TC-4 and TC-8 report on Manufacturing

The next Litho Workshop (TC-8) will be 12 - 16 August 2002 at the Orchid Mauna Lani on the Big Island of Hawaii. An organizing/steering committee meeting was held to discuss the status of the preparations for the '02 meeting and discuss the wisdom of proceeding as planned in view of the uncertainty most people currently have about traveling. Observing due diligence, the current status is that we are withholding the postcard mail out and waiting until January, at which time the situation will be reviewed and a decision made on whether to proceed or postpone the meeting.

The Program Chairman, Dave Seeger of IBM, has the session chairs lined up. They are questioning whether the invited authors will be able to commit by the general mailing in March. The situation will be monitored on a month-by-month basis until then. The plan is to proceed with situation reviews to insure that the meeting will be successful before finally committing.

The IEMT Symposium (TC-4) this year was cancelled. The authors have been contacted and given recommendations for other opportunities for their work. The cancellation of the conference was part of an overall BOG discussion on meetings on November 10th. There was a TC-4 sub-committee meeting on Friday night November 9th which examined alternative outlets for the practicing manufacturing community. One conclusion is to continue negotiations with SemiCon West.

-- Walt Trybula and John Reekstin