Semiconductors

The iNEMI Roadmap is recognized within the electronics manufacturing industry as an important tool for defining the "state of the art" in the electronics industry and for identifying emerging and disruptive technologies. The roadmap also pinpoints critical technology gaps and areas where R&D efforts should be focused. Companies, government agencies and universities often use the roadmap to help prioritize their investments in R&D and technology deployment.

Later this month, IC Insights’ May Update to The 2013 McClean Report will show a ranking of the top 25 semiconductor suppliers in 1Q13.  A preview of the top 20 companies is listed in Figure 1.  The top 20 worldwide semiconductor (IC and O S D—optoelectronic, discrete, and sensor) sales leaders for 1Q13 include nine suppliers headquartered in the U.S., four in Japan, three in Europe, and two each in South Korea and Taiwan, a relatively broad representation of geographic regions.  The top-20 ranking also includes three pure-play foundries (TSMC, GlobalFoundries, and UMC) and four fabless companies.

Detailed analysis to serve the electronic chemicals industry: IDTechEX research group has been taking a close look at the elements and compounds used in the new electronics and electrics - components just entering a phase of very rapid growth in sales. These components vary from Nano Electro-mechanical Circuits NEMS to fuel cells that many leading automotive manufacturers will put into on-road vehicles in 2015.   We do this for 37 families of newly popular or imminently popular component. 26 families of most popular and imminently most popular element and compound are charted against these criteria with a plethora of actual examples of formulation to give unique and fascinating maps of where the chemicals and materials industries should concentrate to create the business of 100 billion dollars in fine chemicals that is emerging. research group has been taking a close look at the elements and compounds used in the new electronics and electrics - components just entering a phase of very rapid growth in sales. These components vary from Nano Electro-mechanical Circuits NEMS to fuel cells that many leading automotive manufacturers will put into on-road vehicles in 2015. 

A new joint innovation by the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) and the University of Cambridge could pave the way for redefining the ampere in terms of fundamental constants of physics. The world's first graphene single-electron pump (SEP), described in Nature Nanotechnology, provides the speed of electron flow needed to create a new standard for electrical current based on electron charge.

The high-flying acceleration and yaw sensor product category was brought back to earth in 2012 when price erosion pulled down annual sales growth to 7%—the lowest percentage increase for motion-sensing semiconductors since 2005, according to the 2013 O-S-D Report—A Market Analysis and Forecast for Optoelectronics, Sensors/Actuators, and Discretes.  Despite slower growth, acceleration/yaw sensors—which are accelerometers and gyroscope devices primarily made with microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology—reached record-high sales of $2.54 billion in 2012, surpassing the previous peak of $2.37 billion in 2011, when market revenues rose 27%.

Developers who want to gain the benefits in size and performance of embedded components need to understand some critical points before joining in this new trend. The complexity of printed boards is poised for a significant change as embedded components become more common. A growing number of OEMs and printed board suppliers are burying passives and actives in printed boards as a way to trim both costs and size. Vendors are seeing increasing interest. Embedded components are gaining more interest from our customer base, since it is one way to miniaturize electronics. We see requests from medical, industrial sensors, mobile devices and initial interest in automotive for special applications.

Since the end of March, availability of smartphone components, including memory, displays, and ICs, has been limited. As a result, brands and manufacturers have been aggressively procuring components. There are a few reasons for the tight supply. Most brands announce new products at the Mobile World Congress, then launch before Labor Day and the summer holidays. This seasonality means that there is a huge demand for components in calendar Q2. In addition, smartphones continue to use customized designs, and generally can't use standard components. The component supply shortage is especially serious in China, where most of the brands want to deliver all of their new devices to stores and channels in time for Labor Day promotions, continuing into the summer holidays. If a product is not delivered to channels before the end of April for stocking in stores, annual sales could be impacted.

According to a new study,  the global market for thermal interface materials (TIMs) was worth nearly $426 million in 2011 and $458 million in 2012. The market is expected to grow to $762 million in 2017 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.7% between 2012 and 2017. Computers made up the largest end-use segment for thermal interface materials in 2011, with global sales of $145.4 million. Medical and office equipment composed the second-largest segment, followed by industrial and military equipment ,and telecommunications. Computers and especially medical and office equipment should gain market share over the next five years, whereas telecoms and industrial and military equipment are expected to see decreases in their shares. The Asia-Pacific region (excluding Japan) is the largest and fastest-growing TIM market, earning more than $251 million in 2011 and establishing a CAGR of 12.3% between 2012 and 2017. The 2011 U.S., EU, and Japanese markets were roughly similar in size, and have comparable projected annual growth rates (in the 7.5%-8.3% range) over the next five years.

Mikron, a semiconductor chip-based electronics maker headquartered just outside Moscow in Zelenograd, is considering new markets for its products in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and North America, RFID Expert reported last week. Mikron reportedly has plans to expand into these markets in partnership with GoGlobal, a German start-up. The two want to offer their RFID tags operating in the UHF, HF and LF ranges, as well as their EAS tags, to markets across the globe. It remains to be seen whether the Russian company is currently in a position to compete with major international players in the semiconductor sector such as NXP Semiconductors or Smartrac. Mikron is reported to make 200mm silicon wafers, while it is now standard internationally to use 300mm diameter wafers. Nonetheless, Mikron is the first Russian semiconductor manufacturer to hit Western markets.

Worldwide economic uncertainty has given the analog IC market plenty of ups and downs over the last several years; however 2012 was one of the worst years for this segment. Analog was down 7 percent from 2011 with revenues just shy of $40 billion, although this was the unfortunate reality for the entire semiconductor market, which had an average decline of 3 percent in 2012. All markets within analog did poorly, with the exception of the wired market. Power, automotive and communications were the most resilient, whereas computer, interface, and data conversion products took the worst hit. Texas Instruments still remains the largest manufacturing company in analog in terms of market share; they finished 2012 with 16.7 percent of the entire market, or $6.6 billion in revenue. In 2011, Texas Instruments completed the acquisition of National Semiconductor; this has proven to be a very profitable purchase as the market share in interface jumped from 23 to 27 percent and analog power IC share went from 21 to 24 percent in 2012. With TI's recent decision to restructure their business, they have been able to focus their efforts more on their dominating analog market. TI remains resilient, despite the oversupply in the industry caused primarily by China's slowing economy and the ongoing debt crisis in Europe.