Manufacturing

STMicroelectronics has signed a deal with German MEMS mirror start-up OQmented to develop technology for augmented reality and 3D laser scanning. ST already makes MEMS sensors, actuators, drivers and controllers. OQmented has a patented way to vacuum-encapsulate MEMS using hermetic glass bubbles to eliminates environmental contaminants with minimal light-refraction – branded Bubble MEMS. “Vacuum sealing is a key element for ...

Cambridge-based flexible electronics company PragmatIC has been awarded a £1.3m by the UK Government Sustainable Innovation Fund for a recycling scheme based on NFC tags. “PragmatIC consider this to be a commercial pilot, with the next step being commercial rollouts with global partners,” company chief commercial officer Alastair Hanlon told Electronics Weekly. In the year-long scheme, called Sprite (sustainable plastics recycling ...

Ynvisible has won a design-in for its electro-chromic displays – thin flexible displays that change colour through low power ionic transfer. The company teamed up with SpotSee to create a 91 x 59mm calibrated temperature indication label for cold-chain use: temperature-controlled shipment and storage of goods such as blood bags, high-end foods, biomaterials and medicines. “With the TempSafe Electrocard, we now expand ...

X-Fab Silicon Foundries has added a photodiode-specific process core module to its XS018 180nm CMOS sensor process – previously XS018 had been focused on the fabrication of multi-pixel CMOS image sensors. Through the new module, customers get access to six different photodiode options covering wavelengths from ultra-violet through to near-infra-red. Amongst the photodiodes, 40% quantum efficiency is available in the UVA ...

SMIC, the Shanghai foundry, and the Chinese municipality of Shenzhen are to invest $2.35 billion to build a 28nm fab in Shenzhen. 28nm was first used in the industry  in 2011. SMIC will take a 55% stake and the city will take 23%. The remaining 22% appears to be up for grabs. “The company and Shenzhen government will jointly drive ...

42 Technology of Cambridgeshire has developed an automated inspection technology that can detect scratches wider than 10μm on polished glass surfaces in under a second. Developed with Swiss company Inficon, it will be used by Inficon to partly automate quality control – finding scratches before silicon sensors are bonded to glass in the manufacture of helium leak detectiors. It is a ...

Bosch and Globalfoundries are to co-develop a mmWave automotive radar SoC for ADAS applications to be manufactured on the company’s 22FDX (FD-SOI) process. The 22FDX chips will be manufactured at GloFo’s Fab 1 in Dresden, Germany and tested at the company’s test lab at Fab 9, near Burlington, Vermont. The company claims to be the only foundry with in-house mmWave ...

Imec and ASML have demonstrated the ultimate single-exposure patterning capability of today’s 0.33NA NXE:3400 EUV lithography. Process optimizations have enabled the patterning of dense 28nm pitch line/spaces with an Inpria metal-oxide resist in one single exposure, relevant for high-volume manufacturing. For the first time, optical and e-beam inspections were correlated with electrical data to gain further insights in improving stochastic defectivity ...

Globalfoundries has announced a partnership with the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to supply 45nm SOI ICs manufactured at GLoFo’s Fab 8 in Malta, New York. The agreement is made possible by Fab 8’s compliance with U.S. International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and highly restrictive Export Control Classification Numbers under the Export Administration Regulations (EAR). The supply agreement builds ...

The UK government is backing the Compound Semiconductor Centre and Newport Wafer Fab to develop a 200mm Gallium Nitride power transistor foundry process. Both these organisations are inside the compound semiconductor cluster in South Wales. Coordinated jointly by the Centre and Fab, the intention is to deliver a 650V GaN-on-silicon HEMTs (all GaN power transistors are high electron mobility transistors) ...