{"id":732,"date":"2009-04-23T21:59:36","date_gmt":"2009-04-24T04:59:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.betasights.net\/wordpress\/?p=732"},"modified":"2009-04-23T21:59:36","modified_gmt":"2009-04-24T04:59:36","slug":"silicon-valley-fab-futures-seen-at-semi-lunch-forum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.betasights.net\/wordpress\/?p=732","title":{"rendered":"Silicon Valley fab futures seen at SEMI lunch forum"},"content":{"rendered":"

Silicon Valley has certainly not been immune to the current economic conditions, with many companies announcing multiple rounds of layoffs and moving operations overseas. Yet for many it is still considered \u201cthe heart\u201d of the high-tech industry. At today\u2019s well-attended Silicon Valley Lunch Forum, organized by the Sales and Marketing Council of SEMI<\/a>, three speakers addressed the question of the future of Silicon Valley. Traditional silicon IC design and pilot production work, innovative printed ICs, and photovoltaics fabs are all part of the future.<\/p>\n

\"All<\/a>

All printed silicon TFT (source: Kovio)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cIt is not the product, or the pricing or the support that has been key to the development of the Valley, but the networking opportunities,\u201d declared Art Zafiropoulo, chairman and CEO of lithography tool maker Ultratech Stepper. In his view, the key challenge to the continued success of Silicon Valley is relatively high tax rates and cumbersome tax regulations. As a result, Zafiropoulo sees a future for Silicon Valley that will still be a high tech center in the areas of design, software and management but will no longer be a center of manufacturing. In fact, \u201cthe equipment industry will literally disappear in Silicon Valley and eventually in the United States,\u201d Zafiropoulo predicted.<\/p>\n

But the other two speakers see a slightly different scenario. Richard Young, vice president of operations for Kovio<\/a>, a developer of printed silicon electronics, talked about his own company\u2019s commitment to Silicon Valley. With a 22k square foot clean room in Milpitas, \u201cKovio has every intention of keeping manufacturing here in the valley and will be ramping production this year,\u201d reported Young. While about 90% of all printed semiconductors are based on organic chemistries, Kovio has developed a 100% inorganic silicon printed transistor and was the first company to demonstrate an all-printed transistor as well as the world\u2019s first silicon ink (see figure<\/em>). According to Young, the printed silicon industry has the potential to one day be as big as the silicon industry is today.<\/p>\n

Printed silicon electronics would fall under the category of \u201cnon-Moore\u2019s Law products\u201d as outlined by the final speaker, Dave Bergeron, chief technology officer of SVTC<\/a>, speaking on emerging technologies in a changing market. Working with 200mm diameter wafers, SVTC has three manufacturing facilities, of which two are located in San Jose in the heart of Silicon Valley, a semiconductor fab and a solar fab that will be commission later this year. All facilities have a Class 10 Cleanroom. Most current SVTC customers are not trying to push Moore\u2019s Law. Bergeron says their \u201csweet spot\u201d is between 90 and 350nm structures. In Bergeron\u2019s view, despite the current economic reality, \u201cinnovation will continue and especially in Silicon Valley.\u201d He further explained, \u201cthere are a lot of people here in the valley with the background and knowledge to do this, and frankly it can\u2019t get done anywhere else.\u201d \u2013E.S.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Silicon Valley has certainly not been immune to the current economic conditions, with many companies announcing multiple rounds of layoffs and moving operations overseas. Yet for many it is still considered \u201cthe heart\u201d of the high-tech industry. At today\u2019s well-attended Silicon Valley Lunch Forum, organized by the Sales and Marketing Council of SEMI, three speakers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5,4,6,8,7,11],"tags":[274,36,465,466,275,469,76,127],"class_list":["post-732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-manufacturing-fabrication-line","category-flat-panel-display","category-integrated-circuit","category-micro-electro-mechanical-system","category-market-segment","category-photovoltaic","category-service","tag-200mm","tag-cmos","tag-manufacturing-fabrication-line","tag-integrated-circuit","tag-printed","tag-photovoltaic","tag-rd","tag-si"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.betasights.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.betasights.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.betasights.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.betasights.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.betasights.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=732"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.betasights.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":735,"href":"http:\/\/www.betasights.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/732\/revisions\/735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.betasights.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.betasights.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.betasights.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}