10/17/2006 Lumera Corp. of Bothell, Wash., a developer of products for the bioscience and communications/computing industries using proprietary molecular structures and polymer compounds, announced it has completed successful testing of its millimeter wave wireless bridge. The bridge is intended to enable government and commercial entities to transmit vast amounts of data via a variety of high speed telecommunications networks.
10/17/2006 The New York State Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research (NYSTAR) has awarded a grant of nearly $2 million to the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) of the University at Albany to help spur development of an Energy Test Farm that will enable innovative research on renewable energy technologies and generate significant economic impact.
10/16/2006 October 16, 2006 - Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. has tacked on another 18% to its projected 2006 capital expenditures budget for semiconductors -- the company now expects to spend 6.66 trillion won ($7.03 billion), up from 5.63 trillion won ($5.94 billion).
10/16/2006 By Meredith Courtemanche, assistant editor
Cubic Wafer emerged on the dynamic 3-D system-on-silicon (SoSi) packaging scene from a somewhat round-about route. Beginning as an optical transceiver technology provider, the company developed 3-D architecture and design processes and concepts. Xanoptix eventually rebuilt its business around core technologies of high-density contacts and through-die vias, changing its name to Cubic Wafer in 2005 to reflect the new 3-D IC direction.
10/16/2006 Hymite A/S extended North American sales operations through the addition of Eric Leonard, Jim McDonald, and new office space. The company sees a need for growth to match market demand in wafer-scale packages for consumer, industrial, medical, and automotive sectors.
10/16/2006 Scientists from Northwestern University have demonstrated a novel carbon nanotube-based nanoelectromechanical switch exhibiting bistability based on current tunneling. The device could help advance technological developments in memory chips and electronic sensing devices.
10/16/2006 Nextreme Thermal Solutions, a Research Triangle Park, N.C., developer of technology for solid-state thermal management in electronics and semiconductors, announced that it has signed an exclusive option to license new, thin-film thermoelectric technology from the California Institute of Technology.
10/16/2006 October 16, 2006 - Taiwan's top four DRAM chipmakers are expected to spend roughly $6.0 billion on 300mm wafer tools next year, in order to keep up with demand for leading-edge processes and newer DDR2 chips, according to the Taiwan Economic News.
10/16/2006 Asylum Research, a Santa Barbara, Calif., manufacturer of scanning probe/atomic force microscopes, announced the opening of its East Coast sales, applications and support office at the North Carolina State University (NCSU) Centennial Campus.
10/13/2006 October 13, 2006 - Citing steady momentum for computers and mobile devices, minor and temporary effects from higher energy prices, and no signs (yet) of impact from rising inventories, iSuppli Corp. has reaffirmed its forecast for global chip sales this year.
10/13/2006 Slow growth in China's electronics industry will reduce demand for semiconductor chips, says iSuppli Corp., who lowered its revenue forecast for chips sold in China in 2006. The market resource firm expects China's 2006 semiconductor revenue to rise 11 – 15% to about $42B; iSuppli originally predicted 18% growth.
10/13/2006 October 13, 2006 - After tallying up hundreds of millions of dollars in fines for misdeeds among DRAM makers including price fixing, the US Department of Justice is turning its gaze to makers of static random access memory (SRAM).
10/13/2006 October 13, 2006 - KLA-Tencor Corp. has hired one of its own back as its chief technology officer -- Ben Tsai, who will move from SVP of technology at Tokyo Electron Ltd. to return to KLA-Tencor, where he previously was group VP and CTO of systems, and before that GM for the company's wafer inspection division.
10/13/2006 October 13, 2006 - Saifun Semiconductors Ltd. says that "significant customer" Qimonda AG is ramping down its current nitride read-only memory (NROM)-related activity, and will continue to license Saifun's NROM technology only on a limited basis.
10/13/2006 The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Nanotechnology Task Force got more than just a mixed message Tuesday when it convened experts and stakeholders to get advice as to whether the agency should regulate nanotechnology products. Some said current regulations are sufficient, while others said safety testing is long overdue, especially for products like cosmetics. But they also disagreed as to how to define a nanoparticle, and even if there should be such a definition in the first place.
10/13/2006 The Japanese company Hitachi Ltd. has begun construction of a plant for the production of flat-panel displays in the Triangle industrial zone, which is approximately 80 km northwest of Prague in the Usti region of the Czech Republic.
10/12/2006 October 12, 2006 - A list of equipment providers, materials companies, and researchers have joined to create an international consortium to address technical and cost issues of creating of thru-silicon-via (TSV) 3D chip interconnect, for use in chip stacking and MEMS/sensor packaging.
10/12/2006 Indium Corporation expanded sales efforts in France by adding Accelonix Group as a distributor for the region. Accelonix will sell semiconductor packaging assembly materials, engineered solder, wafer- and chip-bump materials, solder pastes, fluxes, underfills, etc.
10/12/2006 X-FAB Silicon Foundries, an Erfurt, Germany, analog/mixed-signal semiconductor foundry, announced it has expanded its technology expertise in the communications arena with a new RF-CMOS program. The company says the additions to the current baseline processes will significantly reduce time to market for RF products.
