INDUSTRY NEWS

WORLD BEAT

Asia

Chem plant coming to Taipei

Ashland Chemical of Dublin, OH, and Union Petrochemical of Taipei have formed a joint venture to build a process chemicals plant in Taiwan. The firms will share 50% interest in the venture, called Ashland Union Electronic Chemical. Construction is scheduled to start in January 1999. The plant will be built near Tainan Science Park. Production of ultrapure process chemicals is set to begin in January 2000. Analytical and manufacturing technology will match the capabilities of Ashland's flagship plant in Pueblo, CO, the vendor says.

FSI forms support group

FSI International has established a technical support group for its microlithography customers in Asia. The Chaska, MN—based supplier formed the group in South Korea with Metron Technology, its distributor in the region. The team will be based in a suburb of Seoul called Bundang-Ku, Sungnam-si. The office will house training classrooms and spare parts. FSI's product line includes the Polaris, OrbiTrak, and Scorpio microlithography cluster tools.

DuPont opens tech center

A technical center featuring UV exposure and development equipment has been opened by DuPont Microcircuit & Components Materials in Utsunomiya City, Japan. The company has also moved its thick-film product development and technical service activities to the site from Yokohama. The equipment will be used to process the company's Fodel photoimageable compositions for use in areas such as plasma display panels and low-temperature cofired ceramics. The center has a staff of more than 30 technical specialists.

TSMC chooses BOC

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) has selected BOC Edwards to provide turnkey chemical-management services for the chipmaker's Fab 6. Located in the Tainan Science Park, the three-level, 200-mm fab manufactures chips with 0.25-µm linewidths. BOC services include a central monitoring system to oversee chemical distribution as well as waste-collection systems to capture both acids and solvents.

Laser firm speaks Korean

A San Diego—based maker of excimer lasers for use in DUV lithography will provide Korean language training at a new center opened in June. Cymer put the customer training center in its existing sales and support office located in Seongnam, South Korea. The center will offer courses covering topics such as laser theory, system operation, maintenance, and advanced troubleshooting. The facility houses an operating ELS-5000 excimer laser for hands-on instruction. It will also accommodate Cymer's new ELS-5010 as well as its latest product, the Orion 6000.

Europe

Rippey opens Irish site

Rippey, a California-based manufacturer of PVA consumables for post-CMP cleaning, has opened a new plant near Dublin, Ireland, to service its growing list of European customers. Called Rippey Technology Co., the facility will act as a full-service center for sales, distribution, and customer support. The site houses a cleanroom for manufacturing the supplier's Microclean product line. The company opened offices last year in Singapore and Osaka, Japan. Bob Pederson, COO, says increased use of CMP processes by semiconductor manufacturers is expected to push the company's growth by a 20% annual rate through the year 2000.

Sensor site breeds in Finland

Breed Technologies, a manufacturer of safety systems for automobile passengers, has opened a 126,000-sq-ft plant in Helsinki to produce micromachined sensors. The new Fab 2 expands capacity for VTI Hamlin, Breed's subsidiary and a supplier of capacitive sensors and accelerometers. The fab can produce 10 million acceleration, pressure, or yaw rate—sensing elements per year. Capacity can be expanded to produce up to 50 million sensors annually. The facility houses an octagonal Class 10 lithography tool inside a Class 100 process area. The supplier says this setup will increase both yields and throughput. The Florida-based company has a joint venture with Siemens which makes micromachined silicon capacitive sensors.

Philips fab powers up

PowerFab 2, Philips Semiconductors' second foundry in Hazel Grove, Stockport, England, began production in July of power discrete chips used in cars, appliances, PCs, and VCRs. The fab has a daily production capacity of approximately 2 million discrete chips based on a throughput of 1700 6-in. wafers. Built at a cost of more than $106 million, the plant uses CMOS production techniques and 0.8-µm processes in a Class 10 cleanroom. The company also said it will use its Topfet2 process at the site, the latest addition to Philips' Power Semiconductors Competence Center in Hazel Grove. The fab has more than five times the wafer throughput capacity than its older Power MOS plant. Leon Husson, managing director for the company's discretes business unit, says Philips wants to become the world's largest supplier of the chips "within the next four years."

MicroHome | Search | Current Issue | MicroArchives
Buyers Guide | Media Kit