Q and A Archives

The ITRS (International Technology Roadmap for semiconductors) projects that a 450mm wafer will be in first production by 2016 and may be in initial production by 2013.

If the linear trend of wafer size continues, a nominally 450mm wafer will be in significant production by about 2019. If 450mm is the next wafer diameter, and if it is in initial production by 2013-2016, then there will probably be a period of 3-6 years after initial production before equipment or materials companies see any significant return on investment. A similar delay occurred with 300mm when projections called for initial production by 1997 and significant production did not begin until 2000-01.

Another thing to consider is that chips or die will be nominally 20mm square (including dicing street) by 2016, and a 460mm diameter is better suited for 20mm square die than 450mm. Before 2010, the industry must decide the optimum wafer diameter and when it should be introduced.

Decade	Era	Wafer Dia.	Feature Size	Dominant Tech.
1960s	Invention	12-50 mm	50-10	bipolar xstr, diode
1970s	Lab Scale	50-100 mm	10-3	bipolar IC, rise of MOS
1980s	Process Control	100-150 mm	3-1	CMOS IC
1990s	Productivity/COO	150-200 mm	1-0.3	CMOS IC
2000/2020	Testing Limits	200-450 mm	0.3<0.05	CMOS, interconnects

The Account Manager should be in charge of determining who goes into see particular customer personnel; when they see them; and what they should say. But anyone in the vendor company who has a positive relationship inside the vendor company is a candidate. This means from top executives to the engineer or customer support people. Relationships are what move the sales process forward and everyone can be a part of the sales team.

In all circumstances, the GAM/SAM/KAM should be in charge of who, what, how, when and where supplier personal interact with account personnel. That means even being able to tell the CEO what, if any, interaction he or she should have with the account. The GAM/SAM/KAM is the customer advocate inside the supplier organization and protector/developer of the account relationship. Those responsibilities will not work if authority does not remain with the GAM/SAM/KAM.

The peak years were 1969, 1974, 1984, 1995, 1997 and 2000.

The valley years were 1970, 1975. 1985, 1996, 1998 and 2002.

Poly Si makers, Wafer makers, Device makers, and Package/Test.

A Value Proposition is a key, general statement that differentiates you, in the marketplace, from competitors. It usually consists of a package of benefits, directed at a specific customer, in such a way that the customer is persuaded that he/she derives greater value from your product than competitive products. While a Value Proposition must be specific to the customer being addressed, it may sometimes be generalized to apply to a group of customers with the same set of problems.

It is best described by Regis Mckenna who said "Positioning is a psychological location in the customer's mind, pertaining to the relative qualities a company, product, or service may have with respect to its competition." So when we "position" our company or product we mean we are creating or changing perceptions about it in the customer's mind. The operative word is "perceptions" which may or may not be the same as the physical reality.

It is usually a report on a product or process written by someone "in the know" within a customer's environment. The writing of such a paper is often the result of stimulation by a vendor's sales team to provide written evidence of the success of what that vendor has to offer. Being written by a customer's own person gives it extra credibility and helps make it useful in stimulating other sales