History
For more than 50 years, we’ve helped shape the world around us. By continually delivering new technology and product innovations, we’ve helped semiconductor manufacturers to miniaturize the transistors on integrated circuits. Providing the increased power needed for today’s computers, smartphones, home electronics and transport. Making it possible for us all to enjoy greater opportunities in our lives.
1. CREATION
In 1968, at the very outset of the global semiconductor industry, entrepreneur Arthur del Prado established ASM in the Netherlands. Mr Del Prado served as President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Management Board of ASM International until his retirement, in 2008. Acclaimed as the "father of the European semiconductor equipment industry”, his contributions to the industry are legendary. To read more about his career
click here. Guided by his unique pioneering vision of how the industry would develop, ASM began to sell its own wafer processing equipment for semiconductor manufacturers. Our long journey as industry pioneers was underway.
Our dual-reactor family of vertical furnaces, the Advance Series, is the most productive vertical furnace in the industry.
2. THE BIGGER PICTURE
Wafer processing was only the start. In 1975, we established ASM Pacific Technologies (ASMPT) in Hong Kong, adding Back-end assembly & packaging capabilities to wafer processing. We were now involved in the entire chip making process – from unprocessed silicon wafers right through to packaged chips ready to be placed on circuit boards.
ASMPT is the world's largest supplier of integrated assembly and packaging solutions.
3. GREAT MINDS
Right from the start, we realized that our leading edge thinking needed support from the best minds available. ASM forged early ties with leading Dutch universities and the research department of electronics multinational Philips. A culture of cooperation with advanced learning centers was established.
Today, we also have close ties with Interuniversity MicroElectronics Centre (IMEC) in Leuven, Belgium.
4. GOING GLOBAL
Although ASM was founded in the Netherlands, we always had broader vision. From day one, we saw ourselves as a truly global company. After expanding from Europe into Asia in 1975, we founded ASM America in 1976 and followed that with ASM Japan in 1982.
We’re active in R&D, manufacturing and sales in 15 different countries across the world.
5. THE POWER BEHIND AN INDUSTRY
We were behind many of the breakthroughs that are today considered essential to the semiconductor industry: take processes such as deposition, lithography and ion implantation. Today, our new pioneering deposition technologies are continuing to deliver excellence.
In wafer processing we focus on our core strength – deposition.
6. ATOMIC LAYER DEPOSITION
In 1999, we acquired Microchemistry in Helsinki, Finland. Up until that time, for over 30 years, all our growth had been organic. Acquiring this pioneer in Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) enabled us to begin a new era of deposition innovations. Depositing materials one atomic layer at a time with great precision to form very uniform films on a range of topologies. ALD is now making scaling possible, using a whole new range of materials and 3D chips.
We continue to maintain R&D facilities at the University of Helsinki, the world's largest academic research center for ALD.
7. STREAMLINED EFFICIENCY
ASM Front-end established a new manufacturing base in Singapore in 2004, right next to the existing facilities of ASM Back-end, so that we could achieve the highest standards in the most efficient ways possible. Making ASM a name you can trust to deliver.
ASM Singapore has expanded to become the global hub for our financial services, Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and sales.
8. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, PRACTICAL ADVANTAGE
Innovation gives us an opportunity to create new Intellectual Property (IP) and to own the breakthroughs we make. By licensing our technologies, we not only create revenue, we also accelerate the acceptance of those technologies across the world.
In 2006, we were named one of the top ten global companies for the value of our IP portfolio in the first Instituate of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Spectrum study.
9. THE ROAD AHEAD
We maintain our innovation leadership through our technology roadmap that we co-create with our customers. The roadmap matches our research to their upcoming needs and provides a strategy for long-term cooperation. We then invest heavily in promising technologies that have the ability to make a real difference for our customers.
In 2007, at the 45nm node, our Pulsar ALD tool became the first system used in high-volume manufacturing of devices using a new hafnium-based high-k dielectric material.
10. CREATING FUTURE OPPORTUNITIES
“It’s easier to predict the future than change the past,” said Einstein. We cannot know what the future will bring, but we can make strong predictions. The past 45 years have taught us that the demand for faster, more powerful devices will continue – bringing new challenges and new opportunities. We believe that our ability to turn innovation into manufacturing efficiency will be key to the success of the semiconductor industry as a whole.
In our labs, we’re currently working on device geometries of 10nm and below.
