02/01/2011 

Displaybank reports that LG Chemical secured its number one position in the large-area TFT-LCD polarizer market for the second straight year, followed by Nitto Denko and Sumitomo Chem. For the large-area TFT-LCD polarizer market in 2010, these top 3 suppliers' market share exceeded 80% of the total market.

09/29/2010 

GEO Semiconductor Inc., provider of high-performance, programmable video and geometry pixel processor ICs for LED-backlit LCD displays and smartphone cameras (optics through sensor), raised $2 million in additional funding comprised of venture debt and equity.

09/07/2010 

Elliot Scientific debuted the CRAIC Technologies 308 PV UV-visible-NIR spectrophotometer as an accessory for microscopes and probe stations. It can non-destructively analyse the spectra of samples by absorbance, reflectance, luminescence and fluorescence.

08/12/2010 

Shipments of large area TFT LCDs climbed to 170 million units, with 9% Q/Q and 31% Y/Y growth rate. The revenues reached $22.9 billion, which was the second-highest quarter on record.

07/27/2010 

Stanford University placed an order for two Plasma-Therm deposition systems: a VERSALINE HDPCVD system and a Shuttlelock PECVD system. The tools will be installed at Stanford’s Nanofabrication Facility.

07/26/2010 

SEMI has announced that Applied Materials, Inc. is the recipient of its 2010 SEMICON West Sustainable Technologies Award in recognition of the Applied iSYS Integrated Subfab System. The Sustainable Technologies Award winner was selected with technical guidance from a panel of technology industry environmental, health and safety experts.

07/02/2010 

There is often a direct relationship between PECVD chambers failing first-pass film checks and the gapping method used to examine the gap between a heater and gas showerhead. Craig Ramsey from CyberOptics Semiconductor describes an automated gap measurement method used in a 300mm fab's thin-film production that uses a wireless gapping device.

06/30/2010 

New TP-S30 thermal interface pads from MH&W International provide 3.0 W/mK of thermal conductivity between hot components and heat sinks at lower costs than competing gap filler materials.

06/11/2010 

Techcet's Michael A. Fury continues his observations from this year's IEEE International Interconnect Technology Conference (IITC) meeting near San Francisco. From Day 1: Themes including variations on 3D and through-silicon vias (TSV), and barrier films for reducing copper electromigration.

04/16/2010 

Organic electronics such as TIPS pentacene show promise for lower costs and improved functionality in applications from handheld displays to sensors to RFID -- but a steep learning curve means collaborative multidisciplinary efforts are essential, explain David Redinger and Karl Manske from 3M.

01/25/2010 

Execs from Novellus Systems describe how the company's new Sola xT ultraviolet thermal processing system addresses high-volume manufacturing of advanced logic devices at 45nm and below -- and how it potentially stacks up in wafer-to-wafer performance vs. competitors' offerings.

01/04/2010 

Hui-Jung Wu, et al., from Novellus discuss process developments and mechanisms of improving electromigration reliability, a growing concern for copper interconnects at advanced technology nodes.

12/11/2009 

According to a recently published report from iRAP, Inc., ET-110 Nanolithography Equipment for IT, Electronics and Photonics – A Technology, Industry and Global Market Analysis, the overall market for wafers and nanofabrication equipment is expected to grow at 11% a year for the next five years, from an estimated $65.8 billion in 2009 to $111 billion in 2014.

12/01/2009 

Applied Materials is making a splash at this year's SEMICON Japan with the release of three new tools: a dual-wafer CMP platform, a system for NiSi contact-layer annealing, and an integrated abatement/pumping system for emissions control.

11/20/2009 

Brewer Science says its high-transparency, highly conductive coatings utilize a photopolymer and an electrically conductive polymer dispersed in a solvent system. These new compositions, says the company, can be applied to a variety of substrates.

10/05/2009 

Semiconductor, flat-panel display, solar manufacturing, and scientific instrumentation industries have driven recent developments in vacuum pumping technology and are likely to continue to do so. Edwards CTO Stephen Ormrod describes the future of vacuum technology and summarizes the design changes that will likely be needed.

09/15/2009 

Oxford Instruments Plasma Technology's Nanofab800 Agile system aims to influence the growth of nanostructures by delivering control of alignment and dimensions.

09/15/2009 

Researchers from Taiwan's ITRI, Winbond Electronics, and TPO Displays discuss case scenarios and follow-up procedures for mitigating airborne molecular contaminants (AMC) -- and improving yields -- in semiconductor and TFT-LCD manufacturing environments.

07/07/2009  This technical brief describes the use of commercially available alternative heat transfer fluids as the basis to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from microelectronic manufacturing facilities that use perfluorocarbons (PFCs) and perfluoropolyethers (PFPEs) by 58% to over 99%.

04/07/2009  A mystery customer that made waves a year ago with a $1.9 billion order for Applied Materials SunFab thin-film tandem junction solar PV line has apparently changed its mind -- and the company is drastically rewriting its near-term expectations for its solar business.