10/09/2007  October 9, 2007 - Atmel Corp. has finalized agreements to sell off its 200mm wafer facilities in North Tyneside, UK, part of its recent push to strategic transition to a "fab-lite" business model which also targets operations in Germany and Texas.

10/09/2007  October 9, 2007 - A pair of Japanese banks have signed on to give Singapore foundry Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing a $300mm infusion to help the foundry purchase Japanese-made equipment for its Fab 7 300mm facility.

10/08/2007  October 8, 2007 - Toshiba Corp. is planning a production ramp of 30nm flash memory chips by the middle of its fiscal year 2009 (mid- to late CY09) in a bid to pull ahead of South Korean rival Samsung Electronics Co., according to the Nikkei daily.

10/08/2007  October 8, 2007 - Spansion Inc. says it is acquiring longtime flash memory partner Saifun Semiconductors Ltd. in a deal valued at roughly $368 million in stock (about $135M will be netted to Saifun shareholders, who will ultimately hold ~15% of Spansion).

10/08/2007  October 8, 2007 - A group of 19 chipmakers, designers, tool suppliers, and research partners are forming a new industry group to expand and accelerate usage of silicon-on-insulator (SOI) by touting the technology's performance and power consumption benefits to a wider audience of end users.

10/08/2007  Double patterning technology seemed to be the consensus choice for the next half-pitch node or two for the maskmakers convened in Monterey for SPIE's annual BACUS Symposium on Photomask Technology (Sept. 16-21) -- not that anyone thinks it will be easy. The evident delay in EUV technology poses special challenges for the photomask community, highlighted in a special Friday session subtitled: "Twice the pain for twice the gain."

10/08/2007  ; EV Group (EVG) announced the selection and installation of its EVG850TB fully automated temporary wafer bonding system by an Austrian semiconductor manufacturer. They system, designed for high-volume processing of thin- and ultra-thin device wafers, reportedly allows secure and reliable handling of high-value wafers while contributing to higher yield.

10/04/2007  October 4, 2007 - Winbond Electronics Corp. says it has formed a task force to evaluate formation of a new subsidiary to take over the company's logic IC business next year, a move that would vault the company into the dedicated memory chipmaking ranks of Taiwan's PowerChip, Nanya, ProMos, and Inotera, and mark the end of the island's last IDM to do both memory and logic work.

10/03/2007  October 3, 2007 - Memory firms' investments have continued longer than expected, but the ride's about to get bumpy, with tool sales grinding to flat growth and capex backing into negative territory over the next year, according to new forecasts by Gartner Inc.

10/03/2007  October 3, 2007 - Capital spending should rise about 5% next year, an "optimistic" projection driven heavily by a surge from flash manufacturers, who will surpass their DRAM counterparts in terms of capacity, according to data from Strategic Marketing Associates.

10/02/2007  After bouncing around on the calendar and in venue, Semicon Europa, formerly a springtime event in Munich, Germany, is ready to open its doors next week in Stuttgart (conveniently at the same time as Germany's second-biggest beer festival, Cannstatter Volksfest...complete with multistory fruit tower). Here follows a quick scan of highlights from Europa's program schedule, and sessions you'll want to bookmark.

10/02/2007  By Stephen Ormrod, Edwards, West Sussex, United Kingdom EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW Vacuum technology is not often considered as leading semiconductor manufacturing. However, a look back at the last 50 years reveals that it has played an essential supporting role. Complex interactions between vacuum and manufacturing technologies have inspired

10/02/2007  The Paladin Compact 355-4000 solid-state, ultraviolet (UV) laser from Coherent delivers 4 Watts of quasi-CW output at 355 nm in a small footprint package. This laser is specifically designed for OEMs, due to its combination of low cost-of-ownership, small size, high-quality output, and operational simplicity.

10/02/2007  The WPC EVO is the next-generation 300-mm wafer handling tool developed by NBS Technologies' semiconductor group. It provides the capability to fully automate wafer packing, unpacking, and sorting processes between industry standard cassettes, FOUP/FOSB and horizontal wafer shippers.

10/02/2007  The WS-3800 Xpress, RVSI's next-generation model in its WS-Series Wafer Inspection Systems, is said to perform macro-defect inspection on up to 115 wafers-per-hour, offering high throughput while maintaining the same high-resolution, advanced macro-inspection capability as its predacessor.

10/02/2007  October 2, 2007 - Slumping ASPs caused by overcapacity, and a migration to higher densities, will cause a 1% dip in the flash memory market this year. But forecasted demand across several applications -- notably the computing sector -- will drive significant growth for NAND for the next several years, according to IC Insights Inc.

10/02/2007  The photomask industry is puttering along as usual, with mask revenues as a percentage of the global semiconductor industry remaining steady, as are the number of plates shipped, according to the annual self-assessment survey presented by Gil Sheldon at the SPIE Symposium on Photomask Technology (Sept. 18). Almost all of the papers presented at this year's BACUS dealt with refinements of technology supporting optical lithography, with EUV and imprint notably under-represented.

10/02/2007  This year's BACUS meeting was all about the 32nm node, and with EUV and nanoimprint still not ready, it's clear that the industry will use today's immersion processes plus double patterning lithography. Discussions involved how to get the needed incremental improvements in image placement errors and CD uniformity, and ongoing progress in mask blanks, e-beam writers, resists, and inspection/repair tools. And two innovations that will help sustain the future pace of this industry were debuted.

10/02/2007  Rick Wallace, CEO of KLA-Tencor, launched BACUS 2007 with his keynote speech highlighting the technical and business challenges facing mask toolmakers. An early leader in mask inspection equipment, KLA-Tencor at first relied on technical innovation, he noted. In its middle years, 24 x 7 production reliability was the top priority. Now a new business model is needed: collaboration with key customers and supplier.

10/02/2007  October 2, 2007 - Sony Corp. and Qimonda AG say they have agreed to create a 50/50 joint venture to design high-performance, low power, embedded and customer specific DRAMs for consumer and graphic applications.