01/08/2008  By Gail Flower, Editor-in-Chief
At a Global Technology Conference held in December 2007, Amkor, a leading provider of outsourced semiconductor assembly and test services, had lots to say to the industry at large and specifically to investors. The OSAT industry is projected to represent 49% of the total assembly and test market by 2011.

01/08/2008  ; Verigy today announced that it has completed the acquisition of Inovys, a provider of solutions for design debug, failure analysis and yield acceleration for complex semiconductor devices and processes. The definitive agreement to acquire Inovys was announced on Dec. 6, 2007.

01/07/2008  Jan. 7, 2008 - Worldwide demand for silicon wafers began slowing in 3Q07, and though a demand plunge caused by US economic problems is unlikely, wafer vendors should keep a close eye on progress in new 300mm fab activity, according to a market note from Gartner.

01/07/2008  Jan. 7, 2008 - Electroglas, a supplier of wafer probing systems for semiconductor manufacturing, has received a patent for its proprietary "active vibration cancellation" hardware and software algorithms.

01/07/2008  The Elite 300 300mm wafer probe station for devices with process nodes at 45 nm and below incorporates state-of-the-art electrical and mechanical technology, advanced materials, and leading-edge measurement techniques. The station offers end-to-end productivity improvements through its advanced ergonomic design, measurement capability, and flexibility.

01/07/2008  While several papers at the recent International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) explored high-k/metal gate dielectric concepts to cut leakage currents, there was also some discussion of performance enhancement by using metal for the source and drain. Also, IBM showed a novel implant technique enabling very low leakage SOI CMOS for 65nm and below, and UC-Berkeley researchers have a new concept for optoelectronic tweezers that can trap and move objects down to the nanoscale.

01/07/2008  Camtek Ltd. has announced that it has sold three Falcon wafer inspection systems to a major global corporation based in Europe that develops, manufactures, and markets electronic components and modules. Two Falcons are for semiconductor wafer inspection, while the third Falcon was customized for automated inspection of special ceramic substrates.

01/07/2008  Immersion lithography was the central theme at the 2007 [formerly IEEE] Lithography Workshop (Dec. 9-13, Puerto Rico), since 193nm immersion and double exposure/double etch appears the likely choice at 32nm. Also discussed were EUV's trio of major unsolved problems, multibeam's revival, and possible litho inspiration in magnetic discs and flat-panel displays.

01/07/2008  Jan. 7, 2008 - Metrology equipment supplier Metryx Ltd. and IMEC have formed a joint development program centering on evaluating and developing mass metrology at both the application and tool level for sub-32nm process manufacturing.

01/04/2008  Jan. 4, 2008 - Thanks to an ongoing harsh pricing environment, major DRAM manufacturers Winbond and Nanya have begun to push out equipment orders, according to a pair of reports.

01/04/2008  Jan. 4, 2008 - Days after sending out its monthly global semiconductor sales update, the SIA has revised the figures going back to September, to reflect an extra $1.35B in DRAM sales.

01/04/2008  Jan. 4, 2008 - JP Sercel Associates says it has been awarded a patent in Korea for its front-side laser scribing technique for LED wafers.

01/04/2008  Toshiba and SanDisk aim to increase their share of the NAND flash market by bringing down costs, as they accelerate the ramp of their new Yokkaichi Fab 4 next year, introducing 43nm geometries, high-k/metal gates, second generation 1.3NA immersion lithography, and 3 bits per cell. Executives from both companies detailed their current production plans and future roadmap for flash memory technology to SST partner Nikkei Microdevices.

01/04/2008  From deciding on HK+MG first or last (or both), to dreams and realities of semiconductor manufacturing expansion in foreign markets, and the continued winding march of technology development and industry consolidation -- 2007 was an interesting year for the semiconductor industry, especially for those of us trying to keep track of it all.

01/04/2008  ; Electro Scientific Industries Inc., a provider of photonic and laser systems for micro-engineering applications, has announced that it will directly represent its memory repair products in Japan and separate from Canon Marketing Japan Inc., its distributor, effective April 1, 2008.

01/03/2008  Jan. 3, 2008 - Japan's SUMCO (nee Sumitomo Mitsubishi Silicon Corp.), the world's No.2 silicon wafer provider, is planning to consolidate its domestic engineering staff of ~1000 workers at seven manufacturing facilities to a new R&D center at its facility in Imari, Saga Prefecture, according to the Nikkei daily.

01/03/2008  Jan. 3, 2008 - Germany's Qimonda and Taiwan's Macronix International have signed a deal to jointly develop nonvolatile memory technologies over a five-year period, sharing development costs and pooling engineering resources. Financial terms were not disclosed.

01/02/2008  Jan. 2, 2008 - Worldwide chip sales slowed in November to just a fraction of a percent vs. October, and are on pace for roughly 3% growth for all of 2007, below the Semiconductor Industry Association's (SIA) projections of 3.8% barely a month ago.

01/02/2008  Jan. 2, 2008 - Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp. has officially acquired 200mm chipmaking lines from Winbond Electronics Corp., under a deal announced in March.

01/01/2008  Since human-generated contamination plays a large role in critical environments, special care must be taken to provide appropriate garments to minimize the human impact on the cleanroom.