03/15/2007  March 15, 2007 - IC Insights today released its ranking of the Top 25 worldwide semiconductor (ICs and OSDs --optoelectronics, sensors, and discretes) sales leaders for 2006. Although six of the 25 suppliers posted revenue spikes of greater than 35% in 2006, about one-third of the companies (eight) registered below-average sales growth (i.e., less than 9%) last year.

03/15/2007  March 15, 2007 - Chipmakers applying for building 300mm wafer fabs on the Hsinchu Science Park (HSP) were notified last month by the park administration to hold a joint groundbreaking ceremony in May to mark the beginning of the construction, according to CENS, the Taiwan Economic News.

03/14/2007  March 14, 2007 - Elpida Memory Inc., a Japanese supplier of dynamic random access memory (DRAM), has entered into a multi-year partnership with IMEC, an independent nanoelectronics research center, to perform R&D for beyond 50nm DRAM process generations, said IMEC today.

03/14/2007  Ramtron boasts the highest density FRAM device available with the launch of its FM22L16. Based on a 130 nm CMOS manufacturing process, it promises quadruple the capacity of previous memory chips.

03/14/2007  March 14, 2007 - Packaging equipment developer NEXX Systems has entered into an ongoing joint development program (JDP) with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd. (TSMC). The JDP represents a collaborative effort to assess, develop, optimize, manufacture, and/or market electrodeposition processes using NEXX's Stratus system, including through silicon vias (TSV), wafer-level chip-scale packaging, and redistribution layers.

03/14/2007  March 14, 2007 - Hiwin Technologies Corp., Taiwan's largest manufacturer of linear mechanical transmission components, has made a breakthrough in the field of robots, the Taiwan Economic News (CENS) reports.

03/13/2007  March 13, 2007 - NanoIdent Technologies AG, which prints semiconductor-based optoelectronic sensors, has reportedly opened the world's first manufacturing facility for the delivery of printed semiconductor-based optoelectronics.

03/13/2007  March 13, 2007 - Blaze DFM, an electrical design for manufacturing (DFM) company, has closed its Series B round of funding for $10 million.

03/12/2007  by M. David Levenson, Editor-in-Chief, Microlithography World

First-generation resist systems for immersion lithography employed a topcoat material to protect the resist and prevent leaching of resist components that might damage the optics. By making the topcoat surface hydrophobic and controllable, topcoat materials suppressed defects and facilitated rapid wafer scan.

03/12/2007  March 12, 2007 - Qimonda AG, the former memory unit of Infineon, has announced the planned expansion of its existing facility for the assembly and testing of memory ICs (backend) in China's Suzhou Industrial Park.

03/12/2007  March 12, 2007 - Texas Instruments and Ramtron International Corp. have entered into a commercial manufacturing agreement for ferroelectric random access memory (FRAM) products. The agreement provides for the production of Ramtron's FRAM memory products on TI's advanced 130nm FRAM manufacturing process, including Ramtron's 4Mb FRAM memory.

03/12/2007  by Griff Resor, Resor Associates

March 13, 2007 - Kicking off the 20th annual Conference on Optical Microlithography last week during SPIE, TSMC's lithography guru Burn Lin wove a tale that began as a history lesson, but shifted to a modern message tackling today's top lithography challenges. The common thread throughout: "The devil is in the mask."

03/12/2007  SEMICON China 2007, March 21–23 in Shanghai, will include CEO forums on wafer processing and test-and-assembly, a discussion of MEMS opportunities, various talks on the logistics of operating in China and in cooperation with China RoHS, and an IC-design suppliers pavilion, in conjunction with the FSA and SICA. Various exhibitors will also highlight cleanroom technologies, advanced automation, and multi-metal compatibilities.

03/12/2007  March 12, 2007 - Fujitsu Ltd. has released its new LSI image-processing chip MB91680A-T as a new addition to the company's Milbeaut line of advanced image-processing LSI chips for digital cameras.

03/12/2007  March 12, 2007 - IMEC, the independent research center based in Belgium, has announced that the Flemish Minister of Science and Innovation, Fientje Moerman, signed a new frame agreement between IMEC and the Government of Flanders for the period 2007-2011.

03/12/2007  March 12, 2007 - Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. has begun shipping samples of an 8GB memory chip to major mobile electronics manufacturers. It is the highest density embedded flash memory developed to date, according to the company.

03/09/2007  The plenary speech at the SPIE's Advanced Lithography conference characterized nanoimprint lithography (NIL) as "unique . . . in that it is cheap enough, fast enough, and flexible enough that it can be used for things other than CMOS." Potential markets for NIL include sub-32-nm CMOS, post-CMOS devices, high-brightness LED, storage media, MEMS, flat panel displays, flexible electronics, and biomedical devices.

03/09/2007  March 9, 2007 - Royal Philips Electronics NV, Europe's largest consumer electronics maker, revealed today that it plans to sell its 16.2% stake in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd. (TSMC) over the next few years.

03/08/2007  March 8, 2007 - Litho systems supplier ASML Holding NV (ASML) today announced that it has completed its acquisition of Brion Technologies Inc., a provider of semiconductor design and wafer-manufacturing optimization products for advanced lithography.

03/07/2007  March 7, 2007 - Intel Corp. has unveiled halogen-free packages for its NOR flash family, StrataFlash Cellular Memory (M18) products, which eliminate halogenated flame retardants from the packaging materials.