World News
11/01/2004
WORLDWIDE HIGHLIGHTS
Infineon Technologies AG has agreed to plead guilty to charges of DRAM memory-chip price fixing brought by the US Department of Justice, and will pay a $160 million fine, one of the biggest antitrust fines ever levied in the US. Under the settlement, Infineon will plead guilty to a felony count of price fixing and cooperate with the DOJ's investigation of other DRAM manufacturers in connection with an alleged price-fixing conspiracy between July 1999 and June 2002. The amount of the fine will be covered by the company's 3Q profits, paid in equal installments through 2009; Infineon said it is working out settlements with OEM customers as well.
ASML Holding NV, Veldhoven, The Netherlands, and Tokyo-based Nikon Corp. have mutually agreed to suspend legal proceedings in the US and Asia concerning disputed IP for lithography processes, ending their patent litigation begun in 2001. The settlement involves an undisclosed payment from ASML to Nikon and a cross-license agreement. A binding memorandum of understanding is expected in the coming weeks.
USA
Albany Nanotech, the nanotechnology center located at the U. of Albany/State U. of New York, said that its College for Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CSNE) has installed and begun qualifying for 300mm wafers using a 193nm preproduction immersion lithography system. Researchers and engineers from ASML, IBM, Tokyo Electron, AMD, and Infineon are working jointly at the Albany site to demonstrate and optimize materials and processes for 193nm immersion lithography. The clustered 300mm wafer scanner-track platform includes two components: ASML's TwinScan AT:1150i preproduction scanner, shipped in from the Netherlands, and a TEL Clean Track Lithius coater/developer system. AMD and Infineon will work with IBM and CNSE to use the ASML tool for developing immersion lithography processes and applications.
Lucent Technologies, Murray Hill, NJ, has received a four-year, $9.5 million contract from DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) to develop technology to be used with maskless optical lithography processes. Lucent will work with Corning Tropel Corp., DuPont Photomasks Inc., Lincoln Laboratories, and ASML to develop microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)-based spatial light modulators containing 100–200nm features, and 10–50× more throughput than current maskless lithography processes.
National Semiconductor Corp., Santa Clara, CA, has sold its imaging business to Eastman Kodak Co. for an undisclosed amount. The assets, including equipment, IP, and about 50 employees, will become part of Kodak's Image Sensor Solutions business. As a result of the deal, National Semi will focus on core analog capabilities, while Kodak gains CMOS image-sensor expertise.
ASIAFocus
China
CSMC Technology Corp. has finalized a deal to build an $80 million plant in Wuxi. The facility, to be completed by the end of 2005, will boast two 200mm production lines with total output of 60,000 wafers/month. Wuxi is becoming a hot production hub: it also will be the site of the recently announced $2 billion chipmaking JV between Hynix and STMicroelectronics.
Japan
Hitachi, Matsushita Electric Industrial, and Toshiba plan to establish a ¥110 billion 6G TFT-LCD panel JV by January 2005, with mass production by March 2007. The operation will be built at Hitachi's LCD unit, Hitachi Displays, in Chiba Prefecture. Hitachi will contribute 50% of the JV's overall ¥60–70 billion capitalization, with Matsushita and Toshiba contributing ¥15 billion, and the remainder provided by LCD-panel production-equipment firms.
Korea
Samsung Electronics Co. said it has achieved mass production of 512Mb DDR SDRAM utilizing 90nm process technologies on 300mm wafers. The new device, available at 333–400MHz, is a migration from 0.10µm processes, incorporating ArF light sources, high-dielectric alumina hafnium oxide, and 3D transistor circuitry.
EuroFocus
Research group CEA-Leti, Grenoble, France, and global electronics group Thales have formed a joint lab to work on radio-frequency (RF) MEMS. The four-year project, to be performed by CEA's heterogeneous silicon integration department, aims to develop high-power microwave microswitches and ICs. The work will be funded with support from national and European contracts.
UK-based ARM Holdings has agreed to acquire Artisan Components Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, for approximately $913 million in cash and stock, in an effort to broaden its system-on-a-chip (SoC) business and IP, as well as its sales channel. ARM CEO Warren East will continue as CEO of the combined entity; Artisan chair Lucio Lanza and president/CEO Mark Templeton will become directors.
EV Group, Schärding, Austria, a supplier of wafer-bonding and lithography equipment, said it will reorganize its operations in the US in response to increased business and customer demand. EV Group's US subsidiary will combine its headquarters, technology center, and customer support division at Arizona State U.'s research park in Tempe, AZ, and move its East Coast operations into the Albany Nanotech facility in New York.