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The SEMI Award for North America was established in 1979 to recognize enabling technical contributions by individuals and teams to the microelectronics industry. 

For more information about the SEMI Award for North America, please Click here.

Year

Recipient

Contribution

Area

2021 Everspin Technologies

Development and first Commercialization of
STT-MRAM Memory

Process and Technology Integration

2020

ASML

Commercialization of Extreme
Ultra Violet Lithography
(EUV) Commercialization of Extreme 
Ultra Violet Lithography (EUV)

Manufacturing Process and Process Equipment

2019 Waymo (formerly the Google self-driving car project)

First Commercialization of Autonomous Vehicles for Public Roads

Automotive

2018

Philip Gadd, Intel

Developing and producing
the first high volume monolithic photonic transmitting and receiving transceiver.

Process and Technology Integration
2017 Bryan Black, PhD, AMD Integration of the "Fiji" graphics
3D-SiP
Process and Technology Integration
2017 Micron Development of the Hybrid
Memory Cube and Co-Founding the Hybrid Memory Cube Consortium
Process and Technology Integration
2015 Prof. Chenming Hu, Ph.D. Development of the BSIM
Families of Compact Transistor Model
                      
Process and Technology Integration
2015 Alex Lidow, PhD
 
Commercialization of GaN
Power Devices                     
Process and Technology Integration
2014 Terry Brewer, Ph.D.,  President, Brewer Science

Invention and commercialization of anti-reflective coatings  used in optical lithography

Dr. Terry Brewer invented an anti-reflective coating that was effective in eliminating reflective interference and provided good adhesion to multiple materials and resist. At the time, anti-reflective coating were a radical approach. Brewer Science, Inc., founded in 1981, developed and commercialized anti-reflective coating materials instrumental in the industry’s progress from g-line to 248nm to 193nm lithography, and now to extreme ultraviolet (EUV) and directed self-assembly (DSA) technology.

Lithography
2014 Jason C.S. Chang Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board

Commercialization of copper wire bonds

In the 1980s the semiconductor industry began exploring less costly alternatives for wire bonding. In 2006, Jason Chang and Tien Wu
of ASE committed to underwrite risk, resolve technical problems, and address customer concerns.
In 2007 they started working with materials and equipment vendors to establish a supply chain and also with foundries to establish metallurgy for bonding pads compatible with copper wire bonds. In 2009, Chang and Wu had dramatic results with a few selected customers. By 2013, more than half of ASE production was in copper wire bonds and today it exceeds 70 percent. ASE moved copper wire bonds into volume production and the industry continues to benefit from their efforts.

Assembly and Packaging
2013 Dr. Mark Law, University of Florida
Dr. Kevin Jones,University of Florida
Developed a cornerstone of the modern era of computational modeling of CMOS fabrication process with the Florida Object-Oriented Process Simulator (FLOOPS) which was introduced
in 1990. FLOOPS has developed into a widely used, flexible code
for multi-dimensional modeling for advanced IC fabrication processes.
Process and Technology Integration
2013 Grigor Gasparyan, Xilinx
Liam Madden, Xilinx
Dr. Steve Trimberger, Xilinx
Suresh Ramalingam, Xilinx
Steve Young, Xilinx
Trevor Bauer, Xilinx
Kumar Nagarajan, Xilinx
(now with Maxim Integrated)
Commercialization of the silicon interposer which provides more than two orders of magnitude increase in die-to-die bandwidth
per watt. This achievement effectively addressed both challenges of decreasing power and increasing bandwidth for advanced digital ICs. It also decreased latency to only 20 percent for standard input/output connections.
Assembly and Packaging
2012 Mark Bohr, Intel
Robert Chau, Intel
Suman Datta, Pennsylvania State University (formerly with Intel)
Mark Doczy, Intel
Brian Doyle, Intel
Tahir Ghani, Intel
Jack Kavalieros, Intel
Matthew Metz, Intel
Kaizad Mistry, Intel

The Intel team was honored for their contribution to the first development, integration and introduction of a successful

high-k dielectric and metal electrode gate stack for CMOS IC production, first implemented at the 45nm node in 2007

Process and Technology Integration
2011 Moungi Bawendi, MIT professor, QD Vision Science Advisory Board
Vladimir Bulovic, MIT professor, QD Vision Science Advisory Board, QD Vision founder
Seth Coe-Sullivan, QD Vision founder and CTO
John Ritter, QD Vision, EVP of Product Development and Operations
Jonathan S. Steckel, QD Vision founder and director of Chemistry
Commercialization of Quantum
Dot (QD) technology
Materials and Process Integration
2010 Thomas DiStefano, Founder, Tessera
John Smith, former CEO, Tessera
Michael Warner, former VP Engineering & Product Development, Tessera
Commercialization of the
uBGA Technology
Advanced Packaging

2009

Robert Patti Pioneer work in the emerging technical area of 3D IC integration Assembly and Packaging

2009

Andrew Hawryluk
James McWhirter
Michael Thompson
Yun Wang
Annealing using grazing-angle
IR laser beams
Wafer Fabrication

2008

Yoshio Nishi Memory Development and Visionary R&D Management Lifetime Achievement

2008

Chris Auth
Mark Bohr
Robert Chau
Tahir Ghani
Kaizad Mistry
Anand Murthy
Scott Thompson
Process Integration of Strain-enhanced Mobility Techniques
for CMOS Transistors
Process Integration

2007

Bernard S. Meyerson SiGe for Wireless Application Lifetime Achievement

2007

C. Grant Willson Chemically Amplified Resist Lithography

2006

Igor Khandros Wafer Test Test Equipment

2005

Jim Koford Integrated Circuit Design and
Test Automation
Lifetime Achievement
  Bob Shillman
Bill Silver
Marilyn Matz
Machine Vision Systems Enabling Equipment

2004

Lee Galbraith George Kren Particle Detection System Metrology

2003

Arthur Evans

Blade Type Fixed-Point Probe
Card

Test Equipment
Chris Mack Lithography Modeling Lithography

2002

Richard Spanier Metrology Lifetime Achievement
Tom Hedges
Tom Schaefer
Carl Smith
Roger Sturgeon
Mark Zimmer
Device Design-to-Manufacturing Data Transcription and Data Preparation Software Design Database
Glenn Tom, Ph.D.
Karl Olander, Ph.D.
Safe Delivery System (SDS)
Gas Storage and Delivery
Materials Technology

2001

Robert Knollenberg, Ph.D Particle detection in semiconductor processing Metrology
  Paul Allen, Ph.D.
Hans Buhre
Neil Berglund, Ph.D.
Torbjorn Sandstrom, Ph.D.
Anders Thuren
Paul Warkentin, Ph.D.
Team for Photo mask laser
pattern generation technology
Lithography

2000

Doug Scott
John DeBolt
Jonathan Golovin
Team for Manufacturing Execution Systems and Development of PROMIS & COMETS Factory Integration
Anwar Chitayat Innovator and Developer of
the Brushless Linear Motor
Enabling Equipment

1999

Anthony Bonora
Mihir Parikh, Ph.D.
Creation and Development of
SMIF
Equipment

1998

Bruce Deal, Ph.D. Silicon oxidation technology Lifetime Achievement
William Cote
William Guthrie
Michael Leach
Pioneering development of chemical mechanical planarization processing Process Technology

1997

Peter Rose, Ph.D. Innovator/founder; ion implantation technology Lifetime Achievement
Norman Goldsmith
Werner Kern
"RCA clean"; oxide CVD; BN diffusion Process Technology

1996

Kenneth Levy Leadership in inspection, instrumentation and metrology Lifetime Achievement
Robert Akins Ph.D.
John Bruning
Chris Sparkes
Larry Thompson
Optical tooling and processes
for deep UV lithography
Equipment
Richard Brewer Materials and process solutions
for Lithography
Materials

1995

 

Vincent Coates Scanning electron microscope Metrology
Arnon Gat Rapid thermal processing Process Equipment

1994

Martin Hammond LPCVD Materials Technology
Paul Sandland Automated wafer inspection Metrology Equipment

Dan Maydan
David N.K. Wang
Sasson Somekh

Precision 5000

Lifetime Achievement

1993

Marjorie Balazs

Yield Improvement

Process Control

1992

Griffith Resor

Wafer stepper development
for IC Production

Process Equipment

1991

Robert Mazur

Automatic spreading

resistance probe

Metrology

1990

Charles & Lucia Shipley

Positive photoresist

Materials Technology

1989

David Perloff

Wafer mapping

Metrology

Walter Runyan

Silicon crystal growth

Materials Technology

1988

Douglas Peltzer

Oxide isolation technology

Process Technology

Ronald Hershel
Martin Lee

One-to-one wafer stepper

Process Equipment

Dan Maydan
David Wang
Sasson Somekh

Plasma etch standard

Process Equipment

1987

Dick Blair
Charles Drexel
Dan LeMay

Mass flow controller

Process Equipment

Mord Wiesler

Die bonding

Assembly Equipment

Tech Tan
Warren Tice

Intrinsic gettering

Materials Technology

1986

Roger Bastide
Peter Rose
Andrew Wittkower

Ion implantation systems

Process Equipment

C. Arthur Lasch

Automatic wafer prober

Tech. Equipment

Robert Walsh

Chemical-mechanical wafer polishing

Materials Technology

1985

Guenter Schwuttke

X-ray topography system

Metrology

Jean Hoerni

Planar process

Process Technology

1985

Albert Soffa

Manual and automatic wire bonders

Assembly Equipment

1984

David Alles
Robert Collier
Donald Harriott
John Stafford
Michael Thomson

Electron beam exposure system

Process Technology

Neal Stouder

Linear and high/low

temperature test system

Test Equipment

Gordon Teal

Silicon transistor

Device Technology

1983

J. Walter Carlson

Silicon quality standards

Materials Technology

Kenneth Levy

Automated photomask inspection

Metrology

T. Peter Sylvan

Test systems development

Test Equipment

1982

Karl A. Lang

Automatic diffusion furnaces

Process Equipment

Lawrence Martinson

Negative photoresist

Materials Technology

Lawrence Plummer

Plastic device encapsulation

Assembly Equipment

1981

Robert Grey
David Manson
Wayne Sanborn

Development of silane

Material Technology

Burton Wheeler

Photorepeating camera

Process Equipment

Test Systems Group

Sentry test equipment

Test Equipment

1980

Alfred Barsocchi
Robert Eberly
Donald McKenzie
Alfred Taylor

Commercial doping of gasses and mixtures

Materials Technology

Kazuo Maeda

Low pressure CVD

Process Equipment

Matt Pennings

Ultrasonic wire bonder

Assembly Equipment

Sheldon Weinig

High purity, highly characterized materials

Materials Technology

1979

Walter C. Benzing
Mike McNeilly

Epitaxial silicon deposition

Process Equipment

Jere D. Buckley
Harold Helmstreet
David Markle
Abe Offner

MICRALIGN projection mask aligner

Process Equipment

Frederick W. Kulicke, Jr.

Wire bonding and die attach

Assembly Equipment

Robert Lorenzini

Silicon crystal growth

Materials Technology

Nicolas DeWolfe

Automatic semiconductor

Assembly Equipment

Henry W. Gutsche

Vapor deposition of polycrystal silicon

Materials Technology

Geoffrey Ryding

Ion implantation equipment

Process Equipment