ChipMOS Technologies (Bermuda) claims development of a new high-speed wafer test technology for probe testing 32 in parallel DDR (double data rate) DRAMs at 200MHz clock rates and 400Mbit/sec data rates. The development project was financially supported by the Taiwanese government. The technology was developed using Teradyne's Probe-One Memory Test System, TEL's P12XL Prober, and FormFactor's BladeRunner technology area array probe cards. ChipMOS now has a pilot line for 200mm and 300mm wafers in place.

ChipMOS now holds 123 patents in Taiwan, two in Japan and three in the USA.
In addition, ChipMOS has received subsidies from the Taiwanese government
for four technological development projects since 1999 with a total subsidy
amount of TWD90m.

Cimetrix reports that seven semiconductor equipment suppliers with tools
installed in 300mm fabs have passed communications and integration sign-off
using its CIM300 software suite.
President/CEO Bob Reback reports: "Each project in our first round of 300mm
integrations was completed in approximately one year."
The company's systems integration partner, Systematic Designs International
(SDI) was able to complete a full SECS/GEM and 300mm integration project for
Thermo Nicolet in 18 weeks. Other customers with tools installed in 300mm
fabs that have received integration sign-off include: August Technology,
Bede Scientific, Electron Vision, Leica Microsystems, Mattson and SCP
Global.
Cimetrix is working with ten more equipment suppliers who are completing
tool development projects. Shipment of signed off equipment to fabs is
expected within the next several months. CIM300 supports the E39, E40, E87,
E90 and E94 SEMI standards.

Cree has been awarded $26.5m worth of US government contracts over a
three-year period for silicon carbide (SiC) microwave monolithic integrated
circuit (MMIC) process development. These contracts with the US Office of
Naval Research (ONR) and US Air Force Research Laboratories (AFRL) are
jointly funded by the US Navy, the US Missile Defense Agency and the US
Department of Defense's Title III programme. Cree has an existing Title III
contract with the AFRL, which has been boosted by an additional $3.2m. The
modification includes tasks focused on improving yields of the 75mm diameter
high purity semi-insulating SiC substrates. The remaining $23.3m of the new
funding will be provided through a new contract with the ONR.
This programme has the goal of providing enhanced producibility of SiC
materials, both in terms of substrates and the epitaxial process. The end
application is high-power MMIC amplifiers for military radar applications.
All of the work will be directed to yield enhancements and cost reductions
for MMICs fabricated on 75mm diameter wafers. Automated wafer handling and
statistical process control (SPC) will be implemented on these new
processes. The programme is incrementally funded, with future money delivery
subject to contracted terms being met.
John Palmour, director of Advanced Devices at Cree, says: "Cree was the
first, and remains the only, company that has produced power MMICs in SiC,
with performance that exceeds what is available in other more established
MMIC technologies."
President/CEO Chuck Swoboda adds: "We believe that this programme should not
only help drive down the eventual cost of SiC MMICs for defense
applications, but will also help to significantly reduce the cost of our SiC
MESFET discrete products and future GaN HEMT product offerings from Cree
Microwave for commercial applications such as cellular infrastructure."

The Advanced Packaging and Interconnect Alliance (APiA) has agreed to work
with ACE Semiconductor to provide a 200mm wafer level chip scale packaging
process line in Shanghai, China. APiA expects to use the ACE facility and
receive a share of the line capacity as a development and demonstration
centre. The process line is scheduled for installation in the ACE Shanghai
facility in Q4, 2002.
"The installation of a 200mm advanced packaging line at ACE in Shanghai,
China provides the APiA with the critical development and support resources
necessary for introducing our planned 300mm development line in Asia,"
reports Ellery Buchanan, chairman of APiA.
APiA members are August Technology, Casio Computer, Dainippon Screen
Manufacturing, EBARA, the Flip Chip Division of Kulicke & Soffa, Ultratech
Stepper and Unaxis Balzers.

Hitachi Semiconductor has a new 1Gbit AND-type monolithic flash memory
device that achieves a 10MBytes/sec write speed, claimed as a new industry
record for this cell type. The device is also five times faster than
previous Hitachi products. The Flash chip is the first product to be based
on Hitachi's Assist-Gate AND-type (AG-AND), multi-level cell flash memory
technology and was processed on a 0.13micron line. The technology was
presented at the 2001 International Electron Devices Meeting in Washington
DC last December. Some 128MBytes of data (equivalent to two hours worth of
CD-quality MP3 music) can be written in about 13 seconds. Target
applications include digital cameras producing high-resolution image files
and moving pictures, mobile phones and wireless-capable PDAs that can
receive pictures from broadband transmissions.

A scientific co-operation agreement has been signed between the Department
of Electronics Engineering, Tsinghua University, China, and Germany's MOCVD
specialist, the AIXTRON Group. The main aim of the agreement is to increase
technology transfer between the partners especially in the field of GaN
technology. This agreement focuses especially on electronic applications of
this material for high-power and high-frequency applications. Circuits in
harsh environments such as close to automotive or other engines, cellphone
base stations, radar systems and even possibly microwave ovens could all
benefit from these capabilities.

ASE subsidiary ISE Labs has introduced a Remote Access (RAC) service to
semiconductor test equipment. The tools are based at the company's Silicon
Valley CA and Austin TX sites. RAC allows companies to use ISE's high-speed
internet access to connect to test systems with pin counts up to 1024 and
speeds up to 3.2Gbps. Connection can be through laptop, Unix workstation or
PC. The RAC service is offered with no license fee.
"Fabless companies in some regions have limited technology options,
particularly for test," explains David Pan, CEO, ISE Labs. "In some
locations, there is not a sufficient base of customers to support a full
service technology centre."

Tokyo Electron (TEL) is developing its next generation 300mm process
coater/developer for release in January 2004.