Finance

Today, at the Imec Technology Forum 2015 in Brussels, Imec announced that Toshiba, SanDisk and Imec have expanded their strategic partnership in advanced patterning. This programme tackles the critical challenges that remain in bringing EUVL to high volume manufacturing. The programme also develops other technologies for extending 193nm immersion lithography. Toshiba and SanDisk have been core partners in Imec’s industrial ...

The SEMI book-to-bill was 0.99 in May down from April’s 1.04. Bookings were $1.56 billion, billings were $1.57 billion. The bookings $1.56 billion figure is 0.8% down on April and 11% up on May 2014. The billings $1.57 billion figure is 3.7% than April and 11.6% higher than May 2014. “The May book-to-bill ratio slipped below parity as billings improved ...

Hynix and Rambus have extended their 2013 memory-related licensing agreement until 2024. Hynix will pay Rambus an average of $12 million a quarter for the next 36 quarters. The 2013 licence agreement was for five years and the current agreement gives Hynix the option to renew on the same rate structure for another three years. “SK Hynix’s decision of taking an ...

Today, with  IVI (the Industrial Value Chain Initiative), Japan took the first step to forming a counter-standard to Germany’s Industry 4.0 initiative to connect up businesses via the Internet. Earlier today, 30 Japanese companies, including Mitsubishi Electric, Fujitsu, Nissan Motor, and Panasonic, launched the initiative. Prime mover in IVI is Prof Yasuyuki Nishioka, professor of information and industrial engineering at ...

Keysight Technologies has moved to acquire UK-based wireless infrastructure test systems firm Anite in a cash deal valued at £388m ($606m). Based in Fleet, Hampshire. Anite specialises in systems for the design and validation of chipsets, mobile devices and network equipment, most notably for 3G and 4G LTE mobile systems. The test of 4G LTE  and LTE-Advanced mobile systems relies as ...

Graphene insulator shows promise. Using graphene instead of tantalum nitride as an insulator for the interconnect in ICs can increase chip performance by up to 17%, says a team of researchers from Stanford University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. As geometries shrink, the use of graphene increases the benefits, say the researchers, with improvements of up to 30% in performance. ...

The GSA is asking the best semiconductor companies in EMEA to submit their names to be considered for the 2015 Outstanding EMEA Semiconductor Company Award. The deadline to submit an application form is 10 July, 2015. Any semiconductor companies headquartered in the EMEA region can apply, regardless of their size, GSA member or not. Four final nominees will be picked ...

Smart Energy GB is looking for ways to reach small businesses. According to the body – which set-up by the government, includes consumer representatives, and is funded by energy suppliers – 96% of UK businesses are what it calls ‘microbuisinesses’ (see below), and 47.5% of these do not operate out of a home and will therefore not be reached directly ...

The French unions involved in STMicroelectronics have sent a joint letter to the French government calling for the sacking of CEO Carlo Bozotti. There is a board meeting on June 24th at which Bozotti could be ousted. The unions involved are: CFDT, CFE-CGC, CGT and UNSA. It is the first time they have taken joint action. The unions’ letter says: ...

Qualcomm has come up with MuLTEfire, a new improved version of LTE-U – the version of LTE used for unlicensed spectrum. Qualcomm’s new technology for LTE in unlicensed spectrum does not require an anchor in licensed spectrum, so opening up LTE to organisations that don’t own licensed spectrum like ISPs and stadia or conference venue owners. For existing network operators, MuLTEfire ...