Jordan Valley Semiconductors Lands Multiple Unit Order
Migdal Ha’Emek, Israel, December 1, 2006
December 01, 2006
2006 sees a trend of shipments to advanced memory/flash makers; orders contribute to record sales year for Jordan Valley – greater than 100% growth in year-to-year bookings
Semiconductor metrology equipment manufacturer Jordan Valley announced that they have received a multiple unit order for their JVX 6200 system from a major memory manufacturer. This continues a trend for the year in which the company has seen a significant percentage of their business shift to the advanced DRAM and flash memory segments of device production.
“In the past, most of our orders were to advanced logic manufacturers for copper processes,” notes Isaac Mazor, CEO of Jordan Valley. “We are now seeing tremendous interest from our memory customers for their copper and non-copper processes, which present a significant additional market opportunity for us.” The adoption in memory applications includes aluminum metallization at advanced 70nm processes, as well as seed/barrier, copper metallization and control of front end processes.
Record Sales and Bookings
The recent orders will contribute to record sales and bookings for the year. Jordan Valley has seen a 300% continued growth increase in revenue over the last five years and greater than 100% growth in year-to-year bookings in 2006. The majority of Jordan Valley x-ray metrology systems purchased this year have been installed in advanced production fabs. This signifies a change in business for Jordan Valley - tools are now being delivered for use exclusively in production rather than for process development.
“We have seen a significant shift in our business this year,” commented Sean Jameson, VP of sales and marketing for Jordan Valley. “Previously, our tools were primarily purchased for process development and tool qualification monitoring. In 2006, the vast majority of our delivered systems are being used in fabs for in-line measurement of product wafers. Leading edge fabs looking to fill metrology gaps are increasingly turning to x-ray metrology for its robustness and precision, giving the process engineer more than just accurate thickness data. It’s providing the crucial information they need, like density and roughness, which cannot be provided by other measurement techniques.”
Jordan Valley Semiconductors, Inc. provides semiconductor metrology solutions for thin films based on novel, rapid, non-contacting, and non-destructive x-ray technology. They offer a comprehensive family of solutions based on advanced X-Ray Reflectivity (XRR), X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF), and Small Angle X-Ray Scattering (SAXS) technologies (http://www.jvsemi.com/product.asp). These tools are fully automated, production ready, and ideal for both blanket and patterned wafers. Jordan Valley’s x-ray technology enables accurate and precise characterization of all film types, including single layers and multilayer stacks, high k and low k materials, metals and dielectrics, amorphous, poly-crystal and single crystal films.
Jordan Valley Semiconductors is the parent company of Jordan Valley Applied Radiation, Inc., which designs and manufactures bench top analyzers and advanced laboratory spectrometers for R&D;, QC, process control, and other applications. Jordan Valley’s primary shareholders are Elron Electronic Industries Ltd. (NASDAQ: ELRN) and Clal Industries and Investments Ltd. (TASE: CII). Research, development, and manufacturing are based in Migdal Ha’Emek, Israel. Applications engineering, customer support services, sales and marketing are located in Austin, Texas. http://www.jvsemi.com.
Company Contact: Dave Brown, Jordan Valley Semiconductors Inc, 512-832-8470 or daveb@jvsemi.com
Agency Contact: Bruce Kirkpatrick, Kirkpatrick Communications, 925.244.9100 or brucekirk@kirk-com.com
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