09/05/2007  Presto Engineering Inc., a provider of product engineering services to the semiconductor industry, has announced a partnership with NanoLab Technologies Inc. to offer turn-key nanoscale engineering, test, and analytical services and thus help customers improve speed and efficiency and minimize the cost of bringing new products to market.

09/05/2007  September 5, 2007 - Freescale Semiconductor has put two Scottish facilities on the market for sale, one already producing 150mm/0.35-micron devices, and the other an unoccupied 200mm shell able to be upgraded to 300mm.

09/04/2007  September 4, 2007 - A year after starting construction on their Fab 4 joint NAND flash fab, Toshiba and SanDisk have inaugurated their newest 300mm fab at Toshiba's facility in Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture, Japan.

09/04/2007  EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW In this edition of Chip Forensics, Dick James tears down Apple's 8GB iPhone, and the reverse engineering of a Peregrine RF switch similar to the one used by Apple within it, to look at the unusual silicon-on-sapphire (SoS) process used for its manufacture.

09/04/2007  September 4, 2007 - Worldwide chip sales posted their best monthly growth in nearly a year in July, rising 3.2% vs. June largely due to an incremental climb in memory pricing, according to the latest data from the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA). But taking out the three-month average, sales didn't look so pretty.

09/04/2007  T-series TF-60C compound, a proprietary blend of PEEK polymer, Celazole polybenzimidazole (PBI), and carbon-fiber reinforcement, can replace polyimides and metals in semiconductor and electronics assembly. TF-60C is a melt-processable thermoplastic that tolerates harsh environments up to 300°C.

09/04/2007  An MPC Technology product, VIGON RC 101 cleans accumulated flux residues from ovens and general solder waste from wave soldering machines. The chemistry has no flash point, and removes eutectic and lead-free flux residues.

09/04/2007  The Wyko SP9900 surface-profiling optical metrology tool monitors height, yield, roughness, and other parameters of multilayer organic panels for pin grid array (FC-PGA) and ball grid array (FC-BGA) flip chip packaging. It offers faster measurement, increased sample access, and up to 600 × 600 mm panel measurement within the SP equipment footprint.

09/04/2007  UniTemp GmbH, in partnership with plasma-finish GmbH, developed a semiconductor processing and packaging system that combines plasma and thermal applications. The resulting plasma-temperature processing oven, Model PTP, features a compact chamber and fast ramp rates.

09/04/2007  STMicroelectronics SAS (Tours, France), a division of STMicroelectronics NV Group, ordered the AMS 4200 DRIE production tool from Alcatel Micro Machining Systems. STMicro will use the tool for deeper advanced etching to realize 3D semiconductors and integrated MEMS packages.

09/01/2007  Regarded as a golden child in the nanotechnology field as recently as a year ago, optical components firm NanoOpto announced on July 23, 2007 that it has sold its assets.

09/01/2007 

09/01/2007  Oxidation of silicon is a common and frequent step in the manufacture of integrated circuits (ICs).

09/01/2007  Contamination detection today is a technology not only of sight and sound but also of the ion.

08/31/2007  August 31, 2007 - Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd. and Singapore's Nanyang Technological U. have opened a 100sq. m "Chartered@NTU" joint lab to focus on nanoscale CMOS process technology and reliability.

08/31/2007  August 31, 2007 - Countering an initial report just days ago, Hynix says it will keep one of the two 200mm lines it was reportedly going to sell off, and will instead upgrade the NAND flash line to boost internal capacity.

08/31/2007  IBM has announced two major scientific achievements: One involves probing magnetic anisotropy -- which determines ability to store information -- in atoms. The other describes the first single-molecule switch.

08/31/2007  Micropelt GmbH claims a significant technology advancement in its ultra-small, microchip thermoelectric coolers (TECs). The new MPC-D303 supports a temperature difference (delta T) of more than 60 Kelvin to support laser and photonic sensor applications.

08/30/2007  August 30, 2007 - Intel Corp. says it has received a "second request" from the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for more information in its regulatory review of the chipmaker's proposed nonvolatile memory joint venture with STMicroelectronics, and says it doesn't have a specific closure date for the transaction.

08/30/2007  August 30, 2007 - A Tokyo district court has upheld Fujitsu Ltd.'s claims that Nanya Technology Corp.'s Japanese unit infringed its DRAM patents, according to the company and media reports.