Solid State Technology articles from February 2009

Solid State Technology archives from February 2009

Industry execs at ISS '09 seek rays of hope among clouds of gloom.(Solid State Technology Online)(Industry Strategy Symposium)(Brief article)
February 1, 2009... A much smaller group of industry leaders than usual came to Half Moon Bay, CA, for SEMI's annual Industry Strategy Symposium (ISS) expecting to hear a lot of gloomy forecasts in the midst of a global recession, noted SST editorial director Bob...

LCD manufacturing technologies target increasing transmission.(Soild State Technology Online)(liquid crystal display)(Brief article)
February 1, 2009... Plunging LCD prices (even before the current weak economic environment) are key to stimulating demand, increasing units, and shifting toward larger panel sizes. Amid the intensifying battle to cut costs and maintain margins, LCD producers are...

Don't forget about organic solar cells.(Soild State Technology Online)(Brief article)
February 1, 2009... Inorganic thin-film solar cells have begun to erode the market share of wafer-based silicon cells, while cells based on organic semiconductors have fallen short of some of the more aggressive timetables set by their proponents. Still, notes SST...

Optimizing litho stack materials with hyper-NA exposure tools.(Web Exclusives: ONLINE AT WWW.SOLID-STATE.COM)(Brief article)
February 1, 2009... As lithography pushes past 32nm resolution, the need to optimize stack materials, including resist, bottom anti-reflective coating (BARC), and substrate, has never been greater for IC manufacturers. This article from Brewer Science describes a...

Rapid elimination of microbubbles for photochemical filter startup.(Web Exclusives: ONLINE AT WWW.SOLID-STATE.COM)(Brief article)
February 1, 2009... This paper describes a technique developed to rapidly eliminate microbubbles--which affect yield--during filter startup in a two-stage dispense system. These experimental results from Entegris suggest that by providing a constant pressure to...

Fab spending still a "wild ride" in 2009.(Web Exclusives: ONLINE AT WWW.SOLID-STATE.COM)(Brief article)
February 1, 2009... Spending to equip frontend semiconductor fabs is expected to have plummeted 31% in 2008 to $26 billion, and recent announcements suggest another 30%-40% decline in 2009, resulting in the lowest spending level over the past 10 years. SEMI's...

The case for integration.(electronics packaging)(Editorial)
February 1, 2009... The limits of traditional CMOS scaling are at hand, combined with an unprecedented financial crisis in the electronics industry. It's too early to tell how it will all play out, beyond an extreme focus on cutting costs, but it's clear that work...

Analyst: 2H09 recovery for DRAM ... maybe.(BUSINESS TRENDS)(dynamic random access memory)(Brief article)
February 1, 2009... 2008 was a big game of "chicken" in the DRAM sector, as firms floored their investment and output pedals in 2008 hoping competitors would give up first. But all they did was make the bad times last longer, according to a summary from iSuppli....

ASM International and SAFC Hitech have signed a partnership targeting atomic layer deposition (ALD) source materials.(WORLDWIDE HIGHLIGHTS)
February 1, 2009... ASM International and SAFC Hitech have signed a partnership targeting atomic layer deposition (ALD) source materials for advanced ultrahigh-k (ULK) insulators targeting the 3x manufacturing node.

Rohm & Haas and IBM have agreed to jointly evaluate photoresists and supporting ancillaries and low-temperature photodielectric materials for IBM's 3D packaging technologies.(WORLDWIDE HIGHLIGHTS)
February 1, 2009... Rohm & Haas and IBM have agreed to jointly evaluate photoresists and supporting ancillaries and low-temperature photodielectric materials for IBM's 3D packaging technologies, and also develop new materials for wafer-level and capillary...

EV Group and Brewer Science have established an ultrathin wafer bonding lab in Taiwan.(WORLDWIDE HIGHLIGHTS)(Brief article)
February 1, 2009... EV Group and Brewer Science have established an ultrathin wafer bonding lab in Taiwan to offer localized support in the Asia-Pacific region for 3D IC and other advanced process development programs.

Air Products and Showa Denko are building a new site in Kawasaki, Japan.(WORLDWIDE HIGHLIGHTS)(Air Products and Chemicals Inc.)(Brief article)
February 1, 2009... Air Products and Showa Denko are building a new site in Kawasaki, Japan, to supply etch/ clean gases such as tetrafluoromethane (C[F.sub.4]) and hexafluoroethane ([C.sub.2][F.sub.6]).

EUV/DUV light source developer Energetiq has raised unspecified additional capital in a Series C round of financing.(USA)
February 1, 2009... EUV/DUV light source developer Energetiq has raised unspecified additional capital in a Series C round of financing, with participation from Ushio and Intel Capital.

Hemlock Semiconductor.(USA)
February 1, 2009... Hemlock Semiconductor will invest up to $3.0B to expand polycrystalline silicon production with facility expansion in Michigan and a new site in Tennessee.

Cadence Design Systems.(USA)
February 1, 2009... Cadence Design Systems has appointed Lip-Bu Tan, board member since 2004 and chairman of VC firm Walden International, as its new president/CEO.

SMIC reportedly is mulling selling a stake to chip giant Intel.(ASIAFOCUS)
February 1, 2009... SMIC reportedly is mulling selling a stake to chip giant Intel, which could include cooperation in Intel's 300mm plant in Dalian, China though Intel is denying the rumors.

After initial rebuffs from key shareholders, Panasonic's sweetened offer for Sanyo was accepted.(ASIAFOCUS)
February 1, 2009... After initial rebuffs from key shareholders, Panasonic's sweetened offer for Sanyo was accepted--for an extra [yen] 1 per share.

Shin-Etsu.(ASIAFOCUS)
February 1, 2009... Shin-Etsu has developed a thermally conductive phase-change material that's easier to bond to substrates.

JSR.(ASIAFOCUS)
February 1, 2009... JSR has developed two new insulating materials for chips, one that eliminates the need for photoresist and the other targeting the 32nm node.

UMC.(ASIAFOCUS)(Brief article)
February 1, 2009... The Taiwan High Court has found two former top UMC execs not guilty in alleged illegal funding of Chinese chip company He Jian Technology, following similar rulings from lower courts.

SEMI Europe.(EUROFOCUS)(Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International)(Brief article)
February 1, 2009... Half a million jobs are at risk with the decline in the region's chip industry, according to SEMI Europe, which is appealing to EU and national policymakers for new investments.

E-beam litho tool supplier Vistec, semiconductor research group CEA/Leti, and DFM company D2S are collaborating on refining and validating advanced design-for-e-beam technology.(EUROFOCUS)(Brief article)
February 1, 2009... E-beam litho tool supplier Vistec, semiconductor research group CEA/Leti, and DFM company D2S are collaborating on refining and validating advanced design-for-e-beam technology for the 45nm and 32nm nodes.

ASMI.(EUROFOCUS)
February 1, 2009... ASMI is transferring the remaining operations of its vertical furnace product line from Almere, The Netherlands, to Singapore.

NXP.(EUROFOCUS)
February 1, 2009... NXP CEO Frans van Houten has unexpectedly resigned, replaced by supervisory board member Richard Clemmer.

Steady progress reported on HK+MG for 32nm and beyond.(TECHNOLOGY NEWS)(high-k metal gate)
February 1, 2009... Chipmakers are trying many paths toward high-k metal gate dielectric (HK+MG) CMOS for 32nm and beyond. An assortment of papers at IEDM 2008 in San Francisco, CA, showed steadily improving results even though the routes may vary. Using high-k...

NIST creates toughness test for low-k films.(TECHNOLOGY NEWS)(National Institute of Standards and Technology)(Brief article)
February 1, 2009... Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have updated a well-known technique for measuring material properties to gauge the mechanical strength of low-k films, to help devicemakers better identify interconnect...

Wafer-based solar cells aren't done yet.(TECHNOLOGY NEWS)
February 1, 2009... The solar industry's recent growth spurt has shown that success brings new challenges. Once content to salvage silicon scrap from the integrated circuit industry, wafer-based solar cells have become the largest consumer of high-purity silicon....

EUVL readiness for pilot line insertion.(NEXT-GENERATION LITHOGRAPHY)(extreme ultraviolet lithography)(Cover story)
February 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] To enable the 32nm half-pitch (hp) node, the industry is preparing to introduce different variations of 193nm immersion double-patterning (193i DP) technologies. The choice of lithography technology for high-volume...

Etch performance of Ar/[N.sub.2]/[F.sub.2] for CVD/ALD chamber clean.(ETCHING)
February 1, 2009... [F.sub.2] gas mixtures offer ideal properties as chamber cleaning gas: low dissociation energy and high reactivity, which leads to superior efficiency and ease of abatement. In this work, a new [F.sub.2] gas mixture with a combination ratio of...

Strain characterization: techniques and applications.(METROLOGY)(Technical report)
February 1, 2009... Strain generation in silicon is one of the major knobs used to boost metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistors' (MOSFET) performance [1]. Silicon can be stressed in various directions, resulting in localized strain fields whose...

Defect analysis for PV manufacturing efficiency.(PRODUCT NEWS)(photovoltaic)
February 1, 2009... The Discover Solar software package is a reengineered version of the company's inline defect analysis and data management system to target high-volume photovoltaic production, offering automated process control and the ability to perform root...

Pattern quantification for backend mask manufacturing.(PRODUCT NEWS)
February 1, 2009... The MaskShop, the first in a new series of design-for-manufacturing (DFM) software tools, is custom image processing software for high-end wafer fabs and mask shops, for quantifying pattern mismatches in pre- and post-repaired defect images...

Backup option for photomask processing.(PRODUCT NEWS)
February 1, 2009... The HMXSquare photomask processing system offers what the company claims is the highest first-pass cleaning yield in its segment. The system incorporates redesigned software and new cleaning techniques for a low-risk backup option for advanced...

Mobile, less expensive crane for cleanrooms.(PRODUCT NEWS)
February 1, 2009... Ruger's newest line of stainless steel hydraulic floor cranes offer more versatility than jib cranes and mobility than gantry cranes, and are smaller and less expensive than tow motortype lift trucks. Lifting capacities range from 2000-6000...

LED standards calibration.(PRODUCT NEWS)
February 1, 2009... The Forward Flux Lam Standards are an artifact for makers of LEDs, light fixtures, and displays to maintain and verify 2[pi][pi] measurements of solid state lighting with a standard calibrated directly to the NIST lumen. Available in 400 and...

The technomics of 22nm.(INDUSTRY FORUM)
February 1, 2009... What is the most viable path to enabling the design shrink to 22nm? Will a solution emerge that overcomes the technical and economic hurdles currently being anticipated in both manufacturing and design? EUV is still facing substantial technical...