Increasingly complex semiconductor manufacturing processes, new technologies, and someday 450mm…how’s it all going to get done, and funded? Dan Armbrust, president/CEO of SEMATECH, underscores the need to determine up-front what areas are truly important to keep scaling and cost-effectiveness in the industry, vs. those "nice-to-have" areas.
The keys, he says, are to obtain industry consensus about what’s necessary (as SEMATECH is doing, he points), look for innovative business models related to some of these areas (e.g. EUV lithography, 3D interconnects, EHS) and move ahead in a collaborative, precompetitive way.