Global server shipments will grow 8.5% to reach 13.73 million units, driven by the needs to store and process enormous amounts of data in the age of 5G, IoT and AI. According to Digitimes Research's latest Special Report on the global server industry, server shipments worldwide will grow at a CAGR of 6.5% during the period 2017-2022, with growth mainly driven by large-scale data centers and the China market.An increasing number of enterprises are making use of cloud servers instead of building their dedicated server infrastructure to save up-front investment and operating costs. This will spur growth in server demand by cloud service providers including Amazon, Microsoft and Google, who are now making more purchases directly from Taiwan-based white-box or brand vendors, putting pressure on the traditional server brands Dell and HP, who are estimated to see only 2% to 3% shipment growth in 2017, according to Digitimes Research's Special Report on the global server industry.Taiwan's server suppliers have been playing a key role in the server market. Taiwan's server industry has been transitioning from simply making motherboards to providing downstream complete server systems. Having accumulated R&D capabilities during the transition, Taiwan-based server manufacturers will keep advancing toward the development of software integration and total solutions to enhance their technological edge. Taiwan-based manufacturers' share of global server shipments will remain above 90% through 2022.Of the major suppliers, the top-2, Inventec and Wistron (including Wiwynn) have been neck and neck in terms of shipment volume, each shipping an estimated volume of 2.6 million servers in 2017 and their shipments will both grow in 2018, with Inventec taking a narrow lead.The Digitimes Research Special Report on the server industry offers an analysis and shipment forecasts for 2018, as well as market outlook till 2022.
United Microelectronics Corporation (NYSE: UMC; TWSE: 2303) ("UMC"), a leading global semiconductor foundry, today announced that the company has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Micron Semiconductor (Xi'an) Co., Ltd. and Micron Semiconductor (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. in the Fuzhou Intermediate People's Court of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The lawsuit covers three areas that allegedly infringe upon UMC's patent rights in China, including specific memory applications that relate to DDR4, SSD and memory used in graphics cards.In the complaint, UMC has requested the court to order the defendant(s) to stop manufacturing, processing, importing, selling and intending to sell the allegedly infringing products, destroy all inventory and related molds and tools and demand that Micron compensate the company for a total amount of RMB 270 million in damages.UMC has devoted a great deal of resources and manpower to researching and developing semiconductor manufacturing technology. Its achievements can be applied to logic chips or memory chips (DRAM), and the company has applied for patents in various countries while continuing to monitor these patents as market conditions evolve. After conducting an in-depth review, UMC found that Micron's products sold in mainland China did indeed infringe upon the patent rights of the company, and thus patent infringement litigation has been pursued in order to obtain fair judgment.UMC can be found on the web at http://www.umc.com.
Xcerra Corporation is pleased to announce the establishment of a direct presence in Taiwan with the opening of our Xcerra development center (XDC) in Zhubei City. The XDC will provide prompt, high level technical support for customers in the region and beyond. When fully staffed it will include qualified persons for performing activities such as product engineering and interfacing, advanced applications support, technical product marketing, and business development. The XDC will also provide support to Spirox Corporation, our distributor in Taiwan, who remains the primary conduit for the sale and service of Xcerra semiconductor test products in Taiwan.XDC will work closely with the product engineering groups to help align Xcerra's product roadmaps with local customers' future high-volume production test requirements. There will be an accelerated response time to support our customers and Spirox because we no longer will need to fly support in from other regions. A local Xcerra team will enable us to be engaged in business development activities day to day to help us grow the customer base. There will be more technical resources that are aligned with international drivers into the region. It allows Xcerra to improve communications between customers and Xcerra engineering and support teams, resulting in i) expediting response times, ii) shortening the "time-to-resolution" factor, iii) providing heightened skill set in region with direct access to Xcerra, and iv) providing a path for customers to learn more about our test systems from same-language experts and having a local apps force that can guide customers in maximizing the architectural benefits of Xcerra products.The facility is located in Zhubei City close to Hsinchu Park and the HSR Station, and includes a test engineering lab featuring Xcerra's Diamondx and X Series testers. The facility is operational and ready to support customers in a wide range of technologies including automotive radar, IoT, mobility and display driver ICs.Xcerra development center officially opens to support Taiwan customers
Spirox Corporation, specializing in providing semiconductor testing solutions, celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. As hi-tech industry focus has developed from PC, mobile eras to the latest advancements of various IoT, industrial and automotive electronic applications, along with the rapid growth of China's semiconductor market in recent years, Spirox, aiming to keep the competitive edge in the new generation, plans out multifaceted strategies in respond to the market evolution and to explore market opportunities in a full stride."Spirox is customer-oriented and driven by a vision to provide integrated best-practice solutions and services. Based on 30 year professional experience in the semiconductor industry, we'll focus on delivering smarter solutions, and provide more competitive, productive, and practical solutions for customers and partners," said David Sheu, Chairman and CEO of Spirox.Dedicated to delivering smarter solutionsEstablished in 1987, Spirox has expanded its presences in Taiwan, the States, and Singapore along with the growth of the semiconductor industry. After the company was listed on Taiwan Stock Exchange in 2002, it began to explore and gain a foothold in China market.Over the past thirty years, Spirox has always been devoted itself to delivering the most cost-effective, innovative, and comprehensive testing solutions, including testers, handlers, and test interface, to customers."Delivering Smarter Solutions is our persistent strategy," David Sheu stressed. "We focus on providing total solutions rather than point solutions to position ourselves not merely a distributor; instead, we aim to deliver value added and smarter total solution, and serve our customers with the best cost-performance advantages. In addition, as the advanced processes and device technologies keep progressing, we endeavor to enhance our competitiveness and business performance, so that we can provide customers with more professional services. On September 1st, 2017, Design and Verification Center of Spirox has been spin off and established VESP Technology Corp to deliver integrated and professional IC verification services. With Reliability Lab, FIB (Focused Ion Beam) Circuit Edit Lab, Failure Analysis Lab, and ESD/LU Lab, VESP Technology will provide one-stop-shopping services to meet customers' various requirements."Delivering Smarter Solutions" is the core of Spirox's future development plan. Spirox will expand to a wide range of application markets and services with its base in consumer testing business and professional expertise."Customers and market in Taiwan are mature, and the technical barrier is also higher," David Sheu said frankly. "In comparison, the growing China market not only has diverse demands, but also larger automotive and industrial markets with much more opportunities. Foreseeing this trend, Spirox has been focusing on China market with more resource inputs in recent years."After deep plowing in China for a long time, Spirox has built strong relationships with multiple Chinese leading IC design houses, logic IC foundries, and LCD driver providers and is confident of its future growth. Meanwhile, Spirox also keeps exploring niche and potential markets, and building more comprehensive solutions, aiming to become the strongest support and trustworthy partner for its customers.Targeting at MEMS, automotive, and industrial marketsEyeing on the emergence of sensor markets driven by IoT applications, Spirox has invested in MEMS market for a long time.With its solutions being adopted by multiple customers, including Chipbond and Chipmos, Spirox is confident that MEMS business will expand further next year.According to Max Chen, Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Marketing at Spirox, "We have built partnership with SITRI (Shanghai Industrial & Technology Research Institute) to set up a complete demonstration line of MEMS testing, including tester, handler, front-end picker, and back-end packaging equipment. Similar to Industrial Technology Research Institute in Taiwan, SITRI focuses on the researches of IoT, MEMS, automotive and bio chips, and owns more than one hundred IC design companies in China."SITRI has its own 8-inch production line and will use this demonstration line to conduct mass-production testing, which will set an example to the industry and increase Spirox' brand awareness in this field. At present, the demonstration line, designed for motion sensor testing at first, is now expanding to pressure sensor and microphone testing. SITRI is building the second demonstration line, which will be used for pilot production, and it's expectedly to be adopted by customers in 2H18 for mass production.Another major breakthrough that Spirox has made this year is to successfully secure design wins with its test interface at tier-one IC design houses in China for their base station and high-speed networking product testing. According to Max Chen, test interface, which includes IC carrier, probe, and fixture, is a low-cost product in consumer market. However, it is more difficult for test interface to enter high-frequency and high-speed markets, given the fact that these applications have higher requirements for electrical performance and reliability, and need to support environmental pressure and tri-temp testing. Material pin in the high-speed test interface is the key component for testing.Working with its business partner, Spirox provides customized material pin to meet customers' requirements.The success case shows that Spirox can expand to the rapid-growing industrial and automotive applications from its existing base in consumer market.Similarly, for the electrical vehicle market that China government drives aggressively, Spirox starts from mmWave testing for automotive radar as a beachhead strategy.The product is now adopted by a customer and is expected to move into mass production in short future. Moreover, Spirox's testing solution for automotive MCU is also ready, and is in qualification process by customers.Partnering with Hamamatsu and Toray to expand its portfolioAnother important strategy of Spirox is to collaborate with Hamamatsu Photonics, a leading supplier of electrical analysis equipment with the largest market share, to strengthen its verification service, and team up with Toray Engineering, a Japanese wafer testing equipment maker, to jointly explore the automatic optic inspection (AOI) market in Greater China, so that the company's existing testing business can be further extended."As TSMC drives to move the advance process nodes to mass production and China's smart phone and automotive markets grow rapidly, demands for material analysis, failure analysis, and reliability analysis are also on the rise," Max Chen said. "For high-end chips of advanced nodes, it is no longer sufficient to use static failure analysis alone. Conducting dynamic analysis on the operating functions of chips is required to know the root cause of chip failure."Hamamatsu Photonics is a leading provider for static analysis equipment. In combination with Spirox's test solutions, Hamamatsu will be able to extend its business to dynamic analysis. In return, the partnership completes the failure analysis service Spirox provides. It's a perfect match for both companies, and the synergy is highly expected.In addition, as electronic devices get increasingly smaller, the difficulty and error rate of using human eyes to inspect wafer defects are also on the rise. Therefore, it is inevitable trend to replace visual inspection with specialized equipment. Starting from 2017, Spirox distributes Toray Engineering's AOI equipment INSPECTRA to enter the AOI market in Greater China."Testing is the upstream process of inspection and failure analysis," Max Chen explained. "By working with new partners, Spirox can penetrate to new application market. This is an overall expansion of customer base, solution, and product portfolio. Most importantly, through providing wafer inspection and dynamic failure analysis, Spirox gets an entry ticket to memory testing market. In line with the rapid development of memory industry in China, it is expected that this approach will help boost our business significantly in the future."Focusing on China market to explore more opportunities"Spirox has been expanding service coverage throughout China for over a decade, with offices in Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Chengdu, and Suzhou," David Sheu said. "With strong connections, as well as great reputation in IC design, foundry, and testing/assembly fields, we are very confident that Spirox will grow as China's semiconductor industry takes off."In terms of sales prospect, it is expected that Spirox's business will be on track to growth by 1Q18 and enjoy a promising future for the next 2~3 years as customers in Taiwan and China recover their business."Spirox has laid strong foundation in the logic, RF, and power management IC testing of consumer electronics.In China, in addition to tier-one companies, the adoption rate of tier-two and tier-three companies is also increasing. Moreover, in response to market demands, we are expanding our testing service to LCD driver, TDDI (Touch with Display Driver Integration), and MEMS."By working with customers, Spirox invested in the development of LCD/TDDI testing solution in 2016 and began to bear fruit in early 2017. David Sheu stressed that it's one of the most cost-effective solutions in the market, and will bring significant business growth for the company in next 2 - 3 years. At present, small- and medium-sized LCD driver testing solution is ready and Spirox will move into large-sized LCD and TDDI testing in 2018.The difficulty for large-sized LCD driver testing is that both pin number and speed increase.Working with Xcerra and customers, Spirox has developed a complete solution to cope with the problem with better price-performance ratio. 4K/8K LCD TVs will drive significant demands for large-sized TDDI from 2018. TDDI, which integrates touch control and display function, will move from traditional COG (Chip-on-Glass) to COF (Chip-on-Film) process.As a result,not only the number of drivers increases, but also the requirement for precision and testing is stricter.In response to this, Spirox has developed required test interface, including software, hardware, and electrical mechanism, to meet the testing demands for the next-generation TDDI chips.Spirox launches complete testing solutions for 4K/8K large-sized, high resolution, and TDDI integrated chips.Photo: CompanyWith the advanced capabilities and facilities, VESP Technology Corp of Spirox provides a full function of reliability and verification testing services.Photo: CompanySpirox partners with SITRI to set up a complete demonstration line for MEMS testing.Photo: CompanySpirox strengthens its partner network to expand the portfolio to AOI and dynamic failure analysis services.Photo: CompanySpirox Corporation timelinePhoto: Company
Wanshih Electronic will showcase different solutions of cable assemblies for various applications at CES 2018 during January 9-12.One of our core technologies, micro coaxial cable assemblies will be showed in our booth. Micro coax from AWG40, AWG42, AWG46, it releases how excellent soldering technology Wanshih have and can make soldering work even the micro coax is thin as single hair.The trend of USB type C is getting popular; we are going to exhibit our cable solution with plug type C for Dell and Huawei dongle and landing zone docking. Visitors will see how flat cables connect with type C connector perfectly and how flexible are our cable assemblies made with micro coax.Besides, our show will cover USB3.1 cable with C type, HDMI, assemblies of Medical cable and custom cable. SMT technology will be presented with application for showing our different cable assemblies solutions.USB 3.1 Type C Gen 2 10Ghz has been certificated by USB-IF, TID No. 5,200,000,185. Ultra slim and most flexible HDMI cable made by micro coax AWG40, OD is only 2.5mm. Medical cable assembled by 132 micro coax and still keep excellent flexibility, cable assemblies for automobile and custom cable assembly. Visitors can experience various applications of our micro coax cable assemblies.Our booth is at Sands, Halls A-D-42774. You are welcome to visit us and experience different solutions with our micro coax cable assembly. Please see more specification on our website: www.wanshih.com.twWanshih's micro coaxial AWG44 cable assemblies, flexible and extra slim with excellent performance
As portable phones continue to evolve functionally, their physical appearance has changed commensurately, with plastic body shells giving way to slim and lightweight metal casings. Despite its appeal to consumers, the sleek design adds to complexity of the manufacturing process, with cutting and machining of the casing demanding extreme precision, where even slight deviations can result in scrapped work pieces, eroding profit margins.It is necessary to frequently change cutting tools so that the CNC equipment can maintain a constant yield rate. However, this runs up machinery supply costs, affecting profit margins. Furthermore, equipment availability is of utmost importance to phone case manufacturers, with sudden CNC machine failures compromising productivity and delaying delivery. This chain of events can decrease customer satisfaction and, commensurately, the operator's reputation. Manufacturers thus not only allocate human resources to conduct regular checks but also engage third-parties to back up maintenance support. Such passive approaches, however, provide only limited levels of prompt and effective response in the event of equipment failure.The manufacturing process of phone cases is one scenario where CNC equipment is used. With CNC cutting being used in a wide range of processing operations, manufacturers across diverse sectors all attempt to address the same CNC machining challenge in order to stay profitable.Manager Louis Hsu of ADLINK's Measurement and Automation product segment, submits that, alternatively, monitoring cutting operations during process, particularly vibration activity thereof, can directly address the root of the problem, whether to increase machining precision or boost equipment availability. This is mainly because, once problems such as imbalance, resonance, or misalignment increase machine vibration beyond an acceptable range, equipment may not be able to continue normal operation and malfunction or even failure can result.By capturing even minor vibration signals, a PC-based monitoring solution surpasses PLC solutionsWhen CNC machinery incorporates constantly running vibration monitoring, equipment conditions are readily available, increasing intelligence of the operation. No longer being forced to wait until production is completed to determine the cause of problems, they can conduct preventive inspections to instantly detect equipment irregularity as it starts and promptly take responsive actions. Slight deviations can be resolved in no time by adjusting process parameters (e.g. modifying spindle speed) or changing cutting tools to ward off potential future disasters.Vibration monitoring of CNC machinery is far from a new concept, with PLC solutions featuring plug-and-play simplicity and convenience working with CNC equipment in the field for some time. As such, the need for PC-based vibration monitoring over existing PLC solutions may be questioned.Even so, considering that some minor vibration or high frequency signals can actually indicate distinct problems, such as when a connector begins to lose balance, a spindle ball bearing may have developed a crack, affecting dynamic performance, or a fastener is coming loose. In such instances, the CNC machine's exhibiting signs of "illness", the specific nature of which can be identified by specific behaviors due to different machine characteristics, can be difficult for PLC solutions, with low sampling rate, limited frequency range, and fixed algorithms, to detect. If a CNC monitoring solution can be fully cognizant of such minor indicators, it will allow users to instantly be made aware of critical issues that can result in a decrease in precision or productivity, so that they can execute timely responses.Accordingly, ADLINK has developed the MCM-100, highlighting around-the-clock continuous data collection and vibration measurement with maximized precision and sampling rates for rotating machinery and equipment. Combining data collection, vibration analysis algorithms, computation and network connection in one system, the MCM-100 not only allows users (process manufacturers) to overcome challenges in traditional cutting process but also presents the most streamlined approach to increased connectivity in CNC machinery.Preventive maintenance achieved through high-precision monitoring works wondersHsu explains that there are generally three scenarios where process manufacturers can make good use of monitoring solutions on their CNC equipment. In spindle vibration detection, RMS values of time domain signals are measured. If the values are found to exceed a predetermined threshold, the spindle will be decelerated or stopped. The second, bearing quality diagnostics, assess bearing health when the CNC machine is not performing cutting but only idling at a high speed. Finally, spindle collision detection watches for spindle collisions by checking vibration waveforms against certain predefined conditions. If a match is found, it is determined that a collision has occurred and the spindle is stopped immediately.Monitoring efficacy in the first and second scenarios is closely related to the precision and frequency range of the vibration signals. PLC solutions, able to collect only a limited amount of information, are of little help to users in emergency response planning. In contrast, the MCM-100 not only features 24-bit high definition (as opposed to conventional solutions with 12-bit to 16-bit) but also captures high-frequency signals at a very high 128kS/s, compared to the conventional solutions' 20KS/s or lower, delivering significantly more vibration data for analysis.New opportunities for CNC machinery suppliersVibration monitoring of CNC cutting also creates new opportunities for CNC machinery suppliers. The abundant vibration data combined with Big Data analytics allow CNC machinery suppliers to gain more in-depth correlation between signal changes and machine malfunction, whereby they can leverage the accumulated knowledge to create value-added services, possibly allowing a shift in business model from making one-time sales to charging by machine uptime, thereby sustaining long-term profitability.According to ADLINK, with multiple deployments of vibration monitoring solutions by well-known CNC machinery suppliers coming into place, market demand for such solutions is on the rise with the year 2017 presenting particularly prominent growth. Clearly, both process manufacturers and CNC machinery suppliers are demonstrating increasing demand for solutions addressing vibration monitoring of CNC cutting equipment.Vibration monitoring of CNC cutting creates new opportunities for CNC machinery suppliers
Macronix International Co., Ltd. (TSE: 2337), a leading integrated device manufacturer in the non-volatile memory (NVM) market, today announced the introduction of an ultra-low-voltage SPI NOR flash MX25S working at 1.2V, marking a new milestone in its process technology and low power consumption product offerings. This addition to the Macronix product portfolio allows cost savings and layout simplicity, and represents an important step in the company's expansion into the smart healthcare application and wearable device market segments.Advanced semiconductor fabrication technologies continue to set records of transistor counts on a silicon chip while also pushing for higher energy efficiency. The introduction of Macronix' new SPI NOR 1.2V low-voltage flash process technology further extends the company's range of solutions, which also includes high-performance 8 I/O OctaFlash Serial NOR, featuring the industry's fastest 500MB/s data transfer rate and 250MHz operating frequency."Across markets, we continue to see the rapid development of applications with ultra-low power consumption, and this bodes well for the industry," stated Donald Huang, Ph.D., deputy director of product marketing at Macronix. "Foundries are now making integrated circuits largely on 40nm and more advanced process nodes supporting the widespread availability of semiconductor solutions with ultra-low voltage, ultra-low power consumption and miniature package. This, in turn, further drives the creation of a plethora of new smart healthcare applications and wearable devices for an array of market segments."New semiconductor processes continue to improve performance and reduce power consumption, boosting the popularity of smart applications and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. With digital healthcare, wearables and mobile device adoption continuing to proliferate, the industry is turning to advanced technologies - beyond what the most advanced lithium-ion battery can offer currently, and capable of working at no more than 1.5V - to extend battery life and reduce battery size for these applications. With most memory modules - such as Double-Data-Rate Fourth Generation Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (DDR4) now operating at 1.2V - the move toward low-voltage memory is further bolstered.Low-voltage NOR flash operating at 1.2V enables both cost reduction and design simplicity"The use of 1.2V low-voltage NOR flash eliminates the need for some components and flexibly accommodates a wider selection of collaborating MCU, which directly translates to cost savings and layout simplicity," added Huang. "In combination with MCU, DRAM and sensors working at low voltages, the new low-voltage flash will significantly broaden the range of applications for Macronix memory, perfectly complementing its line of low-voltage products."Macronix's new series of 1.2V serial NOR flash MX25S supports the standard serial NOR flash interface and features low voltage, low power consumption and miniature package. Covering an operating voltage range from 1.14V to 1.3V, MX25S saves more than 60 percent of power consumption, making it suitable for any ultra-low voltage application and allowing prolonged operation of portable devices.To enhance the energy efficiency of its memory products during ultra-low power standby mode, Macronix reduced the deep power down current of the MX25S series to 0.007 microamps. It takes only 35 microseconds to wake up MX25S from the deep power down mode, and active current during normal operation can be as low as 1.65 mA, which is the most impressive NOR flash spec on the market.MX25S supports multi-I/O and suspend/resume operations. In addition to unique ID and secure OTP for data protection, MX25S covers the most popular memory features on the market. The MX25S series is planned with density offerings ranging from 512Kb to 64Mb with an initial focus on 4Mb to 16Mb models, and is available in ultra-miniature packages including WLCSP, WSON, USON and SOP as well as Known Good Die (KGD) for use in MCU. For example, a 16Mb MX25S 1.2V NOR flash comes in a variety of packages ranging from a 41 mm2 8-pin SOP package to a mini 3.1 mm2 WLCSP package to meet diverse application requirements.Engineering samples of MX25S are now available to customers for design verification. Macronix plans to kick off full-scale production by the end of the first quarter of 2018."With advancing developments in low-voltage process technologies, Macronix will continue to augment its product portfolio of low-voltage memory and step up efforts to capture opportunities arising from smart healthcare applications and wearable devices featuring ultra-high energy efficiency," concluded Huang.Find out more about Macronix 1.2V NOR Flash at www.macronix.com.Donald Huang, Ph.D., deputy director of product marketing at MacronixPhoto: CompanyMacronix 1.2V NOR flash aims for smart healthcare and wearable devices market segments.Photo: Company
Aveni, a developer and manufacturer of wet deposition technologies and chemistries for 2D interconnects and 3D through silicon via packaging, has announced it has obtained results that support the continued use of copper in the back end of line (BEOL) for advanced interconnects, at and beyond the 5nm technology node."In this 20th anniversary year of copper integration, our results validate the comments made by IBM Research Fellow Dan Edelstein in his keynote presentation at the recent IEEE Nanotechnology Symposium, discussing that copper integration is here to stay," noted Bruno Morel, Aveni CEO.As devices inevitably continue to shrink to meet and create market demand, designers are exploring alternative integration schemes, not only for the front end of line, but also the BEOL. This includes, most notably, replacing the copper in dual-damascene interconnects, to compensate for the increased resistance-capacitance (RC) delay that accompanies the thinner copper wires and adversely affects device speed. Proposed replacement options for copper are cobalt, the most likely candidate, or more exotic materials like ruthenium, graphene or carbon nanotubes.Advanced dual-damascene structures employ an atomic layer deposition tantalum nitride (TaN) copper diffusion barrier, a thin chemical vapor deposition (CVD) cobalt liner, and the electroplated copper fill layer, which makes up most of the wiring. Earlier generations (7nm and larger nodes) also use a physical vapor deposition (PVD) copper seed layer between the cobalt and copper fill, but advanced devices are phasing out this film due to marginal seed coverage and integration hurdles.Of particular interest is the thin TaN barrier, which prevents copper from diffusing into and poisoning the device. The integrity of the thin cobalt liner (on top of TaN) is critical to ensuring that the barrier functions properly. The reduced thickness of cobalt liners for the 5nm technology node is approaching 3nm, reducing process flexibility for conventional approaches to copper plating.In a recent study, Aveni compared its Sao alkaline-based copper electroplating chemistry performance with a conventional, commercially available acidic copper plating chemistry. The samples to be plated were 3nm CVD cobalt over TaN. The study results showed that the acidic copper chemistry attacked the cobalt liner, causing the plating chemistry to react with the underlying TaN film and form tantalum oxide (TaOx), according to the company. TaOx formation is another failure mode of devices, because it creates an effective open circuit that prevents current flow.With Aveni's Sao chemistry, the cobalt remained intact and TaOx was not formed, which enables the extension of copper interconnects to process nodes at 5nm and below, the company said.Frederic Raynal, chief technical officer at aveni, commented, "We were extremely excited about these results, because they substantiate our position that Sao alkaline-based chemistry for copper electroplating is superior to acidic chemistries, especially with the thinner cobalt liners used in advanced nodes."
Denso and BlackBerry have announced the companies have jointly developed what they call the world's first integrated HMI (human machine interface) platform. Intel also collaborated in the development of this product.The integrated HMI platform will enable a system which optimally cooperates and coordinates various HMI products such as display and sound inside the automobile cockpit at a low price, according to the companies. The joint solution will appear in successive car models scheduled for release after 2019.With the improvement of automobile safety and convenience in recent years, the amount of data the vehicle transmits to the driver is increasing. Today, vehicles are equipped with multiple HMI systems, which require several device-specific operating systems to work in unison. Because the operating systems are independently controlled by multiple microcontrollers, it has not been possible to cooperate and coordinate them to display content and sound uniformly.The integrated automotive HMI platform is believed to be the first of its kind and was developed by Denso and BlackBerry using BlackBerry's QNX hypervisor for virtualization and the Intel Atom processor A3900 series. The hypervisor technology enables the independence of several operating systems with different characteristics and controls the integration with one microcomputer.This architecture allows various HMI products to cooperate allowing necessary information to be displayed to the correct devices with appropriate timing. For example, it will be possible to communicate a heads-up or a warning through easy-to-understand expressions on the display with the right timing. Additionally, through cooperation between instrument cluster and navigation center displays, it is now possible to show animation with a sense of unity between the navigation screen in the meter screen. Furthermore, by updating the performance of one microcomputer both devices are updated which contributes to improved increase in R&D productivity and cost reduction.As part of the integrated HMI, Intel has provided a graphics sharing technology, which has been optimized for the Intel Atom processor A3900 series. The technology can prioritize and operate 3D workloads important for safety over less important workloads on the same processor.Denso and BlackBerry will have booths at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas held from January 9-12, 2018. The companies' integrated HMI platform will be displayed in Denso's booth located at 1917, North Hall.
United Microelectronics Corporation (NYSE:UMC;TWSE: 2303) ("UMC"), a leading global semiconductor foundry, today announced the availability of the company's 40nm process platform that incorporates Silicon Storage Technology's (SST) embedded SuperFlash non-volatile memory. The newly available 40nm SST process features a less than 20% reduction in eFlash cell size and 20-30% macro area over UMC's mass production 55nm SST technology. Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation has started studying technical feasibility of UMC's 40nm SST for their microcontroller (MCU) ICs."We expect that UMC's 40nm SST will improve the performance of our MCU products," said Toshiya Matsui, Vice President, Mixed Signal IC Division of Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation. "Working with UMC will also allow us to maintain a robust business continuity plan (BCP) through stable manufacturing supply and flexible capacity support based on our production requirements."More than 20 customers and products are in various stages of 55nm SST eFlash production at UMC, including those for SIM card, banking, automotive, IOT, MCU and other applications.Wenchi Ting, Associate VP of Specialty Technology division at UMC said, "Since qualifying SST's embedded flash technology on our popular 55nm process in 2015, we have received tremendous interest from customers looking to further utilize the low power, high reliability, superior data retention and high endurance characteristics of this process platform for their automotive, industrial, consumer and IoT applications. We are pleased to introduce this eNVM solution on our 40nm platform, and look forward to bringing the high speed and high reliability benefits of SST to Toshiba and our other foundry customers."UMC's robust SST process performs according to JEDEC standards, with 100k endurance and more than 10 years of data retention at 85 degrees C and an operating-temperature range of -40 degrees C to 125 degrees C. In addition to the 40nm SST process, UMC has over 20 customers in production using the foundry's 55nm SST for a broad range of product applications.About UMCUMC (NYSE: UMC, TWSE: 2303) is a leading global semiconductor foundry that provides advanced IC production for applications spanning every major sector of the electronics industry. UMC's robust foundry solutions enable chip designers to leverage the company's sophisticated technology and manufacturing, which include high volume production 28nm gate-last High-K/Metal Gate technology, ultra-low power platform processes specifically engineered for Internet of Things (IoT) applications and the automotive industry's highest-rated AEC-Q100 Grade-0 manufacturing capabilities for production of ICs found in cars. UMC's 11 wafer fabs are strategically located throughout Asia and are able to produce over 500,000 wafers per month. The company employs nearly 19,000 people worldwide, with offices in Taiwan, China, Europe, Japan, Korea, Singapore, and the United States. UMC can be found on the web at http://www.umc.com.
