04/06/2010 

Toshiba reportedly is prepping a ¥15B (US $157M) investment in a <25nm NAND flash test line, eyeing mass production in 2012, a move that not only tightens the NAND flash scaling wars, but also could narrow the insertion point for a next-generation lithography set.

03/26/2010 

A brief power outage at Samsung Electronics appears to have caused "minimal" damage and internal impact on memory production, but may briefly inflate prices until markets know for sure, according to multiple reports.

03/24/2010 

After delaying its initial plans, Toshiba has rejuvenated its Fab 5 NAND flash memory project, aiming to start construction in July of this year and be online by the spring of 2011 -- more than doubling its capacity to an eye-popping 500,000 wafers/month.

03/15/2010 

Military microelectronics experts at the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) are launching a leap-ahead technology program to develop advanced, ultralow-power non-volatile logic ICs that retain their data and computational states when power is removed.

03/12/2010 

Checks into key chipmakers in Korea and Taiwan suggest current demand for equipment is still on the rise, with planned capex increases imminent and capacities set to increase into 2011, according to one industry analyst.

03/10/2010 

X-Fab says it has come up with an embedded nonvolatile memory process that combines the benefits of quickly accessible SRAM with nonvolatile data retention of EEPROM or flash memory, achieving same or better functionality using significantly less chip area.

03/09/2010 

Novellus Systems (NASDAQ: NVLS) created an advanced copper barrier-seed physical vapor deposition (PVD) process for the emerging through-silicon-via (TSV) packaging market. The process uses Novellus’ established INOVA platform with patented hollow cathode magnetron (HCM) technology to produce highly conformal copper seed films that are reportedly four times thinner than the conventional PVD seed approaches used for TSV applications. Novellus announced that the HCM TSV process delivers excellent sidewall and bottom coverage, and enables void-free copper fill during the subsequent TSV electroplating step.

03/09/2010 

Elpida Memory reportedly is purchasing Spansion's NAND flash memory operations, with the goal to produce modules that package DRAM and flash memory targeting mobile devices such as smart phones, according to multiple reports.

03/05/2010 

The biggest chipmaker spenders are taking an extra few crumbs from the capex pie plate in 2010, spending far more than the industry average -- but in the end IC prices will still go up and shortages will happen before the year is through, according to IC Insights.

03/02/2010 

Barclays Capital's CJ Muse came away from SPIE with the message that litho demand is strong, with a "heightened focus on EUV" due to increased costs associated with double patterning -- and why rumors about a delay in EUV adoption may not be accurate after all.

03/01/2010 

January semiconductor sales numbers are hot off the press, and already analysts are saying the trendline is being reset for a better-than-predicted 2010, with growth approaching or even exceeding 20%.

03/01/2010  B₂H₆ PLAD and B₁₈H₂₂ molecular implants demonstrate the best R_s-x_j and abruptness characteristics, while beam-line BF₂ implants as well as cluster B implants show worse R_s-x_j characteristics.Shu Qin, Y. Jeff Hu, Allen McTeer, Micron Technology, Inc., Boise, ID USA

03/01/2010 

For low power applications, gate-first is arguably the most appropriate choice, but for high performance applications, complex solutions (e.g., SiGe channel for pMOS) need to be considered in order to meet the performance requirements with a gate-first process.

03/01/2010  Results so far are highly encouraging for III-V MOSFETs to be used for ultra high speed, and ultra low power applications. Richard J.W. Hill, Jeff Huang, Joel Barnett, Paul Kirsch, Raj Jammy, SEMATECH, Austin TX USA

02/19/2010 

Keithley exec Lee Stauffer explains how adding ultra-fast voltage waveform generation and current/voltage measurement capabilities to the company's Model 4200-SCS semiconductor characterization system benefits a range of applications, from flash memory to CMOS and MEMS.

02/19/2010 

Tessera Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq:TSRA) semiconductor packaging subsidiary, Tessera Inc., signed a technology licensing agreement with Nanium S.A. Nanium, formerly known as Qimonda Portugal, previously was the largest semiconductor packaging assembly and test operation within Qimonda. Nanium has now reorganized as an independent company and will focus on providing assembly and test services for the DRAM memory market and other semiconductor products. Products manufactured by Nanium will be incorporated into computers, servers and various electronic devices such as MP3 players, mobile phones, cameras, and game consoles. The initial term of the license agreement runs through the end of 2017.

02/17/2010 

Vincent Renard and Vincent Jousseaume from CEA-Leti discuss a key new achievement in silicon nanowire synthesis that could open the doors for industrial-scale use offering new functionalities for ICs approaching atomic-scale limitations.

02/16/2010 

Last week's IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference 2010 (ISSCC, Feb. 7-11, San Francisco, CA), offered many talks and papers on topics ranging from 3D integration to circuit design and memories. Here are just a few examples.

02/10/2010 

Analysts offer their take on the long-rumored, and now official, deal that brings NOR flash firm Numonyx under Micron's wing.

02/03/2010 

Authorities in South Korea have arrested executives from Hynix Semiconductor and Applied Materials' local office, accusing them of illegally transferring key semiconductor process technology from Samsung.