More than 2.5 million terabytes of “Big Data” is created every day – a truly astronomical sum. The challenge is how to extract strategic insight and actionable information from these mountains of data.

Once upon a time, microchips were (relatively) simple and so was servicing the machines used to make them: if a machine stopped working, you called a technician. We call this break/fix model Service 1.0.

As chips became more sophisticated, instead of just repairing the equipment, Service 2.0 aimed to make it faster and more efficient.

Over the last 50 years computing power has migrated from the mainframe, to the desktop, to the laptop, and now, with almost-equivalent computing capability, onto mobile devices, tablets, and smart phones. 

It gives me great pleasure to share that Applied Materials has once again been named to the InformationWeek 500 list of business technology innovators for delivering a customized, highly searchable knowledge management portal for Applied field service engineers.

Anyone who’s anyone in the Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) community descended upon Zurich in Switzerland earlier this month for the first ever European MEMS Executive Congress.

The Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) – Executive Congress is now in its seventh year and with over 200 people in planned attendance, this years’ gathering is promising to be the largest in the history of the event. Organized by the MEMS Industry Group (MIG), executive congress is focused on drawing together executives from across the MEMS supply chain to meet and discuss topics ranging from end-user applications to new technologies and current go-to-market strategies for MEMS.

This is the last post in a series running this week looking at the interrelated building blocks that are key contributors to producing solar modules at a cost of less than US$1 per watt.

Advances in Automation

A lot more news has been published recently about large LED wafer production. LEDs Magazine reported that Philips Lumileds and Lextar Electronics are now running production on 150-mm wafers and that there is another un-named Asian company using 150-mm sapphire wafers supplied by Rubicon Technology. Rubicon also recently announced the availability of 300-mm Sapphire wafers for LED production.