While the DRAM industry is officially entering the EUV era, NAND Flash stacking technology goes beyond 150L
The three major DRAM vendors (Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron) will not only continue to move to 1Znm and 1alpha nm process technology, but will officially enter the EUV era, with Samsung taking the lead in this area in 2021. DRAM vendors will gradually replace existing dual structuring technologies to optimize costs and improve manufacturing efficiency.
After NAND Flash vendors have succeeded in advancing stacking technology and aggregating more than 100 layers in 2020, they will aim for 150 layers or more in 2021, as well as increasing monolithic storage capacity from 256/512 GB to 512 GB / 1 TB. ... Consumers will benefit from higher capacity NAND Flash devices through efforts to reduce the cost of chips. Despite the fact that the main interface for SSDs is now PCIe Gen 3, Gen 4 will begin to gain market share in 2021 thanks to integration into PS5, Xbox Series X / S and motherboards with the new microarchitecture from Intel. The new interface is indispensable for meeting the massive demand for data transfer from high-performance PCs, servers and high-performance data centers.
5G, 6G
The 5G Implementation Guidelines: SA Option 2 is a document published by the GSMA in June 2020 that details the technical details of 5G deployments, both from a mobile operator's perspective and from a global perspective. Operators are expected to roll out 5G autonomous architectures (SA) on a large scale in 2021. In addition to supporting high-speed and broadband connections, 5G SA architectures will enable carriers to customize their networks to suit user applications and adapt to workloads requiring ultra-low latency. However, even during the rollout of 5G, Japan's NTT DoCoMo and Korea's SK Telecom are already focused on 6G deployments, as 6G powers a variety of applications in XR (including VR, AR, MR, and content in 8K and above).realistic holographic communications, WFH, remote access, telemedicine, and distance education.
,
In 2021, the integration of AI will be the main challenge in the field of the Internet of Things, and its solution will allow the transition from the “Internet of things” to “the intelligence of things”. Innovations in areas such as deep learning and computer vision will enable smart device software and hardware upgrades. Given industry dynamics, economic incentives and demand for remote access, the Internet of Things is expected to come to smart manufacturing and smart healthcare. In terms of smart manufacturing, the introduction of contactless technology is expected to accelerate the emergence of the 4th generation industry. As smart factories strive for resiliency, flexibility, and efficiency, AI integration will make critical devices (like cobots and drones) more precise and allow them to control production.thus transforming automation into autonomy. For smart healthcare, AI can transform existing medical datasets into tools to streamline processes and expand services. For example, AI integration will enable faster recognition of infrared images, which can aid in clinical decision making, telemedicine, and surgical care. It is expected that these applications will be able to perform the most important functions that AI performs in medical devices of the Internet of Things, and these capabilities will be available in various institutions - from smart clinics to telemedicine centers.Then AI adoption can transform existing medical datasets into tools to streamline processes and expand service delivery. For example, AI integration will enable faster recognition of infrared images, which can aid in clinical decision making, telemedicine, and surgical care. It is expected that these applications will be able to perform the most important functions that AI performs in medical devices of the Internet of Things, and these capabilities will be available in various institutions - from smart clinics to telemedicine centers.Then AI adoption can transform existing medical datasets into tools to streamline processes and expand service delivery. For example, AI integration will enable faster recognition of infrared images, which can aid in clinical decision making, telemedicine, and surgical care. It is expected that these applications will be able to perform the most important functions that AI performs in medical devices of the Internet of Things, and these capabilities will be available in various institutions - from smart clinics to telemedicine centers.AI in medical devices of the Internet of Things, and these capabilities will be available in different institutions - from smart clinics to telemedicine centers.AI in medical devices of the Internet of Things, and these capabilities will be available in different institutions - from smart clinics to telemedicine centers.
Integration of AR glasses and smartphones will launch a wave of cross-platform applications
In 2021, AR glasses will work in conjunction with a smartphone, which will serve as a computing platform for the entire system. This design can significantly reduce the cost and weight of AR glasses. In particular, with the development of 5G network infrastructure in 2021, the integration of 5G smartphones and AR glasses will allow the latter not only to handle AR applications more efficiently, but also to provide a wider range of personal entertainment multimedia functions through the use of additional computing power of smartphones. Therefore, smartphone brands and mobile operators are expected to enter the AR glasses market on a large scale in 2021.
,
Automotive safety technology has evolved from external devices to interior devices, and sensor technology is also evolving. In this way, driver monitoring systems are integrated with the collection of environmental data. Similarly, AI automotive applications are evolving and have outgrown entertainment to become an indispensable aid to vehicle safety. In light of a string of accidents in which drivers ignored the road conditions due to over-reliance on ADAS systems, which are rapidly being introduced into modern cars in recent years, the market is again paying close attention to driver monitoring functions.In the future, the focus of driver monitoring will be on the development of active, reliable and accurate camera-based systems. By detecting driver drowsiness and decreased alertness through pupil tracking and behavior monitoring, these systems are able to determine in real time whether the driver is tired, distracted from driving, or is driving improperly. Thus, driver monitoring systems have become an absolute necessity in the development of self-driving systems, since they must perform several functions at once: monitoring the driver's state and notifying about its change in real time, assessing the driver's capabilities, as well as taking over control functions if necessary. ... Expected,that in the near future, cars with integrated driver monitoring systems will be launched into mass production.
As smartphones with flexible screens moved from concept to production in 2019, several brands have consistently released their own flexible smartphones to try out the pen. While these devices are still mediocre due to their relatively high production costs (and, as a result, high retail prices), they are still capable of making noise in the mature and saturated smartphone market. In the next few years, as display module manufacturers gradually expand their flexible AMOLED display capacities, smartphone manufacturers will focus on flexible devices. In addition, this functionality is gradually being implemented in other devices, for example, in laptops. With Intel and Microsoft in the lead,many manufacturers have released their own solutions for dual display notebooks. Likewise, foldable devices with flexible AMOLED displays will be the next hot topic on the market. Laptops with flexible displays are likely to hit the market in 2021. The integration of flexible displays into laptops, the introduction of new innovations and the emergence of a category of products that will use these displays more widely than previous generation products are expected to expand the manufacturing capacity of flexible AMOLED display manufacturers.The introduction of new innovative solutions and the emergence of a product category that will use these displays more widely than previous generation products will expand the manufacturing capacity of flexible AMOLED display manufacturers.The introduction of new innovative solutions and the emergence of a product category that will use these displays more widely than previous generation products will expand the manufacturing capabilities of flexible AMOLED display manufacturers.
Mini-LED QD-OLED OLED-
Competition between display technologies is expected to erupt in the high-end TV market in 2021. In particular, Mini-LED technology will allow LCD TVs to have finer control over their backlight zones, which means that their picture contrast will be higher compared to current production TVs. Manufactured by market leader Samsung, Mini-LED backlit LCD TVs match their white OLED counterparts while offering similar performance. Plus, given their superior economy, Mini-LED technology can be expected to become a notable alternative to OLED. Samsung Display (SDC), on the other hand, is banking on its new QD-OLED technology as a technological differentiator from its competitors as SDC is phasing out its LCD production.SDC will strive to set a new gold standard in television technology with its QD-OLED technology, which surpasses white OLED in color saturation. TrendForce Expects Fierce Competition in 2021 High-End TVs
HPC AiP
The advancement of chip packaging technologies has not slowed down even in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic ... As various manufacturers produce modules with HPC chips and antennas in a package, semiconductor companies (such as TSMC, Intel, ASE and Amkor) are also striving to take their place in this emerging industry. As for the packaging of high-performance chips, due to the increased demand for I / O efficiency, the demand for interposers, which are used in chip packaging, has also increased. TSMC and Intel have released new chip packaging architectures, proprietary 3D matrix and hybrid connection, respectively. Thus, companies are gradually developing their third generation packaging technologies (CoWoS at TSMC and EMIB at Intel) and release CoWoS and Co-EMIB of the fourth generation.In 2021, these companies will be looking for opportunities to meet the demand for high-quality 2.5D and 3D packaging of chips. When it comes to installing AiP modules, after Qualcomm released its first QTM products in 2018, MediaTek and Apple subsequently collaborated with related OSAT companies, including ASE and Amkor. MediaTek and Apple hope that through this collaboration they will make progress in research and development on relatively inexpensive packaging technology for flip chips. AiP is expected to be integrated into 5G-enabled devices from 2021. In an effort to meet the demand for 5G connectivity and network connectivity, AiP modules are expected to first be released to the smartphone market and then to the automotive and tablet markets.
With the rapid development of the Internet of Things, 5G, AI, and cloud / edge computing, chip manufacturers have moved from developing single products to creating product lines and product solutions, thus creating complex and granular ecosystems of their chips. If you look at the development of the main chip manufacturers in recent years from a broader perspective, you can see that the continuous vertical integration of these companies has led to the emergence of an oligopolistic industry in which local competition is fierce than ever. In addition, as the commercialization of 5G poses numerous requirements for various applications, chip manufacturers now offer full-service vertical solutions from chip design to software / hardware platform integration.Companies are pursuing this strategy in response to the tremendous business opportunity generated by the rapid development of the smart device industry. On the other hand, chip makers who have not been able to navigate in time in accordance with needs are likely to find themselves in a situation of overdependence on one market.
- Micro-LED
The release of Samsung, LG, Sony and Lumens oversized Micro-LED displays in recent years has marked the beginning of integrating Micro-LED technology into the oversized display development process. As the use of Micro-LEDs in large-size displays gradually evolves, Samsung is expected to be the first in the industry to launch Micro-LED active matrix TVs, thus cementing 2021 as the first year of Micro-LED integration in TVs. The active matrix addresses pixels using a TFT backplane, and since the design of the active matrix in a chip is relatively simple, this addressing scheme is relatively undemanding in terms of routing. In particular, active matrix driver ICs require PWM and MOSFET switch functionality to stabilize the electric current,providing the operation of Micro-LED displays, which creates the need for a new and extremely expensive development process for such microcircuits. That is why Micro-LED manufacturers have the greatest difficulties in entering the end-device market at the moment related to technology and its cost.
