Issue

Writing anything about the economy these days is like trying to hit a moving target (a quickly dropping target I might add) so let me first say “thank you” to the many forecasters, analysts, and company executives who had the gumption to provide their perspectives for this forecast issue.

New memory concepts and the latest 32nm CMOS with metal gates and high-k dielectrics were highlights of the 2008 International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) in San Francisco, Dec. 15-17.

Double patterning immersion lithography will be the dominant manufacturing paradigm at 32nm, and ASML announced at SEMICON Japan (Dec. 3) a new exposure tool designed for the most litho-intensive version of it: LELE, or “double-dip.”

Sizing up a TSV market beyond the early adopters—e.g., image sensors, server DRAM, and communication/mobile Internet devices—Applied Materials is collaborating with material and equipment suppliers (and others) to ensure the full readiness of TSV implementation with a target cost <$150/wafer.

The V6000 product line enables testing of both flash and DRAM memory on the same automated test equipment platform by changing to a new test program and probe card.

Dyneon’s Adona emulsifier eliminates the use of ammonium perfluorooctanoate (APFO)???a salt derived from perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA)???from production of fluoropolymers, which the EPA has mandated to be eliminated in 2015.

The hard disk drive (HDD) industry has been evaluating lithographically patterned media as a vehicle to maintain the ∼40% per year growth in areal density, to well beyond 1Tb/in².

Technology-driven growth is still possible in the current downturn, according to SST’s poll of executives from across the semiconductor manufacturing supply chain.

During the first half of 2008, the chip market held up well, better in fact than many predicted, but come the second half, the repercussions of the US sub-prime disaster had spread to the bigger global financial system, tipping the US and Europe into recession.

In the second quarter of 2008, 300mm wafers passed 200mm wafers as the highest production volume wafer size on a sq. in. basis [1]. Announcements of 200mm fab closings by memory producers in favor of lower cost 300mm production seem to come almost daily.