SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – July 13, 2023 – The Echo Opto-Acoustic Metrology System from Onto Innovation, Inc. has won the 2023 Best of West award, SEMI and Semiconductor Digest announced today at SEMICON West 2023, July 11-13 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Presented by SEMI and Semiconductor Digest each year, the Best of West award recognizes innovative new products or services that are significantly advancing the electronics manufacturing supply chain or a particular manufacturing capability.
The Echo™ opto-acoustic metrology system delivers non-destructive wafer-level metrology for measurements of single and multi-layer opaque films ranging in thickness from 50Å to 35µm. It uses Picosecond laser ultrasonic (PULSE™) technology, a semiconductor industry workhorse for over 20 years that provides comprehensive metal film thickness metrology.
“The Echo system provides metal thickness and characterization for a variety of devices, including RF filters for 5G communications, and power devices for the rapidly growing electric vehicle (EV) and high-speed portable charger markets,” said Pete Singer, Editor-in-Chief of Semiconductor Digest. “Congratulations to Onto Innovation for winning the Best of West competition two years in a row.”
The company’s Atlas V Optical Critical Dimension Metrology Tool won the award in 2022.
Onto Innovation is a leader in process control, combining global scale with an expanded portfolio of leading-edge technologies that include:
- Un-patterned wafer analysis
- 3D metrology spanning chip features from nanometer scale transistors to large die interconnects
- Macro defect inspection of wafers and packages
- Metal interconnect composition
- Factory analytics
- Lithography for advanced semiconductor packaging
Onto Innovation will receive the Best of West award today at SEMICON West 2023.
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Through a mix of news, contributed articles and staff-written articles, Semiconductor Digest (www.semiconductor-digest.com), is dedicated to providing global information about the design, manufacturing, packaging and testing of semiconductors and other types of electronic devices, including MEMs, LEDs, displays, power electronics, optoelectronics/photonics, biomedical devices, solar cells, thin film batteries and flexible electronics. Semiconductor Digest consists of a website, magazine and topic-focused newsletters.
About SEMI
SEMI® connects more than 2,500 member companies and 1.3 million professionals worldwide to advance the technology and business of electronics design and manufacturing. SEMI members are responsible for the innovations in materials, design, equipment, software, devices, and services that enable smarter, faster, more powerful, and more affordable electronic products. Electronic System Design Alliance (ESD Alliance), FlexTech, the Fab Owners Alliance (FOA), the MEMS & Sensors Industry Group (MSIG), Nano-Bio Materials Consortium (NBMC), and SOI Consortium are SEMI Strategic Technology Communities. Visit www.semi.org, contact one of our worldwide offices, and connect with SEMI on LinkedIn and Twitter to learn more.
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“Despite current headwinds, the semiconductor equipment market is set to see a strong rebound in 2024 after an adjustment in 2023 following a historic multi-year run,” said Ajit Manocha, SEMI president and CEO. “Projections for robust long-term growth driven by high-performance computing and ubiquitous connectivity remain intact.”
Concurrent with SEMICON West at the Moscone Center, 
FLEX Conference
To achieve this milestone, Cerebras Systems, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., implemented wafer-scale integration with advanced packaging and system design for AI and other deep-learning applications as standalone units and in clusters for large-scale data centers. The chip’s integrated logic and memory cores contain 2.6 trillion transistors and 40 gigabytes of on-chip memory with an active area of 46,225 mm2 fabricated on 300mm silicon wafers using TSMC's 7nm complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology. The Cerebras Wafer-Scale Engines (WSE-2) are deployed in stand-alone units of the company’s CS-2 Artificial Intelligence system and incorporated as accelerators in large-scale AI computing centers. 
The Cerebras WSE-2 is the largest processor ever built. It is 56 times larger than the largest GPU, has 123 times more cores, 1,000 times more on-chip memory, 12,000 times more memory bandwidth, and 45,000 times more fabric bandwidth. The WSE-2 is the size of a dinner plate, while the largest graphic processing unit is the size of postage stamp.
Presented by SEMI Americas and Semiconductor Digest each year, the Best of West award recognizes innovative new products or services that are significantly advancing the electronics manufacturing supply chain or a particular manufacturing capability.
“We’re excited to welcome industry leaders to Dresden to share perspectives on near-term packaging solutions and explore how deeper collaboration can drive innovation for emerging heterogeneous integration applications and European semiconductor industry growth,” said Laith Altimime, President of SEMI Europe.
Themed Building a Path Forward, SEMICON West 2023 will also address key topics including government investment in chip manufacturing, supply chain resilience, heterogeneous integration, smart mobility, smart medtech and smart manufacturing.
SEMICON China 2023 will feature 1,100 exhibitors and more than 4,200 booths in 90,000 square meters of exhibit space – all record highs.
“The electronic design automation (EDA) industry continued to post double-digit gains in Q1 2023, with increases in all product categories and geographic regions,” said Walden C. Rhines, Executive Sponsor of the SEMI Electronic Design Market Data report. “Product categories Computer Aided Engineering, IC Physical Design and Verification, Printed Circuit Board and Multi-Chip Module, and Services all reported double digit increases.”
After the projected 18% drop to US$74 billion this year, global 300mm fab equipment spending is forecast to rise 12% to $US82 billion in 2024, 24% to US$101.9 billion in 2025 and 17% to US$118.8 billion in 2026.