Tuesday, February 8, 2022
Samsung Electronics Is Pushing Hard to Bring Monolithic 3D DRAM to HVM by 2025
Friday, May 7, 2021
Applied Materials MEMORY MASTER CLASS 2021 - slide deck
I missed this opportunity, however, I am grateful for Lita Shon-Roy just sending me the link to the slide deck - Tack så mycket.
Slide deck for the Memory Class LINK
Next class up is Logic June 16, 2021 followed by more interesting topics in 2nd half 2021:
- Specialty semiconductors
- Heterogeneous design and advanced packaging
- Inspection and process control
You are welcome to contact us at TECHCET (jsundqvist@techcet.com) to dig further into the future surge of materials to realize the data-driven economy:
- ALD/CVD precursors
- Metals/PVD Targets
- Photoresist
- Wet chemicals
- CMP pads & slurries
- Bulk, Rare and Speciality gases
- Wafers
Applied Materials Introduces Materials Engineering Solutions for DRAM Scaling
- New Draco™ hard mask material co-optimized with Sym3® Y etcher to accelerate DRAM capacitor scaling
- DRAM makers adopting Black Diamond®, the low-k dielectric material pioneered by Applied Materials to overcome interconnect scaling challenges in logic
- High-k metal gate transistors now being introduced in advanced DRAM designs to boost performance and reduce power while shrinking the periphery logic to improve area and cost
Friday, March 26, 2021
Samsung confirms first HKMG for DDR5 DRAM
ASM International recently acknowledged that ALD High-k/Metal Gate (HKMG) is finally in high volume production for DRAM (LINK). Now Samsung confirms that. This is a small victory for all people working on this process for such a long time. My first tool ownership when I moved to Germany and started at Infineon was an ASM Polygon 200 mm cluster with a Pulsar 2000 chamber running HfO2, TiN, TiHfN, TiAlN, Al2O3, and my not fully understood HfN ALD process and a Poly chamber that I never really cared too much about. Press release below - and now do the maths - how big this business is once rolled out for all DRAM technologies to come - yeah $$$, many tulips indeed.
Samsung Develops Industry’s First HKMG-Based DDR5 Memory; Ideal for Bandwidth-Intensive Advanced Computing Applications
512GB capacity DDR5 module made possible by an 8-layer TSV structureHKMG material reduces power by 13 percent while doubling the speed of DDR4
Friday, February 26, 2021
Tech Insights Teardown: Samsung’s D1z DRAM with EUV Lithography
Reuters: SK Hynix signs five-year deal worth $4.3 billion with ASML to secure EUV scanners
Tuesday, February 9, 2021
Capacitorless DRAM using oxide semiconductors could be built in 3D layers above a processor’s silicon
Thursday, January 28, 2021
Micron Delivers Industry’s First 1α DRAM Technology
Friday, December 18, 2020
Imec demonstrate BEOL compatible architecture that paves the way to high-density 3D-DRAM memories
Wednesday, October 28, 2020
TechInsights Webinar: ALD/ALE Process in Commercially Available Memory Devices
Tuesday, May 19, 2020
Hafnium, Zirconium: Australian Strategic Materials a step closer to completing commercial pilot plan
Besides the tension with Japan, China's dominance in the supply of zirconium chemicals and materials has highlighted the additional risk in the critical materials supply change for its important semiconductor and high tech industries.
One such action has been setting up a pilot plant in South Korea for hafnium and zirconium metal in joint development with Australias Alkane and its subsidiary Australian Strategic Materials (ASM). The joint undertaking has now moved to the next phase for a commercial operation of a pilot plant as reported by Alkaine below.
Australian Strategic Materials a step closer to completing commercial pilot plan
Australian Strategic Materials (ASM), a wholly owned subsidiary of Alkane Resources is getting closer to completing the construction of a commercial pilot plant facility in South Korea that will enable critical metal oxides, including zirconium and hafnium, to be converted into metals in clean, carbon-free way.
As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to highlight weaknesses in critical minerals supply chains globally, ASM has confirmed in Alkane Resources' quarterly recently it has received interest in both potential future supply and partnership from a number of parties in South Korea and elsewhere. ...
Read more.
The Dubbo Project - The High-k mine in Dubbo, NSW Australia
Hafnium product breakthrough consolidates Dubbo Project business case
China’s water crisis stems the flow of zirconium and rare earths for global industries
Alkane Resources reports that zirconium oxychloride (ZOC) prices are up 40% since January 2017
Monday, April 20, 2020
Choppy Waters for Shipping $50B of Semiconductor Materials in 2020
Risky Sailing on the Global Supply-Chain Seas
San Diego, CA, Apr 17, 2020:TECHCET announces that:• Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the global economy is creating choppy waters for shipping and supplying critical materials, as highlighted in recent Critical Materials Council (CMC) monthly meetings, and
• With a return of global economic growth by 2021, compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2025 is forecast at 3.5% as shown in the Figure (below).
“From our market research, materials suppliers are increasing production and sales to ensure safety-stock throughout the supply-chain in case there are further disruptions due to COVID-19 cases,” remarked Lita Shon-Roy, TECHCET President and CEO. “Even without further disruptions, we can already see leading economic indicators such as unemployment levels, metal prices and container shipping indices point toward a significant decline in global GDP.” This is supported by the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF’s) current outlook on 2020.
Currently, almost all chip fabs appear to be running at normal levels, with a few exceptions. During this difficult period, YMTC in Wuhan, China reportedly has maintained R&D and grown production of 3D-NAND chips. However, chip fabs in Malaysia report that the government required companies to request permission to continue operating at 50% staffing levels. One company in France had to temporarily reduce production due to their labor union insisting on temporary workforce reductions.
Significant value-added engineered materials including specialty gases, deposition precursors, wet chemicals, chemical-mechanical planarization (CMP) slurries & pads, silicon wafers, PVD/sputtering targets, and photoresists & ancillary materials for lithography are reporting healthy orders and in some cases will see better than expected revenues for 1Q2020 and April 2020. However, more than 60% of all materials are expected to be negatively impacted before year-end.
Overall demand for commodity materials, such as silane and phosphoric acid, is expected to decline YoY in 2020 by an average of 3% due to softening of the global economy. Average selling prices (ASP) for electronic-grade commodities may drop due to cost reductions in feed-stocks; for example, the global helium (He) gas market which had been forecasted to be in shortage with high ASPs throughout 2020 has already improved due to COVID-19 slowing down helium demand.
DRAM, 3D-NAND, and MPU chips for server / cloud-computing applications are now in high demand for virtual meetings and remote work. It is yet unclear how much of an increase in materials shipments will be needed to support this segment, however from TECHCET’s modeling of prior cycles it will likely be >7%. Despite such an increase in the materials used to make leading-edge ICs to build out data centers, shipments in support of legacy node IC fabrication are expected to decline this year.
Consequently, cloud-computing growth may not compensate for overall reduced semiconductor materials demands caused by economic downturns this year. By 2021 the global economy and all chip fabs should return to healthier growth, with materials markets for all IC devices expected to increase at a CAGR of +3.5% through 2025.
Critical Materials Reports™ and Market Briefings: TECHCET Shop
CMC Events: Click here to view all Events
Saturday, November 2, 2019
Micron claim DRAM Technology Leadership As Samsung And SK Hynix Push Out EUV
- ASML reported that four EUV lithography systems will be pushed out from shipping in 4Q 2019.
- My analysis suggests Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are two of the companies pushing our EUV for their memory business.
- Micron's 1z nm DRAM already is technologically advanced, and are two quarters ahead of Samsung and one year ahead of SK Hynix.
Full article: Micron: DRAM Technology Leadership As Samsung And SK Hynix Push Out EUV, Seeking Alpha (LINK)
A DRAM roadmap by the Information Network showing Micron’s transition to 1z nm and gain of leadership over rivals Samsung and SK Hynix.
Thursday, August 22, 2019
Micron has started volume production of 10 nm-class DRAM (1z nm)
Tuesday, July 2, 2019
Applied Materials to buy Japan's Kokusai to boost memory chip business and ALD
- Kokusai is a small acquisition for Applied materials as compared to the previously failed mega-merger with Tokyo Electron, meaning that the road to approval should be easy. However, China’s willingness from a political standpoint is always a risk, Evercore analysts said.
- Apart from China, the acquisition will need approvals from Israel, Ireland, Japan, Korea and Taiwan, Applied Materials Chief Financial Officer Dan Durn said on a call with analysts.
- Kokusai, which counts Samsung, SK Hynix, Toshiba and Micron among its top customers, reported revenue of $1.24 billion as of March 2018.
- Kokusai’s batch wafer processing tools are less technology intensive than Applied Materials’ single wafer tools, the recent focus on ultra-thin films has driven renewed interest in this group, DA Davidson analysts said.
- ASM International
- Tokyo Electron
- Kokusai
Wednesday, June 19, 2019
TechInsights’ Logic, NAND, DRAM and Emerging Memory Process Roadmaps are here
TechInsights’ technology roadmaps show you the innovations we are monitoring
We constantly monitor the consumer electronics market to determine which manufacturers are planning to release new solutions, and when. We maintain and regularly update technology roadmaps in several different areas: Logic, NAND Flash Memory, DRAM, Emerging Memory, and Internet of Things Connectivity Systems on Chips, and more.
Updates to the roadmaps shown below are released throughout the year; check this page for updates.
Wednesday, May 8, 2019
4th CMC Conference Enabled Critical Information and Connections
Fab materials event in Albany, New York area April 25-26 featured GlobalFoundries keynote and Intel and TI presentations. Plan now for the 2020 April 23-24 event in Hillsboro, Oregon.
The event opened again, as in each of the prior three years, on an extremely strong business and technology keynote address by an executive from one of the CMC Fab member companies. The 2019 CMC Conference keynote was given by Dr. John Pellerin, Deputy CTO and VP of Worldwide R&D, GlobalFoundries. Pellerin talked about how demand for new high-volume manufacturing (HVM) semiconductor devices over the next few years will drive needs for increased numbers of new specialty materials as well as volumes of existing materials in his presentation on "Materials Challenges & Opportunities in Differentiated Technologies."
In the first session of the event covering global supply-chain issues of economics and regulations, G. Dan Hutcheson, CEO of VLSI Research, presented on "Slowdown: When did it start? What drove it? And When will the recovery come?" Hutcheson showed data from leading economic indicators that the recent decline in global semiconductor fab industry revenues due to memory chip prices may have already turned around.
TECHCET Sr. Analysts Dr. Jonas Sundqvist and Terry Francis presented updated information on demand drivers and forecasts for ALD/CVD precursors and Rare Earths, respectively. Sundqvist--also leader of the Thin Film Technologies Group at Fraunhofer IKTS--focused on how new 3D memory and logic chips demand more deposition precursors such that chemical volume growth will outpace that of silicon wafers, shown in the Figure. Francis showed how "Rare Earth" elements are not so rare at the elemental level, but complex dynamics between mining and refining and capitalism have led to a situation where mainland China currently controls most of the market for elements such as lanthanum (used in advanced ICs to create CMOS logic gates). Deep dives into all such materials matters are found in the TECHCET Critical Materials Reports (CMR), and you can find all of them online at https://techcet.com/shop/.
In addition to the annual spring CMC Conference in the US, there is also an annual fall CMC Seminar in Asia. The 2019 CMC Seminar will be held on October 17 in Taoyuan, Taiwan. For more information on CMC events see https://techcet.com/cmc-events/.
About CMC:
The Critical Materials Council (CMC) of Semiconductor Fabricators (CMCFabs.org) is a membership-based organization that works to anticipate and solve critical materials issues in a pre-competitive environment. The CMC is a business unit of TECHCET, and includes materials supplier Associate Members.
About TECHCET:
TECHCET CA LLC is an advisory services firm focused on process materials supply-chains, electronic materials business, and materials market analysis for the semiconductor, display, solar/PV, and LED industries. Since 2000, the company has been responsible for producing the SEMATECH Critical Material Reports™, covering silicon wafers, semiconductor gases, wet chemicals, CMP consumables, Photoresists, and ALD/CVD Precursors. For additional information about reports, market briefings, CMC membership, or custom consulting please contact info(at)cmcfabs(dot)org, +1-480-332-8336, or go to http://www.techcet.com or http://www.cmcfabs.org.
Friday, November 9, 2018
Imec to present scaled Superduper High-k Ruthenium/Strontium titanate capacitor at IEDM
Monday, September 26, 2016
RASIRC® BRUTE® peroxide and hydrazine technology for leading edge memory and high performance logic
RASIRC BRUTE H2O2 Apparatus (H2O2 + solvent) surrounds the Nafion membrane tubes. H2O2 passes through the membrane walls and is picked up by the carrier gas.
Growth of many different films has been showcased with BRUTE Peroxide and the related RASIRC product BRUTE Hydrazine. In presentations and posters at ALD2016 Ireland the RASIRC line of BRUTE Hydrazine and BRUTE Peroxide showed impressively many useful results by many different precursors. In total, four separate posters and presentations covered growth passivation of SiOx on SiGe, SiNx on SiGe, SiON on SiGe as well as growing HfO2, ZrO2, TiO2, Al2O3 and TaOx with the BRUTE line of new reactive chemistries.