Realizing the future for the semiconductor industry meeting the challenges of process, design and business

The semiconductor industry has achieved unparalleled success in terms not only of technology and growth, but has also spawned a multitude of other successful products such as cell phones and PCs. These advances have been based on our ability to shrink the size and cost of integrated circuits. We are now reaching a decade where the technical and material challenges will grow increasingly difficult as we introduce non-optical lithography, new gate materials and low-k dielectrics for interconnection. Significant challenges also exist in design and test as we seek to manage increasingly complex circuits at higher frequencies. Finally, the industry is not without its business challenges, seeking to. better balance supply/demand cyclicality and to find new applications for revenue growth. The industry is aware of these challenges and has marshaled resources to attack them. This paper will review the challenges and the proposed solutions and will also discuss the role of consortia in helping to resolve them.