Cheers from 42 Degrees Celsius
On a cooler note, I had the pleasure to be invited by King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology
on another return trip to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to see the 8inch wafer line for sic/gan, OLED/MICRO-OLED, MEMS Fabrication and even packaging clean room.
Here are some of the key points gathered from the trip: They have a project which is part of their Vision 2030 - WaferCatalyst which is a Multi-Project Wafer (MPW) consolidation service by King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST). WaferCatalyst is a concept to silicon service and provides a number of tools for community building in the field of integrated circuit (IC) design. These include Multi-project wafer service fabrication, multi-layer mask (MLM), design support, consultancy services and fabrication support.
To my surprise, I learnt that they are Contributing optical camera's to China’s Chang’e-4 Lunar Far Side Mission through these efforts of the research institute. What comes of equipment, a MBE tool from Veeco and an MOCVD tool from Aixtron were evident. Some of the leading equipment manufacturing tools were scattered around the place.
In addition, in one of the picture you can see a PZT Mems Wafer - made from start to end, and in the other pictures consist of Terahertz sensors, gan photodiode and several in-house IC Chips.
In terms of regional "bias" perceptions go - I saw Sally Ann Henry comment "No woman to be seen !!" in my last post in Saudi Arabia. Well, this time, I did not let the opportunity slip me. At KACST - close to 50% of the fab engineers are Women ... an example is as seen below from the WBG department.
It has come to my conclusion, that globally there is a huge workforce issue and this remains the theme. This is definitely a major challenge for the country. But one must also relay to the fact that "money talks". If the right employment campaign is done - with the foundations that is already set. I can see a couple of specialty foundries and OSAT being built in the region in the near future. The government and local VCs are very eager to make it happen.
The International Semiconductor Executive Summits remains committed to support our members and sponsors to be supported in the region and globally. Stay Tuned for further announcements.
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الدوله تعرف وش راح يصير فيها اذا ما وطنت مثلها مثل قطاع البترول تصير حرب عالميه يتعطل البترول عندنا لان ماعندنا مهندسين وقدرات تشغيل (سابقا وليس حاليا)
