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Planar chooses YieldUP

Planar Systems has purchased several systems from YieldUP International for installation at its display plant in Beaverton, OR. Valued at $400,000, the order includes YieldUP's Omega2000 systems for cleaning, rinsing, and drying substrates. Planar also bought CleanPoint point-of-use DI water filtration systems. The display manufacturer will use the glass-drying system for production of electroluminescent panels. The tool will be incorporated in a next-generation process that is part of an advanced technology program contract that Planar has signed with NIST.

Applied takes next step

Applied Materials will install a deep-UV stepper from ASM Lithography (ASML) in the "minifab" that the front-end equipment vendor is building in Santa Clara, CA. The lithography tool will be used to study "the interaction between lithography and the deposition, etch, and CMP processes that are used before and after the lithography step," according to Willem Maris, ASML's president and CEO. Applied announced in July that it was establishing the $430-million virtual fab to aid the vendor in developing equipment for 200- and 300-mm wafer processing. The 200-mm pilot line will be designed so that it can be upgraded to accommodate 300-mm substrates. ASML also announced its first sales of stepper systems to Hyundai. The South Korean chipmaker will install the PAS 5500/300B deep-UV and PAS 5500/200B i-line tools, valued at more than $170 million, in its fabs in Inchon, Korea, and Dunfermline, Scotland.

CVD tool goes to Taiwan

Taiwan-based United Semiconductor has ordered a WJ-2000H high-density plasma CVD system from Watkins-Johnson for installation at its fab in Hsinchu. The system will be used to develop applications for sub-0.25-µm intermetal dielectric deposition and shallow-trench isolation.

Taiwan fab taps CFM

"A major Taiwanese manufacturer" has placed a follow-on order for two Full-Flow wet-etch and prediffusion clean systems with CFM Technologies, the toolmaker announced. Valued at $5 million, the 8100 dual-vessel systems are scheduled for installation during the final quarter of this year.

Head manufacturer likes Veeco

Thin-film magnetic-head manufacturer DAS Devices has purchased $9 million worth of etch systems from Veeco Instruments of Plainview, NY. The RF-350 Microetch tools will be installed through the first quarter of 1998 at plants in the United States and Asia. Features of the single-substrate etch tool include a 300-mm-diam inductively coupled ion source.

Probers go to Arizona

Motorola will install Electroglas wafer probers at three of its Arizona-based plants. The Horizon 4090 systems will be used at the MOS 21 and final die manufacturing operations facilities in Mesa and at the advanced digital consumer division site in Chandler. Installation is scheduled through the end of the first quarter of 1998.

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