Tablets and smartphones have been key drivers of electronics and semiconductor growth for the last few years. However the growth rates for these devices are slowing as they have become more prevalent. Tablet shipments are expected to reach 229 million units in 2014, according to Gartner, equal to 73% of PC units. IDC projects smartphones… Read More
IEDM 2014 Preview
The International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) is one of the premier conferences for the presentation of the latest semiconductor processes and process technologies. IEDM is held every year in December alternating between San Francisco and Washington DC. This year IEDM will be held at the San Francisco Hilton on December… Read More
SEMI Industry Strategy Symposium, Half Moon Bay
Every January SEMI runs its Industry Strategy Symposium which is held at the Ritz Carlton in Half Moon Bay. This time it is January 11-14th. It is subtitled Riding the Wave of Silicon Magic.
I find it a fascinating event to attend. There is a lot of information to be had in the presentations, of course, but also a lot from talking to attendees.… Read More
Getting a Quote Without Talking to a Salesman
VLSI Technology, for those of you not of a certain age, was one of the companies that, along with LSI Logic, created the ASIC business. One challenge in ASIC is that the customer needs to decide which ASIC company to use (since the libraries and technologies are all different) meaning they needed to get quotes from several companies.… Read More
eSilicon Creates One-Click Access to MPW and GDSII Quoting Portals
I have written before about eSilicon taking their internal quoting tool and making it user accessible. This first started just for MPW shuttles for half-a-dozen foundries, and then was extended to cover production runs at TSMC. And it is getting heavily used; eSilicon have had 315 people register to use it from 43 different countries… Read More
SEMI Strategic Materials Conference and SEMICON Japan
I attended the SEMI Strategic Materials Conference earlier this month. I cover a pretty broad range of stuff on SemiWiki from embedded software and system-level design on down. But I usually stop at lithography and TCAD, which have a major impact on design and the whole fabless ecosystem. I hadn’t really thought about the… Read More
Making Wafers in Space?
The Albuquerque Journal had an article about a local company sending silicon carbide wafers into suborbital space to improve their quality. ACME Advanced Materials plans to buy low quality $250 wafers, send them into space using their process, and sell the higher quality wafers for about $750. They are working to add gallium nitride… Read More
CASPA, ARM and the Internet of Things
Today I was at the Chinese-American Semiconductor Professionals’ Association conference and dinner. Simon Segars, CEO of ARM, gave the dinner keynote. Somewhat surreally, it was in the same room in the same conference center two weeks ago that he gave they keynote at ARM TechCon. In another coincidence, Mike Muller of … Read More
SEMICON Europa
This week it is SEMICON Europa in Grenoble in the heart of the French Alps.
SEMICON Europa 2014 opened yesterday at ALPEXPO in Grenoble with more than 400 exhibiting companies. Learn about the latest innovative technologies, products, applications and business opportunities both within the European community and globally.… Read More
iPhone or Wallet – Which one do you go back for?
As a professional conference attendee I see a direct correlation between the number of people attending and the quality of the keynotes. Let’s face it, it’s all about the keynotes so you had better get some big names if you want more than your friends and family to show up. In this regards the upcoming CASPA event will probably be one… Read More
Facing the Quantum Nature of EUV Lithography