Kitchener, Ontario, March 28, 2024 – PEER Group® is proud to announce that it has earned Intel’s EPIC Distinguished Supplier Award. Through its dedication to Excellence, Partnership, Inclusion, and Continuous (EPIC) quality improvement, PEER Group has achieved a level of performance that consistently exceeds Intel’s expectations.

“As one of the 27 Distinguished Supplier Award recipients in 2024, PEER Group stands out among suppliers in Intel’s trusted supply chain,” said Keyvan Esfarjani, chief global operations officer at Intel. “Through their relentless drive to improve, they have achieved a level of performance that consistently exceeds Intel’s expectations and serves as a benchmark across the ecosystem.”

The Intel EPIC Distinguished Supplier Award recognizes a consistent level of strong performance across all performance criteria. Of the thousands of Intel suppliers around the world, only a few hundred qualify to participate in the EPIC Supplier Program. The EPIC Distinguished Award is the second-highest honor a supplier can achieve. In 2024, only 27 suppliers in the Intel supply chain network earned this award.

To qualify for an Intel EPIC Distinguished Supplier Award, suppliers must exceed expectations, meet aggressive performance goals, and score 80 percent or higher in performance assessments throughout the year. Suppliers must also meet 80 percent or more of their improvement plan deliverables and demonstrate formidable quality and business systems.

About PEER Group
PEER Group® is the largest supplier of innovative factory automation software products for the semiconductor industry. Since 1992, our solutions have helped the world’s most advanced OEMs and factories reduce time to market and lower costs by solving their equipment automation, data management, and process control problems. An award-winning company, PEER Group’s commitment to quality has been recognized by Intel’s EPIC Supplier Program, naming PEER Group a Distinguished Supplier in 2024. Follow PEER Group on LinkedIn.

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MILPITAS, Calif. ─ March 20, 2024 ─ SEMI, the industry association serving the global electronics design and manufacturing supply chain, today applauded the United States Department of Commerce’s announcement of a Preliminary Memorandum of Terms for an award under the CHIPS and Science Act to support four new Intel Corporation semiconductor manufacturing sites in the states of Arizona, New Mexico, Ohio and Oregon. 

“We commend the U.S. Department of Commerce on the announcement of this newest step to bolster the resiliency of the domestic semiconductor supply chain,” said Joe Stockunas, President of SEMI Americas. “With artificial intelligence applications and digitalization trends anticipated to spur far-reaching demand for chips across end markets, government investments in semiconductor manufacturing such as this U.S. CHIPS Act grant for Intel are of crucial importance to economies worldwide. SEMI market research points to the Americas region significantly narrowing the gap with the top fab equipment spending regions in Asia over the next few years, and this along with expansions in other regions will help diversify and fortify global supply chains.”

The recently announced SEMI 300mm Fab Outlook to 2027 report projects the Americas region to double 300mm fab equipment investments from US$12 billion in 2024 to US$24.7 billion in 2027, moving it significantly closer to the top three spending regions, which are projected to spend between US$30 billion to US$26.3 billion in 2027.

Visit SEMI Global Advocacy to learn more about public policy efforts and developments, and SEMI Workforce Development for more information on efforts to address the microelectronics industry’s talent needs.

About SEMI
SEMI® is the global industry association connecting over 3,000 member companies and 1.5 million professionals worldwide across the semiconductor and electronics design and manufacturing supply chain. We accelerate member collaboration on solutions to top industry challenges through Advocacy, Workforce Development, Sustainability, Supply Chain Management and other programs. Our SEMICON® expositions and events, technology communities, standards and market intelligence help advance our members’ business growth and innovations in design, devices, equipment, materials, services and software, enabling smarter, faster, more secure electronics. Visit www.semi.org, contact a regional office, and connect with SEMI on LinkedIn and X to learn more.

Association Contact

Samer Bahou/SEMI US
Phone: 1.408.943.7870
Email: [email protected] 

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Charlottesville, VA, March 3, 2024 - Laser Thermal, a leading metrology tool and service provider of small-scale thermal property measurements, today announced it has been awarded a Department of Defense Phase I STTR contract. The contract will fund the development of advanced thermal metrology technology for use with high thermal conductivity materials and interfaces. The Phase I program period of performance is six months with an additional six-month option extending until February 2025.
In the microelectronics industry, WBG and UWBG materials and devices include high thermal conductivity materials and interfaces with pertinent resistances spanning nano to sub-millimeter length scales. Characterization of these materials with a single platform is challenging and there are limited available commercial options. Most methods require a high degree of user knowledge in advanced optics and physics, for both instrumentation and analysis, and are traditionally only housed in academic institutions and national labs. The current and next generation of horizontal and vertical high-power devices and packages will benefit from commercially viable measurement systems to characterize:

• High-thermal conductivity materials
• Thermal interface resistances
• Sub-surface films, interfaces, heat sinks, etc.
• Temperature dependent properties
• Spatially varying thermal resistances with areal length scales on the order of contacts and depth resolution on order of device layers
• Measurements in operando

Dr. Jeffrey Braun, Principal Investigator for the program and VP of Strategy and Programs at Laser Thermal, expressed the significance of this Phase I award, stating, "We are honored to be selected and awarded this program by OSD Basic Research Office and we are committed to our development of innovative technologies to address existing and emerging microelectronics thermal challenges.”

The results of the OSD BRO STTR program will enable design and manufacture of a high-power density steady state thermoreflectance (SSTR) tool for high thermal conductivity materials such as isotopically pure diamond. It will have integrated temperature testing and electrical probing for temperature dependent property measurement and testing of devices in operando. The new high-power SSTR system will enable variable depth sensitivity, spatial mapping and automated thermal property fitting across these temperature and applied external field capabilities. The new tool will dramatically increase customer ease of use for both data acquisition and, particularly, data analysis, allowing users to understand the most important use cases for temperature testing, electrical biasing, and thermal mapping.

About Laser Thermal
Founded in 2020, Laser Thermal began as a spinoff from the University of Virginia, and today is a Charlottesville, Virginia-based small business providing accessible thermal measurements of materials primarily focusing on thin films. Laser Thermal designs and manufactures thermal metrology equipment that can measure thermal properties down to nanometer scales. Utilizing optical techniques, Laser Thermal provides simple, accurate, and rapid measurements of the thermal properties of materials. Laser Thermal offers contract testing and tool sales to best serve customer needs.

This material is based upon work supported by the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Basic Research Office STTR under Contract No. W911NF-24-P-0025. The content of this information does not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the Government, and no official endorsement should be inferred.

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Brooks Instrument, a world leader in advanced flow measurement and control, has released its new GF120xHT Series high-temperature thermal mass flow controller. This is the company’s first high-temperature mass flow controller in the GF family and is specifically designed to support solid and liquid precursors required in semiconductor manufacturing.

Mass flow controllers (MFCs) are the most important component in the gas delivery systems used to produce an integrated circuit. The GF120xHT Series MFC flow module can operate between 45°C and 150°C. In comparison, traditional thermal MFCs can only operate up to 50°C. By offering a greater operating range than conventional thermal MFCs, the GF120xHT Series can precisely deliver vapor to the process chamber, even when that material is a liquid or a solid at room temperature.

The GF120xHT is unique in its capability to support upgrades from Brooks Instrument’s legacy heated 9861 and VC4900 MFC series. With ultrafast EtherCAT® communication, programmable alarms and warnings developed specifically for advanced process control, and fault detection and classification (FDC) tracking, it’s also an optimum choice for next-generation platforms.

“Our high-temperature GF120xHT MFC will solve customer pain points by delivering precursors for critical processes, such as selective atomic layer deposition (ALD), in advanced logic and memory applications,” said Dr. Mohamed Saleem, chief technology officer, semiconductor platform, at ITW, the parent company of Brooks Instrument. “The GF120xHT will deliver these critical precursors reliably, accurately and without particle contamination.”

The new MFC features a variety of user-friendly qualities that support advancements in semiconductor manufacturing, including:

High-Temperature Capabilities: In a typical thermal MFC, the mechanical components can be heated to high temperatures, but the electronic components cannot. To support high-temperature applications, the electronics are remotely connected to the mechanical flow module of the GF120xHT Series. The flow module can operate at temperatures up to 150°C, while the remote electronics are mounted in a cooler location (About Brooks Instrument
Since 1946, Brooks Instrument has been a leader in precision fluid measurement and control technology. Providing instrumentation for flow, pressure and vapor delivery, the company serves customers in semiconductor and high-tech manufacturing, laboratories and other processes and industries. With manufacturing, sales and service locations in the Americas, Europe and Asia, Brooks Instrument has the world’s largest installed base of mass flow controllers.

For more information, please visit www.BrooksInstrument.com. The company is also on LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com/company/Brooks-Instrument) and YouTube (www.youtube.com/user/Brooks407).

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DuPont Renews Collaboration with Silicon Catalyst as a Strategic Ecosystem Partner

SILICON VALLEY, Calif. and WILMINGTON, Del., March 6, 2024 – Silicon Catalyst, the world’s only incubator focused exclusively on accelerating semiconductor solutions, announced today that DuPont (NYSE: DD) has renewed its engagement as a Strategic Ecosystem Partner. Silicon Catalyst will continue to provide strategic insight for DuPont into startups developing the next generation of electronic technology, materials and devices.

“Realizing the exciting potential of advanced computing applications such as artificial intelligence and autonomous vehicles is only possible with continued advancements in enabling materials, especially semiconductor materials,” said Randal King, Vice President of R&D/Technology, DuPont Electronics & Industrial. “Engaging with Silicon Catalyst helps DuPont drive innovation through valued insights into emerging opportunities for semiconductor materials and new technologies they can enable. Silicon Catalyst has already introduced DuPont to more than a dozen startups in the materials sector and continues to expand its ecosystem.”

As a Strategic Ecosystem Partner, DuPont participates in a wide range of activities with Silicon Catalyst, including review of incubator applicants, directed projects for specialized market research, university collaborations and investment opportunities.
“We have worked closely with the DuPont team to identify and categorize focus areas in materials. In addition, they have participated in two rounds of evaluation of applicants. Their feedback has been very valuable,” said Managing Partner Atiye Bayman, Silicon Catalyst.

“Since collaborating with DuPont, Silicon Catalyst created a separate track to evaluate materials startups for incubation which has led to admitting startup companies through this track. We continue to grow our materials ecosystem and recently added ten key advisors with unique expertise in this area,” added Dr. Bayman. “In addition, we have collaboration agreements with Tel Aviv University’s Tau Center, Intermolecular, the trusted partner for materials innovation, and The Innovation Space, on the grounds of the DuPont Experimental Station campus in Wilmington, Delaware, as processing centers for materials startups.”

Pete Rodriguez, CEO of Silicon Catalyst said, “We are delighted to continue the relationship with DuPont, one of the world’s great companies focused on improving lives the world over.”

About DuPont Electronics & Industrial
DuPont Electronics & Industrial is a global supplier of new technologies and performance materials serving the semiconductor, circuit board, display, digital and flexographic printing, healthcare, aerospace, industrial, and transportation industries. From advanced technology centers worldwide, teams of talented research scientists and application experts work closely with customers, providing solutions, products and technical service to enable next-generation technologies. http://electronics.dupont.com

About DuPont
DuPont (NYSE: DD) is a global innovation leader with technology-based materials and solutions that help transform industries and everyday life. Our employees apply diverse science and expertise to help customers advance their best ideas and deliver essential innovations in key markets including electronics, transportation, construction, water, healthcare and worker safety. More information about the company, its businesses and solutions can be found at www.dupont.com. Investors can access information included on the Investor Relations section of the website at investors.dupont.com.

About Silicon Catalyst “It’s about what’s next”
Silicon Catalyst is the world’s only incubator focused exclusively on accelerating semiconductor solutions, built on a comprehensive coalition of in-kind and strategic partners to dramatically reduce the cost and complexity of development. More than 1000 startup companies worldwide have engaged with Silicon Catalyst and the company has admitted over 100 exciting companies. With a world-class network of mentors to advise startups, Silicon Catalyst is helping new semiconductor companies address the challenges in moving from idea to realization. The incubator/accelerator supplies startups with access to design tools, silicon devices, networking, and a path to funding, banking and marketing acumen to successfully launch and grow their companies’ novel technology solutions. Over the past eight years, the Silicon Catalyst model has proven to dramatically accelerate a startup’s trajectory while at the same time de-risking the equation for investors.

In 2023, Silicon Catalyst UK was awarded a contract by the UK Government to establish an incubator for entrepreneurial teams based in the UK that are targeting the semiconductor industry. More details at: https://www.eetimes.com/silicon-catalyst-launches-1-3m-chipstart-u-k-in…

Silicon Catalyst has been named the Semiconductor Review’s 2021 Top-10 Solutions Company award winner. The Silicon Catalyst Angels was established in July 2019 as a separate organization to provide access to seed and Series A funding for Silicon Catalyst portfolio companies.

More information is available at www.siliconcatalyst.uk, www.siliconcatalyst.com and www.siliconcatalystangels.com.

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