09/21/2007  September 21, 2007 - Taiwan's second-tier foundries' production capacities are overflowing with contracts to fill demand for areas like power MOSFETs and analog chips, and production is likely to remain at full capacity for the next two months, according to the Taiwan Economic News.

09/21/2007  September 21, 2007 - Samsung Electronics says another "brief" power outage at its K2 production line in its Giheung facility lasted about half a minute, but there was no damage. An automatic system switched on immediately and all lines continued operating normally, a spokesperson told the Korea Times, calling the glitch "a minor technical problem."

09/21/2007  Analysts presenting at a SEMI breakfast panel on Sept. 19 reviewed changes reshaping the chipmaking and equipment industries, agreeing on several fronts such as progress in production efficiencies and an increasingly consumer-reliant future. But there was plenty of room for debate about the real growth possible in certain new markets (e.g. photovoltaics), and what the sum of all these parts means for investors.

09/21/2007  ChipSensors Ltd. has unveiled a chip whose surface can sense parameters such as temperature, humidity, certain gases, and pathogens. The fabless startup, which is working on commercialization, says its technology overcomes traditional obstacles in sensor manufacturing.

09/20/2007  RedShift Systems, provider of next-generation thermal imaging solutions, will join forces with MEMS manufacturer,Innovative Micro Technology (IMT) to produce a solid-state, passive optical component that shifts long-wavelength thermal infrared radiation to visible light to allow standard CMOS and CCD digital cameras to "see heat."

09/19/2007  September 19, 2007 - Staking its claim as the first 300mm NOR flash fab, Spansion Inc. says it has begun production of 65mnm process-based MirrorBit NOR flash memory devices at its SP1 300mm fab in Aizu-Wakamatsu, Japan, with shipments due out by year's end.

09/18/2007  The humble diode is the focal point of what Phiar Corp. hopes will be the beginning of a future that includes non-semiconductor materials for junction transport via quantum tunneling -- and the first credible alternative to semiconductors since the vacuum tube era.

09/18/2007  Brion Technologies, the computational lithography wing of lithography toolmaker ASML, says its Tachyon system will now do the mask transformations needed for dual dipole lithography, to permit chip designs to approach more closely to the limit of single resist exposure technology. Also, to enhance the process window for repetitive structures in memory, Brion's LithoCruiser can now co-optimize the diffractive optical element needed for custom illumination along with the mask pattern.

09/17/2007  September 17, 2007 - Echoing a similar event from the DRAM sector a few years ago, nearly two dozen NAND flash memory chipmakers are reportedly under investigation by authorities in the US and Canada for allegedly conspiring to fix prices.

09/17/2007  September 17, 2007 - As part of a shift toward other devices like image sensors, Sony is officially getting out of the Cell processor production business, by outsourcing manufacturing to a new JV with Toshiba.

09/15/2007  September 14, 2007 - Jazz Semiconductor is looking for either a partnership or acquisition to gain access to 200mm manufacturing capabilities, as its internal capacity utilization surges beyond 90%, according to a report by Digitimes.

09/15/2007  September 14, 2007 - A group of memory chipmakers and mobile device providers are backing a new industry spec for removable memory cards and embedded memory technologies, an effort spearheaded by standards org JEDEC Solid State Technology Association.

09/13/2007  As cell phone demand surges in emerging markets, IBM says it's seizing the last significant opportunity to reduce cell phones' cost and size by developing a low cost, integrated solution with multiple RF/analog functions on a single chip. IBM technologists explain to SST how this is being accomplished by replacing GaAs with SOI.

09/12/2007  September 12, 2007 - Korean foundry Dongbu HiTek says it has made available a new internally developed design library to support manufacturing of CMOS image sensors using 110nm process technologies.

09/12/2007  September 12, 2007 - Samsung has developed what it says is the industry's first "60nm-class" 2Gb DDR2 DRAM devices, with multiple strategic aims to help stabilize DRAM prices, and solidify its foothold in a sector that will account for nearly half of all DRAM sales in five years.

09/11/2007  September 11, 2007 - Aviza Technology Inc. and Mosel Vitelic Corp. have signed a pact to jointly develop advanced atomic layer deposition (ALD) materials for next-generation flash applications.

09/06/2007  September 6, 2007 - Hynix Semiconductor and STMicroelectronics jointly owned chipmaking facility in Wuxi, China, has sold its 200mm line "C1" to Chinese conglomerate China Resources (Holdings) Co. Ltd. for an undisclosed amount. It's part of Hynix's plan to shift more business to its 300mm capacity, by upgrading some efficient 200mm sites and selling off others.

09/05/2007  September 5, 2007 - Hynix Semiconductor reportedly has developed a multichip package with 24 stacked NAND flash memory chips, improving on its existing design, according to the Korea Times.

09/05/2007  Hynix Semiconductor reportedly developed a multichip package (MCP) with 24 stacked NAND flash memory chips, improving on its existing design, according to Korea Times.

09/04/2007  September 4, 2007 - A year after starting construction on their Fab 4 joint NAND flash fab, Toshiba and SanDisk have inaugurated their newest 300mm fab at Toshiba's facility in Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture, Japan.