06/05/2007  As the industry watches memory firms push out orders as prices and profits evaporate, those waiting for foundry spending to mount a late-year comeback to pick up the slack might want to avert their eyes from the scoreboard. Warning signs in the memory sector -- and the dawning realization of how much of the industry's capex is tied up in the most price-sensitive segment -- were major topics discussed at a recent SEMI breakfast panel of analysts near Boston.

06/05/2007  June 5, 2007 - IBM is rolling out four new products, including a Cu-45nm ASIC custom chip using silicon-on-insulator technology, which is also the first commercial use of embedded DRAM also implemented in SOI.

06/04/2007  June 4, 2007 - Worldwide sales of semiconductors slipped 2.1% in April vs. March (and increased a scant 1.6% year-on-year) to $19.92 billion -- the first time in 12 months that chip sales (calculated as a 3-mo. moving average) have been below $20 billion -- as declining ASPs in major industry segments dampen sales, notes the SIA in its latest monthly analysis.

06/04/2007  June 4, 2007 - Among the past week's news in Taiwan, a reported deal between Taiwan's Macronix and Qimonda AG has raised the stakes in the memory market, and raised eyebrows as a possible thwart to increased influence from Powerchip. Elsewhere, UMC can thank SiS for an upcoming spike in its 300mm utilization rates, and MediaTek is scrambling to find room to produce its digital TV demodulators.

06/04/2007  June 4, 2007 - ARM says it has created a test chip incorporating physical IP (libraries for standard cell and I/O, plus single-port SRAM memory compiler) using UMC's 65nm process technology and silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology.

06/01/2007  By Phil LoPiccolo, Editor-in-Chief

Among the most significant developments in interconnect slated to appear at this month's International Interconnect Technology Conference (IITC, June 4-6, in Burlingame, CA) involve 3D chip architectures. Sitaram Arkalgud, director of SEMATECH's interconnect division and its newly created 3D interconnect initiative, calls 3D chip architecture his "new religion," because stacked chips allow interconnects to be much shorter than...

05/31/2007  May 31, 2007 - Samsung and Hynix are working to raise production of flash memory chips by July to meet increased demand from Apple, on expectations of the iPhone launch this summer and rumors of a new iPod to be introduced later this year, notes the Nikkei daily paper.

05/31/2007  May 31, 2007 - Dongbu HiTek Co., the merged entity of Dongbu Electronics and Dongbu Hannong Chemicals, says it has developed in-house a special design library for LCD driver IC devices using 130nm CMOS process technologies, which it says minimizes electromigration and cross-talk. The company developed a 130nm design library for image sensor processors earlier this year.

05/31/2007  e2v, developer and manufacturer of electronic components and subsystems, has announced a new generation of high-sensitivity imaging sensors that leverage technology from Tracit Technologies, a new division of the Soitec Group.

05/31/2007  Inapac Technology, Inc. (Hsin-chu), partnered with DRAM manufacturer ProMOS Technologies (San Jose) to develop a low-power, 256 Mb DDR SDRAM based on Inapac's SiPFLOW platform. ProMOS will manufacture the bare-die product in known good die (KGD) from system-in-package (SiP) and multi-chip package (MCP) devices.

05/31/2007  May 31, 2007 - Eying severe DRAM pricing declines and continued MPU price wars, analyst Gartner Inc. has once again lowered its outlook for chip sales, now projecting just 2.5% growth in 2007, down from 6.4% expectations in early March and 9.2% in January.

05/30/2007  Process development foundry SVTC Technologies has unveiled a technology incubation program with TSMC, the world's largest dedicated semiconductor foundry. The deal aims to streamline the transfer of designs to high-volume manufacturing. Small Times' Barbara Goode puts the announcement in context.

05/29/2007  May 29, 2007 - Samsung, Hynix, and other South Korean DRAM memory suppliers have been riding atop the memory wave, but slumping prices (partly of those firms' own doing) could topple Korea as the memory manufacturing hub by the end of this decade, according to new data from iSuppli Corp.

05/25/2007  May 24, 2007 - NEC's LCD display unit has created a LCD module that incorporates all chip components, including LSI and memory, on the glass substrate.

05/25/2007  May 24, 2007 - Korean memory chipmaker Hynix Semiconductor Inc. has joined IMEC's 32nm memory R&D program, which now boasts participation from the top five global memory chipmakers (Samsung, Elpida, Micron, and Qimonda).

05/25/2007  May 24, 2007 - Fujitsu Ltd. has signed a deal with Jazz Technologies Inc. to jointly provide systems-on-chip (SoC) products for RF CMOS devices, combining Jazz's RF and mixed-signal technology with Fujitsu's 90-65nm LSI manufacturing processes. Devices will be manufactured at Fujitsu's 300mm fab in Kuwana, Mie Prefecture (Japan), and marketed and sold jointly by both companies.

05/24/2007  May 23, 2007 - Heavier capex in 1Q from several large IDMs helped push up sales as well as orders for semiconductor manufacturing equipment from North America-based suppliers, according to the latest monthly data from SEMI.

05/24/2007  May 23, 2006 - Five of the "Common Platform Alliance" partners -- IBM, Chartered, Samsung, Infineon, and Freescale -- say they will extend their current technology development agreements through 2010 and beyond, incorporating 32nm bulk CMOS process technologies and joint development of process design kits.

05/22/2007  May 22, 2007 - After months of rumors, assumptions, and anticipation (and frustration) by industry watchers, Intel and STMicroelectronics have finally done what everyone thought they would do: combine their flash memory assets into a new company. The catch: they've brought in an unexpected partner to help foot the bill.

05/22/2007  SVTC Technologies, which recently became an independent development foundry, has introduced a full suite of commercialization services, called FastXfer services. Simultaneously the company is announcing its name change, from Silicon Valley Technology Center to SVTC Technologies.