ISA Thought Leadership Forum
Speaker: Michael R Splinter
President & CEO, Applied Materials Inc.
Hotel Royal Orchid,Bangalore
Wednesday, October 31 2007

Panel Discussion
International Workshop on Physics of
Semiconductor Devices
IIT Powai, Mumbai
Tuesday, December 18 2007

The chief guest for the evening, Dr. R. Chidambaram, Principal Scientific Adviser, Government of India, held forth on the Government’s role on various fronts: Building talent capacities, enabling a hassle-free regulatory process and favorable policy initiatives for the growth of the Indian semiconductor industry. The gathering benefitted greatly from Dr. Chidambaram’s insight and perspective.

The Technovation Awards have been instituted by the ISA and VSI (VLSI Society of India) to recognize and promote excellence in the field of semiconductor research and innovation. The awards are also a platform for fresh talent to excel.

The 2007 edition of the Technovation Awards went to a deserving group of researchers who have achieved pioneering advances in the semiconductor domain. These winners were chosen by a jury from industry and academia.

The dinner was supported by Axis Bank.

We are delighted with the growth and contributions of Applied Materials India to Applied Materials’ global position. A lot of hard work and dedication has gone into setting this up. The talent and effort of Applied Materials India employees have contributed to its significant growth. The growing pains have been effectively dealt with because of corporate as well as individual commitments make this operation successful.

The real challenge has been in finding people with background in designing complex mechano-electrical systems. All of our engineers are given intellectually challenging assignments. The kind of problems they have to tackle on a daily basis ensures that innovation forms the bedrock of all development activities here. We expose our engineers to complex engineering problems that have high cost pressure and short-term delivery milestones. Innovation thrives in this kind of a challenging atmosphere.

Applied Materials was one of the early firms to partner with academic institutions in India for joint research pursuits. How has been the experience; in terms of expected and actual output?

It has been both intellectually stimulating and technically rewarding. Our collaborations with India's leading academic institutions and research labs on Nano-manufacturing technology problems in electronics and energy areas have been very fruitful. We are also delighted to be able to jointly publish papers and host faculty and students at Applied Materials as part of the collaboration. The results and solutions we obtained are expanding the scope of collaboration between Applied and Indian academic institutions.

An active engagement with the academic community would certainly quicken the progress in our R&D efforts. We would like the very best of researchers to support us in enhancing the capabilities of the tools - both in terms of quality and quantity - of things they process. For example, the flat panel monitor was costing US$40,000 per piece, because the size of the glass substrates on which the transistors were made, was less than a meter. Now, state-of-the-art process equipment allows one to handle 2.5m X 2.2 m (almost the size of a room) that leads to the mass production of the substrates. This has contributed to their reduced costs.

Personally, where do you see the industry heading in terms of technologies?

In the next few years, I see flash and memory technologies driving the growth and direction of the semiconductor industry. Silicon-rich products that drive information and entertainment will grow. There are fundamental challenges related to patterning and integration of new materials that need to be addressed to go down Moore’s productivity plot.

Important problems in energy (especially solar technology) can be solved by the application of Nano-manufacturing technologies. Other areas of opportunity are in storage, OLED, LED and environmental technologies such as carbon dioxide sequestration and water purification/filtration methods.

The 14-member team from the semiconductor manufacturing focused companies of Israel met with prospective customers and the STPI in Hyderabad and Bangalore. These included a start-up Indian semi-conductor manufacturer and chip design firms.

The companies from Israel included Applied Materials, CI Systems Contel Automation & Control, Habonim Industrial Valves, Ham-Let Products, ITH Israeli Test House, Nova Measuring Instruments, Pach Taas (Ashkelon), Tefen Management Consulting, Tower Semiconductor and Filt Air. Israel is ranked high in the global semiconductor space.

The team met with their counterparts in Taiwan and explored areas of mutual cooperation, technology transfer and business opportunities. The visit coincided with the “Invest in India” mission to Taiwan.

The key objective of the MoU is to foster business relationships among member companies of the respective industry groups.

The Government of India announced the much awaited guidelines for special incentive package scheme to encourage investments for setting up semiconductor fabrication and other micro and nano technology manufacturing industries in India.

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