ON Semiconductor Corporation announced that its SANYO Semiconductor division’s operations located in the Rojana Industrial Park in Ayutthaya, Thailand, have been suspended as a result of recent flooding in the region. The company has confirmed that there have been no on-site injuries to ON Semiconductor employees in Thailand as a result of the flood.
Seiko Epson Corp. has launched the IP-2000, a semiconductor marking system that utilizes the inkjet method to print identification data, such as the manufacturer’s name or a production number on the surface of a semiconductor package. This method eliminates the danger of cutting into the IC inside the package since engraving is not required.
Leading semiconductor manufacturers-including IBM Corp. and Intel Corp.-have committed $4.4 billion to develop chip technology in New York state, allowing them to share resources as they move to more advanced manufacturing. The agreement aims to help the industry make chips on 450-millimeter wafers, reducing the cost per processor by more than doubling the number of chips made on each wafer.
Researchers have designed promising semiconductor materials that, once optimized, could be a fast, effective, and inexpensive method for detecting dangerous materials such as plutonium and uranium. To design an effective detector, researchers turned to the heavy element part of the periodic table and developed a design concept to make new semiconductor materials of heavy elements.
In an attempt to develop an advanced stacking technology, International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) recently entered into a partnership with Minnesota-based materials company 3M. Through this collaboration, IBM intends to develop a new material, which will help it to stack 100 or more chips together to build microprocessors that can be used for commercial purposes.