Novellus, Mattson battle in strip tool market
By Mark LaPedus
Semiconductor Business News
(04/17/03 10:35 p.m. EST)
SAN JOSE -- Mattson Technology Inc. and Novellus Systems Inc. battled for first place in the fab-tool market for dry strip applications in 2002, although Axcelis Technologies Inc. is gaining ground in the arena, according to figures from Dataquest Inc.
In total, the dry strip equipment market reached $203.9 million in 2002, down 45 percent from $371.4 million in 2001, according to the San Jose-based market research firm.
Novellus retained its lead in this market, but its share fell from 29.1 percent in 2001, to 26.7 percent in 2002, according to Dataquest. Its sales in the sector went from $108 million in 2001, to $54.5 million in 2002, it said.
Mattson was in second place, but the company watched its strip equipment share fall from 26.5 percent in 2001, to 24.6 percent in 2002.
Axcelis emerged from a crowded pack to regain third place. Its share jump from 6.9 percent in 2001, to 15.1 percent in 2002. Steve Paleyo, an analyst with Morgan Stanley in San Francisco, said Axcelis gained share as the company beat its rivals to the punch in the 300-mm dry strip market.
Novellus and Mattson separately made acquisitions in this market to boost their respective shares. Novellus acquired dry-strip specialist Gasonics International Corp. in 2001, while Mattson bought Steag Electronic Systems AG.
“Mattson struggled with its acquisition of Steag and Gasonics, later acquired by Novellus, was late with its 300-mm product,” according to Morgan Stanley.
Rounding out the top dry-strip tool market in 2002 were KEM (7.7 percent), Shibaura (6.5 percent), Canon (5.8 percent), YAC (5.8 percent), Matrix Integrated Systems (3.1 percent), Ulvac (2.1 percent) and Tokyo Ohka Kogyo (1.7 percent).
In 2001, KEM had 6.6 percent, Shibaura had 5.9 percent, YAC had 5.2 percent, Matrix had 4.5 percent, Tokyo Ohka had 2.5 percent, Ulvac had 1.9 percent and Canon had 0.3 percent. |
