04/09/2007  April 9, 2007 - After nearly a year working with 45nm technology partners NEC and Toshiba, Sony says it will pursue future development outside the partnership, seen as a blow to efforts to group Japan's chipmakers together to compete against international rivals, according to a Reuters report.

04/09/2007  April 9, 2007 - TSMC says it will complete 45nm qualification and enter production as early as September, ahead of initial 4Q07 plans.

04/09/2007  A new ABI Research report on the timing devices market and MEMS developers' efforts to unseat decades-old quartz technology says the upstarts face an uphill battle. But Discera, one of the startups looking to win big in this application area, indicates that uneven market acceptance is no surprise—and no problem.

04/06/2007  April 6, 2007 - "Uneven" investment patterns favoring memory devicemakers over IDM/foundry capacity shook up the final rankings of top semiconductor equipment vendors in 2006, according to Gartner Dataquest, which also gave WaferNEWS its latest take on the sustainability of memory spending.

04/05/2007  April 5, 2007 - Strong sales of DRAM memory and wireless communications devices boosted several vendors in the final tally of 2006 worldwide semiconductor sales, according to new figures from Gartner Dataquest. Best growth was at Hynix and Infineon, and Intel is starting to regain ground lost during the year.

04/05/2007  Capacity needs, competitive investment in memory, 65-nm ramping, and 45-nm introductions all contributed to a 23% revenue increase in 2006, said Gartner, Inc.'s "Dataquest Insight: Semiconductor Manufacturing Equipment Sales Expanded in 2006."

04/05/2007  April 5, 2007 - Chip test tool supplier Advantest Corp. says revenues and group operating profits slipped about 7% in its just-closed year as DRAM manufacturers worried about plunging ASPs postponed orders for test equipment, according to local Japanese press reports.

04/05/2007  April 5, 2007 - Ziptronix Inc. and Raytheon Vision Systems (RVS) say they have demonstrated compatibility of Ziptronix's "direct bond interconnect" (DBI) interconnect technology with multilayer CMOS IC processes, involving 3D integration of five-layer metal 0.5-micron CMOS devices with silicon PIN detector devices.

04/05/2007  April 5, 2007 - As part of efforts to maximize efficiency at its chipmaking operations, ProMOS Technologies Inc. is spending about $30 million to install computer-integration management systems at its 300mm wafer fabs, working with a host of partners including Applied Materials, Oracle, and Hewlett-Packard, according to the Taiwan Economic News. Installations are expected to be completed within six months.

04/05/2007  Ziptronix, Inc., in conjunction with Raytheon Vision Systems (RVS), demonstrated compatibility with multi-layer CMOS IC production for its Direct Bond Interconnect (DBI) process. The die-to-wafer/wafer-to-wafer bond process uses no external pressure or heat to produce stacked die. Raytheon selected the process to manufacture focal-plane imagers and high-performance sensor arrays, said Stefan Baur, RVS director for advanced technology.

04/05/2007  April 5, 2007 - Cost savings from shifting to production utilizing 300mm wafers couldn't offset plunging average selling prices of DRAM and NAND flash devices for Micron Technology Inc. The firm swung to a $52 million loss on 7% lower sales of $1.43 billion during 1Q07, even as it ramps NAND flash production at two sites in the US and ahead-of-schedule progress at its 300mm JV in Singapore.

04/04/2007  April 4, 2007 - Molecular Imprints Inc. says it has secured $8.5 million in venture debt financing from BlueCrest Capital Finance LP, an investment that will support continued development and commercialization of the company's step-and-flash imprint lithography technology.

04/04/2007  April 4, 2007 - A group claiming to represent 6.5% ownership in wafer processing equipment firm in FSI International is pushing for new leadership and possibly new ownership of the company, laying out in surprisingly candid detail its efforts to discuss its concerns with the company's top management.

04/04/2007  Infotonics gains MEMS fabrication and packaging flexibility with new SUSS bonding systems

04/03/2007  As 2007 progresses, analysts are examining the past and future for electronic components and advanced technology applications. Following are summaries of reports from iSuppli, Henderson Ventures, Yole Développement and SEMI, and In-Stat, covering MEMS, NAND and NOR flash, SoC, and other technologies.

04/03/2007  Popular aviation metaphors used to describe the evolution of lithography in the semiconductor manufacturing industry invoke propeller planes (i.e. 1:1 masks), jet aircraft (reduction steppers), and even the next-generation lithography equivalents of pricey supersonic planes like the Concorde. Here's what I think is a more accurate metaphor for lithography's evolution, explaining why we use planes, jets, and even helicopters for different applications -- and why 157nm litho tools "never flew."

04/03/2007  April 3, 2007 - Elpida Memory Inc. now plans to produce as much as 80% of DRAMs made at its Hiroshima site with 70nm process technology by year's end, up from previous estimates of about 50%, note Japanese news reports.

04/02/2007  Worldwide sales of semiconductor manufacturing equipment totaled $40.47 billion in 2006, up 23.1% over 2005. Assembly and packaging sectors grew a total of 14%; test equipment sales increased by 21% over the prior year, according to SEMI's "Worldwide Semiconductor Equipment Market Statistics (SEMS) Report."

04/02/2007  April 2, 2007 - Worldwide sales of semiconductors sunk 6.5% in February to $20.09 billion, with seasonal trends overshadowed by declining unit shipments and lower average selling prices, according to data from the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA).

04/02/2007  April 2, 2007 - Omron Corp. has finalized its acquisition of a 200mm CMOS semiconductor factory in Yasu, Shinga, Japan, from Yasu Semiconductor Corp., a consolidated subsidiary of Seiko Epson., five months after announcing the deal, according to the companies.