Post a Comment
Semicon West 2006 News and Commentary
Staff Reporters -- Electronic News, 7/14/2006
Electronic News and its sister publications follow this year's Semicon West in San Francisco with daily updates on the show's news and events.
450mm: Not in This Decade 7/14/2006
Semicon West: Next big shift in wafer technology won’t happen for years—if ever. There’s lots of life left in 300mm, say top capital equipment execs.Materials Offer Best Chance for Continued Scaling 7/14/2006
New materials offer great promise as semiconductor makers look to continue scaling their process technology; but those materials present challenges of their own, panelists here concluded.
China Syndrome Cooling 7/13/2006
Companies still see China as an important market and center of manufacturing, but many are looking elsewhere to expand their businesses.
The DRAM giant’s leader has something to say about what makes a good partnership.
Microsoft’s Foray into Electronics 7/13/2006
One of the most frequent questions Microsoft is getting this week at Semicon West is: ‘What are you doing here?’
Xilinx CEO Wim Roelandts offered his perspective on the state of the fabless semiconductor industry and the future market drivers for all chipmakers in a keynote address
Alliances Key to Meeting Manufacturing Challenges, ST’s DuBois Says 7/12/2006
To account for the technology, economic and business pressures facing semiconductor vendors today, synergies should be leveraged in alliances, says STMicroelectronics’ Guy DuBois during a keynote.
The Czech Republic is spreading the word -- if you need analog engineers there is an entire workforce of designers available in that country, and CzechInvest will build the team, train it and ensure it's working to your specifications. ASML Claims Industry Best NA 7/12/2006
Semicon West: The company says its new immersion lithography system boasts the industry's best NA at a 1.35 benchmark. NEC Cuts Leakage in Fast 55nm CMOS Devices 7/12/2006
Semicon West: NEC has revealed more about the metal gate, high-k dielectric, process with which it hopes to cut leakage in fast 55nm CMOS. Mattson Sees Orders from Memory Fab 7/12/2006
Mattson Technology announces orders for a suite of equipment from a major Korean memory manufacturer for its new 300mm fab in China. DFM Is Real, Impacting Yield Today, Mentor’s Rhines Says 7/11/2006
While much noise is made about design for manufacturing, Mentor Graphics’ chairman and CEO says that there are good reasons for the noise, and all of it is having an impact on yields today—a very real concern for chipmakers. U.S. in Bad Shape for Basic Research 7/11/2006
While the industry organization SEMI said optimistically that leading manufacturers of semiconductor equipment expect this year to be the second largest year ever for sales of new semiconductor equipment, others on a panel were not so pleased.
Op Ed: 450mm Wafers: A Very Bad Idea 7/11/2006
A top technologist at Applied Materials argues it will cost more to increase wafer sizes than can ever be recouped. The answer is in extending 300mm.
Hitachi Plans Work with IDMs on High-K 7/11/2006
Hitachi is set to work with manufacturers to develop new high-k gate dielectric and metal gate etch processes.
Soitec Offers Strained SoI 7/11/2006
The SoI maker is now offering the industry's first commercial line of strained SoI wafers to offer high performance and better speed and power dissipation as chipmakers scale to smaller nodes.
Micron Joins IMEC’s Core Program 7/11/2006
The European independent nanoelectronics and nanotechnology research institute announces that Micron Technology has joined its (sub)-32nm CMOS research platform as core partner.
The Flanders, N.J-based company announced the sale of a number of its systems to a foundry in Singapore. Wafer Fab Equipment Purchases to Hit Highest Level Since 2000 7/10/2006
The market for semi production equipment and materials can look forward to growing 19 percent sequentially this year, as well as 10 percent next year, to reach $40 billion, according to a report from Strategic Marketing Associates. Applied to Extend Litho with Advanced Patterning Film 7/10/2006
The new APF-e film from the capital equipment giant allows patterning of nano-scale features without additional integration complexity, while reducing reliance on next-generation lithography solutions.
Blog: From the Show Floor
Electronic News Senior Editor Ann Steffora Mutschler reports live from the Semicon West show floor.
For more news on the capital equipment industry and related markets, see Electronic News' capital equipment department.
