02/09/2005 (February 9, 2005) Chandler, Ariz.—Amkor Technology Inc. recently reported Q4 sales of $453 million, down 8% from Q3 of 2004, and down 1% from Q4 of 2003. The company's Q4 net loss was $36 million, or ($0.21) per share, compared to net income of $23 million or $0.13 per share in Q4 of 2003.
02/09/2005 (February 9, 2005) New York City — According to a new report from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), China's Impact on the Semiconductor Industry, the domestic IC consumption/production gap will continue to accelerate during the next several years, strengthening the Chinese government's resolve to increase domestic production.
02/09/2005 February 9, 2005 - Mattson Technology Inc. has received orders for its Helios RTP system from a Taiwanese memory manufacturer to be put in its recently constructed 300mm fab in Hsin Chu. The Helios systems, scheduled to begin shipment in FH05, will be used to manufacture sub-100nm devices, including SDRAMs and DDR SDRAMs.
02/09/2005 The airbag accelerometer is generally regarded as one of the best examples of a MEMS sensor giving automakers a simultaneous price and performance advantage. The same may one day be said of MEMS-based tire pressure monitors, now being integrated in mainstream models in response to safety legislation. Now there’s another area where MEMS is poised to make inroads in automotive – side-impact crash protection.
02/08/2005 U.S. states poured more than $400 million into nanotechnology research, facilities, and business incubation programs in 2004--on top of greater than $1 billion in federal government spending--making nanotech the largest publicly-funded science initiative since the space race.
02/08/2005 (February 8, 2005) Flanders, N.J. — Rudolph Technologies reports net income of $2.1 million, or $0.12 per diluted share, for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2004. This compares to net income of $2.2 million in the prior quarter, and $844,000 for Q4 2003. Revenue was up 5.6% sequentially and up 45.2% on-year to $23.1 million for Q4 2004.
02/08/2005 (February 8, 2005) Austin, Texas — IMAPS is sponsoring its Topical Workshop (TW) on Flip Chip Technologies, to be held June 20-23, 2005, in Austin, Texas. This meeting is a continuation of the annual Flip Chip Workshop, now in its tenth year, which showcases the latest developments in flip chip technology.
02/08/2005 February 8, 2005 - Nine global semiconductor companies, representing 500,000 200mm-equivalent wafers/month and $7 billion in combined annual revenues, have formed the Fab Owners Association (FOA) to identify problems and potential solutions for common manufacturing issues.
02/08/2005 February 8, 2005 - A group of chipmakers have banded together to streamline system-level memory validation and test by defining a single board-level interface standard for using various memory devices on multiple development platforms.
02/08/2005 February 8, 2005 - Toshiba Corp. and SanDisk Corp. have unveiled an 8Gbit NAND flash memory chip fabricated with 70nm process technologies, with read speeds of 60MB/sec, 40% faster than the previous generation.
02/08/2005 February 8, 2005 - Fujitsu Ltd. said Monday it has agreed to sell its wholly-owned subsidiary Fujitsu VLSI's semiconductor and liquid crystal display production equipment business to ULVAC Inc. on April 1, according to Kyodo News International.
02/08/2005 February 8, 2005 - Siliconix Inc., an 80.4% owned subsidiary of Vishay Intertechnology Inc., announced that it has acquired Vishay's former wholly-owned subsidiary, Vishay Semiconductor Itzehoe GmbH (VSIG), for EUR7.5 million (~US$10.2 million), which includes all assets and liabilities. Siliconix also plans to establish 8-in. wafer production capability at the Itzehoe, Germany, facility.
02/07/2005 FDA is reissuing a nationwide alert against the use of all lots of preloaded syringes containing either heparin or sodium chloride intravenous catheter flushes manufactured by the IV Flush, LLC and distributed by Pinnacle Medical Supply because of possible contamination with Pseudomonas fluorescens. Since FDA's initial warning on Jan. 31, there have been several new reports of infections in patients.
02/07/2005 (February 7, 2005) New Tripoli, Pa. — The semiconductor equipment market grew 52.7% to $33.9 billion in 2004, according to the report, "The Global Market for Equipment and Materials for IC Manufacturing," recently published by the Information Network (www.theinformationnet.com), a New Tripoli, Pa.-based market research company.
