08/29/2006  August 29, 2006 - The technology alliance of IBM, Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing, Infineon Technologies, and Samsung Electronics Co. say they have developed silicon-functional circuits and design kits for 45nm low-power process technology, targeting use in next-generation communications systems.

08/29/2006  August 29, 2006 - Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. has ramped to mass production of its 1Gbit DDR2 DRAM memory, using 80nm process technologies, having been producing 80nm-based 512Mbit DDR2 DRAMs since March of this year.

08/29/2006  August 29, 2006 - Qimonda AG, the former memory unit of Infineon Technologies AG, and Taiwanese foundry Winbond Electronics Corp. have expanded their existing foundry manufacturing agreement to produce DRAMs using 80nm process technologies.

08/29/2006  ASML Holding NV announced that it shipped two extreme ultraviolet (EUV) alpha demo tools to customers. Both the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) of the State University of New York at Albany, N.Y., and the nanoelectronics research institute IMEC in Leuven, Belgium, have received full field EUV systems.

08/28/2006  Tegal Corp., a designer and manufacturer of plasma etch and deposition systems used in the production of integrated circuits and nanotechnology devices, announced that two leading Japanese companies had placed repeat orders for Tegal 900 series plasma etch systems.

08/28/2006  August 28, 2006 - Soitec, Bernin, France, has officially broken ground on its new 300mm wafer fab in Singapore, announced earlier this summer.

08/28/2006  August 28, 2006 - Nanophase Technologies Corp. and Rohm and Haas Electronic Materials' CMP technologies unit have extended a partnership for use of new nanomaterials and nanomaterial dispersions for CMP applications through 2019. Rohm & Haas also has purchased $5 million worth of Nanophase stock.

08/28/2006  August 28, 2006 - Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. (TSMC) has renewed its litigation against Chinese rival Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC), citing breach of a settlement between the two firms signed a year ago.

08/25/2006  August 25, 2006 - SemiSouth Laboratories, Starkville, MI, a privately held company formed in 2000 to commercialize silicon carbide (SiC) electronic materials and device technologies developed at Mississippi State U., has officially opened a new multimillion-dollar silicon carbide manufacturing facility, and completed "a large portion" of equipment installation.

08/25/2006  August 25, 2006 - Embedded memory developer eMemory Technology says it has verified its Neobit one-time programmable memory on foundry Silterra Malaysia Sdn. Bhd.'s 0.18-micron CMOS process technologies, and will have a 0.13-micron version of the design ready for silicon validation by year's end.

08/25/2006  August 25, 2006 - Bede X-ray Metrology and European research consortium IMEC have entered into a collaboration to investigate the use of X-ray metrology for process control and characterization of new semiconductor materials used at the 45nm node and below.

08/23/2006  Silecs Inc. introduced its SC series of products for use as advanced optical coatings in CMOS image sensor production.

08/22/2006  Wacker Chemie AG expects FY06 sales will grow about 20% to 3.3 billion euros (US $4.23 million), better than the 10% estimate cast just three months ago, and has tacked on an additional 70-90 million euros ($90-$115 million to its earnings estimates, thanks to brisk business in its semiconductor unit.

08/22/2006  During SEMICON West 2006, a group of the industry's top senior technologists came together to discuss the limits and possibilities for semiconductor material development. One of the main themes of the technical seminar and panel discussion, sponsored by DuPont Semiconductor Materials, involved the ramifications of a clear shift toward dealing with individual countable atoms, and what kind of endgame it leads to in terms of materials development.

08/21/2006  August 21, 2006 - Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) has signed a deal to license Silicon Storage Technology Inc.'s (SST) 90nm SuperFlash embedded flash technology, extending a partnership already focused on 130nm technology.

08/18/2006  August 18, 2006 - NEC Corp. says it has successfully developed a compact gallium nitride (GaN) power transistor amplifier for 3G base stations, with record power output of 400W with low-distortion characteristics.

08/18/2006  August 18, 2006 - Orders for semiconductor manufacturing equipment from North American-based suppliers slipped about 2% in July, the first sequential drop since last November, but the bigger picture of equipment demand is still rosy, according to the latest data from SEMI.

08/17/2006  August 17, 2006 - Global demand for semiconductor manufacturing equipment ended up right about as expected in July, with a little fallback from spiky June numbers in equipment orders, IC sales, and unit shipments, according to the latest data from VLSI Research Corp.

08/17/2006  RVSI Inspection LLC, a semiconductor package and bumped wafer inspection company, will open a customer training, applications, and demonstration center in Chu Pei City, Hsin Chu, Taiwan.

08/17/2006  By W. Luo, D. Thon, Cadence Design Systems

With the move to more advanced semiconductor manufacturing technologies, semiconductor companies are finding that modifications to physical design data meant to improve yield can seriously impact integrated circuit (IC) performance and functionality. As a result, IC design houses are focusing growing attention on manufacturing effects at the earliest possible stages of IC design....