07/14/2004  July 14, 2004 - Intel Corp. boosted sales and earnings in 2Q04 in line with estimates, but indicated no changes in its plans for second-half capital spending, and quietly hinted at a slightly cloudy outlook later this year.

07/14/2004  July 14, 2004 - Mattson Technology Inc. has won multiproduct system orders from Hynix Semiconductor Inc. for the production of DRAM devices in its new T1 300mm wafer fabrication plant in Ichon, South Korea.

07/13/2004  July 13, 2004 - IMEC has launched a new three-pronged research program on embedded RAM concepts for second and higher levels of onchip cache memory for the 45nm node and below.

07/05/2004  July 5, 2004 - Micron Technology Inc., Boise, ID, said it plans to move into NAND flash memory in order to become a top-three supplier of the technology.

07/01/2004  July 1, 2004 - Inotera Memories Inc., the 50-50 venture between Infineon Technologies and Nanya Technology Corp., has inaugurated its $2.2 billion 300mm DRAM production facility in HwaYa Technology Park in Taoyuan, Taiwan, 18 months after the JV was set up.

06/22/2004  June 22, 2004 - Cypress Semiconductor Corp., San Jose, CA, has agreed to acquire FillFactory NV, a Belgium-based developer of active-pixel CMOS image sensor technology, for $100 million in cash.

06/17/2004  June 17, 2004 - Renesas Technology Corp., the chipmaking JV between Hitachi and Mitsubishi Electric, said it plans to restructure its frontend manufacturing business, resulting in the closure of Renesas Semiconductor Europe, the company's frontend facility in Alsdorf, Germany, by the end of this year.

06/16/2004  June 16, 2004 - Memory firm Elpida Memory Inc. and the Japanese business of Micron Technology Inc. have petitioned the Japanese government to impose countervailing duties on imports of DRAM chips from Hynix.

06/10/2004  June 10, 2004 - International SEMATECH has released its top technical challenges for 2005, choosing to emphasize R&D on advanced gate stacks, 193nm immersion and EUV lithography, low-k dielectrics, and 3D interconnects.

06/09/2004  June 9, 2004 -- Elpida Memory Inc. plans to invest up to 500 billion yen over three years to construct what would be the world's largest DRAM facility.

06/08/2004  Cavendish Kinetics, a Holland-based semiconductor company working to integrate MEMS devices into standard CMOS processes, announced its Nanomech technology for creating submicron structures for use as computer memories.

06/07/2004  June 7, 2004 - Elpida Memory Inc. has extended the terms and duration of its licenses to SDRAM and DDR DRAM patents from Rambus Inc., Los Altos, CA.

06/07/2004  June 7, 2004 -- Nantero Inc., Woburn, MA, says that it is teaming with LSI Logic Corp., Milpitas, CA, to develop semiconductor process technology, expediting the effective utilization of carbon nanotubes in CMOS fabrication.

06/04/2004  June 4, 2004 - In its mid-quarter update on Thursday, Intel tightened its outlook for 2Q04 revenue to $8.0-$8.2 billion, at the higher end of previous predictions of $7.6-$8.2 billion, due to increasing strength in its flash memory business.

06/03/2004  June 2, 2004 - April proved true to its historical roots as a strong month for the industry, as worldwide chip sales continued to venture into territory not seen in four years, according to the latest data from the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA).

05/26/2004  May 26, 2004 -- STMicroelectronics today announced that ST, CEA-Leti, and AIXTRON have developed an advanced process technology for the creation of ultra-thin transistor-gate-insulation layers for low-power applications at the 65nm and 45nm CMOS transistor technology nodes.

05/20/2004  May 19, 2004 -- Harald Eggers, the CEO of Infineon AG's memory products business group, will step down "of his own request" effective June 1, the company said. Thomas Seifert, head of the company's wireline communications business group, will assume the role.

05/14/2004  May 14, 2004 - Scientists from Japan have succeeded in running magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM) with one-hundredth of the amount of current needed for current prototype MRAMS, seen as a key step toward commercializing the technology.

05/12/2004  May 11, 2004 - Capital spending in Taiwan's semiconductor and TFT-LCD industries is expected to top $15.02 billion this year, according to the China Economic News Service. Three domestic sectors -- IC foundries, IC packaging/testing, and large-sized TFT-LCD panels -- are predicted to take the world's no. 1 positions, respectively.

05/12/2004  May 11, 2004 - Royal Philips Electronics has achieved "right-first-time" silicon in its 90nm CMOS production line, both at the Crolles2 wafer fab in France and TSMC's fab in Taiwan. The lead silicon uses an ARM processor core with SRAM, ROM, and analog signal circuitry, designed for wireless applications.