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SEMI’s Great Moments in Semiconductor
History
In 1980, SEMI commissioned a series
of paintings depicting great moments
in semiconductor history. This later
led to a half-hour video where you
can hear first-hand stories from some
of the pioneers who led this revolution, now hosted on Vimeo.
The painting shown illustrates the
conception of the SEMICON trade
show, a milestone that marks the
emergence of the semiconductor
equipment industry.
Fred Kulicke (left) and William
Hugle (right) conceived the SEMICON
show in 1970 and the first show was
held a year later at the San Mateo
Fairgrounds in California with Philip
Gregory (center) as the show manager.
There were ~80 exhibitors at the
first show and 2800 people attended
it. In the decade that followed, the
SEMICON shows have helped mold
the once-fragmented semiconductor
materials and equipment business
into a cohesive industry. With it,
(No. 4 in a series of paintings by Jim deLeon commemorating
Great Moments in Semiconductor History,” commissioned by the
Semiconductor Equipment and Materials Institute.) Source: The Chip
History Center, © 1980 SEMI.
what would become known as SEMI,
was founded at the Semiconductor
Equipment and Materials Institute
with 55 companies as initial members.
Gregory was the first head of SEMI
and he would lead it well into the
1980s as the show eventually outgrew
the fairgrounds and had to be moved to
Moscone Center. The first SEMICON
would become known as SEMICON
West when new shows were created
around the world.
How SEMI Overcame Initial Resistance to
Become a Global Organization
When SEMI was formed in 1970, a
global organization wasn’t in anybody’s wildest dreams
“The first time I can remember
anybody talking about a worldwide
SEMI was at a planning meeting in
Cape Cod,” recalls Joe Ross, who
was then CEO of Micro Mask and
SEMI chairman in 1983.
“At that board meeting Chuck
www.semiconductordigest.com
Drexel proposed that the board
consider a worldwide SEMI; Japan,
Europe and the US. And to be very
candid, he got shot down. That’s a
polite way of putting it.”
The first overseas event was
SEMICON Europa in 1975. SEMI
hired Rich Banks, who also staged
the earlier SEMICON shows in the
Bay area, to put on the European
show.
Banks also remembers push back
on the idea of going global but he
was keen for personal reasons.
“From the start, I was thinking international. I’ve studied German all my
life,” he said in an interview in 2004.
In Germany, there was resistance
from the organizers of the giant ElecContinued on page 8
tronica show, who
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