12/19/2001  Dec. 19, 2001 - Colorado Springs, CO - United Test and Assembly Center Limited (UTAC), and Ramtron International Corp. subsidiary Enhanced Memory Systems Inc. have jointly developed a flip-chip chip-scale package (FC CSP).

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

12/19/2001  Dec. 19, 2001 - Veldhoven, Netherlands - ASML Holding N.V. announced that it has sold San Jose, CA-based Tinsley Laboratories Inc. to SSG Precision Optronics Inc., a Wilmington, MA, corporation that specializes in the design, fabrication, and testing of space-based and other high performance optical subsystems.

12/18/2001  Dec. 18, 2001 - Sunnyvale, CA - The Electronic Materials business of Honeywell will begin construction of a packaging components manufacturing facility in Thailand to supply the region with anext generation thermal and electrical interconnect solutions.

12/17/2001  Dec 17, 2001 - Seoul, Korea - A South Korean consortium led by chip design firm Aralion Inc. said on Monday it expected to sign a deal to buy Hynix Semiconductor's non-memory chip lines next March.

12/14/2001  Dec. 14, 2001 - Milpitas, CA - Elantec Semiconductor Inc. has signed an agreement that establishes Philips Semiconductors' Albuquerque, NM, site as the primary bipolar foundry for Elantec's future bipolar wafer process requirements.

12/14/2001  Dec. 14, 2001 - Singapore - Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing has appointed Shi-Chung Sun as senior VP of technology development. With the creation of this new position, Chartered has expanded its office of the president, previously a four-person executive management team.

12/14/2001  Dec.14, 2001 - Taipei, Taiwan - A Taiwan Ministry of Economic Affairs task force has concluded that a decision to lift the ban on semiconductor manufacturing investments in China needs further study.

12/14/2001  December 14, 2001 -- MILPITAS, CA -- Elantec Semiconductor, Inc. has entered into a strategic wafer foundry agreement with Philips Semiconductors. The agreement establishes Philips Semiconductors' Albuquerque, New Mexico site as Elantec's primary bipolar foundry for its future bipolar wafer process requirements.

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.

12/13/2001  By carefully cooling a molten germanium-silicon mixture inside a cylindrical container, NASA scientists can coax it into forming a single large and extraordinarily well-ordered crystal. Such crystals have very few defects because, remarkably, they never touched the walls of the very container in which they grew, according to reports from [email protected].

12/13/2001  Dec. 13, 2001 - New York, NY - Morgan Stanley has lowered the investment rating of the semiconductor industry to 'hold' from 'overweight,' citing weak global demand for memory chips in 1Q02.

12/12/2001  The International Microprocesses and Nanotechnology Conference is Asia's premiere academic technology symposium, and this year's version didn't disappoint, with leading edge topics such as the limitations of CMOS, implantable electronics, DNA electronics, and supporting R&D efforts in nanotechnology headlining the sessions and papers.

12/12/2001  Dec. 12, 2001 - Minneapolis, MN - FSI International Inc. has implemented additional cost reductions including a 7% reduction in the overall work force, salary cuts for all employees, a 50% decrease in capital expenditures, and a reduction in other discretionary costs.

12/11/2001  Dec. 11, 2001 - Tokyo, Japan - Toshiba Corp., and Sony Corp. have jointly developed a next-generation transistor enabling high-speed operation and low power consumption, according to the companies.

12/11/2001  Dec. 11, 2001 - Hillsboro, OR, and Allentown, PA - Lattice Semiconductor Corp. and Agere Systems have signed a definitive agreement under which Lattice will acquire the FPGA business of Agere Systems for $250 million in cash. The acquisition will be financed through cash on hand.

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.

12/07/2001  NuTool engineers have shown that overburden associated with conventional electrochemical deposition (ECD) can be reduced from 500 to 2,000nm to 100 to 500nm using the company's electrochemical mechanical deposition (ECMD).

12/07/2001 
As nanotechnology prepares to leave the laboratory and enter the marketplace, investors are circling around Great Britain's academic centers. But unlike the United States, the United Kingdom is not renowned for its ability to mix academia with business, and a degree of confusion exists over how nanotechnology research should be funded.

12/06/2001  December 6, 2001 -- PORTLAND, OR -- More than two dozen employees at the Wacker Siltronic plant are suing the wafer maker for allegedly failing to pay the workers for time spent changing in and out of cleanroom garments.