SEMI Europe has issued a whitepaper entitled:  “6 Recommendations to the European Union and National Governments to Increase Europe’s Microelectronic Industry Competitiveness”In the whitepaper, the statement on 450mm reads: “450 mm wafer diameter has to be assessed a

Wafer News recently published an article about the difficulty in making a 450mm wafer that is flat enough for 22nm, relatively defect-free, and economically reasonable.

Found in an electronics weekly article from David Manners

As expected, SEMICON West, held in San Francisco last week, delivered a flurry of activity, press releases and commentary.  

ISMI has released their latest progress report on 450mm.  They are doing tests on “silicon test wafers”.  What does that mean?  Just so there is no confusion, their current silicon

A recently published study in IEEE spectrum on cycle time improvment by Harvard Business School:  67% cycle time reduction and 12% cost reduction in 6 months.

ISMI’s recently published factory simulation shows that great cycle time gains (on the order of 50%+) can be achieved with 300mm. 

SEMI’s Equipment Productivity Working Group has posted their economic analysis of a transition to 450mm.

Hynix/Samsung  With the announcement of the Hynix / Samsung joint work on MRAM and 450mm, it looks like there may be some government involvement in 450mm.