SEMICON West 2008 Attendance Shows Upsurge

SEMI (San Jose, California), has released its final
post-SEMICON West show report and, considering that the event took
place during a time when our industry finds itself in one of its
recurring doldrums, it looks very good. This once again
demonstrates that it’s still by far the most important annual
event for the global microelectronics industry, with considerable
interest for those involved in photovoltaics, MEMS, solid-state
lighting, flexible electronics and other related technologies.

SEMICON West verified visitor attendance grew 19% in 2008.
Source: SEMI.

The highlights of the SEMI
report on SEMICON West 2008, which took place in San
Francisco’s Moscone Convention Center July 15-17, reveal that
there were 1,121 exhibitors, and that verified visitor attendance
increased by 19% over last year, for a grand total of 17,048. The
stats go on to show that there was an 85% increase in manufacturing
equipment interest and a corresponding 58% increase in materials
interest, which, again, seems to be a good indicator that the
industry is moving ahead even though it is presently struggling
through one of its painful cyclical downturns.

As has been the case with
past shows, the job levels of those who attended reveal that
SEMICON visitors are among the most important decision-makers of
the companies that they represent; the people who influence and
direct the selection of products and suppliers, steering the
direction of the buying cycle.

SEMICON West attendees
represent every level and every discipline in the buying
cycle. Source: SEMI.

This year’s first
co-location of the event with Intersolar North America
confirms the mounting interest that the
semiconductor industry is displaying toward any and all things
photovoltaic. According to SEMI, about 19% of registered visitors
attended with a very specific interest in the developing PV market.
Another new activity for the show was the first SEMI Packaging
Summit, which featured some of the leaders in that field, such as
Amkor, IBM, Intel and TSMC.

International attendance
has continued its increase over the last few years. This year it
grew by 5%, with foreign attendees making up 15% of all
visitors.

International attendance grew 5% in 2008, with
international attendees represent-
ing 15% of all visitors. Source: SEMI

We look forward to SEMICON
West 2009 breaking these attendance records yet again, this time
hopefully during one of our industry’s dizzying up
cycles.