Integrated Dynamics Engineering (IDE), Inc., has agreed to sell its well-established end user line of wafer packers and wafer sorters to Ricmar Technology GmbH, part of the Ricmar Group of Kramsach, Austria. IDE has headquarters in Randolph, Massachusetts, USA, and Raunheim, Germany. The agreement was announced jointly by Peter Heiland, President of IDE, and Gerhard Zeindl, CEO of Ricmar Technology GmbH. Both IDE and Ricmar are privately held. Financial details of the transaction, which became final on May 21, 2007, have not been disclosed.
While IDE has been historically focused on supplying critical subsystems and components to semiconductor equipment manufacturers, the company has recently become a leader in the field of wafer packers and wafer sorters. This state-of-the-art line of wafer packers and wafer sorters is based on IDE's proven robotics and advanced software. Currently, all major chip manufacturers around the world use IDE products.
Commenting on the sale, Peter Heiland, IDE President, said, "Although, we have enjoyed tremendous growth with our wafer packer and sorter product line over the past four years, IDE had to decide between being an end user or an OEM-focused company. Being both, we felt, diluted our primary strength. This sale of our end user products now allows us to concentrate all our energy on our critical OEM customers."
For Ricmar, acquiring the IDE line comes at an important point in their long-range growth plan. Over the past several years, Ricmar has been building, through strategic acquisitions, an impressive roster of semiconductor manufacturing equipment and services to become a comprehensive resource in this highly competitive sector. Sputtering systems, deposition equipment and automation systems for front and back end applications are now all part of the broad Ricmar profile.
Ricmar will manufacture their newly acquired wafer packer and sorter systems in Austria under the Ricmar brand. With their newly expanded global sales and service organization, Ricmar Technology will take over servicing existing IDE wafer packer and wafer sorter customers through Ricmar offices in the U.S. and Europe. All previous IDE warrantees and agreements will be honored in these product lines.
Gerhard Zeindl, Ricmar Technology's President, said, "The former IDE wafer packer and wafer sorter product lines merge perfectly with the proven product array now in the Ricmar Group. For our current and future customers, it is a win-win situation, concentrating more of what they need in one convenient source, the Ricmar network."
Lead systems in the IDE/Ricmar transaction are the AWP 200-2 and AWP 300 wafer packer systems, both developed by IDE. The AWP 200-2 features a unique IDE dual robot design for reliable throughput of 150 wafers per hour, along with new patent-pending IDE end-effectors for unprecedented handling of thin wafers (including those that are extremely warped) and the precision placement of interleaf materials. In all, the IDE line being acquired by Ricmar includes several wafer packer/sorter models to meet virtually any wafer manufacturer's needs.
Integrated Dynamics Engineering (IDE), founded in 1990, develops and manufactures material handling, vibration isolation, acoustic isolation and EMI cancellation systems, with special focus on the semiconductor industry. In addition to a solid manufacturing and marketing base in the U.S and Germany, IDE has a major new office in Japan, and a global sales and support network. Visit www.ideworld.com.
The Ricmar Group additionally to a worldwide sales and service organization includes two major areas: Ricmar Technology GmbH, a well established developing and production company for advanced systems in the fields of automation, digital image processing, machine control, laser marking, and test handling, as well as wafer packing and wafer sorting systems; Provac AG focused on PVD coating, sputtering systems and process engineering services. Visit www.ricmar.com.
