03/08/2001  March 8, 2001--San Jose, California--The critical battle for the future of DRAM technology is being waged in the PC memory arena between DDR DRAM and RDRAM, but San Jose, CA-based market research firm Gartner Dataquest cautions not to expect to see an end to the dispute this year.

03/08/2001  March 8, 2001--Fremont, California--Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing and Virage Logic Corp. have announced efforts to develop Virage Logic's Custom-Touch ASAP embedded memory compilers for Chartered's all-copper, low-k dielectric, 0.13-micron 'communications-smart' manufacturing process.

03/08/2001  March 8, 2001--Veldhoven, The Netherlands--ASM Lithography Holding N.V. (ASML) and Silicon Valley Group, Inc. (SVG) yesterday confirmed that the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., chaired by the U.S. Treasury Department, has notified the parties that it will conduct a 45-day review, under the Exon-Florio review process, of the potential national security concerns associated with the planned merger of San Jose, CA-based SVG with ASML, located in The Netherlands.

03/08/2001  March 8, 2001--Chandler, Arizona--Amkor Technology is continuing the momentum of its growth strategy in Asia by acquiring two established semiconductor assembly and test companies in Taiwan, enabling the company's rapid entry into that nation's growing semiconductor industry.

03/07/2001  March 7, 2001--San Jose, California--KLA-Tencor Corp. has introduced Precice, a production-worthy in-situ film thickness and end-point control system for copper CMP.

03/07/2001  March 7, 2001--Munich, Germany--Karl Suss recently added high stability wafer probe systems to its existing product portfolio. The platform, made of granite, enhances Suss' submicron probing range capabilities because it makes the probers less sensitive to undesirable environmental influences such as noise and does not pick the vibrations up as much as aluminum and other metals.

03/07/2001  March 7, 2001--Chandler, Arizona--Amkor Technology, Inc., announced that as a result of prolonged weakness in first-quarter business conditions, the company presently expects first quarter 2001 revenues to be below the guidance level given on January 31, 2001.

03/07/2001  March 7, 2001--Albuquerque, New Mexico--The U.S. Department of Energy's Sandia National Laboratory has launched an experiment to discover whether a viscous coating can be deposited in zero gravity on a spinning silicon wafer more smoothly than possible on Earth.

03/07/2001  March 7, 2001 -- MIGDAL HAEMEK, Israel -- Tower Semiconductor recently announced the receipt of the second aggregate equity investment installment of the$305 million investment committed to by Tower's equity partners.

03/07/2001  March 7, 2001--Santa Ana, California--A delegation led by RosettaNet CEO Jennifer Hamilton this week visited Beijing, China, to augment the organization's ongoing dialogue and activities in the region.

03/06/2001  March 6, 2001--Willow Grove, Pennsylvania--Kulicke & Soffa Industries Inc. (K&S) announced today that Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc. (ASE) has signed an agreement to purchase a technology license and specialized equipment for K&S's proprietary OP2 Oxidation Prevention Process, which is used to manufacture copper ICs.

03/05/2001  March 5, 2001--Mountain View, California--The DRAM market will decline sharply this year, according to market research firm IDC in its 'Worldwide DRAM Demand and Supply, 2000-2001' report. IDC predicts that total DRAM revenue will reach $23.8 billion in 2001, a revenue decrease of 18% and severe 46% price erosion compared to 2000 financials.

03/02/2001  March 2, 2001--Somerville, New Jersey--The AZ Electronic Materials business of Clariant now offers polysilazane spin-on dielectric materials. AZ introduced them at SPIE's International Symposium on Microlithography.

03/02/2001  March 2, 2001--Gaithersburg, Maryland--Larger wafers demand exceedingly accurate measurements of flatness and thickness, while advanced lithography systems require exact assessments of the curvature of the specialized lenses and mirrors used. The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has developed an x-ray optics calibration interferometer device (XCALIBIR) that may help meet these needs.

03/02/2001  March 2, 2001--Boston, Massachusetts--PerkinElmer, Inc. announced today that it has acquired Applied Surface Technology (AST), a provider of proprietary processing techniques and services applied in semiconductor wafer fabrication equipment. Located in San Carlos, CA, AST's annual revenue is approximately $7 million.

03/02/2001  March 2, 2001 -- TAIPEI -- Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. plans to construct four more 12-inch wafer plants over the next few years in order to meet a projected demand.

03/01/2001  March 1, 2001--Milpitas, California--Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing recently announced that due to the weakening economic environment and market conditions, revenues and earnings for the company's first quarter will be below its earlier guidance.

03/01/2001  March 1, 2001--Tomerdingen, Germany--Boin GmbH, a metrology software manufacturer for the semiconductor industry, has released a new software development kit for metrology equipment manufacturers.

03/01/2001  March, 1, 2001 -- MILAN, Italy -- The R2 Technology Center - STMicroelectronics' latest advanced R&D plant - was formally inaugurated this week. It features what officials say is one of the most aggressive cleanrooms available.

03/01/2001  Despite the many advances in assembly manufacturing since the IC was invented, the basic process has not changed significantly