Speciality Chemicals Magazine - June 2009 digital edition

Electronic chemicals
Speciality Chemicals Magazine June 2009 29
www.specchemonline.com
are a function of the maturity of the manufacturing
of the devices themselves in volumes that have not
yet been attempted in the III-V market. What will be
interesting is how III-V manufacturing is adopted,
how the scale-up to high volume manufacturing is
achieved and what effect this will have on the mar-
ket for high brightness LEDs (HBLEDs) as we move
toward more mass market adoption as the replace-
ment for traditional lighting systems.
Tailored designs
With a cautious global economy, we are seeing a
continuing focus on controlling overall COO
throughout the electronic materials supply chain.
Companies are looking to share more of the burden
of materials development in the current environ-
ment, where deeper levels of strategic collaboration
are necessary to address future challenges in the
face of mounting development costs.
The trend not only spreads both cost and risk but
also the potential rewards. Such collaborations are
essential if the industry is to continue moving for-
ward and solve the challenging complexity of man-
ufacturing devices that are increasingly being cus-
tom tailored to specific applications.
This `tailored design' approach is probably best
exemplified in the design of the current crop of
portable, multi-functional consumer electronics that
operate at low power, delivering significantly longer
battery life than previous generations of devices, yet
do not compromise on desired functionality. Apple's
iPhone is arguably the best example that currently
typifies this class of device.
From both a design and a manufacturing per-
spective, this tailored approach to device fabrication
(which increasingly includes the challenges of ever
denser packaging for multi-chip modules in portable
applications) in essence ends up defining ever more
demanding boundary conditions for the design rules
of the device or component fit for its intended use.
These considerations are driving changes in the
materials employed and/or the manufacturing
process used to arrive at a working integrated solu-
tion. Device physics constraints and/or the manufac-
turing method employed, for example moving from
PVD to CVD to ALD deposition techniques, are
increasingly driving the adoption of material
changes. Of course, all of this has to balance with an
acceptable cost-benefit proposition.
New dynamics, new markets
Opportunities for electronic chemicals manufactures
outside the core semiconductor areas are accelerat-
ing. One of the most notable opportunities falls with-
in the broad domain of energy and in particular, the
generation, transmission, storage and metering of
electricity. The increasing global appetite for energy
has highlighted the fact that a heightened intensity of
focus is required to ensure future energy availability,
energy security and independence on a global,
regional and, in some cases, on a national scale.
Today, governments are increasingly recognising
the need for energy security at national level and are
amending their energy policies to reflect this. The
Japanese and German governments enacted incen-
tives and policies as early as 2000. This has, in large
part, contributed to stimulating the resurgence and
stellar growth of the photovoltaics (PV) industry that
we have today, especially in Europe
In electricity, which remains just one piece of the
`energy mix,' solutions are being sought that are
sustainable, environmentally acceptable and eco-
nomically viable. This is a tall order in the time scale
we have to develop and implement systems that
address the widening energy deficit with current
global consumption rates.
One avenue that the electronics industry is look-
ing at in addressing the global energy dilemma is
reducing energy consumption by providing dramat-
ically more energy-efficient products and systems.
One example where this is happening now is in
lighting, where we are now at the beginning of an
inflection point at which the mass manufacture of
HBLEDs is occurring.
Driven most recently by the deployment of LEDs
to replace backplane cold cathode fluorescent lamp
lighting in LCDs, materials and technology develop-
ment is reaching a point where mass adoption to
replace the currently ubiquitous systems - incandes-
cent light bulbs, fluorescent lighting and its compact
fluorescent lamp derivative - is almost upon us.
Significant opportunities for materials providers,
in which chemistry is one of the key enabling com-
ponents of the innovation cycle, exists beyond just
energy efficient lighting. Energy generation is equal-
ly important, as a growing gap is emerging between
demand and supply, which is only forecast to grow.
The emergence and importance of sustainability
and renewability as key requirements of electricity
generation have resulted in the PV industry becom-
ing significant as a contender for meeting future
energy needs. However, significant opportunities
remain for technological improvements, with mate-
rials innovation driving increased device perform-
ance in key areas such as conversion efficiency and
module longevity.
The periodic nature of PV energy generation also
raises the possibility of solving the energy storage
dilemma to match demand load levels. The sun is
not always shining, so the time of day does not
always match with when energy is being generated.
The storage of energy is, therefore, yet another
materials opportunity that we have yet to touch on.
A growing number of companies whose legacy
business traditionally focused on the semiconductor
and semiconductor equipment sectors are now
looking for new sectors to pursue in an effort to
diversify their portfolios to explore new growth
opportunities, use their expertise and often redeploy
fully depreciated existing assets where they can.
Recent examples include the Samsung Group,
which announced the formation of a new business
unit, Samsung LED, dedicated to the manufacturing
of HBLEDs. Meanwhile, Taiwanese semiconductor
fab TSMC is mulling over whether to enter PV man-
ufacturing and retool some of its fab space for this
purpose and Micron is considering both PV cell and
energy-efficient lighting manufacturing.
As well as existing companies looking to capture
new markets, the PV and energy markets in gener-
al have attracted a flood of start-ups and new
entrants, all keen to grab a piece of these
economies. This is resulting in still more opportuni-
ties for chemicals providers.
SmartGrid opportunities
Another rapidly emerging market now being spo-
ken about in terms of the enormous potential it has
for the electronic materials industry is decentralised
`SmartGrid' technologies. Limited fossil fuels, rising
energy costs and security and climate concerns,
allied to inefficient legacy power grids in the older
economies of Europe and North America that are
struggling to cope with the increased demands
placed on them have resulted in developments to
replace some or all of these grids with SmartGrid
technologies.
According to Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu's 2009
Technology Predictions report, the current average
efficiency of the world's legacy electricity grids is
around only 33%, against 60% for grids based on
the latest technology.1 With power outages and
power quality disturbances in the US alone cost up
to $180 billion/year, there is a compelling case for
developing SmartGrid technologies, which consume
less electricity, reducing the need to build new
Control and monitoring of production at SAFC Hitech

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