BeSang demos multi-layer 3D IC technology

BEAVERTON, USA: BeSang Inc., a fabless semiconductor company, has successfully developed a multi-layer stacked three-dimensional (3D) integrated circuit (IC) technology.

This 3D IC technology enables ultra low-cost solid-state drives (SSD), semiconductor memories, image sensors, and high-performance logic products with large embedded memory blocks.

This 3D IC technology includes four single-crystalline silicon layers having 200nm to 60nm feature size vertical device structures which are uniquely processed at low temperatures, below 400 degree Celsius. The four single-crystalline silicon layers are formed above a silicon substrate with a metal interconnection region between them.

"Our main effort is to develop multi-layer 3D ICs which provide ultra low cost solutions to the semiconductor and microelectronics industries," said Dr. Sang-Yun Lee, CEO of BeSang.

"With this 3D IC technology, a high-definition movie can be stored on a small 3D IC chip having a terabyte storage capacity for a few dollars. High-performance cell phones with multi-functional and super fast 3D IC chips using this technology will be possible in the near future. These cell phones will be able to compete with laptops."

Unlike conventional 3D packaging technologies and 3D TSV (Through Silicon Via) technologies, where memory control logic circuits are stacked in 3D along with memory arrays, BeSang's 3D IC technology combines the control logic on the bottom substrate with the 3D memory arrays. This 3D scheme allows heat to be dissipated much more efficiently.

"One of the unique features of BeSang's 3D ICs is that heat dissipation is of less concern," said Dr. Choonsik Oh, former executive vice president and head of R&D at Hynix Semiconductor.

"Heat dissipation from logic circuitry in 3D planes must be carefully considered in the design of conventional 3D packaging and 3D TSV products. Implementing logic circuitry on the bottom substrate and memory arrays in the 3D plane is a unique feature of BeSang's 3D ICs. In this case, heat from the logic circuits flows to the bottom silicon substrate with its low thermal resistance. Because memory arrays do not operate as fast as logic, heat dissipation from the memory array is generally not a significant concern."

BeSang's multi-layer 3D ICs can be used for various applications, including high performance single chip mobile phones and ultra low cost SSD. For single chip mobile phone applications, the mobile high density flash memory and DRAM are formed in a multi-layer 3D IC on top of a baseband processor chip. This configuration provides lower power consumption, higher speed, and a smaller form factor.

SSD has been considered as a replacement for HDD. However, the high cost of SSDs has prevented their introduction into the market. BeSang's multi-layer 3D ICs provide a high-density vertical flash memory cell structure that is ideal for ultra low-cost SSDs and will accelerate the introduction of SSDs into the market.

"Combining multi-layer 3D IC and multi-bit vertical cell technologies, our plan is to implement 0.1F2 effective flash memory cell size for SSDs, which is about 20 times smaller than the cell size of conventional multi-level NAND flash," said Junil Park, vice president of process technology at BeSang.

"I believe BeSang's 3D IC has numerous advantages over emerging memories, such as resistive RAM, in terms of material reliability (i.e. silicon vs. emerging material), process complexity such as the number of mask steps per bit, and manufacturing cost."

Semiconductor manufacturing is focused on ways to miniaturize devices. However, it is very difficult for semiconductor manufacturing companies to make a respectable return on investment when high chip manufacturing costs makes it economically unfeasible to do volume production of smaller devices. Hence, BeSang's 3D IC technology, which allows more transistors to be packed into a single chip, is a crucial solution for semiconductor manufacturing.

"BeSang's single-chip 3D ICs with multi-layer stacking are a sure road to the continued miniaturization of microelectronics," said Dr. Sang-Yun Lee.

BeSang's 3D IC technology aims to provide an innovative, simpler, and more cost-effective way to enhance large functional blocks, such as memory arrays or photodiodes for image sensors, systems-on-a-chip, microprocessors, and memory control logic circuitry in advanced semiconductor chips.

Finding and researching IC manufacturers, fabless suppliers made easy!

SCOTTSDALE, USA: IC Insights recently announced new and exciting improvements to its Strategic Reviews Online database service.

For many years, the Strategic Reviews Online database has been the top source for complete company profiles on more than 225 of the world’s premiere IC manufacturers and fabless suppliers. Now, the service has become a faster, more flexible, and more useful tool for keeping up with your customers, suppliers, partners, and competition.

Some of the new features of the new Strategic Reviews Online service include:

• Up to 5x faster performance
• Scroll back through financial history with quarterly data
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Each company review includes current and historical financial statistics, an overview of business strategies, a listing of products and services offered, and key management personnel. Also offered are specifics about joint ventures and strategic global alliances. Furthermore, details (e.g., wafer size, capacity, min. geometry) on more than 540 wafer fab facilities are included.

IC Insights expends some 2,000 hours per year keeping the Strategic Reviews Online database current. With its low annual subscription fee, that works out to be just $1.25 per hour for one year’s worth of access.

IC Insights' Strategic Reviews Online service offers the industry's most complete and thoroughly researched profiles of the operations and activities of more than 225 device manufacturers, fabless chip suppliers, and design houses. A 12-month, single-user subscription to Strategic Reviews Online is priced at $2,490. Access is also available under a multi-user corporate license for $4,190.

For more information about the Strategic Reviews Online database, please visit http://www.icinsights.com/prodsrvs/reviews.html

1Q09: 'Bottom' of the current semiconductor industry cycle!

USA: In order to compile "real time" evidence that a cyclical bottom was reached in 1Q09, IC Insights gathered semiconductor company financial data from its Strategic Reviews Online Database and released the detailed results in its May Update to The McClean Report.

Second-quarter 2009 guidance from 48 semiconductor suppliers was combined with IC Insights' estimates for 13 "top 25" companies (61 companies in total). It should be noted that, not including the five pure-play foundries, the remaining 56 companies in the research represent about 75 percent of the worldwide semiconductor market.

It was very enlightening and encouraging to read the comments from many of the companies in the survey. When reviewed, words and phrases like "stabilizing, improvement, bottom, expansion, inflection point, and better than expected" came up often and lend credence to our opinion that a turning point has been encountered in the semiconductor industry.

Over the next few months, it will be refreshing to hear the discussion regarding the semiconductor market shift focus from, "where is the bottom?" to, "how strong will the recovery be?"

According to our research, the top 25 semiconductor suppliers are expected to display an 8 percent increase in 2Q09/1Q09 sales, 4 percent excluding the foundries. Guidance from the "other" semiconductor suppliers in our survey (i.e., non-top 25) is even more encouraging than that of the top 25 companies.

In total, the "other" 36 companies expect to register a strong 13 percent increase in 2Q09/1Q09 sales! In all cases, the 2Q09 expectations for the "other" companies were provided by the companies themselves, there were no IC Insights estimates used.

The "Grand Total" of the 61 companies in our survey shows a 9 percent increase in semiconductor sales expected for 2Q09/1Q09. Excluding the pure-play foundries, the 2Q09/1Q09 growth rate drops to a still respectable 5 percent, especially considering that the 1Q09/4Q08 and 4Q08/3Q08 semiconductor markets declined by 12 percent and 23 percent, respectively.

A further breakdown of the 2Q09/1Q09 semiconductor sales expectations of the 61 companies is shown below.

32 IDM Companies: +4 percent ($30.8B/$29.6B)
24 Fabless Companies: +8 percent ($6.5B/$6.0B)
5 Pure-Play Foundries: +82 percent ($3.64B/$2.00B)

It should be noted that when a range of expectations was given by a company for its 2Q09 outlook, which was the case about 90 percent of the time, IC Insights incorporated the mid-point of this range.

Historically, most companies are very conservative in their stated expectations, since it is much better to beat your guidance than to fall short (this is especially true for publicly traded companies). Thus, given the inherent conservatism in the guidance:

IC Insights forecasts that the 2Q09/1Q09 semiconductor and IC markets will actually register a higher growth rate than the survey's "Grand Total" result of +5 percent.