09/04/2007  Cohu Inc. named Jeffrey D. Jones as VP of finance and chief financial officer (CFO), succeeding John H. Allen. Allen will retire in November. Jones previously served with Delta Design, Inc., wholly owned subsidiary of Cohu.

09/01/2007 

09/01/2007  Typically, scientists and researchers are the ones who have been trying to find ways to educate the public about nanotechnology (see “Public views nanotech research on TV,” SmallTimes, July/August 2007, page 4), but now artists are getting into the act.

09/01/2007  Chemist Margaret Blohm and her team at General Electric cheered in February 2003 when GE Plastics sold its first commercial batch of Lexan SLX, which was a major improvement over the plastic material that had been developed 50 years earlier for use on auto body surfaces.

08/31/2007  August 31, 2007 - Algan KK, a spinoff from Japan's Doshisha U. building devices with aluminum gallium nitride (AlGaN) semiconductor materials, reportedly has developed a highly-sensitive and tunable sensor for UV radiation that's twice as reliable as a silicon-based device, with anticipated application in the semiconductor industry

08/31/2007  Micropelt GmbH claims a significant technology advancement in its ultra-small, microchip thermoelectric coolers (TECs). The new MPC-D303 supports a temperature difference (delta T) of more than 60 Kelvin to support laser and photonic sensor applications.

08/28/2007  August 28, 2007 - Edwards (nee BOC Edwards) has sold "the majority" of its "Kachina" semiconductor equipment parts cleaning/refurbishment business to Applied Materials for an undisclosed sum, and its stake in another part of the business in Taiwan, in order to focus on "profitable growth" in its core vacuum and abatement areas.

08/28/2007  Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation honored Rohm and Haas Electronic Materials, CMP Technologies with the company's 2007 Excellent Supplier Award, recognizing the efforts of the four Rohm and Haas business units that support SMIC: CMP Technologies, Microelectronic Technologies, Packaging and Finishing Technologies and Ion Exchange Resins.

08/28/2007  GE Inspection Technologies has signed a definitive agreement to acquire phoenix|x-ray, developer of high-resolution computed tomography (CT) / X-ray technology used in non-destructive testing (NDT) applications.

08/27/2007  Discera, Inc., qualified its MEMS-based oscillators with a series of frequency-stability and standard semiconductor qualification and reliability tests, comparing the silicon-based MEMS resonators to quartz for timing devices. Discera tested three separate manufacturing lots to prove process consistency in high-volume production, said Venkat Bahle, VP of marketing, Discera.

08/27/2007  August 27, 2007 - Nanometrics says it has completed the sale of facilities in Narita, Japan, related to the flat-panel display business that it sold in 2005 and "had sat unutilized" ever since. Also sold was a residential condo near the company's headquarters in Milpitas, CA. Together the sales will add about $2 million in cash and both reduce debt and add income of approximately $1.2 million in 3Q07.

08/24/2007  By Per Vicklund, Mentor Graphics

The character of RF design has changed quite dramatically in the past few years. It's quite rare that RF designs are isolated pieces of circuitry, but rather part of a much bigger context. RF designs today typically are much larger and much more complex. They are multi-technology designs consisting of multiple RF modules integrated with high-speed digital, analog, power, and bias networks, all on the same dense circuit board.

08/23/2007  Zyvex Labs' first company spinout, NanoMed Inc., is focused on nanotechnology for life sciences, and will pursue application of nanoparticle technologies for the development of research grade reagents and cutting-edge therapeutics.

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.

08/20/2007  ICI acquired Advanced Applied Adhesives (AAA — San Diego, CA) to expand its electronic materials (EM) group. AAA and sister company Designer Molecules, Inc. (DMI), offer die-attach adhesives for power applications and other packaging materials. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

08/20/2007  DEK introduced a regional-content feature to its website, enabling visitors to view product, process, and company information in local languages and tailored to the production parameters of a region. Users select Asia, Europe, or U.S. content when entering the site.

08/16/2007  August 13, 2007 -- /MARKET WIRE via COMTEX/ -- MANCHESTER, CT -- Lydall, Inc. - Lydall Filtration/Separation, Inc., a worldwide supplier of specialty media for high-efficiency filtration applications, is underway with several capital improvement initiatives.

08/16/2007  Apple Inc.'s iPhone release bumped up the company's influence on semiconductor design in the first half of 2007, analyst firm iSuppli Corp. reports. Its regional design influence tool (RDIT) shows Apple's design activity to have a significant impact on the global electronics supply chain.

08/15/2007  August 15, 2007 - Worldwide sales of semiconductor manufacturing equipment rose 3% in 2Q07 vs. the prior quarter, but that small growth was entirely on the backs of heavy investments in Taiwan and China mainly for memory operations, according to the latest data from SEMI and the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ).

08/14/2007  Chipmakers are turning to collaborations and partnerships to help manage escalating costs, as well as compressed cycle times and margins brought by "consumerization." Part of their strategy involves expanding their use of outsourcing, especially for process development. Speakers at a SEMICON West panel discussed this increased interest in outsourcing, citing the benefits of flexible capacity, better IP management, and assurances that outsourcing is viable even in an industry slowdown.