Publication of 1000th SEMI international standard caps 40+ years of microelectronics innovation
SAN FRANCISCO, CA—In the midst of the first day of its 49th annual SEMICON West conference and expo in San Francisco, electronics manufacturing and design supply chain global industry association SEMI announced July 9 the publication of the 1,000th SEMI international standard since the launch of the program in 1973.
During a press event at SEMICON West, SEMI Americas president Dave Anderson announced the news, while SEMI has been marketing its "1000 Standards and counting" slogan since announcing that development of the newest standard—SEMI S30—this past June 13. Minutes after Anderson's briefing, SEMI distributed a press release on the matter.
“SEMI Standards are the oxygen of the electronics industry, speeding product development, boosting product reliability, driving down manufacturing costs, and increasing factory efficiency while improving worker safety,” said Ajit Manocha, SEMI president and CEO in the release. “Electronics have evolved to deliver greater social good across automotive, healthcare, agriculture and countless other industries that touch our daily lives. These innovations all start with SEMI Standards.”
As the 1,000th SEMI Standard, SEMI S30 defines the safe use and handling of energetic materials, the potentially hazardous process chemicals used increasingly in semiconductor manufacturing to spur advances in materials purity, integrity, and quality. SEMI S30 is titled EHS Guideline for Use of Energetic Materials in Semiconductor R&D and Manufacturing Processes.
"SEMI S30 exemplifies the tremendous value of standards to the electronics manufacturing supply chain,” said James Amano, senior director of International Standards and EHS at SEMI. “Chemical suppliers, equipment manufacturers, semiconductor manufacturers and third-party evaluators can now follow SEMI S30’s stringent protocols to ensure the safe handling of energetic materials across the supply chain.”
SEMI described its SEMI Standards as a linchpin of innovation for electronics manufacturing, making possible smaller, faster, and smarter electronics that have transformed the way we live and work.
"SEMI Standards are as pervasive as their impact is profound," SEMI stated. "They have enabled the production of more than 2.2 billion wafers, 1.8 trillion IC devices. A purchase order for a piece of semiconductor processing equipment typically cites an average of 25 SEMI Standards. The 1,000 SEMI Standards include protocols for hardware and software communication, traceability, 3D-IC, compound semiconductors, facilities, MEMS, metrics, silicon wafer, carriers and automation systems. The Standards are used in many segments including display, photovoltaic, printed circuit board manufacturing and high-brightness LEDs."
