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To my CR4
friends, I am in Dresden, Germany to attend the annual Semicon Europa 2012
Conference and Trade Show. This is the biggest and most important
semiconductor, photovoltaic, plastic electronics, and MEMS show in Europe.
Every year something new is announced related to new chip fabrication technologies,
improvement in existing ones, and the latest business developments that drive
the microelectronics and nano design and manufacturing. Every year I attend the Semicon West
conference and trade show in San Francisco (much bigger than Semicon Europa);
this is my first time at the Semicon Europa.
Most of the
leaders of the global micro and nanoelectronics industry will be present:
- More than 200 speakers
- 40 technical presentations introducing new or
improve techniques
- New designs
- 2.5D IC design and packaging
- 3D IC packaging (I am really interested in
seeing that this is really MOVING)
- The new interest in MEMS (more than 20% increase
in demands for the next 10 years?)
- The era of the fully depleted transistor is
here, and I want to learn from the experts how this is going to shape the
future of IC manufacturing
- Why EUV has been disappointing to the industry.
Why EUV has not provided us with the PROMISED improvement in transistor
scaling?
- Immersion lithography anyone?
- Double pattering
The show
starts on Tuesday, October 9 and ends on October 11. I am looking forward to
informing you about the developments - every day - during these three days. I
hope this will satisfy you, and in particular those of you who like me, are
interested in this field.
In the
meantime (two days before the show starts) I am enjoying this beautiful city of
Dresden. If you have not been here, you must visit. The city is a jewel of
baroque architecture. Dresden, as well know, was completely destroyed at the
end of World War II by the British Royal Air force and the American allies. The
bombardments took place from February 13-15, 1945. The city center was
completely obliterated
and hundreds of thousands died.
Today, the
city is booming (it is known as the Silicon Valley of Europe) and most of the destroyed
building has been restored to their pristine past glory. In particular I am
very impressed with the restoration of the Semper Oper (one the most impressive
and beautiful Opera houses in the world) and the extraordinary restoration of
the Dresdner Frauenkirche (the
Church of Our Lady) the beautiful Lutheran church in the middle of city center (see photo).
Tomorrow I
will be in beautiful Prague for the day. I will visit all the cafes that Kafka
used to visit and, if times allows, his tomb in the Jewish Cemetery.
Editor's Note: Click here to read the next blog entry from Semicon Europa!
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