02/13/2001  February 12, 2001--Taby, Sweden--Micronic Laser Systems AB recently received a repeat order for a LRS11000 multi-beam laser pattern generator for the production of advanced photomasks for color filters used in TFT-displays.

02/13/2001  February 12, 2001--Chelmsford, Massachusetts--Brooks Automation, Inc. today announced that it has shipped its 2,000th 300mm Load Port FIXLOAD to the Sez Group. The tool uses front opening unified pod (FOUP) technology, which is standard for 300mm wafer production.

02/13/2001  February 12, 2001--Tomerdingen, Germany--Boin GmbH, a metrology software manufacturer for the semiconductor industry, has entered into an OEM agreement with TePla AG, a manufacturer of metrology tools and low pressure plasma systems. TePla will use Boin's WAFERMAP metrology software on its TWIN SC measurement tool to support the visualization and interpretation of measurement results.

02/12/2001  February 12, 2001--Boise, Idaho--Micron Technology, Inc. today introduced the first devices in its new BAT-RAM family of low-power synchronous DRAMS (SRAM). The company currently is sampling 2.5- and 3.3-V 2 Meg x 32 64Mb BAT-RAM devices, and plans to introduce next-generation devices this year.

02/12/2001  FEB. 12 San Jose, California--Numerical Technologies today announced that it has entered into a joint development program with UMC, one of the world's largest semiconductor foundries, to qualify and deploy Numerical's Virtual Stepper system in a high-volume production environment.

02/12/2001  February 12, 2001--Phoenix, Arizona--ON Semiconductor today announced the availability of a DC-DC converter that extends battery usage in portable equipment powered by one or two battery packs. With an efficiency rating of 85%, the NCP1402 micropower power factor modulator (PFM) step-up DC-DC converter boasts an output voltage of 1.9V, enabling longer battery life.

02/12/2001  FEB. 12 Jupiter, Florida--Photronics, Inc., a leading photomask supplier, announced today that it has signed a multi-system purchase agreement with Toshiba Machine Co., Ltd. for its EBM-3500 vector scanning electron beam photomask lithography system.

02/12/2001  FEB. 12 Singapore--ST Assembly Test Services (STATS) today announced that it has expanded its gallium arsenide (GaAs) capability to support package assembly for ICs on pre-sawn wafers down to a market-leading 4 mils thick.

02/12/2001  February 12, 2001--Geneva, Switzerland--STMicroelectronics today announced the first system-on-chip solution for DVD-ROM drives--an advanced IC that includes all of the functions of a high speed DVD-ROM/CD-ROM drive except for external memories and actuator drivers.

02/12/2001  FEB. 12 Migdal Haemek, Israel--Tower Semiconductor Ltd. announced today the signing of a definitive agreement with The Challenge Fund - Etgar II, a venture capital partnership registered in Delaware, under which The Challenge Fund will invest $5 million in Tower common shares under terms similar to Tower's recent investment agreement with Israel Corp.

02/09/2001  FEB. 9 Los Alamos, New Mexico--A new photoresist removal technology that eliminates the use of hazardous chemicals and the production of wastewater in the fabrication of ICs has been created by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico.

02/08/2001  Santa Clara, California--Intel Corp. and Siemens AG, based in Munich, Germany, today announced that they have entered into an agreement in which Intel will provide Siemens with high-performance, wireless flash memory for next-generation, Internet-ready cell phones and wireless devices.

02/08/2001  COLORADO SPRINGS, CO -- With the possibility of faster chip technology on the horizon Intel plans to delay finishing part of its Colorado Springs plant, according to published reports.

02/08/2001  San Jose, California--Silicon Valley Group (SVG) stockholders have voted, with approximately 99.4% in favor, to approve the proposed merger with ASM Lithography Holding N.V.

02/08/2001  Research Triangle Park, North Carolina--The Semiconductor Research Corp. (SRC), the chip industry's long-term research consortium, awarded $29.3 million in university research contracts during 2000. New or additional funding went to more than 200 projects at 68 universities.

02/08/2001  Frankfurt (Oder), Germany--Communicant Semiconductor Technologies AG, launched yesterday in Germany, has announced its intention to build a $1.5 billion pure-play IC foundry in Frankfurt (Oder), located 50 miles east of Berlin, to serve Europe's wireless, broadband, and high-performance markets. Intel Corp. and IHP, a Frankfurt (Oder)-based microelectronics R&D center, are strategic investors in the foundry and have signed technology-licensing agreements with Communicant.

02/08/2001  Foster City, California--SCANIS Inc., an image analysis software company, has been awarded a patent in the U.K. for its semiconductor yield management products. SCANIS has also secured a patent in the U.S. covering its Automatic Semiconductor Wafer Sorter/Prober with Extended Optical Inspection. Other foreign semiconductor patents are pending.

02/06/2001  TAIWAN -- The investment arm of the Singapore Economic Development Board - EDB Investments Pte. Ltd. (EBDI) - has been added as a 15 percent shareholder to the United Microelectronics Corp. advanced 300mm fab project in Singapore's Pasir Ris Wafer Fab Park.

02/06/2001  Sunnyvale, California--The Electronic Device Group of Mitsubishi Electric & Electronics USA, Inc., today announced that it is sampling powerful new M61511FP and M61512FP six-channel electronic volume control chips. The new devices are designed for leading-edge consumer audio systems that use 5.1 systems.

02/06/2001  Research Triangle Park, North Carolina--Unitive Inc., a provider of outsourced advanced semiconductor packaging technologies, has closed a $30 million round of equity financing led by Onex Corp. and now plans to build and acquire state-of-the-art wafer level bumping and flip chip fabrication facilities throughout the U.S., Europe, and Asia.