Solid State Technology articles from July 2008

Solid State Technology archives from July 2008

SEMICON West: smaller consumer die create need for new etch, clean processes.(Web Exclusives)(microelectromechanical systems)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... Contributing editor Paula Doe spotlights new technologies in MEMS etching as one of the hot topics at SEMICON West this month. Growing demand for MEMS systems in consumer gear means higher volumes and price pressures, so device-makers are...

Extending optical litho using S-FIL for memory apps.(Web Exclusives)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... Immersion lithography at 193nm continues to become increasingly complex and cost prohibitive with each successive device generation, while extreme ultraviolet lithography continues to be delayed. Authors from Molecular Imprints, Austin, TX,...

SAIL to fly at 5 meters/min.(Web Exclusives)(Hewlett-Packard Co.)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... SSTsenior technical editor Ed Korczynski reports from a recent gathering of the American Vacuum Societys (NCCAVS) Thin-Film Users Group (TFUG) in northern California, where a highlight of discussions on printed electronics was a detailed...

Analysts parse industry strengths, challenges, opportunities at SEMI breakfast.(Web Exclusives)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... A trio of semiconductor industry analysts presented their newest industry and macroeconomic analyses at a SEMI breakfast panel near Boston, generally agreeing that the IC industry isn't doing as badly as had been feared, reports SST news editor...

Process integration drives the IC industry.(Web Exclusives)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... In his final Ed's Threads, Ed Korczynski describes how the next 10 years will witness more changes in mainstream IC manufacturing technology than in the last 40 years combined. Innovation will continue despite (or because of) limits in 2D...

Reduced capex: The new power play.(EDITORIAL)(Editorial)
July 1, 2008... The semiconductor industry has matured by most measures. With one exception, it is profitable, and managers appear to have figured out how to balance supply (capacity) with demand. Unit demand remains strong, consistently rising--nearly...

WSTS halves 2008 growth outlook.(BUSINESS TRENDS)(World Semiconductor Trade Statistics Inc.)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... Global semiconductor sales are seen growing just under 5% in 2008, better than the 3.2% seen in 2007 but only half of the 9.1% expected just six months ago, according to new calculations from World Semiconductor Trade Statistics Inc. (WSTS)....

Intel, Samsung, and TSMC have set a deadline of 2012 for when they want a 450mm-wafer-capable pilot line tested and ready.(WORLDWIDE HIGHLIGHTS)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... Intel, Samsung, and TSMC have set a deadline of 2012 for when they want a 450mm-wafer-capable pilot line tested and ready. No specifics were offered about each partner's level of participation other than to suggest "a cooperative approach" to...

Intel and Micron say that their joint venture IM Flash has created a 34nm multilevel cell NAND chip (skipping the 4x node) that can fit in a standard TSOP package.(WORLDWIDE HIGHLIGHTS)
July 1, 2008... Intel and Micron say that their joint venture IM Flash has created a 34nm multilevel cell NAND chip (skipping the 4x node) that can fit in a standard TSOP package. Analysts suggest that, made on 300mm wafers, these would be the first chips to...

Applied Materials.(WORLDWIDE HIGHLIGHTS)(Future Energy Co.)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... After initial secrecy that spawned heated speculation, Applied Materials has revealed the source of its mystery ~$2B PV equipment contract: Abu Dhabi Future Energy Co. and the "Masdar City" initiative.

Mentor Graphics has acquired the assets of model-based DFM technology developer Ponte Solutions, one of the last standing DFM vendors (along with Blaze).(USA)(design for manufacturing)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... Mentor Graphics has acquired the assets of model-based DFM technology developer Ponte Solutions, one of the last standing DFM vendors (along with Blaze). Personnel and technology will be merged into Mentor's Calibre organization.

Cymer.(USA)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... Cymer says it has reached 25W of average continuous EUV power for 1.5hrs, and is on track to achieve 100W average power for production-ready EUV tools in 2009.

Applied Materials has added a service program guaranteeing the performance cost/output of its SunFab thin-film line for producing solar modules.(USA)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... Applied Materials has added a service program guaranteeing the performance cost/output of its SunFab thin-film line for producing solar modules. Its first customer: Spain's T-Solar Global, which ordered a 40MW/yr max capacity SunFab line in...

The US International Trade Commission is launching a wide-ranging probe on behalf of LSI and Agere Systems, to investigate certain semiconductor ICs and products containing tungsten metallization that might be infringing patents.(USA)
July 1, 2008... The US International Trade Commission is launching a wide-ranging probe on behalf of LSI and Agere Systems, to investigate certain semiconductor ICs and products containing tungsten metallization that might be infringing patents. Companies...

Japan's top seven chip companies--Toshiba, Elpida, Sony, Renesas, NEC Electronics, Matsushita, and Fujitsu Microelectronics--plan to cut their combined capex by 21.8% in fiscal 2008, mainly due to a shift away from the weak memory market.(ASIAFOCUS)
July 1, 2008... Japan's top seven chip companies--Toshiba, Elpida, Sony, Renesas, NEC Electronics, Matsushita, and Fujitsu Microelectronics--plan to cut their combined capex by 21.8% in fiscal 2008, mainly due to a shift away from the weak memory market. The...

TSMC and UMC (and reportedly SMIC soon) say they plan to raise prices in an effort to offset "structural factors" such as R&D and fab costs.(ASIAFOCUS)(Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd.)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... TSMC and UMC (and reportedly SMIC soon) say they plan to raise prices in an effort to offset "structural factors" such as R&D and fab costs. The moves also are seen as ways to not only reverse declining ASPs and boost profits, but also pressure...

Hynix Semiconductor is reportedly ready to hike its memory chip prices by up to 15% after similar increases in May and April, convinced that the market has firmed up enough to support such a move, according to the Korea Times.(ASIAFOCUS)(Hynix Semiconductor Inc.)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... Hynix Semiconductor is reportedly ready to hike its memory chip prices by up to 15% after similar increases in May and April, convinced that the market has firmed up enough to support such a move, according to the Korea Times. Samsung and...

Japan's Electric Industry Co. is spinning off its chipmaking operation into a new company and giving a majority (~95%) ownership to Rohm Co., in a deal estimated at [yen]100B (~$964M).(ASIAFOCUS)(Electric Industrial Company Ltd.)(Rohm Company Ltd.)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... Japan's Electric Industry Co. is spinning off its chipmaking operation into a new company and giving a majority (~95%) ownership to Rohm Co., in a deal estimated at [yen]100B (~$964M). The Nikkei Daily quoted Oki president/CEO Katsumasa...

Taiwan chip assembler Advanced Semiconductor Engineering and memory firm ProMOS are being wooed by mainland Chinese officials to build a 300mm wafer fab onshore.(ASIAFOCUS)(Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc.)(ProMOS Technologies Inc.)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... Taiwan chip assembler Advanced Semiconductor Engineering and memory firm ProMOS are being wooed by mainland Chinese officials to build a 300mm wafer fab onshore, according to the Taiwan Economic News, citing mainland press reports.

Hynix Semiconductor and ProMOS Technologies have agreed to a partnership that will allow access to the Korean chipmaker's 50nm-node DRAM stack process technology, and give Hynix access to more 300mm capacity and an 8%-10% ownership stake in the Taiwan memory firm.(ASIAFOCUS)
July 1, 2008... Hynix Semiconductor and ProMOS Technologies have agreed to a partnership that will allow access to the Korean chipmaker's 50nm-node DRAM stack process technology, and give Hynix access to more 300mm capacity and an 8%-10% ownership stake in the...

DuPont.(ASIAFOCUS)(E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co.)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... DuPont says it will "soon begin" construction of a R&D site in Hong Kong and a manufacturing facility in Shenzhen, China, to tap into the thin-film side of the high-growth photovoltaic (PV) industry.

Metrology equipment supplier Nanometrics has acquired Tevet Process Control Technologies Ltd., a supplier of integrated metrology technology, through an all-cash transaction.(ASIAFOCUS)
July 1, 2008... Metrology equipment supplier Nanometrics has acquired Tevet Process Control Technologies Ltd., a supplier of integrated metrology technology, through an all-cash transaction.

Yingli Group.(ASIAFOCUS)
July 1, 2008... The Yingli Group is exploring a possible greenfield polysilicon manufacturing project in Baoding, China, with proposed 3000MT annual capacity.

Celerity.(ASIAFOCUS)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... Gas/liquid delivery systems maker Celerity has opened a new 17,000 sq ft manufacturing facility in the Woodlands Industrial Park district in the northern part of Singapore.

The resignation of Infineon president/ CEO Wolfgang Ziebart "due to different opinions" on the company's future strategic direction could be due to butting heads with management about whether to pursue a large industry tie-up, with NXP the likely partner, according to industry reports.(EUROFOCUS)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... The resignation of Infineon president/ CEO Wolfgang Ziebart "due to different opinions" on the company's future strategic direction could be due to butting heads with management about whether to pursue a large industry tie-up, with NXP the...

STMicroelectronics.(EUROFOCUS)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... STMicroelectronics has reiterated its 2008 financial targets and wants to increase outsourcing to cut costs, though it isn't planning anymore factory closures following last year's shutdowns in the US and Morocco. "Worst-performing" business...

Soitec and the CEA (French Atomic Energy Commission) have filed a patent infringement lawsuit against MEMC Electronics Materials.(EUROFOCUS)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... Soitec and the CEA (French Atomic Energy Commission) have filed a patent infringement lawsuit against MEMC Electronics Materials, alleging infringement upon several patents related to silicon-on-insulator and other technologies.

Air Semiconductor.(EUROFOCUS)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... Air Semiconductor has hired a new CEO and says it is ready to transition "from a development organization into a semiconductor product company" with worldwide operations and customers.

SEMATECH litho forum: steady progress on all fronts.(TECHNOLOGY NEWS)
July 1, 2008... With almost all major RBrD lithography efforts reporting at SEMATECH's Litho Forum (May 12-14, 2008, Bolton Landing, Lake George, NY), the common theme resonating throughout a debrief with forum co-chair Mike Lercel (and SEMATECH's...

Edge: the final cleaning frontier.(TECHNOLOGY NEWS)
July 1, 2008... Primarily driven by immersion lithography, defects on the wafer edge can transfer to the circuit areas and kill yield, and maybe removed using wet etches, dry plasma etches, lasers, and mechanical abrasion. Laser edge cleaning (was patented by...

ALD comes to single-metal high-k gate stacks.(TECHNOLOGY NEWS)
July 1, 2008... Though semiconductor researchers spent years trying to identify an alternative to Si[O.sub.2] for the transistor gate dielectric, it turns out that search was the easy part. Now that the industry consensus has identified hafnium-based oxides...

Novellus tips strip clean tools for logic, memory.(TECHNOLOGY NEWS)
July 1, 2008... Novellus Systems has released two new variations on its Gamma multi-station sequential processing (MSSP) architecture, targeting high volume memory and logic/ foundry fabs. Kevin Jennings, VP and GM of Novellus' surface integrity division,...

New tool takes on flicker noise.(TECHNOLOGY NEWS)
July 1, 2008... Cascade Microtech has unveiled a new test system designed to measure flicker noise in ICs, seen as a barrier to lowering device operating voltages as geometries shrink--and a strategic initiative to integrate measurements systems to provide...

High-k goes to production, but arguments continue.(HKMG MATERIALS)
July 1, 2008... EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW The manufacturing infrastructure for high-k stacks is reasonably mature. Manufacturers have access to the toolsets and precursors they need, even if they aren't sure thus far what structure to build. On the reliability...

Integrating III-V on silicon for future transistor applications.(COMPOUND SEMICONDUCTORS)
July 1, 2008... EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW Since the early 2000s, many new electronic materials have been explored and incorporated into silicon CMOS transistors for enhancing their device performance and energy-efficiency. This trend will continue and it is...

32nm node USJ formation using rapid process optimization metrology.(IMPLANT)
July 1, 2008... EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW Ultra-shallow junctions (USJs) that are <10nm at the 32nm node require the close process optimization of ion implantation (elemental species, energy and dose) with diffusion-less annealing (millisecond and spike...

Applications-based assessment for the printable electronics market.(NANOTECHNOLOGY)
July 1, 2008... EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW Printable electronics has been on an exponential growth curve for many years. Current prospects for printable electronics include sophisticated patterning to create memories and transistors; the variety of materials for...

PVA brush design advances for Cu/low-k post-CMP cleaning apps.(EHS/CONTAMINATION CONTROL)
July 1, 2008... EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW To meet next-generation challenges, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) brush designs may need further optimization in design and materials, and many of the cleaning chemistries and approaches will have to change. There are plenty...

Temporary bonding/debonding for ultrathin substrates.(THIN WAFER PROCESSING)
July 1, 2008... EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW A jointly developed temporary bonding/ debonding system designed for ultrathin wafer processing is described, as well as critical parameters to be considered in processing thin wafers, including TSV creation. A...

Image sensors adopt wafer-level packaging for mobile phone cameras.(CHIP FORENSICS)
July 1, 2008... EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW This month, SST presents a preview of the July edition of Chip Forensics, an online column by Dick James, senior technology adviser at Chipworks, a specialty reverse-engineering company that takes apart ICs and...

Imprint lithography tool.(PRODUCT NEWS)
July 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Imprio HD 2200 is the latest addition to the company's family of Step and Flash Imprint Lithography (S-FIL) tools for hard-disk-drive (HDD) applications. The unit enables both development and pilot-production of...

Solar cell measurement.(PRODUCT NEWS)
July 1, 2008... The PV1000 thickness-measurement system for the solar cell production industry addresses a critical need for solar cell manufacturers who are experiencing significant growth and need to manufacture higher quantities of solar cells for mass...

Perfluoroelastomer improves seal.(PRODUCT NEWS)
July 1, 2008... The Chemraz 667 perfl uoroelastomer resists O2-based plasma and improves seal lifetime. According to the company, Chemraz 667 is softer and has lower stiction than typical compounds used in [O.sub.2] plasma, thereby improving handling and wear,...

Vertical probe card.(PRODUCT NEWS)
July 1, 2008... The Megamax vertical probe card for fl ip chip/bumped logic devices uses the company's proprietary, chemically etched, and photodefined contact technology that is scalable to specific probe requirements. Megamax contacts are designed to carry...

Fusion machine.(PRODUCT NEWS)
July 1, 2008... The Electro Plus Fusion Machine, with hand-held user interface, speeds the electrofusion joining process of thermoplastic pipe and fittings and can be used with several of the company's piping systems. These corrosion-resistant piping systems...

Inventory-management software.(PRODUCT NEWS)
July 1, 2008... Proficy Tracker 7.5 soft ware manages the tracking and traceability and discrete operations, such as container management and packaging, of consumer products in industries from automotive to electronics. The soft ware provides control commands...

Sputtering targets.(PRODUCT NEWS)
July 1, 2008... High-purity silicon carbide (SiC) sputtering targets for physical vapor deposition (PVD) applications enable the deposition of highpurity SiC thin films for applications such as the manufacturing of magnetic disk drive heads. Dielectric SiC...

Optical top.(PRODUCT NEWS)
July 1, 2008... The 730 series vacuum-compatible optical top combines the company's CleanTop with several new proprietary design features, special cleaning of process materials, and a vacuum pump-down procedure that keeps out-gassing to a minimum. The top...

MEMS-based vibration sensor.(PRODUCT NEWS)
July 1, 2008... The ADXL001 high-bandwidth MEMS vibration sensor enables better monitoring of equipment performance. Based on the company's iMEMS Motion Signal Processing technology, the sensor allows designers of industrial process control instruments to...

Ductless fume hood.(PRODUCT NEWS)
July 1, 2008... Purair 5 Ductless Fume Hoods feature a high level of operator protection where routine work is being carried out, according to company claims. The units exceed OSHA, ANSI, and all relevant international standards. The ductless design allows the...

Wireless gauge reader.(PRODUCT NEWS)
July 1, 2008... The patent-pending Wireless Gauge Reader clips on to the front face of an existing gauge and doesn't necessitate removing old gauges, breaking pressure seals, performing leak checks, running wires, or interrupting the underlying process. The...

Electron microscope.(PRODUCT NEWS)
July 1, 2008... The Titan3 80-300 scanning/transmission electron microscope (S/TEM) includes two Cs-aberration correctors and a monochromator on a single instrument, providing high-resolution imaging and analysis. Its environmental enclosure reduces its...

Managing across-wafer process variation.(INDUSTRY FORUM)
July 1, 2008... Step-and-scan and resolution enhancements in optical lithography have enabled printing much smaller usable features. Further reduction is expected in pitch doubling. But with maximum achievable device yield falling industry-wide, there are...