Senior Vice President, Marketing & Corporate Business Development at UTAC regarding UTAC’s achievements for 2018, the company’s aims for 2019, and the trends that will shape the industry in the following year.
Asif Chowdhury
Can you sum up your company’s focus and achievements in 2018?
2018 has been a very good year for UTAC, especially with respect to winning some key strategic customer engagements which will likely drive revenue for years to come.
For example, UTAC has achieved a very key business win with a major fabless company involving WLCSP requiring leading-edge wafer process technology, which we are now in the process of developing and qualifying.
Furthermore, we have had major lead frame business off-load from one of the top Integrated Device Manufacturer (IDM)’s internal facility which was won this year. These are just some examples of the many key engagements that we have with IDMs and Fabless Semi companies.
Our automotive as well as industrial business continues to grow and we are in line with increasing our revenue for both of these market segments this year.
In 2018, we are also very proud of our significant market share gain in power packaging, which utilises Cu-Clip technology in our Thailand factory. The demand for these power devices have been growing due to the growth in cloud computing servers and also in the automotive space. We have also made very good progress in increasing our high-end MEMS packaging business with top major MEMS players in Europe. MEMS products continue to grow, driven by the growth in IoT, automotive and mobile applications.
We have also enjoyed the highest number of RFQs, (or Requests for Quotes for new business) in 2018 which is essentially a testament of potential pipeline business. We had a record number of automotive RFQ wins in the second quarter of 2018.
We are very pleased with our higher level of engagement with customers and growth in our focus areas in 2018 and beyond.
What business trends in Asia capture your interest for growth next year?
The semiconductor sector is a very global business even though many of the activities, especially manufacturing, are focused here in Asia. With the waves of consolidations in recent years, one trend that UTAC follows in Asia is the consolidation of IDM factories located here.
The streamlining of manufacturing activities by IDM factories provides opportunities for OSATs to gain market share. In fact, UTAC’s last acquisition was three Panasonic assembly and test facilities in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. We will continue to follow and keep our eye on such trends, particularly in Asia.
Beyond that, we are also following the trade issues between the United States and China closely. With eight assembly and test manufacturing locations in Asia but outside China, we will be focused on taking advantage of or perhaps even help facilitate our customers who are looking to decrease their footprint for assembly and test in China if the tariffs continue.
What do you think is the key industry trend to watch out for 2019?
As we exit in 2018, there are some concerns about how the semiconductor market will perform in 2019 and also perhaps in 2020. The industry has been enjoying consecutive growth for the past few years with double-digit growth in 2017 and also 2018. However, there is a sense of overall pessimism – which is apparent from the negative performance of many of the semiconductor companies’ stocks during the last month.
The memory market is cooling especially from a pricing standpoint both for DRAM and Flash. Additionally, even though the inventory level for IDMs and fabless companies have steadily come down, it is still on the high side. While the Q4 numbers are not out yet, we expect that the average inventory days will still be well over 100 days.
From the semiconductor market performance and overall market chatter, it seems like we might be going into a market slowdown in 2019 – the question is how significant this will be. Our industry is cyclic, however, the amplitude of these cycles has come down significantly since 2014. We are optimistic that even if 2019 turns out to be a down market, it will be a low single digit. We will be watching our customers’ forecasts and overall market demand very closely as we go into 2019.
What potential and opportunities do you see in the semiconductor industry next year?
Despite the possible market slowdown, there will be pockets of opportunities in 2019 and beyond. Analog products continue to show the highest compound annual growth rate (CAGR), in the high single-digit through 2022 driven by demand for semiconductor products in the Automotive, Industrial, IoT market and Power products.
UTAC is well-positioned in all these segments with both packaging and test solutions. Automotive semiconductor products are estimated to grow by over 10% CAGR through 2022, especially with the potential of the proliferation of both electric and autonomous vehicles. Despite the current slowdown, we expect automotive semiconductor demand to continue to be relatively strong.
From a technology perspective, we will be keeping a close eye on the deployment of both 5G infrastructure and handsets towards the end of 2019. UTAC has been investing in the development of packaging and test technologies which are key for the 5G wave.
The server market will also continue to grow in 2019, fuelled by continuous demand in cloud computing. Our Cu-Clip power package solutions are well suited for this as well as automotive power application.
Finally, we are also keeping an eye on wafer technology such as silicon carbide (SiC) which could be a potential growth engine for the semiconductor industry.
Applied Materials, Inc. and the National University of Singapore (NUS) have jointly launched the Applied Materials-NUS Advanced Materials Corporate Lab. This is Applied Materials’ first research laboratory jointly set up with a university in Singapore and its establishment is supported by the National Research Foundation Singapore (NRF). Mr Heng Swee Keat, Minister for Finance and Chairman of the NRF, was the Guest-of-Honour at the launch ceremony held at NUS.
The lab combines Applied Materials’ leading expertise in materials engineering and semiconductor technologies with NUS’ world-class and multi-disciplinary R&D capabilities that span across applied chemistry, materials science and microelectronics process engineering. The goal of the collaboration is to accelerate the discovery and commercialisation of new materials for manufacturing next-generation semiconductors. Moore’s Law scaling, the main driver of semiconductor improvements for the past 50 years, is becoming challenged as emerging applications based on A.I. and big data require orders of magnitude improvements in chip performance and efficiency. Thus, materials innovation will have an increasingly important role in achieving these improvements and continuing to advance the industry roadmap.
The Applied Materials-NUS collaboration will focus on R&D in advanced materials engineering with the intent to create innovations that can be quickly transferred into commercial applications. NUS has invested in basic research in advanced materials for more than 20 years, and the collaboration with Applied Materials will tap into the deep scientific knowledge that it has built up in this field. The parties have identified new materials R&D and processing techniques with a focus on deposition and etching as two key research areas that will help pioneer innovative semiconductor structures and devices.
“Materials engineering has helped enable major advancements in semiconductors for decades, but never before has the need for new materials been greater than it is today,” said Dr. Prabu Raja, Senior Vice President of the Semiconductor Products Group at Applied Materials. “We are excited to launch the Applied Materials-NUS Advanced Materials Corporate Lab and look forward to a successful industry-academia collaboration. NUS and its focus on high-impact, multi-disciplinary science and engineering research make it a great institution to work with on new materials for next-generation semiconductors.”
Over 50 researchers, engineers and doctoral students are expected to be trained at the lab. Professor Aaron Thean from the NUS Faculty of Engineering and Professor Richard Wong from the NUS Faculty of Science will co-lead the lab with Applied Materials to steer greater teamwork and exchange between industry and academia. Applied Materials is also sponsoring S$1.5 million in scholarships for doctoral students at the lab to further help grow the pool of highly skilled talent to support the growth of Singapore’s semiconductor industry.
NUS President Professor Tan Eng Chye said, “NUS is honoured and privileged to be Applied Materials’ partner for its first university-based research laboratory in Singapore. The Applied Materials-NUS Advanced Materials Corporate Lab will draw on the complementary strengths of both organisations to address complex industry challenges. Successful projects completed under this Corporate Lab could potentially increase microelectronics-related activities in Singapore, and this in turn, could generate significant economic benefits for the country.”
“We are also deeply appreciative of the generous scholarships supported by Applied Materials, which will attract more talented students to pursue doctoral training in advanced materials and engineering. These young talents will further strengthen Singapore’s position as a leading hub for advanced electronics,” Prof Tan added.
The NRF facilitates the setting up of corporate labs via public-private partnerships. The Applied Materials-NUS Advanced Materials Corporate Lab is the 14th supported by the NRF and the fifth lab in NUS.
NRF CEO Professor Low Teck Seng said, “The semiconductor industry is highly competitive and manufacturers need to constantly innovate and upgrade their technology to stay relevant. Investing in R&D is therefore crucial for Singapore’s continued growth in the sector. The partnership between Applied Materials and NUS will introduce next-generation materials for manufacturing advanced semiconductors here. This is part of our strategy to strengthen innovation in the sector to meet the demands of the market through better products and training of our researchers.”
For more information about the Applied Materials-NUS Advanced Materials Corporate Lab, click here.
Mobile phone manufacturers are grappling with the need to track smaller, and better, components, presenting challenges and opportunities for designs. Contributed by Panasonic.
A far cry from the bulky mobile phones of the early 2000s, today, a 0.25 x 0.125mm chip resistor is one of the most widely used components in mobile phone manufacturing.
It’s not news that the demand for smart phones, wearable devices and other personal electronics is increasing rapidly. In the case of mobile phones, more than 1.8 billion phones – inclusive of feature and smart phones – were manufactured in 2015, with the number projected to increase to two billion in 2020.
What is news, is that in order to meet rising consumer demands – smaller, thinner, longer battery life, higher performance – these highly complex electronic products require ever-shrinking components, requiring manufacturers to evolve and keep up with the ever-changing requirements of the industry.
Mobile phones are highly complex electronic products. Feature phones require between 600-800 components, while smart phones require upwards of 1,000. As higher functionality continues to be expected by consumers, the number of components ultimately increases year-on-year. But the demand for smaller and thinner devices and the need to balance longer battery life with higher performance also pose new challenges for devices manufacturers.
Printed Circuit Boards
Printed circuit boards eliminate the space challenge of complex wirings and moving parts that were commonplace with the point-to-point wiring that preceded them – without them, fitting a large number of interconnected electronic components into an ever-shrinking space would be impossible.
Today, a 0.25 x 0.125mm chip resistor is one of the most well-known components in mobile phone manufacturing.
During manufacturing, chip resistors are soldered onto circuit boards, with the solder being applied as a paste and shaped into the boards through screen printing, requiring a high level of accuracy despite its small size.
Surface Mount Technology
Another noteworthy innovation in the field is surface mount technology, which produces electric circuits through the direct mounting of components on the surface of printed circuit boards. The new technology is also evolving to increase the mounting/insertion rate and accuracy of increasingly miniscule components.
Surface mount technology has come a long way since it first emerged in the 1950s and 1960s , resulting in many advantages over their leaded predecessors in terms of manufacturability and performance. Surface mounting has also resulted in a reduction in labour cost and increasing productivity rates in the production of printed circuit boards, as process lends itself well to a high degree of mechanisation and mass production.
Chip Mounter Machines
One such company leading the charge towards more efficient manufacturing technologies and equipment is Panasonic. The electronics giant is still commonly known for its consumer electronics, when in fact, Panasonic today is on track to attain a 40 percent share in the chip mounter machine field in South East Asia.
Its newly opened Solution & Innovation Centres in Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam therefore highlights the company’s highly-efficient manufacturing technologies and equipment. Tapping into Panasonic’s manufacturing know-how, the Solution & Innovation Centres showcase the company’s suite of manufacturing technologies such as auto-insertion and surface mount machines, designed specifically for the inserting and mounting of small electronic components on high-density printed circuit boards.
In addition to Panasonic’s latest chip mounter and welding machines, peripheral equipment from other partners, such as component tower and inspection machines, are also featured, with the synergy highlighting the importance of network compatibility and technological interconnectedness, and the contribution of interconnectivity to the success of Industry 4.0 and IoT-supported manufacturing. Seminar halls and conference rooms located within the centres also serve to showcase Panasonic’s factory automation technologies to its customers through technical seminars and events.
Trial Run
To experience actual manufacturing processes at the centres, such as circuit board printing and welding, customers are invited to bring their own materials and electronic components for a trial production ahead of any agreements with Panasonic.
Panasonic’s Solution & Innovation Centres are also present in Chicago, USA and Munich, Germany, with global expansion taking place in the near future and more centres in the pipeline, tying in with Panasonic’s expansion of its factory automation business globally.
The a120nx is Makino’s largest machining platform within the nx-series, and is built to for oversized structural components for industrial equipment, diesel engines and semiconductor manufacturing.
It has X, Y and Z axis travels of 1,900 mm, 1,600 mm and 1,700 mm, respectively, and the machine’s standard large pallet size of one m by one m provides capacity for parts weighing up to 5,000 kg. The machine’s automatic pallet changer switches from one pallet to the next in 37 seconds.
Capable of storing up to 204 tools of wide-ranging sizes and designs in an automatic tool changer, it accommodates tools up to 90 cm, 35 cm in diameter, and weighing up to 35 kg.
