Category Archives: Materials and Equipment

August 15, 2011 — SEMI appointed Dennis P. McGuirk as president and CEO, effective November 14, 2011. He replaces Stanley T. Myers, who is retiring after 15 years leading SEMI. McGuirk comes to SEMI from IPC — Association Connecting Electronics Industries, where he has been president and CEO for 12 years.

Stanley T. Myers announced his retirement in April 2011.

SEMI’s markets and customers — semiconductors, photovoltaics, microelectronics, and displays — are experiencing "very exciting points in their evolution," notes SEMI Board Chairman Doug Neugold (ATMI chairman, president and CEO). Watch a video about SEMI’s historic moments, and SEMI memories, from Stanley T. Myers.

McGuirk led IPC’s initiatives for printed circuit board design and manufacture and electronics assembly members. IPC is also a global trade association, like SEMI. McGuirk steered the organization through two difficult recessions, taking it from 2,500 members with less than 25% located outside of the US to 3,000 members of which 38% are located outside the US. "Denny has been a tremendous leader and a great friend to our industry…IPC is in a great position thanks to his hard work and dedication," says Robert Ferguson, chairman of the IPC Board of Directors.

McGuirk was executive director of the National Fluid Power Association from 1996 to 2000.  From 1993 to 1996, he served in various positions with the National Rifle Association of America. Prior to his career in association management, he served for 24 years in the United States Air Force, attaining the rank of Colonel.

McGuirk graduated from the United States Air Force Academy in 1969 with a Bachelor of Science in Western European Affairs. He earned a Master

Update, August 15, 2011 – Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSEA) achieved a significant milestone in the proposed merger between Varian and Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT). At a special stockholders meeting on August 11, Varian stockholders voted to approve the merger.

The merger was approved by holders of approximately 52.8 million shares of Varian’s outstanding common stock, and approximately 237,000 shares voted against the merger. This represents over 99% of the shares present in person or represented by proxy at the special meeting voting in favor of the merger.

Varian continues to expect that the merger will be completed during the second half of 2011. The closing of the merger is subject to the satisfaction or waiver of certain other closing conditions, including, without limitation, the approval of the U.S. Department of Justice under the Hart Scott Rodino Act.

May 4, 2011 – In an early-morning surprise, Applied Materials said it will acquire Varian Semi in a $4.9B deal that adds a new angle to AMAT’s wafer-fab equipment portfolio, and another inroad into related fields including solar PV, displays, and LEDs.

Under terms of the deal, AMAT will pay $63/share in cash for VSEA, a 55% premium over yesterday’s closing price (38% premium to the past 30-day average). VSEA will operate as a business unit of AMAT’s silicon systems group (SSG), and continue to be based in Gloucester, MA. Both company’s boards have unanimously approved the deal, which will be funded with a combination of existing cash balances and debt.

The deal adds ion implantation to AMAT’s wafer-fabrication equipment (WFE) portfolio, as a complement to the company’s other offerings in transistor, interconnect, wafer-level packaging and patterning. The technology also could extend AMAT’s reach further into related markets including solar PV, display, and LEDs.

"Varian is a great fit for our strategy to profitably grow share in our core semiconductor business with best-in-class technology and talent," said Mike Splinter, chairman/CEO of Applied, in a statement. "Applied’s broad capability in semiconductor equipment and Varian’s ion implant expertise will allow us to work more closely with our customers on integrated process solutions at the transistor level," added Randhir Thakur, EVP/GM of Applied SSG.

"In addition to our combined strengths in the semiconductor space, Applied’s proven capability to extend its technology to adjacent markets like solar and display can help unlock the tremendous potential of ion implantation in these markets," added Varian CEO Gary Dickerson.

August 11, 2011 – BUSINESS WIRE — Nordson MARCH, plasma processing technology provider, and Science College of Donghua University, Shanghai, China launched a joint laboratory for plasma research and education: Nordson MARCH-Science College of Donghua University Joint Laboratory. The college and supplier will share equipment, research projects, personnel resources, and additional resources as needed.

Nordson MARCH specializes in advanced plasma processes and equipment for semiconductor packaging, printed circuit board, and other manufacturing industries. Science College of Donghua supports plasma physics and applications studies, with a Master’s degree program in Physics and Optical Engineering.

Professors and graduate students from the college will work with Dr. James Getty, VP, applications and business development and Dr. Jiangang (Jack) Zhao, chief scientist of Nordson MARCH, who have been named adjunct professors.

Nordson MARCH contributed an AP-600 Plasma Treatment System to the lab, which also boasts an electron microscope, surface energy tester, and mass spectrometer contributed by the school.

Donghua University is a public university in Shanghai, China administered by the Chinese Ministry of Education and the Shanghai municipality.

Nordson MARCH provides plasma processing technology for the semiconductor, printed circuit board (PCB), microelectronics, and medical & life science device manufacturing industries. Visit the Nordson MARCH website for more details: http://www.nordsonmarch.com.

Nordson Corporation is a diverse producer of precision dispensing equipment, equipment used in the testing and inspection of electronic components, technology-based systems for UV curing, and surface treatment equipment. Visit Nordson on the web at www.nordson.com.

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August 10, 2011 — University of Nottingham scientists have developed a method to manufacture nanowires using carbon nanotubes (CNT) to host chemical reactions.

Dr Andrei Khlobystov in Nottingham’s School of Chemistry, theoretical chemists based in the university’s School of Chemistry and electron microscopists from Ulm University in Germany collaborated to create chemical reactions in carbon nanotubes. Carbon and sulphur atoms inside a nanotube generate atomic strips of carbon, or graphene nanoribbons, with sulphur atoms around the edge.

The team’s technique of confining the chemical reactions within a nanoscale "container" improves the ease with which nanoribbons are produced, noted Khlobstov. The researchers also discovered that nanoribbons follow an unprecedented helical twist that changes over time. That structure coul allow scientists to control electrical conductivity and other physical properties.

Devices based on nanoribbons could be used as nano-switches, nano-actuators and nano-transistors integrated in computers or data storage devices.

The work is reported in Nature Materials, in "Self-assemby of a Sulphur-Terminated Graphene Nanoribbon within a Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube." Access the paper at http://www.nature.com/nmat/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nmat3082.html Contact Dr Andrei Khlobystov on +44 (0)115 951 3917, [email protected]

The University of Nottingham operates campuses in the United Kingdom, China and Malaysia, hosting 40,000 students. More than 90% of research at The University of Nottingham is of international quality, according to the most recent Research Assessment Exercise. More news from the University at: www.nottingham.ac.uk/news.

August 10, 2011 — The University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, through the Applied Research and Commercialization Initiative, is supporting several companies researching and developing new products. One company receiving aid from the school is Microbonds, maker of semiconductor bonding wire.

Last year, under the Applied Research and Commercialization Initiative, the University of Waterloo was approved for up to $750,000 from FedDev Ontario to partner with small- and medium-sized businesses on activities such as applied research, engineering design, technology development, product testing, and certification.

Microbonds is researching, developing and applying insulated bonding wire technology for semiconductor packaging and microchip industries. The University of Waterloo will help Microbonds commercialize low processing temperatures for semiconductor package wire bonds.

Microbond’s past partnerships to develop the insulated wire bonding technology have taken place with Promex Industries Inc., Cookson, March Plasma Systems, and SPT.

Local small- and medium-sized enterprises contribute to the Waterloo Region and Canada’s national economy, said Feridun Hamdullahpur, President, University of Waterloo. "This funding will assist us in our research and development partnerships, which are aimed at improving the performances of these highly innovative companies."

The initiative will also fund work at Clearpath Robotics, Integran Technologies Inc., Teledyne DALSA, Tyco Electronics Canada ULC, and others.

FedDev Ontario was created as part of Canada’s Economic Action Plan to support businesses and communities in southern Ontario. Now in its second year of operation, the Agency has launched a number of initiatives to create a Southern Ontario Advantage and place the region in a strong position to compete in the global economy. These initiatives are designed to support businesses and other organizations through partnerships and investments in skills and training; innovation; research and development; and increased productivity. To learn more, please visit www.feddevontario.gc.ca

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August 10, 2011 — Multitest, semiconductor test equipment maker, launched a 16-site tri-temp pick-and-place handler, the MT9510 x16.

The 16-site handler operates from -55

August 9, 2011 – Robert Newcomb from Qcept Technologies explains his company’s nonvisual defect inspection technology for logic and IC manufacturers, speaking at SEMICON West 2011.

In today’s advanced manufacturing nodes, leading-edge wafer fabs are focused on yields and integrating new materials successfully. Customers in mainstream 200mm/300mm semiconductor fabs are more focused on cost reduction and environmental friendliness. Yield is still important, but the aim is a balance of cost savings, high yields, and other factors.

Ultrathin low-k dielectrics, high-k metal gate (HKMG) processes, and other technologies are creating new defectivity issues at 22nm. In some cases, Newcomb says, optical inspection will catch these, but other non-visual defects are becoming more prominent. Below 22nm, partnerships will be key, Newcomb expects. Fab customers are valuable in metrology research, as are wafer processing equipment companies.

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August 8, 2011 – Prices for gold have been climbing to near record levels, now at $1700/oz, closing in on the 1980s’ inflation-adjusted peak, and spiking again now thanks to the US credit rating downgrade. And that’s putting more juice behind industry efforts to transition from gold to copper wire for fine-wire applications, notes TechSearch International in a new report.

The new survey sought to determine how much of the market is copper, what the split is between bare and palladium-coated copper (PCC), and how fast the two wire types are growing. Also the company investigated the percentage of PBGA, FBGA (laminate CSP), QFN (leadframe CSP), and stacked-die CSP packages that shipped worldwide with copper wire in 2010, and estimate those numbers for 2011 and 2015. Numbers for 2010 were compiled using package shipments and the percentage of each that used copper for each company. For assemblers, leadframe packages (specifically QFPs) were implemented in copper wire first, with PBGAs starting later.

For many companies, TechSearch determined, 2010 was the first year that copper was implemented in volume production. But the ramp is significant — some companies are forecasting that 30%-50% of all packages will ship with copper wire by the end of 2011, and TechSearch says copper wire shipments will double in 2011.

The full Advanced Packaging Update report also includes an economic update for the semiconductor packaging industry, new developments in QFN packages, and a synopsis of challenges associated with testing wafers with through-silicon vias (TSVs).

August 6, 2011 — Nomura Principal Finance Co. Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Nomura Holdings Inc., transferred all the shares it owns in Eastern Co. Ltd. to Eastern. The sale is in accordance with a resolution of the shareholders’ meeting of Eastern held on June 29, 2011, regarding its share repurchase plan.

Established in 1961, Eastern manufactures and sells semiconductor packaging substrates and electronic equipment such as power supply units.

With production bases in Japan and China, Eastern had capital of 3,500 million yen and employed 1,217 people as of the end of March 2011.

Nomura is a leading financial services group and the Asia-based investment bank with global reach. For further information about Nomura, please visit www.nomura.com. 

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August 5, 2011 – In a post-SEMICON West 2011 podcast interview, sp3 Diamond Technologies’ president & COO, Dwain Aidala, told SST how the CMP pad conditioner market has been significantly impacted by process advances as the industry goes from 32nm to even more advanced nodes. "Over the last 1.5-2 years, we’ve seen a focus on using CVD diamond film directly on pad conditioners for 45nm and lower nodes," he said. "What is driving this is the move to Cu CMP and the chemical/caustic portion of the slurries making use of both the wear properties and the chemical inertness of diamond."

Not only are end-users developing pad conditioners using CVD diamond films to structure them for specific pad and slurry combinations, explained Aidala, but they are also making use of advances in production equipment to continue to drive down costs. "The pad marketplace is appearing to fragment into teams," he explained — i.e., pads, conditioners, and slurries, dubbed "the magic triangle," by the Techcet Group. "During the 2009-2010 down turn, engineers and equipment became available to do development to optimize these three combinations for particular processes."

Recently, sp3 Diamond Technologies’ primary R&D focus has been on the emergence of diamond as a potential SOI layer for high-power applications. "Diamond is a high thermal conductivity material that in sub-micron films can operate as both an insulating layer as well as a thermal conductor vs. the thermal barrier that traditional SOI layers have tended to be," said Aidala. One of the challenges with this application is engineering the appropriate surface roughness for next layer bonding — the company has been working with outside partners to achieve bondable surface layers.

In the last several years, the company has funded its R&D activities by a combination of revenue and income generated by equipment sales, government SBIR research contract activities, and user-to-user activities with other semiconductor companies that have complementary technology. "During the 2009-2010 timeframe, where external capital became extremely difficult to obtain, R&D funding had become a more internally-generated and focused activity," said Aidala. "We are now seeing more opportunities with the larger consortia; and with an acceleration in our own business, we’re able to invest more as well."