Solid State Technology articles from May 2007

Solid State Technology archives from May 2007

Entegris's emerging market venture--five years laters.(HYDROGEN FUEL CELLS)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... To succedd in emerging markets, essential ingredients for success, besides technological expertise and innovation, are patience and long-term vision. That's one of the lessons John Goodman, SVP and chief technology and innovation officer at...

FujiFilm microdevices achieves a means of tweaking CCD sensitivity.(CHIP FORENSICS)(digital still camera)(charged-coupled device)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... One of the fastest growing consumer product segments over the last few years has been the digital still camera (DSC). DSC sales were projected to be ~$100 million in 2006, up from $77 million just two years earlier. This month's edition of Chip...

50th anniversary web site.(CHIP FORENSICS)(www.solide-state.com)(Solid State Technology)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Solid State Technology is celebrating its 50th anniversary with features throughout the year about the past, present, and future of semiconductor manufacturing technology. We invite readers to submit remembrances, stories and commentaries about...

Energy conservation: the next big thing?(EDITORIAL)(Editorial)
May 1, 2007... There is growing urgency worldwide to refocus energy policies. The thirst for fossil fuels is escalating in fast-developing nations, bringing supply and demand into a delicate balance, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to increase...

Chartered reclaims No. 3 foundry spot.(WORLD NEWS: BUSINESS TRENDS)(Financial report)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Total worldwide foundry sales rose 16.7% in 2006 to $21.5 billion, shrugging off a slowdown in business and an industrywide inventory buildup to represent nearly 24% of total semiconductor sales, according to data from Gartner Dataquest. ...

Gartner Dataquest.(WORLDWIDE HIGHLIGHTS)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Citing a sluggish start to 2007 caused by softend markets and an inventory surplus weighing down chip sales, Gartner Dataquest has revised its full-year outlook for chip sales to 6.4% growth, vs. estimates of 9.2% just two months ago. The firm...

SEMI.(WORLDWIDE HIGHLIGHTS)(Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International)(Financial report)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Global sales of semiconductor manufacturing equipment rose 23% in 2006 to $40.47 billion, according to SEMI--a level second only to the boom year of 2000, thanks to a "robust" memorychip market and continued transition to 300mm wafers.

Semiconductor International Capacity Statistics (SICAS).(WORLDWIDE HIGHLIGHTS)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Actual wafer starts slowed behind rising capacity additions in 4Q06, causing utilization rates to decelerate further below the 90% threshold that has historically signaled new capacity investments, according to data from Semiconductor...

BOC Edwards.(WORLDWIDE HIGHLIGHTS)(CCMP Capital Advisors LLC purchase BOC Edwards from The Linde Group)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Private equity firm CCMP Capital has agreed to purchase BOC Edwards from global gases company The Linde Group for just over $900 million, about a year after Linde acquired its parent company, The BOC Group. Linde announced in September that it...

Intel Corp.(USA)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Intel Corp. says it will spend $1.0-$1.5 billion to retool its 300mm Fab 11X facility in Rio Rancho, NM, for production of chips using 45nm process technologies, making it the company's fourth factory to produce the 45nm chips by 2H08. Fab 11X,...

Blaze DFM and Aprio Technologies.(USA)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Staking their claim to the mantle of tops in "electrical DFM," Blaze DFM and Aprio Technologies have announced a merger essentially of equals, though the combined company will retain the Blaze name and be headquartered at Blaze's location in...

Mosaid Technologies Inc. has sold assets and IP related to its high-performance memory tester platform to Teradyne Inc. for about $17 million.(USA)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Mosaid Technologies Inc. has sold assets and IP related to its high-performance memory tester platform to Teradyne Inc. for about $17 million. Teradyne will take on the company's systems division new product development team and receive an...

SEMATECH is welcoming one old-time member back to its roster, and saying goodbye to another.(USA)(Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology )(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... SEMATECH is welcoming one old-time member back to its roster, and saying goodbye to another. Micron Technology Inc., one of the establishing members of SEMATECH, will be joining the International SEMATECH Manufacturing Initiative (ISMI) program...

AmberWave Systems Corp., a strained silicon IP developer, and Intel Corp. have ended two years of litigation with a multiyear licensing deal.(USA)
May 1, 2007... AmberWave Systems Corp., a strained silicon IP developer, and Intel Corp. have ended two years of litigation with a multiyear licensing deal. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed, but Intel gains a license to all AmberWave...

NEC Electronics Corp.(ASIAFOCUS)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... NEC Electronics Corp. has unveiled a wide-ranging restructuring plan to improve profitability over the next few years by consolidating its facilities in Japan from nine to four (involving several 5-in. and 6-in. facilities as well as an 8-in....

Singapore Technologies Semiconductors Pte. Ltd. (STS), a subsidiary of state-owned holding firm Temasek Holdings Ltd., has filed a $1.6 billion cash offer to acquire full ownership in backend services firm STATS ChipPAC.(ASIAFOCUS)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Singapore Technologies Semiconductors Pte. Ltd. (STS), a subsidiary of state-owned holding firm Temasek Holdings Ltd., has filed a $1.6 billion cash offer to acquire full ownership in backend services firm STATS ChipPAC. STS already holds a...

Taiwan foundry United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC) will be the first external foundry chosen by Cypress Semiconductor Corp. to contract to make its flagship SRAM products, with 65nm tapeouts expected later this year.(ASIAFOCUS)
May 1, 2007... Taiwan foundry United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC) will be the first external foundry chosen by Cypress Semiconductor Corp. to contract to make its flagship SRAM products, with 65nm tapeouts expected later this year. Cypress Semiconductor also...

Japanese DRAM firm Elpida Memory Inc. said it has agreed to sell 200mm wafer processing equipment from its Hiroshima facility to China's Cension Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. in order to narrow its focus to 300mm chipmaking operations.(ASIAFOCUS)(dynamic random access memory)
May 1, 2007... Japanese DRAM firm Elpida Memory Inc. said it has agreed to sell 200mm wafer processing equipment from its Hiroshima facility to China's Cension Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. in order to narrow its focus to 300mm chipmaking operations. The...

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp.(ASIAFOCUS)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. (TSMC) has received Taiwan government approval to upgrade from 0.25[micro]m to 0.18[micro]m process technologies at its 200mm operations in Shanghai, which could triple capacity to 90,000 wafers/ month...

The Dongbu group plans to merge its foundry business, Dongbu Electronics, with Dongbu Hannong Chemicals to create a "biosemiconductor enterprise" to provide foundry services along with advanced materials targeting bioengineering, nanotechnology, and semiconductor processing.(ASIAFOCUS)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... The Dongbu group plans to merge its foundry business, Dongbu Electronics, with Dongbu Hannong Chemicals to create a "biosemiconductor enterprise" to provide foundry services along with advanced materials targeting bioengineering,...

Taiwan supplier Hiwin Technologies Corp. and WIN Semiconductors Corp. have developed the island's first wafer takeoff robots that are already rolling off the company's production lines, and plan to develop automated production equipment for them, reports the Taiwan Economic News.(ASIAFOCUS)
May 1, 2007... Taiwan supplier Hiwin Technologies Corp. and WIN Semiconductors Corp. have developed the island's first wafer takeoff robots that are already rolling off the company's production lines, and plan to develop automated production equipment for...

Intel.(ASIAFOCUS)(Intel Corp. plans to close Fab 8 production facility)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Intel reportedly has committed to add another 50 employees to the R&D side of its business in Jerusalem, but still plans to close its Fab 8 production facility there, according to the Jerusalem Post. The site was the company's first production...

NanoIdent Technologies AG.(EUROFOCUS)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... NanoIdent Technologies AG says it has opened the world's first manufacturing facility for printing semiconductor-based optoelectronic sensors in Linz, Austria. The NanoIdent Organic Fab (OFAB) GmbH is capable of producing printed electronic...

Elpida has entered into a multiyear partnership with European nanoelectronics research center IMEC to perform R&D for sub-50nm DRAM process generations.(EUROFOCUS)(Elpida Memory Inc.)(Interuniversity MicroElectronics Center)(Dynamic random access memory)(research and development)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Elpida has entered into a multiyear partnership with European nanoelectronics research center IMEC to perform R&D for sub-50nm DRAM process generations, giving IMEC four of the top five DRAM suppliers along with other logic IDMs and foundries.

IMEC.(EUROFOCUS)(Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre signs an agreement with Government of Flanders)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Independent nanotechnology research center IMEC has signed a new frame agreement with the Government of Flanders for the period 2007-2011. As part of the agreement, IMEC's annual research grant will increase 11% to 38.909 [euro] million. The...

Photonics developer Avanex Corp. says it has agreed to sell a 90% interest in its French subsidiary.(EUROFOCUS)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Photonics developer Avanex Corp. says it has agreed to sell a 90% interest in its French subsidiary, including indium phosphide and gallium arsenide fabs, to limited liability firm Global Research Co. and current management. The business,...

Optics lives--but for how long?(TECHNOLOGY NEWS)
May 1, 2007... Many presentations at this year's SPIE Advanced Lithography Symposium showed the 45nm node in production as scheduled, using 193nm immersion lithography, while others looked ahead to future nodes achieved on the two-year ITRS schedule (32nm in...

Litho suppliers showcase offerings at SPIE.(TECHNOLOGY NEWS)(SPIE Advanced Lithography Symposium)
May 1, 2007... Vendors participating in the traditional Exposure Systems and Components session on the last day of this year's SPIE Advanced Lithography Symposium took the opportunity to tout their latest hyper-NA immersion scanners--all claiming to have...

Solving a sticky problem in refractory organics.(TECHNOLOGY NEWS)
May 1, 2007... The advent of 193nm (ArF) lithography brought with it a different kind of issue: contaminated scanner optics caused by the formation of silicon-containing organic compounds, called refractory organics (aka low-molecular-weight...

Improved yield through comprehensive CDM ESD failure analysis.(YIELD MANAGEMENT)(charged-device model )(electrostatic discharge)
May 1, 2007... EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW Yield improvement data is hard to come by, as manufacturers are reluctant to publish such findings. This results in a lack of information for process engineers and company managers regarding device failure modes. This...

New technologies promise lower costs, new markets for thin film photovoltaics.(EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES)
May 1, 2007... EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW While bulk and thin film silicon dominate the photovoltaics market, new technologies have the potential for lower cost and increased design flexibility. Two of the most promising are copper indium gallium diselenide...

Asymmetrical pore membrane optimizes copper plating filtration.(CHEMICALS/CHEMICAL HANDLING)(Cover story)
May 1, 2007... EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW Complex chemistry sets are used to plate copper as the on-chip interconnect metal for IC. Gelatinous particles can form within the chemical solutions, which must be filtered to prevent deposition on wafers. Non-intrusive...

Single-wafer process for improved metal contact hole cleaning.(WAFER CLEANING)
May 1, 2007... EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW Given reduced process windows for cleaning the bottoms of high-aspect-ratio contact holes, particularly in tightly pitched memory structures, traditional batch approaches must be replaced with single-wafer processing to...

Copper-nail TSV technology for 3D-stacked IC integration.(INTERCONNECT)(through-silicon vias)(integrated circuits)
May 1, 2007... EXWCUTIVE OVERVIEW Directly stacked die interconnections are now possible as part of 3D IC integration. Electrically isolated copper through-silicon vias (TSV) are formed after transistors and before standard multilayer on-chip...

Single-pass die-to-database tritone reticle inspection.(MASKMAKING)
May 1, 2007... EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW Wafer fabs are under constant pressure to deliver semiconductor products as quickly as possible to an eagerly awaiting consumer market. As a result, mask suppliers are often required to reduce their delivery time for...

Gas abatement systems.(PRODUCT NEWS)
May 1, 2007... The ATLAS family of gas abatement systems solves three process-related abatement problems. ATLAS TCS addresses the common CVD gases; ATLAS TPU addresses PFC gases in CVD and etch processes; and ATLAS Kronis addresses the low-k CVD gases in...

Profiler application server.(PRODUCT NEWS)
May 1, 2007... The PAS-T4 profiler application server provides optical digital profilometry metrology results for real-time process monitoring and control. A proprietary library search engine is a key component in Timbre's optical digital profilometry (ODP)...

Photomask inspection system.(PRODUCT NEWS)
May 1, 2007... The TeraScanHR system is a production-capable 45nm-generation photomask inspection system for the 45nm node and beyond. The system is highly configurable with a broad range of pixel sizes for optimizing productivity and cost-effectiveness in...

Metal hardmask system.(PRODUCT NEWS)
May 1, 2007... The Applied Endura metal hardmask system with new Versa TTN PVD technology delivers an advanced TiN hardmask film used for patterning copper/low-k interconnects and high-aspect-ratio contact structures. An integral component of a patterning...

Particle filters.(PRODUCT NEWS)
May 1, 2007... This line of MaxP particle filters are designed to improve the reliability, useful life, and mean-time-between-maintenance of mass spectrometer helium leak detectors and associated vacuum pumps. They are used in Alcatel, Balzer, DuPont,...

Advanced packaging films.(PRODUCT NEWS)
May 1, 2007... These advanced packaging film products include two new families of permanent dielectric films, the SINR-series and the SPS-series, as well as the next-generation photoresist in the current SIPR-7120 series. The SINR and the SPS series are...

Perfluoroelastomer parts.(PRODUCT NEWS)
May 1, 2007... Kalrez 9100 perfluoroelastomer parts are specifically designed for ultra-low contamination in aggressive plasma environments. They are for static and dynamic sealing applications in deposition as well as certain etch and ash processes. Kalrez...

193nm reticle haze prevention system.(PRODUCT NEWS)
May 1, 2007... This Clarilite Certified 193nm reticle haze prevention system helps semiconductor manufacturers reduce reticle haze in 193nm lithography. Haze is formed when impurities deposit on a reticle due to the presence of airborne molecular contaminants...

300mm silicon wafer packer.(PRODUCT NEWS)
May 1, 2007... The high-speed, second generation AWP 300-2 silicon wafer packer has a dual-robot design that achieves throughput of 150wph along with safe handling. This fully upgraded 300mm wafer packer has a patented end-effector technology for safe...

FE analytical SEM.(PRODUCT NEWS)
May 1, 2007... The JSM-7001F thermal field emission analytical scanning electron microscope (SEM) acquires high-resolution micrographs at up to 1,000,000x for applications ranging from semiconductors, metals, minerals, and materials to ceramics. It features...

Carbon nanotube analysis.(PRODUCT NEWS)
May 1, 2007... This Dimension-P2 Raman system has now been specially configured for critical carbon nanotube analysis. It is integrated with laser attenuation capability and an xyz-mounted probe accessory for quality control and process monitoring of a broad...

CD and overlay metrology system.(PRODUCT NEWS)
May 1, 2007... The IVS 185 system can make critical dimension (CD) and overlay measurements using the same metrology recipe while improving productivity. The tool targets 50mm to 200mm wafer production requirements. The IVS 185, an extension of the IVS 165...

X-ray diffraction software.(PRODUCT NEWS)
May 1, 2007... The XPert Stress Plus 2.0 software package analyzes residual stresses in polycrystalline coatings. The new software includes the existing XPert Pro hardware platform and the recently extended stress measurement possibilities of XPert Data...

Ultra-high purity diaphragm valve.(PRODUCT NEWS)
May 1, 2007... The 20 series fluoropolymer diaphragm valve can control the flow of slurry and aggressive fluids in semiconductor and clean-area applications. It has a flow path and valve seat area that optimize fluid flow dynamics for minimal pressure drop...

Mass spectrometer.(PRODUCT NEWS)
May 1, 2007... The PrismaPlus mass spectrometer for qualitative and quantitative gas analysis and leak detection has a robust, compact design and simple systems integration. With the ability to select mass ranges, detectors, ion sources and interface options,...

Mini-CRDS gas analyzer.(PRODUCT NEWS)
May 1, 2007... The Halo mini-cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRDS) device is a compact gas analyzer for calibration-free measurement of dedicated analytes in the parts-per-billion to parts-per-million range. Based on a patented continuous wave (CW) CRDS...

Optimizing product cost through modern test management.(INDUSTRY FORUM)
May 1, 2007... Leading-edge fabs produce thousands of part numbers with new kinds of problems related to shrinking geometries, such as random defects from particulates and systematic fails caused by process alignment errors. Shrinking geometries associated...