III. Writing exercises:

Exercise 1. Complete the sentences with the suggested words:

process; for; microwave; cutoff; much.

Because the _______ frequencies of those new _______ technologies are _______ more greater than the 1 to 2 GHz typical _______ wireless communication, they allow the switching and conditioning of _______ signals without significant degradation.

Exercise 2. Fill in the table with words and expressions from the text:

	parts	systems	processes
Example: that technology supports active and passive devices with			cutoff frequencies of 50 to 100 GHz.
SiGe BICMOS can achieve
each wireless standard is allotted
a principal requirement of a true universal radio will be to remove

Exercise 3. Compose a story on one of the topics (up to 100 words):

“CMOS Process Technology”

“SiGe BICMOS Process”

“New Process Technologies”

Lesson 3

Read the text: The Future of Semiconductors

We're on the threshold of a new era in semiconductors — one that will not track any of the familiar, predicable paths that have traditionally guided our thinking about tomorrow's chip technology. If you have any doubts, just look at the pain that device makers are enduring on the long road to 90-nanometer silicon geometries, 300-mm production processes and megascale system-on-chip design engineering.

We are on a new trajectory, rocketing toward an unknown destiny. Silicon Valley — the center of the semiconductor universe since the dawn of planar processing — should prepare itself for an altered role in that future.

As guest editor Girish Mhatre points out in his overview article for our special issue, the historically relentless drive toward faster, smaller, cheaper chips is becoming increasingly problematic from both a technology and economic perspective. And from a market, applications and — more important — global perspective, the industry and the world are going in a different direction.

Smarter, easier to use, and more connected semiconductor devices will drive the next wave of applications, as EE Times editors discuss in this special issue. But it's not a given that Silicon Valley will remain as the epicenter of thought, technology and business leadership that will drive that change. Indeed, recent events suggest that epic changes are afoot in the semiconductor industry that may rock the status quo.

It has been said that the Mediterranean is the ocean of the past, the Atlantic the ocean of the present and the Pacific the ocean of the future. There are no Minoan microcircuits, of course, but in the future, the Pacific nations, most notably China, will make this adage as true for semiconductors as for the broad sweep of centuries of history.

The Semiconductor Industry Association, in its most recent assessment of the industry, notes that "semiconductor consumption is forecast to continue a migration from the Americas to Asia-Pacific, reflecting the outsourcing of electronic-equipment manufacturing, including component sourcing and design services, to the region." That trend will have a profound impact on the future of semiconductors.

Economists point out that capital has no nationality, and the aphorism certainly extends to intellectual capital. That explains the global nature of the electronics industry and underscores the trends we are seeing today as software development and design engineering join the manufacturing sector in chasing opportunities beyond our shores.

Silicon Valley needs to reassess its "Atlantic" view of the world. In some ways it has already been forced to do so in the fables sector: The overwhelming bulk of foundry chip-making capacity and expertise has long since migrated to Asia.

But what about the succeeding waves of applications that will be so important to the future of the semiconductor industry? Cell phone and PC penetration is still marginal in the Pacific world. And while intellectual capital is not bound by borders, cultural factors will weigh in along with capital in defining the specifications, form and function of the next wave of smarter, easier-to-use, more-connected systems.