07/11/2012 

ASM International (ASMI) launched advanced deposition systems for epitaxy, PEALD and PECVD. The 2 tools enable high-volume 300mm wafer processing for 20nm and smaller nodes and 3D transistors.

07/11/2012 

Michael A. Fury, Ph.D., reports on the opening day of SEMICON West (July 10), covering exaflop computing, FDSOI, TSV and other integration schemes, and silicon photonics with CEA-Leti.

07/10/2012 

Luc Van den hove, president and CEO, imec, spoke with Solid State Technology, covering imec’s major announcements and research presentations to take place during SEMICON West 2012.

07/10/2012 

ATMI introduced BrightPak, its next-generation liquid containment and delivery system for high-value liquid material transfers during advanced photolithography processes in semiconductor, FPD, and LED manufacturing.

07/10/2012 

Semiconductor equipment sales will reach $42.4 billion in 2012, according to the mid-year edition of the SEMI Capital Equipment Forecast, released at SEMICON West 2012.

07/10/2012 

Michael A. Fury, Ph.D., reports from the pre-opening day (July 9) of SEMICON West at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA. The first day hosts SEMI’s press conference on semiconductor revenues and the SEMI/Gartner Market Symposium.

07/10/2012 

SMART Storage Systems, solid-state drive (SSD) technology developer, will open an R&D facility in Longmont, CO, to support hardware and software innovation for SSD products and company growth.

07/10/2012 

ULIS invested EUR20 million in a new state-of-the-art facility to meet increasing market demands for IR technology, with a move to 200mm wafers and pixel/wafer-level packaging techniques.

07/10/2012 

ASML established a program to enable its largest customers to make minority equity investments in the semiconductor manufacturing tool maker. The program includes commitments to fund ASML's R&D spending, accelerating development of EUVL and 450mm technology for 2015-2020 timeframe.

07/10/2012 

SEMI’s annual Board of Directors election results are in, with new directors Jifan Gao, Trina Solar; Nobu Koshiba, JSR Corp.; Sue Lin, Hermes-Epitek; and Natsunosuke Yago, Ebara Corp., joining.

07/09/2012 

imec will build a 450mm wafer fab cleanroom at the research organization’s site in Belgium, with a new EUR100 million Belgian investment. We caught up with Luc Van den hove of imec to discuss the implications for semiconductor manufacturing at 450mm, how to build a 450mm-capable cleanroom, and more.

07/09/2012 

USHIO Inc. is introducing the large-field stepper lithography tool

07/09/2012 

Gigaphoton Inc. will uncrate “s” series hardware and software products in Q3 2012, enhancing lithography exposure performance and reducing operating costs and downtime of the GT6xA ArF excimer laser series for multi-pattern immersion lithography scanners.

07/09/2012 

Ushio launched its thinnest UV irradiance meter 'UIT-q365." The meter is 4.9mm thick, used to keep major UV processes within spec. It can be used during optical film manufacturing for flexible electronics, as well as during adhesion of precision optical parts.

07/08/2012 

Following are some of the new and flagship products that will appear this week at SEMICON West, July 10-12 in the Moscone Center of San Francisco, CA.

07/07/2012 

With Micron Technology Inc. (Nasdaq:MU) acquiring bankrupt DRAM maker Elpida Memory Inc.’s assets for 200 billion Yen (approximately US$2.5 billion), several analysts are looking at the move and how it affects the DRAM manufacturing landscape, as well as the Flash memory sector.

07/06/2012 

We at Solid State Technology have compiled the best conference reports so far this year, in the lead up to SEMICON West 2012, next week in San Francisco.

07/06/2012 

Vantage Technology formally qualified its SlurryScope System for analysis of undiluted slurry used during CMP at major IC production fabs.

07/06/2012 

Semiconductor maker Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE: 6723) will reorganize, in “urgent need of business recovery,” reforming semiconductor fabs in Japan and “streamlining employees.”

07/05/2012 

Semico Research has just updated its 2012 semiconductor industry forecast. Semico’s semiconductor growth forecast has stayed between 8 and 10% over about a year. The latest update holds Semico’s forecast at the bottom of that range: 8.6%.