USA

04/01/1998

USA

Veeco Instruments has agreed in principle to acquire Digital Instruments Inc., a Santa Barbara, CA, producer of scanning probe microscopes and atomic force microscopes. The deal is for 5.5 million shares of Veeco common stock, worth about $162 million. Digital`s existing management and technical staff will remain in place, with Veeco Process Metrology Group head Dave Perloff having oversight of the 120-employee wholly owned subsidiary. Digital Instruments had been under agreement to be acquired by Zygo Corp. last year, but the $220 million stock swap deal was called off in October.

Applied Materials has installed a 300-mm RTP system at Japan`s Selete research consortium in Kanagawa. The tool is based on Applied`s 200-mm RTP XE Centura. Yoichi Akasaka, president of Applied Materials Japan, said Selete represents most of the firm`s Japanese customers, and the work is expected to help them guide their technology and purchasing decisions for 300-mm equipment.

Texas Instruments will buy out Hitachi`s share in the Dallas, TX, TwinStar DRAM joint venture. The dissolving of the venture and subsequent paying off of debt and bank shareholders is supposed to be concluded by the end of the 1Q98. The two companies said they would postpone the establishment of a 1-Gbit DRAM pilot line in Japan, which is part of a joint venture with Mitsubishi. Sources in Japan said Hitachi has lost as much as 350 billion yen ($2.8 billion) on the TwinStar venture to date.

The Extreme Ultraviolet Limited Liability Co. (EUV LLC) has awarded a contract to Silicon Valley Group, San Jose, CA, to investigate the feasibility of EUV lithography as a contender in the post-optical lithography era. The LLC is assembling its development team and signing up equipment companies for work on the advanced lithography technology. Contracts for materials development, including resists and masks, are also being discussed, and the LLC is moving to secure patent rights to the EUV technology.

New company OPC Technology Inc., San Jose, CA, has unveiled software tools for applying optical proximity correction techniques to deep submicron photomasks. Founded in 1996, OPC Technology is privately funded by investment from Alpine Technology Ventures. OPC will market to semiconductor companies, fabless companies, chip and system designers, and photomask companies.

Newcomer Aplex Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, is gearing up to take its vertical linear polishing technology to the market, with plans to ship beta versions of its tool beginning in 2Q98, and make a full introduction in time for SEMICON West. The technology, known as AVera, is based on equal vertical velocity (EV2), which utilizes a vertical belt orientation; the technology allows for polishing on both sides of the belt.

Metrology tool supplier Nanometrics, Sunnyvale, CA, is planning to produce a new metrology tool using key overlay registration technology licensed recently from Optical Specialties Inc. (OSI), Fremont, CA. The two firms are also negotiating a deal that would allow Nanometrics to acquire certain assets of OSI`s metrology business. OSI has licensed its Metra Series metrology product line to Nanometrics, which in turn will use the license to design, manufacture and market an advanced critical dimension measurement and overlay registration tool.

Planar Advance Inc., Beaverton, OR, and dpiX, a Xerox New Enterprise company, have jointly been awarded a $1.35 million contract by Kaiser Electronics, San Jose, CA, to develop an alternate source for the active-matrix liquid crystal display subassembly used in the US Navy`s F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet attack fighter program.

Karl Suss, Waterbury, VT, and Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector will jointly develop an advanced aligned bonding wafer process technology. Under the agreement Karl Suss will adapt its advanced processing equipment to handle Motorola wafers, which include microelectromechanical systems, such as accelerometers. The project is underway at Motorola`s Advanced Custom Technologies facility in Mesa, AZ.

Fairchild Semiconductor, Santa Clara, CA, a supplier of multimarket standard semiconductor products, and foundry Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing have entered an agreement under which Chartered will manufacture products based on Fairchild`s advanced EEPROM process. The EEPROM wafers will be produced by Chartered at its IC manufacturing campus in Singapore, and will augment existing production from Fairchild`s Salt Lake City, UT, fab.

Okamoto Corp.`s Semiconductor Equipment Division, Santa Clara, CA, has entered a distribution agreement with Furukawa Electric North America Inc., which covers the distribution of Furukawa`s semiconductor grade tapes used in wafer backgrinding and dicing processes in the US. Okamoto will provide turnkey service for customers.

Aetrium Inc., St. Paul, MN, plans to acquire the assets of the semiconductor equipment business of WEB Technology Inc., Dallas, TX. The assets are associated with WEB`s semiconductor and electronic component handling systems, its reliability test products, and a line of automated burn-in board loading systems. Under the agreement, which is expected to close in 2Q98, Aetrium will pay about $7.5 million in cash and issue 900,000 shares of common stock.

Semitronics, Freeport, NY, a maker of discrete semiconductor components, has expanded into solid state relays and optoelectronic devices by acquiring Com Tech, Plainview, NY. The acquisition includes thick- and thin-film hybrids, MOSFET drivers, isolated MOSFET drivers, MOSFET drivers with active discharge, and solid state relays. Semitronics will assume Com Tech`s entire product inventory, as well as its wafer chip handling equipment.

KLA-Tencor Corp., San Jose, CA, has received an order for its 8100 critical dimension scanning electron microscopy technology from Texas Instruments. The technology is used for process control applications in the development of 0.25-?m and smaller ICs. The order also includes a fully automated SEMSpec 2702 wafer inspection system.

Hewlett-Packard Co., Palo Alto, CA, has delivered a high-frequency contact assembly for testing dual in-line memory modules to Viking Components, a memory supplier and module manufacturer. The assembly transforms the HP 83000 digital test system into a fully automated production-test solution for 100-MHz SDRAM modules.

Therma-Wave Inc., Fremont, CA, has received an order from Samsung for multiple systems of film thickness measurement tools, including Opti-Probe 5240 and Opti-Probe 3260 DUV film measurement systems. The systems will be installed at Samsung`s fab in Kiheung, South Korea. ProMOS Technologies Inc., Hsinchu, Taiwan, has ordered multiple Opti-Probe thin-film measurement systems. Newport Wafer-Fab Ltd., Newport, Wales, has placed a multimillion dollar order for ion implant metrology systems and Opti-Probe film thickness measurement systems featuring UV measurement capability.

MEGA Systems & Chemicals Inc., Chandler, AZ, has shipped CMP systems to White Oak Semiconductor, Richmond, VA. The order includes bulk slurry distribution systems, a blending/dilution system, a chemical dispense system, a supervisory system, and MEGAlink VMBs and PLCs.

Fluoroware Inc., a supplier of materials management solutions, and partner Nippon Valqua Industries have purchased the interest in the Nippon Fluoroware joint manufacturing partnership that was previously held by Dainichi Shoji KK, Fluoroware`s former distributor. Fluoroware will own 84% of Nippon Fluoroware, with Valqua owning 16%.

Lam Research Corp., Fremont, CA, is restructuring the company, a process that includes a 14% reduction (700 employees) in global workforce. Reasons for the restructuring are lower prospects for orders and revenue, driven primarily by the Asian financial crisis. Lam will put more focus on its core etch and CMP product groups, and reduce its FPD and thermal CVD operations. Manufacturing operations will be downsized and consolidated.

Plasma-Therm Inc., St. Petersburg, FL, has sold a Shuttlelock 770 plasma processing system to Twente MicroProducts, the Netherlands, a producer of MEMS devices. The system incorporates Plasma-Therm`s inductively coupled plasma technology. The University of California at Los Angeles, a research center for the fabrication of MEMS, has also ordered a Shuttlelock 770 plasma system. In addition, Tel Aviv University in Israel purchased a Shuttlelock MEMS etcher.

Semiconductor Packaging Materials Co. Inc., which provides specialty materials and services to the microelectronic and semiconductor industries, has agreed to terminate a letter of intent for the acquisition of International Silicon Solutions Inc. (ISS), the wafer polishing company based in Dallas, TX. The two firms found that the acquisition was not feasible at present because the letter of intent had been predicated upon a development that did not come to fruition.

Tyecin Systems Inc., Los Altos, CA, a supplier of advanced planning and scheduling applications, and Promis Systems Corp., a supplier of manufacturing execution systems, will jointly market and sell integrated solutions for shop floor scheduling.

Motion systems supplier Anorad Corp., Hauppauge, NY, has formed a new unit, AnoTech Inc., to focus on supplying turnkey component placement equipment to the chip assembly and flat panel display sectors, and is specifically eyeing microBGA and flip-chip technologies to help drive the subsidiary`s growth.

Unit Instruments will close the Rio Rancho, NM, facility occupied by its Control Systems subsidiary, consolidating its functions into facilities in Chandler, AZ, and Yorba Linda, CA. Unit cites uncertainty in the marketplace for its mass flow controllers and other products for the closing. Some of the 12 employees at Rio Rancho will be offered other positions with Unit. The company says it also plans to make work force reductions and implement other cost-reduction measures.

Following an announcement by Mitsubishi Semiconductor America that it would close its Durham, NC, chip plant, DRAM testing service firm Reliability Inc. said it too will close its Durham plant, which employs 45. The company will take a $500,000 reserve in 1Q98 related to the closure and expects the move will have a negative impact on 1998 financial results, though the company still expects to report growth this year.

Air Products and Chemicals Inc., Lehigh Valley, PA, has completed a tungsten hexafluoride capacity expansion at its Hometown, PA, electronic specialty gas manufacturing facility. The expansion doubles production to about 140,000 pounds/year.

After securing a $100 million funding plan for the next three years with parent company Mitsubishi Materials, Cybeq Nano Technologies is gearing up to hit the CMP market full force. The unit has shipped its 300-mm CMP tool to Selete, and in the quarter ending December 31, shipped $8 million in tools.