| December
5, 2005 Vol. 77, no. 14F
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| ZEAL
FOR EXCELLENCE: Rick Cassidy is
president of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company North
America.
(TSMC Photo)
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“The
industry has a long life ahead of it”
Semiconductor exec to speak on industry dynamics Friday, December 9
What is the future of the semiconductor industry? Well, Rick Cassidy
just might know. For more than 25 years, R.B. “Rick” Cassidy
has worked in the semiconductor industry and today is president of
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) North America, the
world’s first and largest dedicated semiconductor foundry.
On Friday, December 9, Cassidy will present his thoughts on the industry’s
future and the key role he sees for today’s engineering students.
The talk will be of special interest to students in EECS, MSE, ME,
IEOR, Physics, Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, and Management of Technology,
and takes place from 4 to 5 p.m. in the Banatao Room, 290 Hearst
Memorial Mining Building. Free giveaways and refreshments will be provided.
Cassidy’s job is to grow TSMC’s business in North America,
and it’s been a challenge. The industry slowed over the last
few years, and some say it has reached maturation, even saturation.
Yet Cassidy, who achieved his success by envisioning opportunity and
relentlessly pursuing it, says semiconductors are still a very hot
technology.
“Only a couple years ago the consumer market overtook the enterprise
market as the dominant application for semiconductors,” he says. “There’s
a world of products and potential products that can be made to fit
the consumer appetite. The industry has a long life ahead of it using
existing CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) technology.”
It was at West Point, while working on his engineering degree, where
Cassidy first became smitten with the potential of semiconductors.
After graduating, he served as an officer in the U.S. Army and picked
up valuable management skills. Then, viewing the California technology
scene as the new “Wild West,” he joined National Semiconductor
in 1979. In 1994, he was appointed vice president and general manager
of the company’s military and aerospace division, assuming responsibility
for more than 600 people.
In 1997, Cassidy joined TSMC North America as a vice president and
two years later was appointed senior vice president of operations.
Instrumental in leading TSMC North America through record volume ramps
of three generations of process technology, he was rewarded with his
current appointment early this year.
What is Cassidy’s vision for TSMC 20 years from now?
“We could be delivering integrated circuits with gate lengths
of nine nanometers,” he
says. “There could be billions of transistors on a single chip. Each
chip could have the equivalent functionality of 100 Xbox 360s. And there
could be
a disruptive technology in plain sight that could completely improve upon
that chip.”
Hear more of Cassidy’s insights on Friday, December 9, 4-5
p.m., in the Banatao Room, 290 Hearst Memorial Mining Building. Refreshments
will be served afterward in Hearst’s Gordon and Betty Moore Lobby,
with free giveaways for audience members.
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