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Worldwide semiconductor equipment bookings continued its strong decline in the third quarter of 2011, according to the latest figures from SEMI. Bookings were US$7.6 billion, down 38% from the same quarter a year ago and 29% lower than the bookings figure for the second quarter of 2011. Read more >>

Wafer bonding and lithography equipment supplier EV Group has been tapped for one of its tools by Asahi Kasei E-Materials Corp. EV Group has shipped an IQ Aligner UV nanoimprint lithography (UV-NIL) system to the company, which will use the tool for development of materials for high-resolution wafer-level optics. Read more >>

Bookings took a bashing in September, according to the latest monthly book-to-bill figures released by SEMI. North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment booked only US$984 million in the month, down from US$1.162 billion in August, continuing a rapid decline that started in June, 2011. The bookings figure is 15.3% less than the final August 2011 level and is 40.4% below the US$1.65 billion in orders posted in September 2010. The decline in bookings on a quarter-to-quarter bases is approximately US$1.32 billion. Read more >>

Rudolph Technologies has shipped its ‘Wafer Scanner 3880 3D Inspection System,’ multiple ‘NSX’ Macro Defect Inspection Systems and its ‘Discover’ Yield Management Software Suite to a leading semiconductor manufacturer. The customer will use the systems for developing through silicon via (TSV) based processes for advanced 3D IC integration. Read more >>

A leading Asian foundry producer has given FSI International final acceptance of an ‘ORION’ single wafer cleaning system, marking the sixth customer that has adopted the platform and technology. The latest customer qualified the system for 28nm FEOL processes and will use it for all-wet photoresist stripping applications using the high-temperature ‘ViPR’ process. FSI said it expects to recognize revenue for this system in the first quarter of fiscal 2012. Read more >>

The usual suspects of slowing global economic growth and excess inventory have set the backdrop for Gartner to completely revise is 5-year CapEx forecast for the semiconductor industry. The slowdown in spending has already started and will decline by 19.2% in 2012 with equipment spending expected to total US$35.2 billion in 2012. Overall capital spending will decline 16.7% next year to US$51.5 billion, down from US$61.8 billion in 2011. Read more >>

An Asian foundry has selected the Atlas XP+ optical critical dimension (OCD) metrology system from Nanometrics to be used for process control of advanced logic devices. According to Nanometrics the Atlas XP+ platform was selected over competitive solutions after a comprehensive head-to-head evaluation of technical performance on advanced devices. Read more >>

Although semiconductor equipment bookings have seen a rapid fall in the last few months, values remain considerably higher than two years ago. North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted US$1.18 billion in orders in August 2011 (three-month average basis) and a book-to-bill ratio of 0.80, according to the August Book-to-Bill Report issued by SEMI. Uncharacteristically, SEMI was downbeat over a near-term recovery, citing demand issues and capex reductions. Read more >>

Two firms rarely in spotlight with TSMC this year are ABB and CAMECA. The metrology equipment supplier has however received a batch of equipment orders this year worth approximately US$17.15 million. TSMC has now placed a batch of facility and engineering equipment with ABB, worth approximately US$11.5 million. Read more >>

A significant number of orders over a decent period were placed by TSMC for what is believed to be for wafer bonding equipment from EV Group. The batch of orders totalled approximately US$38.7 million.  Read more >>