05/08/2007  May 8, 2007 - Inventory corrections and memory price volatility helped cause a shakeup among the top-ranked IC providers in 1Q07, and will likely keep the list of top chipmakers in flux through the rest of the year, according to new rankings from IC Insights Inc.

05/08/2007  May 8, 2007 - Samsung Electronics Co. has filed a lawsuit in the US against Renesas Technology Corp. and its US subsidiary, alleging patent infringement of two memory chip patents, according to various media reports.

05/06/2007  May 2, 2007 -- /MARKET WIRE/ -- SUNNYVALE, CA -- Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. announced that it has acquired a wafer fabrication facility in Irving, TX, from Atmel for approximately $38 million.

05/04/2007  The IEEE International Interconnect Technology Conference (IITC) began 10 years ago in 1997 in response to IBM's copper interconnection technology ramp. The forum, June 4–6 in San Francisco, presents R&D work on semiconductor processing, advanced materials, equipment development, and interconnect systems for scientific, engineering, and related industries.

05/04/2007  May 4, 2007 - Elite Semiconductor Memory Technology Inc. is eyeing new business providing memory chips for mobile homes, after being passed by Etron Technology Inc. as Taiwan's top memory design house, according to the Taiwan Economic News.

05/04/2007  May 4, 2007 - Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) say they have created a method for manipulating and positioning individual nanowires on semiconductor wafers, enabling fabrication of test structures using only optical microscopy and conventional photolithographic processing.

05/03/2007  May 3, 2007 - To match a flurry of local activity with new fab activity and upgrades, Singapore's Economic Development Board (EDB) says it is investing about $5.2 million for a program to prepare up to 300 undergraduate engineers each year for engineering jobs within the nation's wafer fabs.

05/03/2007  May 3, 2007 - IBM Corp. is touting a two-generation performance improvement with what it claims is a new technique that self-assembles vacuum "airgaps" to insulate wiring connecting transistors.

05/03/2007  Hewlett-Packard has licensed its nanoimprint lithography process to Nanolithosolutions, which hopes to enable manufacture of more powerful semiconductors inexpensively. This is the first deal related to the nanotechnology work done at HP's Quantum Science Research group over the past 12 years.

05/02/2007  May 2, 2007 - Spansion Inc. has secured a 48.4 billion yen (US ~$411 million) 45-month term loan -- one of the largest semiconductor financings in the history of Japanese financial markets -- to restructure its operating lease obligations and equip its SP1 300mm fab in Aizuwakamatsu, Japan, for 65nm flash memory production.

05/02/2007  May 2, 2007 - Atmel Corp. is continuing to carve out manufacturing operations with the latest sale of its Irving, TX facility to Maxim Integrated Products Inc. for $38 million in cash.

05/02/2007  SUSS MicroTec's new DSM200 is an automated metrology system for double-sided (front-to-back) alignment and exposure applications. The tool serves applications in the manufacture of MEMS devices, power semiconductors, and optoelectronics.

05/01/2007  For testing smaller-sized, smaller-density DRAM devices (512 Mb and below), the PH150XP wafer probe card incorporates a MicroSpring contact design that accommodates more than 25,000 contacts. It suits testing of consumer and mobile DRAM packages with high pin counts.

05/01/2007  It's hard to feel upbeat about the future of mainstream semiconductor manufacturing after attending last week's SEMI Strategic Business Conference in Napa, CA, where presentations detailed the end of the good times. With the IC business now mature and just another part of the global electronics industry supporting future value-added technologies, the simplified message may well be this: 'Keep up the good work, and maybe you might even get paid some day.'

05/01/2007  The MT9928 semiconductor test handler system, with up to eight parallel test sites, supports 28,000 units-per-hour throughput and fast changeover between various package types. It reportedly offers temperature control and test accuracy.

05/01/2007  May 1, 2007 - It was an ugly first quarter of 2007 for most DRAM firms, and the biggest benefit by attrition seems to be Hynix Semiconductor Inc., which significantly narrow the gap between No. 1 supplier Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., according to preliminary data from iSuppli Corp.

05/01/2007  If you haven't been watching the memory industry closely, here's a new flash: prices for both DRAM and NAND flash have been freefalling for months. So how are memory firms reacting, and is there a point where this trend could impact their equipment suppliers? Analysts give WaferNEWS their take on what (if anything) memory suppliers are likely to do in DRAM and NAND and when, if these price plunges continue.

05/01/2007  May 1, 2007 - Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. says it has begun mass production of 16Gbit multilevel-cell NAND flash devices on 51nm processes four months after announcing sampling of the devices claiming it is the first to achieve mass production of the memory density.

05/01/2007  As a pharmaceutical start-up matures, it must face an unavoidable decision: whether to develop, test, and produce its new product in-house or to outsource it.

04/30/2007  April 30, 2007 - Pricing woes continued in March across major markets in the semiconductor industry, which all saw sales decline despite higher unit shipments, according to the SIA's latest monthly data. Overall chip sales managed to inch up in March and 1Q07, but are still well below expectations.