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SEMICON Taiwan is set to open in September amidst an improving global and regional outlook for 2013 and 2014 that sees Taiwan remaining the largest and strongest market for semiconductor manufacturing. SEMICON Taiwan 2013, to be held September 4-6 at the Taipei World Trade Center Nankang Exhibition Hall, will spotlight the latest developments in processes, equipment, materials, and emerging market opportunities in microelectronics manufacturing from more than 650 exhibiting companies and more than 110 speakers from the world’s leading technology companies and research organizations.

Bucking the global trend of contraction in semiconductor spending, Taiwan has continued to build its position as the leading market for semiconductor equipment through the first half of 2013. According to the Worldwide Semiconductor Market Statistics report published by SEMI and the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ), spending on semiconductor equipment in Taiwan in the first quarter of 2013 rose to US$ 2.8 billion, 31 percent above Q4 2012 and 60 percent higher than the first quarter of 2012. The latest SEMI Consensus Forecast projects the Taiwan equipment market will rise more than 9 percent in 2013 and another two percent in 2014 to reach $10.6 billion, maintaining Taiwan’s status as the world’s largest equipment market.

"While the global market is looking towards recovery in 2014, Taiwan is building its strength and growing now," said Terry Tsao, president of SEMI Taiwan. "New electronic products and technologies, including mobile devices and 3D printing, are creating entirely new opportunities for microelectronics and driving the need to push the limits of Moore’s Law to enable the next generation of innovations. The technologies, companies, and people that will get us there are the highlight of SEMICON Taiwan."

In addition to the company exhibits and product displays, SEMICON Taiwan 2013 will feature more than 50 hours of technical and business forums, including presentations from global and regional industry leaders ASE, GLOBALFOUNDRIES, IBM, Micron, STMicroelectronics, TSMC, and Qualcomm among others. Scheduled sessions include the SEMICON Taiwan Executive Summit, the IC Design Summit, Market Trends, Memory Executive Summit, CMP Forum, Lithography/Mask Symposium, Advanced Packaging Symposium, Green Manufacturing, and sessions on MEMS and LED manufacturing.

Complementing the technical and business programs at SEMICON Taiwan, the third SiP Global Summit, Taiwan’s leading conference focused on advanced packaging and test, will feature speakers and participation from leading companies including Amkor, SPIL, SPTS, Nanya, PCB, Unimicron, Teradyne, Qualcomm, Yole Développement, SUSS MicroTec, and Senju sharing their insights and solutions for accelerating volume 3D IC production. In addition to support from the SEMI Taiwan Packaging and Test Committee, the SiP Global Summit is also coordinated in conjunction with the Fraunhofer Institute, I-Shou University, and the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI).

Coventor, Inc., a supplier of virtual fabrication solutions for semiconductor devices and micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS), shared the SEMulator3D 2013 software platform at SEMICON West 2013. Conventor says the SEMulator3D 2013 brings physical accuracy and predictive modeling capabilities to process development and integration. This milestone release expands the value of ‘virtual fabrication’ to the broader semiconductor ecosystem in order to reduce silicon learning cycles and the billions of dollars spent reaching manufacturing readiness.

SEMulator3D 2013 release comes at a particularly critical time for semiconductor companies grappling with the complexities of integrated 3D front-end-of-line (FEOL) manufacturing processes such as Tri-Gate and High-k/Metal Gate logic, as well as advanced 3D memory technologies. Fabless design teams also face tremendous challenges migrating their intellectual property (IP) into these new technologies. SEMulator3D 2013 responds to such evolving requirements with an advanced virtual fabrication platform that makes it possible for foundry and fabless development teams to effectively collaborate at the physical process level.

“With new silicon architectures ramping quickly, IBM is introducing new manufacturing technologies that will keep us on the cutting edge of chip-making for server microprocessors, systems-on-chips and specialty silicon for consumer applications,” said Gary Patton, vice president, IBM Semiconductor Research and Development Center. “Tools such as Coventor’s SEMulator3D Virtual Fabrication platform have allowed us to speed our end-to-end technology development in 22nm and beyond, enabling a faster time to market for our customers who depend on IBM innovation to create the latest servers, smart phones, GPS systems, routers and other devices.”

At the core of the new SEMulator3D 2013 platform is a physics-driven modeling paradigm for addressing physical process behavior that makes virtual fabrication more predictive and provides new opportunities for replacing actual silicon learning cycles with faster, less costly virtual cycles. In addition, virtual metrology innovations and the automation of virtual experiments enable process developers to perform virtual fabrication operations in hours or days instead of the months required for actual silicon learning cycles.

“Time and complexity challenges are the two constants in semiconductor design and manufacturing, and the growing trend toward 3D integrated technologies like FinFETS has introduced unprecedented levels of pain in both areas. SEMulator3D 2013 addresses the need for more efficient, automated approaches to process modeling, as well as the need for greater levels of collaboration by both ends of the development process. The net result is a dramatic reduction in the time and cost required to leverage the most advanced manufacturing techniques required to keep pace with Moore’s Law and fuel even more innovation across the electronics industry,” according to Dr. David Fried, chief technology officer at Coventor.

SEMulator3D 2013 features a new surface evolution engine and seamlessly combines the benefits of advanced physics-driven and high-speed behavioral (‘voxel’) predictive modeling in a single, easy-to-use platform. Voxel modeling is a fast, robust digital approach capable of scaling to the requirements of integrated processes and large silicon areas. Surface evolution is a more analog approach capable of modeling a wide range of physical process behavior.

Coventor’s unique deployment of surface evolution facilitates a major step forward in modeling reactive ion etching and selective epitaxial growth, a key technique for creating channel stress in advanced planar and FinFET technologies. With SEMulator3D 2013, users can model etching of multi-material stacks with multiple types of etch physics, such as redeposition (passivation), sputtering (physical etching), and etch bias (lateral or chemical etching). They can also model the growth rates of major silicon plane families to predict the faceted shapes and structural ramifications of selective epitaxial growth.

The SEMulator3D 2013 platform incorporates advanced technologies and tool enhancements that enable automatic process variation analysis with parallel modeling and virtual metrology to significantly increase user productivity. A new spreadsheet-driven Expeditor tool for batch processing enables massively parallel parameter studies. The addition of new virtual metrology steps into the virtual fabrication process provide for in-line, local measurement of critical dimensions, mimicking actual metrology operations. Tool upgrades include an enhanced Materials Editor for hierarchical grouping of materials, which greatly simplifies process deck development and maintenance.

SurplusGLOBAL, Inc. participated in Semicon West 2013. SurplusGLOBAL CEO, Bruce Kim forecasted the increase in demand in the Asia Secondary Equipment Market.

Bruce Kim, CEO  of SurplusGLOBAL, has participated in Semicon West for the past 7 years and stated, “We are more optimistic about the growth in the Asian Secondary Semiconductor Equipment Market in the years to come.”

Secondary semiconductor equipment addresses both environmental and cost concerns within the industry. The secondary equipment market size has experienced continuous growth over the past three years. In 2012 the market size was estimated to be around 3 billion US dollars, with 200mm wafer capturing 90% of this market. In 2013, demand of 300mm wafer equipment is expected to capture an increased share of the demand.

With the growth in demand, distribution and services are becoming more critical every year. The number of Fab facilities in the United States and Europe continues to experience decline, while in Asia there has been continued investment in the China, Taiwan and South Korean markets. The Asian market accounts for approximately 80% of the semiconductor equipment market. The Asian secondary equipment market has been experiencing continued growth and global, financially stable traders such as SurplusGLOBAL are well positioned to lead the supply of this equipment.

The market has been very slow for last two years in Asia since the second half of 2011.  Most of the Asian players enjoyed the market recovery in Year 2010 and the 1st half of 2011.  After then, utilization rates at Foundries plummeted to levels, LED fabs suffered from slow demands and price pressures. The sales revenues of Asian dealers and refubishers have declined up to 70 percent.  These days we can see several ongoing expansion plans mainly from Taiwan and China Foundries as well as a few new Fab plans in China.  LED Fabs are resuming the purchase of tools.  Analog and Power device makers are adding bottleneck tools.  The demands of Fab tools from packaging companies are increasing.   

Bruce Kim commented “The major market drives are Foundries who want to expand their capacity or build new Fabs mainly in Taiwan and China. There are increasing demands of secondary equipment in mature technology including not only 8 inch silicon wafer, but also LED, packaging and MEMS."

To date, this demand has been driven by both 200mm FAB front and backend tools. We project starting growth of 300mm FABs in Asia. Powerchip sold hundreds of 300MM tools in the 1st Half to many Asian Fabs.  GLOBALFoundries acquired a thousand of Fab tools from Promos and sold many of them to China new fab recently. Bruce Kim mentioned,   “300mm Fabs have difficulty in purchasing secondary equipment because of insufficient support from equipment suppliers, so SurplusGLOBAL expects it will take considerable time for the  300mm secondary equipment market to take off.”

SurplusGLOBAL locates, sells and stocks thousands of systems annually and has established an extensive global network of end users, refurbishers and brokers. SurplusGLOBAL specializes in semiconductor manufacturing equipment acquired from the leading chip manufacturers in the United States, Europe and Asia covering Fab, ATE and PCB/SMT capital equipment segments.

cyberTECHNOLOGIES GmbH announced the addition of White-Light Interferometry (WLI) to its suite of production-proven CT SERIES non-contact surface metrology systems at SEMICON West 2013. WLI significantly broadens the range of use cases and applications of the existing CT SERIES, CT 100, CT 300 and CT x50T product lines and allows the user to not only scan large areas or samples, but also to zoom in on very small areas of interest for sub-nm analysis.

The new WLI modules can be installed either by itself or concurrently with the existing point sensors and provides the user with the ability to measure a broad range of applications, from surface topographies and printed structures on the order of several hundred micrometers down to sub-nanometer resolution surface roughness measurements, in a single system.

“Our customers want to take advantage of our superior user interface and automation capabilities not just in scanning applications but also for use cases where sub-nanometer resolution is required, “ said Frank Kemnitzer, head of product management at cyberTECHNOLOGIES GmbH. “With the WLI module installed, they can now select between different measurement technologies and adapt the measurement system to their requirement at hand. All within the same easy to use interface, the same advanced analysis capabilities, without learning how to use another system.” The systems were designed with modularity and versatility in mind and the addition of the new WLI sensors further broadens their range of applications.

Be it for quick, individual measurements on a single or multiple samples or the automatic inspection of complete production runs, cyberTECHNOLOGIES’ SCAN SUITE makes it simple and easy for the user to get accurate results.

Multiple systems with WLI  have been installed at leading manufacturers in Europe, Asia and North America.

At SEMICON West 2013, Boston Semi Equipment (BSE), LLC announced the expansion of its semiconductor front end and back end equipment businesses in Tempe, Ariz. into a new and larger facility. The new location provides space for the company’s increasing workforce, a test floor for the reconfiguration of current generation semiconductor test equipment and customer test cell optimization, a temperature controlled environment for front end fab tool inspections and increased storage space for the company’s inventory of ready-to-ship semiconductor manufacturing equipment.

 “Our company has continued on a steady growth path since its founding in 2010,” stated Bryan Banish, Boston Semi Equipment CEO. “Our new location increases the company’s capacity to reconfigure and refurbish equipment to support our expanding business. We are able to configure and work on more systems in parallel, reducing our already short lead times and increasing our ability to quickly deliver large orders to meet our customers’ capacity requirements.”

 “Semiconductor manufacturers have come to rely on Boston Semi Equipment when they need to add capacity,” added Colin Scholefield, EVP Boston Semi Equipment. “We have established a reputation for quick response to their capacity needs. Whether they need equipment from OEMs or reconfigured equipment from the secondary market, BSE has the solution. This new facility will definitely aid us in keeping up with the increasing demand for our equipment solutions.”

Boston Semi Equipment currently has operations in Burlington, Mass., Tempe, Ariz., the Philippines, Japan, Taiwan and Singapore, providing products and services for both front and back end semiconductor processes.

Solid State Technology and SEMI announced the recipient of the 2013 “Best of West” Award — Mentor Graphics — for its Tessent TestKompress with Cell-Aware ATPG.  The award recognizes important product and technology developments in the microelectronics supply chain. Held in conjunction with SEMICON West, the largest and most influential microelectronics exposition in North America, the Best of West finalists were selected based on their financial impact on the industry, engineering or scientific achievement, and/or societal impact.

The Mentor Graphics Tessent TestKompress with Cell-Aware ATPG significantly improves on the standard process for testing digital integrated circuits and reduces failure escape rate by detecting defects at the transistor level that are missed by traditional automatic test pattern generation (ATPG) techniques. The Mentor Graphics booth is in the North Hall, Booth #6243. Their winning entry was entered in the “Silicon Test Solutions, Facilities & Software” category.

The Best of West Award winner was announced during SEMICON West on Wednesday, July 10, 2013 at 1:00pm.

Leaders of research consortia from around the world sat down to share updates and insights with SEMICON West attendees on Wednesday morning. In a panel led by SEMI President Karen Sevala, four executives from SEMATECH, CNSE, CEA-Leti and imec discussed their companies’ focus and progress on lithography, 3D stacking and ICs, memory and logic and more.

Lithography was a huge project and priority to three out of the four consortia represented and was the first topic brought to the panel by Sevala.

“Lithography is one of the highest priorities of our industry,” said Luc Van den hove, CEO of imec.

Van den hove said that he was very positive about EUV, confident that it was going to be available very soon. Daniel Armbrust of SEMATECH echoed Van den hove’s sentiments, reinforcing the importance of EUV’s availability for the continuation of Moore’s law.

“EUV must happen,” Armbrust emphasized to the crowd. SEMATECH’s EUV program, he said, has been focused on taking the manufacturing technology and making sure it’s ready for high volume production.

“The technology is in relatively decent shape,” Armbrust said. The challenge, he explained, is defect performance.

3D stacking and TSVs were also a hot topic. Michael Liehr of CNSE said, while important, 3D has been slower to take off than expected.

“The cost and implementation are still a lot more extensive than typical packaging solutions,” Liehr said. “We hope that this technology will lead to a leap in performance.”

Van den hove shared that imec believes that 3D stacking and ICs are very important technologies, and that the consortia started their programs about ten years ago.

“One of the biggest challenges with this technology is that we have two worlds that need to meet,” said Van den hove, in an effort to encourage industry collaboration.

Concerning memory and logic, Armbrust said that SEMATECH has been moving to 3D structures and focusing on the 7nm node, which has inevitably led to changes in device structure.

“The most promising candidate,” said Armbrust, “is replacing silicon with a material that provides III-V compounds.”

 

Battered by the nonstop onslaught of media tablets, the mobile PC market in 2013 delivered the worst second-quarter performance in 11 years, according to preliminary data provided by a PC Dynamics Market Brief from information and analytics provider IHS (NYSE: IHS).

Worldwide mobile PC shipments in the second quarter shrank a steep 6.9 percent compared to the first three months of the year, based on initial findings. This represented the first time the industry experienced a sequential decline since the second quarter of 2002. At that time, mobile PC shipments contracted 3.7 percent after the dot.com bust flattened global demand.

In the 10 years between those two low points, the mobile PC space had always strengthened in the second quarter as shipments recovered from a normally soft start to the year. Excluding 2002 and this year, growth for every second quarter during the intervening years had ranged from 0.5 percent to as much as 6.5 percent, as shown in the attached figure. Just last year, the industry enjoyed a 3.9 percent increase for the period.

The depressed results are not confined to the second quarter alone. When the overall first half is considered, 2013 has made history as having the poorest performance since 2003, posting a harsh 11.2 percent contraction compared to the same six-month period a year ago. How much the market has fallen can be seen by the magnitude of growth attained in the previous years. Only three years ago in 2010, mobile PC shipments surged by 41.7 percent in the first half.

“Representing devices such as traditional notebook PCs as well as the new thinner ultrathin/Ultrabook laptops, the mobile PC industry on the whole is struggling to find any momentum for growth as upheavals rock the market,” said Craig Stice, senior principal analyst for compute platforms at IHS. “In particular, more nimble devices like media tablets have taken over among consumers given their ease of use and unique form factor. Meanwhile, innovation in PCs has stagnated, and the recent influx of low-cost tablets has further eaten into an already decimated mobile PC space. With such dire numbers, many are wondering whether this signifies the start of more record declines for mobile PCs, or if the industry has hit rock-bottom.”

High hopes for low costs

An infusion of lower-cost PCs that deliver higher performance but consume less power than current laptops could save the market, IHS believes. Processors like Bay Trail from Intel Corp. and Temash from rival chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. can go beyond what traditional entry-level processors have been able to provide, and PC makers are contemplating a new class of performance PCs that would incorporate the new processors at affordable prices.

Hopes also remain alive within the industry on prospects for the much more expensive ultrathin and Ultrabook PC models, where growth could still be expected if their prices come down and if consumers can get used to the new Windows 8 operating system after a rocky launch.

The PC that refreshes

With everything considered, a PC refresh buying cycle is more than likely to occur, IHS believes.

‘Despite the broad appeal of media tablets, the devices won’t be able to fully replace PCs, and consumers will continue to need the computational power of personal computers,” Stice said. “If a new low-cost PC offering strong performance can become available on the market and meet consumer expectations, then PCs could be set for more growth—not like the glory days of the 2000s—but growth nonetheless.”

A year to forget

Despite this, 2013 is very likely a write-off at this point. Even with growth expected to occur in the second half, it’s too late given the depressed first-half results that any positive expansion could occur in both the mobile PC segment and the overall PC market.

A full downturn is projected for total PC shipments in 2013, which would make this the second consecutive year of decline, after the contraction of the market last year for the first time since 2001.

At the end of 2012, memory products and foundries accounted for a combined 54% of the IC industry’s installed monthly capacity of 14,497K wafers (200mm-equivalent wafers), according to data in IC Insights’ Global Wafer Capacity 2013 report (Figure 1).  Logic represented 12.4 percent, Microcomponents (MPU, MCU, DSP) represented 10.3 percent, and Analog devices accounted for 9.6 percent of capacity.  The “other” segment is comprised mainly of capacity used in the fabrication of optoelectronic, sensor, and discrete (O-S-D) devices as well as some R&D functions in fabs that are otherwise used primarily for the volume production of IC products.

 

Large-scale production of DRAM and flash memory helped drive installed capacity for all memory to 36.1 percent of installed capacity in December 2012, while the growing foundry segment represented 27.5 percent of capacity.  In terms of sales, virtually all pure-play foundry business is in the fabrication of logic and mixed-signal ICs. Memory product wafers accounted for only about one percent of total pure-play foundry sales in 2012.

Figure 2 shows that on a regional basis, capacity for analog products is fairly evenly distributed among Japan, Europe, and the Americas regions.  In memory, capacity is held mainly by South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan. The largest portion of logic capacity is located in Japan, with the Americas, South Korea, and Europe holding smaller, but still sizeable, shares.  The Americas region is tops in microcomponent capacity due mostly to high-volume MPU production from Intel.  In foundry, Taiwan is by far the largest shareholder of capacity having about 48 percent of the world’s capacity dedicated of foundry work.  China also has a large amount of foundry capacity, with SMIC being responsible for most of that.

SEMI honored 14 industry leaders for their outstanding accomplishments in developing standards for the microelectronics and related industries. The SEMI Standards awards were announced at a reception held during SEMICON West 2013.

The 2013 SEMI International Standards Excellence Award, inspired by Karel Urbanek, is the most prestigious award in the SEMI Standards Program. Yesterday, it was awarded to Dr. Larry Hartsough of UA Associates.  Hartsough has been actively involved in SEMI Standards for over 20 years, serving in a variety of leadership positions. With over 30 years’ experience in the industry in the areas of thin-film deposition, equipment design and plasma processing of materials, he was instrumental in the development of cluster tool and 300mm interface Standards for semiconductor equipment. Additionally, Hartsough’s expertise in patent litigation was invaluable in guiding the Physical Interfaces and Carriers Committee on intellectual property issues. Long-term, committed leaders like Hartsough provide continuity and excellence to the SEMI Standards Program. The Award recognizes the leadership of Karel Urbanek, a SEMI Board of Directors member who was a key figure in the successful globalization the Standards Program.

In addition, the recipients of four major North American SEMI Standards awards were announced:

The Merit Award recognizes Standards Program Member major contributions to the semiconductor, PV, and related industries through the SEMI Standards Program.  Award winners typically take on a very complex problem at the task force level, gain industry support, and drive the project to completion. This year, seven Program Members were presented with the Merit Award for their contributions to the semiconductor, PV, 3D-IC, and HB-LED industries: 

  • Contribution to the PV Industry: Existing SEMI test methods did not provide the ability to measure a broad range of trace elemental impurities in silicon feedstock for solar cells. Through the International PV Analytical Test Methods Task Force, Hugh Gotts (Air Liquide Electronics U.S.) led the development of SEMI PV49-0613, Test Method for the Measurement of Elemental Impurity Concentrations in Silicon Feedstock for Silicon Solar Cells by Bulk Digestion, Inductively Coupled-Plasma Mass Spectrometry.
  • Contribution to the HB-LED Industry: The 150mm sapphire wafers used for manufacturing HB-LED devices are thicker than standard silicon wafers used in the semiconductor industry— making it difficult to use the same cassettes and standards. SEMI HB-LED Equipment Automation Task Force leaders, Jeff Felipe (Entegris) and Daniel Babbs (Brooks Automation) led the development of SEMI HB2-0613, Specification for 150mm Open Plastic and Metal Wafer Cassettes Intended for Use for Manufacturing HB-LED Devices. This cassette standard also enables standardization of load ports and transport systems, resulting in both direct and indirect cost savings throughout the whole supply chain.
  • Contributions to the 3DS-IC Industry: Establishing common understanding and precise communication between stakeholders is important in any manufacturing supply chain, including 3DS-IC. North America 3DS-IC Inspection & Metrology Task Force leaders, David Read (NIST) and Victor Vartanian (SEMATECH), led the successful development of the first 3DS-IC standard published by SEMI, SEMI 3D1-0912: Terminology for Through Silicon Via Geometrical Metrology. It provides consistent terminology for metrology issues important to through silicon vias (TSV), including: pitch, top CD, top diameter, top area, and more. Read and Vartanian were also responsible for the successful development of two other 3DS-IC SEMI Standards — SEMI 3D4 (Bonded Wafer Stack Metrology) and SEMI 3D5 (TSV Metrology).
  • Ilona Schmidt (Corning) was the key developer of SEMI 3D2-0113, Specification for Glass Carrier Wafers for 3DS-IC Applications.  SEMI 3D2 describes dimensional, thermal, and wafer preparation characteristics for glass starting material that will be used as carrier wafers in a temporary bonded state.
  • Contribution to the Semiconductor Industry: Manufacturing equipment is complex, which makes it susceptible to operating errors due to electromagnetic interference (EMI).  SEMI E33 provides recommendations to help assure that manufacturing equipment will operate reliably without failures caused by electromagnetic interference (EMI).  This desired characteristic is generally known as electromagnetic compatibility (EMC). Last year SEMI E33 went through an extensive revision led by technical expert Vladimir Kraz (BestESD Technical Services).

The Leadership Award recognizes Program Members’ outstanding leadership in guiding the SEMI Standards Program.  Since the formation of the HB-LED Technical Committee in late 2010, Julie Chao (Silian Sapphire) and David Joyce (GT Advanced Technologies) have led the Wafer Task Force in defining the physical geometry of wafers used in HB-LED manufacturing.  Their efforts resulted in SEMI HB1-0113, Specifications for Sapphire Wafers Intended for Use for Manufacturing High Brightness-Light Emitting Diode Devices— SEMI’s first HB-LED standard. As task force leaders, Chao and Joyce fostered industry collaboration, travelling to global SEMI events and attracting new key stakeholders, ensuring global input and consensus.

The Honor Award, given to an individual who has demonstrated long-standing dedication to the advancement of SEMI Standards, recognized Richard Allen (NIST/SEMATECH). From his involvement in the Microlithography/Micropatterning Committee to his current leadership in the 3DS-IC and MEMS/NEMS Committees, Allen has been a long-standing and active participant in the SEMI Standards Program.  He joined the 3DS-IC committee shortly after it was formed in late 2010 as serves as committee chairman. He also leads the Bonded Wafer Stacks Task Force, Inspection & Metrology Task Force and Thin Wafer Handling Task Force). His contributions have been instrumental in the publication of four SEMI 3DS-IC Standards to date.

The Corporate Device Member Award recognizes the participation of the user community. This year, three Program Members were presented with the Corporate Device Member Award for their contributions to EHS and 3DS-IC. This year’s Corporate Device Member Awards were presented to Paul Schwab (Texas Instruments), Urmi Ray (Qualcomm), and Raghunandan Chaware (Xilinx).  The award is presented to individuals from device manufacturers.

As co-leader of the S8 Ergonomics Task Force, Paul Schwab (Texas Instruments) provided end-user perspective in the revision of SEMI S8, Safety Guideline for Ergonomics Engineering of Semiconductor Manufacturing Equipment. Schwab significantly improved the Supplier Ergonomics Success Criteria (SESC) checklist criteria, making the Document easier to use by the industry.

Another example of the importance of end-user input was in the development of SEMI’s third 3DS-IC Standard – SEMI 3D3-0613, Guide for Multiwafer Transport and Storage Containers for 300mm, Thin Silicon Wafers on Tape Frames. North America 3DS-IC Thin Wafer Handling Task Force Leaders Urmi Ray (Qualcomm) and Raghunandan Chaware (Xilinx) played integral roles in the development of SEMI 3D3-0613, providing vital end-user perspective for shipping thin wafers on tape frames so that they arrive undamaged at their final destination.

The SEMI Standards Program, established in 1973, covers all aspects of microelectronics process equipment and materials, from wafer manufacturing to test, assembly and packaging, in addition to the manufacture of photovoltaics, flat panel displays and micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS). Over 3,700 volunteers worldwide participate in the program, which is made up of 23 global technical committees. Visit www.semi.org/standards  for more information about SEMI Standards.