STEM

Just as the annual Cherry Blossom festival wraps up, international trade has flowered as a top concern for SEMI members, requiring immediate action as 20 SEMI member executives carried the torch for the industry in recent meetings with lawmakers at the annual SEMI Washington Forum. The business leaders quickly zeroed in on the proposed Sec. 301 tariffs of 25 percent on China imports to the U.S. and their potential to drive sharp increases in the cost of doing business. In the meetings at the two-day event in Washington, D.C., the executives expressed deep concern that the tariffs, aimed at protecting the interests of U.S. companies, would instead harm the intended beneficiaries including SEMI members around the globe. The executives also focused on the proposed 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum that would compound the damage to their businesses, spiking costs of materials that lie at the heart of their manufacturing operations. Also crucial to their business interests, the SEMI members educated lawmakers on the talent shortage and the intense competition to fill open positions across the supply chain. With fully 77 percent of industry executives seeing talent shortfalls as a pressing business issue, the business leaders pushed for legislation that would bring more domestic talent into the STEM education pipeline – such as S. 1518, The CHANCE in Tech Act to support more apprenticeships in technology, and H.R. 4023, the Developing Tomorrow’s Engineering and Technical Workforce Act to get more students involved in engineering. The group also encouraged support of the “Immigration Innovation” or “I-Squared” bill to strengthen and expand the H1-B visa program and STEM Greencards. The SEMI Washington Forum, a venue for SEMI members to educate lawmakers about the industry, also addressed concerns over restrictions on foreign investment in the U.S. Passage of S. 2098, the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act (FIRRMA), would usher in new operating efficiencies for the Committee for Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) by adding much-needed resources to the overburdened body. However, the bill would also subject many ordinary business transactions to a lengthy and costly national security review that would hamper the ability of many companies to do business in the global marketplace. All told, attendees at the forum held more than 30 meetings with lawmakers, reflecting the great impact of public policy on SEMI members companies. In a time when the stakes for the industry have risen to new levels, direct engagement with lawmakers in the nation’s capital by SEMI and its members is critical. The SEMI Washington Forum is a terrific way for members to more clearly understand the impact of key pieces of legislation and gain firsthand experience in influencing policy and helping lawmakers better understand the industry. If you are interested in learning more about the SEMI Washington Forum or SEMI’s public policy program, please contact Jamie Girard by email at [email protected].

With technology moving at breakneck speed, MEMS and sensors professionals whose job is to stay on top of industry developments must be able to find useful information—fast. Podcasts are one rich source of insight. In All Ears, I share roundups of recent podcast interviews with entrepreneurs and CEOs and episodes covering emerging technologies, breakthroughs and even the unexpected – like a MEMS pinball machine. For the seasoned MEMS and sensors professional or the curious onlooker who loves to learn, here are 5 podcast episode recommendations. 1. Embedded.fm – Episode 214: Tiny Sensor ProblemsChristopher White (@stoneymonster) and Elecia White (@logicalelegance) host Embedded.fm, a weekly podcast about the 5Ws of engineering. They’re both embedded software engineers by trade and their guests include everyone from entrepreneurs and makers to educators and engineers.Tiny Sensor Problems is a good introduction for people who have little to no knowledge of MEMS sensors. Kristen Dorsey, Assistant Professor of Engineering at Smith College, provides a brief overview of MEMS and touches on the manufacturing processes, including temperature sensitivity and sensors hype over the years. You’ll learn facts about interesting MEMS applications that were created, like the pinball machine I mentioned. Dorsey also elaborates on her work in flexible strain and pressure sensors for possible applications in AR and robotics in the future. 2. NPT – Episode 4: MEMS Directional SensorsLet’s dig deeper and learn about some of the applications for MEMS and Sensors. In this case, Erdos Miller, The Drilling Technology Podcast focuses on an extreme niche: oil and gas drilling technology. Ken Miller and David Erdos make up two of the engineering, developers and architect team at Erdos Miller that specializes in creating custom solutions for oil and gas downhole devices. Throughout the episode, they explore surveying sensors starting from the 1920s. History buffs would appreciate the stroll down memory lane and the ingenuity behind the first survey sensor, which involved a glass bottle filled with acid. Texas Instruments’ DLP technology gets a mention towards the end of the episode when micromirrors became a topic of discussion. 3. The Early Stage Podcast – Episode 15: Vesper – Tiny Microphones That Listen ForeverMEMS and sensors are a huge part of IoT—no doubt about it. The Early Stage Podcast captures insights from entrepreneurs into their company’s journey including their innovative approaches to developing cutting-edge technologies and overcome business and technology challenges they encounter. This episode focuses on Matt Crowley, CEO at Vesper, and how piezoelectric microphones will affect the voice interfaces as AI grows more sophisticated. Enthusiastic about the subject, John Valentine, host of the Early Stage Podcast, poses thoughtful questions and Crowley is eloquent and clearly passionate about his trade. They touch upon the race to produce the best voice interfaces for the AI ecosystem and tool kits for companies interested in voice enablement—but lacking a dedicated audio team—and looking for a simple solution. 4. IoT Podcast – Episode 155: New toys, Pi Day and insect-tracking LIDARHost Stacey Higginbotham, a technology journalist covering cloud computing, data centers and IoT, joins IT expert and veteran podcaster Kevin Tofel, in a weekly conversation about IoT developments. They’re entertaining and informative with a knack for making complex concepts easily digestible. In this episode, they discussed their thoughts on how the Broadcom/Qualcomm merger played out. While not explicitly focused on MEMS and sensors, the episode and the podcast in general touches upon overarching challenges the MEMS and sensors industry faces with security, standards, product development and applications usage. The highlight of the show included the guest of this week, Tobias Menne, global head of digital farming at Bayer AG who discusses Agriculture Technology (AgTech). 5. Amelia’s Weekly Fish Fry – Silicon Stagnation: How Emerging Technologies and Non-Traditional Materials Are Changing the Future of MEMSHosted by visionary Amelia Dalton, this episode of Fish Fry addresses the prospect of paper and plastic displacing silicon in MEMS manufacturing. Dalton interviews A.M. Fitzgerald Associates founder Alissa Fitzgerald about her research on the threat of waning research to silicon sensor technology. And more importantly, they discuss its implications for the MEMS and sensor industry 10 to 20 years down the line.Can’t get enough of MEMS? Register to listen in on MEMS and Sensors Industry Group’s free webinar, “Process Control and Root Cause Analysis for More-than Moore and Advanced IC Technologies” on April 25 at 8:00 AM PDT.

SEMI and 106 other associations today joined forces to express deep concern to congressional leaders about the Trump Administration’s decision to use tariffs to address China’s unfair trade practices. In a letter from the collective to House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady and Ranking Member Richard Neal ahead of today’s hearing on "Effects of Tariff Increases on the U.S. Economy and Jobs," we expressed our strong support to better protect valuable intellectual property, the crown jewel of our industry.However, we worry that these tariffs will hurt companies in the semiconductor supply chain, introduce significant uncertainty, impose greater costs, open companies to retaliatory tariffs, and ultimately do nothing to address our concerns regarding China’s trade practices. We strongly encourage Congress to work together and with the Trump administration to jointly develop and execute a plan that will address the longstanding problems with China. As part of the SEMI Washington Forum (April 17-18), SEMI staff and senior executives from across the industry will raise this and other issues with policymakers in Washington, DC. SEMI will continue to engage as trade tensions continue.