Monthly Archives: September 2004

Technology consulting firm TechSearch International says the growth rate for the solder-bump market is more than 40 percent, and wafer-level chip-scale packaging is expected to experience double-digit growth in 2004. This concurrent growth comes from an increasing demand for chipsets, as well as wireless and graphics chips that require advanced packaging technology to meet performance and form-factor design rules.

(September 13, 2004) Singapore and Fremont, Calif.&#8212STATS ChipPAC Ltd. today appointed Wan Choong Hoe as its new chief operating officer. Hoe has more than 25 years of manufacturing experience, and most recently served as vice president and managing director of Singapore and China operations for Nation Semiconductor Manufacturer Singapore Pte. Ltd. He holds an electrical and electronics engineering degree from the University of Singapore.

iSuppli showed multiple sets of capacity utilization data at an executive conference sponsored by the Fabless Semiconductor Association and the Institution of Electrical Engineers on Tuesday, September 7. It showed utilization for the industry as a whole reaching a peak of about 92 percent in Q2 2004 and declining to dip below 90 percent in Q1 2005. However, iSuppli still expects significant oversupply in 2006 and showed capacity utilization dropping to about 85 percent in that year.

(September 10, 2004) San Jose, Calif.&#8212Ultratech, Inc., a supplier of lithography and laser-processing systems used to manufacture semiconductors, announced that it received 300 mm advanced packaging lithography-system orders from three of Japan’s top five semiconductor manufacturers. These companies will use the Ultratech tools&#8212expected to ship by the end of 2004&#8212for solder-bump applications.

The workshop will offer two professional development courses: One that covers optoelectronics packaging and processes, and another about the fundamentals of adhesion for microelectronic and optoelectronic applications. The scheduled keynote speaker is John V. Pilitsis, Ph.D., CEO of Allentown, Penn.-based CyOptics.

(September 10, 2004) London, U.K.&#8212The utilization of manufacturing capacity at wafer fabs all over the world peaked in the second quarter (Q2) of 2004 and likely will dip over the next several quarters as manufacturing capacity is brought on-stream, according to market research firm iSuppi Corp.

September 9, 2004 – The latest monthly data from the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ) provide more evidence of strong, yet slowing, demand for semiconductor manufacturing equipment.

Worldwide orders for Japanese semiconductor manufacturing equipment were 141.86 billion yen ($1.30 billion) in July, a 13% decline from 164.53 billion yen ($1.48 billion) in June, with a slowdown in orders from Taiwanese chipmakers partially offset by demand from China. Sequentially, all segments except related equipment were down between 9%-45%.

Year-on-year, the largest category (wafer processing, accounting for 2/3 of all equipment orders) showed the smallest gain, up only 29%, while other categories showed more robust growth of 46%-120%. Global orders increased 43.8% year-on-year — the lowest growth rate in 10 months, after tracking at 100% or more from late 2003 into spring of this year. Through July, global orders of Japanese chipmaking equipment were 614.71 billion yen ($5.63 billion), nearly 70% ahead of the same period a year ago.

Domestic equipment orders were 79.98 billion yen ($732.4 million), down 6.1% from June and up 40.5% from a year ago. Through July, domestic orders were 309.08 billion yen ($2.83 billion), about 28% ahead of the same period a year ago, with most of the impetus coming from the backend (assembly +51%, test/inspection +47%).

September 9, 2004 – Chip sales growth is slowing down, according to the latest monthly figures from the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), but the group indicates we should be neither surprised nor alarmed. Worldwide chip sales rose 1% in July to $18.00 billion, a 37.9% hike from July 2003.

The number is slightly below last month’s 40.3% pace, but still the sixth consecutive month of >30% year-on-year sales growth.

Through July, worldwide chip sales were $117.51 billion, compared with $87.30 billion for the same period a year ago, for a 34.6% growth clip.

Data seems to indicate that the peak of the upturn has occurred. Sales growth rates in July slowed sequentially in all geographic regions except for Europe — which grew 1.3% to end a two-month skid and reclaim March sales levels.

SIA president George Scalise pointed to consumer uncertainty, inventory accumulation in key sectors, and seasonal issues in some markets generated modest sequential sales growth in July.

The SIA maintained its earlier forecast of 4%-6% sequential growth in 3Q04. If end markets such as PCs, consumer electronics, and automobiles continue following normal seasonal patterns, Scalise still expects “solid growth rates” for the semiconductor industry through the remainder of the year, resulting in approximately 28% year-on-year growth in 2004 to $214 billion in sales.

September 9, 2004 – Thales and the French atomic energy commission CEA have formed a new joint laboratory in Grenoble, France, to work on RF MEMS to design and develop high-power microwave microswitches and ICs based on them.

RF MEMS (radio frequency micro-electro mechnical systems) perform electro-mechanical functions and rely on microelectronics engineering methods to miniaturize certain critical microwave components while improving their performance.

The new laboratory brings together a CEA Leti team and a team from the Thales research centre at Orsay, France, which will join CEA Leti by the end of this year. It will be based in Grenoble at CEA Leti’s Heterogeneous Silicon Integration department and will have access to its dedicated microsystems development platform.

The laboratory aims to design and develop high-power microwave microswitches and integrated circuits based on these microswitches. The microsystems developed in will be used by Thales in applications including future radar and radio systems for defence, security and aerospace markets, and by other users in other fields.

The lab will operate initially for a four-year period with a team of four permanent staff and two doctoral students. Funding support is provided through national and European contracts. The laboratory will enable CEA Leti and Thales to develop new components based on identified needs, particularly for Thales’ Aerospace Division.

September 9, 2004 – DARPA has awarded Lucent Technologies a $9.5 million contract to develop an advanced microsystem that will make the design, engineering, and fabrication of next-generation advanced silicon ICs faster, more economical, and with increased security for military apps such as homeland security.

Lucent said the four-year contract, N66001-04-C-8028, was awarded by the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center San Diego, and is valued at $9.5 million, including options. Lucent will design, develop and demonstrate micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS)-based spatial light modulators (SLMs) that will enable maskless optical lithography.

The Bell Labs-developed MEMS SLM technology is made possible by advanced nanofabrication, Lucent added.

“One of the most critical barriers in the areas of maskless lithography is the development and implementation of the appropriate beam modulation technology,” said Dave Bishop, VP of nanotechnology research and president, NJ Nanotech Consortium at Bell Labs. “The micromirror technology Lucent is providing to DARPA is a giant leap forward in the area of advanced MEMS designed and engineering, and is being achieved by combining innovative design with our unique MEMS fabrication capability. We foresee this technology having positive impact on such critical areas as homeland security and military transformational communications. “

The Lucent team includes Corning Tropel, DuPont Photo Masks, Lincoln Laboratories.

Based at and run by Lucent Technologies’ Bell Labs, the NJ Nanotechnology Consortium conducts basic and applied nanotechnology research and provides fabrication and packaging capabilities.

Austrian process equipment vendor EV Group said today that it is expanding its operations in North, combining the company’s U.S. subsidiary headquarters and its Technology Center and Customer Support Division in the ASU Research Park in Tempe, AZ.

The new facility offers a Class 10 cleanroom and an onsite lab that will include the company’s entire equipment range for demonstrations, customer training and process development, EVG said.

In addition to its expansion in the ASU Research Park, the company will move its East Coast operations from Cranston, RI, to the Albany NanoTech facility at the University at Albany-State University of New York. The facility will provides a more centralized location for serving customers in the North East region.

The company has also accepted an offer to become a principal partner in the Flexible Display Center, a research project between Arizona State University and the U.S. Army, EVG said.

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CAMBRIDGE, Mass. Sept. 10, 2004 – Explaining nanotechnology to those who are unfamiliar with the concept is a challenge Daniel Davis enjoys. The audience Davis speaks to each day is the ultimate investor: the American public, whose tax dollars fund nanotech research initiatives. Davis meets that audience at the Boston Museum of Science where he leads them through a nanotechnology exhibit.

“We’re breaking science news to the public in language they can understand,” he explained. “One of the big strengths that museums have… is the opportunity to use physical models and demonstrations, that aren’t really available in a classroom setting. We want to give sensory examples.”

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The museum, a 140-year-old landmark that attracts more than 1.6-million visitors annually, launched the nanotech exhibit two years ago. Housed in its Current Science & Technology Center, the exhibit displays consumer products that use nanotechnology. The exhibit includes regular multimedia presentations delivered by Davis.

The project is the public face of the National Science Foundation’s effort to bring nanotechnology to the masses. Davis’ exhibit is funded through a $10.8-million grant awarded to Harvard University.

Davis introduces nanotech to the public with as many real-world examples as possible. He has stocked a display case with items such as cosmetics that use nanoparticles, a tennis racket infused with nanotubes and a pair of khaki pants made stain-proof by nano-whiskers in the fabric.

Nearby is a computer kiosk with interactive tutorials. Visitors can review two presentations, one about nanotech in general and one about nanotubes specifically. The tutorials cover fairly complex concepts (for the general public, at least), such as photolithography and chemical-vapor deposition.

The centerpiece of the show is Davis and his multimedia presentation. He conducts his 20-minute nanotech talk four or five times weekly, usually to audiences of about 30 to 40 people whose interest is piqued as they wander by.

“Imagine your arm in a thousand little pieces, and then one of those pieces cut into a thousand pieces, and then one of those pieces cut into another thousand,” he likes to tell the audience. “That’s a nanometer!”

Davis confines his talks to nanotech’s applications in medicine, since they are concrete examples most people understand. A physics student himself, he knows that he cannot delve deeply into quantum mechanics. “The hardest part is to do the concepts justice,” he lamented.

First up is a nano-cantilever to detect viruses. To demonstrate the point, Davis uses a small box with a foot-long cantilever extending from one edge. He places a yellow magnet (representing the virus) on the tip of the cantilever, to show how it bends more slowly when a virus is detected. He then moves onto colloidisomes as agents for drug delivery; then quantum dots for medical imaging; and finally, nanoshells as therapeutics to fight cancer.

Davis does his own research on nanotechnology, and tries to talk with every scientist mentioned in the program. He even convinced Jennifer West, a professor at Rice University and nanoshell pioneer, to make a guest appearance in July while she was in Boston for a business conference.

“It was a neat experience,” said West, who talked about cancer for 30 minutes. “I ended up with 100 people sitting in the audience and had great questions from the audience.”

George Ead, an engineer from nearby Methuen, Mass., caught the show last week with his teen son Ronnie. Ead had read of nanotech’s promise of far-off profitability, “so I kinda lost interest in it.”

He had no idea the Science Museum had a nanotech exhibit until he visited. Ead was particularly impressed with the nanoshells’ potential to fight cancer. But he did have some reservations: “from a business standpoint, I’m not sure I’d invest yet.”

Sept. 9, 2004 — Wireless communications firm Qualcomm Inc. announced plans Thursday to acquire Iridigm Display Corp., a MEMS-based, flat panel display maker.

Qualcomm, which originally invested in Iridigm in 2002 and followed up in July of this year, said it would pay about $170 million for the 86 percent of Iridigm it does not own. Iridigm will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Qualcomm, pending regulatory approval and other closing conditions.

The two San Diego, Calif.-based firms said in a written release the acquisition is a logical fit for each: Iridigm can advance its technology and extend its global reach, while Qualcomm can increase the capability of its wireless devices while decreasing cost, size and power consumption.

Marlene Bourne, a MEMS analyst for Scottsdale, Ariz.-based InStat/MDR, said it should prove to be a successful exit strategy for Iridigm as they enter the market.

“They’ve been applications-focused since day one. They have a low power, smaller, better solution than what’s out there,” she said. “They’re at a critical stage in terms of deploying the technology and proving their production process in high volume.”

Iridigm isn’t Qualcomm’s only venture into small tech. The company earlier this year participated in a $12-million funding round in Discera Inc., a Campbell, Calif.-based developer of micro-oscillators and resonators for mobile phones and other applications.

When it was announced in April, Discera called Qualcomm a strategic investor. While short of a commercial agreement between the firms, the investment was considered an important step toward striking such a deal. Discera’s original investor, Ardesta LLC, is Small Times Media’s parent company.