07/03/2007 VI Group PLC reportedly acquired the assets of Camtek North America, Inc., the North American distributor for Israel-based Camtek Ltd, according to Thomson Financial and AFX News Limited. The acquisition totaled £56,000, about $112,213.
07/02/2007 July 2, 2007 - Topping the past week's headlines are cheers (and jeers) for the Taiwan government's relaxation of assembly/packaging investment restrictions into China. Also in the news: reports on a possible multinational polysilicon JV, Inotera accelerating its 70nm ramp (and capex too), and rosy LCD driver IC demand and 200mm capacity utilization.
07/02/2007 Pure Technologies LLC appointed Qualitek Group to distribute its Alpha-Lo products across Asia, the U.S., and Europe. Ingots, anodes, slugs, pellets, foils, and other mediums will be distributed. Qualitek also manufactures solder pastes, BGA spheres, and other low-alpha-particle solder products using the Alpha-Lo line.
07/02/2007 By Jeffrey C. Demmin, contributing editor
Are you ready for SEMICON West? The biggest tradeshow in the industry is just around the corner, and here are some highlights of what might be of interest to the packaging professional.
07/02/2007 July 2, 2007 - Chinese flagship foundry SMIC is transferring IP and "know-how" of 90nm process technologies to Israeli development partner Saifun Semiconductors Ltd., as the two firms get ready to launch 90nm-based 2GB NAND flash products later this year.
07/02/2007 MEMS Technology Bhd plans to partner with South Korea's BSE Co. Ltd. to further expand its market for silicon microphones and develop a new range of products.
07/02/2007 July 2, 2007 - After a slight downtick in April, global chip sales moved back into positive growth again in May -- but just barely, according to new data from the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA). Worldwide semiconductor sales moved back above the $20 billion benchmark to $20.3 billion in May, a scant 1.2% growth vs. April and 2.4% above May 2006 levels.
07/02/2007 Applied Materials' purchase of HCT Shaping Systems, a precision wafering system manufacturer, will further the company's effort to drive down the cost-per-watt of solar power for c-Si and thin film applications.
07/01/2007 A June workshop hosted by the Department of Energy (DOE) aimed to set industry-driven R&D priorities that will yield significant energy savings in manufacturing and product use.
07/01/2007 The American Association of Cancer Research’s recent article, “Nanoparticles Can Damage DNA, Increase Cancer Risk,” provides a good example of how researchers can unintentionally damage the public’s ability to develop a balanced understanding of nanotechnology.
07/01/2007 We’ve come a long way since Maxwell Smart, a fictional character in the 1965-1970 NBC/CBS spy spoof series, Get Smart, used a pencil listening device and other assorted gadgets to help him spy on the bad guys.
07/01/2007 From Lawrence Berkeley National Lab to Silicon Valley, researchers are manipulating particles at the atomic level, ushering in potential cures for cancer, clothes that don’t stain, and solar panels as thin as a sheet of paper, according to a blog by Josh Rosen, series producer for QUEST on KQED Television (Public Broadcasting for northern California).
07/01/2007 Through its merger with Carbon Nanotechnologies Inc. (CNI), founded by the late Richard Smalley, who won a Nobel prize for his work in nanotechnology, Unidym has assembled a full intellectual property portfolio and a range of patents covering many aspects of carbon nanotubes (CNTs).
07/01/2007 Despite the relative health of a semiconductor equipment sector that topped $40 billion in 2006, market maturation and consolidation have driven many companies to seek new outlets for their products and technologies.
07/01/2007 Among the companies looking to meet the microelectronics industry’s need for heat dissipation is ALD Nanosolutions (ALDNanoSolutions.com), which uses atomic layer deposition to produce nanometer amorphous coating on a variety of surfaces-including boron nitride (BN) particles.
07/01/2007 Even though the conservative semiconductor industry, with its extreme performance and manufacturing demands, has done much of its manufacturing in nanoscale dimensions for years, it hasn’t yet had much use for the unique properties of nanoparticles, fullerenes, nanowires, quantum dots, etc.-the technologies usually considered “true” nanotech.
