healthcare

As healthcare undergoes a digital transformation, semiconductor technologies are emerging as a critical foundational enabler, making care more personalized, proactive, and accessible. At SEMI, we’re proud to highlight the leadership of STMicroelectronics (ST), a member and active participant in our Smart MedTech initiative’s governing council, for their commitment to advancing this critical frontier.With decades of experience in sensing, power management, and connectivity, ST is helping to shape a future where electronic systems seamlessly integrate with healthcare and wellness solutions, empowering both patients and providers.The Rise of Wearables and the Role of SemiconductorsST has long delivered innovation in automotive, industrial, and consumer electronics. Now, the company is applying its expertise to wearable health technologies, a rapidly growing segment that’s reshaping how we monitor, diagnose, and manage health.Today’s wearables go far beyond their predecessors. They capture vital signs and biomarkers such as heart rate variability, ECG signals, blood pressure trends, and more with medical-grade accuracy, providing real-time insights that can inform treatment and improve outcomes. This evolution represents not just a technological leap, but a shift in how we deliver and think about healthcare.A Shared Mission to Scale MedTech InnovationST’s active engagement with SEMI’s Smart MedTech initiative reflects our shared commitment to building an agile, responsive ecosystem that can bring life-changing technologies to the market faster. Through Smart MedTech, SEMI unites leaders across the electronics and healthcare value chains to identify systemic barriers, spark cross-sector dialogue, and co-create strategies for scalable success.ST brings invaluable perspective and technical depth to this mission. Their approach focusing on full solutions rather than standalone components, demonstrates how semiconductor companies can play a central role in enabling integrated healthcare systems.Meeting the Moment: Prevention, Personalization, and ReachHealthcare systems globally face mounting challenges: aging populations, chronic disease burdens, rising costs, and a projected shortfall of 18 million healthcare workers (WHO, 2019). Against this backdrop, wearables and remote health monitoring tools are poised to deliver tremendous value.As ST points out, the economic case is clear: treating chronic disease can be 100 times more expensive than prevention, wearables offer a proactive path forward. By enabling continuous, at-home health tracking, these devices empower individuals to take control of their wellness and allow providers to intervene earlier and more effectively.Accelerating the Future TogetherAt the SEMI 2025 Technology Workshop, ST joined a panel discussion exploring how semiconductors are reshaping healthcare. The session highlighted the need for earlier diagnosis, personalized care, and scalable solutions amid rising chronic disease and healthcare labor shortages.Panelists emphasized moving beyond component sales to integrated, system-level solutions. ST’s role on the Smart MedTech governing council emphasizes their commitment to cross-sector collaboration and advancing MedTech adoption.The MedTech revolution requires more than great products, it demands aligned ecosystems, shared knowledge, and coordinated strategies. As a member of SEMI and a key voice in our Smart MedTech initiative, ST exemplifies how semiconductor innovation can drive real change in healthcare.We’re proud to work alongside ST and other industry leaders who are committed to creating smarter, more sustainable healthcare through electronics. Because in today’s healthcare landscape, an ounce of prevention enabled by semiconductors isn’t just worth a pound of cure, it’s a blueprint for global health resilience.See the full ST article STMicroelectronics and Medtech: Enabling Personalized Healthcare and Wellness through the Integration of Electronics featured on Smart MedTech webpage.Gity Samadi is Senior Director of R D at SEMI.Rafael Tudela Senior Technical Marketing Manager at SEMI.Michelle Smith-Moritz is Senior Program Manager, Smart MedTech at SEMI.

From the need for more tech talent to fuel digital transformation across all industries to the great resignation and great retirement of workers en masse, the demand for tech talent continues unabated.

Dr. Lanza, Managing Partner of Lanza techVentures and 2014 winner of the Phil Kaufman Award for Distinguished Contributions to Electronic System Design, addresses why he believes semiconductors in MedTech is about to become the next big thing.

COVID-19 has likely had a greater impact on healthcare than on any other industry sector, said Glenn Snyder, Principal and Lead Analyst for MedTech at Deloitte, and a featured speaker at a recent SEMI webinar that offered a glimpse into the Future of MedTech in the run-up up to the SEMI Global Smart MedTech Symposium, kicking off tomorrow and running through August 5th. Snyder said medtech growth may appear muted in its early years but is poised to begin a steep climb as innovation continues, harkening back to the super-charged growth of circuitry on a wafer (aka Moore’s Law), which also saw a seemingly slow, flat start. Medtech enjoy its own exponential growth powered by 5G implementations, consumer demand, and the development of a robust ecosystem of bio-sensors, data standards, and regulatory improvements. Consumer-Driven Future and COVID-19 Impact Snyder noted that the future of medtech will be consumer-driven – enabled by open, highly interoperable data and secure platforms geared toward end users. A case in point: Detecting disease early through sensor systems will rely on not only on-body and environmental sensors, marking a fundamental shift from the today’s today’s hospital-centric system to improve health outcomes. Telemedicine growth during the pandemic is a notable example. In one case study of a health system, Snyder noted that telehealth usage skyrocketed from 1% to 60% of all patient visits over the early months of the pandemic but has since dropped to 10% due to the lack of charting, billing and other support systems needed to sustain the high rate of telehealth visits. Even so, hospitals expect to see a steady rise in consumers’ use of telehealth in the coming years. One driver are pilot programs for healthcare-at-home services for post-surgical patients. The programs have delivered better health outcomes and are more personalized and family-friendly than medical clinic or hospital visits. They also cost less. Digital monitoring using remote biometrics sensors are one key to driving the long-term success of these programs. Health Systems Changing Their Business Model In the medtech sector, changes in health system business models lag consumer adoption. What’s more, policy changes aren’t keeping pace with new models for medtech products. For medtech products to thrive, a solid foundation of data gathering, transmission and management capabilities that tie into traditional healthcare systems must be formed. Companies considering a vertically integrated approach to the medtech market can steer clear of healthcare providers – but only at the risk of having less access to patients and their historical healthcare data. Snyder said companies that control vertically integrated healthcare products and patient data can make support systems more efficient and robust but may struggle to deepen their market penetration. Companies such as Intuitive Surgical have found success with this model by offering highly differentiated products. Supply Chain Alarmingly Thin for Medtech Devices In a recent Deloitte survey of medtech companies, 60% reported that at least half of their products are powered by semiconductors, yet 70% noted pointed to high supply chain risks with most of their products because they have only a single source. Risk management and creating a resilient supply chain will remain key for medtech providers to adapt on a global scale. Partnerships and Collaborations During the event roundtable, Snyder mentioned that bio and pharma companies have partnered successfully to grow their businesses. Doug Kiehl of Eli Lilly, the moderator of the discussion, added that traditional healthcare providers should look outside of their usual business circles for medtech innovation. COVID-19 highlighted how new multi-disciplinary healthcare partnerships risk assessment processes have opened several paths to innovation previously unexplored. Both Snyder and Kiehl expect to see more collaboration between health systems and medtech innovators as they uncover synergistic business models. SEMI Global Smart MedTech Symposium Kicks Off Today Explore the gaps in the supply chain at the Global Smart MedTech Symposium and join the conversation with medtech device companies and health systems providers. Sessions include: Realtime Continuous Diagnostics and Monitoring Decentralized DNA Sequencing and Molecular Diagnostics Data Science and Infrastructure – AI/Data Fusion Applications in Rural and Decentralized Healthcare in the Digital Age The four-day symposium features three sessions at different times each day to cater to participants in Taiwan/Asia, Europe and North America. Register today! Heidi Hoffman is senior director of Technology Communities marketing at SEMI.

Taking aim at advancing smart medtech innovation, the SEMI Nano-Bio Materials Consortium (NBMC), in collaboration with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), in March 2020 identified 12 organizations from industry and academia as recipients of $20.4 million in funding, leveraging $10.7 million of cost-share from award recipients. Unique to this round – the sixth in NBMC’s eight years – is a pilot program for NBMC and AFRL to collaborate more closely and share more resources. As part of that effort, AFRL is contributing additional funding to seven of the 12 projects to enable its researchers to work alongside industry on the projects in the new AFRL-Industry Co-Development Program. After being matched to a project during pre-RFP discussions – also known as the White Paper Stage – AFRL researchers were designated as NBMC Consortium Project Investigators before collaborating with industry on the second stage of proposal development. Once contract negotiations between NBMC and the proposing entity wrap up, the AFRL investigators will participate in the development of smart medtech innovations. “This is a new way for AFRL researchers to participate as project performers responsible for contributing to project milestones and deliverables, in addition to providing program management oversight that AFRL has employed for past NBMC projects,” said Dr. Jeremy Ward, past NBMC government lead and current participant in the AFRL Entrepreneurial Opportunity Program. “This program should enable technical risk-reduction for industry by leveraging AFRL competencies and U.S. Air Force aeromedical and airmen performance mission connectedness and ultimately help speed the development of dual-use smart medtech,” added Matt Dalton, AFRL Materials and Manufacturing Directorate program manager and NBMC Governing Council member. “We need efficient mechanisms to leverage research being done outside of AFRL,” said Sharma, who is also senior technical lead for Cognitive Neuroscience at AFRL's 711th Human Performance Wing. “If someone is developing a groundbreaking technology that can be helpful for our airmen, then let’s work with them so that we have an opportunity at an early stage to actively shape that research for Air Force-relevant use cases. Similarly, with this co-development initiative, external researchers will also get an opportunity to work alongside world-class researchers at AFRL and, through those interactions, get insights into the needs of the operational community.” “The AFRL-Industry Co-Development Program strengthens the work between AFRL and industry to better target the strategic needs of the Air Force for dual-use technologies while more closely aligning with commercial market requirements,” said Dr. Melissa Grupen-Shemansky, SEMI CTO and Executive Director of NBMC. “This new collaboration will enable the growth of the ecosystem critical to bringing the latest smart medtech innovations to market while making the technology’s supply chain more sustainable and resilient.” SEMI NBMC connects military, industry and academia for research and development into the practical use of nano-biomaterials. The 2020 RFP targeted nano-bio materials for wearables, flexible and alternative power sources for wearables, and open concepts for wearables for diagnostics and ambulatory monitoring. These technologies address the critical need to monitor, evaluate and mitigate stress experienced by workers in high-pressure occupations – such as aviation, emergency, critical care and aeromedical evacuation – to enhance their warfighter performance and help ensure their well-being. For more information on SEMI NBMC, our R D funding projects, and how you can help shape the direction of our funding programs, visit our website or contact me at [email protected]. Learn more about our projects at the 2021 Global Smart MedTech Symposium July 28-29 and August 4-5, 2021. For more information about the NBMC-AFRL collaboration, see the 2020 Smart MedTech Virtual Workshop agenda. This article borrows from a U.S. Air Force press release on May 27, 2021. Rene Krantz is program manager for SEMI NBMC Smart MedTech.

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.

If you bought a new car recently, you must have noticed that it warns you if one of its functions needs your attention. It even alerts the factory if repairs or major adjustments are needed. Wouldn’t it be nice to have similar capabilities for our bodies that will call for a “service” before we end up in an emergency room – or worse? The United States invests almost 18 percent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in healthcare. Such a significant part of our economy deserves our industry’s attention – and it gets it. SEMI’s recent Smart MedTech webinar series tells not only patients and healthcare providers how electronic products can impact their lives, but also offers device makers plenty of ideas for developing new solutions.SEMI Gets SmartIn addition to working on many important topics with more than 2,200 member companies across the semiconductor supply chain, SEMI focuses on special areas: Smart Mobility (as covered here), Smart MedTech (covered below), Smart Manufacturing, and Smart Data. Smart MedTech was the topic of four recent webinars, organized by Melissa Grupen-Shemansky, executive director Nano-Bio Materials Consortium (NBMC), and Chief Technology Officer, SEMI. NBMC’s mission is to enable flexible, wearable human performance monitoring. In her introduction, she emphasized that healthcare will shift from today’s provider-centric approach to a personalized care model, with the following characteristics: Outcome-based Decentralized, not limited to geographies Specific to your personal health and medical needs With a team of providers, connected like never before To achieve all these characteristics, microelectronics will be an essential contributor. That is why SEMI and member companies are working on platforms to fund and commercialize R D as well as to educate potential users and beneficiaries. Grupen-Shemansky engaged a series of experts and organized four webinars to address this broad and complex field, and outline their contributions to meeting the above criteria. They have been recorded and are available to SEMI members. Call your SEMI contacts to find out where and how you can access slides and recordings of more than a dozen presentations.From Biomarkers to BioChemical Sensors Physiological RelevancyTo monitor a human body’s performance, researchers have to first understand which biomarkers indicate specific conditions of the body, then learn how to capture and process the data. Grupen-Shemansky moderated this August 5th session. Christina Davis from UC Davis, Jennifer Martin, and Sean Harshman from the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL), and Kenneth Ward from Pacific Diabetes Technologies presented their ongoing efforts in this field.Davis talked about the challenges of analyzing exhaled breath, which contains 99% water and 1% biomarkers. She showed a hand-held analyzer her team has developed (Figure 1). She also elaborated on how to interpret the captured data and, if needed, decide which follow-up treatments are advised.Figure 1: Palm-sized µCON exhaled breath micro-condenser used to analyze biomarkers. (Courtesy: UC Davis) AFRL’s Martin and Harshman outlined how ongoing and future minimally invasive techniques are being used to monitor airmen, and give them advice for self-treatment to maximize their performance. The Pacific Diabetes Technologies speaker, Ward, showed how to use minimally invasive, subcutaneous (=under the skin) oxygen sensors to detect hemorrhage (= blood loss) and control it.En Route Care (ERC) and Point of Care (POC) DiagnosticsTreating injuries right away and correctly shortens not only a patient’s suffering, but also improves his or her chances for a full recovery. AFRL’s Matthew Dalton moderated this August 12th session. Derek M. Sorensen from AFRL, Zheng Yan from the University of Missouri-Columbia, Melinda Eaton from the Virtual Health Program Management Office at the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), and Azar Alizadeh from General Electric (GE) Research outlined their contributions to achieving instant and professional care.AFRL’s Sorensen described the many challenges a Critical Care Air Transport Team (CCATT) deals with when performing their work inside a noisy, dark, hot, or cold, shaking airplane, discussed their equipment and personnel constraints, and explained how difficult it is, even for experienced doctors, to perform emergency surgeries under these conditions.Professor Yan takes low cost very seriously and demonstrated how he and his students have developed on-skin wearable sensors that can be manufactured by using only pencil and paper.Eaton outlined the DoD’s strategy for assuring its medical force is ready to support soldiers. Then she discussed a broad range of the DoD’s traditional health management responsibilities and added that Covid-19 is now an important factor.Alizadeh addressed how GE microelectronic solutions improve the efficiency of care, reduce medical errors and length of hospital stays as well as improve workflows of caregivers. In addition to GE’s well-known, large/stationary medical equipment and communications infrastructure (Figure 2), Alizadeh showed that GE is also providing skin patches and other wearable sensors to capture data.Figure 2: The Future of Monitoring: In 2017, Mercy Hospital served 800,000 patients with telemedicine including those with chronic diseases. Patient:doctor ratio: US average 300:1. Mercy = 1100:1. (Courtesy: GE) Human Wearables Enabling Rapid Decision Making in the Integrated Care ContinuumAs Figure 2 above shows, microelectronic equipment can improve patient care and efficiency of medical personnel, but only if sufficient data can be captured timely and accurately – increasing the importance of wearables. AFRL’s Jeremy Ward moderated this August 17th session. Christopher Scully from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Ashleigh Coker from the AFRL’s Sensors Directorate, Ted Harmer from the AFRL’s Airman Systems Directorate, and AFRL’s Regina Shia presented for Oxana Pantchenko from NextFlex how they develop wearables jointly. Scully introduced the FDA’s organization and its responsibilities, described the high-value accurate data can provide, warned about the damage false alarms and equipment failures can cause, and explained the regulatory role the FDA plays in this context.AFRL’s Coker highlighted the essential role sensors play in modern warfare with several examples, described her directorate’s operations and showed their warfighter-centric design process (Figure 3).Figure 3: Warfighter-centric design process steps and the need to engage multiple heads/perspectives in this process. (Courtesy of AFRL) AFRL’s Harmer addressed the importance of good communications architecture and protocols to capture and compute data to assure efficient cooperation between land/air/sea/space-based forces.NextFlex’ Pantchenko prepared a presentation about standards-compliant wearable electroencephalography (EEG), electromyography (EMG), and electrooculography (EOG) devices, jointly developed with AFRL and several other companies. It was delivered by AFRL’s Regina Shia.Automation, Augmentation and AINatalie Wisniewski, Founder of Profusa, Inc. a and consultant in Wearables and Digital Health, moderated the fourth webinar, held on August 26. She emphasized SEMI’s role in this context, then introduced the speakers: Michael Kirby from Colorado State University, Kevin Zhao from Harmonize Health, Mary Clare McCorry from armi/biofab USA, and Andreas Caduff from ETH Zuerich.Professor Kirby outlined several mathematical principles that need to be applied to get meaningful results when analyzing data. He emphasized that genetic factors influence if an individual is susceptible, tolerant, or even resistant to certain pathogens and warned that bacteria can develop resistance to today’s antibiotics.Zhao from Harmonize talked about the importance of predictive analytics in remote care, how to filter out false alarms, and how to deliver the best available care cost-effectively. In closing, he emphasized that computers and algorithms are not replacing clinical staff.McCorry outlined how biofab USA, a program of armi, uses sensors and automation to grow replacement tissue and organs (Figure 4). She explained how they use engineering principles and life sciences to make guide cells grow into replacement tissue. The company’s plan is to expand the currently lab-based capabilities into an industrial scale tissue foundry.Figure 4: Growing ear cartilage in the lab. (Courtesy: armi/biolab USA) SummaryMcCorry summarized her presentation, and actually the entire webinar series, with these statements: The human body is a 3D, highly complex, dynamic, and multi-faceted biological construct Skin lends itself well as an interface between body and wearable sensors Connecting physiology (e.g. vital signs), behavior, and external factors is important for getting good results Verification, validation, and FDA involvement are important for making methods and devices successful Sensors, communication computing (AI/ML) are complementing, not replacing, medical personnel Today’s methods and devices will be outperformed by tomorrow’s solutions – stay up to date Personal CommentsSummarizing eight hours of presentations in a few pages requires a very high and lossy compression factor – please understand. I suggest you call on your SEMI contact to get access to these previous and following webinar recordings. Excellent contacts across the electronics supply chain enable SEMI to win experts in many areas to convey valuable information in these webinars.I am impressed that the USA military, specifically the AFRL, invests so much effort in medical support for airmen/women. They demonstrate that only healthy and fit personnel can take full advantage of the sophisticated weapon systems at their disposal if/when they are called upon to deploy them.This Smart MedTech webinar series confirms what many medical experts told me during exams and/or before and after surgeries: The human body is a masterpiece of bioengineering. These webinars also reminded me of what I learned at a brain-health class at Stanford University: Our brains only need about 20 Watts to perform computing and memory tasks that fairly quickly approximate the results of today’s computers – a benchmark for computer architects and AI/ML experts.Republished with permission from 3D InCites.

MEMS and image sensors are shining stars in the chip industry as technology companies worldwide accelerate innovation in the fight against COVID-19. The tiny devices are behind advances in areas of electronics ranging from thermal imaging and faster point-of-care testing to microfluidics-based polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tools and techniques to detect SARS-CoV-2.SEMI recently spoke with Yole Développement analysts Dimitrios Damianos and Chenmeijing Liang about MEMS and imaging sensors market trends and how microelectronics-enhanced technologies are supporting the worldwide push to contain the spread of COVID-19.For additional insights on the technologies, join the SEMI MEMS Imaging Sensors Summit, held for the first time at SEMICON Europa, 12-13 November 2020 in Munich, Germany. Registration is open.SEMI: Despite the global pandemic, the MEMS and sensors market is still growing and is one of the healthiest industries, not only in Europe, but globally. What is driving this growth?Damianos: MEMS have been continuously evolving from the first sensors that were measuring pressure and acceleration to rotation sensing and visible light management followed by light sensing beyond visible and the expansion to ultrasound and multi-spectral. Now we are heading towards an era where we want to sense every aspect of our environment, with more processing and eventually analytics bringing more quality to the data.COVID-19 has impacted various global markets in very different ways. While automotive, mobility and civil aviation have suffered, the impact on telecommunications and medical has been positive. The effects on the consumer, mobile and industrial markets have been moderate. Moreover, COVID-19 is changing the perception of the current global supply chain in manufacturing, potentially leading to more localized value chains and further regionalization in order to minimize similar risks posed by the pandemic and the first lockdown.SEMI: Who are the main MEMS players based on your research? Damianos: For MEMS players, the picture in 2019 was not the same as 10 years ago, when Texas Instruments (TI) and Hewlett-Packard (HP) were leading the scene, with Bosch and ST Microelectronics following, all at comparable revenue levels. Now, Broadcom and Bosch lead with almost $1.4 billion in revenue each, and the rest of the MEMS key stakeholders compete in the $400 million to $600 million league. Microphone players profited from the voice interface adoption trend, while players active in MEMS for mobility and smartphones suffered slightly due to weak end-system demand.SEMI: What scenarios can we expect for each market with regard to the impact of COVID-19 on MEMS for 2020? Damianos: For 2020, at Yole Développement we expect the consumer market to contract slightly by 2.6%, with the automotive market to dip by 27.5%, and defense and aerospace by 20.5%. For the defense market, no major effect is expected, as all major programs still run for the year. The market may experience some slight delays in deliveries due to supply chain and logistics problems. However, sensors integrated in commercial/civil aerospace applications will suffer due to the general paralysis of the air travel industry. On the positive side, telecommunications could increase by 4.7%, medical applications by 10.6%, and industrial by 11.5%.Due to the global pandemic, some types of MEMS have spiked in demand this year. For example, demand for thermopiles and microbolometers used in temperature guns and thermal cameras has increased because of the need for contactless monitoring of people’s temperatures. Moreover, microfluidics for DNA sequencing and real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) diagnostic tests for detecting COVID-19 are gaining market relevance, with the latter serving as a premier method of detecting a bacteria or virus on the molecular level with high degrees of accuracy. Furthermore, pressure and flowmeters in ventilators will grow because of huge demand by hospital intensive care units (ICUs).SEMI: What growth trends do you predict for the long haul?Damianos: In the longer term, we expect global MEMS volumes to almost double, from 24.4 billion units in 2019 to 50.8 billion units in 2025, with a 13% CAGR during the same period. The global MEMS market could reach $17.7 billion in revenue by 2025.We see a trend to more wearable devices integrating a lot of sensors but also a move to a more consumer-oriented healthcare. Moreover, everything related to voice interfaces and voice/virtual-personal assistants (VPAs) will continue to see strong growth, increasing demand for MEMS mics with better quality and high-fidelity voice capture. MEMS devices are shifting to higher accuracy, ultra-low power, embedded intelligence and possibly some bio-compatibility for medical applications.MEMS players will try to escape the commoditization cycle and deliver more value by increasing the value of the data, either grouping many sensors to create sensor hubs or by adding processing, algorithms and software. Industry players are employing strategies such as adding extra processing close to the sensor (e.g. Knowles) or ameliorating the use cases of their applications of their clients (e.g. Bosch or ST). AI on the edge seems very alluring for extra value acquisition, with many startups already working on it. Some examples include always-on-sensing (Aspinity in collaboration with Infineon, Syntiant), echolocation (IMERAI) and predictive maintenance using inertial sensors (Cartesiam). This will be the next pit stop for MEMS technology for sure. SEMI: The CMOS Image Sensor (CIS) is a cornerstone technology in the development of devices powered by machine sensing and artificial intelligence (AI) for applications such as advanced driver assistance system (ADAS). CIS powers many of the ongoing revolutions in new technical products and use cases. What is the status of the image sensors industry? Liang: Last year was exceptional with a combination of high demand and high prices due to capacity limitations. Q4 2019 went way above the forecast, and, in the end, the CIS industry reached $19.3 billion for the full year. This year, we think it will return to normal, and, despite the pandemic impact, we expect significant growth in the range of 7% to 12%. Last year’s 25% year-over-year (YOY) growth was the highest we’ve seen over the past decade. Mobile still dominates the marketplace for CIS with 69% market share. Two markets, computing (8%) and consumer (5%), are adjacent to the mobile market but progressively losing ground due to the smartphone disruption.Security, at 6% market share, will probably be the second largest CIS market in the future. Although this is an area of excellence for the emerging Chinese players, unfortunately, they could be hit by the current trade war. The automotive market did very well from 2018 to 2019 because of the numerous applications recently developed for ADAS, viewing, and in-cabin applications. Lastly, the industrial camera applications benefited from large investments in automation, especially in the semiconductor and automotive industries, but here again many uncertainties remain as these markets will reshuffle in the post COVID-19 world. SEMI: Which CIS markets are most susceptible to seasonality and the impact of COVID-19?Liang: According to our quarterly CIS monitor, automotive and security were both negatively impacted by the pandemic beyond what we expected in terms of seasonality. For computing, the situation improved just prior the lockdown. Q1 got a positive impact with high sales results for laptops and tablets, but no significant impact was seen for security equipment. For automotive, the demand for cameras was very high in Q1, which is seasonally normal, despite the decrease of car shipments that followed later. The automotive CIS market in 2020 should remain relatively flat compared to 2019 due to the higher attachment rates of cameras despite the lower number of cars produced. Consumer and industrial segments dropped in Q1, which is typical early in the year.The next five years might be a bit slow, and although we forecast growth for the next year, in the future the market share will be lower in mobile. In fact, mobile CIS growth will fall below the CIS growth average, but we will see an increase of market share for the security, automotive and industrial segments. The CIS market could reach $28 billion in 2025.At first, COVID-19 had a limited impact on the production side, as factories in China are usually closed for the New Year holiday, when the pandemic started. While supply is currently recovering, we still consider the limited impact on demand. Smartphone production for 2020 will be down 6%, but camera shipments for mobile should increase about 10% this year. Another positive trend for the mobile market is optical fingerprint implementation. Currently, high-end Android phones use this kind of technology. For 2023, we estimate optical fingerprint technology revenue to be over $1 billion.The roadmap for the automotive market is driven by camera proliferation. We’ll see 10 cameras per car and more for some high-end vehicles. Increasing demand for safety and convenience will mean more cameras per car in the future. With a strong attachment rate, the market average in automotive is around 2.0 cameras per car nowadays, and we expect the market average to reach 3.5 cameras per car in 2025. In security, Charge Coupled Device (CCD)-based cameras are nearly out of the market, as CMOS-based IP cameras are most important now.SEMI: What are current key technology trends?Liang: 3D semiconductor technology is the hot topic. CIS wafer staking technology is indeed at the center of the CIS technology race. Future applications could be AI analytics or recently developed applications on new types of CIS. So far, we have seen the introduction of variants of the CIS pixel. Global shutter (GS) and indirect Time of Flight (iToF) were recently introduced, and now direct time-of-flight (dTOF) pixels are being used in high volume. 3D semiconductor technology is a bonanza for the industry, as it allows to pack more value in a single chip. While the surface of silicon is still increasing, additional silicon is added through stacking.With COVID-19 still a problem, the endpoint for smartphones in 2020 remains uncertain. The short-term impact for CIS will be slower growth with respect to the 25% YoY of last year. The downturn in car production will be mitigated by an increased attachment rate for automotive cameras. The security market will also help maintain CIS growth.For more insights, see the following reports: Status of the MEMS Industry 2020 3D Imaging and Sensing 2020 CIS Market Monitor Q2 2020 Dimitrios Damianos is a technology and market analysts at Yole Développement covering MEMS, Sensors, Photonics and Imaging. Chenmeijing Liang is a technology and market analysts at Yole Développement covering Imaging. Serena Brischetto is senior manager of Marketing and Communications at SEMI Europe.

Innovations in the public sector are springboards for new products in digital health and personalized medicine. Since 2013, SEMI NBMC, funded by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), has been evaluating industry needs and soliciting proposals for new research into the foundations of device development and manufacturing of medically actionable devices.SEMI NBMC has run 17 separate programs with more than two dozen organizational participants developing materials, electronics, microfluidics, manufacturing processes and algorithms to create low-cost, wearable sensors. Most of these integrated sensing systems communicate wirelessly and incorporate high-performance silicon devices that are designed to move with the individual. Each of the projects was the result of a proposal received during NBMC’s annual proposal cycle. ​What’s Next in MedTech Device Development?We invite you to join the teams at SEMI, NBMC and AFRL to answer that question in a virtual series of sessions over the four weeks in August.For the past five years, NBMC has been conducting similar sessions for roadmapping the development of non-invasive human performance monitoring technology and manufacturing. The information feeds into the topics for upcoming RFPs, including the one we expect to release in September 2020. Previous Workshops (formerly entitled Blood Sweat and Tears) brought together industry and university innovators to explore current product research and provided excellent insights for the proposal evaluation teams. We believe the insights are also very useful to the business and technology planning direction for researchers and developers working on these products.Our focus is on early-adopting markets – medical professionals and their patients, Army and Air Force personnel and high-performance athletes.​ In this time of social-distancing and overall hesitancy to approach hospitals and medical offices, medical monitoring that provides medically-actionable intelligence is of even greater significance.But Doesn’t FitBitTM Have that Covered?Advancements are coming fast and furious – but medical professionals and insurance companies are struggling to distinguish innovations that provide actionable intelligence from those that provide generalized, non-actionable data.The workshop will focus on the medically relevant information that requires a great deal more accuracy, testing and certification before decisions are made. It is the innovations in this field that will lay the groundwork for new products in digital health and personalized medicine. Additionally, they are leading to advancements in aeromedical monitoring and diagnostics to support the U.S. Air Force’s mission to improve patient care during emergency air transport. The targeted future state is real-time monitoring of biochemical and physiological markers that can guide optimization of human performance and health. ​The SMART MedTech Virtual Workshop Series will link markets with manufacturing for medical relevancy – addressing both ends of the ecosystem. This forum will bring together the players across the growing range of industries that are entering or advancing human monitoring applications to:​ share competitive ideas that may be applied to product development​, assess roadblocks in bringing human monitoring products to market, and form partnerships that have become key in overcoming obstacles to successful manufacturing and product development. ​ Join the experts who are at the cutting edge of product design and manufacturing techniques. Indeed, the success of previous workshops was based on the unique membership of NBMC, where product and manufacturing-oriented engineers from industry, universities, and government labs form teams and pool resources (financial as well as technical) to accelerate human monitoring product development into manufacturing prototypes.Can’t Attend the Workshop?All sessions will be recorded and available for watching and re-watching on-demand. Join our interest list to receive regular updates on SEMI NBMC activities, including notification of the RFP expected to be available in October 2020.Find out more about the Smart MedTech Initiative and the NBMC Programs at our website.Rene Krantz is Director of R D Programs Business Development at SEMI. She is the primary manager of SEMI Smart MedTech Initiative and NBMC programs. Contact Rene at [email protected].

Companies around the world are increasingly turning to mergers and acquisitions, research and development, and corporate venture capital (CVC) investment to sustain growth. For many years, global semiconductor companies including Intel, Qualcomm and Samsung have been active CVC investors. However, the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic has forced many venture capital (VC) and CVC investors to rethink their investment strategies as they look to an uncertain future. To help provide SEMI members with the latest market trend information, SEMI Taiwan held the webinar Challenges and Opportunities in Corporate Venturing during the Global Pandemic Crisis on April 28th. Featured speaker James Mawson, founder and editor in chief of Global Corporate Venturing, provided an analysis of the pandemic’s impact on deal flow, capital movement, sentiment and strategies among CVCs. CVC takes larger role in past decadeCorporations have been increasingly active direct and indirect venture investors over the past decade. From 2011-2019, more than US$1.3 trillion of venture capital was invested globally, with corporations accounting for more than half that total, according to data from Pitchbook/GCV Analytics.Semiconductor companies that have been active in corporate venturing include Intel, Samsung, Nvidia, ARM, AMD, SK Hynix, Broadcom and Qualcomm. Pure-play semiconductor and chip companies tend to make few investments in their start-up counterparts because sector saturation of powerful incumbents leaves little opportunity for growth, James said. “While it is hard to find entrepreneurs wanting to be engaged in pure play S C, once they do, they can be very valuable and often be able to bring disruptive forces to the whole ecosystem,” James said.S C corporate investors focus on chip applicationsSemiconductor companies looking beyond pure-play S C start-ups for investment opportunities often target applications or developers that require the additional data, processing power, and memory their chips provide. “There is lots of interest by the big chip companies such as Intel, Qualcomm, and Samsung in developing some of those chip applications, getting them used more and creating a whole ecosystem,” James said.For example, Intel Capital, based on its data-centric theme, has focused on areas like autonomous vehicles, data centers and artificial intelligence (AI) because of the sheer amount of data and processing power they require. In another notable trend, non-traditional S C players such as Apple and Alibaba are leveraging investments in start-ups to develop their own chips for competitive advantage, James said.March deal flow down 20% With COVID-19 slowing the global economy, James expects semiconductor and chip companies to scale back direct investments this year due to rising pressure on their balance sheets. Deal flow in March was down roughly 20% from February.James is hopeful corporates will focus on investing in innovation over the long term rather than target share buybacks to boost near-term earnings. James pointed out that investors can uncover opportunities by identifying future problems to be solved in areas such as quantum computing, biotech, energy, healthcare, communications and ICT. Still, in the near term, where there is a crisis, there is opportunity. While the pandemic hit some sectors hard, it benefits start-ups in industries including gaming, education and telemedicine. This time is different?James said corporates need to rethink the investment model they want to follow. One option is the approach taken by General Electric, which divested its investment team and sold all its portfolio companies last year. Another is to focus on the long term. For example, Intel Capital has been dedicated to investments in innovation for nearly 30 years and continues to invest during downturns.Compared with the internet bubble and global financial crisis, today there are more experienced and mature CVCs that better know how to negotiate a crisis. James also pointed out investors are interested in backing CVCs with sector investing experience. There are now more than 600 CVCs with a 10-year-plus track record.James expects a variety of funding models to emerge over the next decade as pressure on corporate balance sheets encourages corporate investors to consider models that allow third-party capital to effectively leverage their CVC units. Corporate investors are also open to other ways to efficiently deliver financial returns.For more information about the SEMI Taiwan Corporate Growth and Innovation Community, please contact Irene Lin at [email protected]. For GCV’s latest news and event, visit its website.Jo-Ann Su is senior director of the Corporate Growth and Innovation Community at SEMI Taiwan.