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SEMICON West: Industry Sees Need for More Collaboration

Some of the largest manufacturers of silicon semiconductors for the electronics market increasingly are seeking out collaborations to reduce up-front costs and financial risk brought about by declining prices and increasing costs, said Steve Longoria, v.p./semiconductor platforms for IBM, speaking on July 16 at electronic materials expo SEMICON West in San Francisco. “It’s becoming riskier and riskier for companies to go it alone. Revenue per square inch of silicon is declining rapidly, while prices are being forced down dramatically. Collaborations are key. IBM can’t do it alone,” Longoria says. IBM is already party to a collaboration in fundamental R&D for association with more than a dozen companies including Samsung Toshiba (Tokyo), and Chartered Semiconductor (Singapore). Concerns about losing control of a company’s intellectual property (IP) as a result of sharing technology know-how are unfounded. “It’s a myth that keeping innovation IP to yourself is key,” Longoria says. “We see tremendous value from this collaboration.”

Applied Materials Makes the Transistor Cool Again

Applied Materials (Santa Clara, CA) told ECHN at a journalists meeting in July at the SEMICON West expo in San Francisco that it has developed the technologies required to generate a high-K film required for next generation higher-capacity, smaller-scale transistors. It is widely recognized that the industry has been facing a bottleneck in the development of next generation transistors. Applied Materials says it has been able to simultaneously scale down both critical dimensions of the transistor gate and applied thickness of oxynitride. Previous attempts by the industry to reduce the dimensions of the gate size has resulted in unacceptable current leakage at the gate, Applied Materials says.

Mallinckrodt Baker Grows Ahead of the Market

Mallinckrodt Baker is growing ahead of the 6% annual sales growth rate for the market in areas such as photoresist strippers, cleaning materials and residue removers, according to Gary Dailey, newly appointed global marketing manager/integrated circuit materials at the company. "We're growing pretty fast," he says. Sales specifics were not disclosed.

Innovation

• UC Berkeley Develops Process for 'Striped' Nanorods
• Nanoscientists Show How Magnets Tune in Display Color

Corporate Briefs

• United Solar Ovonic Enters Deal for Photovoltaics
• Dow Corning Names New Leadership in Electronics
• Eastman to Expand Cellulose Triacetate Capacity
• Wacker Commercializes Granular Polysilicon Process
• Sumitomo to Acquire Cambridge Display
• Sony, 3M Settle Battery Patent Dispute
• Valley Acquires Indiana Gas Supplier