SEMICON West, Free For Two More Days

SEMICON West is coming up July 14-16th. As always it is in San Francisco at the Moscone Center. Why should you go? Because SEMICON West attracts more than 30,000 professional attendees representing the leading global technology companies, including IDMs, foundries, fabless, contract packaging and test houses, OEMs, materials manufacturers, components and sub-systems companies, and many others. Visitors come to see the latest products and technologies, meet with and learn from technologies and technical experts, and source solutions that enable them to advance their own product development and move their ideas and businesses forward. The exhibits are open every day of the show from 10am to 5pm (4pm on Thursday). There are over 650 exhibitors.

The keynotes at SEMICON West are always a good way to feel the pulse of the industry. This year’s are:

Tuesday July 14th from 9.00am to 9.45am: Scaling the Walls of Sub-14nm Manufacturing. This is a keynote panel session with panelists:

• J. de Boeck, CTO of imec (moderator)
• Mike Cambell, SVP Engineering from Qualcomm
• Subashish Mitra of Stanford University
• …and there will be other panelists

Wednesday July 15th from 9.00am to 9.45am, an (as yet untitled) keynote from Douglas Davis, the SVP of Intel’s IOT group.

As usual, there are two TechXPOTs. Sessions at the TechXPOTs are aimed at engineers and technologists looking for solutions to key technology challenges and looking to better understand cutting-edge and future technology developments. Developed in conjunction with SEMI technical committees, partner organizations, and technologists, the TechXPOT agenda will provide a deeper view of key technology developments.

In the south TechXPOT there are sessions on MEMS, sub-20nm contamination control, 450mm status, using 200nm fabs for IoT, 3D printing and more. In the north TechXPOT there are sessions on test productivity, next generation memories, flexible electronics, packaging for autonomous vehicles (aka self-driving cars), CMP trends. There will probably be other sessions added.

On Tuesday and Wednesday there is the Silicon Innovation Forum (SIF), a two day innovation conference that includes a one day startup/investor forum and a one day research forum.

There are various co-located events too. This is not an exhaustive list.

The imec Technology Forum (ITF) will be held on the afternoon of July 13th in the Marriott across the street. The schedule is not yet finalized but you can save the date. I believe it is free but it is by invitation only.

In parallel in the next ballroom over will be the SEMI/Gartner Market Symposium with a keynote by Ian Ferguson of ARM. This is $370 and up depending on whether you are a member of SEMI and how early you register. It is followed by the SEMI VIP Reception intended for senior-level executives, including C-level management, vice presidents, directors, and managers.

It is LETI day on July 14th, which is also appropriately Independence Day in France where LETI is headquartered. It is 5pm to 8pm in the W Hotel (by invitation only).

And if you are really in save the date mode, SEMICON West 2016 will be July 13th-15th.

If you register by May 8th (err…that would be tomorrow) it is free. So save yourself $50 by going now to the registration page for SEMICON West here.