Europe

11/01/1997

Europe

Soitec SA, a French producer of silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers, hopes that the arrival of 300-mm manufacturing will let it leverage its proprietary production technique and partnership with silicon giant Shin-Etsu Handotai (SEH). Soitec`s partnering deal with SEH will provide support in terms of equipment development and wafers for extending the Smart Cut production technique to 300-mm. Smart Cut is an alternative to the SIMOX oxygen implantation process that is said by Soitec to produce wafers with less damage from implants and thermal processing. By the end of 1998, Soitec plans to have three Smart Cut lines operating, including one in Japan that will be operated by SEH, which holds a minority equity stake in Soitec.

Malvern Instruments, Northampton, England, and The Fairey Group will combine their particle counting businesses into a single organization that will focus on sales and service of contamination control instrumentation. The instruments and facility monitoring systems will bear the PMS (particle measuring systems) brand name, while Malvern will focus on particle size analysis and characterization.

Karl Suss Dresden GmbH, Sacka, Germany, has moved into a new company building a few kilometers outside Dresden, Germany, for the manufacture of equipment for microelectronics and microsystems technology. The new building is equipped with a Class 100,000 cleanroom and will employ 85 people. The facility will manufacture equipment for chip testing and production, such as probe systems, PCB printers, and substrate bonders for anodic, silicon-to-silicon or adhesive bonding. The company has two facilities in Germany, and officials are hoping the firm will play a key role in the "reawakening" of Eastern Germany as a technology center.n