Contributed by Karen Lightman, Managing Director, MEMS Industry Group
Day two at SEMICON West started off with a BANG – thanks to the impressive breakfast hosted by Pennwell Electronics Media Group at the oh-so-swanky St. Regis. The program featured several impressive speakers: Pete Singer, editorial director of PennWell’s Electronics Media Group who presented “Technology Trends in Semiconductor, Packaging & Solar Industries.” Pete’s nice overview was followed by Bill McClean, president of IC Insights, who gave an overall presentation on the economic outlook for the semiconductor industry. But the piece de resistance was Andrew Thompson, the co-founder and CEO of Proteus (MIG member company) who gave a fantastic keynote on ”Emerging Applications in the Field of Medicine.” Thompson gave one of the best keynotes I’ve heard in a really long time – he eloquently and simply laid out a story on the consumerization/democratization of healthcare. Bravo – well done.
I spent most of the day reconnecting with lots of folks – MIG members, potential MIG members, partners, friends….Way too many to list here (though I’d like to do a quick call out to Dave Busch of SVTC and Sarah Boisvert of T4Mation). Another highlight was the lovely lunch at the Marriott with Chuck Richardson of iNEMI and MIG colleague, Monica Takacs. We spent lunch discussing the connection between roadmapping and manufacturing protocols/standards.
But I have to say that my proudest and happiest moment was hosting the busting-at-the-seams annual MIG members’ cocktail party – this year at LuLu’s. According to the wait-staff we had close to 130 people in the party. I think we had a super great turnout for a few reasons: MEMS is HOT; and we opened up the party to the Bay Areas MEMS Beer Group (thanks so much for buying some of the beer and pizza!).
I was impressed with the amazing turnout and the quality of the folks in attendance. I was even more impressed with the bar bill – wow! J Thanks to everyone for coming out and special thank you’s to the MIG members who brought potential MIG members with them to show off how the amazing networking that MIG membership offers. I had some fun interviewing some of the MIG members:
The day ended with a lovely evening at SPTS’ launch party at the California Historical Society to celebrate the successful merger of Aviza and STS to create SPP Process Technology Systems (SPTS), “a new leading equipment supplier for plasma etch and deposition, and thermal processing.” I had the opportunity to reconnect with several colleagues at SPTS–again, too many to list here! Plus I had a fun time talking with Francoise von Trapp who did a quick interview with me to explain why she’s the “queen of 3D” (payback for when I sang Happy Birthday to EVG). Then it was time to celebrate Bastille Day…
Day three began with a slight headache (must have been all that smiling and talking I did – nothing to do with the French wine). I ventured to the East Bay to meet with John Huggins and Kim Ly from BSAC (Berkeley Sensor and Actuator Center) at UC Berkeley. On September 15, MIG is co-hosting an impressive session on commercialization and bridging the “dark chasm” from lab to fab – it’s a unique invite only event for BSAC and MIG members – you really don’t want to miss it. Hosted at the LEED Platinum certified David Brower Center, we have secured some very senior folks to speak at the session; including SVTC; Steve Nasiri, CEO and Founder of InvenSense and Stefan Heuser, Senior Advisor of Siemens Corporate Research. We are expecting a senior partner at Intel Capital to confirm any day now and a senior director at the Office of Science Technology Policy Institute (at the White House). It’s going to be a great event. We’ll be sending out an email invite to MIG members soon – but feel free to pre-empt the email and register ASAP as the space is limited!
Okay – my flight’s about to land back home in Pittsburgh (hooray) and I am signing off. My next blog will be from Tokyo where I’ll be exhibiting at Exhibition Micromachine/MEMS and visiting with Professor Esashi and his colleagues at Tohoku University. Don’t touch that dial.
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