12/07/2000  Chiba, Japan--Rodel, Inc. recently introduced the SPM3100 polishing pad, the newest product in its line of silicon and substrates polishing solutions. The SPM3100 pad was developed for use in the final polish step of silicon wafers and alternative substrates, such as gallium arsenide (GaAs) and indium phosphide (InP).

12/06/2000  Villach, Austria--The SEZ Group announced today that it has produced 300mm wafers as thin as 80 microns, which the company reports have excellent uniformity and are four times stronger than those that have only undergone a grinding process to achieve that thickness.

12/06/2000  Sunnyvale, California--Thomas West Inc., a provider of chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) materials, has developed The Right Pad 813, a highly porous, soft pad for tungsten CMP processes. The company reports that the pad's structure will enable industry to reduce costs while solving CMP performance problems such as erosion, planarization, and uniformity, in addition to achieving high removal rates combined with low slurry consumption.

12/06/2000  Tokyo, Japan--ASML today introduced dual wafer stage technology for new i-line and deep ultraviolet (UV) imaging systems, extending the product offerings of its TWINSCAN 300mm technology platform. This dual wafer stage system optimizes the lithographic processing of 300mm wafers by parallel operation of two independent wafer stages, according to ASML.

12/06/2000  Tokyo, Japan--Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International's (SEMI) 'Consensus Forecast,' which includes input from 72 of the trade association's member companies in the U.S., Europe, and Japan, projects that the semiconductor manufacturing equipment market will grow 22% in 2001 to US$57.2 billion.

12/05/2000  Hitachinaka City, Japan--Trecenti Technologies, Inc., a joint-venture foundry established by Hitachi and UMC, has produced its first ICs using 300mm wafers. The 4M and 8M static random access memory (SRAM) chips were fabricated using 0.18-micron technology and demonstrated reasonable first-silicon yields, reports the company.

11/29/2000  San Jose, California--Ultratech Stepper, Inc., a supplier of photolithography systems used to manufacture semiconductors, micromachined devices and thin film heads (TFH) for disk drives, today announced the introduction of the Prisma-ghi, a low-cost research and development (R&D) and pre-production flip-chip (bump) stepper.

11/28/2000  Phoenix, Arizona--Motorola's Semiconductor Products Sector has completed qualification of its true enhancement-mode heterostructure field effect transistor wafer process.

11/28/2000  Santa Clara, California--Applied Materials, Inc. is expanding its ion implant operations with the addition of laboratories and manufacturing sites to enhance the company's capability to provide advanced implant systems and technologies for building next-generation, high-speed transistors in sub-0.13 micron devices.

11/28/2000  Tokyo, Japan--Elpida Memory, Inc. is planning to construct a 300mm wafer fab, its first, on the grounds of NEC Hiroshima, Ltd. Construction will begin in January 2001, with volume production of 256 Mb dynamic random access memory (DRAM) devices in a 0.13-micron process expected to begin during the first half of 2002.

11/21/2000  Fremont, California--Nov. 21, 2000--Pentagon Technologies, Inc. is opening a fifth semiconductor parts cleaning and reconditioning facility in Portland, Oregon to meet the demands of advanced wafer fabrication equipment requirements--focusing on cleaning and reconditioning parts and assemblies used for 200mm and 300mm wafers, sub-180nm fabrication techniques, and copper interconnect processing.

11/20/2000  Homebush, Australia--Nov. 20, 2000--Peregrine Semiconductor Corp., a developer of integrated circuits (ICs) for the optical and wireless communications markets, is developing the first wafer fabrication capability for 0.25-micron ICs in its Homebush, Australia fab.

11/17/2000  Austin, Texas--Nov. 17, 2000--To encourage research into environmental, health, and safety issues within the semiconductor industry, a $5,000 award is being offered to university researchers worldwide jointly by the Semiconductor Research Corp. (SRC), Semiconductor Safety Association (SSA) and International SEMATECH.

11/16/2000  Hsinchu, Taiwan--Nov. 16, 2000--Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) has begun processing 300mm wafers on its Fab 6 pilot line.

11/15/2000  Hsinchu, Taiwan--Nov. 15, 2000--Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) has developed what is believed to be the industry's first comprehensive 0.13-micron, mixed-signal/radio frequency (RF) test chip. The new chip is expected to help TSMC create characterization reports and other elements of the 0.13-micron, mixed-signal/RF design kit.

11/13/2000  Princeton Junction, New Jersey--Nov. 13, 2000--Discovery Semiconductors, Inc., has been awarded U.S. Patent No. 6,137,171, entitled 'Lightweight miniaturized integrated micro-satellite employing advanced semiconductor processing and packaging technology.'

11/09/2000  Gaithersburg, Maryland--Nov. 9, 2000--The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) Advanced Technology Program (ATP) has awarded $13.7 million in funding for a project to develop advanced wafer inspection technology for next-generation lithography (NGL) applications at the 50-nm and 70-nm nodes.

11/08/2000  Sarasota, Florida--Nov. 8, 2000--Sterling Semiconductor, Inc., a subsidiary of Uniroyal Technology Corp., is installing additional silicon carbide (SiC) production equipment to increase its SiC wafer production by a factor of 10 in 2001.

11/08/2000  Ithaca, New York--Nov. 8, 2000--With support from major industrial partners, Cornell University has opened a state-of-the-art laboratory for the design and testing of radio-frequency (RF) integrated circuits (ICs), such as the transceivers in cellular phones and other wireless devices.

11/08/2000  Hsinchu, Taiwan--Nov. 8, 2000--Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd.'s (TSMC) board of directors has approved the acquisition of Camas, Wahington-based WaferTech, LLC's shares from the company's current stakeholders in a move that will increase TSMC's stake in the company from 66.89% to 99%.