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With 3D printing technologies advancing and changing at a blistering pace and becoming a wide spread fast growing technology, this would be an ideal time for semiconductor equipment companies and foundries to look to an area of expansion to an area that shares many similar technologies and processes. This would be a change where the equipment companies and foundries could expand in both directions as far as node size. Mems on older larger nodes would be a good start for the migration to larger and larger nodes. The semi equipment suppliers and foundries that could master this migration would have a substantial and growing edge as they leverage their people, ecosystem and technology over a broader economic base outside their current ecosystem. This is not going to be a short term or small commitment, but a major change in looking into the future. The ability to spread costs, labor and technologies over a much larger base is a business factor that must be given serious consideration at the very least. For those that can master a change like this, they will have a long term competitive edge and many new frontier markets that could touch literally every industry from robotics to medical at size nodes they aren't even looking at now. The number of 3D printing technologies and materials is expanding fast and now is the time to act and form strategic alliances. Technologies in both semis/nanotech/3D printing are advancing fast in technology and diversity offering real economic and technological advantages.
Any additional thoughts or comments on this from either a technology or business basis would be appreciated.
3D printing is typically an additive process with a single material, while semiconductor manufacturing is an extremely complex series of hundreds of chemical steps, exposures, implants, annealing and subtraction.
So 3D printing and IC fabrication are going about the manufacturing process totally differently.
There has been some progress to 3D print a PCB, but that is depositing conductive material on the order of sub-inches, nowhere near the nm scale of IC production.
Daniel, Have you checked out optical 3D printing which is advancing very fast and that was when I last checked it out many months ago? I see chemical vapor deposition, masks, various forms and intensity of light, and many exotic materials becoming a stage/s of the 3D printing process. I can even see where holography and gasses become one of the new methods of 3D printing.
The semi/nanotech sector has much IP in all these areas that has the potential to actually mix 3D type processes with electronics and mems created by standard semi processes to create entirely new products that fill the gap between the 3D printing and semi fabrication processes. This is a far to important market to ignore either technologically or economically. Eventually the two will meet to some degree and I definitely see them combining in many products.
