Issue

A lot has been written lately about Japan's sluggish recovery. This is in stark contrast to a couple of decades ago, when Japan became the global leader in consumer electronics and DRAMs, and flooded the world with well-built, fuel-efficient automobiles.

Worldwide highlights; USA; Japan; Asia/Pacific; and Europe

It was hard to miss the concentration on CMOS gate oxide technology and system-on-a-chip ICs at this year's IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) in Washington, DC.

The move to the next level of system-on-a-chip (SOC) designs is being thwarted by major problems in the complexity and costs of testing, according to a panel of European executives at the Productronica exhibition in Munich, Germany.

Japanese consortium SELETE reports on evaluations in progress While market conditions have improved enough to give some chipmakers confidence to move ahead with plans for 300mm operations, the Japanese consortium evaluating 300mm tooling says there are still a number of hurdles to be overcome before a complete, production-worthy toolset will be available.

The worldwide market for photomasks is poised for recovery in 2000, according to a recent market research report.*

Semi-automated cleaning system; Copper electroplating technology; Film metrology solutions; Process management software; and more.

Micronic Laser Systems AB, Täby, Sweden, has appointed Jorge Freyer president of its newly incorporated US operation, Micronic Laser Systems Inc....

Sensor and sealing assembly brochure; Ultrahigh vacuum valve brochure; Packaging brochure and selector guide; and more.

A quick way to increase uptime and lower the cost of consumables on an ion implanter is to replace the hot cathode ion gauge in the ion source with a cold cathode gauge.

The stated goal for high-density etchers of completely decoupling plasma generation from ion energy control cannot be achieved with conventional methods of monitoring RF power delivery.

A large, efficient wafer fab is likely to have each RTP step performed on more than one system.

Part One in a Series: Studies of residual linear birefringence in fused-silica and calcium fluoride samples indicate that optical component suppliers and microlithography tool manufacturers and users need to be more aware of this property and its effect on optical lithography progresses.

A method has been developed for measuring the thickness of submonolayer native oxides formed on silicon wafers during rinsing.

New software development tools are having a profound effect on today's semiconductor factory automation and communications projects, particularly object-oriented tools like those used in Microsoft's Windows DNA (distributed internet application) architecture.