EE 310 seminar - Pushkar Apte (SIA)

Semiconductor Industry: Inflection and Innovation

Pushkar Apte
Vice President, Technology
Semiconductor Industry Association

Host: Prof. Krishna Saraswat

Tuesday, March 2, 2010
4:15 - 5:05 pm
Hewlett 102

Unprecedented global shifts in markets and technology are creating an inflection point for the semiconductor chip-driven high-tech ecosystem. Corporations in the developed economies were the leading users of high-tech products for a few decades, but the market has shifted rapidly over the last few years to the consumer and to emerging economies. These segments have a different set of needs and diverging perceptions of value, which makes the development of new products and solutions challenging. In parallel, we are reaching the limits of progression of the current workhorse technology. This has led to an escalation, at a never-before pace, in the cost for developing new products and in the number of technology options. This is true for each element of the supply-chain, including design, process technology, manufacturing, packaging, software and systems. These challenges are accentuated further by the global economic downturn. Challenge also brings opportunity, and future growth has many exciting drivers – including nanotechnologies, new applications like energy and healthcare, and an increasing customer base in emerging economies. However, a fresh approach is needed to support the new vectors of research and innovation, together with creative networking and collaboration models to minimize cost. In this paper, we present a "big-picture view" of the causes and development of this high-tech inflection, and outline possible actions for industry, academia and government to realize the opportunity created.

Biography: Dr. Pushkar Apte is vice-president of Technology Programs, for the Semiconductor Industry Association. As such he has oversight responsibility for all of the technology activities of the SIA. This includes the SIA's International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors. It also includes the collaborative efforts of the manufacturing and research consortia, (SEMATECH, SRC) set up by the SIA in the 1980s, and the Focus Center program set up by the SIA in 1998. His experience includes five years at Texas Instruments Incorporated, where he worked on cutting-edge research and technology development, and five years with McKinsey & Company, as their global semiconductor expert. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University in Materials Science and Electrical Engineering, and his B.S. degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Varanasi, India.