Tag Archives: Small Times Magazine

Oct. 30, 2006 — OMRON Corp., a developer of automation, sensing and control technologies, announced that it has reached a preliminary agreement to acquire the semiconductor business assets of Seiko Epson’s consolidated subsidiary, Yasu Semiconductor Corp.

OMRON develops, manufactures, and markets custom ICs that offer functionality and cost-performance not found in general-purpose semiconductors, as well as MEMS products such as flow sensors and pressure sensors.

The acquisition of the assets is aimed at further reinforcing these operations, while strengthening the OMRON’s line of semiconductor-equipped products.

The parties will now enter into detailed discussions, aiming to conclude the final contract and complete the acquisition by March 2007.

Oct. 30, 2006 — Virtus Advanced Sensors, a developer of MEMS multi-axis inertial sensors, announced plans to expand its program for accelerometers, gyroscopes and integrated motion sensors.

The company has established a new U.S. headquarters in Pittsburgh. Along with its current office in Tokyo, the company says it intends to soon establish an additional office in Asia by the end of the year and says it hopes to have a European representative office by 2008. The company is considering building a production facility for its 6-axis motion sensors due out by the end of 2008, but has not yet determined where that facility will be located.

To help establish its office, the company is receiving financial, talent recruiting, and related business advisory support from The Technology Collaborative (TTC), a statewide economic development organization that supports the growth of Pennsylvania’s high tech industries. Virtus has recently become a TTC member.

Currently, Virtus is developing 3-axis accelerometers and 3-axis accelerometer wireless units, 2 and 3-axis gyros, and 5 and 6-axis motion sensors, integrating both accelerometer and gyro components on one chip. The company plans to begin the mass production of 3-axis accelerometers in 2007 and says it has plans to commercialize a fully-integrated one-chip 6-axis motion sensor, consisting of a 3-axis accelerometer and 3-axis gyro sensor, in 2008.

Oct. 30, 2006 — University of Ulster announced it has opened the FEI Center for Advanced Imaging in Northern Ireland.

The center is intended to provide a suite of FEI electron microscopes for all major research areas within the university’s Biomedical Sciences Research Institute. It will also support academic research from other faculties within the university and beyond, including industrial R&D for the university’s industrial partners within the region.

The new centeris equipped with a suite of FEI tools including a Quanta ESEM (environmental SEM), a Tecnai cryo TEM, and a Nova NanoLab. Advances incorporated in the Nova NanoLab were developed through close collaboration between FEI and Dr. George McKerr of the university.

The new center is funded in part by an investment by the Department for Employment & Learning and the Office of Science & Innovation through the UK Science Research Investment Fund 2006-08.

Oct. 27, 2006 — Intelligent Micro Patterning LLC of St. Petersburg, Florida, announced its SF-100 Rotational Stage Assembly, a new enhancement to the SF-100 maskless micropatterning system.

This additional capability allows for micro patterning of features seamlessly on cylindrical curved surfaces. The SF-100 is a unique, maskless photolithography system that utilizes patented Smart Filter technology, licensed by Intelligent Micro Patterning LLC from the University of South Florida.

Smart Filter technology incorporates micro-optical techniques to rapidly project master images directly onto diverse substrate materials, such as quartz, ceramics, metals, and plastics, without the use of photomasks.

Features as small as 10 microns have been patterned successfully using the technique, said Jay Sasserath, the company’s chief executive officer, in a prepared statement. He said applications have been demonstrated in various market areas, including military and defense, biotechnology, aerospace and print head fabrication.

Oct. 26, 2006 — Tegal Corp., a San Jose, Calif., designer and manufacturer of plasma etch and deposition systems used in the production of integrated circuits and nanotechnology devices, announced that it has signed a distributor agreement with Noah Corp. of Japan.

The agreement, which covers an initial three-year period, calls for Noah to assume responsibility for Tegal’s sales and field service support for all existing and future customers in Japan.

Oct. 26, 2006 — Cascade Microtech, the Portland, Ore.-based maker of tools and technology for the precise electrical measurement and test of integrated circuits and other small structures, reported record quarterly revenue of $23 million for the third quarter.

The performance was up 17 percent over the second quarter’s $19.6 million revenue, and also beat last year’s Q3 results of just under $19 million.

Net income was $1.2 million, up over $0.8 million in the second quarter. However, net income was down from $2.1 million in the third quarter of 2005.

The company predicts fourth quarter 2006 revenues between $21 million and $23 million.

Oct. 26, 2006 — Nanometrics Inc., a Milpitas, Calif., supplier of advanced integrated and standalone metrology equipment to the semiconductor industry, announced it has entered into a cross-licensing agreement with ASML, the provider of lithography systems for the semiconductor industry based in Veldhoven, the Netherlands.

The agreement reflects the commitment to offer customers extendible, open-architecture Overlay and CD control solutions that scale beyond 32nm, according to statements by John Heaton, Nanometrics’ president and CEO.

Oct. 26, 2006 — Innovative Solutions Bulgaria Ltd., a Sofia, Bulgaria, manufacturer of probes and accessories for atomic force microscopes, named NanoWin Corp. as its sole distributor in Korea for its BudgetSensors AFM probes.

The company said the move will help it supply customers in Korea more efficiently and at better prices than previously possible. NanoWin represents manufacturers of AFMs, positioners and related equipment in the Korean market.

Oct. 26, 2006 — Arrowhead Research Corp. of Pasadena, Calif., announced that its majority-owned subsidiary, Insert Therapeutics Inc., has completed a $10 million private placement with a group of investors, including a $5 million follow-on investment by Arrowhead. The other investors were not named.

The fundraising is intended to help Insert push forward its two most important strategic initiatives: the clinical work on IT-101, its lead anti-cancer drug candidate now in Phase I trials at the City of Hope medical center, and the further development of additional therapeutic candidates in the pipeline, according to statements by John Petrovich, the company’s president.

Insert Therapeuticsis using its nano-engineered, polymeric delivery system, Cyclosert, to design, develop and commercialize drug-delivery-enhanced small-molecule therapeutics and nucleic acids. Cyclosert uses cyclodextrins as building blocks to create a new class of biocompatible materials — linear cyclodextrin-containing polymers that are nontoxic and nonimmunogenic at therapeutic doses.

Oct. 25, 2006 — The SEMI trade association will highlight non-traditional approaches to electronics manufacturing at its NanoForum trade show.

Among the techniques that will be explored, say show organizers, are new approaches for harnessing biological processes for nanoassembly. MIT Professor Angela Belcher is scheduled to discuss how her lab is getting viruses to assemble alloys and how they are developing ways to make them into electrodes for li-ion batteries and other energy devices. The first application being developed is a battery based on a polymer film electrolyte with a metal oxide anode film grown from solution on one side, and a metal phosphate cathode film on the other.

Belcher is slated to be part of a panel titled “Nanoelectronics: Beyond CMOS”, along with Yang Yang of UCLA. His research is into growing films of tobacco mosaic virus coated with nanoparticles that works as non-volatile digital memory. Yang’s group reports using a virus not just as a template or scaffold for assembling a metal thin film, but as an active component of rudimentary digital memory.

NanoForum is slated for Oct. 31 to Nov.2 in San Jose, Calif.