Solid State Technology articles from November 2008

Solid State Technology archives from November 2008

IBM: 22nm node will need "computational scaling".(SST ONLINE)
November 1, 2008... The complexity design and process interactions at the 22nm node are so great that they will require a new level of computational power. Thus, IBM and select partners have devised a "computational scaling" strategy that provides an end-to-end...

Intel's take on the HDD vs. SSD debate.(SST ONLINE)(hard-disk drives)(solid-state drives )(Discussion)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... The relative merits of solid-state drives (SSD) vs. hard-disk drives (HDD) have been discussed for some time, and now Intel is joining the debate, outlining plans for the SATA SSD product family at its annual Developer Forum (8/19-8/21). Troy...

Tool updates: Rudolph's E30/B30, KLA-Tencor's SurfscanXP.(SST ONLINE)(Rudolph Technologies)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... Rudolph Technologies product manager Tuan Le tells SST about the improvements in its systems for detecting edge defects, necessitated by the switch to immersion lithography at 45nm. And KLA-Tencor exec Rahul Bammi describes two key features of...

Response surface methods for peak performance.(Web Exclusives: ONLINE AT WWW.SOLID-STATE.COM)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... Response surface methods (RSM) provide statistically-validated predictive models that can be manipulated for finding optimal process configurations that exhibit minimal reliability. In this article Mark J. Anderson and Patrick J. Whitcomb of...

Improved efficiency boosts panel prospects.(Web Exclusives: ONLINE AT WWW.SOLID-STATE.COM)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... While IC manufacturers strive to reduce gate length and increase memory density, solar cell manufacturers seek to improve conversion efficiency. In this article, SST contributing editor, Katherine Derbyshire summarizes how contributing factors...

Understanding characteristic EUV image variations in full-field exposure tools.(Web Exclusives: ONLINE AT WWW.MICROLITHOGRAPHYWORLD.COM)(extreme ultraviolet lithography)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... In this article, Peter Brooker and Lena Zavyalova of Synopsys discuss simulation results and tools needed specifically for EUVL and describes the unique optics of the ring-field exposure tools in a comprehensible form. Since EUVL will not be...

45nm node registration metrology for EUV reticles.(Web Exclusives: ONLINE AT WWW.MICROLITHOGRAPHYWORLD.COM)(Extreme Ultraviolet)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... Tighter registration tolerances for the 45nm node and beyond require a next-generation registration metrology tool capable of measuring EUV masks with the diverse substrate materials that might be used in 32nm and 22nm chip production. EUV...

Kudos to Tech award laureates.(EDITORIAL)
November 1, 2008... This month, a group of individuals will receive some well deserved recognition for their work in developing technical solutions that benefit humanity and address the most critical issues facing our planet and its people. We all inherently know...

Betting on a 2009 recovery? Not so fast.(BUSINESS TRENDS)(Statistical data)
November 1, 2008... Gartner now expects capex to slide even further this year (-25% to $47.1B) and will drop another 13% in 2009 to $41.1B, thanks to a full-on collapse in memory investments and economic pressures on consumer spending habits. Look for a pickup in...

AMD is spinning off of its fab operations to a jointly owned venture with Abu Dhabi investors.(WORLDWIDE HIGHLIGHTS)(Advanced Micro Devices Inc. merged with Advanced Technology Investment Company)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... AMD is spinning off of its fab operations to a jointly owned venture with Abu Dhabi investors. The "Foundry Company" will possess AMD's manufacturing assets and IP, including Fab 36 and Fab 38 in Dresden, Germany, with total value of ~$2.4B....

SEMI has acquired nonprofit trade association Surplus Equipment Consortium Network (SEC/N).(WORLDWIDE HIGHLIGHTS)(Semiconductor Equipment and Materials Institute)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... SEMI has acquired nonprofit trade association Surplus Equipment Consortium Network (SEC/N), with common goals to address needs in the secondary semiconductor equipment markets, such as new standards for liability and support.

Common Platform partners IBM, Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing, Samsung Electronics, and ARM say they will develop a comprehensive 32nm and 28nm systems-on-a-chip (SoC) design platform based on high-k metal-gate (HK+MG) technology.(WORLDWIDE HIGHLIGHTS)
November 1, 2008... Common Platform partners IBM, Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing, Samsung Electronics, and ARM say they will develop a comprehensive 32nm and 28nm systems-on-a-chip (SoC) design platform based on high-k metal-gate (HK+MG) technology....

After a last-chance deadline passed in August, Axcelis says it is no longer interested in further takeover talks with Japanese partner Sumitomo Heavy Industries.(WORLDWIDE HIGHLIGHTS)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... After a last-chance deadline passed in August, Axcelis says it is no longer interested in further takeover talks with Japanese partner Sumitomo Heavy Industries, a deal that had been sweetened to about $630M with private equity support.

Sanyo Semiconductor.(USA)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... Sanyo Semiconductor plans to expand its foundry business in North America, and also is building a new plant in Salem, OR, to make silicon ingot and solar wafers.

Microchip Technology and ON Semiconductor have pitched a $2.3b buyout offer to Atmel.(USA)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... Microchip Technology and ON Semiconductor have pitched a $2.3B buyout offer to Atmel, under which ON Semi would take over Atmel's nonvolatile memory and RF and automotive businesses, with Microchip selling the ASIC business and taking over the...

NEC Electronics.(USA)
November 1, 2008... NEC Electronics says it will approximately double 0.15[micro]m production at its 200mm line in Roseville, CA, by March 2009.

NXP Semiconductors.(USA)
November 1, 2008... NXP Semiconductors is selling its 200mm/0.25[micro]m fab in Fishkill, NY, where it makes high-performance BiCMOS RF and high-voltage CMOS.

MEMC.(USA)(MEMC Electronic Materials Inc.)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... MEMC said its Pasadena, TX facility suffered no long-term impact on operations from Hurricane Ike, although about 15 days of production were lost due to supplier hiccups, at a cost to sales of $30M-$70M.

Semiconductor Research Corp.(USA)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... Semiconductor Research Corp. (SRC) and Cornell U. (backed by IBM) say they have developed a 3D electron tomographic approach for detecting chip defects, dubbed "incoherent brightfield," with resolution down to ~2nm, using "equipment found in...

Mattson Technology.(USA)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... Mattson Technology is cutting about 80 workers (14% of its workforce) and will expand its outsourcing operations for systems it currently makes in Germany. Charges of $4.5-$5.5M will be made up with anticipated $6M in annual savings.

Formosa Sumco Technology.(ASIAFOCUS)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... Formosa Sumco Technology is reportedly rolling out a king-sized 500kg silicon wafer ingot (vs. the normal 335kg ingot) to make 300mm wafers capable of producing 60% more chips, part of its plan to boost overall wafer output by 23%.

Samsung has made overtures to acquire SanDisk, which rejected the initial offer.(ASIAFOCUS)
November 1, 2008... Samsung has made overtures to acquire SanDisk, which rejected the initial offer. Toshiba is said to be eyeing Spansion instead of its JV production partner.

Elpida.(ASIAFOCUS)(Elpida Memory Inc.)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... Elpida says it's developed a new 65nm shrink for its 1Gb DDR2 SDRAM that fits 20% more devices on a 300mm wafer (and thus lowers costs by 20%), targeting the shrink as a lower-cost option to other DRAM firms' 50nm processes.

TSMC.(ASIAFOCUS)(Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd.)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... TSMC says its 28nm process will be a "full node" technology (not a shrink), offering both high-k metal gate (HK+MG) and silicon oxynitride (SiON). Initial production is expected in the first quarter of 2010.

Hynix.(ASIAFOCUS)(Hynix Semiconductor Inc. plans to stop production and sold its stake to Numonyx)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... Hynix plans to stop production at two more 200mm lines (leaving just one of its five 200mm sites running), to reduce output by 30% next year (-20% DRAM, -40% NAND flash). The company also has sold a ~10% stake in its Wuxi, China DRAM JV to...

SMIC.(ASIAFOCUS)(Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp.)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... SMIC has purchased 200,000 sq. m of land in Shenzhen, China, for ~$17M to support production expansion, and says its S2/FAB 8 is its first chip production line to receive ISO 27001 certification.

Mitsubishi Electric.(ASIAFOCUS)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... Mitsubishi Electric reportedly has developed a way to achieve a record 18.6% efficiency for its prototype solar cells. The electrodes are half the usual thickness at 60[micro]m, but twice as tall, which broadens the surface area for generating...

Toshiba.(ASIAFOCUS)(Financial report)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... Toshiba has widened its expected losses for the six months through September to [yen]50B instead of [yen]15B, and swinging to a [yen]65B loss for the full year.

LG Electronics.(ASIAFOCUS)(Conergy AG)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... Korean electronics conglomerate LG Electronics is negotiating a 75% stake in a solar module JV with German solar company Conergy AG, for a reported pricetag of $181M.

Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp.(ASIAFOCUS)(resignations of Lu Hsueh Cheng and Maria van Bommel)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... There's reportedly been big top-level turnover at China's Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. (ASMC)--president/ CEO Lu Hsueh Cheng is said to have resigned, as well as director/vice chairman Maria van Bommel and two other directors.

Elpida Memory.(ASIAFOCUS)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... Following a third straight quarter of losses, Elpida Memory says it will reduce its DRAM output at its 300mm plant in Hiroshima, western Japan, by about 10% to 10,000 wafers/month.

Organo Corp.(ASIAFOCUS)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... Japan's Organo Corp. says it has a new system for recycling hydrofluoric acid. Used hydrofluoric acid is mixed with calcium and powdered calcium fluoride to generate a crystalline material that is very close in composition to natural calcium...

ASML.(EUROFOCUS)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... ASML says it has completed production design of a new "NXE" line of Twinscan-based EUV litho tools, and that its roadmap now extends EUV roadmap to "at least" 11nm.

Suss MicroTec.(EUROFOCUS)(appointment of Christian Schubert)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... Suss MicroTec has replaced board member and CEO Stefan Schneidewind with Christian Schubert, citing "differing views regarding the future strategy of the company." His role reportedly will essentially be that of a COO, focusing on operations,...

Renesas is selling its fab in Landshut, Germany.(EUROFOCUS)
November 1, 2008... Renesas is selling its fab in Landshut, Germany, to Silicon Foundry Holding, a company formed by two of the site's execs.

Diskcon: HDD litho crossover happening now.(TECHNOLOGY NEWS)(hard disk drive)(Conference notes)
November 1, 2008... A full-day symposium at this year's Diskcon USA (Sept. 14-18) explored the lithography implications of sub-ITRS roadmap feature sizes on disk drives, with the challenge that HDD lithography must cost 10x less than NAND flash lithography, the...

Raising the bar on wafer edge yield--an etch perspective.(ETCH)(Cover story)
November 1, 2008... Consumer demand for high functionality at low cost continues to drive chip makers to shrink geometries and increase yields. With tighter tolerances and larger wafers, it is both more important and more difficult to maintain uniformity in etch...

Optical in situ monitoring in LED device production.(COMPOUND SEMICONDUCTORS)
November 1, 2008... As both the demand for high brightness LEDS and number of applications increases, higher throughput and yield are mandatory to satisfy current and future markets. Reactor temperature control and wafer bowing figure prominently in achieving...

Parylenes for flexible electronics and display applications.(NANOTECHNOLOGY/MATERIALS)
November 1, 2008... New reactor chemistries have been developed [1], so low-cost monomers can be used to make various parylenes that have a general composition of (I) (-[CX.sub.2]-Ar-[CX.sub.2]-)n, wherein, Ar is an aromatic moiety, X can be H or F. CVD equipment...

ALD, CVD in one tool.(PRODUCT NEWS)
November 1, 2008... The AltaCVD targets plasma-enhanced MOCVD and ALD processes of a wide range of materials used in logic and memory devices, as well as in microsystems and 3D integration. It encompasses both chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and atomic layer...

Defect inspection for HDDs.(PRODUCT NEWS)
November 1, 2008... Th e Candela 7100 series for advanced defect inspection and classification of hard disk drive substrates and media (both metal and glass) incorporates a new dual-wavelength laser configuration, which is optimized for higher sensitivity,...

6-in-1 mask alignment/bonding.(PRODUCT NEWS)
November 1, 2008... Th e third generation of the MA/BA8 mask/bond aligner offers submicron alignment (down to 0.25[micro]m) and exposure optics dedicated for thick resist exposure, upgradeable to emerging technologies such as UV (NIL, SCIL) and microlens...

AOI for solar cells.(PRODUCT NEWS)
November 1, 2008... The S2012PV automated optical inspection system targets solar cell production, including wafer material control, cell characterization, and cell control (i.e., geometry, print image, cracks, color, micro cracks). Interlinked matrix cameras...

Tunable Cu CMP system.(PRODUCT NEWS)
November 1, 2008... The ACuPLANE copper barrier CMP system for advanced Cu/low-k interconnect applications combines Rohm and Haas's EcoVision 4000 CMP Pad and ACuPLANE 5000 Series slurries. This tunable CMP system offers [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Spectrograph for etch control.(PRODUCT NEWS)
November 1, 2008... The SD1024FH spectrograph is designed for demanding semiconductor process control applications such as very low exposed area contact etch, ion beam etch, and photomask etch. Features include a 200-800nm spectral range optical system with a...

Gas monitoring system.(PRODUCT NEWS)
November 1, 2008... The ChemLogic 96 point continuous monitor provides quick detection of low-level toxic and corrosive gases. Features include new intelligent optics and an optimized flow system. Gases detected include a variety of hydrides (As[H.sub.3],...

ESD monitoring.(PRODUCT NEWS)
November 1, 2008... The TREK model 875 electrostatic voltage sensor is designed for in-line monitoring of electrostatic charge build-up on production lines and other manufacturing process. An automatic calibration technique maintains high accuracy and speed over...

To 32nm and beyond: a design-manufacturing symbiosis.(INDUSTRY FORUM)(design for manufacturing)
November 1, 2008... At the 32nm node, technology enablers such as double-patterning, strain enhancement, advanced OPC, etc., require design for manufacturing (DFM) to support a design through manufacturing (D2M) methodology that is correct-by-construction. Such a...