YES (Yield Engineering Systems, Inc. ), a leading manufacturer of process equipment for semiconductor advanced packaging, life sciences and “More-than-Moore” applications, today announced that it has acquired SPEC (Semiconductor Process Equipment Corporation) of Valencia, California for an undisclosed amount. The companies had announced a strategic partnership agreement in June.

The purchase brings together two longtime, trusted semiconductor equipment suppliers with more than 70 years of industry experience between them. “YES and SPEC have many characteristics in common,” said Rama Alapati, CEO of YES. “Both of us have accumulated decades of technological expertise and have installed hundreds of systems in dozens of countries. We both take pride in our many repeat customers, and our excellent industry reputations. In acquiring SPEC, we feel YES is now better-positioned to meet the growing demands of current and future customers in emerging markets such as HPC, AI/ML, 5G, autonomous driving, augmented reality, and other computationally intensive applications.”

“The SPEC product line, which includes cleaning, etching, stripping and plating equipment, complements our portfolio well, and will allow YES to extend our offerings into the wet processing market,” added Rezwan Lateef, President of YES. “We welcome SPEC’s employees to the YES team, and we look forward to developing a variety of new products together to address and anticipate customer needs.”

“SPEC is very pleased to join forces with YES. With global demand for semiconductors increasing dramatically, this merger could not have come at a better time for both companies. We are excited to help YES open new markets and opportunities for our proven wet-process technologies going forward,” said Kevin McGillivray, co-founder of SPEC.

In addition to augmenting its personnel resources with the SPEC staff, YES will gain more than 40,000 square feet of manufacturing, assembly, and cleanroom space in Valencia, as well as SPEC’s regional offices around the world.

About YES
YES (Yield Engineering Systems, Inc.) is a preferred provider of high-tech, cost-effective equipment for transforming surfaces, materials, and interfaces. The company’s product lines include vacuum cure systems, 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, biosensors and medical substrates. 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 presence globally. For more information, please visit http://www.yieldengineering.com.

About SPEC
SPEC (Semiconductor Process Equipment Corporation) is a highly experienced supplier of surface conditioning wet process equipment. Since 1986, SPEC has designed and manufactured wafer-level and device-level wet process equipment for acid and solvent surface modification (cleaning, etching, stripping), electroplating, and electroless (chemical) plating for all industries requiring a high level of process cleanliness. SPEC’s products are used for polysilicon chip, chunk, and ingot cleaning; crucible cleaning, cavity cleaning for particle accelerators, chemical mixing and delivery, hard drive component cleaning, and quartzware cleaning. SPEC systems are engineered to match the unique requirements of the end user. For more information, please visit http://www.team-spec.com.

• Read more about YES (Yield Engineering Systems, Inc.) Acquires SPEC (Semiconductor Process Equipment Corp.)

ESPOO, Finland, 14th of December 2021 - There has been a need for enhanced coating methods in organic electronic manufacturing as foldable phones and other future product iterations need materials that are lighter, more reliable and enable folding and stretching of a device. Thus, the use of thin film encapsulation solutions has become more common in organic electronic manufacturing.

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) has already proven to be the coating solution of choice for a wide range of applications in the semiconductor industry. Inorganic films, which are the standard output of an ALD process, are however susceptible to crack or develop defects under severe mechanical stress. This issue is magnified when depositing on large surface areas often required in flexible organic electronics manufacturing. Picosun’s novel approach to address these issues, for which patent rights are pending, includes nanolamination of dense inorganic layers deposited with ALD to maintain excellent barrier performance‚ with organic or hybrid molecular layer deposition (MLD) layers to offer enhanced flexibility and de-emphasize the defects which may appear when films are stressed.

Picosun research on an industrially viable ALD/MLD process was demonstrated on wafers and polymer substrates over 200 mm in diameter with a deposition temperature of 90 °C using Picosun ALD tools. The results showed great thickness uniformity and higher throughput compared to pure ALD film deposition. The MLD film proved to be stable in ambient environment and the complementary strengths of ALD and MLD hindered H2O permeation through the film stack, which enables flexibility in moisture barrier design.

“We are excited to bring these insights to the market as there has been little information available from stable and industrially viable MLD processes in full wafer scale. Besides organic electronics, we see immense potential with the ALD/MLD films in the manufacturing of LEDs, MEMS and medical packaging”, states Juhana Kostamo, VP, Industrial Business Area of Picosun Group.

Watch the Picosun webinar to learn more about the topic and Picosun results:
https://info.picosun.com/webinars/ald-mld-nanolaminate-films

More information:
Juhana Kostamo
Vice President, Industrial Business Area, Picosun Group
Tel: +358 50 369 9565
Email: [email protected]
www.picosun.com

About Picosun
Picosun provides the most advanced 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.

• Read more about Picosun to introduce novel coating solution for organic electronics

August 30, 2021 11:30 AM SAST

AMSTERDAM–Leading AI-for-Manufacturing company, DataProphet, today announces the formation of its Semiconductor Advisory Board. With great pride, the company welcomes the newly formed strategic committee of trusted industry-specific advisors — Susan Wilkerson and Markus Keil.

In Markus Keil and Susan Wilkerson, DataProphet has teamed with two highly respected, seasoned professionals who are deeply committed to bringing their wealth of semiconductor industry knowledge to help DataProphet achieve its ambitions of integrating its data-driven AI-as-a-Service into all value-adding processes in the semiconductor value chain around the world, including fabs and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs).

Susan Wilkerson and Markus Keil are distinguished additions to DataProphet’s wider Industry Advisory Board. They directly reflect the company’s growth-oriented, go-to-market mindset at a crucial inflection point in its commercial development.

DataProphet’s Semiconductor Advisory Board members bring a proven track record as change agents in semiconductor manufacturing, helping shape and guide the industry through myriad challenges and transformations over years of unprecedented technological and economic transformation. Susan Wilkerson and Markus Keil will work closely with DataProphet’s leadership team to ensure they are best meeting the critical production KPIs of the semiconductor industry as it moves into a new era.

Regarding the announcement, Susan Wilkerson had this to say: “I’m excited to be selected for DataProphet’s Semi Advisory Board, which focuses on utilizing AI and Machine Learning to enable prescriptive operational efficiencies in the Semiconductor industry. The Dataprophet team’s underlying philosophy translates into product offerings committed to making the end customer experience as simple and positive as possible while proving clear customer value at every stage. Their AI-as-a-Service seamlessly inputs environmental variables and proactively models complex integration in the manufacturing process. This will enable chipmakers to address their most significant technical challenges. With DataProphet’s data-driven solutions, fabs will access opportunities to improve operational cost, yield, and time to market faster than ever before.”

Markus Keil contextualized the significance of his inclusion in this way: “Upon meeting the DataProphet team, I became quickly aware of a unique group of excellent talents and leadership backed by high-caliber investors. My sense was: here is a company to make a big difference in the young industry of AI. This is why I’m very honored to have the opportunity to support DataProphet in bringing its AI-for-Manufacturing and Machine Learning (ML) applications into the semiconductor industry. AI and ML are megatrends with the capability to influence many aspects of how we work, design, build and use technology. Furthermore, in my opinion, semiconductors are a logical and natural target industry for DataProphet’s pioneering technology. Fabs are very data-centric environments with some catch-up work to do in using AI. With Dataprophet’s unique innovations, its use of big data prescriptive analytics, along with their very customer-centered approach, I am convinced this company will be successful in bringing its game-changing technology to fabs worldwide.”

In response to the formation of the Advisory Board, DataProphet CEO and co-founder Frans Cronje stated: “I am very excited by today’s announcement of our Advisory Board for the semiconductor industry! The experts who have joined our board will help guide DataProphet as we introduce our state-of-art AI solution to fabs around the world. Susan Wilkerson and Markus Keil will help us navigate the intricacies and challenges that customers in the semiconductor manufacturing industry face. I am looking forward to the results we will achieve together.”

ABOUT DATAPROPHET
DataProphet is a Venture Capital-backed, high-growth AI-for-Manufacturing company pioneering the development and deployment of Deep Learning solutions for manufacturers across key industry verticals worldwide. As heavy industries move towards autonomous manufacturing, its world-leading AI-driven solutions guide clients from over-dependence on human experts to Machine Learning expert guidance. DataProphet’s mission is for its manufacturing process agnostic AI-as-a-Service innovations to continue revolutionizing process optimization in support of the wide range of manufacturing sectors it currently partners with and to extend its partnerships even further. The company helps manufacturers—of semiconductors, automotive equipment, rubber, glass, plastic, gray iron, and minerals—meet and exceed critical KPIs with cutting-edge, human-in-the-loop AI deployments requiring no additional hardware investment. In this way, DataProphet supports adopters of its technology to become more competitive and resource-efficient as they digitally transform. DataProphet AI deployments guarantee ROI in the first year of operation and provide ongoing and complete post-installation support, including additional data sources and full model maintenance.

ABOUT SUSAN WILKERSON
Susan Wilkerson joined Veeco in April 2020 as Senior Vice President of Global Customer Operations. Before her employment with Veeco, she served as Vice President & General Manager of Strategic Global Accounts for Lam Research Corporation from 2011 to 2020. She was also previously Vice President & General Manager of Americas Sales & Service for Verigy. Susan Wilkerson was with Applied Materials for over fifteen years, holding positions of increasing responsibility—these included Global Account Management, Vice President & General Manager, and Vice President of Operations for the North America Region. Susan Wilkerson was also engaged in multiple consulting ventures, co-founding BlueRock Consulting LLC in 2008.

ABOUT MARKUS KEIL
Markus Keil has 25 years of global experience in the technology industry with a strong operational and business focus in Asia, Europe, and the US. Mr. Keil has worked as a CEO, Business Area Manager, and Business Unit COO in highly innovative environments. He also bore Multi-Operations-Site responsibility for ten manufacturing sites in six countries (in Europe, the US, and Asia), and brings solid operational experience along the entire semiconductor manufacturing supply chain—from Equipment Vending, Wafer Manufacturing, Chip-Packaging, Multi-Chip Module Assembly, and Testing with a large inhouse and outsourced footprint. Mr. Keil started up several manufacturing sites (greenfields), transferring technology and building HVM Technology organizations. He has post-M&A integration experience and has led several significant organizational integration and transformation projects in the semiconductor industry. Markus Keil is a hands-on team player and vision builder with a strategic mindset.

• Read more about DataProphet Announces Formation of its Semiconductor Advisory Board as Company continues Global Expansion

November 03, 2021 | 11:30 AM SAST | Nicol Ritchie | • Press releases

AMSTERDAM - DataProphet, the leading AI-for-manufacturing company, today announced the extension of its Semiconductor Advisory Board. The award-winning industrial technology business welcomes Dr. Antonio (Toni) Mesquida Küsters. Dr. Mesquida Küsters joins Susan Wilkerson and Markus Keil, who recently formed this strategic committee of specialist semiconductor advisors at DataProphet in August of 2021.

Toni brings more than 25 years of management experience in the semiconductor industry, where he has held positions at major integrated circuit and semiconductor equipment manufacturers such as Infineon and ASML, where he currently heads up product marketing and business development. His responsibilities have included product marketing, business development, strategy and sourcing & operations management.

As an experienced venture capital investor, Mesquida Küsters also understands start-ups, how they operate and how they best execute expansion strategies. This experience will be relevant as DataProphet extends a global presence in the silicon space via its broader Integrator and Machine Builder partnership ecosystem.

Taken together, DataProphet's Semiconductor Advisory Board members bring a wealth of frontline semiconductor experience. Furthermore, Dr. Toni Mesquida Küsters, Susan Wilkerson and Markus Keil are outstanding additions to the broader DataProphet Industry Advisory Board, which will increasingly bolster the business’s expansion strategy as this relates to the diverse and critical manufacturing verticals benefiting from its AI-as-a-Service.

Specifically, the Semiconductor Industry Advisory board will work closely with DataProphet's leadership team as they strive to revolutionize production for the semiconductor industry worldwide with advanced Deep Learning.

The inclusion of Dr. Mesquida Küsters to the DataProphet team directly reflects the business's growth-oriented, go-to-market mindset at a crucial turning point in its commercial development.

Speaking of the announcement, Toni Mesquida Küsters had this to say:

"I am delighted to join the DataProphet team and contribute with my network and expertise to the growth of this exceptional company. As widely covered in the news, especially since the COVID pandemic started, semiconductor chips have become one of the key bottlenecks in many supply chains, including automotive, industrial, and consumer, to name a few. There is huge pressure from OEMs towards chip makers to increase the output of their factories by improving their yield and efficiency. Here is where manufacturing solutions based on Artificial Intelligence will bring huge value, as provided by DataProphet. The value of AI will be especially significant for IC makers, who barely use it in their current operations. I'm looking forward to working with Susan and Markus and the DataProphet management team in making the expansion of the company into the Semiconductor market a great success."

In response to the expansion of the Advisory Board, Frans Cronje, CEO, and Co-Founder of DataProphet stated:

"I'm thrilled to welcome Toni to our Semiconductor Advisory Board. Along with Susan Wilkerson's and Markus Keil's, Dr. Mesquida Küsters expertise will help us overcome the complex challenges customers contend with during semiconductor manufacturing. I look forward to the results we will achieve together as we roll out DataProphet's state-of-the-art AI technology for chipmakers and semiconductor machine builders."

ABOUT DATAPROPHET
DataProphet is a venture-backed, high-growth AI for manufacturing company that pioneered the development and delivery of Deep Learning solutions for manufacturers in key industries worldwide. As heavy industry moves towards autonomous manufacturing, its world-leading AI-powered solutions move customers from over-reliance on human experts to machine learning expert guidance. DataProphet's mission is for its manufacturing process-agnostic AI-as-a-Service innovations to continue revolutionizing process optimization—supporting its manifold manufacturing sector partners while expanding these partnerships globally.

DataProphet helps manufacturers of semiconductors, automotive equipment, rubber, glass, plastics, cast iron, and minerals to meet and exceed critical KPIs with cutting-edge AI-as-a-Service. Requiring no additional hardware investments, DataProphet supports users of its technology to become more competitive and more resource-efficient at any stage of the digital transformation journey. DataProphet AI deployments guarantee ROI in the first year of operation and provide ongoing and complete support after installation—including additional data sources and full model maintenance.

ABOUT TONI MESQUIDA KÜSTERS
Dr. Antonio (Toni) Mesquida Küsters joined ASML in Veldhoven as Director of Market Intelligence in 2006, where he significantly contributed to the management directions and priorities of the Dutch company. Between 2011 and 2014, he served as Sourcing Director and Managing Director of the ASML German Operations in Alsdorf (formerly Ushio / Xtreme Technologies) in EUV DPP Sources. Since the beginning of 2015, Toni has been in charge of product marketing & business development for all TWINSCAN dry lithography products with yearly sales of close to 2 billion Euros.

Between 1995 and 2001 in Munich, Toni held various management positions at Siemens AG (later Infineon Technologies AG) in IC development, technology transfer, product marketing, and corporate venturing. As one of the founding members of Infineon Ventures, he served on the supervisory board of various high-tech start-ups worldwide. At the German MOCVD equipment provider, AIXTRON SE, he was head of Corporate Strategy between 2002 and 2006.

Toni holds both Spanish and German nationality and earned his master's degree in Electrical Engineering (1990). He also attained a Ph.D. in Semiconductor Science (1994) from the RWTH Aachen in Germany. His technical education has been extended over the last 25 years with various executive courses at well-known business schools like INSEAD and Rotterdam School of Management.

• Read more about DataProphet Extends Semiconductor Advisory Board with new Industry Veteran

ESPOO, Finland, 23 of November 2021 – Picosun Group has launched a Medical Materials Library consisting of over ten materials intended for medical-related coating and encapsulation with Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD). ALD coatings are ultra-thin, and they guarantee hermetic encapsulation of virtually any implanted device.

The materials library is a reflection of over six years extensive research and development that shows ALD can render biocompatibility to a substrate coated with Picosun library materials. Biocompatibility tests were carried out according to ISO standards in accredited third-party laboratories. The performed tests included for example cytotoxicity, antimicrobial activity, skin irritation or sensitization, hemocompatibility, bacterial endotoxins, bioburden and sterilization residuals. From the tested materials Picosun is able to design tens of different types of end materials according to customer needs.

ALD technology provides dimensionless coating thus enabling miniaturization of components and devices in the field of electronic implants. Antibacterial function together with excellent barrier properties and outstanding corrosion resistance pave the way for using the materials both in electronic and orthopedic implants and show high potential in pharmaceutical packaging. The superior film uniformity and conformality ensure a pinhole-free coverage over even the smallest details of the device.

“The demonstrated results show the undisputable opportunities ALD offers to the medical sector already today. While the basic surgical principles and technologies have remained the same for decades, now ALD enables unforeseen applications potentially improving patient safety and cost-effectiveness by extending implant durability and reducing adverse effects”, says Niku Oksala, professor of surgery at Tampere University and medical advisor for Picosun.

“Picosun’s Medical Materials Library targeted to the medical device manufacturer segment reflects the innovative spirit of the company. I’m really excited over the fact that we are able to flexibly design tailored encapsulations according to our customers’ needs. I’m especially proud of our medical customers and partners who are already in pre-clinical and clinical trials with their ALD coated devices”, says Juhani Taskinen, Vice President, Medical Business Area of Picosun Group.

More information:
Juhani Taskinen
Vice President, Medical Business Area, Picosun Group
Tel: +358 50 4066 957
Email: [email protected]
www.picosun.com

About Picosun
Picosun provides the most advanced 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.

• Read more about Medical technology companies to benefit from Picosun biocompatible materials