01/01/2003 Continuing functional enhancement of portable consumer and computing products challenges electronics industry OEMs to provide these products in smaller and lighter form factors.
12/30/2002 Trikon Technologies Inc. has introduced a new DSi module for high rate, anisotropic, deep silicon etch processes for the fabrication of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS).
12/30/2002 The Segway Human Transporter, a self-balancing personal transportation vehicle, is among the best selling items on Amazon.com Inc.Â’s Web site, the Reuters news service reported.
12/27/2002 Only 15 percent of Europe's more than 100 optical components suppliers, many of which are small tech firms, will survive in the medium term, according to research from Yole Developpement. The Lyon, France-based research firm polled and profiled some 90 European optical components companies for its newest study. It concluded that the sector is facing rapid consolidation.
12/27/2002 Reactive NanoTechnologies Inc., a Baltimore-based developer of nanostructured foils for joining materials, extended its first round of venture funding with a $400,000 investment from Silicon Alley Seed Investors (SASI), according to a news release.
12/26/2002 Ask anyone at L’Oreal whether there is any small tech in their cosmetics and they will tell you it has been that way for years. In fact, L’Oreal is almost as well known for its research as for its signature, “Because I’m worth it.” The company devotes 3 percent of its annual sales to research. And of the nearly 500 patents filed in 2001, 10 percent concerned small tech.
12/26/2002 The U.S. Postal Service awarded Northrop Grumman Corp. a contract to expand testing its anthrax detection system in mail sorting facilities after the successful completion of pilot tests in late 2002. The award will allow partner company Cepheid Inc. to continue testing and validating its automated DNA-based techniques in 14 postal facilities.
12/23/2002 Dec. 23, 2002 - Golden, CO - CoorsTek Inc., a semiconductor equipment maker, would be acquired for more than $220 million by a private investment group led by top CoorsTek management and other members of the Coors brewing family.
12/23/2002 GE Global Research, the Niskayuna, N.Y., central research & development arm of General Electric Co., and Molecular Nanosystems, a Palo Alto, Calif., provider of carbon nanotubes, jointly won a National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Advanced Technology Program (ATP) award, according to a news release.
12/23/2002 With an experienced management team and a manufacturing deal in place, Microlab Inc. plans to go to market with its electromagnetic radio frequency (RF) MEMS switch early in 2003. Some challenges still remain, including a bid to close the company's last round of funding this year, but the firm believes that its core technology will be the funding clincher.
12/20/2002 DEC. 20--MINNETONKA, MN--G&K Services, Inc., a cleanroom garment rental service that also provides cleaning supplies, was ranked second in a list of top five All Star stocks in the business services sector by Zacks.com, an investment research firm owned by Zacks Investment Research Inc. (Chicago, Ill.)
12/20/2002 DEC. 19--NEW YORK -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is urging the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to shut down its Plum Island Animal Disease Laboratory after a power outage created a potential threat of contamination at the lab where scientists study contagious animal viruses such as foot-and-mouth disease.
12/20/2002 Dec. 20, 2002 - San Jose, CA - Silicon wafer demand will begin a major expansion between the second half of 2003 and 2004; the expansion will be driven by a combination of a recovery of device demand and the startup of 300mm fabs, according to Dataquest Inc., a unit of Gartner Inc.
12/20/2002 Dec. 20, 2002 - Sunnyvale, CA - Sandisk and Toshiba are planning a substantial increase in memory production at their Flashvision joint venture from 2003. They are also considering the construction of a new fabrication plant to handle an anticipated increase in demand in the second half of this decade, the companies have announced.
12/20/2002 Dozens of companies, federal laboratories and research institutions around the world are racing to develop accurate, always-on systems that can detect traces of anthrax, botulism, plague, smallpox and tularemia in packages, buildings and water supplies. At the heart of many of these systems are MEMS-based technologies designed to sniff out lethal bioagents.
12/19/2002 Dec. 19, 2002 - San Jose, CA - North American-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $779 million in orders in November 2002 (three-month average basis) and a book-to-bill ratio of 0.79, according to the November 2002 Express Report published by Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI).
12/19/2002 Belgium's IMEC microsystems center is trying to catch up with the entrepreneurial spirit in the U.S. One way of doing that is to commercialize novel technologies through spinoffs, so the research center has made a deal with the Belgian government to spin out at least one company a year. The latest is Vivactiss, which owns the patents to technology for high-throughput screening.
12/19/2002 Lightconnect Inc., a Newark, Calif.-based supplier of MEMS components and modules for optical networks, said it will supply a dynamic gain equalizer to China's largest listed telecommunications equipment maker.
