12/14/2007  December 14, 2007 - At this week's IEDM, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. said it has built a gallium nitride (GaN) power transistor on a sapphire substrate with ultrahigh breakdown voltage of 10,400V, more than 5X higher than the top mark for other such devices.

12/14/2007  December 14, 2007 - At this week's IEDM, Fujitsu discussed its recent progress in developing multilayer interconnect technology for logic LSI devices at and beyond the 32nm node, and its work with a new resistive RAM (ReRAM) memory as a possible alternative to flash for embedded applications.

12/13/2007  December 13, 2007 - The Semiconductor Research Corp. (SRC) and U. of Glasgow are partnering to identify "the best" p-channel material to scale MOSFET minimum feature sizes, including gate length, down to 8nm, possibly extending scaling for another 4-6 years beyond current projections.

12/13/2007  December 13, 2007 - Micron Technology says it has produced samples of a 1Gb DDR2 device using 68nm process technologies. Mass production is planned for early 2008, followed by DDR3 and other low-power DRAM products in 2H08.

12/12/2007  December 12, 2007 - Teradyne and Nextest have agreed to a $325M acquisition that gives system-on-chip test provider Teradyne a big slice of the projected $700M flash memory tester market.

12/12/2007  December 12, 2007 - German chipmaker X-Fab Silicon Foundries has agreed to license its 0.6-micron process technology ("XC06") to Brazil's CEITEC (Excellence Center for Advanced Electronic Technology), for use in CMOS semiconductor manufacturing in the country's 150mm prototype frontend wafer fab, slated to open in 3Q08.

12/11/2007  ; Palomar Technologies has announced a partnership with Vision Manufacturing Inc. (VMI) of Vista, CA. Through VMI, Palomar Microelectronics can offer printed wiring board (PWB) and surface mount technology (SMT) services for its customers to supplement the process development, prototyping, and low volume assembly services Palomar Microelectronics provides.

12/11/2007  Over 1600 technologists are gathered in Washington, DC, to explore a wide range of innovative ideas at the 2007 International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM). While current mainstream CMOS approaches, using strain engineering and metal/high-k dielectric gates, are covered extensively, a wide range of further out alternatives suggests that darts have been tossed at periodic table charts all over the world.

12/11/2007  December 10, 2007 - In an interview with Japan's Nikkei daily, Advantest president Toshi Maruyama admits the company misjudged the timing of the DRAM price drought, but is optimistic that backend tool orders will pick up by next summer -- as long as midsize manufacturers get back in the game, and the US subprime mortgage debacle doesn't sour consumer spending habits.

12/11/2007  December 10, 2007 - Tessera Technologies has filed a new complaint with the US International Trade Commission (ITC) alleging unlawful importation and sale of certain small-format BGA semiconductor packages and products, including DRAM memory chips, memory modules, and the computer systems incorporating them.

12/10/2007  December 10, 2007 - IBM says it has fabricated 32nm chips using a high-k/metal gate (gate-first) process in SRAM chips, which it says shrinks the chips size by up to 50%, and saves about 45% total power. The technology is expected to be available in 2H09.

12/10/2007  Intel execs revealed highlights from select papers the company will be presenting at IEDM, including some details about its 45nm HK+MG transistors that incorporate a redistribution layer as part of a 9-layer copper interconnect. Also featured is the company's success in mitigating process variation to the extent that results in variation at 45nm is comparable to that achieved at 130nm. Additionally, quantum well FETs may be ready at ~2015 to extend Moore's Law scaling.

12/07/2007  December 7, 2008 - Chip manufacturers are getting serious about buckling down on their capital spending, as profits have just about reached their "pain threshold," and the resulting belt-tightening will "shake the foundation of the IC industry," according to analyst firm IC Insights.

12/07/2007  This year's MEDEA+ annual forum in Budapest, Hungary (Nov. 26-28) reviewed final projects for the eight-year pan-European collaborate program for microelectronics R&D, set to expire in 2008 after overseeing three generations of CMOS technology and making the European industry a world leader in such sectors as automotive electronics, smart card technology, and image sensing.

12/06/2007  December 6, 2007 - Hynix Semiconductor expects to start mass production of 48nm-based NAND flash in 1Q08, which would give it a brief headstart on rivals Samsung and Toshiba, according to local media reports.

12/06/2007  December 5, 2007 - Hitachi Chemical plans to boost its production capacity for CMP slurry by 50% to 15,000 tons/year by next June, its second upgrade in the past year, according to the Nikkei Business Daily.

12/05/2007  December 5, 2007 - NXP Semiconductors says it has sold off equipment from its participation in the Crolles2 partnership, mainly used for R&D and pilot manufacturing, to an undisclosed buyer for an undisclosed price. Ownership will be transferred in two stages over the next six months.

12/04/2007  Researchers at IMEC gave WaferNEWS a preview of the group's papers to be presented at next week's IEDM 2007 conference in Washington, DC. Topics include PVD used for workfunction electrode metal in FinFETs; interactions between a capping layer, host dielectric, and workfunction metal that impacts threshold voltage; and using laser annealing in (gate-first) HK+MG devices to achieve gate length scaling with no loss in drive current.

12/04/2007  December 4, 2007 - Months after significant reorgs on both sides, the SVTC (nee the Silicon Valley Technology Center) and SEMATECH's R&D foundry subsidiary Advanced Technology Development Facility (ATDF) in Austin, TX, are merging to expand their ability to offer an alternative to dedicated R&D fabs or shared development/production operations, months after both sides took steps earlier this year to reorganize and expand.

12/04/2007  ; Tessera has announced that executives from Hewlett Packard, Intel, Nokia and Toshiba will be guest speakers at the fourth annual Tessera Technology Symposium in Tokyo, Japan, tomorrow. The theme of this year's conference is "Driving the Mobile Revolution."