"Our implant business has a long history dating back to the acquisition of Lintott Engineering in 1980," said Mike Splinter, president and CEO. "Unfortunately, the implant equipment business has changed over the past few years and moved towards commoditization and projected financial performance does not warrant further expenditure in next-generation beamline implant products."

Applied Materials plans to support existing customers with field support and spare parts as well as any future new tool purchases in regards to capacity requirements, the company said. However, it is believed that assembly and test will be relocated to the U.S after the closure of the Horsham facility.

According to data from both VLSI Research and Gartner Dataquest, Applied Materials had been slowly losing market share in the implant market for several years to both Varian Semiconductor and Axcelis as leading-edge chip manufacturers turned to single wafer tools. Applied had also transitioned to a single wafer platform in the form of the Quantum X, but its overall market share was not restored.