Applied Materials has extended physical vapor deposition (PVD) technology to be able to coat the sidewalls of 22nm node structures. “It’s been validated, it’s been shipped, and it’s been qualified in pilot lines for both logic and memory,” asserted Marek Radko, Applied Materials’ BEOL GPM Manager, in an exclusive interview with BetaSights. Separately, the company […]
Today, Intel sponsored a history of the planar IC event at the Computer History Museum, in Mountain View, California. This, in the same week that the company pre-launches a new advertising campaign to try to position the company as “Sponsors of Tomorrow.” Based on the live event, the past was seriously wonderful. Based on these […]
Silicon Valley has certainly not been immune to the current economic conditions, with many companies announcing multiple rounds of layoffs and moving operations overseas. Yet for many it is still considered “the heart” of the high-tech industry. At today’s well-attended Silicon Valley Lunch Forum, organized by the Sales and Marketing Council of SEMI, three speakers […]
Abound Solar (formerly AVA Solar), a manufacturer of CdTe thin-film photovoltaic (PV) solar panels, announced the opening of its first full-scale production facility in Longmont, Colo. This facility uses a proprietary manufacturing process that is claimed to significantly reduce production costs of solar panels. The fully automated facility will create more than 300 new jobs […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Trust is the foundation of all trade and business. Without trust, no deal can get done, no venture can be launched, no discussion can even begin. Trust has been shaken in individual businesses in recent years, but recently exposed financial scams have shaken confidence not just in one or a collection of companies but almost […]
Nanometrics today announced the release of Version 2.0 of its NanoCD Suite of solutions for optical critical dimension (OCD) metrology, just one year after V1 was released. OCD (a.k.a., “scatterometry”) has been used to successfully control fab processes for many years. The major known limitation of the technique is model building from reference metrology data, […]
Metrosol has joined SEMATECH’s Front End Process Technologies Program at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) of the University at Albany to address metrology and data-analysis solutions for 45nm node and beyond IC fabs. The joint partnership will expand on current work to develop inline metrology techniques to monitor the thickness and composition […]