Global economic conditions continue to affect the semiconductor industry, as evidenced by the latest order numbers from Japan's chipmakers, which were down in June for the 15th month in a row, as well as negative financial reports from Lam Research and Axcelis. This month, we have an interesting salary survey from PayScale, which sister publication, EDN, comments about, that shows engineering is as lucrative a field as it has ever been. For up-to-date news, remember to check out our Wafer Processing Technology Channel:

Laura Peters, Editor-in-Chief
lpeters@reedbusiness.com

Japan June Chipmaking Gear Orders Fall for 15th Month
Jiji Press Ticker Service, 8/19/2008

Orders for chipmaking equipment received in Japan in June by domestic and foreign manufacturers fell 23.9% from a year earlier to 74.8 billion yen, extending the losing streak to a 15th month, the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ) said. The drop came as major Japanese semiconductor makers withheld spending in facilities and equipment given uncertainties over the future course of the overall economy, association officials said. More

Alchimer Claims 'Fully Wet' Via Solution
David Lammers, News Editor — Semiconductor International, 8/1/2008

Alchimer SA said experiments have shown that its "electrografting" technology can handle deposition of the insulation, barrier and seed layers in through-silicon vias (TSVs). The privately held company also said its technology is being adopted by the CMOS image sensor vendors. More

IBM Alliance Builds 22 nm SRAM Cell
Staff — Semiconductor International, 8/18/2008

IBM and its semiconductor research partners said they have built a working 22 nm SRAM cell with an area of 0.1 um². The partners plan to describe the SRAM cell in more detail at IEDM, planned for Dec. 15-17 in San Francisco. More

Spansion Extends Flash Foundry Agreement With SMIC
PR Newswire, 8/21/2008

Spansion Inc. announced that it has extended its current agreement with Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC) for the production of 65 nm MirrorBit NOR to include the manufacture of 43 nm Spansion MirrorBit ORNAND Flash memory on 300 mm wafers. More

Rohm and Haas Expands in Taiwan
Asia Pulse, 7/29/2008

Rohm and Haas Electronic Materials, CMP Technologies, announced that it is increasing investments in its Asia-Pacific Pad Manufacturing Facility located in Hsinchu, Taiwan. The investment is aimed at accelerating the company's capacity expansion to meet the growing demand for CMP pads from semiconductor manufacturing customers in Asia. Fully operational and in production since March 2007, the Hsinchu plant has been qualified by major logic and memory semiconductor customers in the region. More

Lam Research Posts 58% Drop in Quarterly Profit
Benjamin Pimentel — MarketWatch, 7/29/2008

Lam Research Corp. reported a 58% drop in fiscal fourth-quarter profit as the company reeled from declines in chip-equipment spending. Lam reported a net income of $72.2M, or $0.57 cents a share, compared with a net income of $170.2M, or $1.28 a share, for the year-earlier period. Revenue was $566.2M, down from $678.5M. More

Axcelis Announces Financial Results for Second Quarter 2008
PrimeNewswire, 8/8/2008

Axcelis Technologies recently announced financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2008. The company reported second-quarter revenues of $76.9M, compared with $84.9M for the first quarter of 2008. Net loss for the second quarter was $19.4M, or $0.19 cents per share. More