10/19/2006 IMEC, the Leuven, Belgium, independent research center for micro and nanotech, showed in collaboration with ASML the potential of double patterning 193nm immersion lithography at 1.2NA for 32nm node Flash and logic.
10/19/2006 NanoGram Corp., a Milpitas, Calif., developer and licensor of core process technology for the manufacture of unique nanostructured materials for optical, electronic and energy applications, announced today that it has entered an agreement with Nagase & Co. Ltd.
10/19/2006 The International Council on Nanotechnology (ICON) announced that it has issued a comprehensive review of existing efforts to develop "best practices" for handling nanomaterials in the workplace.
10/18/2006 Taiwanese original design manufacturers (ODMs) will dominate purchasing in semiconductor chips in 2006, primarily for PC manufacturing, says iSuppli report "ODM Semiconductor Spending Analysis." Quanta, Asustek, and Wistron — the top three spenders worldwide — are all based in Taiwan. All three also reportedly use the majority of chips purchased to make PCs, notably laptops.
10/18/2006 Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology are mimicking one of Nature's best non-stick surfaces to help create more reliable electric transmission systems, photovoltaic arrays that retain their efficiency, MEMS structures unaffected by water and improved biocompatible surfaces able to prevent cells from adhering to implanted medical devices.
10/18/2006 WiSpry Inc., a fabless semiconductor company developing dynamically tunable radio frequency integrated circuits for wireless devices, announced it has raised a $13.5 million Series B financing.
10/17/2006 Analysts interviewed by WaferNEWS indicated the industry seems to be in a fairly good situation with regards to overall inventory levels heading into the holiday season.
10/17/2006 New figures from Gartner Inc. point to slightly lower-than-expected growth in semiconductor capital spending and equipment purchases, particularly for some backend segments, but the outlook for 2007 has improved somewhat as well. Spending on new facility construction is on the rise, and even though memory makers continue to pour investments into the sector, but supplies and demand still appear to be balancing out.
10/17/2006 Attendees at the Third International Symposium on Immersion Lithography earlier this month, found a field moving out of R&D and into a competitive commercial phase. Key technical presentations addressed hyper-NA, resists, exposure tools, optical materials, process, photomasks, immersion defects, and alternative immersion fluids. More than 20% of submitted papers dealt with immersion defects, revealing the industry's momentum in preparing 193i for volume manufacturing at sub-65nm half-pitch.
10/17/2006 Two of the most hyped demand drivers for holiday electronics sales aren't working out as hoped -- PlayStation won't launch in Europe until March of '07, and Sony has halved its shipment target for this year to the US and Japan. But, there's more to life than video games. Analysts interviewed by WaferNEWS are still pretty bullish that the holidays will prove festive for chipmakers.
10/17/2006 Amkor Technology, Inc., has commenced operations at its new 300-mm wafer bump factory in Singapore, using the wafer bump processes currently offered by Amkor in Taiwan.
10/17/2006 October 17, 2006 - ASML Holding NV says it has received the first order from an unidentified customer for a pre-production EUV system, following shipments of two alpha tools earlier this year to IMEC and Albany Nanotech.
10/17/2006 A family of self-filleting die-attach paste adhesives, AAA3300, offers properties comparable to die-attach film. The adhesive is said to enable thin-die assembly at improved yields with conventional assembly techniques, and exhibits capillary flow to 100% die coverage in specified temperature ramp-up. The paste does not produce a bulky fillet, which could overflow to the top of a thin die before cure onset; it wets well with BGA substrates and die tops.
10/17/2006 The SC-400 PreciseCoat conformal coating jet applies coating materials selectively onto small substrates or where tight tolerances exist between coated and uncoated areas. The jetting system substitutes for masking in situations requiring high accuracy.
10/17/2006 Enhancements to the Optimal SiP Analysis Suite, software used for system-in-package (SiP) design, include automatic port-mapping between chip and package models; combination possibilities for SiP, package, and PCB models through common meshing and IR visualization; and co-design support to reportedly enable unified 3-D signal and power integrity analysis of an IC.
10/17/2006 Following are the highlights of upcoming events, including MEPTEC's IC Packaging and Test Roadmaps Symposium, AP's New Trends in Sockets Webcast, the Conformal Coating & Dispensing Workshop, and the IWLPC.
10/17/2006 The speed of nanoparticle assembly can be accelerated with the assistance of DNA, a team of researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, N.Y., recently found.
