09/04/2001  September 3, 2001 - Fremont, CA - Lam Research Corp. is reducing its work force, which will impact approximately 10% of its employees around the globe.

08/30/2001  August 30, 2001 -- DANVILLE, CA -- Wafer cleaning supply manufacturer EKC Technology is expaning its Hayward, California manufacturing facility after having moved its corporate headquarters to a new location.

08/29/2001  August 29,2001 - Newport Beach, CA and Jupiter, FL - Conexant Systems Inc., and Photronics Inc., announced a strategic technology alliance and multi-year supply agreement under which Photronics will become the primary supplier of photomasks to Conexant, providing the company with access to advanced photomask process technologies and services.

08/29/2001  August 29, 2001 - Research Triangle Park, NC - Unitive Inc. and Amkor Technology announced the qualification of Unitive's wafer bumping technology for use in Amkor's flip chip product family.

08/28/2001  August 28, 2001 - Sunnyvale, CA - Actel Corporation has announced the availability of its SRAM-based VariCore embedded programmable gate array (EPGATM) IP cores on the 0.18-micron process from Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing.

08/27/2001  Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC) saw sales edge up 1% in July over the June, though they were still down 43% from July last year. United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC) meanwhile saw a 5% month on month drop, with sales off 59% from a year ago.

08/23/2001  August 23, 2001 - Danvers, MA - Ibis Technology Corp. has elected Yuri Erokhin as its VP of wafer technology. Ibis also announced the resignations of two directors, Geoffrey Ryding and Peter Rose, who resigned to pursue other business opportunities together.

08/23/2001  August 23, 2001 - Willow Grove, PA.- Kulicke & Soffa Industries Inc. announced that ST Assembly Test Services Ltd. (STATS) has signed a technology licensing agreement for wafer bumping technology with Flip Chip Technologies L.L.C. (FCT), which is wholly owned by K&S.

08/21/2001  Aug. 21, 2001 - Kalispell, MT - Semitool Inc. has received two US patents for a novel technology capable of reducing the cost of semiconductor manufacturing by eliminating expensive chemicals, reducing cycle times, and decreasing water consumption. The patents, numbers 6,267,125 and 6,273,108, are for applications and systems using ozone and water for cleaning and stripping semiconductor substrates.

08/17/2001  A Few SEMICON Superlatives
Now that the dust has settled, we can report on some of the other interesting things from SEMICON West last month. Instead of the usual updates about who claimed the largest market share, read on for an update on Razor Scooters and booth decor.

08/17/2001  Aug. 17, 2001 - Taipei, Taiwan - Taiwan's top five DRAM makers (ProMos Technologies, PowerChip Semiconductor, Winbond Electronics, Nanya Technology and Vanguard International Semiconductor) said they will proceed with plans to build 300mm fabs.

08/16/2001  August 16, 2001 - Austin, TX - Motorola's semiconductor products sector will phase out two wafer fabrication lines at its Mesa, AZ facility over the next two and a half years, in a continuation of its manufacturing renewal strategy to improve asset management.

08/15/2001  August 15, 2001 - Migdal Haemek, Israel - Tower Semiconductor Ltd. is set to sign a five-year wafer supply agreement to manufacture CMOS logic ICs for ON Semiconductor, Phoenix, AZ.

08/15/2001 
Martha Krebs spent six years in the Washington Beltway helping to move the political machinery inside the National Nanotechnology Initiative. Now, she's eager to move to the next level of business/research collaboration as founding director of the new California NanoSystems Institute.

08/10/2001  The RosettaNet consortium recently released the news of its Semiconductor Manufacturing (SM) Board's first completed milestone. The standard, called the Distribute Manufacturing WIP Status, or PIP 3D8 (Partner Interface Process), defines an environment for automatically tracking work between a manufacturing facility and customers or partners.

08/09/2001  Murmurs of when semiconductor manufacturing demand will pick up can be heard throughout the industry. As semiconductor equipment manufacturers continue to cut capital spending and excess capacity remains a top concern, the industry's banking on the demand half of the supply and demand cycle to accelerate - and soon.

08/02/2001  Wafer Level CSP and Flip Chip Packaging
The international workshop will be held in Stone Mountain, Georgia, on March 1-3, 2002. Abstracts are due November 19.

08/01/2001  In late May, engineers, researchers, analysts and, yes, even editors, descended upon Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., for the 51st Electronic Components and Technology Conference (ECTC)

08/01/2001  A key element for successful Chip scale and ball grid array packaging

08/01/2001  A competitive contamination control journal recently carried the following headline: "Litigation Creates $15 Billion Fabric Filter Market." This pronouncement headed a short note that predicts explosive growth in the market for this type of filter as a result of settlements being reached between industry and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).