INDUSTRY NEWS

EXPANSIONS AND ACQUISITIONS

Comdisco buys tool supplier

San Diego—based Comdisco Electronics Group, which provides equipment management services to the semiconductor industry, purchased the majority of the surplus equipment inventory of Integrated Solutions International for an undisclosed sum. The unit is the surplus equipment management division of Integrated Solutions of Austin, TX. The sale enables the parent company to concentrate on its lithography business and strengthens Comdisco's position in the refurbished-equipment market. The acquisition includes Integrated Solutions' 33,000-sq-ft refurbishing plant in Austin and increases the size of Comdisco's physical plant in the United States to more than 100,000 sq ft.

Raytheon sells chip biz

Raytheon sold its microchip manufacturing business to Fairchild Semiconductor of South Portland, ME, for $120 million in cash. The companies completed the deal in December. A total of 421 people are employed at Raytheon's fabs in Mountain View, CA, and San Diego, with the bulk of them working at the Mountain View site, according to Robert McWade, vice president of corporate affairs for Raytheon. The semiconductor unit had revenues of approximately $70 million in 1996. Raytheon is based in Lexington, MA.

Vendors combine fab software

Two suppliers of fab management and automation programs have agreed to jointly market scheduling products designed to improve semiconductor manufacturing productivity. Tyecin Systems of Los Altos, CA, and Promis Systems of Nashua, NH, say their partnership will offer chipmakers a suite of tools for improving the management of fab operations. Tyecin produces planning and scheduling software for overseeing the chip production supply line. Promis makes manufacturing and automation software showing current factory status for planners and schedulers. The suppliers' programs operate together at Fujitsu-AMD Semiconductor's 8-in. fab in Aizu, Wakamatsu, Japan, which makes flash memory devices.

Vendors close garment deal

The merger of industrial uniform supplier Cintas and Eastwater Scientific Products gives customers of both vendors one-stop shopping for garments and cleanroom consumables, the two vendors say. Eastwater represents more than 600 suppliers of cleanroom gloves, wipes, face masks, Tyvek apparel, and related products. In addition to its headquarters in Rancho Santa Margarita, CA, Eastwater operates two other facilities, in Santa Clara, CA, and Tempe, AZ. Cincinnati-based Cintas, which operates more than 130 plants in North America, says the merger marks a major expansion of its cleanroom division. The division includes Class 1 and Class 10 laundries in Newburgh, NY; Gilroy, CA; and Greenville, SC.

SVG lab adds cluster capability

The West Coast applications laboratory of Silicon Valley Group (SVG) has installed an SVG Micrascan deep-UV lithography system that will enable the vendor to develop photoresist processes for devices with linewidths ¾0.25 µm. The lab will offer clients a functioning lithography cluster tool that can demonstrate CD control, sub-0.25-µm DUV photoresist processes, and process verification. The Micrascan system will be combined with SVG's 90-S photoresist tool and will be used eventually with the vendor's next-generation 200-APS photoresist system. The cluster capability provided by the addition of the Micrascan tool integrates SVG's photo process and lithography divisions. SVG says the goal of the service is to give semiconductor manufacturers access to hands-on experience with DUV photolithography processes.

Microbar keeps growing

Microbar, a manufacturer of chemical management equipment, moved to a 50,000-sq-ft complex in Sunnyvale, CA, that is triple the size of its previous facility. The site has a 20,000-sq-ft cleanroom in a manufacturing space measuring 22,000 sq ft. An open house marking the event on January 21 was attended by Congresswoman Anna Eshoo, a Democrat whose 14th congressional district covers a portion of Silicon Valley. Founded in 1991, Microbar has been one of the fastest-growing companies in the region, a fact attributed to the industry's need for safe delivery and removal of hazardous chemicals, the vendor says.

AZ joins Clariant

AZ Electronic Materials, a unit of Hoechst Celanese, has become a division of Clariant through the merger of Hoechst's specialty chemicals division with Clariant. The new parent firm is based in Muttenz, Switzerland, and has annual global sales of $6 billion. The merger gives AZ Electronic Materials control of raw materials and the global reach needed at a time when "the industry moves toward trace metals specifications in the parts-per-trillion range," says company vice president Friedrich Herold. The Swiss vendor is a world leader in specialty chemicals. In 1997 AZ announced an $80-million plan to expand facilities in the United States, South Korea, Japan, and Germany. The vendor will spend approximately $43 million in the United States for a new plant and 4500-sq-ft testing cleanroom.

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