About Us
Our Mission: Semiconductor Manufacturing and Design was created by engineers and journalists to shed light on some of the incredibly complex technology and business issues in manufacturing and designing semiconductors. SemiMD consists of a monthly newsletter, daily updates, videos, research results, roundtable discussions, and a portal that serves as a forum for exchanging ideas and answering questions in this complex market. SemiMD is a joint venture of Sperling Media Group LLC and Extension Media LLC.
SemiMD covers the technical and business news related to semiconductor manufacturing, including DFM, equipment and materials, changes in the supply/demand equation, and related topics.
Sperling Media Group was formed in 2008 to provide a free flow of unbiased information about technology and business issues in narrow but highly important markets where advertising revenue will no longer sustain it. At a time when complexity is at its peak and real insight is essential, the number of independent sources for that information continues to shrink. SMG’s solution is a sponsorship model that allows a steady stream of ideas and expertise from all sides, while eliminating marketing pitches and banner advertising. All stories are professionally written and edited by independent journalists and engineers with deep industry knowledge and experience, and all vendor involvement is limited to providing expertise rather than promoting products.
Extension Media is a well-known publisher in the electronics market, known for such publications as Chip Design Magazine, Embedded Intel® Solutions, and a host of independent catalogs and online resources for electronics. Extension Media is a production and content-sharing partner with SMG, each of which leverages relevant links from the other to provide engineers and technology-oriented businesses with the most complete information available to do their jobs.
Editorial Staff
Ed Sperling, Editorial Director
Ed Sperling has been an editor and writer for more than a quarter century, and has spent the past two decades writing about technology and business issues. He is a frequent moderator and speaker in Silicon Valley and is the editor in chief of System-Level Design and editorial director of Low-Power Engineering. Sperling is the former editor in chief of Electronic News and Electronic Business. Before that, he held top editorial positions at Ziff-Davis and CMP Publications, and prior to that he was a daily newspaper investigative reporter covering crime and corruption.
David Lammers, Editor-in-chief
David Lammers has covered the semiconductor industry since 1980, including 19 years when he was based in Tokyo. He worked at the Associated Press Tokyo bureau, then spent 21 years at E.E. Times as Asia correspondent based in Tokyo (1985-1998) and bureau chief in Austin. More recently, he worked as the news editor at Semiconductor International. A graduate of the University of Notre Dame, he earned a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri. Dave and his wife Mieko live in Austin, Texas.
Mark LaPedus, Senior Editor
Mark LaPedus has covered the semiconductor industry since 1986, including five years in Asia when he was based in Taiwan. He has held senior editorial positions at Electronic News and EBN. In Asia, he was a contributing writer for Byte Magazine. He was also the editor of Silicon Strategies. More recently, he worked as the semiconductor editor at EE Times.
Katherine Derbyshire, Technical Editor
Katherine Derbyshire has a BS in materials science and engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an MS in materials from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She has published research on diamond thin films, high temperature superconductors, and archaeological bronzes.
She has been involved with the semiconductor manufacturing industry since 1994, when she joined Solid State Technology as Senior Technical Editor. She won two American Society of Business Press Editors (ASBPE) awards before departing as Chief Technical Editor in 1998. Next, she joined Semiconductor Online, where she quadrupled traffic and established the site as a leading information provider for the industry. After leaving Semiconductor Online in 2001, she founded Thin Film Manufacturing, a consultancy focused on technology analysis and strategic planning.
Ann Steffora Mutschler, Contributing Editor
Ann Steffora Mutschler has been an editor and journalist for nearly two decades, focused mainly on the semiconductor industry. Her previous experience includes a long stint as a Senior Editor at Reed Business Information for publications including EDN, Electronic News and Electronic Business.
John Blyler, Consulting Editor
John Blyler is the editor in chief of Chip Design and Embedded Intel magazines and the editorial director of Extension Media. John was the senior editor for Penton’s Wireless Systems Design magazine and the IEEE I&M magazine. John has co-authored several books on technology (Wiley and Elsevier). He has over 23 years systems engineering hardware-software experience in the electronics industry. John remains an affiliate professor in Systems Engineering at Portland State University. Mr. Blyler holds a BS in Engineering Physics from Oregon State University, as well as a MSEE from California State University, Northridge.
Qualcomm, Micron and GlobalFoundries gained ground in the top 20 rankings in terms of sales in the first quarter of 2012, according to IC Insights. GlobalFoundries replaced Elpida in the top 20 rankings. The foundry vendor also jumped ahead of United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC). 
The IC business climate continues to improve in 2012, prompting various firms to raise their respective capital spending forecasts. Total semiconductor capital spending is now projected to hit $56.5 billion in 2012, nearly flat from the previous year and almost $6 billion higher than the January outlook, according to a new forecast from VLSI Research Inc.