10/11/2005 I'm sure I wasn't the only person attending a recent conference in California who saw the irony in Eric Drexler giving the plenary talk in place of the International Society of Optical Engineering's 2005 Visionary Award winner, Richard Smalley.
10/07/2005 October 7, 2005 - Oki Electric Industry Co. Ltd. has announced the development of SOI (Silicon on Insulator)-CMOS, a new device structure for super low off-leakage current. While maintaining the speed of performance of previous devices, this transistor reduces the standby consumption current (off-leak current) by over 90% compared to previous transistors. Oki claims to be the first company to develop a fully depleted SOI transistor using a non-doped body and non-overlap type SOI structure.
10/07/2005 October 7, 2005 - Dai Nippon Printing Co. will build a new plant in western Japan to produce antireflection films for liquid crystal displays and plasma displays, the firm has said, according to JiJi Press. The firm will invest a total of about 15 billion yen (US$132.5 million) in the plant over three years. Dai Nippon Printing will make the move amid growing demand for LCD and plasma display television sets.
10/06/2005 By Françoise von Trapp, Advanced Packaging Associate Editor
Projected industry growth, offshore migration of manufacturing, challenges caused by rapid developments in technology, and advances in nanotechnology dominated industry discussion at the 2005 International Microelectronics and Packaging Society (IMAPS) Symposium, September 25-29th in Philadelphia.
10/06/2005 Tulsa, Okla. — PennWell Corporation announces the acquisition of Small Times magazine, a business publication covering the fast-emerging nanotechnology, MEMS and microsystems markets; rounding out the publications of the Advanced Technology Division, headquartered in Nashua, N.H.
10/06/2005 October 6, 2005 - Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), a Chinese semiconductor foundry, and Luminescent Technologies Inc., a provider of lithography enhancement systems, have announced a joint development program to evaluate Luminescent's inverse lithography technology (ILT) products in SMIC's production environment for its 65nm and below process nodes.
10/06/2005 The two acquisitions will help support InvitrogenÂ’s molecular probes business. In addition, Invitrogen announced that it had secured an exclusive license for a novel nanocluster technology from Georgia Tech Research Corp.
10/05/2005 October 5, 2005 - KLA-Tencor has formally unveiled DesignScan, the industry's first full-chip process window inspection system for post-RET (resolution enhancement technology) reticle design layout inspection. DesignScan enables chipmakers to reduce the number of mask design respins needed to achieve a high-yielding design, resulting in better parametric design performance and faster time-to-market.
10/05/2005 October 5, 2005 - Synopsys Inc. and SEMATECH will jointly develop advanced optical proximity correction (OPC) models for the extension of optical lithography. A key goal of the program, part of SEMATECH's 193nm Immersion Lithography Extendibility Project, is to facilitate better understanding of the challenges in process nodes beyond 45nm so participants can develop appropriate software and manufacturing processes. Synopsys will provide its Proteus mask synthesis stoftware.
10/05/2005 October 5, 2005 - Cimetrix Inc., which designs and develops factory automation software, has announced it has completed the acquisition of EFS Solutions Inc., a privately-held engineering services firm specializing in yield and manufacturing data management. Cimetrix paid approximately $1.25M, including $640,000 in stock and $614,000 in cash.
10/05/2005 As of midsummer, stock markets in the United States had largely ignored micro and nanotechnology. However, nanotech-related companies went public in Germany and England. What gives?
