ISMI News

14th Global Economic Symposium to Explore Productivity Opportunities and Value

Austin, TX (8 November, 2004) – Quantifying the technology and manufacturing roadmap in the maturing semiconductor industry will be the key theme of the 14th Global Economic Symposium (GES), to be held Nov. 18 at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, CA.

Sponsored by the International SEMATECH Manufacturing Initiative (ISMI), the GES will build on the success of the first ISMI Symposium on Manufacturing Effectiveness, which attracted more than 250 worldwide technologists to Austin in late October. The upcoming symposium will engage industry professionals representing chip manufacturers, equipment/material suppliers, and academia on the productivity value associated with many elements of the semiconductor revolution, utilizing experts from across the supply chain and the SEMATECH Industry Economic Model (IEM).

Increasingly utilized by industry leaders, the IEM is a unique tool for analyzing semiconductor capacity, supplier markets and chip productivity, based on changes in technology/wafer size introduction pace, product demand, manufacturing metrics and business strategies. GES Symposia are held twice a year to promote the use of the IEM to generate unbiased, quantitative scenarios for industry dialogue and decision-making.

Keynote speaker Klaus-Dieter Rinnen, managing vice president for Gartner Dataquest, will address the “realities of change” within the industry. Other important speakers include:

  • Alan Allan, of Intel, providing an overview of the environment for the electronics and chip markets and a review of connections between products/applications and the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS)
  • Iddo Hadar, of Applied Materials, addressing the new solutions, technologies, business models and intellectual “tools” to confront the challenges to the industry’s remarkable track record of productivity
  • Mul Tantra, of Lam Research, on the semiconductor industry’s “big questions” – including whether the sector is saturated, profitability amid lower revenue growth, and sensible investing toward technology nodes
  • Karen Twillmann, of MEMC, providing perspectives on the market dynamic and changing landscape of the silicon industry and future roadmap challenges
  • Phil Ware, of Canon, on whether 193 nm is the last lithography wavelength – and what that might portend for suppliers and chipmakers

Industry professionals who are interested in attending the symposium should contact Denis Fandel at 512-356-3461 or iem@sematech.org. Reporters and editors wishing to cover the meeting are asked to contact contact Dan McGowan at 512-356-3440 or media.relations@sematech.org.