10/16/2009 

Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) will add Applied Materials to its partners for developing 3D chip stacking technology, by placing "a full line" of AMAT processing tools in its labs.

10/14/2009 

After a two-year slump, silicon wafer shipments to semiconductor makers are expected spike to new record levels within the next two years, according to new forecast data from SEMI.

10/13/2009 

GlobalFoundries has signed a &euro550M contract with M+W Zander to engineer and build its Fab 2 wafer facility in New York State.

10/09/2009 

Top global foundries TSMC and UMC saw September sales go in different directions in September, but the market is bracing for what might be slower times in the near future.

10/09/2009 

Growth might be returning to the semiconductor industry, including the foundry sector -- but the landscape emerging from the horrid downturn is about to change dramatically, according to a recent analysis from iSuppli.

10/08/2009 

Researchers at French R&D institute Leti say they have overcome incompatibilities of metallic catalysts with CMOS manufacturing in order to make silicon nanowires, bridging a gap between CMOS technology and bottom-up growth of nanowires and enabling new functionality to be added to chipmaking processes.

10/07/2009 

IQE plc has agreed to acquire UK compatriot NanoGaN, which offers processes and IP related to gallium nitride (GaN) materials and devices, in a deal worth up to £3.6M.

10/06/2009 

The US is ready to press the World Trade Organization to investigate alleged government subsidies of memory chip maker Elpida Memory, a move that would have significant implications in both Japan and Taiwan, according to multiple reports.

10/06/2009 

The deep downturn in the semiconductor industry has claimed another casualty -- Electroglas, following a recent bankruptcy filing, has auctioned off its motion control automation assets to FormFactor, and reportedly is poised to sell its prober biz for an unidentified bidder.

10/06/2009 

Among a spate of presentations at IMEC's annual Technology Forum this week, the European R&D consortium trotted out a new program for foundries and fabless companies, an "incubation" pact with TSMC, and developments in multithreading and radio chips.

10/05/2009 

Semiconductor, flat-panel display, solar manufacturing, and scientific instrumentation industries have driven recent developments in vacuum pumping technology and are likely to continue to do so. Edwards CTO Stephen Ormrod describes the future of vacuum technology and summarizes the design changes that will likely be needed.

09/30/2009 

IMEC and its 3D integration partners have taped-out Etna, a new 3D chip integrating a commercial DRAM chip on top of a logic IC. The new 3D stack resembles as close as possible to future commercial chips. It consists of a 25µm thick logic die on top of which a commercial DRAM is stacked using through-silicon vias (TSVs) and micro-bumps.

09/29/2009 

Researchers from Yale University and the Semiconductor Research Corp. discuss development of a new DRAM cell using ferroelectric layers that could significantly improve the technological and market competiveness for DRAM technology.

09/28/2009 

Süss MicroTec's Stojan Kanev tells SST/AP about the company's new addition to its toolset for 3D integration: a probe station targeting 300mm wafer-level 3D stacked structures.

09/25/2009 

NIST materials scientist Mariona Coll Bau gives Small Times more insight into recent work with molecular switches and organic-silicon/metal "sandwiches," utilizing a flip-chip lamination process.

09/25/2009 

Silicon wafer demand bounced back significantly (79%) in 2Q09 thanks to inventory rebuilds, but will soften in 4Q with "moderate production cutbacks" before gradually upshifting to an expansion mode again, according to a Gartner analyst note.

09/24/2009 

Several papers presented at last week's SPIE/BACUS Symposium described the mastering, replication and metrology challenges of patterned media, writes Toppan Photomasks' Franklin Kalk, reporting exclusively for SST.

09/18/2009 

Key metrics presented and analyzed at IC Insights' fall forecast seminar suggest the industry is enjoying a strong, swift recovery -- but a disconnect between rising demand and sluggish capex could cause problems soon.

09/18/2009 

Reporting exclusively for SST, Toppan Photomasks' Franklin Kalk reviews papers from the SPIE/BACUS Symposium that mapped nanoimprint lithography's intersection with patterned hard-disk media, and discussed how to resolve the key technical issues that have prevented its traction in semiconductor manufacturing.

09/17/2009 

Carl Zeiss says it has delivered "a complete optical system for production-ready EUV" in an ASML tool. The entire completed system with projected 60 wafers/hour throughput is expected in 2H10 targeting 20nm node manufacturing.