05/20/2008  How did designers at Kodak complete an 8-10 year MEMS project for the EASYSHARE printer in just 3 years? Kodak senior research scientist Christopher N. Delametter explains.

05/20/2008  by Ed Korczynski, Senior Technical Editor, Solid State Technology
May 20, 2008 - Kevin Jennings, VP and GM of Novellus' surface integrity division, tells WaferNEWS about the product evolution that has led to >400wph bulk stripping and >100wph for crusty implanted wafers -- as embodied in two new variations on the company's Gamma multi-station sequential processing architecture, targeting high-volume memory and logic/foundry fabs.

05/20/2008  by Pete Singer, Editor-in-Chief, Solid State Technology
May 20, 2008 - Taking a page out of the Toyota playbook, AMAT CTO/CMO Iddo Hadar challenged the audience at his Confab presentation to focus not on improving productivity but eliminating waste, including what he called "redistributed" waste across many semiconductor processes.

05/20/2008  by Debra Vogler, senior technical editor, Solid State Technology
May 20, 2008 - Among the fab design trends noted by ConFab presenter Rick Whitney, COO of US operations at M+W Zander: The rapid rise in the cost of advanced processing equipment has outpaced the cost of building fabs in the last few years, though increasing facility costs are now in line with the consumer price index. And advances in cleanliness and footprints are allowing fab design rules to be a bit less stringent.

05/20/2008  by Bob Haavind, editorial director, Solid State Technology
May 20, 2008 - Achieving significant productivity and cycle-time improvements in next-generation factories (NGFs) will require industrywide collaboration in cutting waste, particularly through "shared visualization," according to Shigeru Kobayashi, chief engineer for Renesas in Japan, at a Confab NGF panel session.

05/20/2008  by Pete Singer, Editor-in-Chief, Solid State Technology
May 20, 2008 - Speaking at The ConFab in Las Vegas yesterday, AMD's Doug Grose said that the timing is not right for a transition to 450mm wafers, and suggested that the concept of the industry historically moving to a new wafer size every ten years was flawed. Given the currently bleak economic outlook and that decisions in one area can affect many others, "then what sense does it make right now to really abuse the system?"

05/19/2008  May 19, 2008 - ASM International's US subsidiary, ASM America, says it has a new atomic layer deposition (ALD) process targeting 32nm-node chip manufacturing with lanthanum oxide (LaOx) and aluminum oxide (AlOx) high-k cap layers that enable high-k metal gate stacks using a single metal, instead of two different metals required previously for CMOS.

05/19/2008  by Pete Singer, Editor-in-Chief, Solid State Technology
May 19, 2008 - Cascade Microtech says its new Edge test system measures flicker noise in ICs, seen as a barrier to lowering device operating voltages as geometries shrink. The company also is launching an initiative to integrate measurements systems to provide users with measurement accuracy assurance.

05/19/2008  Designed to solve excessive programming times in current in-system, JTAG, and in-circuit programming production methods, the 3000FS automated handler from BPM is modeled from the current BPM 3710 handler and contains four Flashstream programming sites. Rated at 1100 devices per hour, It is flexible enough to handle parts in tray, tube, or tape for device input or output.

05/16/2008  May 16, 2008 - Comments from Japanese chip equipment execs echo comments from Applied Materials earlier this week suggesting chip industry capex will be soft well into 2H08 and maybe not rebound until early 2009. Not everyone is optimistic yet, though.

05/16/2008  by Françoise von Trapp, contributing editor, Solid State Technology
May 16, 2008 - Born Global, held last week in Bath, UK, focused on leveraging international partnerships with industry analysts and experts from successful start-ups offering insight and advice sharing their own philosophies and paths to success. The target audience was clearly potential silicon start-ups, though venture capital recruiters and other consultants were represented among the 100+ attendees.

05/15/2008  by James Montgomery, News Editor, Solid State Technology
May 15, 2008 - The acquisition of Ponte Solutions by Mentor Graphics not only takes one of the last pure DFM companies off the table, it also answers the question about what side of the chipmaking wall DFM belongs, and terminates an inflection point that might not be seen again for a decade or more.

05/15/2008  by James Montgomery, News Editor, Solid State Technology
May 14, 2008 - Industry projections of a soft 2008 aren't nearly soft enough, according to AMAT president/CEO Mike Splinter -- he projects capex could be down 35% or more this year. "There's not a good story" being told in any chipmaking sector, he told listeners in a quarterly results conference call, adding that capex levels will be similar to those from 2003.

05/14/2008  May 14, 2008 - Regional press reports analyzing the impact of the May 12 major earthquake in China's Sichuan province, say that most tech firms didn't suffer significant damage or losses -- with one big exception.

05/13/2008  by James Montgomery, News Editor, Solid State Technology
May 13, 2008 - Some big chipmakers are eager to transition to 450mm wafers because of cost savings, but resistant semiconductor equipment/materials suppliers are still smarting from their 300mm investment burden and lower-than-hoped returns. After a lot of saber-rattling on both sides, a toned-down PR from Intel/Samsung/TSMC might be the first step for both sides to finally move forward with 450mm development.

05/12/2008  May 12, 2008 - Taiwan chip assembler Advanced Semiconductor Engineering and memory firm ProMOS are being wooed by mainland Chinese officials to build a 300mm wafer fab onshore, according to the Taiwan Economic News, citing mainland press reports.

05/08/2008  May 8, 2008 - Hynix Semiconductor and ProMOS Technologies have agreed to a partnership that will allow access to the Korean chipmaker's 50nm-node DRAM stack process technology, and give Hynix access to more 300mm capacity and an 8%-10% ownership stake in the Taiwan memory firm.

05/08/2008  May 8, 2008 -- Agilent Technologies has released its Multi-wavelength Laser Combiner for microscopy applications in micro and nano R&D -- a modular unit that gives new fluorescence microscopy options to OEMs and end users.

05/07/2008  by Ed Korczynski, Senior Technical Editor, Solid State Technology
May 7, 2008 - Applied Materials product manager Paul Miller tells WaferNEWS about the inner workings of the company's new Inflexion edge polishing system that uses mechanical abrasion for removing defects on the wafer edge, touting 2× faster throughput than "competing" tools and an inherently "green" process.

05/07/2008  May 7, 2008 - Worldwide silicon wafer area shipments were roughly the same in 1Q as they were in 4Q, reflecting the industry's overall conservative environment, according to data from SEMI.