Strategic Reviews
Staff -- Semiconductor International, 5/1/1998
IC Insights (Scottsdale, Ariz.) announced that its Strategic Reviews publication is now available. Summarized in each report are the activities of about 200 IC companies.
PASS US Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Pall Corp. (East Hills, N.Y.), and Coors Ceramics Co. (Golden, Colo.), a wholly owned subsidiary of ACX Technologies Inc., have announced the formation of PCC Enterprises LLC, a 50/50 joint venture. The joint venture plans to initially manufacture high-tech inorganic membranes used in filtration and separation applications.
Jones-Hamilton Co. (Newark, Calif.) announced that its Semiconductor Chemical Division achieved ISO 9002 Certification. It packages sulfuric acid and hydrogen peroxide to meet the needs of the semiconductor industry.
Digital Instruments (DI, Santa Barbara, Calif.) opened a new office in the United Kingdom to provide direct technical sales and support to northern Europe. The new office is located near Cambridge.
Weiss-Aug Co. Inc. (East Hanover, N.J.) expanded with the acquisition of three new Engel molding machines. Two vertical machines were placed into operation at the site this year, and a third vertical clamp rotary machine recently went into operation.
Scientific Plastics Co. Inc. (Waukesha, Wis.) and the Broen Lab division of Broen A/S (Assens, Denmark) announced an alliance to market each others product in the United States and Europe.
TMT Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.) shipped a multiple order of its ASL-1000 testers to Micrel Semiconductor (San Jose, Calif.). This marks the 100th ASL-100 system ordered.
Extraction Systems Inc. (ESI, Franklin, Mass.) and Metron Technology (Sunnyvale, Calif.) announced an alliance whereby Metron will be the exclusive sales and service organization for ESI in Europe. This alliance provides access and local support.
KLA-Tencor Corp. (San Jose, Calif.) and Avant! (Fremont, Calif.) entered into an agreement in which Avant! will develop software framework and simulation tools for integration into KLA-Tencor photomask inspection products. The new tools will be based on the existing TMA WorkBench and TCAD products.
Fluoroware Inc. (Chaska, Minn.) and Nippon Valqua Industries purchased the interest in the Nippon Fluoroware (Yonezawa, Japan) joint manufacturing partnership that was previously held by Dainichi Shoji K.K., a former distributor. Fluoroware now owns 84% of Nippon Fluoroware, and Valqua owns 16%. In addition, the company has a new web page at www.fluoroware.com.
Alfa Aesar (Ward Hill, Mass.), a Johnson Matthey Co., signed an agreement with Merck KGaA under which Merck will distribute Alfa's products throughout Europe. In addition, VWR Scientific Products (West Chester, Mass.) chose Alfa Aesar as its "Best New Supplier in 1997." Also, through an agreement with Johnson Matthey Noble Metals (West Chester, Pa.) sales of all precious metal labware produced by the factory will be handled through Alfa.
Dainippon Screen Mfg. Co. Ltd. (Kyoto, Japan) finished plans to build a new plant in Taga, Shiga Prefecture, Japan, to produce semiconductor manufacturing equipment. Construction began in September and production will begin in October.
RWT Corp. (Mt. Prospect, Ill.) has an equity investment in excess of $5 million by five major venture partners. The new venture partners are Red Rock Ventures (Palo Alto, Calif.), ARCH Venture Partners LP (Chicago, Ill.), Enterprise Development Fund (Ann Arbor, Mich.), JAFCO (Palo Alto, Calif.) and Venture Investors Management LLC (Madison, Wis.).
Asyst Technologies Inc. (Fremont, Calif.) reached an agreement with Fluoroware Inc. (Chaska, Minn.) to acquire Fluoroware's automated radio frequency identification technology for ~$3 million.
D.I.P. Inc. (Moreno Valley, Calif.) began to ship DeviceNet control nodes with the company's combinatorial control objects enhancement.
Johnson Matthey Electronics (JME, Spokane, Wash.) is modernizing its plant in Widnes, England. The upgraded plant will manufacture physical and chemical vapor deposition materials and components, and thermocouples.
