01/25/2005 January 25, 2005 - Cymer Inc. has announced the integration of a Cymer XLA 105 argon fluoride (ArF) light source on a 0.85 numerical aperture (NA) immersion lithography tool at IMEC's 300mm wafer fab facility in Leuven, Belgium.
01/24/2005 (January 24, 2005) Binghamton, N.Y., and San Jose, Calif. — Binghamton University and the U.S. Display Consortium (USDC) announce that the University has been awarded a competitively bid contract from the USDC to establish and operate the Center for Advanced Microelectronics Manufacturing (CAMM).
01/24/2005 (January 24, 2005) Palo Alto, Calif., and Seoul, Korea — Agilent Technologies and Wavics announce an agreement for Agilent to acquire Wavics, a Korean-based designer and manufacturer of power amplifier modules for the worldwide mobile handset market. Wavics' patented technology is reportedly expected to strengthen Agilent's leadership in power amplifiers and front-end modules, and enable customers to design smaller handsets with more features and extended talk time.
01/24/2005 January 24, 2005 - Photronics Inc., a supplier of imaging technology solutions for the global electronics industry, on Friday reported that it has acquired an additional 6.5% interest in PKL Co. Ltd. in Korea. As a result of this transaction, Photronics now owns approximately 87% of PKL.
01/24/2005 January 24, 2005 - Nanometrics Inc. and August Technology Corp. have entered into a merger agreement to create a combined company providing inspection, measurement and analysis systems. The combined company will be named August Nanometrics Inc., and the companies said they expect to close the transaction during the 2Q05.
01/24/2005 In more ways than one, it's a delicate balancing act that mPhase Technologies Inc. wants to execute. First is the company's technology: making a nanobattery by placing droplets of water on filaments of silicon. A jolt of electricity then bursts the droplet, it soaks the silicon, and pent-up energy is released. Then there is the company itself. Eight years old, mPhase was founded to sell telecommunications components. Leveraging that business in nanotech is quite a jump.
Among the topics explored at the International Sematech Manufacturing Initiative (ISMI) Global Economic Symposium, held in San Jose, CA, late last year, was timing of an industry move to 450mm wafers and a rational business model for silicon suppliers.
01/21/2005 Youm Huh, MagnaChip Semiconductor Ltd., Cheongju, Korea
October marked the official launch of MagnaChip Semiconductor Ltd., South Korea's $1 billion semiconductor company and a milestone for the Korean chip industry. MagnaChip is the first major Korean integrated device manufacturer (IDM) to focus solely on value-added, nonmemory semiconductor products. Competing in such sectors is critical for continued advancement and profitability of Korea's semiconductor industry.
01/21/2005 J. Robert Lineback, Senior Technical Editor
The next big step for development of 193nm immersion lithography will be fully equipped R&D pilot lines, expected to be operational in early 2005. These pilot lines will define immersion-related defectivity issues in functioning devices.
01/21/2005 J. Robert Lineback, Senior Technical Editor
Out of the blue comes an unexpected milestone in immersion lithography. IBM Corp. has plunged ahead and used a 193nm immersion scanner to print an interconnect layer on fully functional 64-bit microprocessors to prove that adding water to lithography really works.
01/21/2005 High-volume production of standard devices that have a long lifetime, such as DRAMs, continues to move towards Southeast Asia. However, in other regions there is a growing need for very flexible "minifabs" that can be rapidly and economically set up to make low-volume products that have very short lifetimes.
