SEMICON West 2014 Preview

There is a really big conference coming up in San Francisco…no, not DAC although of course that is coming up too. I’m talking about SEMICON West which is much bigger, filling all 3 Moscone exhibit halls. It is July 8-10th. It is, of course, the semiconductor equipment industry (and solar) show.

The opening keynote on Tuesday is by Mark Adams, the President of Micron. I am sure one of the things that he will talk about is the Micron Hybrid Memory Cube (HMC), one of the very first 3D chips to go into volume production. It consists of 4 DRAM die on top of a base logic die.

The Wednesday keynote is The Art of the Possible: How Manufacturers are Leveraging Digital Technologies to Drive Business Transformation in a Connected World by Sanjay Ravi of Microsoft where he is the Worldwide Managing Director, Discrete Manufacturing Industry.

One of the most interesting areas at SEMICON is always the TechXPOTs which are two on-the-exhibit-floor presentation areas. Every morning and afternoon there are sessions for some particular area that is hot right now with 6 or 7 presenters from different companies.

TechXPOT south on Tuesday has Next Generation MEMS in the morning and Variability Control in the afternoon. on Wednesday the session that most interests me is in the morning on Supply Chain Challenges for 10nm and Beyond. Then in the afternoon it is Productivity Solutions for 300mm and Smaller. Finally on Thursday it is 3D Printing in the morning and Breakthrough Research Technologies in the afternoon.

TechXPOT north is on Testing into the Future on Tuesday morning, the Future of 3D NAND Flash in the afternoon. Wednesday morning is Bringing Silicon Photonics in Production and then in the afternoon Automotive Innovation. On Thursday morning Disruptive Compoun Semiconductor Technologies.

Also, new this year, is the semiconductor technology symposium STS. This is a comprehensive technology and business conference addressing the key issues driving the future of semiconductor manufacturing and markets, aligned with the latest inputs from the ITRS. Discover the trends shaping near-term semiconductor technology and market developments in areas including 450mm, advanced processes and materials, lithography, packaging, and test.

The website with full details, registration and more is here. Registration is discounted until June 6th.

SEMICON West is the flagship annual event for the global microelectronics industry. It is the premier event for the display of new products and technologies for microelectronics design and manufacturing, featuring technologies from across the microelectronics supply chain, from electronic design automation, to device fabrication (wafer processing), to final manufacturing (assembly, packaging, and test). More than semiconductors, SEMICON West is also showcase for emerging markets and technologies born from the microelectronics industry, including micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS), photovoltaics (PV), flexible electronics and displays, nano-electronics, solid state lighting (LEDs), and related technologies.


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