This week, the 61st Design Automation Conference took over Moscone West in San Francisco. A variety of ESD Alliance member companies were on the exhibit floor with a handsome selection of colorful booths.

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A reminder that nominations are being accepted now through June 30 for the 2024 Phil Kaufman Award and the Phil Kaufman Hall of Fame co-sponsored by the ESD Alliance and the IEEE Council on Electronic Design Automation (CEDA). The awards, determined by a committee of volunteers from both organizations, recognize individuals whose contributions made an impact within electronic system design in business, industry direction, promotion, technology and engineering, educational or mentoring.

The Phil Kaufman Award honors EDA pioneer Phil Kaufman who turned innovative technologies such as silicon compilation and emulation into businesses that have benefited electronic designers. The Phil Kaufman Hall of Fame posthumously recognizes individuals who made significant and noteworthy contributions through creativity, entrepreneurism and innovation to the electronic system design industry and were not recipients of the Phil Kaufman Award.

Nomination forms are found on the ESD Alliance website.

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The Electronic Systems Design (ESD) Alliance is part of SEMI, a large and diverse industry association of companies in the electronics design and manufacturing supply chain noted for its many yearly events. One is the Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Conference (ASMC), held May 14-16 this year in the Hilton Hotel, a new venue for the conference in Albany, NY.

ASMC continued the tradition of excellent technical presentations on a variety of topics related to semiconductor manufacturing. Sessions covered Yield Enhancement; Advanced Metrology; Advanced Equipment, Processes and Materials; Manufacturing for Sustainability; Defect Inspection; Equipment Optimization; Advanced Process Control; Smart Manufacturing; Contamination Free Manufacturing; Big Data Management and Mining; and 3D through silicon via (TSV) and Novel Advanced Silicon Processing.

While attendees came from around the world for the technical content, the event included opportunities for networking and a little bit of fun.

A highlight was a lunchtime robotics demonstration from FIRST Team 20, the Rocketeers from Shenendehowa High School in nearby Clifton Park, NY. A founding team in the FIRSTⓡ Robotics Program, it has competed in robotics competitions since 1992 helping students to develop both content and soft skills that are transferable to college and career. And over the years, the team has adapted nimbly to the ever-changing technology landscape.

The team currently consists of more than 100 passionate high school students and recently competed at the regional level at the New York Tech Valley Regional Robotics Competition and the Hudson Valley Regional Robotics Competition.

Although the competitions include robots from multiple teams competing on the court simultaneously, the ASMC demo sponsored by TEL was somewhat simpler. At lunch on day two of ASMC, the students brought a robot to play catch using foam rings. Under the control of the students, the robot traveled to a ring and picked it up from the floor, then tossed it toward the students and conference attendees, who would then toss it back toward the robot and the process repeated. The students could easily control the robot to pick up each ring, then adjust the vertical angle of the ring toss.

Although the demo is simpler than the actual competition, it provided the team an opportunity to interact with sponsors and leaders in the semiconductor technology community. It was clear during the demo that the students enjoyed the opportunity to demonstrate their robot and share their passion for FIRST.

To learn more about SEMI’s other programs or the FIRST Robots Program, contact me at pcohen@semi.org.

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