09/12/2007 The MEMS market is an attractive area to operate in, according to Semiconductor Partners, because MEMS revenue will double from $5B in 2005 to $10B in 2011. "Driving MEMS Beyond Automotive," suggests that a "select group of large, well-established MEMS suppliers" will benefit from growth in the automotive sector, while "new, emerging entrants" to the MEMS market will capitalize on opportunities in consumer, communications, and portable product sectors.
09/11/2007 September 11, 2007 - Investors for several tool firms are sweltering more than usual during the "dog days" of summer, and sales are heating up for one prominent silicon supplier, according to a scan of the past week's headlines in Japan.
09/11/2007 Silicon wafer edges induce inherent non-uniformities in processing, and also seem to be the main source of defects for immersion lithography. Cleaning/stripping the wafer edge (or "bevel") is thus essential for production yield. Here follows a tale of two companies, two machines, and two different ways to solve the edge problem by dry stripping.
09/11/2007 September 11, 2007 - AMD did a better job than expected of gaining microprocessor market share on Intel in 2Q07, but from a wider perspective, the story is less about the two market giants and more about the smaller suppliers squashed in their "elephant dance," according to new analysis from iSuppli Corp.
09/11/2007 September 11, 2007 - X-Fab Silicon Foundries says it has enhanced two of its 0.35-micron chip processes to widen offerings for chip designers working on analog/mixed-signal and smart-power applications. X-Fab says the upgrades amount to the first fully modular 0.35-micron foundry process, encompassing digital, analog, lower on-resistance, high-voltage, and embedded non-volatile memory features.
09/11/2007 September 11, 2007 - Cadence Design Systems and Stratosphere Solutions are collaborating to increase 45nm semiconductor device yields by targeting manufacturing variability, combining their technologies to offer improved process modeling, analysis, and implementation flows.
09/11/2007 Global packaging and testing (PAT) revenues are expected to grow at half the rate in 2007 that they did in 2006, and will improve marginally in 2008, according to new data from Gartner Dataquest. A closer look inside the numbers reveals the emergence of outsourced semiconductor assembly and test services (SATS), which is poised to balloon by nearly a third over the next three years and reach equal footing with IDMs.
09/11/2007 Swiss nanoparticle-formulations producer Bühler Partec is one of the first companies worldwide to introduce a certified nanotechnology risk management system, which was formally recognized by the German certification body TÜV Süd.
09/11/2007 China now counts over 600 nanotechnology companies, 1500 sensor manufacturers, 60 biochip companies, and 150 fabless design houses, according to a new market research report by the German firm enablingMNT.
09/11/2007 Epoxies Etc... released "New Urethane Technology for Potting & Encapsulation in Electronics," targeting assemblers potting components for use in harsh environments, such as aerospace, automotive, and marine industries.
09/11/2007 September 11, 2007 - Texas Instruments reportedly is laying off nearly 200 workers at its KFAB 200mm manufacturing facility in Dallas, who were unable to find other jobs in the company six months after the layoffs were announced.
09/11/2007 September 11, 2007 - Aviza Technology Inc. and Mosel Vitelic Corp. have signed a pact to jointly develop advanced atomic layer deposition (ALD) materials for next-generation flash applications.
09/11/2007 SUSS MicroTec will install the first Famma XPress coating and developing cluster tool at Rohm and Haas' photoresist manufacturing site in Nigata, Japan. Rohm and Haas will develop, characterize, and optimize photodielectrics, and thick- and thin-film photoresists on the Gamma tool.
09/11/2007 SiTime Corp., designer, manufacturerer, and marketer of MEMS-based silicon resonators, oscillators, and timing solutions, says that its board of directors has appointed Rajesh Vashist as the company's new CEO.
09/10/2007 September 10, 2007 - Intel says it has started groundbreaking for its proposed "Fab 68" 300mm wafer fab in the coastal Chinese city of Dalian, the chipmaker's first wafer fab in Asia and first greenfield new fab location in 15 years.
09/10/2007 September 10, 2007 - Israeli foundry Tower Semiconductor Ltd. says it has closed funding commitments totaling $60 million to expand its 200mm Fab 2 facility.
09/10/2007 September 10, 2007 - NIL Technology and Oxford Instruments say they have developed a common etch process that covers all etch steps in nanoimprint lithography production.
09/10/2007 September 10, 2007 - Analog Devices Inc. has agreed to sell parts of its baseband chipset division to Taiwan's MediaTek for $350 million in cash.
09/10/2007 September 10, 2007 - Citing strong demand in the computing sector, Intel is upping its estimates for its 3Q07 sales forecast to $9.4-$9.8 billion, above the higher end of a previous range of $9.0-$9.6 billion, and roughly 8%-12% higher than 2Q07.
09/10/2007 September 10, 2007 - TSMC posted slightly better sales in August than the previous month, but said that full 3Q07 sales and margins would be better than expected, fulfilling at least one analyst's predictions.
