New ES Design West Links Electronic Product Design and Manufacturing Supply Chains

I was at the SEMICON show in China last week.  The crowds were enormous, and the energy was intense.  Whatever you might think about the consolidation at the front-end of the SoC design chain, the back-end is continuing to thrive and grow.  But you may not know there is a new synergy between the traditional SEMI manufacturing audience and the system design focus of the ESD-Alliance which recently became an independent association of SEMI.org.

Silvaco joined SEMI and the ESD-A alliance earlier this year.  You can see the press release about it here.   Why did we become a member?  Our CEO David Dutton outlined it clearly: “Meeting the challenges of innovating novel semiconductors for AI, Big Data, Smart Cities and Autonomous Driving requires a closer collaboration with designers, device developers, manufacturers and the design automation community.  SEMI and the ESD Alliance bring these stakeholders together.  Silvaco is well positioned to be a strong participant due to our ability to simulate semiconductor processes, devices and materials along with our EDA and IP solutions for IC design.”

The ESD-Alliance sponsored an ESD Executive Session at Semicon China titled “AI-enabled Smart Application Opportunities and IC Design Solutions”.  Ajit Manocha, SEMI president and CEO, and Lung Chu, president of SEMI China, offered opening remarks.  A panel was moderated by Xiaoning Qi, vice president of Alibaba Group, and companies Cadence Design Systems, Dell EMC, Mentor, Synopsys and UNISOC were included as panel speakers.  There was a good crowd of about 120 in the audience ready to hear the discussion but certainly not the size you would expect to see at a more ESD centered show.

The number one show for ESD in the US is the Design Automation Conference, of course, and it will be held in Las Vegas, NV this year.  But a brand-new Bay Area ESD show will be coming in July this year at the SEMICON West show in San Francisco.  There is some controversy about the new show since the ESD Alliance in the past was a sponsor of DAC, but now has now thrown its support to ES Design West, a co-located event on the Expo floor of SEMICON West.  Can we have two shows devoted to the ESD Ecosystem in the US on the West coast?  I think so, but time will tell.

Silvaco is embracing the wider vision of SEMI and the ESD-Alliance since we play in the three of the four silos of the SEMI and ESD-Alliance ecosystems.

If the world of ESD is to grow we need to have new faces, a bigger collaboration, learn and do something new.  Fortunately, the world of semiconductors is always briskly changing and providing new opportunities.

One of the new opportunities is Design Technology Co-Optimization.  This brings together semiconductor device and process developers, with equipment companies, process characterization and low-power technology teams to build a digital cell that is optimized across the layout, device, process and atomistic physics domains.  This will be essential to keep on doing More than Moore to meet the demands for Mobile, Data center, AI/ML and IoT solutions that want to perform better but use less power, silicon, and money.

When we first heard about ES Design West, we asked ourselves: What does this new show bring?

Here are some of our thoughts:

• An opportunity to be at the start of something brand new and to be able to help mold it.
• Create a new brand identity and new venue for design ecosystem members.
• ES Design West at SEMICON West would bring together the entire electronic product design and manufacturing supply chain into one event.
• It’s in the Bay Area.
• Silvaco is a member of SEMI and the ESD Alliance and intends to fully support and take advantage of their events and initiatives. Why else would we belong?

The obvious conclusion is the one we chose: Silvaco is an inaugural exhibitor at an industry event that will have more than 10,000 visitors.

Not to be overlooked is the ES Design West Advisory Committee of senior industry executives and professionals that have put together a commercially oriented program.  At the Smart Design Pavilion, there will be six sessions per day over a three-day period.  Session topics include: More than Moore, Silicon Design in the Cloud, Security, Design for Low Energy, Machine Learning/ AI and EDA, and Advanced Applications.

We look forward to a closer collaboration with designers, device developers, manufacturers and the design automation community at the show.  Silvaco will be at ES Design West July 9-11 in Moscone Center’s South Hall in San Francisco.  We look forward to seeing you at the show.