Tegal has declared that it has issued patents of its nanolayer deposition (NLD) patent portfolio for three bid lots to several bidders. The total number of bid lots offered for sale is four, which is valued at roughly $4 million. So far, the company has received roughly $3.6 million.
The NLD patent portfolio comprises over 35 United States and international patents in the fields of NLD, plasma-enhanced atomic-layer deposition (ALD) and pulsed-chemical vapor deposition (CVD). More than 30 patents of the portfolio have been sold by the company.
The process technology, NLD combines the advantages of the highly conformal, low throughout ALD and the non-conformal, high throughput CVD. As part of its divestment strategy to sell the assets related to semiconductor capital equipment, Tegal decided to sell the NLD patent portfolio this year.
In February 2010, SPTS based in Newport, Wales, the United Kingdom purchased Tegal’s deep reactive ion etch business. Subsequently, OEM Group based in Gilbert, Arizona, acquired physical vapor deposition and thin-film etch product lines from Tegal in March 2010.
At present, Tegal is working on to sell the portfolio’s lot 4 that covers patents of low-k dielectric and copper barrier technologies. The Chief Technologist of the company, Robert Ditizio stated that equipment producers showed interest in the first three lots, while integrated circuit device producers are showing interest in the fourth lot.
Source: http://www.tegal.com