This dissertation is an historical and evaluative study of the Semiconductor Industry Association's (SIA) Technology Roadmap, now referred to as the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS) or simply, the "Roadmap." Technology roadmaps and roadmapping practices comprise new and emerging tools in technology planning and management that have gained increasing attention by researchers. This study addresses how technology roadmaps affect technological innovation, corporate strategies, and public policies in the semiconductor industry.; This inquiry is accomplished through an examination of the technology roadmap 'landscape' more generally and a case-based analysis of the ITRS in particular. Several hypotheses were formulated to help seek greater and deeper understanding of not just the Roadmap but the surrounding context within which it emerged and has since evolved. This unique approach will demonstrate the overall thesis that the Roadmap is part of a continuing tradition wedded to the goal of sustaining historical industrial productivity---also referred to as "Moore's Law."; In support of this, an important contribution of the study is substantial historical research of key developments within the semiconductor industry. The findings depart from more widely-accepted interpretations of technological innovation advanced by much previous research. Specifically, this research is concerned with the industry's heritage of incremental or evolutionary technological change following a normal innovation pattern, particularly involving manufacturing process innovations in semiconductors.; The findings also suggest that the Roadmap continues the decades-long heritage of normal innovation, now conducted at an international level and reaching across a wide and complex supply chain network. Finally, the analysis supports a new structural approach to technological innovation, one that is more coordinated with the help of a global industry roadmap. Thus a theory of organized innovation is advanced that helps explain how the increasingly fragmented semiconductor innovation community is able to continue working in cadence to address the daunting technical and economic challenges facing the industry 'down the road'.
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