Skip Larson

Last month, the semiconductor industry converged on the “City by the Bay” to discuss a wide range of solutions for design, manufacture and test. Under the banner of “Building a Path Forward,” more than 570 exhibitors showcased solutions at San Francisco’s Moscone Center. This year’s discussions focused on the opportunity and challenges the industry will face as semiconductor sales approach the $1 trillion level by 2030, up from $600 million today. Key issues that will either support or hinder the industry include closing technology gaps and critical talent shortages, along with limiting supply chain disruptions and the impact on climate change. What was clear is that delivering high-performance chips with increasingly complex 3D structures at atomic-scale dimensions is demanding more sophisticated wafer process solutions based on real world-processing data to accelerate modeling for faster design turns than ever before.