Innovative Micro Technology Inc. (IMT), Santa Barbara, Calif., announces that it is now offering eight-inch (200 mm) wafer fabrication capabilities, thereby improving the economics of MEMS production by yielding roughly twice the number of devices per wafer.

Nanotronics, Brooklyn, N.Y., has expanded its Super Resolution imaging system portfolio with a new patented system that identifies and classifies defects at lower resolutions than traditional inspection microscopy, providing faster scan times and enhanced throughput.

The Semiconductor Industry Association, Washington, has released a set of government policy recommendations for sustaining and strengthening America’s global leadership in semiconductor technology and ensuring that the United States wins the race to harness the transformative semiconductor-enabled technologies of the future.

Scientists at Tohoku University in Japan report that they fabricated an electrode by printing copper nanoparticle-based nanopastes onto a glass substrate using a metal screen mask and pressureless sintering under a nitrogen atmosphere at 200°C for 30 minutes.

Thermo Fisher Scientific, Waltham, Mass., introduces its latest and most advanced focused ion beam scanning electron microscope (FIB-SEM) for nanometer-scale materials characterization and analysis: the Thermo Scientific Helios 5 DualBeam microscope.

Witec GmbH, Germany, pioneer of Raman imaging and correlative microscopy, introduces ParticleScout, a particle analysis tool that enables researchers to find, classify, quantify, and identify particles quickly and easily with the Alpha300 Raman microscope series.

Rigaku, Japan, announces the newest addition to the NEX DE series, the Rigaku NEX DE VS direct excitation variable-spot EDXRF elemental analyzer, which is uniquely suited for small spot analysis applications.

Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind., announces the formation of the Center for Heterogeneous Integration Research in Packaging, or CHIRP, a new multimillion dollar semiconductor research center that will be co-directed by Ganesh Subbarayan, professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue, and Bahgat Sammakia, vice president for research and a distinguished professor of mechanical engineering at Binghamton University, New York.

Oxford Instruments Asylum Research, U.K., introduces the Cypher VRS AFM, a full-featured video-rate atomic force microscope that enables researchers to measure nanoscale dynamic processes at video-rate speeds with all of the resolution, versatility, and ease of use of an Asylum Research Cypher AFM.

Bruker Corp., Billerica, Mass., announces that it has completed its previously announced acquisition of Alicona Imaging GmbH, a leading provider of optical-based metrology products in Austria.

Applied Materials Inc., Santa Clara, Calif., announces plans for the Materials Engineering Technology Accelerator (META) Center, a major expansion of the company’s R&D capabilities aimed at creating new ways for Applied and its customers to drive innovation as classic Moore’s Law scaling becomes more challenging.

Presto Engineering, San Jose, Calif., reports that it has completed certification to the ISO 9001:2015 quality standard at its facility in Caen, France, which is Europe’s largest independent semiconductor test facility.

The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), Washington, D.C., representing U.S. semiconductor manufacturing, design, and research, announces worldwide sales of semiconductors reached $40.16 billion for the month of August 2018, an increase of 14.9 percent compared to the August 2017 total of $34.96 billion.

Applied Energy Systems (AES), Malvern, Pa., provider of high and ultra-high purity gas systems, services, and solutions – including design, manufacturing, testing, installation, and expert field services – announces the acquisition of Advanced Research Manufacturing (ARM) Inc., a specialty provider of gas purification systems based in Colorado Springs.

WIN Semiconductors Corp., Taiwan, reports the development and deployment of 5G user equipment and network infrastructure for the sub-6GHz and mmWave frequency bands.

SEMI, Milpitas, Calif., has released the group’s World Fab Forecast, reporting that global fabricator equipment spending will increase by 14 percent this year to $62.8 billion, and is expected to rise 7.5 percent to $67.5 billion in 2019, marking the fourth consecutive year of spending growth and the highest investment year for fab equipment in the history of the industry.

Thermo Scientific, Waltham, Mass., has developed the Verios G4 scanning electron microscope, which has extended sub-nanometer resolution over the full 1 keV to 30 keV energy range to novel materials such as catalyst particles, nanotubes, porosities, interfaces, and other nanoscale structures.