SEMICON West 2005

It's that time again, folks! SEMICON West kicks off this year on Tuesday, July 12, and it's chock full of programs, conferences and exhibits this year — all crammed into only three days instead of the five of recent years. Rather than split between San Francisco and San Jose as it has been for several years, this year SEMI is taking advantage of the completion of the West addition to the Moscone Center to hold the entire exhibition, front- and back-end processing, in San Francisco.

Opening daily at 10 a.m., exhibits are open until 6 p.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday, then closing at 4 p.m. on the final day, Thursday, July 14. More than 1400 exhibitors will have products on display for the 23,000+ visitors expected to attend this year's show.

The show isn't just about what products are hot this year. There are also programs for visitors to attend — some free and some requiring registration (Table 1 ).

The Fab Manager's Forum centers around one of the hottest topics in the semiconductor industry today: design for manufacturing (DFM). It has become a "must" for all new products entering the market. Speakers in this program will discuss DFM challenges, overcoming them and communicating the need for support.

SEMI and Gartner Dataquest are teaming up to provide a mid-year market update and a forum to discuss the latest business issues. Forecasts and analyses for semiconductor equipment and materials will be offered as well.

Manufacturing at the wafer level will be addressed at the IEMT conference. The Technology Innovation Showcase, a three-day event, will feature winners of the 2005 Technology Innovation Showcase competition. SEMI International Standards meetings also will take place throughout the week. Table 2 has a complete listing of standards meetings.

Keynote speakers

There will be four keynote addresses given throughout the show. Tim Eckersley, senior vice president of customer and market operations for Nokia America, has a speech titled, "1 Order of Mobility with Chips on the Side." Eckersley will discuss the growing demands for advanced multimedia applications and chips with increased capabilities to process power, integration and power consumption. He will also offer tips on how the chip industry can work with mobility players to effectively handle this growing need.

Tien Wu, president of worldwide marketing and sales in the Americas and Europe for ASE Inc., plans to speak about the behavior of the semiconductor industry and its response to innovation technology, scale cost and the incremental disposable income increase. His speech, "Semi Play or Semi Syndrome," will also examine long-term trends and current characteristics of slower industry growth.

"When Moore is Less, Watts Happen," presented by Bernard Meyerson of IBM, is a review of what occurred when Moore's Law was followed in the absence of classical scaling. He plans to explore the root causes of the discontinuity that resulted in the revamping and abandonment of particular technical strategies.

The final keynote address will be given by Robert Doering of Texas Instruments. His talk will cover updates to the 2005 edition of the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS). Consult Table 1 for the times and locations of these addresses.

The Emerging Technologies Hall (Esplanade) will house technologies that are driving Moore's Law to its limits and beyond in nanotechnology, e-manufacturing, electric design automation (EDA) and MEMS. Presentations will deal with numerous issues in the semiconductor industry, such as electrochemical processing, next-generation deep silicon etching and new models for R&D. Attractions to this hall include automotive applications, WiFi hotspot and giveaways from participating companies.

Innovation Showcase will also be giving presentations. These winners offered solutions to real problems, including ultrathin 2-D continuous films and immersion lithography innovations. Attendance is free.

Three executive panel forums are scheduled during SEMICON West, one of which will be moderated by Semiconductor International Editor-in-Chief Peter Singer. Taking place immediately following Doering's keynote, "ITRS Challenges and Opportunities" will focus on the implications the ITRS presents to the semiconductor manufacturing supply chain. Panelists are Chris Sparkes of Nikon Precision, Nick Bright of Lam Research, Dan Hutcheson of VLSI Research, Art Katsaros of Air Products, and Mark Jagiela of Teradyne.

Another forum, "The Bulls and Bears — Midyear and Beyond," will be moderated by Richard Hill of Novellus Systems. Seven industry-leading financial analysts — Tim Arcuri of Citigroup, Jim Covello of Goldman Sachs, Jay Deahna of JP Morgan, Mark Fitzgerald of Bank of America, Brett Hodess of Merrill Lynch, and John Pitzer of CSFB — will explain the real investment story for the semiconductor and materials sector.

A forum on "Changing Business Paradigms in Semiconductor Manufacturing" will discuss the technological and market challenges facing the semiconductor industry today. Panelists are Aki Fujimura of Cadence, Kevin Meyer of Chartered Semiconductor, Thomas Sonderman of AMD Semiconductor, and James Fusaro of Amkor Technology.

Semiconductor International, in cooperation with SemiTracks, will be hosting a one-day course on reliability and characterization challenges in advanced semiconductor devices. John Suehle of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Ennis Ogawa of Texas Instruments will lead this course. An overview of problems and challenges associated with today's devices will be offered, followed by FEOL and BEOL issue discussions. This course will be held Monday at the City Club of San Francisco. Registration is at www.semitracks.com.

Once again, an extensive schedule of the standards meetings is featured during the show. Table 2 lists these meetings in detail, while Table 3 details the Standards Technical Education Programs (STEP) and Table 4 shows what committees are meeting on which days. Workshops on such topics as e-manufacturing and trace impurities in gases are also offered.

Registration information

For visitors only attending the exhibitions, online registration is available at www.semi.org/semiconwest. A $50 fee will be charged for registrations after July 1. For those that wish to attend the programs and events, registration before July 1 offers a reduced rate. Admission to the exhibits is included in the price when registering for other events. Forms can be downloaded from SEMI's website.