06/30/2010 

Infinite Graphics Incorporated (IGI) debuted the IGI Phototooling Toolbox for niche applications with specialized requirements not addressed by traditional mainstream PCB and IC products.

06/30/2010 

Proteomics is important for drug discovery, vaccine development, and drug manufacturing, but prevalent methods require fluorescent labeling and 2D evaluation through electrophoresis or mass spectrometry. Hus Tigli, CEO of Silicon Kinetics, shared an alternative approach that leverages nanotechnology at the San Francisco Bay Area IEEE Nanotechnology's Sixth Annual Symposium.

06/29/2010 

Touting extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography as the industry's best bet to extend Moore's Law below the 2Xnm generation, experts gathered at a recent event in Hawaii described "steady progress" in source power, resist performance, mask defect reduction, and other major EUVL challenges.

06/21/2010 

The latest monthly sales & order data for US-based and Japanese semiconductor manufacturing equipment shows growth slowing down -- and possibly because except for some pockets, it may be time for things to pull back a little bit.

06/21/2010 

Techcet's Karey Holland reports key messages from last week's Greener Nanotech 2010 conference in Portland, OR -- from the benefits of nanotech to local and national economies, growing commitments to EHS issues, and ongoing evaluation of nanomaterials by groups ranging from the Air Force

06/15/2010 

At the Electronic Components & Technology  Conference (ECTC)  this month in Las Vegas the CPMT (Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology) Society of IEEE bought out their long time partners ECA (formerly EIA). Other news: STATSChipPAC expanded its presence in eWLB, copper-copper bonding in 3D was reviewed, and Doublecheck Semiconductors, working with Disco and the Fraunhoffer IZM claims to have developed technology that enables standard silicon wafers to be thinned down to less than 100µm.

06/15/2010 

Techcet's Michael A. Fury concludes his observations from this year's IEEE International Interconnect Technology Conference (IITC) meeting near San Francisco. From Day 3: Intel's airgaps for 32-22nm, Si nanowires, more on 3D bonding and TSV schemes, electromigration in Au nano-junctions -- and enforcing "Zafiropoulo's Law."

06/14/2010 

Techcet's Michael A. Fury continues his observations from this year's IEEE International Interconnect Technology Conference (IITC) meeting near San Francisco. From Day 2:  Back-end memory, MEMS, reliability/characterization, and posters spanning the breadth of interconnect topics, especially 3D TSV and MEMS integration.

06/14/2010 

Samsung's announcement that it has completed testing of its 32nm high-k/metal gate architecture, ramping to volume possibly by year's end -- and following quickly with a 28nm version -- has the industry buzzing about a possible reshaping of leading-edge semiconductor foundry manufacturing.

06/11/2010 

Techcet's Michael A. Fury continues his observations from this year's IEEE International Interconnect Technology Conference (IITC) meeting near San Francisco. From Day 1: Themes including variations on 3D and through-silicon vias (TSV), and barrier films for reducing copper electromigration.

06/08/2010 

A slew of announcements and developments out of this week's IMEC Technology Forum (June 7-8, Leuven, Belgium) span the gamut from facilities expansion to GE photovoltaics and gas sensor devices.

06/07/2010 

Techcet's Michael A. Fury opens his series of observations from this year's IEEE International Interconnect Technology Conference (IITC) meeting near San Francisco, reporting from the opening-day "short course" where more holistic discussions showed just how far interconnect technology has come in the past decade.

06/04/2010 

The ongoing debate over the next wafer-size transition to 450mm, with discussions about pros and cons in costs and technology gains, misses the point -- it's the message we send about the semiconductor industry's mindset and future, argues Semico's Joanne Itow.

05/24/2010 

Comments in Applied Materials' fiscal 2Q10 conference call (May 19), and from analysts examining them and the numbers, highlights several key observations for company's various businesses (semiconductors, solar, FPD) and overall market observations.

05/24/2010 

New data from North America and Japan points to still growing demand for suppliers of semiconductor makers.

05/21/2010 

Samsung says it will spend nearly $10B in capex just for semiconductor manufacturing, and $B overall -- nearly double its initial plans, and two-thirds higher than in 2009. Analysts tell SST what's significant inside the numbers (foundry), and what it means for the rest of the industry -- and why 2011-2012 might now look a lot different.

05/20/2010 

SEMATECH's Dan Armbrust underscores the need to determine up-front what areas are truly important to keep pushing scaling and cost-effectiveness in the semiconductor industry.

05/20/2010 

High-density through-silicon stacking (TSS) shows promise for very high-volume applications, but work still needs to be done to "tame" key issues in manufacturing, improve costs, and smooth out the supply-chain, said Matt Nowak, director of engineering in Qualcomm's VLSI technology group, in a presentation at The ConFab in Las Vegas.

05/19/2010 

Hashing out the complexity of both extending optical lithography and preparing multiple next-generation alternatives for high-volume manufacturing was the focus of a Confab talk (Tues. 5/18) by Naoya Hayashi, electronic device operations, Dai Nippon Printing Co.

05/18/2010 

In his Monday keynote at The ConFab in Las Vegas, SanDisk's Eli Harari described the evolution of flash memory storage due to "relentless" cost improvements, current joint development that could "usher the second solid-state drive wave," and the future of a "post-NAND" world.