The 25th Annual SPWCC, a Grand Success!!!

The “best conference ever” was among the numerous complimentary remarks about the 25th annual conference. Among the highlights were the 3 Keynote Invited Speakers, excellent state-of-the-art papers, and the networking.

Stan Myers, the President and CEO of SEMI, started the conference off with a very stimulating and thought provoking presentation on “The China Syndrome and What It Means to the Semiconductor Industry”. He stated that it could be a good or bad thing depending on how the US responded to the rapid growth of the industry in China during the last five years. For the most part, he saw the opportunities outweighing the losses. He particularly emphasized, however, the dramatic need for better education in math and science, subjects where the US is being outperformed in countries like China, India, and Japan. Innovation and creativity in the US also needs to regain its position of number one in the world.

Glenn Gale, VP, FEOL Cleaning, SEZ AG was the Technical Invited Speaker. He gave an informative talk on wafer cleaning that created a lot of discussion after his talk. Glenn talked of many important issues now confronting the industry and showed some significant bits of information that unfortunately are priority and cannot be released in the Conference Proceedings or CD.

The Honorable Guest Speaker was Professor Tadahiro Ohmi, Ph.D. from Tohoko University in Sendei, Japan. After reviewing a few facts about cleaning he went into new approaches and ideas many of which the Japanese are already using. These emphasized the absolute need for single wafer protection from air and therefore oxygen during the cleaning process. Professor Ohmi, who has been a very active supporter of SPWCC for over ten years, received a plaque in honor of his participation and his continued support. Both his and Stan Myers slides have been released to go on the CD.

The papers this year seemed very pertinent to what is going on in the cleaning part of wafer production. The attendees seemed to not want to miss any papers and Wednesday sessions were even fuller than Tuesday’s. There were over 110 attendees which was an increase of 30% over last year's conference.

Networking was certainly going on at every opportunity. The breaks were loud with conversation and the celebration dinner a fun filled evening with lots of discussion that went on long after the dinner was supposed to have ended.

Marjorie Balazs, the Conference Chair, did present a dilemma that needs real attention. In both the poster board presentations that covered (with pictures) past programs and her delivery of the history and future needs of SPWCC, she made it very clear that help was needed to keep this conference going. She mentioned areas where people can participate. These included session chairs, more sponsors, more help in getting papers for the conference, association with companies that would use their e-mail list to help disseminate information about the conference. See where you can help with SPWCC 2007, "Help needed for the 26th Annual SPWCC " elsewhere on this web page.

All in all the conference was relaxing, informative, and full of new information. With sufficient help we can look forward to SPWCC 2007.