SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — July 13, 2022 — SEMI, the global industry association that unites the entire electronics manufacturing and design supply chain, announced it honored industry leaders for their outstanding accomplishments in developing Standards for the electronics and related industries. The SEMI Standards awards were presented at the SEMI International Standards reception held at SEMICON West 2022 Hybrid, July 12-14 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

SEMI International Standards Excellence Award

Presented since 1992, the Excellence Award this year honored the following leadership team of the Electron Microscopy Workflow Task Force including the primary task force leaders, document author, and SEMI Japan task force leaders:

• Richard Young, Thermo Fisher Scientific
• Laurens Kwakman, Consultant, formerly of Thermo Fisher Scientific
• Peter Wagner, Consultant
• Kyoichiro Asayama, JEOL
• Tsuyoshi Onishi, Hitachi High-Tech

The task force leaders identified gaps in standards needed to modernize the entire transmission electron microscope (TEM) workflow in semiconductor manufacturing lines in 2016 and led the formation of the Electron Microscopy Workflow Task Force. The effort involved a wide range of stakeholders including device manufacturers, TEM and related equipment manufacturers, and lamella carrier suppliers under the Physical Interfaces & Carriers North America Technical Committee Chapter.

The continuing work of the Electron Microscopy Workflow Task Force leadership team to automate the electron microscopy workflow will help the semiconductor industry improve quality and yields while accelerating time-to-market of advanced node devices.

Corporate Device Manufacturer Award

The North American SEMI International Standards Corporate Device Member Award recognizes a representative from a device manufacturer for outstanding contributions to the development of SEMI Standards.

Ryan Bond of Intel, with the support of the Fab & Equipment Computer and Device Security (CDS) Task Force, published the newest cybersecurity standard, SEMI E188 - Specification for Malware Free Equipment Integration. The Standard mitigates the spread of malware to manufacturing facilities during capital equipment delivery and support activities and helps both device manufacturers and equipment suppliers improve equipment reliability and uptime. Bond was instrumental in collecting and integrating feedback from multiple stakeholders, as well as crafting a cybersecurity standard that addresses the malware issue throughout the semiconductor supply chain.

Merit Award

The North American SEMI International Standards Merit Award recognizes major contributions to the SEMI International Standards Program in solving complex problems at the task force level and driving projects to completion.

• Stacy Ajouri of Texas Instruments and Mark Roos of Roos Instruments formed the RITdb Task Force under the Automated Test Equipment North America (NA) Global Technical Committee and drove the publication of SEMI E183 - Specification for Rich Interactive Test Database (RITdb). Describing data and event communications within a semiconductor test cell, the Standard will help test developers and end users resolve technical issues faster by providing real-time equipment updates.

• Carlo Luijten of ASML introduced high-level concepts for a second process cooling water (PCW) circuit at a higher temperature in addition to a refrigerated PCW to reduce energy consumption in factories. Luijten provided technical inputs and guidance that led to the revision to SEMI S23 - Guide for Conservation of Energy, Utilities and Materials Used by Semiconductor Manufacturing Equipment, published in October 2021.

• Michelle Bourke of Lam Research became a MEMS/NEMS North America co-chair in 2019 and re-energized two task forces to help drive the publication of two new MEMS-specific standards – SEMI MS12 - Specification for Silicon Substrates Used in Fabrication of MEMS Devices; and SEMI MS13 - Guide for Use of Test Patterns for Characterizing a Deep Reactive Ion Etching (DRIE) Process. Bourke and the SEMI-MSIG Manufacturing Working Group paved the way for the collaboration needed to address pre-competitive MEMS/NEMS challenges.

• Sreeni Rao of TDK InvenSense spearheaded the formation of the MEMS and Miniaturized Gas Sensing Task Force under the SEMI MEMS/NEMS North America Global Technical Committee. Rao and the SEMI-MSIG Device Working Group were instrumental in developing and publishing a new standard for MEMS and miniaturized gas sensors – SEMI MS14 - Guide for Critical Parameters of Gas Sensors.

Leadership Award

The North American SEMI International Standards Leadership Award recognizes individuals who have strengthened the SEMI Standards Program through member training, mentoring, and new member recruitment. Leaders play a critical role in grooming new volunteers to become productive committee contributors, efficiently guiding them through the standardization process.

Albert Fuchigami of PEER Group Inc. helped various group leaders navigate the SEMI Regulations in order to ballot numerous documents successfully. He co-leads the Information & Control (I&C) NA Diagnostic Data Acquisition Task Force and is a technical contributor to other groups including the I&C Advanced Backend Factory Integration, Computer Device Security, Generic Equipment Model (GEM) 300, Graphic User Interface, Metrics E-RAMP, Automated Test Equipment RITdb, and Traceability Equipment and Materials Traceability task forces.

Honor Award

The North American SEMI International Standards Honor Award recognizes individuals with a long-standing commitment to advancing SEMI Standards. 

Chris Evanston of Salus Engineering International has participated in SEMI Standards for more than 25 years, leading numerous task forces including the SEMI S27 (Evaluation Reports), S28 (Robotic and Load Port), and S2 Korea High Pressure Gas Safety Task Forces. Currently, he helps lead the SEMI S7 (Evaluation Qualification) Revision and S22 (Electrical) Revision Task Forces as co-chair of the Environmental, Health and Safety North America Technical Committee Chapter. He also co-chairs the NA Regional Standards Committee. With his long tenure, Evanston has become an effective mentor for the EH&S NA Global Technical Committee.