USA

01/01/1999

USA

In its third layoff this year, Lam Re-search, Fremont, CA, has cut about 500 positions, leaving its workforce at roughly 2800, down about 42% from the 4800 people it employed in September 1997.

CMP firm SpeedFam International Inc. has agreed to acquire Integrated Process Equipment Corp. (IPEC) in a stock-swap merger worth about $196 million at recent share prices. The combined operations, to be known as SpeedFam-IPEC, will likely be the largest CMP toolmaker. Under terms of the deal, SpeedFam shareholders will retain their shares, while IPEC holders will get 0.71 share of SpeedFam stock for each IPEC share.

DuPont Photomasks said it will pay approximately $39 million to acquire Hewlett-Packard Co.`s photomask manufacturing equipment and inventory, after recently completing discussions with H-P over the operation. DuPont will also act as H-P`s strategic photomask supplier under a long-term agreement between the two firms.

GaSonics International, San Jose, CA, and Taiwan`s United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC) will jointly develop resist and residue removal processes for use with copper and low-k dielectrics processes. The agreement also includes joint work on post-etch clean processes.

SubMicron Systems, Allentown, PA, has completed the divestiture of its Primaxx dry wafer cleaning division for about $2.6 million. SubMicron sold the assets of the Primaxx operation to Primaxx Acquisition Corp., owned by a California venture capital firm and a former SubMicron employee.

AlliedSignal Electronic Materials (ASEM), Sunnyvale, CA, has acquired privately held Clean Link Inc., San Jose, CA, a three-year old mini-environment designer, manufacturer, and supplier. Clean Link will be a standalone operation under ASEM`s wafer fabrication group, joining the company`s existing microelectronic materials and electron vision businesses.

Keithley Instruments, Cleveland, OH, has sold its Quantox oxide monitoring product line to KLA-Tencor, citing an inability to penetrate front-end fab operations. Keithley said it will now focus on growing its core test instrument business.

Beam metrology supplier FEI Corp. has reorganized to accommodate the former Philips e-beam optics unit, and is preparing a next-generation multipurpose machine platform for release next year.

IBM and Mentor Graphics Corp. have entered a licensing relationship under which Mentor will offer IBM PowerPC 401 and 405 embedded processor cores as part of its library of commercial cores. Design teams will incorporate IBM

PowerPC architecture into system-on-a-chip for next-generation products.

Cabot Corp.`s Microelectronic Materials Division is building a 65,000-ft2 facility that will serve as headquarters, as well as expand R&D and manufacturing capabilities. The facility is due to open in August 1999. The firm also expects to add 150 positions in the next three years.

Kobe Precision Inc., Hayward, CA, has expanded its wafer reclaim capacity to 90,000 wafers/month, based on 200-mm wafer equivalents. Kobe invested more than $35 million to increase capacity at the Hayward site, where Kobe can process 150-, 200-, and 300-mm wafers.

Asyst Technologies, Fremont, CA, has formed a new group to produce front-end automation solutions for fab tools. Asyst is seeking to leverage its recent acquisition of robotics developer Hine Design, and to establish a new line of OEM business.

Credence Systems Corp., Fremont, CA, a maker of automatic test equipment (ATE), and LogicVision Inc., a supplier of embedded ATE technology, will jointly develop and market products that will combine the two companies` ATE systems. Credence is also entering a partnership with BridgePoint Technical Manufacturing, Austin, TX, a provider of outsourced semiconductor testing.

SELA, Santa Clara, CA, a maker of SEM and TEM systems, has installed its second microcleaving system at France Telecom`s R&D unit, Centre National d`Etude des Telecommunications (CNET). The SELA MC200 produces cross-sections for applications in process monitoring and analysis optimization.

Cree Research Inc., Durham, NC, has received orders worth $17.1 million from Asian customers for various LED products. Most of the products will be shipped in fiscal year 1999.

Electro Scientific Industries Inc. (ESI), Portland, OR, has received an order worth $3.7 million from Hua Hong NEC Electronics Co. Ltd., Shanghai, China, for ESI`s model 9275 memory yield improvement systems. The systems, which will be shipped over the next 12 months, will be used to produce 64-Mbit DRAM products.

Olin Corp., Norwalk, CT, has sold its Olin Interconnect Technologies (OIT) business to Hana Technologies Ltd., Hong Kong. OIT manufactures MQUAD metal packages for chips and the DISSIPATOR heat spreader for plastic packages.

Chip Express Corp. has licensed MicroUnity Systems Engineering Inc.`s MaskTools optical proximity correction software to improve yields in production of its quick-turn ASIC laser programmable gate array. MicroUnity has also entered a deal with Best Technology under which Best will distribute MicroUnity`s MaskTools OPC software in Japan.

Schlumberger Advanced Business Engineering Resources (SABER) has formed two new business groups: SABER Interface Solutions, which will provide custom interface solutions for semiconductor analysis and test; and SABER Diagnostic Services, which will provide silicon debug and analysis.

Ion Systems, Berkeley, CA, has donated its 5000 series ionization equipment to SEMATECH for use in maintaining ultraclean environments at the consortium`s DUV photolithography operations in Austin, TX. Ion Systems and SEMATECH will work together to monitor process results.

Vitesse Semiconductor Corp. has opened a 150-mm GaAs fab in Colorado Springs, CO. Tripling the firm`s manufacturing capabilities, the new fab supports both current generations of Vitesse`s H-GaAs technology, and will be the platform for future technology development.