04/12/2005 

04/04/2005  April 4, 2005 - Nikon Instruments Inc. has announced the integration of two high precision industrial metrology business units, Semiconductor Inspection, and Nexiv Vision Measuring Systems, under the SITECH Division located in Tempe, AZ. Two new departments have been established within the division: Vision Systems and Semiconductor Inspection.

04/01/2005  When measuring semiconductor features, recent industry developments illustrate that the linkage between metrology and contamination control is getting tighter as features shrink.

03/23/2005 

03/18/2005  Veeco Instruments Inc. announced that it received an order for its Dimension X3D automated atomic force microscope from a leading global hard disk drive manufacturer.

03/17/2005  March 17, 2005 - Therma-Wave Inc. has announced that a leading Taiwanese DRAM semiconductor manufacturer has selected multiple Therma-Wave metrology solutions for use in its 300mm factory. The multimillion dollar order includes multiple Opti-Probe 7341 thin film metrology tools with real-time, critical-dimension capability for use in 90nm technology node production, extendible to 65nm development work. The order also includes a Therma-Probe 630XP tool for ion implant metrology.

03/01/2005  Engineers, lab planners and scientists developed unique lab layouts with groundbreaking temperature and vibration controls

02/21/2005 

02/07/2005 

02/02/2005  February 2, 2005 - Recent equipment orders include:
-- Axcelis Technologies Inc. has announced that a leading European chipmaker has selected its new 300mm single-wafer ion implantation platform.
-- Mattson Technology Inc. has announced that Samsung has placed orders for Mattson's rapid RTP and CVD systems.
-- Philips Advanced Metrology Systems Inc. has received a multi-unit order for its series 3300 copper metrology tool from AMD Saxony LLC & Co. KG, Dresden, Germany.

01/24/2005  January 24, 2005 - Nanometrics Inc. and August Technology Corp. have entered into a merger agreement to create a combined company providing inspection, measurement and analysis systems. The combined company will be named August Nanometrics Inc., and the companies said they expect to close the transaction during the 2Q05.

01/21/2005 

10/18/2004  October 18, 2004 - Materials metrology supplier Semilab R.T., Budapest, Hungary, has completed its acquisition of SemiTest Inc., Billerica, MA, the companies said Friday.

10/07/2004  October 7, 2004 - KLA-Tencor Corp., San Jose, CA, and Belgium-based research center IMEC have begun a joint development project to accelerate adoption of optical critical-dimension (CD) metrology technology for sub-65nm semiconductor applications.

10/06/2004  October 6, 2004 - The Semiconductor Company of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. has joined the International SEMATECH Manufacturing Initiative (ISMI) effective Oct. 1, becoming the newest member of a global alliance of semiconductor companies focused exclusively on manufacturing effectiveness, officials of SEMATECH announced today.

10/04/2004  October 4, 2004 - KLA-Tencor Corp. announced today that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Candela Instruments, Fremont, CA, a supplier of laser-based surface inspection systems optimized for the data storage industry.

10/01/2004  October 1, 2004 - Veeco Instruments Inc. and The Dow Chemical Co. have received $6.6 million in funding from the US Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology Advanced Technology Program for a three-year project to develop a quantitative nano-mechanical measurement instrument.

06/16/2004  June 16, 2004 - Sopra, a French supplier of metrology tools for thin films, has licensed ellipsometric porosimetry (EP) patents from European research center IMEC for a metrology tool it's unveiling later this year.

05/01/2004  Digital image correlation metrology technology

03/30/2004  Put yourself in Polychromix’s shoes. You endured the telecom shakeout. You raised some venture money. You recently rolled out a product and have some orders. It would appear to be time to set up offshore manufacturing. Instead, the 25-person optical equipment startup is expected to unveil a new manufacturing facility in Wilmington, Mass., today.