Europe

01/01/1998

Europe

Air Liquide, Paris, France, is building an 8000-m3/hour plant at its Rousset facility. The company will supply high-purity nitrogen to SGS-THOMSON Microelectronics and Atmel`s plants in Rousset. The plant will include a 25-m high distillation column, two compressors, and storage tanks to supply a 3-km underground pipeline system. The installation, which represents a 50 million FRF investment for Air Liquide, will begin production in spring 1998. In addition, Air Liquide has purchased a majority stake in Alpes Systeme Automation SA, Grenoble, France, a maker of automatic control equipment and software for the semiconductor industry.

SEZ`s Spin Etcher Wet Master series has completed demonstration testing at the International 300mm Initiative, Austin, TX. The Villach, Austria, firm delivered the 300-mm tool to I300I in April, and finished a "complete demonstration of the tool`s capability, including the marathon test" this month. The spin etcher is capable of handling both back- and front-side applications and can be equipped with standard interface options.

Jenoptik Infab, Jena, Germany, will provide all fab automation for Fujitsu Ltd.`s new 200-mm wafer facility in Mie, Japan. The facility is Japan`s first full production facility to incorporate minienvironments for factory-wide wafer handling. In addition, Jenoptik Group, a supplier of fab automation systems, has established a new business structure. The group will now be composed of the CleanSystems Technology, Telecommunications Technology, Photonics Technology, and New Technologies divisions under holding company Jenoptik AG. Facility management subsidiary Meissner + Wurst is the leading company for the CleanSystems division. Meissner + Wurst intends to merge with Zander Klimatechnik AG, Nuremberg, a maker of high-tech ventilation and technical facility systems.