BY PETE SINGER, Editor-in-Chief

Do you know what’s coming? The semiconductor industry is evolving rapidly, driven by new demands from an increasingly diverse array of applications, including the IoT, 5G telecommunication, autonomous driving, virtual and augmented reality, and artificial intelligence/deep learning. Solid State Technology will be conducting a new survey will take aim at understanding what this evolution means to the semicon-ductor manufacturing industry supply chain in terms of the technology that will be needed.

IoT alone is expected to drive not only a huge demand for sensors, but a far more sophisticated cloud computing infrastructure that will employ the most advanced logic and memory chips available, including 7 and 5nm logic devices and 3D NAND. The survey will provide answer to questions such as:

• What new materials are going into volume production and what kind of challenges do they create in terms of availability, handling and disposal?
• How are fabs dealing with more complex devices structures such as FinFETs and 3D NAND which can create new pressures on process control, yield, and economics?
• EUV lithography is expected to be in volume production for the 5nm node, if not sooner. What new opportunities and challenges will this create in the supply chain for process equipment, materials and inspection tools?
• 200mm fabs are seeing a resurgence, in part due to the booming market for IoT devices and sensors. How will this impact the leading edge?
• What kind of new challenges and opportunities exist in heterogeneous integration and advanced packaging?

The survey will be conducted across the entire Solid State Technology audience, which includes more than 180,000 engineering and management professionals in 181 countries. The report will be compiled by Solid State Technology editors, who will add valuable insights and interpretations based on decades of experience.

Stay tuned for the survey – we welcome your input!