10/08/2001  October 8, 2001 - Taipei, Taiwan - United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) has revised its annual financial forecast for 2001.

10/05/2001  October 5, 2001 - Washington, DC - Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) called on Congress to support accelerated depreciation for high-tech manufacturing equipment as part of the economic stimulus package announced by President Bush this week.

10/03/2001  October 3, 2001 - Tokyo, Japan - Fujitsu and NEC, two of Japan's five chipmaking companies said they are temporarily idling a number of semiconductor plants in Japan as they confront a record chip market downturn.

10/02/2001  Does CMP stand for Can't Make it Polish? Is ASP a venomous snake? When is a semiconductor not an IC? With all the gobbledygook in the semiconductor industry, it's easy to see why even people who've been in the business since Moses was a process engineer can be easily confused.

10/02/2001  October 2, 2001 - Santa Clara, CA - Applied Materials Inc. is signing a multi-year collaboration and licensing agreement for its FAB300 MES (manufacturing execution system) software with Intel.

10/02/2001  October 2, 2001 - Wilsonville, OR - Mentor Graphics Corp. announced new patent pending Design-for-Test technology called Embedded Deterministic Test (EDT) that extends the capacity of automatic test equipment for a reduction in the cost of semiconductor testing, which can represent as much as 50% of manufacturing costs.

10/02/2001  October 2, 2001 - Peabody, MA - SOITEC, a manufacturer of silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers for use in semiconductor manufacturing, today announced the appointment of 25-year industry veteran George Celler to the newly created position of chief scientist.

10/01/2001  In semiconductor manufacturing, the high value of semiconductor wafers has traditionally placed a heightened emphasis on wafer traceability - the ability to automatically track a wafer through the fabrication process

10/01/2001  QUINCY, MA—The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) committee 318 recently adopted two protocols for testing non-fire propagating materials used to manufacture cleanroom tools and equipment—Factory Mutual Research 4910 Protocol and Undewriter's Laboratories (UL) 2360.

09/27/2001  September 27, 2001 - Oakland, CA - Today, Tokyo Seimitsu Co., Ltd. has filed its answer in response to KLA-Tencor's patent infringement suit. The answer denies all charges of patent infringement and alleges KLA's U S Patent No. 4,805,123 is invalid and unenforceable.

09/25/2001 

09/21/2001  September 21, 2001 - Billerica, MA - PRI Automation, Inc. (PRI), will continue its use of Compaq Computer Corporation's OpenVMS platform.

09/21/2001 

09/18/2001  September 18, 2001 - Armonk, NY - IBM Corp. is in the final stages of negotiations with SCI Systems Inc., a US electronics manufacturing services (EMS) firm, to sell its Japanese unit's electronic parts factory, sources close to the matter said.

09/17/2001  September 17, 2001 - Taipei, Taiwan - Analog Technology Inc., a manufacturer of various ICs, has split into two business divisions, one for IC products and the other for providing wafer foundry services, beginning this month.

09/13/2001  A wafer fab built with current equipment has to have capacity of 20,000 wafers or so a month to be economical. New minifabs would run only 5,000 wafers per month, with smaller, lower throughput equipment, but the key is reducing tool costs proportionally as well.

09/11/2001  September 11, 2001 - Fremont, CA - Asyst Technologies Inc. is collaborating with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) on a strategic 300mm fab-transport development project.

09/06/2001  September 6, 2001 -- HOUSTON, CO -- Despite the current high-tech downturn, Intel plans to break ground in October on a new one million square foot 300 mm wafer fab plant in Hillsboro, Oregon.

09/05/2001  September 5, 2001 - Villach, Austria - The SEZ Group has opened its newest service and support center in Dresden, Germany. The location is of strategic importance for SEZ because it will be the primary source of support for the company's installed tool base in the growing high-tech community in the Dresden area (Silicon Saxony).

09/04/2001  September 4, 2001 -- WILMINGTON, MA -- San Jose-based KLA-Tencor plans to buy defect detection system manufacturer QC Optics.