Author's Latest Posts


How do PV and IC silicon markets compare?


The recent announcement of 2010 silicon wafer shipments got me wondering: silicon consumption for solar cells passed silicon consumption for integrated circuits a number of years ago, but how do they compare now? A quick call to the very helpful Richard Winegarner at Sage Concepts answered the question. In 2009, solar cells consumed 10 times as many square inches, but generated about the same t... » read more

From Your Tour Guide


Welcome to Semiconductor Engineering's Manufacturing & Design channel. I'm Katherine Derbyshire, your tour guide through the silicon rapids. My background is in materials science, with degrees from MIT and UC Santa Barbara, and I've been following the IC industry since the 1990s, beginning with a stay at Solid State Technology. Through good years and bad, from the first dot com boom to t... » read more

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