01/01/2001  Cleveland, Ohio--Eaton Corp. has completed the spin-off of its semiconductor equipment operations into a wholly owned subsidiary, Axcelis Technologies, Inc., based in Beverly, Massachusetts.

01/01/2001  Many precision products, while still requiring some degree of environmental contaminant control, can settle for less than the state of-the-art cleanroom used in semiconductor manufacturing. One definition of a precision product is a product that must be manufactured in a cleanroom.

01/01/2001  Microscopic dust, bacteria, viruses and allergens beware. Filters used in air cleaning have become so precise that the most delicate wafer architecture can be exposed in cleanrooms without the slightest contamination from some very small particles.

01/01/2001  For the past five years, construction personnel at Cirent Semiconductor's Orlando, FL, wafer fab have installed hundreds of fan filter units (FFUs) in support areas, while choosing distributed air circulation systems for main production areas.

12/26/2000  Irvine, California--Newport Corp. today announced the signing of a definitive agreement to merge with Kensington Laboratories Inc., a Richmond, California-based, privately held manufacturer of high-precision robotic and motion control equipment for the semiconductor and fiber optic communication industries.

12/22/2000  San Jose, California--North American-based semiconductor equipment manufacturers posted $2.74 billion in orders and a book-to-bill ratio of 1.12 during November 2000, reports Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) in its 'November 2000 Express Report.'

12/20/2000  Phoenix, Arizona--ON Semiconductor recently announced the promotion of William Schromm to vice president and general manager of the Logic business group. Schromm reports to ON Semiconductor senior vice president and chief operating officer, Jim Thorburn.

12/18/2000  Hsinchu, Taiwan--Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) announced today that it has set what is believed to be an industry first by delivering 300mm wafers from its 300mm line in Taiwan to customers.

12/18/2000  Santa Ana, California--Verteq has renewed its contract with IMEC, an independent microelectronics research center located in Leuven, Belgium, to continue collaboration on process development and optimization of the rotational Marangoni drying technique based on IMEC's patented technology (also known as Rotagoni).

12/18/2000  Bloomington, Minnesota--August Technology Corp., a supplier of inspection solutions to the microelectronics industry, today introduced a complete solution for automated inspection of 300mm wafers designed to meet the unique and challenging needs of 300mm processing.

12/18/2000  Sarawak, Malaysia--1st Silicon Sdn. Bhd. has secured US$93.75 million in financing from a diverse group of international financial institutions to purchase equipment for its 200mm wafer fab plant located in Kuching, in the Malaysian State of Sarawak.

12/15/2000  Singapore--United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC), of Taiwan, plans to establish a 300mm wafer foundry company in Singapore's Pasir Ris Wafer Fab Park with an investment of US$3.6 billion. Germany's Infineon Technologies AG will take a minority stake in the project, and the new company will operate as a subsidiary of UMC.

12/14/2000  San Jose, California--International SEMATECH's Advanced Technology Development Facility recently placed an order with Silicon Valley Group (SVG) for a Micrascan V, 193nm, very high numerical aperture step-and-scan lithography system to support development of 193nm technology for its member companies.

12/14/2000  Villach, Austria--The SEZ Group recently announced that a semiconductor industry applications development center is using its Spin-Process equipment to perform copper decontamination and pre-lithography cleans for customers seeking to integrate copper and low-k into their devices.

12/14/2000  San Jose, California--Altera Corp. has agreed to sell its 23% equity ownership interest in WaferTech, a foundry in Camas, Washington, to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. (TSMC) for US$350 million. TSMC has also signed agreements with ADI and ISSI to acquire their shares in the company. Altera expects to close the transaction by the end of the year, at which time TSMC will increase its holding in WaferTech from 66.89% to nearly 100%.

12/13/2000  Santa Clara, California--Intel Corp. announced today that its new wafer fab, currently under construction in Leixlip, Ireland, will begin production in 2002 using state-of-the-art 300mm technology. The project, first announced in June of this year, originally was planned as a 200mm fab.

12/13/2000  Willow Grove, Pennsylvania--Kulicke & Soffa (K&S) Industries Inc., a supplier of semiconductor assembly equipment and materials, has completed its acquisition of Santa Clara, California-based Probe Technology Corp. The acquisition, combined with the recently completed tender offer for Cerprobe Corp., may make K&S the world's leading supplier of probe cards and sockets used for testing semiconductor wafers and integrated circuits.

12/12/2000  Hsinchu, Taiwan--Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) announced yesterday the delivery of 0.13-micron functioning wafers to VIA Technologies, Inc., a leading fabless semiconductor design house. The 0.13-micron functioning wafers are a foundry industry first, TSMC believes.

12/11/2000  Danbury, Connecticut--Praxair China has signed a 15-year contract to supply Shanghai-based Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) with industrial gases.

12/07/2000  Hsinch, Taiwan--Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd. (TSMC) today announced that its net sales for November 2000 reached a new high of $18,173 million, representing an increase of 131.2% over November 1999 sales and approximately 4.1% over October 2000 sales.