Microtechnology News articles from July 1998

Microtechnology News archives from July 1998

DEVELOPMENTS: Silicon Neuron for Target Recognition.
July 1, 1998... Irvine Sensors (Costa Mesa, CA) said it is under contract to the U.S. Air Force to develop an enhanced version of its "silicon neuron" image processor cube to permit simultaneous processing of images in thousands of color bands. This type of...

Team Tackles Proteomics Project.
July 1, 1998... Caliper Technologies Corp. is in collaboration with scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) on a $1.4 million Dept. of Energy (DOE) grant to develop high throughput laboratory-on-a-chip systems to perform proteomics analysis on...

Chaos Comes to Light in Microlasers.
July 1, 1998... Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems (Nothnitzer Strasse 38, 01187 Dresden, Germany; Tel: +49 351- 871-2208, Fax: +49 351-871-1999), Yale University (New Haven, CT 06520; Tel: 203/432-4771), and Lucent...

Sandia Tests Reliability of MEMS Systems.
July 1, 1998... Work currently being done at the DOE's Sandia National Laboratories to determine the reliability of MEMS systems may mean that most electronic devices will soon contain these micro-size machines. Minute machines imperceptible to the human eye...

APPLICATIONS: Laser Used to Fabricate Programmable Gate Array.
July 1, 1998... A newly upgraded laser micromachining system provides rapid personalization of 0.35 micron gate array devices, and improves throughout and accuracy. The QuICK laser system was developed by Chip Express Corp. (Santa Clara, CA) and is used for...

Analogy/Microcosm Announce MEMS Solution.
July 1, 1998... Analogy, Inc. and Microcosm Technologies, Inc. (Raleigh, NC) announced a significant technology agreement and a new product, AutoMM/Saber, which bridges the gap between traditional electronic design automation (EDA) and mechanical design...

Improved Polymer Microlasers.
July 1, 1998... Research teams from Lucent Technologies (Murray Hill, NJ), Osaka University in Japan, and the University of Utah in Salt Lake City have developed conducting polymer microlasers with high quality factors, narrow spectral lines and low laser...

ENABLING TECHNOLOGIES: Ion Beam Trims Submicron Structures.(FEI's AutoTrim focused ion beam lithography systems)
July 1, 1998... Greater storage densities for next generation disk drives are leading manufacturers of thin film heads to design smaller and smaller features. A critical dimension of the head is the pole width. Historically, lithographically controlled masking...

Ion Implantation of Coronary Stents.(Implant Sciences' new facility for radioactive coronary stents by ion implantation)
July 1, 1998... Implant Sciences Corp. (Wakefield, MA) announced that its facility for the manufacture of radioactive coronary stents by ion implantation is now operational. The facility is capable of embedding pure radioisotopes of phosphorus-32,...

MATERIALS: Bell Labs Develops High-k Material.(a new zirconium-tin titanium oxide material)
July 1, 1998... Researchers from Bell Labs have developed a new zirconium-tin- titanium oxide material with a high dielectric constant that may be used in capacitors and gate oxide structures in future generations of devices. According to the research...

Diamond-Like Coatings Receive Patent.
July 1, 1998... A fifth patent was received by Advanced Refractory Materials (Buffalo, NY) for its Dylyn technology. Entitled "Diamond-Like Nanocomposite Corrosion Resistant Coatings," U.S. Patent 5,728,465 relates to the development of corrosion resistant...

Joint Effort to Examine Ferroelectrics.(Motorola and Nanjing University begin joint research program for ferroelectric thin-film materials)
July 1, 1998... Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector (Austin, TX) and Nanjing University, Nanjing, China, began an advanced materials joint research program to investigate fundamental properties of ferroelectric thin film materials. There are potential...

Multi-Arc Introduces High Hardness Coating.
July 1, 1998... Multi-Arc, Inc. (Rockaway, NJ), a Berna Group Co., introduced MoST, a new PVD coating for the metal forming industry. It is a solid film lubricant with an ultralow coefficient of friction that is lower than that of Teflon or graphite. What...

NEW PRODUCTS: Infrared Sensors Rely on Microcantilever.(from Sarcon Microsystems)
July 1, 1998... Sarcon Microsystems, Inc. (Knoxville, TN) has developed a microcantilever-based sensor that costs approximately $4,000 for a 240 by 320 array. It is the company's attempt to provide an alternative to high priced, cooled IR detectors, which can...

TEST AND MEASUREMENT Characterizing Multilayer Interconnects on Wafers.(Rudolph Technologies' MetaPULSE system for characterizing multlayer interconnects)
July 1, 1998... Rudolph Technologies (RTI, Flanders, NJ) has developed a new method for characterizing multilayer interconnects on product wafers. This non-contact, non-destructive technique determines film thickness and mechanical properties, such as...

Copper Metal Film Measurement Tool.
July 1, 1998... Rudolph Technologies also introduced the MetaPULSE Cu, a nondestructive metal film metrology system at SEMICON West 98. This new system uses picosecond ultrasonic laser sonar (PULSE) technology to reliably measure the thickness of copper films...

Seeing Crystal Lattices through Lead Coating.(the Rowland Institute for Science's use of a scanning tunneling microscope)
July 1, 1998... It is now possible for researchers to look at silicon through a lead coating as if it were glass. They use a scanning tunneling microscope to look at individual units of crystal lattice patterns in a silicon surface buried under as much as 10...

Increased Accuracy in Laser Measurements.(a new laser power and energy management system from the NIST's Optoelectronics Div)
July 1, 1998... Researchers at NIST's Optoelectronics Div. (Boulder, CO), have built a new laser power and energy measurement system based on a commercial cryogenic radiometer. Called the laser optimized cryogenic radiometer, the NIST system will increase the...

INDUSTRY NEWS: A Patent a Day for MEMS Developers.(a Naval Research Laboratory study on patents for micro-electromechanical systems)(Technology Information)(Brief Article)
July 1, 1998... According to a study done by researchers at the Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC, a patent for a product related to micro- electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) was issued almost every workday in 1997. Between 1970 and 1997, 861 MEMS...

Veeco Completes Merger with Digital Instruments.
July 1, 1998... At its annual meeting, shareholders of Veeco Instruments (Plainview, NY) approved the company's previously announced merger with Digital Instruments, Inc. (Santa Barbara, CA), a world leader in scanning probe/atomic force microscopy (SFM/AFM)....

Ultratech Authorizes Additional Stock.
July 1, 1998... At its June 3rd annual meeting stockholders of Ultratech Stepper (San Jose, CA) approved by majority vote all matters set forth in the meeting statement. In addition to electing three new board members, the stockholders authorized an additional...

Lam Donates Etch System.(Lam Research gives a high-density TCP 9100 plasma etch system to the University of New Mexico)
July 1, 1998... Lam Research Corp. (Fremont, CA) donated a high density TCP 9100 plasma etch system to support oxide etch research at the University of New Mexico. The chamber is configured on Lam's proven high productivity alliance platform to emulate a...

Eaton Wins First Sale.
July 1, 1998... Eaton Thermal Processing Systems (TPS, Peabody, MA) announced the first sale of its summit rapid thermal processing (RTP) system. Eaton now enters the North American and European markets for the first time with this new thermal processing...

Surface/Interface Expands Facilities.
July 1, 1998... Surface/Interface, Inc., (Sunnyvale, CA) announced a 50% expansion in space. The new facilities provide a clean manufacturing area as well as additional office space. The new building accommodates the extensive growth that S/I has experienced...

MKS Has In-House Vacuum Training Package.
July 1, 1998... MKS Instruments, Inc. (Andover, MA) announced the availability of a complete vacuum training package using their Type VTS-1B training system. The package provides all the material necessary for presenting a hands-on vacuum and semiconductor...

Standard Microsystems Increases Revenues.
July 1, 1998... Standard Microsystems Corp. (Hauppauge, NY) announced revenues and income for the first fiscal quarter of 1999. Revenues were $37.6 million, 8% above the revenues from continuing operations of $34.8 million reported for the first quarter of the...

CALENDAR.
July 1, 1998... July 13-17, 1998. Semicon West 98, San Francisco, CA. Contact SEMI at Tel: 415/940-7998, Fax: 415/940-7913. Sept. 8-10, 1998. 28th European Solid State Device Research Conference, Bordeaux, France. Contact Herbert Grunbacher, ESSDERC...