Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Stock Swap -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Andrew Vance who wrote (14644)	7/6/1998 1:54:00 PM
From: Mark Adams	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 17305

Andrew- given success of the process change noted in the article below, who would be hurt from a revenue standpoint? Any winners? Comments on time to implement this? Thanks... Los Alamos National Laboratory Finds Way to Cut Chip Toxic Waste By DEAN TAKAHASHI Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL The Los Alamos National Laboratory says it has developed an environmentally friendly way of reducing water use and cutting toxic waste at chip manufacturing plants. The federal laboratory in Los Alamos, N.M., is expected to announce Monday that, in conjunction with Hewlett-Packard Co., it has figured out how to use carbon dioxide under pressure to clean chemical solutions from the surfaces of silicon wafers. Environmental groups have long criticized the use of solvents and high volumes of water used in chip factories. Intel Corp., for instance, faced local opposition when it increased its production at a factory near Albuquerque, N.M., and used unexpectedly high levels of water in the desert community. In addition, leakage of solvents from older chip factories has been linked to a number of Superfund hazardous waste sites, leading to tight restrictions on chip factories. "Our ... system answers the technical problems the industry has had with alternate cleaning methods," said Craig Taylor, leader of the project at Los Alamos. The new treatment system removes coatings called "photoresists" from silicon wafers without the use of hazardous chemicals in use today such as corrosive combinations of sulfuric acid, hydrogen peroxide or organic solvents. In addition, it reduces the amount of waste water associated with such solvents. Photoresists are a crucial part of the chip making process as they are one step in a process for laying electrical patterns on top of chips. The system, called "supercritical carbon dioxide resist remover," is nonhazardous, nonflammable, and nontoxic, according to the lab. Under high pressure and temperature, carbon dioxide gas liquifies and then enters a "supercritical" state in which it has properties of both gas and liquid. It expands to fill its container and can dissolve substances and carry them off in a liquid stream. The lab says it built a machine based on this principle that, when used along with a low-toxicity co-solvent, can strip chemicals from a chip in half the time required for other alternatives and at a fraction of the cost. For instance, Mr. Taylor said, the water reduction per chip factory can add up to 10 million gallons a year, or most of the water used in chip manufacturing. Factories could implement the new method by swapping an $800,000 cleaning machine in a production line with a $250,000 machine. The solvent cost for the new machine is about 50 cents a pound, or four cents per silicon wafer, compared with organic solvents that cost $8 per pound, or 24 cents a wafer. Mr. Taylor said that Los Alamos owns the technology, and H-P, which provided a grant to study the project, has rights to use the technology in its own factories. The lab plans on licensing the technology to a number of semiconductor-equipment manufacturers.

To: Andrew Vance who wrote (14644)	7/6/1998 3:47:00 PM
From: Andrew Vance	Respond to of 17305

AV--MTZ, On the road to recovery??? Monday July 6, 12:35 pm Eastern Time Company Press Release SOURCE: MasTec, Inc. MasTec Announces New Contracts For Its Western Region MIAMI, July 6 /PRNewswire/ -- MasTec, Inc. (NYSE: MTZ - news) announced today that its Western Region had been awarded in the first and second quarters of 1998 new contracts totaling in excess of 49,000,000. These new contracts include three-year master contracts from Southwestern Bell, covering McKinney and Greenville, Texas; outside plant telecommunications construction projects with GTE, AT&T, US West and MCI; and gas and electrical utility master contracts for the City of Austin, Texas, the City of San Antonio, Texas and Lone Star Gas. ''We congratulate the Western Region for their strong performance,'' said Jorge Mas, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of MasTec, Inc. ''They continue to establish solid relationships with industry leaders within all our core lines of business.'' Opening the Lines of Communication worldwide, MasTec is one of the world's leading telecommunications and related infrastructure services providers, servicing clients throughout North America, Central America, South America, the Caribbean and Spain. For more information on MasTec, please visit the Web Page at www.mastec.com. Certain statements in this Press Release are forward-looking, such as statements regarding the Company's future growth and profitability. These forward-looking statements are based on the Company's current expectations and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results in the future to differ significantly from results expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements included in this Press Release. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the Company's relationship with key customers, implementation of the Company's growth strategy, and seasonality. These and other risks are detailed in this Press Release and in other documents filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Andrew