09/15/2007  September 14, 2007 - Dutch firm Mapper Lithography says it has achieved "massively parallel electron beam writing" with its newest maskless litho technology, demonstrating 45nm dense patterns in resist.

09/12/2007  September 12, 2007 - ASML says a Taiwanese customer achieved a record throughput using the company's TwinScan XT:400F i-Line scanners -- 150 wafers/hr for 24 hrs, producing nearly 3600 wafers in a single day earlier this spring.

09/12/2007  Holographix LLC has opened twho new laboratories and thereby has expanded its micro- and nano-replication production capacity by 50%. The company produces cost-effective tools for use in imprint lithography and other micro- and nano-molding processes.

09/11/2007  Silicon wafer edges induce inherent non-uniformities in processing, and also seem to be the main source of defects for immersion lithography. Cleaning/stripping the wafer edge (or "bevel") is thus essential for production yield. Here follows a tale of two companies, two machines, and two different ways to solve the edge problem by dry stripping.

09/11/2007  September 11, 2007 - X-Fab Silicon Foundries says it has enhanced two of its 0.35-micron chip processes to widen offerings for chip designers working on analog/mixed-signal and smart-power applications. X-Fab says the upgrades amount to the first fully modular 0.35-micron foundry process, encompassing digital, analog, lower on-resistance, high-voltage, and embedded non-volatile memory features.

09/11/2007  September 11, 2007 - Aviza Technology Inc. and Mosel Vitelic Corp. have signed a pact to jointly develop advanced atomic layer deposition (ALD) materials for next-generation flash applications.

09/10/2007  September 10, 2007 - NIL Technology and Oxford Instruments say they have developed a common etch process that covers all etch steps in nanoimprint lithography production.

09/10/2007  The Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe has begun using its new Electron Beam Lithography system Vistec VB6 to research new application fields for nanotechnology and microsystems technologies.

09/10/2007  September 10, 2007 - Targeting 45nm design, Cadence announced several new design flows that will be part of the 7.1 release of its Encounter digital IC platform in October. Described by the acronym WYDIWYG ("what you design is what you get"), the flows leverage products from the acquisition of Praesagus (CMP Predictor) and ClearShape Technologies (InShape and OutPerform, for physical and electrical variability analysis).

09/01/2007  Regarded as a golden child in the nanotechnology field as recently as a year ago, optical components firm NanoOpto announced on July 23, 2007 that it has sold its assets.

08/22/2007  The Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe independent science and research institute (Germany) began running applications on a Vistec VB6 electron beam lithography system in its Karlsruhe Nano Micro Facility. The system will allow researchers to develop new applications in nanotechnology and microsystems technologies.

08/22/2007  Jacket Micro Devices (JMD) patented a fabrication method for 3D, all-organic interconnect structures that uses high- and low-temperature single-sided liquid crystal polymer (LCP) structures. The technique is based on JMD's multi-layer organic (MLO) packaging portfolio.

08/21/2007  Among the literally hundreds of presentations lined up for this week's American Chemical Society fall national meeting (Boston, MA, Aug. 19-23) are talks about chemical advancements in nearly every field imaginable, from medicine to petroleum and agriculture, and materials science. Here's a quick rundown of several papers of interest to the semiconductor industry, including research into nanoimprint lithography, porous low-k dielectrics, and photovoltaic cells.

08/21/2007  August 21, 2007 - Execs from Cadence Design Systems and Clear Shape Technologies talked about their proposed M&A deal with WaferNEWS and Microlithography World, hinting that integration will soon go deeper than just an interface, and what other applications besides litho are in the pipeline.

08/16/2007  August 16, 2007 - Just weeks after acquiring lithography modeling and pattern-synthesis developer Invarium, Cadence Design Systems is making another splash across the DFM and litho marketspace with its purchase of Clear Shape Technologies. Terms of the deal, which closed Aug. 15, were not disclosed.

08/13/2007  By John Borland, contributing editor, Solid State Technology

The VLSI Symposium meeting this year (June 12–14, Kyoto, Japan) revealed there will be not one, but many different solutions for the production implementation of hafnium-based oxides at the 45nm node and beyond, with Hf-based dielectric k values varying from a "medium"-k (8–12) up to a true high k of 22–24. The gate electrode for some companies will remain poly ...

08/13/2007  Verdant Electronics named more than 15 members from packaging, interconnect, PCB, and related industries to its board of advisors, including Happy Holden, Werner Engelmaier, and others. These contributors helped frame the Occam package-first assembly method Verdant introduced, and will bring the process from concept to development, said Joe Fjelstad, president, Verdant.

08/10/2007  PI's (Physik Instrumente) new high-resolution, 3-axis nanopositioning / scanning stage features parallel-kinematics design for fast operation. It is designed for nanomanipulation, imaging, and materials research.

08/08/2007  August 8, 2007 - Nearly a year after putting some of its lithography metrology patents up for auction, Nova Measuring Instruments says it has signed a >$1 million deal with an unnamed "top-10 semiconductor manufacturer" for a license covering use of its technologies for integrated metrology and integrated process control before and during the photolithography manufacturing step.

08/08/2007  FEI Company's latest and most powerful scanning electron microscope series, Nova NanoSEM 30, promises "unprecedented capabilities" for nanotechnology characterization and prototyping.