November 4, 2011 - SEMATECH's ISMI Manufacturing Week symposium (Oct. 17-21) included 400 attendees, 12 short courses and workshops, 34 exhibitors and 13 sponsors, and 80 presentations from experts in fab and equipment productivity, yield and metrology, environmental design, simulation and modeling, statistical methods, and other critical areas.

Here's a summary of highlights from the event, supplied by SEMATECH insiders:

-- Prognostics and Health Management Workshop: Discussions centered on development and deployment of data-driven, automated, joint scheduling of maintenance and work-in-progress (WIP). Themes included improved fab performance through prediction and data-leveraged monitoring and control, predicting and monitoring equipment health, and generating optimized scheduling of WIP and maintenance.

-- Obsolete Parts Workshop: Addressed every aspect of parts obsolescence and risks of manufacturing capacity, including a roadmap of future actions.

-- Supplier Leader Workshop: Emphasized the need to facilitate collaboration among end-users and equipment suppliers on reducing energy consumption in semiconductor manufacturing. Updates on energy reduction programs at IBM, Intel, and GlobalFoundries with strategies ranging from idle mode to high-temperature process cooling water and tool energy monitoring, and equipment suppliers' own developments in energy reduction.

-- Nanomaterials biosafety: An inaugural session chaired by Sara Brenner, assistant VP for NanoHealth Initiatives at Albany CNSE, which with SEMATECH is putting together a NanoHealth & Safety Center to proactively address occupational and environmental health and safety concerns. Topics discussed: occupational exposure assessment techniques and protocols; biosensors to help understand the effects of cellular and organism-associated interactions with nanomaterials; and "green" approaches to nanomanufacturing technologies to help reduce the environmental impact of large-scale foundries and nanofabrication facilities.