INDUSTRY NEWS

EXPANSIONS AND ACQUISITIONS

Construction company bows in

Engineering firm Black & Veatch and construction giant McCarthy have formed BVM, a design-build firm specializing in construction projects for the semiconductor and microelectronics industries. Headquartered in Phoenix, the new company was established to provide clients with access to fast-track construction services. Black & Veatch and McCarthy collaborated on three projects costing $25 million for Texas Instruments before forming BVM. The start-up is headed by Bob Predmore, a 12-year veteran of Motorola who served most recently as the chipmaker's design and construction director. Black & Veatch, headquartered in Kansas City, MO, had revenues of $1.1 billion in 1995, and St. Louis­based McCarthy had $790 million in revenues for the same year.

Photronics praises new plant

Photronics' recently opened photomask plant at Millennium Technology Park in Allen, TX, houses MEBES 4500 electron-beam and ALTA 3000 laser lithography systems, making the facility the most advanced such plant in the world, the vendor boasts. The production systems enable Photronics to make masks for production of 0.25-µm devices. Advanced defect inspection tools and metrology systems from Orbot Instruments, KLA Instruments, and Leica have also been installed at the 62,000-sq-ft site. Meanwhile, Photronics announced that it has delivered the first full-field, die-to-database inspected photomasks with optical proximity corrected (OPC) features. The masks were produced in collaboration with MicroUnity Systems Engineering of Sunnyvale, CA. Photomasks with IC layout designs using the OPC features can increase the depth of focus of a wafer stepper, improve CD resolution, and enhance pattern fidelity, asserts Photronics. Chipmakers using OPC masks stand to benefit from improvements in yield, manufacturability, and reliability.

Filter plant expands

Filtration Group has enlarged its filter plant in York, SC, by more than 30%. The expansion includes an additional 24,000 sq ft of space devoted to the production of the company's AQF gas-phase filters. AQF is an alliance between Hoechst Celanese of Charlotte, NC, and Filtration Group, which is based in Joliet, IL. Production area at the plant now totals 96,000 sq ft. AQF filters, which reduce airborne molecular contamination, are used in HVAC and OEM applications.

Kinetico finishes renovation

Water treatment equipment manufacturer Kinetico has added more than 25,000 sq ft of space to its international headquarters in Newbury, OH. The enlarged area includes an R&D wing, multimedia training facility, analytical laboratory, and office space. The vendor recently moved its engineered systems division into a recently vacated building in Newbury. The new building gives Kinetico an additional 75,000 sq ft of space.

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