Microtechnology News articles from November 1998

Microtechnology News archives from November 1998

DEVELOPMENTS DNA Analysis Based on LabChip.
November 1, 1998... Caliper Technologies Corp. (Palo Alto, CA) was awarded a $2 million contract from the Advanced Technology Program of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the "Tools for DNA Diagnostics" focus competition. The project's...

Tunnel Diodes Promise Speed.
November 1, 1998... To date, technological obstacles have hindered the widespread use of tunnel diodes in conventional silicon-based circuits. But in the October 12, 1998 issue of Applied Physics Letters, University of Delaware researchers, along with scientists...

Micromotors Being Jointly Developed.
November 1, 1998... Advanced MicroMachines Inc., Parker Hannifin Corp., and Case Western Reserve University (all in Cleveland, OH) began partnering about two years ago to develop micromotors. The program grew out of a $10,000 grant from the Ohio Aerospace...

MEMS Foundry Wins an Award.
November 1, 1998... The MEMS Foundry Business Unit of Standard Microsystems Corp. (SMSC, Hauppauge, NY) announced that it, along with the Xerox Corp., Microcosm Technologies Inc., Optical Micro-Machines, Microscan Systems, Inc., and Maxim Integrated Products, has...

APPLICATIONS: Micromachining Makes Magnetostatic Switches.
November 1, 1998... Magnetostatic switches that open and close in response to magnetic fields are being developed and fabricated using MEMS technology. These switches operate similarly to traditional magnetic reed switches, but can be made much smaller. While...

Marble-Size Video Chips.
November 1, 1998... Vanguard International Semiconductor (Hsinchu, Taiwan) has licensed high performance CMOS "camera-on-a-chip" technology from Lucent Technologies (Murray Hill, NJ). Thus technology is targeted for marble-size video cameras that hopefully will be...

FABRICATION: Deep Ion Etching System Available.
November 1, 1998... Deep silicon reactive ion etching (RIE) is a new dry etch technology that stands to revolutionize bulk silicon micromachining. It permits the patterning and etching of highly anisotropic, randomly shaped and located features into a single...

Backside-to-Frontside Photolithography.
November 1, 1998... MCNC also has this important photolithographic process available for use. Most of the silicon bulk micromachined devices require backside- to-frontside photolithographic alignment fabrication processes. They are typically used to align cavities...

Bonded Wafers for MEMS Market.
November 1, 1998... Bondtronix Inc. (Alamo, CA) is a small, privately held company recently founded to provide specialized bonded wafers and related services to the SOI material and MEMS markets. The company focuses on the requirements of small to mid-size...

ENABLING TECHNOLOGIES Technique Controls Microstructure.
November 1, 1998... Using modern photolithographic techniques, scientists at Argonne National Laboratory (Argonne, IL) are developing a new generation of superconducting materials by precisely controlling their microstructures. The new materials can be used to...

3D Lithography Uses Mirror.
November 1, 1998... Traditionally, microchips are made flat and rectangular on silicon wafers. They are covered with a photoresist, and a lithographic system is used to etch individual circuits on them. This is a time consuming and expensive method, however....

Measuring Thickness in PVD Stacks.
November 1, 1998... Rudolph Technologies Inc. (RTI, Flanders, NJ) has developed a metrology approach that can simultaneously measure the thickness and other critical parameters of the films in a PVD adhesion stack. Before depositing CVD tungsten into vias etched...

INDUSTRY NEWS: Park Scientific Joins TopoMetrix.
November 1, 1998... Two complementary scanning probe microscopy companies combined to form ThermoMicroscopes, providing customers with a single source for their SPM needs. Park Scientific Instruments (Sunnyvale, CA) and TopoMetrix Corp. (Santa Clara, CA) formed...

Standard Microsystems Expands in Taiwan.
November 1, 1998... Standard Microsystems Corp. (SMSC), reinforcing its presence in the Taiwan market, announced several new integrated circuit devices, including a complete line of PC I/O devices supporting the Low Pin Count (LPC) bus, the first PCI 2.1...

ART Joins Aluminum MMC Consortium.
November 1, 1998... Advanced Refractory Technologies Inc. (ART) has joined several key worldwide metal matrix composites suppliers by announcing membership in the Aluminum Metal Matrix Composites (ALMMC) Consortium. The Consortium is a partnership of...

ThermoSpectra Acquires TopoMetrix Corp.
November 1, 1998... ThermoSpectra Corp. (Franklin, MA) acquired the assets of TopoMetrix Corp. for approximately $8 million in cash subject to a post-closing adjustment and the assumption of certain liabilities. Based in Santa Clara, California, with sales...

Applied Materials to Acquire Consilium.
November 1, 1998... Applied Materials Inc. and Consilium Inc. announced they had reached a definitive agreement for Applied Materials to acquire Consilium in a stock-for-stock merger. Each share of Consilium's stock will be exchanged for between 0.182 and 0.165 of...

Cree Earnings Double in Quarter.
November 1, 1998... Cree Research (Durham, NC) reported an increase of 102% in net income to $2,366,000 ($0.18 per share) as compared to $1,169,000 ($0.09 per share) reported in the prior year. Revenues for the first quarter of fiscal 1999 increased to...

BCAM Intl. to Redeem Convertible Notes.
November 1, 1998... BCAM Intl. Inc. (Melville, NY) said it had redeemed the majority of the 10%-13% Convertible Notes which come due in April 1998. The terms of the redemption involve the sale of 56.7% of the company's investment in Drew Show Corp. to the...

Cal Tech Buys MEMS System.
November 1, 1998... A MEMS research group at California Institute of Technology, headed by Yu-Chong Tai, has purchased a Shuttlelock 770 plasma processing system from Plasma-Therm, Inc. (St. Petersburg, FL) for use in development of vertical MEMS structures. The...

Xerox Wins MOEMS Contract.
November 1, 1998... Xerox Corp. has won a $14 million, 3 year Advanced Technology Program (ATP) award from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for the development of a manufacturing infrastructure expected to lead to the commercialization of...

Plasma-Therm Sells MEMS Systems.
November 1, 1998... Plasma-Therm Inc. (St. Petersburg, FL) announced the sale of multiple Versalock plasma processing systems to AlliedSignal Inc., a leading manufacturer of aviation electronics. The systems incorporate Plasma-Therm's Inductively Coupled Plasma...