标签: manufacturing

Do you recall when China's rise to become a semiconductor manufacturing powerhouse seemed inevitable? That hasn't exactly panned out. In the 2000s, a number of indigenous Chinese foundries, including Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., sprang to life. With China's relatively low labour costs and a steady flood of new engineers being churned out by Chinese universities, many believed that it was only a matter of time before the bulk of semiconductors were made in China. Last year, on a value basis, chips made in China accounted for only about 3.5 per cent of the $292 billion global chip market, according to market research firm IC Insights. China-based IC production is forecast to rise to $20 billion by 2017, but it will still make up only about 5.6 per cent of the forecasted 2017 global chip market value of $359.1 billion, according to a mid-year update to the firm's 2013 McClean Report, set for release at the end of July. What's more, most of the chips built in China are being built by fabs set up by foreign companies, not indingenous Chinese foundries or IC vendors. According to the IC Insights report, 58 per cent of IC production in China last year came from fabs owned and run by companies based outside of China, including Intel and SK Hynix. With Intel continuing to ramp up its 300mm fab in Dalian and Samsung set to build a 300mm fab in Xian, that percentage is expected to rise to 70 per cent in 2017, according to the report. "Most of the production in China is Intel, Hynix, and soon to be Samsung," said Bill McClean, president of IC Insights, in an interview with EE Times.   According to McClean, the Chinese government did everything it could to create a vibrant, home-grown semiconductor manufacturing industry, including fast-tracking permits and granting substantial tax holidays to the likes of SMIC, Hua Hong, Grace Semiconductor, and others. "I think they had their shot at it and it really hasn't worked out for them," McClean said. Facing stiff competition and technology hurdles, the indigenous Chinese foundries have had a tough time gaining meaningful marketshare. SMIC, which IC Insights currently ranks as the world's No. 5 foundry by sales, is at least two years behind market leader TSMC in process technology, McClean said. SMIC's 2012 sales of about $1.7 billion were less than one tenth of TSMC's $17.2 billion, according to IC Insights. Attracting more foreign investment McClean said China's best hope now is to try to entice more foreign companies to set up fabs in China, creating a larger semiconductor production base, even if it's not by indigenous Chinese companies. He noted that China has given life to several successful fabless chip companies, including Spreadtrum and Hisilicon, each of which is ranked among the top 20 fabless chip suppliers. Samsung got the approval of the South Korean government to build an advanced 300-mm fab in Xian in April 2012. The firm started construction of the fab late last year and expects to invest some $7 billion in the project, according to IC Insights. McClean said China's ability to attract more foreign fabs—especially by Intel and Samsung—will depend largely on the experiences Intel and Samsung have with their first two fabs there. Concern over intellectual property protection in China remains very much an issue. According to McClean, the lack of adequate IP protection in China is one reason that many large fabless chip vendors such as Qualcomm and Broadcom have not brought their leading-edge chip designs to Chinese foundries. (Though, he added, so far SMIC and other Chinese foundries haven't really had the production capability to build those chips, anyway.) "I think a lot of people are going to see what happens with this Samsung fab," McClean said, noting that Samsung plans to produce sub-20nm chips there.   McClean added that it was bold of both Intel and Samsung to open fabs in China. For the most part, he said, Intel likes to have its fabs in the US and Samsung likes to have its in South Korea. Opening up a factory in China was "stepping a little out of the comfort zone" for both, McClean said. If Intel and Samsung have success with their Chinese fabs, they might be open to building more there, McClean said. "But I don't think this is opening the flood gates to foreign investment," he added.   Dylan McGrath EE Times  

Do you recall when China's touted to become a semiconductor manufacturing powerhouse? That hasn't exactly turned out as expected. In the 2000s, a number of indigenous Chinese foundries, including Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., sprang to life. With China's relatively low labour costs and a steady flood of new engineers being churned out by Chinese universities, many believed that it was only a matter of time before the bulk of semiconductors were made in China. Last year, on a value basis, chips made in China accounted for only about 3.5 per cent of the $292 billion global chip market, according to market research firm IC Insights. China-based IC production is forecast to rise to $20 billion by 2017, but it will still make up only about 5.6 per cent of the forecasted 2017 global chip market value of $359.1 billion, according to a mid-year update to the firm's 2013 McClean Report, set for release at the end of July. What's more, most of the chips built in China are being built by fabs set up by foreign companies, not indingenous Chinese foundries or IC vendors. According to the IC Insights report, 58 per cent of IC production in China last year came from fabs owned and run by companies based outside of China, including Intel and SK Hynix. With Intel continuing to ramp up its 300mm fab in Dalian and Samsung set to build a 300mm fab in Xian, that percentage is expected to rise to 70 per cent in 2017, according to the report. "Most of the production in China is Intel, Hynix, and soon to be Samsung," said Bill McClean, president of IC Insights, in an interview with EE Times.   According to McClean, the Chinese government did everything it could to create a vibrant, home-grown semiconductor manufacturing industry, including fast-tracking permits and granting substantial tax holidays to the likes of SMIC, Hua Hong, Grace Semiconductor, and others. "I think they had their shot at it and it really hasn't worked out for them," McClean said. Facing stiff competition and technology hurdles, the indigenous Chinese foundries have had a tough time gaining meaningful marketshare. SMIC, which IC Insights currently ranks as the world's No. 5 foundry by sales, is at least two years behind market leader TSMC in process technology, McClean said. SMIC's 2012 sales of about $1.7 billion were less than one tenth of TSMC's $17.2 billion, according to IC Insights. Attracting more foreign investment McClean said China's best hope now is to try to entice more foreign companies to set up fabs in China, creating a larger semiconductor production base, even if it's not by indigenous Chinese companies. He noted that China has given life to several successful fabless chip companies, including Spreadtrum and Hisilicon, each of which is ranked among the top 20 fabless chip suppliers. Samsung got the approval of the South Korean government to build an advanced 300-mm fab in Xian in April 2012. The firm started construction of the fab late last year and expects to invest some $7 billion in the project, according to IC Insights. McClean said China's ability to attract more foreign fabs—especially by Intel and Samsung—will depend largely on the experiences Intel and Samsung have with their first two fabs there. Concern over intellectual property protection in China remains very much an issue. According to McClean, the lack of adequate IP protection in China is one reason that many large fabless chip vendors such as Qualcomm and Broadcom have not brought their leading-edge chip designs to Chinese foundries. (Though, he added, so far SMIC and other Chinese foundries haven't really had the production capability to build those chips, anyway.) "I think a lot of people are going to see what happens with this Samsung fab," McClean said, noting that Samsung plans to produce sub-20nm chips there.   McClean added that it was bold of both Intel and Samsung to open fabs in China. For the most part, he said, Intel likes to have its fabs in the US and Samsung likes to have its in South Korea. Opening up a factory in China was "stepping a little out of the comfort zone" for both, McClean said. If Intel and Samsung have success with their Chinese fabs, they might be open to building more there, McClean said. "But I don't think this is opening the flood gates to foreign investment," he added.   Dylan McGrath EE Times

According to Karen Savala, president of the fab tool trade group SEMI Americas, the United States is experiencing a renaissance in manufacturing, and the semiconductor industry is going along for the ride. OK, Savala is not an impartial observer. Her job is to promote North American semiconductor capital equipment vendors, and the notion that chip building can make a comeback in the US is mighty appealing to SEMI member companies. For years, the conventional wisdom has been that chip making—like just about all other high-tech manufacturing endeavors—is slowly (or not so slowly) shifting to Asia, where less expensive labour and often more favourable tax policies make it more economical. But Savala, citing a recent Time magazine article , maintains that manufacturing in general is making a comeback in the US, and that chip making and other high-tech manufacturing operations are a big part of it. "High-tech manufacturing is thriving in the US, and some is even return to the US," she said Monday at a kickoff press conference for the annual Semicon West tradeshow in San Francisco. There has been much activity in recent years in upstate New York, where a number of semiconductor RD consortiums are getting down to work. Globalfoundries has built a massive fab there. But is that enough to be considered a renaissance? Savala said the increasing complexity of chip manufacturing favours close geographic proximity to fabless chip vendors, the semiconductor supply chain, and RD. Most of those are still found in the US. She also cited a "growing recognition of the importance of public-private partnerships in high-tech manufacturing," including the Global 450mm Consortium in New York. The building of chips on 450mm wafers will get its start in the US, and the first generation of 450mm megafabs will be located in the US. In addition, Savala mentioned US President Barack Obama's recent visit to an Applied Materials facility in Austin, Texas, as well as several examples from Obama's most recent State of the Union address that would appear to support high-tech manufacturing in the US. "At SEMI, we believe there is a renewed appreciation that semiconductor manufacturing is one of the most important industries in the US," she said. Savala cited Semiconductor Industry Association statistics that put total direct semiconductor employment in the US at nearly 245,000 and growth in the US chip manufacturing workforce at 3.7 per cent for 2011—three times the rate for the broader US economy. She also said that the chip industry is responsible for creating more that 1 million jobs in the supply chain and related US sectors, and that semiconductors are one of the leading US export categories—larger than corn, wheat, and soybeans combined. Again, consider the source. A comeback by the US chip building industry would be good for Savala and for SEMI. She makes some good points, but calling this a renaissance still seems like a reach. What do you think?   Dylan McGrath EE Times  

You're aware what it's like when you connect a power supply to your system with the incorrect polarity – or maybe you connect the power supply the right way round, but you've inadvertently soldered the pins of some component to the wrong power plane(s) – and "poof" – a small cloud of pungent-smelling smoke appears. Many people think that this is "game over" and the component in question can no longer function. What you may not realise is that it was only the concentrated smoke that was loaded into the component under extreme pressure during the manufacturing process that made it work in the first place. In the not-so-distant past, almost any old smoke would do. More recently, we've seen the introduction of solid crystalline smoke because of its small feature size... that popping sound you hear when you apply the incorrect potential to the component is the rapid phase change from solid crystal to gas (the gaseous form is the one with which we are most familiar). Furthermore, the rumour on the street is that, for next-generation silicon chips implemented at the 20nm process node and below, they are going to have to dispense with even the solid crystalline smoke – my contacts tell me that they're just going to fill the space with individual Bucky-balls and hope for the best. As one engineer told me: "It's amazing how much black smoke they can fit into even a small FPGA these days, and once it's out there is no getting it back in again – even if you catch it all in a jam jar." Well, I can certainly understand where he's coming from, but that's because he's not acquainted with the Electrical Smoke Re-concentrator from those clever folks at AEROstich.com. When you read the product description on the AEROstich.com website, I think you will agree that this little scamp looks like a "must have" for every workshop, and it's a bargain at the price!    

Balloons, they seem like a simple product. I can't imagine anything being difficult about sealing a couple of layers of plastic film together. Well, that's what I use to think before I was asked to build a machine to make foil balloons. Over the last 17 years, I have been involved with the design, manufacture, and installation of these machines. They weigh in at about 10,000 pound and are 30 feet long. A large percentage has gone to customers outside the United States. Each installation comes with its own challenges. When they are international, those challenges can be significant. A few years ago on an installation in Central Mexico, I ran into a problem I'd never encountered before and at the time struggled with what could be causing it. This was the first sale to this customer and my first visit to their facility. Things weren't going as planned, the machine wasn't running. The customer was asking why, and I couldn't explain why or what I was going to do about it. These machines have a servomotor to index product underneath a number of seal heads. Each index has a controlled stop using optical registration of the film to position the pre-printed images under the seal heads. I specified the components, wrote the software and had done this many times before. I thought I knew the equipment inside and out and yet randomly the machine had a hiccup with the motion. Sometimes, the index speed would be off, going too fast or too slow. Other times the index length was wrong. Every hiccup seemed to be different without pattern. Every time this would happen, the very next index seemed to be fine. It might happen every 5 minutes or only once an hour. I spent a day monitoring the in-coming power, looking for power anomalies to explain the malfunction. I went through every electrical connection of the machine thinking somewhere I would find a loose wire that could account for the random nature of this problem. I contacted the drive manufacturer, hoping they would tell me about some firmware revision that I wasn't aware of and point me in a direction. I found nothing and at this point I had a machine that didn't work, limited resources and the customer breathing down my neck. It was getting towards the end of the third day and still no real clue with what could be wrong. I had the display (Operator Interface) disconnected from the servo to use the serial port for my laptop and had been monitoring the drive most of the day. It was then that it dawned on me that the machine had run without incident all day with the display unplugged. I plugged the display back in and sure enough about 5 or 10 minutes of running, and there it was. I left the display unplugged for the next shift as a test and the machine preformed perfectly without exception. Ok, so now I had a clue where to look. Like most I instantly thought; I have a noise problem. This particular display has two serial ports. The second port was talking to a PLC, and that didn't seem to have any problems, but that is far from a definitive conclusion. I didn't have equipment with me to monitor the data stream. So I really couldn't prove or disprove that noise was there or a problem. My experience with industrially hardened components is that if you follow some basic "best practices," noise is seldom the issue. I ultimately decided I would have to dig deeper, and got the customer to agree to run the machine as is (display disconnected) until I could find a solution to the problem. After returning home, I made a number of calls to both the display and servo drive manufacturers. In conversation with one of the drive firmware engineers, I was asked the interval between data transfers from the display to the drive. I had to check and according to the data sheet, every 500ms. After discussing the amount of data I was transmitting, he told me that was probably too often. It was concluded I was overflowing the serial buffer. I had used this display / drive combination before, but previously it was just for data display. In hindsight, earlier installations probably had the same problem, but they were easy to overlook when the machine performance wasn't affected. After thinking about it further, it all made sense. The machine checks every cycle for motion parameter changes and recalculates the motion profile based on those values. When an overflow occurred, data was lost and the register being written to only received part of the data. Then the program would use that corrupted data to calculate the next move. There's little wonder why the problem manifested itself in such a random manor. The fix ended up simple; reduce the polling frequency of the display. I have used 10 or 15 different brands of servos over the years. I have used even more brands of PLCs and operator interface units. For the most part, I have had little problems integrating various brands of components, but when you run into compatibility problems seldom will you find the answer in the supplied manuals, you'll most likely have to dig deeper. - Mike Frazier Mike Frazier is vice president of Axis Automation in Hartland, Wisonsin, United States. For most of the last 30 years, Mike has been designing and building automation equipment for numerous industries. In the beginning of his automation career, he worked as a machinist, serving an Apprenticeship at Centerline Industries in Waterloo, Wisonsin. In those early years, Mike took an interest in the control side of his projects. Since that time, he has developed controls systems based on PLCs, Motion controllers, PCs, and embedded controllers as well as combinations of those platforms.