04/08/2009  APRIL 8, 2009

04/07/2009  Mike Fury of Techcet Group explains how the "industry darling" CMP consumables sector has evolved with a stable supplier base and growth rates aligned to other materials supply chains -- and how this helps fabs and suppliers focus on the business of optimizing process performance and cost.

04/03/2009  April 3, 2009: MIT researchers have genetically engineered viruses to build both the positively and negatively charged ends of a lithium-ion battery, with comparable energy capacity/power as batteries in hybrid cars, and could also be used for personal electronic devices.

03/27/2009  March 27, 2009: A new research discovery at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute could lead to tougher, more durable composite frames for aircraft, watercraft, and automobiles.

03/25/2009  Eager equipment suppliers have found it difficult to shift the photovoltaics manufacturing paradigm from machine-by-machine crystalline silicon to lower-cost thin-film turnkey lines. Their philosophy hasn't failed, but lessons are being learned about adapting to PV manufacturing's driving forces of cost, price, efficiency, and customization.

03/23/2009  March 23, 2009: Researchers are describing a long-awaited advance toward applying the marvels of nanotechnology in the battle against cancer -- the first hollow gold nanospheres that search out and "cook" cancer cells.

03/16/2009  Honeywell Pb-free Die Attach Solder is a lead-free thermal interface material that is said to effectively manage heat produced by semiconductor chips to improve chip reliability. It is designed to dissipate the heat by filling the gap between the semiconductor and heat spreader.

03/13/2009  March 13, 2009: Arkema Inc. has chosen Hubron Speciality Ltd. to distribute its multiwall carbon nanotubes in the UK.

03/11/2009  Global shipments of polysilicon surged 41% from the start of 2008 to year's end, thanks to new capacity coming online -- and even the late-year meltdown across the semiconductor industry and beyond didn't curtail growth, according to data from SEMI.

03/11/2009  March 11, 2009: New research from Rice University and the University of Oulu in Oulu, Finland, finds that carbon nanotubes could significantly improve the performance of electrical commutators that are common in electric motors and generators.

03/10/2009  March 9, 2009: AECOM Environment and the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) are collaborating on a new Sustainable Nanotechnology Initiative (SNI) with the goal to begin to understand the environmental risks associated with engineered nanomaterials.

03/04/2009  Intel has handed out its annual Preferred Quality Supplier (PQS) and Supplier Continuous Quality Improvement (SCQI) awards to more than three dozen of its key suppliers from its roster of thousands of supply-chain partners, ranging from capital equipment manufacturers to materials, components, and service providers.

03/03/2009  By Hans Hirsher, Ph.D. and Hans Auer, Oerlikon Systems The demand for thin and ultrathin semiconductor devices grows continuously. Discrete and bipolar IC's as well as devices for stacking or thin packages require thinner and thinner wafers. The challenge is to find a reliable processing method.

03/01/2009  Mark Melliar-Smith, CEO of Molecular Imprints, discusses the company's work to develop a 1X mask infrastructure.

03/01/2009  A quality-systems-based approach to drug manufacturing ensures compliance with cGMPs.

02/25/2009  Tim Farrell, distinguished engineer at IBM's semiconductor R&D center, provides an update on efforts to implement comprehensive computational scaling computational scaling to 22nm, and discusses the possibilities at 16nm.

02/21/2009  February 20, 2009: The US Environmental Protection Agency will, beginning in March, enforce a requirement that companies file premanufacture notices if they manufacture or import carbon nanotubes.

02/18/2009  University research consortium Semiconductor Research Corp. has brought onboard European nanoelectronics R&D consortium IMEC to join work in creating "environmentally friendly" processes and materials for advanced semiconductor manufacturing.

02/18/2009  Scanning headlines from Japan this week: the Mirai project's blazing SRAM simulations, Toshiba and Fujitsu's HDD handoff, Renesas' rebellious union, and what might be the next fullerene.

02/13/2009  February 13, 2009: NanoInk has introduced its next-generation Dip Pen Nanolithography system for desktop nanofabrication, the DPN 5000, which it says offers versatile nanopatterning capabilities and AFM imaging to characterize deposited patterns.