Company News
Staff -- Semiconductor International, 7/1/1998
STEAG AST Electronik's (Tempe, Ariz.) AST 3000 RTP tool has been qualified for production at two 300 mm silicon wafer fabs, one in Japan and one in Europe. Both tools have met all customer acceptance tests and are running pilot production thermal donor annihilation processes on 300 mm wafers.
Chip Supply Inc. (Orlando, Fla.) acquired the die assessment business of Rood Technology UK Ltd. (RTUK, Oldham, England) in a further development of the general strategic alliance. Chip Supply will take over the die sales office and personnel to support the business in Europe. Future options include RTUK absorbing the North American custom packaging operations of Chip Supply.
Carl Zeiss Jena GmbH (Jena, Germany) has announced a three-year program to expand the research and development of the Microscopy Business Group. The expansion will take place at the Jena and Gottingen facilities.
Clean Room Technology Inc. (CRT, Eschau-Hobbach, Germany) opened an office and manufacturing unit in Henrico County, Va. CRT brought 20 employees to start up the office and expects to hire 20 more and add a cleanroom manufacturing facility within the next year.
Fluke Corp. (Everett, Wash.) received accreditation for its standards laboratory and calibrator production facilities by the German Deutscher Kalibrierdienst (DKD), the laboratory accreditation body of the German national standards organization. It is the first U.S. electronics manufacturer to receive the accreditation, which allows Fluke to provide globally recognized test data for calibrators.
AG Associates (San Jose, Calif.) shipped its first Starfire 200 mm RTP system to a large Japanese R&D facility in Japan. The company has also received follow up orders totaling $2.5 million from a large Japanese chipmaker for several of the Heatpulse 8800 RTP systems.
Greene, Tweed and Co. (Kulpsville, Pa.) opened a new 28,000 ft2 manufacturing facility in Selma, Texas. The plant has a 19,000 ft2 warehouse and manufacturing area, including a 7000 ft cleanroom with designated Class 1000 and 100 areas.
Enthone-OMI Inc. (New Haven, Conn.) completed constructed of a new cleanroom in the Orange, Conn., research center. The room contains two state-of-the-art EEJA plating machines and is rated at Class 1000.
AutoSimulations Inc. (Bountiful, Utah) named Productivity Solutions Group (Boston, Mass.) as an "Authorized Productivity Improvement Partner." Also, the Real Time Dispatcher (RTD) made by AutoSimulations has been successfully used by Samsung Electronics (Seoul, Korea).
Denton Vacuum Inc. (Moorestown, N.J.) and Pentax Vision Inc. (Minneapolis, Minn.) formed a strategic partnership to provide A/R coating equipment and technology to wholesale optical laboratories throughout the United States.
YieldUP International Corp. (Mountain View, Calif.) announced first quarter results for the period ending March 31, 1998. Revenues were $3,961,151, compared to $913,000 for the same period a year ago, an increase of 334% over the first quarter. In addition, the company was named by the San Jose Business Journal as one of the "Fastest Growing Public Companies in Silicon Valley" for 1997.
EMCORE Corp. (Somerset, N.J.) reported financial reports for the second fiscal quarter ending March 31, 1998. Revenues increased 7% to $13.8 million from $12.9 million in the second quarter of 1997.
ASAP Inc. (Chagrin Falls, Ohio) earned a 1998 EDI Innovation Award for its family of industrial control software products. The company also expanded its customer support services with the addition of a certification laboratory at its corporate headquarters.
Keyware Technologies (Woburn, Mass.) and SGS-Thomson (ST) Microelectronics (Saint Genis, France) have a partnership agreement to develop and market ICs from ST embodying Kemware's biometric verification technology. Evaluation samples of the first circuits are expected in the fourth quarter of 1998 and volume production in the second quarter of 1999.
Plasma-Therm Inc. (St. Petersburg, Fla.) entered into an agreement to develop advanced storage processes with the University of Wisconsin Engineering Research Center for Plasma-Aided Manufacturing (Madison, Wis.). Plasma-Therm and a leading supplier of data storage products jointly fund the program.
Anatech Ltd. (Springfield, Va.) opened two new facilities. One is in Winchendon, Mass., and the second is in Union City, Calif. The company is extending its geographical base to be close to the customer base and to facilitate local applications and customer service.
Siemens AG (Munich, Germany) selected Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP, Palo Alto, Calif.) as the semiconductor parametric test solution provider for Semiconductor 300 (Dresden, Germany). The company will provide the HP 4071A test system and the semiconductor process evaluation core software for a pilot manufacturing line.
Fluoroware Inc. (Chaska, Minn.) opened its new automated Class 100 cleanroom manufacturing facility at the Chaska headquarters. The facility features a modular design that can be expanded or reconfigured for future process requirements.
Schumacher (Carlsbad, Calif.) has been presented with a Texas Instruments 1997 Supplier Excellence Award from Texas Instruments Inc. (Dallas, Texas). The company has also been selected by Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (Migdal Haemek, Israel) for its 1997 Chemical Supplier of the Year.
CFM Technologies Inc. (West Chester, Pa.) has been granted a patent for its surface drying methods by the Japanese patent office. The patent application was filed in 1988.
Varian Associates Inc. (Palo Alto, Calif.) announced that the Japanese consortium Selete (Semiconductor Leading Edge Technologies Inc., Kanagawa, Japan) installed a model SHC-80 300 mm ion implanter system. The unit will be evaluated in the development of next generation 300 mm processing requirements.
Ion Systems (Berkley, Calif.) has an exclusive partnership with Novx Corp. (San Jose, Calif.) to develop and distribute real-time charge monitoring systems. The alliance was formed to provide a single source for ionization and voltage level monitoring systems. Also at the company, installation of an ionization program was installed at Fairchild Semiconductor (Portland, Maine).
Air Products and Chemicals Inc. (Lehigh Valley, Pa.) completed its purchase of Solkatronic Chemicals Inc. (Fairfield, N.J.) from Solvay America Inc. (city, state). The company is also providing its MEGASYS total gas management services at Samsung Electronic Co. Ltd. (Austin, Texas).
Micron Corp. (Peabody, Mass.) opened a new service office in Hsin Chu, Taiwan, and partnered with Scientek Corp. (Taiwan) to assist with market development.
SMT Dynamics (Anaheim, Calif.) selected the CRX-2000 X-ray inspection system by CR Technology (Laguna Niguel, Calif.) to expand its BGA business. A team of SMT engineers who evaluated more than five inspection systems selected the X-ray system.
Lam Research (Fremont, Calif.) purchased a non-exclusive, worldwide license of MORI source technology from Trikon Technologies Inc. (Chatsworth, Calif.). The key benefit of the technology is a higher density plasma source.
SELA USA Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.) sold its third MC200 microcleaving system to Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector (Chandler, Ariz.). The other two Motorola installations report cycle time reductions of more than 50%.
Solid State Optronics (SSO, San Jose, Calif.) signed distributorship agreements with Master Distributors (Santa Monica, Calif.) and Control Design Supply (Sanford, Fla.). Under terms of the agreement, they will distribute SSO's line of optically isolated solid state relays through their national network of resellers. In addition, SSO has achieved BABT approval for its line of optically isolated solid state relays. The certification guarantees that the relays are in complete compliance with the European telecommunication standards.
Manuela Boin Scientific Software (Tomerdigen, Germany) started shipment of SE-MAP metrology software to SOPRA (Bois Columbres, France). The software will be used to collect, analyze and visualize measurements on metrology equipment.
Extreme Ultraviolet Limited Liability Company (EUV LLC, city, state) entered into an agreement with the newly formed United States Advanced Lithography Limited Liability Co. (USAL, San Jose, Calif.) to develop EUV lithography tools. The alliance marks the second such agreement made by EUV LLC to a U.S.-based lithography company.
Hyundai Electronics (Seoul, South Korea) chose the CVD Dielectric Anti-Reflective Coating (DARC) process technology by Applied Materials (Santa Clara, Calif.) for its 64Mb DRAM manufacturing. Applied Materials also celebrated the shipment of its 1000th Dielectric Etch MxP+ process chamber, which were installed on more than 300 of the company's etch systems in a span of less than three years.
Camstar Systems Inc. (Campbell, Calif.) entered into an agreement with Amkor Technology Inc. (Chandler, Ariz.) to standardize on Camstar's MESA MES software at their back-end assembly and text foundries in the Philippines. The new agreement expands the scope of the effort to include more MESA modules in each of the plants in the Philippines.
The reconstruction of Palomar Products Inc. initiated a new identity. Palomar Technologies is a subsidiary of the newly named Palomar Technological Companies (Carlsbad, Calif.).
ESEC (USA) Inc. (Phoenix Ariz.) expanded its sales and service operation by 50% in North America. The new 12,000 ft2 facility includes additional office space and a new 800 ft2 demonstration room.
Cohu Inc. (San Diego, Calif.) formed the Cohu Semiconductor Equipment Group (SEG). SEG includes current subsidiaries Delta Design (San Diego, Calif.), Daymarc (Boston, Mass.) and the Asian operations of both companies.
SGS-Thomson Microelectronics NV (Lincoln, Mass.) changed the name of the Franco-Italian group to STMicroelectronics. It is a global independent semiconductor company with strong European roots.
Surface/Interface Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.) announced a 50% expansion in space. The new facility provides a clean manufacturing area and additional office space and is located in the same complex as the company headquarters.
Brooks Automation (Canada) Corp. (Richmond, B.C. Canada) legally changed its name to Brooks Automation Software Corp.. The company remains a wholly owned subsidiary of Brooks Automation Inc. with a mandate to independently service the semiconductor, flat panel and data storage industries.
Novellus Systems Inc. (San Jose, Calif.) and Integrated Equipment Corp. (city, state) entered into a cooperative agreement to develop and demonstrate a complete next-generation integrated solution in copper dual damascene interconnect structures. Under the terms of the agreement, the two companies will work together to resolve the CMP and deposition integration issues. In addition, Novellus and Lam Research Corp. (city, state) announced a cooperative agreement to develop comprehensive etch and deposition for next-generation copper damascene interconnect structures.
DuPont Photomasks Inc. (DPI, Round Rock, Texas) opened a new production facility in Scotland. The plant represents a total planned investment of $31 million. It will eventually house three photomask production lines in a Class 1 cleanroom environment constructed on a vibration-free floor.
Process Technologies International (Longmont, Colo.) formed a new company called Functional Test Solutions International (FTSI), located in Rhode Island, Florida and Southern California. FTSI will be dedicated in providing solutions for functional and custom test applications.
LTX Corp. (Westwood, Mass.) received an order from National Semiconductor Corp. (city, state) for multiple Fusion HF system-on-chip testers. The testers will be used in the development of integrated PC-on-a-chip and other new advanced technologies.
GaSonics International (San Jose, Calif.) established a dedicated lab at its San Jose headquarters for 300 mm applications development and demonstration. The lab includes its Millennia 300 mm photoresist removal tool, clean and isotropic etch applications and a Rudolph thickness measurement system with remaining space for a complete line of metrology tools to be installed at a later date.
Johnson Matthey Electronics (Spokane, Wash.) was presented with a Performance Award by Zetex Plc. (Lancashire, England) and named Preferred Supplier by the company. The award is presented annually to the leading semiconductor materials and components supplier that achieve an "A" rating for 12 consecutive months in four different evaluation quarters.
ASTM (W. Conshohocken, Pa.) has a new way of accessing its standards called the ASTM standards source online subscription service. Access to the Internet and an assigned password can secure online access to the collection of standards.
JMAR Industries Inc. (San Diego, Calif.) changed its name to JMAR Technologies Inc.. In turn, the subsidiaries have also changed: Pacific Precision Laboratories Inc. is now JMAR Precision Systems Inc., California ASIC Inc. is now JMAR Semiconductor Inc. and JMAR Technology Co. is now JMAR Research Inc. The strategic and operational advances, sustained financial growth and integration of its inter-division operations that resulted from the company's 1994 reconstruction prompted the name changes.
Ausimont USA (Thorofare, N.J.) entered into a joint development and marketing agreement with Integument Technologies Inc. (ITI, Jamestown, N.Y.). The joint development team has application development programs where enhanced fluoropolymers and novel fluorocomposites may be utilized.
PRI Automation, Equipe Division (Geneva, Switzerland) announced the integration of its front-end wafer handling system into Leica Inc.'s (Deerfield, Ill.) 300 mm wafer review/inspection station.
ASM Lithography (ASML, Geneva, Switzerland) formed a new business division, ASML Special Applications, to peruse market opportunities outside the company's mainstream business. The company will also supply the PAS 5500/300 PDT photolithography system to Samsung Electronics (Seoul, South Korea).
Advantest America Inc. (Buffalo Grove, Ill.) became the sole provider for memory test solutions to White Oak Semiconductor (Richmond, Va.). Phase 1 of the system delivery and installation is complete with the remainder scheduled for later this year.
Toshiba America Electronic Components (TAEC, Irvine, Calif.) merged with the Disk Product Division of Toshiba America Information Systems (DPD, Irvine, Calif.). The merger realigns its companies into groups of like businesses.
CMP Technologies (Hollister, Calif.) has been recapitalized and renamed Lucid Treatment Systems. The company will continue to be committed to developing water saving and waste treatment systems for the semiconductor industry.
AlliedSignal Advanced Microelectronic Materials, a division of AlliedSignal Electronic Materials (AMM, Sunnyvale, Calif.), acquired its partner NanoPore's stake in Nanoglass LLC. The former partner will continue to work closely with AMM to refine and commercialize Nanoglass.
Pacific Scientific (Rockford, Ill.) acquired AEG Servo Systems LTD (ASSL, Ennis, Ireland). In turn, Danaher Corp. (Washington, D.C.) acquired Pacific Scientific.
Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing (Singapore) and Virage Logic (Milpitas, Calif.) announced that Virage's Custom-Touch and Self-Testable Memory Compilers will be available for Chartered's advanced 0.25 µí (250 nm) CMOS process. The compiler was available in April with foundry tape-outs scheduled for later in the year.
Micronic Laser Systems (Taby, Switzerland) shipped the first three LRS 200 laser writers to customers in the United States and Asia.
Leica Microsystems Group (Wetzlar, Germany) took over the firm Jenoptik Silmetric GmbH (Jena, Germany) and founded a new company, Leica Microsystems Jena GmbH. Twelve of the 19 former employees will be employed in the new company and seven in other Leica areas. In addition, Schroder Ventures (Wetzlar, Germany) acquired Leica Microsystems from Leica Holdings B.V., Rijswijk.
Quality Chemicals Inc. (Dayton, Ohio) and TriQuest LP (Corpus Christi, Texas), both ChemFirst Inc. (Jackson, Miss.) companies, jointly announced plans to expand QCI's production of DUV photoresist resins for TriQuest. The project will include a new dryer, dryer building and centrifuge and is expected to be completed in September.
Suss Advanced Lithography Inc. (SAL) has moved to a new location in South Burlington, Vt. The new facility is equipped with enough space to build more than 20 X-ray lithography steppers per year with expansion space available.
FSI International (Chaska, Minn.) expanded operations at its Newhaven, England, site by adding a new assembly area and starting production of its ChemFill 1500 series chemical delivery modules. Also, the company has signed a new distribution agreement with Metron Technology.
The Specialty Plastics Group of the BFGoodrich Co. (Cleveland, Ohio) established a new business, the Static Control Polymers Business (Twinsburg, Ohio), dedicated to the development, manufacturing and marketing of static control materials. The new company will market StatRite polymer alloys, Hipscon carbon filled sheet and carbon fiber filled compound line.
Sager Electronics (Hingham, Mass.) expanded its supplier relationship with General Semiconductor Inc. (Mel-ville, N.Y.). Sager will maintain an in-depth inventory of General Semiconductor's components at its distribution center.
Rudolph Technologies Inc (RTI, Flanders, N.J.) implemented its FOCUS FE VII-D transparent film metrology system at Dallas Semiconductor (Farmers Branch, Texas).
Pall Corp.'s Microelectronics Division (Port Washington, N.Y.) installed a Pall Microza ultrafiltration system at Cirent Semiconductor (Orlando, Fla.). This is the third sale commissioned with the fourth scheduled for installation.
VG Elemental (Franklin, Mass.) has its first two orders from Samsung (Korea).
Semiconductor 300 (Dresden, Germany) placed a multisystem order for Jenoptik Infab GmbH (Jena, Germany) for the WLS 300, 300 mm wafer logistics station. The facility will be the first to accept delivery of the product.
Three-Five Systems Inc. (Phoenix, Ariz.) acquired an ~20% interest in Siliscape Inc. (Palo Alto, Calif.). The investment brings together companies whose technologies develop extremely small, low-power consumption displays.
ESS Technology Inc. (Fremont, Calif.), Silicon Storage Technology (SST, Sunnyvale, Calif.) and Vantis and AMD Co. (Sunnyvale, Calif.) have all ordered Teradyne Inc.'s (Bedford, Mass) new INTEGRA J750 test system.
Canon Inc. U.S.A., Semiconductor Equipment Division (Santa Clara, Calif.) began using interactive 3-D simulation in training courses on its lithography steppers and scanners. Operator training is the first module, with software, applications and equipment maintenance and repair modules on the way.
ShellCase Ltd. (Jerusalem, Israel) announced that Xicor Inc. (Milpitas, Calif.) agreed to license ShellCase wafer level CSP manufacturing process technology and to buy CSPs as well. The licensed technology will be transferred to Xicor's main manufacturing facility.
Balzers Process Systems (Zurich, Switzerland) launched a new corporate identity program to position the BPS brand name more clearly in the market. BPS is a global supplier of thin film systems and processes to the information technology industry.
Integrated Flow Systems (IFS, Scotts Valley, Calif.) and Evans Components (Portland, Ore.) announced the transfer of production and administration of the set-pressure gas regulator product line from Evans to IFS new manufacturing facility. IFS has established a stocking distributor network to assist its locations within the United States and East Asia.
Technical Manufacturing Corp. (TMC, Peabody, Mass.) expanded its operation to increase manufacturing capacity and office space to support its products. The expansion from 50,000 ft2 to 65,000 ft2 will include a new electronics assembly area for manufacturing.
Jones-Hamilton Co.'s Semiconductor Chemical Division (Newark, Calif.) increased its distribution base and direct sales efforts for high-purity sulfuric acid and hydrogen peroxide. The products are available in bulk tank trucks, totes, one-way or returnable drums and 5 gallon or 4x1 gallon bottles.
Ion Systems (Berkeley, Calif.) reported a 35% increase in sales to Europe from May 1997 through February 1998 compared with the same period the previous year.
The Compressed Gas Association (CGA) presented Solkatronic Chemicals Inc. (Fairfield, N.J.) with the Leonard Parker Pool award for 1997. The award is given to a CGA member for the most improved safety record for the previous two years.
Camstar Systems Inc. (Campbell, Calif.) has been selected by SDL Inc. (San Jose, Calif.) for the use of the MESA MES system.
Cognex Corp. (Natick Mass.) entered into a multimillion-dollar OEM agreement with Nikon Corp. (Tokyo, Japan). Under the terms of the agreement, Cognex will supply in excess of $5 million of machine vision systems over the next two years for integration into Nikon's newest generation of wafer steppers.
ChipPAC Inc. (San Jose, Calif.) completed the final phase of its technology development center in Chandler, Ariz. The center is now fully functional and is the primary customer interface for all designed initiated in the United States and Europe.
Genus Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.) reached an agreement with Varian Associates (Palo Alto, Calif.) to sell selected assets related to its high-energy ion implantation equipment product line for ~$25 million plus additional payment if certain revenue targets are achieved. The completion of this transaction is subject to standard governmental reviews and approval by Genus shareholders.
Tessera Inc. (Singapore) selected MSRI's (Chelmsford, Mass.) MRSI-505 CSP chip scale packaging assembly system. Introduction of the system is expected to enhance throughput at the high-volume facility.
Schlumberger Test and Transactions (San Jose, Calif.) implemented new organization aimed at speeding solutions to customers for its three business units: Automated Test Equipment, Smart Cards and Terminals and Retail Petroleum Systems. This now organizes the operation structure into solutions, products and manufacturing groups.
Siemens Microelectronics Center (Dresden, Germany) has produced 100 million 16Mb DRAMs in less than two years and celebrated the achievement. The company is now ramping up the production of more highly integrated 64Mb chips using 0.25 (250 nm) µí technology.
Toshiba America Electronic Components Inc. (Irvine, Calif.) released qualified 64Mb DRAM chips into production at the Dominion Semiconductor facility (Manassas, Va.). The internal qualification was completed in February and will now begin shipping production units.
Nanometrics Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.) completed its acquisition of the Metra metrology product from Optical Specialties Inc. (Fremont, Calif.).
Lam Research Corp. (Fremont, Calif.) purchased a non-exclusive, worldwide license for the MORI plasma source technology from Trikon Technologies Inc. (Newport, South Wales, UK).
Gores Technology Group (Los Angeles, Calif.) announced a definitive agreement to purchase the assets of the ControlWORKS business and WORKS development organization as well as certain other assets associated with the WORKScell products of Texas Instruments (TI, Dallas, Texas).
The Microelectronics Group of Lucent Technologies (Murray Hill, N.J.) announced a minority equity investment in Chip Express (Santa Clara, Calif.). The companies will develop technology for laser-programmable system chips (LPSCs), devices designed to speed the development of new ASICs. Under the agreement, the companies will develop a 0.25 µí (250 nm) laser-programmable gate array (LPGA) technology. Lucent will then incorporate this technology as a "building block" in its system-on-a-chip offerings.
AMD (Sunnyvale, Calif.) introduced a 300-MHz version of its AMD-K6 processor, produced using 0.25 µí (250 nm) process technology at the company's Fab 25 facility in Austin, Texas.
Vantis, an AMD (Sunnyvale, Calif.) company, entered into a five-year agreement with United Semiconductor Corp. (USC, Hsin Chu, Taiwan), a UMC company, for wafer manufacturing services. USC will use its 0.25 µí (250 nm) VHC8 process to manufacture the VF1 FPGA product family for Vantis. Additionally, this agreement will cover other technologies for future Vantis products.
