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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: StanX Long who wrote (64072)	5/29/2002 1:47:18 AM
From: StanX Long	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

Equipment Market Shrunk to $39.3B in 2001, VLSI Says By Jeff Chappell -- Electronic News, 5/28/2002 e-insite.net The chip equipment market shrunk to $39.3 billion last year, a 34.7 percent decline over the peak of 2000, according to VLSI Research Inc. VLSI today released its 2001 market share data for various equipment markets. Assembly equipment was the worst-performing segment; it declined 55.7 percent in 2001. This was followed by test and related equipment with a 42.5 percent decline and wafer process equipment suppliers, who suffered a 30 percent decline. Last year was marked by acquisitions and technology plays, and some market share points have been shuffled in the process. ASML, which completed its problematic merger with Silicon Valley Group, now has the second largest share of the $4.3 billion wafer exposure equipment market, with 25 percent of the market, according to VLSI. ASML still trails leader Nikon Inc. with 40 percent of the market, but is slightly ahead of Canon Inc., which has 20 percent of the market. In the market for photomask production tools, Swedish supplier Micronic Laser Systems AB, a relative newcomer to the semiconductor market, managed to nab 15 percent of the market. It still trails Applied Materials Inc., which, with its Etec subsidiary that it acquired two years ago, has 35 percent of the market, and Toshiba Ltd., with 20 percent. In the field of ion implantation, Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates managed to retain its overall lead with 30 percent of the market, but Applied was able to climb to second place with 25 percent of the market. It edged out smaller rival Axcelis Technologies Inc., which grabbed 20 percent of the market in 2001. The two companies are embroiled in an ongoing ion implant patent dispute in federal court. In the test markets, Advantest Corp. managed to maintain its solid lock on memory test with 60 percent of the market. Meanwhile, Teradyne Inc., which bought GenRad Inc., last year, led the logic test and mixed signal/linear/discrete test markets with 25 percent and 40 percent shares of those respective markets. Agilent Technologies Inc. lead the system-on-a-chip market with 35 percent of the market, followed by LTX Corp. and Advantest, both of which tied for second, each holding 30 percent of the market. A more complete breakdown of VLSI’s data can be obtained at the company’s