06/30/2008  (June 30, 2008) It was a month for names in the news as acquisitions and evolving business strategies inspired executive appointments and reorganization; industry organizations added members and directors, and books got published. Company announcements came in from JP Sercel Associates, TRUMPF, Dage Precision Industries, ECD, Jordan Valley, Rogers Corp., Formfactor, Unisem Group, Mentor Graphics, and Alchimer.

06/27/2008  June 27, 2008 -- François Blateyron, R&D director at Digital Surf, received a 2008 Normalisation Trophy 2008 from the UNM, the French union for normalisation in the domain of mechanical engineering, for his work on surface metrology on French and ISO standards committees.

06/17/2008  The WS 3840, Rudolph Technologies' latest addition to the Wafer Scanner product family for inspection and metrology, integrates the company's laser triangulation technology for 3D bump metrology and sensitive 2D image-based macro defect inspection on the same wafer handler platform that is used by all of its advanced inspection and metrology tools. Laser triangulation reportedly allows for fast and accurate measurement of bump height and coplanarity.

06/17/2008  June 17, 2008 -- Seashell Technology, a nanotechnology development company, has successfully scaled manufacturing processes for silver nanorod and nanowire production to kilogram scale quantities.

06/16/2008  June 16, 2008 -- The University of Waterloo, in Ontario, Canada, has broken ground on the $160-million Mike and Ophelia Lazaridis Quantum-Nano Centre designed to propel the university and the country to the forefront of the nanotechnology research.

06/13/2008  by Ed Korczynski, Senior Technical Editor, Solid State Technology
The next 10 years will witness more changes in mainstream IC manufacturing technology than in the last 40 years combined. With rapidly escalating costs projected for ≤32nm-node digital CMOS manufacturing, IC companies are turning to analog, packaging, and heterogeneous integration to add greater value for lower cost and risk. In short: unique process integration challenges at each fab will drive everything.

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.

05/08/2008  May 8, 2008 -- Agilent Technologies has released its Multi-wavelength Laser Combiner for microscopy applications in micro and nano R&D -- a modular unit that gives new fluorescence microscopy options to OEMs and end users.

05/06/2008  May 6, 2008 -- Aerotech calls its SolarScribe automation series the most comprehensive photovoltaic (PV) panel scribing system available.

05/02/2008  May 2, 2008 -- Piezosystem jena announces two developments intended to serve those needing nano-scale precision: The company has expanded its TRITOR line of field-tested nanopositioning tools, and has become the exclusive U.S. distributor for SIOS, the German manufacturer of nanoprecision measurement systems.

04/16/2008  Jordan Valley Semiconductors LTD, a provider of semiconductor metrology solutions, has acquired the business of Bede, effective Monday April 14th. Bede is a supplier of high-resolution XRD (HRXRD) metrology for the semiconductor and compound industries with revenues of $11.6M in 2007. Bede entered into the UK's Administration phase, their equivalent of Chapter 11, on March 31.

04/08/2008  by Tom Cheyney, Senior Contributing Editor, Small Times
Electron-beam direct write, nanoimprint lithography (NIL), and other potentially disruptive semiconductor nanopatterning technologies drew strong attendance and elicited spirited discussion during the SPIE Advanced Lithography conference, as Small Times' Tom Cheyney reports.

03/20/2008  by Ed Korczynski, Senior Technical Editor, Solid State Technology
In controlling the manufacturing processes used for advanced nanoscale IC, the aspects of metrology once ignored as "just noise" are now essential signals that must be controlled. Where to draw the line, and just how close is "close," are some of the challenges in ensuring that data streams become productive information for fabs, as discussed in sessions and interviews around this year's SPIE.

03/12/2008  by M. David Levenson, Editor-in-Chief, Microlithography World
Avoiding unprintable structures will be essential for manufacturing 45nm and smaller circuits, and that was reflected in a series of papers on design for manufacturing and design rule restrictions, some of them quite aggressive. (Fourth in a four-part series)

02/29/2008  Feb. 29, 2008 - Zygo says it has acquired the assets of Solvision, a Canadian provider of visual inspection equipment, for an undisclosed amount.

02/26/2008  Rudolph Technologies Inc. has become the first semiconductor equipment supplier company to join Sematech's Metrology Program headquartered at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) of the University at Albany in New York.

02/26/2008  by Bob Haavind, Editorial Director, Solid State Technology
Feb. 26, 2008 - Plenary talks at this week's SPIE Advanced Lithography Conference reviewed the road ahead for lithography, from how far 193nm immersion can be pushed (probably 32nm, helped double patterning, new lens materials/fluids, and 3D) to the projected readiness of an EUV infrastructure (maybe by 2010-2012), and the progress and stalls in ongoing work to achieve success in both areas.

02/26/2008  Feb. 26, 2008 - In the span of a week, UK-based Bede, a provider of X-ray metrology tools, said that it had finally received an offer from a suitor after being first approached last summer, but that the offer was below current market value, and now the deal's off.

02/26/2008  by James Montgomery, News Editor, Solid State Technology
Feb. 26, 2008 - The proposed combination of KLA-Tencor and ICOS Vision Systems makes sense for both sides, both financially and in market positioning, though as always some questions need to be answered about just how smooth any such M&A will be.

02/26/2008  Feb. 26, 2008 - Carl Zeiss and SEMATECH say they have completed final design for a next-generation photomask registration and overlay metrology system, dubbed "Prove," that will enable production of advanced photomasks "with substantially improved image placement accuracy," eyeing in particular the tighter placement control required for double-patterning technology.