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Top Story

Semiconductor sales slump in November, 2008, say’s SIA

02 January 2009 | Fab Management

Worldwide semiconductor sales slumped 7.2% in November, 2008, compared to October, 2008 with sales reaching US$20.8 billion, compared to US$22.4 billion in October 2008. On a Y-on-Y basis, IC sales declined by 9.8%. Sales for the first 11 months of 2008 were reported by the SIA as reaching $232.7 billion, an increase of 0.2 percent from the first 11 months of 2007 when sales were $232.2 billion. The SIA noted that when memory devices were excluded from the figures, IC sales actually increased by 5.6% compared to the year ago period. Read more >>

News

Spectra FOUP’s from Entegris pass FM4911 certification

05 January 2009 | Cleanroom

FM Approvals has granted Entegris FM4911 certification for its ‘Spectra’ 300mm Front Opening Unified Pod, the first supplier to attain the fire safety certification, according to Entegris. The FOUP passed all tests required and are now claimed to be able to limit the spread of a potential cleanroom fire and damge from smoke. The certification could lead to fabs being able to reduce insurance rates, Entegris said. Read more >>

DRAMeXchange expects 81% NAND flash bit growth in 2009

02 January 2009 | Fab Management

Weaker demand coupled to production cut backs are expected to result in NAND flash bit growth of 81% in 2009, according to revised figures from DRAMeXchange. This is a significant drop compared to its 2008 estimated bit growth of 121%. DRAMeXchange also expects NAND flash production to decline by approximately 10% Q-on-Q in 1Q09. Read more >>

Atmel’s Heilbronn fab transferred to Tejas Silicon Holdings

02 January 2009 | Cleanroom

Atmel Corporation has completed the sale and transfer of its fab in Heilbronn, Germany to Tejas Silicon Holdings (UK) Limited, reducing its fab count to two at the end of 2008. Tejas will fabricate various IC’s for Atmel at the facility over the next three years under a new foundry supply contract. Read more >>

Micron cuts 09 capex budget by 50% as losses rise

24 December 2008 | Fab Management

Tool Order: FSI receives acceptance confirmation of new ‘ORION’ cleaning tool

24 December 2008 | Wafer Processing

Hynix makes further 2008 capital spending cuts

24 December 2008 | Fab Management

Creditors back Hynix to the tune of US$597 million

23 December 2008 | Fab Management

Editor's Blog & Chip Shots

Varian Semiconductor bitten by fab cannibalism

05 January 2009 | Editor's Blog

Ion implant market leader, Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates, would seem to be the first semiconductor equipment supplier ‘officially’ bitten by the return of cannibalism in fabs. Read more >>

Top 5 blogs for 2008

28 December 2008 | Editor's Blog

For several years now blogs written about AMD have proved to be very popular. 2008 was no exception as AMD struggled and finally offloaded its manufacturing arm. AMD’s asset-something or nothing plan turned out to be a saga and only concluding near the end of the year. Read more >>

Updated: Xmas fab competition: this is bizarre

22 December 2008 | Editor's Blog | Comments (3)

Myth of managed semiconductor inventory exposed by iSuppli

17 December 2008 | Editor's Blog

Micron to ProMOS rescue et al?

16 December 2008 | Editor's Blog

Tough times as chip manufacturers turn to cannibalism

15 December 2008 | Editor's Blog

A shot in the foot

12 December 2008 | Editor's Blog

Latest Jobs

Senior Analog/Mixed Mode Design Engineer, Freescale

15 August 2008 - Touluse

Application Engineer Low k1 Imaging, ASML

15 August 2008 - Veldhoven

Industrial Engineer, Applied Materials

15 August 2008 - Bangalore

Going Places

NXP makes surprise CEO change

02 January 2009

Frans van Houten has resigned suddenly as President and Chief Executive Officer of NXP Semiconductors on the last day of 2008. Richard L. Clemmer, a senior advisor to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR), the major shareholders in NXP will take over the CEO role, effective January 1st, 2009. Clemmer, 56, has also been a member of NXP’s Supervisory Board for approximately six months and was the former CEO of Agere Systems. Read more >>

Nancy Baker departs Cymer’s CFO role; interim replacement named

18 December 2008

The recent announcement of the departure of Nancy Baker from the role of CFO OF Cymer, Inc. has led to the speedy appointment of Paul Bowman, currently Vice President of Investor Relations, as Interim Chief Financial Officer, effective as of December 19th. Ms. Baker tendered her resignation to pursue other opportunities. Read more >>

Conexant promotes Jean Hu to CFO

16 December 2008

Jean Hu, a member of the Conexant team since she joined the company in 1999 as director of Strategy and Business Development, has been promoted to the roles of Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President of Business Development. Replacing Karen Roscher, who is departing the company to pursue other opportunities, Ms. Hu will report to Conexant CEO D. Scott Mercer (pictured). Read more >>

Product Briefings

New Product: Reticle Labs targets MaskShop DFM software at reticle repair

05 January 2009 | Lithography

Product Briefing Outline: Reticle Labs has announced the release of MaskShop, a first in a series of design-for-manufacturing software tools currently under development. MaskShop is custom image processing software for quantifying post and pre-repaired defect patterns found on reticles (masks), eliminating guess work while simultaneously streamlining and expediting the repair process. MaskShop is compatible with the most commonly used imaging systems found in a semiconductor mask fabrication facility. Read more >>

New Product: Bosch Rexroth’s wafer lift subassembly simplifies integration

05 January 2009 | Critical Components

Product Briefing Outline: Bosch Rexroth has developed a semiconductor wafer lift subassembly ready to install as a single component, helping tool builders lower costs, streamline their supply chain, and reduce engineering expenses. The lift subassembly has a stroke of 2.25 inches and a duty cycle time of one cycle per second. It carries a load of 12 pounds and is also exposed to a vacuum load of 108 pounds. Read more >>

Top 5 new products for 2008

29 December 2008 | Wafer Processing, Lithography, Fab Management, Materials and Gases, Critical Components, Cleanroom

One of the equipment suppliers that consistently brings out new products is KLA-Tencor. However, the metrology supplier rarely figures in the most popular rankings in any given year. That has changed in 2008 with its TeraFab tool. Although only released recently, the fifth most popular product was from TEL and Novellus for copper interconnects. Read more >>

Recruitment News

MKS Instruments reduces workforce by 10%

23 December 2008

MKS Instruments has guided fourth quarter revenues lower as demand for semiconductor capital equipment continues to decline. The critical components company expects to lower operating levels via cost saving measures that include a workforce reduction of 10% or approximately 292 positions. The reductions took place in both the third and fourth quarters of 2008, the company said. Read more >>

Air Products cuts 1,300 jobs in restructuring move

17 December 2008

With the current economic climate continuing to have a major effect on companies in the semiconductor industry, Air Products has announced that it is to cut 7% of its global workforce, or approximately 1,300 positions. While it is not yet clear whether the job cuts will be made within the semiconductor industry, it seems that a fall-off in demand for semiconductors and liquid crystal displays has had a negative impact on the company’s electronics division. Read more >>

Keithley Instruments cuts workforce by 7%

16 December 2008

Keithley Instruments will undertake a 7% reduction in its worldwide workforce in the next month as a response to the deteriorating global and industry economic conditions. According to financial records, Keithley Instruments had 698 employees, equating to job losses of approximately 49. Read more >>