I just got an e-mail from Applied Materials about their launch of a card game called Bright Future, designed to teach kids about sustainability and environmental concepts. As I pull together the cards to play with my 8-year-old daughter, my first thought is that it wouldn't be such a bad idea for fab managers and company CEOs to try their hand at the game. Check out the link to the game in Editor's Picks, and also check the News section for recent reports from the cleaning front. Remember that you can always keep up to date with the latest clean processing developments at our Clean Processing Technology Channel:

Aaron Hand, Executive Editor, Electronic Media
ahand@reedbusiness.com

CNTs That Look Like Asbestos, Behave Like Asbestos
PR Newswire, 5/20/2008

A major study published in Nature Nanotechnology suggests some forms of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) could be as harmful as asbestos if inhaled in sufficient quantities. The study used established methods to see if specific types of nanotubes have the potential to cause mesothelioma — a cancer of the lung lining that can take 30-40 years to appear following exposure. The results show that long, thin multi-walled carbon CNTs that look like asbestos fibers, behave like asbestos fibers. More

Novellus Offers Dry Strip Tools for High-Volume Memory, Advanced Logic
David Lammers, News Editor — Semiconductor International, 5/19/2008

Novellus Systems announced two derivatives to its Gamma Express dry strip and clean platform: the G400, aimed at high-volume memory fabs; and the GxT, targeting the needs of advanced logic customers. The company developed a continuous RF capability that boosts throughput by continuing to ash even as wafers are moved from one station to the next. More

Haze, Still Misunderstood, Costing Industry $1B a Year
Aaron Hand, Executive Editor, Electronic Media — Semiconductor International, 5/7/2008

Arguably the single largest yield detractor in the semiconductor industry, costing the industry about a billion dollars every year, micro-contamination is still very little understood or acknowledged by semiconductor fabs. Industry experts discussed the issues and various solutions in a session earlier this month on time-dependent haze at ESTECH 2008. More

FSI Ships Single-Wafer Cleaning for 32 nm Development
Business Wire, 5/13/2008

FSI International Inc. announced that it shipped its single-wafer wet cleaning technology to a major semiconductor manufacturer for the development of back-end-of-line (BEOL) cleaning capability for 32 nm IC manufacturing. More

Applied Tackles Edge With Inflexion Polishing System
David Lammers, News Editor, and Laura Peters, Editor-in-Chief — Semiconductor International, 5/7/2008

Applied Materials introduced the Inflexion edge polishing system that has an integrated wafer cleaning capability. The Inflexion tool uses abrasive tape to clean the wafer's edge, an area that faces new contamination issues as immersion lithography pushes liquids to the edge of the wafer. More

SEZ Group Now Lam's Spin Clean Division
David Lammers, News Editor — Semiconductor International, 4/24/2008

Lam Research Corp. executives said that they have created a Spin Clean Division to attack high-throughput, single-wafer cleaning opportunities. The spin clean tools acquired from the former SEZ Group will complement Lam's linear clean tools, said Lam CEO Stephen Newberry. More

SEZ Reports Small Operating Loss for Fiscal 2007
Austria Today, 4/29/2008

The SEZ Group recently released its results for fiscal year 2007, reporting net sales of 205 million euros, 15.6% lower than in 2006. Order intake was down 26.3% to 186 million euros. More

Mattson Receives Order for Suprema Strip System
PR Newswire, 4/23/2008

Mattson Technology Inc. announced that it has received an order for the Suprema photoresist strip system from a leading Korean memory manufacturer. More