06/01/2007 Cost-cutting is a reality within many companies that utilize cleanrooms. Whether it’s a
result of pressure from above to please investors or increased competition, cleanroom engineers are more than ever
called upon to decrease costs and increase efficiency.
06/01/2007 Commissioner of Food and Drugs Dr. Andrew C. von Eschenbach has announced the creation of a new Food and Drug Administration (FDA) position-assistant commissioner for food protection-to provide advice and counsel to the commissioner on strategic and substantive food safety and food defense matters.
06/01/2007 Pall Corporation has inaugurated its newest Life Sciences Centre of Excellence in Bangalore, India, which is intended to drive innovations in global life sciences processes throughout Asia.
06/01/2007 Air Liquide Electronics, a leader in industrial and medical gases and related services, and Aviza Technology, Inc., a supplier of advanced semiconductor capital equipment and process technologies for the global semiconductor industry and related markets, have extended their joint development agreement (JDA)
05/31/2007 May 31, 2007 - Samsung and Hynix are working to raise production of flash memory chips by July to meet increased demand from Apple, on expectations of the iPhone launch this summer and rumors of a new iPod to be introduced later this year, notes the Nikkei daily paper.
05/31/2007 May 31, 2007 - Dongbu HiTek Co., the merged entity of Dongbu Electronics and Dongbu Hannong Chemicals, says it has developed in-house a special design library for LCD driver IC devices using 130nm CMOS process technologies, which it says minimizes electromigration and cross-talk. The company developed a 130nm design library for image sensor processors earlier this year.
05/31/2007 May 31, 2007 - Taiwan foundry Vanguard International Semiconductor Co. has run capacity utilization over 100% due to "swarming" orders from customers needing LCD drivers as exhausted panel makers rebuild their stockpiles, according to the Taiwan Economic News.
05/31/2007 May 31, 2007 - A trio of semiconductor equipment firms have made a range of moves to shore up their balance sheets, boost capital and return profits to shareholders, through several transactions involving shares and convertible notes.
05/31/2007 e2v, developer and manufacturer of electronic components and subsystems, has announced a new generation of high-sensitivity imaging sensors that leverage technology from Tracit Technologies, a new division of the Soitec Group.
05/31/2007 Inapac Technology, Inc. (Hsin-chu), partnered with DRAM manufacturer ProMOS Technologies (San Jose) to develop a low-power, 256 Mb DDR SDRAM based on Inapac's SiPFLOW platform. ProMOS will manufacture the bare-die product in known good die (KGD) from system-in-package (SiP) and multi-chip package (MCP) devices.
05/31/2007 May 31, 2007 - Eying severe DRAM pricing declines and continued MPU price wars, analyst Gartner Inc. has once again lowered its outlook for chip sales, now projecting just 2.5% growth in 2007, down from 6.4% expectations in early March and 9.2% in January.
05/31/2007 Small Times' Tom Cheyney reports on a particularly compelling discussion among panelists from industry and academia at the recent NSTI Nanotech 2007 conference. The panel examined technical barriers to -- and recent advancements in -- nanomanufacturing.
05/31/2007 In a just-released update to its MEMS Foundry Ranking, Yole Developpement reports that global MEMS foundry and contract manufacturing grew at a rate of 35% in 2006. The firm predicts similar growth for the next three years.
05/30/2007 May 30, 2007 - The Fab Owners Association (FOA), a collection of an association of mainly second-tier semiconductor manufacturers, has expanded its roster with the addition of three chipmakers: Austriamicrosystems AG (analog), Avago Technologies (analog+mixed-signal, opto), and X-Fab (mixed-signal foundry).
05/30/2007 May 30, 2007 - Fulfilling one of the strategic plans laid out when spinning out into a standalone entity, SVTC Technologies -- nee the Silicon Valley Technology Center, which was sold by Cypress Semiconductor in February to private equity investors -- has announced a "technology incubation program" with top foundry TSMC.
05/30/2007 The Design Automation Conference (DAC), June 4–8 in San Diego, features an automotive theme focused on fuel cells, electric drivetrains, advanced entertainment and safety systems, and disruptive designs in the automotive sector. Other presentations at the conference will cover intellectual property (IP), design and verification, low-power designs, and related topics.
05/30/2007 Endicott Interconnect Technologies, Inc. (EI), received a $49 million follow-on production contract from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) for a new generation of packaging, PCB, and substrate technologies. The R&D will focus on high-productivity computing, and is part of a five-year agreement.
