02/27/2007 February 27, 2007 - Nikon Corp. and European R&D microelectronics research center CEA-Leti say they have formed a joint development program to develop optical lithography technologies at the 32nm node, including double exposure and double patterning. Work will be performed at CEA-Leti's Nanotec 300 research facility, utilizing a Nikon scanner.
02/26/2007 Henkel Corporation will expand its existing plant in Pune, India, to incorporate a solder-paste blending facility. Tin/lead and lead-free solders produced at the facility, under the Multicore brand, will be distributed to the India region electronics market.
02/26/2007 February 26, 2007 - Air Products has agreed to refurbish semiconductor equipment owned by or consigned to Babcock & Brown Electronics Management, an equipment leasing firm, out of Air Products' Chandler, AZ facility. Repair and refurbishment will be performed prior to resale, adjusted to meet customers' requirements for reliability and refurbishment "to the most recent configuration possible," and in some cases involving the tool OEM.
02/26/2007 February 26, 2007 - Worldwide sales of semiconductor assembly and test services (SATS) marked the fifth consecutive year of double-digit growth in 2006, due to accelerated transition to and integration with new packaging technologies, according to data from Gartner Dataquest.
02/26/2007 Brion Technologies is unveiling its second-generation system, Tachyon 2.0, at this week's SPIE Advanced Lithography Conference (Feb. 26, San Jose, CA). Still using Xilinx FPGAs (current generation) to achieve hardware acceleration, the company claims that a single Tachyon 2.0 system rack can replace the production capacity of four of the first generation racks.
02/26/2007 The announced merger of Blaze DFM and Aprio Technologies establishes an entity ready to claim the mantle of tops in "electrical DFM (eDFM)," in a highly fragmented DFM market with many companies positioning for leadership, according to execs announcing the deal. "We believe that there is room for one eDFM company that stands by itself...and we are going to be that company," stated Jacob Jacobsson, currently president/CEO of Blaze DFM.
02/26/2007 February 26, 2007 - Dai Nippon Printing Co. Ltd. (DNP) and Takumi Technology Corp. say they are developing an automated criticality-aware photomask inspection system to help reduce manufacturing cost and turnaround times of advanced photomasks. The product, currently in beta phase with an unnamed semiconductor manufacturer, is expected to be ready by March 2008 for worldwide deployment to DNP's customers as a service, at no extra cost.
02/26/2007 For the emerging flexible thin-film, organic, and printed electronics markets to flourish, most industry professionals agree that roll-to-roll (R2R) processing must be implemented on the factory floor. But how will manufacturing will be leveraged into successful, scaleable R2R approaches? Contributing Editor Tom Cheyney reports.
02/26/2007 February 26, 2007 - Cypress Semiconductor Corp. says it will contract with Taiwan foundry United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC) to produce its next-generation flagship SRAM products, continuing efforts to retreat from leading-edge manufacturing and development following the planned sale of its 65nm process R&D shop, the Silicon Valley Technology Center (SVTC).
02/26/2007 Discera (San Jose) and Vectron International (Hudson, NH), a Dover company, formalized their strategic partnership with the MOS1 product rollout for the high-performance clock oscillator space. The oscillator, available in a ceramic or quad flat pack (QFP) plastic package, suits frequencies from 1 to 125 MHz.
02/26/2007 February 26, 2007 - IBM and Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing have formally extended their joint development efforts to include 32nm CMOS technology, building on their initial partnership begun in late 2002 starting at 90nm.
02/23/2007 February 23, 2007 - A wide-ranging restructuring plan unveiled by NEC Electronics Corp. aims to improve profitability over the next few years, by consolidating its facilities in Japan from nine to four; moving a variety of backend manufacturing overseas to elsewhere in Asia; and cutting back capex levels by 30% starting in 2008 once it finishes the bulk of its 300mm manufacturing investments.
02/23/2007 February 23, 2007 - Nano-Proprietary Inc., an Austin, TX-based firm, says a US District Judge has granted its motion for summary judgment and was entitled to terminate its license with Canon Inc., regarding use of nanotechnology with potential application in displays.
02/23/2007 February 23, 2007 - KLA-Tencor says the new version of its PROLITH litho optimization product, PROLITH 10, enables users to accurately predict lithography process windows for integrated circuit (IC) designs down to 32nm.
02/23/2007 February 23, 2007 - Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. says it has increased data transfer speeds in its GDDR (graphics double data rate v.4) graphics memory by two-thirds to 4Gbit/sec (2.0GHz), 66% faster than today's 2.4Gbit/s GDDR4.
02/23/2007 February 23, 2007 - Mosaid Technologies Inc. is bowing out of the automatic test equipment (ATE) market, selling assets and IP related to its high-performance memory tester platform to Teradyne Inc. for about US $17 million.
02/23/2007 February 23, 2007 - Japanese DRAM firm Elpida Memory Inc. said it has agreed to sell 200mm wafer processing equipment from its Hiroshima facility to Cension Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. in order to narrow its focus to 300mm chipmaking operations.
02/23/2007 Bosch has begun manufacture of its Electronic Battery Sensor (EBS), which promises to help motorists avoid flat batteries, the most common cause of breakdowns. In 2007, more vehicles equipped with the sensor will go into series production.
Bosch has begun manufacture of its Electronic Battery Sensor (EBS), which promises to help motorists avoid flat batteries, the most common cause of breakdowns. In 2007, more vehicles equipped with the sensor will go into series production.