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LATEST NEWS / PROJECTS / TOP STORIESSamsung Electronics to Provide Service Across a Variety of Solutions, Including Power Semiconductors
October 19, 2023
3 Min ReadSamsung Electronics hosted Samsung Foundry Forum (SFF) 2023 Europe and unveiled its advanced and wide ranging automotive process solutions, from the most advanced 2-nanometer process to the 8-inch legacy process.
Alongside its customers and Samsung Advanced Foundry Ecosystem (SAFE) partners, Samsung Electronics showcased the latest technological trends and its business strategy tailored to the European market.
“Samsung Foundry is driving innovation in next-generation solutions to build an expanded portfolio that meets the growing needs of our automotive customers, especially as the era of electric vehicles becomes a reality,” said Dr. Siyoung Choi, President and Head of Foundry Business at Samsung Electronics. “We are strengthening our readiness to provide customers with distinguished service across a variety of solutions, including power semiconductors, microcontrollers and advanced AI chips for autonomous driving.”
Since participating in IAA Mobility 2023 for the first time in September, Samsung Electronics is strengthening engagement and partnership in specialty processes for automotive customers in the European market, further solidifying its status as a leading foundry partner for the industry.
Pioneering New Applications With Industry’s Most Advanced eMRAM
In order to meet the needs of the latest advancements in the automotive market, Samsung is setting out to develop the industry’s first 5-nanometer eMRAM for next-generation automotive technology. eMRAM is a next-generation memory semiconductor used for automotive applications that enables high read and write speeds as well as superior heat resistance.
Since developing and mass producing the industry’s first 28nm FD-SOI based eMRAM in 2019, Samsung Electronics has been developing 14nm for the FinFET process based on AEC-Q100 Grade 1. Samsung Foundry plans to expand its eMRAM portfolio by adding 14nm by 2024, 8nm by 2026, and 5nm by 2027.
Samsung’s 8nm eMRAM shows potential to deliver a 30% increase in density and 33% increase in speed, compared to the 14nm process.
Tackling the Market With Automotive Process Solutions From Cutting-Edge to Legacy
The company announced its advanced process roadmap, highlighting its plans to complete mass production readiness for its 2nm process for automotive applications by 2026.
Samsung Electronics is also bolstering its readiness to serve customer needs by expanding its 8-inch BCD (Bipolar-CMOS-DMOS) process portfolio. The BCD process combines the strengths of three different process technologies: Bipolar (B), CMOS (C), and DMOS (D) on one chip and is most commonly used in the production of power semiconductors.
Samsung Electronics plans to expand its current 130nm automotive BCD process to add 90nm by 2025. The 90nm BCD process is expected to bring a 20% decrease in chip area compared to the 130nm process.
Implementing Deep Trench Isolation (DTI) technology, which reduces the distance between each transistor to maximize the performance of power semiconductors, Samsung Foundry will be able to apply a greater voltage of 120V instead of 70V to a wider range of applications. This will enable readiness to provide a process development kit (PDK) that implements 120V to the 130nm BCD process by 2025.
Leading ‘Beyond-Moore’ Innovation Through Advanced Packaging Alliance
Samsung established a Multi-Die Integration (MDI) Alliance by collaborating with its SAFE partners as well as major players in memory, package substrate, and testing.
As part of an industry-wide partnership with 20 partners, Samsung is leading the development of 2.5D and 3D packaging solutions customized for all applications from automotive to high-performance computing (HPC).
Samsung Electronics hosted the annual Samsung Foundry Forum 2023 in the United States on June 27-28, in South Korea on July 4, and in Japan on October 17. The content from the forum will be available on the Samsung Semiconductor website for worldwide access to all visitors beginning November 2.
Original – Samsung Electronics
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Ardian, a world-leading private investment house, announced that it is expanding into semiconductor investment with the launch of Ardian Semiconductor. This innovative platform will invest across the semiconductor value chain with a focus on Europe and will enable companies to grow into global leaders in their markets.
Semiconductor devices are pervasive in the world economy and are the critical enablers of the digital transformation and green transition of key sectors, such as data infrastructure, mobility, industrial and consumer. Following several decades of consistent mid to high single digit growth, industry analysts believe the semiconductor industry will continue to grow and reach $1 trillion by 2030, driven by predictable megatrends such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing, electrification and automation of mobility and industry, or smart & connected devices.
Europe is one of the most attractive regions to invest in the coming decade. European companies in the value chain are global leaders in semiconductors for the mobility and industrial end-markets that are experiencing rapid technological transformation and expected to grow the fastest.
Europe also leads through its innovation ecosystems, IP, specialized equipment and materials companies, that underpin major megatrends such as the artificial intelligence revolution. Europe leverages strong foundations and attractive government incentives, including the €43 billion European Chips Act, to strengthen its leadership and benefit from an increased regionalization of the global supply chain.
Ardian Semiconductor aims at becoming the partner of choice of the European semiconductor value chain, bringing innovative and flexible capital solutions, as well as strategic and operational expertise, to companies with the potential to enable megatrends leveraging their distinctive technologies.
Ardian is launching the Ardian Semiconductor platform through an exclusive strategic partnership with Silian Partners, a team of highly successful senior executives from the semiconductor industry with more than 115 years of combined experience in the space, bringing unique industry relationships, strategic vision, and operational focus. Ardian and Silian Partners will work as One Team, and will bring together Ardian’s proven and successful private equity capabilities and investment processes with unparalleled industry leadership and expertise.
Ardian Semiconductor is managed by Ardian France. Silian Partners assists Ardian as an industry expert.
Ardian Semiconductor will be powered by a detailed analysis of technology megatrends and their implications across the semiconductor value chain. The team will work together to identify attractive opportunities, carry out expert due diligence, and work closely with entrepreneurs and management teams to define strategic roadmaps and execute.
This expansion builds on Ardian’s track record of investing in attractive high-growth sectors, in addition to its flagship investment activities.
“Semiconductors are everywhere and enable the world’s digital transformation and green transition. As demand for semiconductors is expected to more than double over the next decade, a whole supply chain needs to scale and bring continued innovation, including countless European mid-sized companies. We’re assembling a unique team with tremendous experience and track-record, and I can’t enjoy more than welcoming Paul, Christophe, Helmut and Thomas.
It’s therefore the perfect time to launch Ardian Semiconductor, leveraging Europe’s leading positions in critical segments of the semiconductor value chain. Building on Ardian’s proven track record as a global private investment leader, the platform will bring innovative capital solutions to this strategic value chain at a pivotal moment, working alongside world-class industry leaders.” Thibault Basquin, Member of the Executive Committee, Ardian
“We are delighted to partner with Ardian, who perfectly understand the unique opportunity to address a critical need of the European semiconductor value chain and become its financial sponsor of choice. Through a bespoke strategic partnership, we bring together in One Team seasoned private equity investors, proven investment processes, and successful semiconductor leaders.
Ardian is the ideal firm with the right people and culture to build this first-of-its-kind investment platform together. As we initiate dialogues with companies and entrepreneurs, we have confirmation that we enable solutions for the industry that do not exist today and that our approach will create significant value across the board.” Paul Boudre, Senior Managing Director & Co-Founder of Silian Partners
Silian Partners is led by:
- Paul Boudre, Senior Managing Director & Co-Founder, who brings c.35 years of semiconductor experience. As Chief Executive Officer of Soitec from 2015 to 2022, he successfully led the company through a restructuring and positioned it as a global leader of engineered semiconductor materials. Prior to Soitec, he held senior positions in semiconductor equipment and manufacturing with KLA, STMicroelectronics, IBM Microelectronics, Motorola Semiconductor and Atmel.
- Christophe Duverne, Senior Managing Director & Co-Founder, who has been a semiconductor and electronics executive for the past c.30 years. He was President and Chief Executive Officer of Linxens from 2010 to 2020, which he founded from a corporate carve-out, and led through two successful buyout transactions sponsored by CVC, Astorg and Bain Capital, to create a global leader in smart card components manufacturing. Prior to founding Linxens, he worked for over 10 years at NXP Semiconductors where he was Senior Vice President of the Identification business unit.
- Dr Helmut Gassel, Senior Managing Director & Co-Founder, who contributes c.30 years of semiconductor industry experience. He served as a member of Infineon’s Management Board as Chief Marketing Officer from 2016 to 2022 with responsibilities encompassing marketing, sales, strategy and M&A. In this capacity, he led the €9bn acquisition and integration of Cypress Semiconductor and contributed to transform Infineon into a global top 10 semiconductor company. Prior to joining Infineon in 1995 as a semiconductor design engineer, he worked in semiconductor research at Fraunhofer Institute
- Thomas Pebay-Peyroula, Managing Director & Co-Founder, who brings c.15 years of investment banking experience and has advised many European semiconductor companies on strategic, M&A and financing matters. He is joining from Rothschild & Co, and started his career with Lazard.
Original – Ardian
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Designing state-of-the-art heat pumps and HVAC systems is not easy. Finding a way to overcome demands, such as giving more power in a smaller footprint requires a lot from a power module.
Vincotech’s new 1200 V PIM+PFC is the answer. Its integrated three-phase ANPFC and inverter stage resolve contradiction to boost efficiency and cut systems costs. More compact designs at higher power ranges is not a problem any more.
Samples are available through our usual channels.
Main benefits
- All-in-one solution: 3-phase PFC with inverter stage in a compact flow1 housing allows for more compact designs and higher power density
- High efficient AN-PFC topology with SiC diodes for switching frequencies up to 150 kHz reduces systems costs
- High speed IGBT’s in the inverter stage for high switching frequency operation
- Thin Al2O3 substrate eases the system’s thermal design
- Integrated thermal sensor simplifies temperature measurement
Applications
- Embedded drives
- Industrial drives
Original – Vincotech
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Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation announced that Atsushi Tomishima, an Expert at its Electronic Devices & Storage Research & Development (R&D) Center, is a recipient of a 2023 1906 Award from the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).
The IEC is the world leader in evaluating and publishing international standards for electrical, electronic, and related technologies. The 1906 Award, created in 2006 and named for the year IEC was founded, honors the work of experts around the world whose work is fundamental to IEC and the execution of its important mission. The Award also recognizes recent and exceptional achievements—a project or other contribution—related to IEC’s activities that contribute in a significant way to advancing the Commission’s work.
Mr. Tomishima, a researcher in the Package Solution Technology Development Dept. at Toshiba’s Electronic Devices & Storage R&D Center, has been an expert member representing Japan on the IEC’s subcommittee on integrated circuit technology (TC47/SC47A) since FY2015. He also serves as an executive member of the electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) subcommittee of the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association, and has led the subcommittee’s activities, and consolidated numerous opinions and proposals on standardization.
At IEC’s EMC simulation modelling (SC47A WG2) and EMC measurement methods on Integrated circuit (WG9) working groups, he has elicited opinions from many countries, ensured a full understanding of each participant’s position, and summarized discussions.
Through these activities, he received this award in recognition of his significant contribution to the efficient promotion of standardization in the semiconductor design and testing field. These international standards established by Mr. Tomishima’s activities allow us to accurately evaluate the noise characteristics of semiconductors themselves, greatly contributing to improving the quality of product design such as integrated circuits and automobiles.
Toshiba will continue to promote international standardization activities in the electric and electronic technologies areas.
Original – Toshiba
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Renesas Electronics Corporation announced a new organizational structure and leadership team appointments. These changes will take effect January 1, 2024, and will support the company in its next phase of growth and development to become the leader in embedded semiconductor solutions.
1. Establishment of four technology-based product groups
Renesas is establishing a technology-based organization designed to provide more comprehensive and tailored solution offerings. This is aimed at effectively addressing the converging needs of customers and markets by leveraging our embedded processing, analog, power, and connectivity expertise to create complete solutions. The new organization will also enable the company to capitalize on the scale advantages by fostering more cross selling opportunities and broader customer coverage. As part of these changes, Renesas’ businesses will be restructured into four new product groups.
- Analog & Connectivity
Davin Lee, currently Vice President of Advanced Analog Division, will assume the role of Senior Vice President and General Manager of Analog & Connectivity. Under Davin’s leadership, the group will be responsible for analog products as well as the company’s vast portfolio of connectivity products.
- Embedded Processing
Toshihiko Seki, currently Vice President of MCU Device Solution Division, will assume the role of Senior Vice President and General Manager of Embedded Processing. He will be responsible for Renesas’ entire standard catalog embedded processing products. The group is designed to accelerate the company’s efforts to provide more catalog products and solutions to go deeper and broader with new and existing customers.
- High Performance Computing
Vivek Bhan, who currently holds the position of Senior Vice President and Co-General Manager of High Performance Computing, Analog and Power Solutions Group, will assume the role of Senior Vice President and General Manager of High Performance Computing. He will be responsible for the company’s custom and application-specific high computing products.
- Power
Chris Allexandre who currently serves as Senior Vice President, Chief Sales & Marketing Officer (CSMO) and Head of the Global Sales and Marketing Unit will take on a new role as Senior Vice President and General Manager of Power. Chris will be responsible for overseeing Renesas’ power management and discrete products and executing the company’s power strategies.
2. Establishment of new Software & Digitalization team and centralization of Operations, Engineering and key foundational organizations
In addition to the establishment of four product groups, Renesas has also taken steps to streamline its organizational structure by establishing new groups of functions. The new organizations will serve as centralized foundations across all lines of business to better support customers, enhance performance and add value.
- Software & Digitalization
As the company aims to transform the way customers design solutions through an innovative cloud-based platform, Renesas has recently welcomed Buvna Ayyagari as Vice President of the new Software & Digitalization organization to spearhead this effort. Buvna will be responsible for driving Renesas’ unified vision for software and digitalization, ensuring they become a powerful differentiator for the company.
Buvna brings rich and multi-disciplinary expertise across the semiconductor industry from Applied Materials, Synopsys and Intel. She held leadership positions in Engineering, Field Applications Engineering, Marketing, Pre- and Post-sales Customer Support and drove products from definition to high volume. Buvna has experiences in leading digital transformations and has helped to build a team from the ground up to define a software platform, making her well-equipped to continue to drive Renesas’ excellence in software and digitalization.
- Operations
Renesas is accelerating efforts to drive operational excellence to improve service, quality and profitability. Dr. Sailesh Chittipeddi, currently Executive Vice President, General Manager of Embedded Processing, Digital Power and Signal Chain Solutions Group, will take on a new role to oversee the new operations organization. This brings Renesas’ entire manufacturing, supply chain and procurement into a single organization chartered to lead the company’s operational and strategic initiatives to provide exceptional customer experiences.
- Engineering
Renesas is creating a centralized engineering organization to solidify Renesas’ engineering foundation, from product to test engineering. This new organization will direct the development and execution of the company’s technology and product roadmaps. Takeshi Kataoka, Senior Vice President and Co-General Manager of High Performance Computing, Analog and Power Solutions Group, will newly head this Engineering organization.
- Quality Assurance
Takeshi Kataoka will also oversee the Quality Assurance function as Senior Vice President and Head of Engineering and Quality Assurance. His experience and profound expertise in leading Renesas’ automotive semiconductor business will help the company to continue to assure supreme quality levels throughout its products and solutions.
- Sales & Marketing
Bobby Matinpour, who currently serves as Vice President of Global Strategic Vertical & Regional Sales, will succeed Chris Allexandre in the role of Senior Vice President, CSMO and Head of Sales & Marketing.
These leaders in addition to leaders of each of four product groups will report directly to the CEO. This will allow them to have greater influence on Renesas’ strategy and execution, while enhancing accountability.
Hiroto Nitta will retire from his role of Senior Vice President of Information Technology. In addition to his current role, Nitta served multiple managerial positions at Renesas including Vice President and Deputy General Manager of Global Sales Units as well as Senior Vice President and Deputy General Manager of Broad-Based Solution Business Unit. He also served as Senior Vice President and Head of SoC Business in the IoT and Infrastructure Business. Renesas appreciates Nitta’s work over the past 40 years helping the company advance its product leadership and wish him and his family all the best for the future.
As a result of the organizational changes, Roger Wendelken, who has been serving as Senior Vice President and Head of Embedded Microcontroller in the Embedded Processing, Digital Power and Signal Chain Solutions Group will leave Renesas. Roger joined Renesas in 2017 following the Intersil acquisition. He contributed to Renesas as leader of worldwide sales for the broad-based solution business. In his current position, Roger played an instrumental role in releasing the ARM-based RA microcontrollers. The company is grateful to Roger for his significant achievements at Renesas.
Andrew Cowell will retire from his role of Senior Vice President and Head of Performance Power. Since joining Renesas in 2017 from Intersil, Andrew guided the foundation in strengthening the growth and market share gains of the digital multiphase controllers and smart power stages for the infra core power businesses. Renesas thanks Andrew for his remarkable contribution and wishes him all the best for his retirement.
Hiroto Nitta, Roger Wendelken and Andrew Cowell will assist with the transition and leave Renesas by the end of the year.
Brief Biography of the Newly Appointed Leadership Team Members
Davin Lee
Mr. Lee serves as the Vice President and General Manager of the Advanced Analog Division at Renesas Electronics Corporation. He joined Renesas in August 2021 through the acquisition of Dialog Semiconductor PLC where he was the Senior Vice President of the Advanced Mixed-Signal Business.
Prior to Dialog Semiconductor, Mr. Lee held executive-level management positions at numerous semiconductor companies including Scintera Networks (CEO), Intersil (VP/GM of Power Management), Xicor (VP of Marketing), Altera and National Semiconductor.
Davin Lee holds a BSEE degree from the University of Texas at Austin and an MBA degree from Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Toshihiko Seki
Mr. Seki serves as the Vice President of MCU Device Solution Business Division at Renesas Electronics Corporation since January 2022. In this role, he is mainly responsible for leading the company’s proprietary RL78 microcontroller (MCU) business and has been instrumental in achieving global leading market share position for the 16-bit MCU architecture category.
Mr. Seki has more than 30 years of experience in the semiconductors industry. He started his career in ASIC/memory product marketing at Hitachi, Ltd., and held various marketing management positions at Renesas, including Director of Marketing & Business operations at Renesas Electronics America.
Mr. Seki holds a bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts from Sophia University, Japan.
Bobby Matinpour
Mr. Matinpour serves as the Vice President of Global Strategic Vertical & Regional Sales at Renesas Electronics Corporation since April 2022. Previously at Renesas, he was the Vice President of Timing and Standard Product Business Division since March 2019.
Prior to joining Renesas, he served as the Vice President of High Speed Data & Clock Business Unit at Texas Instruments. A 20-year veteran of semiconductor industry, Mr. Matinpour has a diverse and wholistic industry experience covering engineering, product marketing, operations, and sales management for a wide-range of products and solutions addressing industrial, infrastructure, consumer, and automotive markets.
Prior to joining Texas Instruments, Mr. Matinpour held various engineering and marketing management positions at National Semiconductor, Epson-Toyocom, and several semiconductor startups.
Mr. Matinpour holds a BSEE from Virginia Tech and MS and PhD EE from Georgia Institute of Technology.
Buvna Ayyagari
Ms. Ayyagari joined Renesas in August 2023 as Vice President of Software and Digitalization. In this newly created role, Ms. Ayyagari is responsible for spearheading the definition, development, and implementation of a market leading platform with industry standard customer tools.
Ms. Ayyagari brings rich and multi-disciplinary expertise across the semiconductor industry from Applied Materials (AMAT), Synopsys (IP and EDA) and Intel where she held executive and leadership positions in R&D, Product Engineering, Field Applications Engineering, Marketing, Pre- and Post-sales Customer Support and drove products from definition to high volume.
Ms. Ayyagari holds a master’s degree in computer engineering from the University of South Carolina. She is the author of several publications and patents and serves on the Board of non-profit organizations.
Original – Renesas Electronics
- Analog & Connectivity
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DISCO Corporation has made a decision to build a new building at the Haneda R&D Center (Higashi Kojiya, Ota-ku). Construction will begin in April 2025 and is scheduled for completion at the end of March 2027. With the construction of the new building, DISCO aims to further enhance its R&D functions, enabling it to respond to the future needs of the semiconductor and electronic component markets.
The existing buildings, which were acquired in March 2022, were originally designed and built by a previous owner for training flight crews and as a data center. As these buildings have a relatively large amount of floor space with high load-bearing capacity, they were put into use as a development site upon the fitting of utilities such as water supply, drainage, and compressed air.
However, with the recent increase in development, DISCO has decided to construct a new building with an increased amount of floor space suitable for development. This new building will be constructed such that it can be expanded if more floor space for development becomes necessary.
Two of the seven existing buildings will be demolished to make room for the new building. The five remaining buildings will continue to be used with the purpose of R&D, as well as enhancing DISCO’s production system during periods of high demand.
Original – DISCO
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The Infineon Technologies AG Supervisory Board has appointed Elke Reichart to the Management Board effective November 1, 2023. As Chief Digital Transformation Officer (CDTO), she succeeds Constanze Hufenbecher, who has decided not to renew her expiring contract. As CDTO, Elke Reichart will among other things be responsible for group-wide digitalization projects, IT infrastructure and Infineon’s sustainability strategy.
“Fully leveraging the opportunities of the digital transformation is a key leadership task. I am therefore delighted to have Elke Reichart, an internationally experienced and high-profile technology manager, join the Infineon Management Board. She has proven in her career that she can further develop international organizations and successfully implement digitization projects,” said Herbert Diess, Chairman of Infineon’s Supervisory Board. “On behalf of the entire Supervisory Board, I would like to express my sincere thanks to Constanze Hufenbecher for her outstanding work. She has successfully built up the CDTO department and together we decided that November 1 was a suitable time to hand over the baton.”
“Green and digital transformation go hand in hand – and Infineon is driving both. In this context, digitalization is also a crucial lever for our own company. I am very much looking forward to working with Elke Reichart. She will bring new perspectives and impetus to the Management Board and use her extensive experience to help lead Infineon into an even more successful future,” said Jochen Hanebeck, CEO of Infineon.
“I would like to sincerely thank Constanze Hufenbecher for the good collaboration. With the Digital Agenda and the Sustainability Strategy, she has laid important foundations and shaped a culture of cross-departmental collaboration.”
“Digitalization is an integral part of Infineon’s strategy. A differentiating service and product portfolio, better interaction with customers, faster and more efficient processes: digital solutions support Infineon’s strategy in many ways. I look forward to soon being part of this great company and I thank the Supervisory Board for their trust,” says Elke Reichart.
Elke Reichart was Chief Digital Officer of TUI Group from 2018 to 2021, where she was responsible for the Group’s digitalization strategy, among other things. Prior to that, she held various management positions at Hewlett Packard over a period of 25 years, including Vice President Strategy & Planning at HP’s headquarters in Palo Alto (California). During her time at HP, Elke Reichart was responsible for various transformation programs, each with a volume of several billion US dollars.
Original – Infineon Technologies
