USA

08/01/1998

USA

Intel Corp. has completed its $625 million buy of Digital Equipment Corp.`s semiconductor manufacturing operations. Intel will provide foundry manufacturing for multiple generations of Digital`s Alpha 64-bit microprocessor, with Digital retaining its Alpha-related technology and design teams. Intel has not yet decided what tooling or processes it will bring to the Hudson, MA, logic fab.

In addition, Intel has delayed equipping its 300-mm pilot line fab near Hillsboro, OR. The facility is expected to be completed in the next year or so, but the planned installation of a 300-mm tool set has been postponed indefinitely due to semiconductor market conditions and the maturity of 300-mm tools. Intel has also postponed construction of its Fort Worth, TX, Fab 16 facility.

Texas Instruments (TI) will sell its DRAM operations to Micron Technology in an $800 million stock and debt assumption deal. TI will restructure operations, close fabs in Lubbock and Richardson, TX, and become Micron`s largest shareholder. TI will sell its chipmaking campus in Avezzano, Italy; the former TI-Hitachi TwinStar fab in Richardson; and an assembly/test facility in Singapore. Micron will take TI`s 25% stake in the TECH Semiconductor Singapore joint venture, and the KTI Semiconductor fab in Japan, jointly owned by Kobe Steel. Micron also expects to invest significant amounts to upgrade some former TI facilities.

KLA-Tencor has acquired VARS, a privately-held provider of image archiving and retrieval systems based in San Jose, CA. VARS` image management technology stores and retrieves images generated from a broad variety of on-line and off-line equipment, including defect review stations, SEMs, metrology equipment, and FIB systems. As part of the deal, VARS will become a division of KLA-Tencor, but will retain operations at its existing location.

Veeco Instruments, Plainview, NY, has completed its merger with scanning probe/atomic force microscopy provider Digital Instruments. Under the merger, first announced earlier this year, DI shareholders received 5.6 million Veeco shares; the deal is valued at $156.8 million at recent share prices.

Ultratech Stepper`s planned acquisition of Integrated Solutions Inc. (ISI) will be followed by a selloff of ISI`s wafer track and prober units, and a rapid integration of the Massachusetts-based ISI operations into Ultratech`s corporate structure. Ultratech chairman Art Zafiropoulo expects that ISI`s reduction wafer steppers will be sold primarily into the disk drive lithography market, under the Ultratech name.

In a deal worth approximately $55 million at recent share prices, power delivery systems maker Advanced Energy Industries, Fort Collins, CO, is planning to acquire Voorhees, NJ-based RF Power Products. Under the proposed deal, RF Power Products shareholders will receive about 3.5-4 million shares of AEI`s common stock. Definitive agreements have been signed by boards from both companies. The transaction is expected to close by late August or early September. Once the deal is completed, RF will become a wholly owned subsidiary of AEI, retaining its base in Voorhees. No personnel cuts are planned.

Millipore Corp., Bedford, MA, has sold the gas panel business it acquired in the January 1997 buy of Tylan General to Wolfe Engineering, Campbell, CA. Millipore said the gas panel unit did not fit into its long range strategic plans for its microelectronics gas business. The remaining Tylan product lines have been integrated into Millipore; manufacturing and other activities are being consolidated into new microelectronics gas headquarters in Allen, TX. The plant will be operational by late 1998.

Manugistics Group Inc., Washington, DC, a supply chain management firm, has entered into a definitive merger agreement to acquire TYECIN Systems Inc., Los Altos, CA, a supplier of scheduling applications for the semiconductor industry. The merger will create a comprehensive solution for semiconductor manufacturers from global planning to the factory floor. Manugistics will issue about 333,000 shares of its common stock in exchange for all the outstanding stock of TYECIN. The transaction is valued at about $9.5 million.

Osmonics Inc., Minnetonka, MN, has completed its acquisition of Membrex Inc., Fairfield, NJ, a maker of membrane products and fluid treatment systems. Prior to the acquisition, Osmonics collaborated with Membrex to develop the WasteWizard, which incorporates a hydrophilic ultrafiltration membrane.

Having already cut some 800 positions in its quarter ended in April, Applied Materials will now offer voluntary separation packages to a selected group of employees with an eye toward cutting its worldwide workforce to about 14,000 from about 15,000. Applied said the action, along with other cost-cutting measures implemented this year, is made necessary by continued cutbacks in capital equipment investment by semiconductor manufacturers. Meanwhile, Applied has partnered with SEMATECH to characterize CMP processes for copper metalized wafers using the company`s Mirra CMP system.

Motorola`s Semiconductor Products Sector (SPS) will not be spared from the chipmaker`s recently announced cost cutting program, which will see 15,000 jobs eliminated - 10% of the entire work force - over the next year and result in a $1.95 billion pre-tax charge in 2Q. The cost cutting plan, which is expected to result in annualized savings of $750 million, will include a consolidation of manufacturing operations, particularly in the SPS and messaging, information, and media segments, and the exiting of nonstrategic, poorly performing businesses. To date, no changes have been made to the MOS 19 fab plan, which is expected to open as Motorola`s first 300-mm facility around 2000.

After integrating the recently acquired Advantek handler division into its North St. Paul, MN, location, Aetrium Inc., has cut about two dozen employees from its operation there. The position cuts were taken across most areas of operation, said VP Lee Schafer. The North St. Paul operation now employs just under 200 persons, when headquarters staff are included. Current plans call for the company to hire at other locations in California, Texas, and Massachusetts.

Varian Associates` Ion Implant Systems division, Gloucester, MA, has reached an agreement for joint product and process offerings with German equipment developer STEAG AST. The deal will allow Varian to sell an integrated combination of its implant tools and AST thermal processing equipment, and compete with implant rivals Eaton and Applied Materials, both of which have in-house thermal processing lines and integrated process marketing strategies.

With a new executive team in place and a substantial portion of its $29 million outstanding debt being restructured, Microelectronic Packaging Inc. (MPI), San Diego, CA, is eyeing a speedy fiscal recovery with plans for multichip ball grid array and flip chip packaging offerings. MPI is seeking approximately

$10 million in funding to meet agreements made under its debt restructuring plan. If the funding plan is successful, proceeds will also help support a

$3 million to $4 million capital spending plan that will bring advanced packaging technologies and automation equipment to MPI`s lines.

Lam Research Corp., Fremont, CA, has donated a high-density TCP 9100 plasma etch system to support oxide etch research at the University of New Mexico. Research will be conducted to understand the complex wafer surface chemistries during oxide etch to help establish reproducible processes for

100-nm and beyond feature sizes. In addition, Lam intends to restructure the company, including a reduction in its global work force of about 20-25%. Further weakening in the order outlook for semiconductor capital equipment is cited as the reason for the restructuring.

Polymer Flip Chip Corp. (PFC), Billerica, MA, is a new chip packaging firm offering a solder-free flip chip process and is ramping two manufacturing lines capable of producing 12-13 million units/

year. Initially, the firm is eyeing the "low-temperature" end of the packaging market, where a high temperature solder process is less suitable for certain applications, such as smart cards. The key to PFC`s technology is the use of an isotropic, silver-filled conductive polymer.

Using ?BGA technology licensed from Tessera, Integrated Packaging Assembly Corp. (IPAC), San Jose, CA, plans to begin offering face-up chip scale packaging next year. The firm recently signed a license for Tessera`s ?BGA packaging technology, which gives IPAC the right to assemble chips using both die-side-down and die-side-up formats from Tessera.

After seeing sales in the chip equipment market account for 81% of revenues last year, up from 40% of revenues in 1991, back-end handling equipment maker Cohu Inc., San Diego, CA, has formed a new semiconductor equipment group. The company`s Daymarc and Delta Design subsidiaries, along with Asian operations, will be integrated into the new group. Employee levels and product mixes will remain unchanged.

GaSonics International has established a dedicated lab for 300-mm applications development and demonstration at its San Jose headquarters. The company has already installed a Millennia 300-mm tool for photoresist removal, clean and isotropic etch applications, as well as a Rudolph thickness measurement system. The lab features 1500 ft2 of Class 10 cleanroom space.

Gallium arsenide wafer supplier American Xtal Technology, Fremont, CA, is hoping to expand its substrate offerings with new materials, and plans to more than double manufacturing operations. The 11-year old firm, which completed a $23.2 million initial public offering, is rooted in its proprietary vertical gradient freeze crystal growing technique used to produce high-performance substrates.

Olin Microelectronic Materials and Matheson Semi-Gas plan to offer joint chemical and gas management services to fabs. The program will target customers in the North American market, but may expand to fabs worldwide. The joint offering was developed after customers expressed interest in such a tie-up. Under the deal, Olin and Matheson will collaborate on managing gas and chemical inventory; providing analytical monitoring and sampling, and just-in-time delivery; ensuring the purity of gases and chemicals to the point of use; and collecting and preparing for chemical waste disposal.

Transition Technology International (TTI), Sunnyvale, CA, has opened a new wafer reclaim and manufacturing services division, known as Silicon 2000, in Vancouver, WA. At full production, the division will have the capacity to produce about 100,000, 200-mm wafers/month. The 20,000 ft2 facility will provide in-house manufacturing capability and add a silicon wafer reclaim operation to supplement the company`s wafer distribution business.

Etec Systems Inc., Hayward, CA, has received an order valued at $25 million from Align-Rite International Inc. for two ALTA 3500 advanced laser pattern generation systems and several MEBES system product upgrades. The ALTA systems are scheduled for delivery to facilities in the UK and US in summer 1998 and early 1999, respectively.

Ibis Technology Corp., Danvers, MA, a maker of oxygen implanters, has sold two Ibis 1000 implanters to IBM Corp. in a transaction valued at about $8 million. The sale includes an equipment licensing and development agreement that gives IBM the right to a royalty-bearing, nonexclusive license to supplement Ibis` equipment manufacturing capacity.

PDF Solutions Inc., San Jose, CA, has received an order from Toshiba Corp. for pdEx yield enhancement software that will identify sources of yield loss and protect yield under different processing conditions across multiple fabs and semiconductor product lines. Toshiba is using the pdFab software to model yield loss due to manufacturing process variations and to optimize transistor characteristics for high yield and performance.

Eaton Thermal Processing Systems, Peabody, MA, has received the first orders for its Summit rapid thermal processing system, designed to process wafers up to 300 mm. Process capabilities include implant anneal, silicidation, oxide growth, BPSG reflow, and other thermal processes. The units will be delivered in 3Q and 4Q98.

Mattson Technology Inc., Fremont, CA, has sold a single-chamber, dual wafer Aspen III inductively coupled plasma strip system to the Siemens and Motorola joint venture facility Semiconductor300 in Dresden, Germany. The system is able to process up to 150 wafers/hour using standard strip methods.

Plasma-Therm Inc., St. Petersburg, FL, has sold a Versalock plasma processing system to Motorola Inc. The system incorporates Plasma-Therm`s ICP technology and will be used for high volume production processes for advanced high-speed device products.

DuPont, Anaheim, CA, and Cambridge Display Technology (CDT), Cambridge, England, have entered into a two-year joint development agreement to bring light-emitting polymer (LEP) technology invented by CDT into commercial use in flexible displays. The companies expect to supply plastic substrates coated with LEP material to electronics manufacturers in large volume within three years.

Parker Hannifin Instrumentation Group, Belleville, NJ, has established a division dedicated to servicing the semiconductor, specialty gas, and other high-purity conscious industries. The new UHP Products Division unites EWAL, SPCC, and the UHP business units of Parker`s Instrumentation Connectors and Instrumentation Valve Divisions. The UHP Division also operates facilities in Huntsville, AL, and San Luis Obispo, CA, utilizing over 250,000 ft2 of state-of-the-art manufacturing and cleanroom capabilities.