Thinner Wafers Improve Power IC

Infineon ships power ICs from floppy 300-mm wafers

http://www.eetimes.com/design/power-management-design/4407170/Infineon-ships-power-ICs-from-floppy-300-mm-wafers


LONDON –Infineon Technologies AG has claimed it is the first and only company worldwide to produce power semiconductors on 300-millimeter thin wafers and that this will bring the company both a technical and cost advantage over its competition. Infineon (Munich, Germany) has been working on the technology for several years and in February 2013 received first customer clearances to ship CoolMOS family products made on a 300-mm production line at Villach, Austria, which uses thin wafers. The chips are now being shipped worldwide, Infineon said. As power flows vertically in a power MOSFET the reduced thickness lowers resistance and losses and allows heat to be removed more effectively. Infineon has worked with thinned wafers or thin epitaxial structures on top of wafers for more than a decade. However, transferring such a process to 300-mm wafers sets additional challenges. Infineon did not indicate what power ICs are the first to ship from 300-mm wafers but is reported to have been working on power MOSFETs and insulated-gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs). A wafer is typically 350-microns thick prior to being diced into individual chips. At the 200-mm wafer size Infineon typically thins power wafers back to 60-micron and even 40-micron thicknesses. The technology is used for IGBTs) and high-and low-power MOSFETs for a range of applications from automotive engine control through to power packs and induction hobs. The larger size of 300-mm wafer compared to 200-mm wafers used as standard for power IC production means two-and-a-half times as many chips can be made from each one providing a cost advantage to Infineon. "Infineon put its faith in this manufacturing technology very early on and continued to invest even in economically difficult times," said Reinhard Ploss, CEO of Infineon, in a statement. "The qualification of our entire 300-millimeter line represents a veritable leap ahead of the competition," he added. Infineon plans to add the approval of its back-end packaging site in Malacca, Malaysia and then to expand production to its front-end site in Dresden, Germany, where a fully automated 300-mm production line will focus on high volume production. The technology transfer to Dresden is running on schedule and qualification of the first CoolMOS products will be completed in March 2013, Infineon said. Meanwhile Villach will work on transferring more power semiconductor technologies to 300-mm production.

Intel: Installed Base Adv. for Tablets, Wibdow8 vs. Arm processor

A key benefit of legacy, installed base (see below). Ron http://m.computerworld.com/s/article/9227066/Intel_CEO_Otellini_calls_out_ARM_on_Windows_8_tablets Intel CEO Otellini calls out ARM on Windows 8 tablets Otellini says Intel chips are better at supporting legacy apps on Windows 8 By Agam Shah May 10, 2012 02:59 PM ET IDG News Service -Intel CEO Paul Otellini on Thursday said that the company has an advantage over its rival ARM on Windows 8 for tablets because of decades of developing x86 chips that support the Windows operating system. "We think it's a differentiator," said Otellini at the company's investor meeting in Santa Clara, California. "We have the advantage of the incumbency, the legacy support." Intel's only competitor in the Windows 8 tablet market is ARM, whose processors ship in most tablets today. ARM may have an entry point to the Windows tablet market, but faces a tough road ahead considering Intel's history with Windows, Otellini said. Windows grew up on x86 chips, but Microsoft is now also releasing Windows for the ARM architecture to make a dent into the tablet market. The upcoming Windows 8 OS will have a touch-based user interface and will come in three versions --Windows RT for ARM, and Windows 8 and Windows 8 Pro for x86 chips. Intel plans to offer a new low-power Atom chip code-named Clover Trail, which will be released at the time of Windows 8 later this year. Otellini said PC makers are designing 20 Windows 8 tablets based on Intel chips. No ARM-based device makers have publicly announced Windows tablets, though Microsoft is working with ARM-based chip makers Nvidia, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments to bring Windows 8 compatibility to tablets and PCs. Playing the application compatibility card, Otellini said tablets with Intel's upcoming chips will support older applications written for previous versions of Windows, which is important for CIOs. "There's going to be some compatibility issues for other architectures," Otellini said.ust by pressing one button on a tablet, users will be able to jump into legacy Windows mode for those who need an older user interface, Otellini said. The Windows 8 tablets on Intel chips provide a snappy response, Otellini said. Many application compatibility issues have been raised in the past. Intel last year claimed that legacy x86 applications would not work on Windows on ARM, a claim that was shot down by Microsoft. However, Microsoft later said that Windows on ARM would not be able to run or port existing x86 applications. Microsoft is trying to raise the appeal of Windows on ARM by bundling basic Office applications --collectively called Office 15 --with versions of Windows RT. Microsoft Office will not be included with Windows 8 or Windows 8 Pro. There are also hardware compatibility issues at stake. For example, older printers and cameras may not work with Windows on ARM devices as drivers are currently compatible only with x86 chips, and companies may be unwilling to rewrite drivers for ARM. Intel also hopes to bring tablet features such as touchscreens to its upcoming class of thin-and-light laptops called ultrabooks. Top PC makers expect to release ultrabooks based on Windows 8 in the future. ARM could not immediately respond when asked about Otellini's comments. Agam Shah covers PCs, tablets, servers, chips and semiconductors for IDG News Service. Follow Agam on Twitter at @agamsh. Agam's e-mail address is agam_shah@idg.com

Intel, AMD, or ARM Servers?

The article below about low-power servers doesn't mention Intel's large growth in database servers.  Intel had more than $10 billion in revenues from ICs sold into data centers, including servers, storage products, and networking.

Considering the high power usage by databases, it is not surprising that Intel wants to dominate the low-power servers market.  It is likely that databases and cloud servers  (20% of sales, 3x PC segment growth) added to Intel's growth in 2011.


Ron Maltiel

 

 

Intel to Face Off Against AMD, ARM with New Low-Power Server

http://forwardthinking.pcmag.com/servers/296555-intel-to-face-off-against-amd-arm-with-new-low-power-server

By Michael J. Miller

Intel may think extremely low-power servers are only a small part of the server market, but that isn't stopping the company from competing in this segment.

At its Intel Developer Forum in Beijing, the company said it will release a six-watt, dual-core processor known as Centerton, based on a dual-core Atom design, in the second half of this year.
Atom is Intel's low-power core design and the company has been pushing variants of it for everything from smartphones and tablets to set-top boxes and netbooks. Centerton will be a 32nm, dual-core system-on-chip (SoC) that will draw six watts of power. This will be a 64-bit chip with support for the large amounts of memory that many server applications require.

The microserver market is particularly interesting because of a theory that massive "scale out" deployments—typically large Web farms—would do better with a larger number of physical cores if those processors used much less power than traditional servers. SeaMicro was perhaps the biggest early advocate of this process, coming out with its SM10000 server using up to 512 Atom cores and its proprietary fabric for connecting multiple processors, along with the associated memory and input/output. Last year, it upped the ante by switching to 64-bit Atom N570s.

SeaMicro was acquired by AMD earlier this year, and the company is widely expected to start using that fabric with its own processors and offer the technology to its OEMs.

Meanwhile, a number of companies—notably Calxeda, with its EnergyCore ARM processor— have been talking about using multiple ARM-based cores to compete in the microserver market. The concept is good, and Calxeda says its processor can draw as little as 1.5 watts for a dual-core server, although it is 32-bit only. This, too, is expected to go into real production in the second half of this year.

ARM has announced a 64-bit architecture that many vendors are expected to embrace, but 64-bit ARM cores aren't expected to be available for volume production until 2014.

Intel also said it will be shipping a new version of its Xeon E3 processor based on the Ivy Bridge architecture, manufactured on a 22nm process using "tri-gate" transistors. These chips are aimed at slightly larger servers, usually a single socket 1 U rack or blade server that effectively is the equivalent of a high-end desktop. Currently, Intel offers 45- and 25-watt versions of the 32nm Sandy Bridge-based E3s, along with a 15-watt Pentium 350. It hasn't yet listed power requirements for the next generation E3s, but suggests the 22nm process will be more power efficient.

These should be competing more with AMD's recently announced Opteron 3200, which is meant to be a lower-power, low-price variant on the company's Opteron 4200 chip, based on the Bulldozer architecture. The four-core versions of these chips are rated at 45 watts.

Whether from Intel, AMD, or one of a variety of ARM providers, we're seeing more competition in the server market, particularly in the low-power segment. That's leading to lots of innovation and the potential for companies to save a lot on power bills.

Top 25 2011 Semiconductor Sales Ranking

IC Insights'  report of the top 25 semiconductor companies (see below) states that Intel grew 24% in 2011 due to the purchase of Infineon's wireless segment. It is likely that the growth of databases and cloud servers (20% of sales, 3x PC segment growth) also added to Intel's growth.

It is important to note that the semiconductor sales and growth rankings do not include SanDisk's $5.66B sales in 2011. See more details about SanDisk's results from 2008 to 2011 at Is Apple Squeezing Suppliers, Or Is SanDisk Simply Missing Out?

Ron Maltiel

Extreme Results in Top 25 2011 Semiconductor Sales Ranking! http://www.icinsights.com/news/bulletins/Extreme-Results-In-Top-25-2011-Semiconductor-Sales-Ranking/ ON Semiconductor and Elpida represented an 89-point swing in 2011 growth rates. Although only 2% growth was registered in the worldwide semiconductor market (including ICs and Optoelectronics, Sensors, and Discretes; O-S-Ds) in 2011, several companies posted results that were far different (Figure 1). Boosted by its acquisition of Sanyo’s semiconductor business, ON Semiconductor registered a 49% sales increase last year and moved into the top 25 ranking for the first time! Qualcomm, spurred by a 73% increase in smartphone unit shipments last year, logged a strong 38% increase in semiconductor sales in 2011. At the other end of the spectrum was Elpida, which registered a steep sales drop of 40% (45% when expressed in yen)! Although 15 of the top 25 semiconductor sales leaders posted negative results last year, in total, the top 10 and top 25 semiconductor suppliers grew 7% and 4%, respectively, in 2011 as compared to 2010. These growth rates were much better than the 2% increase shown in the worldwide 2011/2010 semiconductor market. A listing of the top 50 semiconductor suppliers of 2011 will be included in IC Insights' April Update, which is part of the subscription to The McClean Report. As shown, Intel remained firmly in control of the number one spot in the ranking last year. In fact, Intel, helped by its acquisition of Infineon’s wireless IC business, extended its lead over second-ranked Samsung by registering 48% more in semiconductor sales than Samsung in 2011 as compared to a 24% margin in 2010. Healthy growth in its graphics and communications processor business helped Nvidia jump five positions and move the company to 18th place in the top 25 ranking. In contrast, Elpida fell six spots in the ranking last year (from 13th to 19th) as the collapse in the DRAM market had a disastrous effect on the company. In fact, Elpida lost almost $1.2 billion in the second half of calendar 2011 and filed for bankruptcy in 1Q12. In contrast to 2010, memory companies did not secure the top growth rate positions in the ranking in 2011 (Figure 2). In fact, as shown below, non-memory suppliers logged the top six growth rate increases last year. Moreover, in the case of ON, Qualcomm, and Intel, 2011 semiconductor sales growth rates were significantly boosted by company and/or business segment acquisitions. 1) ON Semi; 49% jump primarily due to the acquisition of Sanyo’s semiconductor business 2) Qualcomm; 38% jump due to surging smartphone IC sales and its acquisition of Atheros 3) Infineon; 29% growth from continuing operations (23% using 2010 exchange rates) 4) Intel; 24% increase spurred in part by its acquisition of Infineon’s wireless business 5) Nvidia; 10% growth due to healthy sales of graphics and communications processors 6) TSMC; 10% (2% using 2010 exchange rates) Of the big five memory suppliers in the top 25 ranking (i.e., Samsung, Toshiba, Hynix, Micron, and Elpida), only Samsung registered 2011/2010 growth. In total, only 9 of the top 25 suppliers (including Infineon’s 29% sales growth from continuing operations) outperformed the total worldwide semiconductor industry 2011/2010 growth rate of 2%. Figure 1 Figure 2