03/22/2005 March 22, 2005 - Photronics Inc. has announced plans to expand its flat panel display (FPD) mask capacity through the construction of a state-of-the-art FPD mask fabrication facility in Taichung, Taiwan. This new 10,100 sq. m. facility will support Taiwan's rapidly expanding FPD fabrication industry.
03/22/2005 March 22, 2005 - JDS Uniphase Corp. has announced a definitive agreement to acquire Lightwave Electronics Corp., a provider of solid-state lasers for commercial markets - including materials processing, semiconductor fabrication, and biotech - as part of its strategy to expand its product line of solid-state lasers and broaden its customer base in growing laser markets.
03/22/2005 NanoOpto Corp. announced closing its Series C funding this morning, the latest funding announcement in a string of closings since January that will conspire to make 2005's first quarter a very healthy one for nanotechnology funding.
The Somerset, N.J., developer of design methods and nano-fabrication technology to make optical components, raised $12 million. New investor First Analysis, a private equity group based in Chicago, led the round.
03/22/2005 NanoOpto Corp. is the latest nanotech startup to show that just because you've got the prefix "nano" in your name, it doesn't mean you can't roll out real product. The Somerset, N.J.-based maker of nano-optimized optical components recently announced a pair of new optical devices.
03/21/2005 (March 21, 2005) San Jose, Calif. — North American-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $1.03 billion in orders in February(three-month average basis), and a book-to-bill ratio of 0.78, according to the February 2005 Book-to-Bill Report, published by SEMI. A book-to-bill of 0.78 means that $78 worth of orders were received for every $100 of product billed for the month.
03/18/2005 (March 18, 2005) San Jose, Calif. — The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) announces their choice of four industry leaders who have made significant contributions to the U.S. semiconductor industry. They are: the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), Congressman Lamar Smith of Texas, professor Robert Dutton of Stanford University, and professor Mark Lundstrom of Purdue University.
03/18/2005 March 18, 2005 - North American-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $1.03 billion in orders in February (three-month average basis) and a book-to-bill ratio of 0.78, according to the February 2005 Book-to-Bill Report published today by SEMI.
03/18/2005 March 18, 2005 - SES Co., a manufacturer of semiconductor cleaning equipment, will consign the manufacturing of lower-priced models, designed to clean 200mm wafers, to a South Korean company, in a bid to cut production costs by 20%, company sources said, according to Nihon Keizai Shimbun.
03/18/2005 Move over, George Lucas. You and your Star Wars crew are in for a galactic battle this year, although the smash-bash for animation supremacy won’t be in any old ho-hum theater. Instead, it will take place in planetariums whose ceilings surround an audience with sights and sounds from a projection system. And while Wookiees and Ewoks from the soon-to-be released “Episode III: Revenge of the Sith” are undoubtedly cool, they’re so Macro Age.
03/18/2005 Veeco Instruments Inc. announced that it received an order for its Dimension X3D automated atomic force microscope from a leading global hard disk drive manufacturer.
03/17/2005 March 17, 2005- Sumitomo Mitsubishi Silicon Corp. announced that it plans to hike its monthly production capacity of 300mm silicon wafers from 300,000 units to 600,000 by summer 2008, according to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun.
03/17/2005 (March 17, 2005) Chaska, Minn. — Entegris reports sales of $85.1 million for its second fiscal quarter, which ended February 26, down 6.1% sequentially but up 6.4% on-year. Net income was $4.5 million, or $0.06 per diluted share, beating guidance of $0.02 to $0.04 per share. Net income was $5.7 million in the prior quarter and $5.0 million in the year-ago quarter.
03/17/2005 March 17, 2005 - Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology Co. will begin mass-producing liquid crystal panels with touch panel capability next fall, according to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun. This new product, developed by the company last December, has sensors built inside a 3.5-inch liquid crystal panel that can detect the movement of fingers touching the screen.
03/17/2005 March 17, 2005 - Therma-Wave Inc. has announced that a leading Taiwanese DRAM semiconductor manufacturer has selected multiple Therma-Wave metrology solutions for use in its 300mm factory. The multimillion dollar order includes multiple Opti-Probe 7341 thin film metrology tools with real-time, critical-dimension capability for use in 90nm technology node production, extendible to 65nm development work. The order also includes a Therma-Probe 630XP tool for ion implant metrology.
03/17/2005 March 18, 2005 - Aviza Technology Inc., Scotts Valley, CA, and Trikon Technologies Inc., Newport, Wales, UK, have agreed to merge to form a $160 million company combining Trikon's plasma etch, physical-vapor deposition (PVD), and chemical-vapor deposition (CVD) systems, with Aviza's thermal processing and ALD tools.
