European Update

02/01/1997

TI to build 300 mm fab in Italy

Texas Instruments (TI) has signed a four-year, $1.2 billion agreement with the Italian government to build a second wafer fab at Avezzano, where TI already has a DRAM facility. Under the agreement, TI will construct a manufacturing plant and develop capabilities for semiconductor production on 300-mm wafers, with geometries of 0.28 ?m and below. TI will expand its R&D facilities and will also increase its existing DRAM production capacity as market conditions require.

Reports indicate that TI will receive 540 billion lire ($350 million) in assistance from the Italian government; the plant is expected to come on-line in 1999, with 750 employees.

M+W to build Dresden fab for AMD

Meissner + Wurst GmbH & Co. (M+W), a subsidiary of Jenoptic AG, of Jena, Germany, will act as general contractor on a new microprocessor manufacturing facility - Fab 30 - to be built in Dresden by Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD), of Sunnyvale, CA. The order amounts to some DM450 million ($290 million), taking M+W`s order book over DM1 billion for the first time. The fab will represent an investment by AMD of approximately $1.9 billion when completed and fully equipped. M+W constructed AMD`s Fab 25 in Austin and is currently building a facility in Eugene, OR, for Hyundai.

ASML and IMEC to work on DUV lithography

ASM Lithography (ASML), the Netherlands-based supplier of photolithography equipment, and the Belgian R&D organization IMEC have launched a cooperative R&D program in 193-nm-wavelength deep UV lithography. The aim is to develop advanced optical processes capable of producing linewidths as small as 0.13 ?m, which will be needed for the next generation of high-density devices, including 4-Gbit DRAMs and several generations of microprocessors beyond 686.

Leading semiconductor manufacturers are invited to participate in the program, which is based at IMEC`s Class 1 cleanroom facility in Leuven, Belgium.

UGS orders cluster tool system from MVS

MVSystems, of Golden, CO, has received an order from Universitat Gesamthochschule Siegen (UGS) of Germany for a cluster tool system that consists of numerous PECVD and sputtering process chambers for processing thin-film, 3-color sensors on 6-in. crystalline silicon wafers. The cluster tool design allows for retrofits of as many as seven PECVD/sputtering/hot wire CVD process chambers stationed around a central circular evacuated isolation and transfer zone (ITZ). A robotic arm, situated within the ITZ, automatically injects and extracts the substrates from the process chambers. This configuration permits the deposition of multilayers in any sequence, for fabrication of advanced devices.

Ebetech installs FPD test system at Bosch

Ebetech Electron-Beam Technology GmbH has announced the installation and acceptance of its first test system for flat panel displays (FPDs) at Angewandte Display-Technologie GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bosch AG. The system is up and running at the company`s facility in Stuttgart and is currently being used for matrix characterization.

Electron-beam probing methods detect shorts, open circuits, and defective circuit elements in electronic microstructures, such as those in active matrix, field emission, and plasma displays, and in multichip modules. The noncontact nature of the testing makes electron-beam probing ideally suited to the task of testing and characterizing the large arrays of active elements in FPDs.

Ebetech was previously a unit of Integrated Circuit Testing GmbH and is now owned by VCB, a venture capital company of Siemens AG, MRS Technology, and a group of founding employees. -J.A.