Foundry hires former ASML’s Keith Best as director of photolithography; tasked with driving roadmap to 0.15 microns

Sales in March 2013 were up slightly compared to February 2013 and March 2012.

SRC and NIST will provide a combined $5 million in annual funding for three multi-university research centers tasked with demonstrating non-conventional, low-energy technologies that outperform current technologies on critical applications in 10 years and beyond.

Intel Corporation today took the wraps off its brand new, low-power, high-performance microarchitecture named Silvermont.

The Nanodefect Center is tackling the big challenges in particle detection, characterization and mitigation for critical supply chain components and materials. VIBHU JINDAL, SEMATECH, Albany, NY

After reaching a worrisome high in the third quarter of 2012, global semiconductor inventories held by chip suppliers fell at a surprisingly fast rate in the fourth quarter, led by dramatic reductions for market leader Intel Corp.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. today announced the industry’s first production of ultra-high-speed four gigabit (Gb) low power double data rate 3 (LPDDR3) mobile DRAM, which is being produced at a 20nm-class process node.

Cadence Design Systems, Inc. announced today that GLOBALFOUNDRIES has collaborated with Cadence to provide pattern classification data for manufacturing processes of 20 and 14 nanometers.

Morgan Advanced Materials has joined SEMATECH’s International SEMATECH Manufacturing Initiative (ISMI), a program designed to improve semiconductor equipment manufacturing productivity, yield, and cost.

Infineon Technologies and GLOBALFOUNDRIES Inc. today announced a joint technology development and production agreement for 40nm embedded flash (eFlash) process technology.

Global macroeconomic developments and technological advances, personal computers, and memory markets are expected to drive demand over the forecast period, Research and Markets predicts in their report, “Global Semiconductor Industry 2012-2017: Trend, Profit and Forecast Analysis.”

Just as a boxer avoids a surprise shot to the head or torso by using a “duck and weave” maneuver, so to must front-end technologists confront the challenges associated with extending optical lithography while planning for EUV lithography’s eventual high-productivity solution.