the eternal student

Snowshoe Buddy

It's been nearly a month since I got some good snowshoeing in with Arlo. So, on Sunday while the rest of the family napped, Arlo and I headed to the nearby Boise National Forest. While a good amount of snow has been melting, the snowpack above 5000 ft was still great and it was a gorgeous 50 degrees outside. Watching Arlo bound through the unchartered snow is 80% of the fun for me. Check out pics of his cute blue booties too.

A new division for me -Aptina

I've been under wraps for a while now, but things are finally in the open. On Tuesday Micron officially announced a new division for its Imager business. Aptina.

Essentially, Aptina makes the imager chips that go into digital cameras, both high end DSLR's and low end cell phones. About 1/3 of all cell phones have Micron imager chips. I'm sure you've heard of the iPhone. I work in the Research and Development side of things in figuring out how to make things smaller, cheaper, and in a way that can be done in high-volume. There is huge global competition in the imager market. It's not as volatile as the DRAM/NAND memory market, but it could be soon as more companies try to capitalize on the market growth.

This is pretty exciting stuff for me as I am part of this new beginning. It's been a great experience being part of something new- and a lot of pressure on getting things to perform well and work. But I find I'm enjoying this extremely competitive global environment. At first it was extremely scary thinking about the fact that my job or myself could be outsourced to another country. That is much less scary now as I think about the opportunities that abound overseas and in the U.S. I have this growing conviction within me that I am meant to create exciting jobs and opportunities for people to live and make money to feed their families in honest ways. Somehow I can have a hand in improving work environments both overseas and in the States. I don't know how this will take form for me in the future. It could be as a university professor, or going overseas to a developing country and working in a semiconductor country. There is a lot to be worked out yet, but I do know I love what I do and I am meant to thrive at it.

So, watch the video Wafer Level Cameras to see what I do research on. You will see a silicon wafer come up with text that says 'Through Wafer Interconnect' in the video. I know, it sounds boring, but that is only because we are so dang use to technology accelerating at a faster and faster pace- and now I'm along for the ride. While meaningless to many (and for good reason), these words create a buzz in my brain. What they mean for you is smaller camera/chips with more functionality and cheaper prices.

Additionaly, Micron announced they will build their next 300mm wafer fab in Boise. This is huge news for the Boise and the US. Most semiconductor companies have given up on the US and have chosen to go overseas to due labor costs and more favorable business environments. Consider that it takes around $3 billion dollars to build a 300mm wafer fab and you can see why it might be nice to keep that money in the United States. Also consider that the US owes $3 trillion dollars in debt already to Japan and China, and you think we might want to build up our own local economy before building up others. Of course, it gets tricky with global companies like Micron who are based in the US, but actually make most of their money in foreign markets.

I'm still wrapping my head around the whole global thing. In the meantime, has anyone wrapped their head around the $9 trillion dollars in debt the US is in? Can we just ignore that and hope it doesn't bite us? Can anyone say 'subprime mortgage'? What if other countries view us as a 'subprime nation' and don't value us as an economic force anymore and give up on the dollar? I know it sounds doomsdayish, but are you prepared to lose our comfy economic status to China or India? I used to be scared of it, but now I'm more comfortable with it. Not that I won't fight for US jobs and the economy, but ultimately God resides everywhere, and someday my comfy Western lifestyle may be turned topsy-turvy. There's a good chance us Perkins' could be going overseas for a time. No details, but it is a possibility.