Exhibiting for the first time at SEMICON West 2010 as the newly-formed SPP Process Technology Systems (SPTS), the company is pleased to report its first 9 months of positive growth. In October 2009, SPTS was formed by Sumitomo Precision Products (SPP) through the acquisition of the Thermal and Single Wafer product lines of Aviza Technology Inc and the subsequent merger with Surface Technology Systems (STS), bringing together advanced process technology strengths in plasma etch, deposition and thermal process technologies.
Since its formation by SPP, SPTS has experienced soaring customer orders and application wins, with a 200% increase in revenue in the first half of 2010 compared to the combined results of the separate companies in the same period in 2009. More than 80% of orders received in the first half of 2010 were from customers operating in the high speed electronics, light-emitting diode (LEDs), MEMS, power semiconductor and advanced packaging markets.
“As a newly formed company with a proud heritage from its predecessors, SPTS is looking forward to exhibiting at SEMICON West 2010 with great anticipation”, said William Johnson, President and CEO of SPTS. “The leadership team at SPTS well recognizes that our initial success is due to our loyal customers, old and new, and we wish to thank them for years of continued support, resulting in this extremely fulfilling year. Last October, we set what seemed an ambitious target to double revenue in our first full year of operation. Susumu Kaminaga, SPTS Chairman and President of SPP, has had long ties to the MEMS industry as well as to the history and origin of STS and ATL, and he expresses his personal delight that we are well ahead of our target after a strong first half, thereby revalidating his and SPP’s vision and commitment to the micro device industry.”
Dan Hutcheson, CEO of VLSI Research observed, “SPTS was formed by the merger of two long-time members of the semiconductor community; I’ve watched them over a number of years and they have always possessed great technology. It is now very exciting to see the new company turn their agile technology leadership into rapid growth. SPTS is led by a new management that has a clear vision of combining production readiness with leading-edge processes. These are the classic qualities of a leader in fast growing emerging markets.”
“Our mission is to be one of the top technology suppliers for the emerging micro device manufacturing markets. That goal is well within reach judging from our strong customer validation and application wins during the first half of 2010”, said Kevin Crofton, Managing Director of the UK Division and Executive Vice-President of SPTS. “While a part of the upturn we are seeing relates to the overall rebound in the semiconductor market, we also conclude from market data that SPTS is growing at a rate that outpaces our peers in the capital equipment sector. We thank our customers for their continued confidence in our ability to deliver cost effective, high performance products.”
