ST. FLORIAN, Austria, November 8, 2011 — EV Group (EVG) , a leading supplier of wafer bonding and lithography equipment for the MEMS, nanotechnology and semiconductor markets, today announced that Shanghai Simgui Technology Co., Ltd. (Simgui), a leading Chinese wafer manufacturer, has placed a follow-on order for an EVG850 automated production bonding system for silicon-on-insulator (SOI) and direct wafer bonding. Simgui, a spin-off from Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology (SIMIT), has been using EVG’s semi-automated tools for many years and will utilize the EVG system to advance to fully automated, high-volume SOI wafer production.
According to Dr. Zhang Feng, CEO at Shanghai Simgui Technology, the company chose the fully automated EVG wafer bonding system to transfer Simgui’s well-established production process from its semi-automated EVG tools, such as an EVG301 single wafer cleaning system with pre-bonding and IR inspection station, to a fully automated platform. “We’re witnessing a strong increase in the demand for SOI wafers,” said Dr. Zhang Feng. “The EVG850 constitutes the de facto industry standard in SOI bonding, so our customers can be assured they will continue to receive the highest quality wafers from us.”
Research and consulting firm Markets and Markets (Dallas, Texas) estimates that the global SOI market will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.3 percent from 2010 to 2015 to reach $1.3 billion by 2015, driven by applications such as MEMS and microprocessors used in computers and video games. Investments in new manufacturing plants are also fuelling market growth, as well as R&D initiatives and strategic collaborations aimed at launching new technologies and growing the customer base.
EV Group Executive Technology Director Paul Lindner noted, “We appreciate that Shanghai Simgui Technology has chosen our high-throughput, high-yield EVG850 system for their transition to fully automated high-volume SOI wafer production. This is another important milestone for EVG as we continue to make inroads in the fast-growing Chinese market. Moreover, we have been at the forefront of SOI technology development since its inception—we have worked with all leading research institutes and inventors of SOI as well as every early adopter. Today, all of the world’s SOI wafer producers rely on EVG’s equipment, which has been a key enabler in the industrial implementation of SOI technology into mass production.”
