SEMI: Global semiconductor material sales amounted to USD 46.9 billion in 2017

SEMI (International Semiconductor Industry Association) announced that 2017 global semiconductor materials market grew by 9.6%, global semiconductor sales increased by 21.6%, SEMI report pointed out that in 2017, total wafer fabrication materials and packaging materials totaled 27.8 billion U.S. dollars and 191 respectively. One hundred million U.S. dollars. In 2016, the wafer manufacturing materials and packaging materials market revenue was 24.7 billion US dollars and 18.2 billion US dollars, respectively, year-on-year growth of 12.7% and 5.4%. SAA7356HL
This year, China's Taiwan region has spent 10.3 billion U.S. dollars, and for the eighth consecutive year it has become the world’s largest buyer of semiconductor materials. China is second, followed by South Korea and Japan. Revenues from Taiwan, China, Europe, and South Korea grew the most, while those from North America, Japan, and the rest of the world (ROW) experienced a single-digit increase. (The rest of the world is defined as Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, other parts of Southeast Asia, and smaller global markets.) FTLX8571D3BCL
2016 and 2017 Regional Semiconductor Materials Markets (US$ Billions)

Region	2016**	2017	% Change
Taiwan	9.20	10.29	12%
China	6.80	7.62	12%
South Korea	6.77	7.51	11%
Japan	6.76	7.05	4%
Rest of World	5.39	5.81	8%
North America	4.87	5.29	9%
Europe	3.03	3.36	11%
Total	42.82	46.93	10%

Source: SEMI, April 2018
Note: Summed subtotals may not equal the total due to rounding.

Intel 10-nanometer process slow progress 2021 will be surpassed by other companies

Research institutes released a report on the chip industry, pointing out that Intel has lagged behind in the development of new processes, and its original chip manufacturing technology advantages have almost disappeared. CM600HA-24H
Analyst Linley Gwennap wrote that Intel's 10-nanometer process has been repeatedly delayed, resulting in the sprint of next-generation process progress is not only lagging behind TSMC, Samsung and its partner GlobalFoundries also prepared to overtake.
The report carefully analyzed the circuit density of chips produced by major manufacturers, as well as other technical indicators. The conclusion is that the level of technology used by other competitors is close to Intel, such as the gap between 7-nanometer TSMC and 10-nanometer Intel. The report pointed out that the three major competitors are proactive in purchasing next-generation lithography equipment than Intel. It is not ruled out that the three will surpass Intel in 2021. BSM300GB120DLC
The Intel Moat was attacked by opponents one by one, and the outlook for future revenues is worrying. Recently, it was reported that Apple will replace Intel's processors with some of its Mac computers with its own R&D processor in 2020 at the earliest, threatening Intel's revenue.

Semiconductor heat-recovery Global wafer production before 2019 was 7 to 80% was booked

According to a report recently produced by the Department of Foreign Investment in the United States, it is pointed out that the current supply of global silicon sources is tight. China's Taiwanese wafer wafer manufacturing giant Global wafers, and 70% to 80% of production capacity by 2019 have been sold out.
The foreign investment report pointed out that the global wafer wafer production capacity of 12-inch wafers has increased by 20% since the first quarter of 2017. As for the 8-inch silicon wafers, prices have risen by more than 10% since the third quarter of 2017. In this regard, not only will global wafer management watch the rise of all sizes of silicon wafers likely to continue until 2019, but it also implies that 70% to 80% of production capacity by 2019 before customers have been ordered . dan202ut106
In fact, thanks to the continuous growth of semiconductor demand, coupled with the gradual opening of the capacity of Chinese fabs, the supply and demand of global silicon wafers have been seriously strained. Under such circumstances, Global Wafer's operating performance in 2017 was dazzling. Consolidated revenues reached NT$46,213 million, an increase of 150.8% from the previous year, and pre-tax net profit was RMB6.875 billion, which was also an increase of 411.3% from the previous year. The after-tax net profit attributable to the parent company was 5.275 billion yuan, an annual growth rate of 461.4%, and EPS per share was 12.68 yuan, a record high. lm2678t-adj
After the global wafer was separated from Sino-American crystals, it acquired the SunEdison semiconductor at the end of 2016 and became the world's third-largest semiconductor silicon wafer fab, second only to Japan's Shinho and Shenggao. Since 2017, the semiconductor silicon wafer market has ushered in a super-economy cycle, with tight supply and demand. Prices have been rising all the way, and it has also promoted global wafer operations. Recently, there were rumors in the market that due to the optimistic view of the future development of global wafers in the silicon wafer market, China’s “National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund” (commonly known as the “Big Fund”), which specializes in investment in the semiconductor industry, will acquire the global wafer parent company Sino-US. Crystal to further control global wafer production capacity. However, such news was immediately denied by Sino-American crystal.
Although the news of mergers and acquisitions in the market was denied, it also saw the future development of global wafers. In particular, the semiconductor industry will continue to drive demand for silicon wafers. In addition to the current semiconductor silicon wafers, Global Wafer also invests in the production of new products, SiC and GaN, to meet the needs of customers for new product applications. Will boost sales revenue.

Infineon Acquires Merus Audio: Better Audio Experience for Smart Home Applications

February 26, 2018: Munich, Germany and Copenhagen, Denmark - Infineon Technologies AG announced today the acquisition of Merus Audio. The start-up, headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark, was founded in 2010 by Hans Hasselby-Andersen and Mikkel Hoyerby. Merus Audio has created energy-efficient integrated audio amplifier solutions that maximize the audio performance of smart home battery-powered speakers and extend their battery life while minimizing heat and footprint. After integrating Merus Audio, Infineon will be able to offer its customers the full range and cutting-edge Class D audio amplifier portfolio to meet the needs of demanding applications. This complements Infineon's existing PowIRAudio® portfolio of up to 70 watts of power. bc556ap
Andreas Urschitz, president of Infineon's Power Management and Diversity Marketing Group, said: "This move reinforces our ability to bring our customers smart solutions that are fully integrated in the system." Merus Audio's innovative audio amplifier technology is available to Infineon's existing A good complement of sensor and audio processing expertise. "
The fast-growing market for battery-powered smart speakers will benefit particularly from this patented technology, which combines the advantages of extended playback time, compact design and enhanced audio performance. For smart speaker users, the sound quality is more important, the use of speakers to listen to music has become more popular. Merus Audio solutions are based on so-called cascaded converter technology to reduce total harmonic distortion and achieve noise reduction. According to a report released by SAR Insight *, the smart speaker market is projected to have an annual revenue growth of 55% by 2022 (CAGR for 2017-2022). s1227-66bq
Based on Infineon's "From Product to System" strategy, the addition of Merus Audio technology further strengthens Infineon's expertise in human-machine interaction (HMI). For example, Infineon now offers more accurate speech recognition based on Infineon's sensor fusion expertise and uses radar and silicon microphones.
Merus Audio will be fully integrated into Infineon's existing audio business as part of the Power Management and Diversity Marketing Group. Both companies agree not to disclose the financial details of the transaction.
* Source: SAR Insight: Digital Assistant and Voice Interface Services, 2018

IDC: Tablet PC shipments worldwide dropped by 13 quarters

Market research firm IDC released data show that the global tablet PC market has 13 consecutive quarters of landslide. Some analysts said that the sharp decline in shipments of tablets are mainly due to the market is saturated, the product life cycle is long and alternative products increased.
Data show that in the fourth quarter of 2017, the global tablet shipments of 49.6 million units, down from the previous year's 53.8 million units 7.9%, the only good news is that the decline did not reach double digits, lower than in 2016. IDC calculated in the statistics of the traditional Tablet PC, as well as screen and keyboard separable variants. In the fourth quarter of 2017, Apple still occupies the market first, while Amazon surpassed Samsung for the first time in second place. The top five vendors have a market share of 69.6%, up from 61.3% in the same period of last year. bsm150gt120dn2
Apple's shipments were basically unchanged from the previous year. However, due to the poor performance of other tablets, Apple experienced another 2.3% increase in market share after two quarters of increase. Prior to this, the apple market share has dropped for 13 consecutive quarters. With a lower price iPad and an upgraded version of the iPad Pro, Apple maintained its market leadership.
In the fourth quarter of 2017, Amazon's tablet shipments increased by 2.5 million units, with a 6% increase in market share. The holiday season is usually the strongest quarter for the performance of Amazon, but this year's performance is particularly prominent, and the company surpassed Samsung in one fell swoop. IDC said it is due to Amazon offers a substantial discount, as well as the latest Amazon tablet integrated Alexa voice assistant. mg100q2ys42
Samsung's tablet shipments fell 1 million units year on year. IDC data shows that the proportion of detachable keyboards and screens in Samsung's tablet devices has increased, but such growth has not been able to make up for the decline of traditional tablets.
In addition, Huawei ranked fourth over Lenovo. Huawei's market share rose 1.2%, Lenovo fell 0.4%. Both companies shipped about 3 million units.
The rise of the Tablet PC is a coincidence, in the iOS and Android system victory over Saipan system, Apple released iPad running iOS, Andrews camp tablet products are rapidly mushroomed, 2011-2014 is the Tablet PC Rapid growth phase.
Among them, iPad in the tablet PC market has always maintained a dominant position, Android camp wins in the brand many, occupy the other half. In the battle between Android and iOS two camps intensified market, Windows 8 and 10 completed a perfect counter-attack, the three systems officially formed a strong situation.
Insiders pointed out that in the year 2017, the tablet PC market has shown such a trend, so the fourth quarter of the data is not surprising. In other words, the refreshment cycle of tablets is closer to that of traditional PCs, not smartphones, and this is the only category that has seen growth.
IDC analyst Jetsh Ublaney said: "So far, the keyboard and the screen can be detached deformation of the market thanks to the development of Microsoft and Apple in the United States product sales.However, this category can continue to be successful Depends on whether other PC makers are willing to join, more importantly, whether the user in other countries can accept this new type of product. "
However, from the current flat-panel market situation, manufacturers seem to have found a good way - specialization. Unlike the notebook market segmentation, Tablet PC specialization to be relatively simple. At present, Tablet PC products are divided into: adhere to the audio and video entertainment line; take the education line; take handwriting, painting, design line, support stylus.

For the Moore Law continued life: in the computer chip wiring by adding graphene

With the increasing size of the integrated circuit, the current fate of Moore's Law seems to be mostly focused on the improvement of silicon transistors. However, there are gradually researchers starting to start from other components: for example, connect the various transistors to form a complex circuit of copper. And graphene in which played a key role. lm3s9d90-iqc80-a1
In order to improve performance, integrated circuit density continues to increase, and in the same area of ​​the chip which plugged into more transistors, it means that more lines need to connect them. In 2000, the first group of copper interconnects was produced, with 1 km of copper per square centimeter; but today's 14 nm node processors were able to contain 10 km of copper in the same area.
Now the more sophisticated the chip, the copper wire becomes thinner, the resistance also increases, but has to carry more current to speed up the switching speed, improve performance, so will produce electromigration (Electromigration) phenomenon. The electrons of the copper wire will transfer the kinetic energy to the metal ions, so that the ions move toward the electric field in the opposite direction and gradually migrate, resulting in the diffusion and loss of the atoms of the copper wire, resulting in a short circuit.
The current solution is to set the copper wire in the trenches, and the inner walls of the trenches cover tantalum nitride with a thickness of 2 nm, which prevents the escape of copper. But this way top up to 10 nm and 7 nm nodes. As the process continues to shrink, the inner wall of 2 nm will become too thick. s50240
At the IEEE International Conference on Electronic Equipment, held in San Francisco last December, H.-S. Philip Wong from Stanford's electrical engineer and his team found that polystyrene was used to solve the problem of electromigration Phenomenon, and reduce the resistance. Wong said that although researchers have already studied other linings that may block electromigration, including ruthenium and magnesium, graphene can be thinner than any material. In addition, the semiconductor industry in fact try to avoid looking for new materials to spend too much time, but now the situation, if the copper life can no longer continue, you must use new materials (such as cobalt) to replace.
Stanford's team is currently working with Lam Research Corp. and Zhejiang University in China to test composite material routing to allow graphene to be produced online from copper. Corning has developed a special manufacturing method, will not damage the rest of the chip at the temperature (below 400 ℃), this coating of graphene composite material to suppress the effect of electromigration is the general copper 10 times , And only half the resistance.
Moore's Law to go on, in addition to the transistor, the potential is even the memory, lines and so have to join the ranks of improvement, and the role of graphene or will be more eaten.

TI introduces the industry's first zero-drift, zero-crossing operational amplifiers to achieve true high accuracy

Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NYSE: TXN) today introduced its first op amp with zero-drift and zero-crossing technology to set the standard for precision amplifiers. The OPA388 op amp maintains high accuracy over the entire input range and is suitable for a wide range of industrial applications, including test and measurement, medical and safety equipment, and high-resolution data acquisition systems.
The unique architecture of the OPA388 enables industry-leading combinations of ultra-high input linearity and accuracy. TI's zero-drift technology eliminates temperature drift and flicker noise for maximum dc accuracy and dynamic error correction, and its zero-cross topology eliminates offset errors caused by common-mode limits for linear output and true rail-to-rail Input operation. xc17s05pd8i
Key Features and Benefits of the OPA388 Operational Amplifier:
True True Accuracy with Ultra-High Input Linearity: The device's zero-cross topology eliminates the input offset transitions of traditional complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) operational amplifiers to ensure maximum linearity over the entire common-mode input range Degree and minimum distortion.
• Provides high DC accuracy: TI's zero drift technology provides a maximum offset voltage as low as 5μV, typical offset voltage drift of 0.005μV / ° C and a maximum input bias current of 700 pA, and an industrial temperature range of -40 ° C To 125 ° C. Without the need for costly overheating calibration, while increasing the DC accuracy.
Support for wide bandwidth operation: With a 10 MHz gain bandwidth product (GBW), the OPA388 enables high-gain configurations with access to a variety of signal types and frequencies. The OPA388 supports these devices from precision weighing instruments to heart rate monitors.
• High performance and low distortion: -132dBc of ultra-low total harmonic distortion and 7nV / √Hz voltage noise contribute to high-resolution signal chain, suitable for specialized applications, such as programmable logic controllers, precision field transmission And motion control equipment. xc4020xl-3pq160c
Reduced complexity and cost: Zero-drift and zero-crossing techniques reduce the complexity of the signal chain and the number of external components, enabling designers to minimize board space and bill-of-materials (BOM) costs.
Start the design tools and support immediately
TI provides designers of the OPA388 with a range of support tools, including a reference design that demonstrates how to eliminate cross-nonlinearities in digital-to-analog converters using precision op amps. The reference design uses the DAC8830 precision data converter and the REF5050 voltage reference to create an accurate DC calibration system for high-precision applications in wireless infrastructure, test and measurement.