Technical and business programs

Maria Lester, Associate Editor -- Semiconductor International, 6/1/1999

She 29th annual SEMICON West show, the semiconductor industry's largest conference and exposition in North America, reflects a progressive recovery from last year's downturn with sold out exhibitor space and a sizeable waiting list. It is no wonder that this response reflects optimism when ~35% of total device revenues and over one-third of production facilities come from the United States.

Since September, the industry has shown a steady recovery, with the North American growth figures for March approaching a three-year high. The chip equipment market reported a 14% increase in worldwide bookings and posted a 1.30 book-to-bill ratio ($130 in orders was received for each $100 products shipped). Encouraging were reports from an Ernst and Young survey that showed 84% of the respondents expect the industry's growth rate to return within two years and 49% expect the market to return within 12 months. 1999's SEMICON West reflects this optimism.

The test, assembly and packaging exhibits feature more than 1350 booths representing 560 companies.

For the third consecutive year, exhibits will be divided between front-end and back-end processes. The wafer-processing segment will be located at the Moscone Center and the Yerba Buena Hall, July 12-14, with more than 2800 exhibitor booths. Overlapping one day is the test, assembly and packaging segment held at the San Jose Convention Center, July 14-16, with more than 1350 exhibitor booths. A similar pattern to last year's is expected where SEMI's post-show analysis indicated 1750 exhibiting companies representing 21 countries, occupying 4502 booths.

Exhibition hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily except for the last days of each show; i.e., on July 14 in San Francisco and July 16 in San Jose, exhibition hours will be 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. SEMI will provide free shuttle bus service between San Francisco and San Jose, available throughout the day on Wednesday.

Technical and business programs

In addition to the exhibition, SEMICON West features more than 40 technical and business programs, courses and workshops (see Tables 1 and 2). The most popular programs continue to be the workshop on gas distribution and on contamination in liquid distribution systems. This year's program has been expanded by adding 13 new programs including Low-k Dielectric Materials Technology, Copper Interconnect Status, Lithography Challenges and Opportunities and the Silicon Wafer Symposium. New courses include Software Inspections, Software Testing, Winning Customer Loyalty Through Customer Satisfaction and Practical Negotiating Skills for Semiconductor Professionals.

Standards meeting

SEMI International Standards meetings provide a forum for information exchange between users and suppliers to produce technically accurate specifications and other standards to the industry. Meetings are open to all at no charge. Schedules will be available at the Standards Information desk at the San Francisco Marriott Hotel as well as at the SEMI booths in the Moscone Center (San Francisco) and Parkside Hall (San Jose). More than 100 committee and task force meetings are scheduled. In addition, three SEMI Standards technical education programs (STEPs) and three technical workshops will be featured.

On July 13, the SEMI North American Standards Awards will be presented at the Standards Award Reception at the San Francisco Marriott Hotel. Award categories include the Karel Urbanek Award for international achievement in the standards program, corporate device member, honor, merit, leadership and technical editors' appreciation. For more information regarding SEMICON West, visit SEMI's web page, www.semi.org.

Our special Mid-June show extra will include maps, exhibitor lists, new products and trends that various exhibitors can expect to be in evidence. Expanded coverage will be provided in the July show issue highlighting show products and providing an overview of key trends written by Semiconductor International editors.