05/17/2006  May 17, 2006 - Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) has unveiled a 65nm design-for-manufacturing compliance "ecosystem" to channel DFM capabilities through selected EDA tools to TSMC's manufacturing data format.

05/16/2006  Underfill systems have been used in packaging applications for nearly 20 years — first introduced by IBM and then made commercially available from Henkel to the wider marketplace in the 1980s. Since this time, the materials have evolved significantly and, as technology advances, new uses and applications are being discovered everyday.
By George Carson, Ph.D., and Michael Todd, Ph.D., the electronics group of Henkel

05/16/2006  May 16, 2006 - Worldwide silicon wafer area shipments increased 3% in 1Q06 vs. the prior quarter, and demand has increased nearly 29% from a year ago, but quarter-on-quarter it's slowed down over the past year, according to new data from SEMI.

05/16/2006  May 16, 2006 - Advanced Forecasting sees a 33% jump in sales of etch equipment in 1H06, leading to a plateau in 3Q and a potential decline in 4Q.

05/16/2006  May 15, 2006 - SUMCO Corp., the wafermaking JV between Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd. and Mitsubishi Materials Corp., plans to invest 110 billion yen (about US $1.0 billion) to build a new 300mm wafer production site in southern Japan.

05/16/2006  May 11, 2006 -- /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- HILLSBORO, Ore. -- FEI Company (NASDAQ:FEIC) today announced that a global Japanese electronics manufacturer has selected FEI's DA 300 in-fab defect analyzer for its factory.

05/12/2006  May 12, 2006 - Samsung Electronics, Hynix Semiconductor, and Infineon Technologies are digging into their wallets once again over their participation in a DRAM price-fixing scheme several years ago.

05/12/2006  May 12, 2006 - Toshiba Corp. plans to spend roughly 2 trillion yen (US $18.03 billion) between fiscal years 2006 and 2009, nearly double the amount from the previous three years -- and that amount is likely to go up if semiconductor demand keeps rising, according to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun.

05/12/2006  May 12, 2006 - Crystal IS, Green Island, NY, says it has developed a new manufacturing technique to grow a crystal that can be sliced and polished to be used as a substrate for use in high-power RF electronics, blue, and UV optoelectronics.

05/12/2006  May 12, 2006 - Infineon Technologies AG has announced availability of its first cell phone chips utilizing 65nm CMOS process technology, leveraging its development and manufacturing alliance with IBM, Chartered, Infineon, and Samsung.

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05/10/2006  May 10, 2006 - Air Products has signed contracts to supply nitrogen and bulk gases to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and Chi Mei Optoelectronics to serve their semiconductor and flat-panel display manufacturing facilities in Taiwan's Tainan Science Industrial Park.

05/10/2006  May 10, 2006 - A new coalition of NAND flash memory suppliers, spearheaded by Hynix, Intel, Micron, and Sony, aims to develop a chip-level standard interface for NAND flash memory used in consumer electronics devices and computing platforms.

05/09/2006  Munich, Germany — SUSS MicroTec obtained orders for lithography systems and coat/bake/develop tracks from Siliconware Precision Industries (SPIL), including two MA200e full-field lithography systems and multiple production coating clusters for processing 200- and 300-mm wafers, in support of SPIL's solder bumping capacity expansion. The orders were signed in January and April 2006, and represent additional follow-on business from SPIL.

05/08/2006  May 8, 2006 - Mallinckrodt Baker Inc., Phillipsburg, NJ, is increasing manufacturing capacity for its CLk and PRS lines of high-performance photoresist strippers and residue removers.

05/08/2006  May 8, 2006 - Photronics Inc., Brookfield, CT, and Micron Technology Inc., Boise, ID, have officially formed a joint venture to develop and produce photomasks based on internal efforts to support 45nm chipmaking processes.

05/08/2006  Scottsdale, AZ — China is emerging as the epicenter for semiconductor manufacturing and consumption, according to a report by In-Stat, a high-tech market research firm. In 2004, China utilized about 20% of total global semiconductor products — by 2010, In-Stat forecasts one-third consumption, making it the world's largest semiconductor consumer.

05/05/2006  By Shang-Chou Chang, Shen Chi Hsieh, Kun Shan U., Taiwan; Tsung Chieh Cheng , Bau Tong Dai, National Nano Device Laboratories, Taiwan

OVERVIEW There is increasing interest in the thick, positive, epoxy-based photoresist made of the material AZ P4620 because of its wide applications in micro-fluidic devices and micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS). The optimization of polymerization for this material under near ultraviolet (UV) lithography...

05/05/2006  May 5, 2006 - Investment firm Mellon HBV Alternative Strategies, a 6% owner of ASM International NV, said it intends to attend the company's shareholders meeting on May 18 with its own agenda -- to come up with an endgame strategy for the company's frontend business, seen as not synergistic with its other areas of business.