STS bags £1m plasma etch order as GaAs ramps
Processing tool supplier ST Systems has banked an order worth more than £1 million ($1.74 million) from a GaAs chip manufacturer.
The UK company, which designs and sells plasma etch and deposition equipment, says that it has received multiple orders from the same component manufacturer in North America.
Those orders include two cluster tools and additional process chambers to complement existing equipment at the facility. The cluster tools are fitted with inductively-coupled plasma (ICP) sources for etching via holes in GaAs wafers.
ST Systems says that the order is a vindication of its tool's advanced performance and flexibility for switching to larger wafer sizes.
Since an existing customer placed the order, it could also be interpreted as a further sign of the ramp in GaAs device manufacturing for wireless applications.
Recent months have seen capacity squeezed at leading GaAs substrate vendors, particularly Freiberger Compound Materials, which has been running at full production capacity and is considering how many new furnaces it requires to meet future demand.
And just last month Tegal received an order from a GaAs manufacturer for three plasma etch systems valued at over $1 million.
The ramp-up in production appears mainly due to increased demand from the wireless handset industry, with leading GaAs component manufacturers including RF Micro Devices and Anadigics reporting a strong upsurge in both product shipments and sales revenue.
Although Skyworks Solutions' overall revenue pattern has stalled in comparison to some of its rivals, it is still witnessing strong demand for GaAs-based products.
Skyworks has just signed another deal to supply a Tier-1 handset maker with its Intera front-end modules for 3G cell-phones.
The Intera modules, which are based on Skyworks InGaP HBT process, support the latest high-speed download packet access (HSDPA) applications and the wideband-CDMA protocol.
The global market for these advanced handsets is expected to grow at a fierce pace from around 45 million units last year to around 450 million units in 2009 according to one Deutsche Bank survey.
