INDUSTRY NEWS

EXPANSIONS AND ACQUISITIONS

Applied plan includes 'minifab'

Applied Materials will convert one of the buildings at its headquarters to a dedicated development center for 300-mm wafer applications and build another facility that will be a virtual fab. The changes are part of a two-year, $430-million expansion project. The renovations to this building and other existing facilities in Santa Clara, CA, will cost approximately $121 million. The front-end equipment vendor will spend an additional $309 million to build and equip a 153,000-sq-ft applications lab at the company's Arques Campus in Santa Clara. The lab will eventually house approximately 60 process tools, the bulk of which will be 300-mm compatible. Construction began in July on the new lab, and tool installations are set for completion in November. The entire project will be completed by February 1999.

One of the facilities on the Arques Campus will act as a "minifab," housing wet process, lithography, and metrology systems which will be used for process development. The vendor--whose product line includes CVD, etch, PVD, CMP, implantation, and inspection gear--offered a sneak preview of its 300-mm product line in mid-July at Semicon West in San Francisco. Among the chambers and tools on display were a 300-mm metallization system with PVD and metal CVD process chambers, as well as a CMP tool.

Parker buys valve venture

Parker Hannifin of Cleveland has purchased the other half of an equally shared joint venture it formed in 1993 with SAES Pure Gas. The business unit, SAES-Parker UHP Components, manufactures UHP gas valves. The company, which employs 50 and has annual sales of $10 million, will remain in San Luis Obispo, CA. The unit will become part of Parker's instrumentation valve division. Parker did not disclose the purchase price.

National expands 8-in. site

National Semiconductor broke ground in July on a $100-million expansion of its 8-in. fab in Santa Clara, CA. The chipmaker will add 15,000-sq-ft of Class 1 cleanroom space to its Advanced Technology Group fab. The chipmaker uses the 25,000-sq-ft R&D facility to evaluate and develop processes and equipment before transferring the advancements to its production fab in South Portland, ME. National will hire an additional 100 employees, including engineers, technicians, and fab operators. First stab at the new positions will be given to employees of the chipmaker's 5- and 6-in. wafer fab lines in Santa Clara. National is closing these lines because they use outdated technologies. Construction of the new fab is scheduled for completion in May 1998.

FSI opens slurry lab

FSI International's chemical management division has opened a general chemistry lab to collaborate with slurry suppliers in testing the handling characteristics of slurry in the vendor's blending and distribution modules. Located in Hollister, CA, near Monterey, the lab is designed to provide quantifiable data to customers on the performance of the distribution systems before fab installation.

Eaton to expand thermal biz

Eaton Semiconductor Equipment Operations will enlarge the office space for its thermal processing systems business by 40%. Based in Peabody, MA, the business unit manufactures rapid thermal process and fast ramp vertical furnace systems. Eaton formed the unit after it purchased High Temperature Engineering in May 1996. The thermal business has more than tripled since its inception, Eaton says.

Allied moves HQ

AlliedSignal Advanced Microelectronic Materials (AMM) has moved its headquarters to a 51,000-sq-ft building in Sunnyvale, CA. The facility houses two cleanrooms and additional laboratory facilities for new product research. AMM's customer service, applications support, R&D, sales, finance, and marketing departments are also in the building. Manufacturing, quality control, and site services remain at the company's facility in Santa Clara, CA.

MGN opens new HQ

Cleanroom test equipment distributor MGN International has opened a new headquarters in Vista, CA. The 2000-sq-ft plant will also serve as the company's service lab, demonstration lab, and Southwestern U.S. sales center. The company's product line includes particle counters, facility monitoring systems, concentration analyzers, and silicon test wafers.

Pall signs two pacts

Pall and Unit Instruments will develop a mass-flow controller incorporating Pall's PPT purifier for gas-delivery systems under the terms of a strategic alliance. The PPT purifier lowers the moisture content in process gases to the parts-per-trillion levels, Pall says. An MFC incorporating the instrument in a single component the size of traditional MFCs will enable chipmakers to improve gas purity without redesigning their existing lines, the filtration vendor asserts. Pall estimates that the global market for the new component will be $15 million per year. The company hopes to introduce the product before July 1998.

Pall also signed an agreement with Matheson's electronic products group that gives Pall's microelectronics unit the distribution rights to Matheson's Nanochem POU gas-purification products. The Nanochem products, which remove impurities such as moisture, oxygen, and carbon dioxide from gases, will be used with Pall's Ultramet-L filters. Applications for the assembly unit include bulk inert gases, gas cabinets, and POU purification.

BOC buys Systems Chemistry

The BOC Group has signed an agreement with SubMicron Systems to purchase Systems Chemistry, a manufacturer of bulk chemical and CMP slurry distribution equipment, for an undisclosed sum. If approved, the purchase will expand BOC's business roster, which includes BOC Gases and Edwards High Vacuum International. Systems Chemistry, a subsidiary of SubMicron Systems, has a worldwide installed base of more than 1300 tools.

Solvay has start-up hiccup

Solvay Interox has postponed the opening of its new HP plant in Deer Park, TX, because of what the vendor claims is slow growth in market demand for the chemical. The Houston-based producer will delay the opening until late 1997. Solvay's two hydrogen peroxide plants are located in Deer Park and Longview, WA. The new plant will incorporate autooxidation chemistry and engineering design advances to make it the most efficient HP facility in the world, according to Solvay.

San Diego IC maker expands

Applied Micro Circuits (AMCC) will build a new fab at its San Diego site as part of a $70-million expansion plan. The new fab is scheduled for completion in 2000. The three-year, two-phase expansion includes a $15-million upgrade of the company's fab in Sorrento Valley near San Diego. In addition, the chipmaker expects to move into a 90,000-sq-ft administration and design building by the end of this month.

MEMC invests in 300 mm

MEMC Electronic Materials is investing $250 million to increase production capacity for 300-mm wafers at plants in the United States and Japan. The supplier is adding crystal-growing and wafer-processing systems at its pilot line in St. Peters, MO, where the company has its headquarters. The plant began producing developmental 300-mm wafers there in early 1997. MEMC has also broken ground on a 300-mm wafer plant adjacent to its existing facility in Utsunomiya, Japan, northeast of Tokyo. The 11,000-sq-ft addition will house tools capable of processing 300-mm wafers from crystal through epitaxial film growth. The current Japanese facility produces 150- and 200-mm polished and epitaxial wafers. The new plant is scheduled to begin production in mid-1998.

Kinetico signs sales rep

Kinetico's engineered systems division has signed EDC of Dallas as a technical manufacturer's representative. EDC will market the business unit's line of water purification, wastewater treatment, waste minimization, and water recycling systems in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri, and Kansas. EDC is also a distributor for DuPont Electronic Materials and Shipley.

Fujikin finds Northwest rep

SemiTorr Northwest of Wilsonville, OR, will distribute Fujikin of America's line of UHP valves and fittings in the Pacific Northwest under the terms of a new agreement. SemiTorr has formed SemiTorr Distribution to handle sales and support. SemiTorr Northwest opened as a manufacturers' representative in 1988. Fujikin is based in Santa Clara, CA.

Ashland to market HCl

Detrex Chemicals Division has selected Ashland Chemical's electronic chemicals division as the exclusive North American distributor for Detrex's Ultramax high-purity HCl. Ashland will sell and provide technical service for the entire Ultramax line, which includes HCl with impurity levels of 10 ppb and 1 ppb.

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