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weren’t keen to have a competitor
in their backyard. Eventually, Switzerland agreed to support the first
SEMICON Europa in Zurich.
After Europe came Japan, which
hosted its first SEMICON in 1977.
“This was one of the great discussions we always used to have. Should
we let the Japanese people into the
SEMI show [as exhibitors]?”, said
MRC founder Shelly Weinig, who in
1980 received the SEMI award for
his work in electronic materials.
“Of course you had to let them in
because that’s what the world’s all
about. If you don’t let them in they’re
going to start their own show down
the street. If you’re going to be the
representative of an industry, you’ve
got to represent the industry. And I
think it changed the whole character
of SEMI,” he said in a 2006 interview.
The idea was also welcomed by
equipment companies in Japan. “The
SEMICON show [in Japan] met great
turnout from the very beginning
because the Japanese semiconductor
industry was picking up very rapidly
at that time,” said Nikon’s Shoichiro
Yoshida, who would also serve a
term as SEMI chairman. “Many of
our customers were coming to look
at our equipment.”
When US-Japan trade friction
loomed over the industry in the
1980s, SEMI stepped in to bridge the
divide. Kenneth Levy, co-founder
of KLA-Tencor, was instrumental in
establishing the SEMI International
Trade Partners Conference (ITPC).
“The Americans didn’t know how
to do business in Japan, the Japanese
didn’t know how to do business in
the United States,” Levy said. “So we
said, ‘let’s have a conference where
we’ll teach one another’. And we
decided on Hawaii [as the location]
because it was halfway between, it
was a rather neutral territory.”
Yoshida said the atmosphere at
ITPC was “tremendous”.
“While the device manufacturers
were in the midst of US-Japan trade
friction, [the equipment industry]
had a trade partners conference in
Hawaii. The people from the device
manufacturers envied us.”
Much of SEMI’s international
expansion came under the leadership
of Bill Reed, who was hired as SEMI
president in 1983.
“Frankly, I think he gave his life
for SEMI because he just traveled
too much,” said Ross. “Bill was…
in his ‘70s and he was still flitting
around the world. Several of us did
all we could to get him to slow down
and retire but he loved what he did.
He died a happy man.”
This article is based on interviews
conducted by Craig Addison for the
SEMI oral history project, from 2004
to 2008.
KLA Introduces Electron-Beam Defect
Inspection System
KLA Corporation has announced
the eSL10™ e-beam patterned-wafer
defect inspection system. The new
system is designed to accelerate
time-to-market for high-performance
logic and memory chips, including
those that rely on extreme ultraviolet
(EUV) lithography, by detecting
and reporting defects that cannot be
routinely captured by optical or other
e-beam defect inspection platforms.
Built from the ground up, with
multiple breakthrough technologies
reflecting years of research and
development, the eSL10 delivers high
resolution, high speed inspection
capability, unmatched by any other
e-beam system on the market.
“With a single, high current-density electron beam, the
eSL10 system has raised e-beam
inspection performance to a new
level,” said Amir Azordegan, general
manager of the e-beam division
at KLA. “Before now, e-beam inspection systems have offered either
sensitivity or speed, severely limiting
practical application. Our talented
engineering team has taken an
entirely new approach to e-beam architecture and algorithms, designing
a system that can solve problems not
KLA’s revolutionary eSL10™
e-beam patterned wafer defect
inspection system detects
and identifies critical defects,
accelerating time to market for
advanced ICs.
addressed by existing tools. Today
Continued on page 10
KLA is putting
8 | Tuesday, July 21www.semiconductordigest.com
