07/03/2007  Applied Microengineering Ltd. (AML) won a European tender to supply Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials (IWMH — Halle, Germany) with a wafer bonder for R&D, and an order from Semefab (Scotland, U.K.) for a production-volume bonder for use in MEMS manufacture.

07/02/2007  July 2, 2007 - Topping the past week's headlines are cheers (and jeers) for the Taiwan government's relaxation of assembly/packaging investment restrictions into China. Also in the news: reports on a possible multinational polysilicon JV, Inotera accelerating its 70nm ramp (and capex too), and rosy LCD driver IC demand and 200mm capacity utilization.

07/02/2007  July 2, 2007 - Chinese flagship foundry SMIC is transferring IP and "know-how" of 90nm process technologies to Israeli development partner Saifun Semiconductors Ltd., as the two firms get ready to launch 90nm-based 2GB NAND flash products later this year.

07/02/2007  July 2, 2007 - After a slight downtick in April, global chip sales moved back into positive growth again in May -- but just barely, according to new data from the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA). Worldwide semiconductor sales moved back above the $20 billion benchmark to $20.3 billion in May, a scant 1.2% growth vs. April and 2.4% above May 2006 levels.

07/01/2007  I guess it must be about 15 years ago now, when I was the editor of a military electronics publication, that I wrote an editorial opining on Japan’s highly ambitious and targeted competition with the U.S. semiconductor industry.

07/01/2007  IBM recently announced the first application of a breakthrough self-assembling nanotechnology to conventional chip manufacturing, borrowing a process from nature to build the next-generation computer chips.

07/01/2007  In response to consumer demand for smaller, faster, and more capable electronics, semiconductor process designers and chip fabricators have adopted optical lithography processes to increase chip capacity by decreasing circuit linewidths.

07/01/2007  Newly robust electroforming processes enable rugged, affordable microsystems

07/01/2007  Advanced packaging is a dynamic sector of the semiconductor device manufacturing realm, as evidenced in the breadth of back-end and final assembly-and-test products on display at this year’s SEMICON West exhibition, held July 16-19 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA.

07/01/2007  Semiconductor wafer fabs tend to be one color, but now the industry wants another-green. At one of two back-to-back meetings held in mid-May in Austin, TX, members of the International SEMATECH Manufacturing Initiative (ISMI) agreed to draft a green fab standard, one designed expressly for semiconductor manufacturing.

07/01/2007  SEMI, the global industry association serving the semiconductor manufacturing supply chain, is hosting its 37th annual SEMICON West Conference and Exhibition from July 16-20.

07/01/2007  A combination of minienvironments, thorough particle and chemical filtration systems, close environmental monitoring, and purging around key lithography steps can give operators control over contamination and improvements in yields.

06/29/2007  June 29, 2007 - KLA-Tencor Corp. apparently has quietly acquired FabSolve LLC, a US firm with "design-based metrology" software, based on its Vietnam parent group's digital mapping/GIS technology, that can be used for in-line metrology in semiconductor manufacturing.

06/29/2007  June 29, 2007 - Kingston and Smart Modular Technologies continued to lead the DRAM module sector in 2006, but other firms shot up the ladder riding success at customers Lenovo and Hewlett-Packard, according to data from iSuppli Corp.

06/29/2007  June 29, 2007 - Acacia Research Corp. says it has purchased three portfolios of patents from Alliance Semiconductor that include 36 US patents covering technologies ranging from memory (flash and DRAM), and computer and gaming console graphics.

06/29/2007  June 28, 2007 - Nearly half (48%) of global wafer capacity comes from the semiconductor industry's biggest 10 firms, and nearly a third of all capacity in 2006 came from the top five companies: Samsung, TSMC, Intel, Toshiba, and UMC, according to a new report from IC Insights.

06/28/2007  June 28, 2007 - Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) has approved the first cross-strait solar wafer joint venture, with a mainland Chinese solar manufacturer, according to the Taiwan Economic News.

06/27/2007  June 27, 2007 - Targeting a cost-conservation angle for what it says is "the single largest consumable cost contributor for a fab," Applied Materials Inc. has opened a new 300mm wafer reclaim center in the Tainan Science-Based Industrial Park in Taiwan.

06/27/2007  June 27, 2007 - While the overall semiconductor industry limps along toward low-single-digit growth in 2007 (and maybe longer) due to oversupplies and punishing price declines, the record number of devices being shipped means better-than-expected growth for the semiconductor materials market, which could finish the year with 10% growth or more, according to data from SEMI.

06/27/2007  June 27, 2007 - Yet another private-equity maneuver is being attempted in the semiconductor industry's final manufacturing segment -- this time for Singapore firm United Test and Assembly Center Ltd. (UTAC).