Riber homes in on US markets

As Riber outlines plans to buy MBE Control Solutions, Compound Semiconductor asks president Frederick Goutard what the future holds for the MBE industry heavyweight.

Riber has acquired MBE Control Solutions: what next for the MBE industry's key player?

This week, Frederick Goutard, president of France-based MBE equipment supplier, Riber, unveiled plans to buy MBE Control Solutions, US.

The California-based developer of MBE research systems is also a prolific supplier of MBE-related components, electronics and control software, and as Goutard is quick to point out, makes a 'good match' for the France-based industry heavyweight.

"The US is a key area for MBE-related research and production and so far our presence has included sales and customer service activities but not manufacturing, repair or development," he explains. "MBE Control has a lot of customer support and product development expertise and with this company, we can reinforce our geographical presence by having operations on the East and now the West coast as well."

Setting up a California-based 'MBE Centre of Expertise' that will draw on the experience of both companies is central to Goutard's acquisition plans.

And, as the president points out, this can only be achieved with everybody on board, starting with Andy Jackson, MBE Control Solutions founder and former University of California Santa Barbara researcher.

"By creating this centre, we want to harness the extensive expertise of Andy Jackson and his team," he says. "Riber has a very competent sales organisation and customer service structure in the US, and we will now reinforce this with Jackson's manufacturing infrastructure to provide customer support, repair, develop and improve products."

MBE Control Solutions' operations and employees will remain in California with Riber maintaining its presence on the East coast. But a complementary US presence aside, what exactly does the relatively new MBE business bring to one of the industry's most established players?

Raising revenue

Set up just over a decade ago, MBE Control Solutions generated $1.2 million in revenue in 2014 and employs five people.

Crucially, the company has delivered a strong set of equipment and products including custom thin film deposition equipment, control software, electronics and instrumentation, as well as remote control monitoring and automation systems. And this will prove critical to Riber.

As well as providing MBE systems, Riber has a significant services, accessories and cells business segment that grew, bolstering revenues in its last financial year.

According to Goutard, the company now intends to use these assets to strengthen its services and components business and raise revenue in North America.

Riber's Frederick Goutard: "Our vision for the industry goes beyond branding,"

Importantly, MBE Control Solutions has also set up extensive repair and refurbishment services, which Riber will exploit.

"Jackson and his team bring an ability to operate complex refurbishment operations so customers can upgrade older MBE tools," says Goutard. "We now have the supply chain to provide a very thorough and competitive refurbishing service for customers in the US, and this is very important."

Clearly, acquiring MBE Control Solutions will strengthen Riber's position against Veeco, the only other significant MBE equipment supplier in the marketplace. However, Goutard refrains from commenting on his company's new-found US market strength.

"Our focus remains on what we believe the MBE user wants, and this is to bring expertise to their MBE problems, no matter what the brand of their system," he asserts. "With a Centre of Excellence with Andy Jackson in the middle we can create very strong communication streams with MBE users to resolve issues that affect the daily use of their MBE tools."

"Our vision for the industry goes beyond branding," he adds.

Looking to the future, Goutard now expects to see a rise in MBE research systems sales in 2015 as economic growth stimulates research and development in the semiconductor industry.

His company recently clinched deals with Asia, Europe and Japan-based laboratories and the president anticipates more growth from Europe, China and India.

"Europe, for example, has a development programme as part of its Horizon 2020 programme and of course, macroeconomic growth has historically driven research," he says.

But Goutard is also hopeful that industry development will fuel market growth. As he points out, the mobile industry, with its thirst for faster RF components for wireless communications and cell phones, is still a driver for equipment makers even though MBE is experiencing pressure from new technological competition in this field.

However, optoelectronics devices, including lasers and detectors, now demand tools for III-V and II-VI materials epitaxy, and of course, MBE equipment can handle such complex materials deposition.

Likewise, the slow but steady integration of III-V materials on silicon could also bring opportunities for manufacturers of MBE equipment.

"These opportunities are more remote but they exist and we can't help but think that a breakthrough in III-V- on silicon would be important for MBE in a production environment," concludes Goutard.