09/21/2007  September 21, 2007 - FormFactor Inc. says it is expanding its wafer probe card manufacturing operations in Singapore, with a new 300,000 sq. ft facility in the city-state's eastern Tampines district.

09/21/2007  September 21, 2007 - Takumi Technology Corp. and Singapore foundry Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd. are working to validate Takumi's DFM optimization software for Chartered's implementation of the 65nm process developed by the Common Platform Alliance (IBM, Chartered, Samsung, et al).

09/20/2007  Oxford Instruments and NIL Technology have collaborated to develop etch processes for nanoimprint lithography (NIL), a high-throughput method for fabricating structures as small as 10 nm.

09/20/2007  RedShift Systems, provider of next-generation thermal imaging solutions, will join forces with MEMS manufacturer,Innovative Micro Technology (IMT) to produce a solid-state, passive optical component that shifts long-wavelength thermal infrared radiation to visible light to allow standard CMOS and CCD digital cameras to "see heat."

09/20/2007  When is a kilogram actually not a kilogram? News that the world's master reference for a kg mass is off by a not insignificant amount (and nobody knows why) illustrates an important difference between "accuracy" and "precision," and why the semiconductor manufacturing industry has pragmatically grown to primarily rely upon the latter.

09/19/2007  September 19, 2007 - Staking its claim as the first 300mm NOR flash fab, Spansion Inc. says it has begun production of 65mnm process-based MirrorBit NOR flash memory devices at its SP1 300mm fab in Aizu-Wakamatsu, Japan, with shipments due out by year's end.

09/18/2007  September 18, 2007 - Toppan Photomasks Inc. has joined a consortium led by European research lab CEA-Leti to jointly develop double patterning techniques, seen as a way to extend 193nm lithography to the 32nm and offer an eventual bridge to EUV whenever it enters semiconductor manufacturing (likely after 2013).

09/18/2007  The humble diode is the focal point of what Phiar Corp. hopes will be the beginning of a future that includes non-semiconductor materials for junction transport via quantum tunneling -- and the first credible alternative to semiconductors since the vacuum tube era.

09/18/2007  September 18, 2007 - Nikon Corp. and Synopsys Inc. have delivered what they say is a "manufacturing-aware" system for 45nm and below chipmaking by combining info gleaned from Nikon scanners with Synopsys' Proteus software, to develop sub-45nm litho models.

09/18/2007  Brion Technologies, the computational lithography wing of lithography toolmaker ASML, says its Tachyon system will now do the mask transformations needed for dual dipole lithography, to permit chip designs to approach more closely to the limit of single resist exposure technology. Also, to enhance the process window for repetitive structures in memory, Brion's LithoCruiser can now co-optimize the diffractive optical element needed for custom illumination along with the mask pattern.

09/18/2007  FOGALE nanotech, developer of dimensional metrology devices, has opened its first North American office in Los Angeles to forge partnerships with North American universities to develop ideas for innovative sensors, and to improve sales service for the company's North American clients. Arnauld Dumont is CEO of the new operation.

09/17/2007  September 17, 2007 - Echoing a similar event from the DRAM sector a few years ago, nearly two dozen NAND flash memory chipmakers are reportedly under investigation by authorities in the US and Canada for allegedly conspiring to fix prices.

09/17/2007  September 17, 2007 - As part of a shift toward other devices like image sensors, Sony is officially getting out of the Cell processor production business, by outsourcing manufacturing to a new JV with Toshiba.

09/15/2007  September 14, 2007 - Jazz Semiconductor is looking for either a partnership or acquisition to gain access to 200mm manufacturing capabilities, as its internal capacity utilization surges beyond 90%, according to a report by Digitimes.

09/15/2007  September 14, 2007 - A group of memory chipmakers and mobile device providers are backing a new industry spec for removable memory cards and embedded memory technologies, an effort spearheaded by standards org JEDEC Solid State Technology Association.

09/15/2007  September 14, 2007 - Dutch firm Mapper Lithography says it has achieved "massively parallel electron beam writing" with its newest maskless litho technology, demonstrating 45nm dense patterns in resist.

09/15/2007  September 14, 2007 - Adding more fuel to an already hot-burning fire, Taiwan foundry giant TSMC reportedly is planning to start production using 450mm wafers in 2012, standing alongside industry leaders Intel and Samsung in pushing adoption of the new wafer size.

09/13/2007  As cell phone demand surges in emerging markets, IBM says it's seizing the last significant opportunity to reduce cell phones' cost and size by developing a low cost, integrated solution with multiple RF/analog functions on a single chip. IBM technologists explain to SST how this is being accomplished by replacing GaAs with SOI.

09/12/2007  September 12, 2007 - Korean foundry Dongbu HiTek says it has made available a new internally developed design library to support manufacturing of CMOS image sensors using 110nm process technologies.

09/12/2007  September 12, 2007 - ASML says a Taiwanese customer achieved a record throughput using the company's TwinScan XT:400F i-Line scanners -- 150 wafers/hr for 24 hrs, producing nearly 3600 wafers in a single day earlier this spring.