US snaps up Swedish SiC equipment maker
Veeco Instruments in the US has acquired Epiluvac, a Swedish maker of chemical vapor deposition (CVD) epitaxy systems for silicon carbide (SiC) device manufacturing in a deal worth up to $65m.
Despite being founded in 2013, Epiluvac is still an early-stage revenue company with 11 employees. The deal is initially worth $30m, but there a potential additional $35 million in performance based earn-outs
The SiC device market is forecasted to grow approximately 30% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2023 through 2027 according to Yole Group, driven by demand for electric vehicles. As a result the SiC epitaxy equipment market is expected to grow approximately 15% CAGR over the same period according to Yole Group and internal Veeco estimates.
Semiconductor companies including ST Microelectronics, Infineon Technologies and Wolfspeed are all ramping up production of SiC chips in Europe to meet the projected demand.
“The Epiluvac team has developed a superior platform and process know-how aligned with markets that are a great strategic fit for Veeco,” said Bill Miller, Veeco’s Chief Executive Officer.
“Their well-designed CVD platform achieves high productivity, is easy to maintain and has superior process control capability that make it uniquely qualified to produce devices that enable lighter, smaller and more efficient power conversion systems. We see this acquisition as a great complement to our metal organic chemical vapor deposition epitaxy product line. This acquisition accelerates our penetration into the emerging, high-growth SiC equipment market by reducing our time to market.”
“We are excited to join Veeco, a recognized leader in semiconductor and compound semiconductor capital equipment,” said Per-Anders Eriksson, Epiluvac’s Chief Executive Officer. “Our complementary technology platforms, along with Veeco’s extensive worldwide sales, service and manufacturing capabilities, will position us well to help our customers enable accelerated SiC adoption. The decades of research and development the Epiluvac team has invested in this demanding epitaxial process will be a great asset to Veeco’s already impressive process capabilities.”
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