Issue

Once upon a time, some very clever engineers found that by fiddling with sand and light beams (and a few chemicals) they could build wonderful things.

Worldwide semiconductor sales climbed to $36.9 billion in 3Q02, an 8.2% sequential increase from the $34.1 billion in revenue reached in 2Q02 and a 21% rise from the corresponding period of 2001, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA).

A technical team from five national labs, a private company, and two universities have set out to create a MEMS to help some who are blind to see.

The atmosphere of the 22nd BACUS Photomask Symposium in Monterey, CA, was oddly upbeat, with a record 156 papers and high attendance, in spite of depressed industry conditions.

After an unpromising performance in 2001, the Bluetooth market has improved in 2002.

To those dedicated to the control of molecular contamination, 193nm lithography presents its own set of demanding challenges.

AMD and SEZ have been collaborating to implement an SEZ-developed, single-wafer inorganic process at AMD's Fab 25.

The International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS) outlines the need for a reduction in factory cycle time from 1.4 to 1.1 days by 2010 — a 27% improvement.

The objective of spike annealing used for shallow junction formation is to achieve maximum electrical activation with minimal dopant diffusion.

One of the more established final steps in fabricating ICs with circuit redundancy, such as memory, involves laser processing of fuses (or links) to disable defective circuit elements and replace them with good redundant ones [1].