Fab Management

News

TSMC honors suppliers at annual Supply Chain Management Forum

03 December 2008

According to TSMC, approximately 410 suppliers to the company attended its seventh annual Supply Chain Management Forum, which had the theme of ‘Striving for Supply Chain Excellence’, and focused on new technology development, innovative cost reduction, and supply chain efficiency. As part of the forum, TSMC announced its 2008 supplier awards which saw equipment honors for EBARA Corporation (CMP equipment), Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates (Ion Implanters), Hitachi Kokusai Electric (Thermal Furnaces) and Novellus Systems (CVD tools). Materials supply honors went to Tokyo Ohka Kogyo (TOK) for photoresists and Cabot Microelectronics for CMP pads and slurries. Read more >>

SEMI revises semiconductor equipment sales forecast

02 December 2008

SEMI has projected sales to reach $30.91 billion in 2008, a decline of almost 28%, compared to 2007.

SEMI has painted an uncharacteristically gloomy picture of semiconductor equipment sales in 2008 and 2009 that slightly exceeds projections from independent market research firms such as Gartner Dataquest and VLSI Research. SEMI has projected sales to reach $30.91 billion in 2008, a decline of almost 28%, compared to 2007. The trade association is also projecting a further decline in equipment sales of 21% for 2009. Read more >>

WSTS sees semiconductor sales falling 2.2% in 2009

01 December 2008

The World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) has released its forecasts for 2008 and 2009. The global semiconductor market is expected to grow 2.5% on an annualized basis to $261.9 billion in 2008, which have been revised downwards 0.7 percentage points compared to the forecast that WSTS had issued in May, 2008. The fall is due to weaker than expected sales in the fourth quarter, WSTS said. Read more >>

News From Around The Web

Ten worst M&A cock-ups in the semiconductor industry

03 December 2008 | Source: Electronics Weekly

Semiconductor sales down despite falling prices

03 December 2008 | Source: Bizjournals.com

Standard & Poor’s affirms ON Semiconductor rating

03 December 2008 | Source: CNN

Product Briefings

New Product: CIMAC offers packaged service solution for legacy MES migration

09 September 2008

Product Briefing Outline: CIMAC is now offering a new MES (Manufacturing Execution Systems) migration packaged service solution for semiconductor fabs with obsolete server platforms. These server platforms run the manufacturing control software that coordinates the movement and processing of material through the fab. Hewlett-Packard (HP) has announced dates when support for their AlphaServer and HP PA-RISC 9000 Server platforms will no longer be available. This could effect up to 100 mostly 200mm fabs. Legacy MES software including WorkStream, PROMIS and FACTORYworks (Applied Materials) all have software versions that run on HP AlphaServers Open as well as HP 9000 Servers. Read more >>

New Product: Imera’s e-Diagnostics solution’s cross-enterprise collaboration counters VPN issues

21 July 2008

Product Briefing Outline: Imera Systems has announced its next-generation network virtualization solutions for cross-enterprise e-Diagnostics and equipment knowledge base access. The solutions are claimed to connect manufacturers and equipment vendors to maximize productivity and reduce unscheduled equipment downtime with no VPN connection, or a third party service provider without IP leakage. Read more >>

New Product: Applied’s ‘E3’ process control suite targets 20% boost to overall equipment effic

10 July 2008

Product Briefing Outline: Applied Materials has introduced the ‘Applied E3’ advanced equipment and process control solution, intended to be a comprehensive factory automation (FA) software package for improving the productivity and reducing the costs of semiconductor, flat panel display and photovoltaic solar cell manufacturing. The modular packages utilize proprietary algorithms that are claimed to boost process capability by >30 percent, reduce unscheduled downtime, and shorten cycle time to achieve up to a 20 percent increase in overall equipment effectiveness. Applied Materials said the system has already been employed by multiple major manufacturers and is currently being used in volume production. Read more >>

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