Online information source for semiconductor professionals

This time last year, Texas Instruments announced its top suppliers, just like they did today. The problem was that the wording was identical two years in a row, though the companies honored in the list were different. 

Rob Simpson, VP of Worldwide Procurement and Logistics at TI, noted my dig at the lack of effort put into the announcements, with a simple email saying ‘point taken.’

Good to see this year, then, that things have changed for the better and Rob’s quote is different from all statements gone before, though he seems to be still clinging onto a certain phrasing of the value suppliers give to ‘TI and its customers.’

The big shock is that a front-end equipment company also makes the winners’ list, something lacking in last year’s awards.

It’s a little bit baffling that the company in question is Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates, supplier of ion implanters!

The reason for my bemusement is that I noted in another blog the dynamics at play in the implant business. In this blog I mentioned that TI’s DMOS6 300mm fab gave a presentation at last year’s ISMI Conference that was ‘less than complimentary’ about Varian’s single wafer implanters!

All credit goes to VSEA for getting enough points in TI’s Supplier Excellence Award (SEA) system to be honored this year and for being the only front-end equipment company on the list.

VSEA, on the other hand, may want to thank ATMI for being listed, after a glowing white paper co-authored between TI and ATMI highlighted the impact that ATMI’s in-situ cleaning system had on the operational improvements of Varian’s implanters at DMOS6.