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

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

Jack McCauley understands the interplay between video game hardware and human interaction like few others in the industry. He designed the guitar and drums for Red Octane’s (later Activision’s) Guitar Hero video game series. As co-founder and chief engineer of Oculus VR, he designed the Oculus DK1 and DK2 virtual reality (VR) headsets and helped guide the company through its acquisition by Facebook in 2014. Now active in automotive technology, he builds cars at Black Lab, his private R D facility and hardware incubator in Livermore, California. And, in no small feat, he thinks he’s solved the head-tracking problems in augmented reality (AR)/VR headsets – which he’ll demonstrate during his keynote presentation, MEMS Applications in Augmented Reality, October 6 at MSEC 2020. SEMI’s first virtual MEMS Sensors Executive Congress. The event is October 6-8 and 13-15, 2020, and registration is open. I interviewed McCauley to preview his presentation. Register now for MSEC 2020.SEMI: What inspired you to become the first person to use a MEMS sensor in a gaming device?McCauley: When I started designing the Guitar Hero peripherals, I had intermittent problems with the motion tracking. I switched to a Freescale single-axis accelerometer, developed some IP around it, and that fixed the problem. That’s how I became an early customer of MEMS. SEMI: When you pioneered immersive VR gaming experiences at Oculus VR, tech industry analysts predicted widespread adoption of VR for gaming. What do you think happened?McCauley: There are a lot of reasons why VR hasn’t become the standard bearer for gaming. Gaming used to be a solitary activity, but as companies like Microsoft and Sony got behind multiplayer gaming, we realized many gamers found the social aspect more important than the visual aspect. Many gamers are content to play on a 2D screen or on multiple monitors because they’re playing against many people. The proliferation of internet connections worldwide has also promoted the kinship and social aspect of gaming.SEMI: Do you think VR has a place in other applications?McCauley: I think it has a lot of potential in real estate, VR movies, and engineering and design, among other areas. The automotive designer Henrik Fisker, for example, created whole vehicles in a game-engine model. If you wanted to buy one of his cars, let’s say, you could change the color and upholstery, for example, and then view it in a VR environment. SEMI: One of the biggest obstacles to VR adoption is the motion sickness some people experience during game play. What would you do to fix that?McCauley: The vestibular system in the brain, which uses the inner ear, is crucial to helping you balance. If there’s a mismatch between what your eyes see and your brain is perceiving, you’re likely to feel dizzy. I’ve built a VR headset that uses a MEMS pico projector with micromirrors and a small laser for position tracking as well as for facial tracking and modeling. But the platform’s not for sale.Still, many of the technical advances that we’ve made in VR are helping us with AR development. The increasing power of mobile chipsets and GPUs, the decreasing geometry for individual transistors and the way specific chips are processed, screen interfaces that will drive a 4K panel at a high frame rate, plus MEMS devices inside the eyewear for rotations and tracking are all helpful innovations.SEMI: When designing cars in your own lab, you’re doing a lot of work with AR. What do you think of AR’s commercial viability?McCauley: I know there are well-funded AR programs in place at major companies. That’s because mobile-device companies want an omnipresent phone in front of your face. I thought Google Glass, for example, was brilliant, but it was way too early for that product, and there was too much hype behind it.McCauley's latest R D project is a vehicle that incorporates augmented features and a computerized display. The vehicle is a custom built, environmentally friendly super-car with enhanced driver safety and high vehicle performance. AR is appealing because it lets people see through a screen – and have objects appear on that screen – while they are moving through space. My son actually came up with one of the ideas I’m implementing in a car I’m designing. We were driving in Spain, and he suggested that instead of using Google Maps to show me driving directions – which would force me to look down at an infotainment display – a sign could appear on AR glasses that would instruct me how to drive to Italy. That’s just an example of how we’ll use AR. SEMI: After you sold Oculus VR to Facebook, you began investing time and resources into engineering education. Why did you make that choice?McCauley: I’m originally from a blue-collar family, and then I got an education at Berkeley. That made a major difference in my life. When I sold Oculus, I donated to education-focused charities primarily, because an education can lift an entire family out of poverty. Let’s say your family are farm workers, but you get a degree in engineering and land a job at Apple. That could produce a ripple effect. As other members of your family and people in your community see the benefits of your education, they’re more likely to get an education, too. SEMI: What would you like MSEC attendees to take away from your presentation?McCauley: I appreciate what the MEMS industry has done for VR because if Oculus didn’t have a nine degrees of freedom (9DoF) IMU, no one would have bought our company. A new application will come along sooner or later that will require a different type of MEMS technology, and I have total confidence that the MEMS industry will deliver what’s needed. For more information on McCauley’s R D projects or on his position as Innovator in Residence at UC Berkeley’s Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation, visit his website. MEMS Sensors Industry Group® (MSIG), a SEMI technology community that connects the MEMS and sensors supply network in established and emerging markets, enables members to grow and prosper. Visit us today.Jack McCauley is an Innovator in Residence at the Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation, where he mentors students, lectures in courses focused on product design and design for manufacturing, and leads research and development projects focused on applications of augmented, virtual, and mixed reality for design professionals and students.McCauley graduated from Berkeley Engineering with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in 1986, and credits the time he spent at Berkeley as an undergraduate with helping to ignite his career. Maria Vetrano is a public relations consultant at SEMI.

Kyushu, the third largest island in Japan, is home to the semiconductor production bases of integrated device manufacturers (IDMs) with world-class cutting-edge technology. SONY, Toshiba, Hitachi, Mitsubishi, Fujitsu and Nissan are among the sector’s shining stars, though a host of other IDMs tied to the supply chains of other major enterprises have also set root in Kyushu. Collectively, the companies earned Kyushu the name Silicon Island of Japan.Kyushu’s flourishing IDM industry sprouted from favorable tax and other government policies that reduced semiconductor production costs to levels lower than elsewhere in Japan. Once the IC producers had established bases, equipment and materials companies naturally followed, leading to the influx of many parts manufacturers. Together, they came to Kyushu, one after another, to make the island a magnet for manufacturing. And so it was to Kyushu that a SEMI China delegation travelled for a meeting at TEL’s factory in Kumamoto to learn more about the secrets to the rapid growth of the island’s semiconductor industry and promote cooperation between Chinese and Japanese enterprises. Underscoring the rise of the Silicon Island of Japan, China will soon become TEL’s largest market, said Masami Akimoto, Chairman of Tokyo Electron Kyushu Limited, speaking at the event. Masami Akimoto hopes for support from SEMI China.The island of 12 million people contributes to the growth of the global semiconductor industry, expected to reach USD 500 billion in size in 2019 as China’s semiconductor sector, fueled in part by government-backed investment funds, continues its rapid expansion. Despite the gains, China still lags other regions in advanced manufacturing, said Lung Chu, president of SEMI China, which is doing its part to draw more advanced manufacturing to the region through its SIIP platform. The initiative encourages pan-regional cooperation with China’s semiconductor industry to promote free trade, open markets, technology innovation and IP protection – all to help China better integrate with the global semiconductor industry. SEMI China President Lung Chu(L) issues visit memorial to Masami Akimoto(R), Chairman of Tokyo Electron Kyushu Limited. Chicken shall be led by the HenUnlike other regions with comprehensive semiconductor industries, Kyushu’s is primarily focused on production and assembly, with more than 200 manufacturers of semiconductor equipment and parts.SEMI China Delegation at Tokyo Electron Kyushu LimitedTEL built its first factory in Kumamoto, a city covered by volcanic ash in the center of Kyushu, 34 years ago. Today, TEL every month produces 80 to 90 sets of equipment, each consisting of, on average, over 400 thousand parts that must be certified and authorized by TEL before delivery to its module manufacturers and assembly into complete machines. Having blossomed over the past few decades, the island’s supply chain now supplies TEL with all its equipment parts. SEMI China Delegation at Fajita WorksTEL supplier Fajita Works, a high-precision plate metal manufacturer founded in 1945, is emblematic of other companies in the Kyushu supply chain. It keeps a low public profile as it serves several longtime customers and earns ardent loyalty from its workers, an ethos reflected in the change next January of its slog from “Only One” to “Great company, Great life.”Quality is the life of the enterpriseLong before the rise of its legendary automobile and consumer electronics companies, Japan was known for inferior, counterfeited products, labeled “Made In USA” and shipped to the United States by more than 100 factories. The net effect was to shrink and commoditize American markets. The tide in Japan’s product quality and stained reputation began to turn in the 1980s, when Japan’s semiconductor industry began to produce memory with an error rate 27 times lower than its U.S. competitors, giving Japan an upper hand in quality that it would never relinquish. SEMI China Delegation at HORIBAKyushu-based flowmeter supplier HORIBA, among the many Japanese companies famous for their product quality, ships 38 percent of its products into the automotive market and 27 percent into the semiconductor sector. Cleanliness is as vital a part of the company’s culture as quality. Each depends on the other, with fine detail held to the highest importance. On its visit to HORIBA, the SEMI China delegation, passing by an office area before entering the factory, sighed at the sight of the spotless, neatly kept furniture and workspace: They had never seen an office so sparkling clean. HORIBA’s success is rooted in immaculate offices, factories and the company’s motto “Enjoy innovation and pay close attention to product quality.”After Kumamoto sustained heavy damage during a 2016 earthquake, HORIBA workers returned rocks scattered by temblor to their original position, knowing that order is critical to lean, efficient manufacturing and that, indeed, “the devil is in the details.” SEMI China Delegation in Kumamoto City Full confidence in the exploration of Chinese marketConsumer electronics stalwarts Sony and Panasonic feature semiconductor factories in Kagoshima, the southernmost city in Kyushu and Japan, though rumor had it two years ago that Panasonic planned to pull out. The Panasonic plant, which provides batteries for Tesla, remains. The Sony facility produces image sensors for the iPhone.Semiconductor equipment maker ULVAC, SEMI China’s most important strategic partner, is also based in Kagoshima. During the delegation’s visit to the company, Lung Chu noted that while China is the world’s largest semiconductor market, the region meets just 13 percent of domestic chip demand. Stressing that ULVAC can play a crucial role in helping China become a bigger player, he expressed admiration for ULVAC’s professionalism along with hope that it will maintain its rapid growth and leverage SEMI resources to catalyze rapid development of Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and 5G technologies in China and rise into the top 10 of global equipment manufacturers. SEMI China President Lung Chu (L) issues visit memorial to ULVAC Kyushu President and CEO Kenji Yamaguchi ULVAC Kyushu president and CEO Kenji Yamaguchi made clear the company’s interest in Lung Chu’s insights into Chinese semiconductor industry while underscoring its core competency of producing semiconductors for flat panel displays. The Kyushu Factory of ULVAC is full of vitality and market competitiveness. SEMI China Delegation at ULVAC EBARA, a precision machinery company located in Kumamoto, has manufactured chemical-mechanical planarization (CMP) equipment for over 20 years and delivered nearly 2,400 mechanical polishing machines worldwide. While the company expects to ship 50 sets per year to China starting next year, it has the capacity to deliver 20 sets per month, enough to meet demand of Chinese semiconductor makers. SEMI China Delegation at EBARAThe most telling takeaway from the SEMI China delegation’s visit to the Kyushu: Japan ranks number one worldwide in research and development (R D) investment as a proportion of GDP and is also at the top in the percentage of R D funds controlled by private enterprises. The outsize investment strategy has enabled Japan to maintain its hold as one of the world’s top technology innovators.Like Sakurajima, the famed Kyushu volcano, the SEMI China delegation will continue to harness its forces to build relationships with the island’s semiconductor supply chain as it works to develop win-win pan-regional relationships and foster the growth of China’s semiconductor industry. Best view of Sakurai volcano Gang Yao is a marketing director at SEMI China.