11/11/2004  November 11, 2004 - Samsung Electronics has developed the world's highest-capacity "fusion'' chip for wide-ranging applications in high-end mobile phones, according to a company statement, reported the Korea Times. The 1-gigabyte OneNAND fusion memory combines NAND flash memory, SRAM, and system logic in one chip.

11/09/2004  November 9, 2004 - Sanyo Electric Co. said it has begun alternate production at its Gunma and Gifu semiconductor plants because it remains unclear when it can resume operations at its quake-hit factory in Ojiya, Niigata prefecture, northern Japan, said the Nihon Keizai Shimbun America Inc.

11/09/2004  November 9, 2004 - Toshiba Corp. has filed patent infringement lawsuits against South Korea's Hynix Semiconductor Inc. both in Japan and the US, claiming that it violated Toshiba's flash memory patents, according to several news agencies.

11/08/2004  (November 8, 2004) Taipei, Taiwan—After reporting flat revenues for the entire third quarter, Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE) reports a 7.5% sequential uptick in net revenues for October 2004, amidst the holiday build season. Revenues were a record $235.1 million, 36.2% above the October 2003 level. Year-to-date net revenues for ASE through October 2004 are $2.006 billion.

11/02/2004  November 2, 2004 - Inventory corrections are putting a damper on a traditionally strong month for semiconductor sales, but overall growth for the year is about on target with projections, according to the latest data from the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA).

11/01/2004  November 1, 2004 - ASM International NV, Bilthoven, The Netherlands, has developed a new process that enables porous low-k insulator materials in copper interconnects for 65nm devices.

11/01/2004  November 1, 2004 - MCNC Research & Development Institute, a North Carolina-based nonprofit research organization, has contracted with Lucent Technologies to provide 3D interconnect technology as part of a joint R&D project for the US Department of Defense's Coherent Communications, Imaging, and Targeting (CCIT) program.

10/28/2004  (October 28, 2004) Hsinchu, Taiwan—Taiwanese semiconductor memory specialist U-Chip and Ansoft Corporation jointly announce their partnership for IC design and simulation. The power of Ansoft's Nexxim circuit simulator is essential for U-Chip to predict transient behavior and power consumption of their embedded read-only memory (ROM) IC designs.

10/26/2004  Dr. Paula Doe, Contributing Editor
High-k films for DRAM capacitors look poised to create real volume production demand for atomic layer deposition (ALD) tools. But furnace makers with new batch ALD furnaces may challenge the leading ALD suppliers' single-wafer cluster tools for the business. Samsung has started using batch ALD in its 90nm memory production, reportedly with tools from several different suppliers.

10/25/2004  October 25, 2004 - Sharp Corp. and IBM Japan Ltd. are teaming up to create a 1MB smart card that will be equipped with IBM's Java Card Open Platform (JCOP) operating system, according to Asia Pulse Pte Ltd. The firms aim to begin shipping samples around January.

10/18/2004  October 18, 2004 - Three chipmakers have signed deals in the past week that will expand the scope of their operations in Mainland China.

10/18/2004  October 18, 2004 - Fairchild Semiconductor has made a five-year foundry agreement with Jilin Sino-Microelectronics (JSMC) to manufacture selected Fairchild MOSFET and bipolar power products. JSMC will utilize its recently completed wafer fab in Jilin City, Jilin Province in China.

10/13/2004  October 13, 2004 - Freescale Semiconductor Inc. and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) have signed an agreement to jointly develop a new generation of silicon-on-insulator (SOI) high-performance transistor front-end technology targeted for the 65nm advanced CMOS process node. The three-year agreement also provides TSMC with manufacturing rights to Freescale's 90nm SOI technology.

10/12/2004  October 12, 2004 - European research consortium IMEC, Leuven, Belgium, has added a roster of equipment makers to its sub-45nm CMOS research platform.

10/08/2004 

10/05/2004  October 5, 2004 - MEMC Electronic Materials Inc. has announced it will again co-sponsor the Understanding Silicon Materials Technical Workshop with Solid State Technology magazine on Oct. 19 in Boston, MA, which will detail the latest developments and advances in silicon wafers to all levels of semiconductor fab engineers and management.

10/05/2004  This past July, the chief executive of ZettaCore met with a colleague to give away his job. It’s not that he was unhappy with his job. In fact, he’ll be staying on. Today this transition was made official: Subodh Toprani has replaced ZettaCore’s Randy Levine as CEO, effective Sept. 15.

10/01/2004  A high-speed micro- processor-based controller developed by Laboratory Control Systems claims to provide a pressure and airflow control and response mechanism for contamination control in cleanrooms and other critical environments.

10/01/2004  The financial reports for the major assembly and test subcontractors were quite positive in the first quarter of 2004, but those numbers don't tell the whole story.

09/22/2004  September 22, 2004 - Akrion has announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Goldfinger Technologies LLC, has received an order for five Goldfinger Mach2HP single wafer systems. The Mach2HP cleaners will ship to a DRAM manufacturer in Asia for its most advanced (<130nm) 300mm copper process manufacturing line.