04/27/2012 

MEI uses Vycom Flametec PVC-C for chemical rinse tanks and other wafer-contacting elements of its process tools, reducing tool-based contamination and protecting fab workers. Bill McGinty, MEI operations manager, discusses the benefits the new-generation plastic for semiconductor fab tools.

04/26/2012 

Due to stronger demand for TSMC’s 28nm technology and the pull-in of a 20nm R&D process line, the foundry raised its estimate for 2012 capital expenditures from $6 billion to $8-8.5 billion.

04/25/2012 

As semiconductor nodes shrink, filter manufacturers and cleanroom designers must offer products that remove the smallest possible particles. While hardware can accomplish much of this, the cleanliness of a room is a function of the motion of the employees in the room.

04/23/2012 

Strong lithography spending, as well as several acquisitions and divestures in the space, brought changes to the critical subsystems of semiconductor/related markets sector, says VLSIresearch. 

04/20/2012 

The corresponding combined revenue opportunity for MBE and MOCVD is estimated to be around US $6.1 billion for the 2012-2020 periods, shows Yole Développement.

04/20/2012 

With a book-to-bill ratio of 1.13, North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment saw a sixth climb in the ratio, which has steadily improved since it hit 0.71 in September 2011, shows SEMI.

04/18/2012 

The 23rd Annual SEMI Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Conference (ASMC 2012) will be held May 15-17 in Saratoga Springs, New York. The conference will feature presentations of more than 85 peer-reviewed manuscripts covering critical process technologies and fab productivity. This year’s event features a panel discussion on “Competing for R&D Dollars,” moderated by Solid State Technology Editor-in-Chief Pete Singer.

04/17/2012 

Brewer Science released new wafer processing equipment for thin wafer separation and post-debond cleaning during compound semiconductor device processing: a thermal debonder, separation tool, and megasonic cleaning system.

04/16/2012 

Veeco Instruments Inc. debuted the SPECTOR-HT ion beam deposition tool for thin-film deposition in optical products, such as lasers, telecommunications chips, and more.

04/16/2012 

Blogger Mike Fury reports from the MRS Spring 2012 meeting in San Francisco. Highlights from the fourth day: electronic skin, energy storage with nanowires, printable inks, gas sensing, inkjet printing, semiconductor polymers for organic devices, CNTs, OFETs, touch screen fabrics, and the coffee breaks.

04/13/2012 

Intel Corporation announced 9 winners of the company's Supplier Continuous Quality Improvement (SCQI) award for outstanding commitment to quality and performance excellence.

04/12/2012 

Entegris (NASDAQ:ENTG), contamination control and handling system supplier to the semiconductor and microelectronics industries, will build the Entegris i2M Center for Advanced Materials Science in Bedford, MA, near its headquarters in Billerica. i2M denotes ideas to market.

04/12/2012 

The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Japan is using its AIXTRON SE BM 300 system to grow monolayer graphene on 300mm wafers.

04/12/2012 

Blogger Mike Fury reports from the MRS Spring 2012 meeting in San Francisco. Highlights from the third day: leakage and TDDB in low- ? dielectrics, flexible energy storage and conversion, Mn capping layers and diffusion barriers, hard masks for Cu interconnects, nanogenerators, Cu in RF, flexible temperature sensors, NEMS and MEMS in HDD, ZnO nanostructures, and various aspects of CMP.

04/12/2012 

Intel Corporation announced its 2011 Intel Preferred Quality Supplier (PQS) awards, selecting 19 of its thousands of suppliers. Two suppliers received Intel’s Achievement Award.

04/11/2012 

This SEMI News and Views blog, written by Jonathan Davis, president, SEMI Semiconductor Business, covers SEMI's efforts with government and policy-shapers in the US and Europe.

04/11/2012 

Blogger Mike Fury reports from the MRS Spring 2012 meeting in San Francisco. Highlights from the second day: OLED TFT displays, single transistor DRAMs, silicon photonic wires, CNTs, 3D optical interconnects, graphene for RF and sensing, transparent ZnO, epidermal electronic systems, stretchable electronics, ultra-low-k dielectrics, patterning of electroceramics, PRAM (an alternative to NRAM), and inkjet printing of superconducting films.

04/10/2012 

Edwards Limited uncrated the STP-iXR1606 series magnetically-levitated turbo-molecular pumps (TMP) with fully integrated onboard controllers. Its new rotary design improves throughput by about 40% at high gas flow rates; nearly 90% percent in maximum gas flow.

04/10/2012 

The 2012 Symposia on VLSI Technology and Circuits, this June in Honolulu, HI, will foster joint interactions among device technologists and circuit/system designers with overlapping technical programs of both symposia, and joint focus sessions on important topics.

04/10/2012 

centrotherm thermal solutions, a semiconductor-manufacturing-focused subsidiary of centrotherm photovoltaics AG, joined the SEMATECH Front End Processes (FEP) program, and will work with SEMATECH to develop low-temperature processing techniques for next-generation logic and memory devices.