microelectronics industry

Considering the history of computing and the low expectations for women that were once widespread in academia and the workplace, little wonder that women continue to face significant hurdles in the microelectronics industry. Today, women make up less than 25% of the computing workforce.

As we round the corner on 2021, the microelectronics industry continues to face a severe talent crisis. With more than 34,000 jobs remaining unfilled at SEMI member companies in the United States alone, everyone is competing for the same talent pool. While the semiconductor shortage has received extensive media coverage, a critical talent shortage deserves equal attention. One way to address the talent shortage is to hold the line. Meaning, in addition to recruiting more diverse talent into the chip industry, we must retain the quality workforce we have. I believe that a key component of a diversity, equity and inclusion program must be retention. At Edwards, we feel so strongly about this that we have made retention a key part of our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion program – even changing the acronym to DEIR (pronounced DEER; diversity, equity, inclusion and retention) for emphasis. There are three overarching approaches we can take to promoting diversity-focused retention:Investment in on-boarding practices that allow time to hire appropriately and ensure a diverse pool of qualified candidatesEmbedded programming and policies that are learning and development (L D) based including career planning, succession planning, unconscious bias training, employee resource groups (ERG) and mentoringCorporate culture that respects employees through a healthy work life balance and promotes the well-being of society and the planetThis is a very important conversation. I asked Lubab Sheet-Davis, vice president of Strategy Innovation in the Office of the CTO at Lam Research, and Emerald Greig, executive vice president Americas at SurplusGLOBAL USA, to share their considerable experience and insight related to retention and DEI. Following is an excerpt from our conversation, which has been edited for clarity and brevity.Balaguer: In the context of DEI, why is employee retention so important?Sheet-Davis: In my view, there is a strong correlation between inclusion and retention. If people feel that their voices and perspectives are valued, they are more likely not only to stay, but also to perform at a higher level. Driving both inclusion and retention is having a seat at the table, having your voice heard, respectful treatment and fair opportunity. Retention is a core component of our inclusion and diversity strategy, which involves increasing representation by building a pipeline of diverse candidates, recruiting and retaining, fostering an inclusive culture (which supports retention) and open communication to share our progress.Balaguer: What role does data play in the drive to increase retention?Greig: Ours is a data-driven industry and I am surprised that we have not let the statistics drive us into action sooner. Clearly, diversity, equity, inclusion and retention all affect the bottom line. Millennials and Gen Zs already leave faster than any other generational group. The turnover rate in the tech industry averages around 13% with stays around 2-3 years.The cost to hire, train and integrate someone into a company is far more expensive than having a DEIR program in place to keep them. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) reported that, on average, it costs a company 6 to 9 months of an employee's salary to replace them (which includes the costs of hiring, onboarding and training, L D and time to fill the role). For an employee making $60,000 per year, that comes out to $30,000 to $45,000 in recruiting and training costs.Sheet-Davis: Yes, which gives us all the more reason to move quickly! Given how central DEIR is to innovation, and that the challenges and opportunities facing our industry are bigger now than ever before, I believe we should be addressing DEIR with the same vigor that we address Moore’s Law.I worry if we keep saying DEIR will take time, it will take time. Granted many DEIR issues are cultural and culture is hard to change. However, this industry has demonstrated the capability to drive breakthroughs and to do so quickly. Let’s focus on DEIR with urgency while also ensuring the progress is sustainable.Balaguer: There is no doubt we need to move with a sense of urgency. I think a good way to keep the pedal to the metal is to create a DEIR roadmap that tracks our progress on multiple programs and helps us be accountable and stay focused. Meaningful retention strategies begin with solid diversity-focused hiring strategies.Balaguer: How does corporate culture inform retention?Greig: Let’s not forget: Employees, especially millennials, are looking for a corporate culture that demonstrates social responsibility as well as leadership and career development. In a recent study, 65% of employees said positive corporate culture has encouraged them to stay with their company. In fact, companies with strong cultures have seen a four-fold increase in revenue growth.We have raised a generation that strongly believes in being accepting of others and embraces equity and inclusion in their daily lives. They expect their employer to have this as part of their DNA. They believe in science, climate change, recycling, conservation, and similar sustainability issues and they want to know that they are making or doing something that makes the world a better place. If tech companies cannot convince millennials and Gen Z's that the companies are socially responsible and are doing all they can to embrace DEIR as part of their company culture, then the millennials will go elsewhere. Balaguer: How can employee resource groups be a building block for retention?Sheet-Davis: We support employee resource groups that are voluntary, employee-led and coalesce around demographic factors such as gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation or generation. Each has an executive sponsor, budget, plans and leadership structure. ERGs support inclusion by creating a sense of belonging, building comradery, and providing a safe space to raise awareness and help educate the rest of the company through a number of activities such as community service, holiday celebrations, guest speakers, networking, training courses and more. I serve as the executive sponsor of our Women@Fremont group, which is focused on accelerating the advancement of women in their early to mid-career at Lam’s headquarters. I know ERG members genuinely value the company’s support.Balaguer: What can we do during the hiring process to lay a strong foundation for employee retention?Greig: I believe that the work we do at the front end in terms of hiring practices are one of the main reasons we have a low turnover rate at SurplusGLOBAL. We have a policy to have three interviews for each candidate. Not three different people, but bring them in three times. Additionally, we have a 90-day trial and review period to make sure there is a good fit for both parties. Investing time up front ensures the right hire and the small size of our company allows us to know our employees. We can be nimble and quickly respond to employee needs as they arise.Balaguer: In what ways do you think mentoring can help improve retention?Sheet-Davis: Another aspect of building a more inclusive culture, and hence promoting retention, is through mentoring programs. Mentorship supports an employee’s development, growth and career planning. It’s a great way to get to know people, understand their ambitions and support their development. Hopefully, it results in sponsorship because that is what helps drive career advancement. Ultimately, I want to advocate for those that I mentor.Balaguer: At Edwards, we are refreshing mentoring as part of our DEIR program. I see mentoring as a program that can support employee retention in multiple ways including career planning, professional development, succession planning and promoting inclusivity. Encouraging and empowering personal development is key in growing a productive workforce and mentoring does all these things. Often overlooked is the fact that mentoring is a benefit to both the mentor and the mentee. I have personally mentored several young professionals at Edwards, and I can attest that I have learned as much from them as they have from me. Mentoring is definitely a two-way street.Balaguer: What’s your message to our readers about retention as an element of diversity, equity and inclusion?Greig: I am excited to see DEIR and especially, retention, gaining traction. The semiconductor industry has always tended to have a cyclical rhythm to it. A generation of potential employees have grown up witnessing the fallout from periodic down cycles and the inevitable reductions in workforce. I think there is an element of rebranding we need to do in this area to support our retention efforts. Sheet-Davis: If we only focus on recruiting and not retention, we tread water. Consistent with any other successful business strategy, a holistic integrated approach to DEIR that is prioritized, resourced and sustained over time is key. Balaguer: We all agree that retention is a key component in the war for talent. While this conversation has been more wide-ranging than we can share with our readers, the prime takeaways have focused on these elements: Follow the data. Execute with a sense of urgency. Hire right. Work hard on inclusionary programming such as ERGs, mentoring and sponsorship. Build a genuine corporate social responsibility program. Retention will result.Many thanks to Lubab Sheet-Davis and Emerald Greig. As always, comments, questions and suggestions are welcome. We can be reached at [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected]. I invite our readers to join the conversation, as well as review the recently released SEMI Foundation DEI Roadmap and Toolkit.Scott Balaguer is Vice President and General Manager, Semiconductor Division at Edwards Vacuum LLC and Chairman of the SEMI North America Advisory Board.

What does it mean to identify as LGBTQIA+ in the semiconductor industry? It’s an interesting question to ask, but a difficult one to answer. Because we live in a world in which cisgender heteronormity is assumed, it’s possible to self-identify as LGBTQIA+ without sharing that information publicly. Coworkers and managers might not even realize that their colleague or employee is gay, lesbian, transgender, non-binary or other. Unlike other minorities, notably people of color, LGBTQIA+ people may choose to keep their identities invisible.As I began outreach for this article, I recognized that some people might not want to expose a potential vulnerability to both their co-workers and a broader global audience of SEMI members, so I tried to make them feel more comfortable. I told them I’m a lesbian. I said that I’d send content for their review before publishing. But I quickly discovered that wasn’t enough, despite sweeping cultural and legal advances around LGBTQIA+ attitudes and identity. According to a 2020 Gallup Poll, 5.6% of U.S. adults now identify as LGBTQIA+, up from 4.5% just three years ago. In 2004, Massachusetts became the first U.S. state to legalize same-sex marriage, and in 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court made same-sex marriage legal in all 50 states. The semiconductor industry has been historically conservative. The times, however, are changing. Large chip companies such as AMD, Intel and Lam Research actively support diversity and inclusion efforts across minority groups, including LGBTQIA+, and that’s a good thing, but is it enough? And if not, what actions can SEMI members take to help LGBTQIA+ people in semiconductors feel safe enough to choose visibility?According to Antoinette Hamilton, global head of Inclusion and Diversity at Lam Research, more than 46% of LGBTQIA+ employees in the industry aren’t out in the workplace. That tells us there’s still work to be done, a challenge that Lam is embracing. With its Pride employee resource group (ERG) leading the way, partnerships with organizations such as PFLAG and Out Equal, and recruitment efforts made through organizations such as Out in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (oSTEM), Lam has earned a score of 100 on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index and was named one of the Best Places to Work for LGBTQ Equality.“At Lam, we understand the importance of empowering employees to bring their authentic self to work,” says Hamilton. “We believe when employees feel valued and included, each person can reach their full potential.”Back in 1992 when Intel paid to relocate Judi Goldstein, her partner and their son from New Jersey to Oregon, mainstream cultural attitudes toward gays and lesbians were very different. According to a June 1992 Gallup poll, only 48% of Americans thought that “gay or lesbian relations between consenting adults should be legal,” with 44% saying they should be illegal. A May 2020 Gallup poll recorded a dramatic shift in attitudes, with 72% affirming the legality of same-sex relations and only 24% opposed.By the late 1990s, Intel had extended domestic partner benefits to same-sex couples. “I registered my partner – now my wife – and our son, and realized that from then on, my whole family would have health insurance through Intel,” says Goldstein, who identifies as a gay woman and uses she/her pronouns. “Both relocating my family and providing family health coverage solidified my attachment to Intel, which was way ahead of other companies at the time.”By 1995, Goldstein became one of the first members of IGLOBE, Intel’s ERG for LGBTQ+ employees. Since that time, she’s observed further progress at Intel, first with the addition of gender identity and expression to Intel’s anti-harassment policy, and later with the inclusion of gender-neutral bathrooms at all major US sites. And advancement didn’t stop there.“We now have international IGLOBE chapters, a celebration of Pride Month in June, company support for the Equality Act and other legislation, a provision for transgender health benefits, and the launch of Self-ID efforts in 2017,” she says.From her start as software engineer more than 32 years ago to her current positions as director of the Open Source Audio and Security Engineering teams, Goldstein has played an instrumental role pioneering new technologies and mentoring other engineers at Intel – in addition to serving as a role model for LGBTQIA+ employees coming through the ranks. Now a grandmother with a five-year-old granddaughter, Goldstein lives in Oregon with her wife of more than 30 and two dogs. Location, Location, LocationAs social animals, we tend to value safe and welcoming places to live. When you’re LGBTQIA+, this may mean moving to an urban area that is more likely to embrace diverse orientations and cultures.After getting his master’s in astrophysics, Chuck Chung had a decision to make. Remain in the same field, which would limit his options on where to live, or get a doctorate in engineering, which would expand them.“In the ‘90s when I was making this choice, things were very different, and I knew that where I worked and lived would have a huge impact on how open I could be,” said Chung. “While I would have loved a career in astrophysics, I realized that engineering would be a more practical choice because I was more likely to find work in a city.”Both personally and professionally, engineering has proved a good choice for Chung. He’s lived in San Francisco and Silicon Valley for the past 18 years, where being out in the workplace is rarely an issue. “I compartmentalize my personal and professional lives when necessary, such as when business colleagues who are overseas talk about their families in casual conversation. Most of the time, though, my identity as a gay man is a non-issue, and I work for a company that really cares.”From his pioneering work in MEMS and genetic sequencing to his current focus on the next generation of microarchitectures at IBM, Chung has long thrived. Now, with a new book on MEMS Product Development – co-authored with two other Ph.D.’s, Alissa Fitzgerald and Carolyn White of A.M. Fitzgerald Associates – the best days of Chung’s career may still be ahead of him. He lives in the Bay area with his husband and their two children.Kunal Garg’s identity didn’t influence his career choices because when he started in semiconductors, he wasn’t out to himself or others. A few years into his engineering career at his former company, Garg realized his identity as a gay man at a time when the national discussion about same-sex marriage was at its apex – leading to some uncomfortable situations at work. “As some of my colleagues and managers openly debated same-sex marriage, they seemed oblivious to the fact that there were LGBTQIA+ people at work,” says Garg. “I knew then that I wanted to steer such conversations in a way that would feel safe and inviting for people like me, who work in this industry while being true to their identities.”Once he’d come out to his family and friends, particularly after he married his husband, Garg wasn’t willing to stay silent at work. “Although it took courage and internal struggle to come out to colleagues, my identity as a gay man wasn’t something I wanted to hide or deny anymore,” he says. “Some people laughed when I mentioned my ‘husband.’ The idea that their colleague, an engineer, an Indian immigrant, a man, could be gay and married to another guy was so foreign, it was almost laughable. Luckily, this didn’t stop me from being myself at work, and over time, these types of conversations became very rare.”Nonetheless, Garg looked around for ways to be part of the LGBTQIA+ engineering community. When he moved to AMD in Austin, he wanted to start with a clean slate. “When my manager called to invite me to join his team at AMD, I casually brought up the fact that my husband was going to need to start looking for a new job in Austin. And, very casually, he asked me what my husband did for a living, and we went on to discuss how Austin would be a great city for us to live in,” says Garg. “The fact that this was such a normal conversation was a big factor in my decision to join AMD.”Soon after starting as a design engineer at AMD, Garg found that LGBTQIA+ engineering community for which he’d been searching. He joined AMD’s Pride ERG, a group that he now chairs. “Being a part of this ERG has been transformational for me on a personal level and has allowed me to connect with my fellow engineers and people in my industry, beyond our mutual love for science and technology.”Become a change agentWhile some chip companies actively promote inclusion and diversity of LGBTQIA+ employees, others still have a long way to go. SEMI and the SEMI Foundation are uniquely positioned to help advance LGBTQIA+ equity issues in the microelectronics industry. "The SEMI Foundation is committed to promoting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in our industry for the benefit of our workers and our member companies,” says Shari Liss, executive director of the SEMI Foundation. “We are designing programs for human resources departments, company leaders, and DEI allies to make the case for stronger DEI practices that will attract, retain, and promote LGBTQIA+ individuals and other underrepresented groups in our industry. We will soon publish SEMI's Roadmap to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and DEI Toolkit, which will contain tools to help companies strengthen their workplace cultures so everyone – including those that identify as LGBTQIA+ – will feel welcome, and will be able to do their best work."“If we want to truly see the semiconductor industry flourish on a global level, we need to push for equitable treatment of LGBTQIA+ and other minority employees,” says Garg. “SEMI can help by educating industry leaders, especially in countries outside North America and Europe, on how diversity and inclusion through policy are vital to their sustained productivity. These workshops and trainings should be data-driven to encourage companies to hire more LGBTQIA+ employees and to create policies that promote the well-being of all employees.”It’s not just at the company level or the industry association level that matters. Just as individuals are necessary change agents in proliferating greater equity among women and people of color, they’re also needed as allies of LGBTQIA+ people.“Like so many of us, I’d love to wave a magic wand to end discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation, but like any cultural shift, most change comes in small steps, not in giant leaps,” said Karen Lightman, executive director, Metro21: Smart Cities Institute – Carnegie Mellon University. “Fortunately, it’s easy to help make those small steps by becoming an ally to LGBTQIA+-identified people. When you see an injustice, don’t stay silent. Use your voice. There’s transformative power in that act alone. As one step, I’ve started using my pronouns when I introduce myself and now include them in my digital signature. It’s an easy way for me to express that I am an ally to LGBTQIA+-identified people.”Help us make the change. Use your voice. Get involved. Encourage your company to advocate for LGBTQIA+ inclusion and diversity.Maria Vetrano, principal of Vetrano Communications, is a PR consultant at SEMI Foundation.

As the global economy is constantly transformed, the need for new skills has never been higher. The microelectronics industry is thoroughly affected by this urgent need. To develop a workforce fit for the future, it is crucial to invest not only in reskilling and upskilling, but also in skills anticipation and inclusivity. To tackle this need, the European microelectronics ecosystem has adopted many bottom-up initiatives and good practices supporting lifelong learning. Many companies collaborate with universities and training institutes to offer work-based training, and numerous events take place to support women participation in STEM and to attract more young talent to a microelectronics career. Despite these great efforts, further pooling of investments is necessary if Europe is to develop efficient lifelong learning programs. Creating strong skills partnerships is vital for sustainable upskilling and reskilling initiatives. According to the World Economic Forum (2021), greater private-public collaboration on large-scale upskilling and reskilling initiatives could boost global GDP by $6.5 trillion and lead to the creation of 5.3 million net new jobs by 2030. What is the Skills Partnership? Against this backdrop, SEMI Europe is launching the Skills Partnership for Microelectronics. The partnership brings together industrial and education partners from the microelectronics ecosystem to implement the Pact for Skills, an EU initiative which aims to boost upskilling and reskilling investments in key ecosystems for Europe’s competitiveness. Following the high-level roundtable with SEMI Europe’s Advisory Board, hosted by European Commissioners Thierry Breton and Nicolas Schmit, the microelectronics sector was selected in November 2020 as one of the key ecosystems for the first wave of implementation of the Pact, alongside automotive and aerospace/defense. Read more details about the October 2020 roundtable. 59 partners have already endorsed the Pact for Skills for Microelectronics. The Skills Partnership for Microelectronics aims to: Exchange good practices of upskilling and reskilling initiatives of the microelectronics industry Develop sustainable collaboration mechanisms that will monitor microelectronics skill needs, learning from the examples of the METIS blueprint project Promote the microelectronics sector as a career choice Boost the presence of women and other under-represented groups in the sector. The partners will have the opportunity to liaise not only with European, but also with national and regional authorities and clusters, so that a pan-European holistic approach to microelectronics skills development is achieved, and a significant flux of public and private investments on skills is mobilized. To launch this ambitious partnership, SEMI Europe held an initial workshop on March 17. Participants included representatives from the European Commission’s DG Connect, DG Employment and DG Grow, national and regional authorities, and over 70 industry and education partners. The workshop opened with representatives from the European Commission informing all stakeholders about the Pact for Skills initiative, as well as about EU skills-related funding opportunities. In the framework of the Pact for Skills, the Commission will support the ecosystems with a Networking Hub, a Knowledge Hub and a Guidance Resources Hub. These platforms will be available later in 2021 and will act as a one-stop-shop to support the partners and provide information on EU policies and funding opportunities. Other presentations went on to set the scene, presenting the main priorities of the partnership. Françoise Chombar, CEO of Melexis, highlighted the skills challenge experienced by the microelectronics industry. She emphasized the importance of lifelong learning and the danger of the gender disbalance in the sector and underlined the huge innovation potential and profitability that could be unleashed for Europe if the gender gap is successfully addressed. Moreover, the preliminary results of the METIS Microelectronics Skills Strategy were presented, to offer the basis for the partnership’s approach to skills anticipation. The partnership will establish working groups that will investigate the industry needs, leading to a better connection with the offer of education and training programs. Last but not least, the partnership aims to promote national and regional funding of upskilling and reskilling initiatives. In this regard, representatives from national and regional authorities and clusters participated in the meeting. The government of the Basque region had an active role, presenting the region’s priorities, incentives and main actions on promotion of lifelong learning initiatives. The next steps The meeting concluded with an overview of the next steps for the newly launched partnership. In the next workshop, the partners will align on the specific KPIs, as well as on the focus areas where they would like to engage (skills anticipation in semiconductor manufacturing, skills anticipation in semiconductor design, gender balance, etc.). In that framework, the executive board will be established, as well as the working groups that will lead the work of the partnership and set targeted objectives. If you want to take active part in the creation of this large-scale initiative, please fill in your details here. To learn more about the initiative, click here or contact [email protected]. Stefania Gavra is public affairs manager at SEMI Europe.

At the SEMI Foundation, we’re taking steps to support a big, audacious goal – achieving gender parity in the microelectronics industry. Dating to its roots at Bell Labs, Fairchild Semiconductor, and Intel in the late 1950s and 1960s, the semiconductor industry was pioneered by men at a time when far fewer women were in the workforce. While women have made major workforce gains since those early days, we’re still far from achieving anything close to an equitable representation of women. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor, only 11.8% of electrical and electronics engineers – and just 8.7% of mechanical engineers – are women. What’s more, research from the American Association of University Women (AAUW), a non-profit that champions equity for women and girls through advocacy, education, and research, tells us that women drop out of engineering careers more steadily and quickly than men. According to AAUW research, just 30% of women working in engineering are still in the field after 20 years compared to 35% of men. By the time women have been in the field for 30-34 years, that number falls to 19% – while it increases to 39% of men among the same cohort. The small number of women in engineering careers and the fewer still who stay in engineering long term illustrate the troubling gender disparities in the industry. Even with these low numbers, however, there are still women who have managed to not just stay in the industry, but to thrive and lead within it. I talked with four of these women about their professional journeys and how they believe women can be best supported in careers in our industry. The AAUW research report Solving the Equation: The Variables for Women’s Success in Engineering and Computing shows that attrition in engineering is higher among women than men. Passion for math and scienceLam Research VP Gowri Kamarthy took her Ph.D. in chemical engineering from UC Berkeley directly to Lam Research, where she’s spent the past 22 years in technical positions. Today she heads the company’s conductor etch product line.Coming from a family of engineers, including her father and siblings, Dr. Kamarthy had a built-in support system that was essential to her success. She never felt intimidated by male peers after spending her formative years pursuing her passion for math and science.“I may have stood out as a minority in the field of engineering, but there was also a silver lining in standing out,” she said. “People notice you.”Kamarthy realizes that engineering careers are generally perceived as being less compatible with family life, for both women and men.“Anyone who wants work-life balance in an engineering career will have to navigate its special challenges, including the need to work long hours to match the rapid pace of innovation,” Kamarthy said.Drawing from her own experience, Kamarthy offers some career advice. “Perseverance and grit are key to success,” she said. “The other ingredient is luck. I was fortunate to have great bosses at Lam who didn’t see gender first and foremost. Instead, they recognized my ability to deliver on projects and encouraged me to perform at my best.” A love for math and science. The confidence to excel in those subjects. A support system to help her through the bumpy times. These were also truths for Sandy Vos, Ph.D., director of R D at NXP Semiconductors.“I was always good at figuring things out,” says Dr. Vos. “I remember feeling enthralled when I got my first internship because it combined engineering, math, science and manufacturing.” Like Kamarthy, Vos was aware of her status as a woman in a male-dominated field, but it didn’t stop her.“If anything, my gender drove me to prove myself,” Vos said. “And I’ve been fortunate because everywhere I’ve worked, I’ve been a part of a smart and collaborative team.”That doesn’t mean gender never came into play. Whenever it did become an issue, Vos didn’t shy away from hard conversations. She recalls having a conflict on the plant floor with two men who each stood over six feet and were about 100 pounds heavier.“I had a conversation with them, and we figured it out,” she said. “But for a while there, my heart was racing.”Gender felt like a bigger issue when Vos was younger. “Now that I have gray hair, it’s not much of a concern,” Vos said. “But earlier in my career, I started putting Ph.D. on my business card so people would know I could talk technical details.”Though just one of three women in an undergraduate class of 35 engineering students – and with a teaching cohort of all-male professors – Debbie Gustafson anticipated equitable treatment in her college engineering program. She had the same outlook when she began her career in semiconductor manufacturing. But the belief that she’d receive the same treatment as her male peers went largely unfulfilled. This didn’t slow her down. During her first year as CEO of Energetiq, she grew the company’s revenues and valuation. A year later, she steered the company through a successful acquisition by Hamamatsu Photonics. Today Gustafson continues to lead Energetiq as a wholly owned subsidiary, but the road to the top job wasn’t without hurdles. Gustafson muscled through the tough times.“When I started out, I traveled to Japan and Korea when there weren’t other women in technical roles,” she said. “My first meetings were extremely frustrating. I was the only woman in the room, and the men wouldn’t address me. This went on for a year, but I kept coming back and built the relationships.”Now a member of the SEMI Foundation Board of Trustees, Gustafson credits mentors with helping her navigate the nuances of doing business across cultures during those early years.A rocket scientist among usAlissa Fitzgerald might tell you that MEMS isn’t rocket science. But that’s only because she has a Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics, which actually is rocket science. Dr. Fitzgerald worked at a government laboratory and a large defense contractor before she got her Ph.D. and moved to a MEMS industry startup. Though gaining valuable experience, she found the environments too hierarchical and lacking in career development opportunities for young female engineers. As one of the few women engineers at these heavy-duty engineering firms where, in the 1990’s, there were no women in leadership roles, Dr. Fitzgerald sensed that opportunities for her to advance were remote. Fitzgerald started her own firm rather than climb up the ladder of another company, but it turns out, her motivation had nothing to do with gender.“It was the way engineers were treated like Dilbert,” she said. “I felt like a cog in the wheel, working for corporations that weren’t nurturing or appreciative of engineers.”After years of working for other companies, Fitzgerald founded the eponymous AMFitzgerald Associates, a developer of innovative MEMS and sensor solutions for specialty applications. When gender did come up for Fitzgerald, it manifested in men questioning her technical abilities.“Early in my career, I felt like I had to prove myself worthy, even though my degrees were from MIT and Stanford,” she said.Over 3,000 respondents to the Workplace Experiences Survey, sponsored by the Society of Women Engineers and the Center for WorkLife Law at UC Hastings Law, validate Fitzgerald’s experience. 61% of women vs. 35.1% of white men surveyed cited Prove-It-Again Bias – “having to prove themselves repeatedly to get the same levels of respect and recognition as their colleagues.” For engineers of color, that disparity was even worse. 68% of engineers of color (both women and men) reported Prove-It-Again Bias vs. 35% of white men.“For women and people of color, there’s rarely an assumption of competence,” Fitzgerald said.It’s sad but true that we can’t decouple the challenges women face from the challenges people of color face. Both are dramatically underrepresented as chip companies, and women of color represent the smallest percentage of the industry’s workforce and leadership.Inclusivity mattersWorking toward gender equity isn’t just a case of doing what’s right. It’s a case of doing what’s profitable. Research shows that companies with more women on the board perform better.“Given the pace of innovation in semiconductors, we need people from different backgrounds and perspectives to solve the hard problems challenging our industry,” Kamarthy said.Vos appreciates the fact that SEMI is creating a forum of inclusion.“Inclusion starts when you’re young,” she said. “School-aged kids are already making decisions about a future they see as exciting and possible. Our job is to make sure they have the opportunities to pursue what they envision.”Change won’t come magically, though. Fitzgerald believes companies need to make a concerted effort to attract a diverse population.“While I see a disproportionate number of female applicants, I’m more the exception than the rule,” she said. “When male executives call and ask, ‘How are you finding all these amazing female engineers?’ I say, ‘they’re finding me.’”Elevate the storyAchieving gender parity in microelectronics is a daunting task. Fortunately, access to SEMI’s global membership puts us in a unique position to make this deeply complex story clear and relevant to our members, so we can help support the shift.We’re looking at both the stark numbers of women working in microelectronics and at the lack of longevity of women in engineering. We’re elevating the conversation about childhood education. Why are girls passed over in math and science classes in early grade school, and what is the effect of teachers’ lowered expectations for girls taking these classes? What does it mean to be the only in the room? The only woman, or the only woman of color, on a team or in a meeting room. Feelings of isolation or disengagement – or frustration with Prove-It-Again bias – often lead to turnover in an industry that already struggles with retention.Reverse the trendThere’s much SEMI members can do to work toward gender parity in our industry. Look at recruitment, hiring, retention and promotion processes to see how women fare in them. Consider how to create a company culture of self-awareness and inclusion. Ensure equitable pay. Suggest and request women speakers for keynotes and panels at conferences. And offer workplace flexibility to allow women – who often bear most family responsibilities – to take time off or reconfigure schedules so they can help care for children or ailing parents.It’s time for our industry to reverse the trend of gender inequality. Research shows that companies with greater gender and racial parity are more productive, innovative, and profitable. If we welcome and support women in our companies, we will help women – and our industry – reach their full potential.Get involved with SEMIRegister for the Women in Semiconductors (May 3, 2021). This virtual event will include interactive exploration and discussion on strengthening the roles of women in hybrid and remote work environments. Everyone managing teams or experiencing the gender parity challenges and opportunities will benefit from the fresh thinking and best practices that the Women in Semiconductor program is known for.Participate in the SEMI Mentoring Program. By matching mentees with industry leaders and professionals, SEMI Foundation facilitates one-on-one mentoring relationships that benefit all participants. Whether you are a recent university graduate or growing in your microelectronics career and looking for support, participating in the SEMI Mentoring Program will put you on the right track.Participate in the McKinsey Company 2021 Women in the Workplace Study, which looks at representation and the experience of women in companies across the U.S. and offers recommendations on how to retain and support women. Email [email protected]. Shari Liss is executive director of SEMI Foundation. Connect with her on LinkedIn.

MEMS actuators transform electronic signals into something that can be sensed or touched by the end user of an electronics device. A case in point: MEMS actuators such as print heads in inkjet printers transform electronic files into text or beautiful images. In 3D printers, actuators can produce real objects. Inside smart glasses, tiny MEMS mirrors can create virtual objects. Little surprise, then, that integrating these powerful devices into the end products is a multidisciplinary enterprise. STMicroelectronics has been successfully leading the deployment of dedicated MEMS actuator solutions with customer products in various market segments. SEMI spoke with Anton Hofmeister, group vice president and general manager of the MEMS Actuator Division at STMicroelectronics, about MEMS actuator trends. Hofmeister shared his views at the SEMI MEMS Imaging Sensors Forum as part of the virtual SEMI Technology Unites Global Summit. Watch the STMicroelectronics’ presentation on-demand until March 26, 2021. Registration is open. SEMI: What is the difference between MEMS devices that sense and MEMS devices that actuate? Hofmeister: MEMS sensors gather data from the world around us including motion, pressure and air temperature and transform them into an electrical signal. Actuators work the other way round. They receive an electrical signal and transform it into some well-controlled actuation such as ejecting a fluid, moving a membrane or deflecting a laser beam. SEMI: How can MEMS actuators’ integration be simplified to be embedded in new applications so they appeal to consumers? Hofmeister: The challenge of integrating MEMS sensors into devices has been simplified by demo kits and evaluation boards, which customers use to embed the sensor into a system. MEMS actuators are more difficult to integrate. They often power the core function of a system and therefore require deep system understanding. Reference designs are a big step forward in simplifying integration. My presentation at the SEMI MEMS Imaging Sensors Forum showcased some examples. MEMS micro-mirror projection for augmented reality (AR) glasses is an example of a complex system that requires multiple types of components to function. Together with several partners, STMicroelectronics recently announced the LaSAR Alliance, which will develop reference designs to enable the AR glasses market. SEMI: MEMS sensors and actuators are considered the backbone of many consumer products. Are MEMS actuators also mostly used in automotive? Hofmeister: The widest use of MEMS actuators has so far been in print heads for inkjet printers. In recent years, we have seen actuators adopted in emerging applications ranging from piezo heads for 3D printers to MEMS mirrors for laser beam scanning systems or 3D sensing solutions for consumer applications. The first high-volume application in automotive will likely be MEMS mirrors for LIDAR systems. SEMI: What market growth trends do you see for MEMS sensors and actuators? Hofmeister: The sensorization trend, which aims to collect data from homes, cities, factories, cars and personal devices, continues to drive the adoption of sensors and actuators for a wide variety of applications. While the last wave of MEMS growth was triggered by one end product – the smartphone – the next wave will be driven by multiple applications and use cases in industrial, medical, automotive and personal electronics. SEMI: How can technology unite us? Hofmeister: In recent months, we have all experienced vividly how vital technology has become. MEMS, and semiconductors in general, are an integral part of many products and services that make our lives easier. Communications technologies have been particularly important during this pandemic, whether using the personal devices as our interface to the digital world or the complex infrastructure that they operate through. I hope that my participation at the summit helped increase awareness of the new possibilities and opportunities that technologies like MEMS actuators have to offer to create products and services that further improve people’s lives. Anton Hofmeister is group vice president at STMicroelectronics, general manager of the company’s MEMS Actuator Division and managing director of its German subsidiaries. Hofmeister has been with STMicroelectronics for more than 30 years, working in Germany, France, the U.S. and Italy. He has held managerial positions in key account management, product and strategic marketing, advanced R D and general management. For the past 10 years, he has managed various product divisions in the MEMS sector. Hofmeister has also served as a board member of the Singapore-based molecular diagnostics company Veredus Laboratories. Serena Brischetto is senior manager of Marketing and Digital Engagement at SEMI Europe.

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.

If you look at your clothes or shoes, there is a growing chance you will see the words Made in Vietnam printed on the tag. Since the United States lifted its trade embargo against Vietnam in 1994, the country has become the second largest exporter of apparel and shoes to the U.S. What may be less evident is the source of that new electronic gadget you received for Christmas, with its numerous parts, chips, and intricate supply chain. While light manufacturing has dominated Vietnam’s economic growth since the Đổi Mới economic reforms implemented in the 1980s, over the last decade the country has been repositioning itself to become a dominant player in the global microelectronics industry, a trend that has gained momentum in the wake of the U.S.-China trade war. In 2019, Vietnam ranked as the fourth largest exporter of electrical goods and components to the U.S. With exports doubling over the last four years and now exceeding $19 billion, surpassing Taiwan, Japan, and Korea (based on goods exported under chapter 85 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule). Vietnam’s global electronics industry now accounts for about 40% of its exports, and the country seems to be just getting started. Early Entrants Though Vietnam owes its growing success in attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) in the semiconductor and microelectronics industries to the advent of China plus one – the business strategy to diversify business investments geographically – it was the few early entrants that gambled on this emerging market a decade ago that put Vietnam on the global stage. Of these early players, no other firm comes close to having the impact that Samsung has. It’s initial $670 million mobile phone manufacturing plant in the northern province of Bac Ninh in 2008 grew to a country-wide investment of $17.3 billion within a decade. Samsung is now Vietnam’s largest FDI contributor and accounts for more than 25 percent of its exports. Because of Samsung, Vietnam has become the second largest exporter of smartphones in the world. Around the same time, Intel opened its $1 billion semiconductor assembly and testing facility in Ho Chi Minh City, putting Vietnam firmly on the global technology map. More investors, like LG, Panasonic and Foxconn soon followed. Within a few years of these initial investments the industry was taking notice, illustrated by SEMI’s role in co-organizing the Vietnam Semiconductor Strategy Summits in 2013 and 2014. With SEMI SEA’s increased efforts to promote Vietnam as an important ecosystem in the electronics supply chain, more will be done to positively influence the growth and prosperity of its member companies in Vietnam. These early investors found Vietnam attractive for several reasons. Key among these are the country’s low wage rates combined with its favorable demographic structure – what the UN refers to as the golden population structure, which provides “Vietnam with a unique socio-economic development opportunity.” Companies are also attracted to the growing number of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) that Vietnam belongs to, including the ASEAN Free Trade Area, CPTPP, the EU-Vietnam FTA, and, most recently, RCEP. Though the U.S. has yet to ink a trade agreement, the Singapore AmCham’s annual regional survey has consistently identified Vietnam as the most attractive country in ASEAN for a potential bilateral FTA partner with the U.S. Leveraging the Trade War If the plus one strategy was the catalyst that started this wave of electronics manufacturing in Vietnam, then the U.S.-China trade war was the enzyme that supercharged it. A common quip in Southeast Asia is that the U.S.-China trade war is over and Vietnam is the winner, and this is apparent in both trade and investment trends. According to the Asia Development Bank (ADB), the riff between the U.S. and China has caused a redirection in trade, as U.S. imports from the PRC fell by 12% in the first six months of 2019 while U.S. imports from Vietnam increased by 33%, with electronics and machinery accounting for the bulk of this jump. The ADB further reported that in a prolonged and intensified trade conflict, the worse-case scenario would result in Vietnam, Malaysia, and Thailand being the biggest winners, “in that order.” On the investment side, a March 2020 Gartner, Inc. survey of global supply chain leaders revealed that 33% had “moved sourcing and manufacturing activities out of China or plan to do so in the next two to three years.” While this survey did not mention specific winners, the ADB reported that “newly registered FDI in Vietnam from the PRC and Hong Kong rose by 200% year on year in the first seven months of 2019,” indicating the move of Chinese suppliers to Vietnam. Additionally, a review of recent press reports indicate firms like Apple, Nintendo and Dell are encouraging suppliers to move parts of their supply chains to Vietnam. These suppliers are complying, with Compal Electronics, GoerTek, HZO, Inventec, Luxshare Precision Industry, Pegatron, USI and Wistron all reportedly announcing plans for new investments in Vietnam. Manufacturing Hubs Within Vietnam, microelectronic facilities have concentrated in a few geographic hubs. In the south, the Saigon High Tech Park in Ho Chi Minh City attracted early entrants Intel and Samsung, with firms like Nidec and Jabil soon following. The largest investment capital, however, developed in the northern provinces that ring Hanoi. Bắc Ninh, an hour’s drive from Hanoi, was the site of Samsung’s first investment and has since attracted Foxconn and Canon. More recently, firms have been drawn to the port city of Hải Phòng, the country’s third largest city, which is already home to Samsung and LG. The city’s close proximity to other manufacturing clusters, its new deep-water port, and its expressway that provides a 12-hour trucking route to China’s electronics epicenter in Shenzhen are helping make the city Vietnam’s new high-tech production center. In 2019, LG Electronics moved its entire smartphone production line from South Korea to Hải Phòng, and in 2020 Pegatron reportedly chose the city for its $1 billion investment plan. Local phone manufacturer VinSmart is also producing the country’s first 5G smartphones in Hải Phòng. In November, USI, a subsidiary of Taiwan-based ASE Holding, broke ground on its first production base in Southeast Asia, a $200 million phase-one investment in the production and assembly of chips for wearable electronic devices. USI’s investment, which is moving into the internationally managed DEEP C Industrial Zones in Hải Phòng, is “intended to move us closer to our overseas customers and accommodate their ever-increasing demand,” according to Mr. Kuei Chun Chi, the firm’s Manufacturing Service Director. “North Vietnam, with its strategic geographical position and an extended infrastructure in place, offers USI an optimal way to facilitate fast and flexible response to customers' orders.” Though the Covid-19 pandemic has dampened the pace of new investments in Vietnam’s microelectronics industry, it has also amplified the country’s attractiveness to investors. Vietnam was successful in containing the outbreak through aggressive quarantine and contact tracing measures, and as a result its economy has the brightest outlook in the region. The ADB forecasts the country will be one of the fastest-growing economies in SEA in 2021, with GDP estimated at 6.8%. The Ministry of Industry and Trade is also reporting that several of the world's largest technology corporations plan to shift their production chains to Vietnam post-Covid-19, an indication that technology firms will accelerate relocation plans in 2021. Vietnam’s successful response to the pandemic, combined with its strategic location, low wage rates and foreign trade agreements, will ensure that the region continues to benefit from the shift in supply chains in Asia, making it the new destination for electronics manufacturing. About the Author Stuart Schaag is Principal at E-Ward Trade Consulting LLC, which assists firms that are expanding their presence in the global marketplace by creating strategies combining market analysis, business development, commercial diplomacy, and relationship building. He previously spent 25 years in various domestic and overseas positions in the U.S. Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration. Stuart served as the Commercial Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi from 2014-2018 and resided in Vietnam until 2020.

Nikki Zaahir joined SEMI last year as senior program administrator on the SEMI Works team after spending the last 15 years designing, coordinating and directing programs that help people develop job skills and find full-time employment. Her career includes roles at the Department of Defense, the National Security Agency, America Works and Vehicles for Change.I spoke with Nikki about her passion for workforce development as we celebrate Black History Month.Williams: What does Black History Month mean to you?Zaahir: Black History Month means to me an opportunity to highlight the overwhelming influence of the inventions that Black Americans contributed to this country. Of all the Black history shared this month, it’s the inventors that have always intrigued and excited me the most. I grew up in a home with parents that taught my siblings and me the history of our culture every day. However, each February I was allowed to research and share my own list of what we called “little known Black history facts.” A couple of my favorites from my childhood are Lonnie Johnson, who invented the Super Soaker water gun, and Alexander Miles, who developed automatic elevator doors in 1887. Frankly, Black History Month reminds me to be proud to be Black and to take a moment to pay homage to the excellence and fortitude of my people.Williams: Where are you from, and where did you go to school?Zaahir: I am from the suburbs of Maryland right outside of Washington, D.C. I grew up in a military family. My father was the first black 1st Sargent in his transportation company. His unit was responsible for transporting heavy artillery equipment around the world. I went to Meade Senior High School on the army base of Fort Meade.Williams: How did you get started in the semiconductor industry?Zaahir: While in the 11th grade, I was actively recruited by a semiconductor company that had recently won a National Security Agency government contract at Fort Meade to make semiconductors for the military.I excelled in English and Science and met the requirements for the work study, which allowed me to spend half of my day in school and the other half at a work study assignment. The company tested a couple of hundreds of students and I was one of the 34 chosen for the career development program. I worked as a technician responsible for the fabrication and processing of the semiconductor wafer. My favorite steps of this process were the spin on glass and gasses chambers in the fab. What lit a fire in me was the realization that there is a whole world of technology opportunities that people like me were unaware of.Nikki Zaahir, in her former role as National Director of Workforce Development and Training at Vehicles for Change, with interns training to be certified automotive technicians.Williams: Did you have any mentors or sponsors who were particularly meaningful as you developed your career?Zaahir: I’ve been very fortunate to be mentored and supported by many people on my professional journey. Peter Cove and Dr. Lee Bowes are a social activist couple who own America Works. They were instrumental in my understanding of workforce development by teaching me that self-sufficiency through gainful employment can change generational poverty. However, the most meaningful people to me are those whose lives I’ve had the absolute pleasure to help change. For example, at Vehicles for Change, I created a social enterprise designed to assist returning citizens (people formerly incarcerated) with training and job placement. In three years, we placed 200 men and women in the workforce with no one reoffending or returning to prison within three years. What made this group of individuals special is that I chose to focus on violent offenders that served 10 years or more in prison.Williams: What motivates you in your work?Zaahir: What drives me is helping people become aware of careers that could not only change their lives but the lives of their families, and waking up every day determined to be that conduit of information and job opportunities.Williams: What is wonderful and challenging about workforce development?Zaahir: Inspiring people to consider educations and careers that may have never been on their minds is the most rewarding aspect of workforce development. To see people who have felt left out of training and employment opportunities due to their backgrounds or lack of higher education take charge and pursue educations and careers that before were only a dream makes this work worth it. On the other side of that, convincing someone who has felt left behind or unworthy of a better life for themselves and their family can be challenging.Williams: Is there a particular story about someone you’ve worked with or helped that you’d like to tell?Zaahir: Eight-time Grammy award winning artist Lauryn Hill of the legendary hip hop group The Fugees once said “In my travels all over the world, I have come to realize that what distinguishes one child from another is not ability, but access. Access to education, access to opportunity, access to love.”I have been blessed beyond measure to work with and help so many people at this point in my career. What I’d like to share is while talent is abundant, access and opportunity are not. That is the story.Williams: What is something unusual about you that people might not know?Zaahir: I’ve studied at the Arthur Findlay College, the world’s foremost college for the Advancement of Spiritualism and Psychic Sciences. Oh! the ghost stories I could tell.Williams: What would you tell young people interested in working in the semiconductor industry?Zaahir: In this industry, you will develop transferable skills for almost any career in manufacturing or production and the ability to make a salary that will provide the opportunity to afford living in safe neighborhoods, reliable transportation and vacations! You can pursue a wide range of skills, training, education and other professional development opportunities in this industry – all while maintaining a healthy work-life balance.Michelle Williams is deputy director of the SEMI Foundation.

SEMI spoke with Tom Doyle, founder and CEO of Aspinity, about the challenges of packing more localized intelligence into portable Internet of Things (IoT) devices without draining their batteries. Doyle shared his views on Aspinity’s system-level approach – solve the power problems by performing machine learning in analog – ahead of his presentation at the SEMI MEMS Imaging Sensors Technology Showcase, 18 February, as part of the SEMI Technology Unites Global Summit, 15-19 February 2021, online event. Join us to meet experts from Aspinity and other key industry influencers. Registration is open. SEMI: Why is power efficiency so important for IoT devices? Doyle: Hundreds of millions of IoT devices are improving our lives at home and at work. Always on and always sensing the environment for data, these smart devices have traditionally been wall-powered and have relied on the cloud for their data processing needs, but clogged networks, as well as privacy and performance issues, have necessitated the migration to edge processing.Spanning consumer, medical and industrial, these IoT devices are becoming smaller and more portable. And a portion of them is operating remotely in hard-to-access locations. So now we are packing more functionality into the device and we are moving to battery power and the batteries need to last a long time. That is a big challenge before us, and to answer it, we need to find the most power-efficient ways to integrate always-on sensing capability into IoT devices because we cannot afford to have short battery life limit market adoption.SEMI: Why is it so challenging to deliver low-power, always-on solutions and how can sensors suppliers achieve improvements in system power? Doyle: In today’s always-on IoT devices, all sensor data – which are naturally analog – is immediately digitized at high resolution, and then it’s analyzed to determine whether a wake word has been spoken, a specific motion has been made, or some other anomaly has occurred. But since most of the data collected will not contain the information for which the device is waiting, this digitize-first approach wastes significant battery life by continuously running irrelevant data through the ADC and the digital processor.Sensors suppliers have some options to consider for reducing power. If they are satisfied achieving incremental improvements in battery life, both sensors and digital processor suppliers can continue to drive down the power of each individual component in the system. But to achieve revolutionary power savings, we must look at a more holistic system solution.The fundamental problem is that moving data through a system costs power. That is why the most efficient way to save power is to reduce the amount of data down to what’s actually important as early as possible, right at the start of the signal chain, where the physical world becomes data. If we can minimize the amount of data that require downstream processing, then we can maximize battery life.SEMI: Aspinity aims to solve the battery-life problem in IoT devices by introducing a new system architecture. Could you explain how your approach differs from digitize-first?Doyle: Aspinity’s solution, called the Reconfigurable Analog Modular Processor (RAMP), is an analog processing technology that combines analog machine learning (analogML™) and analog compression to enable accurate, ultra-low-power analog event detection and system wake-up. RAMP technology enables a new system architecture, which we call analyze-first, that allows an always-on system to spend just a little bit of analog power up front at the sensor to determine whether sensed data are relevant to the task at hand before waking the digital system for further processing. The analyze-first architecture can extend battery life by months or years over digitize-first architectures because it keeps the higher-power digital components asleep unless important data require digitization and analysis, which in some applications – such as voice-first or acoustic event detection – may occur very rarely. Aspinity RAMP voice activity detection with preroll from Aspinity on Vimeo. SEMI: Can you give us an example?Doyle: Here is a practical example of how this works: For most voice-enabled systems, such as smart speakers, voice-activated TV remotes and hearables, voice is only present 10%-20% of the time – but the digitize-first architecture on which these devices are traditionally based is digitizing 100% of the sound data captured by the microphone, even when most of that data are irrelevant and could not possibly contain a wake word.In contrast, the RAMP-based analyze-first architecture is highly efficient since it uses feature extraction and a neural network to analyze the sound at the microphone, right where it enters the device, to determine if the sound contains voice before waking the digital wake word engine. Additionally, the accuracy of most wake word engines relies not just on waking up and analyzing the wake word, but also on analyzing the 500ms of sound prior to the wake word (preroll). To support wake word engine performance, the RAMP also continuously compresses 500ms of preroll that can be stored in just 2k of memory and delivered to the wake word engine along with the voice data. So, this new analyze-first approach using RAMP technology can extend battery life by 10 times over older digitize-first designs, without sacrificing performance and accuracy.SEMI: What solutions can Aspinity bring to address the current market needs? Doyle: Aspinity offers the only analogML chip for always-on IoT devices that run on battery: the RAMP chip.The RAMP is trainable and programmable to detect many different types of sensor events directly from the raw analog sensor data. One application that benefits from a RAMP chip are devices that are always-listening for voice, for glass break or alarms, or for some other type of sound. Other examples include vibration sensors that monitor industrial equipment for predictive and preventative maintenance, and heartrate sensors that are used to detect anomalies in wearables and other biomedical applications.Aspinity just recently introduced our voice-first evaluation kit – which we will be demonstrating during the Technology Showcase at Technology Unites – to enable our customers to get first-hand experience with our RAMP-based analog voice wake-up solution. With this complete hardware and software kit, customers can experience all of the benefits of analogML and analog data compression – 10x power savings without a reduction in wake word detection accuracy –for their next generation of voice-enabled devices.SEMI: How can technology unite us? What do you expect from your participation at SEMI Technology Unites Global Summit?Doyle: I think this past year has shown us that when time gets tough – and for many of us, the COVID-19 pandemic has been one of the most difficult challenges we have faced – that innovation is critical to solving major problems. The microelectronics industry has played an important role in providing critical components for COVID-19 testing, ventilators, air-purification systems, and other equipment used in healthcare settings. COVID-19 has also accelerated the move to voice as a preferred interface to many devices in an effort to stem the spread of germs on surfaces.The biotech industry is gearing up to provide the vaccines that we hope will restore more normalcy to our daily lives. We can thank the successful collaborations between R D innovators and established companies in many different markets for the new devices and drugs now going into production.With traditional in-person conferences still on hold until the pandemic eases up, attending industry conferences with exceptional speakers presenting interesting content is more important than ever. SEMI Technology Unites Global Summit provides that opportunity, and I’m genuinely looking forward to participating.Tom Doyle, Founder and CEO of Aspinity, brings over 30 years of experience in operational excellence and executive leadership in analog and mixed-signal semiconductor technology to Aspinity. Prior to Aspinity, Tom was group director of Cadence Design Systems’ analog and mixed-signal IC business unit, where he managed the deployment of the company’s technology to the world’s foremost semiconductor companies. Previously, Tom was founder and president of the analog/mixed-signal software firm, Paragon IC solutions, where he was responsible for all operational facets of the company including sales and marketing, global partners/distributors, and engineering teams in the US and Asia. Tom holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from West Virginia University and an MBA from California State University, Long Beach.Serena Brischetto is senior manager of Marketing and Communications at SEMI Europe.