August 2013 – Page 2

Are Diamonds the Coolest?

August 6, 2013

It’s not every day you get to hold a diamond whose size is on the order of inches (or cm, for those of you that require simpler math). But there it was, and when I touched it to ice, my fingers went cold in no time.

This surreal flirtation with a vaunted Girl’s Best Friend (thanks to what has to be one of the most successful marketing campaigns ever) came not as I lounged in the VIP room of some swanky event, baubles ablaze, but in the rather pedestrian setting that is the … Read More → "Are Diamonds the Coolest?"

Cleaning Up After You

by Jim Turley

August 1, 2013

This is something of a more off-the-beaten path story that I ran into at Semicon West. I talked with a German company called DAS that focuses on environmental remediation. In other words, cleaning up after the rest of you.

Fabs have always needed scrubbers to clean up the wide variety of rather questionable substances that really shouldn’t be out wandering the streets without supervision. Typically, that’s been done in one place: all of the various waste gasses from the different processes would be directed to the Mother of All Gas Confabs to mix … Read More → "Cleaning Up After You"