Monolithic 3D Inc., the Next Generation 3D-IC Company
  • Home
  • Technology
    • Technology
    • Papers, Presentations and Patents
    • Overview >
      • Background
      • Why Monolithic 3D?
      • Paths to Monolithic 3D
      • Applications
    • Ion-Cut: The Building Block
    • Monolithic 3D Logic >
      • RCAT
      • HKMG
      • Laser Annealing
      • RCJLT
      • 3D Embedded RAM
      • 3D Gate Array
      • FPGA
      • Ultra Large Integration - Redundancy and Repair
    • Monolithic 3D Memory >
      • 3D DRAM
      • 3D Resistive Memories
      • 3D Flash
    • Monolithic 3D Electro-Optics >
      • 3D Image Sensors
      • 3D Micro-Displays
  • 3D-IC Edge
    • 3D-IC Edge
  • News & Events
    • News & Events
    • S3S15 Game Change 2.0 Video/P
    • Webcast
    • Webinar
    • Press Releases
    • In the News
    • Upcoming Events
  • About Us
    • About Us
    • History
    • Team
    • Careers
    • Contact Us
  • Blog
  • Simulators

I(Squared): Inventions & Innovations

5/5/2011

0 Comments

 
Picture
We have a new blog-post today from Brian Cronquist, VP of Technology at MonolithIC 3D Inc. In this post, he talks about innovation and how it can be managed. Brian has excellent management skills and is very well-organized - I have always enjoyed hearing his thoughts on people and project management.

Just got back from the EETimes ACE Awards ceremony [EETimes ACE ].  Did I see you there? It was truly amazing and awesome to be in the same room (Club Regent’s at the Fairmont Hotel, San Jose, CA) with so many innovators and inventors [ACE finalists]….certainly in the hundreds.

Throughout my personal career journey, and the new expedition I’m on here at Monolithic 3D, innovation and invention have been an important thread. Let’s take a look…

Wikipedia describes innovation as: The term innovation derives from the Latin innovatio, the noun of action from innovare. The Etymology Dictionary further explains innovare as dating back to 1540 and stemming from the Latin innovatus, pp. of innovare "to renew or change," from in- "into" + novus "new". The central meaning of innovation thus relates to renewal or improvement, with novelty being a consequence of this improvement.  [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innovation]

Wikipedia describes invention as: An invention is a new composition, device, or process. An invention may be derived from a pre-existing model or idea, or it could be independently conceived in which case it may be a radical breakthrough. …… Inventions often extend the boundaries of human knowledge or experience. An invention that is novel and not obvious to others skilled in the same field may be able to obtain the legal protection of a patent.  [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invention]

So, renewal, change, newness, and extending or breaking boundaries are the keys and the result is something novel. (I’ll talk about patents in the next blog)

Fridays were one of my favorite days of the week whilst at Actel  [Actel]. One of the R&D groups, and probably the most ‘profitable’ one, I built was a radiation effects team, led by a very smart scientist by the name of Dr. J.J. Wang [JJWang] (who is still at Microsemi/Actel). I would buy lunch (food + caffeine = ideas) for his team, as well as the Technology Development process and device engineers and scientists, and we would brainstorm ideas. A team member might report on a recent symposium he/she had attended, and we would pick one new technology and try to think about how it would help make better FPGAs. I would regularly summarize the state of the semi business and new technology announcements, and that would provide another avenue to brainstorm on. I even would have the last page of the Discover magazine (“20 Things You Didn’t Know About ____”) up on the overhead projector (yes, still used those machines sometimes) to start us thinking while munching. We ended up developing some new flash-based cell and array FPGA architectures that (temporarily) solved the scaling issues, and many ended up in production.

I was also known to go around to all the TD area conference rooms and even into TD engineers cubicles (everybody had to have a white board in their office to doodle and noodle on) and regularly replace the worn out dry erase markers and the eraser bars…nothing must get in the way of technologists drawing pictures, right? Ah, and also the thermal paper (older models) of those whiteboards that could print what was written. And, yes, you already guessed it: I generally took the notes and published them. Can’t keep building the foundation every week, right?

After we started winning government $$ (25+ M$ by the time I left)  to develop various radiation hardened new products, I invited design, CAD, and layout folks to the ‘TD lunch’, and we innovated all sorts of crazy, and sometimes useful, new RH NVM cells, programming schemes, etc. So, a ‘free’ meal, casual Friday dress, lots of great technical discussions, and some great ideas and solutions as the output. Good times, good times.

I thought I was pretty good at encouraging lateral thinking and being a lateral thinker……NOT!

Next blog I will talk a little bit about innovation & invention at NuPGA/Monolithic 3D during the last 2 years ….’creativity on steroids’!

submit to reddit
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Search Blog


    Meet the Bloggers


    Follow us


    To get email updates subscribe here:


    Recommended Links

    3D IC Community
    3D IC LinkedIn Discussion Group

    Recommended Blogs

    • 3D InCites by Francoise von Trapp
    • EDA360 Insider by Steve Leibson
    • Insights From the Leading Edge by Phil Garrou
    • SemiWiki by Daniel Nenni, Paul Mc Lellan, et al.

    Archives

    March 2022
    December 2021
    August 2021
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    October 2017
    September 2017
    December 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    August 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011

    Categories

    All
    3d Design And Cad
    3dic
    3d Ic
    3d Nand
    3d Stacking
    3d Technology
    Brian Cronquist
    Dean Stevens
    Deepak Sekar
    Dram
    Education
    Heat Removal And Power Delivery
    Industry News
    Israel Beinglass
    Iulia Morariu
    Iulia Tomut
    Monolithic3d
    Monolithic 3d
    MonolithIC 3D Inc.
    Monolithic 3d Inc.
    Monolithic 3d Technology
    Moore Law
    Outsourcing
    Paul Lim
    Repair
    Sandisk
    Semiconductor
    Semiconductor Business
    Tsv
    Zeev Wurman
    Zvi Or Bach
    Zvi Or-Bach

    RSS Feed

© Copyright MonolithIC 3D Inc. , the Next-Generation 3D-IC Company, 2012 - All Rights Reserved, Patents Pending