News

ITEC Becomes an Independent Semiconductor Equipment Manufacturer

July 28, 2021 by Alessandro Mascellino

Nexperia has announced that its semiconductor equipment manufacturing division ITEC is launching as a separate independent entity.

Following the move, ITEC will remain part of the Nexperia group, but its increased independence will allow the firm to address the third-party market more substantially and serve the current global increase in semiconductor demand.

ITEC will now focus on the manufacturing of fast assembly and electrical test equipment, as well as integrated smart manufacturing solutions.

The ADAT3 die-bonding and die-sorting platform. Image used courtesy of ITEC.

ITEC: a Company Overview 

ITEC was originally founded in 1991 by Nexperia (formerly Philips), as the company’s semiconductor equipment manufacturer arm.

In the past three decades, the company has grown substantially, experimenting with various cutting-edge technologies in the field of semiconductor manufacturing.

“During ITEC’s history, annual production of discrete semiconductors on our equipment has grown from 4.5 billion in 1991 to over 90 billion products in 2020 – that represents ten devices for every citizen on the world, each year,” commented the company’s General Manager Marcel Vugts.

This exponential growth is reportedly also to be attributed to ITEC’s technical partnerships over the years.

“ITEC is rooted in semiconductor manufacturing, combining over 30 years of state-of-the-art equipment and automation expertise as a partner to Philips, NXP, and Nexperia,” Vugts said.

In addition, according to the executive, ITEC currently counts an installed base of more than 2500 of the industry’s most advanced tools.

“ITEC is committed to embedding the latest technologies and process expertise into tailored solutions that redefine manufacturing,” the general manager said. “We enable our customers to excel in quality, productivity, and sustainability with the lowest total cost of ownership.”

 

Best-in-Class Semiconductor Back-end Manufacturing

By becoming an independent subsidiary of Nexperia, ITEC will now focus on delivering the efficiencies needed to assemble and test high-volume, high-quality semiconductors.

Specifically, the company offers four types of benchmark solutions for semiconductor back-end manufacturing.

First, ADAT assembly equipment for die bond and chip sort, capable of processing up to 20 dies per second and consequently produce 1.5 million chips per system per day.

Secondly, ITEC produces parset test platforms to enable the electrical parameter testing of small signal and power MOS devices at a rate of up to 92,000 chips per hour.

The firm also manufactures smart vision inspection systems for semiconductor front-end and back-end manufacturing and is based on deep learning technologies.

Finally, ITEC provides companies with factory automation and smart manufacturing solution that features scheduling, optimization, traceability, and analysis capabilities using ‘Big Data' analytics and machine learning.

As an independently operating company, ITEC will now be able to leverage its expertise to expand further.

“With the current worldwide shortage in semiconductors and lead times lengthening, ITEC – now as an independent company – is ideally positioned to support the exponentially growing industry, redefining the world of manufacturing,” Vugts concluded.