Date: 22/04/2012

SEMI's conference to discuss semiconductor manufacturing issues and concepts

The 23rd annual SEMI advanced semiconductor manufacturing conference (ASMC 2012) will be held on May 15-17 in Saratoga Springs, New York.

ASMC provides a venue for industry professionals to learn and share knowledge on new and "best practice" semiconductor manufacturing issues and concepts.

This conference focuses on issues faced by the semiconductor manufacturing. There will be 85+ manuscripts covering critical process technologies and fab productivity presented in this conference.

A panel discussion on "Competing for R&D dollars: funding the future" is offered by ASMC to discuss on the issues and funding on limited R&D dollars, wafer size transition, next node scaling, new transistor technology, 450mm EUV and 3D-IC. Panelists are from Applied Materials, ASML, Global foundries and IBM.

15 technical sessions on advanced semiconductor manufacturing, and a tutorial on advanced device design by IBM research are also part of this event.

There shall be keynotes delivered by:
Michael Campbell, senior vice president, engineering, Qualcomm
Andrea Lati, principal analyst, VLSI research

ASMC 2012 sessions include:
1. 'Factory optimization' session to discuss novel solutions to improve equipment and factory productivity and performance.
2. 'Advanced metrology' session details new technologies and improvements.
3. '3D/through silicon via (TSV)' session presents complexities of TSV techniques supporting 3D designs.
4. 'Equipment, materials & processes' session to discuss about the innovations to meet the challenges of advanced memory and logic manufacturers.
5. 'Emerging technologies and innovative devices' session presents analysis of the effects of enabling technologies, and innovative integrated circuit designs.
6. 'Equipment and materials productivity' session on how to help optimize equipment utilization, improve predictive modeling of fab operations, and tool performance.
7. 'Advanced patterning and design for manufacturability' session to collaborate efforts on leading-edge solutions between chip makers and equipment suppliers.
8. 'Process development and control' session covers improvements in processes, tool controls and predictive process performance analysis.
9. 'Defect inspection and yield optimization' session to cover defect inspection, yield analysis and optimization in the development and manufacture of semiconductor devices.

Registration for ASMC 2012 is available at www.semi.org/ASMC