09/29/2005 September 29, 2005 - IBM Corp., Applied Materials, and Albany NanoTech in New York have agreed to begin a five-year, $300 million R&D and economic outreach program, bringing in more than 100 engineers to work on six areas of next-generation chip technology: 300mm epitaxial substrates, ultralow-k dielectrics, atomic-layer deposition, chemical-mechanical polishing, copper plating, and ultrafine ion implantation technology for nanoscale semiconductor devices (e.g. ultrashallow junctions).
09/29/2005 September 29, 2005 - Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. has joined the SEMATECH semiconductor consortium to address next-generation semiconductor technologies, including lithography and materials, both of which are crucial to future semiconductor transistor development. Officials for both companies announced the decision yesterday, following the signing of a formal member participation agreement in Giheung.
09/29/2005 September 29, 2005 - SEMATECH researchers have identified a dual damascene method for interconnect integration that could achieve an aggressive industry target for ultra low-k dielectric materials in semiconductor manufacturing. The two-level metal, dual damascene process uses two Zirkon interlayer dielectric (ILD) films from Rohm and Haas Electronic Materials to demonstrate a copper/ultra low-k (ULK) integration with a k-effective (keff) value of 2.5.
09/28/2005 September 29, 2005 - In a move to expand its foundry resources to support expected continued growth, California Micro Devices has announced the completion of a wafer supply agreement with Seiko Epson Corp. (Epson). This accord engages the Japan-based Epson foundry as a high-volume wafer manufacturing resource for CMD's ICs, targeting the mobile handset, personal computer, and digital consumer electronics markets.
09/27/2005 September 27, 2005 - Golden Gate Capital has acquired the Semiconductor Equipment Division (SED) of Leica Microsystems AG. Terms were not disclosed. Leica Microsystems SED will continue to be led by the current management team and have a global customer base with manufacturing operations in Germany and the UK. A new name for the company will soon be established.
09/26/2005 September 26, 2005 - Ziptronix, Morrisville, NC, has made good on its efforts at creating a three-dimensional IC device to serve as an alternative to system-in-package (SiP) technology, according to a company statement.
09/26/2005 September 26, 2005 - Straatum Processware Ltd., a Dublin, Ireland-based supplier of real-time fault detection and classification (FDC) software for semiconductor manufacturing, has opened a global sales office in San Jose, CA.
09/26/2005 The Foresight Nanotech Institute, a public interest think tank with a 20-year history at the forefront of nanotechnology theory, wants to become involved in its more immediate uses as well. Scott Mize was brought on as president a year ago to help execute that transition.
09/23/2005 Rochester, N.Y. and Bromont, Quebec — Hover-Davis and Cogiscan announce the second phase of their long-term strategic partnership. Under a global OEM reselling agreement, Hover-Davis will offer Cogiscan RFID hardware and software applications that mix with their tape feeders, label feeders, and Direct Die feeders. Hover-Davis will now be able to provide intelligent feeding solutions that can seamlessly integrate with existing equipment and information systems.
09/23/2005 L.L. Moro, N.M. Rutherford, X. Chu, R.J. Visser, Vitex Systems, San Jose, California
All electronic and optoelectronic devices require protection from the influences of the environment. A thin-film, transparent, and flexible moisture and gas barrier called Barix can be applied at low temperatures (e.g., <80°C). Although this type of barrier layer can be used in many applications, its attributes make it a key enabling technology for creating plastic flexible substrates...
09/23/2005 September 23, 2005 - Itrix Corp., a maker of ultra-precision fabrication equipment, will produce nano-optical film and other devices using its proprietary nanotechnology at its new Japan facility, said the Nikkei English News.
09/22/2005 September 22, 2005 - Orders and sales of equipment and ICs showed tiny sequential declines in August, as the industry prepared to ramp up to meet demand going into the consumer-centric holiday season.
09/22/2005 San Jose, Calif. — On a 3-month average in August 2005, North American-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $1.12 billion in orders and a book-to-bill ratio of 1.05, according to SEMI's August 2005 Book-to-Bill Report.
