World's Most Advance Copper Wire Bonder

As this likely will be the industry standard, wire inter-connect are going mostly for Copper wire instead of gold as for reason of Gold price is too high, and Copper has good reliability for the wire interconnect.
ASM has launched a new and innovative product GoCu Copper wire bonder which has the following feature:
1. Cu wire bonding at the speed of Au and faster
2. Automatic wire rethread system for short tails leading to excellent MTBA.
3. Everybody can do Cu wire bonding with ASM GoCu, you do not need a Pro.
4. ASM Eagle Xtreme and iHawk Xtreme series wire bonders are upgradeable to GoCu.
ASM has run a Larges scale Seminar on 9 Nov at Bellevue Hotel in Alabang, more than 160 engineers, managers and directors from the Philippines Semiconductor houses came to join and share this 9 hours seminar.
The have seen the demo the GoCu machine and was surprise to see the Auto re-thread function of the machine that could possibly reduce dramatically the stoppages on the 2nd bond, a feature that the industry waiting for!

Hi Mr. Pham, Sorry there are some Google technical issue that I can not put comment on your question.,
Price of the equipment would be depending on what application, model you choose. ASM does have Single head or dual head wire bonder also wire bonder for LED application. For more information, you can mail to feverip266288@yahoo.com.hk
Thanks for the comment

HK Snob

2011 Q4 IC market Forecast

Japan Quake
March 11 The Japanese earthquake raised concerns about supply of silicon wafers, batteries, crystal oscillators, substrates material and other specialized materials.
However, the supply shortage has had minimal impact on markets seen.
Performance of 2nd Quarter
2nd quarter the supply of semiconductors is only slightly below the norm; 3rd quarter is less certain.
Semiconductor related inventory levels are rising.
The Commodity price inflation has started to influence consumer behavior. China has had a 6.7% inflation rate and the high fliers have tried to cool down the real estate price throughout 100 cities in China by imposing regulation on purchases. It is hoped that such regulation would result in lowering the inflation rate. The other side of China promises an annual growth as much as 8% for 2011!
IC ASP
IC ASPs elevated in 2H 2010 due to limited supplies. However in 1H 11, ASPs should revert back toward normal long-term trends. The units will come under some pressure in 4Q11 to 2Q12 to get back to current elevated inventory levels.
IC Packaging
ASSP sales dropped by $2.2B and accounted for About 50% of the Downside (2Q11 versus 1Q11 Forecasts).
In 2011 DRAM sales are expected to drop by 7% compared to 2010. However, NAND Flash Rams are expected to rise by 30% and will resist trends from 2010.
Smart Phone and Tablet
PC Mobile Phone sales have dropped by 3B $ in 2Q11 comparing with 1Q11.
2011 production unit growth for 2Q11 will not reach its forecast of 10.2%, as it has decreased slightly to 9.5%. Mobile phone 2Q11 production unit growth increased slightly to 12.9% compared to its forecasted growth of 12.6% in 1Q11. The percentage growth for Smartphone’s keeps on increasing. Media tablet production forecasted to increase to 71.6M in 2011, with production exceeding 320M in 2015.
Automotive production is predicted to be lower, but will have little impact on total semiconductor growth as automotive accounts for 3.45% of total semiconductor business in terms of revenue.
Chip Price
Foundry overcapacity is expected to hit 4Q11 and most of 2012 which will ultimately lead to chip price drops.
The Fear of chip shortages has not translated to increase in ASPs at this point.
Apple as Market Driver
It is expected that Smart phones will gain market a greater market share by 2015 with 30% CAGR.
Apple product Prices have not dropped as fast as we expected, which will affect the type of products purchased.
The Percentage of tablets shipped with WiFi only is higher than expected compared to WiFi+3G.
There is a significant opportunity for application processors, baseband processors, RF and wireless connectivity.
The iPad2 and iPhone, iPad 2 introduction & the prices of its rivals leaves Apple ahead of competitors.
OS and hardware evolution will turn Media Tablets into a more viable PC alternative in most of the cases.
Apple Sales in 2Q11
Apple sold 3.76 million Macs during the 2nd quarter, a 28 percent unit increase compared to last year’s quarter. The Company sold 18.65 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 113% unit growth compared to last year’s quarter. Apple sold 9.02 million iPods during this quarter, representing a 17% unit decline from last year’s quarter. The Company also sold 4.69 million iPads during the quarter.
Apple Beneficiates
Iphone and Ipad component suppliers: TI, Skyworks, Broadcom, Analog Device, TriQuint, Intel, Qualcom, Samsung, will be having growth because of Apple products, by evolving designs based around the application processor. Remove cellular baseband, Transceiver, RF in WiFi-only products.
Smart Phone OS
Android – Outperforming the market, strong OEM and carrier support, expect aggressive pricing for penetration.(market share 14%).
Apple iOS- End to end control, superb usability and developer-friendly ecosystem. (market Share 80%)
RIM - End to end control gives security, growing ecosystem initiatives, major challenge from Android and iOS
Symbian – is losing share rapidly, and Nokia shifting to Windows base Phone.
Windows Phone – Nokia partnership a boost as WP7 vies to be a competitive consumer OS.
Nokia is losing business, typicall some of our Customers like Amkor and ST in affected!
US Consumers
In the 2H11 Consumer confidence level is low and purchases are slow.
The US economic growth is also poor, with short term weakness predicted. The mature PC market is also weak, and the upside index unclear. Consumer PC remains below expectations through 2011, with enterprise replacement growth expected to be healthy.
Smartphones and media tablets represent the majority of semiconductor revenue growth over the next three years. It is expected that entry-level smart phones will be the second wave of growth in the smartphone market.
Market share and strategy shifts amongst the smartphone and tablet ecosystems and vendors will have a significant impact on semiconductor suppliers.
Capitals spending
By 2011 spending is expected to be up by12% driven by Intel, foundry, and NAND spending
2012 will stall a little as production re-aligns with demand
Out-of-phase segment cycles create stop-start patterns in cap-ex profile.
Foundry Shipment, Capacity, UtilizationInvestment Race Leads To Oversupply since 1Q11 to 4Q11.
Positive sign of seeing foundry capital is up from 2011-2015
On said their Q3 and after business will slow down.
Conclusion
Our greatest risk remains in 3rd quarter.
ASPs are under pressure and Japan has not reversed the current trend and stock will remain elevated until supply chain feel more settled about Japan impact.
It is most-likely semiconductor growth for 2011 will be 5.1%, and 2012 forecasts reduced to 8.6%
The will be a brief respite in 2012, before DRAM and foundry overcapacity causes renewed weakness in 2013.
There will be a slight increase for capacity for Q111 compared with 4Q10. 2Q11 is almost on par or slightly below 1Q11.
The rumor that of iPhone5 will be launched in Sept, (news of UK APPLE is employing Temporary sales for iPhone5) means there should be a driver for the capacity to be maintained or increased due to the new demand iPhone5 staring in end July.
So 3Q11 should maintain as forecasted. However, due to the US economy, and high unemployment rate, I am not too optimistic for Q4 which will slash demand compared to 3Q11. LED market will keep nose diving till Q4 as I see no new driver for more equipment purchase, as the world largest LED drivers IC is On and National (now they became one) that would be some effect on our IC capacity.
SMT purchases seem to have softened demand in June and this is likely to continue into the future unless there is an outstanding demand for iPhone5.
CIS makers have to increase capacity due to demand for Iphone4, (iphone3 still making 1m unit a month by now) and Camera module for iPadII. They are optimistic for Apple product going forward.
In Short, Q3 will be slower than Q2. Q4 will be even worse unless there is an up-sign for market growth in the coming three months. Note that the Gold price keep on rising after hitting record $1800 an ounce. S ceiling debt 1.2 trillion Dollars in 10 year, Standard Poor rated US bank credit as AA+ instead of AAA. All this means that US will slow down their spending. They might stat printing money again fo paying debt. At the present time we do not see 2012 being a very good year. At best they will maintain similar growth to 2011, that is about US$338 at a growth rate of 7% as of 2011.
HK Snob

Apple is The King

In terms of Market capital, these are the ranking of the major mobile phone companies.
Samsung 53B
Nokia 22.6B
HTC 25.4B
RIM 13.8B
Motorola 4.2B
LG 10B
Sony Ericsson 3B
If all these companies are added up together will be 132B.
How about the King? Apple market cap is 302B and having cash 70B in the bank.
So who will be the major player for Mobile phone business? Obviously will be Apple,
If Apple takes out his cash I the bank probably could buy up all the Mobile phone company except Samsung.
However the US anticompetition court will not allow Apple to do so.
Apple in 2010 bought 17.5B worth of semiconductor, a 79.6% increase from 9.7B in 2009. So Apple is the key influential player in the chip purchase. Second is HP and third is Samsung amongst 10 major OEM Semiconductor buyers.
HK Snob

Semiconductor Equipment Business Forecast for 2H 2011

Japan Quake Aftermath effect
The Japan earthquake and tsunami that took place on 11 March, has resulted in an overstock of chips at IDM and Fabless. A large stock of chips was built as a result slow demand in the second quarter. Such an excess of chip stock will result in poor sales in the third quarter. For the last five years the third quarter has shown to be an average high season for chip demand. The high unemployment figures in the USA does not show signs of improvement as financial confidence remains low in the market. An oversupply of chips and an uncertain future demand and chip ASP pressure has not helped in the in 2H 11.
The Aftermath of Japan Quake has resulted in production of Non-Japanese supplies of Sensors, Detectors for automobiles and power management devices for note books. Large world players such as Vishay, NXP, Allegro, and Infineon have benefitted from Japans tragedy.
SIA Research
Integrated circuits still remain the most dominant segment of the semiconductor industry, and account for around 84% of the total revenue in 2009 followed by optoelectronics, discrete components and sensors. SIA research projects that future growth will be driven by sensors followed by optoelectronics, discrete and ICs semiconductors with a projected CAGR at around 17%, 15%, 11% and 8% respectively for the period 2011-2013.
Tablet Smartphone’s and tablets including iPadII, have continued to gain popularity, with increased sales from 5% to 25%, as result of the desktop computer is losing its market share from 42% to 28% by 2014.
Troop Pullout
According to statistics, the war in Afghanistan is costing American taxpayers some $10 billion a month. In addition to 100,000 US troops, more than 40,000 NATO soldiers are also stationed in Afghanistan. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have cost the US $1 trillion over the past decade. Obama has told the US that the plans for troop withdrawal from Afghanistan (promised 18 months ago) will begin next month.
Unemployment Rate
Obama has promised to create 5 million jobs, although the investment value of government stimulus is debatable. It is clear from the current unemployment figures that Obama's Keynesian policies have failed to create any significant number of jobs, let alone sustainable green jobs. In fact, the Obama Administration seems to be taken by surprise, too at the lack of progress made in this area.
US Presidential Election
2012 is Obama presidential election year, and Obama will be trying to pursue the throne again. He will not consider softening his approach to boosting the economy and has presented a strong campaign based on what he promised three years ago. The top political issue heading into the 2012 election and the Achilles heel of his presidency is to create million of jobs. He has announced a plan to train 10,000 new American engineers every year through a public-private partnership. And through other initiatives such as these he plans to create more jobs.
Smart Phone
Companies like Avago supports the mobile communication sensor business and has a strong order book for their Automobile and Phone Business sector. Both Nokia and RIM has badly affected by the Apple and HTC market share. It is unknown why the RIM stock price dropped 28% in a week ago! Symbian is a sunset mobile platform and Blackberry is also losing ground to iOS and Android. Sooner or later the largest company in the Smart Phone business sector may be over taken by Apple and followed by HTC to be the 2nd largest Smart phone company in the world.
Apple
Assuming Apple iPhone5 will be launched in September, this will prove “Must Have” standard for people to buy and/or replace the older iPhone4. The market will be stimulated, the second phase of higher Chip demand should commence in September.
The expansion plan for semiconductor nest purchase will commence in September to be delivered in an October/November time frame, and we should enjoy a strong demand of semiconductor equipment by September- December Q4 2011.
Summary
The demand for Automobile components will be slow by Q4 11, but this will be balanced by an increased demand for components for non-ipad tablet, IpadII, Smart phone and Iphone . We will see a slight growth of 5% for semiconductor between Q2 and Q3 compared to figures in Q1 Q2. After Q3 we will see some flattening of sales and a down turn of 4-7% by Q4. The next big demand for Chips will result in achieving double-digit substantial growth in Q1 2012, due projected job growth in the US and huge demand from China from the middle class for more mobile communication device, smart phone, electronics consumers products.
The Asian Political situation will remain more or less stable with exception of the situation in the South China Seas. Between China, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam, Chinese tensions has risen in the region in the past month with concern that China is becoming more assertive in its claim to territorial waters. It is estimated they are seeking to form a large U-shape area over most of the sea's 648,000 square miles (1.7 million square km), including the Spratly and Paracel archipelagos. Gates of US is supporting the maritime defence capability of the Philippines on 24 June. China Leader Wen Jia Bao told UK media yesterday that he will try to keep China’s inflation below 5% and maintain annual Growth target of 7% or even 8% for this year. If that is the case, this world’s fastest growing and at same time largest market will help to keep Semiconductor Chips and Equipment demand on a healthy growth. We will have to wait and see how this develops!
HK Snob 27 June 2011

The Semiconductor Development from a Single Transistor to 3D-chip.

The first transistor was invented at Bell Laboratories on December 16, 1947 by William Shockley. It replaced Vacuum tubes in the years after gradually, and Radio was marked on the case as Solid State to interpret the durability of Transistor. Shock in a much high order than vacuum tubes, on the other hand it operates in less power and energy than the vacuum tube, and It is pretty SMALL.
In 1959 both TI and Fairchild parties applied for patents of IC. Jack Kilby and Texas Instruments received U.S. patent #3,138,743 for miniaturized electronic circuits. Robert Noyce and the Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation received U.S. patent #2,981,877 for a silicon based integrated circuit. The two companies wisely decided to cross license their technologies after several years of legal battles, creating a global market now worth about $1 trillion a year.
In 1961 the first commercially available IC came from the Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation. All computers then started to be made using chips instead of the individual transistors and their accompanying parts. Texas Instruments first used the chips in Air Force computers and the Minuteman Missile in 1962. The original IC had only one transistor, three resistors and one capacitor and was the size of an adult's pinkie. They used the chips to produce the first electronic portable calculators later.
The first integrated circuits contained only a few transistors. Called "small-scale integration" (SSI), Early linear ICs such as Plessey SL201 or Philips TAA320 had as few as two transistors. The term Large Scale Integration was first used by IBM scientist Rolf Landauer when describing the theoretical concept, from there came the terms for SSI, MSI, VLSI, and ULSI.
SSI circuits were crucial to early aerospace projects, and vice-versa. Both the Minuteman missile and Apollo program needed lightweight digital computers for their inertial guidance systems. The Minuteman missile program and various other Navy programs accounted for the total $4 million integrated circuit market in 1962, and by 1968, U.S. Government space and defense spending still accounted for 37% of the $312 million total production. The demand by the U.S. Government supported the nascent integrated circuit market until costs fell enough to allow firms to penetrate the industrial and eventually the consumer markets. The average price per integrated circuit dropped from $50.00 in 1962 to $2.33 in 1968. Integrated circuits began to appear in consumer products by the turn of the decade, a typical application being FM inter-carrier sound processing in television receivers.
In the late 1960s, introduced devices which contained hundreds of transistors on each chip, called "medium-scale integration" (MSI).
They were attractive economically because while they cost little more to produce than SSI devices.
Later, driven by the same economic factors, led to "large-scale integration" (LSI) in the mid 1970s, with tens of thousands of transistors per chip.
Integrated circuits such as 1K-bit RAMs, calculator chips, and the first microprocessors, that began to be manufactured in moderate quantities in the early 1970s, had under 4,000 transistors. True LSI circuits, approaching 10,000 transistors, began to be produced around 1974, for computer main memories and second-generation microprocessors.
Remember your Texas Instrument Programmable Calculator when you was in the University in the 70’s.
VLSI Very-large-scale integration IC
Upper interconnect layers on an Intel 80486DX2 microprocessor. The final step in the development process, starting in the 1980s and continuing through the present, was "very large-scale integration" (VLSI). The development started with hundreds of thousands of transistors in the early 1980s, and continues beyond several billion transistors as of 2009.

Multiple developments were required to achieve this increased density. Manufacturers moved to smaller rules and cleaner fabrication, through the use of advance semiconductor equipment. They could make chips with more transistors and maintain adequate yield. The path of process improvements was summarized by the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS). Design tools improved enough to make it practical to finish these designs in a reasonable time. The more energy efficient CMOS replaced NMOS and PMOS, avoiding a prohibitive increase in power consumption.

In 1986 the first one megabit RAM chips were introduced, which contained more than one million transistors. Microprocessor chips passed the million transistor mark in 1989 and the billion transistor mark in 2005. The trend continues largely unabated, with chips introduced in 2007 containing tens of billions of memory transistors.

ULSI, WSI, SOC and 3D-IC
To reflect further growth of the complexity, the term ULSI that stands for "ultra-large-scale integration" was proposed for chips of complexity of more than 1 million transistors.

Wafer-scale integration (WSI) is a system of building very-large integrated circuits that uses an entire silicon wafer to produce few single "super-chip". Through a combination of large size and reduced packaging, WSI could lead to dramatically reduced costs for some systems, notably massively parallel supercomputers. The name is taken from the term Very-Large-Scale Integration, the current state of the art when WSI was being developed.

A system-on-a-chip (SoC or SOC) is an integrated circuit in which all the components needed for a computer or other systems are included on a single chip. The design of such a device can be complex and costly, and building disparate components on a single piece of silicon may compromise the efficiency of some elements. However, these drawbacks are offset by lower manufacturing and assembly costs and by a greatly reduced power budget: because signals among the components are kept on-die, much less power is required.

POP is package on package that is to stack the package on top of another package. The target is to increase the function and minimize the chip size both x and y axis.

On Packaging side, memory Chip is the competitive technology that is to stack up many as 10 chips on top the other on both side of the substrates, whereby, tiny gold wire of diameter 0.008 inch are used to interconnect the chips to the lead of the outer package by using the speed of 20 wires per second provided by the world fastest Gold ball bonder supplied by the major equipment supplier ASM and K & S. and the total package is only 1mm thick. This results that we can have an USB memory stick that can have 32G memory.

While more chips are built on a single chip and is operation in Giga operations in a second, technology is how to do Chip cooling down, the material, the thermal management, and the selection of the substrate matching the chip as not to crack the chip due to temperature rising and mechanical expansion. H how to apply the state of the Art o Cooling system by Air, Fins and Fans, water embedded porous copper material for efficient cooling such as Metaform. When we do Google , the Google server and network will operate and generate certain Kilo of CO2 in the world. As the microprocessor operate and that generate heat, so some one has proposed to install the server in the Polar area.

3D chips are expected to solve a number of problems for chipmakers who are aiming for performance increases in ever-smaller chips. As transistor density rises, the wires connecting them have become both thinner and closer together, resulting in increased resistance and overheating. And that leads to the demand of super accurate Gold ball bonder that connect thousand wires inside the chip here to there. These problems cause signal delays, packaging concern for the chip, limiting the clock speed of central processing units.
A three-dimensional integrated circuit (3D-IC) has two or more layers of active electronic components that are integrated both vertically and horizontally into a single circuit. Communication between layers uses on-die signaling, so power consumption is much lower than in equivalent separate circuits. Judicious use of short vertical wires can substantially reduce overall wire length for faster operation.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is vying with Intel to become the first company to sell three-dimensional chips that boost the density of transistors in a single semiconductor by up to 1,000 times.
TSMC, the world's largest contract chipmaker in the world, could make its first 3D chips commercially available before the end of 2011, according to a person close to the situation who requested anonymity. The timeframe for TSMC matches the end-2011 schedule that Intel has set for the launch of its 3D Tri-Gate chips, which the company expects to be the world's first commercial 3D chip and the most significant advance in chip technology since the development of the chip transistor in the 1948.
With several layers of silicon stacked together, a 3D chip can achieve performance gains of about a third while consuming 50 percent less power. For this reason, 3D chips are particularly well suited to power new generations of mobile devices such as tablets and mobile phones, and to offer more operative hours from the battery cell. Businesses where Intel has so far failed to establish a significant presence.
3D chips look more attractive because of their greater density, it is more difficult to make them because of the testing issues. If you have five stacked dies and one of the dies is bad, you have to scrap the whole thing. The Yield is a challenge!
TSMC is developing so-called 2D chips that replace an organic polymer substrate with silicon to boost transistor density. Communications chipmaker Xilinx has contracted TSMC to make its Virtex-7 field programmable gate array (FPGA) using TSMC's 2D chip technology that puts three chip dies on one silicon substrate. Xilinx said on March 8 that it expects the first samples of the Virtex-7 485T FPGA to be available by August.
TSMC has been working closely with chip packagers and providers of design automation software to help commercialize 3D chip technology.
In April 2007, IBM and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) researchers announced the first versions of 3D chips with support from the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA). The 3D chips combined several layers of silicon using a technique called wafer bonding.
IBM's technique used a silicon base with active wafers layered on top. This technology allowed a processor to be placed on the bottom of the stack with memory or other components layered across the top, resulting in a thousand-fold reduction in connector length. The greater transistor density reduced the distance data has to travel, reducing processing time.
IBM used through-silicon vias (TSVs) to connect stacks of multiple chip components. TSVs allow for more efficient heat dissipation through the stack to cooling systems that improve power efficiency.

The Simple Low Cost Solution to Improve Life time of HP LED (High Power Light Emitting Diode) and CPU of your Note Book Computer

The Temperature of the LED junction is related to the life and reliability performance of a LED, especially Hi Power LED which runs at Hi current at High Power.
A reduction of LED junction temperature for 1 degree C would increase the life time for more than 1,000 hours. If we can reduce the Junction temperature of the LED from 135 deg C down to 120 Degrees, it could possible increase the life time of 19,000 hours
Refer to Lumileds LUXEON Rebel Automotive Specification Datasheet DS58 (09/12/18) 8
Automotive White Short-Term Maximum Rating Estimated Lifetime
350 mA, Tc ~120°C, Tj ~135°C 50,000 hours
350 mA, Tc ~135°C, Tj ~150°C 31,000 hours
There are a few points that we should design for a long reliable LED life time.
The life time is inversely proportional to the operative temperature. The Die bonding process should not create any hot spot, such as undesired void between the die and the substrates.
The using of highly conductive Hi Silver Content Silver epoxy would help to conduct as much as it could heat from the Chip on to the substrates. The Selection of Substrates material, ceramic Substrates, or copper base leadframe material could be possible the best conduction for heat transfer from the chip passing through onto the substrate then through the heat sink into the external world. But the CTE must be matched… for best matching CTE with the LED, ceramic Substrates may be a good way for silver epoxy process or Directly Eutectic process for better reliability.
How to conduct the heat from the substrates into the other bigger heat sink!? OR how to conduct the heat energy form the HP LED to an external heat sink.,
Yes, WE have such solution ,,, Metafoam, a new solution to conduct heat energy form a LED to a heat sink.
The solution developed by Metafoam significantly improves the heat management performance of heat pipes by providing a substitute to the currently used wick structures, especially the sintered copper powder.
By providing an open-cell copper foam wick structure instead of a simple copper powder wick, Metafoam allows for much improved material characteristics as much as 76% more , especially higher permeability which results with faster working fluid pumping speed in the heat pipe which result in faster thermal cycle within the heat pipe, thus enhanced heat load capacity.
How does it work!?
There is a micron porous whole material which was made from Copper, a very good heat conductor that fill up the copper pipe, a few drop of water that run and carries the heat from one end into other efficiently.
This can be used as the heat sink for the high beam head lamp for the Audi A8, that is a way to conduct the heat energy from the substrate of the HP LED into the main chassis of the Lamp cover. Cooling the LED bar of Back Light Unit of LCD TV. The heat Sink for those HP LEDs in the Street Lamp.
This kind of heat sink is being intensively tested with heat pipe manufacturers and major computer brands. Proven to be a reliable solution for cooling the Micro-Processor unit.
And that ensures the operation of the CPU would be trouble free! Price is reasonably low.
Visit at Metaform website www.metafoam.com for more.

HK Snob

Samsung Galaxy Tab advance version

We have been hearing Apple Iphone and Ipad are migrating into 4g for quite some time. That lento would cause the Korea Competitor to come into the market.
Samsung Electronics is going to launch the Android version Tablet PC with high speed 4G networking technology in July.
This is Samsung Galaxy Tab advance version, one is having 22,6mm screen and one is for 25.6mm. Equipped with 2MP camera, Android Honeycomb OS, dual core Processor, USD$499 to USD$599. Samsung is now the world second largest handphone manufacturer. The Samsung Speaker said: this Galaxy Tab has a bigger memory size, faster download speed... This is a trend for moving into 4G, likely other electronics giant will follow.

HK Snob

Semiconductor Show at Singapore 11-13 May 2011

Held in Suntec City of Singapore 11-13 May, Singapore semicon show could be classified the 2^nd largest show after Shanghai, Third my be Semicon West, If you throw a bowling ball along the concourse, bet that no one would be hit, especially the last day.

As usual, most of the major equipment suppliers are participating as to tell that they are still active, No surprise, no new product, as expected as Semicon equipment has been a bloodshed warfield for the last decades; through A & M, 10 companies became three companies.., lesser players would invest going into this competitive business. Leaving the Biggest who can barely make a living by struggling for survival. The end users are the ultimate benificiates as what they pay for would be having tons of technology and billions of mini transistors or Flip Flops embedded. Who knows that there have been walking through a very long semiconductor manufacturing process, and thousands of Process Control points!
From the major exhibitors, from what we see ASM has launched the Heavy Aluminum wire bonder, and the new generation AD838L which is designed for Ceramic substrates base LED die bonding, with Accuracy of +/-20 micron at CpK 1.67, carrier-less design, global 3 or 4 points substrate PRS backlight alignment to match with your ASM or other Silicone liquid lens molding systems at the down stream process. Besides, it has full protection for any damages in the 100mm (4 Inch) Wide Ceramic Substrate, a super tool for your precision die bonding. Twin Eagle twin head gold ball wire bonder with foot print of 1.3X, UPH of 1.8K with competitive price comparing with a Single headed wire bonder... Both Copper and gold ready.

I am expecting the semicon show will be down sizing in scale as most of the focus of the new Semicon manufacturing expansion will be in China. So people will put more investment on Shanghai Semicon Show.
HK Snob

Texas Instruments to Acqure National Semiconductor

TI to acquire National Semiconductor Combination to strengthen analog portfolio and customer support Texas Instruments has signed a definitive agreement to purchase National Semiconductor in an all-cash transaction of about $6.5 billion. This merger will unite two industry leaders who have a common commitment to solving your analog needs. Both companies will operate independently pending close of the acquisition which is expected to take six to nine months. National's 12,000 products plus TI's 30,000 means more performance, power and packaging options when selecting the right ICs for your application. HK Snob

Japan Quake Aftermath

We Predicts Quake's Impact on Electronics Will Be Limited March 11 Japan earthquake and tsunami disasters will shave 1.5% from global GDP in 2011 and contribute to a slight softening in the semiconductor and electronics market. These short-term effects will be limited, however, and the market should quickly recover. The Japan disaster will help reduce worldwide GDP growth to approximately 3.4 % this year, compared with an earlier estimation of a 3.9% expansion. This will reduce the global economy by about $260 billion, assuming the Japanese economy declined by 5.2% in 2011. Taking the pessimistic situation of a 3.4% worldwide GDP growth rate in 2011 (as compared to our current forecast of 3.6% growth), and the associated $260 billion negative impact on worldwide GDP, and multiplying it by 2.2% yields an electronic systems sales loss of $5.7 billion. Subtracting $5.7 billion from current 2011 electronic system sales forecast of $1,348 billion would put electronic system sales at about $1,342 billion for this year, an 8.5% increase over 2010 compared to our current forecast of 9%. The forecasts may represent the best short-term outlook for the industry and the worldwide economy, assuming oil prices stay relatively stable at around $100 per barrel. We believe even a worst case scenario where the economy is more heavily affected would still not dramatically Ref. IC Insights HK Snob

Japan Quake Aftermath

March 11, 2011 14:49: Eastern Pacific coast earthquakes occurred

Epicenter : 373km (NE) of Tokyo, underground 24.4Km point

Magnitude : Earthquake close to 9 in the Richter scale occurred  (The largest earthquake ever in Japan, the fifth earthquake on Earth,

Summary of Damage Regions

East coast of Tohoku regions-Aomori, Iwate, Miyagi, Fukushima prefecture- and east coast of Kanto region -Ibaraki and Chiba prefecture were damaged directly (by earthquake and tsunami).

So far over 7,000 lives were lost, over 12000 person unfound, and 300,000 homeless

The loss of communication infrastructure (NTT Docomo, etc.), nuclear power plants, etc.  in the regions and all industrial manufacturing plants shutdown (temporary or provisional), disruptions occurred.

It appears that some infrastructures of the east coast of Tohoku region -Yamagata and Niigata Prefecture- were affected.

Miyagi Prefecture

- Sendai Airport flooding

- Costal towns damage by 10m tsunami

- Large-scale loss of life

- Onagawa nuclear plant , partly fire, partly driving ban

- Sony's 6 factories shutdown (4 factories in Miyagi, 2 factories in Fukushima, Tagajo chemical components (Sony Chemicals) 1st floor flooded

- Murata Manufacturing shutdown (Miyagi and Tochigi Prefecture)

- JX Nippon Oil Factory damage

- Toyota Motor, factory shutdown

Fukushima Prefecture

- Fukushima 1,2,3,4 nuclear plants shutdown and unstable (radioactive spill concern continued)

- Nissan Motor, 6 factories shutdown

- Panasonic factory disruption (Fukuyama Prefecture factory, Sendai factory in Miyagi Prefecture included)

Aomori Prefecture

- Power supply to 4.4 million households stopped

- Pioneer, factory damage (Aomori, Yamagata Prefecture)

- Renesas, factory shutdown

Chiba Prefecture

- JFE Holdings, steel factory fire

- Cosmo Oil, factory fire

Ibaraki Prefecture

-  JSR, factory production stop

- Tokyo Gas, gas supply stop

- Sumitomo Metal Industries, smelting furnace temporary stop

- Daikin Industries,  production stop

- Murata factory was destroyed and his component short ship after the Ipad Production in Foxconn China

Sharp LCD Panel factory shout down and affecting 20% world LCD panel output.

Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Inc. (MGC), Monday that two of its facilities, one in Fukushima prefecture and one in Ibaraki prefecture, shut down due to partial damage to equipment and buildings, Its major product bismaleimide triazine resin, an epoxy resin used in chip making is almost entirely produced by MGC

This shortage of BT would most impact programmable logic vendors Xilinx Inc. and Altera Corp., as well as Qualcomm Inc.  

Sanyo, Sharp and Panasonic have already suspended operations at several of their plants. The brand new multibillion dollar Sharp LED display plant in Sakai, which has been designed to handle earthquakes automatically shut down when the first earthquake, tremor was detected.

Sanyo, Sharp and Panasonic have already suspended operations at several of their plants. The brand new multibillion dollar Sharp LED display plant in Sakai, which has been designed to handle earthquakes automatically shut down when the first earthquake, tremor was detected.

The consequence is many sectors of the Japanese factories would be affected and it may take a few month 3-9 months to resume normal operation.

We foresee that this will force them to think a head seriously for overseas factory volume implementation. They will keep some of their high technology products manufacturing overseas whereas Japan used to keep them locally.

There will be more open opportunity for other overseas countries to gain more exposure for working with Japan to build more Hi end Electrnics and semiconductor products. Whereas more jelly bean products are loaded to overseas.

More Investor will shift more portion of their investment into Korean Electronics giants like Samsung and LG!

HK Snob

Semiconductor material Supplier Chain breakdown After Japan Quake

One of the potential problems for the semiconductor industry resulting from supply disruptions in the wake of last week's Japan earthquake could be shortages of bismaleimide triazine resin, an epoxy resin used in chip making. The resin is almost entirely produced by Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Inc. (MGC), Monday that two of its facilities, one in Fukushima prefecture and one in Ibaraki prefecture, shut down due to partial damage to equipment and buildings. The rolling blackouts currently in force in the region may affect future MGC operations, including operating at sites that were not damaged in the quake.

This shortage of BT would most impact programmable logic vendors Xilinx Inc. and Altera Corp., as well as Qualcomm Inc.  

Hitachi Chemical Co. Ltd. makes an alternative resin—MCL-E-679—that has been qualified by a few suppliers, but she said she has not been able to verify whether the production of that material was impacted by the quake. Several Hitachi manufacturing sites were damaged in the quake and remain idle. 

Matsumoto noted that MediaTek Inc. does not use BT in its packages, but that Spreadtrum Communications Co. Ltd. does. Matsumoto said Texas Instruments Inc. uses BT in its packages, but that since TI's Miho fab was damaged in the quake and won't return to full production until at least July, the BT issue should be resolved before it becomes a problem for TI.

Amkor Technology Inc. manufacturing facility in Kitakami, Japan, located about 260 miles northeast of Tokyo, has suffered relatively minor damage. The Kitakami facility is currently closed due to power supply interruptions and plans are underway to restore production capabilities at the site when power, gas and water supplies, and transportation systems are stabilized. 

The Kitakami facility is Amkor’s smallest operation in both units and revenue, generating approximately $10 million to $11 million of monthly sales prior to the earthquake. The Kitakami facility only provides services to a few Japan-based customers.  

Amkor is a major supplier of semiconductors, silicon wafers, specialty chemicals, substrates, equipment and other supplies to the electronics industry, and the industry is currently evaluating the potential effect of the earthquake on the overall supply chain for electronics. Since the earthquake, we have been in close communication with our customers, suppliers and OEMs to analyze the situation and evaluate alternative sources of supply where appropriate. Like many companies in the semiconductor industry supply chain, we operate with multiple suppliers from different geographic regions. This diversification is intended to help mitigate any potential disruptions from events such as these. However, it is too early to comment on the broader impact the earthquake may have on the electronics industry and our business and operations.'' 

Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc. (ASE) is also obtaining ''molding compound'' from Korea and China. This was after its suppliers in Japan were impacted by the quake.

Sources: Semiconductor packaging News.

HK Snob

Electronics Component Market after Japan Quake

In spite of the 9.0-magnitiute Japan earthquake and the ensuing devastating tsunami striking Japan on March 11, The Component supply chain has been serious disturbed in Japan. This include the NAND Rams that price has been surged up more than 7% since last Friday. Many of the components of the certain electronics devices are still made in Japan. There is a immediately need for Japan to re-construct and well plan their suppliers for souring the right component for their products, beside, the rise of Japanese Yen exchange would force to speed up their oversea production scale up plan. Counties like Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia and China will be the ones to be beneficiated by these move.

However on the other side, Japanese and most of the major Asian Cities would speed less on Electronics products, computer, iPad2, Note book in coming 2-3 quarters.

Some good news is Chairman Morris Chang of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) yesterday said his firm’s goal of achieving a 20% sales growth, denominated in the U.S. dollar, will remain unchanged.

Overall, people tends to spend less on luxury goods, electronics hand held product as such handphone, GPS systems, and RAM, LED, LED, IC CPU, Capacitors, RAMs and  Panel will be rising their price in the coming 6-9 months.

HK Snob

Japan after Quake

Japan has the world No. 1largest LED manufacturing Plant Nichia account for 18% of World LED production as the 2010 revenue data told us.

Japan accounts world’s 20% global Semiconductor Production.

Company Headquarters in Japan generated 63.3B in microchips revenues; representing 20.8% of the world wide market.

Japan Produced 10% of world’s DRAM in 2010.

Toshiba accounts 35% of global NAND flash products in terms of Revenues 2010.

Japan Headquarters companies are world No. 3 in Semiconductor production.

Japan is 14% of world total LCD TV panel Production.

More impact to Japan is that the component on the TV LCD Panel such as the Glass, Colour filter , polarizer , CCFL and LED are mostly made in Japan.

Sharp partly shut down their panel manufacturing for LCD TV... and Murata had shut down some of the component manufacturing which would affect the manufacturing at Foxconn for Ipad2!

There are a lot of electronics modules for Automobile is made in Japan and a lot are for export.

Many of the Automobile like Nissan, Toyota, Mazda and Honda has stopped some of their manufacturing due to shortage of Module supplied by their OEMs which were more or less damaged in the Tsunami.

Nissan Stopped Production and loss shipment of 23,000 cars, whereas Toyota for 40,000 cars, Honda for 16,600 cars a day, that is $14M loss a day just for Honda.

Japanese will not spend money on Luxury goods anymore, or at least less significantly comparing with last week and before.

For those Luxury Goods such as watches Rolex, Patek Philippe, IWC , Japan is one of the biggest market after Hong Kong. I think Japan is the world 2nd largest Export Country after Hong Kong.

Well, I find that these are Japan’s Market share on these big European luxury Brands.

Hermes 21%, Bvlgari 19%, Luis Vitton 8.8%, Coach 36%, Tiffany 19%, Gallaway 18%....

So we can see that these luxury good market will drop significantly for at least I year, they may switch to export more to other Countries like China and Hong Kong in Asia.

Gold may be the item that we can speculate that it can reach $1,700 an ounce soon.

This will trigger world threat in the stock market, especially the Libya situation is still tense and had no way to see when Col. Kaddafi would step down, Hong Kong Index Will drop in the coming weeks… down to 21,000 points…

More important point is more nuclear threat happens in Japan and Most of the people would flee to distant prefecture in Japan or to overseas countries such as Hong Kong, Singapore and Philippines.

I am thinking that it would be a great impact to Japan and  World’s Economy and it may take at least 12 months to recover… Provided there is no more serious Earth Quake happens anymore.

Further more, it triggers more safety measurement for plan of Nuclear Plant building,

It forces Japan Company to diversify their manufacturing facilities in overseas countries such as the Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia.

In Short the Stock In Tokyo, Singapore and Hong Kong will keep on falling. But this is only over-sensitiveness of the investors, in mid term starting August, the stock like iron ore, cement and steel in China will have tremendous momentum to gain as to support Japan on re-construction.

The foreign companies would not consider to put all egg in one bucket and to consider in future the headquarters not in Japan... may be better in Hong Kong or Singapore.

HK Snob

Semiconductor Capex Growth 20% in 2011

SEMI’s internal analysis of semiconductor manufacturers’ capital expenditure (capex) announcements used to update the fab. database predicts that total semiconductor capex will grow between 15 and 20% in 2011.  Attached Table compares investments on fab equipment and construction, and how those rates compare to the record high levels set in 2007.
We can see that there may be a drive for demand of End Of Line manufacturing equipment in 2011 that may happen in Q2.
We can see Discrete is rising from 4% to 7% in 2011 vs 2010
MPU and Logic rises from 16% to 23% in 2011  Vs 2010
Memory reduces from 36% from 645 in 2011.

Slow Down for LED Fabs
The largest segment for new fabs is the LED industry, with wafer sizes of 2-inch and 4-inch. Significantly fewer new LED fabs will begin construction in 2011 and 2012. SEMI’s World Fab. report lists 24 new LED fabs beginning construction in 2010, but only five new LED fab. projects are likely in 2011.  
This slowdown may be explained by recognition that in the near-term the industry has added too much capacity, coupled by changes to government subsidies in China.  For example, historically local governments in China supported the domestic LED industry with hefty subsidies.  Companies received up to 8-10M RMB for each MOCVD reactor. Some of these subsidies will expire this year, and others are expected to change.
On the other hand, LED per TV reduces dramatically with Disruptive Technology of LED. From Average 1000 LED in 2009 to 200 LED 2011. That was 5 times reduction rate.

We can see that IC will be experiencing a steady growth this year comparing with Last year with more significantly in Discrete Area. Were as LED will be slow down in the growth comparing with 2010.

PS
Data source  Source: SEMI World Fab Database Reports (February 25, 2011)

HK Snob

Automotive IC Market Would Expect to Grow 12% in 2011

According to the latest IC Market Drivers report, global shipments of new cars are expected to rise almost 5% in 2011 to 55.8 million units. Meanwhile, sales of new cars in China outpaced new car shipments in the U.S. by 50% in 2010; a trend that is expected to continue through 2015.

The new demand on Automotive markets in China, emerging Southern America along with recovering U.S. These new Automobile shipments, increased on-board-electronics would boost automotive IC sales up to as much as 12% in 2011, to estimated $17 billion.

This follows a 45% increase in automotive IC Sales in 2010, which halted a two year slide in this IC sector.

Automobiles are a fertile environment to implement new and innovative electronic systems and ICs. Many of these systems are competitive selling points for automakers. Growth drivers for ICs over the next several years include active safety and telematics systems, communications and entertainment convergence, and "green" initiatives such as energy savings and reduced emissions. These technologies are increasingly available as standard equipment on new cars across all price ranges.

In the area of safety and telematics, systems such as self parking, active cruise control, lane departure warning systems, road tracking system, Gear tooth sensor, speed sensor, temperature sensor, air bag sensor,  fuel injection control sensor, electronic stability control--ESC, etc…have been widely implemented in modern cars.

New trend for Luxury car would go for as many as 12 air bag and air belts that would incur a lot of additional electronics and control.

There is not much innovative changes in the basic engine design, the Hybrid car is still in very early stage of penetration, all it take at least 10 more years to see a reasonably number of cars running on road, starting in the congested cities of Asia, Europe and America.  In fact, relatively stable gasoline prices led to a decline in hybrid vehicles sales in 2010. Recent Middle East event would force for a rise of Gasoline price.  And urge for an early Hybrid Automotive market development. Shipments of hybrid and electric vehicles are forecast to increase a modest 5% in 2011.

However the electronics on board an automotive would becomes sophisticated.  There are at least 350 LEDs as an average compact car. Full LED head lamps is not a sales gadget for Luxury car, but for a better outlook design, power saving, long life time, faster response.  This involves a lot of associated electronics, control modules required including LED driving IC, dimming control IC, Switching mode control ICs for the power converter, and light control multiplex ICs.

Many of these systems will soon be required for all new cars sold in the U.S. An ESC system typically consists of three sensors--a gyroscope, an accelerometer, and a pressure sensor--all of which can be made using a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) process.

Automakers are testing systems that will allow smartphones to dock with a large display on the car's centre console allowing the driver to access the Internet, listen to his or her stored favourite music, and send text messages through a large, onboard touch-screen rather than using the phone itself, and essentially replacing radio/CD/nav systems on cars sold today. On board GPS is a standard accessory on a luxury car.

Through 2014, the automotive IC market is forecast to grow to $21 billion, representing an average annual increase of 14% per year from 2009 to 2014. That growth rate tops the IC growth rate in all other system markets including computer (12%), communications (8%), and consumer (10%) systems, and the total worldwide IC market (10%) over the same time frame.

In Short, the ICs demand for Automotive would increase 12% in 2011.

HK Snob

Intel Enters the Smart Phone Processor market

According to Paul Otellini, CEO of Intel, tablets and smartphones will live alongside PCs, and this will allow them to ship even more processors than the hundreds of millions it currently ships.  As he sees the emergence of the smartphone and tablet device categories as an opportunity for Intel and not a challenge to its commanding lead in the CPU market "We don't see an environment where one machines satisfies all needs. At least for the next four to five years, we're likely to see multiple devices and multiple form factors simply because people want to do multiple things," Otellini said. 

Otellini said during a keynote at Mobile World Congress that a number of smartphone models would be launched this year using Intel’s processors. The company seems very optimistic about its upcoming smartphone core, dubbed Medfield, but so far remains tight-lipped on possible partners or any further information besides saying that it is a “exciting" moment for them. 

Intel has been virtually absent from the fast growing smartphone market so far, but the company is hoping to change that with its upcoming Medfield chips, which are supposedly posed to outclass ARM in processing and power efficiency. The company will have to prove its bold claims with actual products, and with ARM currently holding close to 90% of the mobile market through licensing agreements, convincing hardware manufacturers to embrace Medfield won't be easy.

HK Snob

Apple New Iphone5 and Iphone Mini

There are so many rumour about the new product from Apple.
After almost 4 years, Apple shall launch a high end Iphone5 and Iphone Mini in July 2011.

Iphone5
4G
A new, sleeker body design, thin shiny glass back piece - 9.0 mm thick.

Face Recognition Security

Face Time (Video Chat) access on 3G AND 4G

Custom SMS tones

Custom E-mail alerts with ability to assign different tones to each email address

OLED Display to save more juice

Wireless sync with iTunes

32G and 64G of built in memory

14 hours talk time on 3G and 7 hours on 4G. Standby 500 hours.

Hi Definition audio.

Messaging indicator light.

True GPS built in.

Low Cost Iphone Mini
Apple hopes the low-cost device would help rival the success of Google Android, which as well as targeting the high-end smartphone market.
Mini will be around a two thirds of the size of the existing iPhone and does not feature a 'home' key. It is likely to cost around $199.00 in the US.
16G memory
An "universal" SIM that allows users to switch between networks without having to remove on SIM and insert another.

It is likely to be made available on a Pay As You Go (PAYG) basis rather than signing any contracts.
Exact Model name yet to released, no way to see the picture of the Phone design!
Let's wait for some one to lose the Prototype Iphone in a bar or restaurant!

HK Snob

The Root of Silicon Valley

This is a chart that was displayed in Fairchild Company. From this picture., you can see that the bunch of the largest Semiconductor houses are related each other with the big shots Fairchild, National Semiconductor, Intel and AMD…Fairchild comes NS, and Intel…that is important to the whole semiconductor food chain.
 So far Fairchild is the oldest Semiconductor house, and Fairchild is the largest Power Device manufacturer insofar.
HK Snob

Together No. 1, SIPLACE Team is Now ASM Assembly Automation Systems

On January 7, the former Siemens subsidiary SIPLACE officially became a part of ASM Pacific Technology. Under the new name ASM Assembly Systems. 

The announcement of the SIPLACE sale in the summer of 2010 made it sound as if the unwanted stepchild of Siemens is becoming the new member of the family that ASM Pacific Technology was looking for.

We would think that this merge is a nice analogy, with a kernel of truth. Siemens indeed had not considered its placement machine business to be part of its core activities for quite some time.

In ASMPT they found an industrial investor who is intimately familiar with the extremely dynamic and cyclical electronics industry and is obviously very comfortable in this environment. Both, were prepared for this transfer, both mentally and by restructuring themselves and adopting a very lean and flexible global cluster organization. 

The management and the employees of SIPLACE and ASMPT place similar emphasis on innovation, engineering exellence and quality. In short they fit well together, as has become even more apparent over the last very hectic and active months. They are looking to the future with a great deal of enthusiasm and confidence.

ASMPT has advanced in past decade and since 2002 became a World No.1 supplier of machines and systems in the chip assembly, wire bonding and packaging fields while these markets were developing. In the meantime, the entire electronics production field has evolved into a mature and highly competitive warfield. Entering into adjacent markets such as SMT placement from nowhere and only with their own resources would not be advisable. That's why the purchase of SIPLACE makes so much strategic sense for ASMPT.

In the future, the back-end processes being served by ASM’s machines will increasingly merge with the SMT placement processes – the success of SIPLACE CA with its ability to place bare dies and flip-chips directly from the wafer is a prime indicator of this trend. At the same time, both ASMPT and SIPLACE are better positioned for this development than their competitors.

Customers want efficient solutions that require experience and skills in both the back-end and front-end segments of electronics production. ASM and SIPLACE will be able to offer these in the future.

The two companies also complement each other in their regional focus. ASMPT has most of its customers in Asian markets, while SIPLACE contributes its market leadership in Europe, the Americas and with global key accounts.

When managers talk about synergies in connection with a merger or acquisition, they usually mean saving costs by eliminating redundancies. With their two companies it’s different: the acquisition of SIPLACE focuses on generating growth for both companies. Both of them want to move full speed ahead.

We would expect that the new team would be leading the world in supplying World class equipment for this Electronics Assembly in meeting the demand of the fast growing consumer electronics, Automobile, Medical and lighting  industries.

HK Snob