inTEST Acquires Environmental Chamber Manufacturer
inTEST Corp. announced its acquisition of privately-held Sigma Systems Corp., a manufacturer of thermal platforms, custom configured environmental chambers and other environmental test solutions.

FormFactor Withdraws Special Meeting Proposal
FormFactor Inc. announced it has withdrawn its stock option exchange proposal that was scheduled to be considered at a special meeting of stockholders on Wednesday, October 8, 2008.

KLA-Tencor Extends Wafer Plane Inspection to All Reticle Types
KLA-Tencor Corp. introduced the die-to-database version of its latest mask inspection technology, Wafer Plane Inspection (WPI).

Aehr Test Systems Reports 27% Increase in Net Sales
Aehr Test Systems (Fremont, Calif.), which supplies semiconductor test and burn-in equipment, today announced financial results for the first quarter of fiscal 2009 ended Aug. 31, 2008. Net sales were $9.7M, an increase of 27% from $7.7M in the first quarter of fiscal 2008.

International Test Conference Planned for Santa Clara
The International Test Conference runs from October 26 - October 31 at the Santa Clara Convention Center.

NIST Studies How New Helium Ion Microscope Measures Up
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) are probing the newest microscope technology to further improve measurement accuracy at the nanoscale.

SUSS MicroTec Announces ProbeShield System Order
SUSS MicroTec Test Systems has announced that it has received an order for the PA300PS wafer-level probe system for device characterization and reliability test.

KLA-Tencor Introduces Surfscan SP2XP Defect Inspection System
KLA-Tencor introduced the Surfscan SP2XP, a new monitor-wafer inspection system for the integrated circuit (IC) market

Teradyne To Acquire Eagle Test Systems
Teradyne Inc. and Eagle Test Systems, Inc. announced that they have signed a definitive agreement under which Teradyne will acquire Eagle Test, a provider of analog, mixed-signal and radio frequency semiconductor test products.

President and COO John Kispert to Leave KLA-Tencor
KLA-Tencor announced that President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) John Kispert will be leaving KLA-Tencor at the end of calendar year 2008.

KLA-Tencor Appoints Mark P. Dentinger New Chief Financial Officer
KLA-Tencor Corporation announced that Mark P. Dentinger has been appointed chief financial officer.

AFM on Phoenix Mars Lander Sees Particle of Martian Dust
NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has taken the first-ever image of a single particle of Mars' ubiquitous dust, using its atomic force microscope.

Bruker to Acquire S.I.S. Surface Imaging Systems GmbH
Bruker AXS GmbH today announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire all of the equity of S.I.S. Surface Imaging Systems GmbH, a company with annual revenues of approximately $3M. 

Sematech Donates Interferometer to Wisconsin
The University of Wisconsin announced that Professor Roxann Engelstad's lab received an interferometer from Sematech, following the retirement of a Sematech staffer, Chris Van Peski, who used the system for substrate research.

Argon Ion Column Extends Zeiss NVision
To enable the production of highly polished TEM lamellas, Carl Zeiss SMT now offers an additional argon ion beam column to its NVison 40 CrossBeam workstation.

Rudolph Sees 3% Revenue Bump in Quarter
Rudolph Technologies Inc. said second quarter revenue was $38.4M, up 3%.

Zeiss Offers Affordable Sigma SEM
At the Microscopy and Microanalysis Meeting and Exhibition being held in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Carl Zeiss SMT is introducing a new class of SEM.

KLA-Tencor to Acquire Vistec Inspection Unit
KLA-Tencor announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the Microelectronic Inspection Equipment business unit of Vistec Semiconductor Systems. Vistec's MIE business unit is one of three internationally active business units of Vistec Semiconductor Systems, which was formerly a part of Leica Microsystems.

Nanometrics Reports Second Quarter 2008 Financial Results
Nanometrics announced financial results for its second quarter ended June 28, 2008. Revenues for the second quarter were $23.8M, a 32% decrease from first quarter 2008 revenues.

FormFactor Revenues Drop 20.8% in Quarter
FormFactor Inc. announced its financial results for the second quarter of fiscal 2008, ended June 28, 2008. Quarterly revenues were $52.0M, down 20.8% from $65.7M in the first quarter of fiscal 2008, and down 54.4% from $114.1M in the second quarter of fiscal 2007.