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Chemists at Harvard and three other institutes have created a purified version of an organic semiconductor which could lead to new compounds used for solar panels. This work is based on the dinapthothienothiophene compound created by a team in Japan a few years ago.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) has begun trial production of the A6, which will be Apple’s next-generation SoC (system-on-a-chip). The A6 is expected to ship in Apple products beginning in Q2 of 2012.
National Semiconductor (UK) Ltd has donated £3,500 to Greenock Hockey Club to help them in their drive to encourage school children to become involved in the sport. National Semiconductor’s sponsorship will allow the club to widen its coverage to all local secondary schools where they will look to spend a couple hours a week for several weeks.
For the past year, GlobalFoundries has been constructing brand-new clean rooms in its New York and Dresden facilities to support 300mm wafers. Once the equipment is in place, the facilities will be able to support the manufacturing of semiconductors on 300mm wafer sizes. Offering more surface area than the traditional 200mm wafers, a 300mm facility can produce chips at a faster rate and lower cost while dropping energy and water usage by up to 40 per cent.
CyberOptics Semiconductors introduces an updated release to its wafer vibration monitoring software, offering new capabilities for data analysis and third party data interfaces. With vibration tied to semiconductor process equipment failure, low yields and cycle times, CyberOptics’ AVS 2.0 vibration monitoring software provides engineers with the data needed to predict equipment failures related to vibration during semiconductor fabrication to improve process yield and cycle times.