06/11/2008  by Françoise von Trapp, managing editor, Advanced Packaging
June 11, 2008 -- Replisaurus has maintained a low profile since announcing their first round of funding in August 2006, but there's been a lot going on for the start-up company. With last week's announcement of the company's acquisition of Smart Equipment Technologies (SET), the company is ready show the world what it's been up to.

06/10/2008  Just because Replisaurus, Inc. has maintained a low profile since announcing their first round of funding in August 2006, it doesn't mean there hasn't been a lot going on for the start-up company. In fact, just the opposite is true. With last week's announcement of the company's acquisition of Smart Equipment Technologies (SET), the company is ready show the world what it's been up to.

06/09/2008  by James Montgomery, News Editor, Solid State Technology
June 8, 2008 - Applied Materials has made a verbal unsolicited $400M-$500M offer to buy ASMI's atomic layer deposition (ALD) and plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) businesses. Gartner research VP Dean Freeman helps WaferNEWS brainstorm the most likely reasons behind AMAT's offer (and some unlikely-yet-interesting-but-good-luck-proving-it possibilities), and what it means for ASMI.

06/05/2008  by M. David Levenson, Editor-in-Chief, Microlithography World
June 5, 2008 - Overlay specifications have narrowed dramatically as the semiconductor industry advances toward the 32nm node, requiring control of high-order grid and field distortions, as noted by the ITRS. Seeking to meet these new requirements is KLA-Tencor's new Archer 200, the latest version of the company's imaging overlay measurement tool.

06/05/2008  by Debra Vogler, Senior Technical Editor, Solid State Technology
June 5, 2008 - With almost all major R&D lithography efforts reporting at SEMATECH's Litho Forum (May 12-14, Bolton Landing, NY), the common theme resonating throughout a debrief with forum co-chair Mike Lercel and program chair Bernie Roman was one of great progress made on many fronts, with a growing interest in maskless/e-beam lithography.

06/05/2008  Replisaurus Technologies, Inc., pioneer in nanoscale electrodeposition of metal patterns, has acquired S.E.T. SAS to establish a production site for its integrated and fully automated high-volume manufacturing tools for its proprietary ElectroChemical Pattern Replication (ECPR) technology.

05/29/2008  May 29, 2008 - Fundamentals in the memory industry are stable and "incrementally improving," with DRAM prices rising again and NAND flash demand seen improving in general, according to analyst firm FBR Research. The next big market indicator is rapidly approaching, in the late-June timeframe with an update of devicemakers' back-to-school build rate schedules.

05/29/2008  May 29, 2008 - Intel and Micron's announcement that they have developed a 34nm NAND flash device could give the companies a better cost/profit profile vs. competitors, and/or help stretch an already painful oversupply situation well into the next year, according to a report from Objective Analysis. Meanwhile, Gartner notes that the two need to make some related capacity decisions soon if they want to leverage their short-lived technology lead on the competition.

05/29/2008  May 29, 2008 -- A study published last week by Nature Nanotechnology tells of research findings that long carbon nanotubes injected into mice can behave like asbestos fibers, forming lesions that may lead to cancer. Small Times' Barbara Goode visited with Nanocomp Technologies, known for producing long, highly pure carbon nanotubes, to get a producer's take on the story.

05/28/2008  May 28, 2008 - Qcept Technologies and European R&D organization CEA-Leti have inked a deal to investigate techniques for characterizing leading-edge semiconductor materials and processes, including high-/low-k dielectrics, atomic layer deposition (ALD), fully silicided (FUSI) metal gates, and advanced cleaning technologies.

05/23/2008  by Katherine Derbyshire, contributing editor, Solid State Technology
May 23, 2008 - Controlling the interface between the metal gate and the hafnium-based dielectric has been one of the most difficult issues for high-k integration schemes. ASM now says it has ALD processes for both LaOx and AlOx, and that its Polygon platform and Pulsar process modules offer a reliable platform for sequential deposition of dielectric and cap layers in a gate-first process.

05/22/2008  by James Montgomery, News Editor, Solid State Technology
May 22, 2008 - A new report published in the journal Nature Nanotechnologies is raising alarms about apparent health risks associated with carbon nanotubes (CNT), similar to those seen with asbestos. But efforts are already underway to look more closely at potential issues, according to Walt Trybula, former SEMATECH immersion lithography guru and now at Texas State U., in an email exchange with WaferNEWS.

05/22/2008  by Pete Singer, Editor-in-Chief, Solid State Technology
May 22, 2008 - For a 450mm wafer-size transition to happen, suppliers need to be convinced that their initial investments will translate into sales and won't eat into their 300mm business. But speaking at the Confab, SEMI standards VP John Ellis indicated that suppliers still think there's no benefit to them -- and he presented new data showing that the cost modeling is flawed, and that investments are better used elsewhere.

05/21/2008  by Ed Korczynski, senior technical editor, Solid State Technology
May 21, 2008 - While manufacturing of 3D ICs is today limited mostly to memory chip stacks and cell-phone camera modules, the next huge application seems to be the embedded memory in microprocessors. Subramanian Iyer, distinguished engineer and chief technologist of IBM's systems and technology group, explained the economic considerations behind 3D microprocessors at the ConFab in Las Vegas.

05/21/2008  by Bob Haavind, Editorial Director, Solid State Technology
May 21, 2008 - The future of lithography from the viewpoint of a major foundry was presented at ConFab by Chartered Semiconductor 's K.K. Lin. Concurrent advances across a trilogy of disciplines (physical and computational lithography, including OPC/RET, and DFM) will be required to keep scaling alive, he said, and litho tool contenders face some significant challenges -- but with key advantages too.

05/21/2008  by Bob Haavind, Editorial Director, Solid State Technology
May 21, 2008 - There's a tough road ahead for lithography, with double patterning and complex computation as well as requirements for more litho-friendly design, explained ASML's Martin van den Brink, EVP of marketing & technology, speaking at the Next Generation Lithography session at The ConFab.

05/21/2008  by Debra Vogler, Senior Technical Editor, Solid State Technology
Having essentially crossed EUV off its 22nm plans, Intel is looking forward to getting it ready for the 16nm node -- but also is wary of addressing mask infrastructure needs as well, notes Janice Golda, the chipmaker's director of litho capital equipment development, in her presentation at the Confab.

05/21/2008  by Debra Vogler, senior technical editor, Solid State Technology
May 21, 2008 - This year's SPIE Advanced Lithography Conference saw glimmers of hope that EUV might be ready in time for 22nm hp. Speaking at the ConFab event, Kazuo Ushida, president of Nikon Precision Equipment Co., agreed that EUV was still the most promising solution for 22nm, and the only one that would keep the industry on track to meet cost/bit reductions needed to stay within historical guidelines.

05/19/2008  May 19, 2008 - ASM International's US subsidiary, ASM America, says it has a new atomic layer deposition (ALD) process targeting 32nm-node chip manufacturing with lanthanum oxide (LaOx) and aluminum oxide (AlOx) high-k cap layers that enable high-k metal gate stacks using a single metal, instead of two different metals required previously for CMOS.

05/13/2008  by James Montgomery, News Editor, Solid State Technology
May 13, 2008 - Some big chipmakers are eager to transition to 450mm wafers because of cost savings, but resistant semiconductor equipment/materials suppliers are still smarting from their 300mm investment burden and lower-than-hoped returns. After a lot of saber-rattling on both sides, a toned-down PR from Intel/Samsung/TSMC might be the first step for both sides to finally move forward with 450mm development.