The IMSE hosts a conference to commemorate the centenary of the first FET patent

We are pleased to announce a seminar presented by Fernando Guarín, titled "100th Anniversary of the Transistor and an Overview of the Semiconductor Industry Today."

Next friday, January 31st, a talk will take place in the Salón de Grados of the IMSE, presented by Fernando Guarín (PhD, IEEE Life-Fellow) to commemorate the centenary of the first FET patent. The colloquium will begin at approximately 10:00 am and will last about an hour.

The patent for the Field-Effect Transistor (FET) dates to 1925, and the first successful demonstration of the point-contact transistor occurred in 1947. These groundbreaking inventions, combined with rapid advances in materials, device integration, layout design, automated design tools, and semiconductor processing, have fueled the exponential growth of the semiconductor industry. Over the past seven decades, this growth has shaped the environment, research infrastructure, supplier ecosystem, and technological innovations that have transformed our world. Modern society relies on semiconductors for nearly every aspect of daily life. Looking ahead, we are poised to see Artificial Intelligence AI, increased instrumentation, with ever-growing data volumes and the intelligence to process and communicate this data. The rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) and the continued rollout of 5G/6G will accelerate progress, driving industries and society to operate at unprecedented speeds. These advances have already made the world "smaller and flatter," creating a globally integrated environment full of both opportunities and challenges. The vast amounts of information generated now offer a unique path to address some of the most pressing problems facing the world today. In this talk, we will offer a historical overview of the transistor's invention and key milestones in semiconductor technology development. We will also examine the current economics and supply chain behind semiconductor production, focusing on the roles and interactions of Pure Play Foundries, Integrated Device Manufacturers, and Fabless companies. Additionally, we will explore the broader implications for the planet, from geopolitical dynamics to global challenges related to sustainability and survival. Finally, we will discuss major trends in the semiconductor industry and the role of government incentives in the U.S., Europe, China, Korea, Japan, and India.

Dr. Fernando Guarin retired in July 2022 as a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff at Global Foundries in East Fishkill New York where he led the reliability team responsible for the qualification of 5G technologies. In 2015 he retired from IBM's Semiconductor Division after 27 years as Senior Member of Technical Staff. He earned his BSEE from the "Pontificia Universidad Javeriana", in Bogotá, Colombia, the M.S.E.E. degree from the University of Arizona, and the Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University, NY. He has worked in microelectronic reliability for over 42 years.

From 1980 until 1988 he worked in the Military and Aerospace Operations division of National Semiconductor Corporation. In 1988 he joined IBM's microelectronics division where he worked in the reliability physics and modeling of Advanced Bipolar, CMOS and Silicon Germanium BiCMOS technologies. Most recently he was the leader of the team qualifying GlobalFoundries RF 5G technology offerings.

Dr. Guarín is an IEEE Life-Fellow, Distinguished Lecturer for the IEEE Electron Device Society EDS, where he has served in many capacities including; member of the IEEE's EDS Board of governors, chair of the EDS Education Committee, Secretary for EDS. He was the EDS President 2018-2019. He is the Division I Director elect for IEEE.