Chip Industry Week In Review

Analog Devices acquired Flex Logix‘s technology assets, along with its technical team.

Semiconductor global sales increased 23% in Q3 2024 $166B, up almost 11% versus the same period in 2023, according to SIA. Notable regional year-to-year sales in September: Americas up 46%, China up 23%, Europe down 8%.

Fig.1: Worldwide Semiconductor Revenues, year-to-year % change. Source: Semiconductor Industry Association, as compiled by World Semiconductor Trade Statistics organization.

SK hynix made a number of announcements at this week’s SK AI Summit, including the rollout of 48 GB 16-layer HBM3E next year, and the use of hybrid bonding as a backup process. The company also rolled out its next-gen roadmap, including HBM4, UFS 5.0, and future commercialization of HBM and CXL optimized for AI.

Ansys and IonQ are working together to incorporate quantum computing into CAE. Under the agreement, Ansys’ multi-physics modeling and simulation software will be combined with IonQ’s quantum computing technology. IonQ also inked deals with imec and NKT Photonics.

Andreas Schumacher, a visiting technology fellow at CSIS, analyzed R&D expenditures, patent filings, and earnings transcripts. He found no major evidence to support that semiconductor export controls have yet hampered innovation in 30 leading U.S. and allied nations’ chip industry companies. In fact, some increased R&D spending and patent filings.

The U.S. Commerce signed two preliminary funding agreements this week:  Corning for $32M to increase production in its existing New York facility and Powerex for $3M to modernize and expand its Pennsylvania facility.

The U.S. government fined GlobalFoundries $500,000 for shipping wafers valued at about $17.1 million to a Chinese entity. The fine subsquently was reduced due to GF’s voluntary disclosure and remediation.

U.S. lawmakers are urging the government to enforce export controls against Huawei and SMIC, citing SMIC’s 7nm breakthrough as evidence of export violations.

MIT-led researchers fabricated nanoscale transistors using ultra-thin semiconductor materials to deliver performance comparable to silicon transistors while operating efficiently at much lower voltages.

Despite bipartisan support for the CHIPS Act, the semiconductor industry is nervous about the new Trump administration’s potential changes, following recent comments made by Trump and the top Republican leader in Congress. Both TSMC and GlobalFoundries reportedly have finalized the binding funding agreements. GlobalWafers expressed optimism the funding would still happen under the new administration.

Government programs across Europe and UK are seeing a surge of investments in leading-edge technology, materials, and packaging. Industry and academia are coalescing around specialty areas, drawing on established relationships to foster innovation and fill gaps in regional supply chains, while also maintaining international bonds. Government initiatives also are picking up in Israel, Saudi Arabia, and some African countries.

Quick links to more news:

Global
In-Depth
Money and Markets
Automotive
Product News
Research
Events and Further Reading

Global

In Europe:

• Europe’s Chips Joint Undertaking is moving forward with establishing the Advanced Photonic IC Pilot line (PIXEurope) by selecting a 20-member consortium.
• The EU launched a formal antitrust investigation into US-based Corning for its break-resistant “Gorilla Glass” brand used in mobile phones, tablets, and other electronics.
• Invoking UK’s national security act, the British government ordered Chinese owners to sell its shares in Future Technology Devices International, a Scotland-based semiconductor design company.
• imec’s Jo De Boeck, discussed the transitioning from finFETs to GAA nanosheets, the exploration of novel, dense embedded memory technologies (like SOT-MRAM and 2TOC embedded DRAM), and the development of 3D memory platforms, in this recent Q&A with SEMI about Belgium’s NanoIC pilot line.
• Germany’s Merck KGaA and Intel kicked off their joint academic research program in Europe and selected six projects and eleven European scientific institutions, focusing on the sustainability in semiconductor manufacturing.

Fig. 2: Cleanroom-at-Merck-KGaA-Darmstadt-Germany

In Asia:

• A newly released analysis by the South Korea government reported that semiconductor workers in the country work 24 less hours per month than Taiwanese counterparts due to labor laws restrictions, reports Business Korea.
• Taiwan-based AIchip recently announced a 2nm test chip tapeout, featuring GAA architecture.

Tenstorrent announced an engineering training program commissioned by the Japanese government to work with the country’s Leading-edge Semiconductor Technology Center. The company will bring about 200 silicon engineers from Japan to its U.S. sites to work on AI/ML technology over five years.

Facility expansion news includes:

• ISE Labs, subsidiary of ASE, acquired land in the Guadalajara area in Mexico for its new packaging and test facility.
• Epi wafer maker IQE plans to expand its manufacturing facility in North Carolina, subject to funding.

New partnerships (see more in Automotive below):

• Japan’s Fujitsu and AMD started a strategic partnership to bring together Fujitsu’s supercomputer technology with AMD’s GPU technology.
• US-based DuPont and Taiwan-based Zhen Ding Technology Group are teaming up to develop advanced PCB technology.

In-Depth

Semiconductor Engineering published its Automotive, Security & Pervasive Computing newsletter this week, featuring these top stories:

• Automotive OEMs Focus On SDVs, Zonal Architectures
• AI Drives IC Design Shifts At The Edge
• Batteries Look Beyond Lithium

More reporting this week:

• Big Changes Ahead For Analog Design
• EMEA Investments Driving Technology Specialization
• Globally Asynchronous, Locally Synchronous clocks

Money and Markets

Chip industry acquisitions this week:

• India’s Tessolve Semiconductor will acquire Germany’s Dream Chip Technologies for ~$48M.
• Macom acquired  ENGIN-IC, a U.S. fabless GaN monolithic microwave IC company.
• Japan’s Hamamatsu Photonics purchased the stock of BAE Systems Imaging Solutions, a subsidiary of BAE Systems, emerging with its original name Fairchild Imaging.

Massachusetts-based MACOM Technology Solutions was selected to lead an advanced GaN-on-SiC development project for RF and microwave applications, with $3.4M funding from the CHIPS Act.

In analyst reports this week:

• Power electronics will grow 50% over the next six years, from $23.8B in 2023 to $35.7B in 2029, predicts Yole Group. 
• Wi-Fi chipsets will increase 12% YoY in 2025, with Wi-Fi 6, 6E and 7 capturing 43% of the market as Wi-Fi 5’s dominance declines, predicts Counterpoint.
• DRAM bit output is forecast to increase 25% year-to-year in 2025, or 21% when excluding Chinese companies, reports Trendforce.
• Back-end semiconductor equipment is positioned for a 32% rebound in Q1 2025, reports Yole Group.

Earnings season continues with these new reports this week:

Industry stock price impacts are here. [Find October earnings releases here]

Automotive

Giant automotive OEMs are re-evaluating how quickly to move to advanced technologies and software-driven designs, amid crushing financial pressure from low-cost EVs developed in other markets such as China. 

Infineon launched an automotive MCU based on 28nm process technology. The AURIX TC4Dx provides power and performance enhancements with virtualization, AI, functional safety, cybersecurity, and networking functions. The chip is targeted at new E/E architectures and next-gen SDVs, with applications such as vehicle motion control, ADAS, and chassis.

New automotive partnerships and deals:

• Arm partnered with Panasonic Automotive Systems to work on a standardized automotive architecture for SDVs. The two companies will adopt device virtualization network VirtIO with the goal of separating automotive software and hardware development, and accelerating development cycles in the automotive industry.
• Infineon and Stellantis will collaborate on power conversion and distribution for next-gen vehicle architectures and signed major supply and capacity agreements.
• Nissan and Mitsubishi Corporation will form a joint venture for self-driving technology and EV batteries by March 2025, reports NHK. Also, Mitsubishi acquired its own shares from Nissan.
• Archer Aviation inked a $500 million purchase order for its eVTOL air taxi services from Japan’s Soracle, a JV between Japan Airlines and Sumitomo.

In automotive research and investments:

• TU Delft researchers developed a new model to help self-driving cars merge and drive socially.
• Lithium batteries dominate today’s rechargeable battery market, but challenges have spurred research into alternative battery chemistries that can improve on some of lithium’s downsides and still keep as many of the upsides as possible. Also, CNBC reported on solid-state batteries vs. silicon anodes.
• Toyota plans to make new investments in EV hybrid batteries in North America, according to Nikkei.

Product News

Siemens Digital Industries Software rolled out:

• The Innexis product suite, designed as a shift-left tool for IC development. The tools include a hardware/software development flow from virtual, to hybrid, to full RTL, and enables the development of digital twins via Siemens’ PAVE360 software.

•  A DFT solution, Tessent In-System Test software, enabling advanced deterministic testing throughout the silicon lifecycle.

Infineon launched a family of 650V GaN discretes, aimed at applications with switched-mode power supply such as USB-C adapters and chargers or data center and telecom rectifiers.

Arteris licensed its NoC IP to Tenstorrent. The product will be used in AI graph processors, high-performance RISC-V CPUs, and configurable chiplets.

Fig. 3: Tenstorrent expands deployment of Arteris’ NoC for next-gen chiplet-based solutions. Source: Arteris

Altair is making its Pollex for ECAD verification tools available for free. The tool contains PCB verification tools aimed at simplifying design review, analysis, and early verification.

Research

Jason Cong, distinguished professor at UCLA, was honored at this week’s 2024 Phil Kaufman Award ceremony for his contributions to FPGA design automation technology.

Fig. 4: Jason Cong, center, flanked by (L) Bob Smith of SEMI and (R) Deming Chen of University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Source: Paul Cohen/SEMI

University of Pennsylvania, Indian Institute of Science, and MIT researchers developed a method for amorphizing wires made of indium selenide (In2Se3), with potential for phase-change memory and data storage.

UC San Diego researchers developed low-cost, scalable passive sensors using radio frequency identification (RFID) tags.

Northwestern University-led engineers developed a wearable device that stimulates skin to deliver various complex sensations. The haptic patch features new miniaturized actuators.

TU Darmstadt and Texas A&M University researchers published a technical paper, “Lost and Found in Speculation: Hybrid Speculative Vulnerability Detection.”

SIA and SRC announced the recipients of the 2024 University Research Awards:

• Suman Datta, the Joseph M. Pettit Chair of Advanced Computing, Georgia Research Alliance (GRA) Eminent Scholar and Professor, and Electrical & Computer Engineering professor at Georgia Tech; and
• Michael Flynn, the Fawwaz T. Ulaby Collegiate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Michigan.

Events and Further Reading

Find upcoming chip industry events here, including:

Upcoming webinars are here, including topics such as: how automated AFM can be applied to the most current hybrid bonding technology nodes and wafer processing steps, memory verification, thermal and signal integrity analysis, constraint-driven design and more.

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