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REDWOOD CITY, CA – PWB fabricator Coastal Circuits has been fined $3,800 for failure to comply to state safety regulations governing rinse tanks. The fines comes some five months after a late-shift operator was found dead at the plant. Read more ...

PORTLAND, OR - Electro Scientific Industries noted the passing of Edward J. Swenson on January 28.

"Ed was well known throughout the industry and will be remembered for his dedicated pursuit of innovative and cutting-edge technology for a variety of laser-based applications. Within the last decade alone, he had been awarded numerous United States patents covering thin-film-on-silicon devices, passive electronic components and various semiconductor devices. This is truly a great loss for ESI, his family, as well as for the entire industry," commented Nick Konidaris, ESI president and CEO

Swenson began his tenure with ESI in June of 1961, and worked his way up from Applications Engineer to Technical Services Manager and then Product Manager in the early 1970s, later joining with Bell Telephone Labs to pioneer laser redundancy process, which dramatically increased production yields for manufacturers DRAM devices. Today, virtually all semiconductor memory manufacturers rely on laser repair of redundant memory for production of memory chips.

Swenson was named VP of ESI in 1979 and became head of the Advanced Research and Development Group in 1985. He was later appointed Senior VP of R&D.

Swenson received his bachelor's degree in mathematics and physics in 1960 from Pacific University and his master's of science degree in electrical engineering in 1966 from Oregon State University. He was a Life Senior Member of the IEEE, a member of IMAPS and the SPIE, and a former chairman of the Industrial Advisory Board, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Oregon State University.