Online information source for semiconductor professionals

Excess inventory, manufacturing overcapacity and slowing demand are expected to hit semiconductor sales in 2011, according to market research firm, Gartner. Worldwide semiconductor revenue was said to have slowed and the market is set to decline by 0.1% on revenue of US$299 billion in Gartner’s revised 2011 forecast. Previously, Gartner had expected the industry to grow by 5.1% in 2011. 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 >>

Test chips from EDA vendors, Cadence Design Systems, Magma Design Automation, Mentor Graphics and Synopsys have been successfully taped out at Globalfoundries, signalling its readiness for customers to begin evaluating their 20nm designs. Read more >>

Mixed-signal IC fabrication specialist, Integrated Device Technology (IDT) is moving to the fabless business model with the sale of its Hillsboro, Oregon wafer fabrication facility. However, the fab is not to close but is being acquired by Alpha and Omega Semiconductor, which under a foundry service arrangement with IDT AOS has the option to acquire the wafer fabrication facility and related assets for US$26 million. Read more >>

Leading foundry, TSMC has recently placed a batch of accumulated purchase orders with two metrology tool specialists, KLA-Tencor and FEI. A regular recipient, KLA-Tencor received orders worth approximately US$30.9 million from mid-July through to mid-August. Read more >>

The Semiconductor Equipment Assessment Leveraging Innovation (SEAL) project has had a successful first year of operation, reports Fries Research & Technology (FRT). FRT, along with Siltronic AG and the Fraunhofer-Institut für Integrierte Systeme und Bauelementetechnologie, were praised in a 12-month report carried out by the EU and the review panel.

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X-FAB Silicon Foundries Group is to form a strategic partnership with sensor and IC systems-provider Micronas.

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Air Products has launched a research and development program into electronic materials in partnership with the Sustainable Energy Laboratory at the China University of Geosciences in Wuhan, China. The project's aim is to accelerate the product development of materials for the microelectronics industry.
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South Korean conglomerate STX Group and Abu Dhabi state-owned fund Aabar Investments are to put in a joint bid for a 15% stake in Hynix Semiconductor, an anonymous source yesterday told Reuters. Read more >>

ATREG and Colliers International have secured the sale of Freescale Semiconductor’s East Kilbride, Scotland facility to Clowes Developments (Scotland) Limited, a property developer. However, Freescale is said to be leasing back 70,000 sq. ft. of campus offices from Clowes for research and development, applications engineering, systems architecture, and product engineering purposes. This agreement maintains Freescale’s presence at the location. Read more >>