02/17/2006  February 14, 2006 -- /MARKET WIRE/ -- ALBANY, NY -- SEMATECH North researchers working on extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) have achieved an important breakthrough in the complex process of cleaning mask blanks, the base material for the stencil-like photomasks that are used to describe patterns on semiconductor wafers.

02/17/2006  February 15, 2006 -- Flanders, NJ -- Rudolph Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: RTEC), a leading provider of process control equipment for thin film measurement and macro defect inspection, announced today that its merger with August Technology Corporation has been completed.

02/16/2006  February 16, 2006 - Microsoft's Xbox 360 gaming systems have had tight supplies thanks to publicized component shortages. Now, at least we know who's partly to blame.

02/16/2006  February 16, 2006 - Leuven, Belgium-based fabless company Essensium NV, a spin-off of Europe's Interuniversity Microelectronics Center (IMEC) R&D consortium, has secured ?6 million (about US $7.1 million) from Khazanah Nasional, the parent company of Malaysian wafer foundry Silterra.

02/16/2006  February 16, 2006 - Worldwide silicon wafer shipments increased for the fourth straight year in 2005, according to the SEMI Silicon Manufacturers Group (SMG). Wafer revenues grew in 2005 by 8%, slightly ahead of the ~6%-7% rate of the overall IC industry.

02/16/2006  February 16, 2006 - Researchers at the U. of Notre Dame have developed a prototype demonstrating a chip design approach that utilizes tiny magnets for logic functions instead of electrical transistors.

02/16/2006  February 15, 2006 - James Gallagher, former SEMI chairman and founder of wafer stepper supplier GCA Corp., passed away Feb. 7 at the age of 85. He was an early pioneer in the semiconductor equipment industry

02/16/2006  February 16, 2006 - Researchers at the U. of Wisconsin-Madison and French wafer supplier Soitec have determined that if specially cleaned, ultrathin layers of silicon actually do facilitate current flow.

02/15/2006  February 15, 2006 - KLA-Tencor Corp., San Jose, CA, has introduced an upgrade to its Starlight photomask inspection system, offering contamination inspection for all types of photomasks, including mainstream extreme resolution enhancement technique (XRET) photomasks, at the 65-nm node and below.

02/15/2006  February 15, 2006 - Taiwan foundry United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC) said 4Q05 net profit reached roughly $93 million (a 40% sequential increase), on 16.5% better sales of $837 million.

02/15/2006  February 15, 2006 - Researchers at SEMATECH North in Albany, NY, claim to have achieved total removal of particles as small as 43nm from quartz substrates, nearly the 40nm benchmark necessary required for pilot lines using extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography techniques.

02/15/2006  San Jose, CA — Global silicon wafer area shipments increased 6% in 2005 when compared to 2004 area shipments, claims the SEMI Silicon Manufacturers Group (SMG) in its year-end analysis of the silicon wafer industry. Revenues also grew 8% in 2005 compared to 2004.

02/15/2006 

02/14/2006  February 14, 2006 - Group4 Labs LLC has developed a gallium nitride (GaN)-on-diamond semiconductor wafer, targeting high-power, high-frequency applications such as solid-state white lighting.

02/14/2006  February 14, 2006 - SEMI has published 14 new technical standards as part of its 3x/year schedule. The group includes several applicable to the emerging growth area of compound semiconductors.

02/13/2006  February 13, 2006 - The US International Trade Commission has changed its mind and will investigate a complaint by SanDisk Corp. against STMicroelectronics alleging patent infringement of NOR and NAND flash memory technologies.

02/13/2006  February 8, 2006 -- /(BUSINESS WIRE)/ -- PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Image Technology, the premier leading supplier of 1X full-field photomasks, today announced that it has acquired a Lasertec Large Area Mask (LAM) defect inspection tool to enhance their full production line for advanced 9-inch photomasks.

02/10/2006  February 10, 2006 - Nagase and Co. has acquired a 60% stake in German wafer bumping and packaging subcontractor Pac Tech GmbH for an undisclosed amount, in an effort to expand its business into backend semiconductor manufacturing markets.

02/10/2006  February 10, 2006 - Micron Technology Inc. is merging its mobile and systems memory business units into one memory group, combining its businesses for NAND flash, DRAM and specialty memory.

02/10/2006  February 10, 2006 - Toshiba Corp. is increasing its capex budget for fiscal 2005 to ¥289 billion ($2.44 billion), an increase of ¥63 billion (US $531.4 million), in order to better compete with NAND flash rivals Micron and Samsung.