Tuesday, August 22, 2023
ASM International N.V. has completed the purchase of a strategic plot of land in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Friday, June 30, 2023
U.S. and Netherlands Tighten Restrictions on Chipmaking Equipment Sales to China, Impacting ALD and ASM International
The United States and the Netherlands are set to impose stricter restrictions on the sale of chipmaking equipment to China, aiming to prevent the use of foreign technology for military strengthening. In their efforts to curb China's access to advanced semiconductor technology, the Dutch government plans to restrict equipment from ASML, the leading chip equipment maker in the Netherlands, while the U.S. plans to further withhold Dutch equipment from specific Chinese fabs. These measures will impact atomic layer deposition (ALD) firm ASM International as well.
Besides ASM and Lithography, ASM International and ALD is of national interest to The Netherlands. During the recent Royal State Visit of King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima of the Netherlands to imec, ASM, a long-standing partner of imec, was in attendance. With over 30 years of partnership, ASM has made significant investments in research and development and maintains a substantial on-site team at imec known in the industry as ASM B or ASM Belgium. During the visit, ASM had the opportunity to highlight its role in the semiconductor ecosystem of both the Netherlands and Belgium, emphasizing how this collaboration connects Europe to advanced semiconductor manufacturing activities on a global scale. (Source: ASM LinkedIn)
ASML, Europe's largest chip equipment company, dominates in lithography, a crucial step in the chip manufacturing process. The Dutch government intends to announce new regulations, including a licensing requirement, for ASML's deep ultraviolet (DUV) semiconductor equipment. ASML's more sophisticated extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines are already restricted and have never been shipped to China. The U.S. is expected to identify specific Chinese facilities, possibly including those operated by SMIC, China's largest chipmaker, in a new rule that restricts foreign equipment containing any U.S. parts. ASM International, an ALD firm, is also likely to be impacted by the new Dutch regulations.
The U.S. and Dutch measures aim to prevent China from gaining access to advanced chipmaking technology that could be used for military purposes. These actions reflect the ongoing tensions between the U.S. and China regarding national security concerns and technological competition. While the exact details and timing of the restrictions may change, the increasing limitations on chipmaking equipment sales are expected to have significant implications for the global semiconductor industry and the supply chain dynamics in the coming months.
Sources:
US, Dutch set to hit China's chipmakers with one-two punch | Daily Mail Online
State visit to Belgium – programme | News item | Royal House of the Netherlands (royal-house.nl)
Friday, June 2, 2023
ASM breaks ground on new state-of-the-art innovation and manufacturing center in Hwaseong, Korea
ASM International N.V. is embarking on the construction of a state-of-the-art innovation and manufacturing center in Hwaseong, South Korea. With a groundbreaking ceremony to be held soon, the expansion project is part of ASM's US$100 million investment plan and follows a Memorandum of Understanding signed with the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy of South Korea. The investment aims to bolster ASM's research and product development infrastructure and increase manufacturing capacity to meet the growing demand for semiconductors. The company also intends to create job opportunities in engineering, R&D, and manufacturing, contributing to workforce development in Korea.
The ceremony will be attended by ASM's CEO, Benjamin Loh, and other dignitaries, including political figures and business partners. Loh expressed his enthusiasm for the expansion in Hwaseong, highlighting the potential and dedication of the Korean people. The investment signifies ASM's commitment to Korea and its ambition to grow the business while enabling the development of advanced technologies in the semiconductor industry. Hwaseong has played a vital role in ASM's growth, serving as a hub for advanced R&D and technology for both local and global customers.
The existing Hwaseong facility, which currently employs over 450 people, will be expanded to accommodate more employees as the company continues to grow. The new extension will add 31,000 m2 across eight floors, more than doubling the facility's R&D area and nearly tripling its manufacturing area. YK Kim, Chairman of ASM Korea, emphasized that the expansion is an investment in people and the semiconductor ecosystem in Korea, aiming to support the country's semiconductor industry growth in collaboration with the government, customers, and suppliers.
ASM's commitment to Hwaseong demonstrates its dedication to the Korean market and its goal of facilitating domestic semiconductor innovation while meeting global customer demands. The company's local R&D team has been instrumental in developing groundbreaking technologies in the industry, such as ALD QCM quad chamber modules, TENZA™ ALD for high aspect ratio gap-fill, and high-quality PEALD silicon and metal oxides and nitrides for various applications.
Release of TENZA(TM): BALD Engineering - Born in Finland, Born to ALD: ASM International launches TENZA ALD Quad Chambers for silicon oxide gap-fill and liners on the XP8 platform
ASM Korea MOU: BALD Engineering - Born in Finland, Born to ALD: Dutch ALD euipment leader ASM to invest $100 mil. in Korea for facility expansion
Thursday, June 1, 2023
ASM faces restrictions on exporting advanced chip equipment to China, impacting its operations.
- ASM faces restrictions on exporting advanced chip equipment to China, impacting its operations.
- Despite the curbs, ASM experiences a boost in demand driven by the growing need for artificial intelligence (AI) technologies.
- The CEO of ASM believes that achieving complete decoupling between the United States and China will be a challenging task.
Thursday, February 2, 2023
Dutch ALD euipment leader ASM to invest $100 mil. in Korea for facility expansion
Monday, December 19, 2022
Thin layers paved the way for ASMI’s success - Outgoing CTO Ivo Raaijmakers explains what atomic layer deposition has brought the semiconductor industry
This vision has come true. The technique that ASMI acquired through Microchemistry – atomic layer deposition (ALD) – has become an integral part of the semiconductor manufacturing process. And that’s just the beginning, according to Raaijmakers. The demands placed on material layers are ever higher – thinner, more uniform, featuring just the right properties – and ALD is the best technique to meet them, the former CTO argues.
Well before ALD had proven itself in the deposition of high-k materials, Raaijmakers was already looking at which applications would follow. On his initiative, ASMI acquired Korean company Genitech in 2004, a specialist in plasma-enhanced ALD technology (PEALD). Plasmas are more reactive than un-ionized gases and therefore can deposit materials at lower temperatures. Because chipmakers often have to deal with strict temperature budgets, PEALD expands the scope of ALD.
Tuesday, October 4, 2022
ASM International has completed the acquisition of Italian Silicon Carbide Equipment Manufacturer LPE S.p.A.
Saturday, September 3, 2022
ASM reports that the ALD market is expected to grow by a CAGR of 16%-20% from 2020 to 2025
ASM International presented its Q2/2022 report in July and a new record orders of EUR 943 million driven by robust new node spending in logic/foundry and by recent wins in memory, particularly for ALD gap-fill in 3D-NAND and continued adoption of HKMG in DRAM.
- TechInsights expects WFE to increase by 21% in 2022 (July 2022)
- Strongest growth in leading-edge nodes, spending on 7nm and below expected to grow from ~25% of WFE in 2020 to ~42% of WFE in 2025
- Gartner expects total WFE to increase by 19% in 2022 (July 2022)
Friday, July 15, 2022
ASM International launches TENZA ALD Quad Chambers for silicon oxide gap-fill and liners on the XP8 platform
Tuesday, July 12, 2022
ASM Internaltional launces new 300 mm Vertical batch for LPCVD and ALD
The A412 PLUS is for 300mm wafers, while the A400 is for 200mm and smaller wafers sizes
Wednesday, April 6, 2022
Senior Process Engineer I- Coating at ASM Phoenix AZ
About the job
We’re not like most. We don’t just overcome obstacles – we don’t see them. Instead, we see the potential in every person, and every situation. We don’t wait for opportunity to appear – we create it. Meet ASM. A company that has been searching for people just like you.Who is ASM?
ASM is a leading, global supplier of semiconductor wafer processing equipment. Our ambitious team is dedicated to delivering innovative technology solutions to the world’s leading semiconductor manufacturers. We have over 2,600 employees based in 14 countries, including Belgium, Japan, Netherlands, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and United States. Together we work to develop Epitaxy, ALD, PEALD, Vertical Furnaces and PECVD thin-film deposition technologies for our customers. Our goal is to remain an industry leader by being ahead of what’s next. We accomplish this by focusing on finding collaborative solutions to make integrated circuits, or chips, smaller, faster and even more powerful.
ASM, an inclusive workplace
We at ASM are a truly global organization that works diligently with an open-mind in all areas of our business. We strive for a culture and work style that fosters trust and transparency. We put our people first, and that is how we will continue to succeed. We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity. We recognize and value the differences between individuals, including gender, ethnicity, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, knowledge and experience, work background, age, skills, amongst others. Recruiting and developing a diverse workforce provides a wide range of perspectives. This enables a culture of continuously exploring and adopting new technological ideas and innovations, and it also enables us to deliver excellent products and service to our clients.
Essential Functions
- Work with a safety-first mentality
- Drive ASM process protocol with emphasis and regularly institute or update service solutions to the field
- Work on assigned CIP projects, develop DOE’s and communicate openly both internally and externally.
- Focus on refresh of IP for legacy products and influence new design IP.
- Provide “novelty” to items making them hard to reproduce
- Improve upon existing design for performance and cost efficiency
- Generate project scope documentation and prepares specific project reports against identified schedule.
- Building stakeholder consensus to deliver approach
- Collaboratively manages global stakeholders including end users, technicians, engineers, procurement, spares, manufacturing, subject matter experts as well as management in both business and / or operations to project specific details.
- Applies project management principles to produce cooperative and collaborative efforts, deliver business strategic objectives and fill the end customer needs.
- Consistently provide quality solutions to field and customer personnel and create new BKM’s.
- Exercise good judgment within broadly defined practices and policies in selecting methods, techniques, tools and evaluation criteria for obtaining desired results
- Be willing to travel domestically and internationally as required.
- BS or MS Degree in Mechanical engineering, Electrical Engineering, Material Science or related degree required.
- 5+ years of experience in the semiconductor field.
- Equipment Engineering experience with design, and development of complex mechanical systems including comprehension of: reactors, vacuum systems and chambers, gas delivery systems, abatement systems, pneumatics, water cooling, and circuits required. Ability to implement, maintain, improve electrical instruments, equipment, facilities, components, products, systems and provide novel solutions for the semiconductor equipment industry. Comprehension of PLC's and functionality.
- Should have a broad based background in analysis and debug of complex electrical and/or mechanical systems
- Semiconductor capital equipment experience is preferred.
- Understanding of materials: metals, plastics, surface coatings and surface finishes.
- Deposition product knowledge a plus (CVD, ALD, EPI, PVD). Knowledge of ASM Emerald tool distinct plus.
- Design applications Pro/ENGINEER, AutoCAD, and Hands on experience with FEA and CFD analysis preferred. Solid ability to read and understand P&IDs, Electrical, and Mechanical schematics and drawings.
- Proficiency in ANSI Y14.5 geometric dimension and tolerance.
- Ability to rectify a challenging situation and gain customer (Internal and external) confidence
- Strong positive attitude, ability to work in a team environment and work alone. Able to drive meetings, both internal and external, with excellent internal ASM relations
- Ability to work responsibly with all ASM resources and departments in a multifunctional high paced atmosphere with minimum supervision on highly complex problems
- Ability to handle multiple tasks simultaneously and be able to organize and run projects
- Strong computer skills, working knowledge of MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint, Project, and SAP
- Drive ASM SOP’s and protocol, able to guide co-workers toward common goals
- Become an active member of ASM GSS core teams
- Excellent communication skills; speak and write in a clear and concise manner, and ability to accurately and fully convey issues to peers, management, or customers
- Strong organizational skills and leadership qualities
- Accurate, timely reporting
- Parts tracking, ordering, managing, Setting BOM levels
- Technical writing background. Ability to create procedures, written in an informative manner that eliminates ambiguity and personal interpretation
- Training skills, be able to communicate with customers and their employees on maintenance procedures, preventative maintenance, and operating specific equipment. Be the content expert with ability to provide onsite support when needed
- Process comprehension, be able to understand basics of creating process recipes focusing on the ALD process.
- Understanding of chemistry interactions with different materials. Gas and liquid chemistry knowledge is a bonus
- Experience with Equipment installs Organizing/Coordinating trades, SL1, SL2, commissioning and qualifications to specific standards.
- SPC creation with JMP/Statistical analysis and ability to drive root cause solutions through data driven decisions
Be part of our exciting future and join our team today!
Saturday, February 26, 2022
ALD centre of excellence to drive leading edge process technology - ASM International and University of Helsinki have renewed and expanded their long-term research agreement
Saturday, October 2, 2021
ASM International Investor Day take away - the leader in ALD wafer processing equipment for the booming semiconductor industry
ASM International, the leader in ALD wafer processing equipment for the booming semiconductor industry recently hold its annual investor day.
Highlights included:- Targeting revenue of €2.8-€3.4 billion by 2025 (2020-2025 CAGR of 16%-21%), gross margins of 46%-50% in 2021-2025, and operating margins of 26%-31% in 2021-2025;
- Targeting Net Zero emissions by 2035 and 100% renewable electricity by 2024;1
- Single-wafer ALD market expected to increase from $1.5 billion in 2020 to $3.1-3.7 billion by 2025;
- Further capacity expansion of our new manufacturing facility to be production ready by early 2023.
The Investor Day was held at 2:00 pm CET and Q&A can also be followed through a live webcast after registering at: https://investorday.asm.com.
UPDATE Q3 2021 GUIDANCE
ASM also announced that Q3 order intake is expected to be above €600 million, compared to previous guidance of €510-530 million, mainly driven by continued strong demand in the logic/foundry sector. Q3 net sales are expected to be in line with previous guidance €400-430 million.
Thursday, May 27, 2021
Atomic billiards helps to understand Atomic Layer Deposition
Figure 1: The principle of LEIS: When ions collide with surface atoms, their energy after the collision depends on the mass of the atoms that they collided with. A LEIS spectrum shows the number of returned ions as a function of their energy. This represents the surface concentrations of different elements, sorted after their mass.
LEIS helps to develop and optimize ALD processes
Figure 2: 5 keV 20Ne+ LEIS spectra of increasing cycle numbers of GaSb deposited on SiOx
LEIS separately analyzes the outermost atomic layer and the layers below it
Figure 3: 7 keV 4He+ LEIS spectra of increasing cycle numbers of GaSb deposited on SiOx.
Figure 4: Ternary diagram showing the surface composition of the samples with increasing cycle number. The colors of the data points correspond to the colors of the spectra.
Acknowledgement
Wednesday, April 21, 2021
ASM International and ALD opens up 2021 with a strong quarter in Logic & Foundry segment
ASM International N.V. (Euronext Amsterdam: ASM) today reports its first quarter 2021 operating results (unaudited) in accordance with IFRS.
- New orders at €411 million were 8% above the level of last quarter.
- Revenue for the first quarter of 2021 was €394 million and increased 14% compared to the previous quarter due to strong market demand.
- The gross profit margin was 49.5% in Q1 2021 compared to 45.2% in the previous quarter, mainly due to a favorable mix.
- The operating result was €125 million compared to €78 million in the previous quarter.
- Normalized net earnings for the first quarter of 2021 were €125 million, €43 million higher compared to Q4 2020.
- Gartner expects WFE to increase by 23% in 2021 (April 2021), up from +8% still predicted in December 2020
- VLSI Research expects WFE to increase by 22% in 2021 (April ’21), up from a previous forecast of +12% last February
“Based upon the current market developments, the wafer fab equipment (WFE) market is expected to grow by a high-teens to low twenties percentage in 2021.”
Friday, March 26, 2021
Samsung confirms first HKMG for DDR5 DRAM
ASM International recently acknowledged that ALD High-k/Metal Gate (HKMG) is finally in high volume production for DRAM (LINK). Now Samsung confirms that. This is a small victory for all people working on this process for such a long time. My first tool ownership when I moved to Germany and started at Infineon was an ASM Polygon 200 mm cluster with a Pulsar 2000 chamber running HfO2, TiN, TiHfN, TiAlN, Al2O3, and my not fully understood HfN ALD process and a Poly chamber that I never really cared too much about. Press release below - and now do the maths - how big this business is once rolled out for all DRAM technologies to come - yeah $$$, many tulips indeed.