12/03/2007  December 3, 2007 - Global semiconductor sales inched up 2.1% in October to $23.07B, keeping in line with projections of about 4% growth for the year, and a strong "Black Friday" suggests that despite macroeconomic concerns US consumers are still hungry for digital devices, according to data from the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA).

12/03/2007  December 3, 2007 - Samsung Electronics and Toshiba have agreed to cross-license their respective OneNAND and LBA-NAND NAND flash memory technologies, to both spur overall growth of, and gain footholds in, the burgeoning market for "fusion" flash technologies.

12/03/2007  Spectroscopic ellipsometers (SE) have been used for decades to provide thickness and composition information for thin dielectric films. Most broadband SEs have been limited by optics hardware to resolving as low as 190nm wavelengths, but a lot of interesting information regarding dielectrics can be found down below 190nm. With this in mind, KLA-Tencor has modified its broadband SE tool to push the wavelength limit down to 150nm.

11/30/2007  November 30, 2007 - An appeal conducted by the World Trade Organization (WTO) has reiterated a July ruling that Japan's 27.2% tariffs levied against Korean DRAM chips (targeting Hynix) are illegal.

11/27/2007  November 27, 2007 - NEC says it will start mass production of 40nm system chips in late fiscal 2008.

11/27/2007  November 27, 2007 - Four years after spinning off its original nonmemory business (now thriving as MagnaChip Semiconductor), Hynix Semiconductor Inc. is getting back into the sector through a partnership with CMOS image sensor designer SiliconFile Technologies.

11/27/2007  Pure-play flash memory provider Spansion is gearing up to start manufacturing its 45nm MirrorBit ORNAND2 architecture, which uses a SONOS-like memory cell connected in a NAND memory array and is based on proprietary charge-trapping storage technology. Spansion president/CEO Bertrand Cambou talks with WaferNEWS about the cost advantages achieved with this NAND/NOR hybrid, as well as with the company's multisource manufacturing strategy.

11/27/2007  November 26, 2007 - Two Wall Street analysts are reissuing health warnings for both the DRAM and NAND memory sectors, diagnosed as suffering from acute inflammation of supplies, and the patients' conditions are expected to get worse before getting better.

11/26/2007  November 26, 2007 - Researchers at Georgia Tech say they've fabricated high-performance field-effect transistors (FET) using thin films of Carbon 60 (aka "fullerenes") with better electron mobility than amorphous silicon, low threshold voltages, large on-off ratios, and high operational stability. The devices target potential applications for large area, low-cost electronic circuits on flexible organic substrates, including displays, active electronic billboards, and RFID tags.

11/26/2007  In an exclusive interview with WaferNEWS, Vikram Pavate, Kovio VP of business development, talks about his company's work with printed silicon ICs for radio-frequency identity (RF-ID) chips, which combines functional electronic inks with high-resolution graphics printing technologies to make high-performance silicon CMOS TFTs on flexible substrates at a fraction of the cost of conventional lithography-based silicon technology.

11/21/2007  November 21, 2007 - Backend equipment orders are looking flat to down in 4Q07, and frontend equipment bookings are looking more likely to be unstable for the next half-year, according to a recent analyst report.

11/20/2007  NAND flash memory manufacturers have made no secret about their rosy outlook for solid-state drives (SSDs) in consumer applications and notebook computers, as well as projected lower cost/GB and increasing densities. Such elation may be premature, however, according to remarks made at a recent IDEMA breakfast event (Nov. 7, Santa Clara, CA), where it was suggested that serious obstacles are still in the path of SSD adoption before the technology can make greater inroads into the computer sector.

11/20/2007  November 19, 2007 - Spreadtrum Communications Inc., a Chinese wireless baseband chipset provider, has agreed to acquire San Diego-based Quorum Systems Inc., a fabless developer of CMOS radio frequency (RF) transceivers, for $55M in cash and $15M in stock, plus an extra $6M in performance incentives over the next two years.

11/19/2007  The model 9850 dual-beam, ultraviolet (UV) laser link-processing system can be used in advanced memory-repair applications.

11/15/2007  November 15, 2007 - Infineon Technologies and Intel have forged a technology partnership to develop optimized chips for high-density SIM cards combined with Intel's 65nm and 45nm process-based NOR flash memory. Initial development will scale up to 64MB with a voltage range of 1.8-3.3V; first samples are planned to ship in 2H08, followed by high-volume production in 1H09.

11/15/2007  November 15, 2007 - austriamicrosystems says it is expanding its multiproject wafer (shuttle) ASIC prototyping service in 2008 with high-voltage (CMOS and flash) and RF offerings. The company is planning >150 shuttle start dates, through partnerships with groups including CMP-TIMA, Europractice, Fraunhofer IIS, and MOSIS, as well as joint 0.18-micron work with IBM.

11/15/2007  November 14, 2007 - Oversupply of parts in NAND, coupled with slower-than-expected seasonal demand for DRAM, have prompted industry analyst firm iSuppli to downgrade its outlooks for both memory segments.

11/14/2007  November 14, 2007 - Despite a sluggish 1H07 due to pricing woes, things have improved enough in the latter part of the year to bump up the Semiconductor Industry Association's (SIA) outlook for chip sales to 3.8% growth, instead of the anemic 1.8% seen just five months ago. The outlook for 2008 is about the same as before, but 2009 looks a bit better, and 2010 is also more optimistic.

11/12/2007  November 12, 2007 - Korean memory chipmaker Hynix Semiconductor and Taiwan partner ProMOS aim to ramp up production of 66nm DRAMs in 1Q08 to annual capacity of 20,000-30,000 wafers -- a decision that has raised eyebrows in Korea, suggesting Hynix may not have been authorized to export the technology under current restrictions, according to local reports.

11/12/2007  October 29, 2007 -- /PRNewswire/ -- LEHIGH VALLEY, PA -- Air Products, through its subsidiary Air Products San Fu Co. Ltd. in Taiwan, has signed a long-term contract with Rexchip Semiconductor Corp., a joint venture company between Powerchip Semiconductor Corp. and Elpida Memory Inc., for the supply of nitrogen and bulk gases.