INDUSTRY NEWS

EXPANSIONS AND ACQUISITIONS

PRI debuts 300-mm center

PRI Automation was set to finish construction last month on a facility for demonstrating and testing its 300-mm wafer automation tools. The vendor will house the facility in one of two additional buildings it has leased near company headquarters in Billerica, MA. The buildings total more than 37,000 sq ft and will increase PRI's space by approximately 20%. PRI is opening the test facility in response to customer requests to evaluate the vendor's 300-mm-wafer automation system in a simulated production environment, according to Mitch Tyson, company president. The company is collaborating with the I300I consortia and SEMI to ensure that the equipment complies with all load port and carrier types, Tyson says.

In related news, the vendor established an Office of Technology for overseeing PRI's long-term R&D efforts. Mord Wiesler, founder and CEO, and vice presidents Jim Costa and Mitchell Weiss will run the office, which will be responsible for strengthening PRI's ties with research consortia, national laboratories, and universities. Costa is active in the United States Display Consortium; he is also cochairman of SEMI's FPD U.S. standards committee.

Photronics to open 12th site

Photomask supplier Photronics is scheduled to begin construction this autumn on its 12th manufacturing facility. The plant will be located near Portland, OR, in the Oregon Technology Park in Hillsboro. It will be the fifth plant built by the vendor in three years. The company opened facilities in Allen, TX, and Singapore in 1996; new plants in Austin, TX, and Manchester, England, are scheduled to begin operation late this year. The 52,000-sq-ft Oregon site will house 10,000 sq ft of Class 1 production area. Production is set to begin by the end of 1998.

The new Oregon facility will also serve as a center for developing advanced photomask manufacturing technology for equipment and materials suppliers. Photronics and Etec Systems, a manufacturer of pattern-generation equipment for making photomasks, have agreed to cooperate in the development of new pattern-generation technologies, the companies say.

High Voltage gets Physical

High Voltage Engineering (HVE) of Boston has purchased Physical Electronics Inc. (PHI), a manufacturer of advanced metrology instruments, for an undisclosed sum. PHI also makes ultra-high-vacuum products at its headquarters in Eden Prairie, MN. The company will remain in Eden Prairie and operate as an independent subsidiary of HVE, which also owns Robicon, Anderson Power Products, Datcon, and Natvar.

Osram expands glass plant

Osram Sylvania has completed a multimillion-dollar expansion of its plant in Exeter, NH, in order to increase production of large-diameter, high-purity quartz glass. The expansion came in response to customer demand for quartzware used in furnace liners and wafer carriers, says the company, which doubled capacity of high-purity quartz tubing in summer 1996.

CFM leases new facility

CFM Technologies of West Chester, PA, will move its headquarters to a new 140,000-sq-ft facility it has leased in Exton, PA. The company also plans to increase its manufacturing capacity of wet processing tools by more than 100% at the site, which will contain two buildings. The new company seat will occupy a four-story, 80,000-sq-ft office building. The second building will house 60,000 sq ft of manufacturing space. Occupancy is set for sometime in 1998, the vendor says. The company will keep its current plant in West Chester.

Vendors seal snow deal

BOC Gases of Murray Hill, NJ, and Eco-Snow Systems of Livermore, CA, have announced an agreement to develop precision cleaning systems using CO^₂ snow technology. The collaboration combines Eco-Snow's precision cleaning expertise and BOC's CO^₂ supply systems. The new processes can be used in the semiconductor, flat-panel display, and disk-drive industries.

Sulfuric plant opens

A sulfuric acid plant operated by General Chemical's electronic chemicals group has begun production in Richmond, CA. The plant will produce up to 30 million pounds of UHP sulfuric acid annually. The product will be sold as part of the company's Class 1 line. The acid will have cationic impurity specifications in the range of 100 to 400 ppt with individual ionic impurities in the range of 10 to 50 ppt, according to the vendor. Particle specifications will be 0.2, 0.5, and 1 µm.

Laundry opens in Dallas

The cleanroom division of G&K Services has opened a Class 1 garment laundry in Dallas, the city's first, according to the Minneapolis-based company. The facility is also the fifth such laundry opened by the firm in the past two years.

The division sells, leases, and processes reusable and disposable cleanroom apparel.

Ashland eyes CMP buy

Ashland Chemical of Dublin, OH, will receive worldwide rights to CMP slurry manufacturing processes owned by Moyco Technologies when its proposed acquisition of certain Moyco assets is completed. Based in Montgomeryville, PA, Moyco signed a nonbinding letter of intent with Ashland, which was expected to complete the acquisition by the end of this past summer. Ashland will pay an undisclosed lump sum and ongoing revenues based on royalties. The newly acquired business will become part of Ashland Chemical's electronic chemicals division.

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