Nanometrics Inc. (NANO)

Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2009 11:33 am

Nanometrics Inc. is focused on designing, manufacturing, selling and supporting process control metrology systems used in semiconductor manufacturing and compound semiconductor substrates, devices and integrated circuits. The Company’s systems monitor film thickness and dimensions that are essential to control the manufacturing process and enable semiconductor manufacturers to improve yields, increase productivity and performance, as well as lower their manufacturing costs.

Nanometrics’ metrology systems measure various thin-film properties, critical circuit dimensions and overlay registration accuracy of successive layers of semiconductor patterns on wafers in the photolithography process. The company’s metrology systems also measure electrical and material properties, including composition, crystal structure, layer thickness, dopant concentration, contamination and electron mobility.

The Company receives around two-thirds of its orders outside of the U.S. and has been selling its systems since 1977. They have retained an extensive base of industry leading customers, including Applied Materials, Dainippon Screen, Ebara Technologies, Hitachi, Hynix Semiconductor, Ebara Technologies Inc., Intel Corporation, International Business Machines Corporation, Micron Technology Inc., Mimasu Semiconductor Industry Co., ProMOS Technologies, Renesas Technology Corp. Ltd., Samsung Electronics, SMIC and Toshiba America Inc.