ClassOne Technology, global provider of advanced semiconductor plating tools, announced the sale of a second Solstice® S8 system to i3 Microsystems (i3M), a wholly-owned subsidiary of defense industry supplier i3 Electronics headquartered in Binghamton, NY. The eight-chambered Solstice S8 configuration includes ClassOne’s proprietary CopperMax™ chamber for advanced copper plating. The announcement was made jointly by ClassOne CEO, Byron Exarcos, and i3 VP/General Manager, Robert Nead.

"We brought in the first Solstice S8 to replace our wet benches and automate our plating processes,” said Nead. “And the tool’s high performance and flexibility have served us extremely well. With eight chambers, the Solstice is able to handle both plating and surface preparation processes. We’re now adding solvent strip and UBM etch capabilities to our first Solstice, and we are configuring our second Solstice to match. Bottom line, we've been very pleased with the Solstice and also with ClassOne's customer service, both of which are strongly supporting our ongoing growth.”

“A key feature of i3M’s Solstice S8 configuration is that it includes our proprietary CopperMax™ electroplating chamber,” said Exarcos. “This unique chamber is designed to deliver class-leading copper plating quality while at the same time reducing plating consumables costs. It gives users the ability to routinely achieve exceptional levels of copper plating feature quality and also cut copper chemistry additives costs by as much as 95%.

Solstice presently serves many of the world’s leading defense contractors and is emerging as the electroplating and wafer surface preparation system of choice for meeting the exacting requirements of the defense and aerospace industries.

The ClassOne Solstice S8 is an eight-chambered system for high-performance, fully-automated electroplating and surface preparation. The Solstice platform also includes the S4, which provides up to four processing chambers, and the LT, with up to three chambers. In addition to electroplating, the tool’s unique Plating-Plus™ capability also enables it to handle many surface preparation functions, including wafer cleaning, high-pressure metal lift-off, resist strip, UBM etch and more. This multi-processing flexibility serves to streamline process production and can reduce the number of different tools a user needs to purchase.

• Read more about Defense Industry Supplier i3 Microsystems Places Repeat Order for ClassOne’s Solstice Electroplating System

ESPOO, Finland, 22nd of March 2021 – During the past year, organizations worldwide have been forced to adapt to new ways of working and serving their customers due to the covid-19 pandemic and the related restrictions to travel and logistics. Picosun Group has significantly reinforced its local service units globally and established its PicoSupport™ Center.

PicoSupport™ Center provides on-site support and planned service items such as ALD system installations and preventive maintenance visits conducted by highly experienced, trained and certified field service engineers. It also takes care of customers’ Helpdesk and Emergency Service operations.

At the core of PicoSupport™ Center’s Helpdesk are state-of-the-art remote support tools taking advantage of augmented/mixed reality, live video, screensharing and remote connection applications. In accordance with Industry 4.0, these tools allow safe and on-time service delivery no matter the physical location or time zone of the customer. They also offer an endlessly upgradeable platform for further embedding of e.g. remote training and e-learning modules with full virtual reality environments.

Today, the remote support tools are already widely implemented in Picosun’s customer base. The remote applications are used for a number of services ranging from system inspections and troubleshooting to software upgrades, bug fixes and process optimizations.

“I’m very proud to say that we have been able to adapt to the changing environment by employing new ways of interaction to ensure continued customer satisfaction. The feedback on the new remote support applications has been very positive. Customers find them easy to use and have benefitted from them in terms of faster reaction times and lower costs compared to traditional on-site services,” says Timo Malinen, VP, Service Business Area of Picosun Group.

“As our customers’ trusted strategic ALD partner we are committed to top-notch and uninterrupted services, despite of the changes in the world we operate in. We are looking forward to further enhance and develop the ways with which we can ensure smooth and trouble-free operations together with our customers,” Malinen concludes.

About Picosun
Picosun provides the most advanced AGILE ALD® (Atomic Layer Deposition) thin film coating solutions for global industries. Picosun’s ALD solutions enable technological leap into the future, with turn-key production processes and unmatched, pioneering expertise in the field – dating back to the invention of the technology itself. Today, PICOSUN® ALD equipment are in daily manufacturing use in numerous leading industries around the world. Picosun is based in Finland, with subsidiaries in Germany, USA, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, China mainland and Taiwan, offices in India and France, and a world-wide sales and support network. Visit www.picosun.com.

More information:
Timo Malinen
VP, Service Business Area, Picosun Group
Tel: +358 40 5011860
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.picosun.com

• Read more about Picosun trusts in augmented reality for refined customer support

FREMONT, Calif. – Mar 15, 2021 – YES (Yield Engineering Systems, Inc.), a preferred provider of material modification and surface enhancement solutions for the semiconductor, life science and display markets, today announced that a leading memory manufacturer has ordered the YES VertaBond™ system for wafer-to-wafer and die-to-wafer bonding. The new system will be utilized in bringing next-generation HBM (high bandwidth memory) to market. It is scheduled for delivery in the second quarter of 2021 to support the customer’s R&D activities and initial production demands.

“This order marks an important milestone for YES, as it is a validation of our efforts to serve the memory market. This new VertaBond system will enable our valued customer’s most advanced HBM development and pilot production,” said Alex Chow, Asia Sales President & General Manager at YES. “We are very pleased and look forward to working with them to meet their exciting technology roadmap.”

“YES has long been a leader in cutting-edge solutions for polyimide cure and wafer-to-wafer bonding applications utilizing novel vacuum technologies. We are pleased to introduce the VertaBond system for wafers and panels, which is based on this core competence, to customers with demanding 3D stacking and heterogenous integration applications in logic, memory and other critical areas,” said Dr. Zia Karim, Sr. VP and CTO at YES.

About VertaBond
VertaBond is YES’s new vacuum-based wafer-to-wafer and die-to-wafer bonding system. Its superior temperature uniformity and low vacuum environment work together to improve the properties of bonding interfaces and eliminate voids which can cause yield loss and performance degradation. Vacuum technology enables void-free bonding in less time, reduces thermal budget, and provides excellent bonding strength and particle performance.

About YES
YES (Yield Engineering Systems, Inc.) is a leading manufacturer of high-tech, cost-effective equipment for transforming surfaces, materials and interfaces. The company’s product lines include vacuum cure ovens, chemical vapor deposition (CVD) systems, and plasma etching tools used for precise surface modification and thin-film coating of semiconductor wafers, semiconductor and MEMS devices, and biodevices. With YES, customers ranging from startups to Fortune 100 companies can create and volume-produce products in a wide range of markets, including Advanced Packaging, MEMS, Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality and Life Sciences. YES is headquartered in Fremont, California, with a growing global presence. For more information, please visit www.yieldengineering.com.

VertaBond™ and the YES logo are trademarks of YES (Yield Engineering Systems, Inc.).

• Read more about YES Receives VertaBond™ Purchase Order from a Tier 1 Memory Manufacturer

BUSCH VACUUM SOLUTIONS USA ACQUIRES LONG-TERM SALES CHANNEL PARTNER
Distributor of vacuum equipment sales and service in Eastern Central Region

Virginia Beach, VA, February 4, 2021 - Busch Vacuum Solutions USA, one of the largest manufacturers of vacuum pumps, blowers, compressors and systems, announces the acquisition of Jennings Associates Inc. (dba Jennings Alberts Inc) a distributor for new equipment, maintenance, and repair for vacuum pumps blowers and heat exchangers. The acquisition of Jennings Alberts’ vacuum pump, blower and service portion of the business furthers Busch’s long-term goal of providing even better technical and service support for customers in the Eastern Central Region.

Busch partnered with Jennings Associates to represent them in Eastern PA, Southern NJ, and DE in 1977. Together, they have become prominent industry leaders supplying vacuum solutions for many applications including meat processing, food packaging, chemical, pharmaceutical, metallurgy and plastics.

“The Busch-Jennings family business relationship has continued to grow over the last 44 years. We are all very excited that the Jennings vacuum pump and blower, sales and service, business officially becomes part of the larger Busch company which is also a family-owned business.” said Mr. Bill Altier, part owner of Jennings Alberts. Mr. Altier joins Busch as a Regional Manager and will continue to serve customers in this market.

Also joining Busch as a Regional Sales Manager is Mrs. Lisa (Jennings) Dugery, part owner of Jennings Alberts, who said “We are excited to join the Busch team because of the success and mutual trust our companies have built over the years.” She also added, “And because of their long track record of innovation and great success, I know our family’s legacy is in good hands.”

According to Mr. Turgay Ozan, President of Busch USA, “As a vacuum industry leader, we are acquiring one of the foremost distributors and service organizations in the market. Joining with the Jennings team, after such a long partnership, is a logical step.” Mr. Ozan added, “For this region, we are becoming a direct resource for customers with access to Busch Product Managers, Engineers and Service Specialists, nationally and globally.”

Busch Vacuum Solutions manufactures products and designs systems in the USA and offers a wide national service network. The transition of the Jennings vacuum and blower business takes place immediately.

About Busch Vacuum Solutions
Busch Vacuum Solutions USA sales and manufacturing headquarters is in Virginia Beach, VA where a team of 500 dedicated employees takes care of all their customer’s industrial vacuum needs. Busch USA is part of the global Busch Vacuum Solutions family owned company with over 3500 employees in more than 40 countries.

For more information about Busch: www.buschusa.com

• Read more about BUSCH VACUUM SOLUTIONS USA ACQUIRES LONG-TERM SALES CHANNEL PARTNER Distributor of vacuum equipment sales and service in Eastern Central Region

Intermolecular, Inc. (“Intermolecular”), the trusted partner for materials innovation and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, today announced the relocation of the Silicon Valley Innovation Hub from Menlo Park to Intermolecular’s San Jose facilities, combining Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany’s innovation efforts in the Bay area with Intermolecular’s services for materials and electronics, creating a unique space that empowers collaboration with startups.

The Silicon Valley Innovation Hub was established in 2017 in Menlo Park, CA. As part of the global Innovation Ecosystem of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, it strives to identify and develop viable new businesses and technologies between the company’s existing business sectors or break new ground beyond them.

“The mission of the Silicon Valley Innovation Hub is to identify and explore untapped innovation- and business opportunities for Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. In this context, the intersection of life science and material science is becoming increasingly important and opens new areas of innovation. Having the Silicon Valley Innovation Hub and Intermolecular under one roof now will allow us and our cooperation partners to develop and test new materials for biological applications. We are very excited about these new opportunities,” states Thomas Herget, head of the Silicon Valley Innovation Hub.

Intermolecular has a unique toolset and expertise to quickly test and prove new advanced technologies and materials for semiconductor devices and electronic applications.

Having the Innovation Hub in the same building will further strengthen collaboration of the company’s businesses with startups and innovative companies in and around the Bay Area to rapidly grow their business from concept to high-volume manufacturing. The building boasts 30,000 square feet of cleanroom, chemical labs, offices, a collaboration area and event spaces.

Intermolecular’s customizable services are tailored to meet a startup’s unique needs, whether it is achieving a proof-of-principle, a first prototype, or a small series production. Intermolecular assigns experts in emerging technologies and offers its manufacturing facilities, which can run experiments 24/7to test and validate materials critical to product development. Intermolecular’s flexible methodologies and quality data help accelerate product design innovation, at any phase of a startup’s product development cycle.

“Intermolecular offers a seamless process flow that is specific and confidential to each startup, which is key to speeding time to innovation,” said Casper van Oosten, business field head and managing director for Intermolecular, Inc. “By providing startups the tools and expertise to validate their ideas, we can help them accelerate their path to new investment and speed their product introductions by giving them concrete data needed to move quickly from a research phase to full production. Having the experts from the Silicon Valley Innovation Hub now under one roof, we are looking forward to branch out into new areas and exploring collaboration opportunities that bring benefits to our customers/startups.”

“Semiconductor companies, particularly companies working on current generation and emerging memories, need to do a lot of experimentation to get the best combination of processes and materials,” said Tom Coughlin, president of Coughlin Associates. “Companies such as Intermolecular can provide efficient ways to gather and analyze the required data to make the next generations of memory possible.”

About the Silicon Valley Innovation Hub

Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany’s Silicon Valley Innovation Hub supports scouting for the company’s existing businesses, with the additional objective to look between and beyond their scopes. This means evaluating new technological opportunities, building and maintaining local relationships and partnerships, and driving new business in fields such as cell-based meat.

About Intermolecular

Intermolecular is a trusted partner for materials innovation and the Silicon Valley science hub of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany and its Performance Materials business. Intermolecular explores, tests and develops advanced materials that are revolutionizing the next generation of electronics that make lives easier, entertaining and more productive. For more than 15 years, the team, methodologies and quality data have driven impactful outcomes, market opportunities and innovative product designs for customers.

About Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany

Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, a leading science and technology company, operates across healthcare, life science and electronics. Around 58,000 employees work to make a positive difference to millions of people’s lives every day by creating more joyful and sustainable ways to live. From advancing gene editing technologies and discovering unique ways to treat the most challenging diseases to enabling the intelligence of devices – the company is everywhere. In 2020, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, generated sales of € 17.5 billion in 66 countries.

The company holds the global rights to the name and trademark “Merck” internationally. The only exceptions are the United States and Canada, where the business sectors of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany operate as EMD Serono in healthcare, MilliporeSigma in life science, and EMD Electronics. Since its founding 1668, scientific exploration and responsible entrepreneurship have been key to the company’s technological and scientific advances. To this day, the founding family remains the majority owner of the publicly listed company.

• Read more about Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany moves the Silicon Valley Innovation Hub to San Jose's Intermolecular site

Armstadt, Germany, March 4, 2021 – Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, a leading science and technology company, is changing the name of its Performance Materials business sector to Electronics. The new name is the visible result of the strategic realignment conducted over the past several years and a further milestone of the “Bright Future” transformation program, which began in 2018.

“The renaming of our business sector to Electronics is a logical step for us. After all, the new name underscores our strategic focus on the electronics industry. At the same time, it clearly illustrates our contribution to a world characterized by tremendous technological advances and exponential data growth,” said Kai Beckmann, Member of the Executive Board of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, and CEO Electronics. “Under the ‘Bright Future’ umbrella, we’ve developed into a leading player within the electronics industry over the last few years. And with the new name Electronics, we’re now also making it clear, at a glance, what our business sector represents.”

As the company behind the companies advancing digital living, the Electronics business sector is involved in all major technology trends – be it 5G, Big Data, autonomous driving, artificial intelligence, or the Internet of Things. Thanks to these and other megatrends, the demand for ever smaller, faster and more energy-efficient electronics is continuously growing. For example, more and more of the components in modern chips are now approaching atomic dimensions.

“Bright Future” – A successful transformation program

The acquisitions of Intermolecular and Versum Materials in 2019 represented two very important moves within the scope of the ongoing transformation program. Thanks to the integration of Intermolecular, which offers unique processes and R&D capacities, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, is now capable of making the latest material innovations available to its customers in the electronics industry even more rapidly. Through the acquisition of Versum Materials, the company has expanded its portfolio to include innovation-driven, ultra-high-purity process chemicals, gases and equipment for semiconductor manufacturing. The name Versum Materials, which has been in use separately until now, will be superseded by the new name of the business sector.

However, the name change will not have any effect on the existing organizational structure of the business sector, which comprises the three business units Semiconductor Solutions, Display Solutions and Surface Solutions. Electronics thus covers a particularly broad range of products and solutions, including high-tech materials and solutions for the semiconductor industry as well as liquid crystals and OLED materials for displays and effect pigments for coatings and cosmetics.

In September 2020, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, raised its expectations for average annual organic sales growth of Electronics to 3% to 4% against the backdrop of its focus on the semiconductor industry, which is showing strong growth. The business sector currently generates around 90% of its sales in the two business units Semiconductor Solutions and Display Solutions.

• Read more about Performance Materials Is Now Electronics: Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, Renames Business Sector Following Strategic Realignment

SANTA ROSA, Calif., – February 17, 2021 – PNI Sensor, the world’s foremost expert in precision location, motion tracking, and fusion of sensor systems into real-world applications, today announced availability of the new TargetPoint TCM™ gyro-stabilized digital magnetic compass. TargetPoint TCM incorporates PNI’s high sensitivity Magneto-Inductive sensors with the latest high stability 3-axis MEMS accelerometer and 3-axis MEMS gyroscopes providing accurate orientation while in dynamic motion and in magnetically challenging environments. TargetPoint TCM excels in conditions that cause errors in traditional digital magnetic compasses.

TargetPoint TCM uses advanced magnetic distortion compensation and calibration scoring algorithms to counter the effects of hard and soft iron interference, providing highly accurate heading information in almost any environment and orientation.

TargetPoint TCM features and benefits include:
 Patented magnetic anomaly rejection algorithms eliminate errors due to magnetic distortion, even in magnetically harsh environments
 Gyro-stabilized compass for dynamic accuracy of sub-0.5 degrees of heading accuracy
 Multiple calibration methods, including 12-point hard- and soft-iron calibration methods, are available to ensure ease of calibration for all applications
 ITAR-free

“For military rangefinder and targeting systems developers who need accurate orientation in demanding conditions, TargetPoint TCM is a ruggedized digital magnetic compass built to handle weapons shock,” said Robin Stoecker, vice president of sales and marketing at PNI Sensor. “It’s an ideal choice for targeting applications that require reliability, consistency and accuracy.”

Pricing and Availability
For product specifications, download the TargetPoint TCM product sheet. For pricing and availability, please contact PNI Sales or your regional PNI representative.

About PNI Sensor
With over 30 years of experience, PNI is the world’s foremost expert in precision location, motion tracking, and fusion of sensor systems into real-world applications. PNI’s sensors and algorithms serve as the cornerstone of successful IoT projects and other mission-critical applications where pinpoint location, accuracy, and low power consumption are essential. Building on decades of patented sensor and algorithm development, PNI offers the industry’s highest-performance geomagnetic sensor in its class, location and motion coprocessors, high-performance modules, sensor fusion algorithms, and complete sensor systems. To learn more, please visit www.pnicorp.com.

Media Contact:
Robin Stoecker
PNI Sensor
Tel: +1 707-566-2260 |Email: [email protected]

• Read more about PNI Sensor’s New TargetPoint Tilt-Compensated Compass Module (TCM) Provides Accurate Heading in any Environment

Semiconductor equipment manufacturer ClassOne Technology has just released its proprietary new SoftSeal™ Plating Rotor, designed to enhance processing performance on the company’s Solstice® electroplating systems. The announcement was made by ClassOne’s CEO, Byron Exarcos and Senior Technology Director, John Ghekiere.

“Together with the plating reactor, the plating rotor design is key to maximizing on-wafer performance,” said Exarcos. “It’s responsible for distributing the electrical supply across the wafer, isolating electrolytes from the electrical contacts, and a great deal more. Which is why we’re constantly working to optimize rotor performance. The new SoftSeal is our latest and most advanced generation in Solstice rotors, and it’s already achieving unprecedented levels of electroplating uniformity along with reduced cost of ownership.”

“This highly-uniform performance comes from a combination of finely-tuned rotating-disk electrode physics and an optimized density of electrical contacts around the wafer,” said Ghekiere. "The ‘SoftSeal’ name comes from its high-performance FFKM elastomer seal which very effectively isolates plating chemistries from the wafer’s edge-exclusion zone. The new rotor also adapts automatically to substrate thickness, so it can accept thick or thin substrates without any adjustment. The design accommodates both flatted and multi-flat wafers, and it’s customizable to non-standard wafer sizes. Plus, the seal is more robust than on competitive rotors, meaning longer part life and no handling concerns.”

“In addition, the SoftSeal rotor’s low profile enables bubble-free entry into the plating bath,” Ghekiere noted. “And a unique design feature directs excess chemistry back into the bath at the end of the plating process. This is particularly important for conserving expensive plating baths such as gold. And, after processing, a special wafer retrieval method eliminates wafer flexing and stress by eliminating the need for extraction force at the center of the wafer.”

ClassOne stated that the new SoftSeal rotor is designed to fit all models of the company's Solstice electroplating systems and it will be standard equipment on all of the new tools going forward.

ClassOne Solstice systems are designed to provide high-performance, cost-efficient, single-wafer electroplating specifically for ≤200mm processing. The series includes the Solstice S8 and Solstice S4 for fully automated 8-chamber and 4-chamber high-speed production. It also includes the semiautomated Solstice LT, with up to three chambers that can be used both for process development and production. In addition to electroplating, the unique Plating-Plus™ capabilities of the Solstice platform enable it to handle many other important surface preparation functions, such as wafer cleaning, high-pressure metal lift-off, resist strip, UBM etch, and more. Class-leading performance and flexibility consistently make Solstice the tool of choice for ≤200mm plating across a range of product categories.

• Read more about ClassOne’s Next-generation SoftSeal Plating Rotor Enhances Performance of Solstice Electroplating Systems

ECM Lab Solutions is a new offer from the ECM Group, dedicated to laboratories, research centers and universities. This offer combines equipment from three companies and four brands: ECM Technologies, ECM Greentech, SEMCO Technologies & Cyberstar.

With more than 90 years of experience in manufacturing industrial equipment, this ECM Group offer highlights the diverse and flexbile nature of ECM's technology and expertise by transitioning from heat treating steels and automotive applications to a wide range of research and specialty fields.

With advanced technologies for crystal growth, vacuum heat treatment and chemical vapor deposition, ECM Lab Solutions offers reliable solutions for semiconductor, solar, medical and other mechanical applications.

• Read more about New offer dedicated to research from the ECM Group - ECM Lab Solutions