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December - 2014 - issue > CXO View Point

Silicon: Creating New Advancements in The Semiconductor Space

Dr. Shaker Sadasivam, Ph.D., President & CEO, SunEdison Semiconductor
Thursday, December 4, 2014
Dr. Shaker Sadasivam, Ph.D., President & CEO, SunEdison Semiconductor
SunEdison Semiconductor (NASDAQ:SEMI) has been providing advanced technology solutions for over 50 years, and is a leader is involved in manufacturing of silicon wafers in the semiconductor space. A spin-off of SunEdison Inc, the company has a market cap of $723 million.

The industry is active with several exciting trends, which are being viewed as great opportunities. Driving many of these developments is Moore's Law, which came into prominence in the 1970s. Simply put, Moore's law states that processor speeds, or the overall processing power for computers would double every 18-24 months, and has been a motivating factor for many years. Challenges arising due to continued scaling as predicted by Moore's law are opening up many exciting opportunities for new materials. Recently, there has been a renewed focus on silicon wafers as an enabler of continued advancements in terms of improved performance and lower costs.

In addition to the opportunities surrounding Silicon, the untapped potential in innovative device structures, novel integration and 3D structures and system-level thinking are gaining prominence in the on-going effort to enable better performing and lower cost integrated circuits. The market opportunities driving these technology trends are growing exponentially. These key drivers include Mobility, Cloud Computing and Storage, Internet of Things (IoT), Renewables and Hybrid vehicles and Medical technologies. As an example, the emergence of IoT is gradually leading to a completely inter-connected world. These trends will allow for continued industry growth. Therefore, at SunEdison Semiconductor, driving innovation through exploring the advances in Silicon has been a priority.

The Technological Demands

Amidst such an impressive on-set of positive trends, it should be noted that the industry is yet to be perfect, from a technological perspective. The specialty software tools require high-level integration for ease of use and better outcomes. For instance, we constantly deal with huge amounts of information, which if tied together, would pave the way for exceptional productivity and efficiency. We have commenced attempts towards achieving this, through an internal approach; however, these efforts are time and resource intensive. As a result, SunEdison Semiconductor remains focused on delivering the best silicon material in order to stay ahead of the competition.


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