At the recent SPIE Advanced Lithography conference, my keynote presentation focused on how improvements in metrology, multi-patterning techniques and materials can enable 3D memory and the critical dimension (CD) scaling of device designs to sub-10nm nodes.

The growing complexity of manufacturing chips, displays and solar cells together with higher investment costs of advanced production facilities are changing service and support requirements.  The service business is still driven by the need to keep systems up and running: identifying mechanical problems, adjusting hardware, replacing parts, etc. However, today’s semiconductor fabs are also under increasing pressure to accelerate and maximize yield, reduce cost and improve productivity.

As part of its growth focus for Applied Materials, the Office of the CTO (Chief Technology Officer) aims to do the following: Identify, incubate and commercialize growth opportunities in new and adjacent markets Build a culture of open innovation at Applied Materials Address market inflections and high value problems through differentiated solutions Shape the future of our growth markets worldwide The Internet-of-Things (IoT), the concept of connecting physical objects to each other and to the internet through sensors within or attached to the objects, is a key market inflection that is opening up new opportunities and ways of obtaining information. Cisco Systems estimates there will be 50 billion connected devices by 2020—creating a tidal wave of data! Wearable Computing or “wearables” is a small but rapidly growing segment within the IoT space and is one of the potential killer applications that could fuel IoT.

As part of the company’s mission to accelerate innovation and incubate new growth opportunities, the Office of the CTO recently hosted its first collaboration workshop at Lawrence Berkeley Lab, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratory.

Applied Materials technologists will discuss the latest challenges and innovations in semiconductor manufacturing including mask and wafer patterning, inspection and metrology to help address key scaling issues.

Happy Lunar New Year from the Applied Materials Blog Team.

Applied Materials employees in Gloucester, MA hosted several dozen grade school science teachers for two days of in-depth presentations on semiconductor manufacturing as well as tours of our research and development facility, in an effort to provide a glimpse into possible STEM career opportunities in their own backyard.

Every year, media outlets publish year-end reviews and outlooks for the New Year. Solid State Technology, a leading magazine providing the latest electronics manufacturing news, analysis and product information related to semiconductor manufacturing features an annual outlook and invited Randhir Thakur, Executive Vice President, General Manager, Silicon Systems Group, Applied Materials to give his assessment of the major trends for 2014. He identified the shifts to 20 nanometer designs, FinFET transistors and 3D NAND as the game-changing innovations and discussed how Applied is focused on providing the precision materials engineering solutions to address the challenges involved in advancing these technologies.

With 2013 in our rear-view mirror, I’m pleased to announce that Applied Ventures has completed another successful and busy year, investing more than $18 million in 2013, including closing six new investments in early stage companies.  Altogether, since we first formed Applied Ventures in 2005, we have invested approximately $179 million in more than 50 portfolio companies spanning equipment, materials, device and process providers in the clean energy, semiconductor, display, lighting and energy storage sectors.