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Amkor to purchase Toshiba’s Malaysian IC assembly and test operations
Toshiba said it would continue to subcontract power semiconductor
assembly and test to its former Malaysian IC assembly and test
operations after being acquired by Amkor. Toshiba and Amkor expect to
complete the transaction by early January 2012.
Read more >>IDT completing fablite to fabless business model with Oregon fab sell
Mixed-signal IC fabrication specialist, Integrated Device Technology
(IDT) is moving to the fabless business model with the sale of its
Hillsboro, Oregon wafer fabrication facility. However, the fab is not to
close but is being acquired by Alpha and Omega Semiconductor, which
under a foundry service arrangement with IDT AOS has the option to
acquire the wafer fabrication facility and related assets for US$26
million.
Read more >>Freescale’s East Kilbride fab sold to property developer
ATREG and Colliers International have secured the sale of Freescale
Semiconductor’s East Kilbride, Scotland facility to Clowes Developments
(Scotland) Limited, a property developer. However, Freescale is said to
be leasing back 70,000 sq. ft. of campus offices from Clowes for
research and development, applications engineering, systems
architecture, and product engineering purposes. This agreement maintains
Freescale’s presence at the location.
Read more >>Product Briefings
New Product: Applied iSYS fully-integrated abatement and vacuum pumping solution reduces energy use
Product Briefing Outline: Applied Materials has unveiled its ‘Applied iSYS’ platform, the industry’s first fully-integrated abatement and vacuum pumping solution for controlling emissions in the semiconductor fab. Networked with an Applied process tool, the iSYS system can deliver typical annual savings in power, water and gas consumption equivalent to 200MWh of energy or 220,000 pounds of CO2 emissions, compared to currently available configurations. In addition to having environmental benefits, the iSYS system lowers the utility cost for abatement and vacuum pumping on a process tool by more than 20%.
Read more >>New Product: Tiger Optics’ gas phase AMC analyzer measures parts per trillion trace levels
Product Briefing Outline: Tiger Optics has introduced the ‘Tiger-i’ cleanroom analyzer for gas phase airborne molecular contaminants (AMCs). The Tiger-i line employs Tiger Optics’ patented Continuous Wave Cavity Ring-Down Spectroscopy (CW-CRDS) technology that is claimed to provide accurate and immediate, calibration-free analysis.
Read more >>Top 5 new products for 2008
One of the equipment suppliers that consistently brings out new products is KLA-Tencor. However, the metrology supplier rarely figures in the most popular rankings in any given year. That has changed in 2008 with its TeraFab tool. Although only released recently, the fifth most popular product was from TEL and Novellus for copper interconnects.
Read more >>White Papers
Edition 38: Chiller plant optimization
By Terrence Morris & Steve Blaine PE, CH2M HILL, Oregon, USA
Outside of the process tools themselves, the chilled water plant is typically the single largest consumer of electrical energy in a semiconductor facility. This load includes not just chillers but also cooling tower fans, primary pumps, secondary pumps and condenser pumps. In order to meet the cooling requirements for any particular heat load, many different combinations of this equipment can be run. However, electricity consumption varies considerably depending on the combination of equipment used and the operating levels of the individual components. Selecting the optimal mix of equipment and operating levels presents a substantial challenge for an automatic control system and plant operators. Typically, no method is available to predict the effect of interactions and variations in load demand and outside air. This makes it challenging, if not impossible, to find an equipment mix that achieves optimal energy use. In response to this challenge, we set out to create a model/tool that would allow operators to automatically determine the optimal equipment mix to satisfy cooling requirements and minimize energy use. This paper describes how this model was created and how it works.
Read more >>