06/26/2006 Visitors to SEMICON West once again will have the opportunity to conveniently meet with a range of entrepreneurs with new ideas at the Technology Innovation Showcase. This year SEMI has expanded it to three separate and more focused areas -- devoted to innovations in DFM and frontend processing, MEMS and nanotechnology, and final manufacturing technologies. Here's the rundown on a few intriguing innovations picked by a volunteer committee of industry executives to have the most potential.
06/26/2006 InvenSense's IDG-300 gyroscopic chip for handsets provides image stabilization in camera phones and suits handheld GPS navigation devices, radio-controlled helicopters, game devices, robotic and power tools, and antenna positioning applications.
06/26/2006 June 26, 2006 - In another vote of support for the US' semiconductor manufacturing industry, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) said it will build a new 300mm semiconductor manufacturing facility in upstate New York, investing together with the state as much as $5.0 billion over the next few years.
06/26/2006 June 26, 2006 - Seeking to provide nanoscale repair solutions to the photomask industry, NanoInk Inc. and SII NanoTechnology Inc. will modify NanoInk's dip-pen nanolithography technology and integrate it with SII's photomask repair instruments and nanomachining platforms.
06/26/2006 June 26, 2006 - Engineers at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) reportedly are nearly ready to bring their nano-enabled ceramic coating material into production environments, to help resist corrosion and scratches during the semiconductor manufacturing process.
06/26/2006 June 26, 2006 - STATS ChipPAC Ltd., a provider of semiconductor test and packaging services, has signed a deal with China Resources Logic Ltd. to set up a JV in Wuxi, China, providing assembly and test service for STATS' lower-end leadframe package families, allowing the firm to focus on more leading-edge products such as system-in-package, flip-chip, and 3D technologies.
06/26/2006 June 26, 2006 - Asyst Technologies Inc. has agreed to purchase 44.1% of outstanding shares its Japanese JV with Shinko Electric, essentially buying out its minority partner in the three-year-old venture which develops automated material handling systems for 300mm wafer production.
06/26/2006 Austria-based Nanoident Technologies AG is hoping its ultra-thin, organic semiconductor-based nanolayers can help the company slide into market faster than previous nanotechnologies with applications in displays, sensors and biometrics.
06/23/2006 North American-based semiconductor equipment manufacturers posted $1.65B in orders in May 2006 with a book-to-bill ratio of 1.12, according to SEMI's May 2006 Book-to-Bill Report. Average worldwide bookings in May 2006 equaled $1.65B, up three percent from last month and 62% from May 2005.
06/23/2006 Eric Strid and Reed Gleason, co-founders, Cascade Microtech, received the southwest test workshop (SWTW) lifetime achievement award for their 25 years of technical contributions to radio frequency wafer-level measurement.
06/23/2006 A little nanotech company in Rochester, N.Y., caused a lot of excitement recently when a newspaper wrote about a new type of paint that could use copper filled nanotubes to block cell phones signals, ostensibly creating a much-longed-for way to prevent annoying ring tones from interrupting meetings, movies and candlelit dinners.
06/22/2006 By Minoru Suzuki, Thermo Electron, Yokohama, Japan; David Rohde, Dennis Masaki, Thermo Electron, Madison, Wisconsin
EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW One area of device reliability is the physical and electrical connection of the die to the lead frame through the bond wire. Even with the emergence of new techniques for the connection of die to circuit board, the wire bond is still a mainstay of the semiconductor industry....
06/22/2006 A history of successful growth may be tempered in the years to come for high brightness LEDs (HB LEDs). A report released by Strategies Unlimited shows that the market grew by 6.2% to $3.9B in 2005, a drop from the average 46% annual growth from 2001-2004. The report analyzes the "applications, markets, and supply of high-brightness LEDs."
06/22/2006 June 22, 2006 - A combination of near-term excess capacity additions particularly for NAND flash, relatively stable demand, and peaking fab capacity utilization levels will result in a decline in semiconductor manufacturing equipment orders in the next quarter, although the slowdown won't be quite as dramatic as some fear, according to a new analyst report.
06/22/2006 June 22, 2006 - The World Trade Organization (WTO) is stepping in to settle a dispute between Japan and South Korea over tariffs levied on DRAM exports, after the two sides could not resolve the situation on their own.
06/22/2006 June 22, 2006 - Aggressive capacity expansion for new 5G-7G LCD facilities in the past two years have resulted in an oversupply situation in 2006, causing sales of TFT-LCD array processing equipment to drop 10% this year, according to The Information Network.
06/21/2006 June 21, 2006 - Expectations of nearly 40% growth this year in the portable media player (PMP) market -- most notably thanks to an upgrade of Apple's still-wildly popular iPod -- will boost already hot demand for NAND flash memory, and could help out the DRAM segment as well, according to a new report from Gartner Inc.
