With its dynamic structure, the Turkish market attracts attention in the “semiconductor” sector, which enables transformation in many critical areas from artificial intelligence to the defense industry, from automotive to consumer electronics. In collaboration with Bilkent University National Nanotechnology Research Center (UNAM) and ZEISS, the future of semiconductor technologies was discussed by academy and industry professionals at the “Semiconductor Advances Summit’26” held in Ankara.
During the two-day program, technical sessions addressing different dimensions of semiconductor technologies, global dynamics of the sector and evaluations of the semiconductor ecosystem in Turkey were held. In the program, where academic and industrial perspectives were brought together and comprehensive outputs were obtained, participants attended theoretical presentations as well as He had the opportunity to personally test the latest technologies with the “VR Experience in Microscopy”.
In the sections where ZEISS’s advanced technology solutions were exhibited, the Crossbeam 750 platform attracted attention with its performance in high-precision analysis and sample preparation processes, and stood out with its contributions in terms of quality, speed and accuracy in semiconductor production. During the event, it was emphasized that ZEISS contributed to Turkey’s development in this critical field with the advanced technologies it provided to the semiconductor industry and built a strong bridge between academia and industry.
While ZEISS Turkey’s vision of bringing the semiconductor ecosystem to global standards came to the fore, it was stated that the company is a strategic solution partner worldwide in this field. Research continues in clean rooms. UNAM Chief Executive Officer Prof. Dr. Hilmi Volkan Demir told the AA correspondent that ZEISS and UNAM came together to talk about their progress in semiconductor technologies. Stating that important academic studies have been carried out on semiconductors in Turkey, Demir said, “We are at a point where we can compete internationally in certain subjects in the scientific sense, but significant investments are required for their industrial commercialization.
For this, focused work is required. With this focused work and focused investment, first in these laboratories and then by scaling it up, only then will it be possible to have a strong semiconductor industry at the industrial level.” he said. Demir underlined that its doors are open to external users as a national center and pointed out that a significant part of the important semiconductor studies carried out in Turkey come from the clean rooms in their centers.
Expressing that semiconductors are the “technological war” of this century, Demir said, “In the future, it will be determined by semiconductor technologies which countries will be technologically ahead and which will be behind and will remain dependent. The ‘chip war’ that you are hearing about right now is entirely based on semiconductor technology. Therefore, if your semiconductor technology is not strong, dependency is inevitable.” he said.
High value-added products are produced. Demir stated that a semiconductor material produced in their laboratories is currently used as a color converter in television production in Turkey. Emphasizing that this is a commercialized success story, Demir said: “While normally you have to buy this material from abroad, we are bringing a system with a high technological readiness level to our country at an industrial level.
Currently, this product is used by a television manufacturer in Turkey.” The performance of this color converter is internationally competitive. The total market value of these specific semiconductor material nanocrystal color converters in the world is over 5 billion dollars. The added value it provides actually makes the television a top-segment television at the system level. Normally, such color converters are not used in televisions.
The standard ones have lower performance. When you use these semiconductor nanocrystal color converters, the value of the television increases due to the increase in its performance. Currently, the Turkish television manufacturer is doing just that, selling it abroad. That’s why it has high added value for our country.” Turkish market is dynamic. ZEISS Research Microscopy Solutions Country Director Umut Küçükbayrak emphasized that the company is a global player in this field and said, “There is a dynamic environment developing in the semiconductor field in Turkey.” made his assessment.
Emphasizing that they are a company that works very closely with both industry and academics, Küçükbayrak shared the following information: “With the program we carried out, we tried to create an environment where people can come together and update each other. ZEISS is a 180-year-old company and an industrial organization that has been working very closely with the academics around it since the day it was founded. In Turkey, we have been working for 13 years to present the information and technology produced and developed in different parts of the world to our customers in Turkey.
Our main goal is to gain long-term customer satisfaction by presenting our technology to the Turkish market and providing after-sales support.” Turkey has significant potential, said UNAM Chief Researcher Assoc. Dr. Serkan Hurricane also pointed out that semiconductors constitute an important part of daily life, and that mobile phones, smart watches, rings and glasses using them have become very common. Stating that studies have been carried out to use this technology in certain critical areas around the world, Hurricane said: “The basis of all technological developments lies in how much semiconductors are mastered and how much semiconductor technology is possessed.
That’s why we, as UNAM, intensified our research because it was strategic. We organized this event to highlight this, to focus on how we can find new niche areas by bringing together these strategic researches and partners, and how we can discover new applications of semiconductor technologies. Semiconductor technologies are very important in high power electronics and Turkey has a serious potential here too.” Source: AA
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