Company News
-- Semiconductor International, 9/1/2000
Therma-Wave Inc. (Fremont, Calif.) signed a strategic agreement with Applied Materials Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.), under which Therma-Wave will develop and supply advanced metrology for integration with Applied's process systems and modules.Applied Materials Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.) received an order from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) for 300 mm manufacturing systems. The systems will be installed at TMSC's Fab 6 in Tainan, Taiwan.
FSI International (Minneapolis) received an initial order for five POLARIS 3500 microlithography clusters from a U.S. semiconductor manufacturer's 300 mm fab. Delivery is scheduled to begin in the fourth quarter of 2000.
Trikon Technologies Inc. (Newport, Wales, U.K.) received multiple orders from a top-10 semiconductor manufacturer for metalization and plasma etch equipment. The order consists of two Sigma fxP PVD systems and seven Omega etch systems.
Micro Component Technology Inc. (MCT, St. Paul, Minn.) received a $1.7M order for multiple Tapestry strip test handling systems and SmartSort high-speed singulation and sort systems. The systems will be integrated into an assembly and test line at a large integrated device manufacturer.
ASML MaskTools (Santa Clara, Calif.) has licensed its optical extension technology to UMC (Hsinchu Science Park, Taiwan) for manufacturing advanced semiconductors with 150 nm design rules. The agreement includes the purchase of ASML's Scattering-bar technology with any third-party software.
Luwa Lepo (Houston, Texas) was awarded a contract from Honeywell to design and construct a 12,000 ft2 manufacturing facility incorporating 4,000 ft2 of M2.5-M5.5 modular cleanrooms. The new plant will be located at Redmond, Wash.
ISOA Inc. (Richardson, Texas) completed an integrated inspection project jointly developed with Tokyo Electron Ltd. (TEL, Tokyo). TEL will release this macro defect inspection capability on its CLEAN TRACK ACT 8 coater/developer system.
Credence Systems Corp. (Fremont, Calif.) acquired Modulation Instruments Inc. (Colorado Springs, Colo.). Credence will use the technology developed by Modulation Instruments to deliver high-performance test solutions associated with mixed-signal rf test of 3G cellular phone devices.
EPI MBE Products Group (St. Paul, Minn.) changed its name to Applied Epi Inc. The name change reflects the industry's rapidly expanding demand for compound semiconductors.
ATMI Inc. (Danbury, Conn.) is supplying a major Malaysian semiconductor fab with its point-of-use gas treatment equipment. Shipments are scheduled during the third quarter of 2000.
Lucent Technologies (Murray Hill, N.J.) will spin off its microelectronics business, which includes the optoelectronics components and IC divisions, into a separate company, to be named later. Lucent is planning an initial public offering for up to 20% of the new company and intends to spin off the remaining shares in a tax-free distribution.
Aehr Test Systems (Fremont, Calif.) received an order for MTX-R parallel test system from TSMC. It will be used in the Reliability Assurance Laboratory to improve process reliability and yield.
National Semiconductor Corp. (Furstenfeldbruck, Germany) acquired Vivid Semiconductor (Chandler, Ariz.). Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
Accord Advanced Technologies Inc. (Tempe, Ariz.) received its second major order from CSMC-HJ (Wuxi, Peoples Republic of China). Accord is to refurbish and reconfigure another Applied Material Precision P5000.
Silicon Valley Group (SVG, San Jose, Calif.) shipped its first Xcelerate system to a major ASIC device manufacturer's technology center in Kanagawa, Japan. The product will be used to develop thin gate oxidation for advanced semiconductor devices, while evaluating the possibility of replacing its existing lamp-based RTP systems for ion-implant annealing processes.
STMicroelectronics, ARM and Sony Corp. invested $14M in CoWare Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.). All three investors are long-term customers or partners and use the CoWare N2C hardware/software co-design system.
Motorola Inc. (Tempe, Ariz.) completed moving its largest-volume assembly and test manufacturing facility for high-power rf products from Seremban, Malaysia, to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The Kuala Lumpur facility, established in 1973 and consisting of more than 750,000 ft2 on ~20 acres, produces some of the company's leading-edge semiconductor products.
August Technology Corp. (Bloomington, Minn.) received an order from one of the largest IC manufacturers for a fully automated, 300 mm NSX series wafer inspection tool. The system will be used for advanced pre- and post-bump process management.
W.C. Heraeus International GmbH (Hanau, Germany) sold one of its subsidiaries, the Singapore-based Heraeus Precision Engineering Pte. Ltd., to Jade Technologies Singapore Ltd. The capital obtained from the sale is to be invested in the company's core business to support internal and external growth.
PhotoMedex Inc. (Radnor, Pa.) has an agreement with Komatsu Ltd. (Tokyo), granting it a non-exclusive license to use a U.S. laser patent solely for manufacturing lithography equipment. Under the agreement, Komatsu will pay PhotoMedex a percentage royalty of the net sales value for any product that is manufactured and shipped for sale in the U.S.
Sunright (Singapore) and SABER (Schlumberger Advanced Business Engineering Resources) signed a strategic agreement to jointly define and deliver back-end foundry services. Sunright will use SABER technology centers to provide device validation and characterization services. The immediate impact expands Sunright's production test offerings at the Austin, Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur test facilities.
ATMI Inc. (Danbury, Conn.) supplied a major Malaysian semiconductor fabrication plant with its point-of-use gas treatment equipment. Shipments are scheduled for the third quarter of 2000.
Pentagon Technologies Inc. (Freemont, Calif.) has a definitive agreement to acquire Chemetal Inc. (Hayward, Calif.). Under terms of the agreement, Pentagon will purchase all assets and certain liabilities of Chemetal in a cash and equity transaction, which is expected to be completed during the third quarter of this year.
Anvik Corp. (Hawthorne, N.Y.) installed its HexScan 2050 SME large-area panel lithography system at ACREO AB (Norrkoping, Sweden). ACREO will use the system for fabrication of highly integrated substrates, R&D projects in the area of via research and high-density interconnects, and research projects in polymer electronics and polymer optics/photonics in cooperation with Linkoping University, Campus Norrkoping.
Zygo Corp. (Middlefield, Conn.) expanded its Zygo Automation Systems Group (Longmont, Colo.) with the formation of a new Precision Manufacturing Automation Unit located in Delray Beach, Fla. The unit's primary business focus is to provide opto-electronic component and optical communications products.
Tegal Corp. (Petaluma, Calif.) received an order for its 900 Series plasma etch system from WIN Semiconductors Corp. The unit is installed at WIN's Taiwan facility and is used in the production of GaAs-based monolithic microwave integrated circuit devices.
Asymtek (Carlsbad, Calif.) contributed its advanced flux jetting technology to Georgia Tech University (Atlanta) to jointly support flip-chip fluxing studies. The collaboration enables the investigation of new methods of fluxing flip-chip dice and can escalate into other dispensing technologies during the machine's three-year visit to the university.
