Applied Materials, Inc. ( ) is a major capital equipment producer serving the Semiconductor, TFT LCD Display, Glass, WEB and Solar manufacturing industries. The company is headquartered in Santa Clara, California in the Silicon Valley. Founded in 1967 by Michael A. McNeilly and others, Applied Materials went public in 1972.
Applied Materials creates and commercializes nanomanufacturing technology TM used in the production of: Semiconductor (aka Integrated Circuit) chips for all electronic gear, Flat Panel Displays for computers and television, Glass coatings for homes and buildings, Web (flexible substrate) coaters for industry and PV Solar cells and modules using both thin film and crystalline photovoltaic technology.
Applied is organized into four major business sectors: Silicon, Display, Energy and Environmental Solutions (EES) and Service. The largest revenue sector is the Silicon sector. They have been the number one supplier of equipment to the chip making industry since the early 1990s. The Company also has a joint venture, Sokudo, with SCREEN (aka Dai Nippon Screen). Sokudo manufactures semiconductor track products. With its large installed base, Applied has created a Service business to assist its customers in maximizing the productivity from the installed equipment. Applied has service offices in all major technical centers around the world. In the Display business, Applied Materials is considered the number one producer of capital equipment by VLSI Research Inc. an industry market research firm. This number one position is a combination of an existing business unit combined with the display business of Applied Films, acquired in mid-2006. With the acquisition of Applied Films, Applied Materials entered the Glass coating and Web coating businesses as well and both businesses are leaders in their markets. Also in 2006, Applied announced it was entering the solar manufacturing equipment business. The Solar, Glass and Web businesses are now organized into the EES sector of the Company. In 2007, Applied announced the SunFab TM thin film photovoltaic production line. SunFab applies thin films to glass that then produces electricity when exposed to sunlight. The unique aspect of SunFab is the use of large glass substrates, measuring 5.7 sq.m (61 sq ft. or larger than a king size bed). Also in 2007, Applied purchased HCT Shaping Systems of Switzerland, a producer of manufacturing equipment for solar cells. In 2008, Applied acquired Baccini of Italy, an Italian equipment manufacturer specalizing in highly automated handling and process tools for crystalline solar cell manufacturing.
In Semiconductor (aka Integrated Circuit), the company manufactures systems that perform most of the primary steps in the chip fabrication process, including atomic layer deposition, chemical vapor deposition (CVD), physical vapor deposition (PVD), electrochemical plating (EP), etching, ion implantation, rapid thermal processing, chemical mechanical polishing, metrology and wafer inspection.
The company has offices in 16 countries, United States, Japan, China, Singapore, Korea, Germany, Taiwan, France, Spain, Italy, Ireland, Israel, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Switzerland and India.
