Veeco opens development facility and China office
"The PIC is another example of Veeco s increased investment in epitaxial technology," said Marlin Braun, general manager of Veeco’s MBE Group. "It will enable our advanced wireless and optoelectronic device customers to lower the risks and costs of their process development, improve their product quality, ramp up to production faster, and receive expert training for their staff," he said.
The PIC contains both Veeco R&D and production MBE systems. It also features Veeco s broad portfolio of market-leading MBE sources, as well as a comprehensive set of optical, electrical and structural characterization tools.
"The compound and silicon semiconductor markets are converging," said Hwa Cheng, director of the PIC. "We ve adopted a silicon model for our PIC so Veeco can partner up front with customers on their equipment and product roadmaps." The PIC will develop advanced processes and procedures on Veeco systems for customer material systems and device structures; transfer advanced epitaxial growth and maintenance processes to customer facilities; provide customers with epitaxial growth capacity for their Veeco platform development activities, and transfer customer growth processes based on a competitive epitaxial system or a different Veeco MBE platform.
Veeco Instruments has also opened an office in Shanghai to support recent customer orders in the fast-growing China market. Veeco expects that a fifth of its sales, or $45 million, will go to China by 2006. Veeco has received orders for atomic force microscopes from Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) and for a GEN II MBE system from Chinese Academy of Sciences. The new Shanghai office will have more than 10 employees by the end of 2003, and will support Veeco customers in all of its served end-markets.
"Following the opening of our Nanotechnology Center in November of 2002 in Beijing, we are now taking the next step in China by establishing the necessary infrastructure to support our existing and future customers in China," commented Michael Weiss, VP and General Manager of Veeco s Asian operations. "We see a broad and increasing demand for our products in technology and research sectors across China. The Shanghai office will provide comprehensive product support and 24 hour service."
