Varian was promoted to the number one ion implant supplier for 2005, according to new reports recently issued by both VLSI Research and Gartner Dataquest as the adoption of single wafer implanters gathered momentum for 90nm and 65nm node applications.

Gary Dickerson, Varian Semiconductor's Chief Executive Officer stated, that in 2004 the company had a 31 percent market share position but had now obtained a 41 percent position based on VLSI Research's new numbers and 39 percent according to figures from Gartner Dataquest.

In the High Current segment the company had a 22 percent market share in 2004 that has increased to 38 percent in 2005. In the Medium Current arena its market share had increased to 58 percent, up from 52 percent in the prior year. In the High Energy field it had gained a 1 percentage point increase in market share.

To support claims of continued market share gains the company expected in 2006, Dickerson noted that further new customers in Japan were in the pipeline as well gaining further business from logic IC companies and more business from foundries.

Executives also clarified questions over a new customer in China that turned out to be SMIC, with a 300mm single wafer HC platform being shipped to Fab 4.

The company guided that revenues would be sequentially up between $10 and $20 million US dollars in the next quarter with an "exceptional" Book to Bill figure, though no figures were provided.

Further to its claims of growing market share this year, Dickerson highlighted that the company has introduced a upgrade technology for customers called Implant Proximity Mask, that allows 4 separate implant types to be carried out on a single wafer, providing improved doping and angle control capabilities while significantly reducing Cost of Ownership.

Dickerson also reiterated previous targets that could see the company ship approximately 100 implant tools this financial year.