Online information source for semiconductor professionals

Top Story

Capital spending strongest in first half of year, says Deutsche Bank

09 January 2012 | Fab Management
Deutsche BankThe 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.

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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

Guest blog: A Perspective on the Impact of Japan’s Disaster

30 March 2011 | Editor's Blog

It all goes Pete Tong for Nikon!

29 March 2011 | Editor's Blog

Could energy supply be the near-term issue for Japanese IC industry?

15 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
Heinz Kundert receives IC Industry Award for leadershipHaving 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
Dennis McGuirkA 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
CREATEArizona 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).

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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 >>