Company News
Staff -- Semiconductor International, 6/1/1998
Enhanced Memory Systems Inc. (Colorado Springs, Colo.) announced an agreement with Siemens Semiconductors (Muenchen, Germany) to manufacture the ESDRAM integrated circuit. Under the agreement, production of 16Mbit ESDRAM products is expected to begin in the second quarter of 1998.
Magnatex Pumps Inc. (Houston, Texas) will serve as the exclusive distributor of Texel Pumps by Seikow Chemical Engineering & Machinery Ltd. in North and South America. The company will use its network of industrial distributors and manufacturer's representatives to market the product.
Lambda Physik (Gottingen, Germany) received a $6.7 million order for its LAMBDA 4000 high-power excimer lasers from Japan Steel Works. The lasers will be delivered within 1998.
Johnson Matthey Electronics (Spokane, Wash.) received the "1997 Supplier Excellence Award" from Tokyo Electron (TEL) Europe. The annual award is given to the company that meets selection criteria, including overall product quality, delivery performance, commitment to long-term product support, high levels of customer satisfaction and continuous product development programs.
ICOS Vision Systems Corp. (Waltham, Mass.) received an order valued at ~$1.75 million from Ismeca S.A. (La Chaux de Fonds, Switzerland). The order is expected to be fulfilled over a one-year period.
Xycom Inc. (Saline, Mich.) has been acquired by an investment group comprised of factory automation specialists and business development experts. The company and Xycom Holdings Inc. have announced the concurrent appointment of a new board of directors.
Motoman Inc. (Dayton, Ohio) opened a joint Yaskawa/Motoman 28,000 ft2 facility in Chandler, Ariz. The new facility will address sales, application engineering, training, customer support and system deployment responsibilities.
GaSonics International (San Jose, Calif.) opened a new product development and customer support facility in Israel. The facility will initially focus on developing software and provide field service support. Beginning in 1999, the center will include complete platform development activities including technology and hardware. The company has also shipped a Millennia 300 mm system to the I300I to be installed within SEMATECH (Austin, Texas).
ANADIGICS Inc. (Warren N.J.) donated an Eaton 3204 ion implanter to the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT, Newark, N.J.). The ion implanter will be used for research purposes.
Silicon Valley Group (SVG, San Jose, Calif.) announced the shipment of multiple 200-APS photoresist processing tools for production by a major semiconductor manufacturer in the United States and for ASICs and logic devices by an established European semiconductor manufacturer. The shipment will begin in the first calendar quarter of 1998.
YieldUP International (Mountain View, Calif.) integrated the Omega-4000DD substrate cleaning, rinsing and drying system onto the wet bench scrub stations of Oliver Design Inc. (Scotts Valley, Calif.). The company has also entered into an OEM agreement with STEAG MicroTech Inc. (Austin, Texas), as well as completed a $6 million equity financing in private placement of convertible preferred stock.
Air Products and Chemicals Inc. (Lehigh Valley, Pa.) has been awarded a patent for its PFC recovery and recycle system. The patent covers the system's membrane-based gas separation technology.
Cupps Industrial Supply Inc. (Phoenix, Ariz.) completed the largest PVA sponge roller and disc brush cleaning device-manufacturing facility in North America. The multimillion-dollar plant expansion has a manufacturing capacity of 2000 disc brushes/day and 2000 sponge rollers/week for the cleaning of silicon wafers and memory discs.
STEAG MicroTech Inc. (Austin, Texas) shipped a new single-tank, automated wet processor for beta testing at a leading U.S. semiconductor manufacturer's R&D fab. The company has also installed the Twin Clean AWP in a leading U.S. semiconductor manufacturer's R&D fab and two custom hydrofluoric chemical process tools at a U.S chipmaker's manufacturing facility. The company has received orders for four of its plating systems from a major U.S. computer hardware and peripheral manufacturer.
Strasbaugh (San Luis Obispo, Calif.), NOVA Measuring Instruments Ltd. (Rehovoth, Israel) and MITEX Solutions Inc. have formed an alliance to integrate run-to-run control into existing and next generation Strasbaugh CMP tools. The combined joint project will develop integrated closed loop monitor and control of oxide polishing for CMP.
Schlumberger K.K. (Japanese division, Sagamihara, Japan) opened a new technology center located within the Japan facility (Fuchinobe, Sagamihara City, Kanagawa Prefecture). Development projects will be undertaken in cooperation with Japanese chip manufacturers and company engineers across the globe.
Motorola Inc. (Austin, Texas) has a new web site for its family of OTP microcontrollers at www.motorola.com/semi/otp. The web site houses product documentation, software downloads and information that will make it easier to access kits and other tools.
Laser Energetics Inc. (Princeton, N.J.) opened a state-of-the-art, ultraviolet-marking service. The service is dedicated to UV laser marking of surface mounted devices SMDs manufactured by microelectronic companies.
SZ Testsysteme (Amerang, Germany) sold multiple M3650 high-speed mixed signal test systems to the German semiconductor manufacturer ELMOS. The systems will be used for testing automotive and industrial devices.
J.A, Jones Construction Co., Technologies Group (Branchburg, N.J.) has been awarded the construction management of a $38 million photoresist facility for Clariant Corp., AZ Electronic Materials unit (Branchburg, N.J.). Estimated project completion will be phases during the second half of 1999.
SEZ AG (Villach, Germany) received its first order for the 300 mm spin etcher by Semiconductor 300 (Dresden, Germany). The machine will be shipped in the second quarter of 1998.
