The vast bulk of year-end retrospectives stuffing my mailbox during the holiday season were predictable, either in belaboring the obvious or touting endless gloom and doom. The notable exception was Scientific American's awards for the 50 Top Technology Leaders, recognizing both individuals and companies. The choices in all categories were unexpected and appropriate, and many had direct ties to communications.

Some awards represented general innovation without bespeaking underlying trends, like those for Masood Garahi of Mesh Networks, or Marc Goldburg of ArrayComm. More interesting, however, were recognitions the magazine made for materials science and manufacturing disciplines, honors that directly applied to communications. Motorola was recognized for layering CMOS and III-V materials in a single wafer and creating the Thoughtbeam unit to capitalize on it. NanoOpto Inc. was hailed for using MEMS for specific subwavelength optical component devices. And Intel senior vice president Sunlin Chou was recognized for bringing new manufacturing processes to fabs quickly.

A decade ago, when labor researchers Stephen Cohen and John Zysman were touting their book, Manufacturing Matters, about the importance of retaining direct control of manufacturing, EE Times was among the first to say that the new era of fabless design and contracting might make intellectual property more important than control of manufacturing per se. While access to fabs has grown more crucial during the recession, the basic message has not changed in 10 years. In fact, my column two months ago, discussing the diversity of net processor companies, reinforced the message that a company might only have access to boilerplate 1-micron CMOS-and still turn out the best specialized processors.

But a counterargument contends that keeping abreast of advanced materials research, and applying new materials techniques in volume manufacturing, could give a company a huge edge. This is where Intel hopes its RF CMOS, advanced BiCMOS, and 90-nm strained-lattice CMOS processes will come in handy in new communication IC designs.

It also could mean that Motorola's Thoughtbeam subsidiary will be able to control the evolution of hybrid semiconductors for 3G wireless devices. Or that NanoOpto can define the market for optical MEMS, provided its devices can move into high-volume manufacturing. So, manufacturing on its own may not matter, but proprietary manufacturing and materials science can combine to create an unchallengeable differentiator.

http://www.eet.com