According to the micro-network news, the International Semiconductor Industry Association (SEMI) announced on April 9 that after several years of continuous growth, the global semiconductor photomask market has soared by 13% in 2017, hitting a record high of US$3.75 billion. It will exceed 4 billion U.S. dollars. According to the SEMI report, the mask market is expected to increase by 5% and 4% respectively in 2018 and 2019. The key photomask market is still driven by advanced process nodes (less than 45nm) and semiconductor manufacturing in the Asia Pacific region. The growth of China's Taiwan region has once again become the largest mask market for the seventh consecutive year, and is expected to remain the top spot during the forecast period. South Korea's ranking rose to second place.
In 2017, 3.75 billion US dollars of mask sales accounted for 13% of the total wafer manufacturing materials market, second only to silicon and semiconductor gases. The mask market accounted for 18% of the total wafer manufacturing materials market in 2003. Another trend highlighted in the report is the growing importance of Captive mask shops. The monolithic mask factory has gained market share under strong capital expenditures in 2011 and 2012, accounting for the total mask market in 2016. 63%, the 2013 mask factory only accounted for 31% of the total mask market.
2. The sales of global semiconductor equipment 2017 has reached a record high, South Korea won the championship over Taiwan;
According to the micro-network news, the International Semiconductor Industry Association (SEMI) released the latest global semiconductor equipment market statistics report. In 2017, global semiconductor equipment sales reached 56.62 billion US dollars, a record high, with an annual increase rate of 37%, and South Korea surpassed Taiwan. , For the first time become the world's largest semiconductor new equipment market.
According to statistics, South Korea ranked second in the global semiconductor equipment sales market in 2016 with US$7.69 billion, while Taiwan ranked first with US$ 12.23 billion. However, by 2017, South Korea’s sales of semiconductor equipment increased by 133% to 179.5. Billion-dollar, ranking first, Taiwan ranks first with US$11.49 billion, sales amount is reduced by approximately 6% annually.
In response to global sales of semiconductor equipment, SEMI pointed out that the average annual expenditure rates in South Korea, Europe, China, Japan, and North America increased, while the rest of Taiwan and Southeast Asia showed a shrinking trend. The mainland market grew at a rate of 27%. , ranked third in the world for two consecutive years, sales amounted to 8.23 billion US dollars, Japan and the United States ranked fourth and fifth.
According to SEMI, if viewed from the product category, sales of semiconductor equipment in the previous segment increased by 40%, wafer foundry equipment increased by 36%, packaging equipment increased by 29%, and testing-related equipment increased by 27%.
SEMI estimates that the amount of semiconductor equipment spending will continue to grow in 2018, of which South Korea will remain the world's largest equipment spending market, and the mainland will also maintain the market with the highest growth rate, including foundry, 3D NAND and DRAM, etc. As the main expenditure force, sales of semiconductor equipment in mainland China will grow by a maximum of 49.3% in 2018, amounting to USD 11.3 billion. In 2018, South Korea, China and Taiwan regions are expected to sit steadily in the top three markets, and Korea will continue to Reelection first reached 16.9 billion U.S. dollars. The mainland will leap to the second largest market to 11.3 billion U.S. dollars, and Taiwan will have nearly 11.3 billion U.S. dollars.
SEMI has previously pointed out that in 2017, the semiconductor industry has performed brilliantly, setting a record high in terms of revenue, equipment, and silicon wafer shipments. In the Internet of Things, 5G, automotive electronics, AR/VR, and artificial intelligence Driven by other application areas, it is expected that the semiconductor growth situation is expected to continue all the way to 2025.
3.7nm Wars! TSMC took Huawei as Hassell Samsung completed the high-pass six months ahead of schedule;
At the 10-nanometer process node, although TSMC has exclusively purchased Apple's A-series processors and orders from MediaTek and Huawei Hass, Samsung, the competitor, also won the Qualcomm 8 series of high-end processors. , In the case of mutual success, the front was extended to the node of the 7-nanometer process. According to foreign media reports, in the case of TSMC, Huawei's Kirin 980 processor will be mass-produced during the quarter. It is TSMC's 7-nanometer process technology. Samsung is trying to catch up with TSMC. It has already completed the research and development of 7-nanometer process six months ahead of schedule. It will begin production in the second half of 2018 and mass-produce Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 and Samsung in 7-nanometer process. Exynos 9820 processor.
According to the report, Huawei's Hessian Kirin 980 processor will be mass-produced this quarter and will be produced by TSMC's 7-nm process technology. In the first quarter, TSMC's 7-nanometer process technology has already started production and use. The volume production of the Unicorn 980 processor was also expected.
The report further pointed out that currently there are not enough data for Huawei's Hessian Kirin 980 processor. In addition to the production of TSMC's 7-nanometer process technology, the Hessian Kirin 980 processor may also be equipped with ARM's latest A75 architecture. The GPU may also use a self-developed architecture. As for the NPU neural network unit for AI artificial intelligence, it is expected to evolve to the second generation.
In fact, Huawei and TSMC have been working closely together. Both parties have been working together since the 28-nanometer process. Later, they have continued at the 16nm, 10nm, and 7nm process nodes. In the past, the Kirin 970 first started using TSMC's 10-nanometer process. The Unicorn 980 will be the first to use TSMC's 7-nanometer manufacturing process. In the future, Hassell Unicorn's 980 processor will be launched on Huawei’s Mate line of handsets after its release in the third quarter of 2018.
Faced with the full coverage of TSMC's 7nm process node, Samsung, the competitor, also tried to find a breakthrough point. According to the South Korean media “SEDaily”, Samsung has completed the research and development of 7nm process technology 6 months in advance. Process technology will be used in the next generation of flagship mobile phone processors, including Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 and Samsung Exynos 9820.
According to the report, Samsung Electronics has completed the development of 7-nanometer process technology and used extreme ultraviolet exposure equipment (EUV) in this process technology. Initially, the company expects the development of 7-nanometer process technology to be completed in the second half of 2018. However, the footsteps of catching up with TSMC in the future have now been completed half a year earlier. It is reported that Qualcomm is preparing to send its new mobile wafer sample to Samsung.
The report further stated that officials from Samsung Semiconductor pointed out that Samsung's related personnel currently involved in the development of 7-nanometer process technology have completed their missions and shifted to the development of 5-nanometer process technology, and they have also shared sample production facilities with Qualcomm and other customers. The required design database. Because, before the news pointed out that Samsung has been developing the next-generation flagship mobile processor, and has been named Exynos 9820. The future of this mobile processor will also use Samsung's 7-nanometer process technology, and will Powered by the flagship mobile phone Galaxy S10 released in 2018. TechNews
4.EUV defects cast a shadow on the future of the chip;
Extreme ultraviolet photolithography (EUV) technology is said to exhibit random defects at the 5-nanometer (nm) node. According to researchers, they are currently adopting a series of techniques to eliminate these defects. However, as of yet, no Find an effective solution.
The news comes as Globalfoundries, Samsung and TSMC compete to upgrade their EUV system to a highly available 250W light source for next year's 7nm production. Nowadays, these random defects have emerged. Display, for the increasing cost and complexity of semiconductor manufacturing, there is no magic bullet to solve the problem.
Greg McIntyre, a graphic expert at the Imec Research Institute in Belgium, said at the SPIE Advanced Lithography conference held in California, USA that the latest EUV scanner can print the 20nm planned by the foundry for 7nm. And the larger size of the key specifications. However, their ability to make fine lines and holes is not clear.
Optimists like McIntyre believe that a series of solutions will quickly appear for this so-called 'random effect'. However, some skeptics believe that this result is only one more questionable EUV system. Rationale – Is an expensive and long-delayed EUV system really a mainstream tool for chip makers?
Yan Borodovsky, a former Intel lithography technologist, expected that industry engineers should be able to use the EUV stepper for 2-3 exposures to create 5nm or even 3nm components. But he also pointed out in the keynote speech at the event. As chip defects continue to rise, engineers will eventually be forced to adopt new fault-tolerant processor architectures such as neural networks.
The most recent defect suddenly appeared at a critical size of around 15nm, which is the technological node required to manufacture a 5nm chip for industrial processes in the 2020s. EUV manufacturer ASML mentioned in last year's event that the company is preparing to print more. Fine-grained next-generation EUV systems, but these systems won’t be available until 2024.
Random defects come in many forms. Some are holes that cause imperfections; others are linear cracks, or short circuits between two wires and two holes. Because the size of these flaws is too small, researchers sometimes have to spend a few. It takes days to find it.
McIntyre describes the challenges that can be encountered in the discovery and elimination of errors. For example, some researchers have proposed a standard method of measuring the roughness of a line. This is one of the keys to understanding defects.
Another problem is that it is not yet clear what happens to the photoresist material when it hits the EUV light source. McIntyre pointed out, 'We don't know yet how many electrons will be produced and what chemical substances will be created... We also have to do with physics. Not completely understood, so more experiments are underway. 'He pointed out that researchers have tested up to 350 combinations of photoresists and process steps.
Good yield at 7nm/5nm
'The manufacturing industry will be hit hard by the drop in yield... If I'm responsible for this, then I'm going to say it's time to retire,' said a retired lithography technologist at a seminar on the 5nm defect. .
Technologists from Globalfoundries gave a more optimistic but relatively sensible view in another keynote speech. George Gomba, vice president of research at Globalfoundries, said in reviewing his journey to EUV for nearly 30 years: 'This is a difficult task. , And then there's more work to do.'
Today's NXE 3400 system 'does not meet some of the development blueprints that we expected, so there is still some uncertainty at '7nm'. If we do not increase productivity and availability, we may find it difficult to maximize the value of EUV.'
Gomba pointed out that random defects at 5nm include subtle 3D fractures and tears, such as gaps in lines. He also called for more work on so-called actinic systems, so that lithography technicians can use masks to protect the film. Detect EUV masks before covering.
'In order to fully utilize EUV, we will need a photochemical detection system. Although it is still under development, it can be used to assist e-beam mask detection systems that are currently available.'
Borodovsky said in an interview that another factor that may cause 5nm defects is the lack of uniformity of existing EUV photoresist materials. In addition, he also expressed support for direct electron beam writing because the complex phase shift mask used by EUV will eventually Expanded to 8 times the price of current immersion masks.
Multibeam, a company founded by Lam Research founder David Lam, recently obtained US$35 million in government funding for its electron beam technology. He hopes to create a commercial system that can be applied to the market in two and a half years, but it is suitable for a large number of The production version also takes longer.
Borodovsky said that by 2024, defects may become so common that traditional processors will not be able to be manufactured with advanced processes. Experimental chips using memory arrays and built-in embedded computing elements may have higher fault tolerance, such as IBM's True North chip, and HP Labs' achievements with memristors.
(Original text: EUV Defects Cited in 5-nm Node, by Rick Merritt)
5.2022 million vehicles will be connected in 2022, and 5G vehicles will be listed as soon as 2020;
Gathering Micronet News (Compile/Danyang) As of 2017, GM, BMW, Audi and Mercedes-Benz will lead the global connected car market. With the European Union's eCall authorization and popularity in China, the market is expected to be a major boost. According to the latest research data from Counterpoint, by 2022, the global Internet automobile market is expected to increase by 270%, and more than 125 million Internet vehicles will be shipped in succession between 2018 and 2022. This figure is still only a fraction, on the number of units In terms of market, the market will be mainly authorized by the European Union (EU) eCall, and China's penetration rate will increase. In Europe, major auto consumption economies such as Germany, the United Kingdom and France will become the main force to promote market development.
In an overview of this phenomenon, Hanish Bhatia, Senior Analyst of Internet of Things and Mobile, pointed out that in terms of overall penetration, in the total shipments of embedded connections sold in 2017, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States currently dominate the market. The eCall mandate in Europe is expected to change the market dynamics in European countries. The eCall trial in Europe is also expected to spread to other regions, thereby catalyzing the entire automobile connection ecosystem.
For the connection technology, Neil Shah research director stated that the market so far is more based on 2G/3G networks, however, it has now tended to develop towards 4G LTE connections, and we expect that 90% of 4G LTE networks will be expected to connect in 2022 To passenger cars. In addition, we expect that the 5G network connection of the car will start from 2020. The level of autopilot technology in the car will also determine the popularity of 4G or 5G in cars after 2022. In addition, the launch of the 5G NR (Independent or SA) model that has promised to reduce the delay is also crucial to the turning point of the commercialization of self-driving cars in the next decade.
In the interconnection car market in 2017, China and the United States accounted for nearly 45% of total shipments. China alone accounted for 32% of China's exports. This is mainly due to the significant expansion of the passenger vehicle market in China. In Europe, including Germany , Britain, France and some other major economies are expected to approach 100% of connected car penetration by 2020, and they will adopt the start-up approach early on due to eCall's authorization.
6.IoT market is too fragmented to make money?
According to a survey on low-power wide area (LPWA) networks, the growth prospects of the Internet of Things (IoT) are promising, but due to the fragmented nature of the market, it is difficult to obtain a return on investment (ROI).
Mareca Hatler, director of research at market research firm ON World Inc., said: 'This is not just a product like a smartphone, but an index of hundreds of different products. The trick is to create enough products to meet market demand. . '
Mareca Hatler expects that the revenue of LPWA systems and services will reach 56 billion U.S. dollars by 2022. However, this market is very fragmented and users are in different stages of exploration or deployment. There are only 40 LPWA networks. More than one unique IoT application.
According to ON World's latest report, in the coming years, LTE's narrowband-Internet of Things (NB-IoT) version and 900MHz LoRa network will play a major role in the LPWA network. Sigfox, one of LPWA's main competitors, is Will be followed closely, partly due to the need for some unique designs.
She said: 'Sigfox has millions of user devices, but the challenge is to have enough devices to meet the demand - this is the product availability problem.'
The problem of having to customize the IoT deployment is a challenge for all suppliers. However, some vendors feel more profound than others.
Hatler said: "One of the advantages of LoRa is to have a larger ecosystem that offers more products. There are already dozens of LoRa modules and gateways on the market, but Sigfox has only a few products.
Operators promote the rise of NB-IoT
About two-thirds of LPWA network operators today are unlicensed, such as LoRa and Sigfox, but the mobile operators are accelerating their NB-IoT plans. Therefore, OnWorld predicts that it will deploy about 13 by 2025. Billion LPWA nodes, where NB-IoT will occupy half of the market.
'In the next 5 to 7 years, NB-IoT will have more advantages. The problem is only how fast it will happen. The scale of network operators is so large that it is expected to provide subversive pricing.' Hatler pointed out that Germany Deutsche Telecom plans to charge only $12 for each NB-IoT node.
She said that operators will promote a wide range of availability and prices. In addition, they can also provide high-quality services and five times more bandwidth than the license-free LPWA network.
Chinese telecom operators quickly jumped into the NB-IoT space. US operators chose to roll out higher-bandwidth LTE-M first because it only requires software upgrades for their LTE networks. But in the past few months, They have already announced a positive plan for NB-IoT and began to require operators to add some new hardware.
She said: 'The operator has not mentioned any cost related to NB-IoT upgrades, but it has already started manufacturing now - some companies may even support LoRa as a reinforcement, allowing users to have their own private network.'
Other advantages of LoRa include that it is an open specification and has relatively more supporters. In addition, it also supports asset tracking and can locate devices in about 100 meters without using GPS.
She said that all LPWA networks will increasingly compete with existing Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and Zigbee networks, especially in applications such as metering and smart buildings. Although the bandwidth of LPWA is low, Usually supports longer range and battery life.
Hatler said: 'NB-IoT can get a share of the existing wireless mesh network. It is expected that this market will be large enough to support a wide variety of users and applications, but we will also see More and more tit-for-tat competition.
Compilation: Susan Hong