Both front-end and back-end manufacturing trends, challenges and issues will be discussed at SEMICON West, in the Extreme Electronics stage on Tuesday, July 13 from 10:30 through the day. Get their early because its over booked and there are only 150 seats.
Other LED events in the US don't really address manufacturing so this is an important gathering for the industry.
In the front-end session, Applied Materials are going to show thier new MOCVD tool that may be the biggest development in the sector in a few years. Applied's late to the boom, but they've the know-how and an unique integrated solution that will demand serious consideration.
I also recommend the Ultratech presentation on the interesting challenges in HB LED litho process.
The afternoon session features Philips Lumenleds, but I'm looking forward to QD Vision's talk on Quantum Dot technology. Jan Vardemann and Dan Morrow (no relation) are good friends and I won't miss thier presentations as well.
In addition to the Extreme Stage, we also have Standards Meetings and other LED events.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Monday, June 14, 2010
The Center of Gravity is Changing--PricewaterhouseCoopers
“The center of gravity is changing. The only question is how fast…”
This was the theme of the presentation given to the SEMI Sales and Marketing Council (SSMC) at last Tuesday’s lunch meeting by Raman Chitkara, Sr. Partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, the world’s largest professional services firm.
As part of our regular monthly networking lunch, SSMC often has outside speakers join the group to share their perspective on important industry issues. This month we were extremely fortunate to welcome Raman Chitkara who has had a ring side seat in the key developments in Silicon Valley, and an insider’s knowledge of many of the leading companies in the semiconductor industry. He’s also leading expert on CleanTech, having been a principal leader in PwC’s informative “CleanTech Comes of Age" report. Raman is also one PwC's experts on China as leader of the "China's Impact on the Global Semiconductor Industry" report.
The center of gravity that Raman refers to is geographic. The move of high tech industries to Asia has been relentless. “As US companies extend globally, they spawn indigenous technology companies,” said Raman. Of the 29 firms that went IPO in the Q1 of this year, 1 was on Germany’s exchange, 3 on NASDAQ, and 24 were in China. The China firms raised over $2.5 billion.
The growing importance of emerging markets is part of this shift in gravity, not just in production, but consumption as well. The growing middle class in BRIC countries is driving world chip demand. Even during the recent semiconductor downturn, electronic systems manufacturers in China continued to increase their consumption of semiconductors at a rate three to five times the worldwide rate. As a result, China is remains the largest consumer of semiconductors for the fourth year in a row. In the past, much of this consumption was from US, Japanese and other global OEMs, now it is increasingly dominated by China electronic manufacturing firms with local sourcing authority. Raman sees China chip manufacturing sector to continue to grow, especially if the success of other international fab ventures continues.
The other major shift in the IC industry discussed by Raman was consumerization—not just in total chip consumption—but the fact that new technologies now appear first in consumer markets, not in business IT. Among the impacts this brings is the decline in vertical integration. “How can you sustain competitive advantage when everyone can get the same chips?” Apple is focusing on software differentiation with emphasis on only a few key components.
Raman sees a convergence of software and hardware services—complete solutions that allow companies to achieve dominant market shares. But he admits, “the rules are still being written…”
Another important impact on SEMI members will be he transition from US GAAP to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). China will make the change to IFRS in 2011, well before the US in 2013. Among this IFRS impact will be on leasing and capital equipment purchasing.
This was the theme of the presentation given to the SEMI Sales and Marketing Council (SSMC) at last Tuesday’s lunch meeting by Raman Chitkara, Sr. Partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, the world’s largest professional services firm.
As part of our regular monthly networking lunch, SSMC often has outside speakers join the group to share their perspective on important industry issues. This month we were extremely fortunate to welcome Raman Chitkara who has had a ring side seat in the key developments in Silicon Valley, and an insider’s knowledge of many of the leading companies in the semiconductor industry. He’s also leading expert on CleanTech, having been a principal leader in PwC’s informative “CleanTech Comes of Age" report. Raman is also one PwC's experts on China as leader of the "China's Impact on the Global Semiconductor Industry" report.
The center of gravity that Raman refers to is geographic. The move of high tech industries to Asia has been relentless. “As US companies extend globally, they spawn indigenous technology companies,” said Raman. Of the 29 firms that went IPO in the Q1 of this year, 1 was on Germany’s exchange, 3 on NASDAQ, and 24 were in China. The China firms raised over $2.5 billion.
The growing importance of emerging markets is part of this shift in gravity, not just in production, but consumption as well. The growing middle class in BRIC countries is driving world chip demand. Even during the recent semiconductor downturn, electronic systems manufacturers in China continued to increase their consumption of semiconductors at a rate three to five times the worldwide rate. As a result, China is remains the largest consumer of semiconductors for the fourth year in a row. In the past, much of this consumption was from US, Japanese and other global OEMs, now it is increasingly dominated by China electronic manufacturing firms with local sourcing authority. Raman sees China chip manufacturing sector to continue to grow, especially if the success of other international fab ventures continues.
The other major shift in the IC industry discussed by Raman was consumerization—not just in total chip consumption—but the fact that new technologies now appear first in consumer markets, not in business IT. Among the impacts this brings is the decline in vertical integration. “How can you sustain competitive advantage when everyone can get the same chips?” Apple is focusing on software differentiation with emphasis on only a few key components.
Raman sees a convergence of software and hardware services—complete solutions that allow companies to achieve dominant market shares. But he admits, “the rules are still being written…”
Another important impact on SEMI members will be he transition from US GAAP to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). China will make the change to IFRS in 2011, well before the US in 2013. Among this IFRS impact will be on leasing and capital equipment purchasing.
Monday, June 7, 2010
MEMS Market Remains Fragmented
Jean Christophe Eloy, CEO of Yole Developpment, told a packed audience at the MEMS Forum at SEMICON Singapore that the MEMS market remains fragmented, but developments in foundries and new startups could accelerate the scale of the industry.
Very few applications have a market size above $200M and long development cycles have impeded the development of a strong ecosystem. Manufacturing is still based on the “one product, one process, one package” principal that constrains the growth of fabless companies and foundries. But standard process blocks are recognized as a key driver and several foundries seem to be optimistic about resolving the barriers to commercialization and scale.
According to Eloy, all the important successes in the MEMS industry in the past 5 years are linked to innovation in usage and packaging:
•The success of ST with accelerometers is linked to usage
•The success of Invensense is linked to packaging innovation
•The success of the silicon microphone is due to packaging innovation
•The success of pico projectors is a combination both new usage and new packaging
Most of the new MEMS developments are happening with startups. Yole has identified 30 startups in exciting new areas such as microbolometers, digital compasses and oscillators.
Check out the announced MEMS programs SEMICON West (luly 13) and SEMICON Europa (October 18-19).
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Extreme Electronics in Europe
I had an interesting speaking opportunity this week at the Printed Electronics Summit in San Jose where I gave an overview of the European landscape for organic and large area printed electronics (with the volcano constricting travel, I got the European slot).
What I knew, but what I was surprised to see so pronounced, was the scale of European excitement and support for printed electronics. The comparison with the US is not complimentary.
Today, Europe enjoys the world’s largest and most well developed collection of companies, research institutions and government programs engaged in printed and organic electronics. The ecosystem is well organized, well connected and well positioned to prosper from current trends or any breakthrough applications that may develop.
First, the R&D infrastructure in Europe is active, comparitively well funded and well established. Three Fraunhofer institutes, The UK’s The Knowledge Network, Belgium’s IMEC, France’s CEA/Liten to name a few all have active research programs in organic and printed. VTT, the Research Centre of Finland is very active in this area. It has a division called Printocent to create business in Printed Intelligence applications with a program budget is in excess of 10MEUR.
InnovationLab is an application-oriented research and transfer platform of business and science in the Rhine-Neckar Metropolitan region of Germany. It was jointly founded by the six globally active companies BASF, Heidelberger (the largest printing press manufacturer), Merck (leader in organic chemicals), Roche Diagnostics, SAP, and the universities of Heidelberg and Mannheim.
There many other R&D institutions and players in printed and large area organic electronics—in Portugal, Poland, Greece, and many other locations. I’m sure there is university research in the US, but not as this scale and not with this level of organization.
Europe’s printed electronics community is also extremely well organized. The Organic Electronics Association (OE-A) is a working group within the German Engineering Federation (VDMA). Members range from R&D institutes, component and material suppliers to producers and end-users. It is currently comprised of about a 120 companies from Europe—with a few from North America, Asia and Australia. They have produced roadmaps and provide industry advocacy and promotion.
The Plastic Electronics Foundation, based in Brussels, is a not-for-profit organization whose main objective is to promote the technology of printable, organic based flexible electronics into marketable applications and products worldwide. They have been key contributors to the development of a Strategic Research Agenda for Europe as well as a key player in EU funding projects.
Concerning current government support and programs, FP7 is the short name for the Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development. This is the EU's main instrument for funding research in Europe and it will run to 2013. In printed electronics, research funding is concentrated in organic electronics, under the name, The Quadriga Project, though it has about 20 other projects not affiliated with Quadriga. The 4 projects that form Quadriga are OPERA, Polynet, Polymap and Prodi. The main and common objectives of all four collaborative projects are to foster the position of Europe as a leader in research, and to strengthen the position of Europe as a main hub in this area.
And finally, in addition to R&D infrastructure and government support, Europe also understands the power of regional clusters. Regional areas in Oulu, Finland; Basil, Switzerland; Dresden, Germany, Cambridge, UK; and the German states of Hesse and Baden-Württemberg has funded organizations and activities that actively seek to nurture the development of printed and large area electronics within a close municipal region.
Whether this widespread European network of activities can compensate for the presence of large integrated companies in Asia (Panasonic, LG, etc.)and US (GE) remains to be seen. Also, Europe also does not enjoy the advantages of an active venture capital market like the United States.
But it does look like a rational, purposeful and coordinated policy to position Europe as a leader in an emerging technology industry. In the US, unfortunately there is no rational and coordinated policy to support existing and future high technology industries.
What I knew, but what I was surprised to see so pronounced, was the scale of European excitement and support for printed electronics. The comparison with the US is not complimentary.
Today, Europe enjoys the world’s largest and most well developed collection of companies, research institutions and government programs engaged in printed and organic electronics. The ecosystem is well organized, well connected and well positioned to prosper from current trends or any breakthrough applications that may develop.
First, the R&D infrastructure in Europe is active, comparitively well funded and well established. Three Fraunhofer institutes, The UK’s The Knowledge Network, Belgium’s IMEC, France’s CEA/Liten to name a few all have active research programs in organic and printed. VTT, the Research Centre of Finland is very active in this area. It has a division called Printocent to create business in Printed Intelligence applications with a program budget is in excess of 10MEUR.
InnovationLab is an application-oriented research and transfer platform of business and science in the Rhine-Neckar Metropolitan region of Germany. It was jointly founded by the six globally active companies BASF, Heidelberger (the largest printing press manufacturer), Merck (leader in organic chemicals), Roche Diagnostics, SAP, and the universities of Heidelberg and Mannheim.
There many other R&D institutions and players in printed and large area organic electronics—in Portugal, Poland, Greece, and many other locations. I’m sure there is university research in the US, but not as this scale and not with this level of organization.
Europe’s printed electronics community is also extremely well organized. The Organic Electronics Association (OE-A) is a working group within the German Engineering Federation (VDMA). Members range from R&D institutes, component and material suppliers to producers and end-users. It is currently comprised of about a 120 companies from Europe—with a few from North America, Asia and Australia. They have produced roadmaps and provide industry advocacy and promotion.
The Plastic Electronics Foundation, based in Brussels, is a not-for-profit organization whose main objective is to promote the technology of printable, organic based flexible electronics into marketable applications and products worldwide. They have been key contributors to the development of a Strategic Research Agenda for Europe as well as a key player in EU funding projects.
Concerning current government support and programs, FP7 is the short name for the Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development. This is the EU's main instrument for funding research in Europe and it will run to 2013. In printed electronics, research funding is concentrated in organic electronics, under the name, The Quadriga Project, though it has about 20 other projects not affiliated with Quadriga. The 4 projects that form Quadriga are OPERA, Polynet, Polymap and Prodi. The main and common objectives of all four collaborative projects are to foster the position of Europe as a leader in research, and to strengthen the position of Europe as a main hub in this area.
And finally, in addition to R&D infrastructure and government support, Europe also understands the power of regional clusters. Regional areas in Oulu, Finland; Basil, Switzerland; Dresden, Germany, Cambridge, UK; and the German states of Hesse and Baden-Württemberg has funded organizations and activities that actively seek to nurture the development of printed and large area electronics within a close municipal region.
Whether this widespread European network of activities can compensate for the presence of large integrated companies in Asia (Panasonic, LG, etc.)and US (GE) remains to be seen. Also, Europe also does not enjoy the advantages of an active venture capital market like the United States.
But it does look like a rational, purposeful and coordinated policy to position Europe as a leader in an emerging technology industry. In the US, unfortunately there is no rational and coordinated policy to support existing and future high technology industries.
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