01/22/2010 

ASM exec Shawn Thomas explains to SST how the company's new PowerFill process, which enables void-free filling of deep trenches with doped, epitaxial silicon, addresses needs for smaller die sizes and on-state resistance of power management devices.

01/19/2010 

Veeco exec Jim Jenson explains the workings of the company's new MOCVD tool targeting high-volume high-brightness LED manufacturing, a market expected to triple in the next four years to $15B.

01/13/2010 

X-Fab Semiconductor Foundries AG and semiconductor printing startup Semprius have agreed to a partnership for turnkey silicon wafer fabrication, under which X-Fab will invest $1.5M in the company and become its designated foundry.

01/11/2010 

A two-step plasma cleaning process proves to be a fast and effective method of maintaining a high uptime and high productivity for ALD of Ti- and Ta-based electrode materials, reports Aviza Technology and Pivotal Systems.

01/08/2010 

Fabless giant Qualcomm has made two deals to reserve leading-edge semiconductor manufacturing capacity: one with longtime partner TSMC, and the other with upstart GlobalFoundries.

12/28/2009 

A flexible, forward-thinking platform will be vital to meet cost and productivity challenges of 450mm and beyond. John Klawender and Terry Bluck from Intevac describe the concept and capabilities of a universal platform, with test and system modeling results.

12/22/2009 

Nagesh Vodrahalli, VP of technology & manufacturing at Allvia, discussed some of the issues in developing through-silicon via (TSV) technologies with Solid State Technology/Advanced Packaging in conjunction with his presentation at the recent 3-D Architectures for Semiconductor Integration and Packaging conference.

12/21/2009 

Semiconductor manufacturing equipment demand slowed a bit in November but still kept up a pace of growth, lending more weight to the outlook for improved fab spending heading into 2010, according to the latest data from SEMI and SEAJ.

12/18/2009 

Microbridging defects have emerged as one of the top yield detractors in immersion lithography at the 32nm node and beyond. This study from Entegris, IMEC, and Sokudo examines the effect of point-of-use filtration and how it is best used to mitigate microbridging defectivity.

12/15/2009 

Researchers at Stanford disclosed their latest work at this year's International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) on combining carbon nanotubes (CNT) and logic circuits to devise new techniques for preventing flaws and building multilayer chip prototypes. The transistors are said to be grouped in the same "cascading" sequences as for computational logic and memory, with processes compatible with standard industrial-scale VLSI (very large scale integration) manufacturing.

12/07/2009 

Ten equipment and materials suppliers have received top nods from top foundry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) for contributions over the past year.

12/03/2009 

Scottish foundry Semefab says it is investing £6.6M (US $11M) ina new wafer fab for frontend processing of MEMS structures.

12/03/2009 

Researchers at Cornell say they've come up with a way to make graphene devices more simply, by growing the material directly onto a silicon wafer.

12/01/2009 

X-Fab Silicon Foundries Group has agreed to transfer ownership of its wafer fab in Plymouth, UK, to Swindon, UK-based Plus Semi, reuniting two former Plessey operations and avoiding feared shutdown/layoffs.

12/01/2009 

Applied Materials is making a splash at this year's SEMICON Japan with the release of three new tools: a dual-wafer CMP platform, a system for NiSi contact-layer annealing, and an integrated abatement/pumping system for emissions control.

11/30/2009 

Presentations at this year's International Symposium on Microelectronics (IMAPS, San Jose, Nov. 1-5) included discussion of TSV/3D integration challenges and temporary bonding steps qualified for different process flows, and a wafer-level packaging (WLP) encapsulation process and stacked multi-chip package (MCP) for a MEMS variable capacitor and control IC chip.

11/20/2009 

Researchers at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Labs have come up with a tool to gauge a semiconductor facility's energy and water consumption, and compare against similar facilities, to identify areas of improvement -- all toward the pursuit of a "greener" industry.

11/20/2009 

The good news continues to shine in semiconductor equipment demand for suppliers in North America and Japan, according to the latest monthly data from SEMI and the SEAJ, though some softness may warrant some attention heading into the holiday season.

11/18/2009 

Toshiba Corp. says it has developed a high-resolution photoresist specifically for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, viable to the 20nm-scale generation.

11/17/2009 

Execs from Applied Materials and Semitool discuss the motivations behind AMAT's $364M acquisition, to solidify and widen a presence in two key growth segments: advanced packaging and copper interconnects for memory.