ASMC 2016, the Return of MEPTEC Luncheons, and Your May Calendar

The Saratoga Springs, NY, horse racing season starts in late July, following a racing tradition that dates to the 1860s. That’s a pretty long run indeed, and it’s one of the things, along with the healing spring waters, successful Revolutionary War battle history, and “summering” by well-to-do Boston and New York families, that gives Saratoga its charm.

At first glance, Saratoga might be an unlikely place to find 300+ semiconductor industry professionals gathering to share tradecraft, but, in what has become a new Saratoga Springs tradition, gather they will, in May, from the 16^th through the 19^th, at the SEMI Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Conference, now in its 27^th year.

Why?

With the advent of pervasive microelectronics, we now increasingly live in a kind of complex ecosystem, one in which we depend on the microSiome (the transistors and sensors and miniature radios, among other components, we wear, carry in our pockets, or that are embedded in our cars, homes, and offices) to enrich and extend our lives, improve our productivity, and bond with friends and family, be they near or far.

As microelectronics content expands into more and more of our daily lives, regular discussions among industry professionals about continued advancements in commercial semiconductor manufacturing have become more and more essential. These discussions are the essence of ASMC 2016.

This year’s conference offers a host of stimulating presentations, from keynotes to technical sessions and tutorials, addressing a wide variety of cutting-edge topics in microelectronic device fabrication. Beginning with a welcoming reception, and extending over the next three days, the ASMC 2016 program is filled with opportunities for networking with industry peers, and for learning and sharing knowledge on new, and best-method, semiconductor manufacturing practices and concepts vital to continued progress in the field.

I’ll be leading the ASMC panel discussion; our topic is “Moore’s Law vs. Moore’s Wallet, and Where Do We Grow From Here?” I’ve got four wonderful panelists sharing their thoughts: Dave Bloss, Vice President, Technology Manufacturing Group, Intel; Bill Miller, Sr. Director of Engineering, Qualcomm; Andreas Knorr, Director of Technology Research, GLOBALFOUNDRIES; and Patrick Martin, Head of Field Technology, Transistor and Interconnect, Applied Materials.

(See this recent piece in The New York Time, no less, for more on the subject.)

On the 3D/TSV-side, session chairs Prof. James Lu, RPI; Thuy Tran-Quinn, IBM; and Russell Dover, Lam Research, are leading a session dedicated to key innovations in the field of 3D/2.5D/Through-silicon via technology (TSV) technology including TSV processing, underfill, defects and others.

Good stuff

And I’m excited about the ASMC tutorial from Professor Jesús A. del Alamo, Director, Microsystems Technology Labs, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, teaching us about “Nanoscale III-V CMOS.”

He’s the man who leads MIT’s XTreme Transistors Group, to give you an idea of where Prof. del Alamo calls home.

It’s going to be great – see you in Saratoga Springs.

The other event this month that fits readers of 3D InCites / 3D+ to a T is the MEPTEC Monthly West Coast Luncheon, where the topic is “Innovations in Heterogeneous Integration and SiP,” and the speaker William (Bill) Chen, ASE Fellow and Senior Technical Advisor, ASE Group.

If you know Bill at all you know this is going to be a great talk; if you don’t, do yourself a favor by attending.

Bill “…will discuss the crucial role of the heterogeneous integration through SiP, increasingly being applied within the broad electronic device market and quickly meeting the challenges associated with the emerging internet of things (IoT) and migration to the cloud. Chen will explore the reinvention of core packaging technologies and the emergence of new innovations as platforms for SiP. In tracing the development of fan-out from fan-in packages, he will then demonstrate how this new core technology has great potential to meet the complex challenges of integration and miniaturization posed by a demanding marketplace.”