Intellectual property
The objective is to provide a complete FlexRay system solution in a single package. Renesas is to develop physical layer devices, such as a bus guardian and bus driver, using its own CMOS and mixed-signal process technologies. These devices will complement the FlexRay microcontroller. Sample shipment is scheduled for Q4 2005.
FlexRay is a solution for high-speed fault-tolerant communication in advanced automotive applications, such as steer- and brake-by-wire. In contrast to event-triggered electronic systems such as the Controller Area Network (CAN) standard, time-triggered electronic systems communicate continually in pre-defined time slots on a data bus. This is to avoid communication overload due to the occurrence of several important events at the same time. FlexRay is aimed at safety-critical applications in which electronically controlled systems completely replace mechanical systems.
Semitool has licensed its seed layer enhancement patents to Ebara of Japan. Semitool's seed layer enhancement process optimises the initial seed layer for the subsequent bulk deposition of copper in the manufacture of integrated circuits.
As part of the agreement, Ebara will pay Semitool an initial license fee of $3.25mn. The license agreement also provides for the payment of a commercialisation fee upon the sale of a certain number of tools using seed layer enhancement, as well as future royalties based on subsequent sales.
The license agreement does not include any rights to Semitool's bulk-fill electroplating intellectual property. Semitool and Ebara will also dismiss patent infringement litigation between the companies in the US Oregon district court. A similar license was granted to Applied Materials earlier this year (Bulletin 518, February 18, 2004).
A jury in the Delaware district US federal court has found that Advanced Energy Industries infringed MKS Instruments' US patent Nos. 6,150,628, 6,388,226 and 6,552,296 underlying MKS' ASTRON reactive gas generators. MKS is promising further proceedings before the court seeking a permanent injunction and damages.
The infinging Advanced Energy product is called Xstream. The ASTRON family of reactive gas generators is used to dissociate gases for use in chamber cleaning and other semiconductor processing applications. This is the second time in three years that MKS has successfully enforced its ASTRON patents against Advanced Energy. In 2002, a federal court jury in Delaware found that Advanced Energy infringed US patent No. 6,150,628 by making and selling its previous reactive gas source, the RAPID product. Finding in favour of MKS in the earlier lawsuit, the jury in that case awarded MKS $4.2mn in damages.
Sharp has expanded its existing licensing agreement with Tessera Technologies. Sharp uses Tessera's technology to package semiconductor devices such as Flash memory and Flash+SRAM stacked combinations, as well as application integrated circuits (ASICs) and logic devices.
The technology available to Sharp under the expanded agreement covers a broad range of chip-scale and multi-chip package types, including integrated circuit devices packaged in "face-down", "face-up", "fold-over", "stacked" and "system-in-package" (SiP) formats. The deal includes packages using either tape or laminate substrates. These package types are marketed by Tessera as MicroBGA for face-down orientations, MicroBGA-F for face-up orientations and MicroZ for multi-chip solutions. Tessera's technology is also available for use by Sharp's subcontractors.
