August 15, 2012 — The Hybrid Memory Cube Consortium (HMCC), led by Micron Technology Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., released the initial draft of the Hybrid Memory Cube (HMC) interface specification, with the final version planned for end of 2012.
The industry specification will enable adopters to fully develop designs that leverage HMC
August 15, 2012 – BUSINESS WIRE — Kulicke & Soffa Industries, Inc. (K&S, NASDAQ:KLIC) appointed Irene Lee to the role of chief quality officer, reporting to president and CEO Bruno Guilmart. Lee will oversee quality assurance functions across Kulicke & Soffa
August 14, 2012 – Marketwire — Monolithic Power Systems (MPS), fabless analog and mixed signal semiconductor company, implemented yieldWerx Semiconductor Test and Yield Management tools.
MPS had a rapid-RFP write-up and invited multiple semiconductor yield/data storage and analysis vendors for on-site presentations and system evaluations. yieldWerx was selected based on a pre-defined set of criteria, including solution features-fit and technical architecture consideration, etc.
MPS required a robust and centralized system for effective storage, analysis, and sharing of testing and product data received from multiple semiconductor foundries, and assembly and testing facilities in the US and Asia. MPS also looked for best practices to streamline data management, implement quality control measures, optimize and automate yield management and analysis activities through the implementation of a time-proven system solution.
Monolithic Power Systems, Inc. develops and markets proprietary, advanced analog and mixed-signal semiconductors. For more information, visit www.monolithicpower.com
yieldWerx Semiconductor provides the semiconductor industry with enterprise wide test and engineering data management solutions that increase yield, and reduce time to market. yieldWerx supports Klarf, STDF, ATDF, WAT & PCM, CSV and other custom formats. The yieldWerx Database’s WAT & PCM loader has been enhanced to additionally support foundry data formats of asmc, UMC, tsmc & SMIC. To download, visit www.yieldwerx.com
August 9, 2012 – BUSINESS WIRE — Researchers at National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) in southern Taiwan developed a tin/zinc/silver/aluminum/gallium (SnZnAgAlGa) solder alloy for semiconductor packaging, and are now looking for commercialization opportunities.
The solder offers reliability and cost improvements over current interconnect materials, according to Lin Kwang-lung, professor of materials science and engineering at NCKU. Industry partners are looking into turning the alloy into solder balls, so far creating solder balls with 0.76mm, 0.50mm, and 0.30mm diameters. The material
August 9, 2012 — Heavy monsoons moving through the Philippines are causing floods in and around Manila, the capital. Days of flooding have caused at least 19 deaths, according to CNN, and nearly 2 million people are being affected.
The Philippines is a small but growing area for microelectronics manufacturing and packaging facilities. Amkor (AMKR) has over 1.3 million square feet of manufacturing space there, and On Semiconductor (ONNN) operates 2 manufacturing campuses in the Philippines and 1 design center.
The flooding has had no effect on Amkor’s Philippines operations, said the company’s corporate communications representative, noting that some minor transportation issues were the full extent of the impact in their area.
The Philippines is also home to the Bruce Institute of Technology (BIT) microelectronics and storage system training institute for the Philippines, founded by BiTMICRO.
Already, Toshiba Group has said it will make a donation equivalent to 10 million yen to assist relief efforts in the region. Toshiba Information Equipment Philippines, Inc. (TIP), a Toshiba group company in the Philippines, is located in Laguna province, where a large number of evacuation centers have been set up. TIP has delivered about 2,000 bags of relief supplies, containing rice, canned food, water, etc., to evacuees in vicinal community.
As the results of the natural disaster become known for the microelectronics manufacturing industry, we will publish updates on specific companies
August 8, 2012 — Multitest, semiconductor test equipment supplier, added a 2D code reader option to its MT2168 pick-and-place test handler, for package test customers that require 100% device traceability and lot integrity.
The 2D code reader identifies each package, using the package ID to verify the data with the lot information. The handler can be given lot information by manual HMI input or via a scanned bar code.
Additionally, the ID of each device under test (DUT) can be read by the tester via RS232 or IEEE interface. Using the package ID, the test result can be unambiguously assigned to the DUT ID.
This 2D code reader is available as option for the MT2168 and can be retrofitted in the field.
Multitest already has received orders for MT2168 test handlers that include this new option.
Multitest is one of the world
August 8, 2012 — Henkel Electronic Materials developed a new underfill system designed to reduce flip chip package stress by controlling die and substrate warpage, LOCTITE ECCOBOND UF 8840.
Flip chip silicon die and package substrates have different coefficients of thermal expansion (CTE). Flip chip die are increasingly thinner, which can lead to warpage during thermal processing. Upward (smiling) and downward (crying) flip chip warpage can reduce package reliability.
LOCTITE ECCOBOND UF 8840 is compatible with various flux systems, has minimum resin bleed out, is compatible with needle dispensing and non-contact dispensing and has a wide dispense process window. LOCTITE ECCOBOND UF 8840, has been formulated to flow consistently with no voids on flip chip die up to 15mm2. It can be used with a variety of die passivations.
Henkel tested the underfill against competitive materials, reporting less warpage and lower stress. The underfill delivered <80
August 8, 2012 — Tektronix Component Solutions, a custom microelectronics services provider, tapped supply chain aggregator MOSIS to help its customers develop complete, high-performance ASICs with lower early-stage ASIC development costs.
They will implement multi-project wafer runs for device prototyping and package development early in the design cycle. This avoids developing a complete mask set for each ASIC prior to first silicon tape-out. Collaborating early in the design also can improve time-to-packaged-device by designing for the package, external interconnects, and performance.
Also read: ASIC design starts evolve into 3 SoC types
The partnership helps customers especially with low-volume, high-performance devices, said Tom Buzak, president of Tektronix Component Solutions, such as aerospace and defense contractors, medical OEMs, and high-speed communications developers. Tektronix Component Solutions and MOSIS are accredited Trusted Suppliers for aerospace and defense electronics.
Tektronix Component Solutions offers high-performance ASIC design on the front end and turnkey IC packaging services on the back end. Tektronix Component Solutions and MOSIS are experienced working with high-speed ASICs on silicon-germanium (SiGe) processes and other specialty semiconductors.
MOSIS is a low-cost prototyping and small-volume production service for VLSI circuit development.
Tektronix Component Solutions is a microelectronics services provider offering custom design, prototyping, manufacturing, and test services to equipment manufacturers. Tektronix Component Solutions can be found on the Web at component-solutions.tektronix.com.
August 7, 2012 – BUSINESS WIRE — Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) debuted its compliance test application, Agilent N6462A DDR4, for systems using double-data-rate 4 (DDR4) memory.
The test application helps memory design engineers accelerate turn-on and debug of DDR4 systems by automating the execution of physical layer tests, including the new data jitter measurements on Agilent Infiniium 9000, 90000A, 90000 X- and 90000 Q-Series oscilloscopes.
Also read: Performance enhancements for multi-die DRAM packages
The Agilent N6462A DDR4 compliance test application is designed for engineers who work on high-end computing applications. The application provides automated clock, electrical and timing tests. It automatically configures the oscilloscope for each test and generates an HTML report at the end of the test. The report compares the results with the specified test limit and indicates how closely the device passes or fails each test.
Engineers can easily debug signal integrity issues using the N6462A software in conjunction with the new InfiniiScan multichannel and multizone triggering features to successfully separate, read and write data. This unique InfiniiScan feature is available only with Agilent
August 3, 2012 — PCB and IC package design tool maker Zuken updated its CR-5000 design software to version 14, with greater collaboration in FPGA development and targeting high-speed design. Many enhancements have also been included in CR-5000 Lightning, Zuken