C. Mark Melliar-Smith, International SEMATECH, Austin, TX, USA

ABSTRACT

The semiconductor industry has become one of the most important industries in the global economy. Global revenues now exceed $200B and the annual growth rate of 15% is much higher than the economy as a whole (3-4%) or even other fast growing industries such as electronics (9%). In addition, the industry has a very high "value add" component - in other words, most of the value is generated inside the industry through its own design and manufacturing - as opposed to repackaging the work of others. In fact, in the United States, the semiconductor industry has the highest manufacturing value add of any of the industry segments defined by the US government.