02/08/2005  February 8, 2005 - Siliconix Inc., an 80.4% owned subsidiary of Vishay Intertechnology Inc., announced that it has acquired Vishay's former wholly-owned subsidiary, Vishay Semiconductor Itzehoe GmbH (VSIG), for EUR7.5 million (~US$10.2 million), which includes all assets and liabilities. Siliconix also plans to establish 8-in. wafer production capability at the Itzehoe, Germany, facility.

02/07/2005 

02/02/2005  February 2, 2005 - Recent equipment orders include:
-- Axcelis Technologies Inc. has announced that a leading European chipmaker has selected its new 300mm single-wafer ion implantation platform.
-- Mattson Technology Inc. has announced that Samsung has placed orders for Mattson's rapid RTP and CVD systems.
-- Philips Advanced Metrology Systems Inc. has received a multi-unit order for its series 3300 copper metrology tool from AMD Saxony LLC & Co. KG, Dresden, Germany.

02/01/2005  ALBANY, N.Y.- Sematech North has produced extreme ultraviolet (EUV) mask blanks with as few as one 80-nanometer (nm) or larger defect per mask. The 0.005 defect per square centimeter achievement was accomplished through rigorous contamination control and defect reduction

02/01/2005  Flip Chip Enabling Technology

02/01/2005  BOSTON, Mass.-Contamination control design issues for advanced research facilities, plus opportunities for cooperative nanotechnology development, will be the themes of two featured presentations at the CleanRooms Contamination Control Technology (CCT) Conference & Exhibition, Wednesday, March 23, at The World Trade Center in Boston.

01/31/2005  January 31, 2005 - Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) has announced it has resolved pending patent and trade secret litigations with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC). Under the settlement's terms, SMIC will pay TSMC $175 million, payable in installments over six years ($30 million in each of the first five years and $25 million in the sixth year).

01/28/2005  January 28, 2005 - Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing, a dedicated semiconductor foundry, has begun prototyping customer products at its first 300mm facility, Fab 7, at multiple advanced technology nodes.

01/26/2005  By Tom Cooper, Tim Higgs, John Harland, Terrence J. McManus*, Intel Corp., Chandler, Arizona

Increasingly, semiconductor manufacturing hurdles are being addressed with new materials and wafer processing techniques that present ever changing environmental challenges. However, process changes and the introduction of larger 300mm wafers also open up the opportunity ...

01/25/2005  January 25, 2005 - Cymer Inc. has announced the integration of a Cymer XLA 105 argon fluoride (ArF) light source on a 0.85 numerical aperture (NA) immersion lithography tool at IMEC's 300mm wafer fab facility in Leuven, Belgium.

01/25/2005 

01/24/2005  January 24, 2005 - Photronics Inc., a supplier of imaging technology solutions for the global electronics industry, on Friday reported that it has acquired an additional 6.5% interest in PKL Co. Ltd. in Korea. As a result of this transaction, Photronics now owns approximately 87% of PKL.

01/24/2005  January 24, 2005 - Nanometrics Inc. and August Technology Corp. have entered into a merger agreement to create a combined company providing inspection, measurement and analysis systems. The combined company will be named August Nanometrics Inc., and the companies said they expect to close the transaction during the 2Q05.

01/24/2005  In more ways than one, it's a delicate balancing act that mPhase Technologies Inc. wants to execute. First is the company's technology: making a nanobattery by placing droplets of water on filaments of silicon. A jolt of electricity then bursts the droplet, it soaks the silicon, and pent-up energy is released. Then there is the company itself. Eight years old, mPhase was founded to sell telecommunications components. Leveraging that business in nanotech is quite a jump.

01/21/2005  Youm Huh, MagnaChip Semiconductor Ltd., Cheongju, Korea

October marked the official launch of MagnaChip Semiconductor Ltd., South Korea's $1 billion semiconductor company and a milestone for the Korean chip industry. MagnaChip is the first major Korean integrated device manufacturer (IDM) to focus solely on value-added, nonmemory semiconductor products. Competing in such sectors is critical for continued advancement and profitability of Korea's semiconductor industry.

01/21/2005  J. Robert Lineback, Senior Technical Editor

The next big step for development of 193nm immersion lithography will be fully equipped R&D pilot lines, expected to be operational in early 2005. These pilot lines will define immersion-related defectivity issues in functioning devices.

01/21/2005  J. Robert Lineback, Senior Technical Editor

Out of the blue comes an unexpected milestone in immersion lithography. IBM Corp. has plunged ahead and used a 193nm immersion scanner to print an interconnect layer on fully functional 64-bit microprocessors to prove that adding water to lithography really works.

01/21/2005  Debra Vogler, Senior Technical Editor

Among the topics explored at the International Sematech Manufacturing Initiative (ISMI) Global Economic Symposium, held in San Jose, CA, late last year, was timing of an industry move to 450mm wafers and a rational business model for silicon suppliers.

01/21/2005  High-volume production of standard devices that have a long lifetime, such as DRAMs, continues to move towards Southeast Asia. However, in other regions there is a growing need for very flexible "minifabs" that can be rapidly and economically set up to make low-volume products that have very short lifetimes.

01/21/2005  Marco Mora, SMIC, Shanghai, China

Not long ago, China's leading-edge IC manufacturing capability lagged behind the rest of the world by two or more generations. However, in part due to new wafer fab investments and the Chinese government's efforts to promote the domestic semiconductor industry's development through strategic long-term planning and supportive policies, the past decade has seen China gaining ground rapidly in terms of technology and IC manufacturing capabilities.