Electro Scientific Industries Inc. (ESI) has opened an office in Jubei City, Hsinchu, Taiwan. Based in Portland, Ore., ESI supplies manufacturing equipment to the semiconductor, passive component and electronic interconnect markets. The company also has Asian sales and service facilities in Tokyo and Nagoya, Japan; Seoul, Korea; and Singapore, and recently upgraded its China (Shanghai and Guangzhou) sales and service facilities into a wholly foreign-owned enterprise, expanding its demonstration and service capabilities. . . . AIXTRON, a supplier of CVD equipment for compound semiconductors, has recently supplied Formosa Epitaxy Inc. (FOREPI) with an AIX 2600G3 HT MOCVD planetary reactor with a capacity for 24-by-2-inch wafers. This system will boost FOREPI's manufacturing capacities for high-performance GaN-based epitaxial wafers, chips and ultrahigh-brightness LED chip-related products.