On the back of news that Axcelis Technologies has started a sales and service agreement with France-based Ion Beam Services (IBS) which is developing its ‘PULSION’ Plasma immersion implant tool for production applications, Gartner said that the market for such tools reached US$66 million in 2008. Gartner’s Dean Freeman projects that the market will reach US$112 million in 2011.
Varian Semiconductor has had the only commercial system available on the market. Freeman said in Gartner’s weekly newsletter that the “challenge is for the partners [Axcelis & IBS] to execute and gain customer confidence in the technology.”
Axcelis reported first quarter 2009 results last Friday, which highlighted further losses of US$22.4 million, with revenue of US$33.6 million. Orders for the second quarter were US$27.0 million. New systems bookings were US$3.1 million. Backlog plus deferred systems revenue at quarter end was $10.1 million. Axcelis reported it had working capital of US$187.7 million.