Semicon/Southwest drops the other shoe
10/01/1997
I think it is obvious that the industry downturn last year is well on its way to a complete recovery buoyed up by an extremely healthy economy. The July Semicon/West show in San Francisco/San Jose heralded new and exciting announcements of many emerging technologies and ready-to-ship products. Semicon/Southwest continues the surge started in California with the Austin venue and is in no way anticlimactic. Attendees and exhibitors will find all the right stuff they need in the guise of products and technical programs to round out their silicon summer. A sampling of products to be introduced at Semicon/Southwest starts on p. S17.
As pointed out in the article "Chipmakers choose Phoenix desert as home," on p. S7, the burgeoning of the semiconductor industry in the Southwest is becoming a recent-day phenomenon as new supporting companies move in and others expand. Semicon/Southwest has become the unique forum for these dynamics.
Among the more exciting items on the agenda are several associated with resources and protecting the environment. Although these concerns are important in any part of the world, the pristine nature of the Southwest and its resource profile present particular problems associated with contamination control and recycling of waste products.
Addressing these concerns are technical sessions such as "Environmentally Conscious Manufacturing," the "Symposium on Contamination Free Manufacturing," and "A Partnership for PFC Emissions Reduction." The importance of water resources is discussed in the special session and industry briefing on "High Technology's Stake in the Looming Texas Water Wars." Our article, "Water conservation through the use of recirculating chillers," on p. S13, also details how water can be saved.
Productivity has become an all-important topic as the wafer yield curves flatten above 90 percent and efficiencies are sought in other areas. Addressing these productivity issues is a session on manufacturing execution systems, where yields are discussed but also where the other leg of productivity, better equipment utilization, comes to the forefront. Another aspect of productivity is not just tool utilization, but the reliability of the tools themselves. This is the point of the tutorial on establishing semiconductor equipment reliability. Another related topic is the ergonomic factor. A session on 200-mm and 300-mm wafer ergonomic design is a direct hit.
Leading-edge topics are presented in abundance. For example, there is an all-important session on the transition to 300-mm wafers and where we currently find ourselves with respect to tools and standards. Also, planarization issues focusing on the requirements in 2001 are discussed at the ULSI planarization processes session.
Completing a full circle of the technology are cost concerns. The cost and expense side of semiconductor manufacturing is covered in the sessions on production cost savings and low-cost manufacturing. Coupled with this is the discussion on cost of ownership, a critical means of measurement of costs over time.
In all, the program investigates a full circle of critical issues and concerns to the semiconductor manufacturer and to all the suppliers of materials and tools. As usual, Solid State Technology will be there to dig out the newest and most important technologies and report on them in upcoming issues.
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See you at the show!
Paul Nesdore
Editor-in-Chief: [email protected]