06/11/2002 

06/10/2002  A recently announced collaboration between Applied Materials Inc., Santa Clara, CA, and Canon Inc., Tokyo, Japan, will possibly benefit the entire semiconductor industry by improving the time to market for devices, but the lithography firm hopes the agreement will specifically allow it to spot and address any tool issues that pop up - before the equipment is installed at a customer's site.

05/31/2002  In another step towards freeing chip architects from the tyranny of Manhattan geometries, The X Initiative and ASML have announced the first 0.25-micron diagonal features printed on wafers. An ASML PAS 5500/750 DUV step-and-scan tool equipped for annular illumination successfully patterned diagonally oriented interconnect structures characteristic of 0.18-micron node design rules.

05/28/2002  Tokyo, Japan, and Geneva, Switzerland - Dai Nippon Printing Co. Ltd. (DNP), a manufacturer of photomasks, and STMicroelectronics, a supplier of semiconductor devices, have formed a strategic alliance for the development and supply of leading edge and high-end photomasks.

05/22/2002  Tokyo, Japan - Major Japanese semiconductor makers and makers of related equipment will join together to develop EUV technology with the support of the government, industry sources said.

05/21/2002  DuPont Photomask doesn't want to be just a maskmaker any more. Instead CEO Peter Kirlin's broader vision is to become a "microimaging solutions supplier." And it looks like it has taken a big step in that direction with its recent acquisition of design automation supplier BindKey Technologies.

05/16/2002  Dresden, Germany -- Infineon Technologies AG, Advanced Micro Devices Inc., and DuPont Photomasks Inc. plan to establish and operate a new advanced photomask facility in Dresden, with investments of around EUR 360 million over the next five years.

05/16/2002  Despite the overall industry's worst year ever, sales remained relatively stable at a range of suppliers of enabling materials, as users kept buying photomasks, slurries, and compound semiconductor substrates even if they weren't equipping fabs. But the damage in the volume-dependent silicon wafer business was staggering.

05/10/2002  Dutch toolmaker ASML Holding NV expects to sell between 140 and 180 lithography systems in 2002, down from 197 systems last year, ASML spokesman Tom McGuire said Friday.

05/07/2002  Hsinchu, Taiwan - Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) said its planned manufacturing facilities in China will be aimed at the growing mainland market and not exports.

04/29/2002 

04/24/2002  What's the key to unlocking the door to the China market? In a word, guanxi - relationships - according to Photronics CEO Dan Del Rosario.

04/18/2002  April 18, 2002--Crawley, UK--Parts cleaning and component management services provider, BOC Edwards Kachina opened its first facility in Europe. BOC Edwards Kachina is a division of BOC Edwards.

04/16/2002  April 16, 2002 - San Jose, CA - Canon Inc. has signed an agreement with Applied Materials Inc. to collaborate in the development of semiconductor device patterning technology to support Applied Materials' process module strategy for 300mm wafer manufacturing.

04/12/2002  From air gaps, to ALD (atomic layer deposition) at room temperature, to CVD vs. SOD (spin-on dielectrics) and VICs (vertically integrated circuits) - the recent AVS Conference on Microelectronics and Interfaces was a voyage into the future.

04/10/2002  Veldhoven, Netherlands - ASML has entered the market for atomic layer deposition (ALD) technology through an exclusive technology licensing agreement with Integrated Process Systems (IPS).

04/09/2002  International SEMATECH, Austin, TX, has placed the first purchase order for an MS-13 EUV Microstepper, to be built by Exitech, Oxford, England, and installed in SEMATECH's Resist Test Center.

04/04/2002  April 4, 2002 - Jupiter, FL - Photronics Inc. has acquired an additional 859,730 shares, or 28% interest, in PKL Co. Ltd. in Korea.

04/01/2002  DuPont Photomasks Inc., Round Rock, TX, and Schott Lithotec AG, Jena, Germany, have announced that Schott Lithotec USA Corp., has acquired DuPont Photomasks' photoblank business unit in a deal worth up to $42 million.

03/25/2002  KLA-Tencor has unveiled a new set of automated tools for process window construction and analysis. The Process Window Monitor series automates the construction of process windows based on focus exposure matrices analyzed using KLA-Tencor CD or optical CD metrology tools.