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1. Samsung grab wafer foundry market growth, competition, suspicion of strength;
According to Korean media BusinessKorea reported on the 20th, research institute TrendForece estimated that this year's Samsung foundry sector revenue rose only 2.7% to 4.398 billion US dollars, an increase of less than 7.1% of the industry average, More behind TSMC and Global Core (GlobalFoundries, formerly known as Ge Luo Fangde) growth of 8% from the market share point of view, this year is expected to TSMC accounted for 55.9%, cell core is 9.4%, UMC is 8.5%. Samsung ranked Fourth, the city accounted for only 7.7%.
According to the report, customer orders have not been increased despite Samsung's 10-nanometer manufacturing process ahead of TSMC, Roh Keun-chang, director of Hyundai Investment & Securities, said that foundry semiconductors are larger than memories , Customers focus on stable and reliable products, more than the process of miniaturization.This also means that customers will not unconditionally use a new process.
Not only that, some experts pointed out that Samsung developed the process more suitable for memory, less suitable for foundry.Microelectronics industry pointed out that Samsung lack of Know-how, it is difficult according to customer requirements, with the least funding to develop the most suitable process to Samsung is less competitive with the same specs, and both TSMC and grid cell use the price as a weapon against Samsung.
In May of this year, Samsung Electronics independent foundry foundry, and release to enter this market, the target when the market second brother in the foundry business, a Samsung official pointed out that in 2017 Samsung will be on behalf of the semiconductor After independent business, it has been expanding global marketing activities to attract international customers .In particular, with the needs of low-end chips in various industries under the rapid growth of foundry business was Samsung as another new business growth Engine.Therefore, Samsung also hopes to strengthen investment from the future, from the current leading TSMC to obtain the relative advantage.
The Korea Herald reported that the data released by the European Commission on Monday showed that Samsung Electronics ranked fourth in research and development in 2016 among the 2,500 major companies in the world between 2016 and 2017. The EU's 2017 EU Industry The R & D investment scoreboard shows that Samsung Electronics invested a total of 12.2 billion euros (about 14.3 billion U.S. dollars) in research and development projects during this period.
2. Samsung DRAM 'dominant' hard to shake! Has developed the world's smallest DRAM memory chips;
Set micro-grid comprehensive report, following the Samsung in February 2016 using the first generation of 10nm process technology to produce 8GbDDR4 chip, Samsung Electronics announced today that it has begun to produce 8Gb DDR4 chip through the second generation of 10nm process.According to Reuters Reported that Samsung's 8Gb DDR4 chip is the world's smallest DRAM chip.
It is reported that, compared with the first generation of 10nm process, Samsung's second-generation 10nm process capacity increased by 30%, helping companies meet the global customer soaring DRAM chip demand.In addition, the second generation 10nm chip not only than the first generation 10% faster, while reducing power consumption by 15%.
Samsung said the new 8Gb DDR4 chip has doubled in capacity, speed and power efficiency compared with the 4Gb DDR3 chip manufactured in 20nm process in 2012. Samsung hopes to further develop its 10nm DRAM chip by digging into servers and moving And graphics chip market, to further enhance the overall competitiveness.
At the same time, Samsung also said it will shift most of its current DRAM chip production capacity to 10nm chips in 2018.
For a long time, the DRAM industry has been dominated by the top three. South Korea's Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and Micron Technology in the United States have the absolute right to speak in this area, the three seats are relatively fixed. The third quarter of 2017 data show that these three companies Of the market share of revenue were 45.8%, 28.7% and 21.0% respectively, a total of 90% ho take.
In particular, Samsung, which surpassed Japan's NEC as the world's largest manufacturer of DRAM memory in 1992, has dominated the top spot for 25 years, and Samsung's business in 2017 is also unusually brisk and arguably, the semiconductor business is operating profit The main contributor.
Samsung's latest earnings report shows that Samsung's third-quarter profit doubled to 84.2 billion yuan, an incredible 178.9% year-on-year record, setting a record high, of which benefit from the global chip prices, the semiconductor sector in the third quarter operating profit of 9.96 Trillion won (about 59.889 billion yuan), accounting for nearly 69% of the overall operating profit.
Set of micro-mesh Previously reported since the second quarter of last year, DRAM (including PC memory, mobile memory, server memory) industry revenue soared all quarter refresh sales record.In addition, according to Taiwan DRAM Relevant firms revealed that Samsung, Hynix one after another to inform the first quarter of next year to raise DRAM prices 3% -5%.
According to Gartner's analysis, from the increase in capacity and market demand forecast, DRAM products will still be tight in the first half of next year, and the supply and demand will be balanced or even reversed in the second half of the year, but the local market may see a drop in the first quarter.
From the current situation, Samsung, Hynix began to take action to deal with as Samsung announced plans to set up factories in Pyeongtaek to expand DRAM production capacity, SK hynix also announced that it will set up factories in Wuxi to expand DRAM production capacity, expansion plans of major manufacturers Is likely to ease the rising trend.
Although Samsung is currently releasing information on expansion of DRAM capacity, it does not disclose plans for expansion, but there are two possibilities in the future from Samsung's strategy. The first is that the expanded production capacity is enough to fill the current demand gap. Ease the current round of price increases; secondly, plan to expand more capacity, then by the second half of next year, PC memory prices will show a downward trend.
At the end of October this year, Samsung Electronics announced the reorganization of its leadership and said it would maintain the current three-member co-CEO management structure, in which Samsung Semiconductor Kim Jin-nam, Samsung Electronics CEO and Vice Chairman of the right to replace the right-hyun Samsung said the company does not seek immediate expansion of chip shipments, but will invest to maintain long-term market position.
3. Server, artificial intelligence, automatic driving will continue to promote DRAM gains;
Set micro-grid comprehensive report, Micron announced on the 19th 2018 fiscal year (from September 1, 2017 onwards) a quarterly earnings, a quarter of 6.8 billion US dollars by the end of November, an annual increase of 71% (quarter increase of 10.8%). Interest rates rose from 50.7% to 55.1%, mainly due to higher DRAM and NAND flash memory prices thanks to Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said, including mobile, server and SSD hard drive applications have achieved double-digit revenue growth in the second quarter Revenue is expected to reach 68 ~ 72 billion US dollars.
In an interview, Sanjay Mehrotra said the server market will remain the biggest source of growth for years to come, and the current small pilotless will be an additional area of rapid growth that complements the strong demand from the cloud. Recent questions about the nature of the cyclical nature of the DRAM industry have changed, he said. The drivers of current demand include data centers, cloud computing, GPUs, machine learning, etc., which are very different from the past, and the need for artificial intelligence is just around the corner At first it was just the tip of the iceberg that Micron's memory and storage solutions are helping to drive disruptive trends such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and autopilot.
According to a study conducted by DRAMeXchange, due to industrial restructuring, the penetration rate of smart terminal devices has increased. In recent years, most of the services have been integrated through servers. In particular, services that require large amounts of data for computing and training , And even virtualization platforms and cloud storage drives demand for servers increasing. Among them, the server demand in the data center will become the key to the overall server market shipment growth. Global server shipments are expected to grow by 5.53% in 2018.
So DRAM rally is expected to continue fermentation.Samsung will be in the first quarter of 2018 prices by 3% to 5%, while another memory maker SK hynix will also be about 5% .In addition, Some supply chains revealed that the price in the second quarter of 2018 will not be optimistic and the price will continue to rise more than 5% .If the demand is too strong, the DRAM price of this wave will appear from the second half of 2016 to the quarterly Up trend.If coupled with the first quarter of 2018 continued price increases, the price has been rising for seven consecutive quarters, called the longest DRAM long history of the market.
In addition, industry insiders also pointed out that the reason for this wave of DRAM in short supply, in addition to the instantaneous increase in demand from artificial intelligence, automotive, cloud server, Internet of Things, notebook computers and mobile devices, but the main memory plant is more focused on the development of 3D NAND flash memory , Compressing DRAM production capacity. Given the huge increase in demand and the limited increase of supply, the market supply and demand are seriously unbalanced.
Li Peiyan, general manager of South Asia Branch, said data center servers will replace smartphones as the strongest sources of growth momentum in the DRAM industry this year, said Li Peiying. In the next few years, driven by AI applications such as smart cars, data center servers will become the most demand-driven DRAM Important growth power locomotive.
Intel CEO Brian Krzanich said in an internal memorandum addressed to employees on the 19th that data is becoming the most valuable asset for any business, which is why Intel's growth strategy focuses on data-dependent memory, FPGA chips, Internet of Things, AI, Driving the market and other reasons.
4.3D sensing Wei 2018 mainstream III-5 semiconductor congratulation celebrate;
As the Apple iPhone X started the first shot of 3D sensing applications, the Android camp system hopes to follow up the introduction of 3D sensing in high-end flagship models. The surface-mount laser VCSEL plays a key role in the dot-matrix projector Components, especially for the third generation and other compound semiconductor wafer manufacturing process, the leading steady Mao began this year a small amount of related operations from the VCSEL components, accounting for about 1 percent. Familiar with the supply system industry revealed that in 2018, Apple will be fully imported into 3D Sensing, but also have the opportunity to launch a cheaper version of the iPhone X product, 3D sensing optical components market opportunities, is just about to start.With the VCSEL components fame, making the Taiwan-based compound semiconductor group gearing up, each industry are looking forward to grasp The next big 3D opportunities for 3D sensing opportunities, including the new epitaxial plant stable photoelectric Mao Optoelectronics, the market estimates with the production capacity sprang, 2018 with MOCVD process capacity of the new optical production is expected to have a clear take-off, Lei chip LED lighting industry, including leading enterprises, such as joint Yaguang have been named, 3D sensing can be said that these manufacturers bring no small expectations .Taiwan 35 family of semiconductors optimistic about the future 3D sense , Automotive, 5G and other applications, the medium to long term outlook are optimistic.Li Jianliang photo In addition, Acer Jie indirectly cut into the Austrian Microelectronics (AMS) supply chain, AMS in smart handheld devices, automotive electronics and other sensors deep plowing in the field , On the market for the follow-up performance of AcerJieke also look forward to.JingJiKe revenue in November is about NT $ 118 million, a 7.4% increase, a decrease of 1.5%, it is understood, VCSEL optical components revenue proportion of about low bit However, AcerJieke has cut into the Android mobile phone camp, including the mainland first-line maker Huawei mobile phone new products will also be imported into the 3D sensing identification function, the first half of 2018 MWC exhibition to 3D sensing as the main function of the new phone The army will be the first test cry .3D sensing VCSEL components worth soaring, but the supply system industry, said Apple will always find more suppliers, to avoid relying too much on a single source, it is rumored that the market, the current technology and production Lumemtum, the US-based laser diode maker with slightly better lead, is still the only supplier for the time being, but there are rumors that Apple is actively looking for a second supplier for the U.S.-based Finisar. Resulting in the stock price of Finisar and Lumemtum fluctuated from time to time, but in the end Apple, Finisar did not confirm that Apple will invest in Finisar's assertion .Taxi compound semiconductor community is not only stable Mao, brand new, AcerJieke, MBE method to establish the process Characteristics of Intel Lei, and Finisar have a good relationship of cooperation, VCSEL has long been the focus of the layout of the area.It is understood that the Intellay gallium arsenic chips accounted for more than 5 percent of the proportion, it has been heard into a number of mainland mobile phone products Supply system, another key VCSEL application is in the automotive electronics, compound semiconductor industry believes that the advanced driving assistance system (ADAS) maturity is now ongoing, the British Terre has more in the car collision radar has inked. Compound semiconductor industry Said gallium arsenide epitaxial wafers are mainly used in communication devices such as microwave and high frequency communications, including radar, base station, GPS, and satellite markets, such as collision avoidance radar and IoT industrial applications of automobile crash safety systems, VCSEL epitaxial products can be imported.In addition to mobile phones, automotive and other terminal products, the 5G communications generation gradually entered the infrastructure construction period, large, medium and small base stations Using a compound semiconductor chip, the Taiwan-based III-V semiconductor industry for 2018, 2019 all the way to 2020, basically in the long term remains cautiously optimistic. DIGITIMES
5. Qualcomm research and development NanoRings technology is expected to solve the capacitor problem in 7nm process
At the moment, making advanced chips is inseparable from the transistor, the core of which lies in the vertical gate silicon, the principle is that when the device is switched on, the current will pass through the site, and then let the transistor up and running.But the consensus in the industry that this design is not May go on forever, a trick to fight the world, the day will always come to an end IBM began to explore new designs and named it Nanosheets, may come into operation in the next few years, while Qualcomm seems to have a different idea.
Applied Meterials, Synopsys, Qualcomm, a leading developer in the chip manufacturing industry, simulated and analyzed design alternatives for five next-generation technologies. The core issues discussed were the independence of transistors and complete logic gates (including individual transistors) What is the difference in performance.
The result was that the final winner was not just one of the five candidates, but a new design by Qualcomm engineers called NanoRings.
'The equipment engineer or process engineer just optimizes some very limited features,' explains SCSong, chief engineer at QUALCOMM, Inc. In the device dimension, for example, the emphasis is on the gate of a transistor that works well Controlling the passage of current through it, however, other aspects became more important when converted into a complete logic gate rather than a single transistor.It is worth noting that Song and his team found that the device's parasitic capacitance - at The conversion process is lost due to unexpected capacitor structures - the real issue.
That's why Qualcomm chose nanosheets instead of IBM Nanosheets, which Qualcomm calls Nanoslabs. Looking from the side, Nanoslabs looks like a bunch of two or three rectangular silicon plates, each one The plate is surrounded by a high-k dielectric and a metal gate, which generates an electric field in the silicon to flow the current.
With the gate electrode completely surrounding each of the silicon plates, the current flow can be well controlled, but parasitic capacitance is also introduced because the structure between silicon, insulator, metal, insulator, and silicon is essentially a pair of capacitors It is noted that Nanorings addresses this problem by changing the shape of the silicon and does not completely fill the gaps between the metal plates. Baking the equipment in hydrogen causes the rectangular plates to elongate into an oval shape. Only the high-k dielectric completely surrounds them, and the metal gate does not completely surround it, so there is less capacitance. However, the electric field strength of the gate is still sufficient to dampen the current flow.
Chidi Chidambaram, vice president of process technology at Qualcomm, said capacitance scaling is the most challenging issue if process technology is to be reduced to 7 nanometers or less. Despite this apparent victory in the simulation, Transistor issues are far from resolved in the chip, and Song and his collaborators plan to continue testing circuits and equipment with nanomaterials, and they plan to simulate more complex circuits and systems until a complete cell phone is made.
Lei Feng network learned that the final test results may be the most concerned about consumers - If the smart phone to run on nanotechnology, then it will accurately calculate the smart phone in the normal use of the remaining power after a day.
Lei Feng network