04/24/2007  Thin Film Electronics has signed two agreements to jointly develop production processes for its printed polymer memory technology. Prototypes are expected in fall 2007; volume processes in Q2 2008. Small Times' Tom Cheyney reports.

04/23/2007  Applied Materials explains to WaferNEWS how its new Centura Mariana Trench Etch tool targets both higher cell capacitance and across-wafer uniformity for sub-70nm DRAM manufacturing requirements.

04/23/2007  April 23, 2007 - Taiwan's top three DRAM chipmakers -- Nanya Technology Corp., PowerChip Semiconductor Corp., and ProMos Technologies Inc. -- plan to collectively raise more than $3 billion in 2Q07 to fund various expansion activities, primarily 300mm fab projects, notes the Taiwan Economic News.

04/23/2007  April 23, 2007 - Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., has developed an all-DRAM stacked-memory package using through-silicon vias (TSVs) housed in aluminum pads to avoid performance slow-downs caused by the redistribution layer.

04/23/2007  April 23, 2007 - SEMATECH is funding an additional $2.4 million project to support Veeco Instruments Inc.'s R&D of its ion beam deposition tool for use in extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, part of SEMATECH's Mask Blank Development Center at the U. of Albany campus in New York.

04/23/2007  April 23, 2007 - Toshiba Corp. is planning to ramp production of NAND flash memory using 43nm process technologies in its current fiscal year, in an attempt to offset current memory price declines with projected 40% production cost reductions, according to Japanese daily newspapers. The new products are to be built at Toshiba's fourth domestic memory fab in Mie Prefecture that will come online later this year.

04/23/2007  Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., has developed an all-DRAM stacked-memory package using through-silicon vias (TSVs) housed in aluminum pads to avoid performance slow-downs caused by the redistribution layer. The company applied a proprietary wafer-thinning technique to eliminate warped die in the low-profile package.

04/21/2007  ;pushing the technology another significant step toward readiness for advanced manufacturing.

04/20/2007  April 20, 2007 - VLSI Standards Inc. has released a 300mm version of its Resistivity Calibration Standards, which enable user calibration and monitoring of automated 300mm four-point probes and other noncontact sheet resistance measurement tools.

04/20/2007  April 20, 2007 - austriamicrosystems has signed a deal to add its high-voltage module to IBM's 0.18-micron RF CMOS process technology, a migration from austriamicrosystems' 0.35-micron HV CMOS process. Production is slated to start in 2009 at IBM's 200mm facility in Essex Junction, VT, and transferred back to austriamicrosystems' facilities at a later time.

04/20/2007  April 20, 2007 - TSMC has formed an exploratory R&D team to evaluate feasibility of 450mm wafer production and determine equipment needs and possible yield rates, though the company stresses that the effort is only to assess its options, according to the Taiwan Economic News.

04/20/2007  April 20, 2007 - Acknowledging "considerable downside risk" in the semiconductor market due to memory oversupplies and pricing declines, Gartner Dataquest has lowered its forecast for chip tool sales for the next two years.

04/19/2007  GenISys GmbH, a Munich, Germany-based provider of software for optimization of microstructure fabrication processes, has opened a new office in Tokyo, Japan.

04/19/2007  Debiotech and STMicroelectronics have announced a strategic cooperation agreement aimed at producing a miniaturized insulin-delivery pump. Enabled by microfluidic MEMS and semiconductor manufacturing technology, the Nanopump aims to broadly improve patients' lives.

04/19/2007  April 19, 2007 - NOR flash memory maker Spansion Inc. says it will slash up to $100 million in costs and pull back capex everywhere but its SP1 300mm facility, after plummeting ASPs caused the firm to slip to a $75.5 million that was more than twice what Wall Street expected.

04/18/2007  April 18, 2007 - Infineon Technologies AG plans to invest 200 million euro (about US $271.0 million) in its R&D operations in Singapore, and add about 150 employees (a 37% increase, to 500 R&D workers) over the next three years, to strengthen development of various semiconductor and networking technologies.

04/17/2007  April 17, 2007 - A quick scan of earnings outlooks in Japan shows optimism, despite some bumpy roads in the past couple of months ending the fiscal year, according to several local papers.

04/17/2007  April 17, 2007 - Elpida Memory's offer of equipment to SMIC is seen as an attempt to acquire a stake in SMIC's new 300mm wafer fab and its older 200mm fab, in an attempt to secure more capacity for DRAM and raise the stakes in its battle with rival Samsung, according to the Taiwan Economic News.

04/17/2007  April 17, 2007 - Inventory adjustments and severe pricing pressures in flash and DRAM memory as well as MPUs have bogged down the market, and IC Insights sees enough historical comparisons in the data to cut its outlook for 2007 semiconductor IC sales growth from 7% to just 2%.

04/17/2007  April 17, 2007 - Cypress Semiconductor Corp. has licensed its 0.13-micron SONOS embedded nonvolatile memory technology to China's Hua Hong NEC Electronics Co. Ltd. Hua Hong already makes embedded EEPROM and OTP (0.35-micron) as well as embedded flash (0.25-micron) at mass production levels.