INDUSTRY NEWS

Suppliers boost regional efforts

Several semiconductor equipment and materials suppliers have recently strengthened their presence in Japan and the rest of Asia. Soitec has created Soitec Asia to serve the entire regional market. The new unit, headquartered in Tokyo, is a joint venture between the French silicon-on-insulator wafer manufacturer and its long-time Japanese distribution partner, Seika. Makoto Yoshimi, a pioneer of SOI device technology, has joined the company as chief scientist.

On the toolmaker side, Rudolph has opted to take a direct sales and support approach for the Japanese market. The metrology supplier ended its distribution agreement with TEL but will still work closely with the equipment manufacturer and provide integrated metrology modules for a variety of process tools. The same TEL personnel who support the installed base of 500 Rudolph systems in Japan will continue in those roles during the transition. Rudolph Technologies Japan's main office is located in Takatsu, with branch offices in Osaka and on Kyushu Island; the unit will be led by Yasuomi Uchida, who also becomes a vice president of the parent company.

TEL has been active on the investment and qualification fronts. The toolmaker has agreed to make an equity investment as part of Molecular Imprints' Series B funding round. The Japanese OEM joins KLA-Tencor, Carl Zeiss, Motorola, and others as a strategic investor in the Austin, TX–based imprint lithography systems supplier.

BOC Edwards successfully completed a two-year fluorine qualification program with TEL. The two companies worked at TEL/AT's Tohoku facility, where a BOC Generation-F fluorine generator prototype supplied up to 80 L/hr to multiple TELFormula 300-mm LPCVD tools. Fluorine offers an alternative to PFC-based chamber-cleaning chemistries, the companies said.

EV Group has opened a second Japanese customer-support center in Fukuoka on the island of Kyushu, which is home to nearly one-third of Japan's semiconductor production. The Austrian wafer-bonding and lithography tool company, which has had a regional sales and support center in Yokohama for five years, has significantly increased its engineering staff to serve its growing customer base involved in SOI, MEMS, nanotechnology, and other R&D and manufacturing applications.

Entegris and Mitac-Synnex Group of Taiwan have formed a joint venture company to manufacture products used to protect, transport, and store high-purity chemicals. Entegris Precision Technology, which is expected to be operational by January 2005, will target the Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Taiwanese, and Singaporean markets. The venture's first product will be the FluoroPure 200-L high-density polyethylene blow-molded drum.

Daito Electron has signed an agreement to distribute Sagitta's Centar sample-preparation product line in Japan. As part of the deal, the Japanese company has bought a demo system to support its sales efforts. TDK has already purchased one of the tools for TEM sample preparation for disc manufacturing–related applications. Centar is a single-platform sample–prep system for automated polishing at the wafer, die, and package levels, including cross-section and parallel polishing of ICs and disk heads for SEM, TEM, and related instruments.