About Axcelis Technologies

Axcelis Technologies, Inc. (Axcelis) designs, manufactures, and services ion implantation and other processing equipment used in the fabrication of semiconductor chips. The company’s Purion family of products offers the most innovative implanters available on the market. The company sells to leading semiconductor chip manufacturers worldwide. The ion implantation business represented 98.3% of the company’s revenue in 2023, with the remaining 1.7% of revenue derived from aftermarket sales associated with other legacy processing systems. In addition to equipment, the company provides extensive aftermarket lifecycle products and services, including used tools, spare parts, equipment upgrades, maintenance services and customer training. The company also provides aftermarket service and parts to service its customers globally. Strategy The company’s strategy is to win with Purion products and aftermarket offerings that solve high value customer challenges with differentiated, valuable, and sustainable (referred to as DVS) solutions; improve customer satisfaction to drive repeat business; execute on identified growth opportunities in Japan and advanced logic; deliver CS&I target business model revenues of approximately 25% of total revenues, in line with expectations; and expand beyond ion implant by launching identified corporate development growth initiatives. The company continues to invest in research and development to ensure its products meet the needs of its customers. Ion Implantation Systems Ion implantation is a principal step in the transistor formation cycle of the semiconductor chip manufacturing process. Ion implantation is also used to change the material characteristics of the silicon or silicon carbide for reasons other than electrical doping, a process known as material modification. An ion implanter is a large, technically advanced system that injects dopants, such as arsenic, boron or phosphorus into a wafer. These dopants are ionized and therefore have an electrical charge state. This electric charge state allows the dopants to be accelerated, focused and filtered with electric and magnetic fields. Ion implanters use these fields to create a beam of ions with a precisely defined energy level (ranging between several hundred and eight million electron-volts) and with a precisely defined beam current level (ranging from microamps to milliamps). Axcelis Ion Implanters Axcelis offers a complete line of high energy, high current, and medium current implanters for all application requirements. The company’s Purion flagship systems are all based on a common platform which enables a unique combination of implant purity, precision, and productivity. Combining a state-of-the-art single wafer end station, with advanced spot beam architectures (that ensures all points across the wafer see the same beam condition at the same beam angle), Purion products enable exceptional process control to optimize device performance and yield, at high productivity. In addition to the Purion family of ion implanters, the company offers the Ovation family of multi-wafer, or batch implanters. Beyond the traditional categories of implanters, Axcelis has developed systems designed for specific applications. For example, the Axcelis Purion Power Series, which provides full recipe coverage for power device applications critical to electric vehicles and industrial applications. The Purion Power Series consists of a group of high current, medium current and high energy implanters that optimize semiconductor devices created on SiC wafers, which are advantageous for certain power devices. An overview of specific Axcelis ion implantation products is below: High Current Implant: The company’s Purion H, Purion Dragon, Purion H200, and GSD/E2 Ovation spot beam, high current systems cover all traditional high current requirements, as well as those associated with emerging and future devices. The company’s Purion high current capabilities extend beyond traditional high current energy and dose ranges, in order to cover new device fabrication requirements, as well as to maximize capital utilization and flexibility. In addition, Axcelis’ Purion systems provide advantages for material modification applications, including those requiring hot and cold implant capabilities. High Energy Implant: Axcelis has been a market leader in high energy ion implanters for many years, and offers a range of new Purion systems which have differentiated capabilities for specialty applications as well as legacy high energy systems. The company’s Purion XE, EXE, and other Purion high energy systems combine Axcelis’ production-proven RF Linac high energy, spot beam technology with the Purion platform wafer handling system. The Purion XE Power Series implanters includes Purion XE and EXE models for high volume power devices aluminum implantation, available with 150mm SiC wafer handling or 200mm thin Si wafer handling. The company’s batch high energy systems include the GSD/HE Ovation implanter, a 10 stage Linac with energies up to 3 MeV and the GSD/VHE Ovation system, a 14 stage Linac with energies up to 4.9 MeV. Medium Current Implant: The company’s Purion M Si and SiC medium current systems offer higher productivity and lower electrical energy consumption compared to competitive offerings, in addition to other advantages. With high energy capability far beyond competitive implanters, the Purion M is ideal for fabs at higher elevations or those dealing with heavy mass species. Aftermarket Support and Services Through its CS&I business, the company offers its customers extensive aftermarket service and support throughout the lifecycle of the equipment it manufactures. Approximately 3,200 of the company’s products are in use in 28 countries worldwide. The service and support that the company provides includes used tools, spare parts, equipment upgrades, and maintenance services. The company offers varying levels of sales, service and application support out of its field offices. To support its aftermarket business, the company has sales and marketing personnel, field service engineers, and spare parts and applications engineers, as well as employees located at its manufacturing facilities who work with its customers to provide customer training and documentation, and product, process, and applications support. Most of the company’s customers maintain spare parts inventories for its machines. In addition to its web-based spare parts management and replenishment tracking program, the company offers a number of Business-to-Business options to support its customers’ parts management requirements. The company’s Axcelis Managed Inventory service offering provides the customer with full spare parts support through a parts consignment arrangement in which Axcelis retains responsibility for the complete supply chain. Sales and Marketing The company primarily sells its equipment and services through its direct sales force. The company conducts sales and marketing activities from its sales offices located in the United States, Taiwan, South Korea, China, Singapore, Japan, Germany, and Italy. Customers In 2023, according to Gartner Inc., the top 20 semiconductor chip manufacturers accounted for approximately 92.0% of total semiconductor capital equipment spending, which increased from 89.0% in 2022. These manufacturers are from the largest semiconductor chip manufacturing regions in the world: the United States, Asia Pacific (Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Japan and China) and Europe. U.S. export controls impact the company’s ability to sell to certain customers in China, a country that has represented a significant portion of its sales in recent years. One of the company’s major Chinese customers, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), is on the U.S. Entity List, but is subject to a 2020 licensing policy that allows shipments to certain mature process SMIC fabs, which as of December 31, 2023, it had been able to obtain. Other Chinese chipmakers are on the U.S. Entity List, without a similar policy allowing licensed shipments. In October 2022 (with modifications in October 2023), the U.S. Commerce Department established an export controls regulatory framework for U.S. exports of semiconductor equipment to China. This framework limits all semiconductor equipment shipments to Chinese customers who are producing or developing logic, DRAM and NAND chips that meet specific advanced parameters. While these regulations have further excluded exports to certain Chinese customers, the company is able to continue to ship to substantially all of its Chinese customers. Research and Development The company’s expenses for research and development were $96.9 million in 2023. Competition In the market for ion implantation systems, the company mainly competes against Applied Materials, Inc. (Applied Materials). Other implantation equipment manufacturers the company competes with include Sumitomo Heavy Industries Ion Technology Co. Ltd. and Nissin Ion Equipment Co., Ltd in Japan, Advanced Ion Beam Technology, Inc. in Taiwan, as well as CETC Electronics Equipment Group Co., Ltd. in the People’s Republic of China. Intellectual Property As of December 31, 2023, the company had 202 active patents issued in the United States and 487 active patents granted in other countries, as well as 181 patent applications (37 in the United States and 144 in other countries) on file with various patent agencies worldwide. Patents are generally in effect for up to 20 years from the filing of the application. Environmental Axcelis is deeply committed to the company’s role as a responsible corporate citizen and dedicated to its Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) and Net Zero commitments. In 2022, Axcelis became a founding member of the Semiconductor Climate Consortium (SCC) of Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI), the company’s industry organization serving the manufacturing supply chain for the micro- and nano-electronics industries. History Axcelis Technologies, Inc. was founded in 1978. The company was incorporated in Delaware in 1995.