COVID-19

When COVID-19 hit the semiconductor industry, SEMI members were confronted with new hurdles to keeping their employees safe and their operations running uninterrupted. We quickly assisted our global membership around the globe by providing a forum for collecting member insights on best practices for operating and safety procedures, supply chain issues and sentiments on business impact and recovery. That forum took the form of surveys we launched in March 2020. We shared the results with the larger SEMI member community to help them cope with the evolving impacts of the pandemic on their businesses. Following is a summary of our 4th survey, issued last month. Regional and Sector Representation Nearly 40% of our respondents represented companies headquartered in North America. Of the respondents, 10% each were from companies headquartered in Taiwan and China; 5% from Korea, 13% from Japan and 20% from European and Middle Eastern members. The largest share of respondents – 40% – develop equipment for semiconductor fabrication, assembly, and test; 21% supply materials to the microelectronics industry; 14% are device makers; 6% supply software and design services; and 3% are OSATs, EMS suppliers or ODMs. Measures Member Are Taking to Continue Operations The May survey found that almost no companies ceased production for any significant length of time. In order to continue operations, companies instituted social distancing and masking requirements, temperature checks, schedule changes, and some contact tracing, all to varying degrees, as shown in Figure 1. In addition, several companies implemented some combination of mandatory testing, bump sensors, air purification and site capacity limits and sequestered foreign workers in separate housing for required quarantines after travelling. Figure 1 All of these measures are routinely discussed during the regular SEMI EHSS COVID-19 Working Group calls. That group consists of facilities, HR managers and others tasked with ensuring safety monitoring and compliance at member companies. Company Vaccination Policies With the pace of vaccine rollouts varying widely around the world, only 5% of respondents are requiring all workers to be vaccinated before returning to the office, and 12% have not yet considered a vaccine policy. The majority of companies are encouraging but not requiring employee vaccinations, and 26% leave the decision to the individual employees. Figure 2 North American companies constituted the majority of the required and encouraged vaccination categories. In Europe, companies fall into the employee decision or encouraged categories but none require vaccinations. Japanese companies primarily leave the vaccination decision to employees, while Chinese companies are split among the required, encouraged and employee decision categories. Clearly, these guidelines are not required by law in each region, but instead fall to employers and local policymakers. Member Readiness for Digital Transformation A solid majority of members reported they have invested in the adoption of digital transformation technologies and practices, though only about 14% expect to continue their digital investments in the coming year. Many respondents have deployed virtual meeting software and have implemented or plan to put in place virtual reality tools for remote diagnostics and predictive modeling for semiconductor manufacturing. Figure 3 Location by Functional Group in Returning Employees to Sites Not surprisingly, manufacturing and distribution staff that could work from home during the pandemic are back on site, and respondents signaled that R D and engineering groups will soon end their remote work, following by finance and procurement. Sales and marketing show the highest percentage of staff working remotely, with sales having the highest number remaining remote for some time to come. Figure 4 Resilience to Further Economic Uncertainty Of the 274 companies responding, 229, or 84%, feel more resilient in the face of further economic uncertainty after their response to COVID-19, though continuing supply chain issues and raw materials shortages ranked among their top concerns, as did rising customer demands, their ability to increase capacity utilization rates, and the increasing demands on employees and facilities overall. Figure 5 Many thanks to all survey respondents over the past year! We’ll keep you up to date on results of future surveys. For more details on the SEMI EHSS COVID-19 Working Group calls, visit the SEMI COVID Response Site. To watch the recording of our most recent CEO Webinar – Surging Chip Demand, Digital Transformation, and the Pandemic – What’s Next? – click here. More than 750 people attended the June 2nd webinar sponsored by SEMI members Brooks Automation, Hitachi, JCET, KLA and TEL. Heidi Hoffman is senior director of Technology Communities marketing at SEMI.

As we move through Q2 of 2021, it seems that the world is finally approaching normalcy. But I don’t believe our lives and businesses will ever be the same. Travel is unlikely to return to the same level as pre-COVID-19 for many years. I’m sure many companies will establish tighter travel policies and budgets as virtual conferencing has proven to be beneficial and cost-effective. Patients and doctors who were skeptical of telemedicine are embracing it, and although it’s not perfect, it has filled a needed gap. Online learning essentially happened over a weekend and will now be part of many curriculums and programs. All of these elements have spurred our semiconductor industry into a super cycle. Demand for chips is leading to an increased demand for semiconductor equipment. Semiconductor capital equipment expenditures in 2020 surpassed $63 billion and are forecast to top $70 billion in 2021. The secondary equipment market typically makes up about 5% to 10% of that. Our inquiries have definitely increased this year. With this in mind, I’d like to share some thoughts for the remainder of the year. Storage of Chipmaking Equipment Not New The semiconductor industry has been experiencing an equipment shortage for some time. It is difficult for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to support such a large variety of products and technologies. Some companies use equipment for manufacturing 150mm, 200mm and 300mm wafers. Fabs still run 30-year-old technology on 150mm wafers while the latest technology is manufactured on 300mm wafers. We’ve also seen new technologies like silicon carbide (SiC) being developed on these smaller wafer sizes. Unfortunately, some OEMs stopped making 150mm and 200mm some time ago and have only recently jumped back into the market. These OEMs have had to balance technological advances, pricing, and manufacturing capacity to meet this demand since their primary focus is on 300mm equipment. Third-party refurbished equipment suppliers have also experienced an increase in demand over the last several years. We see it increasing at all technology levels over the next three to five years. This translates to increased equipment pricing for both new and used equipment, as well as increased lead times. Growing Demand for Legacy Tools Many electronic products we use and are familiar with don't require state-of-the-art technology. For instance, cellphones, electric vehicles, wearables, monitors and industrial products still contain many chips manufactured on 200mm wafers using 200mm equipment. There are still approximately 200 200mm fabs worldwide and this makes up about 25% of all wafer capacity regardless of wafer size. These fabs manufacture analog devices, MEMS products, power management ICs, RF devices, discrete devices and sensors. We have also seen an increase in lead times for 200mm equipment. Typical lead times of three to six months have increased in some cases to one year or more. This situation has created a dramatic increase in chip making equipment prices and we do not expect much relief there. Many OEMs transitioned to 300mm equipment prior to 2010. Revenue and profit margins are much higher for them on 300mm equipment. 200mm manufacturing was supported by many third parties for a while. However, in 2016 we saw a resurgence in 200mm equipment, and at that time many OEMs began jump-starting their supply chains. It took some time for them to develop new supply chains, upgrade technology and in some cases hire newly trained engineers to support these new tool sets. All this costs money, which is why we will continue to see an increase in new legacy equipment pricing. Because manufacturers and products may not be able to support these prices, we expect the robust third-party ecosystem to continue. SurplusGLOBAL's Response to this Demand One of the advantages we bring to the secondary equipment market is our ability to recycle technology. We continuously search for opportunities to purchase large packages of tools from companies that are transitioning technology nodes, moving from 200mm to 300mm wafer size or changing product lines. We spend approximately $65 million to $100 million each year on purchasing equipment and in some cases storing it for the right customer. For instance, a memory company may be changing technology nodes and no longer needs its equipment. This use to happen on a predictable schedule. Instead of scrapping that equipment, SurplusGLOBAL purchases and stores it. Sometimes we only need to store it for one month before relocating it. However, in many cases, we store it for one year or more. We may power it on at a later date if it is in good condition. In some cases, we work with an OEM or third party to have it refurbished and ready for a new customer. In response to the need for more secondary market equipment, we have opened up additional offices in Japan and Singapore to stay close to and better support our customers in those regions. Finally, our biggest and most recent endeavor is building our Semiconductor Equipment Cluster, which opens in July 2021. Learn more about the SurplusGLOBAL Semiconductor Equipment Cluster. Emerald Greig is executive vice president Americas at SurplusGLOBAL.

Now, more than ever, semiconductor companies are relying on their human resources departments to ensure employee safety, support facility access and hygiene measures, cope with staffing demands and incorporate the rapidly evolving guidelines from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the local state and city mandates. SEMI spoke with Crystal Reich, HR manager at X-FAB Texas, about her participation in the Fab Owners Alliance (FOA) human resources group and the value of collaborating with industry peers on a broad spectrum of topics: from focusing on specific areas such as ensuring employee safety and managing the workforce during a pandemic, to addressing broader organizational challenges such as benchmarking activities and identifying compensation and staffing best practices. SEMI: How did you learn about the FOA human resources group? Reich: I have been part of the FOA HR group since its inception in 2012. Lloyd Whetzel, the CEO at X-FAB Texas, has been very involved with the FOA for several years. When this group was being formed, he let me know about it. I came to the first meeting and have been a part of it ever since. SEMI: What does your participation in the FOA human resources group allow you and your company to do differently? Reich: I am also involved with the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), but the FOA HR group provides an excellent opportunity for semiconductor industry HR professionals to collaborate. The group not only covers topics that are specific to the semiconductor industry but also discusses broader topics related to preserving employee well-being during unprecedented challenging times, managing negative emotions, establishing appropriate political expression policies, and creating safe spaces for dialogue. Also, the benchmarking has been fantastic, especially from a compensation and staffing standpoint. It allows us to identify best-in-class recruitment strategies, determine any shortfalls and use this information to improve employee onboarding and development. In addition to discussing these types of issues and trends, we compare and benchmark other HR issues such as policy deployment and legislative trends with colleagues in the industry. SEMI: What are some of the key topics and activities that the FOA HR group has helped you focus on? Reich: X-FAB has been involved in a variety of activities at SEMI. Through the SEMI High Tech U program, we have been able to help college-bound high school students in our community access STEM curriculum and explore careers in technology. We have devised more robust military outreach strategies with the help of the Veterans Program at SEMI, allowing us to recruit and retain excellent technicians from the military. Additionally, benchmarking activities within the FOA HR group have helped us improve our talent acquisition process - especially for positions which are challenging to fill. SEMI: The pandemic brought many significant and unprecedented challenges that affected business continuity. How did your company's participation in the FOA help you navigate these changes? Reich: The FOA has been a great help in addressing the challenges of the global pandemic across several operational collaborative teams. In the early days of the pandemic, as employees moved to remote work, FOA organized a forum that allowed members to share how they dealt with this transition. Constantly changing guidelines and protocols meant that FOA members leaned on each other more than ever to share best practices and lessons from new safety process implementations. FOA offered survey and area-specific team activities, cross-functional operational sessions, and round table discussions at its 2020 Q4 meeting, where members exchanged ideas on how business processes changed during this period and shared what they were doing to ensure business continuity. This provided another excellent opportunity for FOA members to benchmark best practices within the semiconductor industry. SEMI: Would you recommend your peers to join the FOA HR group? Reich: I would highly recommend HR colleagues in the semiconductor industry join this collaborative group. It is a great platform to share ideas, learn from each other, and benchmark with other colleagues in the same industry. The FOA HR Metrics survey is a comprehensive survey covering several different areas within the HR discipline such as compensation, learning and development, tool training, corporate social responsibility, and many others. True to the nature of the FOA, the survey is a result of the collaboration between several HR professionals from Device Maker member companies. Please contact Shilpa Talwalkar at [email protected] if you would like to participate. X-FAB is a member of the SEMI Fab Owners Alliance, an international group of semiconductor and MEMS fab managers and industry suppliers that meet regularly to solve common non-competitive manufacturing issues and improve their business results. Nishita Rao is senior product marketing manager at SEMI.

The pandemic unleashed by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (which causes the disease COVID-19) has infected over 100 million and resulted in over 2.6 million deaths worldwide as of March 2021. It is well-established that this virus primarily spreads from person-to-person via respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs, sneezes or even breathes (see Ref. 1-3). Subsequently, the droplets meet the eyes, or enter nose or mouth of a nearby person, or transmit when a person touches an infected surface, then contacts their eyes, nose, or mouth. Since the virus is small, 0.06–0.14 microns in diameter, many copies can be contained in or attached to emitted respiratory droplets. Droplets as small as one micron can carry enough viral load to cause an infection. A particular concern is the interaction of droplets with ventilation systems, which potentially could enhance the propagation of pathogens. This has implications on situation-specific safe distancing and the design of building filtration systems, air distribution, heating, air-conditioning and decontamination systems. A particular instance of this is the semiconductor manufacturing cleanroom, where systems and protocols are specifically designed to minimize contamination. The $440 billion global semiconductor industry depends on these cleanrooms for integrated circuits (chips), and in turn, these chips form the lifeblood of the multi-trillion-dollar global electronic systems industry. Electronic systems are now critical for just about every aspect of human life, including health, work, finances, entertainment, transportation, power grids and many others. Thus, it is critical to understand how cleanrooms can operate more safely to ensure the health of workers while maintaining productivity levels to meet increasing global demand for semiconductors. In the work described here, we analyzed particle and droplet transport via modeling, simulation [Refs 1-3], and experimentation [Ref. 4] to help guide the industry. Modeling and Simulation In this part of the work, mathematical models were developed to simulate the progressive time-evolution of the distribution of locations of particles produced by a cough. Analytical and numerical studies were undertaken. The models ascertain the range, distribution and settling time of the particles under the influence of gravity and drag from the surrounding air. Beyond qualitative trends that illustrate that large particles travel far and settle quickly – versus small particles that do not travel far and settle slowly (yet can be carried far by ambient flow) – the models provide quantitative results for distances travelled and settling times, which are needed for constructing social distancing policies and workplace protocols. Figure 1 shows examples of the results of the modeling and simulation work. Figure 1: Model of particle spreading from a person coughing, with and without a mask. (Ref. 1) Following are key insights from the modeling and simulation work (Ref. 1): Large particles travel far (launched “ballistically”) and settle quickly, while small particles do not travel far and settle slowly (when there are no ambient externally-driven flow fields). Small particles do not settle even by the end of the simulation time (4 seconds in Ref. 1). Accordingly, the simulations were also run for extremely long periods to ascertain that the “mist” of small particles remained airborne for several minutes (as predicted by the theory). For strong opposing headwind, small particles move backwards, yet still remain airborne for extended periods of time. This is by far the most dangerous case since this will encounter other persons at the torso level. Ratio of the general drag to gravity indicates that at high velocities, the dynamics are dominated by drag. For general cough conditions, there can be cases where the change in the surrounding fluid’s behavior, due to the motion of the particles and cough, may be important. One major implication of this work is that the challenge of infection must be addressed both spatially and temporally. In other words, it is necessary to maintain social distancing based on how far the virus travels, but it is also important to account for how long the virus stays at the location because of specific air patterns. On the positive side, understanding these spatio-temporal patterns accurately will enable companies to design (or re-design) ventilation and decontamination systems precisely to improve worker safety. Other aspects of this analysis entail contact tracing (Ref. 2) and decontamination (Ref. 3). Further details, including simulations, are available at https://msol.berkeley.edu/publications/. Experimentation The major vector of coronavirus spread is through respiratory droplets expelled when coughing, speaking, and breathing; and the efficacy of any safety measures depends on accurate characterization of the dispersal of these droplets. The term particle describes objects that begin their journey as a solid. The term droplet is reserved specifically for objects that are initially liquid, albeit it is important to note that droplets can evaporate and effectively transform into solid particles composed of non-evaporative material. A purpose-built room, the Cal Covid Cube, C3, was set up and utilized for this research [Thatcher et al. 4]. The C3 is a parallelepiped room that is 232 centimeters tall, 376 centimeters long and 284 centimeters wide on the inside. For experimental results to be meaningful and repeatable for scientific and practical purposes, it is essential that the experimental setup be carefully controlled and calibrated. The following precautions were taken to ensure this: Charge-free: When solid particles are released, it is critical to eliminate (or thoroughly know) static charge effects for obtaining accurate deposition patterns. Static charge effects can manifest through particle-particle interactions (affecting particle motion in flight) or particle-surface interaction (affecting deposition pattern). Two methods for the elimination of charge effects on the deposition surface were found to be effective: (1) ionized non-conductive adhesive sampling strips, and (2) grounded aluminum backed carbon sampling strips. Isothermal: The room is a converted walk-in freezer with 10.5-13 centimeter thermal insulation and located in the middle of a building, at least 5 meters away from all building walls. Temperature uniformity was checked and the C3 room temperatures were found to be isothermal within uncertainty of measurements. Quiescent: It was ensured that the room did not create uncontrolled thermal convection due to isothermal nature. Quiescence was verified with both hot-wire measurements and with free-falling particle drift observations. Isopotential: The outer and inner surfaces, including the door of the C3 were conductive aluminum and stainless steel, and copper tape were used to ensure reliable electrical connection of door, interior and exterior panels. Electric fields were surveyed and found to be negligible within precision of instruments. Other design elements: All interior surfaces were coated with black matte paint to reduce scattered light and provide uniform background for imaging measurements. The facility was located on ground floor to limit vibrations. Repeatable Launch: To emulate the release from a true cough or sneeze, and to better understand droplet motion in a canonical turbulent jet versus a cough type release, we studied different layers of complexity for the release geometry: (i) Straight round pipe (ii) Smooth 90-degree curved pipe, with a changing radius along the length of the pipe (iii) Intubation trainer doll, with realistic airways and mouth/tongue structure Figure 2 shows the experimental setup with the intubation doll in C3, with the particle/droplet release being measured after deposition on the sampling strips that appear green. Figure 2: Experimental Setup in C3 with both charge neutralized (white appearing green) and conductive (black) sampling strips placed on a conductive and grounded alignment grid [Ref. 4] We utilized both liquid droplets and solid particles. For droplets, we explored and found promise in a method of deposition analysis based on fluorescence. For particles, we explored many ways in which the smallest of thermal gradients or electrostatic charge issues can affect the data and developed practical methods to address these issues. For accurate measurement free of static charge effects even in environments where high ambient flow velocities may cause a nonconductive surface to rapidly acquire charge (e.g., clean room environment), we developed carbon-tape-based sampling strips that are cleanroom-compatible, conductive, and grounded. For analysis, we developed a cost-effective method utilizing a commercial photo negative scanner followed by image enhancement by blind deconvolution. Figure 3 shows sample results for particle deposition location along our centerline for particles in the ballistic, intermediate and aerosol regime. Figure 3: Experimental Results [Thatcher et al. 4] Following are key insights from experimental work: Significance of both static charge effects and thermal gradients in rooms for validation tests are more than usually appreciated. For modelling, accounting for the non-uniform initial particle velocity matters for the ballistic particles. For all sizes of particles, simulating the transient versus steady state significantly impacts predicted particle spread. Thermal plumes alone from humans along particle flight path can transport 50 micron particles across the room. In some situations, this was observed up to ~6 meters. There is a significant effect of Relative Humidity (RH) and temperature on droplet evaporation. The practical consequence is that, in low RH, particles spread further, with all other things being equal. (The reason is that particles shrunk more and entered the aerosol regime.) In summary, a systematic analysis of particle and droplet transport was conducted by simulation, modeling, and experimentation. We were able to develop robust, rigorous, and repeatable methodologies and draw meaningful insights that will support safer operation and productivity of semiconductor cleanrooms globally. Further, these studies will help with the design (or re-design) of ventilation and de-contamination systems that help protect both the health of humans and the economy from current and future pandemics. This article provides a high-level overview of the work, and further details will be available through a series of scientific papers that are in various phases of publication. We gratefully acknowledge the following support: Gift of the Lam Research Corporation Gifts coordinated through SEMI and provided by Advanced Energy Industries, Applied Materials, ASM, Entegris, JSR, KLA, TEL, and Wonik The 2020 Seed Fund Award from the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) and the Banatao Institute at the University of California Vision Research for providing a v2640 camera to help quantify the particle velocities Graduate students Eric Thacher and Tvetene Carlson who conducted the experiments in C3 Valuable discussions with Brett Singer, Thomas Kirchstetter, Michael Sohn, Chelsea Preble of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory regarding droplet transport and COVID, and Keith Hansen on particle sampling and charge neutralization DOE Office of Science through the National Virtual Biotechnology Laboratory, a consortium of DOE national laboratories focused on response to COVID-19, with funding provided by the Coronavirus CARES Act Steven Ruzin and the Biological Imaging Facility for their assistance in obtaining the high-quality fluorescence microscopy scans to validate the particle counting methodology. References Zohdi, T.I. (2020) Modeling and simulation of the infection zone from a cough, Computational Mechanics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00466-020-01875-5 Zohdi, T.I. (2020). An agent-based computational framework for simulation of global pandemic and social response on planet X, Computational Mechanics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00466-020-01886-2 Zohdi, T.I. (2020) Rapid simulation of viral decontamination efficacy with UV irradiation. Computer Methods Appl. Mech. Eng. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cma.2020.113216 Thatcher, E., Carlson, J., Castellini, J., Sohn, M.D., Variano, E. and Makiharju S.A. (2021) Droplet and Particle Methods to Investigate Turbulent Particle Laden Jets (in preparation) Authors Evan A. Variano, Professor, Environmental Engineering, UC Berkeley Simo Mäkiharju, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, UC Berkeley Tarek I. Zohdi, Will C. Hall Endowed Chair of the UCB Computational Data Science Engineering Program, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, UC Berkeley Pushkar P. Apte, Director of Strategic Initiatives, Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) and the Banatao Institute, UC Berkeley; and Strategic Technology Advisor, SEMI

The work of the SEMI Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) COVID-19 working group to address industry EHS issues and share best practices has morphed as rapidly as COVID-19 itself as the vaccine rollout continues, inspiring new hope for a return to normal. The group has evolved from mounting crisis responses to urgent issues such as the shortage of masks and sanitization wipes and sprays to helping companies prepare for their employees’ return to the workplace and developing on-site health-screening procedures for employees and visitors to help ensure their safety. Hot SEMI EHS COVID-19 working group topics have included the following as the team continues to meet every other week to stay abreast of COVID-19 developments and their industry impacts. Vaccinations SEMI members have been monitoring the progress of U.S. states and counties in delivering vaccines. So far, no essential workers in the electronics industry have been eligible to be vaccinated. To help gauge the availability of vaccines to essential industry workers, some companies have hired external consultants to monitor the phase-in. The SEMI EHS COVID-19 working group will collect and centralize the information to help members plan for their employees’ return to the workplace. Policy Enforcement At manufacturing sites, some employees reportedly are becoming complacent in following masking and distancing policies, prompting reminder communications from top management for workers to comply until the pandemic is brought to heel. The higher-ups are also encouraging staff to get vaccinated once they are eligible, with some member companies offering workers time off or other incentives for their employees and families to get vaccinated. Contact Tracing Despite the intense focus on contact tracing since the initial COVID-19 outbreak last year and early efforts to track people movement using smartphone applications or wearables, no tracking technology has emerged as the standard for helping to curb the virus’s spread. SEMI members have been testing various technologies ranging from Bluetooth to wearables with wide-band radio waves to track employees while on site. Tracing by wearables has proven inaccurate. Left with no better alternative, the vast majority of SEMI members are performing time-consuming manual contact tracing. OSHA Compliance While OSHA has picked up the pace in issuing new regulations related COVID-19, pandemic-related site inspections have lagged, some SEMI working group members report. In California, CAL/OSHA recently passed a COVID-19 Preparedness Plan that defines the responsibility of employers in preventing workplace outbreaks, offering PPE to workers and conducting frequent testing. The California plan mirrors the CDC recommendations implemented at the onset of the pandemic. To join the SEMI EHS COVID-19 working group, contact our EHS team at [email protected]. Olivier Corvez is senior manager of Environment, Health, Safety and Sustainability at SEMI.

In my role as lead for the Smart Mobility initiative at SEMI, I recently spoke with Automotive Logistics Magazine about the growing importance of the semiconductor supply chain’s connection with the automotive industry and the semiconductor shortage hampering global automotive production. Following are excerpts from the interview. Automotive Logistics: Why is there a bottleneck in the global supply of semiconductors at the moment and how long is it likely to last? Weiss: The current automotive chip shortage resulted from the sharp, Covid-19-induced decrease in demand for automotive semiconductors in the second quarter of last year when vehicle production came to a near standstill. The automotive market picked up significantly in the fourth quarter and this caused the supply chain constraints we are seeing today. At the same time as the automotive standstill, the pandemic spurred an increase in demand for home computing and networking equipment, and semiconductor manufacturing plants (fabs) had to pivot to these other markets in order to maximize fab utilization and successfully navigate economic headwinds. Every minute a semiconductor fab is idle or has lines down adds up quickly to missed revenue, so their capacity is booked weeks and even months in advance. With this background, I don’t believe this is a structural shortage and expect a gradual recovery over the next two quarters, barring any major shifts in geopolitics or macroeconomics. Automotive Logistics: What needs to be done to remedy the current shortfall for the automotive industry? Weiss: The automotive industry needs to continue to strengthen its connections to the semiconductor manufacturing supply chain. In past years, auto manufacturers used to rely mainly on their tier one suppliers to interface with the semiconductor supply chain. This has changed significantly. Not only are more chips being used in vehicles (roughly 10% of all devices produced globally end up in cars), but the strategic importance of the chips as enablers for ADAS [advanced driver-assistance systems], electrification, safety, connectivity and other consumer-driven features has increased considerably. With this dynamic in play, carmakers have recognized the value of interacting and collaborating more closely with the semiconductor supply chain. This provides vehicle OEMs with access to innovation, the ability to influence technology direction and pace, along with greater visibility into global supply chain developments. The SEMI Smart Mobility initiative is evidence of this transition, with the likes of Audi, BMW, Ford, Uber, Volkswagen and other vehicle OEMs, along with tier one suppliers such as Continental and Bosch, now actively involved in our automotive electronics and mobility activities to do exactly that – influence, partner, accelerate and guide the global electronics design and manufacturing supply chain that SEMI represents. Automotive Logistics: What percentage of semiconductors manufactured for use by US-based companies are for automotive applications and how has this grown in recent years? Weiss: A little over 10% of semiconductors produced worldwide are sold into the automotive segment, but this number is expected to grow at an accelerated pace in the next few years as electrification, connectivity and autonomous driving become more prevalent. Automotive Logistics: How is SEMI working to help the automotive industry get a clearer view of sub-component supply and better manage supply chain risk? Weiss: The SEMI Smart Mobility initiative is designed to engage automotive OEMs, tier ones, semiconductor device makers, design houses, and equipment and materials companies to drive alignment across the supply chain and address shared challenges collectively. To facilitate this engagement, we created the Global Automotive Advisory Council (GAAC), which has active chapters in Europe, US, China, Japan and Taiwan. The GAAC provides an open platform for creating solutions, fostering collaboration and partnering with other industry bodies to accelerate and harmonize industry efforts that benefit the entire ecosystem. Volkswagen and Audi are already SEMI members – both are founding members of the GAAC Europe chapter – and have become vocal champions and critical contributors to our efforts. When all stakeholders work together, I have no doubt that the future of automotive and mobility will continue to be bright. Interested in learning more about this topic? Read the full interview in Automotive Logistics Magazine, A Fab Future for the Automotive Sector. Please contact me at [email protected] for more information about SEMI’s Smart Mobility Initiative, the Global Automotive Advisory Council, and how SEMI can help your organization navigate electronics in the automotive industry to drive innovation in the mobility space. Bettina Weiss is Chief of Staff and Global Smart Mobility Lead at SEMI.

The recent global pandemic redefined well-established paradigms in healthcare. The classic model involving frequent hospital visits is no longer viable due to the risk of contagion. The focus is now on remote and pervasive vital sign monitoring solutions and automated data processing for health assessment. Social-distancing-friendly technologies, such as wearables, implantables, insertables and ingestables that enable long-term monitoring, can help detect medical abnormalities both in individuals and large populations. SEMI spoke with Carlos Agell, program manager and principal member of Technical Staff at imec, about remote vital sign monitoring using innovative form factors and methodologies. imec’s healthcare technology vison for remote care systems will be the focus of Agell’s presentation at the SEMI MedTech Forum, 19 February, as part of the SEMI Technology Unites Global Summit, 15-19 February 2021, online event. Join us to meet experts from imec and other key industry influencers. Registration is open. SEMI: What is driving innovation in diagnostics and what is the role played by the semiconductor industry? Agell: There is a clear need for remote diagnostics triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. Two examples are respiration monitoring and SARS-CoV2 testing technologies. The fact that some of the more obvious symptoms of COVID-19 are respiratory has revealed a big gap in medtech: the need for low-friction, ambulatory, continuous and pervasive respiratory monitoring solutions. At imec we have been working on bioimpedance-based technologies (from chipsets to smartphone-enabled sensing devices) that can provide feasible solutions in that space. Hence, novel sensing modalities from the semiconductor industry can make a difference when it comes to remote ambulatory respiratory monitoring. On the other hand, SARS-CoV2 diagnostic technologies have become paramount during the health crisis. In this space there is a clear need to simplify, speed up and lower the cost of testing. Additionally, from a practical perspective society needs to prevent virus spreading. imec is spearheading an innovative semiconductor-based solution aimed at simplifying SARS-CoV2 testing by collecting aerosols from subjects’ breath using a silicon-based solution for analysis using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method, the gold standard in COVID-19 testing. Determining viral load in exhaled breath is a clear indicator of infectiousness, and detecting subjects with a high viral load is key when developing these rapid tests to facilitate economic recovery. A cost-effective and speedy though reliable SARS-CoV2 testing solution opens up possibilities for its use as gating mechanism (such as testing to allow access to facilities and prior to boarding a plane) to help jump-start some of the hardest-hit sectors in the economy, such as travel and hospitality (hotels and restaurants) by enabling more in-person interactions. SEMI: Please share more about imec’s commitment to improving the healthcare sector. Agell: imec R D is active in the field of remote unobtrusive respiration solutions, which are vital in treating respiratory system conditions such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and COVID-19. These solutions rely on a combination of silicon chipsets, sensor integration and algorithms to interpret sensor data. As part of our effort to understand biological fundamentals, imec’s multi-electrode array (MEA) platform for heart-on-chip applications offers unparalleled capabilities to acquire high-density information (4444 electrodes/mm2) to enable extra- and intracellular recordings, electrical stimulation and impedance gauging to study patient-derived cardiomyocytes, cells that make up the heart muscle. imec is developing a rapid, low-cost SARS-COV2 test based on breath analysis (aerosol capture) aimed at a 5-minute analysis. Such tool is a key to economic recovery, and imec is planning large-scale testing of the prototype device at Brussels Airport later in 2021. imec has recently supported spinoffs and external companies that develop social distancing tools for usage during the pandemic. Healthcare is a key strategic area at imec, with multiple departments working on complementary topics, ranging from cell-sorting technologies and multi-electrode arrays, through sensors and systems for non-invasive cardiorespiratory and neurological monitoring, all the way to advanced processing of medical data and tooling for trials. SEMI: How is the pandemic impacting remote diagnostics? What’s new in that field? Agell: The pandemic has accelerated advances in remote diagnostics for healthcare – for example making remote doctor visits possible and launching telehealth into a successful sector. But in my opinion, this is just the starting point. Telehealth doctors will soon need to collect health data points such as body temperature, weight, or blood pressure remotely, the same information they collect during an office visit. Soon thereafter though, doctor’s will need more and more data, sparking the next stage of advances in remote diagnostics as algorithms are developed to analyze sizeable amounts of data. All in all, it will result in a big move from doctor-centric paradigms to more patient-centric solutions. Hopefully that jump will also drive a more proactive approach to health, enabling prevention and keeping people healthy, and leaving behind the era of curing the sick. imec research tools for respiratory monitoring will come in the form of a health patch. SEMI: Besides infectious disease diagnostics, what solutions will enable a paradigm shift? Can you name two global market trends related to the rising need for remote diagnostics? Agell: The paradigm shift in healthcare will be largely fueled by the hyperconnectivity trend. Communications are fast and far-reaching. The pandemic has proven that healthcare, similar to retail, banking, trading and business in general, can also be done partly remotely through a communications line. The need for proof of performance in the case of diagnostics has been proven challenging, due to the highly regulated medical field and the general conservativeness of this market. There is a clear trend underway in which algorithms and automated diagnostics are slowly gaining the trust of the medical community. Trials and regulatory submissions will help here, but the clear proof will be the general trust of the medical community (and general population) in solutions that have been on the market for a while. Similar to what happened with GPS navigation technologies back in the day, it would require a critical mass to reach general acceptance. As far as the healthcare market is concerned, there is a forecast bounce back from telehealth into hybrid models (a mix between in-office visits and telehealth) as a first post-pandemic scenario. Although this is perceived as the best of both worlds, its effectiveness and survival within the market is still to be proven. A clear market trend accelerated by the pandemic is the commoditization of health and wellness features in consumer electronics. A glimpse into consumer electronics venues reveals that watches, smartphones, weight scales and even your office chair or mattress will soon be collecting healthcare information. imec MultiElectrode Array (MEA) chipset SEMI: What is imec’s role in addressing the challenges and trends in healthcare? Agell: As an R D organization, imec offers expertise in the semiconductor, integration, data interpretation, data management and health-specific application domains. Thanks to our experience in horizontal technology and multiple application domain verticals (including healthcare), imec provides solutions to partners that push the boundaries of performance in health-tangential fields such as communications, consumer electronics, automotive and energy. imec is part of big European initiatives aiming to tackle the challenges of the pandemic. For example, we recently started working on the Digipredict project, which aims at early intervention in infectious diseases. We’re working with key players in the research domain within the EU such as École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, University of Twente and Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich. Additionally, imec has worked for market leaders in the healthcare sector such as Philips and Biotelemetry (recently integrated in Philips) and can help partners make the next health solution a reality. SEMI: How can technology unite us? What do you expect from your participation at SEMI Technology Unites Global Summit? Agell: I am a big optimistic on this pandemic. I believe technology has played a key role in putting boundaries around damage caused by the global health crisis. Technology does not only unite us, but it arguably saves lives! My personal expectation for the SEMI Technology Unites Global Summit is for us to get a better understanding about how the semiconductor industry reacts to a pandemic and upcoming post-pandemic scenario. I am curious to see if health-related trends emerge, and whether this is a transitory effect. During the last global pandemic, the semiconductor industry was not even existing, so there is no clear precedent for the current situation. Carlos Agell, program manager and principal member of Technical Staff at imec, where he oversees the development of projects and sets strategy directions for research topics. He has a background in wearable device development, having taken leadership roles in development of two FDA-approved medical devices in the field of wearable cardiology. He is member of the Dutch chapter of the standardization committee, which develops next-generation international standards for active medical devices. Carlos Agell holds two MSc degrees in Electronics Engineering and EECS from the Polytechnical University of Catalonia (Spain) and the University of California in Irvine (Irvine, CA, USA). Serena Brischetto is senior manager of Marketing and Communications at SEMI Europe.

SEMI spoke with Dr. Franz Laermer, Research Fellow (Senior Chief Expert) at Robert Bosch GmbH Stuttgart, Corporate Sector Research and Advance Engineering, about the latest trends in medical diagnostics and personalized treatments. An open platform for the automation of complex molecular diagnostics workflows recently developed by Robert Bosch has proven its ability to take molecular diagnostics to the point of need.To make this happen, miniaturization, microsystems and microfluidics technologies, as well as microelectronics, are crucial. This is critical for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 infections within a rather short development time.Laermer shared his views ahead of his presentation at the SEMI MedTech Forum, 19 February, as part of the SEMI Technology Unites Global Summit, 15-19 February 2021, online event. Join us to meet experts from Robert Bosch and other key industry influencers. Registration is open. SEMI: What is driving innovation in diagnostics and what role does the semiconductor industry play?Laermer: One of the major drivers in diagnostics is the molecular breakdown and detailed analysis of nucleic acids on the level of the individual nucleotide. This reveals the root causes of diseases like cancer, genetic aberrations, infections and therapy resistances. Today’s solutions are mostly PCR-based (that rely on the polymerase chain reaction) or depend on sequencing. The keys to bring these technologies closer to the point of need are automation, miniaturization, low-cost, ease of use, flexibility, reliability, and fast time from sample-to-result. Semiconductor and microsystems technologies are enablers to meet these requirements, thanks to their ever-increasing performance, with Moore’s law pushing the semiconductor side of the story.SEMI: Can you tell us more about the the Bosch VIVALYTIC system? Laermer: VIVALYTIC is a universal and highly flexible diagnostic platform for the integration and automation of a wide variety of molecular diagnostics assays. It consists of the universal laboratory analyzer tool, which operates the application-specific cartridges. All reagents and specific bio contents are contained in the application-specific cartridges in a long-term stable manner at room temperature. The user only has to introduce the patient sample into the cartridge, push the cartridge into the analyzer and start the automatic workflow, which yields a diagnostic result within typically less than one hour. The VIVALYTIC products are manufactured by Bosch Healthcare Solutions GmbH (BHCS) in cooperation with strategic diagnostic partners and bio content owners.SEMI: How is the pandemic impacting automated diagnostics in the medical industry? What is new now?Laermer: The pandemic has clearly shown the importance of fast automated diagnostics at the point of need. Breaking infection chains as early as possible requires fast reliable PCR testing anywhere and anytime. We managed to reduce the time needed for SARS-CoV-2 rapid testing to less than 30 minutes for positive probes, an achievement that is embraced by our customers. Until a sufficiently high level of immunization is reached by vaccination, rapid testing is the only way to limit the number of infections, hospitalizations, and lethal outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic.SEMI: Besides infectious disease diagnostics, what solutions will enable a paradigm shift in medical treatments?Laermer: Today more and more targeted drugs and therapies are developed in oncology to address certain mutations that are considered drivers of the cancer. This moves away from the one drug fits all approach to precision oncology. As a prerequisite of this personalized therapy, the mutation status of a tumor must be clarified – and monitored precisely and repetitively during therapy. The latter requires molecular diagnostics at the point of need, i.e. at the onco-ambulance. One keyword in this context is liquid biopsy. Another example of personalized therapy is the detection of bacteria type and antibiotics resistances in bacterial infections, and the selection of optimized antibiotics therapy.SEMI: What solutions can Robert Bosch bring to address the needs just mentioned? Laermer: Robert Bosch GmbH is a leader in microsystems, microsensors and semiconductor technologies. Our new 12-inch semiconductor plant in Dresden will strengthen our position in these fields. This encompasses artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things as well. As a technology provider, we generate superior solutions for automation and management of complex workflows, and thus deliver win-win-solutions together with our diagnostic partners.SEMI: How can technology unite us? Laermer: Technology, especially semiconductor and microsystems technology, is a game changer in the medical area. Whenever different disciplines meet each other and cooperate, as are the medical, diagnostics and semiconductor areas, innovation is accelerated strongly. New things happen at the interfaces between different areas of competencies.Franz Laermer, Research Fellow (Senior Chief Expert), Robert Bosch GmbH Stuttgart, Corporate Sector Research Advance Engineering. Dr. Franz Laermer joined the Corporate Research and Technology Center of Robert Bosch GmbH, Stuttgart, Germany, in 1990, where he started the development of new key technologies and sensor functions for the upcoming field of MEMS at Bosch. Today he is a Bosch Research Fellow/Senior Chief Expert for Microsystems, Microfluidics and Molecular Diagnostics. Laermer's work laid the foundation for the VIVALYTIC Diagnostics Platform of the newly founded Bosch Healthcare Solutions (BHCS) Business Division and the SARS-CoV-2 rapid tests from Bosch. Dr. Franz Laermer is the co-inventor of the Bosch Deep Reactive Ion Etching Process (BOSCH-DRIE) for microstructuring silicon. He holds more than 200 patents and was awarded with European Inventor of the Year 2007 – Category Industry prize by the European Commission and the European Patent Office (together with co-inventor Andrea Urban) for the invention, development and sustainable success of the BOSCH-DRIE process. He received the 2014 IEEE Jun-ichi Nishizawa Medal Award from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), USA. In 2019 he was awarded with the 2019 Technology Prize from the Eduard-Rhein-Foundation in Germany.Serena Brischetto is senior manager of Marketing and Communications at SEMI Europe.

If you think the world is flooded with a mind-boggling volume of digital content, then you might be just a amazed to learn about the sheer wealth of information and business opportunities that will be uncovered at this year’s SEMICON Japan as the event goes full digital.To start, more than 160 companies will exhibit their semiconductor manufacturing gear and services on the virtual show floor of Japan’s premier event for the semiconductor manufacturing and design supply chain. Add to that over 80 presentations and panels that feature global industry executives, visionaries and experts offering insights into the latest microelectronics developments, trends and technologies, and it’s easy to see how SEMICON Japan 2020 Virtual is designed to help attendees grow their businesses and the industry drive the next wave of innovations that promise to address some of the world’s greatest challenges across healthcare, the environment, transportation and other industries.Best of all, it will all be available at your convenience from your office or home 24 hours a day, making it safe and easy for you and others from all over the world to attend. Following is what’s in store at SEMICON Japan 2020 Virtual to help lead you into the future.Leading Japanese Securities Analysts to Weigh in What’s Ahead for the Chip Equipment Sector in 2021 For the first time, SEMICON Japan will feature Bulls Bears as Japan’s’ five top securities analysts focus on the 2021 outlook for the global semiconductor equipment sector. The December 17th event will include discussions on the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on the semiconductor industry, the continuing geopolitical tensions that are forcing the industry to reconfigure its supply chains, the fast-growing China market and cutting-edge applications that are powering industry growth. The perspectives from Japan’s investment community are sure to be compelling as the region supplies one-third of the global semiconductor industry’s chip manufacturing equipment.Moderated by Akira Minamikawa of OMDIA, the panel will include these experts:Three Visionaries to Explore the Digital TransformationPowered by semiconductors, the fourth industrial revolution is driving digitalization globally, remaking societies to bring more efficiencies and conveniences to our work and home lives and help more people prosper. But the flip side of those tremendous benefits is the risk that wealth will be concentrated in the hands of people in positions of power, companies and nations. Democratizing economic development remains a serious challenge worldwide.Addressing this pressing issue, the Opening Panel on December 11 will feature prominent visionaries from political, academic and industrial communities including the following:Sony’s Leading-Edge Electric Car and Nissan’s Driver Assistance System to Highlight Automotive InnovationsCars are becoming more like smartphones on wheels, rapidly filling with more and more semiconductor chips every year with electrification and electronic driver-assisted systems to key drivers of this growth. At the SMART Mobility 1 session on December 14, two pioneering companies – Sony and Nissan Motor – will focus on both areas of semiconductor innovation.Sony’s Vision-S concept car, exhibited at CES 2020, astonished many in the electronics ecosystem and the automotive industry. What is Sony’s vision behind the vehicle? Izumi Kawanishi, Senior Vice President, AI Robotics Business at Sony will share the latest on the initiative.Nissan, maker of the pioneering LEAF electric vehicle, is the first Japanese carmaker to equip a car – its new Skyline – with the ProPILOT 2.0 driver assistance system for hands-off highway driving. Nissan Executive Vice President Asako Hoshino will provide an update on the company’s driver assistance system strategy and plans.Quantum Computing Meets Chip Manufacturing for the First Time at SEMICON Japan In contrast with current computer systems that use bits (binary 0 or 1 state) for computing, quantum computers leverage quantum superposition (0 and 1 states exist at once) to quickly solve highly complex problems that might take traditional supercomputers hundreds or even thousands of years to tease out. American physicist Richard Feynman promoted quantum computer as early as 1982, but it wasn’t until nearly two decades later and long after his death that quantum bit circuits emerged for use in superconductive materials.With quantum circuits and devices requiring state-of-art semiconductor processing technology, The Era of Quantum session on December 15 at SEMICON Japan 2020 Virtual will discuss necessary advances in chip manufacturing technology to enable the next generation quantum computing. The session will be the first time SEMICON Japan connects the semiconductor manufacturing and quantum computing communities.The program will feature the following experts:Strategies for Sustainable Semiconductor Industry GrowthSemiconductors are giving rise to a hyper-connected world that is fueling demand for staggering volumes of chips, pressuring the electronics industry to uncover new ways to increase manufacturing efficiency while reducing power consumption in a bid to help combat climate change. The Grand Finale Panel composed of executives from Japan’s semiconductor supply chain and a supervising ministry will gather for the Grand Finale Panel on December 18 to discuss ways the industry can achieve sustainable growth through innovation with a focus on energy savings and an new process technologies such as extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV), which promises to enable electronics devices that are more power powerful, cheaper and more energy-efficient.Panelists include the following:Register TodayThe SEMICON Japan 2020 Virtual All-In Pass provides online access to all 80 presentations and panels, which will be available on-demand for replay until January 15, 2021. What’s more, all eight keynote programs will feature English subtitles. For complete information of the exposition, programs and registration, visit the SEMICON Japan website.I look forward to seeing you virtually at the event!Jim Hamajima is president of SEMI Japan.

D-SIMLAB Technologies, a Singapore-based provider of simulation-based business analytics and optimisation software solutions, recently joined SEMI. I spoke with Peter Lendermann, the company’s co-founder and Chief Business Development Officer, about the company’s role in the smart manufacturing movement, how customers are benefiting from D-SIMLAB solutions, and what the future holds for smart manufacturing. Ng: What is D-SIMLAB’s mission?Lendermann: Our mission is to develop, market, and deliver high-performance simulation-based decision support solutions that enable corporations to enhance their performance in a sustainable manner leading to significant cost savings. In particular, we focus on semiconductor manufacturing material flow planning and optimisation but also do business in aviation where we help customers optimise their spare parts support operations. What these two domains have in common are three important attributes: They are capital intensive, their underlying operations are complex, and operations are also heavily affected by random, i.e. unpredictable events, which makes both planning and execution of manufacturing operations very challenging. D-SIMLAB is a spin-off from the Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech) under the Agency for Science Technology and Research (A*STAR). Our head office is in Silicon Island Singapore. We also have representations in Germany and the U.S. Most of our staff are industrial and computer engineers with up to 20 years of operations experience in their respective industry domain, as well as vast data analytics and software development capability.Ng: What solutions does D-SIMLAB offer to optimise semiconductor manufacturing?Lendermann: In the three-pillar smart manufacturing framework of Connect, Sense and Predict advocated by SEMI, our focus is on Predict though we emphasise the equal importance of the subsequent Act: Our solutions can Predict, for example, WIP waves or usage-based preventive maintenance due dates. But much more value-add can be realised once some decisions with regard to how to Act can be derived from such a prediction. The ability to pro-actively adjust action plans in a timely manner is essential to overcoming challenges arising from changing customer due dates, mix profile changes, untimely production line issues, and production capacity to be shared with R D lots effectively, so that ultimately our customers can enhance capacity, reduce cycle times and improve the due-date performance of their factories.To that end, our D-SIMCON solution suite spans the full spectrum of decision-support tools required to forecast, manage and optimise material flow – from operational scheduling and dispatching, WIP forecasting and dynamic and static capacity planning all the way to specific applications for fab load mix optimisation or for the enhancement of the product/layer dedication and resist allocation in the lithography area. Our solutions are implemented in numerous 6-, 8- and 12-inch wafer fabs operated by both IDMs and foundries worldwide with capacity ranging from 40,000 to 200,000 wafers per month.Ng: What are the key enablers of D-SIMLAB’s success?Lendermann: Our success lies in deploying production-ready solutions for our customers, allowing them to extract immediate value. Our solutions enable the portrayal of many domain-specific characteristics such as queue time constraints or specific equipment behaviour, which is absolutely essential to generating operationally feasible plans or schedules in order to be able to Act in the best possible manner according to what has been Predicted. Moreover, we have modules for automatic generation, calibration and maintenance of the underlying capacity model, including resolution of data inconsistencies as well as verification and validation of the model, to allow near real-time responses to continuously changing operations. And the associated optimisation approaches focus on creating maximum possible value with as few iterations as possible and within minimum time through smart heuristics and parallel computing infrastructure – a paradigm that is as powerful as it is cost-effective.Ng: What are a few of your more notable customer successes?Lendermann: As a result of the first implementation of our novel, multi-objective based Scheduler cum Dispatcher, a tool capacity gain of 8%, a transportation capacity gain of 10%, and an operator workload reduction of 25% were concurrently realised at one of the critical equipment groups in our customer’s fab. At another set of equipment groups in the same fab, a 7% increase of lots within the critical queue time limiting area was achieved.Another use case we successfully realised is fine-tuning of Preventive Maintenance plans: Based on a seven-day lot arrival forecast at each equipment generated with our WIP Forecaster, a recommendation is made when PM would be best possible without causing too much disruption in the WIP flow. The effect of this synchronisation of the PM plan with material flow enabled a dramatic reduction of the average queue lengths at critical equipment groups and the associated cycle times without incurring any capacity loss. Reduction of average queue length as a result of synchronising preventive maintenance with material flow. Ng: What challenges has D-SIMLAB been facing in the COVID-19 world?Lendermann: Obviously, software delivery projects have become more challenging for the time being since our engineers cannot be on-site frequently. But it also turned out that more and more services can be delivered remotely, which has the nice side effect of making the services more cost-effective for customers. Overall, we are confident that our solid customer base will enable us to sail steadily through these challenging times.Ng: Where does D-SIMLAB see the technological development heading?Lendermann: In the future, enriching decision support and manufacturing execution solutions with machine learning and other AI techniques will be critical in reducing dependency on human experience. This path is essential to making manufacturing operations fully Industry 4.0-compliant. D-SIMLAB will certainly be at the forefront of this development. Bee Bee Ng is president of SEMI Southeast Asia.