Ashland Specialty Chemical blames a drop in both sales volume and prices for its recent decision to increase the prices of process chemicals and strippers. The company's electronic chemicals division announced increases of 5 to 15% for ultrapure wet process chemicals and ACT strippers. Reduction in market volume and pricing between 1997 and 2001, compounded by price spikes for raw materials and demands for improved service, has cut into profits, argues Charles Cook Jr., the division's vice president and general manager. The increase goes into effect immediately, "or as soon as contracts permit," says Bob Rohlfing, business director for process chemicals and business development.

Only three of the top 10 semiconductor manufacturers in 2000 held their positions in the 2001 rankings, reports iSuppli. Intel stayed atop the rankings, while Infineon and Philips kept their eighth and ninth spots, respectively, says the California-based market research firm. Rounding out the top 10 in order are STMicroelectronics, Toshiba, TI, Samsung, Motorola, NEC, and AMD.

AMD rose from 16th place in 2000 to make the list at number 10 in 2001. STM climbed over NEC, Samsung, TI, and Toshiba to reach the second spot in 2001.

All of the top 10 chipmakers experienced decreases in sales ranging from Toshiba's 41.8% drop to AMD's 11.2% decline, iSuppli notes. At 11.2%, AMD's sales declined the least, as the microprocessor rival to Intel took in $3.89 billion in 2001, down from $4.38 billion the previous year.

Top dog Intel had sales of $23.54 billion in 2001, compared with sales of $30.21 billion in 2000, or a 22.1% decline. And iSuppli reports that overall worldwide sales decreased 31.7% in 2001, from $220.5 billion in 2000 to $150.5 billion.

Manufacturers of DRAMs in particular took the brunt of the downturn, the firm reports. Both Toshiba and Samsung Electronics experienced revenue drops of more than 41% in 2001. The drop in DRAM sales hit Micron Technology particularly hard. The chip manufacturer slipped from 10th to 18th in the research firm's 2001 rankings. Of the 49 semiconductor subcategories, the only market segment to show growth in 2001 was 32-bit microcontrollers, the report notes.

The Texas-based subsidiary of TEL will become the tool manufacturer's exclusive R&D facility in the United States. The subsidiary, Tokyo Electron Texas (TEX), houses a demonstration lab, process tools, and metrology equipment. The process systems include lithography tools and low-k dielectric spin-on tools. TEX plans to add integrated metrology, advanced process control, and advanced equipment control systems.

The Austin facility is TEL's first site devoted exclusively to lithographic R&D outside of Japan. TEL manufactures the Clean Track ACT 12 track tool for 300-mm wafers. The company says it controls 80% of the global lithography track system market and 85% of the market in the United States.

The worldwide market for thin-film deposition gear will see a wafer-thin increase in sales this year, according to The Information Network. In a new report, the market research firm predicts 4% growth in 2002. The growth follows a year in which revenues for deposition equipment suppliers plummeted 46.1% to $3.4 billion. Worldwide sales will grow to $3.6 billion in 2002, the research firm reports.

Applied Materials towers over the deposition tool markets. The world's largest seller of process tools has 83% of the PVD market, 48% of the metal CVD market, and 58% of the dielectric CVD market, according to The Information Network. Robert Castellano, president of the firm, notes that Applied grew its share of the low-k dielectric system market from 31% in 2000 to 61% in 2001.

Intel researchers in Hillsboro, OR, claim they're the first to build the world's smallest SRAM memory cells. Measuring only 1 µm² , the components are parts of fully functioning SRAMs built with Intel's 90-nm process technology, the chipmaker says.

Sunlin Chou, Intel's senior vice president and general manager of the technology and manufacturing group, says the SRAM cell "has established a new density benchmark for silicon technology. This result gives us an early lead on 90-nm process technology for microprocessors and other products."

Intel says the researchers built 52-Mbit chips containing 330 million transistors each on a chip measuring just 109 mm², the highest-capacity SRAMs ever reported. They conducted the work at D1C, Intel's 300-mm development fab in Hillsboro, using advanced 193- and 248-nm lithography systems.