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Top Story
Capital spending strongest in first half of year, says Deutsche Bank
09 January 2012 | Fab Management
The strong spurt in spending at semiconductor foundries so early in the year means that Deutsche Bank has revised its CapEx spending forecast for the industry. Instead of an expected CapEx decline in the range of 15-20% in 2012, compared to 2011, financial analysts at the bank believe spending will only be down between 10-15% versus its prior expectations.
Read more >>News
TSMC December 2011 sales drop 13.2%: Full-year sales up 2.8%
10 January 2012 | Fab Management
Monthly sales figures from TSMC for December, 2011 indicated revenue fell 13.2% from the prior month to NT$30.57 billion. Full-year sales for 2011 totalled NT$418.25 billion, an increase of 2.8% compared to 2010.Read more >>
IHS iSuppli: Semiconductor inventory issues easing except for DRAM
06 January 2012 | Fab Management
According to market research firm, IHS iSuppli the overall semiconductor
industry days of inventory declined slightly in the third quarter of
2011, while DRAM stockpiles increased significantly. As calculated by
the days of inventory (DOI) measure, overall semiconductor stockpiles in
the third quarter stood at 81 days, down 2.5% from 83 days in the
second quarter but DRAM stockpiles stood at 12.8 weeks, a 31% increase
from 9.8 weeks in the second quarter of 2011. The figure is also
significantly higher than the long-term quarterly average of 9.2 weeks.
Read more >>Tool Order: KLA-Tencor receives multiple orders from Taiwan’s top foundries
06 January 2012 | Wafer Processing
Both TSMC and UMC have placed purchase orders with KLA-Tencor this week,
enabling the metrology and yield specialist to record bookings of
almost US$70 million.
Read more >>Tool Order: ASML receives belated US$108 million Xmas present from TSMC
05 January 2012 | Lithography
TSMC kicks-off 2012 with equipment purchase spree
05 January 2012 | Wafer Processing
Equipment bookings strengthen in November
16 December 2011 | Wafer Processing
Lam acquires Novellus for US$3.3 billion
15 December 2011 | Wafer Processing
Tool Order: UMC ends conservative year of spending with a flurry
13 December 2011 | Wafer Processing
Editor's Blog & Chip Shots
Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates Reports: END OF AN ERA
28 July 2011 | Editor's Blog
There will be no further quarterly conference calls from VSEA, and that
includes for the benefit of myself and anyone else that is interested in
the ion implant space - to compare and contrast the niche but
fascinating area of this semiconductor technology area.
Read more >>SEMICON West: Losing a job I didn’t know I had lost!
07 July 2011 | Editor's Blog
It’s that time of year again, when bags are packed and the semiconductor
suppliers head-off to San Francisco for SEMICON West. Though not
attending myself this year, due to an inconsiderate eldest daughter
being in a stage show in London next week, I did find out that I have
been sacked from a job I had undertaken for a few years that is
organised by SEMI in conjunction with SEMICON West.
Read more >>If you can’t beat them buy them!
04 May 2011 | Editor's Blog
Intel to go revolutionary
26 April 2011 | Editor's Blog
It all goes Pete Tong for Nikon!
29 March 2011 | Editor's Blog
Latest Jobs
SOLAR RESEARCH SCIENTIST IN C-SI SOLAR CELLS (M/W) (10020212)
03 November 2011 - Belgique - Leuven, Europe
Linde Gases: Principal Technologist (m/f)
13 October 2011 - Bielefeld, Europe
JobsinPV Client: Process Engineer/Scientist
13 October 2011 - Silicon Valley, USA
Applied Materials: Applications Lab Manager - (39) -1102510
13 October 2011 - Xi’An, China
tf2 devices B.V.: Semiconductor Process Scientist or Engineer
28 July 2011 - Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Going Places
Voltaix names Peter Smith as CEO
09 November 2011
Peter Smith has been brought on as CEO during a reshuffle at Voltaix. He
is replacing Mark Fine who served as interim CEO since January 2010. He
will have responsibility for a number of the company's strategic
initiatives and will oversee relationships with distributor partners
world-wide. Fine is taking up the post of president, in place of John de
Neufville, who will continue as the company's chief scientist,
overseeing chemical research and end-use applications development.
Read more >>
Heinz Kundert receives IC Industry Award for leadership
13 October 2011
Having presented awards the previous day at the Semicon Europa Executive
Summit, Heinz Kundert himself received the IC Industry Award
for leadership, which was presented on October
12, 2011, at SEMICON Europa, in Dresden.
Read more >>SEMI names Dennis McGuirk successor to Stan Myers
15 August 2011
A related industry association head has been selected to succeed Stan
Myers as president and CEO of SEMI. Dennis “Denny” P. McGuirk the former
president and CEO of trade association, IPC – Association Connecting
Electronics Industries will take-over the reigns, effective November 14,
2011. Myers announced his plans to retire in April and the SEMI
International Board of Directors subsequently initiated a globally
comprehensive search process.
Read more >>Product Briefings
New Product: Applied Materials new EUV reticle etch system provides nanometer-level accuracy
19 September 2011 | Lithography
Product Briefing Outline: Applied Materials has introduced its
new ‘Applied Centura Tetra’ EUV Advanced Reticle Etch system. The new
systems is claimed to overcome a major hurdle to the adoption of EUV
lithography by solving the critical and unmet challenge of etching EUVL
photomasks with nanometer-level accuracy and world-class defect
performance to enable the fabrication of multiple new generations of
high-performance semiconductor chips at the 16nm node and below.
Read more >>New Product: ASML Brion’s Tachyon MB-SRAF enables OPC-like compute times
19 September 2011 | Lithography
Product Briefing Outline: Brion Technologies, a division of ASML,
has launched a new product for its Tachyon computational lithography
platform. Tachyon MB-SRAF (Model-Based Sub-Resolution Assist Features)
is said to enable the high-speed, full-chip processing of advanced chip
designs with larger process windows, greater productivity, and lower
development costs than rule-based alternatives.
Read more >>EV Group unveils wafer bonding system for 450mm SOI wafers
13 July 2011 | Materials and Gases
Product Briefing Outline: EV Group has introduced the semiconductor
industry's first bonding system for 450-mm-diameter wafers manufactured
from silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrates. The EVG850SOI/450mm was
created to support and facilitate the industry transition to 450mm
wafers from the current 300mm standard.
Read more >>Recruitment News
Rudolph Technologies appoints new Vice President and General Manager
22 October 2010
After a two-year term at solar equipment supplier Spire, Dr. Avishai
Kepten has returned to the semiconductor equipment sector as Vice
President and General Manager of Rudolph Technologies, Metrology
Business Unit. Dr. Kepten had previously spent six years at Novellus
Systems, as Director of Technology and Director of New Product
Development of the Electrofill Business Unit.
Read more >>Facility Manager’s Development Program ‘09 begins in September
22 July 2009
Arizona State University's (ASU) developed training program for professionals has announced details for the 2009 ‘Facility Manager's Development Program' (FMDP), due to start in September this year.
Read more >>Axcelis cuts one-fifth of global workforce
22 May 2009 | Comments (1)
Further to its approximately 14% cut in staff numbers in October 2008 – only seven months ago, Axcelis Technologies, Inc. has again announced that it is letting staff go in a further attempt at cutting operating costs to stay competitive. Approximately 235 staff, or 20% of its global workforce will be axed from the company’s books, yielding an estimated $25 million in savings per annum.
Read more >>
Special Features
Lithography efficiency: a cost comparison model
21 October 2010
By Sven Grünzig, Nemotek Technologie, Rabat, Morocco
ABSTRACT - This paper presents a calculation model and conclusions with focus on the comparison of low-throughput and high-throughput lithography clusters via an analysis of the lithography Cost of Ownership (COO) and applied data of the Overall Equipment Efficiency (OEE) and Overall Factory Efficiency (OFE).
Read more >>300mm activity report: Special Memory Focus
01 March 2008
Mark Osborne, Editor-in-Chief, Semiconductor Fabtech
Read more >>
300mm activity report: January to April 2008
01 March 2008 | Comments (1)
Mark Osborne, Editor-in-Chief, Semiconductor Fabtech
Read more >>