Company News

-- Semiconductor International, 7/1/1999

  Nova Measuring Instruments Ltd. (Rehovoth, Israel) announced it has shipped a total of 350 integrated thickness monitoring (ITM) systems to customers worldwide. The NovaScan 210/420 ITM systems are installed directly on CMP equipment, controlling the process immediately after polishing.

  Contec Inc. (Spartanburg, S.C.) combined the operations of TN Technologies (Tustin, Calif.) with M-Con Technologies (the company's independent testing division). This acquisition enables the testing division in Mission Viejo, Calif., to test and certify products at smaller particle size ranges and to analyze the chemical composition of contaminants.

  Pfeiffer Vacuum (Asslar, Germany) acquired Semivac, headquartered in Milpitas, Calif., with a branch office in Wilsonville, Ore. The acquisition enhances customer service, allowing 24-hour-a-day customer support.

  Air Liquide Electronics (Dallas Texas) completed qualification and customer acceptance of two on-site chemical supply installations at a key silicon wafer manufacturer located in north Texas. The company installed and qualified its On-Site Chemical Purification technology to provide ultrapure hydrogen peroxide and its On-Site Chemical Generation technology to provide ultrapure ammonium hydroxide.

  Air Liquide and Arch Chemicals have agreed to a marketing global alliance to better meet the demands for the high-purity gases and chemicals. Under this alliance, each company will provide its own products and services as well as promoting the other's complementary services.

  American Microsystems Inc. (AMI, Pocatello, Idaho) has received a $5M order from NOVALOG Inc. to supply foundry services for three NOVALOG SIRCommIII wireless infrared (IR) control circuit chips. The chip will be used in IR transceiver modules that enable wireless data transfer.

  Palomar Technologies (Vista, Calif.) will supply its CBT 6000 wire bonder and 3500-II component work cells to Analog Devices Inc. (Cambridge, Mass.). The products will be used in the production of multichip modules at Analog's Greensboro, N.C., facility.

  Praxair Inc. (Danbury, Conn.) signed an alliance agreement with Daw Technologies Inc., Dynamic Systems Inc. and ISinc Inc. This alliance provides a single source solution for turnkey wafer fab facility systems and related services using Praxair's POINT ONE fab integration services. Praxair now provides a single point of contact for the entire scope of the project including project management, scheduling and space allocation.

  The assets of FOSTEC Inc. (Auburn, N.Y.) were purchased by Schott-CML Fiberoptics LLC (Germany) and renamed SCHOTT-FOSTEC LLC. The combined capabilities result in expanded application knowledge and technical capabilities, leading to new illumination products.

  BOC Edwards opened its new service center at Toufen, Japan. The location brings the company closer to customers and manufacturers throughout Taiwan. It is sized for expansion to meet customer growth.

  Applied Materials Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.) signed an agreement with Ontario Technologies Corp. (OTC) that authorizes OTC to provide refurbished services for certain Applied equipment parts directly to chipmakers. Under terms of the agreement, OTC will use Applied specifications to refurbish parts requiring thermal spray coatings such as shields and other parts used in PVD, CVD and plasma etch systems.

  Asyst Technologies received a multimillion-dollar order from a large U.S. reticle manufacturer for its reticle SMIF systems. The order marks the firsts time that SMIF technology will be deployed in a reticle manufacturing facility.

  Symyx Technologies Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.) and BASF Aktiengesellschaft signed a collaboration to apply combinatorial materials science to the identification of specialty polymers. Under the terms of the two-year partnership, Symyx will receive $4M in research payments and payments from products resulting from the collaboration.

  Novellus Systems Inc. (San Jose, Calif.) shipped its SABRE copper electrofill and INOVA physical vapor deposition systems to Lucent Technologies. The tools are slated for installation at Lucent's Bell laboratories Advanced Development and Research Facility (Orlando, Fla.) at the Cirent semiconductor campus.

  Brooks Automation Inc. (Chelmsford, Mass.) received multiple-unit orders for its AquaTran 7 atmospheric robot from Novellus Systems. The robot will be used as the central wafer-handling robot in Novellus' Sabre xT copper electrofill tool.

  Tegal Corp. (Petaluma, Calif.) announced that RF Micro Devices placed a follow-on order for its 901e diode plasma etcher. The tool will be used for etching GaAs devices.

  Berkeley Process Control Inc. (Richmond, Calif.) has established its first international headquarters in York, England. This enables the company to better serve customers and increase its sales presence throughout the region.

  Avio Digital Inc. (San Carlos, Calif.) announced an agreement with Cadence Design Systems Inc. (San Jose, Calif.) to facilitate the design and manufacture of the MediaWire chipset. Customer delivery of products using the chipset is expected in the fourth quarter of this year.

  Quad Systems Inc. (Willow Grove, Pa.) announced that its representative, Quadtek Inc., opened a new sales and customer service location in Juarez, Mexico. The office expands its support for the growing market for flexible assembly technology in northern Mexico.

  ASML (Veldhoven, Netherlands) has completed an agreement to acquire MaskTools, a business unit of MicroUnity Systems Engineering (Sunnyvale, Calif.). The newly formed company, ASML MaskTools, will be a wholly owned subsidiary of ASML, located at a new site in Silicon Valley.

  Texas Instruments (TI, Dallas) announced it will acquire Telogy Networks (Germantown, Md.). Telogy will become a wholly owned subsidiary of TI, reporting into the worldwide DSP business, and will continue to operate from its headquarters in Germantown. The boards of directors of both companies have approved the acquisition, which is expected to be completed in August.

  Intel Corp. (Santa Clara, Calif.) and Dialogic Corp. (Parsippany, N.J.) entered into a definitive agreement under which Intel would acquire Dialogic in an all-cash tender offer at ~$780M. Dialogic will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Intel, reporting within Intel's Enterprise Server Group. The companies do not anticipate immediate changes to their respective product lines.