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Asia

BOC signs Korean deal

Atto, a South Korean manufacturer of gas cabinets, will begin making cabinets for BOC Gases under the terms of an agreement in which BOC has become part-owner of the company. Based in Shiheung, Atto will market the cabinets in the North Pacific region. Designed by BOC and Huntsville, AL­ based SCI, the cabinets have been exclusively manufactured in North America by SCI. They feature a six-valve manifold and a monoblock valve design. Atto's customers include Samsung, Goldstar, and Hyundai. In related news, Realtime Performance of Sunnyvale, CA, has appointed Atto as its marketing agent for the vendor's line of automation and control software for semiconductor manufacturing.

MKS supports Taiwan clients

MKS Instruments of Andover, MA, has opened a customer support center in Hsinchu, Taiwan. The company's representative, Formosa UHV Engineering Co., will provide technical support for all MKS, HPS division, and UTI division products. The office will also provide repair and calibration services for the vendor's line of capacitance manometers and mass-flow controllers.

Knights debuts in India

Knights Technology has opened a branch office in Mumbai, India, to meet market demand for the vendor's line of yield-management software programs. The office in the former city of Bombay will serve as a software development center and QA facility for Knights's Merlin's Framework program and the YieldManager system. The Sunnyvale, CA­based company says the Indian operations will enable it to provide local support to fabs in the region. The office will also serve as a center for developing technological enhancements and software interfaces for new equipment. The vp of engineering is Ken Huang.

Europe

Lam, SGS target 300 mm

Lam Research and SGS-Thomson Microelectronics have joined forces to develop etch technology capable of manufacturing next-generation ICs on 300-mm wafers. The three-year joint development program will focus on Lam's transformer coupled plasma (TCP) tool, which SGS-Thomson helped to birth in the early 1990s. The European chipmaker uses the toolmaker's TCP 9400SE and 9600 etch systems in several of its VLSI fabs, Lam says. Development and qualification work on the advanced etch processes is under way at SGS-Thomson's research center in Crolles, France, and at Lam's advanced R&D lab at its headquarters in Fremont, CA.

Newcastle gets Applied center

Newcastle, England, will be the site of a new training center that Applied Materials expects to open for classes in May. The vendor's European Technical Center will be located at the site of the proposed European Microelectronics Institute in North Tyneside. The 20,000-sq-ft facility will offer classroom instruction and hands-on training using both advanced process tools and computer-based simulations. Rodney Griffiths, president of Applied Materials Europe, says the six-month-long program will increase the supply of skilled equipment engineers available to the company. European chipmakers, suppliers, and government agencies are setting up the microelectronics institute in order to alleviate a shortage of trained support personnel in Europe.

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