Semilab, founded in 1990 and headquartered in Budapest, Hungary, is spending cash to continue to expand its portfolio of fab metrology offerings. Today, the company announced it has acquired Advanced Metrology Systems (AMS) and QC Solutions. The two Massachusetts-based metrology companies expand Semilab’s family of scalable, flexible solutions to help semiconductor and solar manufacturers characterize […]
The principles of “causality” and “boundary conditions” are fundamental to modern science, and when you apply these principles to the system of human energy production/consumption it tends to lead to thoughts of TeraWatt Challenges and limiting demand. Raw energy limits need not equate with lifestyle limits, if new technologies allow us to be far more […]
Materials research and engineering continues to increase in structural complexity. Starting from the periodic table of the elements and molecular engineering, over a century of research has explored most obvious phenomena of bulk and thin-film materials. What, then, is left to explore? The vast complexity of natural micro- and nano-scale structures that are indirectly templated […]
German and French teams are combining EUR 14.5m investment into development of strained-silicon on insulator (sSOI) technology under the DEvice and CIrcuit performance boosted through SIlicon material Fabrication (DECISIF) program. The work will combine original research results from Research Center Juelich and Leti/Soitec to try to lower costs and defect-densities in the creation of 300mm […]
Novaled, the provider of Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) technology and materials, and Holst Centre, an independent R&D centre developing generic technologies for Wireless Autonomous Transducer Solutions and for Systems-in-Foil, have decided to collaborate on the development of organic thin film transistor (OTFT) technologies under a joint development agreement. Novaled will provide its organic dopants […]
It is always sunrise somewhere on our spinning sphere, and the sun is always changing too (see figure). There are always ups and downs in our world, and we learn to “make hay while the sun shines.” Where has the sun been shining lately? Photovoltaic (PV) and MEMS industries have continued to grow lately, as […]
Keithley Instruments has been very busy extending the capabilities of it’s 4200-SCS (Semiconductor Characterization System) with new cables for IC measurements and new software libraries for PV, OLED, and other devices. The 4200-SCS replaces a variety of electrical test tools with a single integrated characterization solution, and works for applications including semiconductor technology development, process […]
Novellus’ applications labs have been working on CVD low-k dielectrics targeting 32nm node multilevel metal specs, and the result is “dense” ultra-low-k (ULK) film with bulk k=2.5 and the potential to go lower. Combined with the company’s multi-station sequential processing (MSSP) tool architecture for the barrier/cap depositions and UV/thermal cure steps, the result is a […]
Mentor Graphics has announced new capabilities to the Calibre(R) platform to allow designers to control thickness variability due to Chemical Mechanical Planarization (CMP) at advanced process nodes. Designers can transition from dummy fill to density-based fill, or to full model-based fill, depending on the demands of their designs and target manufacturing process. The new capability […]
Wright Williams & Kelly (WWK), the cost and productivity modeling company, is now providing free general information in an electronic newsletter, and has lowered the cost to start using it’s flagship TWO COOL(R) cost of ownership (CoO) modeling software. The company’s “Applied Cost Modeling” newsletter features free excerpts from the book “Hi-Tech Equipment Reliability: A […]