1000 SEMI Standards & Counting
By James Amano, Senior Director, International Standards & EHS, SEMI
The first SEMI Standards Committee was formed in 1973 to address silicon wafer dimensional specifications. At the time, there was a proliferation of over 2000 different wafer specifications, leading to major inefficiencies at a time when the industry was just getting underway. Wafer suppliers banded together under SEMI to solve this problem and rapidly developed consensus specifications for 2-inch and 3-inch wafers, and by the mid-1970s over 80% of wafers being shipped conformed to these new standards.
Since that time, the SEMI Standards Program has saved the industry untold billions of dollars by defining interoperability specifications, guidelines and test methods that have streamlined semiconductor manufacturing and ensured the smooth operation of hundreds of pieces of equipment – all working automatically around the clock.
The Program recently reached a major milestone, with the development of our 1000th Standard, SEMI S30: EHS Guideline for Use of Energetic Materials in Semiconductor R&D and Manufacturing Processes. Given the major contributions that SEMI Safety Guidelines have made to the industry, it’s only fitting that our 1000th Standard comes from our EHS Committee.
Our Smart Manufacturing Standards have also played a critical role in the development of the industry, enabling today’s highly adaptive, self-diagnosing, and interoperable fabs. This release of Standards Watch highlights the current effort to further improve our EDA suite of Standards, which provide a nearly real-time stream of data that can be used to optimize manufacturing, as well as the new equipment communication standard for the PCB industry.
Another significant achievement is the approval of our first panel level packaging standard.
SEMI Standards have enabled the production of more than 2.2 billion wafers and 1.8 trillion IC devices. Referenced more than 10 million times in production fab purchases, more than 25 SEMI Standards, on average, are cited in each purchase order for semiconductor equipment and materials in the electronic manufacturing ecosystem.
Looking to the future, multiple opportunities for the Program to speed the industry’s progress come to mind: big data & AI, data security, energy conservation, and quantum computing, to name just a few.
Plan now to join us in celebrating the accomplishments of all our Standards Members and plan for our next 1000 Standards at the Standards Awards & Networking Event - 1000th Standard Celebration Edition, to be held during SEMICON West 2019.
Standards Watch
SEMI
www.semi.org
June 13, 2019