INDUSTRY NEWS

EXPANSIONS AND ACQUISITIONS

Court okays SubMicron sale

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware has approved the sale of SubMicron Systems, a manufacturer of wet surface preparation equipment, to Akrion. The buyer is a management-led investment group headed by David Ferran, Akrion's chairman of the board and CEO. SubMicron hired Ferran in 1997 to oversee its restructuring. In addition to members of SubMicron's senior management team, Akrion's sponsors are Sunrise Capital Partners as well as secured lenders Equinox Investment Partners and Celerity Partners. The transaction totals more than $55 million. Akrion has agreed to keep most of SubMicron's global workforce of approximately 280 employees. SubMicron's Asian subsidiaries are not included in the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. However, the stock of the Asian subsidiaries has been sold to Akrion, according to a statement released in September by SubMicron Systems.

Based in Allentown, PA, SubMicron began having financial problems in 1996. The company reported losses of more than $20 million that year on revenue of more than $171 million. Poor product quality, high warranty costs, long installation times, and poor performance of noncore businesses caused the losses, the company says. Losses continued to mount during the semiconductor industry downturn. Despite efforts to turn the firm around, SubMicron found itself more than $50 million in debt and facing a severe cash shortage.

Akrion says it has more than $11 million in cash and total debts of less than $1 million. The company plans to spend more than $8 million on product development, increased staffing, and a technology center in Singapore.

Entegris buys Mace

Entegris says its recent acquisition of Mace Products from Osmonics will enable the vendor to take advantage of chipmakers' growing need for custom valves. Minnesota-based Entegris bought Mace for its proprietary PTFE compression molding process. Mace's molding technology uses 100% virgin PTFE resin to minimize microcontamination, according to Entegris. As part of the purchase agreement, Entegris will continue to operate the 22,000-sq-ft Mace plant in Upland, CA. Incorporated in California, the new company will be called Entegris Upland. Frank Sidell, senior vice president of Entegris, is president of the business, which will be governed by a three-member board of directors. The board comprises Sidell; Guy Milliren, Entegris senior vice president; and John Villas, CFO and vice president of finance.

SET sets up new site

Semiconductor Equipment Technology (SET) has combined its manufacturing and corporate headquarters in one new facility. Located in Dublin, CA, the new building measures 35,000 sq ft and is devoted to sputter shield manufacturing and shield management services. The site houses Class 10 and Class 100 cleanrooms for shield cleaning, packaging, and assembly. A center for engineering sputter shields has also been established.

Ultratech, Shin-Etsu sign pact

Ultratech Stepper and Shin-Etsu MicroSi will work together to evaluate the performance of photoresists for i-line, g-line, and broadband exposure tools. Under the terms of a nonexclusive alliance the companies plan to use Ultratech's lithography systems to explore Shin-Etsu's line of resists for applications that include thin-film head lithography, micromachining, and bump processing. The goal of the alliance is to offer customers a fully developed resist process that will enable them to easily integrate new steppers into process lines. The firms will focus on isolated spaces, contact holes, and dense lines in spin, baking, and development. They will conduct the work at facilities in San Jose and Wilmington, MA.

SOI firm opens Class 1 site

Silicon Genesis, a manufacturer of silicon-on-insulator wafers, has opened a Class 1 cleanroom plant in San Jose. Based in nearby Campbell, the company will make 150- and 200-mm SOI substrates at the site. It is the first thin-SOI wafer facility in North America, the company says. Operations were scheduled to begin in December. Production capacity is 20,000 SOI wafers per month.

DI water vendor expands

Process Technology, a Mentor, OH­based manufacturer of heaters for DI water and other chemicals, has added 15,000 sq ft of space, including an expanded manufacturing facility of its Class 100 cleanroom, to the high-purity products business. The cleanroom will be used for manufacturing, assembling, and testing in-line quartz electric heaters and fluoropolymer heat exchangers.

DPI ups mask capacity

DuPont Photomasks has spent $38 million upgrading its manufacturing capabilities. The company has added two advanced production lines for photomasks used in making semiconductors with geometries ¾0.18 µm. The lines are located at the vendor's headquarters in Round Rock, TX, and at its plant in Santa Clara, CA. Volume production at the California site is scheduled to begin during the first quarter of 2000. The production lines incorporate an Alta 3500 laser pattern generator from Etec Systems, DPI says.

Lam buys cleaning technology

Lam Research has purchased wafer-cleaning technology from Oliver Design that the supplier plans to incorporate into its Teres CMP tool. Lam paid approximately $8.8 million for the technology, which the company touts as a good match for its 300-mm wafer cleaning capability. If the company successfully commercializes the technology, Lam may pay up to $2 million in additional licensing fees to Oliver. Oliver Design manufactures disk-cleaning equipment.