Online information source for semiconductor professionals

Nitrogen trifluoride used in semiconductor, thin-film solar and other electronics manufacturing has been found to be in greater quantities in the atmosphere than previously estimated and is increasing at about 11 percent per annum, according to new research using new analytical techniques, NASA said. Read more >>

Cabot Microelectronics has opened its global pads manufacturing facility in Aurora, Illinois to meet the $500 million and growing CMP pad business. Cabot is well known for its CMP slurries, but only entered the polishing pads business in the last few years. The company said that it had CMP pad revenues of less than $1 million in 2007, but expects $15 million in revenue for fiscal 2008, which ended September 30th. Read more >>

Air Liquide Industrial U.S. LP, a subsidiary of American Air Liquide Holdings, Inc., revealed today its plans to increase the prices for industrial gas customers. Prices for bulk oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, and helium will increase by 15 percent, carbon dioxide and dry ice prices are due to rise by 10 percent while argon will have a price increase of 20 percent. The new prices will come into effect on October 15. Read more >>

Showa Denko K.K. (SDK) is to expand its presence in the growing fluorine market, specifically in the semiconductor and LCD manufacturing sectors with the purchase of F2 Chemicals Limited. The company is based in the UK and is a joint venture between Asahi Glass and Mitsubishi. Terms of the deal were not disclosed; however, F2 Chemicals had a capitalization value of £11 million pounds sterling and 33 employees. 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 >>

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 >>

Praxair Electronics is raising the price of its tantalum products worldwide, by 15 percent or higher due to the rapidly escalating raw material costs related to the mining and recycling of tantalum and tantalum ore, the company said. Read more >>

Air Liquide America Specialty Gases LLC has raised the price of specialty gases by between five and 20 percent, while delivery charges have increase by 25 percent. Cylinder oxygen, acetylene, carbon dioxide, hydrogen and other gas products will increase by five to 20 percent, while the price of helium will be increased by between 20 and 25 percent. The increased costs will come into effect on September 1st, 2008, excluding customer contracts that have stipulated fixed prices. Read more >>

Although the SOI market only about 1.4 percent of total silicon demand in 2007, the wafer technology is expected to have a CAGR of 11 percent and reach $1.1 billion in revenues by 2012, according to a new report from VLSI Research. Read more >>

Rohm and Haas Electronic Materials’ CMP Technologies arm is to further invest in expanding its production capacity to meet growing demand, the company said. The new facility only became operational in March 2007 for CMP pad finishing processes. Complete pad manufacturing, including casting operations for its ‘VisionPad’ and its ‘IC1000’ AT pad series, will be operational in early 2009. Read more >>