INDUSTRY NEWS

EXPANSIONS AND ACQUISITIONS

Applied swaps for Consilium

Applied Materials will purchase Consilium, a supplier of MES systems, in a stock swap. Consilium shares will be traded for 0.182 to 0.165 per share of Applied common stock. The ratio will be based on the average closing price of Applied stock during a specified period before Consilium's shareholders meet to vote on the merger, Applied says. The world's largest process tool supplier says the acquisition will be completed either by the end of this year or by early 1999, depending on factors such as regulatory approval and stockholder consent. Applied notes that some Consilium stockholders had already agreed to support the merger by the date of its announcement on October 12. Based in Mountain View, CA, Consilium says it has the world's largest installed base of independent MES software. Its primary product, WorkStream, is installed at more than 250 sites around the world. The merger will create "a wide range of synergies" that will enable customers "to improve overall equipment effectiveness and total fab productivity," asserts Sass Somekh, senior vice president in the office of the president for Applied Materials.

New microscope firm emerges

ThermoMicroscopes is the name of the new company born out of the recently announced merger of Park Scientific Instruments and TopoMetrix. Park Scientific's expertise rests in ambient and ultra-high-vacuum scanning probe microscopy (SPM) for R&D applications in materials science. SPM pioneer TopoMetrix specializes in offering applications-oriented SPM tools that integrate a range of scanning probe techniques. ThermoMicroscopes possesses SPM intellectual property and a patent portfolio second only to IBM, which invented SPM technology, according to the new firm. Gary Aden, the former president of TopoMetrix and current president of Park Scientific, will be the new president of ThermoMicroscopes. Combined product advantages offered by the new company include open architecture for both hardware and software, says Aden. ThermoMicroscopes will be a subsidiary of Thermo Electron's ThermoSpectra; Park Scientific is among the more than 300 companies under the Thermo Electron name. The combined firms will operate from Park Scientific's facilities in Sunnyvale, CA.

Soitec opens SOI plant

Soitec, a manufacturer of silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers, has moved to its new plant in Bernin, France. The $50-million facility is located in the same industrial park as STMicroelectronics' new 8-in. and planned 12-in. fabs. The Soitec plant houses a 15,000-sq-ft Class 1 cleanroom. The facility will be able to produce 1 million SOI wafers by the end of 1999, Soitec says. The company and its strategic alliance partner Shin-Etsu Handotai (SEH), a producer of bulk silicon wafers, are planning to open a second manufacturing line in Japan to produce Soitec's Unibond products. The Unibond substrates are made with Soitec's patented SmartCut process, an implantation technique requiring only one wafer to form a bonded product. Soitec notes that SOI wafers are well suited for use with high-speed ICs with linewidths ¾0.18 µm. The devices are used in telecommunications systems and notebook computers requiring low voltage and low power consumption.

ATMI launches gas sensor biz

ATMI of Danbury, CT, has set up a new business called Q4D to develop sensors capable of detecting exhaust, hazardous, process, or reactor gases. The sensors will combine piezoelectric materials and ATMI's thin-film expertise to enable detection of extremely low levels of hazardous gases, according to the parent firm. Product offerings are exhaust hazard sensors to measure tool effluent, hazardous gas monitors to provide worker safety, process gas monitors to improve process uniformity, and reactor gas monitors to make in situ measurements. ATMI says the sensors will need no calibration.

Laundry greets the new year

Prudential Cleanroom Services says a new cleanroom laundry slated to open in January is the largest Class 1 laundry in the world. Located in Milpitas, CA, the facility replaces Prudential's existing laundry in nearby Fremont. Prudential says that production demands were outstripping capacity at the Fremont site, which opened in 1987. The Milpitas laundry will have three times more capacity than its predecessor. The new facility measures more than 40,000 sq ft and houses a 12,000- sq-ft cleanroom.

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