12/01/2003 The automobile replacing the horse and buggy; the electric light bulb replacing the oil lamp; digital replacing analog. Some contamination-control industry watchdogs believe the inevitable transition from fluorescent and incandescent lamps to solid-state lighting (SSL) will be a technological milestone of similar significance for cleanroom owners.
12/01/2003 With the semiconductor industry upturns and downturns occurring more frequently, capacity planning becomes a difficult task. Greenfield expansions can take 18 months or more to put capacity in place, and fab expansions can take up to 12 months.
12/01/2003 Today's trend of increased miniaturization of components and packages is continuing in the electronics and micromechanics industries. Design and manufacturing technologies such as optoelectronics, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and micro-opto-electromechanical systems (MOEMS) are creating new application requirements and inspection needs.
12/01/2003 A fabless semiconductor company using an outsourcing model relies on a foundry for wafer fabrication, a testing house for wafer sort and an assembly house for chip assembly. The multiple manufacturing processes involved make it difficult for the fabless company to isolate the cause of an assembly failure.
12/01/2003 When a new technology emerges, talk typically centers on more gigahertz, fewer micrometers or higher integration densities. In the background, however, a quiet revolution is taking place in the form of process technologies, manufacturing structures and new forms of collaboration between industry partners.
12/01/2003 Low-temperature cofired ceramics (LTCC) are finding increasing application in standard components such as multilayer chip capacitors, which are manufactured in high volume today.
12/01/2003 Many factors in semiconductor manufacturing have contributed to an increased need for protection of wafers, singulated die or ICs during the back-end processes.
12/01/2003 The seemingly unquenchable thirst of semiconductor manufacturers for faster and more powerful microchips places great demands on required semiconductor manufacturing processes.
12/01/2003 Impending legislation is forcing the pace of progress toward lead-free electronic products, and the industry is close to finalizing suitable replacement solder alloys and associated processes.
12/01/2003 My wife and I have always been Sherlock Holmes fans. While not as exciting as Harry Potter, who can forget those old Basil Rathbone black-and-white episodes, or the newer ones starring Jeremy Brett and his slicked-back hair?
11/26/2003 Israeli elder statesman Shimon Peres is 80 years old, yet he is far from a seaside retirement. HeÂ’s still busy promoting peace in the Middle East and participating in day-to-day politics as chairman of the opposition Labor Party. Recently, heÂ’s also been busy promoting a little something for his countryÂ’s future: nanotechnology.
11/26/2003 Norville Group Ltd. will use Nanofilm's PermaSeal nanocoating on eyeglass lenses. The coating forms a molecular bond that repels stains, dirt and moisture, as well as offers a stronger, longer-lasting layer of protection, the release said.
11/25/2003 (November 25, 2003) San Jose, Calif.—The Fabless Semiconductor Association (FSA), the global voice of fabless and hybrid semiconductor companies and their foundry and supply chain partners, recently announced the top ten fabless companies by Q3 2003 revenue in its "On the Fabless Front" quarterly publication.
11/25/2003 (November 25, 2003) Tokyo, Japan—Toshiba Corp. today announced a boost in its semiconductor business capital expenditure that will expand memory production at Oita Operations in Kyushu.
11/25/2003 Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, received a five-year, $3.6 million federal grant to train scientists in interdisciplinary research that combines biological and synthetic systems, according to a news release.
11/25/2003 Pacific Nanotechnology Inc. has developed atomic force microscopy applications for nanotribology, or lubrication at the molecular level, according to a news release.
