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Texas Instruments has bid US$172.5 million for the 300mm fab equipment up for sale at Qimonda’s Richmond, Virginia facility. Bankruptcy court documents don’t reveal much else, except that TI is a stalking horse bidder in this case, which I think means that TI and Qimonda doubt that higher bids will be received but if they do, Qimonda will have to pay (from where!) a break-up fee.

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Last week Aviza Technology sold the majority of its assets to Sumitomo Precision Products for not a lot of up-front cash and mostly in promissory notes that will take 18-months before maturity. After Chapter 11 protection and automatic de-listing, Aviza failed to do what Tegal had done years ago and shift market emphasis that resulted in survival on the NASDAQ. Read more >>

Although booth numbers were seriously down at SEMICON West this year, one company that was in attendance was surprisingly, Asyst Technologies. The company filed for Chapter 11 protection back in April and ever since I had picked up rumours concerning potential acquirers as well as more pessimistic tones of a complete collapse and fire sale, which would be happening in the not too distant future! Read more >>

The consolidation in DRAM memory manufacturers is still looking a distant dream after many months and two quarters of this year already gone without any real developments. Taiwan government’s new quango, Taiwan Memory Co is being supported with a paltry NT$30 billion, just enough for office expenses while few memory players are wanting to actually play with TMC in the playground! Read more >>

On the long-haul flight over to this year’s SEMICON West, I reminded myself not to be all doom and gloom and totally despondent on the expected tumbleweeds blowing through North and South Halls. Having been pre-warned by a number of equipment suppliers about the drastic reduction in the number of exhibitors and expected attendees, I would try and look at the positive aspects and see how it went! Read more >>

It was a cold, dark day for AMD back in October 2007, when concerns over delays to its future 45nm ramp were raised in this blog and on other news sites. So desperate were AMD’s spin-doctors to keep the ‘myth’ of flawless execution in the public eye, that rather than contact myself over my findings, the spin-doctors thought it best to let another journalist/blogger over at CNET remind readers that I had actually made an ‘erroneous report.’ Read more >>

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. Read more >>

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. Read more >>

Much chatter and condemnation has gone Len Jelinek’s way since declaring the end of scaling for the majority of the industry when we reach the 18nm node in 2014. This is due to economics, not technical barriers - something that gets the 'Moore’s Law forever' folks all hot under the collar. Read more >>

Last week's news that TSMC would enter the Solar and LED markets and not as a foundry supplier, coincided with Morris Chang taking back the reins of daily management of the company and Rick Tsai moving to run the new business venture. This was taken as a demotion for Tsai and a form of retribution for his actions to cut TSMC’s workforce as the foundry struggled with record low utilization rates. Apparently, there had been worker protests over the redundancies, which had impacted TSMC’s reputation. Read more >>