Applied Materials

Today, AI algorithms are primarily run at large data centers-- in the cloud. For this intelligence to be used at the edge, data must be transmitted to the cloud, analyzed there, and the results transmitted back to the field of operation, such as a mobile phone, medical implant or autonomous vehicle.

As the world combats climate change, the chip industry continues to build momentum in becoming a better steward of the environment. In July, Taiwan chip giant TSMC became the world’s first semiconductor company to join RE100, the global initiative to move away from a widespread reliance on fossil fuels and toward 100% renewable electricity. Applied Materials soon followed with a commitment to expand its renewable energy capacity. For the past four years, ASE Group, the largest outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) provider, was named an industry leader in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI), making clear its commitment to protecting the environment. For its part, TEL was selected to be part of the FTSE4Good, a series of ethical investment stock market indices, and FTSE Blossom Japan, an index that gauges the performance of Japanese companies demonstrating strong Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) practices.SEMI bolsters commitment to green energySEMI has also strengthened its commitment to promoting renewable energy in the semiconductor industry by adding the Green Power Pavilion at this year’s SEMICON Taiwan and continues to support the green energy movement as a co-organizer of Energy Taiwan. The largest renewable energy event in Taiwan, Energy Taiwan features international exhibitions, forums, policy initiatives and business matching events. This year the event attracted more than 12,000 visitors from 50 countries to highlight renewable energy breakthroughs and new products. The SEMI events complement RE100, which works across a wide range of industries that include financial services and retail. The initiative connects more than 260 members that count among them the world’s most influential businesses such as Apple, Google and Facebook and their suppliers through educational events.In many respects, TSMC is becoming a beacon of green energy in the chip industry. In July, the company committed to 20-year agreement to buy offshore wind power gear made by energy firm Ørsted in Taiwan, the global leader in the wind power industry. According to the purchase agreement, TSMC will offtake full production from 920-megawatt wind farms off the coast of Changhua County in western Taiwan expected to start operations in 2025 or 2026. The agreement will by far mark the world’s largest corporate green energy order in the semiconductor manufacturing and renewable energy industries and demonstrates TSMC’s long-term commitment to environmental sustainability.In addition to sourcing renewable energy, TSMC has been working closely with its downstream and upstream suppliers to help drive supply chain improvements geared toward a greener industry by offering on-site coaching, energy audits and educational resources. But the company's focus on energy efficiency is nothing new. For years, its Supply Chain Management forum has promoted industry sustainability and corporate responsibility. Moreover, TSMC worked with SEMI at this year’s SEMICON Taiwan to generate greater awareness of the importance of green energy to the industry and encourage SEMI members to become more involved in the movement.Supply chains expand eco-friendly practicesThe drive toward greener semiconductor manufacturing is also expanding to encompass entire supply chains. One notable initiative is Green Supply Chain Management (GrSCM), an effort to integrate environmental thinking into every level of the supply chain, from product concept to distribution. GrSCM involves the retooling of product design, materials sourcing, manufacturing and processes to reduce the ecological footprint of factories. So far, the results are encouraging. More companies are factoring environmental sustainability into their purchasing decisions to urge suppliers to better manage their power usage and join the green energy movement – an important step in curbing the unavoidable consequences of climate change. Terry Tsao is Global Chief Marketing Officer at SEMI and President of SEMI Taiwan.

Like so much else these days, career mentoring in the semiconductor industry has gone virtual. And, among hiring managers, for good reason: Chip companies are facing a new urgency to hire skilled workers as recent SEMI forecasts spanning packaging materials and fab equipment spending show strong growth in 2021 – a trajectory that puts even more pressure on an industry confronted with a worker shortage to attract and recruit new talent.Enter SEMI Korea, which early this month gathered nearly 4,000 sheltered-in-place South Korea university students to offer tips from semiconductor industry insiders on how to kick-start their careers in the chip business. In 14 sessions over three days, industry powerhouses offered guidance across topics ranging from educational preparation and job skills to resume writing and interviewing. Like last year’s on-site event, students from Seoul accounted for the bulk of those online for Campus Outreach On-Air. But this year saw a far higher turnout of students in provincial cities thanks to the ease and convenience of virtual communications – a silver lining in the age of COVID-19.Establishing a successful career in the semiconductor industry starts with a mix of soft and hard skills, according to Changjin Kang, CEO of SEMES, one of the top 10 global semiconductor equipment companies. Keynoting the event, Kang pointed to six key attributes in particular – caring, resilience, execution, analysis, tenacity and experience – under the acronym C.R.E.A.T.E.Caring means empathy for colleagues, understanding their unique work environment and challenges, and building strong relationships. To help cope with the stress that can come with working in the industry, workers must be also be resilient by managing the emotional demands of a job and getting enough rest. Execution comes down to thorough, methodical planning. Carefully analyzing information to make data-driven decisions is a critical aspect of successful outcomes, while having the tenacity to push through difficult technical challenges helps engineers develop the right solutions. And getting out from behind the desk to learn from colleagues is important in building experience.Human resources representatives and engineers from Applied Materials, ASML, Dongjin Semichem, EO Technics, Jusung Engineering, KLA, Lam Research, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, PSK, SEMES, SK Siltron, TEL and Wonik IPS shared with the students the key competencies needed to forge a career in the semiconductor industry. Engineers pointed to the benefits of improving their English skills through language training and continuing their education by pursuing engineering certificates. Human resources representatives stressed the importance of a global mindset since, as part of the global semiconductor ecosystem, engineers and other staff often communicate via conference calls with colleagues around the world.In a post-event survey, the students – all digital natives – awarded the event 4.3 out of 5 points for overall satisfaction and made clear that they prefer online Campus Outreach to the on-site event.“Thanks to SEMI and the companies for providing a great opportunity to meet experts and HR managers,” one student pointed out in the survey. “It was very useful because it opened up opportunities for many students to communicate with semiconductor companies.”“It was nice to know what works semiconductor engineers do,” said another, “and how as university students they prepared for employment.”SEMI Korea thanks the nine semiconductor companies that sponsored Campus Outreach On-Air to help build the industry’s talent pipeline and the students for their invaluable participation.Jaegwan Shim is a marketing specialist at SEMI Korea.

To attract and cultivate new talent across the microelectronics industry, virtual SEMICON West 2020 offered wide-ranging career insights for engineering students seeking that vital first job and young employees embarking on their careers. They learned about overcoming challenges at work and gained a competitive edge by connecting with industry leaders for insider knowledge. These are just some examples of how the SEMI Foundation and the SEMI Workforce Development and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives serve as a springboard to careers in the industry and help close its talent gap.Following are experiences of aspiring engineers at SEMICON West and career lessons presented to help them shape the future of our semiconductor industry.Jump-Starting Careers at SEMICON West 2020More than 600 students from over 50 colleges and universities across the Unites States joined SEMICON West 2020 to jump-start their careers in the semiconductor industry. With free access to SEMI’s first virtual expo, they connected with recruiters and companies in the exhibit hall, and sponged up insights from speakers about digital internships, job opportunities, and key trends shaping the digital future.“It was almost overwhelming,” said Jason Wong, 20, a junior at San Jose State University working toward an advanced degree in mechanical engineering. “It was kind of like an engineering student’s dream for contacts and knowledge all on one platform.”Wong visited about 15 booths in the online exhibit hall to speak with company representatives about his field of interest – microelectromechanical systems (MEMS).“MEMS is a pretty niche area, so it was really surprising how many companies were there in this category alone,” Wong said.Through the expo’s chat tool, Wong made some solid contacts and has followed up with several engineers via email, LinkedIn and Zoom meetings, cultivating what he believes will be “some long-lasting and valuable connections.”“I’m not really looking for a job at the moment, but I hope to get an internship at some point,” Wong said. “With the current (COVID-19) outbreak, a lot of events with opportunities to interact are no longer available, so this was an enlightening and useful experience for me I plan to attend again.”On the other side of the country in Virginia, Devayani Pawar, 23, found it easy to network at SEMICON West. She especially appreciated the free pass for students and practical sessions in the Smart Workforce Pavilion tailored to help early-career job seekers find opportunities, build contacts, and polish resumes.She was drawn to the Smart Manufacturing Pavilion because of her skills and interests in toolmaking and wafers.“I understand manufacturing and it’s a hot field right now,” said Pawar, who recently earned her master’s degree in data science from George Mason University. “It’s interesting to me how such tiny components can do so much powerful work.”“A lot of people my age aren’t very aware of the microchip industry – they’re mostly focused on information technology and companies like Google, Amazon, or Facebook,” Pawar said.After landing an internship at Micron Technology analyzing wafers and working in clean rooms, she was wowed by the potential of nanotechnology. Pawar learned about the strong demand for data scientists in semiconductor manufacturing. After making connections at SEMICON West and absorbing information, she now has a better handle on career opportunities.“The recruiters and other contacts I made have been so responsive, and now I have a better understanding of use cases and what companies are seeking,” she said.A Day in the Life of an EngineerRight after college in 2017, Erika Gabrielle Hansen joined Applied Materials as an engineer. She told management she wanted to travel, learn about the “big picture” behind the company’s products, and work with customers.In her presentation A Day in the Life of an Engineer at the SEMICON West Smart Workforce Pavilion, she recalled a whirlwind of unforeseen opportunities, soul-searching challenges, and the rewards of personal, professional, and community growth. She also candidly shared lessons learned about pride, collaboration, and resilience.Her journey began when she had the opportunity to share her aspirations for her at career at Applied and landed a dual role as a process engineer and customer account technologist.In her job as a process engineer, Hansen puts her materials engineering degree from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo to good use analyzing data, solving technical problems, developing new processes to meet customer requirements, and working with cutting-edge technologies. At one moment she might be in a clean-room laboratory wearing a bunny suit doing hands-on work with tools. In another, she could be videoconferencing with hardware, software, and systems engineers worldwide, or preparing a report for upper management.“I was very nervous at first as a process engineer,” Hansen said. “I was the only person in my group who didn’t have a Ph.D. and tried to compensate for that by doing things on my own and not asking for help.”After making a few mistakes, she began to turn to her team for their expertise and sharing the results of her work – both good and bad – with them.“Having humility to ask for help and not let pride get in the way was a huge learning point for me,” she said.As a customer account technologist, she has made a dozen trips to customer sites in four countries to implement new processes or resolve technical issues. By seeing tools in action, she now has what she calls a “whole picture” perspective on their effectiveness, while enjoying the camaraderie of colleagues and sampling local cuisines, sites, and scenes around the world.At one point, she was assigned to lead an international team to resolve an issue with a major customer – her greatest challenge yet and her first time in such a role. She struggled to overcome language barriers and eventually told her boss she might not be the best person to lead the project. He promised to provide more support, and her team went on to resolve the customer’s problem.“I picked myself up, reached out to people with international experience, and changed my communication style,” Hansen said. “I learned it’s okay to be uncomfortable, to flex my leadership style, and be resilient, which is a learned skill.”Building a Better Network: Crucial ConnectionsAndrew Carnegie, one of history’s richest industrialists and most generous philanthropists, said 85 percent of a person’s success is based on “interpersonal relationships” and “abilities to be a human being.” Professional skills account for just 15 percent of success.While advancing to her current role as Chief Marketing Officer for FormFactor, Amy Leong found this advice critical to her career trajectory. Just like the challenge of raising a strong family, building a successful career “takes a village… you can’t do it alone,” she said in her Smart Workforce Pavilion presentation Building a Better Network: Crucial Connections.Outperforming expectations might be essential early in one’s career to get promotions, raises, and the attention, but that mindset goes only so far.“As seniority levels increase, people already know you’re a phenomenal performer and expect nothing less,” Leong said. “So, the higher you go the more vital it is to spend almost a disproportionate amount of effort on building relationships.”Building your network isn’t about the quantity of one’s business cards or LinkedIn connections; it’s about building quality relationships with mutual benefits over the long run.“We need to be smart about return on investment when building our professional network,” she said. “You help me, and I help you. It’s win-win horse trading.”And the most important factor in career success? For Leong, a strong family foundation has mattered most.“Family comes first,” said Leong, who has twin teenagers. “Take care of the ones you love. Check in with your family whenever you can. Family relationships are bound by blood. Thanks to my retired parents and a helpful husband, we tough it through.”She reemphasized the importance of mutually beneficial relationships, noting “A rising tide will lift all boats.”Fostering Talent for the Industry’s FutureDeveloping young talent and future leaders in microelectronics stands as a persistent and growing need – and a critical challenge to realizing expected growth. Emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and augmented/virtual reality are expected to impact a huge range of markets, leading to projections that the semiconductor industry will double in size in the next 10 to 15 years.The opportunities for growth and technologies that promise to improve the quality of human life worldwide are breathtaking. The industry’s talent pool will need to scale accordingly, magnifying the importance of expanding industry-wide programs such as the Workforce Development and DEI initiatives that the SEMI Foundation are building. Learn more about how you and your company can get involved with these initiatives on the SEMI Foundation website.Shari Liss is executive director of the SEMI Foundation. She oversees SEMI Workforce Development programs from K-12 through re-skilling for veterans.

At SEMICON West 2020, the Honorable Al Gore, former U.S. Vice President and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for environmental activism, commented on the world being in the midst of a “sustainability revolution.” Just what did he mean by that, and why bring that message to us? The answer is that he believes the digital transformation wields the magnitude of the agricultural and industrial revolutions, but with the exponential speed that the semiconductor industry created and enabled. Ok, that would put him in the right place… SEMICON West.Among a rich lineup of speakers to mark the 50th anniversary of the event – and 50 years of the semiconductor industry facilitating the innovation of the Information Age -- Gore joined other icons in their fields who graced the virtual stage for our featured keynotes. Each analyzed how microchip advances are critical to solving some of the world’s greatest challenges.As host of the conference, I had the privilege of introducing Gore; Gary Dickerson, President and CEO of Applied Materials; and, Dr. John Kelly III, Executive Vice President and Director of IBM Research, along with other renowned speakers. Their insights seemed especially timely for how our global supply chain can help to build a more sustainable future. Following are a few of the highlights from their discussions. Al Gore – The Planet Faces Existential CrisisIn his keynote conversation with Greenbiz editorial director Heather Clancy kicking off SEMICON West 2020, Gore emphasized that digital technology advances – and in particular microchip innovation – provide the greatest opportunities to overcome the world’s most epic challenges. Chip breakthroughs will be the cutting edge of what he called the rapidly growing sustainability revolution to improve energy efficiency, reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, and optimize the performance of renewable energy generated by solar, wind, and electric battery sources.“We face an inflection point as we rely more on data and communications technology, particularly in areas like cloud computing and artificial intelligence,” Gore said. “Industry is aware of this and working on it, but this meeting (SEMICON West 2020) with your present leadership marks a real turning point. It’s something to be proud of, something to be celebrated. It’s what gives me hope.”Citing Moore’s Law and enormous strides made in chip efficiency and effectiveness, Gore said that within two years smart chips will make everything from solar panels and batteries to renewable energy plants and electric vehicles to be both cost- and performance-competitive with traditional energy sources. Afterwards, renewable energy will be more attractive. Gore urged the energy-intensive semiconductor industry to shift to more renewable power sources for manufacturing. To meet this challenge, Gore encouraged the industry to embrace strategies for “step changes”: First, collaborate and share best practices more transparently across the entire microelectronics value chain. Examples already abound where “cutting-edge apps, AI, and deep learning reduced data server energy use significantly without hardware changes,” he said. Second, reduce electricity required to manufacture smarter and smaller semiconductors. Gore encouraged “all of the equipment manufacturers to work together to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emissions in manufacturing these advanced semiconductors.” Third, follow the lead of a growing number of companies that “continue decarbonizing the power supply on which data centers operate,” he said. Fourth, work with government through the Science Based Target Initiative, which sets decarbonization limits that keep global temperatures no more than two degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels. Finally, rely on “diversity of thought” and “collective thinking” when innovating for the digital future. Research and experience prove that different points of view lead to better decisions. The technology industry has made progress in workforce diversity, but more can be done, Gore said. This last point plays to our collaborative strengths as SEMI members and an industry. “It is just unbearable to imagine a future generation living with the kinds of consequences scientists tell us would ensue if we don’t heed their warnings and solve this crisis,” Gore said, drawing parallels to the COVID-19 pandemic. “We have to accept the situation and make sure we do everything we can. I am inspired by this industry’s leadership, innovation, and spirit to rise to the challenge and make a difference.”Gary Dickerson – Making Possible A Better FutureTo ensure another 50 years of accelerating growth and innovation, today’s semiconductor leaders must share a deep commitment to a more sustainable and just supply chain industrywide.“The first thing we need to do is decouple our growth from environmental impacts,” Dickerson said in his keynote. “Our responsibility as leaders is to leave the world a better place.”Dickerson said that while he firmly believes the explosion of processing and storage data has “the potential to change the world,” the downside is that it also has the potential to rapidly expand our industry’s carbon footprint. Without dramatic change, electrical usage will continue to rise as machines generate and consume more data, compute performance progresses, and workloads from the edge to the cloud grow.“It will be impossible to create neural networks (using AI) with the rate of today’s power consumption,” Dickerson said, noting that more improvements must be made in the performance and efficiency of semiconductor devices, architectures, structures, materials, and advanced packaging.Dickerson urged the electronics ecosystem to “permanently think and act differently” by breaking down communication barriers among systems integrators, equipment suppliers, design and manufacturing service providers, and other industry players. Sharing learnings and best practices will be vital to this change, he said. Dickerson unveiled SuCCESS2030 (Supply Chain Certification for Environmental and Social Sustainability) – Applied Materials’ 10-year roadmap for creating a more sustainable supply chain – during his talk. Under the SuCCESS2030 initiative, Applied Materials will hold its suppliers to the company’s own high standards for committing to renewable energy and workforce diversity by setting targets such as: Reducing supply chain carbon emissions 15 percent in four years by relying more on intermodal shipping than air freight Transitioning the supply chain to recycled content packaging, with a target of 80 percent by the end of 2023 Eliminating phosphate-based, pre-treatment of metal surfaces by 2024 Working with trade associations like SEMI to develop diversity and inclusion strategies to increase underrepresented minorities in the workplace Dickerson said that deeper and more open partnerships between Applied Materials and its customers and suppliers have led to a number of promising outcomes. Examples include hardware and software upgrades, product and service optimizations, and improvements in chip architectures that increased throughput density for higher system performance while decreasing power and chemical consumption, costs, and space requirements. What’s more, Applied Materials recently introduced its Selective Tungsten Process Technology, which uses new materials, atomic-level designs, and ultra-clean rooms to improve the performance of interconnected transistors while lowering power consumption.Dickerson said the COVID-19 pandemic has awakened the world to the power of digital technologies that make it possible to communicate, collaborate, and share data across the globe while sheltering in place. “When I think of the world’s grand challenges, it’s clear the semiconductor industry has a critical role to play,” Dickerson said. “I strongly believe we’re in a position to shape the future and leave the world a better place.”John E. Kelly III – 50 Years That Changed The World … And We’re Just Getting Started During the past half century, semiconductors have given rise to essentially every major technology advance, Kelly said in his keynote. Microchip innovation has played a central role in rocketing humans to the moon, simulating nuclear weapons on a supercomputer, connecting people to nearly everything via mobile devices, and keeping people alive with pacemakers and other electronic medical devices.The strides in innovation have been staggering. In 1970, a semiconductor chip featured a few thousand components. Today, that number stands at 50 billion. Breakthroughs in everything from materials and chemicals to polishing, processes and interconnectivity have driven gains in power-efficiency and performance while reducing chip size.Moore’s Law is far from dead. Paraphrasing Winston Churchill, Kelly said, semiconductor innovation today is not at “the beginning of the end, but at the end of the beginning, and the best is yet to come – driven by extreme collaboration and extreme innovation to solve the world’s biggest challenges.”Kelly said he believes technology is the only answer to the onslaught of grand challenges confronting societies and people today, including air and water pollution, climate change, diminishing natural resources, storm-related disasters, food supply shortages, and the COVID-19 pandemic.Kelly lamented that the world’s response to COVID-19 illustrates that “not much has changed” since the Spanish Flu crisis a century ago. The same technology – masks – remains the primary defense. “I think if we had used digital technologies and computer modeling earlier on, we could have detected the spread of this flu” to minimize its impact, Kelly said.Today’s computer modeling and analytics capabilities aren’t quite ready yet to tackle such complex problems as pandemics, global warming, or water contamination. However, Kelly said, several game-changing technologies – all powered by semiconductors – are emerging as promising answers to our most daunting challenges.“It’s all about the data, and artificial intelligence is the way forward – it’s analytics on steroids, and many new devices will be required to drive AI at the scale of these problems,” Kelly said. “The second technology revolves around not just cloud computing but edge computing and cloud at the edge. Data will be generated in enormous amounts at the edge, which is where we will need to store and compute the data. The next is Quantum Computing. Frankly, we do not have enough computing power yet to look at some of the biggest challenges we have.”All these advances will present new challenges for the semiconductor industry, such as developing new materials, new chip architectures and new mapping structures for AI-embedded devices to reach their full potential.With many of these disruptive innovations too large for any company to solve singlehandedly, Kelly advised industry players to form more “radical partnerships.”“Extreme collaboration and extreme innovation will drive solutions to all these world challenges,” Kelly said. “The best is yet to come.”Radical partnerships… Sustainable revolutions… Extreme innovation… It’s been 50 years of SEMICON West, but it sounds like we’re just getting the real magic started. Like John Kelly said and the other keynoters emphasized, the best is yet to come.Dave Anderson is president of SEMI Americas.

What do you do when much of the U.S. is under lockdown and university students want insights into career opportunities in the microelectronics industry including how to secure jobs?Go virtual.More than 100 students from 30 universities hopped online recently to attend Find Your Future in Microelectronics, the SEMI Foundation’s first webinar. The students learned about the industry’s impact on the future of tech and available career paths and discovered how to take advantage of the Foundation’s university programs. They also submitted their resumes as part of joining SEMI’s student fellow network in hopes of engaging with employers and exploring available job opportunities.And if the students’ questions were a telling sign of their engagement, the event showed that they were fully tuned in. Tim Brosnihan, executive director of the MEMS Sensors Industry Group (MSIG), Erika Hansen, an Applied Materials process engineer, and Cristina Sandoval, the event coordinator and moderator, fielded a whopping 65 questions, many of them about job opportunities, career paths and suggested courses of study. A sample of the questions asked: Q: Is the industry still hiring during these uncertain times?A: Yes! The microelectronics industry is growing and will continue to grow over the next 10 years. There are many job opportunities to be had in the industry and many of our member companies are hiring.Q: What kind of degrees does the microelectronics industry look for?A: Generally, the industry primarily hires graduates with STEM degrees. Chemical, electrical, nano, mechanical, and materials engineering are some of the top majors the industry hires from along with chemistry, physics, and mathematic degrees. That being said, the industry needs talent from all majors. That includes business, finance, human resources and marketing.Q: How can I get connected to the opportunities provided by SEMI?A: You can sign up to connect to our employers and opportunities at www.semi.org/join-edu. Once you submit your information, you will be kept up to date on the latest events and opportunities offered by SEMI and our member companies.Q: Any advice on what to do if your offer has been rescinded?A: Don’t limit yourself when it comes to opportunities. If your offer has been rescinded, don’t give up! Share your situation with your LinkedIn network, an invaluable resource full of contacts that can help you learn about job opportunities. You never know what you will love once you enter the workforce, so keep yourself open and don’t limit the positions or fields that you interview for. Rescinding an offer is always a very difficult decision for an organization, so make sure that you exit the relationship positively. You never know who you will cross paths in the future.Erika delved into the day in the life of an engineer and advised students on ways to find jobs in our industry. Students interacted with Erika, eager to learn how she balanced customer needs with working in the lab. She said she enjoys that duality because it continues to challenge her, allowing her to grow her abilities as a professional.When it comes to breaking into the industry, working in college or through internships and direct-hire opportunities after graduating are good ways to do so. And the students can get their feet in the door with degrees at various levels and across a wide range of disciplines. There is no set formula for success. Learners, she said, will find a place in the industry.With workforce development a key industry initiative, the SEMI Foundation will be rolling out more virtual programs and events to help keep university students and the microelectronics industry connected. Look for details on a virtual job fair we’re planning.We look forward to seeing you online!Shari Liss is executive director of the SEMI Foundation. Shari can be reached at [email protected].

Once an unpopular career destination for university graduates in Korea, the semiconductor industry has been a plum target since the rise of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix as global leaders and key growth engines for the Korean economy. The industry’s outsize role in innovation of cutting-edge technologies and applications such as artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), 5G and autonomous driving has added to the appeal.The draw of a career in chip manufacturing is even stronger when new graduates from Korean universities consider the semiconductor industry’s rapid growth of 22.2% in 2017 and 15.5% in 2018, according to VLSI Research. Yet, even before earning their degrees, many students are unclear about steps they need to take to prepare for a career in the industry and the type of work available to them.These questions and concerns were on the top of the minds of 250 students who gathered at COEX in Seoul in mid-November for SEMI Campus Outreach, a half day of career insights from global chip companies including Lam Research, Applied Materials, Tokyo Electron, and KLA along with leading semiconductor companies in Korea such as SEMES, EO technics, JUSUNG ENGINEERING, DONGJIN SEMICHEM, PSK and Wonik IPS. Keynote - Inhak Harry Suh, CEO, Lam Research Korea 250 students gathered at Campus Outreach Campus Outreach keynote speaker Inhak Harry Suh, CEO of Lam Research Korea, stressed that talented new graduates hold the key to leading the semiconductor industry into the Industry 4.0 era and the next phase of growth. He urged the students to look for a company that treats its employees with respect and fairness and to enjoy their work. Joining the executives in inspiring the students, field and service engineers highlighted the semiconductor industry’s strong growth potential, described their job responsibilities and the skills students need to develop to thrive, and offered guidance on subjects to study in school to best prepare students for jobs in the industry. On the recruiting side, human resources representatives at the event provided overviews of their companies and skills they’re looking for as they court talent. Campus Outreach sponsors At SEMICON Korea 2020 – Feb. 5-7 at COEX in Seoul – SEMI will continue to cultivate industry talent at the Workforce Development Pavilion. To help the industry solve its critical talent shortage, the pavilion will offer university students interviews with industry experts and tutorials on semiconductor production as the students explore career paths and are mentored by engineers during the Meet the Experts program. And with a diverse workforce recognized as a competitive advantage, the Women-in-Technology session will gather leaders to discuss how the industry can improve diversity.Jaegwan Shim is a marketing specialist at SEMI Korea.

Famous for its warmth and hospitality, Japan always welcomes visitors from around the world with a gracious embrace. But when is the best season to visit? It depends on the interest of each visitor of course. For Instagrammers, the April cherry blossoms or November autumn leaves – a masterpiece of art with their rainbow gold, red and yellow hues – are ideal for snapping memorable pictures. For foodies, winter delights with tuna, toro sushi and other seafood at their tastiest. Wagyu peaks in richness, too, when the cold weather sets in. For anime and manga enthusiasts, August is definitely the time to visit. That’s when COMIKET, the world’s largest comic market – drawing more than a half million people – takes place in Tokyo. But for people in the electronics value chain, the perfect time to pack their bags and hop a flight to Tokyo is December, when SEMICON Japan – December 11-13 at Tokyo Big Sight – opens its doors with its own form of hospitality.Why should you attend? Here are the five top reasons.Reason 1: Japan is home to leading electronics industry suppliersAccording to VLSI Technology, seven of the top 15 semiconductor equipment suppliers in 2018 are headquartered in Japan, and many Japanese companies also lead backend equipment segments. For decades, Japanese companies have supplied about one third of the equipment for the global semiconductor equipment industry, according to SEMI and the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ). Most of these companies typically set up a booth on the SEMICON Japan show floor to welcome your visit.True, many Japanese suppliers also exhibit at SEMICON shows outside of Japan to meet with customers. But you will find many more engineers, managers and executives of equipment suppliers on their home ground at SEMICON Japan, where suppliers typically debut new equipment. Their booths are also ideal locations for visitors to meet with suppliers to ask questions, exchange opinions and negotiate new business deals.Japanese materials suppliers enjoy an even larger market share, providing about half the materials for the global semiconductor industry. These suppliers dominate in silicon wafers, photomasks, photoresists, sputtering targets, packaging substrates, bonding wires, leadframes, mold compounds and wafer level packaging dielectrics. Unlike equipment suppliers, not all materials companies exhibit. Instead, many participate as speakers and attend to connect with customers.Reason 2: Get ready for the next semiconductor industry upturnA year ago, in late 2018, we expected chip inventory to stabilize by mid-2019, yet the industry still struggles with high inventory overall and low average selling price for memory. The SEMI 2019 equipment billing forecast was lowered accordingly from -4.0 percent growth (2018 year-end forecast) to -18.4 percent (2019 mid-year forecast). However, the two forecasts still predict positive growth in 2020. As SEMICON Japan 2019 is underway, we should be at the beginning of the next upturn.The chart below shows that more wafer process fabs will start construction in 2020 than this year. (Please see article: Nearly $50 Billion in Fabs to Start Construction in 2020.) Custer Consulting Group also pointed to “a resumption in semiconductor chip and capital equipment growth in late 2019 or early 2020.” (Please see article: Semiconductor Industry Upturn by Early 2020?.)With better times ahead, SEMICON Japan 2019 will be an opportune time to exchange opinions with key players across the supply chain and start negotiations for the coming robust recovery of the equipment, components and materials markets.Reason 3: Glimpse the future at SuperTHEATERSEMICON Japan SuperTHEATER will feature industry and technology insights from global visionaries. Asako Eda, Japan’s chief representative officer of the World Economic Forum and the former president of Intel Japan, will open the SuperTHEATER with her keynote on how we live in an era where the fourth industrial revolution, climate change, disparity and geopolitical risks are affecting our lives and with the speed we have never experienced. She will explore the growing role of innovation and social responsibility and how the World Economic Forum is addressing associated challenges. The opening keynote session will also feature Nandan Nayampally, vice president and general manager of the Immersive Experience group at Arm.In all, the SuperTHEATER will host seven keynote forums over three days at SEMICON Japan including: Semiconductor Executive Forum – Terushi Shimizu, representative director and president of Sony Semiconductor Solutions, and Atsuyoshi Koike, president of Western Digital Japan, will discuss their business strategies and prospects. Manufacturing Innovation Summit – Executives from Applied Materials, KLA, Nikon and Tokyo Electron will discuss business and technology issues as well as innovations that will drive growth to 2030. All seven SuperTHEATER programs will be simultaneously translated to English for international audiences.Reason 4: Connect to application communitiesCollaboration across the value chain has never been more important to industry innovation and growth – the very reason SEMI has expanded its reach beyond the semiconductor manufacturing supply chain (equipment and materials) to include design, systems and products.The SEMICON Japan show and conferences will connect you to key application segments of the value chain. The SuperTHEATER will host two SMART transportation forums highlighting the latest developments in autonomous driving and sky transportation (flying cars). In the SMART Applications Zone on the show floor, you’ll find electronics products and technologies showcased for automotive and manufacturing automation as the autonomous driving pavilion highlights emerging technologies that are driving semiconductor innovation opportunities. Reason 5: Learn from disaster and recovery experiencesJapan has taken important disaster recovery lessons from devastating earthquakes over the past three decades, most notably the Kumamoto quake in 2016, the Tohoku temblor in 2011 and the Kobe rattler in 1995. So has the Japan electronics supply chain, including SEMI members. In the Business Continuity Plan (BCP) area at SEMICON Japan 2019, exhibitors including DISCO, Murata Machinery and THK will highlight technologies that can strengthen your preparedness for a disaster and aid in the recovery.On December 12 at the BCP seminar at Japan 2019, Sony Semiconductor Manufacturing, DISCO and Team Engineering Consulting will share their experiences and expertise in mitigating the disaster impacts. (Sony and Disco will present in Japanese.)To get the feel for the magnitude of a major earthquake and how seismic isolation protects against structural damage, be sure to take advantage of THK’s earthquake experience car. Seismic isolation installs isolators – rubber bearings, friction bearings, ball bearings, spring systems or other devices – beneath a building to buffer earthquake vibrations transmitted to structures.More reasons to attend SEMICON JapanAnd of course your visit to Tokyo for SEMICON Japan 2019 wouldn’t be complete without exploring Tokyo and other regions to experience Japan’s exotic culture, cityscapes and cuisine! Here are some resources to give you even more reasons to book a flight to Tokyo: Japan National Tourism Organization Go Tokyo Kyoto Tourism I look forward to seeing you at SEMICON Japan in December!Jim Hamajima is president of SEMI Japan.

The future of the semiconductor industry began to blossom recently in Seoul, South Korea as young, innovative minds teased out secrets to electronics manufacturing and their path to enter the industry one day. Twenty-seven middle schoolers gathered in early August at Yonsei University for SEMI High Tech U (HTU), the worldwide SEMI program that introduces students to science, engineering, technology and math (STEM) careers over three days of hands-on activities and experiential learning. Since 2001, HTU has reached some 8,000 students in nine countries.Semiconductor giants including Applied Materials, KLA, Lam Research and Dongjin Semichem were key teachers as representatives from the companies gave theoretical and practical lectures to pique the students’ interest in STEM educations and careers. The speakers, all experts in microelectronics, surveyed microchips and solar cells, mathematical and scientific experimentation, engineering design and the inner workings of semiconductor manufacturing before the students broke off into teams for lessons largely of their own making. Fine-tuning a wooden contraption – a Statapult – to hurl a ball as far as possible might not sound like the stuff of microelectronics, but it drew on the type of problem-solving skills and creativity the students will need to thrive in the semiconductor industry. Student teams made adjustments to the levers of miniature catapults, then tested the throwing power of the devices. After the ball tosses, they reconvened as a class to share lessons in how they calibrated their catapults for a longer tossing distance and ways they could improve the devices’ performance. Students also took tours of two very different semiconductor manufacturing settings – one virtual and the other real. The young learners donned virtual reality headsets for a simulated walk-through of Applied Materials (the tour was sponsored by the company), then slipped on bunny suits for a tour of Yonsei University's BIT micro fab and a close-up look of how semiconductors are made.But it was the ever-popular Human Calculator game that inspired the greatest thrill as students dove deep into technology. During the exercise, they converted numbers into binary and then traced the digits through a series of gates in an electronic circuit, an exercise requiring careful team communication and concentration to generate the right outputs. The students surprised SEMI Korea employees and instructors, and themselves, by completing the exercise with record speed. Their time: less than two seconds.Human resources managers from sponsor companies were on hand to give the middle school students a head start in their careers with lessons in resume writing and career management. In mock interviews, the students honed their interviewing skills. And in meetings with SEMI High Tech U alumni they learned how their predecessors worked their way into semiconductor industry and their focus of study in college.To be sure, the day was rich in details about working in the microelectronics industry. But did it meet the students’ expectations? In a survey before the event, the more than two dozen students, on average, rated their knowledge of microelectronics at 4.5 on a scale of 1 to 10, a score that jumped to 7.7 after completing HTU. Their favorite module? No surprise: Engineering Design. In this exercise, the students designed a carrier for six 12-ounce beverage cans using only decidedly low-tech materials such as strings, rubber bands and wooden boards. Their innovations were studies in high creativity and ingenuity – just the type of imaginations the semiconductor industry needs. SEMI Korea has offered SEMI HTU since 2011. This year, various other career development programs such as semiconductor manufacturing tutorials and mentoring are planned as SEMI Korea continues to sow the seeds of the next generation of industry workers. Jaegwan Shim is a marketing specialist at SEMI Korea.

In the long unfolding arc of technology innovation, artificial intelligence (AI) looms immense. In its quest to mimic human behavior, the technology touches energy, agriculture, manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, construction, transportation and nearly every other imaginable industry – a defining role that promises to fast track the fourth Industrial Revolution. And if the industry oracles have it right, AI growth will be nothing shy of explosive.“The gains these days are not incremental,” said Ajit Manocha, SEMI president and CEO, said to a gathering in July of the Chinese American Semiconductor Professional Association (CASPA) for its Summer Symposium at SEMI’s headquarters in Milpitas. “They are hockey stick – exponential – with AI semiconductors growing in market size from $4 billion this year to $70 billion in 2025.”Manocha left little doubt that AI is remaking the semiconductor industry and, in the process, the world at large. Internet of Things (IoT) and 4G/5G, both key AI enablers, will account for more than 75 percent of device connections by 2025.“Today, 30 billion devices worldwide are connected,” Manocha said, citing an Applied Materials prediction that the number of connected devices globally will grow to between 500 billion and 1 trillion by 2030. Those devices will generate stunning amounts of data collected, interpreted and used to reason, solve problems, learn and plan, leading to the holy grail of autonomous machine behavior.To process this colossal amount of data central to the promise of AI, the industry must break through the limits of a key technology: memory. Memory a Critical AI BottleneckThe challenge for memory starts with performance. Historically, every decade gains in compute performance have outpaced improvements in memory speed by 100 times, and over the past 20 years that gap has grown, said Steven Woo, a fellow and distinguished inventor at Rambus, presenting at the symposium. The upshot is that memory has bottlenecked compute and, in turn, AI performance. The industry has responded with new ways to implement memory systems on AI chips. Each is suited to unique performance requirements and, of course, comes with trade-offs. Among the frontrunners: On-chip memory delivers the highest bandwidth and power efficiency but is limited in capacity. HBM (High Bandwidth Memory) offers both very high memory bandwidth and density. GDDR balances trade-offs among bandwidth, power efficiency, cost and reliability. Since 2012, AI training capability has grown 300,000 times, besting Moore’s law by 25,000 times in doubling every 3.5 months, a blistering pace compared to the 18-month doubling cycle of Moore’s law, Woo said. The staggering improvements have been driven by parallel computing capacity and new application-specific silicon like Google’s Tensor Processing Unit (TPU).These specialized silicon architectures and parallel engines are key to sustaining future gains in compute performance and combatting the slowing of Moore’s Law and the end of power scaling, Woo said. By rethinking the way processors are architected for certain markets, chipmakers can develop dedicated hardware capable of operating with 100 to 1,000 times greater energy efficiency than general purpose processors to overcome another big limiter to scaling compute performance – power.For its part, the memory industry can improve performance by signaling at higher data rates and using stacked architectures like HBM for greater power efficiency and performance, and by bringing compute closer to the data.Memory scaling for AIA key challenge is scaling memory for AI. Demand for better voice, gesture and facial recognition experiences and more immersive virtual reality and augmented reality interactions is tremendous, said Bill En, senior director at AMD, speaking at the symposium. These capabilities require more processing power across both high-performance computing (HPC) for big data analytics and machine learning as it relies on AI and machine intelligence to generate meaningful insights. Emerging machine learning applications include classification and security, medicine, advanced driver assistance, human-aided design, real-time analytics and industrial automation. And with 75 billion IoT-connected devices – all generating data – expected by 2025, there will be no shortage of data to analyze, En said. The wings alone of a new Airbus A380-1000 feature some 10,000 sensors.Mountains of this data are stored in massive data centers on magnetic hard drives, then transferred to DRAM before moving to SRAM within the CPU for the handoff to the compute hardware for analysis.With data growing at an exponential clip, the question is how to make sure all other memory systems can handle the flood of data. AMD’s answer is a chiplet architecture featuring eight smaller chips around the edge that drive the compute and a large chip in the center that doubles the IO interface and memory capability to in turn double chip bandwidth.AMD has also moved from a legacy GDDR5 memory chip configuration to HBM to bring memory bandwidth closer to the GPU for more efficient processing of AI applications. The HBM provides much higher bandwidth while reducing power consumption. Compared to DRAM, AMD’s HBM delivers a much faster data rate and far greater memory density, En said.Over the next decade, look for more performance improvements from multi-chip architectures, innovations in memory technology and integration, aggressive 3D stacking and streamlined system-level interconnects, he said. The industry will also continue to drive performance gains in devices, compute density and power through technology scaling.Michael Hall is a global marketing communications manager at SEMI.