06/12/2002  The latest announcement from IBM's Zurich Research Laboratory about its progress in making memory devices based on MEMS and atomic force microscope tips hints at a leap in data storage capacity, but also highlights some of the hurdles still to be overcome.

06/12/2002  Molecular devices are not ready to surrender yet, but this new breakthrough at Harvard and Cornell – the difficult technological trick of trapping a single atom between two contacts – gives scientists a clearer view of the process.

06/11/2002  June 6, 2002 - Munich, Germany - Scientists from Infineon Technologies have made an advance in the promising field of carbon nanotube (CNT) research. A tried-and-tested microelectronics process was modified so that CNTs could be grown at predefined locations on 6" wafers.

06/11/2002  Hsinchu, Taiwan and Freiburg, Germany - Micronas, a supplier of IC solutions for consumer and automotive electronics, and United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC), a semiconductor foundry, have signed a five-year agreement where UMC will be the principal supplier of mixed-mode ICs for Micronas.

06/11/2002 

06/10/2002  Seoul, Korea - The sale of Hynix Semiconductor Inc. will be shelved until the end of this year, a ruling party politician said - a move analysts saw as aimed at shoring up support ahead of elections.

06/10/2002  A recently announced collaboration between Applied Materials Inc., Santa Clara, CA, and Canon Inc., Tokyo, Japan, will possibly benefit the entire semiconductor industry by improving the time to market for devices, but the lithography firm hopes the agreement will specifically allow it to spot and address any tool issues that pop up - before the equipment is installed at a customer's site.

06/10/2002  June 10, 2002 - Villach, Austria - Wet wafer surface preparation supplier, the SEZ Group, has acquired US-based private company, L-Tech Corp., a manufacturer of drying equipment for batch wafer processing.

06/07/2002  Test wafers developed with JSR LKD-5109 are now available through International SEMATECH (ISMT) for etch, cleans, deposition and CMP studies. The wafers will be offered to semiconductor companies on a limited basis under a supplier agreement between ISMT, Austin, TX, and JSR, Sunnyvale, CA.

06/07/2002  June 7, 2002 - Hsinchu, Taiwan - Chip foundries Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and United Microelectronics Corp. plan to hire a combined 6,500 new employees in 2002.

06/03/2002  Perhaps under emphasized relative to the red brick wall associated with scaling CMOS, as early as 2004 "manufacturable solutions are not known" looms for many 2001 ITRS facets of factory ramps, equipment lead time, factory cycle time, throughput, maintenance, material handling, and the intertwining importance of factory information and control hardware and software.

06/03/2002  June 3, 2002 - Dublin, Ohio, and Beverly, MA - Ashland Specialty Chemical Co., a division of Ashland Inc., has formed a one-year alliance between its Electronic Chemicals Division (ECD) Fab Services business and Axcelis Technologies Inc. to provide cleaning and rebuilding services using Axcelis-authorized parts for subassemblies and internal components of ion implantation systems used in chip manufacturing.

06/01/2002  Electroglas Inc. has developed test/handling equipment that allows for fully automated testing of ultra-thin chips, including the ability to test integrated circuits (ICs) after dicing or in wafer format

06/01/2002  Approval for plant expansion often comes with the stipulation that water demand from the regional supply remains unchanged

05/31/2002  In another step towards freeing chip architects from the tyranny of Manhattan geometries, The X Initiative and ASML have announced the first 0.25-micron diagonal features printed on wafers. An ASML PAS 5500/750 DUV step-and-scan tool equipped for annular illumination successfully patterned diagonally oriented interconnect structures characteristic of 0.18-micron node design rules.

05/31/2002  Santa Clara, CA - Applied Materials will increase procurement of Taiwan-made parts to account for 40% of its global purchasing, according to David Du, GM of the company's Taiwan branch.

05/30/2002  Taipei, Taiwan - An earthquake measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale shook parts of Taiwan on Thursday, the central weather bureau said, though there were no immediate reports of damage.

05/29/2002  May 29, 2002 - Newport Beach, CA and San Jose, CA - Jazz Semiconductor, an independent mixed-signal and RF silicon wafer foundry, has entered into a joint manufacturing and marketing agreement with MEMSCAP, a provider of MEMS solutions.

05/29/2002  Hsinchu, Taiwan - Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) said it might apply in July or August for Taiwan government approval to build its first wafer fab in China.

05/28/2002  Tokyo, Japan, and Geneva, Switzerland - Dai Nippon Printing Co. Ltd. (DNP), a manufacturer of photomasks, and STMicroelectronics, a supplier of semiconductor devices, have formed a strategic alliance for the development and supply of leading edge and high-end photomasks.