11/06/2007  By Bill Tobey, Consultant and SST Editorial Review Board member

Over the past 50 years in the semiconductor industry, applications have been continuously added and extended, ultimately driving necessary changes in our technology base

11/06/2007  October 23, 2007 -- /PRNewswire/ BILLERICA, MA -- GSI Group Inc. today announced that an existing Taiwanese customer has issued a $7 million order and an additional $10 million letter of intent for multiple M550 IR advanced laser wafer repair processing systems.

11/06/2007  November 6, 2007 - A pair of industry firms have each secured at least $20M in continued VC funding, to support their respective development of memory and system-on-chip design technology.

11/06/2007  October 23, 2007 -- /PRNewswire/ -- SUNNYVALE, CA -- Aquest Systems today announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued a broad patent to protect Aquest's FabEX(TM) automated material handling system (AMHS).

11/06/2007  After forecasting good to "lackluster" 4Q sales forecasts, the top pure-play foundries (TSMC, UMC, SMIC, and Chartered) say they will reduce spending in 2008, (10%-25% declines or more). Their stated reasons -- improve productivity in current production, migrate more mature processes down to 90nm and 65nm, and get ASPs back up and improve profitability -- send a great message to the investor community. But the real reason could be a much bigger shift in the leading-edge foundry business model.

11/06/2007  STMicroelectronics has laid the first stone at the site of its future chip packaging and test facility in Longgang, Guangdong Province, China, in the presence of senior officials of the Shenzhen Municipal government.

11/06/2007  ; The companies AMD, Carl Zeiss SMT, and Qimonda are cooperating to launch a 12M euro project within the framework of the joint Nanoanalysis project, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The partners are working together on new analytical and characterization methods required for the development of the next chip generation.

11/05/2007  November 5, 2007 - Notebook unit sales are on track for a better-than-expected 40% growth this year, and that growth will more than likely keep going through 2008 -- which would be great news for several chipmakers, according to an industry analyst.

11/05/2007  Things just keep getting smaller. Two years ago at Productronica 2005, MicroNanoWorld was launched to address the increasing importance of micro-electronics production. It was continued at Electronica 2006, which alternates bi-annually with Productronica. This year, micro-electronics production is set to take center stage, as "Productronica 2007: Micro-Production in the Limelight" gets under way from November 13-16, 2007 at New Munich Trade Fair Center, Munich, Germany.

11/05/2007  Few fab management practices are more "in the trenches" than using mathematics and statistics to investigate and solve real-life problems. One such technique highlighted at the recent ISMI Symposium on Manufacturing Effectiveness was "multivariate analysis" -- specifically, comparing two ashing chambers that were supposed to be matched, but whose output showed differences.

11/05/2007  November 5, 2007 - STMicroelectronics has begun construction at a new packaging/text facility in Longgang, Guangdong Province, China. Plans call for 20,000 sq. m of manufacturing space to be ready by Sept. 2008, followed by equipment move-in during 4Q08; eventually that size will double to 40,000 sq. m.

11/02/2007  November 2, 2007 - Yale U. has dedicated a new $8 million, 2600-sq.-ft cleanroom facility for its Center for Microelectronics Materials and Structures for fabricating micro- and nano-scale devices for engineering research. The Center serves over a dozen research groups, nearly 40 students in engineering, and an increasing number of collaborators.

11/01/2007  November 1, 2007 - Qimonda AG says it has begun sending customers of what it calls the industry's first samples of 512Mb DDR5 graphics processors.

11/01/2007  ; EV Group (EVG) has successfully installed its 500th bond chamber and 100th automated production wafer bonder for high-volume manufacturing (HVM). In related MEMS news, EVG also announced today that it is the Platinum sponsor of the MEMS Executive Congress, which will be held November 4-5, 2007, in Del Mar, CA.

11/01/2007  ; Ultratech Inc., a supplier of lithography and laser-processing systems used to manufacture semiconductor devices, has received an order from Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc. (ASE) for its 300mm, advanced-packaging lithography system.

11/01/2007  Semiconductor assembly and test service (SATS) providers have been all over the news this year, with mergers and acquisitions, R&D collaborations, and technology innovations.

10/31/2007  October 31, 2007 - IBM says it has developed a method to repurpose scrap semiconductor wafers that's more efficient at pattern removal, to be reused as monitor wafers or sold to solar firms and converted into solar panels. The process, currently in use at IBM's Burlington, VT, facility, and being implemented at its semiconductor fab in East Fishkill, NY, saved $500k in 2006 and an estimated $1.5M this year.

10/31/2007  October 31, 2007 - Samsung Electronics Co. reportedly has acquired TransChip Israel Ltd., an Israel-based CMOS image sensor firm, the first time in a decade the Korean company has acquired a foreign company.

10/31/2007  The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) reports a solution for efficiently and selectively growing nanowires in quantity on sapphire wafers using conventional lithography. The technique produces wires in specific positions and orientations accurately enough to allow attachment of contacts and to layer other circuit elements, NIST says.

10/30/2007  October 30, 2007 - A new public/private R&D initiative is being laid out to replace the MEDEA+ program for cooperative R&D in microelectronics that is set to expire in 2008, which over the past seven years has watched over three generations of CMOS technology, and spearheaded work on fields ranging from smart cards, image sensors, and automotive electronics.