Consortia approach overcomes decline in R&D spend

Historically, says the company, equipment R&D has averaged about 15% of sales during the past 15 years, while device spending has averaged about 11%. But anticipated declines in company revenues during the next five years are likely to impact this level of investment. The question Gartner is asking is whether this will be a crisis or an opportunity for segments of the industry. Gartner analyst Dean Freeman says: "R&D spending is the lifeblood of a high-technology industry. Failure to properly invest will mean that the technology road map slows and that companies will not be prepared to meet the challenges ahead." Although corporate revenues are declining, the shift in focus over the last few years to R&D consortia may be mitigiating the effects. "The semiconductor industry has grown as a result of university professors working with Semiconductor Research Corp, as well as the formations of Albany NanoTech, IMEC, the IBM alliances and some other smaller working groups," Freeman claims. "These different organisations are focusing the available R&D funding in a precompetitive environment to address the key needs of the industry. Through the consortia, high-k metal gates, EUV lithography and through-silicon vias are all being explored and brought to life." Freeman concludes that, although the industry faces many challenges with respect to getting to the next generation of technology, the move to research consortia is largely overcoming the funding problem.