License gives Nanometrics new optical testing products

Nanometrics (Sunnyvale, CA) has acquired an exclusive license to optical tester technologies from Phase Metrics (San Diego, CA). The license includes intellectual property and technical information for testing in the semiconductor and flat-panel-display industries. The agreement includes a one-time payment, purchase of inventory, and royalty payments based on the number of sales. Nanometrics said these optical technologies should speed up the company's development and manufacture of new metrology systems, for both stand-alone devices and equipment to be integrated into wafer-processing systems, such as chemical mechanical planarization and chemical-vapor-deposition systems.