Daily News Briefs

Ulf Tingstrom was named director of sales and marketing at Comlase, a Stockholm, Sweden, developer of process technology and equipment for the production of semiconductor lasers and opto-electronic devices. Tingstrom, who has more than 15 years of marketing experience in the photonics industry, has held management positions at Melles Griot, ADC Photonics, Altitun and Future Instrument Fiber Optics. . . . Molecular Imprints Inc. (MII), an Austin, Texas, manufacturer of step-and-flash imprint lithography, has opened a European office, Molecular Imprints GmbH, in Aalen, Germany. It will offer technology and applications support for regional customers and for MII's exclusive European distributor, Carl Zeiss NTS, which is building an applications laboratory at its facility in Oberkochen in conjunction with the opening of the MII office. Molecular Imprints GmbH will be headed by Pascal Gubbini, general manager, Europe, and Boris Vratzov, applications engineering manager. . . . Synopsys Inc. a Mountain View, Calif., developer of semiconductor design software, and Photronics Inc., a Brookfield, Conn.-based maker of photomasks, have announced a joint program to improve the manufacturability and quality of advanced photomasks and reduce design-to-photomask cycle times. The companies said they will explore solutions in the area of design for manufacturing (DFM) and mask synthesis targeting faster time-to-yield for semiconductor manufacturers.