Seeking input and direction from the Test, Assembly, and Packaging industry segments, SEMI brings executives and thought leaders together to define challenges, opportunities, and the best paths for SEMI support.

On January 22, 2008, SEMI brought together members and non-members from a cross section of the test, assembly, and packaging communities. Representatives from fabless companies, independent device manufacturers, subcontractors, electronic design automation, and assembly test equipment segments were present to help identify possible SEMI initiatives to help further the ATP industry. As with many other SEMI industry efforts, these discussions were pre-competitive explorations of future directions, so concerns about antitrust issues were clarified and prevented by careful scoping of the agenda and the discussion content.

The agenda for this meeting centered on defining the issues faced by these executives and thought leaders, and were summarized in the question: “What keeps you awake at night?” By identifying the major issues faced by the industry, SEMI would gain a fuller and deeper understanding of the most significant contributions that an industry association could make to the strategic value of its members in these markets.

The meeting started out with industry consultant Ron Leckie of Infrastructure Advisors presenting economic trends of semiconductor price pressures, growth and a research and development funding gap. Next, Brad Robbins of Teradyne shared the outcome of a recent ITRS Test Workgroup meeting held in Japan, and then a round-table discussion began with each member sharing his or her ideas.

At the end of the round-table, five major concerns arose that can be summarized as Interface standards, a greater focus in the academic world to boost the test profession, Infrastructure standards, Yield Improvement, and a convergence of Protocol testing.

SEMI will assess the recommendations and respond to the workshop attendees with proposed next steps. A brief follow-up meeting of the workshop participants, as a steering committee was scheduled around SEMICON West in July, 2008.

Workshop participants included:

Facilitated by Ron Leckie (INFRASTRUCTURE Advisors), the workshop also included SEMI staff:

Stan Myers (President and CEO); Fred Kolbe (Europe); Saw Biing Huei (Singapore); Jonathan Davis, Pat Gardner, Dan Martin, and Tom Salmon (Headquarters).

Posted March 3, 2008