12/06/2001  Dec. 6, 2001 - Taipei, Taiwan - In order to accelerate the development as a wafer foundry service provider, Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp. will drop the manufacturing of its DRAM chips in 2002, executives of the firm said.

12/06/2001  Dec. 6, 2001 - Seoul, South Korea - Hynix Semiconductor Inc. said it wants US chipmaker Micron Technology Inc. to inject cash into the company under a proposed alliance aimed at easing the global glut of computer memory chips.

12/05/2001  December 5, 2001 -- TOKYO -- ASML recently announced the creation of a new Asian training center based in Kawasaki, Japan. The facility will provide a variety of training courses in advanced lithography, wafer track and thermal processing technology, with a particular focus on 300mm equipment.

12/05/2001  Despite all the gloom and doom coming from Japan's struggling chipmakers lately, a few of the country's equipment suppliers continue to do surprisingly well.

12/05/2001  Dec. 5, 2001 - San Jose, CA - Electroglas, a supplier of test and inspection equipment, has joined the Semiconductor Equipment Consortium for Advanced Packaging (SECAP).

12/05/2001  Dec. 5, 2001 - Tokyo, Japan - On the opening day of SEMICON Japan 2001, ASML announced the creation of a new Asian training center based in Kawasaki, Japan.

12/04/2001  December 4, 2001 -- VILLACH, Austria -- International SEMATECH (ISMT) will take delivery of the 1300 SEZ Spin-Process tool for its 300 mm silicon wafer research and development, according to the SEZ Group. Based on previous success using SEZ tools for other frontside and backside applications, ISMT plans to use this tool to develop process modules for double-sided pre-oxidation and pre-gate cleanings.

12/04/2001  Dec. 4, 2001 - Santa Clara, CA - Applied Materials has acquired all of the outstanding equity of Global Knowledge Services (GKS) Inc., a privately-held company based in Austin, TX, that provides advanced data mining services to improve semiconductor manufacturing yield and efficiency.

12/04/2001 
For the MEMS industry, friction is a key problem. It's one of the main impediments to successfully making some micromachined gears and moving parts. But on Monday, two teens from New York state turned that sticky problem into a successful science fair project, winning a $100,000 scholarship in the Siemens Westinghouse Science and Technology Competition.

12/03/2001  Dec. 3, 2001 - Tokyo, Japan - Fujitsu Ltd. does not expect a major impact on its earnings forecast in FY01 from the closure of its flash memory production plant in the US, as it has already allocated a special loss for large-scale restructuring for the year, a company spokesman said.

12/03/2001 
Investors have stern words for nanotechnology researchers itching to cash in on their small tech ideas: It's all about the business. While they're confident that nanotechnology will lure its share of investment dollars, speakers at a recent Nanotech Planet conference warned that concrete problems of sales, marketing and manufacturing still loom.

12/03/2001 

12/01/2001  AUSTIN, TX—The story from October's Semicon Southwest trade show and conference was no different from most shows that took place over the past two months.

12/01/2001  Intel Corp. recently announced that it has demonstrated a new packaging technology that could enable the development of 20-GHz microprocessors by 2006 or 2007

12/01/2001  One of the clichés that you hear during slow times in the electronics industry is that a lull gives manufacturers the chance to develop new products rather than focusing on getting more of the same old products out the door

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.

12/01/2001  Solutions for wafer edge processing

12/01/2001  Airborne molecular contaminants (AMCs) are non-particulate contaminants that easily penetrate conventional HEPA and ULPA filters. Like particles, AMCs consist of molecules, or clusters of molecules.

12/01/2001  Selecting an optical particle counter (OPC) can appear deceptively simple. Typically, the specification focuses on sensitivity, flow rate, size range and coincidence loss. Secondary requirements are number of channels, the sample/hold periods and alarm limits.