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Editor's Blog
The blog is written by Semiconductor Fabtech's Editor-in-Chief, Mark Osborne. Mark is also the Senior News Editor for Photovoltaics International and the PV-Tech website. He has launched multiple technology titles in print and online covering manufacturing in the automotive, shipping, semiconductor and solar sectors in a publishing career spanning three decades. Mark started blogging in 2005, the first technology editor to do so and has worked online since 1996. A veteran manufacturing technology journalist and editor, Mark as been responsible for a series of innovative formats for delivering technical content to an engineering-based audience. Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates Reports: END OF AN ERA
28 July 2011
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
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
Big news today is that ion implant market leader Varian Semiconductor
Equipment Associates is to be acquired by Applied Materials for
approximately US$4.9 billion. Though this is most definitely a semiconductor play for Applied, it does raise some issues over Applied’s motives as Varian launched the Solion implanter to the solar manufacturing industry a year ago, having poured significant capital into developing the technology. Read more >>
Intel to go revolutionary
26 April 2011
Otellini’s revolutionary comments were on the back of announcing they
would increase capital spending in 2011 by a further US$1.0 billion.
Much of that added spending would directed at the 14nm node though some
would be allocated to ramp at the 22nm node that bit bigger as demand
was proving extremely strong for its latest MPU’s.
Read more >>Guest blog: A Perspective on the Impact of Japan’s Disaster
30 March 2011
This guest blog was provided by Bill McClean, IC Insights, covering
new analysis of the impact on the semiconductor industry from the recent
disasters in Japan. One thing we have learned in over 30 years of analyzing the
semiconductor market is that when the forecasting environment is at its
most confusing state (e.g., the memory market bubble of 1984, the
internet bubble of 2001, the financial collapse of 2008/2009, etc.), the
best thing to do is go back to basics.
Read more >>Chip Shots
The Chip Shots blog channels the observations of Fabtech's and PV-Tech/Photovoltaic International's Senior Contributing Editor--USA, Tom Cheyney, a 20-year veteran of semiconductor, advanced micro/nanoelectronics, and solar manufacturing trade journalism. For 15 years, Tom was editor in chief of MICRO (the original home of Chip Shots) until it ceased publication in July 2006. Tom calls Los Angeles home. View MICRO Magazine archive.Cross-pollinator: Ascent Solar’s new boss Farhad Moghadam gets his geek back on
26 October 2009
Farhad Moghadam loves to make semiconductor analogies when he talks
about his corner of solar photovoltaics. The former Applied Materials
and Intel exec is wearing a new hat these days as he marks his third
month as president/CEO of Ascent Solar. The company just announced its latest conversion efficiency numbers
for its copper-indium-gallium-(di)selenide thin-film PV cells (14.1%
peak) and modules (11.7% peak, 10.5%-plus median) and will be ramping
its roll-to-roll CIGS-on-polyimide process to volume scale in its Thornton, CO, factory early next year.
Read more >>Rudolph likely to leverage Adventa process control IP into solar space
04 August 2009
Rudolph Technologies' acquisition of Adventa Control Technologies for an undisclosed wad of cash has immediate implications for those trying to keep their semiconductor manufacturing processes, equipment, and factories under tight control. ACT's software lurks in some 80% of those fabs, with somewhere upwards of 18,000 of its systems installed. The buy certainly won't hurt Rudolph's bottom line either, as the addition of ACT should double the revenues of the company's data analysis and review biz unit. But the move by Rudolph, which launched its own photovoltaic-specific Solar Discover process control and yield management package earlier this year (and which is already an option on Spire's turnkey cell lines), may also end up benefitting the PV production crowd. To read the rest of the blog, click here to go to pv-tech.org.
Read more >>A few words from Lehman on why DRAM, solar industries don’t compare, but polysilicon does
10 September 2008
The news has been grim
for Lehman Brothers today, but one part of the giant investment bank
that's doing yeoman work is its solar energy equity research group, led
by analyst Vishal Shah. His daily email newsletter and periodic reports
are some of the most informative and cogent in the space.
Read more >>SMIC plows ahead with process migration plans, but will chip foundry ever make money?
09 September 2008
Since its inception, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., better known as SMIC,
has pursued an aggressive plan to join the elite chip foundry
companies. During the Chinese firm's chase of the big two--TSMC and
UMC--it passed Chartered to ascend to the number-three slot a couple of
years ago, although it has been nip and tuck with the Singaporean
concern since then, alternating between third and fourth place. But the
one cornerstone of SMIC's gameplan where it has failed miserably is one
of the most basic to any business model--profitability.
Read more >>
National Semiconductor execs are all smiles when it comes to SolarMagic
08 September 2008
National Semiconductor may have seen net income slip a bit in its latest quarterly results,
but Brian Halla and his team have shown no erosion in their excitement
over the company's initial product foray into the photovoltaics market
space, launched in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008: SolarMagic.
Read more >>