04/17/2009  In an exclusive daily blog for SST, Techcet's Michael A. Fury reviews talks about new technology in mobile phones; "DNA origami" self-assembly; hyperspectral imaging; single-crystal silicon ribbons; 3D patterned devices made with MEMS and self-assembly techniques; and the utility of "toys" based on electro-osmotic ionic flux.

04/16/2009  In an exclusive daily blog for SST, Techcet's Michael A. Fury summarizes papers and discussion spanning nanocrystal structures for memory devices, combinatorial screening for metal gate alloys contacting a HfO₂ gate dielectric, more uses for supercritical CO₂, and various aspects of chemical mechanical planarization.

04/08/2009  APRIL 8, 2009 -- LEUVEN, BELGIUM -- IMEC, the Belgian nanoelectronics research institute, has announced that it has begun expanding its Leuven campus facilities, starting with 2,800 square-meters of research labs and including the extension of its state-of-the-art clean room.

04/07/2009  Mike Fury of Techcet Group explains how the "industry darling" CMP consumables sector has evolved with a stable supplier base and growth rates aligned to other materials supply chains -- and how this helps fabs and suppliers focus on the business of optimizing process performance and cost.

03/11/2009  MARCH 11, 2009 -- IC Insights reports there are eight U.S. companies in the top-20 semiconductor ranking (including three fabless semiconductor suppliers), six Japanese, three European, two South Korean, and one Taiwanese company (IC foundry supplier TSMC) in the ranking. It required at least $3.6 billion in 2008 sales to make the top 20 ranking.

03/10/2009  Ken Rygler offers his view of this year's SPIE event, and what's at stake in a proposed divergence of focus into EUV and "all other" litho technologies.

03/05/2009  March 4, 2009: The Nanotechnology Knowledge Transfer Network, based in the UK, and the Joint Equipment Materials Initiative are collaborating on focus-group event to examine the technique of atomic layer deposition.

03/03/2009  Amkor's TMVPoP is a next-generation package-on-package (PoP) that incorporates the company's proprietary through mold via (TMV) technology, which uses lasers to create interconnect vias through the mold cap. TMV technology reportedly provides a stable bottom package that enables use of thinner substrates with a larger die to package ratio.

03/03/2009  by James A. Forster, Ph.D., Antares Advanced Test Technologies
As IC manufacturers rely more on the burn-in process to bring the latest devices from fabs to consumers, it is important to understand burn-in test. As feature size is reduced into the nanometer range, designers can place more circuits on a square of silicon. As the number of transistors and the total amount of circuitry on a chip increases, the potential for a defect increases, leading to immediate or future failures.

03/02/2009  The DRAM market will finally hit bottom to start this year, and gradually pick up through the year with "outstanding quarterly growth," according to a new analysis from IC Insights.

02/17/2009  The j360 Silicon PathFinder 3D Platform from Javelin Design Automations supports 3D stacked IC design using through silicon vias (TSV). The design tool reportedly extends the Javelin PathFinding methodology and j360 Silicon PathFinder platform to support virtual chip design for co-optimization of system design and 3D interconnect-packaging technologies

02/16/2009  In a bid to expand applications for 3D packaging, NEC has developed a 3D chip-stacked flexible memory to support large-scale high-performance systems-on-chip (SoC).

01/27/2009  Qimonda's filing for bankruptcy, while perhaps not entirely surprising, is nonetheless sending shockwaves through the industry, and it's likely that no matter what happens, the consolidation of the DRAM industry is now underway.

01/26/2009  Who's upbeat about the semiconductor sector, and why? When will this downturn turn into sustainable growth again? What will fix the memory sector to make money again? Who's a bigger economic pariah than Bernie Madoff? SST's Bob Haavind ties it all together from presentations at ISS '09.

01/20/2009  Scanning recent headlines across Japan: Ulvac is betting on a solar boost from Obama; Japan's temp chip workers are seeing pink as their firms bleed red; and consolidation takes hold in two segments of the domestic semiconductor sector.

01/16/2009  January 16, 2009: A handheld, ultra-portable device that can recognize and immediately report on a wide variety of environmental or medical compounds may eventually be possible, using a method that incorporates a mixture of biologically tagged nanowires onto integrated circuit chips, according to Penn State researchers.

01/13/2009  2008 was a big game of "chicken" in the DRAM sector, as firms floored their investment and output pedals in 2008 hoping competitors would give up first. But all they did was make the bad times last longer, according to a summary from iSuppli.

01/13/2009  A much smaller group of industry leaders than usual (about 115) came to Half Moon Bay, CA, for SEMI's annual Industry Strategy Symposium (ISS) expecting to hear a lot of gloomy forecasts in the midst of a global recession. But they held out hopes to hear not just advice on riding out a tough downturn, but also some upbeat forecasts on what may come afterwards.

01/09/2009  Market conditions today are challenging, but past experience has shown that investments in advanced technology during a market downturn can return substantial benefits when the market recovers -- and it will recover. Long-term success requires that companies continue to develop the advanced products that will allow them to increase market share when demand again becomes robust.

01/08/2009  To paraphrase Samuel Johnson, nothing focuses the mind like an economic meltdown. The semiconductor industry and its capital equipment suppliers were already in the midst of a severe downturn as we entered the fourth quarter of 2008. Softening consumer demand and overcapacity in memory caused prices to plummet. Overlay the global credit crisis, and our industry faces challenges with a depth and breadth we've rarely had to face, even given our volatile history.