08/25/2011 

Micronas (SIX Swiss Exchange: MASN) is acquiring a EUR10 million stake in the X-FAB Silicon Foundries Group, which is also supporting Micronas with 0.18um high-voltage CMOS process with embedded flash manufacturing.

08/24/2011 

The IC industry, which had a phenomenal growth year in 2010, is in a cautious mode under greater macro-economic uncertainty and hesitancy. Some positive milestones are on the horizon, however, shows data within IC Insight's Mid-Year Update, such as the 200 billion IC shipment milestone in 2011, and the $300 billion mark expected in 2013.

08/23/2011 

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued an opinion yesterday vacating the adverse judgment against Camtek in a patent infringement case brought against it by August Technology Corp., now Rudolph Technologies Inc.

08/23/2011 

Semiconductor manufacturing using 12" (300mm) wafers enables scalability for high-volume wafer fab. 300mm production will nearly double from 2010 to 2015 as IDMs and foundries recognize the value of 300mm wafers for mature products, according to IHS.

08/18/2011 

Rubicon Technology (RBCN) completed company-wide enhancements to its proprietary crystal growth furnaces, upgrading to Rubicon Furnace Version ES2-XLG3.0, which produces large-diameter sapphire material with greater automation and higher yields.

08/18/2011 

A rising LED surplus, slowed LED adoption, tighter credit in China, and other factors are converging to stall out MOCVD equipment installs in 2011. Once the LED oversupply is drained off, LED manufacturers will kickstart capacity expansions, likely in 2012, according to IMS Research.

08/17/2011 

Three years after shuttering its East Kilbride operation, Freescale sloughs off the operation to a real estate developer, though it's leasing back some of the site for R&D.

08/17/2011 

CHAD Industries launched the WaferMate300-2SS sorter/stocker workcell with multiple customer installations. The compact wafer buffer modules each hold 150 wafers.

08/16/2011 

Taiwan's Sino-American Silicon Products (SAS) is acquiring Japan's Covalent Materials' (n

08/16/2011 

KLA-Tencor Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) launched the eDR-7000 electron-beam (e-beam) wafer defect review system for chip manufacturing at the 20nm device nodes and below.

08/16/2011 

OPC technologies use aggressive assist features with sub-80nm features on the mask to offer improved process window, and therefore yield. MB-MDP, coupled with new-generation mask-writing equipment, produces overlapping e-beam shots that result in lower shot count.

08/15/2011 

Translucent launched its Si wafer templates commerically for GaN growth, and Bridgelux set a new Lumens/W record for Gan-on-Si LEDs.

08/15/2011 

Applied Materials said it will acquire Varian Semi in a $4.9B deal. VSEA stockholders have now approved the buy.

08/11/2011 

Scott Zafiropoulo explains Ultratech's business and positioning strategies in an interview at SEMICON West, including how the company weathers market cyclicality and prepares for a 450mm wafer-size transition.

08/09/2011 

IC manufacturers are becoming more aggressive with strain engineering as they go from 28nm to more advanced nodes, explains Jeff Hebb, VP of laser product marketing at Ultratech. The company is working on a dual-beam laser-spike annealing to address requirements for 20nm and 14nm.

08/09/2011 

Syn: Robert Newcomb from Qcept Technologies discusses non-visual defects in today's wafer fab processes, at 22nm, and in the advanced nodes below 22nm. As nodes shrink, more defects will escape optical metrology, he predicts.

08/03/2011 

While silicon semiconductor wafer growth was nearly flat year-over-year -- up 1% in Q2 2011 over Q2 2010 -- the unbroken supply chain is impressive in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake and ensuing tsunami in Japan.

08/01/2011 

SATS provider Unisem purchased a LTX-Credence PAx RF Test System for its Sunnyvale, CA, test development center, joining other recent test/wafer equipment purchases at the site.

08/01/2011 

Silicon carbide parts for semiconductor applications rose sharply in 2010, up 38% year-over-year to $200 million, according to Techcet. SiC fell 5% shy of the 2008 peak, and will see continued growth.

07/29/2011 

Ricky Jackson, Texas Instruments (TI), discusses analog IC developments, and how analog and digital semiconductors are pursuing Moore's Law and More than Moore in different ways. He also touches on TI's new fab capacity.