05/23/2005  May 23, 2005 - Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC) is advising the senior officials of the local government of Taiwan to allow the group to set up 0.18-micron process chip plant in the Chinese mainland as soon as possible, according to SinoCast.

05/20/2005  May 19, 2005 - Mattson Technology Inc. has announced that it has shipped multiple Helios RTP systems to a leading European chipmaker. Tool installations are scheduled to begin this month at the customer's 300mm fab.

05/20/2005  May 20, 2005 - IBM Corp. and Toppan Printing Co. Ltd. have agreed to jointly develop photomasks for next-generation, 45nm semiconductor manufacturing processes. The two companies expect to invest ~US$200 million.

05/20/2005  May 19, 2005 - DongbuAnam Semiconductor has announced that Tomato LSI Inc. (TLSI) has selected its high-voltage, 0.18-micron CMOS wafer process to manufacture LCD driver IC (LDI) devices. DongbuAnam will begin providing wafer foundry services to the Korean fabless company this month, initially focusing on implementing two of TLSI's newest LDIs.

05/20/2005  May 20, 2005 - North American-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $1 billion in orders in April 2005 (three-month average basis) and a book-to-bill ratio of 0.80, according to SEMI. A book-to-bill of 0.80 means that $80 worth of orders were received for every $100 of product billed for the month.

05/20/2005 

05/18/2005  May 18, 2005 - ASML Holding NV (ASML) today announced it was awarded a customer contract from Winbond Electronics Corp. to equip its 300mm fab in Taiwan. No financial details are being disclosed. ASML will install systems from its TWINSCAN platform starting next month.

05/18/2005  Not even the industry's 800-lb. gorilla can withstand the irresistible force of sluggish market demand. Applied Materials Inc. reported orders for its chipmaking equipment in its fiscal 2Q05 (ended May 1) fell 30% year-on-year to $1.55 billion, while sales fell 8% to $1.86 billion. Sequentially, orders were down 7%, while sales were up 5% from fiscal 1Q05.

05/18/2005  (May 18, 2005) San Jose, Calif. — Rising flat-panel display (FPD) production is boosting capacity expansion for gold-bump lithography processing used in advanced packaging in Asia, according to Ultratech Inc., having received multiple-system orders from several customers in Taiwan and China for advanced packaging lithography systems.

05/18/2005 

05/17/2005  Can SEMATECH Inc. help find new ways to squeeze more life out of conventional planar bulk transistors while delaying the need for nonclassical CMOS devices, such as FinFETs or other multigate FETs? That's the newest objective being added to SEMATECH's list of top 10 technical challenges for 2006, which will be used to formulate and focus about 75 R&D programs next year.

05/17/2005  By J. Robert Lineback, Senior Technical Editor

Semiconductor forecasting has never been easy, but in the flash memory arena, market projections have become doubly difficult. Demand for nonvolatile NAND-based flash continues to exceed projections due to strong growth in digital photography and the emergence of high-volume consumer electronics applications...

05/17/2005  May 17, 2005 -- Agilent Technologies Inc. has announced that ProMOS Technologies has selected the Agilent 4072B parametric test solution for its 300mm wafer Fab III at the Central Taiwan Science Park, Taiwan.

05/16/2005  May 16, 2005 - On May 11, Intel Corp. announced that Intel Technological Development (Shanghai) Co. Ltd. was formally established, with a total investment of over CNY 300 million (US$39 million), according to the Financial Times.

05/13/2005  May 13, 2005 - Infineon Technologies Asia Pte Ltd. announced it opened its Asia Pacific headquarters building at Kallang Sector yesterday. The two 10-story towers house Infineon's regional headquarters functions in the Asia Pacific, including production, logistics, sales and marketing and R&D.

05/12/2005  May 12, 2005 - Swiss chip equipment manufacturer Unaxis Corp. has announced "extensive restructuring" within its Leybold Vacuum business, with cutbacks in staff and development expected to cost more than $33 million in one-time charges.

05/11/2005  SANTA CLARA, CA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 05/10/2005 -- Silvaco, a leading vendor of commercial circuit simulation and EDA software, received the great news from the Compact Model Council (CMC) that the HiSIM-RF Surface Potential SPICE Model was elected by its members for standardization.

05/11/2005  (May 11, 2005) Singapore and Fremont, Calif. — In Q3 2005, STATS ChipPAC Ltd. will offer 300-mm electroplated wafer bumping services, completing the company's full turnkey service offering. The company has also expanded its solder-alloy options for its present flip chip portfolio, and enhanced its design, simulation, and characterization capabilities for high-end flip chip packages.

05/11/2005  May 11, 2005 - Dutch electronics giant Philips has announced it is considering the sale of a "substantial part" of up to 1.05 billion common shares in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), a leading foundry for custom-made chips.

05/11/2005  May 11, 2005 - SEMI today reported that worldwide semiconductor manufacturing equipment billings reached US$9.35 billion in the 1Q05. The figure is 2.3% above the same quarter a year ago and 6.5% more than the billings figure for the 4Q04.