05/24/2006 A detailed economic model suggests that industry productivity will lag historical trends early in the next decade, slowing the decline in cost/transistor, unless new initiatives get underway to reverse this trend, reported Scott Kramer, director, International SEMATECH Manufacturing Initiative (ISMI), in a Tuesday afternoon presentation at The ConFab.
05/24/2006 A ConFab session on 450mm wafers provided a multifaceted look at a sharp split that has developed in the industry. Peter Silverman, Intel Fellow, stated the need for a 30% cost/cm2 reduction every 10 years to follow Moore's Law," while a SEMATECH exec said that would fall short even with a 450mm transition by the ITRS goal of 2012. And don't expect equipment suppliers to pay for the 450mm tool R&D, warned Applied Materials' Mark Pinto.
05/24/2006 Examining the history of lithography over the past two decades suggests that the choices ahead are similar to those that were successfully made in the past, suggested Kazuo Ushida, Nikon Corp., in his presentation on "Cost-effective lithography" at The ConFab. Comparing the array of future litho contenders in 2006 with the options considered in 1999, Ushida concluded that it looks like "deja vu all over again."
05/24/2006 Altair Nanotechnologies Inc. announced it has completed a safety testing cycle for lithium ion battery products that it says is a step forward in the effort to develop lithium ion batteries that are safe enough to be used in electric-powered automobiles.
05/23/2006 Enormous potential markets are emerging for semiconductors, said Jai Hakhu, corporate VP, Intel, at The ConFab. However, serving them will require continued innovation, and an intense focus on efficiency by the industry. Chips will have to provide multiple functions at lower price points to capitalize on the opportunities, he stated.
05/23/2006 Peter Jenkins, VP of marketing for ASML, described lithography options and challenges at the 32nm half-pitch for ConFab attendees. Among the challenges: there is no clear consensus on the part of IC manufacturers with respect to the kind of lithography needed at 32nm, although EUV is preferred for 22nm half-pitch.
05/23/2006 Tough challenges facing process tool vendors as the industry moves toward sub-45nm chip features will require imaginative solutions. An analysis relating important application trends to process tool requirements was presented by Masayuki Tomoyasu, director of development and planning for Tokyo Electron, Ltd. (TEL), who then proposed a wide range of potential solutions for toolmakers.
05/23/2006 May 23, 2006 - Mitsubishi Electric Corp. said that US antitrust investigators have requested details of its previous memory chip sales, as part of a widening investigation into DRAM price fixing at several companies.
05/23/2006 May 23, 2006 - ASML Holding NV says it's seeing stronger than anticipated demand for its lithography equipment in 2Q06, as customers place orders for immersion lithography tools used in an anticipated production ramp-up in 4Q06-1Q07.
05/23/2006 May 23, 2006 - Mobile handsets, the second largest market for semiconductors after PCs, also presents big opportunities for microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), with consumption poised to soar from $157 million in 2005 to more than $1.0 billion by 2010, according to a new report from In-Stat Inc.
05/23/2006 May 23, 2006 - Ten US universities from New York to Texas to the midwest have been ranked as tops among universities' efforts in micro- and nanotechnology research, according to a survey conducted by Solid State Technology sister publication Small Times.
05/23/2006 By Bob Haavind, Editorial Director, SST
Is Moore's Law dead -- and if so, does it really matter? That question, posed at a recent SEMI breakfast panel near Boston, brought some surprising answers. Yes, an expert panel agreed, the traditional shrink of Moore's Law ran into physical limits a few years ago, but it really won't make that much difference to progress in electronic systems...
05/23/2006 May 23, 2006 - Several industry metrics such as tight capacity levels and trough-to-peak growth are now similar to levels just before downturns in previous cycles, suggesting history may soon repeat itself in the semiconductor industry, according to a new report from Advanced Forecasting.
