Nov 5 2007
EV Group (EVG), a leading supplier of wafer-bonding and lithography equipment for the advanced semiconductor and packaging, MEMS, silicon-on-insulator (SOI) and emerging nanotechnology markets, today announced it has successfully installed its 500th bond chamber and 100th automated production wafer bonder for high-volume manufacturing. Today's milestone achievement is testament to EVG's systems' ease of implementation and performance within high-volume production lines and its proximity to its customers around the globe -- enabling superior service and support.
According to Jean-Christophe Eloy, general manager of Lyon, France-based market research firm Yole Developpement, "Wafer-bonding equipment developed for MEMS manufacturing, particularly for wafer-level packaging, has been widely adopted into full-volume production for a wide range of devices -- from compound semiconductors, such as LEDs and high-brightness LEDs, to integrated circuits, such as SOI-based and power devices, 3D devices and image sensors -- and for more and more applications. As a result, the market for wafer-bonding equipment is experiencing more than 20-percent growth per year, with EVG leading the way, especially for production-level tools. These milestone installations further underscore the importance of wafer bonding as a key process for IC and MEMS manufacturing."
"EVG has significant influence on the MEMS value chain, especially on the speed of new-product commercialization through optimizing the cost of ownership for production equipment," noted Herwig Kirchberger, business development manager for EVG. "It's essential for our company to be as close to the market as possible, and for our customers to rapidly implement capabilities for future requirements. The latest capabilities on our GEMINI fully automated high-precision aligned wafer bonding cluster with optional pre-processing chambers for novel wafer-level-MEMS packaging applications include throughput of up to 20 wafers per hour and a post-bond alignment accuracy of less than 1 micron at 3 sigma. We look forward to continuing to bring new innovations to our growing global customer base."
In related MEMS news, EVG also announced today that it is the Platinum sponsor of the MEMS Executive Congress(R), which will be held November 4-5, 2007 in Del Mar, Calif. EVG's Vice President and General Manager of North America, Steven Dwyer, will kick off the conference on Monday, Nov. 5 -- introducing both the keynote speaker and subsequent panel sessions, which will focus on the role of MEMS in areas such as energy, mobile media, consumer goods and bio/medical.
Commenting on EVG's active participation at the event, Karen Lightman, managing director of the MEMS Industry Group noted, "As MEMS devices are used as components in a number of well-publicized commercial applications, most notably the Nintendo Wii and the Apple iPhone, interest in MEMS technology is at an all-time high. To respond to this interest, we have assembled an elite group of executives representing a wide spectrum of industries. We are proud to be at the center of this unprecedented gathering of industry leaders such as EVG who are like-minded in their goal of accelerating the deployment of MEMS technology."