SEMI has announced the winners of their inaugural 2008 Best of West award at Semicon West in San Jose. Jenoptik and Alchimer were chosen by a panel of journalists, members of the academic community, and industry leaders based on their engineering or scientific achievement, financial impact, and/or social contribution. Jenoptik, specialist in photonic and mechatronic technologies, won for the Jenoptik-Votan G Semi, a wafer dicing system that utilizes thermal laser separation (TLS). Alchimer, specializing in electrochemical technology, won for the eGviaCoat for the electrografting of copper seed layers used for the metallization of through silicon vias (TSV).