Samsung said on Thursday said it has started production of chips using its 3-nanometer (nm) process.The Korean tech giant’s 3nm process comes with its gate-all-around (GAA) transistor architecture.TheElec had earlier reported that Samsung was planning to start 3nm chip production for a Chinese chip

Samsung has added Wonik QnC as a supplier of cleaning and coating solution along with the original sole vendor Komico for its planned fab in Taylor, Texas, TheElec has learned.Wonik QnC was forming a local subsidiary in the US to meet Samsung’s demand, sources said.Semiconductors and display panels

Samsung will start trial production of its 3-nanometer(nm) foundry process for customers this week at the earliest, TheElec has learned.The first customer for the process will be the Chinese application-specific IC firm, sources said.Qualcomm, Samsung’s largest customer, had also made reservations f

Wafer dicing saw machine maker SR will focus on expanding its core business going forward, its CEO said.SR CEO Lee Jang-hee said the company was behind in technology and staff to industry leader Disco of Japan.Still, the South Korean company will focus on developing products, reacting to customers a

DI had acquired image processing inspection equipment firm Protech Corporation in March this year, TheElec has learned.The purchase follows the one it made in November when it bought machine vision battery inspection equipment maker Vtensystem for 6 billion won.Protech was founded in 2000 and develo

Samsung and SK Hynix are diversifying there supply chain for coolants used in semiconductor production following 3M’s shutdown of its related factory in Belgium.Coolants are used in the etching process during wafer fabrication. They are spread through chillers to control the temperature during the p

Outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) firm LB Semicon is planning to offer fan-out wafer-level package (FOWLP) service next year at the earliest, TheElec has learned.The company completed the development of relevant technologies earlier this year and has been testing them with an analog

Key Foundry said on Thursday that it has launched a new foundry service for power management ICs (PMIC) that doesn’t use an epitaxial layer on the wafer.The company said its new 0.18-micron 30V NON-EPI BCD (bipolar-CMOS-DMOS) process offers the same performance as similar processes that do use epita

Overlay equipment maker Auros Technology was developing a critical dimension (CD) measurement equipment for use in the packaging process during chip production.The equipment, called CD meter, was being tested by backend process companies and is being aimed to be commercialized this year.CD measureme

Secondhand fab equipment seller Surplus Global said on Thursday that it will offer a service for foundry companies to test their new chips.With the service, called R&D Foundry, the company will offer to manufacture 12-inch thin-film test wafers and prototype evaluations for customers.Surplus Global

Fab equipment maker FST had formed a subsidiary in the US in Delaware dedicated to after-sales services, TheElec has learned. The company is also planning to form another at Taylor, Texas in preparation for Samsung’s new fab that will be built in the city.FST specializes in chillers used in wafer fa

Samsung Electronics was repositioning hundreds of employees at Samsung Display to its chip packaging business unit, TheElec has learned.The company is taking applications from employees at its display business unit for the transfer, people with direct knowledge of the matter said.Those 37-years-old

Auros Technology has won orders to supply overlay equipment for 8-inch wafers from multiple South Korean and Japanese chipmakers, TheElec has learned.The company’s 8-inch OL-100n was being evaluated by up to five companies based in the East Asian countries, sources said.The customers were considerin

Nextin CEO said the company was developing a machine to remove static electricity with its recently acquired firm Zisys.Nextin CEO Tae Hoon Park said during an interview with TheElec that this machine will be able to remove static electricity that was irremovable in previous machines during the extr

Neosem was currently developing a direct current (DC) tester to supply to a major chip firm, TheElec has learned.The tester is used to see whether wafers that completed the front-end process have the same electric characteristics as expected. It measures the input and output voltage of each device o

Chip firm Nemesis said on Monday that it plans to commence preclincal trials for the continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) sensor in September.The sensor will use a needle smaller than 10mm to check the glucose level of patients.This differs from conventional blood glucose monitoring sensors that draw

APACT said on Friday that it will acquire ATsemicon’s packaging business unit.The unit does semiconductor packaging and testing and APACT will take over the packaging part.ATsemicon’s customers include SK Hynix and other fabless chip firms.APACT recently built a second factory for packaging and is e

Spending on advanced packaging by chipmakers this year is expected to reach US$15 billion, according to analyst firm Yole Development.Out of that total, Intel will account for 32% with US$4.75 billion, a significant increase from US$3.5 billion last year.TSMC meanwhile will account for 27% with US$4

Schneider Electric unveiled its switchgear that doesn’t use sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) gas.The company unveiled its eco-friendly switchgear lineup AirSet at a press conference in Seoul on Thursday.Fluoride is widely used in the semiconductor sector to insulate heat but is harmful to the environment d

Fab equipment maker SEMCNS is aiming to win approval from Samsung for its ceramic space transformer (STF) used in CMOS image sensor (CIS) probe cards during testing.The company is quality testing the equipment to secure the approval by the first half of the year, sources said.Probe cards are used to