“The rapid globalization of high-tech innovation and manufacturing has caused several notable industry leaders to express serious concerns about the future competitiveness of our industrial infrastructure,” says Bob Pfahl, iNEMI’s VP. “It is widely accepted that sustained growth of our industry requires development of disruptive technologies, innovative products, and advanced manufacturing processes. However, industrial research has consistently downsized over the past decade. The 2004 iNEMI Roadmap identified a number of key technology and business challenges facing the electronics industry in the next 10 years. If these challenges are not addressed with innovative solutions, the continued viability of the electronics manufacturing industry will weaken. It is critical that we aggressively encourage academic and institutional R&D centers to focus on innovation to meet technology needs and identified R&D gaps.”
(August 4, 2005) San Jose, Calif. — The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) has signed a contract with Vanderbilt University to conduct a retrospective epidemiological study to find out if there is an increased cancer risk among wafer fabrication workers compared to other semiconductor industry workers and the general population.