USA

04/01/1997

USA

Intel leads funding of EUV lithography project. Intel has led the formation of a private corporation, called EUV Limited Liability Corp., to oversee and fund cooperative development of extreme UV (EUV) lithography for the 0.13-?m generation of ICs. EUV LLC hopes to have an alpha-level machine built within 36 months; process development could then begin in about five years. In addition, Intel Corp. is investing in Samsung Electronics Co.`s $1.3 billion memory fab now under construction in Austin, TX. The deal will give Intel a 20% interest in the new fab. The factory is scheduled to be online late this year, producing 25,000, 200-mm wafers/month when it reaches full production. Intel says the move will ensure that it has a healthy supply of 64- and 256-Mbit DRAMs.

The US Naval Air Systems Command has awarded a $10.5 million Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) contract to Lockheed Martin Co.`s Sanders unit, Nashua, NH, for the development of an X-ray stepper integrated with a dense plasma focus source and beamline interface. Some $5.3 million of the contract will be used by Suss Advanced Lithography, Waterbury Center, VT, to develop equipment and technology. The Science Research Laboratory Inc. and the University of Wisconsin`s Center for X-Ray Lithography will also aid the project.

Anam Industrial Co. Ltd., Seoul, South Korea, has placed multimillion dollar orders for equipment for its 25,000 wafer starts/month ASIC facility in Buchon, Korea. Applied Materials Inc., Santa Clara, CA, received an order from Anam for semiconductor production systems worth about $105 million. The systems will be delivered this month and in November. Watkins-Johnson Co., Scotts Valley, CA, received an order valued at more than $18 million for multiple WJ-1000 CVD systems, which will be installed during the first half of this year.

Kulicke & Soffa Industries Inc., Willow Grove, PA, and Tokyo Seimitsu Co. Ltd. have signed a broad technology-sharing agreement to develop the next generation of automatic saws for dicing 300-mm silicon wafers. The companies will share their design and development resources, with engineering teams from both working on the 300-mm wafer automatic saw.

Lam Research Corp., Fremont, CA, has received an order from Motorola and other companies for its Continuum flat panel display etch system totaling about $10 million. Shipments began in February and will continue through December. The Continuum, based on Lam`s Transformer Coupled Plasma technology, was designed under a $13.6 million joint contract with the United States Display Consortium. The system was also recently named by Industry Week magazine as one of "25 Technologies of the Year."

MEGA Systems & Chemicals Inc., Chandler, AZ, has sold multiple units for full fab chemical dispense systems to Motorola`s flat panel display division with delivery scheduled for 1Q97. The units will include the MEGApure 500 SF line and the MEGAview supervisory systems. The project is valued in excess of $100 million.

SubMicron Systems Corp., Allentown, PA, has shipped its next-generation automated wet wafer cleaning system to the International 300mm Initiative (I300I). The system, known as the 300-mm GAMA-3, incorporates advanced wafer handling systems and tool-to-tool transport interfaces. In addition to performing etching, cleaning and stripping steps, SubMicron`s system includes a mini-stocker for the automatic loading and unloading of wafers and a front-end handler capable of managing incoming wafers, whether in pods or open cassettes.

GaSonics International, San Jose, CA, has received orders totaling more than $10 million from multiple global semiconductor manufacturers. The orders include GaSonics` performance enhancement platform (PEP) 3510A cluster system with dual photoresist removal modules and PEP 3510C system, which will be used to manufacture DRAMs with 0.25-micron design rules, and a VHP high-pressure thermal processing system, which will be used to extend LOCOS isolation technology for 64-Mbit DRAMs.

Millipore Corp., Bedford, MA, a purification technology company, has acquired Tylan General, San Diego, CA, a maker of precision mass flow controllers, for $16/share in cash, or approximately $133 million, plus the assumption of Tylan`s outstanding debt.

Tegal Corp., Petaluma, CA, will begin shipping its dual chamber etch systems to South Korean semiconductor manufacturer Hyundai Electronic Industries Co. Ltd. in the next few months. Tegal recently received orders for a 6510i HRe for shallow trench isolation and polysilicon/silicide applications and a 6540 HRe for emerging film technologies. The systems are being used in the development and production of ferroelectric memories and high-density DRAMs. Hyundai`s Memory R&D Division in Ichon, South Korea, will use the 6500 HRe systems initially for 256-Mbit DRAM product development.

National Semiconductor Corp., Santa Clara, CA, is selling Fairchild Semiconductor, its $600 million producer of logic, discrete power and signal, and nonvolatile memory chips. Fairchild will be sold to Sterling LLC, a Citicorp Venture Capital investment portfolio company, and Fairchild`s management team for $550 million. National will retain a 16% equity interest in the company. With reported revenues of $2.0 billion, National now plans on focusing the bulk of its approximately $550 million capital spending plan on a new 200-mm wafer fab already under construction in Portland, ME.

PRI Automation Inc., Billerica, MA, and Kulicke and Soffa Industries Inc. (K&S), Willow Grove, PA, have signed a memorandum of understanding to offer a factorywide back-end automated material handling system. PRI will modify its existing front-end automation solutions for use in assembly and packaging. K&S, a supplier of assembly equipment, will market those solutions to semiconductor manufacturers worldwide.

Ultratech Stepper Inc., San Jose, CA, has acquired the assets of Lepton Inc., a developer of high performance electron beam lithography systems. The new wholly owned subsidiary, UltraBeam Lithography Inc., will focus on the newly acquired technology. Lepton has been designing products to meet existing and future mask and reticle manufacturing requirements. Lepton`s electron beam lithography systems target advanced maskmaking, which complements Ultratech`s thin-film head and semiconductor stepper business.

Advanced Technology Materials Inc. (ATMI), Danbury, CT, has concluded a four-year effort to develop a barium strontium titanate (BST) capacitor for use in DRAMs. ATMI was the prime contractor under a DARPA consortium, which found that the properties of the BST capacitor offer the potential to reduce the complexity of the capacitor cell in 1-Gbit DRAMs, and that several barriers to integrating ferroelectric materials into mainstream semiconductor manufacturing have been overcome.

AVISA Robotics Corp., Vacaville, CA, has received an order from Microchip Technology for an AV-280 pick and place device handler for testing QFP devices. Microchip manufactures field-programmable 8-bit PIC16/17 microcontrollers and high-endurance Serial EEPROMs.

Aera, Beverly Farms, MA, has signed a contract with Applied Materials Inc. to provide a large quantity of mass flow controllers (MFCs) to Applied for the next year. Aera`s MFCs are an option for various Applied Materials etch, CVD, and PVD systems.

Veeco Instruments Inc., Santa Barbara, CA, has received more than $4.5 million worth of orders for its Dektak SXM critical dimension atomic force microscopes from semiconductor manufacturers National Semiconductor, ETEC, Hyundai, Chartered Semiconductor, and Macronix for use in facilities in the US, Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan. In addition, Veeco has received initial orders for its recently introduced Dektak TMS-2000, a noncontact measurement system for data storage applications, from Seagate Technology Inc.

Chipmaker SGS-Thomson (ST) has signed a three-phase agreement with Ramtron International Corp., Colorado Springs, CO, for licensing of Ramtron`s ferroelectric RAM technology. In phase one, Ramtron will process base CMOS wafers made by ST, using proprietary ferroelectric manufacturing steps to make 64-Kbit nonvolatile memories. The second phase will add manufacturing and licensing initiatives, while the third phase will expand the licensing relationship.