Next-Generation Sustainability Gets More Challenging


The semiconductor industry has made major progress on reducing energy usage and water consumption, and effectively abating its emissions, as companies made sustainability a core requirement in their design of new processes and tools. But it’s about to get considerably harder. That means more opportunities to add value with innovative technologies, and also more need for collaboration. Next... » read more

Disruptive R&D


Leading university researchers presented their most promising technologies — describing developments ranging from sustainable metal cluster technology (that’s already spawned three notable startups) to resonance-based detection for more accurate MEMS devices — at the new Breakthrough Research Technologies session and the Silicon Innovation Forum at SEMICON West 2014. OSU metal cluster... » read more

All Together Now!


Consolidation is changing the face of our industry. It is tempting to think that a narrower more consolidated industry is easier to navigate and might require less facilitated coordination and collaboration. However, it turns out the reverse is true. With fewer, but much bigger companies, the bets become exponentially bigger.  At the same time technical challenges — such as advanced tra... » read more

What Comes Next?


The latest manufacturing, materials and production developments for emerging and adjacent markets will be featured at SEMICON West 2014 (www.semiconwest.org), to be held on July 8-10 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, Calif. The co-location of emerging and adjacent market focused exhibitors and technical presentations within the framework of SEMICON West maximizes the synergies between sem... » read more

SEMICON West Preview: Test


Talking with the speakers scheduled to speak in the programs on IC testing at SEMICON West this year, I was struck by how much this equipment sector is changing as the value moves to software and the cloud. It has to be the first time I’ve ever mentioned PayPal in the same paragraph with semiconductor equipment, to say nothing of the business model of free hardware with software subscription.... » read more

Semicon West Preview: Packaging


By Paula Doe The evolving mobile device market means the packaging, assembly and test supply chain faces a growing range of alternative technologies vying for its investment dollar, everything from Google’s modular electronics with 3D printing, to more solutions for integrating varied chips in smaller packaged systems. One potentially disruptive change is the wider use of more open-source... » read more

SEMICON West Preview


By Paula Doe The fast growing demand for bandwidth is driving telecomm and data center user interest in moving high speed optical connections closer and closer to the chips, as recent advances in packaging technology, from microbumping to bonding to wafer-level redistribution now help make it possible. Chip-to-chip and chip-to-board optical connections increasingly look like a viable soluti... » read more

What’s Next For MEMS


By Paula Doe While MEMS sensors and actuators are key to enabling most of the high profile markets of tomorrow, from wearables to smart objects in the Internet of Things, MEMS companies face challenges today in transitioning to those new opportunities as basic MEMS devices increasingly becoming commodities. Large corporations are hiring their own in-house MEMS engineers, as standard platforms ... » read more

EU Due Diligence For Conflict Minerals Focuses Upstream, For Now


By Rania Georgoutsakou EU proposed legislation on responsible sourcing of ‘conflict minerals’, published on 5 March 2014, will create a voluntary scheme focusing on upstream suppliers that should help downstream users get the information they need to comply with the U.S. Dodd Frank Act. The EU proposals largely address concerns raised by SEMI and other industry associations, but things cou... » read more

450mm Standards Update


By Kevin Nguyen SEMI has published more than 19 Standards for 450mm generation.  New standards are being created to facilitate supplier and user for material and equipment.  Revisions to published standards are needed as improvements are constantly identified. The Japan Assembly & Packaging Technical Committee (TC) Chapter has initiated document 5636 in effort to meet the demand... » read more

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