
A string of orders were placed today by TSMC with four major equipment suppliers for fabs in Taiwan. ASM International, Applied Materials, Ebara and Lam Research all received purchase orders in the US$20 million range.
Ebara, known for its CMP tools received a follow-on order worth approximately US$22.6 million, valued the highest amongst the batch of orders released today. The order is almost identical in value to a recent order Ebara received from the foundry, which was worth approximately US$20 million.
ASM International picked-up its first orders from TSMC in 2011 with the smallest order of the batch, valued at approximately US$18 million. ASM International noted last week in reviewing its 2010 financial results that its expected several customers to begin ramping ALD technology used for HKMG processes in 2011. The Dutch company had only one customer in production with HKMG processes in 2010.
Lam Research has had recent success with Taiwan-based DRAM producer, Inotera, now TSMC has placed orders with firm valued at approximately US$21.4 million. TSMC has been a long-standing user of Lam’s single wafer cleaning technology, previously known as SEZ, based in Austria. No actual details of the equipment purchased were revealed.
Finally, Applied Materials received orders worth US$20.3 million, its fifth batch of orders so far this year.