ISMI News

Short-Term Economic Outlook for Chip Industry to Take Center Stage at 2004 Global Economic Symposium

Arlington, VA (14 May 2004) — The near-term health of the recovering semiconductor industry – including opportunities in new end-markets and the threat of oversupply – will be addressed by a prominent technology researcher during the Spring 2004 Global Economic Symposium (GES) May 26 at the Sheraton National Hotel here.

Jim Feldhan, president of Phoenix-based Semico Research, Inc., will deliver a total semiconductor industry forecast based on his company’s proprietary Semico Inflection Point Indicator, which projects conditions eight to nine months in advance and can be used by executives and production managers for contingency planning and forecasting. As luncheon keynote speaker, Feldhan will analyze and forecast specific trends in semiconductor manufacturing.

The GES is a biannual, open meeting geared for international semiconductor and equipment manufacturers, materials suppliers, and government agencies affiliated with the chip industry. It is sponsored by the International SEMATECH Manufacturing Initiative (ISMI), a global alliance of the world’s major semiconductor manufacturers, and a subsidiary of SEMATECH of Austin, TX.

The symposium’s objective is to attain greater understanding of the real and potential impact of collaboration in industry productivity trends. Other external speakers and their topics will include:

  • Ellen McDevitt, MEMS Industry Group, focusing on reasons for the convergence of the semiconductor and MEMS (microelectrical mechanical systems) industries. This convergence is occurring as more semiconductor equipment suppliers retrofit to be attractive to the MEMS industry, and as MEMS companies continue to benefit from the past successes and proven reliability of chip engineering processes, according to McDevitt.
  • Iddo Hadar, Applied Materials, on how joint supplier/manufacturer activities can help speed semiconductor productivity gains in many areas, including equipment capability and efficiency, quality, cost-effective process development, time to market, cycle time, and lifetime performance.
  • Mark Modzelewski, NanoBusiness Alliance, with an overview on nanotechnology entitled “From Nanotechnology to Nanobusiness.” Modzelewski will focus on emerging startups and discoveries affecting the semiconductor, memory, and electronics sectors.
  • Mark McClear, Dow Chemical Corp. and the SiLKnet Alliance, on building an Infrastructure to Accelerate the Supply Chain. With the industry being asked to absorb a record number of new materials in a compressed timeframe, McClear will highlight the costs and timetables for developing a totally new material.

As with previous GES sessions, many presentations will be based on applications of the Industry Economic Model (IEM), a sophisticated software tool that can analyze various aspects of semiconductor economics in terms of capacity, supplier markets, and productivity as influenced by technology assumptions, product demand trends, and business dynamics. Recent developments have substantially improved the model’s execution performance and greatly enhanced the user’s ease of use capabilities.

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

ISMI is a global alliance of the world's major semiconductor manufacturers, dedicated to reducing cost per wafer, and ultimately cost per die, through cooperative programs focused on manufacturing effectiveness. The consortium conducts programs in manufacturing infrastructure, methods, standards, and productivity, with the aim of reducing the costs of producing finished wafers and chips and driving solutions to major productivity challenges. ISMI is a wholly owned subsidiary of International SEMATECH of Austin, TX.