Daily News Briefs

Keithley Instruments Inc., a Cleveland, Ohio developer of electrical test instruments and systems, has announced a partnership with the Albany NanoTech Center at the University at Albany, State University of New York, to share research information and work together to further the understanding of nanotechnology and optoelectronics technologies. Keithley will provide the Albany NanoTech Center with a semiconductor device characterization system. . . . Eden Prairie, Minn.-based PPT Vision Inc., a maker of digital 2-D and 3-D machine-vision systems, announced it has received an order worth more than $900,000 for its IMPACT machine-vision micro systems from a long-term customer, a manufacturer of products used in the electronics and semiconductor industries. The customer will incorporate the systems in many of its production lines in an effort to improve productivity. . . . Robotic Vision Systems Inc., based in Nashua, N.H., said it has received an order for its WS-series bumped wafer inspection system to be delivered to a major Japanese semiconductor company, to be used for surface defect inspection of bumped wafers. The WS-series costs from $500,000 to more than $1 million per system. The system is scheduled to ship in April.