FORT COLLINS, Colo. -- Advanced Energy Industries Inc. here today announced it will expand its presence in mass-flow controller applications by acquiring privately-held Aera Japan Ltd. for $48 million in cash and assumption of bank debt.
Advanced Energy currently supplies power systems and integrated technologies for wafer fab tools. The Fort Collins-based company said Aera's products will expand its offering for plasma-based manufacturing processes in wafer fabs. At the start of 2001, the company acquired Engineering Measurement Co. (EMCO) in Longmont, Colo., to move into emerging technology for mass flow controllers, which are used
"Aera's established customer base and infrastructure will advance our strategy to add critical subsystems around the semiconductor process chamber by providing a leading and diverse product line," said Doug Schatz, chairman and chief executive officer of Advanced Energy. "Power delivery and mass flow control are two of the largest segments of the components and subsystems market for semiconductor equipment.
"The combination of power delivery and gas delivery subsystems will allow AE to provide the two most important systems that affect the wafer, increasing the value we bring to our customers," added Schatz.
Aera was founded in 1976 as Nippon Tylan and later renamed Aera in 1996. Based in Hachioji, Japan, the company supplies digital mass-flow controllers, pressure-based mass flow controllers, liquid mass flow controllers, ultrasonic liquid flow meters and liquid vapor delivery systems. For the fiscal 2001 year, ended last June, Aera's revenues totaled $114 million and operating income was $17 million. The employs 205 people, and its U.S. subsidiary--Aera Corp.--is based in Austin, Tex.
"Our acquisition of EMCO enabled us to enter the mass flow control market with a highly disruptive technology that earned its first major semiconductor industry design win last quarter," Schatz said. "The combination of the EMCO and Aera technologies will provide Advanced Energy with the most complete product line in the mass flow control market and enhance both companies' expertise in this sector."
The acquisition will increase the competition between Advanced Energy and established mass-flow controller suppliers, such as Mykrolis Corp. (formerly the Microelectronics Division of Millipore Corp.) in Bedford, Mass., and MKS Instruments Inc. in Andover, Mass.
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