The 2019 3D InCites Awards vote was a nail-biter right up until the end. While some categories seemed almost predictable from start, others were neck-and-neck, with the front runner changing on a daily basis. What was most exciting to me, however, was how many new participants we had, and how well they did. So, from almost-to-close-call to we-never-saw-that-one-coming, here’s my analysis of this year’s results:
Equipment Supplier of the Year: Genmark Automation
With a gap of only 266 votes between Genmark Automation and ERS electronic GmBH, this was truly a race to the finish. Also notable is that this is the first time both of these companies were nominated for an award, and they were up against industry veterans, SPTS Technologies, and Veeco. In the end, Genmark held on to the lead and is the official winner of 2019 3D InCites Equipment Supplier of the Year Award for their CODEX Stocker.
Engineer of the Year: Amy Lujan, SavanSys
For the first time in 3D InCites Awards history, a woman engineer, Amy Lujan, SavanSys Solutions LLC, was nominated for this significant award that recognizes the contributions of an individual to the commercialization of heterogeneous integration. In a completive field featuring two other notable engineers, Gerard John, Amkor Technologies and Warren Flack, Veeco, Amy Lujan emerged as the winner of the 2019 3D InCites Awards Engineer of the Year Award by a slim margin of 466 votes. She is being recognized for her work providing critical cost analyses between fan-out wafer-level and panel-level packaging.
Startup of the Year: ZGlue
2019 may be the year we had the largest field of nominees for Start-Up of the Year, with four young companies vying for the award including ZGlue, Eshylon Scientific, Rohinni, and Disruptive Technologies. All of these companies offer emerging technology solutions that will enable heterogeneous integration processes and deserve recognition for their efforts. I look forward to learning (and sharing) more about all of them. But for now, with a margin of 967 votes, the winner of the 2019 3D InCites Start-up of the year award is ZGlue, for its Integration Platform (ZIP) and a library of heterogeneous building blocks for rapid prototyping.
Research Institute of the Year: UCLA’s CHIPS
Two academic research organizations competed for this year’s Research Institute of the Year Award: Binghamton University Integrated Electronics Engineering Center and UCLA Engineering Center for Heterogeneous Integration and Performance Scaling (CHIPS). Neither of them has been previously nominated. While each spent time as a frontrunner, CHIPS carved out a solid 5000 vote lead to win the 2019 3D InCites Research Institute of the Year Award.
Material Supplier of the Year: Corning Glass
Material Supplier of the Year: Corning GlassThis category was a race between four well-known companies that provide some of the most critical elements to enabling next-generation heterogeneous and 3D technologies: manufacturing materials, and included Corning Glass, Atotech, Brewer Science, and Henkel Corporation. All but past winner Brewer Science were first-time nominees. In a nod to the importance of glass carriers to the wafer thinning process, Corning Glass is the clear winner, by a margin of 2046 votes, of the 2019 3D InCites Materials Supplier of the Year Award.
Process of the Year: imec
Nominations for Process of the Year spanned the spectrum from the well-known Belgian research institute, imec, to three newcomers to the awards program: HSIO Technologies-Benchmark Electronics, Rohinni, and Eshylon Scientific. I look forward to learning a lot more about these companies. In the meantime, a lead of 3810 votes makes imec, the winner of 2019 3D InCites Process of the Year Award, for its low-warpage wafer-level transfer mold process for 3D die-to wafer assembly.
SemiSister Award: Cornell University College of Engineering
New this year, as part of our SemiSister Project, we established the 3D InCites SemiSister Award, to recognize organizations, companies or individuals who are doing the most to foster gender diversity and inclusion in the semiconductor workplace. To me, this may be the most important recognition this year, as industry-wide awareness grows around this issue. The four nominees included Cornell University College of Engineering, FRT- The art of metrology, Brewer Science, SPTS Technologies, and Leslie Tugman, representing SEMI. While only one of them could be this year’s winner, I applaud all these companies and invite them to join our SemiSister Project to promote their efforts. This year’s winner by 3280 votes is Cornell University College of Engineering for reaching parity in women to men in its engineering program with the enrollment of the class of 2022. These students are our future.
EDA Provider of the Year: Mentor, A Siemens Company
EDA Provider of the Year is almost always an interesting dance between Cadence and Mentor, A Siemens Company. This year, I was excited to see Zuken enter the race to mix things up a bit. But once again, with an earth-shattering lead of 25,076 votes, Mentor is bringing home the gold as 3D InCites EDA Provider of the Year for its xSI and Calibre 3DSTACK.
Device Manufacturer and Device of the Year, OmniVision
And lastly, nobody was more surprised than I was by the end results of these two categories. Who would have thought, with industry breakthroughs like Samsung’s ePLP, the first generation of panel-level packaging, or Nvidia’s NVIDIA® Tesla® V100, the most advanced data center GPU, that OmniVision would wind up sweeping both categories, with its next-generation OS02C10 Image Sensor for facial recognition in security cameras with artificial intelligence?
But that’s exactly what happened. In an amazing come from behind race, OmniVision managed to rally its following to close a 5000-vote gap between them and Samsung and leaped to the finish with a 2,343 lead for Device Manufacturer of the Year. while also beating its rival, Sony, for Device of the Year by 3142 votes.
Awards Ceremony: March 6, 2019
And that’s a wrap. Congratulations to all the winners of this year’s 3D InCites Awards! We look forward to celebrating with you next week during the 15th Annual IMAPS Device Packaging Conference. Please join us in honoring the winners at the 2019 3D InCites Awards Ceremony and 10th Anniversary BBQ on Wednesday, March 6, from 6-8 pm
Winners pay close attention to your email. I’ll be sending details soon! ~ FvT
