10/21/2002  With no need to rely on federal grants or contracts, and already making money off sample sales of its light beam management subcomponents, NanoOpto Corp. is pressing ahead with new offerings – integrated layers of two or more of its present products, plus new phase management devices. Staying on track is big news in today's economic climate.

10/17/2002  BEI Technologies Inc. said it has shipped its 5 millionth GyroChip automotive sensor.

10/15/2002  New Disco Laser Dicer Processes 300 mm, Low-k Wafers TOKYO Disco Corp. developed a new automatic laser dicer that can process wafers up to 300 mm in diameter, and the tool can singulate advanced technology chips with low dielectric constant (k) layers. (October 15)

10/09/2002  Oct. 9, 2002 - Freiberg, Germany - Starting in August 2004, Wacker Siltronic AG will produce the new generation of 300mm wafers at its Freiberg plant in the German state of Saxony. Freiberg's initial capacity will be 60,000 wafers per month. This could ultimately increase to 150,000 per month. WACKER's investment, totaling EUR 430 million, will create more than 600 new jobs.

10/09/2002  Oct. 9, 2002 - Westwood, MA - ADE Corp., a supplier of wafer measurement and inspection systems for the silicon wafer and magnetics storage industries, will lay off about 9% of its workforce - roughly 40 employees.

10/08/2002  OCT. 8--SHANGHAI, China--AMD today announced it has signed a research and development joint venture agreement with China Basic Education Software Company, Ltd. (CBE), forming the new entity, Beijing CBE-AMD Information Technology Company, Ltd.

10/08/2002  Oct. 8, 2002 - Corning, NY - Corning Inc. has received a US patent for a calcium fluoride (CaF2) lens blank that supports the advancement of CaF2 materials for the 193nm and 157nm microlithography systems.

10/08/2002  When Veeco was founded in 1945, the name was an acronym for Vacuum Electronic Equipment Company. Today, it might stand for Very Enormous Electronics Company. Recently, its acquisitions have revealed a move toward nanotechnology and MEMS. Most notable are Veeco’s purchases of three companies that manufacture atomic force microscopes.

10/04/2002  Oct. 4, 2002 - Santa Clara, CA - Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) honored eight technologists for their significant contributions to the advancement of semiconductor manufacturing technology.

10/03/2002  Oct. 3, 2002 - Tokyo, Japan - Hitachi, Ltd. and Mitsubishi Electric Corp. have reached a basic agreement to establish a new semiconductor company, Renesas Technology Corp., that will focus on system LSI operations.

10/03/2002  Oct. 3, 2002 - Migdal Haemek, Israel - Tower Semiconductor has received $44.7 million of the aggregate $305 million investment committed to the Fab 2 project by Tower's partners.

10/01/2002  SINGAPORE — Advanpack Solutions PTE Ltd. (APS), a packaging developer and contract wafer bumper, announced a new capability to meet the legislative restrictions imposed by the European Commission that require lead-free electronics packaging by January 1, 2006.

10/01/2002 

09/30/2002  Sept. 30, 2002 - Seoul, Korea - Hynix Semiconductor Inc. has agreed to sell its flat-screen manufacturing business to BOE Technology Group, China, in a $380 million deal.

09/27/2002  Scientists have long been frustrated in their hunt to find a good way to join together materials like metal and ceramic, but a team of researchers is getting ready to manufacture a nanoengineered product that might solve the problem. Reactive NanoTechnologies is aiming for a $10 billion to $12 billion slice of the "joining" industry.

09/25/2002  It's beginning to look a lot like nano in the computer chip industry. But while experts say chip features below 100 nanometers is not necessarily nanotechnology, the small tech industry may still benefit from breakthroughs made by its silicon cousins.

09/24/2002  Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing will be merged or sold, the Far Eastern Economic Review is reporting.

09/24/2002  Even with a recently closed funding round that netted Nanochip Inc. $1.8 million and a $15 million Series C round already under way, Gordon Knight, the MEMS memory developer's newly installed chief executive, admits he has his work cut out. He will have to call upon every day of his 25 years of storage industry experience to be successful.

09/23/2002  Sept. 23, 2002 - Santa Clara, CA - Nine individuals have filed a $25 million suit in Santa Clara County California Superior Court against SUMCO Oregon Corp., a company formed from Mitsubishi Silicon America (MSA), Mitsubishi Materials Corp. (MMC), Sumitomo Metals Industries (SMI), Sumitomo Mitsubishi Silicon Corp. (SMSC), and SUMCO USA Corp.

09/23/2002  SEPT. 23--GRENOBLE, France--INCAM Solutions, a developer of microenvironment technology, will collaborate with Asyst Technologies, Brooks-PRI Automation and RECIF to standardize their wafer sorter tools on INCAM's FOUP for One.