Company News

Aixtron AG (Aachen, Germany) developed a III-V compound semiconductor transistor material technology on silicon wafers. The company has been working on this technology, HeteroWafer, for five years. It has fabricated AlGaN/GaN HEMT devices onto silicon wafers using its HeteroWafer epitaxy technology.

Axcelis Technologies Inc. (Beverly, Mass.) received a multimillion dollar follow-on order for its 300 mm high-energy implant and photoresist removal systems from a major U.S. chipmaker. The order includes the HE3 high-energy ion implanter and FusionES3 dry strip systems.

KLA-Tencor Corp. (San Jose) will acquire QC Optics Inc. (QCO, Wilmington, Mass.) for ~$3M. KLA will pay $1 per outstanding share of QCO. The transaction is expected to close in October after shareholder approval and other customary conditions.

FSI International (Minneapolis) received an order for its ZETA 300 mm surface conditioning system from a U.S. semiconductor manufacturer.

SOITEC (Bernin, France) invested seed money in a startup firm devoted to helping potential SOI users accelerate design and move to production. The company recently completed a successful round of financing.

Fairchild Semiconductor (South Portland, Maine) has chosen the NetWORKS Precision Pricing solution from Manugistics Group Inc. (Rockville, Md.) to automate the collection and analysis of data used to make pricing decisions.

OnCore Systems Corp. (Boston) opened the Ottawa Design Center, a new engineering R&D facility, in Ottawa, Canada.

Pure Wafer Ltd. (Swansea, UK) shipped its first batch of wafers to an American company as part of its qualification program, less than a year after the startup's groundbreaking.

MKS Instruments Inc. (Andover, Mass.) received an order for its Spectra products from a major U.S. IC maker. The tools will be used to develop specific capabilities, including Modbus communication protocols, for advanced process control in its first 300 mm fab.

Extraction Systems Inc. (Franklin, Mass.) received multiple orders for its Extraction 3000 filter systems from 300 mm fabs in the United States, Taiwan and Europe. The systems will be used to protect the resists and optics in advanced DUV lithography systems.

SEZ Group (Villach, Austria) opened a new service and support center in Dresden, Germany. It will be the primary source of support for the company's installed tool base in the Dresden area (Silicon Saxony).

Shellcase (Jerusalem) is expanding its production facility in Jerusalem. This $8M expansion will add 1500 m² of cleanroom production floor space that will be equipped with production equipment for processing and packaging silicon wafers.

EKC Technology moved its headquarters to Danville, Calif. The company relocated senior corporate management for sales, marketing, R&D, accounting and human resources to the new 11,000 ft² facility.

KLA-Tencor Corp. (San Jose) and GetSilicon Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.) are partnering to provide remote-access yield monitoring and supply chain management solutions. Designed to reduce chip WIP (work-in-progress) cycle time and inventory costs, the effort will allow access to data through wafer fab and final test.

PDF Solutions (San Jose), which went public in July of this year, was recently named to Deloitte & Touche’s list of fastest growing 50 companies in Silicon Valley. PDF Solutions provides process-design infrastructure technologies and services for yield optimization including process simulation and analysis software.

Yield Dynamics Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.) released Genesis 2.1, a yield management suite that automates data-intensive analysis routines, using spatial randomness to allow correlation between yield and defect data. It provides modeling and a graphical method for correlating random yield loss to process defects on a layer-by-layer basis.

Cymer Inc. (San Diego) installed CymerOnLine, lithography lightsource-specific e-diagnostic and performance monitoring software, at Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (Seoul, Korea). The software package is being used to monitor Cymer lightsources installed in Samsung facilities.

Conexant Systems Inc. (Newport Beach, Calif.) and Photronics Inc. (Jupiter, Fla.) formed a technology alliance and multiyear supply agreement under which Photronics will become the primary supplier of photomasks to Conexant. Financial terms were not disclosed, and the manufacturing asset agreement is subject to customary closing conditions.

Jon Goldman Associates (JGA, Orange, Calif.) completed a project with Fairchild Semiconductor (South Portland, Maine) to upgrade JGA’s Goldman System data capture, process and analysis software for use on Fairchild’s Thermco TMX diffusion furnaces. The upgrades provide improved ease of use, increased capabilities and real-time notification system.

TLC Equipment Inc. (Dallas) opened offices in Europe and Japan. TLC Equipment Europe Ltd. is located in Glasgow, Scotland, and TLC Equipment Far East Inc. in Tokyo.