SEMATECH celebrates 25 years

ALBANY, USA: This year, SEMATECH, the international consortium of leading semiconductor device, equipment, and materials manufacturers, observes its 25th anniversary and celebrates the pre-competitive collaboration that has been the foundation for many of the industry’s technology and manufacturing breakthroughs.

In the twenty-five years since it was founded, SEMATECH has evolved from a bold five-year experiment in US industry/government cooperation to an international collaboration of the broader semiconductor community, including device makers, universities, governments, national laboratories, and the entire industry supply chain.

Dan Armbrust, SEMATECH’s president and CEO, said:“SEMATECH has changed dramatically since its inception – in the players in the industry, the technologies we’re addressing, and the partners we’re working with around the world. But what remains consistent is our unrelenting push for innovative solutions and the collaborative efforts to solve common challenges through leveraging resources and sharing risks.”

For over two decades, SEMATECH has helped to bring the world’s leading semiconductor manufacturers together to share resources and solve their most pressing technical and manufacturing challenges.

Some of SEMATECH’s key accomplishments include the following:
* Laying the groundwork for wafer size transitions.
* Establishing and maintaining the semiconductor industry roadmap.
* Building industry-wide consensus and developing infrastructure for a succession of next-generation lithography technologies, including EUV.
* Guiding the development of robust copper/low-k and 3D interconnect technologies.
* Receiving the prestigious Climate Protection Award from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for work in reducing perfluorocarbon (PFC) emissions.
* Establishing the Resist and Materials Development Center and the world’s first EUV Mask Blank Development Center, at the College for Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) of the University at Albany.
* Facilitating breakthroughs in advanced device structures and materials, including high-k metal gate stacks and III-V materials.
* Launching the US Photovoltaic Manufacturing Consortium (PVMC), a partnership between SEMATECH and CNSE, to enable the development of advanced PV-related manufacturing processes throughout the US.