USA

11/01/1998

USA

Motorola`s Semiconductor Products Sector has decided to indefinitely postpone work at its Richmond, VA, fab, less than a year after rebooting the $3 billion project there. A spokesman said construction is being put on hold because of the poor state of the chip market, and will begin again when the market "returns to much better than it is." The company is also planning other capital spending cuts in the group.

With order rates softening and no immediate upturn on the horizon, Applied Materials said it is beginning a restructuring effort and laying off about 2000 workers, or about 15% of its workforce of 14,000. Sources indicated that an early casualty of the restructuring may be the company`s 300-mm wafer track program, which reportedly has been shelved. About 750 positions will be eliminated at Applied`s operations in Santa Clara, CA, and 600 cuts at the Austin, TX, manufacturing facility.

Mattson Technology, Fremont, CA, and Sandia National Laboratories have agreed to license advanced technology developed for Mattson`s RTP system. The agreement is the result of a year-long preliminary joint development project and a concurrent global joint development program between Mattson and Sandia.

Texas Instruments (TI) has begun applying wafer level packaging with its storage product ICs, including wafers from Silicon Systems and Intersect Technologies. TI is using Flip Chip Technologies` (FCT) proprietary solder wafer bumping technology and service. FCT is already bumping wafers containing TI Storage Products` preamplifier devices for hard disk drives.

Brooks Automation, Chelmsford, MA, has signed a letter of intent to acquire MES and cell control software developer FASTech Integration Inc., Lincoln, MA. The FASTech buy will extend the Brooks product line beyond its core in cluster tool robotics into fab-wide management of materials and information.

NanoTechnology Development Corp. (NTDC), Houston, TX, a newly formed group dedicated to molecular manufacturing development, is seeking funding through a $1 million direct public offering on the Internet to residents of New York. NTDC hopes to fund researchers and companies developing nanometer-scale manufacturing technologies, aswell as manufacturing technologies that can be scaled down to the nano- meter level.

Intel is continuing construction on its 300-mm development fab in Oregon, but is holding back acquisition of tooling, pending availability and market conditions. A spokesman said the facility will be completed, with construction described as "pretty active," but said no new guidance had been given on a time frame for equipping the fab.

Advanced Energy Industries (AEI), Fort Collins, CO, has acquired rf measurement instrumentation supplier Fourth State Technology, an Austin, TX, spin-off of SEMATECH. As a result of the deal, AEI will form a new instrumentation business unit in Austin comprising the Fourth State Technology business. Fourth State offers RF power monitoring and data collection systems specifically for process control of etch and PECVD plasma tools.

SanDisk Corp., Sunnyvale, CA, a supplier of flash data storage products, has made an additional $11 million investment in its United Silicon Inc. (USIC) joint venture semiconductor manufacturing facility, a UMC Group foundry company in Taiwan. SanDisk maintains its 10% equity stake, while enabling USIC to complete the development and commence production of its 0.18-?m process and copper interconnect technology. SanDisk has also signed a distribution agreement with Ingram Micro Latin America, which will distribute SanDisk`s removable flash memory cards in South America under the SanDisk brand name.

Metron Technology, Burlingame, CA, has completed its stock-for-stock merger with T.A. Kyser Co., which became a wholly owned Metron subsidiary. Kyser`s common stock converted into Metron capital stock. The merger is expected to combine Kyser`s US distribution strengths with Metron`s international semiconductor equipment and materials business.

The US Display Consortium, San Jose, CA, has awarded a contract to flat panel display equipment supplier Intevac, Santa Clara, CA, to develop process technology and equipment subsystems for insulator deposition and for rapid thermal annealing of phosphors in the fabrication of thin film electroluminescent devices. USDC and Intevac will each contribute $1.1 million to the project. The new equipment is scheduled to be installed at a beta site in 1999.

Watkins-Johnson (W-J) will discontinue efforts in its HDP-CVD program, and hopes to sell the intellectual property related to the plasma development work. W-J plans to cut about 20% of its worldwide workforce; about 175-200 of those positions will come from the semiconductor equipment group.

RF Micro Devices Inc. (RFMD), Greensboro, NC, has expanded its multiyear master purchase agreement with IBM, which provides silicon technology for RFMD advanced wireless products.

Lam Research has selected Aera`s digital mass flow control (MFC) technology. Lam chose the Aera FC-D980 digital MFC as a standard option for its 200- and 300-mm etch systems. The transition from analog to digital MFCs in the semiconductor industry is gaining significant momentum, noted Aera VP George Chizinsky.

BOC Edwards will supply Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. with turn-key chemical management systems for the Fab 6, 200-mm fab designed with sub-0.25-?m capability. BOC will include an advanced integrated central monitoring system for chemical dispense units and waste transfer and collection systems.

TMT Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has delivered its ASL1000 test systems to STMicroelectronics, Grenoble, France, which will use the next generation testers for standard linear devices. ST is using the systems for both wafer and final test at its engineering and manufacturing sites in Grenoble; Casablanca, Morocco; and Shenzhen, China.