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Europe

Lucent fab picks Aera MFCs

Aera has signed a contract with Lucent's microelectronics fab in Madrid, Spain, to be the chipmaker's exclusive supplier of mass-flow controllers. The Austin, TX­based supplier will install its D980 digital MFC and analog MFCs at the fab. The agreement covers current and future operations at the plant as well as new purchases and tool retrofitting. Prices will be evaluated annually, Aera says.

Israeli firm finds Euro rep

Sizary, a manufacturer of a technology for reducing wafer contamination, has signed a European distributor. Crystec Technology Trading of Neuötting, Germany, will market Sizary's Promecon products in Europe. The firm recently took Sizary's first European order from a chipmaker that is retrofitting furnaces with the Promecon-3000. The customer will use the technology to reduce furnace-cleaning expenses and metallic contamination in gate oxide processes. The value of the order was not disclosed. Sizary opened in 1993 in Migdal Tefen, Israel. The company's technology reduces metallic contamination on wafers by applying an electrical field to catalyze thermal diffusion. Sizary recently signed an agreement with the Thermco division of Silicon Valley Group in San Jose, which will incorporate the technology in its thermal processing tools. The Israeli firm says a commercial version of the system will be available in early 2000.

Steag buys start-up's software

Steag has purchased a companywide site license to use metrology software made by a German start-up. Boin of Tomerdingen shipped the software program, called Wafermap, to the process tool manufacturer for off-line metrology data analysis. The program, which runs under Windows 95 and NT 4.0, can import data from ellipsometers, four-point probes, and other metrology tools. The purchase is the largest order Boin has received since opening its doors in August 1998.

Boin has also signed agreements with three companies for expanded distribution of Wafermap. J. P. Kummer will sell the software throughout Europe. Sumisho Electronics will sell it in Japan, while Sewoo has the right to distribute Wafermap in South Korea. In April 1999, Boin awarded Hologenix distribution rights in the United States and Canada.

Philips picks Triant software

Philips Semiconductors will use equipment monitoring and fault detection software from Triant Technologies at the Philips MOS4YOU fab in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. The Model/ Ware/RT program will be used in the fab's metal etch section, and Philips also will consider using it in other process areas, according to Metron Technology, Triant's European distributor.

Infineon buys cluster tool

A PVD cluster tool from Trikon Technologies has been sent to Infineon Technologies's fab in Dresden, Germany. The chipmaker installed the Sigma fxP system on its 200-mm process line, where the tool takes its place with Sigma 200 systems already operating. The fxP features modules designed to improve titanium and titanium nitride base coverage inside contact holes and vias, according to Trikon. The system reduces the thickness of both metals on the wafer, facilitating CMP throughput.

Motorola makes SoC grant

Hoping to advance understanding of system-on-chip (SOC) design, Motorola has granted an academic license to an international consortium to develop a training program encompassing Latin American, U.S., and European universities. The chipmaker will permit the Ibero-American Science and Technology Education Consortium (ISTEC) to use Motorola's low-power M-Core microprocessor core and semiconductor reuse standards for SOC designs. The program will take in 50 universities. Motorola says its grant is worth approximately $25 million.

The goal of the program is to enable students to design and build an integrated SOC device. The agreement calls for ISTEC to use the donated tools and technology to create courses for its member universities. ISTEC provides courses for engineering and technical universities in 17 countries. The nonprofit consortium comprises educational, research, and industrial institutions throughout the Americas and the Iberian Peninsula.

Students will be able to create and simulate prototype system-on-chip designs. By 2000, students could make fully integrated designs based on the M-Core microprocessor on an affiliated pilot, Motorola says.

Asia

Müller makes Malaysian sale

Philipp Müller of Stuttgart, Germany, has received a large order for its complete ultrapure water production line from 1st Silicon, a wafer fab in Kuching/Sarawak, Malaysia. The foundry will use the systems for manufacturing chips with 0.25-µm geometries on 200-mm wafers. The systems will also treat CMP waste streams and other effluents. Delivery is scheduled for early 2000.

August opens Taiwan office

August Technology, a supplier of automated inspection and metrology tools, has opened its first applications support office in Taiwan. The office will have fully operational NSX-series systems. The tools are completely automated microdefect inspection systems. August Technology is based in Edina, MN. The company plans to open additional support offices in Japan and Southeast Asia before the end of the year, according to company president Jeff O'Dell.

SCP launches first partnership

SCP Global Technologies of Boise, ID, has set up its first joint venture, an Asian company that will distribute SCP's surface preparation tools. From its base at the Woodlands Industrial Park in Singapore, the venture, SCP Global Technologies Asia, will sell and service the tools in Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Taiwan, and Indonesia. SCP's partner is Singatrust, a distributor of equipment to the semiconductor and electronics industry. The new firm plans to establish a parts and service center, a training center, and an applications lab over the next 12 months. It will eventually manufacture and assemble automated systems under an agreement with SCP. Industry veteran Robert Glass relocated to Singapore to oversee the venture as president.

PRI to automate Taiwan fab

TSMC picked PRI Automation of Billerica, MA, to install a plantwide automation system in Fab 6, which is located in the Tainan Science-based Industrial Park. The multimillion-dollar order encompasses PRI's TurboStockers, reticle stockers, AeroTrak tools, TransNet material control systems, and Promis software. PRI cites the order as further proof of an upswing in the semiconductor equipment market.

FEI award is Japanese first

FEI of Hillsboro, OR, became the first company outside Japan to win the Japan Industrial Design Promotion Organization Award. FEI recently received the 29th Machine Design Award for its Tecnai transmission electron microscope. Unlike traditionally complicated TEMs with their peripheral detectors and data collection subsystems, the FEI TEM integrates all systems. It uses one monitor, mouse, and keyboard operating in Windows NT. According to FEI, the judges liked the microscope's simple operation and ergonomic design, developed by FEI's Electron Optics division.

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