Tegal Corporation, (Nasdaq: TGAL) an innovator of specialized production solutions
for the fabrication of advanced MEMS, power ICs and optoelectronic devices,
today announced that it has sold its legacy thin film etch and physical vapor
deposition (PVD) product lines to OEM Group, Inc. for aggregate consideration
of up to $3 million, of which a maximum of $1 million is subject to OEM Group's
achievement of certain target sales levels.
Tegal sold to OEM Group the Tegal 900ACS™, 980ACS™, 6500 HRe-™
and 6500 Spectra™ series Thin Film Etch products, along with the Sputtered
Films Endeavor™ and AMS™ PVD series products, intellectual property
and process know-how. OEM Group will bring continued global support to existing
Tegal Thin Film Etch and PVD customers, and will integrate these world class
technologies into their LEGENDS™ offering, which already includes the
MRC Eclipse (PVD), AG Heatpulse® (RTP), Lam AutoEtch™ (Etch), and
Varian Sunset (Implant) platforms.
"OEM Group is the perfect company for these Tegal products, which represent
an important legacy in semiconductor capital equipment and process technology,"
said Thomas Mika, President and CEO, Tegal Corporation. "We are pleased
that we have been able to place these products and many of the skilled employees
associated with them in a company whose business model is built on the continued
sales, service and support of late life cycle technology into new and existing
customers and markets."
"We are honored to continue providing Tegal's world class Thin
Film Etch solutions to the market; and, with the addition of the Sputtered Films
technologies to our own PVD focus, we believe we will have an unmatched product
offering," said Wayne Jeveli, President of OEM Group. "Over the
course of more than 30 years, Tegal's brand has symbolized innovation,
quality and customer focus. We believe these attributes will continue on for
many years at OEM Group."
The sale of the Thin Film Etch and PVD product lines to OEM Group represents
a significant step in Tegal's execution of its previously announced pursuit
of strategic alternatives for the benefit of Tegal's stockholders. While
continuing to evaluate strategic alternatives for the Company, Tegal intends
to continue to sell and support its full range of Deep Reactive Ion Etch (DRIE)
systems that it acquired from Alcatel Micro Machining Systems (AMMS) in September,
2008. Tegal's DRIE systems are critical enablers for etching silicon and
dielectric films found in the MEMS, bio-tech, power IC, optoelectronic, and
3D-IC markets. Tegal DRIE tools are employed in MEMS foundries and commercial
high volume manufacturing lines world-wide, and can be found in numerous academic
and commercial research and development laboratories throughout the world.
Source: http://www.Tegal.com