Member Spotlight: American Semiconductor
Meet American Semiconductor.
American Semiconductor is the world’s first and largest flexible silicon content provider and a proud leader in Flexible Hybrid Electronics technology. Our products include technology based on patented IP that enables integrated circuits (ICs) to bend like a piece of paper. American Semiconductor offers a line of standard and custom flexible ICs based on Semiconductor-on-Polymer (SoP) conversion of standard silicon wafers into ultra-thin polymerized ICs. The company supports a complete suite of engineering design and prototype assembly services for flexible hybrid electronics (FHE) that enables our customers to create and sell their own flexible hybrid electronic products.
What would you like others to know about American Semiconductor and/or its capabilities?
American Semiconductor provides products and services enabling physically flexible FleX-ICs, thin device ICs, and Flexible Hybrid Electronics components & systems from concept through fabrication and assembly. Our company supports all aspects of IC design, FleX Silicon-on-Polymer flexible wafer processing, and Flexible Hybrid Electronics design, prototyping & manufacturing. IC services include design, verification, layout, IC selection, system design, sub-contractor management, and test. Support for flexible hybrid systems includes printed electronics design, fabrication and assembly for prototype development through production.
Why is American Semiconductor interested in Flexible Hybrid Electronics? What opportunities do you see?
We believe the flexible electronic future has begun and we are proud to be an integral part of it by being the first flexible IC provider to the FHE market. We see the opportunities as quite expansive.
Making today’s electronics easier to use and more ergonomic for their users will drivean increase in volume of FHE solutions. We’ve seen interest from the following verticals: Aerospace, Automotive, Consumer Goods (including wearables, accessories and white goods), Healthcare, IoT applications, Retail, Transportation and Warehousing.
Secondly, we see, and hear of, FHE products being designed for markets and use models where electronics could not traditionally go before due to their rigid and bulky nature. However, using flexible substrates and our flexible ICs, the world has opened to that ‘expansive’ volume I mentioned earlier. It is exciting to imagine how far FHE can go – and we are lucky enough to be here at the beginning.
How did you get involved in NextFlex, and what are you seeking to achieve through NextFlex?
Our CEO, Doug Hackler, is a founding member of NextFlex and American Semiconductor has been involved since the beginning on all fronts. We are seeking to achieve the goals that NextFlex has put forth for the entire community – share knowledge and resources to enable all of us to see advancement and adoption of the FHE market with U.S. manufacturing leadership. In that vein, we are happy to announce we are working with Jason Marsh and Wilfried Bair of NextFlex to create the world’s first ‘flexible die bank” for NextFlex members. We at ASI have created several types of Flex-ICs with various capabilities, such as OPAMP, ADC, NVM, SOC, BTLE, NFC, RFID and others. Our process is unique in that we can convert essentially any silicon wafer from any manufacturer into an ultra-thin, fully flexible, SoP format. The initial die bank is planned to provide FleX ICs with all the capabilities listed above and include silicon from two different foundries and three major semiconductor manufacturers. NextFlex members will be able to make a ‘withdrawal’ from the Die Bank at NextFlex and utilize these chips to enable development of FHE systems to demonstrate their designs and increase their speed to market.
Since becoming a member, what types of NextFlex activities has your company engaged in?
We participate at every opportunity to enhance our knowledge of this exciting new market. We are involved as a partner in many NextFlex projects and lead a Project Call 2.0 project that is developing advanced FHE labels with fully integrated flexible ICs, sensors and batteries. We serve as members of the Device, Integration and Packaging TWG, and collaborate in workforce development by providing internships in our area in conjunction with Boise State University, another NextFlex member. We attend Technical Council meetings, workshops, Innovation Day, roadmap development activities, participate frequently in project call updates; and have conducted one-on-one meetings with new connections we make through NextFlex.
For more information about American Semiconductor, visit www.americansemi.com. For more information about the NextFlex Die Bank, contact Wilfried Bair.