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Continuing its aggressive technology node migrations, Samsung has gained market share in DRAM in the second quarter, according to iSuppli Corp. Its aggressive ramp using 40nm lithography technology saw bit production increase dramatically enabling its dominant market position to increase to 35.4%, up from 32.6% in the first quarter. Samsung produced 1.2 billion 1Gbit-density-equivalent DRAM units in Q2, up 13% from 1.1 billion in the first. Read more >>

The SIA has said that year-on-year growth for the semiconductor industry would be in line with its mid-year forecast of 28.4%, despite many market research firms expecting 30% and above growth rates in 2010. According to the SIA, global sales of semiconductors in the second quarter of 2010 grew to US$74.8 billion, an increase of 7.1% from the first quarter total of US$69.9 billion. June 2010 sales of US$24.9 billion were 0.5% higher than May when sales were US$24.8 billion. Read more >>

TSMC has accelerated its capacity expansion plan for 2010 as demand continues to be strong on that back of growing revenue in the second quarter and guidance of further revenue increase in the third quarter. TSMC’s current capacity plan calls for an overall increase by 14% to 11,299 200mm equivalent wafers, compared with 11,247 8-inch equivalent wafers planned in the last quarter. TSMC guided that 300mm wafer capacity would increase by 36% in 2010 under the current plan. Capital expenditure will be raised again from US$4.8 billion to US$5.9 billion in 2010. Read more >>

By Ernst Richter et al - ABSTRACT - This article follows up on a previously published paper that introduced the 110nm technology transfer of Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) for the Inotera Memories joint venture at start-up [1]. In this paper, technology transfer and ramp of the 75nm DRAM technology is outlined for Inotera in full production mode. Again, technology transfer was done from Qimonda (previously Infineon Technologies) at Dresden in Germany where the technology was jointly developed with Nanya Technologies. Inotera at Taoyuan in Taiwan was the first receiving site to repeat the technology qualification. Continuous sales price reduction puts pressure on memory firms for fast introduction of technology shrinks to remain cost competitive [2]. Delays as short as a few days in the production ramp can translate into millions of dollars of missed opportunity in revenue. This paper sets forth the steps taken by the two companies to avoid such setbacks in the technology transfer. Read more >>

By Brandon Lee & Susanta Dash, CIMAC, San Jose, California, U.S. - ABSTRACT - Performance testing is carried out on an MES system to identify and eliminate bottlenecks that can potentially cause production outages and lost revenue in a semiconductor production fab. In a distributed system, bottlenecks can occur at the client site, within the server or in the  network. The MES system is the heart of the manufacturing operation and interacts with a number of other systems to support the manufacturing line in a fab. As production increases with ramping up of the production volume, the loads on the various systems that support the production also increase. This paper puts forward the potential benefits in applying the MES system for testing and validation of performance and scalability to measure the various key parameters, thus providing good ROI by early detection of potential problems. Read more >>

Dean W. Freeman, Gartner Dataquest, San Jose, California Read more >>