Online information source for semiconductor professionals

The takeover of Jazz Semiconductor by Tower Semiconductor has received approval from Jazz’s stockholders for the adoption of the Agreement and Plan of Merger and Reorganization. Tower will now acquire all of the outstanding Jazz shares in a stock-for-stock agreement. Read more >>

IBM and Mentor Graphics are to jointly develop and distribute next-generation computational lithography (CL) software for the 22nm node and below, which will enable a computationally based process for production at the 22nm node. According to the partners, this will be first of its kind. Read more >>

Sigma-Aldrich Fine Chemicals (SAFC), recently gathered technology journalists from across Europe in Lyon, France, to report on its commercial progress. Among the pharmaceutical and bioscience reporters, there was a solitary semiconductor press representative, Dr Mike Cooke. Read more >>

Hynix Semiconductor is escalating its closure of 200mm fabs that have been producing both DRAM and NAND flash memory devises in an effort to significantly reduce output on uncompetitive 200mm wafers, while shifting production to 300mm fabs. Hynix expects the move will reduce overall production of DRAM by 20 percent and NAND flash by as much as 40 percent. Read more >>

As expected the recent production cuts announced by Elpida and Powerchip Semiconductor (PSC), will only see global DRAM output reduced by no more than 2.5 percent, having little impact on the current oversupply conditions. Read more >>

Market share figures from iSuppli Corp, show that Spansion has seen NOR flash growth of 7.5 percent in the second quarter of 2008, reaching nearly 40 percent overall market share. Spansion is now the third largest supplier in the overall Flash memory market rankings. Spansion said that it had now surpassed its nearest rival Numonyx. Read more >>

Samsung Electronics has gone hostile over its initial talks with SanDisk to acquire the company were rejected. In a new move for Samsung, under the new leadership of Lee Yoon Woo, when he became Chief Executive Officer of the memory giant in May, 2008, the company has made a hostile bid for SanDisk valuing the flash memory specialist at $5.85 billion. Read more >>

According to an SEC filing, rather than through a press release, Axcelis has stated that Sumitomo Heavy Industries (SHI), would not be making an official bid for the company after a period of due diligence. Read more >>

The SOI Industry Consortium has made available the first chapters of its "SOI Implementation Guide," which features a series of white papers and presentations from industry experts on specific topics to promote a common understanding of the value and challenges of silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technologies. Read more >>

Novellus Systems has said that its Gamma GxT photoresist strip system has become a process tool of record at a major Asia based foundry. The tool has been qualified for 45nm production. Read more >>