SI's Take on Semicon West
Editors of Semiconductor International provide insight on Semicon West, including events, exhibitors and attendees
SEMICON West '08: The Days of Wine and Solar
I’m on a train from Madrid to Valencia, Spain, where I will attend the European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition this week. As I look out over the rolling hills, I’m reminded of another solar event on the beautiful land surrounding San Francisco. As a pleasant final cap to a grueling SEMICON West/Intersolar North America week in mid-July, I joined Advanced E ...... Read More
Comments (0)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 involv ...... Read More
Comments (2)SEMICON West '08: Look Ma, No Gas!
Waiting in the SFO airport to return to Chicago, I saw a news story on electric cars. The electric car shown on the screen had a prominent slogan — not on the back bumper but across the front chassis saying “Look Ma, No Gas!” The little white vehicle was similar to the Volkswagen Beetle. I was thinking it looked a little more like the old VW Bug because it was quit ...... Read More
Comments (1)SEMICON West '08: South Hall Exodus
As expected, Moscone West was hopping this year more than I’ve ever seen it. As I mentioned in my last post about Intersolar, SEMI has made attempts in the past to get people to venture out of the North and South halls, but the beer gardens and oompah bands nonetheless left the packaging suppliers in the West feeling a bit unloved. This year was different. The solar pull was just too ...... Read More
Comments (5)SEMICON West '08: Hooray for CNTs and Graphene
An important part of the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS) committee’s mission is to identify the next big thing. Several possible phenomena are being explored to determine what will replace current flow in the so-called “next CMOS switch.” In the meantime, CMOS will be extended by carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and graphene, at least, that is what Jim Hutchb ...... Read More
Comments (0)SEMICON West '08: A Class Act
Although both as journalists and members of the industry we wouldn’t miss coming to SEMICON West, after a couple of days of several very intense meetings with representatives of some of the companies attending, and covering the various events for both the Show Daily (for which we are responsible again this year) and for our Website, it’s nice to have the chance to ditch the ...... Read More
Comments (0)SEMICON West '08: Once More Into the Breach...
Once more into the breach, dear friends, once more: Or close up the wall up with our swollen feet… (With deepest apologies to William Shakespeare.) Amazingly enough, folks, it’s SEMICON West time again! It seems as if the previous one took place only about three months ago. Of course, after more than 15 years of attending the thing, one’s bound to get a feeling of d ...... Read More
Comments (1)SEMICON West '08: Intersolar Adds to Hectic Schedule
SEMICON West, one of our busiest shows of the year, just keeps getting busier. We used to have five days to cover everything — Monday through Wednesday up in San Francisco covering the front end, heading down to San Jose Wednesday night to finish out the week in the back end. And those were the days before Semiconductor International took over the show daily, and before SEMI started ...... Read More
Comments (0)SEMICON West '08: SEMICON/West Morphs Into A Different Show
SEMICON/West has been evolving into a slightly different show every year. In many ways, it has become much more regional in its attendance, and it has lost much of its pull as a truly international show as SEMI added regional shows across Asia. This year, it takes a new step with the co-location with Intersolar North America. While, in some respects, people might expect this to cause many visitor ...... Read More
Comments (0)SEMICON West '07: EUV Camps Grow Further Apart
There was lots to be said about extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography at SEMICON West — some of it good, some of it not so good. On the one hand, Cymer announced that it would be ASML’s EUV source supplier going forward. Along with that announcement, Cymer detailed the advances made in its laser-produced plasma (LPP) source design (Cymer switched from DPP to LPP three years ago). Cy ...... Read More
Comments (0)SEMICON West '07: Double Patterning Inches its Way Forward
Double patterning has gone from the fall-back position for EUV to the front-and-center stage technology for extending 193 nm lithography. The speed at which flash devices are transitioning (now the minimum feature and pitch driver) means there will not be enough time to develop EUV for the 32 nm node. A few things need to happen to make double patterning a reality. Overlay is a big one. ...... Read More
Comments (0)SEMICON West '07: Just Clean Enough – New Yield Mantra
After years of driving specifications for particles and other contamination to smaller and smaller dimensions, the industry is getting to a new level: If we can’t measure it, we don’t know if it’s there. Somewhere around 40 nm, we can no longer detect defects, so rather than ask for better and better specifications from gases, chemicals and on wafers, we need to control the p ...... Read More
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