11/16/2007 ; North American-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted US$1.23B in orders in October 2007 (three-month average basis) and a book-to-bill ratio of 0.83, according to the October 2007 Book-to-Bill Report published by SEMI.
11/15/2007 November 15, 2007 - Infineon Technologies and Intel have forged a technology partnership to develop optimized chips for high-density SIM cards combined with Intel's 65nm and 45nm process-based NOR flash memory. Initial development will scale up to 64MB with a voltage range of 1.8-3.3V; first samples are planned to ship in 2H08, followed by high-volume production in 1H09.
11/15/2007 November 15, 2007 - austriamicrosystems says it is expanding its multiproject wafer (shuttle) ASIC prototyping service in 2008 with high-voltage (CMOS and flash) and RF offerings. The company is planning >150 shuttle start dates, through partnerships with groups including CMP-TIMA, Europractice, Fraunhofer IIS, and MOSIS, as well as joint 0.18-micron work with IBM.
11/15/2007 November 15, 2007 - Semilab Co. Ltd., a Budapest, Hungary-based supplier of noncontact wafer mapping metrology systems, has agreed to acquire Pittsburgh, PA-based SSM Inc. for an undisclosed cash amount, and reorg the business as a new division for developing and selling electrical metrology systems for semiconductor manufacturing.
11/15/2007 November 15, 2007 - SET, the former SUSS MicroTec device bonder division spun off earlier this year, says that a partnership with CEA Leti has resulted in a new high-accuracy (0.5-micron), high-force (4000 N) device bonder for processing up to 300mm wafers.
11/15/2007 November 15, 2007 - Robert MacKnight, president of Mattson Technology since mid-2005 and COO since 2002, will retire at the end of March 2008, staying on for a transitional period as VP, the company announced. CEO David Dutton will take on the role of president, having held both roles from 2001-2005.
11/15/2007 ; Accelerometers — devices that sense motion — have been with us for a long time, but only recently have they have been miniaturized as silicon-based devices. Consumer electronics makers who saw their hidden potential and built new products such as Nintendo's Wii, Apple's iPhone, and Activision's "Guitar Hero" game around them have achieved huge market success by revolutionizing the user-interface.
11/15/2007 ; Two companies have recently launched new LED packaging products. Philips Lumileds has launched its new cool-white LUXEON K2 with TFFC LED that is designed, binned and tested for standard operation at 1000 mA and can be driven at 1500 mA. In addition, LedEngin Inc. has announced its 10W, multiwavelength RGBA emitter, the LZ4-00MA10, which contains individually addressable dies in an 7mm square power LED package.
11/15/2007 ; S.E.T., the former SUSS MicroTec Device Bonder Division, has announced that the partnership between S.E.T. and CEA Leti has resulted in a radically new-generation, high-accuracy (0.5 µm), high-force (4000 N) device bonder for wafer diameters up to 300 mm. The FC300 bonder includes a built-in chamber for collective reflow in a gas or vacuum environment and also features nanoimprinting capabilities.
11/15/2007 BioDiscovery Inc., which develops microarray systems, has joined Illumina Connect, a bioinformatics program offered by Illumina Inc., for downstream analysis of microarray data.
11/15/2007 "With Sarcos we are gaining world-renowned research and development capabilities in robotics technology, providing us with new capabilities to expand our position in this developing growth area," says defense contractor Raytheon.
11/15/2007 November 14, 2007 - Oversupply of parts in NAND, coupled with slower-than-expected seasonal demand for DRAM, have prompted industry analyst firm iSuppli to downgrade its outlooks for both memory segments.
11/14/2007 November 14, 2007 - First Solar posted a "blow-out" 3Q07 last week and announced two long-term supply deals requiring a new manufacturing facility, news that sent its share prices soaring through the roof and boosted stocks across the sector.
11/14/2007 What makes the photovoltaic solar cell industry so interesting and exciting is that the potential for growth is enormous, but realizing this opportunity is not straightforward. This is a competition between technologies, both within the PV alternatives and also from non-PV options. The way forward is also clouded by the significant involvement of politics, vested interests, and environmental lobby groups, where the "facts" may not always be what they seem.
11/14/2007 November 14, 2007 - Despite a sluggish 1H07 due to pricing woes, things have improved enough in the latter part of the year to bump up the Semiconductor Industry Association's (SIA) outlook for chip sales to 3.8% growth, instead of the anemic 1.8% seen just five months ago. The outlook for 2008 is about the same as before, but 2009 looks a bit better, and 2010 is also more optimistic.
11/14/2007 ; Fred Roozeboom, Ph.D., research fellow at NXP Semiconductors Research and a professor at the Eindhoven University of Technology, has agreed to join the EMC3D consortium and provide technical advice and guidance in support of the EMC3D effort to quickly bring the technology of through-silicon via (TSV) chip stacking to market.
11/14/2007 ; FlipChip International has introduced its new Embeddable Die Customization (EDC) technology targeted at readying integrated circuits and other devices for integration into emerging 3D packaging solutions. EDC enables the embedding of semiconductor devices within printed circuit boards or other interconnection schemes, thereby enabling lower profile, more reliable packaging schemes for applications including next generation cell phones.
11/14/2007 ; Microchip Technology Inc., a provider of microcontroller and analog semiconductors, today announced the MCP4725 digital-to-analog converter (DAC) that combines integrated EEPROM and 12-bit resolution in a miniature, 6-pin SOT-23 package. The low-power, single-channel DAC has a buffered voltage output and can be used in space-constrained portable and battery-powered applications.
"With Sarcos we are gaining world-renowned research and development capabilities in robotics technology, providing us with new capabilities to expand our position in this developing growth area," says defense contractor Raytheon.