Daily News Briefs

Molecular Imprints Inc. (MII), an Austin, Texas-based manufacturer of step-and-flash imprint lithography equipment, has opened an office in Tokyo (Molecular Imprints Japan) to offer technology and applications support for regional customers. The office will also provide assistance to Hakuto Co. Ltd. and KLA-Tencor. Hakuto is MII's Asian distributor in the nanotechnologies-related market segments, and KLA-Tencor is MII's sales and services organization in the silicon-based markets for Asia and North America. Molecular Imprints Japan will be staffed by Hideyuki Wada. . . . Osram Opto Semiconductors, based in Munich, Germany, announced it has placed an additional follow-on order from SUSS MicroTec AG for a LithoFab200 production lithography cluster, used in the manufacturing of nitride- and arsenide/phosphide-based LEDs. The system streamlines the LED production process by automating and integrating photolithography process steps -- namely coat, bake, expose and develop -- in one modular cluster system, which implmenets SUSS's mask pellicle technology for yield enhancement. . . . Nobel Laureate Richard Smalley will deliver a keynote address at SEMI NanoForum 2004, to be held Nov. 14-17 in Austin, Texas. A professor of chemistry and physics at Rice University and director of its Carbon Nanotechnology Laboratory, Smalley won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1996 for his role in the discovery of fullerenes, also known also as buckyballs. He is also cofounder of Carbon Nanotechnologies Inc., of Houston. SEMI NanoForum is sponsored by SEMI, an association of suppliers of manufacturing technology and materials to the semiconductor, flat-panel display, micro-electrical-mechanical-systems (MEMS) and related microelectronics industries.