03/29/2007 March 29, 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 Microchip Technology Inc., a provider of microcontroller and analog semiconductors, and analog/mixed-signal firm Skyworks Solutions Inc.
03/29/2007 March 29, 2007 - X-Fab Semiconductor Foundries is taking over ZMD AG's ZFoundry wafer production facilities (ZMD Analog Mixed Signal Services GmbH & Co.), a move that gives X-Fab access to another possible 200mm source for production demand, and helps ZMD transition to the fabless model.
03/29/2007 Intel Corporation recognized 44 companies with the preferred quality supplier (PQS) award acknowledging quality and performance in 2006. Winners received the award at a ceremony in Burlingame, CA, this week. The awards are part of Intel's supplier continuous quality improvement (SCQI) process.
03/29/2007 ViaLogy PLC has completed an agreement for exclusive commercialization rights of dual-beam Reverse Photo- Acoustic Spectrometer (REPAS) technology developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory. ViaLogy will combine REPAS with its own weak signal processing to enable long-range detection of chemical weapons.
03/28/2007 March 27, 2007 - A 6.9-magnitude earthquake that struck offshore northwestern Japan on March 25 likely has had negligible impact on Japan's semiconductor production, with no reports of problems from the only major chipmaker with a presence in the immediate area, according to analyst firm Objective Analyis.
03/28/2007 SEMI is hosting its High Tech U. program for about 40 secondary school students in Crolles March 27–29. Students will learn — in a play-oriented, interactive, hands-on experimental environment — how semiconductors and microelectronics are made, the science of microchips and interconnect, and the scope of career opportunities in this sector. This marks SEMI's first presentation of the class in Europe.
03/28/2007 Infotonics, a collaborative center of excellence for photonics and microsystems in Canandaigua, chose the SUSS ABC200 wafer-bonding cluster tool and FC150 device bonder as strategic investments for its MEMS packaging laboratory.
03/28/2007 The new James Watt Nanofabrication Centre at Glasgow University, Scotland, nestled over and into one of Lord Kelvin's original laboratories, boasts an impressive array of equipment and capabilities. This month, coinciding with the facility's official opening, the Ultrafast Systems Group was awarded £4m research funding.
03/27/2007 March 28, 2006 - Singapore's Chartered Semiconductor regained the No.3 spot among worldwide foundry sales in 2006, retaking the ranking behind foundry stalwards TSMC and UMC after losing the spot to SMIC a year ago, according to data from Gartner Dataquest.
03/27/2007 March 27, 2007 - Intel has given a nod to more than four dozen suppliers -- an all-time high number of recognitions -- from its roster of thousands of supply-chain partners, ranging from capital equipment manufacturers to materials, components, and service providers.
03/27/2007 As thoroughly reported by WaferNEWS, SST, and Microlithography World, the 2007 SPIE lithography meeting detailed that 193nm wavelength lithographic reduction steppers may be the last mainstream lithographic technology for the semiconductor manufacturing industry. We must now look for ways to create ever smaller device features using 193nm litho with clever combinations of other known unit-process steps: thin-film depositions, etches, and plasma surface treatments.
03/27/2007 March 27, 2007 - Days after consolidating some of its manufacturing operations in Korea, Nanometrics Inc. has undergone another shift -- this time in the CEO's office. John Heaton has left the company (no details were provided by the company), with chief strategy officer Bruce Rhine taking the reins on an interim basis while a search is conducted for a permanent CEO.
03/27/2007 March 27, 2007 - After nearly half a year of slumping prices amid circumstances that have been "the worst in the history of the market," suppliers of NAND flash memory may finally see a break in the clouds as supplies start to meter out, according to a new analysis by iSuppli Corp.
03/27/2007 March 27, 2007 - Rohm and Haas Electronic Materials has agreed to license technology from Harvard University's Office of Technology Development for manufacturing and marketing new metal amidinate compounds used in atomic-layer deposition (ALD) of thin films of metal and metal compounds for 45nm and below semiconductor processes.
03/27/2007 Discera Inc. completed a series C funding round with $17.5 million, led by Scale Venture Partners in Foster City, CA. The investment will be allocated to increasing production, distribution, and marketing. Discera concurrently announced a strategic partnership with distributor ABRACON.
03/27/2007 March 27, 2007 - The US Department of Justice's Antitrust Division has closed its investigation of the proposed sale of Brooks Automation's software division to Applied Materials, and the Hart-Scott-Rodino waiting period has been terminated, meaning that the companies are free to close the proposed transaction as soon as practicable.
03/27/2007 Discera Inc. has completed a Series C funding round, and expanded its distribution with the addition of frequency control manufacturer ABRACON, whose channels include some of the top distributors in North America. Discera recently began shipping its first products for direct replacement of quartz crystal oscillators in electronics devices. The company will use its new funding to support increased production, distribution, and marketing.
03/26/2007 March 26, 2007 - IBM says it has developed a prototype optical transceiver chipset for supercomputing applications that incorporates optical and CMOS components in one system-in-package (SiP).
ViaLogy PLC has completed an agreement for exclusive commercialization rights of dual-beam Reverse Photo- Acoustic Spectrometer (REPAS) technology developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory. ViaLogy will combine REPAS with its own weak signal processing to enable long-range detection of chemical weapons.
The new James Watt Nanofabrication Centre at Glasgow University, Scotland, nestled over and into one of Lord Kelvin's original laboratories, boasts an impressive array of equipment and capabilities. This month, coinciding with the facility's official opening, the Ultrafast Systems Group was awarded £4m research funding.