looking even better
A T M I Expands Specialty Silicon Epitaxy Capacity by 25%; Strong Analog and Wireless Demand Requires Significant Expansion at Epitronics Unit
DANBURY, Conn. and MESA, Ariz.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 4, 2000-- A T M I, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATMI), today announced that it is dramatically expanding its epitaxy capacity and services to meet burgeoning customer demand in the wireless and telecommunications markets at its Epitronics business, the world's largest independent specialty epitaxial foundry. The silicon epitaxy expansion is only one part of Epitronics' on-going strategy to provide a comprehensive range of specialty epitaxial services to meet all customer requirements.
Epitronics' Silicon Division in Mesa is adding eight single-wafer silicon reactors capable of handling wafers up to 200mm in diameter. This expands its total to thirty-six tools dedicated to specialty silicon epitaxial services, focused on BiCMOS and bipolar epitaxial processes, customized and characterized at Epitronics to customers' specifications. The BiCMOS and bipolar devices can help circuitry operate faster, with better performance characteristics and are found in analog devices for high-frequency wireless applications and integrated circuits for networking for Internet backbone development.
Phil Yin, Epitronics President, said, "Customer demand for Epitronics' BiCMOS epitaxy is escalating rapidly - BiCMOS devices are integral parts of popular analog circuits for wireless communications and the Internet telecommunications backbone. Our customers are demanding more than 120% of our capacity. To assure them of Epitronics' trademark characteristics - high yield, high quality, and fast cycle time - we have located and purchased eight single-wafer reactors for immediate delivery and installation in our Mesa facility. Because time is of the essence for our customers, our aggressive schedule puts these new tools on-line and in full-scale production by the end of the second quarter."
Tod Higinbothom, Epitronics' Vice-President of Sales and Marketing, said, "Our customers want our specialty epitaxial services. It's that simple. They recognize the quality of our custom epitaxy characterized to their specifications. We are making this multi-million dollar long term investment to give more customers greater opportunities to use Epitronics' epitaxial expertise."
About Epitaxial Technology
An epitaxial film - epi - is a layer of single crystal semiconductor seeded from a substrate's (wafer's) crystalline structure, offering advanced features that differentiate it from the substrate wafer.
Epi allows for novel structures such as high resistivity layers over heavily doped buried layers, for dopants to be incorporated into the epi layers, and for freedom of contaminants within the epi layers.
These epi advantages make it an essential step in the fabrication of CMOS, BiCMOS, and analog and power devices. Device manufacturers are able to manipulate and tightly control the dopant concentration of device structures, which can result in a marked increase in yield during the manufacturing process.
Epitronics is a leading supplier of specialty epitaxial services to the semiconductor industry. Epitronics' Silicon Division in Mesa, Arizona provides silicon epitaxial services for thin film growth of single layers, on buried layers and patterns, and advanced bipolar, CMOS, BiCMOS, MEMS, and discrete device structures on wafers up to 200 mm. Epitronics' III-V Division in Phoenix, Arizona provides GaAs, AlGaAs, InGaP, InGaAs, InAlAs, and InP epitaxial services for fiber optic, digital communication, and wireless applications. Epitronics is ISO-9002 and QS-9000 certified. |
