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US, EU, Asia officials squash MCP tariffs

11/03/2005  November 4, 2005 - Officials from the US, Europe, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan have agreed to eliminate duties on multichip packages (MCP) beginning in January 2006, praised by industry associations as a gesture of support for fast-growing technology areas.

Indium Appoints New Central American Reps

11/03/2005  Clinton, N.Y. — Blackberry & Cross has become Indium Corp.'s newest representative in Central America, and will be responsible for selling Indium's solder pastes; rework fluxes; wave solder fluxes; flip chip and liquid fluxes; underfills; conductive epoxies; solder spheres; and fabricated solder products.

Fuji Photo to mass-produce PDP films in early 2006

11/03/2005  November 3, 2005 - Fuji Photo Film Co. will start mass production of electromagnetic interference films for plasma display television sets in early 2006 with initial film production for 100,000 units of PDP TVs per month, senior official Masaaki Otani said in an interview with the Jiji Press.

Tower begins production of Biomorphic's cell phone chips

11/03/2005  November 3, 2005 - Wafer foundry Tower Semiconductor has begun manufacturing 2.0 and 1.3-megapixel CMOS system on a chip (SoC) image sensors for Biomorphic Microsystems Corp., reported the Israel Business Arena.

Rohm and Haas Electronic Materials Names CMP Plant Manager

11/02/2005  Phoenix, Ariz. — Rohm and Haas Electronic Materials, CMP Technologies, named Cliff Chen as plant manager at its Asia Pacific Manufacturing and Technical Center in the Hsinchu Science Park, Chunan satellite in Taiwan. Chen will oversee the construction and execution of the pad manufacturing operations at the facility.

Intel reopens converted Arizona fab

11/02/2005  November 2, 2005 - Intel has reopened a facility in Chandler, AZ, converting it to a 65nm-process, 300mm wafer manufacturing facility called Fab 12. It is the company's second volume-production fab using 65nm technology on 300mm wafers.

TSMC exec promotes 'gigafabs' and 2x tool productivity

11/02/2005  November 2, 2005 - At International SEMATECH Manufacturing Initiative's (ISMI) 2nd Symposium on Manufacturing Effectiveness, Austin, TX, TSMC's VP of operations Mark Liu told participants he believes that the consumer electronics era may drive IC manufacturers to build more flexible "gigafabs" and persuade equipment makers to double tool productivity.

COMET Names New Sales and Marketing Manager for FEINFOCUS

11/01/2005  Garbsen, Germany — COMET, who supplies FEINFOCUS X-ray inspection systems, has appointed Axel Bermeitinger as sales and marketing manager for the FEINFOCUS Business Unit. Bermeitinger has an extensive sales and marketing background in such industries as materials, electronics, and medical devices. Previously, he held management positions at a specialty laser application machines supplier and a Swiss Holderbank AG subsidiary.

Nano wind blows into Chicago

11/01/2005  The NanoCommerce trade show and SEMI NanoForum begin today in Chicago. The events, which run through Thursday, are designed to cover both business and technology issues.

Crawford steps down at FDA, Hussain reportedly moving on

11/01/2005  After only a two-month stint as commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (www.fda.gov), Lester M. Crawford submitted his resignation on Sept. 23, reportedly via an internal e-mail to FDA staff.

Pharming the field: PMPs raising interest, controversy

11/01/2005  A growing interest in plant-made pharmaceuticals (PMPs), where crop plants become “factories” that manufacture therapeutic proteins extracted and used as the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) in many medicines, is generating a new round of enthusiasm-and controversy.

New transistor technology could rearrange semiconductor cleanrooms

11/01/2005  A recent announcement from SEMATECH (www.sematech.org) about what are known as mid-bandgap transistors may mean looming contamination-control challenges for semiconductor cleanrooms.

Cleanroom research focuses on next-gen wafer lithography

11/01/2005  A 2,600-square-foot cleanroom, previously occupied by Infineon, is the new site of research and development of emerging wafer-lithography technologies being conducted by Fraunhofer Center for Nanoelectronic Technologies.

Wyeth opens mega biotech facility

11/01/2005  Wyeth’s (www.wyeth.com) new 1.2-million-square-foot campus in Dublin, Ireland, believed to be one of the world’s largest biotechnology production facilities, is poised to produce advanced pharmaceutical technologies ranging from arthritis treatments to an antibiotic to fight serious skin and intra-abdominal hospital-acquired infections.

FDA issues rules on purity of therapeutics, food supply

11/01/2005  The Food and Drug Administration (www.fda.gov) has proposed a rule for cGMPs of radioactive drug treatments, and has issued a final rule on safeguarding food packaging as a deterrent to bioterrorism.

New bio/pharmaceutical cleanroom designs require new door solutions

11/01/2005  From the time of Swiss watchmakers, who used bell jars to prevent dust from falling on their timepieces, to the development of high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters for atomic energy production, manufacturers have worked to limit airborne contamination in their production environments.

Cleanroom furniture

11/01/2005  Comfort is important to contamination-control professionals confined to the cleanroom for extended periods. Equally important, however, is ensuring that cleanroom furniture conform to cleanliness requirements, so as not to jeopardize the integrity of the critical environment. Here is a selection of cleanroom furniture that does just that.

Preparations underway for Boston conference

11/01/2005  The CleanRooms Contamination Control Technology (CCT) Conference and Exhibition 2006 will take place March 15-16 in Boston.