a move to delete the $19 million included in the bill for equipment to go into the binary production plant. The full cost for constructing the plant is estimated at $30 million, and it would take at least three years to complete. However, under present law, no money can be used to produce lethal binary chemical munitions unless the President certifies to
Congress that such production is essential to the national interest. He has not done so. And in its version of the military construction appropriations bill, which was reported out just before the most recent votes took place, the Senate Appropriations Committee did not include the $3.15 million needed to start construction on the Pine Bluff facility. D
Solvents devised for advanced semiconductors Electronics manufacturers have begun the big push to produce such advanced semiconductor devices as the 64,000-bit random access memory, and the electronics chemical industry has responded with the lowparticulate chemicals needed to fabricate these devices. Allied Chemical Corp. now has begun producing low-particulate solvents and chemicals on a pilotplant scale at Marcus Hook, Pa. J. T. Baker Chemical Co. has produced a similar low-particulate line of chemicals for the past two years at Hayward, Calif., and Winchester, Va. Allied's low-particulate line represents efforts to balance commodity with specialty chemicals after a corporatewide reorganization set up the chemicals business as a semiautonomous company (C&EN, Sept. 24, 1979, page 6). The company plans to triple total R&D spending by 1981 compared with 1979, which may bring the 1981 figure to $210 million. Electronic chemicals R&D will average $3 million per year over the next five years, or 6% of sales in that area. As long as electronics manufacturers etched lines as wide as 5 micrometers on semiconductor wafer coatings as their circuits, as in most 16,000-bit memories, there was little need for such scrupulous attention to particles 1 to 10 micrometers in diameter. But line widths for 64,000-bit memories are at 3 micrometers, with manufacturers striving for 2 micrometers. And lines of 256,000-bit devices, which may appear in five years, will be 1 micrometer wide. At these dimensions, 1-micrometer motes of dust block circuit paths like vast boulders, causing broken, misshapen, and short circuits. According to Allied's electronic chemicals marketing manager Gary J. Clancy, the firm's3 new solvent and reagent line has 10 to 104 fewer particles per liter than conventional low-mobile ion-grade chemicals. Mobile ions, for example sodium, also cause semiconductor defects by diffusing into the various layers. Baker's electronic chemicals product manager, Rolf Schlake, says his company's low-particulate line is comparable.
Using low-particulate-grade chemicals won't be cheap. Priced three times higher than conventional low-mobile ion grades, they add 6 to 10% to electronics manufacturing costs. Makers of 1000-bit memories for electronic games already get 80% yields of acceptable such devices punched out of silicon wafers after fabrication. Such yields cannot be improved much further. But current yields of 64,000-bit devices and even some 16,000-bit memories for fast, reliable uses can be as low as 10%. Chemicals that boost these yields even to 15% thus can be cost effective. Schlake says that since production of 64,000-bit memories began in earnest this year, Baker's sales of low-particulate chemicals have shot up. D
Abbott drops fight on cyclamate ban in U.S. A seven-year-long battle to get the artificial sweetener cyclamate back on the U.S. market has drawn to a bitter close. Last week Abbott Laboratories, the only U.S. producer of the sugar substitute, decided not to appeal the Food & Drug Administration's decision denying the firm's 1973 petition to remarket cyclamate. After a review of the lengthy hearing record, FDA commissioner Jere E. Goyan ruled that animal studies have not shown cyclamate to be safe. He specifically noted the failure to prove that cyclamate does not cause cancer or genetic damage. Abbott vice president for regulatory affairs Richard W. Kasperson tells C&EN that Goyan "used nonscientific criteria" in reaching his decision. In particular, Kasperson is especially disturbed by FDA's finding of biological significance in studies dismissed by other expert groups including an ad hoc committee of the National Cancer Institute as having no statistical significance, and by the handling of the statistics. Abbott could have appealed the decision to the federal appeals court. However, Kasperson says that the
appellate court would not rule on the scientific merits of the case, only on whether Goyan acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner in reaching his decision. Although England and Japan also ban cyclamates, 35 other countries, including Canada, allow its use. Interestingly, Abbott manager for market research and development Karl Beck points out, the U.S. and Canada drew on the same data base to reach diametrically opposite conclusions. Canada bans saccharin, but allows the use of cyclamates. Abbott still markets cyclamate in Europe, Australia, Canada, and some South American countries. D
Firestone to sell PVC business to Occidental Firestone Tire & Rubber's plastics division will be purchased by Occidental Petroleum for about $200 million, according to an agreement reached last week. Firestone's plastics division produces primarily polyvinyl chloride resin. The company has about 700 million lb of annual PVC capacity at plants in Pottstown, Pa.; Baton Rouge; and Perryville, Md. The company also has plants in West Caldwell, N.J., and Salisbury, Md,, where it produces or processes vinyl film and sheeting. These plants employ a total of about 1100 people. Purchase of the Firestone division will make Occidental one of the largest U.S. producers of PVC. The company already has about 200 million lb of capacity at Burlington, N.J. In addition, it has vast chlorine
Firestone's Perryville, Md., facility is one of three plants producing PVC Sept. 22, 1980 C&EN 7
