Company News
Staff -- Semiconductor International, 10/1/1998
Asyst Technologies Inc. (Fremont, Calif.) received a
multi-million dollar order from Silicon Manufacturing Partners
(SMP, Singapore). The order covers a full range of products including
SMIF enclosures, robotic IO mechanisms, pods, Wafer Management Systems,
the SMART-Traveler System as well as metrology and yield enhancement
equipment. The systems currently are being shipped and installed.
Strasbaugh (San Luis Obispo, Calif.) and MEMC signed an
agreement that allows Strasbaugh to manufacture, market and distribute
the line of prime wafer polishing tools.
MEMC awarded Lepco Inc. (Houston, Texas) with a contract
to design and build a trace-metal analysis facility in Pasadena, Texas.
The facility will house ~1500 ft2 of Class 100-1000 cleanroom
space. In addition, Lepco merged with Luwa Bahnson Cleanroom operations
to become LuwaLepco Inc. (Houston), a subsidiary of Luwa Bahnson.
STEAG AST Electronik (Tempe, Ariz.) installed an AST 3000 RTP
tool at Semiconductor 300's (Dresden, Germany) IC production fab.
Motoman Inc. (West Carrollton, Ohio) entered an agreement with
SIPA Industrial Systems Division (Vittorio Veneto, Italy) for worldwide
distribution of Motoman's RobotWorld (RW) planar multi-head automation
system. The agreement provides for development and distribution of the
RW series of test handling systems to the backend semiconductor test
market.
EMCORE Corp. (Somerset, N.J.) received 11 new orders for
TurboDisc MOCVD systems in both Asia and North America. Six orders were
for SpectraBlue GaN production systems and five for Enterprise 400
systems. The orders also called for a supply of customer-specific
expitaxial vertical cavity surface emitting wafers.
Varian Associates Inc. (Palo Alto, Calif.) completed acquisition
of selected assets of Genus Inc.'s (Sunnyvale, Calif.) MeV ion
implantation equipment production line. The transaction includes a
leased manufacturing facility in Newburyport, Mass., and is valued at
~$25 million plus additional payments if certain revenue targets are
achieved.
Electronic Visions Inc. (Phoenix, Ariz.) has expanded it's North
American organization with the newly created technology group. The
group's purpose is to develop new micromachining processes and equipment
as well as help implement customer solutions. The company also has
supplied The Microelectronics Research Center (MRC) of the New Jersey
Institute of Technology with wafer bonding equipment for MEMS research.
Greene, Tweed & Co. Ltd.'s Semiconductor Division has
relocated its Glasgow offices to the Scottish Enterprise Technology Park
(East Kilbride, UK). The new office will give a basis for improved
customer focus and satisfaction.
Veriflo Corp. (Richmond, Calif.) has joined forces with Parker
Hannifin Corp. (Cleveland, Ohio) to become an operating division of
Parker's Instrumentation Group. The current Veriflo management team will
remain in place.
Tegal Corp. (Petaluma, Calif.) received a reorder from a
Japanese customer for a Tegal 6500 series etch system to be used in the
manufacture of non-volatile ferroelectric random access memory devices.
The tool was scheduled to ship in September.
Lucent Technologies (Murray Hill, N.J.) signed an agreement with
Beta Squared Inc. (Allen, Texas) to develop a mask cleaning technology
jointly for Lucent's SCALPEL electron beam lithography program.
United States Filter Corp. (Warrendale, Pa.) was selected by
Philips Semiconductor Inc. to provide a heavy metals removal (HMR)
system for continuous precipitation at its Laguna, Philippines,
facility. The HMR system and sludge handling equipment are scheduled to
be operational later this year.
Canon U.S.A. (Santa Clara) began construction of a 172,000 ft
2 facility in San Jose to house its northern California operations and
the new headquarters of the Semiconductor Equipment Division. The new
facility will enhance the process and applications development, product
demonstration and training support.
DuPont Microcircuit & Component Materials opened a new
Asia-Pacific technical center in Utsunomiya City, Japan. The thick film
product development and technical service relocated from Yokohama to the
Utsunomiya laboratory facility. The new center features ultraviolet
exposure and development equipment to process Fodel photoimageable
compositions for rapidly growing applications such as plasma display
panels.
Schlumberger Test & Transactions (Singapore) began
construction of a new facility in Korea, which will focus on design and
manufacturing of test systems for semiconductor devices. The technology
center will include design, sales, marketing, technical support and an
assembly line for manufacturing. The facility is scheduled to be
completed by December.
Speedline Technologies (Franklin, Mass.) has announced the
formation of the Speedline Semiconductor packaging Group. The group will
provide products targeted for the semiconductor packaging market as well
as reflow, thermal and cleaning products from Electrovert.
The Micromanipulator Co. Inc. (Carson City, Nev.) completed its
expansion to its manufacturing and product development facilities in
Carson City. The expansion has increased its facility by over 40%
