01/06/2004  psiloQuest Inc., an Orlando, Fla., manufacturer of specialty polishing pads for use in semiconductor manufacturing processes, closed on a $7 million Series B round of financing.

01/05/2004  January 5, 2004 - South Korea's imports of semiconductor products in 2003 grew 22.1% to $20.77 billion, outpacing a 16.7% increase in exports to $18.82 billion.

01/01/2004  Gaining SEMI F57 compliance can help reduce commissioning time of fluid-handling systems, improve wafer yields, increase semiconductor equipment life and round off your contamination-control program

12/30/2003  Hitachi's Advanced Research Laboratory is getting ready to commercialize a low-cost "nanostamp" technology for medical applications. The company's process creates "nanopillars" with extremely high aspect ratios (narrow relative to height), a feature that the company believes will prove useful for biochips.

12/29/2003  December 23, 2003 - For its new 32-bit processor which will replace its Xeon processor trend, Intel Corp.'s development center in Bangalore is doing end-to-end development, not just design -- a trend that's gaining momentum in India.

12/26/2003  December 26, 2003 - Renesas, the JV of Hitachi and Mitsubishi Electric, plans to invest another 33 billion yen ($307.7 million) to help boost monthly production capacity of AG-AND flash memory.

12/22/2003  (December 22, 2003) Norwalk, Conn.— A soon-to-be-released report from Business Communications Company Inc., entitled "RGB-283 Tools and Instrumentation for Nanotechnology," reports that the worldwide market for nanotechnology instruments and tools is estimated at $199.2 million in 2003. Expected to grow at an average annual growth rate (AAGR) of 28.6 percent, this market is expected to cross $700 million by 2008.

12/22/2003  DEC. 22--TAIWAN--Color filter maker Allied Material Technology Corporation (AMTC) has signed a polarizer technology transfer agreement with South Korea-based LG Chemical, according to company chairman Charles Yu.

12/19/2003  December 19, 2003 - Intel Corp., Santa Clara, CA, has named 14 new vice-presidents.

12/19/2003  December 19, 2003 - STMicroelectronics has acquired Synad Technologies Ltd., a UK startup developing wireless LAN technologies.

12/17/2003  December 17, 2003 - ASML MaskTools, Santa Clara, CA, a subsidiary of Netherlands-based ASML, and Photronics Inc., Brookfield, CT, have agreed to co-develop a maskmaking infrastructure for ASML MaskTools' CPL technology, a technique that enables low-k lithography.

12/17/2003  December 17, 2003 - KLA-Tencor, San Jose, CA, has added inline process monitoring capabilities to its Surfscan family of wafer inspection products.

12/16/2003  December 16, 2003 - Dutch firm PANalytical, a supplier of analytical devices for x-ray diffraction and x-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometry, says it has developed a method that doubles the detection capability of XRF wafer analysis of boron concentrations for thin-film semiconductor wafers.

12/16/2003  December 16, 2003 - SOI implantation equipment provider Ibis Technology Corp., Danvers, MA, lowered its 4Q03 sales estimates, due to customer's fiscal adjustments and delayed orders.

12/15/2003  December 15, 2003 - Cree Inc., Durham, NC, says it has developed new gallium nitride power transistors with much higher power densities than previously achieved.

12/15/2003  December 15, 2003 - Inotera Memories Inc., a JV between Taiwan's Nanya Technology Corp. and Germany's Infineon Technologies AG, plans to invest $2.2 billion over the next three years to build up its 300mm wafer plant, used primarily for DRAM chips.

12/12/2003  December 12, 2003 - JMAR Technologies, San Diego, CA, says its has achieved sub-100nm imaging using its collimated plasma lithography has x-ray source and wafer exposure system.

12/12/2003  December 12, 2003 - Isonics Corp., Golden, CO, has been awarded a US patent for its method of lowering the temperature of semiconductor devices built onto the wafer surface.

12/11/2003  December 11, 2003 - Sigma-C GmbH, Munich, Germany, has developed new software to help determine the printability of defects on EUV masks.

12/11/2003  December 11, 2003 - GSI Lumonics, Billerica, MA has completed its acquisition of Westwind Air Bearings Ltd., Poole, UK, in an all-cash deal worth about $37 million.