08/08/2007  August 8, 2007 - Nearly a year after putting some of its lithography metrology patents up for auction, Nova Measuring Instruments says it has signed a >$1 million deal with an unnamed "top-10 semiconductor manufacturer" for a license covering use of its technologies for integrated metrology and integrated process control before and during the photolithography manufacturing step.

08/08/2007  FEI Company's latest and most powerful scanning electron microscope series, Nova NanoSEM 30, promises "unprecedented capabilities" for nanotechnology characterization and prototyping.

08/08/2007  Arrowhead Research Corp.'s majority-owned subsidiary, Unidym Inc., has signed an exclusive license agreement with Paragon's majority-owned subsidiary, Nanotech Catheter Solutions, LLC (NCS). NCS will use Unidym's carbon nanotube technology in the development of medical devices for the treatment of cardiovascular disease.

08/07/2007  August 7, 2007 - In what might be called "memory rubbernecking," two industry groups have laid out the gory details of how DRAM chipmakers performed in 2Q07, and to nobody's surprise the numbers are pretty ugly.

08/07/2007  IMEC's VP of Business Development, Ludo Deferm, takes SST On the Scene down the path from 45nm to 22nm, and points out the tough questions that loom, such as single-node lithography options and introduction of new architectures such as finFETs. Meanwhile, Larry Larson, frontend associate director at SEMATECH, explains whether Schottky contacts could be a solution to the need for lower resistivity contacts.

08/07/2007  August 7, 2007 - After starting the year with less than 80% capacity utilization rates, major chipmaking foundries are about to find themselves with a shortfall of capacity lasting several quarters, and potential customers need to act quickly to secure needed capacity, according to data compiled by IC Insights.

08/07/2007  August 7, 2007 - Worldwide silicon wafer area shipments accelerated a bit in 2Q07, to nearly 5% vs. 1Q and 12% from a year ago, still being driven by continued 300mm shipments according to the latest data from SEMI's Silicon Manufacturers Group (SMG).

08/07/2007  The major IC foundries — including TSMC, UMC, SMIC, and Chartered — will move from 78.5% capacity utilization in Q'01 2007 to 97.5% by Q'04 2007, according to the "August Update to the McClean Report," from IC Insights. This shift signals IC foundry customers to secure Q'04 2007 and early 2008 capacity needs, as space may run out.

08/07/2007  Nanometrics Inc., supplier of advanced metrology equipment to the semiconductor industry, says that Timothy J. Stultz, Ph.D. will join the company as its president and chief executive officer (CEO), succeeding Bruce C. Rhine, who will become chairman of the Board of Directors.

08/06/2007  August 6, 2007 - Chip sales during 1H07 were up roughly 2% from the same period a year ago, a couple ticks above full-year projections of 1.8% growth for the entire year, according to the latest data from the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), whose "actual" and rolling-average sales both pinpoint significant weakness in the Americas market.

08/06/2007  August 6, 2007 - Rexchip Electronics Corp., the DRAM joint venture between Taiwan's PowerChip Semiconductor Corp. and Japan's Elpida Memory Inc., has started pilot production and aims to ramp output to 30,000 (300mm) WPM by year's end, using 70nm process technologies, notes the Taiwan Economic News.

08/06/2007  July 31, 2007 -- /PRnewswire/ -- ALLENTOWN, PA -- Akrion, Inc. recently received an order for a Velocity single-wafer cleaning system from a world leading manufacturer of semiconductor devices.

08/06/2007  August 6, 2007 - Samsung says it has resumed normal full operations of six production lines at its K2 fab in Giheung (lines 6, 7, 8, 9, 14, and S), one day after they were brought down on Aug.3 due to "a switchboard malfunction," though industry watchers have been quick to speculate about potential larger ramifications.

08/06/2007  August 6, 2007 - Nanometrics Inc. has appointed Timothy Stultz, former president/CEO of Imago Scientific Instruments, as its new CEO, taking over for Bruce Rhine who held the spot since March and move to the position of chairman, in a culmination of moves in what the company admits has been a year of "challenges."

08/02/2007  August 2, 2007 - Qualcomm Inc. says it has taped out a chip fabricated on a low power-optimized 45nm CMOS process technology, using "very low-k" intermetal dielectrics and immersion lithography, and says it has started development work on a 40nm process.

08/02/2007  August 2, 2007 - The Semiconductor Technology Academic Research Center (STARC), which works with all of Japan's major chipmakers, will use Blaze DFM for lithography simulation and analysis in its STARCAD "certified engineering linkage" (described as "one step ahead of DFM") reference design flow, the companies announced.

08/02/2007  FormFactor Inc. says it has developed a breakthrough probing contact technology capable of full area wafer probing of high pin density, ultra fine-pitch devices. Compared to today's probing capabilities, FormFactor's new technology promises a 10x reduction in pitch (spacing between contacts), and potentially allow the probing of 1000x more contacts on a 300 mm wafer in a single touchdown.

08/01/2007  August 1, 2007 - Optical Associates Inc. (OAI) says it has added a nanoimprint lithography module as an option to its mask aligners, technology provided by HP spinoff Nanoimprintsolution Inc.

08/01/2007  August 1, 2007 - Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp. has crossed the 100% capacity utilization mark thanks mainly to trailing-edge (0.18-micron) business from TSMC and a flurry of foundry orders for LCD driver ICs, and it's banking on newly-acquired 200mm fab capacity to carry the day, according to local media reports.

08/01/2007  August 1, 2007 - Photronics Inc. says 3Q07 sales will be 6%-14% below previous projections to a range of $101-$103 million, due to a shortfall in photomask orders from FPD and European semiconductor customers.