06/05/2006  June 5, 2006 - JEOL Ltd. reportedly is investing 1.8 billion yen (about US $16 million) to build a new facility that will double its production of electron-beam lithography equipment.

06/05/2006  June 5, 2006 - SEMI has published eight new technical standards for the semiconductor, flat-panel display (FPD), and MEMS manufacturing industries, including safety guidelines for hydrogen peroxide storage and handling systems, specifications for critical dimension (CD) measurement information data for photomask manufacturing, and test methods for measurement of the resistivity of resin black matrix for LCD color filters.

06/05/2006 

06/05/2006 

06/02/2006  June 2, 2006 - Worldwide sales of semiconductors increased 8.1% year-on-year in April to $19.6 billion, slightly exceeded expectations thanks to strong demand for PCs, cell phones, and MP3 players, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA).

06/01/2006  June 1, 2006 - Japan has rejected South Korea's request to sit down to bilateral talks with the World Trade Organization (WTO) over its 27.2% punitive duty levied against Hynix DRAM chip imports, setting the stage for the WTO to come in and resolve the dispute, according to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun.

06/01/2006  June 1, 2006 - Akustica Inc., a start-up that is developing acoustic components in silicon using micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) manufacturing processes, has signed on with X-Fab Semiconductor Foundries AG to produce MEMS-based single-chip microphones.

06/01/2006  June 1, 2006 - Toshiba Corp. said it will build a new 200mm fab in northern Japan to make power semiconductors, in answer to demand for devices incorporated in consumer electronics such as flat-panel TVs, mobile phones, notebook PCs, and gaming consoles.

06/01/2006  Akustica Inc. and X-FAB Semiconductor Foundries AG announced a strategic supplier partnership to focus on wafer processing of Akustica's AKU2000 Microphone Chip.

05/31/2006  May 31, 2006 - Toshiba Corp.'s semiconductor company is using Takumi Technology Corp.'s automated layout modification methodology for mask data preparation design flow in sub-65nm IC manufacturing, the companies said.

05/31/2006  May 31, 2006 - Embedded memory IP provider Emerging Memory Technologies Inc. (EMT) has signed a deal to license Renesas Technology Corp.'s capacitor-less Twin Transistor RAM (TTRAM) technology, for use with silicon-on-insulator (SOI) CMOS applications.

05/31/2006  May 31, 2006 - China's flagship foundry Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC) said its wholly owned subsidiary in Tianjin has entered into a $300 million loan facility with a group of Chinese banks, to help expand its 200mm fab in Tianjin.

05/31/2006  San Jose, CA — This year's SEMICON West 2006, to take place July 10–14 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA, will feature many keynote presentations, as well as a selection of short courses sponsored by IEEE/CPMT, Pinnacle Training International (PTI), SEMI, the International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE), and the Standards Technology Group (STG).

05/30/2006  May 30, 2006 - Credence Systems Corp. said it will discontinue development of its Kalos 2 flash memory test systems following a decision from "a major IDM" to decrease capital spending, and in an effort to focus on higher-margin consumer lines.

05/30/2006  May 30, 2006 - X-Fab Semiconductor Foundries has ported its 0.6-micron CMOS technology with trench isolation to new silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrates, offering up to 40% smaller die size and cost-competitiveness with CMOS technology.

05/30/2006  May 30, 2006 - AMD plans to spend an additional $2.5 billion over the next three years to boost output at its semiconductor production facilities in Dresden, Germany, by converting some 200mm capacity to 300mm and building a new cleanroom.

05/30/2006  May 30, 2006 - Suss MicroTec and IBM say they have completed initial reliability testing for 300mm lead-free C4NP solder-bumped wafers, and are building a final toolset for high-volume production.

05/26/2006  May 26, 2006 - FlipChip International LLC and Engent Inc. are partnering to develop 3D wafer-level CSP (WLCSP) technologies, seen as a low-cost alternative to system-on-chip for highly integrated stacked die packaging applications.

05/26/2006  May 26, 2006 - Nantero Inc., Phoenix, AZ, and ON Semiconductor will pick up where Nantero and LSI Logic left off with work to integrate carbon nanotubes into CMOS fabrication. ON Semi acquired LSI Logic's facility in Gresham, OR, earlier this year, where the technology was being developed.

05/26/2006  May 26, 2006 - South Korea's Dongbu Electronics and Cadence Design Systems Inc. have developed an RTL-to-GDSII reference flow for 0.13-micron semiconductor manufacturing process technologies.