12/15/2008  brawling. This is encouraging. Laboratory technologies, like newborn babes, require the full attention of their owners. It isn't until the newcomers creep out of the lab to face their rivals that conflicts begin. By next December, some winners should be in production.

12/09/2008  In MOSFETs used for analog and RF circuits, 1/f noise is an important figure of merit. This article describes a wafer-level measurement method and setup to evaluate the 1/f noise of MOSFETs, which can be automatically performed on the wafer and can measure <100Hz low-frequency noise components.

12/02/2008  Japan's Elpida Memory is increasing its ownership stake in its Rexchip Electronics memory JV with Taiwan's Powerchip Semiconductor to 52% in a bid to make the JV a consolidated subsidiary and take over leadership of investment and "adjust capacity allocation."

12/02/2008  Dec. 1, 2008 - Worldwide sales of semiconductors that slowed significantly in September kept on slowing in October, particularly in the Americas region, according to the latest data from the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA).

12/01/2008  At the time of this writing, the extent of the financial crisis (both in scope and duration) is still unknown, though most agree that it will get worse before it gets better.

11/26/2008  Elpida Memory says it has completed development of a 50nm DDR3 SDRAM that's twice as fast as Samsung's version, with what the company says is the lowest power consumption available (1.2V operation).

11/25/2008  The extent of the financial crisis is still unknown, of course, and most agree that it will get worse before it gets better. We've been gathering reports from leading market forecasters and analysts and can share what they're telling us -- and it looks like some rough sailing ahead for semiconductors.

11/25/2008  With some domestic DRAM suppliers (though not all) pleading for help, Taiwan's government appears poised to offer some form of a bailout, according to local reports. But if this is good news for domestic companies, how will this move affect the overall market? SST asked industry watchers for their take.

11/25/2008  STATS ChipPAC Ltd. has expanded its quad flat no-lead (QFN) packaging portfolio with a strip-etch version for applications requiring increased design flexibility and higher input/output (I/O) performance in a small, thin package profile. The new QFN package family, referred to as QFNs-se, reportedly features a higher number of very thin I/O terminal pads than conventional single or dual-row QFN or leadframe-based quad flat packages (QFPs).

11/19/2008  Far from an act of desperation, the eye-popping IP suit from Spansion against Samsung is it a savvy IP strategy that puts the entire industry on notice. Objective Analysis' Jim Handy explains what's behind Spansion's aggressive move, and what might be the fallout.

11/19/2008  Aviza Technology exec David Butler explains the technology behind the StratIon fxP, the company's new 300mm-ready ion beam deposition system, and how it's better than traditional magnetron sputtering approaches in terms of film homogeneity, interface smoothness, and purity.

11/18/2008  By Fran

11/18/2008  November 18, 2008: Akustica Inc. says its latest generation of digital microphones, the AKU2002C, improves voice quality in notebook computers and other consumer-electronic devices.

11/14/2008  IMEC and Panasonic Corporation have signed a joint research contract that will focus on advanced technologies in the semiconductor, networks, wireless, and biomedical fields. For this purpose, the Panasonic IMEC Center will be established at the IMEC premises in December 2008.

11/13/2008  November 13, 2008: Silicon Clocks, a leading semiconductor IP licensing company, has appointed former MoSys VP Didier Lacroix as president and CEO to lead the company into a new phase of growth with a pure IP licensing model for its CMEMS technology.

11/13/2008  Despite beating analysts' expectations for its fiscal year-end quarter, semiconductor equipment bellwether Applied Materials says it will cut costs with 1800 layoffs (12% of its workforce) in the coming fiscal year. Added: Comments from top exec Mike Splinter about consolidation and solar biz, and takeaways from two industry analysts who called during the teleconference Q&A.

11/11/2008  IBM now is offering a silicon-on-insulator offering for its 45nm foundry process, including design tools and libraries, following the 45nm ASIC SOI offering it released in mid-2007.

11/06/2008  The industry has established a collection of production-worthy high-k gate stack options, and fabs will adopt their own such processes gradually. While research institutions are winding down their work in this area, there's still future research to be done on high-k dielectric materials (e.g. for memory scaling), as IMEC researchers discussed at their annual press review.

11/04/2008  FSI exec Scott Becker tells SST how the closed-chamber design of the company's new Orion single-wafer cleaning system addresses cleaning-related issues for 32nm and 22nm process technologies, such as material loss and galvanic corrosion.

10/31/2008  The high-flying NAND flash memory market came crashing back down to earth in 2008, and it looks like it won't pick itself up until after 2009 -- and in this scenario, consumer are the only winners, according to new analysis from iSuppli.