ASM International settles (US$115 million) with Kokusai Electric Corporation on the use and infringement of ALD patents

ASM International N.V. (Euronext Amsterdam: ASM) today announces that it has entered into a settlement agreement with Kokusai Electric Corporation to resolve all lawsuits regarding the use and infringement of patents.

The settlement resolves and ends all lawsuits and invalidation proceedings initiated by ASM and Kokusai Electric’s predecessor Hitachi Kokusai Electric Inc. in the US and Japan. These lawsuits concerned the use of intellectual property, as first announced on February 23, 2018, following the expiration of a license agreement. Under the terms of the settlement agreement Kokusai Electric will pay ASM an amount of US$115 million, parties will provide each other a portfolio wide cross-license until July 1, 2021, and a license for any litigated patents (or counterparts thereof). 

“We are pleased to have settled these lawsuits with Kokusai Electric,” said Chuck del Prado, President and CEO of ASMI. “We believe this settlement further underscores the strength of our intellectual property portfolio.”

This settlement is unrelated to the previously announced arbitration proceeding that ASM initiated in August 2017 with the American Arbitration Association against Kokusai Electric for breach of the license agreement that expired in November 2017. A final decision in the arbitration is expected in the course of the coming months.

The settlement agreement was not included in our Q2 2019 guidance as published on April 24, 2019, and will positively impact ASMI’s sales and bookings in Q2 2019 with an amount of approximately US$115 million, or approximately €103 million

Background: ASM INTERNATIONAL N.V. ANNOUNCES RESPONSE TO HITACHI KOKUSAI'S COUNTERCLAIM  (LINK)

PV manufacturers across China are switching to ALD passivation for PERC Solar Cells

Good news for Team-ALD! According to PV magazine, PV manufacturers across China are switching from plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) to atomic layer deposition (ALD) as the new method of choice to deposit aluminum oxide passivation layers for PERC solar cells.

Wei-Min Li (CTO of Leadmicro) claims that Leadmicro has so far equipped over 30 GW of manufacturing lines with ALD passivation systems and are still seeing growth. Today Leadmicro is supplying most of the leading Chinese PV module manufacturers with their ALD equipment. From a market share of under 2% in 2017, Leadmicro claimed close to 20% of sales in 2018, becoming the second largest supplier of PERC equipment on the market. In just three years, Leadmicro has grown to 300 employees.

Wei-Min Li (CTO of Leadmicro), Helsinki University ALD Alumni. Photo: Tweet by Mikko Ritala (LINK)

Besides the benefits of ALD in a lower cost of ownership and producing PERC solar cells with higher efficiency, ALD also beats PECVD in throughput. 

“When we entered the market in 2016, PECVD could handle only 3,000 wafers an hour,” says Li. “Our first generation of ALD systems processed 5,000 wafers an hour.” At SNEC PV Power Expo in June this year, Leadmicro plans on revealing the latest ALD system in its Kuafu line of products designed to passivate 10,000 wafers an hour.

Source: PV Magazine (LINK) 

Oxford Instruments launches Atomfab®: High volume ALD manufacturing solution for GaN power device passivation

Oxford Instruments Plasma Technology (OIPT) has today launched a revolutionary plasma Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) high volume manufacturing (HVM) solution delivering a step change needed to address fundamental challenges in the GaN power device industry.

Gallium nitride devices are enabling the next generation of efficient power electronic devices for applications such as compact consumer power supplies, 5G networks, electric vehicles and renewable energy conversion.

GaN devices are more efficient and higher performance than current technologies, however there are manufacturing yield and scalability challenges. These need to be addressed to deliver reliable devices at a competitive cost.

One of the key challenges is a consistently high-quality gate passivation, Atomfab delivers this solution with high throughput and low Cost of Ownership (CoO). 

• Performance: Excellent passivation and dielectric properties enable the demanding device performance critical for key applications.
• Plasma: Remote plasma delivers a reproducible GaN interface. Atomfab precisely controls the plasma to protect the underlying sensitive GaN substrate.
• Pace: High throughput delivered by a high deposition rate process on a high uptime HVM platform specifically developed for GaN power applications.

The significantly reduced cost per wafer that Atomfab delivers is enabled by numerous technical innovations including a patent pending revolutionary fast remote plasma source.

Atomfab fulfils the customer needs on a single wafer platform with SEMI standard cluster configurations and improved process controls for the latest compound semiconductor solutions.

“Atomfab provides many key benefits to our GaN device manufacturing customers including significant CoO reduction, increased yield and excellent film quality & device performance. For many years Oxford Instruments Plasma Technology has been known as the go to supplier for compound semiconductor plasma solutions. We’ve leveraged that knowledge onto a HVM platform to ensure optimum devices are produced all day, every day”, says Klaas Wisniewski, Strategic Business Development Director, OIPT.

Mike Gansser-Potts, Managing Director, OIPT states: “We’ve been highly commended for our unique plasma ALD solutions and have listened to our HVM customers to take these solutions to the next level. We are happy to announce that Atomfab provides these HVM solutions to our customers”. 

For more information on Atomfab please visit Plasma.oxinst.com/Atomfab

Additional Information:

Whitepaper: "Atomic Layer Deposition and Atomic Layer Etching for GaN Power Electronics"(LINK)

Blog: "5 Ways ALD Can Benefit GaN Devices" (LINK).

Picosun accelerates growth with a notable Finnish investment

ESPOO, Finland, June 28, 2019 -- Finnish investors make significant investments in Picosun, a manufacturer of ALD equipment, increasing the company's share capital by 12 million euros. New investors are CapMan Growth fund, Finnish Industry Investment Oy, and Risto Siilasmaa's First Fellow Partners.

Earlier investors in Picosun - Hannu Turunen, and R.Ruth Oy - also make add-on investments in the company, in addition to the company's Board members Prof. Jorma Routti and Dr. Tech. Tuomo Suntola. 

"We are already the world's number one manufacturers of research and other specialised equipment within the ALD field, but we aim to achieve a leading position also in other large ALD production equipment. We are determinedly moving in this direction," says Kustaa Poutiainen, Chairman of the Board at Picosun.

The family office of Kustaa Poutiainen, Stephen Industries Oy, remains the majority investor after the funding round.

ALD, or Atomic Layer Deposition, is a Finnish technology developed by Dr. Tech. Tuomo Suntola, who has been awarded the Millennium Technology Prize. The technology enables the creation of precise films with a thickness of less than a nanometer, which is a prerequisite for the functionality of modern electronics. New applications for ALD are constantly found in e.g. medical technology.

"ALD technology is one of the most significant Finnish inventions and we are proud to participate in the acceleration of Picosun's growth and internationalisation. ALD technology is present in many everyday devices and processes and according to our estimates, the market is growing by almost 30 percent per year in the next five years. Picosun has already proven to be a leading performer in certain industrial verticals and has achieved global recognition. We want to be a part of taking the development to the next level," says Juha Mikkola, Managing Partner of CapMan Growth.

"We entertained several finance options in order to deliver on our growth strategy, but the current outcome was preferred by far. ALD is one of the most influential success stories in Finnish technology. We are really pleased to be able to strengthen our position globally together with experienced Finnish owners," concludes Poutiainen.

Picosun's turnover exceeded 26 million euros last financial year and the company employs more than 100 persons globally. More than 95 percent of the production goes to export.

SK Hynix: SK Hynix Starts Production of 128-Layer 4D NAND, 176-Layer Being Developed

SK Hynix has announced it has finished development of its 128-layer 1 terabit 3D TLC NAND flash. The new memory features the company's charge trap flash (CTF) design, along with the peripheral under cells (PUC) architecture that the company calls '4D' NAND, announced some time ago. The new 128-layer TLC NAND flash devices will ship to interested parties in the second half of this year, and SK Hynix intends to offer products based on the new chips in 2020.1 Tb 128-Layer '4D' TLC NANDSK Hynix's 1 Tb 128-layer TLC NAND chip features four planes as well as a 1400 MT/s interface at 1.2 Volts. 

"SK Hynix has secured the fundamental competitiveness of its NAND business with this 128-Layer 4D NAND," said Executive Vice President Jong Hoon Oh, head of global sales & marketing. "With this product, with the industry's best stacking and density, we will provide customers with a variety of solutions at the right time."

rSource: Anandtech LINK

CATL Plans Massive Increase In European Battery Production

Chinese battery cell manufacturer CATL dipped a toe into the European battery manufacturing market earlier this year when it decided to invest €240 million in a battery factory located in Erfurt, Germany. In a new filing with the Shenzhen stock exchange, the company says it will increase its investment in battery production and research in Europe to a total of €1.8 billion.

 

 

In February, Matthias Zentgraf, the head of CATL’s European operations, announced that the original plan to produce 14 GWh per year of batteries would be just a drop in the proverbial bucket. “With realistic planning, we assume — calculated at a low level — a demand of 100 GWh in 2025,” Zentgraf said. That would rival the output of Tesla’s Gigafactory 1 in Nevada. 

 

Source: Clean Technica (LINK) 

 

----------

By Abhishekkumar Thakur

Air Products Awarded Contract to Supply MEMC Korea’s New 300mm Silicon Wafer Fab in Cheonan, South Korea

[Aior Products, LINK] Air Products (NYSE: APD) today announced it has been awarded a contract by MEMC Korea to supply a new 300mm silicon wafer fab being built adjacent to its existing fab in Cheonan, South Korea. MEMC Korea—wholly-owned by GlobalWafers, which is the world’s third largest silicon wafer manufacturer—is a leading global wafer supplier to the semiconductor industry.

Air Products will provide MEMC Korea’s new production line with its turnkey solutions, including a PRISM® high purity nitrogen (HPN) on-site generator and associated systems, liquid argon, and operation and maintenance services. 

 

“We are honored to be selected by MEMC Korea to support their new site. It demonstrates their confidence in Air Products’ capabilities and proven record of supplying leading global and local electronics customers,” said Kyo-Yung Kim, president of Air Products Korea. “Emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, autonomous vehicles, 5G and virtual reality, continue to propel the demand for microprocessors, memory chips, and thus silicon wafers. We will continue to support the robust development of Korea’s semiconductor and electronics industries with our safety, reliability, efficiency and excellent service.”

GlobalWafers is a global leader in semiconductor technology and has been a pioneer in the design and development of wafer technologies for over 50 years, supplying many world-leading semiconductor companies. It has manufacturing, and research and development facilities in the U.S., Europe and Asia, including Korea, Taiwan and Malaysia.

On-site gas generation helps sustainability-minded customers lower carbon footprint, boost energy efficiency, increase throughput, enhance end product quality, and improve environmental performance. Air Products’ PRISM product line provides reliable, economical and eco-friendly on-site supply solutions. Its modular, packaged design enables quick installation, easy integration, and flexible operating patterns. The PRISM HPN system produces one of the industry's purest grades of nitrogen. For more information, visit Air Products’ On-site Gas Generation web page.

A leading integrated gases supplier, Air Products has been serving the global electronics industry for more than 40 years, supplying industrial gases safely and reliably to most of the world’s largest technology companies. The company is working with these industry leaders to develop the next generation of semiconductors and displays for tablets, computers and mobile devices.

Apple looks to acquire Intel's German phone modem business

[CNET, LINK] Apple is reportedly looking into acquiring Intel's German smartphone modem business. The acquisition could help Apple's attempts to develop its own 5G chip for the iPhone, The Information said Tuesday, citing four people briefed on the Apple-Intel discussions.

 

Apple had originally used modems from Germany's Infineon when it launched the iPhone 10 years ago, before switching to Qualcomm in 2011. Intel then bought Infineon in 2011, but those chips weren't used again until the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus in 2016 after a dispute over Qualcomm's licensing fees.

 

Sources: CNET LINK, Heise (German) LINK

US-China Trade War—DRAM Price to Drop Further 15%

US-China Trade War—DRAM Price to Drop Further 15%: DRAMeXchange, tech market intelligence firm TrendForce's memory and storage branch, announced that it expects Huawei's blacklisting by the U.S. government to contribute to a DRAM price drop of up to 15% in the third quarter. The DRAM market has already struggled amid falling demand, inventory surpluses, and other problems. 

 

Those problems have led to steady price drops throughout 2018 and the first half of 2019. Memory companies have already felt the sting of these price drops--Samsung even ceded the semiconductor throne to Intel in May because its profits had dropped so much in recent quarters. Losing Huawei as a customer is expected to make things worse.

 

 

Source: Tom´s Hardware LINK

 

----------

By Abhishekkumar Thakur

India becomes the lowest-cost producer of solar power globally

India becomes the lowest-cost producer of solar power globally, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) reported in its recent annual analysis report “Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2018”. 

The country-wise average for the total installed costs of utility scale solar PV in 2018 ranged from a low of $793 per Kilowatt (Kw) – around Rs 5.5 crore per Megawatt -- in India to a high of $2,427 per Kw in Canada. Further, IRENA conducted an analysis of the decline in the cost of setting up solar PV projects between 2010 and 2018 across eight major markets including China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, UK and the US. The costs were found to have dropped at the fastest pace – 80 per cent – in India.

Total installed costs in 2018 by component and country

Source: RENA - Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2018 LINK#

----------
By Abhishekkumar Thakur

Advanced Energy: Advanced Energy Industries Inc. unveils facility in Israel

Advanced Energy announced the grand opening of a 6,500 square-foot facility in Caesarea, Israel that includes business offices, a service and repair center and R&D lab.

 

The Fort Collins, Colorado-based company said the new facility will support AE’s global growth strategy in the semiconductor, medical, defense and industrial markets.

 

Source: Evertiq LINK

GLOBALFOUNDRIES: GLOBALFOUNDRIES and Soitec Announce Multiple Long-term SOI Wafer Supply Agreements to Meet Accelerating Demand in 5G, IoT and Data Center

GLOBALFOUNDRIES and Soitec Announce Multiple Long-term SOI Wafer Supply Agreements to Meet Accelerating Demand in 5G, IoT and Data Center.

 

Source: Design And Reuse  LINK

U.S.-China Trade War Portends Painful Times for U.S. Semiconductor Industry

[IEEE Spectrum] Semiconductor industry mavens in the United States anticipate damage from U.S.-China trade policy and call for a national strategy for semiconductor manufacturing.

IEEE Spectrum reports, French, Hutcheson, and Hershenson, along with Ann Kim and Pete Rodriguez, were discussing the U.S.-China trade war that escalated last month when the United States placed communications behemoth Huawei on a trade blacklist.

Hutcheson pointed further back in history. “Europeans today are competitive even though we stole all their tech in the 19th century,” he said. “We all love German cars, we buy European products.”

All five are semiconductor industry veterans and investors: French is currently chairman of Silicon Power Technology; Hutcheson is CEO of VLSI Research; Hershenson is managing partner of Pear Ventures, Kim is managing director of Silicon Valley Bank’s Frontier Technology Group, and Rodriguez is CEO of startup incubator Silicon Catalyst. The five took the stage at Silicon Catalyst’s second industry forum, held in Santa Clara, Calif., last week to discuss several aspects of the trade war:

• Effects on China
• IP theft
• Immigration policy
• A call for a national strategy
• Missing investment dollars

“There is going to be a lot of pain for the semiconductor industry before it normalizes,” says Dan Hutcheson.

“It’s a mess, and it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better,” says David French.

“If we aren’t going to sell them chips, it is not going to take them long [to catch up to us]; it is going to hurt us,” says Mar Hershenson. 

Full story: U.S.-China Trade War Portends Painful Times for U.S. Semiconductor Industry, IEEE Spectrum LINK