08/20/2003 This month's appeals court decision scuttling a U.S. rule on tire monitors leaves sensor makers in an awkward position. They know they will be dealing with a regulated market, but they don't know what the rules will be.
Analysts say sensor and component suppliers are left wondering whether they'll soon face more demand, or a market similar to the one they had anticipated. So they must plan for the different scenarios.
08/20/2003 Aug. 20, 2003 – Last year was one of the toughest to date for the MEMS industry, with revenues inching up only slightly and many companies going out of business, according to a new report.
08/20/2003 Nanosys Inc., a Palo Alto, Calif., developer of nanotechnology-enabled systems, has signed a master marketing and business development agreement with Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) of San Diego, the company announced today.
08/19/2003 Phoseon Technology Inc. has launched an automated optical inspection system for advanced packaging applications in MEMS, according to a news release.
08/19/2003 Even as the energy industry struggles to understand why last week's blackout occurred, experts are examining ways in which small tech could help prevent it from happening again. And they're finding at least one new way to make the grid run more efficiently: microsensors. Not only more efficiently, but "smarter." The MEMS-based systems can do that by circulating up-to-date information about whatÂ’s going on within the power systems.
08/18/2003 August 18, 2003 - The National Association of Relay Manufacturers (NARM) has named former Tyco Electronics business director Jeffrey Boyce as its interim executive director, after the passing of longtime executive director Don Dangott. NARM, an affiliate of the Electronic Components, Assemblies & Materials Association (ECA), hosts the annual International Relay Conference.
08/18/2003 August 18, 2003 - FASL Japan Ltd., the Japanese arm of a joint venture between AMD and Fujitsu, and GE Global Electronic Solutions have completed a $100 million sale and leaseback of equipment, including machines for lithography, metrology, deposition and tech, and furnace equipment.
08/18/2003 August 18, 2003 - Semiconductor assembly and test services provider ASAT Holdings has officially opened a new 225,000-square-foot facility in Dongguan, China, 65 miles north of Hong Kong.
08/18/2003 August 14, 2003 - Oki Electric Industry Co. says it will report a $25 million charge related to damage caused by recent earthquakes in northern Japan. The quakes on July 26 forced the company to temporarily suspend operations at its Miyagi Oki 200mm fab.
08/18/2003 August 14, 2003 - Intel plans to invest approximately $80 million in a new R&D facility in Malaysia, adding to existing manufacturing facilities in Penang, according to a Reuters report.
08/18/2003 August 18, 2003 - Sematech directors have officially voted to keep the consortium's headquarters in Austin, TX. The vote to stay in the Lone Star Sate squashes speculation about a potential move to New York.
08/18/2003 August 14, 2003 - Chartered Semiconductor, Singapore, says in a new SEC filing that it is reevaluating market demand for 90nm chips, as it considers what to do with its Fab 7 facility scheduled to begin 300mm-wafer production late next year.
08/18/2003 August 14, 2003 - Allied Integrated Patterning Co. (AIPC) says it will complete equipment move-in and begin mass production of TFT-LCD photo masks by 2Q04. The affiliate of Allied Materials Technology Corp. (AMTC) hopes to generate sales of $130.8 million in sales by 2008, after an initial capital investment of $52.3 million.
08/18/2003 August 14, 2003 - Despite tariffs levied by the US and European Union, Hynix Semiconductor managed to gain on rivals in the DRAM market, according to a new Gartner Dataquest report. The next several quarters, however, will be more telling of the company's resiliency.
08/18/2003 August 15, 2003 - Isonics Corp., Golden, CO, a developer of isotopically-engineered semiconductor materials, says it has received a commitment for $8 million in equity financing from Quivira Venture Partners, led by a former Isonics director.
08/18/2003 AUG. 18--ESSEX JUNCTION, Vt. -- Five-hundred people were laid off at IBM Monday and another 3,000 will have to take a week off without pay next month from the state's largest private employer
08/18/2003 Sensant Corp. received a $500,000 federal grant to develop a new generation of MEMS sensors for medical imaging, according to a news release.
08/15/2003 August 14, 2003 - Industry bellwether Applied Materials, Santa Clara, CA, says it lost $36.8 million in 3Q03 on $1.09 billion in sales, compared with a $115.2 million profit on revenues of $1.5 billion in 3Q02. The loss was mainly due to a pre-tax realignment charge, without which Applied would have realized a $0.05/share profit during the quarter, beating analysts' estimates.
08/14/2003 August 14, 2003 - Researchers at Texas Instruments and the University of North Texas in Denton, TX, are working on techniques to enable the building of semiconductor chips half the size of current chips. A total of $2.2 million has been provided to the research team through a National Science Foundation grant and contributed services from TI and the university.
