06/11/2012 

Dr. Vivek Bakshi blogs about an upcoming SPIE journal, the Journal of Micro/Nanolithography, MEMS, and MOEMS (JM3), which has a focus on EUV sources.

06/11/2012 

The Full Service Foundry business unit of ams extended its dedicated test solutions for foundry customers, offering known good die (KGD), with customers' complex analog/mixed-signal ICs 100% electrically tested according to their own test specification.

06/11/2012 

In the second installment in a series called Process Watch, the author provides tips on how to make sure you’re reviewing the yield killing defects and not wasting time reviewing nuisance events. Authored by experts at KLA-Tencor, Process Watch articles focus on novel process control solutions for chip manufacturing at the leading edge.

06/11/2012 

STMicroelectronics announced that GLOBALFOUNDRIES has agreed to manufacture devices for ST using ST’s proprietary Fully Depleted Silicon-on-Insulator (FD-SOI) technology in both the 28nm and 20nm nodes.

06/11/2012 

Tohoku University of Sendai, Japan and imec signed a collaboration agreement during the Belgian economic mission to Japan, expanding their R&D into areas such as MRAM and 3D semiconductor packaging.

06/08/2012 

Freescale Semiconductor (FSL) named Gregg A. Lowe president and CEO, replacing Rich Bayer. Lowe joins Freescale from Texas Instruments (TI, TXN), where he was SVP and manager of the Analog business.

06/07/2012 

Semiconductor stockpiles held by chip suppliers increased during Q1 2012, but the rise in inventory for a second straight quarter was driven by the anticipation of higher demand from customers, according to IHS.

06/07/2012 

Day 3 of the 15th IITC (International Interconnect Technology Conference) opened in San Jose, CA under clear sunny skies and a pleasant breeze. The herd thinned a bit, down to ~150 hearty souls from the original 230 the prior two days.

06/06/2012 

Speaking at The ConFab 2012, Sanjay Rajguru, director of ISMI, pointed out that more than half the current fab capacity today comes from facilities that are more than ten years old, which is creating a problem with equipment obsolescence.

06/06/2012 

Tom Jefferson, G450 Consortium, shares an update on 450mm wafers for semiconductor manufacturing. The consortium is adding staff and ramping its silicon supply, and getting ready for equipment selection.

06/06/2012 

Bill Tobey, president of ACT International Consulting, speaks about the evolution of extreme ultra violet (EUV) lithography at The ConFab 2012.

06/06/2012 

Worldwide sales of semiconductors hit $24.1 billion in April 2012, a 3.4% increase from March and the largest month-over-month growth for the industry since May 2010, reports the SIA.

06/06/2012 

Applied Materials introduced the Applied Varian VIISta Trident single-wafer, high-current ion implant system, which embeds dopant atoms on 20nm semiconductor wafers at high yields.

06/06/2012 

With many advanced packaging processes taking place on the semiconductor wafer, the traditional supply chain of front-end fab at the foundry and back-end fab at the packaging and test house is falling apart. The ConFab session,

06/06/2012 

Bill Ross, ISMI, is moderating a session today at The ConFab 2012 on managing legacy semiconductor fabs and dealing with tool and materials obsolescence at 200mm and smaller. He speaks with Pete Singer about coping with these changes.

06/06/2012 

Ali Sebt, CEO of Renesas Electronics America, keynoted Day 2 of Solid State Technology’s The ConFab 2012. Here, he discusses the role of inexpensive sensors and microcontrollers in energy savings, in a video interview.

06/06/2012 

Fab equipment spending has improved in 2012, breaking the barrier into positive growth for the year, shows SEMI. Semiconductor makers will invest $39.5 billion in fabs, up 2% from 2011 spending. Fab capex will hit a record in 2013, $46.3 billion or 17% above 2012.

06/06/2012 

Mike Fury reports on Day 2 of the 15^th IITC (International Interconnect Technology Conference), from San Jose, CA.

06/05/2012 

At The ConFab 2012, fabless companies and foundries have a common goal: reduce power, increase performance and reduce price (not necessarily in that order).

06/05/2012 

Naoya Hayashi, research fellow for electronic device operations at Dai Nippon Printing, speaks with Solid State Technology chief editor Pete Singer during The ConFab 2012. Hayashi presented “NGL Mask Readiness” in The ConFab’s session on technology trends.