SEMI Standards

The SEMI Cybersecurity consortium, launched at SEMICON West in July, has established key priorities in its mission to develop and promote a standards-based, industry-wide approach to improve cybersecurity and accelerate implementation of actionable solutions.

To accelerate efforts to reduce the climate impact of the semiconductor value chain, SEMI members from the equipment, materials and service sectors, as well as several device manufacturers are forming the Semiconductor Climate Consortium (SCC).

Massive capacity expansions will necessarily integrate advanced Industry 4.0 standards, practices and technology to achieve the highest possible operational efficiency and performance at the start of volume production.

More consumer and industrial products may emit volatiles that now are known to be harmful, including furniture, passenger cars, and industrial trucks. Interest in detecting and measuring the gaseous pollutants is growing in order to create effective responses to reduce or eliminate health risks. 

In January 2022, SEMI Taiwan released SEMI E187 – Specification for Cybersecurity of Fab Equipment. What cybersecurity pain points does SEMI E187 ultimately address?

Since the release of ISO 27001, a raft of new international information security standards have emerged. Within the trend of cyber/digital resilience, how exactly do senior executives understand the latest cybersecurity standards from a management perspective?

A lot has happened in fifty years, particularly when it comes to the microelectronics industry. Founded in 1970 by a group of semiconductor industry pioneers who believed that co-opetition — instead of traditional competition—would produce a more vibrant emerging industry, SEMI was born as an industry association.It's fitting during this week’s 50th annual SEMICON West (July 20-23, 2020) — a virtual event for the first time — that SEMI Chief of Staff Bettina Weiss offers her perspectives on the evolution of SEMI from one of the best seats in the house: the 24 years that she has spent helping the association change and grow.Vetrano: You’ve enjoyed a long rich history with SEMI, and now serve as the association’s first chief of staff. What roles have you played at SEMI up to this point?Weiss: I cut my teeth at SEMI by joining SEMI Standards, first serving as standards coordinator at SEMI Europe from ’96-’97. Over the next 11 years, I held a variety of positions at SEMI Standards, culminating with director of international standards from 2003-2008. Given that experience, I have to admit that SEMI Standards are still near and dear to my heart.I moved on to several leadership positions in our former global photovoltaics/solar business through 2014, and toward the end of that stint, I assumed additional responsibilities, becoming vice president of business development. That’s where I dove headfirst into expanding SEMI into emerging regions, including Vietnam, India and Latin America. SEMI goes where members see (or want to better understand) new opportunities, especially in places that had ambitious plans for fabs for microelectronics, including semiconductors and MEMS.In 2018, I became SEMI chief of staff, reporting directly to our president and CEO Ajit Manocha.Vetrano: Now I hardly know where to start! Since I have to decide, what does it mean to be SEMI chief of staff?Weiss: As the first chief of staff, I’ve been able to shape the position, combining the support of critical efforts driven by Ajit with additional project management responsibilities like our Smart Mobility initiative.Working with experienced leaders in our industry, such as the Board of Industry Leaders (BIL), is one of the more rewarding parts of my role at SEMI. The BIL is a group of global executives tasked with advising SEMI on strategic planning, especially when it comes to future-looking initiatives like Smart Mobility, Smart MedTech, Smart Manufacturing, and Smart Data/AI.A lot of the other things I do are meant to support the whole SEMI organization, in partnership with other senior leaders such as Michael Ciesinski, vice president of technology communities, as we create business plans and examine new revenue models that will keep SEMI sustainable and viable for the future. This includes issues as varied as workforce development and diversity and inclusion, and the new digital platforms we use to engage with our members.Vetrano: How does SEMI Smart Mobility initiative exemplify the model of engaging end customers in vertical markets that are important to members?Weiss: When you look at the rapidly increasing number of chips and sensors in and around vehicles, Smart Mobility at its core brings together both the semiconductor/sensor and automotive/mobility supply chains for a more transparent dialogue about needs and wants along the entire supply chain. We are thrilled to count automotive OEMs Volkswagen and Audi as SEMI members. We also work with Tier 1 suppliers such as Continental and many others to promote the open exchange of ideas and foster collaboration among all stakeholders.Smart Mobility is a good example of how SEMI connects two worlds that are now interdependent for the mutual benefit of all players. Automotive companies and component suppliers want to better understand new technology capabilities that enable tomorrow’s infotainment, safety, security and communication protocols. And semiconductor, sensor and component companies see huge upside in supplying the equipment, materials, devices and subsystems that enable the future of mobility. Smart Mobility is a win-win, and the founding concept of our Global Automotive Advisory Council (GAAC).Vetrano: As we look to COVID-19, the single most important event to influence the microelectronics industry — and every other industry — why is SEMI membership more important now than ever?Weiss: Our industry is facing a triple whammy of challenges: a global pandemic, ongoing global trade tensions that impact interdependent supply chains, and a global economic crisis. All these challenges will require our members’ ingenuity, innovation and collective action to overcome them. But inherent in those challenges are tremendous opportunities, and I have no doubt that our members and the entire global electronics ecosystems will find ways to help everyone prosper and advance.COVID-19 has had a huge impact on our members. From the onset of the pandemic, we’ve provided our members with resources including best business practices, insights and data from industry experts to help them respond to a virus that has already changed so many things we took for granted before March. Additionally, SEMI has also advocated with governments around the world on behalf of the industry for essential business status and essential travel to sustain operations. Visit SEMI COVID-19 Resource page for information on industry best practices and much more.Vetrano: Before we look forward, what has changed dramatically in microelectronics since you started at SEMI?Weiss: Through my work with SEMI, I’ve witnessed dynamic, dramatic and sustained change in the microelectronics supply chain. Into the late 1990s, SEMI represented primarily semiconductor equipment and materials suppliers, and we worked with chipmakers – our members’ customers. That’s where a lot of important Standards work happened, for example, and the supplier-device maker relationship was pretty much our world. Over the years, we saw significant change in how companies partner and do business with one another. The digital transformation we’ve been witnessing for the past few years was the impetus for expanding our reach to bring companies in the extended electronics manufacturing and design supply chain together, from sand to system, so to speak. That was also when we invited associations representing flexible hybrid and printed electronics (FlexTech), MEMS and sensors (MSIG), and electronic system design (ESD Alliance) companies to join SEMI and our other technology communities for maximum cross-pollination. That’s because everything needs microelectronic devices and systems. Vetrano: Looking ahead now, what is can the microelectronics industry do to benefit humanity?Weiss: Semiconductors and sensors are often the unsung heroes of progress. Microelectronics can help bring prosperity to the billions of people now struggling on our planet. It can improve access to education for people through e-learning, it can advance agricultural production and streamline the food supply chain to help feed the world’s hungry, it can monitor the quality of the water we drink and the air we breathe, and it can get you in front of a doctor even in the most remote village in India.The beauty of microelectronics is that we are not gated by innovation. As the brilliant visionary Arthur C. Clarke once said, “The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.”As an industry association that helps technologists to venture beyond “the limits of the possible,” I invite like-minded technology adventurers to engage with SEMI, starting with registration to this week’s SEMICON West – our first virtual show.As chief of staff, Bettina Weiss reports to SEMI President and CEO Ajit Manocha and manages a broad portfolio of responsibilities. Major focus areas include advancing specific global strategic initiatives such as thought leadership (Think Tanks) and SEMI Smart Transportation vertical application platform, improving organizational efficiency, alignment and financial sustainability, acting as senior liaison to SEMI Board of Industry Leaders, leading strategic partnerships and M A activity, and supporting Manocha in creating a highly effective, agile global association.Maria Vetrano is a PR consultant at SEMI.

In the first part of this double feature, we looked at the automotive industry’s transition toward a mobility ecosystem and the shifting business model perspective from selling vehicles to miles. At the core of these changing dynamics are four trends represented by the acronym ACES: Autonomous, Connected, Electric, and Shared mobility. Each of these trends is largely enabled by microelectronics through computer processors, sensor units, and communication architectures. Part 2 of this series explores the business opportunities at the transition from automotive to mobility, and the specific role SEMI can play as a natural bridge between the two ecosystems.Electronics and Software as Drivers for Automotive InnovationThe ACES trends represent an acceleration of the shift in automotive from the industry’s traditionally strong focus on mechanics and hardware toward electronics and software. This transition to electronics and software as drivers for automotive innovation already started in the 1970s with electronic fuel injection, anti-lock brakes, trip computers, and many other attributes that are now considered standard features. As a result, there are now hardly any automotive systems that are not computer-controlled. A vehicle without power windows and locks, electronic climate control, or MEMS-reliant airbags are basically unimaginable in many markets.As shown in the graphic[1] depicting the electronics share of total vehicle cost, the numbers paint a clear picture of the continued growth of electronics over time, with a 44% share today expected to grow to 50% by 2030. McKinsey Company estimates the automotive software and electrical/electronic (E/E) components markets combined will grow at a 7% CAGR from USD 238 billion in 2020 to US$469 billion by 2030[2].The assumption of continued and sustained growth presents a promising outlook for semiconductor and sensor content in vehicles over the next decade, which is particularly strong in the electrification space. Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) already contain $900 worth of semiconductor content, and battery-based electric vehicles (EVs) contain $1,000 worth of semiconductors – much higher than the average of approximately $450 of content in conventional vehicles[2]. Other business opportunities in the mid-term (3-5 years) include software, battery technology, infrastructure (charging stations, other hardware components, etc.), as well as vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-environment (V2X) communication. These technologies also demonstrate how the industry’s business focus is expanding beyond the confinement of an individual vehicle to increasingly contemplating the evolving ecosystem around it, resulting in real mobility solutions. Image credit: Continental AG This creates significant opportunities for a large number of SEMI members in the semiconductors and sensors business by connecting them with new customers and partners in the automotive and mobility supply chains, primarily vehicle manufacturers and Tier 1 suppliers, and together realizing new business in new automotive applications such as: Autonomy, including ADAS (GPUs, LiDAR, radar, camera, accelerometers...) Connectivity (link to outside infrastructure and in-cabin devices, roadside units...) Electrification (power electronics, battery monitoring, H2 detection in fuel-cell...) Sharing (customizable vehicle interior, trackable mobility devices such as scooters...) In-cabin experience (media systems, displays, VR/AR, occupant detection...) Vehicle architecture (flex-ray, automotive ethernet, diagnostics, smart parts...) Safety and security (HW/SW firewall, parts authentication, upgradability...) In these partnerships, the vehicle manufacturers and component suppliers clearly benefit from leveraging semiconductor capabilities including: Device and system reliability/robustness/quality (“Zero Defect”), which creates opportunities for new SEMI Standards (e.g. wafer-to-device/system traceability) New design architectures for added functionality, safety and security New packaging solutions (automotive OEMs are already participating in the Heterogeneous Integration Roadmap, seeking to collaborate with device manufactures and Original Semiconductor Assembly Test (OSAT) companies to reduce costs and differentiate on automotive-grade solutions Sensors and imaging (cameras) SEMI Smart Mobility Initiative – Connecting Mobility and ElectronicsSEMI launched its Smart Mobility Initiative in 2018 based on the mandate of providing “SEMI members with access to new business opportunities and collaborative platforms in the automotive electronics supply chain.” The initiative is currently focused on synchronizing the automotive and microelectronics supply chains for automotive electronics innovation – in particular semiconductor devices, sensors, and related products manufactured for this space and sold to vehicle OEMs and Tier 1s. To facilitate closer dialogue among stakeholders from this combined ecosystem, SEMI formed the Global Automotive Advisory Council (GAAC) which now has five regional chapters and represents dozens of companies. Collectively, GAAC members discuss and act on a wide range of topics, from Silicon Carbide (SiC) standardization to new design architectures and closing the OEM requirement gap.While continuing to build on the strong automotive foundation, SEMI’s Smart Mobility Initiative is now expanding its reach and scope of activities to broader mobility themes, such as infrastructure and battery technology and Smart City, to infuse SEMI member communities and the GAAC with new stakeholders and new ideas. These are exciting times!Please contact Bettina Weiss, Chief of Staff at SEMI, at [email protected] for further information about SEMI’s Smart Mobility Initiative, the Global Automotive Advisory Council, and how SEMI can help your organization navigate electronics in the automotive industry to drive innovation in the mobility space.[1] see graphic, created with data from NXP / Freescale[2] Source: McKinsey Company, 2019Microelectronics Power the Future of Mobility – Part 1: Autonomous, Connected, Electric and SharedBettina Weiss is Chief of Staff and Global Smart Mobility Lead at SEMI. Sven Beiker is Smart Mobility Consultant at SEMI.

Olivier Corvez, senior manager of Environment, Health, Safety and Sustainability at SEMI, sat down (virtually) with Todd Patterson, vice president of global EHS for Entegris Global Operations, to discuss how Entegris has responded to the global pandemic.Corvez manages and Patterson participates in the COVID-19 EHS Task Force currently meeting weekly to discuss industry response and share best practices. SEMI: Was Entegris prepared for the COVID-19 pandemic? How did the company respond?Patterson: Entegris has a strong risk management framework and a risk assessment team of senior leaders who meet at least once a quarter. This focus gives us early visibility into events that could destabilize our organization or threaten our operations. Such a framework helps ensure we have the information necessary to act as soon as possible when the need arises. However, our business continuity plans for a pandemic of this scale were far less than with other more commonly occurring catastrophic events such as earthquakes or hurricanes. The COVID-19 crisis was clearly unprecedented and as such, the necessary systems and procedures were not in place with the depth and detail needed. Our strong governance structure made it possible for us to hold steady even as the pandemic caused increasing uncertainty and disruption around the world. For example, despite major supply chain shutdowns across many industries, to date, our supply chain and manufacturing operations have only been modestly impacted by COVID-19. Our supply chain team was assessing daily the areas of risk with our suppliers and taking appropriate action as well as preemptive steps to ensure our critical supply lines remained open.Our sales team engaged in regular communications with our customers providing them updates about our Business Continuity Plans and our actions to mitigate the risk to any of their deliveries. In addition, we maintained current information about the continuity of our supply chain on the company’s intranet for the global sales team to access as they engaged with customers. Also, a proactive communication plan was implemented immediately to send weekly video messages from senior executives directly to employees’ emails. It was an effective way to communicate with our global teams, to keep them informed about the status of the company’s operations and maintain a common sense of purpose at a time when many colleagues worked from home. In these weekly messages, we also focused significant attention on the health and safety protocols established to protect our manufacturing and lab employees from the virus.Among the health and safety protocols we implemented immediately as the virus moved across different regions were those related to facility screenings, work-from-home policies, social distancing, self-quarantine requirements, contact tracing, increased disinfecting, and travel restrictions. With approximately 5,300 employees worldwide, we had teams in every region ready to implement these comprehensive protocols. We believe we were among the first companies to implement work-from-home policies and travel restrictions.Temperature screening stations at Entegris facilities in Jangan, Korea (left) and Kulim, Malaysia (right). In addition, our CEO led a COVID-19 Steering Committee comprised of senior executives and managers from operations, human resources and communications. The committee met several times a week during March and April to evaluate and formulate responses to the issues that emerged as the virus spread from region to region. The committee’s work created a strong partnership among senior executives and divisional and functional leaders, and the initial guidelines developed by the committee have formed the backbone of a global playbook to limit the spread of the virus to our other sites around the world.Recently, the committee has changed its focus to more strategic issues such as creating a framework for transitioning remote workers back into our office locations. Meanwhile, local leadership teams at each of our global sites have been empowered to address ongoing tactical issues consistent with our thoroughly documented health and safety protocols.Looking to the future, we are using our experience in responding to COVID-19 to develop a more comprehensive pandemic response plan. We have project teams working on better ways to: measure temperatures of personnel entering our sites facilitate social distancing in the workplace redesign common use areas to reduce the number of high touch points disinfect all spaces thoroughly and regularly, and manage emergency pandemic supplies. SEMI: From the SEMI EHS survey, we noted that all members had a Business Continuity Plan. How effective has it been for deploying resources and adapting quickly and minimizing the crisis? Why or why not? Patterson: Because we have operations in China, Entegris experienced the impact of the virus immediately. We quickly formed two task force teams for our two primary facilities in the region. These teams developed the means for communicating key information to employees and started working on prevention plans to protect employees and comply with local requirements for when operations resumed. They met the challenges head on and found quick solutions. An example was finding an effective way of communicating to the employees for each location. Group chats were established through social media. It was this work that led to their success in getting approvals from local authorities to resume operations. Those plans have laid the groundwork on which our other sites around the world could build their response plans.The effective management of our global supply chain also stands out as a key success of the company’s Business Continuity Plan. Entegris has a highly complex supply chain with approximately 6,500 suppliers and a $850 million annual spend, and we ship work-in-progress and finished goods from over 90 sites globally.As I mentioned earlier, despite the virus crippling supply chains across many industries, Entegris experienced very little disruption to its supply chain. The supply chain team was able to accomplish this despite a 90% reduction in global freight capacity. A key factor in keeping goods flowing to our factories was the intensive work the team had done earlier to develop an in-depth understanding of the company’s top suppliers and to mitigate sourcing risks. They had established alternate sources, balanced the sources geographically, and placed inventory across our supply chain to buffer risk.The team also had integrated statistical modeling into reporting tools, which made it possible to reset safety stocks and logistics lead times quickly as conditions changed. And a supply chain digitalization provided one aligned and integrated view via dashboards, giving the company the ability to respond rapidly and to communicate in real time with our suppliers. We essentially had a virtual war room where we monitored the daily impact of the spread of the virus and could address bottlenecks and other issues immediately.SEMI: What lessons have been learned, so far? How do you see changes in your company’s operations in the future?Patterson: Institutionalizing what we’ve learned has already begun. Whether the measures implemented during the pandemic are temporary or become permanent is still to be determined. Regardless, the learnings need to be documented and available as a playbook for if – or when – the next pandemic occurs.Entegris is already working on a more comprehensive pandemic plan that will be based on five levels of preparedness. Level 0 will cover annual training requirements and management of emergency inventory of pandemic supplies. Level 1 will include early recognition of an outbreak, and then Levels 2-4 will include requirements for when specific response measures are implemented. Entegris also has formed the “New Normal” task force, which consists of leaders representing a number of disciplines directing the project teams previously mentioned to create a more comprehensive pandemic response plan. One of the project teams is working on improving the facility screening process that performs temperature measurement for personnel entering Entegris sites. The team is looking at the best technology to scan body temperature. As to whether this technology is employed only while COVID-19 is still active or becomes a permanent way of doing business, this is still being discussed.SEMI: EHS is involved in both providing technical support to protect individuals but also in making organizational changes to favorize social distancing. Could you explain some of the successes and challenges while tackling these two fronts?Patterson: Very early in the pandemic, Entegris established a work-from-home policy for non-essential employees. This significantly reduced the number of personnel and the potential for contact at the Entegris locations. Significant facility changes also were required. These included the design of facility screening booths and modifications to common gathering areas such as canteens, meeting rooms, prayer rooms, and smoking points. Physical markings were used to designate 2 meters distancing, and the seating in canteens and meeting rooms was reduced and staggered to minimize the risk of exposure to the virus. Entegris also has a project team focused on developing design solutions for offices and workstations when space makes it difficult to maintain 2 meters social distancing. These changes turned out to be essential for some sites in meeting mandates by local authorities. Our sites in Hangzhou, China and Kulim, Malaysia both were allowed to resume partial operations after demonstrating to government authorities the effectiveness of the preventative measures put in place. One particular challenge we are facing is the range of personal differences and awareness levels within the workforce – including those that don’t understand the importance of the new guidelines. We are working closely in advising supervisory staff to be aware of the need for employees to follow all health and safety protocols we have put in place, including social distancing. That preventative measure is the most difficult to make part of our new behavior – it is unnatural and inconsistent with our human nature, but it is critical to preventing the further spread of the virus.SEMI: How do you envision the progressive steps in deescalating to bring back “normal” operations? Patterson: I don’t know whether Entegris will ever go back to the old “normal.” As previously mentioned, we are working on the “New Normal.” Our focus now is on bringing our work-from-home employees back to the workplace without adding risk of exposure to the virus. We are still exploring options, but we expect to do it in a phased approach so that we can adequately assess the preventive measures that are in place and determine whether adjustments need to be made to any of our health and safety protocols.We are starting to see a variety of different frameworks emerge for evaluating repopulation timing and procedures. We will assess them on an office-by-office, or site-by-site basis, utilizing consistent criteria to define the potential for exposure to the virus. This also applies to our field service workforce. However, I have not yet seen any governmental guidance that offers a recommended framework for returning employees to the workplace. I think this represents an opportunity for SEMI EHS and the Standards groups to work to establish that framework for our industry.SEMI: Anything else you would like to share that you have observed throughout this crisis?We have not discussed the challenges faced in procuring and acquiring pandemic supplies. Almost immediately after the outbreak occurred in Wuhan, it became increasingly difficult to find supplies. Even when confirmation was provided by suppliers and delivery dates confirmed, the majority of the dates were pushed out or canceled. We found that what worked best was to have purchasing teams at the local site work with their local contacts on obtaining smaller quantities while a corporate point person was also managing larger orders. In preparation for any future pandemics, Entegris will be maintaining an emergency inventory for masks, sanitizer, thermometers, and disinfectants.For 18 months, Todd Patterson has held the position of VP Global EHS for Entegris Global Operations. His experience with emergency management and BCP has become invaluable in the past three months. He is grateful to his global response teams around the world for coming together to support the Entegris team in this unprecedented situation. Todd is an active participant on the SEMI EHS COVID-19 response teams led by Olivier Corvez at SEMI. Olivier Corvez is senior manager of Environment, Health, Safety and Sustainability at SEMI.

This article is the fifth and final in a series highlighting the vital importance of SEMI Standards to commemorate the publication of the 1000th SEMI Standard in July 2019. Find the entire series here.As we define industry standards for managing data in the fab and beyond, we are creating a virtuous circle. More data create better processes. Better processes generate more good data, and more good data lead to better processes. It becomes a cycle of continuous improvement, and we are only just beginning to realize its potential. To dive deeper we interviewed Alan Weber, vice president, New Product Innovations at Cimetrix, and an active member of SEMI Standards Information and Control Committee (IC C).“Industry standards are critical in allowing us to collect information across the fab and use it in increasingly sophisticated control algorithms for the equipment,” said Weber. “The last few years have been about analysis applications that leverage big data in the fab. What started at the lot level is now applied at the wafer level, and for a process like lithography, it’s down to the shot or die level. We’re now collecting enough data variables at individual process and recipe steps to model for predictive maintenance and virtual metrology.”The migration from using data as rearview mirror for identifying and addressing fab issues to using data to head off issues preemptively represents a paradigm shift with immense advantages. This is the starting point for realizing a virtuous data circle.The benefits of a virtuous data circle are simple and compelling: higher yields, faster time to market, more revenue and greater profitability. Our optimism, however, is tempered by major obstacles to this promising future.Multilingual ManufacturingWeber points out that the electronics industry is becoming a multilingual standards world with more than 1,000 fab equipment vendors and several layers of protocols that present the challenge of seamlessly handling multiple protocols. His IC C Committee is out to tackle this challenge.“While SEMI Standards efforts first began in the front end, our standards program now encompasses the back end with test and packaging as well as other device areas including MEMS, sensors and displays,” said James Amano, senior director, International Standards and EHS, SEMI. “We’re going to see data connectivity from the front end to the back end to the final assembly of multi-chip products and that needs standards,” Weber explained. “We’ll need more connected equipment throughout the global, multi-site manufacturing process if we are to support the full traceability requirements of the most demanding markets such as automotive.”The industry will benefit from greater collaboration. Weber predicts that companies will team to create integrated supply chains within broader industry supply chains.Getting the Right People at the Right Time“As we lead the development cycle of a standard from concept to realization, one of the most important jobs of our standards task forces and committees is to coordinate competing companies and build an industry consensus,” Amano said. “This is the case for data in particular, where we rely on industry professionals like Weber and his colleagues, who are working to bring people together to collaborate on developing standards for connectivity and data sharing. It is that critical human element that allows SEMI to sustain our commitment to introducing standards that move the industry forward.”Will Companies Share Data If It Is Secure? Weber contends that when it comes to securing and sharing the data, the biggest challenge is to change the industry’s information-sharing culture.“Finance and defense are already finding ways to deal with data security,” said Weber. “While we will always have problems that require technology fixes, like dealing with new types of computer viruses, I am confident that we will be able to create standards that enable the free, secure flow of information. The key to making progress and better leveraging data is to get companies to see the potential of sharing data while investing in the standards.”SEMI recently launched a project to optimize data sharing across two critical process steps – lithography and plasma etch – to accelerate the adoption of data-driven AI methodologies. The results will help to establish data transfer and management standards crucial to the trusted exchange of trade secrets, IP and other sensitive information. Tools and materials from several SEMI members will be used for the project at Cornell University’s NanoScale Science Technology Facility (CNF). SEMI members are invited to join the project review team. Contact Pushkar Apte at SEMI ([email protected]) for more information on the initiative.Advantages Are Too Great to IgnoreTraditional cultural obstacles aside, the advantages of creating virtuous data circles are simply too great to ignore. Now that it’s accepted wisdom for fabs, factories and supply chains to continuously leverage interconnected data to get smarter, the time has come to extend those advantages throughout the full manufacturing process. Without these data circles, we’ll slow the development of new technologies and applications.We can only speculate where the lines of sharing data are drawn and will be redrawn in the future. But, without doubt, technology innovations such as AI will spawn new information business models that vertically and horizontally integrate companies in ways previously unimaginable. Data standards will underpin this structural transformation.Use your voice to affect standardization in and around the microelectronics industry. Learn about SEMI International Standards – and become part of the solution. Heidi Hoffman is senior director of technology communities marketing at SEMI. Hoffman and her team shine a spotlight on the work of the more than 20 technology communities under the SEMI electronics manufacturing supply chain collaboration platform. Actively engaging community members in marketing programs that showcase their unique value, Hoffman’s team helps companies to grow and prosper through the power of connection, collaboration and innovation.