Patents

​​At ASM, we have been an innovation leader for more than 50 years. We haven’t only contributed to the remarkable advance of the semiconductor industry; we’ve shaped the industry itself. Through a series of breakthrough innovations in technologies such as Plasma deposition, Lithography, Epitaxy, Ion implantation and, since 2000, through Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD).

CULTURE OF INNOVATION

This culture of innovation is encouraged at every level of our organization. We attract and retain creative people from all over the world to work for us, who then ensure we create a steady stream of innovations that we bring into volume manufacturing by cooperating closely with customers from the outset.

CAPTURING IDEAS EFFICIENTLY

We have Intellectual Property managers at all our major global R&D sites, ready to capture all patentable material resulting from our R&D activities. We file between 50 and 100 initial patents every year and now have over 2,000 patents in force. The number of patents we own is steadily increasing year after year.

In particular, we have hundreds of issued patents relating specifically to the ALD process technology platform. We expect new deposition technologies and chemistries to be a major driver for new intellectual property into the future. Patents provide us the protection to speak more openly about our inventions and share ideas in the marketplace that benefit our customers. We own patents that cover most of the key technologies, features and operations of our products. They’re usually registered in the principal countries where semiconductor devices or equipment are manufactured and/or sold.

We have registered a number of trademarks covering our product portfolio in the principal countries.

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