Elpida Memory, which operates one of the world’s largest DRAM memory fabs in Hiroshima, Japan, will undergo a major internal transformation as the company battles a continued over capacity in the memory markets and seeks Japanese Government funds to continue operations. Elpida said it would divide the massive facility into two separate lines, one dedicated to mobile device-related DRAM and the other to PC related DRAM devices. Both lines will have their own management teams and operate separately, the company said.
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A third-consecutive month of growth in semiconductor sales has the SIA cautiously optimistic about an industry recovery, though shied away from calling the next upturn. Worldwide sales of semiconductors in May rose to US$16.5 billion, an increase of 5.4% from April’s figure of US$15.6 billion.
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SUSS MicroTec, supplier of process and test solutions for microstructuring applications in semiconductor markets, is changing the structure of its sales in Asia and basing the new office in Singapore. ZMC Technologies will act as general sales representative for interests in Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines. This adds to SUSS MicroTec’s presence in Seoul, Shanghai, Yokohama, and Hsinchu.
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Dr. Dirk Ortloff, is Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at Process Relations GmbH. Here he discusses the advantages of investing in new technologies and methodologies during the economic downturn as a guest columnist.
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As a direct follower of the move to 300mm fabs, the lack of new build in 2008 and that expected in 2009 looks set to cause a serious capacity constraint over the next two years as the industry recovers from one of the worst downturns in its history. In his May, 2009 monthly report, Malcolm Penn at Future Horizons believes the capacity shortage at 300mm fabs will impact the industry as soon as 2010. He claims that only 40,000 200mm wafer starts/week equivalent, minus any capacity closures, will come on stream next year, based on the incredibly low capital spending levels.
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Amkor Technology, Inc. has announced its plans for an executive shake-up on October 1st, as it revealed that company CEO and founder James Kim (pictured) will become Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors and Ken Joyce, President and COO, will take the reins as well as a seat on the board of directors. The succession has been on the cards for some time, according to the company.
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Globalfoundries has announced two new members of its executive team: Norm Armour, newly-elected vice president and general manager, and Eric Choh, vice president of operations. The company is setting up shop for the development of Fab 2 at the Luther Forest Technology Campus in New York, its newest semiconductor fabrication facility.
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SanDisk Corp. has announced that it will be awarding its co-founder, chairman and CEO Eli Harari the IEEE Robert N. Noyce Medal at the IEEE Honours Ceremony due to be held in Los Angeles on June 25th.
Product Briefing Outline: KLA-Tencor has announced XP, a new upgrade package for 28xx broadband brightfield inspection systems. The XP package is the first commercially available product to give an inspection system access to standard IC design layout files. With access to this information, the inspection system can use knowledge of the defect’s location within the circuit to better estimate its probability of affecting device yield. In addition, XP can use the results of the design-aware wafer inspection to identify features on the mask that may be particularly sensitive to process variations during printing. These and other features of the XP upgrade package are designed to improve the sensitivity and productivity of existing 28xx inspectors and raise the information content of defect results, helping to accelerate identification and resolution of defect issues.
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Product Briefing Outline: Nova Measuring Instruments has launched ‘MatMaker,’ a Product-Driven Materials Characterization package, which is based on software algorithms and tools refined by Nova’s applications developers over the past 10 years. The company claims the new software changes the way spectral Optical CD is deployed in fabs, significantly reducing application development time and cost while at the same time increasing the measurement accuracy.
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Product Briefing Outline: Sokudo Co., Ltd. has recently launched the SOKUDO DUO platform, a new concept in photoresist coat/develop track systems that provides customers with the ultra-high productivity needed to optimize leading-edge lithography processing. Incorporating an innovative dual track design, the system simultaneously processes wafers in two lines, claimed to boost throughput to 250-300 wafers per hour (wph), depending on system configuration, while also improving uptime and substantially reducing system footprint.
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Xilinx, Inc. has announced plans to restructure the company, including
getting rid of 6% of its workforce, or 200 employees, which would have
a pre-tax charge of US$11-US$13 million for the June quarter, mostly
dealing with severance pay expenses.
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Qimonda AG has announced it will be cutting 1,000 employees from its
Portuguese unit, while also suspending the contracts of the 800
remaining workers for the next six months. This unit had stopped
production last month, since parts from Dresden’s Qimonda factory
failed to ship.
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