11/06/2007  STMicroelectronics has laid the first stone at the site of its future chip packaging and test facility in Longgang, Guangdong Province, China, in the presence of senior officials of the Shenzhen Municipal government.

10/29/2007  ; Jordan Valley Semiconductors Inc. has been named to the 2007 Deloitte Technology Fast 50 as one of the fastest-growing technology companies in Israel. A manufacturer of next-generation x-ray based semiconductor metrology, Jordan Valley provides patented x-ray technology to semiconductor fabs worldwide.

10/23/2007  As a number of presenters made clear at last week's ISSM conference (Oct. 15-17, Santa Clara, CA), there is a movement in the industry that favors the ability to utilize small-lot (<25 wafers) manufacturing as a way to provide fab agility and drive down cycle times. Aquest Systems believes its vehicle-free transport technology, FabEX Transporter, can change the way existing or new fabs implement automation, enabling not only small lots but also a possible wafer size transition.

10/22/2007  In an exclusive interview with WaferNEWS, Jeannine Sargent, recently appointed CEO of Oerlikon, discusses the future of solar energy, her company's plans beyond current amorphous/micromorph-tandem silicon thin-film on glass technology, and how to bring photovoltaic (PV) technology to the promised land of "grid parity" -- the point at which the cost to generate electricity is no more than the cost to buy it from the distribution grid.

10/19/2007  ; Intel Capital, Intel's global investment organization, became the sole investor in a US $11 million round of funding into Jordan Valley Semiconductors Ltd in return for a significant stake in the Israeli company. Jordan Valley develops tools for semiconductor metrology based on X-ray technology.

10/16/2007  October 16, 2007 - Intel Capital, the chipmaking giant's global VC arm, has invested $11 million in Jordan Valley Semiconductors to obtain what the companies describe as "a significant stake" in the provider of x-ray-based thin-film metrology tools.

09/18/2007  FOGALE nanotech, developer of dimensional metrology devices, has opened its first North American office in Los Angeles to forge partnerships with North American universities to develop ideas for innovative sensors, and to improve sales service for the company's North American clients. Arnauld Dumont is CEO of the new operation.

09/11/2007  September 11, 2007 - Cadence Design Systems and Stratosphere Solutions are collaborating to increase 45nm semiconductor device yields by targeting manufacturing variability, combining their technologies to offer improved process modeling, analysis, and implementation flows.

09/06/2007  Oerlikon Solar has introduced micromorph tandem technology for conversion efficiencies of 10% and higher, and has named industry veteran Jeannine Sargent to its newly created CEO position.

09/04/2007  The Wyko SP9900 surface-profiling optical metrology tool monitors height, yield, roughness, and other parameters of multilayer organic panels for pin grid array (FC-PGA) and ball grid array (FC-BGA) flip chip packaging. It offers faster measurement, increased sample access, and up to 600 × 600 mm panel measurement within the SP equipment footprint.

08/28/2007  Veeco Instruments has introduced a line of production-scale PV-Series Thermal Deposition Sources, which promise to help copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) thin film solar manufacturers more quickly transition from pilot to full-scale solar-cell production.

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.

08/21/2007  Buildup of chemical residues inside an ion implanter limits the tool's overall utilization efficiency. WaferNEWS talks with Atmel Corp. about the results from its evaluation of a new in situ chemical cleaning technology from ATMI that reduces such deposits and achieves greater predictability for source change-outs.

08/16/2007  August 16, 2007 - Following months of trimmings and reorganizations, Nanometrics Inc. is further shrinking its corporate footprint with the closure of its machine shop and plating facility in Milpitas, CA.

08/13/2007  By Allen Park, KLA-Tencor Corp., Milpitas, CA, United States

EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW A powerful new method can identify systematic defects within a large defect sample, prior to SEM review. By integrating design data with defect data, this method enables accurate binning of randomly distributed structural systematic defects. Instead of relying on inefficient random review sampling to identify defects of interest (DOI), this technique applies a pattern search engine...

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.

08/07/2007  Nanometrics Inc., supplier of advanced metrology equipment to the semiconductor industry, says that Timothy J. Stultz, Ph.D. will join the company as its president and chief executive officer (CEO), succeeding Bruce C. Rhine, who will become chairman of the Board of Directors.

08/06/2007  August 6, 2007 - Nanometrics Inc. has appointed Timothy Stultz, former president/CEO of Imago Scientific Instruments, as its new CEO, taking over for Bruce Rhine who held the spot since March and move to the position of chairman, in a culmination of moves in what the company admits has been a year of "challenges."

07/31/2007  In video interviews at SEMICON West, Dave Gross of AMD pleads AMD's case for collaboration to maximize the effectiveness of R&D dollars. Alain Diebold (U. at Albany) summarizes unresolved metrology issues at 45nm and discusses the future at 32nm. And John Allgair (ISMI assignee from AMD) outlines the group's current plans as it gears up for a larger presence in Albany and expand its metrology program -- look for intentional defect array wafers to be ready for mass production in 2-3 months.