Trikon says fab equipment bookings reach record in Q2
Semiconductor Business News
(08/09/00, 12:46:38 PM EDT)
NEWPORT, Wales -- Semiconductor equipment supplier Trikon Technologies Inc. here today reported a 137% increase in product revenues to $25.7 million in the second quarter compared to $10.8 million in the same period last year. Including $350,000 from licenses, the U.K. company posted total revenues of $26.0 million in the period ended June 30.
"During the quarter, Trikon shipped everything from PVD [physical vapor deposition] tools to a top-10 DRAM manufacturer to an advanced etching tool for an opto application," said Nigel Wheeler, president and chief executive officer of the company. "Geographically, Europe remained the largest market with 55% of revenues, with North American sales at 24% and Asian sales increasing to 21%. Technologically, PVD sales still made up the majority of revenues with 59%, plasma etch sales with 2% and CVD [chemical vapor deposition] with 20%."
The release of the results comes at a time when investors are jittery about the length of the current semiconductor capital spending cycle following reports of tool order delays by Kulicke & Soffa Industries Inc. (see Aug. 4 story). However, most market observers believe semiconductor equipment purchases will not significantly slow until late next year when chip makers begin to catch up with strong unit demand.
Trikon today said it had record product bookings in the second quarter, generated a book-to-bill ratio greater than 1.7. Backlog further increased to new record levels.
"We continue to see strong interest in our low-k products, Low-K Flowfill and Omega M0RI heliconplasma etcher, and we are working with customers on copper-damascene integration as well as aluminium gap fill with these products," Wheeler said . "At Semicon West [in San Francisco last month] we introduced a new ionized PVD module for barrier deposition with what we believe to be unique features and benefits over existing ionized PVD solutions and at considerably lower cost than alternative CVD techniques see July 14 story).
"Trikon's 300-mm [wafer] developments are also well positioned to meet customer's timescales with advanced tools in build," said the CEO. "These are of comparable size to our existing 200-mm designs with the capability of processing both 200-mm and 300-mm wafers faster and at a lower cost of ownership than our existing 200-mm designs." |
