As a member of the organizing committee, I’m pleased to share that Applied Ventures will be participating in the second-annual Silicon Innovation Forum (SIF) held in conjunction with SEMICON West 2014 in San Francisco on Tuesday, July 8.The forum is designed to bring new and emerging innovators together with the semiconductor industry’s top strategic investors and venture capitalists (VCs), in order to enable closer collaboration and showcase the next generation of entrepreneurs in microelectronics.

The Environmental Innovation Center demonstrates the power of creativity and collaboration to address local needs. Its three tenants share a commitment to discovering economic and environmental solutions that benefit the community.

The James C. Morgan Global Humanitarian Award, inspired by Applied Materials Chairman Emeritus, Jim Morgan, each year honors an individual whose broad vision and leadership are helping to address humanity's greatest challenges.We are pleased to announce that the 2014 honor will be presented to Ted Turner during the Tech Awards, an annual program recognizing innovators who are using technology to benefit humanity, in Silicon Valley in November. 

The printing press revolutionized the world, transitioning the end of the Dark Ages to the beginning of the Renaissance. Could we be witnessing a similar revolution in the biotechnology space? The Applied Ventures team thinks so, and recently expanded our portfolio with an investment in Twist Bioscience Corporation, an advanced biotechnology start-up developing a proprietary semiconductor-based technology platform with the potential for synthetic gene manufacturing.

Applied Materials’ Endura Ventura PVD, the first metallization solution for high-volume manufacturing of high aspect ratio through-silicon via structures enables the smaller, lower power, high-performance integrated 3D chips required for high-end electronic devices.

Applied Materials introduces the biggest materials change in interconnect technology in 15 years with the announcement of the new Endura® Volta™ CVD system. Its unique cobalt processes ease critical interconnect scaling bottlenecks to enable continued momentum of Moore’s Law.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is set to drive demand and innovation in the semiconductor market over the next decade. While some consumer IoT applications will require semiconductors manufactured using cutting-edge technologies to deliver fast performance and low power consumption, the vast majority of chips for IoT applications will be utilized in client-side applications. These chips, such as a sensor monitoring room temperature in a connected HVAC system, require processing capabilities that can be met using legacy process (90 and 45nm) technologies manufactured on 200mm wafers.And herein lies the opportunity and challenge for legacy manufacturing.

The Endura® system is recognized as the most successful metallization tool in the history of the semiconductor industry. Since its introduction, through continuous infusions of new innovations and process technologies, it has enabled customers to advance Moore’s Law from the .75 micron node to today’s sub-20 nanometer nodes, and can continue beyond to sub-10 nanometer designs.To appreciate what made the Endura a truly landmark system, and how the value it provides has been sustained over decades, I'd like to reference the recent VLSIresearch feature and highlight some key points.

Applied Materials was named a 2014 World’s Most Ethical Company® by the Ethisphere Institute, a leading independent center of research promoting best practices in corporate ethics and governance. Now in its eighth year, Ethisphere’s annual award recognized Applied for continuing to demonstrate ethical leadership and corporate behavior.“Ethical business practices are foundational to Applied Materials’ success,” said Tom Larkins, senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary at Applied Materials.  “We recognize that ethics are a shared responsibility and would like to thank our employees for their continued commitment.”