Herb Reiter

If you bought a new car recently, you must have noticed that it warns you if one of its functions needs your attention. It even alerts the factory if repairs or major adjustments are needed. Wouldn’t it be nice to have similar capabilities for our bodies that will call for a “service” before we end up in an emergency room – or worse? The United States invests almost 18 percent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in healthcare. Such a significant part of our economy deserves our industry’s attention – and it gets it. SEMI’s recent Smart MedTech webinar series tells not only patients and healthcare providers how electronic products can impact their lives, but also offers device makers plenty of ideas for developing new solutions.SEMI Gets SmartIn addition to working on many important topics with more than 2,200 member companies across the semiconductor supply chain, SEMI focuses on special areas: Smart Mobility (as covered here), Smart MedTech (covered below), Smart Manufacturing, and Smart Data. Smart MedTech was the topic of four recent webinars, organized by Melissa Grupen-Shemansky, executive director Nano-Bio Materials Consortium (NBMC), and Chief Technology Officer, SEMI. NBMC’s mission is to enable flexible, wearable human performance monitoring. In her introduction, she emphasized that healthcare will shift from today’s provider-centric approach to a personalized care model, with the following characteristics: Outcome-based Decentralized, not limited to geographies Specific to your personal health and medical needs With a team of providers, connected like never before To achieve all these characteristics, microelectronics will be an essential contributor. That is why SEMI and member companies are working on platforms to fund and commercialize R D as well as to educate potential users and beneficiaries. Grupen-Shemansky engaged a series of experts and organized four webinars to address this broad and complex field, and outline their contributions to meeting the above criteria. They have been recorded and are available to SEMI members. Call your SEMI contacts to find out where and how you can access slides and recordings of more than a dozen presentations.From Biomarkers to BioChemical Sensors Physiological RelevancyTo monitor a human body’s performance, researchers have to first understand which biomarkers indicate specific conditions of the body, then learn how to capture and process the data. Grupen-Shemansky moderated this August 5th session. Christina Davis from UC Davis, Jennifer Martin, and Sean Harshman from the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL), and Kenneth Ward from Pacific Diabetes Technologies presented their ongoing efforts in this field.Davis talked about the challenges of analyzing exhaled breath, which contains 99% water and 1% biomarkers. She showed a hand-held analyzer her team has developed (Figure 1). She also elaborated on how to interpret the captured data and, if needed, decide which follow-up treatments are advised.Figure 1: Palm-sized µCON exhaled breath micro-condenser used to analyze biomarkers. (Courtesy: UC Davis) AFRL’s Martin and Harshman outlined how ongoing and future minimally invasive techniques are being used to monitor airmen, and give them advice for self-treatment to maximize their performance. The Pacific Diabetes Technologies speaker, Ward, showed how to use minimally invasive, subcutaneous (=under the skin) oxygen sensors to detect hemorrhage (= blood loss) and control it.En Route Care (ERC) and Point of Care (POC) DiagnosticsTreating injuries right away and correctly shortens not only a patient’s suffering, but also improves his or her chances for a full recovery. AFRL’s Matthew Dalton moderated this August 12th session. Derek M. Sorensen from AFRL, Zheng Yan from the University of Missouri-Columbia, Melinda Eaton from the Virtual Health Program Management Office at the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), and Azar Alizadeh from General Electric (GE) Research outlined their contributions to achieving instant and professional care.AFRL’s Sorensen described the many challenges a Critical Care Air Transport Team (CCATT) deals with when performing their work inside a noisy, dark, hot, or cold, shaking airplane, discussed their equipment and personnel constraints, and explained how difficult it is, even for experienced doctors, to perform emergency surgeries under these conditions.Professor Yan takes low cost very seriously and demonstrated how he and his students have developed on-skin wearable sensors that can be manufactured by using only pencil and paper.Eaton outlined the DoD’s strategy for assuring its medical force is ready to support soldiers. Then she discussed a broad range of the DoD’s traditional health management responsibilities and added that Covid-19 is now an important factor.Alizadeh addressed how GE microelectronic solutions improve the efficiency of care, reduce medical errors and length of hospital stays as well as improve workflows of caregivers. In addition to GE’s well-known, large/stationary medical equipment and communications infrastructure (Figure 2), Alizadeh showed that GE is also providing skin patches and other wearable sensors to capture data.Figure 2: The Future of Monitoring: In 2017, Mercy Hospital served 800,000 patients with telemedicine including those with chronic diseases. Patient:doctor ratio: US average 300:1. Mercy = 1100:1. (Courtesy: GE) Human Wearables Enabling Rapid Decision Making in the Integrated Care ContinuumAs Figure 2 above shows, microelectronic equipment can improve patient care and efficiency of medical personnel, but only if sufficient data can be captured timely and accurately – increasing the importance of wearables. AFRL’s Jeremy Ward moderated this August 17th session. Christopher Scully from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Ashleigh Coker from the AFRL’s Sensors Directorate, Ted Harmer from the AFRL’s Airman Systems Directorate, and AFRL’s Regina Shia presented for Oxana Pantchenko from NextFlex how they develop wearables jointly. Scully introduced the FDA’s organization and its responsibilities, described the high-value accurate data can provide, warned about the damage false alarms and equipment failures can cause, and explained the regulatory role the FDA plays in this context.AFRL’s Coker highlighted the essential role sensors play in modern warfare with several examples, described her directorate’s operations and showed their warfighter-centric design process (Figure 3).Figure 3: Warfighter-centric design process steps and the need to engage multiple heads/perspectives in this process. (Courtesy of AFRL) AFRL’s Harmer addressed the importance of good communications architecture and protocols to capture and compute data to assure efficient cooperation between land/air/sea/space-based forces.NextFlex’ Pantchenko prepared a presentation about standards-compliant wearable electroencephalography (EEG), electromyography (EMG), and electrooculography (EOG) devices, jointly developed with AFRL and several other companies. It was delivered by AFRL’s Regina Shia.Automation, Augmentation and AINatalie Wisniewski, Founder of Profusa, Inc. a and consultant in Wearables and Digital Health, moderated the fourth webinar, held on August 26. She emphasized SEMI’s role in this context, then introduced the speakers: Michael Kirby from Colorado State University, Kevin Zhao from Harmonize Health, Mary Clare McCorry from armi/biofab USA, and Andreas Caduff from ETH Zuerich.Professor Kirby outlined several mathematical principles that need to be applied to get meaningful results when analyzing data. He emphasized that genetic factors influence if an individual is susceptible, tolerant, or even resistant to certain pathogens and warned that bacteria can develop resistance to today’s antibiotics.Zhao from Harmonize talked about the importance of predictive analytics in remote care, how to filter out false alarms, and how to deliver the best available care cost-effectively. In closing, he emphasized that computers and algorithms are not replacing clinical staff.McCorry outlined how biofab USA, a program of armi, uses sensors and automation to grow replacement tissue and organs (Figure 4). She explained how they use engineering principles and life sciences to make guide cells grow into replacement tissue. The company’s plan is to expand the currently lab-based capabilities into an industrial scale tissue foundry.Figure 4: Growing ear cartilage in the lab. (Courtesy: armi/biolab USA) SummaryMcCorry summarized her presentation, and actually the entire webinar series, with these statements: The human body is a 3D, highly complex, dynamic, and multi-faceted biological construct Skin lends itself well as an interface between body and wearable sensors Connecting physiology (e.g. vital signs), behavior, and external factors is important for getting good results Verification, validation, and FDA involvement are important for making methods and devices successful Sensors, communication computing (AI/ML) are complementing, not replacing, medical personnel Today’s methods and devices will be outperformed by tomorrow’s solutions – stay up to date Personal CommentsSummarizing eight hours of presentations in a few pages requires a very high and lossy compression factor – please understand. I suggest you call on your SEMI contact to get access to these previous and following webinar recordings. Excellent contacts across the electronics supply chain enable SEMI to win experts in many areas to convey valuable information in these webinars.I am impressed that the USA military, specifically the AFRL, invests so much effort in medical support for airmen/women. They demonstrate that only healthy and fit personnel can take full advantage of the sophisticated weapon systems at their disposal if/when they are called upon to deploy them.This Smart MedTech webinar series confirms what many medical experts told me during exams and/or before and after surgeries: The human body is a masterpiece of bioengineering. These webinars also reminded me of what I learned at a brain-health class at Stanford University: Our brains only need about 20 Watts to perform computing and memory tasks that fairly quickly approximate the results of today’s computers – a benchmark for computer architects and AI/ML experts.Republished with permission from 3D InCites.

About 70% of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is driven by consumer demand. What consumers are looking for is influenced by, for example, fashion trends, product innovations, environmental forces, and personal interests. Regarding personal interests: Sales of electronic components at Fry’s are poor. Radio Shack stores even vanished completely. Today’s consumers do not like to tinker; they want to buy software-enabled, user-friendly systems with over-the-air updating that serves their current and future requirements well – e.g. smartphones. System vendors followed the same transition, and so did semiconductor vendors. Instead of offering (low margin) components, they develop and manufacture big portions of, if not complete, (high value) hardware and software solutions for electronic systems, targeted at specific markets.Mid-August, two SEMI webinars outlined the Smart Mobility market and what it expects from system and semiconductor vendors.SEMI's Smart Initiative“None of us knows as much as all of us,” “Connect – Collaborate – Innovate,” and other strategic considerations have motivated SEMI to become the gateway for the $2 Trillion (= 2,000 Billion) global electronic design and manufacturing supply chain. Figure 1 shows how many companies and organizations have joined this large industry organization, to work together efficiently and serve customer demands cost-effectively. Especially in four high-growth markets/application areas – Smart Data, Smart Mobility, Smart MedTech, and Smart Manufacturing – SEMI enables highly rewarding cooperation. Figure 1: Overview of SEMI members, technology communities, and areas of focus. (Courtesy: SEMI) MEMS and Sensors for Smart Mobility Tim Brosnihan, executive director of MEMS Sensor Industry Group (MSIG), moderated the webinar on MEMS and sensors for Smart Mobility. Bettina Weiss, Chief of Staff and Global Smart Mobility Lead at SEMI, presented the overview. In addition to Figure 1 above, she showed how many companies are now supporting SEMI’s Smart Mobility efforts and have joined the Global Automotive Advisory Council (GAAC). The European GAAC was founded in 2018, based on requests from VW and Audi. Regional chapters have also been formed in the U.S., China, Taiwan, and Japan. Figure 2 shows the current members of the American GAAC – new members are welcomed in all five regions. Figure 2: Current GAAC members in the Americas. (Courtesy: SEMI) Market Trends and Technology Innovations in MEMS Sensors Andreas Breiter, Partner at McKinsey Company, addressed markets, and Armen Mkrtchyan, Associate Partner at McKinsey Company, spoke about technology. Breiter addressed both vehicle and infrastructure changes required, as well as many ongoing and planned activities to enable Smart Mobility. He outlined autonomy, connectivity, electrification, and shared mobility of vehicles as the major opportunities for MEMS sensors. Mkrtchyan showed which technologies enable Smart Mobility and which regions will invest how much in software, hardware, and services by 2030, to capture data and process it in partially/fully autonomous vehicles’ Domain Control Units (DCUs) – see Figure 3. Figure 3: Pre-COVID market estimates. (Courtesy: McKinsey Company) MEMS-based sensors are used in vehicles to monitor pressures and perform as accelerometers or gyroscopes. Non-MEMS-based sensors capture light (e.g. for time-of-flight distance measurements) or magnetic fields (e.g. for RPM measurements). Regarding the many infrastructure upgrades needed for enabling autonomous vehicles on the roads, in Figure 4, Breiter gives road planners a lot of food for thought and planning work. City planners face much more complex challenges. That’s why electronic systems will also be needed to make these large infrastructure investments earn returns. Figure 4: Smart roads are essential for autonomous driving. (Courtesy: McKinsey Company) EDA and Smart Mobility The second Smart Mobility webinar focused on how Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tool vendors, Intellectual Property (IP, System Building Blocks) vendors, and system/IC Design Services can contribute to the success of Smart Mobility. Bob Smith, executive director of Electronic System Design Alliance (ESDA), moderated the webinar, highlighting where the relatively small but essential ESDA and its members fit in the semiconductor ecosystem – see Figure 5. Figure 5: EDA, IP, and design services enable the entire electronics ecosystem. (Courtesy: ESDA) Bettina Weiss explained how SEMI and the Smart Mobility Team are working to bring together stakeholders in the semiconductor ecosystem in general and the Smart Mobility segment specifically, to jointly address topics of common interest, work on solutions and agree upon standards where and when needed. Market Trends and Technology Innovations in EDA, IP and Design Services Andreas Breiter and Armen Mkrtchyan presented McKinsey’s perspectives regarding these topics. In addition to the above-mentioned market data, Breiter emphasized that DCUs are playing an increasingly important role in capturing the data provided by smart sensors, are processing it, and initiating appropriate actions. Together with application-specific software, these DCUs perform tasks like sensor fusion, manage creature comfort, assure safe operation of the vehicle, and secure communication with the outside world (Figure 6). Figure 6: High growth for DCU; likely shift in business models. (Courtesy: McKinsey Company) Mkrtchyan addressed EDA, IP, and services for Smart Mobility from 10 different technical perspectives. Here are the highlights. Component failures can and will have severe consequences in Smart Mobility. Therefore screening, testing, and exhaustive verification are extremely important. Software content is likely to increase at 10% CAGR during this decade. To increase the productivity of software and middleware developers, he emphasized that standards need to be agreed upon. Over-the-air (OTA) updating capabilities are needed. That’s why cybersecurity is important to keep vehicles current and safe. Power train electronics need to function at up to 150°C. New materials will be needed to increase reliability, reduce cooling efforts, and lower unit costs. Last, but not least, Mkrtchyan emphasized that every city needs to design its own infrastructure, not only to enable Smart Mobility but also to monetize the large investments needed; EDA, IP and design support will help to achieve both. In summary, he stated that Design and IP as well as packaging and test will be the most impacted areas in the transition to Smart Mobility. Personal Comments After having attended several MSIG events, I am impressed by how MEMS, NEMS (Nano…), and sensors can lend machines in many ways sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing. They can replicate these human senses, often better than found in us. If you, like me, celebrated when your first modem enabled your PC to communicate with the entire world, you’ll appreciate the value MEMS and sensors can and will add to machines’ “communication skills.” Also, I can assure you that innovative engineers in this field will find many new ways to capture data in the physical, chemical, and biological domains and enable machines to keep humans safe. (I look forward to a handheld Covid-19 sensor that provides results within a few seconds!) Having worked for a small, then a large EDA vendor, many years ago, and for the ESD Alliance several years ago, I know how difficult it is to motivate innovative software developers to work together or agree upon standards. I am glad that the ESD Alliance is now working closely with SEMI. Most SEMI member companies, and their innovative employees, have learned over the years how important standards are to reduce development cost, processing, and test time, as well as time to profit. I wish Bob Smith and the ESDA members all the best for cooperating closely to define design standards, bi-directional hand-off points up and down the entire supply chain, primarily at the interface between design and manufacturing. I want to encourage EDA and IP experts to work closely with the experienced and knowledgeable people in materials, equipment, manufacturing, and test. 5G mm-wave communication, artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML), reliable solutions for Smart Mobility, and development/characterization of new materials offer great opportunities and challenges for design AND manufacturing. Together, these two big camps can monetize required solutions much better and faster, than on their own. Your contact at SEMI can tell you how and where you can watch the webinar recordings and/or download all the slides. P.S.: Having two eCars and one eBike in our garage encourages me to appreciate SEMI’s efforts in advance Smart Mobility! Republished with permission from 3D InCites.

Would you buy your next hotdog in parts, from un-coordinated suppliers? For example: Get the bun from a baker, the sausage from a butcher, mustard and/or ketchup and veggies from the nearest supermarket? If yes, you may find the sausage being too small, the veggies too big for the bun, and, when you finally finished adding mustard/ketchup and start eating, you may “enjoy” a cold sausage on a soggy bun!This “hotdog example” is just a very simple way to highlight the advantages of a well-coordinated semiconductor supply chain. What may be a few dollars and cents wasted in this hotdog purchase, can become millions of dollars lost to delays and inefficiencies during the roll-out of a new electronic system.Complexity is Increasing the ChallengeThe very innovative semiconductor industry is continuing to develop more complete and complex building blocks for electronic system solutions, with the intent of making our customers’ lives easier. However, every new technology takes increasingly more time for technical and business interfaces to mature before all the semiconductor supply chain members can serve customers in a smooth, efficient and cost-effective manner. In particular, coordination between design and manufacturing has always turned out to be in the critical path.SEMI, the manufacturers’ trade organization, and the Electronic System Design (ESD) Alliance, representing electronic design automation (EDA) tools vendors, developers of intellectual property (IP = ready-made building blocks for ICs) and IC design service providers, both recognized these challenges. Late in 2018, these two industry organizations decided to jointly address this painful, costly and often a very frustrating, yet critical path and became Strategic Association Partners, The goal is to establish a well-coordinated semiconductor supply chain.To make the value propositions of this partnership highly visible and demonstrate the first joint accomplishments, SEMI’s well-known SEMICON West conference and, in its first year, ES Design West, will be conveniently co-located in San Francisco’s Moscone Center from July 9 to 11, 2019. The synchronized schedules and geographic proximity of these events not only outlines the multi-faceted interdependence of manufacturing and design but encourages and enables conference attendees to do, what previously would have been viewed as “forming cross-border relationships.” It’s a new word now — please join the path to success and expand your network!Navigating SEMICON West and ES Design WestJust in case you are not yet planning to come to San Francisco early July, please check the Agendas-at-a-Glance for SEMICON West and ES Design West, to see how broad and valuable these parallel conferences are for your business. In addition, every customer, partner and semiconductor industry supplier can, from July 9 –11, walk from one conference section to the other, arrange face-to-face meetings, in dedicated meeting rooms, with representatives from both camps and discuss, from the first project planning step to the final production ramp-up, the many topics that need to be coordinated across parts or the entire supply chain to minimize delays and/or cost over-runs.Who Will Lead the Discussions?Conference attendees can, in addition to meeting many important supply chain partners face-to-face, hear about the latest technologies and market trends from key executives in our industry. Featured speakers are: David Pellerin, Head of Global Business Development, Amazon Web Services Lisa Su, President, and CEO, AMD Gary Dickerson, President, and CEO, Applied Materials Laurent Le Faucheur, Principal Engineer, Digital Signal Processing and Machine Learning, Arm, Ltd. Renee St. Amant, Ph.D., Research Engineer in Emerging Technologies and US Innovator of the Year, ARM Dean Kamen, President DEKA Research Development, Founder First and First Global Jeffrey Welser, Ph.D., Vice President and Lab Director, IBM Research-Almaden Dean Drako, President and CEO, IC Manage, Inc. Oreste Donzella, Sr. VP Chief Marketing Officer, KLA Corporation Prakash Narain, President, and CEO, Real Intent, Inc. Aart de Geus, Chairman, and Co-CEO, Synopsys, Inc. Manish Pandy, Fellow, Synopsys, Inc. Nate Baxter, General Manager, Development and Production Group, TEL US Like in previous years, SEMICON West and ES Design West offer a range of special features, addressing Smart Manufacturing, Smart Transportation, Smart MedTech and Smart Workforce development in dedicated pavilions as well as an AI Design Forum. Also, the many exhibitors from both camps will give conference attendees convenient opportunities to get to know new supply chain partners and/or refresh long-term business relationships. Search for the exhibitors you want to meet early July here. Questions to Ask for a Well-Coordinated Semiconductor Supply ChainIf I may, I would like to ask my many friends in the manufacturing camp to spend some time in the ES Design West section and ask the exhibitors a few questions, like: What can you do to get me to profit faster? To reduce development and unit cost? To improve yield, product quality, and reliability? When can you visit my team to discuss how your company can contribute to our goals?Vice versa, I would like to encourage my friends in the design camp to spend time in the SEMICON West section and ask exhibitors what their companies offer. When talking to manufacturers of IC, passive components or circuit boards, assembly and test houses, please ask very specific questions like: How can we help you reduce iterations between you and your customers? How can we help to improve IC test programs? How can we increase the throughput of your manufacturing equipment? How can we apply machine learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to minimize equipment downtime, improve yields and/or shorten production ramp-up?I can assure you that you’ll not only win great friends “across the border” but will be very impressed by the expertise you’ll find in the other camp and the willingness for and benefits of cross-border cooperation.I look forward to meeting you at SEMICON West and ES Design West. Also, if your schedule allows, mark your calendars for the June 12 MEPTEC Luncheon at SEMI in Milpitas, June 18 for the GSA’s Silicon Summit in Santa Clara and June 25 to 27 for the IMAPS SiP Conference in Monterey, CA. Hope to see you at one or all of these important events!Article originally published in 3D InCites. Herb Reiter is president of eda 2 asic Consulting.