Face It: Live Events Strengthen Partnerships and Influence Product Innovation By Ramachandran (Ram) Trichur, Henkel Semiconductor Packaging Materials
for our recent work in supporting next-generation 2.5D and 3D package designs and bringing new advanced packaging underfill solutions to market. Other initiatives have also resulted in impactful materials development. Explore and Solidify Partnerships and Alliances Networking and relationship development are vital aspects of in-person events. Many of our collaborative semiconductor projects with academia, customers, associations, and other suppliers have been born at industry events. For instance, an RF packaging conference led to Henkel’s and CITC’s partnership to accelerate high thermal die attach progress. Often, these live interactions lead to the development of and/ or participation in larger, multi-party consortiums and industry technology initiatives (Figure 3).
most innovative work and lets our product development and engineering experts receive valuable feedback and some well-deserved limelight for their contributions (Figure 4).
Conferences and industry trade shows have been the cornerstone of professional networking and educational advancement for as long as I can remember. More than 20 years ago, I attended my first semiconductor event, the Solid State Sensors & Actuators Conference (called Hilton Head 2002), and have been participating ever since. I still view these gatherings as a vital part of advancing product innovation, fostering commercial success, and contributing to my journey of discovery (Figure 1).
The semiconductor manufacturing value chain is complex and globalized. Every end device made— memory, logic, analog, or others—has a specialized ecosystem for design, fabrication, and assembly. In most cases, the end device makers are different, with several key players in the West (North America and Europe) and a parallel ecosystem emerging in Asia for designing the components. However, manufacturing and assembly primarily take place throughout Asia. The decisions about design, development, and manufacturing are made across this global ecosystem. Because of this, participation at events around the world is critical to gain perspective on all actors in the supply chain, as there are regional differences in technological priorities, customer profiles, and required support. The demonstrable and proven benefits are broad and significant, and Henkel’s experience has substantiated the value of our participation. While there are numerous advantages, here are the top five things I believe live industry gatherings offer: Identify Trends and Address Future Technology Needs Data gathering for trend identification at trade shows and conferences informs potential development roadmaps. Visitor booth interactions pinpoint areas of interest and are documented. Data from all events globally is aggregated to assess the opportunity landscape. These interactions help us to answer questions, such as: Are common trends aligning? Can we support them with a current solution, or is an innovation project needed? Additionally, important roadmap workshops are often co-located within these conference events. For example, at the Heterogeneous Integration Roadmap workshop, ecosystem players join forces to shape the future of advanced packaging. There are also valuable panel sessions centered around emerging technologies like glass substrates, co-packaged optics, and panel- level packaging that drive critical thought leadership considerations and industry actions. Learn About Emerging Technologies and Our Potential Role While the core competency in Henkel’s semiconductor business is packaging materials development, often there are adjacent technical needs that perhaps our solutions can fulfill, or we have the technical know-how to develop. Conferences are a prime incubation ground for these conversations. We consider investable feasibility, strategic alignment, and growth potential and have a successful track record in this area. Connections with technologists at events have provided excellent insight
Figure 4: Henkel winning Supplier of the Year Award, presented by 3D InCites, at ECTC 2023 Recent papers at IMAPS 2024 in Boston, MA, on liquid molded underfill (LMUF) and Henkel’s modeling capabilities for advanced packaging and technology presentations at this year’s SEMICON China and SEMICON Taiwan have led to substantive discussions for development initiatives. Conclusion For Henkel, each event has a specific identity that determines its role in our participation level. Certain symposiums are more innovation-centered and technically rich and, therefore, provide excellent validation or insight for our product development initiatives. Other events satisfy explicit commercial goals to promote new products and connect with customers about project opportunities. Conferences and live symposiums have proven their value for many aspects of our business; our broad product portfolio, award-winning innovation record, top-tier expert staff development, and growing industry influence have all been enhanced by in-person engagement. Relationships matter, and Henkel is committed to building and fortifying them to enable the most impactful semiconductor technology solutions
Figure 3: Henkel team members, Kefan Ni, Ram Trichur, and Rick Shen engaging with the media at Semicon China, 2024.
Figure 1: Henkel team networking in the Henkel hospitality suite at SEMICON Taiwan, 2024. I’m grateful that our company also believes in their importance. Henkel’s semiconductor electronics team participates in live symposiums—both in-person and online—around the world. They are unique opportunities to connect with the broader electronics community, share knowledge, collaborate with customers and industry colleagues, make new connections, and fortify relationships. All of this supports our product prioritization initiatives, business endeavors, and our team’s professional development (Figure 2).
Collaborate with Diverse Ecosystem Participants Henkel develops sophisticated semiconductor packaging materials, but they don’t perform in isolation. Engaging with equipment suppliers, market analysts, ancillary material manufacturers, and process innovators provides tremendous value—sometimes with commercial success and always with essential learnings. Showcase Technology Innovation and Team Talent The exhibit setting allows a unique venue to present products in a differentiating way and facilitates an in- person deeper dive into conversation with customers and prospects. The display is the physical representation of our commercial portfolio where our technologists can discuss potential application solutions. Presenting papers at the conference gives us a forum to share our
alongside our partners and customers. Hope to see you at the next conference!
Figure 2: Henkel experts Rejoy Surendran, Yijia Ma and Ning Liu speak- ing on power electronics, advanced packaging, and FEA modeling, respectively, at various conferences in 2024.
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