European Market Share Improved in 2001 European chip equipment suppliers gained market share in 2001 against U.S. and Japanese suppliers, according to a recent report by VLSI Research. The total sales for European suppliers were $4.44B in 2001, a 27 percent decline from 2000. Their U.S. counterparts saw a 40 percent decline, while Japanese suppliers were down by 30 percent. In an overall ranking of European companies, traditional semiconductor equipment suppliers ASML and ASM International led with sales of $1544M and $463M, respectively. Both of these companies had significant drops in sales in the first half of 2001 but recovered with solid stabilization in the later part of the year. Unaxis, Aixtron, SUSS MicroTec and SEZ ranked in positions three to six. "We are pleased to see the very high diversity of the European chip equipment supplier base," stated Bob Mariner, managing director, VLSI Research Europe. "The Top 10 list has companies in all semiconductor-related equipment markets and this diversity helped them gain market share in 2001." The balance of the European Top 10 list consists of a variety of companies. ESEC and FICO are both assembly equipment suppliers and achieved positions seventh and tenth, respectively. Trikon, a deposition and etch systems supplier, was ranked eighth, while Multitest, a supplier of package handling equipment for ATE, was ninth. (April 15)
STI Receives Order from 300-mm Wafer Foundry PLANO, TEXAS Semiconductor Technologies & Instruments (STI), a subsidiary of ASTI Holdings Ltd. of Singapore, has received a repeat order for its Automated Wafer Inspection WAV 1000 system from a predominant wafer foundry in Taiwan. The system is used for to inspect process defects down to 1 micron, with 0.5 micron defect detection for bond pads. This tool can detect critical kill defects, including scratches, particles, voids, flaking, peeling and contaminants. "This application is appealing for whole or post-saw wafers at pre- and post-probe and bumping process inspection points," said Rajiv Roy, president of STI Inc, USA. "This additional delivery to the largest wafer foundry in Taiwan further endorses the user-friendly and superior price-to-performance advantages of STI's wafer yield enhancement tools." (April 11)
STATS Launches mySTATS Portal SINGAPORE AND MILPITAS, CALIF. ST Assembly Test Services Ltd (STATS) has successfully completed implementation and testing of mySTATS, a new enterprise portal that offers a virtual extension to customers' manufacturing operations. mySTATS is part of a company-wide IT initiative to provide customers with real-time access to manufacturing information. This strategy includes a business-to-business engine based on the RosettaNet standard for electronic sharing of business information. This capability will offer customers an alternative channel for rapid exchange of product-specific information and transactions via the Internet. The system is being rolled out to all STATS customers. (April 10)
ASE and MTBS to Develop Large Silicon Flip Chip Packages SAN JOSE, CALIF. ASE Test Ltd. and MTBSolutions Inc. (MTBS) have reached a cooperative working agreement in the development of the next generation of flip chip packages. Under the agreement, ASE Electronics Malaysia, a wholly owned subsidiary of ASE Test Ltd., will manufacture flip chip packages according to the process and design requirements jointly developed by ASE and MTBS. The companies expect these to be the first packages designed for large silicon flip chip used in very high I/O and large bandwidth applications, and they have applied for a variety of patents related to design and assembly of the packages. ASE plans to offer the newly developed large silicon flip chip package in body sizes from 27 mm x 27 mm up to 52.5 mm x 52.5 mm. The difficulty in packaging large silicon die in an organic substrate arises from the gross mismatch between the thermal coefficients of expansion of the silicon (4 ppm) and the organic substrate material (16 ppm). Because of these mismatches, the flip chip interconnects are severely stressed and prone to failure when the device is temperature cycled. "If we were to use the existing material sets and process methods for large silicon flip chip as we do for the smaller die sizes, we would fail reliability -- particularly in temperature cycling conditions," said Bob Hilton, CTO of MTBS. "These emerging high I/O and large silicon flip chip packaging demands are significantly more process critical than the previous generation of flip chip devices." "Industry forecasts suggest that the very high I/O and large bandwidth applications will represent a significant portion of all flip chip packaging demands and that the compounded annual growth rate for these package types is in excess of 60 percent, far outpacing all other advanced packaging opportunities," said BC Chong, vice president of technology and business development, ASE Electronics Malaysia. The packages will also use a high density, high-speed substrate provided by AMITEC. (April 9)
Cookson Renames Businesses Cookson Electronics, a manufacturer of electronic assembly materials, equipment and PWB materials and chemistry, has renamed a number of its companies to reposition itself and better define its organization to its customers, shareholders, employees and vendors. The businesses formerly known as Speedline Technologies, Alpha-Fry Technologies, and Polyclad Technologies will now be known as Cookson Electronics Equipment, Cookson Electronics Assembly Materials and Cookson Electronics PWB Materials & Chemistry, respectively. (April 8)
ChipPAC Sees Broad-based Improvement in 1Q02 FREMONT, CALIF. ChipPAC Inc. announced this week that its preliminary results for the first quarter, which ended March 31, show both revenue and per-share results ahead of initial guidance. The company attributes the gains to improving order rates and customer forecasts. The company now expects revenues of approximately $79 million for the first quarter 2002, which would be sequentially higher than the prior fourth quarter, with a loss in the range of ($0.15) to ($0.16) per share. ChipPAC's initial guidance was for first quarter revenues to be sequentially flat to down, in the range of $74-$77 million, with a loss of approximately ($0.18) to ($0.22) per share. "Each month of the quarter improved sequentially with strong growth in March. Even February came in strong despite the Chinese New Year and the shorter work month. Overall, demand is improving across all sectors both faster and broader than we projected," said Dennis McKenna, chairman and CEO. "Our forecasts indicate this trend will continue through 2002." (April 5)
Universal Instruments Offers Web Tools BINGHAMTON, NEW YORK Universal Instruments has expanded the availability of its MyUniversal Web site for its customers, www.uic.com. The system is a secure, customized area of Universal's Web site created to improve communication with customers. By using the Web site, all Universal Instruments' customers have the capability to access a number of specialized services, including placing orders, reviewing new features of products, registering for software enhancements, and retrieving account histories. (April 4)
Name Change for Speedline FRANKLIN, MASS. Speedline Technologies has changed its name to Cookson Electronics Equipment Group to better align itself with its parent company, Cookson Electronics, and sister companies, Cookson Electronics Assembly Materials Group and Cookson Electronics PWB Materials & Chemistry Group. The company will continue to operate as a separately entity. Collectively, the companies specialize in laminates, solder and flux, cleaning processes, equipment and services. (April 3)
JEDEC Forms Committee on Wireless LAN Chips ARLINGTON, VA JEDEC has formed a wireless interface networking group to enable cost-effective interoperable semiconductor module solutions for enterprise, consumer and embedded applications. The group will develop industry interface standards for semiconductors between the major functional blocks. The standards will specify between radio and baseband, as well as between PHY and MAC in wireless networking systems. While the initial focus will be on wireless LAN systems, the interface standards should be applicable for other wireless networking standards. The efforts of the committee originated from several industry-wide efforts led by Acer Laboratories, Conexant Systems, Hewlett-Packard, Mitsubishi Electric and Electronics, and Philips. "Developing standard interfaces for the functional semiconductor modules in an 802.11 wireless LAN will give OEMs the freedom to choose the ideal combination of components from multiple vendors instead of being forces to choose the complete chipset from one vendor," said Benno Ritter, strategic marketing manager, Philips. (April 2)
ICC to Collaborate with TI CHICAGO International Components Corp. (ICC) today announced it is working with Texas Instruments (TI) to develop and manufacture battery management solutions for OEMs of rechargeable products. ICC's product line covers fuel gauges, charge control modules and safety circuits. These products help maximize performance and battery life on notebook/laptop computers, cell phones, barcode scanners, power tools, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and many more portable devices. Current plans call for the bulk of OEM-specified products to use TI reference designs as their standard platforms. ICC also has the capability to create custom designs. (March 29)
GOEPEL Electronic Opens Second US Office JENA, GERMANY GOEPEL Electronic will open an office next week in San Jose for its North American test and inspection customers. Jan Heiber, an application engineer who has worked for GOEPEL Electronic since 1998, will be responsible for system presentations and installations, and customer support. The company also has a U.S. office in Austin, Texas. (March 28)
International SEMATECH Wins EPA Climate Protection Award AUSTIN, TEXAS International SEMATECH (ISMT) has won this year's prestigious Climate Protection Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for its work in reducing perfluorocarbons (PFCs) emissions. The EPA considers PFC emissions to be potent greenhouse or global warming gases. ISMT is among 20 individuals and companies from Canada, Chile, Japan, Italy and the United States recognized by the EPA for exemplary efforts and achievements in protecting the climate. (March 27)
IMAPS Call for Papers WASHINGTON, D.C. Papers are being sought for the Fourth Advanced Technology Workshop on Packaging of MEMS and Related Micro Integrated Nano Systems, which will be held September 6-8 in Denver. The program will be held in conjunction with the IMAPS 2002 Symposium. A variety of subjects will be covered, including application-specific MEMS and related system challenges; pressure, vibration and acceleration sensors; navigational sensors; optic interconnects, switches and related micro devices; and RF and other tunable devices. Abstract deadline is April 7. For more information, visit www.imaps.org. (March 26)
ASE Receives Supplier Award SANTA CLARA CALIF. Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc. has been named Assembly Supplier of the Year 2001 by Genesis Microchip Inc., a developer of display technologies. Genesis Microchip awarded ASE's Kaohsiung facility several accolades, including outstanding international customer service, local sales support, factory production control and technical support. "Genesis Microchip's cost-effective integrated circuits and software solutions enable the convergence of Internet information and video. To deliver such quality requires the support of exceptional semiconductor manufacturing processes," said Mohammad Tafazzoli, vice president of operations at Genesis Microchip. "In the packaging arena, ASE has met our stringent manufacturing requirements and delivered quality service on a professional level." (March 25)
Flip Chip Technology Workshop Flip Chip 2002, sponsored by IMAPS, will be held June 24-26 in Austin, Texas. The two-day workshops will include the following topics: flip chip applications; advancements in underfill technologies; wafer-level CSP technology; process technologies; and modeling, design, and electrical test. A half-day professional development course entitled "Flip Chip Technology: Bumping, PWBS, Assembly and Reliability" will be taught by R. Wayne Johnson (Auburn University). The event will also include a tabletop exhibition. For more information, visit www.imapsflipchip.com . (March 22)
Sequence/Simplex Near Terms on IP Dispute SANTA CLARA and SUNNYVALE, CALIF. Simplex Solutions Inc. and Sequence Design Inc have signed a binding memorandum of understanding pertaining to the patent infringement suit brought by Sequence against Simplex last August. The terms of the MoU are confidential; however, they involve an exchange of certain specified intellectual property rights and other financial considerations. Simplex management stated that the terms are not material to the financial results of Simplex. As a result of this development, the U.S. District Court in Oakland, Calif. has issued a conditional order of dismissal. (March 21)
Silicon Bandwidth Unveils Interconnect Solutions FREMONT, CALIF. Silicon Bandwidth Inc. will debut its next-generation family of optoelectronic interconnect solutions at OFC 2002 in Anaheim this week. Silicon Bandwidth's new products include the OptoTOp, a low-cost optical TO package and OptoSpyder, a low-cost optical butterfly, both promoting manufacturing breakthroughs in areas of automation, performance and market opportunities. Designed to leverage existing manufacturing infrastructures, these solutions reportedly offer a total lower cost of ownership by enabling high-volume production. (March 20)
Coreco Imaging Forms New IP Division MONTREAL, QUEBEC Coreco Imaging has formed a new Intelligent Products Division to provide easy-to-use, pre-packaged machine vision products. Headquartered in Billerica, Massachusetts, this wholly owned subsidiary of Coreco Imaging will serve the international market. "Organizing our business units around the end user and OEM markets will enable us to be more responsive to rapidly changing industry conditions and to provide one-stop shopping to both groups of users," said Keith Reuben, president and CEO of Coreco Imaging. A series of application-specific products that provide robust, user-friendly machine vision solutions to the factory floor are in development. In addition to new development, IPD will focus on enhancing and supporting related products in Coreco Imaging's existing portfolio. (March 19)
Companies Expand Services in China POMONA, CALIF. Everett Charles Technologies, ATG Test Systems (Reicholzheim, Germany) and WKK Holding Ltd. (Hong Kong) have agreed to continue to offer cooperative services in China. The decision was based on projected market demands. In the Guangdong province, sales and service will continue to be offered by WKK's Shenzhen operations office. ECT and ATG will also set up a wholly owned company for sales, service, fixture building, and applications support in the Shanghai and Beijing regions. "We continue to believe the Chinese market is important to us and together with our strong partner WKK, we will offer the highest level of service and support," said Uwe Rothaug, managing director of ATG. (March 18)
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