Fastmicro promises the semicon industry billions in savings

At the very last minute, Erik Vermeulen set aside some time to combine a Silicon Saxony event in Dresden with the 3D & Systems Summit hosted by SEMI at the local Hilton hotel. At this three-day conference, much of this year’s focus is on advanced packaging and hybrid bonding. Research institutes like Imec and Fraunhofer and equipment manufacturers like KLA, Lam Research and TEL will present their visions and solutions.

“A particle test for hybrid bonding wasn’t in our business plan at all,” says Vermeulen, general manager of Fastmicro, when we speak to him in the corridors of the SEMI conference. His company’s focus until recently had been on the front-end chip market, but now it appears that chip packaging parties are also craving for particle detection to improve yield. “That wasn’t even specified in the business plan we used to raise the last investment,” he reiterates.