11/01/2004  A wireless sensor-on-a-plate is giving photomask makers a view inside the manufacturing process, letting them solve critical dimension challenges without work disruption or the need for manual modifications.

10/29/2004  October 29, 2004 - DuPont Photomasks Inc. said it is installing at its advanced photomask production facility in Round Rock, TX, a leading-edge photomask production line to support semiconductor devices at volume production with 90nm design rules and prototype devices with 65nm design rules. The total investment represents more than $30 million.

10/27/2004  Chicago-based NanoInk, Inc. has announced its exclusive license of a family of patents from the University of Illinois. The family is entitled "Nanoscale Chemical Surface Patterning Dip Pens," according to a recent release. The family of patents adds to NanoInk's patent portfolio, which already includes over 100 filings.

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.

10/15/2004  (October 15, 2004) Willow Grove, Pa.—Kulicke & Soffa Industries will hold a grand opening event on October 15, 2004 at its new state-of-the-art probe card manufacturing facility located in Hsin Chu, Taiwan.

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.

10/07/2004  October 7, 2004 - KLA-Tencor Corp., San Jose, CA, and Belgium-based research center IMEC have begun a joint development project to accelerate adoption of optical critical-dimension (CD) metrology technology for sub-65nm semiconductor applications.

10/01/2004  Intel Corp.'s (www.intel.com) recent breakthrough achievement of fully functional 70-Mbit static random access memory (SRAM) chips on a 65-nanometer (nm) manufacturing process makes the contamination control playing surface smaller and more critical than ever.

09/30/2004  September 30, 2004 - JMAR Technologies Inc.'s systems division has received an additional $2.1 million in funding from the US government Naval Air Warfare Center to procure sub-100nm feature x-ray masks for next-generation lithography, and to produce Zone Plate optics for x-ray microscopes and x-ray nanoprobes.

09/30/2004  September 30, 2004 - The Interuniversities Microelectronics Center (IMEC) has launched a new program to find ways nanotechnology can replace and/or extend the life of advanced CMOS manufacturing technologies.

09/29/2004  September 29, 2004 - ASML and Nikon have finalized details of their patent settlement, announced in early September, regarding lithography equipment.

09/15/2004  September 14, 2004 - A new joint development program between Synopsys Inc., Mountain View, CA, and Photronics Inc., Brookfield, CT, aims to tighten the links between design software and the production of advanced photomasks for 65nm and below processes.

09/15/2004  September 14, 2004 - Synopsys Inc., Mountain View, CA, and Photronics Inc., Brookfield, CT, are forming a joint program to improve design-for-manufacturing (DFM) and mask synthesis for advanced photomasks.

09/15/2004  September 15, 2004 - ASML MaskTools, Santa Clara, CA, and Micron Technology Inc., Boise, ID, have signed a multiyear deal to develop applications for resolution-enhancement techniques.

09/09/2004  September 9, 2004 - DARPA has awarded Lucent Technologies a $9.5 million contract to develop an advanced microsystem that will make the design, engineering, and fabrication of next-generation advanced silicon ICs faster, more economical, and with increased security for military apps such as homeland security.

09/08/2004 

09/02/2004  September 2, 2004 - 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 systems.

09/01/2004  The National Science Foundation has awarded University of Oregon $402,000 for a new electron beam lithography and nanoimprint lithography systems. UO is contributing $172,000 of the $574,000 price tag for the new equipment. UO Professors Mark Lonergan and Jim Hutchison were among the co-principal investigators listed on the grant application.

08/31/2004  August 31, 2004 - EV Group (EVG), a supplier of wafer-bonding and lithography equipment, has opened a second customer-support center in Japan with a significant increase in engineering staff to better serve its growing customer base in that country.

08/30/2004  August 30, 2004 - Researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology and Naval Research Laboratory have improved upon a method to directly write nanometer-scale patterns onto various surfaces.