Asia/pacific

03/01/1997

Asia/Pacific

Pacific display cooperative. Planar Systems president and CEO Jim Hurd is proposing the establishment of a Pacific Rim Display Cooperative, dedicated to promoting the growth of a successful display industry in the region. Education would be stressed to provide the display industry with better access to well-prepared employees; as well as international communication and information exchange in pre-competitive and noncompetitive areas. For more information, contact US activities director Neil Berglund at P.O. Box 91000, Portland, OR; ph 503/690-1591, fax 503/690-1406, e-mail [email protected].

New fabs planned for China. SEMI has reported that nine new fab investment projects are planned for completion in China by the end of 1998, and that the semiconductor equipment market on the mainland will reach $700 million by the end of 1997. When completed, the new fab projects will give the country a combined monthly output of 85,000 wafers/month.

Shanghai Praxair Yidian Inc. has been selected by Shanghai Hua Hong Microelectronics Co. Ltd. to supply ultrahigh purity gases to its new semiconductor manufacturing facility to be built in Shanghai later this year. Shanghai Praxair Yidian is a 50/50 joint venture company between Praxair Inc., Danbury, CT, and Shanghai Maike Electronics. Praxair will supply ultrahigh purity gases - nitrogen, oxygen, helium, hydrogen, and argon - to the Hua Hong facility, which will produce 200-mm wafers with advanced 0.5- and 0.35-micron technologies new to China.