Strategic Materials

Strategic Materials
by Paul McLellan on 08-28-2015 at 7:00 am

Here on SemiWiki we spend a certain amount of time discussing semiconductor equipment, especially the big sea-change items like EUV and 450mm, where everyone wants to know when (and if) they will happen. But there is another aspect to next generation processes other than equipment and that is materials. When the received wisdom… Read More


Just One Month to SEMICON Taiwan

Just One Month to SEMICON Taiwan
by Paul McLellan on 08-07-2015 at 7:00 am

SEMICON Taiwan is the first week of September in the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center. To be precise it is September 2nd to 4th. Last year there over 26,000 people attended. This year it is the 20th anniversary show. SEMICON Taiwan attracts the world’s leading technology companies who design, develop, manufacture, and supply … Read More


SEMICON West 2015 Recap – Day 1 – Softening Markets, Sub 14nm and 3D NAND

SEMICON West 2015 Recap – Day 1 – Softening Markets, Sub 14nm and 3D NAND
by Scotten Jones on 07-21-2015 at 6:00 pm

Tuesday morning press briefing
The show started for me Tuesday morning with the SEMI press briefing. SEMI said there are 1,200 booths this year, 629 exhibiting companies and over 180 hours of programming. They also said pre-registration was up from last year and they expect 26,000 visitors.

Dan Tracy then gave an update on the markets.… Read More


SEMICON Day 1: IoT Everywhere…and China

SEMICON Day 1: IoT Everywhere…and China
by Paul McLellan on 07-14-2015 at 5:00 pm

The first day of SEMICON West for me is usually imec day. They have a full day of presentations. But I saw the most interesting ones in Brussels recently so I decided to go to the SEMI/Gartner day instead. They run in parallel ballrooms in the Marriot on 4th street.

To me there were two big themes. One was the unavoidable internet of things… Read More


SEMICON West Preview

SEMICON West Preview
by Scotten Jones on 07-07-2015 at 7:00 am

Founded in 1971 (2015: 45th year), SEMICON West 2015 is coming to the Moscone Center in San Francisco on from Tuesday, July 14[SUP]th[/SUP] to Thursday, July 16[SUP]th[/SUP]. SEMICON is the premier show for equipment and materials companies supporting the semiconductor, MEMS and solar industries.

The main ways to get value … Read More


Semiconductor Equipment: the Report and the Show

Semiconductor Equipment: the Report and the Show
by Paul McLellan on 06-18-2015 at 7:00 am

Somebody said to me recently that SEMICON West, which takes place in San Francisco July 14-16th, isn’t that big a deal since very little manufacturing goes on in the US any more. In fact 15% of manufacturing capacity is in north america (I think that actually means the US since I don’t think there are any fabs in Canada).… Read More


SEMICON West, Free For Two More Days

SEMICON West, Free For Two More Days
by Paul McLellan on 05-07-2015 at 7:00 am

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… Read More


ASMC 2015 Preview

ASMC 2015 Preview
by Scotten Jones on 05-01-2015 at 7:00 am

From May 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] to May 6[SUP]th[/SUP] the 26[SUP]th[/SUP] annual Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Conference (ASMC) will be held in Saratoga Springs, New York.

The ASMC offers a unique view of challenges to the semiconductor industry focusing on things like defect reduction, metrology and fab operations. In… Read More


Extending Moore in Silicon

Extending Moore in Silicon
by Daniel Nenni on 04-30-2015 at 7:00 am

A year ago many eulogized the death of Moore’s Law at 28nm due to higher prices per transistor at more advanced nodes, but now that we have celebrated the 50th anniversary let’s look ahead to technology scaling and electronic systems miniaturization for the next decade. Despite our industry’s bipolar tendencies and daunting technical… Read More


Breakfast was Fab: West Coast Wafers to Wall Street

Breakfast was Fab: West Coast Wafers to Wall Street
by Paul McLellan on 04-07-2015 at 7:00 am

SEMI describes themselves as “the global industry association serving the manufacturing supply chain for the micro- and nano-electronics industries.” That is a pretty broad remit. One of the things that they do as a neutral party is produce the World Fab Forecast. This is actually a bottom-up database that tracks fabs as they … Read More