Solid State Technology and SEMI today announced the finalists for the 2011 “Best of West” awards, recognizing important product and technology developments in the microelectronics supply chain. Held in conjunction with SEMICON West, the largest and most influential microelectronics exposition in North America, the Best of West finalists have been selected based on their financial impact on the industry, engineering or scientific achievement, and/or societal impact.

The 2011 Best of West Finalists are:

•    The WaferSense® Airborne Particle Sensor (APS) from CyberOptics Semiconductor validates and analyzes wafer contamination in realtime for wafer processing equipment used in the semiconductor market. The Airborne Particle Sensor moves through semiconductor process equipment to monitor airborne particles, reporting information in real-time to allow engineers to efficiently validate wafer contamination.
•    MonolithIC 3D technology from MonolithIC 3D Inc. enables the fabrication of monolithic 3D integrated circuits with multiple stacked transistor layers and vertical connectivity comparable to the horizontal connectivity (10,000x the amount of vertical connectivity of TSV based 3DIC).
•    The UltraMap-TSV system from SigmaTech is the world’s first fully automated through silicon via (TSV) and deep-trench metrology system capable of characterizing both TSV and deep-trench features from both the front and back sides of subject wafers, up to 300mm in diameter.
The selection of finalists was made by a prestigious panel of judges representing a broad spectrum of the microelectronics industry.

The Best of West Award winner will be announced during SEMICON West on Wednesday, July 13, 2011 at 1:00pm.