06/14/2007  June 13, 2007 - STMicroelectronics says it has taped out the design for a low-power system-on-chip (SoC) "demonstrator" device with a multiple threshold transistors, dual-core CPU and associated memory hierarchy. The process improves speed by 20% vs. 65nm designs or reduces leakage current by half when in operation (and by "several orders of magnitude" when in retention mode), and takes up half the silicon area.

06/13/2007  June 13, 2007 - With chip sales "running well short" of last year's projections for several months now, the SIA has significantly scaled back its expectations for semiconductor industry growth this year. The SIA now projects just 1.8% growth this year to $252 billion, instead of ~10% growth anticipated from its outlook last November.

06/13/2007  June 13, 2007 - Infineon has disclosed an update to its work with multigate transistors, saying it's completed tests of circuits made with the new transistor architecture on 65nm processes, incorporating more than 23,000 transistors that incorporate "all of the key components" in current circuits plus SRAM. The device's record 13.9 picosecond switching time is 40% better than the previous version, touted at December's IEDM.

06/12/2007  June 12, 2007 - Tezzaron Semiconductor says it is ramping its 2D "3T-iRAM" line of 72Mbit memory devices at Singapore foundry Chartered Semiconductor on the foundry's 0.13-micron process technology, and plans to use this SRAM drop-in replacement as the basis for its first 3D ICs. Robert Patti, Tezzaron CTO, discusses both technologies with WaferNEWS.

06/12/2007  Semico Research's latest semiconductor market revenue forecast calls for a slight (0.5%) decline for the remainder of 2007 but shows a highly elastic (20%) rebound in 2008, with continued double-digit expansion for the next several years. Fueling this growth will be not a single killer app, but a host of innovative consumer electronic products, according to Jim Feldhan, president of the market research firm, speaking at a recent SEMI New England Breakfast meeting near Boston.

06/12/2007  Samsung, Hynix, and Akita Elpida have all made announcements recently about their latest achievements in memory stacking technology. There was definitely a competitive tone to these releases, but they actually appear to be pushing somewhat different agendas.

06/12/2007  June 12, 2007 - The image sensor market is projected to grow 14% in 2007, following 30% growth in 2006 to roughly $6 billion, and will slow through the next several years, with many providers jostling for position, according to a report from Strategies Unlimited.

06/12/2007  Presenting at the VLSI Symposium this week in Japan, Toshiba says it has developed a 3D memory cell array structure using through-silicon vias (TSVs) that could be a potential candidate for higher-density NAND flash devices.

06/12/2007  June 12, 2007 - Presenting at the VLSI Symposium this week in Japan, Toshiba says it has developed a new 3D memory cell array structure using through-silicon vias that could be a potential candidate for higher-density NAND flash devices.

06/12/2007  A roundup of news from the past week in Japan finds PC makers turning to flash, chemical makers opening their wallets, new silicon transport components, and a behemoth of a CMOS image sensor prototype.

06/12/2007  The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has notified NVE Corporation, Eden Prairie, Minn., of the expected grant of a patent titled "Thermomagnetically Assisted Spin-Momentum-Transfer Switching Memory," relating to magneto-thermal and spin-momentum transfer MRAM inventions.

06/11/2007  June 11, 2007 - Researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), George Mason U., and Korea's Kwangwoon U. have fabricated a hybrid memory device incorporating both silicon nanowires and nonvolatile semiconductor-oxide-nitride-oxide-semiconductor (SONOS) technology, which they suggest is more reliable than other nanowire-based memory devices.

06/11/2007  Nanocoating and ultra thin film deposition technology is expanding from industrial applications to semiconductors, photovoltaic cells, magnetic memory, and space exploration. Small Times' Hugh Willett reports.

06/08/2007  June 8, 2007 - New orders for more of TSMC's 65nm capacity from Qualcomm Inc. and Broadcom Corp., which are eyeing increased demand from the mobile phone market, puts TSMC even further ahead of rivals seeking to add customers for their leading-edge offerings, according to the Taiwan Economic News.

06/06/2007  June 6, 2007 - Identifying image sensors as a key focus area for its semiconductor business, Sony Corp. says it will invest approximately 60 billion yen (US $493.3 million) to expand its Kumamoto Technology Center (TEC) in Kyushu over the next three years.

06/06/2007  June 6, 2007 - Spot prices for DRAM memory have risen for a second straight week according to data from DRAMeXchange and Gartner, suggesting that prices may have finally fallen below costs and could be poised for a rebound.

06/05/2007  Since carbon nanotubes (CNTs) tend to grow with erratic kinks and bends in the tube structure, a group of engineers from Stanford University has devised circuit-simulation algorithms that eliminate bad connections caused by errant CNTs. The work, which involves fine grids rather that direct interconnects, is being presented at the Design Automation Conference (DAC), June 4–8 in San Diego.

06/05/2007  Flash memory will become a large factor in the portable media player (PMP) market by 2011, reports analyst firm iSuppli. Flash is expected to grow 25× in this sector by 2011, bringing the quantity of flash-equipped PMPs to 150.2 million units. In 2007, shipments of PMPs with flash components will reach 54.8 million units. iSuppli predicts NAND packages will replace HDDs, based on storage capacity requirements for video as well as audio output.

06/05/2007  Developed at the University of Hiroshima (Japan) with professor Mitiko Miura-Mattausch, the HiSIM SPICE modeling solution targets modeling and simulation based on the physics of 90-nm CMOS geometries and below. It incorporates the surface potential-based model.

06/05/2007  "Food for thought" served up during a SEMI breakfast panel near Boston suggested memory firms' wild overspending and capacity increases may in fact be shrewd strategic moves to shore up leading-edge 300mm capacity before an oncoming technology "brick wall" makes their existing 200mm fabs obsolete.