Features

Monday 1st September 2003

With the electronics industry facing increasing economic and legislative pressures, it’s not just manufacturers that need to adapt their ways of doing business. Richard Larder, Electronics Services Business Manager from Air Products, explains how the business is changing the way it delivers services to stay ahead of customers’ needs...

Monday 1st September 2003

3D chip integration is a future-oriented option for optimising the cost of electronic systems. This new technology requires semiconductor manufacturing and packaging to be viewed as a whole. Producers of die bonding equipment have a key role in this process, writes Christoph Scheiring of Datacon Semiconductor Equipment...

Monday 1st September 2003

Germanium is returning to the semiconductor industry after being put on the sidelines since the rise of CMOS in the 1960s. In the last decade, silicon germanium has been used to boost performance and now European researchers and companies are seeking to promote the technology for 65nm and beyond. Mike Cooke reports...

Monday 1st September 2003

Increased pressures in the PVD degas chambers used in 300mm wafer production mean that current photoresist detection methods cannot be used. Tim Robinson, KC Lin and James Blessing of MKS Instruments describe a method of resist detection designed specifically for the new requirements of 300mm PVD tools...

Monday 1st September 2003

Ultratech says that it has successfully developed what it believes to be the IC industry's first commercial laser thermal processing (LTP) technology. The company believes that this will allow manufacturers to scale down to the 20nm technology node. Mike Cooke reports...

Tuesday 19th August 2003

Flexibility and low-cost of stacked die system-in-package designs make them ideal for the portable and handheld markets. Innovations in wafer fabrication and thinning are decreasing sizes to meet these specific requirements. Wire bonding continues as the most cost-effective interconnect solution for many stacked die package applications, writes Stephen Babinetz of Kulicke & Soffa Industries

Tuesday 19th August 2003

Producing analogue and mixed-signal components often involves a tricky “trimming” process to tune resistor structures and create the desired performance. Trimming machines often have several components and consist of an unhappy compromise solution. ESI has produced a system that is independent of the prober and tester, allowing the process to provide for smaller die sizes with even higher yields

Tuesday 19th August 2003

The semiconductor industry has taken a real battering during the past couple of years and few are willing to put their head above the parapet. This means that most companies won't be able to handle the faster pace needed in a recovery. Mike Cooke reports on the view from Future Horizons' mid-term forecast

Tuesday 19th August 2003

As the summer draws to a close the speculation on the timing of the upturn is hotter than ever. It also seems a big waste for companies to worry about that. Any business course will point out that the time to gain market share is in the downturn. Those companies that hold onto their coins until the upturn is with us will be too late to take advantage. There is enough evidence that the tide has turned. It is just doing it in slightly different phases than usual.

Tuesday 19th August 2003

Blue laser diodes based on gallium nitride (GaN) technology have many potential applications. Their use in laser pattern generators could have many advantages over the traditional helium-cadmium laser, write Dr Claudio Arnone of Microtech and Dr Gregory Flinn of Toptica Photonics

Tuesday 19th August 2003

This year’s SEMICON West show abounded in the usual cliches that purport to define the issues and the quest for the next upturn showed its to be ever more desperate. While everyone looks to the return of “business as usual”, there appears to be a change in the way that the industry will cycle. David Ridsdale reports on a show that had mixed reviews and discovers that the upturn has started but only certain sectors are noticing

Friday 1st August 2003

This year’s SEMICON West show abounded in the usual cliches that purport to define the issues and the quest for the next upturn showed its to be ever more desperate. While everyone looks to the return of “business as usual”, there appears to be a change in the way that the industry will cycle. David Ridsdale reports on a show that had mixed reviews and discovers that the upturn has started but only certain sectors are noticing...

Monday 2nd June 2003

The following is an opinion piece by William W. Saylor of Advanced Energy. The article describes the most significant benefits to be reaped from aggregating multiple, best-of-class components into a single tier-one supplier.

Monday 2nd June 2003

The constant push of technological boundaries is one of the highlights of the electronics industry. These constant increases in power and reduction is size requires a corresponding advance in all areas of the electronics food chain. Dage Precision Industries provides an insight into how they have responded to the increasing industry needs for X-ray inspection.

Monday 2nd June 2003

Adoption of Point-of-Use filtration within lithography exposure tools solves severe contamination problems with efficient and cost-effective means, avoiding tool downtime required for optical surface cleaning. Given the variations in environmental conditions, specific combinations of media may be required for each application. Reticle contamination requires a lot of attention where breather membrane solutions have been investigated. Paul Vannerem of Donaldson reports.

Monday 2nd June 2003

The technical information presented at the SPIE conference in Santa Clara made it clear that the lithography technologists believe they can meet the demands of a roadmap defined by Moores Law. The question that is increasingly required is whether or not current business models can support such technological advancement. David Ridsdale reports.

Monday 2nd June 2003

Standfirst: Increased used of perfluoropolyether (PFPE) fluids in coolant systems for both 200mm and 300mm etching tools has suffered from leakage problems for this expensive material. John Baxter of Swagelok describes the process by which the site of the leakage was traced and his companys solution consisting of replacing O-rings with ball-valves and silicone seals

Wednesday 1st January 2003

In the first of an ongoing series that will look at the strengths of geographic regions around the world Anand K. Sethi of New Delhi looks at the emerging Indian design market. He looks at the industry growth in the area and the developing commercial connection to Europe.

Wednesday 1st January 2003

WET ETCH IS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PROCESSES FOR PRODUCING SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES. TO INCREASE COST AND WORK EFFICIENCY, WAFERS HAVE STEADILY INCREASED IN SIZE, NOW REACHING 300MM IN DIAMETER. MEANWHILE, STRUCTURES HAVE BEEN DECREASING. THEREFORE, ACCURACY OF WET ETCH HAS TO IMPROVE, TOO. BERTRAM SCHOTT AND JAROSLAW KACZYNSKI OF CTR AND ANDREAS BALDY OF SEZ GIVE AN OVERVIEW OF EFFORTS TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF SINGLE-WAFER WET ETCHING EQUIPMENT THROUGH COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS SIMULATIONS OF FLOWS AROUND THE WAFER TO OPTIMISE GEOMETRIES AND PROCESSING PARAMETERS.

Wednesday 1st January 2003

ACCELERATED SEMICONDUCTOR TECHNOLOGY ROADMAPS, FUELLED BY POWERFUL ECONOMIC FORCES, HAVE CREATED THE PHENOMENON OF RAPIDLY SHRINKING PROCESS WINDOWS. CONVERGENCE OF TODAY’S ADVANCED PROCESS CONTROL, ADVANCED EQUIPMENT CONTROL, FAULT DETECTION/CLASSIFICATION AND PROCESS WINDOW MONITORING TECHNOLOGIES INTO A MORE GENERALISED PROCESS WINDOW CONTROL (PWC) WILL ENABLE EVEN FASTER DESIGN-RULE SHRINKS FOR BOTH LOGIC AND MEMORY MANUFACTURERS, WRITES KEVIN M MONAHAN OF KLA-TENCOR.

Wednesday 1st January 2003

RAPID THERMAL PROCESSING (RTP) AT TEMPERATURES GREATER THAN 900°C AND IN PARTICULAR ABOVE ABOUT 1150°C CAN HAVE IMPORTANT EFFECTS ON THE DISTRIBUTIONS OF INTRINSIC POINT DEFECTS IN SILICON WAFERS. R. FALSTER OF MEMC ELECTRONIC MATERIALS DISCUSSES THE USES OF RTP FOR THE ENGINEERING OF INSTALLED INTRINSIC POINT DEFECT PROFILES IN SILICON WAFERS. SUCH PROCESSES FORM THE BASIS OF THE TECHNOLOGY FOR THE “MAGIC DENUDED ZONE” (MDZ) WAFER, A WAFER PROGRAMMED FOR IDEAL OXYGEN PRECIPITATION BEHAVIOR INTO SILICON WAFERS.

Tuesday 1st August 2000

-Green grass for Intel in Ireland-Big shiny and Bosch

Tuesday 1st August 2000

-Recruitment-New Product Promotion-Source of Supply-Regional Round up

Tuesday 1st August 2000

Hong Kong Science & Technology Park