07/12/2002  WOODBURY, NY, and HILLSBORO, OR, - Veeco Instruments Inc. and FEI Co. have penned a definitive merger agreement to combine the companies into one provider of 3-D metrology and process equipment.

07/12/2002 

07/11/2002  July 11, 2002 - Milpitas, CA - Nanometrics Inc., a supplier of integrated and standalone metrology equipment, has introduced its next-generation stage technology platform.

06/25/2002  Hillsboro, OR - FEI Co. has joined equipment suppliers Novellus Systems, Lam Research Corp., and SpeedFam-IPEC in the Damascus Alliance industry consortium, founded in 1998 to tackle the technology transition to copper dual damascene manufacturing.

06/24/2002  Asia's big chipmakers have been embracing metrology systems as technology changes come on stream, devices grow in complexity, and time-to-market pressures escalate.

06/21/2002  The National Institute of Standards and Technology, the federal agency dedicated to the science of measurement, made it clear during an open house Thursday that it’s serious about measuring material on the nanoscale.

06/13/2002  June 13, 2002 - Menlo Park, CA - Boxer Cross Inc. has filed a counter-suit for patent infringement, trade secret misappropriation, and unfair competition against Therma-Wave Inc.

06/03/2002  Perhaps under emphasized relative to the red brick wall associated with scaling CMOS, as early as 2004 "manufacturable solutions are not known" looms for many 2001 ITRS facets of factory ramps, equipment lead time, factory cycle time, throughput, maintenance, material handling, and the intertwining importance of factory information and control hardware and software.

04/30/2002  April 30, 2002 - Phoenix, AZ - The SEZ Group is opening its first 300mm applications lab in the US. Located in Phoenix, AZ, the 3,000 square foot lab will be a resource for SEZ and its customers and partners worldwide to test 300mm wafer cleaning processes.

04/01/2002  Optical collimation improves capabilities for Au/Pd/Ni films

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.

03/21/2002  Nanometrics, a company with a long history in film metrology, has introduced an optical CD metrology tool for the sub-130nm market that has made libraries of templates superfluous.

03/19/2002  For the most part, 4Q was a painful quarter to cap off what's largely been a painful year. Several companies, however, stood out for one simple fact: Their revenue actually increased from 4Q00 to 4Q01. FEI Co., PDF Solutions Inc., and Numerical Technologies Inc. all saw increases in revenue. Brewer Science doesn't release statements, but the firm said numbers released for the last quarter show overall sales revenue increased by 38% in 2001.

03/07/2002  March 7, 2002 - Woodbury, NY - Veeco Instruments Inc. has entered a distribution agreement with Epion Corp., a JDS Uniphase company, to distribute Epion's gas cluster ion beam (GCIB) product to the data storage, MRAM, MEMs, photomask, and wireless telecommunications markets.

01/17/2002  Jan. 17, 2002 - Fremont, CA - Therma-Wave Inc., a worldwide developer and manufacturer of process control metrology systems, has completed its acquisition of Sensys Instruments Corp.

12/19/2001  Dec. 19, 2001 - Fremont, CA - Therma-Wave Inc. has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Sensys Instruments Corp.

12/14/2001  Dec. 14, 2001 - Chelmsford, MA - Brooks Automation Inc., a supplier of tool and factory hardware and software automation solutions, has completed the purchase of the automation systems group of Zygo Corp.

12/10/2001  December 10, 2001 -- PALM-BACH, Germany -- NanoAutomation/MicroPositioning company PI (Physik Instrumente), Germany has built a new 140,000 square foot factory to meet an increased demand for its ultra-precision products in industries such as bio-technology, fiber optics, semiconductors, data storage and aerospace engineering.

12/01/2001  No one ever thought writing a set of global standards for cleanrooms or controlled environments would be easy or fast. In fact, as we stand on the brink of 2002, it has been more than eight years since contamination-control professionals from varied industries and from around the world first convened to draw up ISO standards 14644 and 14698. And it could still be another six months or more until the last of the 10 separate standards are released.

12/01/2001  Before entering into the critical minienvironement integration strategies, let's first take a look at the basics.