03/24/2008 March 24 -- /WASHINGTON/ -- Investigators have moved closer to understanding how a widely used blood thinner killed as many as 19 Americans, identifying the chemical that tainted the heparin products. Meanwhile, the American companies that made heparin and its main ingredient blamed suppliers from China for the contamination.
03/24/2008 ; Aehr Test Systems has announced it has received customer acceptance on the first FOX-15 wafer-level burn-in system from a major automotive IC manufacturer. Revenue for this system will be recognized in fiscal 4Q08.
03/24/2008 NanoImaging Services Inc., a provider of high-resolution, 3D transmission electron microscope (TEM) imaging services to manufacturers of large molecule biopharmaceuticals, has secured $1.5 million in a round of financing led by Merck Capital Ventures LLC.
03/21/2008 ; Agilent Technologies Inc. has unveiled a limited access solution for In-Circuit Test (ICT) users that eliminates the need for physical test points, offering benefits that traditional VTEP test cannot provide. Part of Agilent's VTEP v2.0 Powered test suite, the Agilent Cover-Extend Technology is a hybrid between two established test methodologies in the electronic manufacturing industry: Boundary Scan and VTEP Vectorless Test.
03/21/2008 ; CoorsTek has released the latest version of its design guide for thick-film ceramic substrates. The first significant update in several years, this guide offers electronics engineers the latest design guidelines for standard thick-film and laser machined ceramic substrates.
03/21/2008 Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (FHCRC) and NSB POSTECH Inc. (NSB) have reached an agreement to coordinate their efforts and to determine the efficacy of the NSB's NanoCones surface technology in creating proteomic microarrays to be used in the study of human diseases.
03/20/2008 Mar. 20, 2008 - An unexpectedly soft memory market in 4Q07 has caused analyst firm iSuppli to trim about $2B off its totals for the full year, pushing overall annual growth down to 3.3% vs. a preliminary forecast of 4.1% in November.
03/20/2008 by Ed Korczynski, Senior Technical Editor, Solid State Technology
In controlling the manufacturing processes used for advanced nanoscale IC, the aspects of metrology once ignored as "just noise" are now essential signals that must be controlled. Where to draw the line, and just how close is "close," are some of the challenges in ensuring that data streams become productive information for fabs, as discussed in sessions and interviews around this year's SPIE.
03/20/2008 febit biomed gmbh will introduce its Geniom RT Analyzer at the upcoming Analytica 2008 conference (April 1-4). The compact, all-in-one device enables fully automated processing of microarrays on Geniom biochips
03/20/2008 Materials scientists at Rice University have made the surprising discovery that tiny carbon capsules called buckyballs are so strong they can hold volumes of hydrogen nearly as dense as those at the center of the planet Jupiter.
03/20/2008 ; STATS ChipPAC Ltd. has announced a new IPD Products Databook which contains a library of silicon-based integrated passive device (IPD) designs to assist semiconductor companies in reducing design cycle time and increasing integration options in radio frequency (RF) applications.
03/19/2008 by Katherine Derbyshire, Contributing Editor, Solid State Technology Flat-panel displays and solar panels free ICs from the tyranny of the cathode ray tube (or teletype) and the power grid, respectively -- yet neither benefits from Moore's Law. Without Moore's Law to help, FPD relied on large-scale manufacturing and heavy use of automation to break out of the laptop computer niche. Solar manufacturers hope to use the same methods to compete with fossil fuels.
03/19/2008 Mar. 19, 2008 - Spansion says it has achieved manufacturing efficiencies in its plants in the US and Japan to the extent that it expects to reduce outsourced work by ~$50M/quarter in 1H08 vs. 2H07.
03/19/2008 Mar. 19, 2008 - Toshiba has slashed its FY08 profits forecast by 30% (to ¥125B/US $1.28B), citing the exit of its HD DVD business -- but also surprising weakness in NAND flash pricing.
03/19/2008 Mar. 19, 2008 - Chinese flagship foundry SMIC is spreading the focus of its wafer fabs across different parts of China, with those in the northeast and northwest to be allocated for solar business, according to comments by CEO Richard Chang, reported by Digitimes.
03/19/2008 by Katherine Derbyshire, Contributing Editor, Solid State Technology
Conferences like the recent SPIE focus on the leading edge (e.g., EUV, double patterning, immersion lithography), yet process technologies remain commercially important long after the leading edge has moved on. Case in point: KrF-based litho, currently used in >30% of 65nm DRAMs and poised to increase substantially. Here's what resist suppliers like Fujifilm Electronic Materials are doing to support this trend.
03/19/2008 As nanotechnology aids in improving the performance of wireless handsets, the market for nanotech-enabled wireless components is expected to grow rapidly.
03/19/2008 Mar. 19, 2008 - Demand for semiconductor manufacturing equipment continues to improve with a couple of notable bright spots, though the market is still showing softness and lower growth than a year ago, according to the latest monthly data from SEMI.
03/19/2008 Colibrys has launched its MS9000 family of inertial accelerometers specifically designed for harsh environment and safety critical applications.
