04/21/2009  Micronic Laser Systems AB intends to acquire MYDATA automation AB. In the proposed transaction, Micronic would acquire MYDATA from Skanditek Industriförvaltning and the minority shareholders against payment in the form of newly issued shares in Micronic. Combining Micronic and MYDATA will create large potential within the market for electronic packaging using Micronic's and MYDATA's complementary imaging and deposition technologies.

03/31/2009  Budapest, Hungary-based Semilab is staking its claim in the metrology sector with a pair of new acquisitions to broaden its portfolio and cement a foothold in Tier 1 fabs. Chris Moore, president/CEO of Semilab AMS, tells SST how the company has built up a portfolio of technologies to address critical applications. Also on his mind: the need for suppliers to build critical mass, what Tier 1 fabs are receptive to right now, and the state of 450mm tool development.

03/25/2009  March 25, 2009: A spinoff from the Semiconductor Research Corp. (SRC) and Northwestern University has come up with a unique ultrasound holography approach that combines scanning-probe microscopy with ultrasound and holography to provide glimpses into the tiniest of buried structures.

03/09/2009  How much longer can the industry stay on an 'optics forever' path? EUV is gaining momentum and closing the gap, with most infrastructure in place (but one missing piece could be a "showstopper"). This year's SPIE's Advanced Lithography Conference in San Jose, CA, provided a detailed update on this tightening horse race.

02/03/2009 

International SEMATECH Manufacturing Initiative (ISMI), the global consortium of major semiconductor manufacturers, today announced the launch of its new Environment, Safety & Health (ESH) Technology Center in Austin, Texas. The Center will be dedicated to providing green technology solutions that lead to reduced energy consumption, lower costs, and greater productivity in semiconductor manufacturing.

01/12/2009  Rudolph Technologies has uncrated a software package targeting the still-troublesome area of photovoltaic cell efficiency, hoping to bring solar cells closer to grid parity through reduced costs and inefficiencies.

12/24/2008  More challenging overlay requirements are driving a trend to use high-order control knobs for production set-up of scanners. This article explores the overlay requirements that are driving this trend, the challenges involved with implementing in production, and the cost-of-ownership trade-offs between different high-order control strategies.

11/28/2008  November 28, 2008: The George Washington University has announced the establishment of the GW Institute for Nanotechnology.

11/24/2008  November 24, 2008: Carl Zeiss SMT says it has set a new record resolution benchmark for scanning electron and ion microscopy -- a surface resolution of 2.4Å (0.24nm) has repeatedly been achieved (25%-75% edge-rise criterion) on various samples, 3× better than the most sophisticated scanning electron microscopes are able to achieve today with the same surface sensitivity.

11/20/2008  November 20, 2008: Optical packaging specialist Avo Photonics has been selected as the manufacturing facility for Luna Technologies' PHOENIX 1000, a MEMS-based external cavity laser which offers low noise and precise tuning capability over the C-band.

11/05/2008  Tighter registration tolerances for the 45nm node and beyond require a next-generation registration metrology tool with capability to measure EUV masks with diverse substrate materials that might be used in 32nm and 22nm chip production.

10/24/2008  October 23, 2008 Ambios Technology, Inc. introduced its new Q-View White Light Interferometer/SPM system at the 23rd Annual Meeting of the American Society for Precision Engineering in Portland, OR. This new system combines the capability of white light interferometry and SPM technology.

10/03/2008  October 3, 2008: Michelson Diagnostics Ltd. (MDL) says it is broadening the commercial application of its 'multibeam' optical coherence tomography (OCT) technology into markets outside its core target of cancer diagnosis, such as industrial metrology, product inspection, tissue engineering, and developmental biology.

09/24/2008  September 23, 2008: ACAMP, the Alberta Centre for Advanced Microsystems and Nanotechnology (MNT) products has appointed Dr. Kevin Yallup as chief technology officer, to lead the center's product development efforts to build a world-class capability in Alberta for the packaging and assembly of micro- and nano-scale technology devices, turning them into market-ready commercial or industrial products and applications.

09/09/2008  September 8, 2008: Nanometrics Inc., a supplier of advanced process control metrology equipment, has launched a search for a new chief financial officer following the resignation of Gary Schaefer to pursue other interests, effective immediately.

08/21/2008  August 21, 2008: Engineers at Purdue U. have created a tiny motorized positioning device that has twice the dexterity of similar devices being developed for applications that include biological sensors and more compact, powerful computer hard drives. The device, called a monolithic comb drive, could be used as a "nanoscale manipulator" that precisely moves or senses movement and forces.

07/31/2008  Gartner and VLSI Research analysts tell SST what's the driving interest behind KLA-Tencor's proposed acquisition of Vistec Semiconductor Systems' inspection business, and where areas of overlap might be leveraged to take on other sector competitors.

07/22/2008  John O. Borland, organizer of the West Coast Junction Technology Group Meeting (WCJTG) held the final morning of SEMICON West, talks on camera to discuss the group's latest research, and other presenters provide summaries of their talks.

07/15/2008  July 15, 2008 -- Park Systems' new line of fully automated atomic force microscopes (AFMs) is designed to help increase production yields by providing critical angle measurements. The series is being demonstrated this week at Semicon West. "Until now the data storage and semiconductor industries have had a very limited choice of industrial-grade in-line inspection tools," said General Manager Dr. Sung Park.

07/08/2008  By Darren James, Rudolph Technologies, Inc.
With the cost of some advanced packages reaching several times the cost of the die they contain, the value contributed by functional testing, which allows manufacturers to avoid the cost of packaging defective die, has grown dramatically. Of course, testing has its own costs in both money and time.