SEMI® Global Update ♦ October 2011 IN THIS ISSUE Revitalizing the Regions End of the DRAM Era: Flash Spending Surpasses DRAM Industry Directions Highlighted at Taiwan CEO Forum Members Drive Innovation through Reuse of Equipment Executive Viewpoints from SEMICON Taiwan SEMICON Recognized as Leading Tradeshow Brand What's Happening in Standards? Selected Updates on 450mm, 3D-IC, HB-LED, and FPD SEMI Releases Worldwide PV Equipment Market Statistics Report Major U.S. Patent Reform Finalized SEMI CALENDAR NORTH AMERICA October 6 Pacific Northwest Breakfast Forum October 11 Arizona Breakfast Forum October 24-27 North America Standards Fall 2011 Meetings November 2 SEMI Austin Annual Industry Outlook Forum November 6-9 International Trade Partners Conference November 10 KGD Conference November 14-15 Global Interposer Technology (GIT) 2011 Workshop December 12-14 3-D Architectures for Semiconductor Integration and Packaging Classes Fundamentals of Product Marketing Principles of Selling to the Semiconductor Industry Combating Aggressive Supply Chain Management Key Semi Account Selling and Management 3D Packaging Revolution (new) Fundamentals of Microchip Design and Fabrication (new) Account Support Boot Camp (new) ASIA November 9-11 SOLARCON India 2011 December 5-7 PVJapan 2011 December 7-9 SEMICON Japan 2011 EUROPE October 10-13 Europe Fall 2011 Standards Meetings October 11-13 SEMICON Europa October 11-13 PE2011 - Conference and Exhibition ASMC 2012 Call for Papers Abstract Deadline: October 24 FROM THE PRESIDENT OF SEMI AMERICAS Revitalizing the Regions At SEMI, we have a vision for each of our regions-- creating a platform that enables members to connect with each other and with local resources to solve industry problems and demonstrate local leadership for the manufacturing supply chains. Just like the successful SEMI Northeast (Boston and Albany) regions and in the Southwest (Austin) regions, we want to help other regions create opportunities for collaboration and networking, as well as draw attention to the critical issues that impact the manufacturing supply chain in the microelectronic and PV industries. So with member guidance, we recently decided to renew our focus on the regions in the U.S.— by re-launching industry manufacturing committees and programs in both the Northwest and Southwest (Phoenix) regions. As in other regions, we hope to draw upon the universities in the regions for R&D support and the economic development organizations in the cities and states. (more) Karen Savala www.semi.org Advertisement The End of the DRAM Era: Flash Spending Surpasses DRAM By Clark Tseng, SEMI Industry Research & Statistics, Taiwan From 2004-2007, DRAM accounted for 30-35% of semiconductor capital equipment spending, according to the SEMI World Fab Database. However, in the last few years, the DRAM sector has been suffering from fast price erosion, fierce competition and mediocre demand. Industry Directions Highlighted at Taiwan CEO Forum Leaders from Mentor Graphics, Imec, TSMC and Applied Materials provided perspectives on the current state of the industry at the SEMICON Taiwan CEO Forum on September 7. That evening, 500 industry leaders gathered to honor Dr. Morris Chang, chairman and CEO of TSMC, for receiving the Akira Inoue Award for outstanding achievement in EHS. Members Drive Innovation through Reuse of Equipment Transitioning to larger wafer sizes and solving the challenges of EUV are critical. But another quiet revolution is going on in another part of the industry. Members of the SEMI Secondary Equipment & Applications (SEA) special interest group are adding market value by servicing and renewing equipment and solving some complex equipment and process issues with diverse applications. Advertisement Executive Viewpoints from SEMICON Taiwan Overview of Equipment and Materials Forecasts Taiwan is the single largest semiconductor equipment and materials market in the world. The importance of the market was demonstrated at the SEMICON Taiwan 2011 press conference. Industry leaders from Applied Materials, ASE, ATMI, Epistar, KYEC, STMicroelectronics and TSMC participated with SEMI in an overview of the market. SEMICON Recognized as Leading Tradeshow Brand SEMICON® trade shows were recognized as the leading global brand by the publishers of Trade Show Executive's magazine in the "Gold 100" Awards ceremony in Half Moon Bay, California. What's Happening in Standards? Selected Updates on 450mm, 3D-IC, HB-LED, and FPD The International Process Module Physical Interface Task Force (IPPI-TF) was chartered to address standardization of physical interface and other interoperability related specification for the 450mm (vacuum) process modules and transfer module of the cluster tool. SEMI Releases Worldwide Photovoltaic Equipment Market Statistics Report SEMI announced the release of the Worldwide PV Equipment Market Statistics Report. It is the only PV equipment book-to-bill report based on direct inputs from PV equipment suppliers. For the first time in the past six quarters, the book-to-bill ratio dipped below parity to 0.88. Major U.S. Patent Reform Finalized After six years and several iterations of proposed reforms, the U.S. has finalized the most significant revision of U.S. patent law in several decades. The America Invents Act (H.R. 1249) was signed into law by President Obama on September 16. New Courses Offered at SEMI Headquarters 3D Packaging Revolution Fundamentals of Microchip Design and Fabrication Account Support Boot Camp Thank you for reading this newsletter. We hope that you find SEMI Global Update informative and relevant. Let us know if we can improve the content and quality of SEMI Global Update. Please send your ideas, comments and suggestions to: Deborah Geiger Content Manager, SEMI 3081 Zanker Road, San Jose, California, 95134 Tel: 1.408.943.6900; Fax: 1.408.428.9600; Email: marketingservices@semi.org Website: www.semi.org Subscribe ¦ Unsubscribe Copyright © Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI), all rights reserved