Compact Thermal Reactor From Expertech Shows Strong Sales

SCOTTS VALLEY, CA--(Marketwire - Jan 19, 2012) - Expertech reports recent strong sales of its Compact Thermal Reactor, a complementary product to its line of vertical and horizontal furnaces. Orders have been received for university R&D labs, solar development work, and in semiconductor manufacturing to add production line capacity. Several more orders were booked in December and will be ready for delivery in the first quarter of 2012. The compact system offers processes for atmospheric and LPCVD (low pressure chemical vapor deposition), including hydrogen and high temperature processing, for semiconductor manufacturing and is adaptable for solar, MEMS and other nanotechnologies.

The current success of the CTR (Compact Thermal Reactor) supports these trends in the marketplace:

• Sales to university R&D labs indicate more active partnerships with industry to supply development work;
• Sales to solar manufacturers point to the need of flexible and cost-effective processing for development work.

Semiconductor Foundry
The CTR furnace was originally designed for pilot line production, R&D, and government and university lab environments but has also found a niche in production lines to relieve WIP (work-in-progress) roadblocks. A recent order will be delivered to a domestic semiconductor foundry to add 200mm capacity to the production floor. The value-priced system is much less expensive than buying an additional full-size 200mm furnace and much less expensive to install.

The CTR has a small footprint and an automated loader and gas panel contained within the system. Typically, a full-sized furnace will require an auto loader attached to the outside of the furnace, which adds to the floor space requirements. The CTR model also is stackable, compounding the benefit of its small size, and can be configured to handle a wide variety of process applications. The Windows based host management system allows for data collection and upstream management.

Recently, multiple stacked units have been delivered, including multiple two-high and four-high configurations. The most recent orders were booked in Q4 2011 and will ship in Q1 2012. Expertech will assist in the installation and provide training at the customer sites.

The CTR 125 processes substrates up to 125mm diameter and the CTR 200 extends the process range to 200mm substrates (and processes 125mm and 156mm square substrates, too).

About Expertech
Established in 1992, Expertech's core competency is newly manufactured thermal processing systems with over 50 systems in the field designed and fully manufactured by Expertech. In addition, Expertech has an established reputation as a supplier of over 500 remanufactured and refurbished systems originally built by other suppliers. They provide field service, repair parts and upgrades for a wide range of thermal systems manufactured by Expertech and other OEM suppliers.

Originally Expertech mainly supported thermal process applications for the semiconductor industry. Since 1995, Expertech has been adapting systems and making custom designed products to meet the needs of the MEMS, photovoltaics, sensors, and optical coatings industries. See www.exper-tech.com