Solid State Technology articles from December 2008

Solid State Technology archives from December 2008

IEDM, MRS.(SST ONLINE)
December 1, 2008... Watch for reports from SST editors about details and insights into new processes and technologies being unveiled at two major events this month: the Materials Research Society's (MRS) fall meeting in Boston, and International Electron Devices...

ISMI Manufacturing Week, IMEC's annual review.(SST ONLINE)(International Sematech Manufacturing Initiative)(Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... SST's Bob Haavind was at October's International SEMATECH Manufacturing Initiative's (ISMI) annual gathering of fab folks, where discussions revolved heavily on what fabs and toolmakers are doing during this downturn to make fab operations...

Navigant, Gartner, Displaybank experts shed light on solar/PV tech.(SST ONLINE)(photovoltaic technologies )(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... Recent industry events have provided a forum for analysts to opine on the future of PV technology, both thin-film and crystalline. Experts gave further analysis and opinions to SST's Debra Vogler.

Seagate, Fujitsu discuss SSD strategies.(SST ONLINE)(Seagate Technology L.L.C.)(Fujitsu America Inc.)(state storage devices)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... Seagate Technology and Fujitsu have been biding their time the last few years with respect to solid-state storage devices (SSD). SST's Debra Vogler spoke with experts of both companies about results from their evaluation of potential market...

FvT: Ziptronix joins low-cost quest for true 3D-IC.(SST ONLINE)(Francoise von Trapp)(integrated chip)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... SST/Advanced Packaging's Francoise von Trapp analyzes the technical details of Ziptronix's direct bond interconnect technology (DBI), which the company claims enables low-cost wafer-to-wafer or chip-to-wafer bonding without high-temperature...

A measurement method for wafer-level 1/f noise.(Web Exclusives: ONLINE AT WWW.SOLID-STATE.COM)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... In MOSFETs used for analog and RF circuits, 1/f noise is an important figure of merit. In this online exclusive, researchers at Keithley Instruments and Peking U. describe a new method for measuring the 1/f noise at the wafer-level, and...

Mining high-precision CD-STEM data for TFH manufacturing.(Web Exclusives: ONLINE AT WWW.SOLID-STATE.COM)(scanning transmission electron microscope)(thin film head lithography)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... CD-STEM technology has been successfully deployed in the thin-film magnetic head wafer production environment where it has generated immediate, measurable benefits in effective yield management. Western Digital and FEI scientists explain the...

Reality, FUD, and vision.(Web Exclusives: ONLINE AT WWW.SOLID-STATE.COM)(fear, uncertainty, doubt)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... We're in the fifth year of a major inflection point in the semiconductor market, and the most exciting and challenging time in the industry's history--but there's still a lot of FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) that's drowning out all the vision....

Slowly, surely, EUV moves toward reality.(Web Exclusives: ONLINE AT WWW.SOLID-STATE.COM)(extreme ultraviolet lithography)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... EUV lithography is still a long way from manufacturing, not expected for mass production until at least 2012 and the 22nm node. But early work with alpha tools is giving a much better understanding of what the platform's capabilities will be,...

Photovoltaics World launch.(Editorial)
December 1, 2008... We have been covering the photovoltaics manufacturing industry for quite some time in Solid State Technology and a variety of other PennWell brands, most notably Renewable Energy World, Laser Focus World, Vision Systems Design and Power...

Analysts: "long, dark season" ahead.(BUSINESS TRENDS)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... Many OEMs held off on the usual holiday-season production ramp amid expectations of weak consumer demand due to the global economic crisis, and this has created a ripple effect all along the electronic systems supply chain from ODMs and EMS...

SMIC says it will suspend expansion plans in 2009, lowering capex to ~$200M from ~790M in 2008, and is still seeking investors.(WORLDWIDE HIGHLIGHTS)(Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp.)(capital expenditures)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... SMIC says it will suspend expansion plans in 2009, lowering capex to ~$200M from ~790M in 2008, and is still seeking investors. UMC, meanwhile, is cutting back capex plans over the next several quarters--and revealed that 4Q08 utilization could...

Brion Technologies and NuFlare Technology will jointly develop products for 32nm node and below mask equipment.(WORLDWIDE HIGHLIGHTS)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... Brion Technologies and NuFlare Technology will jointly develop products for 32nm node and below mask equipment incorporating Brion's Tachyon verification technology and NuFlare's reticle writing and inspection systems.

Entegris is closing the larger of its two manufacturing plants in Chaska, MN, shifting work to Asia and cutting 7% of its global workforce in a bid to shave $6M-$8M/year starting in 2010.(USA)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... Entegris is closing the larger of its two manufacturing plants in Chaska, MN, shift ing work to Asia and cutting 7% of its global workforce in a bid to shave $6M-$8M/year starting in 2010. Cadence Design Systems is laying off 12% of its...

An ex-AMD employee is being charged with stealing trade secrets from his previous employer, Intel.(USA)
December 1, 2008... An ex-AMD employee is being charged with stealing trade secrets from his previous employer, Intel. The former worker in Intel's Hudson, MA site claims he was downloading the documents--reportedly secret/classified documents including CAD...

Panasonic is repositioning a proposal for Sanyo Electric to take over the ~70% stake owned by Goldman Sachs and Japanese banks Sumitomo Mitsui and Daiwa Securities.(ASIAFOCUS)
December 1, 2008... Panasonic is repositioning a proposal for Sanyo Electric to take over the ~70% stake owned by Goldman Sachs and Japanese banks Sumitomo Mitsui and Daiwa Securities, would bolster Panasonic's battery and solar areas, and give Sanyo financial...

Meanwhile, after an initial offer and heavy speculation, Samsung has abandoned its $26/ share (~$5.85B) buyout offer for SanDisk.(ASIAFOCUS)(Samsung Company Ltd.)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... Meanwhile, after an initial offer and heavy speculation, Samsung has abandoned its $26/ share (~$5.85B) buyout offer for SanDisk--which then questioned its suitor's motives in the first place.

UMC.(ASIAFOCUS)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... UMC claims it has the first fully functional 28nm SRAM chips made by a foundry, utilizing technologies including a high-k/metal gate stack, double-patterning immersion lithography, and strained silicon.

Soitec.(ASIAFOCUS)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... Soitec has inaugurated its "Pasir Ris 1" 300mm wafer fab in Singapore. Total investment is expected to be ~50 million Euros at full capacity of 1M wafers/year.

AMEC.(ASIAFOCUS)
December 1, 2008... Startup AMEC has secured $58M in new funding, which will be used solely to support work on its DRIE etch tool.

Qimonda.(EUROFOCUS)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... Qimonda says it has ramped to commercial production volumes of 65nm 1Gbit DDR2 DRAM chips using its buried wordline technology, achieved first yields at 46nm, and taped out 2G DDR3 chips based on the technology.

Wacker Chemie.(EUROFOCUS)(Nunchritz, Germany)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... Wacker Chemie has laid out plans to build a new 10,000 metric ton polysilicon facility (dubbed "Poly 9") in Nunchritz, Germany, with first material to be ready by 1Q11 and full production achieved by the end of that year.

Haze and sun for mask symposium.(TECHNOLOGY NEWS)
December 1, 2008... Ever since lithographers began exposing with 193nm DUV light, photomasks have accumulated photochemical haze that eventually congeals into crystalline defects. At this year's SPIE Symposium on Photomask Technology (October 6-10 in Monterey,...

Inside Oxford/TDI's HVPE technique for InGaN growth.(TECHNOLOGY NEWS)
December 1, 2008... TDI, an Oxford Instruments company, recently announced that it has developed a hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) technology that is based on a Ga[Cl.sub.3]-In[Cl.sub.3]-N[H.sub.3] system. The new process is able to control the growth rate of...

KLA-Tencor gets the noise out with latest plasma monitor.(TECHNOLOGY NEWS)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... KLA-Tencor recently introduced the PlasmaVolt X2 for measurement of plasma chamber conditions in semiconductor wafer processing systems. The new sensor wafer measures above-the-wafer effects in a plasma chamber, downloading the data after it is...

High-k etch performance for next-generation logic gate stacks.(GATE-STACK ENGINEERING)(Technical report)
December 1, 2008... Conventional Moore's law scaling is no longer adequate to meet transistor speed requirements for the 45nm technology node and beyond. In conjunction with continued transistor gate length scaling, conventional polysilicon gates are being...

Using combinatorial science to qualify new processes and materials.(MODELING/SIMULATION)
December 1, 2008... Combinatorial science entails highly automated testing in which many different types of compounds (or multiple variations of materials) are evaluated simultaneously under controlled conditions. Originally adopted as a means of reducing...

III-V MOSFETs for future CMOS transistor applications.(MATERIALS)(metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors)(complementary metal oxide semiconductors)
December 1, 2008... CMOS has enjoyed decades of prosperity with reliance on core materials, such as silicon for the transistor body, and silicon dioxide for the gate dielectric. Yet focus has shift ed during the last decade with the introduction of new materials,...

Enhanced litho scanner.(PRODUCT NEWS)
December 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Twinscan NXTS features a new planar wafer stage design that incorporates new materials to reduce weight by 66% vs. previous generation Twinscan systems; a new positioning measurement system improves overlay...

Single-wafer cleaning system.(PRODUCT NEWS)
December 1, 2008... The Orion single-wafer cleaning system has a unique closed-chamber design that the company says addresses several cleaning-related issues in 32nm and 22nm manufacturing, notably reduction of material loss during photoresist stripping after...

Dual-purpose 300mm dicing frame prober.(PRODUCT NEWS)
December 1, 2008... The WDF 12DP is designed to address increased demand for probing ultrathin and diced wafers, and wafer-level testing of chip-scale and wafer-level packaging, stacked, and 3D technologies, as well as KGD testing of ultrathin wafers, singulated...

Photomask pattern generator.(PRODUCT NEWS)
December 1, 2008... The FPS5300 is based on Micronic's pattern generators for display photomasks, adapted for a wide range of sizes and feature resolutions. A new submicron writing level addresses more photomask applications with high resolution and image control....

300mm ALD system.(PRODUCT NEWS)
December 1, 2008... The S300 atomic layer deposition system extends the company's line of ALD tools to handling substrates up to 300mm in size. Like its predecessors (S100/S200), it offers configurations of up to six precursor lines and a compact ozone generator,...

Thermal control for in-Si analysis.(PRODUCT NEWS)
December 1, 2008... The Allegheny is a moveable diamond heat spreader for delivering precise thermal control. Temperature characterization range is -65[degrees]C to +125[degrees]C, with the ability to handle devices dissipating >300W without liquid or water...

Silicon drift detector.(PRODUCT NEWS)
December 1, 2008... The X-Max silicon drift detector provides a large area detector over 10x the solid angle of conventional EDS detectors, translating into 10x faster data gathering and at 10x lower beam currents. Sizes range from 20[mm.sup.2] up to 80mm2;...

Better adhesion for solar, laser apps.(PRODUCT NEWS)
December 1, 2008... The Sharkskin aims to improve process residue adhesion through highly controlled texturing of ceramic component surfaces, replacing traditional methods of roughening via grit blasting or twin-wire arc sprays. Two-fold adhesion improvement is...

Moore's Law--the z-dimension: a decade later.(INDUSTRY FORUM)(Column)
December 1, 2008... Almost 10 years ago (January 2000) I wrote an article for SST titled "Moore's Law--the Z-dimension". The call was to shift focus towards Moore's Law in the z-dimension and then invest in affordable, vertical miniaturization and integration,...