Intevac
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| Company type | Public (NASDAQ: IVAC) |
|---|---|
| Industrie | Capital Equipment & Photonics |
| Gegründet | 1991 |
| Hauptsitz |  Santa Clara, California |
Key people | Kevin Fairbairn, CEO, President and Director Norman H. Pond, Founder and Chairman of the Board Jeff Andreson, CFO |
| Revenue | $202.5 Million USD (2010) |
| Website | www.intevac.com Financial data is FY2010.[1] |
Intevac, Inc. (NASDAQ: IVAC) is headquartered in Santa Clara, California in the Silicon Valley. The company has U.S. offices in Carlsbad, California and Laramie, Wyoming and in Asia, with offices in China, Japan, Korea and Malaysia and Singapore.
Founded in 1991 as a spin-off from Varian Associates, Intevac went public in 1995. The company is organized into two business sectors: Process Equipment and Intevac Photonics.
Process Equipment
Intevac's Process Equipment business develops and manufactures capital equipment for the hard disk drive (HDD), solar and semiconductor industries. The company's capital equipment design is based on lean manufacturing principles, a methodology that simplifies design and processes in order to reduce waste and increase the product value for the customer. [2]
HDD
The 200 Lean™ Gen II is Intevac’s second generation deposition system for magnetic hard disk media manufacturing. Introduced in 2008, the 200 Lean Gen II is based on the company’s 200 Lean tool for perpendicular media recording (PMR). The first 200 Lean shipped in 2003 and as of 2011, Intevac has delivered over 220 systems to their customers. The company believes that their 200 Lean tool currently represents over 60% of installed systems worldwide.
The 200 Lean Gen II incorporates an enhanced control system and advanced software. Using Intevac’s multi-layer process source, the tool can deposit multiple layers of the ultra-thin films required by advanced HDD technologies including patterned media, the next major media technology transition for the hard drive industry.
Additional 200 Lean Gen II enhancements include a magnetically-driven transport system that enables disk transfer from process station to process station in 600 milliseconds and throughput of up to 1000 disks per hour (dph). This represents a 40% decrease in transport time and a 200 dph increase in throughput compared to the company’s 200 Lean system.
The first 200 Lean Gen II system shipped in 2008.
Solar
LEAN SOLAR™
Intevac entered the solar market in 2009 with their LEAN SOLAR processing platform for CIGS cell manufacturing.
In 2010, the company introduced LEAN SOLAR for c-Si cell processing. The system is designed to reduce overall costs, improve cell quality, efficiency and yield, and increase profitability for Intevac’s solar customers. LEAN SOLAR processes cells individually at a throughput rate of 2400 cells per hour, with precise, uniform, repeatable, multi-layer film properties that enable a rapid scale-up to high efficiencies. The system has a small footprint, double-sided processing capabilities and a modular design to support evolving cell architectures.
The company has also developed process technology modules for their LEAN SOLAR platform. These include NanoTexture™ Etch, ENERGi ion implant, and an integrated PVD module. Intevac’s ENERGi ion implant module, designed specifically for solar, was developed by Solar Implant Technologies (SIT). SIT was acquired by Intevac in 2010.[3]
The first LEAN SOLAR c-Si system shipped in 2011.
NanoVista™
In 2010, Intevac introduced the NanoVista photovoltaic cell inspection system. NanoVista incorporates the company’s proprietary imaging sensor technology which enables the system to collect 1.3 megapixel photoluminescence images of in-process materials and finished cells at up to 3600 wafers per hour. The system’s software performs data analysis that can be used to provide process monitoring, pass/fail criteria and wafer grading. NanoVista has the ability to capture the entire silicon spectrum, perform whole wafer, high resolution photoluminescence mapping in milliseconds, sort as-cut wafers by efficiency before processing, and identify defective wafers for removal from the line. The first NanoVista shipped in 2010.
Semiconductor
CONTINUUM™
Intevac’s Continuum™ is "one-piece" platform for semiconductor (IC) manufacturing. The company developed this universal platform as an alternative to the "unit" (platform plus process modules) design. Continuum is designed to reduce the costs associated with ongoing design node and wafer size changes by offering a platform that can accommodate best-of-breed chip processing chambers and modules. The first Continuum shipped in 2010.
Intevac Photonics
Intevac Photonics[4], has two business units, Intevac Vision Systems (IVS) and DeltaNu. Intevac Vision Systems
IVS develops and manufactures compact digital-optical sensors and cameras for the capture and display of low-light images for government applications including night vision, long range target identification and simulation training. In 2007, Intevac acquired Creative Display Systems (CDS)[5], a Carlsbad, California-based manufacturer of high performance, miniature micro-display products. This acquisition added CDS assets to the IVS portfolio, including the I-Port™ family of high resolution near-eye display systems used for multiple applications in commercial industries and the military market.
IVS digital low-light and night vision products, based on Intevac’s patented Electron Bombarded Active Pixel Sensor (EBAPS™) CMOS technology include:
LIVAR® (Laser Illuminated Viewing and Ranging), a range-gated, laser-illuminated, two-dimensional imaging system for long range target identification
NightPort™, a 8.35 ounce digital image intensified (DI2) night vision viewer for handheld or helmet-mounted use
NightVista™ small footprint DI2 cameras and sensor modules for daylight, low light or nighttime imaging
DeltaNu
DeltaNu, acquired by Intevac in 2007[6], develops and manufactures Raman spectroscopy and microscopy instruments for non-destructive materials identification and verification. Products include bench-top spectrometers for the lab, and portable and handheld spectrometers for use in the field. DeltaNu products are used by government agencies and commercial industries for applications including hazmat, inspection, pharmaceutical, scientific, quality assurance/ quality control (QA/QC), and security.
DeltaNu’s palm-sized material identification systems include:
ReporteR™ identifies narcotics, industrial chemicals, hazardous materials and explosives
RAPID•ID™ identifies the chemical make-up of materials for QA/QC applications
PHARMA•ID identifies and validates excipients and Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API)
Portable systems include:
ObserveR™ a handheld medium range (0.1m to 3m) stand-off Raman system designed for the chem./bio and threat detection markets to identify explosives, chemicals, toxic industrial chemicals (TICs) and toxic industrial materials (TIMs)
ObserveR™ LR a long range (10m to 30m) stand-off Raman spectrometer for the safe identification of unknown materials.