Trouble in Your Tank: Understanding Interconnect Defects, Part 1
It’s Only Common Sense: Marketing Isn’t Fluff, It’s Ammunition
Driving Innovation: Mechanical and Optical Processes During Rigid-flex Production
The World Semiconductor Council: 20 Years of Promoting Innovation through Free Trade
June 10, 2016 | SIAEstimated reading time: 2 minutes
The world’s leading semiconductor industries celebrated the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the World Semiconductor Council (WSC) on May 27 in Seoul, Korea. The WSC grew out of the 1996 U.S.-Japan Agreement on International Cooperation Regarding Semiconductors and today brings together senior executives from six semiconductor-producing regions – China, Chinese Taipei, EU, Japan, Korea, and the U.S. – to promote free and open world trade and to address issues of common concern to chipmakers everywhere.
Over the past 20 years, the semiconductor industry has become truly global and interconnected, driven by the scale, complexity, and demands for constant innovation. At the same time, semiconductor technology has advanced at an astounding pace. As highlighted in the WSC press release issued in Seoul, the average functionality of a semiconductor, measured by the average number of transistors per chip, has increased 116,371%. Microprocessor speeds have risen by 10,426%. Energy efficiency has increased 1,383%. Furthermore, the price for semiconductors has dropped at an incredibly rapid pace, from more than $5 per transistor in the 1950s to less than one billionth of a dollar per transistor today.
Free and open international trade has been a primary engine of this remarkable growth and development, and the WSC has played a key role in this regard. One of the primary accomplishments of the WSC in opening markets has been its work to eliminate tariffs on all semiconductors through support of duty suspension and tariff elimination agreements, including the 1996 Information Technology Agreement and the recent deal to expand it.
The WSC has also worked to promote the interoperability and security of commercial products containing encryption (which involves nearly all electronic products) by advocating for the adoption of international standards and technology-neutral policies that do not limit market access or discriminate between foreign and domestic products.
Perhaps the biggest accomplishment of the WSC is providing a mechanism for greater communication and collaboration with governments to address industrial policy concerns and avoid trade disputes and market distortions. With increasing government focus on the semiconductor industry around the world, the WSC’s role in fostering dialogue is critical to ensuring industrial policies are transparent, non-discriminatory, and market-based.
The next era of technological progress will require even greater levels of cooperation across a global ecosystem, especially in the face of rising costs of innovation and immense technical challenges. WSC efforts to foster an open and innovative ecosystem for semiconductors will help ensure consumers around the world continue to benefit from faster, cheaper, and more capable semiconductor-enabled devices.
Share on:
Testimonial
"Your magazines are a great platform for people to exchange knowledge. Thank you for the work that you do."
Simon Khesin - Schmoll MaschinenSuggested Items
SEMI Foundation Honors Applied Materials at SEMICON West with 2025 Excellence in Achievement Award for Talent Development
11/04/2025 | SEMIThe SEMI Foundation announced it recognized Applied Materials, Inc. with the Excellence in Achievement Award at SEMICON West 2025 in Phoenix, Arizona, honoring the company’s outstanding leadership and collaboration in building the next generation of semiconductor talent.
Update: Technica USA Begins Exclusive U.S. Distributor for DCT Cleaning Products
11/03/2025 | Technica USATechnica USA is pleased to announce they have begun shipping product for DCT USA, LLC today. Technica recently announced a strategic partnership as the exclusive master distributor of DCT cleaning products in the United States, which became effective November 1, 2025.
I-Connect007 Editor’s Choice: Five Must-Reads for the Week
10/31/2025 | Nolan Johnson, I-Connect007Last week, the IMPACT conference took place in Taipei, bringing together advanced packaging experts from around the globe to share their knowledge. We’ll be bringing you post-conference coverage over the next few weeks, so look for that in our newsletters, and in the Advanced Electronic Packaging Digest. Other news seemed to have the U.S. at the center of the global discussions. My picks start in Phoenix, where TSMC, NVIDIA, and Amkor are all scrambling to establish new capabilities. There’s nothing like a strong demand signal to cause build-out, and AI chips are doing exactly that.
Real Time with... SMTAI 2025: Navigating Manufacturing Challenges with Akrometrix
11/03/2025 | Real Time with...SMTAIMarcy LaRont and Paul Handler of Aktrometrix share insights from the SMTAI show in Chicago. They address manufacturing challenges, particularly warpage issues, and discuss Akrometrix's solutions. Paul details three optical technologies for measuring warpage and thermal expansion, emphasizing the need for reliability and defect detection in production. The conversation also touches on new industry standards for board warpage, influenced by OEMs.
I-Connect007 Welcomes New Columnist: Leo Lambert, EPTAC
10/30/2025 | I-Connect007I-Connect007 is excited to announce a column by Leo Lambert, an industry veteran with 40 years of experience, an award winner, and technical director at EPTAC. This column, Learning With Leo, will explore the evolution and related challenges of electronics product assembly, especially as it relates to training.