Solid State Technology articles from January 2002

Solid State Technology archives from January 2002

Time for "quick-and-dirty" metrology? (Editorial).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... For years the industry has talked about putting metrology instruments into process tools, or at least hooking them up in-line, so that wafers could be monitored either during processing or right afterwards. This could prevent running a new...

Home stretch sees overall positive signs. (Worldwide Highlights).(semiconductor industry reports October figures)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 1, 2002... Numbers rose across the board as the industry headed toward the end of 2001, with equipment orders, chip sales, and front-end capacity utilization all up for the month of October. According to initial reports from Semiconductor Equipment...

Electroglas Inc. (USA).(forms EG Soft, new software division)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Electroglas Inc., San Jose, CA, has formed a new software division, EG Soft. EG Soft incorporates the development and support organizations of Electroglas' existing software groups, including its sort floor automation group and subsidiaries...

Motorola Inc. (USA).(forms business unit Thoughtbeam Inc.)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Motorola Inc., Shaumburg, IL, plans to commercialize its compound semiconductor-on-silicon technology by creating Thoughtbeam Inc., a focused business unit and wholly owned subsidiary. Thoughtbeam launches operations with a management team led...

CVD Equipment Corp. (USA).(plans to lease and buy facility)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 1, 2002... CVD Equipment Corp., Ronkonkoma, NY, has entered into a contract to lease and buy a 50,000 [ft.sup.2] facility on four acres in Ronkonkoma. The facility will eventually replace the company's current 20,000 [ft.sup.2] rented facility and provide...

Genmark Automation Inc. (USA).(receives patent for robotic transport system)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Manufacturer of precision robotic transport systems Genmark Automation Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been issued US patent no. 6,297,611 for a robot that has independent end-effector linkage motion. The robot combines range of motion, compact...

Vishay Intertechnology Inc. (USA).(acquires General Semiconductor Inc.)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Vishay Intertechnology Inc., Malvern, PA, has completed the acquisition of General Semiconductor Inc. Vishay's acquisition of General Semi includes its complete range of rectifiers, transient voltage suppressors, small-signal transistors,...

Air Liquide America Corp. (USA).(acquires new facilities in California and Pennsylvania)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Air Liquide America Corp., Houston, TX, has purchased two nitrous oxide production facilities, one in Richmond, CA, and the other in Donora, PA. The capacity of the new plants will allow Air Liquide to ship nitrous oxide throughout North...

Cadence Design Systems. (USA).(plans to acquire Silicon Perspective Corp.)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Cadence Design Systems, San Jose, CA, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Silicon Perspective Corp., a design technology firm in Santa Clara, CA. The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Cadence expected the acquisition...

Uniroyal Technology Corp. (USA).(sells specialty adhesives unit)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 1, 2002... Uniroyal Technology Corp., Sarasota, FL, has completed the sale of its specialty adhesives segment, with total proceeds of some $21.6 million. Cash realized at closing was some $14.6 million, excluding transactional costs.

Simplex Solutions Inc. (USA).(receives patents for its ways to model noise in integrated circuit substrates)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Simplex Solutions Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been awarded two US patents for its methods of modeling noise in IC substrates. The technologies defined in these patents are integrated within Simplex's SubstrateStorm substrate noise analysis tool.

The Dow Chemical Co. (USA).(enters licensing agreement with Cambridge display Technology)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... The Dow Chemical Co., Midland, MI, and Cambridge Display Technology (CDT), Cambridge, UK, have reached an agreement licensing CDT's polyfluorene light-emitting polymer technology to Dow. The agreement, which is only for material IP, provides...

The National Research Council. (USA).(Canadian research facility for nanotechnology planned)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 1, 2002... The Canadian federal and Alberta provincial governments have signed an agreement to invest $120 million in the first Canadian research facility for nanotechnology, to be located at the University of Alberta, Edmonton. Construction is expected...

Aixtron. (Europe).(receives funding for production tool development for ferroelectric devices)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Aixtron, Aachen, Germany, has secured funding from the European Union for a project to develop a production tool for ferroelectric devices on 300mm wafers. The amount of funding was not released. Within this project, an existing process module...

Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (Europe).(product distribution agreement with Avant! Corp.)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Tower Semiconductor Ltd., Migdal Haemek, Israel, and provider of physical foundation IP libraries Avant! Corp., Fremont, CA, have signed an agreement under which Avant! will develop, support, and distribute library products for Tower's...

Chartered Semiconductor Europe. (Europe).(opens new office in Stockholm, Sweden and names Stefan Ahlquist new director of Northern Europe)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Chartered Semiconductor Europe, which is a subsidiary of Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing, Singapore, has opened an office in Stockholm, Sweden, to cover the Nordic market area. Stefan Ahlquist has been named director of Northern Europe...

Dainippon Screen Mfg. Co. (Japan).(and Kobe Steel Ltd. develop semiconductor production machine)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Dainippon Screen Mfg. Co. and Kobe Steel Ltd. will jointly develop a next-generation semiconductor production chip cleaning and drying machine capable of making a chip with a circuit linewidth of 7Onm. The companies started conducting joint...

Toppan Printings. (Japan).(Selete research consortium)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Japan's research consortium Selete plans to start its Asuka project research at corporate labs, instead of waiting for the new government cleanroom in Tsukuba to be finished next spring. Besides Selete's Yokohama site, which already had its...

Tokyo Electron Ltd. (Japan).(to create new company, Tokyo Electron (Shanghai) Ltd., in Shanghai, China)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Tokyo Electron Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, plans to establish a new company in Shanghai to improve its customer support system for its semiconductor production equipment. The new company will commence operations in April and will be called Tokyo...

Infineon Technologies. (Japan).(and Sony Corp. develop secure ICs)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Infineon Technologies, Munich, Germany, and Sony Corp., Tokyo, Japan, will jointly develop secure ICs for contactless chip card systems. The companies expect that the ICs will be available by the end of this year. They will be integrated as...

Silicon Integrated Systems Corp. (Japan).(semiconductor technology contract with Toshiba)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Silicon Integrated Systems Corp. (SIS), Taiwan, has signed a cooperation agreement with Toshiba, Tokyo, Japan, in which SIS is authorized to use Toshiba's metal-oxide-semiconductor CMOS technology and related supporting technologies. SIS was...

Intel Corp. (Asia Pacific).(to build center in Bangalore, India)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Intel Corp., Santa Clara, CA, plans to invest $25 million to set up a new technology development center in Bangalore, India. Intel currently employs 500 engineers in six locations at Bangalore, and plans to consolidate the majority of its...

ChipPAC. (Asia Pacific).(receives preferred customs status from China)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... ChipPAC, Fremont, CA, has been selected by the Chinese government for a premier import classification, the company said. This classification enables ChipPAC to cut one to two days from traditional inbound customs clearance times. The process is...

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (Asia Pacific).(expands capacity; to issue corporate bonds)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Hsinchu, Taiwan, said its board of directors has approved an additional T$7.86 billion outlay to expand the capacity of its Fab 12 to 12,000 300mm wafers/month from the current 10,000. The board has also...

Curing blindness, limitations of CMOS are topics at MNC. (Technology News).
January 1, 2002... The International Microprocesses and Nanotechnology Conference (MNC) is Asia's premiere academic technology symposium, and this year's version did not disappoint, with leading-edge topics such as the limitations of CMOS, implantable electronics...

Diagonals: A shorter path for interconnect. (Technology News).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Increased complexity and functionality in semiconductor devices has placed a greater emphasis on interconnects, where delays have become one of the most significant factors affecting chip performance. Efforts to minimize interconnect delay...

Update from China: Taiwan talent builds entrepreneurial foundries. (Asia Focus).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 1, 2002... Who would have thought it only a few months ago? China seems to be growing an entrepreneurial semiconductor foundry industry thanks to the success of an aggressive drive to recruit industry talent from Taiwan. "I've been around this...

MEMS: A fast growing niche. (Market Watch).(micro-electromechanical systems)(Industry Overview)
January 1, 2002... The market potential for micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS), like everything else in high tech, has been in flux. Yet, a recent forecast (Table 1) indicates opportunities still exist across a broad segment of applications. One category,...

Implant and process challenges on the: ITRS front-end process roadmap. (ION Implantation).(International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors)(Industry Overview)
January 1, 2002... Several key changes in front-end processing (FEP) requirements for the 2001 ITRS (see table; also see "Reading the 2001 ITRS tables" on p.33) have been precipitated by a more complete effort to model the transistor. This effort was driven by...

The end of optical on the: ITRS lithography roadmap. (Lithography).(International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors, optical lithography)(Industry Overview)
January 1, 2002... The smaller features and tighter tolerances in the 2001 ITRS deliver the message that the industry is clearly approaching the physical limits of optical lithography (Table 1). Without some invention that significantly changes the way optical...

The challenges in the: ITRS interconnect roadmap. (Interconnects).(International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors)(Industry Overview)
January 1, 2002... The 2001 ITRS continues to reflect the hierarchical wiring design trend featuring reduced aspect ratios (as an alternative means of reducing capacitance) and less aggressive scaling of the dielectric (see the table). The latter change expands...

Key challenges and directions in the: 2001 factory integration roadmap. (Factory Integration).(International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors)
January 1, 2002... Successfully realizing the potential of ITRS targets requires an integrated factory that takes full advantage of its technologies to achieve device feature size reductions, near 100% yield, wafer-size increases, and other manufacturing...

The crosscut challenges of the: 2001 ITRS metrology roadmap. (Metrology).(International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors)
January 1, 2002... Metrology continues to be challenged by the accelerated introduction of new technology generations as well as new materials and structures (see the table). In addition, new measurement requirements, such as 3-D control for transistor gates and...

Wafer-level challenges within the: ITRS test roadmap. (Water-Level Test).(International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Wafer probe technologies face complex electrical and mechanical challenges driven by product specifications, test implementation requirements, test productivity goals, and reduced test cost demands (see table). Across the IC spectrum, these...

An innovative approach to: wafer-level MEMS packaging. (Packaging/Assembly).(micro-electro mechanical systems)
January 1, 2002... OVERVIEW A new wafer-level chip-scale package provides an integrated cavity above the active area of a MEMS device. This package was designed for devices with mechanically moving components such as micromirrors, miniature gyroscopes, and...

Recent advances in compact, smart vacuum, and: Gas pressure sensors. (Vacuum Technology/Applications).
January 1, 2002... OVERVIEW Miniaturization of sensors and electronics has led to several recent advances in high-vacuum gauges, including extended ranges and smart capabilities, as well as smaller size. For example, the range of Pirani gauges has been...

ICPECVD for low-temperature SiNx films. (Product News).(includes design features)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... The SI 500D inductively coupled PECVD system was designed for low-temperature deposition processes based on the properties of this company's PTSA 200 plasma source. At 90[degrees]C, deposited silicon nitride can be used successfully as an...

Plug-and-play pumping system. (Product News).(Alcatel Tool Pumping Solution)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... This new optimized dry pump installation approach greatly increases available space in crowded fab basements by reducing the footprint for one tool by 30-70%. The Alcatel Tool Pumping Solution (ATPS) provides standardized inlet connections,...

High-resolution optical microscope. (Product News).(from Actinix)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Using a 193nm exposure source and a high NA objective, and offering a resolution of 155nm, the Actinix TMT-193 is designed to measure the transmittance of extremely small features, defects and repairs on advanced photomasks. It is illuminated...

Process monitoring for CVD and etch. (Product News).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Spectra Vision 1000-C and Vision 1000-E process monitors are designed for continuous in situ monitoring of--respectively--CVD and etch processes and feature proprietary sampling inlet and recipe-driven software for automated data acquisition...

Defect/materials characterization. (Product News).(Strata DB235 small-stage DualBeam tool)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... The Strata DB235 is a small-stage DualBeam tool designed for this company's Structural Diagnostics, including semiconductor defect characterization, materials characterization, and process development of small samples, packaged parts, and TEM...

No flow-fluxing underfills. (Product News).(E1340 series of no flow-fluxing underfills)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... The E1340 series of no flow-fluxing underfills incorporates solder fluxing capability into an epoxy-based underfill chemistry. The result is a robust encapsulant for interconnecting/underfilling area array devices. The series is specifically...

Deposition rate tuner. (Product News).(optimizes PECVD tool processes)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... The 4000DRT deposition rate tuner optimizes dielectric PECVD tool processes with feedback in For FREE info circle 40

Nanofocus x-ray tube. (Product News).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... The xs/series nanofocus (nf) is a nanofocus x-ray tube that obtains images down to 0.5[micro]m, small enough for sharp imaging of microvias. Combined with the capabilities offered by this company's x-ray technology, the xs/series nf provides...

Clamp-on ultrasonic flowmeter. (Product News).(the DigitalFlow GC868 Flowmeter)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... The DigitalFlow GC868 Flowmeter is the first clamp-on ultrasonic flowmeter for gases at high or low pressure -- in pipes made of metal or of almost any other material. Thw new meter has been tested extensively on metal pipes containing air,...

CMP process tool. (Product News).(Momentum300)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Momentum300 is a third-generation CMP process tool that flexibly delivers 0. 13-0.10[micro]m process metrics for copper, low-k, direct STI, tungsten and oxide. It offers uniform velocity with solid polish support through an orbital hard platen....

A high-level view: The 2001 ITRS from altitude. (Industry Insights).(International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors )(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... The 2001 International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS) reflects two overall messages: the entrenchment of international consensus building and yet tighter periods between industry technology nodes. The participation of more...