07/20/2004  July 20, 2004 - Migdal Haemek, Israel - Wafer manufacturer Tower Semiconductor has signed a licensing agreement with Virage Logic Corp., a provider of semiconductor intellectual property (IP) platforms, to make Virage Logic's technology-optimized platforms available on Tower's 0.13-micron CMOS processes.

07/19/2004  July 19, 2004 - Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC) has signed an agreement on an investment project in Chengdu City with Chengdu Municipal Government for constructing an IC testing and packaging plant.

07/19/2004  Nantero Inc. stretched its nanotube empire even further last week, striking a deal with the giant BAE Systems to explore how nanotubes could improve the performance of electronics in the aerospace and defense industries.The BAE deal is a radical change in direction for Nantero.

07/15/2004  July 15, 2004 - Singapore foundry Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing has forged a deal with four incubation and services centers in China to help grow local IC design startup companies

07/15/2004  July 15, 2004 - Sumitomo Mitsubishi Silicon Corp. plans to double production output of 300mm wafers to 400,000 wafers/month by next summer, in an effort to catch #1 wafer producer Shin-Etsu.

07/15/2004  IBM's director of physical sciences, Thomas Theis, discusses nano, disruptive technology and why physical research is a driving force at Big Blue. He met with Small Times' David Forman to discuss everything from next-generation magnetic memory (MRAM) to Millipede, IBM's cutting-edge approach to data storage.

07/14/2004  July 14, 2004 - Intel Corp. boosted sales and earnings in 2Q04 in line with estimates, but indicated no changes in its plans for second-half capital spending, and quietly hinted at a slightly cloudy outlook later this year.

07/14/2004  July 14, 2004 - Mattson Technology Inc. has won multiproduct system orders from Hynix Semiconductor Inc. for the production of DRAM devices in its new T1 300mm wafer fabrication plant in Ichon, South Korea.

07/13/2004  July 13, 2004 - BOC Edwards has established a joint development program with IMEC, Leuven, Belgium that focuses on the application of supercritical CO2 (scCO2) cleaning processes for the manufacture of next-generation semiconductor devices.

07/13/2004  July 13, 2004 - IMEC has launched a new three-pronged research program on embedded RAM concepts for second and higher levels of onchip cache memory for the 45nm node and below.

07/12/2004  July 12, 2004 -- SEMICON West opens today in San Francisco with Steven R. Appleton, chairman, CEO, and president of Micron Technology, presenting a keynote presentation as planned, reports SEMI.

07/09/2004  June 9, 2004 - While SEMATECH turns its attention to 193nm immersion lithography development, Tokyo Electron Ltd. and European research consortium IMEC have expanded their collaboration on lithography technology to include 193nm immersion.

07/08/2004  June 8, 2004 - Applied Materials, Santa Clara, CA, has unveiled what it calls a "breakthrough" in chemical-vapor deposition technology: a CVD system that meets requirements for 65nm and below.

07/08/2004  July 8, 2004 - International SEMATECH, Austin, TX, has created an independent subsidiary of its R&D wafer fab and associated analytical laboratories, to offer a range of services including custom development and prototyping, wafer-processing, and analytical and electrical testing.

07/07/2004  July 7, 2004 - Fresh from shuttering its 157nm immersion lithography efforts, International SEMATECH has formed a 193nm Immersion Technology Center (iTC) to support development of the technology, and an initial project to focus on development of the world's first ultrahigh-NA (NA=1.3) 193nm wavelength immersion lithography tool.

07/06/2004  June 6, 2004 - Japanese manufacturers of semiconductor equipment saw mixed results in May 2004, as slowing domestic demand was countered by a pickup overseas, according to the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ).

07/05/2004  July 5, 2004 - Micron Technology Inc., Boise, ID, said it plans to move into NAND flash memory in order to become a top-three supplier of the technology.

07/01/2004  July 1, 2004 - Inotera Memories Inc., the 50-50 venture between Infineon Technologies and Nanya Technology Corp., has inaugurated its $2.2 billion 300mm DRAM production facility in HwaYa Technology Park in Taoyuan, Taiwan, 18 months after the JV was set up.

07/01/2004  A patent-pending Cluster Probing System (CPS), developed by SUSS MicroTec AG (www.suss.com), is designed to combine multiple semiconductor test configurations in one system without worker intervention.

06/29/2004  (June 29, 2004) Nashua, N.H.—It has been a busy month in electronics. Ray Sharpe, chief executive of the Electronics Division, resigned from Franklin, Mass.-based Cookson Group after 9 years with the company to take another position outside the company. When I talked to him about the change, he said, "It shows confidence that the economy is doing well when people see opportunities elsewhere."