06/23/2003  June 23, 2003 - Winbond Electronics Corp. announced plans to build a new 12-in wafer plant in central Taiwan.

06/23/2003  June 23, 2003 - Powerchip Semiconductor Corp., a Taiwan-based DRAM chipmaker, has priced a US $90 million, five-year, zero-coupon overseas convertible bond.

06/23/2003  June 23, 2003 - SUSS Microtec, a supplier of production, process, and test technologies, has introduced a new line of lithography technologies for use in wafer-level packaging, MEMS, and optoelectronics.

06/23/2003  June 23, 2003 - San Jose, CA - Altera Corp. has launched a new family of low-cost mask-programmed devices.

06/20/2003  June 20, 2003 - Irvine, CA - Newport Corp. has unveiled a new refractive beam shaper that it claims converts Gaussian laser beam input to produce a collimated, flat-top beam with nearly 100% efficiency.

06/20/2003  June 20, 2003 - As part of an ongoing joint initiative, Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing and the Virtual Component Exchange have rolled out a Web portal where chip designers can find third-party intellectual property blocks for Chartered's semiconductor manufacturing processes.

06/20/2003  June 20, 2003 - San Jose, CA - A new imaging inspection system from KLA-Tencor aims to bring wafer inspection technology down to the 90nm level and below.

06/20/2003  June 20, 2003 - Worldwide manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted a book-to-bill ratio of 0.95 in May 2003, continuing a four-month trend of little activity in equipment purchasing, according to VLSI Research.

06/20/2003  It wasn’t a headline that the scientist liked much: “Clayton Teague Thinks Small,” blared the Georgia Tech University student newspaper. That was 1968, and Teague was a graduate student at the time. Now, he’s the first full-time director of the federal National Nanotechnology Coordination Office (NNCO), and he’s thinking even more infinitesimally.

06/20/2003 

06/19/2003  June 18, 2003 - San Jose, CA - Ultratech (formerly Ultratech Stepper) has added a new metrology system to its nanotechnology initiative.

06/18/2003  By James A. Cunningham, Consultant, Saratoga, California

Early failures at the vias are severely limiting current density rules in today's copper dual-damascene interconnect system. Recent work shows that if the barrier at the base of the vias were removed or made substantially thinner, or if interface diffusion rates were brought ... MORE

06/18/2003  Creating customized chips for specific purposes is time-consuming and expensive. Mass-producing chips can bring the cost down, but only when there is a broad demand for a specific type. Researchers at Micralyne, with the help of the Canadian government, think they have the answer to the problem.

06/17/2003  June 17, 2003 - Veeco Instruments, Woodbury, NY, and Schott Lithotech, Jena, Germany, have signed an agreement to develop advanced photomask technologies.

06/16/2003  June 13, 2003 - Toshiba Corp. says it has developed new memory cell technology that will let chipmakers build DRAM system-on-chip (SOC) devices on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrates, which will help reduce power consumption and increase chip efficiency.

06/16/2003  June 16, 2003 - Intel is launching a multi-million dollar research and development project to develop processors in Ireland.

06/16/2003  June 16, 2003 - Asian foundries are extending their lead in the global chipmaking industry, according to a recent report from Gartner Inc., Stamford, CT.

06/13/2003  June 9, 2003 - San Jose, CA - Advanced probe card technologies, including MEMS, continue to take a bite out of the semiconductor wafer test probe card market, according to a report from VLSI Research Inc., San Jose, CA.

06/12/2003  JUNE 12--TAIPEI --Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and France's STMicroelectronics N.V. will join the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index later this month, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Inc. said in a Web site posting.

06/12/2003  June 12, 2003 - Taipei, Taiwan - Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) and France's STMicroelectronics NV will join the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index later this month, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Inc. said in a web site posting.