The latest news and information on semiconductor fab facilities, including manufacturing automation, e-manufacturing/e-diagnostics, chemicals/chemical management, gases/gas management, ultrapure water, vacuum systems, and waste treatment.
A Better Way to Manage Test Wafers Laura Peters, Editor-in-Chief - 05/08/2008
Advanced Micro Devices is in the process of applying lean concepts throughout its organization — even to highly manual operations, such as the use of test wafers in 300 mm fabs. More
Freescale Taking Redistributed Chip Packaging to Pilot Production Stage David Lammers, News Editor - 05/12/2008
Freescale Semiconductor Inc. has moved its RCP packaging technology to pilot production, starting with a Freescale chip designed for a customer making MP3 players. The unique approach uses lithography and etching techniques to define I/Os which can be smaller and less expensive than conventional ball grid array packaging, said RCP operations manager Navjot Chhabra.
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AMD continues to withhold details on asset-lite plans By Suzanne Deffree, Managing Editor, News - 05/09/2008
Despite being encouraged by financial analysts to shed some light on its business strategy as it pertains to its fabs and profitability, AMD CEO Hector Ruiz did not discuss rumors that the company will sell off its manufacturing facilities at its annual meeting of stockholders.
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Qimonda Enters Solar Cell Manufacturing With Centrosolar Staff - 05/05/2008
DRAM maker Qimonda AG will partner with Centrosolar AG to build a solar cell manufacturing plant in Vila do Conde, Portugal. The plant will make 30 million solar cells per year when it begins production next year.
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SAFC Expands Specialty Chemical Business Laura Peters, Editor-in-Chief - 04/30/2008
SAFC Hitech is expanding its business in specialty chemicals for the semiconductor industry. “This cleanroom investment complements existing manufacturing and research and development sites at Sheboygan, and will help us achieve our objectives, essentially providing a ‘one-stop shop’ for manufacturing, analysis and packaging,” said Frank Wicks, SAFC president.
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TSMC Ramping Aggressive CPU Process Push David Lammers, News Editor - 04/29/2008
TSMC is “hiring aggressively” to develop a technology platform for CPU production, said CEO Rick Tsai. While conceding that TSMC’s process technology has lagged Intel’s thus far, Tsai said TSMC expects its processor production to “blossom” starting in 2010.
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TSMC Sketches 32 nm Rollout Plan for 2009 David Lammers, News Editor - 04/28/2008
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. plans to begin 32 nm production in the third quarter of 2009, with foundry production of dual core 3G cell phone chipsets as one focus, said Jack Sun, TSMC’s vice president of R&D. TSMC will use a high-k/metal gate process for high-frequency microprocessor production, he said, while sticking with a poly/oxynitrides gate stack for the general purpose and low-power platforms.
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IBM, Matheson Tri-Gas to develop semi manufacturing materials for 32 nm and below By Ann Steffora Mutschler, Senior Editor - 04/28/2008
IBM continues to ink manufacturing agreements, this time with Matheson Tri-Gas to develop materials and processes for 32 nm and beyond. "In our business model where we pool individual research strengths and intellectual property, we are able to reduce the significant costs associated with the research required to create the next generation of chip technology,” Bernie Meyerson (pictured), CTO for IBM’s systems and technology group, said of the agreement.
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VIEWS ON NEWS David Lammers, News Editor, Semiconductor International May 6, 2008 The Other 450 mm Shoe
The three companies openly pushing for 450 mm wafers are working on a plan to subsidi... More
Dan Herr is director of Nanomanufacturing Science Research at SRC. An important part of his research focuses on nanotechnology’s demands on metrology, and he discusses his work to determine where metrology technology’s gaps are, and how to fill them.
Lower Thermal Budgets Affect Contamination Jerry Riddle, Chairman, Tiger Optics LLC, Warrington, Pa., www.tigeroptics.com, 01/01/2008 Tool builders and fab operators are constantly seeking ways to lower thermal budgets to speed throughput and use less resources, utilities and energy. However, what engineers have discovered is that with the lower-temperature process, contaminants that were not there at higher temperatures are increasingly present and remain in the process tools, pressure vessels, carriers and, in some cases, on the surface of the wafers....
The Greening of the Semiconductor Industry Peter Singer, Editor-in-Chief, 12/01/2007
As part of a new focus on sustainability, the semiconductor industry is building new fabs (and labs) designed for LEED certification. There's also a push to reduce energy and water consumption while minimizing hazardous waste and emissions....
Grose Considers High-k, SOI, 300mmPrime David Lammers, News Editor, 11/06/2007
Doug Grose, AMD's senior vice president of manufacturing and supply chain management, said AMD is pushing ahead with silicon on insulator (SOI) development through the 32 nm node, at least. Grose said AMD is running 45 nm production designs now, and will be ready in the first half of 2008 to go into 45 nm volume production. ...
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