02/06/2001  San Jose, California--Numerical Technologies, Inc. and Belgian consortium IMEC, a leading European independent research center focused on the development and licensing of microelectronics, information, and communications technologies, have formed a partnership to address subwavelength challenges to expedite the manufacture of 0.13-micron and smaller ICs.

02/05/2001  San Jose, California--Worldwide semiconductor sales reached $17.9 billion in December 2000, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) today reported, with year-end industry sales of $204 billion setting a new industry record. The SIA forecast for 2001 calls for 22% year-over-year growth, although the association no longer expects that projection to be achieved due to the inventory overhang going into 2001.

02/02/2001  FEB. 2 Petaluma, California--Tegal Corp. has been awarded two U.S. patents covering novel reactor components that enable etching of materials associated with the production of next-generation devices such as DRAM, FeRAM, MRAM, MPUs, and system-on-a-chip products.

02/01/2001  San Diego, California--JMAR Technologies Inc., a supplier of microtechnology products, announced today that its fabless semiconductor division has signed a 3-year supply and manufacturing agreement with 1st Silicon Sdn. Bhd., a recently established 200mm foundry located in Sarawak, Malaysia.

02/01/2001  Japan--Mitsubishi Electric Corp. projects that its semiconductors sales will be up about 35% for the fiscal year through March 2001, then expects growth to slow to about 10% for the year through March 2002. Seeing strong demand for its SRAMs and flash memory for cell phones, the company says it plans to add production at a partner flash foundry this year, and to expand its own capacity next year.

02/01/2001  By my definition, contaminants are any impurities or undesired materials that degrade product performance or reliability or adversely effect product manufacturability.

02/01/2001  PORTO REGION, PORTUGAL — If you plan it, will they come? ICEP-Portugal, the Portuguese government investment agency, hopes the answer is yes.

01/31/2001  Willow Grove, Pennsylvania--Kulicke & Soffa Industries Inc. and its Flip Chip Technologies, LLC (FCT) joint venture today announced that National Semiconductor Corp., Santa Clara, CA, has signed a license for FCT's wafer bumping technology.

01/30/2001  Newport Beach, California--Conexant Systems, Inc. and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, of Hsinchu, Taiwan, today announced that they have entered into a long-term semiconductor cross-licensing wafer supply and technology agreement.

01/30/2001  Singapore--EDB Investments Pte Ltd. (EDBI), the Singapore Economic Development Board's investment arm, today announced that it has confirmed a 15% equity stake in United Microelectronics Corp.'s (UMC) independent foundry company in Singapore. EDBI joins Infineon Technologies AG as a shareholder in the advanced US$3.6 billion 300mm facility, in which UMC holds a majority stake. This venture is the largest single manufacturing investment into Singapore.

01/29/2001  Villach, Austria--The SEZ Group today announced the opening of its newest regional office in Asia, SEZ Taiwan. The office will support SEZ's current installed base of tools, and is preparing to support the expected increase in demand from Taiwanese foundries as they move toward 300mm production.

01/29/2001  El Segundo, California--International Rectifier (IR) today announced that it has secured a bulk export license for power semiconductors(MOSFETs) used in communications satellites and other high-radiation environments.

01/29/2001  Sunnyvale, California--Enabling innovation and production of complex semiconductor products, Monterey Design Systems today announced that STMicroelectronics will use Dolphin, the company's physical design system for 0.18- and 0.12-micron designs.

01/26/2001  Kyoto, Japan--Seeing market opportunity in all those new venture design shops suddenly starting to pop up in Japan, Rohm Co. Ltd. will offer prototyping services at a new Venture LSI Design Assist Center.

01/26/2001  JAN. 26 Fayetteville, Arkansas--Research currently underway at the University of Arkansas (UA) may soon have a billion-dollar impact on the semiconductor industry. Scott Mason, assistant professor of industrial engineering, has received a $225,000 grant from the Semiconductor Research Corp. (SRC) for work that may revolutionize the fabrication of semiconductor wafers.

01/26/2001  Munich, Germany--Infineon Technologies AG has extended its collaboration with IMEC, a Leuven, Belgium-based R&D center, in the fields of microelectronics technology and design- and system-oriented research.

01/25/2001  JAN. 25 Charlotte, North Carolina--Digital Optics Corp. has announced successful completion a project to develop manufacturing technologies that combine electronic and miniaturized optoelectronic components on semiconductor wafer assemblies.

01/24/2001  Hayward, California--Etec Systems, Inc., an Applied Materials company and supplier of semiconductor mask patterning systems, today announced that its Mask Patterning Product Group has been awarded the International Standards Organization (ISO) 9001 certification.

01/23/2001  Corning, New York--Corning Inc. announced today that it has reached an agreement to acquire 100% of the stock of Tropel Corp., a Fairport, NY-based world leader in precision optics and metrology instruments for the semiconductor industry, in a transaction valued at approximately $190 million, based on the closing price of Corning common stock on January 22, 2001.

01/23/2001  Newport, U.K.--Trikon Technologies, Inc. has signed a commercial supply agreement with ASM International N.V., of Bilthoven, The Netherlands, in which Trikon will supply ASM with sputter etch modules and, in turn, ASM will supply Trikon with atomic layer chemical vapor deposition (ALCVD) modules for integration onto Trikon's cluster tools.