Japan

07/01/1998

Japan

Japan tool orders down. February orders at Japanese toolmakers are 67.5 billion yen ($514 million), 35% below year-ago levels, and 23% below the 87.7 billion yen level of January, according to the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan. This is the third straight month of year-over-year declines. Chipmakers in Japan ordered 30.25 billion yen ($230 million) worth of tools, both Japanese and imports. This is down 45% from a year earlier.

Japan`s Ulvac Technologies is evaluating a US introduction of its ion implant equipment line. In addition to its existing PVD, metal CVD, and asher product lines, Ulvac may roll out its implant family in the US and Europe. Ulvac currently offers medium-current, high-current, and high-energy implanters in Japan, and is starting to build 300-mm tools. A single-wafer 300-mm medium-current machine, which scans the wafer and beam in perpendicular directions, may be the first to be rolled out in the Western market.

Sony Corp. will develop system LSIs using microcomputer designs licensed from Hitachi, which has also licensed its SH microcomputer manufacturing technology to Seiko Epson, Suwa, VLSI Technology, and SGS-Thomson Microelectronics.

Cabot Corp.`s Microelectronics Materials Division, Geino, Japan, has acquired 25,000 m2 of land in Geino, Mie Prefecture, to build a manufacturing facility that will supply Cabot`s line of high-purity wafer polishing compounds. The new plant will provide capacity to serve the Asia-Pacific region.

Nikon Corp. Tokyo, Japan, a maker of wafer steppers, and Cognex Corp., Natick, MA, a supplier of machine vision systems, have entered into a multimillion dollar OEM agreement under which Cognex will supply more than $5 million of machine vision systems over the next two years for integration into Nikon`s newest generation of wafer steppers.