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ASM International has said that it will not be a player in the rapid thermal processing (RTP) market from 2009 onwards. The equipment company hopes to transfer its ‘Levitor’ RTP tool and small customer installed base to a third party by the end of the year.

“Although we have always believed in the exceptional breakthrough technology of our Levitor RTP systems, as have several leading-edge customers, we have decided to really focus on ASMI's core strengths in the front end growth areas of ALD technology (both thermal and plasma-enhanced, in batch and single wafer), PE-CVD, single wafer Epitaxy, and thermal/LPCVD batch processing,” said Chuck del Prado, President and Chief Executive Officer of ASM International.

The unconventional Levitor technology had been under development for approximately 10 years and only gained a few publicly announced customers since 2006. The product line had never been profitable for the company.