Particles
03/01/2004
Compiled by Mark DeSorbo
Aramark augments
BURBANK, Calif.—Aramark has expanded its cleanroom services operations in Canada by acquiring Toronto-based Cleanroom Garments.
Cleanroom Garments provides cleanroom processing of apparel and accessories for pharmaceutical, aerospace, automotive, and other critical manufacturers in Canada. The company has been in operation since 1991.
Before the acquisition, Cleanroom Garments was a division of Exfoliation Systems Ltd. In May 2003, Aramark purchased the licensing rights for the patented d/Kote automotive paint spray technology from Exfoliation Systems.
Asian DRAM deal
BOISE, Idaho—SCP Global Technologies, a semiconductor cleanroom equipment supplier, has entered into a joint development agreement with an Asian DRAM manufacturer.
SCP said it could not reveal the name of the manufacturer because the firm would not give permission to release it. The objective of the agreement, however, is to develop applications that overcome watermarks and other critical cleaning obstacles in wafer processing. As part of the agreement, SCP has provided a prototype emersion single-wafer tool that has been installed in the customer's facility in Korea. "Numerous tests using customer wafers show that SCP emersion technology is capable of high cleaning efficiency without megasonics damage, and that it effectively dries sub-90-nm philic/phobic high-aspect-ratio structures without watermarks or bridging," says Eric Hansen, SCP vice president and chief technical officer.
FOSB, not FOUP
CHASKA, Minn.—Entegris, Inc., a materials integrity management company, has announced the opening of its newly remodeled manufacturing facility in Japan to produce the company's full pitch FOSB (front-opening shipping box).
Patrick McKinney, president of Entegris' semiconductor market segment, says opening a FOSB facility in this region improves and expands resources to serve 300-mm raw wafer customers with products and services to protect and transport critical materials. The approximately 6,500-square-foot manufacturing facility in Yonezawa, Yamagata includes a newly assembled injection molding room, an ISO Class 6 cleanroom where full and reduced-pitch FOSB products will be assembled, and a raw materials and finished goods warehouse for staging. Entegris announced the initial availability of its full pitch FOSB last July. It is the company's latest addition to a comprehensive line of 300-mm wafer-handling products. Its primary function is to protect the integrity of 300-mm wafers from particles, molecular contamination, and shock and vibration, which can occur during the wafer shipping process
SOI step-up
TOKYO—Sony Corp. and Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. say they will invest about $1.1 billion in its own fab, a joint operation with Toshiba Corp., and a line at IBM Corp.'s East Fishkill, N.Y., fab.
The announcement covers the second part of a semiconductor initiative announced by Sony last April. The company is aiming to establish mass production of chips using 65-nm manufacturing process technology on 300-mm diameter wafers by collaborating with Toshiba for embedded DRAM technology and with IBM for silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology. Sony claims to be using a 90-nm manufacturing process for its PlayStation X processor. Doubt was cast when Canadian analysts alleged the process is a 130-nm process, but Sony has denied the claim.