March 8, 2001–Chandler, Arizona–Amkor Technology is continuing the momentum of its growth strategy in Asia by acquiring two established semiconductor assembly and test companies in Taiwan, enabling the company’s rapid entry into that nation’s growing semiconductor industry.

In separate transactions, Amkor will acquire Taiwan Semiconductor Technology Corp. (TSTC) of Linkou, and Sampo Semiconductor Corp. (SCC) of Lung-Tang. Both companies have signed letters of intent, enabling negotiations to proceed. The agreements are expected to be finalized in April. Terms of the proposed acquisitions were not disclosed. The two companies, which have combined revenues of approximately $100 million, produce many of the high-demand semiconductor package devices required for cell phones, computers, handheld-devices, and other popular applications.

“This is a first step in establishing a major Amkor presence in Taiwan,” says Amkor Chairman and CEO Jim Kim. “We have had a goal to establish production capability near the vast cluster of semiconductor wafer fabs in Taiwan. Now, we will have two facilities and can begin immediately serving existing customers while we seek new business from among companies using the local wafer fabs.”

These acquisitions are a continuation of Amkor’s announced expansion and geographic positioning roadmap. Amkor recently formed a joint venture with Toshiba in Japan, and also announced the establishment of a new assembly and test facility near Shanghai, China.

March 7, 2001–Munich, Germany–Karl Suss recently added high stability wafer probe systems to its existing product portfolio. The platform, made of granite, enhances Suss’ submicron probing range capabilities because it makes the probers less sensitive to undesirable environmental influences such as noise and does not pick the vibrations up as much as aluminum and other metals. Suss acquired this key technology with its takeover of Munich-based K&W in October 2000.

“During chip failure analysis, probers must analyze structures below 1-micron so system stability is a crucial prerequisite for accurate measurement results,” says Dr. Claus Dietrich, international product manager for probe systems at Suss. “When employing atomic force microscopy (AFM), computer aided design navigation, or laser cutters, the smallest system vibrations can cause measurement deviations. Due to the high stability of the granite probers, such problems are eliminated.”

The main difference to common probe systems is the use of granite boards, which offer a highly rigid, even and precise base provide system stability. This is further ensured by the tool’s construction, which keeps the number of mechanical joints and elastic connections between the granite board and the measurement unit to a minimum. This eliminates another potential source of vibration. An additional feature of the system is its linear drive that enables highly accurate positioning of the measurement probes.

Suss will exhibit this new system alongside its existing product portfolio during SEMICON Europa in April 2001.

March 7, 2001–Chandler, Arizona–Amkor Technology, Inc., announced that as a result of prolonged weakness in first-quarter business conditions, the company presently expects first quarter 2001 revenues to be below the guidance level given on January 31, 2001.

Amkor now expects first quarter assembly and test revenues to be approximately 15% to 17% below the fourth quarter of 2000, compared with earlier guidance of a 10% sequential decline. Wafer fab revenue is now expected to be approximately $45 million in the first quarter, compared with prior guidance of $55 million. Amkor reports that its customers’ business activity has continued to be impacted by the combined effect of a high degree of excess inventory within the electronics industry and a corresponding, broad-based economic slowdown.

Due to the high degree of operating leverage inherent in Amkor’s business, the lower revenue should reduce first quarter gross margin to approximately 17%. Amkor presently anticipates a first quarter profit from operations in the range of $20 to $25 million, excluding $31 million in goodwill and the amortization of $8 million in deferred debt issuance costs, before $39 million in interest expense, and before accounting for Amkor’s 42% share in the loss of Anam Semiconductor, Inc. (ASI). Amkor’s share of ASI’s first quarter loss is presently estimated to be approximately $25 million.

“This is a challenging period for the entire microelectronics industry, and is exacerbated by the lack of visibility throughout the supply chain,” says John Boruch, Amkor’s president. “While we will take advantage of opportunities to adjust our cost structure for the short-term, we are also acutely focused on improving our competitive advantages for the long-term. We intend to balance prudent operational management with our committed strategy of strengthening customer relationships, expanding our geographical presence, and extending our technology leadership.”

March 7, 2001–Albuquerque, New Mexico–Braving almost certain stomach upset, Jason Brown, a student intern at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) and three other chemical engineering students from the University of New Mexico (UNM) are preparing to ride NASA’s wild-bronc-bucking KC-135A airplane–familiarly known as the “Vomit Comet”–on March 29 and 30. The objective is to learn whether, in the zero gravity achieved intermittently during the ride, a viscous coating can be deposited on a spinning silicon wafer more smoothly than possible on Earth.

To find out, the students must ride a gutted, former stratospheric-tanker refueling plane as it climbs so sharply over the Gulf of Mexico that, photographed just above the clouds, it resembles a passenger plane lunging for the freedom of outer space. After accelerating upward at 2 G’s, the plane goes weightless near the pinnacle of its parabolic arc for about 30 seconds, when experiments must take place, and then accelerates downward at 2 G’s before rising again. In 2 hours, the four college students, riding in pairs, will experience 30 passes of weightlessness on each flight, along with one arc approximating the gravity of the Moon and another of Mars, on their two-G’s up, two-G’s down rides.

Brown and coinvestigating UNM student Kelly Kuhn readily agree that “Being All You Can Be” is not usually part of the reason people study chemical engineering. But they say their class is dedicated to changing the image of chemical engineers from “little guys with calculators and pocket protectors.”

What will happen to the coating at zero gravity is unknown and of scientific interest, agree Brown’s mentor Steve Thornberg and spin-coating guru Tony Farino, both SNL employees. Thornberg provides technical guidance and helped obtain corporate support for the proposal that NASA accepted; Tony provided the students the necessary test equipment. The students–who also include Doug Peters and Bill Jackson, with Tom Gamble as backup–will vary the wafer’s spin speed, coating thickness, and rate of deposition. The results will be compared with identical tests run earlier in Earth’s gravity. The researchers may find that gravity makes no difference to the evenness of deposit. Or they may find that the absence of gravity means the coating won’t adhere at all but instead just floats off. Or they may help define parameters from which a better quality coating can be made.

There are other reasons for going. The UNM-based, Sandia-backed group won one of NASA’s 16 slots for student experiments–heavily competed for among hundreds of college student teams–partly because they intend to build on their already-demonstrated activism. “We plan to take videos and pictures of us floating, and after we come down, visit grade schools to show kids that science can be exciting,” says Jason.

The primary goal, however, is to form better coatings on their spinning silicon wafers. To achieve this, the self-named Spin Doctors have “ruggedized” their equipment by installing a metal frame around their plastic work bench. They secured the analytic equipment to the bench, installed bolt brackets to attach the table to the floor of the plane, completely covered the top of the spin-coater’s hood to prevent unwanted expulsions of material during weightlessness, and are considering changing plastic hood hinges to metal.

They will have eight days of training in Houston,TX, before going up with their project, and will bring their prized data–which in size, shape, and luster resemble CDs of the musical variety–back to SNL for analysis.

Thornberg, who will be at NASA’s Ellington Field during the flight, hopes he doesn’t hear any radio message announcing, “Houston, we have a problem.” He says that the science of the trip is right in line with SNL’s basic mission in semiconductors and the Laboratories’ long-standing support and encouragement of students, which is why SNL corporately sponsored the UNM proposal to NASA.

The title of the student experiment is “Study of Polymer Spin Coating for Photolithographic Semiconductor Development in Space.”