Available manufacturing capacity is one reason for the upward trend, along with steady increases in equipment bookings, according to Dan P. Tracy, Ph.D., senior director of industry research and statistics, SEMI. “The higher bookings level, thus higher book-to-bill ratio, reflects the increase in capital spending plans announced earlier this year by the semiconductor manufacturers,” he added.

(June 26, 2006) SANTA CLARA, CA &#151 InvenSense’s IDG-300 gyroscopic chip for handsets provides image stabilization in camera phones and suits handheld GPS navigation devices, radio-controlled helicopters, game devices, robotic and power tools, and antenna positioning applications. InvenSense creates the chip using wafer-scale integration with a bonding process that seals MEMS wafers to CMOS wafers prior to dicing. It can be used to simplify handset interaction through gesture-based commands and enables intuitive interaction to navigate and control 2- and 3-D digital space.