A Report on the U.S. Semiconductor Industry


Book Description




Chips and Change


Book Description

How the chip industry has responded to a series of crises over the past twenty-five years, often reinventing itself and shifting the basis for global competitive advantage. For decades the semiconductor industry has been a driver of global economic growth and social change. Semiconductors, particularly the microchips essential to most electronic devices, have transformed computing, communications, entertainment, and industry. In Chips and Change, Clair Brown and Greg Linden trace the industry over more than twenty years through eight technical and competitive crises that forced it to adapt in order to continue its exponential rate of improved chip performance. The industry's changes have in turn shifted the basis on which firms hold or gain global competitive advantage. These eight interrelated crises do not have tidy beginnings and ends. Most, in fact, are still ongoing, often in altered form. The U.S. semiconductor industry's fear that it would be overtaken by Japan in the 1980s, for example, foreshadows current concerns over the new global competitors China and India. The intersecting crises of rising costs for both design and manufacturing are compounded by consumer pressure for lower prices. Other crises discussed in the book include the industry's steady march toward the limits of physics, the fierce competition that keeps its profits modest even as development costs soar, and the global search for engineering talent. Other high-tech industries face crises of their own, and the semiconductor industry has much to teach about how industries are transformed in response to such powerful forces as technological change, shifting product markets, and globalization. Chips and Change also offers insights into how chip firms have developed, defended, and, in some cases, lost global competitive advantage.




Sematech


Book Description

Herman and George R. Brown, formidable figures in the construction industry and Texas politics, made a unique business team. Practical and decisive Herman and university-trained, soft-spoken George, a natural salesperson, combined their individual strengths, strong work ethic, and ambition to develop Brown & Root, one of America's preeminent construction companies. Builders serves both as a history of their lives and as an examination of business life in mid-twentieth-century America. In addition to examining the brothers' business accomplishments, Pratt and Castaneda address the political influence and antiunionism associated with the Brown name and present a balanced account of both the Browns' treatment of workers and of their longtime relationship with Lyndon Baines Johnson. Builders also traces the Browns' philanthropy, including the work of the Brown Foundation, through which George in particular contributed to the development of educational and cultural institutions.







Securing the Future


Book Description

Based on the deliberations of a high-level international conference, this report summarizes the presentations of an exceptional group of experts, convened by Intel's Chairman Emeritus Gordon Moore and SEMATECH's Chairman Emeritus William Spencer. The report documents the critical technological challenges facing this key industry and the rapid growth in government-industry partnerships overseas to support centers of semiconductor research and production in national economies. Importantly, the report provides a series of recommendations designed to strengthen U.S. research in disciplines supporting the continued growth of semiconductor industry, an industry which has made major contributions to the remarkable increases in productivity in the U.S. economy.




A History of the World Semiconductor Industry


Book Description

Development of the thermionic valve. Historical survey of early research in semiconductors. Development of the transistor. Major technical processes used in semiconductor device fabrication. Review of major factors affecting the growth of the United States semiconductor industry. Review of the factors affecting the growth of the Japanese and South Korean semiconductor industries. Review of the European semiconductor industry.




Patents in the Knowledge-Based Economy


Book Description

This volume assembles papers commissioned by the National Research Council's Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy (STEP) to inform judgments about the significant institutional and policy changes in the patent system made over the past two decades. The chapters fall into three areas. The first four chapters consider the determinants and effects of changes in patent "quality." Quality refers to whether patents issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) meet the statutory standards of patentability, including novelty, nonobviousness, and utility. The fifth and sixth chapters consider the growth in patent litigation, which may itself be a function of changes in the quality of contested patents. The final three chapters explore controversies associated with the extension of patents into new domains of technology, including biomedicine, software, and business methods.




Fundamentals of Semiconductor Manufacturing and Process Control


Book Description

A practical guide to semiconductor manufacturing from processcontrol to yield modeling and experimental design Fundamentals of Semiconductor Manufacturing and Process Controlcovers all issues involved in manufacturing microelectronic devicesand circuits, including fabrication sequences, process control,experimental design, process modeling, yield modeling, and CIM/CAMsystems. Readers are introduced to both the theory and practice ofall basic manufacturing concepts. Following an overview of manufacturing and technology, the textexplores process monitoring methods, including those that focus onproduct wafers and those that focus on the equipment used toproduce wafers. Next, the text sets forth some fundamentals ofstatistics and yield modeling, which set the foundation for adetailed discussion of how statistical process control is used toanalyze quality and improve yields. The discussion of statistical experimental design offers readers apowerful approach for systematically varying controllable processconditions and determining their impact on output parameters thatmeasure quality. The authors introduce process modeling concepts,including several advanced process control topics such asrun-by-run, supervisory control, and process and equipmentdiagnosis. Critical coverage includes the following: * Combines process control and semiconductor manufacturing * Unique treatment of system and software technology and managementof overall manufacturing systems * Chapters include case studies, sample problems, and suggestedexercises * Instructor support includes electronic copies of the figures andan instructor's manual Graduate-level students and industrial practitioners will benefitfrom the detailed exami?nation of how electronic materials andsupplies are converted into finished integrated circuits andelectronic products in a high-volume manufacturingenvironment. An Instructor's Manual presenting detailed solutions to all theproblems in the book is available from the Wiley editorialdepartment. An Instructor Support FTP site is also available.