Issue

What will do the most to propel national economies forward over the next couple of decades? In the US, as our "leaders" debated over the right formula to stimulate the economy...

Your December editorial "Note to US media: Use your heads!" was well said. My frustration level is high every time I hear "secrets" being given away on the news. I wish there were more in the media industry taking the same stance...

Worldwide sales of semiconductors rose to $10.6 billion for the month of November, an increase of 1.6% month-over-month from the $10.44 billion posted in October, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA)...

Building on earlier reported work, researchers at NASA's Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, OH, believe they have found keys to making more reliable wide bandgap semiconductor devices used in optoelectronics, such as the blue and green LEDs used in stadium and building displays.

Looking for an application that will bring the IC industry out of its current slump? Consider the projected growth of broadband and, in particular, the microelectronics necessary to establish "residential gateways" and "simple-to-use home networks."

We have a concrete plan for a new kind of semiconductor fab that can efficiently produce small runs of many different types of system chips. With this new agile minifab approach, a chipmaker could turn a profit with a facilities investment of only $83 million (¥10 billion)...

IC fabrication on 300mm wafers will require complete rethinking, as device manufacturers recognize that full automation and standardization are key to reducing cost and improving performance.

Modular inspection system; Front-opening shipping box; Large-area stud bumper for 300mm; Decoupled plasma nitridation...

A listing of industry events, covering February to May 2002.

Oven and furnace catalog; Trace moisture sensor data; Compound compatibility and seal design application guide ...

Optical lithography will be replaced by a nonoptical technique at some point for device shrinks to 35nm. Extreme ultraviolet lithography is currently showing the most promise. However, issues such as power scaling and cost of consumables, necessary for a production-level source, are still works in progress.

Cleaning processes are a fundamental step in the production of micro-electronic products. Because of inherently small geometries, metallic contamination on the wafers can seriously degrade device performance.

Several laboratory techniques can detect copper (Cu) contamination. The most common nondestructive chemical analysis method is total x-ray reflection fluorescence (TXRF).

Although the semiconductor industry is currently experiencing one of the worst downturns in its history, the one thing we know for sure is that this too shall pass. And when it does, IC manufacturers must be ready to respond to rapidly escalating demand for the leading-edge chips that will power our electronic future.

China's emergence as a center for chip manufacturing has been heralded for more than a decade. Now it is finally happening. China today, especially Shanghai, is like Taiwan and Hsinchu a decade ago: It is up and coming and will definitely make its mark on the world.

In our last semiannual foundry watch, Asian silicon wafer foundries were encouraged for the long term, but sitting on a short-term busted rosy view, in fact the worst slump ever — a 5.7% downturn — in the short history of the silicon wafer foundry business [1].

Manufacturing work-in-process (WIP) is an aspect of supply chain management that Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc. has fine-tuned using RosettaNet standards in conjunction with a customer, TSMC, and TSMC's customer, Motorola.