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AMAT's shutdown of implanter biz, though no surprise, raises questions |
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Feb 14, 2007 at 08:15 AM |
Applied Materials made official yesterday something that industry insiders and pundits had suspected might happen for awhile: the equipment giant is shutting down its ion implantation unit. AMAT's beamline brigade had been struggling in recent years and had often played a kind of forgotten stepchild role within the company, having lost market share to Varian and Axcelis.
The action brings back memories of the company's closure of its Etec mask-tool unit, which was in an even weaker comparative state than the implant group.
The move raises some questions.
Will the company find other positions for the 270 employees working in the soon-to-be-closed Horsham, UK, implant facility, or will they be laid off?
What impact will the decision have on the company's etch, cleaning, front products, and implant group, other than a renaming? More importantly, how will the lack of advanced, in-house implantation technology development affect AMAT's ongoing and future R&D and process integration work in the critical transistor-formation arena, especially in something as implantation-centric as ultrashallow junctions?
Which surviving implanter company, Axcelis and Varian, will AMAT choose as a technology partner in the absence of their own unit?
Will customers like AMD, who signed an exclusive for AMAT's high-current, low-energy Quantum X tools, get their full money's worth (other than service) now that development work has stopped?
The company's implantation roots go back nearly 30 years to a firm called Lintott Engineering, a nearly forgotten name from the early days of the semiconductor equipment industry. Even for those who love to see the big guys stumble, it's bittersweet when something with a legacy as rich as the AMAT implant unit comes to an end.
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