06/08/2006 June 8, 2006 - Fresh off a $300M infusion to support expansion at its Tianjin facilities, Chinese flagship foundry Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC) said its Shanghai subsidiary has closed a five-year, $600 million secured term loan facility with a consortium of international and Chinese banks.
06/08/2006 June 8, 2006 - Soitec, Bernin, France, has acquired CEA-Leti spinoff TraciT Technologies for an undisclosed amount, adding to its portfolio technology for thin-film layer transfers used in MEMS and power circuit production.
06/08/2006 The ZMD31012 sensor contains two ZMD31010 devices in a single SSOP14 package. ZMD claims that incorporating two signal conditioners in one package, sized at 6.33-mm x 7.90-mm, increases both functionality and board real estate.
06/07/2006 ArF immersion lithography has started to reveal defectivity and overlay numbers comparable to dry ArF lithography, indicating that the technology is rapidly maturing and will soon be ready for introduction in volume manufacturing.
06/07/2006 Akustica announced a collaboration with Ricoh Company Ltd. aimed at a new camera module for optimized audio and video performance in Universal Serial Bus audio/video applications.
06/06/2006 Aries Electronics introduces a RoHS-compliant version of its PLSS to DIP Correct-A-Chip adapter designed for prototyping, testing, and evaluation.
06/06/2006 The ULTRAMIC 600 advanced ceramic heater offers a high thermal conductivity aluminum nitride (AIN) ceramic composition paired with a proprietary, thermally matched heating element to enable a fast-responding heater configured in a low-mass package, suited to semiconductor processing, wire and die bonding equipment, analytical instrumentation, aerospace and medical device applications.
06/06/2006 Dear Editor,
Your editorial on the term "nanotechnology" did not go as far as it could in highlighting the ambiguity of the current usage of the "nano" prefix. I have always grudgingly accepted the definition containing features in the 1-100-nm scale as a useful first step in describing what it is we do to a layman. I am surprised to find that the U.S. Nanotechnology Initiative has used this infantile definition in setting out guidelines for what constitutes nanotechnology.
06/06/2006 The day after I wrote my last editorial entitled Nano-inspiration, I attended the MEMS and Nanotechnology session at the IMAPS New England Symposium, May 16, in Boxborough, MA. There was so much discussion about nano-hype, multiple definitions of nano, how nanomaterials are made, and what you can do with them that I wished the session had occurred a few days earlier.
06/06/2006 (June 6, 2006) SAN JOSE, CA — If you're like most people who responded to SEMI's survey on MEMS packaging standards, you're not aware that SEMI has published three MEMS-related standards. Existing standards cover microscale fluidic systems, terminology, and wafer bonding. SEMI's MEMS technical committee has identified MEMS packaging as a task force area, and standardization efforts are just beginning.
06/06/2006 June 6, 2006 - Brion Technologies and Crolles2 Alliance partners STMicroelectronics, Philips Semiconductors, and Freescale Semiconductor, have incorporated Brion's Tachyon LMC lithography manufacturability verification technology into production on a fully automated 65nm process flow, and agreed to continue working to develop optical-proximity correction (OPC) technology for 45nm device fabrication.
06/06/2006 Santa Clara, CA — Rio Design Automation Inc, an electronic design automation (EDA) company, announced that RioMagic, their chip design software tool, now includes full support for wire bonding and flip chip designs. This next-generation release reportedly has added rules-driven I/O sequencing, prototyping, and redistribution routing (RDL) support to its capabilities.
06/06/2006 We are entering a new era, in which nano-fabrication is moving beyond IC fabrication. Chasing Moore's Law is still an important challenge, but there are now other interesting challenges, such as making electronics ubiquitous, particularly in the medical field, and harnessing Nature's self-assembly methods. These were among the paths followed at the Electron, Ion, & Photon Beam Technology & Nanofabrication (EIPBN) held May 29 to June 2 in Baltimore, MD.
06/05/2006 June 5, 2006 - Renesas Technology Corp., the chipmaking JV between Hitachi and Mitsubishi Electric, has expanded its technology license to Powerchip Semiconductor Co. to supply the Taiwanese company with flash memory devices, according to local news reports.
06/05/2006 Over the past 30 years, photovoltaics technology has made its share of false starts, and has earned a reputation as being impractical without government subsidies. However, recent advances and conditions are converging to create what this time promises to be a sustainable market -- and a significant business opportunity market for the semiconductor industry.
