09/12/2008  Instead of providing an economic boost for China, the Beijing Olympic games actually caused a trough in demand for memory chips due to restrictive import rules and overshadowed regional purchasing trends, according to iSuppli. But with the Games now over and the holiday season approaching, the firm expects a sharp uptick in DRAM demand through year's end.

09/11/2008  Following a third straight quarter of losses, Elpida Memory says it will reduce its DRAM output at its plant in Hiroshima, western Japan, by about 10% to 10,000 300mm wafers by mid-September.

09/10/2008  September 10, 2008: Advanced Diamond Technologies (ADT) announces the immediate availability of NaDiaProbes all-diamond atomic force microscopy (AFM) probes, claiming they have 30× the price performance of industry-standard silicon nitride (SiN) probes.

09/09/2008  September 8, 2008: Nanometrics Inc., a supplier of advanced process control metrology equipment, has launched a search for a new chief financial officer following the resignation of Gary Schaefer to pursue other interests, effective immediately.

09/08/2008  2 years ago, the EMC3D Consortium, open consortia of equipment and materials manufacturers, established itself and set out to develop a process flow and cost model for 3D integration. Focusing on via-first TSVs as the method of interconnect, the intention was to find a solution to achieving this for $200/wafer cost of ownership (CoO) on a 3-year timeline. It appears, however, that they've beaten their own goal ahead of schedule.

09/08/2008  With rumors swirling that top memory firm Samsung Electronics is sniffing around SanDisk, the game is on to determine just how high are the stakes for the memory industry, particularly the one company who would be hurt most.

09/05/2008  Tegal Corporation announced an agreement with Alcatel Micro Machining Systems (AMMS) and Alcatel-Lucent to acquire their deep reactive ion etch (DRIE) and plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) products, and the related intellectual property. The addition of these capabilities to Tegal's plasma-etch and deposition systems will reportedly enable Tegal to further expand into MEMS and 3D wafer level packaging applications.

09/03/2008  September 3, 2008: X-FAB Silicon Foundries' 200mm facility in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia, now is fully qualified for volume production and second sourcing of the company's 0.35μm high-voltage process technology.

09/02/2008  Elpida's recently unveiled plan to create a $5B DRAM JV in China's Jiangsu Province is the final stage in an industry "turf war" with the ultimate prize being simply survival, according to CEO Yukio Sakamoto, in an interview with Japan's Nikkei daily paper.

09/02/2008  Worldwide semiconductor sales have picked up a little, thanks to continued strong demand for consumer electronics, PCs, and cell phones, and despite continuing softness in the memory sector, according to the latest data from the Semiconductor Industry Association.

09/01/2008  Designed for advanced MEMS manufacturing and 3D wafer bonding, the CBC200 from SUSS MicroTec is a fully-automated, wafer bond cluster with up to 90 kN bond force and 600°C thermal capacity. These features are said to enable die size and cost reduction for MEMS devices. Additional features include post-bond alignment accuracy for metallic bonds to 1.25µm and cluster design concept and software for 24/7 production.

09/01/2008  In celebration of its new 55,000 sq.ft. wafer bumping and back-end processing facility in Penang, Malasia, Pac Tech Packaging Technologies is planning a grand opening ceremony and technical symposium on September 18 and 19, 2008, respectively. The festivities are intended to bring attendees up to date on all facility's capabilities, and inform them on new developments in packaging technology.

09/01/2008  Chemical air filtration combined with on-site analytical evaluation of filtered area and filter solution provides cost reduction by optimizing filter lifetime.

08/31/2008  STATS ChipPAC Ltd. and Infineon Technologies have signed a second agreement in which STATS ChipPAC will provide manufacturing services for products based on Infineon's first generation embedded wafer-level ball grid array (eWLB) technology. This agreement between the two companies comes closely follows the Aug. 7 release announcing an agreement between Infineon, STMicroelectronics and STATS ChipPAC on joint development of next generation eWLB technology.

08/28/2008  USJ formation at 32nm was the focus of the West Coast Junction Technology Group's meeting at SEMICON West, but also discussed was what lies ahead at the 22nm node. Ultratech execs provide additional insight to SST about the company's WCJTG talk on laser spike annealing.

08/27/2008  August 27, 2008: SUSS MicroTec, a supplier of process and test solutions for the semiconductor industry, announced the CB Series semi- and fully automated wafer bonders, for advanced MEMS devices used in automotive and consumer applications.

08/26/2008  August 26, 2008: IBM says it has integrated and controlled an electrically driven light emitter based on a single carbon nanotube, which it says is a first step in developing nanotube-based integrated electronic and nanophotonic devices.

08/22/2008  One of the most common and most ignored types of chips is on almost every desk in this electronic world of ours -- the inkjet printhead. This edition of Chip Forensics examines a three-color printhead device out of Hewlett Packard's low-cost HP 60 Tricolor ink cartridge launched earlier this year.

08/22/2008  The relative merits of solid-state drives (SSD) vs. hard-disk drives (HDD) have been discussed for some time -- and now Intel is joining the debate, outlining plans for the SATA SSD product family at its annual Developer Forum (8/19-8/21). Troy Winslow, marketing manager of the NAND products groups at Intel, told SST what SSDs offer in terms of enhanced mobility and energy cost savings.

08/21/2008  August 21, 2008: Engineers at Purdue U. have created a tiny motorized positioning device that has twice the dexterity of similar devices being developed for applications that include biological sensors and more compact, powerful computer hard drives. The device, called a monolithic comb drive, could be used as a "nanoscale manipulator" that precisely moves or senses movement and forces.