Category Archives: Metrology

By Alan Weber

Even for someone who has been in this industry since the days of the TI Datamath 4-function calculator and the TMS1100 4-bit microcontroller (yes, that’s been a LONG time – the movie Grease premiered the same year!), it is sometimes hard to grasp the scope and complexity of what happens in today’s leading-edge semiconductor gigafabs. In fact, the only way to comprehend the enormous volume of transactions that occur is to consider what happens in a single minute – this is illustrated in the infographic we have labeled “The Gigafab Minute.”*

It’s amazing enough to think that a single factory can start 100,000 wafers every month on their cyclical journey through 1500 process steps… and have 99%+ of them emerge 4 months later to be delivered to packaging houses and then on to waiting customers. It’s quite another to realize that all of this happens continuously (24 x 7) and automatically.

“How is this possible?” you ask.

Well, a big part of the solution is the body of SEMI standards which have evolved since the early 80s to keep pace with the ever-changing demands of the industry. From an automation standpoint, many of these standards deal with the communications between manufacturing equipment and the factory information and control systems that are essential for managing these complex, hyper-competitive global enterprises.

A significant characteristic of these standards is that they have been carefully designed to be “additive.” This means that new generations of SEMI’s communications standards do not supplant or obsolete the previous generations, but rather provide new capabilities in an incremental fashion. To appreciate the importance of this in actual practice, consider how the GEM, GEM300, and EDA/Interface A standards support the transactions that occur in a single Gigafab Minute.

Starting at 1:00 o’clock on the infographic and moving clockwise, you first notice that 2.31 wafers enter the line. Of course, these are actually released in 25-wafer 300mm FOUPs (Front-Opening Unified Pod), but 100K wafers per month translates to 2.31 per minute. Since these factories run continuously, once the line is full, it stays full. And with an average total cycle time of 4 months, this means that there are 400K wafers of WIP (work in process) in the factory at any given time. This number, and the total number of equipment (5000+), drive the rest of the calculations.

GEM (Generic Equipment Model) – SEMI E30, etc.

The GEM messaging standards were initially defined in the early 90s to support the factory scheduling and dispatching applications that decide what lots should go to what equipment, the automated material handling systems that deliver and pick-up material to/from the equipment accordingly, the recipe management systems that ensure each process step is executed properly, and the MES (Manufacturing Execution System) transactions that maintain the fidelity of the factory system’s “digital twin.”

Every minute of every day, GEM messages support and chronicle the following activities: 240 process steps are completed (i.e., 240 25-wafer lots are processed), 300 recipes are downloaded along with a set of run-specific adjustable control parameters, and 600 FOUPs are moved from one place to another (equipment, stockers, under-track storage, etc.). For each of these activities, the factory’s MES is notified instantaneously.

GEM300 – SEMI E40, E87, E90, E94, E157

With the advent of 300mm manufacturing in the mid-to-late 90s, a global team of volunteer system engineers from the leading chip makers defined the GEM300 standards to support fully automated manufacturing operations. Starting at 5:00 o’clock on the infographic, the number of transactions per minute jumps almost 3 orders of magnitude, from the monitoring of 900 control jobs across 4000 process tools to the tracking of 360,000 individual recipe step change events. This level of event granularity is essential for the latest generation of FDC (Fault Detection and Classification) applications, because precise data framing is a key prerequisite for minimizing the false alarm rate while still preventing serious process excursions. In this context, more than 6000 recipe-, product- and chamber-specific fault models may be evaluated every minute.

Simultaneously, the applications that monitor instantaneous throughput to prevent “productivity excursions” and identify systemic “wait time waste” situations depend on detailed intra-tool wafer movement events. In a fab with hundreds of multi-chamber, single-wafer processes, 75,000 or more of these events occur every minute.

EDA (Equipment Data Acquisition) – SEMI E120, E125, E132, E134, E164, etc.

Rounding out the SEMI standards in our example gigafab is the suite of EDA standards which complement the command and control functions of GEM/GEM300 with flexible, high-performance, model-based data collection. The EDA standards enable the on-demand collection of the volume and variety of “big data” required from the equipment to support the advanced analysis, machine learning, and other AI (Artificial Intelligence) applications that are becoming increasingly prevalent in leading semiconductor manufacturers. As EUV (Extreme Ultraviolet) lithography moves from pilot production to high-volume manufacturing at the 7nm process node and beyond, the litho process area will become a major source of process data by itself, generating 10 GB of data every minute. This is in addition to the 100 GB of data collected from other process areas.

The End Result

The final wedge (12:00 o’clock) in our infographic highlights the real objective – which is producing the millions of integrated circuits that fuel our global economy and provide the technologies that are an integral part of our modern way of life. Assuming a nominal die size of 50 square mm (typical of an 8 GB DRAM), the 2.31 wafers we started at 1:00 o’clock result in almost 3200 individual chips. But none of this would be possible without the pervasive factory automation technology we now take for granted. So, as you finish reading this posting on whatever device you happen to be using, take a micro-moment to acknowledge and thank the hundreds of standards volunteers whose insights and efforts made this a reality!

You may not be responsible for running a gigafab anytime soon, but the SEMI standards used in this setting are no less applicable to any Smart Manufacturing environment. Give us a call if you’d like to know more about how these technologies can benefit your operations for many years to come.

Alan Weber is Vice President, New Product Innovations, at Cimetrix Incorporated. Previously he served on the Board of Directors for eight years before joining the company as a full-time employee in 2011. Alan has been a part of the semiconductor and manufacturing automation industries for over 40 years. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Electrical Engineering from Rice University.

Originally published on the SEMI blog.

According to data compiled by Inkwood Research, the global semiconductor market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 7.67% during the forecast period from 2017 to 2024. Data reflects that the market is driven by rising demand for consumer electronics, the growing automotive semiconductor market, the emerging internet of things (IoT) market and investments into New Product Development and R&D. Consumer electronics are primarily fueling the market due to demand for products such as tablets, smartphones, laptops and wearable devices. As semiconductor technology begins to advance, new segments are swiftly being integrated into the market, such as Machine Learning. Squire Mining Ltd. (OTC: SQRMF), Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC), Texas Instruments Incorporated (NASDAQ: TXN), NXP Semiconductors N.V. (NASDAQ: NXPI), Skyworks Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ: SWKS)

According to data by MarketsandMarkets, the global machine learning sector is expected to grow from USD 1.41 Billion in 2017 to USD 8.81 Billion in 2022 while registering a CAGR of 44.1% during the forecast period. The segment is rapidly growing due to many businesses adopting machine learning to gather intelligence for security and consumer interaction benefits, which can help eliminate human errors. However, machine learning is also being integrated into modern day technology, such as the automotive industry, to build autonomous vehicles. In a report by Forbes, Daniel Newman Principal Analyst and Founding Partner of Futurum Research, explained, “When dealing with a technology as advanced as machine learning, there simply isn’t an industry that would not benefit. I mean how could a business not take advantage of a technology that would make them more successful? In the next year, there will be multiple new uses for machine learning in all of these industries available for the taking and I’m not just talking about in marketing and sales.”

Squire Mining Ltd. (OTCQB: SQRMF) is also listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange under the ticker (CSE: SQR). Yesterday, the Company announced breaking news that, “to report on its prototype ASIC chip testing event held in Seoul, South Korea. With executives and board members from Squire, Future Farm, CoinGeek, Gaonchips and Samsung Electronics in attendance, Peter Kim, President of Squire’s subsidiary AraCore Technology Corp. (“Aracore”), and his team of front-end microchip engineers and programmers, unveiled and tested a working prototype mining system comprised of a newly engineered FPGA (field programmable gate array) ASIC microchip that will be converted into AraCore’s first ASIC chip utilizing 10 nanometer technology for mining Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin and other associated cryptocurrencies. The test results confirm Aracore’s original design specifications indicating that the ASIC chip, once mass manufactured by Samsung Electronics, will be capable of delivering a projected hash rate of 18 to 22 terahash per second (TH/s) with an energy consumption of between 700 and 800 watts.

Taras Kulyk, Chief Executive Officer of CoinGeek Mining and Hardware, said ‘The CoinGeek team is very pleased with the progress of our strategic partners; Squire Mining and Aracore. With this next generation technology, CoinGeek will continue to pull the blockchain industry out of the proverbial basement and into the boardroom.’

Stefan Matthews, Chairman of nChain, one of the industry leaders in blockchain research and development, and a director of Squire Mining added, ‘The early results indicate that this ASIC microchip has the potential to be the next generation leader in providing hash power for enterprise mining of Bitcoin Cash and other associated crypto currencies. It has also demonstrated the potential to rapidly process consensus protocols across the blockchain faster whilst utilizing less energy than anything currently in this sector.’

Hash rate speed and microchip efficiency are the two most important measuring criteria in the crypto-mining industry to enable end-users to maximize profitability and ROI in their day to day mining operations.

Simon Moore, Executive Chairman and CEO of Squire Mining, stated, ‘Aracore’s time and investment to date have been validated by the impressive results of this new microchip. Once completed, we believe the speed and efficiency of our ASIC microchip combined with our respective mining systems powered by this Samsung manufactured microchip together have the potential to substantially increase the profitability of enterprise mining facilities around the globe. We look forward to releasing our mining system to the market in the first half of next year through our exclusive distribution partners CoinGeek, and competing for a significant piece of this multi-billion-dollar enterprise mining market.’

In its September Update to The 2018 McClean Report, IC Insights discloses that over the past two years, DRAM manufacturers have been operating their memory fabs at nearly full capacity, which has resulted in steadily increasing DRAM prices and sizable profits for suppliers along the way.  Figure 1 shows that the DRAM average selling price (ASP) reached $6.79 in August 2018, a 165% increase from two years earlier in August of 2016. Although the DRAM ASP growth rate has slowed this year compared to last, it has remained on a solid upward trajectory through the first eight months of 2018.

Figure 1

The DRAM market is known for being very cyclical and after experiencing strong gains for two years, historical precedence now strongly suggests that the DRAM ASP (and market) will soon begin trending downward.  One indicator suggesting that the DRAM ASP is on the verge of decline is back-to-back years of huge increases in DRAM capital spending to expand or add new fab capacity (Figure 2). DRAM capital spending jumped 81% to $16.3 billion in 2017 and is expected to climb another 40% to $22.9 billion this year. Capex spending at these levels would normally lead to an overwhelming flood of new capacity and a subsequent rapid decline in prices.

Figure 2

However, what is slightly different this time around is that big productivity gains normally associated with significant spending upgrades are much less at the sub-20nm process node now being used by the top DRAM suppliers as compared to the gains seen in previous generations.

At its Analyst Day event held earlier this year, Micron presented figures showing that manufacturing DRAM at the sub-20nm node required a 35% increase in the number of mask levels, a 110% increase in the number of non-lithography steps per critical mask level, and 80% more cleanroom space per wafer out since more equipment—each piece with a larger footprint than its previous generation—is required to fabricate ≤20nm devices. Bit volume increases that previously averaged around 50% following the transition to a smaller technology node, are a fraction of that amount at the ≤20nm node.  The net result is suppliers must invest much more money for a smaller increase in bit volume output.  So, the recent uptick in capital spending, while extraordinary, may not result in a similar amount of excess capacity, as has been the case in the past.

As seen in Figure 2, the DRAM ASP is forecast to rise 38% in 2018 to $6.65, but IC Insights forecasts that DRAM market growth will cool as additional capacity is brought online and supply constraints begin to ease. (It is worth mentioning that Samsung and SK Hynix in 3Q18 reportedly deferred some of their expansion plans in light of expected softening in customer demand.)

Of course, a wildcard in the DRAM market is the role and impact that the startup Chinese companies will have over the next few years.  It is estimated that China accounts for approximately 40% of the DRAM market and approximately 35% of the flash memory market.

At least two Chinese IC suppliers, Innotron and JHICC, are set to participate in this year’s DRAM market. Although China’s capacity and manufacturing processes will not initially rival those from Samsung, SK Hynix, or Micron, it will be interesting to see how well the country’s startup companies perform and whether they will exist to serve China’s national interests only or if they will expand to serve global needs.

 

SMART Global Holdings, Inc. (“SMART” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: SGH), parent company of SMART Modular Technologies, Inc., today announced the appointment of Bryan Ingram, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Wireless Semiconductor Division of Broadcom Inc., to its board of directors and its Compensation Committee, effective October 2, 2018.

“Bryan brings significant operating skills and an extensive network of relationships with industry leaders in all parts of the electronics and semiconductor supply chain, including the largest handset manufacturers in the world,” said Ajay Shah, Chairman of the Board, President & CEO of SMART. “Bryan is responsible for one of the largest divisions within Broadcom, and his long history of executive leadership in the global semiconductor industry will be of great benefit to SMART as we continue to execute our expansion strategy.”

Mr. Ingram currently leads the Wireless Semiconductor Division at Broadcom Inc. and has served in various executive roles for over 13 years, at Broadcom Inc. and its predecessor Avago Technologies Limited, which acquired Broadcom Corp. in 2015. Mr. Ingram also held executive positions at the predecessor to Avago within Agilent Technologies. From 1986 to 1999 Mr. Ingram held various management positions at Hewlett Packard and Westinghouse. Mr. Ingram holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois and a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University.

With the appointment of Mr. Ingram, the board of SMART Global Holdings now has four independent directors and a total of nine members.

HEIDENHAIN announces a new series of angle encoders called the ERP 1000 with the design criteria of exceptionally high resolution, high speed, and high contamination resistance.  These new unique encoders are particularly useful for highly accurate measurement and positioning applications within semiconductor and metrology equipment.

Consisting of a glass disk bonded to a hub and a scanning unit that scans the fine graduation on the surface of the disk, these ERP 1000s are offered with four different size disks and segments.   The disks can have up to 63,000 lines with accuracy to +/- 0.9 arc seconds and up to 2600 RPM.  A reference mark is included, and multiple scanning units could be used to increase accuracy even further.

The scanning units also have the new custom ASIC HSP 1.0 which is HEIDENHAIN Signal Processing and forces the stabilization of the signals through an advanced LED brightness control. When the scanning unit detects contamination, the LED intensity is increased to help increase the reflectivity and therefore reducing amplified noise. The end result is a super stable encoder output that ensures high reliability. The scanning unit cable exit can also be ordered with either a straight-out configuration, or a 90-degree exit, both having left or right options as well, so squeezing into tight spaces is possible.

The scanning units come with either an analog 1Volt peak to peak or TTL electrical interface. The TTL versions can have up to 1000x interpolation, yielding an unprecedented 252 million counts of resolution per 360 degrees on the largest disk.

The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), representing U.S. leadership in semiconductor manufacturing, design, and research, to day announced worldwide sales of semiconductors reached $40.16 billion for the month of August 2018, an increase of 14.9 percent compared to the August 2017 total of $34.96 billion. Global sales in August 2018 were 1.7 percent higher than the July 2018 total of $39.49 billion. All monthly sales numbers are compiled by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization and represent a three-month moving average.

“Global semiconductor sales continued to bound upward in August, easily outperforming sales from last August and narrowly surpassing last month’s total,” said John Neuffer, president and CEO, Semiconductor Industry Association. “While year-to-year growth has moderated somewhat in recent months, sales remain strong across every major semiconductor product category and regional market, with the China and Americas markets standing out with the largest year-year growth.”

Regionally, sales increased compared to August 2017 in China (27.3 percent), the Americas (15.0 percent), Europe (9.5 percent), Japan (8.4 percent), and Asia Pacific/All Other (4.7 percent). Sales were up compared to last month in China (2.1 percent), the Americas (3.6 percent), and Asia Pacific/All Other (1.3 percent), and decreased slightly inJapan (-0.1 percent), and Europe (-1.4 percent).

For comprehensive monthly semiconductor sales data and detailed WSTS Forecasts, consider purchasing the WSTS Subscription Package. For detailed data on the global and U.S. semiconductor industry and market, consider purchasing the 2018 SIA Databook.

By Jaegwan Shim

Korea is on track to top all other regions in fab investment, spending $63 billion between 2017 and 2020, with powerhouses Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix leading the way, according to latest World Fab Forecast Report by SEMI. Samsung Electronics increased fab investments $770 million to $12 billion this year, and SK Hynix upped its spending a significant $2.8 billion to $7.25 billion in 2018.

Korea’s investment companies anticipate continued growth for both companies in the second half of 2018.

Under this halo of extraordinary investment, nearly 380 SEMI Korea members and industry analysts gathered for 2018 SEMI Korea Members Day on September 22 to share insights on semiconductor market trends and new technologies that could help members bolster their competitiveness. Following are key takeaways from the event.

Korea semiconductor market to grow 16% in 2018

That’s according to IDC Korea VP Kim Soo-kyung, who noted that data center, memory and Internet of Things (IoT) are becoming key growth drivers for the semiconductor industry. He encouraged semiconductor companies to closely track development of automotive technology and the industry semiconductor market, both key growth areas.

SEMI Korea president H.D. Cho opens SEMI Korea Members Day 2018

Continuing fab investment will lead to oversupply, but display will shine

Market entry by Chinese companies will also spur the oversupply, said Jeong Won-Seok, an analyst at HI Investment Corp. He noted that the oversupply will force Korea into stiffer competition with other regions. However, with OLED used for a wide variety of devices and the display industry seeing rapid growth, the sector will remain ripe for growth among Korean companies.

Interconnecting various applications is a big semiconductor industry trend

The need for these interconnections will stand out in the mobility and high-performance computing (HPC) markets, said Kim Jin-Young, director at Amkor Technology Korea, who addressed trends in packaging technology. He also emphasized interconnection cost efficiency as key to maximizing competitiveness.

Smart Manufacturing is driving mass customization

As semiconductor industry growth continues, production methods are shifting from ‘mass production’ to ‘mass customization,’ increasing the importance of Smart Manufacturing in driving greater production efficiency, noted BISTel VP Jeon Kyeong-Sik. Building a Smart Manufacturing platform to support large-scale production of specialized database and artificial intelligence (AI) chips will boost production efficiency, reduce costs and improve risk management. Virtual simulation will be a key enabling technology.

SEMI analyst Clark Tseng presenting at SEMI Korea Members Day 2018

Surge in data volume and technology advances to drive long-term semiconductor industry growth

These key industry drivers will continue to power fab investment growth, with spending focused on 3D NAND, DRAM, and foundry, said Clark Tseng, a SEMI analyst. China alone will see eye-watering growth with the region’s investments in domestic companies surging 46% from 2018 to 2019 and fab investment by Chinese domestic companies outpacing spending by foreign companies in China, Tseng predicted.

SEMI membership rises with industry growth

Culminating the event, SEMI Korea president H.D. Cho said, “With the growth of the semiconductor market, the number of SEMI members is gradually increasing, and we will help member companies grow with various activities such as Korea Members Day.”

Jaegwan Shim is a marketing specialist at SEMI Korea. 

Originally published on the SEMI blog.

IC Insights’ September Update to The McClean Report shows that as a result of a 51% forecasted increase in the China pure-play foundry market this year (Figure 1), China’s total share of the 2018 pure-play foundry market is expected to jump by five percentage points to 19%, exceeding the share held by the rest of the Asia-Pacific region. Overall, China is forecast to be responsible for 90% of the $4.2 billion increase in the total pure-play foundry market in 2018.

Figure 1

With the recent rise of the fabless IC companies in China, the demand for foundry services has also risen in that country.  In total, pure-play foundry sales in China jumped by 26% last year to $7.5 billion, almost triple the 9% increase for the total pure-play foundry market.  Moreover, in 2018, pure-play foundry sales to China are forecast to surge by an amazing 51%, more than 6x the 8% increase expected for the total pure-play foundry market this year.

Although all of the major pure-play foundries are expected to register double-digit sales increases to China this year, the biggest increase by far is forecast to come from pure-play foundry giant TSMC.  Following a 44% jump in 2017, TSMC’s sales into China are forecast to surge by another 79% in 2018 to $6.7 billion. As a result, China is expected to be responsible for essentially all of TSMC’s sales increase this year with China’s share of the company’s sales more than doubling from 9% in 2016 to 19% in 2018.

As shown in Figure 2, much of TSMC’s sales surge into China has come over the past year, with 2Q18 sales into the country being almost double what they were in 3Q17.  A great deal of the company’s recent sales surge into China has been driven by increased demand for custom devices going into the cryptocurrency market.  It turns out that many of the large cryptocurrency fabless design firms are based in China and most of them have been turning to TSMC to produce their advanced chips for these applications.  It should be noted that TSMC includes its cryptocurrency business as part of its High-Performance Computing segment.

Figure 2

While TSMC has enjoyed a great ramp up in sales for its cryptocurrency business over the past year, the company has indicated that a slowdown is expected for this business in the second half of this year.  It appears that the demand for cryptocurrency devices is highly dependent upon the price for the various cryptocurrencies (the most popular of which is Bitcoin).  As a result, the recent plunge in the price for Bitcoins (going from over $15K per Bitcoin in January of this year to less than $7K in September), and other cryptocurrencies as well, is lowering the demand for these ICs.  Moreover, since TSMC realized from the beginning that the cryptocurrency market was going to be volatile, the company did not adjust its capacity plans based on the recent strong cryptocurrency demand and does not incorporate cryptocurrency business assumptions into its forecasts for future long-term growth.

By Jay Chittooran

Last week, more than a dozen senior semiconductor executives traveled to Washington, DC for the first-ever Fall Washington Forum. The SEMI Washington Forum, a venue for SEMI members to educate lawmakers about the industry, focused on action against China, both in the form of tariffs and export controls.

Our industry is global, and companies rely heavily on trade. In 2017, more than 90 percent of equipment made in the United States was exported. Because of this dynamic, the United States holds a nearly $9 billion trade surplus in this industry. SEMI is supportive of trade policies that open foreign markets.

In the meetings, the executives expressed deep concern that the tariffs would inflict deep damage to the U.S. economy, including to SEMI members. Estimates suggest that the Sec. 301 tariffs (and the Chinese retaliatory tariffs) will cost semiconductor companies more than $700 million annually, dramatically increasing the cost of doing business. These tariffs also threaten U.S. technological leadership. The United States has led innovation for decades. However, by pursuing policies that limit market access opportunities, company-led R&D and innovation will slow, which, in turn, will curb further export potential.

SEMI companies also stressed that because of the blunt application of these tariffs, this action will actually hurt U.S. companies as much as it hurts their Chinese competitors. Indeed, about 40 percent of imports in our sector from China are from U.S. or other non-Chinese companies. Further, the semiconductor industry relies on a vast network of supply chains, which have been built and qualified over the course of years. A fundamental revamp of supply chains is simply not feasible. This would be expensive, time-consuming, and resource-intensive.

With a growing number of policy issues that are central to and could have significant impact for semiconductor companies, SEMI hosted its first ever Fall Washington Forum for members of its North American Advisory Board (NAAB). SEMI also invited several other industry executives. In total, 14 senior industry executives, including representatives from equipment manufacturers, component suppliers, and materials providers, attended the Fall Forum.

During the two days of meetings, SEMI met with several senior Administration officials to better the policies being enacted and considered as well as encourage all parties to not impose barriers to commerce, which would severely impact the semiconductor industry. SEMI also met with Members of Congress and their staffs on this issue.

All told, attendees at the Fall Forum had more than 15 meetings with policymakers, reflecting the great impact of public policy on SEMI members companies. At a time when the stakes for the industry could not be higher, direct engagement with lawmakers is critical. The Washington Forum offers an incredible opportunity for members to better understand the impact of key public policy issues and gain firsthand experience in influencing policy and helping lawmakers better understand the industry.

If you are interested in learning more about the SEMI Washington Forum or SEMI’s public policy program, please contact Jay Chittooran by email at [email protected].

Mark Lipacis, Managing Director of Jefferies Group LLC and a leading analyst in identifying semiconductor industry trends and opportunities, will present a featured keynote during the GSA Silicon Summit – East, being held Tuesday, October 9 in Saratoga Springs, NY.

The inaugural conference is presented by the Saratoga County Prosperity Partnership (Saratoga Partnership), Saratoga County, NY’s economic development agency; the Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA), a leading voice for the worldwide semiconductor industry; and the Center for Economic Growth (CEG), a regional economic and business development organization.

A top executive with the world’s only independent full-service global investment banking firm, Lipacis will discuss “The 4th Tectonic Shift in Computing – The Next Growth Opportunity for Semis.” Highlighting the technical innovations that translate to tectonic shifts in computing, his remarks will focus on the current evolution to a parallel processing/Internet of Things (IoT) model, driven by improvements in parallel processing and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies.

“Mark Lipacis is a thought leader with a deep market research expertise in edge computing and IoT. We look forward to Mark’s closing keynote and the important insights that he will share on the 4th tectonic shift in computing and the new opportunities it brings for the semiconductor industry and end markets,” said Dr. Shrikant Lohokare, Executive Director and Senior Vice President, GSA. “As rapid innovation continues to disrupt computing, and the impact of the semiconductor industry ripples through the world of business, his outlook will be of particular significance in addressing challenges and harnessing opportunities.”

“With the presence of GLOBALFOUNDRIES marking Saratoga County as a global leader in advanced semiconductor manufacturing, Silicon Summit – East is the ideal venue for Mark Lipacis to present a worldview of the latest industry evolution in computing,” said Marty Vanags, President of the Saratoga County Prosperity Partnership. “We are eager to hear his vision for the future, and in the process, to connect companies throughout the supply chain with opportunites to locate and grow high-tech business in Saratoga County.”

Lipacis has 18 years of experience in equity research, having joined Jefferies Group LLC in 2011 from Morgan Stanley, where he spent four years as a senior semiconductor analyst, and most recently as a managing director. In 2010, he was a runner-up in the institutional investor analyst survey, ranked number three in the Greenwich Associates poll, and ranked highly in previous Wall Street Journal and Starmine Polls – including being recognized as the number one semiconductor stock picker by Starmine in 2009. Previously, he was a first vice president and senior semiconductor analyst at Prudential, and prior to that a director and lead communicatons semiconductor analyst at Merrill Lynch.

Scheduled to deliver the opening keynote is Dr. Gary Patton, Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President of Worldwide Research and Development at GLOBALFOUNDRIES. A well-recognized industry leader in semiconductor technology R&D with over 30 years of semiconductor experience, Patton is responsible for GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ semiconductor technology R&D roadmap, operations and execution. His address will discuss “Market Drivers for Moore and Beyond Moore Semiconductor Technologies.”

The Networking Break Sponsor for GSA Silicon Summit – East is Micron. Gold Sponsors are Analog Devices, BBL and National Grid. Complete information about the event, including the program and sponsorship opportunities, can be found at https://www.gsaglobal.org/2018sse/.

GSA Silicon Summit – East was created through a strategic alliance established last year by the Saratoga Partnership and GSA. The event, with a theme of “Harnessing Emerging Semiconductor Market Opportunities,”  is designed to promote partnerships and drive efficiencies that advance semiconductor technology and business, while also informing the regional ecosystem on growth opportunities.