Innovative Flanders Innovation Policies for the 21st Century: Report of a Symposium (2008) / Chapter Skim
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Session III: Cooperative Research and Global Competition in Semiconductors
Session III: Cooperative Research and Global Competition in Semiconductors
Pages 64-79
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From page 64... ...
Flash memory was replacing rotating memory, he said, a trend that would accelerate, and analog devices were being "pulled along." Optoelectronics, with growing use in sensors, was becoming a major contributor, while the fastest growing segment was digital signal processing.
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From page 65... ...
"The overall functionality/cost equation makes it incredibly cheap to buy a PC now," he said, "and I don't see any reason why that won't continue." Semiconductor technology had entered the nanometer range already, bringing a "whole host of challenges." In about a decade, he said, the continual shrinking of semiconductors would bring the industry up against physical barriers -- power dissipation limits, technological limits, and economic limits -- that "may slow us down a little bit." He cited heat dissipation as a particular problem. But he predicted that the industry was on the right track with both design solutions and process technologies to continues its progress.
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From page 66... ...
Its research program involves 5 centers, about 35 universities, 200 faculty, and 400 graduate students to "drive the technology forward and bring out new young talent." Another SRC program is the Nanoelectronics Research Initiative. Its research objective is to explore ideas and demonstrate proof of concept for a new logic device by 2020.
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From page 67... ...
to move China in a technological direction, advising on such topics as corporate bonds, startup investment funds, debt financing, development zones, and venture capital. According to the 11th Five Year
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From page 68... ...
Another is to give foreign R&D investors with rising development expenses a 50 percent discount in corporate income tax.18 A third is to design procurement regulations that favor domestic products.19 China's import policy is similarly designed to help China by "watching what comes in and absorbing it." One ministry recommends increasing "the investment in assimilation and absorption" of imported technologies to "gradually establish a market-oriented system of" technology imports and innovation.20 Other important policies, he said, attempt to guide development. A key one is an antimonopoly policy that aims to "prevent vicious competition in the industries, which if used in a discriminating fashion, could impair foreign investment which has been central to China's drive to innovate." In addition, to promote investment, the government provides relief from "social responsibilities." Local government authorities have set aside billions of dollars to build semiconductor fabs for Chinese companies.
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From page 69... ...
China, unlike Japan, has encouraged foreign direct investment as a key component of its innovation policy. It has also begun to improve IP protection, and has created incentives for indigenous patenting.
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From page 70... ...
Mr. Wolff said local innovation is still the exception, but the steady inflow of repatriated engineers from around the world is likely to raise the level of local innovation.
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From page 71... ...
"But 10 years ago revenue growth slowed, and the consensus now is for roughly 6.5 percent revenue growth. The only way to keep the R&D budget under control is by sharing costs and allowing access to external R&D." Within the product life cycle, IMEC positions itself at the non-competitive stages, "right after university work," where joint research is appropriate and more and more a necessity (must-have technology platforms)
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From page 72... ...
He added that while IMEC is careful about claiming to be the biggest anything, "I think it's fair to say that this is the world's largest industry commitment to semiconductor research in partnership." He showed a drawing of the IMEC campus, which holds both its original 200mm pilot line in Clean Room 1 and the new 300mm pilot line in Clean Room 2, which have total clean room space of about 8,000 square meters. About 45 tools had been installed in the 300mm room; the equipment arrived in August 2006.
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From page 73... ...
Professor Flamm asked what he termed an "impolite question" about the presence in Flanders of large multinational semiconductor companies. Was not IMEC essentially subsidizing research for these firms, none of whom had production facilities in Flanders?
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From page 74... ...
A Trend of Price Improvement He pointed out a notable improvement in the prices of MPUs for three periods: 1991-1995, 1995-1999, and 1991-1999. He used calculations based on common economic price index methodology and price performance improvement in different categories of semiconductor products.
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From page 75... ...
Begun under the aegis of the National Advisory Committee on Semiconductors at a workshop held in 1992, it evolved into a broader attempt to coordinate a complex process of technology development to a point where products would all come online when needed to advance manufacturing. The First National Technology Roadmap came out in 1994, with much of the technical leadership provided by SEMATECH.
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From page 76... ...
So this gain in speed, he concluded, was another benefit of the acceleration in nodes, beyond merely reducing manufacturing cost. The Importance of Manufacturing Gains Price performance improvement, however, had slowed in the last year and a half as MPUs hit a "brick wall" related to power and heat dissipation in 20042005, and this decline coincided with a slowdown in the rate of processor speed
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From page 77... ...
The program provides funding for about 1,000 graduate students; Texas Instruments supports student preparation generally, on the premise that students represent the future employees for the industry.
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From page 78... ...
Many research staff are also university faculty, and there are many grad students working at IMEC with strength in advanced device concepts demonstration and testing. • Public support.
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From page 79... ...
The complexity of this flow provides numerous opportunities for collaboration on many challenges, and provides strong rationales for the roles of both SEMATECH and IMEC. Texas Instruments receives unique value from its memberships in both IMEC and SMT, he said, because they each focus on areas of particular strength.
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