01/01/2005 As we begin 2005, back-end packaging is coming away from a profitable year. Most industry forecasters expect a moderate, cyclic decline in the upcoming year, followed by a slight recovery in 2006, and healthy expansion in 2007.
12/30/2004 (December 30, 2004) Irvine, Calif. — Newport Corp. has updated its financial guidance for Q4 2004, confirming that it expects its sales for Q4 2004 to be within the range announced in October 2004 of $100 million to $103 million.
12/30/2004 December 30, 2004 - Parlex Corp. and Infineon Technologies AG have agreed to establish a joint venture company to manufacture and sell advanced technology substrates for secure mobile electronic identification products, said Parlex officials earlier this week. The joint venture will be headquartered in Hong Kong with manufacturing facilities in China.
12/30/2004 December 30, 2004 - Toppan Printing Co. has formed a joint venture with Chinese chip foundry Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC) to make on-chip color filters and micro lenses for image sensors, according to Jiji Press Ltd.
12/29/2004 (December 29, 2004) Gaithersburg, Md.—A low-power, magnetic sensor about the size of a grain of rice that can detect magnetic field changes as small as 50 picoteslas — a million times weaker than the Earth's magnetic field — has been demonstrated by researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
12/29/2004 (December 29, 2004) Austin, Texas — Freescale Semiconductor's inaugural Freescale Technology Forum is slated to be held June 20-23, 2005, in Orlando, Fla. This event combines elements of prior Freescale events, such as the Smart Networks Developer Forum and Embedded Connectivity Summit, offering technical education and hands-on training.
12/29/2004 (December 29, 2004) Corvallis, Ore.—Researchers at Oregon State University and Hewlett Packard have reported their first example of an entirely new class of materials that could be used to make transparent transistors that are inexpensive, stable, and environmentally benign. This could lead to new industries and a broad range of new consumer products, scientists say.
12/28/2004 (December 28, 2004) New York, N.Y.—MagnaChip Semiconductor recently announced the successful sale of US$750 million of high-yield notes in a private offering. The company plans to use the proceeds from this offering to refinance existing indebtedness, redeem existing preferred equity interests of MagnaChip Semiconductor LLC, and for general corporate purposes
12/28/2004 (December 28, 2004) Teddington, Middlesex, U.K.—The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) will soon begin a new project to investigate the reliability of existing substrates manufactured using a lead-free process. This project will include investigation of the reliability of microvias, non-functional pads, and design/build aspects of the substrate. It will also investigate these substrates in terms of conductive anodic filamentation (CAF) susceptibility.
12/28/2004 December 28, 2004 - Samsung Electronics has announced it would begin construction of a Line 7-2 at its fab in Tanjeong, Korea. The company will make a 290 billion won (US$273 million) investment in order to start construction of the building for the new line, to be located west of Line 7-1. The fabrication facility will be about 300,000 sq. m., while the module assembly facility will be about 93,000 sq. m.
12/28/2004 December 28, 2004 - NEC Electronics Corp. will add a few more days to its scheduled shutdowns of chip-making factories during the year-end and New Year holidays in light of a slowdown in demand for some chips, said the Nihon Keizai Shimbun.
12/27/2004 December 27, 2004 - The board of directors of PowerChip Semiconductor Corp. (PSC) have approved a plan to open a 200mm wafer fab in mainland China and have decided to put 20% of the firm's net worth of NT$69.3 billion (US$2.1 billion) into the investment, said the Financial Times.
12/23/2004 December 24, 2004 - SEH America Inc. will begin producing 300mm silicon wafers at its Vancouver plant, reported The Oregonian. The news, which the company announced Tuesday, comes as SEH's Japanese parent company undertakes a major expansion to make the larger-diameter wafers.
12/23/2004 December 23, 2004 - A group of South Korean semiconductor and flat-panel display manufacturers have banded together in a consortium to better manage and defend intellectual property rights.
