01/23/2012 

Intel plans $12.5 billion semiconductor capital expeditures in 2012; Samsung plans $12.2 billion. Watch for wide and growing separation between these two companies and their competition, says IC Insights.

01/23/2012 

Tanaka Kikinzoku Kogyo K.K. developed a ruthenium material able to form a film up to 6x the normal depth for capacitor electrodes used in DRAM, working with Professor Seiji Ogo of Kyushu University.

01/20/2012 

2011 was a big year for M&A in the mobile device semiconductor market, from Intel’s acquisition of Infineon Technologies AG Wireless Solutions, Qualcomm's Atheros buy, to NVIDIA’s purchase of Icera. Despite all the M&A activity, however, the market is still projected to remain relatively flat.

01/20/2012 

USCi will develop next-generation silicon carbide (SiC) devices with AIXTRON SE's VP2400 hot-wall CVD tool. USCi plans to install the CVD system in Q3 2012.

01/20/2012 

KLA-Tencor Corporation launched 3 semiconductor wafer defect inspection systems: the 2900, Puma 9650, and eS800 series. The suite is tailored to detect defects arising from new materials, device structures, and design rules.

01/19/2012 

Samsung Electronics began producing embedded multi-chip package (eMCP) memory for use in entry- to mid-level smartphones. The products use low power double-data-rate 2 (LPDDR2) 30nm DRAM and 20nm NAND flash memory.

01/19/2012 

Expertech's Compact Thermal Reactor was ordered by a US semiconductor foundry to bolster 200mm wafer capacity. The CTR offers processes for atmospheric and LPCVD, including hydrogen and high-temperature wafer processing.

01/19/2012 

Air Liquide Electronics completed a series of expansions at its ALOHA manufacturing sites in the US, France and Japan, doubling its advanced precursor production capacity for semiconductor manufacturing applications.

01/19/2012 

Hine Automation shipped its Star SL-300 single-substrate vacuum transfer system to Annealsys, which will integrate the wafer transfer system onto its MC-200 MOCVD tool for R&D and pilot environments.

01/19/2012 

Researchers at INCDTIM in Romania will use NanoInk's NanoFabrication Systems Division's DPN 5000 system for supramolecular structure fabrication, molecular recognition and self-assembling process applications.

01/18/2012 

Michael A. Fury, Ph.D., Techcet Group, reports from SEMI’s International Semiconductor Strategy meeting, with a closing day focused on innovation and new applications.

01/18/2012 

SEMI presented its annual SEMI Award for North America to QD Vision. QD Vision team members made significant progress on the integration and manufacturing processes essential to the commercialization of quantum dot (QD) technology.

01/18/2012 

36% of semiconductor fabs are in high-risk zones, finds Semico, noting the industry disruptions caused by the Japan earthquake and tsunami and Thai flooding and the challenges these presented to chip makers in the regions. 

01/18/2012 

Day 2 of SEMI’s Industry Strategy Symposium (ISS) 2012 included talks by Mike Splinter of Applied Materials, Mark Thirsk of Linx Consulting, Tim Hendry of Intel, David Lazovsky of Intermolecular, a panel session on could computing run by Harvey Frye of TEL, Handel Jones of IBS and another panel session focused on 450mm, moderated by G. Dan Hutcheson of VLSI Research. Michael A. Fury of Techcet reports.

01/17/2012 

NAND flash memories are scaling below 2Xnm process nodes and bit errors are increasing. Research and Markets sees this as the reason for Apple buying Anobit Technologies and Micron buying Storage Genetics (both startups were developing advanced ECC and signal processing technologies).

01/17/2012 

The economic outlook for the world is dismal, the semiconductor industry has consolidated and matured to the point where it’s looking for tips from the automotive industry, and unprecedented challenges must be overcome to stay on the path defined by Moore’s Law. Duncan Meldrum of IHS provides a top ten list of economic trends to watch in 2012.

01/17/2012 

Norcada launched 2 microporous silicon nitride TEM sample holders, suiting ALD analysis, thin film growth, and other applications under TEM, SEM, or STXM tools.

01/17/2012 

The Industry Strategy Symposium (ISS) kicked off today in Half Moon Bay, CA under blustery skies with choppy seas, an apt metaphor for the information about to be shared inside, says blogger Michael A. Fury, Techcet.

01/16/2012 

The Organic Electronics Association released its "OE-A Roadmap for Organic and Printed Electronics," covering application clusters such as flexible displays and smart systems, as well as the outlook on materials, substrates, and patterning processes.

01/16/2012 

Taiwan became the region with the largest share of installed wafer capacity in 2011, according to IC Insights' Global Wafer Capacity 2011-12 report. This is the first time Taiwan has led the global wafer capacity rankings, with 21% of total in mid-2011.