01/30/2007 Harvard University's George Whitesides and his team have developed a prototype for a new class of inexpensive, rapid tests that can be used to carry out several biological tests simultaneously on a single drop of fluid. The tests are based on tiny pieces of paper onto which defined, millimeter-sized channels are printed.
01/29/2007 January 29, 2007 - Isonics Corp. directors have decided to exit the life sciences business following two years of a "challenging operating environment" in order to pursue a brighter future in semiconductor wafer services.
01/29/2007 January 29, 2007 - AMI Semiconductor is in full production mode with Advanced Interconnect Technologies' (AIT) stacked-die quad flat package no leads (QFN) modules, which AMI will incorporate into several consumer electronics applications, the companies said today.
01/29/2007 The College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) of the University at Albany and Einhorn Yaffee Prescott Architecture and Engineering PC of Albany announced the creation of a world-class center for zero energy and sustainability.
01/29/2007 January 29, 2007 - Extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) and 193nm immersion lithography will be a primary focus of SEMATECH's 2007 Knowledge Series seminars in the upcoming year, the group said today in a statement. Other areas will include materials to enhance transistor and backend development, and methods to improve manufacturing efficiency and yield.
01/29/2007 January 29, 2007 - So who are the tool supplier winners behind Intel's big announcement that it's using high-k/metal gate (HK+MG) technology in 45nm transistors slated for shipment later this year? One firm reportedly thinks it knows the answer at least for one of the hotly contested process areas: atomic-layer deposition (ALD).
01/29/2007 AMI Semiconductor is in full production mode with Advanced Interconnect Technologies (AIT) stacked-die quad flat package no leads (QFN) modules. AMI will incorporate the packages into several consumer electronics applications. The QFN-MCM product uses a pyramid formation of stacked, wire-bonded die in a system-in-package (SiP), explained Chris Stai of AIT.
01/29/2007 Asylum Research announced that it will appeal a decision of the Opposition Division of the European Patent Office. The recent ruling rejected Asylum Research's opposition, filed in May 2004, to a Veeco Instruments' European patent for tapping with phase imaging.
01/29/2007 January 29, 2007 - Hours after Intel uncrated its 45nm transistors using high-k dielectric and metal gates for shipment later this year, SEMATECH and the IBM Common Platform Alliance both released statements indicating that they, too, are in the final stages of tinkering with the technologies.
01/29/2007 The Cambridge City Council is considering a law to regulate the use of super-small nanoparticles in research and manufacturing. If the council decides to act, it will make Cambridge the second city in the United States, after Berkeley, Calif., to regulate nanotechnology.
01/29/2007 IBM is in the development stage with 45-nm transistor technology that uses high-k gate dielectric and a proprietary metal composite for the transistor gate electrode. Constructing the transistor with conventional methods, such as high-temperature annealing, is a familiar process that gives engineers more control and reduces the possibility of error, said Ghavam Shahidi, director of silicon technology.
01/29/2007 January 29, 2007 - Touting "a significant breakthrough in transistor technology," Intel Corp. says it has progressed its 45nm process technology from a SRAM test chip unveiled in Jan. 2006 into a working 45nm transistor -- devices that incorporate a hafnium-based high-k dielectric material and a new combination of metals for the transistor gate electrode. The new "Penryn" transistor will start shipping in volume by year's end on various systems, including those with Microsoft Vista OS.
01/26/2007 The EU approved a bid by Advent International and the Carlyle Group to purchase Goslar, Germany-based H.C. Starck, a MaterialScience Group subsidiary of the Bayer Group. H.C. Starck, which specializes in high-purity refractory metals and ceramics in powder and engineered parts, will likely make an initial public offering (IPO) in 3 to 5 years.
01/26/2007 January 26, 2007 - A month after making a splash with plans to create a DRAM megafab joint venture, partners Elpida Memory Inc. and Powerchip Semiconductor Corp. have finalized some of the details, including the name of the venture, initial investment levels, and a schedule for equipment installation and mass production.
01/26/2007 F&K Delvotec announced two appointments within its European sales organization. Philip Homami became sales and marketing manager Europe. Effective March 1, 2007, Ralph Christoph will be account manager in European sales.
01/26/2007 Arrowhead Research Corporation announced that it will sponsor the continued research of Dr. Eric Davidson's laboratory at the California Institute of Technology focused on the re-engineering of the internal control systems of cells. This field of inquiry is expected to have applications for the controlled differentiation of stem cells and could, in the longer-term, have therapeutic applications for the treatment of cancer and other diseases.
01/25/2007 Digi-Key Corporation and Fotofab signed a distribution agreement wherein Digi-Key will carry Fotofab's precision metal parts, photochemical machining products, and custom items.
01/25/2007 RF Micro Devices, Inc., received its first order for gallium nitride (GaN) power amplifier ICs produced with proprietary GaN high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) process technology. The tier-one military customer ordered RF3825 power IC broadband amplifiers, 15-W devices used in software-defined military-communications radios.
01/25/2007 January 25, 2007 - Toshiba Corp. and SanDisk Corp. say they have developed 16Gb (2GB) and 8Gb (1GB) NAND flash memory fabricated with 56nm process technologies.
01/25/2007 January 25, 2007 - Though it will follow through with 45nm work done with its Crolles2 alliance through the end of this year, STMicroelectronics will seek to pursue 32nm development elsewhere with partners and/or in the framework of an alliance, executives indicated in the company's quarterly results conference call. Crolles2, meanwhile, will narrow its focus to "derivative technologies" that support ST's wireless and mobile applications efforts.
