News

Monday 7th April 2003

Dialog Semiconductor is planning to close its Swedish subsidiary. The decision is designed to control both costs and headcount. The company says that it has decided to focus on its core competence, which is the design and manufacture of ICs. The Swedish facility has a staff of 40 people, the majority of whom are employed in auxiliary tasks such as development of evaluation boards and software. A company spokesman says that these activities can be covered at lower cost through staff at other company locations and through outsourcing.

Monday 7th April 2003

Infineon Technologies has developed with others a self-service system for users of Vienna’s new multimedia main library. The inventory includes 240,000 books as well as 60,000 CDs and DVDs. The items have been equipped with radio chips for data transmission. Use of the new RFID (radio frequency identification) chips permits library users to check out books, CDs or DVDs themselves, without waiting in line at a service counter. The RFID chips from Infineon also provide security functions to prevent theft. Seven read and write units are used to embed the RFID chips into the books and to store the information on the chips. Another six read and write units are available to the attendants to register the checked-out media. In addition, four self-service terminals, so-called EasyChecks, are available.

Monday 7th April 2003

Motorola says it has demonstrated the world’s first 4Mbit memory based on silicon nanocrystals. The company sees the fully functional test chip as a major milestone in the search for successors to floating gate-based flash memories. Many believe Flash will not continue to scale to smaller geometries.

Sunday 6th April 2003

IMEC has extended its industrial affiliation programme (IIAP) on high-k dielectrics for (sub)-65nm devices to provide solutions for the implementation of metal gate stacks in planar-scaled CMOS. The current standard gate stack uses polysilicon above the dielectric.

Sunday 6th April 2003

Renesas Technology has officially separated from its parents Hitachi and Mitsubishi Electric and commenced operations as a system IC company. Dr Koichi Nagasawa has been appointed chairman and CEO, and Satoru Ito was appointed as president and chief operations officer.

Sunday 6th April 2003

IMEC has described two developments in semiconductor R&D with the extension of its industrial affiliation programme (IIAP) on high-k dielectrics for (sub)-65nm devices to provide solutions for the implementation of metal gate stacks in planar-scaled CMOS and development of a post-processing technique to create high-Q inductors.

Monday 31st March 2003

QinetiQ has developed an optical hybrid technology that uses a hollow waveguide (HWG) to improve performance while reducing expenditure. The HWG has the potential to cut more than 50% off the cost of complete optical circuits, says Qinetiq.

Monday 31st March 2003

Diodes Incorporated has developed an ultra-low leakage, high voltage Schottky barrier rectifier process.

Monday 31st March 2003

Fab Solutions, a US provider of electron beam metrology systems targeting advanced semiconductor process control, has selected John P Kummer Group (JPK) as its European sales representative.

Monday 31st March 2003

A research team at Sheffield Hallam University in the UK has been exploring a range of options for cutting the costs of producing photovoltaic (PV) cells.

Monday 31st March 2003

Engineers and technicians at International SEMATECH (ISMT) have pioneered an etch process that allows the removal of high-k film from a wafer surface without damaging the underlying silicon.

Friday 28th March 2003

Infineon Technologies and Chinas Semiconductor Manufacturing International have signed an agreement to expand co-operation on production of standard memory (DRAMs). Under the terms of the additional agreement, Infineon will transfer its 0.11micron DRAM trench technology and 300mm wafer know-how to SMIC. In return, SMIC will manufacture products in this technology exclusively for Infineon. Infineon expects to increase its overall capacity by 15,000 wafer starts per month through SMIC’s 300mm plant, which is currently being built in Beijing. In December 2002, the two companies signed an agreement whereby SMIC would manufacture memory chips in its 200mm plant in Shanghai using Infineon’s 0.14micron DRAM trench technology exclusively for Infineon. Following ramp-up at Beijing, the additional 300mm wafer starts to the 20,000 in 200mm will result in a total capacity of 58,000 wafer starts in 200mm wafer equivalents. First products from the new 300mm plant are expected for summer 2004.

Thursday 27th March 2003

A new GBP4.2mn facility is to be built in Scotland dedicated to the commercialisation of research in packaging technology for complex optoelectronic chips. The new facility will be located in Livingston and will commence operating in the summer of this year. Processes will be developed to align delicate circuitry to optical fibres and electronic connections. Solutions that can be transferred to other emerging technologies such as biochips for diagnosis and treatment of illness will also be sought.

Thursday 27th March 2003

Samsung Electronics has signed a licensing agreement for ASML’s technology to be deployed at Samsung’s semiconductor production facilities worldwide. The patented ASML technology is designed to significantly enhance the imaging performance for current and future technology generations. Samsung is licensing the technology through the life of the patents.

Thursday 27th March 2003

Cambridge Display Technology (CDT) says that it has dramatically improved the life performance of display devices based on light emitting polymer (LEP) technology, achieving more than 11,000 hours of operation for its blue polymer research devices.

Thursday 27th March 2003

Infineon Technologies announced availability of "Flow-Thru" biochips and a matching complete analysis system. Infineon markets the products with its US partner company, MetriGenix. The biochips are miniaturised sample substrates made of silicon, on which hundreds of simultaneous biomolecular tests can be performed using optical evaluation techniques. The Infineon biochip uses a three-dimensional micro-array - a network of fine micro-channels that run between the upper and the lower side of the chip. In contrast, traditional planar biochips on glass substrates have a two-dimensional sensor surface. Analysis using the Flow-Thru Chip (FTC) is a multi-step process. The micro-channels of the biochip are prepared by MetriGenix, which populates the chip with segments of known genes that fix themselves on the walls of the micro-channels. Then the gene sample to be analysed is repeatedly pumped back and forth through the pores in the Flow-Thru technique. This causes matching genes of the sample to bind with known genes on the pore wall. A luminescent dye is added in another step, binding with the matched gene segments. The dye emits light that is captured by a CCD (charge coupled device) camera and forwarded to a computer.

Thursday 13th March 2003

US and European scholars are to converge on the University of South Carolina (USC) during March 20-23, 2003, for the first of two international conferences to discuss the social implications of nanoscale science and technology on a global scale. The conference will examine the philosophy, ethics, politics and culture of nanoscience.

Thursday 13th March 2003

Georgia Institute of Technology researchers will describe a nanometre scale optoelectronic device that can perform addition and other logical operations in the coming issue of the US Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (March 18).

Thursday 13th March 2003

Light emitting polymer (LEP) developer Cambridge Display Technology (CDT) is to provide its full colour ink-jet printing manufacturing technology and process knowledge to DuPont Displays for use in LEP organic light emitting diode (OLED) manufacturing.

Thursday 13th March 2003

Japanese company Seika is to become the exclusive distributor in China for products based on Soitecs proprietary Smart Cut technology. Seika will staff its Shanghai office with a sales force dedicated to Soitecs offerings.

Thursday 13th March 2003

Toshiba introduced a 2Gbit single-die NAND Flash memory with double the capacity of the companys present largest single-die NAND Flash device. Toshiba also announced a 4Gbit NAND Flash IC that stacks two of the 2Gbit NAND Flash dies in a single package.

Thursday 13th March 2003

Aixtron has delivered its first commercially available organic vapour phase deposition (OVPD) research system to Princeton University (PU). The researchers will use the tool for the deposition of state-of-the-art organic materials (plastics).

Thursday 13th March 2003

IMEC and International SEMATECH (ISMT) have agreed joint work together on advanced technology aimed at speeding the development of 157nm lithography. In parallel, several collaboration agreements between IMEC and leading IDMs are also under negotiation.

Thursday 13th March 2003

Indium Corporation will be at Semicon Europa to exhibit a wide range of new and established high performance interconnect products. Distributors are worldwide with manufacturing facilities in USA, UK and Singapore. Indium has been supplying high quality products since 1934. NEW Lead free Chip Attachment Solder CP-6106 & CP6121 are nitrogen reflow, no clean solder pastes with Type 6 (15 – 5) powder, specifically formulated for flip clip attachment. Indium provides type 6 SnAg and SnAgCn lead-free solder powder to be compatible with the flux for excellent stencil release for ultra-fine pitch printing. Flip Chip Epoxy Fluxes PK-001 and PK-002 are Halide Free No-Clean fluxes for Flip Chip or CSP soldering, designed for use with Sn62 and Sn63 Eutectic Solders. They provide a powerful metal surface, oxide cleaning capability during reflow and help good soldering. Benefits include compatibility with standard underfill materials and conformal coating. PK-001 and PK-002 are VOC free and environmentally friendly. Precision Spheres Indium has for many years manufactured spheres with highly accurate diameters, bright shiny surfaces and highly spherical shapes. SPC supports sphere production. All spheres are made from pure metals, which combine to produce exact alloy compositions and are classified for size in an automated, high capacity process for smooth bright surfaces. A wide variety of alloys and sizes are available. Interconnect Flux WS-363 - Water-soluble, Halide-free for BGA bumps W-363 Interconnect Flux is a high viscosity paste-type flux for use in high yield BGA bumping, board level attachment and rework. Benefits include excellent cleanability. Residues are removed at room temperature with DI water. Also stencil printable with high tack, Halide-free with excellent solderability. Support Products from Indium Indium supplies a full range of chip-scale assembly products, including TACFLUX™ high viscosity fluxes to hold spheres in place during the attachment process, our patented INTEGRATED™ Solder Preform Arrays for BGA fabrication and repair applications. Flip Chip Fluxes, Die Attach Adhesives and a full range of solder pastes for attachment and bumping applications. Visit SEMICON Europa booth A1.621 or our website www.indium.com We look forward to seeing you. If you will not be present at the exhibition, please contact us at: Email : [email protected] Tel : + 44 (0) 1908 580400 Web : www.indium.com