Gerald Yin didn't waste any time offering a key tenet of the AMEC mission statement: "We want to be leaders, rather than followers, by continuing to innovate new technologies and new products," the company chairman/CEO told me during an embargoed mid-November briefing in Silicon Valley.
After more than three years of careful preparation, AMEC (which stands for the deceptively generic sounding "Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment"), the first advanced semiconductor process equipment player to set up shop in China, came out of semistealth mode and launched its 65-/45-nm, 300-mm dielectric etch and HPCVD product line during Semicon Japan week.
Boasting more than $111 million in investment monies, with another $90 million in funding available, the young company comes out of the gate with a game plan to wrest leading-edge market share away from the likes of Applied Materials, Lam, Novellus, and Tokyo Electron.
The market stats certainly suggest that a globally minded tool company operationally based in Pudong/Shanghai could have a shot at success, given that nearly 75% of capital expenditures are taking place in Asia (including Japan) and the lion's share of chipmaking takes place in the region. But geography alone isn't the strong suit of AMEC: with a multinational workforce (already over 250) gathered from the key Asian countries, the U.S., and Europe and offices thoughout the home region, the company is also "culturally closer to the customers," noted Gerald.
Although young Chinese engineers and technicians make up a good portion of the employee rolls, this is no fresh-faced, rookie-heavy start-up. "Our core team has led or participated in more than 20 successful semiconductor equipment developments over the past 20 years as well as the introduction of products to market," explained the veteran etch guy who's worked for Intel, Lam, and Applied Materials. "They are inventors of more than 200 patents---they are a very experienced team. They know how to do this." Backing their play are more than 400 global suppliers, including many industry leaders.
Part of AMEC's process/metrology cleanroom area.
The idea of a Chinese equipment company raises suspicious eyebrows from some industry observers, who wonder out loud about issues of intellectual property, trade secrets, confidentiality, and the like. The AMEC team knew they had to lock that stuff down, and have spent countless hours pouring over more than 2000 tool and process patents on record and filing key patents of their own in five regions. Noting the company's rigorous, no-nonsense corporate-culture approach to such matters, Gerald insisted that "we respect the IP and trade secrets of our customers, suppliers, and competitors."
AMEC made sure it had many of its corporate ducks in a row before coming out into the marketplace light. "The company had a five-and-a-half, six-year plan from day one," Gerald told me. When I asked why not a five-year plan, in the grand People's Republic tradition, he laughed. "We're sandbagging a bit."
"After three years' effort, we finished product development and introduced the first two beta systems to customers in June of this year," he continued. "We are planning on shipping four more beta systems by the end of the year or early next year to fabs, for a total of six beta systems planned." While the first two systems went to the same unidentified fabrication company (an Asian logic and flash manufacturer), the next four beta tools will go to four different semiconductor companies representing the four main chipmaking food groups---logic, DRAM, flash, and foundry. "We need to show the ability to deal with all different kinds of chips," Gerald said.
Market forecasts that project a soft 2008 for the equipment sector don't seem to worry Gerald too much. Even with rough seas ahead, the combined sales pie of the two sectors the company has entered---dielectric etch (which is the bigger market chunk) and HPCVD---add up to $3.2 billion--$3.6 billion, with a compound annual growth rate of almost 12.5%. By the time the betas have run the requisite nine to twelve months---sometime in the second half of 2008---AMEC expects to see revenues, reaching profitability the following year, and hitting the 70-100 systems shipment mark in 2010. Ambitious, yes, but if any start-up has a fighting chance, it might just be AMEC.
As for gaining market share, Gerald used some descriptive language to make his point. "Just like when you're swimming at the bottom of the sea, you may have a big wave and you don't see it, like when you have zero market to begin with, right? When you start reaching 10%, 15%, it's not feeling too bad. It's the right time to get into position and be ready for the next ramp wave."
In tomorrow's conclusion of Chip Shots' coverage of the AMEC launch, Gerald Yin talks about the company's Primo D-RIE and HPCVD process equipment.
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