Qualcomm, Micron and GlobalFoundries gained ground in the top 20 rankings in terms of sales in the first quarter of 2012, according to IC Insights. GlobalFoundries replaced Elpida in the top 20 rankings. The foundry vendor also jumped ahead of United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC).

The IC business climate continues to improve in 2012, prompting various firms to raise their respective capital spending forecasts. Total semiconductor capital spending is now projected to hit $56.5 billion in 2012, nearly flat from the previous year and almost $6 billion higher than the January outlook, according to a new forecast from VLSI Research Inc.

Vivek Bakshi, president, EUV Litho, Inc. provides a review of the SPIE Advanced Lithography EUVL Conference. “This year even the loudest criticism of EUVL was not about “if” but “when,” and the predicted range of insertion for EUVL in high volume manufacturing (HVM) is now 2013-15,” Bakshi writes.

Although mask makers have made masks for decades, reducing their defectivity remains a challenge. Why? The simple answer is their reflectivity and the process of making EUV mirrors.

Participants at the 2011 International Workshop on EUVL — representing universities, national labs, tool suppliers and chip manufacturers — discussed ways to address current technical challenges for inserting EUVL into high-volume manufacturing.

Executives from GlobalFoundries, Microchip, STMicroelectronics, Freescale, Intel, Altera, MIPS, Xilinx, MoSys, and Mentor offered their opinions on the future challenges facing the semiconductor industry, at the Semico Summit, held in early May in Phoenix.

EUV Lithography expert Vivek Bakshi provides his roundup of EUV-related developments at the SPIE Advanced Lithography conference.

The SEMI consensus forecast estimates equipment sales rising 12% to $44.3 billion in 2011, despite a brief period of capacity consolidation.

Intel’s process architect and integration specialist, Mark Bohr, talks about the future of chip design and manufacturing and what’s driving some spectacular changes. “The same Tri-Gate structures will be used on our high-performance processors as well as our low-power and SoC types of products,” Bohr said.

The burgeoning market for chemicals and materials used in solar cells and modules is expected to grow to $16.9 billion in 2015, up from $6.5 billion in 2010, according to a jointly prepared report from  SEMI and Linx-AEI Consulting.

Global…